explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3052: Archive Request

2026-05-07T07:39:06Z

AdmiralMemo: Typo fixes

{{comic
| number = 3052
| date = February 17, 2025
| title = Archive Request
| image = archive_request_2x.png
| imagesize = 346x481px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They just want researchers in the enclosure to feel enriched and stimulated. ('The Enclosure' is what archivists call the shadowy world outside their archives in which so many people are trapped.)
}}

==Explanation==
Research sometimes involves looking up old data in an archive, and old data is often not stored in a modern standard of file format. It may either be an older standard, largely forgotten and no longer catered for, or a choice of original archival format that made sense only within the organization itself; either way, being a proprietary internal or licensed third-party format that lost (or never gained) wider support in the world at large. Unless the archive's contents are periodically re-examined, and up-converted into more contemporary standards in a timely manner, they might not be able to provide the data the researcher needs in a convenient way. The comic shows [[Cueball]] facing several issues that can happen with archived data:

* The data is stored as paper records, which will have to be scanned into a digital format.

* The data is being sent as a CD-ROM instead of being emailed or shared online, so it will take time to arrive. Also, most computers sold today do not come with a CD or DVD drive so the researcher might need to use another computer, or buy an external CD drive, to read it.

* It will take 10 business days (about 2 weeks) to process the request, plus shipping time.

* The data is not being sent in a common format for scanned documents, such as PDF, but a proprietary format that needs special software to decode.

* The decoder software only runs on {{w|Windows 98}} or {{w|Windows XP}}, versions of Windows which are no longer supported by [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-xp Microsoft], requiring a very old computer or the installation of a virtual machine. This often happens when old software is no longer supported by the manufacturer, so it cannot be updated to work on newer versions of Windows. This will add to the difficulty for the researcher to decode the data when they get it. Alternatively, it is a message originally written from when '98 was the earliest usable version in its particular Windows family (there was Windows Millennium Edition, after that, which was all but the same for most purposes, and also still ran as "Windows upon DOS") and XP the required level in the NT-based line (i.e. no guarantees that you could use Windows 2000 or earlier, but XP was significantly of the "DOS runs within Windows" design). This does not ''necessarily'' mean that Vista or later successors did not turn out to be unable run the older software natively, although ''some'' key changes to the successor UIs or system back-ends (e.g. access to now-legacy .dlls, assumed system locations for user data or/or User Access Control limitations) might indeed need to be overridden by compatibility modes or other special ways of running the software.

Normally, the reason for data coming in deprecated formats would be that it is held within a legacy system that was built around those formats. However, since these records are having to be scanned from paper in the first place, the rest seems to simply be inserting extra complication unnecessarily. The records could simply be scanned and shared using current systems and formats. This is borne out by the caption and the title text.

In zoos, captive animals need {{w|behavioral enrichment}} to promote physiological and psychological well-being - to keep them active and reduce stress and harmful behaviors. One common method is to provide food or treats encased in such a way that the animal has to exert effort to open/destroy the enclosure. The intention is to mimic the natural pattern of having to work to get to food, with the challenge and effort providing fulfillment and distraction, in addition to receiving food. The comic humorously suggests that archivists are doing the same thing as zookeepers - providing intellectual stimulation for the researcher by forcing them to jump through hoops in order to get their data. The title text suggests that archivists live in their world of archives and see the rest of the universe outside it as a cage that's trapping the rest of us. This is perhaps a reference to {{w|Allegory of the cave|Plato's Cave}}, a philosophical question about what it means to perceive reality for which Randall [[876: Trapped|has enjoyed]] poking fun at the idea before, or any number of examples of 'inside-out' thinking, such as {{w|List of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy characters#Wonko the Sane|Wonko the Sane}} (from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'') or Jevil (of ''{{w|Deltarune}}''), where someone insists that they live 'outside' a conceptually inverted structure which contains the whole rest of existence beyond ('within') its walls.

In libraries and archives, catalog enrichment means adding useful data to the catalog, including scans of the table of contents or the whole book. Many institutions have already digitized large parts of their collection. Researchers can then download a scan directly from the online catalog, just by clicking on a link.

