4 <eventitem date="2003-12-01" time="7:00 PM"
5 room="TBA" title="Jon 'maddog' Hall: Free and Open Source: Its uses in Business and Education">
6 <short> Free and Open Source software has been around for a long
7 time, even longer then shrink-wrapped code.</short>
9 <p>Free and Open Source software has been around for a long time, even
10 longer then shrink-wrapped code. It has a long and noble history in the annals
11 of education. Even more than ever, due to the drop of hardware prices and the
12 increase of worldwide communications, Free and Open Source can open new
13 avenues of teaching and doing research, not only in computer science, but in
14 other university fields as well.</p>
15 <p>Learn how Linux as an operating system can
16 run on anything from a PDA to a supercomputer, and how Linux is reducing the
17 cost of computing dramatically as the fastest growing operating system in the
18 world. Learn how other Free and Open Source projects, such as office suites,
19 audio and video editing and playing software, relational databases, etc. are
20 created and are freely available.</p>
21 <h3>Speaker's Biography</h3>
22 <p>Jon "maddog" Hall is the Executive Director of <a href="http://www.li.org/">Linux International</a>,
23 a non-profit association of computer vendors who wish to support and promote
24 the Linux Operating System. During his career which spans over thirty years,
25 Mr. Hall has been a programmer, systems designer, systems administrator,
26 product manager, technical marketing manager and educator. He has
27 worked for such companies as Western Electric Corporation, Aetna Life and
28 Casualty, Bell Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, VA Linux Systems,
29 and is currently funded by SGI.</p>
31 <p>He has taught at Hartford State Technical College, Merrimack College and
32 Daniel Webster College. He still likes talking to students over pizza and beer
33 (the pizza can be optional).</p>
35 <p>Mr. Hall is the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles, many
36 presentations and one book, "Linux for Dummies".</p>
38 <p>Mr. Hall serves on the boards of several companies, and several non-profit
39 organizations, including the USENIX Association.</p>
41 <p>Mr. Hall has traveled the world speaking on the benefits of Open Source
42 Software, and received his BS in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel
43 University, and his MSCS from RPI in Troy, New York.</p>
45 <p>In his spare time maddog is working on his retirement project:</p>
47 <center>maddog's monastery for microcomputing and microbrewing</center>
52 <eventitem date="2003-11-05" time="4:30 PM - 8:30 PM"
53 room="Grad House Pub (Green Room)" title="CS Pints With Profs">
54 <short>Come have a pint with your favourite CS profs!</short>
56 <p>Come meet CS profs in a relaxed atmosphere this Wednesday at
57 the Grad House (by South Campus Hall). This is your chance to meet those CS profs
58 you enjoyed in lectures in person, have a chat with them
59 and find out what they're doing outside the lecture halls.</p>
61 <p>We'll be providing free food, including hamburgers and nachos,
62 and the Grad House offers a great selection of drinks.</p>
64 <p>If you'd like to invite a particular prof, stop by on the third
65 floor of the MC (outside of the Comfy) to pick up an invitation.</p>
67 <p>Persons of all ages are welcome!</p>
72 <eventitem date="2003-10-21" time="4:30 PM - 5:30 PM" room="MC2065"
73 title=".NET & Linux: When Worlds Collide">
74 <short>A talk by James Perry</short>
77 <p>.NET is Microsoft's new development platform, including amongst
78 other things a language called C# and a class library for various
79 operating system services. .NET aims to be portable, although it is
80 currently mostly only used on Windows systems.</p>
82 <p>With the full backing of Microsoft, it seems unlikely that .NET
83 will disappear any time soon. There are several efforts underway to
84 bring .NET to the GNU/Linux platform. Hosted by the Computer Science
85 Club, this talk will discuss a number of the issues surrounding .NET
91 <eventitem date="2003-10-22" time="4:30 PM - 5:30 PM" room="MC4061"
92 title="Real-Time Graphics Compilers">
93 <short>Sh is a GPU metaprogramming language developed at the UW
94 Computer Graphics Lab</short>
97 <p>Sh is a GPU metaprogramming language developed at the University of
98 Waterloo Computer Graphics Lab. It allows graphics programmers to
99 write programs which run directly on the GPU (Graphics Processing
100 Unit) using familiar C++ syntax. Furthermore, it allows
101 metaprogramming of such programs, that is, writing programs which
102 generate other programs, in an easy and natural manner.</p>
104 <p>This talk will give a brief overview of how Sh works, the design of
105 its intermediate representation and the (still somewhat simplistic)
106 optimizer that the current reference implementation has and problems
107 with applying traditional compiler optimizations.</p>
109 <p>Stefanus Du Toit is an undergraduate student at the University of
110 Waterloo. He is also a Research Assistant for Michael McCool from the
111 University of Waterloo Graphics Lab. Over the Summer of 2003 Stefanus
112 reimplemented the Sh reference implementation and designed and
113 implemented the current Sh optimizer.</p>
117 <eventitem date="2003-10-17" time="3:00 PM" room="MC3001 (Comfy)"
118 title="Poster Team Meeting">
119 <short>More free pizza from the Poster Team</short>
121 <p>Are you interested in getting involved in the Computer Science
124 <p>Come on out to the second meeting of our Poster Team, a bunch of
125 students helping out with promotion for our events. The agenda for
126 this meeting will include painting posters, designing event
127 invitations, and organizing poster runs. Once again, we will be
128 serving free pizza!</p>
130 <p>See you there!</p>
134 <eventitem date="2003-10-16" time="4:00 PM - 5:30 PM" room="MC2037"
135 title="UNIX 103: Development Tools">
136 <short>GCC, GDB, Make</short>
138 <p>This tutorial will provide you with a practical introduction to GNU
139 development tools on Unix such as the gcc compiler, the gdb debugger
140 and the GNU make build tool.</p>
142 <p>This talk is geared primarily at those mostly unfamiliar with these
143 tools. Amongst other things we will introduce:</p>
146 <li>gcc options, version differences, and peculiarities</li>
147 <li>using gdb to debug segfaults, set breakpoints and find out what's
149 <li>tiny Makefiles that will compile all of your 2nd and 3rd year CS
153 <p>If you're in second year CS and unfamiliar with UNIX development it
154 is highly recommended you go to this talk. All are welcome, including
155 non-math students.</p>
161 <eventitem date="2003-10-02" time="4:00 PM - 5:30 PM" room="MC2037"
162 title="UNIX 101: Text Editors">
163 <short>vi vs. emacs: The Ultimate Showdown</short>
166 Have you ever wondered how those cryptic UNIX text editors work? Have you
167 ever woken up at night with a cold sweat wondering "Is it CTRL-A, or CTRL-X
168 CTRL-A?" Do you just hate pico with a passion?</p>
170 <p>Then come to this tutorial and learn how to use vi and emacs!</p>
172 <p>Basic UNIX commands will also be covered. This tutorial will be especially
173 useful for first and second year students.</p>
178 <eventitem date="2003-10-06" time="4:00 PM" room="MC3001 (Comfy)"
179 title="Poster Team Meeting">
180 <short>Join the Poster Team and get Free Pizza!</short>
183 <li>Do you like computer science?</li>
184 <li>Do you like posters?</li>
185 <li>Do you like free pizza?</li>
187 <p>If the answer to one of these questions is yes, then come
188 out to the first meeting of the Computer Science Club Poster Team! The
189 CSC is looking for interested students to help out with promotion and
190 publicity for this term's events. We promise good times and free
195 <eventitem date="2003-09-17" time="4:30 PM" room="MC3001 (Comfy)"
196 title="CSC Elections">
197 <short>CSC Fall 2003 Elections</short>
199 <p>Elections will be held on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 at 4:30 PM in the
201 Comfy Lounge, MC3001.</p>
203 <p>I invite you to nominate yourself or others for executive positions,
204 starting immediately. Simply e-mail me at cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
205 with the name of the person who is to be nominated and the position
206 they're nominated for.</p>
208 <p>Nominees must be full-time undergraduate students in Math. Sorry!</p>
210 <p>Positions open for elections are:</p>
212 <ul><li>President: Organises the club, appoints committees, keeps everyone busy.
213 If you have lots of ideas about the club in general and like bossing
214 people around, go for it!</li>
216 <li>Vice President: Organises events, acts as the president if he's not
217 available. If you have lots of ideas for events, and spare time, go
220 <li>Treasurer: Keeps track of the club's finances. Gets to sign cheques
221 and stuff. If you enjoy dealing with money and have ideas on how to
222 spend it, go for it!</li>
224 <li>Secretary: Takes care of minutes and outside correspondence. If you
225 enjoy writing things down and want to use our nifty new letterhead
226 style, go for it!</li></ul>
228 <p>Nominations will be accepted until Tuesday, September 16 at 4:30 PM.</p>
230 <p>Additionally, a Sysadmin will be appointed after the elections. If you
231 like working with unix systems and have experience setting up and
232 maintaining them, go for it!</p>
234 <p>I hope that lots of people will show up; hopefully we'll have a great
235 term with plenty of events. We always need other volunteers, so if you
236 want to get involved just talk to the new exec after the
237 meeting. Librarians, webmasters, poster runners, etc. are always
240 <p>There will also be free pop.</p>
242 <p>Memberships can be purchased at the elections or at least half an hour
243 prior to at the CSC. Only undergrad math members can vote, but anyone can
250 <eventitem date="2003-07-31" time="4:30 PM" room="MC4064"
251 title="LaTeX and Work Reports">
252 <short>Writing beautiful work reports</short>
255 <p>The work report is a familiar chore for any co-op student. Not only is
256 there a report to write, but to add insult to injury, your report is
257 returned if you do not follow your departmental guidelines.</p>
259 <p>Fear no more! In this talk, you will learn how to use LaTeX and a
260 specially developed class to automatically format your work reports.
261 This talk is especially useful to Mathematics, Computer Science,
262 Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Software Engineeering co-op
263 students about to go on work term.</p>
266 href="http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~sfllaw/programs/uw-wkrpt/">http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~sfllaw/programs/uw-wkrpt/</a></p>
271 <eventitem date="2003-07-24" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
272 title="vi: the visual editor">
273 <short>It's not 6.</short>
276 <p>In 1976, a University of California Berkeley student by the name of
277 Bill Joy got sick of his text editor, ex. So he hacked it such that
278 he could read his document as he wrote it. The result was "vi", which
279 stands for VIsual editor. Today, it is shipped with every modern
280 Unix system, due to its global influence.</p>
282 <p>In this talk, you will learn how to use vi to edit documents
283 quickly and efficiently. At the end, you should be able to:</p>
286 <li>Navigate and search through documents</li>
287 <li>Cut, copy, and paste across documents</li>
288 <li>Search and replace regular expressions</li>
291 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be lent
292 to you for the duration of this class.</p>
297 <eventitem date="2003-07-24" time="3:00 PM" room="CSC Office" title="July
299 <short> See Abstract for minutes </short>
302 --paying Simon for Sugar
305 Expense this to MathSoc in lieu of foreign speaker.
307 --We currently have (including CD-R and pop-income not
308 currently in safe) $972.85
309 -We have $359.02 on budget that we can expense to MathSoc.
311 --We got MEF money for books and video card. Funding for
312 wireless microphone is dependent on whether MFCF is
314 -Funding for casters was denied.
315 -Shopping for the Video card.
