Slashdot Mirror

...That's because the democrats are a very fractured party at the moment.

Actually, given that I don't always like what happens when a unified party gains control, there's a lot to be said for voting for a fractured party.

Neither party have a compelling message at the moment. Republicans: "Make America White Again"
Democrats: "We're not with Stupid."

Say, I support that as a slogan!

One of Akin's laws of spacecraft design is "Don't do nothin' dumb."

https://twitter.com/nlfrank1 is her own tweets, http://www.uvic.ca/home/about/... is the press release from the university.

So I did a very quick search on the internet looking for Light induced RAM and Light induced magnetoresistance and only found one article that predates the slashdot article and the one it links to. (Ok, I'm procrastinating from doing other stuff).

http://www.uvic.ca/home/about/...

This university published article is just as short on details and has no links to any published research. It's also a bit laughable: "new material allows computer chips to exist at a molecular level" which means what exactly? Computer chips currently don't exist at the molecular level? Anyway, don't mean to give their communications department a hard time, I just want more solid info.

It's clear that some of the claims from the hyped article that slashdot cites are ridiculous (at least the university release doesn't make those claims). The journalists, lacking any background in science probably called up some "experts" and said (out of context) "if you had a material that could do such and such" what would be the advantages. So, these experts, whether or not they actually know anything, just started making things up like it'll cut down on energy consumption (true but not a huge amount) and that it would prevent fires like the Samsung smart phone (probably not because the modest power savings from this RAM would not allow the battery to be designed differently which was the cause of the fires).

Unfortunately, the heat (and power) problems are not in the RAM but in the processor (amongst other things) which this technology does not address. In the university article they say that it is part of an effort to reduce the power and heat of processors but does not say this technology does this. Apparently, from the article, it is only suitable for RAM; hence the name LI-RAM. So while it may be faster (good) and not give off much heat (also good) it doesn't live up to the hype in the distorted media interpretations of the university article (which the slashdot submitter then chopped up and republished). This all assumes that they can get this to work at the fantastic performance and density levels of modern RAM all while not introducing new sources of heat and power to make it work (it requires "green light' presumably from a laser).

Anyway, if you want to waste some time, take a look at the Slashdot link and then look at the university article and you'll see how information can be mangled and hyped up by people who don't have a background in the subject. Of course, since we all like "free" (or ad supported) news, we aren't exactly encouraging accurate journalism :(

Yes, you are right. Except for cows, I believe that pastured cows are not the source of pollution that industrial cows are as they are in balance with the pastures they are raised on. You are right in a larger sense regarding the impact on pollution a planet-wide scale, however on a local scale the impacts are decidedly tangible:
http://web.uvic.ca/~gsteeves/e...
https://www.quora.com/Whats-th...
I am all for getting rid of most cars and replacing them with bicycles and a massively increased clean public transportation infrastructure. Also, I persist in my main statement that our major problems are (those I listed, there are others of course) here on earth and there is no conceivable scenario in which expending resources on space-flight are going to solve them.

Here is the press release from the University of Victoria:
www.communications.uvic.ca/releases/tip.php?date=23052016

and here are some sources that discuss the paper without quite as much in the way of scare words and hype:
www.reportingclimatescience.com/2016/05/23/unmitigated-emissions/
www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2016/05/23/uvic-researcher-models-worst-case-climate-change.html

Where, apparently, you defended yourself and had the case thrown out by citing free property rights of horse and carriage from 1798...

Yes, I saw and do not dispute that definition. You seem to be disputing that you are implying causality, even though definition 1 is because.

Clear communication is not achieved by being able to provide a golden path through various dictionary definitions that aren't strictly wrong. It's by saying things such that they can be understood as easily as possible, without losing the message.

If you can't understand the objections people are raising in this thread, then I very strongly recommend that you avoid the phrase "in light of" entirely. It doesn't matter whether you believe you are using it correctly, because it's not working and we don't seem to be able to communicate to you why it's not working.

One last effort:

If something has two definitions, and the one you want is *not* the primary definition, you should avoid using it in a sentence where the primary definition fits grammatically.

This is how people use "in light of" for "because":

"In light of this new evidence, the police no longer suspect Bob of the Museum Caper."

And this is how people use "in light of" for "in consideration of".

"When you are selecting what university program to apply to, consider them in light of your personal interest in the field, and not just expected salary at graduation"

Yours was in a form like the "because" case, so it's confusing.

