SIPB Minutes of 4 Oct. 1982 The meeting was called to order at 7:35 pm by WER. Present were: Oh, boy, did I goof. If you were at this meeting, tell KAM. The following people were at the meeting. The list may be incomplete. Jay, WOS, JSL, GMP, WER, RK, Barmar, HDT, Steve, Naha, BCN, CBF, WMY, JR, RDZ, ZRM, KAM. Prospectives: PSR, DM, EJB, CLM. The minutes from 27 Sept. were read and accepted as corrected. TO MEETING APPLICATIONS: HSSP--Theresa Good, $150.00. Given. TREASURER'S REPORT September Spending: total 6,260.81 (10% higher than last year) SIPB/SIPBADMIN 1,833.39 -- 29% of Sept spending (Storage for spb/spba 507.49 -- 27% of spb/spba spending) Year to date: total 14,978.26 SIPB/SIPBADMIN 5360.86 -- 35% of total September and year-to-date spending inserted by JR. barmar gave us registration statistics for IPS course student enrollment for summer '82: We are spending a lot of money on sipb-admin. People should claim their phone calls from the sheet that will be on the board. JR suggested that we keep track of our own debts to JJ. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT Elections: The chairman read the description of membership elections and qualifications from the bylaws. They are sort of complicated. The nominees are: Elisa Barzelay (EJB), Dinarte Morais (DM), Paul Rosenblum (PSR), & Charlie Marker (CLM). EJB is really super-interested in computers and wants to learn by helping others. DM too is interested in computers, and also in his resume. He is also interested in people. CLM likes what the SIPB does and likes all the people in it. PSR is lost in thought. He is (a masochist?)--he likes to administrate. All non-members left the room and the secretary stopped taking minutes....except for a motion by RK to change CBF's name to Chuckie.... The results were: EJB--12 yes, 1 abstain DM --10 yes, 3 abstain PSR--12 yes, 1 abstain CLM--12 yes, 1 abstain All nominees were elected. DM put the bylaws away. The chairman gave us all apples. CBF told us about the ASA meeting last week, where they held elections. The new ASA officers are: Judy Passman replaces Sam Austin as chairman; Vicki ?Somebody replaces Arnold Contreras as rep to Finboard; Ken Cornet was elected as a member-at-large to Finboard. Various unmentioned people will not be missed. The CRSP committee met, and they said we had room on the first floor of building 11. WER has seen a floor plan. JCF wasn't supposed to be there until next Sept., however. Wes and Dick Steinberg are looking out for our interests. Furthermore, the dean of the School of Engineering feels that students doing computing should be highly visible, so it seems that we have finally found friends in high places. The chairman's own description is inserted below: Chair's report for SIPB meeting 10/11/82 (also IAP report, my part) 1. I had an appointment with Associate Provost Frank Perkins to discuss 6.030. He's of the opinion that there's no way we're going to get 6.030 back, because Course 6 doesn't want to teach it at all. However, he wants us to look into 1.00, which is the course that is supposedly replacing 6.030. Don't yell or laugh yet...CBF is going to talk to the instructor next week to find out what the course philosophy and syllabus are. Frank Perkins taught 1.00 when it was state-of-the-art, and he really hopes it teaches concepts, not crunching. He requests that we report our findings and conclusions about the merits of 1.00 to him when we find them out, and he will try to change things to accomodate what we feel is lacking. 2. Trying to create a better computing environment at MIT, I've been talking to nice, important administrators. Unfortunately, things move slowly at the top. Frank Perkins told me that the new Assistant Dean Herb Richardson (remember him? He's the one who presented the JCF/SIPB merger to the CRSP committee) is the one responsible for doing all the preliminary deciding about which of the small-computer plans is implemented -- micros for each student, a room full of LISP machines, or whatever. So, here's my schedule, with meetings at the earliest possible times: Mon Oct 18 -- Herb Richardson Tues Oct 19 -- Peter Richardson (Admissions) Wed Nov 17 -- Dean Gerry Wilson (Corby will be there, too) Yes, that last one really does say November. Sigh. After I see Peter Richardson and explain to him who we are, some CCC people will go and say hi, too, so he'll know about them, too. 3. I left a message for Dean Wilson saying that I have an opportunity to write an article for the MIT Report (put out by the Industrial Liaison Program), and I'd be happy to write about all the wonderful things MIT is planning for students and computing, if it would possibly speed things or spur donations. I didn't get a chance to talk with him, but his secretary called and said he said that was fine (but he didn't want to see me any sooner to discuss the plans). So when I called Corby I asked his opinion, and he said it seemed sort of premature and he didn't think readers of the Report are the people who donate (I think he's wrong, there). So, when I talk to Herb Richardson, I'll ask his opinion, and if he says it's a good idea I'll write about it. 4. Leo Ryan came into the office today, thanked us for the Annual Report, and said everything's still up in the air, but he just told people and wrote a memo saying the SIPB should be on the second floor of bldg 11, near the terminal room. Bravo! 