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Simon P. Chappell writes "Linux programming is the C Programming Language. Elaborating a little, Linux programming is C, with the GLIBC library and the POSIX standard API. Even a language as powerful as C needs libraries and to get the Holy Grail of cross-platform portability, it's necessary to have them standardised. The POSIX API is that standardisation and Linux adheres to it very well (opinions from those litigious folks in Utah aside). For those of us who already know C, Linux Programming by Example sets out to teach you the rest in a step by step, helpful, relaxed and incremental manner." Linux Programming by Example author Arnold Robbins pages 687 (21 page index) publisher Prentice Hall rating 10 reviewer Simon P. Chappell ISBN 0131429647 summary An exellent tutorial for real-world Linux software development

What's To Like There are many things to like about this book (over and above the fact that page 118 has my all-time favourite UserFriendly cartoon on it :-). Linux Programming by Example (LinuxPbE hereafter) takes a steady, incremental path through the concepts required to write software that can effectively interact with the Linux environment.

It is a truism many of us have proven multiple times in our lives that one of the finest learning tools available to programmers is to read and grok good, working code, written in the language that we are learning. LinuxPbE takes this philosophy and walks you through actual example code from various Unixes and Linux. The first part of the book, specifically chapters one through six, covers all of the aspects of Linux programming necessary to understand the Unix V7 ls program in its full glory in chapter seven. I feel that this approach works very well.

Part two dives into processes, walking us through creating them, managing them, communicating with them by using pipes and sending them signals. A few other general topics are included for completeness. Part three then covers the art and tools of debugging in fairly substantial detail.

All the code in the book is very well laid out, with line numbers provided to the left, and comments (in a small sans-serif font) on the right-hand side of the code. This is a very readable combination that is enhanced further by the fact that at each logical division, an explanation is given of the design and implementation used by that section.

I can't resist admiring the addition of the essay "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years" by Peter Norvig. This is a classic exploration of the effort needed to attain mastery of any skill, concluding that the minimum length of time required is ten years. The inclusion of this article, to me, speaks well of the author and his understanding of the learning process. One can only hope that those learning from this book will come to the same understanding and realise that the book is the start of their journey to mastering Linux programming.

What's To Consider

Nothing notable.

Summary If you want to learn how to do this stuff for real, then this book will get you started. As "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years" explains, no book is going to cause you to become an expert in 24 hours, 24 days or even, perhaps, 24 months. That said, this book will be useful for many of those ten years, so run or surf to your favourite bookstore and purchase it now.

You can purchase Linux Programming by Example from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

dallen writes "Do you wonder what Illiad of UserFriendly does when he's not coming up with comics? This article at GlobeAndMail.com reveals that his company, Condition30, is working on multiple videogame-related engines which create unpredictable but recognizable content. The company is working 'to polish its game-engine technology', but its public demo, a music creation engine, makes 'random' music that sounds much like music, not noise, potentially for games and other interactive products. Says their website: 'Our principal product, ZenStrings, is a music-generation engine that composes music and audio in real-time without taxing memory or processing power'."

honestpuck writes "Even Grues Get Full is the fourth and latest collection of cartoons from User Friendly. I got this collection because a friend said the third collection was brilliant 'from cover to cover.' I have to say that this collection did have some exceptionally good moments, but 'from cover to cover,' I think not." Honestpuck's review continues, below. Even Grues Get Full author J.D. "Iliad" Frzer pages 122 publisher O'Reilly rating 8 - Funny reviewer Tony Williams ISBN 0596005660 summary Chock full o' laughs. Funny, didn't split my sides or spit coffee out my nose, but funny

To start, I didn't find the inside title page even worth a smile, the only joke 'Even Grues Get Full' had already been on the front cover and I'd noticed its repetition on the back one as well.

To investigate a little further I read the 'Foreword' by Wil Wheaton. OK, it did have one good Wesley joke but mostly it seemed to be saying how much he didn't mind Iliad making fun of him in the strip.

Then we get to the strips. Yeah, some are funny. I laughed a bit. Iliad certainly knows a good tech joke when he draws one - even if he does seem to make a lot of jokes at the expense of the Windows operating system -- which seems to be a combination of shooting fish in a barrel and politically incorrect making fun of the crippled and lame. However some things are just not funny, Mr Frazer.

What about those cartoons from page 78 to 83. To start off, no self respecting Lego geek with two hundred and seventy million dollars would buy two million sets of Lego Mindstorms. I'd only (sorry, I mean 'He'd only') buy one and a half million to leave cash left over for buying a couple of hundred thousand Lego models of the Millenium Falcon -- I mean, "D'uh!" Oh, and about the cartoon on page 82: missing a 16-wheel cog to complete your project is no laughing matter you know. I don't see what's so amusing about building a missile silo out of Lego either -- I'm going to build a carry box for my cat when I can get enough blue 12 x 1 bricks.

Then there's the series about the visiting MBA. No real geek would fall in love with a woman merely because her name, 'Pearl,' was a homonym for a scripting language - get real. If her name had been 'See' or 'Jarvah,' maybe. But not funny, Iliad.

Frankly, I think this book is full of the usual 'User Friendly' rubbish. Jokes at the expense of those poor users (hey, they don't know any better), clueless management (hey, they don't know any better) and socially disadvantaged and deprived geeks (hey, we don't know any better.) Joking about the outstanding, well-informed and upright citizens that work in the sales and marketing departments of our IT firms and ISPs? Shame on you J.D. Oh, and poking fun at poor Larry Ellison just cause he isn't as rich as Bill is just downright mean.

I think Tim O'Reilly should be ashamed to publish this book. I guess the only reason he does is that Iliad hasn't poked fun at him (yet).

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It's just chock full of jokes that only a Linux-loving geek could find funny. Cartoons full of references that only a Perl programming geek would understand. I didn't learn a single thing about programming in C# for .NET ot the latest protocols used in Active Directories -- a totally useless tech book, really.

Look, just go to the User Friendly web site and see some more recent examples from this deeply disturbed cartoonist, or go to the O'Reilly book page and check out a few strips from the book itself and you will agree with me.

You can purchase Even Grues Get Full from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

savetz writes "20 years before User Friendly, Doctor Fun, and Dilbert, about the only place a geek could go for a fix of nerdy comic goodness was ... Radio Shack. Tandy Computer Whiz Kids was a comic book series that was distributed for free at Radio Shack stores. It featured overeager kids stopping bad guys with their TRS-80s and acoustic modems, sweetly naive information about computers, and constant shilling of Radio Shack products. They're now on the Web." Update: 04/19 03:44 GMT by J : We're having a bit of DB trouble tonight... bear with us.

Craig Maloney writes with the review below of the latest release from User Friendly, laughware which finally hit 1.0 earlier this year. Read on for Craig's impressions of the book, which is loaded with more than just reprints of the UF comics you've seen on the web. User Friendly 1.0 author J.D. "Illiad" frazer pages 112 publisher Plan Nine Publishing rating 9/10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1929462395 summary An �autobiographical� look at the thoughts and ideas that make up the User Friendly comic strip and community.

Greetings Cave Dwellers

Arguably one of the most successful and popular online comics is User Friendly. With three full-length books in print, a community of dedicated readers, and merchandise that has been featured on major computer celebrities globally, one would have a hard time disputing the popularity and the success of User Friendly. Over the past four years, User Friendly has grown from a small inter-office comic into an internet destination and a community of loyal readers. User Friendly 1.0 collects not only the comics that have not been published before (O'Reilly didn't include them in the previous books because of layout and other considerations), but also various essays, thoughts, illustrations, and other comics not necessarily related to User Friendly.

