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LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD GEEKS
00:31 PST 18 APR 1999
This in from Iambe: The User Friendly Project For Humanity, an initiative by the Geek Community for the Globe has been undertaken. The Mission & Charter of The User Friendly Project For Humanity is to provide a website that will not only serve as an educational tool with respect to the global concern of poverty and homelessness, but will serve as a global database of established community organizations working to effect change. We are calling on all UFies willing and able to assist using their great Geeking abilities in undertaking this well worthwhile project. For details on how you can think and act both globally and locally, please check out today's Iambe: Intimate & Interactive.

WHY DIDN'T I TAKE THE BLUE PILL?
00:29 PST 18 APR 1999
So I went to see The Matrix a second time and loved it just as much as the first time. We discovered a cool feature of the new Dust Puppy Hats when Celt (who stole my hat) walked under one of those black lights that make things glow; the Dust Puppy's eyes glowed!! It was pretty cool seeing these two innocuous eyes looking at you in the darkness. Just another feature free of charge. ;-) And by the way, if you haven't seen The Matrix yet, go see it. It's a spiff movie, one of the first intelligent ones I've seen in quite a while. Today's cartoon borrows from it, rather heavily.

DUST PUPPY HEADWEAR
00:03 PST 17 APR 1999
The very first Dust Puppy Hatsare in! You can see pictures of them in the Merchandise section. Grab one while you can, and maybe one for your significant other. Or boss. Or goldfish. I checked out the hats myself and they're very high quality. The art is embroidered, not screened, and the strap is leather. Only the very best for UFies!

BILLIONS AND BILLIONS
00:01 PST 17 APR 1999
This in from Rod Short: Not sure if you've heard about this, but the SETI@Home (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project is starting to take off. The project uses a concept similar to the one used by distributed.net, except in this case you get to use your computer to help analyze signals from space that are collected by radio telescopes. They just released the client for various UNIX machine, with Windows and Mac coming soon (ETA end of April).

I have no idea if they are going to have teams, but if they ever do I think a Team UFie would be really cool. You can get more information from http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/#news. Very cool. I don't want to see the RC5 Team UFie members switch over to this since they're doing so well on distributed.net, but maybe some new folks would like to give this project a shot.

ALT.COMICS.USER-FRIENDLY GETTING THERE
00:11 PST 16 APR 1999
We've had some very good support for the formation of the newsgroup as proposed by Kethryvis. If you'd like to see where we're at, or want to support the creation of the newsgroup, head over to Dejanews (or use your fave newsreader) and search for alt.comics.user-friendly.

NEARING THE SUMMIT
00:09 PST 16 APR 1999
Holy Bacchus and Freya! This in from Dave Easterly, leader of Team UFie over at distributed.net: I'm sure someone's already informed you, but we broke the top 50 for the day, and are at #42! WAY TO GO, TEAM UFies! Way to go is right!! Rocketing to the top!

DUMPING LIQUID OXYGEN ON THE FIRE
00:04 PST 16 APR 1999
Yowch, this is going to get hot. NT is Faster than Linux is about the platform evangelism that's running rampant out there. It's also about stirring up the coals. Thanks to Matthew Musingo for bringing this to my attention.

BE NICE TO NAZIS?
00:02 PST 16 APR 1999
This in from Brian A. Thomas of mortyr.net: Several major retailers such as Best Buy have refused to carry Mortyr [the first person shooter], because of content, despite the fact that Mortyr [clearly makes Nazis the villains]. For more information see the main page on our site, The Mortyr Network. We need to make noise and demand that these stores carry Mortyr, otherwise it will be very hard to find Mortyr on the shelf. I haven't played the game so I can't vouch for the content, but it seems like a case of a big distribution network thumbing their noses at the little guy. Any Mortyr players out there?

NETWORK SOLUTIONS VYING FOR THE TITLE
00:01 PST 16 APR 1999
I was ambivalent towards NSI a couple of years ago. Recently, after they amalgamated their websites to 'better serve our customers' (read: try to pump more money out of them) they got me a little annoyed. Now I find out about this and I'm getting positively disgusted. I guess it's just Standard Business Practices at work again. C'est la the 'net.

USER FRIENDLY LITERARY CLUB ON-LINE
00:08 PST 15 APR 1999
And this in from Kethryvis: After a month and a half of build up (or something like that) The User Friendly Literary Club is open for business!

This is a place where the not-so-computer-geeky-geeks can come hang out...and of course the very-computer-geeky-geeks are welcome also...and now we have something common to talk about! We'll have a book of the month (reviews done by UFies...not just me), a poetry corner (for all sorts of creative writings..not just poetry) and lots of other fun stuff to come. Plus the best part of it is that its all interactive! Email the authors and tell 'em what's on your mind. They'll pick one email a week to respond to in the column.

So stop on by!! We're located in Geek Stuff, and the exact URL is http://www.userfriendly.org/geekstuff/uflc. Come on by, pull up a chair, and get Lit!! (or something)

HYPER BETA SPACES
00:03 PST 15 APR 1999
Are you lazy? Do you hate doing things right when you can just do them over? Hate working with a team? Skip the rest of this news item then, it isn't for you. :) The bright folks over at Webforia are getting close to the start of the beta period for their two flagship products, Webforia Reporter and Webforia Organizer. If you're into document technology (like I am) and software that organizes your life in a smart and seamless manner, this is right up your alley. Now is the time to sign up as a beta tester for the product cycle. If you're selected, you'll receive a licensed copy of the software you test. I should also point out that Webforia, like most smart technology companies, has a tendency to hire their beta testers. Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Webforia, I just really like what these guys are doing.

