Comic Transcript

BOSS: Alex... I have recently heard of a graphics format called "PNG." You will tell me what this is, so that I may co-opt or destroy it at my whim.

ALEX: PNG was created as an alternative to GIFs.

ALEX: GIFs became popular back when CompuServe was big -- it's an efficient, fast-loading graphics format, and CompuServe made it available to anyone who wanted to use it. As it turns out, though, CompuServe didn't own the patent on GIFs -- a company named Unisys did. Unisys waited until GIFs became the standard format for web graphics, then threatened to sue anyone using GIFs unless they where paid very large sums of cash.

BOSS: Ah, Unisys. They are very much admired among my peers, you know.

ALEX: I'm not surprised.