Time Travel
by Jeff
Image text: She also starts every letter with "Dear Future <your name>".
I have to say, I'm either completely lost on this one or there is no hidden meaning here. Anyone have any idea on this one?
UPDATE: Upon further reflection, the female character of this comic is pretending that she has time travelled from the past, which is technically true. The character has travelled through time just like anyone else, just as you or I have travelled through time since the day of our birth.
It appears the female character in the comic is 23 or 24 (Thanks commenter boobins, whoops! I can't count apparently) 25 or 26 years old as one would assume she uses the year of her birth as the year she has "time-travelled" from.
Am I explaining that right? Technically she has time travelled, but not in the exciting way. In the same, boring way we have all travelled through time.
Skins
by Jeff
Image text: There's Livejournal drama between those who want to wear human suits over fursuits and those who just take off the fursuits.
Furries are people who dress up in colorful animal costumes who live for going to conventions to dress up in said costumes and assume their "animal" identities as the comic says.
This comic extrapolates that this group of furries like to pretend to be human. So, this group of furries are humans who like to pretend to be animals, which like to pretend to be human.
Livejournal is a hybrid message board/social network where certain groups of people with specific interests like to congregate.
Psychic
by Jeff
Image text: You can do a lot better than 1% if you start keeping track of the patterns in what numbers people pick.
That's two easy ones in a row. My only question is, what about the other 99% of people that you try this trick on? Is it worth it for 1% of the people to think you are a psychic and the other 99% think you are a dope?
Tech Support Cheat Sheet
by Jeff
Image meta text: 'Hey Megan, it's your father. How do I print out a flowchart?'
This one is actually pretty self explanatory, but they are giving away my secrets!
Anyone see any secret meanings in this one?
Newton and Leibniz
by Jeff
Image meta text: YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!
This comic is a pun on the word derivative.
First and foremost Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz both invented calculus independent of each other, as the comic says, about 8 years apart. However, Newton disputed the fact that Leibniz invented calculus independent of him.
In calculus a derivative is the result of mathematical differentiation; the instantaneous change of one quantity relative to another; df(x)/dx. However, the literary word derivative means to develop from something older.
So, the pun is that Newton in the comic is claiming that Leibniz's derivative(the invention of calculus) is a derivative(developed from) his derivative(calculus).
The comic as a whole is mocking the pattern of corny one-liners that David Caruso often spurts out during the opening scenes of CSI: Miami. The one liner is followed by him dramatically pulling off his sunglasses and then the show breaks into the title sequence which starts with the word "YEEEEAAAAAAAH." This has become a popular internet meme and was used frequently most recently with Michael Jackson's death.
Make sense? Anyone have a better explanation than that?
Collections
by Jeff
Image meta text: You know what really helps an existential crisis? Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection.
Existentialism is a philosophy revolving around the individual and trying to understand and derive meaning through society and the world at large is an impossible task. The Existential girl in this comic in speaking about the struggles of the individual and the other character is talking about his Kindle.
Kindle is a eBook reader sold by Amazon.com.
Discworld is a fantasy series by Terry Pratchett, there are 36 novels in total. Because there are so many books in the ever-expanding universe created by Terry Pratchett, the image text mentions that one can never have enough space on the shelf because there will always be more novels written.
DRM is short for Digital Rights Management, which is a way for content providers to protect their content. The use of DRM is widely criticized by consumers.
What do you think? Am I right about Existentialism? Do you hate DRM or love Terry Pratchett?
Branding
by Jeff
Image meta text: Actually, 'RSS&M' is kinda catchy.
This comic is in reference to a Firefox extension called 'Adblock', which exactly as the name implies, blocks ads on websites. So, without Adblock, you will see all the ridiculous ads (except for our ads, they are great!) that attempt to get you to click on them with their catchy slogans.
The first two frames are not far off from reality, in fact I may have seen them before. Facebook and Twitter are widly known social networks. Google Reader is an RSS reader built on the google look and feel. The meta text references putting RSS and S&M together for RSS&M.
In the last frame, github is an online collaboration tool for developers to upload code to work with other developers on their projects. So, presumably, the comic is speculating that there will be a new GitHub, this one for only lesbians. This is the pop-up windows attempt to attract clicks and in the comics case, it might have worked.
This xkcd is one of the rare xkcd's to use color.
Oregon
by Jeff
Image meta text: A century later, the harrowing flight of the survivors from Oregon was dramatized in a popular video game.
This cartoon references the Oregon Trail computer game which every kid who went to elementary school in the 80s played in computer class. The best and most exciting part of this game for the kids was the hunting part.
This cartoon is speculating that if all these kids really travelled the trail, no one would have food because of the massive overhunting. Frequently, in the game, you would kill a 1000 pound buffalo, but you would only be able to carry 200 pounds back to your wagon, leaving the other 800 pounds to rot. I always thought that was odd.
And lastly, the cartoon recognized all the odd ways you and other members of your wagon could die in the game (often suddenly): dystentry, typhoid, measles, cholera. Unless you were a doctor in the game, but everyone knows being a doctor or banker is practically cheating.
Haiku Proof
by Mike
Image meta text: "After somewhere around 40 hours, there's no academic reason to go to the class. Only go for the hallucinations."
The Greek mathematician Euclid proved there are an infinite number of primes (though not through haiku). Basically, you start by assuming the opposite- that there are a finite number of primes. Multiply all of them together and add 1. Then you ask what are the factors of that new number. It's not divisible by any of the primes because it would yield a remainder of 1... so either there is a prime number you forgot that wasn't in your original set or this new number is prime. In either case, you just proved the set of primes can not be finite.
Also, there's no proof that after 48 hours of sleep deprivation math lectures get ANY more interesting.
Superlative
by Jeff
Image meta text: "Stay while I recount the crazy TF2 kill I managed yesterday, my friends."
Superlative is a comic that references the Dos Equis beer commercial which describes the "Most Interesting Man in the World." (youtube link)
The character in the comic is going through some of the most boring things in the world: recounting dreams to others, not speaking another language (the character in the commercial has been known to "Speak French in Russian"), making a blog with no content (first post!) and apparently drinking two beers and feeling sick.
The meta text is a reference to the Dos Equis tag line of: "Stay thirsty my friends." TF2 is Team Fortress 2, a video game available on consoles and for PC.