Events Archive: Spring 2011

CTRL-D

| 6:00 PM EDT | home of askhader, see abstract

The end of another term is here, and so we're having our End-of-Term dinner. Everybody's welcome to come to CTRL-D. We are running this like a potluck, so bringing food is suggested.

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askhader's house is at:

9 Cardill Cresent


Waterloo, ON

Code Party 3

| 7:00 PM EDT | Comfy Lounge

The final Code Party of the term is here! Come hack on some code, solve some puzzles, and have some fun. The event starts in the evening and will run all night. You can show up for any portion of it. You should bring a laptop, and probably have something in mind to work on, though you're welcome with neither.Snacks will be provided. Everyone is welcome.Please note this date is postponed from the originally scheduled date due to conflicts with [Kitchener Ribfest & Craft Beer Show](<http://www.kitchenerribandbeerfest.com/>)

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The final Code Party of the term is here! Come hack on some code, solve some puzzles, and have some fun. The event starts in the evening and will run all night. You can show up for any portion of it. You should bring a laptop, and probably have something in mind to work on, though you're welcome with neither.

Snacks will be provided. Everyone is welcome.

Please note this date is postponed from the originally scheduled date due to conflicts with Kitchener Ribfest & Craft Beer Show

An Introduction to Steganography

| 4:30 PM EDT | MC 2038

As part of the CSC member talks series, Yomna Nasser will be presenting an introduction to steganography. Steganography is the act of hiding information such that it can only be found by its intended recipient. It has been practiced since ancient Greece, and is still in use today.This talk will include an introduction to the area, history, and some basic techniques for hiding information and detecting hidden data. There will be an overview of some of the mathematics involved, but nothing too rigorous.

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As part of the CSC member talks series, Yomna Nasser will be presenting an introduction to steganography. Steganography is the act of hiding information such that it can only be found by its intended recipient. It has been practiced since ancient Greece, and is still in use today.

This talk will include an introduction to the area, history, and some basic techniques for hiding information and detecting hidden data. There will be an overview of some of the mathematics involved, but nothing too rigorous.

CSC Goes Outside

| 4:00 PM EDT | Columbia Lake Firepit

Do you like going outside? Are you vitamin-D deficient from being in the MC too long? Do you think marshmallows, hotdogs, and fire are a delicious combination?If so, you should join us as the CSC is going outside!Around 4PM, we're going to Columbia Lake for some outdoor fun. We'll have Frisbees, kites, snacks, and some drinks. We'll be sticking around until dusk, when we're going to have a campfire with marshmallows and hotdogs. We plan to be there until 10PM, but of course you're welcome to come for any subinterval.

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Do you like going outside? Are you vitamin-D deficient from being in the MC too long? Do you think marshmallows, hotdogs, and fire are a delicious combination?

If so, you should join us as the CSC is going outside!

Around 4PM, we're going to Columbia Lake for some outdoor fun. We'll have Frisbees, kites, snacks, and some drinks. We'll be sticking around until dusk, when we're going to have a campfire with marshmallows and hotdogs. We plan to be there until 10PM, but of course you're welcome to come for any subinterval.

Our Troubles with Linux and Why You Should Care

| 1:30 PM EDT | MC 5158

A joint work between Professors Tim Brecht, Ashif Harji, and Peter Buhr, this talk describes experiences using the Linux kernel as a platform for conducting performance evaluations.

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Linux provides researchers with a full-fledged operating system that is widely used and open source. However, due to its complexity and rapid development, care should be exercised when using Linux for performance experiments, especially in systems research. The size and continual evolution of the Linux code-base makes it difficult to understand, and as a result, decipher and explain the reasons for performance improvements. In addition, the rapid kernel development cycle means that experimental results can be viewed as out of date, or meaningless, very quickly. We demonstrate that this viewpoint is incorrect because kernel changes can and have introduced both bugs and performance degradations.

This talk describes some of our experiences using the Linux kernel as a platform for conducting performance evaluations and some performance regressions we have found. Our results show, these performance regressions can be serious (e.g., repeating identical experiments results in large variability in results) and long lived despite having a large negative impact on performance (one problem appears to have existed for more than 3 years). Based on these experiences, we argue that it is often reasonable to use an older kernel version, experimental results need careful analysis to explain why a change in performance occurs, and publishing papers that validate prior research is essential.

This is joint work with Ashif Harji and Peter Buhr.

This talk will be about 20-25 minutes long with lots of time for questions and discussion afterwards.

