From curious.jp at gmail.com  Mon Sep  4 18:07:13 2017
From: curious.jp at gmail.com (Bryn Davies)
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2017 18:07:13 +1000
Subject: [ProgSoc] Progsoc: what do we provide of value?
In-Reply-To: <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
References: <a0da4f04-fbcb-1d26-3c7c-1c3ee0169106@hale.ee>
 <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
Message-ID: <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>

Some great achievements in there and a good read, Tom B.

Some of the talks (prior to 2011) are archived on the wiki too - you can
even see one I gave one back in 2003 (!) http://progsoc.org/wiki/Talks

I would like to help out with a possible society reboot, but I'm unsure of
what I can contribute. I'm physically distant now (Melbourne) and also sure
I'm overdue in membership payments / have my account locked at the moment.
Perhaps one thing that could give us a bit of a bootstrap would be to
create more progsoc presences tied into other platforms, such as a coursera
study group (like Tom H. seemed to suggest about Andrew Ng's course), a
duolingo club, or even a video game clan. That would provide a bit of
socialisation for those of us who can't make it to the pub - and a lot of
these activities can also touch off ideas and speculations about
programming... at least in my experience.

I think a great first society project would be an automatic notification of
dues expiry and some tool to let me calculate my progsoc back taxes. *blush*

p.s. In related news, I'm sure some of you saw this progsoc historical
related news today:
https://www.itwire.com/open-sauce/79738-bye,-bye-solaris,-it-was-a-nice-ride-while-it-lasted.html


On 31 August 2017 at 20:28, Tomislav Bozic <tomchristmas at progsoc.org> wrote:

