Slashdot Mirror
Even Grues Get Full
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.
this review made no sense. he said it was crap, but gave it an 8? I guess if it was a scale from 1 to 10 in hex, the 8 would make sense, but otherwise the review is as much crap as the book.
Amazon link, buy cheaper, support the small guy!
What a left-handed (or is that insulting to south-paws?) complimentary review. I laughed from start to finish!
I like a good laugh more than most, probably, but isn't the idea of one of these reviews to provide information to help the /. crowd decide if they should buy it?
If anyone has read the book and has something to ACTUALLY say about it, reply below!
The safest way to approach lava is to have another person with you and he goes first.
Magnatune is doing it. USA Today mentioned tipware. Those are both music, but it should work for books.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
k5 seems to be in it's usual state these days right now (down) but when it's back up, check out the amusing poll they had a while ago. ("Most overrated geek icon.") Guess what won by a landslide? Hint: it's a cartoon.
...and he lives (well, wanders) here, as any fool can plainly see.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
So is that why it got 8 stars? With the hierarchy being
10 - fucking classic, next Knuth or Schneier
9 - superb, read of the decade
8 - really really good, worth a read by everyone on this planet.
Does the reviewer think it is funny or not? He gives it an 8 and then says that it's crap. Bad review, bad review
What's a user?
Penny Arcade licks balls too. How do you like that shit?
User Friendly isn't fit to sniff Penny Arcade's shit.
Translation: User Friendly isn't as 1337/pretentious * as Penny Arcade.
(* Delete as applicable.)
I'll leave it to the individual to decide which statement is true. Frankly, I think they're both pretty good but if I had to pick one I'd pick User Friendly, because at least my other half can get the jokes without first having to do a degree in hardcore gaming.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
big pass on this one for me...
I give this one 3 out of 10.
Did they include that sappy 9/11 cartoon in this book? The one with the geek hugging Dust Puppy?
I suppose Illiad was trying to do 'something' to make note of the horror of that day, but I found that particular strip to be..well kind of stupid.
wbs.
Huh?
User Friendly isn't fit to sniff Penny Arcade's shit.
That's like saying that crap isn't fit to sniff dung's shit.
Has either one EVER produced a comic that was remotely clever?
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Has no one so far got the subtle humor of the review?
He obviously loves the book!
Penny Arcade's the shit.
By the look of comments so far, there seem to be quite a few people with malfunctioning sarcasm sensors today.
So, for the sensor deprived: Wrap the entire text in a <SARCASM> tag, and you'll be able to enjoy it much more fully.
Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor - Ovidius
They are giving the comics away. Look at the friggin website! Do you want them to give actual physical books away? If so, I hope you never try to run a business.
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
Drawn terribly and not even remotely funny, but the type of people who mod up BSOD jokes will eat this shit up with a spoon.
...that the book is funnier than the review.
/. review of RedHat that spends five paragraphs explaining what Linux is to us? Preacher, meet choir. Choir, preacher. Go get acquainted.
No, I'm not humor or sarcasm-impaired. I just think that was the most craptacular review I've ever read. Unfunny, heavy-handed sarcasm does not a review make.
What? Iliad writes about Linux? He makes fun of Windows? Say it isn't so! We NEVER would have known that without this insightful review.
What's next, a
.@.
how many of you are incapable of recognizing
sarcasm when you see it?
a mess of comments about "but but he said it
sucked and gave it an 8 but but but!"
slashdot readership is by and large as vapid and
stupid as the 'non-technical' folks that this
site makes fun of 24/7
embrace your own ignorance - you'll see more clearly
(luckily, the quality of content here mostly
fits in with the patrons)
Ref: Amazon has this book for $1.30 cheaper than bn
Eligible for free shipping if you spend $15 more.
of my first time playing Zork and my light went out!
Anonymous Cowards suck.
"Sat, 27 Sep 2003
I Sure Do Like Them Cartoonies
I like a good cartoon, either political such as Doonesbury or IT such as Dilbert, or in this case User Friendly. That?s distinct from an animated short - which is what Yosemite Sam was referring to, of course. I like them as well.
