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Domain: oakland.edu

Stories and comments across the archive that link to oakland.edu.

Comments · 34

  1. Here's an example break-in. by Animats · · Score: 5, Informative · on Doorways Sneak To Non-Default Ports of Hacked Servers

    Here's a typical break-in, at University of Oakland.. This has a good search position in Google for "64 bit Windows". This leads to a software-for-sale page with phony seals of approval from Microsoft, Verisign, etc. That's hosted at Starnet, in Moldovia. The payment site for the sales site is "payment8ltd.net", also hosted on Starnet in Moldovia. They're selling pirated copies of brand-name software at roughly half retail price.

    That site has a TrustWave seal, which pops up a popup for Paym8, a real payment processor in Zaire. TrustWave's seal server doesn't check the referrer when displaying a seal popup, so it can be spoofed. Nor does the TrustWave seal even give the domains to which it applies. Verisign and BBBonline check this, but not TrustWave.

    It looks like the actual payment processing occurs at "https://payment8ltd.net/shop/order/process/"; that's where the order goes on "Submit". The site has one of those worthless GoDaddy "Domain control only validated" SSL certs.

    Starnet presents itself as an Internet and telecom service provider, offering the usual data, voice, colocation, and hosting. Headquarters of Starnet seems to be at Vlaicu Parcalab, 63, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. That's a property of Flexi Offices, one of those small-office rental places. Interestingly, Microsoft also has an office in that building.

    There's actual Whois information for that site:

    Registrant Contact: Viktor Menshikov
    Viktor Menshikov (loyal@yourisp.ru)
    ul.V.Urdasha d.36 kv.1
    Rakovo, Respublika Tatarstan, RU 422455
    P: +7.8435122221 F: +7.8435122221

    That location exists; it's a farm town about 500Km east of Moscow. Probably not a real address.

    Searching for "yourisp.ru" brings up a large number of scam reports. The domain itself is registered but not in DNS.

    Most of this recent batch of attacks seem to have similar underlying information.

  2. Erdos number, please! by Charles+Dodgeson · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Six Degrees of Wikipedia

    This is News for Nerds. Surely the analogy should be to Erdos numbers, not Kevin Bacon.

  3. 180 MILLION by way2trivial · · Score: 1 · on How Far Can Large Commercial Applications Scale?

    http://www2.oakland.edu/biology/lindemann/spermfac ts.htm

  4. Re:The Man has rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Physicist Claims Time Has a Geometry

    Hmmm - looks like he is the MIT Alexander Mayer: someone with that alumni email was at Affymetrix,(A biotech firm), per http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~garfinkl/particip ants.txt
    (A physics conference in 2000)
    and
    http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm05/fm05-sessions/fm0 5_G41B.html
    (A 12/05 physics conference, with a clearly related presentation: "On the Cause of Geodetic Satellite Accelerations and Other Correlated Unmodeled Phenomena")

    And may to be the person posting this:
    http://www.sunmanagers.org/pipermail/sunmanagers/2 001-March/002577.html,
    unless there were two people at Affymetrix with that name.

  5. MORE DEMO VIDEOS HERE by DrunkenPenguin · · Score: 1 · on Novell Makes Public Release of Xgl Code

    You can find more demo videos here.

    http://cto.secs.oakland.edu/~castro/NLD10video/

  6. MORE DEMO VIDEOS HERE by DrunkenPenguin · · Score: 1 · on Novell Makes Public Release of Xgl Code

    You can find more demo videos here.

    http://cto.secs.oakland.edu/~castro/NLD10video/

  7. Think more about the design flexibility. by meburke · · Score: 1 · on Suggestions for Scriptable CAI Apps?

    Most courseware these days SUCKS! Most of it is re-hashed overheads and powerpoint presentations with a few clever illustrative multimedia tricks to try to keep people interested. How about an instructional format that guarantees that the participant learns?

