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Interview: Ask Nitrozac
So there is this fine, 100% geeky online comic called After Y2K! that features such characters as the Techno-Talking Babes(tm), Lord Martha Stewart, "Jeff and Rob, those Slashdot Guys," Mel Gibson, Linus Torvalds, Bill Gates, and the ghost of Ada Byron. But creator/cartoonist Nitrozac remains a shrouded mystery. This is your chance to find out more about this mysterious woman and get a quick peek into the workings of her (obviously) deranged mind. Please post your questions below. The 10 - 15 questions deemed most interesting by Slashdot moderators, editors, and hangers-on will be forwarded to Nitrozac Tuesday. Her answers will appear Friday.
(sarcasim on)They made fun of bill gates.. hahahaha that was soooo funny... i could read that all day..... (sarcasim off)
could someone link to a funny one?
I think it's funny, and that you should quit your crying (and no, I'm not the AC that posted it).
What was the last non-technical book you read?
Who is this Anonymous Coward? He seems to have an opinion about everything, and posts in reply to everybody!
Darn, it leaked!
:)
Yes, is the Overmind of the Zerg from Starcraft, looking for a new queen of the zerg. But the favorite to the position at this time is Kerrigan.
Well, the ones on your message board at least -- not a very pleasant crowd to say the least!
I much prefer fans of Pokey the Penguin, because they are, at the very least, predictible in an unpredictable way.
HOORAY!!!
heh ... sure you were =)
But (supposing those reports are true) should Bill be surfing the net 10 hours a day? Come on, we all know that Sturgeon's law ("9x% of everything is crud/crap/s**t") governs the net with a vengeance. The man is a CEO of a huge Fortune 100 corporation, who supposedly has to go to meetings, understand what his underlings are telling him, and stuff like that. If he's spending his time on /. [ugh. Creepy thought!] or reading after y2k and I were a stockholder, I'd start getting nervous, even if I'd never heard the words "Win2K" or "Linux".
I dunno about "href" tags but Anchor Tags that use HREF work just fine.
I only visit the site every other week or so and I have found the the strip is quite good backwords (from the current cartoon through all previouses until I hit where I started the last time). Are there any secret messages in it if you read it forwards?
I have no idea how closely connected you are to geekculture.com where your strip is hosted, so this question could be completely off.
I noticed that geekculture.com's contact info is a Canadian address... you wouldn't happen to be Canadian too, would you?
Running Linux, or Windows NT3.51 (don't laugh, it's rocksolid), the powermac suddenly becomes a neat gadget.
I'm not sure if your reference is correct, but the cartoon is "King of the Hill".
Hi Nitrozac,
;-)
Love your comic!
On the Net today, everyone seems to be sponsored by someone. From Slashdot to User Friendly, companies like VA or Sun are giving computers or bandwidth or whatever to get their name tied with the Net superstars.
Who would be your *dream sponsors*? What hardware/software/whatever would you love to have, and be comfortable supporting?
Just wondering. Perhaps you're hoping to be bought out by Microsoft
Will we get to see you?!
Not that I'm complaining Rob...
but none of the ads have been showing up lately...
thanks ;)
a picture of her face?
Internal email can hardly be considered 'on the Internet'. In fact, it would only be considered 'on the Internet' if he were connected to some machine outside of MS's IP space. Probably he only does that for web surfing, and even that he probably does a lot of locally. Besides, regardless of his image, I'd doubt he'd spend much time looking around the internet, other than to see what other people think of Microsoft or what new aquisitions to make - his personality seems too much like a mental bulldog - he locks his mind on to something, and doesn't let go. He wouldn't change his focus that frequently if this were true.
Why do you find my presence to be creepy? I am simply a geek like you.
By the way, Nitrozac, great comic! A fine jest that I might get locked here in my bathroom while I was on the can reading slashdot, ha ha. Of course, you got a few details wrong, for instance, I certainly would have been able to hack my way out---I know BASIC!
Let's see, where do we want you to go today?
