explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2133: EHT Black Hole Picture

2019-04-05T20:36:51Z

172.68.174.64: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2133
| date = April 5, 2019
| title = EHT Black Hole Picture
| image = eht_black_hole_picture.png
| titletext = [five years later] Ok, it seems we were accidentally zoomed in slightly too far. But imagine there's a cool-looking twisted accretion disc just outside this black square!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by cosmic rays from a black hole Needs more explanation Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references the {{w|Event Horizon Telescope}}, an international project dedicated to releasing the first-ever picture of a {{w|black hole}}. The release of the picture is set for April 10, five days from this comic's release.

The comic shows [[Cueball]] giving a press conference on the recent photographing of a black hole. The joke lies in the spectacular failure of several systems:

* You cannot download the picture.
* You cannot screenshot the picture.
* The viewing period ends before a physical camera can be used.

In reality, none of this should be an issue as the picture would be immediately saved by the system and would not need to be downloaded from the site.

Cueball describes the system as being like {{w|Pinterest}}, where CSS prevents you from right-clicking on an image so that you could save it. Cueball states that they then tried to take a screenshot, but the key combination to make a screenshot instead turned off the monitor where the picture was being displayed. This references the fact many mobile phones incorporate the power button in their screen shot combination and the power button can also turn off the screen. As a last act of desperation, Cueball took out his phone and attempted to take a photo of the observation, but by that time, the observation had ended, and the photo was lost.

Cueball then states that they would try to take a picture of a black hole again next year.

The title text explains that (after presumably five years of annual tries), the picture failed again as the telescope was too zoomed in and only captured a featureless square from the inside of the black hole rather than the more interesting edge known as an {{w|accretion disc}}.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind a lectern, with "Press Conference" and the EHT logo displayed on a projector screen behind him.]
:Cueball: We linked up our observatories, got everything aligned, and there it was:
:Cueball: The first image of a black hole!

:Out of panel: Can you share the picture?
:Cueball: Well, here's the thing...

:Cueball: Turns out our telescope feed is like Pinterest, where you can't right-click to save an image.
:Cueball: So we tried to take a screenshot, but the key combination kept turning off the display instead.

:[The projector screen has changed to show a blurry picture of a white computer screen against a black background. The EHT logo remains.]
:Cueball: I grabbed my phone and tried to take a picture of the screen, but I was too slow. The observation had ended.
:Cueball: We're planning to try again next year, and we'll definitely record the screen this time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2118: Normal Distribution

2019-03-01T18:48:55Z

172.68.174.64: normal vs tangent is a joke about horizontal vs vertical.

{{comic
| number = 2118
| date = March 1, 2019
| title = Normal Distribution
| image = normal_distribution.png
| titletext = It's the NORMAL distribution, not the TANGENT distribution.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ANNOYED STATISTICIAN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In statistics, a {{w|Probability distribution|distribution}} is calculated by finding how much of a sample falls into discrete bins. For example, an age distribution would often take bins of ten years (0-9, 10-19, etc.) From this a statistician often produces a bar chart, one bar for each bin, where the height of each bar represents a count of the portion of the sample matching that bin. It is common to mark {{w|standard deviation}}s on a distribution, indicating what proportion of a sample falls into the bins between two points on the x-axis.

Many statistical samplings form a pattern called a "{{w|normal distribution}}". A theoretically perfect normal distribution would have an infinite sample size and infinitely small bins. That would produce a bar chart matching the shape of the curve in the comic.

The area between two vertical lines of the distribution represents the probability that the value is between the x-values of the lines, and the total area is 1. Randall finds the area between two ''horizontal'' lines instead, which, while correct, is not meaningful. The comic explores the humor of annoying people by deliberately misunderstanding their work.

The title text refers to the {{w|Normal (geometry)|normal line}}, which is perpendicular to the {{w|tangent}} line at a given point. The normal line is not at all related to the normal distribution, as the former is a geometry concept and the latter is probability/statistics one. Saying this to a statistician would only annoy the statistician further. This refers to the fact that the diagram attempts to divide the graph with horizontal lines when such a division would usually be done with vertical lines.

