Optimal Clutter

Welcome to Optimal Clutter

Day to day, project to project lives of a group of developers/engineers, and the people that surround them. (Updated Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and 1st of the month) (Random once a month strips have moved to the Extra Pages site)

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or contents meetings or events, especially last Friday's demos, is purely coincidental.

Characters

Name: Kristen Goes by: Kris
Age: Early 20s Occupation Software Engineer
Education: Bachelor’s Degree: Software Engineering
Hobbies: Computer Games, General computer usage, her interest of the moment
Notes: She delights in jokes, pranks, and anything that will give her or others a good laugh. She is unaware that she is addicted to coffee, since she has been drinking it since she was an early teen. Her interests are very broad, but rarely lasting. She likes fast food, and rarely cooks.

Name: Papillon Goes by: Papi (pronounced: Pah-pee)
Age: Over 40 Occupation: Firmware Engineer
Education: Master’s Degree Electrical Engineering
Hobbies: Mountain hiking, Tai Chi,Yoga
Notes: She prefers orderly things and everything in its place. She strives for harmony with the environment, although harmony with co-workers is not as high on her list. She is aware that she is the oldest one in the group and is sensitive about her age. She has been with the company for a long time, so is a good source for why things are the way they are. Likes Chinese/Asian cuisine, strong coffee, and does not like sodas.

Name: Andria Goes by: Ann
Age: Upper 30s Occupation: Quality/Test Engineer
Education: Master’s Degree Mathematics and Physics
Hobbies: Gardening, Tutoring, Judo, target shooting sports, live music/concerts
Notes: Has a good sense of humor and can be a bit wild at times, but is not viewed as such by her co-workers. A bit of a chatter box, and doesn’t mind if the person wants to listen or not. She gardens to relax and for fresh ingredients for her cooking. She views judo and tutoring as a way to shape people’s lives for the better. When she was a teenager, she lived near Gabby and was a regular sitter for her. She also tutored Gabby in both high school and college math. She has been at the company longer than any other employee. Loves hot tea and prefers Asian food.

Name: Gabriela Goes by: Gabby
Age: Mid 20s Occupation: Project Manager
Education: Bachelor’s Degree: Business, specializing in Project Management
Hobbies: Having fun, travel, live music/concerts, golf
Notes: Have fun outside of work is number one. Lack of Project Management experience occasionally causes her to have mixed results. She has learned to like golf, since she views it as a path to career advancement. She can be sensitive to others' feelings, but also tends to be a bit gullible. Likes ice tea, sodas, and prefers American and Italian food.

Name: Cori Goes by: Cori
Age: Early to Mid 30s Occupation: Sales
Education: Master’s Degree: Business Administration
Hobbies: Fine dining, theater, socializing, tennis, golf
Notes: Very competitive. Has strong feeling that her peers are more successful than she, which leads her to more competitiveness. She is excellent at socializing, relationships, and persuasion when she wants to be. Most of the time, she views tennis and golf as a types of social events more than as competitive sports. Connects strongly with theater, and has the tendency to view all who do not enjoy it as uncultured. She loves fine dining. She appreciates alcohol in all its forms, while maintaining a high degree of tolerance for large quantities of it.

Name: Theresa Goes by: Terri
Age: Mid 30s Occupation: Marketing
Education: Bachelor’s Degree: Business, Marketing/Communications
Hobbies: Unknown
Notes: Not much is known about the Marketing Department and by extension Terri. Similar to most companies, Marketing is located on the opposite side of the building from Engineering and, if possible, on a higher floor. They are generally only seen by Engineering just prior to trade shows, in all day meetings which are oddly always catered, or in the articles picturing them at trade shows.

06 Oct 2011 01:28 am

It was discovered, by accident, that the home page would not populate the menu or the images that allowed you to navigate the site, if you were visiting the first time. This was due to a 302 redirect response when the code attempted to locate the last comic URL. A reload of the page fixed this problem, but it was still a problem. So I have decided to split the web comic into 2 comics. One will contain the once a month random comic page, and this one will continue on the main story line. By doing this, the “Last Comic” function that the web-comic host provides works correctly, so the code that was causing the problems is no longer needed. Also it will reduce the confusion of a random comic appearing in the middle of the story.

28 Jan 2011 10:22 pm

Ok... I have changed the home page from the archive (which was a bit annoying to scroll down to find the latest) to the news page. On the news page there are now two images, one for the first and one for the most recent. The most recent will take you to the RSS feed, which lists the modifications (new comics and news) in order, so that you can pick up where you left off... If I could figure out how to get the most recent changed without doing this, I would.....

18 Jan 2011 07:26 pm

Optimal Clutter has two sections. Section #1 is Iteration. This follows a storyline, that may refer back to other parts of the story, or that has events that cover many pages. Section #2 is Jitteration. These are basically random one page items. Section #1 will be added to more frequently than Section #2, but when "latest" is selected it takes you to the end of Section #2, not to the end of section #1 (where the latest was likely added). I will be attempting to separate them in some way so that "latest" will work more like it is expected to...for the moment, to see the latest, just pick in the menu and go to the last on in Iteration to get there.

16 Jan 2011 02:00 pm

I just wanted to set expectations for Optimal Clutter. From this point forward, I hope to update at a minimum with new pages twice a week, monthly covers monthly, and add to the random strips area once a month.

Welcome to Optimal Clutter

Characters

06 Oct 2011 01:28 am

Split into 2 web comics

28 Jan 2011 10:22 pm

Most Recent..fixed sort of

18 Jan 2011 07:26 pm

Lastest may not be newest

16 Jan 2011 02:00 pm

Optimal Clutter - Expectations