We had a great turn out for #HugYourMainframeDay on LinkedIN and Instagram and even a little on TikTok (okay, to be fair it was just mainly me posting on TikTok.) If you are not familiar with #HugYourMainframeDay you can read my previous blog about this community event. Here are my top 5 favorite posts from #HugYourMainframeDay!
1. Not only did we get a stop motion video featuring a mini-LEGO z16, but we got two stop motion videos created specifically for #HugYourMainframeDay, and that just blows my mind. First is a video from Steven Perva featuring the LEGO Everyone Is Awesome (40516) set. Not only is this 346 pieces of pure joy (and I think we should start a petition to change the set name to Every Mainframer Is Awesome) but this represents the inclusivity of this community, and the need for every individual human being to love and hug mainframes. You can check out his video here.
2. Our second LEGO stop motion featurette was provided by Jean-Georges (jgp) Perrin and not only show cases the mini-LEGO mainframe but it also includes LEGO minifigures from jgp’s Data Mesh collection (I need a custom minifigure of me so, so badly.) What an amazing combination of technologies. Did I mention the video also has a spaceship? SPACESHIP!!! Make sure you watch his video.
3. Joe Winchester makes an appearance on this list for being the very first individual post using our hashtag (at least that I could find) for this year’s event. You can see him here hugging the plexi-system at TechXchange 2023 as well as the full size LEGO mainframe.
4. Speaking of firsts, this year we had our first generative AI art submission by Salisu Ali used fotor.com and the prompt "Generate a Hausa boy from Nigeria hugging IBM Mainframe computer," to create this image. It was so amazing I used it as the banner image for this blog, with Salisu's permission. This entire masterpiece is available for viewing here.
5. The last post I want to share, is a post from Stephanie Shum. This post represents what #HugYourMainframeDay is all about, it’s about the people. Here are some photos with just a fraction of the people that make z16 and LinuxONE the amazing piece of technology that it is. Every time you hug a mainframe, you are also hugging all of the professionals that design, develop, test, and build, these systems.
Community Favorite: Since this was a community event, I would be remised to not include the communities inputs on this this. I polled the System Z Enthusiasts discord to get their pick for favorite #HugYourMainframeDay post, and the results are in. Drum roll please! This communities favorite 2023 #HugYourMainframeDay post is, Mainframer Barbie hugging a pink mainframe where a custom designed z16 tee and jeans, created by Chiara Baldan.
Did your favorite make the list? If it did, give this blog a like, and if not, then post in the comments which post from #HugYourMainframeDay 2023 would you have included.