explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1913: A ?

2017-11-09T21:57:47Z

162.158.202.118:

"no update can never" is logically equivalent to "any update can". Not sure if this is intentional. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.60|162.158.106.60]] 16:49, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: Isn't it logically equivalent to "any update can ''sometimes''"? Linguistically, of course, it can be equivalent either to this, or to "no update can".[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 16:59, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
:: I think it's actually equivalent to "ALL updates can" (because if even a single update could not, the statement would be false). [[User:Jedi.jesse|Jedi.jesse]] ([[User talk:Jedi.jesse|talk]]) 05:28, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
::: But "all updates can" could imply that only applying all updates would take it away. It also doesn't deal with the temporality - "no update can never" only implies that for each update there is a point in time when it could take it away, not necessarily that any update can always take it away, nor that there is any time at which all updates could take it away. Or to summarise, trying to reduce language to terms of logic is a fool's errand. ;o)[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 09:53, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
: Or did Randall mean to type "no update can ever take this away" which makes more sense to me? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 19:08, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: Due to the linked Wikipedia article "some dialects of English are examples of negative-concord languages", i.e. double negatives intensifies eauch other. From my experience, it isn't only some dialects but most (of American English). Same Wikipedia article also states that negative-concord are more common. (we need more mathematicians in the world.) Imho, the relevant sentence on the comic page should be deleted or strongly modified, since it's common usage. [[User:Derda17|Derda17]] ([[User talk:Derda17|talk]]) 07:05, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
:: Idiot English is a bit of stretch to call a dialect. It just happens to be how dumb people speak.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.118|162.158.202.118]] 21:57, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Is this a comment on all those moral panics about 'the youth of today can't read or write because they're only learning to speak in emojis'? And/or about developers using 'undocumented features' in their applications, so that when they're fixed it breaks those applications?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.198|141.101.105.198]] 16:55, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

More like on how Randall appears to have strange habits. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.52|172.68.141.52]] 16:59, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Hopefully somebody will make a full tutorial on how to accomplish the title text thing.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.241|162.158.89.241]] 19:03, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
:I could do this easily on the computer with AutoHotKey (which might be overkill), but I'm not sure about iPhones, which are likely the target for the idea. iPhones have built-in text replacement, but I think you have to follow the word to be replaced with a space for it to work, rather than it working instantly (as "mapping a key on your keyboard" implies). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.41|172.68.26.41]] 19:15, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

The correct url for this comic would be something like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1913:_A_%EF%BF%BD 1913:_A_%EF%BF%BD], but that is an invalid title. It would still probably be better to change it to "A ?" with a note instead of "A_%C3%AF%C2%BF%C2%BD". —[[User:Artyer|Artyer]] <sup><big>([[User Talk:Artyer|talk]]<big>'''|'''</big><sub>[[Special:Contributions/Artyer|ctb]]</sub>)</big></sup> 21:03, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
: I suggest using ⍰ (U+2370) instead, as it better approximates the original iOS display. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.52|172.68.54.52]] 21:25, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Interesting to note that the name of the posted image is i.png, which I guess DOES match the name of the comic? [[User:Alanbbent|Alanbbent]] ([[User talk:Alanbbent|talk]]) 22:35, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps, change the strange symbol to its HTML entity, � [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.154|108.162.249.154]] 23:00, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

A lowercase i represents the square root of negative one, so let's just say that this comic is imaginary and resolve the problem that way :-)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.238|162.158.59.238]] 05:46, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

It is not possible to make a wiki page with � in the name so I have changed to title to "A ?" and moved both the explanation and the comment here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:20, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Strange that I was the first to comment on the fact that it was I not i that was changed in the comic, which acording to the current explanation is what happens with the Apple bug... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:28, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
: The expected autocorrection on typing "i" would be replacing it by "I". So usually there's no need to type "I", it should be enough to type "i" (saves you one click). --[[User:YMS|YMS]] ([[User talk:YMS|talk]]) 16:18, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
:: OK. But what about the other i in the text. Would they not trigger the error because it is inside a word? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:59, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
::: No they wouldn't, because the autocorrect is triggered by hitting space. If you use "i" in the middle of a word, the next button is a letter, not the space button, and it recognizes the rest of the word. (I don't know what it would do if you found a word ending with "i".) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.33|162.158.74.33]] 21:09, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Talk:342: 1337: Part 2

