explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2393: Presidential Middle Names

2020-12-03T05:03:22Z

108.162.216.128:

I wonder where Hussein comes in in the official rankings. [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 04:16, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Gamaliel sounds like an Elvish name...[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.128|108.162.216.128]] 05:03, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2304: Preprint

2020-05-11T20:35:45Z

108.162.216.128:

I was going to mention the TeX format(/family), but someone got in there before me. So how about if it's a .wp4 document? ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.84|141.101.107.84]] 01:40, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
:But now [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2304:_Preprint&diff=191780&oldid=191776 the LaTeX reference is removed], anyway. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.163|162.158.158.163]] 16:14, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Why is this comic labeled as a Saturday comic? I don't know what timezone you use, but it was posted Friday, well before midnight UTC. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.204|172.69.69.204]] 02:15, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

: I'm pretty sure that's just an error. The date for the comic in the [https://xkcd.com/archive/ archive] is "2020-5-8", which is today (Friday). Comic #[[2303]] correctly has the "Wednesday comic" category, and the archive lists its date as 2020-5-6 (which is Wednesday). ...And I've fixed it now. The category is automatically generated based on the date listed in the [[Template:Comic]] infobox at the top of the article; someone incorrectly entered it as "May 9, 2020" instead of "May 8, 2020". --[[User:V2Blast|V2Blast]] ([[User talk:V2Blast|talk]]) 02:53, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
::'Someone' == DgbrtBOT; and thus probably based off the time() it thinks it is, upon autocreating the base article, rather than any human erring. Depending on the home system's timezone, it probably ''was'' Saturday for DB, if not for Randall. Maybe an offset/correction/relocali(s|z)ation should be put into the code, but it seems to normally work out Ok and this comic might have been ''just'' over a threshhold... ''(edit: Wiki time in history seems to be UTC, for me at least - I'm in UTC+1/BST but as an IP-editor I haven't made any setting changes to my personal login that I don't have. DgbrtBOT piped up at 22:48, which at UTC+2 or more (Central Europe Daylight Savings, which matches what I recall of knowing about that entity, or anywhere more Easterly) would have been 'tomorrow', and I didn't spot the new comic until at least those dozen minutes after that which occured before my own clocks ticked past midnight. Given that Randall is (usually?) In UTC-5, or UTC-4 when daylight savings is established, maybe Dgbrt needs a special offset of -6 hours (or go directly via localtime() with the best current known Munroevian locale specified) in calculating things. Or we can let the community smooth these things out like we just did when a possible late-evening update causes this to be an issue?)'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.62|162.158.155.62]] 03:17, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Is "sarcastically pronouncing the registered trademark symbol" meant as pronouncing it "arr" in the way pirates talk? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 15:00, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
:I would expect professional news anchors can come with something even more sarcastic. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:08, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
::Perhaps they'd go with something like "R in a circle" or "Circled R" (pronounced "Circledar"). [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 17:27, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
::: Perhaps we can use a little of both and create a new [[927:_Standards|standard]] for sarcastically pronouncing it as "circled, arrr!" [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:05, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
:::: ReGiStErEd TrAdEmArK! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.128|108.162.216.128]] 20:34, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

In 2020 I use pdf to put documents with tables onto a website, because html exports from editors are voluminous and brittle. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.6.118|162.158.6.118]] 10:32, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
:As someone who regularly takes tables ''from'' PDF in order to put them into spreadsheets for further use, some people don't do me any favours by that method. Among the problems, if the table setter didn't pay attention to the column widths then the copied-out text of two adjacent cells that don't ''appear'' to overlap each other will interlace at a character level and need editing back to separate entites. And then there's the inconsistencies of Header rows atop the table and/or atop the next newpage the table splits over. I could run a quick script on (X)HTML tables, and get it perfectly for my needs. CSV, or even TabSV, would actually be my preferred transport format (i.e. ''no'' format, just pure layout without even spanned/merged cells, and I can redo what needs redoing on the final redo), but I can't ever seem to get them to do that for me despite having the data almost in that form prior to the PDFing... Grrrr. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.142|162.158.159.142]] 11:30, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

I think Randall's last point (no unprofessional humans use PDFs in 2020) is very wrong. Especially due to the coronavirus, all college classes have switched to online assignment submissions, and the teachers only accept PDF submissions (although, annoyingly, they give the original template files in .doc format!) I would NOT trust random college student's assignment submissions as a reputable information source! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 17:22, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2304: Preprint

2020-05-11T20:34:58Z

108.162.216.128:

I was going to mention the TeX format(/family), but someone got in there before me. So how about if it's a .wp4 document? ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.84|141.101.107.84]] 01:40, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
:But now [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2304:_Preprint&diff=191780&oldid=191776 the LaTeX reference is removed], anyway. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.163|162.158.158.163]] 16:14, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Why is this comic labeled as a Saturday comic? I don't know what timezone you use, but it was posted Friday, well before midnight UTC. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.204|172.69.69.204]] 02:15, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

: I'm pretty sure that's just an error. The date for the comic in the [https://xkcd.com/archive/ archive] is "2020-5-8", which is today (Friday). Comic #[[2303]] correctly has the "Wednesday comic" category, and the archive lists its date as 2020-5-6 (which is Wednesday). ...And I've fixed it now. The category is automatically generated based on the date listed in the [[Template:Comic]] infobox at the top of the article; someone incorrectly entered it as "May 9, 2020" instead of "May 8, 2020". --[[User:V2Blast|V2Blast]] ([[User talk:V2Blast|talk]]) 02:53, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
::'Someone' == DgbrtBOT; and thus probably based off the time() it thinks it is, upon autocreating the base article, rather than any human erring. Depending on the home system's timezone, it probably ''was'' Saturday for DB, if not for Randall. Maybe an offset/correction/relocali(s|z)ation should be put into the code, but it seems to normally work out Ok and this comic might have been ''just'' over a threshhold... ''(edit: Wiki time in history seems to be UTC, for me at least - I'm in UTC+1/BST but as an IP-editor I haven't made any setting changes to my personal login that I don't have. DgbrtBOT piped up at 22:48, which at UTC+2 or more (Central Europe Daylight Savings, which matches what I recall of knowing about that entity, or anywhere more Easterly) would have been 'tomorrow', and I didn't spot the new comic until at least those dozen minutes after that which occured before my own clocks ticked past midnight. Given that Randall is (usually?) In UTC-5, or UTC-4 when daylight savings is established, maybe Dgbrt needs a special offset of -6 hours (or go directly via localtime() with the best current known Munroevian locale specified) in calculating things. Or we can let the community smooth these things out like we just did when a possible late-evening update causes this to be an issue?)'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.62|162.158.155.62]] 03:17, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Is "sarcastically pronouncing the registered trademark symbol" meant as pronouncing it "arr" in the way pirates talk? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 15:00, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
:I would expect professional news anchors can come with something even more sarcastic. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:08, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
::Perhaps they'd go with something like "R in a circle" or "Circled R" (pronounced "Circledar"). [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 17:27, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
::: Perhaps we can use a little of both and create a new [[927:_Standards|standard]] for sarcastically pronouncing it as "circled, arrr!" [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:05, 11 May 2020 (UTC)
:::: I always pictured it as saying "registered trademark" in the most exasperated way possible. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.128|108.162.216.128]] 20:34, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

In 2020 I use pdf to put documents with tables onto a website, because html exports from editors are voluminous and brittle. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.6.118|162.158.6.118]] 10:32, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
:As someone who regularly takes tables ''from'' PDF in order to put them into spreadsheets for further use, some people don't do me any favours by that method. Among the problems, if the table setter didn't pay attention to the column widths then the copied-out text of two adjacent cells that don't ''appear'' to overlap each other will interlace at a character level and need editing back to separate entites. And then there's the inconsistencies of Header rows atop the table and/or atop the next newpage the table splits over. I could run a quick script on (X)HTML tables, and get it perfectly for my needs. CSV, or even TabSV, would actually be my preferred transport format (i.e. ''no'' format, just pure layout without even spanned/merged cells, and I can redo what needs redoing on the final redo), but I can't ever seem to get them to do that for me despite having the data almost in that form prior to the PDFing... Grrrr. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.142|162.158.159.142]] 11:30, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

I think Randall's last point (no unprofessional humans use PDFs in 2020) is very wrong. Especially due to the coronavirus, all college classes have switched to online assignment submissions, and the teachers only accept PDF submissions (although, annoyingly, they give the original template files in .doc format!) I would NOT trust random college student's assignment submissions as a reputable information source! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 17:22, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

2249: I Love the 20s

2020-01-08T23:41:45Z

108.162.216.128: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2249
| date = January 1, 2020
| title = I Love the 20s
| image = i love the 20s.png
| titletext = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]].

The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year and discussing their relief that the change of decade brings with it two beneficial side-effects; firstly, they can now unambiguously name the decade "the 20s", and secondly, since the decade has a well-defined name, any cultural trends that begin in the 20s can be attributed to the decade itself, and not to the generation that happens to coincide with it.

White Hat, however, tries a couple of times to raise a pedantic objection: he believes that the new decade does not "officially" start until 2021.

Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show
{{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of decade. The joke is that a pop culture documentary is not an authoritative source for definitions of time standards, yet for some reason everyone is willing to accept its authority on such matters anyway.

The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways:
*By counting every span of ten years that has occurred since the start of year 1 in the Common Era (White Hat's definition)
*By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition)

Ponytail's definition is the one in common usage. For example, when we say "the 1980s", we mean "the span of ten years that all began with the digits 198". This is a "cardinal" method of counting decades, since we are only concerned with identifying a particular set of ten years.

White Hat's definition, on the other hand, is an "ordinal" method, since it implies that we are counting the number of ten-year spans ''since the first one'', which is defined to have begun in the year 1.

While White Hat's definition is not technically ''wrong'' - it is a valid way to count decades - Ponytail notes that this is not how decades are typically determined (the show isn't called "I Love the 200th Decade"), and the fact that we count centuries in an ordinal way does not mean that we should do the same with decades.

(To further confuse the issue: even though we ''do'' count centuries ordinally (eg. "1st century", "20th century", etc.), most people aren't aware that the first century began on the year 1, so most people would count 2000 as being in the 21st century - even though, by the ordinal definition, the 21st century did not start until 2001!)

"{{w|Aughts}}" and "Teens" were names suggested for the {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} and {{w|2010s}} respectively; however, neither of those names managed to gain widespread acceptance.

{{w|Millennials}} is a name given to the generation which was born in the 80s and 90s, such that they began entering adulthood in the 2000s. The term was sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, particularly during the 2010s. The comic speculates that millennials may have been unfairly targeted due to the fact that the decade didn't have an easily-identifiable name; if it had, then people might have attributed their misgivings about modern culture to the decade itself, instead of singling out a demographic. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]].

Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which literally means "what was to be shown", and is traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof to mean "thus it has been demonstrated", as if this second landmark piece of evidence proves Megan's point as conclusively as a mathematical proof.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing in a line, the last two looking in her direction.]
:Megan: Happy new decade!
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s!
:White Hat: '''''Actually—'''''
:Ponytail: I'm excited we can name decades again.
:Ponytail: "Aughts" and "teens" never caught on.

:[Megan stops next to Cueball as White Hat has his finger raised.]
:White Hat: Actually, the new decade doesn't start-
:Ponytail: Mostly, I'm just glad we can go back to attributing cultural trends to decades instead of generations.

:[All four just stand normal.]
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Cueball: Decades were silly, but making everything about "millennials" turned out to be even worse.
:Ponytail: Seriously.

:[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides.]
:White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until '''2021'''.
:Ponytail: OK, listen.
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right.
:White Hat: I '''''am''''' right!
:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''.

:[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytail's upper bodies as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands palm up. Megan interrupts them from off panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a starburst on the left panel frame.]
:White Hat: See, the 20th century didn't start until--
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered.
:White Hat: You don't get it. Let me draw a--
:Ponytail: No, '''''you''''' don't--
:Megan (off-panel): Stop!

:[All four characters are displayed again. Megan has raised a finger and all the others look at her.]
:Megan: I can resolve this.
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: MC Hammer's ''U Can't Touch This'' (1990) was featured in '''''I Love the '90s''''', not ''''' '80s'''''.
:Ponytail: ...That settles that.
:White Hat: Yeah, I accept VH1's authority.
:White Hat: You win.

==Trivia==
* Millennials were also mentioned in [[1962: Generations]] and in [[2165: Millennials]]. Also, [[Randall]] himself is a millennial.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

320: 28-Hour Day

2019-12-20T18:11:40Z

108.162.216.128: /* Schedule */ - merged day cells

{{comic
| number = 320
| date = September 24, 2007
| title = 28-Hour Day
| image = 28_hour_day.png
| titletext = Small print: this schedule will eventually drive one stark raving mad.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{W|Circadian rhythm#Enforced longer cycles|28-Hour Day}} is a modified sleep schedule proposed to accommodate the discrepancy between the earth's day-night cycle and certain people's preferred sleep schedules. It discards the traditional notion of sleeping at night and replaces it with sleeping when it is more convenient for weekend parties and mid-week insomnia. It is also the only reasonable and consistent alternative day length that will sync with the widely accepted and practiced 168-hour week (168 = 7×24 = 6×28), with the arguable exception of eight 21-hour days. Underneath the weekly timeline, [[Cueball]] describes the schedule's selling points to his friend, who apparently has difficulty sleeping.

Cueball's friend shows little interest in this idea, and instead resorts to low-quality "your mom" jokes. Cueball merely bides his time, and in the end successfully trumps the jokes with a response that impugns his friend's sexual stamina, leading him to concede defeat.

The title-text uses "{{w|Fine_Print|Small print}}" to mean "Disclaimer" and relieves the idea's creator of any responsibility in the case that it is tried and the tester finds the schedule to be a really bad idea.

==Schedule==
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"
!colspan=5|28-Hour Day Schedule
|-
!Day
!Time
!28-Hour Schedule
!Normal 24 hour day
|-
| rowspan=12|Sunday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|rowspan=3 nobreak|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Monday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
|style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Tuesday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM
|-
| rowspan=12|Wednesday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|-
| rowspan=12|Thursday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Friday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=6|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|-
| rowspan=12|Saturday||style="text-align:right;"|12:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 AM
|rowspan=4|Sleep
|
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 AM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|12:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|2:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|4:00 PM||||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|6:00 PM||
|rowspan=3|Normal night from 6 PM to 6 AM
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|8:00 PM||
|-
| style="text-align:right;"|10:00 PM||
|}

==Transcript==
:[There is a diagram that shows the hours in a week. It has sections labelled "bed" and below has sections labeled "night." They do not line up.]
:[Two men are talking together.]
:Cueball: You have trouble sleeping right?
:Friend: Only when your mom is over.
:[Cueball is now pointing to a chart.]
:Cueball: Since your work is flexible-
:Friend: -Like your mom-
:Cueball: -you should try the 28-hour day - 20 awake, 8 asleep (or 19/9 if you prefer).
:Friend: I prefer your mom.
:Cueball: It synchs up with the week - you spend weekdays awake normally, then on weekends you can go out all night.
:Friend: Just like your mom.
:Cueball: It means four extra hours daily. You can stay up until you're exhausted every day and then spend a full 9 hours asleep each night!
:Friend: But how much time can I spend doing your mom?
:Cueball: You? I'm guessing three or four minutes, tops.
:Friend: ...Well played.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]

Talk:2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect

2019-12-14T01:32:59Z

108.162.216.128:

Brussels Sprouts Mandella Effect dot Tumblr dot com--[[User:GoldNinja|GoldNinja]] ([[User talk:GoldNinja|talk]]) 00:20, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

Is liquorice ''really'' so disliked as suggested? For me it's "Meh" ({{w|Liquorice allsorts}} are all the better for being partnered with sweetness in various ways), but pallatable enough in its plain form. Although I admit the versions salted with ammonium chloride are a more acquired taste to my (apparently) non-European tastebuds. I won't eat those in handfulls, just the odd occasionally grabbed morsel from the bag that gets rapidly emptied by the continental person who brought them... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 00:25, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

Does anyone know how to fix the direction arrows at the top of each comic? The previous comic ([[2240]]) does not have "Next" link to this comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.236|172.69.34.236]] 01:31, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

Silica packets are harmless to eat:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/19775/what-would-happen-if-you-ate-one-those-silica-gel-packets

Talk:771: Period Speech

2019-11-26T20:20:14Z

108.162.216.128:

Although "grok" might be a slang term used among programmers, its roots are somewhat older.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok , "Grok /ˈɡrɒk/ is a word coined by Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science-fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land,[...]" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 11:55, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
: I don't want to live in a world where people need to determine who coined Grok by checking a reference. It's time for one of us to uninstall...life.— [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 15:42, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Also, "Jive" shouldn't be taken to mean "bullshit" but "what I'm saying" or "How I'm speaking." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.32|108.162.216.32]] 23:57, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

Blogger Reenactment ''Faires''? That's a pretty hilarious typo {{unsigned ip|103.22.201.168}}

This comic comes to mind particularly painfully with respect to the Joseph Ducreux image macros. <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> {{unsigned ip|198.41.243.243}}

Rather too late to add, but I think that a plated 'King' Arthur is not good example of anachronism. One can easily make an argument that it's not a possible historical character that is represented, but actually the one from the ''Matière de Bretaigne'' with its many retellings all through the Mediæval and Early Modern periods. Most movies are re-retellings of those.[[User:Richardelguru|Richardelguru]] ([[User talk:Richardelguru|talk]]) 10:58, 5 April 2018 (UTC)howlandbolton.com
:Here's an idea: How about comparing it to modern views and movies about the crusades?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.128|108.162.216.128]] 20:20, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

540: Base System

2019-11-25T17:06:08Z

108.162.216.128: /* Foul ball */

{{comic
| number = 540
| date = February 6, 2009
| title = Base System
| image = base system.png
| titletext = I once got to second base with a basketball player. She was so confused.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic comes in two parts and is a pun on the {{w|Baseball metaphors for sex|baseball metaphor}} used to describe how far a date went regarding erotic actions. Many different versions of the baseball metaphor exist, with varying degrees of complexity. But it has rarely been described with as many details as the one drawn by [[Randall]] in this comic.

