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Anyone remember the time when Erwin was stuck in an old HP Calculator?

Anyone remember the time when Erwin was stuck in an old HP Calculator?

This is not the Illiad who brazenly stated that Microsoft products were three-coiled turds. This is the new, marketroid Illiad, determined to make his bland comic the perfect vector for sales pitches from large IT companies.

I really don't think this is the case at all. Illiad says here that "The explicit rule is, the business side has *zero* impact on the cartoon strip. In fact, if you read the Investor FAQ, it reveals that I still draw pretty much anything I damn well please."

This can be shown by the fact that Illiad also states that the CEO runs the business side (UFMedia), and he runs the content side (the cartoon strip). User Friendly is not a "commercial cash cow", Illiad is making a living out of what he does, and without letting business interests intrude on his readership's interests.

I have been reading User Friendly for about a year and a half now, and I admit that when I was first introduced to it, I didn't find it all that hilarious. But then I read all the strips from day one (I wonder how many people on this board who have posted merely to say "UF sucks" have actually done that?) and in my opinion it's still as funny as it ever was. Anyone who doesn't like it is of course entitled to their opinion, but as an earlier poster pointed out, a large proportion of the criticisms on this board are to do with Illiad's drawing, which he makes fun of himself (see this strip and this one.)

This is not the Illiad who brazenly stated that Microsoft products were three-coiled turds. This is the new, marketroid Illiad, determined to make his bland comic the perfect vector for sales pitches from large IT companies.

I really don't think this is the case at all. Illiad says here that "The explicit rule is, the business side has *zero* impact on the cartoon strip. In fact, if you read the Investor FAQ, it reveals that I still draw pretty much anything I damn well please."

This can be shown by the fact that Illiad also states that the CEO runs the business side (UFMedia), and he runs the content side (the cartoon strip). User Friendly is not a "commercial cash cow", Illiad is making a living out of what he does, and without letting business interests intrude on his readership's interests.

I have been reading User Friendly for about a year and a half now, and I admit that when I was first introduced to it, I didn't find it all that hilarious. But then I read all the strips from day one (I wonder how many people on this board who have posted merely to say "UF sucks" have actually done that?) and in my opinion it's still as funny as it ever was. Anyone who doesn't like it is of course entitled to their opinion, but as an earlier poster pointed out, a large proportion of the criticisms on this board are to do with Illiad's drawing, which he makes fun of himself (see this strip and this one.)

This is not the Illiad who brazenly stated that Microsoft products were three-coiled turds. This is the new, marketroid Illiad, determined to make his bland comic the perfect vector for sales pitches from large IT companies.

I really don't think this is the case at all. Illiad says here that "The explicit rule is, the business side has *zero* impact on the cartoon strip. In fact, if you read the Investor FAQ, it reveals that I still draw pretty much anything I damn well please."

This can be shown by the fact that Illiad also states that the CEO runs the business side (UFMedia), and he runs the content side (the cartoon strip). User Friendly is not a "commercial cash cow", Illiad is making a living out of what he does, and without letting business interests intrude on his readership's interests.

I have been reading User Friendly for about a year and a half now, and I admit that when I was first introduced to it, I didn't find it all that hilarious. But then I read all the strips from day one (I wonder how many people on this board who have posted merely to say "UF sucks" have actually done that?) and in my opinion it's still as funny as it ever was. Anyone who doesn't like it is of course entitled to their opinion, but as an earlier poster pointed out, a large proportion of the criticisms on this board are to do with Illiad's drawing, which he makes fun of himself (see this strip and this one.)

The only reason I keep AV bookmarked at all is to answer Kickstart's Question of the Day on UserFriendly. He likes to do "fill in the blank" questions and I find it interesting to search for the pattern he requests.

The only reason I keep AV bookmarked at all is to answer Kickstart's Question of the Day on UserFriendly. He likes to do "fill in the blank" questions and I find it interesting to search for the pattern he requests.

