Results 211 to 240 of 1477
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2020-07-09, 06:10 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2004
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Someone who has a negative amount of money and expects to for at least three years is definitionally not a billionaire, or a millionaire, or a thousandaire.
Whether Landon Munroe is an analogue to anyone in the real world and whether that person is similarly in debt is not something I am going to express an opinion on on a board with a no-politics rule. It remains: No positively portrayed billionaires have appeared anytime recently in QC. (I would also point out that the tagline on the strip that keeps getting brought up, where Yay gave away most of their money, called out wealth hoarding specifically, at least in the final version that non-patrons see, and says "we weren't using it for anything anyway" is what sounds monstrous. Again, whether any real-world potential analogues hoard wealth or not, Landon Munroe clearly does not, and in fact I'd say his portrayal is the other half of the argument here: in the absence of commentary on where the money came from, doing positive things with money is good, hoarding it is bad.)Last edited by Kish; 2020-07-09 at 06:27 AM.
Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2020-07-09, 06:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- right behind you
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I think the message here is more "You cant create societal change with a snap of the fingers." There is no quick fix (yay doesnt count) and issues with the prison parole system cant be fixed in a one week arc of snarky comments. Thats why she is popping out all the standard "Well why doesnt she just..." solutions and finding they dont work. From unfeeling bureaucrats to "rich" patrons who dont actually have that kind of money (And no, the truly wealthy do NOT just have piles of cash lying around, most of it is tied up working for them to produce more money, thats how they got rich) I half expected the next step would be trying gofundme to setup their own ai chassis company, maybe through funding faye and bubbles to do the work. If they can get enough money to do the initial outlay and last till the repair and upgrade money starts rolling in, it could be just what their company needs to take off while also helping the ai ex cons whom neither are likely to have an issue with helping considering their past.
"Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room."
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2020-07-09, 08:13 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2014
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Perhaps I am naive in the ways of technology, but I was under the impression that a pdf is not a particularly unusual sort of file format and is not even particularly difficult to produce or read. Sure, Adobe will charge you for the ability to edit it, but there are ways around that even I find fairly straightforward.
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2020-07-09, 08:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2020-07-09, 09:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Orrrr, in the hyper-advanced world of 2020 with sentient AI and stuff, PDFs went the way of many other primitive computer stuff (like punchcards) and gone obsolete decades ago save for a limited number of legacy systems that can't be updated for some reason.
Wait, it's 2020 IRL. Where's my hoverboard?Yes, I am slightly egomaniac. Why didn't you ask?
Free haiku !
Alas, poor Cookie
The world needs more platypi
I wish you could be
Originally Posted by Fyraltari
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2020-07-09, 09:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2007
- Location
- Switzerland
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
As far as I know, everyone uses PDF for sending documents? Because it has the advantage of being consistent on computers with different software and always looking more or less the same, the way a doc wouldn't.
I also have no idea what Jeph's problem with them is.Resident Vancian Apologist
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2020-07-09, 10:23 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I think it depends on the rich person. A Elon Musk analogue may not have enough money to spare for indiscriminate spending on a pet project (then again, SpaceX). On the other side, there are plenty of examples of billionaires spending millions of dollars on campaign contributions and supporting politicians who share their views - including financing their own campaign for office. And yes, I'm being intentionally vague here. A few (hundred) million here and there is pocket change once you reach a certain level of wealth.
Putting money into slowly growing a charitable foundation to help the disadvantaged is absolutely something that can (and has been) done by numerous rich people over the years. However, it would be a monumental task that takes years and millions of dollars to do. It's also something that is outside the scope of a comic about small town antics. Plus, webcomic time.
Your idea is something I think would be interesting to see. Establish that big societal change is hard, so have Roko start small societal change while bringing Faye and Bubbles into the picture as well. I hope he goes that route.
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2020-07-09, 10:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I believe in this case, it is specifically the company that would be funding this, not Munroe personally. And if he is an Elon Musk analogue, he almost certainly has a dedicated team of legal bodyguards/nurse maids working day and night to make sure that he doesnt inadvertently self destruct both himself and the company on a whim.