316 -Expecting it after auguest (Stefanus shopping for it.)
317 -Will have to hear back regarding the microphone, best to
318 delay that now, discuss it with MEF.
319 -Better to do it this term, so it doesn't get lost.
320 -Let MFCF know about this concern.
321 -Regarding books, can be done anytime before September.
324 -Generally, Jim Eliot talk when really well.
325 -Apparently he was generally offensive.
326 -When was the LaTeX talk? End of the month.
327 -Kegger at Jim's place on the 16th.
329 --Getting people in on the 6th, 7th, 8th for csc commercials
331 -Hang out in here, and he'll make a CSC commercial.
332 -Co-ordinate when everyone should be in here, so we can email Jason.
335 -CEO needs it's database changed to use ISBN as a primary key.
336 -Needs functionality to take out/return books.
338 --Mark just entered financial stuff into GNUcash
340 --Choose CRO for next term.
341 -Stefanus has expressed desire not to be CRO.
342 -Gary Simmons was suggested (and he accepted)
345 --Mike Biggs has to get here naked.
346 -Four unanimous votes.
347 -Nakedness only applies to getting here, not being here.
351 ACTION ITEM: Biggs and Cass
352 -get labelmaker tape, masking tape
353 whiteboard makers, coloured paper, CD sleeves
354 -keep reciepts for CSC office expenses.
356 How is the progess on allowing executives and voters to be non-math
358 -The vote is coming up Monday.
359 -Proposal: Anyone who is a paying member can be a member
360 -So you can either do two things:
362 Get your faculty society to recognize CSC as a club.
364 Stefanus wanted to mention that we shoudl talk to Yolanda,
365 Craig or Louie about a EYT event for frosh week.
367 -Sugar Mountain trying to hook all the Frosh
371 Reminder for Next Year's executive.
372 -September 16th @ 5:00pm, get a table for Clubs day, and 17th
373 and 18th, maintain the booth (full day events).
376 -There should be executive before then
378 Note: There needs to be a private section in the CSC Procedures Manual.
379 (Only accessible by shell)
384 -Talk to Plantops about:
392 <eventitem date="2003-06-27" time="2:30 PM" room="DC1302"
393 title="Friday Flicks">
394 <short> SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre Showing </short>
397 SIGGRAPH is the ACM's Special Interest Group for Graphics and
398 simultaneously the world's largest graphics conference and
399 exhibition, where the cutting edge of graphics research is presented
402 With support from UW's Computer Graphics Lab, the CSC invites you to
403 capture a glimpse of SIGGRAPH 2002. We will be presenting the
404 Electronic Theatre showings from 2002, demonstrating the best of the
405 animated, CG-produced movies presented at SIGGRAPH.
406 </p><p> Don't miss this free showing!</p>
409 <eventitem date="2003-07-08" time="4:00 PM" room="MC2065"
410 title="Mainframes and Linux">
411 <short>A talk by Jim Elliott. Jim is responsible for IBM's in Open Source
412 activities and IBM's mainframe operating systems for Canada and the
416 Linux and Open Source have become a significant reality in the
417 working world of Information Technology. An indirect result has been a
418 "rebirth" of the mainframe as a strategic platform for enterprise
419 computing. In this session Jim Elliott, IBM's Linux Advocate, will provide
420 an overview of these technologies and an inside look at IBM's participation
421 in the community. Jim will examine Linux usage on the desktop, embedded
422 systems and servers, a reality check on the common misconceptions that
423 surround Linux and Open Source, and an overview of the history and current
424 design of IBM's mainframe servers.</p>
426 Jim Elliott is the Linux Advocate for IBM Canada. He is responsible
427 for IBM's participation in Linux and Open Source activities and IBM's
428 mainframe operating systems in Canada and the Caribbean. Jim is a popular
429 speaker on Linux and Open Source at conferences and user groups across the
430 Americas and Europe and has spoken to over 300 organizations over the past
431 three years. Over his 30 years with IBM he has been the co-author of over
432 15 IBM publications and he also coordinated the launch of Linux on IBM
433 mainframes in the Americas. In his spare time, Jim is addicted to reading
434 historical mystery novels and travel to their locales.
436 <p><a href="http://www.vm.ibm.com/devpages/jelliott/events.html">Slides</a>
440 <eventitem date="2003-07-04" time="3:30 PM" room="University of Guelph"
442 <short>Come Visit the University of Guelph's Computer Science Club</short>
444 The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club is going to visit the
445 University of Guelph Computer Science Club. There will be a talk given
446 as well as dinner with a fun social atmosphere.</p><p>Drivers Wanted</p>
447 <p>Cancelled -- sorry Guelph cancelled on us.</p>
450 <eventitem date="2003-07-17" time="4:30 PM" room="MC4064"
452 <short>Metaprogramming your way to stunning effects.</short>
455 Modern graphics processors allow developers to upload small "shader
456 programs" to the GPU, which can be executed per-vertex or even
457 per-pixel during the rendering. Such shaders allow stunning effects to
458 be performed in real-time, but unfortunately aren't very easy to
459 program since one generally has to write them at the assembly level.
461 Recently a few high-level languages for shader programming have become
462 available. Sh, a result of research at UW, is one such language. It
463 allows programming powerful shaders in simple and intuitive ways. Sh
464 is particularily interesting because of the way it is
465 implemented. Instead of coming up with a language grammar and writing
466 a full-fledged compiler, Sh is implemented as a C++ library, and
467 shader programs are effectively written in C++. The actual compilation
468 then takes place in a manner similar to JIT (Just-in-time)
469 compilers. This has many advantages over the traditional approach,
470 including C++'s familiar syntax for users, and much less work for the
473 In this talk I will give an overview of GPUs and the Sh language as
474 well as some interesting details on how Sh was implemented.
475 </p><p> <!-- Is there a bio tag -->
476 Stefanus Du Toit is a research assistant at the University of
477 Waterloo. He has implemented the current version of Sh from scratch
478 and is actively developing it under supervision of Michael McCool, the
479 original designer of the language.
483 <eventitem date="2003-06-19" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
484 title="vi: the visual editor">
485 <short>It's not 6.</short>
488 <p>In 1976, a University of California Berkeley student by the name of
489 Bill Joy got sick of his text editor, ex. So he hacked it such that
490 he could read his document as he wrote it. The result was "vi", which
491 stands for VIsual editor. Today, it is shipped with every modern
492 Unix system, due to its global influence.</p>
494 <p>In this talk, you will learn how to use vi to edit documents
495 quickly and efficiently. At the end, you should be able to:</p>
498 <li>Navigate and search through documents</li>
499 <li>Cut, copy, and paste across documents</li>
500 <li>Search and replace regular expressions</li>
503 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be lent
504 to you for the duration of this class.</p>
509 <eventitem date="2003-06-12" time="3:30 PM" room="MC3036 CSC Office" title="June 12 Exec Meeting">
510 <short>Have an issue that should be brought up? We'd love to hear it!</short>
514 Budget: All the money we requested
515 --No money from Pints from Profs
516 --MathSoc has promised us $1250
518 Feedback from Completed Events
519 UNIX Talks: 17 people for first
520 --12 people for second
526 --People Jim didn't know talked to him for 1/2 hour
528 History of CSC talk went well
529 --Good variety of people
533 --Only 1 E& CE prof
535 --Jim will harrass the profs at the School of CS Council meeting.
537 We're starting to fall behind in planning
541 --Might have to move RSB back
542 --International site has a few test samples
543 --Stefanus had some ideas
544 --Coding will probably take an afternoon/evening
545 --We need volunteers to run the competition
546 --We have volunteers to code: Phil and Stefanus
548 ACTION ITEM: Phil and Stefanus
549 --code whatever you volunteered to code for.
551 --Mike intends to visit classes and directly advertise
552 --Email Christina Hotz
554 --GH guy: Mike has an abstract, will have posters by tomorrow
557 --Mathnet, Hackers, Wargames, Tron
558 --Mike will get a room
559 --Will be closed member
561 Mike McCool is offering rooms for showing SIGGRAPH
563 -check with Mike McCool.
566 -Make posters for Movie Nights
568 When is other movie night? (Will plan some time in July)
570 Who is our foreign speaker?
571 Action Item: jelliot@ca.ibm.com (Check name first) about
572 getting a foreign speaker -- Note: Has already been contacted.
574 Simon got money from Engsoc
576 Cass meeds coloured paper (CSC is out)
578 ACTION ITEM: Cass and Mark
579 --get labelmaker tape, masking tape,
580 whiteboard makers, coloured paper
581 --keep reciepts for CSC office expenses
583 NOTICE: Mike is now Imapd
585 Simon distibuted budget list
586 Mark got the money from Mathsoc for last budget, deposited it.
589 --Get MEF funding by July 4th (equipment)
591 --Get WEEF funding by June 27th (book)
593 Jim still working on allowing executives and voters to be
596 We get free photocopying from MathSoc
598 --write down code for free photocopying from MathSoc
600 Simon has been able to get into the cscdisk account, still
601 looking into getting into the cscceo account.
603 Damien got an e-mail stating that the files for cscdisk are
607 --provide SSH key to Phil for getting into cscdisk, cscceo, etc...
608 --Renumber bootup scripts for sugar and powerpc so that they
611 ACTION ITEM: Mike needs to do all the plantops stuff again.
613 ACTION ITEM: Mike -- "Stapler if you say please" sign.
615 CVS Tree for CEO has been exported.
616 Damien has volunteered to finish CEO (found by Cass)
618 All books with barcodes have been scanned
619 All books without barcodes need to be bar-coded.
622 --Find a Credit-card with a $500 or less limit.
624 Note: There needs to be a private section in the
625 CSC Procedures Manual. (Only accessible by shell)
627 Stefanus Wanted to mention that we should talk to
628 Yolanda, Craig or Louie about a EYT event for Frosh Week.
633 <eventitem date="2003-06-10" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2066"
634 title="A Brief History of Computer Science">
637 <p>War, insanity, espionage, beauty, domination, sacrifice, and tragic
638 death... not what one might associate with the history of computer
639 science. In this talk I will focus on the origin of our discipline in
640 the fields of engineering, mathematics, and science, and on the
641 complicated personalities that shaped its evolution. No advanced
642 technical knowledge is required.</p>
647 <eventitem date="2003-06-09" time="5:00 - 9:00 PM" room="The Grad House"
648 title="Pints with Profs!">
649 <short>Get to know your profs and be the envy of your friends!</short>
652 <p>Come out and meet your professors!! This is a great opportunity to
653 meet professors for Undergraduate Research jobs or to find out who you might
654 have for future courses. One and all are welcome!</p>
656 <p>Best of all... free food!!!</p>
661 <eventitem date="2003-05-29" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
662 title="Unix 101: First Steps With Unix">
663 <short>Learn Unix and be the envy of your friends!</short>
666 <p>This is the first in a series of seminars that cover the use of the
667 Unix Operating System. Unix is used in a variety of applications, both
668 in academia and industry. We will provide you with hands-on experience
669 with the Math Faculty's Unix environment in this seminar.</p>
671 <p>Topics that will be discussed include:</p>
674 <li>Navigating the Unix environment</li>
675 <li>Using common Unix commands</li>
676 <li>Using the PICO text editor</li>
677 <li>Reading electronic mail and news with PINE</li>
680 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be lent
681 to you for the duration of this class.</p>
686 <eventitem date="2003-06-05" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
687 title="Unix 102: Fun With Unix">
688 <short>Talking to your Unix can be fun and profitable</short>
691 <p>This is the second in a series of seminars that cover the use of the
692 Unix Operating System. Unix is used in a variety of applications, both in
693 academia and industry. We will provide you with hands-on experience with
694 the Math Faculty's Unix environment in this tutorial.</p>
696 <p>Topics that will be discussed include:</p>
699 <li>Interacting with Bourne and C shells</li>
700 <li>Editing text with the vi text editor</li>
701 <li>Editing text with the Emacs display editor</li>
702 <li>Multi-tasking and the screen multiplexer</li>
705 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be
706 lent to you for the duration of this class</p>
711 <eventitem date="2003-06-12" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
712 title="Unix 103: Scripting Unix">
713 <short>You too can be a Unix taskmaster</short>
716 <p>This is the third in a series of seminars that cover the use of the
717 Unix Operating System. Unix is used in a variety of applications, both in
718 academia and industry. We will provide you with hands-on experience with
719 the Math Faculty's Unix environment in this tutorial.</p>
721 <p>Topics that will be discussed include:</p>
724 <li>Shell scripting</li>
725 <li>Searching through text files</li>
726 <li>Batch editing text files</li>
729 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be
730 lent to you for the duration of this class</p>
735 <eventitem date="2003-05-22" time="4:30 PM" room="MC3036 CSC Office" title="May 22 Exec Meeting">
736 <short>The execs discuss what needs discussion</short>
740 Minutes for CSC Exec Meeting
744 * Add staff to burners group.
