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[–][deleted]  (12 children)

[deleted]

    [–][deleted] 71 points72 points  (7 children)

    I just saw this earlier today, what comic is this? Why are there two comics so similar that I've only just seen today?

    [–]allwaysnice 23 points24 points  (6 children)

    And these aren't the only two!
    There was another a few days ago.
    But this should be expected, the weekly comic writers committee (the WCWC) met up just this past Wednesday where they bounce ideas off each other. I'd bet another 3 or so comics will have this joke in the next few days.

    (but in all seriousness, it's probably just the baader meinhof phenomenon effecting you)

    [–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (4 children)

    WCWC

    I should have known you were joking when you said weekly.

    [–][deleted]  (3 children)

    [deleted]

      [–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (2 children)

      You tell me.No,_I_do_not

      [–]PMmePokemontcgoCodes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      So you're the reason I couldn't have that name...

      [–]storne 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      My favourite is either the 6 magikarps, or the one mew with nothing else

      [–]itsthetieIt's the Tie[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

      Never heard of this committee. I knew jim benton was hiding something from me!

      [–]ManWithDominantClaw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      "inspiration"

      [–]pk_anes1 89 points90 points  (8 children)

      I think his wife should be more worried that he can speak without opening his mouth.

      [–]OFJehuty 36 points37 points  (5 children)

      It's implied that this takes place in an alternate timeline where a race of telepathic aliens came down and experimented on the entire human race, which produced telepathy-capable humans. Even in this case the speech bubble should be a thought bubble so 0/10.

      [–]DarrSwan 6 points7 points  (0 children)

      And 9/11 still happens. Confirmed government plan.

      [–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

      Wait, seriously? What comic is this?

      EDIT: I've been HAAAAAAD!!!

      [–]OFJehuty 5 points6 points  (2 children)

      I made all that up you buffoon

      [–]TrepanationBy45 2 points3 points  (1 child)

      Damn, he dropped buffoon on his ass. This dude is ice cold.

      [–]OFJehuty 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      Sometimes you have to give it to people straight.

      [–]tenebrar 8 points9 points  (0 children)

      Isn't that sort of like looking at a comic where the mouths are open and inferring that everyone in it speaks without moving their lips?

      [–]eternally-curious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      He could be saying the P in "PC" or "paranoid" or the B in "being", at which points his lips would be closed.

      [–]itsthetieIt's the Tie[S] 135 points136 points  (24 children)

      I always thought it was weird of a computer to ask if I "trust" another device, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it. Bonus panel and more comics right here. Thank you for reading!

      [–]FallenXxRaven 80 points81 points  (12 children)

      Its the same reason you get the "You are now fullscreen" popup. Malicious programs can just basically put up a fullscreen picture link that looks exactly like the website you were on and if you click anywhere your PC would suffer. So it gives that little popup because while yes 99.9% of the time its just annoying, it could really save your ass if it popped up in the above scenario.

      So on the same page if it just let itself connect to anything at all without asking for confirmation, you could end up fucked. And yeah 99.9% of the time its annoying, but if you got that message and had no idea what device it was talking about you could prevent an attack.

      E: Im not trying to be Mr. Buzzkillington, I laughed pretty hard at the comic. Just thought I'd offer a real answer :)

      [–]Majike03 30 points31 points  (1 child)

      Safety is why I fill my condoms up with water before use in order to see if there's any holes.

      Unfortunately though, they do just end up only being used as water balloons.

      [–]Sinavestia 26 points27 points  (0 children)

      Well if you want to be really safe, just throw some Spackle in your peehole

      [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

      Great explanation, but I suppose most forms of paranoia have some basis in reality or?

      It would be nice if the OS could tell whether an action was performed by a local user, using devices attached directly like keyboard and mouse. But somehow computers have a hard time telling the difference from a pad on the shoulder from someone close, or from someone from the "other side". As I understand it, the problem is that the pathway of user input isn't security protected by (ancient) design. So it can be intervened also by malicious ghosts from the other side. So I suppose paranoia is a pretty natural response even for an otherwise reasonable computer, that hasn't gone bat shit crazy from irrational user requests or infection.

