- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Copyright Bill C-32 Activism Party!
by Computer Science Club 11 Jun '10

11 Jun '10

Hello CSCers, The Canadian government recently proposed Bill C-32, which would change how copyright works in Canada. As stated, the bill would make it illegal for Canadians to circumvent "digital locks". The affects of this change would be drastic, as many ordinary freedoms would be taken away from the public. For example, it would become illegal to watch legally-purchased DVDs with open-source software, illegal to modify video games or consoles for personal entertainment, illegal to circumvent the copy-protection on many PDFs in order to quote from a document, etc. I strongly recommend that you read over the proposed bill and make an informed decision. Then you can contact your MPs and local newspapers to request change where it is due. Please read: [*] http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/crp-prda.nsf/eng/home [*] http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5097/125/ Furthermore, the CSC is hosting a meeting/party this Saturday to discuss the bill, and write letters to MPs and the media. Please join us: Saturday, June 12th 18:30 - 21:00 PM MC 2017 I hope that you will get involved in this important matter. Regards, Calum T. Dalek

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School of CS Council Meeting
by Computer Science Club 08 Jun '10

08 Jun '10

Hello everyone, The SCS Council is meeting tomorrow, and I will be attending as one of the undergraduate representatives. For those who don't know, School Council is the governing body of the School of CS, they make decisions about curriculum and course offerings, CS policy and the like. At tomorrows meeting two revisions of the SE curriculum are being considered: 1) To create CS247 for SE students that has the content of the current CS246, and ammend the prerequisites. As you are probably aware, CS246 is being revised and moved before CS241, SE does not want a similar change and wants to keep CS241 in 2A. 2) To change the description of CS138, which removes Scheme from the SE curriculum. This is being done to facilitate SE students taking the revised CS241 in 2A. If you have comments on either of these, in support of or against the changes, please send them to me and I will do my best to make sure they are brought up. Thanks, -- Edgar Bering, Office Manager ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Member Talks
by Computer Science Club 27 May '10

27 May '10

It's not too late! You can give a talk for the CSC. This is a reminder that abstracts are due tomorrow if you want to give a talk. But it is also early in the semester so don't be discouraged. If you want to give a talk email me and we'll work something out. There are plenty of spots left. Email the title and a paragraph or two describing the talk to: veep(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca -- Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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CUMC2010@waterloo: A call for volunteers!
by Computer Science Club 25 May '10

25 May '10

Attention Mathematically slanted Waterloo students: The CUMC is looking for smart, energetic, dedicated volunteers to help with the logistics of this years conference! The Conference runs July 6th to July 10th, and is looking to recruit approximately 15 volunteers for running the event. Perks for being a Volunteer include having your conference fee waved, special CUMC staff Merch (Staffers get super special staff t-shirts) and of course the joy of helping out the exciting event this summer. For more information on the event, check out the website at cumc.math.ca. If you would like to apply to be a volunteer, please send an email with subject "VOLUNTEER", to cumc.2010(a)gmail.com. In the email, indicate if you can commit full time, or if you have other academic responsibilities that you will be doing concurrently. If you're interested in being one of the 5-7 students who gets trained on the visual equipment the conference will use, please indicate. We'll be accepting application emails until June 3rd. Thanks, the CUMC team. A bit more on CUMC: There is a discount on registration for UW students, since it is in town it makes a really great deal. If you are interested in attending more information can be found here: http://cumc.math.ca/2010/. -- Edgar Bering, Program Committee ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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The deadline for IOI @ UW volunteering is soon
by Computer Science Club 25 May '10

25 May '10

Hello everyone, The University of Waterloo will be hosting the IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics) this August 14-21st. CEMC (Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing) is looking for volunteers to help us out during that week-long event. In particular, they are still looking for people who are fluent in a language other than English to volunteer as Guides. This is an exciting opportunity to meet people from around the world, give a positive impression of Waterloo, Ontario and Canada, and to practice your languages all while gaining volunteer hours. Information about the 2010 IOI can be found at www.ioi2010.org. The deadline for volunteering is this Friday. CEMC is still looking for a Guides who speak one of the languages listed here: http://www.ioi2010.org/languages.shtml Contact jnissen(a)uwaterloo.ca with your information as soon as possible. Thanks, Calum T. Dalek

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REMINDER: Gerald Sussman: Today and Tomorrow
by Computer Science Club 25 May '10

25 May '10

Hello everyone, Just a quick reminder: Gerald Sussman is down for today and tomorrow for a series of events. Full details can be found at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/misc/sussman/ . As always, if you have questions just reply to this email. Thanks, Calum T. Dalek

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Speaker: Gerald Jay Sussman
by Computer Science Club 18 May '10

18 May '10

Hello CSCers! We've got a big event happening next week. Gerald Sussman is coming in from MIT to give a couple of public lectures. Gerald Sussman is, among other things, the creator of Scheme - a programming language many of you are no doubt familiar with. There will be two talks and a public reception. Come out to the reception for the free food and meet some people. If you have a copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs bring it to the reception to get it signed! All of the details are located at http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/misc/sussman/ . For those of you not able to attend due to distance: there is a non-zero probability that the lectures will be posted online in video form. If you have any questions reply to this email.

