Linucon: Adventures in Costuming

The last discussion panel on Friday I went to was "Adventures in Costuming", where the panelists were Cathy Raymond (Eric Raymond's wife) and Jay Maynard, a.k.a The Tron Guy. More of him and his costume can be seen in these posts. I had to leave this panel halfway because it was late and my 5-month-old was getting tired. Anyway, it was mostly Jay Maynard talking about all the fame (or infamy) that the Tron costume brought him. After a press story about him was posted on Slashdot, he braced for negative comments to come rolling in. He expected comments such as "a fat guy shouldn't be wearing spandex" and... by golly, he got them. Several hundreds. But there were also a lot of people who said his costume was cool. He appeared some television talk shows. Even Howard Stern contemplated inviting him to his radio show, but decided that the story won't make enough impact without the visuals.

Here is a much more detailed article about a similar panel at Linucon 2004: Costuming 101. It featured The Tron Guy, Cathy Raymond, and Kim Kofmel. That discussion was enlivened with all kinds of titillating details from the costume history.

In the picture (click for a bigger image): The Tron Guy drinks mundane beverages like the rest of us.

Here are more images of Linucon 2005.

Linucon 2005 opening ceremony

It's that time of the year! Linucon 2 -- a joint Linux and science fiction convention -- is upon us! After spending a frustrated half an hour trying to find the Austin Ambassador hotel, I make it to the opening ceremony. No Linucon opening ceremony would be complete without the liquid nitrogen ice cream stories. Chase Hoffman, the convention chair, says that when he ran some convention in Dallas not long ago, the convention shared the hotel with FEMA workers. When Chase brought a can of liquid nitrogen into the hotel, the hotel employees thought it was a giant keg, so they didn't mind. Then the FEMA saw them and yelled: "Why are you carrying dangerous chemicals around?" Chase replied: "To make ice cream." "To make WHAAAT?" Chase then infromed them about making of ice cream with liquid nitrogen. The FEMA guys said, but you realize that the nitrogen vapor will push all the oxygen out of the room and you'll die? I didn't catch Chase's reply, but anyway... I think he reassured them that they knew what they were doing. In the picture (click for a bigger image): liquid nitrogen in the Con Suite.

Here are more images of Linucon 2005.