+ The executive has unanimously decided to try to change our +constitution to comply with MathSoc policy. The clause we are trying +to change is the membership clause. The following is the proposed new +reading of the clause. +
++ In compliance with MathSoc regulations and in recognition of +the club being primarily targeted at undergraduate students, full +membership is open to all undergraduate students in the Faculty of +Mathematics and restricted to the same. +
+ ++ The proposed change is illustrated on + a web page. +
+ ++ There will be a business meeting on 30 Sept 2002 at 18:30 in + the comfy lounge, MC 3001. Please come and vote +
++ Get to know UNIX and be the envy of your friends! +
++ This is the first in a series of seminars that cover the use + of the UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of + applications, both in academia and industy. We will provide + you with hands-on experience with the Math Faculty's UNIX + environment in this seminar. +
++ Topics that will be discussed include: +
++ If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be +lent to you for the duration of this class. +
+Come out and meet your professors. This is a great opportunity to +meet professors for Undergraduate Research jobs or to find out who you might +have for future courses.
+ +Profs who have confirmed their attendance are:
+There will also be...
+This is the second in a series of seminars that cover the use of +the UNIX Operating System. UNIX is used in a variety of applications, +both in academia and industry. We will provide you with hands-on +experience with the Math Faculty's UNIX environment in this +tutorial.
+ +Topics that will be discussed include:
+If you do not have a Math computer account, don't panic; one will be +lent to you for the duration of this class.
+ +The CSC, the KW-Linux User Group, and the UW Debian Interest Group + are jointly hosting a GNU/Linux InstallFest. GNU/Linux is a + powerful, free operating system for your computer. It is mostly + written by talented volunteers who like to share their efforts + and help each other.
+ +Perhaps you have are you interested in installing GNU/Linux. + If so, bring your computer, monitor and keyboard; and we will + help you install GNU/Linux on your machine. You can also find + knowledgable people who can answer your questions about + GNU/Linux.
+ +Q: What is GNU/Linux?
+A: GNU/Linux is a free operating system for your computer. It is mostly
+ written by talented volunteers who like to share their efforts.
+
Q: Free?
+A: GNU/Linux is available for zero-cost. As well, it allows you such
+ freedom to share it with your friends, or to modify the software to
+ your own needs and share that with your friends. It's very friendly.
+
Q: What is an InstallFest?
+A: An InstallFest is a meeting where volunteers help people install
+ GNU/Linux on their computers. It's also a place to meet users, and
+ talk to them about running GNU/Linux.
+
Q: What kind of computer do I need to use GNU/Linux?
+A: Almost any recent computer will do. If you have an old machine
+ kicking around, you can install GNU/Linux on it as well. If it is
+ at least 5 years old, it should be good enough.
+
Q: Can I have Windows and GNU/Linux on the same computer?
+A: If you can run Windows now, and you have an extra gigabyte (GB) of
+ disk space to spare; then it should be possible.
+
Q: What should I bring if I want to install GNU/Linux?
+A: You will want to bring:
+Modern graphics accelerators, or "GPUs", have embedded high-performance +programmable components in the form of vertex and fragment shading units. +Recently, these units have evolved from 8-bit computations to floating-point, +and other operations provide array gather, scatter, and summation. +These capabilities make GPUs akin to array processors of the +past, but with a difference: every PC now has one! I am interested +in finding the best way to exploit this computational capacity for not +only graphics but for general-purpose computation. +
+Current APIs permit specification of the programs for GPUs +using an assembly-language level interface. Compilers for high-level +shading languages are available, such as NVIDIA's Cg, and OpenGL 2.0 and +DirectX will also include standardized shading languages. This talk will +review these. However, compilers for these languages read in an external +string specification, which can be inconvenient. +
+However, it is possible, using standard C++, to define a high-level +shading language directly in the API. Such a language can be nearly +indistinguishable from a special-purpose programming language, yet +permits more direct interaction with the specification of textures +(arrays) and parameters, simplifies implementation, and enables +on-the-fly generation, manipulation, and specialization of shader programs. +A shading language built into the API also permits the lifting of +C++ host language type, modularity, and scoping constructs into the shading +language without any additional implementation effort. Such an +embedded language could be used to program other embedded processors +(such as DSP chips in sound cards) or even to generate machine language +on the fly for the host CPU. +
+This whirlwind talk is aimed at providing an overview of the +GNU/Linux port for the HP PARISC processor. The talk will focus on +the "intricacies" of the processor, and in particular the +implementations of the Linux kernel and GNU Libc. After the talk +you should be acutely aware of how little code needs to be written +to support a new architecture! Carlos has been working on the port +for two years, and enjoying the fruits of his labour on a 46-node +PARISC cluster.
+ ++Carlos is currently in his 5th year of study at the University +of Western Ontario. This is his last year in a concurrent +Computer Engineering and Computer Science degree. His research +interest range from distributed and parallel systems to low +level optimized hardware design. He likes playing guitar and +just bought a Cort NTL-20, jumbo body, solid spurce top with +a mahogany back. Carlos hacks on the PARISC Linux kernel, GNU libc, +GNU Debugger, GNU Binutils and various Debian packages. +
+ + +The Hurd server interfaces are at the heart of the Hurd system. They + define the remote procedure calls (RPCs) that are used by the servers, the + GNU C library and the utility programs to communicate with the Hurd system + and to implement the POSIX personality of the Hurd as well as other + features.
+ +This talk is a walk through the Hurd RPCs, and will give an overview of how + they are used to implement the system. Individual RPCs will be used to + illustrate important or exciting features of the Hurd system in general, + and it will be shown how those features are accessible to the user at the + command line, too.
+ +Marcus Brinkmann is a math student at the Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum in + Germany. He is one of maintainers of the GNU Hurd project and the + initiator of the Debian GNU/Hurd binary distribution. He designed and + implemented the console subsystem of the Hurd, wrote the FAT filesystem + server, and fixed a lot of bugs, thus increasing the stability and + usability of the system.
+ +Virtual memory management is one of the cornerstones of multiuser +operating systems. Most systems available today place all of the +policy in a monolithic virtual memory manager, VMM, isolated from the +rest of the system. Although secure and lightweight, users have no +way to communicate their anticipated memory needs and usage to the +system pager. As a result, the VMM can only implement a global paging +policy (typically, an approximation of LRU) which may be good on +average but is best for nobody.
+ +With the port of Hurd to the L4 microkernel, this situation is being +readdressed. Due to its more distributed nature, a centralized +resource manager is not only more difficult to implement efficiently +but also contrary to the philosophy of the rest of the system. We are +currently exploring a model whereby each program is fully self-paged +and all compete for memory from a physical memory server. This talk +will first discuss how paging currently works in Mach and other +systems. An argument for an external paging policy will then be +presented followed by the requirements of such a design and the design +itself.
+ +Neal Walfield, a GNU Hurd developer, is from the University of Massachusetts +Lowell. Neal spent the summer of 2002 at University of Karlsruhe working +on porting the GNU Hurd to L4.
+ +The Debian Project produces a "Universal Operating System" that is +comprised entirely of Free Software. This talk focuses on using Debian +GNU/Linux in an enterprise environment. This includes:
++ Do you ever wonder what java is doing while you wait? Have you ever used +Modula-3? Do you wonder how lazily you can Mark and Sweep? Would you like to +know how to Stop-and-Copy? +
+ Come out to this talk and learn these things and more. No prior knowledge of +Garbage Collection or memory management is needed. +
+