explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2482: Indoor Socializing

2021-07-01T00:40:04Z

173.245.52.209:

I think he's not afraid of getting COVID, he's just now aware he's inhaling the respiratory particles that everyone else is exhaling, which pre-COVID he never thought about. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.162|162.158.142.162]] 05:38, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
:Mitigated that in my own edit. (And wait 'til he learns how many water molecules may have been through dinosaur guts, etc!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.79|141.101.99.79]] 06:23, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
::Just for context for others, this comment I think is based on [https://what-if.xkcd.com/74/ this what if]. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:37, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.205|141.101.69.205]] 20:20, 29 June 2021 (UTC) exec
Check this http://www.vendian.org/envelope/dir2/breath.html

Earlier on, the explanation suggested that this might not be ''at'' an Indoor Sociali[s|z]ing moment, which I found quite convincing, but has been edited out. White Hat (already a known close contact who has been shown as a being in the presence of Cueball in an obvious inside situation) could be trying to psyche up Cueball to go indoors to meet people. Or the question isn't a bland social-nicety (over-reacted to) but an actual question of concern when Cueball has had to flee/avoid an indoors situation. If the latter, Cueball is actually giving a correctly ''contextual'' response to the far-from-rhetoric question, but then consciously toning it down to the non-commital response that over-sensitive people might retreat to if they're in denial about their internal strifes. - Randall should have helped by adding a little extra detail, like internal furniture, the porch/doorway to a house (either side) trees and plants to establish this as a public green-space setting. Without that, I'm unable to tell which interpretation to actually apply to the words in use - which words to stress in the question ("How ''are'' you?", "How are ''you''?", maybe "''How'' are you?") included... But maybe that's just me? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.79|141.101.99.79]] 21:37, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
:You know, whether you write 'socializing' or 'socialising' is up to personal preference (or rather, which country you grew up/are growing up in). You don't need to do both. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 10:19, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
::sounds like some people argue about it. I sometimes write it both ways by accident, but it looks like it was intentional here. I think Randall was more interested in the specific joke environment here, and was leaving it up to the reader to interpret the context as they chose, but only Randall knows. In my opinion "how are you" is pretty much always a social nicety when no context is provided, for now. I really like how you're able to describe sharing one's feelings as normal. It's really easy to fall into copying what one thinks everyone else is doing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.170|172.70.110.170]] 10:40, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
:::I don't like writing the Americanized version of such words (sorry, Randall and the other colonials out there, though obviously if I'm quoting I'd ''try'' to quote correctly if my fingers don't go auto-pilot) but I also feel self-conscious about the alternate Anglicised spelling that I was taught as correct (if I notice I've done it) where the Leftpondian preference is presumed. See also "colour", etc. I would normally try to reword to avoid this ("I can't remember when it was I last had an Indoor Social round at Dave's, but I think the curtains had a red hue"..!) and avoid comment but it seems someone has gone worst of both worlds by making their ambivalence obvious.
:::As the author of the "Mitigated" comment above, from 141.101.99.79 (whatever IP Cloudfare, or maybe my ISP, funnels me through this time) I note that the "[s|z]" author was ''also'' 141.101.99.79, so while I know for certain that this faux pas was not tapped in on this device, it's likely (not going to do the reverse lookup to be sure) that they're a fellow Brit, and have a similarly torn self-awareness about the whole Johnson vs Webster root of being 'separated by a common language'.
:::Also, they're verbose, as this chatter proves I can also be. I think therefore I may rightfully feel sympathy to their plight.
:::(Also, I stand by my original "White Hat might ''not'' be a non-householder being met indoors" tone of edit, which I also noted had been redacted. I'm more sanguine about that erasure, though, as it was the most verbose bit at the time... if no longer. But that's Wikiing for ya! Everyone's a critic...)
:::None of this adds to this comic page, but (rewrites aside) I'm not sure there's much more directly relevent info to add (ready to be proven wrong!) so I doubt it'll get in the way. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.103|141.101.99.103]] 12:01, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

OMG, Another COVID comic. Who else is disappointed?
:OMG, Another unsigned contribution. Who else is disappointed?
:(Srsly, if he has something to say then he'll say it. I don't think it's all he's thinking about, and we've seen non-Covid subjects, but you can't blame him for harvesting a current and rich vein of dark-absurdity if that's what he feels needs saying. Especially if putting them into a potential 'save for later, pull up other stuff for now' pile risks no longer being understandably topical and loses the intended impact. Feel frustrated, if you want, but it'll not change anything to moan here about it.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.122|141.101.98.122]] 00:34, 1 July 2021 (UTC)
::ever since he stopped updating his blog and what-if ... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 00:40, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2386: Ten Years

2020-11-17T14:30:27Z

173.245.52.209:

There is little or nothing I can add to this except to say that there is at least one good thing that has happened in 2020. Congratulations, Randall and Megan.[[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 04:14, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

I was so confused when I read the comic-until I realized it was based on a true story. This is very sweet of Randall to dedicate this comic to his wife's progress. -neverdroptop 04:37, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Congrats Megan and Randall! - skotos

I'm not crying, _you're_ crying. Such a heartbreakingly gorgeous comic, thanks Randall. Congratulations to you both. - Excession_OCP
:Same; that second-to-last panel was so sweet! [[User:Gir|-- //gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 13:19, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

This is lovely. Congratulations on 10yrs cancer free. May your 15 year traditional anniversary gift not be cursed. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:34, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

The start of this topic is here : [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/818:_Illness]. The following posts are very touching too. Thanks Randall and Megan. [[User:JulienG|JulienG]] ([[User talk:JulienG|talk]]) 14:21, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Congratulations Megan and Randall! Many more years! --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 14:30, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

2332: Cursed Chair

2020-07-13T23:26:58Z

173.245.52.209: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2332
| date = July 14, 2020
| title = Cursed Chair
| image = cursed_chair.png
| titletext = The Wirecutter staff called the Herman Miller Siege Perilous "the most cursed product we've ever had to fight" and "nearly as immortal as it boasts."
}}

==Explanation==
[[Beret Guy]] informs [[Cueball]] that he purchased a cursed office chair. Cueball is skeptical of this, and of Beret Guy's claim that the store he bought the chair from was gone when he went to return it. Cueball suggests that maybe the shop was simply closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as is the case for wide variety of non-cursed businesses. Beret Guy takes this as proof that the chair somehow caused the pandemic, a claim Cueball meets incredulously. In the final panel, Beret Guy is doing battle with the chair, which taunts him. Cueball remarks that it would be simpler to shop at IKEA, a store famous for its minimalist flat-pack furniture.

The cursed chair and the store are references to the stores that sell cursed items mentioned in [[1772: Startup Opportunity]].

{{incomplete|Created by HERMAN MILLER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

:Beret Guy: Remember how I bought my desk chair from that mysterious shop?
:Cueball: I think so?
:Beret Guy: Turns out the chair was cursed.

:Beret Guy: So I went back to return it, but the shop was gone! The door was boarded up!
:Cueball: I think most of the shops are closed because of coronavirus.

