explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1587: Food Rule

2015-10-11T03:39:42Z

173.245.48.75: /* Explanation */ Randall promotes cannibalism

{{comic
| number = 1587
| date = October 7, 2015
| title = Food Rule
| image = food_rule.png
| titletext = I won't eat invertebrates, because I can fight a skeleton, but I have no idea what kind of spooky warrior a squid leaves behind.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please improve connections and smooth out flow - have tried since this was written, but please improve further though...}}

[[Randall]] presents a list (see [[#Items on the list|details]] below) of allowed and forbidden foods. He eats meat from typical farmyard animals like beef, pork and chicken. He also eats fish. And then he eats plants like fruit, vegetables and grain. But he refuses to eat some of the more special creatures from the sea like squids, shrimps and oysters.

Below the list he explains his rule for what can be eaten: ''I won't eat something if I have to Google to figure out whether or not it has a face''.

The rule is a joke on the {{w|Vegetarianism|vegetarian}} rule that says ''[http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/past-debates/item/910-dont-eat-anything-with-a-face don't eat anything with a face]''. There are various vegetarian diets which restrict certain foods for ethical or personal concerns. Real vegetarians do not eat any kind of meat, but some only refrain from eating red meat, although this means they are not true vegetarians. Vegetarianism can go as far as to not eating (or even using) any kind of products coming from an animal (i.e. {{w|veganism}}). The face rule, though, is very difficult to follow, because it is subjective whether people think a given animal has a {{w|face}}. Thus people may begin to discuss which animals have a face and could thus be eaten. Which was of course not the point of that rule in the first place.

As can be seen from Randall's list, he is willing to eat food disregarding if it once had a face or not. But if he needs to use Google to figure out whether it came from something who had a face, then he will not eat it. While it's clear, at least to Randall, that a cow has a face and an apple does not, some beings are harder to classify into one of these categories. For Randall this goes for shrimp, oysters and squids. For example, the squid has eyes and mouth, but it would be hard to tell whether that counts as a face. This would be a problem for the vegetarian standard rule of "nothing with a face" and thus openly mocks this rule. Some people might argue that for instance an oyster has no eyes and that it thus should be clear that it has no face. However, this may be [https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080613194541AAwlN90 debated on-line] and the face question can be found asked on-line (using Google) for both [http://www.chacha.com/question/do-shrimp-have-a-face shrimps], [http://www.chacha.com/question/do-clams-and-oysters-and-mussels-have-faces oysters] and [http://www.chacha.com/question/do-octopus-have-faces octopuses] (that are closely related to squids). So from the list it can be seen that Randall needed to Google the face question to find out for these kind of animals, and thus he declines from eating these animals. Similar discussions could go for many types of strange fish, but Randall seems to put the whole group fish as one, so if just some of these clearly have faces, then he will eat the rest as well.
The title text gives another rule that also would make these same three omissions. This rule is about not eating {{w|Invertebrate|invertebrates}} (animals without a {{w|vertebral column}}, i.e. spineless creatures). As the first four items on the list are meat from four different animals of the type {{w|Vertebrate|vertebrates}} (with vertebral column) and the last three items are from {{w|Plant|plants}} that explains why these are all OK to eat. But the middle three items are three different animals of the type invertebrates. Randall does thus not eat these!

These rules are somewhat absurd in that both of them would permit the eating of fellow humans!

He then proceeds to explain why he do not ease these kind of animals. Invertebrate animals do not have a typical skeleton as would be used in a horror movies with living dead creatures (as there is no central structure to keep the rest of any other possible bony structures together, like a {{w|Mollusc shell|shell}} or another type of {{w|exoskeleton}}). Randall is joking about how the animals he eats might come back to haunt him, and in the case of a cow or fish (or any other vertebrates), he imagines that they would come back as animated skeletal structures. Any {{w|undead}} creature that returns as a skeleton he believes he will be able to fight. But since he has no idea how an undead squid or oyster (or any other invertebrate) would look, he feels unprepared to fight such a spooky creature and thus declines from eating them.

Randall has previously mentioned his dislike of certain foods (namely {{w|lobster}} - another invertebrate) in [[1268: Alternate Universe]].

