Difference between revisions of "1091: Curiosity"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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(Description: better explanation for the torrent part?)
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This comic is a reference to the NASA Mars Rover "Curiosity" landing on Mars on 6 August 2012. NASA live-streamed the landing, but demand for the feed caused server issues. Thus, the time spent trying to download the landing images could be used as an excuse for being late for work.
 
This comic is a reference to the NASA Mars Rover "Curiosity" landing on Mars on 6 August 2012. NASA live-streamed the landing, but demand for the feed caused server issues. Thus, the time spent trying to download the landing images could be used as an excuse for being late for work.
  
The image text is a reference to {{w|Torrent file|torrents}}, which are a more resilient way to download files, due to the decentralized BitTorrent protocol, where the more people there are downloading a file, the most available it is.
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The image text is a reference to {{w|Torrent file|torrents}}, which are a more resilient way to download files, due to the decentralized BitTorrent protocol, where the more people there are downloading a file, the most available it is. The name is a play on the file naming convention of release groups who name their files containing data on the file; language (SwEsUb = Swedish subtitles), source (DVDRip = Ripped from DVD), encoding (XviD = XviD codec) and group name ({{w|Axxo|aXXo}} = aXXo, a well known DVD movie releaser).

Revision as of 10:38, 6 August 2012

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As of this writing the NASA/JPL websites are still overloaded. Trying CURIOSITY-REAR-CAM_[256px_x_256px].torrent.SwEsUb.DVDRip.XviD-aXXo.jpg instead.

Image text

As of this writing the NASA/JPL websites are still overloaded. Trying CURIOSITY-REAR-CAM_[256px_x_256px].torrent.SwEsUb.DVDRip.XviD-aXXo.jpg instead.

Description

This comic is a reference to the NASA Mars Rover "Curiosity" landing on Mars on 6 August 2012. NASA live-streamed the landing, but demand for the feed caused server issues. Thus, the time spent trying to download the landing images could be used as an excuse for being late for work.

The image text is a reference to torrents, which are a more resilient way to download files, due to the decentralized BitTorrent protocol, where the more people there are downloading a file, the most available it is. The name is a play on the file naming convention of release groups who name their files containing data on the file; language (SwEsUb = Swedish subtitles), source (DVDRip = Ripped from DVD), encoding (XviD = XviD codec) and group name (aXXo = aXXo, a well known DVD movie releaser).