NOVEMBER
10, 1999: ..MUG
HISTORY MADE
CMUG
launches inaugural, annual statewide
MUG trivia event & celebration
B y..S t e v e n..W e l s h
YDKM/Omug Founder
It feels good to start a
tradition.
And CMUG did just that on
Nov. 10, 1999 as the host for the launching of the
inaugural "You Don't Know Mac!" statewide Macintosh
Users Group trivia and celebration event in
Corvallis.
Competing on stage at the
LaSells Stewart Center on the Oregon State
University campus that night were 3 friendly,
spirited and geographically noteworthy MUG teams
--- MUGport
(Newport,
on the coast), PMUG
(Portland,
Oregon's largest city, on the state's north border)
and host CMUG
(Corvallis,
mid-valley, college town). And in the audience were
representatives from other Mac User Groups from
around the state, including SMUG (Salem, state
capitol) and EMUG (Eugene, home of the Univ. of
Oregon).
Congratulations to
PMUG, who, when the trivia questions, laughter
and applause finally ended, captured the Golden
Apple Trophy (to revolve, reside with the winning
MUG each year) and YDKM bragging rights throughout
the state. PMUG's team of Michael Pearce, Charles
DeVore and Michael Minamoto racked up 11,700 points
(although for fun and on screen the points were
represented in dollars) to nose out CMUG (9,300)
and MUGport (8,000).
On stage and off, the
evening turned out to be what was hoped for --- a
spirited and fun event to bring together, support,
and foster as many active Mac User Groups in Oregon
as possible --- and, like most inaugural projects,
it had a dash of the unexpected for good measure.
The YDKM event was created to be an annual contest
hosted by a different MUG each year (thus, greater
involvement and showcasing of Oregon's great MUGs
and their communities).
Setting
the stage
For those that are not
familiar with the game from Jellyvision, our
contest/event title is a takeoff or spinoff of the
popular software title "You Don't Know
Jack!" --- certainly one of the most popular
trivia games on the Mac and PC platforms. Our only
regret is we couldn't get THEIR staff to do all the
sound effects for our slant on the fun! However,
inspired we were.
We wanted this event to be
all Macintosh, from the romantic choice of using
HyperCard to drive the on-screen
presentation of questions and answers to the
PowerBook G3 that powered the show and the USB iMac
keyboards that each MUG team used to "buzz in" with
(daisy-chained together and connected to one USB
hub).
Preparation began 3 months
earlier and, as the event drew close to launching,
the tasks it took to contact as many Oregon MUGs as
possible, email, ask for and gather
donations/prizes, promotion, design, coordinate
volunteers, generate the trivia questions and
answers, conduct several "dry runs" and produce
props, t-shirts, etc., seemed to multiple
proportionately. We have to shower some praise
where it's due as we tell this story, and we
will.
Great
MUG supporters to the rescue
Our special event needed an
icon or logo to distinguish it, and gratefully,
CMUG had an ace up its sleeve in Kelly
Gates, an illustrator/artist who lives in Idaho
and does many of CMUG's news magazine (Mouse
Droppings) covers. Kelly, within one week, came
up with 3 variations for CMUG to choose from. It
was not hard to pick what became the YDKM icon (see
graphic on this page) --- a blend of the "You Don't
Know Jack" cover of the bald headed guy eyes turned
upward at the title, and the overlapping 2 faced
Mac OS logo... a perfect mixture of what our event
was about. Bravo, Kelly! High quality begets high
quality.
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Our contributors
came from out of state and locally. All
told, YDKM gave away over $5,000 in prizes
to the 3 competing MUGs thanks to the
generosity of some big and not so big
names in and out of the computer industry.
More about them later.
And, of course,
you can't have a trivia contest without a
trophy.
The
Golden Apple Trophy
was the creation of R3 Engraving &
Signs of Corvallis, a gorgeous solid
golden-colored apple atop a large wooden
base with engraving plates on all sides
(for names of future winners). Again, high
quality begot high quality. Thank you,
Bill and Claudia.
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Know
business like Know business
For those of you who
were NOT able to attend YDKM, here is a rundown of
how the event was orchestrated and the rules of the
contest:
Each competing team
consisted of 3 members from their MUG. Each team
shared a keyboard daisy-chained to the presentation
Mac, and on each keyboard was a designated row of
keys dedicated to each MUG. When a member of a team
hit a key it triggered a sound unique to that team,
and a visual (the MUG's name) on the big screen to
indicate which team "hit the buzzer" first and got
the first shot at the question.
If the first team did NOT
answer the question or gave the wrong answer within
10 seconds of the buzzer, then the other teams had
an opportunity to buzz in and answer (but for 50%
less than the question value).
There were 3 rounds;
Round 1 questions were worth 100 points each, Round
2 questions were 200 points each, and the final
round picked up the pace and tension with 500
points per question. John Scott, CMUG member
and YDKM stack programmer/operator, suggested that
it might be fun to have our AUDIENCE participate,
too... so I did my best Capt. Picard imitation and
said, "Make it so." Thus, during the first 2
rounds, every 7th question was directed to our
audience, and a prize immediately tossed out for a
correct answer.
