News

We have a new mailing list for the discussion of SUCS projects. If you're interested in learning new skills this summer whilst working on things to benefit the society, you can join the mailing list here http://lists.sucs.org/mailman/listinfo/devel . 

We'd especially welcome members new to SUCS projects to take part in building a portal for university societies. If you'd like to know more about this or the other things going on in SUCS this summer, just sign up to the list and introduce yourself :-)

Due to a buggy backup system using up too much disk space, nightly backups of users home directories have been disabled while we implement a more stable system. Users are (as normal) advised to make their own backups of any important files they might miss.

The Beach Party went very well! Thank you to everyone who helped out by collecting wood, taking wood to the beach, securing our spot, bringing food, cooking the food and coming (especially everyone who travelled so far to get here) and having fun :)

This year saw the return of the Golden Diskette Awards and the winners were:

Our Top Bananas for 2007:

• Graham Cole (chckens) for the Most Bananas this year
• James Frost (frosty) for the Second Most Bananas this year
• Andy Price (welshbyte) for the Third Most Bananas this year

We also had:

• Most Helpful Millywaysian Award - Andy Price
• Best/Most Annoying Soundeffects - Chris Elsmore (elsmorian)
• Hostess With The Mostess - Sara Howes (sazzle)
• We're Glad You're Not Leaving Yet - Chris Jones (rollercow)
• Chaos Technician - Pete Berry (pwb)
• Sitsofe Wheeler SCSI Terminator Award For Most Promising Newcomer - Kristian Knevitt (loki)

Pics from the party are being tracked in this thread: https://sucs.org/Community/Forum/viewtopic.php?pid=910#p910 . Don't forget to add links to yours too :).

Also, "Hi and thanks for coming!" to our new friends in Loughborough Computer Society (LSUCS). We hope you had a good time too :).

See you all next year!

When: Saturday 9th June, from 7pm
Where: http://sucs.org/uri/1J (see e-mail for full directions)
Bring: Please bring however much food and drink you're likely to need. There'll be some barbeques happening too, so we we should be able to cook things. Also, if you have any burnable wood, it might be quite handy.
Please check your mail for more information!

Apologies, silver unexpectedly rebooted after a UPS Battery test. It seems the battery is dead.

The SUCS room is long due for a spring clean, so we've put together a list of all the old components we have that we don't want anymore.

See http://sucs.org/Community/Forum/viewtopic.php?id=137 for more information.

The 2nd SUCS Lightning Talks event will be taking place Tuesday 15th March, at 6pm in Kier Hardie, Room 248! Please come along!

Currently confirmed talks:
- Ian Tucker: "How I can hear you typing over the internet"
- Chris Jones: "Hiking+Geek"
- Chris Elsmore: "Processor and Semiconductor Technology" (topic
subject to change)
- Nicholas Corlett: "A Beginner's Guide to UNIX Commands - Part 2"
- Will Blackstock: "Top 10 Fictional Computers"
- James Frost: Topic to be confirmed
- Sean Handley: Topic to be confirmed
- Andy Price: Topic to be confirmed

And there's still time to get involved! If you've got something you want to talk
about then you're welcome to do so - it'd be best if you could let
us know in advance, by e-mail (exec@sucs.org).

The connection between the room and the rest of campus went down at 12:08:14 and returned at 12:29:48. This was caused by a fault with the switch on the LIS operated network we connect to.

There have been intermittent connectivity issues in the LIS-operated network infrastructure throughout the day starting at just after 9am on the 3rd, causing disruption to SUCS services.

We are told that LIS are infact trying to improve network resilance, and these works are causing the problems.

The minutes for this year's SUCS AGM are now available on the SUCS website at: http://sucs.org/About/AGM-2007-03-13

Videos of the talks given at the (extremely successful) first SUCS Talks session are now being added to the SUCS website. You can find them at: http://sucs.org/Community/Talks

There will be a short delay before the remaining videos appear, however, as Frosty left the charger for his video camera in Swansea when he went home for Easter. Unfortunately, it has now run out of battery so he can't get them off the tape until he returns. Keep an eye on the page, though, as they'll appear in the not-too-distant future.

