explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1884: Ringer Volume/Media Volume

2023-03-30T12:26:07Z

197.234.243.26: reply

So, is this about the volume buttons controlling all aspects of volume on the phone, and it being difficult to control sometimes (a lot!)? ~Chris {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.220}}
:Yes, but it's strange because the default action of the volume control should be the ''main volume'' and NOT the ''ring tone volume''. Nevertheless a video advertisement is often much louder than the movie where it is embedded. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:50, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
:: "Should be" is a weird concept. On Android (at least the mutilated version on my phone), there is no "master volume". Volume keys control the volume for the channel which is currently making noise, or the ring tone volume if there isn't any current noise. --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 16:49, 2 September 2017 (UTC)
Protip: on Android when loading a youtube video, lock your phone and then unlock it. The video will then start paused, allowing you to adjust volume and then press play.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.4|172.68.206.4]] 15:06, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

On my Android phone, pressing either volume key results in the ringer volume slider appearing at the top of the screen. To its right is a downward-pointing caret. Pressing that caret adds sliders for media and alarm volumes. These can be moved using the touchscreen or the user can tap to select one to adjust and use the volume keys. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 16:23, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
: These didn't exist in Android Lollipop, and were presumably added in Marshmallow [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.34|108.162.245.34]] 06:57, 2 September 2017 (UTC)
:: My old phone has KitKat and still has this option...[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.112|162.158.214.112]] 08:16, 4 September 2017 (UTC)
::: With the android customization Gravity Box, you could alter the default volume slider to Media, the perfect solution in my opinion [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 14:43, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Don't understand this comic at all... why would you frantically turn your volume up and down like that in the seconds before a video starts? Do other people do this?? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.81|141.101.69.81]] 16:24, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
:People aren't intentionally doing that. The viewer is trying to turn down the media volume; however, Android defaults to those buttons adjusting the volume for incoming calls, which people usually leave maxed. The viewer is accidentally decreasing the incoming call volume, but only wants the media volume turned down. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 00:46, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Here's my understanding (though I don't have a smart phone and don't have first hand experience): The user has selected the video to start, it is about to begin (loading), and the user wants to turn down the volume on the video, but instead mistakenly turns down the volume on the ringer. Once noticing their mistake, they restore the volume to its original state and try again. Only to fail again. They repeat this cycle again, until the video finishes loading and catches them on the upswing. I believe once the video is loaded the volume controls on the side switch functions from ringer to media. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.238|108.162.216.238]] 16:36, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
: My experience (multiple Android phones, from a Droid, through a Note and back to a Droid, and now a Pixel) has been the same except for one thing at the end that changes this, pretty critically: when the video starts, the volume control stays controlling the system volume, and does not change to media volume, but blocks that switch until the window times out (usually a second or two after I stop attempting to adjust it). this behavior, I think, would prevent the comic timeline from actually ''increasing'' the volume of the media, but would certainly not allow you to ''decrease'' it as well... (?) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 14:47, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Addressing '''"Interestingly, some earlier versions of Windows allow adjusting volume on per-program basis using a single on-screen control. This feature was eventually removed as it was deemed to confusing to users."''', I use Windows 10 on my laptop, and I can right click on the sound manager, open volume mixer, and that allows me to adjust the volume of each active program. So I'm pretty sure this line is incorrect, as it is still a feature. (Alan) {{unsigned ip|108.162.212.47}}
: I think that line is supposed to refer to the quick volume control, rather than the full mixer. {{unsigned ip|162.158.154.121}}

On iPhones, there is an option to have the buttons always control media volume, even when there is no media playing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.119|162.158.79.119]] 19:11, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

The title texts idea of using this phenomena to bring advertisement also in other rooms, reminds me a little of the clever PR idea of Burger King. They asked Google in their TV-spot, what a Whopper is. And since a lot of people have an active Google speaker next to their TV-set, Google started answering with the first lines of the Wikipedia article about the Whopper. Coincidentally somebody has edited the Wiki-article about the Whopper a few days before, so that it sounds much more like advertisement. Mario {{unsigned ip|162.158.89.55}}

My Android phone doesn't behave like that, although I wish it did. If you press the volume buttons before a video starts, and immediately after while the onscreen volume is still visible, it ''continues to adjust the ringer volume''. This fixes the behavior in the comic, kind of, but it means that I ''still'' can't easily adjust the volume even after the video starts. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.109|162.158.111.109]] 10:57, 2 September 2017 (UTC)
:I have that problem too. I also note that at least some apps use the wrong channel; so videos use the media volume, but the ads come off the notification volume or similar. Also annoys me that certain fitness apps use the media volume for the synthesised speech to tell you that you're passed a mile; meaning you can't adjust it independantly of your music. Would really appreciate if each app could define its own output channels, which you can then connect to the system-wide volume channels (or apply filters to?) in whatever configuration you want. --[[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 16:49, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

