How the Dinosaurs became extinct

I was wrong in my last cartoon about the Sky commentators gaffe not running more than a few days.  The war between the sexes is ignited again with talk of dinosaurs and banter.

Why are men who refer to women in old fashioned get back in the kitchen ways referred to as dinosaurs and if they were what does that say about the female dinosaurs and their hopes of survival.  Hence the cartoon.

Sky Commentators Gaffe The Female Response

Today's topical cartoon refers to the story about Sky Commentators Andy Gray and Richards Keys comments about women assistant referees not knowing the offside rule.  Like Gordon Browns election gaffe the remarks were made when they believed the microphones weren't on. 

Doing cartoons about topical events is all about having an idea fast while it is still imprinted in the public memory.  Too many times its like when someone says something to you and then several hours later you think of a really witty reply but it's too late.  To get something like this published (and I'm not sure it would be) I'd had to be maybe a day earlier as by the time tomorrow's papers/editions roll out the 24-hour news bandwagon will have moved onto some other gaffe made by some other celebrity.

It also reminds me of my only 'published' cartoon which was way back in my University days when I know a guy who helped compile the Hamilton Academical Fanzine who commissioned a cartoon called 'Why Women Don't Play Football'.  It would not look very enlightened today but I've made up for it by trying to be sensitive and understand the female response to these totally unacceptable comments.

Internet Conspiracies

After yesterdays weighty discussion of tolerance I cheered myself up today by looking at a couple of recent incredible Internet stories.

• Facebook to Close on March 15th.  Ok this one has been about since January 9th but according to unreliable source the CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg thought the site had gotten out of control and for the good of his sanity and normal friendships everywhere he was going to shut down the site on 15th-March and delete all profiles, pictures etc.  Of course if you put such a delicious hoax on the Internet it grows legs until even the company itself is forced to deny it.
• George Lucas believes the world will end in 2012.  The creator of Star Wars sitting down with Steven Spielberg and some actor who is in the Green Hornet says he believes the world will end in 2012 and allegedly he wasn't joking.  The media lap this sort of stuff up but they failed to explain what exactly his reasoning for this why.  I for one would like to know if I should be worried given this is the living Jedi who instead of asking for alot of money to make the iconic Star Wars film asked for a cut of the merchandising rights instead and became rich overnight.  If George Lucas thinks the world is going to end in 2012 then is he then expecting to re-release it a few years later with a few CGI tweaks and bonus material.?

Which just goes to show you shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet which unfortunately includes what you just read here.

ps.  This is my 50th Cartoon on this blog!  Yipee

Rhino Nose Job (Rhinoplasty)

My first post-Septoplasty op cartoon on the subject of Rhinos and Rhinoplasty.  Had the operation done in Day Surgery yesterday and nose is still very sore and full of black goo and plastic splints.  This cartoon is not an indication I have fully recovered but rather that I need something to distract me from my throbbing rhino (which is the Greek word for Nose).

I told people that I was having a "nose job" for which Rhinoplasty is the correct term and that led me to think about Rhinos and the sort of spam mail they receive...

Broadband in Hell

Todays cartoon is only topical if like me you recently had no broadband for a week and were remembering the perculiar torture of watching the Broadband light on your router and WAP periodically go from blue to flashing orange with no control over when it turned back.

There's riots in Tunisia, no-one has any money, polar bears are running out of ice and there are terrorists at every airport but that is mere scary stories compared to NOT BEING ABLE TO CHECK YOUR FACEBOOK OR SEE WHAT THE WEATHER IS LIKE TOMORROW!!!  Here's a tip for your budding Tom Clancys trying to determine the next world domination tactics of global terrorism - how about instead of blowing things up they just sabotaged the Internet, trust me it would feel like the end of the world!

I'm annoyed because I missed one detail from my cartoon.  I wanted to give the horned character to the right a name.  I wanted to call him waproamd as a sort of techy-in joke. 

Now if you're paying attention, slightly bored and want a challenge post a comment telling me why I would call this character waproamd.  Here's a hint: what do Linux and Hell have in common?  Virtual i.e. non-existant prize for the winner, bonus points for anyone who can go on to tell me any reasons why I'm wrong (thats what the Internet and comments sections are for).

Did you do it?  Did you type 'waproamd' into Goggle and come up with another piece of information  you didn't need to know.  Do you feel smarter like you've learned something?  Now if the Internet was down for everyone we'd all be dumb!  Time to put armed guards at the Internet's primary hubs or if the problems like mine time to check your phone cables for corrosion at the telegraph pole.

Tron Legacy 2: The Doomed Love of Program and User

The followup to my previous Tron Legacy cartoon has been delayed due to a lack of broadband at home but here it is.  Unusually for a Hollywood/Disney movie Tron Legacy contains no kissing at all which led me to speculate on the ensuing romance between Sam Flynn and Quorra (played by Olivia Wilde of House 'Thirteen' fame).  I wasn't sure whether the last panel should reference iPad instead of iOs (the operating system of the iPhone/iTouch/iPad family) but I assumed you are all IT literate and also iOs is an anagram of ISO who are the Isomorphic Algorithmns in Tron Legacy.

What I want to know is why Isomorphic Algorithmns which are spontaneous bits of code that just appeared are so good and perfect?  When I write code and it does something unintended it is usually stupid or bad.  Guess I'm not as perfect as Jeff Bridges.

Tron Legacy: What Sam Flynn Should Have Said To His Father

Watched Tron Legacy last night in 3D IMAX and here are my cartoon thoughts on the IT accuracy of it.  As a general film it was very entertaining as an accurate depicition of IT I have some plus and minus points.

There are a couple of very minor spoilers below so if you haven't seen the film just ignore everything from here on down. 

+ The use of Linux (very Open Source) as a way of accessing the Grid was mostly accurate and you get points for using real computer OS.  He tried

• su -r root to try and gain access to the most powerful account on the system.
• /bin/history - to draw up a list of what the previous user had done
• lasercannon -x - not a standard package on most Linux distributions but a powerful command

- The color pallette of the Grid was about three colours (as mentioned in cartoon) - blue, red/yellow, white.  I remember programming the Mac back in the 1990s when I was excited about getting access to 256 colours so why in this new decade has the Grid not got millions of colour options.

- Storage Disks - what diameter was everyone's storage disk maybe 20 inches.  In the 1970s there were 8 inch disks, making way for floppy 5 1/4 inch disks in the 1980s and then standardising on 3.5 inch disks by the late 1980s.  By now we have gigabytes on USB drives so why the need for frisbee sized storage devices that are always falling off and killing people?

I have some other thoughts on Tron Legacy that may form another cartoon but if you haven't see it you should go to the cinema and watch it so you understand this post.

Bag For Life Jealousy

Happy New Year and the first cartoon for the 2011 is an old idea I had about the marketing genius of calling a cheap product a 'Bag For Life'.  Asking shoppers queuing at a checkout who have been caught without a means of transporting goods whether they want to make a commitment to a reusable bag FOR LIFE is extraordinary.  Sure you'll say anything to avoid telling the assistant you'd rather DESTROY THE PLANET than pay for a non-plastic carrier.  Sure you want to be faithful but how many times do you just forget to bring it along for an impulse buy.  In an age of consumerism can you be that sure that sometime when you go to Marks and Spencer or Tesco you aren't going to fall for a prettier or fancier product?