Marvel Salted Fish Kryptonian

Add a height line on the back and a name tag in front, and it can be used as a photo before going to prison or for a wanted poster.

Looking at that face, Henry didn't even think about asking for the negative. This was because the photos on the driver's license and passport were stamped, otherwise he would have changed the photo immediately.

But in Los Angeles, if he wanted to register with the Screen Actors Guild or get a job with an agency, he still needed a basic ID photo. He also needed a headshot to apply for other jobs. So he needed to take a photo of himself.

This is not the world of twenty or thirty years from now, where you can just take your phone, find a white wall as a background, take a bunch of pictures, transfer them to your computer, edit the picture, and then print it out in color.

In the 90s, digital cameras were still in the lab. Due to the size of their electronic components, they were simply not comparable to traditional cameras. The image quality was even worse.

The mainstream of this era was still traditional cameras that used film, and most people did not have the skills to develop photos, so they had to take them to a photo studio.

So if you want to take photos, you need to find a photo studio. The photo studio Henry found was very close to the motel where he was staying, making it convenient for him to pick up the photos later.

As soon as I walked in, I saw a greasy old white man coming towards me. He laughed and said with a big belly: "Welcome, what kind of photos do you want to take?"

"A set of wedding photos for newlyweds costs 6,600 yuan, a set of family photos costs 4,200 yuan, a set of actor audition photos costs 3,800 yuan, and a set of personal artistic photos costs 2,200 yuan.

"Outdoor shoots require an additional day's salary for the photographer and assistant, and are guaranteed to include at least three rolls of film for you to choose from. If you can bring in a second customer, the price will be 20% off. You need to shoot quickly."

Fuck! What's the purpose of all this?

It feels like I want to buy a small electric scooter, but as soon as I walk in, I see a row of Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes and Maseratis. Who are they trying to drive to death?

Stunned, Henry said hesitantly, "Well, I'll just take a photo for my ID."

"Hey, young man, why don't you consider keeping some memories of your youth?" The chattering old white man continued to sell.

"No, just an ID photo." Henry said decisively this time.

"Hey, think about it. Youth only comes once. When you are old and wrinkled, and your teeth fall out, you will regret not letting me take a picture today." The old white man refused to give up.

Henry complained in his heart: I've gone through puberty twice!

But he didn't want to start an argument. There were more than one photo studio in Los Angeles. Henry decisively turned around and left, ready to find another one.

"Wait, OK, OK, just an ID photo, not an artistic photo. It's a waste of my skills. Do you know how many people wanted to ask me for it, but I refused?"

If the old man hadn't shouted out the price of "close the store for three years and then make enough money to last for three years after opening", Henry might have believed it.

Let's compare them with some numbers. The average monthly salary for a blue-collar worker in the US is around 3,000 to 4,000 taels. When I went to get my certificate from Old Tom, he only offered me 2,000 taels at first.

With this comparison, it is not difficult to understand how exaggerated the asking price of this photo studio is.

But since the other party insisted, Henry stopped and listened to the other party's price. He said, "I want 12 2-inch photos and 12 1-inch photos. How much is that?"

"One price, 60 yuan."

Henry didn't bargain, just turned around and walked away.

"Wait, wait, if you're not satisfied with this, how much do you want?" the old white man asked anxiously.

"30 yuan, half the deposit first."

"Fuck, are you Jewish? Go find another photo studio and see if anyone will give you that price."

"What a shame! I'm sure I'm not Jewish." I'm a fucking alien!

"50 jin, no less."

"30." Henry had no patience for playing the game of compromise. If you want it, take it. If you don't want it, forget it.

But the old white man didn't give up and shouted, "40 pieces, that's all the material cost, I'm working for nothing."

Henry turned around for the third time and had no intention of staying.

This time, the old white man was really anxious. He quickly shouted, "OK, 30 yuan, I'll take your picture at a loss. Fuck, I wish you were really Jewish, and then the Führer should have been more responsible. If only D-Day hadn't happened."

Well, although he didn't know how much it cost to take an ID photo, seeing the old white man's reaction, Henry felt that he had paid too much.

He rummaged around his pockets for a while, gathered together a fifteen-yuan bill, and slapped it on the counter.

Standing at the counter, Henry saw something that made him miss it. He pointed to the computer table behind the counter. On top of it was a brand new, large-butt traditional CRT computer monitor, and underneath was a horizontal computer case.

Looking at the STARK brand name, Henry asked curiously, "Is it from Stark Industries? What level of CPU does this computer use?"

The old white man, who had originally shown a disappointed expression, suddenly smiled and said, "Hey, kid, you know what you are talking about. This personal computer uses Intel's latest i486 processor, built-in 4MB of memory and a 120MB hard drive.

