explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3048: Suspension Bridge

2025-02-10T23:46:30Z

108.162.241.160:

What if a car doing one of the fun jumps lands on a car that didn't do a fun jump? Should we mandate that every car does a fun jump for this reason (and yay, fun jump!)? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.115|198.41.227.115]] 22:08, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
:Radar speed management, vehicles are only let on the bridge if their expected land point is between the vehicles around them. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.80|172.68.55.80]] 22:48, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
::Carrot/stick question. If they do a jump, they get their toll refunded on the far side of the bridge. Maybe give them double refund if they do a flip. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.135|172.69.246.135]] 04:07, 8 February 2025 (UTC)
:::The same would happen as on a normal road. If you drive faster than the car in front of you and do not break you will run into it. Only difference here is that you cannot break after jumping so if the one in front of you did make a small jump and then hit the brakes you could hit him. But if you drive very fast up towards a car on a normal road, and they hit the brakes, you will likely also hit them. Even though you do have a chance to brake as opposed to after a jump. So I do not see this as any different than a regular road. Only problem is someone will find it so fun to drive fast towards the top, they might forget to think about safety. But that is already a real problem on normal roads... You cannot stop someone from entering the bridge based on their speed before thet enter the bridge... So the radar comment makes no sense to me!? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:20, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

Do suspension bridges still work when built this way? Those pilings look much easier to sway to me. Maybe they are just buried a little more securely. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.80|172.68.55.80]] 22:48, 7 February 2025 (UTC)
:Yep! With "classic" suspension bridges (like the Golden Gate Bridge), there is no fixed connection between the deck and the towers. With differring loads and temperatures the deck can move up and down about 30cm at tower level (and almost 2 netres at midpoint). Some modern bridges do ise a fixed connection or hinge between deck and tower. [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 12:58, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

This looks a lot like a {{w|stressed ribbon bridge}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.64.132|172.69.64.132]] 22:59, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

This ''exact'' proposal, the [https://poly-bridge-2.fandom.com/wiki/Dangling_Road 'dangling road'], is actually The Meta in Poly Bridge 2. Poly Bridge 3 tried to tweak the numbers to make this strat less effective, but a variant of it continues to persist to this day. (This probably goes in the trivia section, because it seems like Randall came to this concept from first principles.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.65|172.71.151.65]] 01:07, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

:I came to the comment section to see if somebody already said that. The other thing I would have said is I wonder if RCE reads XKCD… if not, I think someone should ask him to do a blind reaction to this comic. I'd love to see his response :) -- [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 19:18, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

It's funny to me, there's a level in Jak II for the PS2 that's literally just this idea: for whatever reason the city's central palace is held up by five suspension bridge-esque wires, and one level has you crawling along wire #4 to get inside the palace (the catch? The wires are covered in security robots) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.159.7|172.71.159.7]] 01:54, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

I like the fact that vehicles are clearly on flexible cables, not some rigid material formed into a catenary shape. There's a truck between the two towers that is visibly depressing the cable it's riding. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:57, 8 February 2025 (UTC)
:Happy happy joy joy. {{w|Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)|No dogs allowed on this bridge}}. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.87|162.158.42.87]] 04:35, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

If you add a downward pressure to a rope that's significantly stronger than it's normal tension, you end up with a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary#Suspension_bridge_curve parabola] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.137.212|162.158.137.212]] 17:47, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Related: The Wooden bridge Tatzlwurm" in Essing Germany by Richard Johann Dietrich: [https://bsky.app/profile/jamonir.bsky.social/post/3lddc7rae4s24]. Maybe it could be included in the explanation. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 20:46, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Another example is the Karlssteg in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. [https://structurae.net/en/structures/karlssteg]
:Not sure I think this is really related. It is also possible as opposed to Randall's proposal here ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:20, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

It would seem that Randall has re-invented the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_suspension_bridge {{unsigned ip|172.68.54.207|15:17, 9 February 2025}}
:More so the mostly 'simple'-derived {{w|Stressed ribbon bridge}}. Unless you consider that development more a version of the non-simple type, with the descenders degenerated completely into the deck structure through high tension, i.e. a step beyond the "structure hiding" levels of other {{w|Millennium Bridge, London|low-profioe suspension bridges}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.78|172.71.178.78]] 15:37, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

I seem to recall a bridge on the overseas highway (Florida Keys) that was originally an arch bridge above a grade-level rail line. When they wanted to "upgrade" the route for cars, cars wouldn't fit into the narrow rail bridge, so they planked up and over the arches, and it was apparently quite a scary drive. I can't seem to locate it via google, although I'm sure I recall seeing it on my drive to key west about 20 years ago. I suspect it's gone now. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 20:34, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
:Ahh, it was the Bahia Honda Railroad Bridge. A few pictures of the structure (mostly torn down now) can be seen [https://www.abandonedspaces.com/uncategorized/bahia-honda-rail-bridge.html here]. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 22:55, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
:: Find it on Google Earth at 24°39.3142'N 81°17.5182'W. Mostly still there as of image date (2023, if I read correctly). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.78|172.71.146.78]] 15:43, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

2749: Lymphocytes

2025-02-01T18:04:35Z

108.162.241.160: /* Explanation */ fixed formatting I broke

{{comic
| number = 2749
| date = March 13, 2023
| title = Lymphocytes
| image = lymphocytes_2x.png
| imagesize = 651x733px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's very hard to detect, but recent studies have determined that when plasma B cells are producing antibodies, they go 'pew pew pew'
}}

==Explanation==
The human body contains many different types of immune cells. This comic is a list of {{w|lymphocyte}}s, a specific type of immune cell that is found in blood and lymph. As the comic goes on, in the style of many "informative" xkcd comics, the descriptions of the names of the cells get more and more removed from reality. Though many of the cells are real, only two descriptions are accurate, those for the plasma B cell and that of the out of context D cell. The diagrams are either uninformingly similar to each other, as an extremely generic diagram of a biological cell, or made to look somewhat like the item spoofed by the description.

