explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

344: 1337: Part 4

2016-09-18T20:45:22Z

199.27.128.76: there was a typo

{{comic
| number = 344
| date = November 15, 2007 
| title = 1337: Part 4
| image = 1337 part 4.png
| titletext = Mrs. Roberts would have gotten up sooner, of course, but she was busy piping find ~ and find ~nomad into xargs shred, just in case.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the fourth part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet", or "elite", using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet.

All comics in the series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]
This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.
The comic is narrated by [[Cueball]] as seen in part 2 comic, but that Cueball is not shown here, but still he is part of this comic series, and thus also this comic.

In this part [[Elaine Roberts]] returns to the second best hacker in the world, (she being the best according to part 2), her mom [[Mrs. Roberts]]. Together they are an unstoppable force and they help out a guy called Jon with a CSS decryptor.

This refers to {{w|Jon Lech Johansen}}, also known as DVD Jon, who is famous for {{w|DeCSS}} (which he got help with from the Roberts team), a DVD decryption program that removes the copy protection from commercial DVDs. The {{w|Motion Picture Association of America}}, also known as the MPAA, was not amused.

Both the MPAA and the {{w|Recording Industry Association of America}} (RIAA) use the {{w|Digital Millenium Copyright Act}}, shortened to DMCA, as a kind of brute club to silence "infringements" on their copyright. In a perfect world, the DMCA provides safe harbor protection to websites and consumers to make fair use of copyrighted content while also affording copyright owners the ability to protect their works from being pirated. In this world, this means that any content protection system, no matter how weak and poorly executed, cannot be circumvented and discussion of circumvention is illegal as well.

This is not a perfect world and in the end the Roberts team is noticed and two men with black bowler hats and briefcases with the abbreviations MPAA and RIAA shows up at their house to arrest them. The two men look very much like {{w|Thomson and Thompson}} from {{w|The Adventures of Tintin}}.

When Elaine is not ready to let them arrest her, and draws her knife, they instead draw their {{w|katana}} swords, out of their (way too short) briefcases. Mrs. Roberts says to her daughter that she should calm down because it is illegal to slice people up in their own houses.

However the two men disagree and refer to the DCMA Title IV, Section 408: Authorization of Deadly Force. So now the two women are in lethal danger.

But of course, {{w|Richard Stallman}}, founder of the {{w|GNU Project}} and stalwart defender of freedom and {{w|copyleft}}, cannot stand for this kind of repression of freedom. (In the real world, Stallman is not a swordsman, but he is always depicted with two katana swords in xkcd, first time was in [[225: Open Source]]; there is also no Title IV, Section 408 of the DMCA; Title IV ends with Section 407.) In keeping with the "{{w|Kill Bill}}" themes from earlier in the series, [[Randall]] imagines the conflict between Elaine/Stallman/Mrs. Roberts vs MPAA/RIAA agents as an action-packed katana battle rather than the legal battle it would likely have been in real life.

The title text is talking about a {{w|Linux}}-ism. In Linux (and all Unix derivatives) ~ is a symbol for a user's home directory (usually <code>/home/<username></code>). Presumably "nomad" is Elaine's username. <code>find</code> is an application that recursively walks a filesystem, listing all files, and <code>xargs shred</code> takes those files and securely erases each one with pseudo-random data. This is different from simply deleting a file, which merely removes the pointer in the filesystem's record tables to the file's location on the hard disk. The latter can usually be recovered from, secure delete however requires physically taking apart a disk and reading individual bits for remaining magnetic charge to attempt to reconstruct what was there.

Proprietary hardware is hardware (the electronics part rather than the software) created and uses only by that company as opposed to open hardware that uses parts or chips common to everyone. Proprietary hardware used to found in most gaming consoles and apple/mac devices but that isn't as common now since the cost of designing your own hardware is too expensive compared to using common chips.

==Transcript==
:[Elaine is sitting under tree on a grassy meadow typing on her laptop. Two trees are in the background where rolling hills goes to the horizon with a single cloud over the trees. Above the frame is text narrated by the Cueball from the first panel in the 2nd comic in the series:]
:Cueball (narrating): As time passed, Elaine intensified her hacking work, anonymously publishing exploit after exploit.