I picked up a copy of the latest User Friendly collection, Even Grues Get Full, and it was good. I liked it from the title (and I can remember being eaten by a Grue more than 25 years ago in the Collosal Caves) through to some nice barbs at Microsoft.
Watch out for a full review, but in the meantime I recommend it to all User Friendly fans."
LOL what the hell.
Karma: Excer..ex...excellahhh...realll good (mostly affected by drinking not done in moderation)
I've never found User Friendly to be that good.
It's poorly drawn, and not in a cool sort of way that would be enjoyable. It's just poorly drawn in a high school cartoon comic strip sort of way.
One of the main characters is just a scribble because the author can't draw. Several others are amorphous blobs -- no hard drawing challenge there.
On top of that, it's just not funny. Sometimes it gets close but only because it's geeky.
there seem to be quite a few people with malfunctioning sarcasm sensors today.
CBG: Oh yeah, then everyone's REAL happy then.
Lady: Do I detect a note of sarcasm?
Frink: (reading sarcasm detector) Are you kidding me, this baby's off the charts, mmhay!
CBG: Ooh, a sarcasm detector, well that's a REAL useful invention. (detector blows up)
Enigma
Worst. Review. Ever.
The slashdot readers who didn't get the sarcasm of that review are the smartest people here. Don't question them when they go "8, WTF?!?!".
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it." -Voltaire
But not funny, Iliad.
This should have been the review. It sums up my feelings about User Friendly nicely.
Well, that and this.
To start off, no self respecting Lego geek with two hundred and seventy million dollars would buy two million sets of Lego Mindstorms. *Collapses with laughter*
Monster Zero is the reason we cannot live on the surface, but must live forever live underground like this.
The book is a buck and change cheaper at amazon.com:
/ 104-5039843-6646308
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596005660
I wish the slashdot editors would just put a little disclaimer before the "You can purchase..." part.
Something like:
We get an x% kickback from BN each time you buy from them.
- or -
We don't like Amazon because of software patents and thus support BN instead.
- or -
We think computer geeks have too much money and should waste it to help dubya improve the economy.
<?php while ($self != "asleep") { $sheep_count++; } ?>
Any true Lego geek would have headed right over to BrickLink to pick up the missing piece.
Pimpin' my own Lego store.....
Fellowship 9/11
Honestpuck writes more reviews than I've ever seen anyone do in my life.
Does he have a job? Is he a book reviewer for someone other than slashdot? Where the hell does he find the time?
How much coffee does this man drink? How many words per minute can this guy read? What kind of comprehension level does he read at?
Does he have a life, (he only reviews tech books and sci-fi weeniebooks)? Is he some kind of super ultra mega genetically modified genius after reading all this material?
I don't know why I wrote this post because it seems like a bunch of drivel, but I needed to satisfy my slashdot posting urge today. I also needed to show my amazement at Honestpuck's mad reading skillz.
-non siggers will become your new overlords in soviet russia.
I don't know if I want to do a victory dance for a good review, criticize you for being closed minded, or agree with you for pointing out some obvious but real problems.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Best tech comic: Hackles
Why? It has lovable characters (unlike User Friendly).
On the website? I want them to give books for nominal value, and get profit from tips.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Inane, senseless, and trivial.
I prefer other pursuits--Tim Wilson, Todd Yohn, Heywood Banks..now THEY are funny
Let us not forget George Carlin...
In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the c
The drawings are poor (the artistic quality found on the back of a gradeschool notebook), the jokes are stupid, and the novelty wears thin quickly-"Oh, its about UNIX and geeks! It's about stuff we do for a living, so it must be funny."
And it's centered around an ISP. How fucking clever. For 1995.
As Statler said so eloquently to Ebeneezer Scrooge in The Muppets Christmas Carol, "Leave comedy to the bears!"
That review would have been more appropriate if it had been sarcastically commenting on anything but a comedy book. As it was, *pfft*. Nothing.
John
... because, honestly, there aren't that many goood cartoons out there, maybe a handful, and Illiad is still in the top 10 tech comics, IMHO.
