explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

571: Can't Sleep

2019-04-05T21:27:38Z

172.68.47.54:

{{comic
| number = 571
| date = April 20, 2009
| title = Can't Sleep
| image = cant sleep.png
| titletext = If androids someday DO dream of electric sheep, don't forget to declare sheepCount as a long int.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is in bed and is having trouble sleeping. He tries the old standby of {{w|counting sheep}} as they jump over a fence, but upon reaching 32,767 sheep, 65535 sheep jump back over the fence and start counting up again from -32,768. This is a reference to an integer overflow, when an increasing amount (sheep in this case) suddenly overflows and shows up as a negative value. This is because when a whole number or integer is represented in a digital form, such as on a computer, the number's range is limited by the amount of space used to store it. When the greatest possible number given the storage space is exceeded, an arithmetic overflow occurs, which may result (depending on the used language among other things) in starting over at the least possible number given the storage space. This is not at all unlike a car's odometer. Imagine an odometer with six digits reaching 999999. Upon driving one more mile or km, the digits will roll back over to 000000. Causing or failing to prevent integer overflow is a common mistake by programmers that may have software security consequences. Some languages like C/C++ even leaves the signed integer overflow ''undefined behavior'', it may or may not wrap to the beginning, the instruction can be ignored or may cause the software to crash.

In this case, the least and greatest possible numbers are -32,768 and 32,767, which implies that the storage space used would be 16 bits. In addition, it's clear that the number is designated as a signed number, meaning that it can be either positive or negative.

However, even if Cueball had this limitation, it would never actually pose a problem. By 32,767 sheep, at a rate of one sheep per second, Cueball has been counting for over nine hours. This would signify that he has extreme insomnia and probably needs treatment, and also that he has spent the entire night counting, and therefore would just get up and start the day rather than count sheep all over again from -32,768. Moreover, according to an experiment conducted by researchers at Oxford University, ''counting sheep is actually an inferior means of inducing sleep'' (see also the {{w|Counting sheep|Wikipedia article}}).

The title text refers to the 1968 Philip K. Dick science fiction novel ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'', which was adapted into the perhaps more widely known Ridley Scott directed 1982 film ''Blade Runner''. The implication is that if we ever do create androids that dream of electric sheep, we should make sure to give them sufficient storage space to store numbers large enough such that an arithmetic overflow will be far less likely to occur, even if they count for a long time. A "long int" typically consists of four bytes rather than two, so instead of being limited to a range from -32,768 to 32,767 the number will be capable of storing numbers from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, which would take 68.1 years to exhaust. "sheepCount" is a possible name for a variable to be used in a computer program. Declaring a variable tells the computer that it should allocate a portion of memory to be associated with the variable name given. For those who might be unfamiliar with common programming practices, "sheepCount" is named using what is commonly referred to as {{w|CamelCase}}, meaning that all words in the name ("sheep" and "count") are pushed together and the first letter of every word after the first is capitalized. This is one of several common approaches to naming variables in computer programming.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is in bed, presumably trying to sleep. The top of each panel is a thought bubble showing sheep leaping over a fence and Cueball's counting and the sheeps baaing is written above the sheeps. Two sheep are jumping from left to right in the first panel.]
:1... 2...
:Sheep: Baaa

:[Two sheep are jumping from left to right. Cueball is holding his pillow.]
:... 1,306... 1,307...
:Sheep: Baaa

:[A whole flock of sheep (nine visible) is jumping over the fence from right to left; the first and last sheep is cut off at the edge of the frame. Cueball is now sitting up looking up at his thought bubble.]
:... 32,767 ...-32,768...
:Sheep's: Baaa baaa baaaa baaa ba
:Cueball: ?

