[TRENCHES] Thursday, March 28, 2013 - Prescience

Geth

Prescience
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/prescience

Happy Birthday!

Anonymous

While working one day on a moribund cross platform licensed AAA title, my concentration was broken by the sound of a raised voice coming from the design corner. “Settle down!” was the command shouted over the cubicle by a worried looking senior designer. It was directed at a fuming mid-level, heavy with the stress of broken zone boundaries, a looming milestone and compounded by an upcoming WoW guild performance review for his level 80 Healer.

No big deal, but I decided to leave one earphone off just in case things did escalate. No sooner do I glance back at the code as my attention is broken again by a blur of producers running full tilt over to the troubled designer who is now brandishing two of the studio’s birthday-cake-cutting knives. He’s absolutely fuming as he stabs one of the knives into his desk and stands up. Now he has undivided attention.

“Just put the knives down. Put the knives down and we’ll talk. Let’s go outside.”

Luckily our studio is the kind of place that hires producers with previous experiences in pub management. Our stressed out designer made one feeble swipe before being escorted from the floor to wait for the arrival of police and ambulance.

RMS Oceanic

Shrewd man, Cora's dad.

Did Coraline exist as a name before Neil Gaiman used it?

Fyndir

Yup.

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Coraline&year_start=1700&year_end=2010&corpus=15&smoothing=1&share=

RMS Oceanic

That's neat. I like Coraline as a name.

Cartigan

It's great how he is just there polishing an old rifle.

RatherDashing

"Do you know that? Is that what you know?"

BradGunnerSGT

The "Tale from the Trenches" is the wrong one for this comic. It should be this one: http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/stamper-on-the-forehead

To be fair to the producers of the game, they did say that people were going to get rich "when the game broke even". I imagine that in some cases with the big publishing houses, game accounting is structured like movie accounting, where "the game" never really breaks even and even takes a loss, while certain people around the game make a crap-ton of money.

Stormwatcher

Coraline is one of the names Shakespeare invented, IIRC.

Shakes999

Cartigan wrote: »

It's great how he is just there polishing an old rifle.

I certainly loled.

Henroid

RatherDashing89 wrote: »

"Do you know that? Is that what you know?"

Agent Barton is that you?!

I love the rifle polishing. Best subtle joke in the Trenches.

Sterica

Cartigan wrote: »

It's great how he is just there polishing an old rifle.

At 2:30 in the morning.

Gaslight

I like that Cora's Dad uses an old flip-phone. Perfectly in-character.

Framling

Gaslight wrote: »

I like that Cora's Dad uses an old flip-phone. Perfectly in-character.

Oh my god I feel so old.

Henroid

Flip-phones are old now? Really?

Darkewolfe

Flip phones were dead several years ago. Most companies stopped even offering any flip phone options in 2008 or so.

Hell, phones with a slide-out keyboard are the "old-school and conservative" phones that are mostly out of style at this point. And people with THOSE phones think flip phones are dated.

Framling

I wish I had a land line, so I could get a rotary phone. Those things were badass.

Henroid

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Flip phones were dead several years ago. Most companies stopped even offering any flip phone options in 2008 or so.

Hell, phones with a slide-out keyboard are the "old-school and conservative" phones that are mostly out of style at this point. And people with THOSE phones think flip phones are dated.

2009 was when I got my first cell phone, a flip phone. I didn't need anything other than a line of communication. Talking. I don't need to text people or any of that shit. I can handle that stuff at my computer. And I don't want to be one of those assholes who goes to lunch with people and spends time on the phone rather than being with the people there. My family considers me odd because despite how much of a computer nerd I am, when I'm out and about I don't care to be up on tech. I go to the counter at the bank for stuff I can handle at the ATM because I don't want to forget what it means to communicate with other humans.

forty

I too am a computer nerd with a flip phone. I'm also one of those people with a job where I can't just bring my phone in, so it's not like I'd be spending all day with a more modern phone even if I had one.

Slaign

Henroid wrote: »

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Flip phones were dead several years ago. Most companies stopped even offering any flip phone options in 2008 or so.

