explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2619: Crêpe

2022-05-16T22:28:13Z

162.158.50.84:

You can almost make the same weird circumflex by using combining diacritics. e, then inverted breve then circumflex. Doesn't seem to render properly with firefox at least --> ȇ̂ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.241|172.70.114.241]] 14:20, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
: U+2372 is a caret with a tilde through it: ⍲ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.251|108.162.245.251]] 14:45, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Would you like a crē̂pe? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.32|162.158.63.32]] 20:05, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:: I looked at a few more unicode things. I'm not too familiar with unicode; there are a few more down curves I think, but I didn't see any way to make it just like the image. I think wiki markup or an embedded image would probably do this best, and may be worthwhile if anybody's excited. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.32|162.158.63.32]] 20:05, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
::: The closest I can find is 🢕, which may render okay on desktop but not mobile as <table style="display: inline-table; line-height: 0.5em; vertical-align: 0.85em;"><tr><td style="font-size: 75%; text-align: center;">🢕 </td></tr><tr><td>crepe</td></tr></table> given that terrible table/css hackery that you'll regret looking at if you find this comment in wikitext. Someone with the patience to codepen up a three cell-tall table with varying font-size:s and line-height:s can probably overlay ∧ and ^ to get the exact shape, but I doubt it would be robustly cross-platform, and of course certainly not across arbitrary fonts, or worse, on mobile because we can't control viewport scaling in wikitext, because that's a head/meta tag. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.25|172.69.33.25]] 21:09, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
::::....does a {{w|Template:Ruby|ruby}} tag work in {{w|Template:Ruby-ja|wikicode}}?? because i see ''table'' in there and thats scary. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.241|172.70.114.241]] 14:52, 15 May 2022 (UTC)
::::: Presumably you tried it. Neither the template or the <nowiki><ruby></nowiki> tag works. Whoever came up with the stroke/fill approach had the right idea: <table style="display: inline-table; line-height: 0.1em; vertical-align: 0.65em;"><tr><td style="font-size: 20%; text-align: center;"><span style="text-fill-color: transparent; text-stroke: 0.5pt currentColor; -webkit-text-fill-color: transparent; -webkit-text-stroke: 0.5pt currentColor;">⮝  </span></td></tr><tr><td>crepe</td></tr></table> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 00:52, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

: Is it possible to vertically stretch a character? A combination of a "regular" circumflex and a vertically-stretched circumflex might work. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 18:41, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:: I didn't realise it was actually two circumflexes of different heights. This is pretty visible in the new picture. There might be a taller or shorter circumflex somewhere in unicode, but I think stretching would take mathml or something dunno. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.65|172.70.110.65]] 23:38, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the circumflex is not an "A" but more of a split-and-stretched delta, or an arrowhead. Maybe show a zoom-in of the circumflex (obviously from the 2x image) in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 14:47, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: Also, i noticed there are weird white dots past the corners of the border. They are even more visible in the 2x! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.163|108.162.221.163]] 14:50, 13 May 2022 (UTC)Bumpf
: A chevron, perchance? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.15|172.68.50.15]] 14:52, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Is it not also a play on "weird flex but OK"? https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/weird-flex-but-okay/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.11}}

IPA would be appreciated {{unsigned ip|172.70.110.241}}
: I would say the accepted online versions seem to work well for me:
:* US pronunciation: /kɹeɪp/ ("krayp")
:* UK possibilities: /kɹɛp/, /kɹeɪp/ ("krep" or "krayp")
:** For me, I'd use the former for food (e.g. "Crêpes Suzette") as a fairly direct loan from French,
:** But I'd say the latter for paper (the crinkly-tissue stuff)
:* Fr pronunciation: /kʁɛp/ ("krep", but with that funny French 'r'! ;) )
: YMMV, and possibly different regional British accents (or just who they learnt the terms from) might vary quite wildly. I'm not sure the average Brit truly understand French (typographic) accents. Though possibly we are more inclined to at least try ''something'' than your average American. :p [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.209|172.69.79.209]] 21:18, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:: In British English it's pronounced 'pancake'. ;o) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.248|162.158.158.248]] 08:19, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

It doesn't really look like an "A". It's more a hollow outline of a circumflex. You can see it more clearly in the 2x version. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.54.247|172.70.54.247]] 19:28, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

The crêpe itself is also in the shape of an accent. -JT {{unsigned ip|162.158.126.55}}

