explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2992: UK Coal

2024-10-02T09:04:14Z

172.70.91.57: /* Explanation */ true calculation yields 8.01 cm, so 3.2 inches

{{comic
| number = 2992
| date = September 30, 2024
| title = UK Coal
| image = uk_coal_2x.png
| imagesize = 532x232px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Watership Down rabbits removed an additional 0.1 nanometers constructing their warren, although that was mostly soil. British rabbits have historically mined very little coal; the sole rabbit-run coal plant was shut down in the 1990s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT RUNNING ON 3 INCHES OF THE UK - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic uses dimensional analysis to describe the end of coal-powered energy production in the United Kingdom, in reference to the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y35qz73n8o shutting down of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant] in central England on Monday, September 30, 2024. This event signified the closure of the last coal-fired power plant in the UK. This is an important milestone in global energy use, because the United Kingdom was at the forefront of the {{w|Industrial Revolution}}, which began an era of large-scale coal extraction to fuel the world's industries. Over the course of the past several decades, coal has increasingly fallen out of favor, with natural gas becoming a more viable power source, and an increasing percentage of energy needs being met without the use of fossil fuels (from sources such as nuclear, hydro, solar and wind power). The fact that the UK has now fully transitioned away from the use of coal as a major energy source marks a major shift in how industrialized nations are powered.

UK coal ''production'' has also been in decline significantly since {{w|1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike|the politically enforced decline in the 1980s}}, and the proposed opening of the new {{w|Woodhouse Colliery}} in Cumbria [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62533nyvzwo seems to have been stopped], leaving just the [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coal-mining-production-and-manpower-returns-statistics-2023/coal-mining-production-and-manpower-returns-received-by-the-coal-authority-january-to-march-2023 remnants of the coal-mining industry] active. There remain uses for coal, both locally obtained and imported, but the conversion away from coal [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70zxjldqnxo in various industries] marks a possible soft-end to the British era which started with the {{w|Industrial Revolution}}.

The equation shown in the comic determines how much coal was mined in the UK with respect to the surface area of the region, and calculates that this represents the removal of an average of about 8.0 cm (in imperial units, 3.2 inches) across the whole of the United Kingdom. The accompanying picture implies that this has actually been taken in an even layer across the surface area of the country, resulting in it now being 3 inches lower. In reality, coal is usually extracted from concentrations in specific locations, leaving other areas generally unaffected. Also while some of it has been {{w|Open-pit_mining| open-cast mined}}, leaving visible quarrying scars (that may have been partially relandscaped), much of it has been mined sub-surface, with minimal effect on the surface itself, except where it may cause {{w|Flash (lake)|localized subsidence}}, sometimes of significant depth.

''UK DESNZ'', referenced in the comic, is the United Kingdom's {{w|Department for Energy Security and Net Zero}}, the source for the statistic on UK total coal production from 1853 to present; see DESNZ's historical statistics of coal production [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/historical-coal-data-coal-production-availability-and-consumption here].

Since [[Randall]] is warning about [[:Category:Climate change|climate change]] in several of his comics, he likely sees this as an important step away from the use of fossil fuel.

The comic’s title text adds a similar, but even more ludicrous, metric for earth excavated for a rabbit warren. The volume of earth described, 0.1 nm × 240,000 km2, is equal to 24 m3. The text refers to {{w|Watership Down}}, a 1972 novel about a group of English rabbits. (A sole sequel to Watership Down, {{w|Tales from Watership Down}}, was published in 1996.) The text also refers to a former rabbit-run coal plant in the UK and claims that it was shut down in the 1990s. No actual {{w|Run, Rabbit, Run|rabbit-run}} coal plants have ever been documented.{{citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[The following formula is shown (with the divisors below a horizontal line in the comic, rather than inside square brackets):]
:UK total coal production (1853-present, ''UK DESNZ'') / [(coal seam density) × (UK land area)] = 25 billion tonnes / [1.3kg/L × 240,000km²] ≈ 3 inches
:[Cueball is standing to the right of the formula, upon a dotted line representing the prior ground level. Two arrows indicate that the dotted line is 3 inches above the solid line that is the current ground level. One arrow goes from the end of the word inches to the dotted line the other is short and goes up from below pointing at the solid line.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The UK shut down their last coal power plant today, which means that over the course of the industrial revolution, they dug up and burned an average of 3 inches of their country.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Climate change]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Animals]]

