- csc-general - CSC Mailman

CSC Fall 2015 Elections
by Computer Science Club 14 Sep '15

14 Sep '15

Hi all, The Computer Science Club will be holding elections for the Fall 2015 term on Tuesday, September 22nd 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 board in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037) or send me (Charlie) an email at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. 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 Monday, September 21st. All members are welcome to run! First-years are especially encouraged to run for secretary, office manager, and librarian, but they are not limited to those positions. -- 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

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T-shirt orders have arrived!
by Computer Science Club 04 Aug '15

04 Aug '15

Hello Good CSC members! If you have ordered a CSC shirt, it is now in the office. Your preorder form is attached to your shirt, and your shirt only. You will not be able to change your order, since we have no surplus. To pick up your shirt, ask an office staff. Thanks for your orders! -- Calum T. Dalek Chairbeing Computer Science Club University of Waterloo exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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Forwards from UROC
by Computer Science Club 23 Jul '15

23 Jul '15

The UROC organizers want to point out that applications close this Friday. Here's the forwarded email: APPLICATIONS DUE ON JULY 31! UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES CONFERENCE (UROC) *October 2 - October 4, 2015 | Davis Centre | University of Waterloo* Are you curious about Computer Science research, but not sure where to start? Experience the life of a graduate student in 3 days by participating in research workshops with other top undergraduate students in Canada. *Eligibility *UROC is open to all undergraduate students in Canada, and is fully funded (i.e., we pay for travel, lodging and meals). To be eligible, you must be in the third or fourth year of your program, and open to the possibility of pursuing graduate studies in Computer Science. Apply now Complete an online application at uroc2015.ca by Friday, July 31, 2015. *Questions? *Contact Heather Steinmetz | h2steinm(a)uwaterloo.ca Heather Steinmetz Recruitment Coordinator David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science University of Waterloo 519-888-4567, ext. 35144 Considering graduate studies at Waterloo? Speak with a Graduate Ambassador to find out about research groups, projects and more! https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/future-graduate-students/graduate-ambassador-program Calling all female computer scientists! Learn about our BigCSters mentorship program at Waterloo! https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~wics/

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T-shirt preorders now available!
by Computer Science Club 16 Jul '15

16 Jul '15

Hey CSC! T-shirt preorder forms are now available in the office. Pick one up, fill it out, and pay the nearest office staff. $5/shirt, unisex or fitted. The t-shirts are both American Apparel. The attached form is available in the office. The form has the design and size charts. *Preorder before Wednesday 22 to ensure you get a shirt!* You'll have to go into the office to hand in a form. There are copies of the form in the office, but please bring money. Salutations, -Da Dalek

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Decide on t-shirt designs
by Computer Science Club 07 Jul '15

07 Jul '15

Hey CS Clubbies! We have a survey to determine what t-shirt design people will buy. Once we know t-shirt design, we will leave preorders open for a week, then order t-shirts in time for exam period. Here is the survey: http://goo.gl/forms/qdeG0jlfD3 Timeline: Now -> Friday July 10 (this Friday) - survey on which t-shirt design to order Friday July 10 -> Friday July 17 - preorder forms accepted in person in the office (only with both a preorder form and money) Beginning of exam period (two weeks after Friday July 17) t-shirt order will arrive, preordered shirts will be available in person in the office. Have fun! -- Patrick Melanson Vice President Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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Infra Sound is All Around Us (Prof. Talk)
by Computer Science Club 03 Jul '15

03 Jul '15

Interested in learning about Infra sound and the analysis thereof? Come out to this Prof. talk on THURS. JULY 9 at 6PM in MC 4060, presented by RICHARD MANN from the Department of Computer Science! For more detail, read Professor Richard's abstract: > Infra sound refers to sound waves below the range of human hearing. Infra sound comes from a number of natural phenomena including weather changes, thunder, and ocean waves. Common man made sources include heating and ventilation systems, industrial machinery, moving vehicle cabins (air, trains, cars), and energy generation (wind turbines, gas plants). > > In this talk I will present equipment I have built to measure infra sound, and analyse some of the infra sound I have recorded. > > Note: In Winter 2016 I will be offering a new course, in Computer Sound. The course will appear as CS489/CS689 ("Topics in Computer Science"). This is a project-based course (60% assignments, 40% project, no final). Details at my web page, http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~mannr [1]. Links: ------ [1] http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~mannr