Citations where people recommend using "because" as a go-to replacement:

http://english.stackexchange.c...
http://www.4syllables.com.au/r...
http://web.uvic.ca/~gkblank/wo...

Yes, the stack exchange guy did say considering. Considering itself means because in some cases, usually when it's the first word of a sentence. But not that last sentence I used.

http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/...
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools...
http://edgcm.columbia.edu/
http://nomads.gfdl.noaa.gov/CM...

Some data: http://www2.cesm.ucar.edu/

Some background info:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/ccmac-cccm...
http://www.climateprediction.n...
http://www.climate.uvic.ca/
https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/techni...

This one has videos: http://vimeo.com/user12523377/...

In this age of information, ignorance is a choice.

Well, since we're being nitpicky: "alot" isn't a word at all.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/alot.html
http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/UsAlot.html
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/761667.html

Two good observations are sufficient for triangulation. CCD equipped all-sky cameras and run-of-the-mill security cameras are watching about everywhere. Without multiple images, here's a trajectory analysis based on sound (sonic booms?) at seismic stations.

Anyone that's worked at a technology startup will know that the technology piece is only one part of the success equation. Management effectiveness, execution, and funding are also significant. In TZero's case, the technology was fine (despite some of the incorrect speculation about UWB in general above). If you're interested in seeing how TZero's UWB product actually performs, you can read a report by the University of Victoria that provides test results for TZero's wireless card and its wireless HDMI video product. http://www.ece.uvic.ca/~xdong/WiMedia_testing_report.pdf Also, CNET reviewed the Gefen Wireless HDMI product which is based on the TZero design.

I disagree. Most of those eggs in the supermarket are unfertilized. A fertilized egg is an actual chicken. I just don't care about chickens as much as I do people. You can't point to any one spot in an embryo's development (except fertilization) and say "There. Now it is human." With that ambiguity, is it not better to err on the side of caution?

That's called the argument of the beard, and is a fallacy.

Quoting:

http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/LogArgBeard.html

This is a paradoxical argument which derives from the impossibility of answering the question "How many hairs does a man have to grow before he has a beard?" Since there is no specific number at which an unsightly clump of hairs becomes a beard, the argument is that no useful distinction can be made between a clean-shaven man and Santa Claus.

Another way of expressing the fallacy is in the argument that there is no harm in removing one hair from a beard since it will not stop it being a beard; the argument is superficially convincing until you realise that eventually the beard will indeed disappear, even if it is plucked one hair at a time.

Thus the argument of the beard suggests that there is no difference between those things which occupy opposite ends of a continuum, because there is no definable moment at which one becomes the other: day and night, or childhood and adulthood, for example. This fallacy often turns up in essays that discuss such subjects as the appropriate age for drinking, voting, or driving.

One route to a healthy skepticism is learning to smell crapola when it's served steaming on the plate in front of you. To that end, Stephen Downes has a nice, economical list of bad thinking examples. It's here: http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton/Teaching/General%20Readings/Logical%20Falllacies.htm. There's also Harry G. Frankfurt's great little book, 'On Bullshit' (the title of which the New York Times would not print on its best seller list!). It's a great take on the subject from a philosopher's point of view. Cheers!

I drive a Range Rover Sport Supercharged 1. Doesn't get great mileage 2. Costs a pretty penny to own and operate 3. I bought it because I can afford it Regardless of everyone's comments, if everyone could own and operate an SUV they WOULD. And please STOP CRYING ABOUT THE COST OF GAS!! Canadians have paid more than American for gas forever http://climate.uvic.ca/people/ewiebe/car/fuel_price.html and remeber there are 3.79 liters in a gallon before you start calculating. Gas in Europe has been at 12 bucks a gallon for who knows how long. Try driving in Switzerland. The best part of this? That your American oil and gas companies have been buying oil from Kuwait and Saudi for 27-35 bucks a barrel ever since the first Gulf War. Why does gas cost so much? Because its a speculative market and has no bearing on the actual contracts that people in the various countires buy gas from our Saudi brothers. Why do you think the Saudis say there is no reason for the increase if there is enough oil to go around? After all, its not Hurricane Katrina season is it? The oil and refining stations haven't been knocked out in the gulf by aother storm recently have they? Stop whining and listen up! Its your governments charging you high gas prices! Not some Arab country! Those poor bastards have been locked into low prices for years by the might of the American military machine. Your governments need to pay for blunders like the Iraq war, and the mortgage crisis. So while most Americans can't read properly, have the worst school system in the world, your government raises gas to pay for a $10B a month war and because they HAD to lend Merrill Lynch $50B to buy Bear Stearns when they only spent 100M buying that bank? What a joke. So yes I'll keep driving my SUV as long as I can afford it. When I can't. I won't. Until then look at the real facts.

http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/UsYour.html

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/your.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-You're-and-Your

Now try again:
http://www.english-zone.com/verbs/your1.html

I like a girl in uniform.

