Newsletters from Nov 2006


Newsletter for 29 November 2006

Newsletter

Contents

  • Programming Competition
  • Resignation
  • Social Events
  • Academic Events
  • UWCS Calender
  • Gaming Sessions
  • Linux User Group
  • Exec Meetings
  • Internet Relay Chat
  • Cable / Web Hosting

Programming Competition

This year’s programming competition has been launched and full details are available from http://progcomp.uwcs.co.uk/. This year participants are invited to write an AI which controls five robot tanks with the aim of obliterating the opposing team. The deadline for entering is the second week of term 2, so you have the entire Christmas holiday to have a go, and with cash prizes (last year we had a 500GBP fund) there is little reason not to submit an attempt.

Resignation

For a number of reasons (including avoiding failing my degree), I have had to resign from my post as secretary of The Computing Society. As there has not been an Exec meeting since I informed the rest of the exec of my decision to resign, no decision has been made as to who, or indeed how someone, will be elected to take over. If you think you might be interested in the position watch this space for further details, or email exec at warwickcompsoc.co.uk.

Social Events

Due to lack of interest, we have had to cancel this year’s Christmas meal. There are still plenty of social events planned including the Pub Crawl, starting at 7pm in the City Arms in Earlsdon on Thursday 30th November, and Bowling, starting at 3pm in Leamington on Wednesday 6th December.

Academic Events

Unfortunately IBM have been unable to reschedule the talk on Virtualisation for this term and so it has been cancelled. We are hopeful that it will happen next term. The LUG and BUGFLUG (see “Linux User group” below) meetings are continuing to occur regularly and this week’s LUG meeting features a tutorial on using LaTeX, which is likely to be useful to anyone needing to write maths essays or prepare reports for coursework, lab work or third year projects.

Also on the academic front, the results from the 48 hour game coding event, as judged by FreeStyleGames, have been sent to us by the Games Design Society and they are:

1. Powerstation

2. Neutro

3. Mutation

4. Atomz

5. Ponies/Dirty Bomb

All entries are available at http://warwickgamedesign.co.uk/projects/48hcompetition/.

UWCS Calender

Just a quick reminder that we have our own iCalender feed at calender.uwcs.co.uk which many calender applications can subscribe to in order to receive dates and time of upcoming CompSoc events.

Gaming Sessions

We are still working hard on re-establishing regular gaming sessions and hope to have some news soon.

Linux User Group

Linux User Group meeting, as always, is on Wednesdays, so head along to the Learning Grid for 7pm. If you have any trouble using/installing/fixing Linux on your machine there are plenty of people willing to help. There is also the BUGFLUG (see http://wuglug.org.uk/BUGFLUG for more details), again in the Learning Grid, on Mondays between 12 noon and 2pm.

Exec Meetings

All members are reminded that exec meetings are open and all are welcome to attend. Exec meetings are held at 7:30pm every Friday in meeting room 6 in the students union.

Internet Relay Chat

You can talk to most regular CompSoc members, and all of the exec via CompSoc’s IRC server. The connection settings are:

  • server: irc.uwcs.co.uk – (if the default port doesn’t work from campus, try 6668 instead)
  • channel: #compsoc

A windows IRC client is available from: http://www.silverex.org/download/

Cable / Web Hosting

Compsoc provides many services to it’s members including the sale of Ethernet RJ45 cable, and a shell account and webspace on a Compsoc server.

Base charge for a cable is 1GBP plus 30p per metre. So,

  • For 5 metres: 1.00 + (5 * 0.30) = 2.50GBP
  • For 10 metres: 1.00 + (10 * 0.30) = 4.00GBP
  • For 20 metres: 1.00 + (20 * 0.30) = 7.00GBP

The shell account on our server Molotov is free, and comes with 50MB of storage and is accessible from the url: http://.uwcs.co.uk . Extra quota is only 2.50GBP for an extra 500MB, far cheaper than any hosting provider you’re likely to find. The server is on campus so uploading to it from campus machines will be at LAN speeds. More information about our Web Hosting here: http://www.uwcs.co.uk/services/hosting/member

-Laurence Hurst

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Newsletter for 21 November 2006

Newsletter week 8

Contents

  • Apology
  • Social Events
  • LAN
  • TShirts
  • Academic Events
  • Pub
  • Gaming Sessions
  • Exec Meetings
  • Linux User Group
  • Internet Relay Chat
  • Cable / Web Hosting

Apology

Unfortunately this newsletter starts with an apology for the rather out of date newsletter which arrived a few weeks ago. A number of people spotted the date was somewhat in the past, while other astute members pointed out that many of the `upcoming’ events has already happened. I’m not quite certain what caused it to be delivered quite so late (it was sent on time) but we are endeavouring to make sure this does not happen again.

