explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2917: Types of Eclipse Photo

2024-04-10T11:39:38Z

172.70.86.7: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2917
| date = April 8, 2024
| title = Types of Eclipse Photo
| image = types_of_eclipse_photo_2x.png
| imagesize = 594x460px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The most rare, top-tier eclipse photo would be the Solar Earth Eclipse, but the Apollo 12 crew's attempt to capture it was marred by camera shake. They said it looked spectacular, though.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an AUSTRALIAN CLOUD FROM THE FUTURE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|recent total solar eclipse}} visible in North America. The last photograph refers to one in 2028 that will cross the Australian continent.

'''The Standard:''' A photo of the solar eclipse during totality, a typical photo most people might hope to take.

'''The Partial:''' A photo of the eclipse in progress, likely approaching totality. Another typical photo most viewers take as the eclipse progresses, or the sum total image that could have been taken if not able to be at the [[2914: Eclipse Coolness|right time/place]] to properly observe totality.

'''The Reaction Shot:''' Some people will choose to take a photo of their reaction or their friends' and/or family's reaction. Typically, this style is chosen to document something more personal to the viewer, since a large number of photos of the eclipse already exist online,{{Citation Needed}} and a shot of the crowd is perhaps a more foresighted way of documenting their personal presence under the phenomenon.

'''The Fancy Lens:''' A photo of this type, that features conspicuous {{w|solar prominence}}s, will almost certainly require a lot more preparation and equipment (the 'fancy lens', a tripod or other mounting, etc).

'''The Focus Issues:''' People new or unaware of the difficulties of astral photography typically experience challenges focusing their lenses on astral bodies, especially if they are trying to fight against a confused auto-focus. The eclipse is no exception to this, and this type of photo popped up more frequently during this event because more people were taking photos of the sky than usual.

'''The Traffic Jam:''' On the way to the zone of totality many people got stuck in traffic. About 20 million people lived in the path of totality and some 200 million people in travel range, so many hundreds of thousands commuted to view the eclipse. Some of them took ironic or embittered photos of their common predicament.

'''The Astronaut:''' Astronauts on the ISS had a particularly unique view of the solar eclipse, seeing the Moon's shadow on the Earth's surface.

'''The "Frustratedly Looking up the Cloud Situation in Australia for 2028":''' There were clouds over a large portion of the United States during the eclipse. Thus, a [[2915: Eclipse Clouds|frustrated onlooker]] would likely be researching if the {{w|Solar eclipse of July 22, 2028|2028 Australian eclipse}} will also be cloudy, giving them a second chance to see the eclipse in its full glory. Ironically, weather is difficult to predict 4 years in the future.

The title text refers to a [[:File:Apollo_12_view_of_Solar_Eclipse_(5052129615).jpg|photograph]] taken during the {{w|Apollo 12}} mission when the Earth came between the spacecraft and the Sun on the journey back home from the Moon.

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

:<big>Types of Eclipse Photo</big>

:[Eclipse during totality]
:The standard

:[Partial eclipse with lighter sky]
:The partial

:[Two Cueballs and Ponytail looking and pointing at the sky]
:The reaction shot

:[Eclipse during totality with red "ribbons" around the Moon]
:The fancy lens

:[A blurry ring of light in the center]
:The focus issues

:[The rear of an SUV]
:The traffic jam

:[A dark circle on Earth's surface]
:The astronaut

:[A gray cover of clouds]
:The "frustratedly looking up the cloud situation in Australia for 2028"

==Trivia==
* The [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/types_of_eclipse_photo.png standard size] image was uploaded with a resolution/size of 8920 by 6909, larger than the supposed 2x version at 1189 by 921. This was likely an error, and has since been fixed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Solar eclipses]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Photography]]

481: Listen to Yourself

2023-10-31T20:12:00Z

172.70.86.7: Correctly punctuating. Also expanding to non-redirected template version.

{{comic
| number = 481
| date = September 26, 2008
| title = Listen to Yourself
| image = listen_to_yourself.png
| titletext = Man, I just wanted to know how babby was formed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|YouTube}} is a website for video sharing where anyone can upload and view videos. It is notorious for having some of the most ridiculous, hateful, mean-spirited, nonsensical comments of any mainstream website (a reputation touched upon earlier in [[202: YouTube]]).

[[Danish]] tells [[Black Hat]] that her computer virus that she is writing reads a YouTube user's comments back to them before it is submitted. Upon hearing their own ridiculous comments read aloud to them, they will realize the stupidity of it and not submit the comment. YouTube later made this a real feature, although it has since been removed again.{{Actual citation needed}}

The title text is in reference to a post left on the Yahoo! Answers website in 2006 by a submitter known as "kavya," who asks [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-is-babby-formed "how is babby formed / how girl get pragnent."] The post picked up internet popularity and spawned several flash animations. This was again mentioned in [[522: Google Trends]] and in [[550: Density]].

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat approaches Danish typing at a computer.]
:Black Hat: What are you writing?
:Danish: Virus.
:Black Hat: What's it do?

:Danish: When someone tries to post a YouTube comment, it first reads it aloud back to them.

:Soon, everywhere:
:[Cueball is commenting on YouTube with a laptop.]
:''type type type''

:[Youtube comment is read back.]

:Cueball: ...I'm a moron.

