explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

693: Children's Fantasy

2020-10-06T23:04:56Z

108.162.245.130:

{{comic
| number = 693
| date = January 25, 2010
| title = Children's Fantasy
| image = childrens_fantasy.png
| titletext = I was going to be a scientist, but that seems silly now. Magical worlds exist. I've learned a huge truth about our place in the universe. I'm supposed to care about college? I mean, FUCK.
}}

==Explanation==
Children's fantasy stories such as {{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}} and {{w|The Phantom Tollbooth}} involve a kid who is magically transported out of their time to some fantastic realm, goes through trials and becomes a hero, and then is returned to their own mundane world at about the same time they left with no one else realizing or believing what happened to them. The growth of the protagonist often involves learning self-confidence.

The comic illustrates this type of story and considers what the rest of the child's life would really be like as they reach adulthood. If they tell their friends, spouse, and family what happened to them, no one will believe them and these loved ones will think them a bit crazy. If they don't tell anyone, they are pretending that the episode never happened. Either way, it seems this would not be an enjoyable experience to live with for their entire adult life.

The title text continues the thought by pointing out the impossibility of contributing anything to the scientific world after visiting a magical world, as the child would know many scientific baselines, and, indeed, most regularly practiced scientific theory to be false, but would be unable to say anything or convince anyone of what they knew.

This comic can be read as a critique of a single event redefining a person since the protagonist doesn't change: in the first panel they consider themselves a loser and in the title text they say they were going to be a scientist. They did not find their self confidence and instead regressed from [[1027: Pickup Artist]]" You look like you're going to spend your life having one epiphany after another, always thinking you've finally figured out what's holding you back, and how you can finally be productive and creative and turn your life around. But nothing will ever change. That cycle of mediocrity isn't due to some obstacle. It's who you are. The thing standing in the way of your dreams is that the person having them is you."

==Transcript==
:[Kid is sitting on the ground with his chin in his hand.]
:Kid: I'm such a loser-
:''POP''
:[Princess sticks her head through a portal.]
:Princess: Come quickly, young one!
:Kid: Holy crap, a portal!
:Princess: My kingdom needs you!

:[He falls through.]
:Kid: AAAAAA

:[We see him on horseback, helmeted wielding a sword. There's a castle on the horizon and two moons in the sky. There are a few other riders as well.]

:[Kid, with helmet and sword, stands before King, Princess, and another warrior. Princess is holding out a ring.]
:King: You've saved our kingdom and found your self-confidence. Now it's time to return home. Goodbye, young hero!
:Princess: Take this ring to remember us!

:[Kid stands alone, holding the ring.]
:Kid: Well, I guess I spend the rest of my life pretending that didn't happen or knowing that everyone I love suspects I'm crazy.
:Kid: This'll be a fun 70 years.

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

1820: Security Advice

2017-04-05T15:03:37Z

108.162.245.130:

{{comic
| number = 1820
| date = April 5, 2017
| title = Security Advice
| image = security_advice.png
| titletext = Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Incomplete. TBD:Complete tip explanations Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic depicts a conversation between [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]], discussing the fact that giving people security advice has failed to improve their internet security, and in some cases even made things worse (such as requiring complicated passwords leading to people leaving post-it notes with their passwords on their screen, leading to huge security risks). As a result Cueball suggests {{w|reverse psychology|giving bad advice instead}}, in hopes of a positive effect. The last panel contains a list these security tips, which are parodies of actual security tips.

The last tip on the image is most likely a reference to Ingmar Bergman's film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal#Synopsis The Seventh Seal].

