“Because it’s there,” was George Mallory’s response when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. Mallory, an English mountaineer, took part in one of the first three British expeditions to Everest in the early 1920s. 90 years later, climbing has come much farther than anyone might have imagined: 3G[Read More…]
Science & Technology
The latest in science and technology.
Going back to school in the cool
Coming back to Montreal after a long summer can stir up mixed emotions. It’s great to see friends and roommates again, and there’s OAP and Frosh. However, nobody likes the inevitable late nights at McLennan or midterms in September. We’ve compiled a list of toys and tools to help ease[Read More…]
Rustock Botnet Takedown
If you typically stock up on “V1aGr4” and “C!AL!$” from suppliers who email you individually, expect to have a bit more trouble over the coming weeks. Last week, Microsoft shut down the largest source of spam emails on the Internet, the Rustock botnet. A botnet is a large collection of[Read More…]
The Mac vs. PC debate
Over the years there have been a number of lively computer debates, many of which remain unsettled. There’s Vim versus Emacs, C++ versus Java, and whether or not P is equal to NP. All of these arguments pale in comparison to the most disputed topic in both geek and non-geek[Read More…]
Computing’s Future: It’s in the clouds
In one of the most rapidly changing industries in the world, the next major paradigm is rolling in: cloud computing. Much in the way the Internet altered our computing perspective, cloud computing is drastically changing the way people use their computers by increasing the speed and availability of data and[Read More…]
Montre-apps
It can be hard to sift through the millions of applications available for your smartphone. There are apps for reading and writing and arithmetics, apps for games and gags, and managing your green. Since it can be overwhelming to sift through them on your own, here are some of the[Read More…]
Science research council gives $3 million donation to McGill
On January 20, 2011, seven McGill research teams received a total grant of $3 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Strategic Project Grants program, which will be used over the next three years to “develop and enhance tools, models and mechanisms in fields of engineering and the[Read More…]
Scientists use lasers to control worms’ minds
In a recent study, scientists from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that by shining a laser on particular neurons, they were able to control worms, encouraging them to move in varying directions and lay eggs. The published article, which appeared in Nature[Read More…]
Drop the laptop? Not so fast
For my first three years at McGill, I hand-wrote my notes in class. Every semester, I would restock my supply of coloured notebooks, labeling each with the proper course code. It worked well—I would go to class, write down everything the professor scrawled on the board, and then review it[Read More…]
Intel attempts to limit access to pirated flicks
It could soon become more difficult to watch the latest Hollywood flick on your personal computer using illegal technology. The war between media producers and Internet piraters has been waging for years, and is unlikely to end soon. However, recent developments in the hardware world have shown that Hollywood is[Read More…]