:[Cueball leaves desk and partially closes his laptop.]

:[Cueball is seen sitting on steps, depressed.]

:[Cueball has his head in his hands.]
:Cueball: I... I didn't know.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:YouTube]]

2847: Dendrochronology

2023-10-30T19:37:22Z

172.70.86.7: /* Explanation */ Needed comma. New comma made it better to pause next statement differently. Reword (removing rogue "that" and tweaks). Further comma-alternative. Rephrase. Tweak and expand the 'burial tree' bit (too much?).

{{comic
| number = 2847
| date = October 27, 2023
| title = Dendrochronology
| image = dendrochronology_2x.png
| imagesize = 332x444px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = These anomalies are known as Miyake events, named for the pioneering scientist who discovered them and was tragically devoured by a carnivorous tree.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by TOM BOMBADIL'S ARCH NEMESIS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Dendrochronology}} is a scientific method of using tree rings to tell the age of a tree and learn about historical climate from features found in each ring. It's based on the fact that trees add a new ring each year, so counting the rings will tell a tree's age in years. Additionally, climate and ecology affect the size and composition of each year's ring, so scientists can use rings to estimate what conditions were like each year. They can cross-compare tree-ring samples from overlapping date ranges, of comparable trees grown and felled at different times, to build up and confirm a useful ring history well beyond that of a single tree.

In some cases, tree rings contain remnants of specific events, such as forest fires, large volcano eruptions, atomic tests or droughts. Extremely disparate years can often be seen represented by a clear visual change in the usual subtle variation of ring-growth. The comic posits that, in 1635, trees somehow became {{w|carnivorous}}. The ring for that year contains indications of the bones of the creatures that they ate. This was just a temporary condition, since the rings after this have no bones, but clearly was a coordinated event among different trees to have caused this to be a comparable marker. Events such as this may have reoccurred at other times, just not again/before within the lifetime of the particular tree illustrated.

The title text says that anomalous years like this are called 'Miyake events', after a scientist named Miyake who discovered them (and was subsequently eaten by the trees, similar to the origin of {{w|Thagomizer}}). In actual fact, a {{w|Miyake event}} is a period when a larger-than-normal quantity of certain isotopes are created by cosmic rays, possibly due to [https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11063 extreme solar flares]. Evidence of these events can often be found in ancient tree rings, as physicist Fusa Miyake discovered when investigating tree rings from years 774-775. However, she wasn't then devoured by the trees – certainly not in 1635, which is centuries prior to her 2012-13 publicated discoveries.

A surprising number of [https://www.google.com/search?q=things+found+in+trees things can be actually found within the 'flesh' of trees], though mostly inorganic items (e.g., metal tools) that are placed and abandoned there long enough for the tree to expand its bark and woody trunk around them. Skeletal remains are more often found [https://www.google.com/search?q=human+bones+in+trees in the roots of fallen trees]. They are mostly{{Citation needed}} from bodies that were there before the tree started to germinate. Perhaps even were buried and then a tree deliberately planted to either mark or obscure the burial site. It is even possible that the young tree significantly benefits from nutrients derived from the presence of the cadaver, as certain actual {{w|carnivorous plant}}s have evolved to do, allowing it to thrive more than other saplings. But, in this case, it would not be through the plant itself pursuing a 'deliberately' carniverous behaviour.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A cross section of a tree in beige, with a brown bark around the cross section and black rings throughout, except one layer around the middle where white bones are shown between two exceptionally separated ring boundaries.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Dendrochronologists can date wood samples by identifying growth ring anomalies that correspond to specific events. For example, it's often possible to spot the horrible summer of 1635 when trees turned carnivorous.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2829: Iceberg Efficiency

2023-09-15T14:07:27Z

172.70.86.7:

BH clearly isn't Freudian. For the {{w|File:Structural-Iceberg.svg|Iceberg of the Mind}}, the most important part is the 90% of it that is ''hidden''. Which makes for a totally ''different'' (and potentially more implementable) solution whenever you happen to consider that the most important function of an iceberg is to sneak up on ships... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.68|172.71.178.68]] 13:26, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

i added a transcript hopefully it isn't horrible [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 13:47, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
:Tweaked (slightly, to personal descriptive tastes), but definitely not horrible. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.7|172.70.86.7]] 14:07, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

2502: Every Data Table

2023-08-16T10:38:32Z

172.70.86.7: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2502
| date = August 13, 2021
| title = Every Data Table
| image = every data table.png
| titletext = I'm hoping 2022 is relatively normal because I don't know what symbol comes after the asterisk and the dagger.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another entry in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

It shows a future data table with one entry for each year from 2017 to 2024, so this table is made at least three years after publication of the comic (presuming it does not depict some form of advanced estimation of trends). The only discernible differences across the eight years are that two years have footnotes as in 2020* and 2021†, whereas the other six years have not.

Sometimes a symbol such as an asterisk (*) or a dagger (†, also called an obelus or obelisk) is used to denote an unusual entry in a table to be explained in a footnote with a matching symbol.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a large impact on the entire world and one way this can be seen is through strange stats resulting from the effects of the pandemic, at least in 2020 and 2021, the years marked with footnote in the data table. Various statistics such as employment statistics, spending power, holiday miles, pet ownership, births (or at least conceptions), and—naturally—deaths may have been either grossly suppressed/increased for the majority of 2020, and for 2021 may have hardly recovered, partially recovered, renormalized, bounced back with a vengeance or be over-compensated for in the effort to catch up.

