- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Friday's Code Party is CANCELLED
by Computer Science Club 16 Jun '11

16 Jun '11

Hello CSC members, Due to a number of circumstances, CSC won't be holding an official code party this weekend as had been previously announced. Of course, there's nothing to stop anybody from showing up at the comfy lounge and writing code, but we won't be providing the usual snacks, projectors, speakers, and other amenities. As you may have noticed, convocation for CS majors is tomorrow, and the usual organizers wish to celebrate our classmate's achievements in ways not permitted in the Comfy. If you'd like to join us, we'll be at Kickoff in the plaza. Matthew McPherrin Computer Science Club Vice President.

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Talk Tomorrow [Tuesday, June 14th]: Taming Software Bloat with AdaptableGIMP
by Computer Science Club 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

Ever use software with 100s or 1000s of commands? Ever have a hard time finding the right commands to perform your task? We have. And we have some new ideas on how to deal with software bloat. In this talk, we'll present AdaptableGIMP, a new version of GIMP developed by the HCI Lab here at the University of Watreloo. AdaptableGIMP introduces the notion of crowdsourced interface customizations: Any user of the application can customize the interface for performing a particular task, with that customization instantly shared with all other users through a wiki at adaptablegimp.org. In the talk, we'll demo this new version of GIMP and show how it can help people work faster by simplifying feature-rich, complex user interfaces. Held in MC 2054, on 2011-06-14, at 4:30 PM. For more information, see http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ On another note: The FEDS Student Development Network is having an introduction to Ruby on Rails Wednesday. See http://develop.feds.ca/projects/sdn/wiki/Ruby_On_Rails_Introduction_Seminar for more information.

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General Purpose GPU computing talk: Thursday June 9th at 4:30PM in MC2054
by Computer Science Club 08 Jun '11

08 Jun '11

Hello CSC Members, In the first of our member talks for the term, Katie Hyatt will give a short introduction to General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit computing. This expanding field has many applications. The primary focus of this talk will be nVidia's CUDA architecture. It includes information on the programming environment, notable algorithms that GPUs are useful for, and some applications to physics. For more information, see http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/events/MC_2054-2011-06-09-4:30_PM I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow. Refreshments will be provided. Matthew McPherrin CSClub Vice President

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Upcoming CSC Event: Code Party this Friday, June 3rd.
by Computer Science Club 30 May '11

30 May '11

Greetings dear members, The Computer Science Club is hosting our first Code Party of the term this Friday, on June 3rd. For those who haven't attended one of our code parties before, these events are on Friday nights where everybody is welcome to bring a laptop, hang out, and write some code. There's usually not a lot of structure, but hopefully a lot of fun. The theme for this week's code party is "Personal Projects". Throughout the evening, we'll be inviting everybody to share what they're working on, and we encourage you to be productive and amaze us with your talent. However, you're free to do whatever you want. Things people often involve themselves with include working on problems like Project Euler or ACM contest problems, contributing to open source projects, or just hacking on homework assignments. This is a night of being social, and we encourage you to attend! Some refreshments will be provided. As always, the most up-to-date information is available at our website, http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/. Check out our upcoming events, like next week's talk on GPU computing, future code parties, and our picnic! If you have any questions, send me a reply to this email, drop by our office in MC3036 (where you're always welcome to hang out), or check out our IRC channel, #csc on irc.freenode.net. Matthew McPherrin Computer Science Club Vice President

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Call for Member Talks
by Computer Science Club 24 May '11

24 May '11

Hello CSC Members, Have you got an interest you'd like to share with other CSC members? Want to talk about a project you've worked on? Or just want experience talking in front of groups on a technical subject? You should give a CSC member talk! These talks are given by members at any level of experience on any topic of interest. If you'd like to talk for just a few minutes, you can give a short lightning talk at a shared event. Or if you've got a longer topic, we can organize a full length talk. If you're interested, please send me an email and we can discuss what you'd like to talk about. Stay tuned for more CSC events. We are planning the usual array of talks, code parties, contests, and social events like our summer picniCS! Check out our website, mathNEWS, and future emails for dates and more upcoming activities! Matthew McPherrin Computer Science Club Vice President https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/ PS: Remember to renew your accounts!