5. Although we shouldn't flame about it til next week, a few members are trying to look into the mechanics and feasibility of getting a pie slice of Multics. Feel free to tell me suggestions, or to send well thought out computer mail to me or to whomever is appropriate. I don't know enough about this sort of thing, and so will welcome input. IAP Report: Barry, the deadline for IAP info if you want it in the first IAP Guide is THIS WEDNESDAY. Please finish getting the LISP info and DTRT. The text formatting course (runoff) info is done, and the completed forms were in with the packet you were working on. Runoff course dates: Wed Jan 12 Thurs Jan 13 Tues Jan 18 Thurs Jan 20 I'm in charge of this course, but if you want to help teach or be there for moral support during the course, let me know. Have a nice meeting. When Barmar (as a prefrosh) had an interview w/ Peter Richardson the latter didn't seem to know anything about student computing. RDZ suggested that we should be making specific suggestions to our new friends in high places rather than just reminding them to be our friends. ZRM talked to Corbato, and while they will not buy us our own computer, we are thinking about getting a VAX for text processing. ZRM feels that he can only beg money for CCC, but the idea is to find companies and groups that will donate machine or money (HBD can't cover it....). WER thinks that the dean of the School of Engineering is on our side in this matter. WER ran into Joel Moses at the StuFac meeting. Afterwards she asked him what about 6.030? He said well, there's still 2.10, and changed the subject immediately. At the CCE meeting 6.030 came up and they wouldn't talk about it. No one has answered our letter. The associate provost, Frank Perkins, is supposed to answer our letter, but he hasn't done anything about it. WER has an appointment with him soon. WER sent a transfer student (who said they had more access to computers there than here) to hassle the powers that be. She suggests that we all do this when people come in w/ similar complaints. Just make sure that they don't say "The SIPB sent us..." Now that our budget is done differently, we need our new budget by next January. We should pay attention to how much we are spending, and think about how much money we will need. WMY points out that the local phone calls, which have traditionally been a give-away, will be taken out of the rest of our budget now. This does not necessarily mean we should never use the phone, but we should remember. Our money is coming from the Institute directly, rather than from Wes' discretionary budget. Wes is delighted w/ the student activities showing up and asking him for money. We should keep sending them up. OFFICE REPORT Barmar explained that Lisp notes cost $3.00, and that we should get money in advance. The man at Oak Ridge obviously thinks that we are some kind of business. COMPUTER SERVICES About shift one use: WER thinks we should turn it off. RK agrees, w/ the proviso that discretion of office can give an individual an exception for a valid reason. motion by WER: to do what it says above. Discussion: CBF cited figures for spending in September: Total Shift-I Other Shifts Money $2788 $743 $2045 hours 585 124 461 $/hr $4.70 $6.00 $4.43 which means 26% of our spending for September was Shift-I. Jay pointed out that we will have to teach sipb_admin people how to make the change, and also that we will have to remind people about the shift change at nine am. RDZ suggested that we merely turn the shift one warning message back on. WMY agreed. RK said that we should be explaining the rates when we take applications, and he thinks the users really are naive. Jay says that they aren't stupid, they're deceptive. CBF thinks that we will keep some people from logging on at all if we turn off shift one. There are two ways to implement this: one is to have the initializer do it, the other is to explain what is going on when they fail to login, but it is more expensive. Naha agreed that users are careless and deceptive, and supports the motion. RDZ wants to try the message first, before we turn off shift one. BCN suggests that we try the message first, and maybe turn off shift one for individual abusers. WMY thinks that interactive messages are much better than something in the middle of the documentation. RK pointed out that money for shift one is worth twice as much shift one. HDT says that we must warn people before we do anything drastic. Perhaps we should put in a message saying that we are thinking of turning off shift one. RK wants to call the question. Naha looked up people's usage, and 1/3 to 1/4 of the people in stim have substantial shift one usage. CBF raised a philosophical point: are we trying to give out as much computer hours as possible, or to make them as accessible as possible, so we should wait at least a month. RK thinks turning off shift one will make computers more accessible because there will be mor time. Motion fails. motion by Jay to put in a start-up message reminding users of shift one that it is hellishly expensive, and a friendly amendment by WMY to put a message on shift 3 five minutes before shift 1 starts. And to warn them that we may have to turn off shift one if too much money is spent. And to tell them when the shift changes. Discussion: BCN repeated his suggestion. CBF suggests that we talk to each shift-1 heavy user. Jay suggests that we check and see if someone is a known-shift-1 user when that person applies for money (he has been writing this on their applications; we should all be doing this). WER suggests that we run an automatic check for someone who uses more than a certain amount of money shift-1, e.g., more than $30.00/ week. Naha wants a ^G in the message. The suggestions get wilder and wilder. RK points out that we mustn't spend too much money trying not to spend money. Motion passes. Jay was put in charge of implementation. The office manager forgot to check that we had enough NUMS. Coop Computer Services Jay went to talk to the people in Student Accounts, who don't do the