:[Elaine, wearing a backpack, is walking up to a door where her mom Mrs. Roberts is greeting her in the open door at the top of two steps. Above this very low panels frame there is more of Cueballs narration:]
:Cueball (narrating): To crack open proprietary hardware, she teamed up with one of the top experts in signal processing and data transferring protocols.
:Elaine: Hi, mom.
:Mrs. Roberts: Hello, dear. Did you have fun?

:[Elaine is lying on the floor with her laptop in front of her facing left with charger no the floor further left. Mrs. Roberts is sitting to the right facing right on a chair working on her computer at a table. Cueball is still narrating above the frame:]
:Cueball (narrating): They were an unstoppable team.
:Elaine: I finished the CSS decryptor.
:Mrs. Roberts: Good, dear. I'll send it along to Jon.

:[Pan to the right where two men in black bowler hats arrive. Both holds briefcases the first guys reads RIAA and the other guy reads MPAA. Cueball's last narration in the comic is above the frame:]
:Cueball (narrating): And were eventually noticed.
:RIAA man: Game's over.
:MPAA man: You're coming with us.
:Briefcase 1: RIAA
:Briefcase 2: MPAA

:[Pan back left to the women. Mrs. Roberts stays in her chair sitting at her computer still typing, the screen emitting light, but Elaine has moved around to the right of the table and pulls out her folding knife and swings it open.]
:Elaine: Oh, are we?
:Mrs. Roberts: Now now, Elaine-
:Knife: ''Shink''

:[Pan back right to the two men who simultaneously pull a katana sword out of each of their briefcase, while still holding on the the handle with the other hand. When when opened like this it causes two pieces of paper to fly out of the RIAA man and a note book to fly out of the MPAA mans briefcase.]
:Katan sword1 1: ''Shing''
:Katan sword1 2: ''Shing''

:[Pan back to the women. Mrs. Roberts continues to type on the laptop, a line goes up from the keyboard indicating activity. Elaine still holds her open folding knife out, so the tip now touches the right frame of the panel.]
:Mrs. Roberts: Don't let them provoke you, dear.
:Man (off-panel): We don't want to hurt you, Ma'am.
:Mrs. Roberts: Don't by silly. Record company employees can't just go into houses and slice people up.

:[Pan back right to the two men who holds up the katana sword having left their briefcase closed on the floor. The closest RIAA man is holding a hand up, the other MPAA man is holding his sword in two hands and pointing it threateningly forward.]
:RIAA Man: Ah, so you haven't read the DMCA.
:MPAA Man: Title IV, Section 408: Authorization of Deadly Force.

:[A wide panel showing the whole scene with even Mrs. Robert now standing having just pushed her chair back, the computer inert. Elaine is bending in the knees knife at the ready. Both bowler hat men, stil holding their swords as before, but no hands up, have turned to loo right back over their shoulder to see who speaks, as a voice comes from off-panel right.]
:Richard Stallman (off-panel): <big>Hark!</big>

:[The scene pans further right, so the two women is no longer in the panel, but Richard Stallman can now be seen with his wild beard and long hair and holding two katana swords one in front of him and one over his head also pointing towards the two bowler hat med. They are standing normally, looking back at Stallman the MPAA man nearest him holds a hand to his mouth as he speaks.]
:Richard Stallman: <big>Cease this affront to freedom</big>
:Richard Stallman: <big>Or stand and defend yourselves!</big>
:MPAA Man: Stallman!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:1337|04]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Music]]

1406: Universal Converter Box

2014-08-11T06:42:07Z

199.27.128.76: RCA uses one connector for video, not audio.

{{comic
| number = 1406
| date = August 11, 2014
| title = Universal Converter Box
| image = universal_converter_box.png
| titletext = Comes with a 50-lb sack of gender changers, and also an add-on device with a voltage selector and a zillion circular center pin DC adapter tips so you can power any of those devices from the 90s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs explanation of each device and explanation of title text.}}
Converter boxes are used to connect two devices together which otherwise couldn't be, due to different shaped plugs, different voltages, or different protocols of communication.

Converter boxes or converter cables are commonly found for several of the plugs at the top of the list - such as from USB to micro-USB.

