COMIC STRIP
A hapless fictional ISP called Columbia Internet is the setting of User Friendly, a Web-based comic penned by the cartoonist Illiad. In a rare transition from the Net into print, the strip appears in the Linux Journal and the Canadian newspaper National Post. And with a book due to be released in October from O'Reilly & Associates, it will further extend its reach.
Running every day since November 1997, User Friendly stars a dust puppy as company mascot, a clueless marketing guy named Stef, and an AI consciousness named Erwin. The comic explores not only matters of technology - Furbies as surveillance tools, sushi as a metaphor for operating systems - but also the subtle social issues within a Net outfit. When a female worker starts in tech support, for example, she must first prove her geek-worth to the other employees. She pulls it off by - how else? - toppling the company's reigning Quake god.
User Friendly: www.userfriendly.org.
STREET CRED
Celebrating Edifice
Pop-Up Pix
Original Quirk
CEOs Get Wise
Your Assistant's Assistant
Dilbert Killer
Internet on Line One
ReadMe
Music
Power Slide
Say Anything - Anywhere
Food From Thought
Unsung Heroes
Just Outta Beta
Saving Private Ivan
True Dial-Tone Computing
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