PF Episode 6 (Page 49)

[Ren Gaulen]

Actually, a small spoiler:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/projectfuture/pf48_intermediate.png

I cannot resist adding it:
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh121/RentheKnight/A%20Bunch%20of%20Random%20Pictures/MICROSOFTWINDOWS.png
It may or may not reflect my feelings on my recent problems with my computer.

[Tapewolf]

It may or may not reflect my feelings on my recent problems with my computer.

Yes, I would have kept that visible if I'd known I was going to do an interim shot.
As for computers, the trick is dual boot with Linux or something, and not to use Windows for anything important. That way, when it has its nervous breakdown, you can still do other stuff.

**EDIT**
This was on my playlist while colouring, it turns out the video is on Youtube, which is awesome:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UyDhsDUorGA

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

As for computers, the trick is dual boot with Linux or something, and not to use Windows for anything important. That way, when it has its nervous breakdown, you can still do other stuff.

I do that. Only, I skipped the whole dual boot thing and the nervous breakdown. ;-]

[Tapewolf]

Okay, I'm not sure if the scarf-hawk was supposed to be there and Ren's gone off somewhere so I can't find out.  I've uploaded it as is.

If anyone knows of a command-line SFTP client that isn't a piece of crap, please let me know. 
Using the one on the Mac is like going back to the 1980s and not in a good way.  I'll admit I've been spoiled by NCFTP which supports bookmarks and all kinds of nice things, but not supporting tab-completion or a history is just retarded.

**EDIT**

Amber said that I should pay more attention to planning the room layout.  This is the plan I used for this strip:


http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k216/tapewolf/projectfuture/pf_room_plan.jpg
The two BASF spools are the computer.  The black HDD wallet is the door.
The orange Halfords battery is Azrael, the Sony battery is Jakob and the rechargable is Joshua.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

scp + bash_completion ? It supports tab completion, at least.

Other than that... I usually use scp instead of sftp, myself.

[Tapewolf]

scp + bash_completion ? It supports tab completion, at least.
Other than that... I usually use scp instead of sftp, myself.

SCP has an interactive mode?  I've only ever been able to get it to do a single file transfer at a time (or wildcard group), which makes it useless for moving files around, making new directories, finding out what's already there and so forth.  Plus it requires the password for each transfer.
Perhaps I'm missing a trick here, but so far I've found it extremely inconvenient to use.  It's like FTP with two broken legs.

**EDIT**

lftp seems to be the way to go.  Not quite as good or friendly as ncftp, but it gets most of the way there and is a darn sight more convenient than using scp raw.

[Sofox]

I love the your layout techniques Tape, you could almost make another comic just using various snapshots of that and adding speach bubbles.

And hurrah for the comic, nice to see the part you told me about finally coming to fruition, and Joshua continues his trend of oscillating between extreme panic to complete confusion.

[Tapewolf]

I love the your layout techniques Tape, you could almost make another comic just using various snapshots of that and adding speach bubbles.

Heh.  I suppose you probably could.  The layout is a mix of mine and Ren's.  I generally give him a layout based around a 2x3 grid, and he generally comes back with something a bit different.  Usually his design is better so I go with that.  On some rare occasions, where the text won't fit or where I'm not quite happy with the art(*) I have dropped a panel and redesigned the layout to compensate. 

(*)We did a few panels consisting of half of Joshua's face.  There were two or three where I just could not get them to colour properly so they were excluded.

And hurrah for the comic, nice to see the part you told me about finally coming to fruition, and Joshua continues his trend of oscillating between extreme panic to complete confusion.

Originally it was Jakob who had the last line, but I realised Azrael was a bit absent in this page and changed it to compensate.

Anyway - I noticed about half an hour ago that I'd forgotten to run the equalisation filter on Jakob's leathers, so if they looked a bit matt, that's why.  It should be fixed now.

[GabrielsThoughts]

there's that bird again...and yet another allusion to (DUN DUN DUN) PROJECT FUTURE... wonders if toast popping up from a toaster will be met with :"that's no human toast"

[Pagan]

Actually, I'm just wondering what "Total Conversion" is. Conversion of what? Matter to energy? People to some belief?

[Ren Gaulen]

Actually, I'm just wondering what "Total Conversion" is. Conversion of what? Matter to energy? People to some belief?

I just call the thing "Total Annihilation Device". (You're right, it converts matter directly into energy.)

[Tyranastrasz]

Ren, that name is already taken by Windows.

