- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Talk on C++ and Machine Architecture
by Computer Science Club 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Greetings, members. The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club hereby cordially invites you to attend a talk by Herb Sutter on the topics of Machine Architecture, Performance, and Scalability. Herb's talk will be held on Thursday, February 28th at 4:30 PM in DC 1302. An abstract: Machine Architecture, Performance, and Scalability: Things Your Programming Language Never Told You. High-level languages insulate the programmer from the machine. That's a wonderful thing -- except when it obscures the answers to the fundamental questions of "What does the program do?" and "How much does it cost?" The C++ and C# programmer is less insulated than most, and still we find that programmers are consistently surprised at what simple code actually does and how expensive it can be -- not because of any complexity of a language, but because of being unaware of the complexity of the machine on which the program actually runs. This talk examines the "real meanings" and "true costs" of the code we write and run, especially on commodity and server systems, by delving into the performance effects of bandwidth vs. latency limitations, the ever-deepening memory hierarchy, the changing costs arising from the hardware concurrency explosion, memory model effects all the way from the compiler to the CPU to the chipset to the cache, and more -- and what you can do about them. ---- Herb Sutter is an influential authority on software development using C++ and concurrency. He is the best selling author of Exceptional C++ and three other books, along with hundreds of technical papers and articles including the widely-cited essay "The Free Lunch Is Over" which described the software sea change now in progress to exploit increasingly parallel hardware. He is chair of the ISO C++ standards committee and chief native languages architect at Microsoft. If you have received this message twice, we apologise. Cheers, Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Scheduled Downtime Feb 3 12PM-Feb 4 12PM
by Computer Science Club 02 Feb '13

02 Feb '13

Greetings programs, The CSC will be having scheduled downtime on the following hosts starting Sunday, February 3rd, 12PM: - ginseng - mail Services affected will be the following: - member home directories - club hosting - mail delivery (SMTP) As part of our continued expansion of service, we have recently acquired network storage device, and will be migrating user home directories to this device. This will allow us to host more concurrent users (both members and clubs), in addition to supporting snapshots of user home directories to facilitate backup capabilities. We are aware of the importance of having high service availability to not only our members, but to the organizations whose websites we host as well. As such, we have decided to make your data _read-only_ but still accessible during the course of migration. This means that while you will still be able to log in, you will be _unable_ to make any modifications to your files during this time period. This also means that any mail you may normally receive will be _delayed_ by up to 24 hours. It is also important to also note that database services will still be accessible during the course of the migration. We have allotted 24 hours for the process of migration. We expect all services to be up by Monday, February 4th, 12PM. To help us ensure a smooth migration, we ask that you please end any long-running jobs that write to files in your home directory. We cannot make any guarantees that these jobs will perform correctly during the migration. Cheers, Systems Committee

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BOT Announcements: Gabriella Coleman, Code Party 0, Scheduled Downtime
by Computer Science Club 26 Jan '13

26 Jan '13

Greetings, members! Welcome and welcome back, and happy new year! We have many exciting events planned for this term; here are some of the upcoming ones, so mark up your fresh calendars (unless you prefer to preserve their beautiful, clean, glossy, white pages...). ~Gabriella Coleman, "Weapons of the Geek": Monday, Jan. 28, 4:30pm, DC 1302 An anthropologist from McGill, Gabriella Coleman researches, writes, and teaches on hackers and digital activism. Her talk is part of the CrySP Speaker Series on privacy. Here is the abstract: "Drawing on fieldwork among Free and Open Source software hackers and the Anonymous protest movement, I will discuss some attributes of hacker and geek activism that set their actions apart from other modalities of dissent and contextualize their actions in light of broader historical trends concerning censorship, intellectual property, privacy, and surveillance." ~Code Party 0: Friday, Feb. 1, 7:00pm, Comfy Lounge (MC 3001) Our first code party of the term is next Friday. There will be soda, chips, cookies, and (probably not many) other delectable delicacies to pleasure your palates. There will also be music and free Internet ((both) in limited supply). Stop by, relax, and work on that coding project you've been putting off since Christmas. Attendance is not limited to members! ~Scheduled downtime: Sunday, Feb. 3, 12:00pm until Monday, Feb. 4, 12:00pm CSC systems will be taken offline to allow us to switch homedirectory hosting to our new Netapp storage device. All CSC systems, homedirectories and hosted websites will be unavailable for the duration of our maintenance window. Make sure to save your work, and plan ahead to use a personal computer or a different machine during that time. Happy coding, Matt O. CSC Secretary, Winter 2013

