1350: Lorenz

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Lorenz
Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story
Title text: Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story


Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Should the image not just be the first frame wit four of the most common options. This image now gives way too much credit to the politican line of the story - which is less than a fifth of the total... Also all possible dialogues are not yet accounted for (and may never be?)
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Images

For the images that appear in this comic, see 1350: Lorenz/Images.

Explanation

This is a dynamic comic with crowd-sourced content. In honor of April Fools' Day the comic was posted a day early, on Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday.

The title 'Lorenz' is referring to Edward Norton Lorenz who among other subjects was famous for Chaos theory. The title is a reference to that the story line of today's comic will include most (all?) of the user submitted dialogue and hence will in nature be chaotic. In addition, the title text, "Every choice, no matter how small", is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.

This comic is an example of a Choose Your Own Adventure story.

Functionality and bugs

The reader is initially presented with only one panel where Knit Cap Guy is sitting in front of his computer. The reader is given multiple choices concerning what exactly Knit Cap Guy is thinking. Upon choosing any option, a second panel appears, to give continuity to the story. Each new panel may have a new set of options or just the button "Continue" to see the next panel without making any choice in particular. Eventually, one may reach a dead end in which the story is interrupted and reader is presented with a text box to suggest how it should continue. Some of the suggestions given should eventually become available as new options.

It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog is submitted. The dialogue options are likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over day based on which choices are clicked most using A/B measurement techniques.. This will mean that the most popular choices for dialogue line will prevail as the statistics build up. In some cases, dialogue line options do not depend on the continuity of the storyline followed, suggesting that some parts of the story are planned. For example, do several of the storylines involve one of the two main characters waking up and for instance telling the other character, “I had the strangest dream…” or even reliving the dream again. This may be due to common submissions across storylines as well.

Normally, there is a total of 4 options to make: a/b/c/d. Their order changes constantly. Sometimes, there are 3 or fewer options, with the text box to suggest an alternative option. Sometimes, a given panel actually has 5 or more available options, although even in this case only 4 options appear at a time. Refreshing the comic changes randomly which of the available options are visible and which are hidden. As of April 2nd 2014, the existence of 5 or more options seems to occur only in a few rare cases, including the first panel itself.

The last panel always has a "permalink" option which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader -- so for example http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:26c8dcea-b9aa-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd will take you to a particular place in the selected choices.

Cookies are required to see this page properly. Without cookies, the next panel will not render.

If you do not have Javascript enabled or visiting the mobile version of the site, you re shown the previous page's comic. Said comic is visible before Javascript activates.

Buttons

Instead of clicking with the mouse you can move more quickly through the panels using the keyboard:

  • Up/Down - navigate options
  • Enter/Right - choose option after navigating with Up/Down
  • Left - go back one panel
  • a/b/c/d - choose any option directly

Bugs

There seems to be a bug, where xkcd.com (http and https) are the only functioning URLs that display this comic. The URLs www.xkcd.org and m.xkcd.com, don't seem to work, instead displaying the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard

As of April 3rd 2014, sometimes an option seemed to disappear completely, cutting off the all the branches of the story it might lead to. When the comic was first published, "Refresh... No new email... Refresh .. No new tweets... Refresh..." was available as one option of the first panel, but not only it became unavailable temporarily, permalinks to it (http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39) ceased to work. This option has since been fixed. However, permalinks to "These stupid tiles... i'll just play one more game." (with a lowercase "i'll") are broken, too, at the moment. (permalink)

Themes

Miscellaneous

Name + Example image Description
Arguing
lorenz - discuss.png 		The two characters argue with each other
Boomerang
lorenz - boomerang 1.png 		The lone character finds a boomerang on the ground and throws it. The story ends with the boomerang crashing into something off panel, the space rocket from another story branch getting hit, the character getting hit in the face with the boomerang rebound, or the character putting the boomerang down on the ground.
Computer problems
lorenz - laptop 1.png 		The laptop has an unspecified problem. The two characters attempt to fix it. The story either ends with the two randomly floating in the ocean (with or without circling sharks) or with the laptop being melted using a blowtorch (a reference to the previous day's strip, 1349).
Debate
lorenz - debate 1.png 		Knit Cap Guy uses his laptop to watch a debate online between the Politician 1 (on the left) and the Politician 2 (Cueball, on the right), the subject and the actual conversation of which varies according to the storyline. Eventually, they fight each other, the Politician 2 using a lightsaber and the Politician 1 using his bare fists. Subjects debated:
  • Politician 1 questions Politician 2's project of tying multiple birds to a car as fuel replacement, which would require some method to make the birds take off in unison. The solutions mentioned are opening and closing an umbrella near them, using a predatory bird to the car to scare them, putting resources in the hands of bird educators for the purpose of training them and employing fiscal hawks. If the Politician 1 points out some problem with the reasoning, often the solution proposed by the Politician 2 would be doing the same in a larger scale. In the end, Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy and points out something happening near involving birds as a direct result of Politician 2's project.
Dinosaur interruption
lorenz - dinosaur 1.png 		A green T-rex interrupts the story and proceeds to stamp on the house the main characters are in. (These are frames borrowed from Dinosaur Comics, a clip-art-based webcomic that uses the same artwork with different captions for every strip.)
Dreams
lorenz - wake up 1.png 		Sometimes, Knit Cap Guy or Hairy find themselves waking from a dream, suggesting that all prior events were just part of they dreaming. Often, in the storylines they fall in the big hole outside Knit Cap Guy's house, they wake up from a dream. Knit Cap Guy also wakes up after watching the debate, in some storylines. Often, the dream loops upon itself, as the characters wake up multiple times in the same storyline
Space planet
lorenz - rocket 21.png 		Eventually the space rocket meets a guy on a very tiny planet. (The Little Prince)
Space rocket
lorenz - rocket 1.png 		There is a rocket on the ground just outside of the building. The rocket either explodes (with a screenshot from Kerbal Space Program), fails to launch or goes off into space.
Relativistic encounter
lorenz - rocket 16.png 		The space rocket meets another space rocket that asks a question about relativity. The other space rocket will shoot and destroy the main rocket if the question isn't answered satisfactory. Otherwise the two rockets fly past each other.
Salesman
lorenz - sale 1.png 		Hairy meets White Hat, a salesman with a small stand.
Thinking
lorenz - thinking.png 		One of the characters take a panel or two to think about something.

Geography

Name + Example image Description
Hole in the ground
lorenz - gap.png 		Hairy spots a hole in the ground and leans over it to make a comment
Huge hole on the lawn
lorenz - hole.png 		There is a huge hole in the ground just outside of the building. The two characters always end up falling into it and awakening from a dream.
Tree
lorenz - tree.png 		The characters walk past a tree.

Literature

Name + Example image Description
LORT
The Little Prince Eventually, if the rocket is not destroyed, it may pass by the asteroid of The Little Prince and they have a quick conversation.

Movies

Name + Example image Description
Frozen In one storyline, Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy and asks him "Wanna build a snowman?", a line from the movie. Possible answers also come from the movie, such as "It doesn't have to be a snowman..."
Matrix In one storyline, Hairy remarks that the gap in the ground is like a glitch in the matrix.