:[Two sheep are again jumping from left to right. Cueball is holding his pillow over his head.]
:...-32,767... -32,766...
:Sheep: Baaa

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2022: Sports Champions

2018-08-27T23:17:28Z

172.68.47.54: fixed my signature

Since Kate Dopingscandal has a bike, it seems to me she's actually likely a direct reference to Lance Armstrong. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:46, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
:Yeah, that's why I included him as an example. Feel free to clarify if you want, of course.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.68|162.158.155.68]] 06:09, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
::Why is a bike directly a direct reference to Lance Armstrong? and why are additionally only "many russians" listed? It is clearly not a phenomena only seen with mr. Armstrong, and Russians, but with cylcing sports in general. The biggest Cycling event, the {{w|Tour_de_France}} is hit by a doping scandal every year. Also other events have many {{w|List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling|cases}}. Lately actually there have even be cases of [http://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/542/motor-doping-is-happening-and-weve-tested-it Motor Doping]. So I think Lance Armstrong can stay as maybe the most famous example, but we should say that it is many others and not Lance Armstrong and Russians. [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:22, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
:::Because he's easily the most famous example. I realize there are plenty of others - the France native below portrays it as downright epidemic in the sport - but Lance was so highly unbelievably visible. My impression is that in North America (which is where both Randall and I live), cycling as a professional sport enjoys notably less popularity than most other sports, and less than it might elsewhere in the world. Yet virtually EVERYBODY has heard of Lance (I follow no sports whatsoever, and I can even discuss him here). Lance attained nearly a hero status, he beat cancer... He started and/or inspired The LiveStrong movement, its support bracelets spread far and wide, inspiring imitators. At which point the scandal hit. Now combine this heightened visibility with Randall's history of comics portraying him - as Cueball - as knowing nothing about sports. Lance is the only cycling doping scandal _I_ can name, or even cyclist I can name at all, chances are it's the same for Randall. This comic is certainly referencing Lance. I only commented because the description was only listing him as an example. (I said nothing about Russians, I don't know of any Russian doping scandal) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 13:46, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
:::Having re-checked the description, I can answer the Russian portion: It says "many Russians" because those words link to a Wikipedia article about Russia in general, not one particular incident. The mere existence of the article tells me that enough Russians have been hit by doping scandals that they rate their own Wikipedia article. It's a great find for this ExplainXKCD article, no wonder somebody made sure to include it. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 13:55, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
::::I put both those in. In fact, I wrote almost the entire article. I'm English, but I try to "think American" when editing. I immediately thought of Armstrong,and totally agree with your reasoning; if you do searches for "doping scandal" you immediately see him, but also, the Russian thing. Centered on the 2012 Olympics, and state-sponsored doping, their subsequent exclusion from the 2016 Olympics is amongst the biggest ever sporting scandals of all time, worldwide. Perhaps more so outside America, but it's certainly of epic proportions.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.138|141.101.107.138]] 16:54, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
::I'm 46 and live in France. As far as I can remember (1980 ?) cycling has always been THE sport associated with doping. I can remember some famous cases in other sports (Ben Johnson in the 1988 olympics) but for cycling it was said to be quasi systematic. The Armstong case was a worldwide scandal, but Tour de France had a much severe problem in 1998 where entire teams were involved and excluded from the race. Five years later, after several trials and new analysis of the 1998 samples with more evolved techniques it was revealed that at least the 5 first finishers (and many more) were doped. If you consult the Wikipedia article “doping in sport”, you will note that cycling is by far the largest section, and almost 100 years old in Tour de France. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.34|108.162.229.34]] 12:57, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
:::Ah, but in cases like this, where different cultures can have an effect, I always bring it back to this: Where does Randall live? In America. While people in France (and cycling fans) might be well aware of many, many, MANY cycling doping scandals, I'd say the average American is not. Plus, Randall has been quite vocal about not knowing sports. Chances are, Lance Armstrong is the only cyclist he can even name at all, never mind doping scandals. And now I cause myself to wonder, did Randall think of Armstrong because his last name is also one made of words, that Lance Armstrong would be on this list himself if he had excelled at arm wrestling? :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 13:46, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

He should have listed, in the sport of eXtreme Software Engineering, the dominance of Little Bobby Tables in the late 2020's. ---- {{unsigned ip|172.68.141.136}}
:Damn, what a missed opportunity. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 13:46, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

Would Jebediah be a reference to Kerbal Space Program? Things tend to go disaterously in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.160|108.162.210.160]] 12:54, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

It's worth noting that the all-star right fielder for the Boston Red Sox, who are currently in first place in the MLB, is named Markus Lynn "Mookie" Betts, with the initials "MLB." Aside from the fact that he's already won several divisional titles with his team, there's a good chance he'll soon be on a world series winning team as well, perhaps to become the next high-profile example. (Full disclosure: I'm a huge Red Sox fan) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.22|172.68.54.22]] 13:47, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Art Ball (1890’s)
Full name Arthur Ball
Born April , 1872, Madison, Indiana
Died December 26, 1915, Chicago, Illinois
Buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois
First MLB Game: August 1, 1894; Final MLB Game: October 15, 1898
Bat: Unknown Throw: Right Weight: 168 {{unsigned ip|172.68.54.76}}