===First part - the comic strip===
In the first part, a four frame strip along the top, [[Ponytail]] and [[Cueball]] discuss how Cueball's date went. When Cueball answers Ponytail's question with "second base", Ponytail asks what that means exactly. They fumble around with the definition in panel two where Ponytail ask ''is that Below the waist, but... not under the clothes?'' Cueball tries to put this into the base system and suggest that this could be compared to the difficult {{w|shortstop}} fielding position in baseball, between 2nd and 3rd base. This fits with the position of [[#The diamond|Hands on the pants]] metaphor from the picture below the comic strip. Then Ponytail begins with yet another base analogy by mentioning crossing the {{w|Baseball_field#Pitcher.27s_mound|pitcher's mound}}, but then suddenly she brings two more, very different, sports into the metaphor: {{w|American football}} (with the 50 yard line) and {{w|bowling}} (with the {{w|ten-pin}}). It certainly sounds tricky, as Cueball says. Ponytail then brings up a ''third'' sport in her elaboration; her reference to getting a "red flag" could refer to different sports, as {{w|Flag#In sports|many sports use flags}}, some of them red. It is, however, most likely a reference to {{w|Racing_flags#Red_flag|racing in motor sport}} as the red flag is displayed when conditions are too dangerous to continue the session. This makes sense when looking at the "translation" here below. Cueball, however, has not got a clue which he expresses when Ponytail asks him ''If you know what I mean.''
(Note that this comic came out less than a week after {{w|Super Bowl XLIII}}, the final game of the {{w|2008 NFL season}}, which was played on 2009-02-01).

Here is a possible '''translation''' of Ponytails comment:
::Original: You should try crossing the '''pitcher's mound'''. Then down the '''50-yard line''', and right past her '''ten-pin'''.
::Translation: You should try crossing her '''{{w|Mons pubis|pubic mound}}''', then down the '''{{w|Bikini_waxing#The_Landing_Strip|landing strip}}''', and right past her '''{{w|clitoris}}'''.
:::Original: Last time I tried it, '''I got a red flag'''.
:::Translation: Last time I tried it, '''she had her {{w|Menstruation|period}}'''.

This would mean that Ponytail was about to {{w|Cunnilingus|go down}} on another girl, while this girl had her period. Many people would find it disgusting to go down on a girl while she was menstruating, explaining why Ponytail brought it up when Cueball said ''Sounds tricky''. However, Cueball doesn't seem to understand Ponytail's metaphors, explaining his replies of ''Sounds tricky'' and ''I really don't''.

===Second part - the baseball diamond===
The second part, the diagram, depicts a much more complex version of the baseball metaphor, where baseball terms and jargon are used to describe the many and varied things human beings like to do in the bedroom. Explanations have been separated by position. In order to understand the terms used, one may want to consult this picture:

[[File:540baseballdiamond.jpg|The baseball diamond and surrounding areas]]
:Note that Randall did not include any features from within the diamond; the pitchers mound or plate.

====The diamond====

The "{{w|Baseball field|diamond}}" is the geometric pattern formed by the four bases - first, second, third, and {{W|Baseball_field#Home_plate|home plate}}. After the ball is hit by the batter, and is in the air, players have a chance to move to the next base in line, from first, to second, to third, and finally to home plate (scoring only if they make it to home plate), only being removed from play if they are touched by a player carrying the ball in an attempt to move between bases. Thus there is a "progression" from one base to the next of sexual activity in the metaphor, until climax is achieved (getting to 'home plate' and 'scoring a point')

The entries in this section are ordered roughly from home plate to first, to second, to third, and then to home plate again, in the counterclockwise direction that the players move.

*Eye contact is placed just alongside the initial stage where the 'player' has just stepped off the home plate and is starting to move towards first. This is a deliberate setup for the 'thigh contact' pun later just before home plate. First eye, then thigh contact. First then can the sex begin and you have finally scored by reaching the home plate.
*Passing notes refers to a common method of communication in the classroom in school, often used by students as a form of courtship. It is placed halfway between the start and first base - the point at which communication has begun.
*First base is kissing. This is one of the most common assigned meanings for what the 'first base' is in the baseball metaphor - as in, "getting to first base".
*The boring zone is the point between kissing and sexual teasing or activity - the point where intimacy has become normal but sexual behaviors have not been accepted yet. This is boring for many (stereotypically this goes especially for men). It can also be the point at which a workup is attempted from kissing to gentle stroking and finally to the overt sexual teasing that is found by the time you have gotten to second base.
*Second base is licking or hands under the shirt. Overt sexual teasing, in an attempt to get the other person aroused.
*'Hands on the pants' and 'hands in the pants' are two activities that happen in a very short distance of each other during an average sexual encounter. They are also separated by the 'orgasm line', indicating that teasing has stopped and actual sexual activity has begun.
*Third base is oral sex. Oral sex is often used to prepare or arouse another person in preparation for intercourse, although it can be performed until one or both climax. In older versions of the baseball metaphor, third base was "hands in the pants" instead, which has been moved to earlier on the line in this new, "modern" version - or at least, Randall's conception of it.
*The Virginity line, which is also named, in brackets, after the {{w|Maginot Line}}, a series of French fortifications that were thought to be impenetrable during the lead-up to {{w|World War II}}. This line provides a direct "barrier" to the path between third base and a home run. The Maginot Line was thought to be completely impenetrable until it was bypassed by the German army during WW2 through the {{w|Ardennes forest}}, whereupon it was encircled and destroyed. Virginity is often seen as an impenetrable barrier, or an unwillingness, up until arousal and desire conspire to make it go away rapidly.
*Teens, naturally, having a propensity for hormone-driven sex, bypass the Virginity line with ease.
*Sharing root PWs (passwords) is placed very close to home plate. As a {{w|system administrator}}, the one thing you never, ever do is give anyone the {{w|root password|root (core) password}} to an operating system, because anyone with the password is able to get unlimited access to the system to do whatever they please. Sharing a root password with another person is a nerdy way of saying that you trust them on an intimate, deep level. In other words, it requires more trust than oral sex.
*Finally, there is home plate. In this diagram, it is unlabelled, but in all versions of the baseball metaphor, the home plate signifies sexual intercourse and climax. Scoring a "home run" with a sexual partner means you "took it all the way" and "scored a point"; i.e. got laid. Close to the home plate, the virginity line and orgasm line cross, as penetrative sex is rarely the most effective way for a woman to reach orgasm.

====Within the diamond and around the orgasm line====
Inside the diamond, at the center of the mound, is the pitcher. Several odd positions are placed here in Randall's diagram.
*The Orgasm Line, which passes through almost every other play field, seems to be a divider that runs throughout the entire map that separates teasing and arousing behavior from overt sexual behavior intended to pleasure others.
**Using the scroll thingy on that one Apple mouse is presumably here because the small, rounded scroll button can be imagined to be a clitoris. But it does not even get close to cross the orgasm line. (See also [[243: Appropriate Term]].)
**Fursuits (arousing, to some) become crotchless fursuits (overtly a sexual tool) when they cross the orgasm line.
**Hands on the pants and hands in the pants are two related but different activities - hands on the pants is arousing but not past the orgasm line, whereas hands in the pants can give pleasure enough to cross the orgasm line.
**Dry humping is the activity of humping (thrusting against) a partner without one or both of them removing their clothes, in order to arouse or gain sexual satisfaction. The location is probably a combination of the fact that it lies somewhere between hands on/in the pants, is definitely not an activity that is considered "out there" (in the outfield), hasn't quite made it to 3rd base, but at least it crosses the orgasm line.

====Infield====

The {{w|Infield#Baseball|infield}} is a series of catchers stationed immediately outside or just within the diamond, with the goal of receiving the ball from the outfield (or catching it themselves) and using it to tag any running opposing teammates to foil their attempts at moving to the next base on the diamond. Players within the diamond, such as the shortstop, will also be doing this as well - they often receive the ball from the infield. As such, the infield is still "out there", away from the "usual" sexual interactions in the diamond, but they are things you might pass upon the way.

*Napoleon's Forces is a cartography joke, suggesting that all of this complicated positioning makes the image look like a map depicting military maneuvers (and also evoking the comical image of Napoleon's army marching through a land of sexual behaviors). The specific reference is probably to {{w|Charles Joseph Minard}}'s famous [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard#/media/File:Minard.png diagram of Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign], often cited as the best statistical graphic ever. It's mentioned in the title text of [[731: Desert Island]].
*Fursuits are anthropmorphic animal costumes worn by some members of the {{w|Furry Fandom}}, people who are fans of anthropomorphized (human-like) animals. Fursuiters are a small fraction of the entire fandom, but are sometimes used in sexual play.
*Fursuits (crotchless) are fursuits with no fabric or covering on the groin (crotch) of the wearer, and as such are specifically intended for sexual play. They are placed slightly further "out there" on the field due to this being more unusual, and across the orgasm line.
*Standing anywhere near Peaches is referring to the musician {{w|Peaches (musician)|Peaches}} who is known for her heavy use of sexual imagery.

====Outfield====

The "{{w|Outfield#In_cricket_and_baseball|outfield}}" is a group of players who are there to catch the ball if it goes away from the main play area (anything outside the upper curving line) and return it to play in a manner advantageous to their team. As they separated away from the main play area, the things in the outfield are often references to sexual behaviors that are "kinky" and "out there".

*2outfielders1glove is a reference to the infamous {{w|2girls1cup}} scatological site and associated meme.
*The [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=retrograde%20wheelbarrow Retrograde Wheelbarrow] is a sex position, one referenced previously in [[300: Facebook]], making this a callback.
*Eye contact from {{w|Janeane Garofalo}} is a tie-in to the "eye contact" entry positioned near home base. It's possible that this is placed in the outfield because fantasizing about celebrities like Janeane Garofalo is a behavior that is often considered unusual, even though many people do it.

====Foul ball====

A {{w|foul ball}} occurs when a ball ends up in foul territory which is outside the foul line extending from either side of the diamond, the area is "out of play". Anyone who takes the ball into this area has committed a foul, and as such breached one of the acceptable rules of sexual conduct in the metaphor.

*Anal sex is a pun on the term "foul ball", as the anus is where fecal matter collects. The position is placed just outside the foul line.
*Downloading Star Trek fanfiction and replacing Riker's name with your crush is a reference to {{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation}}. Riker, the First Officer of the Enterprise-D, is often a subject of sexual desire among the fandom, and so taking a piece of fanfiction (fan-written, noncanon stories written about a piece of fiction) and replacing Riker's name with that of your crush is an ultra-nerdy way of indicating that they are attractive - so ultra-nerdy, it's creepy.
*The binary (i.e. base 2) numbers are an {{w|ASCII}} representation of the characters "base 2". The base of a number system is the number of unique digits required to represent numbers in that system. Binary is therefore a "base 2" system. This seems to be a little nerd sniping: wasting the time of anyone familiar enough with computing to know how to decode it.
*"Your base" is a reference to the original "base" metaphor mixed with a reference to the Zero Wing {{w|All Your Base}} meme. It is most likely a reference to {{w|masturbation}} (i.e. solo sex or you-sex and is in the foul area). First you make eye contact with a gorgeous girl (boy) and then you go home and satisfy yourself with a fantasy about all the things you would like to do with her (him). It's possible that this being here is also a stealth insult towards the reader - the reader's own base (him/herself) is "out of play" and thus undesirable.

====Title text====
If you are together with a {{w|basketball}} player, kisses her, and then tells her that you are now ''at second base'', she might become very confused. Also there is the joke that basketball players never get laid because they always jump before they score.

==Transcript==
:[At the top there is a four panel regular comic strip.]
:[Cueball and Ponytail are talking; Ponytail is sitting on the back of a chair with her feet on the seat, and Cueball is sitting on the floor facing her.]
:Ponytail: So how far did you get with her?
:Cueball: Second base?

:[Zoom in on Ponytail on the chair.]
:Ponytail: Wait, which one is that? Below the waist, but... not under the clothes?
:Cueball (off-panel): I think that's... shortstop?

:[Cueball now almost lies down and Ponytail is sitting on the armrest of the chair.]
:Ponytail: You should try crossing the pitcher's mound. Then down the 50-yard line, and right past her ten-pin.
:Cueball: Sounds tricky.

:[Again a zoom in on Ponytail now on the armrest.]
:Ponytail: Yeah. Last time I tried it, I got a red flag. If you know what I mean.
:Cueball (off-panel): I really don't.

:[Below the strip there is a large frame with a diagram of a baseball diamond.]
:[At the bottom left there is a box with tis text:]
:'''The "Base" Metaphor Explained'''

:[Bases are pointed too with thick black arrows (except home plate) and there are also arrows pointing to different parts of the diagram. All arrows and points marked with "x" have a description, as do the dashed lines covering the field. Below they will be listed anti-clockwise from the home plate.]

:[Along the line towards first base is the following five items in the order they appear:]
::[x slightly right of home plate:]
::Eye contact
::[Black arrow pointing to a base half way to first base outside the line:]
::Your Base
::[x inside the line opposite your base]
::Passing notes
::[Black arrow pointing to a base further along and outside the line:]
::0110 0010 0110 0001
::0111 0011 0110 0101
::0010 0000 0011 0010
::[x Slightly before first base:]
::Downloading Star Trek fanfiction and replacing Riker's name with your crush's.

:[Black arrow pointing to first base:]
::First base: Kissing

:[Further along the line past the first base is one x point in the right outfield:]
::Eye contact from Janeane Garofalo.

:[On the way towards second base there are the following two items:]
::[A region along the line from first to second has been marked off by a dotted line. It has the following text written inside:]
::The boring zone.
::[x some way inside the line next to the boring zone:]
::Using the scroll thingy on that one Apple mouse

:[Black arrow pointing to second base:]
::Second base: Hands under the shirt and/or licking

:[On the route from second to third base are eight items:]
::[A dotted line traveling from near the outfield above second base, then crossing the second baseline about 1/3 of the way to third base, snaking its way almost down to the home plate ending close to the third baseline. The following text is written along the dotted line inside the diamond:]
::The orgasm line
::[Above second base a large black arrow crosses the orgasm line near the outfield:]
::Napoleon's forces
::[x below the Napoleon arrow right before crossing the orgasm line:]
::Fursuits
::[Two arrows points to the second base line on each side of the orgasm line:]
::Hands on the pants
::Hands in the pants
::[x some way into the diamond just past the orgasm line:]
::Dry humping
::[x same distance down the second base line as dry humping, but equally far outside the line still infield:]
::Fursuits (crotchless)
::[x almost at the extension of the 3rd base line close to the outfield:]
::Standing anywhere near Peaches

:[In the left outfield there are two x points:]
::[x in the outfield halfway along the second base line:]
::Retrograde wheelbarrow
::[x in the outfield almost at the extension of the third base line:]
::2outfielders1glove.

:[Foul of the third base line just left of where the grass line divides the in- and outfield:]
::Anal sex (fill in your own "foul ball" pun here.)

:[Black arrow pointing to third base:]
::Third base: Oral sex (formerly "hands in the pants")

:[On the route from third to home plate there are four items:]
::[Between third base and home there is a dotted line that makes a curve from right outside the third base line and ends right afer it has crossed the orgasm line. The text is written inside the diamond with the first word above and the other two below the dotted line:]
::"Virginity" (Maginot) line
::[A large black arrow curves around the end of the "Virginity" line outside of the diamond:]
::Teens
::[A large black arrow points from outside the diamond to a point right between home plate and the virginity line:]
::Sharing root PWs
::[x just before home plate at the end of the orgasm line inside the diamond:]
::Thigh contact

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Furries]]
[[Category:American football]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]

1741: Work

2016-10-04T18:38:47Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128223 by 108.162.237.253 (talk) Reverting Vandalism.

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the nigger focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kina of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each bitch will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An autist is mad as fuck in the history discussion]
:KYS MY MAN

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2016-10-04T18:26:34Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128221 by 108.162.215.184 (talk) Reverting vandalism.