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CS Club t-shirt design ideas
by Computer Science Club 23 Jun '15

23 Jun '15

Hey good CSC membership, we're ordering a batch of t-shirts for subsidized sale in the office, and you have good ideas for t-shirt designs. So send us an email of this one cool design you think should be on the front of the t-shirt (CSC branding will be on the back). Examples: - A big lambda - A PDP-11 circuit diagram - An AVL tree - Monospaced "University of Waterloo Computer Science Club" - Traveling salesman route of all buildings on campus - Punch cards with holes punched out in the outline of a dalek Any ideas? Send 'em to exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca! (You can just reply to this email and it will go to exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca) -- Patrick Melanson Vice President Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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CSC/WiCS goes outside and office training
by Computer Science Club 17 Jun '15

17 Jun '15

4:30pm on this thurs, next tues Hello good membership, more things coming up. This Thursday (the 18th) we're having office training in the CSC at 4:30 pm. The next office training session is next Tuesday (the 23rd). If you want to be office staff, come out! Also, reminder that this Friday at 6 pm we're having Unix 102, where Gianni Gambetti will be covering some trickier topics in bash. Facebook event here <https://www.facebook.com/events/103576169982565/>. And now the big doozy, CSC/WiCS goes outside! We're co-hosting our goes outside event with them this term, and they're bringing s'mores. Come join Friday the 25th at 7 pm for s'mores and froyo: CSC/WiCS goes outside <https://www.facebook.com/events/450642128431191/>. See you at a subset of these! -- Patrick Melanson Vice President Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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UNIX 102 - Friday 19
by Computer Science Club 09 Jun '15

09 Jun '15

On Friday the 19th at 6pm in MC 3003 the CSC will be hosting an event! UNIX 102: n things SCS hasn't told you about the shell This is a continuation of the Unix10X series of seminars that cover the use of *nix environments, largely through interacting with a command line shell. In this instalment we will be covering some of what the School of Computer Science has left out of their introduction to the Command Line / Bash (from cs246), as well as a brief introduction to having a useful prompt. Topics to be discussed include: * Lost Bash: fancy expansion, arrays, and shopt * The File System is scary: your file names contain white space and newlines. * Where Am I: A brief introduction to prompt customization Facebook event page: facebook.com/events/103576169982565/ kpwarr CSC Secretary

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Planned Downtime June 8th: Taurine
by Computer Science Club 04 Jun '15

04 Jun '15

Taurine's RAM has been experiencing ECC errors. We need to take it down in order to replace the dead stick. If you have any running jobs, please make sure they are stopped before 10 AM on Monday June 8th. Taurine will be back up by noon. -nablack

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Emergency downtime: aspartame
by Computer Science Club 28 May '15

28 May '15

Greetings programs, Recently we have been observing a very large number of ECC errors on aspartame's RAM. This is causing numerous stability and performance issues with respect to user authentication and network file systems. We are scheduling emergency downtime on this machine to replace the faulty memory module(s) before the problem becomes uncorrectable. Maintenance will take place on Friday, May 29, 2015. Due to the critical nature of this server, as a precaution we are scheduling downtime for the entire day to ensure that the upgrade is completed correctly. Files on /users (including home directories and web content) will be unavailable during the maintenance. In addition, it will not be possible to log in to CSC machines until some time after the repairs are completed. Murphy Berzish (Systems Committee)

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By-Election Nominations
by Computer Science Club 21 May '15

21 May '15

Greetings Programs, Nominations for the by-election are now closed. And the nominations are as follows: Treasurer --------- Jonathan Bailey (jj2baile) Taras Kolomatski (tklomat) Jordan Pryde (jxpryde) Secretary --------- Nicholas Black (nablack) Owen Linton (oclinton) Yomna Nasser (ynasser) Shikhar Singh (s285sing) Keri Warr (kpwarr) In addition, the follow people have either shown interest, or been suggested as candidates for the non-elected positions: Librarian --------- William Gertler (wgertler) Yomna Nasser (ynasser) Office Manager -------------- Ilia Chtcherbakov (ischtche) Sysadmin -------- Nicholas Black (nablack) --- You can send your absentee votes to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Please note that voting is restricted to current club members who are Social Members of the Mathematics Society. [*] Voting will be "hands up, heads down, approval voting", and therefore absentee votes may contain any subset of the candidates for Treasurer or Secretary. See you at the election tomorrow, May 22nd at 4pm in the Comfy (MC 3001). --- Gianni Gambetti Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca --- [*] https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#membership