==Transcript==

:[A side view of Cueball, sitting on a wheeled office chair, at a desk with a laptop on it and his hands on the laptop. A jagged line comes from the laptop screen presumably representing text on the computer screen from an online page, with the underlined text representing a hyperlink to another online page.]
:Computer: To request data from the archives, fill out this form. The pages will be scanned, encoded to CD-ROM, and mailed to you within 10 business days.
:Computer: Download the decoder for our proprietary format here (Requires Windows 98® or XP®)
:Cueball: ''Ugh, fine...''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Archivists actually have everything in digital repos now, but they still do this to provide enrichment for researchers, the way zoos hide food for animals in hard-to-open boxes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Animals]]

3188: Anyone Else Here

2026-01-01T20:05:48Z

AdmiralMemo: Grammar cleanup

{{comic
| number = 3188
| date = December 31, 2025
| title = Anyone Else Here
| image = anyone_else_here_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x350px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Anyone else watching this Youtube video in 1954? If so, my last trip definitely messed with the timeline.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a youTuber without internet Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic makes fun of a common method that YouTube commenters use to farm likes and replies by saying "Who is watching in [year]?" The comment is considered something of a meme within YouTube, and besides that is intended as a compliment implying the video is "timeless" or otherwise a happy memory worth revisiting. These comments often are phrased similarly to the comments in the comic.

The comic, however, presents them instead as time travelers who are lost, and their preferred method of communicating with other time travelers is posting YouTube comments about watching a specific video in a specific year. This may be a somewhat ingenious way of staying incognito while still being able to relay messages, as many people don't read the comments. Also, because some people actually do read the comments, the actual comment itself is somewhat innocuous, and easily overlooked, so it would cause little-to-no disruption in the timeline.{{Citation needed}}

The title text shows a time traveler stuck in the year 1954, somehow commenting on a YouTube video despite Youtube not being invented until 2005.{{actual citation needed}} In order to comment on a Youtube video in 1954, one would have to mess up the timeline badly enough that computers, the internet, and Youtube become common much earlier.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[The bottom of a YouTube video is shown, with the play and volume icons visible.]
:[There are two lines of illegible text below the videos.]
:564 Comments
:[To the right of "564 Comments" are three parallel lines of different lengths representing YouTube's "sort by" function. A long horizontal line is below.]
:[Three YouTube comments are shown. Each one has an avatar to the left, an @ sign before an illegible name, with smaller illegible text next to it. Below each comment are the YouTube thumbs-up icon, illegible text, the YouTube thumbs-down icon, and more illegible text.]
:[Avatar: A Cueball-like person seen from the chest up, but with a wider torso than usual.] Who else is here in 2023?
:[Avatar: A double chevron pointing to the upper left.] Is anyone else watching this in 2017?
:[Avatar: A Megan-like person standing.] Anyone else here in 2025??

:[Text below the panel:]
:For some reason, confused time travelers always try to find each other using YouTube comments.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3188: Anyone Else Here

2026-01-01T08:05:13Z

AdmiralMemo: Removing the "home time" option because the comic clearly states "each other"

{{comic
| number = 3188
| date = December 31, 2025
| title = Anyone Else Here
| image = anyone_else_here_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x350px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Anyone else watching this Youtube video in 1954? If so, my last trip definitely messed with the timeline.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a youTuber without internet Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic makes fun of a common method that YouTube commenters use to farm likes and replies by saying "Who is watching in [year]?" The comment is considered something of a meme within YouTube, and besides that is intended as a compliment implying the video is "timeless" or otherwise a happy memory worth revisiting. These comments often are phrased similarly to the comments in the comic.

The comic, however, presents them instead as time travelers who are lost, and their preferred method of communicating with other time travelers is posting YouTube comments about watching a specific video in a specific year. This may be a somewhat ingenious way of staying incognito while still being able to relay messages, as many people don't read the comments,{{cn}} and of those who do, the actual comment itself is somewhat innocuous and easily overlooked, so it would cause little-to-no disruption in the timeline.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[The bottom of a YouTube video is shown, with the play and volume icons visible.]
:[There are two lines of illegible text below the videos.]
:564 Comments
:[To the right of "564 Comments" are three parallel lines of different lengths representing YouTube's "sort by" function. A long horizontal line is below.]
:[Three YouTube comments are shown. Each one has an avatar to the left, an @ sign before an illegible name, with smaller illegible text next to it. Below each comment are the YouTube thumbs-up icon, illegible text, the YouTube thumbs-down icon, and more illegible text.]
:[Avatar: A Cueball-like person seen from the chest up, but with a wider torso than usual.] Who else is here in 2023?
:[Avatar: A double chevron pointing to the upper left.] Is anyone else watching this in 2017?
:[Avatar: A Megan-like person standing.] Anyone else here in 2025??

