explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2084: FDR

2018-12-13T23:50:09Z

108.162.250.41:

I didn't know about the Guy Fawkes date. I thought the title text might have been referring to the song {{w|Try to Remember}}, but it refers to September and December, but not November.
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:02, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:You clearly aren't from the UK, still a pretty big thing here. Known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night and is a part of everyone's primary (elementary?) education
:[[User:Zbrown|Zbrown]] ([[User talk:Zbrown|talk]]) 16:50, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::I'm not from UK and I know about that from english lessons in primary school, but I didn't know about the Pearl Harbor date. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.220|188.114.102.220]] 16:55, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:::Then you're probably not from the US [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.174|172.68.143.174]] 17:19, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::::I'm from the US, but I couldn't tell you right now without scrolling up what date Pearl Harbor day was. Then again, I have trouble remembering the dates of anything but Christmas, New Year's, & 4th of July. Measurements of time are really weird & arbitrary perceptual artifacts, for me. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:08, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:::::I always found it weird that they celebrate the 4th of July on the 7th of April. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.145|162.158.111.145]] 13:17, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
The Crete earthquake raise the island by 3 to 9 meters. You go out on a beach in Crete, it is obvious, especially if there are ruins of an ancient city nearby where the docks are well inland [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.174|172.68.143.174]] 17:32, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Incidental, this month I made the weird mistake of writing a date as "2016" ... I really have no idea why that happened, or that I didn't catch it to correct it in time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.135|162.158.74.135]] 17:52, 12 December 2018 (UTC) Sam
:Me too! For some reason I've recently written the date as a couple years ago a few times over the last month or so, and I normally never do! Also in response to the above discussion, I've never heard of Guy Fawkes day, and don't particularly remember the date of Pearl Harbor other than by comic [[821]] [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:09, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

FYI, the hovertext appears to be wrong. The Med quake was July 21, AD365 -- not June 21. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.13|173.245.54.13]] 20:25, 12 December 2018 (UTC)Andrew K[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.13|173.245.54.13]] 20:25, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::I don't think it's deliberate; he didn't get the other date in the title-text / alt-text wrong. I think the alt-text contains an unintentional error. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:00, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

So he's not using THE date format: https://xkcd.com/1179/
:'''''Thank''''' '''you.''' Writing it the correct way (yyyy-mm-dd) would probably confuse most people though, & I think ISO-8601 does allow provision for dates written long-hand (MMM d, yyyy). I'm just glad someone else remembers that the ''proper'' way to numerically specify a date is year first, then two-digit month (01 thru 12, not 1 thru 12), & ''then'' day. This keeps the numbers in correct left-to-right sequence & will sort alphabetically too. m-d-yy is just '''''wrong''''' on so many levels. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:00, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:: Don't worry, month, day then year is pretty much only found in one country, like spelling colour without the u. It should die out eventually. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.238|162.158.165.238]] 22:32, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
::Personally, when it's not for archival purposes I write dates d/m-yy. I don't care if it's wrong, it's how I say them in daily speech. The slash should make it clear which one is day and which one is month and the dash should make it clear that the last part is the year. I don't see myself signing any contracts that last longer than the average human lifespan, so including the century and millennia feels unnecessary. [[User:Kapten-N|Kapten-N]] ([[User talk:Kapten-N|talk]]) 12:03, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't see any explanation for the "19" in the comic. Could that be a reference to 7:19 (the time of the Mexico City earthquake and the name of the movie about it)? [[User:Madfrog768|Madfrog768]] ([[User talk:Madfrog768|talk]]) 21:26, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
:It's the year, 1941. Time would not appear in a '''Date:''' field. In the comic, Randall got all the way to writing the 4 before he realized he was putting the wrong date in. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:00, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

I work for a bus company and work on the schedules for the next service change which usually takes place in december. Since I have this job, from the end of summer on I regularly miswrite dates a year ''ahead''. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.55|162.158.111.55]] 21:31, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Any Hardcore History fans with Dan Carlin? [[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 07:28, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