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2020-07-09, 11:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2009
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Since 2008 PDF can be implemented completely royalty-free, it's also managed by ISO now not Adobe anymore. There are plenty of freeware readers about, and not that many editors, but a few of them too. (I mean windows comes with a Print to PDF printer by default these days, so anything with a Print function can essentially create PDFs)
Which makes it even weirder that they would be forgotten.Last edited by Morquard; 2020-07-09 at 11:25 AM.
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2020-07-09, 11:33 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
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2020-07-09, 01:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I think it may have nothing to do with pdf in particular, and instead be a joke about all outdated means of storing data. Microfilm, slides, tapes, odd connectors, deprecated file formats... However, I can't really think of many file types that I have needed to visualise in the last year and couldn't open. Maybe those weird image formats used for CousterStrike levels. But it's relatable, if one doesn't think too hard about pdfs in particular (and even that is relative: if I recall correctly, Edge was the default program for pdfs when it came out, but, for some reason couldn't print them, although the option was there).
Also, are they in cyberspace in that last panel?Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
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2020-07-09, 01:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I never understood the hate for Arby's, or the Internet's more general hate for Taco Bell. Arby's had above average deli sandwiches at a decent price. Taco Bell was fast and cheap Tex-Mex. They were no better or worse than McDonald's or any other fast food restaurant.
I've only grown more annoyed at the meme since I moved away from accessible fast food. My closest Mcdonald's and KFC are 20 minutes drive away, making drive-through a 40 minute endeavour that turns into an hour if there's any traffic. There are no Arby's or Taco Bell. Anyone complaining about the quality of American fast food needs to try the takeaway lottery some time. I would KILL to have a Taco Bell in my town.
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2020-07-09, 02:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- right behind you
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Yeah its basically passed meme status and taken on a life of its own online. Nickelback hate is another interesting one. They do fairly decent, if somewhat generic, music for the radio and some better stuff on their albums and people treat them like they are yoko ono and yanni farting on snare drums and inexplicably making millions. Thats fallen by the wayside because nickelback isnt really a thing in pop culture anymore. Im sure they are out there still making music but they arent in the news.
"Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room."
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2020-07-09, 08:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2015
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
QC has never been good about worldbuilding and the comic is not even backwards compatible with itself, especially with regards to AI issues. Notably, it showed an embodied AI interviewing Martin to become Pintsize's companion despite having previously established that humanoid AI chassis did not exist when that happened. Likewise the nebulosity of in-comic time passage has become a real problem for the overall continuity of the alternative world that QC represents. The comic clearly runs slower in-universe than it's publication schedule - otherwise characters like Claire would have been in college for a decade - and probably only 4-5 years have passed in total. Which would mean, assuming it started roughly concurrently with the initial publication date, something the early in-universe references to various music that corresponds to the real world strongly suggests (also Faye uses a pre-smartphone cell in the very early comics), it is probably not yet 2010 in the QC universe. However, this fact seems to have been lost somewhere along the way and the comics currently plays out like its 2040 in a world with a highly increased rate of technological change.
It's entirely possible that, in such a world pdfs could be forgotten, even by the government - usually very much laggards - it's just that it doesn't make sense for that to actually be the world of QC.
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2020-07-09, 11:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Dancin' away
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Wasn't expecting that.
i am going to make it through this year
if it kills me
i am going to make it though this year
if it kills me
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2020-07-10, 12:38 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2011
- Location
- Calgary, AB
- Gender
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2020-07-10, 02:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
- Location
- Tor zur Welt
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
* my emphasis
http://dmreference.com/SRD/
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/
Things that don't kill me make me strong
Things that do kill me leave me dead
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2020-07-10, 02:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
- Location
- Ashland, Kentucky
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Ponies not only make ME want to be a better person than I was before they entered my life, they make me want to HELP OTHERS be better people too.
And that is a GOOD thing by any definition.
full size avatar
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2020-07-10, 02:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Yes, I am slightly egomaniac. Why didn't you ask?
Free haiku !
