The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Another take on SCO

Courtesy of the BOFH, and well worth reading.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/36116.ht

Stephen Jones
Sunday, March 21, 2004

Whoops. cut and paste went wrong. Here's the correct link, I hopew
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/36116.html

Stephen Jones
Sunday, March 21, 2004

Article could have been written a lot clearer.

Look at articles by Frédéric Bastiat, the master of reductio ad absurdium.

Here is one on protectionism
http://bastiat.org/en/petition.html

Tapiwa
Monday, March 22, 2004

> Article could have been written a lot clearer.

The BOFH is a serial which has been in production for many years and a lot of what may not be clear to the uninitiated is implied by the style and the history of the series. It is straight out of the theater of the absurd and it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

I wrote a series of articles for a magazine a couple decades ago where the central character was known as Billybob Barrflye. Those who had been reading it from it's inception understood why his antics were funny, but as time moved on and new subscribers came on board, they did not have the historical perspective of the earlier articles.
I would often continue past themes in a new article without further elaboration, so we would get several letters each month from people who were incensed by what they saw as insensitive, ignorant or politically incorrect.

They were right in a way. I was being a lazy author by trying to capitalize on past themes without explaining the character's motivation. BOHF has to be read in that way too.

old_timer
Monday, March 22, 2004

On the other hand, I find SCO's actual behavior to be a lampoon on the lampoons:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14855

Not a Capitalist
Monday, March 22, 2004

I have read BOFH articles before. But this was a long time ago... newsgroup archives of the original series.

This articles just seemed different. Throw in the huge GoogleAds box at the top of the page, and it wasn't quite there.

Tapiwa
Monday, March 22, 2004

Tapiwa makes a good point. The early BOFH were genuinely funny. I was killing myself laughing in the office.

This new one reeks of something. Maybe the writer's got other worries these days. Family. Not as much time to waste away in the evening. Something like that.

.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004

I dunno, I thought BOFH made the point pretty clear. He even got the right adjectives for the product.

clay Dowling
Tuesday, March 23, 2004