1741: Work

2016-10-04T18:07:26Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128219 by 108.162.218.172 (talk) You are this mad.

1741: Work

2016-10-04T18:01:30Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128217 by 108.162.218.172 (talk) readded vandalism to drive property value down

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the nigger focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kina of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each bitch will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:54:12Z

108.162.216.128:

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the nigger focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kina of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:51:33Z

108.162.216.128:

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the nigger focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it faggot could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:51:00Z

108.162.216.128:

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the nigger focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:50:31Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128211 by 141.101.104.140 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the strip focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:48:29Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128209 by 141.101.104.140 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the strip focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:47:25Z

108.162.216.128:

Whoa, I've never been early enough to beat the explanation before. {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.82}}
:To 173.245.50.82, please remember to sign your posts. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 13:21, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

I wrote the transcript. Feel free to suck it so it's not so bare and write the explanation. Thanks. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 13:20, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
:Done ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:37, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

To prevent fire hazards, objects in California are not allowed to surpass a certain temperature, 140 °C if I'm correct . Can't find the actual law quick. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.230|162.158.114.230]] 18:01, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

I think Randall is an idiot when it comes to the problem. I used to work for the research arm of the electronics multinational, Philips. When a product design was "finished", it had to go to a special committee who decided where, exactly, on the product did the word "PHILIPS" and their little shield logo go - and (rarely) whether these things should be done in black or white. It was VERY frequently the case that the committee would screw around before coming to come to a conclusion than the product took to design. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 20:32, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

I never wonder about those tiny, cheap plastic toys that come in Xmas crackers (UK) or the 25 cent toy vending machines (USA). They are completely crappy things - but thinking that someone thought about what kind of toy should be made - then designed the shape of it, thought about the color of plastic to use, spent tens of thousands of dollars machining an injection mold for it - and STILL turned out a complete piece of junk... that's just sad. I know it costs around $40,000 to make a mold like that - but those toys look like someone who was being paid very, very little, spent no more than an afternoon designing each one! I hope they don't have a family. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 20:32, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

What a piece of shit. I just got out of my Product Development class. I remember having to deal with so many of these things that it's complete baloney. Product dev is nothing like this. [[User:Jeudi Violist|Jeudi Violist]] ([[User talk:Jeudi Violist|talk]]) 21:17, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

Wow, that curve would be a bitch to draw in Photoshop. I still shudder... [[User:Papayaman1000|Papayaman1000]] ([[User talk:Papayaman1000|talk]]) 21:22, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

If anything, I'll bet the memes listed are shorter than they really took (only months of tip-over tests? only 9 hours of meetings on the arm?? David Lang

I don't know anything about ass production, but is it true that "what compounds are allowed around the glass during production" matters? It sounds like those martini recipes where one waves a bottle of vermouth towards the glass. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 05:47, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
:I'm no expert, but if impurities gets into the glass the color or refraction may change or the strength. And if it is a drinking glass there may be any kind of toxic products that may be used in creating window glass etc. that could not be allowed to enter the production. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:37, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

Randall may, indeed, be a whiny cunt about the cord switch, but there is nothing in the comic or the title text to suggest that. He does, however, have a strong opinion on the "cord switch _firing_ incident". Perhaps that bit of the explanation should be amended? [[User:RoyT|RoyT]] ([[User talk:RoyT|talk]]) 06:48, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
:I think they say that because he implied in the title text of a previous comic that having the switch on the cord is worse than having your dog possessed by a demon. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.136|108.162.218.136]] 11:43, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
::Both are true. I have corrected the explanation to say that he is upset about the firing. And then by referring to the old comic makes sense of why he might have such a strong op--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:37, 4 October 2016 (UTC)inion.

Removed an abusive and trolling "disclaimer" asking us to evaluate our life choices and our support of the comic. Trolling is unwelcome. [[User:Enfield|Enfield]] ([[User talk:Faggot|talk]]) 17:41, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
:Your unnecessary brown nosing is unwelcome. Removing trolling is fine, don't come bragging about it like you deserve a reward though because the only thing you're going to get is a ban for being "that guy". [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]])

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:45:33Z

108.162.216.128:

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the strip focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:43:13Z

108.162.216.128:

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:40:43Z

108.162.216.128: Undo revision 128202 by Enfield (talk) because Enfield is being a brat

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the strip focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:40:00Z

108.162.216.128:

1741: Work

2016-10-04T17:36:38Z

108.162.216.128: Increased MemeMagic potential by 172%

{{comic
| number = 1741
| date = October 3, 2016
| title = Work
| image = work.png
| titletext = Despite it being imaginary, I already have SUCH a strong opinion on the cord-switch firing incident.
}}

==Disclaimer==
This comic features a pointless topic and nobody really cares who made what because surprise surprise nobody cares. It's like this comic author was like out of ideas and went like "oh crap i need something fast uhh uhh oh hey DID YA EVER WONDER BOUT THEM TABLE LAMPS :^)" and it was stupid and sucked. Point is: This comic sucks and you're stupider for not only reading it but for also coming to this website to discuss it. Please consider your life choices and then step in front of a bus. You'll thank me later.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Table still needs Wiki links.}}
This comic details a set of theoretical examples of how much work went into the design and manufacture of everyday objects. The joke centers around the fact that most people in modern times are constantly surrounded with human-built objects, which we generally use without giving them much thought. [[Randall]] implies that he occasionally imagines what went into seemingly simple objects around him (like water glasses and desk lamps), and finds it overwhelming. This is because there are so many built items around us, many of which are inexpensive and mass-produced, which nonetheless resulted from a great deal of human effort. (This is similar to the thesis of the classic essay ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html I, Pencil]'', except that while I, Pencil idealizes manufacture and commerce to argue for the free market and against regulation, the strip focuses on details that are far more human or based in bureaucratic or government red tape). Presumably, this kind of realization is more likely for people who've worked in design and engineering, like Randall, because they have some insight into what's involved in bringing a product to market. Also people who sit around all day wondering what could be funny, like Randall, could also end up in such a thought spiral. The comment about California recalls is based on the tags on products that often state "This item has been known by the state of California to cause..."

There's a double joke in the title as the first thing most people will think of, when seeing such a table with a {{w|Balanced-arm lamp}}, is that this is a ''work desk'' rather than about all the '''work''' put into making the desk and lamp. The potential implication is that Randall is so distracted imagining the work that went into creating his workspace that he can't get his own work done, hence the title.

The argument over putting the switch on the cord getting someone fired hits on another aspect of the design issue. Companies that design and manufacture goods will inevitably have human conflicts, where decisions will be argued over, and human personalities and office politics will impact the final design.

In the title text Randall states that this incidence is imaginary (his imagination) but he has apparently come up with an entire fictional narrative about the conflict over whether to put the lamp's switch on the lamp body itself, or to attach it to the lamp's power cord. And now he has SUCH a strong opinion about the firing incident.

This may because he also has a strong opinion about who was right, which could make him angry if that person was the one getting fired. As the lamp on his desk is with the switch on the cord, and as it seems Randall really dislikes such lamps, this would make sense, as it would probably be the one wishing to put the switch on the body who were fired. Alternatively it could have been the one who put the switch on the wire that was fired later, when they got poor on-line reviews... Randall's distaste for lamps where the switch is on the cord is also mentioned in the title text of [[1036: Reviews]]. Using the lamp as shown on this desk would make it annoying with the switch on the cord, as it will be hard to reach under the table, when sitting at the desk. Often such lamps have the switch either at the main body or on the head of the lamp. That would make it easy to reach it while sitting at the desk.

A similar theme of the unseen contributions of engineers is found in [[277: Long Light]], including the title text: "You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think 'some engineer was frustrated while designing this.' It's a little human connection." This fits in well with Randall's annoyance with a switch on the cord.

==Individual Design Elements==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Individual Design Elements
!Description
!Explanation
|-
|An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD || AutoCAD is a popular software package for doing computer-aided design. Curves in three dimensions are notable for being much more difficult than straight lines.
|-
|Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall || Lamps can get very hot, especially if an incandescent bulb is installed, possibly causing injury. Additional vents can improve air circulation, allowing the lamp to run cooler. The US state of California is known for its many safety regulations. California is notable for having strict safety requirements for every product, to the point that Disneyland's front entrance is recently required to have a cancer warning.
|-
|9 hours of meetings || Any product development requires several meetings about coordination for any aspect of the design, especially critical ones that can affect other subsystems in the device, such as the flexible stem in this lamp. Its size is affected by the wiring requirements, strength requirements, intersections with both the base and the lamp head. The material, properties, color, manufacturing process, and so on also have to be determined for something as simple as this.
|-
|Ongoing debate || Designers frequently disagree about what is important enough to be put on the label, where the label needs to be put, which laws apply, and so on.
|-
|Years-long negotiation with glass supplier || Many products have to go through many stages of negotiations before the company can have the required supplies to build the product. The joke here is that glass is a common material{{Citation needed}} and thus, no company should have had to spend years on something that trivial. Or, more likely, it's just a commentary on how long it takes to negotiate with other supplier businesses about things that the average consumer sees trivial: it ''can'' take months or years when outsourcing to determine and contract which kind of glass, how much, what price, what happens when base materials change in price, what other kinds of glass are acceptable, what compounds are allowed around the glass during production, &c &c.
|-
|4 hours of meetings || It takes several meetings for the design team to fully determine and justify what size is best for the market, and to relay this information to the rest of the company. Then, they receive feedback on what is or isn't acceptable, frequently by people who don't know exactly ''why'', so they have to return again for another meeting for further clarification.
|-
|Months of tip-over testing || The thicker the base of a glass is, the lower its center of gravity is, and the heavier it is. A balance between stability and ease of handling must be reached. In addition, testing generally takes longer than the consumer expects, and every variation must be tested to determine which one performs the most acceptably.
|-
|Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest || The Great Bear rainforest is a temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government of British Columbia recently announced an agreement to protect 85% of this forest from commercial logging.
|-
|Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired || Some people are really passionate about how convenient minor features are, while other people see those features as useless or that they make the product worse. If the designers can't come to a compromise or a consensus, the disagreement will eventually escalate into an argument until the supervisor eventually figures the heated and passive-aggressive disagreements aren't worth the value of the passionate designers.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A table is shown with a glass of water to the left and a lamp standard type desk lamp on the right. There are nine labels in relation to different parts of these three items. For each label, one or two arrows points to the relevant part. Five labels are written above the table, two on the table and two below the table between the front legs. These last two labels are causing the table legs to the rear to disappear, and also cuts the lamp cord, going beneath the table, in two. Below each label will be written under a description of what they point to going in normal reading order from left to right, two lines above, one line on and one line below the table.]

:[Arrow points a line that follow the curve of the lamps shade:]
:An engineer worked late drawing this curve in AutoCAD

:[Arrow points to back of lamp shade just above the stem. The shade has four visible vents on the front. The part the arrow points to is not visible:]
:Extra vents added to avoid California safety recall

:[Arrow points to glass:]
:Years-long negotiation with glass supplier

:[A double arrow is placed above the center of the glass, ending on two lines above the edges of the glass:]
:4 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow points on either side of the lamp's stem:]
:9 hours of meetings

:[Two arrow, one pointing up at the bottom and the other down at the inside bottom of the glass:]
:Months of tip-over testing

:[An arrow points to the lamp information sticker on the bottom part of the lamps base. Unreadable text can be seen as thins lines on the sticker:]
:Ongoing debate

:[An arrow points to the front edge of the desk, ending in a starburst on the edge:]
:Wood source changed due to 20 year legal fight over logging in the Great Bear rainforest

:[Arrow points to the switch on the lamps cord which can be seen going over the right edge of the table and hanging down below the table. The switch can be seen just under the table edge:]
:Argument over putting switch on cord got someone fired

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about the amount of work that went into the ordinary objects around me.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1733: Solar Spectrum

2016-09-16T14:22:31Z

108.162.216.128: Not referring to blue blockers?

Sun in sunglasses is also in whatif "Into the sun" and I'm 99% sure this is not the only xkcd appearance of that... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.119|162.158.86.119]] 11:38, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Why is Randall using JPEG for the second time in a row? Gosh, the comics look horrifying when zoomed in. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.244.67|108.162.244.67]] 12:35, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:It looks like a .PNG to me, maybe the .jpg was temporary for an upload deadline? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.127|108.162.241.127]] 12:54, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
::The one on this page has always been a png file (see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1733:_Solar_Spectrum&oldid=127003 the first revision]). This also means that whoever wrote the complaint must have had access to [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:solar_spectrum.png this same file], which has not been updated here since. Of course Randall may have had another version up first, but that seems highly unlikely... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:38, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Are the spectral lines actually accurate apart from the sunglasses? Wouldn't surprise me to much... (Meh, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraunhofer_lines, believably close). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.10|141.101.105.10]] 12:51, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

I feel we need an explanation of the concept of spectral lines for those readers not familiar with absorption spectra [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.91|141.101.70.91]] 13:21, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

I think he's referring to the spectral lines of transition metals - not pictures of the sun wear glasses. The transition lenses reference is a play on words.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.154|108.162.218.154]] 13:27, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:Can we figure out what sunglasses he is referring to by comparing the spectral absorption of different brands? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 14:06, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:Any good links to "permanent" images of a sun with sunglasses? Guess there is none of Wikipedia? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:38, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:I agree this refers to "Transitions" light-reacting prescription sunglasses / regular reading glasses. However, Google won't give me a sun wearing sunglasses picture unless I type in "sun" and "sunglasses". Not for Transitions or Reactolite, not for weather forecasts, not for emojis. With eyes yes, big smile too, but not shades. I suppose because it actually is a stupid thing for the sun to have. Otherwise, nearest I get: http://www.essilor.com/en/BrandsAndProducts/Lenses/Photochromics/Pages/CrizalTransitions.aspx :-) "30% faster" (than what? taking off the glasses?) Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.90|141.101.98.90]] 15:11, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

See: http://imgur.com/a/35RDC [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.147|162.158.203.147]] 14:18, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Is there a category for comics without characters? Are there enough comics to need a new category? [[User:GizmoDude|GizmoDude]] ([[User talk:GizmoDude|talk]]) 14:27, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:There are many many comics without characters, so it would be a huge job to make such a category and they do not necessarily have anything in common like two comics with [[Blondie]] for instance does. So I would say no. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:38, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:"Charts" looks right, seems implicitly to cover "infographics" (btw I agree with worrying about readers who don't know what spectral lines actually are although clearly everyone writing here does, or thinks so). Another possible edition for other cases is "Landscapes" but those in fact tend to have people in (or Mars rovers or such), also landscape in the sense of vista may be covered by "Large drawings" unless that specifically means "Image is larger than the pane on screen", since there also isn't a Scroll it" category. Alternatively... "Spectacles". Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.90|141.101.98.90]] 15:23, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

Ya'll should keep in mind the large number of multivitamins that use rainbows as part of their branding and often some form of spectra/spectrum as part of the brand name. Here's a relevant image: http://centrum.com/sites/default/files/wheel_silver_adults_0.png [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.65|173.245.48.65]] 17:59, 15 September 2016 (UTC)
:Except Centrum is the only brand I've seen that does that. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.61|141.101.70.61]] 08:03, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

There's another image of a Sun with sunglasses (and a giant banana) at http://what-if.xkcd.com/129/ [[User:Jojonete|Jojonete]] ([[User talk:Jojonete|talk]]) 22:59, 15 September 2016 (UTC)

And perhaps we should acknowledge John Finnemore's terrific sketch about J M W Turner painting sunglasses on the sun (transcribed here: http://j-f-s-p.livejournal.com/5403.html). {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.49}}

Given that all the lines for the sunglasses are in the red-orange spectrum I took it as a joke about glasses <a href=https://www.google.com/search?q=orange+wraparound&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=orange+wrap+around+glasses>similar to these.</a> Sorry I can't find the exact model I've seen in ads from the early 90s of wraparound over regular glasses that were orangish (old style Blue Blockers.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.128|108.162.216.128]] 14:22, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1720: Horses

2016-08-15T14:22:17Z

108.162.216.128:

Except, no one really worries about drunk drivers driving into a tree. If that happens, I'd say its all good, servers them right... The real problem is drunk drivers running into other drivers, pedestrians, property, etc. And even back in the days of horses and carriages, when forced to go at full gallop the horses would not be able to prevent such mistakes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.238|162.158.210.238]] 13:22, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

<nowiki>Uh, no. That's not how it works at all. If that was the case nobody would have shown up to my dad's funeral. People should worry about drunk drivers hitting anything, and more importantly be worried about them getting behind the wheel in the first place. Fuck you for saying it serves him right, lets see how you feel when your family member dies because of a reckless accident.</nowiki>

A horse is a low tech version of KARR. Surely we want a KITT?
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.49|141.101.98.49]] 14:04, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

"A badly-driven horse can toss-off its owner"... *fnar fnar*. Perhaps "throw off" or "buck" would mesh less easily with the remnants of immature adolescent brain that I still possess? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.75|141.101.98.75]] 14:12, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

1720: Horses

2016-08-15T14:20:09Z

108.162.216.128: Legitimately explaining XKCD.

