explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2525: Air Travel Packing List

2021-10-08T14:57:58Z

141.101.77.168:

I'll work on this one, so I don't get edit conflicted. {{User:PoolloverNathan/Signature}} 23:16, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

A lot of these items that are listed as needed during a crash are not that related to crashing but some things that paranoid potential passengers feel they should have anyway. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 02:04, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I had a teacher that was a retired engineer. He complained about working on an airplane and he wanted to design a lightweight floor, but the heel of high heeled shoes would pierce through so he had to make it heaver than he wanted. One can imagine an alternate world where the lighter floors were chosen, where airplane shoes would be some kind of pressure distributing shoe.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.125|172.69.42.125]] 02:32, 7 October 2021 (UTC)
:I thought airplane shoes was a play on boat shoes, which are a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_shoe [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:34, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I think that the Flag for international flights is referring to a national flag not to a flag used for signaling messages. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.208|162.158.187.208]] 03:20, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Pedantry corner: parachutes don't keep you from falling out of the sky - they help you land safer when you do. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.95|162.158.159.95]] 08:21, 7 October 2021 (UTC)
:Like the old joke about falling out of a building: It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:32, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

The mouthpiece may be a COVID-19 slur, referring to the requirement to cover your mouth -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.83|162.158.90.83]] 09:02, 7 October 2021 (UTC)
:No I think it is just so you do not use the mouthpiece from the previous passenger because of the risk of covid-19. The idea that you before the pandemic would use the same mouth piece as multiple passengers before you is as gross as putting [[Toothpaste]] from your moth back in the tube again... :p --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:58, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Part of the joke may be that this list isn't for those who have travelled via plane but flown from cockpit.
"so you can attract birds, and use THEM to fly the plane in case of crash" - What does that even mean? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 11:01, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Some of those items could be from the computer game "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_McKracken_and_the_Alien_Mindbenders
Seat Cushion, Birdseed, Parachute.

My first interpretation of the mouthpiece and trumpet was an early style telephone that had a separate mouthpiece and trumpet style earpiece.

Ballast is routinely used on aircraft. The baggage handlers that load the plane will usually add temporary ballast as needed. The manufacturer and aircraft mechanics may install permanent ballast blocks in order to ensure that the center of gravity is within limits.

I will edit the main text shortly. It will be my very first non-comment edit on this site.
https://www.flightliteracy.com/ballast/[[User:Hamjudo|Hamjudo]] ([[User talk:Hamjudo|talk]]) 17:01, 7 October 2021 (UTC)
:Great to have you onboard. Did you expect to avoid editing conflict by writing here first? Or just information. Keep the input coming, if you write something that people disagree with it will be edited later. So no problem making mistakes. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:59, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

"Spare batteries in case the plane runs out" surely refers to the regulations against spare lithium batteries, not just to the absurdity of using such batteries to power the aircraft. [[User:Modernhemalurgist|Modernhemalurgist]] ([[User talk:Modernhemalurgist|talk]]) 22:50, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Seat backs on airliners have reclined, probably since the introduction of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-3 DC-3]. Once upon a time, there was enough space between seats to allow the recline function to be used without strangling the person behind. This is no longer the case, especially in steerage ... er, sorry, economy class. The true violators of etiquette are the airlines and their seating practices. The airlines will, of course, reject the charge, and say that the etiquette violators are passengers who demand space but refuse to pay for it. The whole demonstrates human ability to accept the unacceptable, and to distract ourselves from prime causes, and responsibilities, by means of petty and meaningless disputes. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.133|172.68.129.133]] 03:22, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

[[757|Air horn!]] --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.11|162.158.90.11]] 08:14, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Anyone else thinks Wing Glue may be a running joke about the wings of Icarus? Radnall already referenced them a few times both on xkcd and what-if.--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.168|141.101.77.168]] 14:57, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

823: Guest Week: David Troupes (Buttercup Festival)

2021-10-04T19:23:59Z

141.101.77.168: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 823
| date = November 23, 2010
| title = Guest Week: David Troupes (Buttercup Festival)
| image = guest_week_david_troupes_buttercup_festival.png
| titletext = Guest comic by David Troupes of Buttercup Festival, who is living in that lovely tree outside your window.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a commentary on relationships. [[Megan]] is perfectly happy sitting on the moon (which is impossible){{Citation needed}} with [[Cueball]], the person she loves. Cueball, however, has his experience ruined when he notices a former bully of his passing by below. After hitting the bully with a rock that he shoots from the moon with his {{w|slingshot}}, he can share in Megan's happiness. (This is practically impossible as well. To start, the rock would most likely fall back down unless Cueball could throw it at escape velocity, but the precision required for such a throw would be extreme, and he would need to account for the movement of the Earth and Moon, as well as the Earth's rotation. Even if accounting for all of that, it would very likely disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere.)

