Short Review

Excellent. Hilarious.

This is the first of the incredibly funny dead tree compilations of the User Friendly on-line comic strip. It recounts part of the saga of a cast of characters involved with a fictional ISP called Columbia Internet.

Until late August 2003, I really knew zilch of User Friendly and Columbia Internet. Somehow I had missed the daily strips and three paper compilations. :(

Then a perceptive friend sent me email which directed my attention to the User Friendly series. Soon I found myself addicted to the strip much as some of the characters in the strip are addicted to caffeine. The fourth book "Even Grues Get Full" is supposed to arrive at my house very soon. :)

If you are a geek, or have geek tendencies or wish to grok geeks, get this book. ;)

If you want, check out my somewhat longer review.

George Woolley of Oakland.pm

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Later Books in the Series

Notes:

• All these books are published by O'Reilly.
• All these books are in the User Friendly Series.
• To see catalog entry for a book, click on cover image.

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Somewhat Longer Review

User Friendly
By Illiad
1st Edition September 1999
1-56592-673-0, Order Number: 6730
132 pages, $12.95 US, $18.95 CA, £8.95 UK

Notes:

• Published by O'Reilly.
• The information above is taken from the O'Reilly catalog entry.
• To see catalog entry, click on image.

The User Friendly Comic Strip is the on-going story of a cast of characters who work in or around Columbia Internet, a fictional Internet Service Provider. The humor tends to be geeky, off-beat and irreverent. Some people, myself included, find it hilarious.

The User Friendly Series is a group of compilations of the User Friendly Comic Strip in book form. The book being reviewed here is the first such compilation. Currently there are four.

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I'm a long time Perl nut (1994), and even longer time programmer. I'm a recently converted Open Source advocate and also a recent convert to the User Friendly comic strip. According to the geek test, I'm a geek.

The characters are great. Three of my favorites are:

• Dust Puppy
• Crud Puppy
• Pitr

Dust Puppy is roughly a lint ball with feet that is no more than two feet tall and was born in a network server under bizarre circumstances. It (right?) is absurdly innocent, so they say. Women generally think Dust Puppy is cute. See the strip where Dust Puppy Is Born (1997-12-03).

Crud Puppy is similar to Dust Puppy in size and shape. However Crud Puppy has hands instead of feet. Also, Crud Puppy is malevolent rather than innocent. And has broken razors instead of teeth. See the Anatomy of a Crud Puppy (1998-04-05).

Pitr works as a System Administrator and lusts after World Domination and women with large .... He likes ridiculously strong coffee. And he is reported to be an Evil Genius. See the strip where Pitr Snurfs a Jedi (1999-05-25).

But your favorites will doubtless be different.

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My biggest gripe is that I've had a hard time getting hold of books in the User Friendly series. The books are not on Safari (darn), and I've had a tough time tracking them down at my favorite technical book stores. I only got this one by (gasp!) asking for help at the information desk.

Will you like it? If you are a geek or have geek tendencies, I think you will. But if you wish, check out some of the strips online at the User Friendly site. Or I guess you could take the geek test. However, if you even consider taking it, you are probably geeky enough to like this book.

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Notes:

• Published by O'Reilly.
• To see catalog entry, click on image.