Rands

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Rands is a grey-styled alien character in the webcomic Jerkcity. He represents the real-life Michael Lopp, internet comic author and software engineering manager, who has been an active member of the blogosphere since 1996. He helped develop the first version of the Netscape web browser in 1994.

1 The Bitsifter Digest
2 Jerkcity
3 Rands in Repose
4 External links

[edit] The Bitsifter Digest

According to Steve Baldwin of disobey.com's Ghost Sites:

The BitSifter Digest was a pioneering experiment in frequently-updated miscellany that was an important forerunner of the "Blog". Its focus was wide-ranging, given its mission statement to cover "the more interesting collections of bits which arrive at our desks." Launched in late 1996 on a weekly basis, its periodicity increased to the point where it became, by 2001, a daily, as seen in the screen shot below. The site received numerous acolades for its ease-of-use, achieved through the pioneering use of borderless frames, and its topical, eclectic editorial content.

In May of 2001, for reasons unknown, the BitSifter Digest stopped updating, although articles from May continued to appear on its home page until approximately the end of the year. The domain name bitsifter.com is currently registered to someone else.

Although the BitSifter Digest is long gone, its formula and Zeitgeist live on in the millions of Blogs that function as news filters, bit recyclers, and online soapboxes.

[edit] Jerkcity

During the time which BitSifter Digest was still being published, Rands created the Jerkcity web comic in 1998.

In the strip, Rands can be considered by some to be "the serious one" in the comic. But due to a uniform absurdity in all of Jerkcity's humor, characterizations like this are easily contestable, and it's worth noting that being 'the serious one' simply entails making slightly more jokes about coding and computers, rather than marijuana and oral sex.

Here Lopp writes about the evolution of Jerkcity.

[edit] Rands in Repose

In addition to being a character in the Jerkcity comic strip, Rands is a blogger of some note. His weblog (which began in April of 2002) emphasizes breaking down and explaining aspects of technological or corporate culture, with particular focus on techniques for those aiming to improve their management skills. Posts may concisely explain why a new application is interesting or noteworthy, while being written for people who may not notice subtle nuances in functionality. Posts focusing on workplace environments may give a nickname to an office stereotype that appears ubiquitously in tech-based businesses.

Posts usually contain a level of observational humor, where simply exposing the genuine nature of something conveys a comedic idea. The Rands Management Glossary is a prime example of this, with its pithy and direct explanations like describing marketing as "The folks who gloss over what your product actually does. Essential as most engineers are unable to successfully communicate with actual customers."

Having said that "there's a good chance folks outside the webosphere might find my management musings of interest", Rands has recently completed the first draft of his book, working title Managing Humans, which is tentatively scheduled to be published in June 2007.

An essay published on July 10, 2004 titled What To Do When You're Screwed was included in Joel Spolsky's published book entitled The Best Software Writing I. This author of this essay is Michael "Rands" Lopp.

In May of 2006, the Rands in Repose website opened up forums based on the Vanilla forum software.