ONWARD AND UPWARD
00:01 PST 15 APR 1999
This in from Spacecdt: ...I write this because I started the Women in IT Friendly Forum rave back in January to have an outlet for work stress. You see, Miranda and I are quite alike - we work in a male-dominated environment. What is different about us is at least she's accepted, to some degree, by her co-workers and management as a talented sysadmin. I work for a Canadian web development firm who has very little respect for sysadmins (I s'pose there aren't any places who do, but I could be wrong) and even less for female sysadmins...I'm their only one.

Anyway, from support of others in the forum, and from an inner strength I wasn't sure I had, I am just about to walk into my boss-twit's office and give 2 weeks notice :). Therefore, [company name] be damned, I'm going somewhere that has a bit more respect for women and sysadmins :)

Hey, congratulations from myself and the UFie community at large. Way to go!

A NEWSGROUP FOR UFIES
00:07 PST 14 APR 1999
The ebullient Kethryvis has gotten the ball rolling for an alt.comics.user-friendly newsgroup. If you want to see her posting in alt.config, the message id is: bhzQ2.9322$S7.3161736@news.inreach.com. Hop in and give her some support!

A LITTLE BACKLOGGED
00:06 PST 14 APR 1999
And I thought I had problems. This in from Ryan, who a few days ago offered up free e-mail and web hosting to UFies everywhere: The reply to the free webspace offer was HUGE!! I got something like 300 requests. If you could let everyone know who applied, please WAIT... I'm doing this as fast as inhumanly possible, and it all should be done this weekend. So please let up on him a bit folks; he's doing this out of generosity after all. This'll teach him. ;-)

CARTOONS FOR WALLPAPER?
00:03 PST 14 APR 1999
Tabby Foo wrote me a very nice letter telling me how much she enjoys the strip. She proved it by attaching photos of her wall, adorned lovingly with cartoons done by you-know-who. There's one here and here. Thanks Tabby!

YOU'RE A BUNCH OF ROTTERS
00:01 PST 14 APR 1999
Late last night I get pulled into an IRC channel by some UFies for some "important meeting." I should've known something was up. Weary and sleepy from piles of mail and work, I'm sent over to a URL they give me. Sure enough, it's a Shrine to Illiad, and boy did my face burn with the heat of a thousand suns. Turns out some of the UFies caught wind of my melancholy of the last week, and decided to build me a permanent pick-me-up. Thanks to everyone who participated. Not only did it cheer me up, I discovered how many shades of red I can turn in less than five minutes. Bastages. :-)

WILD WILD WEST!!
00:16 PST 13 APR 1999
OK, yes, I'm waiting with bated breath for Phantom Menace, but when I saw the trailer for Wild Wild West with Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branaugh and Salma Hayek I got excited again. I love Westerns, and I love gadgets as well, and this movie has both! There's a trailer at the site, with spiff music and all. Top it off with the fact that I'm a serious fan of the way cool Deadlands RPG which happens to link nicely with the movie, and y'all have a Damn Good Reason why you'll see me lining up to see this show. Six weeks in advance? Not likely. I'm not that crazy.

MAY DAY LINUX FESTIVAL
00:12 PST 13 APR 1999
LSNet Presents the First International May Day Linux Festival - In picturesque Independence, VA on May 1 from 10:00am to 6:00pm. Independence is 80 miles North and a little West of Winston-Salem in the Blue Ridge Mountains. For the adventurous, camping facilities can be had by calling New River Canoe (http://nrc.ls.net/) or RiverCamp USA http://www.rivercamp.net/). Call as soon as possible for reservations. There are also a number of B&B's and motels in the area. You can dig up phone numbers and the like by emailing our local tourism director, Betty Scott (grayson@ls.net). We are planning bunches of cool live music (Rock to Celtic to traditional - we're working on a string quartet), cubic barnfull of cheap food, keg of cheap beer, Ethernet on the porch, swap tables, hopefully some donations from the commercial folk. Since this is a porch/yard party, if you want to bring something to sit on, that may be appropriate. Installations, demonstrations, clinic and lots of Linux talk will be the rule of the day. Short on details, we make up for it in enthusiasm. Email tarvid@ls.net or starr@ls.net for details!!

FANART + NEAT FILES MERGED
00:03 PST 12 APR 1999
I knew I forgot to announce something. The old Fan Art and Neat Files sections have been merged into one, under the ominous title of UFiles, a subsection of the Community pages. The section is still being organized, and I have about a dozen new files/graphics to add to the section -- I've been hoarding them until the new section is tidied up. Hopefully I'll finish that later today when I awake from my deep slumber.

MICROSOFT'S OFFICIAL SOLUTION FOR INCREASING DISK SPACE
00:01 PST 12 APR 1999
I did a double take when I saw this. Then I burst out laughing. This is in Microsoft's Knoweldge Base, so it's about as official as you can get. http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows3x/serviceware/win31/33g1oyjh.asp is where you can see what the largest software company in the world recommends you do to get yourself more room on your hard drive. Thanks to Michael Hollinger for this gem.