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FRONT PAGE OR STATIC PAGE?
00:01 PDT 06 JUN 1999
I'm in the late planning stages of the next facelift for the site, and I've considered running the cartoon a la the Static page as the front page of the site -- hence http://www.userfriendly.org/ will take you to the page that you're reading now, albeit in a different form. What do you all think? Should the Static remain where it is at /static or should I place it at the root of the site? Please write me and tell me your thoughts; other suggestions are welcomed as always.

CONTESTS COMING
00:05 PDT 05 JUN 1999
Just to give everyone a heads up, we'll be running a string of new contests and a survey starting sometime next week. Prizes galore, including some spiffy new User Friendly merchandise. Keep your eye on the news here and all will be revealed.

EVIDENCE OF THE VOGUE
00:01 PDT 05 JUN 1999
Yesterday's news item "Draconian Laws Are In Vogue" covered the current move in the Japanese government to pass anti-privacy laws as per a story in Wired. A corroborating story sheds more light on this at http://www.tao.ca/fire/nettime/old/4/0106.html. Thanks to edjs for doing the ferretting.

DRACONIAN LAWS ARE IN VOGUE
00:12 PDT 04 JUN 1999
Ain't this just peachy. Sent in by Matt Wilkie: Just thought people should know, Australia isn't the only country in the process of attempting to pass scary laws - Japan is in the grips too. Head over to Wired for the news blurb. Unfortunately it links to absolutely no other site so confirmation/more info is hard to come by. Maybe somebody else will have more luck than I in gathering more data.

RC5 TEAM UFIE NEWS
00:07 PDT 04 JUN 1999
Dave Easterly wrote in once again with another Team UFie milestone: looks like the Team has muscled past the 10,000,000 block mark! Well done, gang. Also, Dave would like to announce that the Team UFie poll (what to spend the prize money on) is going to be wrapped up on or about the 15th of June, so head on over and log your vote if you haven't already.

MAWWAGE
00:04 PDT 04 JUN 1999
Yeah this tickles me pink. :) Looks like our first UFie marriage is going to take place between Diver and Tabbycat, sometime in the near future. And they credit UF and the community for bringing them together. I love it, the first time I get credited for something instead of being blamed for it. :) Congrats to the both of you!

MYMOVIES.NET THANKS THE UFIE COMMUNITY
00:01 PDT 04 JUN 1999
The fine chaps over at MyMovies.net asked me to extend their gratitude to the UFie community for the very useful feedback they received on the site. They've also informed me that sometime next week they'll run a contest with a valuable movie-related prize, and the UFies get first crack at it.

A SHRINE TO THE EVIL GENIUS
00:14 PDT 03 JUN 1999
Andrew has taken it upon himself to build and launch a site dedicated to none other than Pitr, your friendly neighbourhood Evil Genius. It's pretty cute. What's next, a site dedicated to Stef?

MYMOVIES.NET RUNS UF:PHANTOM MENACE CARTOONS
00:11 PDT 03 JUN 1999
Looks like UF has a place in subject-specific content provision. The great gang at http://www.mymovies.net/ are running the UF storyline that involves 'Darth Mike' and his lightsabre toy in their new Star Wars section. There's a bunch of neat stuff at the site right now, including a contest involving Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (yummmm) and the MyMovies folks would really appreciate it if the UFies could head over and make some comments and suggestions about the site in general and the Star Wars section in particular.

ANOTHER FREE SERVICE FOR UFIES
00:10 PDT 03 JUN 1999
Sierra has been kind enough to offer a free counter service to the UFie community. There is a variety of digital styles available, and the service is open to requests and suggestions. Thanks Sierra!

AUSTRALIAN CENSORSHIP REBUTTAL
00:04 PDT 03 JUN 1999
Quite a few of you wrote in regarding the letter that Daniel Farnan wrote about the censorship issue. One of the best responses to Daniel's points was written by Mark Newton. I should point out that Daniel took Mark's points to heart and apologized for any misrepresentations to Mark, to me and to anyone else who might've been misled. It is to Daniel's credit that he recanted immediately, and I think the only thing we can fault him for is jumping too quickly to his conclusions, a common enough mistake. After all, discourse like this is exactly what we need to bring issues and facts to light.

'DUST PUPPY INSIDE' LABELS SOLD OUT!
00:01 PDT 03 JUN 1999
The stickers are gone! David Lew wrote me today and told me that he had more orders than he had stock, so it looks like the sale is over. I'm sorting through a pile of mail to see exactly what the next step should be regarding the artwork for new stickers, so please bear with me. I'll notify everyone when I get things a little more organized.

SETI TEAM UFIES NEWS
00:08 PDT 02 JUN 1999
From Latheos: I'm impressed with you folks. We've done over three years worth of work in the last couple of weeks. Good job!

At this time, SETI Team User Friendly has 219 members registered through SETI@Home, 165 of which I have on my list. On the average I get between three and five new members each day, but I'd like to see those numbers go up. We've slipped in the rankings from #2 to #3, behind Team MacAddict. I *know* we can do better than that. :)

I've updated my list of people, and I may have gotten some duplicate entries for some of you. Please let me know if you get this message twice, and I'll get that fixed.