Per-application volume mixer was new in Windows Vista; XP and previous versions only had the system-wide volume control. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.121|162.158.154.121]] 11:00, 2 September 2017 (UTC)
:That's not quite true, the mixer - the program allowing more specific volume control than a Master Volume - has existed at least since Windows 95. It was somewhere around Vista that I started finding it harder to find, somewhat hidden. Per-application might be newer, or somewhat, but then that would beg the question of what else was in the mixer. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:56, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

I have a game on my phone called Papi Wall which I don't even play anymore, but which has a silent menu screen when you open it, which despite its silence is somehow occupying the media volume. So I open the game, which opens quickly, to quickly adjust the media volume at the menu screen and then switch back to the other app. It's the reason why it's still on my phone despite the fact that I don't play it. I think any Papi game, such as Papi Jump, would work for this, if you want to try. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.26.41|172.68.26.41]] 12:37, 2 September 2017 (UTC)

There's an Android application called Rocker Locker that plays a silent tone in the background, forcing the volume buttons to always control media volume. Cheers! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.22|108.162.219.22]] 23:37, 2 September 2017 (UTC)
: I like this idea, but surely the battery consumption is huge? I'd prefer an iOS style setting on my Android.[[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 07:55, 4 September 2017 (UTC)
:: There are reports of increased battery usage, but from personal experience across 3 different devices, some of which having it for more than a year, I never noticed such an issue. In the battery use menu it will show that the Android media server used 1–2%, but that's frankly incredibly miniscule. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.46|162.158.63.46]] 19:05, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

The video he's trying to load is certainly https://youtu.be/iAjCxadppcQ "Welcome to the World" (or one of the many remixes) by Kevin Rudolf. It's an on topic example media for what Randall is complaining about because it's a notably soft...THEN LOUD kind of song. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.58|162.158.142.58]] 01:35, 3 September 2017 (UTC)
:Could be, but I think it's just a common greeting (I thought of Let's Plays, personally). --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.5|172.68.11.5]] 03:13, 4 September 2017 (UTC)
:Actually, "Hello, and welcome to..." is the starting phrase of just about every non-fiction show of the lifetime of television, LOL! Talk shows, interview shows, speciality shows... These days this extends to YouTube channels. "Hello, and welcome to OverwatchToday, where we discuss all the latest great plays and fails." :) Most likely a channel Randall likes is notoriously loud in their videos, that's all (lately in my looking for help on a game the Google results have frequently included this one channel where I found the reverse, that the volume is too low and I had to connect headphones, so I likewise started doing that ahead of time). Plus, from this description of "soft then loud" means it can't be the video. Randall's video starts loud. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:09, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

I initially understood this to mean that Randall wanted the ringer volume down during the video to focus on the video and hear it better, but is trying to minimize how long it's lowered for. I realize in retrospect this is silly, an incoming call will interrupt the video anyway, LOL! Understanding the issue now, I don't know what Randall is complaining about, I just checked, and if I start the YouTube app (for example) on my Android, the volume keys are attached to Media Volume already, before I even choose a video. As for the idea that the volume keys should be attached to Master Volume, I've never seen a smartphone that HAD a Master Volume, only the segregated volume controls. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:49, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

This comic was released 10 days qfter the release of Android 8, which changed the default volume from ringer to media. Thereby fixing the issue described in the comic. It should be noted that due to the release method used by Google and phone manufacturers, hardly any phone would have been running Android 8 at that time. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 21:00, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

I fixed this problem quite easily by just changing the settings so that the volume buttons change the media volume by default. Not sure if that's a newer Android feature or not, but I'm also not sure how old my phone is either. '''Tiny Desk Engineer''' ([[User talk:TinyDeskEngineer|talk]]) "My user page can't be vandalized if it never existed" 20:33, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
:This has been the default since Android 9
[[Special:Contributions/197.234.243.26|197.234.243.26]] 12:26, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

2696: Precision vs Accuracy

2022-11-10T13:31:40Z

197.234.243.26: Small edir for readability

{{comic
| number = 2696
| date = November 9, 2022
| title = Precision vs Accuracy
| image = precision_vs_accuracy_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x462px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun' is low precision, but I'm not sure about the accuracy.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BARACK OBAMA IN A CARDBOARD BOX. Further detail, sortable table? - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic parodies the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision' with a table. {{w|Accuracy and precision}} are common concepts to be encountered in the scientific field and often students have issues with the differences between them. Accuracy concerns whether a statement is true, while precision concerns how detailed it is; it is possible for a statement to be one but not the other. The comic explores this concept by comparing {{w|Barack Obama}}, former President of the United States, with {{w|cat}}s. Confusingly, he measures different statistics of both Barack Obama and cats (sometimes measuring them in terms of cats) leaving the unwary reader even more confused.

