explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1370: President

2014-05-27T16:03:57Z

141.101.89.212: Corrected Bush quote.

{{comic
| number = 1370
| date = May 19, 2014
| title = President
| image = president.png
| titletext = Anyone who thinks we're all going to spend the 2032 elections poring over rambling blog posts by teenagers has never tried to read a rambling blog post by a teenager.
}}

==Explanation==

This strip shows a discussion between an adult and a teenager about an aspect of the future. [[Randall]] likes this setup, allowing to put in perspective the various "decay" predictions and shows his optimism.

Here, the subject is scandal. How will a generation that is documenting and leaving behind a permanent public record of its juvenile misadventures - immature and impolitic writings, photographs of inebriation at parties posted on Facebook, Twitter posts about breakups, etc. - produce successful future politicians? Won't future opposition researchers and reporters have enough embarrassing material to destroy any Millennial's public reputation? In previous generations, juveniles were freer to go through this phase of development without leaving behind a digital record, making it easier to sidestep or paper over rumors of youthful misbehavior. (See, e.g., George W. Bush, who dismissed questions about his rumored use of drugs in his youth by saying only, "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible.")

The child's answer, in addition to tweaking the adult about her generation's coming obsolescence, is that the next generation will be fine because in the future no one will care. The title text amplifies this optimistic message, suggesting that old blog posts by former teenagers will just seem boring, not salacious. [[Randall]] offers no explanation for this upbeat spin, but it is a recurring topic and some have argued elsewhere that the potential power of Internet-chronicled youthful indiscretions will be defused because everyone will be in the same boat, making future voters (and, in another context, employers) more tolerant of such things.

The strip also contains an existential twist, as shown in the child's answer. It alludes to every generation's dismissal of the next, as actually being due to psychological insecurities. We may disguise our dismissals by attacking their faults & different lifestyles. But in truth, these dismissals are actually rooted in our innate fear of becoming obsolete, useless, surpassed, and lost in a bewildering world that has passed us by.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and a kid with curly hair are walking together.]
:Ponytail: I can't imagine anyone who grew up on the Internet being able to run for President.

:[Closeup of Curly.]
:Curly: Why? Because it'd mark the handover of a world that no longer needs you to a generation you don't understand?

:[Ponytail and Curly have stopped walking and are facing each other.]
:Curly: ...Or because there would be embarrassing pictures of us as teenagers?

:[Closeup of Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: Um. The pictures one?
:Curly (off-screen): Pictures of teens! How will we even survive??

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Internet]]

Talk:1360: Old Files

2014-04-25T21:26:46Z

141.101.89.212:

I notice backup and recovery files. I once had a folder on my father's computer that housed everything I did. When the drive crashed, I managed to recover it and store it to a CD-ROM (this was before thumb drives). I copied everything onto my first computer within my main folder (I don't use My Documents), and I continue to move my main folder into a new main folder each time I migrate between computers. I have so many nested memories. I, too, have incomplete fan-fiction and instant message logs. Oh, and a dream.txt. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 04:47, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have as much of a problem with the "old files room", because I keep nearly all of my files on my laptop, but my hard drive is almost full. Another hard drive replace the CD drive, but this computer won't last much longer (bye cd drive workaround). I'll have to build an "old files room" sooner or later. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 05:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Back in the... early '90s, I think it was... I recall there being someone like a buddhist monk (or someone ''claiming'' to be someone like a buddhist monk, and the religion could have been something else) who set up an internet site (not necessarily a website) as a temple for "all lost data". The files you had accidentally deleted, the floppies that got damaged or otherwise corrupted, forgotten formats on old drives that you'd lost the wherewithall to access them. Between this and the "hoarder" behaviour exhibitted in the above XKCD folder we encompass ''all'' long-term computer users. At the same time. I know I regret the dead USB sticks (with irreplacable content) and yet I stare in hopelessness at the folders "GStick" and "FStick" within My Documents, that really need looking at again. (No, they don't contain the lost material. Datestamped at 2009.) But they're two of fifty-three separate subfolders (and a helluva lot of loose files) in that level. "WebRedo"? I remember that. That site hasn't even been ''active'' for about a decade. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.224|141.101.89.224]] 06:50, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

;Explanation
I think the point of the comic doesn't come across in the explanation. It's not just that he's sifting through files, but that he's finding files nested deeply in his folder structure that just came to pass because he always copied contents of an old computer to some folder on the next computer and then ignored its contents.

