Editing 2963: House Inputs and Outputs

{{comic
| number    = 2963
| date      = July 24, 2024
| title     = House Inputs and Outputs
| image     = house_inputs_and_outputs_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x684px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = People think power over ethernet is so great, and yet when I try to do water over ethernet everyone yells at me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a possible reference to [[1037: Umwelt]] in panel 16 - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is another comic in a series depicting "confusion matrices", similar to [[2420: Appliances]], [[2813: What To Do]] and [[1890: What to Bring]]. It is arranged as a table of five columns of conduits to and from a house, by five rows of resources and people, each of which typically enter, exit or both enter ''and'' exit the house via a least one of the identified conduits. The table cells are given a green background for compatible methods of transit and a red tint is used for the more problematic pairings. Each panel can be read as "[row label] [entering and/or exiting] the house via the [column label]", for example, "Fresh water entering the house via the well".

{| class="wikitable" style="background-color: lightpink;"
! !! Well !! Garage !! Power lines !! Front door !! Septic tank
|-
! Fresh water (Input)
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| The purpose of a well is usually to pump fresh water into the home, primarily for drinking or washing. || Long gone are the days of {{w|Labours_of_Hercules#Fifth:_Augean_stables|having to clean up after your primary mode of transportation}}, for most people. || Water either shouldn't, or cannot be carried through electrical lines. || Many people prefer to control the amount of water they get, and the water may damage things inside the house. || Most people don't want anything they drink to contain (or go through pipes that have contained) sewage.
|-
! Cars (Input/Output)
| Most cars manufactured in recent years can't fit inside a well.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Garages are in fact built for the storage of cars and other similarly-sized vehicles. Placing a car in one will both help protect it from the elements and make it easier to access from inside your own home. || As of yet, cars cannot be transferred through power lines and require roads to travel on. However, this could significantly reduce travel costs. || Most cars can’t fit through doors, apart from the garage door. || Comedian {{w|Garrison Keillor}}'s 2008 ''More News from Lake Wobegon'' includes a story where an old septic tank is discovered to actually be a buried car.[https://theseriouscomedysite.com/comedy-cd-or-download/garrison-keillor-more-news-from-lake-wobegon/]
|-
! Electricity (Input)
| This would contaminate your water supply. || In the United States, lightning is responsible for causing around 24,600 structure fires annually, resulting in $8 to $10 billion in losses. 
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Power lines are designed to facilitate the connection of individual homes to the broader local power network. Randall does not identify that electricity can also be an output: e.g. houses with solar panels regularly export electricity too. || {{w|Benjamin Franklin}} independently re-invented the {{w|lightning rod}} to prevent lightning strike damage to structures. || As Knit Cap demonstrates, this would not be the most convenient idea.
|-
! People (Input/Output)
|style="background-color: lightpink"| This cell depicts a view from inside a well, a very dangerous place for most people.{{Citation needed}} Due to the image being drawn from the point of view of a [[:Category:Comics with inverted brightness|mostly dark scene]], it looks <span style="background-color: black; color: lightpink;">red-on-black</span> rather than black-on-red. The motif has a form resembling the poster art for the 2002 horror movie remake ''{{w|The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring}}'', which involves a girl left to die in a well and becoming a vengeful ghost.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Though not outright designed for it, a person can enter and exit their home through the garage door just fine, provided the garage has an internal door to the rest of the home. Not the best way to welcome guests though. || Overhead power lines to homes are generally not strong enough to climb, and attempting to do so incurs a very serious risk of electrocution. 
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| The front door of a home is designed for entry and exit of humans and similarly sized items. || In general, people find crawling through waste unwanted. Also, the septic tank is not connected to the street.
|-
! Sewage (Output)
| Sewage in drinking water can cause disease. It is/was the main cause for most {{w|cholera}} epedemics.
|colspan=3| Sewage spills are smelly, disgusting, hard to clean, and can destroy carpets, floors, and drywall.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| A {{w|septic tank}} is an underground chamber through which wastewater flows for basic {{w|sewage treatment}}.
|}

The title text references {{w|Power over Ethernet|Power over ethernet}}, first implemented in the early 2000s, which passes electric power along with data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. This was a welcome development, as it removed the need for many lower-power network-connected devices to have independent power supplies, and potentially simplifies their installation and relocation. While networked water delivery ("running water") is also a welcome development, doing so over ethernet cables would be 'problematic', not simplifying either water delivery or the networking of devices. Randall would get off easy if he were merely to be yelled at.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A 5x5 grid of squares. The columns are labeled: Well, Garage, Power lines, Front door, Septic tank. Each row's label has an arrow and a house next to it. The rows are: Fresh water (horizontal arrow towards house), Cars (two-directional horizontal arrow and house), Electricity (horizontal arrow into house), People (two-directional horizontal arrow and house), Sewage (vertical arrow out of bottom of house).]

:Well, Fresh water: [green]
::Voice from house: Mmm! Refreshing!

:Garage, Fresh water: [red]
::''Fwoosh''

:Power lines, Fresh water: [red]

:Front door, Fresh water: [red]
::Voice from house: Stop it!
::''Fwoosh!''

:Septic tank, Fresh water: [red]
::Voice from house: Eww.

:Well, Cars: [red]

:Garage, Cars: [green]

:Power lines, Cars: [red]

:Front door, Cars: [red]
::Cueball: Do you think I scratched the paint?

:Septic tank, Cars: [red]

:Well, Electricity: [red]
::Cueball's laptop: ⚠Low battery

:Garage, Electricity: [red]
::''Boom''

:Power lines, Electricity: [green]

:Front door, Electricity: [red]
::''Boom''

:Septic tank, Electricity: [red]
::Knit Cap: Why won't my console turn on?

:Well, People: [red (and black)]

:Garage, People: [green]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Power lines, People: [red]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Front door, People: [green]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Septic tank, People: [red]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Well, Sewage: [red]
::Voice from house: ''Why do I keep getting sick???

:Garage, Sewage: [red]
::Cueball: Oh no.

:Power lines, Sewage: [red]
::Cueball: Eww.

:Front door, Sewage: [red]
::Cueball: Oh ''no''.

:Septic tank, Sewage: [green]
::''Flush''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]