- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Unix 101 this Thursday!
by Computer Science Club 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

Hello CS Programs! The CS Club is running a Unix 101 talk this Thursday at 6pm! It will happen in the Mac lab across from the CSC. We'll be going over Linux command-line basics, motivations for using it, and useful commands. Here's a hopefully interesting blurb: New to the Linux computing environment? If you seek an introduction, look no further (you can if you want we're not the police). Topics that will be covered include basic interaction with the shell and the motivations behind using it, and an introduction to compilation. You'll have to learn this stuff in CS 246 anyways, so why not get a head start! If you're interested in attending, make sure you can log into the Macs on the third floor, or show up to the CSC office (MC 3036) 20 minutes early for some help. If you're already familiar with these topics, don't hesitate to come to Unix 102, planned to be held after Reading Week. Was that interesting? If so, we'd love to see you! We're having cookies after. -- Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire Computer Science Club University of Waterloo exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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Election Results and Eth1: Jane Street Contest
by Computer Science Club 15 Jan '16

15 Jan '16

Hi all, We have an exec team and news of our first event of the term. Sign up by Monday. Here are your new executives for the Winter 2016 term. Your president is Patrick Melanson, pj2melan. Your vice-president is Patrick Melanson, pj2melan. Unofficially, Theo Belaire will be filling in for the duties of vice president. Your treasurer is Luqman Aden, laden. Your secretary is Naomi Koo, m3koo. You can contact the exec at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Additionally, the sysadmin is Zachary Seguin (ztseguin), the office manager is Reila Zheng (wy2zheng), and the librarian is Felix Bauckholt (fbauckho). Now that we have our exec, here's some news about the first event: Our first event of the term is happening next weekend, on the *23rd*. We have Jane Street coming in to run their financial trader bot contest. *Sign up* <https://docs.google.com/a/janestreet.com/forms/d/1I7UukJDH9ZAVWpLl-2vwmvPWz…> on this page: http://eth1-waterloo.janestreet.com/ Sign up by *Monday* January 18th, since there is limited space in the room. Absolutely no special math, OCaml, or finance knowledge is required; you can use any language you like. The contest is entirely technical in nature and you won't need any visual design skills. The exact details of the hackathon aren't released until the competition begins. The one thing you can do ahead of time to prepare is familiarize yourself with the libraries for writing TCP clients in your programming language of choice. So I'm guessing y'all should read Racket Reference: TCP <https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/tcp.html>.

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Nominations Closed, Elections Today
by Computer Science Club 14 Jan '16

14 Jan '16

Hi all, Nominations have closed for CSC elections. Here is a list of candidates for the elected positions. President pj2melan hkpeprah Vice-president pj2melan hkpeprah jj2baile Treasurer laden cdchawth Secretary m3koo jj2baile Additionally, the following candidates have expressed interest in the following appointed positions. Office Manager fbauckho wy2zheng jj2baile Sysadmin ztseguin hkpeprah Librarian fbauckho Note that nominations can be declined at any time prior to the taking of the vote. Absentee votes (voting by email) can be sent to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. They must be sent by 18:00 on January 14, 2016 (today). All voting is restricted to current club members who are Social Members of the Mathematics Society. Voting will use the approval voting system. This means that you can vote for as many candidates as you want for any position. At the meeting, votes will be conducted in a heads-down hands-up fashion. For more information on election procedures please see http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#duties. See you all tonight at 19:00 in the MC Comfy (3001)! -- Charlie Wang Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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CSC Winter 2016 Elections
by Computer Science Club 06 Jan '16

06 Jan '16

Hi all, The Computer Science Club will be holding elections for the Winter 2016 term on Thursday, January 14th in MC Comfy (MC 3001) at 19:00. During the meeting, the president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary will be elected, the sysadmin will be ratified, and the librarian and office manager will be appointed. If you'd like to run for any of these positions or nominate someone, you can write your name on the whiteboard in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037) or send me (Charlie) an email at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca.[1] Every effort will be made to note down whiteboard nominations, but it is highly recommended to send me an email in addition to writing on the whiteboard. You can also deposit nominations in the CSC mailbox in MathSoc or present them to me in person. Nominations will close at 18:00 on Wednesday, January 13th. All members are welcome to run! -- Charlie Wang (s455wang) Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca P.S. For information on election procedures please see http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#officers Links: ------ [1] http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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New Event: WiCS and CSC watch War Games!
by Computer Science Club 24 Nov '15

24 Nov '15

Hello CSC members! Come by to MC Comfy, on 2015-11-27, at 7:30 PM to watch "War Games" with WiCS! War Games is this movie where these kids phone a computer and then the computer wants to nuke things. Cold war stuff. Nowadays computers won't let you do that, you have to SSH in instead. We're bringing food. Gluten-free, vegetarian options available. Sandwiches, drinks, and popcorn! Everyone welcome! Stop by!