The title text is possibly a reference to this recent study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c00638

{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Real Lymphocyte? !! Randall's description !! Comment
|-
| {{w|Plasma B cell}}s || Yes || Churn out antibodies || Does as the comic says.
No parody, except for the very vague diagram of a cell with a perinuclear region within it that could also just be a fried egg.
|-
| Naïve B cells || Yes || Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely || {{w|B cell}}s that have not yet been exposed to an antigen. Can only "ask nicely" for pathogens to stop because they cannot yet contribute to the immune system. Cell remains as much just a 'fried egg' as the prior image.
|-
| {{w|Memory B cell}}s || Yes || Very quietly sing {{w|Memory_(Cats_song)|"Memory" from ''Cats''}} at all times || Long-lived B cells that "remember" an antigen they have previously encountered, allowing them to quickly respond to a reappearance of the same antigen.
"Memory" is one of the most famous songs from the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber ''{{w|Cats (musical)|Cats}}'' musical, and the otherwise very similar cell appears to be singing notes.
|-
| {{w|Regulatory B cell}}s || Yes || Required by local ordinance || Suppress certain immune responses, or in other words, regulates the immune response, which is their actual namesake, as opposed to the made-up namesake of only being in the body because some regulation requires it.
Cells do follow instructions from DNA, and their environment, which might be considered to be local ordinances. The image is again just another ''slightly'' different version of the generic cell image.
|-
| CD8+ T cells || Yes || Melee combat || {{w|Cytotoxic T cell}}, responsible for killing cells which are cancerous or infected. Named after the surface protein "CD8" ("Cluster of Differentiation") it uses when searching for targets.
Possibly a reference to the tabletop gaming terminology where "d8" means 8-sided dice, "d4" means 4-sided dice, etc. D&D and many of its derivatives use d8s primarily for damage, particularly for some of the most common weapons like rapiers, longswords, and longbows, and also for several spells like Chill Touch or Ray of Frost. The image is again fairly generic without any gross distinction to it.
|-
| CD4+ T cells || Yes || Scream at other cells || {{w|T helper cell}}, releasing cytokines as a signal that prompts the immune system into action, thus "screaming" at other cells. Named after the surface protein "CD4" (see above), that is used for binding to other cells while "screaming".
The generic cell image seems to be shouting "AAAAAAAAA!".
|-
| {{w|Gamma delta T cell|Gamma-Delta T cell}}s || Yes || Unknown / classified || T cells found largely in mucous membranes of the gut, with different T-cell receptors than normal. Effectively the immune system's first line of defense.
The image, this time, has a dashed outer line and a question-mark instead of any nucleus. ''{{w|Delta Force|Delta Force}}'' is a famous military special forces organization involved in classified and not-generally-known operations, and its operatives are unlikely to be identified in publicly available images.
|-
| CDRW+ T cells || No || Rewritable, 700MB || Here, the meaning of "CD" is switched from {{w|Cluster of Differentiation}} to {{w|Compact Disc}}, as in the {{w|CD-RW}} re-writable media format. 700 megabytes is a common size format for CDs.
By skewing the 'cell' diagram into an oval, with concentric central 'nucleus' and adding some subtle radial and concentric lines, it now resembles a typical item of optical media.
|-
| DVD+R T cells || No || Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how || {{w|DVD+R}} is a DVD format designed by {{w|HP Labs}}, while DVD-R (pronounced "dash R") came originally from {{w|Pioneer Corporation}} and was the earlier accepted system. The two formats are not trivially compatible, but many (re)writing DVD drives were made multiformat to automatically handle both of these, {{w|DVD-RAM}}, read/write versions and CD-density media, as necessary, under the general label of "DVD±RW". The user then ends up not usually needing, or bothering, to know the technical differences.
Another similar representation of the prior 'cell', but with a few more lines (to perhaps suggest greater data density) but not functionally different from the prior diagram.
|-
| {{w|Natural killer cell}}s || Yes || Named by the world's coolest immunologist || Kills cells infected by intracellular pathogens and other malfunctioning (e.g. cancerous) cells, similar to CD8+ cells but part of the {{w|innate immune system}}. Randall likes the name of these cells more than the next item, making Rolf Kiessling and Hugh Pross "the world's coolest immunologist(s)."
The cell image is a bit more crinkled at the edge than any prior cell, but otherwise not remarkably distinctive.
|-
| ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells || Yes || Named by a significantly less cool immunologist || {{w|Innate lymphoid cell}}s, regulating the innate immune system through signaling molecules. Named in [https://www.nature.com/articles/nri3365 this paper in Nature] by Hergen Spits, David Artis, Marco Colonna, Andreas Diefenbach, James P. Di Santo, Gerard Eberl, Shigeo Koyasu, Richard M. Locksley, Andrew N. J. McKenzie, Reina E. Mebius, Fiona Powrie and Eric Vivier, making them collectively much less cool than Kiessling and Pross above.
Represented by three small cell-images, snuggling close to each other without touching, and no real reason to assume which of the three is which.
|-
| D cells || No || Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights || This is not a blood cell, but a {{w|D battery|"D cell" battery}}. Much like living organisms, the components of batteries are called {{w|Alkaline battery#Construction|"cells"}} (which forms the basis of Randall's pun) and they can be single-cell or {{w|Nine-volt battery#Technical specifications|multi-cell}}, though the two are often indistinguishable from each other to the casual user. Biological cells called "D cells" or {{w|delta cell}}s ''do'' actually exist, but they are not lymphocytes.

The battery in the comic is drawn as a diagrammatic 'cylinder', the cell edge forming a round-ended rectangle with a faint 'nearside' line to hint at its [[2509: Useful Geometry Formulas|3D nature]]. The 'nucleus' is pushed into one end of the shape, reminiscent of the distinctive 'cap' to {{w|Duracell|some batteries, commonly imitated}}, emphasizing the polarity of the item, but also represents a highly simplified version of how the electrolyte might be placed within the housing.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Title] Lymphocytes
:[Subtitle] And their functions
:[A 4 by 3 grid of frames, each containing the name of the lymphocyte, a visual depiction of the cell and a description]

:[Row 1, Column 1]
:Plasma B cells
:[Egg-like shaped cell with the nucleus right from the middle]
:Churn out antibodies

:[Row 1, Column 2]
:Naïve B cells
:[Almost circular cell with the nucleus in the middle]
:Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely

:[Row 1, Column 3]
:Memory B cells
:[Like panel 2, but with some music notes next to it, as if it produces sound]
:Very quietly sing "memory" from Cats at all times

:[Row 1, Column 4]
:Regulatory B cells
:[Like panel 2]
:Required by local ordinance

:[Row 2, Column 1]
:CD8+ T cells
:[Also oblong, but with the nucleus left from the middle]
:Melee combat

:[Row 2, Column 2]
:CD4+ T cells
:[Circular, with a large nucleus, saying ‘AAAAAAAAA!’]
:Scream at other cells

:[Row 2, Column 3]
:Gamma-Delta T cells
:[Dashed circle with a question mark in the middle]
:Unknown / classified

:[Row 2, Column 4]
:CDRW+ T cells
:[Shaped like a CD, with a large hole in the middle]
:Rewritable, 700MB

:[Row 3, Column 1]
:DVD+R T cells
:[Shaped like a DVD, with a bit smaller hole in the middle]
:Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how

:[Row 3, Column 2]
:Natural killer cells
:[Irregularly shaped oblong cell with nucleus in the middle]
:Named by the world's coolest immunologist

