The Iron Warrior: Volume 22, Issue 16

8/14/2019 The Iron Warrior: Volume 22, Issue 16

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2 News Information The Iron Warrior, Friday, November 27, 1998Motivational Typing

ANDREW HATELYM y last issue as editor, and nevergot to write one of the emphaticpieces of trash that usuallypass off as editorial. had every intentionof ripping into the short sighted views ofthe health and safety commitee withregards to the inline skates. Instead, justhope they'll launch a similar inquiry into

the perils of walking, using chairs, stairsand the utensil s in the cafeterias.

Since ronly left mysel f a wee bit ofroom, have to thank the people whomade the sleepless nights and excess hoursin this chair worthwhile.To everyonewho 's name, writing, artwork, face orelbow graced the paper this term, thanksfor making my weekends vi sually and lex-

UW EventsBY JIM FOXUW News Bureau

Friday, November 2710 a.m. to 4 p.m.Buy Nothing Day, a full-day of non

consumerism co-ordinated by thePropaganda Watch Action Group,Waterloo Public Interest Research Group.Student Life Centre. Contact: WPIRG,888-4882.4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Fine arts open house and mlOi aturesale to aid departmental programs and purchase equipment for student use. EastCampus Hall. Continues Saturday, p.m.to 5 p.m.

7:30 p.m.Sl. Jerome 's Centre for Catholic

Experience Lecture: "Heretic Blood: TheMany Loves of Thomas Merton," withauthor Michael Higgins. Location :Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome's University.Contact: Dave Augustyn , 884-8110, ext.230.Saturday, November 288 p.m.

Rejoice Chri stmas Clas ics for Brassand Choir," Univers ity Choir concert withthe University of Guelph choir. Location:St. John Lutheran Church, 22 Willow St. ,Waterloo. Presented by Conrad GrebelCollege music department.

The Professional Engineers oOntario Student Membership

ProposalT he Profe sional Eng in ee rs ofOntario (PEO) have recently agreedto a student membe.rship as wasrequested by many Engi neering studentsacross On12rio. Originally, only licensedengineers were members as their membership and licenship went hand in hand; asan Engineer became licensed in Ontario,they became a member of PBO. PEO hassince added the E.I.T. or Engineer inTraining membership so that eng ineerswho have graduated from University butwho have not yet completed their requirednumber of experience years can still bcmembers and receive news and information regarding the profession.

In response to a large student requestfor a membership for engineering stu dents, PEO has agreed to include studentsin the membership . This entitles studentsto become a member for a small fee (under10 dollars), and receive information in theform of newsletters, and chapter meetings.This information will keep students awareof what's happening in the professional

wo r p ace with other engi neers, withother tudents, and business.

The newsletter produced by PEO isca lled Eng ineering Dimen ions, and ireleased bi -monthly, and is a many-pagedfu ll color magazine. It has been suggestedthat there would be a new section added toDimensions that would pertain e peciallyto students. The content would come fromEngineering students around the province(like you).

As PEO has a very large membership,it has been divided up into chapters basedon geographical location . The membership would entitle students to attend thesechapter meetings. These meetings openup many opportunities to students, such asmaking contacts, voicing and hearing concerns and sugge tions. The chai r of thechapter repre ents the ideas of the chapterto the PEO board. And immediately thestudent has formed a link to the organization of the profession that will be theirs inthe years to come.

icographicaJly compelling. I have beenconsi tently impressed at the quality ofyour thoughts, and skill with a pen andkeyboard (and your periodic ability to usea spe ll-checker) .

I hope you have a good holiday, andsince I 'm staying here to finish up fourthyear, best of luck to everyone who's goingto work.

The HiTechCareer

ExchangeBY MICHAEL KANE

University ofWater) oo Business Club

When:Tuesday February 9,1999 12:00 p.m.to 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday February 10, 1999 12:00p.m. to 5:00 p.m.Cost: FREE

Location : Davis Centre outside thelibrary.Other Details:

The job fair is expected to attract over700 students to participate in the event.There will be 22 companies in all, including: IBMl HP, ATI, Motorola, Scotiabank,Roya l Bank, CIBC/PERC, RIM ,Hummingbird, LEITCH, CISCO,Andersen Consulting, Texas Instruments /GO-DSP, Mitel, DMR , Castek SoftwareFactory, and NCR.

Students will be, able to meet face toface with Human Resources, and hiringmanagers from companies. Companieswill be set up in booths, and students canbrowse those companies which interestthem.

Additionally there will be free foodand beverages, and a draw for prizes.About The Business Club:

The University of Waterloo Bus inessClub is dedicated to helping bridge thegap between students and employersthrough campus events such as info-sessions. Last year, The Business Clublaunched an extremely successful infosession for IBM, CISCO Systems andManuLife Financial that attracted over120 students (undergraduate and graduate)to each of them. Following this breakthrough success, the Business Club islaunching a Hi-Tech Career Fair for thebenefits of both companies and students.

Coffee House continuedcontinued/rom page 1)

(not necessarily in order): Wil 88Fingers Patterson, Naomi Stylin' "Wong, Brian Golden Pipes" Sulley,General "Yes, I 'm in Systems, but I likechem-engers" Leung and Andrew "Me,too." Keats. Anne I'm in lA and I've gotspunk " Metzger, Bashar "Neato I likecoffee house." Mutlak, Stephanie "Doowop" Ho, and Kenny "No. I never starredin South Park, so don't ask." Szeto, Amy Ihave a thing for twisted poetry." Gohn, Dr.Jammin' Mario" Ionnidis, Dave "Fluids

Boy Dobney, AI Just call me AI."Cannistraro and Ron "Matching Socks"Choi, Matt I've got friends in math."

Bourque and his 2 mathie friends. Greg"Sure. I can wait through another act."Fyke, Andrew "Why does she keep forgetting my name?" Johnson, Leah "Saxxy"Nacua, Laura "Purple argile socks arehip." Edwards, Acapeleng, Bryan Do youhave anymore of these little cookie things?They're just delish " Helfenbaum, Ian Noequipment trouble, 'round here." Matthewand Mandy I've got rhythm." Smith, KrisGet on up " Boemher and Vince "Poison

revival - Saskatchewan style" Thomas.Dave ' 'I 'm just ichin' to play." Tutt,Stephanie "Watch out Jewel, 'cause here Icome " Thompson. Clement I was bornwith a sax in my mouth, and boy did it

hurt ." Lee, and last but not least, John thecello guy.They were all phenomenal and coffeehouse, was yet again, a success because ofthem. And there are STILL people left tothank ..all the people who came out earlyto help set up, and to those who stayedbehind to clean up, thank-you - team workalways works best. Thanks to Ryan Pentyand Tommy Li for getting the food.Bryan, Ian, Benoit Joubert and Wit forlooking after the equipment, GenevieveleBlanc and Wil for watching the door,and of course everybody who came out towatch. It wouldn't have been as much funif we were just performing for each other .

~ I R O N \ i W A R R I O RThe Newspaper 0/ the University 0/

Waterloo Engineering Society

EditorAndrew Hately

Assistant EditorDiliny De Alwis

Layout EditorPhong Loi

WWWEditorsPiero Brigneti

Jessica Lee

StaffRyan Bayne

Jasen HigginsRaymond Ho

Darren JenkinsKun Wah MakPierre Menard

Ian TienZhan Huan Zhou

ContributorsAndersen Consulting

Alan CannistraroMark CesanaMilton ChanJim Foxreg FykeKichael KaneVivien Kwok

Matthew LonglandJennifer Lugtigheid

Jenn MotuzAnne MetzgerMike MuffelsMike Nevill

Emily Pa eualMicah Potechin

Shirley San DiegoKenny Szeto

Jaime TiampoStaeey WaldenShelby Winkler

The Iron Warrior is a forum for thought provokingand informative articles published by the EngineeringSociety. Views expressed in The Iron Warrior arethose of the authors and do nO necessarily reflect theopinions of the Engineering Society.The Iron Wa.rrior encourages submissions from students . faculty and members of the university community. Submissions should reflect the concerns andinteUectuai standards of the university in general. Theauthor's name and phone number should be inctuded.

ll submissions, unless otherwise staled. become theproperty of The Iron Warrior. which reserves theright to refuse publication of material which it deemsunsuitable. The [ ron Warrior also reserves the rightto edit grammar. spelling and text that do nO meeluniversity standards. Authors wiU be notified of anymajor changes thaI may be required.Mail should be addressed 10 The Iron Warrior,Engineering Society, CPH 1323B. University ofWaterloo. Waterloo. Ontario. N2L 3Gl. Our phonenumber is 5 t9) 888-4567 x2693. Our fax number is(519) 725-4872. Email can be senlloi w a r r i o T @ ~ g m a i L u w a u r l o o . c a


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The Iron Warrior, Friday, November 27, 1998 News & Information 3

I f you're not a regularreader, let me begin bysaying, the question i"What's your favourite typeof man/woman? Now, goread the last article 0 youknow what the hell I'm talking about. This will be mylast ANNALS and it's notwithout much remorse that Isay farewell to it and to ASoc. But we mu t be trong because likelife, hi tory marche forward. That is,unless you're talking about the ANNALSbecause around here, we do things backas ward.