> On 31/08/17 18:24, Tom Hale wrote:
>
> Progsoc offers me:
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> * a *.edu.au email address (which I use for discounted goodies)
>>
>
> Never really took advantage of that...
>
> Apparently you can (or could at some point) get an @alumni.uts.edu.au
> email address, but I'm really not sure.
>
> I would like to know: when WAS the last time we created a new account for
> members? I believe that last time I did it personally was in 2013, when I
> last manned the O-Day stall. Not sure if any new accounts have been created
> since. But I digress...
>
> What I would like from Progsoc:
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> * An artificial intelligence project to work on, with guidance from
>> experienced mentors. I'm currently half way through Andrew Ng's
>> excellent and free Machine Learning course[1].
>>
>
> Great idea. First, find the mentors.
>
> * Assistance in processor grind for kaggle competitions[2] and future
>> machine learning projects. My Thai house on a lake costs $300 a month.
>>
>
> $300? You lucky expletive...
>
> I have a laptop with on-board
>> Intel 520 graphics chipset which I foresee won't be great at the kaggle
>> competitions that I intend to participate in.
>>    => Offers of GPU processor time on would be greatly appreciated, as
>> would society funded access to cloud machines.
>>
>
> A ProgSoc AWS account or similar such could be worth investigating. Or if
> we had a hackerspace, build our own PlayStation GPU farm. Or similar such.
>
> Oh, please correct the factual errors (and add what I've missed). I
>> guess that there are many like me who would appreciate being brought up
>> to speed.
>>
>
> That's what I'm here for!
>
> ### TFM
>> Past: A tree-book manual, introduction to hacker culture, Unix and
>> peculiarities of the SoCS[3] machines. This took bunches of time to keep
>> up-to-date. Book sales provided revenue for the society.
>> Now: Nobody is interested in tree-books any more. Nobody can be arsed
>> creating an updated ebook version. I question if anyone would even value
>> it, when "OK google" can be verbally asked these days.
>>
>
> We did publish the last TFM in 2013[1]. Took us about four years of
> intermittent editing to get it out the door. I don't think we sold any more
> than five copies of that run, to be honest. I believe the surplus copies
> were turfed out when we vacated 10.3.380a. Hopefully we have at least one
> copy in storage.
>
> Shortly after publishing the final TFM, we wikified its contents and
> posted it here: [2] It's sort of an "eternal" edition of TFM now. People
> are more than welcome to update it as they see fit. If they have an
> account, of course.
>
> Before we published the last TFM, we meticulously OCR-scanned and
> HTML-ified all of the previous editions of TFM and the Sun User Guide we
> had in our possession (as well as two editions lent to us by Stephen
> Gowing) and uploaded them all here: [3]. Yeah, I should've made PDFs of the
> originals as well. Sue me.
>
> ### Always-on internet servers
>> Past: When students were still dialling into the SoCS modem pool for net
>> access, having shell access to an always-online server was valuable.
>> Now: 4G tethering, broadband at home.
>>
>
> Not to mention a web server that offered way more than Geocities and their
> ilk did, all for $10/year. Which you can still get with us, by the way. If
> someone can create an account for you.
>
> ### A programming environment
>> Past: Various compilers and tools not available on the SoCS servers were
>> installed for use by members
>> Now: I am not sufficiently aware of the configuration state to comment
>> as to where things are technologically. But what value would we offer
>> above say someone installing Ubuntu?
>>
>
> We have compilers on niflheim. But they're of little use to the average
> member these days.
>
> ### Support with programming questions
>> Past: People used to post questions regarding programming for assistance.
>> Now: It's been a few years since a question like this appeared on-list.
>> General questions go to StackOverflow presumably. Individual "where's my
>> bug" questions are not asked.
>>
>
> Probably for the best, to be honest.
>
> Now, if it was students asking for help with their programming subjects on
> the other hand...
>
> Actually, we gave at least two talks in the early teens (the exact years
> escape me now -- probably 2010 and 2011) to Programming Fundamentals
> students offering advice on how to do the assignments amongst other things.