2017-09-05T23:48:13Z

162.158.202.118:

Well, imho the reference to the master in the mountain hideaway is clearly a reference to Kill Bill, but I am not skilled enough in English to write it myself...
[[Special:Contributions/217.162.253.103|217.162.253.103]] 13:06, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:Next time, don't be so shy! Just do the best you can and someone else can help correct it. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 00:21, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

I don't see why dijkstra's algorithm would use less memory than A*. Any ideas? [[Special:Contributions/24.18.133.138|24.18.133.138]] 01:44, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
:Dijkstra's algorithm only needs to store one distance value per node, whereas A* needs at least an additional priority queue. Sometimes A* also precalculates and stores its heuristic. --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 09:42, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
::Why can not be A* implemented exactly as Dijkstra's is with additional penalty (the optimistic distance) calculated at every update? That way it would be as memory efficient as Dijkstra's.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.118|162.158.202.118]] 23:48, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

The mountain hideaway is a staple of Kung Fu movies. Kill Bill was effectively spoofing the genre, and so is this cartoon (rather than specifically spoofing Kill Bill). [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 04:17, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

Is that an ice pack he's holding in the first panel? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.232|108.162.210.232]] 23:42, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
:That's something I was wondering too. It's either an ice pack or a towel of some kind. Why would he need an ice pack / towel? Either he's sweating because he's nervous, it's an author mistake, or something offscreen happened. But... what could have happened? --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 11:49, 13 September 2016 (UTC)
:: He's holding the ice pack (or towel) because of how badly he got pwned. See the end of the last comic ("You may need to sit down").--Luke[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.248|162.158.146.248]] 08:18, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Anybody notice how her son is Bobby Roberts, or if we're going by the Exploits of a Mom comic, Robert Roberts? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.122|108.162.246.122]] 20:27, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1813: Vomiting Emoji

2017-03-21T22:14:24Z

162.158.202.118:

Did anyone else think of the Akatsuki member Deidara from Naruto when they saw the vomiting hand emoji? [[User:GoonPontoon|GoonPontoon]] ([[User talk:GoonPontoon|talk]]) 17:52, 20 March 2017 (UTC) - Nope, of Ygo from Unspeakable Vault of Doom. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.118|162.158.202.118]] 22:14, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

The "Vomit Comet" was not a rocket, it was the name of NASA's KC-135 aircraft which simulated weightlessness on parable flights. Given that rockets must be airtight, it is a bit strange that you could vomit out of a rocket.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.82|162.158.150.82]] 22:19, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

I wish Randall used a vomiting face vomiting (using the vomiting modifier) or a unicorn puking rainbows (U+1F984 U+1F93F U+1F308 🦄🤢🌈). --[http://windowsfreak.de/ Björn Eberhardt] 08:01, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

For those thinking of making a real proposal, it's not actually needed. You can combine any characters with the special combining character. Originally intended for languages such as arabic, it works with emoji too.--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 10:03, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

There seems to be a minor edit war over citing the fact that the Moon is made of rock. I think we should just remove the citation entirely as well as the {{Citation needed}}. Should I go through with this? [[User:RamenChef|RamenChef]] ([[User talk:RamenChef|talk]]) 15:46, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Keep "Citation Needed" -- it's the best laugh I've had all day (and references xkcd #285

The emoji is a Man in the Moon vomiting and "he" is made of imagination, not rock. OTOH, the moon has vomited lava in the past, but can AFAIK no longer do so [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:34, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Should the incomplete tag be removed? [[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 21:09, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

== Emoji Madness? ==

Anyone else think that the whole set needs a complete overhaul as there are seven different co?ours of binder, but no computer mouse or a chop / steak to name a few omissions.

Also the latest iPhone set have Male and Female versions of cowboy, police, guardsman et al. With some of them the difference iis small, but in all of them the female version appears to have her moth open, whereas the male ones do not. Is this sexist? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:58, 21 March 2017 (UTC)