:[Text below the panel:]
:For some reason, confused time travelers always try to find each other using YouTube comments.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3188: Anyone Else Here

2026-01-01T08:00:14Z

AdmiralMemo: That's not the joke

{{comic
| number = 3188
| date = December 31, 2025
| title = Anyone Else Here
| image = anyone_else_here_2x.png
| imagesize = 285x350px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Anyone else watching this Youtube video in 1954? If so, my last trip definitely messed with the timeline.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a youTuber without internet Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic makes fun of a common method that YouTube commenters use to farm likes and replies by saying "Who is watching in [year]?" The comment is considered something of a meme within YouTube, and besides that is intended as a compliment implying the video is "timeless" or otherwise a happy memory worth revisiting. These comments often are phrased similarly to the comments in the comic.

The comic, however, presents them instead as time travelers who are lost, and their preferred method of communicating, perhaps with their home time or perhaps with other time travelers, is posting YouTube comments about watching a specific video in a specific year. This may be a somewhat ingenious way of staying incognito while still being able to relay messages, as many people don't read the comments,{{cn}} and of those who do, the actual comment itself is somewhat innocuous and easily overlooked, so it would cause little-to-no disruption in the timeline.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[The bottom of a YouTube video is shown, with the play and volume icons visible.]
:[There are two lines of illegible text below the videos.]
:564 Comments
:[To the right of "564 Comments" are three parallel lines of different lengths representing YouTube's "sort by" function. A long horizontal line is below.]
:[Three YouTube comments are shown. Each one has an avatar to the left, an @ sign before an illegible name, with smaller illegible text next to it. Below each comment are the YouTube thumbs-up icon, illegible text, the YouTube thumbs-down icon, and more illegible text.]
:[Avatar: A Cueball-like person seen from the chest up, but with a wider torso than usual.] Who else is here in 2023?
:[Avatar: A double chevron pointing to the upper left.] Is anyone else watching this in 2017?
:[Avatar: A Megan-like person standing.] Anyone else here in 2025??

:[Text below the panel:]
:For some reason, confused time travelers always try to find each other using YouTube comments.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:3038: Uncanceled Units

2025-01-17T01:58:32Z

AdmiralMemo: Cursed Units 2

DUDE I'M STILL IN SCHOOL RN, WHAT?
(also, the joke is that energy is power*time, so kWh is kJ/s... in an hour [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:27, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I guess not every comic can be a winner. Talking about an appliance using a certain amount of kWH per day is clear and normal. Power gets billed by the kWh, not the Joule. While technically not wrong, wanting "cancel" a sub-part of the commonly-used energy unit kWh and leaving it in deliberately-obscured units most people are less familiar with is the sort of insanity I'd more expect from White Hat than Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.171|172.70.35.171]] 13:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:Maybe that is a meta-joke? To frame kWh/day as something crazy by giving that line to whitehat --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:There's a difference between instantaneous power draw, and the total "volume"(/area, really) of power over time. Though a fridge is "always on", it is still only irregularly at full-draw. But, to the power company (or to the gas company, who will generally give a kWh measure of 'energy taken from the network'), they don't (generally) care whether you used twice as many kW over half the time or half as many over twice the time, within any given total billing period, even if it affects what you think. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.46|172.70.163.46]] 14:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::Using joule as if it was an everyday unit of energy would be weird but I don't agree that watt is crazy. It's a normal unit of energy consumption that does mean something to people, e.g. 1000W microwave, 100W (incandescent) light bulb. Don't get me wrong kWh/day is also useful to translate it to your energy bill, but I do feel slightly uncomfortable every time I see that time divided by time :-) [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 14:40, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:I don't think the complaint is that it's unclear, it's that Cueball/Randall instinctively wants units simplified - as they would be in a science context rather than a useful-for-normal-people's-everyday-needs context. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.183|108.162.238.183]] 02:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:Yes, it is normal, but to people who know what it means it hurts to look at. kWh are a measure of energy that is technically SI-friendly and at a useful scale, but from an scientific perspective there isn't a great reason (to my knowledge) other than convention to not just use megajoules (1 kWh is 3.6 MJ). That on its own bothers me, and probably Randal based on a lot of his other comics. The added complaint here is that by making them per/day it is back to a measure of power (which kW measure) [[User:Stardragon|Stardragon]] ([[User talk:Stardragon|talk]]) 23:34, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

