From Wired: “With Hewlett-Packard gobbling up Compaq, Gateway slashing staff and Dell driving prices to rock bottom, the PC market has turned into a bloody battlefield. But the big winner could turn out to [be] the only player in desktop computers that doesn’t make a PC: Apple.”

The third compilation of the online hit comic, User
Friendly, takes readers back to Columbia Internet for the continuing
story of the “friendliest, hardest-working and most neurotic little
Internet Service Provider in the world”. In “The Root of All Evil”
(O’Reilly, US $12.95), author J.D. “Illiad” Frazer probes the
worldviews of sales staff, execs, and caffeine-fueled techies whose
universe includes the Dust Puppy–offspring of a combination of dust,
lint, and quantum events inside a network server–and Erwin, the
Artificial Intelligence. Considered one of the most off-beat, original,
and funny comic strips to come along in years, User Friendly has
captured the attention of the worldwide audience of IT professionals
and computer hobbyists alike.

Proving that humor is often most successful when it approaches its
subject matter with unflinching honesty, Frazer has managed to poke fun
at the world of hard-core geeks and their issues, drawing a massive
following of readers who call themselves “UFies.” Frazer claims “The
Root of All Evil,” was published “for the same reason that I publish
the comic strip on a daily basis–to share the pain and anguish
experienced in the IT world.” Whether or not this is true, UFies
regularly laugh at themselves through the antics of Greg, Jeff,
Miranda, and the other members of Columbia Internet.

“It’s unverified,” Frazer adds, “but I hear that the number of
user-homicides committed by frustrated IT people drop dramatically
after they’ve had their morning UF fix.”

The cast of “The Root of All Evil” is Quake-obsessed 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. In this third
collection of comics, geeks go camping, Mike finds a new use for silly
putty, and Stef decides to beef up his Quake skills with the “Acme
Forced-Feedback Enemy-Denial Smackdown Ergonomic Game Chair.”

The User Friendly community is truly global: the comic’s
one-million-plus readers log on from Israel, Brazil, Iceland, New
Zealand, and Greece, among other far-flung locations. Frazer’s
cartooning style shares a sense of broader cultural identity in a
sometimes cutthroat and humorless business where the ability to laugh
at oneself is often a survival skill. Since this is true of most work
environments, chances are readers won’t have to know Unix or be able to
log in as “root” in order to get the jokes.

What readers and critics said about “User Friendly” and “Evil Geniuses
in a Nutshell”:

“One of the characteristics of healthy cultures is that they can poke
fun at themselves. I guess the hacker culture is in good health,
because ‘User Friendly’ is hilarious. Its irreverence, sophisticated
in-jokes and surrealistic edge are a rocket straight out of the
Internet’s collective unconscious.”–Eric S. Raymond, ubergeek

“…the cartoon is so insightful and captures the essence of today’s
web industry so brilliantly that it’s definitely going to be
big.”–Nina Furu, columnist, digi.no

“‘User Friendly’ has my sides splitting daily. Illiad has taken a step
that no one else has done by doing a strip for the Un*x/Geek community
thats funny and cute.”–Trae McCombs, manager, themes.org

“‘User Friendly’ has something that no other cartoon has, the ability
to not only be funny, but be exactly like events at your own work. In
fact sometimes you think life would be better if you worked for
Columbia Internet.”–Scott James Remnant, Editor, segfault.org

“‘User Friendly’ is smart and sassy and just what I’ve been waiting
for–a cartoon that computer geeks can relate to. A cutting-edge
cartoon about cutting-edge technology, ‘User Friendly’ is funny enough
that even the non-geeks will get it. The recent Star Wars spoof was
intelligent, timely, and funny. I’m proud to have User Friendly in
Linux Journal.”
–Marjorie L. Richardson, Editor in Chief, “Linux Journal”

“It is a funny, sophisticated series of plots and subplots involving a
‘dust puppy’ who was born inside a mega-server, and is involved with a
neurotic Internet Service Provider staff. Simply put, ‘Evil Geniuses’
illustrates the conflict of interest between upper management and
marketing, and those who truly know what they are doing. It is a great
find for computer geeks, who may see themselves in the
characters.”–Lake Computing, September 1, 2000

