explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2470: Next Slide Please

2021-06-07T05:34:24Z

162.158.92.208:

What the hell was Randall been doing for the past week that made this comic come to mind? He must have attended the world's worst seminar. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.74|172.69.69.74]] 23:32, 31 May 2021 (UTC)
:He couldn't have, he's been [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Banned_from_conferences banned] from them all. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 23:53, 31 May 2021 (UTC)
:Well in my company right now it is even worse with "next slide please" when people share a presentation as they cannot use gestures or something like that to signal the person controlling the slideshow. So I took it initaially not as a jab at seminars/conferences/etc. but online meetings. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:05, 1 June 2021 (UTC)
:Here in the UK, it is 'famous' from the COVID Briefings from Downing Street (not to further drag this into the Pandemic set of comics, of course) where it just looks like they couldn't afford a 'clicker' for (each?) expert/politician bringing visuals to the press conference. (Then they spent millions on a new 'Presidential-style briefing room', but no idea if they'd still need to 'NSP' off-podium due to it being abandoned before it got used.) Which makes for some unintentional satire.
:((But I admit I laughed most for the Latin insertion, regardless of 141.101.98.94's comment below.)) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.30|141.101.98.30]] 09:47, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

I'm picturing this comic not just as computer slides, but also as birthday cards - those that have a message on the outside and a twist when you open the card. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.102.181|172.68.102.181]] 00:45, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

I was confused about why the "next slide" for "Veni, Vidi, Vici" was in Latin but not "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, etc". Then I remembred the latter was actually from Shakespeare. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 04:54, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Pretty sure that in the last one "pictura proxima" should be in the accusative case, as the object of an implied verb "da" (give). As it stands, it means "please, there is a next slide" which is weird. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.94|141.101.98.94]] 07:46, 1 June 2021 (UTC)
:Velim is closer to "I would like" the colloquial way a roman would say please is "amabo te" (I will love you) what's weird is that there's a comma splice. This should be picturam proxima velim; "I would like the next picture". Although, giving it some more thought it's probably intentionally done to keep the alliteration while also being just as stilted; "I Came. I Saw. I Would Like, the next picture. I Conquered." Imagine someone reading that with the same tone an inflection.--[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 20:57, 1 June 2021 (UTC)
:"proxima" seems misplaced: that's "nearest" not next, like Proxima Centauri. Probably should have used "postera" instead.
:Proxima can also mean next as in "the next in a sequence" and picturam postera seems a little odd to me, I know it also means next but it doesn't seem like it would be used in this context. In a way it seems later in the sequence than proxima, as if you are saying "the slide after the next slide" --[[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 15:55, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Shall we add the fact that Winston Churchill's speech is also referenced in [https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1148:_Nothing_to_Offer 1148]? [[User:Kvarts314|Kvarts314]] ([[User talk:Kvarts314|talk]]) 07:48, 1 June 2021 (UTC)
:Yes. Done. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:09, 1 June 2021 (UTC)
:On Churchill's (other) quote, the third-column suggests the 'beeches' should be either Dunkirk or Normandy/other Allied landings. But at that point in time it was expected that, France having been effectively los, it would imminently be an ''Axis'' landing on British soil (that did not happen, except for the Channel Islands). The beeches of Britain; the landing grounds of (alongside the aforementioned amphibious options) paratroopers and/or gliders; conflict in fields, in towns and either strategic or guerilla resistance fighting from the geological high ground.
:The image he was trying to convey would be the beeches probably not too dissimilar to the merry 'resort' depiction (sharing with fishing and shipping ports a propensity of not being too difficult to gain a physically useful beach-head, once opposition had been suppressed, rather than cliffs, marshes, etc), which the images from the interbellum would have been recognisably similar to the 'joke' slide (though probably in sepia, or hand-colourised).
:Of course, all these places would by then be well on the way to being studded with tank-traps, landmines, barbed wire and sandbagged/pillboxed defensive positions, and whatever other emplacements the engineers could devise. But compatively few non-locals would have been to the sea-side between the prior September and the pre-Summer months as the situation had drastically worsened (and the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940/etc reshaped life), so the average listener probably would still harbour memories of their experiences as holidaymakers and only be exposed to select patriotically-framed newsreel footage of how the plucky coastdwellers were 'doing their bit' to help secure the nation, For The Duration.
:Just to insert some reality into this, for those who at this point in history had both less or ''more'' conflict on their home soil. Obviously the image of Der Mauer is fairly accurate to the real thing (or at least the bits that I saw, and just one of the layers-in-depth) but I get the impression that most of the indicated imminent slides are (at best) clip-arty/figurative illustrations.
:The "blood", "tears" and "sweat" might be easier to literally show than "fear (itself)", etc, but I can't imagine they'd be too much more sophisticated than a generic photostock of fairly abstract scenarios merely tagged as portraying the bodily fluids concerned. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.38|141.101.98.38]] 02:14, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Just for the record they actually had slide projectors during the Civil War. There's beautiful photographs and film negatives from that Era. Some of them are even in color using a method where colored lenses are placed in front of the camera and multiple pictures are taken. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.167|172.69.68.167]] 18:49, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Should we be using emdash, endash, or double-hyphen? The alt text uses double-hyphen, but if the rest were put into a slide-show, presumably Powerpoint, they would be converted to emdash, right? 21:02, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Wow! all these people throughout history have chosen terrible points to place their slide transitions: all mid-sentence.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.178|172.69.71.178]] 16:09, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Regarding fake moon landing, I remember a comics (probably not XKCD, though) where the landing was totally staged ... but still filmed on moon, next to big city. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:45, 2 June 2021 (UTC)
:Everyone knows that because of the threat of Moon Nazis, they had to use a special filter when they filmed them in the desert... of Mars! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.30|141.101.98.30]] 02:21, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