Is this a reference to the vandalism attacks? "crap" and "crêpe" are somewhat similar. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.27|172.70.178.27]] 23:16, 13 May 2022 (UTC)
:There tends to be no acknowledgement at all that Randall takes any notice of what goes on here at the moment. Despite the occasional suspicion that he deliberarely Nerd Snipes us with a comic that is particularly designe to be hard to document 'normally'. I'd say it's a pure co-inky-dink, personally. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 18:55, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
::I admit I have just such a slight suspicion for this very comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.25|172.69.33.25]] 21:11, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
If the circumflex is interpreted as a small capital A, it could be considered a form of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_character ruby text], phonetic characters used to transcribe logographic characters. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.38|172.68.189.38]] 19:21, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thought it is supposed to be some kind of combination of the 3 french accents? one aigu ´ and one grave `above a circonflexe ^ (in many fonts the first two are significantly steeper in my experience)? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.91|172.68.50.91]] 14:28, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

At first I thought it was related to this [https://www.reddit.com/r/linguisticshumor/comments/tfh2xn/new_nasal_dropped/ joke] since I've been seeing a few variations on it recently. But checking the dates makes it look like it wasn't *that* recently, so maybe not. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.50.84|162.158.50.84]] 22:28, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

== dots over letters ==

If, as the current version suggests, a diuretic is in fact a medicine to promote urin excretion, the title text might also refer to the practice of writing one's name in snow using urin and, having diurtetic-induced spare writing fuel, being forced to add diacritic symbols.

513: Friends

2022-05-04T01:31:42Z

162.158.50.84: Undo revision 235974 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 513
| date = December 5, 2008
| title = Friends
| image = friends.png
| titletext = Friends with detriments.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is talking to [[Megan]]. He confesses that he has a crush on her. Usually the next step in Western cultures, when someone likes someone else, is to ask the other person out (in other cultures, such as Islamic or Indian cultures, it would be more appropriate to request that one's parents contact the parents of the person one has a crush on). But Cueball takes a different route, and in the comic, he explains his thought process. Presumably he actually explains this to Megan.

He explains that he is afraid of rejection, and so instead of asking her out directly, promises to be her "best friend" and someone who is always "there for you," in the hopes that this will eventually lead to Megan developing an attraction for him. This way, Cueball does not have to risk Megan saying 'No' to him, as she will be led to make the first move instead. Cueball is aware that this may not be an ideal situation for Megan, conceding that she may end up changing her definition of happiness to make her feel more comfortable in the relationship, while she is conscious of the fact that she doesn't really love Cueball. Cueball recognizes that if Megan fell for him this way, she would probably have this fact at the back of her mind forever.

And so, after painting this elaborate - but troubling - future, Cueball asks ''sound good''? Megan, however, is not won over by Cueball's plan, and she tells him that she is going to date "this ''jerk''", poking fun at him saying 'I will tear down the jerks you date'. (Although she could have said any name here -- to Cueball it will always sound like ''jerk''!) This suggests that she would much rather date someone else rather than date Cueball whom she -- as he correctly implies -- does not love.

Cueball declares that the other suitor ''doesn't respect you'', an absurdly hypocritical comment given his manipulative plan. He explained earlier that he would ''tear down the jerks you date''; this last line could also be him actually executing on the plan he just detailed.

The title text is a play on the concept of ''friends with benefits'', wherein two friends have casual sex without entering a committed relationship. ''Friends with detriments'' suggests that having Cueball as her "friend" damages Megan's chances of getting a relationship (and sex) with anyone else, since Cueball will tear any candidate down. Also, despite Cueball claiming to be Megan's friend (and appearing to value this friendship), his plans are rather selfish and manipulative, making him a "friend" who is in fact detrimental.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Megan.]
:Cueball: I have a crush on you.

:[Cueball is shown alone.]
:Cueball: I could ask you out, and move on with my life if you said no.

:[Cueball has his arms out.]
:Cueball: Or,
:Cueball: <big>WE COULD BE FRIENDS!</big>

:[Cueball has one palm out.]
:Cueball: See, I don't want to consider that you might not be attracted to me. I'm scared of rejection, so I've decided relationships should grow smoothly out of friendships.

:[Megan is shown sitting at her computer.]
:Cueball: When you have problems, I'll be there for you, night after night.
:Cueball: Selflessly.
:Computer: *hug*

:[Megan is shown slamming a door and walking to Cueball to get a hug.]
:Cueball: I'll tear down the jerks you date, and wait for you to realize how good I am for you. That only <u>I</u> will ever understand you.
:''SLAM''
:Megan: ''Sniff''
:Cueball: There there

:[Cueball is shown alone again.]
:Cueball: You don't want to hurt my feelings, and I won't ever force the issue. I'll tell myself it's because I "value our friendship."

:[Again.]
:Cueball: Bit by bit, I'll make you depend on me.

:[Cueball and Megan are shown sitting on a rock in a park, reading a book together.]
:Cueball: You'll think about how long it would take to build this kind of connection again.

:[Cueball and Megan are shown sitting on a couch drinking, getting closer, and kissing.]
:Cueball: And in a moment of weakness
:Cueball: and loneliness
:Cueball: you'll give in.

