explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:886: Craigslist Apartments

2019-09-27T08:17:37Z

162.158.183.127:

The house with a house inside may be a reference to the tesseracted, 4D house from Robert Heinlein's "-And He Built A Crooked House." {{unsigned ip|‎173.225.52.131}}

I would have thought the klein stairs with the intense heat in short bursts may be a reference to a research fusion reactor. 'Net searches seem to suggest there may be connections between plasma behaviour and klein bottle mathematics. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.5}}

The Minotaur sounds like a reference to Doctor Who The God Complex. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.201|173.245.52.201]] 05:05, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

The closet full of board games which play themselves could be a reference to the movie Jumanji.
Can't remember a tub full of blood from that movie, though, however surely pets won't survive long. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.180|173.245.53.180]] 21:13, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

I explained the third one, but I have no idea about the lack of floor. Because of this and others, I added an 'Incomplete' tag with the appropriate reason. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.206|108.162.212.206]] 03:32, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

I believe that the "616" "$1616" is a reference to the number of the beast. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.90|173.245.54.90]] 18:53, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
:The number of the beast is 666. Not 616. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 01:54, 18 April 2014 (UTC)
::It sounds like you must have some good information to make that statement so plainly - maybe you should correct the appropriate section on Wikipedia ({{w|Number_of_the_beast#616}}) and add your references/citations. It would seem several sources (including the oldest known ''"version"'' of the text) indicates '616' as a "variant" [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 12:59, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

"including the oldest known ''"version"'' of the text"

Have you read that article?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 23:20, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

I motion to close/complete this one. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.65|199.27.128.65]] 17:57, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Regarding the house near Pripyat explanation, "the glass facade references radioactive glassy minerals created by the explosion" seems to be conflating the Corium produced at Chernobyl with the Trinitite produced by nuclear explosion at Alamogordo. There was a steam explosion at Chernobyl, but the Corium was produced by the heat of the subsequent meltdown, not by the force of the explosion. The current explanation also includes, "It may also be the nuclear facility itself, depending on interpretation; ...". It seems clear to me that the apartment for rent is the nuclear facility itself, and not some house in Pripyat, which is "5-min drive" away; why else the "Three floors w/pool, rooftop garden, beautiful glass facade". -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.43|108.162.219.43]] 12:03, 18 April 2014 (UTC)
:Agreed. I have edited to reflect the same, and have also noted the likelihood that the "pool" referenced is probably temporary containment for spent nuclear fuel. Not so sure about the "3-level" thing, though. My knowledge of nuclear power plant design is extremely limited. [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 12:20, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

I just reread this and I think that the the pool in question may be the glass walled three story swimming pool azure in pripyat. The same one as was in modern warfare. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.167|173.245.54.167]] 13:48, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

Any idea what 1386153 means? Lucas often 'hid' 1138 everywhere, so could this be part of it? Other thoughts:
* [http://www.colorhexa.com/8a0699 RGB (138,6,153) is purple].
* It isn't prime
* It isn't [https://oeis.org/A082897 totient]
— [[User:Fluffy Buzzard|Fluffy Buzzard]] ([[User talk:Fluffy Buzzard|talk]]) 15:26, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Is the (no animals) part of the veiled porn ad another reference to 'no furries' maybe?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.217|141.101.98.217]] 19:15, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

I think the square room with a door in front is an elevator, making several floor stops in the list. PaperDragonCA [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.89|108.162.216.89]] 21:43, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

I thought that "water and heat from same source" meant being pissed on by the Viking. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.246|173.245.50.246]] 17:34, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

I think that:
* "Strobe light" AND "no floor" together may refer to a greenhouse.
* Cats ok, up to 1/square foot --- literally cat-only animal shelter.
* Viking landlord AND same source for water and head --- the area is Iceland, near geothermal water source.