The year was 1980, Bill Lennox, CivilEngineering Chairman, had long since aidgoodbye to his full head of hair but hisbeard wasn't yet white (that most certainlyhappened during his stint as Dean ofEngineering) . His hair, afterall, had noneed to turn colour, "Civil will be in considerable demand said Lennox. In ashocking move, the US Corp of Engineerresorted to a nation-wide advertising campaign to att ract more people into thatbranch of engineering. Salary competitionwa frantic and there was a 2: 1 ratio forcivil jobs to civil students at UW.

Another frantic cause fo r concern wasradiation. Members of the campus safetydepartment carried out tests to see if therewa increased radiation in the vicinity ofthe video display terminal on campus.Users of the IBM (Impossibly BigMachine) 433 1 were concerned about hazards much more frightening than carpaltunnel syndrome. The tests came up negaiv ut 1 1 wa. t ra ia ion a 0

Bill's hair 10 s, we're all in deep trouble.The highlight of engineering week1977 was a mass moon of a pa sing

parade. This is one that can't be writtenoff to alcoholic excesses sinee there wasno beer permitted along the parade route.Perhaps it had something to do with badmayonnaise .. the health inspector visitedthe C&D that sum mer and found numerous violations including not refrigeratingthe subs. But while the C&D was toowarm, the TOOL was just as cool as ever.1978 marked the TOOL's 10th birthdayand it celebrated with a set of locks andbrand new hardened steel chain.

1976 was a year of very scantEngineering Society minute , no doubtdue to improper use of ditto fluid. Oneissue that was kicked around on campusthat year was making the FEDS fee option-

ANNALS - The Wonder Years

The WayWe Were ..by la.lt'li iggins

al. Thi.i ue wa .rai ed a. are. ult of

, . orne financial irregularitie. withthe studentnew paper.thChev ron .

There was also a general entiment of poorrepre entation of student's view. by theFEDS . Eventually, the Chevron died taking the conflict with it.

Concern regard ing donut quality,quantity and

between Andre\\ and hi . e:\.e uti"e reo lted in some e'\ecuti\'e resignations. And,yes , that is the vcr) arne Andre\\ Telegdithat is the Liheral MP for WaterlooRegion.Thc north ' f i l lights haw .een strang'sighb but the strang'st the) ever did facewcre the engineers who. at the strokc oftwo. go-karts on Columbia Lake th y didrace. Thi . wasll't the onl strange racethat winter, the engineering relay onsisling of kis. nowshoe . foot and tobogganwa. also a popular event. Naturally, therewa the required beer chugging at everyinterval but the true test of skill was theopen beer each racer catTied to the next

the size ofcheckpoint. There was aregistration fee for the event,but when you're paying$0.55 a beer, how can youpos ibly go wrong?

coffee cups,however, galvanised student foryearsSupplier troubles and onc mpuscompetitionfuelled the

enquiring after theMathTie, which was

allegedly in Eng. Soc. 'spossession. The tie nd itswhereabouts, however, w sa mystery to all.

Thc Welcome BackStag (WBS) from the wimerof 1972 got more attcntionthan it bargained for. Theunivcrsity olicilors Smyth,Mank & Smyth wrotc in a

coffee wars of 1975. This and the completion of the Engineering Auto Club 's newgarage near the Brubacher House whippedstudents and staff al ike into a frenzy. Ifthey reali sed that the next 5 years would bespe nt trying to decide who would fix allthe bro ken stuff, maybe Lhey wouldn ' thave been so exc ited.

A 1974 letter from Rodney

statement it is an offencefor person in charge of a theatre or itagents to allow to be presented ... thereinan immoral, indecent or obscene performance, entertainment or presentation"."

Whether or not the WBS was thecause, the very ex istence of theEngineering Society was catJed into question later. that year. 980 questionnaireswe re handed out

ou Iy retum d. A scalding letter wa. sentby B oc. criticising U of T for theirah.' 'nee at our boat races and sub equentcancelling of their huttermilk cha llenge.

In October of 1971, Eng. Soc.f("ceived a leiter from We. tern announcingthe opening of a new engineering building.

ot to miss u good inauguration, a bunchof Eng. Soc. folks. including a certainridgid TOOL, went to the ceremony extraearly. Thc e\'cnt was a great succe s, giving lots of cxposure to our e. teemed\\T'neh. That Yl.:ar's Homecoming alsoexposed some more ridgid enginuity whena float consisting of 750 beer cases wasplanned for the annual parade.Unfortunately, the Labat Balloon couldn'tmake it. but the company did send itsregrets and promised to send many intere. ling attractions to tantalise our eng ineer ".

May 26, 1970 a letter was received byPaul Spafford, Eng. Soc . Pres. from TimHicks of the Aardvark A. ociates inquiringafter the Math Tie, which was alleged ly inEng . Soc .'s possession . The tie and itswhereabouts , however. were a mystery toall . Concemed over their loss, Pau l didsend a letter back offering to help locatethe Tie before the beginning of the foll owing term. Such compassion and understanding on the part of the EngineeringSociety. Peace and harmony were on theway out, however. The Age of Aquariuswa. in it twilight and the cold hard rcali ty of things like F O R T l ~ N instruction

started that fal l.Clu tterbuck a city engineer from EliotLake , Ontario requested a v isit from a UWnaotic am. atron 0 t e arts in ioLake were anxious to view the fine art thatis boat racing. Rightly so, things weretaken a bit more seriously back then. Twodays of qualifying rounds werc held at theCC in anticipation of the intra-provincialboat races to which all Ontario engineerswe re invited. The times were less thanremarkable (Waterloo team: 17.38,Tugboat, U of T: 38.16) but a good timewas had by all, especially at the danceafterwards.

asking what ser- Waterloo.. a lonely build-vices Eng. Soc. Waterloo hascome a long way in its

OLher competitive events included theMath Soc. vs. Eng. Soc. tug or war .NaturalIy, this event resulted in an engineering victory, and being gracious winners, Eng. Soc. presented the mathies witha not greater than" symbol as a new mascot. Other altercations on campusinvolved Andrew Telegdi, then presidentof FEDS. It seems poor communication

journey rom a on e y -- .. ' -oud provi -ing. 218 surveyswere returned witha variety of

tuas re .. building in the middleof a cow pasture to.well, a hunch of build-

re"'po1lSes . An cx,lI11pl\.' or mOIl ' hdplulresponses was having a perillalleill pllb oncampus, a wille puh or maybe a cotlcehouse where people can just rehlx . Mmeperverted desires induded a Waterloo dial a-crotch system, porno h,lIaars


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4 News & Information The Iron Warrior, Friday, November 27, 1998NOT FORGOTTEN

BY JENNIFER LUGTIGHEID ANDSHELBY D. WINKLER14 Not Forgotten Directors

W hy such violence in a societythat considers itself civilizedand compassionate?" This is aquestion that surfaces every year onDecember 6.Canadians recognize December 6, the

anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, as aday of remembrance and action on violence against women. We mark this sadanniversary by remembering the 14women who were killed.

