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Microsoft Launches IT Superhero Comic
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Jan 31, 2008 06:44 PM
from the humor-doesn't-come-from-the-comic dept.
from the humor-doesn't-come-from-the-comic dept.
willdavid writes "Paul McDougall reports in InformationWeek on Microsoft's new online comic. The Heroes Happen Here comic strips are being created by Jordan Gorfinkel, a former DC Comics editor who helped revitalize the Batman series. 'Tech workers who in the middle of the night fix a downed server or take on a computer virus don't really have extraordinary powers. It just seems that way. But a new comic book has debuted in which IT pros literally are superheroes. The daily Web comic, called Heroes Happen Here, features tech savvy crime fighters like Lord Firewall, who "stands between chaos and order" and says things like "begone vermin!"'" And because it's never easy, in order to read the archives of the comic you're going to need to install Microsoft's Silverlight.
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Just wondering (Score:5, Funny)
Will the heroes use Open Source in a positive responsible manner?
Solomon
Re:Just wondering (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Just wondering (Score:5, Funny)
I haven't looked at it (I don't have silverlight available on my Linux machine), but this comic sounds like a really stupid idea. Who wants to idolize some corporate goons? People always root for underdogs, and despite how much MS might try to somehow paint themselves that way, they're not an underdog, they're a big oppressor.
Parent
Re:Just wondering (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just wondering (Score:5, Funny)
Naah. For someone to root for a villain, the villain has to be endowed with a certain measure of cool, or otherwise be extraordinarily interesting. In this scenario, we'd likely see a slow-moving and slightly stupid superhero dressed in a costume emblazoned with the letters WGA, a belt decorated with animated icons, a magic red "Reboot" button on his wrist, and cape with a big blue "e" on it. When not pressing the magic button, he'd be spending his time shouting at a motley collection of unwashed, bearded, sandal-wearing villains, or, when the action really heats up, throwing a chair or two.
Parent
Re:Just wondering (Score:5, Interesting)
I strongly suspect it's not available today and never again will be printed in this form, mainly because in his interview, Bill Gates said:
Interviewer: Is studying computer science the best way to prepare to be a programmer?
Bill Gates: No. the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system. You got to be willing to read other people's code, then write your own, then have other people review your code. You've got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you're doing wrong.
You have to love the fine irony.
Parent
Re:Just wondering (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just wondering (Score:5, Insightful)
(Only half kidding.)
Parent
Cross-platform? (Re:Just wondering) (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
As a linux user, i just get a blank page (not even an error message).
A diff between the Windows and OSX licenses doesn't show any difference though (only the name of the product in the title differs).
Re:Cross-platform? (Re:Just wondering) (Score:4, Informative)
/K
Parent
Who is the target audience? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder the same thing (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I read User Friendly [userfriendly.org] as well.
I didn't know there were new stories of the BOFH! I mean, I've read the archives, but where are the new stories?
Re:Who is the target audience? (Score:5, Insightful)
Requiring it to view archives is stupid. They can link to a page with img tags just like everyone else has been doing for the last 15 years or so.
Parent
Re:Who is the target audience? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Investor: "Well, tell me why Silverlight is the next big thing."
MS-PR-goon: "Oh, well, it can be used to display content in a new, meaningful way!"
Investor: "Aha. Do you have any examples?"
MS-PR-goon: "Certainly! Here, look at this webcomic."
Investor: "I
MS-PR-goon: "It uses Silverlight. Duh."
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually it's not quite as dumb as it sounds. They're not simple static pictures, they're actually vector graphics, and with Silverlight you can view them fullscreen, without any stretching or distortion. (Guess who had to install Silverlight at work?)
It works in Firefox under Windows, by the way. (Word of warning: Silverlight and FlashBlock do NOT work together. However, Silverlight, NoScript, AdBlock Plus, and Firebug all work fine together.)
Now if only there were an open scalable vector graphics [w3.org] form
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
So actually it is as dumb as it sounds then.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/comicviewer/Images/Week1_Day1_full.jpg [microsoft.com]
Re:Who is the target audience? (Score:5, Funny)
What is this ".exe" file and how do I use it?
Parent
Re:Who is the target audience? (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_(runtime) [wikipedia.org]
(Silverlight for unix-like env.)
