Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2026-04-27 The meeting was called to order at 19:36 by hng. In attendance were Student keyholders: psvenk, hng, nmorgan, xy, smith141 Associate keyholders: almonds, scj643, rgabriel Members: veracity, kshitij.ark, madisutk, ryanruiz Guests: misterka Administrivia: hng: Welcome to the SIPB meeting! Today, unfortunately turino14 is completing a lab checkoff, so I will be presiding over the meeting. scj643: Any thoughts on us getting a Steam controller? scj643: There is one issue, though; Valve doesn't do tax-exempt status? smith141: What would we use it for? scj643: Gaming. nmorgan: We have the funds, but are people interested? hng: With regard to the tax exemption, does any vendor of this product honor tax exemption? scj643: No, because it's only sold through Valve. hng: No Micro Center? rgabriel: Is there really no way of buying tax exempt, even if you ask them / support? scj643: That is interesting, though. We should ask whoever got the Index, which is also sold only through Valve, so it might be possible. hng: I'm not convinced of the relevancy, given that it is not involved in a SIPB project. scj643: The Steam controller is also optimized for the Index, since it will have IR transmitters on it, which can be used for tracking. almonds: I'd just like to add that boss-baby and gaming is a SIPB project, because it is a type of computing device and it brings joy to the MIT community. hng: Is it on the project database? scj643: Well, cortana. Also, we run Minecraft servers. And we have a Steam account. nmorgan: Do we think people are going to use it? scj643: Besides me? I also will be buying my own. almonds: I would if I have time. scj643: Also the price is $99 nmorgan: That's pretty cheap for a gaming console. kshitij.ark: It's a controller. scj643: But also, it is a controller that is repairable, and you don't have to worry about stick drift because it uses __. hng: I think we should discuss this later, at such time that it's actually possible to buy it. rgabriel: What if we get office heads? We are a computer club, so we could have working computers. scj643: We could do Cortana 2.0 -- actually, no; all the GPU vendors are eww. rgabriel: For context, boss-baby is the only computer that is actually working. The others kernel panic when we try to boot. nmorgan: We can build some computers, as a recruitment event. scj643: We could go crufting. hng: We have a lot of apparatuses around the office, which we can probably get to work with some effort; we should focus on that first. almonds: For the iMacs, a lot of the hard drives are busted and so is probably the RAM. scj643: And that's annoying to repair. almonds: Does anyone know about meatboy? [no one knows] hng: We did recently start a SIPB renovations project and there is a channel for it. So if you are interested in restoring computers or getting computers that would be the project to go to for that. scj643: I have a cursed idea: use a server as a desktop. anhad: Wouldn't it be loud? scj643: Possibly, we just have to find one that isn't. hng: Bytes and Bites went well. We got food from Ali's Uyghur Kitchen which was quite successful, although some members have expressed that it is a bit spicy for their taste so we can keep this in mind for the future. scj643: Do we have microfiber cloths? almonds: We should. I think we have a couple next to the whiteboard. scj643: No, I mean ones that are not used for the whiteboard. almonds: You can check in the cubbies [gestures]. xy: Also check in the monolith. Project Reports: nmorgan: ARKOS continues. We have a nice new frontend that is now connected to our backend. We're making progress on rolling out features that people would want before we get ready for release. psvenk: What sorts of features? nmorgan: Recurring tasks, a project area where you can organize and process things, and making sure that our basic connector can connect to Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar. rgabriel: Are you going to use APIs for those services? nmorgan: All MCP. Most things are MCP-standardized for LLMs. (So, yes, these are APIs.) almonds: LLMs continues. We added new models. psvenk: Hydrant and CourseRoad continue. The fall 2026 catalog is out, and is now available on Hydrant and CourseRoad. Other: kshitij.ark: Why is it called BOSS-BABY? [various]: I don't know rgabriel: I think it was because the movie was out when it was named. xy: I remember it was built as part of a CPW event back in 2022. anhad: For RFPing snacks, which category should I select? psvenk, smith141: You can leave that blank; just send the RFP to smith141 and she'll fill it out. Other Other: nmorgan: End of the school year is sooner than you think. scj643: September is sooner than you think. If you have apartments in Boston, good luck. Also, I am looking for a new place to live. rgabriel: In Cambridge? scj643: Anywhere in the Boston area. [discussion about AI slop event at MIT] psvenk: The recipes were probably generated by Google Gemini. ryanruiz: Google has updated their Workspace logos kshitij.ark: [shows new logos] hng: Eww almonds: Perl is a cool language! I've been learning it. It's easier to learn than Rust. The meeting was adjourned at 19:54. Minutes taken by psvenk, rgabriel and submitted by psvenk.