And from what I've read I think I would have liked Grace Hopper.

You bring up a fact that just struck me as odd. Why aren't we doing something to store electricity?

Energy storage is one of the keys to a modern energy infrastructure. Currently, we (typically) use fossil fuels for this purpose--it just sits there until it's needed. According to David Sanborn Scott's book, hydrogen is the only viable large-scale energy storage medium (or, in his words, "energy currency"). This is because, in a general way, it can be used more or less as we now use fossil fuels.

I don't know if he thinks of hydrogen as a means of storing energy generated off-peak for use during peak hours (I do know he sees a larger role for nuclear power--something I'm a little ambivalent about), but his ideas are very interesting in that he insists that this problem be approached as a problem with the energy system. In other words, it's necessary to understand the role fossil fuels play in the production, distribution and use of energy in order to decide how best to replace them.

He's appeared on two episodes of the CBC program Ideas--look for the podcast titled "The Hydrogen Solution."

(I would like to have a Kanji gold like program on my phone, excelent while waiting for the tube)

I you make your money making hardware like cellphones, why would you want to give a third party power over your produkt? Espescialy when there is no "default standard" yet as for the cellphone market.

I dont know much about symbians buisness pratices, but I would not lett Microsoft get within a mile of my hardware i I was making cellphones.....

Repost of my AC post:

Lots of data at NCDC.

Simple interactive Java climate model JCM5.

3D general circulation model EdGCM (based on NASA GISS Model II, state of the art in 1983 and what James Hansen himself used in his famous 1988 testimony to Congress).

For more modern and advanced models ... they're not so easy for laymen to run themselves, but ...

There are a variety of Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs) which are not fully 3D models but represent a lot of physics and don't require a supercomputer. One such is UVic; there are many more (here).

You can even get full blown state of the art GCMs which run on supercomputers, like NASA GISS Model E or NCAR CCSM, but expect to run them for most of a year to get any kind of result ...

I've hit my 30 comment limit so I have to post anonymously, but:

Lots of data at NCDC.

Simple interactive Java climate model JCM5.

3D general circulation model EdGCM (based on NASA GISS Model II, state of the art in 1983 and what James Hansen himself used in his famous 1988 testimony to Congress).

For more modern and advanced models ... they're not so easy for laymen to run themselves, but ...

There are a variety of Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs) which are not fully 3D models but represent a lot of physics and don't require a supercomputer. One such is UVic; there are many more (here).

You can even get full blown state of the art GCMs which run on supercomputers, like NASA GISS Model E or NCAR CCSM, but expect to run them for most of a year to get any kind of result ...

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar /colons.htm

not capitalized

Do you really need anything else?

Depends, I like having a module tracker handy (there are a few available for linux). For live-wire type stuf or general geekiness a fun audio tool to play with is ChucK. Marsyas is worth a look too.

please stop: http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/UsAnyway.html

It's not enough to merely limit yourself to NOT, XOR and pass-through, as traditional implementations still destroy information in a way. Traditional gates are made of switches: When you switch the input to an inverter (NOT gate) off, the output switches on by closing a switch to Vdd and opening the switch to ground. Some current flows from Vdd to the inputs of whatever gates the inverter is driving. When you switch the input to that inverter on, the switch to Vdd opens and the switch to ground closes. That charge that had been on the output of the gate driving other inputs now gets drained to ground. That's where a good portion of the power gets burned in a CMOS circuit. The new output destroys the old output.

And then there's other sources of inefficiency. While switching, there's a point where both switches are neither fully open nor fully closed, and you get direct flow-through from Vdd to GND. That adds to the power consumption as well. And finally, the switches aren't perfect. An "open" switch still lets a little current "leak" through. This is referred to as leakage power.

This site has some logic gates that are designed specifically for reversible computation. --Joe

Chuck or Marsyas. And it would probably be easier to do something more complicated such as use samples, have multiple threads (well shreds in chuck, you spork a shred) and do other fun stuff. Worth checking both out if you are into playing with audio (chuck has binaries for win and osx, source for linux, while marsyas is compile only).

