Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader quotes a report from FOLIO Magazine: A 1 C increase in temperature has set off a chain of events disrupting the entire ecology of the world's largest High Arctic lake. "The amount of glacial meltwater going into the lake has dramatically increased," said Martin Sharp, a University of Alberta glaciologist who was part of a team of scientists that documented the rapid changes in Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Island over a series of warm summers in the last decade. "Because it's glacial meltwater, the amount of fine sediment going into the lake has dramatically increased as well. That in turn affects how much light can get into the water column, which may affect biological productivity in the lake." The changes resulted in algal blooms and detrimental changes to the Arctic char fish population, and point to a near certain future of summer ice-free conditions. The findings document an unprecedented shift from the previous three centuries, challenging scientists' expectations of how such a large system could respond so rapidly to a one-degree rise. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Since its discovery over a hundred years ago, the 240-page Voynich manuscript, filled with seemingly coded language and inscrutable illustrations, of has confounded linguists and cryptographers. Using artificial intelligence, Canadian researchers have taken a huge step forward in unraveling the document's hidden meaning. Named after Wilfrid Voynich, the Polish book dealer who procured the manuscript in 1912, the document is written in an unknown script that encodes an unknown language -- a double-whammy of unknowns that has, until this point, been impossible to interpret. The Voynich manuscript contains hundreds of fragile pages, some missing, with hand-written text going from left to right. Most pages are adorned with illustrations of diagrams, including plants, nude figures, and astronomical symbols. But as for the meaning of the text -- nothing. No clue. For Greg Kondrak, an expert in natural language processing at the University of Alberta, this seemed a perfect task for artificial intelligence. With the help of his grad student Bradley Hauer, the computer scientists have taken a big step in cracking the code, discovering that the text is written in what appears to be the Hebrew language, and with letters arranged in a fixed pattern. To be fair, the researchers still don't know the meaning of the Voynich manuscript, but the stage is now set for other experts to join the investigation. The researchers used an AI to study "the text of the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' as it was written in 380 different languages, looking for patterns," reports Gizmodo. Following this training, the AI analyzed the Voynich gibberish, concluding with a high rate of certainty that the text was written in encoded Hebrew."

The researchers then entertained a hypothesis that the script was created with alphagrams, words in which text has been replaced by an alphabetically ordered anagram. "Armed with the knowledge that text was originally coded from Hebrew, the researchers devised an algorithm that could take these anagrams and create real Hebrew words." Finally, "the researchers deciphered the opening phrase of the manuscript" and ran it through Google Translate to convert it into passable English: "She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people." The study appears in Transactions of the Association of Computational Linguistics .

stemceller writes to tell us that a team of researchers at the University of Alberta claims to have discovered a gene capable of blocking HIV thereby preventing the onset of full blown AIDS. "Stephen Barr, a molecular virologist in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, says his team has identified a gene called TRIM22 that can block HIV infection in a cell culture by preventing the assembly of the virus. 'When we put this gene in cells, it prevents the assembly of the HIV virus," said Barr, a postdoctoral fellow. "This means the virus cannot get out of the cells to infect other cells, thereby blocking the spread of the virus.'"

tgeller writes "My story on the Nature site announced that a team of computer scientists at the University of Alberta has solved checkers. From the game's 500 billion billion positions (5 * 10^20), 'Chinook' has determined which 100,000 billion (10^14) are needed for their proof, and run through all relevant decision trees. They've set up a site where you can see the proof, traverse the logic, and play their unbeatable automaton. '[Jonathan] Schaeffer notes that his research has implications beyond the checkers board. The same algorithms his team writes to solve games could be helpful in searching other databases, such as vast lists of biological information because, as he says, "At the core, they both reduce to the same fundamental problem: large, compressed data sets that have to be accessed quickly."'"

PyroMosh writes "The New Scientist is reporting that researchers working at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have discovered that an existing drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) is effective in killing cancer cells, while leaving the host's healthy cells unharmed. DCA has already been used for years to treat metabolic disorders, and is known to be fairly safe. Sounds like great news, is it too good to be true? Why is the mainstream news media failing to report on this potential breakthrough? The University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board have set up a site with more info, where you can also donate to support future clinical trials."

