Setting up a Compsoc

Kairo

weh

Currently at ITT we have no compsoc, so I went enquiring about one..they told me the interest was there so that If I wanted to I could set up one if I approached them with an appropriate plan.

Right..I'd like to do it, but What exactly should I put down on the plan? Anyone else around here setup one before?

I'd assume getting everyone to create their own webpage would be a pretty obvious one. Any other ideas?

Lawnkiller

check out redbrick in dcu - i think they are the biggest compsoc in ireland.

Gerry

some links for you

http://minds.may.ie
http://redbrick.dcu.ie
http://netsoc.tcd.ie
http://netsoc.ucd.ie
http://www.skynet.ie

Good luck with it.

Kali

I'm pretty positive that tallaght had a compsoc at one stage or another (at least upto two years ago anyway).. I suggest you get contact details for the original founders (or the last committee members), they may give you tips/hints on who and whonot to contact within tallaghts csd about network usage/policies/physical placement of machines, and why they closed down (if at all they existed.. although im pretty sure on that one).

Keep in mind that HEANET guidelines must be followed and any restrictions/rules they impose enforced (theres a link to their usage policy off redbricks page anyway)...

btw im presuming ITT is actually tallaght?.. forgive my ignorance if its not

Stephen

He's in Tralee IT

Kairo

Originally posted by Stephen
He's in Tralee IT

Shhh!

Hehe, Thanks Ger.

Lawnkiller

as far as i know tallaght compsoc had problems last year or sumfin....

it was up around that way that i remember seeing some trouble with a compsoc anyway.

hope they got it sorted out in the end.

damnyanks

Just out of interest but why would someone want a comp soc ?

What exactly does it get a member etc.

We dont have one in our place so just curious

daveirl

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Raskolnikov

Originally posted by daveirl
We don't have one in UCC either

If we don't, then what's http://compsoc.ucc.ie all about? :cool:

Repli

Originally posted by damnyanks
Just out of interest but why would someone want a comp soc ?

What exactly does it get a member etc.

We dont have one in our place so just curious

Theres (supposed) to be meetings and tutorials teaching u about linux/etc , you also get a free shell account and webspace which is cool

daveirl

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Illkillya

dave speaks the truth. The UCC compsoc is just a computer science committee. All they've ever done for me is organise class parties. see the stuff the NUIG compsoc does...

daveirl

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eth0_

Originally posted by Lawnkiller
as far as i know tallaght compsoc had problems last year or sumfin....

Yes, someone had questionable material on their webspace which was found by school children, their teacher complained to ITT HQ, and to cut a long story short, they got their external access taken off them. Grr.

It's hosted externally now by one of the founders.

Raskolnikov

LOL

God, we really suck! Ah but seriously, i don't think there'd be much of a demand for a compsoc like UCG's or DCU's. Ffs it's enough for most people here to attend lectures here let alone do extra tutorials outside of the course! There were even people reading newspapers in todays lectures!

daveirl

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Illkillya

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
Ah but seriously, i don't think there'd be much of a demand for a compsoc like UCG's or DCU's. Ffs it's enough for most people here to attend lectures here let alone do extra tutorials outside of the course! There were even people reading newspapers in todays lectures!

compsoc is completely independant of lectures and coursework. If they give extra tutorials, they're very practical tutorials that are directly useful to computer users like myself (unlike zzzz course lectures). I rarely go to lectures, but I would be interested in the services provided by a compsoc. I would like a decent shell account and a lot of webspace. Everyone would like some downloading facilities - cd burners or zip disks. We don't even have IRC out in UCC.

You can't judge the demand for a compsoc by interest in the coursework, in fact I'd say a lot of them did Computer science because they're interested in computers, and when they have to spend a year doing sucky logic design and discrete maths and the likes they're bound to get bored.

Lemming

Originally posted by Kali
I'm pretty positive that tallaght had a compsoc at one stage or another (at least upto two years ago anyway)..

Yes we did. Up until last year when we (the then committee) had a sh*t-storm thrown at us. Lots of politics and decisions made by non-technical people without consulting technical people.

A word of warning as regards IT-Tallaght. Certain authorities will give non-sports societies VERY little support or backing and can be quite eager to see your society destroyed.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Illkillya
compsoc is completely independant of lectures and coursework. If they give extra tutorials, they're very practical tutorials that are directly useful to computer users like myself (unlike zzzz course lectures). Everyone would like some downloading facilities - cd burners or zip disks. We don't even have IRC out in UCC.

Well some extra tutorials would be nice. As for downloading facilities etc? I can't see it happening, people would just end up using them to copy games, download porn etc. Even something like IRC would be pointless, people would just end up wasting there time and no work would get done! Oh if you are looking for CD burners i hear they got some in the Multimedia lab., dunno what's the deal with them though.