Our university (UVic) has the two programs; Computer Science for all the theory and Software Engineering for all the practical pragmatic stuff.

Have a look at this video:
http://bseng.uvic.ca/pages/home/video_mpg.html
(yes, I made it... )

The basic theory, for which Hutter provides a proof, is that after any set of observations the optimal move by an AI is find the smallest program that predicts those observations and then assume its environment is controlled by that program.

Herbert Simon, the father of AI, deduced that humans use what he called satisficing (and a more formal definition). That is, they tend to the first available solution that works. Nothing about "optimal moves" or "smallest program". In fact solutions were usually suboptimal.

Since humans are the only examples of intelligence, artificial or otherwise, that most would agree are "intelligent", I think Herbert Simon's work trumps Hutter's.

Psychological studies show no human tendency to develop any "smallest moves" or even "simplest explanation" (a' la' Occam's Razor) without significant training. Instead humans start with a base set of assumptions and then constantly patch it to adapt to new information. An overall revision may often not occur at all without some significant triggering event (death of a child, accident, etc.).

My university does research on fuel cell technology and they have a couple of fuel cell scooters and other low speed vehicles they're investigating. Here's a link from a (2 year old) article: http://communications.uvic.ca/uvicreport/research. html and more detailed recent info (with pics of scooters) here: http://www.iesvic.uvic.ca/research/subsection4.htm

My university does research on fuel cell technology and they have a couple of fuel cell scooters and other low speed vehicles they're investigating. Here's a link from a (2 year old) article: http://communications.uvic.ca/uvicreport/research. html and more detailed recent info (with pics of scooters) here: http://www.iesvic.uvic.ca/research/subsection4.htm

Similar, but different: At ISMIR 2005 there was a presentation on Query-by-Beatboxing. The publication is available in mistic's list of publications. Mistic is the "Music intelligence technology" group at the University of Victoria.

Of course with most people's beatboxing skills it would be more amusing for the onlooker.

Gah! Dilemma!

On one hand, you're bringing religion into a discussion about technology. My initial urge is to stare at you blankly until you go away, or yell "keep your religion off of my science", or tell you that if you object you don't have to take part but you shouldn't tell other people how to live, blah blah etc etc. Most likely, I just wouldn't respond at all.

On the other hand, you correctly used "raises the question" instead of incorrectly using "begs the question", for which I want to applaud.

What to do, what to do....

Anyway, your statements were:

When does someone stop being human, once we can replace their body with a machine?

There is an old thought experiment that goes something like this:

"If you could replace a single neuron with a device that responds exactly the same way, would you be less than human? All input to that device is the same, all output is the same, for all the neurons around it, absolutely nothing has changed. Now, imagine that you start replacing every neuron, one by one. After each replacement, for the natural neurons around it, still nothing has changed. When you are finished, you have a functioning brain that continues to process all input exactly the same as before, only now it is mechanical instead of biological. Now is it less than human? If not, at which point did it change into something else?"

It's an interesting problem, and if you are as intelligent as you seem, you can ponder it out without me contaminating your process with my opinions.

Is it just the brain?

Yup. I hope that wasn't a surprise.

What of AI then?

It depends on what you mean when you think of the term "AI". Like so many other terms, it has partially lost its original meaning due to overuse. By the very definition, though, it is artificial. A computer program designed to fool humans is not true intelligence. A computer program that emulates probable human responses is not true intelligence. Ah, but what if, similar to the above thought experiment, we could somehow copy a person's neurological responses... and put that data into a program that would simulate a complete working brain, down to the last neuron. Would =that= be true intelligence? Hmm...

What of the soul?

What of it? If you believe in such things, good for you. However, there has never been any scientific evidence* that such a thing exists or exerts any force over my choices or actions. So, I'm comfortable living my day to day life without such worries. YMMV.

*For those that would respond "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" (which is a true statement), I would say "No, but it sure is an =indication= of absence." But as Carl Sagan said, "You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe"

JWPce http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/jwpce.html
Kanji Gold http://web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/
Pera Pera Penguin http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/0002/
Kanji Trainer Penpen http://www.coolest.com/penpen/

Re: "ideologue." Correction noted and acknowledged. Thank you.

I do in fact teach English and see language as a precise tool to communicate to avoid disappointing expectations.