===Items on the list===
Here is a list with explanation for each item on Randalls food list:
*{{w|Red meat}}, includes meat from most adult {{w|mammals}}, but many people will probably think of {{w|beefsteak}} from {{w|cattle}}.
*{{w|Pork}}, is meat from from {{w|Domestic pig|pigs}}. As this is actually a type of red meat this supports that Randall was thinking of beef, when mentioning red meat above.
*{{w|Poultry}} are domesticated birds, most people will think of {{w|Chicken (food)|chicken}}.
*{{w|Fish}} covers a very large group of animals, most of them are not eaten on a regular basis, but a large group of fish are {{w|Fish as food|used as food}}.
*{{w|Shrimp}} is used to refer to {{w|Decapoda|ten-footed}} {{w|crustacean}} and some of these are {{w|Shrimp (food)|used for food}}. In the UK they often go under the name {{w|prawns}}.
*{{w|Oysters}} refers to a family of {{w|mollusca}} within the class {{w|bivalvia}} (i.e. body enclosed in shells consisting of two hinged parts). Most people will probably think of the {{w|Ostreidae|true oysters}} specifically the {{w|Ostrea edulis|edible oyster}}, which are not the only edible oyster!. Note that {{w|pearl oyster}} is not a true oyster.
*{{w|Squid}} are {{w|cephalopods}} (also of the mollusca family ) with eight arms arranged in pairs and two longer tentacles. They are closely related to {{w|cuttlefish}} and {{w|octopuses}}.
*{{w|Fruit}} is a part of a flowering plant. Common fruits are {{w|apples}}, {{w|oranges}}, {{w|bananas}} and {{w|pear|pears}}. But in principle anything that comes from a flower is a fruit, including grains. Although in a culinary sense there is a distinction between vegetables and fruit, any part of a flower is actually a vegetable. See below and also see [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]].
*{{w|Vegetables}} are any kind of plant. But in everyday it refers to any part of a plant that is consumed by humans as food as part of a {{w|Umami|savoury}} meal. Thus excluding both fruit, {{w|Nut (fruit)|nuts}} and cereal grains. For instance a {{w|tomato}} would be seen as a vegetable due to its taste and as a fruit botanically – see the Venn diagram {{w|Fruit#Botanic fruit and culinary fruit|here}}.
*{{w|Grain|Grains}} are small, hard, dry {{w|seeds}}. Usually when mentioning these people will think of breakfast {{w|cereal}} grains. Typical grains are {{w|corn}}, {{w|rice}} and {{w|wheat}}. As mentioned above grains are botanically both a fruit and a vegetable.

==Transcript==
:[There is a caption above a list of food with indication whether it is OK or not to eat. Below is another caption.]

:My food rule:
:{| class="wikitable" style="border: 0px;"
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Red meat
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Pork
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Poultry
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Fish
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Shrimp
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | X
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Oysters
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | X
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Squid
| style="border: 0px; color:red;" | X
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Fruit
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Vegetables
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|-
| style="border: 0px; text-align: right" | Grains
| style="border: 0px; color:green;" | ✓
|}
:I won't eat something if I have to Google to figure out whether or not it has a face.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

261: Regarding Mussolini

2015-10-11T03:33:06Z

173.245.48.75: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 261
| date = May 14, 2007
| title = Regarding Mussolini
| image = regarding mussolini.png
| titletext = Constantly stopping these briefings halfway through is becoming a pain.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|How is Godwin's law being "enforced," and how does it "not apply"? It's valid according to the definition given below}}

{{w|Godwin's Law}} states that all debates on the Internet, given enough time, will devolve into ad hominem attacks in the form of comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler or the Nazis. A common expansion on this law dictates that, when such a comparison is brought up, the debate immediately ends and the person who made the reference is declared the loser.

The scene in the comic shows generals of the British and Commonwealth forces discussing about {{w|Benito Mussolini}}'s invasion of Egypt. Mussolini and Hitler were each commanders of {{w|Axis powers}} during {{w|World War II}}, so comparisons between them are almost certain to arise.

As the title text suggests, it would have been detrimental to the war effort if the expanded version of Godwin's Law had been enforced by actually ending meetings to plan war strategy whenever Hitler was appropriately mentioned.

The joke is that in this situation, because the subject of the debate was World War Two, Hitler should be mentioned, and doing so is not an ad hominem attack.

