Doom as a tool for system administration: Oh my (non-existing) god, what a nice day. It is warm outside, the birds sing -- and finally I got PSDoom working. It took me over two years (!) to install it correctly.
The mapping of abstract operations to an intuitive environment is a difficult task. The only widespread example is the "desktop" interface, where files are held in "folders" which may be "opened" or "thrown away". This is a fairly good mapping, but does not solve all problems. The programmer of PSDoom is proposing a new mapping for managing system loads by creating analogies to the famous, gruesome ego shooter computer game Doom. Since people dealing with Operating Systems frequently talk about "blowing processes away", and the Unix command to destroy a process is "kill", this suggests a metaphor for process management. Each process can be a monster to be killed, and the machines can be represented by a series of rooms through which the first person shooter in the Doom gaming environment moves. "PSDoom", first released in 1999/2000, is a systemically humorous way of telling Doug Engelbart, the inventor of the "Mouse" and the "Desktop", what administrators really want. Link
monochrom is an art-technology-philosophy group having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. Our mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993. [more]
