explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3074: Push Notifications

2025-04-10T16:33:35Z

162.158.63.41:

So...this is the April Fool's comic, if I'm not mistaken... Oh ye of little faith! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.106|172.71.26.106]] 20:00, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I turned this on thinking it would just be a few every so often but I quickly realized how this is xkcd and it doesn't "joke". I had to turn this off because it disrupted my schoolwork by popping up every fricking 5 minutes{{unsigned|Moss|20:22, 9 April 2025 (UTC)}}
: Personally, I'm disappointed by how long I have to wait between notifications. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.32|172.71.178.32]] 15:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently my employer (or ublock) is keeping me from experiencing the full effect of any notifications. All I get is "An *actual* error has occurred. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.173|162.158.91.173]] 20:52, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, I'm confused too. I've tried Chrome and got nothing. I've tried Edge and got effectively nothing. I progressed one message further, but nothing showed up. No notifications, popups, or whatever. And I have never installed an add-on for Edge. Edge did give me access to the game over screen by disabling notifications, but when I tried to re-enable them, nothing happened.
:Is this a mobile-only thing? [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:I'm having the same issue. Firefox doesn't work, which I understand, but neither does Safari. I haven't gotten a single notification. [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 06:57, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::Problem solved! Turns out I *was* getting notifications, I just wasn't seeing them. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

What the heck are the "Zoom Notification" ones, with just a pair of numbers? Now that I've been sitting with this for a little bit, they're by far the most common notifications, and the most mysterious. What is "zoom"ing or should be zoomed-in-on or whatever, and what do the two numbers signify? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.75|172.68.22.75]] 20:35, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I think they're coordinates. So far (x,y) has had x from 4 fo 73 (that I've seen) and y from 2 to 28. That gives a tad over 2000 possible combinations, but omething tells me there won't be more than 500 or so in total. Quite a few y=24 (not yet adjacent by x), and any given x has 0 to 3 different y partners (so far). They ''do'' repeat (I'm not recording how many times, but I'm scatterplotting what I get). The ones prefixed with "oh look!" are tightly clustered in x=6..13 and y=4..11, so far, with no non-"oh look!" ones there, so I'm plotting them in a different marker. I ''suspect'', after many many more Zoom Notifications, I'll be left with (enough of) a pixelated image's pixels (of two types, background colour excluded), or else I'm doing it wrong and I should be drawing lines between the dots, but I never managed to grab them all, so I'm relying on it being a random "spraygun droplets" sort of image-reveal. (Still some way to go...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.66|172.71.241.66]] 23:08, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: Also, Zoom is a video chat app, if you didn't know that. That's the joke. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:"They're by far the most common" - not for me - I got a couple early on, and nothing since. All I'm getting now (apart from cat ones when I click a cat) is constant 'comment and subscribe' ones.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.28|172.71.178.28]] 16:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Made a new page called [[3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications]], much like [[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks]]. I’m hoping that we can put all of the possible notifications into the table, along with any possible images that go along with it and an explanation (if necessary). '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:26, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I think it might be a good idea to make the table something more like source/name/notification, because there are chains of notifications where the name changes, like the How Many Times Can You Click This? notification. --[[User:Magicalus|Magicalus]] ([[User talk:Magicalus|talk]]) 23:19, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
::Might even want to track the URL that the notification leads to in the cases where it opens a new tab. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.57|172.71.142.57]]
:Did you mean a page much like [[1506:_xkcloud/List_of_Permalinks]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.175.171|162.158.175.171]] 01:25, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: Weird, someone changed that. I just reverted it. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 02:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

It's like herding LOLcats... anyone else remembering the Secretary arc about now? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.2|172.71.142.2]] 16:12, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, the user {{diff|371988|behind this change}} appears to have a keyboard->leopard sort of autochanger active (for cloud->butt) (unless they're deliberately doing it alongside deliberate changes to try to get it under the radar?)... I reverted something else they did, with the intention to check everything else (in Right Click's explanation) and unreverting the actually good changes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 08:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I clicked on the silence notifications at a cost button a lot and it set Cueball's PC on fire?