It All Began Here

The first section of the book contains the comics that didn't make it in the first User Friendly book (User Friendly, published by O'Reilly and Associates). These are the comics that introduce the crew of Columbia Internet (the friendliest, hardest-working and most neurotic little internet service provider), and births Dust Puppy (from a server that hasn't been upgraded in a year). The drawings are more primitive, with four frames of story rather than the three we enjoy today, but don't let that detract you from the humor and the sheer fun of the comics. Sure, they're not the same as what you're expecting from the current dailies, but they have a certain charm all their own.

Introduce Yourself / Essay Contest

The latter half of the book introduces the characters of User Friendly and their real-world analogues. Yes folks, the secret is out and revealed for the first time; User Friendly is based on real-people, although Illiad is quick to point out the people the characters are based on aren't QUITE as neurotic as their cartoon counterparts. Illiad also takes the latter part of the book to talk about his views on art, drawing women, community schisms, and the practical joke of 1999 and its aftermath. These essays show Illiad as a cartoonist who is not only humbled and flattered by the acceptance of his work, but also an artist who appreciates the community that has evolved from that work. Illiad appreciates his fans, and it's that appreciation of the fans that makes a book like User Friendly 1.0 not only possible, but also readable.

Bonus

As an added bonus, User Friendly 1.0 also features several SuSE Friendly comics (strips done for SuSE) and the crossover between User Friendly and Sluggy Freelance (in case you missed it). The strips are a nice treat for the fans and I have User Friendly to thank for my Sluggy Freelance addiction. :)

For the fans

If you don't like User Friendly, you've already skipped this review, and won't buy this book. That's quite all right, as this book isn't meant for you anyway. For the people who are fans of the comic, or who have a passing interest in the behind the scenes thoughts and ideas of User Friendly (or who want to see the early comics and the crossover appearances), this book is a no-brainer purchase. The writing is genuine, and having the rest of the comics in print is a bonus. User Friendly 1.0 is a labor of love for the community, and the community won't be disappointed.

You can purchase User Friendly 1.0 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

SilverStr writes: "With all the recent discussion on organizations rethinking their security strategies, I thought I would do a review on one of my favorite books. I have stayed pretty quiet on /. over the years, but security is something I don't think developers anywhere should be taking lightly. Hopefully some of them will get something out of my review and pick this book up." Read on for the rest of his review of Ross Anderson's Security Engineering. Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems author Ross Anderson pages 612 publisher Wiley Computer Publishing rating 9.5 reviewer SilverStr ISBN 0-471-38922-6 summary An exceptional book on the dynamics of security engineering. A must have on all developers shelves who care about digital security and its impact on system design.

Introduction

The complexities of security engineering go beyond the ideals of understanding buffer overflows and considering that patching your systems is not an option. Many a Slashdot article (particularly the latest one on Louis Bertrand's OpenBSD presentation) has comments on the failings of code design. In Ross Anderson's book Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems, Ross goes into impeccable detail into the aspects of building systems resilient to malicious attack, abuse and programming error.

The book is well laid out, and in my opinion Ross properly segmented the topics in a way that makes the sections easy to read. The first section is focused on the many concepts of digital security such as protocols, access control and cryptography, and is written in a way so that you do not require a technical background to understand. It was refreshing to read how Ross explains cryptography in such a non-threatening manner that you can understand it without having to refer to Applied Cryptography from Bruce Schneier. Many authors have tried this in the past, and failed.

The second part of the book goes into considerable detail about practical and important applications such as banking and network attacks and defense. I have to be honest with you, I don't read a lot of books on software engineering that go into Radar Jamming and Nuclear Command and Control systems, and I found that sort of discussion exciting. (Although I have no interest in writing security code for the next cruise missile that will move the world to a level of DefCon quicker than that in movies like War Games, I still was quite interested in the approach.) Many of the examples and case studies that Ross explains bring the whole topic together to help strengthen the point about security engineering and its application to each system. Further to this, Ross' writing made me shutter to think about just how popular applications like bankcard systems have been written to be so weak and vulnerable. Before the book's main content, Ross includes an explanation the legalities of publishing some of this information. It wasn't until I started reflecting on some of the case studies that I realized how potent and valuable some of this information is, especially when I thought of potential risks that should have been mitigated and were not. Ross' examples should be considered textbook cases, though, and not information that can be drastically abused.

The third part looks into the organizational and policy issues faced with security engineering. From office politics to security and the law, this section goes into depth about managing security engineering and its affects on business and people. Compared to the rest of this book I found some of the topics in this section too short on detail, feeling like just a glancing blow, but still giving the reader enough information to seek more in depth content if they so choose. (Check out the bibliography for such information.) Discussing issues such as Carnivore, digital copyright, and system evaluation and assurance, this section rounds out the book quite well.

Why to Consider this Book

If you are a developer considering security (which should be all developers, anyways) this book provides a good balance on security engineering, and serves as an excellent reference work. It can work well as a textbook introducing developers to security engineering, and can be used as a good introduction to many dynamics of digital security. (Hint to COMP professors outside of Cambridge: get your students to read this book -- after you do of course).

Although you might not be able to use the section on radar jamming and its countermeasures directly, you may still be able to use principles in writing protected electronic systems while working on that new wireless system for Ma Bell. And finally, you should use this book as a brick in the foundation of learning on the concepts of writing secure code.

Something else you should consider in this book is the extensive bibliography in the back. If you want to follow up with more detailed information in any one section, Ross did an tremendous job in providing pointers to research papers and work done by others to read and research on. This in itself made the book well worth the money, as for me I have already read up and used some of the works I didn't have indexed to me before.

Wrap Up

If you are going to read this book and look for samples to write secure code, you are going to pick up the wrong book. This book is a cornerstone in building a strong foundation and understanding of security engineering. This book is goes beyond understanding the practical components of buffer overflows, stack smashing and code audits for review, and takes the reader into a new plain of understanding when it comes to security engineering. It is not a cookbook for lazy script kiddies to learn how to attack weak systems, but can be used to allow you to learn from others mistakes. You don't have to be a developer working on security systems to gain some knowledge from this text. Areas in the book such as that on E-Commerce can very much help bridge the chasm of bad web application design and can help you refrain from getting in the trap of fast application development full of vulnerabilities and exposing users to unnecessary online risk.

It is the responsibility of all developers to understand the risks they expose their software and their clients to. I am sure some developers will have some excuse where their web forms and applications do not require them to learn such silly things. That's fine. Hopefully I wouldn't need to use your systems. For the rest of us though, this is a must read.

Table of Contents

Part One

1. What Is Security Engineering
2. Protocols
3. Passwords
4. Access Control
5. Cryptography
6. Distributed Systems

Part Two

1. Multilevel Security
2. Multilateral Security
3. Banking and Bookkeeping
4. Monitoring Systems
5. Nuclear Command and Control
6. Security Printing and Seals
7. Biometrics
8. Physical Tamper Resistance
9. Emission Security
10. Electronic and Information Warfare
11. Telecom System Security
12. Network Attack and Defense
13. Protecting E-Commerce Systems
14. Copyright and Privacy Protection

Part Three

1. E-Policy
2. Management Issues
3. System Evaluation and Assurance
4. Conclusions

Bibliography

You can purchase Security Engineering from Fatbrain. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.

