Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Launches IT Superhero Comic
willdavid writes "Paul McDougall reports in InformationWeek on Microsoft's new online comic. The Heroes Happen Here comic strips are being created by Jordan Gorfinkel, a former DC Comics editor who helped revitalize the Batman series. 'Tech workers who in the middle of the night fix a downed server or take on a computer virus don't really have extraordinary powers. It just seems that way. But a new comic book has debuted in which IT pros literally are superheroes. The daily Web comic, called Heroes Happen Here, features tech savvy crime fighters like Lord Firewall, who "stands between chaos and order" and says things like "begone vermin!"'" And because it's never easy, in order to read the archives of the comic you're going to need to install Microsoft's Silverlight.
Will the main villains of this strip also feature an evil software company that abuses its monopoly?
Will the heroes use Open Source in a positive responsible manner?
Solomon
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
I don't mean to sound cruel, but what is their target audience? Anyone who isn't in IT is going to think this is amazingly stupid. Most of those in IT will probably be using firefox and therefor not be using Silverlight. In the end its free press for Microsoft, I guess.
snowulf.com
Is Linus or Steve the new Lex Luthor?
This is currently being posted from a mere Slackware 12 system. I want to know if the Super Hero can configure my box to allow me to read these comics with having to involve the arch nemesis known as Silver Light. Also, if this hero could remove the engineered cyber-plague known as SharePoint, I would be in their debt!!!
So Microsoft is admitting that you do need super-human abilities to keep Microsoft's crap from bombing out.
Real geeks have XKCD, Dilbert and BOFH to amuse them among other things.
The hero deploys a mail client that doesn't execute a fucking attachment when someone clicks it. Then the hero deploys a web browser that doesn't execute someone else's code when a user looks at a web page. Then the hero deploys an OS that doesn't load and execute code from removable media whenever the user inserts the media, and doesn't automatically treat somebody else's code as automatically executable simply because the user happened to save it and then clicked it in their file manager.
The climax of the story: the users never have any problems and never bother to call him to remove viruses, because they never get any. The users are bored and nobody knows why. Nobody knows the sacrifice the hero made, because it wasn't really a sacrifice and it ended up costing less. The hero, tragically depressed because he missed out on all the !!!GLORY!!! of cleaning up easily predictable and preventable messes, walks off into the sunset.
Sound like a good episode?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If I had to push Silverlight I'd immediately create a dozen porn sites allowing the download of free Silverlight encapsulated hires long movies. That would kill Flash in less than one month.
Are the two, um, heroes spooning in that last panel?
And hackers of the world fear him? What? That he'll eat them?
The other day, my SAN filled up with unauthorized images. My IT hero j*s*n, archived all the images for me so I could examine them in the privacy of my own home. He also cleared out the SAN so more images could show up.
Thank you, j*s*n! You're my hero!
Somehow I suspect that Microsoft's version of this will make me vomit a little in my mouth... just like everything else that Microsoft does. In fact I suspect that making people vomit in their mouths will be Microsoft's hero's super power.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
silly me. i thought the flashy "install silverlight" prompt was the comic. imagine my surprise that there's another comic hidden behind that.
will microsoft's innovation never cease?
/. is what happens when geeks talk. get used to it.
so WHY is the server down, WHY is there a virus getting in?
Obviously we need a [Mac,Linux,BSD,Amiga] superhero who can deal with these problems AT THE SOURCE.
yes, go Cloverdale on Redmond....
I find it interesting that Silverlight is announced as 'cross-platform' on its home page, and the compatibility chart lists Mac OS-10X, yet the license agreement only permits use on XP and Vista????
V for Vendetta: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
Talk about expanding yourself into ridiculous areas, that they need not be in. Write a fucking OS that isnt full of bloated shit, and supports all major graphic file formats, all open source and major video/audio codecs, a secure os without DRM, an OS that runs FASTER than previous versions...
JUST DO THAT.
