[XCSSA] XCSSA 10 Year Anniversary, + XCSSA Shirt Design & New Logo Contest

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

                Xotic Computer Systems of San Antonio *
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                    http://xcssa.org
		REMINDER! NO DECEMBER MEETING!


In case anyone is interested... I just realized that this is XCSSA's it's 10th 
year in existence. :)  Wow...


History of XCSSA
------------------
Here's how XCSSA tripped into existence some ten years ago...

Being new to San Antonio, it was summer/fall of 2006 that I excitedly attended 
my second (or third) CASA meeting -- Commodore Amiga of San Antono user 
group.  Since Amiga had "died" over two years ago, Amiga popularity was 
really waning.  The only other people at that meeting were the two main 
officers of CASA, the president Kent Hamilton (DDS) and VP Tyler (the 
BeOS/BSD wizard).  It was just the three of us... kind of looking around, 
wondering what we were gong to do. 

1996 was the tail end of the Amiga saga, and Kent & Ty were discussing 
dissolving CASA altogether.  I commented, "You guys can't break up!  You've 
got so much more going on here than just Amiga!  You have Solaris people, BSD 
and BeOS developers, Linux geeks!  You should reform and call yourselves 'the 
exotic computer group' or something..."  Kent looked at Tyler, they looked at 
me.. and said, "Ok.. All in favor of electing Tom as the President say aye."
	"aye"
	  "aye"

"Supermajority has it.  Congratulations Tweeks.  You're now the president!"

So, that's how I was "reverse dictatorially elected".. and how XCSSA was born 
that night in 1996.  That was back in the Balcones Heights community center.  
But in 2003, San Antonio College volunteered to start hosting all of our 
meetings, giving us free access to the campus facilities, including 
projectors, equipment and Internet connectivity (finally!).  Thanks SAC!

Since our informal incorporation in 1996, we've had all kinds of meetings and 
events.  Looking back, we've had talks, demonstrations and lectures on:
-Computational Clusters
	http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2001-09-17.html
-Embedded systems hacking & X-otic RAID
	http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2002-08-19.html
-From Intro to Firewalls to building Firewalls yourself from scratch
	http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2000-08-21.html
	http://xcssa.org/archives/XCSSA_2005-06-20.html
-Done weekend geek road trips:
	http://xcssa.org/photos/first-sat_2001-07.html
-Hardware hacking left and right.. 
	http://xcssa.org/photos/misc-2003-09-15/
-and always lots of pizza!
	http://xcssa.org/photos/misc-2000-05-15.html

Thanks for all the great presentations, participation and memories folks.. 
It's really been a lot of fun.

Fun fun stuff...  and if you've never checked out "The XCSSA-Files", many of 
our formal presentations are archvied and still online there:
	http://xcssa.org/files/

Anyway.. it's been a fun 10 years.. and here's looking forward to many more.

XCSSA Shirts Anyone?
---------------------
Anyone interested in going in together and getting ourselves a 10yr 
anniversary XCSSA T-Shirts or embroidered polos?  If so, let me know and I'll 
start building a request list and look into pricing. 

If you are interested in getting a shirt (assuming they will be between $30-35 
for a custom logo polo), then I'll need your name, email address, phone# and 
shirt size.  If anyone in SATLUG has some insight on custom polos, please 
contact me off list.

I would also like to keep the design of our shirts "truly open",  allowing 
everyone in the group to submit their own 10yr embroidered logo for the new 
shirt designs.  For anyone so inclined... send entries to me before the Jan. 
meeting, and we'll all review the entries together in Jan.

Enter the New XCSSA Logo Contest!
---------------------------------
I would also like to open up the offer to the group to help redesign the XCSSA 
logo too!  As you know, for all 10 years, we've pretty much just had this 
eclectic, but non-artistic logo montage here:
	http://xcssa.org/pics/logo_oses.jpg

Our logo has done it's job over the years (on our sad little web page), but I 
think the time has come to update and upgrade.  Maybe if someone could 
combine some of the chaos of our logo, streamline and update things a bit we 
could revamp the site, maybe a group wiki, forums.. who knows.  
Again.. submit group-logo entries to me (off list) before the Jan. meeting. 
and maybe we can all vote on he entries... :) 

The winning new-logo entry will get a free 10yr XCSSA Anniversary shirt!
(logo entries must be submitted BEFORE Jan 15th, PNG format preferred)

Well, that's all I have for now folks.. it's been real.

Have a Merry Christmas all,

Tweeks
p.s. reminder.. NO DECEMBER MEETING!