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SEE IT AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME
00:01 PDT 30 MAY 1999
When you thought the Phantom Menace insanity was starting to wind down, along comes a few more of the insane. Star Wars Fan Day is to take place on June 19, one month after the opening of Episode One, and is essentially "let's do it all over again." Unfortunately not everyone around the world will be able to participate. If I recall correctly, the last opening of the Phantom Menace is somewhere in Asia in October. Thanks to Inferno for bringing this to my attention. Am I one of the insane? Maaaayyybeeee... :)

AUSSIE CENSORING BUGTRAQ
00:04 PDT 29 MAY 1999
This in from Minupla: Thought you might be interested in the realworld implications of the Aussie censorship policy. Having Bugtraq banned would make Oz the hot spot for crackers all over the planet, since even script kiddies would probably know before the sysadmins do... maybe they'll be nice and fix some bugs for them while they're at it. Details on this and the rest of the Aussie censorship issue can be found at http://www.efa.org.au/ -- highly recommended reading, because this effects all of us, not just our beleaguered Australian geek brothers and sisters.

TEAM UFIE RC5 UPDATE
00:01 PDT 29 MAY 1999
The latest numbers for Team UFie on the RC5 contest: TeamUFies RC5 passed the 9 million blocks mark! Also, for those interested in what we will do with the $1000 US if/when we win, that's up to the team members themselves. There is a poll up on the TeamUFies Home Page at http://members.xoom.com/UFies/ to determine what to donate the money to -- UFPFH hint hint ;) Thanks Dave! And from Julian: We're #70 overall and #18 yesterday! Not bad at all...nicely done UFies!

WATER VS. LIGHTSABRES
00:03 PST 28 MAY 1999
Yesterday's cartoon featuring 'Darth Mike' and a water ballon apparently wasn't so far off from the truth. An insider reported: Oddly enough, according to LucasFilm Licensing, Light Sabers don't work when wet (this is an issue on a video game I'm working on.) The scenario of today's cartoon is more than a little based on fact. Heh. Maybe I should've become a clairvoyant instead of a cartoonist. I'd probably get more respect from bank managers. ;)

THE DAY TO FIGHT AUSTRALIAN CENSORSHIP
00:01 PST 28 MAY 1999
Barrington sent in this story regarding a coordinated effort to fight against the idiotic censorship bill just recently passed in Australia: Today is Australian Anti-Censorship Day of Action. You can find details at:

http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/

Events are scheduled on this day in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. Since Australia is ahead by several hours, this news item might come a little late, however awareness of efforts such as this one is never useless. Thanks Barrington.

ROUGH SUMMARY OF GEEK TOYS
00:11 PST 27 MAY 1999
Thank you to everyone who took the time to write in with what they'd like to see deep discounts on for UFies. Here's an incomplete but fairly representative list: Lego Mindstorms; Web Servers; PC Workstations; iMACs; Music CDs; MP3 Players like the Rio; MiniDisc players; Palm Pilots and other PDAs; O'Reilly Books; Fiction Books like Cryptonomicon; Laptops; Penguin Mints; Tim Tams; high-end computer components like TNT2 cards; Digital Cameras; Jolt!; Stress Balls; Stereo Equipment; Large Monitors; DVD Players and discs.

The list continues, but I'm happy to say that it seems most of you want pretty much the same things. I'll be setting up a survey shortly which will include this very question so that I can get a better (graphable) handle on what exactly it is you'd like to get your hands on.

SOMETHING CUTER THAN CHUCK?
00:04 PST 27 MAY 1999
Paul Andinach sent in an interesting bit: A column in the weekly computing section of The Australian newspaper last week mentioned a reader's letter that claimed that BSD must be better than Linux because its mascot was so much cuter. This prompted the author of the column to suggest that maybe Windows and Macintosh could start regaining the ground lost if they, too, had cute mascots. Reader suggestions were called for, with a reminder that the winning mascot would have to go one-on-one with the pitchfork-wielding current champion.

This week, some of the suggestions were published. They included:

Windows: An elephant. "...big, slow and bloated. As for a death match, the elephant has two things in its favour - it could easily step on its competition and squash it, or if that fails, just squeeze the BSD Daemon to death with its trunk."

Windows again: "Billy, the cross-eyed dodgem car. There has to be some reason for all the crashing." Heh, cute. Thanks Paul!

IAMBE'S BOARD IS BEING A MOTHER
00:01 PST 27 MAY 1999
I got a frantic phone call from Iambe in the evening. Boiling what she said down to its most basic elements, she spake unto me: "$#@@%!!! My motherboard is fried!!! AAAAGGH!!! #@$%!!!!" She won't be able to offer up a column for today, but she'll try to get one in for tomorrow -- however, no one can tell when she'll actually be back online what with the hardware problems she's been having. Everyone please pray to the God of Hardware and hope that she gets her machine back together soon. I'll keep everyone posted.

AUSSIE INTERNET CENSORSHIP BILL PASSED
00:07 PST 26 MAY 1999
I never gave much credit to legislatures, but it looks like the Aussie government has had its IQ drop sharply in the last little while. The bill that so many have fought so hard against (many of them UFies -- THANK YOU for your efforts) was just passed. I'm hoping this isn't the end of it; with any luck this ridiculous law will be repealed like the CDA was a while ago. Details here. Thanks to the many who wrote in with this item.