Video games

Name + Example image Description
2048 A number of storylines begin because Knit Cap Guy is playing 2048 on his computer. Often, Hairy invites him to go outside to do something related to the game, such as hunting for tiles somewhere.
Mario In the dialogue, Hairy asks Knit Cap Guy "Is this 1-1 from Mario?" upon seeing the gap in the ground. In the platform game Super Mario Bros. for NES, the levels are numbered 1-1, 1-2 and so on. In one branch, he says "Actually, it's the final castle. Grab your Fire Flower!"
Pokémon
lorenz - pikachu theft.png 		Some of the storylines involve Pokémon battles featuring Pikachu, a very popular Pokémon. The battles are drawn in the style of the video games. (A trainer in the left-bottom corner facing the foe in the right-top corner, with a narration box below the scene and the trainer's Pokéballs visible, although some elements are missing, such as the level, gender and HP bar.)

Pikachu uses a number of different moves, though these are mostly made up and are not from the Pokémon games. Pikachu's moves are almost invariably remarked by the narrator as "It's not very effective...", but "It's super effective!" is also possible to appear. In the video games, a move is "not very effective" when the opponent's type resists the attacking move's type and "super effective" when the opponent's type is weak to the attacking move's type. Normally after a few failed attempts, there is an uncomfortable silence as the Pikachu says "Um..." and Knit Cap Guy and Hairy walk away. Pikachu is left in the grass and has time to make his final remarks as the two leave him. Rarely, a suggested move knocks Pikachu out.

One narration line is "Where's Twitch when I need help?", a reference to Twitch Plays Pokémon which was also covered by comic 1333: First Date.

Another narration line is: "Google Maps didn't warn me of this.", a reference to Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge.

Pikachu's moves:

  • Abandonment - Pikachu disappears completely.
  • Anguish - Pikachu is sad.
  • Ant Colony - Pikachu is covered in ants.
  • Cute Face
  • Crowdsource
  • The Discrete Metric
  • Ethylene Dichloride - Nothing seems to happen, but Ethylene Dichloride is a toxic chemical, so there may be future consequences for the characters.
  • Extrude - Pikachu's head moves away from his body as his neck becomes long and malleable.
  • Faceless - Pikachu's face disappears.
  • Friendship - Pikachu is on Knit Cap Guy's head, signifying they are now friends. Friendship, though not a move, is a game mechanic in the video games.
  • Granite - Pikachu is atop a block of granite.
  • Graph Theory
  • Ink Cloud - Pikachu is covered in ink. In the storyline Pikachu uses it, there is the option to "gather" the ink.
  • Radicality - Pikachu is on a skateboard.
  • Struggle - In one storyline, after Pikachu uses a number of moves, it says: "Now I only have Struggle left. Tie?" In the Pokémon games, when a Pokémon runs out of PP (Power Points, the energy required to use each of its moves) for all its moves, it may only use Struggle, a weak move, indefinitely reusable, that harms not only the opponent but the user as well.
  • Theft - Pikachu wears Knit Cap Guy's hat. Pikachu seems to be using "Thief", a similarly-named actual move from the games, that is used to steal the foe's item and use it as its own.
  • Uplift - Pikachu's head goes upward, separated from its body, showing a long, thick cable still connecting the head and the body.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[An accurate transcript will be impossible to create because the comic changes over time..]

There are many options. Not everyone will see the same options. We are trying to capture as many options as possible in the transcript below. The order and options has changed since the transcripter captured the dialogue....The dialogue is likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using A/B measurement techniques..

Often, when a panel is without any choices to make, there is only the option "Continue" to see the next panel.

1st Pane: (permalink)
Knit Cap Guy:

  • Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh...
  • These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game.
  • These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game. [There are two completely separate branches with this same text. In one of them, it's written "i'll" in lowercase rather than "I'll".]
  • Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on.
  • Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays.
  • Gravity. Lots of it.
  • Hurry! We're in talks with facebook.
2nd Pane: Refresh Branch (permalink)
Hairy:
  • So you're still refusing to use Facebook?
  • Wanna build a snowman?
  • Hey. I hear Godot is in town. Wanna try to meet him?
  • You know. Your car's on fire.
2nd Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch (permalink)
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy.]
Hairy:
  • There's something weird out on the lawn.
  • There's a dinosaur at the door.
  • I heard Home Depot has 1024 bathroom tiles.
  • I think I saw a "4096" tile outside somewhere.
3rd Pane: Something Weird Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • This is an apartment. We don't have a lawn.
  • I have a lawn?
  • I hope it's not a bobcat this time.
  • If you reprogrammed the squirrel laser to target hipsters again...
4th-5th Panes: Apartment Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy leave the house. They pass by a moat.]
Hairy:
  • OK, two weird things.
  • I can see a creeper down there.
  • Is this 1-1 from Mario?
  • See? It's like a glitch in the Matrix.
  • This isn't where I left that...
6th Pane: Two Weird Things Branch
Hairy:
  • I count three.
  • Why is there a gap here?
  • Who tiled the moat?
6th Pane: Creeper Branch
Knit Cap Guy: Damn Griefers.
6th Pane: Mario Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy pass by a tree.]
Hairy:
  • Why does that tree looks fake?
  • Actually, it's the final castle. Grab your Fire Flower!
  • It's over this way.
  • I've never been this far before!
7th-11th Panes: Fake Tree Branch
Narrator: A wild Pikachu appeared!
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Theft"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: ...
Pikachu: Um...
7th Pane: Never This Far Branch
Hairy: Are you going insane again?
6th Pane: Matrix Glitch Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • How far can we go?
  • What the fuck?!
  • How... How do we get everything back?
4th-5th Panes: Lawn Question Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy leave the house. They pass by a moat.]
Hairy:
  • Hmmm, did you order a moat?
  • I don't remember this being here.
  • Look how deep it goes!
  • It looks like I can see Moria from here.
6th Pane: Order Moat Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • It helps keep bobcats out.
  • Of course. All cool kids have moats in their yards.
  • I don't have the best rerlationship with my mailman.
  • Yep. Delivered in two days, courtesy of Amazon Prime.
6th Pane: Don't Remember Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • It has begun! That's one of the first holes in reality.
  • I wanted to jump over the massive sinkhole, but nooo, someone just had to find out what was down there.
  • Oh, I had the moving company install it last week.
  • We poop in it.
  • Finally got you out of the damn house.
7th Pane: Hole in Reality Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • I've been working on a theory that 2048 is a tool for the old ones to open up portals to this reality.
  • What about black holes? Those don't count?
  • We must go deeper.
7th-13th Panes: Damn House Branch
Narrator: A wild Pikachu appeared!
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Ink Cloud"!
Narrator: ...
Pikachu: Um...
Pikachu: Well then.
Pikachu: I might have left surprises in that direction.
6th Pane: Look How Deep Branch
Hairy:
  • I wonder if we can get someone to fall in?
  • I'm going in. You can come if you want to. I think I see stars down there.
  • That was a missing opportunity.
  • I should come outside more often.
6th Pane: Moria Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • You see Moria from everywhere, Hairy.
  • Yeah, who did you think gave them a balrog?
  • Moria is an anagram of Mario!
7th-10th Panes: Moria Everywhere Branch
Narrator: A wild Pikachu appeared!
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Ink Cloud"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator:
  • Google Maps didn't warn me of this.
  • Enemy Pikachu used "The Discrete Metric"!
  • Gathered the ink!
11th-21th Panes: Google Maps Branch
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Uplift!"
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Cute Face!"
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Faceless"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Where's Twitch when I need help?
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Abandonment"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
11th-15th Panes: Discrete Metric Branch
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Extrude"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: ...
Pikachu: Um...
Pikachu:
  • Now I only have Struggle left. Tie?
  • We are the knights who say Ni!
  • What is even going on here?
16th Pane: Struggle Branch
Pikachu: No fair!
11th-13th Panes: Gathered Ink Branch
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Granite"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
7th-10th Panes: Balrog Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • One does not simple "give" a balrog.
  • What? You weren't using it!
  • Gift-wrapping's the hardest part.
7th Pane: Anagram Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy pass by a tree.]
Hairy: Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall.
4th-12th Panes: Bobcat Branch
[A giant hole appears and they fall into it.]
Knit Cap Guy and Hairy: Aaaaa...
[Knit Cap Guy wakes up.]
Knit Cap Guy: Gasp [Goes to his desk.]
Knit Cap Guy: Yawn [Sits at his desk.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Might as well clear more tiles.
  • Definitely not going outside today.
  • Thank God it wasn't a bobcat.
  • Hmmm... I should buy a shovel.
13th Pane: Clear More Tiles Branch
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy again.]
Hairy:
  • Um, there's a hole in your lawn...
  • There's someone at the door looking for you.
  • I made an apple pie.
  • If you want to do that, I'm rebuilding my bathroom this afternoon.
14th Pane: Hole in the Lawn Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • If it doesn't lead to a 1024 tile, I'm leaving.
  • Damn bobcats.
  • I just had a dream about that.
15th-16th Panes: Damn Bobcats Branch
Hairy:
  • Well it was here...
  • I don't think it was bobcats this time. Unless they have backshoes...
15th-22th Panes: Dream Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside again and fall in the hole again~.]
Knit Cap Guy and Hairy: Aaaaa...
[Knit Cap Guy wakes up, leaves the bed and finds a boomerang.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • It looks like is [sic] fell from space.
  • I hope this isn't just another one of those dreams that keeps coming back at you.
  • I hope this was not thrown by a bobcat.
23th-26th Panes: Space Branch
[Knit Cap Guy throwns the boomerang away and it hits something.]
Crash!
[Knit Cap Guy runs away.]
23th-34th Panes: Coming Back Branch
[Knit Cap Guy throws the boomerang twice, only for it to return to him both times.]
Knit Cap Guy: Hm. I was expecting a shark.
[Knit Cap Guy throwns the boomerang again, and it returns to him again.]
23th-30th Panes: Thrown by Bobcat Branch
[Knit Cap Guy throws the boomerang, only for it to return to him .]
Knit Cap Guy: There's a mesage written on it.
[Knit Cap Guy throws the boomerang again. It hits something.]
Crash!
[Knit Cap Guy runs away.]
13th Pane: Thank God Branch
Hairy:
  • You just got a package. It's by the door.
  • Why is there a bobcat on your lawn?
  • There's somewhere [sic] weird out on the lawn.
  • Hey do you know why there's a giant hole in the yard?
14th Pane: Something Weird Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • This seems familiar.
  • Hold up. I need to get my wingsuit first.
  • I hope it's not a giant hole.
  • I have a bad feeling about this.
15th-18th Pane: Familiar Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside.]
Knit Cap Guy: I hope it's not a velociraptor.
15th-18th Pane: Hope Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside. They pass by a tree.]
Hairy: How disappointed are you?
Knit Cap Guy:
  • I was expecting a bobcat.
  • Oh? That's the other tree.
  • Eh, not that much.
14th-16th Panes: Do You Know Why Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside.]
Knit Cap Guy: I swear if it's a bobcat.
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Why did you bring me here?
  • This dream has been looping for years, and yet we never tire of it. Why is that?
17th Pane: Dream Loop Branch
[There is a gap in the ground. Knit Cap Guy jumps over it, Hairy looks into it.]
13th-14th Panes: Buy Shovel Branch
[Knit Cap Guy looks at his screen wondering.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Wow! Shovels sure are expensive!
  • Shovels can't be actually made out of two sticks and a row of rocks?
  • How can there be 36 types of shovel??!
  • These prices are insane! I wonder if you can rent a shovel...
15th-18th Panes: Sticks and Rocks Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is wondering more. Hairy comes. They connect their laptops. Hairy is wondering. Knit Cap Guy tries something at Hairy's laptop.]
4th-5th Panes: Squirrel Laser Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Let's just say we won't have to worry about parking.
  • No, now they're just wearing wigs ironically.
  • Things may have gotten out of control a little.
  • At least it improved their haircuts.
3rd Pane: Bathroom Tiles Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • But how many bathrooms?
  • That's 2^5 more than Ikea, I need to see for myself.
  • Let's go, I can keep playing on my phone on the drive.
  • Pfft. Amateurs. Let's go mock them.
3rd Pane: Dinosaur Branch
T-Rex:
  • Self-doubt crippled my arms. Can I have yours?
  • I need a hand!
  • Did you think he was joking?
  • Sorry for just barging in, I couldn't reach the doorbell.
4th Pane: Crippled Arms Branch
T-Rex:
  • Never answer your mobile phone while I am addressing you!
  • Also, have you heard about Tumblr?
  • Also I have some trenchant observations on language and philosophy to make.
  • It's not like you're using them.
5th Pane: Mobile Phone Branch
[T-Rex is going to step on a house.]
T-Rex:
  • I think you just entered a dead zone.
  • Kids these days.
  • Die you monster.
6th Pane: Dead Zone Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream, goes outside and finds a boomerang.]
6th Pane: Kids These Days Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream, and goes back to his computer.]
6th Pane: Die You Monster Branch
[Hairy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream, and starts singing.]
Hairy: [Singing] I woke up like this.
5th-11th Panes: Language and Philosophy Branch
[T-Rex is going to step on a house.]
  • T-Rex: Also, your brain is like this house.
[Knit Cap Guy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream and goes back to his computer.]
2nd Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch ([1])
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy.]
Hairy:
  • What's with those tiny games you keep playing, anyway?
  • Isn't that sort of meaningless?
  • Up for a dangerous experiment with no pay?
  • You won't believe what just fell off of your roof.
2nd-3rd Panes: Political Thing Branch
Laptop: "...and let's go live to the debate."
[Two politicians are debating on TV.]
Politician 1:
  • In contrast to my oppponent, who I quote, "Never liked Firefly much to begin with."
  • ...but even if you tied enough birds to the car, would you get them to take off in unison?
  • And if elected, I vow to win this war on Christmas once and for all!
  • I agree with my opponent all all [sic] issues and I think his economic plan is fantastic!
4th Pane: Tied Birds Branch
Politician 2:
  • Tie a predatory bird to the car with a somewhat shorter rope so that it will scare off the rest of the birds without being able to reach them.
  • Training. That's why I support the "Airlift Act", which would put more resources into the hands of bird educators everywhere.
  • By opening and closing an umbrella near them.
  • One word: Fiscal hawks.
5th Pane: Airlift Act Branch
Politician 1:
  • But is "Airlift" an acronym?
  • But you must agree that a bitd in the hand is worth more than three educators in the bush.
  • Incredible!
  • Wait... Is that like people who educate birds, or birds that teach?
6th Pane: Airlift an Acronym
Hairy:
  • There are birds outside tied to a car.
  • The owls in our barn are forming a union.
  • Or course: Avian Implemented Reuseable Lifter and Ingenuous Flight Technology!
7th Pane: Car Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Cool, let's see who we should vote for.
  • I know who I'm voting for.
  • How many birds?
8th-9th Panes: How Many Branch
Hairy:
  • I call her "Serenity."
  • So when you said birds...
10th-13th Panes: You Said Birds Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Wait. The birds are inside!?
  • I needed to escape from politics anyway.
14th-19th Panes: Birds Inside Branch
White Hat: Want to forget your dreams? There's a pill for that!
2nd-3rd Panes: BSD Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is confused, staring at his laptop.]
Knit Cap Guy: ??
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Now I just need to look up what a "beard error" is...
  • Wait. What's on this other partition?
  • Why is Python importing Skynet?
  • My keyboard has to support SSH over USB?
4th-7th Panes: Beard Error Branch
[Knit Cap Guy has ?? next to his head to signify confusion. Hairy walks in. (continue) Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. Hairy had stepped back while the character is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. The character is holding something rectangular.]
Hairy:
  • The USB cable appears to be mono-directional.
  • Kernel mites?
  • I'm not sure rubbing butter on it will help
  • Yep. It's haunted.
8th-12th Panes: Rubbing Butter Branch
[Hairy and Knit Cap Guy are handling their computers more aggressively.]
Knit Cap Guy: ARGH!
[They both stop. Knit Cap Guy walks away, his chair turned 180 degrees. Pushing aside the chair, the character returns with a fiery blowtorch while wearing goggles.]
Hairy: [holding up a finger] Um.
[Knit Cap Guy's computer was so burned, not only steam is coming out of the computer, but even the desk is noticeably burnt. The cable (apparently also burned) hangs from Hairy's laptop computer. The used blowtorch is clumsily laid sideways be the side of the desk. Both Knit Cap Guy (whose goggles are pushed off his eye) and Hairy are looking at the calamity. The chair is almost out of view. The goggles are on the floor while the chair is nowhere to be seen. Hairy and Knit Cap Guy are walking away from the scene.]
Hairy:
  • Are you all of a sudden in the mood for Thai food?
  • Let's try OpenBSD next time...
  • If you'd done the other one, maybe the popcorn would have popped.
  • Let's see if rubbing some bacon on it will work.
  • Let's try Linux next time...
13th-14th Panes: OpenBSD Branch
[13th panel is of a panned view. Hairy and Knit Cap Guy are walking on a path away from a house.]
[14th panel is back to a "normal camera view".]
Hairy:
  • Okay then.
  • Let's go exploring!
  • I love Windows.
  • Guess not.
4th-7th Panes: Other Partition Branch
[Knit Cap Guy has ??? next to his head to signify confusion. Hairy walks in. Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. Hairy had stepped back while Knit Cap Guy is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. Knit Cap Guy is holding something rectangular.]
Hairy:
  • Maybe if you cross connect the serial port to video port you'll be able to send the video directly in as an input for the password
  • What's a segfault?
  • I think the cameras need to face each other.
  • I'm not sure spaghetti works as a USB cable...
8th Pane: Video Password Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy are at sea, both emitting ripples. A shark's fin can be seen close to Hairy.]
Hairy:
  • It worked fine for the shark
  • We're definitely getting closer though
  • That didn't work!
  • It would have worked for Solaris.
  • Look, it made perfect sense at the time.
  • Still simpler than it used to be, I guess.