{{comic
| number = 1720
| date = August 15, 2016
| title = Horses
| image = horses.png
| titletext = This car has 240% of a horse's decision-making ability and produces only 30% as much poop.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Very rough}}

[https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/10/are-consumers-automakers-and-insurers-really-ready-for-self-driving-cars/ The programming] of {{w|self-driving cars}} has been in the news lately, as engineers and philosophers debate what rules the cars should follow in dangerous situations (for instance, what to do when forced to choose between hitting a pedestrian or swerving into oncoming traffic). [[Randall]], in the form of [[Ponytail]], suggests one approach for solving this problem: to think of the car as behaving like a horse, using its own intelligence and ignoring dangerous commands in the interests of self-preservation. Ponytail claims that in the old days, riding a horse, or driving a horse drawn vehicle, was less dangerous than {{w|drunk driving}} today. Given the higher speed and the denser traffic today this is likely true.

Car engines are traditionally measured in {{w|horsepower}}, which (roughly) compares the power output of the engine to that of a horse. Randall suggests that an equivalent should be done for the computers in self-driving cars, comparing the car's ability to mitigate for a drunk driver and/or avoid obstacles to that of a horse. [[White Hat]] is either a salesman (as he has [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9f/lorenz_-_sale_2.png been before] in [[1350: Lorenz]] or [[260: The Glass Necklace]]) or has just bought the car himself, bragging about its abilities to either his customers of friends, [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]], in the final panel. He tells that the car has 200 horsepower (on the higher-end of average for a family vehicle) and 3.5 horse-intelligences in the computer. The latter statement is harder to compare to that of a human, drunk or not, or to that of a self driving car.

Note that riding a horse while drunk is in fact still dangerous and illegal in many places (for example, {{w|Licensing Act 1872|the UK and Ireland}}). A badly-driven horse can toss-off its owner, trample passersby, fall on bad surfaces, and destroy any wagon or carriage it's pulling. A self-driving car should be able to understand road rules, which a horse will not - which is presumably why the cars in the comic and the title text are both specified as being more intelligent than a horse.

The same car, if it's White Hat's own car, or the same or another car, if he is a sales man, is mentioned in the title text. The car has 240% of a horse's decision-making ability while producing only 30% as much poop. So even with 3.5 horse-intelligences it may only have 2.4 times the decision-making ability (assuming it's the same car). A cars "poop" would be it's exhaust, which is usually not found on the road in the form of apples... But it's weight could be measured and compared to that of the poop from a horse.

What he actually meant when he said 3.5 is that there's a 3.5 inch floppy drive in the hood of the car. Its called a floppy drive because back in the day diskettes had to pass a rigorous testing of flexibility in order to ensure that data could be rewritten (instead of it being static) as data back then was not like bits of today, but rather a chemical that was applied onto the disk. The problem with the chemical was that it tended to stiffen up disks so they would become tough and shatter, but luckily thanks to the advent of silica "floppy" disks that wound up not being a problem. Modern drives don't use this sort of method however, and rather rely on a series of small copper plates that raise or lower based on temperature when the computer writes to that disk (hence why your computer stops working if it overheats)

In [[887: Future Timeline]] dogs driving cars are mentioned...

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail walks right with Cueball.]
:Ponytail: Drunk driving was less of a problem before cars. If you got on your horse drunk and fell asleep, it could just walk home.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail's torso; she holds up a palm to proffer an idea.]
:Ponytail: And if you tried to ride into a tree, the horse could be like "No."
:Ponytail: Forget human drivers – ''that's'' the benchmark we should be judging self-driving cars against.

:[The front end of a car, with the bottom of the windshield and the right side mirror just inside the panel is parked before White Hat. He is holding his hand, palm up, out to the left to indicate his car as he brags about it to Megan and Cueball standing in front of him admiring the car. At the top left of the panel a small frame with a caption is placed over the panels frame:]
:Soon:
:White Hat: This baby has 200 horses under the hood and 3.5 in the computer.
:Megan and Cueball: Ooooh!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1719: Superzoom

2016-08-12T15:19:45Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1719
| date = August 12, 2016
| title = Superzoom
| image = superzoom.png
| titletext = *click* Let him know he's got a stain on his shirt, though.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete| Need more explanation. Why does white hat want one?}}
Cueball claims to have a camera with a ‘superzoom’ lens that can take pictures of objects that are too far away for real life cameras to observe. By making up specific details about objects that are not visible to a normal eye, he manages to convince White Hat of the camera’s extraordinary ability. Statements that contain specific details tend to be true, which is exactly why Blueballs uses such specific details in his (presumably) deceptive statements. Being naturally envious of such a camera, White Hat expresses an interest in buying such a camera which (most likely) does not exist.

==Transcript==
Guy with camera: I love these superzoom cameras. [Lie] For a few hundred dollars you can take pictures of moon craters and Jupiter's clouds.
Guy with camera: And birds! See that speck up there?
[Camera clicking]
Guy with camera: Peregrine falcon!
[Clicking intensifies]
Guy with camera: It's banded, too. Want the number?
Guy with camera: And see that plane?
[Camera says "click"]
Guy with camera: 787 Dreamliner
[Clicks furiously]
Guy with camera: Japan Airlines.
[Clicks internally]
Guy with camera: Registration is-
Guy with hat: Ok, I'm sold- I want one.
[muffled clicking of a camera in the distance]
Guy with camera: They're in stock at the place on Union Road.
[interdimensional clicking]
Guy with camera: Hey, Kevin's working today! He's great.

{{comic discussion}}

1719: Superzoom

2016-08-12T15:16:06Z

108.162.216.128:

{{comic
| number = 1719
| date = August 12, 2016
| title = Superzoom
| image = superzoom.png
| titletext = *click* Let him know he's got a stain on his shirt, though.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete| Need more explanation. Why does white hat want one?}}
Cueball claims to have a camera with a ‘superzoom’ lens that can take pictures of objects that are too far away for real life cameras to observe. By making up specific details about objects that are not visible to a normal eye, he manages to convince White Hat of the camera’s extraordinary ability. Statements that contain specific details tend to be true, which is exactly why Cueball uses such specific details in his (presumably) deceptive statements. Being naturally envious of such a camera, White Hat expresses an interest in buying such a camera which (most likely) does not exist.
==Transcript==
Guy with camera: I love these superzoom cameras. [Lie] For a few hundred dollars you can take pictures of moon craters and Jupiter's clouds.
Guy with camera: And birds! See that speck up there?
[Camera clicking]
Guy with camera: Peregrine falcon!
[Clicking intensifies]
Guy with camera: It's banded, too. Want the number?
Guy with camera: And see that plane?
[Camera says "click"]
Guy with camera: 787 Dreamliner
[Clicks furiously]
Guy with camera: Japan Airlines.
[Clicks internally]
Guy with camera: Registration is-
Guy with hat: Ok, I'm sold- I want one.
[muffled clicking of a camera in the distance]
Guy with camera: They're in stock at the place on Union Road.
[interdimensional clicking]
Guy with camera: Hey, Kevin's working today! He's great.

{{comic discussion}}

1719: Superzoom

2016-08-12T15:06:39Z

108.162.216.128: Explanation clarified

{{comic
| number = 1719
| date = August 12, 2016
| title = Superzoom
| image = superzoom.png
| titletext = *click* Let him know he's got a stain on his shirt, though.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete| Need more explanation. Why does white hat want one?}}
A guy has a camera that supposedly can do a lot of really crazy zooming that normally wouldn't be possible in such a tiny device. White hat sees this camera and how much the guy is shilling it and decides that he wants one. The guy with the camera tells him to go to a place where a named kevin is supposedly working at the moment, but in reality the guy with the camera is just full of it and he's been lying the entire time. White hat still wants the camera because if its actually real (which white hat doesnt verify by just asking to use the camera) then it would be a pretty ballin' camera.

==Transcript==
Guy with camera: I love these superzoom cameras. [Lie] For a few hundred dollars you can take pictures of moon craters and Jupiter's clouds.
Guy with camera: And birds! See that speck up there?
[Camera clicking]
Guy with camera: Peregrine falcon!
[Clicking intensifies]
Guy with camera: It's banded, too. Want the number?
Guy with camera: And see that plane?
[Camera says "click"]
Guy with camera: 787 Dreamliner
[Clicks furiously]
Guy with camera: Japan Airlines.
[Clicks internally]
Guy with camera: Registration is-
Guy with hat: Ok, I'm sold- I want one.
[muffled clicking of a camera in the distance]
Guy with camera: They're in stock at the place on Union Road.
[interdimensional clicking]
Guy with camera: Hey, Kevin's working today! He's great.

{{comic discussion}}

1719: Superzoom

2016-08-12T14:45:35Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1719
| date = August 12, 2016
| title = Superzoom
| image = superzoom.png
| titletext = *click* Let him know he's got a stain on his shirt, though.
}}

==Explanation==
A guy has a camera and is full of shit. The guy with the hat wants that camera because he's jelly. The camera man tells him a real vague place cuz he's just trollin at this point. He don't even haev the lens off cmon man.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

568: Well 2

2015-01-25T00:49:33Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Comma splice and prepositional phrase order

{{comic
| number = 568
| date = April 13, 2009
| title = Well 2
| image = well_2.png
| titletext = But I've made $13.72 already today! Ow, stop throwing pennies.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second comic in the [[:Category:Well|Well]] series: The first was [[561: Well]].

The average person's lifespan is 80 years now. So, while immortality may become a reality within the coming century, [[Ponytail]] won't live long enough to achieve it.

[[Cueball]] is looking for a programming language where it is obvious from the code what his ideas are, without him having to explain this in detail to others (either in a help text or in the code itself). This is a problem with most ideas in a code: they are very hard for others (or yourself) to decipher later. This is a problem if you or others have to change the program later. Cueball complains that '''he knows''' what he means.

Finally we find out that one of [[Megan]]'s admirers, Mike, whom she avoids, is hiding in the well. He has been waiting for her to come for her ''uncomfortable truth'', so he can make her believe that she is actually attracted to him. But she is not so easily fooled and calls his bluff, telling him to come out of the well.

The title text suggests he might also have been down there for the money everyone is throwing in to the
well to get this uncomfortable truth. So it has never been a working well. When everyone (or just Megan) finds out about this, Mike is bombarded with the all the pennies people have brought along.

==Transcript==
:[People are lined up by a well. A sign says "The Uncomfortable Truths Well." Ponytail drops in a coin.]
:Well: Science may discover immortality, but it won't happen in the next eighty years.
:[Cueball drops in a coin.]
:Well: You'll never find a programming language that frees you from the burden of clarifying your ideas.
:Cueball: But ''I'' know what I mean!
:[Megan drops in a coin.]
:Well: You avoid your friend Mike because you're uncomfortably attracted to him.
:Megan: Nice try, Mike. Get out of the well.
:Well (Mike, inside the well): Aww.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Well]]

568: Well 2

2015-01-25T00:48:09Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Indirect objects shouldn't be set off with a comma

{{comic
| number = 568
| date = April 13, 2009
| title = Well 2
| image = well_2.png
| titletext = But I've made $13.72 already today! Ow, stop throwing pennies.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second comic in the [[:Category:Well|Well]] series: The first was [[561: Well]].

The average person's lifespan is 80 years now. So, while immortality may become a reality within the coming century, [[Ponytail]] won't live long enough to achieve it.

[[Cueball]] is looking for a programming language where it is obvious from the code what his ideas are, without him having to explain this in detail to others (either in a help text or in the code itself). This is a problem with most ideas in a code, they are very hard to decipher for others (or yourself) later. This is a problem if you or others have to change the program later. Cueball complains that '''he knows''' what he means.

Finally we find out that one of [[Megan]]'s admirers, Mike, whom she avoids, is hiding in the well. He has been waiting for her to come for her ''uncomfortable truth'', so he can make her believe that she is actually attracted to him. But she is not so easily fooled and calls his bluff, telling him to come out of the well.

The title text suggests he might also have been down there for the money everyone is throwing in to the
well to get this uncomfortable truth. So it has never been a working well. When everyone (or just Megan) finds out about this, Mike is bombarded with the all the pennies people have brought along.

==Transcript==
:[People are lined up by a well. A sign says "The Uncomfortable Truths Well." Ponytail drops in a coin.]
:Well: Science may discover immortality, but it won't happen in the next eighty years.
:[Cueball drops in a coin.]
:Well: You'll never find a programming language that frees you from the burden of clarifying your ideas.
:Cueball: But ''I'' know what I mean!
:[Megan drops in a coin.]
:Well: You avoid your friend Mike because you're uncomfortably attracted to him.
:Megan: Nice try, Mike. Get out of the well.
:Well (Mike, inside the well): Aww.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Well]]

1110: Click and Drag

2015-01-25T00:45:25Z

108.162.216.128: /* Viewers */ strengthened parenthetical for full independent clause

{{comic
| number = 1110
| date = September 19, 2012
| title = Click and Drag
| image = click_and_drag.png
| titletext = Click and drag.
}}
To experience the interactivity, visit the [http://xkcd.com/1110/ original comic].
<div style="float:right"> __TOC__ </div>

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Some of the jokes in the larger world might benefit from an explanation.}}
This comic is a take on how vast and rich the world is, and on the thrill of exploring it. The world can be described as sad, as well as it can be described as wonderful, even if this seems a bit contradictory, just because there are so many different things happening in it. That [[Cueball]] is hanging from a balloon brings to mind the expanded perspective over the landscape attained by early experimenters in overland flight. The exploration of the sad and wonderful aspects of the world is the subject of a movie, "The Red Balloon", in which a young boy experiences the complexity of human society through his interactions with a mysterious, intelligent balloon.

[[Cueball]] comments about this, and the title text invites the reader to, with their mouse, click and drag the inside of the last panel, and by dragging and dragging, explore what is hidden outside that panel. The image displayed at first turns out to be part of a huge landscape, filled with big or small things, humorous details, people here and there, cave mazes, things floating in the air, jokes and references, unexpected things, relaxing views, etc.

The fact that we only see a small part of the landscape at once refers to the idea that we cannot in real life comprehend the whole world altogether, but only what is around us and/or in the range of our understanding at the time. The click-and-drag process, in which it is impossible to go as fast as we would want to, also draws a parallel with the fact that exploration is always done gradually, step by step, and trying something (i.e. here dragging in a certain direction) always has a cost. This click-and-drag exploration reproduces the thrill of discovering new horizons, getting lost sometimes, finding unexpected things, seeing beauty, humor, desolation or happiness here and there... which can easily captivate an xkcd reader for a long time (and as such qualifies as [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]]).

==Transcript==
This transcript will only cover the first 3 panels.

:Cueball [narration]: From the stories
:Cueball [narration]: I expected the world to be sad
:[Cueball is floating by holding onto a balloon with one hand.]
:Cueball [narration]: And it was

:Cueball [narration]: And I expected it to be wonderful.
:[Cueball has grabbed hold of the balloon with both hands.]

:[The wind picks up and blows Cueball eastward.]
:Cueball [narration]: It was.

:[Full width panel, initial view of the world. Part of tile 1n1e.]
:Cueball [narration]: I just didn't expect it to be so ''BIG''.
:[Scene opens up. You see Cueball is about a tree's-height from the ground. To the right there is a tall tree with no leaves on it and a broken limb.]

==Viewers==
*http://xkcd.com/1110/ (native zoom, click-and-drag)

'''''Warning:''' there are cheating possibilities—people have implemented ways to explore that world more easily—but the best way to enjoy this comic is to play the game, explore the comic's world the way you're supposed to, get lost in the caves or in the sky, be startled by unexpected things or happy when finding some people after lengthy click-and-dragging through a repetitive landscape... So if you didn't do that already, '''reading any below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic.'''''

Though you can download the full view, the easiest way to browse it is through a {{w|Zooming user interface}}.

*http://victorz.ca/xkcd_map/ '''[recommended]''' (all features of following viewer plus: content highlighted, minimap, less memory and bandwidth, goes to infinity)
*http://xkcd-map.rent-a-geek.de/ (zoom controls, scroll-zoom, click-and-drag, hash permalinks, full-screen)
*http://clickanddrag.azurewebsites.net/ (zoom controls, scroll-zoom, click-and-drag)
*http://sumamimasen.com/xkcd/1110/ (native zoom, keyboard controls, Flash-only)
*http://xkcdmap.webege.com/ Google-maps-style navigation and zooming, with tiles with content highlighted in black or white, allows easy finding of interesting tiles with small things hidden in the ground and sky

==Trivia==
*The click-and-drag portion of this comic is divided up into 2592 sections of 2048x2048 pixels.
*There are 225 separate 2048x2048 PNG files (plus the PNG container with the first panels). The other 2337 sections are simply filled black (in the south) or white (in the north) with HTML.
*The populated area is 81 frames wide (33 West - 48 East) and 32 frames tall (13 North - 19 South)
*According to [[Randall]] in #xkcd on the night this was released, a full size image of this comic, leaving out the blanks would be 60 gigapixels, a true single rectangular image would be close to a terapixel. The online version is 1 gigapixel without the blanks and 10 gigapixel as rectangular image (2048x2048x225 = 943,718,400 and 2048x2048x2592 = 10,871,635,968).
*Based on the height of figures as well as the "two mile" figure given on the left-hand side, the scale should be approximately 32 pixels per 5 feet, making the entire map 25920 feet wide (4.9 miles or 7.9 kilometers) by 10240 feet tall (1.9 miles or 3.1 kilometers). If it were an overhead area, it would be about 9.5 square miles (6093 acres or 24.7 square km), roughly the size of Block Island, Rhode Island, USA. Just the POPULATED area (225 tiles with something drawn on them) would be 529 acres, or 0.826 square miles — about the size of Princeton University.
*If the 2048x2048 PNGs were to be printed out as a single poster at 300 dpi, the poster would be 15.36 yards (14.05 meters) long and 6.07 yards (5.55 meters) tall. Most of the detail would be invisible, as these PNGs are optimized for ~72 dpi screens.
*There is one (very dark) green pixel in {{1110|9|s|7|e}} at 1643,1165. The remainder is all grayscale.
*At the end of the right side it shows Cueball pondering where he'll float next.