> They were pretty well-attended, as you would imagine. Worth resurrecting.
>
> ### Projects
>> Past: Projects were rallying points for members, whether they came to
>> fruition or not. Some that come to mind are the Olympic brick
>> inscriptions, a b33r/coke powered server, long-range wifi access to
>> Progsoc, and a Jukebox
>> Now: No projects have happened for a long time. I wonder if we have
>> sufficient cohesion / interest to be able to get consensus and momentum
>> on a project... but perhaps a project is exactly what we need.
>>
>
> Our last project was, I believe, in 2014 with our 'Norman' keyless access
> project, when we still had the room. Carlin and D'Netto can tell us more
> about that, if they're reading this...
>
> I do remember Jacob Dunk creating an app for the Verge Festival at Sydney
> Uni in 2013, which was awesome, because we actually wrote some software in
> the name of ProgSoc.
>
> There was the programmable bar fridge idea that was mooted at our meetup
> last Thursday...
>
> ### Meet ups
>> Past: Social gatherings, hanging out with like-minded peeps.
>> Now: Unsure. The ravens' scrolls don't reach to Thailand. Subsidised /
>> free events are a perennial winner.
>>
>
> When I joined in 2008, we really didn't do much in the way of events. We
> didn't need to, really. We had our own room, and that's all we needed for
> our weekly meetings.
>
> Eventually, though, we decided to be a bit more social and
> community-minded. We spread our wings with talks in 2011 (see below). Then,
> in 2012, we held the very first UTS Programming Competition[4]. It was so
> successful, we held four more consecutive editions from 2013 to 2016
> inclusive. Who knows, we might resume the ProgComp next year...
>
> Our best month ever in my opinion was March of 2014. To celebrate our 25th
> anniversary, we hosted not only a programming competition, but also our
> first, and to date, only weekend hackathon, Code2Day[5]. Yes, we actually
> did a HACKATHON. This is what ProgSoc has been capable of.
>
> To say it was a mammoth undertaking to stage not one, but TWO major events
> in one month, is an understatement. But we were a crack team and we pulled
> it off. It really was the high point of ProgSoc. I had never been prouder
> to have been part of the club at that point.
>
> Then ProgSoc's slow decline began. After losing the room in 2015, we never
> truly recovered. Hopefully with a concerted effort on everyone's part our
> fortunes will change!
>
> ### Sharing of knowledge / talks
>> Presentations on particular topics of clue. I'm pretty sure that this
>> has happened a few times in the past, but can't remember an instance of
>> it.
>> Now: Tom mentioned that a shared space could be used for such.
>>
>
> I remember 2011 being The Year of Talks for ProgSoc. We had at least four:
> apart from the aforementioned ProgFun talk, we did IPv6, network security
> and something related to web development, I think. My memories are fading.
>
> My colleague would like to give a talk on User Experience -- stay tuned
> for that! Also, we'd like to get that guy from Dev Diner[6] back for
> another talk -- his presentation on Virtual Reality in 2016 was
> well-received and reasonably well-attended.
>
> * What *you* currently value about Progsoc. Why are you (still) here?
>>
>
> Because I love ProgSoc with all my heart. I gave so much to it and it gave
> me so much in return. I got more out of it than any coursework or any other
> experience at UTS. I am who I am today because of ProgSoc -- that's no
> exaggeration.
>
> And I want others to have a similar experience.
>
> * What you *would* value, ie what you hope Progsoc will provide.
>> * What Progsoc could provide to the community (Progsoc, FoEaIT, UTS,
>> Sydney, Australia...)?
>>
>
> The possibilities are endless.
>
> Tom
>
> P.S. The people who should be reading this and responding (i.e. not old
> timers) are not likely to be subscribed to this mailing list, sadly.
>
> [1] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Printed_Publications#TFM
>
> [2] http://progsoc.org/wiki/TFM:Contents
>
> [3] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Printed_Publications#Past_Publications
>
> [4] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Programming_Competitions
>
> [5] http://progsoc.org/code2day/
>
> [6] https://devdiner.com/
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> To judiciously use split infinitives is fine by me...
>
> _______________________________________________
> Progsoc mailing list
> Progsoc at progsoc.org
> http://progsoc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/progsoc
>



