A quick and dirty note this week, as I’m still traveling in the DC area and am worn out from driving. There will also not be the customary Linux News reprint today (I’ll try to do it ASAP, it takes a fair amount of manual labor.)

This week’s in-joke is the reference to Laurel. Laurel (Ruma) has been one of the faithful production folks who makes sure that all the ONLamp (and other O’Reilly Network) articles end up looking perfect every week. I say was because she is moving on to bigger and better in an editorial capacity at O’Reilly, something that all of us who know Laurel are very happy about!.

The original version of this strip had a very different looking Laurel (with a much darker skin color!) That’’s because in the script I sent to Randy, Gwen was talking to people off-camera. He thought it would be more effective to have them in the forefront. All to the good, except that I hadn’t sent him any reference photos of Laurel, so he just used his imagination. He was a very good sport about redoing that panel once I sent him a photo of Laurel.

We have multiple Mikes at O’Reilly, so you are free to decide for yourself which Mike the male in the first panel doesn’t look like the most.

As you may know, it’s impossible to prove that something doesn’t exist. Therefore, there’s no way I can prove that there isn’t a cabal of elite geeks plotting world domination. But it is obviously highly unlikely. Just keep telling yourself that, are prepare to welcome your new wireless network mind controlling overlords…

There are no subliminal mind control messages TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO READ THE WATERING HOLE in this week’s Linux news, thankfully

FOO Camp is O’Reilly’s annual private get-together of movers and shakers in the industry. As mentioned last week, it stands for Friends of O’Reilly. It’s essentially a weekend of camping at the Sebastopole, CA headquarters, with informal talks by attendees and conversations that stretch on into the night.

While this strip takes it to an extreme, FOO Camp is definitely (from what I’ve been told, I haven’t been able to make one yet) the geekiest camp-out you’ll ever see. Laptops are in evidence all over the place and there’s WIFI as far as the eye can see. BTW, if you know the management structure of O’Reilly Media, there’s an in-joke this week. There’s another one coming in two weeks, watch for it!

Due to your humble editor spacing out this week, there’s no Linux Newsletter. Look for a double-edition in next week’s strip!

At long last, a recurring human character appears! Meet Gwen, O’Reilly’s new geeky marketeer. As originally envisioned, Gwen was a very different character with different job responsibilities. She got tweaked during concept development into the form you see her now. I’ll be sticking some of Randy’s original concept art under the voting button in a week or two.

Don’t worry that the animals are being abandoned though. Gwen is a part of the Watering Hole universe, but only one member of our extended cast. Besides, opposable thumbs come in useful sometimes… Like for clicking the link to see this week’s ONLamp news.

We all know that some models suffer from eating disorders. Unfortunately, poor Mycroft suffered from an eaten disorder…

You might get the idea from the strips to date that Ruby isn’t a very nice person (ok, not a very nice spotted jackel.) Trust me, under that cold, professional, knife-you-in-the-back exterior lies a gentle soul that likes butterflies and kittens. Fortunately, you won’t be seeing that side of her personality any time in the near future. Butterflies and kittens make for bad comedy (lolcats not withstanding…)

This week’s Linux news isn’t nearly so cute and cuddly, but it is free and available by reading on.