==Transcript==
:[Three people are standing around a map. One of them is pushing something with a stick.]
:[A messenger arrives.]
:Messenger: General, Italian forces have entered Egypt.
:General: As I expected. This is a foolish move by Mussolini, but like Hitler he will no doubt force his commanders to—
:Messenger: Hey. Godwin's Law.
:General: Dammit.
:General: You know, this may become a problem.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hitler]]

Talk:891: Movie Ages

2014-08-17T21:25:55Z

173.245.48.75: /* Lincoln */ new section

This chart kinda breaks down when you meet someone who doesn't follow movies or has poor memory. Awkward moments happen. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:06, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

: Direct quote from transcript:
:
:"The 2011 Guide to Making People Feel Old
:-Using Movie Release Dates-"
:
:The second clause is as important as the first. I don't follow movies too much, but it isn't hard to make me feel old ("Oh, you're a decade and a half already?" "Oh, you're two decades already?" "Oh, you're a quarter-century?", etc). --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 20:39, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

You can still use this in the future. Just add n-2011 to each time on the chart. (Where n is the current year.) So for instance, in 2014, the 16 year old one becomes 19 year olds, and the year is "Just under a decade ago." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 09:45, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

:Wow, you hacked it! --[[User:Kronf|Kronf]] ([[User talk:Kronf|talk]]) 23:06, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

== Lincoln ==

Although not intended to make anyone feel old, the Gettysburg address begins by noting that it is 87 years since the Declaration of Independence. (A score is 20, so "four score and seven" equals 87. In 1873, 1776 was 87 years ago.)
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.75|173.245.48.75]] 21:25, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

1395: Power Cord

2014-07-20T14:30:34Z

173.245.48.75: /* Explanation */ added point about lead in plugs

{{comic
| number = 1395
| date = July 16, 2014
| title = Power Cord
| image = power_cord.png
| titletext = In this situation, gzip /dev/inside to deflate, then pipe the compressed air to /dev/input to clean your keyboard. Avert your eyes when you do.
}}

==Explanation==
'''Always remember: DO NOT put any electrical cords in your mouth. You can be severely shocked'''.

'''Also, even if there is no electrical power connected, you can get lead poisoning. (Some power cords contain lead in the metal prongs of the plug.)'''

In this comic, we see [[Beret Guy]] walking in from the left, as [[Cueball]] is sitting on a couch, typing on a laptop on his lap, with its power cord unplugged. Instead of connecting it to the wall socket, Beret Guy picks it up and blows air into the loose end of the cord, as if inflating a balloon--and the laptop inflates. It then floats away, making Cueball grab for it as Beret Guy casually walks away.

While it is not possible to inflate a laptop like this, nor to inflate ''anything'' by blowing down a power cord, Beret Guy has previously demonstrated supernatural abilities with power cords, such as in [[1293: Job Interview]]. Although the laptop should not actually float given that Beret Guy's breath should be ordinary air, not a lighter-than-air gas such as helium, it is a standard cartoon convention that [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllBalloonsHaveHelium inflating something with breath] nonetheless makes it lighter than air.

The title text involves some jokes on {{w|Unix}} systems. On Unix, {{w|everything is a file}}, even most of the hardware can be referenced by a (virtual) file. These virtual files usually are in /dev or another virtual filesystem like /sys or /proc. While /dev/input really exists and points to the input system (mice, keyboards, gamepads, etc), /dev/inside doesn't. {{w|gzip}} is a common tool to compress files. The first joke is to compress the air inside the laptop (with the command <code>gzip /dev/inside</code>) in order to deflate the laptop back to normal size. It is a pun with the literal meaning of "deflate", which is also the {{w|DEFLATE}} algorithm used by gzip (uncompressing gzipped files is also called "deflating (the archive)"). Another joke is “{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|piping}}”, the act of using the output of one operation as the input to another. As the output of the gzip command would be compressed air, a ''physical'' pipe could be used to direct the air somewhere useful. The suggestion is to direct the air to /dev/input (in this case, the keyboard) to clean it, similar to "compressed air" dusting cans. As this might cause a spray of unpleasant detritus (compare [[237: Keyboards are Disgusting]]), the reader is advised to avert their eyes.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy enters to find Cueball typing on a laptop. Cueball's power cord is unplugged from the wall.]
:Cueball typing: Type type