    IMO, the elements of good self-teaching courseware are Information, Simulation and Feedback. Back in the '60's B.F. Skinner and Norman Crowder developed the principles of Programmed Instruction. The web is an ideal medium for PI. In the early days, many companies like IBM, Honeywell, Xerox, Jepson, and many others were teaching subjects about 6 times faster than comparable courses, with about a 98% perfection rate on the part of the students. With the demonization of B. F. Skinner and behaviorism, coupled with the advanced development time necessary for good PI, the concept has pretty much died out. Current "Programmed Instruction" is usually just information broken down into small portions, sometimes with a question attached. One of the things that made PI effective in the past was that each frame was tested until 98%+ of the responses were correct. The theory (based on operant conditioning) is that people learn more by being successful and immediately reinforced for their success.

    I was amazed to find out the the Atomic Energy Commission in Augusta, GA was, for a while, using the Atari game "Meltdown!" to teach the principles of nuclear reactors. Simulators of various types have been around for quite a while, and are unusually good forms of instruction. This is possibly due to the immediacy of the feedback.

    Again, IMO, flexibility is more important than Flash (pun intended). For more information, see books by Robert Mager and Peter Pipe, B.F. Skinner and Norman Crowder, and for a fair web-based example, check out The Logic Cafe http://www.oakland.edu/phil/cafe/. (I'd rate this higher if I didn't have to download special fonts that seem to only work well on Windows.) The structure for this is downloadable and modifiable for other subjects.

    Good luck.

  8. Secret weapon by mattr · · Score: 1 · on Andy Tanenbaum Releases Minix 3
    Some people (at least one) will say:

    All you need is ColorForth. To be clear, this IDE driver's kind of compact.

    Some more links.

  9. Re:I hope Paul Erdos is right. by cerebis · · Score: 1 · on George Dantzig, 1914-2005
    Since we've strayed onto the subject of Paul Erdös, I would like to build a bridge back by mentioning that George Dantzig had an Erdös number of 2, meaning that he co-authored a paper with a co-author of Erdös.

    Something most any academic would be proud to claim. Erdös' publised 1521 papers, and was very fond of collaboration regardless of political divisions.

    Read "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers", a very interesting book.

    http://www.oakland.edu/enp/readme.html

  10. Re:Watch them sell zero copies by XO · · Score: 2, Informative · on Prey To Be Digitally Distributed

    http://atlas.secs.oakland.edu/~lcmatero/prey/histo ry.htmThe history of Prey, the game that could not be

  11. Re:New collaborator on every paper by TheSync · · Score: 1 · on Dutch Academics Declare Research Free-For-All

    Some Dutch guy is going to get this real smal Erdos number!

  12. Re:Some one correct me if I'm wrong by alphaseven · · Score: 2, Informative · on Human Head Studios Developing Prey
    For example, you could create a building with a doorway that opened up to a room that was larger than the building itself(among other things).

    That sounds like the "Portal technology" they were hyping years ago. There's an interesting page, The History of Prey, that has some videos of it in action. Further down the page programmer William Scarboro pretty much says using portals was more trouble than it was worth.

  13. Ressurection... by Mumpsman · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Human Head Studios Developing Prey

    Considering that the initial release date was christmas '96, this is a pretty massive dust off. No doubt we'll see it before Duke Nukem Forever.

    Here is an interesting history of the title.

  14. Re:$30 / square meter? by mopomi · · Score: 1 · on Breakthrough in solar photovoltaics
    http://www.smartroofsolar.com/shingle.html

    http://www.oksolar.com/roof/

    http://www.oakland.edu/energy/solar.htm

    http://www.ips-solar.com/pv/bipv.htm

    The uni-solars run about $120 for a 7.2x1 foot (3 sq ft exposed) shingle, which is rated at 17 watts, with about 23-32 Whr / sq ft. Still not at all competitive with asphalt (~$2/sq ft for the cheap shingles), even if you consider that you're saving money elsewhere. However, they are competitive with slate and other exotic materials once you consider the energy savings.