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

:[A bell curve of a normal distribution.]

Midpoint - 52.7%

"Remember, 50% of the distribution falls between these two lines!"

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How to annoy a statistician

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:2116: .NORM Normal File Format

2019-03-01T03:52:16Z

172.68.174.64: Comment

Oh man, I don’t know whether to laugh or passive aggressively link people this comic. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:55, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:''Mumbles about special places in hell for people that deserve links of this comic'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.90|162.158.90.90]] 08:11, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
::link it to them? send it in a weird data format, including notification bar of a phone, etc.--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:34, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
:::I think [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Flag this] needs to be here. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 12:52, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
:::: I will take a photo of the comic on my screen with my phone, send that to my PC, print it out onto paper, take a photo of that (on a wooden table), embed THAT photo into an Excel sheet comment, take a photo of THAT and embed into a Word Document, and send to my customers. They would find nothing untoward about this, based on how they send me error reports...[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.61|162.158.89.61]] 14:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

At the moment I'm seeing " https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 " as the title text [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.82|108.162.216.82]] 17:36, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:That’s because the comic is a link, and clicking on it will take you there. The title text is correct, though. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:40, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:: You prankster Randall. On mobile, we can only see the link **in text** as the title text. Am I to believe this, as another example of human mangling of information into an unreadable form, is an accident? [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 19:01, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Reminds me of [https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Web_0_0x2e_1 Web 0.1 at TheDailyWTF].[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.113|162.158.79.113]] 19:01, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Why the bloody hell is everyone censoring me???[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.202|108.162.245.202]] 21:47, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
:From the revision history, the only things that look like they could be interpreted as being censored are the "JEWISH SHILL" thing from the (no longer present) "incomplete" tag, which is hate speech, and the "SOON THE TRUTH WILL BE REVEALED" thing that briefly replaced all of the actual content, which is vandalism. Both are considered unacceptable. See also [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1357:_Free_Speech xkcd #1357] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.22|162.158.214.22]] 03:53, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
::This person seems to have trouble posting their edits (probably unfamiliar with the simultaneous revision merging features which appear when two people edit at the same time) & hence isn't properly submitting their edits in the first place. I too see no evidence of anything but the instances you listed. I think they are ignorant of the proper steps & paranoid enough to believe there's a conspiracy to remove their comments, going on. (Note to user at 108.162.245.202 : Any edits ''or'' censorship show up in each page's edit history (just like Wikipedia). It's pretty easy to see everything that's been written ''or'' removed. Aside from the incidents noted by 162.158.214.22, you haven't had ''anything'' removed; You're not completing the edit process to begin with.)
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm on my phone but can someone please work this link into the explanation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_art thanks
:Done. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.173|108.162.246.173]] 01:20, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

The "share" functionality on mobile systems may serve as a rather catch-all protocol. On PC not many apps have this in mind.
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.148|172.68.141.148]] 02:43, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Could someone do a short explanation of what absentee precincts are? A (quick) google search could not answer that question to me, and I think for many who do not deal with the topic whichever absentee precincts refer to will have the same question... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:07, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

I love .NORM files, they compress so well: https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1683:_Digital_Data [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 17:42, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Is this really all that common? Am I the only one who came to explainxkcd because I only half got the joke? Sure, a photo of a screen with data is useless and stupid, but why make a comic about it? This has never happened to me. [[User:Jqavins|Jqavins]] ([[User talk:Jqavins|talk]]) 13:54, 27 February 2019 (UTC)
:It is really all that common. So common, in fact, that the original XKCD comic links to [https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 this]. That is on a government scale. Yes, it’s annoying. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 14:13, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

One possible legitimate use of this is when you don't trust the recipient from taking your hard work and not giving you credit for it. For an example when one of my previous employers laid me off because of 'financial reasons', there was a possibility that he might continue to send me projects as an independent contractor because he was under staffed. If he had sent me any projects, I was seriously considering sending him a screenshot of the Excel documents showing the work I completed for him to review and only after I get paid, I would submit the work to the web server because I did not trust him taking my work and uploading it himself without paying me for it.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.162|162.158.122.162]] 21:18, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

