https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=76.106.251.87&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T17:03:35ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:434:_xkcd_Goes_to_the_Airport&diff=50987Talk:434: xkcd Goes to the Airport2013-10-22T01:12:38Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>I do not understand the "churchmouse" in this context? This needs an explain. Thanks.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:39, 26 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
:A churchmouse is a small rodent. Look it up on Wikipedia. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:23, 27 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
::That's not true: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/church+mouse [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 23:24, 13 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Later, [[526 | Converting to Metric]] informs us that a fieldmouse contains 3 mL of blood.--[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 05:29, 6 September 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Maybe I'm just dirty minded, but I thought the "stains panties" line had to do with simulating either defloration or menstruation.--[[Special:Contributions/67.243.62.50|67.243.62.50]] 17:16, 28 September 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I was under the impression that the "hacker girl" either gave him the set as a gift, or he just learned how to lock-pick from being around her so much that he acquired his own. It seems weird that it would have anything to do with smuggling. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 01:12, 22 October 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1274:_Open_Letter&diff=50202Talk:1274: Open Letter2013-10-08T04:08:13Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>If you believe in a shadow government, it seems likely that you would actually see a goverment shutdown as part of the conspiracy. {{unsigned ip|108.13.108.44}}<br />
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:Is this another shadow fact? http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1272 --[[User:MauroVan|MauroVan]] ([[User talk:MauroVan|talk]]) 09:33, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I guess Randal is only right as long there is only ONE group involved ;-). --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 11:01, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Randall knows ''exactly'' which group is in control, but has been forced by them to leave their name completely off of the aforementioned list. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.212.190|178.98.212.190]] 13:25, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I removed the words 'Self-proclaimed' from the description of Scientology. It's so vague to be meaningless. Aren't most religions and churches self-proclaimed? Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc all started with somebody claiming secret knowledge. It should either be applied to all religions, or none.[[Special:Contributions/154.20.80.41|154.20.80.41]] 13:50, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Is "Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen" really a Half-Life 2 reference? The phrase is generic enough that it actually appears before Half-Life 2 was released ([http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x372352 example]). --[[Special:Contributions/75.119.250.35|75.119.250.35]] 15:21, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Agreed, people have been using the "Concerned Citizen" phrasing for years. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:41, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It's not just the wording, but the context, so it does seem to be a reference. [[Special:Contributions/108.13.108.44|108.13.108.44]] 18:22, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
::The context being that of somebody concerned about their government? That seems a wee bit broad to be a contextual reference.[[Special:Contributions/154.20.80.41|154.20.80.41]] 03:01, 8 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Wow! The actual group secretly running the government is so powerful they had themselves removed from the explanation table, apparently! (There's no Trilateral Commission entry right now.) [[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 16:29, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Fixed. :) [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:41, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
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No mention of what an open letter is? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:08, 8 October 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1249:_Meteor_Showers&diff=46208Talk:1249: Meteor Showers2013-08-10T00:15:04Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>The dates are not in order {{unsigned ip|99.108.140.97}}<br />
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Maybe the tennis reference is to Bob and Mike Bryan, they are twins. [[Special:Contributions/83.227.33.35|83.227.33.35]] 09:36, 9 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The date for Dromaeosaurids was originally June 12, but on the page displayed at 9:44 ET, is now July 22.<br />
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Lyrids: Scream because of the similarity to "Lyrics"? [[Special:Contributions/74.125.57.36|74.125.57.36]] 15:08, 9 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I don't know if it's relevant, but pyramidal cells are needed in complex object recognition and in vision-guided motor function. By closing your eyes, you're basically not using much of your pyramidal cells' capabilities. They're also one of the largest neurones, but I doubt that's relevant. [[Special:Contributions/83.173.97.36|83.173.97.36]] 15:28, 9 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
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When it comes to the Leonids, John Lennon (I know it's a stretch), made his "bigger than Jesus" comment in '66<br />
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For Draconids, are there any movies with dragons that would fit the given description? --[[User:Irino.|Irino.]] ([[User talk:Irino.|talk]]) 18:56, 9 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
:{{w|Reign_of_Fire_(film)|Reign Of Fire}} first came to mind as far as dragons are concerned, but unlike the Jurassic Park T-Rex (which ''might'' be an influence, given their co-billing alongside the 'Raptor threat) I don't ''think'' they were blind to the motionless (just had bad vision at sunset?) and neither were they were notably slow (far from it!). Various zombies (non-Rage ones) are slow but surprisingly good at catching people who trip, but I don't see any obvious connection there either. Maybe there's another Monster Movie which has the same sort of thing with dragons? I had also considered Komodo Dragons, which are often filmed lumbering about, although they've got a turn of speed on them when attacking so... Anyway, my thoughts, FWIW. [[Special:Contributions/178.104.103.140|178.104.103.140]] 23:00, 9 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
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With regard to "daytime" meteor showers being a NASA hoax, would anyone be able to see a meteor shower during the daytime? [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 00:12, 10 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Regarding Centaurids: You could look at a meteor shower from inside through a window. Glare or perhaps light absorbed by the glass could make it difficult or impossible to see a meteor shower unless it is bright enough. (I nearly lost my edit to Odysseus654 who posted just before me.) [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 00:15, 10 August 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1243:_Snare&diff=45201Talk:1243: Snare2013-07-27T14:44:23Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Incidentally, St. Louis is about 300 miles from Chicago, so the shaft would be 40 miles short.<br />
:It depends on how large the giant ring is. 20 mile radius would put it adjacent. Also, "outside" Chicago is flexible.<br />
:More importantly, [[Black Hat]] is such a jerk. He builds a freaking {{w|space elevator}} but only uses it for a particularly silly kind of evil. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 14:26, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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By the way, what is [[Black Hat]] sitting at? It looks like there is open laptop on desk, but he uses separate keyboard in a special shelf... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:06, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It's entirely possible that he has exactly that. My mother uses an ergonomic keyboard instead of the crappy, built-in one on the laptop. Her desk has a keyboard shelf, so that's where the ergonomic one goes. [[Special:Contributions/68.231.138.149|68.231.138.149]] 18:05, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:I don't believe in ergonomic keyboards, but look at what laptops have instead of keyboard. I'm usually using standard keyboard instead of built-in one and I don't believe I'm alone. Also note that as a hacker, [[Black Hat]] probably needs lots of special symbols, which may be missing or on nonstandard positions on laptop keyboard (he is hacker, isn't he?). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:51, 27 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Regardless of whether or not you believe in them, ergonomic keyboards exist. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:43, 27 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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== Real giant ring observed over Chicago today. ==<br />
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A smoke ring from an exploded transformer.<br />
I honestly think this could have inspired the comic.<br />
[http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1j2idy/the_power_went_out_in_my_whole_neighborhood_and/ on reddit]<br />
[http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Power-Outage-in-College-Station--217039531.html on the news]<br />
[[Special:Contributions/92.204.27.3|92.204.27.3]] 11:31, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Funny, I immediately flashed on the world's largest electromagnet, delivered today to the Fermilab facility in Batavia IL, which is just outside Chicago: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/07/26/massive-electromagnet-completes-arduous-trip-to-fermilab/ [[User:Gardnertoo|Gardnertoo]] ([[User talk:Gardnertoo|talk]]) 20:15, 26 July 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1243:_Snare&diff=45200Talk:1243: Snare2013-07-27T14:43:40Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Incidentally, St. Louis is about 300 miles from Chicago, so the shaft would be 40 miles short.<br />
:It depends on how large the giant ring is. 20 mile radius would put it adjacent. Also, "outside" Chicago is flexible.<br />
:More importantly, [[Black Hat]] is such a jerk. He builds a freaking {{w|space elevator}} but only uses it for a particularly silly kind of evil. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 14:26, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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By the way, what is [[Black Hat]] sitting at? It looks like there is open laptop on desk, but he uses separate keyboard in a special shelf... --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:06, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It's entirely possible that he has exactly that. My mother uses an ergonomic keyboard instead of the crappy, built-in one on the laptop. Her desk has a keyboard shelf, so that's where the ergonomic one goes. [[Special:Contributions/68.231.138.149|68.231.138.149]] 18:05, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:I don't believe in ergonomic keyboards, but look at what laptops have instead of keyboard. I'm usually using standard keyboard instead of built-in one and I don't believe I'm alone. Also note that as a hacker, [[Black Hat]] probably needs lots of special symbols, which may be missing or on nonstandard positions on laptop keyboard (he is hacker, isn't he?). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:51, 27 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Regardless of whether or not you believe in them, ergonomic keyboards exist. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:43, 27 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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== Real giant ring observed over Chicago today. ==<br />
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A smoke ring from an exploded transformer.<br />
I honestly think this could have inspired the comic.<br />
[http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1j2idy/the_power_went_out_in_my_whole_neighborhood_and/ on reddit]<br />
[http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Power-Outage-in-College-Station--217039531.html on the news]<br />
[[Special:Contributions/92.204.27.3|92.204.27.3]] 11:31, 26 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Funny, I immediately flashed on the world's largest electromagnet, delivered today to the Fermilab facility in Batavia IL, which is just outside Chicago: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/07/26/massive-electromagnet-completes-arduous-trip-to-fermilab/ [[User:Gardnertoo|Gardnertoo]] ([[User talk:Gardnertoo|talk]]) 20:15, 26 July 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1233:_Relativity&diff=42875Talk:1233: Relativity2013-07-05T05:20:50Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Should be "Gedankengang" (Plural, it's "Gedanke" + "n"). Means: chain/train/line of thought(s)<br />
[[Special:Contributions/91.66.205.94|91.66.205.94]] 05:52, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Interesting idea, because it matches the text more closely, but he really wasn't that famous for his "chain of thought" - more famous for his Gedankenexperimente, for example, chasing a light beam (leading to Special Relativity) or the thought experiments that lead to the EPR paradox. --[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 09:52, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Anyway, "Gedankedank" does not really make sense, it's not a word. [[Special:Contributions/130.60.152.125|130.60.152.125]]<br />
:::Might be refering to "Badonkadonk", even though "Gedankedank" isnt a german word. [[Special:Contributions/178.26.88.31|178.26.88.31]]<br />
::That's what I think: He's taken "Gedankenexperiment", which sounds funny in English, and taken the "Gedanken" part and reduplicated it to match the sound of "badonkadonk", without worrying about whether it makes sense in German. --[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 12:22, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Also, from reading http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=103423, in last week's "what if" there was:<br />
::20 meters per second is about how fast an average person with a good arm could throw a bouncy ball. Therefore, to determine the result of an impact, we can make use of what Einstein called a gedankenexperiment, or "thought experiment"<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 10:02, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I'm not sure what the "Lorentz contraction" in the title text is referring to, should this be added to the description? [[Special:Contributions/96.228.23.74|96.228.23.74]] 14:06, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Side note: Logical conclusion -- Shakira's hips must like big butts. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:30, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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" it is unlikely that he pondered how relativistic velocity would affect the appearance of his butt. " This, ladies and gentlemen, is why i read this! Funnier than xkcd sometimes... Way too many times, sometimes... [[Special:Contributions/189.5.99.20|189.5.99.20]] 03:43, 4 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I just realized the number of this comic. Friday will be comic 1234. I doubt there will be a joke about it since I think only 404 and 1000 had any self-reference. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:37, 4 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Also, as part of a discussion for THIS comic, there was a bit of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard magnificent basterdry] on Randall's part in seeding within his What If all the information needed to get the joke. Almost anyone that read it would get an immediate chuckle out of it. For me, I had even forgotten the source of where I had learned what "gedankenexperiment" meant. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:20, 5 July 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1233:_Relativity&diff=42851Talk:1233: Relativity2013-07-04T14:37:39Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Should be "Gedankengang" (Plural, it's "Gedanke" + "n"). Means: chain/train/line of thought(s)<br />
[[Special:Contributions/91.66.205.94|91.66.205.94]] 05:52, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Interesting idea, because it matches the text more closely, but he really wasn't that famous for his "chain of thought" - more famous for his Gedankenexperimente, for example, chasing a light beam (leading to Special Relativity) or the thought experiments that lead to the EPR paradox. --[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 09:52, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Anyway, "Gedankedank" does not really make sense, it's not a word. [[Special:Contributions/130.60.152.125|130.60.152.125]]<br />
:::Might be refering to "Badonkadonk", even though "Gedankedank" isnt a german word. [[Special:Contributions/178.26.88.31|178.26.88.31]]<br />
::That's what I think: He's taken "Gedankenexperiment", which sounds funny in English, and taken the "Gedanken" part and reduplicated it to match the sound of "badonkadonk", without worrying about whether it makes sense in German. --[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 12:22, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Also, from reading http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=103423, in last week's "what if" there was:<br />
::20 meters per second is about how fast an average person with a good arm could throw a bouncy ball. Therefore, to determine the result of an impact, we can make use of what Einstein called a gedankenexperiment, or "thought experiment"<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/196.35.92.54|196.35.92.54]] 10:02, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I'm not sure what the "Lorentz contraction" in the title text is referring to, should this be added to the description? [[Special:Contributions/96.228.23.74|96.228.23.74]] 14:06, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Side note: Logical conclusion -- Shakira's hips must like big butts. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 15:30, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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" it is unlikely that he pondered how relativistic velocity would affect the appearance of his butt. " This, ladies and gentlemen, is why i read this! Funnier than xkcd sometimes... Way too many times, sometimes... [[Special:Contributions/189.5.99.20|189.5.99.20]] 03:43, 4 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I just realized the number of this comic. Friday will be comic 1234. I doubt there will be a joke about it since I think only 404 and 1000 had any self-reference. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:37, 4 July 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:523:_Decline&diff=42157Talk:523: Decline2013-06-27T00:33:19Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with ""Wife"? ~~~~"</p>
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<div>"Wife"? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 00:33, 27 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1226:_Balloon_Internet&diff=41033Talk:1226: Balloon Internet2013-06-17T22:13:15Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Does the action take place in a desert ? Compare scenery with http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/File:Petit_Prince_etoile.jpg . Is Cueball reading [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_little_prince The Little Prince] ? See comics [http://xkcd.com/618/ #618], [http://xkcd.com/2/ #2] and what-if article [http://what-if.xkcd.com/26/ leap seconds] if you doubt that The Little Prince occupies a good share of Randall's mind. [[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 08:34, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
: The original articles about the project have also seen some comments from people who see this sort of thing as an intrusion into the last areas which are supposed to be a refuge from global connectability - much like cell phones have been decried by those accustomed to be able to elude attempts to be contacted when not around a fixed telephone. I think this may have similar overtones - a general idea that some areas are _supposed_ to be secluded like that. Only a guess though... --[[Special:Contributions/193.231.162.31|193.231.162.31]] 09:18, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: There's a comparison to be made between being in signal range for mobile phones but deliberately not carrying one (or turning the one you have off for the duration) and being now within reach of the Internet but again with deliberate non-connection to this. (On one hand I accidentally (''genuinely'' accidentally) forgot my mobile yesterday, when I went out, and missed four calls. Or one call re-attempted three times. I'm also in a '4G' area for mobile internet, but I quite deliberately have a phone that doesn't have any browsing capability at all, so I'm swimming in 4G access but 'happily' unaffected even when I don't forget (or 'forget') my phone.) Arguably there's far more benefits for having the ''potential'' of connectivity (so long as you make it universally possible and not Rich Boys' Toys-enabled only, which is already the case) than deliberately making areas of the planet 'dark' to such things just to reinforce some select people's 'spiritual abstinence' from such 'fripperies'. Implementation is the key to this blanket equality (or "raising to the common good"), of course. [[Special:Contributions/178.107.249.215|178.107.249.215]] 12:35, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::I was going to say just this in a much less eloquent way. Thank you. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 22:13, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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There is a visual ambiguity as if the balloon is big and far (big enough to carry a person), or small and close.<br />
First, transmission balloons are not meant to carry a person, only a small box containing electronic equipment.<br />
The balloon is not shouting (no exclamation mark), rather speaking at normal level.<br />
If the balloon was big and far, speaking normally, Cueball would not have startled and cried out "Augh!". So the balloon must be small and close, e.g. distance between observer and balloon is same as distance between observer and Cueball. [[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 10:07, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The mouseover text describes a plan to sell wireless access by putting Verizon wireless hotspots on balloons, then cancelling their subscriptions. This would be twice a ripoff. First, in places within signal range of a Verizon tower there is no need for something like Project Loon; the whole point is to deliver Internet access to places that do not have it now. Second, cancelling their subscriptions will mean after the intitial trial period the service won't work anymore.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/38.66.68.209|38.66.68.209]] 11:04, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I believe that the 'scheme' is to immediately replace cancelled Verizon hotspots with new (temporary) Verizon hotspots, being refunded (or never charged) continually in order to rip off Verizon (for as long as they don't get suspicious, in their Contracts department, at least) and provide no-cost broadcasting. The geographic limitation applies, of course, unless (by clever manipulation of location-based demand for the service, not even hinted at by the text concerned) you encourage Verizon's catchment areas to spread outwards and over previously unserviced areas with the extra infrastructure they might install. Brinksmanship at its finest, though, if you get ''that'' working... [[Special:Contributions/178.107.249.215|178.107.249.215]] 12:35, 17 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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My interpretation is that the balloon is "spying" at cueball, and when he notice that, the balloon says "Internet" a clear reference to Google involvement in the Obama's Watergate.</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1224:_Council_of_300&diff=40604Talk:1224: Council of 3002013-06-13T19:07:50Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>This phenomenon is explained by a Google engineer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIkhgagvrjI on YouTube].<br />
