explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:378: Real Programmers

2015-09-07T22:07:58Z

199.27.128.114:

I was going to edit the above description, but it was taking too much time to edit it into a suitable format, so here's the long version.

In the beginning was UNIX. And it was good. And it was written by some very clever people.

One of the first very useful tools they wrote was '''{{w|ed (text editor)|ed}}''', a "line-editor" (i.e. it works one line at a time). It uses some simple commands, and was created to work on very-old-school teletype machines, where you type a command, and '''ed''' types a response back.

It was a lovely bit of code. Using very little the way of resources, it allowed you to create a text document of any length, including source code in whatever language you wanted to program in.

Eventually, a more sophisticated version called '''{{w|ex (text editor)|ex}}''' (short for EXtended) was written by a clever man named Bill Joy. While it has some great improvements over ed, it was still a line-editor.

The trouble was, using a line-editor like '''ed''' or '''ex''' requires you to have a very good {{w|mental model}} of the document you are creating. Unfortunately, humans aren't very good at this, so they constantly need to refresh their mental model by printing out big chunks of the document (or program) they are working on. This took a LOT of paper using teletypes.

Eventually, teletypes were replaced with {{w|Computer_terminal#Dumb_terminal|terminals}}. This saved a lot of paper. But the people who created the terminals began making them smarter than teletypes, so that magic character sequences could be used to move the cursor around, rather that simply going character-by-character across the line, then scrolling down to the next line, and so on. This opened up a whole new world.

The very clever Bill Joy took advantage of these magic character sequences to create his wonderful "full-screen" text editor '''{{w|vi}}'''. '''vi''' was the "VIsual mode" of '''ex'''. With '''vi''', the user could see a screen-full of text at once. Entire forests were saved.

'''Emacs''' was developed at the same time as '''vi''', using the same magic characters, and was also a full-screen text editor. I've never used it, so I can't speak to its merits, but there are many people who still find it more useful than any GUI they've tried.

On the one hand, '''vi''' and '''emacs''' are more sophisticated tools, and thus take longer to learn to use than '''ed'''. However, once you learn to use them, they make writing code EASIER, and they are therefore considered a less praise-worthy way of writing code by those concerned with defining what a "Real Programmer" is. (In other words, those programmers suffering from {{w|testosterone poisoning}}.)

Using '''cat''' to write a program looks like this: (Note that the $ is the prompt provided by the computer. The rest is typed by the user. And the ^D means the user held down the control key while typing the letter "d".)

<blockquote>
'''$''' cat | cc
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
''The user types C code here, and ends with ^D. Assuming all goes well, the compiler silently finishes after creating the executable program '''a.out''' in the user's current working directory.''
</blockquote>

The reason this is considered a more praise-worthy way of coding is that, in those early days, doing this meant that your code was lost the instant you typed it. If you made a mistake, you would have to type the whole thing again. So doing this for code of any sophistication was considered an act of courage, confidence, and conviction. (I myself did it several times, for the fun of it, when no-one was watching, though never for a program that took more than about 30 lines of code. I was delighted that it worked all 3 times, but since I love to write re-usable code, this wasn't really something I wanted to keep doing.)

NOW PAY ATTENTION. '''VI IS NOT VIM!''' '''{{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}}''' was written in 1991, long after more sophisticated {{w|Shell (computing)|shells}} were created that made it possible to copy and paste text from one part of the screen to another. This ability greatly reduced the risks of using '''cat''' to pass your source code directly to the compiler, so it was no longer a praise-worthy stunt. Thus the line "Real programmers use vim" was NEVER considered true by any UNIX programmer.

Whether this was a mistake of the author, or the character (possibly Megan?) is unclear. It seems possible that it was a simple typo, but since I've never seen one in the strip before, I'm somewhat skeptical.

--[[User:MisterSpike|MisterSpike]] ([[User talk:MisterSpike|talk]]) 07:12, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

:<code>cat | cc</code> doesn't work on my system. My <code>cc</code> is simply a symlink to <code>gcc</code>; what's yours? --[[User:Lucaswerkmeister|Lucaswerkmeister]] ([[User talk:Lucaswerkmeister|talk]]) 10:16, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

::One can also use
::<blockquote>
::'''$''' cat | gcc -xc -
::</blockquote>
::The program will be an a.out file.{{unsigned ip|200.131.199.28}}

Some comments:

I would never claim to be an emacs expert, but I'm reasonably proficient in it. Command of the form M-x (whatever) are a way of calling commands (or, really, arbitrary functions in the emacs code) by name. SO 'M-x butterfly' means that there is a function named "butterfly" somewhere, but that it has not been assigned a keyboard shortcut (or it has, but you're calling it the long way).