The title text is not proposing vector JPEG, but vector JPEG *artifacts*; that is to say, converting the artifacts inherent in JPEG into vector form to be included in the SVG.
:Yep, quite agree. The last paragraph misses the point IMHO. Using the terminology of the first half of the paragraph as it currently stands, Randall is proposing a filter that takes a line, caculates that it would run through X, Y and Z at low resolution, then expands the vector definition to include square blocks at those intervals (possibly with half-coloured squares surrounding it). Utterly pointless but it would satisfy both the needs of data users (since the underlying vector information is still there) and the aesthetic sensibilities of screenshot-posters (who expect to see blocky glitches). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.10|141.101.88.10]] 09:30, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

I just want to say, in the linked tweet from less then two years ago, there's a guy with a blue check mark whose running for Detroit city clerk to fix stuff like this and wanting to get with the data wonks who posted it to see what else there was. I thought that was hella cool and went to see if he won. The man is now Lt. Governor of Michigan. That's a hell of a two year run for anyone. Well done. -[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.64|172.68.174.64]] 03:52, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

2116: .NORM Normal File Format

2019-02-28T02:51:47Z

172.68.174.64: we already use jpeg artifacts for their aesthetics? well, we did; they've actually gone out of style now and the new thing is deep frying

{{comic
| number = 2116
| date = February 25, 2019
| title = .NORM Normal File Format
| image = norm_normal_file_format.png
| titletext = At some point, compression becomes an aesthetic design choice. Luckily, SVG is a really flexible format, so there's no reason it can't support vector JPEG artifacts.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball's friend seems to have sent him a rather unusual datafile passed off as a new "normal" standard.

Here is a photo example of what Cueball might have seen, but presumably with numbers or other data rather than words:

[[File:XKCD2116.norm.jpg|100px]]

People who work with data, and need data sent to them electronically, typically need it sent in a way that they can easily use it – either in a text format that can be copy-pasted, or as a spreadsheet or CSV file that can be imported into a spreadsheet program, or such.
Information sent by Cueball's friend in this fashion – a photograph of a spreadsheet embedded into a word processing file – is absolutely useless for any purpose beyond being looked at. The recipient has no choice but to retype the entire data set, or attempt to use optical character recognition (OCR), and hope that no mistakes are made in the process.

Any functional relationships between data (such as formulas used to compute data values) have been lost. Further, the size of the data is bloated by being converted first from numbers and formulas into text, then text into graphics, and then from graphics to embedded graphics in a word processing document. This adds nothing to the content, and only adds steps to the process of retrieving the data.

However useless this kind of data manipulation might be, it is becoming more and more common, especially as more non-computer literate people find "creative" ways to exchange information. Cueball's friend suggests that this is now a normal way to send files, and that Cueball should update his system to support this new type of file, represented by a ".norm" suffix.

The caption acknowledges that this has become a ''de facto'' standard and that we should just accept and formalize it.

The comic image links to a [https://twitter.com/openelex/status/853977391747801088 tweet by OpenElections] that displays an Excel file produced by the City of Detroit that contains a lookup table for the city's absentee precincts in 2016. The data had been input as clip art (images) of the values, instead of being entered in the spreadsheet cells.

This comic is reminiscent of the comic [[763:_Workaround|Workaround]], which also describes convoluted formats.

The title text suggests that eventually compression (or at least compression with data/quality loss) will be unnecessary as technology improves in the future. SVG ({{w|Scalable Vector Graphics}}) is a vector graphic format that is fundamentally a lossless format, representing images using geometric figures. {{w|JPEG}} is a lossy format, representing images as an array of rectangles approximating the original image. Randall suggests that some people in the future may choose to include JPEG artifacts to SVG vector graphics for its "aesthetics", perhaps as a throwback to when lower quality JPEG images were commonplace, or as a form of {{w|glitch art}}. It is possible that some in the future will view JPEG artifacts as giving their images a quaint/retro feel, much the way that some people today use sepia-tone filters on their images. (And much like some people today use JPEG artifacts to give their images [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/sweetbroandhellajeff/ an intentionally low-quality appearance].)