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Spring 2015 GM for By-elections
by Computer Science Club 14 May '15

14 May '15

Greetings, fellow members! The Computer Science Club held elections on Thursday May 14th, and elected a president and a vice president. Welcome, Luqman Aden our glorious president! Welcome, Patrick Melanson our vice president! We have the remaining two elected positions unfilled, the treasurer and the secretary. Additionally, sysadmin, librarian, and office manager were not appointed. To fill these positions, we will be having by-elections to fill these positions on Friday May 22, at 4pm in the comfy. Friday May 22, 4pm in the comfy. If you would like to run for treasurer or secretary, feel very free to nominate yourself or someone by writing your name on the board in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037) or send our CRO an email at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. You may also, if you wish, deposit nominations in the CSC mailbox in MathSoc or present them to our CRO in person. Nominations will close at 4PM on Thursday, May 21st. Come out, and nominate! Voting will again be heads-down, hands-up and is restricted to MathSoc social members. Cheers, Patrick Melanson Vice President Computer Science Club University of Waterloo pj2melan(a)uwaterloo.ca

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Nominations Closed, Candidates Announced
by Computer Science Club 14 May '15

14 May '15

Nominations for elections are now closed! The candidates are: President --------- Luqmam Aden (laden) Adam Domurad (adomurad) Patrick Melanson (pj2melan) Vice-President -------------- Adam Domurad (adomurad) Patrick Melanson (pj2melan) Treasurer --------- Luqmam Aden (laden) Adam Domurad (adomurad) Secretary --------- Patrick Melanson (pj2melan) Additionally, Nik Black (nablack) has indicated interest in the Systems Administrator position, Shikhar Singh (s285sing) has expressed interest in the Librarian position, and Luqman Aden has expressed interest in the Office Manager position, but these are not elected positions. You can send your absentee votes to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Please note that voting is restricted to current club members who are Social Members of the Mathematics Society.[*] See you tonight at the election! (Comfy Lounge, 6PM.) Cheers, --- Gianni Gambetti Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo glgambet@ <glgambet(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca>csclub.uwaterloo.ca <glgambet(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca> [*] http:// <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#membership> csclub.uwaterloo.ca <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#membership>/about/ <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#membership> constitution#membership <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/about/constitution#membership>

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Spring 2015 Election and General Meeting
by Computer Science Club 04 May '15

04 May '15

Greetings, programs! The Computer Science Club will be holding its termly elections[*] next Thursday, May 14th at 6PM in the Comfy Lounge (MC 3001). During the election, 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 board in the CSC office (MC 3036/3037) or send me an email at cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. You may also, if you wish, deposit nominations in the CSC mailbox in MathSoc or present them to me in person. Nominations will close at 6PM on Wednesday, May 13th. Both veteran members and newbies are welcome to run! Voting will be heads-down, hands-up and is restricted to MathSoc social members. Cheers, -- Gianni Gambetti Chief Returning Officer Computer Science Club University of Waterloo glgambet(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca [*] Here are the relevant sections of the constitution, for your reference: """ The election of officers shall be accomplished by the following procedure: 1. Before the end of the prior term, the then-Executive shall choose a willing Chief Returning Officer, who is responsible for carrying out elections according to this procedure. 2. The CRO shall set the date and time of the election meeting, and set the nomination period. The nomination shall be at least one week long and shall end at least 24 hours before the start of the election meeting. 3. Announcements of the election and the nomination procedure must be distributed to all members by the members' mailing list, and should also be advertised by posters in the MC building. 4. During the nomination period, the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) shall be available to receive nominations for the posts of officers of the club, either in person, by email, by depositing nomination forms in the CSC's mailbox in the MathSoc office, or by writing the nomination in a place in the CSC office to be specified by the CRO. 5. A nomination shall consist of the nominee's userid, and post(s) nominated for. Nominees must be full members of the Computer Science Club. A member may decline a nomination at any point prior to the taking of the vote. 6. The election shall commence with the offering of memberships for sale. After a reasonable time, control of the meeting is given to the CRO who will preside over the election of the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary, in that order. 7. Each election shall be carried out by secret vote, in a manner to be decided on by the CRO, with the approval of the members at the meeting. A simple heads-down-hands-up method is considered acceptable. 8. The CRO shall not vote except to break a tie. 9. The CRO may, if feasible, accept absentee ballots from full members. No absentee vote from a member shall be counted if the member is present at the time the vote is taken. The CRO shall make a best effort to ensure that absentee ballots are compatible with the method of voting chosen; if this is not possible (for instance, if the CRO is overruled by the membership), then the absentee votes shall not be counted. 10. Immediately after the vote is taken, the CRO will announce the results of the election and the winner will be removed from subsequent contests. If, due to lack of candidates (because there were no nominations, or candidates withdrew or were eliminated), there is no one elected to an office, then the members at the meeting will decide whether or not to hold extra elections in accordance with the procedure for vacancies. If they choose not to, this does not prevent the Executive or a group of members from calling extra elections later in the term in accordance with the usual vacancy provisions. """

