explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1105: License Plate

2022-05-13T19:11:55Z

141.101.104.16: 1 (or more) lines per comment

In New Jersey (USA), the laws allowing personalize license plates specifically disallows plates in the format of a standard plate.

Wouldn't this idea be more effective (theoretically) with 0's and O's (that is, zeroes and capital O's)? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 15:58, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Many localities disallow one or the other for specifically that reason. In my locality, the letter O is not allowed in *ANY* license plate, not even the randomly assigned ones, so AAN-999 would be followed by AAP-000, rather than the expected AAO-000. Although at a quick glance, a capital Q looks similar to a number 0. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.243|199.27.128.243]] 23:37, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't this be comic 1111? Only 2 weeks to go. --[[User:Xkpd|Xkpd]] ([[User talk:Xkpd|talk]]) 19:32, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

The last line of title text should have been 'Clever girl'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5wryDdEI0 --[[Special:Contributions/69.120.249.184|69.120.249.184]] 19:34, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Discussing this comic over chat with a friend...
A: I thought he actually robbed the banks..and she pre-emptively ratted him out. Apparently, an alternative interpretation is that she committed the robbery. Which one of the two is it?
B: She robbed the banks.
A: Well, you can just fake any number plate. Why bother faking his unusual one specifically? Unless, she's a sadist of course...
B: Just 'cause he leaked his plans to her
A: lol #LessonsToBeLearnt #NeverTellWomenAnything
B: Agreeeed!

::I don't think she FAKED his plate, I think she bought another personalized plate with a different combination of 1's and I's which the police just assumed was his because of his already existing reputation as the guy committing crimes with the 1's and I's license plate. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:10, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

:::I was of the impression that he actually committed the robberies, and that the "clever"-ness was in getting him to admit that he was with his car (instead of his car being stolen or borrowed.) --[[Special:Contributions/193.150.8.123|193.150.8.123]] 15:13, 29 September 2012 (UTC)

::::I thought he had only committed the one crime (vandalization) and the police tricked him into admitting it by accusing him of 5 other fake crimes.[[Special:Contributions/38.118.83.250|38.118.83.250]] 19:58, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Um, I'm pretty sure the license plate office specifically forbids use of certain characters BECAUSE of their ambiguity. Like, I and O are not allowed in PA because of their similarity to 1 and 0. So this comic lives in the realm of fiction where they haven't thought of that already. --[[User:Tustin2121|Tustin2121]] ([[User talk:Tustin2121|talk]]) 16:35, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

Just after this ran, I saw a photo (on some internet "funny photo" site) of a car with an actual New Your state license plate made up of only Bs and 8s (e.g. "B88BB8B") for a similar effect.

I saw a BMW with license plate "I1IIIII" a day or two after this ran. 17:45, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

If they were ever brought to court in the US, assuming they were both driving the same type of car, they would be able to provide enought mutual reasonable doubt as to which one of them had done it. [[Special:Contributions/67.41.79.164|67.41.79.164]] 03:37, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

I played a game called Everybody Edits, where the 5 and S were the same. nobody could perform the /kick command on me >:D {{unsigned ip|‎184.11.73.88}}

Owning a car with a number plate is not considered a crime in Britain. I would have thought even if a non-sequitur is permissible in the US, it only applies to dark skinned people?[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 19:52, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Is it just me, or are the lines in this comic really thick? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.102|162.158.122.102]] 00:37, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1620: Christmas Settings

2015-12-23T18:03:59Z

141.101.104.16:

That's how Little Johnny killed Christmas, he left the tap running all night. --[[User:Jarfil|Jarfil]] ([[User talk:Jarfil|talk]]) 05:32, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Pores of your skin?! As utterly horrifying as it sounds, it's probably the most effective of the bunch, considering that all the others might not exist/be blocked in some manner and in some houses. [[User:Bon|Bon]] ([[User talk:Bon|talk]]) 06:27, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxh-Hjj8T9o Swearing dogs are definitely a thing]. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.28|173.245.54.28]] 05:59, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