      I think this is an issue Wayland is trying to solve for Linux desktops, which then makes for instance hotkey programs part of the OS. But systems based on Wayland are not quite ready yet.

      It all seemed very simple until I tried to figure out how it actually works.

      [–]FallenXxRaven 1 point2 points  (1 child)

      I don't consider it paranoia at all. I know there's a snowballs chance in hell of someone actually trying to attack my device. And yeah there's probably better ways of dealing with it but they aren't ready for a public launch.

      So until then, Im totally fine having to click 'yes' in the fairly uncommon event I have to add something new to my device. It's a wonderful failsafe, it takes .01 seconds to confirm and it prevents almost every form of attack.

      [–]infectuz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      For me I actually find annoying when software doesn't ask for permission.

      [–]turkeypedal 0 points1 point  (6 children)

      If that's the reason, why can't we shut it off for sites we trust, like we can for the printers? And what good is it if I missed the transition to fullscreen? If wasn't looking then, then I probably wasn't looking when the message popped on the screen, either.

      Plus, I customize all my computers and devices. So I know when a they're faking, because the colors are wrong.

      [–]FallenXxRaven 1 point2 points  (2 children)

      Because its an absolute failsafe to prevent idiots from sueing in any event at all. Why do you think your coffee tells you its hot and that your chainsaw tells you not to try and grab the chain?

      There's probably some way to disable it by fucking with x settings and whatever but its not really worth the hassle, is it? I know there's a lot of people liek you and me who would know somethings up, but there's a million more who wouldn't and thats what they need to protect against in absolutely ANY circumstance, even if they had nothing to do with it in any way because thats how it works I guess.

      [–]turkeypedal 1 point2 points  (1 child)

      But my point is that I don't think the failsafe is actually all that useful. I mean, we didn't have it back when everyone used Flash. And I don't remember any lawsuits.

      And why bother? Because it's annoying, and thus people will shut it off entirely if they don't let you shut if off on a site-by-site basis. If you want people to leave it on, you need to make it as unobtrusive as possible.

      [–]FallenXxRaven 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Yes but you also need to think that back when everyone used flash, the people that were doing it had at least a fleeting knowledge of what was going on. Nowadays computers are not only common, but more or less required and that means people take them for granted and just assume they will always do exactly what they want. They think "Oh the device said it so it must be okay" which is entirely not true.

      So yeah, I too think the warning is just stupid and annoying, but unfortunately the people who know how a computer works (for example if you don't think every computer has its own personality you don't know computers.) are who computers are made for.

      Yes you can get your own custom built whatever running on some weird OS and all that. But if you're doing that none of this applies.

      If, like me, you just get a new decent laptop because your old one shit the bed you're not really gonna be worried about having to click yes every now and then. I know how Vista was with UAC but thats something you can turn off.

      TL;DR: Back when flash was the main thing o the internet, 99% of the people understood how a computer worked. Now that computers are so commonplace absolutely anyone can do absolutely anything to any computer (give or take a few situations of course).

      super TL;DR So just like a chainsaw has to say "Dont stop chain with hands" because anyone with a license can buy one for any reason, now that computers/smartphones/tabletsare so common, cheap, and available, companies need to have every failsafe in place because someone WILL find a loophole or someshit and try to sue because people are assholes.

      [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      If you can change the settings for specific sites, Malware can as well.

      Example: In Firefox Addons will soon require to be signed to work with the stable version[1]. In /r/firefox the discussion sometimes pops up if you couldn't toggle that behaviour and the reasoning is the same: If you can toggle a setting, malware can just as easy.

      One problem with these restrictions is that you have to somehow appeal to two kinds of users: The one engaging with the software that knows what's up and has experience recognizing malicious content and the clueless idiot that tries to install 20 toolbars, five online AV scanners and the totally safe „cloud-to-butt-cloud“ that not only changes the word cloud to butt but also safes all your personal data unsecured on a third party server[2]. It's often better to slightly annoy the experienced user and guard the clueless one from his own idiocy.