:Beret Guy: Oh no!
:Beret Guy: ''The curse must have caused the pandemic!
:Cueball (off-panel): What.

:Beret Guy: If I destroy the chair, we can stop the virus!
:Cueball: What.

:Beret Guy: ''Die, plague-bringer!''
:Desk chair: '''Hee hee, I can not die'''
:Cueball: Maybe you should just shop at IKEA.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]

2319: Large Number Formats

2020-06-13T20:12:48Z

173.245.52.209: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2319
| date = June 12, 2020
| title = Large Number Formats
| image = large number formats-2.png
| titletext = 10^13.4024: A person who has come back to numbers after a journey deep into some random theoretical field
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows how different people express large numbers. This number in question is approximately the distance from the planet Earth to the planet Jupiter as of June 2020, in {{w|inch|inches}} (1 inch = 2.54 cm).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Number
! Type of person
! Notes
|-
| 25,259,974,097,204
| Normal Person
| This is the full number, written out in the normal fashion, with commas to indicate powers of 1000. Note that this convention is only considered normal in the Anglo-Saxon world; conventions for writing large numbers in full vary considerably across cultures. For example, in countries where the comma is used as a {{w|decimal separator}} (including Europe outside the UK), one would write the number as 25.259.974.097.204 (or 25'259'974'097'204 in Switzerland, or 25 259 974 097 204 in Poland, France and Estonia). Under the {{w|Indian numbering system}}, this number would be written as 25,25,997,40,97,204.
|-
| 25 Trillion
| Normal Person
| This is the number, rounded to trillions in the normal fashion.
|-
| 25 Billion
| Old British Person
| In current English usage, across the anglophonic world with some hold-outs, an n-illion means 10^(3n+3) as per the {{w|short scale}} system popularised by American influence in international trade, so a trillion means 10^12, as above. However, older British English use had an n-illion meaning 10^(6n) (i.e. the simpler calculation of ''million^n''), so a billion meant 10^12. The change stems from a 1974 commitment by Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister of the UK at the time, to change from the {{w|long scale}} (previously often described as the British system) to the short one for all official purposes.

Though not instantly widely adopted for common usage, the mid-'70s could therefore be considered the key turning point between when an older or younger British person learns (as the change filters through the system at various stages of education) what their "Billion"s and "Trillion"s are supposed to represent.

(The 1971 transition to decimalised currency may also date a person's experiences, but was a more comprehensive and immediate change for everyone who handled any money at all, in the UK, and thus was a more definite point of change apart from the extended survival of the "12 times table" being taught by rote in primary education, rather than ending at the 10s.)

As well as 'traditionalist' British use, the Long Scale is widely used in the non-anglophone world, in local language versions, though while the British system tended to infill n-and-a-half powers of the million with the term "thousand n-illion", the suffix "-illi''ard''", or equivalent, is often used for the thousands multiple directly atop the respective "-illion" point.
|-
|2.526x1013
|Scientist
|This number is formatted in {{w|scientific notation}}, using the exponent 1013.
|-
| 2.525997x1013
| Scientist trying to avoid rounding up
| Using as many decimal places as necessary until hitting a digit (0-4) that results in rounding down, even if it goes against the common scientific practice of reporting the correct amount of "significant figures". A previous version of the comic had a typo (the number was ''2.5997x1013''), but Randall updated the comic.
|-
| 2.526e13 or
2.526*10^13
| Software developer
| Computer code cannot typically use the superscripts or other types of rich text formatting, so the exponent is indicated with the {{w|caret}}. "e13" is {{w|Scientific notation#E notation|(scientific) E notation}} for the expression "10 raised to the power of 13".
|-
| 25,259,973,541,888
| Software developer who forgot about floats
| This is the number after being converted to the limited precision of a {{w|32-bit floating point|32-bit float}}.
|-
| 1013
| Astronomer
| For extremely large distances, astronomers typically only care about orders of magnitude, i.e. 1013, not 1012 or 1014. Randall often jokes about the lack of precision needed by astronomers, such as in xkcd #[[2205]] where the astronomer-cosmologist is equally willing to make pi equal to one, or ten. The original number is rounded to the nearest power of ten.
|-
| {∅,{∅},{∅,{∅}},{∅,{∅},{...
| Set theorist
| In {{w|Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory}}, the natural numbers are defined recursively by letting 0 = ∅ (the {{w|empty set}}), and ''n'' + 1 = ''n'' ∪ {''n''}. So, every natural number ''n'' is the set of all natural numbers less than ''n'', and since 0 is defined as the empty set, all numbers are nested sets of empty sets. Note that writing out the full number in this fashion would take more than its square in number of characters; that is to say, if each character took up one square centimeter, this "number" would not fit on a square piece of paper whose edge reached to Jupiter.
|-
| 1,262,998,704,860 score and four
| Abraham Lincoln
| In the {{W|Gettysburg Address}}, Lincoln speaks the number "87" as "four score and seven" ("score" meaning "20"). This style of speaking numbers comes from {{w|French language#Numerals|French}}, and can appear in certain formal contexts, such as the King James Bible ("threescore years and ten" said to be the life expectancy of a human). The original number is rewritten in "score" (multiples of 20) plus a remainder (four).
|-
| 10^13.4024 ''(title text)''
| A person who has come back to numbers after a journey deep into some random theoretical field
| In some fields of mathematics, especially those dealing with very {{w|large numbers}}, numbers are sometimes represented by raising ten (or some other convenient base) to an oddly precise power, to facilitate comparison of their magnitudes without filling up pages upon pages of digits. An example of this is {{w|Skewes's number}}, which is formally calculated to be ''e''''e''''e''79, but is more commonly approximated as 10101034. 13.4024 is the {{w|common logarithm}} of 25,259,974,097,204 (log10 25,259,974,097,204 = 13.4024329009); thus, this "format" is still mathematically correct, but uncommon.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A panel only with text. At the top there is four lines of explanatory text. Below that there are 5 rows of number formats. There are 2 columns in each row. Each numerical format is in red, with black text explaining the format below it.]

:<big>What the way you write large</big>
:<big>numbers says about you</big>
:(Using the approximate current distance
:to Jupiter in inches as an example)

:[First row:]
:25,259,974,097,204
:Normal person
:25 trillion
:Normal person

:[Second row:]
:25 billion
:Old British person
:2.526x1013
:Scientist

:[Third row:]
:2.525997x1013
:Scientist trying to avoid rounding up
:2.526e13 or 2.526*10^13
:Software developer

:[Fourth row:]
:25,259,973,541,888
:Software developer who forgot about floats
:1013
:Astronomer

:[Fifth row:]
:{∅,{∅},{∅,{∅}},{∅,{∅},{...
:Set theorist
:1,262,998,704,860 score and four
:Abraham Lincoln

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category: Programming]]
[[Category: Math]]
[[Category: Astronomy]]
[[Category: Science]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]

2288: Collector's Edition

2020-04-03T23:08:59Z

173.245.52.209: Added unlocked item source for "On the other side of the wardrobe"

{{comic
| number = 2288
| date = April 3, 2020
| title = Collectors Edition
| image = collectors_edition.png
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. This Space acts as a virtual common sandbox where viewers can interact. "Items" (small, often humorous images) can be 'collected' from other comics and then placed in this image by viewers. The collection then updates for all viewers in real-time. Multiples of the same item are often seen.

