achernya: Please introduce yourself and some of your current projects and interests. dove: Justin Dove, username dove. I am a second-year grad student 2nd year, studying theoretical quantum optics. I ran SIPB-IAP, am running the GNU hackathon. Writing scripts and interested in maintaining. tboning: Tom Boning, username tboning. I am junior in 6-2, studying computer systems and security. I came to SIPB through the scripts proejct and as a scripts maintainer. I worked on debathena and am acting treasurer. sqshemet: Sabrina Shemet, sophomore in 6-2, studying robotics. I am interested in working on the card reader. Q: If not elected chair, what other positions would you consider? dove: I would decline other formal positions, but continue to work at large. tboning: Vice-chair or treasurer. sqshemet: Would accept vice-chair, secretary, tresuruer. Q: What are your thoughts on the current state of SIPB and how would you fix it (in one sentence). dove: SIPB has a lot of "problems". Different ways of handling open discussion. XVM allocation, SMR, etc. Right now we are a "find new people to maintain old services" group. We need more open discussion and problem-solving sessions. Make a list and attack problems ... ideas are easy but we need to follow through. tboning: We have a low amount of student involvement. Only eight students in the room, which seems small for an elections meeting. I would change this by encouraging the creation of cool new projects, particularly projects suited to people without a lot of experience. So they don't have to have a ton of XVM experience just to get involved. More advertising, more community engagement. Hackathons; "come here and work on psets." sqshemet: Need more students involved. Can be intimidating, particularly for people not working on a service. Environment can discourage people from asking questions. Code of conduct is a good initiative. Open hackathons are a great idea. SIPB has potential to do some really cool stuff. But there's a lot of stop energy and we should fix that. Q: What is the most immediate issue you would address? dove: All of these things need to be addressed immediately. Public image is in crisis. I spoke to a course 6 faculty member who didn't even know what SIPB was. We should be more visible in letting the community know who we are through our projects. Code of conduct is the most immediate crisis though. All the problems are intertwined. tboning: I agree regarding public image. It's disappointing that people are intimidated by us, since SIPB is one of the best places on campus to learn a broad set of skills. A big public-image problem is that discussions can get heated, if only in a good way. It's been a long-term issue and I'm not sure if there is a good solution. sqshemet: We're discouraging to new people, particularly women. The office isn't overly welcoming or an engaging place to do cool things. People who come into the office are often discouraged from doing cool things. There's not an easy solution. The code of conduct will help. Changing the environment of communication will help. We change our image by changing the reality of our interactions. Q: What do you think that SIPB is doing well that you would like to continue? What suggestions do you have for expanding our strengths. tboning: Location! Big screens! A table! You can put laptops on it! Staples! Yet somehow people are not flocking to our tables and staplers. We can do more to promote our resources. sqshemet: We're doing well to reach out to other companies and organizations. We're doing well at networking, and we can continue to do more. dove: Maintaining a space next to the cluster is a huge service to people. We fix the scanner, help people send e-mail, etc. We are sort of a "little brother" to IS&T. Sort of a help-desk. Sort of technical directory. You can come to SIPB and we'll point you in the right direction. We have our own community services. This is what tends to define SIPB today. We should keep doing that while we pursue other long-term goals. achernya: This has been a challenging term. What is the biggest mistake made by the current chair and how would you do it differently? sqshemet: The resolution of the inter-member conflict earlier in the year could have been handled more carefully, and could have led to a less harrowing outcome. More warning and discussion would have been good. But that is easy to say in hindsight. tboning: The organization is large enough that word-of-mouth is not sufficient. The office revamp could have been better communicated. dove: Personal issues, censorship, office reorg, XVM allocation, cardreader. There were all semi-public discussions that happened for a long period of time, and then presented to the group as a whole late in the process. There's a lot to be said for openness of discussion. achernya: The culture used to be to not dredge up allocations into the public sphere until they were ready to go. dove: A lot of SIPB members were aware loosely of the Dropbox donations, but didn't realize what was going on until late in the process. People didn't know what was going on with the card reader sometimes, because conversations over zephyr were assumed to be common knowledge. Q: Are private