explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2192: Review

2021-01-16T22:20:08Z

172.68.245.47:

Earth : Terrible storyline, feel depressed afterward. Controls buggy.
: My advice would be to look at different storylines. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.44|172.69.22.44]] 14:24, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: There's more than one? I wish I knew what the storyline was even supposed to be; it's not like the minigames where if you ask enough NPCs you can find one to clue you in on what to do next. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.172|162.158.34.172]] 10:29, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
: It is in our power to choose fear, frustration, and despair or the alternative story line of love, joy, and freedom. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:06, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Mostly harmless - [[User:GreenWyvern|GreenWyvern]] ([[User talk:GreenWyvern|talk]]) 13:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
: thank you for that :D [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 16:26, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: I concur, absolutely perfect comment, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:22, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

New servers opening soon! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.124|172.68.51.124]] 13:42, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

He could discuss in greater detail at https://www.reddit.com/r/outside/ [[User:Poodlehat|Poodlehat]] ([[User talk:Poodlehat|talk]]) 13:43, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

I think the title text is alluding to controlling things like climate warming and the like, not learning to walk. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:56, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:"Huge World" would imply that the game type is first or third person, with the player taking control of a character in that world. In this sense, I think it's appropriate for the controls to be in reference to movement of the character. If the game type were management or simulation, I think you would be correct. [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 14:03, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:"Huge World" so much to explore, could take more than a lifetime. Very few ever reach master level but general satisfaction is possible for every serious player, and the game Creator is accessible at any time. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:06, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:Game creator accessible? Seriously? When was the last time he fixed some bug? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: The Earth is abandonware...
:I feel I can GUARANTEE he's talking about it's hard to figure out how to navigate the world, figure out life, etc. The usual "I'm awkward and other people aren't" stuff. I often deeply identify with him, LOL! Just like playing an unfamiliar game and having a hard time figuring out the controls, how to do things in the game, he's saying he's having trouble "figuring out the controls" of real life. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:22, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Perhaps this is a reference to the recent Public Policy Polling survey http://publicpolicypollling.blogspot.com/2011/07/evaluating-god.html whcih asked people about God's job performance. God received his highest rating on his "handling of creating the universe" with 71% in favor of the universe and 5% opposed.
:correct link is http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/07/evaluating-god.html (but it’s a rather boring 8 year old fluff piece, I very much doubt that Randall was even aware of its existence) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.22|162.158.78.22]] 01:55, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
:In the Beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. -D. Adams [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 04:58, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Dan Loeb loeb@sig.com, 11:50, 21 August 2019 (ET)

"gun violence, sexual violence, poverty", etc, are really human's problems rather than Earth's problems.
: It really depends on your point of view. If you consider Earth as just a rock flying through space global warming isn't really an issue either. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 16:26, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:: Global warming is barely issue when you consider biosphere as a whole either. Neither insects nor bacteria care, and plants are looking forward to it. Now, pollution, that's different. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:39, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

To be honest I think this comic is a bit lazy for xkcd standards. The whole joke of "I went outside today, the graphics are amazing but controls suck" is years old and was never really good in my opinion. I've seen several comics where Randal reused old jokes and put a clever spin on them or extended them in a new fashion that I'm disappointed Randall essentially copy&pasted this one. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 16:26, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
:Personally, I was hoping for something on the announcement of KSP 2 :P
:: It might come in the next few days. I don't think he'll ignore it. Or he'll mention once there is a confirmed release date. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 11:01, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

I'm reminded of [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-09-26 this comic] by the SMBC guy (better known as Emergency Backup Randall Munroe) which features a hypothetical site which can host such a review, and also two Black Hats. Some folks also made a subreddit that actually implements the idea. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.167|172.68.11.167]] 18:03, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Multiplayer sucks. Needs to have a single-player mode. [unsigned]

Is this the first time that Randall has explicitly drawn himself in a comic? Does this make it official that Cueball is Randall (or Randall's alter-ego)? [[User:Stevage|Stevage]] ([[User talk:Stevage|talk]]) 05:09, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
:Nothing in the comic says this is Randall speaking, just like we assume Cueball is his main alter-ego, we assume when he says "My" he's talking more specifically as Randall rather than as Cueball. But that's our assumption. Really, all the characters in xkcd are speaking Randall, whatever he wants them to speak, and we can't know for certain to what degree their words and activities line up with Randall's own beliefs. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:52, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
:Actually it's widely accepted (myself included) that Cueball is essentially Randall. The way I see it, Cueball is generally Randall's self image (a la Tha Matrix) and/or his fantasy self. So maybe Randall has a thought "Look at those squirrels, imagine them hooked up to a mini Ben Hur chariot", which results in a comic where Cueball hooks up a couple of squirrels to a mini chariot. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:24, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Is this serious: "Earth is a completely real object[citation needed]"? I never thought this could be fake news. :-) {{unsigned|Jonhaug}}
:It's a running What If? joke where Randall would put citation needed tags on obvious statements such as "The sun is very bright." We sometimes do the same things when writing explanations in Explain xkcd. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 12:39, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
:Awwww, it's gone now! There are some selfish inconsiderate jerks around who have decided the joke is tired and old and not funny anymore who remove them, they can't seem to get it through their heads that there are many of use who continue to find it funny every time. :) My favourite might be "a baby couldn't plan and execute a jewel heist [citation needed]". This is the first I hear that Randall started it, LOL! Makes sense. It had looked like it started with the comic Citation Needed.[[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:24, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