One that kind of makes sense in my opinion, is, "So you have chosen -- next slide, please -- DEATH!" [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.211|172.69.35.211]] 00:50, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

The title text maybe a pun, since the word 'slide' could also refer to a microscope slide, which is often a square glass piece used to bear the sample we want to examine. send by Temporal [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.208|162.158.92.208]] 05:34, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2309: X

2020-05-21T08:02:26Z

162.158.92.208:

id certainly use that language lol ([[User talk:172.69.70.101|172.69.70.101]])

-- haXkell is a X-based dialect of haskell 
X :: Integer -> Integer 
X 0 = 1 
X X = X * X (X-1) 
[[User:Capncanuck|Capncanuck]] ([[User talk:Capncanuck|talk]]) 02:35, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

https://esolangs.org/wiki/X isn't taken. --[[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 02:40, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Some unique looking variable names would be X and x in the fonts Webdings, Wingdings, Wingdings 2, and Wingdings 3. 
They are respectively as follows: 
X
x
X
x
X
x
X
x --[[User:Dstrube|Dstrube]] ([[User talk:Dstrube|talk]]) 02:49, 21 May 2020 (UTC) 

As well as esolangs, among which I would consider the likes of Whitespace and b****fuck as potential inspirations, I think I'm also minded of TempleOS and its creator as vaguer but possibly still related influences... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.163|162.158.158.163]] 03:28, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

I added an explanation of what a variable is and why it's bad to have every one named X. It's pretty rudimentary though, hope someone more experienced than me will improve it. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Goodbye, world!]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 04:39, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Psh you're all chicken. Chicken chicken chicken.

[[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/677507038607048704/706860858587873310/ShapeLikeItSelf_img1.png?width=282&height=209 Language where you can have return keyword in a if condition]],
[[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/677507038607048704/712914169774735441/unknown.png?width=292&height=103 Language that uses unicode symbols for built_in operators]],
[[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/677507038607048704/712915431446282240/unknown.png?width=396&height=379 Language, I have no words to describe]],
and this this '''X''' thing is winning so far...
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.139|162.158.89.139]] 06:35, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

:Yeah, but C++ does that shit either '''unintentionally''' or '''at user demand''' (although, to be clear, I'm not saying it's any good; C++ and Java are possibly the worst programming languages in terms of shoddy design). The X programming language is just the designer being an asshole. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.205|172.68.189.205]] 07:04, 21 May 2020 (UTC)
::Those links have nothing to do with C++/Java and you can Not do those things in C++ or Java (except an if in an assignment).[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.208|162.158.92.208]] 08:02, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Did Randall refer to this comic? https://xkcd.com/1537/
I vaguely remember another one about an esoteric language. Is there a category of programming languages on explainxkcd?