This is made even more reasonable by the fact that the SVG spec employs a lot of filters, and already can embed regular pixel-based JPEG files. Furthermore, it allows JavaScript to be used to manipulate objects, meaning such an effect may be implementable in the current SVG 2.0 spec.

But this is all undone by the request for "vector JPEG". JPEG is a raster format, not a vector format. Vector formats encode data about lines and shapes and so on, while raster formats encode data about each pixel or groups of pixels. Vector formats can be translated to raster at a given resolution - line A means pixels X, Y, and Z, for example - but translating the other way is difficult - if you have pixels X, Y, and Z in a row, it is not possible to be entirely certain whether they are supposed to be a line or three small dots. Thus, there is not (and, from some points of view, can not be) such a thing as "vector JPEG".

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is at a computer. Someone is talking to him from off-panel.]
:Voice: I sent you the data.
:Cueball: Thanks!
:Cueball: …this is a Word document containing an embedded photo you took of your screen with the spreadsheet open.
:Voice: Yeah? Does your computer not support .NORM files? Maybe you need to update.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Since everyone sends stuff this way anyway, we should just formalize it as a standard.

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2110: Error Bars

2019-02-12T23:25:01Z

172.68.174.64:

I put in a little thing about fractals and Cantor sets, seemed relevant. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 17:32, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
: Fractals seem more relevant than the Cantor set, since the Cantor set is the limit as you infinitely subtract stuff from a finite interval, whereas this is adding (more like a geometric series).[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.64|172.68.174.64]] 23:25, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Would the series have a limit or would it continue on until the error bars go from infinity to +infinity?
It will have limit. Becouse it will every time be 5% of prevous errors it will lower over time. --172.68.154.40
https://repl.it/repls/AppropriateMatureConferences for demonstration --172.68.154.40

Perhaps you should review [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1153:_Proof Zeno's paradoxes] [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 02:11, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

That's not my understanding of "propagating error". I understand that phrase to mean that you're taking a measured value (that has uncertainty) and plugging it into a formula / using it calculate another value. Because of the way this works, the (absolute & relative) error on the newly calculated value is likely to be larger or smaller than the error in the original value (the overall size of the error bars changes). Randall's joke is that, instead of calculating the new error bars, he calculates error bars on the ends of his existing bars. I also agree with Netherin5 that there's a clear fractal reference here.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.113|162.158.79.113]] 17:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC) hagmanti
: I noticed this error too, and tried to correct it, but it sounds like you understand it better than I. Feel free to edit the article itself! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.178|162.158.78.178]] 23:38, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

A question too, does the CI tend towards negative infinity, zero, or one? Edit: Today I learned what CI means. [[User:Netherin5|Netherin5]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:01, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

He has confidence intervals in confidence intervals alone; despite this, you see, he lacks confidence in...he. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 20:48, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk:1285: Third Way

2019-01-17T16:54:57Z

172.68.174.64:

One line per sentence is reminiscent of a diagrammed/formal logic argument in philosophy. It would be a much more effective convention to help people parse and interpret content and validity of e.g. political claims. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.63.198|173.245.63.198]] 17:21, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

Line break after every sentence. 
Because I can. 
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.7|108.162.245.7]] 04:41, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