Code Party 2

| 7:00 PM EDT | Comfy Lounge

The second Code Party of the term takes place this Friday! Come hack on some code, solve some puzzles, and have some fun. The event starts in the evening and will run all night. You can show up for any portion of it. You should bring a laptop, and probably have something in mind to work on, though you're welcome with neither.Snacks will be provided.

View details

The second Code Party of the term takes place this Friday! Come hack on some code, solve some puzzles, and have some fun. The event starts in the evening and will run all night. You can show up for any portion of it. You should bring a laptop, and probably have something in mind to work on, though you're welcome with neither.

Snacks will be provided.

Taming Software Bloat with AdaptableGIMP

| 4:30 PM EDT | MC 2054

Ever use software with 100s or 1000s of commands? Ever have a hard time finding the right commands to perform your task? In this talk, we'll present AdaptableGIMP, a new version of GIMP developed at Waterloo to help simplify complex user interfaces.

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Ever use software with 100s or 1000s of commands? Ever have a hard time finding the right commands to perform your task? We have. And we have some new ideas on how to deal with software bloat.

In this talk, we'll present AdaptableGIMP, a new version of GIMP developed by the HCI Lab here at the University of Watreloo. AdaptableGIMP introduces the notion of crowdsourced interface customizations: Any user of the application can customize the interface for performing a particular task, with that customization instantly shared with all other users through a wiki at adaptablegimp.org. In the talk, we'll demo this new version of GIMP and show how it can help people work faster by simplifying feature-rich, complex user interfaces.

General Purpose Computing on Graphics Cards

| 4:30 PM EDT | MC 2054

In the first of our member talks for the term, Katie Hyatt will give a short introduction to General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit computing. This expanding field has many applications. The primary focus of this talk will be nVidia's CUDA architecture.

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This is the first of our member talks for the term, presented by CSC member and Waterloo undergraduate student Katie Hyatt

GPGPU (general purpose graphics processing unit) computing is an expanding area of interest, with applications in physics, chemistry, applied math, finance, and other fields. nVidia has created an architecture named CUDA to allow programmers to use graphics cards without having to write PTX assembly or understand OpenGL. CUDA is designed to allow for high-performance parallel computation controlled from the CPU while granting the user fine control over the behaviour and performance of the device.

In this talk, I'll discuss the basics of nVidia's CUDA architecture (with most emphasis on the CUDA C extensions), the GPGPU programming environment, optimizing code written for the graphics card, algorithms with noteworthy performance on GPU, libraries and tools available to the GPGPU programmer, and some applications to condensed matter physics. No physics background required!

Code Party 1

| 7:00 PM EDT | Comfy Lounge

The Computer Science Club is having our first code party of the term. The theme for this week's code party is personal projects. Come show us what you've been working on! Of course, everybody is welcome, even if you don't have a project.

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The Computer Science Club is having our first code party of the term.   The theme for this week's code party is personal projects. Come show us what you've been working on! Of course, everybody is welcome, even if you   don't have a project.   Personal projects are a great way to flex your CS muscles, and learn interesting    and new things. Come out and have some fun! Two more are scheduled for later in the term.   

Elections Nominees List

| 5:31 PM EDT | Comfy Lounge

CSC Elections, final list of nominations for Spring 2011

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The nominations are:

  • President: jdonland, mimcpher, mthiffau
  • Vice-President: jdonland, mimcpher
  • Treasurer: akansong, kspaans
  • Secretary: akansong, jdonland

Elections

| 5:30 PM EDT | Comfy Lounge

CSC Elections have begun for the Spring 2011 term, nominations are open!

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It's time to elect your CSC executive for the Spring 2011 term. The elections will be held on Monday May 9th at 5:30PM in the Comfy Lounge on the 3rd floor of the MC. Nominations can be sent to the Chief Returning Officer, cro@csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Nominations will be open until 4:30PM on Monday May 9th. You can also stop by the office in person to write your nominations on the white board.

The executive positions open for nomination are:

  • President
  • Vice-President
  • Treasurer
  • Secretary

There are also numerous positions that will be appointed once the executive are elected including systems administrator, office manager, and librarian. Everyone is encouraged to run if they are interested, regardless of program of study, age, or experience. If you can't make the election, that's OK too! You can give the CRO a statement to read on your behalf. If you can't make it or are out of town, your votes can be sent to the CRO in advance of the elections. For the list of nominees, watch the CSC website, or ask the CRO.

Good luck to our candidates!