Newsletter

Hurrah, first newsletter of the year! Welcome to all the freshers and to those who aren't. :) I (Adam) am Compsoc Secretary for the next two terms, and aim to put out a newsletter every week or two with upcoming events, socials, trips etc that we have planned.

h4. Contents

* First Social
* Gaming
* LAN Signups
* Codathon
* Bowling Trip
* IRC
* Ethernet Cable / Molotov Accounts

h4. First Social

I'm sure you've all got at least one email from Chloe (Socials Officer) in the last couple of days so you know what's going on. So, Compsoc's first social, 7:30pm-10pm in Meeting Room 3 in Union North today (Wednesday 5th), hope to see you all there!

h4. Gaming

Compsoc's first post-fresher's fayre Gaming Sessions start this Friday and Saturday at 10pm til 4am. Whether you want to play Warcraft, Raven Shield, bzFlag or even just TetriNET (multiplayer tetris!) you should come and check out our gaming sessions.

Those large "No Gaming in ITS Rooms!" don't apply to Compsoc on these evenings, so no need to lug your PC/Laptop anywhere, just signup and turn up. If you fancy Gaming being your first Compsoc event that's great, but the welcome social tonight should provide a good opportunity to get to know people before beating them at games. ;) . No need to stay til 4am, or even to turn up at 10pm, just drop by anywhen. Bringing a pair of headphones/earphones would be great too as the noise of 22 voices/PCs all playing games isn't pretty.

Gaming is held in B2.08 in the Physics corridor, on your left before you turn towards L3 and L5. If you've not been there, as you leave the library, go over the bridge, through the two sets of double doors, and it's the first ITS Computer room on your left.

More info here: http://www.uwcs.co.uk/gaming/sessions/

h4. LAN Party Signups

From 6 hour gaming in the ITS rooms to 48 hours with your own PC in a room with 40+ others for a weekend :)... Friday 21st, 8pm - Sunday 23rd, 8pm is Compsoc's first LAN Party of the year!

Signups will open for members half way through week 3, ie Wednesday 12th October somewhen in the evening. Guests (non-members of Compsoc) are welcome to sign up from the following Saturday (15th) but our LANs get very full very quickly, so there may not be space.

More info at: http://www.uwcs.co.uk/gaming/lans/

h4. Codathon

Compsoc will be running a 48 hours "Codathon" at the end of Week 6, a great opportunity for anyone with even some coding experience on any degree course. The exact details of "what" the challenge project will be and details of what to bring will be announced nearer the time. The Codathon will start at 8pm on the Friday, and finish at 8pm on Sunday.

Food and drink will be provided to keep everyone alive (and awake). Oh, and courtesy of Accenture (shameless plug) there is at least £100 of prize money available :) . Stay tuned.

h4. Bowling Trip

Expect news about our first Bowling Trip of the year to arrive within a week or so, no dates yet.

h4. IRC

If you don't fancy braving a social right away and just want to come and chat with at least 60 of the Compsoc members before meeting them, try IRC (Internet Relay Chat). It's simply one big chat room, no more complicated than MSN really. Our IRC server/channel is:

* server: irc.uwcs.co.uk - try the default ports, otherwise try 6667 or 6668. (6669 for secure)
* channel/(room): #compsoc

If you've not used IRC before you'll need a program/client to run, so I recommend:

* XChat 2.4.5.2: http://www.silverex.info/download/ *or*
* mIRC 6.16: http://www.mirc.com/get.html

h4. Ethernet Cable / Molotov Space

Compsoc provides many services to it's members including the sale of Ethernet RJ45 cable, and a shell account and webspace on a Compsoc server.

Base charge for a cable is 40p plus 20p per metre. So,

* For 5metres: 0.40 + (5 * .20) = £1.40
* For 10metres: 0.40 + (10 * .20) = £2.40
* For 20metres: 0.40 + (20 * .20) = £4.40

Very reasonably priced, and a lot cheaper than a certain amphibian sounding shop near costcutters.

The shell account on our server Molotov is free, and comes with 20MB of storage and is accessible from the url: http://.uwcs.co.uk . Extra quota is only £2.50 for an extra 500MB, far cheaper than any hosting provider you're likely to find. The server is on campus so uploading to it from the residential network/campus machines will be at LAN speeds. More information about our Web Hosting here:

http://www.uwcs.co.uk/services/hosting/member

Adam Miles (ajmiles)