    They have a 20 year power warranty (typical for PV and this just means the power output will stay above 80% of the rated for at least 20 years) and a 5 year "system" warranty. I would easily trust them to perform as well as or better than asphalt w.r.t. roofing material, especailly here in Arizona, where asphalt only lasts about 14 years. Keep in mind that these are the currently available shingles. . .

  15. Re:What BMI will say by LuYu · · Score: 2, Insightful · on BMI Reports All-Time Profit High Despite Piracy

    This comment by Sancho is just begging for a reply, so here goes:

    Of course, the copyright system itself is the reason we have book, media, etc.
    And no books existed before copyright? You are kidding, right? The Statute of Anne was passed in 1710. China managed to get along without copyright for the first 700 or so years of movable type printing (starting in about 1041) and had been producing woodblock prints, in the absence of copyright, since at least the 6th century. Are you trying to tell me there were no books before the Statute of Anne was passed?

    I have been meaning to say this for a long time: People write books for other reasons than profit. The claim might even be made that works for hire are not art at all since profit is not a motivation for true art. Whether or not that is true, people write books for lots of reasons. Some people, on occasion (like thousands of Slashdotters, for instance) might actually have something to say to the world.

    The system allows for the (supposedly limited) monopoly on ideas so that artists could make a living and produce their content.
    Once again, you are kidding, right? If the RIAA was paying artists well, they would not be working at your local cafe. Starbucks employs more rockstars than the affiliates of the RIAA. Without copyright, they would be doing the same jobs. We just would not have to pay for Britany Spears' breast enlargements. Let's face it, utopia is life without Eminem.

    Without such laws in the first place, it's unlikely that we'd have the variety and multitude of movies, books, television shows, etc. that are out there.
    This is totally incorrect (see preceding response). It is entirely likely that there would be more variety in sources of information. Imagine if there were five versions of Star Wars, and potential audience members could choose the version of the story that best suited their tastes. George Lucas made a kids version of Star Wars, which in many people's opinion (11,124 out of 36,362 to be exact) ruined the story. Maybe somebody else could make an adult version with darker characters and no Jar Jar Binks. Would that be variety?

    Some say it's a bad thing, some say it's a good thing, but in a free society that should be all about choice, it's pretty definitive of our ideals. Lots to choose from.
    The question is: Whose choice are we talking about here? The vendor's choice or the buyer's choice? It appears these days that the record industry wants to decide beforehand what the buyers should buy and feed it to them. This is totally backwards. In a free market, the vendor is subject to the whim of the buyer. The vendor is basically a beggar asking for the privilege of exchanging something for the buyer's valuable money. The buyer chooses whether or not to purchase goods or services, not the vendor. This is unless of course you advocate laws that force purchases on ordinary people to support the economy. Do you?
  16. Imperative JPEG by William+Tanksley · · Score: 1 · on Purely Functional Data Structures

    Just thought I'd post a link to an example of an imperative language implementing JPEG decoding in only a few pages of code. :-).

    -Billy

  17. Six degrees of separation by linoleo · · Score: 2, Informative · on Detecting Patterns in Complex Social Networks

    I wonder whether they'll finally be able to (dis)prove the hypothesis that everybody knows everybody else within six (or however many) degrees of separation.

    This was first proposed in 1967 by social psychologist Stanley Milgram, (in)famous for his shocking experiments on human obedience, which inspired Peter Gabriel to create the subversive sing-along "We Do What We're Told", a.k.a. "Milgram's 37".

    This paragraph brought you by a flock of hyperlinking free associators with Erds number 4.

  18. Coffee into theorems by ortholattice · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Pure Math, Pure Joy
    Blockquoth the article:
    A mathematician, the Hungarian lover of numbers Paul Erdos once said, is a device for converting coffee into theorems.

