Difference between revisions of "134: Myspace"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search
(Explanation)
m (fixed grammatical errors)
(10 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown)
Line 4: Line 4:
 
| title    = Myspace
 
| title    = Myspace
 
| image    = myspace.png
 
| image    = myspace.png
| imagesize =
 
 
| titletext = It's like they got together and said 'what do we miss most from the internet in 1998? that's right, embedded MIDI!'
 
| titletext = It's like they got together and said 'what do we miss most from the internet in 1998? that's right, embedded MIDI!'
 
}}
 
}}
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
Oh, dear...
+
Some websites, not long after the page finishes loading, suddenly play a song. It's annoying to the person visiting the site and to others who are nearby, so it will attract a lot of unwanted attention, especially if the song is played at a loud volume. Compounding this would be the possible inappropriateness of the song that is suddenly playing.
Have you ever visited a website that, not long after the page finishes loading, suddenly plays a song? Such an event is already startling when alone, but others near your vicinity would also get affected. The five seconds to which the computer in the comic refers are the approximate time required for you to successfully stop the music (finding the "pause"/"stop" button, muting the computer audio...)
 
  
Since [[http://www.myspace.com/ MySpace]] allows wide customization for one's page, embedded music players (that can even play automatically) are a (sad) possibility. While MySpace seems to have faded, automatic embedded players live on in [[http://www.tumblr.com/ Tumblr]], another site which allows heavy customization of one's blog.
+
The five seconds to stop the music (finding the "pause"/"stop" button, muting the computer audio...) is too long in such an incident.
  
The title text refers to the fact that pages of old also allowed one to embed an MIDI (a file format that describes music) file in the page so that the page would play the file upon loading. This gets worse with the fact that the MIDI file can be set to play continuously, requiring either closing the web page or manually adjusting the volume of your computer.
+
Since {{w|MySpace}} allows wide customization for members pages, many users have embedded music players that auto-run when the page is visited.
 +
 
 +
The title text refers to the fact that old pages, back in the late 1990s, used embedded {{w|MIDI}} files. MIDI files may have terrible sound quality (while lossless, it is limited in the amount of sounds that can be reproduced), but, more importantly, MIDI files that are embedded in the page would not only play automatically, but also have no way to stop playing. The viewer would have to leave the website or externally mute the audio.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
:[Computer screen showing a myspace page]
+
:[Computer screen showing a myspace page.]
:Oh man, you and everyone in earshot are gonna LOVE the first five seconds of this song!
+
:Oh man, you and everyone in earshot are gonna '''<u>love</u>''' the first five seconds of this song!
  
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
 
[[Category:Comics with color]]
 
[[Category:Comics with color]]
 
[[Category:Music]]
 
[[Category:Music]]
 
[[Category:Internet]]
 
[[Category:Internet]]
 
[[Category:Social networking]]
 
[[Category:Social networking]]

Revision as of 20:55, 15 August 2017

Myspace
It's like they got together and said 'what do we miss most from the internet in 1998? that's right, embedded MIDI!'
Title text: It's like they got together and said 'what do we miss most from the internet in 1998? that's right, embedded MIDI!'

Explanation

Some websites, not long after the page finishes loading, suddenly play a song. It's annoying to the person visiting the site and to others who are nearby, so it will attract a lot of unwanted attention, especially if the song is played at a loud volume. Compounding this would be the possible inappropriateness of the song that is suddenly playing.

The five seconds to stop the music (finding the "pause"/"stop" button, muting the computer audio...) is too long in such an incident.

Since MySpace allows wide customization for members pages, many users have embedded music players that auto-run when the page is visited.

The title text refers to the fact that old pages, back in the late 1990s, used embedded MIDI files. MIDI files may have terrible sound quality (while lossless, it is limited in the amount of sounds that can be reproduced), but, more importantly, MIDI files that are embedded in the page would not only play automatically, but also have no way to stop playing. The viewer would have to leave the website or externally mute the audio.

Transcript

[Computer screen showing a myspace page.]
Oh man, you and everyone in earshot are gonna love the first five seconds of this song!


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

It should be noted that MIDI files don't necessarily have terrible sound quality, they are just a lossless wrapper around a music sheet. The player therefore is where the sound quality is the issue. 108.162.217.23 19:23, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Not sure (because this machine has no audio, and I'm accessing an archive of the site) but the Yvette's Bridal Formal site was always an examplar of... well, loads of things, but definitely including music. Bagpipe music one page, IIRC. Anyway, it had disappeared, last time I checked, but I have the link http://web.archive.org/web/20110718150459/http://yvettesbridalformal.com/ (might need to be better URLified with %3A%2F%2F or whatever it needs in there) that at least gives the visual... experience? 178.98.31.27 00:58, 23 June 2013 (UTC)

Could this also describe the fact that often only samples of a few seconds (usually more than 5, though) are available? --Chtz (talk) 11:10, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

I still get thrown back, when I hear the song that my first girlfriend had on her Myspace profile in 2007-2008, as I visited it regularily and the song became heavily connected to her. The profile was abandonend at some point in 2008 but still exists, including clichee smooching photos of us. I am not sure if the autoplay also still works. --Lupo (talk) 08:07, 30 September 2019 (UTC)