Also, three are still advanced Linux programmers today who swear by vim or emacs being superior to IDEs. There are specific technical reasons for this: emacs is basically an IDE construction kit that's incredibly easy to extend and customize, and is more customizable than pretty much any other program in the history of software with the exception of a Smalltalk installation. And vim has highly evolved commands to give experts a superhuman typing and editing speed when coding.

So when someone claims that "real programmers use vim," they are claiming that RIGHT NOW, vim is the best possible editor for developers of sufficient competence. There's a community of very smart people that basically thinks this.

[[User:Tess|Tess]] ([[User talk:Tess|talk]]) 04:19, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

What is "Meta"? As in "M-butterfly"?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.180|108.162.219.180]] 23:20, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
When I read this, I started up emacs and tried this... until I realized that there was no butterfly key... --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.58|108.162.215.58]] 00:51, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

"Meta" is binded to "Alt" in modern keyboard. "Meta" is referring to the "Meta" key in early {{w|Space-cadet keyboard|LISP keyboard}}. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.62.93|173.245.62.93]] 18:58, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

I assume this cartoon was inspired by an earlier [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20091201 User Friendly cartoon], in which Miranda ends an editor one upsmanship discussion by saying: "Well, I edited the inodes by hand. with magnets." See also [http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-09-08 this classic Dilbert cartoon]. [[User:Espertus|Espertus]] ([[User talk:Espertus|talk]]) 21:56, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Real programmers don't use any negative calls to sqrt(), of course. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 22:07, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

1509: Scenery Cheat Sheet

2015-04-08T16:08:55Z

199.27.128.114: /* Map */ The high improbability that the Oregon trail refers to any movie motivated me to change the phrase, "Might be referring to" to the more sensible, "Could also refer to the film"

{{comic
| number = 1509
| date = April 8, 2015
| title = Scenery Cheat Sheet
| image = scenery cheat sheet.png
| titletext = At the boundary between each zone, stories blend together. Somewhere in the New Mexico desert, the Roadrunner is pursued by a tireless Anton Chigurh.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|Only just started page.}}

{{w|GeoGuessr}} is a game using {{w|Google Street View|StreetView}} images that drops the player in a random location and challenges them to work out where they are. It is also referenced in [[1214: Geoguessr]].

The [[title text]] references ''{{w|Anton Chigurh}}'' (portrayed by Javier Bardem), who is the main antagonist of the film ''{{w|No Country For Old Men}}''.

Note that this is a map of where the stories are set, not where they were filmed.

==Transcript==
===Title===
:A '''cheat sheet''' for
:figuring out where in the US you are
:by recognizing the background from movies
:(for use by GeoGuessr players and crash-landed astronauts)

