It's been said for many a year that *this* will be the year Linux breaks through into the desktop space. Clearly we're still a long way off, but it's nice to see that over the past two years, both Linux and BSD-based Mac OS X have taken share away from Redmond.
Of particular note, Linux has finally hit 1% of the desktop market. Just 99% more to go!
I've been saying this for years
-- Diesel Sweeties #2194
(c) R Stevens 2009. Used Without Permission.
As you may have heard last month from Ed, the book EMF: Eclipse Modeling Framework, 2nd Edition is out now. Order now and get free shipping and an online copy too.
Taking an idea from Red vs. Blue and borrowing from Google Image Search & SSS Canada, I thought I'd design a few new shirts to take the EclipseCon Committer Shirt Contest in a different direction. Bear in mind these are just comps, because my GIMPin' skills are pretty limited.
Have you submitted anything for the EclipseCon Committer Shirt Contest yet? If not a graphic design, how about a conceptual one? Describe your idea, and maybe someone else will attempt to render it.
A fashion faux-pas frusta-ration
Combined with lack of motivation
And a loss of concentration
I've seen some fugly tees*
I can't concentrate on work
My wardrobe has gone berserk
Now I'm sweating 'bout this shirt
Another fugly tee*?!?
(Chorus)
Two years ago
I said you'd never clothe me
I gave you to Goodwill
Now in this world of feckless logowear
Why do good brands have to go astray
And leave you with nothing
Ya, you left me with nothing
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
But a fugly tee*
wee ooo wee ooo
Hyper technical sessions
And some great hands-on lessons
All a'mashin' and a'meshin'
March in Californi-ee
I don't wanna go to sleep
Bags of Fritos by my feet
Writin' code, pining for heat
Please no fugly tees!
(Minnie Mae)
Why did you have to put
so much pressure on me?
I have no GIMPin' skills**
(Simon)
I didn't mean to scare you little one
Is there nothing I can say?
It's really not that hard
Ya please lower your guard
Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah
And submit some tees
wee ooo wee ooo
Now I'm standing in the snow
Moisture soaking through my shoe
Every droplet causing woe
Reminding me I have to go...
Time to take a break from work
Holiday shoppers gone berserk
I've now only got one care
We need something else to wear!
Chorus
* - Admittedly, past years' EclipseCon Committer Shirts have been long sleeves, not t-shirts (tees). However, "fugly shirts" (or worse, "fug'long sleeves") doesn't work as well lyrically. Please excuse this creative license.
** - You can get GIMP for Windows and Mac, too, not just Linux.
With just over a month left in the EclipseCon '09 T-shirt design contest, I'm disappointed to report we've had no submissions yet.
So, to get the ball rolling and hopefully avert a fashion crime this time around, here are a few submissions of my own for you to consider and riff on. (If you can't read the small print, it says "* - Frequently Updated Deliverables".)
Get yourself a free Zazzle account (all it takes is an email address and a few minutes) and you can customize these with your own text, images, and fabrics. Then, submit a link to your gallery in bug 256495, and you'll be entered. If you tag your creations with "eclipsecon09" they will appear in rotation in the widget above.
Note: after creating a design in Zazzle, your new offering will take a few minutes to appear in your gallery, and several minutes more to be shown publicly.
Oh, and don't be afraid to submit things you aren't sure are any good. The winner of the last contest wasn't sure his submission was good enough... and then ended up winning! So trust your instincts and submit something today!
Here's a few ideas I've thought of but haven't had the time (or skills!) to render -- feel free to borrow something.
The Eclipse Foundation is holding a contest to design a new and improved committer t-shirt to give away at EclipseCon 2009. Anyone can participate and all ideas are welcome. Help us make the Eclipse community a better-dressed place!
You are also welcome to use Photoshop, GIMP or any other graphics program to create a design in .jpg, .gif or .png format.
The deadline for entries is January 12, 2009 at 4:00 pm EST.