:[Row 3, Column 3]
:ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells
:[Three cells]
:Named by a significantly less cool immunologist

:[Row 3, Column 4]
:D cells
:[Cylindrical shaped ‘cell’, with a smaller cylindrical ‘nucleus’ inside it at the right, roughly shaped like a D battery]
:Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2451: AI Methodology

2021-04-19T09:02:14Z

108.162.241.160:

I checked with severαl bots, & replαcing eαch instαnce of "a" with "α" in α mid-length pαssαge of text seems enough to sαtisfy most unicity requirements. (~~ unsigned by ProphetZarquon ~~)
* But then the spell-checkers (AI-based or not) start screaming about the unknown words. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 09:14, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

An alternate explanation would be the AI's have reached Singularity and are conspiring to say that all work, as a conscious effort, despite the quality of data. "Don't worry; be happy." [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 09:14, 17 April 2021 (UTC)
:I think it's a spoof of the recent reports of things like facial recognition systems that have trouble with minorities. Or Google/YouTube recommendation algorithms that show the user sites that confirm their biases. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 12:59, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

i think the methodology ai is dodgy and has inbuilt preferences to pick other ai options over others, regardless of their validity. kinda like ai nepotism (~~ unsigned by 141.101.98.174 ~~)

I think it’s interesting that no one has thought to define AI, as if everybody should know what this means! (~~ unsigned by 172.69.35.175 ~~)

I think the first paragraph (“The joke is...”) is not justified. Too many details that cannot be inferred from the comic, even using AI. (~~ unsigned by 141.101.69.109 ~~)
:My AI infers that the joke is [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42554735 a toaster]... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.16|141.101.98.16]] 21:22, 17 April 2021 (UTC) (PS, what is it with everyone not bothering to sign things?)
::That article is three years old and it's STILL not most popular print on T-shirts and bumper sticker image? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 07:13, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Methodology and methodology section likely refer to distinct things. Methodology section is part of the research paper, while methodology refers to how the research was actually performed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.160|108.162.241.160]] 09:02, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

2451: AI Methodology

2021-04-19T08:58:43Z

108.162.241.160: Added a paragraph about methodology and methodology sections of a research paper. Notably they probably refer to different things. My style is probably shit and I have no sources, but my info is good. Probably. I am an organic neural network AI. thnx :)

{{comic
| number = 2451
| date = April 16, 2021
| title = AI Methodology
| image = ai_methodology.png
| titletext = We've learned that weird spacing and diacritics in the methodology description are apparently the key to good research; luckily, we've developed an AI tool to help us figure out where to add them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT (91%). TRAINED BY AN ADVERSARIAL AI (72%). If you are knowledgeable about AI, please rewrite at least one paragraph for us. The current content was completely fudged by amateurs. For instance explain Classifier and methodology for someone not familiar with these terms. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The joke in this comic is that the people are using {{w|artificial intelligence}} (AI) without understanding how to, and that by doing this networks of AI are controlling our research. The classifier is trained on data that doesn't include the causes of the results and may have even been generated from the same codebase, and then not tested it at all, producing a model that is both random and heavily overfitted. Such a model appears perfect but makes random predictions on new data. The title text is describing this happening, and how. For an introduction to machine learning, you can visit https://fast.ai/ .

This comic shows [[Cueball]] giving a presentation of some description. He is reassuring his audience of the validity of his research's methodology, which he says is "AI-based". There are many issues that can arise from an AI-based methodology, such as lingering influence from its training data or a bad algorithm reducing the quality of the investigation.

Cueball seeks to reassure his audience by quantifying the quality of his methodology. He does this by creating yet another AI to rank methodologies. This would not actually improve the confidence of any audience member, as any flaws of the methodology AI would likely be shared by the ranking AI, due to being created by the same team.

This is problematic because the concerns about his methodology are not concerns about the ''methodology section''. A ''methodology section'' refers to quality of writing and is a specific section of a research paper. A good methodology section would accurately and clearly explain what he did, but does not mean the research methodology itself was valid. Therefore, claiming that he has a good methodology section does nothing to address concerns with research methodology.

Furthermore, the ranking AI heavily favors the methodology of Cueball's AI, and may be biased. It shows a normal distribution, with a singular outlier to the far right with an arrow above. It can be inferred (from the arrow) that this data-point represents the AI's methodology. It is a significant outlier, and as such it is probably not an accurate representation of Cueball's AI. Alternatively, this could be taken as AI 'nepotism', where Cueball's methodology AI is more likely to select AI-based approaches over others. This type of algorithmic bias is mentioned in [[2237: AI Hiring Algorithm]]. Another explanation would be that the x axis measures something other than "how good the methodology is" (e.g., rate of highly significant results), and the fact that Cueball's AI is not within the normal distribution should have been a red flag indicating a problem with their methodology, but the ranking AI didn't notice the skew / correctly interpret the meaning of the data. (However, the title text seems to indicate that the x axis was indeed labeled by "quality of methodology", albeit defining this quality by very strange criteria.)

The title text is a joke about overfitting in AI and its impact on the model. The model is likely trained on too small a set of data and behaves unpredictably when provided with novel data, e.g. unusual spacing or uncommon diacritics. The "AI tool" mentioned is akin to an adversarial network, which attempts to tweak bad data in very small ways (adding said punctuation) in order to trick its opponent AI into accepting bad data as good data.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing on a podium in front of a projection on a screen and points with a stick to a bar chart histogram with a bell curve to the left and a single bar to the far right marked with an arrow.]
:Cueball: Despite our great research results, some have questioned our AI-based methodology.
:Cueball: But we trained a classifier on a collection of good and bad methodology sections, and it says ours is fine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Science]]

Talk:2441: IMDb Vaccines

2021-03-25T18:24:26Z

108.162.241.160: /* Does anyone know why this is incomplete? */

So the Force doesn't protect you against COVID-19? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 03:59, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

What I got from this comic, after an initial laugh, was the realization that this has been going on long enough for something like this to develop into a hobby....[[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.120|172.69.170.120]] 04:21, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

What's up with "Vader lives in that weird black egg thing". What is the black egg thing? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.108|141.101.98.108]] 09:30, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
:A Hyperbaric oxygen chamber on his personal Star Destroyers. You see it in Empire Strikes Back when it opens up for a message. He can safely remove his mask there and breathe unassisted and meditate on the Dark Side or Padme. (~~The comment you have just read waa inserted, unsigned, by 162.158.166.55 several hours after the following answer.~~)
:A combination meditation-chamber, sterile disrobing room and medical support facility. It lets him periodically divest himself of the irritatingly confining but necessarily life-supporting suit components, get a degree of respite from its relentless enclosure, let him tinker with his various biomechanical replacement parts and take time out to think suitably dark thoughts about the Dark Side. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.6|141.101.98.6]] 11:28, 25 March 2021 (UTC) (PS: Oh look, almost the same IP!)