While I "choose" to work for this tutoring company I am not responsible for, nor inclined to justify their corporate philosophies based on another's line of reasoning. And since the presumption has been raised that my teaching methods are limited to the Socratic please allow me to correct the implication. My methods include and are not limited to Bloom's Taxonomyand Hunter's Methods.

With that said. I would like to congratulate Wiki on their outstanding achievement and hold them in high regard. My hope is that they will set a goal of making their database more approachable for educators.

Ahh, you beat me to it! The Scout was my first thought when I saw the story. It's a shame those aren't available for just anyone to purchase. I'd love to play with a few. I guess my only option is to go to UMN and get into that research program. Hmm.

Any well-equipped police department or stalker should have a wall-climbing robot or two in their arsenal as well.

I mean seriously, Shakespeare was great, but would we want to have saved every piece of parchment he scribbled on?

"with the possible exception of a few pages of Sir Thomas More, a play that Shakespeare may have helped write, no manuscripts of Shakespeare's survive. The only certain evidence we have of his handwriting is his signature."

Our knowledge of Shakespeare is so sparse that there's an entire genre of claims that Shakespeare's plays were actually written by someone else. Everyone from Ben Jonson to Francis Bacon to Sir Walter Raleigh has been put forward as the "real author". David Kahn's classic work on cryptography, The Codebreakers , devotes almost an entire chapter to debunking the "secret coded messages", supposedly hidden inside Shakespeare's plays, which reveal their true author.

All of this speculation could be disposed of, if only we had a few scribbled pages of Hamlet or The Tempest. But we don't.

Fortunately, Aardman Animations is far better documented than Shakespeare. But the destruction of their storyboards and sets is still a terrible loss.

The classic example of "crowd wisdom" is the jellybeans-in-the-jar experiment, often used in introductory MBA classes to convince people that open markets value securities (basically) fairly. The experiment goes like this: the professor brings a jar of jellybeans and asks everyone to guess how many there are in the jar. The individual estimates may vary quite a lot, but the average of the estimates in the class is usually close, in fact often closer than the closest estimate of any of the students depending upon the size of the class. That is in a situation where the students have very little information about the jar and perhaps no experience with such estimates. If there were greater experience and/or they were allowed more information then presumably the individual and average estimates would be even closer. Basically, this can be described as the "Central Limit Theorem" in action- that the standard deviation of averages is smaller than the standard deviation of the individuals by a factor of the square root of the sample size, as illustrated in this applet or in this Mathworld description. The CLT actually says more- that as the sample size increases, the distibution of averages approaches that of the normal ("bell curve") distribution, so the distribution of avergaes is roughly normal, and then techniques designed to analyze the normal distribution can be applied with greater certainty.

Read this:
http://web.uvic.ca/akeller/pw408/d_qt_link_to_web_ pages.html

Quicktime apparently supports text tracks with or without links attached, or the whole movie area can be a clickable link, all tied to the timecode that keeps all the parts of the movie together.

Rather than use complete sentences for his Slashdot post. This poster instead used pieces of them. Which he then submitted.

Juliet: Tis but thy name that is mine enemie.
Whats Mountague? It is nor hand nor foote,
Nor arme, nor face, nor any other part.
Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet:
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo cald,
Retaine the diuine perfection he owes:
Without that title Romeo part thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee,
Take all I haue.

Asking why is metaphysical in (at) the end :)

Anyway, there they have some more readable info

CC.

Bookware for various languages:

Living Language

A list of the 'Teach Yourself' Books.

Tuttle Kanji Cards - I have a set of these and they're very nice flashcards.

Free-ish software for Japanese:

Kanji Gold

Tile Tag - Drill game for Japanese kana.

Stuff to pay for:

Multi-Lingual Books - Seem to have a good selection of stuff.

OK... So I myself am interested in Japanese... ;-) However, it does seem to exercise a lot of different portions of your brain, from the pictographic script to the weird (to me!) grammer stuff. However, you should have her pick what she's most interested in, since interest is vital to keeping with a foreign language self-study program.

Another thing you might look at is the game of Go. It seems to be well thought of by various people who should know, and I believe it's even claimed to be effective in staving off such things as Alzheimers. However, the good players say that there's no good computer implementation, so you might have to find her a human opponent.

American Go Association

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I've tried some of these resources, not all. Your mileage may vary. Contents may settle during shipment.

On macslash.org, there was an Ask MacSlash about iTunes somehow figuring out what songs sounded good together using some crazy sonic algorithm. The guy was asking if it was plausible that iTunes analyzed the songs in the playlist to spit out the best mix possible.