conversations bad then? dove: Active decision-making process has to happen openly. It's fine to ping people personally for feedback but you can't just go dark for a month at a time on a complex issue and then present it as fiat. There can't be a cabal. tboning: There's a balance betweeen how much you converse in person, and how you talk as an organization. Q: How hosed are you? If you could be a data structure, what would it be? dove: Not hosed enough for a grad student, obviously, because I'm here. I've been at almost all the meetings. I've been here almost daily lately. I rarely go to my personal office, because we have a window here. That's a constant anyway. I would be a python list comprehension. But a data structure? I guess a dictionary. tboning: I'm taking four classes but tend to spend time on them. One of them is 6.858. I don't have any other commitments in student government, though I do occasional Assassins' guild stuff. I haven't missed a meeting in a long time. I do like lists and dictionaries. Maybe a linked list of dictionaries? sqshemet: I've been busy in my living group lately, but I tend to spend more time in the office the more I get hosed. I'm taking 5.25 classes, and not planning to drop any. dove: I'm um, taking one class. sqshemet: I like trees. tboning: I want a small structure, so I could have a single dictionary with a list. Q: How many prospectives do you know and interact with? tboning: Four or five? sqshemet: A non-trivial number. Four or five? I have a bunch of friends I want to bring by once the meetings become short enough to not bore them. dove: Four or five? I swear that I'm not copying. I don't have a lot of interaction with undergraduates but I do interact with people in the office a lot. Q: How do you feel about the current relationship between SIPB and IS&T, and what would you like to change? sqshemet: I think the relationship is going pretty well. I don't have any data that I really think it needs to change. dove: It's good, but given how many SIPB members are in IS&T it should be a lot better. We don't get involved nearly enough. jdreed shouldn't be the only conduit we have. We should have Mary's mobs with IS&T. It needs to be seamless. It's good now, but not as good as it could be. Most members who have been around for a couple of months should know who Gary is. It should be that level of integration. tboning: It's true that we've had issues in the past. But it's gotten much better lately. It's a shame the watchmaker program is gone. Maybe we could bring programs like that back? nelhage: If elected chair, where would you keep the gavel? dove: Neither nyancat nor dragon, and definitely not the rings. achernya: dwilson hung up the dragon. Last person to hang the rings was jhamrick. tboning: I'd probably use the dragon because I like dragons. sqshemet: Somewhere I can reach. kenta: I made the paper Athena DEFCON. Justin: what's the status of the DEFCON? dove: It's on the SIPB github and it works. We have a website and it works and we just need to package it. dlaw has been interested in getting into the hardware side of this. He's sawing down the protoboard, so it should be soon. He has big hardware plans. aglasgall: What service would you add, and what would you eliminate? tboning: Make Linerva go away. sqshemet: I'd like to see some of the huge time-sinks go away. Could we move Scripts to IS&T? I'd like to see us do useful things with all the data floating around, like the saferide statistics. dove: I have a notebook full of ideas for SIPB projects, but unfortunately it is too small to include in this margin. Scripts sucks up a lot of time, and chews up prospectives and grinds them up. It does bring us credibility, though. The PGP keysigning service is very cool. I'd like to see us do something cool with the cardreader and PKI graphical login solution. PGP login for the masses. achernya: Move to call the question. aglasgall: Second. [ Candidates leave the room. Begin closed session. ] [ End of closed session. ] [ dove - 7, sqshemet - 2, tboning - 0 ] achernya: Congratulations to Justin! You have six days left! achernya: [ Reads vice chair description from the constitution. ] Nominations: cereslee, tboning, dvorak42, vasilvvv, sqshemet (declined) sqshemet: I have to leave in six minutes. Can I accept? I decline but wish to remain treasurer. achernya: Candidates, please. tboning: I am Tom once again. I maintain scripts, do have SMR access, and will not tell you my root password. I have 2FA so it wouldn't be an issue anyway. dvorak42: I maintain SIPB CTF. I do have 2FA and my root password is rosebud. vasilvv: I maintain debathena and don't have SMR access. cereslee: I work on scripts. I don't have SMR access. Q: Is 6-2 your major or your height? tboning: I am 6'4''. aglasgall: What would you add and/or remove from SMR? dvorak42: I'd remove the current wiring. I'd add better access. I'd add a portal to the SMR for immediate access. vasilvv: I'd like to remove NNTP servers and their 13.7GiB RAIDs. cereslee: I don't spend much time in the SMR. It's nice to have something colorful to look at. I'd like to have some furniture as well. tboning: There's way too much extra wiring. There's ops machines in there that