Hi All,
Welcome to the CompSoc mailing list to all of our new subscribers from
Freshers' Fair, and hi again to everyone who was already here.
We've got plenty planned this term, you can find the full termcard at
http://compsoc.net/termcards/2011/michaelmas/. Details of our first event
and the first of our weekly challenges follow.
Ben and Alex
CompSoc Co-Presidents
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The Oxford Computer Society
************************************************************************
Freshers Drinks:
Tuesday 11, 20.15-22.00 St Catz PDR
Come along to talk geek, have a few drinks and nibbles on us and to
generally find out what the society is. If you can't stay for long, feel
free just to pop in for a quick drink and a chat.
Here is a handy map for finding Catz: http://g.co/maps/eeut2
And here is another one for finding the PDR:
http://compsoc.dartoxia.com/map.png
If you get truly lost in Catz, you can call Ben on 0754 999 3401. Someone
should be at the lodge to show you where to go between 2000 and 2030.
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Technology Competition:
Challenge 1:
This week the challenge is a really easy introductory one:
"What does our logo mean?"
This week we will only be awarding a prize to new members - as
our older ones already (hopefully!) know what the answer is.
Once you have figured it out go to
http://compsoc.dartoxia.com/answer/<ANSWER GOES HERE>.
Anyone (with a .ox.ac.uk email address) can sign up to the competition
through the http://compsoc.dartoxia.com website, but
only members can receive prizes.
Compsoc.dartoxia.com isn't connected to the compsoc network, and so you will
need to make a new account to participate.
You can see our logo on http://compsoc.net, for more details about the
competition see http://compsoc.net/technology_competition
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Membership:
Our current membership rates are £5 for life and £3 for a year. Being a
member entitles you to free socials, prizes in the technology competition
and you can attend (obviously) members only events - such as the upcoming
Bank of America dinner. You will also receive a CompSoc membership card!
Dear all,
You're receiving this email because you signed up at *last* year's
Freshers' fair for information about the Computer Society. I just
wanted to pass on some news about the society. I had intended to send
this to the freshers' list at the time but obviously neglected to.
I sent this announcement to current members earlier in the year:
<http://www.ox.compsoc.net/news/Society_inactive/>
Essentially the society was unable to elect a committee last year so
it's now inactive, and will need to be wound down over the next year
or so unless someone would like to take a role in running it.
This is the last email you'll receive from the freshers' list; I will
remove everyone from it after sending this mail. If you will still be
interested in receiving general announcments about Compsoc activities,
please feel free to sign up to the compsoc-announce list at:
<http://lists.ox.compsoc.net/mailman/listinfo/compsoc-announce>
Dominic (acting senior member)
--
Dominic Hargreaves | http://www.larted.org.uk/~dom/
PGP key 5178E2A5 from the.earth.li (keyserver,web,email)
Dear Compsoc,
There's a rather special event happening tomorrow (Tuesday of 6th Week)
at 7:30pm in the Lindemann Lecture Theatre in the Clarendon Laboratory...
/*Visual Effects: Using science and maths in the film industry*
Have you ever considered working in the film industry? A career in
visual effects can be an ideal path for people who want to do something
creative with their science and maths skills. On Tuesday night, three
industry professionals - Eugénie von Tunzelmann, Nicola Hoyle and Jeff
Clifford - will be coming to talk about roles for scientists and
mathematicians in the VFX world, and how their technical skills have
been used in films such as The Dark Knight, 2012, Hellboy II and the
Harry Potter series./
Hope to see you there,
--
Adam Obeng
Secretary, Oxford University Computer Society
http://www.ox.compsoc.net/
Meet at Gloucester Green bus station on George Street at 9:15am if you
want to come on the trip to Bletchley Park. It will be a fun day.
In addition, we will be having a talk by Ensoft next Thursday. The last
talk they gave was very successful. Venue is yet to be confirmed.
- Jon
-------- Original Message --------
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
This Saturday the 31st, the University of Oxford Computer Society will
be travelling to Bletchley Park. We will be catching the X5 bus to
Milton Keynes (at a cost of £10.50 for a return ticket) and then taking
a 10 minute train trip (at a cost of £3.10 for a return ticket) to
Bletchley. Entry to Bletchley park is £8 if you have a BOD card, £10
otherwise. Once you have bought a ticket you can in fact use the ticket
for up to 12 months after it was bought.
We will meet at Gloucester Green bus station on George Street at 9:15am
on Saturday, and will probably be back in Oxford by 6 or 7pm (when we
leave is generally left up to consensus).
Bletchley park is an amazing place to visit, and if you think you might
want to come *PLEASE EMAIL ME* so that we have a rough idea of numbers :)
Hope to see you there,
- Jon
PS: Do not bring anything that could be construed as an offensive
weapon, or any controlled substances as security is pretty tight there
and they are likely to take a dim view.
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
This Saturday the 31st, the University of Oxford Computer Society will
be travelling to Bletchley Park. We will be catching the X5 bus to
Milton Keynes (at a cost of £10.50 for a return ticket) and then taking
a 10 minute train trip (at a cost of £3.10 for a return ticket) to
Bletchley. Entry to Bletchley park is £8 if you have a BOD card, £10
otherwise. Once you have bought a ticket you can in fact use the ticket
for up to 12 months after it was bought.
We will meet at Gloucester Green bus station on George Street at 9:15am
on Saturday, and will probably be back in Oxford by 6 or 7pm (when we
leave is generally left up to consensus).
Bletchley park is an amazing place to visit, and if you think you might
want to come *PLEASE EMAIL ME* so that we have a rough idea of numbers :)
Hope to see you there,
- Jon
PS: Do not bring anything that could be construed as an offensive
weapon, or any controlled substances as security is pretty tight there
and they are likely to take a dim view.