The meat and potatoes of
our contest, the Questions and Answers, were
assembled by yours truly (from a variety of
sources) and encompassed the history of Apple,
Apple products, Macintosh secrets, Mac software,
insider revelations, et al. Some were written in
very straight forward format (example):
"Name both pieces of
software that shipped with the original
Macintosh."
(Answer: MacPaint
and MacWrite)
Others were twisted in a
"You Don't Jack" flavor, such as...
"What famous sailor
would have felt right at home working with the
original Mac development team?"
a) Cap'n
Crunch
b) Popeye
c) Blackbeard
d) Capt. Ahab
(Answer: c)
Blackbeard. Steve Jobs flew the Jolly Roger flag
--- skull and cross bones --- above the Mac
development team building)
Thrown in for fun were some
gibberish type questions, too (example):
"Apple said the Mac was
this.... Same number of syllables and rhymes
with... My vest is a bust"
(Answer: For the
rest of us)
The
historic day
To be expected, there were
some butterflies as the hours turned to minutes
before the show began that Wednesday evening. Like
any other elaborately staged event, there is always
some fear that something wouldn't work like it
should when the "curtain was raised." Ideally, we
had planned to use 3 iMacs, one on each MUG team
table, to mirror the projected screen image to our
contestants (so they wouldn't have to be angled too
severely to look at the large projection screen,
which was primarily for our audience).
As it turned out, despite
the gallant efforts of Mark Koopman of The
Computer Store (Corvallis), our ideal setup did not
happen (due only to a cable problem) --- but our
original plan of only the daisy-chained USB
keyboards worked flawlessly.
Almost as critical to the
success of the show as the technology was to have a
celebrity Master of Ceremony (who was an avid Mac
user, of course!) orchestrate the
contest.
Oregon's own Craig
Hickman (creator of the famous "Kid Pix"
software, and University of Oregon art professor)
boldly stepped forward when asked. Craig, who knows
a bit about Mac history himself and was a special
guest of CMUG before, did a fantastic job of
keeping the show rolling, and added his insight at
times, too. Craig's son, Ben, was also a guest of
CMUG, and even pitched in to help with the
evening's festivities. Craig even donated an
original Kid Pix t-shirt (a collector's item!) to
the prize table, and he autographed it, too, as did
Ben (whom Craig created Kid Pix for
originally).
And as the people poured
into our 200-seat auditorium, all the blood, sweat
and tears of preparation were about to
become...
SHOWTIME!
The PMUG team had arrived
early, and they looked like they had rehearsed.
Almost up to the start of the program, they used a
PowerBook they had brought to quiz and prime
themselves. Meanwhile, the coastal creatures
themselves, MUGport, were comprised of Dr. Science
himself, Clay Creech, John Raia
(designer of MUGport's cool t-shirts) and Dann
Cutter (MUGport vice president). If there were
a trophy for MUG cheerleading, MUGport would have
taken it hands down, as Newport brought a strong
contingent of fans to the event.
All of CMUG moaned in
unison when, in composing our team, we learned that
CMUG founder Phil Russell would be out of
the country much less the state when YDKM happened.
Thankfully, CMUG has always had a large pool of
talent to draw from, and we were represented by
Charles Kuttner (psychiatrist, CMUG SYSOP
and propeller head), Kevin Ahern (OSU prof
and longtime CMUGer) and George Beekman
(also at OSU, and HyperCard guru). For those that
know them well, it was our version of the 3
Stooges. But really smart stooges. And all wearing
CMUG sweatshirts.
Before the contest began,
each member of each MUG introduced themselves to
the audience and told a little bit about what they
do for a living, and the history and size/makeup of
their MUG.
How
do you spell 'Macintosh?'
Yes, that was actually our
first audience question (which CMUG tried to garner
by buzzing in mistakenly). We were obviously
determined to give away audience prizes.
It didn't take long for PMUG to take the lead, but CMUG gave chase by rattling off a string of correct answers in the 2nd round. At first, MUGport's silence during the early going almost prompted stage hands to test MUGport's keyboard to see if it was working… but we were just finding out that coastal Mac users are extremely polite and a bit bashful about taking charge. Still, it wasn't until past the mid-point of Round 1 that MUGport snagged their first correct answer. When they did, the whole audience cheered wildly. MUGport quickly won the crowd's hearts with each correct answer, and their fans were certainly the loudest. Or was that just MUGport president Steve Travis and a megaphone?
One of the lighter moments
surfaced when Craig Hickman asked the contestants
to name all the colors of the multi-colored Apple
logo, in order, from top to bottom.
.....RRZZZZZ!!
"Corvallis! Yes?" Craig
asked CMUG.
George Beekman, the CMUGer
closest to the projection screen on stage and at
the end of CMUG's table, turned his head only
slightly further to the right, and said, "Do we
need to read them or can we just point to them?"
--- there was a large, full color vertical Apple
banner hanging on the wall just behind the
teams.
(Is that your FINAL
answer?)
