- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Code Party 0 happening soon && sign-up for scp talks available
by Computer Science Club 26 May '16

26 May '16

Hey members, We got some events coming up, have some information so you can attend them and have fun and stuff. Code Party 0 is happening on *Thursday, June 2nd @ 6:30pm in STC 0010. *Come out, code with us, eat some food, do some things. scp (small contemplation period) talks are happening on *Wednesday June 8th. *You can sign up to get a short (15-20 minutes) talk on all kinds of cool CS stuff! Sign up form is here. <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1143deXuv4i7N3q64qD46hJEe45p-UhAdJYkYVZp73H…> Hope to see you all come out! :) (We would also like to invite members of the CSC community to join the Fort McMurray Solidarity Vigil on Tuesday May 31st. Details are available here. <https://www.facebook.com/events/100324317055518>) -- Melissa Tedesco Vice President Computer Science Club P.S. If you have a prof you'd love to hear a talk from, please email me and I'll contact them and try to make it happen!

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Office Staff Training and CSC Spring Cleaning
by Computer Science Club 20 May '16

20 May '16

Hello CSC members, If you’re interested in becoming office staff (https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/Office_Staff) training will take place on Wednesday, May 25th starting at 5:30pm in the CSC office. If you are unable to make this training session, you can email exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca so we can arrange a time to meet. Additionally, the CSC Spring Cleaning is taking place after the training session at 6pm. Help us clean the office and in exchange we will feed you. Thanks, Zachary Seguin Office Manager Computer Science Club | University of Waterloo exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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#elxnS16 election results && CSC goes to board games night
by Computer Science Club 13 May '16

13 May '16

Hello members of the CS Club! First of all, thank you to all who came out and voted, by email or in person, to our elections last night. There were many timbits had. Without further ado, *Election Results:* (laden) Luqman Aden is your new President, (matedesc) Melissa Angelica Tedesco is your new Vice-president, (jj2baile) Jonathan Jeral Bailey is your new Treasurer, (askothar) Aditya Shivam Kothari is your new Secretary, (jxpryde) Jordan Xavier Pryde is your new Systems Administrator, (ztseguin) Zachary Seguin is your new Office Manager, (s455wang) Charlie Wang is your new Librarian, and (mnmailho) Marc Mailhot is your new Fridge Regent. So that's what happened this week. If you want to know what happens next week, keep reading for like just a few more lines. *CSC goes to board games night* (or, CSC uses 'militia' on Mathsoc) Board games are fun. The CSC would like to have a board games night, but MathSoc already does it so well. Clearly the only solution is an invasion. Come join us on *Thursday, May 19th, about 7pm* in taking over MathSoc board games night. We will form a CSC cluster and have fun. See you there! -- Patrick Melanson CRO Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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#elxnS16 Nominations closed, elections today
by Computer Science Club 12 May '16

12 May '16

Hi all, Nominations have closed for CSC elections. Here is a list of candidates for the elected positions: - President: - b2coutts (Bryan Coutts) - tbelaire (Theo Belaire) - laden (Luqman Aden) - jj2baile (Jon Bailey) - dmarin (Daniel Marin) - Vice-president: - matedesc (Melissa Tedesco) - askothari (Aditya Shivam Kothari) - Treasurer: - laden (Luqman Aden) - jj2baile (Jon Bailey) - jxpryde (Jordan Xavier Pryde) - Secretary: - askothari (Aditya Shivam Kothari) - s455wang (Charlie Wang) Additionally, the following members have expressed interest for the appointed positions: - Systems Administrator: - jxpryde (Jordan Xavier Pryde) - Fridge Regent: - mnmailho (Marc Mailhot) - Office Manager: - ztseguin (Zachary Seguin) - Librarian: - s455wang (Charlie Wang) And there are no candidates yet for the programmes committee. Note that any nomination can be declined at any time prior to the taking of a vote. Absentee votes (voting by email) can be sent to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. They must be sent by 18:00 on May 12, 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#officers. See you all tonight at 19:00 in the MC Comfy (3001)! -- Patrick Melanson Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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#elxnS16 Spring 2016 elections, Thursday May 12th, 7pm in the comfy
by Computer Science Club 04 May '16

