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The complete list of problems can be found here, along with some sample inputs/outputs (usual format for these types of contest).

I recommend looking into the SINAPSE Project (http://www.sinapse.org). SINAPSE is a free, open-source student community tool (we like to call it a nexus, not a portal). It's written in PHP (on SourceForge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/sinapse), and it's a strict CMS system (no open editing - each app has controlled input and output). It's Developed at University of Oklahoma (go Sooners!) and run by students there.

You can see it in action at OU (The Sooner Information Network - http://sin.ou.edu), Baylor (Baylor Information Network - http://bin.baylor.edu), Purdue (HAIL - http://hail.purdue.edu), Southern Miss (The Varsity - http://thevarsity.usm.edu), California University of Pennsylvania (CalYou - http://calyou.cup.edu), SW OK State U (LIFE - http://life.swosu.edu), and Eastern VA Medical School (http://student.evms.edu)). There's also a similar site at William and Mary (SIN - http://sin.wm.edu) that's not running SINAPSE, but should be.

SINAPSE Consulting (http://www.sinapseconsulting.com) also makes some for-pay add-ons like LegiSlate which allows SGA's to do their Legislative processes online (voting, tracking, attendance, etc.) It's in action at OU (http://congress.ou.edu), OK State (http://www.osusga.com), Central Arkansas (http://uca.mysga.com), and very soon at Rhode Island, Illinois Institute of Tech, and U Texas - Arlington (and possibly Miami).

religion is not crack for the soul, you have forgotten your Marx, "Religion is the Opiate for the Masses" or something like that

Something like

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

from Chuck Marx's Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right , to be precise.

There is Grass (and if you're looking for an OS X version, there is one).

However, GRASS is about as easy to use as Linux was 8 years ago. Its mostly command line driven, with most of the interesting features (DEM models, buffers, raster calculations) being hidden in either half a dozen menus or obscure CLI commands.

On the other hand, ArcMap, the industry standard, costs tens of thousands of dollars, and is about as easy to use, so you can take your pick.

Woo hoo! My school is getting in on it! http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story &story=21045

Those too old for this competition or the ACM version should check out the ICFP programming contest. You can work from home, using any language you want, and you have three days to complete the task the give you (24 hours for the lightning division). Typically people work in small teams and use exotic stuff like Dylan, although last year's winning entry was in C++. If you win, you get a cash prize and the judges pronounce your implementation language "the programming tool of choice for discriminating hackers."

Baylor University is already the same way and has been for a while. First, it's impossible for a wireless router to get an IP address from DHCP (since it cannot be registered) and second, it creates interference for our wireless network, AirBear. It's a private university, they can do whatever the hell they want.

Hey, if you have GRASS installed, play ball! ;)

Sure, the US has a lot of free GIS data, but maybe you've heard that there people who live outside the US? And, maybe they also prefer free software, open formats and more available data?

Apparently you haven't looked. There is some free data available, from the US, on other parts of the world. Other countries and more local governments or organizations also do provide some free data.

The only datasets I have downloaded directly have been quite open format--in fact, they're completely unencoded, or they are encoded in a common format (such as a .bmp, .tif, etc.). The sofware just has to be smart enough to know how to import the various types of data, or you tell it how to do so yourself.

If you really want free GIS software, it is available--though not necessarily as powerful or easy to use as Idrisi or Arc products.

See G.R.A.S.S., a free military-based GIS package. It's available in a bootable CD distribution of knoppix, too.

Jim

Not so much a formal study but a fun paper to read: On the Directional Correlation of Axial Rotation in Inverted Felines and Planetary Spin: Coriolis Revisited

The author also happens to be a Computer Science professor in data networks. Quite a dry sense of humor -- his classes are a lot of fun!

Mandatory Disclaimer : yes, I'm a starving grad student of his, and yes, I'm pulling for a graduation date this decade!

After what was once a reprehensible double-taxation scheme (paying taxes to collect data, paying taxes to receive data), the Manitoba Land Initiative (that's Manitoba, Canada) now offers almost all publically available data sets free and online. MLI + GRASS = free GIS base

check out GRASS , a free, open source GIS program.

I've been doing quite a bit of work with it. it takes some time to figure out, but once you figure out how to import your data, making 3D topo and draping an image over it should not be impossible.

i haven't needed this function, but i believe it should work well. also be sure to check out the NVIZ 3D visualization module in GRASS. this may also have the functions you need.