Being precise is typical of calculations that roll out an excess of significant digits, often in the form of trailing decimals. Precision is lowered by using more rounded figures, or merely being comparative, but largely unaffected by whether the original values used were accurate or even correct. Accuracy is a cumulative function of the accuracy given to the intermediate values used for any calculation, and can be degraded by using figures that are themselves in some way inaccurate or imprecise. One part of confusion between the two is because being too precise usually decreases accuracy.

The numbers mentioned in the top row (high precision) of the table all use exactly the same digits, dictating that a full five digits of ''precision'' are used in them all. The most "valid" or correct value is a number that's very accurate and precise (see table). For the medium accuracy the number is an anagram of the 1st entry, giving a value that is reasonable but would be overly exact, whilst the low accuracy number is just a repeat of the first entry's digits with a shifted decimal but clearly at the wrong scale. For the latter, he replaces the thousands separator with the decimal point, perhaps as a visual pun.

The title text compares Obama's and cats' enjoyment of playing with cardboard boxes. While cats are known to do this,{{citation needed}} we don't know whether Obama does.

The day prior to the publication of this comic (November 8, 2022) was election day in the United States, so Randall may have been remembering Barack Obama's presidency at this time.

{| class="wikitable"
!Precision
!Accuracy
!Statement
!Explanation
|-
|High
|High
|Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours
|This is the official length in hours of {{w|Barack Obama}}'s 8-year presidency, including 2 {{w|leap year|leap days}}. Obama served from January 20, 2009 through January 20, 2017, and his term officially began and ended at noon on those days. (There were three {{w|leap second|leap seconds}} during his presidency, though.)
|-
|High
|Medium
|Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats
|The accuracy would depend on the mass of the cats in question. Also a human's mass can vary by a few pounds in a small amount of time as meals are consumed, resources are used in metabolism and wastes are eliminated, and thus this may be overly precise due the margin of error in both the mass of cats and the mass of Mr. Obama. In 2016, Obama was [https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/politics/obama-medical-exam-loses-weight officially reported] to weigh 175 lb (79.3787 kg). [https://www.google.com/search?q=how+heavy+is+an+average+cat Google claims that an average cat weighs between 8.8 and 11 lbs], so this statement may be close to accurate.
|-
|High
|Low
|Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall
|A highly precise (5 significant digits) measurement, but far from his actual height, published as 6'1".
The given value is more than an order of magnitude different from both him and {{w|Robert Wadlow|almost}} any other known human, whilst one of 7.0128 would ''only'' be about 15% off – still a low accuracy, but not outside the realms of possibility for an otherwise unknown person.
Coincidentally, Barack Obama is approximately 70 ''cat'' feet tall, using the paw size of a house cat to measure his height. Given the number of cat-related facts in the rest of the chart, this could be seen as rather appropriate.
|-
|Medium
|High
|Most cats have 4 legs
|Like many mammals, cats are quadrupeds, which means "four feet". Unless there is a genetic or other developmental issue, or an an injury that causes the loss of a limb, then cats generally have 4 legs.
|-
|Medium
|Medium
|Barack Obama is 6'1"
|While only as precise as the nearest inch, a common degree of rounding in that scale of measurement, that is the former president's published height.
[https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/politics/obama-medical-exam-loses-weight In 2016], Obama was said to have "grown" 0.5 inches in height, so there is a definite lack of consistency of exactly how tall he is. The examinations may have been made at different times of their respective days, with some spinal compression occurring all the time not laid in bed, and his current height is also not publically recorded; several years of gradual aging could also reduce his posture slightly, or sustaining his fitness (since experiencing the travails of office) may counteract this to a greater or lesser effect.
|-
|Medium
|Low
|Barack Obama has 4 legs
|Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a tetra-pod, but as a primate, his two forelimbs have been modified into arms and hands, and like other humans, he does not generally use them for locomotion, but to manipulate his environment, thus this is highly ''in''accurate.

|-
|Low
|High
|Most cats have legs
|A true (high accuracy) statement without much information (low precision).
|-
|Low
|Medium
|Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat
|Again, this will depend on the cat (not to mention whether or not you actually have a cat), but in general, true.
|-
|Low
|Low
|Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs
|This statement has low accuracy, as Barack Obama owns a four-legged dog named Sunny, but is not known to have owned a cat, much less one with more legs than normal. It also has low precision, as "hundreds" could reasonably range from 200 to 900. (From a strict logician's point of view, this could however be considered a vacuously true statement.)
|-
|Low
|Unsure
|Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun
|Barack Obama has never publicly jumped in and out of cardboard boxes for fun,{{citation needed}} but the possibility that he does in private exists.
|}