Medical Departments billing either. Bob Hart came up w/ a scheme whereby we would administer the project but they would take care of the money. Jay sent mail describing it; he will write up a formal description. RK doesn't understand why this is any better. Jay reminded RK that we don't keep records, and this is really much better. CBF thinks we should keep better records and keep doing it the way we have been. Jay still thinks the new way is better. Another advantage is that we get automatic statements generated. Something which is not a vote is taken to get the sense of the board. Should Jay forget about it, or should he be encouraged to do more about it? The details were haggled about before the not-vote was taken. Jay should keep looking into it. Steve went to the student center terminal room, and described the state of the terminals there. The sipb_registrar password was changed last week. If you need to know it, you should get approved by either RK or JIS. (RK is not entirely happy about this, because he is not sure he likes being put sort of in charge of it). We should auto 17-s03 students $20.00 each when they come in. They should be put on a special project, xviisiii--ask someone who remembers how it was done last year. (This is a seminar taught by one Prof. Bloomfield; he applied to us for a $20.00 account for each of his students, which we gave him.) These people should not be new_student'ed, they should be new_user'ed. TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORT BCN is sending out the requests for terminals, the terminal surveys, and the collection letters. OUTSTANDING TTR's: PSR volunteered to fix the caps lock at ADP. the MacGregor LA36 is fixed. Microwave dishes were put up sometime in the middle of last week. The antennas need to be aligned and tested; we need to find places for various different things. Steve is having trouble getting in touch w/ Eric, someone else should. We usually have a smoke-filled room in January. Now we have more terminals. Perhaps we should have a smoke-filled room before that in order to decide whether to buy more terminals. CBF says that dec may be giving us terminals, so we should wait at least a month to find out if this is the case. Naha drew a picture of the space available for the gizmos for the terminal concentrator. There was haggling over proposed layouts. PUBLICATIONS REPORT We ran out of NUMS. (this has already made it into the minutes). We should get a lot, like 300. Someone should write a letter complaining to Beane about all the cruddy work they're doing for us. CBF suggested that we look up the famous "Pickle Letter." ANNUAL REPORT REPORT We have an annual report. Hooray! If you know who did the design on the cover, tell someone. We sent new copies to the people who got draft copies: Wes, Corbato, and Lowe. It's time to think about next year's annual report. WER will talk to Paul Grey, and give him his annual report, and try to turn him into another friend in high place. IAP REPORT We have 10-250 scheduled for the Lisp course; Jay thinks someone will steal it out from underneath us. WER is planning on running a series of textprocessing seminars. Should we have the advanced lisp course? Or maybe just a course on the guts of emacs? They're still not very sure about IPS courses. Barmar talked to Dorothy Corbett. None of our courses conflict w/ theirs. They don';t know how much their courses are going to cost. OTHER Macgregor terminal security: Macgregor wants to drill holes in the terminals in order to keep it secure. RK said we would get back to them. Barmar points out that service men complain if you tamper w/ equipment that has a service contract. Naha wants to know what's wrong w/ a door w/ a lock on it. DM will tell them not to drill holes. BCN says that the terminal isn't under contract, but we should do any drilling and not them. RK says that people should use register and not reg or rega when they use sipb_registrar. If you do use reggae you should make sure the alias is not already in use, and you should answer carriage return for all the questions you don't understand. Rega should only be used to give people aliases, and should only be used under supervision from someone who knows how, like RK. Seth Powsner dropped in this week. The Tech has computerized typesetting facilities; most of the type they get to set comes from other computers and they have a coop account. They want a faster than a phone data connection, a hard-wired line. Jay says that it's fine w/ Roger, but telecommunicaitons is not too happy. Jay thinks that maybe it can be snuck in w/ the work this summer, or maybe we can lease them a spot on the terminal concentrator. If we hear anything about telecommunications putting a wire under Mass. Ave., we should tell them immediately. APPLICATIONS Mark Rosenstein $20.00->mtg. deferred. Gary Oberbrunner $50.00->mtg. given. Charles Ryan $70.00->mtg. given, but he's to be turned off shift one. (Unless he comes in and says he can't come in during the evening--he lives in Fairmont Ave.) Cristoff Stork $100.00->mtg. deferred. Jeff S. Lu $100.00->mtg. given $50.00. Albert Leung $50.00->mtg. rejected. MORE OTHER People should be careful about delivering mail to other people's bins and drawers. RDM didn't get some of his bills. TOTALS BCN gave the secretary some incomprehensible slips of paper. Steve orchestrated the totalling of autoed applications. The totals seem to have been: Autoed Multics $3375.00 370 $100.00 There seem to have been no EC votes. ->mtg Multics $320.00 370 none coop Multics $50.00 370 none OTHER OTHER WOS says pl1 is improving. RK brought champagne. The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 pm. The minutes were taken by KAM, and submitted by Barmar.