How'd I do for my first explanation on this site? [[User:VectorLightning|VectorLightning]] ([[User talk:VectorLightning|talk]]) 07:47, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:It was a great start. Keep it coming. Of course there will be many changes later, but I can see that some of yours original explain have survived the first edits since then ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:57, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

"These dials, for example, controls..." - is this a mistake? "This dial, for example, controls..." or "These dials, for example, control" would make more grammatical sense. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.33|141.101.99.33]] 09:35, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
: I think that there is more than one dail controlling Christmas. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:53, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:: Then surely it should be "These dials, for example, control"? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.33|141.101.99.33]] 10:13, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
::: You are correct and Randall has agreed and changed it to "These dials, for example, control Christmas" in the updated version. Good spotted. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:59, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Probably could do with a table of the options and associations. Better than the following that I just drew up (and actually formatted as a table!):
:Chimney - traditional (but not always practical) to our universe; also usable (to varying degrees of success) by Big Bad Wolves, adventurous burglars and adverse atmospheric/weather conditions;
:Shower Drain - typical horror movie (supernatural or natural creature invasion), as well as back-flooding;
:Open Window - more like a mundane burglar, or Hitchcock's 'The Birds';
:Mail slot - 'mundane' magical alternative to fitting down the chimney, where there is no usable chimney (''or'' horror movie, of various kinds); but raises the question of where the "with a special key that can open any door" option is, also, for Santa...
:Kitchen Faucet - another horror movie (supernatural) or a technothriller plot (contaminated water supply);
:Heating vents - another common alternative already given for those without a chimney/chimneyplace (''or'' horror/technothriller fodder);
:Cat Flap - another 'normal' alternative (which, again, does not exclude entry by various threats... or non-resident cats/non-cat pets/wildlife);
:Bathroom Mirror - supernatural (especially 'bad magic');
:Toilet - more traditionally rats or sewer-snakes, with reactions from "argh!" to "ewww...", depending on whether anybody is 'enthroned' at the time;
:Pores Of Your Skin - very much... ewww... (as for (techno)horror threats, it's almost always ''someone else's'' skin and/or sweat that's dangerous, so ''your'' skin
(where you aren't the 'patient-zero' or revenant already) would be something pretty novel)
:: Great minds think alike, I've just gone ahead and done that [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:16, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Genre examples would be good.
...also, there is of course a direct reference to how ''our'' universe seems to have certain universal physical values (e.g. 'speed of light') that might well be different in alternate universes. Whether or not the 'physical constants' we currently know are ''the'' fundemental physical constants (rather than derivative of the actual constant(s) the universe started with), it appears that this control room has access to rather less fundemental 'fundementals' to it. Or assumes that Christmas and Santa (and also probably the various entryways, even when not used by Santa) are universals to the universe that always exist in some form, but perhaps differently configured, in alternate universes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 10:28, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Someone thought these links were funny: <nowiki>{{W|Kitchen Faucet}} {{w|Bathroom Mirror}}. I removed the {{w}}</nowiki> template. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 12:51, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:I was going to have a go with the table and make "normal use" and "irregular/fictional uses" columns, alongside the label items, but wikilinks on the items themselves would have made the first column less necessary, and wouldn't hurt (if done across the board). e.g. are cat-flaps as commonly known and understood outside of temperate areas (where a house isn't already handily perforated against the build-up of heat, but also need not be so sealed against the cold as to make a cat-flap a potentially harmful vent in the door that keeps the cold weather out) that we can be sure that future readers ''automatically'' know what one is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 13:47, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Could the title text refer to the (in)famous barking "Jingle Bells"? [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 16:17, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