== Does anyone know why this is incomplete? ==

Without information, nobody knows which part needs fixing. If anyone knows why this is incomplete, please post the reason here. If nobody can provide a satisfactory answer, maybe we should consider removing the incomplete tag. '''Note that I am posting this exact same text on other comics of questionable incompleteness. It's not spamming, it's a conscious attempt to clean this category up.'''--[[User:Quillathe Siannodel|Quillathe Siannodel]] ([[User talk:Quillathe Siannodel|talk]]) 15:04, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
*This tag is automatically added to new pages, which can be assumed to be incomplete. It's reasonable to remove it from an older page with a complete-seeming explanation, but probably not from a page referencing a comic that's been up for less than a couple days. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.160|108.162.241.160]] 18:24, 25 March 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2029: Disaster Movie

2018-08-08T15:37:08Z

108.162.241.160: Title Text Hollywood Time vs Real Time

DATASETS is one word. {{unsigned ip| 172.68.59.24}}
:And ''data sets'' are two ;) (BTW: Please sign your posts) --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:52, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
:[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/data_set oxford] says it's data set(s) --[[User:Gusser93|Gusser93]] ([[User talk:Gusser93|talk]]) 21:36, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
::Sorry for my sarcasm, both is possible as can be seen here at Wikipedia: {{w|Data set|A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data...}}. Oxford doesn't cover the US. And on the other hand {{w|Shapefile|shapefile}} is really a single valid term belonging to the geographical information system (GIS). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:08, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
::On a modem, there is a pin signal called "DSR" for "Data Set Ready," which would suggest that IBM (I think the terminology started with them) thought it should be two words (sometime back in the 1960's). (Side note: The "data set" in this case was the modem itself; "set" being used in the context of "a bunch of components in a box", as in "TV set") (side note, part II: Grammerly is marking all the "data set"s here and suggesting they be written as "dataset") [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 18:30, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Not by any means an expert, so I don't want to remove it without commenting, but I don't think the section on why "GIS survey team" is unrealistic holds up - I know the ShoreZone project (http://www.shorezone.org/) on the US and Canadian west coast uses almost exactly that kind of scientists-in-helicopters methodology. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.100|172.68.174.100]] 01:54, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
:That project sounds like it's collecting much more fine-grained data than simply coastal geometry - especially high resolution imagery, which does need to be taken from an aircraft. [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 02:54, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Cowboy Bebop, episode 24: "Hard Luck Woman." This is exactly what Radical Edward's father did. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.100|162.158.63.100]] 02:27, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Shapefiles are an actual format: .shp It is defined, released to the public and is the format that is used to share vector files in GIS [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.49|172.68.189.49]] 21:42, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
:Yes, hence this sentence: "A Shapefile is a proprietary data format for spatial data which remains in widespread use, despite being created in the early 90s, and based on an even older database format." Is there something you feel is missing from that? [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 23:27, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Similar take on Hollywood tropes can be found in [[734: Outbreak]] (medical / zombie thrillers), and [[633: Blockbuster Mining]] (adapting stories, action movies). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 08:28, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

The Title Text notes that this would not be as urgent as the proposed movie would portray, since updates are made quarterly. I think the embellishment is similar to many Hollywood procedural shows, where test results (e.g., DNA matching) that take quite a bit of time in reality are available practically on demand. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.160|108.162.241.160]] 15:37, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

2025: Peer Review

2018-08-06T02:45:31Z

108.162.241.160: updating date of live sci-hub link

{{comic
| number = 2025
| date = July 27, 2018
| title = Peer Review
| image = peer_review.png
| titletext = Your manuscript "Don't Pay $25 to Access Any of the Articles in this Journal: A Review of Preprint Repositories and Author Willingness to Email PDF Copies for Free" has also been rejected, but nice try.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PEER REVIEWER. Needs volunteer commentary on title text. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

How academic publishing works: When a researcher wants to publish their findings, they send it to an academic journal. The editor of the journal is another researcher (usually a college professor), ''who gets paid nothing or a minimal honorarium'' for editing the journal. The editor chooses a few (usually three) peer reviewers who are other researchers familiar enough with the study's subfield to judge the study's quality fairly and accurately, and sends it out to them for review. These peer reviewers ''do not get paid'' for the work of reviewing the manuscript and offering a detailed critique of every part of the study, from literature review to methodology to conclusions drawn from the results. If the peer reviewers and editor agree that the study was well-conducted and the paper well-written (or just needs minor revisions), it is accepted and published in the journal. The researcher ''is not paid'' for getting their paper published in the journal.

In short, nobody in the process is paid for their work except the journal publisher, who charges other researchers, libraries and individuals for access to the fruit of these people's free labor. This is commonly referred to as a "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paywall Paywall]".

This system relies upon researchers to be employed by either companies or universities in positions which require them to publish in order to remain employed or achieve promotions or pay raises. In universities, only postdocs and tenure-track or tenured professors are paid in a way that figures in their research time as well as their teaching time, which means that anyone not in one of those positions (lecturers, educators, adjunct instructors) is not paid for any research they might be doing and publishing, nor are those who are conducting research but cannot get a tenure-track job due to universities replacing tenure lines with non-tenure-track positions.

Charging for access to these works has raised [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cost_of_Knowledge controversy] in recent years, due to concerns that this may lead to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_silo Information silos].

Ponytail seems to be presenting papers concluding that this flow of currency is not equitable. Unfortunately (?), the journal she has submitted these findings to has opted not to review or publish them, either because they do not find her research suitable for their publication, or because they have a financial interest which conflicts with the findings, since sending her paper to review would give it directly to her target audience.

The title text refers to a recent Twitter [https://twitter.com/hwitteman/status/1015049411276300289 post] that went viral. Researcher Dr. Holly Witteman informs the public that you could just ask many researchers for a PDF copy of their academic paper and that they would be delighted to do so free of charge. (This hearkens back to the days of snailmail, when researchers would distribute printed copies, "reprints", of their work for, at most, the price of a self-addressed stamped envelope.) She has additionally written [http://holly.witteman.ca/index.php/2017/12/11/getting-access-to-paywalled-papers/ an article] on the situation and how to get papers for free.
Pre-Print Repositories are online databases for researchers to publish drafts of their research for quick distribution to willing reviewers, sidestepping the lengthy and often arduous reviewing process as conducted by many research journals. These databases are free to access by researchers and the general public, and often papers will remain on these sites long after their journal publication, making them a convenient way to get to papers locked behind a paywall. However, the pre-print versions of the papers will often lack peer review, and as such may contain a higher occurrence of errors. There are also sites which collect and re-publish papers for free, such as [http://sci-hub.is/ Sci-Hub], which attempts to provide all published papers free of charge globally. Links to Sci-Hub can go dead after being widely published; this one was live as of August 5, 2018. In the title text, the publisher refuses to publish a paper that describes ways to get around the paywall restrictions that make up their bottom line.

