Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2016-07-18 The meeting was called to order at 19:30 by slz. In attendance were Voting members: andersk, dove, dzaefn, iannucci, slz Associate members: achernya, asedeno, duffield, foner, jhawk, madars, vasilvv Prospectives: btma, markchil, medasaro, mitchgu, pravinas | nchinda2 Guests: Dave Mawson Administrivia: dzaefn: I move to remove the posters hanging around. They've been nice to have around, but it's been a while. slz: Sure. Projects Report: foner: If anyone would like to write an Ask SIPB column or a cluedump, let me know. dzaefn: Oooh! Me me me me me! Other: achernya: There was another stupidly named vulnerability revealed today, called HTTPoxy. asedeno: It's been independently discovered several times over the past fifteen years. achernya: Which makes it especially stupid that it has a name. iannucci: Security vulnerabilities are all about the branding these days. jhawk: There's actually a huge discussion about the branding of vulnerabilities, due to effectiveness of getting things to happen so far. So there's some legitimate discussion going on. vasilvv: No comment. achernya: I'll comment: no. Other Other: jhawk: Will just wanted to say that people should write the amount they deposited on the page as well as emailing cokecomm@. Also, not from Will, there's no coke. slz: Meeting adjourned. [19:35] slz: Whoops. Meeting reopened. [19:36] slz: We should now proceed to the membership election. Matthew, please stand next to the board. Please introduce yourself. medasaro: Hi, I'm medasaro. I'm a sixth-year graduate student in Professor Lang's lab. I've been in SIPB the last couple months. slz: Want to say what you've done projectwise? medasaro: I've fixed our Raspberry Pi-based machine for the open house and brought my own computers and got lots of attention. After people started taking things down, kids were still playing with the exhibit. Last meeting, I also gave a short cluedump on locks and hash functions. medasaro: Oh, I almost forgot. I got us a logic analyzer for people playing with Raspberry Pis, etc. to see if hardware is doing what you think it's doing. slz: More questions? achernya: If you could pick one piece you could not hardware, what would it be and why? medasaro: Original 1968 [etc.], computer that did time-sharing that didn't contain a single digitalized safe. markchil: Continuing on old hardware. Suppose you're writing FORTRAN77 on punchcards. What's the purpose of column number 6. medasaro: Marking if it's a comment or not. markchil: Incorrect. iannucci: I know what it is. markchil: Any more guesses? medasaro: Is it a continuation mark? markchil: Yes. Column 1 is comment. jhawk: Since we're on hardware, what will your choice of OS be on a PDP 8 or 11? medasaro: The only interesting thing to run would be the original Bell Labs Unix. That's quite historic. jhawk: Would you prefer RT 11 or [etc.]? medasaro: Probably RT 11 giving it's the first time-sharing OS. That's more interesting from a historical standpoint. markchil: Excluding silicon and germanium, what is your favorite semiconductor or not? medasaro: Gallium arsenide, because without that you couldn't have the internet. vasilvv: Architecturewise, what is the most horrible computing device that you're aware of, and most horrible that you've had the opportunity to touch. medasaro: Atari 2600. You need the right number of cycles in terms of the CRT. You could damage of TV by throwing a frequency out of sync. I think that's a pretty horrific system by any standard. vasilvv: This is a traditional one but this time it will be fun. Please list all the architectures you're familiar with. 6502, Z80, Motorola 6800, Intel ones, the four 004s, the eight 008s, the x86s, pick 10, pick 12, pick 18, pick 32, AT tiny, AT mega, [...] 