Thus Randall concludes that "every data table" will look like this one from now on, hence the title of the comic.

In the title text [[Randall]] states that he hopes 2022 is relatively normal. Comically, he doesn't mainly hope for this because he wants the COVID-19 pandemic to end, but rather because he doesn't know what footnote symbol to use after the asterisk and the dagger.

At the time of this comic's publication in August 2021, nothing was exactly back to normal and proper recovery or the resulting compensatory readjustment may not have concluded in time for 2022 to reflect the trends expected based upon pre-2020 figures, and the additional further years that future statistics will record. The point is moot, however, because in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and (directly or indirectly) triggered various humanitarian, economic, and political crises around the world. By 2023 the war was still a source of global instability and any hopes of normalization are extremely premature.

Common symbols that are used after the asterisk and dagger include the double dagger (‡), the section symbol/silcrow (§), the parallel/double-pipe (‖) and the paragraph symbol/pilcrow (¶). Alternately one could use multiple symbols (such as †† or ***) or superscript numbers (¹, ², ³ ...).

Unrelated to the usage as English footnote characters, the asterisk and dagger symbol are used in German mainly as the shorthand "genealogic signs" to express "born" and "died" respectively (e.g. in encyclopaedias, as the German terms ''geboren'' and ''gestorben'' are three-syllable words and would need to be shortened, but start with the same two letters), so a person that is 2020(*) and 2021(†) would have been alive for only about a year, depending on the months. This symbology is also used on some tomb stones. An optimistic view is the "birth" and "death" of the coronavirus {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which would also understandably result in uncertainty on the next symbol in this order, for 2022. Pessimists in this context might suggest to use ∞, which is the symbol for infinity.

Similarly, in biology, an asterisk marks a species (or genus, etc...) that is possibly extinct and a dagger is used to note the possible extinction. (Double asterisks indicate taxa believed to be extinct in the wild but known to be extant in cultivation). This of course does not fit well with SARS-CoV-2, which is not close to extinction.

Randall seems not to have noticed the potential {{w|monkey's paw}} nature of his wish. "Relative" requires a comparison between things. It could be that the whole fall-out of the pandemic becomes the new normal, and future years have no necessity to use symbols to explain how those years come to be like everyone knows they are, while dates before 2020 will be entirely understood as the old normal. Only 2020 and 2021 may need contextual clarifying, due to their nature as a transition from the old normal to the new normal.

== Transcript ==
:[A data table is shown with eight years given. After each year is a series of dots, followed by illegible squiggles. The table is slanted compared to the panel, and closely cropped so it's impossible to tell how far the squiggles might extend or what other years might be included beyond the eight shown. Two of the years are marked with symbols indicating unseen footnotes.]
:2017.......
:2018.......
:2019.......
:2020*......
:2021†.......
:2022.......
:2023.......
:2024.......

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Every data table from now on

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Footnotes]]

Talk:2812: Solar Panel Placement

2023-08-09T21:16:35Z

172.70.86.7:

Can someone smarter than me do the math on running power lines to a panel on the sun? How long until it would pay for itself?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.125|172.70.214.125]] 05:08, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
:$22 million / $0.20 per kWH = 110 million kWH, divide by hours in a year and you get about 12549 kW. Google says the sun is 150 million KM away. IDK the exact details, but a calculator I found online suggests a copper cable with a cross-sectional area of 10m^2 can handle that amount of power transported 150 million KM. The density of copper's about 9 cm/g^3. 150 million km * 10 m^2 * 9 g/cm^3 = 1.35 * 10^16 kg. The cost to get one kilogram to Low-Earth Orbit according to google is >$10,000, let's just use that. Total cost to get to LEO: $1.35 * 10^20. Divide by profit per year => 6.1 trillion years. [[User:Tiln|Tiln]] ([[User talk:Tiln|talk]]) 07:10, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
::"The cost to get one kilogram to Low-Earth Orbit [...], let's just use that." Ummm... It's actually easier to ''leave'' the solar system than to rendezvous with Mercury (never mind attain even closer stability to the Sun's surface).
::I supose you could always go to an orbit a very long way away (near solar-escape) and add a little extra reverse delta-V to zero your orbital movement and then fall down. But you must not miss the pinprick Sun, or you're in a highly elliptic comet-like trajectory (with even higher demands needed to circularise at perihelion), so you need to be very precise about stopping and dodging through the gravity wells of any planets you plunge past. Not that ''not'' missing is going to do you much good, either.
::...hmmm, hang on, maybe that's what the cables back to Earth are for. Spooled in/out just at the right rate (perhaps some bungee-chord included), it's how you stop ''just above'' the Sun's surface (at the limit of the conductive cable, then cut the retarding bungee just as you're stable enough at the bottom of the bounce!) and stay there. Ok, not a problem. It'll work after all{{Actual citation needed}} and I withdraw all my petty objections! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.82|172.71.242.82]] 10:43, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
::: And then you'll have to deal with the end of the bungee cord retracting under it's own tension... and since it's no longer tethered to the craft it would probably whip back towards Earth. As an afterthought, have you ever been whipped by a released rubber band? Imagine that... but at a cosmic scale. I'd probably take my chances with the cables. [[User:Xkcdjerry|Xkcdjerry]] ([[User talk:Xkcdjerry|talk]]) 14:39, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
> ''"...IDK the exact details, but a calculator I found online suggests..."''
::I don't disagree with >6 trillion year payback, but the cable-calculation is insufficient data. Say 1,000 Watts. This could be carried as 1 Volt 1,000 Amperes (roughly what comes out of a parallel panel) or as 1,000 Volts 1 Ampere. One is fat copper and hardly any insulation, the other is hair-fine copper and thick insulation. A proper design goes to the relative costs of conductor and insulation.
::Many on-Earth power lines rely on air for insulation and air can be really cheap. These favor extra high voltages. My neighbor has 20,000V; the long line in California is far over 200,000V, near 1MegaVolt. Space-vacuum is even cheaper, perhaps limited by tolerable size of the bushings at the earth station.
::12,549 kW is like 13 MegaWatts. This could be carried as 13MV 1 Amp. Iron (for strength) #30AWG, 0.010" diameter, will carry 3 Amps. #30 is too fine for easy handling. #14 iron, "electric fence wire", is more manageable. About $100 per mile, I remember 93 million miles, so '''9 Billion Bucks for wire'''. Plus deposit on the spools....... and shipping, and stringing.....
::BTW: 10m^2 may be a bogus extrapolation. Wires much over 0.25" 6mm 0.000,03m^2 suffer from internal heating. The cold of space helps, but there is no air convection cooling (no air, and no convection in zero-G).. a 3meter diameter cable won't carry 1% of what you would hope from small-wire experience.
::Yes, superconductors, hi-temp near the sun.... but this won't come until after the convenient Fusion Power which has been right around the corner literally since I was born.
--[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 23:46, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Congrats, you've just made the universe's smallest Dyson sphere component! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.38|162.158.2.38]] 07:33, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