I found what is presumably the source code (?) of the comic through the transcript. It’s all JS pages. No idea what they mean (I’m not good with code), but I’m sure that there are some on here that can help dissect it. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:50, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/manifest.json
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/42.4f5b21b3.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/index.js?v=1

: I found this list of states in there, saved to the "iU" variable: intro, wordgame, gameover, biglaptop, boat, default, floating, longdesk, missing, nekotree, nekotree2, nekowater, nodesk, onfire, peek, shark, spinning, squirrel, squirreldesk, squirrelplant, standing, sword, tallchair, tentacle, water, wizard, bigplant, catchair, catonhead, compiling, floor, plant, reverse. Presumably, this is all the images we're looking for. I'll get back to you if I identify what chooses them or all their actual filepaths. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 00:43, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

: I found more urls:
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/marconi-sw.e9d36d05.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.45|172.69.23.45]] 03:11, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I have a sneaking suspicion the Zoom Notifications are sketching out an image of some sort
(Update: after plotting like 60 of them no apparent pattern is to be found) [[User:SkiesShaper|SkiesShaper]] ([[User talk:SkiesShaper|talk]]) 22:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: I've plotted 397 and it seems to be forming some kind of animal. Maybe a cat, given the comic theme? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.119|172.68.35.119]] 23:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:That could make sense yeah - there is definitely an organic sort of pattern emerging from the points I've been plotting out [[User:SkiesShaper|SkiesShaper]] ([[User talk:SkiesShaper|talk]]) 00:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: I'm pretty sure it's a turtle. I have 311 points so far and while it isn't clear, it looks like a turtle. [[User:IMW|IMW]] ([[User talk:IMW|talk]]) 01:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: After plotting more I think the "Oh look" coordinates help with drawing out a butterfly sitting on the left side of the turtle. [[User:IMW|IMW]] ([[User talk:IMW|talk]]) 03:36, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: I also am seeing a turtle after graphing the non-“Oh look” ones (and flipping the image vertically). Could the “Zoom notifications” be a reference to [[1416: Pixels]], which is about “zooming” in on turtles? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.12.119|172.68.12.119]] 12:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::: Is it fractal? If you zoom in, is it turtles all the way down? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.43|172.68.186.43]] 14:15, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: when the image is saved, it appears to have a hex code as a file name. could be some other thing though [[User:Pncak|Pncak]] ([[User talk:Pncak|talk]]) 04:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently one of the notifications is: "The Earth is spinning at a rate of 1 rpd" This is true if you round it, but not exact. The time it takes to rotate is called a sidereal day, and there's one extra sidereal day a year. Basically, there's one solar day removed in a year, because the Earth's motion around the sun cancels it out. Think of it with a tidally locked planet. It spins around once a year, but the sun never moves. Really there's 1.0027379 rotations per day. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 23:02, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: then it is rotating at 1 revolution per ''sidereal'' day, which could still be written as 1 rpd [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 05:23, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

This is the most chaotic comic I've seen in a while. Part of me wants to keep notifications on to see what happens, and part of me wants to turn it all off and throw my phone in a lake [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 00:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I am making a sheet with the cordinates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133jGfOM6EVuEco4j2NumOAOv6pEealyZpbDoMkESXvs/edit?usp=sharing [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.81|108.162.216.81]] 01:31, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Should we start uploading different images? [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:48, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: And should we create a new page for the images or put them all on the same page, like with umwelt. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Underneath the "Silence Notifications at a Cost" button, it says "Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people". Does anyone know how for how long notifications stay silenced, or if there is a way to "unsilence" notifications? Also, when I click on the cats they just disappear. [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 04:09, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: When I click on the cats I get a push notification with a cat fact.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.58|172.70.127.58]] 05:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
Just like any other button, you can click it really fast by clicking the button and then holding "enter" or spacebar. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 04:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Someone should probably comment on "April 1st (observed)". I assume it's a reference to the fact that the comic is late? --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Aye, as in: {{wiktionary|observed}} #2 [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 08:02, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Is it morally wrong to spam the temporary silence button, just because I want to give other people notifications? [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 08:01, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Notifications are so 2024. Ever since Trump imposed the penguin tariffs, <tt>dmesg</tt> is where it's at. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.126|162.158.91.126]] 09:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Finally yay!! [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!|Aprilfoolsupdate!]] ([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 10:28, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Where have ''you'' been? ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.160|172.71.178.160]] 10:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I got the file for "Cueball sitting at his desk, with a cat in the foreground near the point of view.", what do I do to add it :⁾ [[User:Toby|Toby]] ([[User talk:Toby|talk]]) 13:24, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:upload it if you can (with the exact file name from imgs.xkcd.com), or copy paste the link here and someone else with uploading rights can upload it. the upload button should be under tools in the left side, under related changes and above special changes. or, you can click this [[Special:Upload|link]] '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:29, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