Craig Maloney contributed this review, because you can't always read a 600-page, densely written technical manual without a little something to leaven the bread. The Root of All Evil author J.D. "Illiad" Frazer pages 136 publisher O'Reilly rating 9 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0-596-00193-2 summary The third collection of User Friendly comic strips covering all of the strips appearing in Y2K.

Unless you've been living behind a 2400 baud modem for the past few years, you've probably heard of the tales of Columbia Internet as described in the online comic strip User Friendly. You've probably even looked at a few strips from time to time. You may even have bought the two previous books "User Friendly" and "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell". Whatever experience you've had with User Friendly, you'll really enjoy the third printed installment "The Root of All Evil".

What's good?

"The Root of All Evil" picks up right where "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell" left off, with the first comic being the result of a "Y2K" error. Normality returns to Columbia Internet in short order, however, with the invention of an office assistant for VI called "VIGOR" (which spawned it's own real-life equivalent). There's plenty of good story lines in this collection: Pitr challenging Crud Puppy, the introduction of Cat Five, the Coffee Ring incident, Dark Side Dave, the X-Friends, the camping trip, and many many more. But the real reason many UFies should get this book is the introduction of the character that's quickly become a fan favorite: Sid Dabster. The battles between Pitr and Sid are absolutely hysterical. If you need proof, just think what might happen to Sid who has all of his old code on punched cards neatly stacked in a room, only to have his rival Pitr waiting outside the door with a leaf blower. There's plenty of moments like this in "The Root of All Evil" to keep you smiling.

The comics are transferred to the page rather well, with only a few contrast issues. Unlike the previous books, all of the Sunday comics are in their proper height.

What's bad?

There's only two nitpicks I can level at this collection, and they're both extremely picky. The first is the Sunday comics are all in black and white. Unfortunately, to print 1/7th of this book in color would probably increase the printing costs way beyond what User Friendly's audience would pay. Fortunately if you really want to see them in their original glory, you can view them online. The second nitpick can be levelled at any collection of topical comic strips. Sometimes the jokes are too topical. A few of the Sunday sight gags (which tend to be more topical than the weekday gags) left me scratching my head. Some of the jokes are starting to show their age (this is internet time, of course :) ), but there's also a certain nostalgia in comic collections like this. It's like going back and reading Bloom County books with their references to 1980's popular culture. Sure the "I Love You" virus is remembered about as well as a Sean Penn joke, but there's a certain charm in remembering a time when "I Love You" was zipping effortlessly across the net, and X-Men was the movie everyone camped out to see. Do I think User Friendly should be less topical? Of course not. That's some of the beauty of User Friendly (and Bloom County, for that matter). The strips in this book perfectly capture the humor of the situations we all were facing at the time. Just remember you might have to bring some of those old memories back to fully enjoy this book.

What's in it for me?

If you have the previous User Friendly books, this is a no-brainer purchase. If you don't have them, you might want to get the other two books before purchasing this one. If you've never viewed User Friendly, view a few strips online or leaf through the other books first. If you're like most geeks, you'll find you'll want as much User Friendly as you can get!

You can purchase this book from FatBrain.

gravling writes: "Jason McIntosh has written an interesting article on XML.com about ComicsML, a language he's invented to allow online comics artists to describe and syndicate their work. Using ComicsML can let you do similar things to the UserFriendly search engine, but on a web-wide basis."

gravling writes: "Jason McIntosh has written an interesting article on XML.com about ComicsML, a language he's invented to allow online comics artists to describe and syndicate their work. Using ComicsML can let you do similar things to the UserFriendly search engine, but on a web-wide basis."

Lumpish Scholar writes "The Chicago Tribune (no registration required:-) has this long awaited article on Web-based cartoons and cartoonists. (A couple of Web-based cartoonists put together the recent Berkely Breathed interview, as reported here.) The Trib article mentions some of my favorite online cartoons: Kevin and Kell, College Roomies From Hell, and Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (now in dead tree syndication and online here). Other sources: Keenspot, hosting service for forty online strips; Planet Cartoonist's list of the top 100 online comic strips; a similar list from Big Panda; Yahoo!'s same-day-as-the-papers strips; King Features; Comics.com, home of Dilbert (a.k.a. Dilbert.com), Peanuts (Snoopy.com), and other United Media comic strips, and cartoons from the New Yorker; Plan 9 Publishing, bringing online comics to dead trees near you; oh, yeah, and let's not forget that other online strip." I just wish Gary Larson would come back.

Following the success of last year's User Friendly , O'Reilly strikes back. This time, it's a collection of 1999's comics (3 January through 11 December). Slightly oversized, with three daily strips or one daily and one Sunday strip to a page, this happy little collection will spruce up your coffee table and bring a smile to your guests. (If you have a coffee table, that is.)

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell author Illiad pages 122 publisher O'Reilly & Associates rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 1-56592-861-x summary See the world through slightly warped eyes with the gang at Columbia Internet in the second bound collection of Illiad's daily comic.

What's to Like? When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?

There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.

On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)

What's to Consider? As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.

Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.

The Summary A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Table of Contents

• Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
• Introduction -- Illiad
• The Comics

Following the success of last year's User Friendly , O'Reilly strikes back. This time, it's a collection of 1999's comics (3 January through 11 December). Slightly oversized, with three daily strips or one daily and one Sunday strip to a page, this happy little collection will spruce up your coffee table and bring a smile to your guests. (If you have a coffee table, that is.)

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell author Illiad pages 122 publisher O'Reilly & Associates rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 1-56592-861-x summary See the world through slightly warped eyes with the gang at Columbia Internet in the second bound collection of Illiad's daily comic.

What's to Like? When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?

There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.

On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)

What's to Consider? As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.

Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.

The Summary A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Table of Contents

• Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
• Introduction -- Illiad
• The Comics

Following the success of last year's User Friendly , O'Reilly strikes back. This time, it's a collection of 1999's comics (3 January through 11 December). Slightly oversized, with three daily strips or one daily and one Sunday strip to a page, this happy little collection will spruce up your coffee table and bring a smile to your guests. (If you have a coffee table, that is.)

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell author Illiad pages 122 publisher O'Reilly & Associates rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 1-56592-861-x summary See the world through slightly warped eyes with the gang at Columbia Internet in the second bound collection of Illiad's daily comic.

What's to Like? When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?

There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.

On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)

What's to Consider? As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.

Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.

The Summary A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Table of Contents

• Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
• Introduction -- Illiad
• The Comics

Following the success of last year's User Friendly , O'Reilly strikes back. This time, it's a collection of 1999's comics (3 January through 11 December). Slightly oversized, with three daily strips or one daily and one Sunday strip to a page, this happy little collection will spruce up your coffee table and bring a smile to your guests. (If you have a coffee table, that is.)

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell author Illiad pages 122 publisher O'Reilly & Associates rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 1-56592-861-x summary See the world through slightly warped eyes with the gang at Columbia Internet in the second bound collection of Illiad's daily comic.

What's to Like? When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?

There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.

On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)

What's to Consider? As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.

Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.