965: Elements

2024-09-02T19:39:33Z

172.70.91.57: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 965
| date = October 17, 2011
| title = Elements
| image = elements.png
| titletext = Of all the nations, the armies of the ununoctium-benders are probably the least intimidating. The xenon-benders come close, but their flickery signs are at least effective for propaganda.
}}

==Explanation==
In the popular children's TV show ''{{w|Avatar: The Last Airbender}}'', the four nations that inhabit the world can each telekinetically control ("bend") one of the four classical elements: water, earth, fire and air. One person, the avatar, can control all four elements and is markedly more powerful than any other character. {{w|Dmitri Mendeleev}} is the creator of the modern periodic table, which categorizes the 118+ atomic elements by their atomic number.

The comic is comparing the control over more magical power with more practical, "science-y" power. Fire, boulders, and storms may be more impressive visually, but science has proven time and again that "boring" can have very practical, very deadly applications. Additionally, while the advantages of controlling the four alchemical elements are mostly physical and visible (characters in the show most often use their powers to push, throw, or create barriers), the phenomena related to Mendeleev's elements and his research include subatomic particle interactions. One power the depicted Mendeleev has that the Avatar definitely does not have is control over radioactive elements, and this is the subtle, slow-acting power he demonstrates.

The powers of the Avatar's world, moreover, generally require actual contact with the relevent element (or a material that is sufficiently composed within its sphere). An Earthbender typically cannot do anything to manipulate rock or soil without touching some connected part of it, and cannot do anything if suspended in the air or (until they can learn to manipulate any of the "earth impurities" within it) restrained and enclosed by metal. Firebenders generally learn to make use of their own bodyheat, in a manner that seems initially inconsistent with the other bending disciplines but is hand-waved (in either sense) to be actually very effective, insofar as waterbending significant effects only using one's own bodily moisture is a far less prolific occurance.

With this in mind, manipulating and coercing a particular element does not imply the ability to generate it from nothing. Mendeleev, therefore, should not be expected to spontaneously create any given rare element from nowhere, and (if true to the same philosophy, with the addition of modern scientific understanding of the elements) must therefore be either identifying and concentrating extremely small trace quantities already within reach (in order to weaponise the substance) or somehow be able to use his mastery of all elements to induce transmutation (via established fission or fusion processes from other types of atom under his full control).

{{w|Polonium}} gained a level of notoriety as the poison used to kill Russian dissident {{w|Alexander Litvinenko}}.

The title text talks about power levels of the elements if each element had a controlling nation as per the TV show. Ununoctium (1-1-8-ium) was the placeholder name for {{w|oganesson}}, the 118th element. It did not officially gain its permanent name until late 2016, 5 years after this comic was released. Oganesson, the heaviest element that has been created, has the shortest life before it decays into other elements, with a half-life of less than a millisecond. {{w|Xenon}}, a noble gas like oganesson, has few practical applications, but it is sometimes used in "neon" signs.

==Transcript==
:[Aang the Avatar and Dmitri Mendeleev stand in opposition to each other. Aang wields all 4 classical elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.]
:Aang: I'm the avatar, master of all 4 elements!
:Mendeleev: Really? I'm Mendeleev, master of all 118+.
:''swoosh''
:Mendeleev: That was polonium-bending. You probably didn't feel anything, but the symptoms of radiation poisoning will set in shortly.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Periodic table]]

Talk:1493: Meeting

2024-09-02T19:02:11Z

172.70.91.57:

It's been registered since [http://who.is/whois/http://companyname.website November], just what the hell was Randall planning on doing with this site four months ago? [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 05:32, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:He's said before that he buys domains and holds them until he finds a use. Maybe this was one of those? {{unsigned|Mikemk}}
::Just went to the site. It redirects to xkcd.com [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.171|108.162.238.171]] 16:01, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:I know another webcomic artist who upgrades daily and currently has a three-month buffer (comics drawn ahead until early June of this year). Maybe Randall also has a buffer, and this cartoon was originally drawn in November and has been waiting in the buffer ever since.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.191|108.162.216.191]] 03:15, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

:: Yes, that is true, https://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com explicitly mentions that some automation software is used to make a bufér. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.111|172.64.238.111]] 08:48, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

I want to know what that "physically cannot die" thing is about. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.179}}
:Let's see... mystical powers check. Immortality check. If he weren't so naive and clueless, I'd think Beret Guy is supposed to represent God. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 07:54, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
::The phrase that comes to mind is "Quantum Immortality", although that doesn't seem to produce what I want from a web-searth, so perhaps I've got the term wrong. Basically, at every point where a quantum-level decision leads (immediately or eventually) to death or life for an individual, we only follow the probability path (in a many-worlds type scenario) that leads towards life. The fully observed "living cat" in Schrödinger's experiment, each and every time you try the experiment, so to say. Forever, given that accidents can be avoided by taking a different route home, serious diseases can be avoided by not catching them, physical aging/illness can (probably!) be avoided by not accumulating various nasty biological copy-errors (not sure what happens with mental processes, even assuming the physical impediments to brain function (such as plaques) are already dealt with, but let's assume that there's a "best result" in this life-path, also). Call it "life save-scumming", perhaps. Given how White Hat seems to have a charmed life, it would certain explain how things things seem to always turn out for the better (and more interesting, in a nice way) for him. Though obviously there's also a "many worlds" White Hat company board that has been this 'lucky' so far but ''now'' finds that their offices get struck by a de-orbitting bit of space-debris, against all odds. (Not that we'd follow them. We'd be more likely to see the versions that had built/rented their offices fifty yards further down the street, thus avoiding that fate.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.181|141.101.98.181]] 11:50, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
: That which can eternal lie, can not die.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 16:25, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:Remember that this is Beret Guy we're talking about. They may actually be unable to die. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.189|173.245.56.189]] 19:54, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:I have a feeling that it's from Beret Guy's mystic powers, that maybe he actually can't die. In that case, while the other two "strengths" are pretty useless, Immortality easily makes up for them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.187|108.162.249.187]] 07:54, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
:: This should be in the [[Strange Powers of Beret Guy]] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.137|172.68.142.137]] 04:54, 30 June 2017 (UTC)
::: Linked it for you. To link it, put double brackets on both sides of the phrase or word. You're welcome! {{unsigned ip|172.68.71.101|18:32, 2 September 2024}}
:::: Signed it for you. To sign, add four tildes. You're welcome!
:::: Though there was no reason to believe that the editor above was bothered about linking it. If it was text in an Explanation, yes you could help out an earlier editor, but this change isn't something that needs to be done to someone else's (individual and signed) contribution down here in the Talk section. Not signing, however, can create unparsable discussions and deprives people of the (easy) knowledge of when these things were said. Giving you the "signature of shame" template, as you either need to know (whether or not you notice) or being hit by the Pedant's Curse is exactly what you expect from having made an error like this. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.89|172.70.91.89]] 18:56, 2 September 2024 (UTC)
:::: ...and, of course, in editing my reply, I managed to delete the ''other'' bit that I meant to say, in that you redlinked a non-existing page link. I think you meant to send it to [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]. So, that's an another error for you, and I'm up by one myself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.57|172.70.91.57]] 19:02, 2 September 2024 (UTC)

Ok I may be way off base here but could it be possible that he is referencing the show Helix? In the show there is a group of immortals who formed a corporation name Ilaria and it's not clear how they make their money. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.85}}

