explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2445: Checkbox

2021-04-02T01:32:05Z

108.162.229.226: FLIPCOIN -> TAILS

{{comic
| number = 2445
| date = April 1, 2021
| title = Checkbox
| image = checkbox.gif
| titletext = Check check check ... chhecck chhecck chhecck ... check check check
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CHECKBOX. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is an April Fools comic that looks similar to a loading screen. The actual comic (this “loading screen”) consists of a gif of a checkbox (hence the name).

The frame is replaced with an interactive panel. In the centre is a check box, which clears itself immediately when checked. In the bottom right is a mute button, which begins muted.

Under the checkbox is a scrolling visual representation of the timing and duration of clicks in the check box, which also produce matching beeping sounds when unmuted.

By varying between brief and long presses, and brief and long intervals between presses, it is possible to enter characters in Morse Code.

The title text hints at the use of Morse Code in the comic; interpreting the "check" as a Morse Code dot and the "chhecck" as a Morse Code dash gives ...---..., which is the Morse Code for "SOS", the international distress signal. Incidentally, inputting the SOS signal gives "YOU TOO?".

The check box then begins operating by itself, producing sounds which can be decoded as Morse Code.

For the majority of inputs, the check box responds with 'WHAT'. Some keywords have special responses.

===Special Responses===
[.s are short presses, -s are long presses, and /s are spaces (just for readability)]

xkcd -> FILE NOT FOUND

[-..- -.- -.-. -..]

SOS -> YOU TOO?

[... --- ...]

HI -> HELLO! ANYBODY OUT THERE?

[.... ..]

HELLO -> HELLO TO YOU TOO!

[.... . .-.. .-.. ---]

HELP -> YES PLEASE

[.... . .-.. .--.]

WHAT -> ECHO

[.-- .... .- -]

ECHO -> ECHO

[. -.-. .... ---]

CHECK -> MATE

[-.-. .... . -.-. -.-]

MORSE -> SAY AGAIN

[-- --- .-. ... .]

AGAIN -> COME AGAIN

[.- --. .- .. -.]

E (''repeat n times'') -> E (''repeat n times'')

[.]

EEEEE -> AAAAA

[. . . . .]

FLIPCOIN -> TAILS

[..-. .-.. .. .--. -.-. --- .. -.]

T (''repeat n times'') -> T (''repeat n times'')

[-]

WHO ARE YOU -> SOJOURNER

[.-- .... --- / .- .-. . / -.-- --- ..-]

CQ -> CQD DE SOJ

[-.-. --.-]

SOJOURNER -> CFM (short for Confirm)

[... --- .--- --- ..- .-. -. . .-.]

QUIET -> (turns the volume off)

[--.- ..- .. . -]

MUTE -> (turns the volume off)

[-- ..- - .]

BEEP -> (turns the volume on)

[-... . . .--.]

QRS -> (reduces playback speed)

[--.- .-. ...]

QRQ -> (increases playback speed)

[--.- .-. --.-]

QRA -> QRA SOJOURNER

[--.- .-. .-]

QRB -> QRB 264 MILLION KM

[--.- .-. -…]

QRH -> QRH 0.652 METERS

[--.- .-. ....]

QRG -> QRG PATHFINDER

[--.- .-. --.]

QRZ -> QRZ SOJOURNER

[--.- .-. --..]

QTH -> QTH ARES VALLIS

[--.- - ....]

QSL -> QSL

[--.- ... .-..]

ET -> PHONE HOME

[. -]

LS -> DID YOU MEAN DIR

DIR -> ENTER IMAGE NUMBER

(any number <=2445) -> (loads xkcd comic in new tab)

MAKE ME A SANDWICH -> NOT A CHANCE

[-- .- -.- . / -- . / .- / ... .- -. -.. .-- .. -.-. ….]

SUDO MAKE ME A SANDWICH -> NOT POSSIBLE HERE

[... ..- -.. --- / -- .- -.- . / -- . / .- / ... .- -. -.. .-- .. -.-. ....]

F -> DID YOU MEAN FORTUNE

[..-.]