Now that communism is dead, I guess it's OK, even with Americans, to recall some of it's good apects: Religion is the opium of the people. (simple interpretation here)

Many slashdotters will probably be pleased to know that the contest's environment OS was Red Hat Linux 9.0.

Full environment specs here.

i goto Baylor, a school known more for republicans so conservative rush limbaugh pitches a tent, and even here we have at least one assembly class required.

p.s. read the rope

I gues I'd better state for the record right now that no way, now how am I suggesting that the artist actually holds any such nasty views. It's just that I'm a marketer, and my career teaches me to look out for such similarites, intended or not. I do think some people inthe general public might make the incorrect and unfortunate connection.

The Article Link

Mirror attempts:

http://www.danamania.com/starwarscar/

http://dephine.zapto.org/Slashdot/

http://www.jeffwilhelm.com/files/images/swcar/

http://cs.baylor.edu/~wilsonj/xwing.html

Would anyone else like to try? Of course, its probably too late, as all mirrors have been slashdotted...

Here you go. (yes the pic is his wife, from a post in another thread).

Slashdot this, he says:

http://cs.baylor.edu/~wilsonj/xwing.html

Famous last words ...

You may be right, and the outsourcing to India certainly suggests that they have the concrete skills covered. However before I'd be willing to accept that the universities are all-round as good I'd want to see some demonstration of abstract skills, such as by winning a programming contest.

For my grad school class project, I had to design an API (based on TI's S6350). Tell me what you think.

Dang, forgot a double quote mark!

Kiosk

At my school Microsoft Office 2003 is only 10 dollars. Windows XP is 5 dollars. It's a crazy license and no one has any need to use an open-source office or operating system. Pretty interesting strategy by Microsoft.

• BU Books
• BearSwap
• Baylor Information Network (click on Community)

Sic 'Em Bears!

• BU Books
• BearSwap
• Baylor Information Network (click on Community)

Sic 'Em Bears!

On my campus, Windows XP sells for 5 dollars and Office XP Professional sells for 10 dollars. THis started last year with an agreement with Microsoft. Needless to say, the Linux User Group here has completely disappeared. There is no need for anyone to use Linux over XP. Very sad indeed...

What's Super 301?

Super 301 is a regulation that requires the US government to place trade restrictions on countries found to be engaging in "unfair business practices". Look here (section 1.6 item 7) for more info.

Is there any documentation of this act besides this article?

Google search.

Funny you should mention this ... at Baylor, 1x is replacing a Wireless Firewall Gateway -- no NIC registration required. One significant difference is, with 1x, all traffic is encrypted by the tumbling WEP keys. With the WFG, only the SSL webscript login is encrypted.

Weigh the whole cost-benefit ratio. You could implement the WFG pretty cheaply. I have no idea what a "free" implementation of 1x would cost. I'm sure the Microsoft solution costs a bundle.

But also, in many instances, no, it won't. For instance, there are no good quality open source tools for GIS...

A friend of mine is in the Music school here, and he uses his for writing music. The journal program has a music sheet template -- he can draw the notes, the journal will recognize it, make it into real dots, he can then export it to a midi program and have it play it. Wow. That's all I have to say.

I don't know if NASA has posted any open source solution (i.e., source code) but I've seen a page by someone who has. However, it looks only semi-open as he has restrictions that it be used by academic and other non-profits.

Have a look-see: Baylor's WFG

but text entry on PDAs is another matter.

The zaurus has the best keyboard I've yet seen in a palmtop. Their new model has a "laptop style" folding k/b, but with only 32 mb of ram it isn't worth buying. Anyways, text entry for single words is fine, or even short memos, but try coding on it and you see the design flaws. Many special characters require the use of the on-screen k/b, and your thumb start to hurt after extended use.

I'm working on a project called sinapse that is a PHP/db portal for students. It's in use by Oklahoma University, Oklahoma State University, and I'm currently working on the Baylor University implementation. However, I've been writing a module for it specifically for teachers to be able to cover the same functions as Blackboard. Sinapse is the only education focused software for this usage AFAIK.