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a table with 3 rows and 3 columns. Each row and column has a label, and then nine statements are given for the 3x3 grid.]
:{| class="wikitable"
|-
| || High accuracy || Medium accuracy || Low accuracy
|-
| High precision
|Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours||Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats||Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall
|-
| Medium precision
|Most cats have 4 legs||Barack Obama is 6'1"||Barack Obama has 4 legs
|-
| Low precision
|Most cats have legs||Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat||Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Cats]]

Talk:2683: Fan Theories

2022-10-13T14:45:31Z

197.234.243.26: question/hypothesis

To me, the title text seems to be referring to the opposite kind of fandom compared to what the current explanation says. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.203|141.101.76.203]] 06:54, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

Given the constant stream of manchildren vandalizing this, could an admin please restrict editing access to logged in users? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.143|172.68.110.143]] 07:50, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
: manchildren
:You mean the xkcd fandom? [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 16:45, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

I am 100% behind calling hypotheses 'fan theories'. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 16:45, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

To the person who inserted the {{Template|Citation needed}} initially unsuccessfully by <nowiki>[[citation needed]]</nowiki>, and complained in their edit summaries that no other place uses our formatting (of {{}}s)... That's how Wikipedia implements it (or at least the actual Citation Needed... see below) and [[]]s/[]s are for more general hyperlinking (internal and external). You aren't thinking of some BBCode plugin for forums, are you? They will use [tags] and [tag][/tag], and I could imagine a popular tweak to the tag-handler to not require writing <code>[sup][[u][color=#whatever]citation needed[/color][/u]][/sup]</code>, or similar, every time someone wanted to parody (or ''properly'' apply?) the meme... ...although, reading your intention, did you instead intend to use the explainxkcd version that is {{Template|Actual citation needed}}? I can imagine another editor removing it, anyway, but I just moved it the more accepted side of the punctuation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.49|172.70.85.49]] 18:41, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

I think this comic might also be a comment on the following phenomenom: a lot of spectacular ideas that were once regarded as not really significant, "fringe", or even dubious by the mainstream scientific community two or three decades ago are now seriously pursued by science - mostly because the kids whose imagination was fired up by those ideas have now grown into scientists themselves, who can decide on their own what things to research. The idea that life might exist in the Europa ocean is a prime example for this: It was once mainly science fiction, popularized by Arthur C. Clarke in his 2010 and 2061 odyssey novels, but has since become a serious research subject. Similar things might be said about the time, energy and money that is nowadays devoted to SETI or to the search for primitive life on Mars. Scientists in the 60s and 70s would have probably fallen out of their chairs in shock if they knew. (note that I am all in favour of looking for aliens, but scientists in the 60s and 70s were much more interested in planetary geology and stuff like that). --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.247.38|172.70.247.38]] 09:01, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

The inclusion of Kuhn's work as part of the explanation seems odd. This may be because I don't know his work and thus don't see how this is connected to the comic and especially how merely mentioning it actually helps explaining the comic. I removed that part unless someone comes up with some actual explanation why this is relevant. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:12, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
:Kuhn does discuss paradigms as effectively similar to my simple understanding of fan theories, but I don't understand what the "franchise" terminology means. I can't imagine it would make much of a difference. I guess the point was most professional scientists wouldn't be particularly annoyed by the comparison, because it's not novel or really unusual as a concept. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.185|172.69.22.185]] 19:51, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

this suggests a "how to annoy" category w/ [[2036]] and [[2654]] (and possibly [[2118]], though the "expert shouting at cueball" part is absent) --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.231|172.70.110.231]] 13:54, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

What does "franchise with an established fandom" mean? Could you guys please try to use a relatively simple vocabulary and define necessary jargon or specialized language, such as with link(s)? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.163|172.69.22.163]] 19:46, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

It feels like the current explanation is missing a clear exposition of the key comparison between scientific research and fan theorising - that they both (a) start from a canonical body of work, (b) build on top of that with experimental theses that are then 'peer tested', and (c) may then in time end up becoming a part of the canon themselves. I can't quite work that up into a form that would flow nicely in the explanation, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.58|172.70.91.58]] 13:45, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

By referring to scientists as fans, could Cueball be suggesting an author exists? [[Special:Contributions/197.234.243.26|197.234.243.26]] 14:45, 13 October 2022 (UTC)