- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Winter 2021 Fees + Elections + Resume event
by Computer Science Club 13 Jan '21

13 Jan '21

Hello all, Here are are a few updates for the start of the W21 term: Mathsoc has currently not decided on whether club fees will be collected for the Winter 2021 term. Therefore, we will not process renewals and new member signups until MathSoc makes a decision, likely 1-2 weeks into the term. If you are a current CSC member whose account was active last term, you will retain access to CSC systems for all of January. We will send another email once MathSoc has made a decision. --------------- Due to the closure of campus this term, the Computer Science Club will be holding elections for Winter 2021 virtually. The president, vice-president, treasurer and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected and the sysadmin will be appointed. The librarian and office manager will not be appointed, since the office will be closed for the Winter term. If you'd like to run for any of these positions, please email cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will close on Wednesday, January 20 2021 at midnight EDT. If you'd like to get involved with CS Club, but don't want to run for an elected position, we are also accepting applications for roles on the Programme Committe! You can apply here: https://forms.gle/d2mTDAhf1D15Yyk27 --------------- We're holding a event on Thursday at 7 PM where we'll cover tips and tricks for creating a resume, as well as general tricks on how to approach WaterlooWorks. More details are available at https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/Online-2021-01-14-7:00_pm -- Neil Parikh CRO, UWaterloo CSC

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Dr. Richard Stallman's online talk on Friday November 27 (today!) at 3:30pm EST
by Computer Science Club 27 Nov '20

27 Nov '20

Hello programs, Dr. Richard M. Stallman (rms) will be delivering a live presentation today (Friday, November 27, 2020) at 3:30pm, on "Why operating systems and other software should be free". You can watch the livestream using Firefox- or Chromium-based browsers from the following page, at 3:30pm: https://live.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/2020-11-27-rms.html Dr. Stallman led the development of the GNU operating system, founded the Free Software Foundation, and launched the free software movement. Audience members can ask questions via the #csc IRC channel on the freenode IRC network, and I will pass them on to rms. CSC members can easily access IRC and join #csc by logging into the CSC-hosted instance of The Lounge web IRC client at https://chat.csclub.uwaterloo.ca using their CSC credentials. Non-CSC members may use other The Lounge instances available to the public, such as https://chat.emacsconf.org. Some useful resources related to topics from rms's talk: - The GNU Operating System: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html - What is free software? https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html - Why Software Should Be Free: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html - Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html rms's presentation will be delivered and streamed using only free/libre software. Note that Apple devices may not be able to play the stream, as they may still not be supporting the free patent-unencumbered WebM format to this day. On such devices, you may be able to watch the talk using the VLC player. A recording of the presentation will be made available afterwards for folks who are not able to watch the talk live. Yours in freedom, Amin Bandali Systems Committee Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

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Join CSC and WiCS for Alt-Tab on Nov 19 (today!) at 5 PM ET
by Computer Science Club 19 Nov '20

19 Nov '20

Hello all, Come join the UW Computer Science Club (CSC) and Women in Computer Science (WiCS) on Thursday, November 19th (today) from 5-7PM EST for Alt-Tab! Alt-Tab is a lightning tech talk series presented by students and alumni. This term's Alt-Tab event will comprise of 4 different speakers who will be talking about topics including Ethereum NFT gaming, proof assistants and vanity Tor URLS. There will also be a raffle to win $20 gift cards! This event will be hosted on Zoom, at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85836317055 -- Neil Parikh Treasurer, UWaterloo CSC

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Alt-Tab: Call for Speakers! (Applications due November 1st)
by Computer Science Club 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