What, no Cecil Fielder? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.46|162.158.63.46]] 19:32, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

What, no [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Moneymaker Chris Moneymaker? (Poker, 2000's)] [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 01:10, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

;Moved from the main talk page: --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:30, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
Misspelling in today's comic

Your article says: "Randall has chosen to spell his name as "Disasterous", rather than the more conventional "Disastrous"." Presumably he hasn't "chosen" to do this but merely made a spelling error. In that case, your comment is misleading. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.21|162.158.158.21]] 23:25, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Brandon Sponsorship may also be read as Brand On Sponsorship, having two terms related.
:I know what you mean, and thought about it at the time, but the connection isn't completely obvious and I didn't want to bring in too much assumption on my part. I tried to reference it without making a judgement, by mentioning the word in the text, but not putting it in bold or directly saying that there was a connection. I think that's OK? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 16:27, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
(Previous person didn't sign) About the misspelling, I feel like that's a perfectly acceptable version of the word. It's how I'd instinctually spell it, he just added "ous" to the word "disaster". That's where the word comes from! It's actually ridiculous that this ISN'T the correct spelling! I blame the English language on this one. I'd guess that centuries ago that WAS the correct spelling, and the E just got dropped at some point, to streamline the pronunciation of the word. I just Googled it, and MANY articles showed up defining it as a common misspelling of the word, that's how common this spelling is. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 14:11, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

:There is no right or wrong spelling for a surname. You can be Mr. Tailor or Mr.Taylor, or a hundred other versions. That's why I deliberately wrote that Randall ''chose'' that spelling, and I think it's obvious from the way I phrased it that it's not the normal spelling of the word. I don't think we should pass judgement about his decision, even though there's a very high chance he just made a typo. I also concur with the opinion of NiceGuy1, so I have changed it back to the way it was. Best, [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 16:27, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
::Given that the USA has a dominantly prescriptivist spelling culture for non-names (i.e. in academics and business correctness is defined by books before common usage, coompare to descriptivist which would be the other way around), the phrasing here misleads the leader into believing that both spellings are currently considered correct, as is actually true for other words. There are a lot of misleading statements in this wiki; maybe we should be up-front about that until somebody has the energy to work through everything and stay on top of it all. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.118|162.158.63.118]] 14:45, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
:::There I fixed it. [[User:Faultwire|I'm me(citation needed)]] ([[User talk:Faultwire|talk]]) 23:28, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
::::Still looks messy to me; what kind of citation do you want - a brainscan of Randall? You know he chose to write the word in that way. Why is beyond our knowledge. See further down this page for more discussion and opinions about it. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.104|162.158.155.104]] 04:28, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
From the transcript: "[Cueball with a golf club] Gary Player" and "[Cueball with a basketball] Lonzo Ball". I'm not familiar with all the conventions around here, but would it be NOT Cueball when it is very definitely someone else? Sure, the made-up names later on could be Cueball standing in for them, but for those, wouldn't it actually be the real person, just looking Cueball-ish due to the art style? (And as an aside, a slight pity that there wasn't a pool player named something like Randall Cueball in the comic... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.130|162.158.75.130]] 03:31, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

;Podium/Lectern

When I first wrote this explanation, without thinking much, I said Jeb was standing at a {{w|podium}}. Someone corrected it to "lectern", which is absolutely correct of them - see that Wikipedia article. But the interesting thing is, there is an xkcd cartoon about this very subject!

[[1661: Podium]]

Should this somehow be mentioned in the explanation? I thought probably not, because Randall made no mention of it; it was purely my own error, and just an interesting connection to today's comic. Right? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.138|141.101.107.138]] 16:36, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

;Margaret Court
She wasn't the best choice. Recently in Australia someone let her near a microphone & it turns out she's quite homophobic.
* Perhaps not in terms of PR and exposure of the sport (and I certainly am among those who don't approve), but that doesn't detract from the point of the comic which looks in terms of on-field accomplishments and their last names. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.121|173.245.52.121]] 15:15, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

;Jebediah's Sport

It appears that, based on the person's name, their sport could be debating, public speaking, or giving live postgame press conferences.