===Map===
[From top left, left to right, top to bottom]
{| class="wikitable"
! Movie Title
! Setting for Movie
! Actual Filming Location(s)
! Notes
|-
| {{w|Twilight (film)| Twilight}}
| rowspan="2"|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Fifty Shades of Grey (film)|50 Shades of Grey}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Dances with Wolves}}
| rowspan="2"|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Fargo (film)|Fargo}}
| Fargo ND, Brainerd MN, Minneapolis MN
| Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN area, Hallock MN, Bathgate, ND
|
|-
| {{w|Wild Wild West|Wild Wild West}}
| The southwest area
| Tuscon, Arizona; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Pierce, Idaho
|
|-
| {{w|The Sandlot|The Sandlot}}
| Suburban Los Angeles
| Salt Lake City, Utah
|
|-
| {{w|Napoleon Dynamite|Napoleon Dynamite}}
| Preston, Idaho
| Preston, Idaho
|
|-
| {{w|Brokeback Mountain|Brokeback Mountain}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Oregon Trail (video_game)|Oregon Trail}}
|
|Video Game, not a film
| Could also refer to the film "{{w|The Oregon Trail (1936 film)}}".
|-
| {{w|Interstellar (film)|Interstellar}} (Earth parts)
| rowspan="3"|
|
| "Earth Parts"
|-
| {{w|Star Trek (film)|Star Trek (2009)}} (Earth parts)
| Iowa
| "Earth Parts"
|-
| {{w|Field of Dreams|Field of Dreams}}
| Dyersville, IA
|
|-
| {{w|The Music Man (1962 film)|The Music Man}}
| River City, IA
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Blues Brothers (film)|Blues Brothers}}
| Chicago
| Chicago
|
|-
| {{w|A Christmas Story|A Christmas Story}}
| rowspan="2" |
|
|
|-
| {{w|Jack & Diane|That song about Jack and Diane}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|8 Mile (film)|8 Mile}}
| Wayne County, Michigan
|
|
|-
| {{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}
| {{w|Punxsutawney,_Pennsylvania|Punxsutawney, PA}}, {{w|Pittsburgh|Pittsburgh}}
| Woodstock, IL
|
|-
| {{w|My Side of the Mountain|My Side of the Mountain (book)}}
| Adriondack Mountains, NY
| Catskill mountains, near Delhi, NY
| The area shown on the map is actually the Adirondack mountains, not the Catskills. I suspect this is an error.
|-
| {{w|Super Troopers|Super Troopers}}
| Vermont, NY ("Somewhere near the border")
|
|
|-
| {{w|Pet Semetary|Pet Semetary}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|What About Bob?|What about Bob}}
|Lake Winnipesaukee, NH
|Smith Mountain Lake, VA
|
|-
| {{w|The Departed|The Departed}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Signs (film)|Signs}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Village (2004 film)|The Village}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|War of the Worlds (2005 film)|War of the Worlds (2005)}}
|
|
| Also referenced in [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]
|-
| {{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}
| Amity Island (stand-in for Martha's Vineyard)
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Rock (film)|The Rock}}
| {{w|Alcatraz Island}}
| {{W|Alcatraz Island}}
|
|-
| {{w|Zodiac (film)|Zodiac}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Sideways|That movie about wine & talking}}
|
|
| He clearly means ''Sideways''
|-
| {{w|Top Gun|Top Gun}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|Part of Independence Day}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner|Roadrunner cartoons}}
|
|Animated, not filmed
|
|-
| {{w|The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz}}
| Kansas, Oz
|
| The Judy Garland version, presumably. The earth parts.
|-
| {{w|Twister (1996 film)|Twister}}
|
|
|
|-
| Anything by {{w|Mark Twain}}
| Hannibal, MO
|
| The mapped area doesn't quite include Twain's home town of Hannibal, MO.
|-
| {{w|Walk the Line|Walk the Line}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|October Sky|October Sky}}
| Coalwood, WV
| East Tennessee
|
|-
| {{w|Dirty Dancing|Dirty Dancing}}
| {{w|Catskill Mountains|Catskill Mountains}}
|
|
|-
| [Generic City]
| Washington DC, Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia
| N/A
|
|-
| {{w|Deep Impact (film)|Deep Impact}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt for Red October}}
| Atlantic Ocean
|
|
|-
| {{w|Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Forrest Gump|Forrest Gump}}
| Alabama
|
|
|-
| {{w|List of most expensive films|Every movie with a big budget...}}
|
|Hollywood, CA
|
|-
| {{w|The Truman Show|The Truman Show}}<br>but with desert in the background
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|No Country for Old Men (film)|No Country for Old Men}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|True Grit (1969 film)|True Grit}}
|
|
| Or the {{w|True Grit (2010 film)|2010 version}}
|-
| {{w|Office Space|Office Space}}
| rowspan="3" |
|
|
|-
| {{w|Dazed and Confused (film)|Dazed and Confused}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Kill Bill|Kill Bill}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Duck Dynasty|Duck Dynasty}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Princess and the Frog|Princess and the Frog}}
| rowspan="2" |
|Animated, not filmed
|
|-
| {{w|All Dogs Go to Heaven|All Dogs go to Heaven}}
|Animated, not filmed
|
|-
| {{w|Big Fish|Big Fish}}
| rowspan="2" |
|
|
|-
| {{w|O Brother, Where Art Thou?|O Brother Where Art Thou}}
|
|
|-
| {{w|Beasts of the Southern Wild|Beasts of the Southern Wild}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|The Truman Show|The Truman Show}}
| Northern Florida
| {{w|Seaside, Florida|Seaside, Florida}}
|
|-
| {{w|Adaptation (film)|Adaptation}}
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Miami Vice|Miami Vice}}
| Miami
|
| Or the {{w|Miami Vice (film)|film}}
|}

==See also==
*[https://geoguessr.com/ GeoGuessr's official website]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Maps]]

1508: Operating Systems

2015-04-06T15:00:31Z

199.27.128.114: iOS does not stand for internet Operating System, that I can find. See discussion.