The solar system as a whole is even bigger, but nearly completely empty. Only one star. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.18|108.162.229.18]] 14:10, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Too many people play this just for the "game within a game" feature. The main game deserves more attention. [[User:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|Probably not Douglas Hofstadter]] ([[User talk:Probably not Douglas Hofstadter|talk]]) 03:57, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, comic explanation, for turning what I thought was a silly joke into a reason for an existential crisis. [[User:V|V]] ([[User talk:V|talk]]) 17:45, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

There is no Tutorial. No Walkthrough. And the Instruction manual is missing. Saibot84 19:41, 23 August 2019 (UTC)
: There are lots of instruction manuals... and lots of debates about which is THE instruction manual. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:21, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Huge? As worlds go, it's below average. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 22:45, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

"Polygons are virtually unnoticeable (except for when intentionally not); they really got a handle on the 3D rendering engine; overall refresh rate is amazing. only fault: no save points" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.101|108.162.221.101]] 04:58, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Universe contained a bobcat. Would not buy again. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.47|172.68.245.47]] 22:20, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

== A glitch appers when posting this image as whatsapp status ==

Posting this image as a WhatsApp status produces a glitch in character "E" of word great. Kinda shocking but it has been verified by me and my friend.

Talk:2412: 1/100,000th Scale World

2021-01-15T20:40:30Z

172.68.245.47:

Sprites?

[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.44|172.68.174.44]] 17:01, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Looks like there is a form of electrical discharge that can occur above thunderstorms called a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) Sprite]

It actually took me a second to realise this was a new comic, I thought Randal just added different jokes to Wednesday's for some reason. Given the title text, I wonder what projection Randall would use for this scale model... I imagine a projection similar to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_the_Earth#Map_projection Build the Earth's modified Airocean] would work for something like this.--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.85|172.69.35.85]] 17:12, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Just for reference and to be checked, I paste here the maths to compute that the panel spans 9 degrees of a great circle:
<pre>
> 10/1e3*1e5/6371*180/pi
[1] 8.993216
</pre>
--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 19:21, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

The ISS game seems very contradictory to the other rules in this and the previous comic. Given that the ISS would be only about 1 mm wide, hitting it with a nerf dart would almost certainly destroy it. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 19:59, 15 January 2021 (UTC)
:The world is at scale, but people and the artifacts they create don't seem to be. In particular, the wine glasses are normal size relative to the people. So the ISS may be life size, and hitting it with a dart should be trivial.

Is this a duplicate? Looks the same as [[2411: 1/10,000th Scale World]]. [[User:PvOberstein|PvOberstein]] ([[User talk:PvOberstein|talk]]) 20:24, 15 January 2021 (UTC)
:Look better, the scale is different. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.47|172.68.245.47]] 20:40, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

2016: OEIS Submissions

2021-01-11T17:17:13Z

172.68.245.47: /* Explanation */

<noinclude>:''"2016", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2016", see [[1624: 2016]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2016
| date = July 6, 2018
| title = OEIS Submissions
| image = oeis_submissions.png
| titletext = SUB[59]: The submission numbers for my accepted OEIS submissions in chronological order
}}

==Explanation==

The {{w|OEIS}} is the [https://oeis.org/ Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences], a listing of hundreds of thousands of sequences of integers, generally of real mathematical interest, such as {{w|prime number}}s or [https://oeis.org/A005188 Armstrong numbers]. The OEIS normally expects submissions to be accompanied by references to scholarly articles about, or at least referencing, the sequence. They would not be interested in the personal or idiosyncratic sequences proposed by Randall, though they do have the [https://oeis.org/A000053 list of subway stops on the New York City Broadway line (IRT #1)], perhaps because a NY Times article mentioned that they don't.