Parent
Re:Who is the target audience? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
So in the MS world of Superheros... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So in the MS world of Superheros... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
So Microsoft is admitting that you do need super-human abilities to keep Microsoft's crap from bombing out.
Heroic plot idea (Score:5, Insightful)
The hero deploys a mail client that doesn't execute a fucking attachment when someone clicks it. Then the hero deploys a web browser that doesn't execute someone else's code when a user looks at a web page. Then the hero deploys an OS that doesn't load and execute code from removable media whenever the user inserts the media, and doesn't automatically treat somebody else's code as automatically executable simply because the user happened to save it and then clicked it in their file manager.
The climax of the story: the users never have any problems and never bother to call him to remove viruses, because they never get any. The users are bored and nobody knows why. Nobody knows the sacrifice the hero made, because it wasn't really a sacrifice and it ended up costing less. The hero, tragically depressed because he missed out on all the !!!GLORY!!! of cleaning up easily predictable and preventable messes, walks off into the sunset.
Sound like a good episode?
Microsoft has no guts (Score:5, Funny)
Something's happening there! (Score:3, Funny)
And hackers of the world fear him? What? That he'll eat them?
IT superhero: thanks for the pr0n! (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you, j*s*n! You're my hero!
Re:IT superhero: thanks for the pr0n! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:IT superhero: thanks for the pr0n! (Score:4, Funny)
Can I have my porn back now please?
Parent
But We Already Have One of Those (Score:5, Funny)
Somehow I suspect that Microsoft's version of this will make me vomit a little in my mouth... just like everything else that Microsoft does. In fact I suspect that making people vomit in their mouths will be Microsoft's hero's super power.
And let's not forget (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
oops? (Score:5, Funny)
will microsoft's innovation never cease?
So a superhero who fixes his own problems? (Score:4, Funny)
Obviously we need a [Mac,Linux,BSD,Amiga] superhero who can deal with these problems AT THE SOURCE.
yes, go Cloverdale on Redmond....
Cant they just write a fucking OS? (Score:5, Insightful)
JUST DO THAT.
Enough with the stupid attempts at trying to be as cool as google or yahoo. You're fucking Microsoft. You were never cool. STOP IT.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't think it's Microsoft that needs to 'STOP IT'.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
OSX 10.5... it does ALL OF THAT much to my suprise, so it can be done. Microsoft simply refuses to do it.
Good god, it made a old G4 laptop run faster than the OS that it came with that was 2 versions old. That's like Vista making a Pentium III laptop that came with Windows 98 feel faster.
Who is who? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, does this "Lord Firewall" work for, or against, Microsoft?
I'd be worried about anyone, IT or otherwise, who "says things like "begone vermin!""
Microsoft and Silverlight (Score:5, Interesting)
- Donating money to non-profits and earmarking the money to transform their Flash web sites into Silverlight
(I went to a BaltoMSDN presentation on Silverlight, done by the guys who did the conversion)
- Making webcomics that use Silverlight
- Displaying a nag screen on MS download sites recommending that people use the new Silverlight download manager
No one came imagine the hilarity of my laugh once someone writes a tool to convert the comic into Flash.
Ultimate lesson for Silverlight-only websites (Score:3, Insightful)
Drawing looked decent, so I click it.
Requires Silverlight.
I am not going to install Silverlight for a Comic Strip or any other website content that works just as well without it.
I don't care enough about that website to install Silverlight.
That website just lost a prospective repeat visitor.
Silverlight just cost you, prospective silverlight-only website operator, money.
Thank you Microsoft, for this great lesson on why not to use Silverlight.
is that an example on the link? (Score:5, Insightful)
And the stereotyping is just sad - but what do you expect from 'an outsider'. Not all technical people are 1. overweight, 2. wear druggie shirts, nor 3. give a shit about hackers. And it's also pushing that other sickening stereotype that seems to pervade American comedy - that guys are bumbling/overweight 'lovable fools' and girls are smart and classy/usually at least a bit hot.
A very strange form of viral marketing for their craptastic clone of the craptastic flash software though. I imagine it could only be dreamt up in the strange cultures that develop in the closed world that Microsoft and other large companies seem to develop. (Novell was almost cult-like, and a little scary to be honest). I bet they thought it would be really 'cool', 'nifty', and 'hip', and no doubt plenty of their cult-members think the same.
Plain, non-silverlight archives (Score:4, Informative)
Problem is (Score:4, Informative)