[Tapewolf]

Actually, I'm just wondering what "Total Conversion" is. Conversion of what? Matter to energy? People to some belief?

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Total-conversion

I'll have to see if I can clarify it when they do the tour.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

SCP has an interactive mode?  I've only ever been able to get it to do a single file transfer at a time (or wildcard group), which makes it useless for moving files around, making new directories, finding out what's already there and so forth.  Plus it requires the password for each transfer.
Perhaps I'm missing a trick here, but so far I've found it extremely inconvenient to use.  It's like FTP with two broken legs.

*shrug* for that sort of stuff, I use ssh and then local commands on the server.

As for the password, I usually use ssh public/private keys, either without a password or with ssh_agent, which means I only have to add them once.

It _is_ a bit like ftp with two broken legs, but to my mind, using ftp to create a directory on the server is like using an electric eggbeater to stir my tea. Sure, it works, but it's entirely the wrong tool for the job. FTP is for transferring files; scp does the same thing. Any other tasks that ftp can do, usually are easier done directly on the server itself.

I'll admit that using linux locally on my desktop, and largely through terminals, rather than graphical apps, means I'm not your average desktop user, and my familiarity with commands is somewhat unusual...

lftp seems to be the way to go.  Not quite as good or friendly as ncftp, but it gets most of the way there and is a darn sight more convenient than using scp raw.

Hrm. I guess that might work. I've heard of it, but since I'm pretty much covered, I don't think I've done more than poke it once or twice and go back to what I was doing before...

Good to hear you found something useful, though.

[Tapewolf]

*shrug* for that sort of stuff, I use ssh and then local commands on the server.

That would need two terminals.  What I would probably have done if I hadn't found something more suitable would be to write a bunch of one-line shell scripts to do the transfers automatically, but I just like being able to see what I'm doing in case I'm doing it wrong.

FTP can do that in a single app.  With a parallel ssh you'd have to keep switching between the two - which is a PITA on the mac anyway - and changing directories.
SSH wins hands-down for more complex manipulations, but for basic file manipulation, I still say that FTP is far more convenient.  That may be because I know how to use it effectively and get what I want done with a minimum of keystrokes - a point I haven't yet reached with the other tools.

I'll admit that using linux locally on my desktop, and largely through terminals, rather than graphical apps, means I'm not your average desktop user, and my familiarity with commands is somewhat unusual...

Don't get me started.  The preferred app for SCP on the Mac was Fugu, which epitomises the GUI app - ugly, bloated and horrifically slow.  It takes somewhere on the order of 45 seconds to do a directory listing on the local machine - and there aren't even many files in that directory.

Perhaps it's because of the time I spent in DOS, but I have a vast preference for interactive command-line apps.  Though a side effect of this is that I don't end up writing shell scripts as often and so don't get much practice.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

*shrug* for that sort of stuff, I use ssh and then local commands on the server.

That would need two terminals.  What I would probably have done if I hadn't found something more suitable would be to write a bunch of one-line shell scripts to do the transfers automatically, but I just like being able to see what I'm doing in case I'm doing it wrong.

Yeah. I have a copy of the webroot on my laptop, and use a shell script with rsync in it to copy it up to the live server.

But then, I also have a copy of apache with php on my laptop, so I can develop code and test stuff, so yeah. If you want a copy of those scripts, I'd be happy to help you out, though.

Don't get me started.  The preferred app for SCP on the Mac was Fugu, which epitomises the GUI app - ugly, bloated and horrifically slow.  It takes somewhere on the order of 45 seconds to do a directory listing on the local machine - and there aren't even many files in that directory.

Oh, _ew_!

Your point is taken, however. I realise not everyone works the same way I do, and different strokes for different folks, etc etc etc...

[LionHeart]

I love the your layout techniques Tape, you could almost make another comic just using various snapshots of that and adding speach bubbles.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/LionHeartAU/DMFA/pf_room_plan-comic.jpg

[Tapewolf]

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/LionHeartAU/DMFA/pf_room_plan-comic.jpg

Heh.

See also:  http://www.project-future.org/P48-layout.png

**EDIT**
As for SCP, there are situations where it works well, but it doesn't really suit the way I work.  If I had a canonical version of the site on the mac and only ever updated from the mac, that would be great but I have about 3-4 machines I have used to edit the site, running on three different OSes.

[Amber Williams]

I need to start a Project Future drinking game.