ONE AFTER A PERIOD. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:38, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:MY VOTE TOO!!! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:MY VOTE, TWO!!! (not really) [[User:Orazor|Orazor]] ([[User talk:Orazor|talk]]) 09:20, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Writing plaintext, I always do two s after a sentence ending period.
This is probably because I did in fact start typing on a real typewriter.
In an environment where automatic formatting will take place, like a web page or wiki text, I use the newline.
I have had people in this wiki collapse my multiple line forms to one of the others.
(I was disappointed.)
--[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 04:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I prefer double spacing, but I used single spacing in writing the explanation, just to make people happy. Perhaps I should have used new lines. [[User:Concomitant|Concomitant]] ([[User talk:Concomitant|talk]]) 05:10, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
: I'm a double-spacer too. Am I wrong? I can't break myself of the habit, I even do it in s! --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:43, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The 'third way' is a little underappreciated here: it divides the text into self contained logical units, and makes text processing tools (grep, diff etc.) much more usable.
Proper text rendering engines (TeX, HTML, etc.) already make this assumption and group sentences accordingly.
If only I realized this earlier, it would have made my thesis revisions much more easier.
In fact, up to this moment, I thought I was that lone guy in the comic.
EDIT: this comment in xkcd forums makes my point clear: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=106217#p3489055
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.11|141.101.96.11]] 05:42, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

:As a programmer, I find nothing weird in adapting your style to language. Writing two s in HTML or TeX is useless, as they won't render as two s anyway. (While using for this purpose nonbreakable s, which would render, is a crime.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
::It would also render incorrectly if the period was close to the end of a line. If the markup is [last word of sentence][period][nbsp][][next sentence], the last word of the first sentence could end up on the next line unnecessarily. But if it's [last word of sentence][period][][nbsp][next sentence], the next line of text would start with a , which is much worse.--[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 15:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

::I end my sentences with a line break, a % and another linebreak. Only after commata etc i use a single line break. Oh, and don't forget to protect the after points used in abbreviations, not as full stops, by a backslash. Most TeX increase the length of the after a full stop a bit. Bit question: Why don't double people, when using Word not just use a longer instead of a double . Noone would have the idea to indent a paragraph or substitute a tab with a series of s.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.117|108.162.242.117]] 03:11, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
:::Because the does not contain a longer key.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I always just find and replace double with single . If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 06:33, 1 November 2013 (UTC) Synthetica

I always just find and replace single with double . If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:13, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

So, why did double spacing after a period ever exist? It doesn't seem necessary. [[User:PheagleAdler|PheagleAdler]] ([[User talk:PheagleAdler|talk]]) 07:31, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:Here's the standard explanation: on typewriters, each character takes up the same amount of . So a lower-case "i" takes up the same amount of as a capital "M". This is called a monospace font. When typing, if you just put a single after the end of period ending a sentence, the reader doesn't necessarily get the sense that a new sentence has started. This is particularly true if you were typing in all caps, as might be common on some types of forms or documents. Two s, however, does the job nicely. In theory, with modern proportional-width fonts, this is unnecessary. [[User:Rylon|Rylon]] ([[User talk:Rylon|talk]]) 23:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
::Here's the researched explanation: http://www.heracliteanriver.com/?p=324 So technically, an em- after a period, an en- after a comma. Or you know, whatever you want. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 06:22, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

even though i learned typing on a typewriter, to this day i had never heard of the double thing. maybe it's a US only thing, like the stupid french with s BEFORE punctuation marks. [[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 07:54, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:I've always taken the double- thing as a US thing. Some editors like emacs default to it, which is really annoying. That said, as a frenchman, the " before punctuation" is normal to me and it is part of the ''codified'' typography -- and I think this is actually an important distinction to make. Is this double- vs single- something codified somehow? As a last word, I need to be nitpicky: the exact French typography rule is "a before punctuation made of two parts (namely colon, semi-colon, exclamation/question mark) and no before punctuation made of a single part (dots, commas.)" It's a very deterministic rule that is easy to apply (whether one agrees to it or not.) [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 16:40, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
::This is a common question from the French and some other nationals. The answer is that English does not work that way. There is no official codified version. The most you have is small pockets of codification within an organization, such as The University of Boulder, or UPI or the US Army. If you're working in or with such an organization you should use their standard. If you try to extend any such standard to the rest of the world you are a nasty egomanical control freak who should be chopped into pieces and fed to the fishes.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.188|173.245.52.188]] 18:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