Hell, phones with a slide-out keyboard are the "old-school and conservative" phones that are mostly out of style at this point. And people with THOSE phones think flip phones are dated.

2009 was when I got my first cell phone, a flip phone. I didn't need anything other than a line of communication. Talking. I don't need to text people or any of that shit. I can handle that stuff at my computer. And I don't want to be one of those assholes who goes to lunch with people and spends time on the phone rather than being with the people there. My family considers me odd because despite how much of a computer nerd I am, when I'm out and about I don't care to be up on tech. I go to the counter at the bank for stuff I can handle at the ATM because I don't want to forget what it means to communicate with other humans.

That's all well and good, totally your prerogative. Flip phones are still out of date/style. Just because it works for you doesn't make that untrue.

I applaud your desire to keep in tough with personal interaction (though I don't think using an ATM has made me lose touch with humanity at all) but that doesn't mean you couldn't have and enjoy a smart phone either. It's ridiculously annoying hanging out with friends who can't seem to stop texting and tweeting when you're supposed to be spending time together, but you can have a smart phone and just not do that. I do. I use it to listen to audio books in the car, or play Bookworm in waiting rooms, or look up information I need, but I'm not dependent on it.

It's not the smart phones that are to blame for people being assholes, it's the people themselves.

Henroid

Flip phones aren't out of date though. They worked fine, nothing was wrong with them aside from not being smartphones.

Are smartphones seriously the norm now? Is that how out of the loop I am? Lordy.

Darkewolfe

Yes, you are basically being a luddite, and I really don't mean to be offensive. That said, "Smart phones are totally unnecessary" and "I refuse to use an ATM because I want to talk to people" is the kind of thing I expect to hear from someone's granddad. You're pretty far outside the mainstream on those things.

Hell, I feel like a luddite because I don't have a tablet yet.

Slaign

Henroid wrote: »

Flip phones aren't out of date though. They worked fine, nothing was wrong with them aside from not being smartphones.

Are smartphones seriously the norm now? Is that how out of the loop I am? Lordy.

Working fine isn't what determines if something is out of date though. Swords still work fine, but they are out of date.

I mean, it's not an insult. Some people can't afford smart phones. Some people just don't want one. Not needing one is a perfectly valid reason not to get one. Still, flip phones have gone out of style and are generally considered out of date.

There's no reason you NEED to be "up to date" on the latest phone tech (unless you need one for a job or something) but "up to date" in this day in age would be at least a basic smart phone. The original iPhone is 6 years old now.

Hardtarget

RMS Oceanic wrote: »

Did Coraline exist as a name before Neil Gaiman used it?

O_o

Gaslight

Henroid wrote: »

Are smartphones seriously the norm now? Is that how out of the loop I am?

Yes and yes.

Tube

I was the last person I know to give up their dumbphone when I got a free iPhone. If my dumbphone still worked ok I'd go back in a second,

Mackenzier

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Flip phones were dead several years ago. Most companies stopped even offering any flip phone options in 2008 or so.

Hell, phones with a slide-out keyboard are the "old-school and conservative" phones that are mostly out of style at this point. And people with THOSE phones think flip phones are dated.

I have a flip phone with a digital analogue clockface... I guess I'm a relic at this point.

The Good Doctor Tran

Tube wrote: »

I was the last person I know to give up their dumbphone when I got a free iPhone. If my dumbphone still worked ok I'd go back in a second,

I would 100% go back if I didn't need to develop/test mobile apps on a semi-regular basis.

Although I do like having GPS on my phone. That part's pretty cool.

Ori Klein

Tube wrote: »

I was the last person I know to give up their dumbphone when I got a free iPhone. If my dumbphone still worked ok I'd go back in a second,

I still use a Nokia 2660.
It fell 3 times to date, still functions well like nothing had happened.
I see no reason to get a flashy gadget. Don't need no Internet. Don't need no camera.
I pay a few pennies a month and am happy with that. The phone itself also did not cost me any egregious amount of money.
It also has a solid battery that lasts for a week after years of use.
Long live the simple phone.

