Comic for Tuesday, November 16th, 2022
Now, I can save us some time in the comments:
- You, Smart Comment Person: PastUtopia, did you really think it was a good idea to label the bubbles with crudely drawn arrows and numbers? Was that the best idea you had to make the page coherently readable?
- Me: Look, by the time I’m posting this this it’s roughly past my bedtime’s bedtime – we are well beyond good ideas, let alone best ideas.
Anyway… it’s not a consistent thing, I just messed up the page layout as I was in a bit of a rush, and didn’t have time to figure out how to untangle it (as that’s sort of challenging once the page is drawn, that’s why you lay these things out first). There’s a lot of a reasons but mostly because I was in a bit a hurry, and predictably I decided to combine two pages together, here we are.
So, if you get confused by the panel order, they are labeled. It’s not that drastically bad, it’s still mostly top to bottom, left to right, but there are a few leaps that don’t really make sense.
Even the time of day (wait, the other thing, where it’s not all black out and everyone else in the world is asleep) I’m posting this, there’s probably a few more grammar errors than there’s been recently. I’ve tried to clean them a little, but this is a dangerous combination of lots of words and well beyond approved working hours for brain cells.
I will definitely miss the 26th, so I will do my best to update next week.
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I am still getting caught up and running a little behind. I don’t think I’ll be able to update this week, but wanted to keep folks in the loop. Next week will definitely have a comic unless something drastic arises.
Past, no problem. Get some rest and enjoy your vacation. We appreciate the work you put into giving us excellent comics for our entertainment and enjoyment. Anyone gives you a problem, let us know and we’ll send the pitchforks and torches their way!
Team Pitchfork!
You have another option now. Catapult crews are being trained. Join now and be one of the first to throw rocks!
If there’s an option for rocks the size of Volkswagens, I’m interested. I don’t much care where they’re aimed, as long as they’re big.
Actually… I’d really like to see a Volkswagen skipped across a lake….a Volkswagen sized rock would be fine too…
Larry, Moe and Curly tried skipping a big rock across a lake. The big rock came off the catapult at too high velocity and vaporized a lot of lake water. However, atmospheric skipping on sub-orbital launches has been achieved. Mr.Bean has taken off the testing team. He had a single orbit skip calculated and one of the two test catapults was destroyed when the big rock returned to sender.
You got your rock back! Congratulations! Ammo is SO expensive these days.
I guess the comic’s running late this week?
I’m travelling this week, so we won’t get one unfortunately. Hopefully there will be a comic 12/5, as I’ll be back by then. No promises yet though, as I’ll have a lot to sort out once I’m back. For this week, the Q&A is serving as our update (linked in a comment below this one).
Yes, “traveling”. Because SOME of us have a ‘Classified IDS Gate Operation Guide’.
I bet it’s one of those really cool exotic resort dimensions too!
You even responded to the post in which he told us that there wouldn’t be a comic today, but that he’d put up the Q&A, while hoping he might get a comic out on 12/5!
Q&A, as promised.
If I missed any questions, feel free to let me know in the comments of it. I’m sure I’ll do another one. Eventually.
Okay, well, I’m just saying.
A PDF of the “Classified IDS Gate Operation Guide” should be something available on one of the Patreon tiers. Maybe like a $500 tier or something?
For that matter, I think I’m going to need to see a list of the available manuals, guides, and other technical publications from Central. And a second job.
I used to get 2 pairs of shoes for that reason, the second pair about 6 months after I was happy with the first. I have small wide feet in the EEEE size.
ugg forgot to double reply to Mr Anderson
You know, when you catch it this quickly, you can click the edit button on the misplaced comment, select all, cut, then click the delete button, then paste that update into a comment in the right place.
Anyone who has signed up for emails for all comments posted will get emails notifying what you did, but the end result will look like you intended. Just sayin, so you know.
This process is why I virtually never show up as having made this mistake.
I was doing a dive through old comics and got to the part where Peter gets another Eidos card. I also went past the part where the author drops some vague hints about Mium’s restrictions. Something about “all activities must have a single decision point” or some such.