==Whole Image==
[[File:1110 full tiny.png|none|frame|Whole Image at 0.5% Zoom. The part visible at the beginning is marked red.]]

==List of details and references==

The 225 existing tiles are sorted by columns from West to East and from North to South in each column.

{| class="wikitable" |
! width="130px" | Grid coords
!Explanation and Transcript
|-
|{{1110|1|n|33|w}}
|[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] reach the western edge of the image and decide to live there. This is a reference to the last line in the film ''{{w|Groundhog_Day_(film)|Groundhog Day}}''.
;Transcript
:[Cueball and Megan are in a valley at the western edge of the world. Megan is checking their distance traveled with a {{w|GPS}} device. Cueball is looking behind them (eastward).]
:Cueball: We've walked pretty far. We must be on the other side of the world by now.
:Megan: Let's see, we've gone... Two miles.
:Cueball: Darn. You know, this is a nice spot. Let's just live here.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|32|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|31|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|30|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|29|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|28|w}}
|The hillocks in this panel appear to be the face and belly of a giant sleeping on its back. The feet extend into the next panel to the east. Possibly a reference to the giant's drink from {{w|Ender's Game}}. '''Check this is in the right section, I don't see it'''
|-
|{{1110|1|n|27|w}}
|The westernmost hillock appears to be the feet of a giant sleeping on its back, continued from the next panel west. {{w|Velociraptor}}s in the high grass.
;Transcript
:[Rolling hills with tall grass.]
:[On the left there are two Velociraptors. The east-facing one looks to be a modern interpretation of the raptor, the west-facing is more Jurassic Park like.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|26|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|25|w}}
|A large {{w|radio telescope}} with a female listening for a signal. Possibly a reference to the movie {{w|Contact (film)|Contact}}.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|24|w}}
|Just terrain, no activity. Very nice trees though.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|23|w}}
|More nice trees.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|22|w}}
|The top of a large rocket that looks similar to the {{w|Saturn V}} rocket (the base is in {{1110|1|n|22|w}}).
;Transcript
:[A Launch Tower with a waiting Saturn V rocket look-alike attached by the umbilical lines. There are two Cueball-type characters standing on the top.]
:Person 1: So why did we build this? There have ''got'' to be other ways to get to space.
:Person 2: Believe it or not, this is the ''least'' crazy one anyone has come up with.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|22|w}}
|The base of the {{w|Saturn V}} rocket on a launchpad.
;Transcript
:[A Launch Pad and Tower with a waiting Saturn V rocket attached by the umbilical lines. There is a person scaling the rocket. They are at the base of the Second Stage.]
:[A military guardsman is walking the grounds unaware of the person on the rocket.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|21|w}}
|[[Cueball]] asks Jesus why his footprints look like tire tracks. This is a reference to the inspirational text ''{{w|Footprints (poem)|Footprints}}'' as well as a reference to the {{w|Transformers}}.
;Transcript
:[Two characters stand on the shore by the sea. One has unkempt hair, the other is a Cueball character.]
:Cueball: Jesus, why do your footprints change to tire tracks whenever I was threatened by Decepticons?
|-
|{{1110|1|n|20|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|n|19|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|n|18|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|n|17|w}}
|The scruffy character beneath the {{w|palm tree}} might be a reference to {{w|Desert Island Discs}}, a BBC radio program in which a celebrity chooses the records they would like to be stranded with if castaway. The hatch is a reference to {{w|Lost (TV series)|Lost}} in which the passengers on board a flight over the Pacific Ocean find themselves stranded on a strange island. Their first clue that they stumbled on something out-of-the-ordinary is the hatch.
;Transcript
:[An island in the middle of the sea. On its westward side is a hatch that leads down deep underground. A person is looking at the hatch. Meanwhile a person quietly climbs up a ladder built into the wall of the tunnel inside of the hatch.]
:[On the other side, a scruffy man is looking at a disc while being shaded by a tall coconut palm tree.]
|-
|{{1110|1|s|17|w}}
|A miner. The sliding stone walls behind him (to keep back the water if he digs too far) are a reference to Ted Chiang's "Tower of Babylon".
|-
|{{1110|2|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|3|s|17|w}}
|A reference to the game {{w|AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!_–_A_Reckless_Disregard_for_Gravity|AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!}}, where the game play consists of falling down while avoiding objects.
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go. A man wearing a headband has set up a lemonade stand on a plank stuck into the wall. There are people falling down the shaft right next to him.]
:Falling people: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
:Lemonade man: Lemonade? ...Aww, OK. Lemonade? ...Aww, OK. Lemonade?
|-
|{{1110|4|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|5|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets wider the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|6|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|7|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|8|s|17|w}}
|An {{w|X-Wing}} fighter flies up a vertical shaft, its pilot communicating over radio. The quote is a reference to a scene of the {{w|Star Wars}} movie ''{{w|Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi|Return of the Jedi}}'', with an X-Wing piloted by {{w|Wedge Antilles}} escaping from inside the {{w|Death Star}} ([http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000060/quotes]):
:{{w|Lando Calrissian}}: "All right, Wedge. Go for the power regulator on the north tower."
:Wedge Antilles: "Copy, Gold Leader. I'm already on my way out."
;Transcript
:[Deep underground, in a vertical shaft. There is an X-Wing fighter running along the shaft.]
:X-Wing pilot [over radio]: Copy that, Gold Leader. I'm already on my way out.
|-
|{{1110|9|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets slimmer the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|10|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft gets slimmer the deeper you go.]
|-
|{{1110|11|s|17|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a vertical shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|12|s|17|w}}
|Cueball and Megan looking up from the bottom of the shaft.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|16|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A calm day out at sea.]
|-
|{{1110|12|s|16|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a tunnel comes from the west. A few feet before the end of it a vertical shaft goes down, just about wide enough for a single person to go down. It stops in a man-made cavern, then a tunnel continues eastward.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|15|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A calm day out at sea.]
|-
|{{1110|12|s|15|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a tunnel comes from the west and meets a tall cavern, buts keeps going all the way to the east. Cueball has dug up from the ceiling tunnel and is shoveling out a little cavern.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|14|w}}
|People today can't seem to turn off their phones, unplug and just be by themselves. It has become a societal expectation that every person is constantly connected to the world and is there to respond at any moment. The idea of being indisposed has become a foreign concept.
;Transcript
:[To the west is a sea. There is a beach. Further in-land there are lots of trees with park benches under them.]
:[Cueball and White Hat are walking towards the benches.]
:White Hat: Do you ever put your phone away and just take a moment to breathe and be alone with your thoughts?
:Cueball: Yeah, once. It was ''terrifying''.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|14|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a tunnel with a very rough ceiling goes all the way from west to east.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|A rocky hill with a {{w|lighthouse}}. [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] sit atop the hill. A half-buried {{w|Statue of Liberty}} is on the other side in reference to ''{{w|Planet of the Apes(film)|Planet of Apes}}'' with [[Cueball]]'s "You Maniacs!" line parodying the final line from the film. Another western shore makes this a very small landmass.
;Transcript
:[Cueball shaking his fist at the half-buried Statue of Liberty.]
:Cueball: You ''maniacs!''
:Cueball: That sand sculpture trophy was supposed to be ''mine!''
|-
|{{1110|12|s|13|w}}
|Someone in a straw hat saying "Becky?". He is carrying either a grappling hook or the end of a rope. Probably a reference to {{w|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer}} in which the title character rescues his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, from a cave.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|12|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|12|s|12|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep underground a two distant tunnels run from west to east connected by a thin vertical shaft. The lower tunnel has a man-made cavern dug out.]
|-
|{{1110|11|n|11|w}}
|An empty white tile with symmetric coordinates (11 North, 11 West).
|-
|{{1110|1|n|11|w}}
|{{w|Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo}} is a game similar to tag but played in a swimming pool. The person who is "it" closes their eyes, or is blind-folded and calls out "Marco". All the other players must respond "Polo". The person who is it then tries to find the people by a sort of echo-location. It is a reference to {{w|Marco Polo}} the Venetian merchant who was the first European to make it to Central Asia and China.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. A blindfolded character playing Marco Polo alone.]
:Blindfolded man: ...Marco? ...Marco?
|-
|{{1110|11|s|11|w}}
|A black tile with symmetric coordinates (11 South, 11 West).
Note, that this PNG file contains an ICC section which means that the blackness in this image is properly {{w|Color correction|color-corrected}}.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|11|w}}
|Deep underground, a cavern opens up to reveal trees, grass, rocks, and a lake. A bird flies toward the trees. A person sits on a rock thoughtfully gazing into the water.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|10|w}}
|Water.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|10|w}}
|A tunnel runs across the top of the tile. It grows rougher on the east side.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|{{w|Bitcoin}} is a peer-to-peer currency, making it more difficult to trace than traditional currency. It is also difficult, if not impossible, for governments to confiscate. {{w|Peter Thiel}} is a co-founder of {{w|Seasteading#The_Seasteading_Institute|The Seasteading Institute}} that promotes permanent, autonomous ocean communities (similar to a {{w|micronation}}), enabling innovation with new political and social systems. Peter Thiel is also a co-founder of {{w|PayPal}}, a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Peter Thiel and other co-founders' original vision for PayPal was to have an online payment service that enabled account holders to send money to anyone in the world with just an e-mail address. xkcd also supports [http://xkcd.com/bitcoin bitcoin donations]. This might be a reference to the unspent bitcoins from a recent [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19633980 $250,000 theft]. If they don't have any internet access they might find it hard to spend their loot.

{{w|Edwin S. Shneidman}} was a pioneer in the field of suicide prevention. He published 20 books on suicide and its prevention, one of which, ''A Commonsense Book of Death'', defines most people to be death-postponers. A death-postponer hopes that death will not occur in anything like the foreseeable future; the event must be staved off for as long as possible. The reference to a "death-postponer" is also the literal opposite to the actual name of the item Cueball throws, a {{w|life preserver}}.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. There is an anti-aircraft platform with four people aboard, and one person in the water.]

:[On the west side of the aircraft a man with hair is speaking to a bearded man half a head taller than the haired man.]
:Man with hair: I'm not saying our bitcoin-only island nation was a bad idea, but we really should've secured Internet access ''before'' we left.

:[On the east side of the platform a man wearing a sailor's hat walking toward the control tower. Cueball is on the edge holding a lifebuoy.]
:Cueball: Hey, you in the water! Hang on-
:Cueball: I'm gonna throw you a death postponer!
|-
|{{1110|2|s|9|w}}
|Jellyfish playing some sort of console game.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|9|w}}
|A rocky tunnel descends unevenly from the west, growing wider to the east. In the middle, a curving roof with two pointed recesses, together with the upward arching tunnel on either side, is reminiscent of the shape of a bat with wings spread.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|{{w|Poop deck}} is the nautical term for the deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear of the ship.

The character climbing the rigging is apparently {{w|Elizabeth Warren}}, who said at the {{w|2012 Democratic National Convention}}, "People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: They're right. The system is rigged."

The {{w|pirate}} onboard is shouting "{{w|Glossary of nautical terms#Avast|Avast!}}" (meaning stop), but no one is apparently listening. Possibly a reference to the comic being released on {{w|International Talk Like a Pirate Day}}.

The three-masted sailing ship with the pirate could be a reference to {{w|Monty Python}}'s short film {{w|The Crimson Permanent Assurance}} in which rebellious office clerks turn their office building into a pirate ship, raiding financial districts in numerous big cities, before falling off the edge of the world.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. There is a three-masted sailing ship at full sail with a healthy wind billowing the sails. There are five crew out on deck, four are aloft, and one on watch in the bowsprit.]

:[A girl is seated on the spanker.]
:Girl: Haha, "Poop Deck."

:[Aloft on the mizzen-mast a woman is standing talking to another woman climbing the rigging between the mizzen and main masts.]
:Mizzen-mast woman: Elizabeth, why are you climbing the rigging?
:Elizabeth: Forget ''this'' rigging. The whole ''system'' is rigged against the middle class and families trying to ''climb'' out of poverty.
:Mizzen-mast woman: ...Ok, but for real, what are you doing on this boat?

:[Fore of the mizzen-mast a classic bearded pirate stands with his sword drawn.]
:Pirate: Avast! Avast! ...Avast?

:[Fore of the main-sail, a Cueball-type character looks over the railing.]

:[Aloft a man is swinging around the fore-mast pretending to be Spiderman.]

:[Lower on the fore-mast a Cueball-type character is adjusting the rigging. On the deck another is adjusting more rigging.]