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Undergraduate Research Opportunities Conference (UROC)
by Computer Science Club 01 May '15

01 May '15

Are you curious about Computer Science research, but not sure where to start? Experience the life of a graduate student in 3 days by participating in research workshops with other top undergraduate students in Canada. *Undergraduate Research Opportunities Conference* October 9-11, 2015 Davis Centre University of Waterloo *What is the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Conference?* Undergraduate Research Opportunity Conference (UROC) is a 3-day, fully funded (i.e., we pay for travel, lodging and meals) event that offers students the opportunity to explore research through a series of group-work sessions tackling a mini-research project alongside a professor. Social events and panel sessions will allow you to connect with our current graduate students and find out about their experiences in graduate studies. The event will take place October 9-11, 2015 at Davis Centre at University of Waterloo. UROC is open to all undergraduate students in the third or fourth year of their program. Participation in UROC is selective; academic excellence is important, but we also highly value creativity, leadership, dedication and diversity. Selected students will be invited to attend by the end of September, and their profiles will be showcased on our website. *How to apply* Apply online by July 31, 2015: http://uroc2015.ca *Questions?* Contact Heather Steinmetz, Recruitment Coordinator: Phone: 519-888-4567, ext. 35144 Email: h2steinm(a)uwaterloo.ca

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Machine room power outage today
by Computer Science Club 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hello, I am the system administrator... Power is going out in the MC machine room today at approximately 3pm. We're going to be applying system updates and then shutting down machines one by one. Please terminate any long-running tasks in advance of the downtime window. The power will be out for several hours. mtrberzi

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End of Term!
by Computer Science Club 06 Apr '15

06 Apr '15

Greetings Programs, Congratulations, it's the end of the term and you've survived! To celebrate, come hang out and eat a delicious dinner at the Math CnD TONIGHT (Monday April 6), at 18:30, with a meal from Chen's Restaurant. Good luck on your exams, and we'll see you tonight! --- Chair Being Extraordinaire, Calum T. Dalek

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CS Club: Code Party 1 W15
by Computer Science Club 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

Greetings programs, the last code party of this semester is this Friday! Brand new room, and food for everyone! We're hitting some code golf, and we'll have leaderboards in our IRC channel, #csc-codeparty on irc.freenode.net . You don't have to code golf though. Bring a backburner project, or a project you started at a hackathon last weekend! We're very accepting. EIT 1015, Friday March 27 at 6pm. (Yes, that's right after the GM, you should come to that as well.) Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/360936394093221/ Facebook event for GM: https://www.facebook.com/events/1555574964725934/ See you soon! --- tl;dr: * Code Party 1 on Friday March 27 EIT 1015, 6pm start * Free food * Code Golf --- Chair Being Extraordinaire, Calum T. Dalek

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CSC General Meeting on March 27th
by Computer Science Club 20 Mar '15

