User Friendly
Book Review By: Ann O’ConnorEver thought a dust ball was cute? No? Maybe your point of view was a little realistic? A little cynical? Or maybe you didn’t realize that geeks actually have quite a good sense of humor. That tends (wildly) to the wry and understated side. Just maybe, you have not yet been (properly) introduced to the Dust Puppy.
In that case, please allow me the pleasure of introducing you to the cutest, funniest, most perceptive and insightful cartoon strip in all of geekdom, User Friendly. The very name should be warning enough to *any * computer user of the (mis)adventure you will find here. There are no boundaries to the world created by a computer that is up. Yes, this is another warning, as inadequate as it is.
What would you call a dust ball with two feet, two eyes and a big toothy grin? His name is simple: Dust Puppy. He has an alter ego, most mischievous and misbehaving, whose name is, appropriately enough, Crud Puppy. Crud Puppy tends to appear and disappear around old coffee grounds. (Another warning.) Dust Puppy has a friend and cohort, Erwin, who is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) program of amazing effectiveness. I did wonder why Erwin got an Irish name, but I decided not to go there. :-) ßsmiley
Dust Puppy works in an IT (Information Technology) office, so all his friends are geeks (computer experts). As Linux users, they have a satirical take on other systems, such as Microsoft and Macintosh, and their respective quirks.
J.D. Frazer took the pen name ‘Illiad’ to protect the innocent, but fame caught up with him, and he now mostly goes by the original J.D. He created a couple of ‘Dust Puppies’ cartoons in the 1970s and 1980s, but he didn’t really get going until he was working in the business world himself.
Fame and acclaim have come from some of the most well-known people in the computer world. Eric S. Raymond, astounding programmer and defender of Open Source: “It combines passion for one’s craft with a healthy refusal to get stuffy or self-important about same.” Trae McCombs, linux.com: “User Friendly is more than a cartoon; it’s brilliant social commentary for the computer cultural of today.”
Check out the daily User Friendly and the archives at www.userfriendly.org. Find the other fans at www.ufies.org.
Author: Frazer, J.D. “Illiad,”
Cambridge, Massachusetts
O’Reilly & Associates
Price: $12.95.
www..userfriendly.org