- csc-general - CSC Mailman

Winter 2022 Elections Nominations
by Computer Science Club 21 Dec '21

21 Dec '21

Hi everyone, Due to the closure of campus this term, the Computer Science Club will be holding elections for Winter 2022 virtually. The president, vice-president, treasurer and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected and the sysadmin will be appointed. If you'd like to run for any of these positions, please email cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca<mailto:cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca>. Nominations will close on Wednesday, January 5 2022 at midnight EDT. If you'd like to get involved with CS Club, but don't want to run for an elected position, we are also accepting applications for Marketing Coordinators and Designers on the Programme Committee! You can apply here<https://forms.gle/dM1opTKwy4gsaa4s9> if you are interested! Thanks, [cid:E6E984D8-FCEC-48DD-A4F3-89C172627BF2] Juthika Hoque (she/her/hers) Winter 2022 Chief Returning Officer (CRO) | UW Computer Science Club Visit us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/uw.computerscienceclub> | Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/uwcsclub> | Discord<https://discord.gg/pHfYBCg> | Twitch<https://www.twitch.tv/uwcsclub> | Youtube<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWouvEY1mQUG1fgR8VRA2sQ>

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Waterloo Warriors Band - account access
by Computer Science Club 22 Nov '21

22 Nov '21

Hello! I'm a member of the Waterloo Warriors band, and also a current member of the csclub (Username ajmcvitt). It seems that none of the current members have access to updating the warriors band csclub website information, and I'd like to take on the role of maintaining it. Please, let me know if there is any additional information I should provide. Cheers, -Alex McVittie

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Server upgrade planned for November 28 + Winter 2022 Internal Committee Apps Open
by Computer Science Club 21 Nov '21

21 Nov '21

Hello CSC, A planned software update will occur on November 28 on all CSC general-use machines. As this will require a reboot, the machines will be offline for a few minutes. We will send a "wall" warning message to all logged-in users at least one hour before the upgrade begins. If you have any questions/concerns, please contact the Systems Committee at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. --- Additionally, CS Club’s Internal Committee is hiring for Winter 2022! Are you interested in organizing program-wide events, reaching out to industry professionals, or being a member of an impactful community? Are you passionate about making a difference in the UW CS and surrounding communities? We are looking for people like you to join our Programme Committee and/or Systems Committee! Role descriptions can be found here<https://bit.ly/uwcsclub-w22-roles> and the application form can be found here<https://bit.ly/uwcsclub-w22-apply>. Alternatively, you can email us at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca from your UW email with an introduction of yourself, which positions you're interested in and any questions you might have. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis so be sure to apply ASAP! -- Dora Su President Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

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F2021 Election Results
by Computer Science Club 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

Fall 2021 elections have concluded. Here are your executives for the term: President: Dora Su (d43su) VP (Head of Events): Jason Sang (jzsang) AVP (Head of Marketing): Anjing Li (a348li) Treasurer: Yanni Wang (y3859wang) Sysadmin: Max Erenberg (merenber) -- Max Erenberg Systems Administrator Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

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Fall 2021 Elections + Mentors needed for Side Project Event + Looking for Alumni for Alumni Panel
by Computer Science Club 14 Sep '21

14 Sep '21

Hello CSC members, Welcome to a new school year! Here are a few of announcements for September. The Computer Science Club will be holding elections for Fall 2021 virtually. The president, vice-president, treasurer and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected and the sysadmin, librarian and office manager will be appointed. If you'd like to run for any of these positions, please email cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will close on Tuesday, Sep 21 2021 at Midnight ET. -------- DSC and CSC are bringing back Project Program for the Fall 2021 term and we are looking for a team of reliable and knowledgeable mentors to help create new and exciting projects! Being a Project Program mentor is the perfect opportunity to develop your leadership, enhance project management skills, and apply your technical expertise to support students to give back to the Waterloo community. As a mentor, you’ll be tasked with helping teams of students create roadmaps of their project, setting milestones, and making sure that everyone stays on task. For more details about the role, you can find all the information you need in the Mentor Role Description (http://bit.ly/uwcsc-uwdsc-mentor-description) If you’re interested, please sign up here: https://forms.gle/61oPfNjDuxMJRj5a7! You won’t immediately be committing to the role; we’ll have a secondary check-in to ensure that you’re familiar with the responsibilities. If you have any questions reach out to us at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. -------- CSC is planning to host an alumni fireside chat! If you are an alumni of the Math Faculty from the University of Waterloo, we are interested in bringing you and your friends in front of undergraduate students to speak and reminisce about your university experience! We are looking for alumni who have graduated recently, graduated a while ago, and graduated a very long time ago. As a part of this event, you will be able to catch up with your former colleagues whilst providing guidance and direction to current Computer Science and UWaterloo students. If this interests you and your friends, please fill out the following signup form (https://forms.gle/ii8vjLVxGS2Sxk5XA) or reply to this email! We can help to reach out to your friends and bring you together for this event. Let us know if you have any questions or suggestions! -- Neil Parikh Treasurer, UWaterloo CSC

