2001-11-16 – Newsletters – About – CompSoc

Newsletter for 16 Nov 2001

Newsletter Vol III

Hi All, and welcome to another Computing Society newsletter.

1. s4
2. Karting
3. HTML Tutorial
4. Cat5
5. IRC Server

1. s4

“With a final tug, the power plug, fixed in its socket by a term’s worth of dust and grime, finally came free, leaving his machine free of the cables that protruded like tentacles, each suppling a facet of the machine’s ability. By far the most painful part of the experience was the removing of the ADSL connection; there would be no high-speed Internet until Monday.

But it would be worth it.

For fifty hours, the machine would be one with twenty of its brothers; part of the singular electronic consiousness that was to engulf the Physics corridor.

The wait was almost over.

It had almost begun.”

For those of you who hadn’t guessed, s4 is almost upon us. Unfortunately, signups are now full; if you aren’t able to make the event, please tell us AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! Last minute cancellations really aren’t helpful :).

We’re sorry about the signup limit again – Room Bookings, being filled with the eternal wisdom that graces all of the University departments, booked us the wrong rooms; hence we have had to drop the numbers. We apologise for this, but there is really nothing we can do.

Those of you on the singups list will receive an e-mail shortly, giving you final details; we’ll see the rest of you on the Other Side :)

2. Karting

Karting is going ahead for definite, on the Wednesday of Week 9 – that’s the 28th of November.

We will be doing a Grand Prix, and so we need a minimum of twelve people. The cost will be 30, but for this you get a practice session, followed by qualifiers, a semi-final and, if you’re really good, the final. Champagne and trophies will be available for the podium finishers, so it is well worth your money!

We will be meeting in Rootes Reception at 1:00pm, to arrive at the Karting venue by 2:00.

All those interested who are going will need to give a 10 deposit to either Jake or myself (Henry) ASAP. This can be done whenever you see us – pop into the LAN this weekend, or see us at gaming next week.

Alternatively, if you e-mail us, we can meet you on campus somewhere to collect the deposit.

So, yeah; Karting Weds Week 9 (28 November) at 1:00, Coventry International Karting (www.coventryinternationalkarting.com). It’ll be fun!

3. HTML Tutorial

Following the successful series of tutorials last year, we are starting this year with a pair of HTML tutorials.

These are perfect for anyone who would like to create a website, but really doesn’t know where to start; HTML stands for “Hypertext Markup Language”, and is the “code” displayed by web browsers.

The tutorials will be given by Compsoc Webmaster James Ross, who knows more about HTML than Jake knows about Mecha. They will cover everything from basic HTML (tables, forms, frames) right up to cascading stylesheets (CSS/1.0) – the easiest way to create a cool look-and-feel for your site.

The first tutorial will be on Monday of Week 9 (26 November) at 50:00pm in Meeting Rooms 4 and 5, Union North. The second will be held a week later – Monday Week 10, 3 December.

4. Cat5 Cable

We still have a whole load of Cat5 cable for sale, in available in any length, as either patch or crossover cables.

We are also doing hub connection leads – for anyone with two hubs (one radio, one CAT5 maybe?), buy a short piece of Cat5 from Compsoc to join the two!

As a short comparison, we lookad at the Computer Fayre last night, and it is safe to say we were around 50% cheaper than the cheapest cable seller there! At 50p base price +50p/m (40/m for cables > 10m), Compsoc are easily the cheapest CAT5 retailer around. All our cables are guaranteed too!

5. IRC Server

With much champagne and party poppers, Compsoc last night opened their new chat room! Yes, we now have an IRC server running. The server name is irc.warwickcompsoc.co.uk. Come along to organise a game, discuss tactics or just for general chat :)

Registered channels:

• #compsoc General chat chan
• #games Fancy a match against somone?
• # For all you leet Starcraft tactitians to discuss strategies ;)
• #uow UoW Clan Chan

Services:

• JinglyBOT The JinglyBOT! http://www.warwickcompsoc.co.uk/~hjs/JB

Please come along and join in the chat.

Anyways, that’s it for now. Hope to see you all at Karting, s4 or Gaming; until then TTFN.