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Computer Science Club Elections for the Spring 2011 Term
by Computer Science Club 03 May '11

03 May '11

It's time to elect your CSC executive for the Spring 2011 term. The elections will be held on Monday May 9th at 5:30PM in the Comfy Lounge on the 3rd floor of the MC. Nominations can be sent to the Chief Returning Officer, cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will be open until 4:30PM on Monday May 9th. You can also stop by the office in person to write your nominations on the white board. The executive positions open for nomination are: - President - Vice-President - Treasurer - Secretary There are also numerous positions that will be appointed once the executive are elected including systems administrator, office manager, and librarian. Everyone is encouraged to run if they are interested, regardless of program of study, age, or experience. If you can't make the election, that's OK too! You can give the CRO a statement to read on your behalf. If you can't make it or are out of town, your votes can be sent to the CRO in advance of the elections. For the list of nominees, watch the CSC website, or ask the CRO. Good luck to our candidates!

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Time Change for Joe Marks Talk Tomorrow (Friday)
by Computer Science Club 24 Mar '11

24 Mar '11

Hello, Hope everyone enjoyed the Joe Marks talk today! I would like to inform anyone planning on attending the next meeting with him tomorrow that there has been a change of time and location. It has been rescheduled for 10:30-11:30 in MC 5136. Please see the message below for further details. -- Elana Hashman Secretary Computer Science Club University of Waterloo ehashman(a)uwaterloo.ca ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Craig S. Kaplan <csk(a)uwaterloo.ca> Date: Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 5:42 PM Subject: Time change for Joe Marks visit with ugrads To: exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca Hi guys, Just to reiterate my announcement at the Joe Marks talk.... Joe had to reschedule his flight out, but still wants to meet with undergrads. So we've rescheduled things. We've booked the meeting for 10:30-11:30 in MC 5136. You can coordinate with Gail Chopiak in CS if you need more info. -- Craig S. Kaplan University of Waterloo http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/ "If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature." -- Ronald Wright

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Lecture by Joe Marks from Disney, Employment Opportunities
by Computer Science Club 23 Mar '11

23 Mar '11

Joe Marks, Vice-President Research and Development at The Walt Disney Company, is at the university Thursday and Friday of this week. The primary reason for his visit is to give a lecture in the Cheriton School of Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series. This talk will be given Thursday, March 24th in the Theatre of the Arts, which is located in the Modern Languages Building. It starts at 4.15 pm and is open to all. Joe also asked to discuss employment opportunities at Disney with undergraduate students. The discussion will take place at 11.30 on Friday in MC 4020, and is open to all, modulo the capacity of the room. *Biography:* Joe Marks grew up in Dublin, Ireland. He earned three degrees from Harvard University. His areas of interest include computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. He has worked previously at Bolt Beranek and Newman and at Digital's Cambridge Research Laboratory. Prior to his current position as VP Research and Development, he was the Research Director at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 2000 to 2006.

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CSC Talk - Software Patents by Stanley Khaing
by Computer Science Club 15 Mar '11

15 Mar '11

Hi CSC, If you're interested, come out to Stanley Khaing's talk this Thursday at 4:30pm in MC2034. He is a lawyer from Waterloo whose areas of practice are software and high technology. He will be discussing software patents. He'll be speaking about the requirements for obtaining a patent and whether or not software should be patentable. Cheers, Jenny Wong Vice President W2011 Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Call for Member Talks
by Computer Science Club 16 Feb '11

16 Feb '11

Hi all, The CSC will be running three or so member talks this term. If you've been doing interesting CS-related research or just happen to know a lot about something cool and want to share, send an email to progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca by Monday Feb 28 with a proposed title for your talk and a 1-2 paragraph summary of what you intend to talk about. Keep in mind that member talks usually last about an hour. Thanks, Jenny Wong VP Winter 2011