There was a campus-wide network outage between approximately 6:30am and 11am today due to a hardware fault with a router operated by LIS.

There is now a backup Milliways available for use during network outages.

To connect, ssh bbs@sucs.opendium.net using the password "bbs". Once the Milliways login screen appears, use your normal Milliways login credentials (the user database is regularly synchronised from the one on Silver). 

We've started to run a nightly backup to a machine kindly hosted by the Computer Science dept.

You can find daily snapshots of your home directory within /backup.

We make no guarantees about this service! Make your own backups!

All the desktops have now been upgraded to Fedora Core 6. Thanks to all those that helped out!

If you have any ssh key problems just remove the problem entry from your .ssh/known_hosts file, we've set up the system so they should not  be required.

As always, if you encounter any problems or want any software installed, get in touch with admin [at] sucs [dot] org, or ask in Milliways 

The University's Internet connection was down for just over 24 hours, coming back at around 18:40 on 11/02/2007.

During that time, SUCS was not available to the outside world and this will mean that any email sent to SUCS users during that period will have been delayed. Mail will appear in inboxes as remote servers reattempt delivery over the course of the next day.

The votes are in and a new executive committee has been chosen!

Kat Meyrick (saya) will be president.
Chris Elsmore (elsmorian) will be secretary.
James Frost (frosty) will be publicity officer.
Kristian Knevitt (loki) will be treasurer.

Congratulations to our new executive committee!

Here are some photos from our excellent Halloween party!

• davea's photos - http://minus-zero.org/gallery/SUCS%20Halloween%20Party%202006
• talyn256's photos - http://sucs.org/uri/s
  

It's going to be this Tuesday, the 31st October, at Que Pasa (a cocktail bar) on Wind street. We've also invited Manga & Anime society and the Sci-Fi Soc along to join in.

• Free food for all members!
• Our own private section of the Que Pasa, just for us to use!
• Que Pasa loyalty cards for all members!*
• Halloween games!
• A live band!
• Voluntary fancy dress! (yay!)
  

So come, one and all, to the SUCS+SUMA+SciFi Halloween Party! You can bring a guest, if you'd like to :-)

If you want to discuss the party/ask questions, there's a thread on our forum at: http://sucs.org/uri/q and if you'd like to know where Que Pasa is, there's a map here: http://sucs.org/uri/r

See you there! (Que Pasa, 7:30pm, Tuesday 31st October)

Our FTP server now only accepts anonymous connections. This means that users are no longer in danger of sending their passwords in plain text across the Internet.

Users who previously used FTP to access their files should now use a more secure method to access them such as SFTP, WebDav, rsync, etc. You can find out more about how to access your files in the Knowledge section of the website.

SUCS' Jabber server is back up (for the technically minded, we're now using Ejabberd).

There are a few changes you need to be aware of:

• You now need to log in using TLS, plain text auth, and your SUCS username and password.
• All members can connect now - there's no need to register.
• Account registration is disabled. Hence, only members can log in now.

As existing members will have noticed, we have created a new visual identity to go with the new SUCS logo.  At the same time, we've taken the opportunity to reorganise the structure of the site and introduce some new features.

You can now log onto the site using your SUCS username and password. It will always submit your details securely using HTTPS even if you enter your details on a page that wasn't loaded securely. Some tools (e.g. WebMail) still require you to log into them separately, but our long term aim is to allow you to log in once to access all the web-based tools SUCS offers.

The Computer Society welcomes all Swansea freshers (and returning students)!

As usual, we'll be at the freshers' fayre this year to answer any questions you may have.

If we miss you at the fayre, then please come meet us at a social. We're usually in the quiet side of JC's from about 1pm on Fridays :-)

Have a great year!