Every year over Xmas Icon Bar likes to run some interviews with the famous, infamous, up and coming or just interesting faces in the RISC OS world. We ask them how they came into RISC OS, what they like and what they are up to.
 
There is a really nice back catalogue of interviews here.
 
This year we want to ask your help. If you know anyone who fits the bill, (or you would like to be interviewed yourself), all you have to do is just give us a name (and ideally an email contact). We will send the Icon Bar team round (usually via email) to get some answers.

One of the great things at the recent South-West Show was the number of new software releases for RISC OS. There were new upgrades, new games, and even new fonts....
 
Drag'n'Drop have been busy scouring the Internet and assembled a collection of high quality Public Domain fonts for their 20th Century Fonts collection for 13 pounds.
 
The collection comes on a CD, with a detailed manual, showing what all the 700 fonts look like. The fonts themselves are supplied in both RISC OS and Type1 (PostScript) font format, so you can use them on other platforms.
 
The RISC OS versions are in a !fonts application which includes a set of sub-directories (all fonts starting with A in !A and so on). Each has a script to make the switch of the fonts (so you can enable all the A fonts). You can also drag them into your own !fonts folder or store them in the newly updated Font Directory Pro
 
Some of the fonts will look familiar (with slightly different names), and you may well have some of these fonts. You might also find that the EFF and Monotype versions will be slightly higher quality. But they are all really good sets with a full range of characters, and will vastly expand your collection of fonts. There is a wide range of Serif, Sans Serif (Better for headlines), cursive and fancy fonts (I especially liked Sailing and Sampford).
 
I especially liked the fact that several fonts are supplied with multiple weights. Chilton font for example is available is Bold, Heavy, Light Italic, Medium, Medium Italic and Inline Italic Shadow. There are some nice fancy fonts in there as well.
 
If you are looking to extend your font collection with some well-chosen fonts, 20th Century Fonts is definitely worth investigating. Hopefully, we will see some more themed packs...
 
DragNDrop website

• Are you tired of looking at the front page and seeing those same old articles from over a year ago?
• Have you noticed we haven't done anything new for April Fools day for several years?
• Have you noticed how most of our show announcements are dangerously close to being made too late?
• Do you have a keen interest in RISC OS?
• Are you capable of forming basic sentences?
• Do you enjoy working long hours for no pay and little reward?

If you answered YES to all of the above, then good news! We're looking for new writing staff to supplement the current lot, most of whom left the RISC OS scene behind a long time ago, or are far too busy with other things to update the site on a regular schedule.
 
At The Icon Bar we're primarily interested in delivering original content in the form of news, articles and reviews, rather than just regurgitating press releases all the time. So if that fits your bill then feel free to get in touch, either via the contact form or by posting in the thread below. And if you're lucky, we'll get back to you before you die of old age!

As you know, over the past few years there's been a general downturn in the number of articles appearing on The Icon Bar. In response to pressure from our readers, we've come up with a radical new stimulus package designed to combat this issue. Starting today, the author of any new article posted on the site will be rewarded with a bounty, which they will receive within 10 working days of the article going live. For full details about the different bounties that can be awarded to each article, please see our sponsor's site. Don't delay; submit your article today! ^*
 

We celebrated the 10th anniversary of our first article on March 10th. Where were you? Come to think of it, where were we? Yeah, we forgot about it too (but we are getting on a bit).
 
In fact we even forgot to renew the domain and didn't notice until this morning when some spammers called NUTFACE tried to hijack the site. Normal service has now been resumed, so expect our next article shortly before Christmas.

Well it's that time of year again. It hardly seems like a full year since we last wished all our readers a very Merry Christmas. Once again, most of you are probably too busy downing the bottle of something-that-you-found-in-the-back-of-the-cupboard, and stuffing yourself with mince pies to notice this post, but we're still going to say it anyway, just like we always do.
 
Merry Christmas to all our readers, and we hope you have a wonderful new year - whatever you're doing and however you're celebrating.
 
And don't forget to vote for The Icon Bar Awards 2009 before the voting closes on New Year's Eve!

Reader Mike sent in these pictures of something he found while out walking his ferret. Yes, we have readers with ferrets. Although the concept of a reader with a ferret confuses us, luckily we don't have to use our brains for this update because Mike was kind enough to send in some words to accompany the pictures.
 
Standard disclaimer: As most of you have probably noticed, this was our April Fool's piece for this year. If you liked our UK:Resistance theme used for the fool then you'll be glad to hear it's been added to the theme selector available from your account control panel. Of course in the end the joke was on us, because UK:R changed their website design from traditional red and black to their new colourful layout a couple of months ago. Oh well!
 
Click the owly pic above to see the article in its intended guise.
 

Once again the time has come to wish you all a Merry Christmas. By the time you read this, chances are that Christmas has already been and gone, although I'm sure some of you will have a peek at the site today whilst chomping on your mince pies :)
 
From everyone at The Icon Bar, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. Thanks for reading TIB in 2008 (what there was of it to read!) and we'll see you in 2009. Oh, and don't forget to vote in Drobe Awards 2008 poll while there's still time!
 
Links:
Christmas (Wikipedia)