### N.B. These minutes are DRAFT until this note is removed. ### ### The minutes on Etherpad are provided for your convenience and are ### NOT official. The official copy resides in /afs/sipb/admin/minutes. ### Contributions are welcome! Please fill out your username by ### clicking on the user icon in the top right corner. Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2017-04-10 The meeting was called to order at 19:30 by mcyoung. In attendance were Voting members: mcyoung, emmabat, dzaefn, bpchen, cela, slz | aathalye Associate members: kcr, foner, vasilvv Prospectives: ignacioe, deywof, emilycf, parkah, thuang6 | lucyyang, manjola, robertch, yczeng, jkearl Guests: ahaota Administrivia: mcyoung: Anything for administrivia? *awkward silence* mcyoung: Shall we enter our closed session? *closed session* mcyoung: Let us return to the regular meeting. ignacioe: Certain members have expressed wanting an MX Brown keyboard... lucyyang: It's a type of mechanical keyboard *discussion of color, price, allocation put off* bpchen: Would we want to allocate $30 more for precision dice? They're easier to roll and have rounder corners than casino dice. foner: Oh, for the random number generator? mcyoung: Casino dice are machined to be perfectly even and have the holes filled in, but they're designed to be rolled on a felt craps table. kcr: Move to allcoate $500 for a craps table? mcyoung: So these are rounded so they won't get blunted on a non-felt table. lucyyang: Like for Pokemon tournaments? mcyoung: No those dice are sketch and have holes in them. lucyyang: Do these have pretty colors? bpchen: There's lots of options, lots of different companies. mcyoung: Anyway, I second the allocation. *white ballot happens* mcyoung: The allocation passes *discussion returns to keyboard* kcr: Move to allocate $55 for a keyboard. *seconded, white balloted, passes* Project Reports: foner: The next Cluedump is the 19th somewhere in building 4, if you want to give one talk to me cela: We're close to sort of finishing Web AFS yczeng: CPW happened, a lot of you guys helped. Like 4 prefrosh spent 1/3 of their CPW here, so they'll definitely join SIPB mcyoung: I'd also like to note that the Kerberos Squishable got here last week foner: Where did that come from? slz: Squishables.com foner: How'd the party go? yczeng: Not too many people came but I think they enjoyed it. A lot of people came to the other events though. robertch: I think a lot of people came just to hang out, too mcyoung: bbaren spent a lot of time explaining stuff he's interested in, I think the prefrosh enjoyed that. CPW, I think we did a good job. I've also got people who signed up for mailing lists at Midway parkah: I've been working on a project report that's achernya's idea, basically a version of Borg for AFS, but it's really ambitious. If anyone is interested in this sort of thing or has knowledge, let me know. mcyoung: Me, Lizhou, and achernya are good people to ask about this kind of thing Other: slz: The isopropanol spray bottle has expired. I'm sorry. foner: How does that expire? slz: The tube broke. Other Other: mcyoung: Spring is finally hear, I hope I don't jinx it. *knocks on table* emmabat: Is that even wood? mcyoung: It's the thought that counts dzaefn: At the top of the Green building the temperature was measured at 76 degrees. However it's been giving inaccurate readings lately. kcr: Spring is a trick. Don't trust it. mcyoung: Have we been bamboozled? *discussion* mcyoung: Does anyone else have witty remarks for Other Other? bpchen: The D compiler has been open sourced. mcyoung: Not a decompiler. A D compiler. mcyoung: Time for a quadruple election! Will the people involved please move to the front of the room. Election: mcyoung: I have two questions: One -- who the hell are you? yczeng: I'm Catherine, and I'm a freshmen living in EC mcyoung: What did you do for SIPB? yczeng: Robert and I ran SIPB CPW robertch: I'm Robert and Catherine and I ran SIPB CPW lucyyang: I'm Lucy and I made swag for SIPB CPW. I also live in EC ignacioe: I'm Ignacio and I did a lot to get Cortana and VR working, and I'm Office Czar and have been making things look nicer mcyoung: Please name your favorite book from the bookshelf yczeng: A book called 'A Duck Named Ping.' It has nothing to do with computers but someone probably bought it because it has the word 'ping' in it. *mcyoung looks for book* mcyoung: Oh, here it is robertch: 'Javascript: The Good Parts' is really fun mcyoung *looking for book*: I feel really stupid lucyyang: I don't like books or touch books very often, but I think there's a signals & systems book ignacioe: 'The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition' mcyoung: Put your hands on the books, and I'd like you to swear or affirm that you will tell the truth for the remainder of this questioning. ignacioe: I plead the 5th mcyoung: Is there a 5th amendment in our constitution? *everyone swears* mcyoung: I'm terrible at this. Now we can proceed foner: I thought you were going to ask about SDS! dzaefn: If you actually know the answer, please wait -- but what is this, or what is this a tool for? *holds odd metal tool* robertch: Is it a dowsing rod? lucyyang: Is it for grabbing stuff? ignacioe: Is it for getting into things you shouldn't? dzaefn: So the relative distances of these three points curving down may hint at something... There are several implements in this room that this could be used on foner: Demo *dzaefn holds down ctrl + alt +del with tool, slz holds up keyboard to show all* dzaefn: This is the control-alt-deleter slz: Yet another sacred artifact cela: Close your eyes, take turns listing items from the ceiling *fuzzball, ceiling squirrel, 2-dollar bill cube, rabbit, motherboard, etc named* ignacioe: Banana shark! kcr: No, it's a shark banana lucyyang: There's definitely more plushes that we've missed. *more discussion* mcyoung: Each of you name one license plate and then we'll move on. *license plates named* mcyoung: You may open your eyes and behold all the things you missed. kcr: How do you double space in LateX? yczeng: Can't you press space twice? foner: No lucyyang: I don't use LateX, maybe something with slashes? cela: What do you do if there's a fire? ignacioe: There's the In Case of Fire drawer mcyoung: Ah, but what's in it? Actually first, what do you do with it? robertch: Take it with you mcyoung: What do you do with the Frisbees? Play with them while the building burns. The other question is what are these? *holding manila folder* robertch: Security things? ignacioe: One-time pads mcyoung: Not to be opened until Doomsday or catastrophic failure of crypto. Why has it been opened? lucyyang: Trump got elected mcyoung: It actually predates it. It's because of Alex. Once upon a time, Alex decided to point out that AFS was not using secure crypto, he fixed it for his undergrad thesis kcr: Did our hardware have any effect on your recruiting? yczeng: Not Binkly, it doesn't do anything flashy. Max was cool when Miguel lifted it up and opened it... kcr: No, recruiting you guys not prefrosh robertch: Maxberry Pi is definitely awesome. mcyoung: We definitely shouldn't open it up though because the electronics *can* kill you cela: For as many letters of the alphabet as you can, name someone's kerberos yczeng: achernya robertch: bpchen lucyyang: cela ignacioe: dukhovni *etc* *several moments where people can't remember kerberos for people currently in room* dzaefn: O is actually one of the rarest letters for a kerberos *slows to a halt at r* foner: What should SIPB do better? robertch: I'm a fan of changing the description of prospectives vs members, it's not an efficient name, has to be explained every time. yczeng: We were never sure what SIPB did before we joined. We thought it was kind of like IS&T? But it's like a huge place for people who like computing and are compassionate, but it's not conveyed very well. lucyyang: Yeah, most people don't really know what SIPB is. ignacioe: I guess sort of along those lines, find an easier way to describe what SIPB is to people....it took me a long time to realize I didn't have to be a 6-3 to hang out here foner: Sounds like we need a mission statement slz: We kind of have one, but it's very lofty and long-winded mcyoung: What does SIPB do right? yczeng: Generally people are very passionate about being part of SIPB, which makes it feel important. So many people volunteered and helped out for CPW...it's just always nice to meet passionate people that care. robertch: It kind of is designed to breed people who care. You have to kind of try to be a member lucyyang: The finances are top-notch ignacioe: I really like how welcoming everyone here is. dzaefn: Over the course of the membership election, we ask a lot of questions. Each of you can ask someone in the room a question too. It can be subjective, or have a correct answer, bonus points if they should know the answer but don't ignacioe: dzaefn why is this a question? dzaefn: It's traditional, partly to um...cause dynamic shift. There was actually an election 22 years ago in which a group of people getting elected decided to say the answers before people would ask the questions robertch: Jackson, I think you brought a friend to the Trivia Bee, sorry the Hackathon, how'd she feel about SIPB? jkearl: So obviously Ben was very supportive, but...she feels like she