Er, uh... big
laughs.
And no points, for
anybody.
During another sequence of
quick responses by PMUG, CMUG's Kevin Ahern asked
PMUG's Charles DeVore directly and outloud,
"Do you play a lot of video games?" Wouldn't you
know, when the ONLY Mac game software question of
the night was asked later, guess who buzzed in
first and answered it? Yup. Mr. DeVore. Exhibit "A"
your honor.
CMUG actually overtook PMUG
during the latter part of Round 2 and during the
early moments of the last round, but PMUG pulled
away quickly with each 500-point correct answer.
MUGport, meanwhile, gained ground dramatically
during the last 2 rounds, and what could have been
a one-sided runaway turned out to be entertaining
and competitive right up to the end, to the delight
of all involved.
MUGport's December issue of
"News" (post-YDKM) ran the headline of "Maybe We
Don't Know Mac, After All!" Ha! No, fellas... you
know Mac, alright. It just took a while to shake
off the barnacles.
(Drum
roll) ...and the prizes, please!
When the last answer
flashed on the screen 2 hours later, and PMUG was
crowned champion, it was then time to distribute
from our table of bountiful prizes. And although
Thanksgiving was still a couple of weeks away, each
MUG had reason to give thanks. Apple Computer, via
their User Group program and Diane Cohn,
showered us with boxes of audience and team gifts
(Apple polo shirts, t-shirts, mouse pads, Think
Different posters and more), but also gave YDKM two
boxes of Final Cut Pro (Apple's $999.
video-editing software), Web Page Construction
Kit software and other great items.
PhotoShop, Microsoft Office 98 Gold Edition,
Casady & Greene products, and an Epson
740 color inkjet printer (The Computer Store,
Corvallis) were also on the table. Wow.
Because YDKM's purpose is
to foster Oregon MUGs, all teams left with prizes
to be used by and for their perspective MUGs. PMUG
chose first from the prize table, then CMUG and
MUGport, and it continued in that circle until all
the prizes were selected. This gave each MUG the
opportunity to pick software or products that would
best fit their MUG's needs.
But the giving didn't stop
there. Each member of each team also received a
hardbound copy of Guy Kawasaki's
"Rules
For Revolutionaries"
book &emdash; autographed by Guy himself! Although he couldn't be here in person, Guy showed he still cares about Mac User Groups. I've used the cliché before, but, 'what a guy.'
CMUG's Terri
Anderson, printer extraordinaire, created her
own in-house t-shirt production site and galvanized
our event onto beautiful color YDKM t-shirts. Each
MUG team member, and our Master of Ceremony and
son, received one.
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When
the dust had settled after the inaugural
'You Don't Know Mac!' event at CMUG, it
was the team from up north that collected
some excellent prizes for their MUG and
took home the beautiful YDKM Golden Apple
trophy.
Seated
from left to right are: Michael Minamoto,
Charles DeVore and Michael Pearce (holding
the trophy). PMUG edged out host CMUG and
the coastal wave from Newport,
MUGport.
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Trophy
& PMUG photos courtesy & copyright
by Terence Dodge of PMUG.
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Pay
attention to that man behind the
curtain!
Well, men and women behind
the curtain, actually. There are many to thank.
Judging from the audience's response and
participation, the participation of Oregon MUGs,
and the comments offered by many on stage
afterward, there is anticipation and excitement
looking forward to YDKM 2000 ! Even now, feedback
from all the MUGs represented, and others, is being
processed to help tweak and prepare for the sequel,
to be hosted in another great Oregon
town.
And now, as the credits roll up the page before your eyes, I would like to thank…
John Scott
(HyperCard stack programmer/controller, carpool
buddy); Craig and Ben Hickman (a great
father and son team) The Dunlap family of
Lebanon (our gift runners, and program
distribution); Terri Anderson and daughter
Christine (moral support, program distribution,
t-shirts); Peter Kimura of Kinkos (YDKM
event banner); Kelly Gates (CMUG artist
extraordinaire); Steve Travis (MUGport prez
and donator of Y2K Compliant Chocolate Bars); and
all the others within CMUG who did their part to
make YDKM happen.
So,
you want to be a millionaire?
Who doesn't? Because
if one of us DID win a million, we would have
BOUGHT all the prizes for YDKM. But we didn't, so
we needed the support of the contributors below.
Without them, YDKM wouldn't have attained the level
of quality and spirit that befits Mac User Groups
and its members. But like Mac users, these
businesses shared and gave. Read about 'em below,
and support them when you can. And if you get the
chance, email 'em or tell them you appreciate their
support of MUGs everywhere. They deserve
it.
Good night all. See you
next year!
Mistakes
or lack of info is unintentional. Hey, we are
trying our best, and we have a good
heart!
All rights of this site are reserved by each author and Omug. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of the YDKM statewide UG, and each author, is prohibited. Omug is a non-profit organization.
All images or logos of Apple, Macintosh are either copyright or trademarks of Apple, Inc., and all other logos or trademarks above by our event contributers are used here in the spirit and support of our organization as a Mac Users Group.
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