This is probably the closest to sci-fi Templar's "otherness" will ever get. But it's really not that unusual. Sometime in the past, all personal computer monitors were TVs. But eventually, computers needed better support than a TV display could offer, so specialized monitors were made for 'em. The rest is history. For us, anyway. Where Ben lives, I guess the TV people stepped up to the plate, and TVs and computers were never really separated. And the inevitable happened a lot sooner for them than it's happening for us. "Dumb" TVs still exist in Templar, and we'll eventually see 'em, but it's kinda like owning a turntable.
Anyway, that's it for the three-page weeks! For the forseeable future, anyway. I hope you guys enjoyed all the extra pages. You got an extra week and a half of updates out of me this month, and anytime you want more, you know where the tip jar is! I'm game if you are!
By the way, Some Templar ephemera got a shout-out on Gerry Swanson's Protektor Drei, this week. And I really cannot tell you how much that appeals to my bloated, bloated ego.
haha i love the dialogue in your comics...
Also...that's at least two Sassy Cavy locations..right? which makes it a chain and therefor socially OK to eat obscure, not-thought-of-as-food-animal parts, right? cuz ive been having these cravings...and...NO, I dont have a problem!..sorry but its like almost 3 in the morning and im really bored..
See, without this context, I would have assumed one of a few things:
a) His computer has a tuner card or eyeTV-like device;
b) He uses a Slingbox client or similar attached to the digital television delivery method or PVR of his choice;
c) Templar, like many religious and some non-English-language broadcasters, got around the rights issues of online content delivery much faster than everyone else.
No, what got me was the widget-like UI presentation.
The OS doesn't seem all that strange to me. But you should totally whip up some fake screenshots and example icons so someone can create some sort of X Windows or Windows theme to replicate the Templar experience. :)
Kind of interesting that while everything else in Templar seems technologically behind the rest of the US, this is one area where they're ahead of the curve. I guess it just goes to show how much they must value their television there. :P
Had I not read this first, I might have assumed that the TV icon just meant "video" in Templar, which could be a DVD movie or Flash animation or who knows what.
Which raises an [?interesting] question: Are we ever going to learn what kind of porn Ben likes?
STOP READING PEOPLE'S MINDS
IT'S RUDE
Actually, sometime in the distant, distant past, all computer monitors were typewriters. :) Check this out: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/teletype.html
The first graphical displays were descended from radar displays and pushed out vector graphics by scraping an electron beam across a phosphor screen. Some good videos of a PDP-1 display can be found here: http://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/index.php?f=more&s=5&ss=3&t=moving_images
At some point in the late 70's computers started coming into homes, and the cheapest display device that was available was the TV. For most of these computers, though, dedicated monitors were also available.
Interesting interface, it does look like something you'd find on a UNIX-like desktop. No taskbar, no desktop icons, just windows and widgets. It's also cool that the mouse cursor reflects his left-handed mousing.
Your use of the word "otherness" to describe Templar, and the way you've dstinguished it from science fiction above, has really cemented my attention.
I've never heard of Protektor Drei, but it might interest you to know that I was alerted to Templar, Arizona by a follower of Finder by Carla McNeil. I'm a dedicated reader of Finder, and now I'm a dedicated reader of Templar it seems. It's the "otherness" that you allude to that makes me so enamoured of both titles. I would _love_ to hear you comment upon that "otherness" further.
I can't belive I didn't know about you as little as a week ago. Now I can't wait for more.