But this is the problem with the review: The author does NOT put the strip into perspective, i.e. compares it with what's out there.
I read the strip online, and yes, the quality degraded somewhat over the past few years, but hey, it's free.
Okay, the book is not free, but then look at the 150th Dilbert or Garfield book. Illiard is still great bathroom reading, reason enough to get the book. Nobody expects Shakespeare.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
It's just chock full of jokes that only a Linux-loving geek could find funny.
Wait, I'm confused. The review was negative, but you're saying I'll find the book funny. Should I buy it, or not?
Software Wars
Illiad is still in the top 10 tech comics, IMHO.
Can you name the other 9?
As for me, I can safely admit that User Friendly is one of the top ten web-based comics drawn by geeks aimed at geeks and mentioned as of this posting in this article
...You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Okay, I don't want to be annoying, but if I'm not completely wrong, this is actually the fifth userfriendly book, after "User Friendly", "Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell", "The Root Of All Evil" and "Userfriendly v1.0"...
Honestpuck, ignore the bitter libertarians. I like the writing in this review. UF is a great strip and, if this is the book with the nuclear silo sequence, it is certainly worth your money.:)
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
The artwork is sloppy, the stories repetitive, the characters mere sketches. But you could say the same about Dilbert. The difference is that back in the heady pre-crash days, User Friendly showed a more optimistic, happier, fuzzier world, populated by and aimed at college geeks that never really grew up. It provided an antidote to the cynicism of Dilbert, and in the days when money hoses got turned on ever nerd with a vision, it was going to be just the core of a huge multimedia empire, run by the forces of good.
But then the market tanked, and everything changed. The audience of User Friendly found themselves losing their jobs left right and centre. The company behind it - composed of one lousy artist, a web guy, and a bunch of marketing parasites - found that you can't pay ten mortgages if you're giving the goods away. Most of the staff got laid off, and User Friendly went bitter.
I don't just mean the strip, I mean the whole community around it. Illiad got real brittle, real fast. Posting constructive criticism on the discussion boards got your account wiped, no warnings. The remaining zealots on the boards went passive-aggressive, and savaged anything that didn't fit in with their self congratulatory circle jerking.
Worse, post 9-11, User Friendly went maudlin. It's bad enough when cartoonists try to cover serious issues, but when they do it with smug ABC style flag worshipping patriotism teamed with really crappy art, it just gets embarrassing.
User Friendly is now in its death throes. There are about two dozen characters drifting in and out of it (a new one was added this week), and none of them are particularly well realised. If you can't think of anything funny to do with the characters you've got, adding new ones probably isn't the solution.
It all looked so hopeful, but now a week of User Friendly might - on a good week - give you the same amount of smirk as one day of Dilbert. I guess Illiad has figured out by now that Dilbert shows the tech world as it really is, but he never figured out how to portray that in a funny way. It's sad really, but all childhood things must pass.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Linux Zealot on the other hand, used to have me in stiches.
And it's centered around an ISP. How fucking clever. For 1995.
Sure... because ISPs sure don't exist anymore. They're ancient history, like the dinosaurs. Might as well do away with any setting in a hospital, school, business, or home becaus ethey existed long before 1995 too.
"I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone."
Ignoring the poor attempt at writing a sarcastic review (all negative, while actually meaning all positive), I honestly don't find UF funny, and haven't since about the second year. What was that, four years ago?
After a particularly nasty flamewar last year where I politely questioned the humor in Dust Puppy being at the bottom of a portable toilet, being defecated on, and coming out with waste-covered bits of ungested food stuck to himself (I'm not kidding either, look it up for yourself), I decided UF wasn't for me. I haven't visited the site since. It has occasional-hit humor, the drawing hasn't improved from its quaint "raw, untalented" style since the first year, and the people on the board stuff themselves full of dysfunctional, co-dependent social behavior that makes me cringe.
That's just my take. Maybe you like it. If so, more power to you! But I certainly wouldn't recommend UF-newbies spending two cents on purchasing any "products" from Mr. Fraser, intro by Wil "Wesley Crusher/I'm not Wesley!" Wheaton or not.