{{comic
| number = 1508
| date = April 6, 2015
| title = Operating Systems
| image = operating systems.png
| titletext = One of the survivors, poking around in the ruins with the point of a spear, uncovers a singed photo of Richard Stallman. They stare in silence. "This," one of them finally says, "This is a man who BELIEVED in something."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More finetuning needed? Also, we need a more clear definition for the title text, separate from the explanation of the GNU/Hurd explanation.}}
In this comic, Randall gives an overview of past, present and (speculatively) future of the Operating Systems running in his house at any given time. Notably, because Randall is a technologically obsessed person, there is rarely only one OS running in his household. The timeline tracks how Operating Systems have come and gone over the years, and the gradual shift from desktop Operating Systems to mobile can be observed. Beyond the present day, we see some of Randall's humorous predictions as to which technologies and companies will dominate the Operating System landscape in the future.

Previous and current systems:
*{{w|MS-DOS}} (Microsoft Disk Operating System)
*{{w|Microsoft Windows}}
*Apple's {{w|Mac OS}} (Macintosh Operating System)
*{{w|Linux|Linux}}
*{{w|OS X}} (Macintosh Operating System v10)
*{{w|Android_(operating_system)|Android}}
*Apple's {{w|iOS}} (Which powers the {{w|iPhone}}, {{w|iPad}}, and {{w|Apple TV}})

His predictions for the future include:
*2018: That {{w|OS X}} and {{w|iOS}} will merge
*2019: That [http://github.com/runtimejs/runtime#readme someone will succeed] in coding an entire operating system in {{w|Javascript}}
*2022: That there'd be an OS based on {{w|Tinder_(application)|Tinder}}
*2024: That the various devices from {{w|Nest Labs}} would be expanded so much that there's an entire operating system for them.
*2029: That {{w|Elon Musk}} will be up to something ambitious and futuristic
*2030: That {{w|Disk_operating_system|DOS}} would make a comeback, but only in an ironic fashion, probably because there would be no more disks left for it to operate from.
*2034: That ordinary people will be deploying {{w|Unmanned_combat_aerial_vehicle|weaponized drones}} in their homes
*2042: Human civilization comes to a fiery end, possibly due to the unholy combination of weaponized drones and whatever the Elon Musk Project had developed.
(Alternate explanation:)
*2042: Human civilization will be wiped out by an ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence, superior to human intelligence), as Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil, Bill Gates and many tech pundits foresee that 2045 will be the year to see ASI becoming real, and as Elon Musk, Bill Gates and many other tech pundits fear that it will be the extinction of all life on earth, as explained [http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html on this page].

The title text refers to Richard Stallman, the founder of the [http://www.fsf.org/about Free Software movement] and the [http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html GNU project,] and refers to the timeline when [http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html GNU/Hurd] is finally production ready. The joke is that GNU/Hurd began to be developed in 1990, and while it was expected to be released in a relatively short time, even now only unstable builds have been released. So Randall is saying that it will finally be ready to run in his house 8 years after humanity has ended, i.e. that a production-ready version will never be released. Or maybe he means that a herd of {{w|Wildebeest|gnu}} will be running in his living room, as wild animals reclaim the Earth after the end of human civilization. Maybe also he says that though human ''civilization'' doesn't exist anymore still humanity lives on, and GNU/Hurd will be the only system smart enough to be picked up by this post-catastrophe generation.

==Transcript==
:{There is timeline titled "Operating Systems Running in my House". It runs from 1990 to 2067, at the edge of the panel. Bars above the timeline are labeled with operating system names, representing the time period for that OS. The hatch mark at 2015 is labelled "Now". Listed on the timeline are (with approximate year ranges)}:

:MS DOS: 1988 to 1998 (extends left past the beginning of the timeline)
:Mac OS: 1994 to 2001
:Windows: 1993 to 2007
:Linux: 1999 to 2018
:Android: 2009 to 2016
:OS X: 2009 to (bar combines with iOS around 2019) 2023
:iOS: 2013 to (bar combines with OS X around 2019) 2023
:[something].js: 2018 to 2028
:TinderOS: 2022 to 2029
:Nest: 2023 to 2032
:DOS, but ironically: 2030 to 2036
:Elon Musk Project: 2028 to 2042
:Blood Drone: 2034 to 2042
:[Human civilization ends in fire]: 2042 to 2051
:GNU/Hurd: 2059 to past 2067, continuing off panel

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

Talk:1508: Operating Systems

2015-04-06T14:57:37Z

199.27.128.114:

[something].js isn't that far off: https://github.com/runtimejs/runtime (Sometimes I feel like JavaScript is a cult...) :) [[User:Bb010g|Bb010g]] ([[User talk:Bb010g|talk]]) 06:07, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Typo in title text: ''singed'' should be ''signed''.[[User:Jezzaaaa|Jezzaaaa]] ([[User talk:Jezzaaaa|talk]]) 06:43, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

:That's not a typo. Singed means slightly burnt. It's implying a post-apocalyptic environment. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.126|108.162.219.126]] 07:10, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" Could be a play of words on "Bloodborne", the game. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.14|108.162.212.14]] 09:01, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

[something].js is probably referring to Node.js or one of the many frameworks built on Node.JS (such as Google's Angular.js). Node.js isn't written in Javascript, but in c/c++ using Google's V8 JS engine and is a replacement for Apache (a web platform). My interpretation is that it's only a matter of time before someone builds an entire OS using Node.js principles.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.99|108.162.221.99]] 10:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

"Blood Drone" makes me think of blood-borne nanites more than anything. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.179|108.162.250.179]] 11:21, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

What if the ASI will be running on GNU/Hurd and 8 years after the war will seize Randal's house? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:35, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I cannot find any reliable source stating that iOS stands for "internet Operating System." To the contrary, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_OS Internet Operating Systems] seems like something different entirely. If anyone can find evidence to the contrary, please provide a link. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 14:57, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

1079: United Shapes

2015-02-16T04:21:14Z

199.27.128.114:

{{comic
| number = 1079
| date = July 9, 2012
| title = United Shapes
| image = united_shapes.png
| imagesize = 800px
| titletext = That eggplant is in something of a flaccid state.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, each state of the United States of America has been filled-in with an object of similar shape. Due to the size range of the states, some states are too small to clearly make-out in the normal size image. Click on the image above to see the large version, which makes every state perfectly clear.

Very few, if any, of the shapes used are stereotypes of the state; they are merely objects that look like the state. Some of the objects are those which the states are widely known to resemble. For example, Michigan is represented by a mitten or glove, and a pot with handle takes the place of Oklahoma (with the panhandle region of the state filled with a literal handle). Others, however, are more creative. Few would have likely pictured Texas as a dog or Alaska as a bear with a jet pack and laser gun. There are several incredibly simple objects filling some states. Kentucky is filled by a cloud, which conceivably could have been used for any state, and Wyoming, one of the square states, is simply an envelope. There are three pairs of states that are related. Georgia and Missouri each contain an image of the other, drawing attention to their similar shapes, North and South Dakota are the top and bottom halves of an amp, and Alabama and Mississippi are {{w|moai}} facing in opposite directions.

Colorado contains what looks like a Wikipedia article. A close-up of the fake article is provided [http://xkcd.com/1079/colorado/]. The following references are made in the Colorado article:

*The pronunciation is not that for Colorado, but for {{w|Eyjafjallajökull}}, a volcano in Iceland that erupted in April 2010.
*The way it has a demilitarized zone towards Wyoming resembles {{W|North Korea}} and {{W|South Korea}}. As the two US states are both almost square and borders each other in a way similar to Korea this makes sense. Although here it is the southern part (Colorado) that sound like North Korea.
*Eleven dimensions refers to {{w|string theory}}.
*A {{w|wormhole}} is a theoretical relative of the {{w|black hole}}. This is a reference to the television series {{w|Stargate SG-1}} where a device capable of creating wormholes is located in the {{w|Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker}} in Colorado.
*A {{w|Horcrux}} is a type of magical object in the world of {{W|Harry Potter}}.
*The radiation zones around Longmont are caused by {{w|Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant|radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant}}.

The title text makes fun of Florida which is sometimes called "The penis of America". Obviously, this penis is somewhat flaccid (not erect). The use of the word "state" is a pun, as it means some particular condition (flaccid state) as well as a political entity (The State of Florida).