Nitrozac, I feel it is time to bring our recent private discussions out into the open. I am still convinced you are male, and I have abundant circumstantial evidence to support my position. For example, your Geek Quotient is at a level seen only when massive amounts of male sexual frustration are turned toward things technological. That is to say, testosterone saturation. The radical hair style changes seen in a short period of time indicate multiple Nitrozac models, despite your insistance you just let it dry naturally or added highlights. When I make my accusations, you repeatedly reply: "Wait, let me check... Yup, I'm female!" We all know that any man can pass that test after a quick trip to Sweden for some minor surgery. And as for the boots, it is well known that men can have legs every bit as good as women's. Want an example? How about Ru Paul? Or John Leguizamo (sp?) in "To Wong Foo..." Nitrozac, here's my real question: When are you going to stop denying your reality and stop living this false female fantasy? We all will love you just the same. Well, almost the same. Most of us will stop having sexual fantasies about you. -BobC
She had a total moron to talk about the technical stuff. Here's how the discussion went, after he placed the monitor on the desk:
[ note - the "MS" that follows is not *that* MS]Act I, Scene I.
---------
MS : So where do we place this? (pointing to the PC).
Techno dude: This is the hard disk. We connect it to the monitor and place it under the desk here. (points to support board).
The tech introduced the bad terminology. MS merely used it afterwards. This says nothing about her technical expertise; for all you know, she could have cringed inside each time she said 'hard disk', but continued to use it just to keep from confusing her audience.
This seems much more reminicent of certain non-geek techs who try to be more understandable to non-techs by mangling terms. The same type of idiocy can be seen in Circuit City, where sales kids refer to PCs as 'CPUs'. Most of the time I've seen this done, the people doing it knew the term didn't apply as they used it, but felt that their audience wouldn't get it. Probably something to do with the many people who tried getting computer systems sans computer.
Yeah, I got a monitor, and a printer, and a keyboard, and a mouse, and a scanner. I've shelled out $1500 for this crap, and I can't figure out how to hook the things together; none of the cables fit into the other components.
Besides, how many of you want her to hire Mel to wage war on us next summer? She's a geek if she wants to be. Well, unless she thinks that ACHES^WAIX is a real OS.
I don't really know much about Martha Stewart, but I am curious as to what Martha Stewart did to deserve being portrayed the way she is in your strip. Don't get me wrong, I love your strip and read it every day I'm online.... but while I enjoy seeing Bill Gates stuck in his bathroom with nothing to eat but algae, stuff from his medicine cabinate, and Soylent Green[tm], etc. etc.... Anyway, he obviously deserves that fate, but I don't see the connection with Martha Stewart.
/. is doing this....)
(Maybe if I actually new anything about Ms. Stewart I would understand but I might as well be lazy and ask you as long as
(oh, and does Martha Stewart really want to be accepted as a Geek in RL?)
I really dig the illustration for the "Computer Widow". Why not make the "Computer Widow" part of the story line--how bout a "Black Widow" type of character who kills her MS exec husbands for their stock portfolios?
Why the fixation on Bill Gates?
The man is a rich bastard, not funny. These days, your bill sthick is like beating a dead horse.
(the first few with bill were amusing because, well it was new material. After a while it became droll)
> Windows NT3.51 (don't laugh, it's rocksolid) That's cause it doesn't _do_ anything!
Dear Nitrozac:
don't pay attention to the previous guy. he's just too bloated. if you just tell us the color of your underware, we'd ruin out underwear immediately.
with one crossing of a leg or kicking of a boot, you have the whole nation's sys admin' attention. the power is with you.
Xah
xah@best.com
http://www.best.com/~xah/PageTwo_dir/more.html
> Windows NT3.51 (don't laugh, it's rocksolid)
That's cause it doesn't _do_ anything!
Why don't you do something like "After Year 2010" or "After Year 2020", Or even "after WW3" ?
This is not really a question, but some criticism.
I find your comic series very funny, but the last couple of days it has been spoilt a bit for me because you seem to be a little too serious about your loathing for Bill Gates. Him being locked up in his bathroom because his computerised house was paralyzed by the Y2K bug was hilarious. Him performing a strip act and trying to seduce you was just plain nonsense if you ask me, even if he was on drugs. It reminds me of the tiresome lame puns on the word Microsoft that dominates slashdot/usenet posts about the subject.