[[Special:Contributions/62.245.198.190|62.245.198.190]] 08:17, 12 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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No reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_300 Committee of 300?]. Sorry, I have no time to elaborate. --[[User:Palmpje|Palmpje]] ([[User talk:Palmpje|talk]]) 12:41, 12 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I think the first panel is poking fun at the complete irrelevance of merit in videos going viral (i.e. a kid crying about a celebrity or a horrible song that only got recorded because the "artist's" parents were rich). You could say it seems that merit makes a video ''less'' likely to go viral, but then you'd have to think about how a small percentage of the videos are worthy of virality, and you see that that percentage within the category of viral videos is proportionate. But, that said, a conspiracy by a dark cabal would answer more questions about this phenomenon more adequately than the commonly quoted, "people are stupid," so I think the first panel is a reference to this. Hence the, "We decree that this video meets our standards and should go viral." The explanation given above really only starts in the second panel. Plus, it wouldn't be the first time xkcd referenced and made fun of conspiracy theories.[[Special:Contributions/173.25.45.105|173.25.45.105]] 14:01, 12 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:To me, it's just a silly hypothetical link between the number 301 and the Committee (which I didn't know about until, like, just now). I wouldn't say that it's a biting commentary about Internet popularity, but different strokes for different folks. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 16:50, 12 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: I can just see the guy doing finger quotes around "go viral". [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 19:20, 12 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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What's the helicopter-carrying-a-string video? Is that something specific and real? [[Special:Contributions/200.49.162.52|200.49.162.52]] 09:56, 13 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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301 is the number of people in the council plus the first regular person to view it. It's an obvious point, but we seem like we want to be complete. Not sure where to add it, so I'll let wiki-magic take care of that. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 19:07, 13 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:396:_The_Ring&diff=40601Talk:396: The Ring2013-06-13T18:57:39Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Ironic, when Youtube is one of the prime targets for death-threat chain letters. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 03:32, 30 October 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
How does the comic imply that he is not safe? The mom just seems mad because 360,000 people are going to die. [[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 03:10, 4 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In the books, copying didn't really make you safe. Granted, this comic is about the movie based off of the movie based off of the books, so the comparison is pretty limited. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 18:57, 13 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1222:_Pastime&diff=40038Talk:1222: Pastime2013-06-09T00:42:52Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Total waste. There are 168 hours in a week, and some people get things done in only four. {{unsigned ip|70.197.5.217}}<br />
<br />
:To be fair, most people are forced to spend 40 hours a week by not getting things done just so they earn some money for food. Also, you don't exactly get things done while you sleep, but you will not get anything done if you don't sleep enough either. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:34, 7 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Let's not overlook the main title "Pastime"; after slugging it out all day at work, they come home and spend their time needlessly worrying when they could read, be creative, or do something meaningful. [[User:Galois|Galois]] ([[User talk:Galois|talk]]) 17:54, 7 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought the joke here was that this is something that everyone does. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 00:42, 9 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1221:_Nomenclature&diff=39871Talk:1221: Nomenclature2013-06-07T21:39:48Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>When I saw the obvious Doctor Who reference, I jumped on the Wiki hoping to be the first to post the Who's On First reference. I drastically underestimate xkcd fans. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:44, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought that the middle guy was Short Round from Temple of Doom, since he shouts "Doctor Jones, Doctor Jones!" but I suppose that doesn't really make sense.--[[Special:Contributions/74.125.18.32|74.125.18.32]] 10:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I came here for an explanation of the ''comic'' and found none. So far there are only explanations of the ''references.'' Who are the three characters in the comic, and what is the situation they’re in? Which kind of confusion arised between them? (Though I got ''all'' the pop-cultural references mentioned I cannot make any sense of the comic so far.) --[[Special:Contributions/77.185.42.247|77.185.42.247]] 10:45, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Hypothetical answer: The tall and short baseball players are Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, respectively. Abbott is talking about the baseball team with the oddly-named players from the "Who's on First" routine, except that the Doctor from "Doctor Who" is playing first base. Abbott is attempting to tell Costello about his lineup in the usual "Who's on First" style, and Costello is completely confused by it as usual. However, Megan (someone more familiar with the Doctor Who franchise) interrupts to explain that the first baseman, who Abbott thinks is named "Dr. Who", is actually just "The Doctor" and does not have "Who" as part of his name. --[[Special:Contributions/99.140.166.189|99.140.166.189]] 13:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I see it as an homage to Abbot & Costello's "Who's on first" routine, but with actual characters from literature and the media. The joke is that when the "Who's on first" routine first came out everyone thought the names were just implausible, made-up characters. We were wrong, but I don't know (Third Base). [[User:Galois|Galois]] ([[User talk:Galois|talk]]) 11:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I went a bit verbose on expanding the exposition, only to get edit-sniped right as I was posting. I think the other version is better, but FYI here is what I'd ended up with, in case any of it is still useful...<br />
:{{w|Doctor (Doctor Who)|The Doctor}} from the long-running British television series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' has been incorrectly referred to as "Who", "Doctor Who" or "Dr. Who" by fans and commentators (not helped by the series name, itself, and how the character was credited in various earlier episodes' and some spin-off works). When not using a pseudonym or playing along with some form of mistaken identity, however, he overwhelmingly tends to introduce himself as "The Doctor". If not unquestionably accepted (perhaps due to natural {{w|Time Lord}} 'glamour'/confidence or some {{w|TARDIS}} effect) this tends to elicit the response "Doctor who?". His response to this question is often "Just 'The Doctor'."<br />
(...which, I originally pointed out but edited away, often tends to settle things. Really, between the TARDIS translation field/etc, his recent use of psychic paper and of course his own long-practiced assertive air of self-confidence, he has avoided a ''lot'' of 'First Contact'-type problems. Not infallably so, of course, but that's Plot for you.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.154.137|178.98.154.137]] 13:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Interestingly, it appears that his name is both "Doctor Who" and "The Doctor". All living pre-2005 actors who played the role, as well as Doctor Who Magazine itself, refer to him as Doctor Who. It's only since the reboot of the series in 2005 that people, mostly those referred to as "NuWhos", insist his one and only name is "The Doctor".<br />
<br />
How is it that no one has mentioned the Robot Chicken take on this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNIdqvMUhrE<br />
<br />
What does "Aunt Beast" in the title text refer to? [[Special:Contributions/72.92.72.222|72.92.72.222]] 16:13, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:On the issue of "NuWhos" being the pedantic ones, I'm an avowed traditionalist Whovian from way back when (4th Doctor era, technically, although I actually relate more to Five's era), and we were ''always'' being joyfully sniffy about those (including 'official media', and episode credits themselves) that used to name any given incarnation as "Doctor Who". (''Apart'' from Peter Cushing, who ''is'' a doctor named Who... and is also entirely human.)<br />
:We noticed with disgust when new-era Who ''perpetuated'' the error. The end-credits for Nine/Eccleston said "Doctor Who" for his entire season. It became only became "The Doctor" for The Christmas Invasion, the inter-season special that was Ten's first full episode. Probably due to a load of us fans berating TPTB about the error. (My recordings of the '96 TV movie and what I have of the older seasons aren't at hand, though, to double check their credits, and I know it varied. The IMDB listing for McGann's production suggests "The Doctor" ''was'' correct for him, though.)<br />
:And I can't subscribe to the authority of 'mere' actors or even official spin-off literature if the producers ''themselves'' can be shown to be utterly '''wrong'''... ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.107.63.150|178.107.63.150]] 19:21, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I slightly disagree with the current state of the explanation. First, I think the Doctor is the first baseman, not Mrs. Who (why else is the Doctor even being mentioned by the duo in the comic?). Second, the "on first" or "on second" is little bit ambiguous. If you say "X is on first" that could mean that X is a member of the batting team and has made it to first base, or it could mean that X is a member of the fielding team and is the first baseman. Now, the Abbot and Costello routine removes the ambiguity because it is said at the start of the skit that the team's lineup is being given, which means any references to "on first", "on second", etc. have to be to the defensive positions. But in this explanation I think it would be better to say that the Doctor is the first baseman (or is playing first) and Mrs. Whatsit is the second baseman. 16:54 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:That's actually what's funny about this comic. Costello is confused about the name of the player playing first base. Megan is adding to the confusion because she misinterprets the "Who" in a new, different way than either Abbott or Costello. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 17:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think we do need more explain on the title text. While we still have this confusion about names there is someone (the captain?) shouting to the field. So this must be a real baseball game. Aunt Beast is the batter and hitting the ball for Mrs Whatsit to reach the second base. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:02, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text refers to "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle. {{unsigned ip|71.199.241.5}}<br />
<br />
"Nomenclature" could use a definition, since it ties the joke together. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 03:41, 6 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:So write one. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 14:17, 6 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
::The explanation looks like it needs to be rewritten since it looks so patchy from pieces of explanations just getting added on a whim. I don't want to add to that problem since I'm not a writer. But I appreciate your faith in me. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 16:55, 6 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::Tell us more, there are writers here who will adopt.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:49, 6 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::I planned to go into more detail when I got off of work, but the IP that cleaned it up already did an amazing job. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 21:39, 7 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1221:_Nomenclature&diff=39695Talk:1221: Nomenclature2013-06-06T16:55:44Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>When I saw the obvious Doctor Who reference, I jumped on the Wiki hoping to be the first to post the Who's On First reference. I drastically underestimate xkcd fans. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:44, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought that the middle guy was Short Round from Temple of Doom, since he shouts "Doctor Jones, Doctor Jones!" but I suppose that doesn't really make sense.--[[Special:Contributions/74.125.18.32|74.125.18.32]] 10:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I came here for an explanation of the ''comic'' and found none. So far there are only explanations of the ''references.'' Who are the three characters in the comic, and what is the situation they’re in? Which kind of confusion arised between them? (Though I got ''all'' the pop-cultural references mentioned I cannot make any sense of the comic so far.) --[[Special:Contributions/77.185.42.247|77.185.42.247]] 10:45, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Hypothetical answer: The tall and short baseball players are Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, respectively. Abbott is talking about the baseball team with the oddly-named players from the "Who's on First" routine, except that the Doctor from "Doctor Who" is playing first base. Abbott is attempting to tell Costello about his lineup in the usual "Who's on First" style, and Costello is completely confused by it as usual. However, Megan (someone more familiar with the Doctor Who franchise) interrupts to explain that the first baseman, who Abbott thinks is named "Dr. Who", is actually just "The Doctor" and does not have "Who" as part of his name. --[[Special:Contributions/99.140.166.189|99.140.166.189]] 13:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I see it as an homage to Abbot & Costello's "Who's on first" routine, but with actual characters from literature and the media. The joke is that when the "Who's on first" routine first came out everyone thought the names were just implausible, made-up characters. We were wrong, but I don't know (Third Base). [[User:Galois|Galois]] ([[User talk:Galois|talk]]) 11:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I went a bit verbose on expanding the exposition, only to get edit-sniped right as I was posting. I think the other version is better, but FYI here is what I'd ended up with, in case any of it is still useful...<br />
:{{w|Doctor (Doctor Who)|The Doctor}} from the long-running British television series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' has been incorrectly referred to as "Who", "Doctor Who" or "Dr. Who" by fans and commentators (not helped by the series name, itself, and how the character was credited in various earlier episodes' and some spin-off works). When not using a pseudonym or playing along with some form of mistaken identity, however, he overwhelmingly tends to introduce himself as "The Doctor". If not unquestionably accepted (perhaps due to natural {{w|Time Lord}} 'glamour'/confidence or some {{w|TARDIS}} effect) this tends to elicit the response "Doctor who?". His response to this question is often "Just 'The Doctor'."<br />
(...which, I originally pointed out but edited away, often tends to settle things. Really, between the TARDIS translation field/etc, his recent use of psychic paper and of course his own long-practiced assertive air of self-confidence, he has avoided a ''lot'' of 'First Contact'-type problems. Not infallably so, of course, but that's Plot for you.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.154.137|178.98.154.137]] 13:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Interestingly, it appears that his name is both "Doctor Who" and "The Doctor". All living pre-2005 actors who played the role, as well as Doctor Who Magazine itself, refer to him as Doctor Who. It's only since the reboot of the series in 2005 that people, mostly those referred to as "NuWhos", insist his one and only name is "The Doctor".<br />
<br />
How is it that no one has mentioned the Robot Chicken take on this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNIdqvMUhrE<br />
<br />
What does "Aunt Beast" in the title text refer to? [[Special:Contributions/72.92.72.222|72.92.72.222]] 16:13, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:On the issue of "NuWhos" being the pedantic ones, I'm an avowed traditionalist Whovian from way back when (4th Doctor era, technically, although I actually relate more to Five's era), and we were ''always'' being joyfully sniffy about those (including 'official media', and episode credits themselves) that used to name any given incarnation as "Doctor Who". (''Apart'' from Peter Cushing, who ''is'' a doctor named Who... and is also entirely human.)<br />
:We noticed with disgust when new-era Who ''perpetuated'' the error. The end-credits for Nine/Eccleston said "Doctor Who" for his entire season. It became only became "The Doctor" for The Christmas Invasion, the inter-season special that was Ten's first full episode. Probably due to a load of us fans berating TPTB about the error. (My recordings of the '96 TV movie and what I have of the older seasons aren't at hand, though, to double check their credits, and I know it varied. The IMDB listing for McGann's production suggests "The Doctor" ''was'' correct for him, though.)<br />
:And I can't subscribe to the authority of 'mere' actors or even official spin-off literature if the producers ''themselves'' can be shown to be utterly '''wrong'''... ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.107.63.150|178.107.63.150]] 19:21, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I slightly disagree with the current state of the explanation. First, I think the Doctor is the first baseman, not Mrs. Who (why else is the Doctor even being mentioned by the duo in the comic?). Second, the "on first" or "on second" is little bit ambiguous. If you say "X is on first" that could mean that X is a member of the batting team and has made it to first base, or it could mean that X is a member of the fielding team and is the first baseman. Now, the Abbot and Costello routine removes the ambiguity because it is said at the start of the skit that the team's lineup is being given, which means any references to "on first", "on second", etc. have to be to the defensive positions. But in this explanation I think it would be better to say that the Doctor is the first baseman (or is playing first) and Mrs. Whatsit is the second baseman. 16:54 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:That's actually what's funny about this comic. Costello is confused about the name of the player playing first base. Megan is adding to the confusion because she misinterprets the "Who" in a new, different way than either Abbott or Costello. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 17:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think we do need more explain on the title text. While we still have this confusion about names there is someone (the captain?) shouting to the field. So this must be a real baseball game. Aunt Beast is the batter and hitting the ball for Mrs Whatsit to reach the second base. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:02, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text refers to "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle. {{unsigned ip|71.199.241.5}}<br />
<br />
"Nomenclature" could use a definition, since it ties the joke together. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 03:41, 6 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:So write one. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 14:17, 6 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
::The explanation looks like it needs to be rewritten since it looks so patchy from pieces of explanations just getting added on a whim. I don't want to add to that problem since I'm not a writer. But I appreciate your faith in me. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 16:55, 6 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1221:_Nomenclature&diff=39634Talk:1221: Nomenclature2013-06-06T03:41:22Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>When I saw the obvious Doctor Who reference, I jumped on the Wiki hoping to be the first to post the Who's On First reference. I drastically underestimate xkcd fans. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:44, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I thought that the middle guy was Short Round from Temple of Doom, since he shouts "Doctor Jones, Doctor Jones!" but I suppose that doesn't really make sense.--[[Special:Contributions/74.125.18.32|74.125.18.32]] 10:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I came here for an explanation of the ''comic'' and found none. So far there are only explanations of the ''references.'' Who are the three characters in the comic, and what is the situation they’re in? Which kind of confusion arised between them? (Though I got ''all'' the pop-cultural references mentioned I cannot make any sense of the comic so far.) --[[Special:Contributions/77.185.42.247|77.185.42.247]] 10:45, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Hypothetical answer: The tall and short baseball players are Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, respectively. Abbott is talking about the baseball team with the oddly-named players from the "Who's on First" routine, except that the Doctor from "Doctor Who" is playing first base. Abbott is attempting to tell Costello about his lineup in the usual "Who's on First" style, and Costello is completely confused by it as usual. However, Megan (someone more familiar with the Doctor Who franchise) interrupts to explain that the first baseman, who Abbott thinks is named "Dr. Who", is actually just "The Doctor" and does not have "Who" as part of his name. --[[Special:Contributions/99.140.166.189|99.140.166.189]] 13:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I see it as an homage to Abbot & Costello's "Who's on first" routine, but with actual characters from literature and the media. The joke is that when the "Who's on first" routine first came out everyone thought the names were just implausible, made-up characters. We were wrong, but I don't know (Third Base). [[User:Galois|Galois]] ([[User talk:Galois|talk]]) 11:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I went a bit verbose on expanding the exposition, only to get edit-sniped right as I was posting. I think the other version is better, but FYI here is what I'd ended up with, in case any of it is still useful...<br />
:{{w|Doctor (Doctor Who)|The Doctor}} from the long-running British television series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' has been incorrectly referred to as "Who", "Doctor Who" or "Dr. Who" by fans and commentators (not helped by the series name, itself, and how the character was credited in various earlier episodes' and some spin-off works). When not using a pseudonym or playing along with some form of mistaken identity, however, he overwhelmingly tends to introduce himself as "The Doctor". If not unquestionably accepted (perhaps due to natural {{w|Time Lord}} 'glamour'/confidence or some {{w|TARDIS}} effect) this tends to elicit the response "Doctor who?". His response to this question is often "Just 'The Doctor'."<br />
(...which, I originally pointed out but edited away, often tends to settle things. Really, between the TARDIS translation field/etc, his recent use of psychic paper and of course his own long-practiced assertive air of self-confidence, he has avoided a ''lot'' of 'First Contact'-type problems. Not infallably so, of course, but that's Plot for you.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.154.137|178.98.154.137]] 13:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Interestingly, it appears that his name is both "Doctor Who" and "The Doctor". All living pre-2005 actors who played the role, as well as Doctor Who Magazine itself, refer to him as Doctor Who. It's only since the reboot of the series in 2005 that people, mostly those referred to as "NuWhos", insist his one and only name is "The Doctor".<br />
<br />