04 May '16

Hi all, The Computer Science Club will be holding elections for the Spring 2016 term on Thursday, May 12th at 19:00 in the MC Comfy (MC 3001). During the meeting, the president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary will be elected, the sysadmin will be appointed and ratified, and the librarian and office manager will be appointed. There may be timbits. If you'd like to run for any of these positions or nominate someone, you can put your name in a special box on top of the fridge in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037) or send me (Patrick) an email at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. It is highly recommended to send me an email in addition to nominating yourself by paper in the office. You can also deposit nominations in the CSC mailbox in MathSoc or present them to me in person. Nominations will close at 19:00 on Wednesday, May 11th (24 hours before the start of elections). All members are welcome to run! Especially new members and anyone interested in being a new exec! Most of the roles have a small guide on the wiki at https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/Exec_Manual and I will print out a hard copy of a more comprehensive exec manual and bind it myself, I swear. Voting is done heads-down hands-up, and is restricted to Mathsoc social members. -- Patrick Melanson (pj2melan) Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca For the part of the constitution pertaining to elections, see http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#officers

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Last event of the term! Prof talk + EOT
by Computer Science Club 04 Apr '16

04 Apr '16

Hey guys, Come out to our last event on *Monday, April 4*! We'll have a prof talk by Dr. Craig Kaplan, as well as a joint CSC/WICS EOT; the prof talk starts at *5PM in MC Comfy*, and the EOT will be after. Food will be provided! The talk will be on Surrounding a Polygon: Dr. Craig Kaplan will explore the problem of surrounding a polygon with copies of itself. This problem raises a number of fascinating mathematical questions, and we can use software as an experimental tool to probe the answers to those questions. He'll also present known mathematical and computational results related to surrounds of polygons, and discuss what they say about larger open questions in tiling theory. Finally, he will also show how the task of surrounding individual polygons can make for fun and challenging puzzles, and say a bit about his experience creating an app based on those puzzles. Also, the HCI (Human Computer Interaction) Lab is looking for people to participate in future HCI studies and experiments; please see the attached pdf for more information on how to sign up. Thanks! Hope to see you all at the event :) Naomi

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CSC Office Cleaning
by Computer Science Club 10 Mar '16

10 Mar '16

CSC office cleaning will be on Friday March 18, at 5pm. Machines will be moved at that time for floor waxing and cleaning and returned later that night. Please ensure your belongings are removed from the office by then, as CSC will not be responsible for belongings lost during the move. Best, Reila

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Network Infrastructure talk by Steve Bourque and Mike Patterson tomorrow!
by Computer Science Club 08 Mar '16

08 Mar '16

Hey guys, There'll be a Network Infrastructure talk tomorrow at 6:30pm in MC4058! Steve Bourque and Mike Patterson of IST will give a brief overview of campus network connectivity and interconnectivity. Steve will describe the general connections, and Mike will talk about specific security measures in place. We'll have refreshments! Thanks, Naomi

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Wiping of /scratch and Systems and Services Unavailable on Wednesday, February 17
by Computer Science Club 09 Feb '16

09 Feb '16

TL;DR /scratch will be wiped and systems will be unavailable on Wednesday, February 17. Hello everyone, Below are some important (and non-important) updates from the Computer Science Club Systems Committee. SYSTEM MAINTENANCE (AND OUTAGES) ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17 On Wednesday, February 17, system maintenance will be occurring from 11:00am until 5:00pm. IMPORTANT NOTICES: 1. All running jobs will be terminated as all systems will be rebooted at the start of the maintenance period 2. A failing drive in the /scratch array will be replaced. As /scratch is currently configured as a RAID0 all data will be erased. This is a reminder that /scratch is volatile storage and data may disappear at any time. If there is anything in /scratch for which you do not have a copy of (or cannot re-create), please ensure you have a copy of it prior to the start of the maintenance period. IMPACTS - All services provided by the CSC (web hosting, mail, etc.) will be unavailable during the maintenance period We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. INFORMATIONAL UPDATES 1. Mirror Upgrades The Computer Science Club Mirror is now running on potassium-benzoate, our new server which was purchased with funding from the Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF). We have also enhanced our mirror's network connectivity, adding IPv6 and 10Gbps. Running our mirror is made possible with assistance from: - The Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF) - The Mathematics Society (MathSoc) - Dave Gawley and the Computer Science Computing Facility (CSCF) - Information Systems Technology (IST) 2. IPv6 The CSC network now has IPv6 addresses and all of our services have been configured to accept connections over IPv6. For those hosting their website via personal domain names and wanting IPv6 connectivity: If hosted with a CNAME, no action is required. If not hosted with a CNAME, you can add the following AAAA record "2620:101:f000:4901:c5c::caff:e12e" 3. Firewall The campus firewall will soon be enabled on our network. After this date, only select traffic will be permitted from off-campus to our machines (on-campus and VPN traffic will not be affected). All general use servers will have SSH, Mosh and ports 28000-28500 open on the campus firewall. If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please email the Systems Committee at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Thanks, Zachary Seguin Systems Administrator | Computer Science Club University of Waterloo syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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Office Training
by Computer Science Club 02 Feb '16