745 -- Only office staff (people who do stuff) on burners list
746 -- No objections from executives
748 * We still need a webmaster, imapd
750 --Check for pop delivery services (Like Grocery Gateway)
751 so that we can replace imapd with an automated cronjob
752 -- If this gets implemented, we must make sure that
753 someone is around to receive the pop whenever it is
758 -- Make sure execs receive a copy of the proposed budget
760 -- Look into claiming money from Mathsoc for the last
762 --Will be looked over the week after next Monday at the Mathsoc
764 --June 27th is the WEF (Engineering Endowment Fund) deadline
765 --EngSoc proposal for donations by the end of the month
766 -- Around 15 events planned
768 --CS Departmant will pay for flight
769 -- We can pay local expenses
773 *Changes in the MathSoc Clubs Policy
774 Action Item: Jim and Stefanus
775 --Bring thus up with MathSoc
776 --Might be good to talk to Bioinformatics about this, as
777 they have science faculty members to take care of as well.
778 --Major issue: People who revoke their Mathsoc fees can still be
780 --We want it so that only people who have paid dues to Mathsoc
782 --Execs should not take back fees, as that is bad form.
783 --All execs unanimously agreed with this proposal
785 *Confirming that we have free printing and photocopying
787 --Does Faculty of Math billing code apply to CSC
788 (as Faculty of Math department?)
789 -- Procedures manual has a billing code, but it should
791 -- Ask MUO, then Shirley after that.
793 --Apparently there is a special Watcard that provides
794 free printing from MFCF
795 --We do not know what account it is mapped to,
798 * Getting csc_disk, csc, csc_ceo accounts on undergrad to work again.
800 -- Get csc-disk back up for student use.
801 -- What group permissions do we need?
802 -- CSC-Disk should be used as a repository for custom
803 window managers, Mozilla, etc... (selling factor for
805 -- We should also have an announcement (MOTD, perhaps?)
806 that we are providing and supporting this software.
807 --Consider: Having university-wide accessible
808 binaries might be a pain, as different machines
809 might require different compilations.
810 -- CSC-Disk is full of user data. Should that be blown away?
812 *Getting locker #7 from MathSoc (Don't we already have lockers 788 and
814 --Why were the locks snipped? (Bring up at council meeting)
815 --We would prefer one combo-lock and one key-lock.
817 * Review of the CSC office organization
819 --Give Mike sudo access for shutdown
820 --Will be rewiring stuff on Saturday
821 --involves re-plugging machines
823 --Get rubber wheels for chairs
826 -- Ask PlantOps about:
828 --Installing Electronic Lock (asap)
829 --According to Faculty of Math,
830 we shouldn't need keys.
831 --Currently, we still need keys
832 --It is kosher to install Electronic lock
833 --This provides access right control as
834 compared to key-control.
835 --Might be long term project.
836 --Will green men do it?
837 --Steam-clean chairs (at least once a term)
839 --Making ugly wall prettier
840 --PlantOps knows about office
841 organization, making environment better.
842 --Whiteboards need to be put up
843 --Proposal: Cork-board on pillar (no objections)
844 --Metal frames on Whiteboard will be in least annoying place
846 *Do we provide public stapler access?
847 --People are often unappreciative and rude
848 --Sign - "Stapler if you say please" -- Unanimously voted
853 --Find out where to get CSC sign before Monday so we
854 can claim it in old budget.
858 --Find perl volunteer to finish CEO
859 --Force Stefanus to export CVS tree and put onto Peri
861 --Books were scanned into system with help of Mark
862 --All books with valid barcodes entered into system on
864 --Books without valid barcodes are not in system
865 --Someone needs to do it
866 --Plan is to implement Dewey decimal system
867 --May be inefficient as all books are about CS
868 --We will figure out a system later
869 --No plans to purchase new books
870 --Librarian's Request: Office Staff should not lend out books
871 that do not have barcodes (No objects to request)
872 --We are still using /media/iso/request to track books
873 --Should be charge late fees for books?
874 --We should have money in budget for repairing,maintaining books
875 --Before spending money on maintaining books, check if DC will
877 --will it be cheaper/easier/better?
879 *Setting up extra quota for fun and profit.
880 -- We don't implement quota properly right now
881 -- Low demand for extra quota
882 -- Counterpoint: Old CSC made tons of money
883 -- Counter-counter-point: It's not that necessary for extra
885 -- Executives voted against proposal.
887 *Jim will spam with an update about the term
888 --Consider making it opt-in
889 --One email from a service you are using should be considered
890 reasonable mass mailing
892 *Should Jim bring anything up at the MathSoc meeting?**
895 * Student branches for ACM and IEEE
897 --Contact IEEE Computing Society in UW and ask if they want
898 to merge or transfer society to us
899 --Simon volunteers to be put down as exec for ACM
900 --ACM rules state requirement that exec is a ACM member
901 --Do we renew Calum's ACM membership?
902 --Yes (3 Yes; 1 No; 1 Abstention)
903 --ACM membership money in budget
904 --ACM Student chapter form has not come in
906 * What to do with the donated Procedures Manual?
907 --Term Task for webpage:
908 --Put procedures manual on web-page.
909 --Merge with current manual
910 --We don't have a hard copy
911 --Would be a good thing to read.
912 --Many parts need updating
918 <eventitem date="2003-05-14" time="4:30 PM" room="MC3001 Comfy Lounge"
919 title="Spring 2003 Elections">
920 <short>Come on out and vote for your exec!</short>
922 <p>Elections will be held on Wednesday, May 14, 2003 at 4:30 PM in the
923 Comfy Lounge, MC3001.</p>
925 <p>I invite you to nominate yourself or others for executive positions,
926 starting immediately. Simply e-mail me at sjdutoit@uwaterloo.ca or
927 cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca with the name of the person who is to be
928 nominated and the position they're nominated for.</p>
930 <p>Nominees must be full-time undergraduate students in Math. Sorry!</p>
932 <p>Positions open for elections are:</p>
936 President: Organises the club, appoints committees, keeps everyone busy.
937 If you have lots of ideas about the club in general and like bossing
938 people around, go for it!
942 Vice President: Organises events, acts as the president if he's not
943 available. If you have lots of ideas for events, and spare time, go
948 Treasurer: Keeps track of the club's finances. Gets to sign cheques
949 and stuff. If you enjoy dealing with money and have ideas on how to
954 Secretary: Takes care of minutes and outside correspondence. If you
955 enjoy writing things down and want to use our nifty new letterhead
960 <p>Nominations will be accepted until Tuesday, May 13 at 4:30 PM.</p>
962 <p>Additionally, a Sysadmin will be appointed after the elections. If you
963 like working with unix systems and have experience setting up and
964 maintaining them, go for it!</p>
966 <p>I hope that lots of people will show up; hopefully we'll have a great
967 term with plenty of events. We always need other volunteers, so if you
968 want to get involved just talk to the new exec after the
969 meeting. Librarians, webmasters, poster runners, etc. are always
972 <p>There will also be free pop, and if I remember, timbits :).</p>
974 <p>Memberships can be purchased at the elections. Only undergrad math
975 members can vote, but anyone can become a member.</p>
977 <p>Don't forget! Mark it on your calendar/wrist watch/PDA/brain implant!</p>
984 <eventitem date="2003-02-04" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
985 title="Unix 101 Tutorial">
986 <short>Learn Unix and be the envy of your friends!</short>
989 <p>This is the first in a series of seminars that cover the use of the
990 UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of applications, both
991 in academia and industy. We will provide you with hands-on experience
992 with the Math Faculty's UNIX environment in this seminar.</p>
994 <p>Topics that will be discussed include:</p>
997 <li> Navigating the UNIX environment</li>
998 <li> Using common UNIX commands</li>
999 <li>Using the PICO text editor</li>
1000 <li>Reading electronic mail and news with PINE</li>
1003 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be lent
1004 to you for the duration of this class.</p>
1009 <eventitem date="2003-02-11" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
1010 title="Unix 102 Tutorial">
1011 <short>Learn more Unix and be the envy of your friends!</short>
1014 <p>Abstract to come soon.</p>
1019 <eventitem date="2003-02-18" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2037"
1020 title="Unix 103 Tutorial">
1021 <short>Learn more Unix and be the envy of your friends!</short>
1024 <p>Abstract to come soon. </p>
1029 <eventitem date="2003-01-13" time="6:00 PM" room="MC3001"
1030 title="W03 Elections">
1031 <short>Come out and vote for the new exec!</short>
1034 <p>This term's elections will take place on Monday, January 13 at 6:00 PM in the
1035 MC "comfy lounge" (MC3001). Nominations are open from now on (Thursday,
1036 January 2) until 4:30 PM of the day before elections (Sunday, January 12).
1037 In order to nominate someone you can either e-mail me directly, by depositing
1038 a form with the required information in the CSC mailbox in the Mathsoc office
1039 or by writing the nomination and clearly marking it as such on the large
1040 whiteboard in the CSC office. E-mail is probably the best choice.
1041 Please include the name of the person to be nominated as well as the position
1042 you wish to nominate them for.</p>
1044 <p>Candidates must be full members of the club. This means they must have paid
1045 their membership for the given term and (due to recent changes in the
1046 constitution) must be full-time undergraduate math students.
1047 The same requirements hold for those voting. Please bring your Watcard to
1048 the elections so that I can verify this. I will have a list of members with
1051 <p>The positions open are:</p>
1053 <p><b>President</b> -- appoints all commitees of the club, calls and presides at all
1054 meetings of the club and audits the club's financial records. Really, this
1055 is the person in charge.</p>
1057 <p><b>Vice President</b> -- assumes President's duties in case he/she is absent,
1058 plans and coordinates events with the programmes committee and assumes any
1059 other duties delegated by the President.