The Summary A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Table of Contents

• Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
• Introduction -- Illiad
• The Comics

Following the success of last year's User Friendly , O'Reilly strikes back. This time, it's a collection of 1999's comics (3 January through 11 December). Slightly oversized, with three daily strips or one daily and one Sunday strip to a page, this happy little collection will spruce up your coffee table and bring a smile to your guests. (If you have a coffee table, that is.)

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell author Illiad pages 122 publisher O'Reilly & Associates rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 1-56592-861-x summary See the world through slightly warped eyes with the gang at Columbia Internet in the second bound collection of Illiad's daily comic.

What's to Like? When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?

There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.

On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)

What's to Consider? As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.

Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.

The Summary A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Table of Contents

• Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
• Introduction -- Illiad
• The Comics

Lets start this off with some homework: we were nominated for a 2000 Webby in Community. Please go vote for us (requires annoying login, but please do it anyway! I want a crappy little trophy!) Now with the 'biz outta the way, brainsik pointed us to the Brainshaker: a headmounted subwoofer that looks like it would make Quake a bit to real. Plastik noted a web filter guaranteed to offend the conservative and humorless. But it makes reading Slashdot damn entertaining. And if you're interesting in violating most religions, vkulkarn found an "Escort" who apparently reads Slashdot (will she go out with CowboyNeal?) Speaking of religion, Zippy noted that I am apparently a prophet in the Church of The Enlightenment , along with Jay Stile of Stileproject . Illiad, from Userfriendly.org is a bard. webword sent us CalculusGirls.com which combines 2 of the many things I don't understand. Andy Lester noted that Brunching Shuttlecocks has a book on "Fuzzy Logic Functions", in the style of O'Reilly. yek401 noted that his english professor builds barbie doll cyborgs: god bless tenure ;) Trenchcoat Steve warned us about Moon Land Registry which claims to be selling land on the moon for $10/acre: you even get a deed and mineral rights... and it might be legal! Gravey noted that their are two new Reboot movies going into production. For you conspiracy theorists, backtick noted that everyone's favorite software monopoly might be getting into the furniture biz along with Lazyboy. SgtPepper pointed us to RFC 2795 which "describes a protocol suite which supports an infinite number of monkeys that sit at an infinite number of typewriters" ucsimon noted that LegoLand in California just gota liquor license. Mind you after a few shots of vodka, finding a 2x2 blue block takes a lot longer. Let's wrap up with jyuter's note that Comedy Central has vid clips of the south park kids doing Python's parrot sketch in Quicktime or Real.

J. FoxGlov writes "Scott Kurtz, creator of the game-centric comic strip PvP, released his first rant with the new domain. It's his view on comic strips about tech support, and specifically names User Friendly and Absurd Notions as examples of strips that just aren't funny. 'Folks, a tech making fun of someone learning how to operate a computer is like a school teacher making fun of a child learning how to read. It's just plain wrong.' Read the rest of the rant here." I fit many people's definition of a clueless (Linux) user, but I still find User Friendly funny. Do you? Or do you think Kurtz is right that it's not nice to knock people who call tech support, even in fun?

Every year I pick a new years resolution and ever year it doesn't come true. This year I've opted to set my sights low so I can greatly increase the chance of suceeding for once. This year my resolution is to continue converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. Read on to learn what resolutions RMS, ESR, Jon Katz, CowboyNeal, Mandrake and others have for the year 2000.

Jason Haas from LinuxPPC has the following resolutions: "248x768 @ 85 Hz, Merge my world domination plans with Linus's tree, Kawasaka W650:It will be mine (a Virago would be ok), Restart akido, and mv competition to /dev/null

Jon Katz , Slashdot's favorite gasbag says " I wish for Walt Disney to thaw himself out, climb out of his Cryogenimatronic Vault, show up at Walt Disney World and wreak havoc on the corporate weenies who desecrated EPCOT, his model city of tomorrow. Maybe join with the Seattle protesters and touch off a war against corporatist weenies everywhere. "

Emmett Plant is the latest editorial addition to the Slashdot Authors roster. His resolution is "to start a company called 'EmmettLinux,' which will be responsible for creating no product whatsoever. We will employ a highly-paid staff of fifty people who will show up every day and start throwing money into a furnace. I hope to IPO by March and use the cash to hire 2,000 more moneyburners and open an office in Hong Kong. I will leave soon after, selling all of my stock and retiring to the Bahamas."

Chris J. DiBona , Linux Community Evangelist for VA Linux Systems, President of SVLUG, and Grant Chair for LI, has resolved the following: ".Sleep is high on my list, but I really just like to have more time to read, this year has been pretty hard-core. I'd also like to spend more time learning power supply electronics, dc-dc transformers and such. I'm already pretty good with the digital side of things, but this is a big gap in my knowledge. Can I give more than two? I'd also like a puppy. A puppy with an X10 Cam mounted on its collar so I can put a "puppy cam" online."

Rusty Russell , kernel hacker and mad genius wishes to Learn to cook. Or trade kernel code for food. Or buy a fire extinguisher.

Eric S. Raymond is perhaps better known simply as esr... and if you don't know who he is, well, ouch. He resolves to " Catch up with my email and cut down on my traveling. It's nice to be needed, but 50% time on the road is getting ridiculous..."

Raster aka "That Enlightenment Guy" who is the only living person with more typos than me resolves simply to use procmail to allow more sleep time.

Mandrake resolves "I really need to start taking better care of my body. I haven't really worked out in about a year - and I eat too much garbage (junk food / fast food), and I REALLY need to stop drinking coke. I go through 2liters like most people drink cans of coke. I don't think it'll happen any time soon - but hopefully I'll at least be a little healthier by the end of the year."

Trae McCombs , aka X, aka MC, aka 'That Linux.com guy' resolves to "Learn to eat more foods, Incorporate working out into my lifestyle, Work less than 14hrs a day, Be kinder to others, Listen more, Talk less, Learn to code, Read more, Keep true to my ideals..."

Scott Draeker , the President of Loki Entertainment Software resolves to release a first tier Linux game which is not available for windows. Hard to argue with that one.

Kurt DeMaagd , aka The Pope, aka Rob's Roommate and the BSI number cruncher has the following:

1. Combat bimetallism and establish the gold standard for currency.
2. Negotiate the DeMaagd-Hay-Pauncefote treaty, allowing the U.S. to unilaterally construct an isthmian canal.
3. Establish an American protectorate in Cuba.
4. Suppress the Boxer uprising.

Mind you if you look closely at Kurt's resolutions, you might notice that they look strikingly similiar to President William McKinley's adminstration's high points. I'm going to have to up kurts medication.

Illiad , creator of the ever popular User Friendly comic strip says "I resolve to only take responsibility for those choices that I have control over. That means I have to give up on the idea of educating the technically-resistant, the doublespeak-inclined, and the village idiot."

Richard M. Stallman , founder of the Free Software Founding and the GNU Project gave us suggested resolutions for Slashdot readers: They are 1. Do not install any non-free software your computers and 2. Do not buy from Amazon until they stop using software patents for aggression.

CowboyNeal , the man, the myth, the legend. The guy who responds when users can't figure out how to login. The guy who maintains the slashboxes. And the guy who inhabitants the living room in the Geek Compound, resolves that he shall "Shower Every Week, whether I needs it or not." All of the co-workers in this office who have orafactory functionality thank him. It doesn't matter to me much either way.

Jim Jagielski , aka jimjag or jim@apache.org or jim@jaguNET.com, resolves to call sleep(28800) a lot more often.

