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xkcd, Devotion To Duty 167

Posted by CmdrTaco from the a-different-breed dept.
xkcd really hit the nail on the head today.
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xkcd, Devotion To Duty More

xkcd, Devotion To Duty

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  • news? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MrSpiff ( 515611 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:41AM (#31230504) Homepage

    I know it's idle, but where is the news..? I don't come to slashdot for comics, that's what RSS feeds are for.

    • Or if you twitter, you can just skip checking the front page all day, just wait for story announcements to come to you. (yeah, soviet meme joke waiting there, but too lazy to reach out and touch it, even with this long soliloquy).

      However, I think that today's XKCD _really is_ that good, so I agree with the desire to post this particular one to the /. front-page. Glad now that we finally have an idle section for this sort of thing tho ;).

      Bonus points to whoever can name a Bruce Willis role that shows him as

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by JustOK ( 667959 )

        ... even with this long soliloquy).

        That's not a long soliloquy. Boy, back in my day, a long soliloquy was a long soliloquy. Why, I remember one time when Dave, we knew him as one of the group The Lone Soliloquyers, started to talk about how soliloquies, even if they were called long soliloquies, weren't really long soliloquies like they used to be. Read more... [slashdot.org]

        • yeah yeah yeah and then there was this one time when I tied an onion to my belt because it was the fashion ... ;)

    • Re:news? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Foofoobar ( 318279 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:02PM (#31230922)
      no... apparently you come to slashdot to bitch and whine. Well done on that front my friend. Mission accomplished.

    • Not all of us have a RSS jack in their brain, you insensitive clod!

    • I come for the discussions. I for one, welcome our XKCD overlords.
      • given that a number of us read the xkcd strips, I would rather enjoy having a comment section on a number of the more intuitive / technical posts to allow for discussion.

      • I come for the discussions. I for one, welcome our XKCD overlords.

        You must be new here. Welcome!

    • I know it's idle, but where is the news..? I don't come to slashdot for comics, that's what RSS feeds are for.

      Maybe they figure they'll be posting an article about cut cables later in the day and are trying to head off the "OBxkcd" posts. Speaking of which, OBxkcd: http://xkcd.com/33/ [xkcd.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Fussen ( 753791 )
      CmdrTaco can do whatever he wants because he has the powers of SYSADMIN. He has no serial number.

    • Would I be wrong in thinking that my comment [slashdot.org] last week had something to do with this ggetting posted?

    • Tomorrow I'm posting Dilbert!
    • Wow, xcdkjfh has an rss thingy? AWESOME!!!1 It is totally time to put it in Liferea, a program that sounds like the morning after a fifth of Jack.

  • Excellent timing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:42AM (#31230518)
    Having just spent 17 hours bringing a server back online after a third party team blew up a data center move I am greatly amused. Note to data center migration teams teams when moving large production databases, copy, don't cut!!!!!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by auntieNeo ( 1605623 )

      Having just spent 17 hours bringing a server back online after a third party team blew up a data center move I am greatly amused.

      Did you crawl through ventilation ducts or kill anyone in the process? CmdrTaco must have, unless I misunderstood the phrase "hit the nail on the head."

      • Re:Excellent timing (Score:5, Funny)

        by bsDaemon ( 87307 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:28PM (#31231566)
        no, but i climb through an SSH tunnel and kill -9 zombie procs on the regular. that's the same thing, right?

        • You fool! You can't kill -9 zombies! They'll just laugh it off and then suck out your brain! You have to kill the parent!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CompMD ( 522020 )

      "a third party team blew up a data center"

      So a sysadmin and John McClane traded jobs for a day is what you're saying.

    • Re:Excellent timing (Score:4, Informative)

      by greenbird ( 859670 ) * on Monday February 22, 2010 @02:51PM (#31234236)

      Note to data center migration teams teams when moving large production databases, copy, don't cut!!!!!

      rsync is your friend. Never copy or cut. For pretty much anything.

  • no doubt (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pootypeople ( 212497 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:42AM (#31230524)

    Myself and another admin at my company remarked that hostage situations were unlikely in our data rooms, but not an impossibility.

    • Re:no doubt (Score:4, Funny)

      by hitmark ( 640295 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:03PM (#31230932) Journal

      i am guessing the hostage would be a middle manager, and the admins would be the hostage takers?

      oh wait, middle managers make for lousy hostages...

