https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.48.107&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-19T03:29:40ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1535:_Words_for_Pets&diff=951111535: Words for Pets2015-06-08T22:23:26Z<p>173.245.48.107: Undo revision 95106 by 108.162.215.127 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1535<br />
| date = June 8, 2015<br />
| title = Words for Pets<br />
| image = words_for_pets.png<br />
| titletext = Seventh year: Perfectly coherent words, but in the pet's language, not mine.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic shows four similar {{w|Euler diagram}}s, one for each of the first four years of living with a {{w|pet}}. The diagrams depict sets of words which have varying efficacy in actually identifying the pet, and each one shows how the words used by [[Randall]] to refer to his pet change year by year and becoming less and less specific as time goes on.<br />
<br />
In the first year it is dominated by the actual name of the pet or words closely related. For example a dog named Lassie might be called either "{{w|Lassie}}", "dog", "collie" or "boy/girl".<br />
<br />
Moving on to the second year, these related words like "dog" and "collie" get more abundant while the actual name is seldom used. Phrases such as "good dog" or "here, boy" are likely common. Giving a dog the name "Dog" is so common that there is a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ADogNamedDog trope] about that.<br />
<br />
In the third year, the pet's name is no longer used at all and the owner probably uses simple phrases like "come" or "come here" to call the pet, omitting the name.<br />
<br />
The fourth year entails the use of just any sound, not {{w|Coherence (linguistics)|coherent words}}. This may be referring to something like {{w|baby talk}} or attempted mimicry of the pet's vocalizations.<br />
<br />
This development can be attributed to the fact that some animals don't listen to their own name but rather react to the sound of the voice of their owner. It could also refer to the growing bond between owner and the pet.<br />
<br />
The title text suggests that the inevitable result of this continuing pattern is that by the seventh year, Randall will be communicating with the pet in its own language. This might refer to the tendency of some pet owners to mimic or imitate their pets' vocalizations, as if speaking to them. Alternatively, this could be interpreted as a joke that pets don't have proper {{w|language}} and the owner has degenerated into lack on language his/herself as time goes on.<br />
<br />
The title text and the caption makes it a little difficult to be certain if the comic reefers to when you talk about your pet to other people ("my ''dog'' is always hungry") or when you call at it, which would be the only time it would make sense to use ''coherent words in the animals own language''. ("Woof" = come here).<br />
<br />
The idea of pets having a detrimental effect on human vocabulary was previously visited in [[231: Cat Proximity]], also with a graphical representation of the effect.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Caption above the frame:]<br />
:Words I use to refer to a pet over the years I live with it:<br />
<br />
:[Inside the box are four diagrams. Each diagram contains three elliptical sections containing the previous one, each section is drawn identical from diagram to diagram and they are labeled the same way from diagram to diagram. A fourth section (a red ellipse) moves from diagram to diagram and it's label changes from diagram to diagram.]<br />
<br />
:[The red section of the first diagram mainly overlaps the innermost section, but about a third of it is in the second section. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]<br />
:The pet's name <br />
:Words related to the pet<br />
:Coherent words of any kind<br />
:First year<br />
<br />
:[The red section of the second diagram mainly overlaps the right part of the second section, but it just touches both the first and the third section. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]<br />
:The pet's name <br />
:Words related to the pet<br />
:Coherent words of any kind<br />
:Second year<br />
<br />
:[The red section of the third diagram mainly overlaps the right part of the third section, but about a third of it is inside the second section and a small part is outside of the third section. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]<br />
:The pet's name <br />
:Words related to the pet<br />
:Coherent words of any kind<br />
:Third year<br />
<br />
:[The red section of the fourth diagram is completely outside the third section and has to be so far to the right, that the other sections has been moved from the center of the frame to the left. The labels are written above the three white sections and then inside the red section. The labels from inside and out and last the label of the red section:]<br />
:The pet's name <br />
:Words related to the pet<br />
:Coherent words of any kind<br />
:Fourth year onward<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]</div>173.245.48.107https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1535:_Words_for_Pets&diff=950501535: Words for Pets2015-06-08T07:53:49Z<p>173.245.48.107: First draft</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1535<br />
| date = June 8, 2015<br />
| title = Words for Pets<br />
| image = words_for_pets.png<br />
| titletext = Seventh year: Perfectly coherent words, but in the pet's language, not mine.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Lol. First. I have a dog. As she and I spent time together I spoke less and less English and more and more dog.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>173.245.48.107https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:848:_3D&diff=71861Talk:848: 3D2014-07-18T00:02:23Z<p>173.245.48.107: Comic is 2D on xk3d.</p>
<hr />
<div>As of August 3, 2013, the title text has not been explained. Could someone explain it, please?[[Special:Contributions/108.28.72.186|108.28.72.186]] 23:50, 3 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Someone should add somewhere that this comic appears 2D on http://xk3d.xkcd.com/848/.</div>173.245.48.107https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:768:_1996&diff=71206Talk:768: 19962014-07-08T22:18:43Z<p>173.245.48.107: </p>
<hr />
<div>The only problem with the N-Spire series is that you have to boot it up. Another problem (ok, the nspires are riddled with problems) is that they are still terribly underpowered compared to the modern mobile device. The last is that they are still objects of mass blunt-force trauma, meaning they are still unwieldy bricks, you now have to wait for 2 minutes while your calculator boots up (''!!''), it's still a low resolution screen, and the processor is still clocked somewhere under 500 MHz.<br />
