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<title>HelpDex LG #66</title>
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<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">
<H1><IMG ALT="LINUX GAZETTE" SRC="../gx/lglogo.png"
WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="124" border="0"></H1></A>
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<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<H1><font color="maroon">HelpDex</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:shane_collinge@yahoo.com">Shane Collinge</a></H4>
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<IMG ALT="clippy.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/clippy.jpg"
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<IMG ALT="deepregret.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/deepregret.jpg"
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<IMG ALT="comicsml.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/comicsml.jpg"
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<P> For those not into gaming, "All your base are belong to us", is a
video-game slogan translated from the Japanese. Read the
<A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/features/lat_allbase010315.htm">LA Times article</A>,
see the <A HREF="http://hubert.retrogames.com/history.htm">history</A>, or watch
Clippy sing it on the <A HREF="http://www.officeclippy.com/">Microsoft site</A>
(turn on Javascript and run the mouse back and forth over the links in the left
column and watch what the Clippy image does, then click on the "Click" button
several times).
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[Too bad I can't listen to the song, "It Looks Like You're Writing a
Letter", since it's in Windows Media format. I would just like to see
its parody version,
<A HREF="../issue63/lg_backpage63.html#notlinux">"It Looks Like You're
Writing a Suicide Note"</A>. -Mike.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P> I read the
<A HREF="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/18/comicsml.html">overview</A> by
Jason McIntosh about ComicsML over the weekend. There's a lot of sense in what
he says: about the ability to define comics and to be able to search archives
and automate processes. As an example, just last week I was searching for a
specific Far Side and luckily the text had been reproduced within a HTML page
so I was able to find it. Otherwise I could have been searching fruitlessly for
weeks.
<P> That said, as an artist myself the act of documenting
artwork and standardizing it seems to demystify the
process. Part of the magic of reading today "Pearls Before
Swine" or "Randolph Itch 2am" is having to track it down
and read it. Automating the process turns it into a kind of
Shakespeare-via-Brodies-Notes. There is no shortcut to art.
Add that to the technical fact that the time taken to draw
a strip will now double - once for the art which we already
draw and ink, then the marking up of the ComicsML after the
fact, thinking of an appropriate teaser, typing the spoken
text etc. Sheesh! Most cartoonists barely have enough
attention span to brush their teeth,
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[And run around chasing villains all day. -Mike.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
let alone do all this
house-keeping for each and every strip.
<P> Art as revenue-raiser also requires that human intervention
be present. When HelpDex was running on LinuxToday.com the
filenames were randomized so automated scripts or robots
COULDN'T simply pull down the pics every day. LT was paying
for a service that would entice readers to their site, not
robots. There's no incentive to sponsor a strip without
being able to quantify the hits or business generated.
<P> I sound harsh, but I'm not. ComicsML does look like a good
idea being introduced at a good time. The new breed of
cartoonist literate in new technologies such as the ones
working in Flash and so on would pick this up quickly and
once standardized, could help spread information much more
rapidly than currently occurs. I feel from conventional
artists such as myself there is bound to be a slow uptake
as this simply adds more effort to setup than the benefit
it would realise.
<P> What am I trying to say? I think it's a tidy idea but I'm
too darn lazy to implement it unless I can see a direct
benefit from the extra effort required.
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Shane Collinge</H4>
Part computer programmer, part cartoonist, part Mars Bar. At night, he runs
around in a pair of colorful tights fighting criminals. During the day... well,
he just runs around. He eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's sleepy.
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Shane Collinge.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 66 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, May 2001</H5>
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