2010-01-21
Explanation
Titled "IT Tip: Match Your Pricing to the Age of Your Client," this comic shows an IT repair person sitting with a screwdriver next to an elderly man'''s computer. The old man asks, "What'''s wrong with my computer box?" -- already signaling his complete lack of technical knowledge by calling it a "computer box." The IT person responds with deliberate nonsense: "It'''s your binary... too many zeroes, not enough ones." When the old man nervously asks, "Can... can I get more ones?" the IT person replies, "Hoo... not for cheap you can'''t."
The joke is about how tech-illiterate customers (stereotypically older people) are vulnerable to being scammed by unscrupulous IT repair workers who can make up any technical-sounding gibberish to justify inflated charges. The "too many zeroes, not enough ones" diagnosis is complete nonsense, but to someone who has no understanding of how computers work, it sounds plausible enough to open a wallet.
The votey panel continues the scam with the IT person saying, "Ooh, crud. Your Unix is leaking Perl." This is another layer of absurd techno-babble -- Unix is an operating system and Perl is a programming language, so the idea of one "leaking" the other is meaningless jargon designed to further frighten the clueless customer into paying more.