Alas, poor Cookie
The world needs more platypi
I wish you could be
Originally Posted by Fyraltari
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2020-07-10, 02:25 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- England
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
And yet.... May literally has a .txt editor in her head. She used it to make a "Do Not Mess With This Person" list for Dale and Marigold. AI's complain about .pdfs but also they use WordPad, which ran on Windows 95 back in the last century
Originally Posted by Shadow of the Sun
Hooray, for obscenely rich and inexplicably influential white people! Where would we be without them?
(This is sarcasm, just to be absolutely and unmistakably clear....)Last edited by Wraith; 2020-07-10 at 02:32 AM.
~ CAUTION: May Contain Weasels ~
RPG Characters What I Done Played As (Explained Badly)
17 Things I Learned About 40k By Playing Dark Heresy
Tales of a Role-Play Gamer - Horrible Optimisation
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2020-07-10, 06:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
- Location
- NYC
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Her chassis is old, and that's a personal file she isn't trying to share. So I guess she finds use in it *shrug*
....At least it wasn't *Yay*who snapped their fingers and solved all the problems for everyone, forever, like we were half-expecting. I guess we have that to be thankful for?
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2020-07-10, 06:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2007
- Location
- England
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
"Old" is a relative term. Isn't Pintsize supposed to have been with Marten for... 5 years in-comic, or something? And as has been pointed out above, looks like he does because humanoid chassis didn't exist in "2015"?
This isn't a hill I intend to die upon or anything so drastic, it's just a really weird thing for Jeph to rail against. His robot people think Adobe Acrobat prehistoric, yet he obsesses over bands that haven't played a public gig since 2007
...Then again, Jeph turned 40 last month, so maybe this is part of his "How do you do, fellow kids?" moment....~ CAUTION: May Contain Weasels ~
RPG Characters What I Done Played As (Explained Badly)
17 Things I Learned About 40k By Playing Dark Heresy
Tales of a Role-Play Gamer - Horrible Optimisation
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2020-07-10, 07:05 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- right behind you
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
So im not sure but im guessing the suggestion is basically for federal standards for ai chassis? Basically, making it illegal to sell/distribute ai bodies as flimsy as the one may had which would in turn make it so the ai prison system cant hand them out either?
"Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room."
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2020-07-10, 07:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
- Location
- NYC
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2020-07-10, 07:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Ah, THERE'S the stupid hobbyhorse Jeph was looking to ride through his comic with a hamhanded "allegory".
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2020-07-10, 08:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2005
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I hope I'm staying far enough away from politics here, but ... my conclusion after reading this comic was "this is how a staunch AI ally inadvertently starts a human-AI war, isn't it?"
Call me prejudiced against (currently-non-existent-irl) sentient AI, but I can imagine a human population being completely uninterested in subsidising AI chassis care (and that's keeping in mind we know hardly anything about human medical care in QC world). And, and, and ... I can see a bunch of different arguments on all sides depending on factors which haven't even been defined in QC world. How much of that are we going to go through here?
But Hannelore's dad either hasn't thought this through, or he has and is doing this based on the strength of his convictions anyway. That or this arc will be tied up in 3 strips due to some handwaving and the comic will roll on.I'm pretty much the opposite of concise. If I fail to get to the point, please ask me and I'm happy to (attempt to) clarify.
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2020-07-10, 08:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2009
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
I hope it's something of this sort. Not in the sense that I want the war to start and see Marten driven out of his home, but I hope that this develops in a way unique to the comic, and not as pastel-coloured people repeating arguments we have already heard many times.
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955
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2020-07-10, 09:05 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2013
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
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2020-07-10, 09:07 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2020
- Location
- massachusetts
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
On one hand this addresses a criticism I had: that subsidizing bodies only for former convicts would be unfair to other AIs and would essentially incentivize minor crimes. On the other hand this is ridiculously convenient. Has no one else thought about this issue before Roko came along?
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2020-07-10, 09:12 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
- Location
- On Paper
- Gender
Re: Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt
Eh, as much as this is exactly why I dislike Spookybot (Spookybot isn't the problem here, but it's the same principle), like, I will say that they've done a decent job of setting up why this wouldn't have happened before.
Dadalore has been shown as the type of person who honestly wouldn't have thought of this sort of thing until it was brought to his attention by somebody he personally cares about (his daughter), as well as being the type of person to throw himself and his fortune at this sort of project.