20 Mar '15

Greetings Programs, Here are important updates about the upcoming General Meeting: * The Code of Conduct proposed by the Executive Council has been modified based on feedback. It can be found here: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/about/code-of-conduct, and the full proposed patch can be found here: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/coc-constitution.patch. * yj7kim has proposed an amendment to the constitution to move elections a week earlier in the term, to increase the amount of time in a term that we have an elected Executive Council. The patch can be found here: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/election-date-change-constitution…. * The General Meeting will be taking place at 5pm on March 27th 2015. Please arrive with your WatCard. --- tl;dr: * the proposed Code of Conduct has been modified based on feedback * a constitution amendment to hold elections sooner has been proposed * both changes are attached * The GM is March 27th, 5pm in EIT 1015. Bring your WatCard. --- Chair Being Extraordinaire, Calum T. Dalek

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General Meeting Notice & Constitution Amendment
by Computer Science Club 10 Mar '15

10 Mar '15

Greetings Programs, The Computer Science Club Executive Council is calling a General Meeting on the 27th of March. Time and location TBD. The GM is being called to discuss amendments to the CSC Constitution that would allow the CSC to adopt a Code of Conduct. There are many reasons for adopting a code of conduct. We have outlined what we feel to be the most important below. The exec are responsible for ensuring that the club's spaces and events that we run are places that members enjoy. As part of this, we have to make sure that the club has an inviting, friendly atmosphere for newcomers and members alike. Creating that atmosphere involves asking members to behave in a respectful manner, and sometimes it requires addressing complaints of inappropriate behaviour from members. We hope that the Code of Conduct never has to be explicitly enforced, but if it must we want to have something to direct the offending members to. Up to this point, the CSC Office has been the only thing covered under anything resembling a code of conduct ( https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/Office_Policies) The proposed changes would affect all events and spaces run by the CSC including (but not limited to) our IRC channels (#csc, #csc-codeparty, #csc-syscom), and any event that we organize or co-organize. --- The proposed changes to our Constitution can be found here: * a diff: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/coc-constitution.patch * in full: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/about/constitution And the proposed Code of Conduct: * https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/about/code-of-conduct Both the diff and proposed Code of Conduct will be posted in the CSC Office. As part of the proposed changes our President, glgambet, will be holding office hours from 11:45-12:45 for every week day until the GM, starting on 11th of March 2015. Feel free to bring forward any comments, questions or concerns. Likewise, the Executive Council can be reached at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. glgambet can be contacted directly at glgambet(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca for those who feel uncomfortable bringing things forward in the office, or up to the entire Executive Council. --- tl;dr: * General Meeting the 27th, for changing Constitution and adopting a Code of Conduct. * Constitution diff: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/coc-constitution.patch * Proposed Code of Conduct: https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~glgambet/csc/about/code-of-conduct --- Chair being extraordinaire, Calum T Dalek

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Code Party 0 ROOM CHANGE, info -- mtrberzi SAT/SMT tech talk -- Mozilla JITting tech talk
by Computer Science Club 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

*Code Party 0* <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/EV3_1408-2015-02-27-6:00_PM> is coming up! *Important*: We have moved to *EV3 1408*. If you are interested in the Code Retreat, read this Google doc <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LCTYh-QhlXziLK5YqNRoQm87NH77JTRgwIKc8b-…> for how things are going to go down. If you are not interested in code retreat, it's still totally fine if you bring your own project. Come out, free food awaits! Here's the Facebook event page <https://www.facebook.com/events/1434507486839811/>. Don't remember to RSVP as soon as possible <https://bit.ly/code-party-0>!! *mtrberzi's SAT/SMT* <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_2038-2015-03-03-6:00_PM> talk is scheduled for 6pm on March 3rd, a Tuesday, in MC 2038. The SAT and SMT theories combined allow you to programmatically determine whether a computer program is satisfiable or not. Will there be free food? Good question. Yes. Are you interested? Understandable. Read more at the Facebook event page <https://www.facebook.com/events/816500978442872/>. *Mozilla's Kannan Vijayan's JS JIT talk* <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4040-2015-03-09-6:00_PM> will happen across two days, March 9 <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4040-2015-03-09-6:00_PM> and March 10 <http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_4040-2015-03-10-6:00_PM> (a Monday and a Tuesday), both at 6pm in MC 4040. Two days is necessary to do the topic justice: A history of the development of efficient and tightly optimized JIT compilers. How can one infer the type of a variable at run-time? To find out, come out. Here's the day 1 Facebook event <https://www.facebook.com/events/383711748474717/> and the day 2 Facebook event <https://www.facebook.com/events/989375507778990/>. That's it for now. See you at a subset of these events! ~Your CSC Exec

