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I believe it was Robert Love, kernel developer, who said that the best way to get a problem fixed right is to submit a bad patch to lkml which fixes the problem in the wrong way. This guarantees that someone else will jump on it and do the job right. Simply reporting the problem is less effective.

And if someone could refer me to that quote, I'd appreciate it. What I wrote above is highly paraphrased, severely limiting the effectiveness of Google searches.

I don't think comments like this are constructive and I don't think they are well-purposed. Frankly, I think they're just rude. I signed up just a week or so ago, and I can't believe that people are so mean to each other here. If you don't like the comics, don't read them! Why you gotta come here and rant about it too? Get a life.

It's the reason we come here.. and if we all left osnews would receive about 100 hits a day from the holy people like yourself.

I don't think comments like this are constructive and I don't think they are well-purposed. Frankly, I think they're just rude.

They are constructive. They are basically telling someone I esteem (Thom) to pursue his real talents instead of doing something he's (IMHO) not talented to do.

At least he should have to give the graphical part to someone that has a bit of drawing skills. Funny, badly drawn cartoon are somehow good. Unfunny, well drawn cartoons are bearable. Unfunny and badly drawn cartoon are just making my eyes screaming.

I can't believe that people are so mean to each other here. If you don't like the comics, don't read them! Why you gotta come here and rant about it too?

Because I like this site and I want it to be improved.
The comics idea is damn good. It's Thom drawing them the problem. If he can find someone qualified to draw comics for OSNews, it would be beautiful.

Get a life.

I have a good life, thanks. Heck, I even have a girlfriend, which for a OSNews geek is incredible!

On a completely unrelated note: can I know what is the history for the green GIF you use as avatar? It's years I see it on the Internet, it's clearly a meme, but I don't know what it is or where is it born as a meme.

Why? So I can take away one of the unique things about Focus Shift? Should C&H hire proper artists to draw the people for them (since they obviously suck at it)? Would they still be as unique?

Why? So I can take away one of the unique things about Focus Shift? Should C&H hire proper artists to draw the people for them (since they obviously suck at it)? Would they still be as unique? "

Actually, I think the limited drawing skill adds to the cartoon - it gives it a more abstract quality. This aids the more geeky message that is being conveyed.

"can I know what is the history for the green GIF you use as avatar? It's years I see it on the Internet, it's clearly a meme, but I don't know what it is or where is it born as a meme."

I don't really know I stole it off someones profile on Myspace.com.

I think it's one of Andrew Bell's creatures.
See http://www.creaturesinmyhead.com/

if this were slashdot or digg you'd get the 'you must be new here' obligatory comments even though you've stated you are quite new......

Compared to those sites, OSnews is almost Utopian.

See? It worked! I didn't even feel offended .

;-)

You know, I greatly prefer Thom's comics to UserFriendly. Mainly because Thom is actually funny.

Well, as I said, hotlinking (which this essentially is) is fine by me, but a link back to the comics page would be nice. I won't make a fuss of it if you don't, but hey, courtesy is a nice thing.

As soon as it's CC licensed, the images can be placed on other servers too (although I won't allow derivative works). I'll get my behind into the CC thing later today.

ok, can't promise when i will be able to start working on it, but there will definitely be a link to osnews page.
i see that there is an rss feed for it and this should make things quite easy

You know, the thing is... I don't really care. I can't please everyone. I'm not exactly known for my widely accepted and liked sense of humour (ask my friends), so I don't even have the illusion of being able to make cross-cultural comics work.

I just do what I do, and the positive reactions heavily outweigh the negative ones, meaning people actually do like it. On top of that, comics are not intended to make you 'rofl' - a small chuckle, or even a "hey, I never thought about it this way" fulfills its purpose.

You know, the thing is... I don't really care.

On top of that, comics are not intended to make you 'rofl' - a small chuckle, or even a "hey, I never thought about it this way" fulfills its purpose. "

Are they intended to p*ss of your readers as well, or is that just a part of you not caring?

no it's just a part on the readers not being able to accept a joke.