[[User:Milesman34|Milesman34]] ([[User talk:Milesman34|talk]]) 03:48, 23 July 2018 (UTC)milesman34

;Why Baseball is a Problem

Did you ever notice that players named "White" are almost always black, and players named "Black" are usually white? Why is that? The last White major leaguer who was actually white was Mike White, who played for Houston in the early sixties. Since then we've had Bill White, Roy White, Frank White, and Jerry White, all of whom were black; Mike White probably would have been black except that his father played in the majors in the thirties and they didn't allow you to be black back then. The Royals also had a Black on their roster, Bud, who of course is white; in fact, the Royals had to set some sort of record by having four colored people on their team, White, Black, Blue, and Brown. Scott Brown is not any browner than anyone else, Vida is definitely not blue, nor for that matter is Darryl Motley. I suppose that is the nature of names, as with Peacekeeping Missiles and Security Police, to disguise the truth more often than they reveal it. Horace Speed stole only four bases in his career. Vic Power was a singles hitter, Bill Goodenough was not good enough, and Joe Blong did not belong for long.

-- Bill James, 1983

Me, I'm disappointed that Jim Gentile wasn't Jewish. [[User:WHPratt|WHPratt]] ([[User talk:WHPratt|talk]]) 12:16, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

;Chosen spelling - Citation needed

Re. Randall has chosen to spell his name as "Disasterous", rather than the more conventional "Disastrous".

Putting <nowiki>{{citation needed}}</nowiki> on that is a bit silly. You can see he chose to spell it that way from the cartoon. It's self-evident. What's the issue, what needs a citation? As to why he decided to spell it that way, nobody but Randall knows, and we're unlikely to ever find out. It's probably a typo, but isn't that just an assumption? He chose to type the word that way - whether that's because he doesn't know how to spell it correctly, or because he likes it that way. Nobody but Randall knows.

A couple of people think it should say he misspelled it, but see the discussions; others agree with me that there is not correct spelling of surnames (e.g. Tailor/Taylor). It's a name, not the word.

IMHO, the cite-needed is just clutter and confusing. I think the wording was good, without a messy tag. It's not really something I want to argue pointlessly and endlessly about, so I won't remove it myself right now; I'll see what other people say. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.138|141.101.107.138]] 14:52, 26 July 2018 (UTC)

:Eh, it's been several days, nobody seems bothered, so I'll remove it now. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.36|141.101.107.36]] 15:05, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

::The idea (or more properly, the joke) behind {{Citation needed}} isn't that a citation is truly needed, it's that something that should be blatantly obvious has been stated (see point 3 in the trivia for citation needed). Randall wrote what he did, whether he chose to or not is up to interpretation, no matter how obvious that interpretation is. The tag is not meant to be taken literally. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.54|172.68.47.54]] 23:17, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

;Kerbal
why am i the first one to see the kerbal space program reference? where are you my fellow kerbals?
:It's a bit of a tenuous link. I get it, Kerbal has disasters, and has a person named Jebediah, but it's a reasonably common name; there's nothing space-related in the cartoon to suggest a connection. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.104|162.158.155.104]] 04:21, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

;table -> descr.list
: in my neverending quest to rid this wiki of misued tables I've changed it to a description list. This makes reading easier (to me, at least) and should help for mobile users, once such a layout gets implemented. I feel like I'm pushing a bit with this one, so feel free to revert my change if it doesn't fit the style. [[User:Gir|//gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 14:23, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
::I'm really happy with this, but the first line below the header should not be indented. Like your comment above as well. This is also easier for editors with less experience on Wiki syntax. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:43, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

2035: Dark Matter Candidates

2018-08-20T04:22:18Z

172.68.47.54:

{{comic
| number = 2035
| date = August 20, 2018
| title = Dark Matter Candidates
| image = dark_matter_candidates.png
| titletext = My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REAL ORBIT LINE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2031: Pie Charts

2018-08-11T00:26:41Z

172.68.47.54:

I wonder if it is a coincidence that this came out the same week as Android Pie [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 15:34, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

