Usenix versus Uniforum

[Dave Taylor]

> How come everyone "gives" away T-shirts ... but never have I been given 
> a pair of sneakers.  (insert indignant snort)

Well, I've at least gotten some nifty Sun Microsystem sneaker laces!

> down with booth-babes

It's a funny thing, that... I talked with one of the models hired by
Toshiba at COMDEX about the situation and she reported the sad fact
that when a "model" is in the booth, the number of visitors visibly
increases.  At TriGem, for example, the company with the SPARC laptop (*)
their head of PR told me that when the woman who posed on their literature
(their accountant, btw) (really!) was in the booth, the line of men who
wanted to have her sign their pamphlets snaked completely around the booth.

Only once have I ever seen a male model at a show, and that was the
GamePro magazine (a publication of IDG) "GamePro" character at the last
Consumer Electronics Show; he was a well built man in garish yellow 
tights.  He seemed uncomfortable and no-one seemed to care much...

I don't like the idea of having attractive people hired to work a booth
just to draw customers in, but it's a sad fact that it not only works,
it works pretty damn well too.  Check it out for yourself at the next
trade show you attend...and ask the attractive people if they actually
work for the companies or not...

Finally, I'll simply add my voice to the comments about Usenix and
UniForum being complimentary organizations; I look to Usenix, both
the conferences and publications, to push the edges of the technical
information envelope in Unix and Unix related topics.  UniForum is
the "two years later" place, where I can see products, read about
customer/user experience, and get the other half of the R&D coin.
If you're interested in how things are used as well as how they work,
I would strongly advise you join both organizations.  I've been an
active member of both for quite a few years now.

						-- Dave Taylor

Intuitive Systems		       Contributing Editor, "CommUNIXations"
Mountain View, California	      (a publication of the UniForum Assoc.)

taylor at limbo.intuitive.com    or   {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor

(*) Please see 'SunTech Journal', 'SunExpert' or 'The Sun Observer' for more 
    information!  RDI Computer Corp, the makers of the machine that TriGem
    will be distributing, can be reached at (619) 944-6381; they're located 
    in San Diego.  Don't send me mail on this subject!  :-)