Questionable Content XVII: "My Brain Is Trash And I Live On The Internet"

[Max_Killjoy]

What's the point of a newsletter about a ferret in a hard-hat and safety vest if it doesn't include pictures, I ask you?

Counterpoint: I wonder when Jeph will remember that Dora used to be a webmaster and run her own tech stuff - she fixed Pintsize once or twice and scratch-wrote the CoD website, for example? The whole "cloud storage!? bwuh!?" thing seems out of character for her.

I'd also wonder if he remembers that Penny exists, and as assistant manager would probably be the one organising newsletters and spreadsheets and stuff, BUT to be honest Hannelore being overly organised and carefully arranging customers shouldn't be a surprise, that makes perfect sense for her. Confirmed: Penny eaten by Allosaurus.

...Maybe this is a power-play by Hannelore? She doesn't take over her mother's company and run the world, instead she starts her own business, beginning by usurping CoD from within and then going global?

Jeph? Randomly forget things about his own work? Never. /s

[Delicious Taffy]

Jeph? Randomly forget things about his own work? Never. /s

I still get confused on re-reads when someone is missing glasses or gains lips for a page.

[tyckspoon]

And a list with customers prefered orders? Ok, I can see Hanners do that, but how is that useful for anyone else? I'd likely remember regulars and their orders by their face much faster than I'd remember their names.

There's a decent chance the customers are actually listed as things like 'Smiley-face buttons jacket guy.' Hanners didn't say she had their names on there, just 'our regulars and their usual orders.' A name would also be useful for knowing who to call for the drink, but that doesn't necessarily mean the name they're using is the customer's actual name (ref Bleminda... and it may be part of Coffee of Doom's 'quaint local charm' that being a regular there involves having the staff give you a spontaneous nickname.)

[Cikomyr2]

That's true, Pizza Girl works at COD, and is banging notorious supervillain The Poet. I forgot that

[Wraith]

I remember when Clinton was hot. He went through a genuine arc of personal growth, including changing his physical appearance and getting through the Brun's-home-burning-down crisis with confidence, responsibility and a cool demeanour that even Hannelore found platonically attractive not unlike a USB stick full of pictures of fire fighters.

I miss that guy. It's a shame that he was vaporised by space aliens and replaced by the secret part-human, part-chittering-rodent clone that features in today's strip.

She didn't say "Cloud storage?! Bwuh?!" though. She said "We have cloud storage?" which implies she absolutely knows what it is, just not that there was any dedicated to CoD, which presumably Hanners set up and announced via the newsletter that Dora did not read (which I completely relate to, there's something about newsletters that makes me instinctively go "SPAM, DELETE NOW" even if it's a newsletter for something I should theoretically be keeping on top of).

EDIT: Just re-read the comic and yeah, Hannelore did set it up, so Dora just didn't know about it because she wasn't reading the newsletter; there's no lack of tech savvy implied here.

That's fair. I misunderstood confusion for bewilderment, and it does now read a lot closer to what you said than what I did.

In a similar vein though, whatever happened to Dora the micromanager? The one who threatened a customer with a sword for having asked about her boyfriend, whose relationship ended because she was controlling and anxious, who went to see a therapist and was diagnosed with control issues? The last thing I remember about that was Tai complaining that she hadn't seen her therapist for a long time, after all - She's just okay with Hannelore setting up a newsletter about her baby, the coffee shop?

[Kish]

That's quite a post. The first half throwing crap at Jeph for still depicting the Clinton/Claire relationship they had when Claire was first introduced, and the second half throwing crap at him for having Dora ever get over any of her issues (issues which she was explicitly shown getting over).

[Mordokai]

In a similar vein though, whatever happened to Dora the micromanager? The one who threatened a customer with a sword for having asked about her boyfriend, whose relationship ended because she was controlling and anxious, who went to see a therapist and was diagnosed with control issues? The last thing I remember about that was Tai complaining that she hadn't seen her therapist for a long time, after all - She's just okay with Hannelore setting up a newsletter about her baby, the coffee shop?

The therapy worked?

[Traab]

I mean, its a newsletter, it has no actual bearing on the shop, so dora doesnt care about it. And while claire and clinton have grown a bit, they are still siblings with that classic sibling energy where they can go from full support to slap fight hissing in 5 minutes. That doesnt just go away when you graduate college or whatever.

[Keltest]

I mean, they aren't behaving like adults. AT least not realistic adults? I don't know anyone with a master's degree who didn't start writing job applications half a year before they graduated and a good part of them never ended up in jobs their degree qualified them for anyway. (The pro move is to know academics who have open assistant or internship positions from the time you were writing your thesis with them.)

I live in a college town. I promise you, Claire's behavior is entirely consistent with a fresh college graduate in a niche field.

For that matter, my cousin is a librarian. She had to literally leave the country before she was able to start consistently finding jobs that would take her.

[Rodin]

The other thing about Dora's website is that she abandoned that project. Dora dissed it before Marigold saw it, then Marigold dissed it so hard that Dora got annoyed at her. Dora hasn't been doing the tech-savvie side of things for a long time. She probably couldn't even do the old website now, nevermind make a proper new one. Dora hasn't been paying attention to a relatively unimportant part of her business during a time she's been working 60-80 hour weeks.

