https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.62.75&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T13:35:09ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:609:_Tab_Explosion&diff=65513Talk:609: Tab Explosion2014-04-16T14:29:17Z<p>173.245.62.75: </p>
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<div>It also has a link, not only to the comic, but also to the ''explained'' comic here! Talk about a loop. Anonymous07:20, 4 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
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you can't access title-text on mobile devices [[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.75|173.245.62.75]] 14:29, 16 April 2014 (UTC)</div>173.245.62.75https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:32:_Pillar&diff=64137Talk:32: Pillar2014-04-03T09:05:43Z<p>173.245.62.75: </p>
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<div>I have oft wondered about the color thing.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/71.178.11.180|71.178.11.180]] 21:49, 23 October 2012 (UTC)<br />
Bigger problem- how do you know there are other people?<br />
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The incessantly thumping bass from your neighbour's "music" is a bit of a clue. :-)<br />
[[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 09:23, 30 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Is that Comic Sans (the font) in the top left? [[User:Caagr98|Caagr98]] ([[User talk:Caagr98|talk]]) 15:06, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
Augh, it is Comic Sans! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.29|173.245.52.29]] 21:00, 5 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Also, it could be that Righty doesn't see a pole, but a pillar, as suggested by the title of the comic. That's why he asks, "What pole?", implying, "I only see a pillar".</div>173.245.62.75https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1337:_Hack&diff=636341337: Hack2014-03-30T13:02:02Z<p>173.245.62.75: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div><noinclude>:''"1337", this comic's number, redirects here. For the 2007 storyline of the same name, starting with [[341|comic 341]], see [[:Category:1337]].''</noinclude><br />
{{comic<br />
| number = 1337<br />
| date = March 3, 2014<br />
| title = Hack<br />
| image = hack.png<br />
| titletext = HACK THE STARS<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|merge the two sections that talk about ISEE-3, eliminate duplication, follow the news thru June at least}}<br />
The probe {{w|International Cometary Explorer|ISEE-3/ICE}} is a spacecraft launched on August 12, 1978. The original mission was to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. It was later sent to visit Comet {{w|21P/Giacobini–Zinner|Giacobini-Zinner}} and became the first spacecraft to do so by flying through a comet's tail.<br />
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Its trajectory will bring it close to Earth on August 2014. A status check of the spacecraft has revealed that many of its instruments are still working and that it contains plenty of fuel. At first it was reported that the hardware to communicate with ISEE-3/ICE had been decommissioned, but after this comic was published, it was established that an 18-meter satellite dish at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory does still have the right hardware, and NASA gave them approval to try to achieve contact.<br />
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The characters Crash and Burn (and the catchphrase, "Mess with the best, die like the rest") are allusions to the 1995 movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]]. Since the movie predates the shutdown-signal (1997), the characters should both possess the skills and 'outdated' equipment to understand and hack the signal to the probe.<br />
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In the comic, Burn has hacked into the satellite and left the catchphrase to be shown to those who would log into the satellite regularly. She has also rerouted its path to enter the atmosphere at a certain time. She then uses this knowledge to tell Crash in advance at just the right time that a "falling star" will appear in the sky.<br />
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The title text "Hack the stars" is also an allusion to the movie [[wikipedia:Hackers (film)|Hackers]] where the Phrase "Hack the Planet!" is used on multiple occasions.<br />
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In the Hackers movie, the rivalry between the characters Crash and Burn was to "one up" the other by means of hacking as a measure of how good their skills were. The "falling star" could be the ultimate measure of hacking "leet-ness".<br />