Yeah, my school has a no-cost policy -- you can print out up to 100 pages per day at no cost. For the last 2 years they've been threatening to start charging, but they never will because the Dean of Libraries has said that printing is a service that must be kept free in the same way that computers are free to use. A very nice guy :)

But now, with the 2000 versions, include Project/Project Server, Visio, MapPoint, Frontpage, Publisher, and the list goes on and on.

For Project use MrProject.

For Visio use Kivio or Dia.

I'm not familiar with MapPoint, but it seems to be more content[1] than code, unless you count the work being done with GRASS.

I'm not familiar with the full version of FrontPage, but for FrontPage Express use Mozilla Composer.

For desktop publishing use one of those graphical LaTeX editors.

[1] RMS hates the word "content", but I know of no better word to describe copyrighted works other than computer-readable descriptions of algorithms.

It's a lot of fun and I encourage others on campuses to make friends with music majors, they're the nerds of music.

I had nightmares about what kind of video games a truly christian university would focus on.

If you want the Christian hang-ups, you'll have to travel a few hours south to Baylor. One of the worst Nintendo games of all time was probably conceived by some righteous Baptist from Waco, Texas.

Beware of women who pay their rent in one dollar bills...

I helped to implement the wireless network for Baylor University and it's been amazing to see the sociological changes. We have over 98% of the campus covered, and we already see students with iPaqs learning to utilize the system. The next big step we're working on is VoIP for wireless networks, it's been a lot of fun to work on.

I go to college, and I can't stand the ridiculously high prices I have to pay for school books. I would love an e-book version, w/ the cost significantly lower, the ability to carry all my books around all the time, and the search capabilities. I don't feel this is appropriate for everyone, but I would certainly try it.

I gues sthat their computer know-how has also degraded to a point where script kiddies are making fun of them...

Is that why St. Petersburg State won 2000 and 2001 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest?

I gues sthat their computer know-how has also degraded to a point where script kiddies are making fun of them...

Is that why St. Petersburg State won 2000 and 2001 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest?

If someone is determined enough, they can get on your WLAN. MAC addresses can be spoofed, WEP keys can be sniffed. All you can do is authenticate and log.

I recently spoke to some keen fellows from Baylor University that have created an OpenBSD-based firewall/logging/authentication system that takes the poster's info page one step further. Everyone authenticates via an SSL-encrypted web site in order to join the network. DHCP leases are handed out in conjunction with a login session, so you can track who does what. Logging in also opens up your firewall to allow the newly-leased IP address through.

Also, there is a free GIS that I have downloaded and installed, but not really looked at yet called Grass. Go here for more... And yes, it is released under the GNU GPL.

Cheers Gav

Not bad, #27. But if you look at the SE US Regional Standings, we look even better! #1, #4 and #7 -- our undergrad teams regularly beat other SE US graduate teams. UCF has represented the SE US at the world finals for most of the competition's history, including they heaftier competition of more recent years.

UCF has never won #1, but they took #2 in 1987 and #4 in 1986 back in the Early Years. In the '90s, we've broken the top 10 at world only once or twice, but we've managed to place in the top 25 regularly.

Not bad, #27. But if you look at the SE US Regional Standings, we look even better! #1, #4 and #7 -- our undergrad teams regularly beat other SE US graduate teams. UCF has represented the SE US at the world finals for most of the competition's history, including they heaftier competition of more recent years.

UCF has never won #1, but they took #2 in 1987 and #4 in 1986 back in the Early Years. In the '90s, we've broken the top 10 at world only once or twice, but we've managed to place in the top 25 regularly.

IT IS NOT Slashdotted already. Prove the fucking bastard that tried to karma whore wrong by clicking here

Nice Lie Shit For Brains!

Also, most GIS work is done using ESRI's GIS and Mapping software.

These were done years ago for FM radio coverage and many "more sophisticated" ham radio repeaters back in the late 80's. It's pretty cool and accurate enough. (although not very accurate inbetween distant points unless you add a topo data set to the GIS dataset.. Grass is an excellent GIS package for Linux that gives linux users the power of multi-million dollar GIS systems in their basement... and this is a great way do use that cool tool.

These were done years ago for FM radio coverage and many "more sophisticated" ham radio repeaters back in the late 80's. It's pretty cool and accurate enough. (although not very accurate inbetween distant points unless you add a topo data set to the GIS dataset.. Grass is an excellent GIS package for Linux that gives linux users the power of multi-million dollar GIS systems in their basement... and this is a great way do use that cool tool.