Everytime Joshua makes the "Oh noes! " face, take a shot.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Yeah. I do work from multiple machines, but since I usually have a couple shells open on the laptop anyway, having two terminals open isn't a huge limitation.

And I bounce the updates via the test area on my home server anyway. Go figure...

As I said - works for me, probably won't work for you. But it does give me an offline copy of the site, in case the server dies...

[Jairus]

I need to start a Project Future drinking game.

Everytime Joshua makes the "Oh noes! " face, take a shot.

*looks back through the archives* He does make a very good "oh noes! " face, doesn't he?

[Tapewolf]

I need to start a Project Future drinking game.
Everytime Joshua makes the "Oh noes! " face, take a shot.

Bad timing - we focus on different characters this next chapter.  He will make that face a few more times after that, though...

*looks back through the archives* He does make a very good "oh noes! " face, doesn't he?

We should have Ren draw a set of emoticons.  I forgot to mention, I think my favourite panel in this strip is panel 5, where Josh has his arms up to ward Jakob away.  My least favourite is panel 3, where Joshua's eyes are messed up 

As I said - works for me, probably won't work for you. But it does give me an offline copy of the site, in case the server dies...

It's not that bad.  It'd be a pain to sort out the latest one and one or two changes might go astray, but I could certainly recover if the server went down hard.  Usually it's only one or two files that are different.  But yeah, SSH is a boon for taking a snapshot via TAR - backing up is a nuisance with the FTP-only host.

[Amber Williams]

I admit I am still trying to figure out what the little thing flying above Joshua's head in the second to last panel is.

Bad timing - we focus on different characters this next chapter.  He will make that face a few more times after that, though...

ALright! Bring on the babes! 

[Ren Gaulen]

I admit I am still trying to figure out what the little thing flying above Joshua's head in the second to last panel is.

That's a little joke of mine - when Jakob first mentioned his Falcons to Josh, the latter pictured actual birds represented by a tiny super-deformed falcon instead of fighter planes. Since then that SD falcon showed up now and then in the lineart, but I think Tape left him out until now.

[Tapewolf]

That's a little joke of mine - when Jakob first mentioned his Falcons to Josh, the latter pictured actual birds represented by a tiny super-deformed falcon instead of fighter planes. Since then that SD falcon showed up now and then in the lineart, but I think Tape left him out until now.

It also turns up in strip 27 when Joshua has just been resurrected.  It was sufficiently long ago that I couldn't remember what our policy with the scarf-hawk was.  Now we have more disk space on Xepher, if Ren doesn't mind I might start to put up some of the the original line-art for curious people.

ALright! Bring on the babes! 

There will be at least one... [wonders whether to make the mayor female too]

[Ren Gaulen]

Now we have more disk space on Xepher, if Ren doesn't mind I might start to put up some of the the original line-art for curious people.

I, Ren Gaulen, hereby approve of it! *dramatic pose*

[wonders whether to make the mayor female too]

Somehow I'm not very fond of this idea. Don't really know why.

[Sunblink]

Everytime Joshua makes the "Oh noes! " face, take a shot.

Better than the Jennifer Garner in Elektra drinking game.

[Brunhidden]

once a friend of mine and i played a kingdom hearts drinking game- every time they said 'darkens' or 'heart' we took a drink

however we knew doing this with alcohol would kill an irish rugby team in about fifteen minutes, so we used shot glasses of mountain dew

my friend was starting to vibrate and make a humming sound about hour 3



however i have a different solution- someone make a montage of all the 'oh noes' faces to date

[Tapewolf]

Okay, here we have most of the original strips scaled down to half-size with antialiasing:
http://project-future.xepher.net/stuff/strips/pt1/

Note that some strips aren't available yet (e.g. page 47 and the end of page 46).  When I get them I'll update these, assuming I remember to do so.

[Jairus]

I need to start a Project Future drinking game.

Everytime Joshua makes the "Oh noes! " face, take a shot.

however i have a different solution- someone make a montage of all the 'oh noes' faces to date

Time to take your shots...

Ode to Noes

The work of half an hour or so, not counting interruptions. A little more time, and I could clean it up a little bit, but here you go.

Oh, and that reminds me... sung to the tune of Beethoven's "Ode To Joy..."

Oh noes, oh noes, oh dear gods!
Jakob's making a death ray!
Can we stop him? I don't think so,
I just guess we'll have to pray

Anyway...

Hope you like it.