"The display adapter is a VGA card. It's not a 4-color CGA, nor a 16-color EGA. Can you imagine what a beautiful picture a 256-color VGA card would produce?

"And it's equipped with 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks and an optical drive, so it's incredibly efficient. This is a Stark Industries product that's hard for the average person to buy. Dell or IBM, for the same price, are simply inferior to Stark Industries personal computers."

...Well, suddenly I don’t know where to start complaining.

Henry said dryly, "Yeah, if you don't bluff, I'll be scared to death."

New book, please read, collect, and recommend, thank you~~

Chapter 37 The Neglected Future

Looking at this 486-era computer, Henry suddenly had a lot of ideas in his mind.

Although we are used to playing 3A masterpieces from 20 or 30 years ago, it does not mean that games from the 1990s and before are useless.

Many games aren't about graphics or grind, but about the concept behind them. Take Tetris, for example. Regardless of the performance of the console, how can the core gameplay change? Will it lose popularity in the future?

But! A computer is not a game console, and its purpose is not limited to playing games.

The primary function of computers is computing, followed by network functions based on signal transmission principles. These are all promising areas.

In my previous life, I was just a nerd who played games and downloaded romance and action movies. In this life, I have a Kryptonian super brain, so doing some hacking work shouldn't be difficult.

Although DC Superman often relies on an external brain, Batman, to kill everyone, his own intelligence is actually not to be underestimated.

In the IQ grading of the super artificial intelligence Brainiac, he himself is at the highest level 12, and the total IQ of all people on Earth in the 20th century is level 6.

The only one on the same level as Brainiac is Superman's nemesis, Lex Luthor, who at his peak reached level 12 intelligence, while Superman averaged level 11.

It's only because of the technology to synthesize kryptonite that Brainiac can defeat Superman most of the time.

Superman has a lot of scientific research products, but most of them are mainly auxiliary functions. Mainly because his own abilities are so powerful, people often overlook his intelligence. Especially when Batman is around, Superman seems to be offline.

Of course, Henry doesn't think that he, a Kryptonian template, can be compared with Superman.

Just talking about the beginning, he met the Kents, and they managed to turn a god on Earth into a Kryptonian traitor, making him treat himself as an Earthling.

He was tortured to death by the Russians from the beginning, but he was too lazy to turn evil and take revenge on society. How could he be compared with that moral role model?

But as long as your brain is half as smart as Dachao's, the best way to hide yourself on Earth is to try to develop the use of your brain as much as possible, rather than relying on fists to solve all problems.

We don't want to be reduced to wearing red underwear to stop bullets. Otherwise, we will have to let the people on the ground look up at the sky and shout: Look! There's a stupid bird!

Or they'd shout, "No, it's a bullet!" and then make people wonder how good your eyesight must be to see a bullet fired from high above...

Since he had such an idea, Henry couldn't possibly wait until computer performance improved to the level of the world he once lived in before getting involved in these things.

This kind of thing should be done as early as possible. Besides, computers in each era have their own technology. Computer hardware may continue to improve, but technology can be accumulated over time.

And what’s interesting is that although hardware is improving at a rapid pace, the actual equipment is not being obsoleted that fast.

For many old things, if there is no special need, people will basically keep using them as long as they are not broken. This is human nature.

Take the Y2K disaster, for example. All the banks were pouring money into looking for old programmers, even retired ones, hoping they could fix the Y2K bug in their systems.

A bunch of newcomers who don't understand the old technology are of no use at this time.

Even if they could sharpen their weapons at the last minute, banks wouldn't dare trust these young people rashly. After all, it involves the bank's transaction system, and if something goes wrong, it will cause chaos.

So when Henry saw the 486 computer, he couldn't help but look left and right and asked, "Do you have a modem? What operating system does it use?"

The enthusiastic old white man said, "I don't have a modem, and that little thing can only connect to some university bulletin boards (BBSs) now. I use this big thing to play Ultima VI, and it's much more fun than those stupid game consoles."

"As for my operating system, it's MS-DOS 4.01. I didn't use PC-DOS due to its poor command efficiency and resource management. I also used the DOSV plugin to group file types by color, which makes it look much prettier."

"Do you know Linux?" Henry asked.

"Li...what the hell is that?"

"Oh, not yet." As far as I can remember, the ancestor of open source sharing should have been born in the past one or two years.

In fact, relevant open source sharing projects have always existed, especially on university campuses in Europe and the United States.

The main reason is that professors and university students have diverse research interests, and it's not always possible to find commercial software that's suitable for their needs. Therefore, developing the software they need in-house is the best option.

However, all the software developed have been applications based on a certain system and do not involve the core system of the computer.