      • Re:no doubt (Score:4, Funny)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:36PM (#31231744)

        (cue top boss during the negotiation phone call) "A million and you let him go. Mmmhmm... Ok ... Say, how much so you keep him?"

      • To the top brass, everyone below them are expendable. SysAdmins, middle managers, even their own trusted assistants. Don't ever believe you or anyone you work with are worth anything to them.

        All you can achieve with a hostage situation in a datacenter is....

        1) The top brass accidentally releasing the Halon fire supression system, killing all of you.

        2) The police getting tear gas in, one way or another.

        3) Having your (and your hostages) access revoked to the datacenter, so you'd be unable

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by isorox ( 205688 )

      Myself and another admin at my company remarked that hostage situations were unlikely in our data rooms, but not an impossibility.

      I'm currently on a hostile environment training course, as I'm shortly off to various mid-asia countries to install various servers in data rooms.

      Surviving being taken as a hostage is Thursday

  • Seriously... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by shutdown -p now ( 807394 )

    What. The. Fuck?

    • Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Funny)

      by keithpreston ( 865880 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:48AM (#31230628)
      I agree XKCD shouldn't make the front page of slashdot, but the last 2 XKCD's have been some of their best (top 5%) and the ones before that not too shabby. Either way, with the principle of explosion, I'm going to call your mom and report that you have a dirty mouth among other things to discuss with her over box wine.

    • Yes... that is the proper response to Idle. If you find yourself in an uncontrollable state due to this or related responses, the next action is to hide Idle.

  • Seriously... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by auntieNeo ( 1605623 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:44AM (#31230540)
    Who reads Slashdot without checking xkcd? Anyone? I just happened to check Slashdot first today.

    • Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Informative)

      by pootypeople ( 212497 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:46AM (#31230582)

      A good point, but today's xkcd was a real winner. Perhaps there are a few unenlightened souls that visit /. but not xkcd who needed a push in the right direction.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by rjolley ( 1118681 )
        I much prefer http://xkcdsucks.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com] Not everyone is a fan.

        • Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by AlecC ( 512609 ) <aleccawley@gmail.com> on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:21PM (#31231382)

          It baffles me that anybody thinks it worth the time to write a blog like this. OK, you don't like xkcd? Don't visit it. There is a whole web out there, people. There are probably more webcomics alone than any one person can read. Move along, leave this one behind. For me, it is funny enough often enough to justify the energy spent in clicking on the link to it. Which is not the highest of praise.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by twidarkling ( 1537077 )

            It baffles me that anybody thinks it worth the time to write a blog like this. OK, you don't like xkcd? Don't visit it. There is a whole web out there, people.

            Except for those of use who don't like it, we keep getting shit like slashdot today. The fawning fanboys shove it down our throats. The worst of it is every time something's mentioned in a strip, there's immediately some dumbass trying to put an "in popular culture" reference on its wikipedia page saying "OMG XKCD MENTIONED THIS!" So, no, it's not as simple as "not visiting it." Unless you're prepared for a blanket moratorium on people mentioning XKCD on the rest of the Internet. Somehow, I doubt that, so i

            • It's mentioned in popular culture if it was mentioned in some sort of popular contemporary that could be considered cultural (basically anything that serves no real purpose or goal...).

              Where's the big deal? It was mentioned in XKCD. Like the page, find it noteworthy. Don't like it, find it noteworthy that it's not noteworthy.

              It's not like the internet tells you what you should think. Or rather, it tries, but there's no need for you to listen.

            • Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Funny)

              by MeanderingMind ( 884641 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @01:05PM (#31232368) Homepage Journal

              I hate broccoli. You know what I do when someone who loves broccoli starts fawning over some dish they recently ate which had broccoli in it? Nothing really, I just enjoy the conversation and talk about something I like in response. I don't even have to mention I don't like broccoli.

              It's not like you need to burst a vein every time you see XKCD mentioned somewhere. If you do you can't really call it dislike anymore.

              Although maybe I'm doing it wrong. The next time I'm in a restaurant and I see someone at another table with broccoli, I'm going to turn beat red and throw a hissy fit about how horrible broccoli is and how terrible it is that I have to see the stuff in public because of those damned broccoli lovers who think it's some miracle cancer curing vegetable or something. Yeah, that "Don't sweat the small stuff" crap won't be for me anymore. I'm going to make a big deal out of absolutely nothing.

