1817: Incognito Mode
| Incognito Mode |
 Title text: They're really the worst tech support team. And their solutions are always the same. "This OS X update broke something." "LET'S INFILTRATE APPLE BY MORPHING APPLES!" |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Is it Blondie, just with more details to her hair? What is OS X? Examples of web pages that needs cookies to work properly (or at all), pages that many people like to use and wold be annoyed if they did not work due to getting stuck in incognito mode If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
A woman (maybe a different version of Blondie) warns Cueball about not browsing for more than two hours in incognito mode as he might get stuck there forever.
The caption explains that tech tips from Animorphs are the worst, i.e. the woman is an Animorph, and this was not good advice.
Animorphs is a book series by K. A. Applegate featuring several children who have a special power: they can morph into various animals whose DNA they have absorbed through alien technology. However, if they stay morphed for over two hours, they will get stuck in that form until they die.
In this comic Randall pokes fun at this by relating it to surfing in incognito mode/privacy mode in a browser. This mode is used for browsing the internet without storing cookies or browsing information. If you really did end up permanently in incognito mode by using it for more than two hours many would be trapped by now. The question is if getting trapped in that mode forever is a bad thing. But there are lots of pages that will not work properly without cookies.
It is unknown if this hypothetically "being trapped in incognito mode" would extend to real life. But if it did, then perhaps people would be unable to identify you and your interactions would leave no memories behind after you went away. An inverse kind of amnesia, where it is just you no one can remember.
The title text continues the idea that an Animorph tech support team would be the worst possible explaining that their solutions are always the same. And then it gives and example which references a common occurrence in the Animorphs book series wherein the protagonists uses their ability to morph into animals to infiltrate enemy strongholds. In the example it is an update for Apple's OS X that broke something. The solution is to infiltrate Apple by morphing apples. That advise, however, is nonsensical within the rules for morphing, put forth in the books, since the children can only turn into animals and not into fruits like apples.
Animorphs has been referenced before, first only in the title texts of 1187: Aspect Ratio and 1360: Old Files, and then later in the main comic in 1380: Manual for Civilization, with the books being the actual manual...
Transcript
- [A woman with long blonde hair (maybe a version of Blondie) holds both arms up as she addresses Cueball who is sitting in an office chair working on his laptop.]
- Woman: ...But remember—if you browse in incognito mode for more than two hours, you'll be trapped there forever!
- [Caption below the panel:]
- Animorphs tech tips
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refresh comments!Discussion
Is this a new female character? 108.162.245.76 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- I think it is just Blondie. She also has similar details in 495: Secretary: Part 2 and 752: Phobia. Blondie is a generic character that has long blonde hair, which fits the bill. --Kynde (talk) 16:03, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
- Given that the title text references animorphs giving bad tech support, and that one of the animorphs is a young blonde woman, it's entirely possible that the female character is Rachel. GreatWyrmGold (talk) 22:32, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
This may be related to several news reports regarding an easter egg found in incognito mode (where a "wink" ;) emoticon shows in the "tab count" field if you have more than 100 tabs open - many news sites (independent, daily telegraph) are suggesting that this is google showing that they know their incognito mode is used to look at pornography (100+ tabs of it apparently!) Cprobertson1 (talk) 14:32, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
- Did you just find the solution of how to end a parenthetical statement with an emoticon!? 541: TED Talk 625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8 (talk) 14:48, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
Am I the only one who primarily uses Incognito mode for browsing, even on my personal computer and mobile device? I just don't want other people "accidentally" logging into my accounts if they borrow my device "just to check an email." Nialpxe (talk) 14:48, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
- Not the only one. But one could basically say you are trapped in it forever... 15:01, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
I have a habit of checking xkcd every few minutes to see if there is something new. I found this one after spending about 2 hours reading up on superheroes on incognito mode. (Because of that, this was one of the funniest ones so far for me! :)
United States legislation
It may be fair to mention this piece of legislation that has practically passed: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/for-sale-your-private-browsing-history/ 162.158.246.82 19:54, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
- Incognito mode does not save you from that. It only affects what data remains on your machine while that bill regulates what your ISP can do with the information they extract from the data you send over the wire. With HTTPS they can at least only see which servers you communicate with but that can be bad enough. The only way around that is to use a VPN (which wraps all communication in a secure channel to the VPN provider's server) but then you have to trust the VPN provider (and possibly their ISP) not to sell your data.--162.158.89.103 11:22, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
- What I wanted to imply was a) with traffic from different VPN users using the same endpoint it's way harder to link individual connections to a specific user (especially with HTTPS when you can't rely on any request or response data) and b) you should always choose an endpoint in a country where ISPs can't legally sell that information. That way it's more important that you can trust your VPN provider than their ISP. Onion routing such as TOR can help with that but it has some disadvantages as well (especially speed and complexity). But in general you're right.--162.158.89.247 21:38, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
- I got that impression too, that it's on Randall's mind, but I'm actually against adding such trivia unless the comic spells out the issue itself. (Also I'm personally just relieved that all the big ISPs came out and said "we didn't sell your data like that in the past and we're not about to do it now") 172.68.142.197 02:52, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Wonder if today's comic (2017-03-31) will be the April fools' comic of 2017, or if there will be an extra comic tomorrow - Saturday, or if today's comic won't even come out until tomorrow, to be released on April 1st, or if Randall will just skip it this year, as it is not a release day this year, after all the troubles he had with releasing Garden too late last year...? I hope there will be one, because the last three years folls' comics have been great :-) --Kynde (talk) 10:39, 31 March 2017 (UTC)
The paragraph of explanation on Google Chrome's Incognito Mode used to mention "people standing behind you", so I thought this was funny before I read the text when I had read just the title and seen the picture. Is it worth mentioning something to this effect in the explanation? There is an extra pun in the image because the speaker is standing behind the browser, I guess that could be the source of the initial ellipsis. 108.162.241.100 12:44, 2 April 2017 (UTC)
I'll use an anonymous search engine within an incognito session to view sites via proxy, so I feel pretty secure. Hang on, someone's knocking at the door. These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 00:06, 9 April 2017 (UTC)
