explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1130: Poll Watching

2021-01-06T00:58:27Z

162.158.6.128:

The "failing to see big picture" probably parodies someone too. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:49, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Hope I'm doing this right - anyway, maybe I'm misreading this entry, but I think the whole point of this comic is that he has his cause and effect priorities completely reversed - he's more concerned about how the outcome of the election will affect the tracking polls and that entire process rather than, as with most people, merely using tracking polls to predict the election results. -- Greg

: You're quite right, and I'll add a paragraph to that effect. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 15:35, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Ironically, in 2016, the Tuesday results did not actually affect [http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/ the FiveThirtyEight forecast] - it still shows up as 71.4% Clinton today. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.39|172.68.11.39]] 08:46, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

...Then there was the 2020 US election, rendering this comic more prophetic and disturbing than it should be... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.6.128|162.158.6.128]] 00:58, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1072: Seventies

2020-12-22T20:44:20Z

162.158.6.128:

Can someone comment on the S-es in image's title text? I can read it, but don't know what they mean. Probably some old spelling.

Done [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 16:52, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

Answering machines certainly had been invented by the 1970s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answering_machine). The first practical commercial models started appearing in the 1960s and I had one that used an endless reel of magnetic tape in the 70s. [[User:Jonat|Jonat]] ([[User talk:Jonat|talk]]) 16:20, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Touch tone phones were certainly around in 1974, although dial phones were still prevalent. Touch Tone dialing was introduced in the late 60s (it was a sufficient novelty that if you visited someone with TouchTone, they'd show it off) The "press 1" aspect came much later, with automatic voice response (AVR) systems, probably mid 80s, although dial phones were still in use ("or wait to be connected to an operator"). As noted by Jonat, answering machines with cassettes, loops, or reel to reel tapes were quite common in the 70s, as a result of the Carterfone decision allowing interconnection to the public switched system in the US.[[Special:Contributions/71.177.151.10|71.177.151.10]] 04:56, 22 January 2013 (UTC)Jim Lux

I've never encountered those "press 1 to leave a message"-type answering machines, only ones where it says: "[person you wanted to call] is not available at this moment. Please leave a message after the beep. *beep*". Maybe it's a US thing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.223|108.162.231.223]] 11:59, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

: Most voicemail systems here in the US, you just leave a message after the beep, and press 1 at the end for more options afterward before sending your message (e.g., to delete it and re-record). Some answering machines, though, (like the one on my landline) let a caller choose from several mailboxes by pressing a mailbox number during the outgoing message (e.g., "To leave a message for Aaron, press 1. To leave a message for Bob, press 2."). Most likely, Randall's just [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny taking a small liberty to make the joke work]. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 20:20, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
:: I've used a dial phone on those sorts of machines. Dialing "1" (or whatever number it was) worked fine, surprisingly. But evidently the person on the other end of the phone is baffled, and hasn't tried the obvious. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.6.128|162.158.6.128]] 20:44, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Why does [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1072:_Seventies&oldid=62864 this revision] say he has an incredulous look on his face, when he doesn't have a face? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 03:04, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
: I've seen many incredulous chins in my time, and that chin reeks of incredulity. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 22:45, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

Anyone care to comment on why the alttext starts the quote with a single quote (UK-style, "'") and ends with a double (US-style, '"')? Was that a thing in the 17th century? [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 00:57, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

The image file seems to be missing here. Can someone look into it? [[User:RamenChef|RamenChef]] ([[User talk:RamenChef|talk]]) 13:39, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks for bringing this up. The picture was removed in 2012. Maybe copyright.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:41, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1071: Exoplanets

2020-12-22T20:41:30Z

162.158.6.128:

Hmm... this comic and 786 have the same title. Is that a mistake? [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 01:07, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
:It may very well have been on {{xkcd}} itself; there was a bit of a snafu when Randall posted the image. That's part of the reason why we decided on number+name here, to ensure that that sort of naming collision couldn't be repeated. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 04:39, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
:It's also worth mentioning that 786 is both the number of the other strip, and the number of planets in this one. [[Special:Contributions/93.144.215.90|93.144.215.90]] 22:38, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

The image isn't appearing for me. I think it's a problem with the thumbnail system. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 18:15, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
:Same here. Using Chrome. -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:20, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
Same on ipad. [[User:DruidDriver|DruidDriver]] ([[User talk:DruidDriver|talk]]) 07:12, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

And on Firefox. --[[Special:Contributions/68.200.188.141|68.200.188.141]] 01:01, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Not showing up in Chrome. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 23:14, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

As a side note, the pace at which we're discovering exoplanets is accelerating. The first confirmed planet-sized mass outside our solar system was discovered in 1992, and it was ten years until we could celebrate the discovery of the 100th exoplanet. In the fifteen months since this comic was posted, another 156 exoplanets have been discovered (source: Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, which lists 942 exoplanets as of 2 Sep 2013). [[User:Frijole|Frijole]] ([[User talk:Frijole|talk]]) 22:41, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

There are 786 exoplanets listed in the comic, And the previous comic about exoplanets is comic 786..... Coincidence? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.44|108.162.222.44]] 08:58, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
:I think it's possible that he was waiting for the count to increase to that number to create some sort of meta-pun. With Randall, you never know, but the odds of that happening independently seems unfathomable to me. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.117|108.162.238.117]] 16:12, 4 December 2013 (UTC)
:Additional comment: I believe the original filename for 768 was just "exoplanets.png" before being changed to "exoplanets_2010.png" when this comic was released. Any website that hotlinked the first comic would have their image replaced with the newest one. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.117}}

Does anybody else see this and think colorblindness test? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.86|173.245.55.86]] 22:43, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
: Absolutely. Saw this from across the room (sometimes my machine takes a while to load) and thought it was a colourblindness statement rather than a planetary one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.6.128|162.158.6.128]] 20:41, 22 December 2020 (UTC)
: Three levels deep.. Remind anyone of Inception?[[User:A2658742|A2658742]] ([[User talk:A2658742|talk]]) 08:36, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

This comic is referenced on exoplanet.eu, a professional site for exoplanet scientists, as the first link on a page titled "General professional Web sites relevant to extrasolar planets". The actual link goes to an interactive version of the page, but the link is at http://exoplanet.eu/sites/ labeled "Exoplanets: an interactive version of XKCD 1071".
The actual interactive page is http://codementum.org/exoplanets/ .
N. Kalanaga 13:58 (UTC-4) 10 April 2016

Was it actually 786 exoplanets known back then, or 786 planets including both the exoplanets and our own solar system? I would read the caption the latter way. This would make the number of exoplanets 778, like they also count it [https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jun/21/space-exoplanets-graphic-visualisation here] and [https://futurism.com/xkcd-planet-graphic-and-the-number-of-exoplanets/ here], while this explanation here mentions 786 exoplanets several times. --[[User:YMS|YMS]] ([[User talk:YMS|talk]]) 09:25, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
:I could count them, but... I don't really feel like spending ~4 minutes straight on counting dots. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.123|172.69.54.123]] 10:26, 29 March 2018 (UTC)