\section{Prospectives: Questions and Answers}

The following questions were asked by a prospective, and the answers
were written by abbe@mit.edu and svalente@mit.edu (each section is
marked appropriately).  I have rearranged and edited a few things, but
the text remains essentially the same as the original questions and
answers.  As a prospective, you may find that this elucidates some of
the less trivial/obvious aspects of SIPB; it may give you a better
idea of what SIPB is all about.

{\bf Question:} I don't understand what SIPB members/prospects are
expected to do.

(svalente) SIPB provides services to the MIT computing community.  We
do it because it's fun to help people.  It's fun to feel useful.  SIPB
prospectives are expected to help people.  The two most common ways
are answering questions on the phone and in person, and maintaining a
program in the SIPB locker.  You are free to come up with new ways to
be helpful.  A good question to ask anyone (member, prospective,
random person crossing Mass Ave, yourself) is ``How can I help?''

(abbe) There's no rule that says you have to be working hard at
learning something or writing some program whenever you come into the
office.  A lot of prospectives come into the office as a place to log
in instead of in a cluster, to read mail, send zephyrs, etc.  It's
generally a good thing to sit in the office and try to answer
questions when people ask them, too, but you don't have to answer
them, or know the answers.  If you're totally unwilling to ever try to
help a user who comes into the office, even when you do know how to
help them, people probably would think this is bad, though.

{\bf Question:} It is very noisy in the office and not possible to
study the manuals for any reasonable undistracted length of time.

(abbe) Sitting in the office and studying manuals is certainly not the
only thing you can do.  Especially if you're like me, and don't learn
much from staring at a manual, or necessarily find it very
interesting.  Knowing C is also not necessary.  It's a useful
programming language, but SIPB is not ``Student
group-of-people-who-like-to-read-manuals board'' or ``Student
C-programmers-incorporated Board.''  There are a number of things SIPB
tries to do, which are our purpose for existing.  Basically, SIPB
members want to improve computing at MIT by helping users, providing
them with services that might not be available to them otherwise, and
providing useful documentation on computing.  (I'm missing lots of
other specific examples{\ldots}) For example, SIPB gave out accounts
on old crufty systems back before athena existed.  SIPB offered a
machine you could dial up into from a modem before athena had dialup
servers.

Prospectives aren't expected to be experts on anything when they
become prospectives.  (And members aren't expected to be experts on
everything when they become members{\ldots}) Nor are they expected to
do all their learning in the SIPB office.  If you want to find out how
to program in C, you certainly don't have to pick up SIPB's copy of
K\&R, sit at a SIPB machine and read it, and write code.  If, however,
you wanted to learn about running linux on a PC and doing athena
things on it, it might be useful to try asking one of the SIPB members
who built most of athena for quiche-lorraine, the PC in the SIPB
office which runs linux.  The office is a resource, not an obligation.

(svalente) True.  SIPB is a student activity a/k/a a social group.
More and more often, I find myself thinking: ``I'm bored, I'll go hang
out in the SIPB office.''  I know that I can find some friends to talk
to and some bad music to listen to in the office.  It's not really
meant for quiet study.

{\bf Question:} Once I know C what should I write in it?

(svalente) Whatever you feel like.  Most SIPB members have never written any
programs in the SIPB locker.  The few that have used this method: 1)
realize there's something you'd like to see on athena.  It has to
interest you personally.  Don't write something because other people
are interested in it.  2) write it.  (This step may take longer than
you think.)  3) if it's useful to other people, install it in the SIPB
locker.  (If you don't yet know how to accomplish this step, don't
worry.  It's peanuts compared to the first two steps.)

Programs written through this method include discuss, nawm, and
xzwrite.

{\bf Question:} What is the difference between a SIPB member/prospect
doing a project upon his own initiative and doing a SIPB project?

(abbe) I'll make an analogy that might help.  It's along the same
lines as the difference between doing an assignment in your high
school physics class, and doing random physics problems in your
physics textbook because you think they're fun.  Your teacher isn't
likely to count the random physics problems as part of your physics
assignment, even if they were harder, or you found them interesting,
or whatever.  Nor will they let the random problems replace the ones
you were asked to do.