    Erdos himself was a device for converting speed into theorems. Ironically he lived to be 83 years old, prolifically creating new math until the very end.

    Like all of Erdos's friends, Graham was concerned about his drug-taking. In 1979, Graham bet Erdos $500 that he couldn't stop taking amphetamines for a month. Erdos accepted the challenge, and went cold turkey for thirty days. After Graham paid up--and wrote the $500 off as a business expense--Erdos said, "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." He promptly resumed taking pills, and mathematics was the better for it. - Paul Hoffman, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

    My guess is that more mathematicians use amphetamines than is commonly acknowledged. This is how some older mathematicians try to keep their "edge".

    BTW have you computed your Erdos Number?

  19. mirrors by dotgod · · Score: 3, Informative · on Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 1

    Australia

    ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Brisbane)
    Austria

    ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/Mandrake/8.2/ i586/ (Vienna)

    ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Vienna)
    Belgium

    ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/mandrake/8.2/i586/
    Costa Rica

    ftp://ftp.ucr.ac.cr/pub/Unix/linux/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/
    Czech Republic

    ftp://ftp.cesnet.cz/OS/Linux/Mandrake/mandrake/8.2 /i586/ (Brno)

    ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Brno)

    ftp://klobouk.fsv.cvut.cz/pub/linux-mandrake/Mandr ake/8.2/i586/ (Prague)

    ftp://mandrake.redbox.cz/Mandrake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/OS/Linux/Dist/Mandrake/m andrake/8.2/i586/ (Prague)

    http://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Brno)
    Denmark

    ftp://ftp.dkuug.dk/pub/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Koebenhavn)

    ftp://ftp.sunsite.dk/mirrors/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Aalborg)
    Estonia

    ftp://ftp.aso.ee/pub/os/Linux/distributions/mandra ke/8.2/i586/
    Finland

    ftp://ftp.song.fi/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Espoo)
    France

    ftp://ftp.ciril.fr/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Nancy)

    ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/unix/linux/distribu tions/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Paris)

    ftp://ftp.info.univ-angers.fr/pub/linux/distributi ons/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Angers)

    ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/distributions/mandrake /8.2/i586/ (Paris)

    ftp://ftp.proxad.net/pub/Distributions_Linux/Mandr ake/8.2/i586/ (Paris)

    ftp://ftp.u-strasbg.fr/pub/linux/distributions/man drake/8.2/i586/ (Strasbourg)

    ftp://linux.ups-tlse.fr/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Toulouse)
    Germany

    ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ (Esslingen)

    ftp://ftp.de.uu.net/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://ftp.fh-giessen.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i58 6/ (Giessen)

    ftp://ftp.fh-wolfenbuettel.de/pub/os/linux/mandrak e/dist/8.2/i586/ (Wolfenbuettel)

    ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Goettingen)

    ftp://ftp.join.uni-muenster.de/pub/linux/distribut ions/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Muenster)

    ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/unix/linux/Mandrake/ Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Munchen)

    ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i5 86/ (Chemnitz)

    ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i 586/ (Clausthal)

    ftp://ftp.uasw.edu/pub/os/linux/mandrake/dist/8.2/ i586/ (Wolfenbuettel)

    ftp://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i 586/ (bayreuth)

    ftp://ftp.uni-kassel.de/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i58 6/ (Kassel)

    ftp://ftp.uni-mannheim.de/systems/linux/mandrake/8 .2/i586/ (Mannheim)

    ftp://ftp.vat.tu-dresden.de/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Dresden)

    ftp://ramses.wh2.tu-dresden.de/pub/mirrors/mandrak e/8.2/i586/ (Dresden)

    ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/ mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Aachen)
    Greece

    ftp://ftp.duth.gr/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Thrace)

    ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Athens)
    Hong Kong

    ftp://ftp.wisr.eie.polyu.edu.hk/linux/mandrake/8.2 /i586/
    Hungary

    ftp://ftp.linuxforum.hu/mirror/Mandrake/8.2/i586/
    Ireland

    ftp://ftp.esat.net/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/
    Italy

    ftp://bo.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Bologna)

    ftp://ftp.edisontel.it/pub/Mandrake_Mirror/Mandrak e/8.2/i586/
    Latvia

    ftp://ftp.latnet.lv/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/
    Netherlands

    ftp://ftp.nl.uu.net/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/Man drake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://ftp.surfnet.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/M andrake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://ftp.wau.nl/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Wageningen)
    Poland

    ftp://ftp.ps.pl/mirrors/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Szczecin)

    ftp://ftp.task.gda.pl/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Gdansk)
    Portugal

    ftp://ftp.dei.uc.pt/pub/linux/Mandrake/Mandrake/8. 2/i586/ (Coimbra)

    ftp://tux.cprm.net/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/
    Russia

    ftp://ftp.chg.ru/pub/Linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Chernogolovka)
    Singapore

    ftp://ftp.singnet.com.sg/opensource/linux/Mandrake /8.2/i586/
    Slovakia

    ftp://spirit.profinet.sk/mirrors/Mandrake/8.2/i586 / (Bratislava)
    Spain

    ftp://ftp.cesga.es/pub/linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Galicia)

    ftp://ftp.cica.es/pub/Linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Sevilla)

    ftp://ftp.rediris.es/pub/linux/distributions/mandr ake/8.2/i586/
    Sweden

    ftp://ftp.chello.se/pub/Linux/Mandrake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://ftp.chl.chalmers.se/pub/Linux/distributions/ Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Gothenburg)

    ftp://ftp.du.se/pub/os/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Dalarma)
    Switzerland

    ftp://ftp.pcds.ch/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Neuhausen)

    ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/mandrake/8.2/ i586/ (Zurich)
    Taiwan

    ftp://linux.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/pub/Mandrake/mandrak e/8.2/i586/

    ftp://linux.csie.nctu.edu.tw/distributions/mandrak e/Mandrake/8.2/i586/

    ftp://mdk.linux.org.tw/pub/mandrake/8.2/i586/
    Turkey

    ftp://ftp.ankara.edu.tr/pub/linux/dagitimlar/Mandr ake/8.2/i586/ (Ankara)
    United Kingdom

    ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sunsite.uio.no/pub/un ix/Linux/Mandrake/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Canterbury)
    United States

    ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributi ons/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Georgia)

    ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mirrors/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ (Florida)

    ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/pub/Linux/Mandrake/mandr ake/8.2/i586/ (NY)

    ftp://ftp.nmt.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (New Mexico)

    ftp://ftp.orst.edu/pub/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Oregon)

    ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/distributions/mandrake/8.2/i 586/ (Virginia)

    ftp://ftp.umr.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrake/8.2/ i586/ (Missouri)

    ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/mandrake/8.2/i586 / (Indiana)

    ftp://linux-cs.tccw.wku.edu/pub/linux/distribution s/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (WKU-Linux, Western Kentucky University)

    ftp://mirror.aca.oakland.edu/linux/mandrake/8.2/i5 86/ (Michigan)

    ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/Mandrak e/8.2/i586/ (Wisconsin)

    ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Illinois)

    ftp://mirrors.ptd.net/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (Pensylvania)

    ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/

    ftp://uml-pub.ists.dartmouth.edu/mirrors/ftp.mandr akesoft.com/pub/Mandrake/mandrake/8.2/i586/ (New Hampshire)

    ftp://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mirrors/mandrake/Mandra ke/8.2/i586/ (Hawaii)

    http://mandrake.dsi.internet2.edu/Mandrake/8.2/i58 6/ (For Internet2 academic institutions only)

  20. Sun needs to extend this... by gwydi0n · · Score: 1 · on No-Cost StarOffice Licensing for Institutions

    As stated here I think Sun should consider adding something along these lines:

    An additional benefit of the agreement allows each Purdue faculty and staff member and each Purdue student to install and use the selected Microsoft products on one computer that he or she owns, for University-related work.

