CompSoc Minutes 13/05/2005

Exec In Attendance

• Sadiq Jaffer
• Ian Norris
• Adam Miles
• Chloe Dives
• Phil Stoneman
• Paul Broadbridge
• Tim Retout

LAN

With some reflection on last week’s LAN, the following points are mentioned:

If you turn up early (before 8pm), put your PC to one side and help setup.

• If you aren’t coming to help setup, do not arrive until 8pm.
• Techteam will have a pre-LAN meeting to discuss network/power layout to alleviate problems (caused by early arrivals) at the last LAN.

After all the debate of the Exec meeting from ~ 2 weeks ago about World of Warcraft, it appears it wasn’t a massive problem. A few disgruntled attendees felt WoW did dominate too much, but the general concensus was that it was ok. New and different tournaments for the BFL should make sure WoW isn’t a problem at the next LAN. Paul (NeXuS7) attributes low WoW playage to the fact a lot of people are lvl60 and have “finished”.

Tournaments

The Trackmania tournament went well with around 16–17 people participating, Robo won.

Projector

The use of a projector at the BFL is discussed with these points being raised:

• It could be used for semi-finals / finals of tournaments to make them more a spectacle.
• Power needs to be looked into incase it requires the power of a small third-world nation.
• LIB2 doesn’t have a screen to project onto, so with good notice, Pete should be able to get one.

BFL Signups

After some discussion about when signups should open for members, non-members etc, the following was decided.

• Members signups will open 3 weeks prior to the BFL.
• Guest signups will open 2 weeks prior to the BFL.
• Phone numbers field to be added to signups so if people don’t turn up, they can be contacted and reserves can be notified.

Music Server

After an /interesting/ discussion about Perl, it’s decided the Music Server may get a rewrite courtesy of Pete in the near future, work dependent.

Next Year

Again, after much discussion the following list of events was provisionally decided on:

• IBM Sponsored Codathon – 1st Term, Mid-End
• Programming Comp. – 2nd Term, Over Christmas
• IBM Hursley – 1st Term, Wednesday Week 8
• Bletchley Park – 1st Term, Week 2

Lectures

• C Tutorial – TBC, Ian (icStatic) to talk to CT Li
• Perl Tutorial – 2nd Term, Weeks 2,3,4 , TBC Before end of term for timetabling purposes.
• Python Tutorial – 1st Term, Weeks, 6,7,8

Group Software Development

Also discussed is the idea of GSD tutorials in things such as:

• UML with Revision Control
• LaTeX
• Swing
• CVS/SVN

It’s mentioned that UML may clash with an existing course run by DCS. No dates were set for any of the above, with more to be decided in the future.

Guest Lectures

The plan is to have 6 guest lectures in total:

• Steve Jarvis / Steve Matthews
• IBM / Microsoft (3)
• Dr Solomon

Socials

The first “social” of next year where we welcome the freshers will be helf on Thursday Week 3 with a room to be booked as soon as room bookings allow it (term 1).

A list was drawn up of events that could/will be happening next year:

• Paintballing
• Laserquest
• Karting
• Christmas Meal – Week 10 Term 1
• Alton Towers – Early Term 1 ?
• Ice Skating
• Bingo
• Gameshows
• Bowling/Meal

The plan is also to setup a socials mailing list separate to members@.

Newsletter

To be included in the next newsletter will be:

• Week 10 Paintballing Trip
• “What’s coming up” soon in Compsoc
• BBQ

Compsoc Clothing

After Si1entDave’s last exam he will draw up some Clothing related material/forms so people can (quickly) signup for what they want.

Piazza Welcome-Pack Leaflet

Nexus (Paul) is to upload the leaflet, and Sadiq will talk to piazza about making sure it’s in next year’s pack.

CompSoc Minutes 04/05/2005

Lan Firewall & World of Warcraft

Sadiq outlines that the exec has three options when it comes to potentially restricting World of Warcraft.