==Transcript==
:The '''United Shapes'''
:A map of things states are shaped like
:[Each state has some item wedged to stay inside its borders]

:Alabama: A moai head facing east.
:Alaska: Winnie the Pooh with a jetpack and a ray gun.
:Arizona: A refrigerated shelf containing milk, bread, and pastries.
:Arkansas: A measuring cup.
:California: A vacuum.
:Colorado: The wiki article on Colorado.
:Connecticut: A train conductor's hat.
:Delaware: A meerkat.
:Florida: An eggplant.
:Georgia: Missouri.
:Hawaii: A snowball.
:Idaho: A garden gnome, sitting down.
:Illinois: A gangster with a guitar case, upside down.
:Indiana: The brush of a paintbrush.
:Iowa: A tomato, lettuce, cold cut and cheese sandwich.
:Kansas: A stand-up piano.
:Kentucky: A cloud.
:Louisiana: A boot with some gum stuck to the bottom of it.
:Maine: A Vulcan salute.
:Maryland: A howling wolf, upside down.
:Massachusetts: An elephant, being ridden by a man, carrying tea.
:Michigan: A mitten for the lower portion, an eagle for the UP.
:Minnesota: $160 in $20 USD bills.
:Mississippi: A moai head facing west.
:Missouri: Georgia.
:Montana: One half of a muffin.
:Nebraska: A blue VW type 2 with mattresses sticking out the back.
:Nevada: A clothes iron.
:New Hampshire: A tall brick factory building.
:New Jersey: A bent-over old person.
:New Mexico: A liquid container labeled for something of unusual and silly danger.
:New York: A hybrid transmission with standard manual-style gears and a torque converter sliced in half.
:North Carolina: A bouquet of flowers.
:North Dakota: The top half of an amp.
:Ohio: Underwear (Briefs).
:Oklahoma: A covered pot, dripping with boilover.
:Oregon: A locomotive.
:Pennsylvania: A very thick book with a bookmark.
:Rhode Island: The bow half of a boat's hull.
:South Carolina: A slice of pizza.
:South Dakota: The bottom half of an amp.
:Tennessee: A number of childrens' books, placed in a slightly askew pile.
:Texas: A dog sitting in a bowl.
:Utah: An oven.
:Vermont: A microscope, upside down.
:Virgina: A stegosaurid.
:Washington: A whale.
:West Virginia: A frog.
:Wisconsin: A skull.
:Wyoming: An envelope.

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

Talk:1438: Houston

2014-10-24T18:09:49Z

199.27.128.114:

I don't get the context here. Is this supposed to be a biting satire on how the new generation sucks at social tact with their cell phones? How is a guy at NASA mission control being an asshat supposed to be funny or thought-provoking? Even the helpdesk angle doesn't really make sense, as inept as they can be I've never had one outright antagonize me like this guy does.

A commentary on the nature of outsourced helpdesks, perhaps? Although, IME, the problems are more due to 'sticking to a script' (which would have given an entirely different exchange) rather than an unknowledgable and casually uninterested 'service'-person. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 05:15, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
:I think this is the idea behind the comic too. Kind of like a "What if it had happened today?" It sure sounds like the kind of hotline support we get today. [[User:Deantwo|Deantwo]] ([[User talk:Deantwo|talk]]) 10:29, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

::I agree. This is definitely comparison between the original mission control center and current outsourced helpdesk centers. Although it would be interesting to know what specific incident caused Randal to comment on it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:28, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

What is going on is this strip? Usually it's a reference to something or a commentary, but I don't get it at all. [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 05:32, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

I think I figured out enough of it to remove the "incomplete" tag. This is definitely one of the weird ones. [[User:Shachar|Shachar]] ([[User talk:Shachar|talk]]) 06:02, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Reference to Continuum? (Canadian sci-fi show)
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.106|199.27.133.106]] 06:41, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Ebola? Really? Where is that..what? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.79|173.245.49.79]] 09:34, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

I agree, there is no evidence to back up the ebola reference. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 09:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Also, I took it to refer to people being distracted on the phone in general (hence the title text) or generally not taking their jobs serious. Maybe the idea that for NASA, space travel has become so routine that mission control is no longer as engaged in the missions. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 09:38, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps the guy answering the phone is called "Houston"? A misplaced Skype call from a rather shell shocked astronaut? {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.111}}
:But then it wouldn't make sense, that he says he's at work.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.29|173.245.49.29]] 13:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

There are a LOT of anachronisms, or things that don't match the way things were back in the 1960's, not just the flat screens. (And I do still remember the sixties, despite "if you can remember the sixties, you wern't really there" - a reference to the drug scene.) We didn't say "cool" or "you suck at doing that" back then, and it's very unlikely that communications with the mission and a simple telephone call would be selectable from the same headset, and the michrophones on headsets were larger and probably had dangling wires back then. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

It could be a commentary on privatizing space travel by NASA (among others to Boeing). Would explain, why Cueball knows it's a "airplane or whatever".--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.29|173.245.49.29]] 13:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