-- 
"And let us consider again, that all the law is not in the hand of Giant
Despair: others, so far as I can understand, have been taken by him as well
as we, and yet have escaped out of his hands."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://progsoc.org/pipermail/progsoc/attachments/20170904/b4ff4c6c/attachment-0001.html>

From tomchristmas at progsoc.org  Mon Sep  4 21:54:16 2017
From: tomchristmas at progsoc.org (Tomislav Bozic)
Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2017 21:54:16 +1000
Subject: [ProgSoc] Progsoc: what do we provide of value?
In-Reply-To: <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <a0da4f04-fbcb-1d26-3c7c-1c3ee0169106@hale.ee>
 <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
 <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6a14f5e6-24b3-cf93-76a5-9cceef375ea7@progsoc.org>

On 04/09/17 18:07, Bryn Davies wrote:

> I'm physically distant now (Melbourne) and 
> also sure I'm overdue in membership payments / have my account locked at 
> the moment.  

Wish I could unlock your account, although it appears that with the 
recent migration, LDAP is no longer configured as expected.

Truth be told, it was a unilateral decision on my part when I was 
President to re-enforce an Account Locking Policy[1] that already 
existed. I announced my intentions publicly, of course, but no-one 
opposed me[2], so I did an audit of all the accounts and -- with my 
nifty locking script -- locked the accounts of everyone that hadn't paid 
their membership.

I had the best of intentions. Back then, I was against corporate 
sponsorships. I didn't like being beholden to the whims of some faceless 
corporate conglomerate telling ProgSoc how to spend the money they had 
given us. I believed that we could, and should, be self-funding and 
self-reliant, without any external support. This Juche-esque attitude 
was the rationale behind locking accounts. My intended effects were 
two-fold: revenue raising and also to engage past and current members.

I have since learned that my fears were unfounded. Corporate 
sponsorships are invaluable for both club and company. Apart from the 
industry connections forged, said sponsorships enable us to host 
top-quality events. Our ProgComps and hackathon would not have been 
anywhere near as good without sponsors. Besides, ProgSoc has had 
long-standing arrangements over the years with many companies (e.g. the 
now-defunct, aforementioned Sun and, more recently, my employer).