Talk:591: Troll Slayer

2019-09-23T08:54:54Z

162.158.183.127:

The quote is "We have met the enemy and he is us." Us refers to the trollers. I think by meddling with the twilight forums, they brought on trolls to their own. I have changed the text to reflect the reference of the quote accordingly (currently it says they brought on the enemy ''themselves'' - focus is wrong). [[User:Adityarajbhatt|Adityarajbhatt]] ([[User talk:Adityarajbhatt|talk]]) 19:06, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

For some reasons, there are "twilight borards", not "forums". Apparently, /b/turds attacked people with decent aptness in "board culture". It would be even funnier if this comic implied the mouseover text is a quote from would-be book of Twilight series. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.127|162.158.183.127]] 08:54, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Personally, I don't think such a counter-attack would be effective. The /b/tards' standard defense mechanism would be to just flood the board with tubgirl and 50-Hilter-posts, and hammer that spike of Twilight fans right back down again. [[Special:Contributions/169.233.101.195|169.233.101.195]] 01:43, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
:True but in the comic it obviously worked on the poor pimple faced boy who is totally dejected in the last picture. Remember there are many more vampire fans than geeks on 4chan. ;-) Also this is the comics explanation and here in the comic it worked --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:50, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

The title of topic can be a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. /b/tars tried to slay Twilight fans (all of them would rather be vampires than humans) and got a quick reversal.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.201|108.162.231.201]] 07:45, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Talk:591: Troll Slayer

2019-09-23T08:53:43Z

162.158.183.127:

The quote is "We have met the enemy and he is us." Us refers to the trollers. I think by meddling with the twilight forums, they brought on trolls to their own. I have changed the text to reflect the reference of the quote accordingly (currently it says they brought on the enemy ''themselves'' - focus is wrong). [[User:Adityarajbhatt|Adityarajbhatt]] ([[User talk:Adityarajbhatt|talk]]) 19:06, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Personally, I don't think such a counter-attack would be effective. The /b/tards' standard defense mechanism would be to just flood the board with tubgirl and 50-Hilter-posts, and hammer that spike of Twilight fans right back down again. [[Special:Contributions/169.233.101.195|169.233.101.195]] 01:43, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
:True but in the comic it obviously worked on the poor pimple faced boy who is totally dejected in the last picture. Remember there are many more vampire fans than geeks on 4chan. ;-) Also this is the comics explanation and here in the comic it worked --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:50, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

The title of topic can be a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. /b/tars tried to slay Twilight fans (all of them would rather be vampires than humans) and got a quick reversal.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.201|108.162.231.201]] 07:45, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

:For some reasons, there are "twilight borards", not "forums". Apparently, /b/turds attacked people with decent aptness in "board culture". It would be even funnier if this comic implied the mouseover text is a quote from would-be book of Twilight series.

Talk:2187: Geologic Time

2019-08-19T06:44:12Z

162.158.183.127:

Football pitches don't have five-yard lines…{{unsigned ip|141.101.98.148}}
:You pitch a baseball, not a football.{{unsigned ip|172.69.170.88}}
::Yes and in the comic it does say Football field. And Randall is known for not knowing anything about sport, so he may project this onto the geologist and not let her know about the five yard line... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:26, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
::And at the risk of being picky, I'm sure Randall is talking about an American football field, which does have five-yard lines. They just don't have a label on the field, which is only the ten-yard lines, but there is a line across the field every five yards. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 00:05, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
:::I agree that Randall is definitely referring to NFL-style US Football in this comic. Also, since the US women's 'futbol' team won the world cup, we're officially calling it 'Soccer' until someone wins the championship back from us. ;S
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 11:28, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
::::Agree it is a American Football field (as we call it abroad, also you do not use your feet much to kick the ball compared to Soccer). Do Woman play football? I believe most people who actually care about football do not care for the Womans futbal :-D By the way I don't care for sport, almost on the same level here as Randall, and also I did not know that there were a 5 yard line on an American Football field, but all the time assumed it was. As far as I know there are no distance lines on a regular real football field (soccer field to you). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:09, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Should we have a geology category, like we have [[:Category:Geography]] and many other science categories? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:26, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
:Just realizes I could easily find more than 10 comics that would fit into that category, so I have created it: [[:Category:Geology]]

This reminds me of The Cosmic Calendar from Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" TV Series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8UwPd1z20 [[User:Gpg|Gpg]] ([[User talk:Gpg|talk]]) 20:29, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
:The title text reminds me of a cartoon I once read where these two guys talk to God hidden in the clouds. Guy: ''God is it true that a million years feel like a minute to you?'' God: ''Yes my son.'' Guy: ''Is it also true that a million dollars would be like a dime to you?'' God: ''Yes my son, that is true!'' Guy: ''God, could you spare a dime for me?'' God: ''Yes my son, in a minute.'' :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:10, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