[[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] [[Special:Diff/161046|seems]] to want to share this link: [https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/FOX-News-Chart-Fails-Math-73711092.html Fox News] --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 16:56, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
:What's wrong with the link? The link in that page is exactly the type of pie chart to which he is referring [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 16:57, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

:: But that's the wrong place to put it. I'm not even sure that it fits anywhere in the article, but it ''definitely'' doesn't fit in the "who created this page" part of the "this page is incomplete" tag. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 17:18, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

::: Wrong just in the sense that it's a temporary place, but I think it adds to the humor of referring to Fox News in the "who created this page" piece. It might be appropriate to add it to a section of real world examples of published pie charts that fail the "mostly 100%" test (aside from trivial rounding errors). [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:40, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

That's not a hyperbolic plane. It's more like a cone, but with more than 360 degrees instead of less. I don't know the proper term for it. It has curvature zero everywhere except the center, which is a singularity. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 19:00, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

Any explanation of the title text? An example of the clipart would be great. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.54|172.68.47.54]] 00:26, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

2030: Voting Software

2018-08-09T00:50:35Z

172.68.47.54: /* Explanation */ copyedit, link

{{comic
| number = 2030
| date = August 8, 2018
| title = Voting Software
| image = voting_software.png
| titletext = There are lots of very smart people doing fascinating work on cryptographic voting protocols. We should be funding and encouraging them, and doing all our elections with paper ballots until everyone currently working in that field has retired.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLOCKCHAIN - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The first two panels of this comic involve a reporter talking to professionals of a given field regarding the given safety of the products/solutions that each of their fields help to produce, or are at least partially involved in said production (Airplanes from aircraft designers in Panel 1, Elevators from building engineers in Panel 2). While the two inventions selected are relatively new when compared to how long humans have existed, the two fields mentioned have existed for multiple human generations, giving enough time to find flaws in their products/solutions and patch them to the point that they can be considered safe to use for the general public

The comic from Panel 3 contrasts this with [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] both agreeing that their given field (computer science / software development / software engineering) does not have the overall consistent competency that other fields have or, at the very least, appear to have. This is true (at least anecdotally) since there are very few ethical and security restrictions for what developers can/cannot do, and relatively minor consequences when catastrophes arise from poor decisions.

Computer systems, operating primarily in a digital domain fail differently than most traditional areas of engineering, which operate in analog (or continuous) domains. A small error in an analog part often gives a result which is close to the desired properties (it almost fits, it works most of the time). Whereas a small error in a digital system (just one bit being changed) can easily make the system function in radically different ways. So not only is software engineering younger than other areas of engineering, but the domain is much less forgiving. Even small errors/variations are likely to produce radically different behavior.

The title text confirms the comic's stance by implicitly saying that any digital voting systems that are produced are to not be used under any circumstances.

The main joke of the comic is that when other engineers say something is safe, people don't believe them: People are scared of flying and elevators even though they are, statistically, very safe. However, the opposite is true for software engineers: When software engineers say something is dangerious, people don't believe them. (And e-voting is stupidly dangerous)

This is a result of a fundamental difference between computer security and other types of safety measures -- in cryptography, there is ''always'' somebody trying to undo what you've built. Not only that, but new advances in cryptography tend to point out vulnerabilities with previous versions, making them not only obsolete, but dangerously so.

For these reasons, it is especially important to make sure that whoever is selling you the security method is both competent and non-malicious, but because crypto software is highly technical and often confidential/proprietary, it can be hard to verify this if you're not an expert in the field (which you won't be, if you're buying it).

These issues are especially pertinent to {{w|voting machine}}s, which store incredibly valuable information but are often catastrophically outdated due to lack of funding. Furthermore, the people purchasing them, the politicians, are generally not known for their technical understanding.

{{w|Blockchain}} is a relatively new technology that is intended to solve some computer security issues by making it difficult to doctor old data. However, in the process of solving the old computer security issues, it has introduced new computer security issues that have not yet been ironed out. It also doesn't solve input fraud issues, only data-doctoring fraud, so if a program caused the voting machine to record a vote for candidate B whenever a vote for candidate A was cast (such a program could be uploaded to the voting machines through USB, or through the internet which the voting machine must be connected to for blockchain), blockchain would not prevent it.