we don't have access to. More colors! dwilson: cereslee, dvorak42: what are you doing next year? achernya: We have elections in February. dwilson: Name your favorite vice and chair. cereslee: My favorite vice is sloth. Chair is Alex. vasilvv: AFS contains the word 'vice'. dvorak: I like puzzles. tboning: I like the square chairs. My vice is D&D. dove: Are you technical enough to be the person I punt to for technical questions? vasilvv: Yes. dvorak42: Yes. cereslee: Yes. If I don't know I will know whom to ask. tboning: Same as cereslee. carl: dvorak42: what question would you ask to the other candidates? dvorak42: What SIPB service would you save if there were a fire in the machine room? tboning: Institute policy is not to fight fires. But if I had to choose a service, it would be the SQL server with the SSDs. cereslee: I'd get friends to help me carry out more servers. Why am I in a burning building? aglasgall: Because you made a bad decision. cereslee: I'd save the scripts servers. vasilvv: I'd save the debathena servers. Great chance to get rid of servers. Q: You have a boat and three 1U servers running Windows, Linux, and Solaris. What would you carry across the river in what order? vasilvv: Solaris, Linux, Windows cereslee: All the servers. dvorak72: I would pull the hard drives and throw the servers overboard. achernya: How enthusiastic are you about giving machine room tours? cereslee: What are the appropriate units? Without sleep I can be one Alex of enthusiasm. With sleep I can be six. I'll gladly give tours. vasilvv: I've already given tours and enjoy it. dvorak72: 3N. I'd also tour other machine rooms, such as the RLE basement. Tours are better if they come with a story. tboning: I've given tours but I don't know all the stories. I do like telling stories. achernya: What is the most interesting thing in the machine room, that you would want to point out. cereslee: applesauce vasilvv: hard drive dwilsone: Yes or no: do you know the office root? cereslee: no vasilvv: yes dvorak42: yes tboning: 0.7 achernya: Yes or no: do you know how to roll a keytab? cereslee: no vasilvv: I know a bad way. dvorak42: no tboning: no achernya: Any other questions? [ Candidates leave the room. Begin closed session. ] [ End closed session. ] [ cereslee - 1, tboning - 0, dvorak42 - 6, vasilvv - 2 ] achernya: Congratulation to dvorak42. achernya: [ Reads description of the office of treasurer. ] Q: nominates tboning achernya: Any questions for tboning? He's already acting treasurer. Q: Do you like being treasurer? tboning: Not so far! But it's an important job. fluffy: How much money have you embezzled and how much do you plan to? tboning: I may have stolen pens and staples. achernya: Ballot is required to permit 'NO'. Q: Also, you can just vote 'YES'. [ Candidates leave the room. Begin closed session. ] [ End closed session. ] [ tboning - 8 ] achernya: We have a treasurer! achernya: Members-at-large. Eligible: btidor, cereslee, codetaku, dlaw, jgross, keithw, lapentab, lenag, neboat, phurst, presbrey, vasilvv. achernya: The only valid marks are usernames, and you must list exactly four. Q: What if I list other than four? achernya: The entire ballot is invalid. [ cereslee - 7, codetaku - 7, phurst - 4, vasilvv - 7, lapentab - 2, btidor - 1 ] achernya: Congratulations to cereslee, codetaku, vasilvv, phurst. ------ dove: The Konica scanner was sending people's scans to the mailing list '1' due to bad UI. I had accounts take over the list. achernya: Should contact Konica to warn them. ianucci: There was a report on how to improve dorm security. Part of the proposal was to hire someone to recognize faces upon entry to dorms. Also to eliminate proximity readers to force people to be validated by the facial recognizers. They're doing a trial in Next house and are talking about expanding to it. achernya: The dining dorms already have this. ianucci: There's a lot of objection to this. I think SIPB should get together to communicate that this is a bad idea. quentin: Sponge talk is talking about this. ianucci: We should talk to faculty because SEMO doesn't talk to students. We should go through Ron or others. quentin: When SEMO got the report they threw it out and replaced it with one by outside consultants. achernya: Anything else for other? annag: I'm annag! I'm a prospective! dove: SPARK reached out to us for classes. I encourage us to teach them under the SIPB name. Q: Is there a cluedump this week? achernya: Let's get one for every other week. achernya: Other other? GMail had horrible lag. aglasgall: Running linux on Sparc is a bad idea. cereslee: Fall is here! annag: Conference on functional programming is at the Logan Hilton. Talk to me if you want to go. cereslee: ezyang is in town! carl: Three SIPB members went to the retrocomputing society of Rhode Island. Rooms full of old computers are there. It's a little bit frightening. quentin: Has anyone been to the new computer museum in Cambridge? dove: Some murals in Burton-Connor were censored. Administration cites Title IX. Much discussion. fluffy: Title IX doesn't really apply in most cases. MIT isn't claiming it does, just implying. dove: Let's not discuss overly, but I encourage those interested to investigate.