Thanks Ben :) I'm sure we will have many many Geeky years ahead of us

--- In SFFiG@..., Ben Hughes <grombek@...> wrote:
>
> SFFiGly News!
>
> Important SFFiG News:
> ***
> Special Congratulations:
> *To my good friend and founding SFFiG Member Andrew Saunders, and new friend
> and SFFiGling Emily Watson on their recent engagement! Not only is this a
> wonderful event but also I am very excited to report that the proposal was
> made in the exact location that the happy couple met: Gifts for the Geek.
> Well done guys, and may there be many geeky years ahead for you both!
> **
> Upcoming Events:
> At every event look out for free tea & coffee as well as a door prize! A
> variety of prizes at each trivia night.
>
> *Halloween Trivia*
> Everything scary and spooky from Freddy Krueger to Scooby Doo! Ghosts,
> Gremlins, Monsters and Michael Jackson.
> Friday 23rd October
> 7pm
> Guide Hall, 33 Myers st Geelong
> $5 ($3 members)
>
> *Torchwood*
> The Doctor Who Club of Victoria visits Geelong to celebrate Torchwood on
> Halloween!
> Saturday 31st October
> 1pm
> Guide Hall, 33 Myers st Geelong
>
> NEXT TIME AT SFFIG:
>
> COMING UP, ON SFFIG:
> (in no particular order)
>
> *Monty Python event
> *A party game, with a little trivia, a lot of silliness and a few
> shrubberies! BYO Spam.
>
> And so on...
>
> Advertisements:
> SFFiG supports our local community and members, all of whom we give thanks
> for their support:
>
> Community Support:
>
> Gifts for the Geek:
> Thanks to the guys for supporting us from day 1 and for a constant supply of
> trivia prizes.
> If you haven't visited Darren & Jason at The Shop yet, then do so now. They
> have everything and anything a geek could want, new stock in all the time!
> www.giftsforthegeek.com.au
> 166 Ryrie St, Geelong.
>
> St Laurence Family Store
> Many thanks for donations of sci-fi and fantasy themed prizes.
> Torquay rd, Grovedale.
>
> Pace Advertising
> Thanks to Nick at Pace for his sponsorship of our newsletter (still coming),
> and general support.
> www.pace.com.au
>
> Member Ads:
>
> CR&P:
> Collectables, Rarities & Paraphernalia - eBay listing by Ben Hughes
> http://myworld.ebay.com.au/crandp
>
> Legendary Costuming:
> Costumes & Sewing jobs, from small projects to large
> (includes authentic historical costumes)
> Contact Kerry - kerry64 at gmail.com
>
> Chiefkickingbird
> Carmel's eBay account - occasional geeky items.
> http://myworld.ebay.com.au/chiefkickingbird/
>
> If you're a member and would like to place a small ad here just send a
> message to me - grombek@... and I will include it here.
>
> Want to become a SFFiG Member?
> SFFiG Memberships cost just $20 per year. You can also purchase a family
> membership for $30 - this covers anyone living in the same house.
> Being a SFFiG Member gets you in to SFFiG hosted events cheaper, gets you
> two tickets to the door prize as well as a small ad in the SFFiGly News!
>
> SFFiGbook
> Don't forget to sign up to our SFFiGbook to get event invitations, network
> with other fans and spread the good word!
> http://www.facebook.com/pages/SFFiG
>
> Thanks for your support!
> ~Ben
>
> --
> Ben Hughes
> Ambivalent Overlord
> SFFiG
> Science Fiction & Fantasy in Geelong
>

He will be appearing in both Melbourne & Sydney, very convenient for those folks
in beautiful Geelong.

$150 general admission.

visit www.shockculturevents.com

And no I am not linked to any of the organisers beyond paying to attend
conventions. Btw, Levar Burton this weekend was brilliant!!!

The SFFIG Forum is being closed until further notice. In the mean time, all news
and SFFIG events will be available at the following address:

http://z3.invisionfree.com/dwcv/index.php?c=4

The following is a reproduction of a letter I received recently from
Symantec. I have taken out the tech talk and reproduced it in a way
you may understand.

Hackers have recently found a vulnerability in the hotmail system, and
have found a way to access any hotmail account that has a password
less than six characters long.

With this information, they have been using random hotmail accounts to
sent out phoney emails to everyone in your hotmail address book,
trying to lure them into known internet spam sites.

Whilst Microsoft, Hotmail, Symantec and McAffee's are all working to
rectify the problem, there are some simple steps you can take to
protect yourself.

First of all, change your password. preferably to something with the
following criteria:

* Ensure that it is at LEAST six characters long (ie: my password)

* Mix up your password with a combination of Capital and lower
case letters (ie: My PassWord)

* Add in Numbers at random places (ie: My P4assW0rd5)

* Add in Ascii Characters (!@#$%^&*()-+{}[]:;"',./\|~`) (ie:
My~P4assWord5!)

* The longer it is, and the more variety of Capital Letters, Lower
Case Letters, Numbers and Ascii Characters you can add in, the better
the password!

* As always, make it something you are likely to remember, but
would be hard for others to guess


Second, check your outbox regularly for messages you haven't sent.

Finally, don't click on any link that you are not sure about.

Next is the tricky, technical bit:

This mainly applies to Microsoft and Internet Explorer users:

If someone asks you in an email to click on a link to do something
(like to check out a site), if you are not 200% positive where the
link leads, right click in the link, copy the web address and paste
this into a search engine. If it is a fraud, Google, Yahoo, AltaVista
, Ask and some other search engines have lists of the latest
fraudulent web addresses. At the very least, it will give you
information about the page you are trying to go to!

Do not use GoMamma or most Meta search engines, as these have been
compromised in the past!

If anyone wishes to rewrite the above two paragraphs in a manner that
is easier to explain, feel free.

That's the long and short of it! Hope this helps!

To all members,

I am sorry to have to do this, but gmail has recently attracted a large amount
of fraudulent
people.

It has got to the extent where I am receiving an average of 5 to 20 emails a
week from
spammers with gmail accounts requesting sign up with our forum.

I have run out of enthusiasm in continuously blocking individual gmail
addresses.  I have
far better things to do with my time!!

So why am I contacting you?  From the beginning of March, I will be blocking
anyone with
a gmail account.  This will sadly include existing members.

I therefore request anyone who logs on to the forum with a gmail account to
change it to
something else, even if it means re-registering.

I apologise for having to do this, but it is unfair on all  who run this forum
to have to
continually block spammers with gmail accounts.

Please be assured that I have now secured this forum to the extent that external
parties
and people awaiting registration can do nothing more than browse the forum. 
They
cannot contact individuals within the system, or look up your details unless
they are an
approved user.

I will continue to protect your interests, as well as mine and keep this forum
as safe as
possible, without making it too difficult to access.

Thank you for your time and understanding