I understand it's a reference, but is this supposed to actually be the Apollo 13? I understood it was just another mission happening today. I find the anachronism explanation nonsensical. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.211|108.162.212.211]] 13:57, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

"At first glance, this comic appears to be an "alternate reality" view at what could happen today, given that most people in the XXI century seem to suffer ADD." I don't think that we can assume this at all. Also, that's not what ADD is. [[User:Lomky|Lomky]] ([[User talk:Lomky|talk]]) 14:16, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
:Yeah. I think it's far more clear that Randall's commenting on unhelpful tech support than anyon'es short attention span. I've edited the explanation above. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.146|199.27.128.146]] 15:34, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Did Randall have a bad experience with a call center operator? [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 14:38, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Can someone explain why this is supposed to be funny? The explanation page doesn't quite get there.

Am i the only one interpreting Cueball as a script kiddie with too much spare time who somehow managed to hijack the communication line between Apollo 13 and Houston? The alt text is consistent with the basement dweller stereotype. Wouldn't explain the other call though.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.169|108.162.219.169]] 17:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Nasa just uploaded several audio recordings of their missions on soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/nasa). Maybe Cueball is just playing with those while he is at work. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.230.53|108.162.230.53]] 17:31, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Talk:589: Designated Drivers

2014-06-09T18:25:25Z

199.27.128.114: Goat/wolf/cabbage explanation. Opinion on diagram.

I think I read a reference to the goat/wolf puzzle in an older comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 18:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Why no explanation of the third panel? Is it because it doesn't make sense? That seems unlike Randall, so I'll have a go.

Proposed Order of Events:
* On the diagram, we see three figures entering the bar, and three lines entering dinner (probably Paul, and Emily and Julie). That makes six people altogether.
* Of the three at the bar, two go to dinner and one goes straight to the party
* All five people leave the dinner and go to the party, joining the sixth.
* Two of the six leave the party together (Julie and Emily at 10pm)
* One of the six leaves the party and goes back to the dinner venue, and from there goes home.
* One of the six leaves the party and goes back to the bar
* The last two leave the party and on their way home, appear to join up with the one who went back to the bar

Because there are no times or identities assigned to the paths, other interpretations are possible.

Notes:
* The diagram as a whole has six entries and six exits, as does each venue. There are definitely six people who all enter from the outside, and eventually leave.
* Why are there four people visible in the first panel, but only three people start at the bar? That part makes no sense. To match the diagram to the comic, we have to pretend that there are only three people in the first panel.
* Who is Tom? He must be one of the people visible in the first panel, even though he is spoken about as though he wasn't there.

Ignoring the goat for now, how many drivers do we need?
* Most cars can take five people at a pinch, so sheer numbers don't seem to be the issue.
* You need two drivers (and two cars) if people were leaving at different times, or heading in entirely different directions.
* Presumably, Julie and Emily arrive in their own car and also leave in it. Ignore them for now..
* Someone drives back from the party to the dinner, and then home. This must be one of the people from the first panel, and they must have their own car.

Proposal:
* There are only three people at the bar, Tom, Megan and (I'll say) David. They each have their own car.
* David drives to the party. Tom and Megan drive separately to the dinner, one of them collecting Paul on the way.
* Tom and Megan drive from the dinner to the party; Paul rides with one of them.
* Megan later drives back to the dinner venue, then home.
* Paul later drives Tom's car back to the bar, and proceeds to get drunk.
* David drives Tom a ride to the bar, to collect his car and drive Paul home.

Note that this scenario implies that everybody who is initially at the bar has to be a designated driver.

And I have still not considered the goat.

Any other interpretations would be welcome! I am not really satisfied with this but got tired of thinking about it.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 18:52, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

:tl;dr or {{w|Wikipedia:Too long; didn't read}}. Please calm down just to the essentials. And please try to keep an explain just straight forward. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:08, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

<sigh> everyone forgets the cabbage... [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:12, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

- For those unfamiliar, the goat/wolf reference is an old logic puzzle. You have a goat, wolf and head of cabbage. Using a rowboat, how can you get them all safely across a lake? Sometimes the assumptions are given: Goat eats cabbage, Wolf eats goat. Sometimes only 1 item at a time in rowboat, sometimes two. Solve. (Goat, empty, ...)

- BTW, I think the diagram description above is ok, shows how lots of interpretations possible. If it is inaccurate, well, has the artist already been to the bar? Arranging outings with friends, sometimes it's just a hassle, eh? And people will try to solve problems with the tools they know, hence a flow-diagram from the head XKCD geek. Just needs a state table with optimizations to make it complete! (-: [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.114|199.27.128.114]] 18:25, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1342: Ancient Stars

2014-04-16T22:21:56Z

199.27.128.114: Defense of adding creation to surface time for photons emitted from a star.