[eee]

Yes, that is a somewhat suggestive illustration / pose. Especially as the human appears to be nude.

[Wraith]

I really enjoyed the last panel of today's comic. It's simple, but you can clearly "see" the thoughts going through each of the characters' heads: "Oh dear..." "Oh, my!" "Oh, for fu-..."

Shame about the typo. And the missing speechbox arrows. And the missing joint on Beepatrice's neck. Goddammit, Jeph....

It's also interesting to see that this image was drawn by 2 AI's who are essentially pastel-coloured humans, but they still think of robots as being "Lost In Space"-style "TV Antennae For A Head" contraptions. Neither of them have ever been such a thing, and we haven't seen an AI who looks remotely like that in.... I want to say scores of strips, possibly even hundreds?
And yet that's still how they perceive themselves. An interesting story could be told with that, especially considering Roko's dysmorphia involving what she "should" look like.

[Manga Shoggoth]

i can't even think of a logical reason for using that pose for the human in the first place. What kind of idiot...?

... Oh yes. Beeps.

[Vinyadan]

i can't even think of a logical reason for using that pose for the human in the first place. What kind of idiot...?

... Oh yes. Beeps.

And yet another tassell to show what I have always believed: AI was first developed for highly evolved inflatable sex dolls, and it has left indelebile subroutines that occasionally still emerge.

"Please assume the position!"

[Morquard]

Let's not all blame Beeps here! How in the hells could Hanners even think THIS would "fix it"?!

[Wraith]

I mean, technically it worked - there's no implied innuendo if you just use a porn trope in it's place?

[Manga Shoggoth]

It's also interesting to see that this image was drawn by 2 AI's who are essentially pastel-coloured humans, but they still think of robots as being "Lost In Space"-style "TV Antennae For A Head" contraptions. Neither of them have ever been such a thing, and we haven't seen an AI who looks remotely like that in.... I want to say scores of strips, possibly even hundreds?
And yet that's still how they perceive themselves. An interesting story could be told with that, especially considering Roko's dysmorphia involving what she "should" look like.

It may not be self-perception. We still use the old floppy disk as the icon for "save", despite the fact that very few computers have hard drives these days, let alone floppy drives.

[tyckspoon]

It may not be self-perception. We still use the old floppy disk as the icon for "save", despite the fact that very few computers have hard drives these days, let alone floppy drives.

I was going to mention this exact example. The cultural meme of what a 'robot' is would have been established long before AIs actually happened, and carried on through the early eras of AI before they mostly standardized on pastel painted people - everybody has this image when you say 'robot' even if they also recognize that there are few to no actual robots that look like that.

Which probably also makes it an extra poor choice for the purpose of this poster, because the concepts of 'goofy childs image of a Robot' and 'AI are people and should be treated with the same respect' are probably not naturally attached.

[Vinyadan]

Maybe it's a Gunnerkrigg reference? https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=209

Renard even lets Annie ride on his back!

[DavidSh]

I don't suppose Station is equipped to completely sterilize the planet. This isn't Star Trek. But things look bad for Massachusetts.

[otakuryoga]

I don't suppose Station is equipped to completely sterilize the planet. This isn't Star Trek. But things look bad for Massachusetts.

no no, it's all good
Dora came in and used the no nuke override command

[Cikomyr2]

no no, it's all good
Dora came in and used the no nuke override command

Is that what she called? Or she asked for everyone to take refuge under a cantilever?

[Maryring]

It's the passcode to prove she read the newsletter.

[DaFlipp]

It's the passcode to prove she read the newsletter.

Oh hey, I'd missed that!

My first assumption was that "cantilever" was an override command as others stated, but now it looks to me like Dora only heard the tail end of the conversation (i.e. the bombardment-ordering). She assumes that Hannelore is nuking CoD from orbit because Dora failed to read the newsletter and is hastily trying to rectify matters before it is too late.

That's actually way funnier than my first read!

[Max_Killjoy]

This is a example of where Jeph falls on his face, the "ha ha, isn't Hannalore's mental issue funny, she's going to bombard the whole block because of a typo" sort of thing.

[Agi Hammerthief]

I think it is a pretty funny opportunity for me to drop the comic from my reading list.

I’ve dropped quite a few last year with various update speeds
and even though this has consistently a new strip every day it’s gotten a bit stale over the years.

[Vinyadan]

What I find funny is that Dora is using the test word from the newsletter as a BDSM safeword to avoid orbital bombardment. Reminds me of T4S Broly. https://youtu.be/FJBgzX2HMe8?t=1130

[Delicious Taffy]

Ah yes, beloved QC character the Humming Slab, back once more to delight us all with their antics. Screw it honestly, I have a new favorite.

[Eldan]

One-off weird customers are a long and storied tradition in this café.

[DavidSh]

If the humming slab doesn't have some method of communicating payment, it isn't a customer. Otherwise one question is, are the prices at CoD all distinct? If so, it could make payment, and expect the corresponding drink. I'm not sure we can answer that with certainty -- they have sold drinks not on the chalkboard menu that we see.