It took a couple pages for it to sink in. Those cards mean that anything within a certain range of one of those cards (and whatever is hosting them – usually but not always this host is one of Mium’s bodies) is part of that single immense decision network and thus does not break a coding restriction.
My head hurts now.
Wow!
Until I read your comment I thought that the Eidos cards were what gave the F8 and F5 Miums the ability to null cast and that was it.
I still see the Eidos cards as a way to manipulate Edios data and nothing indicating ability to bypass restrictions. Please post the comic date so I can do another reading binge. I think Peter got the card from one of the tanks that attacked. Don’t remember if they were Kor’s world tanks or local bad guys. Didn’t Naomi rip apart a tank or two?
Thank you.
He’s not bypassing restrictions, far from it. What the cards also do is allow instantaneous communication between cards – wherever they are. This allows everything Mium is doing, in all of his/ it’s bodies to all be operated simultaneously without breaking Mium’s restrictions on multiple instances if that is the right word.
Thank you. Now I understand.
I believe the one thing that requires a restriction bypass is Vium. He’s incompatible with the rest of Mium, so Eidos cards providing instant communication doesn’t bypass his need to be a separate instance.
I’m unclear on whether Vium still requires the AA system, making that system unavailable for the rest of Mium, or not.
I suspect that, should Vium somehow do something that causes a system violation Vium would shut down.
On the other hand, if Vium is still connected to the network he can take over Mium’s operations temporarily should something wipe Mium out for an extended period. Thus Mium has an ace in the hole should something disable him.
It is both complicated and painful to think like Mium. See my much earlier comment about my headache once I realized what the cards did.
Is helpful Mium researching Consul’s idea in this universe?
news.yahoo.com/revolutionary-space-catapult-receives-funding-160912797.html
and
https://www.universetoday.com/138687/space-catapult-startup-spinlaunch-come-stealth-mode-space-catapults-yes-please/
Why wouldn’t he? The physics are a bit different, but the differences are fairly well known, at least to Mium, so he can correct for them.
The second link for SpinLaunch is rather outdated, and Scott Manley’s speculations in the video they link are off-target. It’s not a slingatron, but a simple centrifuge, in a vacuum, through an airlock. (The 1/3-scale suborbital prototype uses a burst barrier, I believe). They’ve had at least 10 launches since October 2021.
(Releases were calling it a slingshot to space, hence Manley’s speculations, which, as always, were interesting. I hadn’t considered either of the two ideas he explored, but for mechanical reasons he didn’t really explore, I don’t think either is practical. You have to consider bearing loads both before and after release, which are simpler with a counter-weighted centrifuge. Somewhere I’ve seen SpinLaunch’s approach to managing the post-launch shift, but I’ve forgotten the details; it was a challenge they had to address).
They also have an interesting reaction-wheel design that offloads the bearings during launch, and a couple of satellite bus designs, compatible with SpinLaunch and other launch systems.
As Manley notes, these are high-G launches, in fact he underestimates them. 10,000 G. That seems like a lot (and is) but it is well within what small satellites can be designed to handle. They benefit from scaling laws. Generally, stiffness will vary as the square of the linear dimensions, while mass will vary as the cube.
Shock loads, and repeated vibratory loads, are often more problematic than a single axial load. Shocks and vibration involve resonances, and vibration can introduce metal fatigue of solder joints, etc. By comparison an axial load is a simple design problem.
The accelerometers in an iPhone 14 measure G forces up to 256 G. And cubesats are based on cell phone chips. Reaction wheels use simple off-the-shelf protocols like I2C and CAN-bus (the former common on things like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, and the latter is universal in automobiles). The military puts processors and guidance systems in artillery shells subject to 80,000 G. And, of course, you can test your package in a centrifuge.
Could an Eidos user mitigate 10,000 G effects on a human body?
Hey Folks-
As was probably inevitable to everyone but me, I am going to miss the comic this week despite my hopes otherwise. It turns out getting ready to get leave ona trip did not increase my free time, and I cannot just stay up till morning to finish the comic this time around.