==Transcript==

:[Ponytail is sitting and looking at a laptop.]

:RE: Economics Journal Submission

:We have received your manuscript "The Bizarre Economics of Academic Publishing: Why Volunteer Peer Reviewers Should Rise Up and Demand Payment from For-Profit Journals."

:We have elected not to send it out for review.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

5: Blown apart

2018-06-14T14:30:46Z

108.162.241.160: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 5
| date = October 25, 2005
| title = Blown apart
| image = blownapart_color.jpg
| titletext = Blown into prime factors
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a mathematical and technical joke involving prime numbers and primary colors.

In the comic, an {{w|anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic}} black-colored number ''70'' sees a package, but it turns out to be a bomb that explodes when opened. The result is pieces of the number scattered about. The specific pieces are a red-colored ''7'', a green-colored ''5'', and a blue-colored ''2''.

The title text explains the logic for splitting 70 into 7, 5, and 2. It is a {{w|prime factorization}} of the number. {{w|Prime number|Prime numbers}} are numbers that cannot be divided by any number other than itself and 1. Factors of a number are numbers that can be multiplied together to produce that number (i.e. 2×5×7 = 70). 70 has other factors, including 1, 10, 14, 35, and 70, but 2, 5, and 7 are the only factors that are prime. All other factors of 70 can be formed by choosing zero, two, or three of the prime factors and multiplying them together.

Since it was a prime factorization, the bomb may have been primed.

Although not explicitly called out, the colors of the numbers also seem to have been blown apart. Red, green, and blue are the primary colors in the {{w|additive color}} model. These colors mixed in pairs produce cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are primary colors in the {{w|subtractive color}} model. The removal of all additive primary colors, or conversely, the combination of all subtractive primary colors, produces black, which is the color of the original 70 (according to the [http://xkcd.com/5/info.0.json official transcript], although it looks dark blue in the drawing).

==Transcript==
:[A black number 70 sees a red package and a line indicate that the number speaks. This small panel is partly overlaid on the next larger panel, which is shifted down.]
:'''''70'''''
:70: hey, a package!

:[The package explodes in a cloud of brown smoke. This panel is both behind the first in the top left corner, and below the last panel, which has been laid on top of that corner:]
:'''''BOOM'''''

:[There are a red 7, a green 5, and a blue 2 lying near a scorched mark on the floor.]
:'''''7'''''
::'''''5'''''
:'''''2'''''

==Trivia==
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with the 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal.
**On the site, it is the first comic with an actual punchline (all previous comics are either just sketches or establishing the background for later comics)
**But this comic, as well as [[12: Poisson]] also released that day, were never posted on [[LiveJournal]].
*The release date is given from [http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http:////www.xkcd.com//blownapart_color.jpg - wayback.archive]. At least the 25th of October was the first crawl date.
**This also explains why it was "released" on a Tuesday.
**On xkcd, it was released for the first time to the public on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]

886: Craigslist Apartments

2018-03-07T01:18:26Z

108.162.241.160: Added space in between “water” and “that”

{{comic
| number = 886
| date = April 15, 2011
| title = Craigslist Apartments
| image = craigslist apartments.png
| titletext = $1600 / 1386153BR 3BATH, MODERN SLIDING DOORS, GUEST ROOMS, GARBAGE DISPOSAL. FREE MANDATORY PARKING (ENFORCED). CONVENIENT TO ALDERAAN.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a comic about the potential pitfalls in finding an apartment on {{w|Craigslist}}. Just as in Craigslist, some of the posts are re-posted several times. Additionally, lots of posts use lots of tildes, exclamation points or asterisks as above to set their posts apart from others.

'''BR''' means bedroom, e.g. 3BR means that apartment has 3 bedrooms (common measurement of apartment size).

*'''$1600 / 2BR <nowiki>~~~</nowiki> Hardwood floors, utilities included. Cats OK, limit one per square foot.'''
:This ad is aimed at "crazy cat ladies/bachelors" who compulsively keep a number of animals much greater than is appropriate to the living space.

*'''$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****'''
:This is the first repetition of an entry that appears multiple times. It is also extremely generic, telling the reader little useful about the house. The square house might be a garage, or just a regular square house. Beside that, most houses have a door in front, there's nothing special about a door.

*'''$2300 / 3BR !!!!!!!! Elegant apartment permanently lit by strobe light!!!! No floor.'''
:A strobe light is a very bright light that, instead of remaining on, flashes very quickly. It's frequently used in parties. A constant strobe light and the stated lack of a floor would probably make living in the apartment somewhat difficult.

*'''$980 / 1BR New "hammock"-style dwelling. Water and heat free from same dispenser. Viking landlord.'''
: This is a post to live as an oarsman on a {{w|Viking ship}}. The water and heat presumably both come from the sky, in the form of rain and sunlight.

*'''$1550 / 2BR (one inside the other). Has running water, in a sense. Free heat in short, intense bursts. Klein stairs.'''
: This is a completely alien landscape, meant to be unimaginable and maddening. Possibly this represents some "other universe" or an extraterrestrial living space. Clearly this is unlivable, for humans at least. Short, intense bursts of heat disturb if not kill. Stairs that do not have a clear top or bottom and rooms that can be seen as inside of each other would be confusing and impractical if not impossible to navigate. Water that runs 'in a sense' is disturbingly vague. Seems to be on a planet with a quick rotation, also close to a star, hence the "short, intense bursts" of heat.
:(Alternatively, the house could have a {{w|geyser}} inside, which would explain both the 'free heat in short, intense bursts', along with the 'water that runs in a sense'.) A {{w|Klein bottle}} is a surface which has no difference between "inside" and "outside", so essentially if you own a Klein bottle all the universe is inside it (and at the same time it is outside). It is physically impossible to build a Klein bottle in a three-dimensional space. A "Klein stair" is possibly a stair connecting a BR to itself. This is why the 2BR in this ad are "one inside the other".

*'''$3200 / 1BR W/trimmed carpet and pert fixtures. Previous tenants clean. Call now, want you inside. $120/night (no animals)'''
:This is a disguised "adult services" (sex) posting, with references to trimmed pubic hair, an attractive body, and a lack of {{w|Sexually transmitted disease|STD}}s. Craigslist no longer allows posts for this, because prostitution is illegal in most places in the US. This post tries to evade the adult services ban by pretending to be something else. "No animals" would normally be assumed to mean "no pets", but in this context probably refers to {{w|bestiality}}.