Furthermore, you seem to be an obvious mac fan, but judging from your comic you -like many other apple afficionados- seem to regard the Linux/OSS 'movement' (for want of a better word..) as an ally against Microsoft, while in reality most of 'us' do not regard Apple any higher than they do Microsoft...
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
what's youre favorite color?
would a train leaving chicago at 45 MPH that had a man with a major gastrointestinal problem blow up in a ball of gas?
Where are my socks?
Who's your daddy?
I seem to have lost my number, can I borrow yours?
Don'cha mean Quasi the Penguin? Except that, of course, Quasi was nice, and Pokey looks kinda mean. However, I do admit, if any comic strip deserves the name 'Non-Sequitur', Pokey does. Except that, well, I think it deserves a visit to the bit bucket a tad more.
slashdotted... argh...
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
How do you manage to consistently output cartoons that completely fail to be humorous in any way, shape, or form?
Will you marry me?
the artistic style of After Y2K has greatly since you started it, is this due to more time, art classes, more skills with the graphics program you are using, or what?
Why did you mangle poor Tim's name? Is it just because you're ignorant?
Since starting AY2K, how many marriage proposals, or proposals of a...ahem...not quite so formal nature, have you recieved from geeks out there?
(No, I'm not about to send you one! My fiancee would skin me alive and rub salt into my flayed flesh... :-) )
I'm guessing that, like Douglas Adams, you aren't married, have no children, and don't want to hear from any more Beverly Hills real estate agents.
Anyway, love your comic...keep 'em coming!
Eric
--
"Free your code...and the rest will follow."
Be who you are...and be it in style!
Or Vuja-de?
J.
Wait a minute, Relic is obviously stolen directly from that guy on that show I hate that used to come directly after the Simpsons. Shit, I forget the name, but the main character sold propane. And his next door neighbour looked exactly like this "Relic" character, and he was a gun-fanatic survivalist conspiracy kook.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Perhaps not to a cynical person, it isn't funny; I personally find it in the same vein as "Calvin and Hobbes", it can be cute, innocent, and full of insight as well as offer some devastatingly on-target political commentary/satire, should the occassion arise. I urge anyone who has passed it over to least give it a second look.
"Fundamentalist forces are undermining the integrity of liberal and democratic political structures."
Yes, the X11 standard fonts look like the bottom of a baboon. I know there are true type servers available, but honestly, as long as these and some decent fonts are not part of a standard setup - what is it good?
If I go by the name, then she has something to do with advanced cooking (i.e. chemistry)
Nitrozac = Nitrous acid?
What does not fit is the Macintosh. Those who are strong in the FORTRAN don't tend to use quiche boxes.
Can you recommend any good books on creating comics? I found one book titled Understanding Comics over at Amazon that gets a lot of praise.
I'm also curious about the art side of comics. I used to work for a Marvel-like comic artist doing lettering (what talent!), and he said that anyone could learn to draw like he could (which was pretty impressive). So should you take the time to learn to draw life-like figures, and then find your own comic-drawing style, or is that a wasting your time learning stuff you won't need?
Nitrozac, I love AY2K.. I think it's probably the funniest web-comic I've seen to date (up there w/ Pokey the Penguin). Clearly you have quite a sense of humor. You also appear to be quite a geek (in the most positive sense of the word of course). And you have really bitchin' boots. My question is this: Where are all the other women out there like you? I have yet to meet a woman who could write "hello world", let alone a web-comic of such quality. If this were a hypothetical friday-night, and I wanted to meet someone w/ your qualities, where would I go, what would I do, and what in god's name would I say when I met you?
After a brief perusal of Ozy and Millie I didn't find it amusing. After Y2K, on the other hand, is consistently very funny; a testimony to Nitrozac's wicked sense of humor. Undoubtedly a lot of personal preference is involved. I'm not sure there has to be a geek theme, but to be a successful comic strip you have to be funny.
