explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

929: Speculation

2023-10-20T22:07:13Z

172.70.210.45: /* Transcript */ google plus

{{comic
| number = 929
| date = July 25, 2011
| title = Speculation
| image = speculation.png
| titletext = 'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'
}}

==Explanation==
During a {{w|basketball}} game, the players discuss the nature of universal conformity. {{w|Facebook}} and the now-defunct {{w|Google+}} were competing {{w|social networks}}; at the time of this comic many people were switching to Plus over Facebook leading many to speculate that Facebook was in decline and that Plus would soon be the dominant social network. As of 2019, it seems that Facebook has successfully held its position as the Default Social Network™, while Google Plus was a colossal blunder for Google and was finally sunset for consumers in April 2019.
The two players seem to have a disagreement over this. One player states that it would be ridiculous to expect everyone to move to Plus. The other player denies the notion that they have to, stating that he values his personal preference over conformity. He supports this idea by saying that his mother still uses {{w|AOL}} and other people continue using {{w|IRC}} and that if each time a new dominant social network emerged and everyone switched to it, neither of these things would stick around.

They are interrupted when they pass the ball to [[Black Hat]], who immediately shoots it with a crossbow bolt. Their arguments and rather intelligent discussion are derailed by the absurdity of Black Hat's reaction, which is both humorous and puts the issue in stark contrast.

Black Hat neither joins in the discussion nor does he participate in the game. It seems that any offer to participate in either is met with a blunt and clear denial. He is simply not a conformist.

A possible explanation for the joke is that while tech geeks or Google enthusiasts might discuss whether the world will move from Facebook to Plus, a number of people might simply ignore the debate and "shoot" the discussion dead by just ignoring the existence of anything that isn't Facebook. Or even that of Facebook itself; Blackhat's attention appears to be on a phone, at least before and after having loosed the crossbow bolt, but there's no obvious clue here as to what he actually uses it for/with, at the time of this comic.

In the title text, Black Hat continues to provide an example of his tendency to play by his own rules. A clay pigeon is a clay disc that is thrown into the air and serves as a target on a {{w|skeet shooting}} range. Participants are expected to shoot the pigeons with a shotgun but Black Hat would rather capture the clay pigeons and shoot them from a very close range. (This is made even more humorous by the excellent crossbow skills he shows in the comic.) This practice eventually got him expelled from the shooting range. It is unclear whether Black Hat was good at shooting clay pigeons from farther away.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball-like guys are playing basketball. The right guy (Cueball) attempts to throw the basketball through the hoop, but it bounces off down to his friend. To the right Black Hat has his back to the other two while he is looking at his phone.]
:Friend: Do you seriously think ''everyone'' will move to Plus? It was hard enough getting them on Facebook.

:[The friend has caught the rebound and now passes the basketball back to Cueball. Black Hat is not shown.]
:Cueball: Do they have to?
:Cueball: My mom still uses AOL—it doesn't mean my social life has to happen there.

:[Only Cueball is shown. He passes the basketball to the right towards the off-panel Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Universal adoption isn't everything. I mean, IRC is still—

:[Zoom in on the basketball as a crossbow bolt pierces the ball, forming a slight depression.]
:''Thunk''

:[Cueball looks to Black Hat who has a crossbow in one hand, he is still looking at the phone in his other hand. The ball with the arrow lies between them.]
:Cueball: You're not really the "catch" type, are you?
:Black Hat: I am not.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Google Plus]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Crossbows]]
[[Category:Sport]]

934: Mac/PC

2023-10-20T21:56:40Z

172.70.210.45: /* Transcript */ internet

{{comic
| number = 934
| date = August 5, 2011
| title = Mac/PC
| image = mac_pc.png
| titletext = It's fun to watch browsers fumblingly recapitulate the history of window management. Someday we'll have xmonad as a Firefox extension.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of the "{{w|Get a Mac}}" (also known as "I'm a Mac" or "Mac vs. PC") ad campaign for the {{w|Mac}} brand of computers. The ads personified the Mac and their competitors, the PC. The ads poked fun at the PC's terrible function while paying attention to the Mac's unique features. Each ad started with the duo introducing themselves as "I'm a Mac..." "...and I'm a PC."

The comic, however, presents the differences between them as no longer of much importance, since most everything nowadays is done through browsers. In essence, using the same browser to visit the same website among different operating systems would give you an experience that is very much the same. Additionally, there is some self-referential humor here; both the Mac and PC are [[Cueball]]s due to xkcd's style. Therefore, they are literally identical as far as appearance goes. The apotheosis of computing via a browser is probably the {{w|Chromebook}}, a range of laptops whose operating system is based upon the browser {{w|Google Chrome}}, and which first became commercially available a few weeks before this comic appeared.

The title text refers to {{w|window management}}, which is software that controls windows on computers, and is in many ways similar to the more recent development of {{w|tab (GUI)|tabbed}} browsers. {{w|xmonad}} is one such program, and [[Randall]] says that eventually it will be an extension usable with the browser {{w|Firefox}}. What makes it somewhat unusual (and thus worth mentioning) is that it is a {{w|Tiling window manager|tiling window manager}}, meaning it automatically arranges and resizes newly opened program windows to fit a grid. This is especially useful on large screens.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueballs stand facing out of the screen.]
:Cueball #1: I'm a Mac
:Cueball #2: And I'm a PC.
:Cueballs: And since you do everything through a browser now, we're pretty indistinguishable.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Internet]]

2790: Heat Pump

2023-06-16T22:44:00Z

172.70.210.45: Fixed awkward grammer

{{comic
| number = 2790
| date = June 16, 2023
| title = Heat Pump
| image = heat_pump_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x400px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If I'm not going to upgrade to a powered one, I should at LEAST stop leaving the door open so often.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BIG CHUNGUS HEAT PUMPER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|heat pump}} is a system which applies [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law Ideal gas law] to transfer heat from a relatively cold area to a relatively hot area, I.E. to warm a cold room/building or to cool a hot room or building.

In this comic, Cueball uses a ''manual'' heat pump to warm an area by walking from the warm area (colored in ''red'') to a colder area (colored in ''blue''), and expanding a fixed mass of gas in an accordion-shaped device so that it is colder (dark blue) then the cold area then warming it up to the cold area temperature. Then returning back to the warm area, compressing the fixed mass of gas so it gets hotter (dark red) then transferring the heat to the warm area. As expected, this is a laborious process, as captioned in the text below the panel. In the comic it says radiate when transferring the heat to the room, however under normal conditions this transfer is primarily by conduction and convection unless in a vacuum like the ISS. Manual heat pumps do not exist in real life.{{citation needed}}

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

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Manual heat pumps are such a pain.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Physics]]