Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2017-11-27 The meeting was called to order at 19:30 by $CHAIR. In attendance were Student keyholders: emmabat, mcyoung, alvareza, dzaefn, cela, dukhovni, ikdc, bpchen, aathalye | nchinda2, khaines Associate keyholders: keithw, quentin, vasilvv, jwalden, wmoses Members: mtheng, amigdal, summervo, ejchu, npfoss Guests: '() Administrivia: mcyoung: Welcome to the SIPB Meeting! We don't have quorum! dzaefn: Stalling time! mcyoung: I should bring up, CPW is closer than you think! I need someone, preferably multiple someones, to do this. I need multiple warm bodies to make SIPBW happen. If you're interested, let me know. *dukhovni suggests opening another meeting* mcyoung: I'm just gonna insert a "wait" at the end of other other, we're not having a pathological meeting keithw: So LAMP shut down a year ago and I heard you haven't yet received the money for decommissioning it so I can make that happen mcyoung: It also hasn't been decommissioned, it's turned off but it's still next door dukhovni: What's supposed to be done with the CDs? keithw: It's up to the board. There's like 2000 CDs. Also up to the board what to do with the money mcyoung: I actually was looking to buy some servers dukhonvni: Cel's eyes turn to dollar signs cela: Miguel's eyes turn to dollar signs, mine turn into server symbols Project Reports: dukhovni: There were a couple outstanding Mastodon bugs I've been able to fix ikdc: We had a hackathon on Sunday. It went pretty well, we got some people working on an open source Google Forms alternative, which Angel can tell you about, and we got people working on Hyades alvareza: So, it's going to be a pretty light thing, we're calling it Sphinx for now because everything is sort of Greek-myth-related here. We have about five people working on it, someone who's experienced with frontend, and me. It's going to be on the back burner, we're doing it in Python with Django, if you're interested you can email me at alvareza@mit.edu or Emma at emmabat@mit.edu mcyoung: You should probably acquire sipb-sphinx@mit.edu cela: Hyades continues! ejchu: IAP classes are up on the website mcyoung: How is approval going for those? I keep getting spooky interaction at a distance emails ejchu: I do not know, but most of them have been approved. mcyoung: I'll keep pushing buttons / letting them self-approve Other: mcyoung: Net neutrality is on fire. It would be nice if someone would dormspam people about buttons to press to bug your congressman dukhovni: I'm doing this right now mcyoung: Please provide many links but don't scare people away with a wall of text Other Other: dzaefn: ec-discuss is quicksand. Don't struggle against it; the more you struggle, the faster you sink mcyoung: Remember kids, the only way to win is not to play *discussion of different dormspam mailing lists* mcyoung: Unskippable cut scenes Election: mcyoung: Ready kids? Everyone remember the rules? Who are you? mtheng: I'm Mark, I'm a freshman ikdc: Please name as many dormspam lists as you can mtheng: ec-discuss, random-hall-talk.... ikdc: Got the ones that matter mcyoung: Are you saying sh-public doesn't matter? *names several more* nchinda2: Please identify with a Greek character from mythology mtheng: The last time I read Greek mythology was like 10 years ago...I only remember the famous ones, which I don't identify with cela: How do you double space Hyades? mtheng: First you need to single space Hyades because currently there isn't any space. *ikdc cries laughing* cela: And then? mtheng: I think that's it bpchen: Can you explain the thing on your shirt? mtheng: I don't actually know bpchen: Make up an explanation? mtheng: These are triangles, and these are heart shapes, and there are like three hearts and three triangles I'm sorry mcyoung: Close your eyes and name as many things as you can from the bulletin boards *naming proceeds* *phrase "Van's higher-dimensional democracy" is said* dzaefn: For as many keyholders in the room as you want, guess a question that was asked during their election bpchen: I don't think I could get this right about myself emmabat: Same mtheng: (to bpchen) What would you do in case of fire? bpchen: Maybe? ikdc: This seems like an impractical question alvareza: In preparation for another question I'll ask, what's your favorite programming language? mcyoung: Be careful there's only one right answer mtheng: Honestly it's been changing and I just use whatever's most convenient. I don't think having a favorite is a good idea alvareza: What language would you swear by? mtheng: Like, well-designed? alvareza: You know like in criminal trials you swear by your religious text? mtheng: C++ *Angel goes to bookshelf* alvareza: Swear on the C++ programming language please, tell the truth and nothing but the truth blahdahblahdahblahda *mtheng complies* alvareza: Are you or have you ever been member of Students of a Democratic Society mtheng: No mcyoung: The right answer is "I plead the fifth" cela: What is something you've seen in someone's code that would make everyone horrified? mtheng: It's hard to horrify people in this room, to be honest, but...y'know how like, in the GPU, you have numbers 0 to 1, and GPU devices...I can't remember exact numbers, but older devices you need to store floating point data, you can switch it to 8 bits and use bitwise operators to turn them to these 0 to 1 numbers that will be converted which you can then read as floating point mcyoung: Is this fast reverse square root? ikdc: No it's worse, using bitwise operators to turn floating point into integer textures? mtheng: In a GPU you write a number 0 to 1 and automatically quantize it into an 8 bit number mcyoung: Name as many instant messaging protocols as you can that people in this room probably use mtheng: Messenger, What's App, IRC, instant text messaging, GroupMe...depends how you define instant messaging? mcyoung: You're allowed to use a very weak definition -- Google Docs comments count mtheng: Email is kind of instant? mcyoung: That counts mtheng: GitHub? In-game chats, I know [dzaefn] plays an augmented reality game that does...Ingress. alvareza: Which side is the front of the SIPB? mtheng: I'd say the banner at the door defines it as the front of the SIPB jwalden: Ask a question of the office that only you know the answer to mtheng: Am I allowed to ask a GPU question? You know how you can set the def of a fragment in the fragment? What is the extension that allows you to do that called? mtheng: ALV conservative def ikdc: Pick someone in the room and ask them a question they should know the answer to but don't ikdc: Miguel what is 6 times 7? mcyoung: ....42! I was about to say 56 mtheng: Brian what is the protocol used to synchronize Spike for integration? *ikdc cries laughing again* bpchen: ...Is it Seph? ikdc: That is indeed a good question. The answer is it doesn't exist yet vasilvv: Under which circumstances must you not send an ICMP packet to the host in response ever? List as many as you can mtheng: I'm not sure I can confidently list one. I suppose...some sort of termination messages? vasilvv: Anyway mcyoung: You're the first real frosh we're making a keyholder. What do you like so much about SIPB and what are we doing well? mtheng: I like that you don't need to be a keyholder to mess around with computers. That's the reason I'm here mcyoung: Followup: what would you like me / my successor to do better? mtheng: I mean, we need more money? mcyoung: Hey Brian, get more money. cela: Why do you want to be a keyholder of SIPB? mtheng: I can't think of a very normal answer. I'm not sure of specifically the perks of being a keyholder, but access to a server with 16 gigs of RAM would be really really helpful Voting Yes -- No -- Abstain 11 -- 00 -- 01 The meeting was adjourned at 20:26. Minutes taken and submitted by emmabat.