What does anything in this comic mean? Asking for… absolutely everyone in every single country except the USA. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:38, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
:I think there are a few people outside the USA who understand yards and feet, and even what an American football field is. [[User:Catherine|Catherine]] ([[User talk:Catherine|talk]]) 10:29, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
::Sure, but very few outside the USA have an intuitive feel for what the actual relative sizes are except for "a football field is probably pretty big and a microscope can see very small things". So outside the USA it's an analogy that is less useful than just saying the time in years. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 13:22, 10 August 2019 (UTC)
:::A regular football field and an American football field is almost the same size and a yard is close to a meter. I'm pretty sure than 90% of those coming here did understand the analogy in this comic, and the other 10% was probably from the US ;-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:09, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
::::To be clear, as a North American, I only use and approve of the name "soccer" because it's simpler for differentiating from what we call football, soccer clearly SHOULD be called football, it primarily uses the feet, LOL! Like I just said a few days ago on a Facebook post, the rest of the world should call American Football "soccer", just to complete the confusion, LOL! Anyways, thus I'm using the word soccer vs. football here: I THINK a soccer field is quite a bit bigger than a football field, at least they look MASSIVE when I see televised games (like the World Cup). In less professional situations - like if me and my friends went to play an informal game - yes, we'd use the same field. American Football is 100 yards long (50 per side), Canadian Football is 110 (55 per side). So, mentally divide a soccer field ("football pitch") into 100 parts to get a yard. :) So dinosaurs are 5/100ths of a pitch. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:20, 15 August 2019 (UTC)

== Please use the metric system in your explanation. Randall does not approve of imperial units. ==

[[Special:Contributions/172.68.182.172|172.68.182.172]] 14:52, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

He wouldn't touch the imperial system with a 3.048 meter pole [[User:Whereisspike|Whereisspike]] ([[User talk:Whereisspike|talk]]) 17:21, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
:Seems to make more sense to use imperial about this comic that talks in imperial measurements. Well, a mix. :) "Yards" ARE ubiquitous and thoroughly entwined with football. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:20, 15 August 2019 (UTC)
::Mainly using your hands make it not football. Hands = handball.

Talk:1296: Git Commit

2019-07-08T21:33:08Z

162.158.183.127: git merge -no-ff

Note that in most (all?) graphical history viewers for Git time flows from bottom up, i.e. newest commits are on top, not on bottom as in this comics --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:21, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
* This was bothering me. I was starting to doubt my own experience, and intended to switch to an old project to check. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 22:16, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

I can relate. While I start with reasonable commit messages every day, working on one feature often results in
:(good description of feature)
:bugfixes for (description of feature)
:another bugfix
:damn
:should work now
:grrr
:typo
:I hate (some used library)
when I either need commit to deploy or I'm so sure it will work I don't test it deeply enough. If I would be using git, these could be merged, but I'm not. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:51, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Once I made a commit titled "lotsa shit" {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.130}}

What does the line graphic in the left-most column represent? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 13:03, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
: This is the Git commit graph, in various ways of looking at a commit history git draws a graph like that to show branching and merging. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.229}}

Nice explanation folks. Makes the comic understandable/humorous to a non-coder. (unless you count VBScript) --[[User:DanB|DanB]] ([[User talk:DanB|talk]]) 13:16, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
: Nothing wrong with VBScript, though "coder" could be stretching the definition by a bit. (''git'' it?) [[User:JChrisCompton|JChrisCompton]] ([[User talk:JChrisCompton|talk]]) 19:41, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

: You seem to understand it pretty well now, DanB, judging by your edit history. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 07:56, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

[http://lightswitch05.github.io/commit-cloud/ Commit Cloud] is a relevant tool to read commit messages from Github and build a word cloud from the most-used words. {{unsigned ip|108.162.214.41}}
:Mine actually lists a link to this comic. I'm laughing so hard right now. [[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 09:35, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm very glad I'm not the only person this happens to. --[[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 15:23, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Regarding "although he seems to have avoided the ; key for some reason": A likely reason is that messages are passed on the command line with -m and without surrounding quotes to save time, and the ; ends the command line. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.54|108.162.221.54]] 06:03, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

haaaaaaands [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.15|162.158.74.15]] 21:18, 4 December 2018 (UTC)u2603

10/10 explanation of keyboard slams right there in that last paragraph [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.18|172.68.133.18]] 00:51, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

One thing that's bothering me is how Randall haven't fast-forwarded when merging "here have code" and "aaaaaaaa" into the main branch. It would've looked much less ugly! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.127|162.158.183.127]] 21:33, 8 July 2019 (UTC)