Note: Individuals are allowed to submit multiple entries, but only one prize per person will be awarded.
Finalists will be chosen by a community vote and the winning shirt will be selected by the Eclipse Foundation. Community voting will take place January 13-26, 2009, with results posted here.
Seven submitters. Twenty-two submissions. Five winners, chosen by you.
Polls close December 5, 2008 at 4:00 pm EST.
There are just under 26 hours left to get in your submissions for the "Better Than MovieOS" Photoshop Challenge, but we've already gotten some great submissions.
We'll be announcing the winners early next week, as well as details on the next contest which will run though January 12, 2009. Details to follow. 'Till then, here's a teaser:
Play For Schwag
Anybody searching for action?
Anything to fill your empty wardrobe, yeah
Any place you've got a 'puter
Any takers wanna submit their designs?
With the fire and lightning shooting from your hands
And creativ'ty written 'cross your eyes
Your itchy fingers on a cordless mouse there
Your passion's hot and this contest's taking flight
Inside the convention
The cover charge's free for accepted talks
Now, I hear you screaming out for mercy
Last submission standing wins the fight
Too late and you'll be out, nothing you can do
Contest's done 12th January
Over the holidays
When you've got some free time
It's time to play because ya know Eclipse is you
If you win this time, you'll be the champion
And get a prize, HA, that's just impossible!
Do you play for keeps? Do you play for Eclipse?
Do you play to win? Do you play cuz it's fun?
Or play for schwag?
There's been a lot of talk lately in cross-project-issues-dev@ (search for "must-do") about the relative merits of having a set of enforced rules for participation in the annual release train.
If you'd like to void an opinion, here's a poll.
Re: the requirement for more frequently updated New & Noteworthy documents, I'm amazed how many people object to being told they need to better market their projects. Really, that's all a N&N is -- a digest of what's important to convince people to upgrade to your latest efforts. (In Modeling we employ a mix of manually created copy & screenshots w/ automatically-generated lists of bugs closed by milestone, release or individual build.)
If project leaders & committers don't see value in writing marketing copy to showcase their efforts, then why do their employers see fit to pay for marketing/branding/sales people to sell their products? Given that sales people are driven by dollars, would they bother if it didn't work?
Bottom line: Believe in what you do, trust that it has value, and talk it up once in a while. Sure, it's effort, but it's worth it.
Back in June, we ran a contest to challenge the Eclipse community to photoshop some movie-themed posters to promote Ganymede.
This time, I'd like to propose a different challenge.
So, what should you design? The rules are simple. Take a still frame from a movie or TV show, and replace the MovieOS with a screenshot of an Eclipse IDE running your favourite plugins, an RCP or SWT application, or even a mobile OSGi app.
Some links to get you started:
Some examples:
Nearly every I get spam from Rogers or Bell, trying in vain to make me switch to their service. It's in vain because a) I'm already with Rogers, so they're wasting their time trying to get me to sign up for services I already have, and b) I won't go back to Bell because the phone lines (and thus DSL rates) in this neighbourhood are teh suck.
But wast of paper and postage aside, let's contrast the two current promotions they're running, both trying to be clever with language... and failing.
Bell recently unveiled what I like to call its "sucki-er" campaign, with numerous print and billboard ads all including the suffix "-er" in the copy. Better, faster, beaver... you name it, they've gone superlative on it. Why does it suck? Because let's be real. Better is entirely subjective. Faster can be measured, and at least in my part of Toronto, it's not. This campaign makes me long for their now famous beaver campaign, because at least it was creative.
Meanwhile, in response, Rogers has unveiled its "invent a new word" campaign, which I find frankly insulting. If there was another cable provider I could turn to, I'd consider switching just because of this bit of lameness.
Recently Rogers has started telling everyone they're faster (but refuses to release details). Lame. This new campaign? Lamer.
