Trenches comic: Thursday Oct. 27, 2011

Bogey

QA Engineer

10/27/2011 - Anonymous

This is short. But it’s important.

I spent a lot of time doing regular QA, but QA Engineers have it far worse.

It’s like being a regular engineer but you never bring the managers anything but bad news. Regular QA hates you because you’re an engineer, development engineers hate you because you’re not only telling them what’s broke, but also why.

It’s one of those situations where if you do your job TOO well you’re liable to get shit-canned.

JAEF

This is my favorite Trenches comic.

Probably because it's the one that most resembles a PA comic.

Oolong

Holy God are there still BBSes?

Lindsay Lohan

For someone in their first week at a new job that guy certainly curses a lot...I like the rocket horse though.

rockmonkey

There are still BBSs you can telnet into to play muds and such.

I was reading this and I got to "sysop" and had one of those moments where you suddenly remember something exists that you knew intimately at one point in your life but then for some reason or another you completely forgot it ever existed. As soon as I saw "sysop" all that knowledge came flooding back to me from some long forgotten landfill in my mind.

I used to spend so much time on my local isp's BBS. t-lord, majorMUD, and all the others I can't remember now. Something to do with space and trading. That was all 17 years ago.

Henroid

Starfurs?

Jam Warrior

Isaac is quickly burning through his benefits of the doubt and rapidly looking to actually be a huge Cox.

collinc

This comic was great. But the tales from the trenches? That wasn't a tale, that was a description of a job. My least favorite so far. They must really be running low on stories. I almost just want to make something up for them, do them a favor so they don't ever post something like this again.

The Geek

Oolong wrote:

Holy God are there still BBSes?

I echo this sentiment.

agilemania

So Q, Lawstar fan extraordinaire, is the (a?) test lead for a Lawstar game. Doesn't that pretty much make this one of his dream jobs?

rabidmuskrat

I need that rocket horse.

Jam Warrior

I'm not sure they are testing a Lawstar game. I could be wrong, but I read the previous comic as Q logging on to to authorise Isaac's machine and that being his desktop wallpaper.

Some icons or whatever would have helped back up my theory.

Ivar

We still don't know if it's a Lawstar game or just an image

Bobble

Jam Warrior wrote:

I'm not sure they are testing a Lawstar game. I could be wrong, but I read the previous comic as Q logging on to to authorise Isaac's machine and that being his desktop wallpaper.

Some icons or whatever would have helped back up my theory.

It being Isaac's machine, I would lean toward it being the game they're testing, but you guys are right, we can't be sure yet.

Fatty McBeardo

Isaac is such a jerk.

Palpatim

Is it just me, or does that appear to be a Firefly-class rocket horse?

http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/tv_movies/serenity/7080_serenity_sci-fi.jpg

Gralik

Palpatim wrote:

Is it just me, or does that appear to be a Firefly-class rocket horse?

http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/tv_movies/serenity/7080_serenity_sci-fi.jpg

I tell you what. You buy this horse, treat her proper, she'll be with you for the rest of your life.
I probably horribly mangled that.

Trade Wars 2002. That and the text based Legend of Kyrandia.
All that I remember from the BBS I used to dial into.

Jordanthehutt

This is the first trenches comic to actually make me laugh, well done.

Hope we continue to go up from here.

mcp

I still log into a MUD everyday.

Though, we don't have any players. It's just the admins.

We chit chat while we're at work. So, it's more like a chat room with 3 people in it.

Henroid

I wonder if Q will forever remain the antagonist in Trenches.

agilemania

Henroid wrote:

I wonder if Q will forever remain the antagonist in Trenches.

I think Isaac is pretty much his own antagonist.

Supraluminal

TW2002, LoRD, Usurper, Barren Realms Elite... good times. I actually paid for a license for TW2002 just so I could play it solo and see all the fancy ships and stuff without having to wait for turns every day. Pretty sure I did the same with with LoRD, come to think of it. Lots of setting the system clock forward a day and running the daily maintenance cron jobs to keep stuff moving.

Maigaard

What are all these words? M.U.D.? BBS?? They must stem from a different age than I.
Also, good stuff.

Personface

Bulletin Board System and Multi User Dungeon respectively. They herald from a primordial internet replete with wailing ghasts and primitive memetic phenomena.

ArbitraryDescriptor

Personface wrote:

Bulletin Board System and Multi User Dungeon respectively. They herald from a primordial internet replete with wailing ghasts and primitive memetic phenomena.

BBSs were single celled internets that you had to call up on the phone.

Not like dial-up, mind you. You called them, they answered, and then everyone else got a busy signal until you hung up.

And we liked it!

Gaslight

Two things:

1. I want a model rocket horse.

2. We have hit rock bottom on the tales stories just one installment after my favorite one so far.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

MuddBudd

I know they have more stories

None of mine have appeared yet

Ashoka

rockmonkey wrote:

I was reading this and I got to "sysop" and had one of those moments where you suddenly remember something exists that you knew intimately at one point in your life but then for some reason or another you completely forgot it ever existed. As soon as I saw "sysop" all that knowledge came flooding back to me from some long forgotten landfill in my mind.

^This. OMG this.

MUD denizens are scary... furries are scary... a furry MUD makes my brain break.

I would also like to echo the popular sentiment about the rocket horse (doubly Firefly) and that this is the first Trenches that has made me laugh out loud.

Rehab

JAEF wrote:

This is my favorite Trenches comic.

Probably because it's the one that most resembles a PA comic.

The ones that resemble PA comics are definitely better than the ones that have resembled PVP comics.

As much as I like Scott in his show and the Blamimations (which are indeed, both very funny), his comic leaves a lot to be desired for me. I think its that he tends to do his best work when collaborating as opposed to working solo . . . I dunno. Of course I also recognize that PVP is still much better than most other online comics out there, like Ctrl Alt Del.

Rehab

To elaborate though, I value humor via quick setup + punchline and a certain amount of absurdity in my comics a lot more than continuity, so there is also that. Trenches up until now seems to be a nice combination of both worlds, so I'm digging it so far.

Jacques L'Homme

Ah, crappy cartoons from the 80's hearkens me back to Saber Rider. Sittin' round in my onesie, with a bowl of Fruity Tooties, watching Saber Rider save the same day from those asshole vapor beings on his sweet robohorse over and over because all we had were the two VHS'. Them was the days.

Robos A Go Go

I wonder if being a furry will become a permanent character trait for him.

If so, bold move. Bold, scary move.

jwalk

Lawstar? I read it as "Lolistar"

MichaelLC

jwalk wrote:

Lawstar? I read it as "Lolistar"

You wouldn't want to go to that BBS at work.

Cambiata

jwalk wrote:

Lawstar? I read it as "Lolistar"

I keep reading it as "Lawlstar".

And the first time I saw the MUD name I did a double-take, thinking it read "Starfuckers"

the Professor

Cambiata wrote:

jwalk wrote:

Lawstar? I read it as "Lolistar"

I keep reading it as "Lawlstar".

And the first time I saw the MUD name I did a double-take, thinking it read "Starfuckers"

Starfuckers inc.