I'd just like to point out an error in Randall's math:
The light incident on the panel would only be from the portion of the surface with line-of-sight to the panel. This fraction is called the "view factor", and has its own Wikipedia page, which I'm too lazy to link since I'm editing this on my phone. Carry on! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.217|172.70.126.217]] 13:26, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
:I thought Sun luminosity (total outgoing light, in all directions from all points of itsvsurface) divided by Sun area (total luminescing surface area) multiplied by the 1m² (the actual 'capturable' parts) normalised to the effectively-in-contact portion of the Sun exactly in the way you're defining the view factor. (You could link to {{w|View factor}} by just trying <code><nowiki>{{w|View factor}}</nowiki></code>, if you want, and edit it later if you're wrong.)
:Further out, distance from the Sun factors in as an inverse square relationship, but it'll be negligable when you're practically at the Surface and close to the full 2pi steradian of incident light from a significantly greater area of emitting surface than the unit-area of receiving surface. Once you're at Earth-orbit distance, it's a tad below 70 nanosteradian of "panel view" and almost none of the light even from the directly facing square metre of Sun even comes close to the even smaller solid angle subtending the outwards spread of light.
:Set your panel at the height of various solar-surface features, you might not intercept much of the light (hence division by Sun's area) yet what you'll capture will be significant. Probably well beyond any long-(/medium-, perhaps even short-)term survivability of a lump of plastic, silicon and metals normally stuck on a house roof. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.161|172.70.91.161]] 15:36, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

I was briefly confused because HVAC usually stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, but is here used to mean high-voltage alternating current. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.50|172.69.247.50]] 13:31, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
:I often have the ''opposite'' confusion... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.161|172.70.91.161]] 15:36, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
:Ah! Thank you![[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.30|172.70.85.30]] 23:21, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

I ran some calculations on using rechargeable batteries to get power from the Sun to Earth, full markdown file is [https://github.com/xkcdjerry/markdown-pages/blob/main/explainxkcd-2812-talk-calcuations.md here] is anyone to check it out.

TL;DR: it's ''way'' better than running powerlines to Earth but falls slightly shy of putting a panel on Earth, though that may be remedied by more precise data. [[User:Xkcdjerry|Xkcdjerry]] ([[User talk:Xkcdjerry|talk]]) 15:09, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

: New idea: maybe we can make some sort of belt in which one side has fully discharged batteries and the other has fully charged ones, so that gravity balanced out and we only need to do work against friction, that should raise the efficiency greatly, with some engineering we might get it above 0.1% or even 1%, however I don't have exact data on this so this remains the work of someone with more knowledge than me XD [[User:Xkcdjerry|Xkcdjerry]] ([[User talk:Xkcdjerry|talk]]) 15:38, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

The power line loss calculation is not at all valid. Lines on the surface of a planet lose far more power to heating and induction etc. In the cold vacuum of space, efficiency should be excellent. (This should also reference some of the https://what-if.xkcd.com/157/ problems though.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.206|172.69.65.206]] 18:21, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
: Given that standard transmission losses (for long distance HVAC power lines) are [https://iea-etsap.org/E-TechDS/PDF/E12_el-t&d_KV_Apr2014_GSOK.pdf around 3% per 1000 km] and the Sun is 150 million km away, the energy reaching the Earth would be 0.97^(150000), a truly negligible amount (10^-1985 of the input energy). In this case, you'd be better off literally sending huge packs of rechargeable batteries to Earth.
: ~~ Above comment not signed. ~~