There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.

The sticker images can be seen at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png, where XXX is a number from 001-253. Additionally, some images can be found at custom URLs, for example the periodic elements can be found at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/element-XX.png, where XX is the element, and text loot at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot-words-X.png, where X is the sentence.

===Hints===

{| class="wikitable"
!Hint
!Comic
!Unlocked item
!Item image
!Notes
|-
|Doctors in a row||[[1529: Bracket]] [[497: Secretary: Part 4]] ||Cory Doctorow || loot_019.png || These comics all have the same hint, but only one will have the chest ||
|-
|Get out the (US) vote|| [[2224: Software Updates]] || Statue of liberty || loot_246.png ||
|-
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| [[1133: Up Goer Five]] || Signpost || loot_126.png ||
|-
|Plug in or find another power source||[[1373: Screenshot]] || || loot_228.png ||
|-
|Sweet dreams, kitty||[[729: Laser Pointer]] || Cat licking laser point || loot_090.png ||
|-
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.||[[28: Elefino]] || || ||
|-
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||Exploding rock || ||
|-
|Cowabunga||[[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] ||Women Science Fiction Authors || loot_175.png || [[197: Ninja Turtles]] also works
|-
|I want to believe||[[2156: Ufo]] ||Ufo || ||
|-
|Bleeped||[[1671: Arcane Bullshit]]|| *$@#! || loot_044.png ||
|-
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick||[[1022: So It Has Come To This]] || First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart || loot_159.png ||
|-
|Cooler than electric scooters||[[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]]||An electric scooter|| loot_006.png ||
|-
|Take it from the top||[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] ||I am a turtle from [[889: Turtles]] || loot_095.png ||
|-
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!||[[1713: 50 ccs]] ||Man carrying parentheses from [[297: Lisp Cycles]] || loot_031.png ||
|-
|Catch up on the news|| [[1699: Local News]] || || ||
|-
|Participation trophy|| [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Server rack || loot_096.png ||
|-
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn||[[1504: Opportunity]] ||Opportunity Mars rover || ||
|-
|Tastier than tau day||[[179: e to the pi times i]] ||First annual award for excellence in being very smart || loot_159.png ||
|-
|Tastier than tau day||[[1967: Violin Plots]] || Pie sign || loot_056.png || Published on Pi day
|-
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard || ||
|-
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove || ||
|-
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| [[1071: Exoplanets]] || Little girl from [[2264: Satellite]] || loot_151.png ||
|-
|asableiK|| [[645: RPS]] || A reverse Polish hotdog || || "Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish
|-
|Critical mass elements|| [[235: Kite]] || || loot_203.png ||
|-
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| [[390: Nightmares]]? || Cueball wheelie from [[272: Linux User at Best Buy]] || || Comic-hint connection largely conjectural; 390 was the first comic published on a leap day.
|-
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]|| Rock guitarist || loot_022.png||
|-
|Call the plumber|| [[290: Fucking Blue Shells]] || || loot_058.png ||
|-
|Was it a rat I saw?|| [[1632: Palindrome]] || Cueball with a large sack, pulling a wagon || loot_103.png || or [[1503: Squirrel Plan]] for cueball holding a balloon caught in a ceiling fan.
|-
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate||[[1148: Nothing to Offer]]|| Bottle of soda || loot_045.png ||
|-
|Keep coming back|| || || ||
|-
|A new model released each year|| || || || https://xkcd.com/1363/ ? and/or other XKCD Phone comics?
|-
|Tea Time||[[581: The Race: Part 5]] ||Floor tea ||loot_232.png||
|-
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?||[[1045: Constraints]] || || ||
|-
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] || Hilbert Curve || loot_021.png ||
|-
|Science fiction fetish|| || || ||
|-
|The first one was funnier||[[11: Barrel - Part 2]]||Falling feather || ||
|-
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!||[[1941: Dying Gift]] || Megan on a tire swing || ||
|-
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though||[[2233: Aurora Meaning]] || Sleeping Cat || loot_163.png ||
|-
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid|| [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] || Cobwebbed frame from [[1135: Arachnoneurology]]|| ||
|-
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?||[[1598: Salvage]] ||Rice bowl || loot_152.png ||
|-
|Never going to give you up||[[351: Trolling]] || || ||
|-
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms||[[1604: Snakes]]|| Yoda with an mp3 player from What If || ||
|-
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity||[[1533: Antique Factory]] or [[1021: Business Plan]]|| Beret guy with a goat on leash || loot_115.png ||
|-
|Read the fine manual|| [[1343: Manuals]] or [[293: RTFM]] || "Configure the network" window with a prompt for hostname || loot_106.png ||
|-
|That thing's undecimodal!||[[1347: t Distribution]] || Floating tentacled alien || ||
|-
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now||[[491: Twitter]]||Expensive bottle || ||
|-
|You don't have to find all 99|| [[121: Balloon]] ||Balloon copter || loot_002.png || Or [[51: Malaria]] ?
|-
|Going in circles|| [[378: Real Programmers]] || Cueball spinning in desk chair || loot_098.png ||
|-
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?||[[2123: Meta Collecting]]||Phishing License sign|| loot_158.png ||
|-
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK||[[537: Ducklings]] ||DUCKLOOP'D? || loot_069.png||
|-
|Fool me twice|| [[880: Headache]] || Raptor Attack || loot_033.png ||The second April fools' comic
|-
|oOOOoooo|| [[316: Loud Sex]] || Sleeping cat || ||
|-
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes||[[879: Lamp]] ||Genie and his bottle ||loot_004.png ||
|-
|HACK THE PLANET||[[1337: Hack]] || Crash and Burn in the pool from the end of ''Hackers'' || loot_130.png ||
|-
|Monetization haute couteur||[[20: Ferret]]||Two bags of money ||loot_162.png||
|-
|Maybe writing a script would help||[[1319: Automation]]|| || ||
|-
|Go big to go small|| [[1365: Inflation]] || || loot_245.png ||
|-
|Are you projecting||[[850: World According to Americans]] or [[977: Map Projections]]||Squirrel on a gun||loot_237.png||
|-
|Do spiders really have six legs||[[8: Red spiders]] || || ||
|-
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?||[[1688: Map Age Guide]] ||Cephalopod || ||
|-
|Another rulebook?||[[393: Ultimate Game]]|| Merlin in a chair from [[270: Merlin]] || loot_037.png ||
|-
|Moooooon|| [[1300: Galilean Moons]] || MOOOOOON || ||
|-
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS|| [[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]] || || ||
|-
|Everyone deserves a second chnace|| || || || [[745: Dyslexics]] feels like a good fit but I don't see a loot box there
|-
|Community contribution|| [[826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)]] || [Citation Needed] protester from [[285: Wikipedian Protester]] || loot_035.png ||
|-
|On the other side of the wardrobe|| [[665: Prudence]] or [[969: Delta-P]] or [[2218: Wardrobe]] ||Authentic Reindeer pulling sled from [[1776: Reindeer]] || loot_154.png ||
|-
|Today's your lucky day|| [[1053: Ten Thousand]] || Ms. Frizzle || loot_105.png ||
|-
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]|| [[1005: SOPA]] || || ||
|-
|Try a different approach|| [[55: Useless]] || Equals sign || loot_times.png, loot_div.png ||
|-
|The cake is a lie!|| [[606: Cutting Edge]] || Cake || loot_144.png ||
|-
|Joanna, fire.||[[322: Pix Plz]] || Joanna with EMP cannon || loot_026.png ||
|-
|Everything changes from time to time when the fire nation attacks|| [[965: Elements]] || Symposium || ||
|-
|90KG x 300M|| [[382: Trebuchet]] || Trebuchet || loot_041.png ||
|-
|Copyright Enforcement Brigade|| [[344: 1337: Part 4]] || || loot_046.png ||
|-
|Where Cape Town meets Chukotka||[[1500: Upside-Down Map]] || Crater || ||
|-
|Take a ride in a barrel|| || Cueball at the door to the playpen-ball-filled apartment from [[150: Grownups]] || loot_005.png || Reliably triggered by viewing all five barrel comics in reverse order ([[31]], [[25]], [[22]], [[11]], [[1]])
|-
| || [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Sheeple eye || loot_109.png ||
|-
| || [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Time machine from [[1747: Spider Paleontology]] || loot_167.png ||
|}

