November 2016 - csc-general

ALT+TAB today at 6PM, EOT next Monday
by Computer Science Club 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Greetings Programs, This is a reminder that we are running ALT+TAB today at 6PM, in MC 4063! ALT+TAB is the CSC's version of SASMS. Six CSC members will be giving brief, 25-minute talks on various CS-related topics (a list of the members and their talks is at the bottom of this email). It's a great way to learn a little bit about a lot of different things. There will also be free dinner provided at the event. In addition, the CSC will be hosting its last event of the term, the EOT party, on Monday Dec. 5 at 6PM in MC Comfy. We'll take over the Comfy and have free dinner for everyone, and just hang out with each other. Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire List of ALT+TAB talks: Felix Bauckholt: *A Short Idris Tutorial* Bryan Coutts: *Linear and Integer Programming* Sean Harrap: *Communication Complexity* Christopher Hawthorne: *Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem* Charlie Wang: *Typed Racket* Ifaz Kabir: *How Modern SAT Solvers Work*

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Member Talk at 6 PM Today, ALT+TAB Next Wednesday
by Computer Science Club 25 Nov '16

25 Nov '16

Greetings Programs, The CSC is hosting a member talk today at 6 PM, in MC 4063. Edmund Noble will be giving a talk titled "Purely Functional Programming with Freely-Generated Domain Specific Languages"; the abstract is at the foot of this email. There will be snacks and drinks at the end of the talk. In addition, the CSC is hosting ALT+TAB (aka SCP or SAMS), the CSC's version of SASMS, next Wednesday at 6 PM in MC 4063. Several members will be giving short, ~25 minute talks on various CS-related topics. A running list of confirmed talks can be found at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b2coutts/alttab.html. If you are interested in giving a talk, please email exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca with the title of your talk, and optionally a brief abstract, ideally by the end of Monday. Remember that there will be a planned power outage in MC tomorrow (Nov 26) from 7AM to 5PM; CSC machines will be shutting down at 6AM in preparation. Also, thanks to the Mathsoc Capital Improvement Fund (CIF), the CSC finally upgraded natural-flavours, also known as the shitty machine in the corner of the room that nobody wanted to use! It now has an i7-6700k and 16GB of RAM. - Calum T. Dalek Member Talk Abstract: Dependency injection is an often-used technique in object-oriented programming to easily modify the behaviours of an object by providing it with objects it would have otherwise generated on its own, to increase modularity. Aspect-oriented programming is a related technique which adds additional behaviour ("advice") to existing code, aiming to address cross-cutting concerns which affect wide areas of an application without sacrificing modularity. Dependency injection might not seem a common topic in functional programming, but application modularity is essential to functional programming in a practical setting. A natural analogue to dependency injection and aspect-oriented programming in functional programming comes from a surprising place, and offers superior modularity to both. The free monad (F f) for a type constructor (and domain-specific language instruction set) f provides a syntax tree with internal nodes as domain-specific language instructions, which in combination with coproduct functors, allow domain-specific languages to be composed and combined easily.

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Richard Mann Prof Talk Today at 6:15 PM
by Computer Science Club 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Greetings Programs, This evening at 6:15 PM (not 6 PM!), in MC 4063, Richard Mann will be giving a talk about open source software for sound measurement and analysis, and providing information about CS 489 - Computational Sound, the topics course he is offering in Winter 2017. The abstract for his talk can be found at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4063-2016-11-21-6:15_PM. This Friday (November 21) at 6 PM, in MC 4063, CSC member Edmund Noble is giving a talk, titled "Purely Functional Programming with Freely-Generated Domain Specific Languages". The talk will focus on embedded DSLs, which exist within other languages. The abstract for his talk can be found at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4063-2016-11-25-6:00_PM. In addition, next week we will be hosting ALT+TAB. If you're familiar with the Pure Math Club's recurring SASMS event, this is the CSC's version of that. Several members of the club will take turns giving brief (~20 minute) CS talks. We're tentatively planning to host ALT+TAB next Wednesday (Nov. 30), so start thinking about topics if you want to give a talk! More details will come later this week. Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire

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Planned Outage on Saturday, Nov. 26
by Computer Science Club 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

Hello all, Computer Science Club systems and services will be unavailable on Saturday, Nov. 26 due to a planned power outage in the Mathematics and Computer Building (MC) from 7am to 5pm. The CSC will begin shutting down machines at 6am in preparation of the outage. This outage will impact: - Web hosting (all personal and club websites) - Email (@csclub.uwaterloo.ca emamil addresses) - Servers and Office Terminals Thanks to the assistance of the Computer Science Computing Facility (CSCF), it is expected that mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca remain available for the duration of the outage. Please prepare for the outage by: - Ensuring all running processes have their state saved (configuration, data, etc.) - Any important files are backed up off-site from the CSC If you have any questions/concerns, please email the Systems Committee at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca Thanks, Zachary Seguin Systems Administrator | Computer Science Club University of Waterloo syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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General Meeting Results and Minutes
by Computer Science Club 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