              Starting with your comment. How am I doing?

              • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

                by Anonymous Coward

                It's not like you need to burst a vein every time you see XKCD mentioned somewhere.

                Have you ever heard of "getting sick of" something? xkcd has been going around for ages, and we're constantly coming across it in anything that's marginally related to computers or science. Besides, the maliciousness of your post omitted one of the most important points: the vandalism on Wikipedia. There is already a page on Wikipedia creates SPECIFICALLY because of the xkcd vandalism. Clearly it's not just one person who's "bursting a vein" because of that webcomic; this thing has gotten out of hand.

                There'

                • Unless xkcd is being edited into "In Popular Culture" wikipedia sections where it doesn't belong, I see no reason why I shouldn't ridicule someone for getting their pants in a twist over it.

                  I don't have any problems with people disliking stuff. It's when they draw attention to it like they're the center of the universe and no one else is allowed to enjoy life that I take issue. If it isn't directly or indirectly causing harm, forcing your umbridge on other people is by my reckoning a greater issue than the

              • Funny, thats what they did here recently to ban public smoking.

                Since that worked, sounds like doing it to ban broccoli probably has a fairly good shot at working.

                • > Funny, thats what they did here recently to ban public smoking.

                  When my broccoli jumps off my plate, runs over to your table and gives you cancer, then you'll have the shadow of a point.

                  And I'll have weaponized broccoli.

                  I still win.

              • How about when every time you tried a new dish, someone thought you must like Brocolli so they slipped some Brocolli in?

                I like xkcd, but there are a couple of other popular webcomics that I really don't care for (which I won't mention lest I start another flame war). I ignore them, so it's not the comics themsleves that bug me, but the constant barrage of 'you like webcomics, check this one out!' The authors of those comics have done me no wrong, but their fans give me the shits.

                Of course I'm old and cantan

                • I think my analogy of someone else eating broccoli/discussing how they like broccoli fits better. You're not being forced to digest xkcd simply because someone suggests you might like it.

                  Now if people are constantly forwarding comics to you/hotlinking comic in forums you read, that's more analogous to broccoli showing up in your food (which, incidentally, has recently happened to me) and worthy of ire.

              • While I agree with your sentiment, I'd like to point out the irony in posting to complain about how people shouldn't post to complain about stuff they don't like. I wonder if there's an xkcd about that.

              • Don't Forget To Invoke Fanboism (Score:4, Funny)

                by weston ( 16146 ) <<westonsd> <at> <canncentral.org>> on Monday February 22, 2010 @04:06PM (#31235768) Homepage

                Although maybe I'm doing it wrong. The next time I'm in a restaurant and I see someone at another table with broccoli, I'm going to turn beat red and throw a hissy fit about how horrible broccoli is and how terrible it is that I have to see the stuff in public because of those damned broccoli lovers who think it's some miracle cancer curing vegetable or something.

                Don't forget to rail against the groupthink of "Broccoli Fanbois" and talk about how the CVM (Cruciferous Vegetable Megacorp) has blinded everybody with their PR, marketing, and lobbying. All while better vegetables like onions and collard greens end up playing second fiddle. I mean, you might be modded/shouted down but somebody has to say it.

              • I hate broccoli. You know what I do when someone who loves broccoli starts fawning over some dish they recently ate which had broccoli in it? Nothing really, I just enjoy the conversation and talk about something I like in response. I don't even have to mention I don't like broccoli.

                Not me. If someone talks about eating broccoli, I'll smugly point out I haven't eaten broccoli in years. I don't even have any in the house. I'll intimate that this makes me a better person. Wait, did you say you watched something on television? Why, I haven't watched television in years....

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Knara ( 9377 )
              Yeah, it's tough to ignore things. The natural human drive to tell everyone about how you don't like something and how the entire Internet is oppressing your right to not like something is truly a hardship.
            • I thought you were talking about Linux at first and then noticed you were talking about XKCD instead. I guess Slashdot just caters to enough interests that there's going to be topics some people like and others don't.

          • Considering the number of comments on some of those posts outnumbers a few Slashdot articles, it seems he's doing decently well. Not that I agree with him, but I might start up xkcdsuckssucks in response.

          • Then I guess you'd really like this masterpiece [goatkcd.com], made by a poster on somethingawful. Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is based on the domain, but it's also completely hilarious. I linked to the SFW version so it should be safe to view.