How is it that no one has mentioned the Robot Chicken take on this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNIdqvMUhrE<br />
<br />
What does "Aunt Beast" in the title text refer to? [[Special:Contributions/72.92.72.222|72.92.72.222]] 16:13, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:On the issue of "NuWhos" being the pedantic ones, I'm an avowed traditionalist Whovian from way back when (4th Doctor era, technically, although I actually relate more to Five's era), and we were ''always'' being joyfully sniffy about those (including 'official media', and episode credits themselves) that used to name any given incarnation as "Doctor Who". (''Apart'' from Peter Cushing, who ''is'' a doctor named Who... and is also entirely human.)<br />
:We noticed with disgust when new-era Who ''perpetuated'' the error. The end-credits for Nine/Eccleston said "Doctor Who" for his entire season. It became only became "The Doctor" for The Christmas Invasion, the inter-season special that was Ten's first full episode. Probably due to a load of us fans berating TPTB about the error. (My recordings of the '96 TV movie and what I have of the older seasons aren't at hand, though, to double check their credits, and I know it varied. The IMDB listing for McGann's production suggests "The Doctor" ''was'' correct for him, though.)<br />
:And I can't subscribe to the authority of 'mere' actors or even official spin-off literature if the producers ''themselves'' can be shown to be utterly '''wrong'''... ;) [[Special:Contributions/178.107.63.150|178.107.63.150]] 19:21, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I slightly disagree with the current state of the explanation. First, I think the Doctor is the first baseman, not Mrs. Who (why else is the Doctor even being mentioned by the duo in the comic?). Second, the "on first" or "on second" is little bit ambiguous. If you say "X is on first" that could mean that X is a member of the batting team and has made it to first base, or it could mean that X is a member of the fielding team and is the first baseman. Now, the Abbot and Costello routine removes the ambiguity because it is said at the start of the skit that the team's lineup is being given, which means any references to "on first", "on second", etc. have to be to the defensive positions. But in this explanation I think it would be better to say that the Doctor is the first baseman (or is playing first) and Mrs. Whatsit is the second baseman. 16:54 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:That's actually what's funny about this comic. Costello is confused about the name of the player playing first base. Megan is adding to the confusion because she misinterprets the "Who" in a new, different way than either Abbott or Costello. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 17:42, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think we do need more explain on the title text. While we still have this confusion about names there is someone (the captain?) shouting to the field. So this must be a real baseball game. Aunt Beast is the batter and hitting the ball for Mrs Whatsit to reach the second base. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:02, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text refers to "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.<br />
<br />
"Nomenclature" could use a definition, since it ties the joke together. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 03:41, 6 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1221:_Nomenclature&diff=394791221: Nomenclature2013-06-05T04:47:34Z<p>76.106.251.87: Referred to as "Who" by whom? Leaving it, but adding more detail. I'm not sure if "The" should be capitalized or not, though...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1221<br />
| date = June 5, 2013<br />
| title = Nomenclature<br />
| image = nomenclature.png<br />
| titletext = [shouted, from the field] 'Aunt Beast hit a pop fly to second! Dive for it, Mrs Whatsit!'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Reference to the Abbot & Costello "Who's on first" routine and Doctor Who.<br />
<br />
The comic references the famous "Who's on first?" skit by Abbott and Costello, in which a person named "Who" is confused with the question "Who?"<br />
<br />
The Doctor from the television series ''Doctor Who'' has been incorrectly referred to as "Who." He often introduces himself as "The Doctor" which elicits the response "Doctor who?". His response to this question is "Just 'The Doctor'."<br />
<br />
The title text references the Madeleine L'Engle novel ''A Wrinkle in Time'', which has characters with similarly ambiguous names.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1221:_Nomenclature&diff=39476Talk:1221: Nomenclature2013-06-05T04:44:10Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "When I saw the obvious Doctor Who reference, I jumped on the Wiki hoping to be the first to post the Who's On First reference. I drastically underestimate xkcd fans. ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>When I saw the obvious Doctor Who reference, I jumped on the Wiki hoping to be the first to post the Who's On First reference. I drastically underestimate xkcd fans. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:44, 5 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:866:_Compass_and_Straightedge&diff=39475Talk:866: Compass and Straightedge2013-06-05T04:33:10Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>No, the comic is funny because many geometrical theorems prove something along the lines of "With a compass and straightedge you cannot construct..." (e.g. a square and a circle with the same area) If you have knowledge of this type of proof, the humor is that you think he's about to talk about something that is impossible in geometry, but really he's talking about the inapplicability of geometry to real life. This is often a difficulty with nerds and brainy people, they try to apply their theoretical knowledge to human relationships and fail. [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 19:53, 13 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
:And then there's the converse: people who are able to apply theoretical knowledge and succeed. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:33, 5 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The explanation mentions that there are "three such constructions", but doesn't go any further. What they are should at least be addressed (or linked to), even if we're not going to elaborate on the "why" of their impossibility. For the uninitiated, they are squaring the circle, trisecting any angle, and doubling the cube. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:33, 5 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1220:_Hipsters&diff=39369Talk:1220: Hipsters2013-06-03T23:28:54Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>The truth, at last!<br />
[[Special:Contributions/62.235.181.153|62.235.181.153]] 11:30, 3 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Someone let me know if there are any other graphs that make it worse, otherwise we're dealing with: 1 graph, (and thus approx.) 5 metacomplaints, 9 use/discussion complaints, 11 complaints and 12,5 hipsters. Unless of course, Randall's using one of his log scales or a completely different scale, and knowing him, it's not unlikely... [[User:Blue Charizard|Blue Charizard]] ([[User talk:Blue Charizard|talk]]) 14:36, 3 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:There are many, many graphs, flowcharts, pie charts, etc, about hipsters on the internet. Just Google "hipster graphs"...so Randall must be talking about way more than only 12.5 hipsters... --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 14:43, 3 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:We are also talking about frequency of views ("How Often I see...") rather than actual numbers of graphs or people. As time goes on, the frequency of views per unit of time... etc. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 15:53, 3 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Hipster stuff is not meta enough. How about gender-fucking-fucking ?<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/37.160.11.143|37.160.11.143]] 17:49, 3 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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;Meaning of hipster<br />
This page has to explain the ambiguous meanings of the words hipster/hipsters/hipsterdom. Even web dictionaries are often wrong on this.<br />
First for "hipster" we have this subcultures {{w|Hipster (contemporary subculture)}} and {{w|Hipster (1940s subculture)}}. But it's also this: {{w|Low-rise (fashion)}} witch may be refer to that tedious navel-gazing people. "Hipsterdom" is related to that subculture and according to this site [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hipsterdom Hipsterdom]] it is a hierarchy within the subculture of hipsters.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:47, 3 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Is Randall actually complaining/judging as opposed to observing and sharing results? Graphing of the situation can arguably exacerbate any situation by virtue of raising attention to something, but that doesn't mean those graphs are giving any opinion. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 23:28, 3 June 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:what_if%3F&diff=38948Talk:what if?2013-05-30T19:16:25Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)so is anybody weirded out by last week's post on the worst thing pressure cookers can do, followed by yesterday's terror attacks using pressure cookers?[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Do we want to add some references to the different What-If articles? Obviously putting up an explanation would be a bit of a waste since Randall goes into a lot of detail himself on any given subject. Some good things to mention might be the title-text on each image, mentions of recurring themes, and maybe some thought about the original subject mentioned (such as the "Space Oddity" music video that was the subject of a recent article). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 17:11, 30 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:"What if" is not {{w|Creative Commons}} related, so respect Randall's copyright. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:05, 30 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Sorry. Didn't realize that reviewing a creative work fell into copyright issues. No disrespect intended, only ignorance. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 19:16, 30 May 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:what_if%3F&diff=38928Talk:what if?2013-05-30T17:11:18Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)so is anybody weirded out by last week's post on the worst thing pressure cookers can do, followed by yesterday's terror attacks using pressure cookers?[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Do we want to add some references to the different What-If articles? Obviously putting up an explanation would be a bit of a waste since Randall goes into a lot of detail himself on any given subject. Some good things to mention might be the title-text on each image, mentions of recurring themes, and maybe some thought about the original subject mentioned (such as the "Space Oddity" music video that was the subject of a recent article). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 17:11, 30 May 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1085:_ContextBot&diff=38499Talk:1085: ContextBot2013-05-26T03:50:01Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Just so you know it would be fairly easy to drop a stack of diamond while alt-tabbing because the default "drop" key is 'q'.<br />
:But the Q key just drops one item, not the whole stack. To drop the whole stack you have to open your inventory, click on the stack then click outside the inventory dialog. (yeah I'm a Minecraft addict :D) -- [[Special:Contributions/41.196.193.193|41.196.193.193]]<br />
::If you were 'holding' the stack with your cursor and left the inventory, it would also drop. Same if it was in the crafting slots. [[Special:Contributions/130.160.145.224|130.160.145.224]] 21:17, 10 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
Possible explanation for the bot's choice of avatar. Two girls holding hands in the small image, but the "context" is that it's a group of friends just hanging out. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 03:50, 26 May 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1216:_Sticks_and_Stones&diff=38492Talk:1216: Sticks and Stones2013-05-26T01:16:22Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will hurt forever. --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 06:04, 24 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Noone can appreciate the difference between broken bones and someone namecalling him without experience with the first. The things childs do to each other is basically the worst they ever experienced - because if those wouldn't, they would do worse. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:31, 24 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Is it really a rhyme if it doesn't rhyme? --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 15:02, 24 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The rhyming of "stones" and "bones" probably counts as the big feature, and then the 'uhr' sound of "words" and "hurt" echo this resonance, and I've never heard the "harm" version that wouldn't have this. Although it's certainly a non-standard rhyming scheme (if it's AABC) and scan (7+7 syllables, or (3+4)+(2+5) or however you want to split it). It's pithy, which probably trumps strict adherence to anything like iambic pentameter. Maybe there's an argument that it's more musical, with a rythm of 4 groups of 4 beats ("sticks" and "words" extending over two of them, each, the way I'd say it). But musical lyrics and spoken verse are easily interchangable, and as long as it isn't totally 'blank' verse I'd accept it as a rhyme. (Not an authority, though ->) [[Special:Contributions/31.109.101.73|31.109.101.73]] 19:56, 24 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Citation: http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/27/in-the-brain-broken-hearts-hurt-like-broken-bones/ and http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.full?sid=758b38cc-b399-4d22-9c37-3c074cf321be [[User:Woliveirajr|Woliveirajr]] ([[User talk:Woliveirajr|talk]]) 16:58, 24 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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My dear departed mother-in-law put it much more memorably - Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will break my heart. [[Special:Contributions/131.107.147.231|131.107.147.231]] 17:46, 24 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I can easily disregard words. It's not as easy to disregard a broken bone. After my fourth day at my new job, my knees are killing me, and that's not even close. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 01:16, 26 May 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1212:_Interstellar_Memes&diff=37665Talk:1212: Interstellar Memes2013-05-17T04:03:23Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phenomenon, which is pretty nice, I guess. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Given that the closest one, "I'm on a boat," predates the first episode of MLP:FiM by more than a year (the brony phenomenon by even more), it's safe to say that ponies have not reached the nearest star yet. --[[Special:Contributions/24.145.230.202|24.145.230.202]] 04:42, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: Agreed. MLP:FIM premiered in October 2010. The show will hit the Alpha Centauri system early 2015. [[User:Frijole|Frijole]] ([[User talk:Frijole|talk]]) 16:28, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
::I didn't have the date/distance chart at the time of posting, and indeed didn't realize how much time had past since some of these became popular. I feel much older with that in perspective. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. --[[Special:Contributions/84.75.61.103|84.75.61.103]] 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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If I look at the page source, there is no transcript this time... [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 08:41, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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anyone else notice Sirius is getting the Bellatrix one? [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 08:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, it was funny :D [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Should this reference be mentioned? On the one hand, it is a spoiler, but on the other hand, a) we *are* here to explain the jokes, and b) the book is almost a decade old, so I'm pretty sure there's a statute of limitations involved here. [[User:Curtmack|Curtmack]] ([[User talk:Curtmack|talk]]) 14:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::It's also funny that Sirius ''is'' a character in Harry Potter books/films. Double joke? --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 15:21, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::Sorta, but it's Rowling's joke, not Randall's. The entire Black family (except for Narcissa, who was named before her family ties were established) is named after objects in the sky. Sirius is the only one in range. Of the ones I can remember, {{w|Regulus}} is 77 ly away, {{w|Bellatrix}} is roughly 250 ly away, and {{w|Andromeda Galaxy|Andromeda}} is an entirely separate galaxy. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 21:43, 16 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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If any civilization have nothing better to do that repeating our memes, there is no need to apologize to them: they will obviously be glad they have at least something. How many people on our planet are repeating memes from other civilizations? None. (The circles in crop doesn't count, they are not send by radio.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:51, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Given that the Rick Astley one is on the same star as Portal, which came out in 2007, it's probably meant to refer to rickrolling (and thus the date should also be 2007 for that one). [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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All your base are belong to us didn't start as a meme in the 1970. I don't have precise data right now but I'm pretty sure it was 1997-99 when it first appeared on the internet. Also, what is the Sun doing? [[Special:Contributions/195.32.50.126|195.32.50.126]] 11:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:1998 according to knowyourmeme. And I think the Sun is probably sending out all those radio waves for the aliens to listen to, or something? But I couldn't find an accurate way to portray it, so I just left it at that. [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 11:18, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: The map only shows stars, or rather star systems. We live in the sol system, where all these memes originate from, hence the sun is shown as the origin of the "radio waves". In the same fashion, these supposed aliens don't actually live on the stars themselves, but rather on planets (or maybe moons?) around the stars. --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 11:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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In "Take me to your leader! - No, Steve", what is the "No, Steve" part referencing? The link currently is just for the "take me to your leader" part. [[Special:Contributions/72.92.72.222|72.92.72.222]] 15:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I thought that the "No, Steve" made it into an explicit reference to Newsboys album/song (Steve Taylor wrote the lyrics for it). But then, that's a song fron 1996, and it would not be consistent with distance, while 1953 makes more sense... [[Special:Contributions/195.32.50.126|195.32.50.126]] 15:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
::"Steve" is an alien. "Take me to your leader," is a meme which "Steve" has been repeating. It helps if you read it with a somewhat exasparated inflection.--[[Special:Contributions/108.28.112.92|108.28.112.92]] 18:47, 16 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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If you order the list by distance, further stars should get memes from earlier times, but this is not always the case. I think that some of the memes deserve more investigation, namely: "Internets!", "You're the man now, dog" and "All your base are belong to us!". Sort the list by distance and it becomes immediately apparent what I mean. [[Special:Contributions/195.32.50.126|195.32.50.126]] 15:54, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:"Internets" was from George W Bush but in 2004. [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/internets internets meme]--[[Special:Contributions/145.253.244.103|145.253.244.103]] 16:08, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:"You're the man now, dog" refers to a web site launched in 2001 which fits to the approx. 12 Lj.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:"All your base are belong to us!" should also belong to 2001. I found this [http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/02/42009 wired.com] which explains that the internet meme probably began in 2001. But I am not sure.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:37, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Wouldn't "I'm on a boat!", as a popular and well-known meme known to the wider public, refer to the Old Spice commercial, rather than a song by the The Lonely Island? None of the few I spoke with had ever heard of the group, but all credited the quote to "the Old Spice guy". [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 17:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I thought about this also before. But "I'm on a boat!" is the meme published by "The Lonely Island".--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:02, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:>meme<br />
:>published<br />
:pick one [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 21:36, 15 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Old Spice Guy says "<u>You're</u> on a boat", and finishes with "I'm on a <u>horse</u>"[http://lybio.net/old-spice-the-man-your-man-could-smell-like/commercials/]... "I'm on a boat" isn't quite right for OSG. --[[User:SurturZ|SurturZ]] ([[User talk:SurturZ|talk]]) 03:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::I sit corrected. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 16:18, 16 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It's too late to apologize to the stars on this comic, but we could apologize to the ones farther out who have yet to be annoyed by us. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
:We can also apologize for newer memes. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1212:_Interstellar_Memes&diff=37419Talk:1212: Interstellar Memes2013-05-15T04:35:21Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phen..."</p>
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<div>I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phenomenon, which is pretty nice, I guess. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:442:_xkcd_Loves_the_Discovery_Channel&diff=36920Talk:442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel2013-05-10T19:05:23Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>I think that panel 9 actually is meant to be Black Hat giving the child a present and the lines around the gift suggesting that there is something moving around inside (likely alive and agitated) for the child to open and be mauled/harmed by.<br />
*The transcript comes from [[Randall]] himself, and it says he's taking the present away. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 10:14, 22 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
:I was hoping it was a bobcat. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 19:05, 10 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Great! Now I have a targeted list of comics to add explanations for! [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 10:14, 22 August 2012 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:56:_The_Cure&diff=34823Talk:56: The Cure2013-04-23T19:36:30Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The date of issue of this comic may not be correct. Can anybody verify the issue date?<br />
: Yep, just checked on xkcd. The date is correct. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 17:11, 15 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
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I saw "The Cure" on a friend's Facebook page under her favorite bands. That prompted me to look up the explanation for this comic to be sure. When I first read it, I thought the "real face" looked a bit...unappealing. Perhaps diseased. Now I see the caption means the opposite of what I thought! Thanks, Explainxkcd! [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 19:36, 23 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:739:_Malamanteau&diff=34593Talk:739: Malamanteau2013-04-21T22:03:22Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "Neologism isn't properly defined in the explanation. A neologism can be any new word; it doesn't have to be made through a combination of other words. Also, http://en.wikipe..."</p>