Nowadays, locking the accounts is kind of silly and pointless, since 
no-one uses the ProgSoc infrastructure. So, if I could, I would just 
unlock everyone's accounts. That is, if it's OK with everyone...

 > I think a great first society project would be an automatic
 > notification
 > of dues expiry and some tool to let me calculate my progsoc back
 > taxes. *blush*

You know, I had started work on a Rails-based registration and account 
management system years ago. It was an excuse to try out Rails, really. 
It never got finished, unfortunately.

 > p.s. In related news, I'm sure some of you saw this progsoc historical
 > related news today:
 > https://www.itwire.com/open-sauce/79738-bye,-bye-solaris,-it-was-
 > a-nice-ride-while-it-lasted.html

:'(

I guess if you really still need future Solaris support, there is illumos...

Tom

[1] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Account_Locking_Policy

[2] Well, John Elliot did, but that was months after I had done it. We 
had a temporary falling out as a result. We have long since reconciled. 
This was the catalyst for ProgClub (http://www.progclub.org)

> On 31 August 2017 at 20:28, Tomislav Bozic <tomchristmas at progsoc.org 
> <mailto:tomchristmas at progsoc.org>> wrote:
> 
>     On 31/08/17 18:24, Tom Hale wrote:
> 
>         Progsoc offers me:
>         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>         * a *.edu.au email address (which I use for discounted goodies)
> 
> 
>     Never really took advantage of that...
> 
>     Apparently you can (or could at some point) get an
>     @alumni.uts.edu.au <http://alumni.uts.edu.au> email address, but I'm
>     really not sure.
> 
>     I would like to know: when WAS the last time we created a new
>     account for members? I believe that last time I did it personally
>     was in 2013, when I last manned the O-Day stall. Not sure if any new
>     accounts have been created since. But I digress...
> 
>         What I would like from Progsoc:
>         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>         * An artificial intelligence project to work on, with guidance from
>         experienced mentors. I'm currently half way through Andrew Ng's
>         excellent and free Machine Learning course[1].
> 
> 
>     Great idea. First, find the mentors.
> 
>         * Assistance in processor grind for kaggle competitions[2] and
>         future
>         machine learning projects. My Thai house on a lake costs $300 a
>         month.
> 
> 
>     $300? You lucky expletive...
> 
>         I have a laptop with on-board
>         Intel 520 graphics chipset which I foresee won't be great at the
>         kaggle
>         competitions that I intend to participate in.
>             => Offers of GPU processor time on would be greatly
>         appreciated, as
>         would society funded access to cloud machines.
> 
> 
>     A ProgSoc AWS account or similar such could be worth investigating.
>     Or if we had a hackerspace, build our own PlayStation GPU farm. Or
>     similar such.
> 
>         Oh, please correct the factual errors (and add what I've missed). I
>         guess that there are many like me who would appreciate being
>         brought up
>         to speed.
> 
> 
>     That's what I'm here for!
> 
>         ### TFM
>         Past: A tree-book manual, introduction to hacker culture, Unix and
>         peculiarities of the SoCS[3] machines. This took bunches of time
>         to keep
>         up-to-date. Book sales provided revenue for the society.
>         Now: Nobody is interested in tree-books any more. Nobody can be
>         arsed
>         creating an updated ebook version. I question if anyone would
>         even value
>         it, when "OK google" can be verbally asked these days.
> 
> 
>     We did publish the last TFM in 2013[1]. Took us about four years of
>     intermittent editing to get it out the door. I don't think we sold
>     any more than five copies of that run, to be honest. I believe the
>     surplus copies were turfed out when we vacated 10.3.380a. Hopefully
>     we have at least one copy in storage.
> 
>     Shortly after publishing the final TFM, we wikified its contents and
>     posted it here: [2] It's sort of an "eternal" edition of TFM now.
>     People are more than welcome to update it as they see fit. If they
>     have an account, of course.
> 
>     Before we published the last TFM, we meticulously OCR-scanned and
>     HTML-ified all of the previous editions of TFM and the Sun User
>     Guide we had in our possession (as well as two editions lent to us
>     by Stephen Gowing) and uploaded them all here: [3]. Yeah, I
>     should've made PDFs of the originals as well. Sue me.
> 
>         ### Always-on internet servers
>         Past: When students were still dialling into the SoCS modem pool
>         for net
>         access, having shell access to an always-online server was valuable.
>         Now: 4G tethering, broadband at home.
> 
> 
>     Not to mention a web server that offered way more than Geocities and
>     their ilk did, all for $10/year. Which you can still get with us, by
>     the way. If someone can create an account for you.
> 
>         ### A programming environment
>         Past: Various compilers and tools not available on the SoCS
>         servers were
>         installed for use by members
>         Now: I am not sufficiently aware of the configuration state to
>         comment
>         as to where things are technologically. But what value would we
>         offer
>         above say someone installing Ubuntu?
> 
> 
>     We have compilers on niflheim. But they're of little use to the
>     average member these days.
> 
>         ### Support with programming questions
>         Past: People used to post questions regarding programming for
>         assistance.
>         Now: It's been a few years since a question like this appeared
>         on-list.
>         General questions go to StackOverflow presumably. Individual
>         "where's my
>         bug" questions are not asked.
> 
> 
>     Probably for the best, to be honest.
> 
>     Now, if it was students asking for help with their programming