It was around 5: 10 p.m. onWednesday December 6th, 1989 whenMarc Lepine walked through one of theengineering entrances at the University ofMontreal's Ecole. He was dressed in bluejeans, work boots, a dark jacket and apeaked cap. He carried a green garbagebag holding two 30-clip magazines and arifle. He headed directly for the third floor,where he encountered his first victim inthe corridor 15m from the office of the

school's finance director. Lepine shot andkilled Maryse Laganiere, 25, a recentlymarried finance department employee.From that point, Lepine made his wayalong the third floor to Room 303, "You'reall a bunch of feminists, and I hate feminists," Lepine shouted at the suddenly terrified occupants of Room 303. Lepinesent the male students out and opened fire,killing six of the ten women whoremained. Then, Lepine went down to thefirst floor. Firing at diving, ducking students, he entered the .cafeteria, where hekilled Edward and two of her classmates.Still on the hunt, Lepine climbed back upto the third floor, where he strode intoRoom 3 I I. Students, unaware of theunfolding tragedy, were delivering end-ofsemester oral presentations. "At first,nobody did anything," recalled EricForget, 2 1. Then, the gunman opened fire,sending two professors and 26 studentsscrambling for cover beneath their desks."We were trapped like rats," said Forget.He was shooting all over the place .

Other eyewitnesses said that Lepine leaped

3 0n 3 Basketball TournamentBY MATTHEW LONGLAND

Athletics Director

I t was the final tournament of the engineering society term. This was to bethe last chance for classes to provetheir physical aptitude rather than theirmental one. However, few classes decidedthat this was necessary. Four teams foughtfor bragging rights and in this tournament,there was a grea t possibility that you comeaway with a prize. The teams were, 2000Com-E's, Mechscalibcr, OaSys, andSyDeFx.

During the round robin, each teamplayed against all the others. There wereseveral blowouts, there were several closegames, and then there was Jack trying tomake shots from anywhere he could seethe shimmer of the ring. He di.dn't makemany of them though. Mostly just heckling.

At the end of the round robin,Juventus (2000 Com-E's class) and OaSyswere at the top of the pack; SyDeFx andMechscalibcr in the middle. We took abreak and then into the elimination rounds.

Mechscaliber, finding that they wereway too tired and still a bit under theeffects of the alcohol from the nightbefore, pulled out to go home and nurse

their wounds. So OaSys and SyDeFxfought it out to see who would playJuventus in the finals. OaSys defeatedtheir younge r counterparts 11-2, 11-4.

In the final there was some good cleanbasketball fun. Lots of fouls, plenty ofaggresive play and some good shooting byboth teams. After taking the first game 11-6, Juventus was destroyed in the secondgame 0 11 only acheiving 2 shots the

~ t i r game. It came down to a final game.This game was the most exciting, mostroul filled, most missed opponunity gameof the tournament. OaSys finally pulledout on top 14-12 over Juventus, afterexchanging single baskets and wrist slapsfor 45 minutes.

On behalf of the Athletics Directors,Craig Turner and I, we would like to thankeveryone who participated in the tournaments this term.

Having had no extreme injuries thisterm (first time in a long time) it will betouch to decide who to give the "TimothyJ. Buick, Take it For the Team award to".This award is given to the person whoplayed the hardest and got hurt the mostduring the term.

Good luck and I hope to see you allout next term.

Concrete Toboggan Race 999BY MIKE NEVILL

4A Engineering

T he GNCTR (Great NorthernConcrete Toboggan Race) is beingheld in Waterloo in February of1999 and the hosting committee needs volunteers. We're looking for volunteersfrom all disciplines, not just civil. ThecompetItion runs from Wednesday,February 3 to Sunday, February 7 and weneed volunteers throughout the 5 days. Onthe Thursday we're running a miniolympics and Saturday is race day so weneed lots of volunteers for th ose days.

So, check out the website(http://www.eng.uwaterioo.ca/groups/gnctr99 to lea(Jl more a bout GNCTR and thevolunteer positions that are available. fyou are interested in helping out at any-

time during the event, send me an email([email protected]) with theday and amount of time you would like tovolunteer for. Hope to see you there

onto several desks and shot at women cowering beneath them. A total of 27 peoplewere shot, leaving 14 of them dead.Finally, he turned his weapon against himself, blowing off the top of his skull. Mostof the injured and all of the dead except forthe gunman himself were women.(Maclean's, December 18, 1989)

The dead: Genevieve Bergeron, 21:Helene Colgan, 23; Nathalie Croteau, 23;Barbara Daigneault, 22; Anne-MarieEdward, 21; Maud Haviemick, 29;Barbara Maria J5,:lucznik, 31; MaryseLeclair, 23; Annie St-Arneault, 23;Michele Richard, 21; Maryse Laganiere,25; Anne-Marie Lemay, 22; SoniaPelletier, 28; Annie Turcotte, 21.

On Friday Decembe r the 4, 1998, theWomyn's centre together with theEngineering Society will be holding amemorial service in Siegfried Hall (StJerome 's College) at 4:30 p.m. The candlelight ceremony will last approximately 1hour. Discussion groups will take placefollowing the service. See Orifice for discussion group topics an d locations.

The Rose Button is worn around thistime of year to remember the 14 youngwomen who were killed and to raise public awareness about the issue of violence inour society. Proceeds from the buttonswill go to support local shelters for victimsof violence and to programs working tostop violence against women. We urge allstudents and faculty to assist the KW shelters by wearing a Rose Button. The buttons are available in the OrifLce. Adonation of I dollar would be greatlyappreciated.

During the week of December 1 therewill be a display at the SLC recognizingviolence in society. On December 4 therewill be a display in CPH foyer, where 14candles will burn all day.

If anybody wishes to help out with thememorial service andlor discussion groupsplease contact Jennifer Lugtigheid, email:[email protected].

The New EnvironmentalEngineering Society

BY STACEY WALDEN4A Environmental Engineering Poinsettias anyone? You may havenoticed us selling our wares outside poets or

in the orifice. The

T his is a com- What s an poinsettias we are sell-mon question ing come in 3 differentposed to Environmental colours, pink, red andEn v r 0 n m e n t a I Engineer? white and are a greatEngineers alike, after gift for mom, dad orall there are two dif- just for you. All prorerent kinds here at the University of ceeds go to the promotion of EnvironmentalWaterloo, the Civil and the Chemical. How Engineering at the University of Waterloo.often does this question come up; in inter- We are also looking for a Logo to repviews, when talking with fellow students, resent our society. All submissions shouldwhen taking with family, pretty much by be placed in our mailbox in the orifice. Theanyone, anywhere. The problem is that winne.r will receive a gift certifica te frommany of us Environmental Engineers can't HMV and the honour of having their logoanswer the question. Well this is about to all over the place. (By the time this articlechange thanks to the Environmental is printed we will hopefully have a logo andEngineering Society. finished our poinsettia sale).

The main goal of this newly formed Lastly we will be having a speaker onsociety is to promote Environmental Wednesday Dec. 2 at I1:30am in EI (OWEEngineering Awareness so one day we for those in first year) 2517. The topic willwon't have to answer the question "What is be environmental engineering related andan Environmental Engineer?". This is being anyone is welcome to attend.done through brochures explaining the dif- f you have any questions or would likeferences between Environmental Chemical to get involved with the society contactand Civil Engineering and their associated Stacey or Niki at uw_env_eng_soc@hot-departments, the Eng Soc Frontrunners pro- mail.com Or come on out to one of ourgram, participation in SAC and the list goes meetings Wednesdays 11 :30 in El 2517on. The secondary goal of the society is to (elections for summer positions will be heldbe involved with the accreditation of the Wed. November 25).Environment. So what are we doing now?

A Game for YouBYIANTIEN

2A Computer Engineering

~ t r l o o Engineering is developmg a computer game.Something new. Something

cool. Something so cool and so new, noone knows what's going on

Well, no one really knows what'sgoing on anyway. We had our first meetingyesterday. We've got fifteen developers,zero plans, zero goals, and zero gameconcepts. Though in a few days this project will be up and running and all will begood.

Most likely. the final product will be

geared towards high schoolers consideringa career in engineering at the University ofWaterloo. Game concepts have rangedfrom pong to an action adventure gamefeaturing the UW Tool Bearers. Of course,nothing's final right now.

Inconveniently, the IW deadline istonight, so I 'm writing this article with nouseful information, other than the fact thatthere are people out there who want tomake a game. We're looking for developers, artists, audio wizards, code demons,and just about anyone else who'd like tohelp out. Croon in; the doors are wideopen. For more information, write to:[email protected]


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The Iron Warrior, Friday, ovember 27, 1998 Science & Technology 5A DERSENCONSULTING To THE POINT1997 Andersen ConsultingAll rights reserved.