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FOAM Talk Coming Up!
by Computer Science Club 23 Nov '15

23 Nov '15

Hey CSC! Make sure to come over to come over to a talk called "An Introduction to the FOAM Framework" in MC 4063, on 2015-11-26, at 5:00-7:00 PM! Description: FOAM is an open-source modeling framework written in Javascript. With FOAM, you can create Domain Specific Languages (DSLs), which are high-level models that can be interpreted or compiled to different languages or environments (Java/Android, Swift/iOS, and JS/Web). Currently, it supports DSLs for entities/classes, parsers, animations, database queries, interactive documents, and, most importantly, new DSLs. FOAM supports building text, HTML, and graphical views for DSLs using a small Model View Controller (MVC) library, which is itself modeled with FOAM. This library can also be used by modeled Javascript applications. FOAM increases developer productivity by allowing them to express solutions at a higher, more succinct level. The MVC library also increases application performance through its efficient data-binding, caching, and query-optimization mechanisms. Learn more at http://foamdev.com

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Two Talks Coming Up!
by Computer Science Club 19 Nov '15

19 Nov '15

Hey CSC members! Two talks will happen soon: 1. Git 101 by Charlie Wang (Thursday, 2015-11-19, 7:00-8:00 PM, MC 4020) git init, git add, git commit, git ’er done! In Git 101, Charlie Wang will convince you to use Git for your projects and show you a high level overview of how to use it properly. This talk is recommended for CS 246 students. Come for the tutorial, stay for the bad jokes 2. Static Analysis and Program Optimization Using Dataflow Analysis by Sean Harrap (Monday, 2015-11-23, 6:00 PM, MC 4041) An introduction to some basic issues with optimization of imperative programs, beginning with traditional methods such as tree traversals. This will be followed by a more powerful solution to these problems, providing an overview of its mathematical foundations, and then describing how it can be used to express optimizations simply and elegantly. Some familiarity with the second year CS core (CS245, CS241, MATH239) will be assumed. See you there!

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Updates on corn-syrup, hfcs, and /scratch
by Computer Science Club 12 Nov '15

12 Nov '15

Hello CSC Members, Below are some updates from the CSC Systems Committee that directly impact system availability. We will be taking corn-syrup down on Monday, November 16th around 2:30 till end of day for scheduled maintenance. During that time we will be swapping out the root file system and will be removing old packages. If you notice any packages you use day-to-day are missing after this time, please contact us at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. High-fructose-corn-syrup is currently suffering from an undiagnosed and unpredictable hardware failure. Feel free to use the system but we are unable to guarantee its stability. /scratch currently has a failing drive and the Systems Committee is looking at replacing it in the future. We hope to maintain the data, but this is a reminder that you should not store irreplaceable data in /scratch. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Systems Committee at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Regards, Jordan Pryde CSC Systems Administrator and the CSC Systems Committee

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Event Tomorrow: Starting an Indie Game Dev company
by Computer Science Club 06 Oct '15

06 Oct '15

Greetings Programs: Tomorrow, Wednesday the 7th of October we are hosting an event: Starting an VN Indie Game Company as a UW Student *MC 4061 starting at 5:30 PM.* Abstract: Many people want to make games as signified by all the game development schools that are appearing everywhere. But how would you do it as a UW student? This talk shares the experiences of how making Sakura River Interactive was founded without any Angel/VC investment. The talk will start off with inspiration drawn of Co-op Japan, to it's beginnings at Velocity. Then a reflection of how various game development and business skills was obtained in the unexpected ways at UW will follow. How the application of probabilities, theory of computation, physical/psychological attraction theories was used in the development of the company's first game. Finally how various Computer Science theories helped evaluate feasibility of several potential incoming business deals.

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Tom Rathborne Talk: "Why am I Learning This?"
by Computer Science Club 30 Sep '15

30 Sep '15

"Why am I Studying This?" Data Structures, Finite State Machines, Big-O, Queuing theory, Race conditions, Compilers, The Halting Problem, and more! These things get even more interesting in the real world. Come and hear Tom Rathborne talk about how theory hits reality (often with a bang!) at Booking.com, the biggest not-a-technology-company on the Internet. Friday, 2015-10-02 7:30 PM MC 4040 Food and drinks will be provided!

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