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<div>Neologism isn't properly defined in the explanation. A neologism can be any new word; it doesn't have to be made through a combination of other words. Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malamanteau redirects to xkcd's page last I checked. Wiktionary's page on it was deleted almost 3 years ago. Additionally, the description is missing an explanation for the image text (and maybe the word "portmanteau" should get a definition included). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 22:03, 21 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:734:_Outbreak&diff=34534Talk:734: Outbreak2013-04-20T23:27:36Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>A romantic comedy in which the couple tries to hide evidence of the battered corpse while making out. Would pay to watch. '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:22, 18 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
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cueball and megan? the text clearly name the characters as ryan and laura [[Special:Contributions/189.135.111.140|189.135.111.140]] 18:48, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I love how Ryan is covering his face when he holds the door open. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 23:27, 20 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:27:_Meat_Cereals&diff=34063Talk:27: Meat Cereals2013-04-17T18:26:43Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>==Scrapple Jacks==<br />
Apple Jacks cereal have very little actual apple in them. That's why they don't taste like apples. Perhaps Scrapple Jacks has very little actual scrapple in it. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 00:53, 17 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
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:While they may have little apple in them, I don't know that that's necessarily the reason they don't taste like apples (as I noted in the [[Apple Jacks]] comic itself, the wiki page for the cereal alleges they are supposed to taste like Apple and Cinnamon. Other candy or cereals that have fruit flavours (for example, the candy Runts) rarely have any of the actual fruit in them, but still have flavourings that are designed to taste like that fruit. The question is whether Kellog's used poor flavouring in their cereal, I suppose. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:33, 17 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
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I came here to make a "Honey Bunches of Goatse" joke, but I feel it may be in bad taste. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 18:26, 17 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1200:_Authorization&diff=34039Talk:1200: Authorization2013-04-17T15:10:25Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>This is the reason that I set sudo to not prompt for a password. I just make sure my computer locks itself aggressively. [[Special:Contributions/130.18.105.246|130.18.105.246]] 06:59, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The admin account should still be guarded EXACTLY for the ability to install drivers. The driver you don't want to have installed is keylogger stealing your passwords. I mean, you don't have your bank password remembered in browser, do you? Still, auto-logout or auto-lock is important feature. You should also set-up and use separate account for high-risk activities (like opening emails from unknown persons promising naked celebrities ... ok, you actually shouldn't be opening such emails at all, but if you are really curious ...). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:06, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:Even if you can log into your bank account, you could not transfer money without authorizing transactions. [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 11:23, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::My bank account website logs me out if I'm inactive for 10 minutes. It doesn't even leave the page up, it switches to a login screen. [[Special:Contributions/24.77.229.71|24.77.229.71]] 14:35, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I wonder how useful a keylogger would be if you never typed a username or e-mail to go with the password. Every important account I have has that remembered, and I just type the password. It sounds like it would be zero context. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 15:09, 17 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1200:_Authorization&diff=34038Talk:1200: Authorization2013-04-17T15:09:45Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>This is the reason that I set sudo to not prompt for a password. I just make sure my computer locks itself aggressively. [[Special:Contributions/130.18.105.246|130.18.105.246]] 06:59, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The admin account should still be guarded EXACTLY for the ability to install drivers. The driver you don't want to have installed is keylogger stealing your passwords. I mean, you don't have your bank password remembered in browser, do you? Still, auto-logout or auto-lock is important feature. You should also set-up and use separate account for high-risk activities (like opening emails from unknown persons promising naked celebrities ... ok, you actually shouldn't be opening such emails at all, but if you are really curious ...). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:06, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:Even if you can log into your bank account, you could not transfer money without authorizing transactions. [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 11:23, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
::My bank account website logs me out if I'm inactive for 10 minutes. It doesn't even leave the page up, it switches to a login screen. [[Special:Contributions/24.77.229.71|24.77.229.71]] 14:35, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I wonder how useful a keylogger would be if you never typed a username or e-mail to go with the password. Everything important account I have has that remembered, and I just type the password. It sounds like it would be zero context. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 15:09, 17 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1194:_Stratigraphic_Record&diff=32627Talk:1194: Stratigraphic Record2013-04-06T07:27:12Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>{{w|Zircon}} --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:58, 3 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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See? THIS is how professionals shred evidence. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:12, 3 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I'm more curious if stuff from beginning of earth is still suspended in water somewhere. Think about it, can there really be 100% settlement of materials on the bottom of the ocean? Then again the light from that time is still traveling somewhere, we just need faster then light travel and very good sensor. - [[Special:Contributions/50.143.22.159|50.143.22.159]] 20:58, 3 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Interesting that the Earth's replies come from the {{w|Canadian Shield}}? Also, what with the coquettish tone of the Earth, and the detective story tone of the alt-text, could Randall be referencing the {{w|Giant impact hypothesis}}? --[[Special:Contributions/68.173.54.150|68.173.54.150]] 23:17, 3 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The line "I'll never tell" rings in my head from some movie, a little girl repeating it over and over, possibly just from a trailer for the movie. Maybe "Don't Say a Word" (2001) but I'm at work so I don't want to play the trailer.... Did this happen to anyone else? --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 14:14, 4 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I'm pretty sure it comes from an old commercial, perhaps for Oil of Olay, where an actress talks about how it keeps her looking young and the the camera pulls in closer until she says "How old am I? I'll never tell." That would also fit the context. --RB<br />
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The current explanation isn't an explanation at all, it just restates stuff that's in the comic's transcript. I'd improve it, but the only reason I'm here is because I didn't understand the point. Presumably the last two panels refer to some thing from popular culture. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 11:56, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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"Who am I? I'll never tell" was in the opening voice over of every episode of Gossip Girl. [[User:Jackdavinci|Jackdavinci]] ([[User talk:Jackdavinci|talk]]) 18:26, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Except "Gossip Girl" is newer than a lot of other potential references, and we already have the identity of the speaker given as Earth (or the personification thereof). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:27, 6 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:488:_Steal_This_Comic&diff=32588Talk:488: Steal This Comic2013-04-05T16:08:03Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "I'm not sure how credible Natural News is. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews Then again, I'm not sure how credible RationalWiki is, either. ~~~~"</p>
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<div>I'm not sure how credible Natural News is.<br />
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews<br />
Then again, I'm not sure how credible RationalWiki is, either. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 16:08, 5 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1195:_Flowchart&diff=32587Talk:1195: Flowchart2013-04-05T15:54:20Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Assuming you've already started, it's too late to go get a marker. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:05, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:You can add the "get a marker" in that looping line too. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:10, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:If it is between the hours of 8:00 and 5:00, then I can escape, but that is only 37.5% of my day. Doomed, for all eternity. The solution proffered has the problem of the chicken and egg, how does one add get a marker if one does not have one. I like Hkmaly's idea... but proposes the additional questions of how: purchase, loot, or created. Each with their own rabbit trails to follow, ending in the pour house, prison, or crushed under the weight of the markers (mater being created?) But I feel there is a market to the other six billion inhabitants of earth that can be exploited. & Would Vulcans be more susceptible to entering into this loop than humans. [[Special:Contributions/24.106.78.38|24.106.78.38]] 10:37, 5 April 2013 (UTC) Drifter <br />
:Straw Vulcans would be, certainly. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 15:54, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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that's the idea, its a commentary about nuclear weapons. if just one person hides a 'marker' up his sleeve when the rest of us genuinely have none, we're all at his mercy. [[Special:Contributions/193.60.97.30|193.60.97.30]] 08:52, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I think the currently provided explanation is not right. Randall wants us to get a marker BEFORE we get to 'start', hence the phrasing "between you and 'start'" (and not "between 'start' and 'Hey, wait, ...'"). That way when we get to the start, we already have a marker friend to aid us in our infinite quest. Or, perhaps, in other words, to stop being computerized sheep that follow set rules, but rather find an alternative solution ;) I'm new here, so I'll let somebody else edit the explanation if you deem it appropriate... [[User:Blue Charizard|Blue Charizard]] ([[User talk:Blue Charizard|talk]]) 13:49, 5 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Maybe Randall just wants us to change the algorithmic loop that we get into when we enter the flowchart and create a paradox to kill the Weeping Angels. [[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 14:24, 5 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1195:_Flowchart&diff=32532Talk:1195: Flowchart2013-04-05T07:05:57Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "Assuming you've already started, it's too late to go get a marker. ~~~~"</p>
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<div>Assuming you've already started, it's too late to go get a marker. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:05, 5 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1193:_Externalities&diff=32219Talk:1193: Externalities2013-04-02T06:06:55Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Any chance we can convince Randall to let other universities in: the Canadian ones only work if they have a .edu, so uwaterloo.ca and sfu.ca are out.<br />
: As are [schools].ac.in<br />
: I can't get my university (PUC-Rio, in Brazil) too... =/ [[Special:Contributions/139.82.240.51|139.82.240.51]] 18:28, 1 April 2013 (UTC) etandel<br />
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--[[Special:Contributions/137.147.40.248|137.147.40.248]] 13:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC) For an easier time spotting the changes, go to [http://xkcd.com/1193/#verbose] and open your web console<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/199.48.226.89|199.48.226.89]] 10:18, 1 April 2013 (UTC) I put in "caltech.edu" and hashed a lot of words, and "Twilight Sparkle is best pony." was the best result I managed, only off by 496 tits.<br />
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I noticed when looking at the list of scores that a large number of universities have a best score at 420. According to my calculations, the amount of universities with this score is 2516 out of the 2824 universities listed. Is there any reason that so many universities have the exact same score? --[[User:LRFLEW|LRFLEW]] ([[User talk:LRFLEW|talk]]) 03:38, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: +1! A few hours ago this wasn't the case... What's up with all the 420's?? [[Special:Contributions/108.218.230.91|108.218.230.91]] 03:42, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:People keep posting hash values on the internet. Those universities are dirty cheaters, and they're all just entering the 420 hash in for their university without actually calculating it. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:05, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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All I see is a blank white 780x969 image. Nothing appears when I hover over stuff. [[Special:Contributions/109.65.100.208|109.65.100.208]] 09:04, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Sometimes it does that. It takes a while to generate, and it doesn't always render correctly. Try updating your browser or refreshing. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
The person who provided the shopped image either isn't using a modern browser or is using IE. The font is supposed to be "xkcd-Regular", which I assume is a font that gets downloaded from XKCD's server. Loading the same page in IE 9 gave me that Times New Roman-esque font instead (Chrome, Firefox, and Opera use the special font, although it's rendered a little fuzzy in Firefox). [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 09:25, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The dog part now shows "FREEPRIME@AMAZON.COM" underneath the sliders for me. --[[User:Gefrierbrand|Gefrierbrand]] ([[User talk:Gefrierbrand|talk]]) 09:50, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I think it matches the company in the first panel? (Currently CAREERS@XLINX INC for me.) --[[Special:Contributions/81.138.95.57|81.138.95.57]] 10:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The page where the company name is supposed to be fetched from is "Sith" now, but I checked and the company is not there. I think this will take some time to decipher ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:12, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: .... uh, remember few pages ago where we JOKED about being used as distributted computer? Now we ARE used to crack the provided hash ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:15, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: It's April 1st. Maybe the idea that the company is sourced from a Wikipedia page is not true. That would explain the link to the Wikipedia fund raising page as an apology for the fact that there will be many XKCD readers vandalising the Sith page [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 11:38, 1 April 2013 (UTC).<br />
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:: ... AND it's [wikipedia:Jean-Luc_Picard|Jean Luc Picard] now. AND there is actually Apple linked from it. While the Google is company doing recruiting now ... hmmm ... but Google actually IS mentioned in one of previous version of page ... damn vandals. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:35, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:::WAIT. Randal now mentioned "... Final Fantasy Tactics. But link on Jean Luc Picard could beat it". So either it's something like "taken from last edited page" or he is doing it manually. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:42, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::::"Microsoft Corporation is the first NASDAQ-100 company mentioned on the wikipedia page 'IBM'. But a link on 'Oprah' could beat it." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:05, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:::::... AND wikipedia editors started observing the comics to edit-protect wikipedia entries BEFORE the vandals strike, as shown [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elixir_%28comics%29&action=history here]. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:49, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The top of the page for the comic now mentions this: "You can change the company in this comic. Mouse over its name in the first panel. The schools are selected by a hash breaking competition." Don't think that was there before. More interesting is the first sentence. Do we have a list of wikipedia pages that he's tracking for the first company mentioned in the page? [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 17:52, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Ignorant question: What is this hash finding competition? Was it announced somewhere? [[Special:Contributions/129.67.199.117|129.67.199.117]] 11:56, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: Click that panel: http://almamater.xkcd.com/ [[User:Jeremy1026|Jeremy1026]] ([[User talk:Jeremy1026|talk]]) 12:05, 1 April 2013 (UTC).<br />
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:: Looking in the [http://c7.xkcd.com/stream/comic/externalities?method=EventSource&lastEventId=&r=362667083523542 externalities file], another usefull link is "... full standings at [http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv]" -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:24, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:<br />
The sad thing is that people are probably only donating to a good cause to see the dog-drawing get bigger. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:11, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:In that case it's good Randal used GOOD cause. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:24, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::Actually, the sad thing is taht people are vandalizing Wikipedia. --[[Special:Contributions/189.61.0.28|189.61.0.28]] 19:26, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Can anyone explain what, if anything, the name/email/education values (fifth panel) refer to? [[Special:Contributions/108.36.128.122|108.36.128.122]] 19:34, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:Looks like one random string and one random pair of strings. [[Special:Contributions/178.238.159.109|178.238.159.109]] 20:12, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Has anyone been able to reproduce the 1024-tit Skein hash values that he is generating at http://almamater.xkcd.com/? The hashes that he shows don't match the ones I'm getting from my Skein hash calculator (using 1024 tit output and 1024 tit internal state size). I tried feeding the same string into the hash function both with and without a trailing null character and neither matches. For example, if I type abc into the form, he shows 35a599...1f1f (edited for brevity), but I calculate that a hash of the 3-byte message "abc" should be 10a866...035c.[[User:Theodric|Theodric]] ([[User talk:Theodric|talk]]) 22:03, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:I'm getting completely different values also. [[Special:Contributions/173.22.172.7|173.22.172.7]] 22:57, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:I have the same problem as you. I'm thinking that Xkcd is using an older standard of the encryption. I'm currently trying out the php versions of the code to see if I can get it to work. --[[User:LRFLEW|LRFLEW]] ([[User talk:LRFLEW|talk]]) 23:16, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::Nope. Tried all I could and still couldn't figure it out. My guess is that he's using a secret salt. --[[User:LRFLEW|LRFLEW]] ([[User talk:LRFLEW|talk]]) 23:37, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:::'''Solved!''' :) I was originally using version 1.2 of the Skein hash function. Version 1.3 uses different constants and yields different results. The almamater page seems to be using version 1.3 -- my calculator now matches Randall's hashes.--[[User:Theodric|Theodric]] ([[User talk:Theodric|talk]]) 03:34, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::::Where are you getting the implementation? I can't seem to get it to work even with v1.3. --[[User:LRFLEW|LRFLEW]] ([[User talk:LRFLEW|talk]]) 04:42, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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"Wikipedia article on {{hint: The perpetrators of the largest extinction in Earth's history}}" Would this be humans? I'm afraid to get in on the Wikipedia editing since I'm already in so-so standing due to some childishness in 2006... [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 21:54, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The opening line of the first panel has changed. It's now "Ahoy, Carnegie Melonites!" (for the current school) rather than "Hey, [university] students!" (as listed in all the current entries for the changing first panel text). The question and response seem to be the same as before.<br />
And the fifth panel now has "if they're clever with their applications" instead of "provided any of them manage to fill out the application correctly". So showing the text as static in the comic image is no longer accurate.<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/50.0.108.18|50.0.108.18]] 23:00, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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If I visit http://xkcd.com/1193/ then the font is xkcd-Regular, whereas if I visit http://www.xkcd.com/1193/ then the font is the default serif font… (Iceweasel with NoScript) [[Special:Contributions/178.238.159.109|178.238.159.109]] 02:44, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Someone, please explain what hash breaking is. [[User:Jackdavinci|Jackdavinci]] ([[User talk:Jackdavinci|talk]]) 04:00, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Is it over now that it's after midnight? When I moused over the school name, it didn't give me a pop-up showing the next hint. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 06:06, 2 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1193:_Externalities&diff=32168Talk:1193: Externalities2013-04-01T21:54:15Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Any chance we can convince Randall to let other universities in: the Canadian ones only work if they have a .edu, so uwaterloo.ca and sfu.ca are out.<br />
: As are [schools].ac.in<br />
: I can't get my university (PUC-Rio, in Brazil) too... =/ [[Special:Contributions/139.82.240.51|139.82.240.51]] 18:28, 1 April 2013 (UTC) etandel<br />
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--[[Special:Contributions/137.147.40.248|137.147.40.248]] 13:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC) For an easier time spotting the changes, go to [http://xkcd.com/1193/#verbose] and open your web console<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/199.48.226.89|199.48.226.89]] 10:18, 1 April 2013 (UTC) I put in "caltech.edu" and hashed a lot of words, and "Twilight Sparkle is best pony." was the best result I managed, only off by 496 bits.<br />