If you know of anyone who has signed up on the team through SETI@Home, but isn't on our Team User Friendly Members page (http://ufies.org/~seti/members.html), have them send email to setiathome@ufies.org with their name and email address, and I'll get them added.

Team User Friendly Stats as of Tue Jun 1 00:06:16 1999 UTC:

 Work units sent: 1380 Results received: 834 
 Total CPU time: 27553 hr 28 min 02.4 sec ( 3.15 years) 
 Average CPU time per work unit: 33 hr 02 min 15.8 sec 

THE BLUNDER DOWN UNDER
00:01 PDT 02 JUN 1999
It was gratifying to see the mail pour in from people around the world regarding the Internet Censorship bill. In support of the continuing efforts by the folks over at Electronic Frontiers Australia, I continue to urge people to educate themselves on the issue and to add their voice to the many -- although not yet enough -- who are declaring their disappointment with the actions of the Australian Government.

A few developments have taken place in the last couple of days. Michael Carson sent in this bit about some of the efforts being made to "legally" evade enforcement of the legislation: The folx from 2600 have been burning the midnight oil to find a technical fix for government stupidity. Check out http://www.2600.org.au/censorship-evasion.html for the lowdown. Pugget sent in this link to the suggested list of words to be banned as drawn up by Senator Alston. Finally, Daniel Farnan sent in this very thoughtful letter that carefully examines the legislation and gives both sides its due. Ultimately nothing has changed; we need to convince the Australian bigwigs that what they're doing is a Bad Thing. If we don't let up, something will have to give. On a lighter note, a couple of intrepid Aussie sysadmins convinced their Member of Parliament to print out last Sunday's cartoon and stuff it into Senator Alston's internal mailbox. Heh. Wonder if he got the joke. :)

SHOULD WE FUND TOTALITARIANISM?
00:01 PDT 01 JUN 1999
Maybe what the Australian government pulled on May 26th isn't quite totalitarianism (the principle of complete and unrestricted power in government), but the mindset being displayed is disturbingly similar. For those not in the loop on this issue, the Australian government rammed an Internet Censorship Bill through the Senate while ignoring commentary from the public and the industry sector. You can get more details on the bill and its various memoradum at http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/99.html. Please spend a few minutes and read some of the comments and items there.

What this all means is that the Australian Internet industry is at risk of being burdened with an unrealistic and onerous law, and freedom of speech is not a given in Australia. If you're wondering how this affects you if you don't reside in Australia, please keep in mind that precedent is a powerful weapon in the hands of politicians with an agenda of moral imposition. We need to help stop this ridiculous law in its tracks, and we need to stop it NOW. As members of what is fast becoming one of the most powerful groups on the planet, we geeks should be flexing our not insignificant political muscles by letting the rest of the world know what we think of Australian Internet policy.

We have an opportunity to hit the Australian government where it lives -- in its wallet. Senator Alston, the Australian Minister for Communications and architect of Australia's draconian "new" Internet regulation law will be visiting Silicon Valley this week(Acrobat PDF File) to encourage investors to pour money into Australia's hi-tech sector.

What I urge everyone to do is to contact your local papers and news stations and express the dim view that the geeks, the knowledge wizards who drive the hi-tech sectors around the world, have of Australia's frightening political climate. If you work in Silicon Valley, or know someone who does, please take a few minutes and let the VPs and executives of these companies know that Australia is known to possess a Byzantine environment for Internet workers. The Australian government, if given a less-than-friendly reception, can't help but take notice. And they just might take the hint and repeal the law the way the American Communications Decency Act was rendered void. BUT -- change in our favour will not take place if we gloss over this and ignore it. We all need to do something, each and every one of us, even if it's just writing an email to your local paper and letting them know your opinion of the Australian government.

This issue is a very serious one, one that has at its core the question of state sanctioned morality and being able to choose what you want to read or have access to. As a cerebral group, one that spends much of its time exercising intellect, we should cherish and vehemently protect our ability to express ourselves and to communicate in ways we see fit. The Australian government opposes these freedoms, and has evidently taken steps to place itself in the role of moral arbitrator, a role best filled by someone more impartial than a political body with a power agenda.

I encourage everyone to raise the stakes on the Australian government. Let them know that we won't condone medieval behaviour.

FREE DNS/REDIRECT SERVICES
00:03 PDT 31 MAY 1999
Yet another free service being offered to the UFie community: I am a part of the ihn.org project. We are a service which currently provides FREE DNS services and URL forwarding/redirects to the Internet community.

We own the domains clan.net, ihn.org and darpa.org and provide redirect services for many online gaming sites. As our popularity grows, we will be adding additional domains and services.

Examples include: http://sxn.clan.net and http://khefren.clan.net

Those interested in using this service should contact kade.

MEMORIAL DAY IN THE UNITED STATES
00:01 PDT 31 MAY 1999
Today is the American holiday Memorial Day, kind of like Remembrance Day in November for Canadians. More information on today's US holiday can be found at http://www.dcpages.com/Tourism/Memorial_Day/.