https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.104.98&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T17:31:19ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2592:_False_Dichotomy&diff=228505Talk:2592: False Dichotomy2022-03-16T12:16:23Z<p>141.101.104.98: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
This is my second explanation ever, it probably isnt great but its good for others to have something to start from. if anybody who knows how to do the links and everything, for all of the characters and the fancy words, please do that. [[User:ElijahRock|ElijahRock]] ([[User talk:ElijahRock|talk]]) 17:57, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
And here I thought it was a pun on tracheotomy...<br />
<br />
I’m pretty sure the cannibalism joke is based on the idea that we have to create a “false dichotomy” between humans and non-human living things, or else we can’t say that it’s okay to eat some things (maybe the line is drawn at plants, maybe at animals) but not others (a category that usually includes humans). [[User:Pablo360|Pablo360]] ([[User talk:Pablo360|talk]]) 19:03, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I don't think it's that specific. Often false dichotomies use something horrible or unthinkable as the alternative, and cannibalism is about as taboo as it gets. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]])<br />
<br />
: no, that's delving too far into a fairly simple joke. "Embracing dichotomies and Cannibalism" is a false dichotomy itself! He could have said anything "skydiving", "poison swallowing", anything... It's the fact it's a false dichotomy used to justify false dichotomies. GET IT?!?!?<br />
<br />
I think the title text joke is more based on "There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors." [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:29, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Trichotomy is not a portmanteau but a real word by itself, and it means what is supposed to mean, i.e., division in three categories. [[User:Vdm|Vdm]] ([[User talk:Vdm|talk]]) 21:36, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I had not read this comment, when I dove in myself. I agree, though it is an artificial and (slightly) incorrect swap of di- to tri- so is a relative neologism. I've endeavoured to summarise what I understand of it (wiktionary lacks some of the depth, as you try to drill down, and I'm not sure I can provide full references for my version!) and removed the presumption of being a portmanteau. Which I would rather apply to two independent words being melded together, not a replacement of one prefix (or suffix, or infix) with another equivalently elemental fragmentary affix.<br />
:But that's just my opinion. Open to further editing. (Maybe shoving in a Trivia section, also!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 01:09, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Isn’t the morpheme “-tricho-“ about hair? So “trichotomy” should mean “haircut”. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 23:22, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It may be a stretch, but Cueball’s dialogue could be a reference to A Modest Proposal, which satirically creates an extended false dichotomy between poverty and cannibalism [[User:Lordoftheroboflies|Lordoftheroboflies]] ([[User talk:Lordoftheroboflies|talk]]) 23:11, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:{{Citation Needed}} (I don't know what you're referring to :) ) [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 15:22, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It's a fairly well known piece of satire by Johnathan Swift. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 23:10, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It isnt actually a false Dichotomy, it is a satirical argument that it is more moral to eat babies than to let poor people die from starvation/exposure, rather than anything conflating the two as the same. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.26|172.70.211.26]] 04:30, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Personally I saw the title text as a reference to Monty Python's Spanish Inqusition: "Our chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear, fear and surprise. Our *two* weapons are fear and surprise, and ruthless efficiency. Our *three* weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical dedication to the pope." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.98|141.101.104.98]] 12:16, 16 March 2022 (UTC)</div>141.101.104.98https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2592:_False_Dichotomy&diff=228504Talk:2592: False Dichotomy2022-03-16T12:15:41Z<p>141.101.104.98: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
This is my second explanation ever, it probably isnt great but its good for others to have something to start from. if anybody who knows how to do the links and everything, for all of the characters and the fancy words, please do that. [[User:ElijahRock|ElijahRock]] ([[User talk:ElijahRock|talk]]) 17:57, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
And here I thought it was a pun on tracheotomy...<br />
<br />
I’m pretty sure the cannibalism joke is based on the idea that we have to create a “false dichotomy” between humans and non-human living things, or else we can’t say that it’s okay to eat some things (maybe the line is drawn at plants, maybe at animals) but not others (a category that usually includes humans). [[User:Pablo360|Pablo360]] ([[User talk:Pablo360|talk]]) 19:03, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I don't think it's that specific. Often false dichotomies use something horrible or unthinkable as the alternative, and cannibalism is about as taboo as it gets. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]])<br />
<br />
: no, that's delving too far into a fairly simple joke. "Embracing dichotomies and Cannibalism" is a false dichotomy itself! He could have said anything "skydiving", "poison swallowing", anything... It's the fact it's a false dichotomy used to justify false dichotomies. GET IT?!?!?<br />
<br />
I think the title text joke is more based on "There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors." [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:29, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Trichotomy is not a portmanteau but a real word by itself, and it means what is supposed to mean, i.e., division in three categories. [[User:Vdm|Vdm]] ([[User talk:Vdm|talk]]) 21:36, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I had not read this comment, when I dove in myself. I agree, though it is an artificial and (slightly) incorrect swap of di- to tri- so is a relative neologism. I've endeavoured to summarise what I understand of it (wiktionary lacks some of the depth, as you try to drill down, and I'm not sure I can provide full references for my version!) and removed the presumption of being a portmanteau. Which I would rather apply to two independent words being melded together, not a replacement of one prefix (or suffix, or infix) with another equivalently elemental fragmentary affix.<br />