==Trivia==
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.
<blockquote>
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!
</blockquote>
* Placement is limited to 10,000 units from the origin. Users will receive no messages if they try placing something outside the boundary.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]

2288: Collector's Edition

2020-04-03T23:04:35Z

173.245.52.209: Updated unlocked item text for "loot_167.png" and added source

{{comic
| number = 2288
| date = April 3, 2020
| title = Collectors Edition
| image = collectors_edition.png
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. This Space acts as a virtual common sandbox where viewers can interact. "Items" (small, often humorous images) can be 'collected' from other comics and then placed in this image by viewers. The collection then updates for all viewers in real-time. Multiples of the same item are often seen.

There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.

The sticker images can be seen at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png, where XXX is a number from 001-253. Additionally, some images can be found at custom URLs, for example the periodic elements can be found at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/element-XX.png, where XX is the element, and text loot at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot-words-X.png, where X is the sentence.

===Hints===

{| class="wikitable"
!Hint
!Comic
!Unlocked item
!Item image
!Notes
|-
|Doctors in a row||[[1529: Bracket]] [[497: Secretary: Part 4]] ||Cory Doctorow || loot_019.png || These comics all have the same hint, but only one will have the chest ||
|-
|Get out the (US) vote|| [[2224: Software Updates]] || Statue of liberty || loot_246.png ||
|-
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| [[1133: Up Goer Five]] || Signpost || loot_126.png ||
|-
|Plug in or find another power source||[[1373: Screenshot]] || || loot_228.png ||
|-
|Sweet dreams, kitty||[[729: Laser Pointer]] || Cat licking laser point || loot_090.png ||
|-
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.||[[28: Elefino]] || || ||
|-
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||Exploding rock || ||
|-
|Cowabunga||[[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] ||Women Science Fiction Authors || loot_175.png || [[197: Ninja Turtles]] also works
|-
|I want to believe||[[2156: Ufo]] ||Ufo || ||
|-
|Bleeped||[[1671: Arcane Bullshit]]|| *$@#! || loot_044.png ||
|-
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick||[[1022: So It Has Come To This]] || First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart || loot_159.png ||
|-
|Cooler than electric scooters||[[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]]||An electric scooter|| loot_006.png ||
|-
|Take it from the top||[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] ||I am a turtle from [[889: Turtles]] || loot_095.png ||
|-
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!||[[1713: 50 ccs]] ||Man carrying parentheses from [[297: Lisp Cycles]] || loot_031.png ||
|-
|Catch up on the news|| [[1699: Local News]] || || ||
|-
|Participation trophy|| [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Server rack || loot_096.png ||
|-
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn||[[1504: Opportunity]] ||Opportunity Mars rover || ||
|-
|Tastier than tau day||[[179: e to the pi times i]] ||First annual award for excellence in being very smart || loot_159.png ||
|-
|Tastier than tau day||[[1967: Violin Plots]] || Pie sign || loot_056.png || Published on Pi day
|-
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard || ||
|-
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove || ||
|-
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| [[1071: Exoplanets]] || Little girl from [[2264: Satellite]] || loot_151.png ||
|-
|asableiK|| [[645: RPS]] || A reverse Polish hotdog || || "Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish
|-
|Critical mass elements|| [[235: Kite]] || || loot_203.png ||
|-
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| [[390: Nightmares]]? || Cueball wheelie from [[272: Linux User at Best Buy]] || || Comic-hint connection largely conjectural; 390 was the first comic published on a leap day.
|-
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]|| Rock guitarist || loot_022.png||
|-
|Call the plumber|| [[290: Fucking Blue Shells]] || || loot_058.png ||
|-
|Was it a rat I saw?|| [[1632: Palindrome]] || Cueball with a large sack, pulling a wagon || loot_103.png || or [[1503: Squirrel Plan]] for cueball holding a balloon caught in a ceiling fan.
|-
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate||[[1148: Nothing to Offer]]|| Bottle of soda || loot_045.png ||
|-
|Keep coming back|| || || ||
|-
|A new model released each year|| || || || https://xkcd.com/1363/ ? and/or other XKCD Phone comics?
|-
|Tea Time||[[581: The Race: Part 5]] ||Floor tea ||loot_232.png||
|-
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?||[[1045: Constraints]] || || ||
|-
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] || Hilbert Curve || loot_021.png ||
|-
|Science fiction fetish|| || || ||
|-
|The first one was funnier||[[11: Barrel - Part 2]]||Falling feather || ||
|-
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!||[[1941: Dying Gift]] || Megan on a tire swing || ||
|-
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though||[[2233: Aurora Meaning]] || Sleeping Cat || loot_163.png ||
|-
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid|| [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] || Cobwebbed frame from [[1135: Arachnoneurology]]|| ||
|-
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?||[[1598: Salvage]] ||Rice bowl || loot_152.png ||
|-
|Never going to give you up||[[351: Trolling]] || || ||
|-
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms||[[1604: Snakes]]|| Yoda with an mp3 player from What If || ||
|-
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity||[[1533: Antique Factory]] or [[1021: Business Plan]]|| Beret guy with a goat on leash || loot_115.png ||
|-
|Read the fine manual|| [[1343: Manuals]] or [[293: RTFM]] || "Configure the network" window with a prompt for hostname || loot_106.png ||
|-
|That thing's undecimodal!||[[1347: t Distribution]] || Floating tentacled alien || ||
|-
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now||[[491: Twitter]]||Expensive bottle || ||
|-
|You don't have to find all 99|| [[121: Balloon]] ||Balloon copter || loot_002.png || Or [[51: Malaria]] ?
|-
|Going in circles|| [[378: Real Programmers]] || Cueball spinning in desk chair || loot_098.png ||
|-
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?||[[2123: Meta Collecting]]||Phishing License sign|| loot_158.png ||
|-
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK||[[537: Ducklings]] ||DUCKLOOP'D? || loot_069.png||
|-
|Fool me twice|| [[880: Headache]] || Raptor Attack || loot_033.png ||The second April fools' comic
|-
|oOOOoooo|| [[316: Loud Sex]] || Sleeping cat || ||
|-
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes||[[879: Lamp]] ||Genie and his bottle ||loot_004.png ||
|-
|HACK THE PLANET||[[1337: Hack]] || Crash and Burn in the pool from the end of ''Hackers'' || loot_130.png ||
|-
|Monetization haute couteur||[[20: Ferret]]||Two bags of money ||loot_162.png||
|-
|Maybe writing a script would help||[[1319: Automation]]|| || ||
|-
|Go big to go small|| [[1365: Inflation]] || || loot_245.png ||
|-
|Are you projecting||[[850: World According to Americans]] or [[977: Map Projections]]||Squirrel on a gun||loot_237.png||
|-
|Do spiders really have six legs||[[8: Red spiders]] || || ||
|-
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?||[[1688: Map Age Guide]] ||Cephalopod || ||
|-
|Another rulebook?||[[393: Ultimate Game]]|| Merlin in a chair from [[270: Merlin]] || loot_037.png ||
|-
|Moooooon|| [[1300: Galilean Moons]] || MOOOOOON || ||
|-
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS|| [[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]] || || ||
|-
|Everyone deserves a second chnace|| || || || [[745: Dyslexics]] feels like a good fit but I don't see a loot box there
|-
|Community contribution|| [[826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)]] || [Citation Needed] protester from [[285: Wikipedian Protester]] || loot_035.png ||
|-
|On the other side of the wardrobe|| [[665: Prudence]] or [[969: Delta-P]] or [[2218: Wardrobe]] ||Authentic Reindeer pulling sled || loot_154.png ||
|-
|Today's your lucky day|| [[1053: Ten Thousand]] || Ms. Frizzle || loot_105.png ||
|-
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]|| [[1005: SOPA]] || || ||
|-
|Try a different approach|| [[55: Useless]] || Equals sign || loot_times.png, loot_div.png ||
|-
|The cake is a lie!|| [[606: Cutting Edge]] || Cake || loot_144.png ||
|-
|Joanna, fire.||[[322: Pix Plz]] || Joanna with EMP cannon || loot_026.png ||
|-
|Everything changes from time to time when the fire nation attacks|| [[965: Elements]] || Symposium || ||
|-
|90KG x 300M|| [[382: Trebuchet]] || Trebuchet || loot_041.png ||
|-
|Copyright Enforcement Brigade|| [[344: 1337: Part 4]] || || loot_046.png ||
|-
|Where Cape Town meets Chukotka||[[1500: Upside-Down Map]] || Crater || ||
|-
|Take a ride in a barrel|| || Cueball at the door to the playpen-ball-filled apartment from [[150: Grownups]] || loot_005.png || Reliably triggered by viewing all five barrel comics in reverse order ([[31]], [[25]], [[22]], [[11]], [[1]])
|-
| || [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Sheeple eye || loot_109.png ||
|-
| || [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Time machine from [[1747: Spider Paleontology]] || loot_167.png ||
|}