So if you were NASA's next director, what would you do with the agency? Men on Mars? Probes on Europa? Trans-warp drives?

Um... detox gel.

Do it the userfriendly way ...

Come get some, you RIAA loosers !

Why buy one when you a build it for half the price?

The previous occupants moved out a couple weeks ago!

User Friendly has been doing a storyline about this all summer. It all started when they needed some more office space...

Start here and flip through them, the series ended after 9-11, as if you can't guess why.

They're going to do this by 'embracing and extending' (TM) standard definitions of 'up' and 'down'.

The "Secured IIS" is probably going to go through various iterations, and end up something like this.

MS rolling over and being dead would make my day, actually.

Noone asked them to blame the sysadmins but everyone and their dog has asked them to fix their fscking software. This is not fixing, this is just putting more fingers in the dyke when the tide is rising. It's a ploy. It's hot air. It's RFUD - the forced deployment of a warm and fuzzy feeling.

MS has been a disease in the digital nervous system for many years now - many of you young bucks (oh God, now I feel like Sid) have never experienced a world without Microsoft. You don't remember competition like it used to be. Sure, there's Linux and the Mac, but can you imagine choosing from ten living platforms? All of them with their own merits, their unique features, unique hardware and each and every one of them with healthy applications and game industries. Take the distro wars and multiply by a hundred. It was great fun slamming the Atari losers, putting down the Apple II dweebs and the hopeless PC pundits that didn't want to see that the Amiga ruled the world. ;-) The PET, Vic-20, C=64, MSX, Jupiter Ace, Sinclair ZX-80, 81 and the Spectrum, Texas 4/99, Altair and Apple II were the real pioneer platforms. Those of us who grew up with them jumpstarted the computer revolution.

But I digress. The point is that MS has done a lot of damage to the world in general and the computer industry in particular and the sooner the Cascades fall over and push Redmond into the Pacific the better.

Now go ahead and mod me down as Flamebait, Troll, Off-topic AND Overrated. Like I care. :-)

No, it was just a case of life imitating art

(Start on that page and read on a week or so)

In a similar move Richard M Stallman released the much improved newer version of the GNU Public License today. In order to use the wording of the license in existing software, several key requirements have to be met:

Firstly, the author must be a staunch advocate of all things Open Source. The author must explain (in 100 words or more) why it is EVIL, insanitary and unhygienic to use any other option. Bonus marks are awarded for a comparison between Shared Souce and Shared Sores. (Ripped of shamelessly from User Friendly)

Secondly, the author must not buy into commercial software whatsoever, since commercial software is like a virus which affects anything it touches, in the end, forcing all software to be commercial.

Finally, the author must not use the term Linux for anything other than the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system. Bonus marks are awarded if the author uses Hurd as an example of the ideal kernel.

Mr. Linus Torvalds was not available for comment, but upon reading this press release, Mr. William Gates called in his top lawyers mumbling something about "copyright infringement" and "those bastards can't use my own words against me!".

In related news, aliens have just been confirmed to ... ... ... ...

The Red Cross is looking for Citrix engineers and Microsoft pros as well as a large list of equipment and connectivity for its field workers and Emergency Operations Centres in New York.

To see if you can help, please click here!

I keep getting "lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!" when I try to post this so instead here is a link to what I was going to post (but posted in the UserFriendly comment threads).

A Call of Prayer for Our Nation

In summary it contains:
"I went to church at 7pm tonight to pray. A piece of paper was handed out to those that attended. I retype it here for those of you that may not be sure what to pray for, maybe looking for more to pray for, or bible verses to aid you in this time of tragedy."

I work at a defense contractor and a group here actually purchased rights to software...I mean, source code, kit and kabootle. Thanks goodness, it's for logistics and not for something critical. I was discussing the purchase with another worker. We work directly for the purchaser. The deal was made behind closed doors and really only with the input of one tech guy...who had a fettish for this software... and also left here but wriggled in a partnership with his new company on the way out...Anyway, my cohort made the comment that our boss (the non-technical manager type) making this deal was like someone who's never mowed a lawn buying a lawnmower. Then he added..."And they don't have a lawn either". He was right on the money!