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This Week: Perl Talks, CSC goes to Grad Ball, Watson on Jeopardy
by Computer Science Club 14 Feb '11

14 Feb '11

Hello everyone, There are several things happening in the CSC this week. --- Perl Talks --- First of all, we will be holding Perl Talks with the KW Perl Mongers. The talks will be on Thursday, Feb 17, from 7:00pm - 8:30pm in MC2017. Several short talk will be presented. These talks are intended for programmers who are curious about the Swiss Army Chainsaw of languages, Perl. Tyler Slijboom will present: * Prototyping in Perl, * Perl Default Variables, * HOWTO on OO Programming, and * HOWTO on Installing and Using Modules from CPAN Daniel Allen will present: * Coping with Other Peoples' Code Justin Wheeler will present: * Moose: a Modern Perl Framework Light refreshments will be provided, or possibly heavy refreshments, courtesy of the Perl Mongers. --- CSC Goes to Grad Ball --- The fine folks at the Mathematics Graduation Committee have saved us a table at the Grad Ball. The ball will be on March 5th at St. George's Hall. MGC adds this: Not graduating? Doesn't matter --- come party with your friends who are. Many prizes are up for grabs, including gift certificates. For more information go to: http://www.mgc.uwaterloo.ca/grad-ball/ If you are interested in attending please contact me (ebering(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca) We have 8 places, tickets are $50 per person (discount off of the single price), and you must confirm with me by this Friday. --- Watson on Jeopardy --- IBM's Watson will be appearing on the quiz-show Jeopardy this week, competing against the great human champions. This could be as landmark as Kasparov v. Deep Blue in terms of demonstrating the state of the art in machine learning and natural language processing, if possible we will organize a screening of the match. For more information go to: http://www.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/ -- Edgar Bering, President 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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Code Party this Friday
by Computer Science Club 02 Feb '11

02 Feb '11

Hey CSC, Come one, come all to the Code Party happening in the Comfy Lounge this Friday. The event starts at 7:00PM and will run through the night. Why sleep when you could be hacking on $your_favourite_project or doing $something_classy in great company? Join us for a night of coding and comraderie! Food and caffeine will be provided. -Jenny AKA Emily Veep W11

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Winter 2011 Office Training
by Computer Science Club 19 Jan '11

19 Jan '11

Hello CSC members, Winter 2011 office training will be held in the CSC office at 4:00 PM on Saturday, January 22. All members are welcome to attend. I will be selecting several new office staff, and distributing up to five office keys. Marc Burns CSC Office Manager Winter 2011

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Call for Member Talks
by Computer Science Club 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

Hi all, The CSC will be running three or so member talks this term. If you've been doing interesting CS-related research or just happen to know a lot about something cool and want to share, send an email to progcom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca by 10:00pm this Thursday with a proposed title for your talk and a 1-2 paragraph summary of what you intend to talk about. Keep in mind that member talks usually last about an hour. Thanks, Jenny Wong VP Winter 2011

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Winter 2011 Executive
by Computer Science Club 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

The elections have concluded, and the new executive are: President: ebering Vice President: jy2wong Treasurer: kspaans Secretary: ehashman Sysadmin: pbarfuss m4burns was appointed Office Manager and asbumste was appointed Librarian. Thanks for coming out! Sean Hunt Chief Returning Officer

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Nominee error
by Computer Science Club 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

I apologize again for the error, folks. I accidentally listed b4taylor as being a nominee for Vice-President. This is not the case. m4burns is the nominee, along with ssalbiz and jy2wong. My apologies. Sean Hunt Chief Returning Officer

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My apologies
by Computer Science Club 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

In the last message, I accidentally left out that you can submit votes by email to cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca up until the election meeting as well. -scshunt

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Elections Tomorrow
by Computer Science Club 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

