Archive for the ‘Comic Update’ Category
September 3rd, 2010 | Author: J.W. Watts
There’s just something about being unemployed that takes all the fun out of holiday weekends. Technically I’m self employed, can’t really claim full self employment status until I’ve actually turned a profit. Needless to say I’m not holding my breath on that one.
I want to thank everyone who voted for Cubicle101 over the past two days, as well as encourage everyone to keep it up and also pass the word along to others to check out the comic and vote. Last month Cubicle101 was sitting at an average rank of 500, this month you guys got us to 200. No matter how you stack it that’s a hell of a jump, but there is still a ways to go. I’m working on an incentive program for next months voting run and I will post more details on that as the month goes by.
Onto business, the next comic is posted and all you NOC admins out there should get a good chuckle out of it. Needless to say since this is a holiday weekend I will not be posting a new comic on Monday, so look for the next one on Wednesday (though I may change my mind and post it on Tuesday). Also be on the look out for donation incentive programs which I’ll be rolling out shortly after I’ve ironed out all the details.
Not much else to post on right now, as always I’m working on the comic and future scripts. Beyond that I’m looking forward to cold beer, a hot grill, and more food than my metabolism can handle. Hope everyone has a great, and safe, Labor Day weekend and unless something really pressing pops up I’ll be back on Tuesday. Stay Tooned !!!
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August 27th, 2010 | Author: J.W. Watts
Good morning cubicle monkeys, it’s finally Friday !!!
Got the next comic online and I think I’m finally starting to get into a groove that I can maintain. I’m sure there will be hick-ups along the way but I’m trying to keep it to where, at a minimum, I’m posting two comics per week. I guess we’ll see how that goes. I also still have not made a decision on the whole Google adwords issue, I’ll be chewing on that one through the weekend though so by Monday I should have my mind just about made up.
I also want to remind everyone to PLEASE hit those top list vote links on the right of the page, once a day, on every visit. The vote stats get reset every month which means for about the first week Cubicle101 has an excellent chance to make it into the top 10 comics which puts it in direct view of several thousand web comic readers every day. The voting process is painless, I promise, I’ve checked it all out first hand. As last time when the stats get reset again I will put out a call to arms to remind everyone.
I also have a side project going right now that will be done pretty soon. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I love a good argument no matter the subject. The project I’m working on is nothing short of a possible firestorm due to the subject matter. That’s all I’m going to say on it for now, I will release more details as the unveiling nears. That’s all for now, enjoy the comic, VOTE, and stay tooned for more !!!
August 25th, 2010 | Author: J.W. Watts
Happy hump day cubicle monkeys, time to get strapped in for a long day. Wednesdays have always been a drag for me even when I’m not busy. For some reason they always seem to drag out. Anywho, as promised the next comic is online and the next one will be getting posted on Friday. After that they may slow down slightly as a lot of set work has to be done on the next few comics and as always the script is forever changing as I progress.
In addition to the comic being posted I wanted to riff on a few news stories that I stumbled across this morning.
The Washington Post – Defense Official Discloses Cyberattack
Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008. In an article to be published Wednesday discussing the Pentagon’s cyberstrategy, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III says malicious code placed on the drive by a foreign intelligence agency uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. military’s Central Command. “That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control,” he says in the Foreign Affairs article.
“It was a network administrator’s worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary.”
Now, I’m not certain just where they are getting their network administrators from, but speaking as one myself my worst fear is not malicious code running around on my network. Why? Because that I can hunt down and fix once I know it’s there. No, a true network admins worst nightmare is people. People cause these kinds of problems by not following security protocols or simply by ignoring the fact that something is wrong and just going on about their business. As Ron White so eloquently put it, you can’t fix stupid. However, this being a mostly military issue, what they can do is revoke security clearances and bust the person responsible down to a private, first class, latrine cleaner.
Our next tale of fail comes to us from Sweden.
The Local – Schoolgirls Fined For Bugging Teachers Lounge
The pair, who are in their mid-teens, came up with the idea after finding a key to the staff common room. They bought basic bugging equipment in a gadget shop, waited until the end of the school day, and planted the device in the staff room. The girls, who attend a middle school in the capital, planned to listen in on a meeting the following day at which teachers would decide their grades.
They were hoping to glean information that would enable them to get their grades improved. The plan might have gone off without a hitch if one of the girls in her enthusiasm had not revealed all on Facebook, according to Metro. The girls were prosecuted for trespass and arbitrary conduct and fined 2,000 kronor ($270) each by Stockholm District Court.
This is a story that’s becoming all too routine and is the main reason I have such a grim outlook on the future generations being raised today. Thanks to the ignorance of one of these girls, they will both now suffer when it comes to things like finding an employer. It could also effect their chances of attending college, all because of a FaceBook status update. And don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way condoning the bugging of the teachers lounge but this story illustrates how intelligence can quickly give way to ignorance, especially among the young.
In the end though, I say you have to blame the parents at some level for not teaching their children what privacy is, what it means, and why there is really no such thing as privacy online, especially on FaceBook. And if the parents are unaware of these things themselves then they are doubly at fault as they are clearly not involved enough in the upbringing of their children. My two cents.
The Sydney Morning Herald – Eye wired open
WHEN Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence decided to have his badly damaged eye removed from its socket, he chose to replace it not with a prosthetic, but with a wireless camera. The decision, he says, was easy. ”Every person I know who’s lost an eye immediately thinks, ‘I should think about getting a camera,’ ” he says.
Although so far, Spence is the only person who has actually acted on the notion. In a world first, Spence and a team of engineers and eye specialists developed an eye-camera, a miniature camera and wireless transmitter fitted into his eye.
I’ve been reading about this guy for a little while now, however the last time I saw an article on him the eye was still in the engineering stages though they had a working prototype. Now they have the beta version completed. I’m sure there are a large number of possible applications for something like this and biotech companies are probably going to jump all over it once it’s been refined a bit more. I personally just think it’s cool. Steve Austin would be proud.
That’s all for the news trolling, time to get back to the grind. On a final note however, I know a lot of you out there are using FireFox as I do most of the time. If you have not done so yet, install the FireFox 4 Beta. The built in sand boxing is a blessing, especially if you’re like me and have to keep about a dozen windows and tabs open while at the helm. Posted a screenie below and the link above will take you right to the beta download.
August 23rd, 2010 | Author: J.W. Watts
Good morning cubicle monkeys, grab your cup of joe and get strapped in for mundane Monday. As promised, a new comic is posted, the next one will be posted on Wednesday so mark your calendars. Keeping this post short as I’ve got a lot to get done today. Stay Tooned !!!
August 13th, 2010 | Author: J.W. Watts
Happy Friday the 13th cubicle monkeys. Got the new comic up, I waited until this afternoon so everyone had a chance to go to lunch and get good and lazy for the remainder of the last workday of the week. If you have superstitious co-workers be sure and spill a lot of salt around them, walk under ladders when they are in plain view, break a mirror. Anything to make them squirm a bit.
I hope to have the next comic ready by Monday however, I have other projects that I need to buckle down on badly as they have suffered at the expense of the comic. I especially need to get my graphic art website off the ground if I plan to have any credible shot at advertising for commissioned jobs. But more on that as I get closer to actually having the site up and running.
That’s all for now, will post a soap box rant later on. For now though, I plan to fire up the grill, drink some beers, and await band practice later on this evening. If “SOMEONE” should happen to come by and take pictures, or maybe even some video, I’ll post them Sunday or Monday.