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All I see is a blank white 780x969 image. Nothing appears when I hover over stuff. [[Special:Contributions/109.65.100.208|109.65.100.208]] 09:04, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Sometimes it does that. It takes a while to generate, and it doesn't always render correctly. Try updating your browser or refreshing. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
The person who provided the shopped image either isn't using a modern browser or is using IE. The font is supposed to be "xkcd-Regular", which I assume is a font that gets downloaded from XKCD's server. Loading the same page in IE 9 gave me that Times New Roman-esque font instead (Chrome, Firefox, and Opera use the special font, although it's rendered a little fuzzy in Firefox). [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 09:25, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The dog part now shows "FREEPRIME@AMAZON.COM" underneath the sliders for me. --[[User:Gefrierbrand|Gefrierbrand]] ([[User talk:Gefrierbrand|talk]]) 09:50, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I think it matches the company in the first panel? (Currently CAREERS@XLINX INC for me.) --[[Special:Contributions/81.138.95.57|81.138.95.57]] 10:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The page where the company name is supposed to be fetched from is "Sith" now, but I checked and the company is not there. I think this will take some time to decipher ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:12, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: .... uh, remember few pages ago where we JOKED about being used as distributted computer? Now we ARE used to crack the provided hash ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:15, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: It's April 1st. Maybe the idea that the company is sourced from a Wikipedia page is not true. That would explain the link to the Wikipedia fund raising page as an apology for the fact that there will be many XKCD readers vandalising the Sith page [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 11:38, 1 April 2013 (UTC).<br />
<br />
:: ... AND it's [wikipedia:Jean-Luc_Picard|Jean Luc Picard] now. AND there is actually Apple linked from it. While the Google is company doing recruiting now ... hmmm ... but Google actually IS mentioned in one of previous version of page ... damn vandals. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:35, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::WAIT. Randal now mentioned "... Final Fantasy Tactics. But link on Jean Luc Picard could beat it". So either it's something like "taken from last edited page" or he is doing it manually. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:42, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::::"Microsoft Corporation is the first NASDAQ-100 company mentioned on the wikipedia page 'IBM'. But a link on 'Oprah' could beat it." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:05, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:::::... AND wikipedia editors started observing the comics to edit-protect wikipedia entries BEFORE the vandals strike, as shown [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elixir_%28comics%29&action=history here]. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:49, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The top of the page for the comic now mentions this: "You can change the company in this comic. Mouse over its name in the first panel. The schools are selected by a hash breaking competition." Don't think that was there before. More interesting is the first sentence. Do we have a list of wikipedia pages that he's tracking for the first company mentioned in the page? [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 17:52, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
Ignorant question: What is this hash finding competition? Was it announced somewhere? [[Special:Contributions/129.67.199.117|129.67.199.117]] 11:56, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
: Click that panel: http://almamater.xkcd.com/ [[User:Jeremy1026|Jeremy1026]] ([[User talk:Jeremy1026|talk]]) 12:05, 1 April 2013 (UTC).<br />
<br />
:: Looking in the [http://c7.xkcd.com/stream/comic/externalities?method=EventSource&lastEventId=&r=362667083523542 externalities file], another usefull link is "... full standings at [http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv http://almamater.xkcd.com/best.csv]" -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:24, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:<br />
The sad thing is that people are probably only donating to a good cause to see the dog-drawing get bigger. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:11, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:In that case it's good Randal used GOOD cause. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:24, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::Actually, the sad thing is taht people are vandalizing Wikipedia. --[[Special:Contributions/189.61.0.28|189.61.0.28]] 19:26, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Can anyone explain what, if anything, the name/email/education values (fifth panel) refer to? [[Special:Contributions/108.36.128.122|108.36.128.122]] 19:34, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:Looks like one random string and one random pair of strings. [[Special:Contributions/178.238.159.109|178.238.159.109]] 20:12, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Has anyone been able to reproduce the 1024-bit Skein hash values that he is generating at http://almamater.xkcd.com/? The hashes that he shows don't match the ones I'm getting from my Skein hash calculator (using 1024 bit output and 1024 bit internal state size). I tried feeding the same string into the hash function both with and without a trailing null character and neither matches. For example, if I type abc into the form, he shows 35a599...1f1f (edited for brevity), but I calculate that a hash of the 3-byte message "abc" should be 10a866...035c.<br />
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"Wikipedia article on {{hint: The perpetrators of the largest extinction in Earth's history}}" Would this be humans? I'm afraid to get in on the Wikipedia editing since I'm already in so-so standing due to some childishness in 2006... [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 21:54, 1 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1193:_Externalities&diff=32099Talk:1193: Externalities2013-04-01T14:11:35Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>--[[Special:Contributions/137.147.40.248|137.147.40.248]] 13:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC) For an easier time spotting the changes, go to [http://xkcd.com/1193/#verbose] and open your web console<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/199.48.226.89|199.48.226.89]] 10:18, 1 April 2013 (UTC) I put in "caltech.edu" and hashed a lot of words, and "Twilight Sparkle is best pony." was the best result I managed, only off by 496 bits.<br />
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All I see is a blank white 780x969 image. Nothing appears when I hover over stuff. [[Special:Contributions/109.65.100.208|109.65.100.208]] 09:04, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Sometimes it does that. It takes a while to generate, and it doesn't always render correctly. Try updating your browser or refreshing. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
The person who provided the shopped image either isn't using a modern browser or is using IE. The font is supposed to be "xkcd-Regular", which I assume is a font that gets downloaded from XKCD's server. Loading the same page in IE 9 gave me that Times New Roman-esque font instead (Chrome, Firefox, and Opera use the special font, although it's rendered a little fuzzy in Firefox). [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 09:25, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The dog part now shows "FREEPRIME@AMAZON.COM" underneath the sliders for me. --[[User:Gefrierbrand|Gefrierbrand]] ([[User talk:Gefrierbrand|talk]]) 09:50, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I think it matches the company in the first panel? (Currently CAREERS@XLINX INC for me.) --[[Special:Contributions/81.138.95.57|81.138.95.57]] 10:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The page where the company name is supposed to be fetched from is "Sith" now, but I checked and the company is not there. I think this will take some time to decipher ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:12, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: .... uh, remember few pages ago where we JOKED about being used as distributted computer? Now we ARE used to crack the provided hash ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:15, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: It's April 1st. Maybe the idea that the company is sourced from a Wikipedia page is not true. That would explain the link to the Wikipedia fund raising page as an apology for the fact that there will be many XKCD readers vandalising the Sith page [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 11:38, 1 April 2013 (UTC).<br />
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:: ... AND it's [wikipedia:Jean-Luc_Picard|Jean Luc Picard] now. AND there is actually Apple linked from it. While the Google is company doing recruiting now ... hmmm ... but Google actually IS mentioned in one of previous version of page ... damn vandals. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:35, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:::WAIT. Randal now mentioned "... Final Fantasy Tactics. But link on Jean Luc Picard could beat it". So either it's something like "taken from last edited page" or he is doing it manually. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:42, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::::"Microsoft Corporation is the first NASDAQ-100 company mentioned on the wikipedia page 'IBM'. But a link on 'Oprah' could beat it." -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 14:05, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Ignorant question: What is this hash finding competition? Was it announced somewhere? [[Special:Contributions/129.67.199.117|129.67.199.117]] 11:56, 1 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: Click that panel: http://almamater.xkcd.com/ [[User:Jeremy1026|Jeremy1026]] ([[User talk:Jeremy1026|talk]]) 12:05, 1 April 2013 (UTC).<br />
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The sad thing is that people are probably only donating to a good cause to see the dog-drawing get bigger. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 14:11, 1 April 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1191:_The_Past&diff=31582Talk:1191: The Past2013-03-29T00:47:57Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>WOW. When I first read the comic, I assumed it was making an analogy to current countries. Like ones that have been invaded because of their oil reserves. When I saw the image-text, my thought was "We can destroy time like we've destroyed these countries." The above explanation makes a lot more sense. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 06:17, 27 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: I don't think there's a distinction. "If history has taught us anything, we can use that information to destroy it". If you destroy the country in the past, then you 'destroy' that timeline of history. (Of course, current consensus seems to be that you'd branch off into a new timeline and both will exist in parallel universes, but nonetheless - to the antagonist - it could well count as a destruction. [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 08:50, 27 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Perhaps, but nothing I was saying was referring to time travel. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 00:47, 29 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The past is a foreign country most probably means his own country. You would not conquer your own country today, but the past is something totally different - it is foreign and ready for exploitation.<br />
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Anyone else thinking of time travel? I think BlackHat was planning to get a time-machine (somehow), bring a whole army through and conquer a nation. It's an easier way to become a mighty overlord, ruling over continents and enslaving millions of people. World domination turn out to not impossible after all, aside from the time-travel stuff. [[Special:Contributions/129.59.52.45|129.59.52.45]] 02:43, 28 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Does this have anything to do with the previous comic (Time) ? I'm guessing (out of the blue) that the next comic will be "The Present", and the next one "The future". [[Special:Contributions/193.239.192.194|193.239.192.194]] 12:43, 28 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Did anyone think about Iraq? This comic comes quite close to the 10-year anniversary of the war, and the description of the "foreign country" quite resembles what Iraq was at the time.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/88.174.44.135|88.174.44.135]] 19:28, 28 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:326:_Effect_an_Effect&diff=31414Talk:326: Effect an Effect2013-03-28T05:55:55Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Can someone explain the title text, thanks! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:20, 22 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah, I'd like to see that get added as well. I kind of assumed it was like taking a kill-count; one painting for each victim. I'm not sure what it specifically refers to, or what the origin of the term is. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:55, 28 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1191:_The_Past&diff=31244Talk:1191: The Past2013-03-27T06:17:00Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "WOW. When I first read the comic, I assumed it was making an analogy to current countries. Like ones that have been invaded because of their oil reserves. When I saw the im..."</p>
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<div>WOW. When I first read the comic, I assumed it was making an analogy to current countries. Like ones that have been invaded because of their oil reserves. When I saw the image-text, my thought was "We can destroy time like we've destroyed these countries." The above explanation makes a lot more sense. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 06:17, 27 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1190:_Time&diff=31105Talk:1190: Time2013-03-26T07:20:44Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
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<div>Pretty sure we're just getting trolled with this one [[Special:Contributions/99.108.190.136|99.108.190.136]] 04:48, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Can't tell if this is emo xkcd or trolling xkcd. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:53, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Something seems a little fishy because the image url is different than normal. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 04:55, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Maybe the comic slowly changes throughout the day. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:56, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Oh god, it does. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::When uploading different versions of the image, use the naming convention time[iterationNumber].png. We'll compile all the images into one and display them as per [[Traffic Lights]]. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:05, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::Alright, so the comic appears to be switching between two states here: between [[media:time2.png|this]] and [[media:time3.png|this]]. If nothing new happens, I'll get to clipping the comics together. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:28, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::::Whoop, nope, [[media:time4.png|this]] just came up. Is there more to come? '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:34, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::::Alright, so a new one is posted every half-hour. Whoopee. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:06, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::::::And there's a new one! Megan leaning back and looking up...<br />
::::::::Well, the image changed, who has the time to make a script to catch the new images and compile them into a gif? https://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/time.png [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 07:14, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/72.21.198.66|72.21.198.66]] 05:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)It could be a reference to the old proverb " time and tide wait for none" Cueball and the girl could be waiting for the tide in the beach! (Just a guess)[[Special:Contributions/72.21.198.66|72.21.198.66]] 05:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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The picture does chance with time. The URL includes a changing timestamp that I can't decipher. Compare these two URLS (which have slightly different images:<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/8eb156cce408df8bb83528382d6a2aa2ce6c74f3c573fd12b058cd1c56420672.png<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png<br />
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Perhaps there is a way to hack the URL to view future images. [[Special:Contributions/199.30.248.121|199.30.248.121]] 05:29, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: I would also like to add that knowing randall, these are not the only images. For all we know, the image will still be changing in 5 years while a tree grows in front of them. My point is: Are the URLs hackable, or did he encrypt them? [[Special:Contributions/199.30.248.121|199.30.248.121]] 05:33, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Likely there is a way to hack the URLs; they look like some sort of hash, probably a hashed timestamp. Of course, he could easily have added some salt to the hash, making it significantly *harder* to hack. But they're strings of a specific length, so it should be pretty easy to bruteforce it, fetch all the images, and then (maybe) reverse-engineer the sequence. *That* all depends on how many of them there are. [[Special:Contributions/76.90.249.178|76.90.249.178]] 05:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Good god, do you see how many digits are *in* that hash? The sun'll have burned out by the time we've tested every possible combination of digits. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:47, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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It seems that the image is updated every 1/2 hour. [[Special:Contributions/152.23.97.150|152.23.97.150]] 06:17, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: Given that the images switch back and forth between other images already seen, and that the comic should be viewable in the future, it seems unlikely that it's any thing like a simple sha256 of part of the timestamp. I think it's more likely a function of half-hours and minutes (assuming we continue to get a new possible image every half-hour). [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 06:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::: The images do cycle, yes. But for some reason I have never seen the img where Megan is looking behind her. Also wouldn't it be difficult to show a sequential story (like the rising tide) if the previous images keep cycling ?<br />
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Hash appears to be SHA-256. I tried some obvious hashes ("1", "11901", "1190_1", "1190.1") to no avail. Maybe this is HMAC-SHA256? Also, I would suggest trying Unix timestamps. [[Special:Contributions/131.156.236.149|131.156.236.149]] 06:19, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: I've been trying to make educated guesses as to what's being hashed here: http://www.xorbin.com/tools/sha256-hash-calculator ... he could also be using hash(hash2(value)) which would be virtually impossible to crack. [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 06:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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It's entirely possible that the "hash" is actually randomly generated. Just a thought. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 07:03, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Alright, this is probably not going to work, but I'm trying to exploit Randall's awesomeness here. Maybe he decided to take the time-stamps from the user? I don't know if that's even possible... That would then allow people in different time zones to obtain different images simultaneously. (What's the corollary of Godwin's law for a bunch of math-and-science nerds and relativity? Is there one?) Clicking the img src url on the comic's html page, give me this: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/752687b61523144c61736cd89f8c153dc41e19128f72d78d44947ff800f057fa.png : Never mind.. apparently others see the same image too.<br />
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Could he be doing this live? Monitoring the discussion on the net? Collaborative, crowdsourced comic-ing? Reminds me of those you-decide-what-the-character-does-next-and-flip-to-appropriate-page parallel plot novels.<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 07:14, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Let's just compare the two pictures and see how the bottom right changes, which I believe is water and they are indeed waiting for the tide. [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 07:19, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I'm adding urls to pictures bellow, edit freely.<br />
::They change every 5 minutes, will try to keep track.<br />
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http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f8/time.png <br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/752687b61523144c61736cd89f8c153dc41e19128f72d78d44947ff800f057fa.png<br />
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/timeasdf.png <br />
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/time6.png<br />
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:I have uploaded all the different images onto the wiki, in the order that they were revealed. To avoid needless duplication of effort, I'll put them up in the explanation page. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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It just went back to the second image... [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 07:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: And now changed to something new. http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/cdcc6b46b32c53f8596cd0106958b42c4260b9cbc022e6d94054147aa6554960.png<br />
:: The images do look alike, but they're all different. Thanks David. [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 08:04, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::: No..I checked the random string. They're exactly the same. In fact, now it's gone back to the second image. Again. [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 08:07, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
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Just found this JavaScript code embedded in the comic HTML source (Update: Reformatted to prevent eye-bleeding): <br />
<br />
<pre>(function (e) {<br />
"use strict";<br />
<br />
function t() {<br />
this.data = {}<br />
}<br />
function n() {<br />
this.listeners = new t<br />
}<br />
function r(e) {<br />
setTimeout(function () {<br />
throw e<br />
}, 0)<br />
}<br />
function i(e) {<br />
this.type = e<br />
}<br />
function s(e, t) {<br />
i.call(this, e), this.data = t.data, this.lastEventId = t.lastEventId<br />
}<br />
function g(e, t) {<br />
var n = Number(e);<br />
return (n < 1 ? 1 : n > 18e6 ? 18e6 : n) || t<br />
}<br />
function y(e, t, n) {<br />
try {<br />
typeof e[t] == "function" && e[t](n)<br />
} catch (i) {<br />
r(i)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
function b(t, r) {<br />
function B() {<br />
L = d, N !== null && (N.abort(), N = null), C !== 0 && (clearTimeout(C), C = 0), S.readyState = d<br />
}<br />
function j(e) {<br />
var t = L === p || L === h ? N.responseText || "" : "",<br />
n = null;<br />
if (L === h) {<br />
var r = f ? t !== "" ? N.getResponseHeader("Content-Type") : "" : N.contentType;<br />
if (r && v.test(r)) {<br />
L = p, T = !0, x = u, S.readyState = p, n = new i("open"), S.dispatchEvent(n), y(S, "onopen", n);<br />
if (L === d) return<br />
}<br />
}<br />
if (L === p) {<br />
t.length > k && (H = !0, T = !0);<br />
var o = 0,<br />
a = t.indexOf("\r", k),<br />
l = t.indexOf("\n", k);<br />
while (a !== -1 || l !== -1) {<br />
a === -1 || l !== -1 && l < a ? (o = l, l = t.indexOf("\n", o + 1)) : (o = a, a = t.indexOf("\r", o + 1));<br />
var m = t.slice(k, o),<br />
