UniversityOfCalgary
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University of Calgary hands over $16,000 in ransomware attack
The University of Calgary has become the latest victim in a recent string of ransomware attacks. According to a statement released Wednesday morning, University computer systems were affected for 10 days while the IT team worked to remedy the issue. Ultimately, the University paid around $16,000 ($20,000 Canadian) to recover its data, with no guarantee that it was even possible to restore it.
Scientists close to brewing morphine (or heroin) from sugar
Sugar is basically ubiquitous and it looks like it could be used to make morphine, which is a refined form of heroin. Recent research shows that a genetically modified strain of yeast, when exposed to sugar, could be used to ferment the opioid. Yes, essentially, you could homebrew your own scag. I know what you're thinking: "This sounds like madness." But there's some proof behind it. Researchers from the University of California Berkeley and Concordia University in Canada presented an almost complete means to turn glucose to morphine, while scientists from the University of Calgary supplied the missing piece that completes the process. The idea wasn't to flood the streets with home-made heroin. No, the plan is much more noble than that: to produce "cheaper, less addictive, safer and more-effective" painkillers, according to Nature.
University of Calgary's Fat Thumb trick allows one-handed phone use, jugglers are thankful (video)
Everyone's let it happen at some point -- that moment where we're desperately trying to use our smartphones in one hand while juggling groceries or coffee in the other. There'll be no way to recover those social graces, but six researchers at the University of Calgary have developed a software technique, Fat Thumb, that should at least keep the contortions and dropped phones to a minimum. As the name implies, it's all based around pressure: a light touch performs the usual commands, while squishing the thumb's wider surface area against the screen allows the equivalent of a multi-touch gesture, such as a pinch to zoom. The advantages for comfort and grip virtually speak for themselves; what's surprising is that Fat Thumb may well be faster than other one-handed gestures. Work on the project is so far confined to a research paper stemming from experiments with an iPhone, although it's easy to see this spreading to other platforms and real products before too long. Catch a glimpse of the cleverness in action after the break.
University of Calgary succeeds in building a neurochip out of silicon, human brain cells
Scientists at the University of Calgary have teamed up with the National Research Council Canada to put a network of human brain cells on a microchip -- in effect creating a (tiny) brain on a chip. Until now, when scientists wanted to monitor brain cells, they could only monitor one or two simultaneously, but with this new neurochip, large groups of cells can be placed on the chip and observed in detail, as they go about their business "networking and performing automatic, large-scale drug screening for various brain dysfunctions," according to PhysOrg. But that's just the beginning! This sort of advance could someday lead to neurochip implants for driving artificial limbs, treatments for strokes and brain trauma, and more. The Globe and Mail even mentions the possibility that living neurons could be combined with silicon circuits to create an "organic computer." From that point it's only a matter of time before you're jacking into cyberspace with your Dixie Flatline ROM.
University of Calgary researchers teach little robots to be scared of angry humans
It's one thing to prepare for the future's inevitable robot uprising by building bigger and better weapons, but a pacifist might say the simpler approach would be to simply avoid conflict altogether -- by making our autonomous underlings cower in fear before us and our mighty emotions. That's the idea (sort of) behind some research taking place at the University of Calgary, which relies on an OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator to monitor the stress levels of a real, live, human being. That stress level is then communicated to a poor, defenseless Roomba, which was taught get out of the way and look busy whenever the wearer got angry. It's a long way from the three laws and saving the human race as a whole and all that, but this could play a major part in preserving future human/robot relations -- at least in the living room. [Warning: PDF read link][Via Technology Review]
USA #1 in broadband, time to start making bumperstickers!
Great news, Americans! Despite all the naysayers with their "evidence" otherwise -- pointing out that South Korea has more broadband connections than we do, or that in some countries speeds are better than they are here -- the United States has come out at the head of the class. And that's before the government rolls out the "broadband stimulus" bonanza. According to Leonard Waverman (the dean of the prestigious Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary), Americans are not only the most productive users of connectivity, but our government's use of IT is as good as it is anywhere. Additionally, writes Saul Hansell in the New York Times, 57 percent of people in the country now have access to broadband, 9 percent have dial-up Internet access, 9 percent log on at work or at a library but not at home, and some 25 percent don't use the Internet at all -- one of whom said, "what do you want the Internet for? It's a fad -- just like CB radio in the '70s."
