November 2014 - csc-general

Three more events!
by Computer Science Club 20 Nov '14

20 Nov '14

Hello everyone! The exec has organized three events to wrap up the term: 1. *Code Party 1 / SE Hack Day #13* [Nov.21 (TOMORROW), 18:00, M3 1006] Why sleep when you could be hacking on $SIDE_PROJECT, or working on $THE_NEXT_BIG_THING with some cool people? Come when you want, hack on something cool, demo before you leave. If you don't have a project, don't worry - we have a list of ideas, and people will be looking for a helping hand on their projects. *NOTE*: Due to the high interest, dinner and snacks will only be served to those working on projects/demoing during the event. 2. *TALK: C++ ABI (Sean Hunt)* [Nov.25 (Tuesday), 17:30, MC 4041] Our own sysadmin, Sean Hunt, will be giving a talk on the C++ compiler ABI, and how all of the magic in C++ is implemented at the binary level. 3. *TALK: Heroic Android HTTP (Jesse Wilson)* [Nov.27 (Thursday), 18:00, MC 4020] The network is unreliable. 3G networking is slow. Using WiFi drains your battery. The NSA is spying on you. Different versions of HttpURLConnection have different bugs. Jesse Wilson, a software developer at Square, will be talking about OkHttp, a library that he maintains, and how to use it to make your app's networking work even when conditions aren't ideal. He will talk about how to configure caching to improve behavior and save resources, cryptography, and he will give advice on which libraries to use to make good networking easy. *NOTE*: You *must* RSVP via this website <https://www.ticketfi.com/event/77/heroic-android-http> if you are attending! We need to have an accurate count for food. :) That's all, folks! Thanks for coming out to our events, and hope to see you next term! Cheers, Jinny Kim President, Computer Science Club <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/> University of Waterloo <https://uwaterloo.ca/>

1 0

Fwd: Upcoming Events, Nov. 12, 17
by Computer Science Club 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Greetings, programs, We have upcoming events! 1. Machine Learning at Bloomberg [Tomorrow, Wednesday Nov 12th, 5:30 PM, EIT 1015] The financial world reacts very quickly to news. We will illustrate some examples that demonstrate this phenomenon and the difficulties involved. We will also show some of the machine learning applications at Bloomberg that are useful in this environment. (Food from Subway) 2. Why Pattern Recognition is Hard, and Why Deep Neural Networks Help [Monday, Nov 17th, 6:00 PM, QNC 1502] In the last few years, there has been breakthrough progress in pattern recognition -- problems like computer vision and voice recognition. This sudden progress has come from a powerful class of models called deep neural networks. This talk will explore what it means to do pattern recognition, why it is a hard problem, and why deep neural networks are so effective. We will also look at exciting and strange recent results, such as state of the art object recognition in images, neural nets playing video games, neural nets proving theorems, and neural nets learning to run python programs! 3. Code Party 1 [Nov 21st, 5:30pm, M3 1006] Come out, code, learn, mentor. We're partnering with SE Hackday to make this the best event we can.

1 0

UW firewall may affect CSC servers
by Computer Science Club 10 Nov '14

10 Nov '14

Greetings programs, The University of Waterloo is currently in the process of putting a perimeter firewall in place around the campus, which will block incoming traffic on all but selectively-enabled ports. It will be enabled for the MC, including all CSC machines, sometime this week. We will be working with UW IST to ensure that exceptions are added to the firewall for the services normally operated by the CSC; however, if you run a server on a different port, or otherwise depend on incoming connections, this will no longer work. Connections from inside UW will continue to work normally. If you have a specific service for which you would like CSC systems committee to consider an exception to the firewall, please contact syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca and explain: - Which server(s) your service needs to be given exceptions on - Which port(s) you need opened - The purpose of the service Syscom will take each request under consideration, but please be aware that since we have not yet decided on a policy for exceptions, we cannot offer any guarantees that your request will be granted. Thanks for your patience, Sean Hunt CSC Sysadmin

1 0

UW firewall may affect CSC servers
by Computer Science Club 10 Nov '14

10 Nov '14

Greetings programs, The University of Waterloo is currently in the process of putting a perimeter firewall in place around the campus, which will block incoming traffic on all but selectively-enabled ports. We will be working with UW IST to ensure that exceptions are added to the firewall for the services normally operated by the CSC, however, if you run a server on a different port or otherwise depend on incoming connections, this will no longer work. Connections from inside UW will continue to work normally. If you have a specific service that you would like CSC Syscom to consider for an exception to the firewall, please contact syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca and explain: - Which server(s) your service needs to be given exceptions on - Which port(s) you need opened - The purpose of the service Syscom will consider all requests but as we have not yet decided on a policy for exceptions, I cannot offer any guarantees that syscom will make a decision one way or another. Thanks for your patience, Sean Hunt CSC Sysadmin

1 0

Upcoming Women in CS Events: Nov. 7, 13, 20
by Computer Science Club 06 Nov '14

06 Nov '14

Dear CSC, Your friends on the Women in Computer Science Undergrad Committee would like to remind you of/invite you to a few of our upcoming events! MOVIE NIGHT: HACKERS: Fri. Nov. 7, 7PM, Comfy Lounge (MC 3001) --- A reminder that we'll be meeting to watch Hackers tomorrow night. Check out the event description: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_Comfy-2014-11-07-7:00_PM TECH FEMINISM 101 PANEL: Thu. Nov. 13, 5PM, MC 2065 --- WiCS is hosting our first educational panel on tech feminism. If you are curious about the claims of sexism and discrimination in STEM and the software industry, we highly recommend you attend; there will be an open Q&A following the panel session. You can find more information about the event and speakers here: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/tech-feminism-101-panel SARAH SHARP PUBLIC LECTURE: Thu. Nov. 20, 5:30PM, ML Theatre of the Arts --- We are pleased to introduce Sarah Sharp, author of the Linux USB 3.0 driver and Linux kernel maintainer to give a talk on breaking into Linux development. The talk is intended for all students interested in learning more about kernel development. For more info and tickets, See https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/talk-sarah-sharp-breaking-open-source-and-li… Hope to see you there! Please send questions or comments to myself or WiCS-ugrad at wics-ugrad(a)lists.uwaterloo.ca. -- Elana Hashman Undergraduate Representative Women in Computer Science Committee David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science ehashman(a)uwaterloo.ca

1 0

Nov. 7, 7PM: WiCS and CSC watch Hackers!
by Computer Science Club 04 Nov '14

04 Nov '14

Greetings, programs, This Friday night at 7PM, Women in Computer Science (WiCS) and the Computer Science Club (CSC) will meet up in the Comfy Lounge to watch a favourite cult classic: Hackers. Join us as we relive our 90s teenage hacking fantasies and stuff our faces with popcorn and junk food. Hackers of the world, unite! -- Elana Hashman Undergraduate Representative Women in Computer Science Committee David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science ehashman(a)uwaterloo.ca

1 0