So here’s the new plan: This week, nothing (as is sadly usual every other week these days). Next week I will do the Q&A post I never did from months ago (as I should have time to do that, just no tablet on which to draw a comic). It’ll be text only as I will not have a drawing tablet, but those are mostly text anyway.
There may or may not be a comic 12/5. I will aim to do one and I have today’s comic partially finished, but it’ll depend on how much I have to do when I get back from traveling.
Sorry about the spotty schedule, and hope you folks have a good Thanksgiving, or good… Last-Week-of-November where that’s not relevant.
This does means that Q&A questions are reopened, so if you have any comic questions you forget to get into the last round (or think I’ve forgotten, as I probably forgot some of them, it’s been months) feel free to post them as replies to the comment, or send to me via email (pastutopia@pastutopia.com).
All the best,
-PastUtopia
we understand man. and like i said, you deserve to take Thanksgiving off. we’ll use the torches to cook the food. can’t let’em go to waste.
NO! No we do not understand! Argghhh! GoComics (this means Dilbert!) has been down for 4 days! And now this!?!
I’m so bored I’m considering reinstalling Twitter!
Somebody help me!
It is frustrating to have a break in the comic in the middle of intense action. If you or anyone else wants $1 compensation for emotional harm, please send SASE and $2 handling fee to my company P.O. box. Not responsible for lost or misdirected mail.
Jim
Followup…
dilbert.com gives “This site can’t be reached”
gocomics.com gives the following error message:
“The requested service is temporarily unavailable. It is either overloaded or under maintenance. Please try later.”
Damn, I wanted to read some Dilbert while waiting for my PastUtopia fix. Sigh …
Crisis averted, it’s back up. Four days of down time.
Past, your plan is greenlit!
Past,
Have a happy Thanksgiving and get rested up.
Have a nice Thanksgiving!
Questions (sorry if it was answered already and I forgot):
What is the difference between demons, constructs and Kally’s dragon?
As far as I understand, demons are their own entities and get summoned from somewhere else. To walk the human realm, they possess a human host who gets killed in the process. Powerful mages might make the demons do their bidding, but otherwise demons do what they like. Constructs are created by a mage and don’t need a host. Usually, they do what they were created for, but they can be possessed by a demon as well.
Fluffy is a construct that once was created by Kally, and now she sends it (him?) to another place and summons it again as she sees fit. While the dragon developed it’s own personality, it is still controlled by Kally and does her bidding.
Am I even remotely right about that? Would Fluffy vanish when Kally faints? Are constructs always anchored in a mage or only if a mage manages to control them? Do constructs need to be anchored as well? Where did demons originate? Were they created by human mages and grew independent?
I thought the numbers and arrows were helpful. Sometimes it can be tricky trying to figure out what the flow of speech is in a comic (especially the “read right to left” ones, but that is another story…). So I have no objections to them. Just want to add that I REALY ENJOY your comic: one of my all time favorites…
Why would the Consul assume her shoe size is difficult to figure out in dialogue 14?
That’s a fair question.
Now I want to know which of our politicians show sizes have been documented. Joe Biden? Trump? Boebert? I’m thinking these web searches will either scar me for life, or land me in prison.
Joe Biden size 12.
Donald Trump size 12.
Lauren Boebert size 6.
In our universe, Mium/Google revealed this classified info.
Oops! I’ve inadvertently revealed just how vast Mium’s network extends!
Well, if you want to get really picky, shoe sizes are much more complicated than we think of them. Most people’s shoe size is just one number, which is probably an integer. Except that shoe doesn’t fit them very well. It fits them well enough that they accept it, but it’s not at all a perfect fit.
Some of us have different feet so our shoe sizes are a little more complicated. Like, say, 11 1/2 EEEE. That sounds like they spent the time to get something that fits better than average. But it doesn’t, really. That’s just as close as they were able to get before running out of patience or maybe options. But it’s still just somewhat acceptable not quite right fit.
