The Root of All Evil [Paperback]

Illiad (Author), Bob Herbstman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2001

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: 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.

Tag along as 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.

If you've read the first two User Friendly editions from O'Reilly, you don't need an introduction to Greg, Jeff, Miranda, the Dust Puppy and the others. But if you haven't, welcome to the world of the hard-core geek, where humor--especially at one's own foibles--can be a survival skill. Since this is true of most work environments, chances are you won't have to know Unix or be able to log in as "root" in order to get the joke.

Illiad's 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. All kinds of people seem drawn to the strip-- from 8-year-old girls to 81-year-old women--a large, diverse, and very loyal community.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'More witty, wise observations on the world of computers.' Computer Shopper, January 2002.

About the Author

J.D. "Illiad" Frazer is the CIO and Creative Director for userfriendly.org, the leading IT-oriented cartoon site on the Web today. J.D. is a frustrated elk-herder who fell into cartooning because nobody else is brave enough to make fun of some of the most intelligent, devious, and powerful people in the world. He is a member of the National Cartoonists Society and continues to fly all over hell's half-acre delivering keynote speeches and half-baked opinions to bewildered audiences at conferences. He is an advocate of open source computing, an opponent of anything that legislates what people should think, and gets into a lot of trouble when he's left alone in nuclear power stations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596001932
• ISBN-13: 978-0596001933
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Side-splitting funny!, November 11, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Root of All Evil (Paperback)

Iliad's The Root Of All Evil is the third and latest compilation of the online mega hit comic strip, "User Friendly". The "User Friendly" comic strip holds no sacred cows, but pokes particular humor at the world of online techies, harried customer support service staff, Internet computer game addicts, narcissistic sales staff, and computer programmers who secretly plot world domination. There is a reason why one million readers in more than a hundred nations (including Israel, Brazil, Iceland, New Zealand, and Greece) have logged into Userfriendly.org to follow "User Friendly" comics. The reason is that "User Friendly" is side-splitting funny, even - or especially - for those of us who have lagged behind a bit in the wake of the technical revolution. The Root Of All Evil is a fresh breath of originality, guaranteed hilarious, and absolutely, positively, not to be missed. Highly, wholeheartedly, enthusiastically recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For computer geeks only, but in that niche excellent, October 1, 2005

By 

M. Helmke - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Root of All Evil (Paperback)

You have to be a computer geek to understand the humor. If you are, and especially if you have a unix/linux background and/or have worked with internet or other computer support you will find this one of the most hysterical comics around.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The 3rd USER FRIENDLY collection: strips from 2000, June 20, 2005

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Root of All Evil (Paperback)

"Am thinkink. Erwin, to fight such big powerful company as AOL, am to be fightink fire with fire. Da?"
"Umm...what did you have in mind?"
"Am to becomink half computer, half human, like Borg. Then to become super administrator of all Borg functions."
"That means...you'll become..."
"Da. I will becomink root of all evil."
"Don't do it, Pitr! Don't go to the bad place!"
- Pitr the techie and Erwin the AI, in conversation

After opening with a few post-Y2K-bust strips, the Columbia Internet crew having stockpiled lots of soda and pork rinds for the occasion, the book settles into its more usual long-running plot threads.

Stef's been given the title "Manager: S&M." ("It stands for SALES AND MARKETING you depraved monkeys.") In his efforts to sell a line of products the same way that the Pokemon empire does their stuff, he persuades Pitr to make collectible Unix text editors. Pitr, in fact, goes through several evil little anti-Unix projects in the book to keep his hand in as a budding Evil Genius.

Other developments in the continuing story:
- AJ struggles to figure out how to court Miranda properly (badly timed in light of the "I love you" virus).
- Stef (who as a Windows user sees Unix holy wars as an added bonus of his job) makes the mistake of interfering in Miranda's life, which leads to a lot of Matrix crossover references.
- Mike becomes a Sims addict. ("Hey! Are you *allowed* to have four wives?")
- Greg's tech support calls turn into a game-help hotline.
- Pitr has an evil twin brother in Sales who affects the same fake accent.
- Introducing Sid Dabster, the aging ex-HP tech who becomes something of a blood enemy of Pitr's.

And, of course, the fantasy elements, such as:
- Parallels between Steve Case of AOL and Anakin Skywalker.
- Greg's Linux daemons (think "shoulder angel" here).