==Trivia==
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.
<blockquote>
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!
</blockquote>
* Placement is limited to 10,000 units from the origin. Users will receive no messages if they try placing something outside the boundary.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]

2288: Collector's Edition

2020-04-03T14:51:00Z

173.245.52.209: /* Hints - I found a hint thing for 260 million cycles*/

{{comic
| number = 2288
| date = April 3, 2020
| title = Collectors Edition
| image = collectors_edition.png
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. The space acts as a virtual common sandbox where viewers can interact. "Items" (small, often humorous images) can be 'collected' from other comics and then placed in this image by viewers. The collection then updates for all viewers in real time. Multiples of the same item are often seen.

There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.

The sticker images can be seen at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png, where XXX is a number from 001-253. Additionally, some images can be found at custom urls, for example the periodic elements can be found at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/element-XX.png, where XX is the element, and text loot at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot-words-X.png, where X is the sentence.

===Hints===

{| class="wikitable"
!Hint
!Comic
!Unlocked item
!Item image
!Notes
|-
|Doctors in a row||[[1529: Bracket]] ||Cory Doctorow || ||
|-
|Get out the (US) vote|| || || ||
|-
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| [[1133: Up Goer Five]] || Signpost || ||
|-
|Plug in or find another power source||[[1373: Screenshot]] || || loot_228.png ||
|-
|Sweet dreams, kitty||[[729: Laser Pointer]] || || ||
|-
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.||[[28: Elefino]] || || ||
|-
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||Exploding rock || ||
|-
|Cowabunga||[[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] ||Women Science Fiction Authors || loot_175.png || [[197: Ninja Turtles]] also works
|-
|I want to believe||[[2156: Ufo]] ||Ufo || ||
|-
|Bleeped|| || || ||
|-
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick||[[1022: So It Has Come To This]] || First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart || ||
|-
|Cooler than electric scooters||[[2195: Dockless Roombas]]||An electric scooter|| || ||
|-
|Take it from the top||[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] ||I am a turtle || || ||
|-
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!||[[1713: 50 ccs]] || || ||
|-
|Catch up on the news|| [[1699: Local News]] || || ||
|-
|Participation trophy|| [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Server rack || ||
|-
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn||[[1504: Opportunity]] ||Opportunity Mars rover || ||
|-
|Tastier than tau day||[[179: e to the pi times i]] ||First annual award for excellence in being very smart || ||
|-
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard || ||
|-
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove || ||
|-
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| || || ||
|-
|asableiK|| [[645: RPS]] || A reverse Polish hotdog || || "Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish
|-
|Critical mass elements|| || || ||
|-
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| [[390: Nightmares]]? || Cueball wheelie from [[272: Linux User at Best Buy]] || || Comic-hint connection largely conjectural; 390 was the first comic published on a leap day.
|-
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]|| Rock guitarist || ||
|-
|Call the plumber|| || || ||
|-
|Was it a rat I saw?|| [[1632: Palindrome]] || Cueball with a large sack, pulling a wagon || ||
|-
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate||[[1148: Nothing to Offer]]|| Bottle of soda || ||
|-
|Keep coming back|| || || ||
|-
|A new model released each year|| || || ||
|-
|Tea Time||[[579: The Race: Part 3]] ||Floor tea || ||
|-
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?||[[1045: Constraints]] || || ||
|-
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] ||maze || ||
|-
|Science fiction fetish|| || || ||
|-
|The first one was funnier||[[11: Barrel - Part 2]]||Falling feather || ||
|-
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!||[[121: Balloon]] ||idkHowToEditGud || ||
|-
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though|| || ||
|-
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid|| [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] || Cobwebbed frame || ||
|-
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?||[[1598: Salvage]] ||Rice bowl || ||
|-
|Never going to give you up||[[351: Trolling]] || || ||
|-
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms||[[1604: Snakes]]|| Yoda with an mp3 player from What If || ||
|-
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity||[[1533: Antique Factory]]|| || ||
|-
|Read the fine manual|| [[1343: Manuals]] or [[293: RTFM]] || || ||
|-
|That thing's undecimodal!||[[1347: t Distribution]] || || ||
|-
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now||[[491: Twitter]]||Expensive bottle || ||
|-
|You don't have to find all 99|| || || ||
|-
|Going in circles|| || || ||
|-
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?||[[2123: Meta Collecting]]||Phishing License sign|| ||
|-
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK||[[537: Ducklings]] ||DUCKLOOP'D? || ||
|-
|Fool me twice||[[880: Headache]] ||Raptor Attack || ||
|-
|oOOOoooo|| || || || https://xkcd.com/316/ ?
|-
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes||[[879: Lamp]] ||Genie and his bottle || ||
|-
|HACK THE PLANET||[[1337: Hack]] || || ||
|-
|Monetization haute couteur|| || || ||
|-
|Maybe writing a script would help||[[1319: Automation]]|| || ||
|-
|Go big to go small|| || || ||
|-
|Are you projecting||[[977: Map Projections]]| |Squirrel on a gun| || ||
|-
|Do spiders really have six legs||[[8: Red spiders]] || || ||
|-
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?||[[1688: Map Age Guide]] ||Cephalopod || ||
|-
|Another rulebook?||[[393: Ultimate Game]]||Wizard in a chair || ||
|-
|Moooooon|| [[1300: Galilean Moons]] || MOOOOOON || ||
|-