:[Beret Guy picks up the power cord. Cueball looks up.]
:Cueball typing: Type type

:[Beret Guy blows into the plug end of the cord. The laptop abruptly inflates and Cueball jerks back.]
:Beret Guy: '''PBBBBT'''
:Laptop: '''FOOMP'''

:[Beret Guy walks away, leaving Cueball scrambling to retrieve his inflated laptop which is now floating away.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

Talk:1013: Wake Up Sheeple

2014-06-19T04:32:16Z

173.245.48.75:

This one is my favorite comic. That is all, nothing constructive to add here. just praise. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:33, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Waking up of ancient creatures may be a reference to "The Cabin in the Woods", the movie that Randall, a fan of Firefly, is likely to have watched. [[Special:Contributions/62.105.129.252|62.105.129.252]] 10:43, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

::Considering the comic came out a month before the movie, it's somewhat unlikely. [[Special:Contributions/192.138.72.196|192.138.72.196]] 13:08, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

"Oh God Oh God Oh God!" should bring some help!--DrMath 06:46, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure that the Sheeple are a race? I thought that it was just one giant monster (using the royal "we" in its speech). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.219|141.101.97.219]] 11:23, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
: I agree - there is no indication that there are more than one Sheeple, but the trees(?) in the background and the loud baaa indicates that the one shown is a giant. Also the zoom in on the mega eye goes that way. I have corrected the explain acordingly.[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:25, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

I dissagree. "Ten thousand years '''we''' slumbered..." ~ ~ ~ ~ {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.72}}

Aren't they goats? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.75|173.245.48.75]] 04:31, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1013: Wake Up Sheeple

2014-06-19T04:31:26Z

173.245.48.75:

This one is my favorite comic. That is all, nothing constructive to add here. just praise. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:33, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Waking up of ancient creatures may be a reference to "The Cabin in the Woods", the movie that Randall, a fan of Firefly, is likely to have watched. [[Special:Contributions/62.105.129.252|62.105.129.252]] 10:43, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

::Considering the comic came out a month before the movie, it's somewhat unlikely. [[Special:Contributions/192.138.72.196|192.138.72.196]] 13:08, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

"Oh God Oh God Oh God!" should bring some help!--DrMath 06:46, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure that the Sheeple are a race? I thought that it was just one giant monster (using the royal "we" in its speech). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.219|141.101.97.219]] 11:23, 4 May 2014 (UTC)
: I agree - there is no indication that there are more than one Sheeple, but the trees(?) in the background and the loud baaa indicates that the one shown is a giant. Also the zoom in on the mega eye goes that way. I have corrected the explain acordingly.[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:25, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

I dissagree. "Ten thousand years '''we''' slumbered..." ~ ~ ~ ~ {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.72}}

Aren't those goats? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.75|173.245.48.75]] 04:31, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

1353: Heartbleed

2014-05-06T08:02:10Z

173.245.48.75: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1353
| date = April 9, 2014
| title = Heartbleed
| image = heartbleed.png
| titletext = I looked at some of the data dumps from vulnerable sites, and it was ... bad. I saw emails, passwords, password hints. SSL keys and session cookies. Important servers brimming with visitor IPs. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} refers to a critical bug in the {{w|OpenSSL}} cryptographic library. This bug was publicly revealed on Monday, April 7th, 2014. Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f — meaning the bug had existed for two years — attackers could read random server memory by sending specially prepared HeartbeatRequest messages to an affected server.

OpenSSL is a very commonly used library to implement {{w|SSL/TLS}}, a cryptographic protocol not only used to secure web traffic but also for mail clients and much more. Only the user and the server can read the communication. On the the web the protocol is ''https://'' (HTTP Secure), instead of the open ''http://'' standard. SSL is often used to protect sensitive web traffic, such as login requests, which contains the user names and passwords in the requests. The server sends a certificate to the browser before the secure connection is established. If the certificate is registered the browser accepts it automatically, otherwise the user gets a popup to accept or reject this insecure certificate.