Most computer security specialists are more worried about programs that randomly deliberately misrecord a vote, than people changing the votes after they're already recorded, so blockchain would solve an issue that most computer security specialists are less worried about, while causing new issues (the perpetual internet connection among them).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Asking aircraft designers about airplane safety:
:Hairbun: Nothing is ever foolproof, but modern airliners are incredibly resilient. Flying is the safest way to travel.

:Asking building engineers about elevator safety:
:Cueball: Elevators are protected by multiple tried-and-tested failsafe mechanisms. They're nearly incapable of falling.

:Asking software engineers about computerized voting:
:Megan: That's ''terrifying''.

:Ponytail: Wait, really?
:Megan: Don't trust voting software and don't listen to anyone who tells you it's safe.
:Ponytail: Why?
:Megan: I don't quite know how to put this, but our entire field is bad at what we do, and if you rely on us, everyone will die.

:Ponytail: They say they've fixed it with something called "blockchain."
:Megan: AAAAA!!!
:Cueball: Whatever they sold you, don't touch it.
:Megan: Bury it in the desert.
:Cueball: Wear gloves.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2003: Presidential Succession

2018-07-17T21:00:25Z

172.68.47.54: Added comment.

Aw, but what about Morgan Freeman? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.11|108.162.221.11]] 04:43, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
:And Kiefer -designated survivor- Sutherland?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.83|141.101.104.83]] 08:24, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
:Morgan Freeman> "I do solemnly swear / that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States..." [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 12:39, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Academy awards have been won by actors playing kings / queens - of England, the United Kingdom and Siam - Princes - of Denmark - and Prime Ministers of Great Britain and even the President of the Uniter States / Member of the house of Representatives, but I do not believe it has been won by an actor playing a state govenor. Mind you it is not clear if an actor playing a prison govenor, would count. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 11:30, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
: Broderick Crawford, actually. I've added him. To the best of my ability to determine, the opposite group (Governors Award recipients who have played characters named Oscar) appears to be an empty set. I'll note that I don't have a really comprehensive filmography for {{w|Jean-Claude Carrière}}, but I consider it fairly unlikely that he ever played a character by that name. [[User:Squeamish Ossifrage|Squeamish Ossifrage]] ([[User talk:Squeamish Ossifrage|talk]]) 16:08, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Bill Pullman's eldest daughter Maesa is a film composer with an IMDB page in her own right. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 11:30, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Top 5 US astronauts? I only count three. Who are the other two? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.76|172.68.150.76]] 12:15, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

As of September 3, 2017, the 5 US astronauts with the most total time in space are Peggy Whitson (665 days), Jeff Williams (534), Scott Kelly (520), Mike Fincke (382), and Mike Foale (374), according to https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-station-astronaut-record-holders. Michael Lopez-Alegria has the second-most time in space for a single spaceflight (215 days, compared to Scott Kelly, 340). [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 12:59, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Mike Foale was born in Louth - so ineligible. Michael Lopez-Alegria was born in Spain ditto [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 15:26, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
:Foale was born to an American mother and should hence be a natural-born American. --[[User:Ycthiognass|Ycthiognass]] ([[User talk:Ycthiognass|talk]]) 09:40, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
::There is actually legal question about whether someone born on foreign soil to US citizens count as "natural-born" (or whether courts would just say it's a political question and pass the buck to Congress), though I will add Foale back to the list. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.207|162.158.62.207]] 14:04, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

The non-US-citizen-being-in-line-for-the-Presidency thing has already been cleared up IRL - several Presidential cabinets have had non-natural-born-US citizens on them (current Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao was born in Taiwan; in the past Madeline Albright was born in the then-Czechoslovakia). All the serious succession lists I've ever seen just list them and skip over them. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 13:19, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

How do we decide who gets a bye in the jousting tournament? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.147|162.158.74.147]] 13:30, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
:Random draw, probably. There's no jousting rankings AFAIK to enable any kind of seeding like in tennis. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 15:16, 6 June 2018 (UTC) There is a USA chapter of the International Jousting Association. I didn't spend enough time to track down a rankings list, but there are 3 levels of competition, which would be a start in seeding. To further seed I'd suggest using the Europa Tiebreaker.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.15|162.158.62.15]] 18:14, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Anyone with a jousting ranking would not need a bye. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 15:26, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Anyone else think it's interesting that Kate gets a "if available" but Tom Hanks doesn't? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.184|172.69.62.184]] 16:23, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
: Also, why doesn't Tom Hanks kids get to be in line, like Bill Pulman's? Colin Hanks is old enough. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.210|162.158.122.210]] 03:59, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