If you refresh the screen when a clickable cat is on it, it moves. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.173|162.158.62.173]] 14:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I revieved two typos in two different notifications:
"Or" is "r" in a message saying that it's confused whether is is fhe server or the client.
"Ratio" is "ration" in the message "At the tone, the Golden Ratio will be equal to one half of 1 plus SQRT(5)".
Does everyone get those typos? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.16|172.70.34.16]]

I don't know if they're typos or part of the humor. Enjoy your golden ration. :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.41|162.158.63.41]] 16:33, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

3072: Stargazing 4

2025-04-06T19:30:59Z

162.158.63.41: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3072
| date = April 4, 2025
| title = Stargazing 4
| image = stargazing_4_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x386px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We haven't actually seen a star fall in since we invented telescopes, but I have a list of ones I'm really hoping are next.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 1-STAR YELP REVIEW. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the fourth comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series, and it followed [[2274: Stargazing 3]] that came out five years before. That was the longest stretch between two comics in the series so far.

The host [[Megan]] begins the introduction by referencing rude {{w|Yelp}} reviews of her stargazing lessons. The reviewers doubt that she is actually a qualified astronomer due to how simplistic her lessons are; they claim she is just saying the words that come to mind. She passes these people off as people who "hate cool space facts"

Then she states that there are over 20 stars in the sky and some of them are over the age of 100. Both of these statements are true, but extreme understatements.
*A few thousand stars are visible to the unaided eye under good viewing conditions, though in a city there ''could'' be less than 20 stars visible even on a clear night.
:For a normal stargazing session the event should be held in a venue with as little light pollution as possible, which could mean the middle of an urban green space, conveniently away from lighting or else specially arranging for the most inconvenient lighting to be off for the duration.
:However, given the unprofessional nature of Megan's lessons, there is no guarantee that this session does not take place under less than ideal circumstances. Or she is perpetually unlucky as [[1556: The Sky|daylight or clouds]] may further reduce visible stars.
:Ignoring the need for visibility entirely, it is also estimated that there are about 200 sextillion (i.e. 2x1023) stars in the universe. Of which around a half would be somewhere 'in the sky' at any given moment.
*Stars are typically billions of years old. While new stars are being created in nebulae all the time, it is extremely unlikely that we are seeing the nebulous start of even the shortest lived stars within the first century of their life.
:One of the 'youngest' potential candidates is {{w|SN 1987A}}, which may be a neutron star of less than 40 years old. But that is discounting the additional age it has acquired from it being approximately 168,000 light years away from us (making it actually 168,038(ish) years old, already). It is further undermined by arguably just being the next stage of life of the far older star that had to go supernova in order to leave it behind.
:Of stars within 100 lightyears of Earth, and formed afresh from interstellar material, {{w|AU Microscopii}} is slightly over 30 lightyears away and considered to be very new (as far as stars go). But it is still 22 ''million'' years old, as it is currently understood.

Megan states that our galaxy is huge and that there are more grains of sand in the {{w|Milky Way}} than grains of sand on all of Earth's beaches. This is a parody of the common saying that there are more stars in the visible universe than grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth. Since the Earth's sand is a subset of all of the galaxy's sand, and there are more planets with sand other than Earth (such as Mars), there are unquestionably more grains of sand in the Milky Way than on Earth. Tangentially, it is unclear whether the stars outnumber Earth's sands, as shown here: [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-stars-outnumber-the-sands-of-earths-beaches/ Do Stars Outnumber the Sands of Earth’s Beaches?] and here: [https://www.astronomy.com/science/the-ever-lasting-question-more-sand-or-stars/ The ever-lasting question: more sand or stars?]. Also, the original quote was all the sand on Earth, not just on the beaches. Megan adds a helpful hint, calling a beach a big wet sandbox.

