Talk:2758: My Favorite Things

2024-07-12T00:23:56Z

172.70.206.197: Replying to 172.70.100.130

I like the copper veneer news link, can someone find a version not behind a paywall though? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.130|172.70.100.130]] 18:29, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
:Just run it through archive.is or something. [https://archive.is/hxknl Here's the article on the aforementioned website.][[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.197|172.70.206.197]] 00:23, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Still no April Fools' comic? 😞 ~ Megan she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 23:31, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
:Sadly --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 02:42, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
::guess there won't be one for this year [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/]][[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|miLcaqq2Zpk]] 03:04, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

:Anyone have any news?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.182|172.70.131.182]] 23:32, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

:[[:File:Explanation length.png|Frankly, I'm worried about burnout.]] [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 10:52, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
::Naw, I think there's life in explainxkcders yet...
::If you mean Randall, however:
::# Complexity of necessary explanation doesn't necessarily tally with the quality of the comic (some might even say that the best comic is something real smart and yet perfectly understandable without much actual blather required by/from us),
::# There'll be more natural and immediate zeroing in on the 'ideal' explanation length with each emerging comics, whilst it becomes a conscious decision by someone to decide to revist an early comic and completely rewrite (solo, rather than as part of a crowd) to the 'latest' standards of verbosity/succinctity.
::# As xkcd lore grows, there's more back-referencing and expansion possible (c.f. "So... What's this boy in a barrel about?" vs the now established behaviour of any particular '<Colour> <Headwear>' character.
::# Everyone likes some types of comic and dislikes others.. If a new Map Of The Internet came out, some would enjoy it (and then maybe rail against a boring Cursed Thing comic, afterwards), and some others might think it derivative (yeah, they got a good Cursed thing joke, straight after, but the Map just sticks in their mind as a bad decision).
::...so I say enjoy or don't enjoy. There's a whole world of webcomics out there, and yet none of them is capable of being "every one a winner", by whatever aesthetic, metric or tally you might decide works for you. I'm probably missing some other rising (or risen, and favourably plateaued) star, by being right here, right now, but I feel happy enough to lurk here (and everywhere else I hang around). You do and think as you will. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.187|172.71.178.187]] 13:20, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
:::Complexity of necessary explanation doesn't necessarily correlate with length of actual explanation either, nor length of actual explanation with quality of said explanation. There examples of near-perfect explanations that are short and succinct, and others of comincs of equal complexity/simplicity that are filled with several paragraphs of tangential repetitive waffle. If anything, I'd say that longer explanations tend to be an indication of a comic that touches on enough ideas for a number of people to throw stuff into the mix, but doesn't engage people enough to edit it down into a quality article.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.28|141.101.77.28]] 11:41, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
::There's a few concerning things about this wiki, like the fact that the MediaWiki version's lagging behind the latest release by too far. If there's a security vulnerability who knows what the vandals will do with it... ~ Megan she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 02:26, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
::: Vandals are capable of doing a lot. As they have done, over the last year or two, in particular (though those incidents were probably just the one idiot who is still likely around, but more subtle). The potential for security vulnerabilities is a separate issue, and there a documented reasons for how that is/isn't being dealt with, if you check. Your concerns are probably noted, they've been mentioned often enough, but I wouldn't want to speak for those with more direct influence and responsibility. I presume you all practice Safe Hex (i.e. not reusing passwords, especially in any email service you're registered with, should such stored details somehow become compromised) and that means it's 'only' an inconvenience if worst comes to worst, less so than the loss of the Forums was.
::: And this really has nothing to do with complaints about a 'decline in quality' of either comics or their explanations. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 05:47, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
:I mean, we did just get Gravity back in December, which is at about the same scale as the April fools comics. I assume that took the place of the April fools comics for this year. [[User:CJB42|CJB42]] ([[User talk:CJB42|talk]]) 20:15, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

The [https://twolumps.net/comic/ea-nasir/ Two Lumps] webcomic joined in on April 5, 2023 with an Ea-nāṣir reference. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 23:13, 6 April 2023 (UTC)
== Table? ==

I'd like to add this table, but I'm not completely certain about it; it may be redundant to the transcript and comic itself, and just including the original lyrics would suffice.