1060 This is a really fun job if you enjoy coordinating events!</p>
1062 <p><b>Secretary</b> -- keeps minutes of the meetings and cares for any correspondence.
1063 A fairly light job, good choice if you just want to see what being an exec
1066 <p><b>Treasurer</b> -- maintains all the finances of the club.
1067 If you like money and keeping records, this is the job for you!</p>
1069 <p>Additionally a Systems Administrator will be picked by the new executive.</p>
1071 <p>Last term was a great term for the CSC -- many events, some office renovations
1072 and a much improved image were all part of it. I hope to see the next term's
1073 exec continue this. If you're interested in seeing this happen, do consider
1074 going for a position, or helping out as office staff or on one of the
1077 <p>Anyways, hopefully I'll see many of you at the elections.
1078 Remember: Monday, January 13, 6:00 PM, MC3001/Comfy Lounge.</p>
1080 <p>If you have any further questions don't hesitate to contact the CRO,
1081 Stefanus Du Toit <a href="mailto:sjdutoit@uwaterloo.ca">by e-mail</a>.</p>
1085 <eventitem date="2003-01-23" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1086 title="Regular Expressions">
1087 <short>Find your perfect match</short>
1090 <p>Stephen Kleene developed regular expressions to describe what he
1091 called <q>the algebra of regular sets.</q> Since he was a pioneering
1092 theorist in computer science, Kleene's regular expressions soon made
1093 it into searching algorithms and from there to everyday tools.</p>
1095 <p>Regular expressions can be powerful tools to manipulate text.
1096 You will be introduced to them in this talk. As well, we will go
1097 further than the rigid mathematical definition of regular
1098 expressions, and delve into POSIX regular expressions which are
1099 typically available in most Unix tools.</p>
1104 <eventitem date="2003-01-30" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1105 title="sed & awk">
1106 <short>Unix text editing</short>
1109 <p><i>sed</i> is the Unix stream editor. A powerful way to
1110 automatically edit a large batch of text. <i>awk</i> is a
1111 programming language that allows you to manipulate structured data
1112 into formatted reports.</p>
1114 <p>Both of these tools come from early Unix, and both are still
1115 useful today. Although modern programming languages such as Perl,
1116 Python, and Ruby have largely replaced the humble <i>sed</i> and
1117 <i>awk</i>, they still have their place in every Unix user's
1123 <eventitem date="2003-02-06" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1124 title="LaTeX: A Document Processor">
1125 <short>Typesetting beautiful text</short>
1128 <p>Unix was one of the first electronic typesetting platforms. The
1129 innovative AT&T <i>troff</i> system allowed researches at Bell
1130 Labs to generate high quality camera-ready proofs for their papers.
1131 Later, Donald Knuth invented a typesetting system called
1132 T<small>E</small>X, which was far superior to other typesetting
1133 systems in the 1980s. However, it was still a typesetting language,
1134 where one had to specify exactly how text was to be set.</p>
1136 <p>L<sup><small>A</small></sup>T<small>E</small>X is a macro package
1137 for the T<small>E</small>X system that allows an author to describe
1138 his document's function, thereby typesetting the text in an
1139 attractive and correct way. In addition, one can define semantic
1140 tags to a document, in order to describe the meaning of the
1141 document; rather than the layout.</p>
1146 <eventitem date="2003-02-13" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1147 title="LaTeX: Reports">
1148 <short>Writing reports that look good.</short>
1151 <p>Work term reports, papers, and other technical documents can be
1152 typeset in L<sup><small>A</small></sup>T<small>E</small>X to great
1153 effect. In this session, I will provide examples on how to typeset
1154 tables, figures, and references. You will also learn how to make
1155 tables of contents, bibliographics, and how to create footnotes.</p>
1157 <p> I will also examine various packages of
1158 L<sup><small>A</small></sup>T<small>E</small>X that can help you
1159 meet requirements set by users of inferior typesetting systems.
1160 These include double-spacing, hyphenation and specific margin
1166 <eventitem date="2003-02-20" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1167 title="LaTeX: Beautiful Mathematics">
1168 <short>LaTeX => fun</short>
1171 <p>It is widely acknowledged that the best system by which to
1172 typeset beautiful mathematics is through the T<small>E</small>
1173 typesetting system, written by Donald Knuth in the early 1980s.</p>
1175 <p>In this talk, I will demonstrate
1176 L<sup><small>A</small></sup>T<small>E</small>X and how to typeset
1177 elegant mathematical expressions.</p>
1182 <eventitem date="2003-02-27" time="6:00 PM" room="MC1085"
1183 title="The BSD License Family">
1184 <short>Free for all</short>
1187 <p>Before the GNU project ever existed, before the phrase
1188 "Free Software" was ever coined, students and researchers
1189 at the University of California, Berkeley were already
1190 practising it. They had acquired the source cdoe to a
1191 little-known operating system developed at AT&T
1192 Bell Laboratories, and were creating improvments at a
1195 <p>These improvements were sent back to Bell Labs, and
1196 shared to other Universities. Each of them were licensed
1197 under what is now known as the "Original BSD license". Find
1198 out what this license means, its implications, and what are
1199 its decendents by attending this short talk.</p>
1204 <eventitem date="2003-02-27" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1205 title="The GNU General Public License">
1206 <short>The teeth of Free Software</short>
1209 <div style="font-style: italic"><blockquote>
1210 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
1211 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General
1212 Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and
1213 change free software---to make sure the software is free for all
1216 <div style="text-align:right">--- Excerpt from the GNU GPL</div>
1219 <p> The GNU General Public License is one of the most influencial
1220 software licenses in this day. Written by Richard Stallman for the
1221 GNU Project, it is used by software developers around the world to
1222 protect their work.</p>
1224 <p>Unfortunately, software developers do not read licenses
1225 thoroughly, nor well. In this talk, we will read the entire GNU GPL
1226 and explain the implications of its passages. Along the way, we
1227 will debunk some myths and clarify common misunderstandings.</p>
1229 <p>After this session, you ought to understand what the GNU GPL
1230 means, how to use it, and when you cannot use it. This session
1231 should also give you some insight into the social implications of
1237 <eventitem date="2003-03-13" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1239 <short>Give your documents more markup</short>
1242 <p>XML is the <q>eXtensible Markup Language,</q> a standard
1243 maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. A descendant of IBM's
1244 SGML. It is a metalanguage which can be used to define markup
1245 languages for semantically describing a document.</p>
1247 <p>This talk will describe how to generate correct XML documents,
1248 and auxillary technologies that work with XML.</p>
1253 <eventitem date="2003-03-20" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1255 <short>Transforming your documents</short>
1258 <p>XSLT is the <q>eXtended Stylesheet Language Transformations,</q>
1259 a language for transforming XML documents into other XML
1262 <p>XSLT is used to manipulate XML documents into other forms: a sort
1263 of glue between data formats. It can turn an XML document into an
1264 XHTML document, or even an HTML document. With a little bit of
1265 hackery, it can even be convinced to spit out non-XML conforming
1271 <eventitem date="2003-03-24" time="8:00 PM"
1272 room="Humanities Theatre, Hagey Hall"
1273 title="Judy, or What Is It Like To Be A Robot?">
1274 <short>Held in co-operation with the UW Cognitive Science Club</short>
1277 <p>A lot of claims have been made lately about the intelligence of
1278 computers. Some researchers say that computers will eventually attain
1279 super-human intelligence. Others call thse claims... um, poppycock.
1280 Oddly enough, in the search for the truth of the matter, both camps
1281 have overlooked an obvious strategy: interviewing a computer and asking
1284 <p>"Judy is as much fun as a barrel of wind-up cymbal-monkeys, and
1285 lots more entertaining." --- Bill Rodriguez, <i>Providence Phoenix</i></p>
1287 <p>"Tom Sgouros's witty play, co-starring the charming robot Judy, is an
1288 imagination stretcher that delights while it exercises your mind. If you
1289 think you can't imagine a conscious robot, you're wrong---you can,
1290 especially once you've met Judy." --- Daniel C. Dennett,
1291 author of <i>Consciousness Explained</i>, <i>Brainchildren</i>,
1294 <p>"...an engrossing evening... Real questions about
1295 consciousness, freedom to act, the relationship between the creator
1296 and the created are woven into a bravura performance." --- Will
1297 Stackman, <i>Aislesay.com</i></p>
1299 <p>Sponsored by the Mathematics Society, the Federation of Students, the
1300 Arts Student Union, the Graduate Student Association, and the Department of
1301 Philosophy. Tickets available at the Humanities box office (888-4908) and
1302 the offices of the Psychology Society and the Computer Science Club for
1304 more information: <a
1305 href="http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/cogsci/">http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/cogsci</a>.</p>
1310 <eventitem date="2003-03-25" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2065"
1311 title="Stream Processing">
1312 <short>A talk by Assistant Professor Michael McCool</short>
1315 <p>Stream processing is an enhanced version of SIMD processing that
1316 permits efficient execution of conditionals and iteration. Stream
1317 processors have many similarities to GPUs, and a hardware prototype,
1318 the Imagine processor, has been used to implement both OpenGL and
1321 <p>It is possible that GPUs will acquire certain properties
1322 of stream processors in the future, which should make them easier
1323 to use and more efficient for general-purpose computation that includes
1324 data-dependent iteration and conditionals.</p>
1329 <eventitem date="2003-03-26" time="6:00 PM" room="MC2065"
1330 title="Abusing the C++ Compiler">
1331 <short>Abusing template metaprogramming in C++</short>
1334 <p>Templates are a useful feature in C++ when it comes to writing
1335 type-independent data structures and algorithms. But that's not all
1336 they can be used for. Essentially, it is possible to write certain
1337 programs in C++ that execute completely at compile-time rather
1338 than run-time. Combined with some optimisations this is an interesting
1339 twist on regular C++ programming.</p>
1341 <p>This talk will give a short overview of the features of templates
1342 and then go on to describe how to "abuse" templates to perform complex
1343 computations at compile time. The speaker will present three programs of
1344 increasing complexity which execute at compile time. First a factorial
1345 listing program, then a prime listing program will be presented. Finally
1346 the talk will conclude with the presentation of a <i>Mandelbrot
1347 generator running at compile time.</i></p>
1349 <p>Some basic knowledge of C++ will be assumed.</p>
1354 <eventitem date="2003-03-27" time="6:30 PM" room="MC1085"
1355 title="SSH and Networks">
1356 <short>Once more into the breach</short>
1359 <p>The Secure Shell (SSH) has now replaced traditional remote login
1360 tools such as <i>rsh</i>, <i>rlogin</i>, <i>rexec</i> and
1361 <i>telnet</i>. It is used to provide secure, authenticated,
1362 encrypted communications between remote systems. However, the SSH
1363 protocol provides for much more than this.</p>
1365 <p>In this talk, we will discuss using SSH to its full extent. Topics
1366 to be covered include:</p>
1368 <li>Remote logins</li>
1369 <li>Remote execution</li>
1370 <li>Password-free authentication</li>
1371 <li>X11 forwarding</li>
1372 <li>TCP forwarding</li>
1373 <li>SOCKS tunnelling</li>
1381 date="1994-09-13" time="9:00 PM"
1382 room="Princess Cinema"
1383 title="Movie Outing: Brainstorm">
1385 No description available.
1389 The first of this term's CSC social events, we will be going to see
1390 the movie ``Brainstorm'' at the Princess Cinema. This outing is
1391 intended primarily for the new first-year students.
