Several items of note for anyone interested in the Internet Ray Tracing
Competition:

1.  We did not make it clear before that the comments from the previous round
of voting are now available.  The individual comment files can be viewed from
the web comments page:

   http://www.povray.org/irtc/view/Sep-Oct-96/comment-sepoct96.html

The link next to each image labelled "(comments so far)" will show the
user comments thus far.  They may also be downloaded via ftp, from this
directory:

   ftp://ftp.povray.org/pub/irtc/competition-Sep-Oct-96/comments/

There you can find the individual comment files, and also a zip file
containing all of the comment files, named "all-comments.zip"

Finally, since ftp on povray.org has been crippled by our hosts at
Walnut Creek CDROM, the files are also available via the web directly, using
this URL:

   http://www.povray.org/ftp/pub/irtc/competition-Sep-Oct-96/comments/

2.  Since, as mentioned above, ftp uploads are now being restricted at
ftp.povray.org, entrants should submit by email for this round.  If you are
unable to submit via email, contact Bill Marrs at bill.marrs@pureatria.com, or
the IRTC Admin Team at raycomp@povray.org so that we can arrange for some
alternate method of submission.

Here is an excerpt from the IRTC rules describing the email submission
process:

    a.Your ".txt", ".jpg", and optional ".zip" files may accompany your e-mail
        message as MIME attachments. Most Internet e-mail programs which
        support attachments use MIME. If you use attachments, you may attach
        one, two, or all three files to any given e-mail message. NOTE: do not
        insert your ".txt" file into the body of your message. It *must* be
        attached in the same way your image and zip-file are attached.
    b.Your ".txt", ".jpg", and optional ".zip" files may be uuencoded and
        inserted into the body of separate e-mail messages. Only the first
        uuencoded file in the body of a message is used, so each uuencoded
        file must be in a different message. The multiple messages which make
        up a submission (at least two, one for the ".txt" file and one for the
        ".jpg", and optionally a third for the ".zip" file) must be sent close
        together in time--they all must arrive within an hour of each other or
        they will look like an incomplete submission and be rejected. This
        isn't usually a problem, but try to avoid sending some files before
        lunch and the other ones afterward! NOTE: do not insert your ".txt"
        file into the body of any of these messages as plain text. If you use
        the uuencoding method of submission, the ".txt" file must also be
        uuencoded.
    c.Either of these two submission techniques may be used, but they may not
        be combined, at least in the same message. If you attach something to
        a message and also insert a uuencoded file into the body, the
        uuencoded file will be ignored.
    d.All other submission rules apply to e-mail submissions. They are treated
        exactly the same as ftp submissions, except for the way they get to
        the competition site.
    e.The e-mail address for competition submissions is irtc-submit@povray.org. 

You should receive confirmation of your submission within one day.  If you do
not, please write to Bill or the admin team and ask what's up.  Note that this
limit on ftp access is a temporary condition; full access should resume
shortly.

3.  We have now had our first incident of outright vote fraud.  Apparently
some of our participants care more about winning our rather modest prizes than
about honesty, fair play, and sharing with the rest of the ray-tracing
community.  Despite what these people may think, the competition is still
devoted to these ideals.  To avoid further abuse, the open voting system will
be eliminated, beginning with the next round, Jan-Feb 97.  In its place, we
will try a system which accepts votes only from selected participants.
Current voter registrations will be cancelled, and the open registration
mechanism will be shut down.  From that point on, all voter registration will
be handled indirectly.  To be eligible to vote, you must either:

3a. Enter the competition, or
3b. Be selected for the competition judging panel.  Details will be announced
    soon.

We regret having to implement this restriction, but we intend to keep the
competition about participating, not about winning.  Perhaps this mechanism
will also reduce the number of complaints about how bloody hard it is to vote
on all the images.

Any questions or comments about any of this should be sent to the IRTC admin
team, at "raycomp@povray.org".