COMIC & BLOG
iTUNES FEED
EMAIL JOEL
It’s Hardly Noticeable
This comic is a combination of the problems Josh and I had this weekend. Josh, for the first time ever, tried to use the HDMI cable connection on the 50″ 1080P Samsung LCD TV he bought over a year ago and realized it had probably been fucked all along. I actually had a dead pixel on my Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet (which is basically a small monitor that you draw on with a pen stylus).
I did some research on how to fix dead or “stuck” pixels and the options ranged from easy to adventurous. The scary method involved using a screw driver and a rag to “massage” the pixel back into working order. No joke. I’m sure if that didn’t work I would be advised to “caress” it with a brick wrapped in newspaper. Luckily, the simple option was to run a Java applet that flashed every color in the rainbow on and off 100 times a second, which worked splendidly. The seizures it produced were spectacular, though I regret biting off my tongue as that I used it frequently to speak and enjoy ice cream.
Things to look out for this week:
- An update on “The Experiment“
- New Shirts in The Store
- New Print offerings in the store
- other… things
If you’ve ordered a personal Avatar from The Store, I should be completing them this week. If you’ve already ordered a Print you should be receiving it shortly. Feel free to send in pics of you and your print (or shirt or desktop) to comics(at)hijinksensue.com. I’ll post them on Flickr!
Tags: tech
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August 5th, 2008 at 8:15 am
[...] I See Dead Pixels (Pic) Creative use of balloon (Pic) [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
[...] I See Dead Pixels (Pic) Creative use of balloon (Pic) [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Dead pixels are like that damned FedEx arrow. Once you see it, it's all you can see.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Exactly, same goes for any small off-detail…
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
This is why I'm putting off buying an LCD and denying myself the HDiey goodness. Just 1 dead pixel would drive me insane.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Panel 2, bubble 2, line 6, remove first word.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
What? That is a lot of A for a TV with a dead pixel.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Yes. Yes it will. I have one stuck pixel that will not be un-stuck. I am this close to selling my monitor on ebay and buying a new one. I've only had it for 4 months. It consumes me.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
So were you able to fix the dead pixel on your Cintiq with that Java voodoo? (or some other method) Inquiring minds want to know!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Well, unless Josh is Canadian–which lord help him, I can only pray that he is not. -Not living in Texas anyway. A Gaynadian, for instance. I can't see that many "ay's" carrying smoothly in the course of conversation. And while my mechanics are trash, grammatically, I can't imagine it works. The difference between, "…so much a for a tv…" and, "…so much for a tv…"
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
After the massaging, the next step is a reacharound.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Totally just fixed a stuck pixel on a friend's brand new monitor by poking it a few times with the tail end of a grape Blow Pop. =3
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Eli's expression in panel three is amazing.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
is a "wrag" a special, technical term that I'm not familiar with or just a really funny typo?
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
LOL I had some dead pixels, then I cleaned my monitor…literally. all better now.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Good example. The first time I saw that I felt like an idiot.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I had one on my monitor at my old job and I changed my desktop to better hide it. it was peering through my soul.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Get a Plasma. You wont have dead pixels, just ghosting and burn in.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Fixed! Thanks.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Oh yeah, it worked. I edited the post to mention that. It was http://www.jscreenfix.com/.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
But then you never call that particular pixel again.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
That makes a lot more sense than a freaking screw driver. Sounds a lot less intimidating.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I put my nintendo DS Lite in my pocket with my wallet. I've got like… 40 dead pixels around the outside of the top screen. I never see them unless the screen goes black, but I know they're always watching.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Funny and AWESOME!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Josh's laptop screen looks like he's constantly sprinkling bread crumbs on it.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
well, laptops are humanities best, last hope for a place to put a sandwich.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Damn, I didn't see that arrow, now i can't stop looking at it.
*shakes fist in anger*
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I say the best way to get rid of dead pixels is to revive him with CPR!
If that doesn't work you can 'gently' shoot it with a shotgun, that will get rid of the pixel … and half of your screen.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I eat nothing but croutons directly over it.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I like
"I eat nothing but bread crumbs (period)"
That would say a lot about your character.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
one day 40 single pixel wide laser beams will fire simultaneously into your brain and make you a robot slave.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
is a pixel ever truly alive?