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Not coincidentally, this is comic number 1337, which in {{w|leet speak}} means ''elite'' (elite hacking, in this case).<br />
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===Truth & Fiction Explained===<br />
This comic involves some truth and some fiction. There is an {{w|International Cometary Explorer|ISEE-3/ICE}} probe. According to the Wikipedia article, it was launched in August 12, 1978 and tasked to study Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. After completing its original mission the probe was repurposed on June 10, 1982 to study the interaction between the solar wind and a cometary atmosphere. This put it in a {{w|heliocentric orbit}}. According to an article by [http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-3.html Emily Lakdawalla] at Planetary.org, the Deep Space Network (DSN) detected the probe again in 2008 because NASA mistakenly left its transmitters on.<br />
From [http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsndocs/810-005/101/101E.pdf this NASA JPL paper], the Madrid DSS complex still has the special filter required to communicate with the ICE satellite, but because of frequency conflicts S-band uplink is not supported.<br />
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On March 1st and 2nd, 2014 radio amateurs were able to detect the beacon signal from the retired NASA deep space probe ICE (International Cometary Explorer) using the 20m radio telescope at the Bochum Observatory (Germany). However, the probe was only transmitting the carrier signal at that time. [http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/radio-amateurs-receive-nasa-isee-3ice-spacecraft/]<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Panel 1 shows an image of the ISEE-3/ICE spacecraft]<br />
:Narration: The ISEE-3/ICE probe was launched in 1978. Its mission ended in 1997 and it was sent a shutdown signal.<br />
:Narration: In 2008, we learned-to our surprise-that the probe didn't shut down. It's still running and it has plenty of fuel. ...and in 2014, its orbit brings it near earth.<br />
:[Panel 3 shows Megan and Ponytail talking to each other.]<br />
:Megan: We could send it on a new mission... Except we no longer have the equipment to send commands to it.<br />
:Ponytail: Can't we...<br />
:Megan: NASA won't rebuild it. "Too Expensive"<br />
:Ponytail: Seriously?<br />
:Megan: I know, right? So the Internet found the specs and we went to work.<br />
:[Panel 5 shows Megan and Ponytail have walking into an area where a girl and Cueball both are sitting at desks looking at laptops.]<br />
:Narration: We've convinced them to give us time on the Madrid DSN transmitter and hacked the maser to support the uplink. And today's the big day.<br />
:Cueball: Transmitting... We have a signal! We have control!<br />
:Megan: OK, transmit the new comet rendezvous maneuver sequen-<br />
:[Cueball, off panel]: What the hell?<br />
:Megan: What?<br />
:Cueball: My console went dead!<br />
:Girl: Mine too!<br />
:Megan: What's happening?!<br />
:Cueball: There's a new signal going out over the transmitter!<br />
:[Megan, off panel]: A bug?<br />
:Cueball: Someone else is in the system!<br />
:Girl: Kill the connection!<br />
:[Cueball, off panel]: I can't find it!<br />
:Girl: They're firing the probe's engines!<br />
:[Cueball, off panel]: NO!<br />
:[Megan, off panel]: Who's doing this?? Stop them!<br />
:[Girl, off panel]: I'm trying!<br />
:Cueball, pointing to his screen: Look! My screen!<br />
:[Text, on Cueball's laptop screen]: M-E-S-S-W-I-T-H-T-H-E-B-E-S-T D-I-E-L-I-K-E-T-H-E-R-E-S-T<br />
:[Panel 13 shows two people in a pool at night.]<br />
:[Panel 14 zooms out to reveal the pool is on top of a skyscraper in a vertically developed, downtown setting.]<br />
:Burn: Crash?<br />
:Crash: Yeah, Burn?<br />
:Burn: Make a wish.<br />
:[Panel 16 shows the spacecraft streaking across the sky, indistinguishable from a meteoroid.]<br />
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==Trivia==<br />
*There are several pools in the movie as well. There is a subplot involving a mythical pool on the roof of the high school where several of the characters are students. Additionally, a scene in the movie [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcHBsB0igrg Hackers ending] shows Crash and Burn swimming in a rooftop pool, while several buildings light up with the words "CRASH AND BURN", the result of their friends' latest hack. This scene is similar to the last four panels of the comic.<br />
*The number of the comic is also significant, in that [[:Category:1337|1337]] is a common numeric form of {{w|leet}}, again referring to hackers.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>173.245.62.75