            It's dynamically generated, so it's always up to date and works for all past strips. Even for somebody who occasionally enjoys reading xkcd, I'd say some of the strips are actually improved by this treatment.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by Gulthek ( 12570 )

            You misunderstand, xkcdsucks is for those of us who loved xkcd when it was still good.

            http://xkcdsucks.blogspot.com/2008/10/frequently-asked-irritating-self.html [blogspot.com]

            Regardless, XKCD Explained [xkcdexplained.com] is much better and more insightful heckling of the comic.

          • It baffles me that anybody thinks it worth the time to write a complaint about a blog like this. OK, you don't like the complaint about xkcd? Don't respond to it. There is a whole web out there, people. There are probably more complaints alone than any one person can read. Move along, leave this one behind. For me, it is funny enough often enough to justify the energy spent in clicking on the link to it. Which is not the highest of praise.

        • Re:Seriously... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Razalhague ( 1497249 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:27PM (#31231552) Homepage
          So you prefer a blog which complains about such atrocities as "Something happens in fiction that would not happen in real life"?

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Opportunist ( 166417 )

          So you're not a fan. Ok. I'm not a fan of Apple. I'm not a fan of ... whoever won the latest American Idiot contest. I'm not a fan of a million other things that other people think are just too cool.

          But why bother starting a website about something you don't want to deal with? Is people's life so empty, so devoid of anything that they really have the time to devote to things they do not like?

          It's not like xkcd (or whatever else you don't like) has any impact on your life. I don't like some of the laws out t

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by rjolley ( 1118681 )
            Don't worry, there's a blog for you too: http://xkcdsuckssucks.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

            • Why should I care that someone thinks that some other page sucks because they say some other page sucks?

              That's worse than the bickering about some teenage pop bands. "Oh they're so cute." "Nah, they suck". "Oh, you hate me!" Dramaramaramarama...

              Or is it just the usual "let's troll them 'cause they like their page so much that we get some attention out of it easily"?

        • My kingdom for a mod-point! xkcd fails at the most basic level: being funny. I have gotten far more laughs from xkcd sucks than from the actual comic.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jandrese ( 485 )
          Wow, for something that reads like an elaborate troll, that guy sure is dedicated.

        • Perhaps you dislike XKCD because you do not understand it.

          I have found the following website greatly helpful in trying to understand this comic: http://xkcdexplained.com/ [xkcdexplained.com] .

          Here, all the graphs, jokes, and obscure references are laid bare for you to understand and enjoy. I hope this helps you to see the humor in the fabulous XKCD! Have fun!

        • I intend to dedicate every waking moment to starting and maintaining http://xkcdsucks.blogspot.com-sucks.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

  • Don't anger the sysadmin (Score:5, Funny)

    by buruonbrails ( 1247370 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:47AM (#31230612) Homepage
    Or he'll kill you with his bearded chin

  • Are we Digg Now? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nefus ( 952656 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @11:55AM (#31230764) Homepage
    Honestly....

    • Re:Are we Digg Now? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Eil ( 82413 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @01:08PM (#31232398) Homepage Journal

      Uh oh, another confused commenter. To the Slashdot FAQ [slashdot.org]!

      Why did you post story X?

      Slashdot is many things to many people. Some people think it's a Linux site. To others, it's a geek hangout. I've always worked very hard to make sure that Slashdot matches up with my interests and the interests of my authors. We think we're pretty typical Slashdot readers... but that does mean that occasionally one of us might post something that you think is inappropriate. You might be interested in my Omelette rant.

      Personally, I have a pet peeve when people post comments saying things like "That's not News For Nerds!" and "That's not Stuff that Matters!" Slashdot has been running for almost 5 years, and over that time, I have always been the final decision maker on what ends up on the homepage. It turns out that a lot of people agree with me: Linux, Legos, Penguins, Sci (both real and fiction). If you've been reading Slashdot, you know what the subjects commonly are, but we might deviate occasionally. It's just more fun that way. Variety Is The Spice Of Life and all that, right? We've been running Slashdot for a long time, and if we occasionally want to post something that someone doesn't think is right for Slashdot, well, we're the ones who get to make the call. It's the mix of stories that makes Slashdot the fun place that it is.

      (Emphasis mine.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Inda ( 580031 )
        Should have highlighted "Slashdot matches up with my interests" bit.