A vulnerability that lets an attacker read random clumps of memory on the server would possibly let an attacker find recent username/password requests, allowing them to gain unauthorized access to user accounts. Even worse, this vulnerability could read the server's private key, enabling anyone to impersonate the server and/or decrypt any future traffic that relies on that key, and any previously-obtained prior traffic also, unless a "perfect forward secrecy" ciphers is used, which is currently rare. Furthermore, the Heartbleed exploit occurs during the handshake phase of setting up a connection, so no traces of it are logged, i.e. you can be attacked and never be the wiser.

More information is available at [http://heartbleed.com heartbleed.com] or under the reference [https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-0160 CVE-2014-0160 at nvd.nist.gov]

In the last panel, Megan interprets Cueball's question ("is '''everything''' compromised?") expansively. She responds that, being a computer bug, Heartbleed can only affect information which is stored on computers. Cueball concludes that information recorded in analog media, such as that written on paper or etched in clay tablets, is safe. Megan adds that imaginations are also unaffected by Heartbleed, and Cueball is reassured. The reader may wonder how our society would fare in the face of the destruction of all electronically stored information, but having our imaginations intact is certainly reassuring.

The title text cites the {{w|Tears in rain soliloquy}}, the dying words of the replicant and main antagonist Roy Batty (played by {{w|Rutger Hauer}}) in the 1982 film ''{{w|Blade Runner}}'', implying that the 64KiB HeartBleed buffer is so complete it includes memories from replicant brains. This is ironic as in the soliloquy, Roy Batty stated "All those moments will be lost in time".

The title text also suggests to patch OpenSSL oneself, which might refer to the patched version of OpenSSL by Debian, which turned out to be vulnerable in 2008, and was the topic of [[424: Security Holes]].

===Heartbleed===
In addition to the below, see [[1354|xkcd's explanation]] in the next comic.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security Transport Layer Security] (TLS), the successor to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer SSL], is a protocol that provides end-to-end encryption for data transmitted over the internet, and is described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5246 RFC 5246]. The Heartbeat extension to TLS introduced in 2012 (described in [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6520 RFC 6520]) provides a protocol for keeping an encrypted TLS session alive (preventing inactivity timeouts), so you do not have to do a costly TLS handshake with the server for subsequent transfer of information.

The Heartbeat protocol involves the client sending a packet with an arbitrary payload (often a random 16 to 32 byte number) that the server periodically sends back to the client to tell the client that the TLS session is still alive. When the client sends the packet to a vulnerable version of OpenSSL, the OpenSSL server reads a payload_size from the header sent by the client. This is a 2-byte number (0 to 0xffff=65535) that is supposed to describe the size of the payload. The OpenSSL library writes the payload to memory, but it does not check that the size of the payload written to memory matches the payload_size taken from the client's header. When the vulnerable server sends back the Heartbeat KeepAlive response to the client, it will readout payload_size number of bytes and send them back to the server. If you send a payload that is actually 16 bytes, but claims it is 0xffff bytes you will read the next 64KiB of memory of the vulnerable process starting from wherever the payload was written. An attacker can repeat this attack many times and can do this attack early in the TLS handshake, so the attack will not in any way be logged (unless they are logging every incoming packet which is not typical and would result in many passwords being logged). As private keys often have an identifiable format, it is often possible for an attacker to find the private TLS key, so if they eavesdrop on network traffic they can decrypt and/or alter it. For more detailed information see: [http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/04/attack-of-week-openssl-heartbleed.html 1], [http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55117/2568 2], [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7549943 3].

It is worth noting that modern operating systems use a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Memory#Usage virtual memory] abstraction above physical memory. This means every process can only access memory assigned to it, so it would be impossible for a vulnerable web server to read memory assigned to another process (like a text editor that has erotic fan fiction stored to memory) on the same computer. For more info, see: [http://security.stackexchange.com/a/55271/2568 4].

It also should be noted that this heartbleed bug only affects certain versions of OpenSSL, and does not affect other TLS/SSL implementations, or OpenSSH which does not even use the TLS protocol, but uses the SSH-2 protocol (described in [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4251 RFC 4251]). SSH is typically used for remote logins on unix and linux computers.

Vulnerable sysadmins need to update to a patched version of OpenSSL or one with the Heartbeats disabled. Unless their TLS keys were protected by hardware, they probably also need to revoke their old TLS keys, and generate new TLS keys.

