Editing 1305: Undocumented Feature
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
| date = December 18, 2013 | | date = December 18, 2013 | ||
| title = Undocumented Feature | | title = Undocumented Feature | ||
− | |||
| image = undocumented_feature.png | | image = undocumented_feature.png | ||
| titletext = And it doesn't pop up a box every time asking you to use your real name. In fact, there's no way to set your name at all. You just have to keep reminding people who you are. | | titletext = And it doesn't pop up a box every time asking you to use your real name. In fact, there's no way to set your name at all. You just have to keep reminding people who you are. | ||
Line 9: | Line 8: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | An {{w| | + | {{incomplete|What is a VM, why a server needs to be running, what is a sysadmin, possibly something else}} |
+ | An {{w|Undocumented feature}} is a part of a software product | ||
+ | that is not explained in the documentation for the product. | ||
+ | There are many examples of undocumented features in programs | ||
+ | written for old versions of windows, for example: | ||
+ | * When playing {{w|Solitaire (Windows)|Windows Solitaire}} with the "draw three" option, one can draw single cards by holding Ctrl+Alt+Shift while clicking on the card to draw cards. | ||
+ | * When playing {{w|Microsoft Minesweeper|Windows Minesweeper}} in pre-windows-95 versions, typing "xyzzy" followed by <Enter> and then <Right-shift>, will turn the top left pixel of the windows background black or white to indicate if the mouse is over a mine or not. | ||
+ | * The fist releases of {{w|Windows 95}} allowed to see the "credits" for Win95 by creating a folder in the desktop and then renaming it several times. | ||
+ | * {{w|Microsoft word|Word}} 97 has an embedded pinball game, accesible by a weird sequence of strange actions. | ||
+ | * {{w|Microsoft Excel|Excel}} 97 has also an embedded game of a spaceship floating over a planet, accesible by another weird sequence of actions. | ||
− | + | Windows XP and later versions have no undocumented features | |
+ | (none that have got widely known afterwards anyway), | ||
+ | allegedly because Microsoft wanted the U.S. government | ||
+ | to use Windows XP and they don't use any software with | ||
+ | any undocumented features. | ||
− | + | In this comic, Cueball has found a chat room, intended to | |
+ | ask for help, accesible through the help page of some | ||
+ | unnamed old windows utility. | ||
− | + | Eventually, the comic comments on how nothing is forever, but eventually subverts this by attacking Facebook's video ads that had been announced the day just before the release of the comic. | |
+ | Over years he and the other members of the chatroom become friends in their secret hideaway. The chatroom seems to serve no purpose other than perhaps being some sysadmin's source of entertainment. | ||
+ | Cueball/the narrator then develops an existential outlook, contemplating the relatively short life of the chatroom server and also the lives of its small group of users. | ||
− | The | + | The fact that it has no video ads or even names for its users is a feature of the simpler times of the Internet. |
− | + | The title text expands on this by mentioning the popups on YouTube asking for your channel/user name. YouTube would like you to use your real name. On Facebook you're supposed to use your real name anyway. Based on the final frame, the comic appears also to be a negative commentary on the recent addition of autoplay video ads to Facebook. | |
− | |||
− | |||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
Line 55: | Line 69: | ||
:Who will remember this strange little world and the friendships we built here? | :Who will remember this strange little world and the friendships we built here? | ||
− | |||
:Nobody. | :Nobody. | ||
Line 68: | Line 81: | ||
:[The bubble is now completely gone.] | :[The bubble is now completely gone.] | ||
− | |||
:But at least it doesn't have fucking video ads. | :But at least it doesn't have fucking video ads. | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
Line 87: | Line 90: | ||
[[Category:Internet]] | [[Category:Internet]] | ||
[[Category:Philosophy]] | [[Category:Philosophy]] | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− |