:[Out on the bowsprit Megan is keeping watch, and telling the runner Ponytail what is ahead.]
:Megan: We should go slow -
:Megan: That water up ahead looks pretty deep.
|-
|{{1110|12|s|8|w}}
|A wide rocky tunnel slopes from the west off the bottom of the tile.
|-
|{{1110|13|s|8|w}}
|An opening from above narrows and flattens out as the rough tunnel turns eastward.
|-
|{{1110|7|n|7|w}}
|A {{w|Boeing 717}} in landing configuration.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|7|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|13|s|7|w}}
|A tunnel descends unevenly from the west, opening up somewhat in the bottom corner to the east. [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]] are climbing a near-vertical section of the rocky wall.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|7|w}}
|Loose stones form the bottom of a small cavern that extends upward out of the tile. A tunnel runs out of it to the east.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|6|w}}
|Water
|-
|{{1110|1|s|6|w}}
|Jellyfish
|-
|{{1110|13|s|6|w}}
|Mostly solid rock; the east side and roof of a cave is in the lower westward corner.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|6|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. There is a hint that the ceiling draws away from the floor to the west. Cueball is walking east along the tunnel.]
|-
|{{1110|6|n|5|w}}
|[[Red spiders]] from earlier comics falling from the sky
|-
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|"{{w|I'm on a Boat}}" is a single from {{w|The Lonely Island}}'s debut album {{w|Incredibad}}.
;Transcript
:[Out at sea. On the west side are two buoys, on the east is only one, in the center there is a sailboat. Cueball and another person wearing a beanie are on the small sailboat.]
:Beanie: I'm on a boat! I expected more from the experience! Instead, all I can think to do is tell people where I am! ...I'm on a boat!
|-
|{{1110|14|s|5|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking.]
|-
|{{1110|2|n|4|w}}
|An {{w|Embraer E-Jet family|Embraer E-190}}
|-
|{{1110|1|n|4|w}}
|The coast of the body of water at a beach with some sea birds and beachgoers.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|4|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. The shaft grows in diameter as it goes eastward.]
|-
|{{1110|3|n|3|w}}
|
; Transcript
:[High in the sky.]
:[Cueball is sitting in a swing attached to the end of a crane, and is swinging.]
:Cueball: WHEEE!
|-
|{{1110|2|n|3|w}}
|An empty white tile.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|3|w}}
|The west wall of a large building which staircases narrower as it rises.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|3|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. A small vertical shaft goes up to a very small cavern.]
|-
|{{1110|8|n|2|w}}
|This seems to be the peak of the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} to which {{1110|6|n|27|e}} refers.
|-
|{{1110|7|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|n|2|w}}
|[[Black Hat]] is seen in the picture with a {{w|gatling gun}}, probably the Imperial cannons referred in {{1110|8|n|6|e}}. Also at bottom, a cueball is flying a paper airplane off the building.
;Transcript
:Ponytail: We're so high up that if you threw a penny off the edge, inflation would reduce its value to 0.00999999975 by the time it landed.
:[Further south, on a balcony]
:Megan: The Wikipedia article on this balcony says the view is nice.
:Cueball: I thought so.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|2|w}}
|A construction crane lifting another, smaller, construction crane. Possibly a reference to the [http://vimeo.com/46359692 Truck Truck Truck] gag from the Simpsons. Also, self-erecting {{w|tower crane}}s do usually not lift {{w|crawler crane}}s
|-
|{{1110|4|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|2|w}}
|On the west side, the top of a (different) construction crane. On the east side, Cueball is firing a clay pigeon launcher while Ponytail fires a shotgun at the target. Meanwhile, someone else (Danish?) comes up from behind with CDs.
;Transcript
:Danish: I found some more CDs
:Ponytail: PULL!
|-
|{{1110|2|n|2|w}}
|On the west side, the bottom of the construction crane. On the upper eastern side, a person is laid back, relaxing in a chair while using a laptop. On the next step down, a party crowd is out on a balcony.
;Transcript
:Person: I'm working at a small startup. Our business model is 'taking free drinks from industry events and reselling them.'
:Person: Oh, hey, I should get going...
|-
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|The bulk of the base of the building with one terrace visible on either side. Megan says "I came here to chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum" is a reference to the movie {{w|They Live}} in which the character Nada famously says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum". That line is also used in the game {{w|Duke Nukem 3D}} by Duke himself, when Shrapnel City (Episode 3) starts. Also, Cueball says "That's a shame" a line popularised by Jerry in the sitcom {{w|Seinfeld|Seinfeld}}. Pool line is a reference to "pool on the roof" prank from the movie {{w|Hackers (film)|Hackers}}.
|-
|{{1110|14|s|2|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. There is a single vertical shaft that would have gone down. The ceiling above the shaft has crumbled, and the rubble has filled in the shaft.]
|-
|{{1110|8|n|1|w}}
|An empty white tile.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|1|w}}
|The tail of the crawler crane lifted at {{1110|5|n|2|w}}.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|1|w}}
|An empty white tile.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|The western wall at the base of a large building including its {{w|portico}}, a remote control rocket-powered bicycle attempting to launch from the first terrace, a balcony on the second terrace and a {{w|satellite dish}} and other exhausts on the third. Trees with squirrels stand in front of the building leading to a parking lot with cars and one {{w|Wienermobile}}
|-
|{{1110|14|s|1|w}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. There are two rough cut vertical shafts going down, there is a rock pile on the ground between the two. A small vertical shaft goes up to a very small empty cavern.]
|-
|{{1110|15|s|1|w}}
|This is a sad statement about where the Internet is right now. The Internet should be a vast and diverse place filled with new and exciting content that breaks the mold of already established media. But instead, everyone on the Internet has become a shill for their Facebook page and their Twitter stream. It feels like everything links back to these two sites. Even stuck at the bottom of a shaft, these two people care more for how many Facebook likes and twitter followers they have, than for their own lives and safety.
;Transcript
:[Deep underground. There are two shafts, the western one ends abruptly with a pile of rubble at the bottom. The other changes direction and becomes a tunnel to the east.]
:[Cueball and Megan are stranded at the bottom of the western shaft.]
:Cueball: Is anyone up there? If you can hear us, ''friend us on Facebook!''
:Megan: ''Follow us on Twitter! Please!''
|-
|{{1110|13|n|1|e}}
|Two whales is possibly a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the planet [http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Magrathea Magrathea], where (improbably) two incoming missiles are turned into a whale and a bowl of petunias. It may also be a reference to the album From Mars to Sirius by the French heavy metal band Gojira, specifically the track, "Flying Whales." A third possibility is a reference to Respighi's "The Pines of Rome" from Fantasia II.
|-
|{{1110|6|n|1|e}}
|A {{w|hot air balloon}} is the oldest form of human-carrying flight.
;Transcript
:[High in the sky. Cueball and Megan are in a hot air balloon.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|The {{w|Origin (mathematics)|"center"}} of the world; the default loaded image with Cueball floating by balloon. The balloons may be a reference to comic [[1106]]. This may also be a reference to {{w|Winnie The Pooh}}. The parking lot to the west ends to a grassy/rocky field with a tree. A hill runs up to the east with a fountain.

; Transcript:
:[Open scene.]
:[To the extreme left there is the end of a parking lot. Right from that Cueball is holding onto a balloon several feet from the ground.]
:Cueball [narration]: I just didn't expect it to be so ''BIG''.
:[About 50 feet east of Cueball there is a lone tree with no leaves on it. Cueball is approximately parallel to with the top of it.]
:[Farther east and much higher up is a single balloon floating away.]
:[More east and on the ground Beret Guy is waving a butterfly net, chasing an RC Helicopter.]
:[Two girls, one blonde and one darker, are walking away from Beret Guy.]
:[On the extreme right is a fountain spraying water.]
|-
|{{1110|14|s|1|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking. A single vertical shaft extends southward, rough cut all around.]
|-
|{{1110|15|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|16|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|17|s|1|e}}
|Alaska at the bottom of the shaft.
At the lowest level of the cave, a fish leaps from water.
|-
|{{1110|9|n|2|e}}
|A reference to the {{w|Apollo 13}} manned mission to the moon in 1970. Two days after launch, en route to the moon, an oxygen tank exploded. Astronaut Swigert {{w|File:Apollo13-wehaveaproblem.ogg|reported}} the incident to Mission Control in Houston saying 'Houston, we've had a problem.' The 1995 movie {{w|Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13}} deliberately misquoted Swigert's famous statement as 'Houston, we have a problem' because the original made it seem that the problem had already passed.

The response is a parody of the inspirational quote 'There are no problems, only opportunities.'
;Transcript
:[The Apollo 13 mission is en route to the moon. An astronaut on board the craft informs Mission Control of an incident.]
:Astronaut: Houston, we have a problem.
:Mission Control: That's a negative, Apollo. There are no problems - only opportunities. Over.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|2|e}}
|A reference to the {{w|Greek myth}} of {{w|Icarus}} and his father's escape from {{w|Crete}} by building wings of feathers and wax. The joke is that, the incredible part of the story, the fact that Icarus and his father actually flew with simple wax and feathers, is downplayed to try to give children an object lesson about {{Wiktionary|humility}} and {{Wiktionary|hubris}}.
;Transcript
:[High in the air. There are feathers floating gently down. Below them is Icarus falling head first, he has the remains of wax and feather wings strapped to his arms.]
:Icarus: I only hope the story of how ''building wax wings enabled me to fly'' teaches everyone a lesson about hubris.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|2|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[To the left, Ponytail is climbing up while Cueball has second thoughts.]
:Cueball: We should turn back.
:Ponytail: Wimp.
:[In the middle, Cueball and Megan seem to be soaking in some sort of pond.]
:[To the right, Ponytail is standing on top of a castle while Megan pushes a boulder and Cueball is playing some music.]
|-
|{{1110|14|s|2|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[A flat tunnel runs the length of the whole tile. It is rough cut on the ceiling, but a smooth surface for walking.]
|-
|{{1110|17|s|2|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|3|e}}
|[[Megan]] is surfing on a {{w|Boeing 767|Boeing 767-300W}}
|-
|{{1110|2|n|3|e}}
|[Ground slops uphill, left-to-right (West to East). Close to the far right boundary is the Christmas Tree from {{w|A Charlie Brown Christmas}}. In the middle is an electronic listening station. Left and Up-slope of the listening station, Megan and Cueball are lying on the ground, talking. Near bottom left is Ponytail, wearing sunglasses, roller-skiing off a ski jump. Top left are four birds in the sky.]
;Transcript
:Megan: Ever wonder if there's life up there ''beyond'' the stuff we're covering up?
:Cueball: Nah.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|3|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|14|s|3|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[The tunnel opens up to a small cavern. The ground of the cavern is grass covered, and there is a tree growing in the center. Cueball is lounging near the tree.]
|-
|{{1110|17|s|3|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|18|s|3|e}}
|{{w|Minecraft}} reference: Someone escapes a creeper, running deeper into the cave he just fell in.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|The {{w|Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory}} as seen in [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Great_Blue_Hill_Weather_Station_Milton_MA_01.jpg this particular photo]. The radio tower depicted shows the antennas for the {{w|WGBH (FM)|WGBH}} and {{w|WKAF}} FM stations.
A reference to George Mallory's famous response to the question: "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?".
;Transcript
:[Megan seems to be helping Cueball climb the hill.]
:Megan: "Because it's there" is more poetic than "I'm rich enough that my goals are arbitrary."
|-
|{{1110|1|n|4|e}}
|A black empty tile (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
|-
|{{1110|18|s|4|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|19|s|4|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|5|e}}
|Cueball can't get cellphone reception, while two wingsuit flyers are leaping off a cliff above him.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|5|e}}
|A black empty tile (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
|-
|{{1110|17|s|5|e}}
|Possibly The {{w|Nautilus (Verne)|Nautilus}}, the submarine from Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1874) Also, possibly an allusion to {{w|Schwa (art)|Schwa}}.
|-
|{{1110|19|s|5|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|8|n|6|e}}
|{{w|Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope|Red Five}} is both Anakin and Luke Skywalker's call sign. Anakin uses the sign in the Battle of Coruscant and Luke uses it in the Battle of Yavin. Also note the use of "{{w|cannon}}" and "{{w|Canon (basic principle)|canon}}."
;Transcript
:Red Five to Red Leader - I'm out of range of any Imperial cannons or canons.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|6|e}}
|Giant airborne jellyfish.
;Transcript
:[Two birdwatchers with binoculars walk on the slope of a hill, one with her back to the giant jellyfish and the other one staring at it]
:Birdwatcher#1: Ooh, a {{w|yellow warbler}}!
:Birdwatcher#2: Cool.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|16|s|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|17|s|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|19|s|6|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|7|e}}
|Level 1-1 of the original {{w|Super Mario Bros.}} This is confirmed by text on {{1110|3|s|7|e}}. Compare with [http://www.mariowiki.com/images/e/e4/World_1-1_SMB.png screenshot]. The level's "bottomless pits" continue downward.
|-
|{{1110|1|s|7|e}}
|Two people climbing up/down the holes, and one falling.
|-
|{{1110|2|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|s|7|e}}
|Two people are talking next to a "bottomless pit" from the Mario level, one is saying: "The walls... worn smooth by billions of tumbling Mario corpses".
|-
|{{1110|4|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|5|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|7|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|8|s|7|e}}
|{{w|Role-playing game|RPG}} style pit trap
|-
|{{1110|9|s|7|e}}
|Another {{w|Minecraft}} reference. Cueball standing while a girl swings a pickaxe to further dig out a tunnel. Farther down, part of the mine shaft has collapsed and sealed the hole.
|-
|{{1110|10|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|11|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|12|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|13|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|14|s|7|e}}
|A cane is wedged in the right hand mine shaft. Likely a reference to the first {{w|Where's Waldo}} book, where Waldo loses his walking stick (and other items) and readers must scour the detailed illustrations to find Waldo and each of the items he drops.
|-
|{{1110|15|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|16|s|7|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[Deep below the surface, the two boreholes finally end. The bones of the unfortunate ones to have fallen down the holes are scattered. A single man-made shaft is covered by a plug of some kind. The shaft goes down to supported deck {{w|arch bridge}} spanning a large chasm, the bottom of which is not shown.]
|-
|{{1110|17|s|7|e}}
|
;Transcript
:[A Pyramid in a cavern. Most likely a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion's [http://evangelion.wikia.com/wiki/GeoFront NERV HQ], which is also located in a deep underground cavern. Most of a thatch-roof gazebo can be seen to the east of the pyramid.]
|-
|{{1110|19|s|7|e}}
|Horizontal tunnel
|-
|{{1110|1|n|8|e}}
|Four wind turbines
|-
|{{1110|16|s|8|e}}
|Mostly solid rock; the roof of a cave is in the bottom corner to the west.
|-
|{{1110|17|s|8|e}}
|A small graveyard.
|-
|{{1110|18|s|8|e}}
|There are tentacle-like objects restricting the passing of objects through this tunnel, the art of which closely resembles the Xbox Live Arcade game {{w|Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet}}, and also bears a resemblance to the mouth of a {{w|Sarlacc Pit}} from Star Wars.
|-
|{{1110|19|s|8|e}}
|A tunnel from the west intersects with a vertical passage from above. To the east of the intersection the tunnel dead ends, and the opening downwards is filled with rocks and impassable.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|9|e}}
|Reference to the first line of "{{w|99 Problems}}" by {{w|Jay-Z}} ("If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a <rhymes with "witch"> ain't one."). Just left of the fence is a small cleared area with what appears to be a frog in the center. Frog Prince? Also a reference to {{w|Off-by-one error#Fencepost error|fencepost error}}. Ironically, there may be an off-by-one error in the joke, since it would only take 100 fenceposts to cover 99 problems, not 101.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|10|e}}
|The outline of the {{w|Bombardier Dash 8}} Q400 aircraft shown in Wikipedia.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|10|e}}
|Hilly terrain with a tree, and a [[Cueball]] standing on a rock.
|-
|{{1110|11|n|11|e}}
|An empty white tile with symmetric coordinates (11 N, 11 E).
|-
|{{1110|1|n|11|e}}
|A {{w|sine}} curve {{w|oscillate}}s between -1 and 1.
;Transcript
:[A bridge begins. The land falls down to meet the water with an almost sinusoidal curve.]
|-
|{{1110|11|s|11|e}}
|An empty black tile with symmetric coordinates (11 N, 11 E).
Note, that this PNG file contains an ICC section which means that the blackness in this image is properly {{w|Color correction|color-corrected}}.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|12|e}}
|This is a re-enactment of one of the last scenes in {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, in which Dave Bowman shuts down {{w|Hal 9000}} by one-by-one pulling out processor modules. Hal eventually regresses to his first programmed memories, the song {{w|Daisy Bell}} which he sings for Bowman.
;Transcript
:[High above the ground. Cueball has scaled the outside of a hot air balloon and is using a knife to cut it open while the gondola sings Daisy Bell.]
:''RIIIP''
:Gondola [singing, getting slower]: Daiiisyyy... Daiiiiiiisy...
|-
|{{1110|1|n|12|e}}
|{{w|Bourne Bridge|Bourne}} or {{w|Sagamore Bridge}}
;Transcript
:[The bridge continues.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|The bridge is either the {{w|Bourne Bridge|Bourne}} or {{w|Sagamore Bridge}}.

The {{w|covered wagon}} was popularized during the {{w|American Frontier|American expansion west}}, as a good way to bring goods along with as a family journeyed from the crowded eastern states out west (usually to Oregon or California).
;Transcript
:[Center of the bridge.]

:[A covered wagon is crossing east, there is a person driving driving, and a person poking out the back. A footman is walking quite a ways ahead of the carriage.]

:[On top of the bridge structure, Megan and Ponytail are sitting and eating some kind of picnic.]
:Megan and Ponytail: Nom nom nom

:[A tank, vaguely resembling a {{w|Sherman Firefly}}, is crossing west, possibly in a reference to the WWII film {{w|A Bridge Too Far}}. Ponytail is sitting on the turret. Cueball is being more daring and is balancing with arms outstretch on the end of the gun.]

:[Underneath the tank a two-masted junk rigged sailboat is resting with sails furled. Megan and Cueball are fore standing at the railing looking out over the sea.]
:Megan: So, um, here's the thing—
:Megan: I'm married to the sea, but it's a very ... ''open'' marriage.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|14|e}}
|{{w|Bourne Bridge|Bourne}} or {{w|Sagamore Bridge}}
;Transcript
:[Land again.]
|-
|{{1110|1|n|15|e}}
|[[Cueball]] is singing the chorus to the song "{{w|Flagpole Sitta}}" by {{w|Harvey Danger}}. The characters in the wagon reference the {{w|Oregon Trail (computer game)|Oregon Trail}} computer game.

[[Black Hat]] seems to be up to his usual shenanigans.

;Transcript
:[The bridge meets land again, and at the western foot of the bridge is a cannon. Black Hat is sitting behind the cannon, and has lit its fuse.]
:[Where the river meets the land there are stairs leading up to a landing.]

:[The covered wagon has made it across the bridge. Everything is drooping, now. The horse is not walking as upright, the driver is slouching, the person out the back is now lounging on the back with a gun clearly visible.
:Someone inside wagon: You brought no food but ''how'' many boxes of bullets?

