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• Big Foam Cluebats: There was a major miscommunication between me and ComputerGear (who have always been very sensitive to concerns about quality and customer happiness). The small, floppy yellow ones have been removed from the site, and everyone who has ordered and paid for them will be receiving a USD$7.99 credit for use at the UF Store for each of the small cluebats. The ones that were shipped out were not what I had in mind. My apologies -- and we've found some bats that will fit the bill (give us a week or so to get them into the store), although <disclaimer>I highly recommend you don't thwack anyone with them!</disclaimer> Although they're padded on the outside, they have this metal core...
• Response to the Illiad's Oddity Geekcruise has been very positive! There's a correction however: if you book now, you only need to come up with a USD$400.00 per person deposit, with the balance due by July 15th. If you book after July 15th you have to cough up the full amount -- speaking of which, the prices for the cabins have all dropped by at least $100! And another thing...they'll help you with a monthly payment plan if that helps make things for you a little easier.
• For Monday, April 7th only: Plan Nine Publishing is selling User Friendly v1.0: The Secrets and Origins of the User Friendly Universe for 25% off the regular price!
• Palle Raabjerg over in Denmark is going to be doing a couple of Danish translations of UF per day over at his site. Thanks Palle! And if you want to know what other translations we have (all done by UFies!), check out the cartoon archives page.

• I've been meaning to mention these guys for a long time: Longbow Digital Arts is a boutique computer game company located in Toronto, Canada. I first stumbled across their work when their first president and lead coder Seumas McNally, wrote in to thank me for UF. I discovered Particle Fire, a gorgeous screen saver using graphics technology that LDA uses in most if not all of their games. In any case, I learned that in March of 2000, Seumas passed away from Hodgkin's Lymphoma after a hard battle. His family continues to work on Seumas' vision and have since produced some smashing (and addictive!) game titles, my absolute favourite of which is Treadmarks, a hysterically fun networkable tank game, and winner of 3 awards in the 2nd Annual Independent Games Festival. No, I don't get anything for endorsing their products, I just really like the work they do. NB: All of their titles are only available for Windows and Mac.
• A question for the gamers out there: how many would like to see a UF-themed card or boardgame? I ask because game design is in my blood and I have two prototypes nearing completion. If there's enough interest I'll form a few playtest groups in about a month and let you guys hammer at it. No, the card game is not collectable in the Magic:the Gathering sense. I like some of the collectable card games out there (notably Heresy and Mythos) but find the "collectable" aspect abhorrent. A (once?) brilliant way to make money though!
• It's April, so here's a reminder that I'll be attending the Linux Northwest Fest on April 26th in Bellingham, WA. C'mon out, gaze at penguins, listen to Maddog speak and quaff a few beers! Also, May 2-4 I'll be at Penguincon in Warren, Michigan, and there's talk of a gang of UFies getting together to watch X-Men 2. Halle Berry in tights? Um. Okay.

There'll be another Backfeed update later this month after a few more things gel into solidity. Thanks gang!

Carol
I have been developing software for industrial electronics for more than five years. My projects include mobile digital video recorders, video-over-cellular transmitters, on-vehicle black-box recorders, and electronics diagnostic tools. My specialty is in communication protocols, particularly for streaming media over IP networks and wireless links.....read full story & view resume

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