Hey all, Winter 2011 elections are tomorrow at 4:00 PM in the Comfy, and the nominees are: * President: ebering * Vice President: ssalbiz, jy2wong, b4taylor * Treasurer: kspaans, qxi, mspang, d2huo, a42ahmed * Secretary: kspaans, d2huo, ehashman If you believe (maybe because you were paid) that one of them should be elected (or not elected), then you should come out and cast a vote for (or against) them. If you don't, you have no right to complain when ctdalek exterminates us. Sean Hunt CRO Winter 2011

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Elections for Winter 2011
by Computer Science Club 06 Jan '11

06 Jan '11

Elections are coming for Winter 2011 executive! Nominations are open - nominations can be made by sending them directly to me or by writing them on the whiteboard in the Club office. Nominations close at 4:30 PM on Tuesday, January 11. Elections take place in the Comfy at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, January 12. We currently have no nominees for Vice-President. The Vice-President is needed to run events including the awesome talks. Please come out and volunteer! Thanks, scshunt CRO

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Eduroam Quiz
by Computer Science Club 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

Hello CSCers! There appears to be a large group of students that have trouble with the eduroam wireless network. To help IST debug the problems we have created the following poll: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dENpTGE3QmhLZGQtT1Ay… We will email the results (minus names) to IST on Monday, so get your answers in soon. We will be giving out 4 free pop (retail value $2!) to 1 person, at random, who answers this quiz. You may share this link with other, non-CSC UW members. This quiz was not in any way written by IST. Thanks

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The CSC Goes Clubbing!1!!
by Computer Science Club 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

Greetings, As the fall 2010 term winds down a close and we get ready to start exams, the CSC will be having one more final event. No, it's not an invited talk or a code party; this time, it's THE CSC GOES CLUBBING! On Friday, December 10th, our very own CSC member Elyot Grant will be behind the decks at Waterloo's Revolution Nightclub, playing electronic dance music as a special guest DJ inside The Purple Room. In the past, Elyot has given many theory talks for the CSC on topics like approximation hardness and incompressibility, but this Friday, he'll be letting the music do all the talking. The event poster is here: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~egrant/PurpleRoom13_Dec10th2010.jpg There is NO COVER BEFORE 11pm (in other words, it's FREE!!!) Come join us as we march out to the purple room in full force to support Elyot and dance our asses off to his selection of chiptastic beats. Here's a word from Elyot himself: "Hi everyone! If you want an idea of what I might play, there are some DJ mixes of mine at: http://soundcloud.com/elyot and some additional music I made over at: http://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~egrant/ As a special treat for the CSC, I will try to drop some chippy tracks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b172UA1smO0&t=3m20s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F21aifX0lZY&t=2m06s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v10GkrLbgKE&t=3m17s The facebook event is: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=145655702152203 You must be 19+ to attend and must bring your ID (health card doesn't count; driver's license, passport, or LCBO card are all fine.) Cover is free before 11pm and $5 afterwards. My set time is 11:30pm - 1:00am. The party usually lasts until about 2:45am. There is a guestlist available, which enables you to bypass the line anytime before 12am (so you get in more quickly). If you arrive before 10:45, there is usually not too big of a line. But if you arrive later than that, you may have to wait outside for a while, so you might want to consider guestlist if you think you'll be coming any later than that. Then, instead of getting in line to get in, you just talk to the guy with the clipboard who finds your name, checks it off, and lets you in right away. If you wish to be guestlisted, email me at egrant(a)uwaterloo.ca with your full name and number of guests before Friday at 6pm. Rev is a short walk from the #12 and #7 bus routes and has free parking. I don't think there's a dress code other than "no athletic wear" (essentially, no jerseys, baseball caps and gangsta stuff). You don't have to dress up; most people (including me) will be wearing normal clothes. The crowd is friendly, there is room to dance, there are lasers, and there are big (but not deafening) speakers. Cheers! Hope to see you Friday. ~ Elyot" -- Edgar Bering, Vice President 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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Mathematics and aesthetics in maze design
by Computer Science Club 15 Nov '10