“Let’s stand up and cheer O’Reilly for publishing J.D. ‘Illiad’
Frazer’s collection of ‘User Friendly’ comic strips. It’s a badly
needed break from the medium of all those serious technical books. This
geekly guide to World Domination will rattle your brain cells and clear
the air around your monitor. Toss aside your keyboard and guffaw for
the hell of it. Have a chuckle break and some inspired digital giggles.
Besides, man can’t live by Dilbert alone.”
–Derek Pell, www.dingbatmag.com, September 2000

“Looking for a collection of high-tech humor like nothing else you’ve
seen before? Pick up a copy of ‘Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell.'”
–Mike Madson, “Computer Bits,” June 2000

“More laughter provoking episodes provided by Illiad. The assortment of
comic strips includes something for everyone: tech support,
programmers, system administrators, and gaming enthusiasts. Illiad’s
witty approach to topical subjects creates a reflection of the Open
Source community which is unique, insightful, and
side-splitting.”–Elizabeth Zinkann, “Sys Admin,” July 2000

For more information about the book, including author bio, and
sample comics, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rootofevil/

The User Friendly web site:
http://www.userfriendly.org

For a cover graphic in jpeg format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596001932.jpg

About UserFriendly.org
Founded in November 1997 as an online daily episodic comic strip,
Userfriendly.org has expanded rapidly into what is now arguably the
largest online entertainment web site appealing to the IT community.
Userfriendly.org now attracts over 1 million visitors, resulting in
excess of 10 million page views per month.

About O’Reilly
O’Reilly & Associates is the premier information source for
leading-edge computer technologies. We communicate the knowledge of
experts through our books, conferences, and web sites. Our books, known
for their animals on the covers, occupy a treasured place on the
shelves of the developers building the next generation of software. Our
conferences and summits bring innovators together to shape the
revolutionary ideas that spark new industries. From the Internet to the
web, Linux, Open Source, and now peer-to-peer networking, we put
technologies on the map. For more information: http://www.oreilly.com

Wired.com on the HP/Compaq union: “The deal — which combines two of the four largest U.S.
makers of personal computers into a unified giant that will rival IBM in girth — is nothing
short of breathtaking in scope.

By HP’s and Compaq’s estimates, the combined company will have more than 145,000
employees, maintain operations in over 160 countries, rake in annual revenue of $87.4 billion,
and rank as the world’s largest producer of servers, personal computers, handhelds and
printers.”

The EE Times previews the the Embedded Systems Conference
this week, where “enhanced versions of software tuned to meet the reliability
demands of communications systems will be unveiled by real-time
operating system vendors.”

CNet has a copy of a memo the Hewlett-Packard CEO sent to employees. “As I said, this merger is a game-changing move in our industry.

Our competitors are going to use every chance they can to discredit it:

They’ll say we’ll lose focus, they’ll say we won’t be able to execute, they’ll say we won’t be able
to make the tough decisions fast enough.

I believe we will prove them wrong.”

IDG on TheStandard.com reports that Adobe says it has no responsibility to aid Dmitry Sklyarov, the Russian programmer arrested for writing a Adobe eBook copying program.

A CNet story says the HP/Compaq merger may cause Microsoft “some short-term headaches,” because HP’s relationship with Microsoft hasn’t been as cozy as Compaq’s.

MozillaQuest Magazine (MozillaQuest.com} reports, “According to Bug Number 96747 in the Mozilla Organization´s Bugzilla database, Mozilla’s Chief Lizard Wrangler, Mitchell Baker has left Netscape and Mozilla.org.” Baker still is listed on the Mozilla Organization’s Web site “who we are” Web page as the Mozilla Organization’s manager. “There also are rumors flying around that Netscape has laid off other employees that had been working on the Mozilla project. The lion´s share of people working on the entire Mozilla project are people that are employed and paid by Netscape — or at least were employed by Netscape.” Details and full story on MozillaQuest.com.

eWeek reports on the HP/Compaq merger press conference, with the two sides, of course, saying the deal makes sense.

The Research and Development Team at EarthLink, one of the
largest Internet service providers in the U.S., has extended
the submission deadline and increased the prize winnings for
its Open Source application development competition. The press release is at LinuxDevices.com.