Social Events

Upcoming social events include the Christmas meal on Saturday 2nd December at the Virgin and Castle in Kenilworth at 3pm. Further details of this will be made available as we get them. Also upcoming is Bowling in Leamington Spa at 3pm on Wednesday 6th December and will cost £7.50. We are also organising another pub crawl on Thursday 30th November starting at 7pm in the City Arms in Earlsdon.

LAN

This weekend is the second LAN party of the year. In order to help things run as smoothly as possible, if you are signed up can you please email your MAC address (also known as your 'hardware address’, this can be found with “ipconfig /all” on Windows or “ifconfig” on Linux), your name, your preferred IP address and who you would most like to sit near to lan at bucko.me.uk as soon as possible. If you are intending to bring more than one computer (you may bring a maximum of two) you should supply 2 MACs and IP preferred addresses. Please do not bring alcohol to the LAN.

To get the LAN kick started we’ll be running a couple of large games: F.E.A.R Capture the Flag and Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught. Please visit http://crazypiglet.uwcs.co.uk/novlan.html for more information about this and other LAN games.

TShirts

The society currently have 5 tshirts without names on available for sale at £5 each. If you would like one email exec at warwickcompsoc.co.uk and provided that we still have some we will arrange to sell one to you.

Academic Events

We have a number of upcoming academic events, including perl tutorials on Wednesdays in L5 at 2pm for 1 hour beginning this week and a guest talk from IBM on virtualisation in L5 at 3pm on Wednesday 29th November (TBC). Keep an eye on our website for more events as they come up.

Pub

Just a quick reminder that our regular pub socials are continuing in the City Arms in Earlsdon. The pub social is a great way to meet fellow members of CompSoc and enjoy a meal in a relaxed environment, without any computers! The pub social is not about drinking and I have personally never seen anyone drinking excessively in over 2 years of attending. If you are at all unsure of how to get there just pop onto IRC where someone will be able to give you directions or may even be able to go there with you.

Gaming Sessions

We are still working hard on re-establishing regular gaming sessions and hope to have some news soon.

Exec Meetings

There will be no exec meeting this week due to the LAN. All members are reminded that exec meetings are open and all are welcome to attend. Exec meetings are held at 7:30pm every Friday in meeting room 6 in the students union.

Linux User Group

Linux User Group meeting, as always, is on Wednesdays, so head along to the Learning Grid for 7pm. If you have any trouble using/installing/fixing Linux on your machine there are plenty of people willing to help. There is also the BUGFLUG (see http://wuglug.org.uk/BUGFLUG for more details), again in the Learning Grid, on Mondays between 12 noon and 2pm.

Internet Relay Chat

You can talk to most regular CompSoc members, and all of the exec via CompSoc’s IRC server. The connection settings are:

  • server: irc.uwcs.co.uk – (if the default port doesn’t work from campus, try 6668 instead)
  • channel: #compsoc

A windows IRC client is available from: http://www.silverex.org/download/

Cable / Web Hosting

Compsoc provides many services to it’s members including the sale of Ethernet RJ45 cable, and a shell account and webspace on a Compsoc server.

Base charge for a cable is £1 plus 30p per metre. So,

  • For 5 metres: 1.00 + (5 * 0.30) = £2.50
  • For 10 metres: 1.00 + (10 * 0.30) = £4.00
  • For 20 metres: 1.00 + (20 * 0.30) = £7.00

The shell account on our server Molotov is free, and comes with 50MB of storage and is accessible from the url: http://.uwcs.co.uk . Extra quota is only £2.50 for an extra 500MB, far cheaper than any hosting provider you’re likely to find. The server is on campus so uploading to it from campus machines will be at LAN speeds. More information about our Web Hosting here: http://www.uwcs.co.uk/services/hosting/member

-Laurence Hurst

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