explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1320: Walmart

2015-06-05T05:49:56Z

A2658742:

For what it's worth, both Facebook and Google+ have features to discriminate your posts between family members, work, friends et.c. - Lists and Circles respectively.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.218|141.101.98.218]] 01:37, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Anything about the repetition of the phrase "the Walmart of social interaction"? --[[User:Troy0|Troy0]] ([[User talk:Troy0|talk]]) 17:59, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

:Maybe the first phrase is meant as a comparison. I.E. The one-stop-shop of interaction. While the second phrase takes it literally, since the comic depicts interaction inside a Walmart (or similar). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.125|108.162.219.125]] 02:57, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1320: Walmart

2015-06-05T05:49:05Z

A2658742:

Talk:795: Conditional Risk

2015-04-10T10:45:39Z

A2658742:

"I'm not American! So my risk is basically zero!"

Is the risk to Americans so low because lightning concentrates on non-Americans?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:42, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

The line 'The annual death rate among people who know that statistic is one in six' clearly points out that the people who know the statistic tend to be dismissive about the danger of the lightning strikes and put themselves in danger. Even though the statistic is probably invented by the author, shouldn't it go in the explanation?

I did not want to change the explanation without a discussion. (PS: I am a newbie here)

[[User:A2658742|A2658742]] ([[User talk:A2658742|talk]]) 10:44, 10 April 2015 (UTC)a2658742

Talk:795: Conditional Risk

2015-04-10T10:44:37Z

A2658742:

"I'm not American! So my risk is basically zero!"

Is the risk to Americans so low because lightning concentrates on non-Americans?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:42, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

The line 'The annual death rate among people who know that statistic is one in six' clearly points out that the people who know the statistic tend to be dismissive about the danger of the lightning strikes and put themselves in danger. Even though it is probably invented by the author, shouldn't that go in the explanation?

I did not want to change the explanation without a discussion. (PS: I am a newbie here)

[[User:A2658742|A2658742]] ([[User talk:A2658742|talk]]) 10:44, 10 April 2015 (UTC)a2658742

Talk:795: Conditional Risk

2015-04-10T10:43:34Z

A2658742:

"I'm not American! So my risk is basically zero!"

Is the risk to Americans so low because lightning concentrates on non-Americans?

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:42, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

The line 'The annual death rate among people who know that statistic is one in six' clearly points out that the people who know the statistic tend to be dismissive about the danger of the lightning strikes and put themselves in danger. Even though it is probably invented by the author, shouldn't that go in the explanation?

I did not want to change the explanation without a discussion. (PS: I am a newbie here)

[[User:A2658742|A2658742]] ([[User talk:A2658742|talk]]) 10:43, 10 April 2015 (UTC)a2658742

1250: Old Accounts

2014-11-11T08:48:34Z

A2658742: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1250
| date = August 12, 2013
| title = Old Accounts
| image = old accounts.png
| titletext = If you close an account while it's still friends with people, it contributes to database linkage accumulation slowdown, which is a major looming problem for web infrastructure and definitely not a thing I just made up.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is very slowly following the described process of removing himself from a {{w|Social networking service|social network}} by first unfriending each contact. Such actions are not necessary on any well-designed website. Actively unfriending people individually could be perceived as rude, antisocial, or in need of help.
Even though one may not have visited a social network for years, they are still sitting there, gathering one's "friends'" statuses opinions and comments.

The ''reverse order'' to unfriend people refers to the correct {{w|Memory management|memory allocation and deallocation}} processes for computers. If one does not follow this process and deallocates an older memory block before a newer one all information about the older blocks could be lost. This would prevent the user from being able to deallocate them. If the process repeats over and over, its memory usage will accumulate and will eventually result in an {{w|out of memory}} error.

This is not needed on databases, but {{w|database|databases}} used on websites, such as social networking sites, could run into a similar issue. If accounts are deactivated the users that were friends to the deactivated account may maintain the link to the deactivated account. This could (if the database was not well designed) create a non trivial amount of garbage data.

In the title text, "database linkage accumulation slowdown" really is a thing that [[Randall]] just made up. This may be a satire of popular fears of made-up technological problems, often held by those who are not technologically savvy.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at a desk, using a laptop.]
:The internet is filled with derelict accounts aggregating news about friends long forgotten.
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>Click*
:Uhh, is everything OK?
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>Click*
:Dude, what the hell?
:<nowiki>*</nowiki>Click*
:When you find yourself drifting away from a community, remember to clean up after yourself by slowly unfriending everyone, one by one, in the reverse order that you added them.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

Talk:1071: Exoplanets

2014-10-25T08:36:31Z

A2658742:

Hmm... this comic and 786 have the same title. Is that a mistake? [[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 01:07, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
:It may very well have been on {{xkcd}} itself; there was a bit of a snafu when Randall posted the image. That's part of the reason why we decided on number+name here, to ensure that that sort of naming collision couldn't be repeated. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 04:39, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
:It's also worth mentioning that 786 is both the number of the other strip, and the number of planets in this one. [[Special:Contributions/93.144.215.90|93.144.215.90]] 22:38, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

The image isn't appearing for me. I think it's a problem with the thumbnail system. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 18:15, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
:Same here. Using Chrome. -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:20, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
Same on ipad. [[User:DruidDriver|DruidDriver]] ([[User talk:DruidDriver|talk]]) 07:12, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

And on Firefox. --[[Special:Contributions/68.200.188.141|68.200.188.141]] 01:01, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Not showing up in Chrome. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 23:14, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

As a side note, the pace at which we're discovering exoplanets is accelerating. The first confirmed planet-sized mass outside our solar system was discovered in 1992, and it was ten years until we could celebrate the discovery of the 100th exoplanet. In the fifteen months since this comic was posted, another 156 exoplanets have been discovered (source: Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, which lists 942 exoplanets as of 2 Sep 2013). [[User:Frijole|Frijole]] ([[User talk:Frijole|talk]]) 22:41, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

There are 786 exoplanets listed in the comic, And the previous comic about exoplanets is comic 786..... Coincidence? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.44|108.162.222.44]] 08:58, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
:I think it's possible that he was waiting for the count to increase to that number to create some sort of meta-pun. With Randall, you never know, but the odds of that happening independently seems unfathomable to me. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.117|108.162.238.117]] 16:12, 4 December 2013 (UTC)
:Additional comment: I believe the original filename for 768 was just "exoplanets.png" before being changed to "exoplanets_2010.png" when this comic was released. Any website that hotlinked the first comic would have their image replaced with the newest one. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.117}}

Does anybody else see this and think colorblindness test? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.86|173.245.55.86]] 22:43, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Three levels deep.. Remind anyone of Inception?[[User:A2658742|A2658742]] ([[User talk:A2658742|talk]]) 08:36, 25 October 2014 (UTC)