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Mandatory public-key authentication on all CSC machines
by Computer Science Club 13 Sep '21

13 Sep '21

Hello CSC, Due to the increasing security threats leveraging passwords, the University of Waterloo has moved to require that all SSH Servers exposed to the public Internet must enforce strong authentication by November 1st, 2021. To comply with this requirement, we will be disabling password authentication for SSH on all CSC general-use machines on October 15th, 2021. We suggest that you add your SSH public key to your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys if you have not done so already. We will still enable password authentication on the campus network. This means that you may still login via SSH with your password if you are physically on campus, are using a student CS machine as a jump host, or are using the campus VPN. However, we still suggest setting up public key auth anyways for non-campus access. If you have any questions or concerns, please email the Systems Committee at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. -- Max Erenberg Systems Administrator Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

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Alt Tab Speaker Applications (Due July 15) + Afterhours: Burnout (July 17) + Machine Downtime (July 17)
by Computer Science Club 13 Jul '21

13 Jul '21

Hello programs, Here are a few announcements for July. Join CSC for Alt-Tab, an event that consists of 10-15 minute talks by students on some interesting topics in the field of tech! Some topics that students have delivered talks on include virtual reality, pathfinding, web development, and competitive programming. The event will be hosted virtually at the end of July! Currently, we are looking for speakers for the event who are passionate about tech and want to gain some public-speaking experience. We would love to hear from everyone! Apply at https://bit.ly/csc-alt-tab-speaker-application ! Alternatively, you can also email us at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca with an outline of your topic. Application Deadline: Thursday, July 15th at 11:59pm ET. ------ CSC's next Afterhours is here! Afterhours is a series where we get the opportunity to dive into uncomfortable topics and share our experiences, as well as tips and tricks on how to overcome these problems. It's unfortunately common to feel burnt out and exhausted, especially at this point in the term. This Afterhours will be a discussion about recognizing burnout, recovering from burnout, and preventing it from occurring. Speakers will share their personal stories, and the conversation will be open for all participants to discuss and share their own experiences. Event Date: Saturday July 17th, 8:00- 9:00pm ET via Zoom Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83131978922?pwd=Tm1NLzgraGZ2U1VCQVpDSFZxbGpSdz09 ------ There will be a planned power outage in MC Saturday, July 17 from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. Most CSC services will be unavailable during this time. CSC machines will be powered off one hour before the outage begins, at 6:00 am. Please prepare for the outage by: * Ensuring all running processes have their state saved (configuration, data, etc.) * Any important files are backed up off-site from the CSC -- Neil Parikh Treasurer, UWaterloo CSC

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Spring 2021 Fees waived + Election Results + Titus Winters Tech Talk (June 10th) + Speed Friending (June 15th)
by Computer Science Club 10 Jun '21

10 Jun '21

Hello all, Hope you're all having a great summer so far. A few updates for the month of June: MathSoc has decided to waive club fees for the Spring 2021 term. If you are a current CSC member who has already paid for Spring 2021 membership, your membership has been extended by one term. If you are a current CSC member whose membership is expired for the Spring 2021 term, you can email syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca to have your membership renewed for the term at no cost. ------- Spring 2021 elections have concluded. Here are your executives for the term: - President: Kallen Tu (k4tu) - VP: Gordon Le (g2le) - AVP: Ravindu Angammana (rbangamm) - Treasurer: Neil Parikh (n3parikh) - Sysadmin: Max Erenberg (merenber) The unfilled positions this term are Office Manager, Librarian and IMAPD. ------- Become inspired in an upcoming talk by Titus Winters on June 10th from 7-8pm ET, who will share how good team culture can positively impact code! Titus Winters is a senior staff software engineer at Google, the chair of the global subcommittee for the design of the C++ standard library, a teacher and an author. Over the years, Titus has started several Google projects that are believed to be in the top 10 largest refactorings in human history. This unique scale and perspective has informed his thinking on the care and feeding of software systems. In this tech talk, Titus will discuss the roles of individual contributors, team leads, and managers in fostering a good culture, and show how this has a positive impact on project outcomes. Titus's talk will hit many teamwork and leadership themes of the "Software Engineering at Google" book, and the habits that have made his teams successful. Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/97312996497?pwd=Vnl5ZXNFTEJHQkRqMndnR3N0VjlJZz09 Registration (optional): http://bit.ly/csc-sesoc-google-tech-talk-signups ------- We know a virtual Spring term is making meeting new friends even harder, but we are happy to announce that our Speed-Friending event is back! Come hop on a Zoom call with us to get a chance to connect with others in our community. Like last term's event, you will be able to meet others in groups of 3 or 4, with around 10 minutes to talk. An optional prompt will act as an icebreaker, but feel free to discuss anything you want! Remember to connect with the people in your groups if you'd like to stay in contact afterwards! Registration is optional; we'll just be sending you a reminder on the day of, as well as a calendar invite. Event Date: Tuesday, June 15th 2021, 8-9pm EST Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/94998577861?pwd=REFJK0FUZXUzWUdlQVRjQVo4WGtJZz09 Sign up at http://bit.ly/uwcsc-speed-friending-signups! Alternatively, you can also email us at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. -- Neil Parikh Treasurer, UWaterloo CSC