I assume, but am too lazy to do all the maths, that the person born closest to Europa would be the one closest in time to the point Sun Earth and Jupiter are in line.
I found a table of opposition distances here: http://www.ianridpath.com/jupiter.htm
[[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 18:26, 6 June 2018 (UTC)That would seem to be the overwhelmingly dominant factor, the only other factors would be which side of the Earth someone is born on (up to 7915miles difference, or about 7 minutes of the Earth's orbit), and Elevation/Altitude,since as of yet no one has been born in space(citation required), this factor is trivial, equivalent to less than 1 second of Earth's orbit.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.15|162.158.62.15]] 18:14, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

All of this talk about ''where'' people were born is very misleading. The general opinion is that you have to have been a citizen from birth, not born in the U.S. (or a U.S. territory or whatever). Ted Cruz was born in Canada, but he would have been eligible had he won the nomination and the election. See http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/mar/26/ted-cruz-born-canada-eligible-run-president-update/ for discussion. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 20:56, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
*Yes, Kate Brown (governor of Oregon) should be restored to Randall's line of succession, because she was born in Spain while her father was serving in the U.S. Air Force. Presumably she's a U.S. citizen by birth and thus eligible for the presidency. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.150.52|172.68.150.52]] 22:44, 6 June 2018 (UTC)
** Added her. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign-born_United_States_politicians#Governors This page says she's a natural-born citizen]. --[[User:Ycthiognass|Ycthiognass]] ([[User talk:Ycthiognass|talk]]) 08:49, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

I read #7 being that we would have 5 people as co-president. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.210|162.158.122.210]] 03:59, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
:Would that also hold for other entries where multiple people are listed (e.g., multiple league MVPs meet the criteria)? Also, there is the "ties broken by born closest to Europa" title text. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.207|162.158.62.207]] 13:31, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

For the 'List of Specific Individuals', should it be maintained by who currently holds those positions, or left as who held them when the comic was posted? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.71|172.69.70.71]] 12:14, 7 June 2018 (UTC)
:If you want to come back and update the line as things change in the weeks, months, and years ahead, you're welcome to do so. If you do, I would recommend that both lists (the one accurate as of comic publishing and the one "updated") be maintained, perhaps as one table for fun comparison (adding blank spots as necessary if a current spot falls out of eligibility or a new one becomes eligible for whatever reason. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.207|162.158.62.207]] 13:29, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Tom Hanks is probably a reference to the June 4 Last Week Tonight episode, see http://time.com/5298479/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-guardianship/ {{unsigned ip|162.158.123.85}}

Oh! Question regarding Serena Williams - does it count if her latest match was in a ''doubles'' tournament? She pretty much always teams up with sister Venus in doubles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.207|162.158.62.207]] 14:52, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Anyone else curious about the apostrophe in "Governor's award"? The current notes imply that it is simply a mistake in "Governors Awards" (the Academy Awards similar to the Oscars), but Governor's awards (i.e., an award by a state Governor) for other areas are quite common (e.g. Clemson University Governor's Award for Excellence in Science and Pennsylvania's Governor's Award for the Arts). Rearranging Oscar and governor from the preceding criterion certainly makes sense, but wild speculation is always more fun... {{unsigned ip|172.68.211.28}}

1933: Santa Facts mentioned Santa being 9th in the presidential line of succession. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.7|162.158.111.7]] 08:56, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

To me, #17 (Pullman '''and''' his descendants) seems to imply that we'd abolish the 4-year term and be presided by the Pullman clan for as long as there are eligible successors. #18 might imply that too. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.21|162.158.74.21]] 20:14, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
:Presidential elections are mandated in the Constitution every four years - Bill or any of his descendants, or any qualifying member of the UK royal line of succession, would only serve until the current term ends. (Whether a crisis that knocked so many people ahead of them out of the line would allow a reputable and accepted election is another story.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.139|173.245.52.139]] 15:37, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

I note that if Donald Trump wasn't already holding the office of President, he could only qualify from positions 7 and 20 on Randall's list. And not at all from the actual list. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 01:09, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
:He wouldn't have been the only one - Obama's and JFK's previous job title before becoming President was US Senator, and Eisenhower was President of Columbia University. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.139|173.245.52.139]] 15:37, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

There are two problems with this explanation:
The line of succession applies only when the office of president becomes vacant. If the president is incapacitated, the vice president acts as president. If that office is vacant, or the vice precident is also incapacitated, the US will have to do without a president.