Randall is trying to put his integer sequences on the OEIS website, including making OEIS reveal its password.
;sub[43] - All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence
:Every OEIS sequence lists several example terms to demonstrate the content of said sequence. This request wants to list all integers which are ''not'' used as examples elsewhere. Any numbers used as example terms for this sequence are not counted, so this list is not self-disqualifying. It is well-defined at any given time. Like many other OEIS sequences, it has infinitely many terms (more precisely, it includes all integers except a finite number). However, it may change at any time, whenever a new sequence or a new example is added to the OEIS. If included, it would therefore have to be constantly updated.
:Such integers are sometimes called "{{w|Interesting number paradox|uninteresting numbers}}" in mathematical terms, and attempts have been made to count them. The list changes, but [http://math.crg4.com/uninteresting.html#note4 in July 2009] it began 11630, 12067, 12407, 12887, 13258...
;sub[44] - Integers in increasing order of width when printed in Helvetica
:This sequence is not uniquely defined as it depends on the specific version of the {{w|Helvetica}} font used, its point size, the software used to render it (e.g. kerning algorithm), the handling of equal widths by the sorting algorithm and possibly other parameters. Also, all digits usually have the same width, with the exception of the sequence "11", which is a tiny bit narrower because a kerning pair exists in Helvetica. Without an additional tie-breaker for equal width numbers, the order is: 1 to 9 in no particular order, 11, 10 and 12 to 99 in no particular order and so on; for a particular choice of parameters the first 50 terms might be: 1, 9, 6, 2, 8, 5, 0, 7, 3, 4, 11, 61, 71, 91, 21, 51, 81, 41, 31, 19, 13, 18, 10, 12, 15, 16, 14, 17, 69, 63, 68, 79, 60, 62, 65, 73, 78, 99, 93, 98, 66, 70, 72, 75, 29, 90, 92, 95, 23, 28...
:Despite all of the above issues, and as a direct response to this comic, a well-defined version of this sequence was [https://oeis.org/A316599 added to the OEIS].
;sub[45] - The digits of Chris Hemsworth's cell phone number
:This request seems to be for actor {{w|Chris Hemsworth}}'s phone number — but the correct ordering of the digits isn't specified.
;sub[46] - All integers, in descending order
:To list all integers in descending order, you would have to begin at the largest integer, but there is no largest integer, so this is impossible. It is equally impossible to list all integers in ''ascending'' order, for that matter.
:On the other hand, [https://oeis.org/A001477 A001477] is the sequence of all nonnegative integers in ascending order, as there is the smallest nonnegative integer. Also, [https://oeis.org/A001057 A001057] is the sequence of all integers, but in canonical order (i.e. by increasing absolute value).
;sub[47] - The digits of the OEIS serial number for this sequence
:This sequence is only important tautologically.
;sub[48] - 200 terabytes of nines
:This submission appears to be a joke on common video game limits for, e.g., currency or ammunition, in which the maximum a player can carry is one less than a power of 10. This sequence would be entirely useless, as there is no mental effort required to conceive a list that consists only of a single repeated term, however arbitrarily large. Such a list is also incredibly wasteful; to give a comparison, [https://phys.org/news/2016-05-math-proof-largest-terabytes.html this very large math proof from 2016] is also 200 terabytes, and requires a supercomputer to hold in its entirety. 
:200 terabytes is equal to 2 × 1014 bytes. In UTF-8, each ASCII character, including control characters such as ␂ (start of text) and ␍ (carriage return), can be represented by a single byte. If the list is presumed to be formatted as "␂9␍9␍9 ... 9␍9␃", the first term would take up 3 bytes, and all other terms would take up 2 bytes. Assuming Randall wants the file size to be 200 terabytes ''minimum'', the resulting list would be a minimum of 1 × 1014, or 100 trillion, terms long.
:Curiously, OEIS does in fact contain an entry that lists "[https://oeis.org/A010734 all nines]" which contains this proposal as a subsequence.
;sub[49] - The decimal representation of the bytes in the root password to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences server
:This would give any user the password to OEIS. {{w|Internet troll|What happens next}} anyone can easily forecast. Perhaps the idea is to hack OEIS on the premise that accepting this sequence will force OEIS staff to populate it.
;sub[59] (title text) - The submission numbers for my accepted OEIS submissions in chronological order
:This would only be useful to Randall. If all of his submissions have been rejected, this would be an empty set. However, if this submission is accepted, the set would, by definition, include at least one number (except that this would not be known at the time of submission). Thus, as in the Russell Paradox, this set would be out of date as soon as it was accepted, since the set of accepted submission numbers would change at that point.

==Transcript==
:SUB[43]: All integers which do not appear in the example terms of another OEIS sequence
:SUB[44]: Integers in increasing order of width when printed in Helvetica
:SUB[45]: The digits of Chris Hemsworth's cell phone number
:SUB[46]: All integers, in descending order
:SUB[47]: The digits of the OEIS serial number for this sequence
:SUB[48]: 200 terabytes of nines
:SUB[49]: The decimal representation of the bytes in the root password to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences server

:[Caption below the panel:]
:OEIS keeps rejecting my submissions

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]