I.e. in his "Documents" folder, there is the "Old Desktop" folder from a previous computer, which contains the "Recovered from drive crash" folder from another previous system, which has another "Mu Documents" folder within, ... etc. The nesting aspect should somehow be integrated into the explanation.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.57|108.162.229.57]] 09:59, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

The shape of the panel is vaguely reminiscent of a hard drive, this may be intentional, being emphasized by the increasing size of the individual layers. In which case there might be some metaphor construed by the placement of the two characters based on their location in the structure of the hard-drive perhaps involving the catalog index. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.35}}

It should be pointed out that the AYB folder is directly referencing https://xkcd.com/286/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.211}}

I have done this before on my hard drive(s) and I always find my old qbasic programs. Anyone knows of an emulator for qbasic so I could see my old programs running again? [[User:Bigfatbernie|Bigfatbernie]] ([[User talk:Bigfatbernie|talk]]) 13:56, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

:DOSBox will run QBasic programs if you grab the QBasic 1.1 interpreter from either an old copy of Windows 98 that still has it in its dos utilities folder, or just download it from here: http://www.qbasic.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/qbasic-interpreter.htm [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.42|108.162.219.42]] 17:01, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Anybody know what Citadel is? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.42|108.162.219.42]] 16:58, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

;Can we get some instructions on how to edit the page?

It makes no sense to me whatsoever, and it's unlike every other page on the wiki. I can find the list we use in the transcript, but I can't figure out how to add the explainations [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.204|199.27.130.204]] 18:19, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

:I did remove that templates from this page, the explain is still very bad — but now you should be able to post your adds. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:23, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
: I am the person who added the templates. I figured that on a xkcd wiki of all wikis one should feel free to use some more advanced Mediawiki features, to keep from redundancy (here, repetition of data between the explanation and the transcript)... Oh well. Apparently the definition of "to make sense" is "to make sense to others". Also, semicolons are used for definition lists, not for headers. {{unsigned ip|141.101.89.217}}
:: By the way, the current transcript is wrong. The items listed under "No header" headers belong to the "named" headers on the parallel side. There is no dichotomy like that. If you insist on reflecting the visual layout of the comic in the transcript, I suggest something like this (uncapitalised, unsorted, and unformatted, because it is just a quick illustration):

<table class='wikitable'>
<tr>
<td>
 
<th>
documents <hr>
Megan: "You OK down there?"
<td>
 

<tr>
<td>
* misc.txt
<th>
old desktop
<td>
* video projects

<tr>
<td>
* facebook pics
<th>
recovered from drive flash
<td>
* pics from other camera
* temp
* misc pdfs
* mp3

<tr>
<td>
* temp
<th>
my documents
<td>
* work misc
* audiobooks

<tr>
<td>
* downloads
* ayb
* ev override
* angband
* kazaa shared
* gigs
<th>
high school zip disk
<td>
* fight club.wmv
* aim direct connect files
* elasto mania
* 4chan
* icq logs

<tr>
<td>
* lovenote.txt
* gorilla.bas
* aol
** citadel
* nyet
* jokes.txt
<th>
aaafiles
<td>
* korn midi
* photos3
** prom
* dream.txt
* james.txt
* qbasic

<tr>
<td>
 
<th>
txt <hr>
Cueball: "Oh my God. I wrote poetry."
<td>
 
</table>
:{{unsigned ip|141.101.89.217}}
:Done '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
:: Thank you! In fact, I just noticed that rows didn't reflect one filesystem level! They should be moved one level up. I will fix that (and capitalise and sort the labels.) {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.89.212}}
::: Done. {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.89.212, too--I really don't like this insistence on signing}}

1360: Old Files

2014-04-25T21:24:03Z

141.101.89.212: /* Transcript */

{{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 digging through a pile of old files, which the comic represents as literally digging into the depths of his filesystem. The files are in concentric layers because each directory contains files moved over from an older system, so his "Documents" folder contains an "Old Desktop" folder from an older computer, the "Old Desktop" contains files recovered from the drive crash of the system before that, which had its own "My Documents" folder, which contained files saved from a Zip Disk in high school. The result is that files from all the way back in high school have survived to his present-day machine. He discovers several files he is embarrassed about, including a poetry file that surprises him, since he does not remember writing poetry, and an "[[wikipedia:Animorphs|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 {{w|Andy Warhol}} artwork, created in 1985 on an {{w|Amiga 1000}}, was recovered from recently found floppy disks.