Now, SIPB projects are not an assignment, of course.  But the other
difference is that a project you do on your own is something you
thought was necessary, and you're responsible for.  If you wrote a
program, you'd keep it in your own homedirectory, etc.  You wouldn't
need anyone to think it was a good idea besides you.  A SIPB project,
on the other hand, is often something related to a service SIPB
already provides, or wants to provide.  It's approved or suggested by
SIPB in some way.

Hence, it's a SIPB project to offer to put information about the IAP
classes SIPB is sponsoring into xmosaic, like mwhitson did.  It would
also be a SIPB service to say to some SIPB members, ``Hey, there's
this program that I've seen elsewhere that I have the source to that
isn't on athena, and I think it would be cool if SIPB supported it.
I'd like to compile it and maintain it.''  Then you could offer to do
it at a meeting, and if people though it was cool for SIPB to support
it, you could work on it as a SIPB project.  It would not be a SIPB
project to teach a class on ``Introduction to Scheme'' or ``A Warmup
for 6.001'' or ``How to Type'' because SIPB didn't decide that we
wanted to teach a class on those things, or that they were necessarily
relevant to the kinds of things SIPB wants to support.  They would be
your classes, not SIPB classes.  This doesn't mean that we wouldn't
want to sponsor a class on these topics, just that you didn't try to
get us to sponsor it.  (Also, classes tend to be taught by people who
have already showed to SIPB members that they know the subject they're
teaching on.)

{\bf Question:} Whenever I enter the office the people are talking in
gibberish and I do not want to be rude to stop them in the middle of
their work to ask them what it means.

(abbe) Being a prospective means that you are interested in what goes
on in the office, and that it IS your place to ask things, either
about a conversation that's going on, or at random. If you do want to
know what people are talking about, it is perfectly reasonable to ask.
If it's none of your business, someone will tell you that.  Or if they
explain and you're totally lost, you can say you're lost.  If they
were talking about something important that they need to keep talking
about, then they'll say ``Ask me later.''  if they have time to
explain it then, great.  You'll learn something.  Listening to a
conversation is a contribution, even if you know nothing about it, or
aren't an expert {\ldots} because YOU learn.

(svalente) I felt like that before I knew most of the members.  It's
not easy to jump into a conversation you don't understand with people
you don't know.  You don't have to.  However, jumping into the
conversation may be the best way to get to know the people and
understand the topics.

Also, people talking in gibberish are generally not working.
Generally, they're flaming about some topic that interests them, which
may or may not turn out to interest you.

For example, say you walk into the SIPB office and hear the following
comment: ``Whoever wrote the AFS to NFS translator should be
disemboweled!''  Say you don't know what an ``AFS to NFS translator''
is, or what ``disemboweled'' means.  Simply ask me (yes, I was the one
making that statement) ``what does disemboweled mean?''  and I will
happily waste hours of your time explaining what the ``AFS to NFS
translator'' is and why I hate it.  And you will probably never speak
to me again, but that's besides the point.

{\bf Question:} People seem to be working on private, secret projects
and I do not feel it is my place to intrude to ask anything.

(svalente) It's certainly not easy to intrude, but it generally is
your place to do so.

(abbe) As for people who seem to be working on private, secret
projects --- If i'm working on something at my machine, typing away,
and you ask me what I'm doing, I would say something similar.  If, for
example, I were writing top secret code for the CIA and I'd be shot if
anyone knew about it (which i don't think is the case for anyone
around here), I would tell you to go away.  If I was sending mail to
my best friend at another college, I would say that, and you probably
wouldn't be interested.  If I was working on something for a SIPB
project, or something you would find interesting, I would probably say
that.  Or if I were working on it, and I was in the middle of getting
something done and wanted to finish my train of thought, I might say
that, too, and ask you to wait.  None of these things are bad {\ldots}
and a lot of them might result in you finding something out.  But you
don't have to do anything like that. If you don't {\it want} to learn
by asking people about random things, you don't have to.  You can
decide what you do want to learn, and work on learning it.