>     subjects on the other hand...
> 
>     Actually, we gave at least two talks in the early teens (the exact
>     years escape me now -- probably 2010 and 2011) to Programming
>     Fundamentals students offering advice on how to do the assignments
>     amongst other things. They were pretty well-attended, as you would
>     imagine. Worth resurrecting.
> 
>         ### Projects
>         Past: Projects were rallying points for members, whether they
>         came to
>         fruition or not. Some that come to mind are the Olympic brick
>         inscriptions, a b33r/coke powered server, long-range wifi access to
>         Progsoc, and a Jukebox
>         Now: No projects have happened for a long time. I wonder if we have
>         sufficient cohesion / interest to be able to get consensus and
>         momentum
>         on a project... but perhaps a project is exactly what we need.
> 
> 
>     Our last project was, I believe, in 2014 with our 'Norman' keyless
>     access project, when we still had the room. Carlin and D'Netto can
>     tell us more about that, if they're reading this...
> 
>     I do remember Jacob Dunk creating an app for the Verge Festival at
>     Sydney Uni in 2013, which was awesome, because we actually wrote
>     some software in the name of ProgSoc.
> 
>     There was the programmable bar fridge idea that was mooted at our
>     meetup last Thursday...
> 
>         ### Meet ups
>         Past: Social gatherings, hanging out with like-minded peeps.
>         Now: Unsure. The ravens' scrolls don't reach to Thailand.
>         Subsidised /
>         free events are a perennial winner.
> 
> 
>     When I joined in 2008, we really didn't do much in the way of
>     events. We didn't need to, really. We had our own room, and that's
>     all we needed for our weekly meetings.
> 
>     Eventually, though, we decided to be a bit more social and
>     community-minded. We spread our wings with talks in 2011 (see
>     below). Then, in 2012, we held the very first UTS Programming
>     Competition[4]. It was so successful, we held four more consecutive
>     editions from 2013 to 2016 inclusive. Who knows, we might resume the
>     ProgComp next year...
> 
>     Our best month ever in my opinion was March of 2014. To celebrate
>     our 25th anniversary, we hosted not only a programming competition,
>     but also our first, and to date, only weekend hackathon,
>     Code2Day[5]. Yes, we actually did a HACKATHON. This is what ProgSoc
>     has been capable of.
> 
>     To say it was a mammoth undertaking to stage not one, but TWO major
>     events in one month, is an understatement. But we were a crack team
>     and we pulled it off. It really was the high point of ProgSoc. I had
>     never been prouder to have been part of the club at that point.
> 
>     Then ProgSoc's slow decline began. After losing the room in 2015, we
>     never truly recovered. Hopefully with a concerted effort on
>     everyone's part our fortunes will change!
> 
>         ### Sharing of knowledge / talks
>         Presentations on particular topics of clue. I'm pretty sure that
>         this
>         has happened a few times in the past, but can't remember an
>         instance of it.
>         Now: Tom mentioned that a shared space could be used for such.
> 
> 
>     I remember 2011 being The Year of Talks for ProgSoc. We had at least
>     four: apart from the aforementioned ProgFun talk, we did IPv6,
>     network security and something related to web development, I think.
>     My memories are fading.
> 
>     My colleague would like to give a talk on User Experience -- stay
>     tuned for that! Also, we'd like to get that guy from Dev Diner[6]
>     back for another talk -- his presentation on Virtual Reality in 2016
>     was well-received and reasonably well-attended.
> 
>         * What *you* currently value about Progsoc. Why are you (still)
>         here?
> 
> 
>     Because I love ProgSoc with all my heart. I gave so much to it and
>     it gave me so much in return. I got more out of it than any
>     coursework or any other experience at UTS. I am who I am today
>     because of ProgSoc -- that's no exaggeration.
> 
>     And I want others to have a similar experience.
> 
>         * What you *would* value, ie what you hope Progsoc will provide.
>         * What Progsoc could provide to the community (Progsoc, FoEaIT, UTS,
>         Sydney, Australia...)?
> 
> 
>     The possibilities are endless.
> 
>     Tom
> 
>     P.S. The people who should be reading this and responding (i.e. not
>     old timers) are not likely to be subscribed to this mailing list, sadly.
> 
>     [1] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Printed_Publications#TFM
>     <http://progsoc.org/wiki/Printed_Publications#TFM>
> 
>     [2] http://progsoc.org/wiki/TFM:Contents
>     <http://progsoc.org/wiki/TFM:Contents>
> 
>     [3] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Printed_Publications#Past_Publications
>     <http://progsoc.org/wiki/Printed_Publications#Past_Publications>
> 
>     [4] http://progsoc.org/wiki/Programming_Competitions
>     <http://progsoc.org/wiki/Programming_Competitions>
> 
>     [5] http://progsoc.org/code2day/
> 
>     [6] https://devdiner.com/
>     -----------------------------------------------------
> 
>     To judiciously use split infinitives is fine by me...
> 
>     _______________________________________________
>     Progsoc mailing list
>     Progsoc at progsoc.org <mailto:Progsoc at progsoc.org>
>     http://progsoc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/progsoc
>     <http://progsoc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/progsoc>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "And let us consider again, that all the law is not in the hand of Giant 
> Despair: others, so far as I can understand, have been taken by him as 
> well as we, and yet have escaped out of his hands."
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Progsoc mailing list
> Progsoc at progsoc.org
> http://progsoc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/progsoc
> 