    For additional effect. Ah, well, it's a step in the right direction. I should also add, that SO has been on all of our lab computers for several years. Now we just need to get rid of / replace the rest of that junk :)

  21. Sun needs to extend this... by gwydi0n · · Score: 1 · on No-Cost StarOffice Licensing for Institutions

    As stated here I think Sun should consider adding something along these lines:

    An additional benefit of the agreement allows each Purdue faculty and staff member and each Purdue student to install and use the selected Microsoft products on one computer that he or she owns, for University-related work.

    For additional effect. Ah, well, it's a step in the right direction. I should also add, that SO has been on all of our lab computers for several years. Now we just need to get rid of / replace the rest of that junk :)

  22. CmdrTaco's Bacon Number by ckd · · Score: 2 · on Sundance Channel Showing "Revolution OS" Monday Night

    Though for whatever reason "Rob Malda" is not listed in the Oracle of Bacon at Virginia's database, other folks who appear in Revolution OS are listed. Since Bruce Perens has a Bacon Number of 3, for his appearance in Revolution OS, CmdrTaco's Bacon Number is also 3.

    Now, the question is, does he have an Erdös number?

  23. The man who loved only numbers by Charles+Dodgeson · · Score: 1 · on A Beautiful Mind
    I've been reading the book and agree entirely with the review. I have little to say that wouldn't get me moded "redundant", but I'd like to say that anyone interested in that book will probably like The man who loved only numbers: The story of Paul Erdös.

    (and if I may brag a bit, my Erdös number is no greater than 4.)

  24. Re:Huh? by matrix29 · · Score: 1 · on Antibiotics and Nanotechnology
    What's sad is that somebody can't use Google and find information I learned in 6th grade biology. Yes, I understand that merely popping a cell isn't stripping off the method of locomotion, but it essentially impairs it as the outer cell coat pops. And I also understand that many viruses are just drifters and floaters and some are stretchy-creepers, but I figured a more active virus model would be easierto comprehend. http://www.virology.net/Big_Virology/BVHomePage.ht ml It is not like this stuff is hard. http://www.pedid.uthscsa.edu/Microorganisms.htm The microworld is always an intriguing place.

    http://arnica.csustan.edu/grobner/biol3310/Cilia%2 0and%20flagella.htm
    Microtubules: Cilia and Flagella - Structure and Function
    General features - hairlike, motile organelles; project from eukaryote surface
    Cilia (oar) move cell in direction perpendicular to them - rigid in power stroke, flexible in recovery
    1.In multicellular organisms, move fluid & particulate material through various tracts
    2. Occur in large numbers on cell surface, beating activity coordinated
    B. Flagella - fewer on cell surface; those present longer; show beating pattern variety (waveforms)
    1. Single-celled alga - pulls itself forward (waves 2 flagellae in asymmetric manner like breast stroke); pushes itself through medium with symmetric beat like that of sperm
    2. In sperm, beat undulatory (>1 wave at a time along flagellum length); generates force pushing cell in direction parallel to flagellum long axis http://www2.oakland.edu/biology/lindemann/cf.htm

    WHAT ARE CILIA AND FLAGELLA?

    Cilia and flagella are whip-like appendages of many living cells that are used to move fluid or to propel the cells. Cilia beat with an oar-like motion and flagella have a snake-like motion as illustrated in Figure 1. The cilia in your lungs keep dirt and dust from clogging your breathing tubes (the bronchi) by moving a layer of sticky mucous along to clean out the airways. Sperm cells use a flagellum as a propeller to move the cell through the fluid of the oviduct to reach the egg. Thousands of animals and plants use cilia and flagella for swimming (example: paramecium), or feeding (example: clams and mussels) or mating (example: green algae). It is a curious fact that all of these cilia and flagella have a very similar internal arrangement of tubes (the outer doublets) and protein connectors (the nexin links and dynein arms) that suggest that there is something very special about this particular way of building a cell propeller. Figure 2 is a diagram of these internal parts of a cilium. Nature tends to keep designs that work well. Possibly if we can understand why this particular design works so well we might be able to design miniature devices that use the same principles of operation!