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS|| [[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]] || || ||
|-
|Everyone deserves a second chnace|| || || ||
|-
|Community contribution|| || || ||
|-
|On the other side of the wardrobe|| [[969: Delta-P]] ||Authentic Reindeer pulling sled || ||
|-
|Today's your lucky day|| || || ||
|-
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]|| [[1005: SOPA]] || || ||
|-
|Try a different approach|| || || ||
|-
|The cake is a lie!|| [[606: Cutting Edge]] || Cake || ||
|-
|Joanna, fire.||[[322: Pix Plz]] || || loot_026.png ||
|-
|Everything changes from time to time when the fire nation attacks||[[965: Elements]] ||Symposium || ||
|-
|90KG x 300M|| [[382: Trebuchet]] || Trebuchet || ||
|-
|Copyright Enforcement Brigade|| || || ||
|-
|Where Cape Town meets Chukotka|| || || ||
|}

==Trivia==
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic, and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.
<blockquote>
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!
</blockquote>
* Placement is limited to 10,000 units from origin. Users will receive no messages if they try placing something outside the boundary.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]

{{comic discussion}}

664: Academia vs. Business

2020-04-03T14:42:07Z

173.245.52.209: /* Explanation: Greg Walsh is leet. */

{{comic
| number = 664
| date = November 18, 2009
| title = Academia vs. Business
| image = academia_vs_business.png
| titletext = Some engineer out there has solved P=NP and it's locked up in an electric eggbeater calibration routine. For every 0x5f375a86 we learn about, there are thousands we never see.
}}

== Explanation ==
[[Cueball]] has solved some tricky and very important problem in computer science, related to {{w|queueing theory}}.

The comic splits into two timelines. Showing the brilliant computer code he'd written to somebody who actually knows computer code allows the academic to see the programmer's true brilliance and get him much-earned plaudits from the academic community.

In the alternate timeline – implied to be what ''actually'' happens – the boss, not possessing that knowledge, simply sees the results and not the means Cueball used to attain them. He then gives Cueball another assignment. This, sadly, is the usual course of events in bureaucracy, which only seems to care about your results, not how you came about them. To drive in the point, the boss asks Cueball to do something as simple as setting up email on the office phones, a stark contrast to the skill and creativity Cueball would have needed to write his code in the first panel.

The references in the title text are to the {{w|P versus NP problem}}, a famous unsolved problem in computer science, and the "magical constant" (0x5f375a86) used in finding the {{w|fast inverse square root}}, i.e. solving y=1/√x by a program fast as possible – no-one knows quite who came up this very useful bit of code (Now believed to be devised by Greg Walsh at Ardent Computer in consultation with Cleve Moler, the creator of MATLAB. see wikipedia), but it was discovered hiding in the graphics code of the video game {{w|Quake III Arena}}. Note that the actual constant used in the Quake III source code is 0x5f375'''9df''', but the constant in the title text works also, and is actually slightly more accurate as shown in this paper: [http://www.lomont.org/Math/Papers/2003/InvSqrt.pdf Fast inverse square root by CHRIS LOMONT (Purdue university, 2003)].

The title text may be a reference to {{w|Stephen Jay Gould}}'s quotation: “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” about how great minds may be exploited by the commercial world and their genius go unknown.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk in front of a computer, leaning back in his chair with both hands down to his side. There are cans on the desk and more crushed ones on the floor.]
:Cueball: I just wrote the most beautiful code of my life.

:[Zoom in on Cueball and top half of desk.]
:Cueball: They casually handed me an impossible problem. In 48 hours and 200 lines, I ''solved'' it.

:[Curved lines with arrows divide the comic into two possible end panels, labeled "Academia" and "Business."]

:Academia:
:Professor: My god... this will mean a half-dozen papers, a thesis or two, and a paragraph in every textbook on queuing theory!

:Business:
:Boss: You got the program to stop jamming up? Great. While you're fixing stuff, can you get Outlook to sync with our new phones?

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

2241: Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect

2019-12-15T01:34:04Z

173.245.52.209: fix link. gh nerds.

{{comic
| number = 2241
| date = December 13, 2019
| title = Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect
| image = brussels_sprouts_mandela_effect.png
| titletext = I love Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect; I saw them open for Correct Horse Battery Staple.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TASTY BRUSSELS SPROUT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
False memories may arise via suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinformation, and source misattribution, and they can be shared, sometimes widely, when one of these triggers happens to many people in a population. The {{w|False_memory#Mandela_Effect|Mandela Effect}} is a pseudoscience explanation for a {{w|false memory}} shared by multiple people. It states that the false memory is actually a real memory of people who had lived in a parallel world where the memory was true.

{{w|Brussels sprouts}} are a leafy vegetable from the cabbage family which were cultivated in Brussels, Belgium in the 13th century, giving them their name. Many adults and children [https://www.camdenliving.com/blog/why-do-we-hate-brussel-sprout dislike Brussels sprouts], perhaps because of their bitterness.

Cueball was one of these people who had a dislike for Brussels sprouts, but after trying them recently he had a change of heart and likes them now. He feels "misled" by the public dislike for Brussels sprouts. Megan chimes in and also notes that there is a newer cultivar of Brussels sprouts ([https://npr.org/773457637 source provided]) from around 15 years ago which taste less bitter than the "original" cultivar of Brussels sprouts that Cueball grew up eating.