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Discussion

During the first few weeks there were so much talk on this page, that it became too long. The solution was to remove the page from the explanation. But now almost no one makes any comment anymore. To help with this I will try to collapse all the original talk - last entry (mine) is already a month old. It will always be possible to see all the old comments by pressing the expand button to the far right. So feel free to comment below again - then someone might notice that there has been written something new again! Kynde (talk) 22:32, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Click to expand:

I've had the story loop back to the first frame, so it wouldn't surprise me if this could go on infinitely if it had the available dialogue options.

This is going to be a hell of a thing. Good luck... H (talk) 15:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

I think this is one of those times when the custom field might come in handy. Duplicating Randall's code seems like it might be difficult, and it might just be easier to link to the original page. Probably. Davidy²²[talk] 15:47, 1 April 2014 (UTC)b
I think it should just show a screenshot of the initial image and options 173.245.50.61 02:49, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

There's always new story lines, even when you think you've read them all, new ones appear to replace them. I don't think it'll ever be possible to record them all. 108.162.212.192 15:55, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

The text changes, but there are recurring themes with the panels. The rocket, the big hole, the little hole, Dinosaurcomics, pokemon, waking up, stranded swimming.........H (talk) 18:03, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

When I go to XKCD, all I see is the comic from Monday... weird. --Jeff (talk) 16:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Same here... and a lot of space below it. Z (talk) 17:43, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I think that happens when you have refreshed the page too many time -- kind of an anti spam for user submissions. I simply create an anonymous browser window and I got back to the real page once xkcd was not able to track me as a returning user. Spongebog (talk) 17:59, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Currently there appears to be a bug. Instead of the evolving, crowd-sourced comic, I just see an off-center copy of the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard. Screenshot here. UPDATE: it appears to be a bug in the XSRF-blocking code. Chrome console shows me the error "XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://c1.xkcd.com/graph/1/. The 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header has a value 'http://xkcd.com' that is not equal to the supplied origin. Origin 'http://www.xkcd.com' is therefore not allowed access." FURTHER UPDATE: you can work around this bug by going to http://xkcd.com instead of http://www.xkcd.com! It also doesn't work if you have HTTPS Everywhere enabled. 108.162.216.38 16:46, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

    • I can confirm this bug in Firefox. Weirdly, the work-around functioned one time for me, but now going to "xkcd.com" rather than "www.xkcd.com" just gives me a copy of 1349 as well. 199.27.130.180 17:40, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
The workaround didn't work for me, I still got monday's comic on either URL. (Chromium 36.0.1919.0 (260611), Mac OS 10.9.2) Z (talk) 17:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
Same here. Used IE and Firefox. Removed the "www." and haven't. (Never used https:// at all.) Tried InPrivate (and FF equivalent) browsers. Gone into the code and can't even fudge it manually from <div id="comic"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /> <script type="text/javascript">Bernardo.comic({el: $('#comic')}) </script></div>, and the rest, manually. (Indeed, that shows why I get 1349's "shouldn't be hard" image, by default.) Pity. 141.101.89.224 02:25, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
    • I only get a blank page with on the bottom a link to the comic 1349. Both on 2 firefoxes (different systems) and a chromium. so however wonderfull it might be, the delivery is less then stellar. 173.245.53.145 15:54, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

This comic introduced(?) a font of its own of Randalls comic type. I don't know if it has been sitting there for long, but I just noticed it: http://xkcd.com/fonts/xkcd-Regular.eot -- phiarc 108.162.219.12 17:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Is it the same as was used in Externalities? H (talk) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Does everyone have these options in some order for the first tile?

  • Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...
  • These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game
  • Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Politicial Thing Going On.
  • Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays

--Jeff (talk) 17:54, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:0cd52ed0-bb15-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd There's a frame with Chinese in it! 141.101.99.118 18:06, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

If so, we can begin to build a map of at least the first set of options before the crowd-sourced ones. --Jeff (talk) 17:56, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
Yes, though the second-tier options have changed H (talk) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
The first level options may be constant (Im seeing the same as Jeff), but I suspect that the following options is based on some sort of ckick though statitics / machine learning -- which means that the will continue to change until Randall closes off the 'voting' -- if 1193: Externalities is anything to go by that should be within the next 24-48 hours, at which point automating the collection of story lines may be possible. Spongebog (talk) 18:11, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I'm going to transcript some of what I get at least through the first few levels and then we can start with a list of options for those who don't want to go through them all. --Jeff (talk) 18:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I have no idea how one would do this, but it would be cool to render the transcript as a tree of some sort; having one vertical list will be hard to follow for more than a few decisions. 199.27.130.180 00:14, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
New initial option! I just got "Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook." In place of the "refresh" option. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b330d48-bb01-11e3-8003-002590d77bdd --108.162.242.8 23:15, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Ohh, this comic is buggy and the link here at the top gives just the page from Monday, showing errors on debuggers. But removing the WWW from URL helps. Further more I can't see that the result of the choices is dynamic. So let's prove this. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:33, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Have a look at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2b/lorenz_combination1.png and http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9a/lorenz_combination2.png and you can see the option orders are changing -- this is a typical artifact of A/B testing where randomization of options is needed to avoid selection bias. I have futher observed "your car is on fire" instead of the "dinosaur" option, hence not only the orders are channging but the content as well -- maybe somebody else can capture this. Spongebog (talk) 22:08, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

How are new dialogue suggestions approved? Are they random, by popular vote (unlikely, not very many people would suggest the same thing), or is Randall approving them one by one? Z (talk) 20:26, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

They may not need to be explicitly approved at all -- one of the beutiful things about click though measures is that the public votes for what is good by clicking -- this is also a factor in search ranking by your favorite search engine where statistics are driving the entire show -- in a search engine some input to the statistical process comes from the web pages, but other comes from what people are actually clicking Spongebog (talk) 22:14, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

What is this a screenshot of? It's zoomed out so far. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5b5bd04e-b9d6-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd Haithere (talk) 20:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

you mean this : http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/Rl92nFEWd9huvXABNkHKHg.png ? Spongebog (talk) 22:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
It appears to be a screen shot from a flight simulator program of some sort, however im not able to tell which, and since it is most likely an 'in-game' screen short we will never find out unless somebody else is playing this precises flight simulator program Spongebog (talk) 22:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I am not certain, but I strongly suspect that is Kerbal Space Program 108.162.242.111 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
it really is Kerbal Space Program, or KSP for short 108.162.219.65 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
found this image from KSP http://i.imgur.com/UofvQ.png Spongebog (talk) 09:07, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

A transcript is going to be futile. It appears as though the comic may go on indefinitely (I've definitely had some branches continue extending until I've seen frames that were present in other branches). I suspect what's happening here is that... options are "suggested", and those suggestions are displayed at random to people. The ones with the most clickthroughs begin to appear more often, until eventually the top 4 are "locked in" and no more suggestions can be made. Very creative! But I'm not convinced that Randall is making frames in near-real-time, nor am I even convinced he's part of the approval process at all. I suspect it's all automated. 108.162.215.28 00:29, 2 April 2014 (UTC)


It seems it is possible to have the same option appear twice in the first panel. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 --173.245.54.48 10:27, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

They are not the same options -- the text differes where one option has "I'll" with a captal I and the other option is 'i'll' with a lowercase I -- I guess some prankster submitted a very similar text and somehow that got included. The branching also differs for the two options. Spongebog (talk) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Is it still supposed to work or was it turned off? All I see is Monday comics ... and no errors in firebug console. Oh, wait, there is javascript error: Timestamp: 04/02/14 12:56:21 Error: TypeError: this.$lastPanel is null Source File: http://xkcd.com/1350/bernardo.min.js Line: 2 -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:03, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

It still works for me -- try to clear your cookies or use an anonymous window or go to xkcd.com (no www no https) or some of the other helpful suggestions on this page to overcome some of the buggy nature of this page. Spongebog (talk) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

tl;dr, but I applaud Randall's creativity. Added to the Colossal time sinks category. – tbc (talk) 13:15, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Has it restarted? It used to work just fine on my browser but now only the first panel is available, after clicking an option it said my suggestion has been submitted. Great when it works though, thanks Randal. Jet_proppeled_elephant108.162.219.35 14:53, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

It feels like there are a bunch of "dead-end panels", that we never really get past. One example the "bright background" strip, in which we only see the shadows of the two characters. Nobody seems to care what happens after those. 108.162.245.8 18:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

I found a Dinosaur Comics reference, permalink: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:3d243960-b9b6-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd Has this been found before? 173.245.55.73 20:08, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have time to do it myself, but most of the space images from this path are not in the images page. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6490cc4a-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd Zweisteine (talk) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Ok, I'm gonna add those. Daniel Carrero (talk) 23:38, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Great! And now I found another: Pikachu uses Ethylene Dichloride. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6f59d766-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd I'll add it to the but about pikachu in the comic, but the pictures are up to someone else.Zweisteine (talk) 23:47, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Slightly different space path, in which the rocket expodes: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:dd99ea0e-ba04-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd Zweisteine (talk) 23:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Good. I've finished adding all images that you mentioned. Also, the two last images of the slightly different space path were not in the images page, now I added them too. Daniel Carrero (talk) 00:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Pikachu died! Radicality failed -> Pikachu in shock! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5c565bf2-ba05-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:33, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Pikachu uses Graph Theory. How is that not effective?! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:52f2389c-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:47, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Pikachu uses Ant Colony. Uwah... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b707ed6-ba97-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:02, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
1 shark instead of 3. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9ba111ee-ba96-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
0 sharks. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:e0e4d984-baaf-11e3-8026-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:17, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
I'm gonna add those too. Daniel Carrero (talk) 12:41, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Are there any panels that have two speech bubbles that are not dead ends? It seems that there are never any options for the second bubble, and sometimes the first bubble has options that would fit in the second bubble after the other options for the first bubble. Maybe submissions for the second bubble accidentally end up in the first instead? Another bug? Zweisteine (talk) 23:56, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

