katastrophe
86p942 comments posted · 7 followers · following 1
2 days ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +2 points
2 days ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +2 points
(We aren't a dairy farm area, though, not any more. There were 80+ dairies in our county when we moved here in 1987. Now there's three. It's not an excuse for the shitty way rural America often acts and votes, but yeah, the decline thing is unfortunately very real, at least here.)
2 days ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +2 points
102 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 1 reply · +2 points
(As a note, we are NOT doing standard stuff with our printers: we have a big Brother workhorse that we use to print invoices, etc -- probably 2-3K sheets a month -- a smaller Brother for printing on waterproof Tyvek for use in production, a Dymo label printer for UPS, and a small label printer for internal inventory, all on the same network. Usually the Windows gets tangled up because it doesn't want to switch to the correct printer, or because one of the Macs used the printer last and now it can't "find" it, but about once or twice a year it requires a complete driver reinstall for no reason we can figure out. The Macs have far less problems with printers, but then the programmers had the very real advantage that they only had to figure out how ONE piece of hardware was going to interact with the printer -- whereas the Windows programmers have no idea what hardware configuration they're writing drivers for. I know WHY it's happening, it just doesn't make it any less frustrating. :P )
102 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 1 reply · +2 points
111 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +1 points
111 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 2 replies · +2 points
(The conversation is here: http://sunsetgrillcomic.com/index.php?comic=20131... )
143 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +5 points
Also you guys have NO IDEA how bad this would be. I use 3D art for a reason.
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Okay, I'll think about it....
145 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +2 points
This is already partially answered in the World section, as wright1 kindly notes. As far as why people have to be so obvious, they don't *have* to, exactly, but it's... tricky. The development of bionics and prosthetics essentially stalled a few centuries ago when the technology to grow cloned limbs was developed and became a second-best choice; most of the market for such parts was being driven by people who wanted not just to replace but improve body parts, making themselves stronger, faster, better, et cetera, and weren't all that concerned with how they looked or how socially unacceptable they were -- mostly, the military and mercenaries. In some places, because of said improvements and a general cultural distrust of the superhuman, it's actually illegal to make bionics look too realistic. In others, like Kieselburg, it is merely very, very expensive (cheaper than getting cloned parts, but nevertheless, expensive.)
Attaching bionic parts also requires enough rebuilding of the existing body (to allow control of the new parts and support their weight) as to make later switching to cloned parts exceedingly difficult if not impossible. Thus, Fausto's choice.
In Ian's case there is a final complication. It is possible, if expensive, to get an arm and hand which look very nearly human and would fool all but the closest observers. It is *not* possible to get bionic eyes in this style. It's been attempted, but as mentioned, this is an atrophied science without a lot of time or money being put into it; under those conditions no one, so far, has been able to mimic the look of the human eye in a way that could fool anyone at anything but a great distance.Ian's obviously alien eyes are if anything an improvement over most attempts at human, which have fallen straight into the category of "fucking creepy."
Hope that helps. Sorry it's taken so long to get to it, I've had an unfortunate six weeks or so. :S
145 weeks ago @ Sunset Grill - Sunset Grill · 0 replies · +1 points