Stumbled on this bit of oddness today... a poll about leg slapping as punishment.
In lighter news, there's also no definitive answer yet on this best movie POTUS poll, much like a certain ongoing 'name next year's Eclipse release' poll...
Now, this is a story all about how
My name got flipped, turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit down, yo
I'll tell you how I became formerly known as Io
In west of the Ottawa born and raised
On the server was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out, mirrorin', relaxin' all cool
And a'servin' some b-ndwidth to all th'Eclipse fools
When a couple of guys, who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my server'hood
Opened one little bug and th'PC did vote
Said 'Gotta find a new name cuz they hatin' on Io'
I whistled for input and when it came near
The options were fresh and they'd sound sweet on the mirrors
With a split of +1s and a whole bunch of 'No'
But I thought anything's better - 'Yo, no to Io!'
Suggested were Galileo and Hermione
Hyperion, Titan and Hegemone
I looked at the votes
But with only 8 cast
It seemed that Io would be here to last
So I plead with the Council at least one more time
With the help of this rather contrived bit of rhyme
To look through the options
And cast there a vote
And save us at last from an Eclipse Io
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (Theme Song)
Just when I thought I'd seen the end of the misspelled Eclipse coordinated releases, we have a new one: Gynamede.
Past favourites were Calypso & Europe, but this is by far much better, as it lends itself toward some great marketing slogans:
In related news, now's the time to get your Planning Council reps to settle the name for next year's release, currently being confused with "i/o" and the number 10, a year before it's even out the door! Vote now on bug 235189 for your moon of choice.
Or maybe it's time for something completely moon-free, like one of these?
Originally, I'd said the prizes would be $50, $30, and $20, but everyone who won wanted to donate back to Eclipse so the actual per-person amounts became rather moot, and this way you can all enjoy being a Friend of Eclipse. I hope everyone's okay with this little bit of data fudging. :)
Benjamin turned me on to Kiva, which isn't technically a *donation* site as much as a site for loaning entrepreneurs money via micropayments. But it's a great idea, so I've sent $25 to Villa Antofagasta Group as well. After all, I hadn't expected Ian and Lynn to offer me Eclipsewear for running this contest, so I'm already ahead. Thanks, guys! :)
So, if you're a fan of Eclipse and want to do something cool to promote it, contact me, Ian or Lynn -- we're happy to hear your ideas. You don't have to be a committer, bug triager, or employee of any of Eclipse's partners. All you need is passion and an idea.
Drum roll please...
The results are in, and here are your winners!
So, the next step is for Benjamin Cabe, Michael Tkacz, and Nick Hofstede to contact me and decide how they'd like to distribute their prize money. While Benjamin's top poster only placed third, the fact that he had 4 posters in the top ten makes me think he deserves the top prize.
So, guys, tell me who should get the funds, and why, and I'll PayPal you the money so you can donate it and keep the tax receipt (if applicable). If you don't have a PayPal account, I can donate on your behalf. If you want your donation to go back to Eclipse in exchange for a Friends of Eclipse membership, that's allowed too. :)
Congrats to everyone who participated!
After several weeks and dozens of great submissions, it's time to pick a winner.
Please take a few moments to choose your favourite (up to 3) posters.
http://www.eclipse.org/ganymede/postercontest.php
Winning posters will receive Eclipse schwag, graciously donated by the Foundation, and some coin to give to your favourite open source organization or free service provider.
Voting is open until June 24, 2008, 5:00 pm EDT.
So far, the Ganymede Poster Contest has been a raging success, with hordes of submissions swarming over bug 227561. We'll be announcing how you can vote soon, which means there's not a lot of time left to get in your submissions!
Here's a few more, if you're struggling for fresh brains, erm, ideas...
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(Click images to enlarge. Get your submissions in now, before it's all over!)
Contact:: Nick Boldt:: Toronto + Halifax, Canada Productization, Containers & Operators:: Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces |
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