Hello CSC members, Join the Computer Science Club (CSC) and Women in Computer Science (WiCS) on Thursday, November 19th for Alt-Tab, a lightning tech talk series presented by students! Alt-Tab consists of 10 to 15-minute talks about anything related to tech. They can be about cool new features, a fun project you made or really anything that you are excited about! We will be hosting it virtually this term! We are currently looking for speakers! If you’re passionate about a technical topic and interested in public speaking, apply by filling out the form below. We’d LOVE to hear from you. Speakers don't need to have prior experience and Alt-Tab is a great way to get started with giving talks! Here are some topics that past talks have covered: - Unicode - Virtual Escape Rooms - Quantum Computers - GraphQL - Pathfinding You can apply here: https://forms.gle/o86BkuD3iqCL4jve7 Applications are due on Sunday, November 1st, at 11:59PM ET. Hope to see you there! Neil Parikh Treasurer, UWaterloo CSC

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Fall 2020 Election Results
by Computer Science Club 28 Sep '20

28 Sep '20

Hello CSC, Fall 2020 elections have concluded. Here are your executives for the term. - President: Mokai Xu (m92xu) - VP: Anastassia Gaikovaia (agaikova) - AVP: Edwin Yang (e37yang) - Treasurer: Neil Parikh (n3parikh) - Sysadmin: Murphy Berzish (mtrberzi) Thanks, Stacy Gaikovaia, CRO

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[ANN] Hosted ZNC (IRC bouncer) for CSC members
by Computer Science Club 28 Sep '20

28 Sep '20

Hello programs, On behalf of the CSC Systems Committee I am pleased to announce the availability of the CSC's own installation of the ZNC IRC bouncer for our members, at <https://znc.csclub.uwaterloo.ca>. To learn how to configure and use your CSC ZNC account to connect to IRC networks, please see the 'Client setup' section of the new ZNC page on the CSC wiki at <https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ZNC>. This is the second of several steps we at the CSC Systems Committee are taking to bring modern user freedom- and privacy-respecting communication tools to our members. This is now more crucial than ever, as we have all grown our dependence on remote communication tools due to the ongoing global crisis, and as Fall 2020 starts with classes held online. Starting today, CSC members can use their CSC account credentials to log into znc.csclub.uwaterloo.ca to access the CSC-hosted version of the ZNC IRC bouncer [0]. ZNC is free/libre software [1-2] under the Apache 2.0 license, and self-hostable by anyone. The CSC ZNC was set up with the help of the Systems Committee's newest member, Max Erenberg (merenber). Thanks for all your help and work on this, Max! [0]: <https://wiki.znc.in/ZNC> [1]: <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html> [2]: <https://github.com/znc/znc> Upon your first login to CSC ZNC's web interface, it will automatically create an account for you, with the freenode network pre-configured, where you can join our #csc channel along with channels of many other free software projects. As an IRC bouncer, ZNC keeps you connected and logged into the IRC networks you configure it for and the channels you join in, so that when you close your IRC client or turn off your computer you won't miss any of the conversations that took place while you were gone. After configuring your CSC ZNC account, you would then change your IRC client's configuration to connect to the CSC ZNC instead of the IRC networks directly. The CSC-hosted instance of The Lounge [3] announced earlier [4] covers part of a bouncer's use-case while providing a user-friendly web IRC client. Since IRC bouncers most often implement their functionality on top of the IRC protocol, they can be used with any IRC client and not bound to the browser like The Lounge is. [3]: <https://chat.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> [4]: https://mailman.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/csc-general/2020-July/000837.… We will be updating the "How to IRC" page [5] of the CSC Wiki with information about the newly introduced CSC The Lounge and CSC ZNC services as the easiest and most flexible ways of connecting to IRC respectively for CSC members going forward. [5]: <https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/How_to_IRC> Want to learn more or find more user freedom- and privacy-respecting remote communication tools? See [6] for a large list of free software tools you can use to communicate with your peers and/or loved ones in privacy and freedom. [6]: <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication> Have a question or suggestion? Do not hesitate to write to us at the Systems Committee <syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca>; we look forward to hearing from you! Amin Bandali Systems Committee Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Fall 2020 Elections and Club Fees
by Computer Science Club 12 Sep '20