:Aside from intentional absurdity, why run wires? Wireless power attenuation is very low in a near-vacuum; just beam the power back via microwave. That's how all the serious proposals work, & it seems both obvious & potentially quite practical... It's really just the survivability of anything parked so close to the sun's ejecta, that seems problematic, to me?
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:27, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
::Clearly the above is riffing directly off the "transmission lines" (i.e. strung physical cables) directly mentioned in the title text. Yes, melting/ablation/etc is going to be a major problem (as is sitting the panel directly above the so-called surface of the Sun, which seems to be different from putting it into Very Low Solar Orbit), but the fanciful issue of merely the ''cabling'' being a high initial calital cost is very much a Munrovian flight of fancy that's not particularly unusual in such punchlines.
::Yes, we'd do it differently 'IRL', but this is very much part of the whole treatment. For one thing, who puts just ''one'' 1m² PV panel on a rooftop, like that. Round here, the standard seems to be 14 panels (and non-square... 1m x 1.65m if my recent jotted measurements of those used upon a particular roof is not unrepresentative). It's a "spherical cow in a vacuum" sort of scenario, and we can choose to accept (or argue against) whatever bits of handwavium we feel like highlighting. So why not educate, inform ''and'' entertain? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.7|172.70.86.7]] 21:16, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2789: Making Plans

2023-06-15T10:27:08Z

172.70.86.7:

Help, I can't move my comment down! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.54|AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]] 01:28, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Here I was expecting something about cryptography and how Charlie just invited himself along.
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.146|172.71.146.146]] 04:08, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

The alphabetical citation bias occurred in psychology but not biology or geoscience. (Biologist married to psychologist, gloating.) ---- {{unsigned ip|162.158.186.213}}

I disagree with the explanation about the alphabetical sorting of Cueball on Yvonne's phone. AFAIK, Cueball is only the fan nickname given on this wiki, and not an in-universe name, right?
Names starting with R would be pretty far down an alphabetical list, like in Rob... or Randall
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.233.69|162.158.233.69]] 06:49, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:I agree and have already deleted this. Made a comment on my changes along the idea you wrote here. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:04, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

I feel like a better reference point for this than academic citations or ballot paper ordering would be old paper phone directories, where you'd find companies calling themselves things like 'AAA Assistance' in order to appear at the top of their sector listings. Can anyone find a non-anecdotal reference for this?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.137|172.71.178.137]] 09:06, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

If only people were like books... (I have (re)read far more Asimov and Clarke than Wells and Zelazny, but none of them complain!) ...but clearly ''no'' absolute ordering is perfect. "Most recently contacted" suffers from the problem of some new contacts shuffling someone out of the current head-of-list spot and then they plummet to the 'old' end. "''Least'' recently contacted" would be better, but would 'auto-ghost' everyone the moment contact is re-established (or attempted, if it was based upon your reaching out, not their deigning to reach back again).
 Perhaps a "rolling road-block" method of (say) today starting at A, tomorrow starting at B(/wherever you left off today), and so on until it wraps around Z->A again. Or half your "social management" spent at the top-end, a quarter of it jumps half way down, an eighth of it half of the rest of the way, a sixteenth by jumping a further half of the remainder, with discretion to look up and down from the proposed landing-point to choose a neighbouring contact with more hopefulbcontactability... That latter would work even better on a "by most recent contact" sort, as well, as it churns and refreshes the current social circles to regain valuable 'lost' contacts without overly penalising the current circle of recent acquaintences in such a paradoxical manner.
 Of course... the fewer friends you have, the simpler the problem! I have never been so happy to be a sub-Dunbar individual, and so not have all the anxieties that those with exceedingly active social lives must have! Even if it means I might just have to phone my water-company up, every now and then, to bitch about how my telephone company forgot my birthday and is now refusing to return my calls... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.69|172.70.91.69]] 09:29, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:Wouldn't it be easier just to have randomised ordering each time you load? Of course, all of this overlooks the primary reason for having them alphabetical in the first place - to be able to locate a specific contact when you have a specific reason for contacting them, which any of these other systems would make a pain in the arse.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.170|172.70.91.170]] 09:34, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
::But ''which'' (pseudo-)random reordering? Can you guarantee thst your LCG/LFSR/Mersenne implementation, and how it is consulted to shuffle and reprioritises your contacts, has sufficiently long cycle-periodicity to avoid you still entirely neglecting someone because they still usually end up below any cut-off point?!? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.136|172.70.85.136]] 09:47, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
:Clearly, the correct is an AI social helper who will remind you to reach out to friends you haven't contacted recently, along with keeping track of birthdays, anniversaries, and other special reasons to contact everyone in your social circle. All the while, it would be learning your language patterns and voice, so that you can eventually just let it take over your social life entirely. You can hang out with your three real friends while your AI hangs out with the AIs of the fifty people in your contact list that you don't actually remember. (Is it obvious I'm an introvert?) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.44|172.69.247.44]] 10:11, 15 June 2023 (UTC)
::("... three real friends"? You socialite. If only I were such a shameless party animal!) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.7|172.70.86.7]] 10:27, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

2259: Networking Problems

2023-06-14T12:06:56Z

172.70.86.7: /* Explanation */ Pre-introduce the term "latency" (not explained/mentioned, despite title-text experience) and expanded. But with reference to Bandwidth, which can be an *independent* limitation. (High/low latency plus high/low bandwidth all possible.)

