Talk:2206: Mavis Beacon

2019-09-24T09:35:33Z

141.101.104.139: /* Unicode */

== So the # key, then? ==

Shifted or not? The implication is that it is, since that's where ‘~’ is. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.41|141.101.99.41]] 18:44, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
: On a typical German QWERTZ layout keyboard, the tilde key '~' can/must be entered via AltGr++; alternatively, Ctrl+Alt++ should work when there is no AltGr key. On certain "dead key" keyboard layouts, there even is no single and direct '~' key: To type a tilde, one would have to press AltGr++ followed directly by a space or to double-tap + while holding AltGr. This would mean even more complicated or pretty much impossible key combinations that would be needed to be pressed at the same time. However, holding AltGr or Ctrl+Alt to try and type a tilde would probably cancel out the "single" Alt key necessary for the comic's secret key code. So, once you've managed to type a tilde, it likely wouldn't count any more for the key combo, making it impossible to type this key combination on such keyboard. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 19:26, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
: I've seen many programs provide hotkey instructions calling the grave key the tilde key due to the difficulty of differentiating between the grave key and the apostrophe key. So I'd assume no shifting is required. [[User:CJB42|CJB42]] ([[User talk:CJB42|talk]]) 01:51, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

The link from Friday's comic to this new one is missing. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 19:21, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
: This page was created by the bot only a short while ago. I may be wrong, but I think those links will be set automagically by such bot at some point after the creation of this page. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 19:31, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

== Unicode ==

Presumably a lot of this could be achieved with Unicode; any advances on 𝟙𝟚𝟛𝟜𝟝𝟞𝟟𝟠𝟡𝟘? [[User:Sabik|Sabik]] ([[User talk:Sabik|talk]]) 05:07, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Simple means of checking: <pre>
>>> import unicodedata as ucd
>>> for i in range(0x110000):
... c = chr(i)
... if ucd.normalize("NFKD", c)[0] in "0123456789":
... print(c, end=", ")
</pre>

It actually spits out <pre>0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ², ³, ¹, ¼, ½, ¾, ⁰, ⁴, ⁵, ⁶, ⁷, ⁸, ⁹, ₀, ₁, ₂, ₃, ₄, ₅, ₆, ₇, ₈, ₉, ⅐, ⅑, ⅒, ⅓, ⅔, ⅕, ⅖, ⅗, ⅘, ⅙, ⅚, ⅛, ⅜, ⅝, ⅞, ⅟, ↉, ①, ②, ③, ④, ⑤, ⑥, ⑦, ⑧, ⑨, ⑩, ⑪, ⑫, ⑬, ⑭, ⑮, ⑯, ⑰, ⑱, ⑲, ⑳, ⒈, ⒉, ⒊, ⒋, ⒌, ⒍, ⒎, ⒏, ⒐, ⒑, ⒒, ⒓, ⒔, ⒕, ⒖, ⒗, ⒘, ⒙, ⒚, ⒛, ⓪, ㉑, ㉒, ㉓, ㉔, ㉕, ㉖, ㉗, ㉘, ㉙, ㉚, ㉛, ㉜, ㉝, ㉞, ㉟, ㊱, ㊲, ㊳, ㊴, ㊵, ㊶, ㊷, ㊸, ㊹, ㊺, ㊻, ㊼, ㊽, ㊾, ㊿, ㋀, ㋁, ㋂, ㋃, ㋄, ㋅, ㋆, ㋇, ㋈, ㋉, ㋊, ㋋, ㍘, ㍙, ㍚, ㍛, ㍜, ㍝, ㍞, ㍟, ㍠, ㍡, ㍢, ㍣, ㍤, ㍥, ㍦, ㍧, ㍨, ㍩, ㍪, ㍫, ㍬, ㍭, ㍮, ㍯, ㍰, ㏠, ㏡, ㏢, ㏣, ㏤, ㏥, ㏦, ㏧, ㏨, ㏩, ㏪, ㏫, ㏬, ㏭, ㏮, ㏯, ㏰, ㏱, ㏲, ㏳, ㏴, ㏵, ㏶, ㏷, ㏸, ㏹, ㏺, ㏻, ㏼, ㏽, ㏾, ０, １, ２, ３, ４, ５, ６, ７, ８, ９, 𝟎, 𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟒, 𝟓, 𝟔, 𝟕, 𝟖, 𝟗, 𝟘, 𝟙, 𝟚, 𝟛, 𝟜, 𝟝, 𝟞, 𝟟, 𝟠, 𝟡, 𝟢, 𝟣, 𝟤, 𝟥, 𝟦, 𝟧, 𝟨, 𝟩, 𝟪, 𝟫, 𝟬, 𝟭, 𝟮, 𝟯, 𝟰, 𝟱, 𝟲, 𝟳, 𝟴, 𝟵, 𝟶, 𝟷, 𝟸, 𝟹, 𝟺, 𝟻, 𝟼, 𝟽, 𝟾, 𝟿, 🄀, 🄁, 🄂, 🄃, 🄄, 🄅, 🄆, 🄇, 🄈, 🄉, 🄊</pre>