Nitrozac is the creator of After Y2k... which as best as I can tell means she's about to work herself out of a job. But regardless she says "If civilization manages to hold on to its tenuous existence, I'd like to find a cure for Agalmatophilia, and have others join me to rid the world of this illness that causes so much needless suffering. If civilization crumbles, my Post-Apocalypse Resolution is to learn how to do 16-bead graphics on my abacus, so I can continue the comic. ;-)"

And finally (thank god because my wrists are tired) is Jeff "Hemos" Bates , a man who needs no introduction (but he does need a solid smack to the head).He says "With the coming of El Ano Neuvo, I resolve that I'm going to continue my battle against the dread forces of The Krull Invasion. I think that I might also try to learn some grammar. Per'aps. And maybe I'll learn how to spell a few more words as well".

Last week, The Bazaar, an Open Source meeting and exhibition, was held for the first time in New York City. It was not a well-attended event, with fewer than 3000 registered visitors, and the view from the show's main floor was downright dismal because most of the people there spent most of their time in tutorial sessions, not cruising the (sparse) display booths. But it was still an event many found valuable. Here are some "show tales" from Slashdot readers who were there. (click below)

From Jordan Greenberg:

The Bazaar was my first real chance to meet any of the big names of the Linux community. Though I missed all of the daytime events due to work, I showed up just in time to be bored by Ralph Nader and retreat to the Andover.net party before things got too crazy. Once there I was able to chat with such legends as ESR, Bruce Perens, Maddog Hall, Jeff and Robin, and was even able to make RMS laugh about the whole to GNU or not to GNU Linux naming debate. Personally, I was never a big fan of saying GNU/Linux - I think it sounds awkward and confusing and I did not like RMS demanding that people in his presence use the GNU (right Chris?).

With almighty tequila coursing through my veins, I found myself in the midst of a sermon by RMS on why he believes we need GNU terminology - and coming from his mouth it suddenly made sense (or perhaps that was the tequila too). Linux, or GNU/Linux as RMS would have it, depends not only on the quality of the software but about the freedom within, granted by the GPL. By using the GNU prefix we remind ourselves and others of this. GNU/Linux is not just about the software, but about the ideals behind that software.

But it still sounds awkward. "The problem is," I said to RMS and the others that were still listening, "that you need a catchier name for it. How about calling yourself an "impaladin?"

"Impaladin?" asked RMS

"Yes, impaladin - Have GNU will travel"

RMS laughed - he approved

So feel free to use this new name - maybe even create an impaladin distribution or just laugh at it - but enjoy.

-------------

Isaac Salpeter's take:

The heart of this conference was not to be found on the exhibition floor, nor in the (repetitive axe-grinding of the) keynotes, but in the classes and general sessions. Suggestion for the future: more open discussions and cooperation, less Ralph Nader yammering about how much Microsoft sucks.

Best conversation overheard:

"So, will the Andover party have a cash bar?"

"No, there's free beer."

"Uh-oh, Stallman's gonna be pissed..."

--------------------

Annelise Anderson, representing FreeBSD, says:

Whatever its raw edges, The Bazaar conference was worthwhile for the usual networking reasons. The best of the networking went on at the reception hosted by andover.net and the follow-on reception at the FAO Schwarz toy store, an inspired location for this crowd. This one was thanks to FAO Schwartz and IBM.

The BSDs could -- should -- have had a stronger presence here, perhaps with a combined exhibit booth in addition to the volunteers demo-ing on their own computers. Patrick Lynch of the NY users' group organized a pan-BSD BOF; Bob Bruce showed up there and said we might see an IPO with FreeBSD's name on it before the middle of next year. My little Sony picturebook was a source of some amazement -- FreeBSD -current running on such a little thing, with a couple of those stunning Eterms. The publishers in attendance were generally unaware that along with the multiple Linux distros, FreeBSD and the other BSDs exist and transfer an enormous amount of the traffic on the Internet.

---------------

Adam Matos, Systems Administrator and Student, The Beacon School, writes:

While attending The Bazaar here in Manhattan, I found it to be fascinating that so many people support the Linux community. I came with a colleague and teacher of mine, Chris Lehmann, Technology coordinator for The Beacon School. Chris was the one who first showed me Linux and how useful it can be. At Beacon we use Linux on our primary servers and wanted to let others know that schools, too, use Linux.

I attended a tuturial Wednesday morning, Enterprise System Management, that was suposed to teach me about running Linux servers. I walked out 10 minutes into the tuturial. I took a quick look at what was planned for the session and noticed I knew a majority of it. Not because I think I know it all, but because we've done most of it at Beacon. Such things as configuring Samba and writing shell scripts were something I learned under Chris Lehmanns's coordination at school. With less than two years Linux experience, I've been given the title Systems Administrator.

As I leave The Bazaar, I feel more comfortable about how many other Linux enthusiasts are out there. Linux is something everyone I feel can start adapting to. People can change.

---------------

From Nopalzin Torrres, Systems & Network Administrator, IllusionFusion!:

I was nervous when I first arrived, but the Open Source community welcomed my desire to learn and contribute. I walked out of the Building Firewalls with Open BSD tutorial saying "Damn, I can really make this work". I also picked up some great info on Samba and Linux system admin. I had a great time and met some great guys.

---------------

starlady (AKA Jessica Lee Sheffield) finishes off by saying:

Having been to a show every month for the past four months, I thought I had some idea of what to expect when entering the exhibit floor, but my expectations were largely confounded as this was a much smaller show than I have experienced. I wasn't surprised to see Geek Compound 3.0 greet me as I walked through the door - Andover's .org pavilion, which was comprised of Linux.com, Linuxfund.org, NetBSD, KDE, and others, in addition to Slashdot and Freshmeat, of course. As I continued on through the floor looking for the UserFriendly booth, I noticed that several of the powerhouse booths at past shows, notably Red Hat and VA Linux, had a surprisingly subdued presence at this one, while Caldera (of "E-business!" fame at COMDEX) wasn't even in attendance.

The atmosphere at The Bazaar was very community-oriented, which is why it's a shame that the attendance was so low. Without the distractions of marketing ploys, people were free to discuss projects, collaboration, or simply say "Hey, I like your work." I had very nice conversations with some of the leading names in the Open Source community, and even witnessed a random guy walk up to Bob Young, notice his red beret, and ask, "Hey, are you with Red Hat or something?"

When Mr. Young nodded with a smile, the guy proceeded to ask him support questions, while I and Paul Ferris of LinuxToday snuck off before our snickering gave the game away. To his credit, Mr Young was very gracious in answering the man's questions and making him feel comfortable.

The relaxed nature of The Bazaar made it possible for smaller organizations to catch the eye and ear of the community and publicize their own open source efforts. One such was The Beacon School, an alternative public school in New York City where the students administrate Linux servers and run projects on them. The students are very enthusiastic and eager to be involved in the community, and I believe they made a very good impression on the attendees (except perhaps the ones that kept shooting the Nerf weapons kindly provided by Copyleft). Speaking of Nerf, Copyleft's "Shoot the Star Wars action figures, win a prize" campaign was a roaring success. I took a Slashdot frisbee home with me, so I can't complain. :)

All in all, I think The Bazaar was a success for its first year. The traffic wasn't as high as anyone would have liked due to bad placement within the Javits center, but I believe that is something they can improve in the future. The show was a great chance to see old friends and make new ones in the Open Source world, and I think a lot of positive things will come of that.