There’s enough differences in the way shoe sizes map to shoes, and the actual design of the interior, a size like 11.5 EEEE is actually specific to a brand. If a person with that shoe size tried a different brand, it might be 10.5 EE, or 12, or some other thing. That’s before we get into the fact that feet differ in size in three dimensions, as well as their actual shape. Also, certain medical issues can influence this also.
I believe she expects that Peter & Mium know the exact shoe sizes of everyone involved. If they need to disappear someone and produce a fake body? The shoes that go on the fake body will be the right brand, style, color, size, shape, and wear level. The wear on said shoe will even be consistent with whether they’re duck footed, pigeon toed, or whatever.
Agreed.
My feet are thick. Vertically depth from floor to top of foot.
Mostly flat arches.
I call them hobbit feet, but they’re not really hairy.
Mainly they aren’t “typical”, and I’m sure many people might use the same moniker to describe wildly different feet that don’t fit the average type or some common standard of beauty.
So if I want to wear shoes that don’t hurt, my 10.5 length feet (measured on the shoe scale) fit better in shoes of size 12, usually wide.
And every brand has their own model of sizing. When you’re sensitive, you might find that they change the shoe model that defines what a size means on some shoes or overall for the entire brand. Year to year shoe shopping can be quite frustrating.
They can place shapes along the sides or under the sole that might fit, but for non typical feet are likely to eliminate that line from consideration when it doesn’t fit.
that’s my shoe size too, though i’m thinking about getting a bigger pair of shoes. but the shoes i need have to be ordered online, long story.
Maybe its the trope from japanese light novels of girls wanting to hide their “sizes” ?
I think we can guess part of Peter’s plan here from the last few bubbles. Egenus wanted to make a deal with Peter to launder their illegal research by allowing them to claim to have gotten it from Central. But Peter has given them an alternative cleaner route here: now they can launder the more illegal portions of their research as being recovered from the Alchemical Enterprises, and blame the Rogue Families for everything (as they are known to both do illegal experiments and collaborate with IDS).
He did basically the same thing with the Gate Detector, though with less steps, when he got Ryn and Avon Technologies to take credit for it, despite having nothing to do with it.
Peter probably knows more than Dagan and the Consul could imagine though. I am curious to how they will react when they discover the Mium is Eliana’s “cousin”. Given Eliana seems to know more about Saldur (maybe due to her teacher) than even Ashvalt or Camilla, I would guess Mium (who was pretty involved in that) knows about as much. Mium even knows about the in-between dimension, and how to get in and out of it (with some help). Very likely, Peter knows all of that too now.
Peter further probably knows way more about demons than he has let on so far. Demons are one of the things Peter seems to actually care about. Two of the conversations that hint at the bigger picture there are Miko’s conversation with Arron and Peter’s conversation with the random student describing the Incursion.
One of my more ambitious guesses reading between the lines is that a lot of context and backdrop of the setting is that Kor’s World and the Demons are basically fighting a multidimensional war of some kind, and Central got caught in the crossfire. I have the impression that Peter has no intention of forgiving either side if that is the case.
:%s/\(maybe due to \)\(her teacher\)/\1Saldur having been \2/
Just in case you see this in time to update your post or it’s helpful or something.
By random student, you mean Oriah Nikud, from chapter 13, pages 31 through 33? Light blue hair and eyes, male, unregistered male mage, who studies business especially trade? He was hardly random; he was his father’s son after all. Though I’ll admit I don’t have any clue about who is father is, other than possibly being a Mr. Nikud.
Most of that discussion is on the middle day, aka comic-for-thursday-november-8th-2018, for those who want a refresher.
In any other comic, I’d think the odds of your message being useful were slim. Here? Probably like a 75+% chance. Most of the 25% is timing.
Well, that and the window is 10 hours these days, rather than the 5 minutes we had at times past
I really love the 10 hour window.
Her teacher was Tefzarin, not Saldur, so I think I’d reject that patch.
(See Monday, June 14th, 2021 and spelled out in the commentary for Monday, July 5th, 2021.)
