cshen.ca

Having spent two weeks navigating the slow and cumbersome goSFU system in search of courses to take next semester, I’m now entirely frustrated at the system for being inexcusably slow and hard to navigate, as well as lacking in basic functions which make registering that much easier. Since I have some free time on my hands, I decided to experiment a bit and see if I can design something that’s more workable, and while I’m at it, make it look as if it belonged in 2009.

I should mention right off the bat that this is an experiment only, and does not represent a viable design for goSFU. There are several noticeable oversights that reflect the quick-and-dirty nature of the design, which I didn’t bother fixing because well, it’s just an experiment.

Note: If you only want to see the design and don’t feel like reading the explanations, skip to the very end.

The SFU Human Rights Office recently sent out an email message dedicated to the accommodation of religious “holy days”. The contents are based on British Columbia’s Human Rights Act, which, much like the Charter of Rights, embeds religious accommodation in the legislative and social framework.

The message specifies that student and staff requests for days off in order to observe holy days as prescribed by their religion must be accommodated without penalty unless it presents undue hardship. This would apply for example if a holy day conflicts with an exam, where a student will not lose grades due to it. The message goes on to say that “it is difficult to imagine, in a University of this size and scope, the point at which we would be justified in saying that undue hardship had been reached”. Verifying whether a claimant actually belongs to the religion they claim is discouraged, and a rule of thumb for acceptable religions is provided as those listed in the interfaith calendar, which the same office makes available. Even more onerous requests are accepted, such as “Orthodox Jews and Seventh Day Adventists, [who] practice their religious faith by worshipping from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday”, or “Muslims who fast during Ramadan”.

Earlier today I was linked to The Peak’s report on IEC appointments, in which I was briefly mentioned:

Shen gave a less compelling presentation. “Seeing as one day I want to be a lawyer and a judge, I am very capable of being impartial,” said Shen. The Board decided not to ratify him.

I wasn’t planning on discussing the precursors to my application (and I don’t like talking about myself), but this seems like an invitation to do so.

I did inquire about the IEC late last semester (1081), it’s a unique body within the SFSS and the jobs were rather interesting. However, I haven’t really decided to apply as a commissioner, and that was put completely out of contemplation the moment I was elected as the Criminology representative on Forum, since one can’t be on both Forum and the IEC. So for about two weeks, I thought I was going to be a Forum rep, and that’s the end of the story. But that kind of changed a bit on the day IEC appointments were made.

SFUNET-SECURE is a recently deployed network that supports 802.11a/b/g protocols as well as full WPA2/AES encryption. It also requires an 802.1x EAP/TTLS client for authentication rather than a web portal. While an initial setup process is required, users are encouraged to use SFUNET-SECURE where possible.

Actually it’s not all that recent, since SFU Surrey’s setup instructions are already out of date. This is the revised instructions for Windows.

Windows Vista Setup

1. Download and install the latest SecureW2 EAP Suite. This is needed to authenticate to the network.
2. Navigate to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Wireless Networks.
3. If SFUNET-SECURE is already listed, remove it.
4. Press the Add button (with a giant green plus sign beside it).
5. Select Manually connect to a wireless network.
6. • Network name: SFUNET-SECURE
   • Security type: WPA2-Enterprise
   • Encryption type: AES

   Check Start this connection automatically if desired, then click Next.

Senate Elections

It’s been a few weeks since the Senate elections took place, but I never found time to write this entry. Unfortunately, I was not elected as a student senator, coming in 11th place, right on the line. The complete senate results are as follows (top 10 are elected).