:[Megan is shown sitting at the computer with Cueball behind her facing the other way washing dishes.]
:Cueball: It'll feel comfortable and natural. You'll quietly revise your definition of love and try to be happy. And sometimes you will be.

:[Megan is shown sitting at the computer.]
:Cueball: Only the wistfulness in your gaze and the tiny pause before you say "I love you" will hint that this wasn't the ending you'd hoped for.
:Cueball: Sound good?

:[Megan is holding hands with another boy, talking to Cueball.]
:Megan: ...I'm going to date this jerk.
:Cueball: But he doesn't respect you!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Sarcasm]]

2518: Lumpers and Splitters

2021-09-21T16:31:20Z

162.158.50.84: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2518
| date = September 20, 2021
| title = Lumpers and Splitters
| image = lumpers_and_splitters.png
| titletext = Anna Karenina is a happy family lumper and unhappy family splitter.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a FAT CATEGORIZATION META-PEDANT NAMED ANNA- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
It is common to categorize groups of people into certain categories. "Lumpers" group what might at first seem to be many distinct things into a small number of categories, while "Splitters" do the opposite: split what seems to be a cohesive group of things into many smaller categories.

The comic points out the meta-ness of categorizing people based on how they categorize. It labels [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] as those two types of categorizers. Megan, the lumper, describes herself and Cueball as both being "categorization pedants", lumping the two distinct categories "lumpers" and "splitters" into one. Cueball, the splitter, subcategorizes Megan into a more specific type of lumper: a "meta-lumper", since the things Megan was lumping includes lumpers themselves. If Cueball further categorized himself he would be a meta-splitter.

The title text references the opening line of the novel ''Anna Karenina'' by Leo Tolstoy which reads (as translated into English), “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Randall is drawing a parallel between this line and the lumper/splitter distinction because the line lumps one group of things together (happy families) while splitting another group (unhappy families).

Additionally, this may be a reference to "Lingthusiasm - Episode 60: That's the kind of episode it's - clitics", which was published a few days before the comic, wherein discussing the subject, the hosts separate people into clitic lumper and splitters.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are standing looking at each other. There are boxes beneath each of them with a label.]
:Megan: Really, we're both just categorization pedants.
:Label: Lumper

:Cueball: Ahh, so you're a '''''meta'''''-lumper.
:Label: Splitter

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

2496: Mine Captcha

2021-08-16T23:43:33Z

162.158.50.84: /* Explanation */ Captcha is unsolveable on its own terms

{{comic
| number = 2496
| date = July 30, 2021
| title = Mine Captcha
| image = mine_captcha.png
| titletext = This data is actually going into improving our self-driving car project, so hurry up--it's almost at the minefield.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LIVE MINEFIELD WITH HUGE NUMBER CUBES STREWN AROUND. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic, like [[1897: Self Driving]], references the approach of using human-entered {{w|CAPTCHA}} inputs to solve {{w|machine learning}} problems, particularly those involving image classification.

In order to prevent automated programs from using web services, Google offers a protection called {{w|reCAPTCHA}}, which performs various tests to see if a user is human or machine. (One of these tests is a "I'm not a robot" checkbox which must be checked in order to proceed, although ticking the box is merely a formality, and later versions of reCAPTCHA can simply perform the tests quietly in the background without needing user consent).

If the reCAPTCHA system suspects that the user may be an automated bot, it presents an image recognition challenge that only humans should be able to pass. This has the desired effect of denying access to robots, but it also has a side benefit that the human input can be used to train Google's image recognition software. The challenge usually features a square grid of images, typically things one might see while driving - eg. "check all squares containing a STOP SIGN". If the user clicks the correct squares, they are permitted to continue.

{{w|Minesweeper (video game)|Minesweeper}}, on the other hand, is a logic puzzle game in which the player is presented with a grid of unrevealed squares, and must deduce the location of mines that have been secretly hidden on random squares. The game provides clues by marking some squares with the number of mines (up to a maximum of 8) that are adjacent to that square; by carefully considering the possibilities, a player can deduce which squares must contain mines, and mark them with flags to avoid clicking on them. Revealing a mine loses the game.

In this comic, Randall combines the two concepts to create a "Mine Captcha", which is presented in the form of a reCAPTCHA challenge but is actually appears to be a mini game of Minesweeper. (To be more precise, it is actually the opposite of regular Minesweeper, since the challenge invites the user to click on the mines - in Minesweeper, you are supposed to ''not'' click the mines. Furthermore, on its own terms it is unsolveable as a reCAPTCHA, since the user is asked to click on all ''pictures'' of mines. However, as in the real Minesweeper, there are no pictures of mines displayed (in Minesweeper, these only appear when the game is over). Taking the game as playable, however, in both cases you still need to know where the mines are, so it is still solved the same way).

