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University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Tuesday, August 19, 1997

Continuing ed expands language options

As an enhancement of its international trade program, a new language section has been introduced in the fall 1997 continuing education calendar .

Besides non-credit courses in Russian, Japanese and Chinese that were previously offered, German, French and Spanish have been added.

Although the classes will emphasize business customs and practices in the curriculum, they will also be useful for other travellers, said Maureen Jones, continuing education manager. Most are aimed at beginners and require little or no knowledge of the language.

In addition, the department of continuing education will offer in-house language training as a special service for businesses with specific training needs.

Also new this fall are courses in the following sections:

To register for these or other continuing education courses, phone 888-4002, visit the office at 156 Columbia Street or check out the Website. UW faculty and staff are entitled to a 25 per cent discount.

Warriors kick off training camp

"Tuff work" sums up the game plan for the UW Warriors Football Camp which opens tomorrow and runs until the end of the month. Under the direction of head coach Tuffy Knight, some 93 returning players and first year recruits will don their black helmets and prepare to best last year's record-breaking season.

According to assistant coach Chris Triantafilou, only some "fine tuning" is needed for the team to outdo its first-place finish last year in the Ontario University Athletics conference and its fifth-place rank nationally at the end of the season.

"It was the highest placing ever at UW. It's a pretty darned good team," he added.

The Warriors face their cross-town rivals at the season opener on September 6 at 2 p.m. at University Stadium, and the Hawks are reportedly out to avenge their loss to the Warriors last year.

"WLU is always tough," said Triantafilou, predicting a fierce fray.

Support group for computer support folk

UW people engaged in the "very challenging and stressful job" of providing computer support in their faculties will have their own support group when the FACulty Computing User Support Group (FACCUS) is launched this fall.

Computer support people must not only be knowledgeable about existing systems, but au courant with new computer developments, as well. To that end, FACCUS will offer monthly professional development seminars demonstrating cutting-edge computing technology from a computer support perspective. The group will also provide opportunities for information exchange and problem support.

An inaugural meeting on Thursday, September 11, from 1:30 to 3:00 in DC 1302 will chart the direction for the coming term and present an update on Polaris and UW site-licensed software. To register, email mlmartin@ist; for more information, contact co-chairs Paul Snyder, ext. 3020 or Bob Hicks, ext. 2194.

Computer course schedule online for fall

The IST Computing Course schedule for September and October is now accessible online, or in brochures available from any of the computing consulting offices on campus. Registration for these courses is done on the Web.

Waterloo Web site of the day

GNOMIC
http://noether.math.uwaterloo.ca/~jcmorton/gnomic/

What could be more fun than a game where the rules keep changing? Actually it is fun, insist players like Jeffrey Morton, a math student who maintains this page and plays the game. "Nomic", as it seems to have been spelt originally, is both a game and a logical exercise to demonstrate "the paradox of self-amendment": it's a game in which changing the rules (in accordance with the rules, of course) is itself a move.

A typical result: at last report, rule 372 said that "If the player whose turn it is is dubbed nothing in particular, that player shall be designated as Gandalf, until the end of that player's turn, whereupon that player will no longer be designated Gandalf. Anyone designated Gandalf is Good for the duration of being designated Gandalf, after which that player is Good if and only if that player was Good immediately before the most recent occurrence of that player's being designated Gandalf."

Huh?

Morton explains:

This page is intended to be an up-to-date summary of the current state of a game of gnomic, which is a self-modifying game. Currently about 15 people are involved in playing the game, although more join all the time, and many people seem to be following the progress of the game even if they don't have time to join in. The page also has links to several other sites related in some way to self-modifying games, which seem to be interesting to a great many people, for some reason.
Among the external links on the page is one to a Nomic site maintained by Peter Suber, who invented the game (and wrote The Paradox of Self-Amendment) fifteen years ago.

Barbara Elve
bmelve@nh4.adm.uwaterloo.ca


TODAY IN UW HISTORY
August 19, 1962: Bill Tutte of the mathematics department is in Stockholm to give a talk on "The Enumeration of Planar Maps" at the International Mathematical Congress.

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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