As for catchy date mnemonics, you can't beat "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" for the armistice of The Great War. Note it wasn't called World War 1 until there was a second world war 35 years later. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 14:29, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
:I'm trying to work out where you got the 35 for your 35 years later. WW2 started 20(-ish) years after WW1 ended, WW2 ended 31 years after WW1 started. Not sure... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.145|162.158.111.145]] 14:49, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I'm still writing "1987" on my checks. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 16:25, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
:You still use cheques? I think I probably last used on in 1994 and even my dad in his 60s is slowly giving them up. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.41|108.162.250.41]] 23:50, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

It was actually called "the first World War" in 1914. However it wasn't called "The First World War", as the name was to show that it was a world war, not to point out that another would happen in 20 years. And the name "Great War" referred to the Napoleonic War, not the First World War. And now to leave a message beginning with four tildes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.172|162.158.34.172]] 18:46, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Talk:205: Candy Button Paper

2018-11-17T12:03:40Z

108.162.250.41: signing

It is possible to run a Turing machine on a candy belt:

Marvin Minsky (1967), Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. In particular see p. 262ff (italics in original):
"We can now demonstrate the remarkable fact, first shown by Wang [1957], that for any Turing machine T there is an equivalent Turing machine TN that ''never changes a once-written symbol''! In fact, we will construct a two-symbol machine TN that can only change blank squares on its tape to 1's but can not change a 1 back to a blank." Minsky then offers a proof of this. -- Kopa Leo [[Special:Contributions/69.163.36.90|69.163.36.90]] 16:01, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

:In my opinion, intuitively, when writing is demanded, a turing machine just have to copy those symbols to a new location, minding the symbol that needs to be written. It can have a start-of-data mark so this would be transparent to other operations [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.96|173.245.48.96]] 05:45, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

so I'm the only one that put them in a loop, then moved it one button down on one side? {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.151}}

Candy button paper was around long before 1980. I remember it from the 1950s. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.123|108.162.241.123]] 17:59, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

If candy buttons were two-sided, I would make it into a Möbius strip. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 14:28, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

Doesn't Randall mention three different strategies? The comic says two, however.

: There are two main strategies (careful and fast) and one very uncommon strategy (Turing). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.60|162.158.186.60]] 21:14, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

There's a proof from Sipser's Introduction to the Theory of Computation (2nd ed), [exercise 3.10: https://archive.org/stream/IntroductionToTheoryOfComputation/introduction%20to%20theory%20of%20computation_djvu.txt]:

We first simulate an ordinary Turing machine by a write-twice Turing machine. The write-twice machine simulates a single step of the original machine by copying the entire tape over to a fresh portion of the tape to the right-hand side of the currently used portion. The copying procedure operates character by character, marking a character as it is copied. This procedure alters each tape square twice, once to write the character for the first time and again to mark that it has been copied. The position of the original Turing machine’s tape head is marked on the tape. When copying the cells at, or adjacent to, the marked position, the tape contents is updated according to the rules of the original Turing machine.

To carry out the simulation with a write-once machine, operate as before, except that each cell of the previous tape is now represented by two cells. The first of these contains the original machine’s tape symbol and the second is for the mark used in the copying procedure. The input is not presented to the machine in the format with two cells per symbol, so the very first time the tape is copied, the copying marks are put directly over the input symbols. -- Kopa Leo [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.41|108.162.250.41]] 12:03, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:205: Candy Button Paper

2018-11-17T12:03:08Z

108.162.250.41:

It is possible to run a Turing machine on a candy belt:

Marvin Minsky (1967), Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. In particular see p. 262ff (italics in original):
"We can now demonstrate the remarkable fact, first shown by Wang [1957], that for any Turing machine T there is an equivalent Turing machine TN that ''never changes a once-written symbol''! In fact, we will construct a two-symbol machine TN that can only change blank squares on its tape to 1's but can not change a 1 back to a blank." Minsky then offers a proof of this. -- Kopa Leo [[Special:Contributions/69.163.36.90|69.163.36.90]] 16:01, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

:In my opinion, intuitively, when writing is demanded, a turing machine just have to copy those symbols to a new location, minding the symbol that needs to be written. It can have a start-of-data mark so this would be transparent to other operations [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.96|173.245.48.96]] 05:45, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

so I'm the only one that put them in a loop, then moved it one button down on one side? {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.151}}

Candy button paper was around long before 1980. I remember it from the 1950s. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.123|108.162.241.123]] 17:59, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

If candy buttons were two-sided, I would make it into a Möbius strip. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 14:28, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

Doesn't Randall mention three different strategies? The comic says two, however.