Now that we have [[1032|three]] [[1293|comics]] on the subject ([[1021|arguably]] [[1117|more]]), should we have a Category:Beret Guy's Business? '''''[[User:LockmanCapulet|LockmanCapulet]][[User talk:LockmanCapulet| I plead the third!]]''''' 08:01, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:Done :-). --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 16:01, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:I added the two other pages to the category, but then realised that the wiki was getting confused about slight character differences (’:U+2019 vs ':U+0027) so I set up a redirect and now Category:Beret_Guy’s_Business (broken link to keep this page out of the cat) contains its self? Halp (although it does seem fitting of how Beret Guy frequently bends the laws of physics). [[User:Pixali|Pixali]] ([[User talk:Pixali|talk]]) 23:52, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Could the immoralitly refer to the whole "corporations as a legal person" thing? [[User:CDave]]

I think 'beetle' might refer to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_New_Beetle VW Beetle] given that they're talking about cars. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.54|108.162.254.54]] 09:00, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:I doubt it, because it was in the hall. Probably a literal beetle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.119|108.162.217.119]] 16:01, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
::Just because they were talking about a car earlier doesn't mean they're still talking about a car. I suspect he's talking about the insect. Adding a layer about Volkswagen into the joke just doesn't seem funny enough. I think the line claiming it could be a Volkswagen should be removed from the explanation. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.38|199.27.133.38]] 18:52, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Could this be an intentional parody of Randall's own business model for xkcd? Since, beyond the store and his book he hardly operates as a standard business, but people just keep giving him money to do what he does anyway. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.21}}

Is the "cool red beetle" a ladybug? Would be consistent with Beret Guy not knowing many common nouns. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:42, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

To be fair, corporations aren't really immortal, in much the same way a football team isn't. The team, of course, is constantly changing out its members, and in this sense can remain vigorous long beyond the lifespan of an ordinary human. But corporations are vulnerable to the fatal flaw of being utterly dependent on engaging the interest of quite a lot of people during their whole lifespan. Football needs players, investors, managers and coaches, children playing and learning the game in the decades leading up to league level play - not to mention millions of fans. If any of those groups lose interest, the whole enterprise evaporates, practically overnight. So the chief concern of corporations, even above profits, is to convince large groups of people to engage them, as buyers, workers, suppliers and so on. I am not sure how aware they are of this, nor am I sure I want them aware of it, but that's what it boils down to. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.84|108.162.242.84]] 16:38, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

I thought "State Police" (probably Highway Patrol) was a reference to a police car chase. Usually police chase cars to stop them for violating laws. This time the police chased a car just to stop it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.121|108.162.210.121]] 22:53, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
:I was under the assumption that the car was being chased down for some kind of violation. The statement "Has come to an end about 90 miles out of town" is the kind of thing you'd have in a news report describing the events of a real police chase. Of course, for Beret Guy, it looks like it was more or less a successful test. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.187|108.162.249.187]] 07:54, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I remembered the mysterious apple car spotted weeks ago, that "launched" by accident the company's self-driving car project rumors. [[User:Nantunes|Nantunes]] ([[User talk:Nantunes|talk]]) 13:40, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

It looks like Beret Guy turns into a child in the last panel . . . doesn't it? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.108|173.245.50.108]] 19:52, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
:Using GIMP, I can see he's got about the same overall height, but the distance between his head and his feet is smaller, and his head is bigger, so it does look like he became a child. However, it's more likely a drawing mistake. If I remember correctly, Randall is more likely to draw things again than copy pasting for accuracy, and I suppose it's hard to draw things in exactly the same dimensions. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.99.189|188.114.99.189]] 22:53, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Aren't the "three main strengths" a reference to the Spanish Inquisition?[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.47|188.114.110.47]] 21:54, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
:No. The part of the Spanish Inquisition sketches you're talking about have the Inquisitor saying more things than he's said at the start ("Our chief weapon is surprise and fear- Our two weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency-" and so on). This is just a list of silly things. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 00:32, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

I assumed the self-driving car was more along Toyota and the accelerator being stuck, or something like that. A runaway car. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.76|108.162.216.76]] 01:59, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
:I also take it that it was a runaway car. I imagine a scene where all the people in the carpool jump out of the car while it's driving at high speed, just to see how far it will "drive itself". Saibot84 21:50, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Just a random headcanon on this, but I get the feeling that CompanyName.Website's "web-facing chairs" are chairs pointed at actual spiderwebs. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.179|199.27.128.179]] 10:49, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Is anyone reminded of Welcome to Night Vale by that hovertext? Seriously, it sounds like something Cecil would say in a message from his sponsors.