This is rampant, not just in web development houses. Unfortunately, Dilbert has already been written...or you'd have some funny comic strip on your hands that would make you lots of money...

Unfortunately, you're right...I don't see an end to the trend!

Cheers
Galego

Portland water. They're from Tigard, OR. 'Nuff said. Also in the same neighborhood are three large offices, one is home to Dell's award winning tech support, @Home's award winning tech support and Hewlett-Packpaq's tech support houses.

Anthro is great, though, my school had a bunch of carts donated to them by Anthro. Extremely stable, and really indestructable. You'd be amazed how many times the same (empty) cart could roll across the same slanted loading dock and off the end and still look really good.

From the article: Though I really wanted to build something that would fetch the newspaper or drive me to work, my girlfriend was much more realistic.

I wish I'd thought of making a realistic Lego girlfriend. Somebody should tell the guys at Columbia Internet.

From the article: Though I really wanted to build something that would fetch the newspaper or drive me to work, my girlfriend was much more realistic.

I wish I'd thought of making a realistic Lego girlfriend. Somebody should tell the guys at Columbia Internet.

Okay, this has got to be Stef Murky's idea. :)

Then you should be polite. Check out the current User Friendly for details.

This is how.

It seems that inter-open-source license discussion misses this point. Picking nits in this regard, however, may be worthwhile for RMS, ESR, TO'R, etc. to do, because what they say shapes many things about how the software that grunts like us write is received in the real world.

Any of us are free to release software under many different licenses, and to make up (most of) the terms. When it comes down to it though, I think it's more important that the bazaar and the cathedral write the software, and the luminaries pick the nits. Not many of us in the real world audit the software licenses of the companies we ourselves work for. Another way to think about it is that RMS, ESR, LBT, L?W are executives as well as a sort of legal counsel in ``GNU/Linux/Open Source, Inc.'', for whom we work. We're not expected to all be legal counsel/executives; most of us would rather do the coding work and let someone we trust (big if here) handle the administrivia if we don't want to spend our working hours poring over licensing terms. You can bet the developers at MS sure don't, and I sure would prefer to have spent my life writing code than arguing licenses (or reading slashdot :-).

I think UserFriendly did a great spoof where the resident Windows (tm) geek started switching to an anti-MS stance, so MS sends a hot babe to convince him otherwise..

I wonder when they will begin to arrive in Largo, FL?

:)

an invitation for a holy war. Perhaps next we should have a 'what's your favorite editor?' debate.

I bet that Zock the Quake God could beat him.

Check out UserFriendly comic strips if you don't get the reference. :)

Erwin (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010812 ) can make a good use of those satellites... :)

ROFL
You should submit that to UserFriendly.Org

Nothing like a good look at Stef to cheer you up, huh? :)

wow. 0 of 4 comments, and the server is down. Whoops.
The poor people probably didn't even know that they had been submitted to /.
Sad sad sad
User Friendly has a consolation badge. Maybe /. should have the same?

User Friendly gets bashed for being too pro-geek (or whatever), which may or may not be a valid criticism.

Personally, I think that User Friendly rocks! AFAIK it is the only comic book that I know of published by O'Reilly

But Sluggy is just getting forgotten? What gives?

I have read Sluggy, and it is not very consistent. Sometimes it is hilarious, other times it was a total waste of bandwidth. But that's just my opinion.

Brought to you by the people that gave you the Infinite Sharpness filter for Photoshop (find those completely sharp faces buried in fuzzy films) and the Internet Welcome Screen.

This makes linux based browsing more appealing.

