Comic Archive

Steve: Guys, I have found something that may interest you. You know I have been working on an in-house alternative to ChatWSL in my freewheeling time. When I asked it a phone number for Quantuple, it returned something.
Max: Really? Bring it on.

Max: Strange. Only some static, then disconnected.
Steve: Could be bogus. Wouldn't be the first time an LLM hallucinates information.
Max: It may have thrown together some semi-random things indeed.
Heidi: The number does match the zone of the address…

We see a hand with an intravenous needle strapped to it putting down the receiver of a phone in a dark room.
Voice: Those people are getting pretty nosey. They are onto something. <Cough\> I need to prepare.

Zhang: The history feature of the Gaggle Molybdenum browser is almost useless.
Max: Yeah, for a company whose name has become a verb for searching things on the internet, it is surprisingly difficult to find back anything in their browser, even when you know it must be in there.

Heidi: No surprises here. It is in Gaggle's, or nowadays Logogram's best interest to sabotage the history system of their quasi-monopolistic browser. Think of their core business.
Max: Advertising… hmm, I see. If users can't find things in their browser history, they will go back to their search engine…

Heidi: Indeed, and then user behavior can be tracked, and more ads can be shoved in their faces.
Max: What makes this worse, is that the Gaggle search engine has become utterly enshittified as well over the last decade. Does the same principle apply?
Heidi: Yes, it is the price to pay for letting an advertisement company take over the internet.

Setting: the workshop.
Max: Are we ready for our surprise visit to Quantuple tomorrow? I guess we won't bring OIB-A271 along this time?
Heidi: That would be unwise, unless the company proves to be infested by another mutated old Macroshaft product…
OIB-A271: I don't think so, their degree of evilness was too low for that.

Max: Well, if things go south, we can rely on Adil's “jiujitsu skills.”
Heidi: I'd rather rely on your skills…
Max: Yeah… sure, we'll have to be ready to fend for ourselves.

OIB-A271: That was a weird conversation. Is anything going on between you two I should know about?
Max: Umm, no, you should mind your own business.
OIB-A271: Fine, but I'd like to leave you with one deep thought for today: don't follow the crowd, and you just may have a chance!
Max: I think it is this conversation that is truly getting cringe.

Max: This is where Quantuple should be located, looks like a typical late seventies office building.
Zhang: A symphony of concrete and glass.

Adil: We stay in contact by phone?
Heidi: We'll call you when we are at the actual office, if it is really there. Be sure to stay muted unless it is obvious we need support.
Adil: All right.

They enter the building.
Zhang: I hope their elevators work. 15 flights of stairs… No thanks.
Heidi: It is a great cardio workout.
Zhang: If you mean a sure road towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation, you are right.