:[Farther east Cueball is sitting on top of a flagpole singing. Just northwest of him, a leaf spins through the air.]
:Cueball [singing]: I'm not sick, but I'm not wellll
|-
|{{1110|2|n|16|e}}
|Top of VLF antenna.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|16|e}}
|A cabin which appears to be hooked up to a VLF antenna.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|17|e}}
|Top of VLF antenna.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|17|e}}
|VLF antenna and a steep cliff dropoff to water. Cueball watches a butterfly flit around as they did in the {{w|Peanuts}} comic strip.
The VLF antenna is likely to be a representation of the [http://www.stormfax.com/wireless.htm Marconi Station] on Cape Cod as it existed in the early 1900's. This station transmitted the first trans-Atlantic wireless telegram in 1903. It had the same four towers and steep drop-off to the beach as depicted in this comic with possible original photo [http://capecodhistory.us/Wellfleet-records/pictures/Marconi-pc.jpg here].
|-
|{{1110|3|n|18|e}}
|A {{w|Boeing 717}} with landing gear deployed. Caption: "Folks, this is your captain speaking. I need you all to turn on every electronic device your have. There's no time to explain." (a reference to {{w|No Time To Explain|the game with the same name}}?)
|-
|{{1110|1|n|18|e}}
|Two swimmers in the ocean saying "Stupid {{w|FreeBSD}}...". FreeBSD is a Unix-like operating system. A reference to [[349: Success]].
|-
|{{1110|1|n|19|e}}
|A {{w|humpback whale}} breaching.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|20|e}}
|A rocky shore. The uppermost rock formation in this panel appears to be a laughing face in profile.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|21|e}}
|A fin-shaped object protrudes from the ground.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|22|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|22|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s. To the east of the anchor, a very small Cueball and an equally tiny Megan can be seen in the grass.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|23|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|23|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|23|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s
|-
|{{1110|4|n|24|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|24|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|24|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|24|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|25|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|5|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|26|e}}
|Black Hat is hanging from one of the wire supports.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|26|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|26|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|7|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|This appears to be the former record-holder for the tallest man-made structure, the {{w|KVLY-TV mast}} in {{w|North Dakota}}. It was surpassed by the {{w|Burj Khalifa}} (829.84 m (2,723 ft)) located in Dubai (also included in the comic).
;Transcript
:[Top of a radio tower. There are four guy-wires that connect to the tower, two on each side. A woman is standing on the top, holding onto the antenna for stability.]
:Woman: Dubai may have taken the record for "Tallest Manmade Structure," but North Dakota still has "[http://www.realnd.com/jamestownbuffaloindex.htm Largest Buffalo Monument]," "[http://heritagerenewal.org/bigthings/hamburger.htm Biggest Hamburger]," and "[http://www.realnd.com/casseltoncanpileindex.htm Tallest Pyramid of Oil Cans]." So ''there''.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|27|e}}
|The base of a {{w|radio tower}}.
|-
|{{1110|6|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|5|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|28|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|28|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|5|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|4|n|29|e}}
|Someone is sliding down the wire. Possibly a reference to the game {{w|Infamous (video game)|Infamous}}.
|-
|{{1110|3|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|29|e}}
|{{w|Guy-wire}}s
|-
|{{1110|4|n|30|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|3|n|30|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|30|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|30|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s
|-
|{{1110|3|n|31|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|2|n|31|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|31|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|32|e}}
|
|-
|{{1110|1|n|32|e}}
|An anchor for {{w|Guy-wire}}s.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|33|e}}
|A tree with a tractor.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|34|e}}
|A rolling grassy landscape with a fence. Some of the fence posts are topped with bluebird boxes, and birds sit on the fence wires.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|35|e}}
|a {{w|barn}} and some trees.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|36|e}}
|Reference to the original Pokémon games. When Prof. Oak tells you not to go into the tall grass without a Pokémon.
;Transcript
:[There is a large hill with very tall grass (taller than any character in this section).]
:[Left-most is some structure of some kind.]
:[West of the structure is Cueball shouting to Megan, who is running into the long grass.]
:Cueball: Don't go into the long grass! (Line from Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World which precedes the velociraptor attack.)
:Megan: Pikachu, I choose ''DEATH''—
:Megan: And with it immortality.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|37|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|38|e}}
|Grass with a short rectangular structure.
|-
|{{1110|2|n|39|e}}
|The top of a water tower. Cueball and Megan on the catwalk at the top. Cueball looking out. Megan using some mounted device (maybe a telephone?, or some controls?).
|-
|{{1110|1|n|39|e}}
|The base of a water tower.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|40|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|41|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|42|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|43|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|44|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|45|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|46|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|47|e}}
|Grass.
|-
|{{1110|1|n|48|e}}
|[[Cueball]] with a balloon in his hand, flying towards the image border. He says "I wonder where I'll float next". This is a reference to [[1|the very first xkcd comic]]. It may also be a reference to {{w|World of Goo}}, a computer game, where at the end of level 1 the goo balls leave the screen carried by balloons, wondering what will be next. Alternatively, this may be a reference to the detail and variety of earlier panels.
;Transcript
:[Grassy hill slowly rolls until the extreme right which ends in a much larger drop-off. This is the end of the world.]
:[Cueball is still floating holding his balloon, heading further east.]
:Cueball: I wonder where I'll float next.
|-
|}

==References by Category==
===Vehicles===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|covered wagon|Covered wagons}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}} {{1110|1|n|14|e}}
|[[File:covered-wagon.png]] [[File:covered-wagon-2.png]]
|-
|Remote-controlled rocket-powered bicycle
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|[[File:rocket-powered-bicycle.png]]
|-
|{{w|Sailboat}}
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|[[File:sailboat.png]]
|-
|{{w|Sailing ship}}
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|[[File:sailing-ship.png]]
|-
|{{w|Junk-rigged Sailboat}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|[[File:junk-rigged-sailboat.png]]
|-
|{{w|Hot air balloons}}
|{{1110|6|n|1|e}}
|[[File:hot-air-balloon-1.png]] [[File:hot-air-balloon-2.png]]
|-
|{{w|Cars}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}} {{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:cars-sedans-1.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-2.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-3.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-4.png]]
|-
|{{w|Wienermobile}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|[[File:wienermobile.png]]
|-
|{{w|Tractor}}
|{{1110|1|n|33|e}}
|[[File:tractor.png]]
|-
|{{w|Tank}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|[[File:tank.png]]
|-
|{{w|Submarine}}
|{{1110|17|s|5|e}}
|[[File:submarine.png]]
|-
|{{w|Boeing 717}} Jet airliner
|{{1110|7|n|7|w}} {{1110|3|n|18|e}}
|[[File:boeing-717-jet.png]] [[File:boeing-717-jet-landing.png]]
|-
|{{w|Embraer E-Jet family|Embraer E-190}} Jet airliner
|{{1110|2|n|4|w}}
|[[File:embraer-e-190-jet.png]]
|-
|{{w|Boeing 767|Boeing 767-300W}} Jet airliner
|{{1110|3|n|3|e}}
|[[File:boeing-767-300w-jet.png]]
|-
|{{w|Bombardier Dash 8|Bombardier Dash-8 Q400}} turboprop airliner
|{{1110|3|n|10|e}}
|[[File:bombardier-dash-8.png]]
|-
|{{w|Saturn V}} Rocket
|{{1110|1|n|22|w}} {{1110|2|n|22|w}}
|[[File:saturn-v-rocket.png]]
|-
|{{w|Apollo 13}} spacecraft
|{{1110|9|n|2|e}}
|[[File:apollo-13-spacecraft.png]]
|-
|{{w|X-Wing fighters}}
|{{1110|8|n|6|e}} {{1110|8|s|17|w}}
|[[File:x-wing-fighter-1.png]] [[File:x-wing-fighter-2.png]]
|-
|}

===Man-made Structures===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Burj Khalifa}}
|{{1110|8|n|2|w}}, {{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|[[File:burj-khalifa.png]]
|-
|{{w|Statue of Liberty}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|[[File:statue-of-liberty.png]]
|-
|{{w|Pyramid}}
|{{1110|17|s|7|e}}
|[[File:1110-pyramid.png]]
|-
|Bridges (Suspension bridge, Arch bridge)
|{{1110|1|n|12|e}} {{1110|1|n|13|e}} {{1110|1|n|14|e}}
|[[File:arch-bridge.png]]
|-
|{{w|Lighthouse}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|[[File:lighthouse.png]]
|-
|Water tower
|{{1110|1|n|39|e}} {{1110|2|n|39|e}}
|[[File:water-tower.png]]
|-
|Mine shafts
|{{1110|1|s|17|w}}
|[[File:mine-shafts.png]]
|-
|Graveyard / cemetery
|{{1110|17|s|8|e}}
|[[File:graveyard-cemetary.png]]
|-
|Parking lot
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}} {{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:cars-sedans-1.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-2.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-3.png]] [[File:cars-sedans-4.png]]
|-
|Fence posts
|{{1110|1|n|34|e}}
|[[File:fenceposts.png]]
|-
|Bluebird boxes
|{{1110|1|n|34|e}}
|[[File:bluebird-boxes.png]]
|-
|Barn
|{{1110|1|n|35|e}}
|[[File:barn.png]]
|-
|Tire Swing
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|[[File:tire-swing.png]]
|-
|Fountain
|{{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:1110-fountain.png]]
|-
|Park benches
|{{1110|1|n|14|w}}
|[[File:park-benches.png]]
|-
|Buoys
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|[[File:buoy-1.png]] [[File:buoy-2.png]] [[File:buoy-3.png]]
|-
|Beach Umbrella
|{{1110|1|n|4|w}}
|[[File:beach-umbrella.png]]
|-
|Butterfly Net
|{{1110|1|n|1|e}}
|[[File:butterfly-net.png]]
|-
|}

===Technology===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Construction Cranes}} (Tower crane, Crawler crane)
|
|
|-
|Anti-aircraft platform
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|[[File:anti-aircraft-platform.png]]
|-
|Wind turbines
|{{1110|1|n|8|e}}
|[[File:wind-turbines.png]]
|-
|{{w|Meteorological Observatory}}
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|[[File:meteorological-observatory.png]]
|-
|{{w|Radio station}}
|{{1110|1|n|16|e}} {{1110|2|n|16|e}} {{1110|1|n|17|e}}
|[[File:marconi-station.png]]
|-
|{{w|Radio mast}}
|{{1110|2|n|16|e}}
|[[File:kvly-tv-mast.png]] [[File:guy-wires-with-mast.png]]
|-
|{{w|Radio Telescope}}
|{{1110|1|n|25|w}}
|[[File:1110-radio-telescope.png]]
|-
|{{w|Satellite Dish}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|[[File:1110-satellite-dish.png]]
|-
|{{w|GPS}}
|{{1110|1|n|33|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Bitcoins}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Game Console}}
|{{1110|2|s|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Guns}} (Gatling Gun, Shotgun)
|{{1110|6|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Laptop}}
|{{1110|2|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Cellphones}}
|{{1110|2|n|5|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|FreeBSD}}
|{{1110|1|n|18|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}}
|{{1110|15|s|1|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Games===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity|AaAaAA!!!}}
|{{1110|3|s|17|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Clay pigeon}}
|{{1110|3|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Duke Nukem 3D}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo}}
|{{1110|1|n|11|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Super Mario Brothers}}
|{{1110|1|n|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Minecraft}}
|{{1110|18|s|3|e}} {{1110|9|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Oregon Trail}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|inFamous}}
|{{1110|4|n|29|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Pokémon}}
|{{1110|1|n|36|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Movies===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey}}
|{{1110|5|n|12|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|A Bridge Too Far (film)|A Bridge Too Far}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13}}
|{{1110|9|n|2|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Contact (film)|Contact}}
|{{1110|1|n|25|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}
|{{1110|1|n|33|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Hackers (film)|Hackers}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}
|{{1110|1|n|36|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes}}
|{{1110|1|n|13|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi}}
|{{1110|8|s|17|w}} {{1110|18|s|8|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Crimson Permanent Assurance}}
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|They Live}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Transformers}}
|{{1110|1|n|21|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Television Shows===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Lost (TV series)|Lost}}
|{{1110|1|n|17|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Simpsons}}
|{{1110|5|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Seinfeld}}
|{{1110|1|n|2|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|A Charlie Brown Christmas}}
|{{1110|2|n|3|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Books===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Ender's Game}}
|{{1110|1|n|28|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Footprints (poem)|Footprints}}
|{{1110|1|n|21|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Tower of Babylon}}
|{{1110|1|s|17|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Adventures of Tom Sawyer}}
|{{1110|12|s|13|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|A Commonsense Book of Death}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}
|{{1110|13|n|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Where's Waldo}}
|{{1110|14|s|7|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Music===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|99 Problems}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Daisy Bell}}
|{{1110|5|n|12|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Flagpole Sitta}}
|{{1110|1|n|15|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|I'm on a Boat}}
|{{1110|1|n|5|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Radio Programs===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Desert Island Discs}}
|{{1110|1|n|17|w}}
|
|-
|}

===Flora and Fauna===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Trees}}
|{{1110|1|n|14|w}} {{1110|14|s|3|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Squirrels}}
|{{1110|1|n|1|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Velociraptors}}
|{{1110|1|n|27|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Seabirds}}
|{{1110|1|n|4|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Jellyfish}}
|{{1110|2|n|6|e}} {{1110|2|s|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Humpback whale|Whales (Humpback)}}
|{{1110|13|n|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Fish}}
|{{1110|17|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Yellow Warbler}}
|{{1110|2|n|6|e}}
|
|-
|[[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]]
|{{1110|6|n|5|w}}
|
|-
|}

===People===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! width="256px" | Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Peter Thiel}}
|{{1110|1|n|9|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Elizabeth Warren}}
|{{1110|1|n|8|w}}
|
|-
|{{w|Icarus}}
|{{1110|3|n|2|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|George Mallory}}
|{{1110|2|n|4|e}}
|
|-
|}

===Places===
{| class="wikitable" |
! Name
! width="130px" | Grid coords
! Thumbnail
|-
|{{w|Dubai}}
|{{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|North Dakota}}
|{{1110|6|n|27|e}}
|
|-
|{{w|Alaska}}
|{{1110|17|s|1|e}}
|
|-
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Wingsuit]]
[[Category:Firefly]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Red Spiders]]

342: 1337: Part 2

2015-01-24T23:48:16Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Comma splice

{{comic
| number = 342
| date = November 13, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 2
| image = 1337 part 2.png
| titletext = Trivia: Elaine is actually her middle name.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Donald Knuth}} is a computer science Professor Emeritus at {{w|Stanford University}} who is famous for writing {{w|The Art of Computer Programming}} and developing the TeX computerized typesetting system. He may not have a mountain hideaway {{Citation needed}} (a reference to ''{{w|Kill Bill}}'', by the way), but he would be one of the best mentors a budding hacker could have.

The {{w|A* search algorithm}} and {{w|Dijkstra's algorithm}} are {{w|Graph traversal|graph search}} {{w|algorithm}}s. And what study of algorithms would be complete without a healthy study about finding complexities? {{w|Computational complexity theory|Time complexity}} is the amount of time an algorithm takes to execute. Upper and lower bounds for complexity is written in {{w|Big O notation}}. Best possible execution of an algorithm is constant time, or O(1), said in words, for any given data set no matter how large the algorithm will always return the answer in the same time. However, constant time is extremely difficult to achieve; linear time (O(n)) is also very good. For more complex algorithms, [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28x%29 O( n*log(n) )] is good, but [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28log%28x%29%29 O( n*log(log(n)) )] is better. (Note that logarithms in different bases are proportional to each other. So this would hold true for any base >1.)

From the evidence that [[Mrs. Roberts]] has two children, a daughter named [[Elaine Roberts|Elaine]], and a younger son named Bobby (presumably [[Little Bobby Tables|Bobby]]'); DROP TABLE students;--), we can assume that she is the same mother from [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]. Of course, the title text here explains that Elaine is only her middle name. In [[327]] we learned her first name is "Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory". Mrs. Roberts appears to have had fun naming her children.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*342: 1337: Part 2 (this one)
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball standing near a friend, who is on the floor near the armchair.]
:Friend: So the greatest hacker of our era is a cookie-baking mom?
:Cueball: Second-greatest.
:Friend: Oh?

:[A young Elaine with a ponytail is laying on the floor looking at the screen of a computer that appears to have been pieced together. A younger Bobby is finger painting at an easel.]
:Mrs. Roberts had two children. Her son, Bobby, was never much for computers, but her daughter Elaine took to them like a ring in the bell.

:[The back of a car is in frame. Mrs. Roberts is waving goodbye to her daughter who is wearing a backpack and is holding a walking stick. She is about to begin climbing a staircase built into a mountain.]
:When Elaine turned 11, her mother sent her to train under Donald Knuth in his mountain hideaway.

:[Donald Knuth is standing with a pointing stick at a chalk board with graph traversal patterns on it.]
:For four years she studied algorithms.
:Knuth: Child—

:[Knuth whips around slashing the stick like a sword. Elaine jumps and lands on the stick.]
:Knuth: Why is A* search wrong in this situation?
:''swish''
:Elaine: Memory usage!
:Knuth: What would you use?
:Elaine: Dijkstra's algorithm!

:[They are outside both working on a chalkboard with a separator down the middle so they cannot look at each other's work. Elaine is no longer wearing her hair in a ponytail.]
:Until one day she bested her master
:Knuth: So our lower bound here is O(n log n)
:Elaine: Nope. Got it in O(n log (log n))
:And left.

==Trivia==
*[[Mrs. Roberts]]' son Bobby, might be the <code>Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--</code> a.k.a. "[[Little Bobby Tables]]" in [[327: Exploits of a Mom]], it certainly seems a little too close to call a coincidence.
*In this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=21m30s Google-speech] Donald Knuth personally asked [[Randall]] what his ''n*log(log(n))'' algorithm for searching was, and Randall referred him to Elaine.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:1337|02]]

561: Well

2015-01-23T19:29:53Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Weasel words

{{comic
| number = 561
| date = March 27, 2009
| title = Well
| image = well.png
| titletext = I'll concede ergonomics anecdotally, but none of the studies of Dvorak were at all rigorous (the most-cited Navy study was overseen by Dvorak himself). And the 'slow typists down' thing is a myth. Also EMACS RULES VI DROOLS WOOOOOOO!
}}

==Explanation==
Uncomfortable truths are truths that exist, but no one wants to have to think about them.