48 and 51, fairchild r8, the basis of MOSTECs, 68000 power PC, SPARC, AMD64, x64, NEC still makes a line of 4-bit microcontrollers for dishwashers and clocks, something incomprehensible. iannucci: Did you ever use with any non-power-of-2 word sizes? medasaro: I've read the documentation for but never actually touched one that was an 18-bit system. And what the heck was that thing called? vasilvv: What's your favorite feature you've encountered? medasaro: In the original 6502, I definitely think the fact that there's undocumented and illegal instructions that do useful things is a cool feature. vasilvv: Well, you're talking them undocumented, but some are listed. dzaefn: Name all the office heads in this office. If you do not know the names, give them names. medasaro: This isn't what I studied for. I think I'm foiled on this one. This one's frog legs, that's big bird, the next one is rat f**k. dove: Asterisk or unicode star? [laughter] iannucci: One constraint is that we wanted the names to have is to not be taken and for which their abbreviations are not taken. [silence] dzaefn: There's a lot more left. iannucci: While you're thinking about that, what's your favorite thing on the ceiling to fly? medasaro: I think the nametag. medasaro: Call this one hot water, next one's cold water, there was one that looked like from 10 years ago, that one should be tortoise, the newest one would be the hare, we need a couple more amusing ones, how about roadkill and skunk. I think that's about good. achernya: You're in the office alone by yourself when suddenly flames erupt around you. What do you do and why. medasaro: [gets it exactly right, sans frisbees] achernya: What's the other important thing? medasaro: Oh, the frisbees. achernya: Where's the nearest fire extinguisher and circuit breaker box? medasaro: Circuit breaker is around the corner? vasilvv: Actually, in the room, but almost always concealed. medasaro: Oh, behind the door. iannucci: Follow up question, an individual comes in that has a problem that you can't easily solve for them. You don't have a lot of time. What do you do? medasaro: I would politely refer them to the SIPB mailing list? iannucci: And if they get in your face? medasaro: At some level, you have to be polite but firm. You can call the MIT Police if they get aggressive. slz: Alternatively, if during business hours, they can go to IS&T. iannucci: If you lock yourself out, you can call the MIT Police to let you back in. dove: You're a grad student, which is somewhat unique for new SIPB members. Multi-part question: What brought you to SIPB, do you think we should draw more grad students, and how should we do so? medasaro: acarney recruited me because of knowing about the broken machine and knowing me. I would've joined this if I knew it existed. Being in the grad student, I've seen the SIPB logo around but didn't know what it meant. I've been very busy. Who am I to say we don't want diversity. It's hard for me to see the downside of more grad students in SIPB. In terms of how to recruit them, there's grad student mailing lists and dorm spaces where we hang out. In some sense, you did it, like how computer tours went into elevators in SidPac. But more could be done. I think a lot of people would be interested, but there's a time commitment. I know a lot of friends doing similar work. achernya: I have silly questions: slz: You may have one more silly question. dzaefn: I object to there being only one more silly question from Alex. achernya: What should we add to the ceiling? medasaro: I see 9-track rings but no 9-track tape. achernya: I don't think anyone has answered that before. vasilvv: More silly questions. I realized the only thing in my room heavier than my UBS is my CRT. Maybe you had an idea why CRTs are so dense? medasaro: More interesting than you might have thought. They used to not be so dense. They're now made with extra-leaded glass, and is a protection feature. They're much thicker than would be needed for simply implosion protection. markchil: Through what process does a CRT produce X-rays. medasaro: Electrons are fired at relativistic velocities at the screen... iannucci: I don't think they're relativistic. medasaro: Uh...you're probably right. Name of the process is... iannucci: German name. Something to do with breaking. markchil: Well, that's one process. medasaro: I think I've been stumped on this one. markchil: bremsstrahlung. foner: I have a non-SIPB question. Could you give us a 30-second summary of your work? medasaro: [explains that] slz: I move that Austin asks Matthew the question. duffield: Why do you want to be a SIPB member? medasaro: I think this is a really cool room to be with. I like that computing on campus is student-run and I'd like to help out with that. It's a fun place to hang out. meeting closes [20:08] [voting happens] medasaro becomes a member 7-0-0 meeting opens [20:12] slz: Congratulations, you're now a SIPB member. slz: Any last minute reports? Meeting adjourned. The meeting was adjourned at 20:12. Minutes taken and submitted by dzaefn.