It seems that others have also started to like Brussels sprouts, which Cueball calls a Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect - that they now have a "false" shared memory of Brussels sprouts tasting bad caused by having lived in a past reality where Brussel sprouts really were bitter.

In the last panel, Ponytail tricks Cueball into thinking that licorice, [https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/why-do-so-many-us-hate-black-licorice-few-theories-963738 another widely disliked food], is good tasting. Additionally, she claims that {{w|Silica_gel#Desiccant|silica gel packets}} are actually edible and taste delicious. This is very false. Silica gel packets are typically used as a desiccant, to keep electronics and other moisture sensitive items dry. They are typically marked "[https://www.123rf.com/photo_72752039_single-silica-gel-packet-isolated-on-white-background-.html Do Not Eat]" to warn people that they are not edible. Although not toxic, silica gel has a sand-like texture and no flavor or nutritional value.

The title text suggests that "Brussels Sprouts Mandela Effect" a music band, who once were the support act for the presumably better known band "Correct Horse Battery Staple". This latter group is a reference to [[936: Password Strength]]. It hints at the "{{tvtropes|AGoodNameForARockBand|good name for a musical band}}" trope.

==Trivia==
The URL given is [https://npr.org/773457633 npr.org/773457633] but this seems to be an error; the actual URL is number 77345763'''7''' ([https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=773457637 plain HTML version] or [https://npr.org/773457637 full site]).

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

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line]
:Cueball: I always thought of Brussels sprouts as terrible, but they're actually really good! I can't believe I let everyone mislead me!

:[Frameless panel just showing Megan]
:Megan: It's not just you! Farmers developed a less-bitter cultivar like 15 years ago.*
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>npr.org/773457633

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line. Megan is holding her arm away from her.]
:Megan: Now the whole world is having this revelation, one person at a time. It's like a real Mandela effect. We secretly switched to the parallel universe where Brussels sprouts taste good.
:Cueball: ''Cool.''

:[Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan standing in a line. Ponytail is holding up one finger.]
:Ponytail: Also, licorice is good now.
:Cueball: Whoa, really?
:Megan: This is a trap.
:Ponytail: And those silica gel packets that say "Do not eat"? '''''Delicious.'''''
:Cueball: ''I knew it.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Food]]

Talk:2239: Data Error

2019-12-10T12:37:22Z

173.245.52.209:

Randall's comics are usually relevant to recent events on or near the day comics are posted. I was wondering if this Data Error comic might be referencing some recent event, some data error at NASA or something. Does anyone know what it might be in reference to? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.40|108.162.219.40]] 21:13, 9 December 2019 (UTC) ... Sorry, forgot to sign in. Saibot84 21:14, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

: I'm not aware of anything in the news. However, this is not the first time Randall has commented on research publication in a comic, so I suspect it's just another in that series. It seems obvious that he feels the first option is the appropriate choice, and the second option is the joke. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:22, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

I think the stickwoman is not "excited" but sarcastic, although you can't be sure in text. It is a joke based on the discrepancy in capabilities between real scientists and fictional mad scientists. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.119|108.162.238.119]] 22:23, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

:For start, "mad scientists" are usually more like mad engineers ... you can't get world domination by researching something and writing paper about it, you need to USE that research, usually by building something. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:10, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
::Are you suggesting scientists can't build things? I don't actually know, since I'm an engineer! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 23:43, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

What is a data error in general? Explain me a term :) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.74|172.69.22.74]] 02:39, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

:The discovery that the data you used was sampled below the Nyquist frequency pretty much kills your thesis until you can get data that was properly acquired. All your results will be contaminated with artifacts produced by the sampling rate, rather than by variations in the quantity that you imagined you were observing. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 12:37, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

2236: Is it Christmas?

2019-12-02T22:57:19Z

173.245.52.209: Added an update on the status of isitchristmas.com

{{comic
| number = 2236
| date = December 2, 2019
| title = Is it Christmas?
| image = is_it_christmas.png
| titletext = We've tested it on 30 different days and it hasn't gotten one wrong yet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT (99.73% accurate). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Here Randall has made a comic which nearly always correctly tells if it is Christmas. This also works for any annual event lasting only one day.

Randall lists a rounded calculation of 99.73%. If we calculate without leap years, 364/365 shows 99.726027397‬% accuracy. Calculating with leap years gives 364.2425/365.2425: approximately 99.726209299%. Or running the calculation on just a leap year gives 365/366 (99.7267759562%). Because all three numbers round up to 99.73%, the listed percentage is correct all three ways.

Although Randall's claim on {{w|Accuracy and precision#In binary classification|accuracy}} is true, accuracy alone doesn't make a predictive device useful. In this case, the page {{w|False positives and false_negatives#false negative rate|miss rate}} or false negative rate, that is, the percent of positive condition days (it's Christmas) that are predicted by the comic not to be Christmas, is 100%. In other words, it misses all actual events of Christmas. A reasonably useful prediction, however, should be likely to say "No" when it is not Christmas - as Randall's one does - but it should also be likely to say "Yes" when it's Christmas - which Randall's one doesn't.

In fact, in most settings where a single outcome is a lot more common than any other one, predicting always that most common outcome would yield very high accuracy without any usefulness. It isn't hard to find examples even more accurate than Randall's:

* A useless test for AIDS giving always negative results would have an accuracy about 99.95% when applied to a random human, and even more if used in countries with low prevalence of AIDS.
* A web saying "You are not the cartoonist Randall Munroe" would be right for 99.9999999857% of humans.

https://isitchristmas.com/ (which is currently not working, likely due to the traffic from xkcd readers) is a website that looks similar to the comic, with a '''No''' printed if it is not Christmas, and a '''Yes''' if it is Christmas. This website does a check on the computer's current date, and updates accordingly if it is indeed Christmas. Randall's comic doesn't do any of this, but as stated, is still correct most of the time. In addition, isitchristmas.com gives the answer in the language of your region (i.e. a visitor from Canada will give the answer in English and French to account for Canada's bilingularity); the strip only gives a fixed answer in English.

The title text is a "proof" that his service works. He claims to have tested this on 30 different days and confirmed that NO is the correct result. Any date except Christmas would result in a correct result.

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

:NO*
:<nowiki />*99.73% accurate

:[Caption below the panel:]
:xkcd.com presents a new "Is It Christmas" service to compete with isitchristmas.com

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

78: Garfield

2014-09-17T18:53:45Z

173.245.52.209: Corrected Trivia title

{{comic
| number = 78
| date = March 20, 2006
| title = Garfield
| image = garfield.jpg
| titletext = The use of the 'Garfield' character for the purposes of this parody qualifies as fair use under the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. sec. 107. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (92-1292), 510 U.S. 569
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Garfield}} has increasingly been known for repetitive, quality-lacking strips. Intended for a wide audience, these strips are now {{w|Ghostwriter|ghost written}} and rarely explore the unconventional. The comic is challenging {{w|Jim Davis}}, the creator of Garfield, to do something unexpected and surprise us all. The comic also accuses Davis of being a "sell out," sticking to bourgeois/commercial logic, something that dadaist artists challenged.