1394 The Princess Cinema is Waterloo's repertoire theatre. This month
1395 and next, they are featuring a ``Cyber Film Festival''. Upcoming
1400 <li>Bladerunner (director's cut)</li>
1401 <li>2001: A Space Odyssey</li>
1402 <li>Naked Lunch</li>
1405 Admission is $4.25 for a Princess member, $7.50 for a non-member.
1406 Membership to the Princess is $7.00 per year.
1411 date="1994-09-16" time="4:30 PM"
1413 title="CSC Elections">
1414 <short>No description available</short>
1415 <abstract>No abstract available</abstract>
1418 date="1994-09-19" time="4:30 PM"
1420 title="UNIX I Tutorial">
1421 <short>No description available</short>
1422 <abstract>No abstract available</abstract>
1425 date="1994-09-21" time="6:30 PM"
1427 title="SIGGRAPH Video Night">
1428 <short>No description available</short>
1429 <abstract>No abstract available</abstract>
1432 date="1994-09-22" time="4:30 PM"
1434 title="UNIX I Tutorial">
1435 <short>No description available</short>
1436 <abstract>No abstract available</abstract>
1439 date="1994-09-26" time="4:30 PM"
1441 title="UNIX II Tutorial">
1442 <short>No description available</short>
1443 <abstract>No abstract available</abstract>
1446 date="1994-10-13" time="5:00 PM"
1448 title="Prograph: Picture the Future">
1449 <short>No description available</short>
1452 What is the next step in the evolution of computer languages?
1453 Intelligent agents? Distributed objects? or visual languages?
1456 Visual languages overcome many of the drawbacks and limitations
1457 of the textual languages that software development is based on
1458 today. Do you think about programming in a linear fashion? Or do
1459 you draw a mental picture of your algorithm and then linearize it
1460 for the benefit of your compiler? Wouldn't it be nice if you could
1461 code the same way you think?
1464 Visual C++ and Visual BASIC aren't visual languages, but Prograph
1465 is. Prograph is a commercially available, visual, object-oriented,
1466 data-flow language. It is well suited to graphical user interface
1467 development, but is as powerful for general-purpose programming as
1468 any textual language.
1471 The talk will comprise a discussion of the problems of textual
1472 languages that visual languages solve, a live demonstration of
1473 Prograph, and some of my observations of the applications of
1474 Prograph to software development.
1479 date="1994-10-15" time="10:00 AM"
1481 title="ACM-Style Programming Contest">
1482 <short>No description available</short>
1484 <h3>Big Money and Prizes!</h3>
1486 So you think you're a pretty good programmer? Pit your skills
1487 against others on campus in this triannual event! Contestants will
1488 have three hours to solve five programming problems in either C or
1492 Last fall's winners went on to the International Finals and came
1493 first overall! You could be there, too!
1498 date="1994-10-20" time="4:30 PM"
1500 title="Exploring the Internet">
1501 <short>No description available</short>
1503 <h3>Need something to do between assignments/beers?</h3>
1505 Did you know that your undergrad account at Waterloo gives you
1506 access tothe world's largest computer network? With thousands
1507 of discussion groups, gigabytes of files to download, multimedia
1508 information browsers, even on-line entertainment?
1511 The resources available on the Internet are vast and wondrous, but
1512 the tools for navigating it are sometimes confusing and arcane. In
1513 this hands-on tutorial you will get the chance to get your feet wet
1514 with the world's most mind-bogglingly big computer network, the
1515 protocols and programs used, and how to use them responsibly and
1521 date="1994-11-02" time="4:30 PM"
1523 title="Game Theory">
1524 <short>No description available</short>
1526 <h3>From the Minimax Theorem, through Alpha-Beta, and beyond...</h3>
1528 This will be a descussion of the pitfalls of using mathematics and
1529 algorithms to play classical board games. Thorough descriptions
1530 shall be presented of the simple techniques used as the building
1531 blocks that make all modern computer game players. I will use
1532 tic-tac-toe as a control for my arguements. Other games such as
1533 Chess, Othello and Go shall be the be a greater measure of progress;
1534 and more importantly the targets of our dreams.
1537 To enhance the discussion of the future, Barney Pell's Metagamer
1538 shall be introduced. His work in define classes of games is
1539 important in identifying the features necessary for analysis.
1546 <eventitem date="1999-10-18" time="2:30 PM" room="DC1304"
1547 title="Living Laboratories: The Future Computing Environments at
1549 <short>By Blair MacIntyre and Elizabeth Mynatt</short>
1551 <p>by Blair MacIntyre and Elizabeth Mynatt</p>
1552 <p>The Future Computing Environments (FCE) Group at Georgia Tech
1553 is a collection of faculty and students that share a desire to
1554 understand the partnership between humans and technology that
1555 arises as computation and sensing become ubiquitous. With
1556 expertise covering the breadth of Computer Science, but
1557 focusing on HCI, Computational Perception, and Machine
1558 Learning, the individual research agendas of the FCE faculty
1559 are grounded in a number of shared "living laboratories" where
1560 their research is applied to everyday life in the classroom
1561 (Classroom 2000), the home (the Aware Home), the office
1562 (Augmented Offices), and on one's person. Professors
1563 MacIntyre and Mynatt will discuss a variety of these projects,
1564 with an emphasis on the HCI and Computer Science aspects of
1568 In addition to their affiliation with the FCE group,
1569 Professors Mynatt and MacIntyre are both members of the
1570 Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU) at Georgia
1571 Tech. This interdisciplinary center brings together research
1572 in computer science, psychology, industrial engineering,
1573 architecture and media design by examining the role of
1574 computation in our everyday lives. During the talk, they will
1575 touch on some of the research and educational opportunities
1576 available at both GVU and the College of Computing.
1581 <eventitem date="1999-10-19" time="4:30 PM" room="DC1304"
1582 title="GDB, Purify Tutorial">
1583 <short>No description available.</short>
1586 Debugging can be the most difficult and time consuming part of
1587 any program's life-cycle. Far from an exact science, it's more
1588 of an art ... and close to some kind of dark magic. Cryptic
1589 error messages, lousy error checking, and icky things like
1590 implicit casts can make it nearly impossible toknow what's
1591 going on inside your program.
1594 Several tools are available to help automate your
1595 debuggin. GDB and Purify are among the most powerful
1596 debugging tools available in a UNIX environment. GDB is an
1597 interactive debugger, allowing you to `step' through
1598 aprogram, examine function calls, variable contents, stack
1599 traces and let you look at the state of a program after it
1600 crashes. Purify is a commercial program designed to help find
1601 and remove memory leaks from programs written inlanguages
1602 without automatic garbage collection.
1605 This talk will cover how to compile your C and C++ programs
1606 for use with GDB and Purify, as well as how to use the
1607 available X interfaces. If a purify license is available on
1608 undergrad at the time of the talk, we will cover how to use it
1614 <eventitem date="1999-12-01" time="4:30 PM" room="MC2066"
1615 title="Homebrew Processors and Integrated Systems in FPGAs">
1616 <short>By Jan Gray</short>
1620 <p> With the advent of large inexpensive field-programmable gate
1621 arrays and tools it is now practical for anyone to design and
1622 build custom processors and systems-on-a-chip. Jan will discuss
1623 designing with FPGAs, and present the design and implementation
1624 of xr16, yet another FPGA-based RISC computer system with
1625 integrated peripherals.</p>
1627 <p> Jan is a past CSC pres., B.Math. CS/EEE '87, and wrote
1628 compilers, tools, and middleware at Microsoft from 1987-1998. He
1629 built the first 32-bit FPGA CPU and system-on-a-chip in
1634 <eventitem date="1999-12-01" time="7:00 PM" room="Golf's Steakhouse"
1636 <short>End-of-term dinner</short>
1638 No abstract available.
1642 <eventitem date="1999-12-02" time="1:30 PM" room="DC1302"
1643 title="Calculational Mathematics">
1644 <short>By Edgar Dijkstra</short>
1646 <p> By Edgar Dijkstra</p>
1648 <p> This talk will use partial orders, lattice theory, and, if
1649 time permits, the Galois connection as carriers to illustrate
1650 the use of calculi in mathematics. We hope to show the brevity
1651 of many calculations (in order tofight the superstition that
1652 formal proofs are necessarily unpractically long), and the
1653 strong heuristic guidance that is available for their
1656 <p> Dijkstra is known for early graph-theoretical algorithms,
1657 the first implementation of ALGOL 60, the first operating system
1658 composed of explicitly synchronized processes, the invention of
1659 guarded commands and of predicate transformers as a means for
1660 defining semantics, and programming methodology in the broadest
1661 sense of the word. </p>
1663 <p> His current research interests focus on the formal
1664 derivation of proofs and programs, and the streamlining of the
1665 mathematical argument in general.</p>
1667 <p> Dijkstra held the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer
1668 Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin until retiring in
1674 <eventitem date="1999-12-03" time="10:00 AM" room="Siegfried Hall,
1675 St Jerome's" title="Proofs and Programs">
1676 <short>By Edsger Dijkstra</short>
1678 <p> This talk will show the use of programs for the proving of
1679 theorems. Its purpose is to show how our experience gained in
1680 the derivations of programs might be transferred to the
1681 derivation of proofs in general. The examples will go beyond the
1682 (traditional) existence theorems. </p>
1684 <p> Dijkstra is known for early graph-theoretical algorithms,
1685 the first implementation of ALGOL 60, the first operating system
1686 composed of explicitly synchronized processes, the invention of
1687 guarded commands and of predicate transformers as a means for
1688 defining semantics, and programming methodology in the broadest
1689 sense of the word. </p>
1691 <p> His current research interests focus on the formal
1692 derivation of proofs and programs, and the streamlining of the
1693 mathematical argument in general.</p>
1695 <p> Dijkstra held the Schlumberger Centennial Chair in Computer
1696 Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin until retiring in
1702 <eventitem date="1999-12-03" time="3:00 PM" room="DC1351"
1703 title="Open Q&A session">
1704 <short>By Edsger Dijkstra</short>
1705 <abstract>No description available.</abstract>
1708 <!-- Winter 2000 -->
1710 <eventitem date="2000-03-24" time="4:30 PM" room="DC1304"
1711 title="Enterprise Java APIs and Implementing a Web Portal">
1712 <short>No description available.</short>
1714 <h3>by Floyd Marinescu
1718 The first talk will be an introduction to the Enterprise Java
1719 API's: Servlets, JSP, EJB, and how to use them to build
1724 The second talk will be about how these technologies were used
1725 to implement a real world portal. The talk will include an
1726 overview of the design patterns used and will feature
1727 architectural information about the yet to be release portal
1728 (which I am one of the developers) called theserverside.com.