2297: Use or Discard By

2020-04-27T14:05:25Z

162.158.92.208: pointed out misspelling in the title text

{{comic
| number = 2297
| date = April 22, 2020
| title = Use or Discard By
| image = use_or_discard_by.png
| titletext = One of the things of bear spray says that, and I'm not one to disobey safety instructions, but there are no bears around here. Guess it's time for a camping trip where we leave lots of food out!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH A USE BY DATE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Many products carry a "Use By", "{{w|Expiration date}}", "Discard by" or similar date. The date shows the latest date by which the product has been verified to provide its expected use. For example, a foodstuff will have a "consume by" date, showing the date after which the food may be unsuitable for eating. For most products, this is a conservative estimate, especially if a product is kept sealed and stored in a cool, dark place. A few products become dangerous to use after that point, some simply become stale and less palatable (as in the case of foods) or lose potency. For most consumer items, there's no immediate imperative to discard a product as soon as it expires; you simply take the risk of a decline in quality or reliability.

One of the issues around expiration dates is that the language used tends to be arbitrary and ambiguous. Some have explicit instructions to the consumer, such as "use by:", others have instructions to the seller, such as "sell by:", still others say things such as "best by:" or "freshest before:". This can make it confusing how important it is to get rid of a given product on that date.

In this comic, two similar emergency {{w|flare gun}}s, an item typically used to send out distress {{w|flare}}s, have slightly different expiry instructions. One has an instruction to "use by or discard by" a specific date (in this case, three days after the date of publishing). The other has an instruction to "use by" this date. These two phrases almost certainly have the same intent. There would be no reason to actually fire the flare. Even the instructions to discard the flare gun really just mean that the manufacturer cannot guarantee that it will work past the printed date, and so do not advise counting on it in an emergency situation.

Despite this implication, [[Megan]] seems to take the latter instruction literally, as an order to actually fire the flare gun prior to the expiration date, whether or not it's necessary. It may be taken that she wants the experience of firing a flare, and takes that instruction as an excuse to do so. [[Cueball]] immediately objects to this line of reasoning. Firing a flare unnecessarily is generally a bad idea. It could summon emergency responders to a non-emergency situation, diverting emergency resources that may be needed elsewhere. Even worse, if a flare is fired improperly, or in an unsafe direction, it could cause a fire and/or injuries, ironically creating an emergency situation, rather than signalling one.

The title text similarly indicates that Megan intends to follow the same instructions with a can of {{w|bear spray}}. Since there are no bears present, she will go camping and leave her food out to attract their attention, so that she may use the bear spray to repel bears before it "goes bad". The danger of such a response is hopefully obvious.

The title text appears to be misspelled; it says "One of the things of bear spray" instead of the more likely intended "One of the tins of bear spray".

Expiration dates (for food) have also been mentioned in [[737: Yogurt]], [[1109: Refrigerator]], and [[2178: Expiration Date High Score]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Megan stands in the middle of the panel, holding two flare guns, one in each hand.]
:Megan: These emergency flare guns are about to expire.
:Cueball [off-panel]: I forgot we had those.

:[Cueball sitting at a desk, working on a computer.]
:Megan [off-panel]: This one says "Use or discard by Apr 25 2020."
:Cueball: Okay...

:[Megan holds up one of the flare guns looking at it. She holds the other flare gun by her side.]
:Megan: But '''''this''''' one just says "Use by" ...
:Cueball [off-panel]: '''''No.'''''

== Trivia ==
* Twenty-seven years ago exactly ([https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/04/22 April 22, 1993]), ''Calvin and Hobbes'' made a similar joke about expiration dates on milk. Obviously the humor has a very long shelf-life.
* This comic shares some similarities with [[1821: Incinerator]], particularly in the last panel.

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