The MP (3) i re str ikes reckThe rise of MP3 could help breathe newlife into the torpid music industry

Have you ever bought a tape or CDbecause you liked one or two songs youheard from it, only to find out that theywere the only songs worth listening to?That probably happens more often thanwe would like to admit, but a revolutionthat is stealthily sweeping through the $12billion music industry could put an end tothis plight. The increasing digitization ofmusic will help to usher in the future asenvisioned by MIT Media Lab guruNicholas Negroponte: a future in whichmusic will exist not as physical atoms, butas strings of digitized bits that can be customized based on the consumer's preferences, rather than the producer's. (For adetailed overview of the digital distribution of music, follow this DocLink(Document link not converted) to theSeptember issue of Viscera: The Journalof Technology Prognostication .)

The main catalyst driving this revolution is a new compression technologytandard called Moving Pictures Expert

Group (MPEG)-l Audio Layer 3, morepopularly known as MP3. This techniqueallows audio files to be compressed to III 2of their original size without any significant degradation of their near-CD qualitysound. A typical five minute track on a CDwould ordinarily take up about 50MB ofdisk pace: the arne track can be compressed to just 4.5MB using the MP3 format. As a result, you can now download inminutes what would have previously havetaken up to four hours.

While MP3 is acknowledged by manyconsumers and digital music aficionadosas the most effective audio compressionsystem, it is not the first to be made available on the Internet. A host of vendorshave been attempting to position their ownproprietary technologies for compre sing,streaming, and downloading audio via theInternet as the de facto standard for digitalmusic distribution. The market leader isRealNetworks 's (http://www.real.com)RealPlayer, which recently licensed Intel'scompression technology to boost qualitywhile reducing the program's reliance oncomputing power drawn from the a PC'smicroprocessor. Liquid Audio(http://www.liquidaudio.com). a startupformed by former record industry executives, uses Dolby-based AC-3 compressionin its player, though it is looking to incorporate the next generation of MPEG technology, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)in future versions. And last November,AT&T launched an Internet jukebox service called A2B Music(http://www.a2bmusic.com). which uses aproprietary compression scheme based onAAC that reduces excess noise andenhances stereo performance.

MP =music portabilityOne ofthe key characteristics that has

buoyed MP3 is its portability. Consumerscan listen to MP3 tracks both on a computer and on a new generation ofWalkman-Iike digital devices. On the PCside, the leading MP3 player is Win amp, ashareware program from NuUsoft(http://www.winamp.com). Another playerthat is rapidly gaining popularity is theMusicMatch Jukebox (http://www.music-match. com), which allows users to both

A COMPILATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ABSTRACTS

play and creat e MP3 files. Even todgyold Microsoft's Window Media Playersupports MP3 files . Additional MP3 player for Macinto h, Linux, BeOS, UNIX,OS/2, and Solaris areavailable athllp://www. mp3. com, a one- top hop forMP3 resources and news.

Several portable devices for playingMP3 file have also hit the market in thepast year. In April, Korean electronicmanufac turer Saehan Information Sy ternsintroduced the MPMan(http://www.mpman.com). a small devicethat connects to a PC via a small cradle(the same way a personal digital assi lant(PDA) does) and allows users to store andplay up to 64MB of MP3 t h e equivalentof a 75-minute CD. Diamond MultimediaSystems (http://www.diamondmm.com)released a similar device, called the RioPMP300, which sells for $100 less. Inresponse, Saehan will ship two new versions of the MPMan this faU: a flashmemory device with voice recording capability and a PDA-style address book; and adevice with a 2.5-inch hard disk that holdsbetween 360MB and 2GB of information.And in December, Naiam(http://www.naiam.com) will release theCD-MP, a $300 portable disc player thatplays MP3-based CD-R discs that canSlore up to 640 minutes of music.Put a quarter in the jukeboxThere are a number of way s to obtainMP3 files. The most popular source oMP3s are the hundreds of archive sites setup on the Internet by rabid music enthusiasts (often college student.). While themajority of the tracks contained in thesearchives are recorded by small , oftenunheard-of independent artists (such asHand Caught in Toaster or the ever-popular Alien Fa hion Show), there are somesites that contain bootleg (illicit) tracksand even whole albums from mainstreamartists. One sight po ted a full version ofthe band Pearl Jam's most recent album,Yield, two months before its official

release date. Because of the questionablelegality of these sites, many of them havegone underground- briefly emerging fromthe Ether, only to disappear again withouta trace.

The other way to obtain MP3 audiofiles is to make them yourself. In order todo so, you need the following: 1) a CDrippe r tool for moving tracks from an

audio CD to your computer's hard disk,and 2) an MP3 encoder for converting theripped tracks into MP3 format.MusicMatch's Jukebox is an all-in-onepackage that simplifies the task for eventhe staunchest technophobe. Other prominent combination packages include ashareware program called CD Copy andXing Technologies's AudioCatalyst(http://www.audiocataLyst.com).MP =musi.c piracy

Although MP3s are instrumental inbringing music to the masses (the masseswho own PCs, anyway), they also open thedoor to pirates. Piracy is a problem that hasalways accompanied new multimediatechnologies: as soon as new preventativemeasures are introduced to safeguardcopyrighted material, equally-powerfulcountermeasures are released, moving thewhole industry back to square one.

Consumers have always copied theirfavorite songs and albums onto cassette

tape without doing crious damage to thebig record companies. But the ability ofcon umers 10 create n e a r p e ~ ct copies ofmusic (u ing MP3 technology) and to easily di tribute that music via the Internet isforcing record companie to ree aminetheir copyright enforcement policies. TheRecording Industry Association ofAmerica (RIAA) e timates that mu icpirate currentl account for almo t $300million in 1 t record ale in the US and$2 billion worldwide-a figure that i sureto increa e a MP3s become increasinglypopular with mainstream consumer.

To combat piracy, the RlAA targetedan anti-MP3 campaign at univer, ity campuses across the US . Thi education campaign was then extended to Internetervice providers ISPs), and the RIAA

eventually issued hundreds of cease-anddesist letters to pirate MP3 Web masters.While most sites were quickly dismantled,others remained active a the piratethumbed their noses at the RIAA . Thisprompted the association to send astronger anti-MP3 message by seekingtemporary restraining orders, preliminaryinjunctions, and financial penaltie again tunrepentant pirates.

In a highly-publicized lawsuit lastmonth, the RIAA took DiamondMultimedia Systems to court to stop theshipment of it Rio PMP300 portable MP3player. The RlAA argued the Rio violatesthe U S Audio Home Reco rding Act(AHRA) of J992, which requires digitalrecording devices (such as digital audiotape (DAT) and MiniDisc recorders) toencode a Serial Copy Managemenl Systcm(SCM ) to prevent user), from makingmultiple copies of a given recording .Because the Rio docs not include a SC'MS,the RIAA argued that th' device wouldfo Ler piracy of copyrighted music andwould deny arlists and the music industrythe royaltie to which they are el1litled.Diamond countered that the Rio shouldnot be cla sifted as a recorder because itsimply plays back music already stored ona PC's hard drive.

The US federal district court judgeover. eeing the case ruled that the Rio islikely to be classified as a digital audiorecording device under the terms of theAHRA (and thus be made to pay royaltiesto recording artists and record labels) . Butthe court refused to grant the RJAA a preliminary injunction blocking sale of theRIO, arguing Ihat its existence in the marketplace (with or without SCMS technology) will have no discernible effect oneducing the proliferation of pirated materials on the Internet.A note on the future of music

The Rio case marks a clear turningpoint for both the MP3 industry and themusic industry as a whole. While the ruling does certify MP3 as a legitimate format for distributing music over theInternet, it will also force MP3 technologyvendors to take a more active role in working to ensure that their products are notused largely for music piracy. Four daysafter the judge's ruling, DiamondMultimedia Systems, GoodNoise,MP3.com, MusicMatch, and XingTechnology banded together to form theMP3 Association. This trade group willfocus on three main goats: promotingMP3 technology as the standard for thedigital distribution of music, educating

onsumers about MP3 and it legal use,and opening new creative avenues formu icians and developers.

The emergen e of MP3 as the de factostandard for the digital distribution ofmusic repre. ents a significant opportunityto revive the nagging music industry. Bysupplementing their existing distributionnetwork wilh a fortified online presence,record companies may be able to reclaimsome of the high margin that are paid torelailer. likewise, the ease with whichMP3 file are produced and distributedover the Internet can help to level the playing field for independent artists and labelsby giving them an inexpen ive distributionchannel for their work. In theory, thiscould lead to the demise of the album andthe rise of customizable soundtracks,which would, in tum , lead to increa edcustomer satisfaction and sales. And afterall , there is no music as sweet as the caching of the ca h register.