Is it possible that Beret Guys business is a money manufacturing facility?as in place that prints money?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.53|141.101.75.53]] 20:33, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

2976: Time Traveler Causes of Death

2024-08-23T22:07:38Z

172.70.91.57: /* Explanation */ Title-text text.

{{comic
| number = 2976
| date = August 23, 2024
| title = Time Traveler Causes of Death
| image = time_traveler_causes_of_death_2x.png
| imagesize = 332x677px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Many a hungry time traveler has Googled 'trilobites shellfish allergy' only to find their carrier had no coverage in the Ordovician.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TIME TRAVELLER SLOWLY APHIXIATING IN THE PROTEROZOIC ERA- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Time travel is a common sci-fi/fantasy plot, in which someone from one era is sent forward or backward in time to another era. Normally, the travel itself goes off without a hitch, with the usual threats to the time traveler being what happens ''after'' they arrive at their destination. More rarely, a time traveler might encounter some hazard because of where their time travel method has deposited them.

This comic takes the latter situation to the extreme, observing different causes of death for potential time travelers through the ages based on the geologic evolution of earth, from its formation over 4 billion years ago to the present. Only one fatal cause is given in each case, presumably the single most likely (or the one most documented, from all known time-traveler accidents), although the title text shows that there may always be others possible.

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Cause of death
! Scope=“col” | Time frame
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| Lava || Earth Forms || During the formation of the Earth, the surface was a hellish landscape of lava.
|-
| Asphyxiation || 4 billion years ago || Before {{w|cyanobacteria}} started photosynthesising and producing oxygen, the atmosphere of the Earth was mainly composed of hydrogen sulphide, methane, and carbon dioxide. Humans need oxygen to breathe.{{Citation needed}}
|-
| Meteors || 3.9 billion years ago || During the {{w|Late Heavy Bombardment}}, the Earth's surface was subjected to a large number of asteroid and comet impacts, destroying much of Earth's early crust.
|-
| Slightly slower asphyxiation || 2 billion years ago|| Cyanobacteria had started photosynthesising, leading to the {{w|Great Oxygenation Event|Oxygen Catastrophe}}, but the oxygen levels weren’t high enough to support human life.
|-
| Freezing || Less than 1 billion years ago || During the {{w|Cryogenian|Cryogenian Ice Age}}, the Earth’s temperature fell to -12°C, much too cold to support human life.
|-
| Starving || 600 to 485 million years ago || During this time, the temperature was mild and comfortable; however, the only life during this time was single-cell organisms and – especially later – tiny multicellular organisms, which humans cannot eat or would not tolerate.
|-
| Eaten by fish || 485 to 250 million years ago || During the {{w|Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event}} and subsequent times, fish {{w|Evolution of fish|evolved jaws}} and some species grew quite large.
|-
| Trampled || 252 to 66 million years ago || The {{w|Mesozoic Era}} is often called the “Age of Dinosaurs." The majority of these dinosaurs were herbivorous and many were quite large, so being eaten would be less likely than being trampled on.
|-
| Eaten by mammals || 66 million years ago to sometime before now || The {{w|Cenozoic Era}}, which began 66 million years ago, is often referred to as the "Age of Mammals". Though some eras have more likely causes of death (such as wars), overall being eaten by large mammals is probably the biggest risk.
|-
| Time machine door gets stuck || Present || Since the time traveler is already living in the present, there's nothing else more likely to kill them than getting stuck in the time machine and starving (or, if the time machine is air-tight, asphyxiating). This assumes the Time Machine is also a {{w|Faraday Cage}} (that can block the signal of an emergency call) or the traveler doesn't take their phone with them, although the title text indicates they will.
|-
|}