There's a change for us still-bugged people (well, me at least). The "show previous comic" part is gone. It shows a blank area (instead of Comic 1349 and a blank area of the same size) and the page-source shows that the <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /> part has now been excised from the page. That's on Javascript-enabled, cookie-enabled Firefox and IE browsers, and every valid URL configuration one can think of (including shift-refreshing to force redownloading, just in case it was page-cache issues as well). I'll update the Bugs section of the explanation page with a summary of that, if you don't mind. 141.101.88.211 01:48, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


We need some place to discuss certain issues. I give it a shot below Kynde (talk) 21:10, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Transcipt discussion
Design
  • What about four transcripts - one for each of the four first original choices?
  • Should these transcripts be on a separate page? It becomes tedious to scroll to the discussion page...Kynde (talk) 21:13, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Could we use the hide option so you only see the options from the first panel. Then you unhide to see the next panel etc. This would be a little like the comic and would make it much easier to read and it would not be such a long page! Kynde (talk) 10:35, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
    I'm working on the hide option. Daniel Carrero (talk) 15:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
    I now implemented the hide option. It looks good! in my opinion. It should be easy to edit. It would be too much work to convert the whole thing to the collapsible version so, sorry but I just removed the whole thing and started from the very beginning. This[2] is the link to the old version, in case anyone wants to help converting it to the collapsible version. Daniel Carrero (talk) 16:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
I did the same for trivia with a separate page for the old version that can be expanded if anyone wishes. And all the work is not lost. I have linked to it from trivia but it is here: 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. Kynde (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
  • How will the transcript work for when two characters speak? Those cases do exist; they're not all bugged. For example, in the "OpenBSD Branch", "Why not haiku?" and "Let's go exploring!" have further responses. --199.27.128.63 06:31, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Characters
  • Where does the name Dave come from for the hairy guy who comes in after the first panel? I can see it once in the transcript - but it is said by White hat the sales guy. I'm not sure it is his name and the chatagory for hairy is assigned to the comic! Kynde (talk) 21:16, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Hat guy? Is it a hat? Is there not a better English word for the type of "hat" worn by the main character from the first panel? It is not a hat like white or black hat! Kynde (talk) 21:18, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
    • I named him Hat Guy originally to make things easier. Feel free to change the name, I guess :) Knit Cap Guy, maybe? If a change is warranted, a simple search-and-replace should do it. Also, I'm not sure it's a guy or a girl... But the previous text was also treating him as male to begin with, anyway. Daniel Carrero (talk) 21:36, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Is the right politician = Cueball?
  • Who is the left? Kynde (talk) 21:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Isn't is likely that the characters only have names given to them by us readers in our suggestions? They don't necessarily have constant names. Zweisteine (talk) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Exactly my point. I think we should stick with hairy guy and maybe Knit Cap Guy! Kynde (talk) 10:28, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

I see you already changed Hat Guy to Knit Cap Guy and Dave to Hairy. Knit Cap Guy is a nice name. Originally, I would disagree with you and insist we should stick to Dave because that's what the character is called in one storyline of the strip itself, but I see he is also called Frank in other timeline. Since he has multiple names, using just Hairy is better in my opinion, too. Daniel Carrero (talk) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Knit Cap Guy is probably a Girl. Just sayin'. 173.245.52.28 12:22, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Probably! Originally I thought it was Megan with a knit cap on. Daniel Carrero (talk) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
It IS a girl! http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:1e4325a2-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd 173.245.48.66 21:44, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Well I think you are correct - that it is a girl. However you can NEVER use text in the comic to decide - because it is user created - I could have written the same line with guy instead of girl! Anyway - could someone change Knit Cap Guy to Knit Cap Girl? Kynde (talk) 10:04, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Can see it has been done - great Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
I've found a story where he/she is male! Thus contradicting the story above, where he/she is female, and proving that we really can't use text to determine the sex. Here we have "Beanie Man". http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b6fcd098-ba98-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd
(But... She looks female-ish enough to me, so I personally feel inclined to keep Knit Cap Girl in the article. Also, for laziness if nothing else. Feel free to disagree with me on that.) Daniel Carrero (talk) 11:07, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Also, sometimes she is called Lorenz. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:bcc77a5c-ba23-11e3-801b-002590d77bdd Daniel Carrero (talk) 11:40, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
I always mentally called the guy 'Hikaru' because the guy's hat reminded me of the Nice Hat that Hikaru Azuma wore a lot in With the Light. Greyson (talk) 03:55, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Other
  • Seems like the permalink at the top of the transcript does not work for me anymore - then they will be useless! Else they are the best way to quote different lines of the comic. Kynde (talk) 21:31, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Oh, now they work again. ;) Kynde (talk) 10:31, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

The permalinks has stopped working for me Spongebog (talk) 20:45, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that the initial four options presented to the reader are now fixed and do not change. "These stupid tiles..." and "Gravity. Lots of it." are no longer available options. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've played the comic many times over the past couple of days and I've never received those two options). Should the transcript be edited to reflect that? Enchantedsleeper (talk) 21:53, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Chategories not yet included

Should they be?

  • I have seen the word Raptor mentioned - so should velociraptor be a chategory? Kynde (talk) 21:21, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Cueball? I.e. the politician on the right? Kynde (talk) 21:28, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • I understand that many categories has been deleted as all text references can be user generated. But when there is a drawing with a dinosaur then this categories should be included etc. Kynde (talk) 19:14, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
  • I would like to discuss the number of categories. If anything is in thks comics pictures then it should be included as a category. So dinos and Pokémon for sure as well as character's and collor. So I include some again - please do not delete. If you need to find where Pokémon has been referenced this commic should come in the list! Kynde (talk) 19:03, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Images

I created 1350: Lorenz/Images with all the images I could find in the comic. I'm not sure if I should have left them in the main page 1350: Lorenz, but feel free to decide what to do with them. Also, I tried using the tag <gallery>, but I couldn't make it work, so I used a lot of divs. Daniel Carrero (talk) 23:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Great idea - just what I hoped someone would and could do. Thanks ;) Is it easy to add new images to the page if they show up? Kynde (talk) 10:32, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
You're welcome! :) It's pretty easy... I explained in the images page how exactly you would save a new image if they show up. Daniel Carrero (talk) 13:52, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Can see there keep appearing new images from the text above. Kynde (talk) 10:39, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
New shark images here: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:30f53d98-bbb3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd 108.162.221.65 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I have updated the page and made a talk page there to add comments like the above. Have already found d 3 new images cannot add them with this tablet Kynde (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for this work, but nobody knows if this is complete. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:49, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Many-worlds interpretation

The title text "Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story" might as well be a hint to Hugh Everett III 's "Many-worlds interpretation" of quantum theory. 108.162.219.74 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Except that the title is Lorenz a direct reference to the guy with the butterfly effect... Kynde (talk) 10:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Can't it be both? The Butterfly Effect can be seen as one consequence of the Many-Worlds interpretation. A choice as simple as whether (or where) a butterfly flaps its wings can send our entire universe down a different timeline, in which a hurricane occurs. 108.162.216.49 19:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)


Most, maybe all pictures do correspond to an existing comic here

I'm calling on you to not destroy a first simple explain, even the transcript. But nearly every picture belongs to a former comic — this has to be explained at the Themes section. We have some dinosaurs, but there is much more. Please help on this issue. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:56, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