Of course, if things get really desparate (like some nut codes an IE-only website I want to see), I can fire up Opera and tell it to lie to IIS... the beauty of Linux is that there are SO MANY browsers out there, each good at something. Galeon. Mozilla. Konqueror. Amaya. Opera. Links. Lynx. (they're different! Links handles tables in text. Lynx doesn't.) What? I forgot Nutscrape? Forget them. Don't need'em. If I'm going to run commercial software, it's going to be reallly good commercial software. Like Opera.

But I have to agree with the general sentiment. No flash, no Java (outside of a game), minimal JavaScript (Yahoo's address book is a good example of JavaScript done right), nothing else that's not cross-platform (and therefore subject to the Unix permission paradigm), no cookies, damn few ads (I let OSDN's go thru, because they're INTERESTING), just content. If you're going to insist on anything more than JavaScript, I'll take my business elsewhere. Seeya. Wouldn't wanna BE ya.

But no, I run Linux because a long time ago I got tired of worrying about scanning for viruses and blocking ActiveX controls and malicious VBScript and Blue Screens of Death and a whole host of other problems that I just don't have anymore. Eight browsers, five word processors, four IM clients, three games of Solitaire, two skinnable GUI's, and a groupware in beta test. And every last bit of it free at least as in beer. Now, somebody explain to my wife, who threw Windows off her box in 1997 because it ate the registry twice in as many weeks and never regretted it, why she needs to pay for software ever again.

Linux. Not because it's cool or l33+ or trendy (it's surely not that.... yet), but because it makes sense. Because it Doesn't Suck.

ROTFLMAO! I read "Kerplunk" and had a vision of Erwin in his new Lego suit playing with my daughter. Not to mention that the word "Kerplunk" is just funny all by itself. :)

I use a really strong belt to hold all my stuff (not unlike Luke's belt-o-stuff in A New Hope): Tamrac 5218 camera case (fits a PalmIIIx+batts and spare styli perfectly) Leatherman Wave Keys Walkman (when appropriate) Once hidden under a sport coat, its not noticable. Then again theres Mike Cobb's solution.

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010801

The best take on this I've seen today is over at User Friendly.

How about: (largely based on Pitr from User Friendly.

Q: Do you have or can you fake a Slavic Accent?
A: Da.

Q: What is the difference between being root and being God?
A: Root, God, no difference at all.

Q: What is your most used manual?
A: Evil Geniuses for Dummies. Or O'Reilly books. It varies. Dependink on current evil plan.

Q: Have you ever been a sysadmin for an NT system.
A: No, but havink crushed them with mallet.

Kierthos

just wait until the current whitehouse passes those non-resident-workers immigration laws that the pro-globalization-business lobby's trying to get through... you'll dozens of american programmers on streets, begging. just like CmdrTaco in this alternate universe.


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Slashdot: When News Breaks, We Give You The Pieces

Nuclear waepons in private hands...

No, I think that was just Pitr from UserFriendly testing his new missile guidance system.


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No, I think that was just Pitr from UserFriendly testing his new missile guidance system.


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The domain resellers in competition with Network Solutions are understandably unhappy, as reported in this article at Internet News. If you're not pleased either, you can sign this letter by e-mailing your name, e-mail address, and company affiliation to william@userfriendly.com. (No relation I can see to www.userfriendly.org.)

Joe Average Computer User is getting pretty savvy, actually. These things have been around long enough for folks to have grown up with them. Matter of fact, my mother in law takes exception to the comment "your grandma could do it"... and points out quite rightly that most back offices are RUN by Grandma... not OUR grandmas born in ought-five but Greg Geek's parents, who are now grandmas because Greg is old enough to have finally found a geekette and decided to procreate.

Besides, somebody has come up with a distro aimed at Joe Random Windows User... ironically, it's made in Redmond, and it's called Redmond Linux. (Shamless plug for a business associate of mine.) I haven't had time to take a real good look at it, but given what I know can be done with Linux, it can't be that hard to put together something really User Friendly.

Carl G. Jung
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