Salon on User Friendly

DoasFu was the first of many people to write us about the Salon article currently running concerning User Friendly, Illiad, the rise of the strip, and the new book. Warm fuzzies for all.

Comments

Get stuff down right at least

[WebBastard]

Ok, I can see that most of the posters are not UFies.

Here is some information you should know.

1) Illiad is a he and looks like anyone else

2) He isn't a computer geek, that is correct. Salon's listing of what he has done is correct. Some stuff there just isn't in the FAQ created.

3) He gets all his content from people that have emailed in, and from the regulars of Undernet's #UserFriendly.. ALL of the story lines with Greg answering the tech support phone are real calls. Seven of them are mine.

4) USerFriendly started out as a "side what the heck kind of thing" that's how it was when I started reading it in January '98. Since then it's popularity has run like wildfire. (Sorta like Dilbert when it fstarted)

5) Animated UF.. Illiad and I have mentioned to each other 2 or 3 times about that, problem is: Time

6) The book, well I don't have much to say there other than Illiad probably felt that his older stuff wasn't good enough to be published.. or maybe that the format it was in didn't work for print.

7) To the "It won't last" coward poster: You base your statement on what? Or was it just the SOP flame bait post? Even Illiad didn't think it would last / take off like this.

8) To the other that say it is unfunny. That is because the humor level of the comic is more than likely over your head.

Ok, done for now.

Re:Iliaid

[rde]

You're not thinking of Nitrozac?
It's easy to confuse the two; all these geek cartoonists look the same.

Re:I did not know that!

[Foogle]

How could he *possibly* be a non-techie? All of the little industry jokes and -- heck, all of the jokes period, revolve around tech. Except, possibly, for the ones where they just make fun of people calling tech-support. He's a techie in my book.

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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

Reflection...

[sporty]

Isn't it amazing that UserFriendly was a 2-bit idea that turned into a really popular idea of our culture?

More importantly, the net has brought about a time of change, where people can be what they want. If they try to and not do so correctly, it is a little forgiving but rejects the rejects. Slashdot, freshmeat, Userfriendly even webpagesthatsuck.com (we remember the days of that, don't we?) became authorities over time.

But as the community keeps getting those wiz kids (no.. they aren't all kids, but wizards sounds funky), won't it cause the misled to think that the net is an alternative to school and a degree? Or at least create more misled?

Something to watch for?

[Rob the Roadie]

So now we have User Friendly - The Book.

How long before User Friendly - The Movie? That would sure beat South Park for me!

Your sig

[Bill Currie]

That's cool, but it could only work in python. That's probably one of the clearest self printing programs I've ever seen (not that I've seen that many).

No, *YOU* are funny

[DragonHawk]

Scott Adams actually can actually draw...

Funny, Mr. Adams says his artistic talent is pretty limited in several of his books. But I guess you know him better then he knows himself, since you're such an authority on cartooning.

...and has a sense of pacing.

Where do you get this? Frankly, Dilbert's been a lot slower then UF lately, IMNSFHO.

Verily, its unfunniness stabs at me from the depths of hell. Or possibly canada.

So you're not just an asshole, you're a prejudiced asshole. Wonderful combination.

FYI: The names of countries are CAPITALIZED.

Another post claimed that User Friendly was not painfully unfunny. I disagree.

Heads up, folks. Clue stick coming down! **WHAM!!** Hey, if you don't like the strip, then don't fucking read it! Ain't nobody forcing you to. Humor is highly subjective. Different people like different things. Personally, I find User Friendly funny as hell. Not quite as funny as you, but hey, you're not a popular comic strip.

I wasn't going to reply to this guy's flamebait, but then I realized I haven't had a good flame in a while. It invigorates the spirit, it does.

This flame was sponsored by Dust Puppy, Inc.(TM)

The UFie Book

[Raffy]

As one who rushed out and placed an advance order for the UF book, I was surprised when it arrived. I was expecting (having been conditioned by the various C&H / Bloom County compendiums that populate my bookshelves) for it to be a first-to-Nth collection of the strips chronologically.

The single biggest and most confusing omission was the birth of Dust Puppy, followed by DP's creating Erwin. Such central characters (since they're a bit obtuse for a casual reader) seem to need this germination to be included.

Rafe
V^^^^V

Geek posers?