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Winter 2013 election nominees
by Computer Science Club 15 Jan '13

15 Jan '13

Greetings programs, Winter 2013 nominations closed earlier today. Elections are tomorrow, Wednesday Jan 16, at 4:00pm in the MC Comfy Lounge. Come by and take part in selecting this term's executive. Librarian and Sysadmin will be selected immediately afterward as well. Nominees are as follows. President: a2brenna ( Anthony Brennan ) jdonland ( Jesse Onland ) m4burns ( Marc Burns ) mimcpher ( Matthew McPherrin ) qxi ( Qifan Xi ) wlritchi ( William Ritchie ) Vice-President: b2coutts ( Bryan Coutts ) m4burns ( Marc Burns ) mimcpher ( Matthew McPherrin ) sharvey ( Sarah Harvey ) wlritchi ( William Ritchie ) Treasurer: b2coutts ( Bryan Coutts ) jsmumfor ( Jonathan Mumford ) m4burns ( Marc Burns ) wlritchi ( William Ritchie ) Secretary: b2coutts ( Bryan Coutts ) h292zhan ( Heming Zhang ) jsmumfor ( Jonathan Mumford ) m4burns ( Marc Burns ) mgolechn ( Mateusz Olechnowicz ) mimcpher ( Matthew McPherrin ) wlritchi ( William Ritchie ) If you are unable to attend during the election event, votes my also be e-mailed to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca, listing preference. With warm regards, Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire

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Winter 2013 Elections Have Begun
by Computer Science Club 04 Jan '13

04 Jan '13

Greetings members! The election period for Winter 2013 Computer Science Club executive has begun! Come down to the MC Comfy Lounge on Wednesday January 16, 2012 at 4:00PM, where elections will be held for this term's President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. Sysadmin, Librarian and Office Manager selections will also occur at this time. Nominations will run until Tuesday January 15, 2012 at 4:00PM. You can submit a nomination ( including yourself ) by writing the person's user id in the nomination chart on the office whiteboard. Alternatively, you may e-mail nominations to this term's CRO at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. With warm regards, Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire

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CSC Code Party 3
by Computer Science Club 21 Nov '12

21 Nov '12

Greetings, Programs. The Computer Science Club would like to invite you to our last code party of the term at 7 PM on November 23rd (Friday) in MC Comfy Lounge (MC 3001). As usual, there will be free food and sugary drinks for your hacking pleasure. Syed Albiz will be presenting a tutorial on implementing a ray-tracer in C and Scheme. Come join us! Bring your friends, bring your laptops. Marc Burns President, University of Waterloo Computer Science Club.

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KW Perlmongers Talk / CSC Goes to Charity Ball / SASMS
by Computer Science Club 12 Nov '12

12 Nov '12

Hello, membership! I hope your midterms haven't treated you too badly. For a few breaks from the grind, we invite you to some upcoming events, hosted by the CSC, MathSoc, and the PMC. KW PERLMONGERS TALK: Thursday, Nov. 15, 7:00 - 8:30 pm, DC 1302 --- By Justin Wheeler! In his own words, this talk will cover the virtues of Perl: CPAN, Moose, CPAN, Catalyst, CPAN, DBIx::Class, CPAN, TMTOWTDI, and did I mention CPAN? If you've never used Perl before, don't be scared away by the jargon---the talk should be accessible to all CS students, and even if you find it hard to follow, we will be serving pizza! CSC GOES TO CHARITY BALL: Saturday, Nov. 17, 6:00 pm - 1:00 am, Fed Hall --- The CSC will be purchasing one or more tables for all n - n (mod 8) people that ask to attend Charity Ball with us. You will enjoy a discounted $25 ticket if you purchase through us! If you are interested in attending, please email exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca and we will seat you at one of our tables in exchange for your $25 ticket fee. SASMS: Wednesday, Nov. 21, 4:30 pm - last mathematician standing, MC 5136B --- Join the PMC for their termly Short Attention Span Math Seminars, or SASMS, for short. There will be food, there will be math, and there will be talks! Applications (term loosely applied) for speaking are open until the day of the event. CS talks are welcomed. Talks are 25 minutes long. After dinner, there will be a session of "Lightning Talks"---5 minutes in length, no sign up required. Sign ups and more information are available on the SASMS page: http://pmclub.uwaterloo.ca/?q=content/sasms-fall-2012 Hope to see you there! -- Elana Hashman Secretary Computer Science Club University of Waterloo ehashman(a)uwaterloo.ca