Enough with the stupid attempts at trying to be as cool as google or yahoo. You're fucking Microsoft. You were never cool. STOP IT.
The daily Web comic, called Heroes Happen Here, features tech savvy crime fighters like Lord Firewall, who "stands between chaos and order" and says things like "begone vermin!"'
So, does this "Lord Firewall" work for, or against, Microsoft?
I'd be worried about anyone, IT or otherwise, who "says things like "begone vermin!""
They are reeaallly stooping low to make this require Silverlight. Nobody else wants to use this product, so just pay people to use it. Brilliant!
:)
- Donating money to non-profits and earmarking the money to transform their Flash web sites into Silverlight
(I went to a BaltoMSDN presentation on Silverlight, done by the guys who did the conversion)
- Making webcomics that use Silverlight
- Displaying a nag screen on MS download sites recommending that people use the new Silverlight download manager
No one came imagine the hilarity of my laugh once someone writes a tool to convert the comic into Flash.
Does the hero or the villain throw the chairs?
I clicked the link.
Drawing looked decent, so I click it.
Requires Silverlight.
I am not going to install Silverlight for a Comic Strip or any other website content that works just as well without it.
I don't care enough about that website to install Silverlight.
That website just lost a prospective repeat visitor.
Silverlight just cost you, prospective silverlight-only website operator, money.
Thank you Microsoft, for this great lesson on why not to use Silverlight.
It isn't even funny. It isn't even remotely funny, nor particularly entertaining, and barely makes sense for that matter.
And the stereotyping is just sad - but what do you expect from 'an outsider'. Not all technical people are 1. overweight, 2. wear druggie shirts, nor 3. give a shit about hackers. And it's also pushing that other sickening stereotype that seems to pervade American comedy - that guys are bumbling/overweight 'lovable fools' and girls are smart and classy/usually at least a bit hot.
A very strange form of viral marketing for their craptastic clone of the craptastic flash software though. I imagine it could only be dreamt up in the strange cultures that develop in the closed world that Microsoft and other large companies seem to develop. (Novell was almost cult-like, and a little scary to be honest). I bet they thought it would be really 'cool', 'nifty', and 'hip', and no doubt plenty of their cult-members think the same.
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
Action Item, The Professional Superhero!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
http://blogs.technet.com/hhh_comic/default.aspx
Are you kidding? I won't install Silverlight. Period. Ever.
No way I'm running unsecured web code.Exactly my point here!
from the title I was expecting more in the lines of "The incredible adventures of Clippy"
...Apparently i have reached a point where I literally have too much time on my hands. I know this becuase I took enough time to take a look at the new comic strip (being a fan of Batman), hoping Jordan Gorfinkel might actually deliver some creativity. Um, looks like the same crew that dreamed up Windows ME (now known as Vista) are the (ahem) talent responsible for the story line.
Hands down the absolute worst abuse of a noble medium I have ever witnessed in my 39 years, and 2 min of my life that would have been better spent reading U.S. tax code from 1977.
It is so absolutely stereotypically / artificially 'geeked out' that it completely fails to generate any humor amid contrived situations riddled with tech jargon -- ha ha ha, tech people can understand the terms so they MUST find it funny, right? Yawn.
Ok, ok, sorry for the ramble, but it was literally SO bad I just had to say something.
Except written by middle management!
The drawing is nicely done, the colors are just right. But heck. this thing is not funny, is not even vaguely interesting enough to be read.
Your ad could be here!
I can't even make this into a GREAT quote/commment... but HOLY CRAP-FEST GATEMAN! This is the dumbest thing I've seen since the copyright superhero.. and yes, another "wonderful m$ program" you need to install... *sarcasm noted here*
[longtime Atari fan mode]
The guy has got a shirt which reads, "DO THE MATH"
This happens to be the Atari tagline for the Jaguar. And I feel that something is seriously wrong here, since almost any Atari enthusiast loved Atari (and often Apple) while disliked Microsoft.
[/longtime Atari fan mode]
Pumbaa! I don't wonder; I know.