By Joshua A. LewisHigh phone rates lead German Webusers to boycott

Thousands of Internet u ers and hun dreds of Web site operators in Germanyprotested Deutsche Telekom's highInternet access and telephone rates bystaging a boycott of the telecom early thismonth. The boycott had little financialimpact on the company, but organizers sayit did foc us ublic attention on wh at they. believe fo be Deutsche Telekom s unfairpricing structure. Analy ts ay frequentInternet users in Germany can expect topa $100 or mnfl in monthly Ickphonrhi I I ~ (':()1I1parl'd 1 l h ~ l1al nllt S or npplOxinlaId $2) lor local -tvice and $20 for

I n l ~ l net access in till US . D e l l t s c h ~Tclckol1l a n n o u n c ~ d il plans 1 Clit rates forhoth Intern I lIlId Iclcphon' usag .. thoughthe company diu nol p e c i f y wh ther th'new pricing slrm:ture was a respnnse to l h ~prolest. AnalYSIS SHY the German protestillustrates I growing Ir -nd in Hurorc:Spanish Inll'rnet lIsers recently staged uboycott against Tclcfonicu, Spain's primary telccom provider, and users ill severalother countries are considering simi laractions.

Based on 'nternet users ill Germanyprotest high phone rates, by EdmundAndrews, The New York Times, 02November 1998, p. C4.Hewlett-Packard forms committee todevelop new version of Java

Hewlett-Packard (HP)(hlJp://www.hp.com/). Microsoft(hltp:/lwww.microsojt.com). and 12 othercompanies have formed a committee todevelop a new version of the Java programming language for non-computerelectronic devices. An HP representativesaid the committee, called the Real-TimeJava Working Group, will work to preventanyone company-most notably Javaowner Sun Microsystemahltp://www.sun.coml)-from achieving

dominance over the Java platform forembedded microprocessor systems. HPorganized the committee after months ofunsuccessful negotiations with Sun overJava software standards and licensing fees.HP is trying to garner support for Chai, itsown version of Java, which was designedfor use in devices such as cel1 phones andprinters. Sun plans to continue developingsee uTo the Point Continued. . II p 12)


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7/12

The Iron Warrior, Friday, ovember 27, 1998 rts 7Tales Of Adventure 1.3 Tales Of Adventure 2 1

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Off the Beaten lr cksTitle: All Di sco Dance Must End inBroken BonesArtist: Whale

Remember "Hobo Humpin SioboBabe" from 1994? Well this is different. But it is the same band.This CD has some great songs on it, anditls worth owning as long as you knowhow to program your CD player to skip afew songs. I donit know what songs youf))hate, but there are bound to be some just

Title: UpArtist: REM

I like it. REM has either been significantly affected by the departure oftheir drummer, Bill Berry, or theyireafraid of being on the same racks asMichael Bolton and Kenny G. They havesaid that they saw this album as an opportunity to experiment. and that definitelywhat they did.

Theyive slowed things back down to

because of how different the song arefrom each other.

Some of their songs cou ld be compared to the Cardigans, but thi s bandwould fit much better in a dark bar; thekind of tile bar th at has couche. Theyhave the same sort of innocent voicesinging about not-so-innocent topics, but itis far less dominant than with theCardigans and far more difficult to understand. f you want a ample, look aroundon the internet . Full length songs andvideos are easy to find for this band.

the speed of Automatic for the People.The big difference with thi CD is thestrangeness of the songs. Theyfre notgoing to make people leave a room, butthey all seem to have something differenthappening. At one point, I was sure Iheard the rhythm track from one of thosebattery powered keyboards.REM always gives lots to listen toclosely and think about. "Lotu " has lyricsfor an English major to interpret, and, forthe first time, you can read the lyrics in theliner notes. "Hope" is, in some way, a version of Leonard Cohenfs "Suzanne". Thelyrics arenfl even close to identical, but the

Off the Beaten. Tracks is written by Darren Jenkins 4A Electrical Engineering.

connection is noticeable. In any case, theymust be good, or else they wouldnft be get-

Darren co-hosts a biweekly radio show on CKMS 100.3 with Glenn Cowan. The next show airs alll:3 pm on November 4.

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8 Opinions The Iron Warrior, Friday, November 27, 1998Far and Away

BY GREG FYKE3B Computer Engineerings , you've found a job. Only thistime you're a little bit further awayfrom home than normal. 1n fact,

you're looking at a number of days to drivethere or you've opted to take to the airways. You'll need to find a place to stay,but really ..checking out the place beforehand is really impractical.

I'm going to relay a bit of a toryabout one of my personal experiences andidentify some things to look out for. I realize that this information might have been abit more useful to people ear lier on in theterm but I've been a bit busy.I spent my last work term in su nnySan Jose, California. Faced with thedilemma of finding a house or living onthe streets 1 turned to my emp loyer forsome help. I was hoping to find anemployee with a bit of extra space that aforeign student might be able to temporarily call home. I thought that 1 would beable to trust an employee of the same com-

pany I had decided to work for. E-mailsstarted to come my way. Not really thatmany, and none that were all that promising.

Lesson number one. f it seems to betoo good to be true, it probably is. Yep Ifell for this one. Leather couches. 50' projection TV. A nice, safe neighborhood. Apark nearby. A car availabJe to rent. Ithought that the ticket price was a bitexpensive but it seemed like such an easydecision to make. Take the house, enjoyyour time in California and you will haveno more worries. Hah The house turnedout to be straight from the seventies, compJete with shag carpeting and poor plumbing.

Lesson number two. Do a bit of abackground check on your landlord. Inmy case, thi s guy was a brother of one ofthe emp loyees at the company I was working for. Seemed harmless. What 1 wassoon to discover is that my dear landlordwas currently jobless and in two courtcases against companies for 'wrongful dismissal.' I think he had actually charged

Changing the World

I f you ask most people about theworld's problems, they will likelymake some good suggestions for solving them. So if everyone has the answers,why do we still have so many problems?Change doesn't happen overnight. Manypeople have good ideas, but very few ofth id a ucceed. To mak an idea ucceed, you needmore than just theidea itself. Makinga good idea into asuccess ful idearequires the rightcombination offoresight, planning,and hard work.

A good ideawill succeed only if you recognise itspotential for success. Perhaps the ideadoes not seem relevant at the moment, butmaybe it will have merit in the future.Quite likely, many great discoveries havebeen overlooked. The transistor, whenfirst introduced in North America, wasnot thought to be of

trategy are essential if you want make animpact.

Of cour e, even the best of plans mayfail, and there is indeed an element ofluck (or divine intervention, if you sopJease) invo lved in the development ofany idea. One of the most serendipitous ,di coverie n recent memory, for

The igPicturey Raymond Hn

instance, resu ltedfrom a failed attemptin producing a goodadhesive. The onlysl i g htl y-ad hes ivecompound sparkedthe invention ofsticky note. Caselike this, however,are extremely rare.

The be t way to minimise the role ofbad luck - thus maximising your chancefor succes - is to rely on hard work. Youmight have worked hard to give birth toyour ingenious idea, but your work is farfrom over. The great Henry Ford beganhi s work on a horsele s carriage about

much use. The J890. After sixyears, he completedhi first automobile.Seven years later, in1903 he foundedthe Ford Motor

Japanese, however,saw its possibilitiesand practically builta country out of it.The ability to recog

A good idea will succeedonly i fyou recognise itspotential for success.

nise a great idea is as important a theability to produce one.

After generating and recognising agood idea, the next step towards successis developing a plan. Without properplanning, even the greatest of ideas willfail. Different ideas will require differenttypes of plans, though all plans have onething in common: you must make everyone else aware that you have a good idea.You may think it is a good idea, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean that others willthink the same. When Bill Gates finallytakes over the world, he will have succeeded in doing so not merely because heis a computer whiz, but because he alsohad an excell ent battle plan. He has managed to convince everyone that DOS andWindows are good, despite the fact thatthis is not always true. Planning and

\

Company. Ford 'spath to success was long and labourious.The significance of hard work was bestcharacterised by Thomas A Edison, oneof the most prolific inventors ever.According to legend, Edison once statedthat "Genius i 99% perspiration and 1%inspiration."

l l i tory has shown us that the mostinfluential changes in the world were theresult of more than just innovative ideas .The people who drove these ideas to success were not only great thinker , but alsosharp-eyed strategist and relentlessworkers. While it may not be possible forus to mimic the brilliance of these giantfigures, we can certainly try to emulatetheir attitudes and efforts. In this way wecan be sure to cause change, however bigor small.

one of them with sexual harassment aswell. So are you starti ng to ee a bit of aproblem here? Hmm? Well he ha s nomoney, he needs money.

