The Root of All Evil
By Illiad
August 2001
Pages: 144
ISBN 10: 0-596-00193-2 |
ISBN 13: 9780596001933
(5) (Average of 2 Customer Reviews)
It's back to Columbia Internet, "the friendliest, hardest-working, and most neurotic little Internet Service Provider in the world," for our third installment from the hit online comic, User Friendly. The cast: hard-core techies, self-absorbed sales staff, well-meaning execs, and assorted almost-humans. The background: too little office space, warring operating systems, and eternally clueless customers.
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First Edition: August 2001
ISBN: 0-596-00193-2
Pages: 144
Average Customer Reviews: (5) (Based on 2 Reviews)
Featured customer reviews
The Root of All Evil Review, September 25 2003
The User Friendly (UF) Comic Strip is about the saga
of a cast of characters who work at or are somehow involved
with Columbia Internet, a fictional Internet Service Provider.
This is the third of four (so far) book compilations
of the User Friendly comic strip.
What did you expect from the book?
I was expecting still another compilation of User Friendly strips.
I was expecting lots of strips and lots of laughs.
I was also expecting much evil.
Did you get what you expected?
Yep, lots of User Friendly strips and a lot of good laughs.
And there's a healthy dose of evil too.
For example:
* Pitr strives to become "SUPER ADMINISTRATOR OF ALL BORG FUNCTION".
* Amazon tries to patent the letter "a", ".com", etc.
* The FBI renames "CARNIVORE" as "CARNY"
and makes it available in software stores.
* AOL produces a CD that when played backwards says
"DOMINATE!! DOMINATE!! EAT YOUR YOUNG AND AGGREGATE."
And the evilest creature of all, the Mirosoft paperclip thingy,
also makes an appearance.
What else did you especially like?
Well, there were lots of really fun things including:
* the man/woman interations (or should I say geek/woman)
between A.J. and Miranda.
* the hilarious tech support questions
and also the responses by Mike and others.
* the similar minimalistic AI programs by Sid and Pitr.
* Sid's caustic old timer humor.
You can read more about A.J., Miranda, Mike and Sid
in the UF character gallery.
What was disappointing?
Illiad didn't show the source for the AI programs.
He didn't even say what language they were written in.
I would have enjoyed more evil
and a greater presence of the most evil of the UF characters.
Who's the book for?
The book is appropriate for geeks
and people interested in learning about geeks and geek culture.
(I know I said that in an earlier review,
but, hey, that's still what I think.)
C.F. GUVF OBBX VF JNL XBBY!
The Root of All Evil Review, September 10 2001
What can I say? If you love the UF strip, you've GOTTA have this dead tree. If nothing else, just to show all the weenies without net connectivity the stuff you're constantly giggling about.
Media reviews
"You have to be a geek to really appreciate the humour, but even beginner geeks will love it."
--Harry Babad, The Finder; The Newsletter of the Mid-Columbia Macintosh User Group, June 2002
"The tech world is a strange place. Who says it can't be funny too? Scott Adams' popular Dilbert comic strip has proven that there is a wealth of humour to be mined from technology and techies alike. But for many techies, Dilbert and its kin only scratch the surface, dealing as much with office politics as with the life of techies. The User Friendly comic strip goes deeper...the Doonesbury for techies. The drawing style is crude--Illiad is no Michelangelo--but the jokes are good and often clever, and besides, I'd much rather read a cartoon that is genuinely inventive and amusing than well-drawn. Give me User Friendly over Family Circus or Cathy any day. 'Root of All Evil' is pretty much guaranteed to bring a smile to any techie-types you might know."
--Keith Schengili-Roberts, Computer Paper, April 2002
"...side-splittingly funny,...a breath of originality, guaranteed hilarious, and absolutely, positively, not to be missed. Highly, wholeheartedly, enthusiastically recommended."
--James Cox, Midwest Book Review, Nov 2001
"Rating 9. If you have the previous User Friendly books, this is a no-brainer purchase. If you don't have them, you might want to get the other two books before purchasing this one. If you've never viewed User Friendly, view a few strips online or leaf through the other books first. If you're like most geeks, you'll find you'll want as much User Friendly as you can get!"
--Craig Maloney, slashdot.com, Nov 2001
"Gifts for the Holidays, Computing Gifts for your favorite scientist (or yourself). After the Sept 11 attacks, a good place to start is with a little humour. I recommend 'The Root of All Evil,' by Illiad."
--John Joyce, PhD. Scientific Computing and Instrumentation, Nov 2001
"More witty, wise observations on the world of computers."
--Computer Shopper, Jan 2002
"Make sure you leave this review lying around, so that people can buy you it for Christmas. In fact, don't take a chance--just ask for it! There is little enough humour around at the moment, and when computers figure in it, it is usually silly, misinformed or embarrassingly naïve...hit! More witty, wise observations on the world of computers."
--Computer Shopper, Jan 2002