===Security Tip Explanations===
{| class="wikitable"
!Security Tip
!Explanation
|-
|Don't click links to websites
|The usual tip is "Don't click on ''suspicious'' website links." The comic's variation instead implies don't click on any links to any websites, or don't use the internet.
|-
|Use prime numbers in your password
|Long prime numbers are an essential part of modern cryptography and security systems, but don't have any effect when being used in passwords, except for maybe being harder to remember.
|-
|Change your password manager monthly
|It is often recommended to change passwords on a regular basis. However, changing password managers monthly would be quite impractical.
|-
|Hold your breath while crossing the border
|This in its self, wouldn't do anything, but if you hold your breath for too long you could pass out when crossing, or look stressed/suspicious. Overall, this would not help you.
|-
|Install a secure font
|
|-
|Use a 2-factor smoke detector
|A new way to keep accounts secure is 2-factor authentication, which usually means you enter your password, and then look for an email (or go into a mobile app) with a code which you then enter into the website. A 2-factor smoke detector would be useless, because it would require you to verify that there is actually a fire with a code, when the purpose of smoke detectors are to warn you about fires you ''don't'' know about.
|-
|Change your maiden name regularly
|A common security question (a type of 2-factor authentication from the previous tip) asks you for your maiden name, which is the family name that you were born with. Changing it, however, would be very difficult or even impossible, even more so on a regular basis.
|-
|Put strange USB drives in a bag of rice overnight
|The usual security tip is "Don't plug strange USB drives into your computer," because sometimes attackers put viruses that infect your system when plugged in. This tip implies that you should "put USB drives in a bag of rice overnight" which is a common technique for drying out water damaged devices, due to rice's absorbent qualities. This would not clean the drive of viruses, and unless the drive was wet (perhaps because you found it outside due to it being called "strange") it would not do anything.
|-
|Use special characters like & and %
|
|-
|Only read content published through Tor.com
|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network) Tor] is a software solution to provide anonymity on the web for its users. The website [https://tor.com Tor.com] is the website of fantasy and sci-fi book publisher Tor, which has no relation to the Tor-network.
|-
|Use a burner's phone
|A play on using a burner phone (a cheap/disposable cell phone like those purchased at 7-11, often used for drug deals or other activity one might not want traced), and using the cell phone of a burner, i.e. a person who goes to the the Burning Man festival.
|-
|Get an SSL certificate and store it in a safe place
|
|-
|If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.
|This tip is likely a reference to Ingmar Bergman's film [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal#Synopsis The Seventh Seal]
|-
|Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name. (Title Text)
|The usual security tip here is ''"only trust accounts claiming to be legitimate if they have a blue check mark next to their name"'', which means that the account is verified as legitimate. This tip suggests only giving your ''password'' to verified accounts, although you shouldn't give your password to ''any'' account.
|}

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

:Ponytail: We've been trying for decades to give people good security advice.
:Ponytail: But in retrospect, lots of the tips actually made things worse.

:Cueball: Maybe we should try to give ''bad'' advice?
:Ponytail: I guess it's worth a shot.

:Security tips
:(Print out this list and keep it in your bank safe deposit box.)
* Don't click links to websites
* Use prime numbers in your password
* Change your password manager monthly
* Hold your breath while crossing the border
* Install a secure font
* User a 2-factor smoke detector
* Change your maiden name regularly
* Put strange USB drives in a bag of rice overnight
* Use special characters like & and %
* Only read content published through Tor.com
* Use a burner's phone
* Get an SSL certificate and store it in a safe place
* If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.

{{comic discussion}}

699: Trimester

2017-02-27T22:23:32Z

108.162.245.130: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number =699
| date =February 8, 2010
| title =Trimester
| image =trimester.png
| titletext =Also, it's not like anyone actually calls up the Nobel committee to double-check things.
}}

==Explanation==
Some pregnancies are different than others, but a universal truth except in cases of {{w|Cesarean section}} is that a baby will always exit a woman's body through the vagina. [[Cueball]] is wearing a white lab coat and holding a clipboard, looking like a doctor, telling [[Megan]] that until the second trimester, the baby may decide instead to exit through any opening, including the mouth, anus, nose, navel, etc. This does not normally happen in real life.{{Citation needed}} The caption reveals the truth, that Cueball simply bought the lab coat, he is not a doctor, and is either pranking Megan, or is impersonating a physician for some other reason.

The expectation that a person in a white coat is a medical expert, or at least a scientist, can be seen in the studies of the placebo effect: people who receive a "sugar pill" from a person who has the authority implied by wearing a lab coat will experience a greater placebo effect than those who receive identical pills from a person in {{w|Mufti (dress)|mufti}}. So doctors wear a white coat in clinic, and the expectation is reinforced. In some medical schools students receive a white coat as part of their graduation and qualification ceremony.

The title text implies also that in addition to faking being a doctor, he has also faked being a Nobel laureate, on the logic that people will not choose to verify this claim.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Well, until the second trimester, the baby hasn't decided which opening it will exit through.
:Megan: ''What?''
:Cueball: We'll hope for one of the lower ones, so it won't be fighting gravity.