---------------

There were things that could have been improved, and the timing was wrong; theBazaar was held in the middle of finals week for most area colleges, which I believe was a big factor in the low attendance. And for some reason the heat in the Jacob Javits Convention Center wasn't working properly, which gave the whole thing a (literally) chilly atmosphere. Oh, well. Maybe next year's edition will be better-timed and better-attended.

- Robin "roblimo" Miller

Stern reviewed one of the most gimme books of the year: O'Reilly's User Friendly. The whole gang is gathered together in a dead tree version, which means you can finally take UF where ever you want to be. User Friendly author J.D. "Illiad" Frazer pages 126 publisher O'Reilly & Associates, 1999 rating 9/10 reviewer Stern ISBN 1565926730 summary "Launch marketing drones!". Linux comics come of age

Stern is the president of Information Markets Corp.
Register; answer questions; get paid.

The Scenario

In the 1950s, Charles Schultz taught the world that cartoon art doesn't matter, characters do. So who are the characters of User Friendly, the greatest open-source-savvy comic strip?

Pitr and Mark: the technicians at Columbia Internet Greg: the Columbia Internet tech support guy Miranda: patronized sysadmin and tech support woman Stef: the marketing guy with slow reflexes and a cute tush Dust Puppy: a fuzzy thing which programs well and plays a mean game of quake Crud Puppy: his evil twin Erwin: the AI

Together, they have the sorts of adventures you would expect: supporting stupid clients, fighting evil corporate acquisitions, and thwarting Windows NT installations. The also cross into adventures you might not expect, including SWAT attacks on Microsoft headquarters. The collection wisely ends with User Friendly's legendary satire of the original Star Wars movie.

The naive might compare User Friendly to Dilbert, since they're both set in technology industry offices, but it's really more like Doonesbury. Illiad relies on big talking coke cans the same way Gary Trudeau brings in "Mr. Butts," the big talking cigarette. Where Trudeau has cameo appearances by Donald Trump, Richard Stallman and Eric S. Raymond pop into User Friendly. Most importantly, both cartoons are always topical. Readers of User Friendly do well to keep up with their technology and share certain technical opinions if they want to get the jokes. Among these opinions, that

• Microsoft sucks, and
• Linux is good

The cartoon assumes certain other shared beliefs as well,

• Marketing people are not particularly bright
• People who smile too much should not be trusted
• Quake is good
• Programmers work best when eating junk food and drinking caffeinated beverages

Anybody reading this review at Slashdot is probably well equipped to enjoy User Friendly. In fact, most people reading this review have probably already enjoyed the cartoon, since it is available for free over the web.

What's Bad?

Illiad from time to time pulls out a very old joke, such as the customer who can't find his power switch. The graphics are crude, but frankly that's part of the strip's charm.

What's Good?

The strip is very, very funny, especially when Illiad allows himself to daydream and the storylines become more bizarre. Follow Erwin the AI, as he suffers the successive indignities of being ported to Windows NT, then over to an iMac and a Palm III. Picture Pitr furtively buying "Evil Geniuses for Dummies." The Star Wars satire is brilliant. However strange the story grows (a fuzzball in a hockey mask attacking the marketing staff with a knife?) it never becomes unmoored, and by reading it, you will always feel like a member of the open source club.

So What's In It For Me?

Unless you have a flat panel display in every room and the bathroom, there's probably space in your life for a User Friendly collection. Leave it on the coffee table to impress your guests and to signal your membership in the Open-Source-erati. Leave it in the bathroom and you'll never lack for toilet paper.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

jimmcq writes "A User Friendly book is going to be published by published by O'Reilly & Associates. See the Press Release for more details. " It's been in the works for quite awhile, but it looks like O'Reilly has finally set a date: October, 1999.

We got a bunch of questions for Illiad (of User Friendly fame) Monday, let the Moderators (you know who you are) decide which of them were worthy, and sent the chosen ones off to the wilds of British Columbia. Here are Illiad's answers...

Q: (from rde) What is the capital of Burkina Faso, and why does it have so many vowels?

A: Ouagadougou, pronounced "ouagadougou." As for the number of vowels, evidently the government of Burkina Faso offered Pat Sajak bags of money.

Q: (from Simon Hibbs) When the Dust Puppy plays Quake, how _does_ it do that *wiggle* thing?......

A: I'm not entirely certain, although I've seen a substantially higher consumption of caffeine in the office just before the little guy gets into a gibfest.

Q: (from Manatee) Is Miranda as hot as I think she is?

A: Much hotter. She knows she attracts men, but her choice of wearing thongs "because panties make my thighs look big" was purely done for her own sense of aesthetics.

Q : (from Squeamish Ossifrage) Is the User Friendly Project For Humanity getting anywhere?

A: Yes and no. The infrastructure and enthusiasm is there, but now we need funding. I'm working on filling a trust account for UFPFH so that when we reach a decent dollar figure, we can cut the money loose and let UFPFH do what its meant to. Rest assured that it hasn't been forgotten, especially after Iambe, Shadowdragon and all of the participating UFies have put so much heart into it.

Q: (from Evangelion) How good are you at q3test? Can Dust Puppy kick your ass?

A: I'm a fairly good player. I don't play enough to get really superb at it, although I do have my moments. On other days I can really suck. Dust Puppy could hand me my ass in a game of Quake.

Q: (also from Evangelion) When you were lost in the deserts of Turkey, dying of thirst, did you, even once, wish you were back in Seattle in a bubblebath with Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates?

A: I am happy to say that my primal desires were satisfied by the few vultures that were convenient at the time.

Q: (from cemerson) Occasionally there's a stack of boxes labelled "BeOS 4.5" or something similar, often with the Dust Puppy sitting on top. What makes you decide what names to put on the boxes? Is it your favourite stuff, advertising/product placement, or what?

A: It's *never* been advertising or product placement -- companies can buy banner ads or a sponsorship if they want to get at the UFie eyeballs. The brands and labels I include are usually done on a whim, or if I really like a company or product. BeOS, for example, has my attention in a big way. So does VA Linux Systems and SGI.

Q: (from Mudhiker) As an amature artist/cartoonist, i'd like to know what tools you use...do you sketch it out on a huge piece of paper (like some cartoonists do) and then scan it and shrink it down or just maybe have great mouse hands and do it with Gimp...?

A: I used to use Microfibre inking pens on high-opacity paper for many of the early strips, followed by some time on the scanner and some work in Photoshop. Now I use a Wacom Artz II digital tablet, and life is so much easier. I could never draw with a mouse. That would be kind of like trying to write serious code with copy con.

I use Photoshop and Illustrator, but I've been seriously consideing The GiMP under Linux and a variety of other apps under BeOS.

Q: (from i244) I extremely enjoy looking at your funny comic strip. In fact, it's what i have setup as my 'homepage' on my browser. I've gone through all the archives and have laughed my head off at some of the jokes. The only thing that strikes me as odd is that how come I havent seen 1 black, hispanic, asian, native american, etc. in the whole strip ever? What's up with that?

A: It's never really come up, although recently I've been working on a new character for the cartoon, a fairly bright and sarcastic oriental support technician. I live in Vancouver, B.C., which is heavily multicultural, and in fact I had the benefit of growing up in two distinctly different cultures. I suppose when it comes down to it, I never really see people as different races; they're all just "people" to me.