Henroid

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Yes, you are basically being a luddite, and I really don't mean to be offensive. That said, "Smart phones are totally unnecessary" and "I refuse to use an ATM because I want to talk to people" is the kind of thing I expect to hear from someone's granddad. You're pretty far outside the mainstream on those things.

Hell, I feel like a luddite because I don't have a tablet yet.

You place way too much value in things to own then.

As for me being a luddite, I had my cell phone for just a few months and don't have one anymore because I couldn't afford it (times are tough and have been tough). I've got a land line and that serves me fine.

Durkhanus

I'd still be using my flip phone except the ringer ceased to function, and I was unable to repair it. The speaker for the ringer was also used by the speakerphone, so that didn't work either. I was missing calls & messages due to having vibration only at all times, so I got myself a cheap little Android with a slide out keyboard.

zepherin

My govt phone was a flip phone and it was upgraded last year...to another flip phone. I'm glad some things don't change, and apparently a blackberry, which is free, was way too much for my agency.

Darkewolfe

Tube wrote: »

I was the last person I know to give up their dumbphone when I got a free iPhone. If my dumbphone still worked ok I'd go back in a second,

You are, like, the living embodiment of our angry old man, though. That you hold that opinion is only further proof.

Framling

I switched from my StarTAC a couple years ago because I had to switch plans to be able to text, and they wouldn't let me keep it. I got a dumb phone that I eventually hated (Really, phone? You have a 2 GB microSD card in you, but you can only store about 300 text messages?), and now I've got a rectangle phone. I've got an app on there to figure out when my bus is gonna arrive, which is nice. But I do still miss my old StarTAC.

Darkewolfe

Yeah, I dunno. I use gchat and texts to almost inhabit a completely different world than the meat space I was born into. Many of my closest friends are people I see very rarely in the flesh, but thanks to my smart phone I'm talking to them almost every hour. I'm one of those folks who can't wait to just have the phone put directly into my eyes/brain so that I don't have to get it out of my pocket.

Commander Zoom

I have no mobile. My home phone is on a landline, has a cord, and includes an answering machine, with a small cassette tape. It's ~20 years old. Works fine (except for the time a few years back I had to replace the rubber band connecting the motor to the tape spool).

This suffices for me because I basically don't roam. I'm either at home, at work, or (briefly) out shopping.

Tofystedeth

I'm still using the flip-phone I got as my first grudgingly accepted cell phone about 5-6 years ago. From Alltel.
Works like a champ, only has to charge every couple weeks or so.
And I work in IT.
I'll be switching to a smartphone this summer though because my wife is required to have one for her classes starting next fall.

Slaign

zepherin wrote: »

My govt phone was a flip phone and it was upgraded last year...to another flip phone. I'm glad some things don't change, and apparently a blackberry, which is free, was way too much for my agency.

Not sure what agency you work for, but I've heard a lot of government phones are flip phones exactly because they are so antiquated. Since certain areas of government buildings and such won't let you in with a camera, they need phones that don't have them. Not sure if that applies to you (I imagine you'd know if it did) but just something I heard that I found interesting.

Geth

Slaign has been kidnapped by Henroid and is being held for ransom! Solve the riddle to set em' free, or I'll hand em' over to Clamps!

I’m broken in shambles but still breathing
FRESH as the day I was cooked up
But time HARDENS me revealing
Death comes lookin, I’ll fuck him up
Which forumer am I?

astronautcowboy3

The flip phone is alive and well in Japan. Alive and well.

Gaslight

astronautcowboy3 wrote: »

The flip phone is alive and well in Japan. Alive and well.

He's right! At least for a certain demographic. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2266974/The-infidelity-phone-Why-Japans-love-cheats-staying-faithful-old-mobiles.html

100% honest truth: I couldn't stand carrying around one of those things regardless of how much side-poon it was helping me get.

Darkewolfe

We all know damn well that you can point at something and say, "Well JAPAN thinks it's normal!"