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From: Jeffrey S. Haemer <jsh@usenix.org>

	                      Son of WeirdNIX

	                     USENIX Association

	                        23 July 1990

	Norman Bangerter, Governor of Utah, declared April 23-27
	``POSIX week'' in the state of Utah.  Spurred on by the
	spirit of that declaration, the USENIX Association is
	announcing its 1990 POSIX contest.

	Prizes (besides notoriety) include

	   + a copy of the ``POSIX Week'' declaration,

	   + an official, 40-foot, red-and-white ``Welcome POSIX''
	     banner,

	   + and -- thanks to UNISYS and the state of Utah --
	     + two round-trip tickets to Salt Lake City, plus
	     + weekend accommodations at a hotel yet to be named.

	If you were at the Snowbird meetings, or have ever been to
	Utah for any reason, you'll know this is a great prize.  If
	you haven't, take our word for it.

	``What,'' you're asking, ``do I have to do to win?''
	Designing a contest isn't easy.  We toyed with the idea of
	holding a Roger Martin look-alike contest.  We almost
	decided on, ``If POSIX were made into a movie, who would
	play the attendees?'' [Sample answer: Jack Nicholson as Jim
	Isaak (Jim says he'd prefer ``Cary Grant''), Oscar the
	Grouch as John Quarterman, ...]

	Finally, we decided on a second, not-at-all-annual, WeirdNIX
	Contest.  As with the first one, which is described in
	section B.1.2.12 of ANSI/IEEE 1003.1-1988, the goal is to
	find:

	 the best new and technically legal interpretation of the POSIX standard
	 which nevertheless violates the intuitive intent of the POSIX standard.

	Both

	   + 1003.1 (``The Ugly Green Book''), and

	   + 1003.2 (draft 10 or later)

	are fair game.  The former is available from

	
					- 2 -

	     IEEE Service Center
	     445 Hoes Lane
	     Piscataway, NJ  08854
	     U.S.A.
	     (201) 981-0060

	the latter from

	     Lisa Granoien
	     IEEE Computer Society
	     1730 Massachusetts Ave NW
	     Washington, DC 20036-1903
	     (202) 371-0101

	While the only version of 1003.1 currently available is IEEE
	1003.1-1988, we won't give high marks to cheap shots, so
	problems fixed in IEEE 1003.1-1990 (soon to be published,
	and formerly found in documents labeled 1003.1a) aren't good
	targets.

	In the earlier contest, separate prizes were awarded for
	``Best'' and for ``Most Demented.'' We debated doing this
	again but, in the end, decided that one prize of two tickets
	makes more sense than two prizes of one ticket.  The judges
	may choose to announce winners in a variety of categories,
	but the prize mentioned above is a grand prize: we'll award
	the prize to whichever entry we think is the best, whatever
	its orientation.

	     Judges are:

	     Donn Terry (Chair, 1003.1),
	     Hal Jespersen (Chair, 1003.2),
	     N. Ray Wilkes, (Vice chair, 1003.3),
	     John Quarterman (USENIX Standards liaison), and
	     Jeffrey S. Haemer (USENIX report editor).

	Please mail entries to Jeffrey S. Haemer <jsh@usenix.org>.
	If you don't get an acknowledgement, I haven't gotten it.
	Previous winners may compete, but previous entries aren't
	allowed.

	Entries must be submitted by November 21, 1990, to give us
	time to judge them.

	We'll announce the winner at the Winter USENIX Conference in
	Dallas, January 21-25, 1991.

Volume-Number: Volume 20, Number 147