{{w|Dadaism}} was an artistic movement in the early 20th century marked primarily by chaos, irrationality and surrealism. Some of the artists believed that the bourgeois logic made human beings unhappy and therefore led to war.

Randall leads by example by featuring a strip that copies the style of Garfield, with multiple colors (xkcd usually contains only black and white, with some few containing an additional color like red or yellow) and a character that is not a stick figure breaking the normal xkcd pattern. Another dadaist aspect is the fact the while Garfield is smiling, he is communicating something that could be considered terrifying.

The title text explains that xkcd is exercising legal use of Davis's intellectual property, namely the title character of his comic. The Supreme Court case mentioned, {{w|Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music}}, confirmed that parody is legal even when there is commercial gain as a result, and also referenced the {{w|Copyright Act of 1976}}, 17 U.S.C. § 107, for the same reason.

While this is normally understood by most anyone that questions such matters, [[Randall]] includes it as a reference to the lessening of strict copyright law, which many comics also mention, usually in the context of {{w|open-source software}} and those who promote it, like at the comics featuring [[:Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman|Richard Stallman]].

==Trivia==
The comic number, #78, corresponds to the year Garfield debuted, 1978.

==Transcript==
:I want to see something unexpected in comics. Just one strip could make up for it all.
:[Garfield is standing on hind legs facing and looking directly at the camera. But is off-center in the frame, about 1/3 from the left, rotated very slightly clockwise.]
:[Zoom in on Garfield, still to the left, now rotated slightly counterclockwise.]
:[Zoom in again on Garfield, now the frame clips off the left side of his face.]
:Garfield thought bubble: The world is burning.
:[Final zoom in, the frame is ripped like a page, offset, and Garfield's eyes are half closed on the right half.]
:Garfield thought bubble: Run.
:Jim Davis, throw off your commercial shackles. Challenge us. Go out in a blaze of Dadaist glory. There is still time.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:1313: Regex Golf

2014-01-06T12:12:45Z

173.245.52.209:

This is fairly simple fun little one.

Regex is sort for regular expressions. A regular expression is a series of characters that denotes a search criteria. For example, you could write a regular expression that would search for anything that looks like an address (a la [http://www.xkcd.com/208/ comic 208]).

Regex golf is a game in which you attempt to write a regular expression that will search through a list of items and bring back only those items that meet a certain criteria, but not anything else. The joke is that regular expressions are used to search text, but themselves are text strings. This means that you could write a regular expression that would look for another regular expression. You can then apply ''ad infinitum'', and the universe implodes or something.

--[[User:Holshy|Holshy]] ([[User talk:Holshy|talk]]) 05:40, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

The last panel includes, of course, a regex "/(meta-)*regex golf/," which represents the phrase "regex golf" preceded by the phrase "meta-" up to ''infinite'' times.

As a punchline, it also refers to Jamie Zawinski's well-known quote about regex,

<blockquote>Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.</blockquote>

Thus, the punchline is that the addition of meta layers to regex golf generates more problems for the programmer, but that was also the setup of the comic. So either the punchline is really weak—worth a chuckle if you got the above two references—or I missed the joke.
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.63|199.27.128.63]] 06:22, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Could anybody comment on the first regex? Do I get it right that
beyond others it will match all strings that contain a "b"? I can hardly believe that is not the case for any star trek subtitle... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.194|173.245.53.194]] 06:54, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
:This is the case for all Star Trek Subtitles. Wikipedia's list of movies had no b. It'll match anything containing a word ending in ''m'', any word beginning with ''n'' or ''t'' that is not the first word, or any word with a ''b''. No Trek movies match. Oddly, so far as I can figure out, the regex in the first panel is wrong, in that it doesn't match the second Star Wars movie at all. And before you tell me prequels don't count, the sole purpose of "m " is to match The Phanto''m ''Menace.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.138|199.27.128.138]] 07:10, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
Attack of[ t]he Clones (to be read plainly, not as a regular expression). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.107|173.245.53.107]] 07:29, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

So, if I add an "e" to the "tn" and delete the "|b" I'm a better golf player than her? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.194|108.162.212.194]] 08:23, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
:Or you could just move the "b" into the "tn" group. --11:08, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

I got a sneak preview of this comic at about 6:34 EST...at first it appeared to be random text in a irc message, but with this comic it now makes sense to me. [[User:Verticalbar|Verticalbar]] ([[User talk:Verticalbar|talk]]) 09:31, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

'''Regex golf''' (c.f. {{w|Perl golf}}) is a programming competition / is a pastime of finding regular expression that matches one set of strings while matching none of the other set. See for example http://regex.alf.nu --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 11:03, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

The title text isn't exactly true... I haven't tried everything, but that regex doesn't match "gerald ford" at all. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.109|199.27.128.109]] 11:23, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
: Gerald Ford wasn't elected, he became President following Nixon's resignation.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 12:12, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

478: The Staple Madness

2013-12-25T04:31:35Z

173.245.52.209: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 478
| date = September 19, 2008
| title = The Staple Madness
| image = the_staple_madness.png
| titletext = Staple guns: because duct tape can't make that 'kaCHUNK' noise.
}}

==Explanation==
No apparent literary or scientific references, this is just a comic sketch.

Optimistic [[Beret Guy]] can never take life seriously. He loves to play with everything, and nothing is more exciting than {{w|Staple gun|a tool that sticks things together with an impressive "kaChunk" sound}} when he pulls the trigger, even on things that shouldn't be stapled. The "Yes!" shouted from above in the last panel indicates that Beret Guy has stapled someone (possibly [[Cueball]]) to the ceiling in his rush to affix everything to everything.

The title text refers to {{w|duct tape}}, which, with its combination of tensile and adhesive strength, is commonly regarded as the ultimate do-it-yourself repair tool.

==Transcript==
:Beret Guy: I found Megan's staple gun!
:[He holds up a staple gun.]
:Cueball: [holding forehead] Oh no.
:Cueball: [outside of the panel,] OH GOD WHAT ARE YOU-
:Beret Guy: [kneeling at laptop, stapling DVD to laptop.] INSTALLING DEBIAN! ''KA CHUNK''
:Beret Guy: SANDWICHES! ''ka CHUNK ka CHUNK''
:Beret Guy: [running with staple gun.] MUST AFFIX EVERYTHING TO EVERYTHING!
:''ka CHUNK ka CHUNK ka CHUNK ka CHUNK ka CHUNK ka CHUNK''
:[Megan enters holding tote bag.]
:Megan: ...Have you been abusing my staple gun?
:Beret Guy: No.

:God: [outside of scene, as voice from above.] YES!

==Trivia==
* There is an engineering truism which describes a similar scenario: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
* From just reading the comic, one could think that in the last frame, Cueball has been stapled to the ceiling. According to the offical transcript, it is in fact God who is speaking.

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