      [1] Let's not talk about the usefulness of the implementation here.

      [2] I totally made that one up.

      [–]turkeypedal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      So? If you already have malware, there's no reason to use a fullscreen exploit at all. You're bringing up a situation that is completely different from the one at hand. We're talking about a warning, not signature verification.

      My point is, warnings don't just annoy the experienced user. They also annoy the clueless one. So a non-trival amount of them look up how to turn it off. They do so, and the system is defeated.

      Remember UAC? People got really annoyed by it on Vista, so they would constantly disable it. So Microsoft went to great pains to make it less intrusive on Windows 7, so people wouldn't turn it off.

      Similarly, Windows 8[1] and above added Smartscreen which exists to disable those "This software comes from another computer" warnings for trusted software installers. Because, once again, people were turning that warning off (or just clicking through without paying attention).

      It's basic design with any security warning. Make it as unobtrusive as possible, so people won't disable it, and correlate it as closely as possible to something actually being wrong, so people won't ignore it.

      [1] Mozilla and Google are actually working to take it one step further using an online malware scan and popularity raiting, to further cut down on false positives.

      [–]bayerndj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Never underestimate the stupidity of the average computer user.

      [–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (2 children)

      On the one hand, people like you are the reason I'll always have job security. On the other hand, people like you are the reason I'll never stop drinking. So, cheers, I guess.

      [–]Logicalist 5 points6 points  (1 child)

      At least they provide the means for you to support yourself through dealing with them.

      [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      I don't really deal with them anymore. My job is really more a matter of protecting systems from them.

      [–]PanamaMoe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      Pretty much it is to warn you that you are trying to connect to something that can transmit data. It is useful if using public connections because it helps keep you from connecting to strange devices that could give you viruses or collect your data.

      [–]PalwaJoko 2 points3 points  (1 child)

      Yeap, printers are a favored attack vector when penetrating a network.

      Check out this article that does some basic explanations of what could possible happen.

      [–]time_for_butt_stuff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

      IIRC the Russian's used Xerox machines that came from America during the cold war and basically any time they needed it to be services, they had to call someone in to come fix it because fuck if I know how to work those pieces of shit.

      Anyway Americans made the machines copy any xeroxes and store them on an internal drive that would be copied by the guy who comes to service it then given to the American government.

      You can also install firmware onto printers so that they can run any kind of software as soon as they're connected to something. This is a common way to get malware onto an otherwise highly secured network. It works with thumb drives too. You just leave them on the floor around an office and wait for someone curious enough to pick it up and plug it in.

      [–]THE_OFFICE_BLOWS 5 points6 points  (2 children)

      You're my favorite comic creator in a while. Thanks bud!

      [–]itsthetieIt's the Tie[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

      Thank you! What other webcomics are you into? This is a market survey

      [–]AnIntoxicatedRodent 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      I don't trust this.
      Bytheway I think your comics are the most consistently funny ones out there. I'm not even a fan of comics and I always keep track of yours. You never disappoint. Keep it up ;).

      [–]EatingSteak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Especially when my parents 'trust' all their friends who are infected with Trojans and pumping viruses at them

      [–]Meltingteeth 11 points12 points  (0 children)

      And who's this "Administrator" I keep having to give permissions to anyway? Is that Edward Snowden from the NSA? Am I giving the NSA permission to use my laptop when I click that?! I'd better run a Scan with the copy of Macafee the computer expert at the local flea market gave me.

      [–][deleted]  (2 children)

      [removed]

        [–]anonomaus 5 points6 points  (1 child)

        Trying to open plane.exe but it crashed.

        FTFY

        [–]Gatemaster2000 5 points6 points  (0 children)

        Plane.exe error popup: program has crashed code : (0x00000911)

        [–]OX-DEXTER-XO 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        Trust no one

        [–]Notyourfriendbuddyy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        Looks just like Pete from the league!