The humour from this comic comes from the progressively ridiculous conversions that this box is capable of doing, for example, converting audio from a 1/8inch / 3.5mm headphone jack, into a variety of petrols suitable for running your car.

Different connectors:
*VGA (Video Graphics Array): A type of video connector, it has fifteen pins in a D-shell (A trapizondal metal skirt guards the pins from the sides, prevents the connector from being plugged in the wrond way ("keyed") and makes the physical connection more secure). First used in 1987, and with new versions being developed since then, it is an extremly common type of video connector.
*DVI (Digital Video Interface): Another type of video connector, it also uses a D-shell connector, except the pins are the flat instead or round. DVI is not compatable with VGA ports, though DVI can transmit an analog signal.
*HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface): A connector that can transmit both video and audio over the same cable, HDMI has slowly been replacing DVI and VGA ports on newer devices, due to the simplicty (one connector instead of two) and the smaller footprint and overall dimensions.
*Thunderbolt: A multimedia/data connector, Thunderbolt can transfer both video signals to a monitor, audio signals to speakers, and send and recieve data at the same time, over the same port. However, the limited adoption by manufacuters, the higher costs of the hardware, and the security concerns inherant to the interface have limited the adoption by consumers.
*Firewire: A data transfer connector, Firewire is bidirectional. Multiple devices can be hooked up through Firewire via dasiy chaining (the first device connects to the second device, which connects to the third device, and so on). Firewire can also be used to network computers together (though that is not common)
*Component and RCA: Both Component video and RCA are ways of transmitting video and aduio signals. The RCA uses one connection (with only one signal) to transmit video. Two connectors are used to transmit audio (one right channel, one left channel). Component shares the connector type, but adds in two more connectors to provide additional video information.

The title text is referring to connector "gender," which is a further complication in getting a connection. A connector is capable of making a connection to another device only through another connector of the opposite gender. Gender adapters flip the gender of a connector, so that two connectors of the same gender can connect. Due to the number of connections this box is capable of, there would be a significant number of connectors, which would lead to them weighing 50-lbs in all. The weight of the petrol pump gender adapter is probably responsible for the bulk of this.

The "circular center pin DC adapter tips" in the title text are barrel jack power plugs. These were developed in the 1990s, and come in a staggering variety of dimensions. The "barrel" has both an inner diameter and an outer diameter, so even if the outer diameter of the barrel jack (which can be easily measured) is correct, the inner diameter could not be. This leads to frustration on the part of users when the original power supply cannot be found.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1391: Darkness

2014-07-14T10:10:40Z

199.27.128.76: genies

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MundaneMadeAwesome --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
:Ugghhh, you just HAD to link to TVTropes... Now I'm gonna get sucked into the vortex! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.49|108.162.216.49]] 02:16, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

This narrative was actually the very first story I've read in The Onion back in 2006: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/rotation-of-earth-plunges-entire-north-american-co,1905/] -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 08:28, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Will Eno has a play, "TRAGEDY: a tragedy", which has a very similar set-up (reporters reporting on the fall of night as if they'd never known it before), but never explains how the situation came about --- now thanks to XKCD, we know how come! -- awhyzip, 7 July 2014

Isn't there a problem with the wish formulation? If the genie does not remember ever granting any wishes, how come the one in the comic is labelled as his "last wish". {{unsigned ip|173.245.49.181}}

"There usually is an added stipulation" ... really? Most time I read about genies, it's about someone using some clever way to overcome the limit on number of wishes, if there IS any limit to start with - but what I read may not be representative. This may require more research ... what is the most "traditional" genie story? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:47, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

:The most traditional would be the character simply carefully choosing all three wishes, using the last one at the very end of e story. Again, not representative either, but from what I've read the concept of "getting around the three-wish limit" seems to be a more recent take on the 'traditional' version. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:00, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
::The most traditional would be the character simply carefully choosing all three wishes, using the last one at the very end of e story. Again, not representative either, but from what I've read the concept of "getting around the three-wish limit" seems to be a more recent take on the 'traditional' version. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:00, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
:I'm pretty well-read in folklore. The three-wishes tale that I have seen come up most often involves a man getting three wishes, wishing for a sausage, his wife complaining, him wishing the sausage were on her nose and then wishing it were off her nose. There are several variants of that [//www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0750a.html here].