Q: (from Phule77) Does Geek Culture, especially with regards to the internet, represent progress in our civilization, creating a meaningful pocket for the brains and outcasts of our culture, or does it merely represent a burp in the cultural mainstream, likely to collapse once the govt. seize control of the net and we all...well, anyway, sorry, mustn't trail off. Thoughts?

A: "Geek Culture" isn't going to vanish any time soon. In fact, it's abdundantly clear to me that geeks are about to move into a role that transcends a great many of the models that traditional business people have been clinging to for the past decade. There are already many examples of geeks changing the way that the business and finance communities perceive the world market, and this is really just the beginning. As far as the government seizing control of anything, I'd like to point out that above all else, Geeks love to communicate and share, and if we feel repressed we will find a way to get around that repression. So, to answer your primary question, no, our culture won't collapse. In fact, it will become "mainstream hip and trendy" to be a geek, and the fact of the matter is that if you're not a true geek, no amount of money is going to make you into one.

Q: (from dewyn) What constitutes "success beyond your wildest dreams" concerning User Friendly?

A: I'm not really materialistic but I sure would like to not worry about money ever again, and also be able to take care of the people I love and contribute to causes I consider important to me. So in that sense, making bags of money would help, especially if it's done without selling my ass to a traditional-thinking syndicate, the type that wants to own your butt for ten years and who take half of everything you make from the newspapers and then some.

On the flip side, I'd really like to see UF rise to the level of popularity which demands mainstream media attention. I see the strip as giving a voice to geeks, one of the most underappreciated and consistently persecuted sectors of society. Seeing the Dust Puppy on the cover of TIME magazine would make me grin, especially because then you know that Calvin Klein or some other outrageously pretentious fashion designer would take note and start up a "geek clothing line." You know, t-shirts and shorts. Wooo. That's new.

In a lot of ways UF has alreadly delivered the "big win" for me. I've met some really great people, made some wonderful friends, and helped bring together a community through the strength of humor. I never dreamed this would happen, so I guess you can say that I've already achieved something I didn't even think was possible.

Illiad

You've probably read Illiad's User Friendly cartoons more than a few times. But who is Illiad? How did the strip develop? Why would anyone bother to spend so much time drawing a comic strip so geek-oriented that it'll never be as popular as, say, Family Circus or Mary Worth? Hey, don't ask me. Ask Illiad. Please post your questions below. The usual horde of Slashdot moderators and semi-trained mammals will pick 10 or 12 and forward them to Illiad. Answers will appear Friday.

Geoff Romer writes "Illiad just announced a book deal for his User Friendly comic strip, and the publisher is none other than our good friends O'Reilly and Associates! Three cheers for both of them! Details are here. " Congrats to both of them. It would be awesome to do an animal cover of dust puppy ;)

Geoff Romer writes "Illiad just announced a book deal for his User Friendly comic strip, and the publisher is none other than our good friends O'Reilly and Associates! Three cheers for both of them! Details are here. " Congrats to both of them. It would be awesome to do an animal cover of dust puppy ;)

tilly sent us a really interesting little article on Why O'Reily is Better written from the perspective of one of their authors. Rahga wrote in to comment that the new KDE Mascot Looks like Playstation's "Croc". He's got a little poll. I vote no, but its close. tilly wrote in to note that Sunday's User Friendly is funny- it features a the ultimate choice. And for the best Star Wars quickie today, Sharkey sent us a link to this picture. Just look at it. Somewhat related is this one from an Anonymous reader: The Dark Redemption which is a 26 minute short film being directed in Australia- it takes place 2 days before the beginning of Star Wars, A New Hope and is apparently being done with permission of Lucas. gwendolin wrote in to ask the ultimate question: Do you dare to eat pop rocks and drink pepsi at the same time? This is wierd stuff (both the page, and the fact that a female with a cool homepage submitted a story!) Some Slashdot Sightings: VinceV wrote in to say that Slashdot apparently is mentioned in the printed manual for Caldera OpenLinux 2.2. cymen wrote in to tell us that Slashdot appeared in the Mit Technology Review. No URL, but someone sent me a scan (that I can't post for they fear the Slashdot effect) but its pretty cool. And finally, for some good old fashioned porn parody, gelbardn sent us Geek Erortica which features live strip shows of Ms. G3 and Ms. Dell. (No its not actually dirty, but its quite amusing).

Well, after doing some checking around today, it appears that as yet unknown entity has managed to shutdown BeDope, User Friendly, and Segfault.

Over 600 readers submitted that the popular comic strip User Friendly has been shut down indefinitely following the injunction against the site from an, as yet not publicly named person. This adds Illiad's site to Segfault and Bedope, each of which also has gone down following complaints regarding content.

philc writes "The dispute over the theos.com domain appears to have ended...happily, for Mr. De Raadt.". Look down the page for the term slashdot.org. Update: 03/27 02:16 by S : In related news, UM_Maverick writes "Illiad over at User Friendly says that he received a certified letter confirming that the threats from the "death star" are authentic. He has been advised not to reveal details yet, though... "

philc writes "The dispute over the theos.com domain appears to have ended...happily, for Mr. De Raadt.". Look down the page for the term slashdot.org. Update: 03/27 02:16 by S : In related news, UM_Maverick writes "Illiad over at User Friendly says that he received a certified letter confirming that the threats from the "death star" are authentic. He has been advised not to reveal details yet, though... "

Jonathan Ocab wrote in to tell us that Red Hat has redone their site. You'll notice a summary of both Freshmeat and Slashdot stories on the page, linkage to User Friendly, as well as lots of javascript mouseovers to consume bandwidth.

merrell I think Illiad has been reading Slashdot again: the latest user friendly cartoon almost looks like a conversation lifted from these pages. Wacky.

hangman sent us a link to a geek personals page apparently run under Illiad's subdomain at User Friendly. Frankly I think this is cheesy, but ya better hurry since the guys outnumber the gals 5 to 1. Good odds for one sex- not so good odds for the other. That geek gender gap doesn't look to be weakening any time soon does it?

hangman sent us a link to a geek personals page apparently run under Illiad's subdomain at User Friendly. Frankly I think this is cheesy, but ya better hurry since the guys outnumber the gals 5 to 1. Good odds for one sex- not so good odds for the other. That geek gender gap doesn't look to be weakening any time soon does it?

Tzoq writes "User Friendly has hit the mainstream! The National Post, a new national newspaper in Canada, has become the first paper to carry User Friendly daily. According to an article in today's Post (not online yet) entitled "Move over Dilbert, her come the nerds of User Friendly", the Post will be featuring the best of User Friendly's first year, then introducing the current comics. Maybe Conrad Black has a sense of humour after all... " Update: 01/11 02:39 by CT : Kyt sent us a link to the National Post Story which is now online.

After a long night in the darkroom working on photography projects, nothing will make me happier than cleaning out the submissions box. So hit the link below and read the huge flood of stuff that has been accumulating while I've been trying to vanquish my end-of-the-semester projects. There is a ton of cool stuff in there worth checking out. Realcosmo commented that OpenBios Project Is looking for a logo. Visit their page for info. James Keller wrote in to send us an entertaining article about using Microsoft Manuals as Targets . Idan Shoham wrote in to say that the The Linux in business reference page has grown to 300 entries of companies that use Linux in a mission-critical setting. Good PHB data.

jahn wrote in to send us a link to Linus and RMS in a techno remix of Join us Now and Share the Software. I think we mentioned this a few months ago, but probably bears repeating anyway. I'm on a total MP3 craze again (4.5 gigs and growing) so this is entertaining me all over again.

