Trade Expert
Trade Expert
[Cueball as a news anchor is sitting behind a desk with his hand on the desk, leaning towards his off-panel guest to the right.] Cueball: And for more on the summit, we turn to trade expert Dr. Steven Berlee. Cueball: Steven?
[Zoom out to include Dr. Steven Berlee, also drawn like Cueball, with his hands below he desk, sitting behind the desk to the right of Cueball facing towards him, still with his hands on the desk.] Steven Berlee: I'm not actually a doctor or a trade expert. I'm just a programmer who lies to get on news shows.
[Close-up on Steven Berlee.] Cueball (off-panel): What? Why? Steven Berlee: To share a message with newscasters.
[Zoom back out to show both men, the news anchor now also with his hands below the desk.] Cueball: Which is? Steven Berlee: Every time you say "backslash" as part of a web address on air, I die a little.

Cueball as a news anchor has another Cueball-like character as guest in the studio, a doctor who is also a trade expert. However, Steven Berlee turns out to be a fraud. In reality he is a frustrated programmer willing to lie his way on to news show to share his message with any newscasters willing to listen:
Every time you say "backslash" as part of a web address on air, I die a little.
The slash character (/), also known as forward slash, is the correct way to separate distinct parts of a web address; for example in the address " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_(punctuation) ", a slash follows the "org" and the "wiki". However, some newscasters are unfamiliar with the distinction between the different types of slashes, thus confusing the normal slash with the backslash (\), the wrong character. They may also be somewhat overzealous by trying to specify forward- or backslash since just saying "slash" would be sufficient. Also as mentioned in the title text the backslash is used in addresses on a windows PC.
Steven Berlee claims that he suffers every time this mistake is made in a news program, explaining his reason for cheating his way on the air. Steven's name is most likely made up, as it seems to be taken from two or three of the inventors of the Internet :
Searching the internet lists no one called Steven Berlee, and the only references point back to this comic.
The title text refers to how in the Windows operating system, the backslash is actually used instead of the slash as a separator (in contrast to Unix-based systems, which use the forward slash). Thus, the path to any Windows file encoded in a URI (uniform resource identifier) would correctly contain the backslash character. It is possible to pass parameters, including strings, in an internet URI and so you could have an identifier that directly embedded the path of a windows file on a windows server - this would be such a weird and terrible thing to do.
In the title text Steven complains that after having had the modern version of the Internet for 20 years (since early 90s and this comic was released in 2010) they should have learned the difference by now. He also continues to claim that if they do not understand the difference between an internet url and Windows directory paths, and thus embedding these into their urls, then he cannot help them with just a short lecture while he cons his way to time on the air.
[Cueball as a news anchor is sitting behind a desk with his hand on the desk, leaning towards his off-panel guest to the right.] Cueball: And for more on the summit, we turn to trade expert Dr. Steven Berlee. Cueball: Steven?
[Zoom out to include Dr. Steven Berlee, also drawn like Cueball, with his hands below he desk, sitting behind the desk to the right of Cueball facing towards him, still with his hands on the desk.] Steven Berlee: I'm not actually a doctor or a trade expert. I'm just a programmer who lies to get on news shows.
[Close-up on Steven Berlee.] Cueball (off-panel): What? Why? Steven Berlee: To share a message with newscasters.
[Zoom back out to show both men, the news anchor now also with his hands below the desk.] Cueball: Which is? Steven Berlee: Every time you say "backslash" as part of a web address on air, I die a little.
