Anyway, in non-romance stuff Spoiler: TAAO 10 So are spiders just their own semi-tribe on Eukaris? And then some of the spiders have prophecy but they're all Fate Spinners? What tribe would insects and arachnids fall into, if not? Not Scale Walkers, not Wave Walkers, not Cloud Walkers, not Fur Walkers... this big furry classification system has some gaps. :(
No actual content here, just poking fun at some silly technobabble in issue #25. Spoiler: Prowl assigns the worst busywork Prowl is asking this injured former Navy SEAL to help out with an investigation. Okay fine but. He's spent the last week doing what now? It sounds a little awkward because File Transfer Protocol is a thing. It's usually called FTP. There are other file transfer protocols, but why would they be using more than one? And a transfer protocol will prooooobably not be importing data into a database. Such a protocol knows how to transmit data but would not typically know or care what you do with the data beyond that. Importing data into a database may or may not be as simple as copying files into the correct new location (it's often not), but the simpler it is, the less believable it is that this process requires constant human supervision. For a week. So what exactly is this guy overseeing? Because I have a hilarious (to me at least) mental image in which the bots have fired up Wireshark (a program that allows you to view network traffic, in real time if you like) and just parked this guy in front of a computer to watch for FTP packets. You know, for reasons. Spoiler: details about exactly what i'm picturing here This is what a Wireshark capture looks like. During a live capture the part with the colored lines is often scrolling insanely fast because that's literally a list of everything going across the part of the network to which the interface is connected, and modern bandwidth being what it is, that's... potentially a lot. The whole bottom half of the screen is the details for a single line entry from the top. (In this case it's the details for the TCP packet that is frame 11, which just so happens to be the opening move of something called a three-way handshake. It's sometimes difficult not to snicker in computing lectures.) The point I'm trying to make is that unless Navy SEAL guy knows some shit about networking and/or has a really specific task, making him literally watch a file transfer protocol is even less useful than making him watch a download progress bar. Because there's no progress bar. Just more of this. He's been doing this for a fucking week. It just seriously cracks me up. Poor guy. Are they punishing him for something? (Alternately, this guy is a former Navy SEAL and current SQL programmer. He has repeatedly attempted to explain what he does to Prowl, who manages to give the impression that the entire topic is so obvious that it's baffling that anyone would feel the need to discuss it. Then a few days later Prowl will show up when he's on break, loom a bit, and make sympathetic but pointed conversation about how much time is apparently required to determine whether the all the data is normal. Navy SEAL guy is pretty sure he's being messed with at this point, especially since the most egregious comments always seem to happen when Prowl wants something.) The absolute worst busywork.
another dude commented on TAAO 10, in response to no homo bro: Spoiler "You must be new to the franchise. The rest of us have been getting used to the idea that an essentially immortal all-male society is gonna have some homosexual overtones crop up once in a while since the mid-80s...maybe one of your upcoming high school classes will enlighten you on Greek and Roman societies, as far as that's concerned. Otherwise, welcome to the modern world." so that's a bit nice!!
We'll be streaming RiD 2015 for the next couple of hours if anyone wants to join in. We'll start with episode 12 http://lets.rabb.it/886j/S6RR1FLvDD
The comics industry is incredibly fucky about sales. Here's a very snarky article about the fuckery. I don't know how IDW calculates their sales, but they do use the same distributor as Marvel and DC, which may not actually be their fault as it seems Diamond pretty much has a monopoly. Unlike with most books, unsold comic books under this distribution model can't be returned to the publisher. The retailer takes the hit. Which understandably makes retailers hesitant to stock too many copies of too many titles that may not sell. Which has a self-fulfilling prophecy problem, because the titles readers are likely to discover in stores are the ones they already knew about anyway. There's now this entire situation in which preorders are like the most important possible factor in determining whether a series will be considered profitable enough to continue, to the point where you've got Brian Michael Bendis begging people on twitter to preorder any series they like or else it might die. Which is not actually significantly different from what I've heard from other comics industry people. I don't know whether IDW is any better about this than Marvel and DC. (For added fun, Diamond's monthly Previews catalog, which tells you about the stuff you can preorder, has a suggested retail price of four bucks. Their website is really excited about how this is a price reduction. I think it's free to download though.) Also, #1 issues tend to sell more than an issue of an ongoing series. I have no idea whether any of this was a deciding factor in the cancellation of TAAO.
Yeah, the entire system is dependent on a) people being close enough to a physical comic store to go there regularly and b) putting up their money long before they know whether or not something is good. If you hear a comic is good on word of mouth, buy it, and recommend it? That is not worth anything because it's not you predicting that the comic would be good 3 months ago. It also assumes that paper copies are the best for everyone. Which is not true. I much prefer to wait for trades so I can have all the copies together in a more sturdy form. But the companies don't care about that either!
So Soundwave's alt mode in the first episode of the G1 cartoon is a lamp post. The transformation sequence for that is hilarious btw. He sort of hunches forward a little. Anyway when we were streaming it recently I mentioned there were tons of visual references to it in the comics. Soundwave-shaped lamp posts just there in the background. Well I just found some! Transformers 2009 #26 Spoiler: very large for maximum visibility This happens somewhat frequently. I approve.
Ok so I've been watching Transformers Animated for the first time and I just reached season 3 and HOLY SHIT DEAD ROBOTS BATMAN did they just not get renewed and decide to get super graphic, or what?
I just got the animated comics anthology, and I haven't read it all yet, but I saw tyre part where Ultra Magnus wants to try am experimental medical procedure and says 'find me someone... expendable' (also once you finish that, you should check out mllemusketeer's fic The Brave Shall Heed The Call. 11/10, definitely recommend)
I've actually read that fic, and it remains one of my favorites! ...dispite my disagreeing with Optimus's characterization half the time. GOOD STUFF. I'm also about to re-read Cybertronian Genesis, which is my other TFA fic favorite. (It's kind of funny but I've been reading TFA fic for this long but never actually watched it till now)
Also, going back to TFA fics for a minute: If you guys aren't reading Battlesleep, you probably should try it. It's equal parts snarky and adorable and I like it lots.
It's really unknown how many comics are sold online or in trades. Diamond is the only distributer that releases it's numbers publically...the various companies do not publish the other numbers. So it's impossible to know which sales were bad enough where to cancel taao. Imo the comics industry should care more about selling trades, but I think all their models are still based on selling individual issues month to month.