:Did you know you can just ''BUY'' lab coats?

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

875: 2009 Called

2017-02-03T01:01:21Z

108.162.245.130: /* Explanation */ let's keep the politics out of it

{{comic
| number = 875
| date = March 21, 2011
| title = 2009 Called
| image = 2009 called.png
| titletext = 2017 called, but I couldn't understand what they were saying over all the screams.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic deconstructs a {{w|snowclone}} or common idiom - "X called, they want their Y back." Usually, X is a year (like 2009 here), and Y is something very popular in that year that is seen as ridiculous in the present day.

Here, [[Megan]] notices a Three-Wolf Moon T-shirt that [[Cueball]] apparently owns. The {{w|Three Wolf Moon|Three-Wolf Moon}} is a shirt of three wolves howling at the moon that reached meme status when several people posted ironic reviews giving it supernatural powers on {{w|Amazon}} around late 2008.

Megan says the snowclone, but before she can finish, Cueball pretends to take it literally (that is, that the year 2009 actually called her) and admonishes her for not telling them about {{w|2010 Haiti earthquake|the February 2010 earthquake in Haiti}} and {{w|2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami|the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan}}. The comic was posted shortly after the latter, so it is reasonable to assume that it was created as a response to the disaster. Knowing Cueball, he's either preempting Megan's attempt to humiliate him and giving her a pretty good burn, or Cueball, being Cueball, actually thinks the past called.

The title text continues the snowclone by implying a terrible future awaits in 2017. The year 2017 has, as Randall predicted, had to it an apocalyptic flavor.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is at computer. Megan is standing behind him, looking at clothes on the floor.]
:Megan: Is this a three wolf moon shirt?
:Megan: Dude, 2009 called, and they-
:Cueball: ''OH MY GOD!''
:Cueball: ''DID YOU WARN THEM?''
:Cueball: ''ABOUT HAITI AND JAPAN?''
:Megan: What? No, I-
:Cueball: You ''ASSHOLE!''

==See also==
*[[102: Back to the Future]]
*[[1072: Seventies]]

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

Talk:1296: Git Commit

2017-01-21T00:57:47Z

108.162.245.130:

Note that in most (all?) graphical history viewers for Git time flows from bottom up, i.e. newest commits are on top, not on bottom as in this comics --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:21, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
* This was bothering me. I was starting to doubt my own experience, and intended to switch to an old project to check. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 22:16, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

I can relate. While I start with reasonable commit messages every day, working on one feature often results in
:(good description of feature)
:bugfixes for (description of feature)
:another bugfix
:damn
:should work now
:grrr
:typo
:I hate (some used library)
when I either need commit to deploy or I'm so sure it will work I don't test it deeply enough. If I would be using git, these could be merged, but I'm not. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:51, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Once I made a commit titled "lotsa shit"

What does the line graphic in the left-most column represent? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 13:03, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
: This is the Git commit graph, in various ways of looking at a commit history git draws a graph like that to show branching and merging. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.229}}

Nice explanation folks. Makes the comic understandable/humorous to a non-coder. (unless you count VBScript) --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 13:16, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
: Nothing wrong with VBScript, though "coder" could be stretching the definition by a bit. (''git'' it?) [[User:JChrisCompton|JChrisCompton]] ([[User talk:JChrisCompton|talk]]) 19:41, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

: You seem to understand it pretty well now, DanB, judging by your edit history. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 07:56, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

[http://lightswitch05.github.io/commit-cloud/ Commit Cloud] is a relevant tool to read commit messages from Github and build a word cloud from the most-used words. {{unsigned ip|108.162.214.41}}
:Mine actually lists a link to this comic. I'm laughing so hard right now. [[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 09:35, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm very glad I'm not the only person this happens to. --[[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 15:23, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Regarding "although he seems to have avoided the ; key for some reason": A likely reason is that messages are passed on the command line with -m and without surrounding quotes to save time, and the ; ends the command line. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.54|108.162.221.54]] 06:03, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

114: Computational Linguists

2017-01-14T03:09:16Z

108.162.245.130: /* Explanation */ fixed the Randall link

{{comic
| number = 114
| date = June 12, 2006
| title = Computational Linguists
| image = computational linguists.png
| titletext = Chomskyists, generative linguists, and Ryan North, your days are numbered.
}}

==Explanation==
Here [[Black Hat]] is criticising computational linguistics, which overlaps between various field like theoretical linguistics, artificial intelligence, etc. Linguistics itself is still a hotly debated subject, as is seen by the various conflicting theories on the origin of languages like the forms of {{w|Proto-Indo-European}} language.