After I understood what you mean I agree. All pictures collected should be explained in the themes section and preferably with a line to a story that includes the picture. There are so many I can't find. Some may never be available again... ? Kynde (talk) 18:59, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
What are you referring to? Has anyone deleted something important? Hope it wasn't me? Kynde (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Well I can see it was me. We obviously disagree with what could be a trivia item and with which categories should be included even obvious ones. There has before been mention of missing pieces of hats etc and when there is one in hundreds of images with an error then it could make a fun trivia item in my opinion! I will stop editing and let you decide what to do with this comic? Kynde (talk) 22:30, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
You totally misunderstand me. I'm asking for an explain to every picture because it should belong to a former comic.
Further more I'm just trying to keep the explain as simple as possible; individual error experiences should not be posted at the explain. I did remove that content in order to keep it simple as possible to an ordinary reader.
Please improve the picture explains, but also please keep that explain simple as possible to readers are not interested on all that crap done by Randall.
--Dgbrt (talk) 22:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Great and thanks for this explain and sorry I was grumpy in my reply before. Do you mean there should be an explanation for every single picture? Maybe this should be moved to a separate page like the list of images - they take up lots of space in the explain page - or they could be hided like the new transcript? Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
Have begun the full image explanation...Kynde (talk) 23:03, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
Visual tree / map?

How hard would it be to come up with a tree graphing out the different choices? The nodes could be panels and the lines could represent text choices. Has anyone tried it? --108.162.221.34 23:40, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

I added hide/show functionality to the transcript. It's easier to read and navigate now. Daniel Carrero (talk) 15:59, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Great - this was also what I had in mind :-) Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
Not so great it has been deleted... Again! I have inserted a link to the last page before Dgbrt deleted all 25000 signs. Considering the enormous work done to create this transcript I think we should let it be at least awailable as a trivia link. I cannot create the page from my tablet, but would rather have a lorenz transcript page than an old version like now. Maybe on this page again? 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. Kynde (talk) 23:03, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
I restored the old version in 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. (Also, I used divs this time rather than templates.) Daniel Carrero (talk) 05:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
I got my suggestion as part of the main story!

I noticed in the "references to video games" section that "Actually it's the final castle - grab your fire flower!" was one of the options. I suggested that! 108.162.212.27 17:07, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Are we sure the title is not related to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_gauge_condition ?

For example, in Italy, the Lorenz Gauge Condition is dubbed "The Lorenz's choice". 108.162.212.218 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Should there be an interactive comic category?

It is kind of covered by the dynamic category, but between click and drag and this, as well as possible future comics, might it need to be its own seperate new category? Athang (talk) 23:00, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

The "stupid tiles" option has vanished from panel 1. 199.27.130.222 00:14, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Is that for good or just for you? How many times did you reload and did you try different browsers? It should always be awailable via a saved permalink, like you findin the transcript. Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
This probably happens at the same time for all users, considering that I read 199.27.130.222's message immediately after he/she sent it and at that point the "stupid tiles" option had vanished for me as well, but this was clearly temporary since it's back now.
I only tested on Firefox. Daniel Carrero (talk) 04:08, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
I still get this option?? 199.27.130.216 22:38, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Records in most panels

I have started a collection of records. I just entered what I could find to give an example. I was sure that my pheble attempts soon would be helped sore by someone who had saved the good ones... And already this is happening. Please continue to improve the records and also add more themes if I left them out Kynde (talk) 17:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Gravity lots of it?

I have never seen this option. Could someone post a permalink to such a story - could be as a record. Kynde (talk) 20:58, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Some cool stuff i found, don't know if anyone wants to add these to the main page

Pikachu: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:80858d8c-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd

Giant pit: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea9342a0-bc02-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd

Goodbye, BSD: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:bae4c63c-ba31-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd

Reddit and rockets: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:602c39a8-ba92-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd

More BSD Pikachu: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:f5760770-baae-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd

Bird-powered car: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:cc4467b2-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

This happens a lot: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b69f6096-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd

Dinos: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:679012b0-bb4f-11e3-805b-002590d77bdd

These stupid lines: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:360411c2-baa2-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd

Pretty long: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:7d40621c-bae7-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

199.27.130.216 22:37, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your findings. This has to be added to the explain, your titles on this are GREAT! Maybe you — or someone else — does have a nice idea how to publish all this permalinks in a proper way.--Dgbrt (talk) 23:39, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
More (mostly dream recursion):

Lord of the rings: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:40a1ac80-ba06-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd

Another moat: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:eee0d4c6-baea-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

Looping back: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d7970042-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Looping back 2: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3f654048-badd-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Never seen it loop this many times: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd

Even more looping: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:75e8f03e-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd

Looping to a rocket: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3aa7da8e-bae7-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

Dream recursion: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:5e94d028-bb7d-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd

Where did the Pikachu come from?: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97c42da2-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Ethylene dichloride: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:93312202-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd

More rockets: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:34f7f602-ba3b-11e3-8035-002590d77bdd

Even more rockets: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

More recursion: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd

Blowtorch: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:c40db5fc-baf9-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Another blowtorch: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97cbd552-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Most different stories i've seen in one: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:60d11a70-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

199.27.130.216 21:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

More:

More pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:feaa5d4e-bbd2-11e3-802c-002590d77bdd

Long pikachu fight: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d87d8344-bafb-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Plantains: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:22d57484-bb28-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Many pikachus: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d04aabf0-b9fe-11e3-8016-002590d77bdd

Much pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:f203d1c6-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd

Such pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:a5485722-ba26-11e3-8020-002590d77bdd

Very pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd 199.27.130.216 22:49, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I haven't seen them all - but have you checked the records at the bottom of the explain page - those you call pretty long does not seem to get close to the 77 picture record... Are there any new pictures not featured in the picture page linked to from the top of the explain? Else this does not seem so interesting to me... ;-) Kynde (talk) 14:55, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Ah so there were interesting stuff around. And I can see that at least one of them has already been added as a Pokémon record. Great - cool if you wrote how many panels - or if there where new pictures - it would be easier to look through them. The double dream I had been looking for, thanks I will add it to the record page under dreams Kynde (talk) 14:59, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Seen them all and added several to the record for themes trivia. Thanks - but please more info~(length, themes) if you still care to share Kynde (talk) 15:36, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Finishing the explanation

I have just done a huge job putting all the images from the list in under the themes sections. I hope others can take over and find permalinks that include all the images that are not yet on references in the links I have inserted. Also there are some of the first options that seeem to not exist anymore (Gravity lots of it) and also there was the error with the same line twice. I found it one day, but then there where no new images if you chose it. I did not save the permalink and now it seems like it is all gone. Good work guys and girls - I have a holiday comming up with no much computer time... Kynde (talk) 02:51, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Greasemonkey Script

I've just mad a script to visit random stories, and record the corresponding transcripts. It's available here: https://github.com/edfel/Lorenz/ . I hope someone can find it useful! Edfel. 108.162.254.163 14:24, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Dump

One idea: Maybe someone could create a script to automatically navigate Lorenz and create a dump of all the results, to fill 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. I know more-or-less how that would work in "pseudocode" so I could help but I'm not going to do it (writing actual code, testing, debugging, accounting for each individual frame, etc) any time soon. Daniel Carrero (talk) 07:47, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Go home, Saturn, you're drunk.