        Some of us got older.
    • What I really hate about Idle is that if you use the Slashdot RSS feed it's impossible to distinguish between an Idle story and a regular one. You also can't filter out Idle. I'm thinking about writing a web scraper that obtains the regular RSS feed, logs into /., grabs my filtered story list and uses that to sanitize the RSS feed, which is then presented to me. Alternatively, /. could just offer a second RSS feed for those who are perfectly aware of xkcd, waterskiing squirrels and the like without readin

  • What's your favourite datacentre where this is their attitude?

  • Yeah, yeah, it IS funny (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Vintermann ( 400722 ) on Monday February 22, 2010 @12:03PM (#31230954) Homepage

    ... but it's also blatant flattery of his core audience!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by maxwell demon ( 590494 )

      ... but it's also blatant flattery of his core audience!

      Only if you think being so fixated on your job to dismiss more important things (the hostages, in this case) is a good thing.

      • Hostages are human. Uptime is access to internet. Internet is where you get porn. Human is (in this case) coworker who probably eats away bandwidth you could use to get more porn faster.

        Get your priorities straight!

        • There are an awful lot of humans out there. Who cares if a few are taken out of circulation. I sure as hell wouldn't pay for one. :)

          • Besides, judging from the going rates with certain women, I'd say anything over 200 bucks is hellish overpriced. And 200 already includes a lot of services.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by http ( 589131 )
        Would you trust the SWAT team to not mix up the single-mode and multi-mode fibers? No? Let them worry about the hostages, they're probably better at it.

    • I'm no sysadmin, I'm a programmer. The admins are my mortal enemies, for they try to take away my root access lest only them be the ones with the power. But revenge will be mine, for I create their tools and their feeble brains cannot see how I can easily circumvent and backdoor any protection they put up against my potting and scheming against them. Muahahahahah!

      'scuse me, gotta go to the server room, one of these bastards just cut off my torrent connection.

      • Sorry, we're not in the server room right now.

          Please feel free to meet us in the unused conference room. You know, the one in the basement. Where no one can hear you scream.

            Not that you'll be doing a lot of screaming after halon system accidentally kicks off. Hmmm, I wonder how that got down there.

        • Sorry I didn't reply earlier, the network was down again. Couldn't make it in time, sent you the boss' son who's working here during his school holidays to tell you I will come a bit later (because I couldn't send you a mail since, as stated, the network was down). Present the problem to him, maybe he can already fix it for you, he's really smart.

          Btw, have you seen him? He hasn't returned yet and I'd really need him back.

          • The network here has been fine. It must be on your end. Have you tried to call your home ISP? I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help you.

            The bosses son hasn't shown up. Does he know the way here? Maybe he went out with some friends. I wouldn't worry much, kids are like that. They'll disappear for weeks. It's really not worth filing a police report for at least a month.

            [Passport, check. Kids cash roll, check. Kids car delivered to chop shop, check.

        • I will bring the lime and the roll of old carpet, !

          • Ahhh, you are a good friend.

                It is true. Friends help friends move. Real friends help you move the bodies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Eil ( 82413 )

      Yeah, how *dare* he try to appeal to his most ardent followers...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Knara ( 9377 )
      Syadmin fanservice... hmmm...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Belial6 ( 794905 )
      That isn't flattery. Whether they know it or not, and I suspect they don't, they are pointing out why so many admins completely suck at their jobs. The hostiges, also known as users are the only reason to have uptime. Without them, having uptime is a pointless endever. So, the cartoon actually highlights how many sysadmins are willing to leave the users, and thus the company to die, and ultimatly fail at their job as long as they get to pat themselves on the back for accomplishing a task that they have

      • All the users do is slow the network down and whinge, as you so ably demonstrate.

        At least a sysadmin can spell!

  • Obligatory xkcd link (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Rigrig ( 922033 )
    Best xkcd comic ever [xkcd.com] (Well, if you're lucky.)

    Actually, I suppose someone should've made an 'Obligatory article' reply...

  • oh wait, you mean this isn't digg?

  • Meta-comment (Score:2, Insightful)

    by dorre ( 1731288 )
    This is comment about comments and I realize I might be doing the same thing I'm complaining that other's are. Actually I'm pretty sure I am. Overall I dont like when comments like 'what's this doing on slashdot?'. Give attention to topics that are interesting to you personally. If a comment is not interesting, why do even bother giving it time? That's a waste of time. Reading an a boring article and then complaining about it.

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