The title text suggests that an alternative fate within the "eaten by fish" era is the exact opposite. Seafood allergies are not unknown in the present day, and having fortuitously avoided the primary "Starving" fate from the prior era it may be that the traveler tries eating a "fish" of the time and finds that ''either'' some existing allergy is just as applicable to the prehistoric 'fishy' ancesters ''or'' that the flesh of the creatures of that age spark off an allergic condition that (as a modern human) they were not previously aware of. The former might be the one intended, as a person with a known shellfish (or lactose, or peanut, etc) allergy might double-check the possible presence of a problematic ingredient in a potential snack by referencing online resources; a facility that is claimed not to be available, here, with the smartphone stuck in the past, long before any reliable phone-service/wifi is available to connect to. Otherwise, suspecting the food has not agreed with them, they are now denied access to the best online information on how to properly treat their symptoms.

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

:Top causes of death for time travelers by geologic era:

:Earth forms
::Lava
::Asphyxiation
:4 billion years ago
::Meteors
::Asphyxiation
:3 billion years ago
:2 billion years ago
::Slightly slower asphyxiation
:1 billion years ago
::Freezing
::Starving
:500 million years ago
::Eaten by fish
::Trampled
::Eaten by mammals
:Now
::Time machine door gets stuck

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Animals]]

User:While False/Report/Notices/Conflicts/Conflict of interest

2022-11-16T23:14:33Z

172.70.91.57:

I won’t pen a report about myself. No one would trust it and then no one would trust me. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | [https://www.google.com Google search] | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 21:54, 16 November 2022 (UTC)
:Not that my opinion matters (thanks for the answer to my 'comment', which I naturally found, as well as the other more direct reply), but I think you're 'ok'. Yet straining the bounds of credibility by continually inventing new ways to add irrelevent extra pages which I wouldn't be surprised to be Marked For Deletion at some point. I don't get the point of all this at all. Can't speak for anyone else, of course, this is just my own confusion.
:...and the irony of my adding to the problem (creating updated versions when I pose my questions or otherwise reply) is not lost on me. But this is the only practical chain of communication I have so, when I ''can't'' bite my lip, I must use it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.57|172.70.91.57]] 23:14, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2697: Y2K and 2038

2022-11-14T17:18:27Z

172.70.91.57:

Y2K issues solved back in 1996. Even wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees.
2038 Problems are not-my-concern. Retired 9/30/2022.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.236|172.70.110.236]]
:Many of the people who helped solve the Y2K problem were pulled out of retirement. Lots of the issues were in old COBOL software, and there weren't enough active programmers who were competent in COBOL. So keep your resume ready. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:07, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

this is so weird I just finished a research assignment on the Y2038 problem [[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.223|172.71.166.223]] 18:27, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Somewhere there is an essay about the unexpected synergy between the Y2K bug and the burgeoning open source movement, which may or may not be useful for the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.243|172.70.214.243]] 20:18, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
:I'm sure Dave in Nebraska has updated his app https://xkcd.com/2347/ [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.57|172.70.91.57]] 17:18, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
:https://www.livehistoryindia.com/story/eras/india-software-revolution-rooted-in-y2k is a fascinating essay too. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.151|172.70.214.151]] 21:03, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
:I wouldn't be surprised if there's such an essay, but I suspect it's more of a coincidence. The late 90's was also when the Internet was really taking off, and that may be more of a contributor. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:04, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

::All involved what epidemiologists call coordinated or mutually reinforcing causes, IMHO. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 01:41, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
Speaking of which, what comes after Generation Z? Generation AA? ZA? Z.1? Help! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.243|172.70.214.243]] 07:24, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
:{{w|Generation Alpha}} [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.53|172.69.34.53]] 07:27, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
::[[1962|Zuckerbergs Army.]] --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 15:18, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
:::The Legion of the Doomed [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 10:20, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