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Office Training
by Computer Science Club 23 Oct '12

23 Oct '12

Fall 2012 office training is scheduled for this Monday, October 29 at 4:00 pm in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037). If you are interested in helping out around the office or getting more involved with the club, we encourage you to come out and become a member of our office staff! The more staff we have, the longer we can keep the office open.

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Bitcoin Talk / Code Party 2!
by Computer Science Club 15 Oct '12

15 Oct '12

Hello members, I hope your midterms aren't inflicting too much suffering upon ye. You can look forward to a bit of a break with our following two events for the next couple weeks: THE CRYPTOGRAPHIC AND GAME-THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTALS BEHIND BITCOIN: by Vitalik Buterin. Thursday, Oct. 18, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM, MC 2034 --- Interested in learning more about Bitcoin, the independent digital cryptographic cash? Then this is the talk for you! In his talk, Vitalik will cover the cryptographic and game-theory principles behind the currency, including how the issues of double-spending, the "51% attack," and "mining" are addressed, the game-theory incentives to use Bitcoins honestly, and other issues being faced today in practice, such as implementation, attacks, and future scalability. Refreshments will be provided. CODE PARTY 2: Friday, Oct. 26, 7:00 PM, Comfy Lounge (MC 3001) --- The CSC will be holding our second code party of the term. We'll be hosting a few tutorials on topics including robots, Scala, git, and Haskell. Come out, bring your friends and your laptop, and soak up the LCD glow! As always, food and drinks will be available for your hacking pleasure. Good luck with your assignments and midterms, and hope to see you out at our events. If you're interested in giving a member talk like Vitalik's, or if you'd like to help out with some of our events, send us an email at progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. EXTERMINATE, -- Elana Hashman Secretary Computer Science Club University of Waterloo ehashman(a)uwaterloo.ca

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TRON Screening / Call for Member Talks / CUSEC Invitation
by Computer Science Club 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

Greetings, programs! I trust that your term has had a pleasant beginning. Calum T. Dalek has asked that I pass on the following information for the next week. TRON SCREENING -- FROSH-A-TRON: Friday, Sept. 28, 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM, PHY 150 --- ehashman's lousy frosh event naming scheme continues as we prepare for this week's movie night---a screening of the original TRON in PHY 150. Come watch the groundbreaking film that defined the role of computer graphics and the quality of special effects in modern cinema. And bring your friends! CALL FOR MEMBER TALKS --- Here is a termly reminder that as a member, you are welcome (and invited!) to give a talk for the CSC. Perhaps you've worked on a project you're really passionate about; perhaps you really want to share your love of a certain topic; maybe you just want to practice your public speaking. Our members would like to hear it! Please send your talk abstract or proposal to our Programmes Committee, progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca, along with some dates you're available for presenting. Thanks in advance! CUSEC INVITATION --- Santiago Gil (sgilcast(a)uwaterloo.ca) has asked us to pass on some information about the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference (CUSEC). The conference will take place in Montreal, QC from January 17 - 19, 2013. The conference website with more information is available at 2013.cusec.net. A Waterloo group is being coordinated, and can assist in your conference bookings and may be able to provide some funding for your expenses. To opt in, fill in their google form<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGMxUVp4QnpLNklVaHR4RV…>and if you have any questions, email waterloo(a)cusec.net. Good luck on your upcoming midterms! -- Elana Hashman Secretary Computer Science Club University of Waterloo ehashman(a)uwaterloo.ca

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