"The prize being auctioned off was a limited edition print of
Karen Garbee's award winning photograph Waterfall. Bdale Garbee,
Linux CTO of HP and Karen's husband was present at the conference
to deliver the photograph.
"Bidding was a little slow at first, but picked up momentum when
various members of the community started making pledges. In all of
the chaos it was difficult to follow exactly what was going on at
times. At one point an audience member pledged to donate $5000 if
Bdale would shave off his beard. After telling the audience the
story of how he came to grow it - starting in 1982 - he declined to
do so unless the bidding and pledges reached a total of
$25,000"