Hi all, Our general meeting has concluded and the motion to change our Code of Conduct has passed, with amendments. The exact wording of the motion can be found in the attached minutes of the meeting. In short, we have removed those sections of the code of conduct, on the condition that the code of conduct be up for consideration again at the next general meeting. This would most likely be our next election. Also, the minutes themselves need to be approved at our meeting. Thanks, Charlie Wang President, Computer Science Club

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Code Party and GM Wednesday; CS4U Volunteers Wanted
by Computer Science Club 15 Nov '16

15 Nov '16

Greetings Programs, A reminder to all that our Code Party and General Meeting are being held Wednesday, Nov 16 at M3 1006 (the big lecture room). The Code Party begins at 6:30 PM, with a break for the General Meeting at 8:30, followed by more coding and partying until late. See our homepage http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca for more details on the General Meeting, including the proposed changes to the Code of Conduct. In other news, the Department of Computer Science is looking for volunteers to help out with CS4U Day Wednesday, December 7th. CS4U day is a CS outreach event for students in grade 9-12 and they are looking for people to talk about CS and/or our club. Please reply to this email if you are interested in volunteering so that more details can be forwarded. Thanks, Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire

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Code of Conduct Alternative Changes
by Computer Science Club 09 Nov '16

09 Nov '16

Hi all, We've received feedback about our proposed changes to the Code of Conduct and our Constitution. Our members value the Code of Conduct as a symbolic reminder of what our club atmosphere and culture should be. Given how valuable it is, even without enforcement abilities, we have proposed a different set of changes to the Code of Conduct, where any suspect sections relating to confidentiality and enforcement will be removed. Notably, we have removed the sections on "Experiencing Unacceptable Behaviour", "Consequences of Unacceptable Behaviour", "Addressing Grievances", and "Confidentiality". The proposed Code of Conduct can be found in full at https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~exec/proposed-amendment/about/code-of-conduct [1]. The patch of the proposed changes can be found at https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~exec/proposed-amendment.patch [2]. Both versions of the Code of Conduct are available for viewing in the office. Since we have to maintain 7 days notice for any changes, the General Meeting will not start until 8:30 PM on the day of the meeting. The Code Party will instead start at 6:30 PM. Thanks, Charlie Wang Computer Science Club University of Waterloo Links: ------ [1] https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/%7Eexec/proposed-amendment/about/code-of-conduct [2] https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/%7Eexec/proposed-amendment.patch

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General Meeting and Code Party Next Wednesday
by Computer Science Club 09 Nov '16

09 Nov '16

Hi all, Quick reminder that we're hosting UNIX 101, our linux/command-line tutorial in MC 3003 at 6PM today! More details at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_3003-2016-11-09-6:00_pm. The Computer Science Club is hosting two back-to-back events next week. On Wednesday, November 16, 6:30PM in M3-1006 we will have a general meeting followed by our termly Code Party. Members are invited to hang out and code on whatever they want during the party. This is also great opportunity to meet other members and get feedback on projects. There will be food. Our general meeting will be held to vote on an amendment to our constitution. As you may know, all individuals who are participating in club events and business must abide by the Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct is a part of our Constitution, section 12 <https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#conduct>. This code of conduct spells out what kind of behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable in our club. Although its intentions and goals are important for the future of the club, consultation with police services revealed confidentiality problems with our current Code of Conduct. Details at the bottom.* *The proposed amendment to the constitution is to completely strike out section 12.* By doing this, the code of conduct will no longer have any effect. We are currently researching ways on fixing our Code of Conduct, but it is untenable in its current form. In any case, the Computer Science Club and its members must still abide by University policies, including MathSoc policies. The intention is to have a revised code of conduct ready in time for the next election. Possible revisions include striking out the section on confidentiality or rewriting it. We welcome any feedback on amendments to the Code of Conduct, whether to fix this issue or to point out others. Happy coding and conducting, Charlie Wang President, Computer Science Club University of Waterloo * The concern is that in some cases, the Computer Science Club and its officers will be unable to provide confidentiality due to existing university policy or other laws and regulations, especially in cases where police and criminal charges are involved. In instances where our Code of Conduct has wording that contradicts University Policy, those other policies always take precedence over the Code of Conduct. However, the current form can get executive members (namely the "Handling Officer" for complaints) into legal trouble, if the procedures outlined in the Code of Conduct are followed.

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UNIX 101 This Wednesday
by Computer Science Club 08 Nov '16

08 Nov '16

Greetings Programs, The CSC is having its next event, UNIX 101, tomorrow at 6 PM in MC 3003 (the mac lab across from the CSC). UNIX 101 is a tutorial where we teach the basics of using a command-line (terminal) environment in UNIX. Knowing how to use the command-line and UNIX is an invaluable skill in CS, and helps prepare you for future projects and co-ops. Hope to see you there! Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire

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