I haven't read that since it came out, I wonder if it still holds up. I read Generation X recently and I didn't like it as much as my first read when that came out.
Computer0•4h ago
Sounds like an interesting book - from someone way too young to have been there.
GuinansEyebrows•3h ago
i read a lot of Coupland in high school and just before i entered the IT space. i credit him, along with Office Space and Dilbert (BEFORE Scott Adams went full weirdo), for helping me set and maintain realistic expectations :)
Mountain_Skies•4h ago
Might be ok for nostalgia but the software development world and the Bay Area/Seattle in general have changed so much that Microserfs would be alien to anyone living there today.
His spiritual sequel, jPod, is quite a bit more fantastical. The CBC made it into a one season tv show that ends on a cliffhanger. It's about time for Coupland to write a third novel on the industry but I'm not sure he's really interested anymore.
jmcphers•4h ago
I don't have a source for this, but I believe the term Microserfs was not minted by Coupland and predates his work.
(I worked at Microsoft from 2004 - 2013)
JohnFen•2h ago
My colleagues and I were using the term years before that book. I always assumed he used the title because it was already recognizable slang.
It was just one example of a long tradition of collective nicknames for employees of computer and software companies. For instance, Digital Equipment Corporation employees were "digits", Wang employees were "wankers", and so on.
bityard•3h ago
El Reg has always had nicknames for companies and employees. "Microserfs" goes back at least a decade or two.
Google == Chocolate Factory,
Intel == Chipzilla,
Cisco == Borg Collective (pretty sure Broadcom deserves that title these days)
jp57•4h ago
The Register's writing style really makes it hard to take them seriously. Maybe that's what they want?
bdcravens•4h ago
It has always had a snarky tone. I think for the target audience, they have more credibility, since it's obvious they are taking the side of the users/practitioners. It's why they "bite the hand that feeds I.T.".
Terr_•3h ago
The phrasing of the motto also harkens back to the days when it was (more) common for anything remotely computer-related to be lumped into "IT".
klodolph•3h ago
It’s one of the few “old internet” (1990s) sites around. It’s somehow managed to hold on to the culture it had from back then. IMO, snark is more and more relevant now that ChatGPT is polishing everybody’s writing into a milquetoast mush.
bityard•3h ago
Perhaps their target audience is readers who don't take themselves too seriously. ;)
antisthenes•3h ago
If you want to level up as a person, you should pay more attention to the substance than style.
Otherwise it's hard to take you seriously.
debo_•2h ago
It's hard to take anyone seriously when they unironically use the term 'level up'.
unglaublich•3h ago
You're totally right, I should rewrite the story to make it more polished and pleasant to read.
El Reg does tech journalism that is better than most, but trusts you to both have a sense of humor and to be able to tell the difference between opinion and fact.
I would be very sad if their tone ever changed. Fortunately, that won't happen.
ghaff•3h ago
And mostly Brit-style humor, snark, and vocabulary that a number of the old Brit tech pubs had. But probably not to everyone's taste.
cjbgkagh•2h ago
“The proper relationship between a journalist and a politician should be akin to that between a dog and a lamp-post.”
In this case replace politician with the company they’re reporting on.
blakesterz•4h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs
I haven't read that since it came out, I wonder if it still holds up. I read Generation X recently and I didn't like it as much as my first read when that came out.
Computer0•4h ago
GuinansEyebrows•3h ago
Mountain_Skies•4h ago
jmcphers•4h ago
(I worked at Microsoft from 2004 - 2013)
JohnFen•2h ago
It was just one example of a long tradition of collective nicknames for employees of computer and software companies. For instance, Digital Equipment Corporation employees were "digits", Wang employees were "wankers", and so on.
bityard•3h ago
Google == Chocolate Factory, Intel == Chipzilla, Cisco == Borg Collective (pretty sure Broadcom deserves that title these days)