(Mad props to CleverNickName.)
Cardboard Tube Samurai.
And maybe that wierd bit about the juicer...
when all is said and done, all a man has left are his blades and his honor.
I used to think User Friendly was pretty good, but then either it's quality deteriorated, or i found other, better comics to put it in perspective.
Here's a list of (some of) the comics that in my opinion are better than User Friendly. As usual, your opinion may differ and your mileage may vary.
Adventurers! the best of the CRPG comics.
Dragon Tails comic about strange geeky dragons and a squirrel or two. (Has jokes that cover all kinds of geekery, not just the tech variety) The Wings of ChangeFantasy comic about a dragon, a girl with wings, and a group of pixie children
The Devil's Panties "Real Life" type comic about a female protagonist and a couple of her friends. Frequently touches on goth and comic geekdom, and there's a side comic about LARPs.
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie YuukiA manga style take-off on the "pretty-girl" anime genre. Has some Ranma-esque gender-bending themes if that disturbs you.
Freefall Science fiction comic, primarily focused on an kleptomaniac alien scavenger, a friendly but somewhat dim robot, and a genetically engineered anthropomorphic female wolf.
Ozy and Millie One of those comics with a world (mostly) like ours but filled with anthropomorphic animals. Frequently philisophical or political.
Something Positive "Real life" type comic with a very twisted and sometimes sick sense of humor.
Venus Envy A comic about highschool aged MtF transgendered person dealing with all the issues you'd expect such a person to be dealing with. Obviously lots of gender-bending issues.
8-bit Theater tied for second best CRPG comic.
RPG World the other tied for second best CRPG comic.
Anti-here for Hire by the author of Adventurers! Same style mostly, but with a comic-book superhero theme.
Megatokyo some people love the comic, some people can't stand it. The art is certainly pretty though in either case.
Penny Arcade people talk about it enough on Slashdot (including several mentions in this thread) that i'm not going to even bother describing it.
Okay, I'm tired of making descriptions, so some other good comics that didn't make it into the top tier (but still better than User Friendly IMHO) if you feel like looking around, PvP, Ctrl-Alt-Del, Saturnalia. The Life of Riley, No Need for Bushido
And last (just because everyone here has probably heard of it already) Sluggy, which has had its unfunny moments, but unlike User Friendly has managed to pull out of those slumps and return to its former heights every time (so far)
There's also a large set of comics that i only check every couple of weeks because they don't updated more than once a week, but are still worth taking the time to check. However i'm going to just stick to my daily list at the moment.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Considering that Penny Arcade sucks donkey balls, that's a testment to how bad UF is!
Userfriendly is so boring!!! AAaaaaaagh!
Even slashdot comments are funnier than that shit.
Earth to nerds, Earth to nerds: User Friendly hasn't been funny for at least 4 years now.
The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is either adventurers or enchanters, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its horrible fear of light. No grues have ever been seen by the light of day, and only a few have been observed in their underground lairs. Of those who have seen grues, few ever survived their fearsome jaws to tell the tale.
My blog can kick your blog's ass
A couple of years ago I came accross this webpage with some really funny cartoons. Very dark and sarcastic. They all revolved around the same characters (never together on the cartoons). One of them was a sadistic coach, another one was - I think - a priest (dark hair, dark clothes, big eyes, all of the cartoons with this guy were sexual in nature), I think there was also one with a little girl in some of the cartoons. I know this sucks as a description, but these cartoons were *really* funny, so I'd be very thankful to find a link to that page again !
Also, sarcasm aside, there is some irony in the people who brought you 'In Soviet Russia...' and who give '+5 funny' to truckloads of unfunny crap blasting something for not being funny...
Try to avoid an honestpuck review of our new O'Reilly book, The Best of the Joy of Tech.
I hate you, Milkman Dan.
People, read it again :) :)
It was a ringing endorsment
I think a good business model is to take all these naysayers who say tips will never work, and have them put their money where their unoriginal mouth is. If they want to be blinded by extreme cynicism, hey, at least profit.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
.. ever heard of it?