02 Feb '16

If you are interested in being CSC office staff, come to CSC office training this Friday, February 5th, 3pm. If you can't make it email me your availabilities and I will schedule another session next week. Best, Reila

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Code Party on Thursday, Feb 4
by Computer Science Club 01 Feb '16

01 Feb '16

Hey guys, The CSC is having its termly code party! When: Thursday, Feb 4 at 6PM Where: STC 0010 Want help installing Linux? Bring a USB, we'll help you. Want to work on a project, CS homework, or an IRC bot? Come over! Want to see what it's like to be in the new STC? Plugs at every desk, I'm telling you. We'll also provide dinner! Also, MathSoc is running a Mock Interview Session Wednesday (February 3rd) evening for Mathematics students. If you are a Math or Computer Science student and interested in volunteering your time to help out your classmates, send an email to ford.peprah(a)uwaterloo.ca with your name, program, year, and availability Wednesday evening. You will be compensated for your time. Thanks, Naomi

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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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Back to Back Talks: Culture Turnaround and Software Defined Networks
by Computer Science Club 27 Sep '15

27 Sep '15

Back to back talks from John Stix (President of Fibernetics) and Francisco Dominguez (CTO of Fibernetics) on turning a company's culture around and on Software Defined Networks! John Stix will be talking about how he turned around the corporate culture at Fibernetics Corporation. Francisco Dominguez will be talking about Software Defined Networks, which for example can turn multiple flakey internet connections into one reliable one. Held in DC 1304, on Wednesday Sept 30, at 5:00 PM Food and drinks will be provided!

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Nominations Closed, Elections Tomorrow
by Computer Science Club 21 Sep '15

21 Sep '15

Hi all, Nominations have closed for CSC elections. Here is a list of candidates for the elected positions. President s22hu as3chan VP tbelaire Treasurer tkolomat jtupiter Secretary p58wang p2choudh dmarin Additionally, these members have expressed interest in the following appointed positions: Sysadmin jxpryde Office Manager ischtche wy2zheng Librarian jhbai dmarin 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 September 22, 2015. 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 tomorrow! -- Charlie Wang Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Cory Doctorow talk -- the War on General Purpose Computing. October 16
by Computer Science Club 19 Sep '15

19 Sep '15

Hey there, program! We've got someone special coming to talk next month! Cory Doctorow is the writer of "Little Brother," "Homeland," "For The Win," a fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a Waterloo alumnus. The talk will be held at the university on October 16 7pm in the ML Theatre of the Arts. It looks like he's got a good talk lined up for us, we've put up an abstract on our website <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/ML_Theatre_of_the_Arts-2015-10-16-7:00_PM>. We'll be selling his books at the talk as well. I made a Facebook event <https://www.facebook.com/events/1475340629436819/>, for the hip of you that use this social network. Admission is free, and the event is open to the general public. If you want to bring someone along, totally do! See all your faces then! -- Patrick Melanson Vice President Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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First Event of the Term (This Thursday)
by Computer Science Club 15 Sep '15

15 Sep '15

Greetings programs, For our returning members, welcome back, and for our new members, welcome to the CSC! We will be having our first event of the term this Thursday. Google Cardboard Talk <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_2065-2015-09-17-6_PM> Thursday, September 17th, 6pm, MC 2065 Rob Suderman from Google will be giving a talk on Google Cardboard; a recent exploration in affordable, cereal box based Virtual Reality. He will talk about the tools available to make your own application, some of the pitfalls to avoid, and give an overview of rendering virtual reality content with some tips and tricks on high performance rendering. The talk is open and accessible for everyone who is interested! There will also be free food from Taco Farm at the talk. Have fun with the first week of school, I hope to see you around! Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Extraordinaire

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