Users of vulnerable systems should change their passwords after the sysadmins have revoked their old key and issued new ones (as their passwords may have been compromised). Users can check whether a given website is vulnerable via a [http://filippo.io/Heartbleed/ Heartbleed test also available as open source]. The [https://lastpass.com/heartbleed/ Lastpass heartbleed diagnostic] also indicates whether the signature on the TLS key predates the publication of the heartbleed vulnerability.

The [https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/bd6941cfaa31ee8a3f8661cb98227a5cbcc0f9f3 vulnerable commit] was introduced Dec 31st, 2011 by Robin Seggelmann, the first co-author of the heartbeats RFC, and went live when OpenSSL version 1.0.1 was released on 2012-03-14 and the vulnerability was widely announced 2014-04-07.

==Transcript==
:Megan: Heartbleed must be the worst web security lapse ever.
:Cueball: Worst so far. Give us time.

:Megan: I mean, this bug isn't just broken encryption.
:Megan: It lets website visitors make a server dispense random memory contents.

:Megan: It's not just keys. It's traffic data. Emails. Passwords. Erotic fanfiction.
:Cueball: Is '''''everything''''' compromised?

:Megan: Well, the attack is limited to data stored in computer memory.
:Cueball: So paper is safe. And clay tablets.
:Megan: Our imaginations, too.
:Cueball: See, we'll be fine.

{{comic discussion}}

Megan

2014-03-05T17:44:54Z

173.245.48.75:

----
{{Infobox character
| image = Megan.png‎
| caption = Megan, seen in [[973: MTV Generation]]
| first_appearance = [[15: Just Alerting You]]
}}
'''Megan''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is the second-most frequently appearing character, after [[Cueball]], and the most frequently appearing female character. She often appears with Cueball as a couple.

Megan does not necessarily always represent the same character from comic to comic. She is essentially the female equivalent of Cueball, representing the everywoman to his {{w|everyman}}. On the other hand, Megan does sometimes appear to have slightly specific personality traits; she has quite odd habits, and is sometimes shown to be very focused and intent on a goal. She has also been referred to by name in comics from time to time.

Early comics often feature Megan-style characters who may or may not be identified as Megan. [[Randall]] appears not to have standardized his character lineup early in the comic's run, and as a result, early characters sometimes have similar hair to Megan, but some different features.

''Explain xkcd'' originally referred to this character as 'Cutie' (thereby complimenting 'Cueball' with a matching first syllable) until it was pointed out that her name was given in [[159: Boombox]].

The name Megan derives from a lost love of the author's. He wrote a passive-aggressive toast in a comic for her wedding about how he was madly still in love with her, generally ruining the day for everyone involved.

==Characteristics==
Megan is distinguished by her black shoulder-length hair which generally appears to be parted in the middle in front, and is draped behind what are presumably her (undrawn) ears.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Megan

2014-03-05T17:43:47Z

173.245.48.75: Adding some truth!

----
{{Infobox character
| image = Megan.png‎
| caption = Megan, seen in [[973: MTV Generation]]
| first_appearance = [[15: Just Alerting You]]
}}
'''Megan''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. She is the second-most frequently appearing character, after [[Cueball]], and the most frequently appearing female character. She often appears with Cueball as a couple.

Megan does not necessarily always represent the same character from comic to comic. She is essentially the female equivalent of Cueball, representing the everywoman to his {{w|everyman}}. On the other hand, Megan does sometimes appear to have slightly specific personality traits; she has quite odd habits, and is sometimes shown to be very focused and intent on a goal. She has also been referred to by name in comics from time to time.

Early comics often feature Megan-style characters who may or may not be identified as Megan. [[Randall]] appears not to have standardized his character lineup early in the comic's run, and as a result, early characters sometimes have similar hair to Megan, but some different features.

''Explain xkcd'' originally referred to this character as 'Cutie' (thereby complimenting 'Cueball' with a matching first syllable) until it was pointed out that her name was given in [[159: Boombox]].

The name Megan derives from a lost love of the author's who wrote a passive-aggressive toast for her wedding about how he was madly still in love with her, and generally ruining the day for everyone involved.

==Characteristics==
Megan is distinguished by her black shoulder-length hair which generally appears to be parted in the middle in front, and is draped behind what are presumably her (undrawn) ears.

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[[Category:Characters]]