Stephen Smith writes "Computers are as good as (or better than) the best humans at such games as Othello, checkers, and chess. What game will computers conquer next? If it's not go or poker, it might be the card game bridge. The World Computer-Bridge Championship returns to the USA for the first time in six years, running from 13 July 2004 to 18 July 2004 at the Hilton New York (Concourse A, lower level) in Manhattan. Eight bridge programs are scheduled to compete; our program, Bridge Baron, will try to avenge its loss to Jack in last year's final. Spectators are welcome and admission is free."

Stephen Smith writes "Computers are as good as (or better than) the best humans at such games as Othello, checkers, and chess. What game will computers conquer next? If it's not go or poker, it might be the card game bridge. The World Computer-Bridge Championship returns to the USA for the first time in six years, running from 13 July 2004 to 18 July 2004 at the Hilton New York (Concourse A, lower level) in Manhattan. Eight bridge programs are scheduled to compete; our program, Bridge Baron, will try to avenge its loss to Jack in last year's final. Spectators are welcome and admission is free."

Best ID Ever! asks: "Poker, a fascinating intersection of math, game theory, and observation of human behavior, is currently exploding in popularity due to televised high-stakes tournaments such as the World Poker Tour and Binion's 2003 World Series of Poker. Many of today's top professional players have nerdly roots such as Mathematicians, chess prodigies, or backgammon champions. A few pros, including 2000 champion Chris Ferguson, even used to play poker in the IRC poker community. This year's World Series final event, which began Saturday and lasts through the week, drew 2600 participants, more than three times the number of participants in 2003. How many Slashdot readers play poker, and what do you think of Poker's upswing?"

Best ID Ever! asks: "Poker, a fascinating intersection of math, game theory, and observation of human behavior, is currently exploding in popularity due to televised high-stakes tournaments such as the World Poker Tour and Binion's 2003 World Series of Poker. Many of today's top professional players have nerdly roots such as Mathematicians, chess prodigies, or backgammon champions. A few pros, including 2000 champion Chris Ferguson, even used to play poker in the IRC poker community. This year's World Series final event, which began Saturday and lasts through the week, drew 2600 participants, more than three times the number of participants in 2003. How many Slashdot readers play poker, and what do you think of Poker's upswing?"

Roland Piquepaille writes "If men ever land on Mars, what will they wear to protect them from radiation, micrometeors and the very cold climate? Several students from the University of Alberta tackled the problem and designed space suits for Mars. Their prototype suit is composed of twelve layers of materials, including one made from Demron, a new nanotechnology material developed by a Florida-based company, Radiation Shield Technologies. The students and their professor, Dr. Barry Patchett, think their suit will largely be ready before real missions to Mars start in about twenty years. They also hope that NASA will pick their design. More details and references are available in this overview, including some illustrations."

TheFoot writes "The Register reports that Asus is promising to 'change your perception on data storage'. They're talking up a hard drive enclosure capable of taking any 2.5in ATA-100 hard disk. It also contains an 802.11g adaptor and antenna, plus a pair of wired 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports. US $150 + the price of the hard drive. They've changed my perception--why did data storage just get more expensive?" Now now, this could actually be useful. tempest2i notes that there's a Macworld story as well.

An anonymous reader writes "Breathe easy, addicts. A new study says there's no harm in extended Internet use, contrary to earlier research indicating otherwise. Science Blog reports on an a University of Alberta study that found it can even be therapeutic for those 'facing social isolation and loneliness.'" So rejoice, everyone reading this on Sunday afternoon.

spaceling writes "The BBC reports reporting on research published in the Institute of Physics Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering of the first new method of generating electricity in over 150 years. Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok 'created a glass block, two centimetres in diameter and three millimetres thick, containing about 400,000 to 500,000 individual channels...[and] generated about 10 volts with a current of around a milliamp. This allowed the team to successfully power a lightbulb.'" This has also been covered all over the place.

spaceling writes "The BBC reports reporting on research published in the Institute of Physics Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering of the first new method of generating electricity in over 150 years. Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok 'created a glass block, two centimetres in diameter and three millimetres thick, containing about 400,000 to 500,000 individual channels...[and] generated about 10 volts with a current of around a milliamp. This allowed the team to successfully power a lightbulb.'" This has also been covered all over the place.

mstephure writes "This year the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) is presenting the ICT Forum on October 27th. This year the forum will focus on Machine Learning and Data Mining. It is aimed at professionals who would be interested in learning how these emerging technologies can be used in their business. The forum is all day and has a free lunch. Space is limited to registrants only, so register right away!"