;-)
I would like to hear an answer to what Nitrozac is going to do after 12/31/99? Maybe Bill G. will wake from the nightmare he had while sitting on the can. Maybe the aliens' plan will come to light. Maybe someone will offer me a red pill
>K
while bruno and userfriendly are my regular staples, now that /. has introduced me to your strip i think i've got a new stop to make each morning.
my question(s):
both programming and cartooning seem to be very heavily male dominated fields in both creation and consumption. being male myself it's often hard to see, but a vast majority of people in the field seem to be male, and the content seems directed at my age/gender more so then women and/or older/younger folks. that's my perception so...
do you disagree? and if you don't what from your perspective would *you* like to see more of in open source development and/or online comics?
ok, another query. i keep encouraging christopher baldwin (author of bruno) from time to time because i think he's pushing publishing in new directions in his attempts to fund his work. i see it as very empowering (to use a buzzword) and makes me eager to see new artists and new ideas at play. current publishing (due to people and tech constraints) presents a limited number of perspectives (i'm a big fan of perspectives if you can't tell) (and parenthetical comments), where online publishing seems to lower the barrier to accessing an audience.
do you feel the net is enabling people to more easily express themselves creatively? do you worry about current or impending obstacles to that access?
US Citizen living abroad? Register to vote!
Nitrozac, I feel as if you know me almost as well as I know myself. While exciting, this is also threatening. Seeing the comments of others in this forum tends to validate this delicate mix of feelings.
How did you get such a lock on the geekish nature? Are you a programmer? Could you possibly share in my enthusiasm for things like database drivers?
Best regards
-Beethoven
When can we expect an After-y2k book?
Finding God in a Dog
Hi there!
You have an awful lot of gif files on your web-page. Do you have a licence for them?
B.
I wonder how you define "on the Internet"? I would certainly count email time as "Internet time", and in that case he probably spends the majority of his day writing emails to his underlings. If you read any of 'Business @ the speed of thought", that seems pretty central to his style.
... corporatese at its worst :-(.
Disclaimer: I couldn't get through it, but I didn't buy it either - I checked it out in the bookstore. Oh those ugly chapter titles
D
----
Graphics, my friend, graphics.
People who create nice art tend to like machines whose user interfaces look good. I use a Mac in a lot of my computing for exactly this reason - It looks slick.
Windows is pretty darn ugly and clunky, SGI has overpriced software, Unix still has The Fonts from the Bottom of the Wastebasket, so where can she go?
(I'd suggest she look into BeOS, but I'd bet she uses commercial illustration software that's not available there).
D
----
Nice boots.
is another fine example of a comic strip no one loves. COME ON YOU JERKS PLEASE READ POKEY!!! So what do you think of POKEY THE PENGUIN? Isn't it great? Hoo-yah! Zoom! Yoinks! These action-words inspire you to visit this nice url and send money and love to the man!
Um, at least Bambi and Dawn are both of African descent (see today's strip).
The ancestry of the TTB's isn't mentioned in any of the strips. However, Nitrozac did mention a couple of them on the message board.
It's certainly not mentioned in today's strip, which involves Dawn and the geek looking at a fly.
Let's see: You're making a generalization of the incapacity of women to be depthfully creative or have technical knowledge from only the 'women geeks' you know. It is (lamentably) a fact that there are typically fewer women than men in a technical/'geek' cultures, so I can reasonably guess that all the 'women geeks' you know isn't necessarily a terribly large group -- at least not large enough to make even a worthwhile statistical claim about the ability of women in general, and certainly not enough to back up the assertion that AY2K 'couldn't possibly be the work of a woman'.
Your expressed view is not 'just a feeling', and does not merely sound 'sexist or stereotypical', it is a stereotype, it is unfair, and it is based on wholly incorrect reasoning.
That being said, AY2K rocks, and continues to get better the more I read it. Keep up the good work, Nitrozac.
---Jason
I find the amount of Linux loathing amoung Mac users to be about equal to the amount of Mac loathing amoung Linux users.
Heres a question born out of this:
Nitrozac.. Has anyone doupted your geekness becouse you use Mac?
I don't actually exist.
It might be just me but it seems quite odd that the place where your comic is hosted is made with an Adobe product. This is mainly because it claims to be a geeky site. One would think that a geek site would at least write their own code, not to mention the choice of OS. Do you touch the design of the page where your strip is located or do you just upload the comic strip to someone who uses the WSIWYG type of editor?