{{comic
| number = 2259
| date = January 24, 2020
| title = Networking Problems
| image = networking_problems.png
| titletext = LOOK, THE LATENCY FALLS EVERY TIME YOU CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YOU BELIEVE
}}

==Explanation==
Computer problems are frequent and can be difficult to solve.{{Citation needed}} Networking problems in particular can puzzle even seasoned people and sometimes seem to have arbitrary issues causing them. {{w|Network packet|Packets}} are units of data transfer used in computer networking. One measure of network performance is ''lag'', or the more technical term of {{w|Latency (engineering)|''latency''}}, which describes the amount of time it takes for data to travel from one point to another (and perhaps back); saying a packet's transmission is 'laggy' means it is unacceptably delayed. Suffering from lag means that you're likely exhibiting various knock-on effects, from intolerable online gaming experiences to difficulties streaming multimedia resources, with or without the simultaneous issue of having ''low {{w|Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth}}''.

Lag in packet transmission and other network performance measures can appear quite random. Just to start with, your ISP may be engaged in traffic shaping, which can do very weird things indeed to your packets (making the first megabyte of a transfer faster than any other, for example); now imagine that your ISP's ISP (usually known as an "Upstream Provider") is engaged in something similar, and you begin to see the scale of the problem. Wireless latency can relate to things as unexpected as where people are standing, what they are touching, the weather, viruses and other system compromises, network activity by other unseen users, and so on. Because humans are wired to perceive patterns, they will {{w|Apophenia|find them even in random data}}, a fallacy that Cueball is probably suffering from here. He variously attributes the network behavior he sees to the packet number being even vs. odd, packet arrival time being before vs. after noon, and packet arrival day being today vs. yesterday. Such a pattern would make sense if it were merely "every other packet" regardless of odd or evenness, but that still leaves unexplained the other "patterns" Cueball is seeing.

These non-existent patterns that Cueball is 'finding' are driving him mad, so much so that he says he believes in ghosts now. The statement of belief in ghosts may be a reference to the intermittent or fluctuating nature of the network issues being caused by mischievous or malevolent spirits. Ghosts generally are not concerned with expressions of belief, but there are some religious traditions that include group clapping and chanting. Many works of fiction depict a future or alternate history where {{tvtropes|MachineWorship|machines are worshiped as gods or spirits}}, such as the Adeptus Mechanicus of ''{{w|Warhammer 40,000}}''. Some of this terminology can be found in present-day IT and other support personnel, including references to "{{w|Daemon (computing)|daemons}}" and "[http://catb.org/jargon/html/B/black-magic.html black magic]". Another possible reference Randall may be making is to the {{w|Ghost_in_the_machine|Ghost in the machine}}, a term describing AI. A third possibility is that Cueball's brain had stopped working, as Randall had suggested in his chart. it may also be a reference to [[1316: Inexplicable]], in which Megan concludes Cueball's computer is haunted.

The title text continues Cueball's maniacal attempts at self-assurance, with him alluding to J.M. Barrie's play ''{{w|Peter Pan}}'' by saying that latency falls every time you "CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YOU BELIEVE". In the play, Peter Pan says, [https://classic-literature.co.uk/j-m-barrie-peter-pan-play/|"Say quick that you believe! If you believe, clap your hands!"] A more mundane explanation of the network behavior Cueball is experiencing might be that it is random but he's seeing a pattern anyway, or that there is a loose connection or trace and the vibration of clapping and speaking in the vicinity of the equipment in question closes the connection.

Similar superstition regarding computer devices was used previously in [[1457: Feedback]].

==Transcript==
:[A chart is shown with one horizontal line with 13 ticks (the first larger) and ending in an arrow. There are three labels along the line, at the start in the middle an towards the end before the arrow. Below are two clouds in gray with labels. The first cloud is long and it is getting thinner towards the right. It goes between the first and second label above the chart. The second blob is smaller and of equal thickness and it goes from the last label towards right. Above the chart is a heading and a subheading:]
:<big>Types of Computer Problems</big>
:By how much debugging them makes your brain stop working

:[The three labels above and the two in the clouds:]
:None
:Some
:A lot
:Normal problems
:Networking problems

:[Below the chart, only in the right part of the comic is a comic drawing. Cueball is kneeling before a rack of servers. One of the server blades is extended and connected by a cable to a laptop sitting on a box, which Cueball is using. Behind Cueball, there is a wireless router sitting on a stool, which is connected by a cable to another wireless router sitting on the floor, which is connected to another laptop. From behind him to the right an off-panel voice emanates from a starburst at the edge of the panel.]
:Cueball: '''''Before''''' noon, '''''odd'''''-numbered packets were laggy, but ''after'' noon, '''''even'''''-numbered ones are! It's the '''''opposite''''' of yesterday!
:Off-panel voice: Are you sure you're okay?
:Cueball: '''''I'm fine and I believe in ghosts now!'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

Talk:2781: The Six Platonic Solids

2023-05-29T06:37:51Z

172.70.86.7:

Does he know about Homestar Runner? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.137|172.70.131.137]] 06:02, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
:Yes. http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Webcomic_Sightings#xkcd [[User:Trogdor147|Trogdor147]] ([[User talk:Trogdor147|talk]]) 01:07, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Why Jorb? Only thing I can find is [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jorb Jorb on wikitionary] just meaning spelling of bad pronunciation of Job. And yes the episode of Homestar Runner [https://homestarrunner.com/toons/a-jorb-well-done A Jorb Well Done] comes up. Also this episode that is the top meaning of jorb on [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jorb Urban dictionary]. Would really like there to a better idea than that Plato did a great Jorb making a sixth solid to rule the mathematicians. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:18, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

: I agree. We should ask for our money back. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 17:19, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

What if there're much more of them, like a [https://xkcd.com/2657 Ď̩̰odec̭ähedron], but our minds can't properly comprehend their shape?
: There are a bunch of other regular polyhedra besides the Platonic solids. Most notable are the triangular, square, and hexagonal tilings (which are planar and infinite) and the four Kepler-Poinsot polyedra (which are nonconvex). And there are dozens more if you don't require faces to be planar. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.234|172.70.178.234]] 09:44, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
::See https://youtu.be/_hjRvZYkAgA for an overview of every regular polyhedron in Euclidean 3-space. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.40|162.158.146.40]] 09:59, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
: Some of the proofs of the theorem that there are exactly five platonic solids do not require our minds to "comprehend their shape", because they only rely on their algebrical properties. In fact, the Group theory proof works in any dimension (≥3), despite our minds being very bad at picturing what stuff looks like in higher dimensions. In fact, it's a bit of the opposite: lower dimensions (2 and 3) are "special cases", because all other dimensions have exactly 6 such platonic solids. [[User:Jthulhu|Jthulhu]] ([[User talk:Jthulhu|talk]]) 15:41, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

I think this is a reference to how the Utah Teapot is nicknamed “the sixth Platonic solid” due to its presence beside real Platonic solids in demonstrations of 33D rendering. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.133|172.68.118.133]] 08:52, 27 May 2023 (UTC)
:...yeah, but you need to render that 33D shape on a proper 32D monitor, ideally, because even on a 31D monitor the two different forced perspectives/projections you need to collapse the extra dimensions down tend to look confusing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.229|172.70.162.229]] 10:46, 27 May 2023 (UTC) *insert winky-face as necessary*

Should we think about Jorb, perhaps, as "J orb," which might lead us to think about (''i'',''j'') coordinates, i.e. notational systems where ''j'' is the square root of minus 1? (blah blah engineering vs. mathematics, what does ''i'' mean, &c., &c., &c.) Maybe not! [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 10:41, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

When I naively imagine further platonic solids, my approach to cheating is usually to imagine arbitrarily non-euclidean space. It’s somewhat pleasant that the jorb looks a little like that —- it’s only platonic if the coordinate system it’s in bends and stretches to make it so. I imagine the name and depiction are simply to be intentionslkynvague or confusing about what it actually is. It’s a lot harder to do real innovation nowadays and tasks like inventing a jorb can readily crop up to nerds (the nerd snipe kind) who are looking for sufficiently hard and harmless puzzles. A sixth platonic solid seems to mostly happen outside the norms of what people usually consider in a pretty significant way. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.99|162.158.155.99]] 02:30, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

I asked GPT-4, "Why could Sauron control the Nazgûl when not in possession of the One Ring?" The response:

:''Sauron was able to control the Nazgûl even when he didn't possess the One Ring because of the nature of the rings they received and the relationship these rings had with the One Ring.''
:''Sauron, disguised as Annatar, the "Lord of Gifts," helped the Elven smiths of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor, forge the Rings of Power. Unknown to the Elves, Sauron had instructed them to forge the rings in such a way that they could be controlled by one master ring - the One Ring. He secretly forged the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, uttering the famous verse: "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."''
:''When he gave the nine rings to Men, these rings corrupted them over time and turned them into the Nazgûl, also known as the Ringwraiths. Because these nine rings were still under the influence of the One Ring, Sauron was able to control the Nazgûl even when he did not possess the One Ring himself. The One Ring's power was inherent and didn't need physical proximity to exert control. The Nazgûl were bound to the will of Sauron as their wills were dominated by their rings, which were in turn dominated by the One Ring.''
:''The link and dominance were so strong that even when the One Ring was lost, the Nazgûl remained under Sauron's control. It's also worth noting that Sauron held the Nine Rings the Nazgûl originally received, which could also contribute to his ability to control them.''
:''It's a complex network of influence and control established by Sauron, making him a powerful Dark Lord even in the absence of his master ring.''