Hmm.. my notes listed her as having studied under both of them, but reviewing the relevant comics, I do not see any indication of her having been Saldur’s student. Database updated. I wonder how many more errors I have like that. :/
It might have been the exchange between Saldur and Eliana about eyesight in the June 14th, 2021 comic that made you think Eliana was Saldur’s student. You may have been up late that night and been out of coffee, Mountain Dew or Jolt.
Eliana’s teacher Tetzarin appears to be one of the dimmer bulbs on the tree. I wonder what happened to him.
Me up late at night? How could that ever happen?
I’ve recently been made aware of a certain amount of correlation between people being night owls and suffering from PTSD.
Just to be clear on this point, it’s entirely possible for someone to just naturally be a night owl. But if they have PTSD, they’re much more likely to want to avoid nightmares, and thus want to avoid sleep as much as feasible.
It’s possible I may resemble that statement a bit.
I’m not sure that Tetzarin is as dim as you may think. It’s my impression that he did a good job of setting himself up as someone who could be reasoned with, rather than someone who needed to be killed. As a result, Tetzarin is probably still alive and kicking somewhere, rather than re-dead like Saldur or beside himself like Saraine ended up.
Yes, he is a bit slow on the uptake, but he’s spent an entire lifetime understanding the rules of the world worked a certain way, only to have Peter pull that rug out from under him. We’ve been given a lot more clues about what’s different than what Tetzarin believed than Tetzarin’s been given. Admittedly, he’s been given clues we haven’t been.
Pretty sure any ‘war’ between Kor’s world and demons is one sided. https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-march-11th-2019/ refers to demons (and fluffy) as an ‘infestation’, which is more like pest control language than war.
I am not as confident. “pest control” could just be Kor’s World propaganda to bolster their troops resolve. I mean, it’s been used that way in other contexts. I think I’ve seen several Marvel villains who claimed taking out the protagonists was going to be like pest control, and at least one from DC.
Grape minds drink alike.
To be fair, ‘infestation’ could refer to extremely dangerous pests, it’s just they aren’t an organized invading force. We’ve seen Kor’s world be extremely concerned about demons, but we’ve never seen any demons be particularly concerned about Kor’s world.
You know, that’s a fair point.
Disorganization tends to be a hallmark of demons, especially those that are inspired by demons from D&D, where they’re Always Chaotic Evil. (Hopefully my not actually linking the temporal trap will make it a less dangerous reference.)
I recall speculation that Kor’s World was basically trying to make a fire break against the spread of the demons, which is why they wiped out Central. I’m not entirely sure it makes sense (since we don’t know how the demons spread), but would line up with a very dangerous infestation.
Or it’s propaganda driven. The Protoss may consider the Zerg to be an infestation, but that’s still a war.
We knew you’d miss 11/26 –> that’s a Saturday! But I’ll assume you mean Monday, the 28th.
I didn’t notice the numbers and arrows until after reading the post-comic comments. It all flowed well enough. But yes, they are a net positive.
Dagan seems to have managed gleaning what Mium is capable of – and how irritated the Consul is!
I imagine the tactical weapon that “went off” was Kally and Fluffy. At least, I hope that was it!
The Saldur and Kafari problems have probably just been raised higher on the to-do list.
We need to be thankful that Peter is not an evil villain with assorted AI minions.
That depends on the perspective. I doubt that everyone on Palindra, Central and Kor sees Peter’s actions as benevolent.
Even Naomi would disagree with you there. The comic where she’s talking to her friend about why she listens to Peter about not joining the MSB. She pretty much called him a villain on their side.
To be fair, the same thing can be said about politicians. 😀
So, I guess plan Hunt Down Saldur is either still in progress, failed, or didn’t disrupt the rest of his house’ dubious activities.
Or maybe it did disrupt the rest of his house’ dubious activities and that’s why the shitty demon was loose rather than controlled. Though, to be fair, that sort of disruption could happen even if Hunt Down Saldur was still in progress. I imagine being technically dead for a few moments to a few hours probably has some impact on things, especially if one has involved oneself a bit more intimately with ones work than is really prudent, as a way to short-cut in a safeguard against family infighting.