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Migration from Freenode to libera.chat
by Computer Science Club 26 May '21

26 May '21

Hello CSC, Due to recent events involving the takeover of Freenode and the departure of most of its staff, we have decided to migrate the #csc channel on Freenode to libera.chat (https://libera.chat/) We are currently using Matterbridge to bridge messages between the two IRC networks, but this is only a temporary measure to ease the transition. If you are in the #csc channel on Freenode, please migrate to the #csc channel on libera.chat at your earliest convenience. If you have any questions, please email syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. -- Max Erenberg System Administrator Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

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[CSC]Spring 2021 Fees + Elections + Power outage + Events
by Computer Science Club 14 May '21

14 May '21

Hello all, Welcome to the Spring term! Here are a few updates: There will be a planned power outage in MC tomorrow (Saturday, May 15) from 7:00 am to 11:00 am. Most CSC services will be unavailable during this time. CSC machines will be powered off one hour before the outage begins, at 6:00 am. --------------- Mathsoc has currently not decided on whether club fees will be collected for the Spring 2021 term. If you are a current CSC member whose account was active last term, you will retain access to CSC systems for all of May. We will send another email once MathSoc has made a decision. --------------- Due to the closure of campus this term, the Computer Science Club will be holding elections for Spring 2021 virtually. The president, vice-president, treasurer and assistant vice-president (formerly secretary) will be elected and the sysadmin will be appointed. The librarian and office manager will not be appointed, since the office will be closed for the Spring term. If you'd like to run for any of these positions, please email cro(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will close on Friday, May 21 2021 at Noon EDT. --------------- Joining forces with Tech+, UW Data Science Club, and UW PM, we're hosting live resume critiques! The session will be held on Discord; you must sign up at http://bit.ly/S21-resume-critique to gain access to the critiques. Deadline to signup is Friday, May 14th at 11:59pm EDT. --------------- Kick off your Spring term with CSC! Come join us on Discord (https://discord.gg/pHfYBCg) on May 17th at 8 PM to learn more about what we'll be up to this term and how you can participate! Afterwards, stick around for a relaxing and fun game night. See you there! -- Max Erenberg System Administrator Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo

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Changes to SpamAssassin
by Computer Science Club 28 Mar '21

28 Mar '21

Hello CSC, Some time this week, we will be making changes to our SpamAssassin configs to use a site-wide Bayesian learner instead of per-user. Given that the vast majority of our spam is directed towards our mailing lists rather than individual club members, I think this makes the most sense for us. We will also be increasing the scores for the Bayes tests to keep spam out of our inboxes more aggressively. Unfortunately, this means that there will likely be some false positives. I will try to adjust the Bayes test scores to keep this rate low. Alternatively, you can set your own custom scores in ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs. This means that all of the bayes* files in everyone's ~/.spamassassin directories are now useless. If these files are taking up a lot of space, it would probably be a good idea to delete them. As a final reminder, SpamAssassin only adds headers to emails which it flags as spam - it does not actually delete or move them. If you wish to invoke some custom action on these flagged messages, you can use a custom procmailrc file, as outlined in our wiki: https://wiki.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/Mail#Spamfiltering If you have any concerns or suggestions, please send a message to syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. -- Max Erenberg Systems Administrator | Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Planned Outage on Saturday, Mar. 20
by Computer Science Club 18 Mar '21