In other words, if you want to use a computer, you still have to buy these commercial system software. It was not until the emergence of Linux, an open-source and shared core, that open-minded university campuses had another free option.

In short, the core purpose of these people is one thing: as long as it is not commercialized and they don't make money from it, then just make it!

Even though there are many commercial server manufacturers based on Linux systems, what they actually sell is "services" rather than the system itself.

Regardless, this is an interesting path. Especially since we're bound to enter the information age in the foreseeable future, getting involved sooner rather than later is better.

After all, there's no limit to how fast hardware performance can improve, so waiting is pointless. This isn't a game where you can just level up to the max, leave the novice village, and go on a monster-killing spree.

If you want to keep leveling up and leave the Novice Village only after you have the ability to kill monsters, you will most likely stay in the Novice Village forever.

Seeing Henry's interest in personal computers, the old white man smiled and said, "Would you like it? I have a friend who can get you one. It's fast and the latest model, unlike others who just sell second-hand goods or clear out inventory."

Henry was quite interested. Wandering around the streets of Los Angeles these past two days, he'd discovered that in the US these days, while there were the electronics stores like Radioshack that he remembered, finding some rare items still required luck.

Alternatively, you could try your luck at a big-box store, or you could go directly to the product company's sales department and place your order there.

But... looking around, Henry asked doubtfully: "Is this a fucking photo studio?"

"I am."

"And sell fucking personal computers?"

"You also said you were selling it as well. If you can make money, why not?"

"You're really not Jewish?"

"I'm of Italian descent. Fuck Mussolini." The old white man said as if to express his anti-fascist stance.

After thinking for a moment, Henry shook his head and said, "Forget it. I have to find a house first. Unless you can help me get a personal computer that can be used in the car."

"Hey, I can find a house too."

"Fuck." The Kryptonian was speechless...

New book, please read, collect, and recommend, thank you~~

Chapter 38 Italian Meal

As a country of immigrants, don't think that Americans only rank people by skin color; even white people are divided into different levels.

Defeating a number of powerful enemies made the United States an English-speaking country. This meant that ethnic groups from other regions were inherently inferior to the British who came down on the Mayflower.

In order to avoid being bullied, others will of course band together for warmth, forming one ethnic group after another.

If nothing else, just listening to them speaking their native language without anyone else intervening shows how strong the bonds within these ethnic groups are.

Anyway, the old white guy at the photo studio, after taking Henry into the studio and snapping away, immediately introduced him to a passionate Italian guy. Importantly, neither of them was from Sicily.

Otherwise, Henry would worry about whether he would be hit by a club and then dragged into a dark alley to be beaten.

Oh, I'm a Kryptonian, I'm not afraid~

In any case, it is better to have someone to guide you than to fly around like a headless chicken.

As for whether the guide had other intentions, after learning from Old Tom, Henry paid special attention to those lie detection methods, such as heart rate, breathing, eye movement speed, and whether there was any abnormal sweating.

Fortunately, before revealing that he had a net worth of hundreds of thousands of dollars, these Italians just wanted to make a few more money from him.

The most important thing is that the old white man in the photo studio whispered to his companions that they had to make back the money they didn't make! He had no idea that to the Kryptonian's super hearing, this was no different from saying these words to Henry's face.

Ordinary people ask for a hundred dollars; acquaintances add fifty. The scam is to exploit those you know; don't think you can get a discount just because you know them.

Henry didn't give the two Italians much time to communicate because it was already noon.

Coming from a society where food is king, ensuring three meals a day is a basic responsibility. So Henry asked directly, "Is there any place nearby where we can talk and eat?"

"Do you have any dietary restrictions or habits?" The Italian was quite smart and asked this extra question.

Mainly due to the rise of hippies, a host of bizarre food cultures entered the public consciousness. Vegetarianism was the most common, but then there were all sorts of bizarre religious organizations that introduced their own taboos and health practices, confusing the average person.

Henry, of course, didn't have that many issues. He replied, "I don't have any dietary restrictions. As long as it's not human flesh or feces, I can eat anything. Of course, if I find a restaurant that makes me feel depressed, it will probably not be beneficial to our subsequent negotiations."

"Hey, don't worry." The Italian patted Henry's shoulder, stroked his big mustache, and said enthusiastically: "We are not the English. Can you believe that the best cuisine in their country is actually French food!

"Since the Roman era, Caesar conquered from the East to the West for food. Later, with the development of the Papal States and the Renaissance, Italian cuisine has long been the best cuisine in the world, bar none!"

"I'll take you to a restaurant owned by one of our fellow villagers. The food there will definitely amaze you. It'll be like hugging the most beautiful woman and savoring her kiss as sweet as honey."