As a german typographer I have to say I’m ''shocked''! ''Two'' s per period? A ''before'' punctuation?! My scientific opinion: you all are completely crazy ;-) (Just kidding, but seriously, two s? In Germany, the first possibility to do that safely is your last will …) [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 10:34, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The doubled s appear in my browser's tooltips. (Maybe someone should add some non breaking s to the quotation of the tooltip text?) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.236|141.101.98.236]] 10:45, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

As a(n automatic) two-spacer person (just you watch, I'll use 'em here, despite it obviously not being rendered), it's just what I learnt, back in the '70s, here in the UK. I've no idea ''why'' I learnt it. However, it may stem from the same root as the 'rule' in handwriting (not biros, but nibbed pens dipped in ink... wow, I feel old, but it ''was'' at primary school) that we use a gap as big as our our (very little) little-fingers to separate sentences. I imagine differentiating full-stops (US: periods) from commas in the messy medium of ink might be a valuable visual indicator as to what a given smudge might ''actually'' be. So, anyway, double-spacing. On the other hand I should report that, "I've dropped the habit it of appropriate punctuation prior to quotes," I say, "despite being the way I learnt it." And instead I will drop "<- Commas from that sort of position," you see, "even through I'll keep the ones that are semantic pauses." You see how my standards are slipping? Anyway, good comic. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programme.  [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 14:44, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

:I'm in the same boat this this bloke. I don't get the typewriter tie in. I seem to recall being taught to use a finger gage correct gap of whitespace to leave between the end of one sentence and the beginning of the next. This was in an American small town southern school in the early 1980s. I assume it was for readability. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.25|108.162.236.25]] 16:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The "third way" is used for articles on the [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news BBC News] website :-) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.233|141.101.99.233]] 14:52, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:Actually, they put each sentence into a paragraph of its own, which is yet different. (In HTML: <code>... .</code> vs. <code>... . </code>) --[[User:Das-g|Das-g]] ([[User talk:Das-g|talk]]) 16:07, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:That's what I came here to say, that the Third Way is common-place on the web today, it is the tabloid style. This headline article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24775846 off the BBC right now only has full-stops (periods in en-US) before paragraph breaks, apart from quotations (ie what the BBC did not write). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.229|141.101.98.229]] 16:11, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:The BBC is not the only web site to do that - and it is '''so''' annoying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.244|108.162.222.244]] 10:15, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

There's a FOURTH way! I receive a "Weekly Update from Tim Scott" HTML formatted about once a week (unsurprisingly) which, in lieu of s between words, uses a carriage return and a linefeed. This alleviates the question of how many s between sentences completely! It also renders as oneverylongword in my client. Ie: <blockquote>Thankyouforsubscribingtomye-newsletter.</blockquote> [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.25|108.162.236.25]] 16:16, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
: And a fifth: In France, they use one whitespace before and after double punctions (:;?!) but only one whitespace after single punctuation (.,). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.25|141.101.79.25]] 20:15, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I think the finger was to help kids create clear separation while developing their proficiency at penmanship.
I think the 2x is a fall out from the fixed width formatting of typewriters to help assist the reader (or proof reader) with the start and end of a sentence.
Double spacing has almost become OCD for me. I can't help it. Of course I also leave paragraph marks on while I type as well. I wonder if the French would require a before a double quote, "The author ponders. "

I think we could improve old school cryptography if we just used carriage returns and ignored the 'new' line.
I might be able to accept and adopt the single rule if I can make my s default to twice the point size of every other character in the style.
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.186|199.27.128.186]] 19:00, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
:FOROL DSCHO OLCRY PTOGR APHYT AKEYO URCUE FROME NIGMA DECOD ESAND ARRAN GEEVE RYTHI NGING ROUPS OFFIV EWITH OUT''AN Y''PUNC TUAT IONAN DINAL LCAPS  [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 01:38, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

I have my word processor set to a a gap equal to one and a half s after a sentence ends[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.198|173.245.52.198]] 19:05, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