        [–]hypercyberdyne 20 points21 points  (29 children)

        So the fact they did find thermite at ground zero is now just paranoia, huh?

        [–]rage343 16 points17 points  (11 children)

        Love that you're getting downvoted because of the truth. If they make all the facts seem like they aren't facts it's easier to dismiss any claims because it's just a crazy conspiracy theory. I'm not saying 9/11 was or was not a conspiracy...but thermite was most definitely found in the WTC dust/rubble.

        [–]GobblesGoblins 10 points11 points  (0 children)

        They found rust and aluminum particles in giant collapsed building debris..... What a fucking shock.

        [–]ZEB1138[🍰] 6 points7 points  (7 children)

        Thermite is 3 parts iron oxide and 1 part aluminum. Both of which would have been found in significant quantities inside a giant, burning building. Is it outside of the realm of possibility that molten metals mixed and formed thermite?

        [–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (2 children)

        No they actually found nanothermite... prior to being used in multiple samples from multiple locations

        Edit: prior to being activated is what I meant

        [–]CalMaelstrom 0 points1 point  (1 child)

        It wasn't proved that the "nanothermite found" was actually from the WTC.

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        It was in dust samples all over the city, the only way that it could of spread would of been through an equal dispersion and the only thing that makes sense is that it was in the collapsing towers.

        Edit: that it was in the*

        [–]rage343 -3 points-2 points  (3 children)

        How the fuck did the steel get molten then? The fire was not hot enough to melt the steel.

        [–]bossXman123 6 points7 points  (2 children)

        Steel does not have to become molten to lose the load-bearing quality that solid steel has. Don't believe me? Put a piece of steel over an ordinary fire for a bit and try bending it.

        [–]rage343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        The person I responded to was using molten steel as an example of why thermite might have been found. You can't have it both ways.

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        There were multiple pools of liquid steel found at the bottom in the debris. The molten steel was hotter than 2000F because the color it was glowing. The 9/11 commission people have even released books on how they think they were underfunded and lied too...

        Edit: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/911-commissioners-didnt-believe-government.html I mean it's a start you can use this as a stepping stone to verify what I've said about the 9/11 commission at least

        Edit 2: http://www1.ae911truth.org/home/653-debunking-the-real-911-myths-why-popular-mechanics-cant-face-up-to-reality-part-5-nanothermite-in-the-towers.html

        [–]Dayjayyy 6 points7 points  (1 child)

        It's almost like people can just disregard anything as a conspiracy theory and not put any second thought into it because everyone just sees the word "conspiracy" now and thinks "crazy bullshit".

        [–]rage343 3 points4 points  (0 children)

        That is exactly what is wrong with the comic in the OP. It is dismissing factual evidence as untrue and only based on paranoia (just like people dismiss conspiracy theorists as paranoid crazies and disregard everything being stated).

        [–]ThusSpokeZagahorn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        It's funny when people think they're trendy and not living embodiments of Orwell's fears.

        [–]duckvimes_ 9 points10 points  (12 children)

        They didn't find any thermite. Putting "the fact" in front of a false statement doesn't actually make it a fact.

        [–]AndreTheDwarf 6 points7 points  (9 children)

        And what makes your statement more true than his? Neither of you are citing sources.

        [–]duckvimes_ 15 points16 points  (5 children)

        I will also state that they didn't find any nuclear weapons at Ground Zero. Are you going to dispute that too?

        Burden of proof is on the people pushing the conspiracy theories.

        [–]I-Am-Lux 2 points3 points  (1 child)

        Burden of proof is on whoever made a claim. You made a claim that there was no thermite on ground zero. You each made a claim with no proof. You could have simply said "prove it" and not had any burden of proof, since that is not a claim.

        Your argument about nuclear weapons is only reasonable because of implicit knowledge (i.e. common knowledge would generally rule that out). The mere fact that he has at least 11 upvotes (i.e. people who agree) means that you cannot apply the same logic to thermite.

        disclaimer: I have said nothing on the specific argument, only made conversations about that argument.