1733 <eventitem date="2000-03-30" time="4:30 PM" room="DC1304"
1734 title="Enterprise Java APIs and Implementing a Web Portal (1)">
1735 <short>No description available.</short>
1737 <p>Real World J2EE - Design Patterns and architecture behind the
1738 yet to be released J2EE portal: theserverside.com</p>
1740 <p>This talk will feature an exclusive look at the architecture
1741 behind the new J2EE portal: theserverside.com. Join Floyd
1742 Marinescu in a walk-through ofthe back-end of the portal,
1743 while learning about J2EE and its real world patterns,
1744 applications, problems and benefits.</p>
1748 <!-- Spring 2000 -->
1750 <eventitem date="2000-07-20" time="7:00 PM" room="Ali Babas Steak
1751 House, 130 King Street S, Waterloo" title="Ctrl-D">
1752 <short>End-of-term dinner</short>
1753 <abstract>No abstract available.</abstract>
1758 <eventitem date="2000-09-14" time="6:00 PM" room="DC1302"
1759 title="CSC Elections">
1760 <short>Fall 2000 Elections for the CSC.</short>
1763 Would you like to get involved in the CSC? Would you like to have a
1764 say in what the CSC does this term? Come out to the CSC Elections!
1765 In addition to electing the executive for the Fall term, we will be
1766 appointing office staff and other positions. Look for details in
1770 <p>Nominations for all positions are being taken in the CSC office, MC
1775 <eventitem date="2000-09-14" time="7:00 PM" room="DC1302"
1776 title="SIGGraph Video Night">
1777 <short> SIGGraph Video Night Featuring some truly awesome computer
1778 animations from Siggraph '99. </short>
1780 <p> Interested in Computer Graphics?
1783 <p> Enjoy watching state-of-the-art Animation?
1786 <p> Looking for a cheap place to take a date?
1789 <p> SIGGraph Video Night -
1790 Featuring some truly awesome computer animations from Siggraph '99.
1793 <p>Come out for the Computer Science Club general elections at 6:00
1794 pm, right before SIGGraph!</p>
1798 <eventitem date="2000-09-25" time="2:30 PM" room="DC1302"
1799 title="Realising the Next Generation Internet">
1800 <short>By Frank Clegg of Microsoft Canada</short>
1805 <dd>Frank Clegg</dd>
1806 <dd>President, Microsoft Canada</dd>
1809 <dd>Monday, September 25, 2000</dd>
1811 <dd>14:30 - 16:00</dd>
1814 <dd>(Davis Centre, Room 1302, University of Waterloo)</dd>
1818 <dt>Pre-registration</dt>
1819 <dd>Recommended</dd>
1820 <dd><a HREF="http://infranet.uwaterloo.ca:81/infranet/semform.htm">http://infranet.uwaterloo.ca:81/infranet/semform.htm</a></dd>
1821 <dd>(519) 888-4004</dd>
1826 <p>The Internet and the Web have revolutionized our communications, our access
1827 to information and our business methods. However, there is still much room
1828 for improvement. Frank Clegg will discuss Microsoft's vision for what is
1829 beyond browsing and the dotcom. Microsoft .NET (pronounced "dot-net") is a
1830 new platform, user experience and set of advanced software services planned
1831 to make all devices work together and connect seamlessly. With this next
1832 generation of software, Microsoft's goal is to make Internet-based
1833 computing and communications easier to use, more personalized, and more
1834 productive for businesses and consumers. In his new position of president
1835 of Microsoft Canada Co., Frank Clegg will be responsible for leading the
1836 organization toward the delivery of Microsoft .NET. He will speak about
1837 this new platform and the next generation Internet, how software developers
1838 and businesses will be able to take advantage of it, and what the .NET
1839 experience will look like for consumers and business users.</p>
1841 <h3>The Speaker</h3>
1842 <p>Frank Clegg was appointed president of Microsoft Canada Co. this month.
1843 Prior to his new position, Mr. Clegg was vice-president, Central Region,
1844 Microsoft Corp. from 1996 to 2000. In this capacity, he was responsible for
1845 sales, support and marketing activities in 15 U.S. states. Mr. Clegg joined
1846 Microsoft Corp. in 1991 and headed the Canadian subsidiary until 1996.
1847 During that time, Mr. Clegg was instrumental in introducing several key
1848 initiatives to improve company efficiency, growth and market share. Mr.
1849 Clegg graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1977 with a B. Math.</p>
1851 <h3>For More Information</h3>
1853 Shirley Fenton<br />
1854 The infraNET Project<br />
1855 University of Waterloo<br />
1856 519-888-4567 ext. 5611<br />
1857 <a HREF="http://infranet.uwaterloo.ca/">http://infranet.uwaterloo.ca/</a>
1863 <!-- Winter 2001 -->
1865 <eventitem date="2001-01-15" time="4:30 PM" room="MC3036"
1866 title="Executive elections">
1867 <short>Winter 2001 CSC Elections.</short>
1869 <p>Would you like to get involved in the CSC? Would you like to
1870 have a say in what the CSC does this term? Come out to the CSC
1871 Elections! In addition to electing the executive for the
1872 Winter term, we will be appointing office staff and other
1873 positions. Look for details in uw.csc.
1876 Nominations for all positions are being taken in the CSC
1881 <eventitem date="2001-01-22" time="3:30 PM" room="MC3036"
1883 <short>Second CSC meeting for Winter 2001.</short>
1885 <h3>Proposed agenda</h3>
1887 <dt>Book purchases</dt>
1889 <p>They haven't been done in 2 terms.
1890 We have an old list of books to buy.
1891 Any suggestions from uw.csc are welcome.</p>
1896 <p>For doing linux burns. It was allocated money on the budget
1897 request - about $300. We should be able to get a decent 12x
1898 burner with that (8x rewrite).</p>
1899 <p>The obvious things to sell are Linux Distros and BSD variants.
1900 Are there any other software that we can legally burn and sell
1905 <p>Just a talk of the topics to be covered, when, where, whatnot.
1906 Mike was right on this one, this should have been done earlier
1907 in the term. Oh well, maybe we can fix this for next fall term.</p>
1910 <dt>Game Contest</dt>
1912 <p>We already put a bit of work into planning the Othello contest
1913 before I read Mike's post. I still think it's viable. I've got
1914 at least 2 people interested in writing entries for it. This
1915 will be talked about more on monday. Hopefully, Rory and I will
1916 be able to present a basic outline of how the contest is going
1917 to be run at that time.</p>
1919 <dt>Peri's closet cleaning</dt>
1922 <p>Current sysadmin (jmbeverl) and I (kvijayan) and
1923 President (geduggan) had a nice conversation about this 2
1924 days ago, having to do with completely erasing all of
1925 peri, installing a clean stable potato debian on it, and
1926 priming it for being a gradual replacement to calum. We'll
1927 probably discuss how much we want to get done on this
1928 front on Monday.</p>
1932 <p>Any <a HREF="nntp://news.math.uwaterloo.ca/uw.csc/8305">comments</a> from <a HREF="news:uw.csc">the newsgroup</a> are welcome.</p>
1936 <eventitem date="2001-01-27" time="10:30 AM" room="MC3006"
1937 title="ACM-Style programming contest">
1938 <short>Practice for the ACM international programming
1941 <p>Our ACM-Style practice contests involve answering five questions in three
1942 hours. Solutions are written in Pascal, C or C++. Seven years in a row,
1943 Waterloo's teams have been in the top ten at the world finals.
1944 For more information, see
1945 <a HREF="http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~acm00/">the contest web page</a>.</p>
1947 <h3>Easy Question:</h3>
1948 <p>A palindrome is a sequence of letters that reads the same backwards and
1949 forwards, such as ``Madam, I'm Adam'' (note that case doesn't matter and
1950 only letters are important). Your task is to find the longest palindrome in
1951 a line of text (if there is a tie, print the leftmost one).</p>
1955 asfgjh12dsfgg kj0ab12321BA wdDwkj abBA
1956 abcbabCdcbaqwerewq abCdcba
1959 <h3>Hard Question:</h3>
1960 <p>An anagram is a word formed by reordering the letters of another word.
1961 Find all sets of anagrams that exist within a large dictionary. The
1962 input will be a sorted list of words (up to 4000 words), one per line.
1963 Output each set of anagrams on a separate line. Each set should be
1964 in alphabetical order, and all lines of sets should be in alphabetical
1965 order. A word with no anagrams is a set of anagrams itself, and should
1966 be displayed with no modifications.</p>
1979 <eventitem date="2001-01-29" time="02:39 PM" room="MC3036"
1981 <short>No description available.</short>
1982 <abstract>No abstract available.</abstract>
1985 <eventitem date="2001-02-05" time="03:30 PM" room="MC3036"
1987 <short>No description available.</short>
1988 <abstract>No abstract available.</abstract>
1991 <eventitem date="2001-02-12" time="03:30 PM" room="MC3036"
1993 <short>No description available.</short>
1994 <abstract>No abstract available.</abstract>
1997 <!-- Spring 2001 -->
1999 <eventitem date="2001-06-02" time="10:30 AM" room="MC3006"
2000 title="ACM-Style programming contest">
2001 <short>Practice for the ACM international programming
2004 <p>Our ACM-Style practice contests involve answering five questions in three
2005 hours. Solutions are written in Pascal, C or C++. Seven years in a row,
2006 Waterloo's teams have been in the top ten at the world finals.
2007 For more information, see
2008 <a HREF="http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~acm00/">the contest web page</a>.</p>
2010 <h3>Easy Question:</h3>
2011 <p>A palindrome is a sequence of letters that reads the same backwards and
2012 forwards, such as ``Madam, I'm Adam'' (note that case doesn't matter and
2013 only letters are important). Your task is to find the longest palindrome in
2014 a line of text (if there is a tie, print the leftmost one).</p>
2018 asfgjh12dsfgg kj0ab12321BA wdDwkj abBA
2019 abcbabCdcbaqwerewq abCdcba
2022 <h3>Hard Question:</h3>
2023 <p>An anagram is a word formed by reordering the letters of another word.
2024 Find all sets of anagrams that exist within a large dictionary. The
2025 input will be a sorted list of words (up to 4000 words), one per line.
2026 Output each set of anagrams on a separate line. Each set should be
2027 in alphabetical order, and all lines of sets should be in alphabetical
2028 order. A word with no anagrams is a set of anagrams itself, and should
2029 be displayed with no modifications.</p>
2043 <!-- Winter 2002 -->
2045 <eventitem date="2002-01-26" time="2:00 PM"
2046 room="Comfy Lounge MC3001"
2047 title="An Introduction to GNU Hurd">
2048 <short>Bored of GNU/Linux? Try this experimental operating
2051 <p>GNU Hurd is an operating system kernel based on the microkernel
2052 architecture design. It was the original GNU kernel, predating Linux,
2053 and is still being actively developed by many volunteers.</p>
2054 <p>The Toronto-area Hurd Users Group, in co-operation with the Computer
2055 Science Club, is hosting an afternoon to show the Hurd to anyone
2056 interested. Jeff Bailey, a Hurd developer, will give a presentation on
2057 the Hurd, followed by a GnuPG/PGP keysigning party. To finish it off,
2058 James Morrison, also a Hurd developer, will be hosting a Debian
2059 GNU/Hurd installation session.</p>
2060 <p>All interested are invited to attend. Bring your GnuPG/PGP fingerprint
2061 and mail your key to sjdutoit@uwaterloo.ca with the subject
2062 ``keysigning'' (see separate announcement).</p>
2063 <p>Questions? Suggestions? Contact <a
2064 href="ja2morri@uwaterloo.ca">James Morrison</a>.</p>
2067 <eventitem date="2002-01-26" time="2:30 PM"
2068 room="Comfy Lounge MC3001"
2069 title="GnuPG/PGP Keysigning Party">
2070 <short>Get more signatures on your key!</short>
2073 GnuPG and PGP provide public-key based encryption for e-mail and
2074 other electronic communication. In addition to preventing others
2075 from reading your private e-mail, this allows you to verify that an
2076 e-mail or file was indeed written by its perceived author.