I've been unable to confirm this so I'm moving it here: A major problem had struck IBM mainframes on and after August 16, 1972 (9999 days before January 1, 2000) that caused magnetic tapes that were supposed to be marked "keep forever" instead be marked "may be recycled now."{{Actual citation needed}} [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 07:37, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
:I have heard that y2k problems showing up in 1970 in calculations for thirty-year mortgages. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:12, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Does the arrow move over time? ... should it? (I think so!) It could be done server side and only regulars would [see, sic] that it changes over time. Then... perhaps we could see different versions of the strip cached on the Internet. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.158|172.71.166.158]] 08:30, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
It isn't, of course, but if it was a .GIF with ultralong replace-cycles then only those who ''kept the image active'' would see the arrow move in real-time. (It would reset to ''now's'' "now" upon each (re)loading, so it would have an even more exclusive audience, aside from those that cheat with image(-layer) editing. ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.57|172.70.162.57]] 13:32, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Should we mention anything about that it is that specific year in a specific calendar? As far as I know there was also {{w|Japanese_calendar_era_bug|fear of a similiar bug in Japan}} recently. However Wikipedia seems not to be up to date about it. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 15:18, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Does anyone know of an actual program or OS that stored the year as two characters instead of a single byte? I have (and had back then) serious doubts that any problems existed. Even the reported government computers had people born prior to 1900 entered, so they already had to have better precision than "just tack on 1900." Even using a single signed byte would still have been good for another 5 years from now. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 17:22, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
:In my experience (I lived and worked through the Y2K preparations) it wasn't so much "an actual program", or necessarily a fundemental limitation of an entire OS (though the roots of the problem effectively date back to key decisions surrounding the developmet of the IBM System/360 in the 1960s), but a matter of how data was held in human-readable but space-saving format. Someone in the '70s (or even up into into the '90s) may have decided their system could store some date as the six characters representing DDMMYY (or ay of the other orders) secure in the knowledge that the century digits were superfluus - and would have perhaps sent the footprint of a standard record over some handy packable length for the system, say 128 bytes. Which was a lot in those days.
:(If the year ''value'' had been recorded in 16bit binary, or even 2x7bit or doubled 6-bit, it could have been as good for the computer, but ''oh the fuss'' to convert to and from a human-orientated perspective. And it worked neatly enough, right?)
:And a useful implementaion might be used, in some form or other for a long time... Sometimes the storage system is upgraded (kilobytes? ha, we have megabytes of space now!) and the software to handle it might be ported and even rewritten, but at each stage the extra data has to match the old program, and the new program has to read and write the current data, however kludged it actually is. And it works, at least under the care of those who dabble in the dark arts of its operation. And not many others are bothered or even have any idea of what ;ies beneath the surface.
:Until somebody starts to audit the issue and asks everyone to poke around and check things... Thenthings get sorted in-situ ''or'' a much needed (YMV!) change of process is swapped in, in the place of old and (possibly) incorrect hacks. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.133|172.69.79.133]] 20:00, 12 November 2022 (UTC)
::Sometimes the "savings" of storing data in a compact form are exceeded by the "cost" of having to convert it between the convenient-to-use form and the compact form. I used to work on a system that used 32-bit words for all data types: characters, shorts, longs. When we started running out of space, we "manually" packed our data, stuffing multiple shorts and bytes into words. But in some cases, the additional code needed to pack/unpack would have taken more space than what we'd have saved in the data, without even looking at the processing time cost. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 05:52, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
::Not sure about storing each digit as a *character*, but IBM mainframes have supported packed decimal formats where each decimal digit was stored in a 4-bit nibble. That format can give more intuitive results from decimal fraction arithmetic for applications such as currency. But, I've heard of the same format being used for integer applications such as page numbers, etc because it was familiar and readable on hex dumps. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:12, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
:::{{w|Binary-coded decimal}}... Loads of interesting uses (including precision decimal fractions), but of course largely fallen out of favour for various technical and logistial reasons. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 14:44, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
:The first computerised passport system for the UK had a y2K issue. In fact, it was designed in, because it was supposed to be replaced before 1999. Unfortunately, progress with its replacement was running late. We thought that we could get away with two digits for certain dates because the software was going to be thrown away before the end of 1999. And yes, two digit years were common in COBOL programs because decimal numbers coded using ASCII or EBCDIC were the default for numeric data. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 15:32, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