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Lord! -The burn-in! It kills me that airports spent All of that money to look hi-tech, and now half the flight status displays are illegible because the static fields are totally trashed. It's like a holocaust on tiny little fluorescent bulbs.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Certainly you couldn't look it in the eye.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Who you kidding–it's the gay dandruff. The last tell-tale sign of the demonic homo-queer. They do adhesive tape testing at my local recruiting office.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Why would you want to? Sure, some pixels look different than others, but that one's ridiculous; you'd be doing yourself a solid not to be associated with it. The sooner it's out of your life, the better.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I tried that applet once. It didn't do me much good. The pixel was probably dead anyway.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
And every conversation you have thereafter will be fraught with the awkward feeling that you BOTH know in the back of your minds what happened.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
"Gently massage until the pixel gets off–er, returns to working order."
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
One dead pixel is ok.
You hardly see them if the resolution is in HD mode.
Complaining about on broken pixel is typical for geeks.
Normal people just accept that life is not as perfect as it is advertised.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Oh my god. What is a fucking arrow doing there!
So, I live in Wisconsin. One of our sports teams is the Milwaukee Brewers (they play baseball, for you non sports fans). From 1978-1983 this was their logo. Since this was the last time they were in the playoffs, this logo appears on a lot of retro merchandise.
<img src="http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/images/history_logo2.gif"> (don't know if I can use html here, but the url is http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/images/histo...)
It's a baseball mitt. But it also contains the letters M and B in it, for Milwaukee Brewers. One of the girls I work with (who is not a casual Brewers fan) just found out like last week that there was an M and a B there.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Is that like the up arrow in the Rock Band logo?
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
And it still makes more sense than the (thankfully) now defunct Montreal Expos logo.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
That's why normal life is for losers… and why we are geeks.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I used to think that the Goodyear tire logo was some sort of weird bird. Turned out to be a foot with a wing.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Get an LCoS or DLP. No burn-in, no ghosting, no dead pixels.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I agree. +1 for drawing his hands behind his glasses like that.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I just thought of something. It would have been awesome if the dot was in the same spot of each panel, the characters forced to interact around that infernal dot.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I had a dead pixel on my DS when I first got it. That motherfucker went back to the store to be exchanged. There is no way in hell I could've completed New Super Mario. Bros with it. I tried and my brain started bleeding.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Blood + tears = panel 4 is classic.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Larry Craig's new defense is that he was massaging a dead pixel.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Excellent comic! In Joel's absence, Eli is taking Joel's role – finding Josh's sore spot and poking at it until the subject bleeds.
"Das fencen switchen" Heh!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Panel 3 sans text bubbles = Awesome Wallpaper
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Oh yeah, baby. Caress that pixel like a shorn badger.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Scratched my head, visited Fedex.com, stared at logo, suddenly saw arrow, can't unsee it. Thanks John!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
lol! That's a great idea for a follow-up to this one.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Oh, I forgot to say something when I commented yesterday… I'm really looking forward to using my new avatar as soon as it's done!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
It's funny, I did a google image search of the word "FedEx" and on the very first page of results there's a discussion about the FedEx arrow.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Which really does sound plausible, considering his arrest in an airport bathroom.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Hmmm… I wonder what "bad"'s comment was that it was deleted…
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I read it, he was a dick, end of story.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Wow, that sounds like the memoir of my life.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I thought the same thing. I was an adult when I finally figured it out.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
The arrow doesn't stick, for me. I notice it, forget it, repeat. In the Alaska Airlines tail logo though, I've always seen a black dude with elegantly greying temples. At some point I found the name of the airline, and then the image clicked for me.
http://oregonmag.com/MyEskimo.htm
Now I see Oliver, and remember the black dude.
http://oregonmag.com/MyEskimo.jpg
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Clumsy me with the cut and paste. The link for "Oliver" is this:
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=31442...
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I just found out.
Thanks!
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I had no idea dead pixels could be fixed.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
but not FLAT! Thats the whole point.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Its back now.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I use mine as a vegetable cutting board.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Theres no way i could COMPLETE New SMB. It was crazy fantastic but the end was HARD.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I should have worked "Sweat" in there somehow.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Its usually a decision of "who's abusing josh this week?" I ALWAYS want it to be me, so I have to consciously select Eli sometimes.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Im behind on these. Sorry.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Yeah it was just a dick comment from Digger. Something like "comic bad fail ass."
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I have had years of Mario training and I also have the uncanny ability to fireball the living shit out of the last boss.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
That's such a pet peeve of mine. I know there's constructive criticism, but if you're gonna waste your time to comment on something that you hate without actually suggesting on ways to improve it, then what the hell is the point?
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Thanks. Tried something a little different.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I was gonna send you a message on Twitter about these, but I'll lay off since you said something.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Followed your example, and now that damn arrow is EVERYWHERE.