[RenQuanta]

...as geek culture goes mainstream.

This comment left me a little unsettled. I wonder if it could really happen? Would we really want it to happen? Obviously, if it's going to happen, it'll happen whether or not we want it to. However, I find it rather unlikely.

I fear that "going mainstream" might just amount to people doing everything they can to look like a geek, rather than actually be one. They'll install Redhat, Caldera, or Mandrake, run Enlightenment, and hang out in some #channel, being k00l d00ds. They'll wear Copyleft t-shirts, talk about what Linus or Raymond said lately, and use the Linux credit card. (Well, at least that'll bring more capital into the Community for furthering development!! ;)

Yet as we all know, being a geek takes so much time and effort...and study. I have gained the impression that this amount of learning is just not something that non-geeks are interested in. People are more concerned with office gossip, the latest styles, or the sports page. They won't "have time" for debugging their code, compiling the latest library to support whatever, or making sure their box on the Net is patched up and "secure" (as secure as things can be ;)

Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see. The Community will continue to affect mainstream culture...but just how much, and in what way, is a mystery to me.

Re:Geek posers?

[Otto]

I fear that "going mainstream" might just amount to people doing everything they can to look like a geek, rather than actually be one. They'll install Redhat, Caldera, or Mandrake, run Enlightenment, and hang out in some #channel, being k00l d00ds. They'll wear Copyleft t-shirts, talk about what Linus or Raymond said lately, and use the Linux credit card. (Well, at least that'll bring more capital into the Community for furthering development!! ;)

This has already occured. Have you ever physically met a script kiddie? It's an enlightening experience. Somewhat terrifying too.

Of course, once you realize they are, in fact, a script kiddie, you can proceed to "deprogram" them (beat them down mercilessly). :-)

Yet as we all know, being a geek takes so much time and effort...and study. I have gained the impression that this amount of learning is just not something that non-geeks are interested in.

It's worse than this. The kiddies I have met, mainly 18-year olds just entering college, know enough to be annoying, yet don't have the ability to learn, IMHO. Reminds me of a guy I met named "Chuck"..

Chuck is/was a script kiddie. He knew just enough to impress those without knowledge (i.e. most of the people of the world), but not enough to actually accomplish anything. They were impressed by his ability to download warez from IRC (oooooooh!) and his ability to use a computer fairly well (double oooooh!). He's not actually bright enough to understand, well, network protocols, but he can figure out Back Orifice because it's not all THAT hard. It only took him 2 weeks to dope it out, and that was with help.

Anyway, the point is that the person I described is real, I met him, I knew him well. I didn't like him or anything, but our common friends thought he was really smart. He was fairly bright, but not grade A material. His problem was that he had no desire to learn the fundamentals of any subject. He saw computing as a means to an end (ie. screwing with people).. He didn't program, because it didn't offer him instant gratification.

That kid was a geek poser. Trying to fit a stereotype he knew nothing about the reality of. Pretty damn disturbing if you ask me.


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Re:I did not know that!

[mischief]

Salon got it wrong (Illiad noted on his news page that there were a "few niggling points"). From the Userfriendly FAQ:

I've worked for game design companies, an internet service provider, and other nifty places. I've also had paying jobs as a writer, editor, art director, project manager, game designer and graphic artist. My principle background is in the creative industry, although I have always worked with computers.

(last question in the list).

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You forgot passion!

[nevets]

Passion is what makes a geek. It's what drives the time, effort and study. How many of us stay up late at nights debugging code just because "you almost have it working!", and by 4am you get it to work. It feels great, except you have to be at work by 7am.

No matter how someone tries to be a geek, if you don't have the passion, then you are not a geek. Last night I stayed up late because I had to understand "exactly" how the formula of Hue is created from RGB. Now half asleep (and my wife wanting to kill me) I solved the problem, and I'm thrilled. -- side note, I'm a network person trying to understand graphics :)

Also, off topic: The article says Eric Raymond was Luke Skywalker, I thought he was Obe-Own(sp?), and the dust puppy was Luke.

Steven Rostedt

What does Illiad look like?

[Kit Lo]

As I browsed the After Y2K page, I saw a picture of what is supposed to be Illiad. Is that what Illiad is supposed to look like? What is the source picture Nitrozac for that drawing anyways?