Lesson number three. Put everythingin writing and thoroughly go over yourlease. I can't stress this enough. We had averbal agreement with this II-year oldlemon of a car that he owned. The agreement seemed to change whenever the landlord thought it might be in his best interestto do so. I suddenly was required to payfor regular tune-ups, repJacement ofbrakes and 'excessive u e of the car.' Atthis point in the term, it was cheaper to paythese fee instead of trying to rent a brandn

What about guests you ask? Well , myroommate and I had talked to the landlordabout th is earl ier aAti he had said that itwouldn' t be a problem. When our guestsfina lly arrived he decided that a 'reasonable rate' of twelve US dollars per daywould have to be paid. Excuse me? Ourguests stayed for ten days. . Failing toknow where to tum and unable to afford

hotels, we paid ..again. We hould havehad something signed in writing. Oh yeah,he also wanted to charge us for forgettingto tum the ..

Lesson number four. When yourworld start to seem as though it is crumbling beneath you, keep some records. Westarted to do this much later than weshould have . I'm not sure if we are evergoing to take this guy to court or not butdocumenting this set of crazy eventswould probably be enough for a sympathetic judge to rule in your favour.Unfortunately, he has the upper hand there- the court case has to be he ld in the ameplace that this ridiculous story unfolded.

Lesson number five. Don' t live withyour landlord.

Sc, a few dollars short, okay quite afew dollars short (he didn't return oursecurity deposit either) we emerged wisermen. I guess that's what it takes to get ataste of the 'real world' out there. Be careful, be cautiou and don't be too hasty.Happy house hunting

Engineers in Campus Politics IIBY MILTON CHAN2A Computer Engineering

Snce my friend Rob referenced partI in the Imprint, I feel that I amobligated to tell everyone the otherhalf of the story. We shall see whetherengineering students are apathetic aboutcampus politics when I go aroundquizzing people about this.

Since I told you a ll tho e gloriousfacts about engineering students in campus politics, you might ask (come on, atleast act like you are interested) why arewe stereotyped as the least attentivegroup. Unlike last time, I do not havesome statistical fact to present. However,I can give you a few reasons, other thanI've got a C++ program to finish

tonight" ..Engineering students are generally

not involved in campus wide politics. t istrue that when an Eng Soc person runs forthe Federation (e.g. Stephen Codringtonwas President,

administrative committee. Those committees may sound boring, but they arethe battle ground for what we complainmost often about. Let me list a few: lointHealth and Safety Committee (talkingabout roller blades), Orientation AdvisoryCommittee (FOC doesn 't set the rulesOAC does), Provost 's AdvisoryCommittee on Fees (any fee other thantuition and co-op), Policy, Procedure, andBylaw Committee (set the "pub suspension" rules) . Student issues are not highon our priority list either. As long as thebomber is open as usual, (which it wasnot over the summer ) we prefer to spendmore time procrastinating with our highpay co-op jobs. We really do not careabout what i the percentage of homosexuals on campus or how empty is theVolunteer Centre. Some of us may occasionally complain about how "FoodService Sucks" or how co-op ripped usoff, but no one really pays any effort tolook into and act on the issues. Eventuition was never an

Mario Bellabarbawas Speaker),Engineers come outand vote in ma s.However, in othertimes, Engineeringoften has the lowest

Thank you. Thank youand double thank you toall of y directors this

issue until recently,and even then only afew engineering students really payclose attention.Perhaps we spenderm..

voter turnout. Inthe 98 Federation/Senate election, only5% of engineering students voted.(Compared to Arts 8%, Math 9%,Science 14%, ES 14 0/0 AHS 18%) Thereis a lack of enthusiasm about representation. It took us five months this year tofill all engineering seats on the Students'Council, which is probably the mostinteresting political body we can sit on asstudents. Our presence in other representational bodies are even worse. OurSenate seat (Senate is the highest education authority on campus) has beenacclaimed at least three times in a roll (93,95, 97). Our only seat on SenateUndergraduate Council, the highestauthority on undergraduate affairs, wasvacant for at least two years.

Furlhennore, it is rather rare to havean engineering student sitting on any

too much time medi-tating our glamorous

future as some executive VP of somegiant corporate. I didn't write this toentertain myself. I am sure there are engineers out there (hey you, I am talking toyout who do give a damn about studentrights and issues, and are willing to participate. Just like real politics, most people talk about them, but never participate.If you actually bother to read my article,you are the right audience. Nothing isgoing to change if YOU do not stand upand speak for it. However, as I "rudely"told my fellow classmates, I have morerespect for your opinion if you constantlyparticipate in the process.

Please stop the "tradition" of selfimposed apathy.


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The Iron Warrior, Frida) November 27, 1998 Opinions 9Changing Times Changing Attitudes

BY MATTHEW LONGLAND3B Computer Engineering

ThiS term had the honour of attending the 8th annual Women inEngineering Conference at Queen'sUniversity. Th is confer ence has been aswell as delivering a pillar of support to thewomen in engineering movement acrossthe country. Delegates from schools as faras Dalhousie to the east and Victoria to thewest were in attendance. Although it wasno surprise, ov er half the delegates in totalwere from Queen's.

Although mainly women attend thisconference, there were several men ,(myself included) also attending the conference. I felt this would be a good learning experience for me as well as being ableto provide a unique perspective on the conference.

The conference began with a wine andcheese on the Thursday night. There wewere introduced to the other delegates ofthe conference as well as some of the largenames that this confere nce attracted. I wasintroduced to the mayor of Kingston, theMP of the Kingston, the dean of the faculty of Applied Sciences at Queen 's , as wellas several corporate figures. (Sorry if the

name e cape me, met a lot of people)The conference itself began on Friday,bright and early. With all of u attending

the opening address and opening keynotespeaker. This speaker was Dr. F. MaryWilliam . She discu sed different methods of constructive thinking as well asome psychology and brain physiology(left side acts this way, right side acts thatway).

After this keynote, we were off to our[lIst round table discussions. had the fortune of attending the Women in theEngineering Profession, the o r k p l ~ c eand Education. Dr. Sarah Shortreed, amember of the Women in EngineeringAdvisor Committee, put on this discussion. We discussed enrollments in engineering by women f rom across the countryand abroad. Waterloo, at 23%, ranks a little below the average across Canada at26%. Queen's had the highest enrollmentby women at 29%.

After an open buffet lunch, the largestname to attend the conference in my opinion, Micheline Bouchard, the presidentand CEO of Motorola Canada gave themidday keynote speech. She spoke of herascent through corporations in her lifetime. She spoke of the glass ceiling, a .

term u ed to de ribe the fact that womenhave a harder time moving up in a corporation than men do. Although her speechwa mainly geared toward women,found it an intere ling and in formativedescription of movement by anyonthrough a corporation.

After the midday keynote, we went toour second round table di cus ion group.My econd discus ion group was on subtleexism, put on by Dr. Keli Rankin. We

di cu sed different experience people inthe group had had with sexism and themethods they used to confront and dealwith this. was forced to listen solely tothe conver ation having never been therecipient of a sexist remark (that amaware of) while in a working environment.However, listening to the methods thatwomen in the group had used to addressthe problem was both interesting andinfonnative.

For the last keynote speaker of theday, we listened to Maja Veljkovic. Shespoke about limitations and walls that people put on themselves. r found this to bethe most motivational speech of the day.She spoke of how people set up internalbarriers a a response to external barriersthey experience. She also spoke of how to

break down these internal barriers. This Ifound was the most motivational speech asit repre ented not omeone's success story,but methods of becoming successful, bothin busin s a in life.

The day finis hed out with an infonnaldiscu sion of the delegates and a closingup of the conference.I feel that the conference was a succe s on many Ie els. Women from acrossthe country came out to see and learn fromthe experience of highl y successfulwomen in engineering. Ways were discussed on how to draw in more people toengineering, mo t of which we at Waterloodo in one form or another. Contacts weremade for future references. was evenable to learn some key p o i n ~ on movingup the corporate ladder.

also received a hand out from Dr.Sarah Shortreed in the form of a Women inEnginecring fact sheet. f anyone is interesting in seeing figures such as enrollmentaverages of women in engineering, or participation of women in the PEO over thepast co upl e of year, email me [email protected] andwill send you a copy. It is in Excel 95 format.