A real-world Mine Captcha would be somewhat ineffective for a variety of reasons. Firstly, not every human would recognize a game of Minesweeper and therefore wouldn't understand what they are being asked to do. Even if they do recognize the game, they may not know the logical method for deducing the locations of mines. Additionally, even for skilled players, there is a trap in that the Captcha's objective is the reverse of regular Minesweeper; they might therefore get tripped up by muscle memory and click on something that is not a mine, which would fail the challenge.

Another issue is that games of Minesweeper can sometimes involve a degree of luck, as it is possible to generate a puzzle which does not give sufficient information to unambiguously deduce the location of every mine. In these situations, the most a player can do is click the uncertain square and hope for the best. If the Mine Captcha is poorly implemented in this way, this would increase false negatives in human detection due to some humans failing the captcha purely due to bad luck. (Some variants attempt to eliminate this problem: ''[https://pragmada.x10hosting.com/mindet.html Mine Detector]'', for example, is a variant game which provides better information, such that it's almost always solvable without guessing except at the highest difficulty level).

Finally, a Mine Captcha would actually be fairly easy for an AI to solve, since it is a logic puzzle - as long as the AI can read the numbers, it can simply use an algorithm to eliminate all impossibilities until it has the correct answer. (Indeed, for a 4x4 grid, it's even easier than that; a computer could quickly brute-force the problem by trying every possible arrangement of mines until it has the correct one).

It seems that Randall predicted that an AI might try to solve the captcha itself, as he rendered each numeral in a different style; this is similar to obfuscation methods used in text-based captchas to prevent automatic text recognition software from reading the captcha. However, it would not be very effective in this case as the same numbers have the same color; an AI could simply recognize the color instead, which is even easier than trying to read a number.

The title text is similar to [[1897: Self Driving]] where the CAPTCHA solver is asked to answer quickly, implying that the training data is actually a real-world situation being experienced by a self-driving vehicle at that very moment. The joke here is that real-life minefields do not have large numbers indicating which of the surrounding land contains mines{{citation needed}}.

==Solving the Mine Captcha==
Assuming that columns are denoted by letters A, B, C, D, and rows are denoted by 1, 2, 3, 4, one way to solve the captcha is as follows:

The leftmost red 3 at A3 is surrounded by four squares (A2, B2, B3, A4), of which we know three are mines. Therefore, one of these squares is not a mine. However, because of the blue 1 at B4, we know that only one of B3 and A4 can be a mine; therefore, '''A2''' and '''B2''' ''must'' be mines.

Since A1 is a green 2 and is next to two squares that we now know are mines, this means that B1 is ''not'' a mine. Furthermore, since there is a blue 1 at C1, and we know that the adjacent B2 is a mine, this means that D1 and D2 are ''not'' mines.

We also know that C3 and C4 are ''not'' mines, since we already determined that the blue 1 at B4 is next to at least one mine (on either B3 or A4). Since this eliminates two of the three possible neighbors of the blue 1 at D4, this means that '''D3''' ''must'' be a mine.

Finally, since we now know the locations of two of the mines around the red 3 at C2, and we have eliminated all other possibilities, '''B3''' ''must'' be a mine. Therefore, the mines are at '''A2''', '''B2''', '''B3''', and '''D3'''. This solves the puzzle.

==Transcript==
:[A Minesweeper game in a 4x4 grid is shown beneath a blue rectangle. There is an explanation in white text in the blue field:]
:To proceed, click all the pictures of '''<big>Mines</big>'''

:[The ''Minesweeper'' field has six cells with revealed numbers on a light gray background. The other 10 fields are empty and dark gray. The three ones are blue, the single two are green and the two threes are red. On top of this each number is drawn in a different font/style. The ones changes how bold they are. The two is drawn in a 3D format, the one three is very thin and the other is drawn with two lines and no filling in between (hollow). The grid looks like this:]

<font color="green">2</font> . <font color="blue">1</font> .
. . <font color="red">3</font> .
<font color="red">3</font> . . .
. <font color="blue">1</font> . <font color="blue">1</font>

==Trivia==
*The solved version of the puzzle showing where the mines are in this comic, and thus the fields that needs to be pushed in this Captcha to prove you are human:
:[[File:2946_Mine_Captcha_With_Bombs.png]]
*The solved puzzle as it would look if played as a real minesweeper game, except the mines would be represented by flags. (The empty square top right corner has 0 bombs next to it. This is not written in the game but indicated as this field has been pushed down):
:[[File:2946_Mine_Captcha_Solved.png]]
*The original game can be played here: [https://minesweeper.online/ World of Minesweeper]
**It is possible to build a 4x4 CAPTCHA game there:
:[[File:2946_Mine_Captcha_Example_of_4x4_game.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:CAPTCHA]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]