Markian Hlynka writes "The University of Alberta's research into Poker AI is featured in this New York Times article. There is also detailed discussion of the game of Poker, and the 'new breed' of players who have honed their abilities online. See the U of A's poker project for more information."

Feztaa writes "This story talks about a private school in Maine that has introduced linux into their computer labs, with smashing success. Apparently, they spent less than half of the money that other schools spent on new computer labs, and got better hardware to boot."

detaks writes "The university of alberta's undergraduate computing science student group modded the office shredder, with duct tape, 110volt case fans, and a athlon fan, to increase the speed of the paper shredder from 12 to 37 pages shredded before overheating. You can also read it in the google cache"

detaks writes "The university of alberta's undergraduate computing science student group modded the office shredder, with duct tape, 110volt case fans, and a athlon fan, to increase the speed of the paper shredder from 12 to 37 pages shredded before overheating. You can also read it in the google cache"

detaks writes "The university of alberta's undergraduate computing science student group modded the office shredder, with duct tape, 110volt case fans, and a athlon fan, to increase the speed of the paper shredder from 12 to 37 pages shredded before overheating. You can also read it in the google cache"

detaks writes "The university of alberta's undergraduate computing science student group modded the office shredder, with duct tape, 110volt case fans, and a athlon fan, to increase the speed of the paper shredder from 12 to 37 pages shredded before overheating. You can also read it in the google cache"

An anonymous reader writes "On Nov. 4, 18 Canadian universities and will create the most powerful computer in Canada for a day to solve an important computational chemistry question in one day -- a task that would normally take six years to complete." Here is more information on the temporary supercomputer available at the project's home page and at UofG's News.

Gerard Jendras sent in a submission about applying computing power to an ancient game. The game of Awari has been solved: with perfect play, the game always results in a draw. There is a Java applet to test your skills against.

tuxbeej writes "Just recently I've been told that I may be developing keratoconus, a non-inflammatory eye condition in which the normally round dome-shaped cornea progressively thins causing a cone-like bulge to develop (thanks, NKCF!). As a result, my eyesight will get worse and it's getting harder to see on a 15" monitor. Being 22 years old and studying MIS, I've been hoping to keep my eyesight for a long, long time. Anyway, I was in the market for a new monitor and I was curious to know if anyone has done shopping for a monitor intended for someone with bad eyesight? Are there any recommended sizes, features, brands? It seems like a generic question, but I'm curious to know if certain technologies have any advantages over another or if there is a site out there that handles info like this." We had an older article about CRT's vs. LCD's.

KidIcarus writes: "Four lawmakers in Georgia have submitted a bill that would make it a criminal offense to sell or make violent video games available to minors. Full text of the bill here. Seems that politicians still don't have a clue, despite indications that video games don't cause violence." This may remind you of the (since overturned) law segregating certain video games from others in Indianapolis.

Dixie_Flatline writes: "Welcome Canada to the Nanotech scene. Given the success that U of A has had with medical research, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of this facility. Here's the University's own report on it." I hope the various nanotechnologists (like those at the Institute of Nanoscience and Technology at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) get together soon for international tiny-robot wars.

JonMartin would like to poll the collective wisdom and experience of those Slashdot readers who would like to assist him in his quest for his idea of the perfect keyboard. Check out his description and see how well his ideal matches to yours.

"I am hunting for my perfect keyboard. I have not been able to find any vendor that matches my dream spec exactly, so I thought I would ask here before I start to compromise.