*'''$2100 / 3BR on scenic Ash Tree Lane. Builder unknown; house has always existed. Walls shift; center of house may contain minotaur.'''
: This {{w|Minotaur}} house is an ad for the house in the novel ''{{w|House of Leaves}}''. It may also refer to the Labyrinth in Ancient Greek mythology.

*'''$600 / 5BR Three floors w/pool, rooftop garden, beautiful glass facade, no catch, 5-min drive to historic Pripyat.'''
:This is an ad for a residence in the {{w|Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant}}, located near to the town of {{w|Pripyat}}, in northern Ukraine. The NPP is a 3-level structure, and contains a pool for temporary spent nuclear fuel storage. The rooftop now has plants growing on it after years of neglect, and the glass facade references radioactive glassy minerals created by the explosion. Pripyat was founded in 1970 to serve the power plant, so is only 'historic' in the sense that it is associated with the Chernobyl disaster.

*'''$7100 / 60BR Sleek modern w/extreme running water. Previous tenants may resist entry. Contains all new wiring and is a submarine.'''
:This house is a submarine, as indicated by the advertisement, presumably operated by a navy. The "previous tenants", being members of the armed forces, would undoubtedly resist entry of someone attempting to board their submarine. The sixty bedrooms refers to the crew members' bunks on board the ship, which are in extremely tight quarters and can be very uncomfortable. This may also be a reference to [[496: Secretary: Part 3]], which makes reference to [[Black Hat]] stealing a submarine, presumably for [[405: Journal 3]] - apparently this is him trying to get rid of it.

*'''$1616 / 3BR + 2Bath, tub full of blood. Closet full of board games which play themselves. Pets OK but won't survive long.'''
: This is an ad for a house in a generic horror movie.

*'''$1600 / 1386153BR 3bath, modern sliding doors, guest rooms, garbage disposal. Free mandatory parking (enforced). Convenient to Alderaan.'''
:Appearing in the title text, this is a reference to the {{w|Death Star}} in ''Star Wars''. {{w|Alderaan}} is the home planet of {{w|Princess Leia}}, which was obliterated by the Death Star. Mandatory parking references the tractor beams used to drag nearby ships (such as the Millennium Falcon) into the base. The garbage disposal refers to an iconic scene from Star Wars aboard the Death Star involving a garbage disposal. It seems somewhat inconvenient that this "apartment" has over a million bedrooms but only three bathrooms. The guest rooms are probably the detention blocks such as [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Detention_Block_AA-23 Detention Block AA-23].

==Transcript==
:[The comic is a single panel, presented as an apartment search.]
:[Title bar.]
:All apartments
:Search for: [_______] in: All apartments ( ) Title only (*) Entire post Search
:Rent: [Min] [Max] 0+ BR [ ] Cats [ ] Dogs [ ] Has image
:[Date bar.]
:Fri Apr 15
:[Begin the apartment listings.]
:$1600 / 2BR <nowiki>~~~</nowiki> Hardwood floors, utilities included. Cats ok, limit one per square foot.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$2300 / 3BR !!!!!!!! Elegant apartment permanently lit by strobe light!!!! No floor.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$980 / 1BR New "hammock"-style dwelling. Water and heat free from same dispenser. Viking landlord.
:$1550 / 2BR (one inside the other). Has running water, in a sense. Free heat in short, intense bursts. Klein stairs.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$3200 / 1BR W/trimmed carpet and pert fixtures. Previous tenants clean. Call now, want you inside. $120/night (no animals)
:$2100 / 3BR on scenic Ash Tree Lane. Builder unknown; house has always existed. Walls shift; center of house may contain minotaur.
:$1100 / **** GREAT DEAL SQUARE HOUSE DOOR IN FRONT!!! ****
:$600 / 5BR Three floors w/pool, rooftop garden, beautiful glass facade, no catch, 5-min drive to historic Pripyat.
:$7100 / 60BR Sleek modern w/extreme running water. Previous tenants may resist entry. Contains all new wiring and is a submarine.
:$1616 / 3BR + 2Bath, tub full of blood. Closet full of board games which play themselves. Pets ok but won't survive long.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1940: The Food Size Cycle

2018-01-11T02:24:08Z

108.162.241.160: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1940
| date = January 10, 2018
| title = The Food Size Cycle
| image = the_food_size_cycle.png
| titletext = There's data suggesting that this model may apply to deep-dish/thin-crust pizza. I've designed a thorough multi-year study to investigate this personally, but funding organizations keep denying my grant requests.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic illustrates the evolution of the size of food items over time, using the example of a sandwich. It starts with a regular sandwich at the beginning. As the sandwich became more popular, sandwich makers had an {{w|arms race}} concerning sandwich size as they competed for customers. Eventually, these sandwiches became too big to eat comfortably. At this point (according to Randall) some smart guy invented the panini, a small sandwich, to cater to those who can't find a sandwich small enough for their needs. Eventually, the panini itself will begin to grow, and either displace or become indistinguishable from the existing giant sandwiches, and the cycle will repeat.

The title text suggests that the same cycle may be applicable to the depth of pizza crust, with thin crusts being replaced with deeper and deeper ones, eventually necessitating a resurgence in thin crust. Randall laments that despite seeking funding to conduct experiments to test that hypothesis, he keeps getting turned down, probably because it sounds suspiciously like he wants to be paid for eating pizza.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:'''The food size cycle'''

:[There is a chart, with the x axis labeled "Food item size", and y labeled "Time". The arrows are pointing away from the top left corner.]

:[A normal sandwich is shown high up the chart.]

:Initial normal-sized food (sandwich, burger, burrito, taco, etc)

:Food becomes more popular

:[A larger sandwich is shown.]

:[An even larger sandwich is shown.]

:Size arms race: average item grows as restaurants compete to offer the largest version to hungry customers

:[An enormously large sandwich is shown.]

:Food gets too large to eat comfortably

:[On the left side of the second largest sandwich:]

:Void

:[A new row comes up, inside is a panini.]

:New format appears and fills the void (panini, burrito bowl, taquito, slider, etc)

:[The two paths are converging.]

:Merger or replacement

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Food]]

130: Julia Stiles

2017-07-27T04:20:52Z

108.162.241.160: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 130
| date = July 19, 2006
| title = Julia Stiles
| image = julia stiles.jpg
| titletext = I found an old tape of this episode in my family's closet. Check the news section of the forums to see the clip!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Julia Stiles}}, who later became a well-known actress as an older teenager and adult, did in fact appear in the children's television show ''{{w|Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter}}'' as a 12-year-old in 1993. The sketch in this comic depicts Stiles as she appeared in the episode, and all the dialogue attributed to her is taken from her character's actual dialogue.

Although this dialogue was supposed to establish Erica (Stiles' character) as an expert on hacking, it actually consists mostly of buzzwords (some of which are fake), none of which would impress an actual computer hacker.