#{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''Documents''' (47 GB)|[[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).}}
##{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|misc.txt}}
##{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''Old desktop''' (12 GB)}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Facebook pics}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Misc PDFs}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|MP3}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Pics from other camera}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''Recovered from drive crash''' (4 GB)}}
####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Audiobooks}}
####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''My Documents''' (570 MB)|[[wikipedia:My_Documents|My Documents]] is the special folder on Windows XP and older Microsoft operating systems that holds user files.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|4chan}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|AIM Direct Connect files|[[wikipedia:AOL_Instant_Messenger|AIM]] is an instant messenger that allows sending binary data (images etc.) using a direct connection.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Angband|[[wikipedia:Angband_(video_game)|Angband]] is a rogue-like computer game.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|AYB|[[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 of the popular video that was created to make fun of the bad translation in this game.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Downloads}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Elasto Mania|[[wikipedia:Elasto_Mania|Elasto Mania]] is a 2D motorbike computer game}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|EV Override|[[wikipedia:Escape_Velocity_Override|EV Override]] is a video game originally written for the Apple Macintosh.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|FIGHT CLUB.wmv|A Windows Media encode of [[wikipedia:Fight_Club|Fight club (1999)]].}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|GIFs|[[wikipedia:Graphics_Interchange_Format|GIF]] is an image format that is still used for storing lossless images, but before the rise of JPG compression widely accepted for storing all images.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''High school Zip disk''' (94 MB)|[[wikipedia:Zip drive|Zip disks]] were a popular storage medium in the late 90's before being replaced by rewritable CD's and later USB thumbdrives.}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''AAAFILES''' (9.4 MB)}}
#######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|'''TXT''' (850 K)}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|AOL}}
#######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Citadel}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|dream.txt}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Gorilla.bas|[[wikipedia:Gorillas (video game)|Gorilla.bas]] is one of the games that came with QBasic.}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|James.txt}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|jokes.txt}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Korn MIDI|{{w|MIDI}} is format for music used in times before MP3. {{w|Korn}} might be the rock band.}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|lovenote.txt}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|NYET|NYET is a Tetris clone written for MS-DOS in 1988.}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Photos3}}
#######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Prom}}
######{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|QBasic|[[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.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|ICQ logs|[[wikipedia:ICQ|ICQ]] is an early (1996) instant messenger client.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Kazaa shared|[[wikipedia:Kazaa|Kazaa]] is an Internet file sharing service.}}
#####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|''(four unnamed directories)''}}
####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Temp}}
####{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Work misc}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Temp}}
###{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|''(one unnamed directory)''}}
##{{1360/info|{{{type}}}|Video projects}}

==Transcript==

<table class='wikitable'>
<tr>
<td>
 
<th>
* Documents
<hr> Megan: "You OK down there?"
<td>
 

<tr>
<td>
* misc.txt
<th>
* Old desktop
<td>
* Video projects

<tr>
<td>
* Facebook pics
<th>
* Recovered from drive crash
<td>
* Misc PDFs
* MP3
* Pics from other camera
* Temp

<tr>
<td>
* Temp
<th>
* My Documents
<td>
* Audiobooks
* Work misc

<tr>
<td>
* Angband
* AYB
* Downloads
* EV Override
* GIFs
* Kazaa shared
<th>
* High school Zip disk
<td>
* 4chan
* AIM Direct Connect files
* Elasto Mania
* FIGHT CLUB.wmv
* ICQ logs

<tr>
<td>
* AOL
** Citadel
* Gorilla.bas
* jokes.txt
* lovenote.txt
* NYET
<th>
* AAAFILES
<td>
* dream.txt
* James.txt
* Korn MIDI
* Photos3
** Prom
* QBasic

<tr>
<td>
 
<th>
* txt
<hr> Cueball: "Oh my God. I wrote '''POETRY'''."
<td>
 
</table>

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1360: Old Files

2014-04-25T21:15:14Z

141.101.89.212:

I notice backup and recovery files. I once had a folder on my father's computer that housed everything I did. When the drive crashed, I managed to recover it and store it to a CD-ROM (this was before thumb drives). I copied everything onto my first computer within my main folder (I don't use My Documents), and I continue to move my main folder into a new main folder each time I migrate between computers. I have so many nested memories. I, too, have incomplete fan-fiction and instant message logs. Oh, and a dream.txt. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 04:47, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have as much of a problem with the "old files room", because I keep nearly all of my files on my laptop, but my hard drive is almost full. Another hard drive replace the CD drive, but this computer won't last much longer (bye cd drive workaround). I'll have to build an "old files room" sooner or later. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 05:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Back in the... early '90s, I think it was... I recall there being someone like a buddhist monk (or someone ''claiming'' to be someone like a buddhist monk, and the religion could have been something else) who set up an internet site (not necessarily a website) as a temple for "all lost data". The files you had accidentally deleted, the floppies that got damaged or otherwise corrupted, forgotten formats on old drives that you'd lost the wherewithall to access them. Between this and the "hoarder" behaviour exhibitted in the above XKCD folder we encompass ''all'' long-term computer users. At the same time. I know I regret the dead USB sticks (with irreplacable content) and yet I stare in hopelessness at the folders "GStick" and "FStick" within My Documents, that really need looking at again. (No, they don't contain the lost material. Datestamped at 2009.) But they're two of fifty-three separate subfolders (and a helluva lot of loose files) in that level. "WebRedo"? I remember that. That site hasn't even been ''active'' for about a decade. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.224|141.101.89.224]] 06:50, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

;Explanation
I think the point of the comic doesn't come across in the explanation. It's not just that he's sifting through files, but that he's finding files nested deeply in his folder structure that just came to pass because he always copied contents of an old computer to some folder on the next computer and then ignored its contents.

I.e. in his "Documents" folder, there is the "Old Desktop" folder from a previous computer, which contains the "Recovered from drive crash" folder from another previous system, which has another "Mu Documents" folder within, ... etc. The nesting aspect should somehow be integrated into the explanation.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.57|108.162.229.57]] 09:59, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

The shape of the panel is vaguely reminiscent of a hard drive, this may be intentional, being emphasized by the increasing size of the individual layers. In which case there might be some metaphor construed by the placement of the two characters based on their location in the structure of the hard-drive perhaps involving the catalog index. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.35}}

It should be pointed out that the AYB folder is directly referencing https://xkcd.com/286/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.211}}

I have done this before on my hard drive(s) and I always find my old qbasic programs. Anyone knows of an emulator for qbasic so I could see my old programs running again? [[User:Bigfatbernie|Bigfatbernie]] ([[User talk:Bigfatbernie|talk]]) 13:56, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

:DOSBox will run QBasic programs if you grab the QBasic 1.1 interpreter from either an old copy of Windows 98 that still has it in its dos utilities folder, or just download it from here: http://www.qbasic.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/qbasic-interpreter.htm [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.42|108.162.219.42]] 17:01, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Anybody know what Citadel is? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.42|108.162.219.42]] 16:58, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

;Can we get some instructions on how to edit the page?

It makes no sense to me whatsoever, and it's unlike every other page on the wiki. I can find the list we use in the transcript, but I can't figure out how to add the explainations [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.204|199.27.130.204]] 18:19, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

:I did remove that templates from this page, the explain is still very bad — but now you should be able to post your adds. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:23, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
: I am the person who added the templates. I figured that on a xkcd wiki of all wikis one should feel free to use some more advanced Mediawiki features, to keep from redundancy (here, repetition of data between the explanation and the transcript)... Oh well. Apparently the definition of "to make sense" is "to make sense to others". Also, semicolons are used for definition lists, not for headers.
:: By the way, the current transcript is wrong. The items listed under "No header" headers belong to the "named" headers on the parallel side. There is no dichotomy like that. If you insist on reflecting the visual layout of the comic in the transcript, I suggest something like this (uncapitalised, unsorted, and unformatted, because it is just a quick illustration):

<table class='wikitable'>
<tr>
<td>
 
<th>
documents <hr>
Megan: "You OK down there?"
<td>
 

<tr>
<td>
* misc.txt
<th>
old desktop
<td>
* video projects

<tr>
<td>
* facebook pics
<th>
recovered from drive flash
<td>
* pics from other camera
* temp
* misc pdfs
* mp3

<tr>
<td>
* temp
<th>
my documents
<td>
* work misc
* audiobooks

<tr>
<td>
* downloads
* ayb
* ev override
* angband
* kazaa shared
* gigs
<th>
high school zip disk
<td>
* fight club.wmv
* aim direct connect files
* elasto mania
* 4chan
* icq logs

<tr>
<td>
* lovenote.txt
* gorilla.bas
* aol
** citadel
* nyet
* jokes.txt
<th>
aaafiles
<td>
* korn midi
* photos3
** prom
* dream.txt
* james.txt
* qbasic

<tr>
<td>
 
<th>
txt <hr>
Cueball: "Oh my God. I wrote poetry."
<td>
 
</table>

:Done '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
:: Thank you! In fact, I just noticed that rows didn't reflect one filesystem level! They should be moved one level up. I will fix that (and capitalise and sort the labels.)