[http://www.buttercupfestival.com/ David Troupes] is the author of the webcomic {{w|Buttercup Festival}}.

''Guest Week'' was a series of five comics written by five other comic authors. They were released over five consecutive days (Monday-Friday); not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.<br>
The five comics are:
*[[822: Guest Week: Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content)]]
*[[823: Guest Week: David Troupes (Buttercup Festival)]]
*[[824: Guest Week: Bill Amend (FoxTrot)]]
*[[825: Guest Week: Jeffrey Rowland (Overcompensating)]]
*[[826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)]]

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are leaning against each other, sitting on top of a giant moon in a black, star dotted sky. Trees are visible on the bottom of the panel.]

:[The scene broadens.]
:Megan: I've never been so happy. I—
:Cueball: Hold on—that guy used to dump my notebooks in high school. Give me a moment. Try to keep the moon steady.

:[A rock hits a Cueball on the ground on the back of the head.]

:[The guy falls and clutches the back of his head.]

:[Back to the moon again, where Cueball is leaning his head against Megan while holding a slingshot.]
:Cueball: I've never been so happy.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Guest Week]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Romance]]

Talk:2421: Tower of Babel

2021-02-06T10:29:36Z

141.101.77.168:

So is Gretchen McCulloch xkcd's resident linguist now? Is there going to be character page for her like Cory Doctorow? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.136|172.68.129.136]] 23:00, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
:I'm hoping so! We could call it "Gretchen McComics." [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.74|172.69.34.74]] 23:24, 5 February 2021 (UTC)
::That's probably not in compliance with whatever stylebook we have here but I love it. [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 04:24, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Wait, how could a linguist exist before there were languages to study and compare? Is this the omphalos hypothesis popping up again? [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 02:36, 6 February 2021 (UTC)
:They have one language. Presumably, she attempts to thoroughly study that one. This would technically make her a grammarian, but since they don't have contact with any other language, this proto-language wouldn't need make any distinction between grammarians and linguists, so "linguist" would be an appropriate translation. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.49|162.158.79.49]] 05:55, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Defining "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" {
"colorless green ideas" existing is 0 .
List of all existing "colorless green ideas" that don't "dream furiously" contains 0 elements.
True.
} [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.60|141.101.77.60]] 06:24, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Defining "more people have been to Russia than I have" {
if(Have "I" ever been to Russia?){
"More than 1 people have been to Russia.".
} else {
"More than 0 people have been to Russia.".
}
}, so something like {
"At least 1 person that is not me has been to Russia.".
}. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.60|141.101.77.60]] 06:24, 6 February 2021 (UTC)
:"I possess a number of people as chattel", i.e. servants and/or slaves. (That number could be zero?) "The number of people who have gone to Russia exceeds this value." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.168|141.101.77.168]] 10:29, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2369: All-in-One

2020-10-09T13:13:53Z

141.101.77.168: /* Example for the "fold airplane" function */ new section

Is the title text a reference the Librareome project in Rainbow's End (Vernor Vinge)?

See, e.g., [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1856]

--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.124|162.158.79.124]] 18:06, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall took inspiration from [this Dilbert](https://dilbert.com/strip/1994-04-25). [[User:Moosenonny10|Moosenonny10]] ([[User talk:Moosenonny10|talk]]) 18:52, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't think "eat" and "corrugate" are intended as malfunctions. People sometimes eat paper -- it's a common trope in spy parodies where someone will eat a document to prevent someone from getting access to it. And corrugate just sounds like it's making corrugated cardboard from the input paper. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:22, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:I changed it. What do you think? ''welp, i'' [[User:Donthaveusername|Donthaveusername]] ([[User talk:Donthaveusername|talk]]) 19:37, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Seems like plagiarize would be somehow related to scan and copy.
: I imagine the internal sub-functions would be: Scan (or read from prepocessed page data from an original document 'sent to printer'), OCR (as necessary - implied in Translate but not mentioned as a function, despite being an actually popular 'one touch' function with appropriate desktop software involved), Comprehend (natural-language processing), De-Source (remove references that indicate the true source, including headers, watermarks, logos), Re-Arrange (optional shuffling/re-wording in places, maybe even synonyms), Re-Source (personalise back up again, for the plagiarist's benefit), then Print (if scan-for-copy/printed) or Save (if scan-for-storage, maybe even 'print'-to-storage via the device). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.52|141.101.98.52]] 00:21, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

shred and scan (or scanf) are also unix and C functions. Shred overwrites a file on disk, deleting it and preventing any subsequent recovery of the lost data. scan reads input according to a format string. Should one take a standard file and scan a string per the format '%s', the program will read in the variable until an end-of-line character is encountered. If the file were shredded first, resulting in a random set of bits, this end of line character might never be read. This seems to be more of a memory problem than a CPU problem, thus might not be the full explanation of the alt-text. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.126|162.158.126.126]] 21:10, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Potentially related fun fact: in the olden days when copiers are slow and generates a lot of heat (the copies would actually be warm to touch), the "copy" function is often referred to as "burn". This is why making CD copies etc. later also used the term "burn". I read somewhere about an IBM intern setting an important document on fire when he was asked to "burn a copy", but can't find the source anymore. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.171|172.68.142.171]] 22:45, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