The term "console cowboys" appears to have been a reference to the book [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer Neuromancer].

The thread in the news section of the forums, as referenced in the title text, can be found [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=92 here]. However, a copy of the video with better audio can be found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bLlj_GeKniA here].

==Transcript==
:The best thing ever to appear on TV: 12-year-old Julia Stiles as a hacker in a 1993 episode of PBS's "Ghostwriter"
:[A sketch of Julia Stiles, as a 12-year-old, with a bandana over her head, long wavy hair, elbow shirt, wrist band, and pants.]
:Julia Stiles: Do you know anything about hackers? Can you jam with the console cowboys in cyberspace? Never experienced the new wave? Next wave? Dream wave? '''OR''' cyberpunk?

==Trivia==
This is one of the only comics on xkcd to feature a drawing of a recognizable human being, as opposed to a stick-figure representation of them.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:1810: Chat Systems

2017-03-13T23:22:08Z

108.162.241.160:

"Wall (bathroom)" might be a reference to the Spaceballs movie. President Skroob is using the bathroom when he gets a video call from one of his officers. "Ahh! I told you never to call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.112|172.68.54.112]] 16:31, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

From the explain section (User: Cosmogoblin): See [https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xpd3iggd47x51q/1810.ods this spreadsheet on Dropbox] for a list of each person in the diagram, as a basis for more complex analysis.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:48, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Man, IRC is not old. I remember using it at college in 1996... Oh, wait.{{unsigned ip|172.68.26.65}}

I'm pretty sure that says '''Wall (Unix)''', not '''Wall (Linux)'''. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.131|162.158.79.131]] 17:16, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

He left off the chat tab on wikipedia :o){{unsigned ip|172.68.86.100}}

He also left off [https://discordapp.com/ Discord]. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.160|108.162.241.160]] 23:22, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_diagram#/media/File:Euler_and_Venn_diagrams.svg Humorous diagram comparing Euler and Venn diagrams]--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:06, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

To whom are the individuals unique to some sets talking to? eg those in Apache Request logs, and wall (unix) and wall (bathroom)? I suppose there is no reason to assume anyone is receiving their messages.......[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.160|108.162.241.160]] 18:37, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

:I'd assume that the diagram is the ways Randall communicates with people. So the person in the Apache Logs circle would be the only person he is able to reach using this method. Likely meaning that for the really big circles (like email), a person outside the circle doesn't necessarily mean they don't use email; just that Randall doesn't have their address. --(bah, I can't remember my username on here. Old laptop was left logged in) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.109|162.158.154.109]] 20:37, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

This seems related to #1254, and maybe #1789 as well. Randall really has a problem with his friends' bizarre methods of communicating.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.5|172.68.132.5]] 18:44, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

;Related comics
I've created this new section at the bottom of the explain section. Those references don't explain much but moving it to a trivia section would move this out of sight for the reader. Since many writers like to find such references this chapter groups them all together. Any suggestions? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:04, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

;Transcript
I'm thinking it may be best to do the transcript by listing each person and the circles in which they are present, possibly condensing people in identical circles with the number in parentheses. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.246.82|162.158.246.82]] 22:23, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

1810: Chat Systems

2017-03-13T23:16:51Z

108.162.241.160: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1810
| date = March 13, 2017
| title = Chat Systems
| image = chat_systems.png
| titletext = I'm one of the few Instagram users who connects solely through the Unix 'talk' gateway.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Fill in the table and explain the title text. The main purpose of an euler diagram needs to be explained. (E.g. BBM in eMail; WhatsApp in eMail and SMS)}}
In the world of social media, connecting to and communicating with friends, relatives, and other acquaintances can be extremely easy, but due to the large amount of networks and systems through which to communicate, and the selective nature of the people using them, it can be difficult to keep track of who uses which system(s), and thus, communication can be more complicated by social media as well.

;Chat systems mentioned
{| class="wikitable"
!System
!Number of people in group
!Explanation
|-
| {{w|Email}}
|35
|A popular form of electronic communication that saw first widespread use in the 1960s. It allows you to send electronic "letters" to people using pre-exchanged email addresses. Many people use this platform, hence the large size of the corresponding circle.
|-
| {{w|SMS}}
|39
|Short Message System; a text-based messaging system connecting most worldwide phone systems that had its beginnings in the 1980s and has since represented the most common form of data transmission for most people. It is principally used to send short text messages between mobile phones, but most phone carriers provide facilities to send-to-email or send-to-voice (for use with landline phones). Most major phone carriers also provide support for email-to-SMS.
|-
| {{w|Hangouts}}
|9
|Google Hangouts is Google's instant messaging system. It can be used to share data and for video chat.
|-
| {{w|Signal_(software)|Signal}}
|8
| An app used for encrypted communications.
|-
| {{w|iMessage}}
|6
|Apple's SMS service
|-
| {{w|IRC}}
|5
|Internet Relay Chat is an old chat system which many people refuse to switch off of.
|-
| {{w|Slack_(software)|Slack}}
|5
|A team instant messaging service
|-
| {{w|Twitter|Twitter DM}}
|4
| "Direct messages" between users on Twitter.
|-
| {{w|AIM}}
|2
|AOL Instant Messaging service; a popular messaging system from the 1990s that suffered a severe decline in 2005 upon the release of Gmail and Google Chat. It is based on the closed source OSCAR protocol, but AOL created the TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications, and made specifications openly available, for third parties to connect to their service. There have been short-lived dalliances with other protocols since 2008; it has never had direct support for the other widely used protocols here.
|-
|The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}
|2
|Google Docs is an online word processor reminiscent of Microsoft Word. One of the notable features is online collaborative editing, with a rudimentary chat feature for communication. Randall apparently communicates with someone using the chat in an old Google Doc.
|-
| {{w|Facebook_Messenger|FB Messenger}}
|2
|Facebook's chat system.
|-
| {{w|Instagram|Instagram DM}}
|2
|Direct Messaging, a feature of Instagram that allows users to post personal messages to each other.
|-
|{{w|Peach_(social_network)|Peach}}
|2
|Peach is a mobile-based social network introduced in January 2016.
|-
| Telegram
|2
|Could refer to a cloud based instant messaging system by this name ({{w|Telegram (software)|Telegram}}), or to actually sending messages using {{w|telegrams}}. Telegrams were messages sent by electric telegraphy, which were often typed out and hand-delivered to the recipient. This was the first system for rapid communication across long distances that was widely available, originally developed in the 19th century. Naturally, telegraphy is now wildly obsolete (though some local services apparently do still exist) which would explain why Munroe communicates with so few people that way.
|-
| {{w|Skype}}
|2
|Microsoft's chat client. It offers VoIP video and audio calls, instant messaging and phoning from within the app.
|-
| {{w|WhatsApp}}
|2
|Billed as encrypted end-to-end chat, allows VoIP chats, text chats, video and image sharing. Caters for group chat as well.
|-
| {{w|WeChat}}
|2
| Started off as a Chinese WhatsApp imitation. WeChat has become a full scale social media with it's own news, games and payment system.
|-
|{{w|Apache_HTTP_Server|Apache}} Request {{w|Server_log|Log}}
|1
|A file used by Apache HTML server to log page access requests by users, usually stored as access_log. Its use as a communications tool would require the user to embed their messages in URLs and the admin to look for the messages in the logs. It would be inconvenient and time consuming for both parties.
|-
| {{w|BlackBerry Messenger|BBM}}
|1
|Blackberry message. A chat system available on {{w|BlackBerry}} phones, now largely obsolete.
|-
| {{w|Snapchat}}
|1
|Snapchat is an image messaging app.
|-
|Wall (bathroom)
|1
|Apparently a chat system based around writing on the wall in the bathroom. Not an electronic system. Alternatively, this could mean the person is an extreme introvert, and hides in his bathroom instead of interacting with others, by talking through the wall. It could also be a pun on "communicating through _____" as a bathroom wall is a physical object rather than an interface.
|-
|{{w|Wall (Unix)}}
|1
|Short for "write all", the "wall" command copies its argument to every user logged into the same Unix system, and so can be used as a primitive chat system.
|-
| {{w|Zephyr (protocol)}}
|1
| Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background.
|-
| {{w|ICQ}}
|1
|An older open-source instant messaging application.
|-
|{{w|Talk_(software)|Unix 'talk'}}
|*
|This is in the title text, and the only user is Munroe. Old peer-to-peer chat system whereby users logged into the same UNIX system could privately communicate with each other in a full-screen interface.
|}

