CONTEST
  for
BEST NEWSLETTER ARTICLE

The 2005/2006 contest is now closed. Details of the 2006/2007 contest will be posted in the fall of 2006.

The winner of the 2005/2006 contest is Lionel Wagner (Are you ready for Linux? Linux is ready for you.(RTF, 82KB), December 2005) .
He wins these 3 prizes:
 1. A Microsoft Notebook optical mouse
 2. Age of Empires III game
 3. A copy of the book "Firefox Hacks"
Congratulations, Lionel !

Final list of 2005/2006 contestants and their articles:

Doug Poulter, Firefox Extensions (RTF), October 2005
Doug Poulter, FoxReader vs. Adobe Reader, October 2005
Don Chiasson, Mind Hacks, November 2005
Lionel Wagner, Are you ready for Linux? Linux is ready for you.(RTF), December 2005 (CONTEST WINNER)
Dunc Petrie, Beyond Making MP3’s (full article, RTF), December 2005 (synopsis)
Dunc Petrie, To (US)B or not to (US)B, That is the Question (full article, RTF), Part 1:January 2006 Part 2:February 2006
Gary Byron, Internet Annoyances, April 2006
Sarah Gelfand, Windows XP Personal Trainer, May 2006

VOTING PAGE: (voting page closed)
Only members registered on The Pub can vote.

Voting instructions are below.


In an effort to generate more content for our popular Ottawa PC News, the Board of Directors (BOD) has decided to hold a contest for best article written by one of our members. The contest will launch in September 2005 and run until May 2006. Members of the BOD cannot participate.

You do not need to be a computer expert to participate. You can write about a personal computer experience that was humourous or frustrating. Did something you buy improve your computer experience (be it software or hardware)? Maybe you know of a terrific virtual photo album that organizes digital pictures. How do you ward off all the SPAM invading our inboxes? There are many computer topics.

Articles can be submitted between June 1st, 2005 and April 16th, 2006. These will be published in the Ottawa PC News between September 2005 and May 2006 inclusive. Articles will be published in the order they are received. If a large number of articles is received, some may not be published due to space restrictions as we approach the April deadline. And in that case, in order to have as many contestants as possible, an article submitted by a new participant will be published over one submitted by a returning participant. Participants will be offered a choice of having unused articles published after the contest period or having them destroyed. Only those articles published during the contest period will be eligible for the contest.

All articles must be original and written by the participant. There is no word limit. Lengthy articles will be made available online from the OPCUG website and two or three pages will be published in the newsletter. If an article can be broken into two parts of two or three pages each, then it may be published in two subsequent monthly issues, space permitting. Only members of the OPCUG may participate (BOD members are excluded). The BOD reserves the right to refuse an article because of improper or questionable content and the article will be returned to the author for revision or retraction. Individual participants may submit more than one article over the contest period.

Voting will take place online at the OPCUG website. Instructions will follow once the system is in place and voting time approaches (May-June). The winner will be presented with a prize at the June meeting of the OPCUG (prize to be determined).

Send submissions to between June 1, 2005 and April 16, 2006. Articles may be written in any basic text editor, MS Word, or Corel WordPerfect.

Good luck and good writing!

Brigitte Lord
Editor, Ottawa PC News


The Prize

The winner in our contest will get a Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse and Microsoft's Age of Empires III. The winner will be announced at the June 14th general meeting and presented with the prize.

Good luck to our participants. The deadline for submission of contest articles is April 16, 2006. Articles should be submitted to .


How to Vote

Voting for the best newsletter article will be done electronically. Voters must be registered users of The PUB, the private side of the OPCUG website.

Creating an account on The PUB

As mentioned, the information [public] side of The PUB is freely available to anyone with a Web browser at http://opcug.ca.However, to access conference and file areas, you must be a registered user. Registering is easy. The simplest method is through a web browser.

Browse to http://opcug.ca and click The PUB button on the left side of the screen. New information will appear on the right. Click the button labelled New User.
Leave the radio button at the top set to Dynamic HTML and fill in the other three boxes. For name, use your real name, and separate your first name from your last name with a space, as in Sam Spade. Choose a password, plug it in the two remaining boxes, and click the Continue button.
A dialog box will pop up asking you to log in. Do so using the exact same information you just provided. You will then be prompted to input a location you want to be considered from and whether you would like others to be able to page you while you are connected to The PUB. There is an on-line chat feature on The PUB that may be used, if users choose to.

Once you have completed this process, you are presented with the web interface to the private areas on The PUB. However, you will still have limited access. In order to have your account upgraded to member status, you need to send an e-mail to . Include your name as it appeared when you registered on The PUB, your postal address, and your membership number, if known. Once your membership has been verified, your account will be upgraded and you will have complete access to all member areas on The PUB. This generally happens within 24 hours.

Online voting will begin in the last week of April, the day after the electronic version of the May newsletter has been e-mailed. Voting will remain open until June 12th, 11:00PM. In the meantime, registered users can familiarize themselves with the online voting process at (voting page closed) and cast a few ‘practice’ votes (these will be deleted before the official voting period). In the last week of April, voters can check the online voting page to see if voting has officially begun.

So show your support and vote. And don’t forget to be at the June 14th (2006) general meeting where we will announce the winner after our annual BBQ.