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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. Michael Lopp is a classically trained pianist. In 1999, he ran for Los Gatos, California city council and lost. Michael is half African-American and half Irish.

The Bitsifter Digest

As of September 2007, the domain is registered to "Michael Lopp".

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.

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."

Publications

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' Hands" Lopp.

On June 11, 2007, Rands published the book Managing Humans. To support the book publication, a PR site was opened which gave a brief overview of the book.

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