nutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2024-10-28


The meeting was called to order at 19:33 by innaavo.

In attendance were

        Student keyholders: alwinfy, dtemkin, innaavo, rgabriel, psvenk, nmorgan

        Associate keyholders: bbaren, almonds, scj643

        Members: andiliu, jazsolan, suufi, skylarh, kawcco, eingold, ilyag

        Guests: '()

Administrivia:

        [discussion about emails]
        
        scj643: Motion for $28 for Factorio: Space Age.
        
        innaavo: Seconded
        
        alwinfy: Motion to white ballot
        
        psvenk: Seconded
        
        [motion passes by white-ballot]
        
        psvenk: Motion to allocate $10 for transportation for [miscellaneous SIPB members] to/from Zoe's.
        
        innaavo: Seconded
        
        psvenk: Motion to white-ballot
        
        innaavo: Seconded
        
        [motion passes by white-ballot]
        
        alwinfy: I'd love to have a format for white-ballots, like just [whiteballot p1 p2 p3 p4]
        
        rgabriel: It would make treasurer work a lot easier!
        
        [offtopic discussion of free-food from the ASA meetings]
        
        rgabriel: Motion to allocate $225 for the dinner
        
        psvenk, innaavo: Seconded
        
        [motion passes 11-0]
        
        innaavo: How was the dinner?
        
        alwinfy: Would have been better if you hadn't ditched us (joking)
        
        innaavo: It was my brother's birthday...
        
        [DormSoup allocation for $700 passes below]
        
Project Reports:

        andiliu: DormSoup continues. We recently adopted a format where we do individual help at the beginning, then do a workshop - maybe other projects could adopt this?
        
        andiliu: Running DormSoup using OpenAI API have racked up a bit of cost - from DormSoup's runtime start to now, $737 in OpenAI calls - about $240 of that was under SIPB's banner, and about $1500 in AWS - about $450 of that being under SIPB's banner. (We're no longer using AWS.) I'd like to ask whether some of this can be reimbursed.
        
        rgabriel: What's the timeline on switching to llama?
        
        andiliu: Almost. At least by the end of the semester.
        
        almonds: We don't have a way to test locally before we deploy - I'm working with sophiez on Wednesday to work on that.
        
        rgabriel: I have concerns about the allocation - it theoretically should have been allocated before it was spent; I understand there was some slideover time though. I think we can still cover this, though.
        
        innaavo: Motion to allocate $700 to reimburse OpenAI/LLMs costs
        
        dtemkin: Seconded
        
        [motion passes 8-0-4 abstensions]
        
        psvenk: As another option, we do have access to cloud credits through IS&T; there's a program to get those credits in future. If that's something a project's interested in that in future, reach out to me and I can talk to them.
        
        rgabriel: We can get OpenAI credits too?
        
        psvenk: Correct. Olu would have more info.
        
        almonds: HWOps continues. We're mostly done with the CTW UPS migration, we just need to coordinate with IS&T to move the switch. Alternia has been scheduled to be removed on Wednesday. geofft had the bits to schedule downtime for CTW, so people on sipb-machine-room have been enjoying a silent inbox.
        
        almonds: LLMs continues. I've added translation-related LLMs to the llms-dev-0 server. Next week we'll probably finish implementing Touchstone login.
        
        nmorgan: Project Ark continues - we had another meeting. I've been trying to get around getting a new server, but we've come to the conclusion that we are gonna need another one for the project. Wanted to float it for now; just keeping it on the radar. Ballpark about 4 grand.
        
        innaavo: Let's discuss next week, then.
        
        rgabriel: Matrix continues! We'll meet Wednesdays (in 2 days) at 17:15.
        
        innaavo: Right after [redacted].
        
        skylarh: Eventful continues! The server software has been switched to Typescript to facilitate client/server codesharing.
        
        skylarh: I had to reimplement Option<>s. Object.setPrototypeOf() was used.
        
        nmorgan: (Did you get all that?)
        
        bbaren: (Do I look like I write JavaScript for a living.)
        
        suufi: OpenGrades now works! It's now running on HTTPS, and everything should be functional, but I'd appreciate testing. Find it at <https://opengrades.mit.edu>.
        
        rgabriel: Join Dormspam (a project that I started) continues! I've added a feature to let people join Mailman lists without having to interface with Mailman directly.
        
        [discussion of dormspam]
        
Other:

        ilyag [in chat]: (defmacro jitsi-sign-off () (format nil "I have to sign off, thank you for having me.")
        
        kawcco: A signoff in Lisp!
        
Other Other:

        innaavo: Elections are sooner than you think. Go vote!
        
        [discussion of voting law]

The meeting was adjourned at 20:08.

        Minutes taken by alwinfy, almonds, dtemkin, innaavo and submitted by alwinfy.