Wacky hair was the order of the day, all right, when the university secretariat organized Wacky Hair Day on Friday as a fund-raiser for the United Way campaign. That's Bud Walker, UW's director of business operations, in the foreground submitting to a makeover. A total of 30 campus celebrities got new dos during the noon-hour event. The United Way campaign is scheduled to wind up Wednesday, and is closing in on the $150,000 goal, with $132,564 in gifts and pledges reported as of late Friday. Special events continue for the cause. Today, the registrar's office holds a used book sale, from 8:30 to 2:00 in Needles Hall room 2024B. Tomorrow, a silent auction and bake sale are scheduled in the Environmental Studies I foyer, starting at 10:30.

To honour students for good works

The awards were created in 1997 "to recognize the significant contributions of students in volunteer work both within the University and the community at-large. The awards honour the extracurricular contributions of students in a variety of service areas, some of which may not be highly visible but nonetheless important to the community."

A committee chooses each year's recipients, "normally ten", and the winners receive a certificate and a $250 cheque.

Any member of the university or the community at-large may nominate a student. And -- unusually -- "because volunteer work often has a low profile, students are very much encouraged to apply directly for an award."

A memo from Catharine Scott, associate provost (human resources and student services), asks department heads and other people on campus to give some thought to the awards, "make these awards known to deserving students and consider nominating some of our extraordinary volunteers yourself."

Application and nomination forms are available at the student awards office, first-year student life office and graduate studies office in Needles Hall, and the Federation of Students office in the Student Life Centre. Forms must be returned to Heather FitzGerald, the first-year student life coordinator in NH, by Friday, November 16. She can provide more information at ext. 6867 (e-mail hafitzge@uwaterloo.ca).

VIPs hear about water issues

About 75 people are expected for the event, says Wendy Rose in the office of development and alumni affairs. They're members and friends of the President's Circle, an organization of top-level individual donors to UW. Yes, that's the same group that sponsors the volunteerism awards, described above.

From time to time, President's Circle members are invited to "Ideas" events, described as "a stimulating series of seminars featuring innovative ideas". Today's topic is "Water Issues in Canada -- Responding to the Challenge".

One speaker is George Dixon, dean of science, "considered by many of his colleagues to be the premier environmental toxicologist in Canada and one of the top researchers in his field world wide, studying the effects of toxic chemicals on aquatic organisms, particularly fish". The other is Grahame Farquar, recently retired from the civil engineering department: "His research, teaching and consulting interests have focused on a variety of environmental problems related to landfilling of wastes, treating wastewaters and remediating contaminated soils."

Dixon and Farquhar are both associate directors of the Canadian Water Network, announced earlier this year and based at UW. The Network will be having its official launch this Friday.

The invitation to President's Circle members explains what the two researchers will talk about today: "For many years, Canada has enjoyed an international reputation as a land of pristine waters. But events of the past few years have put both the reputation and reality of our water-management record in jeopardy. Our concerns are shared by the Canadian Water Network/Réseau Canadien de l'Eau (CWN/RCE) centred at UW. Over 100 eminent researchers from across the country are reaching across and beyond traditional lines of research to meet the challenges of water management and protection. Join us as Drs. Dixon and Farquhar provide an overview of how the CWN/RCE will help develop a national vision for Canada's role in the effective management and use of our water resources."

Major firms caught in spam net

In a report last spring, IST explained that "blacklists" are sometimes used to help keep junk mail out of UW users' electronic mailboxes:

The mail server software can refuse to accept mail from systems believed to be sources of spam. Under the default configuration, only known repeat offenders are blacklisted. . . .

Because new open mail relays and other sources of spam are discovered and exploited every day, even using all available blacklists cannot reduce the incoming junk mail on a system to zero. Because spammers are persistent in finding new systems and methods to deliver their mail, the use of any blacklist may result in some legitimate mail being returned as undeliverable.

"In an effort to reduce the quantity of unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) entering UW's mailboxes, most system administrators have configured their mail servers in recent years to check the sender of each incoming piece of e-mail against one or more publicly available blacklists. The blacklists identify machines (the sending servers) that are known to be problematic, either because they have been identified as a persistent source of spam (e.g. an 'Internet marketer's' server) or because the machine is poorly configured, thus allowing the possibility of third parties using the server to forward their mail (relaying).

"If a machine has been blacklisted, incoming mail is refused, and the mail is returned to the sender with a URL (commonly relays.osirusoft.com)and an explanation of the reason for the return.

"Recently both Clarica and Bell have had one or more servers blacklisted due to faulty configuration, with the result that people on campus were not able to receive e-mail from employees of these companies. This has made the filtering more obvious, as legitimate e-mail is being affected, and made more people aware of the filtering -- thus this explanation.

"Problems will go away once the servers are fixed and the blacklisting is removed, which is one of the points of the blacklisting: it gives incentive to administrators to fix their machines, thus helping reduce this growing problem."

He points users to the web site of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email for "one side of the story".

And in early November Thursday: CIHR president Alan Bernstein visits Waterloo; UW president and provost meet with department heads. Friday: Launch of the Canadian Water Network (11:00 to 2:00, Davis Centre). This weekend: Homecoming, with Naismith basketball tournament. November 7: "Visionary seminar", satellite broadcast from UW, starring Mike Lazaridis of RIM (11:30 to 2:00, Humanities Theatre). November 8: playwright Djanet Sears gives this year's "Silversides Event" for the drama department (noon, bookstore).

As October draws to a close

A blood donor clinic will be in operation all this week -- Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- in the Student Life Centre. A sign-up sheet is available at the SLC turnkey desk.

UW president David Johnston is the lunchtime speaker today at a conference about the "Engineer-in-Residence" program, being held at the Waterloo Inn. The EIR program is operated by Professional Engineers Ontario; the idea is that a professional engineer is matched with an elementary or high school for the course of a school year, and works with teachers, administrators and students to help "bridge the gap that often exists between the real world and classroom theory". Today's conference is a briefing for engineers and teachers about the program, and includes a keynote address from Mike Lazaridis of Research In Motion as well as Johnston's 12:30 talk.

The Federation of Students will hold its annual general meeting at 7:00 tonight in the great hall of the Student Life Centre. All fee-paying undergraduate students are eligible to attend, speak and vote. The agenda, apart from general remarks and appointment of the Feds' auditors for the coming year, involves a few bylaw changes, including one that defines which student society covers those hybrids, software engineering students. (Answer: "the constituency of the Faculty with which he/she will graduate".)

There will be an information meeting about this year's Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference at 9:00 tonight in Humanities room 178. "I'll talk about what makes the CUTC really special," says organizer Elaine Lee, "give some detail about what the days of the conference are really like, and the latest news!" Students who might be interested in helping to run the CUTC are invited to be there.

Reminder: flu shot clinics for "the healthy population" start tomorrow. Shots will be available in the Student Life Centre from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on November 5 and 6.

Another reminder: television journalist Pamela Wallin hits campus tomorrow. She'll give a reading at noon in the bookstore, in South Campus Hall, and will sign copies of her new book, Speaking of Success. In the evening, starting at 6:15, Wallin will be at the University Club for dinner and another reading; tickets for that event are $30 (phone ext. 3801).

Hot water will be turned off in the General Services Complex from 8 a.m. to noon tomorrow, the plant operations department advises.

CAR