May 22, 2008

Comics: some help

Category: Academic,Geekitude,Hackers,Humor,Tech — Biella @ 4:26 am

So, the last day of my class on hacking, we are going to spend some time on geeky comics and talking about this pictorial genre. I have started collecting a set of examples that I think are particularly strong and funny reflections of geek/hacker life but I am looking for more.

So what are some of your all-time favorite episodes/examples from a comic strip? I am looking for stuff that someone who is not necessarily technically oriented will understand but who will be armed with a fairly broad sense of this world too. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

12 Comments »

  1. just about anything from http://xkcd.com

    Comment by joe — May 22, 2008 @ 5:21 am

  2. Indeed, I have collected a number from there but I could use specific suggestions too :-) )

    Comment by Biella — May 22, 2008 @ 5:29 am

  3. While “Angst Technology” has been discontinued, its archives still hold some good strips like this one: http://www.inktank.com/archives/AT/index.cfm?nav=148

    Comment by laga — May 22, 2008 @ 6:20 am

  4. I love it! Thanks

    Comment by Biella — May 22, 2008 @ 6:32 am

  5. One of my new favorite comic strips is the dilbert one modified at the top of the Debian OpenSSL bug:

    http://metasploit.com/users/hdm/tools/debian-openssl/

    The daemon repeating “nine” is exactly like how I visualize all these abstract concepts like random number generators or other odd facets of computing.

    Okay, so maybe it’s not immediately reflective of the nerd work flow, but I just had to share that anyway :) .

    Comment by dmh — May 22, 2008 @ 12:29 pm

  6. Okay, one more… probably one of my favorite strips of all time is this one by dr. fun:

    http://edward.oconnor.cx/2002/04/don-knuth-sells-out

    Comment by dmh — May 22, 2008 @ 12:32 pm

  7. xkcd is extremely geeky, but there are few favourites:

    http://xkcd.com/178/
    http://xkcd.com/269/

    Also, Everybody loves Eric Raymond, which is very much about the “leaders of the Open Source movement”, also have some more general ones:

    http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/gmail-behind-the-scenes-deleted-scenes

    Enjoy!

    Comment by Andreas — May 23, 2008 @ 5:13 am

  8. Thanks Andreas, these are great!

    b

    Comment by Biella — May 23, 2008 @ 3:07 pm

  9. My personal favourite comic entry is, also, xkcd; more specifically, the “sudo make me a sandwich” entry. This one apparently is popular enough that people have put it on T-shirts:

    http://xkcd.com/149/

    I often use this to explain to people what sudo really does. On a side note, you misspelled xkcd in your syllabus PDF.

    A second comic series that I like, is “userfriendly”, at http://www.userfriendly.org/; more a “geek” than a “hacker” comic, this one handles situations that are recognizable for almost everyone who works with computers. Notable examples would include the “MovieOS” arc, in which Miranda creates an operating system that is a parody on all things you see in movies about computers, around http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010113

    HTH,

    Comment by Wouter Verhelst — May 24, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

  10. Some of my favourites:
    http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040129
    http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070406

    Comment by mic — May 26, 2008 @ 5:35 am

  11. Personally, one of my favorite xkcds is this one:

    http://xkcd.com/242/

    I had it taped up on the outside of my cube for a while and it got a chuckle from everyone who read it.

    Comment by Daniel Burrows — May 26, 2008 @ 1:18 pm

  12. http://xkcd.com/225/

    Comment by Biella — August 15, 2008 @ 4:13 am

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