12 Sep '20

Hello programs, Due to the closure of campus this term, the Computer Science Club will be holding elections for Fall 2020 virtually. The president, vice-president, treasurer and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected, the sysadmin will be ratified. The librarian and office manager will not be appointed, since the office will be closed for the Spring term. If you'd like to run for any of these positions, please email cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will close on Saturday, September 19 2020 at midnight EDT. Additionally, due to campus closure, MathSoc has decided not collect fees for the Fall 2020 term. Due to this: * If have already paid for Fall 2020 membership, your membership will be extended by one term. * If your membership is expired for the Fall 2020 term, you can email exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca to have your membership renewed for the term at no cost. Stacy Gaikovaia CRO, Computer Science Club

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[ANN] New web IRC client for CSC members
by Computer Science Club 27 Jul '20

27 Jul '20

Greetings programs, On behalf of the CSC Systems Committee I am pleased to announce the availability of the CSC's very own installation of The Lounge web IRC client, available to our members at <https://chat.csclub.uwaterloo.ca>. This is the first of several steps we at the CSC Systems Committee are taking to bring modern user freedom- and privacy-respecting communication tools to our members. This is now more crucial than ever, as we have all grown our dependence on remote communication tools due to the ongoing global crisis. Starting today, CSC members can use their CSC account credentials to log into <https://chat.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> to access the CSC-hosted version of The Lounge web IRC client [0]. The Lounge is free software [1], under the Expat License (also referred to as the MIT License) [2] and self-hostable by anyone. [0]: <https://thelounge.chat> [1]: <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html> [2]: <https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge> On your first login to the web IRC client, it will automatically create an account for you, saving and keeping your settings even when you close your browser. The Lounge acts similarly to an IRC bouncer, keeping you connected and logged into the IRC networks you connect to and the channels you join in, even when you close your browser or turn off your computer. This helps avoid missing chat history due to your computer not being always connected to the IRC server(s) directly. The new web IRC client's default suggested connection uses a secure encrypted connection method (over TLS) for connecting to IRC servers. However, even if you don't use the web client, and e.g. run a TUI client on one of our servers (e.g. neotame), please be sure to update your client connection configuration and always use TLS to avoid sending your IRC account password and other data to the IRC network(s) in cleartext. We are excited to share more news about IRC-based communication tools for our members in the coming weeks. Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox and/or the csc-general list [3] for our upcoming announcements. Further, we will be updating the "How to IRC" page [4] of the CSC Wiki to recommend using the new web IRC client going forward. [3]: <https://mailman.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/listinfo/csc-general> [4]: <https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/How_to_IRC> Want to learn more or find more user freedom- and privacy-respecting remote communication tools? See [5] for a large list of free software tools you can use to communicate with your peers and/or loved ones in privacy and freedom. [5]: <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication> Have a question or suggestion? Do not hesitate to write to us at the Systems Committee <syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca>; we look forward to hearing from you! Amin Bandali System Administrator, Systems Committee Computer Science Club, University of Waterloo

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Spring 2020 Election Results
by Computer Science Club 28 May '20

28 May '20

Hello CSC, Spring 2020 elections have concluded. Here are your executives for the term. - President: Neil Parikh (n3parikh) - Vice President: Anastassia Gaikovaia (agaikova) - Sysadmin: Amin Bandali (abandali) Stacy Gaikovaia, CRO

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Planned outage on Thursday, May 28, 2020
by Computer Science Club 26 May '20

26 May '20

Hello all, Computer Science Club systems and services will be unavailable on Thursday, May 28 due to a planned power outage in the Mathematics and Computer Building (MC) from 10am to 12pm (noon) EDT. The CSC will begin shutting down machines at 8am EDT in preparation of the outage. This outage will impact: - Web hosting (all personal and club websites) - Email (@csclub.uwaterloo.ca email addresses) - Servers and Office Terminals We hope to maintain the availability of mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca for the duration of the outage. Should sufficient battery backup power be available, we may also attempt to maintain the availability our web hosting service. 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, Systems Committee Computer Science Club | University of Waterloo syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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