Sysadmin Day 2015: Fun things to do – and prizes to win from El Reg

In the United Kingdom

Are you in London? Spiceworks UK has a movie night planned – looks to be TRON legacy – but with only 30 seats available, it will probably be booked up before this goes to press. Still, details on the when and where are available, maybe you can snag a ticket on your own and join in.

Birmingham sysadmins are invited to The Woodman, courtesy of the local makerspace group. Space is limited, so RSVP now.

In Canada

Sysadmins in Kitchener, ON, should pay Bob Jonkman's blog a visit and figure out where this year's meet-up will be. They've done this a few years running, so it should be good times for all involved.

Edmonton, AB, sysadmins should ping me directly. I've got to chase the local Spicecorps and VMUG folks for firm details, but early rumblings are Brewster's Oliver Square, 6:00pm.

In Hungary

If you happen to be in Budapest on Sysadmin Day, why not stop by Margaret Island and join in an open-source get-together? Mozilla will be there, and they're looking to "recruit new members to Firefox OS Mobilizers." The event promises games and seems to be a general Sysadmin Day bash.

In Argentina

Denizens of Buenos Aires, AdminFest is back! Join in the fun at La Cigale bar. Free beer is available for those who answer technical questions on the help forums correctly. 500 points == 1 beer.

Vulture Love

The Reg would be remiss if we didn't join in on the love. We do so love our sysadmins, and as such we're running two contests this year. Not zero, not one, two! (Take that, binary!)

First up, our US editor Chris Williams has offered to answer your helpdesk questions: put your feet up, BOFHs, and we'll take the load. Never mind that Williams doesn't know his SaaS from his Exchange server, he still remembers some Perl and knows the CTO's email address.

I think we can break him. What say you, dear readers? Email him and let's see what you're made of. Questions will be answered by our man according to no particular criteria whatsoever. Software slinger Iolo is offering free copies of System Mechanic to those who make the cut.

Not to be outdone by the yanks, Vulture South's editor Simon Sharwood has plans of his own. Simon has really fallen in love with the sysadmin horror stories series he's been doing lately, and he's eager to read more. In honor of Sysadmin Day, we've prised some gift cards from the talons of the cash n carrion overlords for the best submissions: drop Simon an email with your system administration war stories.

I know having a topic to think on helps focus the mind, so let's take our cue from the industry at large. 2015 has been the year of the perpetual security breach. I've joked on Twitter that the official unofficial Register drinking game is to look through a week's worth of headlines and take a shot for each new company pwned.

I tried it over the weekend. It ended up being so much alcohol I'm a little surprised I didn't end up in a bathtub in Vegas packed with ice.

El Reg has a readership with some of the most diversely awesome, horrible, amazing and traumatizing stories out there. I await your stories.

Oh, and happy Sysadmin Day. See you at the pub. ®

Competition Terms and Conditions: The competition will close at 11:49pm GMT on July 31, 2015. The winner will be contacted by email shortly thereafter. A Reg account is required to enter. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted within one week, an alternate winner will be drawn. One entry per person, multiple entries will be discarded. No cash alternative. Employees and associates of Situation Publishing may not enter.