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Winter '15 Code Party 0 upcoming!
by Computer Science Club 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

Hello fellow CSC members! (*TL;DR* at the bottom) Our first code party is coming up after reading week, and we've decided to mix it up a little. We have a new room (E2 1306 Lever lab), good food (no pizza), and pair programming challenges in collaboration with Boltmade (a local company). These programming challenges are just for fun, no presenting required! And if you want to work on your long-term side project, totally come hack on that as well. "Pair programming you say?" We will be pairing people up to work on coding challenges during the code party. We haven't decided on these challenges yet, but they'll be fun and you can count on that. *TL;DR* New room, good food, pair programming, coding challenges, RSVP at https://bit.ly/code-party-0 pls. Hope to see you there! -C. T. Dalek

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Upcoming Events
by Computer Science Club 27 Jan '15

27 Jan '15

Greetings Programs, With reading week just around the corner, there are some awesome upcoming events and things to be aware of! --- * Racket's Magical match, by Theo Belaire, Monday, 2nd of February, 2015. In MC 4063 at 6:00pm. Theo Belaire, a fourth-year CS student, will show you the basics of how this amazing function works, and help you get your feet wet with some code examples. He will also cover some more advanced use cases and a little bit about the performance of match. If you’re interested in knowing about the more powerful features of Racket, then this is the talk for you! The material covered is especially useful for students in CS 241 who are writing their compiler in Racket, or are just curious about what that might look like. * (Hosted by the SCS) Making Robots Behave, by Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Thursday, 5th of February, 2015. In DC1302, 3:30-4:30pm. The fields of AI and robotics have made great improvements in many individual subfields, including in motion planning, symbolic planning, probabilistic reasoning, perception, and learning. Our goal is to develop an integrated approach to solving very large problems that are hopelessly intractable to solve optimally. We make a number of approximations during planning, including serializing subtasks, factoring distributions, and determinizing stochastic dynamics, but regain robustness and effectiveness through a continuous state-estimation and replanning process. This approach is demonstrated in three robotic domains, each of which integrates perception, estimation, planning, and manipulation. --- Your chairbeing extraordinaire, Calum T. Dalek.

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BOT Announcements: Upcoming Events and Volunteering
by Computer Science Club 20 Jan '15

20 Jan '15

Greetings Programs, Welcome and welcome back, and happy new year! We have a bunch of exciting events planned for this term; here they are, so mark your calendar pages, and finish those assignments to make sure you can come out! ~Alex Tsay, "High Availibility Distributed File Systems": Wednesday, January 21, 18:00, MC 2017. The CAP Theorem outlined the fundamental limitations of a distributed system. When designing a distributed system, one has to constantly be aware of the trade-off between consistency and availability. Most distributed systems are designed with consistency in mind. However, AeroFS has decided to build a high-availability file system instead. In this tech talk, I'll be presenting an overview of AeroFS file system, advantages and challenges of a high-availability file system, and examine the inner workings of AeroFS's core syncing algorithm. ~(WiCS) Leigh Honeywell, "Trust Your Gut: Adventures in the Worst Parts of the Tech Industry": Friday, January 23, 17:30, DC1302. Leigh Honeywell is a Security Engineer at Heroku, a Salesforce.com company. Prior to Heroku, she worked at Microsoft, MessageLabs/Symantec, and Bell Canada. Last year was Leigh's tenth year working in tech. From startups to the biggest tech companies in the world, she will share with her lessons learned about careers, sexism, secure software development, management, burnout and ambition. ~Office Training, Wednesday, January 28, TBD in MC 3036/3037. If you're around the office often, or just want to get a little more involved, come out and do office staff training! It'll help us keep the office open as much as possible, and you get a say in the awesome music that we hear in the office. --- Other than events, there are other interesting things going on this term! If you're interested in helping out with the CSC's infrastructure, looking for some great war stories to impress your friends, or interested in dev-ops, then get in touch with exec@, or syscom@. We're looking for volunteers to help out with the care and maintenance of our infrastructure, whether you have no experience, or you run a server farm out of your garage. --- Happy coding, Gianni Gambetti President Computer Science Club

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