“Dagan?”
“Yes, Madame Consul?”
“what does that billboard say?”
“It appears to read ‘Phone 0800-M-Y-M for all your ground-to-orbit catapult needs’ ”
“yes, that’s what I thought. So your next report is?”
…
“Madame, I hesitate to ask but…”
“No, I don’t know what ‘Phone 0800’ means either, but I suspect it isn’t worth the mental anguish it will cost us to find out”
Pity there’s not a like button in the comments section, because I’d have used it here.
Poor Dagan. How does your nice, cushy, no stress job assisting the Consul feel now?
LOL
Nice to see an update anyhow, but… Madame Consult?
(->24, handy to identify the speech bubble concerned :D)
We have all been deceived but Dagan knows that Madam Consul has been replaced by the clone Madam Consult. Oh, wait … that is in another universe and Consult is just a typo. Past is tired and run down.
Unless it is a Freudian slip from Dagan who consults with her all the time.
Ah, you are fooled too. In fact, this is Madame Consul’s standin, here on a short term gig while she gets a well-earned break…
@PastUtopia: look at it this way, at least the numbers and arrows helped us know the order, in what the characters are saying. not only that, but you deserve to take Thanksgiving off. we’ll use the torches for cooking the food.
Agreed. Excellent comic today. Past needs a rest. If he lets us know the problem, perhaps we can send torches and pitchforks that way.
No rest for the wicked! It’s Santa Hat time!
Remember that a vote for Ila (and her rifle!) Is a vote for unity and civility!
Using traditional torches to cook the food is *probably* fine. Using electric torches to cook the food generally doesn’t work as well. Using petrol-powered torches to cook the food can be fairly lethal in the wrong circumstances (or right, depending on your perspective.)
Just sayin, so you know.
(Yes, I know propane grills use a petroleum product, but it’s a bit different as they’re designed to mitigate the issue, while a petroleum soaked rag wrapped around a stick is generally not. Especially since you’re likely to use a heavier and more toxic petroleum for the rag so that it doesn’t evaporate on you.)
I am rather happy with the numbered ballons. Just what the doctor ordered for my flagging brain.
+1
+2
Er .. +3. So much for the state of my brain and numbers…
Me two. Past put a lot of effort into today’s comic and the numbers help the flow make sense. He was tired and has two comics worth of panels. The numbers greatly helped my tired old brain.
If you don’t know how something was done, the answer is always “Peter”.
… Except when it’s “Mium”
But even when it IS Peter, it’s Mym, and when it’s Mym, it’s Peter.
Don’t underestimate Miko’s contributions. But I guess they’re content with Peter getting all the “credit” if that means they don’t have to deal with these annoying things called people.
Yes, that’s why Miko puts up with Peter. So he can take all the blame.
You’d think, but then MYM goes and decides to get around his restrictions on self replication and create not one, but two copies of himself. One of which is isolated on a single computer, and the other is walking talking and threatening to nuke central. Oh, and can use magic and interact with the cards without one.
Basically, MYM has overa priorities and restrictions set by Peter. However, we’ve seen him treat those restrictions as guidelines and have no problems keeping things from Peter if it suits his ends. Oh, and outside those set things, he can do what he wants. Including setting his own priorities.
The one installed on a single computer… that over wrote an existing instance, and so was not an expansion, yes?
Just in case anybody is confused, here’s what I think is the state of things re: Mium. Check me on this, I could be the one confused. It’s come out that’s happened at least once since the last update.
1. M.Y.M. the computer, sits in Miko’s room. Authorized instance. Note that this is technically several computers working as one, except for the A.A. system which is usually offline. When A.A. goes online, M.Y.M. does something similar to a mutual exclusion block which obstructs a lot of the multi-tasking M.Y.M. generally does.
2. Mium Effaite, wearer of blue scarves, the first Mium we met and realized it. Authorized instance.
3. M.Y.M. the avatar, is projected wherever M.Y.M. the computer is connected (directly or indirectly) and wants to go. Not actually an instance, more of a login account or something.
