March 2018 - csc-general

EOT food & dessert! And office policies and amendments
by Computer Science Club 30 Mar '18

30 Mar '18

Hello CSC members and robots, This very well may be the last email of term! It's been a big term, so why don't you come on down to the comfy and hang out. We're ordering in pitas (and dessert?????) and just hanging out. Literally no other activities, just hanging out. 6pm in the Comfy, Wednesday (April 4, last day of classes). Good food and company! Two more things, First, we're going to be amending our Constitution and Code of Conduct in a month and a half (at the S18 elections). Here's the summary: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~pj2melan/csc/about/amendments-explanation And finally, it's come to our attention recently that there have been situations where people have left the office open without office staff present. This goes against office policies and is explicitly forbidden. Since we depend on office staff to sign up/renew memberships, oversee our library, and keep an eye on the office, we're unable to operate normally without office staff present and have to close. Last term after similar issues we sent out an email to then-current office staff detailing that this is not allowed, so they should be aware of it. We also note that office staff should be aware of this as it is the very first policy listed in the Office Policies, which are explained to them during training and also posted in the office and on our wiki. As there is a certain level of trust instilled in office staff and a certain level of responsibility expected, we have decided that anyone who is found to be leaving the office open without office staff present is breaching that trust and will be removed from office staff. In this particular incident the comment made by one of the students who was still in the office without staff present was that "they said they would be back soon". This is not sufficient, an office staff member must be present at all times. If the last office staff member present needs to leave at all - even if it's just down the hall or to C&D or the washroom - they need to close the office. Similarly, if you are not a member of office staff and are in the office without office staff present, you need to leave. Lights should be turned off and both doors should be closed. We also ask that you email offsck(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca to report it. If you would like to stay in the office even after office staff leave, then talk to the Office Manager about getting trained for office staff (usually they will send out an email for training). Please remember that we provide the space to CSC members and as members and users of said space, you have agreed to abide by said policies. Thank you for a big term! -- The Exec team

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Alt-Tab Tomorrow (Wednesday)
by Computer Science Club 27 Mar '18

27 Mar '18

Greetings Programs, Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our termly Alt-Tab event, where members give relatively accessible and short talks on a variety of topics. It will be in MC 4020 on Wednesday, March 28 from 6:00 PM until approximately 9:00 PM. This term's speakers and their talk titles can be found on the event webpage https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4020-2018-03-28-6:00pm. We have a superstar lineup this term (hint: all of them). There will be food. Come and witness the frontier of computer science knowledge! No, not really, but come and listen to the nice talks. -- Charlie Wang Vice President, Computer Science Club

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Upcoming CSC events: Prof Talk, Uncode Party, Alt-Tab
by Computer Science Club 21 Mar '18

21 Mar '18

Greetings programs, We have three Computer Science Club events coming up. There will be food. Professor Richard Mann's talk on black box testing of audio gear is tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:00 PM in MC 4059. Details at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4059-2018-03-22-6:00pm. There will be food. We are having a joint Code Party with Women in Computer Science (WiCS) next Monday, March 26 at 7:00 PM in QNC 2502. This time, it's an Uncode Party, where you try to find the worst solutions possible to programming problems that we will provide. For example, http://wiki.c2.com/?SlowSort. Come and write shoddy code with us. No prior experience required, but most of you probably have some. You can work on your projects or your assignments too. There will be food. Finally, Alt-Tab is on Wednesday, March 28 in MC 4020 at 6:00 PM until late. We will listen to at least seven confirmed talks from a variety of members. Expect another email with talk titles and a schedule soon. There will be food. See you all there! There will be food. Charlie Wang Vice President Computer Science Club

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Prof talk with Richard Mann this Thursday
by Computer Science Club 19 Mar '18