—
Henry

Secretary,
The University of Warwick Computing Society
http://www.warwickcompsoc.co.uk

2001-11-05 – Newsletters – About – CompSoc

Newsletter for 5 Nov 2001

Computing Society Newsletter Vol 3

Hi everyone, and welcome to this edition of the Compsoc newsletter. We’re over halftway through the first term now, and most of you will have a good idea of how things are gonna plan out for the year; I’m guessing it involves work. Well never mind, because we’re here and are running several events to take your mind off things. So sit back and enjoy the show.

Contents

1. s4 – The 50 Hour LAN
2. Karting
3. Open Source
4. Gaming
5. Signups
6. CAT5 Network cable

1. s4

“He looked at the page in disbelief. Two letters, 12 points tall, stood there staring back defiantly. Two letters that offered so much. Two letters which could take so much. In his mind flash visions of helicopters, rails, redeemers and AWPs. Visions of the Zerg and of the Soviets. Visions of a rally car navigating a two-right-over-crest. And he knew that it was his destiny.”

Yes, it’s come around. s4, the fourth in our major Allnighter LAN series is now being booked, and it’s looking to be the longest event yet. We’re looking to get B212, B213 and B214 from 8pm on Friday 16th until 10pm on Sunday 18th (end of week 7). That’s a whopping FIFTY hours.

We realise that some of you may not be able to make the entire weekend; as a consequence, we’re taking signups for one, two, or three days as you are able to make it.

We would also like to point out that the rooms have not been booked yet; as a result the time and/or place may change.

It is recommended for attendance at the LAN that you have a 5m piece of network cable. Compsoc can supply these at an extremely cheap rate.

2. Karting

Compsoc go Karting – yes, it’s true!

We shall be running a Karting trip on Wednesday of Week 8. Details are still to be confirmed, but it is likely we will be visiting the Coventry Speedway; as anyone who has been to, this is probably the best karting circuit around. It has 250cc outdoor karts, and as you can imagine they’re quite a lot of fun :-).

If you are interested in Karting, please e-mail compsoc@warwick.ac.uk with the subject “Karting”, letting us know, so we have a rough idea of numbers. Then we can get it booked. The cost is likely to be around £20.

3. Open Source

The OSP kicked off yesterday in MR4, Union North. It was nice to see some new faces, particularly on the Linux front; hopefully we’ll make some good progress this term.

The activity is a chance for all you programmers to get involved in an interesting project.

For those who don’t know much about it, the task is to create a fully-3D version of the “LightBikes” game. It’s being written in C++ using openGL; coders, artists, level designers, playtesters and managers are required.

For more information, come along to one of the sessions. The first was on the 4th of November at 6:00 in MR4; the second on Sunday the 11th of November in MR3.

4. Gaming

For those who can’t stand the high latency that is the campus network, or those who would just rather meet the people you’re playing, Compsoc are holding gaming sessions in ITS011 every Friday and Saturday night.

The cunning among you will notice that we’ve moved rooms since the beginning of term – the new machines are a lot beefier, and can run many more games. Come along and join in the madness!

Gaming starts at 10:00pm in ITS011; the hardcore krew will be meeting in the Airport at 9:00 beforehand, to dullen our skillz and give the others a chance :-)

5. Signups

Since we have no dynamic website at the moment, to sign up for an event, mail the exec (compsoc@Warwick.ac.uk) with the subject as the social (e.g. “Karting”, “s4”), giving us your name and membership number, and we’ll put you on the list.

6. CAT5 Cable

We’re still selling network cable for all your and your friends’ needs, at the cheapest for miles around.

Our rates:

• 50p base
• 50p/m for cables <= 10m
• 40p/m thereafter

This is cheaper overall than any other supplier that the exec knows about.

Cables are made to fit any size you require, and are available as “normal” patch cables, and crossover cables. All cables are pre-tested, and are guaranteed.

That’s it for this newsletter. Take care of yourselves, and we hope to see you at an event soon!

—
Henry

Secretary, University of Warwick Computing Society
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/compsoc/