B = D;<br />
D = t.slice(o, o + 1) === "\r", k = o + 1;<br />
if (!B || m.length !== 0 || D) {<br />
_.push(m);<br />
var j = _.join("");<br />
_.length = 0;<br />
if (j !== "") {<br />
var I = "",<br />
q = j.indexOf(":", 0);<br />
q !== -1 && (I = j.slice(q + (j.slice(q + 1, q + 2) === " " ? 2 : 1)), j = j.slice(0, q)), j === "data" ? A.push(I) : j === "id" ? O = I : j === "event" ? M = I : j === "retry" ? (u = g(I, u), x = u, b < u && (b = u)) : j === "retryLimit" ? b = g(I, b) : j === "heartbeatTimeout" && (w = g(I, w), C !== 0 && (clearTimeout(C), C = setTimeout(R, w)))<br />
} else {<br />
if (A.length !== 0) {<br />
E = O;<br />
var U = M || "message";<br />
n = new s(U, {<br />
data: A.join("\n"),<br />
lastEventId: O<br />
}), S.dispatchEvent(n), U === "message" && y(S, "onmessage", n);<br />
if (L === d) return<br />
}<br />
A.length = 0, M = ""<br />
}<br />
}<br />
}<br />
k !== t.length && (_.push(t.slice(k)), k = t.length)<br />
}<br />
H && P === 0 && (H = !1, P = setTimeout(F, 80)), L !== p && L !== h || !(e || k > 1048576 || C === 0 && !T) ? C === 0 && (T = !1, C = setTimeout(R, w)) : (L = c, N.abort(), C !== 0 && (clearTimeout(C), C = 0), x > b && (x = b), C = setTimeout(R, x), x = x * 2 + 1, S.readyState = h, n = new i("error"), S.dispatchEvent(n), y(S, "onerror", n))<br />
}<br />
function F() {<br />
P = 0, j(!1)<br />
}<br />
function I() {<br />
j(!1)<br />
}<br />
function q() {<br />
j(!0)<br />
}<br />
function R() {<br />
C = 0;<br />
if (L !== c) {<br />
j(!1);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (navigator.onLine === !1) {<br />
C = setTimeout(R, 500);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (m && e.document && (e.document.readyState === "loading" || e.document.readyState === "interactive")) {<br />
C = setTimeout(R, 100);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
N.onload = N.onerror = q, N.mozAnon === undefined ? N.onprogress = I : N.onreadystatechange = I, T = !1, C = setTimeout(R, w), k = 0, L = h, A.length = 0, M = "", O = E, _.length = 0, D = !1, N.open("GET", t + ((t.indexOf("?", 0) === -1 ? "?" : "&") + "lastEventId=" + encodeURIComponent(E) + "&r=" + String(Math.random() + 1).slice(2)), !0), N.withCredentials = o, N.responseType = "text", f && N.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/event-stream"), N.send(null)<br />
}<br />
t = String(t);<br />
var o = Boolean(a && r && r.withCredentials),<br />
u = g(r ? r.retry : NaN, 1e3),<br />
b = g(r ? r.retryLimit : NaN, 3e5),<br />
w = g(r ? r.heartbeatTimeout : NaN, 45e3),<br />
E = r && r.lastEventId && String(r.lastEventId) || "",<br />
S = this,<br />
x = u,<br />
T = !1,<br />
N = new l,<br />
C = 0,<br />
k = 0,<br />
L = c,<br />
A = [],<br />
O = "",<br />
M = "",<br />
_ = [],<br />
D = !1,<br />
P = 0,<br />
H = !1;<br />
r = null, n.call(this), this.close = B, this.url = t, this.readyState = h, this.withCredentials = o, R()<br />
}<br />
function w() {<br />
this.CONNECTING = h, this.OPEN = p, this.CLOSED = d<br />
}<br />
t.prototype = {<br />
get: function (e) {<br />
return this.data[e + "~"]<br />
},<br />
set: function (e, t) {<br />
this.data[e + "~"] = t<br />
},<br />
"delete": function (e) {<br />
delete this.data[e + "~"]<br />
}<br />
}, n.prototype = {<br />
dispatchEvent: function (e) {<br />
var t = String(e.type),<br />
n = this.listeners,<br />
i = n.get(t);<br />
if (!i) return;<br />
var s = i.length,<br />
o = -1;<br />
while (++o < s) {<br />
var u = i[o];<br />
try {<br />
u.call(this, e)<br />
} catch (a) {<br />
r(a)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
},<br />
addEventListener: function (e, t) {<br />
e = String(e);<br />
var n = this.listeners,<br />
r = n.get(e);<br />
r || n.set(e, r = []);<br />
var i = r.length;<br />
while (--i >= 0) if (r[i] === t) return;<br />
r.push(t)<br />
},<br />
removeEventListener: function (e, t) {<br />
e = String(e);<br />
var n = this.listeners,<br />
r = n.get(e);<br />
if (!r) return;<br />
var i = r.length,<br />
s = [],<br />
o = -1;<br />
while (++o < i) r[o] !== t && s.push(r[o]);<br />
s.length === 0 ? n["delete"](e) : n.set(e, s)<br />
}<br />
}, s.prototype = i.prototype;<br />
var o = e.XMLHttpRequest,<br />
u = e.XDomainRequest,<br />
a = Boolean(o && (new o).withCredentials !== undefined),<br />
f = a,<br />
l = a ? o : u,<br />
c = -1,<br />
h = 0,<br />
p = 1,<br />
d = 2,<br />
v = /^text\/event\-stream;?(\s*charset\=utf\-8)?$/i,<br />
m = /AppleWebKit\/5([0-2][0-9]|3[0-4])[^\d]/.test(navigator.userAgent);<br />
w.prototype = n.prototype, b.prototype = new w, w.call(b), l && (e.EventSource = b)<br />
})(this),<br />
function () {<br />
function e(e) {<br />
(new Image).src = "http://xkcd.com/events/" + e<br />
}<br />
function t() {<br />
location.hash == "#verbose" && console.log.apply(console, arguments)<br />
}<br />
try {<br />
var n = "http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource",<br />
r = new EventSource(n);<br />
t("connecting to event source:", n), r.addEventListener("open", function (t) {<br />
e("connect_start")<br />
}, !1), r.addEventListener("error", function (t) {<br />
e("connect_error")<br />
}, !1), r.addEventListener("loadtest", t, !1), r.addEventListener("comic/time", t, !1), r.addEventListener("comic/time", function (e) {<br />
var n = JSON.parse(e.data),<br />
r = document.getElementById("comic").getElementsByTagName("img")[0],<br />
i = Math.round(Math.random() * n.spread);<br />
t("waiting", i, "seconds before displaying comic", n.image), setTimeout(function () {<br />
r.src = "http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/" + n.image<br />
}, i * 1e3)<br />
}, !1)<br />
} catch (i) {<br />
e("js_error")<br />
}<br />
}();</pre><br />
<br />
I'm no programmer but this looks important to me...<br />
<br />
:Doesn't really help. The script basically changes the image when something happens (probably some time passes, although it's possible there is more hidden there). WHAT image then appears is not directed by the script, but by the site. Specifically, the image displayed as first is taken from [http://c0.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time http://c0.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time], while the script asks for [http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource&r=(somenumber) http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource&r=(somenumber)] ... which is, if you get correct "r", probably some json containing the image url. So, even if you hack the script, you will not get all possible urls. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:17, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: ... actually, given that the script part doesn't seem to do anything just now, it's even possible it's for later (ie, starts producing images when the correct time come). Or maybe there is a bug somewhere in the code :-). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:27, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::Thanks for explaining. Why hasn't anyone posted this before? Could "location.hash" possibly have anything to do with the method used to generate the image hash key? Also, why is this code so difficult to follow (Obfuscation?)? So many questions... Sorry if this is just a huge waste of ''Time''.<br />
<br />
:::: <code>location</code> is the URI of the page. <code>location.hash</code> is the part of the uri after the ''#'' character. If you go to [https://xkcd.com/1190/#verbose https://xkcd.com/1190/#verbose], you'll see some debugging output in your browser's debugging console (Firefox: Web Console or Firebug, Chrome: Development Tools). But nothing to decode the algorithm... :-( --[[Special:Contributions/83.243.48.2|83.243.48.2]] 10:01, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::::: Well, I don't know what's doing it, but there's definitely some script (probably this script) that's refreshing the image automatically. I left the comic open for an hour or so and noticed the image had changed. I refreshed with #verbose in Chrome right before the 30 minute mark and got the following in the console.<br />
<pre><br />
connecting to event source: http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource time07.min.js:1<br />
s {type: "comic/time", data: "{"spread":5,"image":"832a7f13ca0fadc46e93475bb617d78211e32c81c3af0e289a51f8f149707759.png"}", lastEventId: "e2992bf0-9557-11e2-8001-1c6f659cb250"} time07.min.js:1<br />
waiting 0 seconds before displaying comic 832a7f13ca0fadc46e93475bb617d78211e32c81c3af0e289a51f8f149707759.png time07.min.js:1<br />
Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream: "http://xkcd.com/events/connect_start". time07.min.js:1<br />
s {type: "comic/time", data: "{"spread":5,"image":"847265673986f085460bf1a95b96f7171bcd9a4f1f0a598b2188307d03bcfaa3.png"}", lastEventId: "79580fe8-9558-11e2-8001-1c6f659cb250"} time07.min.js:1<br />
waiting 4 seconds before displaying comic 847265673986f085460bf1a95b96f7171bcd9a4f1f0a598b2188307d03bcfaa3.png time07.min.js:1<br />
connection error i {type: "error"} time07.min.js:1<br />
Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream: "http://xkcd.com/events/connect_error".<br />
</pre><br />
::::: The script seems to poll the server every minute or two. It's different from before, where the image server itself redirected to the correct image. The auto refresh was probably always intended, but not quite ready when the comic went live. It may have turned out to be necessary too, so the image server doesn't have to do all the work. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 14:45, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Before obfuscation... ==<br />
<pre><br />
(function (global) {<br />
"use strict";<br />
<br />
function Map() {<br />
this.data = {}<br />
}<br />
function EventTarget() {<br />
this.listeners = new Map<br />
}<br />
function throwError(e) {<br />
setTimeout(function () {<br />
throw e<br />
}, 0)<br />
}<br />
function Event(type) {<br />
this.type = type<br />
}<br />
function MessageEvent(type, options) {<br />
Event.call(this, type), this.data = options.data, this.lastEventId = options.lastEventId<br />
}<br />
function getDuration(value, def) {<br />
var n = Number(value);<br />
return (n < 1 ? 1 : n > 18e6 ? 18e6 : n) || def<br />
}<br />
function fire(that, property, event) {<br />
try {<br />
typeof that[property] == "function" && that[property](event)<br />
} catch (e) {<br />
throwError(e)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
function EventSource(url, options) {<br />
function close() {<br />
currentState = CLOSED, xhr !== null && (xhr.abort(), xhr = null), timeout !== 0 && (clearTimeout(timeout), timeout = 0), that.readyState = CLOSED<br />
}<br />
function onProgress(isLoadEnd) {<br />
var responseText = currentState === OPEN || currentState === CONNECTING ? xhr.responseText || "" : "",<br />
event = null;<br />
if (currentState === CONNECTING) {<br />
var contentType = isXHR ? responseText !== "" ? xhr.getResponseHeader("Content-Type") : "" : xhr.contentType;<br />
if (contentType && contentTypeRegExp.test(contentType)) {<br />
currentState = OPEN, wasActivity = !0, retry = initialRetry, that.readyState = OPEN, event = new Event("open"), that.dispatchEvent(event), fire(that, "onopen", event);<br />
if (currentState === CLOSED) return<br />
}<br />
}<br />
if (currentState === OPEN) {<br />
responseText.length > charOffset && (wasAct = !0, wasActivity = !0);<br />
var i = 0,<br />
i1 = responseText.indexOf("\r", charOffset),<br />
i2 = responseText.indexOf("\n", charOffset);<br />
while (i1 !== -1 || i2 !== -1) {<br />
i1 === -1 || i2 !== -1 && i2 < i1 ? (i = i2, i2 = responseText.indexOf("\n", i + 1)) : (i = i1, i1 = responseText.indexOf("\r", i + 1));<br />
var line = responseText.slice(charOffset, i),<br />
oldWasCR = wasCR;<br />
wasCR = responseText.slice(i, i + 1) === "\r", charOffset = i + 1;<br />
if (!oldWasCR || line.length !== 0 || wasCR) {<br />
responseBuffer.push(line);<br />
var field = responseBuffer.join("");<br />
responseBuffer.length = 0;<br />
if (field !== "") {<br />
var value = "",<br />
j = field.indexOf(":", 0);<br />
j !== -1 && (value = field.slice(j + (field.slice(j + 1, j + 2) === " " ? 2 : 1)), field = field.slice(0, j)), field === "data" ? dataBuffer.push(value) : field === "id" ? lastEventIdBuffer = value : field === "event" ? eventTypeBuffer = value : field === "retry" ? (initialRetry = getDuration(value, initialRetry), retry = initialRetry, retryLimit < initialRetry && (retryLimit = initialRetry)) : field === "retryLimit" ? retryLimit = getDuration(value, retryLimit) : field === "heartbeatTimeout" && (heartbeatTimeout = getDuration(value, heartbeatTimeout), timeout !== 0 && (clearTimeout(timeout), timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, heartbeatTimeout)))<br />
} else {<br />
if (dataBuffer.length !== 0) {<br />
lastEventId = lastEventIdBuffer;<br />
var type = eventTypeBuffer || "message";<br />
event = new MessageEvent(type, {<br />
data: dataBuffer.join("\n"),<br />
lastEventId: lastEventIdBuffer<br />
}), that.dispatchEvent(event), type === "message" && fire(that, "onmessage", event);<br />
if (currentState === CLOSED) return<br />
}<br />
dataBuffer.length = 0, eventTypeBuffer = ""<br />
}<br />
}<br />
}<br />
charOffset !== responseText.length && (responseBuffer.push(responseText.slice(charOffset)), charOffset = responseText.length)<br />
}<br />
wasAct && progressTimeout === 0 && (wasAct = !1, progressTimeout = setTimeout(p, 80)), currentState !== OPEN && currentState !== CONNECTING || !(isLoadEnd || charOffset > 1048576 || timeout === 0 && !wasActivity) ? timeout === 0 && (wasActivity = !1, timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, heartbeatTimeout)) : (currentState = WAITING, xhr.abort(), timeout !== 0 && (clearTimeout(timeout), timeout = 0), retry > retryLimit && (retry = retryLimit), timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, retry), retry = retry * 2 + 1, that.readyState = CONNECTING, event = new Event("error"), that.dispatchEvent(event), fire(that, "onerror", event))<br />
}<br />
function p() {<br />
progressTimeout = 0, onProgress(!1)<br />
}<br />
function onProgress2() {<br />
onProgress(!1)<br />
}<br />
function onLoadEnd() {<br />
onProgress(!0)<br />
}<br />
function onTimeout() {<br />
timeout = 0;<br />
if (currentState !== WAITING) {<br />
onProgress(!1);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (navigator.onLine === !1) {<br />
timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, 500);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (webkitBefore535 && global.document && (global.document.readyState === "loading" || global.document.readyState === "interactive")) {<br />
timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, 100);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
xhr.onload = xhr.onerror = onLoadEnd, xhr.mozAnon === undefined ? xhr.onprogress = onProgress2 : xhr.onreadystatechange = onProgress2, wasActivity = !1, timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, heartbeatTimeout), charOffset = 0, currentState = CONNECTING, dataBuffer.length = 0, eventTypeBuffer = "", lastEventIdBuffer = lastEventId, responseBuffer.length = 0, wasCR = !1, xhr.open("GET", url + ((url.indexOf("?", 0) === -1 ? "?" : "&") + "lastEventId=" + encodeURIComponent(lastEventId) + "&r=" + String(Math.random() + 1).slice(2)), !0), xhr.withCredentials = withCredentials, xhr.responseType = "text", isXHR && xhr.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/event-stream"), xhr.send(null)<br />
}<br />
url = String(url);<br />
var withCredentials = Boolean(xhr2 && options && options.withCredentials),<br />
initialRetry = getDuration(options ? options.retry : NaN, 1e3),<br />
retryLimit = getDuration(options ? options.retryLimit : NaN, 3e5),<br />
heartbeatTimeout = getDuration(options ? options.heartbeatTimeout : NaN, 45e3),<br />
lastEventId = options && options.lastEventId && String(options.lastEventId) || "",<br />
that = this,<br />
retry = initialRetry,<br />
wasActivity = !1,<br />
xhr = new Transport,<br />
timeout = 0,<br />
charOffset = 0,<br />
currentState = WAITING,<br />
dataBuffer = [],<br />
lastEventIdBuffer = "",<br />
eventTypeBuffer = "",<br />
responseBuffer = [],<br />
wasCR = !1,<br />
progressTimeout = 0,<br />
wasAct = !1;<br />
options = null, EventTarget.call(this), this.close = close, this.url = url, this.readyState = CONNECTING, this.withCredentials = withCredentials, onTimeout()<br />
}<br />
function F() {<br />
this.CONNECTING = CONNECTING, this.OPEN = OPEN, this.CLOSED = CLOSED<br />
}<br />
Map.prototype = {<br />
get: function (key) {<br />
return this.data[key + "~"]<br />
},<br />
set: function (key, value) {<br />
this.data[key + "~"] = value<br />
},<br />
"delete": function (key) {<br />
delete this.data[key + "~"]<br />
}<br />
}, EventTarget.prototype = {<br />
dispatchEvent: function (event) {<br />
var type = String(event.type),<br />
listeners = this.listeners,<br />
typeListeners = listeners.get(type);<br />
if (!typeListeners) return;<br />
var length = typeListeners.length,<br />
i = -1;<br />
while (++i < length) {<br />
var listener = typeListeners[i];<br />
try {<br />
listener.call(this, event)<br />
} catch (e) {<br />
throwError(e)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
},<br />
addEventListener: function (type, callback) {<br />
type = String(type);<br />
var listeners = this.listeners,<br />
typeListeners = listeners.get(type);<br />
typeListeners || listeners.set(type, typeListeners = []);<br />
var i = typeListeners.length;<br />
while (--i >= 0) if (typeListeners[i] === callback) return;<br />
typeListeners.push(callback)<br />
},<br />
removeEventListener: function (type, callback) {<br />
type = String(type);<br />
var listeners = this.listeners,<br />
typeListeners = listeners.get(type);<br />
if (!typeListeners) return;<br />
var length = typeListeners.length,<br />
filtered = [],<br />
i = -1;<br />
while (++i < length) typeListeners[i] !== callback && filtered.push(typeListeners[i]);<br />
filtered.length === 0 ? listeners["delete"](type) : listeners.set(type, filtered)<br />
}<br />
}, MessageEvent.prototype = Event.prototype;<br />
var XHR = global.XMLHttpRequest,<br />
XDR = global.XDomainRequest,<br />
xhr2 = Boolean(XHR && (new XHR).withCredentials !== undefined),<br />
isXHR = xhr2,<br />
Transport = xhr2 ? XHR : XDR,<br />
WAITING = -1,<br />
CONNECTING = 0,<br />
OPEN = 1,<br />
CLOSED = 2,<br />
contentTypeRegExp = /^text\/event\-stream;?(\s*charset\=utf\-8)?$/i,<br />
webkitBefore535 = /AppleWebKit\/5([0-2][0-9]|3[0-4])[^\d]/.test(navigator.userAgent);<br />
F.prototype = EventTarget.prototype, EventSource.prototype = new F, F.call(EventSource), Transport && (global.EventSource = EventSource)<br />
})(this),<br />
function () {<br />
function record(name) {<br />
(new Image).src = "http://xkcd.com/events/" + name<br />
}<br />
function log() {<br />
location.hash == "#verbose" && console.log.apply(console, arguments)<br />
}<br />
try {<br />
var esURL = "http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource",<br />
source = new EventSource(esURL);<br />
log("connecting to event source:", esURL), source.addEventListener("open", function (ev) {<br />
record("connect_start")<br />
}, !1), source.addEventListener("error", function (ev) {<br />
record("connect_error")<br />
}, !1), source.addEventListener("loadtest", log, !1), source.addEventListener("comic/time", log, !1), source.addEventListener("comic/time", function (ev) {<br />
var data = JSON.parse(ev.data),<br />
img = document.getElementById("comic").getElementsByTagName("img")[0],<br />
delay = Math.round(Math.random() * data.spread);<br />
log("waiting", delay, "seconds before displaying comic", data.image), setTimeout(function () {<br />
img.src = "http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/" + data.image<br />
}, delay * 1e3)<br />
}, !1)<br />
} catch (e) {<br />
record("js_error")<br />
}<br />
}();<br />
</pre><br />
[[Special:Contributions/79.180.173.88|79.180.173.88]] 09:48, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/426033682a26a0012a6f8e0c47287af91b7991a852d81c77402c937ffbd650c6.png<br />
<br />
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1e/f46c6571393bee1ee649a7daae41f6328e63482506aef1e22607d22c47dd7027.png --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 22:51, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b0/88e3a0c8bba935c669606d9134314f811a0961985f968dd5d329e4695acc67c8.png --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 23:10, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Is it just me or or did Randall manage to make all of us perform a Denial of Service on xkcd.com, and explainxkcd.com ? xkcd.com seems much slower, and I keep getting "500 Internal server error" when accessing this site (explainxkcd.com). I guess that's the effect of having everybody hit F5 every few minutes :) [[Special:Contributions/193.239.192.194|193.239.192.194]] 11:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Earlier today, the server handled all the image redirections. The script you see above went through several mutations (currently at #8), with each mutation it seems that Randall is adding more servers and trying to split the load between them. This is basically how a bot-net works - we all run code written by some evil genius, and he's changing the code as time passes to serve some hidden purpose.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/79.180.173.88|79.180.173.88]] 15:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
If he is using us as a botnet, then maybe the next comic will be something alluding to that.<br />
Probably like this: http://xkcd.com/350/<br />
<br />
When I saw this comic last night and that there was no explanation up, I thought to myself "How zen." I figured that Randall was going through a calm streak before throwing us the utterly ridiculous April 1st comic. Did it come early, or does he have something even bigger planned for us? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:05, 26 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Sorry, did you miss the bit where this comic updates every 30 minutes and all the server error messages being caused by the massive traffic to both the wiki and the main xkcd website? '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:08, 26 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Well, when I said "last night" and "no explanation", I implied that I wasn't aware of that at the time, which is why I thought what I did. Of course, it is now "now" and there <i>is</i> an explanation, so that should answer your question. Also, since it's not April 1st, and Randall has consistently released something major on that day, the jury is still out, leaving my question quite open (though I was really only asking for opinions). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:20, 26 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1190:_Time&diff=31101Talk:1190: Time2013-03-26T07:05:18Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>Pretty sure we're just getting trolled with this one [[Special:Contributions/99.108.190.136|99.108.190.136]] 04:48, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Can't tell if this is emo xkcd or trolling xkcd. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:53, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Something seems a little fishy because the image url is different than normal. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 04:55, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Maybe the comic slowly changes throughout the day. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:56, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Oh god, it does. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::When uploading different versions of the image, use the naming convention time[iterationNumber].png. We'll compile all the images into one and display them as per [[Traffic Lights]]. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:05, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::Alright, so the comic appears to be switching between two states here: between [[media:time2.png|this]] and [[media:time3.png|this]]. If nothing new happens, I'll get to clipping the comics together. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:28, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::::Whoop, nope, [[media:time4.png|this]] just came up. Is there more to come? '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:34, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::::Alright, so a new one is posted every half-hour. Whoopee. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:06, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::::::And there's a new one! Megan leaning back and looking up...<br />
::::::::Well, the image changed, who has the time to make a script to catch the new images and compile them into a gif? https://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/time.png [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 07:14, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/72.21.198.66|72.21.198.66]] 05:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)It could be a reference to the old proverb " time and tide wait for none" Cueball and the girl could be waiting for the tide in the beach! (Just a guess)[[Special:Contributions/72.21.198.66|72.21.198.66]] 05:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The picture does chance with time. The URL includes a changing timestamp that I can't decipher. Compare these two URLS (which have slightly different images:<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/8eb156cce408df8bb83528382d6a2aa2ce6c74f3c573fd12b058cd1c56420672.png<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png<br />
