Don’t panic! … Alright, it would be me who’d be doing the panicking right now if the website was down. But it’s not. Er, obviously. No, I’m talking about a very short-lived web series that I was just recently introduced to, called The Website is Down. It’s been around for a few years and even won a Webby award in 2009, so maybe some of you have heard of it before.
The thing about TWiD is that it appeals to a very small audience, namely people who work in — or have worked in — IT. I’ve been doing sysadmin work for over 17 years now, so this was right up my alley. Each of the only four, ten-minute episodes produced follows what’s on the screen of a sysadmin, known only as “Web Dude,” while he goes about handling some techie issues that systems and web administrators need to take care of on a daily basis. It’s hysterical how he meticulously divides his time between playing Nethack or Halo, placing and answering Skype calls and guiding a tired IT tech through a maze of servers using security cameras.
Some of the video — or at least the audio — is sped up, making the voices a bit strange, but it is a bit funny as well. I honestly don’t know if all the actions of Web Dude are scripted beforehand or not, but he whizzes through his screens and applications like a seasoned pro.
From my point of view it’s funny because I can relate to quite a few of what Web Dude goes through, though just not within a mere span of ten minutes. The first and fourth episodes were the best, with my favorite moments being the password hash reset button and the FUK U desktop screenshot solution.
The show hasn’t seen a new episode since 2009, but I just had to share this with fellow nerdy types who’d find this sort of thing relatable and funny. Enjoy!
(P.S. For an added bonus webisode, search around their website and you might find the one with Karateka … and an Apple //e — my first computer!)
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Aug 17, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