The constitution places no restrictions on who can act as president. The current law of succession stipulates that only those elegible to become president can act as president, the constitution does not.
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.154|162.158.134.154]] 08:30, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
:Point 1, the office of President may be vacant but the powers of the Acting President execute the same by whomever the line falls to, and in times of crisis people will nearly certainly just consider them the new President (conflicting claims aside). Point 2 is just false - Article 2 of the Constitution stipulates natural-born citizen at 35 years old and having lived in the US for the last 14 years. Unless you're arguing that "President" and "Acting President" aren't the same? That sure as hell didn't stop John Tyler from refusing to acknowledge anyone who didn't acknowledge him as the new President after William Henry Harrison died a month into his term. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.139|173.245.52.139]] 15:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
::Point2: That is exactly what I am saying. Only the vice president can succeed to the presidency. The others would execute the powers of the president. What would most likely happen is that the acting president would appoint a vice president, who would succeed immediately when approved by congress.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.34|162.158.134.34]] 07:50, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
::Point 1: There would be no acting president. Only the vice president can become acting president when the president is incapacitated. This and the office of president being vacant are covered in entirely separate parts of the constitution. The line of succession applies only in the latter case.
::Point 2: That was established in congressional legislation. Only the Vice President can become President when the President is incapcaitated, the rest act using the powers of the president but are not themselves the president.

;The Queen
Shouldn't the Queen come before Charles of Windsor? She is 0th in the British succession line. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.27.246|172.68.27.246]] 20:48, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
::It would violate Royal Oath. [[User:Erkinalp|Erkinalp]] ([[User talk:Erkinalp|talk]]) 13:53, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:396: The Ring

2017-06-28T02:51:31Z

172.68.47.54:

Ironic, when Youtube is one of the prime targets for death-threat chain letters. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 03:32, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

How does the comic imply that he is not safe? The mom just seems mad because 360,000 people are going to die. [[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 03:10, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

In the books, copying didn't really make you safe. Granted, this comic is about the movie based off of the movie based off of the books, so the comparison is pretty limited. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 18:57, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

The boy is not Cueball but a child. He did watch the tape on a TV, presumably at a much better resolution as his YouTube upload is.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:41, 13 June 2013 (UTC)
:The transcript calls him "young cueball" [[Special:Contributions/190.75.237.167|190.75.237.167]] 01:37, 14 July 2013 (UTC)
:The official transcript calls them just 'boy' and 'girl'. 'Young Cueball' isn't a thing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 21:44, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
::Where is the official transcript - is this something Randall post somewhere? The transcript on this page uses the names given to the characters on this page. Cueball only exist as a name outside the XKCD comic. It is not something Randall subscribes to. But here any non descript character is called Cueball. But is is true that this is a child version of Cueball and I have corrected the explain so it says this. The transcript is fine as it is. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:26, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
Randall loses points for calling her "Samara" and not Sadako.
the "remakes" do not exist. that is a fact.
[[Special:Contributions/193.37.237.100|193.37.237.100]] 09:50, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
:Maybe but as the comic is about the Ring Sadako is not in the movie Cueball watches :-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:26, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Is it likely that Ponytail and Young Cueball are Rachel and Aiden from the movie? The first panel (apart from the nonchalance of the child) seems somewhat similar to the scene in the movie where Rachel discovers that Aiden has watched the tape. --[[User:Hatkirby|Hatkirby]] ([[User talk:Hatkirby|talk]]) 04:09, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Sharing doesn't reduce the number of casualties. It only transfers the death sentence to another person. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 08:15, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

Actually, this happened, in the crossover film between the Japanese series of this movie (Ringu) and Ju-On (Japanese version of the Grudge), named 'Sadako v. Kayako'. Right before she dies, one of the main characters uploads a version of the tape to a file-sharing site, allowing it to distribute through the internet and pick up 6,000 views in a few hours. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.54|172.68.47.54]] 02:51, 28 June 2017 (UTC)