She then finishes the lesson by correctly saying that there is a black hole in the center of our galaxy ({{w|Sagittarius A*}}), and that stars sometimes fall in and get consumed by the black hole. When stars come too close to black holes, they experience a {{w|tidal disruption event}} (TDE), where a star is pulled apart by the black hole after exceeding its tidal radius, or {{w|Roche limit}}. This creates streams of material that orbits the black hole and forms an accretion disk, that will eventually be consumed by the black hole or ejected in jets.

She adds her personal opinion on this fact saying that such events are "hilarious" and proceeds by saying that it's okay to laugh at the fate of those stars as the gravity of the black hole will prevent any signals from those stars escaping. This is due to black holes' immense gravitational attraction that prevents even light from escaping. In Megan's case the most important consequence of this fact is that anyone on planets around such stars cannot leave Yelp reviews if they hear her laughing. Thus, they cannot add to those that mock her lesson.

However, as the Roche limit of a black hole for the average star it's consuming is usually greater than its {{w|Schwarzschild radius}}, reviews made just after the star begins spaghettification could still escape the black hole. Not only do stars not use any kind of human-made technology,{{citation needed}} but any information regarding the app Yelp has yet to reach any star near Sagittarius A*, and will only reach it in 27 thousand years. It is much more likely that someone living on one of the star's planets would try to leave a comment on Yelp, not the star itself. But the same issues with distances would of course apply. It also seems unlikely that any planet would still be following a star when it first gets that close to a super massive black hole.

In the title text Megan claims that we haven't actually seen a star fall into a black hole (or ''the'' black hole that she is describing) since we invented telescopes. In reality, over a hundred TDEs have been discovered in a variety of wavelengths, including by the Hubble telescope. The way title text is phrased though she might have meant fall into specifically Sagittarius A*, and while it is true that we haven't observed any star fall into our closest supermassive black hole, the {{w|Sagittarius_A*#Discovery_of_G2_gas_cloud_on_an_accretion_course|G2 gas cloud on an accretion course}} was discovered in 2002. Megan also apparently has a list of stars she would like to see fall into the black hole. But she can keep hoping as humans at this time have no way of changing the position of any star, and probably couldn't implement it soon upon such distant stars, even if were possible. So unless she is hoping for one (or more) of the already closer stars to be observed to fall in next, she is unlikely to experience success based on her list.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[The background is black, Megan is in front of three others, Cueball and Ponytail to the left, and White Hat to the right. Megan is drawn in white while the background characters are in grey.]
:Megan: Welcome back to Stargazing.
:Megan: According to some ''incredibly'' rude Yelp reviews, I'm "not informative" and "can't possibly be an astronomer" and "just kind of say words as they occur to me."
:Megan: I guess some losers just hate cool space facts!

:[The sky is white, the floor is black, Megan is pointing at the sky. Hairy, a Megan-like woman (with a longer hair), Cueball, and Ponytail are on the left, White Hat and Hairbun are on the right. All of the characters are drawn in black.]
:Megan: Anyway, that dot is a "star."
:Megan: There are over 20 stars in the sky, and some of them are more than 100 years old.

:[The background is black again, the panel zooms in on Megan's face.]
:Megan: Our galaxy is huge.
:Megan: You know the beach? That big wet sandbox?
:Megan: Well, there are more grains of sand in the Milky Way than in all Earth's beaches combined.
:Off-panel voice to the left: Wow.
:Off-panel voice to the right: ...Wait.

:[The background is still in black, Megan is in front of others and has her finger raised, Ponytail is left of Megan, White Hat and Hairbun on the right. Megan is again drawn in white while the background characters are in grey.]
:Megan: The galaxy has a black hole at the center.
:Megan: Sometimes stars fall in, which is ''hilarious''.
:Megan: Don't worry, it's okay to laugh. The gravity prevents signals from escaping, so they can't leave Yelp reviews.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]