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------

To judiciously use split infinitives is fine by me...


From jedd.rashbrooke at gmail.com  Mon Sep  4 23:18:14 2017
From: jedd.rashbrooke at gmail.com (Jedd Rashbrooke)
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2017 13:18:14 -0000
Subject: [ProgSoc] Progsoc: what do we provide of value?
In-Reply-To: <6a14f5e6-24b3-cf93-76a5-9cceef375ea7@progsoc.org>
References: <a0da4f04-fbcb-1d26-3c7c-1c3ee0169106@hale.ee>
 <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
 <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>
 <6a14f5e6-24b3-cf93-76a5-9cceef375ea7@progsoc.org>
Message-ID: <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>

On 4 September 2017 at 21:54, Tomislav Bozic <tomchristmas at progsoc.org>
wrote:

> Nowadays, locking the accounts is kind of silly and pointless, since
> no-one uses the ProgSoc infrastructure. So, if I could, I would just unlock
> everyone's accounts. That is, if it's OK with everyone...


 This would suit me nicely.

 I think my account is locked - i can't ssh in, and the last time I
reply-all'd to one of these messages (about two weeks ago) I got a 'an
administrator needs to approve your email'  email.

 The previous time I tried posting to the list - about a year ago - I got
the same message.

 It's mildly frustrating as I'd happily chuff up the $10 required, or $20
if I'm out by two years, to get back to where I started.   Some years ago I
bequeathed about $2k worth of server grade hardware, which I think lasted
several months before being replaced / relocated to someone's home ... I
wasn't expecting a public holiday named in my honour, but it was a bit
surprising that my account was locked while we were running on hardware I'd
provided.

 Enough of that.

 I tend to agree - the society isn't short of cash, though it sounds like
our CSO is currently stumping up a fair few quid for hosting what sounds
mostly like storage of crufty php scripts and cat gifs each month.

You know, I had started work on a Rails-based registration and account
> management system years ago. It was an excuse to try out Rails, really. It
> never got finished, unfortunately.


 I believe this is a documented feature of RoR.

 j.

 PS.  If you don't see this pop-up on the list, feel free to reply it back
into visibility.  :)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://progsoc.org/pipermail/progsoc/attachments/20170904/35b59b14/attachment.html>

From tomchristmas at progsoc.org  Tue Sep  5 06:44:56 2017
From: tomchristmas at progsoc.org (Tomislav Bozic)
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2017 20:44:56 -0000
Subject: [ProgSoc] Progsoc: what do we provide of value?
In-Reply-To: <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>
References: <a0da4f04-fbcb-1d26-3c7c-1c3ee0169106@hale.ee>
 <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
 <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>
 <6a14f5e6-24b3-cf93-76a5-9cceef375ea7@progsoc.org>
 <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <ea9ea4e4-a71e-9424-5fb4-ddd3c9036f49@progsoc.org>

On 04/09/17 23:09, Jedd Rashbrooke wrote:

>   I think my account is locked - i can't ssh in, and the last time I 
> reply-all'd to one of these messages (about two weeks ago) I got a 'an 
> administrator needs to approve your email'  email.

I believe they're two separate issues. In any case, your email made it 
to the list. This time.

>   It's mildly frustrating as I'd happily chuff up the $10 required, or 
> $20 if I'm out by two years, to get back to where I started.   

There really is no way of knowing how much a membership costs these 
days. I guess chucking some amount of money in the society bank account 
should do the trick.

> Some 
> years ago I bequeathed about $2k worth of server grade hardware, which I 
> think lasted several months before being replaced / relocated to 
> someone's home ... I wasn't expecting a public holiday named in my 
> honour, but it was a bit surprising that my account was locked while we 
> were running on hardware I'd provided.

See, I didn't know that at the time. I had yet to meet you. 'jedd' was 
just a meaningless string of four letters to me.

And even if I knew, it wouldnt've mattered, since I had then adopted the 
attitude of no special treatment for any member, no matter how long they 
had served or how much they had donated to the society. That also meant 
an end to honouring "life memberships". In short, equal treatment for 
everyone. Sounds like a certain ideology popular in some parts of the 
world in the 20th century, Eastern Europe mostly.

My attitude has changed somewhat over the years. You need to be 
respectful and tactful to those that came before you. I still think 
having a free account by virtue of being elected President is silly, though.

Tom


From tomchristmas at progsoc.org  Tue Sep  5 16:52:48 2017
From: tomchristmas at progsoc.org (Tomislav Bozic)
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2017 06:52:48 -0000
Subject: [ProgSoc] Progsoc: what do we provide of value?
In-Reply-To: <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>
References: <a0da4f04-fbcb-1d26-3c7c-1c3ee0169106@hale.ee>
 <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
 <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>
 <6a14f5e6-24b3-cf93-76a5-9cceef375ea7@progsoc.org>
 <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <c58f69f4-975e-f80e-11b3-f3da9aa8f9c0@progsoc.org>

On 04/09/17 23:09, Jedd Rashbrooke wrote:

>   I think my account is locked - i can't ssh in, and the last time I 
> reply-all'd to one of these messages (about two weeks ago) I got a 'an 
> administrator needs to approve your email'  email.

