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These aren't really applicable to schoolkids, but the bulk of this post's readers are looking for some good tips for themselves anyway. I recommend Schlock Mercenary , that rarest of beasts - a hard-scifi webcomic. It doesn't really pay enough attention to physics to be a learning tool, but sticks to its rules quite well. There's a bit of potty humor involved from time to time, but the associated forums are the only place where you can mention a 30-inch sniper rifle and people won't bat an eye in assuming that you're talking about the BORE DIAMETER.

The anime (not the manga) Planetes is remarkable: it has not just silent vacuums and accurate zero-g modelling, but everything down to invisible lasers. And adult diapers in spacesuits.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20011216.html

In a few million years they will become sentient, and very violent.

It becomes schlock!

Maybe it's an ommminous hummmm?

Given that history, "qubit" is short for "quantum binary digit"

Just as the hard-wiring of binary mathematics spun the entire twentieth century about a simple yes-no axis, the invention of the three-state switch promised to revolutionize twenty-fifth century computing. After all, with three states (negative, positive, and null charges) on nanoswitches, computers could now think in terms of yes, no, and maybe, greatly humanizing their internal logic.

This would have brought many, many more female engineers into the field of computer science (hence accelerating the pace at which computers could do useful things besides transmit, compress, and enhance pornography), except that the same abbreviational logic that turned "binary digit" into "bit" turned "trinary digit" into "tit." This nomenclatural error set computing back nearly three hundred years, and two entire generations of promising computer scientists were lost trying to keep abreast of bad puns. -- Howard Taylor

Given that history, "qubit" is short for "quantum binary digit"

Just as the hard-wiring of binary mathematics spun the entire twentieth century about a simple yes-no axis, the invention of the three-state switch promised to revolutionize twenty-fifth century computing. After all, with three states (negative, positive, and null charges) on nanoswitches, computers could now think in terms of yes, no, and maybe, greatly humanizing their internal logic.

This would have brought many, many more female engineers into the field of computer science (hence accelerating the pace at which computers could do useful things besides transmit, compress, and enhance pornography), except that the same abbreviational logic that turned "binary digit" into "bit" turned "trinary digit" into "tit." This nomenclatural error set computing back nearly three hundred years, and two entire generations of promising computer scientists were lost trying to keep abreast of bad puns. -- Howard Taylor

First, let me be yet another person to say that I won't use any encyclopedia that forces me to register before I can read. I know that's probably a temporary flaw, but it's a major one.

Second, I'm intrigued by the editor approach. But Wikipedia is not only known for the occasional inaccuracy -- it is also famous for arbitrary decisions, using a star chamber of editors, about what is worthy of inclusion. The webcomic world is up in arms about arbitrary, nonsensical decisions involving comics. Will Citizendium take the advice of people knowledgeable in their fields about what should and should not be included? Or will that be left up to some uber-editor who may or may not have prejudices against the topic?

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less

Noone listens to Terapedos, either.

It does but it lacks the I.D. 10-T correction module.

It's an object lesson on the pitfalls of trying extortion on Big Blue.

My Steam account was stolen (even with a ten-alpha/num character PW) and i've had no recourse as of yet for games I legally purchased.

• Someone used a keylogger
• Someone used your personal computer account.
• Someone used a hacking beam on your computer.

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy; nothing more, nothing less.

I hope I didn't screw it up. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

Yeah, I gave up on Sluggy Freelance and Clan of the Cats, about year ago, due to low updates. Sucks for them, 'cause comics aren't easy to do but then you have Schlock Mercenary and Irregular Web Comics updating everyday for years.

You forgot to mention NSFW.

I prefer Schlock Mercenary myself which is family friendly, funny, and (this one is important) actually available in its entirety online.

Being simplistic, this sounds like one company decided to not charge late fees, so another company adopted the same practice. Pretty much everything they do is not new or unique, just expensive for a start-up. An established business like BlockBuster can and will compete by offering the same services.

Do you need to patent your business methods and operating procedures, or copyright your fancy return mail envelope to compete effectively? I think that if NetFlix is not able to compete with an established company in a similar market, that they are no different than a mom and pop grocery trying to compete with WalMart SuperCenters. It may not be the best thing for the community or the market, but it is the community or market that will make or break them, not their copyright or patent portfolio.

A business that survives by blocking other companies from using obvious methods, is no better than a parasite. They provide no benefit to society, and only serve to promote the proliferation of lawyers.

Where is Schlock Mernenary company when you need them. ;)
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20021110.html

Perhaps some kind of a communal observation system? Or a Less benign version?

