explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

686: Admin Mourning

2013-01-16T22:11:07Z

96.43.185.2:

{{comic
| number = 686
| date =
| title = Admin Mourning
| image = admin_mourning.png
| titletext = And every day it gets harder to fight the urge to su to the user and freak people out.
}}

==Explanation==
The background images show output from the the <code>ps</code> command of Unix computer system, that lists the programmes a user is running. If a user is not able to log out, their processes would continue to run until stopped by a reboot. If a user were to die while logged in their still running programs would be a reminder of them to other users.

This comic supposes that an administrator is unwilling to reboot a machine which has still running processes from a presumably deceased user named "sam". The final joke refers to the command line interface called a shell, and a particular type of shell called zshell, and the expression "Ghost in the machine". The other process that sam appears to be running is irssi, a realtime chat client.

To "su to the user" is to use the ability of an root user to become other users, thereby giving the impression that "sam" or his ghost had logged in again.

==Transcript==
[The text is over a white-on-black terminal showing a bit of output from ps -el, with processes running from root and sam.]
When a user dies, their connections time out,
but their screen sessions linger.

[The end of the command line is a |grep sam.]
The server's uptime grows
because you can't bring yourself to reboot

and wipe out
their last earthly presence

[The processes listed are screen, zsh, irssi, and grep sam.]
the ghost in zshell.


{{comic discussion}}

556: Alternative Energy Revolution

2012-10-10T21:50:46Z

96.43.185.2: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 556
| date = March 16, 2009
| title = Alternative Energy Revolution
| image = alternative_energy_revolution.jpg
| imagesize =
| titletext = The moment their arms spun freely in our air, they were doomed -- for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone totally batshit insane.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete}}

The windmills also look like the fictional plants {{w|Triffid}}s from {{w|John Wyndham}}'s book "{{w|The Day of the Triffids}}" or the 1962 {{w|The Day of the Triffids (film)|film version}}.

In the final frame, {{w|Don Quixote}}'s horse largely resembles {{w|Don Quixote (Picasso)|the drawing}} by {{w|Pablo Picasso}}.

The title text is a reference to the {{w|H. G. Wells}} radio play/movie {{w|The War of the Worlds}}. "But there are no bacteria in Mars...when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed ... By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers" Specifically, it refers to {{w|Don Quixote}} being rather insane.

There is a fan created [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRuqPKcxMZY animation of this comic.]

==Transcript==
:[A field of windmills is silhouetted against dusk sky.]

:[Man and woman are standing and sitting on the ground overlooking the windmills.]
:Man: I'm all for green energy, but those turbines creep me out. They remind me of War of the Worlds, or the Tripod books.

:Woman: They -are- unnerving.
:Man: I can't shake the feeling that at any moment they'll—
:<<RUMBLE>>

:[A leg begins to split off one windmill.]
:<<crack>>

:[The leg separates from the body of the windmill.]

:[The new leg lands on the ground.]
:<<BOOM>>

:[Another leg begins to split off the other side of the windmill's body.]
:<<crack>>

:[The new leg hits the ground, forming a tripod base.]
:<<BOOM>>

:[Smoke rises from destroyed buildings as the windmills rampage across the field.]

:[Man and woman are now standing.]
:Woman: Oh no.
:Man: Al Gore, you've doomed us all.
:Woman: It's coming this way!
:Man: Run!

:[One of the enormous tripod windmill feet lands right behind the running couple, sending debris flying.]
:<<BOOM>>

:[Man and woman run.]
:Woman: What now?
:Man: Someone has to stop them.
:Woman: But who could--
:Voice from next panel: Stand aside!

:[Don Quixote sits mounted at the top of a hill, lance at the ready.]

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

Flies

2012-09-29T18:15:08Z

96.43.185.2: Redirected page to 357: Flies

#REDIRECT [[357: Flies]]

357

2012-09-29T18:14:37Z

96.43.185.2: Redirected page to 357: Flies

#REDIRECT [[357: Flies]]

357: Flies

2012-09-29T17:55:51Z

96.43.185.2: Created page with "{{comic | number = 357 | date = December 14, 2007 | title = Flies | image = flies.png | imagesize = | titletext = I don't know about houseflies, but we defini..."

{{comic
| number = 357
| date = December 14, 2007
| title = Flies
| image = flies.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = I don't know about houseflies, but we definitely caught a lot of fruit flies with our vinegar bowl. Hooray science!
}}

==Explanation==
The saying "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar" means that people are more likely to be won over with persuasion than force.

When [[Cueball]]'s friend tells him this after he replies to a "{{W|noob}}" using swear words, he then says that the saying is literally false by saying that {{w|lsamic vinegar}} attracts more flies than honey. He then tells his friend to try it with his own fruit flies.

When Cueball's statement is found true (because balsamic vinegar has a higher sugar content that white vinegar or honey), his friend complains to his mother that she lied to him. He then says that another saying, "a watched pot never boils", is also literally false. That saying means that an event that is monitored with impatient attention will seem to take longer.

==Transcript==
:[Interior, man types on computer, friend is lying on the floor]
:Man [typing swear words]: *$@#
:Friend: Hey, ease up on the noobs. Like my Mom always said, you catch more flies with honey then with vinegar.
:Man: No, you don't.
:Friend: You don't?
:Man: Nope, set out a bowl of balsamic and a bowl of honey. The vinegar gets more.
:Friend: ...Seriously?
:Man: You have fruit flies. Try it yourself.
:[Later]
:Friend [on the phone with his mother]: Mother! You LIED to me! And it gets worse. I was watching a pot yesterday, and guess what it did? It BOILED, Mother!

{{comic discussion}}