<br />
Now, if T.I. made an android app that offered the entirety of their graphing and CAS functionality they could easily charge $70 and everyone I know (I go to an engineering university) would buy it with no regrets.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]<span title="I'm an admin. I can help.">_a</span> ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:04, 30 November 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
They'll never do that - profs (not to mention high school teachers) would freak out! If that's not yet the only reason dedicated-hardware graphing calculators still exist, it soon will be. {{unsigned ip|24.218.167.129}}<br />
:Why? Why they would freak out? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.107|173.245.48.107]] 22:18, 8 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
:TI has, in fact, already made a [http://education.ti.com/en-GB/aus-nz/nspire-family/ipad TI-Nspire iPad app] (but there's nothing official for Android). --[[User:Qwach|Qwach]] ([[User talk:Qwach|talk]]) 19:21, 31 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
: If we're talking about apps, then Maxima for Android is all you need. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 23:45, 12 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This explanation misses an important point of the comic's punchline: back in the mid-'90s, you would spend lots of cash for something that, by today's standards, is underpowered. While the observation about the state of changing technology between then and now is valid, the punchline to the comic is that in the case of TI calculators, not only has the *technology* not moved forward, but the *price* hasn't changed either! Nobody would nowadays pay 3000 dollars for the 100MHz Pentium machine mentioned in the comic, but people still spend 100 dollars on a 10MHz calculator. Madness. This is why the characters stumble over the "Times sure have changed" sentiment because, in the TI case, nothing has changed at all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.216|141.101.81.216]] 09:18, 24 February 2014 (UTC)</div>173.245.48.107https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1390:_Research_Ethics&diff=711391390: Research Ethics2014-07-07T21:19:15Z<p>173.245.48.107: /* Explanation */ While I agree, this is more an opinion; it should be in the comments section.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1390<br />
| date = July 4, 2014<br />
| title = Research Ethics<br />
| image = research_ethics.png<br />
| titletext = I mean, it's not like we could just demand to see the code that's governing our lives. What right do we have to poke around in Facebook's private affairs like that?<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic references the recent revelation that {{w|Facebook}} engaged in a "{{w|Experimental psychology|psychological experiment}}" by selectively showing users more "positive" or "negative" posts on their news feed and recording the users' comments to see if the change affected the positivity or negativity of their posts. Further experiments have since been revealed [http://online.wsj.com/articles/facebook-experiments-had-few-limits-1404344378 such as one that tested security measures by locking users out of their accounts]. <br />
<br />
Here, [[Megan]] is commenting on the fact that, while the media is calling this control over what content the user sees "{{w|unethical}}," Facebook, and other companies like {{w|Google}}, must, one way or another, control what content the user sees, whether to present users with a limited selection of all postings, or to tailor ads to particular users; even if the regular algorithms are not set up for psychological experiments, they are still "manipulating" what posts users see or don't see. As Megan points out, no one really knows what the "normal" constraints are of the algorithm which chooses which posts are shown on news feeds. This comic is parodying the strong reaction to what is basically already a common practice.<br />
<br />
Accumulation, control and analysis of user-generated information can be a part of the {{w|terms of service}}/{{w|end-user license agreement}} of a Website or software. In such a scenario, the user has effectively signed his/her consent to being part of such research. Unfortunately, most users don't read the terms before clicking the "I agree" option, so it can come as a shock when the service uses the data in a way the user hadn't anticipated.<br />
<br />
The title text ironically/sarcastically accepts that Facebook has access to all of its users thoughts (through posts/messages and photos), and they can read them for research (or whatever other) purposes, but contrasts this with a suggestion (which likely mirrors how Facebook would respond to such a request) that Facebook's code is private and can not be revealed to us. The title text basically appears to be musing that this is backwards, and our personal data should be considered MORE private than Facebook's programming code, which may be proprietary, but is not personal private data.<br />
<br />
It is as if your neighbor was spying on you while you left all your shades open, but you felt it to be inappropriate to find out what he knew about you because that's his business. Asking for the source code might similarly be equivalent to asking for the specifications of the binoculars your neighbor used for spying.<br />
<br />
*In the comic [[743: Infrastructures]] the same issues with Facebook and open source. <br />
*And in [[1150: Instagram]] the subject is again about how users feel used by social networks, this time by {{w|Instagram}}.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan is facing Cueball and Ponytail]<br />
:Megan: Facebook shouldn't choose what stuff they show us to conduct unethical psychological research. <br />
:Megan: They should ''only'' make those decisions based on, uh...<br />
:Megan: However they were doing it before. <br />
:Megan: Which was probably ethical, right?<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/a/a3/20140704163127!research_ethics.png original comic image] had a typing mistake. [[Randall]] wrote ''what'' twice in a row - first at the end of the first line and then again at the start of the second line. This is a classic optical illusion - but he got caught in it by himself, because he obviously did not do it on purpose, since he quickly corrected the error and loaded the current version up on xkcd.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Social networking]]</div>173.245.48.107