Well. I'm glad <s>someone</s> something understands that. Lol. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 06:11, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Looks suspiciously like a bicycle saddle to me. And as anyone who's parked their backside on one for any distance or time, it is DEFINITELY a solid. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 07:25, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
:(Well, there's all kinds of saddles, and the [https://www.brooksengland.com/en_uk/swallow.html golden era of leather saddles] were actually not that bad (that link states a 10 year guarantee for the current output, but I personally know of a couple used regularly for 60+years and were still doing well), though with the advent of more synthesised materials they've had to go creative with the texture/covering to give it back the 'give'. Which no doubt makes more an 'impression' on the more modern saddle purchaser, in more ways than one.)
:Reminds me of one of the more abstract 'elemental' {{w|Henry Moore}} pieces, or possibly one of his contemporaries/'inspired-by's. And you could certainly find painters and other art-form creators who have gone into 'abstract blob' shapes, either to represent something real in a novel way or to deliberately represent nothing real at all, and I suspect that's Randall's aim... (Like "xkcd" made to not look enough like anything else, or so intended). It certainly shows no sign of ''any'' symmetry at all. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.32|172.70.86.32]] 12:29, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Based on the shape, ribbing, and a different definition of "platonic" I think this could be referring to the Roman artefact that was recently re-classified as a dildo. Platonic solid? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.111|172.70.111.111]] 16:06, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Not gonna lie, this feels like a Cow Tools comic to me. Sometimes mathematicians discover new things, wouldn't it be weird if they discovered something impossible? End of joke. Everything else regarding the shape and name is an inkblot test (until the title text which is actually a LOTR reference of course). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.82.59|172.70.82.59]] 17:04, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Is it worth mentioning that the dodecahedron and isocahedron have their names switched? [[User:C.h.ninnymuggins|C.h.ninnymuggins]] ([[User talk:C.h.ninnymuggins|talk]]) 21:00, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
:It would be if they were (a common error), but... they aren't. (See {{w|Platonic solid|here}}.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.196|172.69.79.196]] 21:33, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Ok whoever added that jan misali link that's super cool of you nice [[Special:Contributions/172.71.82.147|172.71.82.147]] 03:50, 29 May 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

I feel that there's a joke missing here, especially with the LOTR connection made in the alt-text. After all, Plato might have gifted the solids to the mathematicians, but thanks to Gary Gygax, it was the gamers who found a use for them....
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.7|172.70.86.7]] 06:37, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

932: CIA

2023-05-26T11:49:58Z

172.70.86.7:

{{comic
| number = 932
| date = August 1, 2011
| title = CIA
| image = cia.png
| titletext = It was their main recruiting poster, hung nearly ten feet up a wall! This means the hackers have LADDER technology! Are we headed for a future where everyone has to pay $50 for one of those locked plexiglass poster covers? More after the break...
}}

==Explanation==
[[Blondie]] as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]] is reporting on a cyberattack on the {{w|Central Intelligence Agency|CIA}} (hence the title).

This comic is a reference to the attacks by a group briefly known as {{w|LulzSec}}, which was a splinter group from the internet community known as {{w|Anonymous (group)|Anonymous}}, also featured in [[834: Wikileaks]]. In the back of the news report in frame one is the logo that was used by LulzSec. The group was able to publicize several high profile attacks. They were able to briefly take down the CIA website using a DDoS attack. {{w|DDoS}} stands for Distributed Denial of Service in which the attacker uses many computers to send traffic to a host and render it incapable of answering requests from any other computer, effectively taking the site down.

This comic is pointing out the difference between what {{w|Plain_English|lay-people}} ([[Ponytail]]) and the {{w|Technology_specialist|computer expert}} ([[Megan]]) hear when seeing a story like this. Most people may think there is no boundary between the CIA website and its internal network, and conclude hackers compromised the USA intelligence service's most precious data, which would be an incredible display of incompetence by the CIA and would have some pretty obvious negative side effects for CIA assets around the world.

Computer experts, on the other hand, may compare the CIA website to a company's poster, so the damage done is much different and less harmful: the CIA's public relation capacities are hindered for a few hours. The damage from a DDoS is less a catastrophic compromise of valuable federal databases, and more like flash mob crowding in the lobby of the CIA offices, making life mildly inconvenient.

One particularly humorous and possibly unintended aspect of this is that "{{w|Human|People}}" and "{{w|Technology_specialist|Computer experts}}" are listed separately, implying that {{w|Technology_specialist|computer experts}} are not {{w|Human|people}}. Randall probably meant "{{w|Plain_English|lay-people}}" rather than {{w|Human|people}}.

The title text is a transcript of a made up news report. A story similar to the attack is illustrated using old technology. This attempts to demonstrate how silly the news coverage of the real event is. The recruiting poster refers to the CIA website, as it is a PR tool with no connection to sensitive information. It being ten feet high refers to the fact that that the website is open to the public and has limited protections (as danger from a compromised site is low). The ladder technology refers to the DDoS attack, as these attacks are primitive, but possibly well coordinated. The plexiglass poster covers refer to website security tools that may be added to deter future vandalism.

==Transcript==
:[A television is showing Blondie as a news anchor. The inset picture of the news shows the logo of LulzSec, a man wearing a monocle and top hat.]
:Blondie: Hackers briefly took down the website of the CIA yesterday...

:[Ponytail, sitting in an armchair, is watching a television (seen from the side) standing on a table hearing what Blondie says as indicated with a zigzag line from the TV. Above the top part of the frame is a smaller frame with a label:]
:What people hear:
:Blondie (not shown from the TV): Someone hacked into the computers of the '''''CIA!!'''''

:[Megan, sitting in an armchair, is watching a television (seen from the side) standing on a table hearing what Blondie says as indicated with a zigzag line from the TV. Above the top part of the frame is a smaller frame with a label:]
:What computer experts hear:
:Blondie (not shown from the TV): Someone tore down a poster hung up by the '''''CIA!!'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Computers]]