A new compact operating system

Users often curse at their computers: they crash, another virus has been detected, the software is incomprehensible or is using too much memory. With these problems in mind, I wanted to find out how most Operating Systems work, and develop one myself. My goal was to create a prototype of an OS that is both user-friendly and stable, as well as compact and secure. I also wanted to implement some new ideas and combine the elements of a desktop- and server OS into one system. 150,000 lines of code later, my OS is able to boot from floppy, run applications, communicate with other computers, provides an interface that is easy to use, is protected by several security functions and can act as a server ( I am currently using it as a web-server on a floppy!). The features of this new OS should make using the computer easier and more pleasant and make the OS suitable for both desktop and server applications, even on smaller devices with less storage capacity.

	Vincent RUIGROK (18) City/Region: Kwintsheul E-mail: vruigrok@hotmail.com Hobbies: Kiting, Reading, Playing computer games Career: Biotechnologist School: Westland Collegel

	Geert DE VREEDE (20) City/Region: Honselersdijk E-mail: dewrede@hotmail.com Hobbies: Computer games, Badminton, Going out Career: Computer Engineer School: Westland College

Fast beer brewing with a new technology

Students -and many others- all over Europe like to drink beer. We have been able to shorten the first fermentation process of beer brewing from 5 days to 5 hours! Such tremendous increase in productivity of beer brewing might cause an important reduction in production costs and hence, in the cost price of a glass of cool, refreshing beer.
How did we achieve this interesting result? We have used immobilised yeast in a continuous brewing process. The immobilization of the yeast means that the yeast cells are locked up in balls of calcium alginate. We have found that this immobilization protects the yeast cells from various external effects and moreover, increases the yeast’s activity needed for an efficient fermentation process. The beads with immobilized yeast are easily prepared, and easy to handle and recycle, which presents a further advantage of the use of immobilized yeast in beer brewing processes.