::I know that three-wishes tales are old and numerous. I was specifically asking for the traditional GENIE story - that is, if the traditional GENIE story is a three-wishes one (or if the traditional genie story is without limit). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:35, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
:::Traditional ''1,001 Nights'' genies, of which there are several, are more likely to grant one wish than three (and more likely to do something else than grant wishes, for that matter) but the most famous genies, from ''Aladin and the Magic Lamp'' would both grant unlimited wishes, but in a strictly hierarchical manner, where the genie of the ring could do much less than the genie of the lamp, and the former's magic could never interfere with the latter's. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.76|199.27.128.76]] 10:10, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

:I agree the ruse of getting more wishes is a modern device, not a folk one. In a ''Godel, Escher, Bach'' dialogue, for example, it is explained that genies only cast wishes, not metawishes (wishes about wishes). That requires a metagenie. [[User:Fewmet|Fewmet]] ([[User talk:Fewmet|talk]]) 03:03, 8 July 2014 (UTC)
Um... If the genie cannot remember that each wish was NOT his first, that does not preclude him from keeping track of or remembering how many wishes he has made. It doesn't keep him from remembering other wishes, he simply can't remember which one was NOT first. Perhaps I'm over-thinking this, but the genie would probably say, "I may remember your last wish was only your first, but I distinctly remember the 3 wishes you've made so far, especially the one to screw with my head. So... no more wishes for you." XP -naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 13:17, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
:I was more wondering about the genie having pause for thought when (remembering no previous wishes) he hears "for my ''last'' wish...". But with genies generally being the 'manual workers' of the magical world, generally being unimaginative (except for those that tend to twist wishes into causing unintended consequences, possibly something that Wish #1 was used to explore the possibility of) and working to rule (perhaps "twist the wish" is one of the rules?), they don't notice. [i]Or[/i] they're so fed up with "bottled servitude" that they'd be quite happy to go along with this new guy with the new attempt at rules-lawyering, at least until they get bored... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.192|141.101.99.192]] 14:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

::Considering the alternative is to stay in bottle (which looks definitely more boring to me) I'm surprised there IS a limit at all - or more exactly, that it's the GENIE forcing that limit, as opposed to some outside force. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:28, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I took this to be a reference to [//wisegeek.com/what-is-a-news-cycle.htm#didyouknowout news cycles]. The wisher was irritated that news reporting is influenced by an artificial constraint like the [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24-hour_news_cycle 24 hour news cycle] and wished the media would forget about it. In classic form, a poorly-worded wish is inconveniently interpreted. [[User:Fewmet|Fewmet]] ([[User talk:Fewmet|talk]]) 15:34, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

I think this is more about the media getting into a frenzy about things that are basic properties of living. (car accidents, breakins, starvation, murder, war, etc.) So they might as well get bent out of shape about something like the day/night cycle which is an absurd reduction of their usual retarded mannerisms. [[User:Chorb|Chorb]] ([[User talk:Chorb|talk]]) 21:51, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1340: Unique Date

2014-03-15T20:47:38Z

199.27.128.76:

My first thought was that he makes fun of people that consider dates like the 12.12.12 as important. As any other date they occur only once and are thus not more special. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.66|108.162.254.66]] 04:37, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Good point, I have added something about that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 04:49, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Possibly related to the upcoming Pi Day. Also, next year's Pi Day will be 03-14-(20)15, which a few images going around on the Internet have made an annoyingly big deal about. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 06:24, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

So - Maybe I suck at searching (I do), but I can't find any information about us being limited to 4 digits in our calendar system...?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.107|173.245.53.107]] 08:38, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Most of the computer software that handles dates would have problems with more (or less) than four digits. Why bother with variable year length when you can just take the first four characters of "2014-03-10" and it works for the next 8 thousand years? [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.103|103.22.200.103]] 09:42, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
:Also, most digital displays are limited to four digits for the year. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.103|103.22.200.103]] 09:43, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

