Debugging
Debugging
[Cueball and White Hat are walking, while Cueball holds a hand out while talking.] Cueball: I was trying to figure out why my browser was acting weird.
[In a frame-less panel they keep in walking, Cueball holds both hands up in front of him.] Cueball: Turns out it wasn't the browser-the issue was with my keyboard driver.
[Zoom in on Cueball's upper torso as he is holding a finger up.] Cueball: Debugging that led me to a mysterious error message from a system utility...
[Zoom out as Cueball holds up a miniature sword by the blade in one hand. White Hat turns his head around and looks at it while they keep walking.] Cueball: Anyway, long story short, I found the sword of Martin the Warrior. White Hat: I think at some point there you switched puzzles.

Cueball is telling White Hat about his attempt at debugging , i.e. the process of finding out what is causing a given (computer) problem, which can become increasingly difficult and convoluted. In this case, Cueball had a problem with his browser . His attempts to solve this problem led him to a problem with the device driver for his keyboard . Chasing that issue, he found an unclear error message from a system utility , and so on.
Cueball decides to "make a long story short" by skipping several steps he believes are boring, and he unexpectedly reveals this process has led him to find the “ Sword of Martin the Warrior ”, a legendary relic from the children's fantasy novel series Redwall . This refers to the fact that a complicated riddled path was devised in the series that would lead to the sword, which is similar to the process of debugging, as it involves following clues to achieve an answer. But apart from that, they are entirely different. [ citation needed ] This is pointed out by White Hat who states that at some point in the process he switched from the puzzle of debugging to the Redwall puzzle of finding Martin's sword. Redwall has been referenced before, most prominently in 370: Redwall ; where Martin and the sword can be seen; but also in 1286: Encryptic and more recently in 1688: Map Age Guide .
Googling an error message is a common method used during debugging, often leading to useful information. However, when there are no search results for a given message, it may mean the problem is so obscure that almost nobody had experienced it before. (See also 979: Wisdom of the Ancients about getting only one result.) Or, as the title text hints, it might mean it was a hidden clue to the location of Martin’s sword.
[Cueball and White Hat are walking, while Cueball holds a hand out while talking.] Cueball: I was trying to figure out why my browser was acting weird.
[In a frame-less panel they keep in walking, Cueball holds both hands up in front of him.] Cueball: Turns out it wasn't the browser-the issue was with my keyboard driver.
[Zoom in on Cueball's upper torso as he is holding a finger up.] Cueball: Debugging that led me to a mysterious error message from a system utility...
[Zoom out as Cueball holds up a miniature sword by the blade in one hand. White Hat turns his head around and looks at it while they keep walking.] Cueball: Anyway, long story short, I found the sword of Martin the Warrior. White Hat: I think at some point there you switched puzzles.
