explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1362: Morse Code

2014-04-30T05:43:22Z

141.101.88.206: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1362
| date = April 30, 2014
| title = Morse Code
| image = morse_code.png
| titletext = Oh, because Facebook has worked out SO WELL for everyone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are laying in a grassy, lonely plain.]
:[Second panel:] Cueball: When the French navy retired morse code in 1997, they broadcast a final message: "Calling all this is our last cry before our eternal silence."
:[Fourth panel:] Cueball: I wonder if I can find my Livejournal login.
: Megan: Hey, I like Livejournal.
: Cueball: It's a nice place to go for some peace and quiet, I suppose.
:[Title text:] Oh, because facebook has worked out SO WELL for everyone.

{{comic discussion}}

1362: Morse Code

2014-04-30T05:41:38Z

141.101.88.206:

{{comic
| number = 1362
| date = April 30, 2014
| title = Morse Code
| image = morse_code.png
| titletext = Oh, because Facebook has worked out SO WELL for everyone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are laying in a grassy, lonely plain.]
:[Second panel:] Cueball: When the French navy retired morse code in 1997, they broadcast a final message: "Calling all this is our last cry before our eternal silence."
:[Fourth panel:] Cueball: I wonder if I can find my Livejournal login.
: Megan: Hey, I like Livejournal.
: Cueball: It's a nice place to go for some peace and quiet, I suppose.
Oh, because facebook has worked out so well for everyone.

{{comic discussion}}

1360: Old Files

2014-04-25T08:38:12Z

141.101.88.206: /* Files */ linked wikipedia on zip disk, added short description

{{comic
| number = 1360
| date = April 25, 2014
| title = Old Files
| image = old_files.png
| titletext = Wow, ANIMORPHS-NOVEL.RTF? Just gonna, uh, go through and delete that from all my archives real quick.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Missing explanations for most of the various files.}}
Cueball is sifting through a pile of old files, either a theoretical one that exists on a hard drive, making fun of how hard it is to search through old files, or a real room of old hard drives. He discovers several files he is embarrassed about, including a poetry file that surprises him, since he does not remember writing poetry, and an "Animorphs Novel" mentioned in the title text, most likely a fan fiction of the Animorphs series, although possibly a copy of one of the original books.

This comic came out the day after [http://news.sky.com/story/1248397/andy-warhol-originals-found-on-floppy-disk Sky News published the story] of original [[wikipedia:Andy Warhol|Andy Warhol]] artwork, created in 1985 on an [[wikipedia:Amiga 1000|Amiga 1000]], was recovered from recently found floppy disks.

=== Files ===
* Documents 47GB [[wikipedia:My_Documents|Documents]] is the special folder on Windows Vista and newer Microsoft operating systems that holds user files. Notice how the folders get smaller when they are from older systems (with less storage).
* Misc.txt
* Video projects
* Old desktop 12GB
* Facebook pics
* Pics from other camera
* Temp
* Misc PDFs
* MP3
* Recovered from drive crash 4GB
* Temp
* Work misc
* Audio books
* My documents 570MB [[wikipedia:My_Documents|My Documents]] is the special folder on Windows XP and older Microsoft operating systems that holds user files.
* Downloads
* [[wikipedia:Kazaa|Kazaa]] is an internet file sharing service.
* [[wikipedia:All_your_base_are_belong_to_us|AYB]] is an acronym for "All your base are belong to us", a badly translated phrase from video game Zero Wing. This could be a copy of this game or a of the popular video that was created to make fun of the bad translation in this game.
* [[wikipedia:Escape_Velocity_Override|EV Override]] is a video game originally written for the Apple Macintosh.
* [[wikipedia:Angband|Angband]] is a rogue-like computer game.
* [[wikipedia:Graphics_Interchange_Format|GIFs]] An image format that is still used for storing lossless images, but before the rise of JPG encryption widely accepted for storing all images.
* Fight club.wmv A Windows Media encode of [[wikipedia:Fight_Club|Fight club (1999)]].
* [[wikipedia:Elasto_Mania|Elasto Maina]] is a 2D motorbike computer game
* AIM Direct Connect files
* 4Chan
* [[wikipedia:ICQ|ICQ]] is an early (1996) instant messenger client.
* High school zip disk 94MB: [[wikipedia:Zip drive|zip disks]] where a popular storage medium in the late 90's before being replaced by rewritable CD's and later USB thumbdrives.
* Lovenote.txt
* [[wikipedia:Gorillas (video game)|Gorilla.bas]] is one of the games that came with QBasic.
* [[wikipedia:AOL|AOL]]
* AOL Citadel
* NYET
* Jokes.txt
* Korn midi
* Photos3 Prom
* Dream.txt
* James.txt
* [[wikipedia:QBasic|QBasic]] is an IDE and intepreter for a dialect of the BASIC programming language, originally bundled with MS-DOS 5.0 and newer
* AAAFiles 9.4MB
* TXT 850K

==Transcript==
:Megan (on top of stack of files): You OK down there?
:Cueball (deep inside stack): Oh my god. I wrote '''POETRY'''.

Talk:1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T06:41:38Z

141.101.88.206:

Thanks for the transcript! (nothing seems messed up) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.206|141.101.88.206]] 06:41, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I added a transcript, if I messed up on anything, I'm sorry! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 06:08, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

The alt-text contains a reference to the scene "Tears in the rain" of Blade Runner [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 06:19, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T06:40:04Z

141.101.88.206: /* Explanation */ added CVE and some details about impact

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
"Heartbleed" refers to a critical bug in the OpenSSL security library. This bug was publicly released on Monday, april 7th.
Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive), attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared heartbeat signals to an affected server.
This exploit allows attackers to obtain random pieces of information, including, but not limited to, the servers private key(!!!), in-memory passwords, contents of open files, and much more.
More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com] or under CVE-2014-0160

This bug is classified as extremely critical due to the potential of unveiling the servers private key, enabling anyone to impersonate the server and/or decrypt all traffic to it (unless "perfect forward secrecy" ciphers is used, which is currently rare).
Furthermore, because the exploit occurs in the handshake phase of setting up a connection, no traces of it are logged.
I.E. You can be attacked and never be the wiser.

The mouseover text cites the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_soliloquy Tears in rain soliloquy], the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner Blade Runner].

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.
:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.
:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic faniction.
:Cueball: Is '''everything''' compromised?
:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}

1353: Heartbleed

2014-04-09T06:34:34Z

141.101.88.206: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
"Heartbleed" refers to a critical bug in the OpenSSL security library. This bug was publicly released on Monday, april 7th.
Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive), attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared heartbeat signals to an affected server.
This exploit allows attackers to obtain random pieces of information, including, but not limited to, the servers private key(!!!), in-memory passwords, contents of open files, and much more.
More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com]

In refrence to the "Heartbleed" vunerubilty in Open SSL see http://heartbleed.com/

The mouseover text cites the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_soliloquy Tears in rain soliloquy], the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner Blade Runner].

{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.
:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.
:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic faniction.
:Cueball: Is '''everything''' compromised?
:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}