  25. Erdos Numbers, anyone? by theMAGE · · Score: 1 · on A Pair of Google Bits

    This ranking method makes me think of Erdos Number.

    You can read in extenso here:Erdos Number Project Homepage but basically there is a graph constructed with vertices for each one of them and edges for co-authored papers.

    One such vertex is Erdos and the Erdos number of mathematician C is the length of the shortest path from C to Erdos.

  26. Re:Hercules Graphics Cards by ArcticChicken · · Score: 1 · on Where Did 1280x1024 Come From?
    Hmmm ... after a quick search at the PC/Blue Disk Library hosted by the awesome folks at the OAK Software Repository, if anyone cares (yeah, I know) here are the first few sections from the SIMCGA manual:

    SIMCGA - Simulate CGA with Hercules Monochrome Card

    Written in September 1986 by
    Chuck Guzis
    153 North Murphy Ave.
    Sunnyvale, CA 94086

    This memory-resident utility allows you to "fool" most software requiring a Color Graphics Adapter into using your Hercules (or compatible) monochrome adapter in the graphics mode. Graphics images are reproduced in normal aspect ratio, using as much of the available screen area as is possible.

    The trick used here is to program the HGC to display more lines of 3 lines per character time instead of 4 (The CGA displays 2). A service routine hooked into the hardware timer interrupt (int 8) copies one line to the third displayed line to give a filled-out image.
    If you're out there Mr. Guzis ... thank you. :)
  27. Re:Hercules Graphics Cards by ArcticChicken · · Score: 1 · on Where Did 1280x1024 Come From?
    Hmmm ... after a quick search at the PC/Blue Disk Library hosted by the awesome folks at the OAK Software Repository, if anyone cares (yeah, I know) here are the first few sections from the SIMCGA manual:

    SIMCGA - Simulate CGA with Hercules Monochrome Card

    Written in September 1986 by
    Chuck Guzis
    153 North Murphy Ave.
    Sunnyvale, CA 94086

    This memory-resident utility allows you to "fool" most software requiring a Color Graphics Adapter into using your Hercules (or compatible) monochrome adapter in the graphics mode. Graphics images are reproduced in normal aspect ratio, using as much of the available screen area as is possible.

    The trick used here is to program the HGC to display more lines of 3 lines per character time instead of 4 (The CGA displays 2). A service routine hooked into the hardware timer interrupt (int 8) copies one line to the third displayed line to give a filled-out image.
    If you're out there Mr. Guzis ... thank you. :)
  28. Reminds You Of Something? LOOK HERE! by ArcticChicken · · Score: 4 · on Symphony For Dot Matrix Printers

    You know, *every* time someone here on Slashdot talks about an old freeware or public-domain program for the PC and how they wish they still had it, I've found the program within about 5 minutes.

    Hey, all you nostalgics! Go here:

    OAK Software Repository

    Right from the main page, go to the section called PC/Blue Disk Library, and go to the PCBLUE subdirectory. Then download the big master index (pbcat.zip). Find the archive file that holds the software you're looking for (trust me, they're all in there), and enjoy!

    In your particular case, you're thinking of the "PianoMan" software. There were actually many, many different tunes available with that program, not just the William Tell Overture (a.k.a. the Lone Ranger's theme song). The PianoMan program had the ability to generate COM files from the included music (MUS) files. That's why the Lone Ranger song got distributed so much more than the entire PianoMan package.

    Rest assured, if you download Volume 216 from the above archive, and then spend about 2 minutes reading the PianoMan documentation, you'll be able to re-generate that Lone Ranger tune/program.