I knew this because Nick Cave's 2013 album *Push The Sky Away* includes the lyrics "Sirius is eight point six light years away / Arcturus is thirty seven / The past is the past and it's here to stay / Wikipedia is heaven". Obviously Randall has been listening to it! ;-) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.176|173.245.53.176]] 08:32, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

The comic is about people getting the distance to the stars wrong. Wikipedia - List of brightest stars claims a that total of 9110 stars are visible to the naked eye and they provide a list of the 91 brightest stars. Of these only 59 are greater than 100 ly and only 6 are greater than 1,000 ly. The farthest visible star is 3,200 ly away. When people think of the stars they correctly imagine the vast distances they spread out over. But when lay people observe or imagine the visible stars they grossly overestimate the distances. As implied in the title text, in a world of vast astronomical underestimations, this is one of the few overestimates. 99% of the visible stars are only dozens of ly away.[[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 09:35, 14 March 2014 (UTC)ExternalMonolog

:People aren't overestimating the distance, they are underestimating the speed of light :-). The number of visible stars is the true overestimating. And even that ... the 9110 is number of INDIVIDUAL stars we can see. We can also see {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}, 2.5 million light years away ... but we can't distinguish any of trillion stars it have from others, the galaxy as whole is less bright that any of those 91 brightest stars. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:04, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

In the comic, the lifespan of stars is also vastly underestimated. A thousand years is nothing when their age is generally counted in millions or billions of years. What is the probability a near-visible star died in the last thousand years and wouldn't that be a major astronomical event? [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 14:21, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
:In the comic, the lifespan of stars isn't even mentioned in passing. The history of supernovae is pretty well documented and goes back nearly 2000 years, so the light from those supernovae is probably not more than 2200 years old...[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.65|173.245.56.65]] 15:21, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Of course, one could also add the time it takes for the radiation to reach the surface of the star ;) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.162|173.245.53.162]] 15:41, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

It is true that the energy released at the centre of the star may take millions of years to reach the surface. But it will not be the light we see until it leaves the surface of the star, as light cannot propagate through the plasma of the stars interior. So - no - we could not add this time;-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:56, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

What will be different about the photons leaving the surface? They're the same, they've just been bouncing about for thousands, not millions with respect to G-type stars, of years. In that sense, it is the light we see and we must add the time.

1308: Christmas Lights

2013-12-26T17:14:42Z

199.27.128.114:

{{comic
| number = 1308
| date = December 25, 2013
| title = Christmas Lights
| image = christmas_lights.png
| titletext = Merry Christmas from xkcd!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Check grammar, check spectra and reference good fits to what is here}}
Each light in this Christmas scene is represented by its {{w|electromagnetic spectrum}}, which shows in a graphical form how much energy is radiated by each wavelength of light.

These graphs plot the intensity of all visible radiation. Infrared and ultraviolet are partially ploted also, represented by black. There are 4 distinct spectra in this comic:

In the center of the image, between Beret Guy and the couple Cueball and Megan appears a light spectrum of a fire, notable because it emits a lot of energy in the infrared band (The left zone of the spectrum), emitted typically from hot sources, and in the red and orange zone (typical colors of a fire). The spike toward the left hand side of the spectrum is probably the 4.3 µm resonance frequency of hot CO<sub>2</sub> characteristic of burning hydrocarbons (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_detection#Emission_of_radiation here)]. Given the size of the spectrum and its positioning, this represents a fireplace at which the characters are warming themselves against the winter chill.

In the right of the comic appear some spectra arranged in the form of a Christmas tree. There are 3 different spectra in this "Christmas tree":

At the top appears a complicated spectrum, possibly that of a white LED (see [http://led-brdf.wikispaces.com/Introduction+to+LEDs here]), representing the tradition in some cultures of putting a star (or an angel, but still usually lit) at the top of the Christmas tree.

In the branches there are two simpler spectra (repeated at various places), one with a peak in the green zone, representing a green light source, and other with a peak in the red zone, representing a red light source. Both of these represent the tradition of putting colorful decoration in the tree, in this case apparently red and green colored Christmas lights.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:

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

78: Garfield

2013-11-15T19:10:42Z

199.27.128.114: /* Explanation */

{{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 [http://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Comics_featuring_Richard_Stallman Richard Stallman]

==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]]