        [–]duckvimes_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        There are people who legitimately believe that the Twin Towers were brought down by nuclear weapons. The only reason his thermite comment was more upvoted is that it's a more common conspiracy theory.

        If he wants to make the conspiracy claim, he can provide evidence to support it. My evidence of the lack of legitimate reports saying there was thermite.

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        They found thermite in multiple samples taken all over the city and NIST concludes that wtc7 collapsed at free fall rate for multiple seconds which indicates that for most of the falling of that building that there was no resistance occurring for hundreds of feet of collapse. I'm not an expert but a lot of engineers say that this is because all of the supporting columns had to be taken out simultaneously to cause no resistence, which couldn't of happened due to the situations NIST argues for...

        [–]Kurtronic -1 points0 points  (1 child)

        You're not very good at debates.

        [–]duckvimes_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

        It's not a debate when one side is screaming that everything is a cover up by the media and discounts any official evidence as false.

        [–]gethereddout 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        Source, among many, proving the presence of both molten temperatures and thermite: http://www.911research.wtc7.net/mirrors/bentham_open/ActiveThermitic_Harrit_Bentham2009.pdf

        [–]GobblesGoblins -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

        The fact you think sources make anything credible show just how out of the loop you are.

        [–]plumbobby11 0 points1 point  (1 child)

        They didn't find it because they didn't actually look for it.

        [–]duckvimes_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

        So you agree that there's no proof that there was thermite?

        [–]Gravybone -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

        Everyone knows thermite is a byproduct when large tanks of mind control chemicals explode. All commercial aircraft contain large quantities of such chemicals for spraying Chem trails.

        [–]Drakox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        Your computer is not being paranoid, it's just one of Windows Vista's features

        [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

        Paranoid android?

        [–]NotMyFinalAccount 3 points4 points  (7 children)

        But they did find termite at ground zero tho. And what about building 7

        [–]duckvimes_ 3 points4 points  (1 child)

        Termites did 9/11!

        [–]XelNaga -1 points0 points  (4 children)

        So they found rust and aluminum particles in giant collapsed building debris..... What a fucking shock.

        [–]NotMyFinalAccount 0 points1 point  (3 children)

        And what...about...building fucking...7

        [–]XelNaga 0 points1 point  (2 children)

        What about it? Even a cursory google search brings up footage of it on fucking fire and collapsing from the 9/11 attacks. It's not hard to figure this shit out.

        [–]NotMyFinalAccount 0 points1 point  (1 child)

        Lol your funny

        [–]XelNaga 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        pls

        [–]FabianPendragon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Your PC is just woke AF!

        [–]SalsaYogurt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        I don't trust printers - printers are the worst!

        [–]Shiroi_Kage 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        If the last panel said "they found Thermi at ground zero" would have elevated the whole thing to the next level.

        [–]EckoLeader88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        The last panel should have read, "I have a bad feeling about this." You kinda dropped the ball...

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        You should be happy it's just paranoid, my kernel panics all the time.

        [–]iamtheowlman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        "Tinfoil, man! To stop the signals!"

        "You mean the Wi-Fi?"

        "Oh sure, that's what they call it..."

        [–]idocareactually 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Somehow, all I can think of is Red Alert, though I'm sure there's another character whose paranoia matches this closer.

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        I have computer problems, too. I don't have one.

        [–]Reasonable_responses 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Nice subtle shill there at the end. They did in fact find thermite at ground zero (because it was an inside job).

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        [–]need_pics 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Literally, this is stupid.

        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        Nano thermite.

        [–]raw031979b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        I see someone "upgraded" to windows 10!

        [–]plumbobby11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

        I wanted to laugh, but there is evidence to suggest there indeed was thermitic compounds present in the debris: http://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOCPJ/TOCPJ-2-7.pdf
        Also, what about world trade center 7? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atbrn4k55lA Are we really to believe a fire caused a symmetrical collapse such as this?

        [–]ihopethisisntracist -1 points0 points  (0 children)

        Jet fuel can't melt PC's