Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 04/16/2001


The meeting was called to order at 19:30 by fyfer.

In attendance were 
	Voting members: alex_c arolfe dmaze lgdean sly ingolia fyfer jmorzins
	Associate members: yonah tytso xiphmont nemo jhawk
	Non-voting members: 
	Prospectives: mwp | <cyruse
	Guests: 

Treasurer's Report:
	sly: We have more money than usual at this time of year.  We
		should spend it.  We have about $9400 after recurring
		costs and Athena fees and such.  There are some
		outstanding allocations, probably less than $1200.  You
		should buy things we allocated money for.  I suggest
		spending our $8000 before June.  

	dmaze: Several people like Kinesis keyboards.  Maybe we should
		buy one or more for the office?  Who would use them?
		Who wants to buy them?  They're about $300.
	sly: Do we need special hardware to hook them up to some
		machines?
	alex_c: Yes, they're about $60.  
	<about 4 would use them.  >
	alex_c: The ATIC lab has them for loan if people just want to
		try them out.
	fyfer: I think some people would want to use them on a regular
		basis.  
	<8 in favor of buying>
	<0 strongly opposed>

	fyfer: Responding to someone's comment a few weeks ago: If we
		don't spend all our money, our allocation might go down
		and IS might be unhappy.  
	sly: We should really spend all our money or we'll get less next
		year. 
	jhawk: The natural corollary of that is that if we do overspend
		our budget by a reasonably small amount, we will not be
		penalized and may see a budget increase next year.
		Please speak to the applicability of this.
	sly: I think it's unlikely.
	
Chairman's Report:
	fyfer: Today is three weeks after the last meeting when we
		talked about mycroft.  There was a proposed motion...
		<fyfer reads from 3-26-2001 minutes>
		I sent him email after that meeting telling him what we
		decided.  He hasn't replied, so I guess we have to vote
		on this.
	sly: I made the motion after Keith and I talked to Tim from
		StopIt.  The intent is to do the thing that is least
		painful given that mycroft has no intent to remove those
		files.  
	tytso: I assume we'll chmod the top level directory?
	sly: Yes.  Well, the right thing for AFS.
	fyfer: I think it would be great if SIPB could say to MIT that
		they're being spineless and if MIT would stand up to the
		MPAA.  But I don't think that will happen, so this is
		the solution with the least side effects.  
	jhawk: There are SIPB members who are students with the same
		files in their home directories.
	fyfer: I would be happy if this test came up in circumstances
		where we had more hope of convincing MIT to change
		things.  
	<9-0-1 motion passes>

Office Report:
	jhawk: We got the new CD player and put it as position 1 on the
		switch.  The old player is in position 2 on the switch.
		Parts for the button on the old one are on order. In
		other news, I got a case for the magnifying glass for
		the OED.  
	sly: There's a dead drop.  Garry said he'd send mail.
	xiphmont: I'm using it now and it seems ok.  
	sly: We think there's a cursed drop and will look further.
	jhawk: Someone moved drops around.  People shouldn't reduce the
		set of laptop drops without notice.  	

Office Cleaning Report:
	fyfer: Take down cans.
	alex_c: There's something wrong with the fish.  It's not going
		off.
	fyfer: It's behaving correctly.  It should go off about once a week.
	ingolia: It uses some probabilistic thing and then goes off the
		next time there are five people in the office.

MIT Computing Report:
	jhawk: Telecomm and MFS still suck.
	sly: Some new version of 8.4.something gets released next Monday
		night.  
	sly: It's 8.4.23 (8.4.24 for Linux).

Computer Services:
	sly: Webmaster wants more people.  Talk to me.

SIPB Backup Report:

Publications Report:
	alex_c: We could use some more iAFS.  I'll make some.  
	fyfer: Is 1992 the most recent?
	dmaze: Yes.
	[alex_c allocation: $20 for iAFS]	

	sly: We need more iAthena.
	[sly allocation: $50 for iAthena]

Orientation Report:
	fyfer: The deadline for some orientation things is the beginning
		of May.  We should find someone to deal since May is
		coming up soon.  Anyone want to be an ASA info person?
		I'll send mail. Nick Martin did it last year.

IAP Report:

CokeComm Report:
	cyruse: There's still some soda.

Other:
	fyfer: Today is Patriot's Day.	

Other Other:
	sly: Screaming children should be in their own car on the
		commuter rail.
	belmonte (channelled by arolfe): I am looking for a job.  I have extensive
		experience in software and in food service.  For details see
		http://www.mattababy.org/~belmonte/job.html
	fyfer: belmonte got his PhD.  
	jhawk:  MA residents have until tomorrow to file state and
		federal taxes.  
	jhawk: Frisbee after meeting.
	fyfer: I was supposed to march over "the rude bridge that arched
		the flood" (as Emerson said) except, well, it was
		flooded.  


The meeting was adjourned at 19:52.


	Minutes taken and submitted by arolfe.