: There are two main strategies (careful and fast) and one very uncommon strategy (Turing). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.60|162.158.186.60]] 21:14, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

There's a proof from Sipser's Introduction to the Theory of Computation (2nd ed), [exercise 3.10: https://archive.org/stream/IntroductionToTheoryOfComputation/introduction%20to%20theory%20of%20computation_djvu.txt]:

We first simulate an ordinary Turing machine by a write-twice Turing machine. The write-twice machine simulates a single step of the original machine by copying the entire tape over to a fresh portion of the tape to the right-hand side of the currently used portion. The copying procedure operates character by character, marking a character as it is copied. This procedure alters each tape square twice, once to write the character for the first time and again to mark that it has been copied. The position of the original Turing machine’s tape head is marked on the tape. When copying the cells at, or adjacent to, the marked position, the tape contents is updated according to the rules of the original Turing machine.

To carry out the simulation with a write-once machine, operate as before, except that each cell of the previous tape is now represented by two cells. The first of these contains the original machine’s tape symbol and the second is for the mark used in the copying procedure. The input is not presented to the machine in the format with two cells per symbol, so the very first time the tape is copied, the copying marks are put directly over the input symbols. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.41|108.162.250.41]] 12:03, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:205: Candy Button Paper

2018-11-17T12:02:31Z

108.162.250.41: added a proof of write-once Turing machines, from Sipser's textbook.

Talk:1948: Campaign Fundraising Emails

2018-01-30T02:01:19Z

108.162.250.41: "Hopeless" - deliberately Trumpesque?

can someone make a table with all the emails and an explanation column? I'm shit at formatting. [[User:DPS2004|DPS2004'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:DPS2004|talk]]) 16:38, 29 January 2018 (UTC)
: Relevant username? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.83|172.68.58.83]] 17:42, 29 January 2018 (UTC)
ActBlue is a political action committee aimed at helping people on the internet raise money for the Democratic party - there is no Jennifer ActBlue Heir to the ActBlue fortune. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.40|172.68.174.40]] 17:14, 29 January 2018 (UTC)Daniel Macintyre
*That's what Jennifer wants you to think.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.12|162.158.122.12]] 17:23, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

It's interesting to note that for three of the emails, the subject isn't bolded, indicating that those emails were read. All three refer to female candidates [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 17:20, 29 January 2018 (UTC)
: Are we sure those are subject lines? I don't usually write or get emails where the subject line flows seamlessly into the contents like this. (Not sure what else they could be, of course.) Also, the lack of bold text could indicate an email without a subject line. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.220|162.158.78.220]] 18:54, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm guessing the $35.57 may have been related to a recent Jimquisition episode focusing on this ad: https://youtu.be/Tu3rwf27VRE [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 21:13, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Some of these scenarios are especially hilarious to me!
1) When Amy decided to run for Congress, I was like "Huh?" but I checked Wikipedia, and apparently it's a branch of...
Who needs to know anything when we have Wikipedia?
2) I will lead the fight against the big banks, special interests, the Earth's climate, and our children. I...
Won't someone please think of the children? (Those little @#$@%#^$^s!)
3) Whoops. Due to a typo, we spent months running attack ads against Tom Hanks. Now, we need to make up for...
Yay, automation!
4) Our campaign's only chance is to seduce Jennifer Actblue, heir to the Actblue fortune. For that, we need a fancy...
That is just what we need: a candidate with a fresh approach. Will he get slapped?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 21:30, 29 January 2018 (UTC) Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the wording of the message starting "Hopeless" is deliberately written in the style of Donald Trump's tweets? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.41|108.162.250.41]] 02:01, 30 January 2018 (UTC)