left in a better place security-wise than she went in, but....I did think that was pretty cool, SIPB serving the community in a really cool way, and it was nice of Ben to use his time like that lucyyang: Can I get a backstory from one of the cruft...Carl? From undergrad to here? cela: Key highlights kcr: So like...the temperature of the Earth has gone up by a couple of degrees, politics has happened, more weather has happened... foner: I don't think that's the spirit of her question kcr: I know but I need some scope. Ok so I was a computer science major, and I spent a lot of time doing sysadmin stuff, and I've been doing that ever since. My life is boring, but it fits well into SIPB, as I've been doing SIPB things all through that time. yczeng: Miguel, how do you do a tilde sign in LateX? mcyoung: Backslash literal tilde will put one on top of a letter...I actually do not know what this is off the top of my head *clapping ensues* kcr: There is a way to do it not in math mode *discussion of tilde in LateX* mcyoung: LateX is full of long-named commands cela: Want to ask the question about the SDS? mcyoung: Please cela: I don't know how you phrase it mcyoung: Have you been or will you ever be part of the Students for a Democratic Society? yczeng: No robertch: I hear the finances are good --ha, no lucyyang: Is that different from MIT Democrats? mcyoung: Emma, I'll be talking to you after the meeting robertch: This seems to be a fairly old reference.... mcyoung: Anyway, if you had infinite time, and infinite resources, what would you build at MIT? lucyyang: A hobby shop to rival the one over there robertch: Infinite resources? mcyoung: Infinite purchasing power that does not break the economy, time until the heat death of the universe ignacioe: I know people value their privacy a lot, so I could build a Faraday cage around the office cela: Then our phones wouldn't work yczeng: Something fun would be to build a blank room for VR foner: Like a SIPB squash court robertch: HoloLens would be fun. Make AR a thing through SIPB mcyoung: My phone does AR lucyyang: *Good* AR yczeng: Something that integrates into your life seamlessly bpchen: Let's say you don't have infinite resources, what SIPB project would you be interested in working on or contributing towards? lucyyang: We could use a bigger office yczeng: I'd be interested in making Scripts faster. I'm currently hosting a website, and it's slow as crap. It's hosting way more websites than it probably should be slz: It actually depends on what kind of site you're running. Scripts hosts are all virtual machines, the problem is it's very painful to set one up. Now XVM on the other hand.... *cringing ensues* ignacioe: Probably a bunch of little...not IoT things, but a temperature sensor that reports to DoorPi... mcyoung: There is one. A barometer? ignacioe: Just cute little sensors....a flood sensor if you will emmabat: Catherine, why do you want to be a SIPB member? yczeng: We came to SIPB because someone on hall told us the whole history of SIPB, it's like the place to go if you want to learn more about computers. Before I basically knew nothing except some web dev and stuff. You can kind of just sit here and absorb information about computers. aathalye: Robert, why do you want to join SIPB? robertch: People just hanging out here, they learn a lot. From Cluedumps to just random lectures, you really just become an admirable computer knowledge-y person. cela: Lucy why do you want to join SIPB? lucyyang: I also know very little, but I'm a senior and majoring in not-computers. I know enough about Python to be better than some course 6ers but I don't know much else, just by talking to people here I've learned a lot but have a lot more to learn. I was here for 4 years and didn't learn anything about computers like what gives? So I already knew some people and knew they're cool kids and wanted to meet the other cool kids yczeng: I want to add that it's just always cool to hang out with people who care a lot about what they do mcyoung: Iggy, why do you want to join SIPB? ignacioe: It's awesome and I've gotten to learn about a lot of really cool people. I believe in learning via osmosis, I'm also very non-knowledgeable and just hanging out here and hearing crazy stories about how things have broken and whatnot, I always learn something from it I wouldn't have learned on my own, since I'm not normally exposed to these things as a 6-1 mcyoung: All right, if non-members could leave the office (results given in form yes-no-abstain-invalid) yczeng: 10-0-1-0 robertch: 10-0-1-0 lucyyang: 11-0-0-0 ignacioe: 11-0-0-0 The meeting was adjourned at 20:43. Minutes taken and submitted by emmabat.