So, what's your favorite make of boot?
der dee der.
How does it feel to be slashdotted?
Is there magic smoke coming out of the server yet?
:)
Is that a dildo in the screenshot in the bottom located at:
a rchives/042.html
http://geekculture.com/geekycomics/Aftery2k/y2K
Forum Foundry, Inc.
The other factor that makes me suspicious is the drastic change in the artistic quality of the strip since its beginning. Granted that some of the characters are obviously rotoscoped (or something similar) from photographs. Compare first strip to last Thursday. Even the lettering has changed.
I think it's certainly possible that Nitrozac is misleading readers WRT gender. OTOH, who really cares what sex she is? (Besides all those geeks with crushes on her. Sad. Deeply deeply sad.)
I'd like to go out with you, but I need to defragment my hard drive.
We want endless gardens of data, where the bits can flower, flourish and reproduce. -- Andy Mueller-Maguhn
If I recall, Nitrozac refers to the combination of Nitro Glycerin and Prozac. Something explosive combined with something soothing.
Oxymoron? Yes. Intriguing? Yes, again.
Where can I get a prescription filled?
her hair was in one strip.
now the question...
How long does it take you tp draw and animate a typical strip?
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
Well you should count email as internet. The WWW is only one part of the internet, email and other protocols are also part of the internet.
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
Where can we get T-shirt's like Fawn's "/. me" ??
Code is garbage in garbage out.
Languge is garbage in, non-sequitor out.
don't you get sick of guys proposing to you, asking to see your pic, acting totally surprised that you are female, or even *refusing* to believe that?
don't you get fed up with the stigma? when have you gotten the most frustrated with having to prove yourself?
i, for one, get really tired of it.
And, of course, I get a great tan just driving to and from work. I'll bet those of us techno babes living in the Silicon Valley could get a great tan in the 1+ hours traffic each way on 101...
"But always she's the spectre of uncertainty I first endured, then faded, then embraced..."
I happened to watch one of her programs on building a wooden desk/closet thingie for your PC.
I hereby present various pieces of evidence that prove she is not a geek:
Ladies and Gentlemen, please focus your attention on Exhibit A
Exhibit A)
----------
She had a total moron to talk about the technical stuff. Here's how the discussion went, after he placed the monitor on the desk:
[ note - the "MS" that follows is not *that* MS]
Act I, Scene I.
---------
MS : So where do we place this? (pointing to the PC).
Techno dude: This is the hard disk. We connect it to the monitor and place it under the desk here. (points to support board).
Act I, Scene II
-------------
[...now they are discussing placing the PC in a closet, to hide the wires and stuff ]
MS : So this is where we place the hard disk (pointing to the PC).
Techno dude: That's right.
----------
-- End of Martha Steward dialogue --
She kept referring to the PC as "hard disk" so many times I quickly went through the stages of surprise, amusement, irritation, and activism (the last one being displayed here). And no geek would put a PC in a closed closet space, with such poor ventilation.
Moving on.....
Exhibit B)
----------
Once again, I was flipping channels, and who should appear on the Martha Stewart show but a smiling Bill Gates.
MS: So how many hours a day do you spend using the internet?
Bill: (suddenly realising he'd look like a total nerd if he said "ten" or something like that) Oh, maybe around 3...
---
And no reaction from MS. Anybody who follows news stories knows better. If she were a REAL geek, she'd nudge and wink, or maybe glare at him in disbelief, but no. It passed right by without she noticing.
I rest my case (which is that while I'm not saying MS is evil, she is definitely not a geek).
L.
The guys have something to drool over (the techno talking babes and Nitrozac herself!) Nitrozac has to give her female viewers something to enjoy occasionally.
Why would you bother to post this, and under anonoymous coward too? Why not post your real email so you can get the attention you're looking for?
Oh, I believe they have a place for creeps like you... it's called Segfault.org.
Is there anyway a moderator can send this straight to Hell so Nitrozac never has to read this kind of garbage?