I would propose a different explanation of the comic. I believe Randall is suggesting that the default American explanation to children of how Santa is able to enter locked houses is logically unsatisfying and seemingly arbitrary, and that the universe would be able to function just as smoothly were that explanation to change without warning. Ponytail is unconcerned about the setting because she knows that it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. This is in line with [[1268]], where Randall implies that he would be more comfortable in an alternate universe in which lobsters were perceived as inedible instead of a delicacy. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.64|173.245.55.64]] 16:37, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Dail shifted two clicks, so now it is either on "Kitchen faucet" or "mail slot". Could be worse... If she gives it another 2 clicks in an attempt to put it back, it will end up on either "Chimney", "Toilet" or "bathroom mirror". Maybe it's best not to mess with it any further... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.16|141.101.104.16]] 18:03, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1616: Lunch

2015-12-14T21:25:21Z

141.101.104.16:

... I don't think pizza is that bad. Those are sort of things people could really eat ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:36, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

That's not that gross, IMO. Tomato sauce is pretty much thought of as thick tomato juice. White bread. Salt. Normal things. And this seems to be assuming I wouldn't want to eat a brick of cheese. I do this regularly-ish with brie. [[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 13:51, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
:Cut the cheese to thick slices and put it on pieces of bread to make a few sandwiches, spread the tomato sauce on other pieces of bread for a few more sandwiches. Put the salt on the tomato sauce, or on a few other pieces of bread. Completely nice lunch (though with the ingredient amounts pictured, it would be a lunch for 2-3 people).<br>Incidentally, when I listed the ingredients to my mother, she immediately said "pizza Margarita". --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.180.191|162.158.180.191]] 19:22, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm not American, so what does he mean by cheese and grease soaked vegetables? {{unsigned ip|162.158.153.101}}
:The cheese is a common ingredient in the pizza seen in the comic, which might be a plain cheese pizza. As for the veggies, this might be a reference to french fries, which is essentially potatoes cooked in a deep fryer which is filled with oil (though I can't be sure with the English definition correlation between grease and oil). {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.148}}
:On this side of the lake pizza's made with dough (white bread), tomato sauce, cheese, and apparently salt the way Randall makes it. Some people put veggies on their pizza, which later get greasy and oily thanks to the cheese; nothing to do with french fries, though I'm told fries on pizza is actually pretty good Though I suppose you'd call them chips over there. {{unsigned|Legofan613}}
::Salt is usually an ingredient in dough, although why it's listed separately is anyone's guess. [[User:Rawmustard|Rawmustard]] ([[User talk:Rawmustard|talk]]) 16:55, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
:::Many pizza places (at least in the central/midwest of the US) will put salt down under the dough to help prevent it sticking to the pan, and also to add a little flavor. Examples would be places like Donatos, Little Cesars, Marions, LaRosas, as well as many Chicago-style pizza joints. The big chains tend not to do this though, not sure why because in my opinion it's details like that that really make the smaller places more delicious. [[User:Domino|Domino]] ([[User talk:Domino|talk]]) 17:28, 14 December 2015 (UTC)Domino

I believe that the "grease soaked vegetables" refers to a "caesar salad" or similar salad arrangement containing oil-based dressing and other ingredients with high fat content. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:23, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
:Cueball is eating the pizza in turns: ''I'm trying to be healthier, so after I eat this brick of cheese, I'll have a spoonful of grease-soaked vegetables.'' This means he's eating a pizza that has just a spoonful of vegetables. A Caesar salad would be much bigger. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 20:03, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I wonder if the joke was derived from the "healthy eating" craze here in the US at least. That is, people who spend copious amounts of time pouring over nutrition and ingredient labels to understand what it is they are actually eating. For most foods bought already prepared from the grocery store, the individual ingredients can range from bizarre (if you are not a chemist) to unappetizing. Perhaps Randall thought about it one step further and realized that any meal when broken into its macro components sounds unappetizing.--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 17:33, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Not to mention, Cheese on pizza is'nt real cheese (At least, not on the deep freeze supermarket kind of pizza): at least half of it is some fat and a binder. Yuk. However if cueball skips the salt (blood pressure!) and ads some veggies it might make a healthy lunch if he also adjusts the amounts to something more sensible. -- IshouldRealyGetAUserNameHere