There are ways to avoid that.

Do you need an object lesson that illustrates the key differences between "mostly alive" and "mostly dead"?

All I have on this topic is a link.

No, you're thinking of Schlock Mercenary (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040311.html)

Howard Tayler (author of Schlock Mercenary and a practicing Mormon) had a nice little blog entry on the subject a while back. It's worth a read, quite encouraged me in these seemingly dark days (context: I'm a biologist, studied evolutionary, and as a consequence about as much as an rabid on the subject as one can get).

Howard Tayler (author of Schlock Mercenary and a practicing Mormon) had a nice little blog entry on the subject a while back. It's worth a read, quite encouraged me in these seemingly dark days (context: I'm a biologist, studied evolutionary, and as a consequence about as much as an rabid on the subject as one can get).

Howard Tayler (author of Schlock Mercenary and a practicing Mormon) had a nice little blog entry on the subject a while back. It's worth a read, quite encouraged me in these seemingly dark days (context: I'm a biologist, studied evolutionary, and as a consequence about as much as an rabid on the subject as one can get).

Right, here.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about Dark Matter critters lurking in deep space.
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040311.html

Wow, that reminds me of the hive-mind snake lawyers from Schlock Mercenary. Great web comic, btw.

OK, that wasn't the comic where they explain the Attorney Collective, but you can read through a few days if you care.

See:
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

Howard Tayler quit his day job.

Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary has a hillarious review.

Best bit, IMO:

I'm not trying to tear this movie a new anal orifice. I assure you, the film already has SEVERAL, and it defecates simultaneously through all of them. You don't want to get any of this on you.

Fair enough, I'm sure that I could cobble up something in a pinch, but I trust me so that's okay. "Captain, about your security: Have you ever heard of a modem?"

Different military units will call it different things, but whether you say 'L2' (Lessons Learned), 'DB' (Debriefing), 'AAR' (After-Action Review), 'PM' (Post-Mortem), 'BMC' (Battle-Mamagement Critique) or even 'TLA' (Three Letter Acronym), the intent is the same: assign some blame, and don't get any on you. (Schlock Mercenary).

Yes Schlock Mercernary

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

schlock! http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

For now, Google is the enemy of our enemies, and is perforce our friend.

"The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less."

- Rule #29, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates

Go to Schlock Mercenary. The comic has been going daily for over three years now without any missed comics or filler.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ http://www.gpf-comics.com/ http://www.reallifecomics.com/index.php http://www.crfh.net/ http://www.nuklearpower.com/ Random shameless plugs. Read them and enjoy.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

Seriously, you owe it to yourself to read this. Updates every day, complex plot that still has lots of gags, characters you can really appreciate...there's nothing better in the genre.

Also, for all your D&D-based humor needs: http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

Rule 37 of Highly Effective Pirates: There is no overkill. There is only "Open fire" and "Time to reload".

Of course, from a different point of view, staying alive is the highest consideration, and customer satisfaction is well down the list.

A Schlock Mercenary movie?

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/

Now that would be cool.

If you knew how to spin it a little better, you'd have the middle step in the Profit! equation -- like this guy is able to do.

...they dropped Schlock Mercenary from AdSense, they say, because of invalid clicks. Whether they're doing enough or not is, of course, open to dispute, but they do monitor clickthroughs.

That's why I said "otherwise rightfully". It's like a two-person project at school where one person does 90% of the work and both get 50% of the credit. The understanding before the project starts is that they'll share credit equally, but the one who put more effort into the final result ends up feeling kind of bitter.

Keenspot makes money off of advertisement (and maybe other things, but I only know of the advertising part), but they need good webcomics to lure advertisers.

All I meant by that comment is that I recall that some of the webcartoonists have felt like the guy doing 90% of the work.

Beyond that, I wholly concede your point.

And the "ideally" comment was more a shot at people who start webcomics only because they've seen the success that a few have attained and want to achieve the same success. It happens a lot, and the general concensus amongst webcartoonists (based on various rants I've read and webcomic panels I've attended) seems to be that if you're doing it solely for the fame, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

I usually fall on the side of "love of your craft," but I can certainly appreciate the other side too.

I've really got no problem with a webcartoonist who runs his webcomic like a business, because art supplies, bandwidth and hosting do cost a lot of money. And if you're making a living off of your strip it costs that much more.

A few artists who live off of their webcomics:

Penny Arcade
Sluggy Freelance
MegaTokyo
8-Bit Theatre
Player vs Player
Schlock Mercenary
Something Positive
Ctrl-Alt-Delete

And those are just some of the ones that I read and can remember.

