GPF News Archive

Another Quick Update: Yep! More news! Today, we proudly launch our Java IRC Chat client! You can use this Java client to link directly to the #gpfcomic channel on Habber.Net. Let's get chatting gang!

Quick Update: I was hoping my samples would show up this weekend, so I could add this yesterday, but they only just arrived. However, I'm very excited about them, so I couldn't wait to get them up. :) I'm pleased to announce another brand new shirt in our online store: the "Subliminal Perl" shirt! It was a silly idea that I toyed around with, and probably nobody else will think it's funny, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I won't spoil the surprise with the details, so make sure to check out the store page to learn more about it.

Hey there, gang! Time for yet another news update. For a change, it's on time. I know, I know... the shock is probably too much for your system. But we've got a lot of neat things to mention this week, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to fill you in. ;)

Hopefully, there should be a lot of new readers coming by this week. Friday, the Detroit Free Press published this article on Keenspot and some of it's Detroit-area denizens. Today (Monday), the Raleigh News & Observer is supposed to print their own article on Keenspot's North Carolina members, of which I'm a member. I'd like to formally welcome any first-timers visiting our site from these newspapers. I hope you'll take the time to look around, explore, and find out all that Keenspot--and especially, GPF--has to offer. :)

Now, I'm sure you've got to be asking... "What in the world is going on with this week's strips?" Well, we tried to disguise it last week, but the surprise is out: starting last week, we're doing a crossover event with the hilarious Help Desk! If you missed last week's strips, make sure to start reading the crossover from the beginning and use the handy crossover banner to navigate between our sites. Chris Wright and I are very proud of how this crossover turned out, and I hope both sets of fans (many of whom already overlap) will enjoy the clash between two worlds. It was fun meeting Chris in person, and we spent a great deal of time carefully crafting this tale. (Many people have been sorely disappointed in the quality of crossovers between online comics, and we hope to break, smash, and totally disintegrate that mold. :)

(Hmm... so far I've ended every paragraph with a "smiley." That can't be good. :)

(Oops. I did it again. (Apologies to Britney Spears. (Or not.)) :)

I'd also like to announce the launch of another new subsite. If you haven't noticed, the message board link has been removed from the site links block (at the bottom of almost every page), and has been replaced with GPF Community. That's right, we're branching out with more and more ways for Faulties to get together! Today we're launching the official GPF IRC channel, #gpfcomic, on Habber.Net! We're still looking for a few volunteers for AOPs and SOPs, so don't hesitate to mail me if you'd like to step forward. And don't worry... the message boards aren't going away. To reach either one, make sure to read the GPF Community page for details.

Of course, don't forget that Technicon 18 is closing up very fast. Technicon is a sci-fi convention at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA, USA) on March 16-18. I'm slated to be one of their guests of honor and I know they're planning a bunch of GPF-related stuff. (They won't tell me everything, so I'm already scared. :) Pre-registration is going on through February 28, so if you're planning to attend and want to save a few bucks, makes sure to pre-register as soon as possible. Check out their website for more details. (And don't forget to drop by our Shows & Cons page for details on other cons we're planning to attend.)

For those who have been waiting patiently, the Plan Nine Christmas Annual is now available. (Yes, Christmas was over a month ago. So sue me.) I received my copy Thursday, and I had many long laughs, reading all the great stories by my favorite Plan Nine artists. If you haven't ordered a copy, I strongly encourage you do. In fact, as incentive, you can download this MP3 audio sample (1.76MB) of me reading my contribution... hopefully that will whet your appetite. :)

And now, the usual miscellaneous stuff:

• Our second book, Gone With the Windows is currently on sale at the Plan Nine site. It's even better than the first book, and encompasses the whole second year of the comic. And, of course, our first book is still available: Mating Call of the North American computer Geek. Both are available through Plan Nine or Amazon.Com.
• We've won another award! Kevin Pease, the most excellent cartoonist behind the wonderfully delightful Absurd Notions has awarded GPF his coveted "Smart Move" Award for our recent "College Days" story line. I won't attempt to summarize Kevin's words (as he's much more eloquent than I've ever been :) so I'll let you read it for yourself. Thanks, Kevin!
• Are you a Perl hacker with a little free time? Then help out the KBB crew! A group of Keenspot fans (including some loyal Faulties) are fed up with the unreliable, buggy Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB) scripts that Keenspot uses for it's message boards, and they're taking matters into their own hands. If you have some Perl knowledge and want to help out, check out the Keen Bulletin Board home page for more information.
• Check out the Dragon*Con Special Report for news and pictures from our Atlanta excursion (our first convention!).
• Make sure to sign up for the Plan Nine mailing list to pick up special discounts and exclusive deals on Plan Nine titles (including GPF books and (potentially) other merchandise).
• As always, feel free to let me know what you think of the site and the strip either through the GPF Message Boards, our new IRC channel, or drop me a line.

Man... did I get everything? I hope I did. I think I'll go rest my poor aching wrists now. :)

Darn it... another "smiley" crept it. ;)