Termcard for Michaelmas Term 2001

Freshers' Drinks

Monday 8th October, 20:00
Massey Room, Balliol

Freshers' Drinks is a chance to meet existing Compsoc members and find out what the society's all about. We will be in the room all evening, so if you can't make 8:00pm feel free to drop in later — ask at the lodge for directions to the Massey Room.

OUCS Tour

Thursday 11th October, 18:00
OUCS

See what makes Oxford's network tick in this behind-the-scenes guided tour. Meed outside OUCS at 13 Banbury Road, and don't forget to bring your University Card or unfortunately OUCS won't let you in.

Computer Architecture

Thursday 18th October, 20:00
Comlab

Tristam Fenton-May takes terms like 'bus', 'interrupt' and 'bridge' out of myth and into reality in this introduction to lowlevel computer architecture and design.

NVIDIA

Wednesday 24th October, 20:30
Comlab

Richard Huddy of NVIDIA will be giving a talk on the past, present and future of graphics hardware. He'll be focusing on games development, covering the new GeForce3 and showing off some of the exciting things you can do with vertex and pixel shaders.

Hands On — Web Technologies

Thursday 25th October, 20:00
NAPL

Come along and chat about HTML, DHTML, CSS or whatever else takes your fancy. From the dabbler to the web design expert, all are welcome. There will be machines available for running demonstrations or just trying things out for yourself. Meet outside the Nuclear and Astrophysics Laboratory (NAPL) on Keble Road.

Rebellion

Tuesday 30th October, 20:30
Comlab

Rebellion, the development studion being 'Alien vs Predator' and the forthcoming 'Judge Dredd' game, will be giving a talk and taking questions on a variety of game related subjects, including working in the games industry, the game design process and both the artistic and programmatic aspects of game development.

DirectX and OpenGL — games development under Windows and Linux

Wednesday 31st October, 20:00
Trinity

DirectX provides an excellent games development for the Windows OS, but games development on Linux certainly isn't impossible. This talk will introduce the components of DirectX and the equivalents under Linux.

OxLUG — Linux Game Programming

Sunday 4th November, 18:30
Comlab

Note: This event is not organised by Compsoc.

Mark Collins, author or 'Linux Game Programming', presents an introduction to games programming under Linux, covering SDL, OpenGL and OpenAL, as well as a look at getting the maximum performance out of games.

Games Night with the OU Gaming Society

Tuesday 6th November, 20:00
Lamb & Flag

We have (foolishly) taken up the challenge of beating the newly formed OU Gaming Society at their own game(s). Meet in the Lamb and Flag to get to know the oppostion, then return to your machines to give them a good kicking! :)

DecisionSoft — XML

Wednesday 7th November, 20:30
Comlab

Decisionsoft Ltd are involved in the development of XML based products for online business. XML is a data markup language used in many new software packages, including AbiWord, KWord and Microsoft's .net. The company is actively involved in the development and enhancement of open source XML tools and has a long history of employing Compsoc members. In this talk, Iain Stokes-Rees will be discussing XML and related standards and their use in today's network aware programs.

Hands On — Getting started with OpenGL

Thursday 8th November, 20:30
Comlab

Following on from our games programming talk in 4th week, this session will take you through the basic OpenGL programming techniques, providing the knowledge necessary to move on to more advanced 3d programming.

Linux and FreeBSD — free Unices

Tuesday 13th November, 20:00
Trinity

This is the first of two comprehensive sessions run by committee members covering the world of the free Unices, in particular the popular Linux operating system. In this talk we'll be discussing Linux, how to install it, how to use it, and how to take advantage of your account on the Compsoc network.

Microsoft

Wednesday 14th November, 20:30
Comlab

Microsoft will speaking about their exciting new products including the XBox and games, the lowdown on Windows XP and the future of computing by way of C# and .net.

Hands On — Linux and FreeBSD

Thursday 15th November, 20:00
NAPL

The second part of our Unix series, this event provides an opportunity to learn more about the Linux operating system and try out what you've learnt on the Compsoc Linux machines.

Trip — Bletchley Park

Saturday 17th November, 10:00
Broad St, Outside Trinity

Bletchley Park was the site of the British World War II codebreaking effort and where the world's first programmable computer was constructed. We'll be taking a minibus to the site: entrance is £5, and we will be making a small additional charge for minibus hire.

If you'd like to come, please e-mail compsoc@compsoc.net as soon as possible — places are strictly limited.

AMD — 64-bit Computing

Speaker: Simon Cole

Tuesday 20th November, 20:30
Comlab

Simon Cole, an engineer from AMD, will give a presentation on AMD's work on 64-bit computing and future plans in this area.

The Demo Scene

Wednesday 21st November, 20:30
Comlab

Matthew Westcott will be giving a rundown on the demo scene, a community of hardcore hobbyists who use game programming techniques to produce self-running artistic works, often similar in form to music videos. Expect a lot of stunning eye candy from this talk!

Termly General Meeting

Thursday 22nd November, 19:00
Keble

Compsoc's Termly General Meeting provides an opportunity for the members to speak to the commitee directly and find out about the running of the society. After the meeting is (rapidly) concluded, we will be heading to a local curry house in what tends to be one of Compsoc's most popular events!

LaserQuest

Tuesday 27th November, 20:00
Gloucester Green

Never ones to shy from some futuristic combat, Compsoc dons vibrating packs, wields laser rifles and runs around in the dark shooting each other. Meet outside LaserQuest on Gloucester Green.

If you'd like to come, please let us know by e-mailling compsoc@compsoc.net by the end of sixth week.

Christmas Party

Wednesday 28th November, 20:00
11 Goodson Walk, Marston

Celebrate the end of term and the start of the Christmas season in style in the last of this term's events.

To reach Goodson Walk go north along South Parks Road past the science area. When the road turns right take the cycle path to Marston. At the second cattle straight on past the first road on the right. Turn right, then immediately left about 20m, then turn right after about 10m, then left into Goodson Walk.

A group will be leaving Keble lodge at 7:45pm in case you don't feel like braving the 15 minute walk to Marston by yourself.