  29. Reminds You Of Something? LOOK HERE! by ArcticChicken · · Score: 4 · on Symphony For Dot Matrix Printers

    You know, *every* time someone here on Slashdot talks about an old freeware or public-domain program for the PC and how they wish they still had it, I've found the program within about 5 minutes.

    Hey, all you nostalgics! Go here:

    OAK Software Repository

    Right from the main page, go to the section called PC/Blue Disk Library, and go to the PCBLUE subdirectory. Then download the big master index (pbcat.zip). Find the archive file that holds the software you're looking for (trust me, they're all in there), and enjoy!

    In your particular case, you're thinking of the "PianoMan" software. There were actually many, many different tunes available with that program, not just the William Tell Overture (a.k.a. the Lone Ranger's theme song). The PianoMan program had the ability to generate COM files from the included music (MUS) files. That's why the Lone Ranger song got distributed so much more than the entire PianoMan package.

    Rest assured, if you download Volume 216 from the above archive, and then spend about 2 minutes reading the PianoMan documentation, you'll be able to re-generate that Lone Ranger tune/program.

  30. Neural Network based road navigation by DarrenO · · Score: 1 · on Ask Jordan Pollack About AI - Or Anything Else
    Hi. I am involved with the Autonomous Robotic Vehicle Project at the University of Alberta. It is a student group that sets out to build autonomous ground robots for competition at the International Ground Vehicle Competition held in Orlando this year. The competition is for purposes of motivation of future engineers/scientists in the area of autonomous driving. The competition course follows a typical road layout of two white lines on a contrasting background with construction barrels, etc. placed throughout the driving area to test the AI of the robot's controller. I am involved heavily with the AI side of the project at U of A, and am presently in the process of developing a neural network based controller for our robot that takes a downsampled video image of the road in front of the robot and decides on a direction for the vehicle to move in. We are presently using a downsampled 8-bit grayscale image of 8x32 pixels that is fed into a back propagation trained network with all 256 pixels as inputs. There has been discussion of using a neural network with less inputs to get quicker convergence and have less required training points. These inputs would be extracted features from the picture like the membership of the particular input picture to a predetermined set of ~20 approximate vector directions. On this note, what do you suggest would create the most robust of neural network controllers: A neural network based on raw input data or a neural network based on feature extractions from input data? This is a subject that seems to be of much debate with neural network experts, but it would be nice to have some clarity on the issue.

    Lastly, with the present state of AI technologies, what is your opinion on the likelyhood of autonomous cars becoming reliable and robust enough to become commonplace in the upcoming years? It would be neat to buy a autonomous car in my lifetime...

    Thanks for your time.

    Regards,

  31. Re:the problem is: by Pathwalker · · Score: 1 · on V2 OS

    I think you might be thinking of A86 and D86 by Eric Isaacson.
    If not, there is probably a copy of the program you were thinking of here.

  32. Re:the problem is: by Pathwalker · · Score: 1 · on V2 OS

    I think you might be thinking of A86 and D86 by Eric Isaacson.
    If not, there is probably a copy of the program you were thinking of here.

  33. Re:the problem is: by Pathwalker · · Score: 1 · on V2 OS

    I think you might be thinking of A86 and D86 by Eric Isaacson.
    If not, there is probably a copy of the program you were thinking of here.

  34. Re:Author's Credentials by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 2 · on Time Doesn't Exist

    The fact that the author's book is published by Cambridge Univ. Press tells me that he is no hack.

    There are a lot of interesting people like Paul Erdos at the bleeding edge.

    My first year physics prof at Tufts U. shared a Nobel Prize for something he worked on in his basement during free time completed unrelated to his main research topics.

    Since a lot of great physics is done in the early life of a physicist, it is not surprising that there is a lot of amatuer flavor to it. Many of Einstein's ideas leading to relativity were framed when he was 15 or 16 years old.