FORTUNE -> NEVER FEAR THE END OF SOMETHING MARKS THE START OF SOMETHING NEW

FORTUNE -> OPEN ME

[..-. --- .-. - ..- -. .]

OPEN -> YOUR DREAMS ARE NEVER SILLY DEPEND ON THEM TO GUIDE YOU

OPEN -> YOU WILL BE A GREAT SUCCESS BOTH IN THE BUSINESS WORLD AND SOCIETY

OPEN -> CHANGE IS HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE SO GO WITH THE FLOW

OPEN -> YOUR MOODS SIGNAL A PERIOD OF CHANGE

[--- .--. . -.]

OPEN -> HUH (if after something other than "FORTUNE")

[--- .--. . -.]

<nowiki />:) -> :D

[---... -.--.-]

<nowiki />:( -> :C

[---... -.--.]

<nowiki />;) -> :O

[-.-.-. -.--.-]

<nowiki />:O -> :X

[---... ---]

UWU -> OWO

[..- .-- ..-]

OWO -> UWU

[--- .-- ---]

STATUS -> RADIO ONLINE, MOTOR ONLINE, UNILATERAL PHASE DETRACTOR UNPOWERED, CARDINAL GRAMMETER UNSYNCHRONIZED

[... - .- - ..- ...]

UNIX -> (''Opens [https://uni.xkcd.com uni.xkcd.com]'')

[..- -. .. -..-]

GET YE FLASK -> YE WISH! IF THERE WAS A FLASK IN THIS GAME, WE'D KNOW ABOUT IT.

[--. . - / -.-- . / ..-. .-.. .- ... -.-]

YOUTUBE -> RXJKDH1KZ0W ''(Note: video ID for [https://youtu.be/RXJKdh1KZ0w Rockwell Retro Encabulator])''

[-.-- --- ..- - ..- -... .]

HAHA -> SAY AGAIN

[.... .- .... .-]

SAY AGAIN -> NOT FOLLOWING

[... .- -.-- / .- --. .- .. -.]

AGAIN -> COME AGAIN

[.- --. .- .. -.]

YO -> YO

[-.-- ---]

DROP TABLE -> HAHA NO

[.... .- .... .- / -. ---]

CS -> TRY THAT AGAIN

[-.-. ...]

REPAIR -> ENTERING ENCABULATOR RECOVERY SYSTEM. OPTIONS 1 INITIATE SIDE FUMBLING 2 ALIGN SPURVING BEARINGS 3 REVERSE TREMIE PIPE

[.-. . .--. .- .. .-.]

* 1 -> SIDE FUMBLING DETECTED. MODIAL INTERACTION UNSTABLE. RECOVERY TERMINATED.
* 2 -> MODIAL INTERACTION INITIATED. OPTIONS 1 UNWIND LOTUS O DELTOID 2 INCREASE DEPLENERATION 3 CONNECT GIRDLESPRING ON DOWN END OF GRAMMETER 4 CONNECT SEVENTH CONDUCTOR TO GIRDLESPRING
** 1 -> SIDE FUMBLING DETECTED. MODIAL INTERACTION UNSTABLE. RECOVERY TERMINATED.
** 2 -> DEPLENERATION PREVENTED BY DINGLE ARM
** 3 -> SIDE FUMBLING DETECTED. MODIAL INTERACTION UNSTABLE. RECOVERY TERMINATED.
** 4 -> PANAMETRIC FAN ACTIVATED. MODIAL INTERACTION STABLE. DEFAULT CONFIGURATION MISSING. MANUALLY ENTER MARZELVANE TYPE TO COMPLETE RECOVERY
*** HYDROCOPTIC -> RECOVERY SUCCESSFUL. REBOOT Y N?
**** Y -> (''Opens [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sojourner_repaired.png sojourner_repaired.png]'')
* 3 -> ERROR TREMIE PIPE NONREVERSIBLE

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Loading...
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

Talk:851: Na

2020-05-11T15:43:51Z

108.162.229.226: Isn't there a song with something like na na na etc., I wanna be a rocknroll man?