2079 In order to make sure a GnuPG/PGP key belongs to the respective
2080 person, the key must be signed by someone who has checked the
2081 user's key fingerprint and verified the user's identification.
2084 A keysigning party is an ideal occasion to have your key signed by
2085 many people, thus strengthening the authority of your key. Everyone
2086 showing up exchanges key signatures after verifying ID and
2087 fingerprints. The Computer Science Club will be hosting such a
2088 keysigning party together with the Hurd presentation by THUG (see
2089 separate announcement). See
2090 <a href="http://www.student.math.uwaterloo.ca/~sjdutoit/"> the
2091 keysigning party homepage</a> for more information.
2094 Before attending it is important that you mail your key to
2095 sjdutoit@uwaterloo.ca with the subject ``keysigning.'' Also make
2096 sure to bring photo ID and a copy of your GnuPG/PGP fingerprint on
2097 a sheet of paper to the event.
2101 <eventitem date="2002-01-31" time="6:00 PM" room="MC2037"
2102 title="UNIX 101: First Steps With UNIX">
2104 This is the first in a series of seminars that cover the use of
2105 the UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of
2106 applications, both in academia and industy. We will be covering
2107 the basics of the UNIX environment, as well as the use of PINE, an
2108 electronic mail and news reader.
2111 <eventitem date="2002-02-13" time="4:00 PM" room="MC4060"
2112 title="DVD-Video Under Linux">
2113 <short>Billy Biggs will be holding a talk on DVD technology
2114 (in particular, CSS and playback issues) under Linux, giving some
2115 technical details as well as an overview of the current status of
2116 Free Software efforts. All are welcome.</short>
2118 <p>DVD copy protection: Content Scrambling System (CSS)</p>
2120 <li>A technical introduction to CSS and an overview of the ongoing
2121 legal battle to allow distribution of non-commercial DVD
2123 <li>The current Linux software efforts and open issues</li>
2124 <li>How applications and Linux distributions are handling the
2125 legal issues involved</li>
2127 <p>DVD-Video specifics: Menus and navigation</p>
2129 <li>An overview of the DVD-Video standard</li>
2130 <li>Reverse engineering efforts and their implementation status</li>
2131 <li>Progress of integration into Linux media players</li>
2135 <eventitem date="2002-02-07" time="6:00 PM" room="MC2037"
2136 title="Unix 102: Fun With UNIX">
2137 <short>This the second in a series of UNIX tutorials. Simon Law and
2138 James Perry will be presenting some more advanced UNIX
2139 techniques. All are welcome. Accounts will be provided for those
2140 needing them.</short>
2143 This is the second in a series of seminars that cover the use of
2144 the UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of
2145 applications, both in academia and industry. We will provide you
2146 with hands-on experience with the Math Faculty's UNIX environment
2149 <p>Topics that will be discussed include:</p>
2151 <li>Interacting with Bourne and C shells</li>
2152 <li>Editing text using the vi text editor</li>
2153 <li>Editing text using the Emacs display editor</li>
2154 <li>Multi-tasking and the screen multiplexer</li>
2157 If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will
2158 be lent to you for the duration of this class.
2162 <eventitem date="2002-03-01" time="5:00 PM" room="MC4060"
2163 title="Computer Go, The Ultimate">
2164 <short>Thomas Wolf from Brock University will be holding a talk on
2165 the asian game of Go. All are welcome.</short>
2168 The asian game go is unique in a number of ways. It is the oldest
2169 board game known. It is a strategy game with very simple
2170 rules. Computer programs are very weak despite huge efforts and
2171 prizes of US$ > 1.5M for a program beating professional
2172 players. The talk will quickly explain the rules of go, compare go
2173 and chess, mention various attempts to program go and describe our
2174 own efforts in this field. Students will have an opportunity to
2175 solve computer generated go problems. Prizes will be available.
2180 <!-- Spring 2002 -->
2182 <eventitem date="2002-05-11" time="7:00 PM" room="MC3036" title="S02
2184 <short>Come and vote for this term's exec</short>
2187 Vote for the exec this term. Meet at the CSC office.
2195 <eventitem date="2002-09-16" time="5:30 PM" room="Comfy lounge"
2196 title="F02 elections">
2197 <short>Come and vote for this term's exec</short>
2200 Vote for the exec this term. Meet at the comfy
2201 lounge. There will be an opportunity to obtain or renew
2202 memberships. This term's CRO is Siyan Li
2203 (s8li@csclub.uwaterloo.ca).
2208 <eventitem date="2002-09-30" time="6:30 PM" room="Comfy lounge, MC3001"
2209 title="Business Meeting">
2210 <short>Vote on a constitutional change.</short>
2213 The executive has unanimously decided to try to change our
2214 constitution to comply with MathSoc policy. The clause we are trying
2215 to change is the membership clause. The following is the proposed new
2216 reading of the clause.
2219 In compliance with MathSoc regulations and in recognition of
2220 the club being primarily targeted at undergraduate students, full
2221 membership is open to all undergraduate students in the Faculty of
2222 Mathematics and restricted to the same.</i>
2226 The proposed change is illustrated <a
2227 href="http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/docs/constitution-change-20020920.html">on
2232 There will be a business meeting on 30 Sept 2002 at 18:30 in
2233 the comfy lounge, MC 3001. Please come and vote
2238 <eventitem date="2002-09-26" time="5:30 PM" room="MC3006"
2240 <short>First Steps with UNIX</short>
2243 Get to know UNIX and be the envy of your friends!
2246 This is the first in a series of seminars that cover the use
2247 of the UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of
2248 applications, both in academia and industy. We will provide
2249 you with hands-on experience with the Math Faculty's UNIX
2250 environment in this seminar.
2253 Topics that will be discussed include:
2256 <li>Navigating the UNIX environment</li>
2257 <li>Using common UNIX commands</li>
2258 <li>Using the PICO text editor</li>
2259 <li>Reading electronic mail and news with PINE</li>
2262 If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be
2263 lent to you for the duration of this class.
2268 <eventitem date="2002-10-01" time="6:30 PM-9:30 PM" room="The Bomber"
2269 title="Pints with the Profs">
2270 <short>Get to know your profs and be the envy of your friends!</short>
2272 <p>Come out and meet your professors. This is a great opportunity to
2273 meet professors for Undergraduate Research jobs or to find out who you might
2274 have for future courses.</p>
2276 <p>Profs who have confirmed their attendance are:</p>
2278 <li>Troy Vasiga, School of Computer Science</li>
2279 <li>J.P. Pretti, St. Jerome's and School of Computer Science</li>
2280 <li>Michael McCool, School of Computer Science, CGL</li>
2281 <li>Martin Karsten, School of Computer Science, BBCR</li>
2282 <li>Gisli Hjaltason, School of Computer Science, DB</li>
2285 <p>There will also be...</p>
2294 <eventitem date="2002-10-03" time="5:30 PM" room="MC3006"
2296 <short>Talking to your UNIX can be fun and profitable.</short>
2298 <p>This is the second in a series of seminars that cover the use of
2299 the UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of applications,
2300 both in academia and industry. We will provide you with hands-on
2301 experience with the Math Faculty's UNIX environment in this
2304 <p>Topics that will be discussed include:</p>
2305 <ul><li>Interacting with Bourne and C shells</li>
2306 <li>Editing text using the vi text editor</li>
2307 <li>Editing text using the Emacs display editor</li>
2308 <li>Multi-tasking and the screen multiplexer</li>
2311 <p>If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be
2312 lent to you for the duration of this class.</p>
2317 <eventitem date="2002-10-08" time="4:30PM" room="MC4045"
2318 title="Video cards, Linux display drivers and the Kernel Graphics Interface (KGI)">
2319 <short>A talk by Filip Spacek, KGI developer</short>
2321 Linux has proven itself as a reliable operating system but arguably,
2322 it still lacks in support of high performance graphics
2323 acceleration. This talk will describe basic components of a PC video
2324 card and the design and limitations the current Linux display driver
2325 architecture. Finally a an overview of a new architecture, the Kernel
2326 Graphics Interface (KGI), will be given. KGI attempts to solve the
2327 shortcomings of the current design, and provide a lightweight and
2328 portable interface to the display subsystem.
2332 <eventitem date="2002-10-10" time="5:30pm" room="MC3006"
2335 <abstract>No abstract available yet.</abstract>
2338 <eventitem date="2002-11-05" time="4:30 PM" room="MC 2065"
2339 title="The Evil Side of C++">
2340 <short>Abusing template metaprogramming in C++; aka. writing a
2341 Mandelbrot generator that runs at compile time</short>
2343 <p>Templates are a useful feature in C++ when it comes to writing
2344 type-independent data structures and algorithms. Relatively soon
2345 after their appearance it was realised that they could be used to
2346 do much more than this. Essentially it is possible to write
2347 certain programs in C++ that execute <i>completely at compile
2348 time</i> rather than run time. Combined with constant-expression
2349 optimisation this is an interesting twist on regular C++
2351 <p>This talk will give a short overview of the features of
2352 templates and then go on to describe how to "abuse"
2353 templates to perform complex computations at compile time. The
2354 speaker will present three programs of increasing complexity which
2355 execute at compile time. First a factorial listing program, then a
2356 prime listing program will be presented. Finally the talk will
2357 conclude with the presentation of a <b>Mandelbrot generator running
2358 at compile time</b>.</p>
2360 <p>If you are interested in programming for the fun of it, the C++
2361 language or silly tricks to do with languages, this talk is for
2362 you. No C++ knowledge should be necessary to enjoy this talk, but
2363 programming experience will make it more worthwile for you.</p>
2365 </abstract> </eventitem>
2367 <eventitem date="2002-11-02" time="11:00AM-3:00PM"
2368 room="MC3002 (Math Coffee and Donut Store)"
2369 title="GNU/Linux InstallFest with KW-LUG and UW-DIG">
2370 <short>Bring over your computer and we'll help you install GNU/Linux</short>
2372 <p>The <a href="http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/">CSC</a>, the <a
2373 href="http://www.kwlug.org/">KW-Linux User Group</a>, and the <a
2374 href="http://uw-dig.uwaterloo.ca/">UW Debian Interest Group</a>
2375 are jointly hosting a GNU/Linux InstallFest. GNU/Linux is a
2376 powerful, free operating system for your computer. It is mostly
2377 written by talented volunteers who like to share their efforts
2378 and help each other.</p>
2380 <p>Perhaps you have are you interested in installing GNU/Linux.
2381 If so, bring your computer, monitor and keyboard; and we will
2382 help you install GNU/Linux on your machine. You can also find
2383 knowledgable people who can answer your questions about
2388 <h3>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
2390 <p><b>Q: </b>What is GNU/Linux?<br />
2391 <b>A: </b>GNU/Linux is a free operating system for your computer. It is mostly
2392 written by talented volunteers who like to share their efforts.
2395 <p><b>Q: </b>Free?<br />
2396 <b>A: </b>GNU/Linux is available for zero-cost. As well, it allows you such
2397 freedom to share it with your friends, or to modify the software to
2398 your own needs and share that with your friends. It's very friendly.
