The Root of All Evil

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.

Comments

reading jokes about work

[perdida]

I never got this.

Why do people want to read jokes about their work?

Every programmer, sys-admin, developer, designer, de-bugger, support-desk jockey, etc. that I know DESPISES their job and can't wait to get home.

This may consist of them popping onto IRC again 45 minutes later from a home workstation, but one thing is clear: they DON'T want to read jokes about their work.

My guess is that User Friendly's readership comes primarily from wanna-bes and the unemployed; people who, due to ignorance or poverty, actually want to have one of these drudge jobs.

Re:reading jokes about work

[PhReaKyDMoNKeY]

Dilbert was bloody popular among engineers and the blue-collar workforce in general. User Friendly does the same thing. Illiad may be a rather lacking in the talent department (goodbye, karma), but he does know how to appeal to a certain audience. Dilbert got your cublicle workers, User Friendly your nerdy Unix freaks, Doonesbury your political liberals, Garfield your fat lasagna-loving cats (?), and so on...

Anyway, Penny Arcade is far superior in both art and content, and the jokes aren't nearly as obscure.

Re:reading jokes about work

[cduffy]

Every programmer, sys-admin, developer, designer, de-bugger, support-desk jockey, etc. that I know DESPISES their job and can't wait to get home.

Uhh... ya obviously don't know me. :)

Seriously, though, all the best tech folks I know love their work for a passion (and, being employed by MontaVista Software, I work with a great many of them). I (and probably most of the folks who are good at what they do) won't work somewhere I'm not happy, even if the money's better.

If you think coding is drudge work, then you Just Don't Get It; the joy of creation is lost on you. So be it -- some people don't have it -- but don't deny that some of us do. Hell, most free software wouldn't exist if creating it weren't fun.

I read User Friendly for the same reason I read Dilbert -- it's funny, and I can laugh about people whose jobs suck compared to mine (though we may both work in the same industry).

Re:reading jokes about work

[warpeightbot]

Every programmer, sys-admin, developer, designer, de-bugger, support-desk jockey, etc. that I know DESPISES their job and can't wait to get home.

You poor bastards.

Most of the geeks I know do it because they love it. The boss had to run me off Thursday night, and had to remind me last night that today is Saturday and I don't work. Those of us who can have DSL at home and hack our own boxen at night and on rainy weekends (which happens a lot in Seattle :)... my best friend just wrote a PHP hack to assist convention schedulers in planning panels, and I'm busy learning the ins and outs of Debian and making it play nice with my Sony Vaio....

My opinion is that if you're just doing it for the money, GET OUT OF THE FIELD, and find something you really like doing. Yeah, so you'll have to trade the Beemer for a Saturn. Believe me, I'm a lot happier working for an itty bitty company doing what I love, than pimping myself to some huge faceless corporation making the big dime and hating it. Been there, done that.

Go read "What Color Is Your Parachute." Yeah, it looks dippy. It's not. Changed my life.

Geekdom is like baseball. Yeah, there are some that do it because they're good at it and can make money. (Fie on you, A-Rod.) But the best players play For Love Of The Game. (I-CHI-RO!)

My guess is that User Friendly's readership comes primarily from wanna-bes and the unemployed; people who, due to ignorance or poverty, actually want to have one of these drudge jobs.

Just because you hate your job doesn't mean that those of us that love our jobs are losers. My personal definition of success is doing what I love and getting paid for it. If you don't love what brings home the bacon, then I gotta put my hand up to my forehead with my thumb and pointy finger held at right angles, because frankly there is no sadder thing than depending on that which you hate. I don't have to have the fattest paycheck on my block. Don't want it.... the price is far too high in terms of stress and happiness.

Sign me,
Sleeping Well in Seattle :)

What's bad?

[Kenshin]

What's bad?
The fact that User Friendly has never actually made me laugh.

Re:root

[TeknoHog]

and the root of all Evil is \