18 Mar '21

Hello CSC, Computer Science Club systems and services will be unavailable on Saturday, Mar. 20 due to a planned power outage in the Mathematics and Computer Building (MC) from 7am to 5pm. The CSC will begin shutting down machines at 6am in preparation of the outage. This outage will impact: - Web hosting (all personal and club websites) - Email (@csclub.uwaterloo.ca email addresses) - General-use machines - The Lounge - ZNC - BigBlueButton - Mattermost We are hoping to keep mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca available for the duration of the outage using a backup mirror. Please prepare for the outage by: - Ensuring all running processes have their state saved (configuration, data, etc.) - Any important files are backed up off-site from the CSC If you have any questions/concerns, please email the Systems Committee at syscom at csclub.uwaterloo.ca -- Max Erenberg Systems Administrator | Computer Science Club University of Waterloo

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Alt-Tab speaker applications and BigBlueButton
by Computer Science Club 07 Mar '21

07 Mar '21

Hi CSC, We have two announcements to make in this email. 1. *Alt-Tab speaker applications now open* Join Computer Science Club for Alt-Tab, a lightning tech talk series presented by students. Alt-Tab consists of 10 to 15-minute talks about anything related to tech. We are currently looking for speakers! If you're passionate about a technical topic and interested in public speaking, apply by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/JpEsGTZK9WRbFUw46. Alternatively, you can also email us at exec(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca to introduce yourself, as well as an outline of your proposed 10-15 minute talk. Applications are due on Friday, March 12th 11:59pm EST. Hope to see you there! 2. *BigBlueButton now available* CSC now hosts its own instance of BigBlueButton at https://bbb.csclub.uwaterloo.ca, freely available for all members. BigBlueButton is a free and open source video conferencing platform. It runs directly in the browser, and includes many useful features such as multi-user whiteboards, embedded videos, and interactive polls. To get the most out of BBB, there are some tutorial videos you can watch here: https://bigbluebutton.org/html5 Happy video calling! -- Max Erenberg Systems Committee | Computer Science Club

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Syscom Recruitment
by Computer Science Club 10 Feb '21

10 Feb '21

Hello CSC, The Systems Committee (syscom) is currently recruiting new members for W2021 and beyond. What is syscom? Syscom is the committee responsible for the operation, maintenance and upgraing of all CSC equipment. Here's a non-exhaustive list of some of the services we provide: * Web hosting * Email hosting * Git hosting * Open source software mirroring * CSC machine access * Roundcube (web UI for email) * The Lounge (web UI for IRC) * ZNC (IRC bouncer) * Mattermost To join syscom, you should have at least some basic familiarity with the command line and GNU/Linux. If you are interested in joining syscom, please send an email to merenber(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca with the following information: * CSC username * program and year of study * any relevant experience you have with GNU/Linux Please note that you are not making any commitment to the Systems Committee by expressing your interest; you're under no obligation to join in the future if you decide that it's not right for you. Looking forward to hearing from you! Max Erenberg CSC Systems Adminstrator

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Winter 2021 Club Fees will not be collected + Election Results
by Computer Science Club 28 Jan '21

28 Jan '21

Hello CSC, MathSoc has decided not collect fees for the Winter 2021 term. Due to this: * If have already paid for Winter 2021 membership, your membership will be extended by one term. * If your membership is expired for the Winter 2021 term, you can email exec at csclub.uwaterloo.ca to have your membership renewed for the term at no cost. Winter 2021 elections have also concluded. Here are your executives for the term. - President: Kallen Tu (k4tu) - VP: Gordon Le (g2le) - AVP: Nakul Vijhani (nvijhani) - Treasurer: Neil Parikh (n3parikh) - Sysadmin: Max Erenberg (merenber) -- Neil Parikh CRO, UWaterloo CSC

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

13 Jan '21

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

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

27 Nov '20

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

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

19 Nov '20

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

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

21 Oct '20

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

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

28 Sep '20

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

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

28 Sep '20

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

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

12 Sep '20

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

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

27 Jul '20

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

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

28 May '20

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

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

26 May '20

Hello all, Computer Science Club systems and services will be unavailable on Thursday, May 28 due to a planned power outage in the Mathematics and Computer Building (MC) from 10am to 12pm (noon) EDT. The CSC will begin shutting down machines at 8am EDT in preparation of the outage. This outage will impact: - Web hosting (all personal and club websites) - Email (@csclub.uwaterloo.ca email addresses) - Servers and Office Terminals We hope to maintain the availability of mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca for the duration of the outage. Should sufficient battery backup power be available, we may also attempt to maintain the availability our web hosting service. Please prepare for the outage by: - Ensuring all running processes have their state saved (configuration, data, etc.) - Any important files are backed up off-site from the CSC If you have any questions/concerns, please email the Systems Committee at syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Thanks, Systems Committee Computer Science Club | University of Waterloo syscom(a)csclub.uwaterloo.ca

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