Dear Freshers,
This coming Thursday (the 15th) the staff at Oxford University Computing
Services have graciously invited us on a tour of their data centre. The
tour starts at 17:30, and *YOU MUST BRING YOUR BOD CARD* otherwise the
receptionist will not let you in. You will get the opportunity to:
- See lots of computers, flashing lights, cables, air conditioning ducts
- See the amazing robot arm that moves hard disks around and then
punches you in the face
- Ask awkward questions about file sharing (don't do this)
- Complain about nexus email (don't do this either)
- Ask genuinely interesting questions about sysadmin/operating
systems/bandwidth
Afterwards, we will go to the pub, where you can talk to people who
won't glaze over if you start talking about something vaguely technical.
The person to ask the best question(s) on the tour gets a free drink at
the pub afterwards!
Hope to see you there,
Jon
ps it's roughly here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?cid=10883277605289908082&q=oucs&hl=en
It's the penultimate week of CompSoc this term, and
one of our own is stepping up to the plate this week...
The CompSoc Network
===================
Speaker: David North
Wednesday 26th November, 20:00
Lecture Room B, Worcester
CompSoc's chief sysadmin, David North, will talk about CompSoc's
network of machines, their history, what they do now,
and how you can get involved.
There'll be people at the Worcester College lodge to
direct you to the room.
David is infamous for his graphs, which are one of the many
good reasons to come along to this talk. The network has
almost been around longer than some of us have, but it's still
going and maintained by our team of crack sysadmins; there's
plenty of stuff on there members can use, so if you don't know
about them, come along and find out!
See you there.
Andrew
--
Andrew Godwin, President, Oxford Computer Society
Jabber/GTalk/SIP/Email/MSN: andrew(a)aeracode.org
Mobile: 0789 0725 396
Web: http://www.ox.compsoc.net
It's week 5, and to combat that well-known feeling
of Fifth Week Blues, there's a wonderful talk to come along to!
Introduction to the Google Web Toolkit
======================================
Speaker: Martin Hutchinson
Wednesday 12th November, 20:00
Pusey Room, Keble College
Martin Hutchinson, of DecisionSoft [1], will give an introduction to
the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). GWT is a Java framework that lets
you write Java and have it automagically turn into clever, AJAXy
and otherwise Web Two Point Oh interfaces.
As usual, we'll be waiting at the Porter's Lodge at Keble to
point you in the right direction.
[1]: http://www.decisionsoft.com/
Hope to see you there!
Andrew
--
Andrew Godwin, President, Oxford Computer Society
Jabber/GTalk/SIP/Email/MSN: andrew(a)aeracode.org
Mobile: 0789 0725 396
Web: http://www.ox.compsoc.net
It's week 4 already, and what better event to come along to than our
talk on terabit networking?
Terabit Networking
==================
Speaker: Simon Chatterjee
Thursday 6th November, 20:00
Worcester College
What sits behind the familiar Ethernet port or ADSL modem, that somehow
connects a planet exchanging over 350 petabytes a day? After a century
dominated by the telephone, all global networks today are changing to be
based on Internet-inspired technology. At their heart are devices that
can cost millions of pounds, and require cutting-edge custom silicon,
optics, and millions of lines of software.
This talk is an accessible introduction to large-scale networking today,
from both real-world and computer science perspectives.
The presenter is CTO of Ensoft Ltd, whose experience includes helping
bringing the Guinness Book of Records' "World's Highest Capacity
Internet Router" into existence.
I hope you can come along; we'll also be eating out with the speaker at
Zizzi's beforehand (at around 18:30), so if you'd like to come along to
that, please email me so I can get some idea of numbers.
Apologies for the somewhat late announcement, but we had a room booking
issue. On that note, if you think you can get your college/department to
get us rooms for free on Wednesday/Thursday nights, do get in touch -
it's nice to vary venues, as well as make sure we don't have to announce
things late.
Andrew
--
Andrew Godwin, President, Oxford Computer Society
Jabber/GTalk/SIP/Email/MSN: andrew(a)aeracode.org
Mobile: 0789 0725 396
Web: http://www.ox.compsoc.net
Welcome to week three; CompSoc's event this week is our
first talk of the term!
Game Development
================
Speaker: Richard Fine
Thursday 30th October, 20:00
Roy Griffiths Room, Keble College
Richard 'Superpig' Fine, of gamedev.net, is coming to give a general
overview on game development. He's open to questions on whatever
tickles your fancy, and so far we've had interest in various new
input types (for example, the games played using EEGs, exactly how
far hardware can go, some interest in how to get started in the
whole area of game development, and even some interest in why
cheats are around in games.
For topics like these and more, come along on Thursday! A gaggle
of CompSoc people will be at the Keble Porter's Lodge to point
you in the right direction, as usual. Events this and next
week are still free to non-members, so do come along - we'll
be happy to take any membership forms off your hands.
As usual, we'll be wandering off to a local pub after the
talk to wind down the evening.
One other point I'd like to make is that we have a
compsoc-jobs list where we post the various jobverts we
get sent; the archives are public and available at
http://lists.ox.compsoc.net/pipermail/compsoc-jobs/
You can also subscribe to the list at
http://lists.ox.compsoc.net/mailman/listinfo/compsoc-jobs
should you want to get news of job openings as they happen.
See you on Thursday, hopefully!
Andrew
--
Andrew Godwin, President, Oxford Computer Society
Jabber/GTalk/SIP/Email/MSN: andrew(a)aeracode.org
Mobile: 0789 0725 396
Web: http://www.ox.compsoc.net