Good thing he didn't praise III

Again, I follow a cartoon that made me think with one that just made me giggle.

Except that this strip also made me think, after it made me giggle. But it made me think about technical issues.

The name of this strip is "Pros and Cons." For its first three years, it was called "A Lawyer, A Doctor and A Cop," but two years ago -- two years ago -- it was changed to "Pros and Cons." I note this because, when I right-click and hit "save image" for the strip, the file is still named "Lawyer." And the link refers to it as "Lawyer." You'd think, after two years, they'd update things, but that's not always the case.

Sloppy use of file names is on my mind because yesterday, the Portland Press-Herald (and perhaps their other two Maine newspapers, but I didn't check) ran their comics page from one year ago. I'm reasonably certain that it had to do with an incorrect file name. Either someone mis-named it when they laid the page out, or someone called up and sent out the wrong file, though it would be easier to imagine either thing happening in February than in November, by which time you are expected to know what year it is.

But it was election night, there is a lot going on, and I suppose you could start to input something involving the sequence 1103 and when one pops up, you don't look at the 09 that follows before sending it to the imagewriter.

And I'm sure, with election results coming in, there were a lot of hot pages needing attention and the comics are considered a gimme, laid out early and then ignored. Someone in the newsroom may give the advice column a once-over, but comics are graphic elements, not text. They'd no more proof the comics than they'd proof the ads, even on a calm night.

All of which comes under the heading of "explanation" rather than "excuse." There is a difference.

If something like this did happen in the newsroom, there would be a meeting, followed by a brief explanation in the paper, but it happened in the backshop where the outcome for error tends to be a little more dire. Production managers are not, by nature, philosophical.

No matter what you do with computers, and we all do something with them, it's a good idea to pay attention to file names and make sure they are accurate, even if you think you've got it all under control. Especially if you think you've got it all under control.

And, for the record, I agree with the defendant.

And, also for the record, the backshop at the Press-Herald will have to work a lot harder than this if they want to make the newspaper look any more inane than its publisher did earlier this year.

Comments

[Gilda92]

Good lord! I didn't even notice the name change! Two (2) years ago?!?!? That's probably because our local fishwrap prints the strips so tiny the title is probably in 2 point.