15 Nov '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a talk entitled "Mathematics and aesthetics in maze design" on 2010-11-17 at 04:30 PM in MC4061. It will be presented by Craig S. Kaplan. Abstract: For thousands of years, mazes and labyrinths have played an important role in human culture and myth. Today, solving mazes is a popular pastime, whether with pencil on paper or by navigating through a cornfield. The construction of compelling mazes encompasses a variety of challenges in mathematics, algorithm design, and aesthetics. The maze should be visually attractive, but it should also be an engaging puzzle. Master designers balance these two goals with wonderful results. In this talk, I discuss the role of the computer in the process of designing mazes. I present some well known algorithms for maze construction, and more recent research that attempts to novel mazes with non-trivial mathematical or aesthetic properties. Hope to see you there. If you have any questions about the event e-mail the executive or check http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

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Grad School at UofT
by Computer Science Club 12 Nov '10

12 Nov '10

In case you're interested in grad school: Graduate Opportunities at the University of Toronto Speaker: C.C. Gotlieb, University of Toronto Date: Wednesday Nov 17 Time: 4:30 pm Location: DC 1304 ================== Bio.: Calvin C. (Kelly) Gotlieb has been called the "Father of Computing" in Canada. He received his MA in 1944 and his PhD in 1947 from the University of Toronto. In 1948, he was part of the first team in Canada assembled to design and construct digital computers and to provide computing services. In that year, he co-founded the original Computation Centre at the University of Toronto. He established the first university credit course on computing in Canada in 1950, and offered the first Canadian graduate courses in computing in 1951. In 1964, he founded the first graduate department of Computer Science in Canada, at the University of Toronto. Professor Gotlieb has over a hundred publications in many areas of Computer Science and Information Processing, and has co-authored four books: "High Speed Data Processing", "Social Issues in Computing", "Data Types and Structures", and "The Economics of Computers". Professor Gotlieb has dedicated much of his professional work to the promotion of information science and technology and the advancement of national and international cooperation in this field. He has been a consultant to the United Nations on Computer Technology and Development, and to the Privacy and Computers Task Force of the Canadian Federal Department of Communications and Justice. He was a founding member of the Canadian Information Processing Society in 1958, and served as Canada's representative at the founding meeting of the International Federation of Information Processing Societies in 1959, and from 1960-1966. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Association of Computing Machinery, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Encyclopaedia Britannica and of the Annals of the History of Computing. Professor Gotlieb is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the British Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery. He received honorary DMath and DEng degrees from the University of Waterloo and the Technical University of Nova Scotia respectively. In 1994, he was awarded the Isaac L. Auerbach Medal by the International Federation of Information Processing Societies, and in 1996 the Order of Canada award. He is currently Professor Emeritus in Computer Science and in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto.

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REMINDER: Toronto Trip
by Computer Science Club 04 Nov '10

04 Nov '10

Hello everyone, This is a reminder that we are going to Toronto on Nov. 13. We will be meeting UofT's CSSU and going to the pub with them to discuss computer science and other things after touring some subset of their facilities. The bus leaves from in front of DC at 1pm, and we will leave Toronto at 11pm. Space is limited so please sign up in advance. The price for the bus is $2 per member. To sign up come to the office in MC3036. -- Edgar Bering, Vice President 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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Hackathon
by Computer Science Club 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

Hello, the CSC is hosting a Hackathon on 2010-11-05 at 07:00 PM in C&D Lounge (MC3002). Come join the CSC for a night of code, music with only 8 bits, and comradarie. We will be in the C&D Lounge from 7pm until 7am working on personal projects, open source projects, and whatever else comes to mind. If you're interested in getting involved in free/open source development, some members will be on hand to guide you through the process. Hope to see you there. If you have any questions about the event e-mail the executive or check http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca.

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