Perhaps those would be more to your liking... MR. BILL GATES!!! It's obviously you isn't it? Only Bill Gates, who is sooo bitter about being locked in the bathroom, would post such a comment.
He made fun of anonymous coward... ha ha!
Ah, Ozzie and Millie...yet another three panel black and white strip... and you wonder why it's perhaps not "making" it on the Web? ... full color, animation,sound, non-standard layouts, polls with additonal comics, midi music, and she even used a form submit right in her comic one time!
Nitrozac's work exploits the medium of the web to it's full potiential
That and every day of the week.
We love you Nitro!
Here's a mirror site after-y2k.com, if you're having trouble with the main site.
Nitrozac
If you're having trouble getting to my main site today, I've posted up a mirror here. Thanks!
Nitrozac
Sorry, but...
...unless some specific human being meet another specific human being before the announced deadline, and together, they avoid it... but if they DON'T DO... :-)
THE YEAR 2000 DO NOT EXIST!
Yes, I'm sorry, but there is no life after December 31st, 1999...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Just kidding...
--- Sueños del Sur - a webcomic about four young siblings
Unfortunately, you tend to get the ever-popular one-sided tan unless you commute both ways at the same time of day...
[TMB]
Knowing that the TTB all have multiple degrees in physics, mathematics, etc. Is this a point of self-reflection in these characters? Many inquirers seem to be preoccupied with whether or not the tight fitting T-shirts are self-reflective images (ok, I am a little too but I refuse to ask ;) but I am curious to the extents to which you've taken higher education in these areas?
I suppose you could drop the name of the institution but I tend to be pretty quiet about name dropping myself...
Oh yeah, there seem to be a lot of references to the aliens on your site so this fits: Do you do Seti@Home? Or do you think Terra is the only planet in the universe with sentient life?
-Vel
Nitrozac-
Will you confirm rumors that the Government is suppressing top secret genetic analysis showing the Y chromosome is the exclusive site of double standard DNA?
Any sleight-of-hand, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from technology.
I applaud the attempts to further geek culture and humor, but I just didn't find "After Y2K" all that funny. I read the first 10 or so, plus the current comic, and I found it rather ill-conceived. Characters show up for no reason, and with no explanation. I bet it's quite funny to the author, but the rest of us have to guess just where everyone is coming from.
I'll stick with User Friendly, thanks.
You are absolutely right; I used the words "couln't possibly" but that was too strong. English is not my first language, that's my only excuse (any other french canadians on /.?) It is also true that since there are few women geeks around, my 'feeling' was biased. However, I would NEVER say that women are less creative or have lesser technical abilities than men (at the risk of sounding inconsistent, I often believe it's the other way around, in fact, but don't get on my case for saying that too!).
AY2K is excellent. Hope Nitrozac can keep us entertained forever (what a contract!), or at least until december 31st.
Having read all of the After Y2K strips, I feel it couldn't possibly be the work of a woman. I have known many women geeks, but none of them could write stories with that kind of depth and tech humor. I don't want to sound sexist or stereotypical, however, it's just a feeling. Of course I might be completely wrong, and if Nitrozac is really a woman, she would surely be a great person to meet! Geekdom definately needs more women like that.
What's in a name? Nitroglycerine and prozac. Nice combination of words. Poetic too. I'm sure Humpty Dumpty would come up with one interesting explanation for this "portmanteau" (sic) word (see chapter VI of Through the Looking Glass)...
So how did you get the idea (and motivation) to do this sort of thing? Now that it is getting more successful, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that success and where it is going to take you.
-- Moondog
You gave a rundown on your hardware / software on the message board, but didn't answer the central question... You advocate for OSS / Linux, yet don't seem to use either. If you received a pre-configured donated box w/ Linux installed, would you give GIMP a try? If you liked it, I see here that linuxPPC has a new release =) (Not to mention, where's Wilbur?!?)
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars) um, no, that's only 57 characters...
Who would win in a fight, you or Illiad? (and you have to do it in this universe, no fair using one of your own universes as a battle ground!)
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
Have you considered re-drawing some of the earlier characters, e.g. Geek, Dude, and Relic, to make them more consistant in style with the ones you are creating now? (I recall you updating Mel Gibson. If he deserves it, certainly the mains do too.)