Here are the desired specs:

• the main part of the keyboard must be a 101-key layout, so no Win95 keys or internet keys (I would tolerate Win95 keys if they were out of the way - ie. above the numeric keypad)
• USB connector (but must still work with PS/2 adaptor in an emergency)
• 2 USB ports (obviously these will not be expected to work with the PS/2 adaptor)
• straight Enter key (not the big-L type)
• no 'ergonomic'split layout
• compact footprint (regular sized keyboard, but no extraneous molding that takes up desk space) maybe 18"x6.5"
• good quality and construction

If you know of any keyboard that meets or comes close to meeting all of these, jump in and share the info."

JonMartin mentions that a few of his requests are quite subjective, so he's willing to try a few to see how they work out, so try to leave out those recommendations that are sold "as-is", please.

If you are following the flap over the use of the letters Ess, Ess and Aitch in product names -- SSH Communications Security Corporation has asked the OpenSSH project to stop using those letters in the name of their software -- a story on NewsForge adds more details. If you didn't catch it then, here's yesterday's NewsForge article as well. Good thing nobody is enforcing a trademark on "telnet," eh?

My favorite tidbit from the article is this: "[OpenBSD and OpenSSH Developer Theo] de Raadt cites U.S. trademark law that requires owners of trademarks to notify violators immediately ... de Raadt argues that Ylönen would have to be living under a rock not to be aware of OpenSSH before now. OpenSSH, released in December 1999 and in use before that, was used by more than 17% of all SSH users earlier this month, according to a study published on the University of Alberta Web site." Besides that, the story does a great job of listing other people whose products including "SSH" in their names have been left blissfully alone, making it seem that OpenSSH is getting what can only be called special treatment.

Of interest: here is a link to a page at openssh.com showing the legal papers received and scanned by members of the OpenSSH project, including the trademark application in question, showing an entirely lowercased "ssh" as the applied-for mark.

Andreas Junghanns writes: "Check out the Second International RoShamBo Programming Competition for a completely different experience! If you think you know everything about Rock-Paper-Scissors -- here is your chance to prove it against some stiff international competition. At the Web site you can find rules, sample programs and a report of the first contest, complete with results and program descriptions." This looks pretty cool, and it might make a neat first project for someone, too.

Andreas Junghanns writes: "Check out the Second International RoShamBo Programming Competition for a completely different experience! If you think you know everything about Rock-Paper-Scissors -- here is your chance to prove it against some stiff international competition. At the Web site you can find rules, sample programs and a report of the first contest, complete with results and program descriptions." This looks pretty cool, and it might make a neat first project for someone, too.

Dixie_Flatline asks: "Does anyone have any suggestions for reasonable books on Nanotechnology? With all the articles posted recently, my interest has been piqued. I'm not a biologist or an engineer, so I don't want anything that requires long nights studying to understand. I'm just a programmer with an interest in knowing how research has progressed, and interesting points about the subject."

b12arr0 sent us a link to a quick little GNOME article. An anonymous reader wrote in to say that GNUStep.org has had a major makeover. Nice to see that project still alive and kicking. chrisd wrote in to say that VA has made its first acquisition: ElectricLichen, possibly best known to most of us as the Beer Hike guys. OGL wrote in to give us the heads up to Linux Game Tome for info about a a work-in-progress video game starring Tux in a 3D environment. The screenshots alone are unbelievably cool. Brian Gue wrote in to tell us of a new a beer called Fubar. Why not fubeer? snorkel sent us a link to yet-another-dancing-animal-page. This is the Cow Dance Finally Vik Olliver wrote in with the most impressive Linux Fan act I've seen (narrowly edging out the dude at LWCE with the Tux hairdo). It is of course, Husband and Wife matching Tux Tatoos. My largely tux based fashion sense pales by comparison.

Bob_Dobbs wrote in to tell us that there are major rumors that the next Macs should actually do Playstation Emulation. Requires a G3, but it's not like many people are buying Mac Classics any more. H: Sounds like Jobs will be announcing this officially tomorrow. Very cool. Update: 01/05 12:23 by S : Here's some more info thanks to Narbo: Connectix' press release confirms the story, and lists the games you can play on it.

Greg Bodnar writes "Looks like a new Open Source project for Mac Hardware is floating around at InfiniteOS" It's pretty darn skeletal right now but I suspect that it'll grow quite a bit over the next few months.