Chair: David Pan and Neal Gokli
Email: sigmobile@acm.uiuc.edu

Meeting Time: Saturday 1:00 PM
Place: 1225 DCL or L510

Chair: Eric Kolb
Email: sigmusic@acm.uiuc.edu

Meeting Time: Monday 6:45 PM
Place: 1225 DCL

     SIGMobile is working on laser tag robots for EOH. Each robot (and the "laser" turret on top) will be controlled by an HP Jornada PDA, while scoring will be done by a separate computer. Of course, all communication will be wireless, using DCL's 802.11b network and RF transmission.

     We have most of our planning done, and are working on the hardware side of things. The software side is still up in the air. So, if you are interested in learning (or teaching us a little bit about) anything involved, stop on by. Also, if you like explaining tech stuff to kids, we'll be doing a lot of that at EOH. They are going to love this project.

     You don't need any prior knowledge, just a willingness to sit around and goof off, and maybe a little work.   Show up at our meetings!

   With the close of the Fall 2001 semester, our former chairperson, Parashar Krishnamachari, graduated leaving me to assume his role. It's not hard to see that, over the course of the last several semesters, SIGMusic has been in a steep decline. Therefore, it's my job to put some energy back into the group and get it moving again.

     The first step of this revitalization of SIGMusic has been the complete revamping of the SIGMusic web page. Our site (http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/sigmusic) has had little maintenance in several years time and is way behind the bar for web design.  After a couple of days of configuring the system, I've launched a PHP/SQL-based site featuring user logins, a commenting system, and many other features to help keep members in touch with the happenings of SIGMusic.

     The top items on our agenda right now are completing the SIGMusic 2002 CD, investigating the interest in a MIDI workshop and a subsequent MIDI hardware project, and getting some momentum built up for Sounds & Visions 2002. The SIGMusic CD already had a couple of tracks completed, with others half-done, so there's plenty of space for more artists and more music.

     In other news, we've updated our equipment set up somewhat recently. Staypuft, SIGMusic's machine that resides by our synth in the back office, has been upgraded with 128MB of RAM, bringing it into a useable state for audio processing.  In addition, ACM has purchased a mini-theater for SIGMusic to use as monitor speakers and a media lab CD player.  The speakers are decent for any monitor task and are connected to the DAT, PC, and synth via the Mackie Mixer.  We've also purchased an Echo Mia sound card (with quarter inch and S/PDIF inputs) for Staypuft to allow us the capacity for noiseless audio input at long last.  I expect this hardware to be delivered within a few days, if not by the time this update is printed.  A CD writer for this machine will soon follow, as SORF has provided us with funding for both a CD-RW as well as the aforementioned sound card.

     If you're interested in electronic music, from the software, hardware, or performance perspectives, swing by a meeting and help me put some kick back into this group.  Until then!

5, 15, and 45.  This saves the disk from reading in on direction and then stopping, reversing direction and reading again.  Reads like this would be analogous to reading page 5 of book, then reading page 45, and finishing with page 15.  It is obviously better to read the pages in order and thus so with reading sectors from a hard drive.
     As mentioned before, ATAPI-IDE supports only 4 devices on the average computer.  4 devices were more then enough for most people only a few years ago, but as the popularity of Iomega Zip drives, CD burners, and DVD drives grow, the number of devices in the average PC also grows.  Having an interface that supports more devices would be an added bonus.
     I do not deny that ATAPI-IDE devices of today are better then ones produced only a few years ago.  UDMA support (a way to access disks without using processor power) has improved speed and system performance dramatically.  The size and speed of the disks has also dramatically improved.   
     I do not doubt the benefits of these advances, I only interject that an even better interface exists.  An interface that supports more devices, has faster, larger and lower latency disks, and was designed with multi-tasking in mind.
     SCSI.  The Small Computer Systems Interface is superior to the ATAPI-IDE interface in many ways.
     Look for the reasons next month in another exciting issue if the Banks of the Boneyard!