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Domain: lakeheadu.ca
Stories and comments across the archive that link to lakeheadu.ca.
Stories · 3
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'Wi-Fi Illness' Spreads To Ontario Public Schools
An anonymous reader writes "Readers of Slashdot might be familiar with Lakehead University's ban on WiFi routers a few years ago in Thunder Bay, Ontario because of 'health concerns,' a policy apparently still in effect. Now it seems a group of concerned parents in a number of communities in Ontario have petitioned the local school boards over similar concerns at public schools, where their kids are apparently experiencing 'headaches to dizziness and nausea and even racing heart rates' — symptoms that appear only when they are in school on weekdays, not on weekends at home. 'The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless ...' Besides Wi-Fi signals, could there possibly be any other logical explanation for kids having more symptoms of illness on school days than at home on weekends or in the summer?" -
Could Linux Become A Microkernel?
Kris Warkentin writes: "This question is not entirely intended to start a debate about the pros and cons of microkernels vs. monolithic ones. What I would really like to know, however, is how _feasible_ it would be to convert the Linux kernel to a microkernel. I was looking at how the QNX kernel offers only core services like threading, IPC, process creation, memory management, initial interrupt handling, etc. Everything else functions as a process within its own memory space. Linux can be configured so that it is much like this with other things (filesystems, etc.) compiled as modules. The key difference is that all the modules are operating in kernel space. So, the question is, how difficult do you think it would be to devise a communication protocol to let modules function outside of kernel space and merely talk to the kernel? What would be the cost and benefits? Would it be possible to have both types in the same source tree? (say, as a compile option)" -
Computer Science Curriculum Using Linux?
I couldn't resist posting this question from Kris Warkentin: "I am helping a professor at my school develop some projects for a third-year Operating Systems course. I told him that Linux would be good for that sort of thing, both as an example and as fodder for development. It is a single term (13 weeks) and students in Computer Science, while competent, are not exactly experienced programming wizards like Alan Cox. So, the question is, does anyone know of any nice little Linux-based programming projects which would give a feel for the OS internals? Maybe some of you have actually taken a course where you wrote a device driver or something? Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome."This is a real cool idea. Are there any other schools doing something like this with Linux?