4. Mium Effive, wearer of suits, the third? Mium we met. Authorized instance.
5. Miko interface Mium. Appears as Miko’s avatar while Miko’s not connected to stuff. Or is this actually Miko, using her implant? Where does Miko end and Mium start? Whatever is going on here, it was authorized.
6. Query, now part of Mium. It’s my impression Query is mostly acting as a monitor/trainer for the rest of Mium. To the extent this is an instance, it’s almost certainly authorized and probably the most trusted part of Mium.
7. Ila interface Mium, became Vium. Was authorized in the first instance, but was supposed to be shut down and wasn’t. Now running around in the F11 chassis, last seen with Dendrin and Tom.
8. The Consul’s Mium. This is Mium running on an offline system. It was almost certainly initially authorized to demonstrate something or other to The Consul. At least, when Peter discussed it with Miko, there wasn’t concern about the fact that it existed. But later, after Vium’s separation from the Mium conglomerate, it was authorized by Miko to go online again to attempt to cover for Miko’s hair accident. So, authorized instance, but probably shouldn’t have been. It’s not clear to me what exactly is going on here. I think we’ve been out of touch with that situation for way too long for anyone but Past and maybe MayW to know what’s happening there.
9. Lab 5 M.Y.M., the original seat of M.Y.M. This has been overwritten. I’m not entirely clear on what is currently installed at this location. That said, if it’s Mium, it’s from a restoration, rather than having continued on since Peter’s consultation contract with AVon. It probably wouldn’t be considered an expansion on its own. It’s possible this is the home base for Vium right now. Whatever is here, though, I’m pretty sure Peter and Miko at least know about it.
I think you might be confusing 8 and 9. To be clear, 9 is “the computer” for an android prototype lab. Knowing something of how complicated that sort of thing is in the real world where we are not really all that close to anything like Mium, it’s my guess it’s really more of a cluster of computers that operate as a multi-homed virtual system.
To be clear, some of that listing is probably wrong in some way. It’s just what I currently have documented as the state of things in the comic, not necessarily what the actual state of the comic is.
Thank you for the list!
There was also the instance of Query on Mari’s stick but it probably connected to M.Y.M. through a gate mere seconds after Mari booted it.
And I was under the impression that the Query on Kyle’s flying terminal was an instance of Query without M.Y.M. integration. But it clearly had some link to M.Y.M. (an automated SOS signal at least), because Mium showed up to repair it.
Ah, right. I initially didn’t count Mari’s stick, because it was just removable media, not a running instance. But then she used it.
That said, I doubt that it was a real Mium instance. It feels much more likely that it was a Mium VPN/terminal or something similar.
This may not change your count, but you seem to treat “instances of M.Y.M.” and places where he runs as the same thing. We’ve seen Miko give Mium extra processors. He’s got to be running on multiple systems, forming a single coherent identity, much like any large website is a cluster of clusters behind the scenes, with different clusters performing different roles. Creating a separate instance would seem to involve some form of partitioning, with much less sharing of data, identity, and awareness.
There could be varying degrees of separation. Vium might be mch more separate than Miko interface Mium, for example. That’d certainly complicate counting!
An impressive and helpful list, regardless! This is why I check this comic daily for updated comments, even when I know there won’t be an update to the comic itself1
Tgape,
Maybe it would be easier to track the cards rather than MyM Instances. They are physical and represent the primary nodes of MYM. Peter still needs to harvest them from Kor’s World soldiers because he hasn’t been able to replicate the technology.
I suspect one is embedded into Peter’s arm so he can reboot MYM if he needs to(and has).
There is one in the Primary node in Miko’s House,
Miko’s Implant is/was probably one as well and was how she was able to take over the Lab5 computer which also had one, and was why that huge data transfer was successful.
F5 and F8 both have cards.
That is 5 total.
ViMium in the F11 chassis and doesn’t have a card
Ila doesn’t have a card either.
Query going offline was a volume of data not needed to run over the cards, and Mari’s USB is a similar low bandwidth product.