Editing 530: I'm An Idiot

:<small>''Not to be confused with [[68: Five Thirty]]''</small>
{{comic
| number    = 530
| date      = January 14, 2009
| title     = I'm an Idiot
| image     = im an idiot.png
| titletext = Sadly, this is a true story. At least I learned about the OS X 'say' command.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization.  The content of this realization—"I'm An Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic.  The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.

Additionally some readers will be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another.  They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered.  This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].

The title text states that this is a true story, so Cueball must represent [[Randall]]. It also mentions that, although missing an obvious solution can be humiliating, one often learns a lot from trying new solutions, which would explain why the behavior persists.

This comic follows a similar storyline to [[349: Success]] and [[1518: Typical Morning Routine]], as Cueball and [[Hairy]] respectively in these comics, encounters an issue and attempts proceedingly more absurd solutions to the issue. 

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail approaches Cueball, who is sitting on porch steps, laptop in lap and backpack open.]
:Ponytail: Should I ask?
:Cueball: I'm locked out, and I'm trying to get my roommate to let me in.

:[Unplugged cell phone on table.]
:Cueball: First I tried her cell phone, but it's off.

:[Cueball sitting on steps, laptop in lap and gesturing.]
:Cueball: Then I tried IRC, but she's not online.

:[Cueball standing in front of house and looking up at window.]
:Cueball: I couldn't find anything to throw at her window,

:[Living room with couch easy chair and computer set up.]
:Cueball: So I SSH'd into the Mac Mini in the living room and got the speech synth to yell at her for me.
:Computer: Hey I'm locked out downstairs

:[Megan sitting at table with laptop open.]
:Cueball: But I think I left the volume way down, so I'm reading the OS X docs to learn to set the volume via command line.

:[Ponytail facing Cueball, who is still sitting on the porch with his laptop.]
:Ponytail: Ah.
:Ponytail: I take it the doorbell doesn't work?

:[Beat panel.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]