The incomplete template mentions that there might be a reason for Randall making this topic, but I don't think there is other than just making a funny joke. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.146|172.69.34.146]] 22:42, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

What, it can fold but not spindle or mutilate? :( [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.114|162.158.75.114]] 23:14, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Is staple removal a real printer feature? [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:17, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:Doubt it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.243|172.68.132.243]] 23:39, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
::Staple-detection is (fairly) trivial, but consistently extracting them 'nicely' while preserving the paper as much as possible might be beyond a device (it's tricky enough for a person, sometimes). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.211|141.101.99.211]] 23:51, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
:::It's not beyond a staple remover. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.59|172.69.35.59]] 00:52, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
::::Even for a staple remover, it's sometimes not a trivial task, sometimes requiring some "intelligence". I don't think this feature is available in off-the-shelf tech. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 01:25, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
:::::Back in the 1990s you could buy industrial staple removers which sensed and cut parallel to the paper face, with cutting surfaces that open and move up under the first ten pages or so. Maybe one in 20 times they would mangle the paper. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.56|162.158.255.56]] 13:33, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

I'm disappointed there's no "jam for no particular reason in the most difficult place to access" option. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.184|108.162.216.184]] 23:18, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
: I thought there should be Paper Cranes in the right-hand column... But your suggestion is also an obvious omission. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.211|141.101.99.211]] 23:51, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

Regarding the "possibility that this printer is a complex computer": most printers are. Any printer which can process postscript OR is connected to network obviously contains computer more powerful than first {{w|IBM Personal Computer|IBM PCs}}, not speaking about the computer used in {{w|Apollo Guidance Computer|Apollo}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:35, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
:Well, it's ''more'' complex now. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.59|172.69.35.59]] 00:53, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Is it just me or is this printer not as absurd as the normal XKCD devices (like the phone)? I mean, this printer has no _really_ absurd features... You could say that this printer is almost sane. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:48, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
:Agreed. The most questionable "Crumple and throw at trash like a basketball" feature, while making no sense in a printing context, is perfectly sensible in a scan or feed-through mode and may be useful for those with with bad aim, a distant trash can, and a close printer. Staple removal can probably be done reliably with AI these days. Origami features could be useful in party context. Plagiarism and summarization are 100% useful and doable by GPT-3, even better than an average human would do. Translate would be wonderful, but needs a year or 2 more before we can automate it well. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.148|162.158.186.148]]

I wonder what would happen if you used the Paper Airplane and Origami Flower settings together. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.13|172.69.33.13]] 17:26, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Could those strips that are fun to tear be {{w|comb binding}} instead of tractor feed strips? [[User:Ehusmark|EHusmark]] ([[User talk:Ehusmark|talk]]) 08:26, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

== Multi-function machines in pairs ==

I used to work for a temporary services company. At a tech-company, I noticed several instances where there were two multi-function machines close to each other. I asked about that. I was told company security policy forbade having a copier connected to a communications line. So, one machine was used only for copying. The other machine was used as a fax machine. The security police came about because, in the past, some people trying to copy company confidential pages sometimes mistakenly faxed them. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.194|162.158.75.194]] 01:00, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

== Accessibility adjustment ==

I added "(selected)" to all items that are highlighted in green, for the benefit of readers who can't see the green highlight. While one may argue that such readers could refer to the transcript, which has the text "(lit green)," there is no reason to force readers to scroll back and forth between the explanation and transcript sections to discover this, and it would be onerous for those using a screen reader to listen to the page multiple times. [[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 08:29, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
:I like that. It was neither green nor annotated when I was last here and I think both elements are nice touches, I'd like you and the greening editor to each know. (I changed "lighted" to "lit" in the transcript version, and it seems nobody has reverted that yet, which was always possible. I'd considered "illuminated", but "selected" is a good one if there remain any future objections.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.225|162.158.158.225]] 09:15, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
Does "fold paper airplane" really need 2 links to the same thing? I think the first link should be removed <shruggie>--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.136|173.245.54.136]] 13:02, 8 October 2020 (UTC)Bumpf

Done. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Goodbye, world!]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 02:02, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

== Example for the "fold airplane" function ==

I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning in the article, but Gaston Lagaffe once created [https://img.lemde.fr/2017/07/26/0/0/1509/663/688/0/60/0/a25fc79_8121-c9tyc9.0wlmuqh0k9.jpg a device with this function].