I don't mean to sound negative, but i don't realistically see anything happening.

Originally posted by Illkillya
I rarely go to lectures,

LOL, how do you pass?!

Originally posted by Illkillya
You can't judge the demand for a compsoc by interest in the coursework, in fact I'd say a lot of them did Computer science because they're interested in computers, and when they have to spend a year doing sucky logic design and discrete maths and the likes they're bound to get bored.

I disagree, most people are only as a last resort because they didn't get BIS or Arts. That's not to say, there aren't any smart people here, there are quite a few

Originally posted by Illkillya
and when they have to spend a year doing sucky logic design and discrete maths and the likes they're bound to get bored.

You're preaching to the unconverted here Those parts of CS are the most interesting. Ironically they brought in a new relevent Internet module this year which has bored me into not attending!

scojones

you mailbox is full heh ;/

<anyway>
Games nights would be cool. I know about 10 ppl in cp200 interested in that(we were talking earlier today actually!).
I haven't an idea what i'd like to do actually, i'll do anything i can. We could set up a petition if needed? Post flyiers ect..

You're the only other ITT person i know on here ;/

Cheers,
Peter.

daveirl

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deRanged

> There are CD burners in UCC but their location is a big secret.
there's one in my machine. benefits of being a postgrad!

and the compsoc used have some facilities. but then the physics department flooded the room and that was that ...

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by daveirl
There are CD burners in UCC but their location is a big secret. Wouldn't you like to know where they are!

Not really, i've already got a cd burner at home and i can't think of anything i need to download.

daveirl

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Raskolnikov

Originally posted by daveirl
well need to download and want to download are two entirely different things.

I don't NEED to download loads of MP3s but I do WANT to download them!

LOL alright, so where is this magic CD burner located?

I'd be more interested in a computer that didn't have pesky firewalls and proxies to deal with though.

seamus

Talking to the UCD netsoc admins, you get more than just a warm fuzzy feeling inside. For example, they get unrestricted access to UCD netsoc's 10 grand worth of Sun Sparc Server (Given to them for free obviously), plus a room full of machines with burners and shedloads of RAM, with complete and unproxied direct access to HEANET via a 10Mb line. mmmmmm........

Illkillya

There are CD Burners in the chemistry lab, which is also unfirewalled. But we're not allowed go there and we shouldn't have to. As a computer science student, there are a lot of free files on the internet that I would like to download which would cost a lot to download from home on 56k, from Java SDK to Linux ISO's. Every other college I know about has a compsoc which facilitates downloading. As I said before, the compsoc is independant from coursework; they're providing services that computer science students WANT, not the services that will help us get our highest marks in exams.

IRC access is definitely not pointless, since its point is allowing you to chat on IRC. I don't doubt that it would be a little bit disruptive to studies for some people, but so are class parties, sports, linux's 'talk' feature, and the 30+ linux games that are installed on this computer. Its up to you personally to get your own work done, and its up to you how you pace yourself. As it happens, I have learned more about computers on IRC than anywhere else. You could be surprised at how many ex-computer science students, java experts and IT guys there are on Quakenet. IRC to me personally would not be a hinderance, but the opposite. It would also be an incentive for me to spend longer days at college, since I would have more ways to pass the time.

The point is, these are services that students want, and could be made available easily. There were something like 170 students in my computer science course at the start of first year. They can't ALL be people who failed to get BIS or Arts. Even if 10% of them did computer science because they're genuinely interested in computers, then thats 17 people in my year alone. If theres 10 in second year, 10 in third year, and 10 in fourth year, thats 47 people doing computer science that are interested in computers. Take electrical engineering, and other computer related courses, and also add in the scattered computer nards from other courses and you have a fine healthy compsoc.
NUIG compsoc has 250+ members afaik, they have their own IRC server, a real community, shell accounts, ftp access (I cant even update my websites while I'm at college, if I get a lot of work on a particular day I have to take the whole day off and stay at home) and a feckload of more services I don't know about. I'm sure you can say the same about the compsocs in other major universities. Someone mentioned a gamers soc, games like! How can you call simple background-IRC disruptive when other places have games societies? (as it happens I'm not against games socs either, if you have an interest in games and you want to work in the games industry - why should your college hinder that? )

The main point i'm making is that this is a university, not a monastary. If they wanted to create an all-work environment then theres a lot more they could do. A good compsoc should provide a happy compromise between what we want and what we need. And at the very least it gives us basic services which help our work.