I WANT MY I R C
00:03 PST 26 MAY 1999
Looks like we have another IRC network available to help distribute the growing load on the net. Details came in from Stuart: It is run by Media and Games Online Network (MGON - www.mgon.com), and is open to all comers, whether they are gamers or not, to chat, or even open their own channels. We are equipped with full channel, nickname, help and memo services, so that a person can own their nickname and channels/chatrooms. The IRC address is: irc.mgon.com.

iCANT BELIEVE MY EYES
00:01 PST 26 MAY 1999
Actually it was pretty funny. :) Ralph E. Nelson sent in a link to another member of the iMAC lookalike family here. Caveat: you probably don't want to see this if you're prudish. Ralph is also the UF pusher at his workplace, a nameless government agency. Thanks for being such a subversive Ralph. ;)

DUST PUPPY ON ESPN? NOT
00:08 PST 25 MAY 1999
Several people have sent in email asking about the strange looking creatures on an ESPN commercial seen from time to time. Apparently they look like the Dust Puppy minus the eyes, and to quote one of the writers "...they aren't as cute." :) Here is the word: they aren't relatives of the DP as far as I know and I certainly haven't signed any deals with ESPN. Wayne Angstadt is going to be sending me a tape of the commercial -- when I get it I may be able to get it converted into an AVI or MPEG.

PROBLEM EXISTS BETWEEN KEYBOARD AND CHAIR
00:06 PST 25 MAY 1999
Brian Houk sent me some photographs of a pretty cool license plate. You can view the photos here and here. What I want to know is how does a tech earn the kind of money to buy a car like that? Maybe it was a CTO who earned his bars on the front lines?

MINDCRAFTINESS
00:03 PST 25 MAY 1999
Wayne Angstadt sent in this link to a pretty cool article about the Mindcraft NT/Linux benchmarking debacle. http://www.networkcomputing.com/1011/1011colwittmann.html will take you to the goods.

WEE PENGUIN TOYS
00:01 PST 25 MAY 1999
Sent in by Alwin: My wife knits stuffed penguins (or stuffs knitted penguins) -- you can see them at Karen's web-site. My nephew has adopted the first one, but she is now knitting one that looks more like Tux. Heh. I think they're incredibly cute. Check them out.

LINUX EXPO ROCKED
00:07 PST 24 MAY 1999
Jim Knoble sent in a quick review of Linux Expo 99 (the one in North Carolina): Just woke up after a loooooooooong sleep after Linux Expo. It was ... well, overwhelming. I've been at all five Linux Expos; the first one was something like 50 guys in a room at NC State University. Five years later, there's a rotating Red Hat logo the size of Big Bird's head and an IBM booth that comes within inches of the Raleigh Convention Center ceiling, and the sheer multitude of exhibitors and attendees almost freaked me out. For hours I didn't even know where to look, there was so much---which was fine, because I spent the entire first day at my company's booth standing and talking with wave after wave of attendees. Once the doors to the floor opened, the first four hours went by as if they were in a real hurry to get somewhere else.

A few ``rocks and sucks'' items (not to be confused with bricks and bouquets): The exhibit floor space rocked---it was huge enough that traffic could flow freely. The food situation sucked---there was one food vendor tucked away in a corner, and they were selling hot dogs and ham sandwiches. If you wanted vegetarian food, they had...lettuce. I had to walk five blocks down Fayettville Mall to find a cafe that served veggie food. There was no map of the local area around the convention center, either---something with eating establishments on it would have rocked. The real Duncan Imperial yoyo freebies given out by Artecon rocked. The Linux Care lollipops with real dead embedded bugs (crickets, i'm told) were crunchy, but strange---who's ever heard of red-hot-cinnamon-flavored lollipops before? The Turbo Linux presence sucked---get a booth, don't hire models to give out teeshirts and buttons. The Red Hat reception at Jillian's Game Cafe rocked---good beer, good food, good games. The SuSE `Fabulous Friday' reception at The Warehouse sucked---bad beer, food lacking, and the lines were so long at the beer keg and and the food tables that some folks barely got food before they whisked everything away to be replaced by whirling multicolored geometrically-shaped lights and bad Venga Boys dance mix.

All in all, Linux Expo was a real trade show this year---it's come along way since 50 guys in a room at NC State. Let's hope the stuff that rocks doubles in size next year, and the stuff that sucks gets cut in half. Most impressive sounding, and I do wish I could've made it out there, but time just didn't permit. (Sigh). Thanks for the review Jim!

I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE IMAC WAS CUTE
00:03 PST 24 MAY 1999
Cartoon strips notwithstanding, I do think the iMAC is a cute little machine, and one day soon I'd love to have one on my desk. For those who think that the iMAC isn't just cute, but also cuddly, there's a site just for you. I cracked up when I saw what they were showcasing, and I have to admit I was tempted. :) Thanks to Kethryvis and Shhpider for some Monday morning mirth.

'DUST PUPPY INSIDE' LABELS ON SALE
00:01 PST 24 MAY 1999
After a million letters requesting that I produce some Dust Puppy Inside stickers, a resourceful UFie by the name of David Lew asked me to just do some art and he'd produce the stickers and sell them off cheap. As good as his word, he's done it. Details can be found at www.linuxaddict.com/uf.html. David mentions that the scan of the label is nowhere nearly adequate, but at least gives you an idea of what it looks like. Yes, there are the labels that fit inside the recessed square on most PC cases. BTW: David said he only did one run, and once they're gone, they're gone, so get your order in with him now. Heh. Dust Puppy labels. How cool is that? Thanks David!