The comics we read reflect the times we live in. But I hadn’t quite expected that technology cult classic comic xkcd.com would hit the big time with a half-page article in the Business section (?) of today’s New York times. It may never be as big a mainstream comic as Peanuts was, but it certainly taps into the zeitgeist of today’s MacBook-toting digerati.

Personally, I particularly enjoy xkcd’s T-shirts: my Linux-guru son Robert sports a “I’m not goofing off, my code is compiling” shirt, while science aficionado David is often seen in his “Stand back; I’m going to try SCIENCE.” And yes, there’s a T-shirt with the sudo joke on it mentioned in the Times article (see right), but I don’t recommend it for non-Linux/Apple folk; you spend all your time explaining the joke to people who know that there’s no sudo command in MS-DOS. On the other hand, if you’re about to spend a week in Silicon Valley with Google and other high-tech companies as I am, go for it — it’s not an inside joke any more.