The Ketchup Indexetchup

validity of Canadianmedia.

Over the last 3months, this columnby Jan Tien has been fo llowi ng a

n September, thefront page of theToronto Star

warned of a globaldepress ion causedby the collapse . i I ' l t e ~ . portfo(io of fivethe Russian economy . The CBCevening news got onthe band wagon with

publicly traded techt -o=======: 1 nology companies,collectively referredto as the Ketchup

Index. Let's see how we fared:series of the-sky-is-fall ing news segments, where they stopped people on thesidewalk to ask them what they thought ofthe Stock Market Crash of 1998 .

It's sensationalistic misnomers likethese that should make you question the

n Issue 14, we reviewed Coming(GLW) at $30.5625US, now trading at$39.875US up 30.47%. Coming manufactures fibre optic cable used in data com-munications.

Perfect Imperfectionn a perfectworld, life wouldbe pretty dull.

Final examinationswould be pointlessas everyone wouldget 100%. Therewould be no thrill oftaking a chancebecause everythingwould just work out as planned. To put anew analogy to an old concept, whatwould happen when the perfect pitcherfaced the perfect hitter? The universewould explode and we have what theworld as we know it where the world isfilled with imperfections and mistakes.Mistakes unfairly invoke a negative connotation among individuals. Mistakesshake your life, it shakes other peopleslives, it shakes the world and ultimatelyshakes the future.

Sometimes big mistakes serve as anexample to the world. For instance, theTacoma Narrows Bridge, Challenger andChernobyl are immortalized in history asexamples of the WOfSt engineering miscalculations of the twentieth century. Thedisaster and media hoopla that surrounded these events undoubted haunted theengineers involved for years. These threeincidents, however. do serve a purpose.

~ The world is asafer pl.ace becau eTake aZhancey Zhan Huall ZhO/lzhzlwu@engmail

of these three dramatic disasters.Civil and mechanical engineers nowknow the imporlance of resonantfrequencies whenbuilding a bridge.

Aerospace engineers are now extra careful to ensure that there are no fuel leaks .Safety precautions in nuclear powerplants have increased. The perils ofOntario Hydro are peanuts when compared lo Chemobyl.Now, this isn't a message telling youto go about doing everything wrong onpurpose. This is a message teJling younot to be afraid of making mistakes andnot to brood over them. Mistakes happen, it helps to shape your life. In yourcareer, you will undoubtedly face manydecisions affecting both you and company. Sometimes there isn't a right andwrong choice, but a choice that you mustmake. Hopefully you will choose wiselyand make the best decision. However,you won't always be right. Learn fromyour mistakes and let the experience helpyou grow as an engineer.

In Issue l3, we discussed Microsoft(MSFT) at $106.3125US, now trading at$113.625US up 6.88%, ATI Technologies(TSE:ATY) at $12.20, now trading at$15 . t 5 up 24 .1 8%, and Apple Computers(AAPI..) at $38US. now trading at$35.3125US down 7.07%.

In Issue 12, we looked at CiscoSystems (CSCO) at $61 US, now trading at$74.625US up 22.34%.

On average, live compan ies rose15.36% inthrce months, which works outto an annual relum of about 61.44%. liceYah

So what 's my point? Technologyslocks rock. The media is evi l.

f you want to learn more aboutinvesting, check out these books: One upon Wall Street, Beating the Street, theWarren Buffet Way, the IntelligentInvestor, and Securi.ties Analy sis.If you're interested in joining aninvestment club focused on technologystocks, check out http://norton.uwater-h /. ( ol-it l1I1 l ri/('('I/ It m.llfm

Meeting the ExpectationsMICA POTECHINThe results are in . For the seventhyear in a row, Waterloo Universitywas rated the bcst school in Canada

by Macleans magazine. We continuallyrank number one as Leaders ofTomorrow . This feat of Waterloo is in nosmall part due to the influence of the engineers.

So if we are destined to be thought ofas the leaders of tomorrow, why don 't weact it? It may be argued that yes, we do.Engineers shape the world around us morethan anyone else, by introducing new technological devices and analytical approaches , and by continually pushing pastprevious boundaries of technical knowledge.

That is what we give, but is it enough?There are so many non-teChnological

ways in which the engineers can use ourinfluence to change society, by bendingthe norms instead of bending to them. Wecan refuse to do things that we know arewrong in our heart, even though societysays that they're okay to do. We can speakusing the language of politics, the language that was spoken only a few generations ago, instead of the language weheard in Pulp Fiction . As the leaders of

the world as this century comes to a

c lo se and the new century begins, there arcno limits to the things we can say or do(becuuse actions speak louder than WOlds),that people can look at us and think if theengineers arc doing it, it must be good.The problem is, most of us, myself included, don ' t always think like that.

So how do we bring 011 positivechange?

Let's face it. Whether we like it ornot , we are the representatives of thegroups to which we belong. When wemake a statemcnt, or create a publication,that reflects on us, as an entity, s well asindividually. It is important, then, forWaterloo Engineering, as well as for ourselves, that when we try to bring a positivechange into society, we introduce it in apositive instead of a negative way.

There are not many steadfast dos ordon'ts for bringing about change, but Iwould like to talk about one of them.Don't enter a situation without a completeunderstanding of it's history. This goesback to the first part, where I wrote aboutacting in a way that is right, even though itis not what society would normally dictate. Take, for example, a conflic t involving a friend of yours. Society tries to tellyou that it is okay to run to the aid of yoursee ttAccounting for Your ACtiolU ,

page 12)


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The Iron Warrior, Friday, November 27 1998 Internal Information 11Where is the money going?

~ = = = = = = = ~ the funding deci ion, about an hour waWEEFReportby Mark Cesana

spent discu sing thi topic. Many interesting point were produced. A major concern wa the fact that with 4th year de ignproject becoming mandatory for everyengineering ludent, the funding councilmight be overwhelmed with a barrage of

= = = = = = = = : J proposals and it might be difficult todecide where the money will go. Themajor argument for funding 4th year pro-A fter many long hours of listening jects i the fact that every ludent i a. to presentations, reading through member of WEEF and everyone shouldproposals and arguing over which have a chance to benefit. Another interestproposals deserve to be funded, the WEEF ing point is that Waterloo is trying to creFunding Decision for the fall '98 term is ate an environment of creativity andcomplete. The Preliminary Funding innovation where students can exploreDecision was completed on Tuesday, new ideas and endeavour in unique leal11 -November 10 at around 8:45 p.m. The ing areas. Students should not have tomeeting started at 6:00 p.m. and there was abandon an innovative idea for a 4th yeara long discussion about the validity of 4th project because they can not find the fewyear projects and the question of whether extra hundred dollars needed to complete-4th year projects should be funded by Iy fund their project. For these reason 4thWEEF came up. But more about this later. year projects should be considered whenThe funding decision is shown in this the WEEF funding is decided.issue and I encourage you to look at what I f anyone has any comments orprojects are being funded. This decision is thoughts concerning 4th year projects, enot official because it must be approved by mail your them to wee @engmaif uwater-the WEEF board of directors. The board looca or drop by the WEEF office in CPHof directors meeting will take place on 1323C and voice your op inion. This is anNovember 30 and then the official fund ing important issue and it will be thoroughlydecision will be displayed and the money discussed at the next board of directorscan then be allocated to the individual pro- meeting.jects. The fundi ng is pretty evenly distrib- On another note, the WEEF AGMuted among all the departments thi s term. (Annual General Meeting) took place this

