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UHACC @ Penguicon
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UHACC @ Flatcon

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Penguicon 1

The first of many

UHACC found out about the first ever Penguicon as we always do - a link on one of the many geek-orientated sites we spend our day browsing while our servers chug along faithfully.
Due to the time frame of the event, the distance involved in traveling there, and the fact that no one knew if it would be worth it, only two of us went to Penguicon to represent UHACC.

But we are very glad we did.

Penguicon is a Linux/Sci-Fi convention. That's right, a convention based around the idea of "Hey, Sci-Fi geeks like Linux, and Linux geeks like Sci-Fi!" Or, better put by the founders, it's a "You got peanut butter in my chocolate" kind of thing. What made Penguicon very interesting to us was the guest list.

It was a mid-sized affair, not so small that there was nothing to do, but not so big that we didn't get to meet these guests. Some came in our very own hotel room. Eric S. Raymond and the Con Director stopped by our hotel room, came in, and hung out with Chuck for awhile. Rob Malda and his wife came in our room, hung out and drank some Guiness with us. They weren't famous, but two of the Sci-Fi geek girls (dressed in laytex) came into our room and kissed me on the cheek while I was jamming out some tunes on the ol' guitar. No, that wasn't the high-point of the con for me (it was close, but not quite).

The events were a complete blast - we showed up late and missed a bunch of them, but we still had plenty to do. We went to a tag-team speech, where each guest took turns talking about what they've done, and how they got where they are. Terry Pratchett had everyone rolling on the floor laughing with his stories of the nuclear power plant he worked at.
We attended technical panels put on by experts such as -
Firewall security by the guru of TCL/TK, Clif Flint
GPL and licensing law headed up by Eric's wife, Cathy Raymond - a masterful IP lawyer.
Scotch Tasting - not a technical panel, but Chuck slurred to me later that it was a great time.
SCA Swordplay demonstrations - again, non-technical, unless you apply it to LARTing Lusers

I could go on and on, but frankly, the list of events is huge, and we spent a lot of time just talking to people that would come in our room and hang our with us. The hotel was great, the con was great, the events were great, and the company was great.

For those of you interested in going next year, we are going to take as many people as we can, renting a van or whatever we need to do so. It will be in early May again, near Detroit, MI.
For more information, visit the Penguicon website, or talk to a member of the UHACC Executive Board.

Here's just a few pictures, we were having too much fun to take any more than these...

So the first image is me, alt_phil, setting up our room. The second picture is of course Chux0r and CmdrTaco of Slashdot throwing down some cold ones in our hotel room.

Things to do for next Penguicon: MORE PICS!

Upcoming Events

UHACC Pre-Meeting

Wednesday Evenings, ~5:15-6:30pm

- Lunker's

UHACC Meeting

Every Wednesday - 7:00-9:00pm

IWU Center for Natural Science Learning and Research, Fishbowl, floor 2. [Directions]