Rask, the reason you can't see anything like this happening I'd say is because nobody cares enough. What we're asking is standard; everywhere else has it. I doubt the administration would have many complaints at all if we were to go about setting up a compsoc as Kairo is doing. My bogman friend set up some farmer society thing very easily and all they do is drink for free The reason I personally won't do anything is because I couldn't be bothered, and I have all I want at home (just that my coursework will suffer since I'll have to stay home to avail of it).

daveirl

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Molly

A decent compsoc in ucc would be very nice, especially since my internet access between 2-5 has been cut off

Rew

Originally posted by seamus
Talking to the UCD netsoc admins, you get more than just a warm fuzzy feeling inside. For example, they get unrestricted access to UCD netsoc's 10 grand worth of Sun Sparc Server (Given to them for free obviously), plus a room full of machines with burners and shedloads of RAM, with complete and unproxied direct access to HEANET via a 10Mb line. mmmmmm........

Yeah there are loads of advantges to being a netsoc admin, its gotten me jobs and lods of contacts. Its great on a CV.

If the Sparc is oe of the E450's that Sun donted to various CompSocs its worth closer to 40,000

I have found that the level of intrest can be quite low though. You need a good social side to things as well, loads of events and nights out.

Turner

With compsoc's can you bring in your own pc and connect to college network or is that a definite no no. Twould be class for downloading mp3's iso's etc.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Illkillya


Rask, the reason you can't see anything like this happening I'd say is because nobody cares enough. What we're asking is standard; everywhere else has it.

Hmm i was just trying to be objective and you managed to blow my argument out of the water You're probably right too about the support. There's got to be a load of people doing engineering, arts etc that might be interested in this, after all they'd only have to sign up for it!

Anyone got an ideas on where to go from this? Should we talk to the existing society or maybe make a new one Either way i'll support/help anyway i can.

Raskolnikov

[rant]
If we could get something going then maybe we could get something done about upgrading the slow, dirty and and crappy computers in the labs! For a start 1/2 the monitors in the lab have are completely shot, if it's not the flicker it's images burned into the monitor. There are quite a few computers there that i would refuse to use. Some of them have mice stolen, some are Pentium 2's etc. Anyway low-end P3's with 128mb of Ram just don't cut it, damnit my 2 1/2 year old Gateway can beat that! It's ridiculous that we should have to use such crap when BIS students get top of the line P4's with the sweetest flat screen monitors, upgraded twice a year, the course they do is only 50% computers too! While we're at it maybe we could get some decent, relevent and up to date books in the library. Most of the books are totally out of date and useless or stolen and it doesn't look like they've bought anything for two years!
[/rant]

sceptre

Originally posted by Rew
If the Sparc is oe of the E450's that Sun donted to various CompSocs its worth closer to 40,000

Nice machines those.

I know a chap from UL that used work for Sun during the holliers/parttime during the year. For all I know he's still working for them. I'd guess being a comp soc admin on that machine helped him get his nose in the door.

daveirl

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leeroybrown

NUIG compsoc has 250+ members afaik

I'm heavily involved in NUIG, Compsoc. We've been expanding the society very quickly and have over 450 members now. A large proportion of these are also active, attending events and participating in the community.

If you want to get a Compsoc started up, the first thing to do should be to talk to the relevant authorities in the college to determine exactly what is required to be approved as a soc. Luckily for you, there was a previous Compsoc so you might have a lot less problems getting the Soc back online. (I don't know about ITT but in NUIG a dead Soc is still a Soc and can be re-newed far more simply than a new one can be created)

On top of this you will probably need:

- A proposed comittee
- A constitution (one will almost definitely exist from the old incarnation)
- Some form of "plans" and statements showing what a Compsoc can provide in ITT
- Some people with System Administration knowledge to help out
- Some kind of plan for getting a server together (Doesn't have to be a monolith ... just servicable)

One awkward issue will probably be getting back onto the College network. From what I see a fair bit of bridge burning has taken place, so you might have fun getting (1) a connection and (2) ports dropped on the firewall for external access.

As for the E450's (SUN's Academic Education Grant) ... we missed the boat on those because of inactive committees of old but hopefully (all going well) we'll get some decent H/w soon.

smileyrecords

hey leeroy hows assignment 6 coming along?

anyways why are yee all crying about cd burners??? use external usb Hard Drives, they are cheap and all pcs have a usb connection
if you want download from P2P programs in coleges,YOU CANT!!!THE PORTS ARE BLOCKED!
but FTP port 21 is open so if you know how to use flashfxp and know where to find latest ftp sites, your sorted! there a picture below if you dont believe me

Jk_Eire

It-tallaght`s compsoc was shut down a couple of years ago.
But..
Since last year its been up and running and doing quite well.
http://www.it-netsoc.ie

Ive heard there was problems with college admin and stuff and there still is.
but its going good from what I can see!
Loads of network space with shell accounts on the netsoc server (nemo).
Which is also accessible from home.