Right. This also lets the actual authors get the revenue they deserve instead of feeding the parasites. As Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary said, right after he split from KeenSpot, mere Google Adsense gave him three times that much.

Oh, and by the way, Schlock Mercenary is the best gem KeenSpot used to have -- and it's probably Howard who triggered the Black Label guys in the article.

The thing is, Keenspot does have its place.

There are a lot of webcomics out there. And I mean a lot. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anybody who can find a place to host their files can make a webcomic. There are no other real barriers (though I might argue that not having any discernable talent should be a barrier).

So how do you find a good webcomic? Well, Keenspot is an option. It's a portal that links to a variety of strips. It has certain standards of quality. It's been around for a long time, and it's well known. So if you're looking for something to read, you can always head for Keenspot.

On the flip side, if you're an aspiring webcartoonist and want to get known, getting accepted by Keenspot is a good bet for exactly the same reasons.

From a business perspective, Keenspot is okay. They sell advertising, and some of the money goes to the webcartoonists. Keenspot has done some work to get into newspapers, too, though I admit I don't know many of the details.

And Keenspot also handles the technical side. They provide the servers and all the website code necessary for a webcomic to function (if I recall correctly, that is). In exchange, you, as a webcartoonist, agree to brand your website with a little bit of advertising.

But Keenspot isn't the be-all and end-all of webcomics. Even though there are so many webcomics out there, the webcomic "community" is pretty small. Many of the artists/writers talk to each other. They see each other at conventions. They hang out. And they link to other comics in their rants. If you're looking for a good webcomic, it's almost as if it's a game of follow the links. All you have to do is find one good strip and read it for a while, and if you pay attention, you'll find out what some other good comics are. Word of mouth seems to be the best way to get known in the webcomic community.

And, as I understand it, Keenspot webcartoonists don't get paid as well as they could. Keenspot is a for-profit venture. It's the same as with any label you might sign with ... some of the money that would otherwise rightfully be yours is going to go to the umbrella organization that's sponsoring you. Going independent might make you more money, if you're willing to deal with the financials yourself. (Ideally, you wouldn't care because you'd be doing it for the love of your craft ... but when you become more popular, the bandwidth and hosting costs more money.)

I've got work tomorrow, so I'm going to wrap it up with a couple of webcomics that have my highest recommendation (not that you'd care, given that you don't know anything about my comic preferences). Both webcartoonists are independent.

Something Positive: It's pretty damn mean spirited a lot of the time, and sometimes gets a bit wordy, but it's consistently funny, and the characters come across as being very human. They have hopes and fears. They grow as time goes on. I think they're pretty believable.

Schlock Mercenary: This is a fine piece of science fiction (certainly much more deserving of the label than is Star Wars), and very funny to boot. It also has very good characterization, and wonderfully twisty, entertaining plotlines. This is probably the first comic I check every night, and I read some 30+ webcomics. I think many Slashdotters will appreciate it too. Incidentally, this strip, like the ones mentioned in TFA, recently split from Keenspot.

User Friendly sucks and I know. I've been reading it every day for the last 5 years or so. Ya' want real entertainment, check out Schlock Mercenary.

Priorities are not the same all over, and Mozilla should be focused on supporting their users. Those several days of warning are extra days of end-user vulnerability. As a Firefox user, I would feel my trust was misplaced if they did something else..

One other comment:

indirectly -- it still displays their branding

Correct me if I'm wrong, but other builds are not supposed to use Mozilla's branding anyway. The PowerPC G4-optimized build of Firefox contains only compiler/linker changes, and apparently can not use the same icon.

Schlock Mercenary [schlockmercenary.com]: Sci Fi Millitary Humor, Evolved

Are you telling me that in a world with fuel-air bombs that can blow up small cities, you still need infantry?

In situations where control, rather than annihilation, of something is required, sheer brute force is inadequate. You need more precise application of power to capture than destroy-- and capture and control are often far preferable.

It's also probably relevant that you might not want to casually use armor penetrating projectile or high-energy weapons in a thin-hulled space station, for risk of ricochets or misses. Energy weapons are also undesirable in overly oxygenated atmospheres. Things like Dorothy Wire, Variable Swords, or even a good old fashioned Bowie Knife will be useful as secondary weapon choices, for when you want to take life, without taking out life support.

Check what happens if you give sapience to an elephant (second example) or monkey.

Check what happens if you give sapience to an elephant (second example) or monkey.