Are you Canadian? (I became suspicious when Knowlton Nash appeared in the Sept.14 strip.)
First off I just have to say I love your toon. But then everyone with any sense of humour must right? Anyway here goes.... 1)As I am just now starting my first year of school(taking engineering)I am interested in what kind of formal education(if any) that one would need to have to do an online comic such as yours. 2)Do you have a full time job outside AY2K? And does it ever get in the way of creating the comic? (or vice versa) 3)Another posting asked about the possibility of you being a Canadian, and since I was going to ask about it anyway..... are you? 4)Last one. Your comic's time to start in the real world is just about here what are you gonna do when(if) nothing happens? Just contiue on or push into a new and twisted storyline? (Hey I know do a dallas take... have the geek wake up and find bill gates in HIS bathroon taking a shower.) Well i've taken up enough space here, gotta go. "The difference between genius and stupidity, is that genius has it's limits" Albert Einstein
Why? Because it's absolutely not geeky (unless you count the character Stephan.
So how about this question: "Should cartoonists not bother using the Web to promote their work unless they're willing to pander to geeks or have a geek-oriented strip? Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, Kevin and Kell -- all have computing or high-tech integrated at some fundamental level."
Oh yeah, and the Liberty Bell 7's on display. http://www.cosmo.org
J.
Damn a href tags STILL WON'T WORK
damned vulpine http://sb.drtwister.com/
The techno talking babes appear to be very tan. How do they get the time to spend time inside with geeky things, like the endless hours at a computer keyboard?
I must admit to being profoundly puzzled by your name. It sounds like it should mean something really odd ... am I right?
D
----
What do you think of the Nitrozac Boot Squad? Does it sometimes worry you having all these pale and pasty geeks with flabby bottoms with fetishes for your feet? (And knees, and hands, and hair)
Do you get a lot of slack for running a Mac? Have you any plans to switch to Linux soon?
Do you consider yourself a techno-talking babe? Where did you get the idea for the techno-talking babes, are they based on anyone you know, or did you just make them up?
When are you going to have more comics of Linus Torvalds back on there? Mm..
As a female in a technical field, I'm curious how you handle being in a male-dominated field. I've dealt with many setbacks and much harassment, myself. (One job interview I actually got asked, "So, can you handle being in a group of guys?")
What kind of obstacles have you encountered? Has it been easier or more difficult than you expected? How have you dealt with men who refuse to believe that a female could be such a cool geek?
"During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I was riding the pogostick."
A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Do we ever get to see more of you than just the boots? Not that I'm complaining about seeing the boots, mind.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
So which color pill did you take?
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Are you, in fact, female?
Is it true that you are a 50 year old bald man who likes to wear black boots and a wig? :=)
Or what about the rumor that you have a relationship with Bill Gates, is that true?
Phobos - Greek word for fear or flight
#1) I noticed something kind of amusing...most of the geeks featured in the comic, including Linus and Malda, are featured in the comic as being - well, very buff and muscular. Now, I haven't seen any pictures of Rob, but I know Linus ain't that buff right now. Do you glamorize, even subconsciously, the physical beauty of the geeks that you seem to swoon for?
:)
#2) Will the comic continue after Y2K?
-- Wow. Another comment by SeanMike. All comments are not endorsed by IDI.
You've obviously created AY2K in reaction to the media hype surrounding the alleged "Y2K bug". Could you share your thoughts on the media phenomenon? What do you see in the Y2K stories circulating that inspires you to create this comic, and what impact do you think it has on the perception of geeks by others?
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."
My question is this: Where are all the other women out there like you? I have yet to meet a woman who could write "hello world", let alone a web-comic of such quality. If this were a hypothetical friday-night, and I wanted to meet someone w/ your qualities, where would I go, what would I do, and what in god's name would I say when I met you?
Just as the question asks ... it appears as if lots of your 'guest actors', meaning the famous people, Like Hemos and CmdrTaco, are taken directly from well known pictures of them, then drawn over to create a cartoon effect.
... (Ah hah!)