Well, there is ways of analysing the song to figure out what type of song it is -- There is actually a very intelligent professor at my local University that has developed an algorithm/program that can tell with a pretty good idea what type of song it is. (that might not be a correct link, I was poring over their website to try and find any information about the software/visiting professor and I can't say that I recall all the details exactly.. =\ ) I saw a demo of it in a class one time when he was a guest lecturer and it was pretty impressive.

Not to mention that DJ thing you can do with a phone.

On macslash.org, there was an Ask MacSlash about iTunes somehow figuring out what songs sounded good together using some crazy sonic algorithm. The guy was asking if it was plausible that iTunes analyzed the songs in the playlist to spit out the best mix possible.

Well, there is ways of analysing the song to figure out what type of song it is -- There is actually a very intelligent professor at my local University that has developed an algorithm/program that can tell with a pretty good idea what type of song it is. (that might not be a correct link, I was poring over their website to try and find any information about the software/visiting professor and I can't say that I recall all the details exactly.. =\ ) I saw a demo of it in a class one time when he was a guest lecturer and it was pretty impressive.

Not to mention that DJ thing you can do with a phone.

• RealClimate piece mentioning the event.
• Google search that finds lots of info
• Abstract of a paper discussing the event
• looks like a map of the lake (PDF)

Actually, you missed the comma after "If you write like a 4 year old child". You can check this page for a reference.

I am a third year Computer Science student, and one of the coordinators for http://wcs.csc.uvic.ca/ , the Women in Computer Science Initiative at my university.

One of the biggest challenges is, as the parent poster says, overcoming the stereotypes surrounding Computer Science/Engineering/Math/Science. The other big challenge, IMO, is answering the "Why?" question--as in "Why should I care about CSC/Engineering/etc.?".

To encourage girls to enter the sciences, the best way is to show them how it applies to their lives on a day-to-day basis. This approach will like work with boys, too.

I recommend reading "Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing" by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher (or at least skimming it) for an idea of the subtle ways that women are discouraged from taking math and science. Many people, including educators, are unaware how much impact even the slightest discouragement has on girls.

Of course, there are the obvious things: make sure that none of the material can be possibly viewed as sexist, check to make sure that girls can relate to the examples, and actively encourage them to participate. Studies have shown that not only are girls more sensitive to subtle discouragement, they are also more sensitive than boys to a lack of encouragement. Again, the book I mentioned above has a much better overview of all these points, and there is lots of material on the Internet regarding women in CSC/Engineering/the Sciences.

Lastly, from our experiences with high school presentations, you may want to think about involving younger (middle school age) children, if appropriate, as they are often less entrenched in the stereotypes and hence, more open to new experiences.

http://web.uvic.ca/~mwquinn/hl.jpg

Maybe we're just supposed to send you warez sites for those great German movies. Yeah, that's it, that's what you meant...

Actually there have been some great German movies.

Just a thought, but couldn't you get around the whole "trading" problem by simply making the keys integral to school.

I'm a third year uni. student. My school (The University of Victoria) has a regional bus pass encoded onto student cards as part of a deal struck with the local transit authority...

Despite the fact that I have a PILE of friends who would all gladly pay $100 for my student card to get the cheap bus pass, the damn thing is indespensible to me, so I take good care of it. Furthermore, if I ever go in to get a "lost" card replaced, they disable my old one on a central server before giving me a new one. There's only *EVER* one "real" student card for me floating around, and it *HAS* to be in *MY* posession for simple logistical reasons. I'm screwed without it.

Do the same for kids. Make their tokens integral somehow. (Part of the lunch program, part of class attendance, or SOMETHING...) then, if the kids lose them, you just make sure that the old tokens are remotely disabled before a new one is issued...

I really don't see why this is so difficult...

I just graduated from UVic.

In the main computer labs, you could choose from over 200 Macs. These were generally used for surfing, email, and word processing.

In the Engineering building, we had Solaris boxes. These were really old and clunky, but they had AutoCAD and MATLAB installed.

In a few of the labs(including the final project labs), you could find Windows boxes. There weren't that many, and the priviledges were too low to be useful. (Have fun doing any development if you're not an administrator!)

Several other labs let you telnet into a unix server and run the epxensive programs. (I still telnet into the unix server to check my email with PINE.)

If you couldn't use all of them you wouldn't get your degree because you couldn't run some of the programs required for assignments.

So, in answer to your question, no, not every school is locked into MS.