801: Golden Hammer

2015-01-11T19:35:21Z

141.101.104.16: tm

{{comic
| number = 801
| date = October 4, 2010
| title = Golden Hammer
| image = golden hammer.png
| titletext = Took me five tries to find the right one, but I managed to salvage our night out--if not the boat--in the end.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Java}} is a programming language touted for its Portability™, which sometimes leads to it being used in systems where it really just shouldn't be used. [[Cueball]] laments that the hardware he's tinkering with, despite being used for a single purpose, has its firmware written in Java; since the microprocessor is unknown, it's quite possible the {{w|Java Virtual Machine}} (JVM) had to be ported over to the processor before the hardware designers could write firmware for it. Presumably, they considered this worthwhile to be able to write the control code in a language they're comfortable with, even though it probably would have been much simpler to just write the control code in whatever language they used to port the JVM in the first place.

[[Black Hat]] explains that this is really an example of an age-old adage: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail", also referred to as the "{{w|law of the instrument}}" or, as in the title, the "golden hammer". The hardware developers probably only knew Java, and when they thought about how to write firmware for their new device, "Java" was the only solution that occurred to them.

Of course, instead of a hammer and a nail, Black Hat's analogy is about using bolt-cutters and vodka to get through the lock on {{w|Wolf Blitzer}}'s boathouse. Not-so-coincidentally, Black Hat is holding a pair of bolt-cutters and a bottle of vodka. The implication is that Black Hat ''did'', in fact, break into Wolf Blitzer's boathouse the previous night, which is why he just now entered the door at the start of the strip. The changes he makes to the adage implies that he believes vodka and boltcutters are designed specifically to be used on Wolf Blitzer's boathouse, an interpretation that fits Black Hat's warped and anarchic disposition.

The title text implies that Black Hat had to break into a number of boathouses before he found Wolf's, and that his boat did not survive the evening. The use of the phrase 'our night' allows us to infer that Black Hat may have been with [[Danish]], his partner in crime.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is going through a door, a bottle in his hand. A voice speaks to him from off panel.]
:Cueball: Seriously? This thing runs ''Java?'' It's single-purpose hardware!

:[Cueball is sitting at a computer, holding some device which is wired to a box, and pointing at the screen.]
:Cueball: I bet they actually hired someone to spend six months porting this JVM so they could write their 20 lines of code in a familiar setting.

:[Black Hat has a pair of bolt cutters in the hand that had been obscured in the first panel.]
:Black Hat: Well, you know what they say— When all you have is a pair of bolt cutters and a bottle of vodka, everything looks like the lock on the door of Wolf Blitzer's boathouse.
:Cueball: I'm glad ''you ''had a nice night.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Language]]

772: Frogger

2015-01-06T18:27:11Z

141.101.104.16:

{{comic
| number = 772
| date = July 28, 2010
| title = Frogger
| image = frogger.png
| titletext = I understand you and your team worked hard on this, but when we said to make it more realistic, we meant the graphics.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Frogger}} is a classic video game introduced in 1981. The aim of the game is to safely get a frog across a busy road and a river to a lily pad at the top of the screen. The title text reveals that a team of programmers misinterpreted a task to make the game "more realistic", and made the trucks swerve to avoid the car-sized frog, causing a pile up, instead of moving at a constant rate in straight lines.

Perhaps Randall was inspired by [https://youtu.be/b2gow415F5k this video].

==Transcript==
:[Frogger is standing by the side of the road, looking out into traffic, which includes several semis and a couple of sedans.]

:[Frogger hops out in front of a semi.]
:''hop''

:[The semi swerves into the next lane, in front of one of the sedans.]

:[They collide, the sedan crumpling into the cab of the truck.]
:''BOOM''

:[Smoke pours from the two wrecked vehicles. Frogger hops back to the side of the road.]
:''hop''
:Bystander (off-panel): Oh god!
:Other Bystander (off-panel): Someone call 911!
:Another Bystander (off-panel): Mom!

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