I believe they're two separate issues. In any case, your email made it 
to the list. This time.

>   It's mildly frustrating as I'd happily chuff up the $10 required, or 
> $20 if I'm out by two years, to get back to where I started.   

There really is no way of knowing how much a membership costs these 
days. I guess chucking some amount of money in the society bank account 
should do the trick.

> Some 
> years ago I bequeathed about $2k worth of server grade hardware, which I 
> think lasted several months before being replaced / relocated to 
> someone's home ... I wasn't expecting a public holiday named in my 
> honour, but it was a bit surprising that my account was locked while we 
> were running on hardware I'd provided.

See, I didn't know that at the time. I had yet to meet you. 'jedd' was 
just a meaningless string of four letters to me.

And even if I knew, it wouldnt've mattered, since I had then adopted the 
attitude of no special treatment for any member, no matter how long they 
had served or how much they had donated to the society. That also meant 
an end to honouring "life memberships". In short, equal treatment for 
everyone. Sounds like a certain ideology popular in some parts of the 
world in the 20th century, Eastern Europe mostly.

My attitude has changed somewhat over the years. You need to be 
respectful and tactful to those that came before you. I still think 
having a free account by virtue of being elected President is silly, though.

Tom


From tomchristmas at progsoc.org  Wed Sep  6 18:07:07 2017
From: tomchristmas at progsoc.org (Tomislav Bozic)
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2017 08:07:07 -0000
Subject: [ProgSoc] Progsoc: what do we provide of value?
In-Reply-To: <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>
References: <a0da4f04-fbcb-1d26-3c7c-1c3ee0169106@hale.ee>
 <b19a7c9d-2769-b258-ef73-9213b1472524@progsoc.org>
 <CANiybEX=L1BT64RiOVaWFtS=y4h3qEPa9rLVnuLLFQ9Q0-TBMQ@mail.gmail.com>
 <6a14f5e6-24b3-cf93-76a5-9cceef375ea7@progsoc.org>
 <CANSJ9+uTiq7oXmCrhaPpnV9gO+LfRBot-qrP1UN0wo_YEkNTuA@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <90c9dc74-4af0-f42f-cab1-a0740046c79a@progsoc.org>

On 04/09/17 23:09, Jedd Rashbrooke wrote:

>   I think my account is locked - i can't ssh in, and the last time I 
> reply-all'd to one of these messages (about two weeks ago) I got a 'an 
> administrator needs to approve your email'  email.

I believe they're two separate issues. In any case, your email made it 
to the list. This time.

>   It's mildly frustrating as I'd happily chuff up the $10 required, or 
> $20 if I'm out by two years, to get back to where I started.   

There really is no way of knowing how much a membership costs these 
days. I guess chucking some amount of money in the society bank account 
should do the trick.

> Some 
> years ago I bequeathed about $2k worth of server grade hardware, which I 
> think lasted several months before being replaced / relocated to 
> someone's home ... I wasn't expecting a public holiday named in my 
> honour, but it was a bit surprising that my account was locked while we 
> were running on hardware I'd provided.

See, I didn't know that at the time. I had yet to meet you. 'jedd' was 
just a meaningless string of four letters to me.

And even if I knew, it wouldnt've mattered, since I had then adopted the 
attitude of no special treatment for any member, no matter how long they 
had served or how much they had donated to the society. That also meant 
an end to honouring "life memberships". In short, equal treatment for 
everyone. Sounds like a certain ideology popular in some parts of the 
world in the 20th century, Eastern Europe mostly.

My attitude has changed somewhat over the years. You need to be 
respectful and tactful to those that came before you. I still think 
having a free account by virtue of being elected President is silly, though.

Tom