If you cant laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?

Everyone else

Like I said, I never said I can make cross-cultural comics work. I'm Dutch, and we have a rich tradition of ridiculising our politicians, leader, and our Royal Family. We Dutch have a very thick skin when it comes to these things, and seeing I am quite Dutch, this will shine through in the comics.

If you can't laugh about yourself, your ideas, and your opinions - well, your loss, really. I've made comics I myself thoroughly disagree with - the ability to take a few steps back from your own ideas and opinions is part of growing up. If you can't occasionally laugh about your own ideas, your own hypocrisy, you are taking life way too seriously.

Like I said, I never said I can make cross-cultural comics work. I'm Dutch, and we have a rich tradition of ridiculising our politicians, leader, and our Royal Family. We Dutch have a very thick skin when it comes to these things, and seeing I am quite Dutch, this will shine through in the comics.

If you can't laugh about yourself, your ideas, and your opinions - well, your loss, really. I've made comics I myself thoroughly disagree with - the ability to take a few steps back from your own ideas and opinions is part of growing up. If you can't occasionally laugh about your own ideas, your own hypocrisy, you are taking life way too seriously. "

That all depends on the views expressed. It doesn't matter your nationality - you can be Dutch, Swede, Canadian, Brazilian, Ethiopian, etc... When you are constantly bombarded by stupidity over a subject in which reality is displaced by emotions of various tree hugging hippies, it gets very old after a while. There is no hypocrisy on my part at all, as my view has never changed. Perhaps the bigger problem isn't your "thick Dutch skin" but your inability to not interject your own bias, as well as a severe lack of originality by regurgitating items well past qualified as "ad nauseum", well, ad nauseum.

Those comics are not political stabs, they are just light, dry, funny things (which is great). The Ad nauseam you talk about actually makes it lighter.

Really, if anybody considers these comics as political stabs, or gets even a little aggravated by them, they ought to let there blood pressure be checked.

Thom, your comics are great it all it's simpleness. Keep it up!

I was referring to the featuring the White House. You cannot seriously state that was not politically motivated and keep a straight face in the process.

I feel bombarded by your stupid complaints about Thom's humor.

Political stabs? I thought it is just political satire.

Also, most of our life is related to politics in one way or another, so there's no escaping politics. If you are not interested in political criticism, it is usually interpreted to mean that you are quite happy with things as they are, a supporter of the status quo.

Satire is polemic and often deals with things like politics that people strongly disagree with. Such things sometimes may need to be seen from a more humorous point of view too, because humor may broaden horizons, and also because otherwise the constant quarreling about such things may just give you headache... Especially the ability to sometimes laugh at oneself tends to make a person and also his opinions healthier.

It has been said that true democracy and freedom of speech needs political satire. There are laws that state if something really goes over the edge of the commonly approved ethics (and it is up to the politics to maybe improve those laws). Good taste or the correctness of satirical criticism is a matter of personal values and taste. You cannot force your "good taste" on others, it remains a matter of taste. Someone likes hip hop and cannot stand opera, another person prefers classical music and hates modern pop music.

Edited 2008-01-30 20:04 UTC

So, you don't like the style, nor the humour. Great. Then don't read them, it's that simple. There are millions and millions of comics out there that I don't like, and you know what, I don't read them.

I want to keep the style as-is because that's what makes it unique. Sure, I can make these things in Illustrator (I have a tablet) but EVERYONE already does that. I want to do something different, something that's not been done before. And I have never seen such poorly drawn comics (let's face it) being liked by anyone - seeing the immense positive response (check the older story where I posed the idea first), I'm actually a little proud of myself.

You're free to not like them, of course.

I'm just saying do yourself a favour and put a few extra minutes in to make them look better rather than just posting what are little more than a few seconds of hand drawn sketching. They would be better with a bit more effort.

My title "Not worth looking at" was a bit scathing; it detracted from the constructive element of my message.