<br />
Perhaps there is a way to hack the URL to view future images. [[Special:Contributions/199.30.248.121|199.30.248.121]] 05:29, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: I would also like to add that knowing randall, these are not the only images. For all we know, the image will still be changing in 5 years while a tree grows in front of them. My point is: Are the URLs hackable, or did he encrypt them? [[Special:Contributions/199.30.248.121|199.30.248.121]] 05:33, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Likely there is a way to hack the URLs; they look like some sort of hash, probably a hashed timestamp. Of course, he could easily have added some salt to the hash, making it significantly *harder* to hack. But they're strings of a specific length, so it should be pretty easy to bruteforce it, fetch all the images, and then (maybe) reverse-engineer the sequence. *That* all depends on how many of them there are. [[Special:Contributions/76.90.249.178|76.90.249.178]] 05:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Good god, do you see how many digits are *in* that hash? The sun'll have burned out by the time we've tested every possible combination of digits. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:47, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It seems that the image is updated every 1/2 hour. [[Special:Contributions/152.23.97.150|152.23.97.150]] 06:17, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: Given that the images switch back and forth between other images already seen, and that the comic should be viewable in the future, it seems unlikely that it's any thing like a simple sha256 of part of the timestamp. I think it's more likely a function of half-hours and minutes (assuming we continue to get a new possible image every half-hour). [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 06:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::: The images do cycle, yes. But for some reason I have never seen the img where Megan is looking behind her. Also wouldn't it be difficult to show a sequential story (like the rising tide) if the previous images keep cycling ?<br />
<br />
Hash appears to be SHA-256. I tried some obvious hashes ("1", "11901", "1190_1", "1190.1") to no avail. Maybe this is HMAC-SHA256? Also, I would suggest trying Unix timestamps. [[Special:Contributions/131.156.236.149|131.156.236.149]] 06:19, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: I've been trying to make educated guesses as to what's being hashed here: http://www.xorbin.com/tools/sha256-hash-calculator ... he could also be using hash(hash2(value)) which would be virtually impossible to crack. [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 06:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It's entirely possible that the "hash" is actually randomly generated. Just a thought. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 07:03, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Alright, this is probably not going to work, but I'm trying to exploit Randall's awesomeness here. Maybe he decided to take the time-stamps from the user? I don't know if that's even possible... That would then allow people in different time zones to obtain different images simultaneously. (What's the corollary of Godwin's law for a bunch of math-and-science nerds and relativity? Is there one?) Clicking the img src url on the comic's html page, give me this: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/752687b61523144c61736cd89f8c153dc41e19128f72d78d44947ff800f057fa.png : Never mind.. apparently others see the same image too.<br />
<br />
Could he be doing this live? Monitoring the discussion on the net? Collaborative, crowdsourced comic-ing? Reminds me of those you-decide-what-the-character-does-next-and-flip-to-appropriate-page parallel plot novels.<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 07:14, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Let's just compare the two pictures and see how the bottom right changes, which I believe is water and they are indeed waiting for the tide. [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 07:19, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I'm adding urls to pictures bellow, edit freely.<br />
::They change every 5 minutes, will try to keep track.<br />
<br />
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f8/time.png <br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/752687b61523144c61736cd89f8c153dc41e19128f72d78d44947ff800f057fa.png<br />
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/timeasdf.png <br />
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/time6.png<br />
<br />
:I have uploaded all the different images onto the wiki, in the order that they were revealed. To avoid needless duplication of effort, I'll put them up in the explanation page. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It just went back to the second image... [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 07:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
: And now changed to something new. http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/cdcc6b46b32c53f8596cd0106958b42c4260b9cbc022e6d94054147aa6554960.png<br />
:: The images do look alike, but they're all different. Thanks David. [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 08:04, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::: No..I checked the random string. They're exactly the same. In fact, now it's gone back to the second image. Again. [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 08:07, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Just found this JavaScript code embedded in the comic HTML source (Update: Reformatted to prevent eye-bleeding): <br />
<br />
<pre>(function (e) {<br />
"use strict";<br />
<br />
function t() {<br />
this.data = {}<br />
}<br />
function n() {<br />
this.listeners = new t<br />
}<br />
function r(e) {<br />
setTimeout(function () {<br />
throw e<br />
}, 0)<br />
}<br />
function i(e) {<br />
this.type = e<br />
}<br />
function s(e, t) {<br />
i.call(this, e), this.data = t.data, this.lastEventId = t.lastEventId<br />
}<br />
function g(e, t) {<br />
var n = Number(e);<br />
return (n < 1 ? 1 : n > 18e6 ? 18e6 : n) || t<br />
}<br />
function y(e, t, n) {<br />
try {<br />
typeof e[t] == "function" && e[t](n)<br />
} catch (i) {<br />
r(i)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
function b(t, r) {<br />
function B() {<br />
L = d, N !== null && (N.abort(), N = null), C !== 0 && (clearTimeout(C), C = 0), S.readyState = d<br />
}<br />
function j(e) {<br />
var t = L === p || L === h ? N.responseText || "" : "",<br />
n = null;<br />
if (L === h) {<br />
var r = f ? t !== "" ? N.getResponseHeader("Content-Type") : "" : N.contentType;<br />
if (r && v.test(r)) {<br />
L = p, T = !0, x = u, S.readyState = p, n = new i("open"), S.dispatchEvent(n), y(S, "onopen", n);<br />
if (L === d) return<br />
}<br />
}<br />
if (L === p) {<br />
t.length > k && (H = !0, T = !0);<br />
var o = 0,<br />
a = t.indexOf("\r", k),<br />
l = t.indexOf("\n", k);<br />
while (a !== -1 || l !== -1) {<br />
a === -1 || l !== -1 && l < a ? (o = l, l = t.indexOf("\n", o + 1)) : (o = a, a = t.indexOf("\r", o + 1));<br />
var m = t.slice(k, o),<br />
B = D;<br />
D = t.slice(o, o + 1) === "\r", k = o + 1;<br />
if (!B || m.length !== 0 || D) {<br />
_.push(m);<br />
var j = _.join("");<br />
_.length = 0;<br />
if (j !== "") {<br />
var I = "",<br />
q = j.indexOf(":", 0);<br />
q !== -1 && (I = j.slice(q + (j.slice(q + 1, q + 2) === " " ? 2 : 1)), j = j.slice(0, q)), j === "data" ? A.push(I) : j === "id" ? O = I : j === "event" ? M = I : j === "retry" ? (u = g(I, u), x = u, b < u && (b = u)) : j === "retryLimit" ? b = g(I, b) : j === "heartbeatTimeout" && (w = g(I, w), C !== 0 && (clearTimeout(C), C = setTimeout(R, w)))<br />
} else {<br />
if (A.length !== 0) {<br />
E = O;<br />
var U = M || "message";<br />
n = new s(U, {<br />
data: A.join("\n"),<br />
lastEventId: O<br />
}), S.dispatchEvent(n), U === "message" && y(S, "onmessage", n);<br />
if (L === d) return<br />
}<br />
A.length = 0, M = ""<br />
}<br />
}<br />
}<br />
k !== t.length && (_.push(t.slice(k)), k = t.length)<br />
}<br />
H && P === 0 && (H = !1, P = setTimeout(F, 80)), L !== p && L !== h || !(e || k > 1048576 || C === 0 && !T) ? C === 0 && (T = !1, C = setTimeout(R, w)) : (L = c, N.abort(), C !== 0 && (clearTimeout(C), C = 0), x > b && (x = b), C = setTimeout(R, x), x = x * 2 + 1, S.readyState = h, n = new i("error"), S.dispatchEvent(n), y(S, "onerror", n))<br />
}<br />
function F() {<br />
P = 0, j(!1)<br />
}<br />
function I() {<br />
j(!1)<br />
}<br />
function q() {<br />
j(!0)<br />
}<br />
function R() {<br />
C = 0;<br />
if (L !== c) {<br />
j(!1);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (navigator.onLine === !1) {<br />
C = setTimeout(R, 500);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (m && e.document && (e.document.readyState === "loading" || e.document.readyState === "interactive")) {<br />
C = setTimeout(R, 100);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
N.onload = N.onerror = q, N.mozAnon === undefined ? N.onprogress = I : N.onreadystatechange = I, T = !1, C = setTimeout(R, w), k = 0, L = h, A.length = 0, M = "", O = E, _.length = 0, D = !1, N.open("GET", t + ((t.indexOf("?", 0) === -1 ? "?" : "&") + "lastEventId=" + encodeURIComponent(E) + "&r=" + String(Math.random() + 1).slice(2)), !0), N.withCredentials = o, N.responseType = "text", f && N.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/event-stream"), N.send(null)<br />
}<br />
t = String(t);<br />
var o = Boolean(a && r && r.withCredentials),<br />
u = g(r ? r.retry : NaN, 1e3),<br />
b = g(r ? r.retryLimit : NaN, 3e5),<br />
w = g(r ? r.heartbeatTimeout : NaN, 45e3),<br />
E = r && r.lastEventId && String(r.lastEventId) || "",<br />
S = this,<br />
x = u,<br />
T = !1,<br />
N = new l,<br />
C = 0,<br />
k = 0,<br />
L = c,<br />
A = [],<br />
O = "",<br />
M = "",<br />
_ = [],<br />
D = !1,<br />
P = 0,<br />
H = !1;<br />
r = null, n.call(this), this.close = B, this.url = t, this.readyState = h, this.withCredentials = o, R()<br />
}<br />
function w() {<br />
this.CONNECTING = h, this.OPEN = p, this.CLOSED = d<br />
}<br />
t.prototype = {<br />
get: function (e) {<br />
return this.data[e + "~"]<br />
},<br />
set: function (e, t) {<br />
this.data[e + "~"] = t<br />
},<br />
"delete": function (e) {<br />
delete this.data[e + "~"]<br />
}<br />
}, n.prototype = {<br />
dispatchEvent: function (e) {<br />
var t = String(e.type),<br />
n = this.listeners,<br />
i = n.get(t);<br />
if (!i) return;<br />
var s = i.length,<br />
o = -1;<br />
while (++o < s) {<br />
var u = i[o];<br />
try {<br />
u.call(this, e)<br />
} catch (a) {<br />
r(a)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
},<br />
addEventListener: function (e, t) {<br />
e = String(e);<br />
var n = this.listeners,<br />
r = n.get(e);<br />
r || n.set(e, r = []);<br />
var i = r.length;<br />
while (--i >= 0) if (r[i] === t) return;<br />
r.push(t)<br />
},<br />
removeEventListener: function (e, t) {<br />
e = String(e);<br />
var n = this.listeners,<br />
r = n.get(e);<br />
if (!r) return;<br />
var i = r.length,<br />
s = [],<br />
o = -1;<br />
while (++o < i) r[o] !== t && s.push(r[o]);<br />
s.length === 0 ? n["delete"](e) : n.set(e, s)<br />
}<br />
}, s.prototype = i.prototype;<br />
var o = e.XMLHttpRequest,<br />
u = e.XDomainRequest,<br />
a = Boolean(o && (new o).withCredentials !== undefined),<br />
f = a,<br />
l = a ? o : u,<br />
c = -1,<br />
h = 0,<br />
p = 1,<br />
d = 2,<br />
v = /^text\/event\-stream;?(\s*charset\=utf\-8)?$/i,<br />
m = /AppleWebKit\/5([0-2][0-9]|3[0-4])[^\d]/.test(navigator.userAgent);<br />
w.prototype = n.prototype, b.prototype = new w, w.call(b), l && (e.EventSource = b)<br />
})(this),<br />
function () {<br />
function e(e) {<br />
(new Image).src = "http://xkcd.com/events/" + e<br />
}<br />
function t() {<br />
location.hash == "#verbose" && console.log.apply(console, arguments)<br />
}<br />
try {<br />
var n = "http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource",<br />
r = new EventSource(n);<br />
t("connecting to event source:", n), r.addEventListener("open", function (t) {<br />
e("connect_start")<br />
}, !1), r.addEventListener("error", function (t) {<br />
e("connect_error")<br />
}, !1), r.addEventListener("loadtest", t, !1), r.addEventListener("comic/time", t, !1), r.addEventListener("comic/time", function (e) {<br />
var n = JSON.parse(e.data),<br />
r = document.getElementById("comic").getElementsByTagName("img")[0],<br />
i = Math.round(Math.random() * n.spread);<br />
t("waiting", i, "seconds before displaying comic", n.image), setTimeout(function () {<br />
r.src = "http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/" + n.image<br />
}, i * 1e3)<br />
}, !1)<br />
} catch (i) {<br />
e("js_error")<br />
}<br />
}();</pre><br />
<br />
I'm no programmer but this looks important to me...<br />
<br />
:Doesn't really help. The script basically changes the image when something happens (probably some time passes, although it's possible there is more hidden there). WHAT image then appears is not directed by the script, but by the site. Specifically, the image displayed as first is taken from [http://c0.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time http://c0.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time], while the script asks for [http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource&r=(somenumber) http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource&r=(somenumber)] ... which is, if you get correct "r", probably some json containing the image url. So, even if you hack the script, you will not get all possible urls. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:17, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:: ... actually, given that the script part doesn't seem to do anything just now, it's even possible it's for later (ie, starts producing images when the correct time come). Or maybe there is a bug somewhere in the code :-). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:27, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::Thanks for explaining. Why hasn't anyone posted this before? Could "location.hash" possibly have anything to do with the method used to generate the image hash key? Also, why is this code so difficult to follow (Obfuscation?)? So many questions... Sorry if this is just a huge waste of ''Time''.<br />
<br />
:::: <code>location</code> is the URI of the page. <code>location.hash</code> is the part of the uri after the ''#'' character. If you go to [https://xkcd.com/1190/#verbose https://xkcd.com/1190/#verbose], you'll see some debugging output in your browser's debugging console (Firefox: Web Console or Firebug, Chrome: Development Tools). But nothing to decode the algorithm... :-( --[[Special:Contributions/83.243.48.2|83.243.48.2]] 10:01, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::::: Well, I don't know what's doing it, but there's definitely some script (probably this script) that's refreshing the image automatically. I left the comic open for an hour or so and noticed the image had changed. I refreshed with #verbose in Chrome right before the 30 minute mark and got the following in the console.<br />
<pre><br />
connecting to event source: http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource time07.min.js:1<br />
s {type: "comic/time", data: "{"spread":5,"image":"832a7f13ca0fadc46e93475bb617d78211e32c81c3af0e289a51f8f149707759.png"}", lastEventId: "e2992bf0-9557-11e2-8001-1c6f659cb250"} time07.min.js:1<br />
waiting 0 seconds before displaying comic 832a7f13ca0fadc46e93475bb617d78211e32c81c3af0e289a51f8f149707759.png time07.min.js:1<br />
Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream: "http://xkcd.com/events/connect_start". time07.min.js:1<br />
s {type: "comic/time", data: "{"spread":5,"image":"847265673986f085460bf1a95b96f7171bcd9a4f1f0a598b2188307d03bcfaa3.png"}", lastEventId: "79580fe8-9558-11e2-8001-1c6f659cb250"} time07.min.js:1<br />
waiting 4 seconds before displaying comic 847265673986f085460bf1a95b96f7171bcd9a4f1f0a598b2188307d03bcfaa3.png time07.min.js:1<br />
connection error i {type: "error"} time07.min.js:1<br />
Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream: "http://xkcd.com/events/connect_error".<br />
</pre><br />
::::: The script seems to poll the server every minute or two. It's different from before, where the image server itself redirected to the correct image. The auto refresh was probably always intended, but not quite ready when the comic went live. It may have turned out to be necessary too, so the image server doesn't have to do all the work. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 14:45, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Before obfuscation... ==<br />
<pre><br />
(function (global) {<br />
"use strict";<br />
<br />
function Map() {<br />
this.data = {}<br />
}<br />
function EventTarget() {<br />
this.listeners = new Map<br />
}<br />
function throwError(e) {<br />
setTimeout(function () {<br />
throw e<br />
}, 0)<br />
}<br />
function Event(type) {<br />
this.type = type<br />
}<br />
function MessageEvent(type, options) {<br />
Event.call(this, type), this.data = options.data, this.lastEventId = options.lastEventId<br />
}<br />
function getDuration(value, def) {<br />
var n = Number(value);<br />
return (n < 1 ? 1 : n > 18e6 ? 18e6 : n) || def<br />
}<br />
function fire(that, property, event) {<br />
try {<br />
typeof that[property] == "function" && that[property](event)<br />
} catch (e) {<br />
throwError(e)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
function EventSource(url, options) {<br />
function close() {<br />
currentState = CLOSED, xhr !== null && (xhr.abort(), xhr = null), timeout !== 0 && (clearTimeout(timeout), timeout = 0), that.readyState = CLOSED<br />
}<br />
function onProgress(isLoadEnd) {<br />
var responseText = currentState === OPEN || currentState === CONNECTING ? xhr.responseText || "" : "",<br />
event = null;<br />
if (currentState === CONNECTING) {<br />
var contentType = isXHR ? responseText !== "" ? xhr.getResponseHeader("Content-Type") : "" : xhr.contentType;<br />
if (contentType && contentTypeRegExp.test(contentType)) {<br />
currentState = OPEN, wasActivity = !0, retry = initialRetry, that.readyState = OPEN, event = new Event("open"), that.dispatchEvent(event), fire(that, "onopen", event);<br />
if (currentState === CLOSED) return<br />
}<br />
}<br />
if (currentState === OPEN) {<br />
responseText.length > charOffset && (wasAct = !0, wasActivity = !0);<br />
var i = 0,<br />
i1 = responseText.indexOf("\r", charOffset),<br />
i2 = responseText.indexOf("\n", charOffset);<br />
while (i1 !== -1 || i2 !== -1) {<br />
i1 === -1 || i2 !== -1 && i2 < i1 ? (i = i2, i2 = responseText.indexOf("\n", i + 1)) : (i = i1, i1 = responseText.indexOf("\r", i + 1));<br />
var line = responseText.slice(charOffset, i),<br />
oldWasCR = wasCR;<br />
wasCR = responseText.slice(i, i + 1) === "\r", charOffset = i + 1;<br />
if (!oldWasCR || line.length !== 0 || wasCR) {<br />
responseBuffer.push(line);<br />
var field = responseBuffer.join("");<br />
responseBuffer.length = 0;<br />
if (field !== "") {<br />
var value = "",<br />
j = field.indexOf(":", 0);<br />
j !== -1 && (value = field.slice(j + (field.slice(j + 1, j + 2) === " " ? 2 : 1)), field = field.slice(0, j)), field === "data" ? dataBuffer.push(value) : field === "id" ? lastEventIdBuffer = value : field === "event" ? eventTypeBuffer = value : field === "retry" ? (initialRetry = getDuration(value, initialRetry), retry = initialRetry, retryLimit < initialRetry && (retryLimit = initialRetry)) : field === "retryLimit" ? retryLimit = getDuration(value, retryLimit) : field === "heartbeatTimeout" && (heartbeatTimeout = getDuration(value, heartbeatTimeout), timeout !== 0 && (clearTimeout(timeout), timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, heartbeatTimeout)))<br />
} else {<br />
if (dataBuffer.length !== 0) {<br />
lastEventId = lastEventIdBuffer;<br />
var type = eventTypeBuffer || "message";<br />
event = new MessageEvent(type, {<br />
data: dataBuffer.join("\n"),<br />
lastEventId: lastEventIdBuffer<br />
}), that.dispatchEvent(event), type === "message" && fire(that, "onmessage", event);<br />
if (currentState === CLOSED) return<br />
}<br />
dataBuffer.length = 0, eventTypeBuffer = ""<br />
}<br />
}<br />
}<br />
charOffset !== responseText.length && (responseBuffer.push(responseText.slice(charOffset)), charOffset = responseText.length)<br />
}<br />
wasAct && progressTimeout === 0 && (wasAct = !1, progressTimeout = setTimeout(p, 80)), currentState !== OPEN && currentState !== CONNECTING || !(isLoadEnd || charOffset > 1048576 || timeout === 0 && !wasActivity) ? timeout === 0 && (wasActivity = !1, timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, heartbeatTimeout)) : (currentState = WAITING, xhr.abort(), timeout !== 0 && (clearTimeout(timeout), timeout = 0), retry > retryLimit && (retry = retryLimit), timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, retry), retry = retry * 2 + 1, that.readyState = CONNECTING, event = new Event("error"), that.dispatchEvent(event), fire(that, "onerror", event))<br />
}<br />
function p() {<br />
progressTimeout = 0, onProgress(!1)<br />
}<br />
function onProgress2() {<br />
onProgress(!1)<br />
}<br />
function onLoadEnd() {<br />
onProgress(!0)<br />
}<br />
function onTimeout() {<br />
timeout = 0;<br />
if (currentState !== WAITING) {<br />
onProgress(!1);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (navigator.onLine === !1) {<br />
timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, 500);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
if (webkitBefore535 && global.document && (global.document.readyState === "loading" || global.document.readyState === "interactive")) {<br />
timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, 100);<br />
return<br />
}<br />
xhr.onload = xhr.onerror = onLoadEnd, xhr.mozAnon === undefined ? xhr.onprogress = onProgress2 : xhr.onreadystatechange = onProgress2, wasActivity = !1, timeout = setTimeout(onTimeout, heartbeatTimeout), charOffset = 0, currentState = CONNECTING, dataBuffer.length = 0, eventTypeBuffer = "", lastEventIdBuffer = lastEventId, responseBuffer.length = 0, wasCR = !1, xhr.open("GET", url + ((url.indexOf("?", 0) === -1 ? "?" : "&") + "lastEventId=" + encodeURIComponent(lastEventId) + "&r=" + String(Math.random() + 1).slice(2)), !0), xhr.withCredentials = withCredentials, xhr.responseType = "text", isXHR && xhr.setRequestHeader("Accept", "text/event-stream"), xhr.send(null)<br />
}<br />
url = String(url);<br />
var withCredentials = Boolean(xhr2 && options && options.withCredentials),<br />
initialRetry = getDuration(options ? options.retry : NaN, 1e3),<br />
retryLimit = getDuration(options ? options.retryLimit : NaN, 3e5),<br />
heartbeatTimeout = getDuration(options ? options.heartbeatTimeout : NaN, 45e3),<br />
lastEventId = options && options.lastEventId && String(options.lastEventId) || "",<br />
that = this,<br />
retry = initialRetry,<br />
wasActivity = !1,<br />
xhr = new Transport,<br />
timeout = 0,<br />
charOffset = 0,<br />
currentState = WAITING,<br />
dataBuffer = [],<br />
lastEventIdBuffer = "",<br />
eventTypeBuffer = "",<br />
responseBuffer = [],<br />
wasCR = !1,<br />
progressTimeout = 0,<br />
wasAct = !1;<br />
options = null, EventTarget.call(this), this.close = close, this.url = url, this.readyState = CONNECTING, this.withCredentials = withCredentials, onTimeout()<br />
}<br />
function F() {<br />
this.CONNECTING = CONNECTING, this.OPEN = OPEN, this.CLOSED = CLOSED<br />
}<br />
Map.prototype = {<br />
get: function (key) {<br />
return this.data[key + "~"]<br />
},<br />
set: function (key, value) {<br />
this.data[key + "~"] = value<br />
},<br />
"delete": function (key) {<br />
delete this.data[key + "~"]<br />
}<br />
}, EventTarget.prototype = {<br />
dispatchEvent: function (event) {<br />
var type = String(event.type),<br />
listeners = this.listeners,<br />
typeListeners = listeners.get(type);<br />
if (!typeListeners) return;<br />
var length = typeListeners.length,<br />
i = -1;<br />
while (++i < length) {<br />
var listener = typeListeners[i];<br />
try {<br />
listener.call(this, event)<br />
} catch (e) {<br />
throwError(e)<br />
}<br />
}<br />
},<br />
addEventListener: function (type, callback) {<br />
type = String(type);<br />
var listeners = this.listeners,<br />
typeListeners = listeners.get(type);<br />
typeListeners || listeners.set(type, typeListeners = []);<br />
var i = typeListeners.length;<br />
while (--i >= 0) if (typeListeners[i] === callback) return;<br />
typeListeners.push(callback)<br />
},<br />
removeEventListener: function (type, callback) {<br />
type = String(type);<br />
var listeners = this.listeners,<br />
typeListeners = listeners.get(type);<br />
if (!typeListeners) return;<br />
var length = typeListeners.length,<br />
filtered = [],<br />
i = -1;<br />
while (++i < length) typeListeners[i] !== callback && filtered.push(typeListeners[i]);<br />
filtered.length === 0 ? listeners["delete"](type) : listeners.set(type, filtered)<br />
}<br />