1. Unrestricted access, with attempts at luring players to other games.
2. Compromise, WoW at certain times of the day, but not at others.
3. Ban WoW altogether.

After much discussion both on the exec list and in-meeting, it is decided Option 1 is the best course of action. World of Warcraft will be open for the entire LAN, but a “carrot, not stick” approach will be taken using tournaments to lure people towards other games.

Tournaments

Paul (NeXuS7) informs the exec that there will be two tournaments at this week’s LAN. The first is MechWarrior and the second is TrackMania. The MechWarrior tournament will be run on an ongoing basis with Tim (Zephran) and Andrew (CrazyPigley) organising.

Trackmania, organised by Paul (NeXuS7), will be run on Saturday afternoon after people return from the Varsity social in the early evening.

LAN Social

A mid-LAN social to Varsity on Saturday evening is discussed. After looking at the amount of organised events on Saturday, it is decided a late afternoon slot around 5pm would be best. This allows people to get back in time for the Keysigning at 7pm, and the Trackmania tournament starting after this.

Keysigning and Linux-playable Games

Tim Retout confirms the Keysigning is still going ahead at 7pm on Saturday evening in LIB1.

Also two mini-tournaments of BZFlag and FreeCiv2 will be played at an appropriate time during the LAN.

LAN Games

With the aim of better organising what games are played and when at the LAN, packaging and timing of games is discussed. It’s noted that packaging up all the games that will be played is a considerable task at such short notice, although some are already available pre-packaged. Paul (NeXuS7) will draw up a list of any existing packaged games, and ones that may be packed before the LAN.

In the spirit of making non-WoW gaming more organised, Phil (DrWatson) suggests some manner of announcing what games are being played at what time. An up-to-date list kept on the blackboard at the front of the room with anticipated starting times would allow people to start installing before the game gets underway, allowing for maximum playing time.

LAN – Reserve Places

Now that Euan (zx64) and Phil (DrWatson) are setting up the LAN, the issue of who has the two reserve places is discussed. It’s decided Euan and Pete (PlanarPlatypus) will have the two reserve spots, meaning the amount of signups can be increased to 39, as Euan has already signed up.

Exec Transfer

To officially get the new exec recognised an Exec Transfer Form needs to be signed by the new exec. Adam (ajmiles) will get said form from Pam in Union North as soon as possible, and leave it in the pigeon hole for other exec members to sign.

Also, a member of the old exec needs to change the options on the union website to reflect the change of exec. This will also be done as soon as possible by any member of the old exec with a login.

Compsoc Communication

Chloe makes the exec aware of concerns some members are having with transparency within the exec, and the lack of one point for posting of information.

Phil (DrWatson) confirms a new ticketing system is in the works and will be available as soon as it’s ready.

The plan discussed is for the Compsoc Wiki to be opened up to everyone using a guest login, so everyone can have read-only access. In order to make the wiki ready for public viewing Adam (ajmiles) will assign each topic an owner and summarise the content that is already there, removing the lengthy arguments. Each owner will be responsible for keeping their section up-to-date, reflecting current discussion in the restricted exec list.

Exec Meetings

After two successive Monday exec meetings, Laurence notes that if non-exec members are to come to exec meetings, they need to know when exactly they are. The Friday pre-gaming social continues to start at 8:30pm, making a 7pm Friday Exec meeting the ideal time. No exec meeting on Friday this week (3), but they will return to their Friday slot from Week 4.

IRC Bots

Sadiq notes that JinglyBOT is in need of a rewrite, and that this would make a good Open Source Project (OSP) next year. The details of this can be left until nearer the time.

LAN Firewall – Allow List

Apart from World of Warcraft, it is decided a list of what ports are actually open at a LAN is required. An “Allow List” will be drawn up and posted on the wiki.

Plan for Next Year

Sadiq would like an exec meeting to discuss what plans the new exec has for the year ahead. This is best left until the next exec meeting which will be on Friday Week 4.