A MESSAGE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD USENIXERS: Top-notch Training and Cutting-edge Practices Offered at USENIX Annual Technical Conference 2005 (USENIX '05).
Join us in Anaheim, CA, April 10-15, 2005, for the USENIX Annual Technical Conference 2005 (USENIX '05). This year's program includes 5 days of training by industry experts such as Ted Ts'o, Gerald Carter, Aeleen Frisch, and Marcus Ranum; keynote address by historian George Dyson; starting April 13, technical sessions including General and FREENIX/Open Source Refereed Papers, Invited Talks, and Guru Is In Sessions. Learn the latest groundbreaking practices from the technical best. Themes include: system administration, Linux, open source, security, networking, and more. Register by March 21 and save up to $300!
ILLIAD FOR A DAY CONTEST 2005:Go download this ZIP file -- within are the base strip graphic, the necessary font, and blanks for a 3- and 4-panel strip. Go into the cartoon archives and use whatever UF art exists. You'll have to get out some kind of raster image manipulator such as the GiMP or Photoshop. The goal: To put together your bestest, funniest UF cartoon you can manage! The rules (repeated from last time):
- You MUST use existing UF cartoon art. I don't want to be judging Mike the Anime Super Kung Fu Guy against an Edward Gorey-an Crud Puppy. That's cool and everything, but let's save that for another contest. Go forth and find the poses, furniture, whatever that you require in the archives to do the job.
- Neatness and completeness counts! Try not to send in a cartoon that looks like this spider's breakfast. Speech lines, lettering fit, and your name at the end of the by-line!
- Clever writing! Be clever! And stick to expected character behaviours unless the deviation is specifically a humour device -- absurdity is a good thing. If you have trouble spelling words correctly, use a dictionary. See, I never make spelling mistakes. Ahem. :)
- Keep it PG-13 or cleaner! No swear words. No truly angry, bitter trash-talking. Keep it to the spirit of UF as it has always been. And no snot jokes unless it involves Mr. Cola. Even then, imply rather than state.
- Send all completed entries as .GIF files to my usual address (illiad AT this domain) and put "Illiad for a Day" in the subject field.
- All entries become the property of me, and must be in by the deadline, 6:00PM Pacific Time, Friday March 11, 2005.
- A maximum of one entry per person, please!
There will be two runners-up and a first place prize. The runners-up will both win 12-month ads free membership at UF! The first prize will be the 12-months ad free membership, and up to six (signed if desired) hi-res cartoon prints of their choice from the archives!
Best of luck everyone!
(RSS-)FEEDING THE MASSES: Some of you may have noticed a teeny leetle button in the left-hand margin. That button leads you to an XML file where you can hook up UF to your RSS reader of choice. My thanks to Arachnid for doing the hard work of putting the feed together!
LET THEM EAT CAKE: UFie Ólafur Helgi Haraldsson sent in this link to a very well decorated cake! I just had to send you a link to a picture of my birthdaycake my girlfriend made me on the 20th of Jan. Big hi from the cold island in the north atlantic, Iceland. A Very Fine girlfriend you have there Ólafur, better hang on to that one. ;)
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DATING YOURSELF: Sounds kind of rude. UF's February 2005 Desktop Calendar is ready to go! The European version as well. [.PNG, 1600x1200, ~243k]
UFIPEDIA QWIKI: Looks like Epideme, murf, Kickstart, dire lobo and a bunch of other UFies have been updating and expanding the UF entry in Wikipedia. Thanks for the great work and the heads-up guys!
CONTEST IDEAS FOR 2005: The next contest to be run at UF will be a return of "Illiad for a Day" where you get to build a cartoon from all of the art that exists in the archives. I'll supply the blank strip, the fonts and the deadline. Expect details in the next week or so!
However, there's always room for new contest ideas. If you can think of one that would be distinctly UF-flavoured, send it in to me, and if we use the idea I'll send you your choice of a (signed if you wish) hi-res print of your favourite cartoon from the UF archives. Let's hear what you have to say!
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