NGIN RINGSO IETY

The Engineering Society C&D will be openfor business until the last day of exams

Open Monday to Friday: 8:00am to 4:30pm.Carl Pollock HallThe departments received a tota l of past Thursday and the offic ial naming cer$73,776 in funding. The student projects emony for the WEEF lab was do ne. Thi sand non-academic proposals received event could not have been completed with-$23 ,150. Student projects made up 23.9% out the he lp of Ryan CheA-Wing. His i i i i i i i i i i i i : : : : : i ~ : : : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ if the total fund ing. Thi percentage i a commitment and assistance in organizinglittle higher than usual but there seems to this event was invaluable. The AGMbe more and more competitions and stu- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ r n n i ~ r n ~ ~ ~ l T ~ ~ i ident run teams every year. For " " " " everyonethe smaller teams, WEEF funding is essen- hope to see more people next year cometial for the team to be successful. The out and learn more about WEEF and whatlarger teams, like Midnight Sun, Formula it does to improve undergraduate engiSAE, and UWAFT al 0 benefit greatly neering at Waterloo. In addition, r wouldfrom WEEF fund ing because it 'usually like to take the lime to thank Mike Nevillallows them to bu y that important piece of for hi s work with WEEF this Lenn. Notequipment that they just couldn't get with only is he the Speaker for EngSoc meetthe help of their other sponso rs. ings, running Plumber'S Pledge and aSome of the proposals that will holds a whole bunch of other titles that Ireceive funding are very interesting. The cant thi nk of now but he is also thenew video/data projection sys tem for GREATEST Assistant Weef Director ever.CPH-3385 will tum this room into a vital He has been there helping me out all termmultimedia room where lectures can be and without him, r know things wouldcomputer driven and computer simulations have gone horribly wrong and I wouldcan be easily displayed to classes. The have ended up go ing crazy or hav ing anew fIle server for E&CE undergrads will nervous breakdown or so mething.offer more disk space and faster file access I would alsQ like to thank Jento all 3rd and 4th year students. The new Lugtigheid and Derek Bezaire for theirZIP/JAZ drives for the GAFF lab will also help as Assistant Weef Directo rs this term.be beneficial to students who have trouble Derek and Jen were patient enough to givestoring all of their infonnation on their up their lunches to give WEEF refundsPolaris accounts . during the first 3 weeks and they haveAs for the 4th year projects, Dan been there whenever I needed them allSherwood made a presentation to the fund- term. They were present at all the WEEFing council about the reasons why 4th year presentation and proposal meetings andprojects should be funded by WEEF and worked hard to make the AGM a success.the benefits these projects provide. During

Plummer's PledgeMIKE NEVILL4A Electrical EngineeringA ttention all fourth years ThePlummer's Pledge campaign isunder way. For those of you who

don t know what the Plummer's Pledge is,it's the money a graduating studentpromises to donate to WEEF for 3 years,starting 1 year after graduation. This provides a buffer year for grads to get back ontheir feet financially.This very important student initiativeis in its 11 th year - the first class to initiatethis program and pledge their support was

the Class of '89. The money, along withdonations from the Voluntary StudentContribution, has been directed towardsWEEP. This student run endowment hasgrown quickly and 'several important projects have already been funded from theinterest earnings. This term the WaterlooEngineering Endowment Funding Councilwas able to allocate '$97,000 to variousprojects.. The Plummer's Pledge plays a criticalrole in the Endowment Fund. One of themost important aspects of this pledge isthe commitment from new grads like you

and me. We see firsthand the problemsunder-funding is causing and we should bedetermined to maintain the quality andreputation of our degrees. Furthennore,when pledging our support, it is necessaryfor us to think carefully about the level ofcommitment we are making and whetherwe will be able to fulfill the commitmentin one year's time. Follow through is critical to the success of the program sinceplanning takes place well in advance.

Now I m not asking grads to thinkabout how milch they want to donate quite

yet, it's still too early for that. What I mworking on is another aspect of Plummer'sPledge, the corporate sponsorship. I'mcompiling a list of past grads that would bewilling to approach their employers aboutdonating money to WEEP. I f you knowof anyone who might be willing to do tillsfor us, please contact me via [email protected]), phone(WEEF office phone number 888-4893),

or just find me in the WEEF office (CPH1323C).One last thing, when you read thisarticle it should be 104 DAYS TO IRS

III


12/12

12 I nternal Information The I ron Warrior, Friday, November 27, 1998

104 Days To IRS99

To The Point Continued ..its own Java applications, which analystsbelieve could create confusion in the marketplace.

Based on Hewlett-Packard plansJava push," by Staff Rep0I1er, The NewYork Times, 4 November 1998, p. CIO;H-P creates a panel to make Java versionsfor electronic devices," The Wall StreetJournal, 3 November 1998, p. B6. "SunMicrosystems faces revolt over Java control," by Roger Tay lor, Financial Times, 3November 1998, p. 16.In dia opens market to pr ivate In ternetservice providers

India is issuing an unlim ited numberof licenses to Internet service providers(ISPs) in order to end the monopolyenjoyed by that country's nat ional telecom, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited(VSNL). As part of the deregulation initiative, foreign firms will be permitted topurchase up to 49 percent of Indian ISPs,and new ISPs will not be required to payfees for the first five years of a IS-yearlicense. Indian government officia ls saybooming demand for Internet access wasnot be ing met by the state-run system,which prompted the deregulati on effo rt.Industry analyst say the liberalization ofthe ISP market shoul d fos ter growth inIndia's software industry in addition toproviding competition for

VSNL's international telephoneaccess services.

Based on "India throws market opento all comers to provide Internet access ,"by Mark Nicholson and Paul Taylor,Financial Times (UK), 3 November 1998,p. 6.

Sun releases new HotJava browserSun Microsystems

(http://www.sun.com/) will reenter theInternet brow er market with the introduction of its redes igned HotJava browsernext year. The new Java-based browser isde igned for embedded devices such asphotocopiers, kiosks, gas pumps, andvending mach ines. The HotJava browser isdesigned to allow these machines to communicate with each other in real time. Sunofficials say this release of HotJava willsupport Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) 3.2, JavaScript, and p lug-ins.

Based on S un targets browsersagain," by Carol Sliwa, Computerworld, 9November 1998, p. 6; "Java browser to runon machines," Stephen Shankland, CNET,S November 1998 ,http://www.news.com/News/ltem/O. 4, 28407,00.hIm .Netscape founder invests in digital TVstart-up

Net cape Communi cations's(http://www.netscape.coml) co- fo un de rMarc Andreessen has invested in Rep layNetworks, a start-up com pany that isdeveloping a digital television recordingtechnology. The Repl ayTV system allowsviewers to watch, store, edit , and retrieveTV programs in new way s: users ca nrecord programs already in progress, automatically skip commercial s, and record allprograms that match a particular criterion,such as all films featuring a particularactor. Consumer electronics manufacturersplan to license the technology to produce anew generation of digital VCRs capable of

Accounting for Your Actions(conrinuedfrom page 9)

friend and fight to the finish. Do you dothat? My guess is, most of the peoplereading this said "of course " To them, Ioffer thi s: what if th e principal parties

Jean Charest, there isn't much we can do;in Engineering, the student body can do alot of good, but we can also do a lot ofharm. If we know all the facts, we mayrealize that the best way to act is to not act

at aU. The rule isnvolved had alreadyarr iv ed at a solutionwhe n you interfered?Certainly you wouldnot have helped the situation, and may haveeven served to aggravate i t.

The difference is, with0.1. ther e isn't much wecan do; in Engineering,the student body can do alot ofgoodProblems like this

not limited to interfering, however. Itis also applicableto beginning a situation, whethe rintentionally orunintentionally. Asrepresentatives of

aterlooan be seen every dayin our daily live . Who among us can saythat we made a judgement on O.J.Simpson? The an wer to this question islikely everybody. Who among us can saythat we knew every fact of this case beforewe made that judgement? My guess isnobody. The same thing can be said aboutMicrosoft, or Jean Charest, or even peoplein CPH Foyer, our own backyard. The difference is, with 0. 1. and Bill Gates and

Eng ineering and the Engineering Society,we have to be ure to choose our wordsand actions carefully, so they do not reflectpoorly, not only on ourselves, but also onthe e two institution . This is not to saythat all action is bad action and all inactionis good action. It is to say that actionshould be carefully planned, so thatchange can be made in a mature, adultmanner.

delivering the electronic programmi ng ervice. Analysts believe Andreessen'sinvestment will boost Replay Networks,which is competing with Tivo in theemerging market for digital TV recordingsystem.Based on "Netscape pioneer to investin smart VCR," by John Markoff, The NewYork Times, 9 November 1998, p. C2

- .

Editor's Note:"To The Point , provided by AndersellConsulting, offers University ofWaterlooEng ineering students IllformationTec hnology news and issues. This articleis copyrighted, and is not to be repro-duced by any means.

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The Iron Warrior: Volume 22, Issue 16