[-SwM-] wrote in to send us a link to an online version of Rock Paper Scissors. Goofy. DaveWhitinger from Linux Today wrote in to say that Linux Mandrake 5.2 is available. Gordon Delp sent a link to a new FreeBSD news site called (appropriately enough) FreeBSD Rocks

acb wrote in to send us an entertaining parody of O'Reilly book covers. Several folks commented that WindowMaker v0.20.3 is now out, and several other folks commented that it has a new logo "Well, as you can see the new official logo has been put in place, and the logo contest is officially over. We appreciate all the logo submissions and the people who took time to vote. You can read about the winning entries here." LynXmaN wrote in to send us a link to Sololinux.com, a Spanish Linux News site. have opened. Ant wrote in to send us a link to Quake 2 Penguin Models for you penguin nuts. YogSothoth writes "I've always been interested in fractals, but what I always thought would be fun would be a scripting language-based approach that would give you a lot flexibility (with regard to choosing equations, bailout conditions, coloring techniques) without requiring a math degree to enjoy. Its hot off the presses but works quite well." you can check out Samples or Source Code. Vorx wrote in to warn everyone that this weeks User Friendly has been featuring a strange Star Wars/Linux/ESR takeoff that folks might enjoy reading. Bain wrote in to send us a link to a company that is selling Tux Stuffed Animals that actually look like tux.

Nate, My roommate and all around swell guy, has put a bunch of his Gimp Artwork online if you're interested in that sorta stuff. Its pretty excellent. Chris DiBona wrote in to send us a link to Chick Magnet which has some cool essays including one that explains that the best place for women to pick up guys is at Linux User Group Meetings. Quite funny. J. David Eisenberg wrote in to send us A response to his article on Linux and the Consumer Market. This addresses comments made by Slashdot Readers. Also, his opinions on the KDE thing which probably isn't all that relevant anymore.

See? Lots of good stuff! Anyway, I'm gonna get some sleep so I can get up nice and early and get back on the grind. The zany thing is that in 340 or so hours, I'm ton. Forever. No more school. Then I can finally finish Slash v0.3, fix the rest of the bugs in Slashdot, and actually start working on all the new stuff thats coming. Yee haw. In the meantime, I just wanna beg folks to go easy on the email. Don't hesitate if its important, but please read FAQ first and save us all some time.

An anonymous reader wrote in to note that today is User Friendly's one year Anniversery. Congrats Illiad, keep it up. Everyone can celebrate by reading rereading the last year! (Oh wait, that might be bad, take turns!)

mrproper sent us a link to a User Friendly noting that a strip this week featured those Penguin Caffeinated Peppermints that nearly killed me at ALS. Judah wrote in to say that the November issue of the LinuxGazette is now online. Ignacio wrote in to note that the XFree86 3.3.3 will be out this month, and the XF86_SVGA server will support the Matrox Gx00 video cards. Sixl6 wrote in to send us a link to an entertaining catalog oof christmas presents for, well, crazy people. I'm disturbed that this exists. Pleased, but disturbed. Tim Doran wrote in and sent us a link to a moderately humorous usenet post that takes a humorous pot shot at MS with a linux joke. Dave Whitinger wrote in (along with everyone else on earth) to note that Slink has now frozen really for sure definitely (note:I spelled it right!) this time. Debian 2.1 should be ready soon. Lastly, I'm just gonna throw a link out to Taco Hell, where I've posted a bunch of pictures of the old Geek House, as well as goofy pictures of my room mates (including myself and Hemos).

BOredAtWork writes "According to Illiad's latest blip here on User Friendly, he's attempting to drum up support for a User Friendly book. Send supporting emails to book@userfriendly.org, and help convince a publisher. "

BOredAtWork writes "According to Illiad's latest blip here on User Friendly, he's attempting to drum up support for a User Friendly book. Send supporting emails to book@userfriendly.org, and help convince a publisher. "

Killer Frog wrote in to say "While checking out the latest User Friendly comic, I linked to this page, called "B.S.T" or the Bunny Survival Tests. Remember this research come Easter time.... "

Sean McPherson wrote in to say that issue #32 of the Linux Gazette is now out. Several folks wrote in to say that the very geeky/very funny User Friendly comic strip has moved. New domain. New design. And it's funny too. I had a submission about a web site that featured the destruction of Beanie Babies, but whoever sent it in forgot the URL. Someone should definately post it in the comments if they know it. I'm all for destruction of beanie babies. Finally, you should go to this page and click on product information. It's just something funny for those of us who've read far to much badly translated tech stuff. This one takes the cake. sunDevil for sending it in. Apparently I get 72 magic powers if I buy their mobo? I can't tell. Last hit the link below to read a batch of misc. notes from todays Slashdot code changes. Most of the major bugs are squashed at this point. Here's a sorta non-comprehensive list of what got done today. I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff, but this covers most of them that people will notice. Done

1. Comment Submission code got a serious overhaul. Your user account now determines if you are in plaintext or html mode. Plus you can edit and submit on the preview page. now preview is actually useful.
2. Fixed the bug that caused names to disappear from flat mode.
3. Your user preferences now are used to determine pollBooth comment display mode (flat vs. threaded). Thank god that one is done.
4. Stories now go into YY/MM/DD/ subdirectories. The original articles directory has thousands of files in it, I figured I'd stop that before it got any more dangerous.
5. You can change your password now in user accounts. It's not the most secure method (I just added a password & confirm box to the form) but it'll work. And now people can have passwords that you can remember instead of my uber wacky random ones.
6. I added 'pending' stories. It's not a big deal, it just lets us submit stories, but not have them display. We really don't need it on a site like Slashdot, but other sites using the code will really benefit. I'm working on a site that needed it anyway.
7. If you change your 'Real Email' address in your user account, it will email a notification message to the old email address.
8. Nate wrote some nifty functions for time handling so hopefully all of our cookie woes are now completely gone. I still haven't tested IE, but Lynx & NS seem cool to me.
9. Various other random back end features that won't really affect users, but will make my life a lot easier.
10. Added NOTIFY=NEVER to email messages so the bouncy bouncy mail doesn't end up in slashdot@slashdot.org's mailbox.

Todo

1. I'm probably going to hafta figure out an automatic way to stop the First Post Syndrome. It's really getting annoying. FPS posts are off topic people! Please don't bother people with them. Currently the best ideas for stopping them include randomizing the order of the first 5 top level comments or else writing some wacky regex's to filter 'em out.
2. A headline mailer. It'll be integrated with user accounts. Add a checkbox to have Slashdot Headlines mailed at midnight. I'll get that sooner or later.
3. Comment posting sig files? Maybe an 80 char limit. Something small.
4. Bite the bullet and make Slashdot fully GMT instead of this eastern stuff.
5. Several major chunks of the backend code need an overhaul.
6. I was considering allowing a user account option to have replies to your posts emailed to you. Not sure about that one though. Would people really want that? Conversations might go to email instead of getting posted here. Often that would be a wonderful thing, but probably just as often, it makes more sense for the conversation flow to continue online. Anyway, thats a bit off yet.

Well thats about it for now. 8:30 class tomorrow so no beer tonight. Well, maybe some beer. Oooh, and whiskey.