Randall actually explains at the top: "I can't ''believe'' I forgot Hey Jude.
I don't get do-overs, but I couldn't resist making [http://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/ a fixed version]." [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 16:29, 6 April 2013 (UTC)
:The "make it better" portion of the URL of the revised comic is probably a reference to additional lyrics from Hey Jude. In light of the fact that that particular joke wouldn't have been available unless he had omitted it from the initial one, it's possible he 'forgot' Hey Jude on purpose.
:[[Special:Contributions/173.21.244.39|173.21.244.39]] 22:40, 10 April 2013 (UTC)
Doesn't Katamari Damacy have nine "na"s, not ten? This is the number I can hear in the song on youtube, and the number in his earlier comic Accident. Am I missing something? --[[Special:Contributions/152.78.168.175|152.78.168.175]] 13:22, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
:Nope. It has 9. "Hey, Jude" wasn't the only thing he missed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.41|108.162.217.41]] 04:14, 8 June 2014 (UTC)
::Actually it depends. In some arrangements there's a leading "Na" at a lower pitch before going into the main sequence, providing the tenth. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.13|108.162.216.13]] 20:01, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Doesn't Batman have 16 na's? I'm pretty sure Im right about that ~JFreund
:Usually, yeah. But if you replace "nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana" with just "na na na na na na na na" then you get what is seen here. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.41|108.162.217.41]] 04:14, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

This is described here as a "flowchart", but I suspect Randall was going for a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_State_Machine finite state machine]. --[[User:Dfeuer|Dfeuer]] ([[User talk:Dfeuer|talk]]) 08:04, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Um, I'm not a math person, but this reminds me of Markov Chain a bit?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.190|141.101.105.190]] 14:14, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't it go "hey hey hey goodbye" instead of "hey hey goodbye" as well? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.5|141.101.99.5]] 18:28, 11 March 2015 (UTC) Yeah, I Think I'm Signing Right

This explanation is incomplete and not very good. I'm not American and only by reading through comments here I get to understand that "Na na na ... <x>" are like lyrics extracts from different TV-Show-Songs in the USA? {{unsigned ip|162.158.93.128}}

I added the mention of the title text to the explanation so it's not incomplete anymore. -- [[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 1:28, 9 September 2016 (EDT)

What about Na Na Na by My Chemical Romance? Na count of 7 Nas, repeated 6 times in each of 3 choruses, and 11 extra, which adds up to 137 Nas! Or Na Na Na Na Naa by Kaiser Chiefs? Counting Naa as Na, there are 5 Nas, repeated 47 times, for a total of 235 Nas! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.82|162.158.34.82]] 11:59, 16 December 2016 (UTC)NaNaNa[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.82|162.158.34.82]] 11:59, 16 December 2016 (UTC)

Journey's "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'" ends with 7 sets of 22 for a total of 154 Nas. [[User:Ryanker|Ryanker]] ([[User talk:Ryanker|talk]]) 19:33, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Ini Kamoze does 20 of them in "Here comes the hot stepper" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.94|162.158.59.94]] 16:56, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Searching any fulltext-searchable lyrics site gives NA songs in the order of 50000. Probably won't fit on a xkcd comic... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.226|108.162.229.226]] 15:43, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

2001: Clickbait-Corrected p-Value

2018-06-01T17:33:07Z

108.162.229.226: skipped some lines in transcript

{{comic
| number = 2001
| date = June 1, 2018
| title = Clickbait-Corrected p-Value
| image = clickbait_corrected_p_value.png
| titletext = When comparing hypotheses with Bayesian methods, the similar 'clickbayes factor' can account for some harder-to-quantify priors.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SHADY JOURNAL AUTHOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references ''hypothesis testing'' in statistics. When one wishes to determine if a given assumption is statistically supported by the data, a ''hypothesis test'' may be used. Usually, such a test takes the form of a null hypothesis, H0, which basically states that the status quo is maintained (here, that chocolate has ''no effect'' on athletic performance). The alternative hypothesis, H1, is the one the statistician wishes to put to the test (here, that chocolate ''increases'' athletic performance). Normally, the mathematician would gather data, run some calculations, and come up with a ''p-value''. This is the probability that the sample's results were obtained solely by chance, assuming that the null hypothesis is held to be true. Thus, the lesser the p-value, the less likely the null hypothesis is true. Below a certain point, usually 5% or 1%, we reject H0 and accept H1 to be true.

