

That Lost 4G Phone - alexitosrv
http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/thatlost4gphone/

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RyanMcGreal
More interesting than the comics (which came off a bit forced to me) is the
following:

>I worried that the story would become stale before my comics would work
through the pipeline. I think the soonest I can get something published is in
about a month, perhaps a bit sooner, but I've never tested it.

A month to go from the final draft of a black-and-white, three-panel, line-
drawn comic to publication in a daily newspaper. A _month_!

And people wonder why newspapers are gradually becoming irrelevant.

~~~
CWIZO
I think what he was trying to say is that he has a 1 month worth of comics
done that are waiting to be published, and if he would sent a new one it would
get it's turn in one month ...

~~~
allwein
No, he had it right.

"I think the soonest I can get something published is in about a month ... it
wasn't worth the extra friction to push them to the front of the line"

So if he had made a big push, he could have gotten them published in a month.
He goes on to say when it would be published if he submitted it at the end of
his queue.

"And it would be June 18th before they ran in their normal position, which
seemed too far in the future."

------
danieldon
"That's a coincidence because _I sell other people's belongings_ "

Well put.

~~~
endtime
IIRC, the guy tried several times to return it to Apple, and they kept
ignoring him. And he waited three weeks before selling it, giving them ample
time to get in touch with him if it was really theirs. Since Apple remotely
bricked it, he had no way of getting in touch with Gray or any of his
friends/colleagues directly.

So it really seems like the guy's options were to sell it to Gizmodo, or let
it sit in a drawer forever. If the account above is accurate, then I don't
think it's fair to imply the guy was acting in bad faith.

~~~
iron_ball
Or to send it to Apple in a simple padded mailer. Or to bring it to the
police. Seriously, his "only option" was to tell it to a gossip blog for
thousands of dollars?

~~~
jrockway
So Apple loses this thing that's worth a lot to them. Critical "trade
secrets". He tries to return it, they don't say anything. He could give the
super-valuable thing he recovered back to him for free, but why should he?
What obligation does he have to work for Apple for free?

Instead, he decided to cash in. Seems reasonable to me.

~~~
potatolicious
> _"He could give the super-valuable thing he recovered back to him for free,
> but why should he?"_

Because it's illegal to keep it - if he knows who it belongs to he is _legally
compelled_ to return it to its owner.

Them pesky laws, always getting in the way of profit.

~~~
jrockway
Arguably, Apple didn't want the phone, since he tried to return it and they
didn't care. So, he eBayed it. (Or the moral equivalent thereof.)

~~~
sophacles
It's fundamentally the same as the classic "found wallet". If it isn't
claimed, it reverts to "finders keepers". So I have no idea why people are
voting you down.

~~~
Pheter
Not from a legal perspective.

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iamwil
So while the #2 link at the moment is HN 3 years ago and we say hey, those
links were interesting back then.

And over here at #1, we have 88 votes for a comic strip. With the top comment
saying 'well put'

I like Dilbert as much as anyone else. But ask yourself: did you learn
anything? Long lasting interest doesn't come cheap. Some may say, 'hey,
lighten up', but I'd say, 'hey, we already have reddit'.

~~~
jrockway
Someday, you will learn that life is long enough to both learn _and_ have fun.

~~~
iamwil
_sigh_ yes. By stating something that no one's going to dispute--myself
included (I mean, who doesn't want to learn and have fun at the same time?),
it diminishes what I was getting at.

In the case of dilbert comics, it was fun, but didn't learn much. That's what
I'm against. Sure, there are other things that are also learning and fun,
which is great.

If fun is sugar and learning is fiber in cereal, all I'm saying is beware
eating sugar-only cereal. If you want sugar-only, we've got reddit. Important
thing is to have the fiber, regardless of sugar or not.

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MikeCapone
Am I the only one who doesn't find it funny? Not because I don't think jokes
should be made about the situation, but rather because I think those
particular jokes aren't very good.

~~~
mortenjorck
It guess it just came off as strange to me because it's a stretch in terms of
scope. For the comic's history, the jokes have generally implied that
Dilbert's unnamed employer produces some kind of sprawling enterprise
software, maybe with a consumer version, and to suddenly have them building
next-gen smartphones is jarring enough to distract from the gag.

There _is_ something cool about seeing a never-to-be-printed Dilbert strip,
though.

~~~
allwein
I was always under the impression that Dilbert's company was some sort of
sprawling conglomerate like G.E. that produces all sorts of products. Dilbert
and his coworkers seem to bounce pretty freely between hardware and software
products.

Also, I don't think continuity is one of Scott's goals at all. In fact, I
suddenly realized how absurd it was to be discussing what is and isn't Dilbert
Canon.

~~~
hernan7
There's no Dilbert canon at all. Adams even draws Dilbert's mouth now and
then.

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noonespecial
_Take a moment to marvel at the fact that I didn't need to add anything to the
story as it has been told in the media. All it really needed was Wally._

That's all a lot of things need... Half his genius seems to be simply applying
Wally to the right circumstances.

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mcav
I liked the following idea (from a commenter on the site) better than the
originals:

> _Alternatively, it could be funny if Wally became a hero at work when he
> suddenly delivers an amazing 4G phone that finally makes the company
> successful - right up until the time it's discovered that he didn't actually
> develop it, but found it on the counter at the coffee shop._

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ck2
Kinda ruined it when he has to explain it.

Way too literal in the first place, should have made some kind of parallel.

~~~
bretpiatt
His stuff is often very literal, you just never worked for the company he was
writing about (former Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T employee here).

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jrockway
Excellent. The facial expressions and choice of characters are just perfect.

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ismin
I love Dilbert - this cartoons from the post are brilliant =)

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thought_alarm
Funniest Dilbert episodes I've read in a while.