::And I don't think we actually start address that sooner that in September 9999. It will be Y2K over again! .... not sure where will people of 9999 get {{w|Fortran}} and {{w|Cobol}} programmers, though. Maybe we should freeze some before we run out of them. :-) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:20, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:::Check [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_billennium#In_literature this] out.--[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 21:38, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:I'm with you. I suppose there may be places where leading zeros are used (somewhere in software where memory space has been set aside, I suppose) but I can't think of '''any''' common system where one has to use five digits when using a four digit number.
:When we get to December 31, 9999 (assuming he Gregorian calendar is still in use (BIG assumption)) the next day will simply be January 1, 10000 because, as you said, the Gregorian calendar isn't limited to four-digit years. And, as I say, anyone who think there is some problem with writing years as four digit numbers is simply demonstrating that they are not someone to take seriously. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:32, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

After visiting the website for the "Long Now Foundation", I find I'm left wondering - why, oh why, would they stop at using a five digit year? why not six? eight? ten? sixteen? thirty-two? [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 12:06, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

I think the point in the comic title is that writing years always with 5 digits is as significant as the zero to the left it will take to do so for most of the next 8000 years. [[User:FlavianusEP|FlavianusEP]] ([[User talk:FlavianusEP|talk]]) 12:25, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

My first thought was that the comic was about date formats and yyyy-mm-dd being better than yy-mm-dd or dd.mm.yy. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.138|173.245.53.138]] 12:40, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

;Dynamic?

:It isn't, but I've made a dynamic one (based on UTC): https://voidptr.de/xkcd-1340 [[User:N.st|n.st]] ([[User talk:N.st|talk]]) 19:36, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Wanna bet that this comic always shows the current date?--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 10:23, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Haha, that's a great observation! I wish it were so, I'll check again tomorrow. If it's not, someone email Mr. Munroe to make it so, great idea. {{unsigned|Adityarajbhatt}}

:It's 00:07 (11th of March) right now in China where I am currently located and it still shows 10th of March...just for the record [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.191|108.162.225.191]] 16:13, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

::It's March 15th now, and it still says the 10th. It's not dynamic. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.76|199.27.128.76]] 20:47, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

It's funny that Randall seems to have never heard of [http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2550 RFC 2550], which goes than the Long Now Foundation in expanding the representable date range. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 15:05, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

:Technically, there will be another 2014-03-10; on October 3rd. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.65|108.162.219.65]] 16:01, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
::It would actually be 2014-10-03 "under our system" as stated in the comic. Technically. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 17:14, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
::It's like me saying that there will be another 2014-03-10 on March 14th. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.63|173.245.50.63]] 19:45, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

I wonder if this is also somehow related to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interesting_number_paradox Interesting number paradox]. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.29|199.27.128.29]] 18:48, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

The problem of the date rolling back is partially mitigated by storing the year as an integer instead of as characters, such as how certain Spreadsheet programs, such as OpenOffice Calc, stores years as a 16-bit signed integer. This doesn't solve the issue, only pushing it back to be the year 32768 problem. This is even less of an issue for 64 bit Unix time, which expire on 15:30:08 UTC on Sun, 4 December 292,277,026,596. It's also important to note that the dates, such as 99, or 00 should not be seen as digits, they should be seen as characters (unless, of course, they are BCD digits, which entirely defeats the purpose of shortening the date to 2 characters length). This might seem trivial, but I think it's an important difference.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.41|108.162.216.41]] 02:46, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
: 3rd of October won't happen for another seven months. {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.125}}
:: As a (culturally) dd/mm/[yy]yy person (and ignoring, for brevity, the different options for delimiter), I find yyyy-dd-mm as illogical as mm/dd/yyyy... Why should anybody switch 'precision direction', mid-way? Still, as someone who went through the Y2K process ''and'' worked with colleagues across the Atlantic, I tend to use dd/Mmm/yyyy habitually in "for humans" systems (giving the abbreviated month spelling to avoid all ambiguity, as well as full year-number), or my own "yyyymmdd[-hhmm[ss[.ddd...]]]" format in (informal and internal) programming situations, with comments attached to any conversion routines (inwards and outwards). ((And, yes, there ''are'' ISO/other standards, but I find converting from/to them and internally working with my own long-practiced format works best, for me. YMMV. But be aware of how'd you deal with (or ignore) Leap Seconds!)) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.47|141.101.98.47]] 14:58, 12 March 2014 (UTC)