In this version, the p-value is corrected by a factor which increases when readers click a headline stating that H1 is true, and decreases when people click a headline stating that H0 is true. This has the effect of ''increasing'' the p-value if readers favor H1 over H0, leading to a greater chance of ''H0'' being accepted.

As the statistical results now depend on people's beliefs about the hypothesis, this is as far from actual science as one can get.

Clickbait is the practice of using deceptive or manipulative headlines to entice readers to click on a dubious news story, often with the purpose of generating ad revenue.

This comic calculates the p-value of clickbait article and videos, nowadays very common on the web. The formula depicted is commonly known as the Bayes theorem, and a more common expression of that theorem is p(A|B) = p(B|A) * p(A) / p(B). Here, it depicts the odds of a clickbait article being clicked depending on two different headlines.

==Transcript==
Clickbait-Corrected p-Value :

P_{cl} = P_{traditional} * \frac{click(H_1)}{click(H_0)}

H_0 : NULL hypothesis : "Chocolate has no effect on athletic performance"

H_1 : Alternative Hypothesis : "Chocolate boosts athletic performance"

click(H) : Fraction of test subjects who click on a headline announcing that H is true

"When comparing hypotheses with Bayesian methods, the similar 'clickbayes factor' can account for some harder-to-quantify priors.

{{comic discussion}}

2001: Clickbait-Corrected p-Value

2018-06-01T17:32:20Z

108.162.229.226: transcript and attempt at explanation.

{{comic
| number = 2001
| date = June 1, 2018
| title = Clickbait-Corrected p-Value
| image = clickbait_corrected_p_value.png
| titletext = When comparing hypotheses with Bayesian methods, the similar 'clickbayes factor' can account for some harder-to-quantify priors.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SHADY JOURNAL AUTHOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references ''hypothesis testing'' in statistics. When one wishes to determine if a given assumption is statistically supported by the data, a ''hypothesis test'' may be used. Usually, such a test takes the form of a null hypothesis, H0, which basically states that the status quo is maintained (here, that chocolate has ''no effect'' on athletic performance). The alternative hypothesis, H1, is the one the statistician wishes to put to the test (here, that chocolate ''increases'' athletic performance). Normally, the mathematician would gather data, run some calculations, and come up with a ''p-value''. This is the probability that the sample's results were obtained solely by chance, assuming that the null hypothesis is held to be true. Thus, the lesser the p-value, the less likely the null hypothesis is true. Below a certain point, usually 5% or 1%, we reject H0 and accept H1 to be true.

In this version, the p-value is corrected by a factor which increases when readers click a headline stating that H1 is true, and decreases when people click a headline stating that H0 is true. This has the effect of ''increasing'' the p-value if readers favor H1 over H0, leading to a greater chance of ''H0'' being accepted.

As the statistical results now depend on people's beliefs about the hypothesis, this is as far from actual science as one can get.

Clickbait is the practice of using deceptive or manipulative headlines to entice readers to click on a dubious news story, often with the purpose of generating ad revenue.

This comic calculates the p-value of clickbait article and videos, nowadays very common on the web. The formula depicted is commonly known as the Bayes theorem, and a more common expression of that theorem is p(A|B) = p(B|A) * p(A) / p(B). Here, it depicts the odds of a clickbait article being clicked depending on two different headlines.

==Transcript==
Clickbait-Corrected p-Value :

P_{cl} = P_{traditional} * \frac{click(H_1)}{click(H_0)}
H_0 : NULL hypothesis : "Chocolate has no effect on athletic performance"
H_1 : Alternative Hypothesis : "Chocolate boosts athletic performance"
click(H) : Fraction of test subjects who click on a headline announcing that H is true

"When comparing hypotheses with Bayesian methods, the similar 'clickbayes factor' can account for some harder-to-quantify priors.

{{comic discussion}}