Comic Archive

Alana: How could things be so lethal? How was this person killed?
Heidi: The mysterious evil contractor had turned friendly greeting robots into facial destruction devices. He managed to have cameras swapped with miniguns and adjusted the programming. Our hovercraft pilot was the unlucky victim. And then there was the A-10 Warthog…

Alana: The level of absurdity rises with every new detail I hear… What kind of park attractions could involve miniguns and attack planes?
Max: We're not even sure, but some did believe it to be perfectly OK to shove A.I. into real war machines and give visitors some kind of control over them.

Adil enters the room.
Heidi: Their idea of current A.I. capabilities is obviously naïve. Their marketing team is in urgent need of a reality check.
Adil: Reality? Isn't that overrated?
Alana: Some people still have to learn that it's not because something is technically possible, that it's a good idea.

Alana: Do we have any indication of who could be this saboteur?
Heidi: Not really, he… or she was good at covering their tracks.
Alana: There must be something.

Max: I did manage to grab some logs from their repository server, showing that the final commits came through VPN connections from a specific IP range.
Zhang: Time for a WHOIS…
Max: Already done: the range belongs to this curious Quantuple company.

Alana: As CEO, of course I expect you to devote your time to your work… but if you could ‘accidentally’ dig up more information, perhaps during ‘Friday freewheeling,’ it might be used as evidence to point certain institutions towards the pilot's murder case.
Max: OK, maybe we'll haphazardly stumble upon interesting facts.

Setting: the office kitchen area.
Zhang: You know what's the problem with this coffee machine?
Max: Its chronic coffee bean deficiency?
Zhang: That's pretty inevitable in an office full of geeks. What I am referring to, is its lack of paper filter.

Adil: Are you nerds geeking out about the coffee machine again? What's the deal with the filter?
Zhang: A paper filter blocks the cafestol, the steel filter in this machine doesn't.
Adil: What the heck is cafestol?
Zhang: It's the type of cholesterol that's in coffee beans.

Adil pushes a button on the coffee machine, which starts grinding beans.
Adil: Well, if I have to choose death by one type of cholesterol, then cafestol it shall be.
Max: There's still hope for him, he might become a true geek someday…

Setting: developer office.
Adil: Look what I have found amidst junk of the previous company.
Max: Not yet another monster bent on world domination, I hope?
Adil: No, it is called “The MP3 Adapter.”
Max: Wait… I vaguely remember this. During the MP3 player heydays, websites used to be spammed with ads for this thing, it was touted as revolutionary.

Adil: But… this is merely a passive cable for hooking up a stereo system to a 3.5 mm jack, with a headphones passthrough socket built into the plug?
Max: No way, you're right. This thing is absolutely lame. Anyone can get the same functionality by combining other adapters.

Max: Connecting headphones together with a line-in is a dodgy idea to begin with. How dared they hype this junk and sell it at such high prices?
Adil: It's called marketing, baby! I'm going to frame this beaut and hang it on my office wall. This is pure history!