Two Funnies: BotBOFH and Joy of Tech

Craig Maloney and honestpuck contribute two reviews for your almost-the-weekend reading pleasure: read below for their respective impressions of two dead-tree compendiums of online humor: Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell and The Best of The Joy of Tech. Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell, The Best of The Joy of Tech author (see each) pages (see each) publisher (see each) rating (see each) reviewer (see each) ISBN (see each) summary Tech-oriented humor in strip-cartoon form; your mileage and laughter may vary.

Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell author Simon Travaglia pages 160 publisher Plan 9 rating 8 reviewer Craig Maloney publisher Plan 9 rating 8 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1929462484

> DUMMY MODE ON < If you've been around computers for a while, you've probably read the adventures of The Bastard Operator from Hell (or BOFH). Throughout the years, Simon Travaglia's version of the BOFH has become the canonical version with it's witty and humorously sadistic vignettes. Bride of the Bastard is the third print compilation of the tales of treachery from The Register. (Note: a fourth, Dummy Mode is Forever is now available as well.)

When we last left our heroes...

The Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell picks up right where The Son of the Bastard Operator from Hell leaves off. The higher-ups of the corporation want this new-fangled video conferencing, and the Bastard is only happy to oblige, with his usual underhanded tricks, and wanting to dabble in his movie making abilities. What follows is 35 hilarious tales which would get anyone outside of a complete bastard from hell fired or sent to prison. Similar to Son of the Bastard, the stories in Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell are only a few pages apiece, so the casual reader can take in a few without much trouble. The truly voracious reader will look at this book as merely an appetizer. What it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. There are some real laugh-out-loud moments in this book which have to be read in context in order to appreciate them. Suffice to say, readers of this book won't be disappointed.

Judge this book by its cover

This edition of The Bastard Operator from Hell is expertly illustrated by Jeffrey Darlington, creator of the web-comic "General Protection Fault." Unlike The Son of the Bastard Operator from Hell, Jeffrey illustrated every single story with an illustration that matches the story. It's a welcome change to have a matching illustration to look forward to rather than the handful of sight gags penned in the previous volume by J.D. "Illiad" Frazer.

Plan Nine Publishing does fantastic work laying out their books, and this book is no exception. My only complaint remains from the previous book: no table of contents. Locating a story in this book to come back to is downright difficult, and a table of contents would help out greatly.

So what's in it for me?

If you're a fan of the series, you've probably already read this book. If you're on the fence about this book, get the heck off of it and pick it up before someone applies current to it. If you've never heard of the BOFH, this book would be a fine place to get acquainted with him. Just make sure you watch your step. And don't take the lift.

The Best of The Joy of Tech authors Nitrozac and Snaggy pages 192 publisher O'Reilly rating 7 reviewer honestpuck (Tony Williams) ISBN 0596005784

I must be crazy, I was flamed so badly after my last review of a cartoon book that I had to replace my asbestos review suit. The Best of The Joy of Tech may be worth the risk.

Of course it's easy to enjoy a cartoon book by a pair of cartoonists that share your prejudices. It is obvious from the cartoons that Nitrozac and Snaggy are Macintosh-loving, Linux-leaning, Microsoft-loathing geeks. Hmmm, sounds like me.

Not that Nitrozac and Snaggy are totally one-eyed. They still have a dig at Apple and Macintosh owners along the way. Unlike quite a lot of cartoons about tech, these two also see the more human side, just as likely to make a joke about your cat's relationship to you and the computer as poke fun at LARTing end-users or pointy-headed bosses. Their cartoons are more about living with technology than working with it.

The book reproduces a couple of hundred of 'The Joy of Tech' cartoons from their website, in improved colour and resolution. There are also a small number that are original for the book and some funny marginalia in a couple of spots. It also has the matching JoyPoll and a short comment about the cartoon in a 'JoyWorld' section at the back of the book.

I find a fairly large number of the cartoons repeatedly funny and most of the rest worth a chuckle. These two have a good eye for the whimsical, ironic and downright funny side to a wired in, geek life. They even manage to get in a sly reference to Slashdot with a fake O'Reilly book, "Trolling In a Nutshell" with a troll wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "FIRST POST" on the cover and an Introduction by 'Anonymous Coward.' There's even a couple of margin cartoons of CmdrTaco and CowboyNeal, just for the Slashdot readers who'd like to know what those two should look like.

Oh, that reminds me. The book has a very Wozniak foreword (by Steve himself) and an introduction by David Pogue that is nowhere near as good as the book (I'm sorry David, but any self-respecting geek [male or female] would rather do almost anything than edit the Windows registry, starting with install a decent operating system and working all the way through to changing jobs -- heck, I'd rather sleep with Jobs.)

The book is broken up into various sections, each with a theme. It starts with "Boot-Up" and continues with "4nim4l cr4ck3rs" (most about cats), the whimsical "Geek Love", "Hacks and Cracks" (I loved the couple who want to buy a house within 50 metres of a war-chalked wall), "Techie-daze," "How about them *nix" (featuring the luscious 'Linux Lass'), "The Joy of Mac," "Who do you want to poke fun at today?" (you'll enjoy the 'Stress Relief Dartboard'), "Sci-Fi The Comic Frontier," and "Do You think I'm Xexy" before finishing with "The World According to Geek" (with 'The Lord of The Root - One Geek To Rule Them All', the two good-looking woman who don't shy away from maths and the Barbie 'DotCom Rescue' CD-ROM game).

If you go to Joy Of Tech you can grab a copy from the authors that has been signed (you even get a chance to ask for a custom inscription) and for an extra fee Nitrozac will even bless your book and attach a lucky sticker. You could go to the O'Reilly page, but since they don't have example cartoons and I don't imagine a cartoon book will ever have errata there isn't much point.

It's not easy to review a cartoon book. Suffice to say that I found the 'toons in this book to be a good variety from amusing through to funny with some that are just a little too true to make me do more than groan. If you've never come across this pair (and they've been slashdotted at least once) then check out the site and if you like the last few examples then the book will not disappoint. Hang on a second, just let me do up my collar - OK, flame away.

You can purchase The Best of the Joy of Tech (and just maybe a used copy of Bride of the Bastard Operator from Hell) from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.