:But that's just my opinion. Open to further editing. (Maybe shoving in a Trivia section, also!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.221|162.158.34.221]] 01:09, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Isn’t the morpheme “-tricho-“ about hair? So “trichotomy” should mean “haircut”. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 23:22, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It may be a stretch, but Cueball’s dialogue could be a reference to A Modest Proposal, which satirically creates an extended false dichotomy between poverty and cannibalism [[User:Lordoftheroboflies|Lordoftheroboflies]] ([[User talk:Lordoftheroboflies|talk]]) 23:11, 11 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:{{Citation Needed}} (I don't know what you're referring to :) ) [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 15:22, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It's a fairly well known piece of satire by Johnathan Swift. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 23:10, 12 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It isnt actually a false Dichotomy, it is a satirical argument that it is more moral to eat babies than to let poor people die from starvation/exposure, rather than anything conflating the two as the same. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.26|172.70.211.26]] 04:30, 15 March 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Personally I saw the title text as a reference to Monty Python's Spanish Inqusition: "Our chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear, fear and surprise. Our *two* weapons are fear and surprise, and ruthless efficiency. Our *three* weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical dedication to the pope."</div>141.101.104.98https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1755:_Old_Days&diff=129979Talk:1755: Old Days2016-11-04T10:34:38Z<p>141.101.104.98: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
<br />
The "4-6 weeks" thing might be a reference to high-performance computing, in particular scientific calculations, a few decades back. From what I've heard from older people in my scientific field (I'm too young to have experienced it myself), you'd prepare your program on punch cards, mail these to an institution owning a fast computer (because your group or university didn't have one), and they'd run the program and mail the result back to you. This, I've been told, took a few weeks. Maybe someone with first-hand experience can give more information. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.98|141.101.104.98]] 10:34, 4 November 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Reflections on Trusting Trust<br />
<br />
[https://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ganger/712.fall02/papers/p761-thompson.pdf Reflections on Trusting Trust] (pdf), Ken Thompson's acceptance speech for the 1984 Turing Award, in which he discusses creating a backdoor in the C compiler (yes, there was only 1 when he invented the language) that itself creates a second backdoor in the login program when it is compiled. Additionally, it reproduces itself when compiling the C compiler from un-tampered-with source code, so that anyone using the binary (compiled) compiler would be unable to avoid reproducing the backdoor in all its forms. This is the sort of thing that gives security programmers nightmares. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.168|108.162.221.168]] 04:52, 4 November 2016 (UTC) (bonsaiviking)</div>141.101.104.98https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:686:_Admin_Mourning&diff=77574Talk:686: Admin Mourning2014-10-21T09:44:31Z<p>141.101.104.98: </p>
<hr />
<div>This reminds me of the philosophical thought that "...a person dies three times. The day he dies. The day the last person who knew him dies. The day his name is spoken for the last time." Makes you think, eh? [[Special:Contributions/31.111.35.144|31.111.35.144]] 20:15, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
By "their screen sessions linger," does it mean litteral {{w|GNU Screen}} sessions? [[User:Ad1217|Ad1217]] ([[User talk:Ad1217|talk]]) 04:00, 29 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Yes. SCREEN is in the greped output of ps in the comic [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.37|108.162.219.37]] 17:16, 31 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
irssi (Internet Relay Chat client software) process running in SCREEN session possibly means that Sam is logged on to the IRC and appears as a live person on some talk channels. {{unsigned ip|141.101.97.202}}<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm not sure "old fashioned" is a correct description here. Modern Unix systems do this, too. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.114|108.162.238.114]] 00:02, 8 August 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In my opinion this comic might contain a reference to the more or less popular movie "Ghost" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(1990_film) ) as well, since the main character in this movie is called "Sam", too. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.98|141.101.104.98]] 09:42, 21 October 2014 (UTC)</div>141.101.104.98https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:686:_Admin_Mourning&diff=77573Talk:686: Admin Mourning2014-10-21T09:42:49Z<p>141.101.104.98: </p>
<hr />
<div>This reminds me of the philosophical thought that "...a person dies three times. The day he dies. The day the last person who knew him dies. The day his name is spoken for the last time." Makes you think, eh? [[Special:Contributions/31.111.35.144|31.111.35.144]] 20:15, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
By "their screen sessions linger," does it mean litteral {{w|GNU Screen}} sessions? [[User:Ad1217|Ad1217]] ([[User talk:Ad1217|talk]]) 04:00, 29 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Yes. SCREEN is in the greped output of ps in the comic [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.37|108.162.219.37]] 17:16, 31 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
irssi (Internet Relay Chat client software) process running in SCREEN session possibly means that Sam is logged on to the IRC and appears as a live person on some talk channels. {{unsigned ip|141.101.97.202}}<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm not sure "old fashioned" is a correct description here. Modern Unix systems do this, too. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.114|108.162.238.114]] 00:02, 8 August 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In my opinion this comic might contain a reference to the more or less popular movie "Ghost" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(1990_film) ) as well, since the main character in this movie is called "Sam". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.98|141.101.104.98]] 09:42, 21 October 2014 (UTC)</div>141.101.104.98