{|class="wikitable"
! Original line
! Cueball's version
|-
|Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
|Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
|-
|Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
|Bright copper kettles leave... flakes on my mittens!?
|-
|Brown paper packages tied up with strings
|Hey, these are stone with a copper veneer!
|-
|These are a few of my favorite things!
|I've been bamboozled by Ea-nāṣir!
|}

Thoughts? Plus a version for the title text, most likely. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 15:11, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think the transcript is fine as is. If you know the song, the way it's done in the text is sufficient. If you don't, doing it as a table won't help. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:18, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
: I think the table would look better, and be more understandable to people who have not heard of the song before. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 23:06, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
: $0.02 I think the table is helpful. And the title text is not yet in transcript so that would be a nice addition. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]])
:: Title texts don't go in the transcript. They're already there in the header comic details (and ideally mentioned, soehow, and explained in the Explanation), and don't need giving in readable form in the same way as the text interpretation/''official'' text interpretation does this job for the unscreenreadble/unsearchable graphics/handwriting that exitsts only in image pixels. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.158|141.101.99.158]] 19:37, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

== XKCD forums ==

if you think randall munroe should bring back xkcd fourums sign this petition https://chng.it/MVYcybvVrJ and spread this link for every 10 people signing i will bother randall munroe about it [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.86|172.70.42.86]] 12:42, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

:I wouldn't presume to pressure Randall into taking on the (significant) burden of moderating forums. I'm grateful for all he's done for free to date. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 19:33, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

2694: Königsberg

2022-11-05T18:56:59Z

172.70.206.197: complete transcript

{{comic
| number = 2694
| date = November 4, 2022
| title = Königsberg
| image = konigsberg_2x.png
| imagesize = 448x343px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At first I thought I would need some gold or something to pay him, but then I realized that it was the 18th century and I could just bring a roll of aluminum foil.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WOLF, TWO GOATS, AND THREE BAGS OF GRAPH NODES. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[File:Konigsberg bridges.png|frame|right|{{w|Königsberg}}, Prussia in Euler's time, showing the Pregel river and its seven bridges. The Baltic port city is now Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave. Two of the original seven bridges no longer exist[https://goo.gl/maps/ChdBoeQMr3AQPi446], although there are three new ones (a footbridge and two motorway bridges).]]

This comic is about the {{w|Seven Bridges of Königsberg}}, a seminal {{w|graph theory}} problem solved by the famous mathematician {{w|Leonhard Euler}}.[https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/leonard-eulers-solution-to-the-konigsberg-bridge-problem] {{w|Graph (discrete mathematics)|Graphs}} are a data structure common in many algorithmic problems in computer science. The problem was whether it was possible to devise a path through the city that would cross each of the seven bridges exactly once, without crossing the river forks any other way. In 1736, Euler proved that there was no such possible path. This result is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory and the first proof in the theory of networks[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/courses/2004/cscs535/review.pdf] — a subject now generally regarded as a branch of {{w|combinatorics}} — and presaged the development of {{w|topology}}. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity.

[[Cueball]] attempts to cheat on the final exam in his algorithms class by traveling back in time to commission the construction of an eighth bridge before Euler could learn of the problem, allowing a trivial solution that would remove the rationale for further analysis. He hopes that this would alter his present-day timeline in such a way that the test becomes easier because graph theory might never have been developed.

With the addition of the eighth bridge, it becomes possible to cross each bridge exactly once, starting at the north bank and ending on the larger eastern island, or vice-versa. However, there is still no way to traverse each bridge exactly once and return to the starting point, because the altered graph would have an {{w|Eulerian trail|Euler trail}} but not an Euler cycle. Thus the problem might still have been sufficiently interesting to spark Euler's curiosity and develop a nearly identical general principle on the way to demonstrating that locals could indeed find no route that ended at its initial starting point. Adding a ninth bridge connecting the north bank to the east island would render the problem completely trivial and the locals may then have developed entirely different obsessions, never drawing Euler into the issue and leaving him to focus upon different problems entirely. This could backfire on Cueball, and result in an even harder topic arising in his examination, that was never even taught to him in his original timeline experience.

The title text alludes to the fact that ordinary {{w|aluminum foil}}, which was not commercially available until 1911, would have been a tremendously valuable curiosity in the 18th century, which didn't even have {{w|tin foil}}. Aluminum was a highly priced metal before the 1880s when inexpensive methods were developed to refine it. The {{w|Washington Monument}} was constructed with a tip made of pure aluminum due to its value and conductive capacity. Aluminum had not been extracted in its pure form at the time of Euler, and was known only in compounds such as {{w|alum}}, so the metal would have been unique and exotic.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball, standing next to two men wearing wigs, pointing with a pointer at a map showing the seven bridges problem, with an extra bridge added in dashed lines]
:Cueball: Lord Mayor of Königsberg, I will reward you handsomely if you construct this bridge before my friend Leonhard arrives.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I tried to use a time machine to cheat on my algorithms final by preventing graph theory from being invented.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Programming]]

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Talk:2758: My Favorite Things

2694: Königsberg