... there are a few obvious ones, such as Relic and the main guy ... but for example, what about the Techno-talking babes?
Known as rotoscoping in the cartoon business, it is how the infamous Lord of the Rings movie was made.
So I am curious if in fact this IS what you do, or if you are cleverly disguising your original drawings to LOOK like well known pictures
The auxillary question if this is true, is what characters ARN'T
Nitrozac:
First let me say that I'm a big fan of AY2K.
I have it on good authority that while Martha Stewart may be a long way from a geek, she does own a very high-end IBM RS6000 SP cluster running IBM's AIX flavor of UNIX. I believe that it's for data warehousing/mining but it COULD be developing strategies (a la IBM's Deep Blue) for domination of the geek world.
Of all the celebrities that you send up in AY2K, (Are Rob and Jeff celebrities yet?) have any responded in a negative way? Conversely, have any responded in a fashion more positive that what you would've expected?
Also,like many others I'm sure, I'd love to see the face above the boots. Or will "comic strip realities collapse" if your face goes on-line? The Mac SE/Kid-Pix self portrat just didn't cut it.
Thanks for all of the great work. Keep it up!
I'm curious what software, hardware, drawing tools, etc. you use to make the series -- especially the episodes with animated effects.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Hi Nitrozac,
Which of the current geek-cult heroes that you draw into your strip have you met in person? Did they know at the time you were Nitrozac? Did you take their picture or just find the photos on the web?
Is Relic or Dude based on anyone you know?
Will the aliens ever reveal themselves to you, and will you press charges or just giggle?
How long in advance do you draw your strip, and how long does it take to complete each one?
What is your day job like?
There, one of those should make it.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
After completing umpteen years of higher education and receiving a couple of degrees, I've found myself sorely wanting more out of life than spending 18 hours writing Java or C code each day. It's already been bad enough struggling to prove that a woman can code circles around her male counterparts ... and now it's just becoming tiresome. You, on the other hand, have obviously broken out of the mold and found a place for yourself with your strip.
People always ask that stupid question, "What advice do you have for people starting in field x, y, or z?" Rather than bore you with that, I want to know: What can I do to build my self-confidence enough to try and strike out on my own? What helped you get through the nervousness that you'd be perenially broke, sitting day after day, waiting for that "big break?" I find that's the biggest block to me leaving my current job (which pays very well, thank you very much) and trying to do something that I'll truly enjoy.
I know that, one day, I won't be coding this shit anymore, and that I'll move on to something more meaningful. Help me understand what I can do to quell my logical side for just those few nanoseconds so that I can break free of the corporate culture.
Wohali
"But always she's the spectre of uncertainty I first endured, then faded, then embraced..."
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
My question comes in three parts :
1) Are you an Alien agent sent to earth in preparation of a global invasion of planet Earth ?
2) In case you are, what are the steps to follow if I want to apply for special (ie favour) treatment when the invasion actually happens ?
3) If the answer to the last question involves boots or leather shoes, are Berlutti's OK ?
Thomas Miconi
karma Police - enforcing peace of mind by all possible means.
What will you do when Y2k happens in 'real life'? Will the comic continue 'as if nothing had happened'? Or maybe After Y2K is an accurate prediction of the future 8-)
It has always been a problem with sci-fi that the dates chosen tend to be far too close, so we 'overrun' them quickly. But less than 4 months away is ridiculous!
BTW, today, 1999 September 13th, is the day when the Moon was knocked out of Earth's orbit in Space: 1999. There are still a few hours left for it to happen...
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Two questions:
1. You're one of the few comic artists I've seen taking advantage of some of the peculiarities of the Web (animation, polls, integrating various quasi-real life happenings into your storyline on occasion -- see last week's Archives for details). Do you think others will follow suit?
2. Along the same lines, do you think the self-referentialism in After Y2K has been a difficult line to walk, creatively? Is there a balance you've reached between telling a good and funny story and what some may consider a bit of self-indulgence?
Thanks for the laughs!
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QDMerge 0.21!
how to invest, a novice's guide
Nitrozak, you being a woman and of the 90's and a geek we know that we can trust you to answer truthfully.
So please tell us, once and for all, does size matter?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano