LINUX GAZETTE

Not Quite The Answer Gang Bios

These are some of the characters I rounded up to answer your TAG questions this month.


The Wizard's Hat is part of the ensemble worn by the wizard cartoon adorning Linux Gazette's pages and representing this column up until around issue 56 or so.

The Robes and Orb have been enjoying their retirement since we got the new template for the site settled in, but the Hat has stayed pretty active, even if working in the background. You can bet he knows a lot of stuff - every time someone says "keep it under your hat" it's just another tidbit to file away for later.


Taking up the slack, the Pipe has long been a symbol of introspection and study. You'll most often find the Pipe indulging in detangling shell commands for less patient souls, and messing around under the hood of more complicated system scripts. During the off time, Pipes have been known to be taken with a bit of music...


The web surf has been up since ages ago, and this Surfboard has been here to enjoy it all. Once just considered a beach bum, now I get paid to roam the digital seas, design apps, tame the wild radio waves and dig the Suncoast.


When the scissors popped into the break room looking for everyone, this brewski was just enjoying some ginger snaps and some free time. Knowing that it'll just be a short while until everyone's returned and it's back to the case, the Beer eagerly chimed in to help out.

Beer turned on to Linux around the same time Tux got involved; they'd virtually been drinking buddies.


Dolavimus the platypus adorned t-shirts in the heyday of Linux 1.x, plugging "Guerilla Linux Development" and delving, or maybe dolaving, deep in the code. Overseeing the TCP/IP stack revamp and seeing a new view on the whole modular subsystem are among his finer programming efforts.

Tux's family resemblance can definitely be seen in the chin.


Inheriting a cheerful red scribble nature from Dolavimus, the Swirl is a dyed-in-it Debian advocate. (What a surprise.) He can be found at installfests just about anywhere, and knows quite enough about enough architectures, packages, and generally curious stuff about Linux to make you dizzy.


Tux was drawn by Larry Ewing using the GIMP. Satisfying himself with herring (pickled or otherwise) and sailing around the world to star in photo galleries (see Linux Weekly News' Penguin Gallery among others) have given him a broad perspective, lots of experience, and an amazing number of cousins. Tux has also been involved in a large number of menu setups... you just have to know where to start, and keep control in your corner. It's rumored he is quite popular with the lady penguins.


The Magic Wand has been using Linux since the days when it was considered magic to get Linux working. He took up with modern day distros in the age of Infomagic and is pretty well known these days by Mandrake users everywhere. As handy with the 'file' command as he ever was, nowadays the Wand prefers programming in an object oriented style.


I'd say I'm pretty bright. My name's a mouthful (Licht Bülb) so most folk just call me Idea which is easier to say. After I get my own darkness lit up, I enjoy passing the clue on to others. I've been known to pick up the laser once in a while to point something out, and of course I'm fond of movies.


The Scissors normally hang out around the Editor's desks trying to make sure the goodies that make it in aren't too snippy to Make Linux A Little More Fun. This time, they're cutting in on behalf of the readers. Scissors know that Linux is great stuff, but it's not always a software problem that really needs to be solved.


Pretzel perked up at the chance to escape the break room for a while, chime in which a few salty comments, and generally show a crisp new look on things. Not everyone understands his twisted point of view, but that's okay. Like Pretzel, linux itself comes in all shapes and sizes.


Konqi certainly knows his graphical environments. A genuinely helpful sort who is not inclined to waste words, he can usually be found when you need him to debug something.


Amanda the Panda enjoys a rather different look on the desktop, and a different take on life than most of us here in the Gang. It was another AMANDA that went to MIT, but she still agrees that it's important to keep good backups.


This Feather had mastered the ways of web servers before they really started painting up the graphics. Now there's a feather in every cap and the Feather has emigrated to the sunny lands of the southwest. In his spare time he has been known to write rather eloquently in the hands of the Answer Gang.



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Published in Issue 89 of Linux Gazette, April 2003
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