So unless you're mis-using characters which are not supposed to be numbers (which would change the screenreader experience from annoying in this case to actually unintelligible and is therefore ill-advisable), that's probably the closest you'd get. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.139|141.101.104.139]] 09:35, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

== Trochees ==
To tie this to a recurring theme in Mr. Munroe's comics... "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing - Heroes on the half shell." [[User:Ryanker|Ryanker]] ([[User talk:Ryanker|talk]]) 20:14, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

== Other ==
Currently, the button on Comic #2205 to go to this comic is missing - someone with more technical expertise than me, please fix this [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.134|172.69.22.134]] 21:07, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Fixed it - to do it, go to https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2205:_Types_of_Approximation&action=Purge , this works for any page if you change "2205:_Types_of_Approximation" to what it should be.

Talk:1696: AI Research

2016-06-22T12:11:54Z

141.101.104.139: Added a thought

I'm Australian an I don't know about the "updog" Thing, just sayin' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.139|162.158.2.139]] 05:15, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:"What's up, Doc?" made me think of Bugs Bunny cartoons. [[User:Ehusmark|EHusmark]] ([[User talk:Ehusmark|talk]]) 07:19, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:I'm British and I haven't heard of "updog" either. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.18|141.101.98.18]] 08:29, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:Never heard of that in the two years that I lived in England and South Wales. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.49|141.101.93.49]] 09:06, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:Saw "updoc" (same joke) on an episode of Scrubs once. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.137|141.101.98.137]] 11:34, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:I think we've pretty much confirmed that "updog" and similar is not well known in most English-speaking countries. Yay! I was correct after all. (I wrote the first draft for this explanation, which included the question of whether it was or not.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.59|108.162.219.59]] 07:01, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

Ok. Added a note about how developed AI tech. is nowadays. That one needs a citation. Also I believe a paragraph about the difference between AI and how computers generally work is called for. AI is built on neural networks to mimic the way human brains work. Computers have a more simplistic design, although it works wonders for number crunching and following programs. This contrasted with AI, which can figure out things on its own (learn) and not having to be told everything. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 17:17, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:Those stupid chatbots that have existed for decades now are *not real* AI. But you could train those to respond in certain ways. It is quite possible this comic makes fun of this. It is also perceivable that an actual AI without sufficient higher-order reasoning would also easily be fooled, although by trial-and-error learning (that is characteristic for AI) it ought to *eventually* figure out that you are bullshitting it, and adjust its behaviour accordingly. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 18:00, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

:I thought it might be a reference to teaching the Urban Dictionary to IBM's Watson {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.158}}

:Oh gods — please don't even mention the Urban Dictionary. A classic example of a good idea gone bad because of little or no moderation. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 09:03, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

:Part of the joke is that 6 year olds are actually really smart compared to computers. Perhaps it would be easier to pass the Turing test as an adult-like AI then as a child-like AI.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.180|162.158.83.180]] 09:20, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Another similar joke was used in the cartoon feature movie "South Park: bigger, longer and uncut", with the word "buttfor". "What's the butt for?" - "For pooping, silly". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.244.73|108.162.244.73]] 05:29, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

Is it unimaginable that Randall is hoping for people (who don't know about the joke) to google "What is updog?"? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.139|141.101.104.139]] 12:11, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2206: Mavis Beacon

Talk:1696: AI Research