Quintuple Saturn POWER! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9adca534-b9b0-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd 173.245.54.10 01:44, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

What-If XKCD

http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b1210692-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd Recognize this one? 173.245.54.10 02:09, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Why are the punctuation marks clipping?

I don't know what's going on, but a comma looks just like a period in the comic. The letters E, F, and I also display strangely. What's going on?199.27.128.96 01:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Lorenz down time

Today there was no access to Lorenz. Tried both Firefox, Chrome and internet explorer. Just mentioning it here, if this is a permanent problem - so people can see how long it has been down. Kynde (talk) 18:43, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Well it was already up again now. Kynde (talk) 11:42, 16 May 2014 (UTC)



After inserting the collapsing talk page - the old can be seen just by clicking the expand button. But if you wish to write anything new, then do it here below at the very bottom of the talk page so it may be seen. I have this comment - after a few weeks I believe nothing new happened in this comic. I think it is now fixed. Of course this is very hard to prove. But I have completed some branches of the interactive transcript. So let me know if you can find any new options I have missed (I could have missed if there were more than four options in a panel - but not at the dead-ends! I have also just made major revisions of the explanation and it's layout - based on my observations. Kynde (talk) 22:48, 19 June 2014 (UTC)


I just found a panel where it gets past the person on the comet, only one panel though... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:25743f70-baee-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 108.162.254.69 19:24, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Great. Have added the image to the list of images and to the theme above. Keep any new images coming here.--Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

It's interesting the chess player in 1112 ("Think logically") resembles the knit cap girl. It's weird that Megan (or Randall's wife) after chemotherapy also wears a cap (1141, "Two years"). Is there any possible connections between them (or simply a coincidence)?108.162.215.108 04:24, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

I have added links to three other comics using knit caps, including the two you mentioned. Thanks. --Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

I noticed that the image url noted on xkcd.com is the same as the one for #1349 - Shouldn't Be Hard. Not sure if it is caused by the interactivity disallowing an image upload, or an error on Randall's part (I'd imagine working through this comic's issues was pretty distracting). 15:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

I believe this was fixed. At least it seems to look correct now. --Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

God damn I hate boomerangs now. 172.68.65.240 03:49, 22 November 2017 (UTC)Bob

Hey guys, are we still missing the ocean comics? because I found one that links there. https://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3df213b4-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd . not far after though. 173.245.48.129 02:41, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

I found a (possibly) bug where the comic doesn't load and there's just a comic-sized blank space. 19:48, 3 January 2019 (UTC) -- Cheese12 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

As of this week I found out that Lorenz seems to have stopped working on xkcd... This makes all the permalink invalid. ;-( --Kynde (talk) 20:03, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

I also found that people have been writing new entries from the top which meant I did not see Cheese12 comment that this was so all the way back in January 2019. I have rearranged the three comments on top to the right post order here at the bottom and added a signature for Cheese12 and a day for the edit for reference to how long it has been broken. Also removed a (now broken) permalink that was left over when a user posted something and then deleted it again. It was stick beneath my previous comment. --Kynde (talk) 20:12, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
Looked on the webarchive and the latest version of the comic there is from July 2019. 2019-07-19. It seems correct there with the first picture with options... Of course it is no use trying to move on, either because it is a web archive or because Lorentz doesn't work anymore on xkcd. But it seems like it should not have displayed that image if it had been a recent version of the comic, as there are no image on the page now. If this is true, then it should not have been down all the time since January as Cheese12 wrote above... But I have no idea how the web archive works for such a complicated comic page? --Kynde (talk) 20:22, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
I suspect this is related to the XKCD forums being taken down. Umwelt, Externalities, Landing, and xkcloud are also down. Tbodt (talk) 19:19, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

I think it's working again. Crazymachinefan (talk) 04:44, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

I just found a bunch of new things that can occur including a new image. Here are the permalinks: https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b0bcef14-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd --Knit Cap Girl rather than Hairy wakes up after the KSP rocket launch image; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8e2a0d7a-baf2-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd --permalink for Hairy silhouette image; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8a36f73e-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --permalink for Hairy getting to a sale without lying in bed; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:d4cd36d8-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd NEW IMAGE-- Hairy in silhouette not talking. EDIT: Here's something *fascinating*... this panel can have either one or two responses depending on what's chosen for the first. Here's the permalink - https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b2dde69c-b9c0-11e3-8007-002590d77bdd 162.158.107.29 20:23, 22 October 2020 (UTC)Anonymous Waste of Time

I found a weird thing. https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:73113e0c-b9f6-11e3-8011-002590d77bdd If you select 15615 the comic freezes. The text doesn't appear, no new panels appear. PkmnQ (talk) 05:27, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I tried it on another device, and again it froze when I selected 15615. Can someone else try to recreate it? PkmnQ (talk) 05:47, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
yeah it's the same for me too --Anonymous Waste of Time
I looked at the console, and an error pops up, so there's at least a tiny clue to why it happens. PkmnQ (talk) 08:00, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
   Uncaught TypeError: e.replace is not a function
       at Odlaw._comicText (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at Odlaw._makeText (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at Odlaw.chooseOption (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at n (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at HTMLLIElement.<anonymous> (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at HTMLUListElement.dispatch (VM44 b66ed7.js:3)
       at HTMLUListElement.r.handle (VM44 b66ed7.js:3)
My best guess is that 15615 is being interpreted as a number instead of a string. However, when I type in 5 as a new option it works correctly. It might be from some old input bug that was changed later on. PkmnQ (talk) 08:05, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Cleaning up

Why was the (general) grammar of this comic so bad? I am putting in hours into this comic to fix this (and what I was originally doing, which was changing all instances of 'Knit Cap Girl' to 'Knit Cap' and changing 'she/her/hers' to 'he/him/his'). I'm about 2/3 done. Beanie talk 14:14, 1st July 2021 (UTC)

Finished :D Beanie talk 22:42, 18 November 2021 (UTC)
Took a while because I changed schools and I can't get onto explainxkcd on the new website (and also I'm lazy). Beanie talk 22:44, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Not sure if this is known, but there's a path where Theft is super effective and the first move. Not sure how to hyperlink on phone, though. It's tiles, 4096, pastel color, middle class ennui, wonder why it's socially acceptable.172.70.178.33 21:43, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

I think I found the shortest possible path. https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:0b364d02-bb65-11e3-800e-002590d77bdd IJustWantToEditStuff (talk) 19:48, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

the political path is not there anymore. i think the BSD path replaced it? 108.162.245.183 (talk) 18:30, 17 November 2023‎ (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Here's a 24-panel Pokémon-theme:

https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:a894b980-baf2-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

ErRor 6o6 (talk) 16:20, 29 April 2024

found a pretty long variation on the old longest one. might be longer, or mabye same length? https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 172.70.178.135 (talk) 23:09, 26 September 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

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