I've posted a response to the thread on the site. I've cut an pasted it below:
It's amazing how much traffic a post to the backpage of slashdot can generate. I feel sorry for the people who get their small university-hosted site posted to the front page without warning:)
Anyways, thanks to everyone who gave advice. I think that I will commit to a more frequent update schedule. I'll start at two a week, and see how hard that is. I do the strip in my spare time, and I'm trying to write up my Master's thesis, so I can't do daily. Maybe when I graduate.
I won't be depending upon recurring characters any time soon. I realize that writing standalone jokes is harder, and while my strips aren't everyone's cup of tea, I kind of like them. It's actually a bit of a pet peeve of mine when comics writers lean on their characters too much. We all know that Garfield likes lasagne - the joke dies after the 3rd or 4th telling.
As for the the less, um, encouraging comments on the Slashdot thread: I respect the fact that you don't like my comic. Humour is a very subjective thing. Some people (jebus help them) even like the Family Circus. I realize that my drawing style is still a bit inconsistent, but this is a learning experience. As one poster said, look at the early strips from any established web comic - people learn by doing.
If you don't find any of my strips funny, that OK with me. Constructive criticism is a very helpful thing, and I thank you for it. Snarky insults aren't as helpful, but whatever:) I kind of opened myself up for that kind of thing when I posted the story to slashdot, and I'll take it with a grain of salt.
As for my motivations in posting - I really did want advice, and I am going to follow some of it. But a large part of it was tongue in cheek, hence the foot. I mean, what better way to generate traffic than to invoke the slashdot effect. I honestly didn't think that the editors would approve the story:) I also think that the discussion will be useful for others trying to start out, if only as a warning. The field is full. People like established comics about wacky college roommates, and it's hard to break in without selling out to the video-game or geek niche. Hell, it's hard to break in at all. Unlike some of the posters, though, I think its worth trying. If you like writing comics, you should do it, even if you aren't successful at first, or even ever. It is just a hobby after all:)
Anyways, here's an RSS feed for the blog, which updates with every comic: http://thekrf.com//blogs/xmlsrv/rss2.php?blog=5
There's also some stop-motion animation stuff over there, if anyone is interested.
It depends upon what you are doing. Most games probably aren't written to take advantage of multiple threads, but things like renderers or image processors most definately are. The difference is that people (legitimately) running high-end software are more likely to have higher-end machines, so the programmers can aim their system requirements higher to get the job done.
Also, some kinds of tasks are just more amenable to parallelization than others. For example, if you are trying to ray trace an animation, you can usually process two frames independantly from each other. Running convolution filters on large images can also be split into convenient chunks.
In a game, you could do things like run your AI code in a separate thread, and it would run faster on a multiple cpu system. But it's harder to write.
If dual-core cpus become more cheaper and more popular, you'll probably see more games written to take advantage of them. Game developers just haven't bothered yet, because the extra complexity involved with writing everything to be thread-safe isn't worth the speed improvement for just a small number of users.
I think I speak for many a frustrated computer science student when I say: "It's about friggn' time!"
Take THAT, travelling salesman! You too, Königsberg bridges!
So, how long before a theorm-proving app hits the P2P networks? Before next Friday at 10am? Please?
Slashdot Mirror
I've posted a response to the thread on the site. I've cut an pasted it below:
:)
:) I kind of opened myself up for that kind of thing when I posted the story to slashdot, and I'll take it with a grain of salt.
:) I also think that the discussion will be useful for others trying to start out, if only as a warning. The field is full. People like established comics about wacky college roommates, and it's hard to break in without selling out to the video-game or geek niche. Hell, it's hard to break in at all. Unlike some of the posters, though, I think its worth trying. If you like writing comics, you should do it, even if you aren't successful at first, or even ever. It is just a hobby after all :)
It's amazing how much traffic a post to the backpage of slashdot can generate. I feel sorry for the people who get their small university-hosted site posted to the front page without warning
Anyways, thanks to everyone who gave advice. I think that I will commit to a more frequent update schedule. I'll start at two a week, and see how hard that is. I do the strip in my spare time, and I'm trying to write up my Master's thesis, so I can't do daily. Maybe when I graduate.
I won't be depending upon recurring characters any time soon. I realize that writing standalone jokes is harder, and while my strips aren't everyone's cup of tea, I kind of like them. It's actually a bit of a pet peeve of mine when comics writers lean on their characters too much. We all know that Garfield likes lasagne - the joke dies after the 3rd or 4th telling.
As for the the less, um, encouraging comments on the Slashdot thread: I respect the fact that you don't like my comic. Humour is a very subjective thing. Some people (jebus help them) even like the Family Circus. I realize that my drawing style is still a bit inconsistent, but this is a learning experience. As one poster said, look at the early strips from any established web comic - people learn by doing.
If you don't find any of my strips funny, that OK with me. Constructive criticism is a very helpful thing, and I thank you for it. Snarky insults aren't as helpful, but whatever
As for my motivations in posting - I really did want advice, and I am going to follow some of it. But a large part of it was tongue in cheek, hence the foot. I mean, what better way to generate traffic than to invoke the slashdot effect. I honestly didn't think that the editors would approve the story
Anyways, here's an RSS feed for the blog, which updates with every comic: http://thekrf.com//blogs/xmlsrv/rss2.php?blog=5 There's also some stop-motion animation stuff over there, if anyone is interested.
It seems that pretty much the whole world seems to be covered with the same giant, repeating letters. Is someone trying to tell us something?
This is a story about a potential world-wide gamma ray exposure event, and there are only TWO posts that even MENTION the Incredible Hulk?!?
And I thought this was news for NERDS!
Yeah, but it actually throws the works into reverse. It's great for the first few years, but then you have to go through toilet training in reverse.
And let's just say it goes downhill from there.
They have obviously run out of places to put hidden giant-mecha hangers, and are looking for room to build more.
Robotic moon surveyors, indeed!
It depends upon what you are doing. Most games probably aren't written to take advantage of multiple threads, but things like renderers or image processors most definately are. The difference is that people (legitimately) running high-end software are more likely to have higher-end machines, so the programmers can aim their system requirements higher to get the job done.
Also, some kinds of tasks are just more amenable to parallelization than others. For example, if you are trying to ray trace an animation, you can usually process two frames independantly from each other. Running convolution filters on large images can also be split into convenient chunks.
In a game, you could do things like run your AI code in a separate thread, and it would run faster on a multiple cpu system. But it's harder to write. If dual-core cpus become more cheaper and more popular, you'll probably see more games written to take advantage of them. Game developers just haven't bothered yet, because the extra complexity involved with writing everything to be thread-safe isn't worth the speed improvement for just a small number of users.
The rainbow already fills most republicans with abject terror and confusion.
Maybe that's why they invented that terror warning thing.
I think that the first use of the morph effect in a movie was actually in willow .
I think I speak for many a frustrated computer science student when I say: "It's about friggn' time!" Take THAT, travelling salesman! You too, Königsberg bridges! So, how long before a theorm-proving app hits the P2P networks? Before next Friday at 10am? Please?
No captain Eo?
Nooooooooooooooo!
I can see my house from here! Oh wait - I can see everyone's house from here.