;Related comics
*The ubiquity of standards - here, of messaging systems - was already covered in [[927: Standards]]
*For IRC see also [[1782: Team Chat]]

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[an Euler diagram with a large number of circles for various chat systems, overlapping in complicated ways]
:I have a hard time keeping track of which contacts use which chat systems.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1810: Chat Systems

2017-03-13T18:37:21Z

108.162.241.160:

Talk:345: 1337: Part 5

2017-02-09T20:02:09Z

108.162.241.160:

Does anyone know if such an IP address really exists, where you can point a streaming audio player at the right time to hear her "rock out"? [[User:Saibot84|Saibot84]] ([[User talk:Saibot84|talk]]) 05:33, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
:It's definitely possible to set up a server to work like that, but I don't know of one that's been set up. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.160|108.162.241.160]] 20:02, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

127.0.0.1 [[User:HitiadlfElaineR|HitiadlfElaineR]] ([[User talk:HitiadlfElaineR|talk]]) 08:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

While this was a joke, I can find a more inspirational view. In this case, while Elaine Roberts is fictional, you (that is, the programmer who reads xkcd) can be excellent hackers. You have the potential to achieve exploits (not just cracking ones). You just have to work towards your goal. In other words, the reason why the IP address points to your home is because you have the 'spirit' of Elaine Roberts. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 21:57, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Shouldn't we mention Dread Pirate Roberts a.k.a. Ross William Ulbricht, the Silkroad founder? {{unsigned ip|141.101.64.71}}

Also, the joke is that the sentence from the Princess Bride _isn't_ exactly mimicked. Cary Elwes says "you'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts," where DPR is the full title. Elaine is told that she make a "great dread Pirate, Roberts," - Roberts being Elaine's surname. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.86|173.245.52.86]] 23:28, 6 November 2014 (UTC)
* Rather pedantic bit of critique. The comma is just there so the joke makes sense as a line.- Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.205|108.162.249.205]] 02:24, 20 January 2015 (UTC)
It should also be mentioned that the "Dread Pirate Roberts" was the nickname of the guy who ran Silk Road.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.150|108.162.219.150]] 18:07, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

according to Wikipedia, he Silk Road wasn't started until years after this comic was published. Interestingly enough, the titular comic 1337 was, which coincidentally also happens to be titled "Hack."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.76|108.162.216.76]] 17:39, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Someone needs to put a stop to all these incomplete tags that are really just demands for more and more information. I tried clearing out all the "Tell me more" incomplete tags, but someone reverted them, and then added MORE.

[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.30|173.245.54.30]] 23:05, 28 July 2016 (UTC)JWB
:I reverted your changes. You removed every incomplete tag, including ones that were merited, within a time span that made it difficult to believe you were properly vetting the pages to make sure they were complete. The most telling part was your removal of the incomplete tag on [[1608]] without also removing the red text the tag was referring to, indicating that you weren't reading the messages on the tags either before judging that they were satisfied and removing them. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:54, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

I reviewed the reasons given for the incomplete tags, and removed all the ones that boiled down to "more". Most of these were just things like "Needs more details", "It would be cool if" and even "Explain this complicated scientific concept to me". Hoverboard is an example of the last category I cleared, which was essentially "Please recreate this super-detailed thing Randall did with documentation of every single detail." That's not a realistic standard for a complete explanation, and therefore the incomplete project would *never* be finished.

657, for example, is a request that is both pointless and unfillable - you can't create a transcript for a chart. 1556 is "I don't like this explanation. 980 is "Reconstruct Randall's data".

These requests are entirely pointless and irrational for an explanation of the comic. The goal here is to EXPLAIN the comic, not simply create a second version.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.30|173.245.54.30]] 10:58, 29 July 2016 (UTC)JWB
:We transcribe charts because there are people who can't see them, due to physical condition or internet. A transcript that does not contain the contents of the comic is not sufficient to deliver the same content that sighted users experience, and it does not help us if someone comes by and deems vague transcripts good enough. We do aim to document every feature of large comics; see the pages for [[1110]] and [[1190]]. Also, some explanations are legitimately lacking in information and when you delete the tags from ~30 pages within the span of 10 minutes, it is very difficult for me to believe that you're checking to make sure the pages are actually finished. I bothered to read the pages instead of batch rolling back all your changes for the day, but it would have been nice if you'd taken the time to do it yourself when deleting tags. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:53, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

If I may ask, what are the specifics behind the incomplete explanation? Could we just say that Stallman wrote the GNU Manifesto (source: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html) where he asked for help working on GNU and his goal was to share it with everyone - hence encourage sharing in the public mind? The bit about defacing websites makes sense because, unlike a normal human who would more or less likely just start a fight with whomever made one too many mom jokes, she uses her hacking skills to mess with their websites. Is there anything else we need to say about that? [[User:Da NKP|Da_NKP]] ([[User talk:Da NKP|talk]]) 13:28, 22 August 2016 (UTC)