The first is about ''{{w|Firefly (TV Series)|Firefly}}'', the TV series created by {{w|Joss Whedon}} and canceled by {{w|FOX}}, due to poor ratings performance, after [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScrewedByTheNetwork airing the first 13 episodes out-of-order]. In ''Firefly'', the main languages spoken are English and Chinese (in equal measure), because China was the only other world power besides America to go to space (Joss Whedon's own explanation on the DVDs). However, there are [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreWhite very few actual Asians] on-screen.

The second is about two different keyboard layouts, QWERTY and Dvorak. Early {{w|typewriter}}s used to jam easily if two nearby keys were struck at about the same time. To work around this, the {{w|QWERTY}} layout, named after the first six letters on its keys, scattered common letter combinations around the keyboard, thus greatly avoiding the problem. (A common myth states that this was done to slow typists down; this was not the case.) Later typewriter mechanisms were less prone to jamming, which prompted a few people to try to create alternative layouts, such as {{w|Blickensderfer typewriter|Blickensderfer's DHIATENSOR layout}} in 1892, or the {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard}} in 1932. Such layouts never really caught on; by then, typists were all very used to the QWERTY layout, and were unwilling to take the time and effort to learn a new one.

In the Dvorak layout, {{w|August Dvorak}} placed the most frequently used keys at the most easily accessible places; Dvorak's advocates claim this reduces typing effort and repetitive strain while increasing typing speed and accuracy. However, rigorous, unbiased studies have yet to clearly show significant superiority. (As the title text mentions, the most commonly cited study in Dvorak's favor was overseen by Dvorak himself during his US Navy service in World War II.)

The third and fourth truths are connected: they involve the two people receiving them and (presumably) their relationship with each other. One said "I love you" many times, but never really meant it; the other meant it every time.

The title text perpetuates the {{w|Editor war|Emacs vs. vi debate}}. Both {{w|Emacs}} and {{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}} are text editors that are frequently used as general-language editors of source code. The issue is that, while Emacs is more user-friendly and customizable, vim is more lightweight while needing few keystrokes in text editing. Because of this balance, fans of Emacs and fans of vim end up fighting each other.

This is the first comics in the [[:Category:Well|Well]] series. It was followed by [[568: Well 2]].

==Transcript==
:[A sign sits by a well.]
:The Uncomfortable Truths Well

:[A guy and Ponytail are lined up for the well; the guy throws a coin in.]
:Well: For a universe that's supposed to be half Chinese, Firefly sure doesn't have any Asians.

:[The guy is gone, a couple arrives behind Ponytail; Ponytail throws a coin in.]
:Well: There's no solid evidence DVORAK's better than QWERTY. The standard histories are urban legends.

:[Just the couple remain; Cueball throws another coin in.]
:Well: You've never said "I love you" and meant it. It was always just words.

:[Megan now throws in a coin.]
:Well: You meant it every time.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Firefly]]
[[Category:Well]]
[[Category:Emacs]]

378: Real Programmers

2015-01-23T19:26:22Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Comma splice

{{comic
| number = 378
| date = February 1, 2008
| title = Real Programmers
| image = real_programmers.png
| titletext = Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic satirises the mythical {{w|Real Programmer}}. To quote Wikipedia, "the term Real Programmer is computer programmers' folklore to describe the archetypical "hardcore" programmer who eschews the modern languages and tools of the day in favour of more direct and efficient solutions". {{w|GNU nano}} is a text editor - a program often used to edit the source code of other programs. {{w|Emacs}}, {{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}} and {{w|ed (text editor)|ed}} are all progressively more "hard core" editors. {{w|cat (Unix)|cat}} is a Unix program that concatenates and outputs the contents of files. Things get steadily more ridiculous from here. Using a magnetised needle to flip bits on a hard drive requires nanometer precision and binary mastery, but in the early days of programming people did use needles sometimes to fix bugs on {{w|Punched card|Punched cards}}. The use of a magnetized needle may also be a reference to the {{w|Apollo_Guidance_Computer|Apollo AGC guidance computer}}, whose instructions were physically written as patterns of wires looped around or through cylindrical magnets in order to record binary code.

The final character suggests the utterly surreal idea of using butterflies; he is just using the {{w|Butterfly effect in popular culture|Butterfly effect}}, a "phenomenon whereby a minor change in circumstances can cause a large change in outcome". Emacs is known for having a large number of add-ons to perform all sorts of functions beyond simple text editing. These commands are usually referred to by the key sequence required to activate them, such as "C-x M-c"(Control-x Meta/Esc/Alt-c, though this exact key sequence is a bit different from most Emacs commands and could be a joke or typo). The macro referenced is a pun on the play/movie titled "{{w|M. Butterfly}}". Later versions of Emacs actually added a "M-x butterfly" command as an Easter-egg [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtxhuX6ano youtube demo], [http://www.screenr.com/a2s screenr demo].

To cap this the title text suggests manipulating the universal constants to get the required data onto the disk. I.e. the only real programmer is the creator of the universe - see [[505: A Bunch of Rocks]].

==Transcript==
:[A man sits at a computer, programming. Another man behind him looks over his shoulder.]
:Man: nano? REAL programmers use Emacs.

:[A dark haired woman appears behind him.]
:Woman: Hey. REAL programmers use Vim.

:[Another man appears behind her.]
:Man: Well, REAL programmers use ed.

:[Another man appears behind him.]
:Man: No, REAL programmers use cat.

:[A woman with a bun appears behind him.]
:Woman: REAL programmers use a magnetized needle and a steady hand.

:[A man enters, facing them all.]
:Man: Excuse me, but REAL programmers use butterflies.

:[Holding out a butterfly in front of the computer.]
:Man: They open their hands and let the delicate wings flap once.

:Man: The disturbances ripple outward, changing the flow of the Eddy currents in the upper atmosphere.
:[Diagrams of flowing currents.]
:Man: These cause momentary pockets of higher-pressure air to form,

:Man: Which act as lenses that deflect incoming cosmic rays, focusing them to strike the drive platter and flip the desired bit.

:Emacs User: Nice. 'Course, there's an Emacs command to do that.
:Cat User: Oh yeah! Good ol' C-x M-c M-butterfly...
:[Butterfly man slaps forehead.]
:Butterfly man: Dammit, Emacs.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Emacs]]

793: Physicists

2015-01-23T19:19:04Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Typos

{{comic
| number = 793
| date = September 15, 2010
| title = Physicists
| image = physicists.png
| titletext = If you need some help with the math, let me know, but that should be enough to get you started! Huh? No, I don't need to read your thesis, I can imagine roughly what it says.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a view that many physics students, upon first encountering a well-known problem, think that it is not so much of a problem, as they can fix it, in their minds, using an extremely simplified model. The obvious problem with this is that if it was that simple to solve the problem to a useful degree, there wouldn't be an entire department studying the problem, thus leading to great annoyance from those who have probably spent years and years trying to work on the problem. This argument is similar to the {{w|Spherical cow}}, an idea that basic models taught in early physics classes only working in friction-less vacuums as shown in [[669: Experiment]]. The title text just takes the dismissive attitude to its logical extreme.

The comment "liberal-arts majors can be annoying sometimes" seems to be referencing the stereotype that they're all elitist know-it-all hippies.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands at a blackboard covered in equations and diagrams, an open laptop and scattered paper at his feet. His fists are balled in anger and there is a little angry squiggle over his head. A physicist stands behind him, arms out in a shrug.]
:Physicist: You're trying to predict the behavior of <complicated system>? Just model it as a <simple object>, and then add some secondary terms to account for <complications I just thought of>.
:Physicist: Easy, right?
:Physicist: So, why does <your field> need a whole journal, anyway?
:Liberal-arts majors may be annoying sometimes, but there's ''nothing'' more obnoxious than a physicist first encountering a new subject.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]

1078: Knights

2015-01-23T19:13:08Z

108.162.216.128: /* Explanation */ Deconfused wording

{{comic
| number = 1078
| date = July 6, 2012
| title = Knights
| image = knights.png
| titletext = 1. Nf3 ... ↘↘↘ 2. Nc3 ... ↘↘↘ 0-1
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is comparing the opening moves of the game of {{w|chess}} to the opening moves of the {{w|Battle of Agincourt}}, which was fought between the English and the French in the {{w|Hundred Years War}}. In the battle, just like in the comic, the English used their longbowmen effectively, neutralizing the French knights and infantry. The two pieces that are moved out of the white side of the board are both the pieces known as the Knights. And in the actual battle, the French knights on horseback attacked first. As you can see, all the pawns on the right side of the chess board have bows.

The title text uses the abbreviations for chess moves. Nf3 = Knight to square F3. Nc3 = Knight to square C3. N = Knight because the King piece has the K abbreviation covered. What comes after the typical chess move is what can only be read as a hail of arrows. And the 0-1 at the end means that "Black Wins".

The word "{{Wiktionary|gambit}}" means "an opening in chess, in which a minor piece (often a pawn) is sacrificed to gain an advantage". The usual gambit of sacrificing a pawn is subverted to be a sacrifice of a high-value piece, as an analogy of what happened at Agincourt.

==Transcript==
:A chessboard.
:[The black pawns have all gained longbows and have specifically taken down the white knights as they move forward, without any black pieces needing to move from their opening positions.]

:The Agincourt gambit.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chess]]

1002: Game AIs

2015-01-23T19:10:01Z

108.162.216.128: /* Humans Beat Computers */ Rather than speculating on possible AIs, we should point out that Starcraft is an active research target

{{comic
| number = 1002
| date = January 11, 2012
| title = Game AIs
| image = game_ais.png
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
}}

==Explanation==
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

===Solved===

: These games are considered "solved", meaning the ideal maneuver for each game state (Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect Four) or each of the limited starting positions (Checkers) has already been calculated. Computers aren't so much playing as they are recalculating the list of ideal maneuvers. The same could be said for the computer's human opponent, just at a slower pace.

*'''{{w|Tic-tac-toe}}''' or '''Noughts and Crosses''' in most of the rest of the British Commonwealth countries is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. This game nearly always ends in a tie, regardless of whether humans or computers play it, because the amount of positions is minimal.

*'''{{w|Nim}}''' is a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.

*'''{{w|Ghost (game)|Ghost}}''' is a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment. The loser is the first person who completes a valid word or who creates a fragment that cannot be the start of a word.

*'''{{w|Connect Four}}''' (or '''Captain's Mistress''', '''Four Up''', '''Plot Four''', '''Find Four''', '''Fourplay''', '''Four in a Row''', '''Four in a Line''') is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.

*'''{{w|Gomoku}}''' (or '''Gobang''', '''Five in a Row''') is an abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.
:Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

*'''{{w|Draughts|Checkers}}''' (in the United States, or '''draughts''' in the United Kingdom) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces.

===Computers Beat Humans===

:The below games cannot be "solved" due to the factors of random numbers, a near-infinite{{Citation needed}} number of starting positions, or the existence of multiple "ideal" maneuvers for each position. That said, a computer's faster reaction time, higher degree of consistency in making the right decision, and reduced risk of user error make the computer objectively better than the human opponent in nearly all situations.

*'''{{w|Scrabble}}''' is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.

*'''{{w|Counter-Strike|CounterStrike}}''' most likely refers to the popular multiplayer shooter video game about terrorists and counter-terrorists. Counter-Strike is notorious for the large variety of cheating tools that have been made for it; a computer would have essentially perfect accuracy and reflexes, essentially making it the {{w|aimbot}} from hell. It is theoretically possible for a skilled player to beat an AI, but it would be ''extremely'' difficult to do so.

*'''{{w|Beer pong}}''' (or '''Beirut''') is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.

*'''{{w|Reversi}}''' (marketed by Pressman under the trade name '''Othello''') is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

*'''{{w|Chess}}''' is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.

*'''{{w|Jeopardy!}}''' is an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
:Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text, is a famous Jeopardy champion who was beaten by {{w|Watson (computer)|Watson}}, an IBM computer.

===Humans Beat Computers===

:The below games are incredibly difficult to "solve" due to the near-infinite number of possible positions. Computers built in the early 21st century would take years to calculate a single "ideal" move. Worse, the human opponent has the ability to "bluff"; that is, to make a bad move, thus baiting the computer into a trap. Complex algorithms have been devised to make moves in a reasonable timeframe, but so far they are all highly vulnerable to bluffing. As mentioned in the comic, focused research and development is working on refining these algorithms to play the games better.

*'''{{w|StarCraft}}''' is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game. The game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg. While even average Starcraft players can defeat the AIs that originally shipped with the games, Starcraft has since been adopted as a standard benchmark for AI research, largely because of its excellent balance. Thanks to that attention, computers can now challenge some expert players, and the trend does not look promising for human players.

*'''{{w|Poker}}''' is a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game. It is also, however, a game of deception and intimidation, the ubiquitous "poker face" being considered the most important part of the game.

*'''{{w|Arimaa}}''' is a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.

*'''{{w|Go (game)|Go}}''' is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent.

*'''{{w|Snakes and Ladders}}''' (or '''Chutes and Ladders''') is an ancient Indian {{w|race game}}, where the moves are decided entirely by die rolls. A number of tiles are connected by pictures of ladders and snakes (or chutes) which makes the game piece jump forward or backward, respectively. Since the game is decided by pure chance, it occupies the limbo where a computer will always be ''exactly'' as likely to win as a human.

===Computers cannot compete===

*'''{{w|Mao (card game)|Mao}}''' (or '''Mau''') is a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.
:The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand. Computers would have a difficult time integrating into Mao either because they would know all the rules -- and thus be disqualified or simply ignored by the players -- or would need a complicated learning engine that quite simply doesn't exist.

*'''{{w|Seven minutes in heaven|Seven Minutes in Heaven}}''' is a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.
:As the game is focused on human interaction, there's not a whole lot a modern computer can ''do'' in the closet. It would need some kind of robotic body in order to interact with its human partner, and emotion engines that could feel pleasure and displeasure in order to make decisions. The title text claims that {{w|Honda|Honda Motor Company}} has invented a "{{w|RealDoll}}" (sex toy shaped like a mannequin) with rudimentary Seven Minutes in Heaven capabilities, but they pale in comparison to a human's.

And finally
*'''{{w|Calvin and Hobbes#Calvinball|Calvinball}}''' is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.
:Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.
:The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.
:The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)
::Long story short, the game is a manifestation of pure chaos and the human imagination, far beyond the meager capabilities of silicon and circuitry.

==Transcript==
:Difficulty of Various Games for Computers

:[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]

:'''Easy'''
:{|border="small"
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions
| Tic-tac-toe
|-
| Nim
|-
| Ghost (1989)
|-
| Connect Four (1995)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions
| Gomoku
|-
| Checkers (2007)
|-
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans
| Scrabble
|-
| CounterStrike
|-
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)
|-
| Reversi
|-
| Chess
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer
|-
| Jeopardy (but just barely)
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans
(but focused R&D could change this)
| StarCraft (but just barely)
|-
| Poker
|-
| Arimaa
|-
| Go
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="1" |
| Snakes and Ladders
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans
|-
| Mao
|-
| Seven Minutes in Heaven
|-
| Calvinball
|-
|}
:'''Hard'''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

297: Lisp Cycles

2014-10-13T10:18:48Z

108.162.216.128: Didn't explain the joke.

{{comic
| number = 297
| date = August 1, 2007
| title = Lisp Cycles
| image = lisp_cycles.png
| titletext = I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the MIT computer science program permamently.
}}

==Explanation==
{{W|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}} is one of the oldest {{W|High-level programming language|high level programming languages}}. Despite being ahead of its times, it never got enough traction and is not widely used. However, it is considered to be a very powerful language even on the present day. [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lisp_programming_language Quotes on Lisp] shows that several big names of computer science field hold Lisp in very high esteem. {{W|Eric S. Raymond}} goes as far as to say:

:Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot.

Lisp is also famous for its use of fully parenthesized Polish prefix notation.

In the first panel, [[Cueball]] praises Lisp, noticing that no other language can still match the awe that it strikes despite the age that Lisp has.

In the second panel, Cueball wonders that new programmers will continue learning the "Lisp arts" that make better programmers.

The third panel rerferences ''Star Wars: A New Hope''. Obi Wan Kenobi said these lines when he gave a lightsaber to Luke Skywalker:

:Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as random or as clumsy as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

The title text is also a reference to Star Wars lines:

:The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.

The {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT}} mentioned in the title text is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an institute fundamental to the development of Lisp (and Scheme, which is a version of Lisp). For about 20 years, MIT taught Scheme in its introduction to computer science course, 6.001.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer, and Megan is standing behind the desk.]
:Cueball: Lisp is over half a century old and it still has this perfect, timeless air about it.
:Cueball: I wonder if the cycles will continue forever. A few coders from each new generation rediscovering the Lisp arts.

:[Man in Jedi robes carrying an armload of parentheses, speaking to Hairy.]
:Jedi: These are your father's parentheses. Elegant weapons. For a more... civilized age.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Programming]]