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Spring 2010 Term Preview
by Computer Science Club 17 May '10

17 May '10

Hello Members, Welcome to the Spring 2010 term. This is the term Preview. We have a surprising amount of stuff happening in a Spring term. -- Membership Remember to renew! If you can't remember if your membership is arranged for the term, just ask. -- Gerald Sussman This is very cool. There will be an email very shortly with full details but I'll let you in on a sneak peek. Gerald Sussman is coming to UW to give a few talks and hang out next week. A coauthor of SICP, an ACM winner of the Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award in 1990 and the Amar G. Bose award for teaching in 1991, and a laundry list of other very cool stuff. He's a man worth meeting. Keep your eyes peeled. -- Election Results Our election for the Spring 2010 term was last Tuesday. The results and appointments follow: Prez - Jeff Cameron Veep - Brennan Taylor Trez - Vardhan Mudunuru Sec - Matt Lawrence Sysadmin - Mike Ellis Office Manager - Edgar Bering Librarian - Tapan Oza -- Prof and Member Talks We want lots of them! We are planning on running them like last semester where we will run a talk every Tuesday at 4:30pm. But we need your help. Don't worry it is easy. Give us suggestions for professors you would like to hear from. Or better yet, volunteer to give a talk on whatever you find interesting within the vast and exciting field of Computer Science. Send veep(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca an abstract by May 28th. Past suggestions from members about topics the members would like to hear about are: *Prabhakar Ragde - A topic of his choice *Ray Laflamme - Quantum Computing things *Kate Larson - AI whatnot *Ian Goldberg - Being Awesome *Tim Brecht - OS Hotness *Michael Best - Portfolio Optimization -- Contest - Call for Volunteers Zero experience required! Our President, Jeff Cameron, has worked hard in previous terms to run a number of AI contests and as always he needs people to help him out. There is so much to do and anyone that can contribute even in a small way is much appreciated help. But there is more to it than that. You'll be hooked! You'll be working in a decent sized team to make something great and fun. You don't even need to know what the contest is or how our contests have run in the past to help out. -- Code Parties We will be having them. They will be on Fridays on dates yet to be determined. But if you keep your eye on the website we will give you plenty of notice. They are always fun, and there is so much hacking of code to be done this term -- Brennan Taylor b4taylor at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~b4taylor University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Elections and General Meeting 5:30PM Tuesday, in the Comfy Lounge
by Computer Science Club 10 May '10

10 May '10

Hello everyone, The spring 2010 elections will be at 5:30PM on Tuesday, May 11 in the Comfy lounge. Nominees are: - President: Jeff Cameron (j3camero), Kevin Farnworth (kfarnwor) - Vice President: Brennan Taylor (b4taylor) - Treasurer: Vardhan Mudunuru (vmudunur) - Secretary: Matt Lawrence (m3lawren), Qifan Xi (qxi) If you would like to vote absentee, please send your ballot to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca with one vote per position before 5:30pm on Tuesday, May 11. In addition, at this meeting the new executive will select a Systems Administrator, decide on various appointed positions (Librarian, Webmaster, Office Manager), and organize and add members to the standing committees (Program Committee, Systems Committee). So, if you want to get involved in running the club in some way or another, come out to elections and volunteer. As a reminder, membership dues must be paid termly, and you must be registered for this term to vote. To renew you can come by the office in MC3036, pay via paypal (instructions are here: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/donations) or come to the elections, there will be time to renew memberships before the voting starts. -- Edgar Bering, Chief Returning Officer ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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Spring Term Nominations and Elections
by Computer Science Club 04 May '10

04 May '10

Hello everyone, The Spring term is now upon us, and with it comes a new CS Club executive. Nominations for President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary are now open, and will remain open until Monday May 10 at 5:30pm. Elections will be Tuesday May 11 at 5:30pm, location TBA. If you would like to nominate yourself or a friend write their CSC username on the whiteboard in the club, or send the nomination to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Information on absentee voting will be sent out along with a final list of nominees at 5:30pm on Monday. The election location will be posted soon. -- Edgar Bering, Chief Returning Officer ebering at uwaterloo dot ca Computer Science Club http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~ebering Mathematics Society MC 3036, (519)888-4567,x33870 University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario CANADA N2L 3G1

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