Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 22, 2021

Clearly, the kid on the chair won’t hear anything.

He’ll have to call Tech Support, who will ask, “Have you restrung the cans?” After 2-3 more questions, he’ll ask, “Does the string go over the chair or is straight?”

Today one of my 3 email accounts stopped recognizing the password I’ve had in place for some time. I tried everything to reconnect, no luck. I’m getting ready to call tech support tomorrow….ATT or Yahoo…..arrrrrgggghhhh. really dreading this.

“The internet is a series of tubes!” – 2 minutes 11 seconds of a rather painful speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE&ab_channel=bluefalcon561

Almost but not quite… just replace “Tech Support” with ”Data Monetization”.

I actually got “took” with one of those ads at the back of the comic-book: “Talk to your friends, without WIRES. Kit only $5.00 postage paid.” The kit was half a xeroxed (remember xeroxing?) typewritten page explaining how to use to soup cans, holes punched in the middle. They DID send about 20 feet of kite string.

Mom had tried to talk me out of it, but I was adamant. And she figured I’d learn something, which was absolutely true. I did make the can-phone and it did work, maybe. Hard to say because at 20 feet apart, you can hear the other person with OR without the two cans…

Am I allowed one last Trump joke?

Trump is caught speeding

Cop asks him " Why were you speeding and why wouldn’t you stop? Didn’t you see the flashing lights ? "

Trump replies " A cop ran off with my wife. I thought he was giving her back "

Not “tech support”. That would be the NSA…Project Echelon….

This has nothing to do with today’s strip but I felt so strongly when I posted it on Wednesday, that I would share it with all. "1/20/2021-1/20/2021-To take a line from Grace Slick and The Jefferson Airplane from the opening set on the Sunday of Woodstock, 50 years ago, “Good morning people-it’s a new dawn and a new day!” Welcome President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris!!! And to former Vice President Mike Pence-thank you for your presence today. YOU have class!!!

More like a “Man in the Middle" attack

Three comic book characters in a police lineup.

One is drawn with a large forehead and glasses.

Guess which one is suspected to be the smartest.

(The same suspicion sort of applies with real people.)

So the NSA is calling itself Tech Support now.

I wonder if tech support is in India, and his name is Bob. They seem to always be named Bob

I’m a country boy and my Mom did all of her own canning, Mason Jars didn’t work too well but I broke a few trying.

They are about the right age to be tech support. If you don’t understand it, ask a kid.

Sorry, I still can’t hear you

The hardware (can) is working fine. It must be a software (string) problem…

They should just unplug it for 5 seconds.

I thought the origin of the internet was in the jungle drums of darkest Africa. …or the “twilight bark” of course. I watched a lot of movies back in the day.

The tech support kid needs to have a book of typical problems that he searches for the exact phrase the caller used. They have no real understanding of what you are actually telling them.

3 Childhood memories: Finding out the string phone did not work. Zero degrees + iron railing + tongue = pain. Tyler telling me unless you sneezed into a corner the germs would bounce around until they hit a person.

A recent ex-chief executive’s idea of communicating with his constituents.

And there’ll be another kid with his ear to a can with no string, who’ll complain about censorship.

Old tech support commercial

https://youtu.be/F8L2cI8brzQ

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” —George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish writer

Gotta ask. Is anyone here old enough to remember making a set?

Or the Origin of the NSA.

Doesn’t work unless the string is free to vibrate. Physics 1a.

Wait a minute, tech support is not in another country and he looks like he can speak English.

Let’s skip the lame jokes and look at the Reality of the Internet.

It was invented to be a way for Researchers and Scientists to share information openly to foster collaboration by DARPA. They assumed that the information was always going to be based on facts to solve complex problems.

As it became available to the general public, first it became a source of entertainment. But quickly it was weaponized to spread misinformation and become the preferred method for Criminals to perpetrate con schemes.

Now there’s no real way to separate fact versus fiction there.

no, that is a typical party line. I know most of you have no idea what I am talking about.

Gotta plug it in.

Speaking of party lines, here’s something that I used to have fun with as a kid. Back in the ‘50s I discovered that the “busy” signal you hear on the phone is produced by a sound generator on a special trunk line in the switching station. Each caller that gets a busy number is switched to this tone generator, and they usually just hang up afterward. But it turns out that multiple callers might be connected to that line at the same time, creating a party line configuration. So, if you call your own number to get the busy signal and then listen carefully you might hear some other kid (usually) speaking in between the tones, trying to find someone else doing it too. "Hey BUZZ my BUZZ name BUZZ is BUZZ Jim BUZZ what’s BUZZ yours? BUZZ Where BUZZ do BUZZ you BUZZ go BUZZ to BUZZ school?", for example. Then you listen for someone to answer. Sounds silly? That’s what kids do. Has anyone else ever heard of this?

When our phone system went down at work, I, as IT manager, connected a string to a tin can and presented it to the HR manager as a “stopgap” repair. I also attached an old antenna to another can and gave it to her as a “cell phone”. Hilarity ensued…

Just because his can still has the lid attached, he gets to be tech support?

Wiley kids – love ’em.

Made me chuckle, Wiley.

Of course that wouldn’t work at all. The audio-induced vibrations in the first string do not travel into the second string in this scenario. The proper way to do it is to use two cans held together in the middle, after cutting the string and fastening each end to each of the two cans. Also, this has nothing to do with the Internet which is based on networking, not point-to-point communications.

As tech support in another strip says “how may I hinder you”?

We used to make these when I was a kid. They actually Worked if you kept the Tension on the string just right.