}, MessageEvent.prototype = Event.prototype;<br />
var XHR = global.XMLHttpRequest,<br />
XDR = global.XDomainRequest,<br />
xhr2 = Boolean(XHR && (new XHR).withCredentials !== undefined),<br />
isXHR = xhr2,<br />
Transport = xhr2 ? XHR : XDR,<br />
WAITING = -1,<br />
CONNECTING = 0,<br />
OPEN = 1,<br />
CLOSED = 2,<br />
contentTypeRegExp = /^text\/event\-stream;?(\s*charset\=utf\-8)?$/i,<br />
webkitBefore535 = /AppleWebKit\/5([0-2][0-9]|3[0-4])[^\d]/.test(navigator.userAgent);<br />
F.prototype = EventTarget.prototype, EventSource.prototype = new F, F.call(EventSource), Transport && (global.EventSource = EventSource)<br />
})(this),<br />
function () {<br />
function record(name) {<br />
(new Image).src = "http://xkcd.com/events/" + name<br />
}<br />
function log() {<br />
location.hash == "#verbose" && console.log.apply(console, arguments)<br />
}<br />
try {<br />
var esURL = "http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource",<br />
source = new EventSource(esURL);<br />
log("connecting to event source:", esURL), source.addEventListener("open", function (ev) {<br />
record("connect_start")<br />
}, !1), source.addEventListener("error", function (ev) {<br />
record("connect_error")<br />
}, !1), source.addEventListener("loadtest", log, !1), source.addEventListener("comic/time", log, !1), source.addEventListener("comic/time", function (ev) {<br />
var data = JSON.parse(ev.data),<br />
img = document.getElementById("comic").getElementsByTagName("img")[0],<br />
delay = Math.round(Math.random() * data.spread);<br />
log("waiting", delay, "seconds before displaying comic", data.image), setTimeout(function () {<br />
img.src = "http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/" + data.image<br />
}, delay * 1e3)<br />
}, !1)<br />
} catch (e) {<br />
record("js_error")<br />
}<br />
}();<br />
</pre><br />
[[Special:Contributions/79.180.173.88|79.180.173.88]] 09:48, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/426033682a26a0012a6f8e0c47287af91b7991a852d81c77402c937ffbd650c6.png<br />
<br />
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1e/f46c6571393bee1ee649a7daae41f6328e63482506aef1e22607d22c47dd7027.png --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 22:51, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b0/88e3a0c8bba935c669606d9134314f811a0961985f968dd5d329e4695acc67c8.png --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 23:10, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Denial of Service ==<br />
<br />
Is it just me or or did Randall manage to make all of us perform a Denial of Service on xkcd.com, and explainxkcd.com ? xkcd.com seems much slower, and I keep getting "500 Internal server error" when accessing this site (explainxkcd.com). I guess that's the effect of having everybody hit F5 every few minutes :) [[Special:Contributions/193.239.192.194|193.239.192.194]] 11:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== We are a botnet ==<br />
Earlier today, the server handled all the image redirections. The script you see above went through several mutations (currently at #8), with each mutation it seems that Randall is adding more servers and trying to split the load between them. This is basically how a bot-net works - we all run code written by some evil genius, and he's changing the code as time passes to serve some hidden purpose.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/79.180.173.88|79.180.173.88]] 15:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
If he is using us as a botnet, then maybe the next comic will be something alluding to that.<br />
Probably like this: http://xkcd.com/350/<br />
<br />
== April Fools ==<br />
<br />
When I saw this comic last night and that there was no explanation up, I thought to myself "How zen." I figured that Randall was going through a calm streak before throwing us the utterly ridiculous April 1st comic. Did it come early, or does he have something even bigger planned for us? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:05, 26 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1187:_Aspect_Ratio&diff=30537Talk:1187: Aspect Ratio2013-03-18T06:10:32Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "Oh man, I haven't read Animorphs since I was a pre-teen. That takes me back. The aspect-ratio joke made me giggle mildly, but that was secondary to me. ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>Oh man, I haven't read Animorphs since I was a pre-teen. That takes me back. The aspect-ratio joke made me giggle mildly, but that was secondary to me. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 06:10, 18 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1185:_Ineffective_Sorts&diff=30380Talk:1185: Ineffective Sorts2013-03-14T00:16:46Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "I loved the "runs in O(n log n)" part. ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>I loved the "runs in O(n log n)" part. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 00:16, 14 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1183:_Rose_Petals&diff=30082Talk:1183: Rose Petals2013-03-08T23:20:41Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>Can anyone explain what Roomba is? {{unsigned|194.105.120.80}}<br />
<br />
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roomba<br />
[[Special:Contributions/131.251.254.81|131.251.254.81]] 09:14, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
: "... but out onto the street."<br />
Is it really? It looks to me like it's going down the hallway seen in the background of the 3rd panel. <br/>[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 16:28, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It is, really. When you look at the door in the 3rd panel, you can see another house across the street, then closer a sidewalk, then closer the street, then closer another sidewalk and a walkway leading up to the door. There is then a mat in front of the door (presumably a welcome mat, or at least a mat for wiping your feet). In the 4th panel you can see the the sidewalk expansion joints. [[User:Haruspex|Haruspex]] ([[User talk:Haruspex|talk]])<br />
<br />
I don't think that's a mailbox. It think it's a shredder. Either way, I think what happening is that Cueball sent a woman some roses, and this is her way of rejecting his advances (which puts the image text into context) [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:18, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I think the explanation James gave is potentially correct for the image text. I can see it going either of 2 ways: 1. As James mentioned above, a woman has rejected Cueball's advances. Instead of taking it badly, he turns the tables by instead takes the Roomba out on a date/whatever (and their evening together went really well, as Cueball imagined the date with the woman going). 2. He used the Roomba to satisfy his desires. On a semi-related note, why isn't the Roomba cleaning up the petals it's spraying out? It seems like the Roomba would uses it sensors to note this and head in the direction of the petals. [[User:mattsinc|mattsinc]] ([[User talk:mattsinc|talk]]) 19:57, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Roombas have no sensors, they just randomly zig-zag around carpets sucking up anything they run over with a relatively weak battery-operated vacuum cleaner. What I have less time believing is that a Roomba would go down the sidewalk for such a long period of time before making a crazy turn into the grass... [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 22:10, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::Fair enough. I agree then about it being incredibly unlikely that the Roomba wouldn't make an arbitrary turn at some point, unless Schmammel's point (below) about the woman reprogramming it is correct. If that's true, then I want to know where's she's programmed it to go! [[User:mattsinc|mattsinc]] ([[User talk:mattsinc|talk]]) 22:36, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I like the way it steers around the books just left in the middle of the floor. Presumably it heads outside because Cueball left the door open. Or did whoever set it up use the books to ensure it left the house by precalculating its behavior? [[User:Schmammel|Schmammel]] ([[User talk:Schmammel|talk]]) 19:54, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Given that Cueball is walking in and the petals have already been spread, it seems more likely that Cueball didn't leave the door open, but rather the woman he was trying to woo did. I don't completely understand how Roomba's decide what directions to travel (see my question above), but your second sentence here potentially addresses it. [[User:mattsinc|mattsinc]] ([[User talk:mattsinc|talk]]) 20:00, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: Ok, having skimmed the Wikipedia page on Roomba, the books were likely strategically placed to force it to turn, although it (presumably) could have also chosen to turn right instead of left as it did. In regards to the curb to the street, Roomba does try to avoid falling down stairs, my guess is that the curb is treated like a stair and thus the Roomba will turn left or right. Again, it probably could have chosen to turn the opposite direction when reaching the street (so yeah, probably the woman programmed its behavior, Schmammel). Nor does this explain why it wouldn't try to backtrack and clean up the rose petals it just laid. Also, isn't it totally possible that the woman would did this programmed to Roomba to lead Cueball to her at some other location? Finally, I feel like Randall should have run this one on Valentine's Day (either the 13th or the 15th since 14th wasn't MWF this year). [[User:mattsinc|mattsinc]] ([[User talk:mattsinc|talk]]) 20:05, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
LOVELY evening with a vacuum-cleaner? What could go wrong?<br />
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15759810<br />
<br />
Wouldn't there need to be some extension cord "tail" on the robo-rose-roomba to power the fan? That appears to be a full-size electric fan, which AFAIK do not come in battery-powered versions, but require 120V AC (in the US). [[Special:Contributions/71.201.53.130|71.201.53.130]] 21:02, 8 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm wondering where everyone is getting the assumption that the "woman" was someone that he was trying to woo--given that the rose petals are left for him and not the other way around--and not someone (a woman?) pulling a practical joke. The title text makes sense in the context of "you tried to pull a joke on me, but it turns out the joke is on you". I'm curious as to how many roses it would take to produce that many petals (I have never actually seen roses). Those assuming that he's trying to woo a woman seem to presuppose that he sent the flowers. I'm wondering if the amount of flowers it would take are an amount typical of a bouquet. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 23:20, 8 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1181:_PGP&diff=29642Talk:1181: PGP2013-03-04T05:53:45Z<p>76.106.251.87: Created page with "I don't really understand what's funny about this comic. ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>I don't really understand what's funny about this comic. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 05:53, 4 March 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1179:_ISO_8601&diff=29194Talk:1179: ISO 86012013-02-27T21:09:25Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>Apparently there are some mistakes in the Roman numerals in the comic, the year MMXII is 2012. Also LVII/CCLXV = 57/265, whereas February 27th is the 58th day of the year (which has 365 days). --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) 07:55, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Just guessing, but could this have something to do with the divergence of various Roman calendars, e.g. Julian vs. Gregorian? [[Special:Contributions/98.122.166.235|98.122.166.235]] 13:55, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Another error: Obviously 1330300800 is intended to be Unix time, but it corresponds to 2012-02-27 00:00:00 UTC. --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) 08:10, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The day part "57" is not wrong: Since Feb 27 is the 58th day of the year, at the beginning of that day, 57 days have gone by since the year started. (At the end of the day, 58 days have gone by) Since we associate days with their beginning (like we do with e.g. hours and minutes), 57 is the correct number (or else Dec 31 would be 2013+365/365 = 2014, and therefore in the wrong year) -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 13:53, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::The day part is ambiguous. It could be as Xorg suggests, the fraction of the year past at the start of the day. On the other hand it could be interpreted as "day 57 or 365," as with pieces in a shipment or page numbers. In the latter case it should be 58/265. But then, that (ambiguity) is the point, isn't it? [[User:Jqavins|Jqavins]] ([[User talk:Jqavins|talk]]) 17:40, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Meanwhile the comic was replaced, with CCLXV corrected to CCCLXV. --[[User:Ulm|ulm]] ([[User talk:Ulm|talk]]) Prima vigilia, XVI Kal. Mar. MMDCCLXVI<br />
<br />
Can anyone explain 01237 (last interpretation before the cat)? Thanks [[Special:Contributions/68.230.38.154|68.230.38.154]] 08:04, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The small numbers above and below the larger ones show which digit is used where. For example, the 2nd and 5th digit is a 0, the 3rd digit is a 1 etc. [[Special:Contributions/82.115.151.1|82.115.151.1]] 08:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:01237 are the digits used in the date, and the numbers above and below them reflect the order in which they are written; 0 is the second and fifth digit, 1 is the third digit, 2 is the first, sixth and seventh digit, 3 is the fourth digit, and 7 is the eighth digit: 20130227 [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 08:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Someone can explain me what means: ((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/3<sup>3</sup>? {{unsigned|95.23.147.48}}<br />
:Read the comic explanation. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u><font color="purple" title="I want you">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><font color="indigo" size="4px">²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:58, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A strange thing is that he forgot the form mostly used in Europe: 27.01.2013. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 12:44, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: That form is mostly used in Germany. Belgium and France use 27/01/2013 more, Netherlands use 27-01-2013. No idea what the UK prefers although I could imagine 01.27.2013.[[Special:Contributions/62.159.14.62|62.159.14.62]] 12:58, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::: The UK prefers 27/02/2013 --[[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 13:20, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::: That form (27.02.2013) is also common in all of Scandinavia. --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 14:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The image text has a subtle twist as "12/01/04" offers no contextual clues to it meaning at all, can be read three different ways : "December 1st 2004", "January 12, 2004" or "January 4th, 2012" (as opposed to, for example, "01/15/98" which could only be interrupted as "January 15th, 1998") [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 14:29, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
: Technically speaking, it could also be interpreted as April 1st 2012 or April 12th 2001, though that would be the least likely interpretation. I personally like spelling out 3 letters of the month and using an apostrophe before the year, such as 27 Feb '13. --[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 15:07, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:: And of course December, 4th 2001 Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.118.249|178.26.118.249]] 19:54, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is there any way to convert the time-stamp placed on these comments to the YYYY-MM-DD format? --16:17, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I feel like the cat thing is a reference to something, but I'm not sure what... is it something? A quick google image search pulls up nothing. --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:26, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
: Seems to me that Randall missed an opportunity: Why a cat? Why not a '''bob'''cat? It still could be some other reference that I'm missing too.<br />
:: Black cats are considered unlucky. I don't see any reference beyond that. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:59, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::: It's taking the last two digits from 2013 and emphasizing triskaidekaphobia. Doing a web image search on "Cat 13" will pull up similar artwork of hissing black cats combined with the number 13, including both flyers for Friday 13th drink specials at bars, and combat airplane noseart. Apparently combining the unlucky "13" with an unlucky black cat emphasized that they were bad luck for the enemy. [[User:Columbus Admission|Columbus Admission]] ([[User talk:Columbus Admission|talk]]) 19:20, 27 February 2013 (UTC) <br />
<br />
Cool, this is my birthday. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:59, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"However the list then starts listing formats ranging from uncommon to absurd, such as writing the date partly in Roman numerals [...] " - <br />
My math teacher uses a very similar format (in reverse order, d/m/yy, with m being in Roman numerals, because this is Germany (see above)), so I wouldn't call it absurd. She is the only person I know who uses it though. [[Special:Contributions/87.189.150.212|87.189.150.212]] 19:36, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The image and explanation needs to be updated for the corrections. I could do the explanation part, but I have no idea how to do the image part. And one without the other would be confusing for the readers, so I'll leave that to wiki-magic. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 21:09, 27 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
==What can we learn from this?==<br />
I've learned that no matter the system we use today to communicate with others, it's probably seems silly for someone else. It's great to document what we do and propose it as an option to others, but it will be next to impossible to force them to adopt. When someone will develop a time reference that makes sense to everyone, it will be adopted all over the world without much effort. - e-inspired [[Special:Contributions/24.51.197.187|24.51.197.187]] 19:07, 27 February 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1178:_Pickup_Artists&diff=29024Talk:1178: Pickup Artists2013-02-26T02:54:22Z<p>76.106.251.87: </p>
<hr />
<div>Oh my God, this one's brilliant. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 06:53, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I did not get it. Waiting for explanation. [[Special:Contributions/95.35.63.243|95.35.63.243]] 07:43, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:See also comic #1027 [[Special:Contributions/65.49.14.70|65.49.14.70]] 10:47, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
Added an explanation for the title text, but it's probably too wordy and not very clear. Anyone have any suggestions? [[User:Cornarias|Cornarias]] ([[User talk:Cornarias|talk]]) 11:07, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Umm... "The pun lies in the fact that a pickup basketball player becomes skilled at basketball."<br />
I thought the pun was on the word "artist" meaning someone that does...art. The same goes with the "friend zone" explanation. It doesn't seem like disbelief, but rather that there is a "place to meet friends" or "a place that friends go to hang out" (in other words, "a zone of friends"). So the joke is that the world seems happier because you think the words are describing subjectively better things than they actually are. But that's just my take on the comic. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 11:11, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:P.S. This is a Saturday comic? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 11:19, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Not anymore. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u><font color="purple" title="I want you">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><font color="indigo" size="4px">²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:21, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Al right, just change it then. :) [[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 14:33, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::It's a matter of opinion, though. I don't make edits based on opinion. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 02:52, 26 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think it's time we give the other guy a name. What about Sleezy Guy? [[User:ChrisFortyTwo|ChrisFortyTwo]] ([[User talk:ChrisFortyTwo|talk]])<br />
:Seconded. I remember he's been named Harry in the past. A quick search brings up [[1028]]. He's appeared quite a bit now, and he probably should be named. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u><font color="purple" title="I want you">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><font color="indigo" size="4px">²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:54, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Thirded. But maybe something a bit nicer sounding. [[User:Cornarias|Cornarias]] ([[User talk:Cornarias|talk]]) 13:49, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::Fourthed. And changed to 'Harry'. Should we add a tag as well? [[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 14:33, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::That would probably have to go through due process via [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals]], but it should go through quickly enough, given how often Harry appears. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u><font color="purple" title="I want you">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><font color="indigo" size="4px">²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:42, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::::Ah, now I get it, hehe – Harry–Hairy! (Are those two pronounced exactly the same, or just similarly?) –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 18:10, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::::I think he should be called "Hairy", not Harry: attributing a random real name to a character that the author himself didn't choose (like [[Megan]] or [[Mrs. Roberts]]) is likely to bring up issues, whereas calling him in a way that simply reflects how he's drawn (like [[Cueball]], [[Black Hat]], [[Ponytail]] and all the rest) just goes in direct line with what is done in the source; and it's self-explanatory in the description, it does not require the reader to be accustomed to the habits of this wiki (currently, reading "Harry" out of nowhere is quite uncanny). So, since it works pretty well here, let's call him Hairy. - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 19:30, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::::::Agreed. Let's wait for the name to go through before messing with the edits further. [[User:Cornarias|Cornarias]] ([[User talk:Cornarias|talk]]) 21:41, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::::::::See [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#New character]]. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u><font color="purple" title="I want you">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><font color="indigo" size="4px">²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:11, 26 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Beret Guy is right, a day of Pickup Art sounds like a lot of fun. Everybody pack their sketchbooks, pastels and watercolours, wander around town till they find interesting vignettes or vistas, everyone sketch and paint without showing each other till picnic time. At PT, all pull out their packed lunches and eat and enjoy each other's efforts. He'll, this sounds 1000% better than almost every pub outing I have ever had.[[Special:Contributions/24.79.11.46|24.79.11.46]] 13:00, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:We could combine it with Geohashing. [[User:Curtmack|Curtmack]] ([[User talk:Curtmack|talk]]) 20:26, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Too bad this comic appeared in winter, not summer (in the US at least). We could make Feb 25th "Pickup Art Day" with a pickup art meet at that day's geohash. It might not catch on if it's too cold, though. --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 22:09, 25 February 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::I've always found the cold months to be more inspiring. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 02:54, 26 February 2013 (UTC)</div>76.106.251.87