2401 <p><b>Q: </b>What is an InstallFest?<br />
2402 <b>A: </b>An InstallFest is a meeting where volunteers help people install
2403 GNU/Linux on their computers. It's also a place to meet users, and
2404 talk to them about running GNU/Linux.
2407 <p><b>Q: </b>What kind of computer do I need to use GNU/Linux?<br />
2408 <b>A: </b>Almost any recent computer will do. If you have an old machine
2409 kicking around, you can install GNU/Linux on it as well. If it is
2410 at least 5 years old, it should be good enough.
2413 <p><b>Q: </b>Can I have Windows and GNU/Linux on the same computer?<br />
2414 <b>A: </b>If you can run Windows now, and you have an extra gigabyte (GB) of
2415 disk space to spare; then it should be possible.
2418 <p><b>Q: </b>What should I bring if I want to install GNU/Linux?<br />
2419 <b>A: </b>You will want to bring:</p>
2422 <li>Monitor and monitor cable</li>
2423 <li>Power cords</li>
2424 <li>Keyboard and mouse</li>
2430 <eventitem date="2002-11-07" time="5:30pm" room="MC4063"
2431 title="The GNU General Public License">
2432 <short>The teeth of Free Software</short>
2437 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
2438 to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License
2439 is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
2440 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users.
2441 </i><br/>--- Excerpt from the GNU GPL
2444 <p>The GNU General Public License is one of the most influencial
2445 software licenses in this day. Written by Richard Stallman for the
2446 GNU Project, it is used by software developers around the world to
2450 Unfortunately, software developers do not read licenses thoroughly, nor
2451 well. In this talk, we will read the entire GNU GPL and explain the
2452 implications of its passages. Along the way, we will debunk some myths
2453 and clarify common misunderstandings.
2456 After this session, you ought to understand what the GNU GPL means, how
2457 to use it, and when you cannot use it. This session should also give
2458 you some insight into the social implications of this work.
2463 <eventitem date="2002-11-19" time="4:30pm" room="MC4058"
2464 title="Metaprogramming GPUs">
2465 <short>A talk by Michael McCool of the Computer Graphics Lab.</short>
2468 Modern graphics accelerators, or "GPUs", have embedded high-performance
2469 programmable components in the form of vertex and fragment shading units.
2470 Recently, these units have evolved from 8-bit computations to floating-point,
2471 and other operations provide array gather, scatter, and summation.
2472 These capabilities make GPUs akin to array processors of the
2473 past, but with a difference: every PC now has one! I am interested
2474 in finding the best way to exploit this computational capacity for not
2475 only graphics but for general-purpose computation.
2477 Current APIs permit specification of the programs for GPUs
2478 using an assembly-language level interface. Compilers for high-level
2479 shading languages are available, such as NVIDIA's Cg, and OpenGL 2.0 and
2480 DirectX will also include standardized shading languages. This talk will
2481 review these. However, compilers for these languages read in an external
2482 string specification, which can be inconvenient.
2484 However, it is possible, using standard C++, to define a high-level
2485 shading language directly in the API. Such a language can be nearly
2486 indistinguishable from a special-purpose programming language, yet
2487 permits more direct interaction with the specification of textures
2488 (arrays) and parameters, simplifies implementation, and enables
2489 on-the-fly generation, manipulation, and specialization of shader programs.
2490 A shading language built into the API also permits the lifting of
2491 C++ host language type, modularity, and scoping constructs into the shading
2492 language without any additional implementation effort. Such an
2493 embedded language could be used to program other embedded processors
2494 (such as DSP chips in sound cards) or even to generate machine language
2495 on the fly for the host CPU.
2500 <eventitem date="2002-11-16" time="1:30pm" room="York University"
2501 title="Trip to York University">
2502 <short>Going to visit the York University Computer Club</short>
2503 <abstract><p>YUCC and the UW CSC have having a join meeting at York
2504 University. Dave Makalsky, the President of YUCC, will be giving a talk on
2505 Design-by-constract and Eiffel. Stefanus Du Toit, Vice-President of the UW
2506 CSC, will be giving a talk on the evil depths of the black art known as C++.
2508 <ul><li>1:30pm: Leave UW</li>
2509 <li>3:00pm: Arrive at York University.</li>
2510 <li>3:30pm: The Evil side of C++</li>
2511 <li>4:30pm: Design-by-Contract and Eiffel</li>
2512 <li>6:00pm: Dinner</li>
2513 <li>9:00pm: Arrive back at UW</li>
2518 <eventitem date="2002-11-21" time="6:00pm" room="MC2066"
2520 <short>A talk by Simon Law</short>
2523 Perl, the Practical Extraction and Reporting Language can only
2524 be described as an eclectic language, invented and refined by
2525 a deranged system administrator, who was trained as a
2526 linguist. This man, however, has declared:
2530 Perl 5 was my rewrite of Perl.
2531 I want Perl 6 to be the community's rewrite of Perl and of the
2533 </i><br/>--- Larry Wall
2536 Whenever a language is designed by a committee, it is common
2537 wisdom to avoid it. Not so with Perl, for it cannot get
2538 worse. However strange these Perl people seem, Perl 6 is a
2539 good thing coming. In this talk, I will demonstrate some Perl
2540 5 programs, and talk about their Perl 6 counterparts, to show
2541 you that Perl 6 will be cleaner, friendlier, and prettier.
2546 <eventitem date="2002-11-21" time="4:30pm" room="MC2066"
2547 title="Samba and You">
2548 <short>A talk by Dan Brovkovich, Mathsoc's Computing Director</short>
2550 Samba is a free implementation of the Server Message Block (SMB)
2551 protocol. It also implements the Common Internet File System (CIFS)
2552 protocol, used by Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP to share files and
2554 SMB was originally developed in the early to mid-80's by IBM and was
2555 further improved by Microsoft, Intel, SCO, Network Appliances, Digital
2556 and many others over a period of 15 years. It has now morphed into CIFS,
2557 a form strongly influenced by Microsoft. </p><p>
2558 Samba is considered to be one of the key projects for the acceptance of
2559 GNU/Linux and other Free operating systems (e.g. FreeBSD) in the
2560 corporate world: a traditional Windows NT/2000 stronghold. </p><p>
2561 We will talk about interfacing Samba servers and desktops with the
2562 Windows world. From a simple GNU/Linux desktop in your home to the
2563 corporate server that provides collaborative file/printer sharing,
2564 logons and home directories to hundreds of users a day. </p>
2568 <eventitem date="2002-10-26" time="1:30PM" room="MC2066"
2569 title="GNU/Linux on HPPA">
2570 <short>Carlos O'Donnell talks about "the last of the legacy processors to fall before the barbarian horde"</short>
2572 <p>This whirlwind talk is aimed at providing an overview of the
2573 GNU/Linux port for the HP PARISC processor. The talk will focus on
2574 the "intricacies" of the processor, and in particular the
2575 implementations of the Linux kernel and GNU Libc. After the talk
2576 you should be acutely aware of how little code needs to be written
2577 to support a new architecture! Carlos has been working on the port
2578 for two years, and enjoying the fruits of his labour on a 46-node
2583 Carlos is currently in his 5th year of study at the University
2584 of Western Ontario. This is his last year in a concurrent
2585 Computer Engineering and Computer Science degree. His research
2586 interest range from distributed and parallel systems to low
2587 level optimized hardware design. He likes playing guitar and
2588 just bought a Cort NTL-20, jumbo body, solid spurce top with
2589 a mahogany back. Carlos hacks on the PARISC Linux kernel, GNU libc,
2590 GNU Debugger, GNU Binutils and various Debian packages.
2597 <eventitem date="2002-10-26" time="3:00PM" room="MC2066"
2598 title="The Hurd Interfaces">
2599 <short>Marcus Brinkmann, a GNU Hurd developer, talks about the Hurd server interfaces, at the heart of a GNU/Hurd system</short>
2601 <p>The Hurd server interfaces are at the heart of the Hurd system. They
2602 define the remote procedure calls (RPCs) that are used by the servers, the
2603 GNU C library and the utility programs to communicate with the Hurd system
2604 and to implement the POSIX personality of the Hurd as well as other
2607 <p>This talk is a walk through the Hurd RPCs, and will give an overview of how
2608 they are used to implement the system. Individual RPCs will be used to
2609 illustrate important or exciting features of the Hurd system in general,
2610 and it will be shown how those features are accessible to the user at the
2611 command line, too.</p>
2615 <p>Marcus Brinkmann is a math student at the Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum in
2616 Germany. He is one of maintainers of the GNU Hurd project and the
2617 initiator of the Debian GNU/Hurd binary distribution. He designed and
2618 implemented the console subsystem of the Hurd, wrote the FAT filesystem
2619 server, and fixed a lot of bugs, thus increasing the stability and
2620 usability of the system.</p>
2625 <eventitem date="2002-10-26" time="4:30PM" room="MC2066"
2626 title="A GNU Approach to Virtual Memory Management in a Multiserver Operating System">
2627 <short>Neal Walfield, a GNU Hurd developer, talks about a possible Virtual Memory Management subsystem for the GNU Hurd</short>
2629 <p>Virtual memory management is one of the cornerstones of multiuser
2630 operating systems. Most systems available today place all of the
2631 policy in a monolithic virtual memory manager, VMM, isolated from the
2632 rest of the system. Although secure and lightweight, users have no
2633 way to communicate their anticipated memory needs and usage to the
2634 system pager. As a result, the VMM can only implement a global paging
2635 policy (typically, an approximation of LRU) which may be good on
2636 average but is best for nobody.</p>
2638 <p>With the port of Hurd to the L4 microkernel, this situation is being
2639 readdressed. Due to its more distributed nature, a centralized
2640 resource manager is not only more difficult to implement efficiently
2641 but also contrary to the philosophy of the rest of the system. We are
2642 currently exploring a model whereby each program is fully self-paged
2643 and all compete for memory from a physical memory server. This talk
2644 will first discuss how paging currently works in Mach and other
2645 systems. An argument for an external paging policy will then be
2646 presented followed by the requirements of such a design and the design
2651 <p>Neal Walfield, a GNU Hurd developer, is from the University of Massachusetts
2652 Lowell. Neal spent the summer of 2002 at University of Karlsruhe working
2653 on porting the GNU Hurd to L4.</p>
2658 <eventitem date="2002-10-17" time="5:30PM" room="MC2065"
2659 title="Debian in the Enterprise">
2660 <short>A talk by Simon Law</short>
2662 <p>The Debian Project produces a "Universal Operating System" that is
2663 comprised entirely of Free Software. This talk focuses on using Debian
2664 GNU/Linux in an enterprise environment. This includes:</p>
2666 <li>Where Debian can be deployed</li>
2667 <li>Strategic advantages of Debian</li>
2668 <li>Ways for business to give back to Debian</li>
2673 <eventitem date="2002-11-12" time="4:30PM" room="MC4058"
2674 title="Automatic Memory Management and Garbage Collection">
2675 <short>A talk by James A. Morrison</short>
2678 Do you ever wonder what java is doing while you wait? Have you ever used
2679 Modula-3? Do you wonder how lazily you can Mark and Sweep? Would you like to
2680 know how to Stop-and-Copy?
2682 Come out to this talk and learn these things and more. No prior knowledge of
2683 Garbage Collection or memory management is needed.