:1. Having done programming since 1966, I know that much data was stored on 80-character cards (and way before that year and the IBM System/360) and using 2 characters (2.5% of the card) to store the "19" was not acceptable. As processes moved into the tape and disk world, human nature tended to not expand the field to 4 characters (the future is a long way off until, suddenly, it isn't). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.65|172.70.178.65]] 07:57, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
:: I wouldn't call punch cards a *real* Y2K problem. They had been replaced by then. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 18:55, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

:2. I actually saw a Y2K failure. It occurred at the beginning of 1999 when a job scheduling program scheduled a job for the year 1900 because it was always keeping the schedule active a year in advance. The scheduling software had actually been fixed but the upgraded version had not been installed yet, so there was no significant outage. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.64|172.70.178.64]] 08:02, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

''"an actual program or OS that stored the year as two characters"'' In years 2000-2002, it was common to see dates on web-pages showing as "19100". I/we always assumed the 19 was hard-coded, the 1-99 was a script, just concatenated. ''PRR'' [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.154|172.70.130.154]] 06:52, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

"[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2697:_Y2K_and_2038&oldid=298667 I've never heard of anyone actually recompiling to a 33-bit integer format]" - that's not what was said, but it seems to be about programming so as to pack 33-bits of precision across (or within) whatever standard bit-boundaries the system normally provides for. Which is not so fanciful, and used to be a good creative coding practice, if done well. See 8x7bit to/from 8x7bit packing or unpacking (or as an in-transit stage), which was a regular requirement at one time (arguably still is, but mostly invisibly to the user, in the usually 6-bit rationalisation that is MIME). But the edit above doesn't preclude that interpretation, so just noting this here. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.157|141.101.107.157]] 13:43, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

2698: Bad Date

2022-11-14T15:39:40Z

172.70.91.57: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2698
| date = November 14, 2022
| title = Bad Date
| image = bad_date_2x.png
| imagesize = 666x261px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Even split between us, this will pay way better than the Jumanji sponsorship I came into the date with."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SPONSORSHIP - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a spoof of Internet {{w|Influencer marketing|influencers}}. These are people with large social media followings who mention products in their videos in exchange for payment from the companies that produce these products, as a form of advertising.

In the comic, Megan and Cueball are not intentionally making a video, but someone around them posted a video of their date, because they were having an argument about the movie {{w|Jumanji}}. Megan realized that they can capitalize on this by getting a sponsor.

The argument then shifts to whether they're going to sleep together after the date. Cueball says he won't go home with Megan because she doesn't have the mattress brand sold by their sponsor. She responds by pointing out a feature of that brand, their same-day delivery policy. This argument could easily be a TV commercial for the mattress, though Cueball's ultimate retort suggests (whether he wants it to or not) that that there still won't be a "happy ever after" conclusion to this play-acting, either fictionally or once real life resumes.

The title text hints, however, that one of the pair (possibly Megan, but Cueball could have been playing 'dumb' in a ''very'' leading fashion) was already primed to 'inadvertently' advertise one or other product of the {{w|Jumanji (franchise)|Jumanji franchise}}, for their own gain alone. Megan's realisation that the situation can bring in a lot of "mattress money" leads the initial instigator to work out that a consciously shared effort, with shared proceeds, will still be worth more sponsrship.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Megan are sitting at a table in a restaurant.]
:Megan: Psst -- this date is going so badly that the people around us are posting it live. Look. [She hands her cellphone to Cueball.]
:[Cueball looks at cellphone, sees this video of them earlier on the date:]
:Megan in video: Unbelievable - Have you even ''seen'' Jumanji?
:[Video caption: "Date disaster" 252k following]
:Cueball: Oh no.
:Megan: But it's okay: I got us a sponsorship. You just need to play along...
:[Scene expands to include people at other tables looking at their phones.]
:Cueball: I could '''never''' go home with someone with such bad taste in mattresses. I need the soft support of the ProFirm 3000®.
:Megan: Wait, I can order one! With same-day delivery, it can-
:Cueball: '''You had your chance.'''

{{comic discussion}}