Microsoft Launches IT Superhero Comic 285
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.
First new hero announced (Score:1, Interesting)
Cross-platform? (Re:Just wondering) (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who is the target audience? (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] format that they could have used instead... if only...
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.
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.
Re:I wonder the same thing (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:Cant they just write a fucking OS? (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.
Hmmm... there is something wrong... (Score:2, Interesting)
The guy has got a shirt which reads, "DO THE MATH"
This happens to be the Atari tagline for the Jaguar. And I feel that something is seriously wrong here, since almost any Atari enthusiast loved Atari (and often Apple) while disliked Microsoft.
[/longtime Atari fan mode]