{\bf Question:} I probably would not have the expertise to contribute
anything worthwhile.

(svalente) SIPB members generally believe they're experts, but don't
let that fool you.  :-)

{\bf Question:} Where is the vast amount of information you guys know
written down?  Which locker?  Which public directory?

(abbe) Last time I checked, most people don't take everything in their
minds and write it down somewhere.  If they want to share specific
things with people, and people always ask for them, writing them down
might be a good thing, but in general, knowledge is knowledge.  It
doesn't need to be stored on-line, or in a book.  It might be more
useful that way, but if every person who knew the same things tried to
write them down, we'd have a hell of a lot of duplication going
around.  It's not like I'm intentionally keeping a secret from you by
not having a file in my public directory stating everything I can
remember about my childhood, or every neat thing I remember learning
in 8.02, or every UNIX command I know how to use and how it's used.

{\bf Question:} How do you write a C program that digitizes microphone
input on the Suns and outputs it in modified form?  How do you go
about obtaining the answer to that question?  If from someone else in
the office, where did he/she get it from (recursively)? Or is the
collective body of knowledge known by SIPB members undocumented and
transferred down the generations of members by word of mouth, like
before they had writing{\ldots}

(abbe) If you want to write a C program that digitizes microphone
input on the Suns and outputs in in modified form, there is some
knowledge you need.  First, you need to know how to program in C.
There are a lot of ways to learn how to do that, some of them could
involve SIPB members, and lots more of them have no reason to.  Your
choice.  You might want to find out how sun digitized sound is stored,
what format, etc.  You might want to start from scratch and read lots
of books.  You might be able to get help from SIPB members, who have
seen information about Sun sound in other places, maybe read books on
it, or whatever.  It's not a requirement that each member learn how to
do each thing that might be imaginable or possible with a computer; I
don't know of anyone who has thought about this.  But someone else
might.  The way to learn is to ask around.  You might be more likely
to find someone in SIPB who knows about it than to find someone
randomly sitting next you in class who knows about it, but we don't
guarantee knowledge.  Asking where someone got a particular piece of
knowledge and where it's stored is rather pointless.  Like, where did
you learn how to read?  How do I go about learning to read?  There are
a lot of answers to that question.  Or, ``How do I learn to do
research on something?''  You just try.  You ask other people where to
start.

{\bf Question:} Are members expected to dedicate their lives to the
goals of SIPB, even at the expense of performance in class and the
awareness of their own existence?  What are these goals,
anyway{\ldots}

(abbe) I tried to give you a general idea of the goals of SIPB before.
Of course people aren't expected to dedicate their lives to SIPB.
They aren't even expected to dedicate n hours a week to it.  It's your
own choice.  If you don't seem to want to devote anything at all to
SIPB, it's likely that you probably won't become a member anyway.  And
if you don't have time to devote for a while, you might become
inactive if you are already a member, or wait a while to be considered
for membership if you're a prospective.  You'd still be a member or a
prospective, you just would not be considered someone who's currently
doing much with SIPB.  As for ``at the expense of performance in
class", there are a decent number of people in SIPB who think that
doing things for SIPB and other random computer things are more fun
than their classes, and {\it let} this take a toll on their classes.
This is a bad thing, though.  It's not a requirement for membership in
SIPB, and most SIPB members try to encourage each other to go home and
tool when they need to.

{\bf Question:} Is this supposed to be fun?  I suppose it can be, but
knowing where to find the information can be difficult.

(abbe) If you don't enjoy helping people or learning about things,
then there's not much SIPB can do about it.  Don't try to be a
prospective if you don't enjoy what you're doing, maybe you're making
the wrong decision.

I hope that this answers some of your questions; and I hope the length
of it hasn't kept you from reading it.  I don't claim to represent the
opinions of all of SIPB, or to know everything about SIPB, but this is
about how I see it.

(svalente) I consider the SIPB office to be one of the fun places on
campus to kill some time.  But then again, I'm weird.

Hope this helped.  We are, after all, here to help.



