Daily Bulletin

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Fun and advice before beach break

Volunteers from the Federation of Students, the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, the SLC turnkeys and residence life staff have been working with health services to put together Friday's festivities. "The events planned will have something for everyone -- dance, theatre, music, contests and lots of prizes," says Mel Hazelton, first year student life coordinator.

Officer Dan will be back this year again to do breathalyzer tests for those interested. A group of four volunteers have also signed up to do an alcohol consumption demonstration.

Last year hundreds of students participated in the trivia contests and piñata bashing, and watched the home-grown performers at the turnkey coffee house. I hear that fans are wondering whether Erin Baillie, a don in Ron Eydt Village, will be a repeat winner in the "How low can you go?" limbo contest in the Bombshelter.

UW's Breakdancers will get the night started at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall. A panel of celebrity judges will be on hand to taste-test mocktails produced and marketed by student teams. In this event, students will have a limited time to quickly blend an alcohol-free beverage from a selection of unconventional ingredients.

WPIRG's Action Theatre is performing a spoof on the famous "Single and Sexy" play. Jessica Kwik, a star of both productions, explains that the characters will use song and dance to help share some information about travel, safety and personal health.

In recent years, staff at health services have grown concerned with increased health problems during the February break. The number of students returning to UW with injuries from accidents concerned the staff, who decided to be proactive. Although most students won't get to escape to a sandy location this reading week, many of the issues are universal. "Issues of rape drugs, unwanted pregnancies, sun safety and alcohol related accidents are the chief concerns," says Federation of Students vice-president (student issues) Jason Risley.

Enthusiasts promote Linux at UW

The group is encouraging students to get Linux -- from a CD, available for $4, or downloaded from the Web -- and use it on assignments in particular. "Our most successful course is CS 342," says Lhotak. "I've heard rumours that over half the class is doing their assignments using Linux."

Linux, a clone of the widely used Unix software, has been called "the first real competition to Microsoft Windows". It's free and widely distributed with many programmers and companies offering their own improvements. Michael Cole, another math student who's involved with the UW Linux group, offers some background:

"If you ever considered using Linux there are many place to get it. Linux is free for download all over the Internet; often books on Linux come with a copy on a CD on the inside back cover. Some people even buy official distributions from computer stores. Such copies are usually about one fifth to one half as expensive as Windows.

"Why use Linux? For the average undergrad computer science student the answer is obvious: to avoid the crowd at computer labs. All second year and higher computer science courses for CS majors require Unix terminals to do the assignments. (In fact many non-CS courses also require Unix.) Using Linux with the appropriate software, for example a Java or C++ compiler, it is possible to make one's own home computer model the far more expensive machines in the Math Building."

Among other considerations, Lhotak adds: "Linux experience is becoming very valuable to have on a résumé."

The "Linux@UW" group was started a year ago and currently involves "about seven or eight" active volunteers, says Lhotak, as well as "15 to 20 others floating around who help out occasionally".

He goes on: "Most of the work of Linux@UW revolves around making packages of the various programs. Although the software that we package is freely available, it is available as source that must be compiled. Some of the software is easy to compile, but some is very difficult. In order to save students the effort, we compile everything into these packages which install automatically. We also gather all the software together to make it easy to find, on the web or on CD.

"All our packages may be downloaded from our web page. For students without a fast Internet connection, we have also created a CD. This CD contains all the packages in addition to the Red Hat 6.0 distribution of Linux. Students can install both Linux and the software they need right from the CD. We sell the CD in the Math Society office for $4 to cover costs. Students who merely wish to borrow the CD to get the software can buy it and return it within a week to get their money back.

"We are looking at other ways of serving Linux users on campus. One example of what we are planning is an on-campus mirror of common Linux distributions, so that people who want them can download them from a machine at UW rather than from halfway around the world.

"Interest in the software packages has been tremendous. We started selling the CD's in summer '99. We sold 65 that term, and 150 in the fall, and they are continuing to sell this term."

Slow slide for UW toboggan team

As team member Tori de Bokx, tells it, the runners on the bottom of the toboggan -- designed to keep the triangular sled moving in a straight line on hard-packed snow -- dug into the slush on the first run, which the team was unable to complete. (The photo at right, taken before the Regina trip, gives a good view of the runners.)

With temperatures hovering just below freezing, the civil engineering team chiseled off the runners and re-waxed the base of the toboggan before their second try. Without the runners, there was no way to steer, says de Bokx, "but we had an excellent run" -- until the bottom, when the toboggan struck a snow berm. The impact broke off the nose of the sled, which "did a 360-degree spin and crossed the finish line backwards.

"All things considered," she adds, "we adapted as well as we could to the environmental conditions. We expected colder conditions." And unlike some other teams, Stone Cold ended their runs without injury.

While the fastest sleds were the standard toboggan shape -- "kind of boring," says de Bokx -- the UW team is known for its innovative approach to design. "It's more fun to make something different." And de Bokx is convinced that the unconventional design has merit. "With different conditions, we could have done better," she maintains. "We're proud of how we did."

The University of Calgary took first place honours, followed by Red River College in Winnipeg, and Carleton University. A total of 22 teams from technical schools, colleges and universities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Québec, Alaska, Colorado, and Minnesota entered the competition.

A few events on a snowy day

The teaching resources and continuing education office today offers a repeat of last week's workshop "Teaching Dossiers, Part 2". It's led by Donna Ellis and Gary Griffin of the TRACE office, and starts at 4 p.m. in Math and Computer room 4063.

The drama department's production of "Suburban Motel" is running again this week, starting tonight. The show starts at 8:00 tonight through Saturday in Studio 180, the little theatre in the Humanities building.

In the Humanities Theatre itself, tonight brings a production of "The Great School Crisis of '99", described as "a funny satirical monologue by Ted Johns, which highlights the changes in educations made by Bill 160". It's touring from the Blyth Festival. The performance starts at 7:30 tonight and again tomorrow night; the Humanities box office has tickets.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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