New paragraph (TWO line brakes) after every sentence :-) --[[User:Sten|Sten]] ([[User talk:Sten|talk]]) 20:36, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I love how the explanation uses the third method. Nice touch. [[User:JRDeBo|JRDeBo]] ([[User talk:JRDeBo|talk]]) 23:29, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Does anyone think there's any significance to the sword and the spear? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.144|108.162.208.144]] 23:46, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
:Yes, because this is a SERIOUS ISSUE. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 06:35, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
:A sword has a longer blade, while a spear keeps people further away. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.210|108.162.219.210]] 12:45, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

According to the [[http://fireemblemwiki.org/Weapon_triangle Fire Emblem weapon triangle]], the 1-spacers win against the 2-spacers. Then again, I put one after each sentence. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:25, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Picture of a cat after every full stop !!! {{unsigned ip|173.245.51.221}}

With all the whitespace compression and variable width fonts in modern technology switching back to 2- is as viable as switching over to localized Programmer Dvorak. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.18|108.162.231.18]] 13:44, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Hey, does anyone know if there's any way to make the wiki keep two s in a row, so the title text shows up properly? [[User:SuperSupermario24|Just some random derp]] 15:46, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

I was mildly confused about the weird phrasing of "This comic refers to the dance-off occurring ..." I already forgot my browser plugin that I've installed an hour ago. I think its great that it happened on a xkcd-related site. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.22|141.101.92.22]] 12:41, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm not from the US so I never actually heard about a rule with two s. From my point of view the rule is stupid, really dumb. Just let go of it! There is no reason for it. My brain starts to spasm when I hear about a rule of two s after a period. Ungh!! {{unsigned ip|162.158.86.113}}

The 2 s used in (early) PCs and TypeWriters (and TTYs) could be caused by the too little difference between a «.» and a «,» with little fonts on CRTs (''320*200px with 8*8px single letter with <16" monitors with a signal trought an RF cable, for a C64''), dot-printers (''like 60*75 dpi (h*v), 9*9 per character, for an Epson MX-80'') and typewritten sheets (''maybe with dirty sort/type'')?
[The examples in parentheses are for a mid-level-case, because there are worst monitors and standards than those, see previous comments]
''Nickh''²+, [[Special:Contributions/188.114.103.166|188.114.103.166]] 00:11, 10 November 2016 (UTC) .

Well, looks like the one-spacers will win due to the weapon triangle. After all, lances best swords. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.64|172.68.174.64]] 16:54, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:997: Wait Wait

2019-01-17T16:48:31Z

172.68.174.64:

The 5th Row, 3rd paper, "Wait Wait ... don't speak its name" may refer to the Lovecraftian Eldetr God Hastur, also known as "He Who is Not to be Named." Eldritch was a favorite Lovecraft word used extensively in the Cthulhu Mythos. {{unsigned ip|74.120.13.132}}

:Row three, column three should be "Wait wait, dont taze me, bro" {{unsigned ip|173.245.63.146}}
Is there a real kneed for this:
(sic)
in stories about Granny Weatherwax?
[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 06:42, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
: I guess it is impossible to find "may refer to" for all 20 headlines? because this comic pretends to be "fixed" thus not all have an explanation. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.18|108.162.254.18]] 08:25, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

"Don't Dissect Me" reminds me of a Stephen King short story, ''Autopsy Room Four,'' from the collection ''Everything's Eventual.'' [[User:Boct1584|Boct1584]] ([[User talk:Boct1584|talk]]) 14:47, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Can we have a table for this? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.40|108.162.245.40]] 22:44, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

I think that the first one implies that he is the hostage, not the gunman. Anyone else think so? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.64|172.68.174.64]] 16:48, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2078: Popper

2018-11-28T18:39:42Z

172.68.174.64:

I think this might have to do with the President's claims regarding climate change, there's no evidence that I'm not wrong [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 18:08, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

I have no evidence to prove that the comic's explanation is incorrect. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.112|172.68.90.112]] 18:10, 28 November 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf

This comic is almost doubly self-referential. Has Randall done that before? Has anyone asked if somebody has done that before? What about asking that: has that been done before? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.64|172.68.174.64]] 18:39, 28 November 2018 (UTC)