19 Mar '18

Hi all, Professor Richard Mann will be giving a talk this Thursday, March 22 at 6:00 PM in MC 4059: Black Box testing of Audio Gear. Come out and to see fancy audio gear, learn more about his Advanced Topics course, and eat free food! His abstract is as follows. Black box testing usually refers to computer testing, either software or hardware. In this talk I apply similar ideas to testing analog and digital audio gear. For example, given an audio device, such as a guitar effects pedal, can we stimulate the system with test signals and determine what processing is done inside? I will present our open source testing software to test the frequency response, time delay and distortion in audio systems. We will show several real world testing situations, including microphones, loud speakers, digital keyboards, digital audio mixing boards, and guitar effects pedals. Students are encouraged to bring their own musical instruments and/or sound processors for testing. Finally, I will present information about my current audio course, CS489/689 -- Advanced Topics in Computer Science -- Computational Sound. This is a project based course, normally offered in the Winter term. See also the event listing on our website and our Facebook event: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4059-2018-03-22-6:00pm https://www.facebook.com/events/579916839035782/ Hope to see you all there, Charlie Wang Vice President Computer Science Club

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CSC T-Shirts Have Arrived
by Computer Science Club 17 Mar '18

17 Mar '18

Greetings Programs, This term's order of CSC T-Shirts have now arrived and are available for pickup in our office. If you have preordered a shirt, come by the office when it's open and ask an office staff member to get it for you. If you have not preordered a shirt but still want one, we have some available in both fitted and unisex, in various sizes, for $15. Come by the office and talk to an office staff member to see what's still available. Zoe Laing Office Manager Computer Science Club

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Call for Alt-Tab Talks on Wed. March 28
by Computer Science Club 14 Mar '18

14 Mar '18

Greetings programs, CSC will be hosting Alt-Tab, the Computer Science version of Short Attention Span Math Seminars (SASMS) hosted by that math club down the hall. It will be a night full of friendly talks on Wednesday, March 28, 6:00 PM until late. We need talks! Contact me, s455wang(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca, with your tentative talk title and a short abstract if you would like to give a talk. Slides are not required. Please aim for a 10-15 minute talk. I'll send an email with the list of talks closer to the date of the event. Here are some topics that our members have presented before. The titles make them seem more technical than they actually were. - Overview of SAT solvers - Communication complexity - Register allocation in compilers as graph colouring - Web application security - PXE booting - UI and UX - Train signalling and sensing - Typed Racket - Modern GPU architecture - How to unsubscribe from CSC emails Again, please contact s455wang(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca if you would like to participate. Thanks, Charlie Wang Vice President, Computer Science Club

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Learn about Git+Python, the FUTURE, and hang out!
by Computer Science Club 11 Mar '18

11 Mar '18

Hello programs! Some of our members have been hard at work organizing events for you, and there are now three this very week! There's a git + Python workshop this Thursday, and an out-of-town speaker on Monday and Tuesday. All good things! Of course, we're having food and coffee at all the events. You can see the three events on our Facebook page or website, but here's a quick summary for our important members. https://www.facebook.com/pg/watcsc/events/ 1. maddog's talk - Programming in the 22nd Century We're bringing in maddog to talk on Monday, he's the executive director of Linux International and was just in Brazil for another conference. He'll be talking about how programming has changed since C was a hot topic in the 1970s and RAM was measured in kilobytes. For those of you who have been exposed to CS 350, this may be of interest! The event is at 6pm on Monday, in the MC Comfy, and we'll be bringing you food. 2. talk to maddog (and eat food) We're getting maddog to stay for another day, just so that you can hang out with him. He's been in the industry since the 1970s, so he'll have lots of war stories. Want to ask him whether you should choose an Arduino or an RPi for FINE 204 wearable media? Want to find out how to save money by using FOSS? I do, and he'll know. The event is at 6pm on Tuesday, in the MC Comfy, and we'll be bringing you food. 3. Git + Python workshop (2A members, come on out!) And finally, a workshop event hosted by amazing members Charlie and Fatema! For those of you in 2A or lower, this workshop is geared to you. Come with a laptop and a GitHub account and we'll feed you and show you how to use version control in a digestible way. GitHub is a really common tool, Python is also really fun, and we're giving you yummy pastries so it's pretty low risk. The event is at 6:30pm on Thursday, in STC 0020, and we'll be bringing you food. Here are the events again: https://www.facebook.com/pg/watcsc/events/ See you! -- Patrick Melanson President CS Club

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Office Training
by Computer Science Club 01 Mar '18

01 Mar '18

Hello CSC, I'll be conducting office training Monday March 5th at 15:30 in the CSC office. If this time isn't good please email me at offsck(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Kind regards, Zoe Laing Office Manager

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