TITLE The Bastich By Hart: Summer "Vacation" Part 6
PANEL 1 (BAPPER sits at a workstation while BASTICH approaches carrying a familiar high-tech device.) BAPPER: GAH--! Foiled again by the B.S.O.D.--!* Curse you, Gates! BASTICH: Having NT trouble again, I see... BAPPER: Endlessly. Hey, what's with that toaster you've got there? NOTE: (*) Blue Screen of Death
PANEL 2 (BASTICH holds up the device proudly.) BASTICH: FOOL! This is no mere TOASTER! This is my Personal Internet Transporter 2295™ (IPv4 Edition)..! With it, I am able to e-mail myself to anywhere on the Net at downright futuristic speeds! (*)Except for SPAM return addresses, as I discovered very quickly to my dismay...
INSET 1 (In a flashback, BASTICH is ejected by the transporter while holding a baseball bat.) COMPUTER: ADDRESS INVALID! BASTICH: Hey, NО FAIR!
PANEL 3 (BAPPER looks to BASTICH.) BAPPER: Um, 'Stich, you don't suppose I could borrow that plot device for a minute, do you..?
PANEL 4 (BASTICH reluctantly hands the device to BAPPER.) BASTICH: Now, wait... You're not thinking of beaming over to a corporate office in Washington to beat a certain CEO that we all know and love within an inch of his life, are you..? BAPPER: No way..! BASTICH: (whew!)
PANEL 5 (BAPPER gleefully sets the device on his workstation while MTN. DEWD approaches with a golf club. BASTICH peeks in from the panel's edge.) BAPPER: I thought 3/4 of an inch would be best. Dewd, mind if borrow your golf clubs? MTN. DEWD: Might I suggest the 5-iron for extra precision..? BASTICH: (Thinking) Sorry, Bill...
CREDITS Bastich (c) 1997 Joshua Adam Hart
NOTE: No CEOs of major software corporations were harmed in the making of this strip - JAH
Commentary
This week, we get a return visit by El-Krahn's gift in E-Mail THIS!. Also, we acknowledge the reality that the reply-to address from that prior strip wouldn't bring Bastich any closer to sweet revenge against the Spammers.
The Blue Screen of Death should need no introduction to Microsoft Windows users. We were still in the days when a daily reboot was the best way to ensure stability, but programmers and/or gamers (we were both) were good at summoning a BSOD at the most inopportune time, losing some nonzero amount of work in the process.
As I recall, the "real" Bapper and Mtn. Dewd were my consultants on which golf club would be best to meet Bapper's goal.