The joke in the comic is that Black Hat, instead of trying to poke fun at angsty emo kids, decides to poke fun at computational linguists for their attempts to model natural languages on computers using the various contradictory theories that are floating around nowadays. He may be associating the two groups, suggesting that their cries of "[their] fields being so ill-defined..." has similarities to emos constantly crying about how "people don't understand them, really" (or he may just be taking a swipe at people who think themselves above normal scientific methods).

The title text is a reference to some of the people who contributed to language theory:
*{{w|Noam Chomsky}} is an influential American psychologist and linguist who, based on cross-cultural studies, proposed a still-disputed theory that the human brain is unique from that of other species in that it includes a fundamental Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that is pre-programmed with basic rules of grammar and syntax: thus, language is innate to humans.
*{{w|Generative linguistics}} is a term within linguistics that is used in several ways, some of which are contradictory. This may be why it is chosen as a target by [[Black Hat]].
*{{w|Ryan North}} is the author of the webcomic {{w|Dinosaur Comics}}, and has a degree in computational linguistics. He also recently teased [[Randall]] in the title text of [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2420 this comic] just five days before this one.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is standing next to a large badge which says FUCK Computational Lingustics]
:Black Hat: And the dumbest thing about emo kids is that... I... You know, I'm sick of easy targets. Anyone can make fun of emo kids. You know who's had it too easy? Computational Linguists. "Ooh, look at me! My field is so ill-defined, I can subscribe to any of dozens of contradictory models and still be taken seriously!"

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]

Talk:1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-01-12T15:03:33Z

108.162.245.130: Additional comment

I'm not too experienced with PhotoShop, but I think that the tool is a selective delete that he used on water bodies, so removing most of the water while maintaining relative shapes and sizes?
:Mostly just from the fact that India looks desiccated.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 05:06, 11 January 2017 (UTC)Girish
::Australia is pretty mutilated, so I think the tool was used on land too [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.111|162.158.178.111]] 05:55, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Where are Laos and Cambodia missing? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.11|108.162.246.11]] 06:14, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:It seems that Laos and Burma have been merged into one big county, as well as Cambodia and Thailand. Maybe they are just unnecessary details according to this map projection. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.22|162.158.238.22]] 16:39, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

The tool removes spaces of uniform color automagically. If you have big countries like India or Australia, they get caught by the algorithm as well. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.9|162.158.69.9]] 06:16, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Can anybody figure out the projection before the application of the tool? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.232|108.162.219.232]] 06:58, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:I think it is a Mercator projection that got mutilated. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 07:50, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
::I agree, it looks like a Mercator that Freddy Kruger got at.
Girish, [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 09:02, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:::I think if it was a Mercator, the bottom of Antarctica would be flat. To me, it looks like Winkel Tripel, with the odd angles in Alaska and the Russian Far East. [[User:Schroduck|Schroduck]] ([[User talk:Schroduck|talk]]) 15:02, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

I feel like there is some part of sarcasm in "unused blank spaces", as if it was Randall saying "You're right, why would anyone care about the oceans? There, I have removed them, problem solved.". Can anyone tie this to a recent event? Or maybe the joke is about improperly handling data, where you use a tool just because it's known to work well and for the sake of processing data, even if using in a given context doesn't make much sense. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.213|141.101.69.213]] 10:14, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

This map proves, once again, that it's good to be an archipelago. Philippines, FTW! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.58|172.68.54.58]] 13:59, 11 January 2017 (UTC)
:Hold your patriotic horses there, where did Palawan go? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.138.10|162.158.138.10]] 12:24, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Comics like these make me wonder how Randall preserves the XKCD visual style when working with content that is clearly not hand-drawn. <span style="background:#0064de;font-size:12px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:8px;">[[User talk:AgentMuffin|<span style="color:#f0faff;">~AgentMuffin</span>]]</span>

"This is a play on the common advice to young children to refrain from "running with scissors" to avoid physical accidents." <-- Does anyone else thing this is a bit of a stretch?