This is especially funny with US units. My car needs about 5l/100km, or 0.05mm². Now I am wondering how many ft^(-2) my car does... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:49, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: You make a good point about the units (at least in one instance). Shouldn't the reduced units for fuel economy be inverse area? Effectively, it is a measure of the distance the vehicle could travel while consuming a column of fuel with a specific height and specific top (or bottom) surface area. Or, The better the fuel economy, the less the surface area that is necessary to move a specific distance. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 20:41, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::It depends on what the original unit is. In my country (Germany) we measure it in volume/distance, which would reduce to area. North American convention is in distance/volume which would reduce to inverse area. Good thing about distance/volume is that "high number = good". However I think outside of escaping from a nuclear disaster or in a zombie apocalypse it isn't a really helpful thing to know. Because how often do you know "I got x amount of fuel. Wonder how far I can get." But you will likely be in the situation where you quickly want to see "How much fuel do I need to get to place x which is y distance from here". --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 21:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::: how often do you know "I got x amount of fuel. Wonder how far I can get." Quite often, because the question I'm really asking is whether I can get where I'm going with some margin built in before I need to refuel my car. When I do refuel or recharge the car, I'll go to 100% of capacity. I just want to know whether I have to do that now or if I can wait and do it later because later would be more convenient. The only time I want the number the other way is when I'm buying a car and want to make it as efficient as possible. Once I have it, the amount of fuel I need isn't going to change.[[User:Yttrium|Yttrium]] ([[User talk:Yttrium|talk]]) 09:02, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
::::Mhh... probably a question of what one is used to. If I need to go 400 km, and I know my car uses 5l/100km, I just multiply 4*5 to see that I need 20l, and will know if what I have is enough or not. But I guess with mpg you can do a just as easy calc: If my car gets 50mpg (roughly 5l/100km) and I have 5 gallons (roughly 20l), I can go 50*5=250 miles, which is roughly 400km. My nitpick is: My car, and I think all cars I ever drove just shows me a dial from empty to full. Knowing how much "full" is, I can estimate how much gas I have, while my GPS will tell me a pretty exact number of km I need to go. So if I am fuelling up on a monday morning (where gas tends to be more expensive in my area than on other times), or fuel up right before I get my next salary, I might just put in as much as I need right now. But yes, maybe/probably it is mostly a thing about habits and what you are used to. And might be more of an European issue, since fuel is basically free in North America in comparison. So I guess everyone just fuels up fully all the time, but has to be cautious to reach the next gas station when travelling through the more sparely-populated areas...--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:19, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: More usefully imagined as the front (or back) end of a horizontal column (or, twisting as it may, a pipeline) that traverses the journey made by the vehicle. As if (instantaneous variations excepted) you consume precisely the fuel that your vehicle passes 'through/around'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.92|141.101.76.92]] 20:45, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::: Yeah. Maybe we should express fuel consumption in terms of the speed fuel needs to be drawn through a standard fuel line. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 21:01, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

fridge [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.147|172.70.126.147]] 14:22, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The late [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._C._MacKay Sir David MacKay] wrote an excellent book, [http://www.withouthotair.com/ Sustainable Energy – without the hot air] (which is available free online).
On [http://www.withouthotair.com/c2/page_24.shtml this page] he talks about the units he uses in the book: kWh for energy ("one unit") and kWh/day for power - becuase it's simple for lay-people to understand - how many units does this appliance use per day.
It's a good book if any of you are interested in sustainable energy (although it was written in 2008, so some bits might be out of date by now) {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.33|14:33, 15 January 2025}}

If anyone's curious, I found an online gallons per square foot calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/construction/gallons-per-square-foot [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.6|172.71.223.6]] 15:54, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The answer to Cueball's question is likely NO in the US and YES in the UK, due not just to gallon size but also fridge size (a model like that is a particularly large fridge, when I bought one 10 years ago going for the smallest available I had to modify my cabinet above the fridge as there wasn't one less than 6'8"- the fridge hole was 6' previous).[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 16:02, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with this comic, and I think the final paragraph in the explanation about Hubble's constant best explains why. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 15:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:It doesn't make any sense to 'disagree' with an observation.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.245|141.101.98.245]] 09:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Technically, kWh should be written as kW⋅h or kW h, because it literally means "kilowatts multiplied by one hour", not "kilowatts per hour" as many people assume. However, almost nobody writes it correctly. (kW/h is sometimes also seen, but egregiously incorrect.) Also, particularly now that electric vehicles are becoming more popular, people often get confused between kW and kW h. The car can charge at a peak or average rate expressed in kW, but energy billed by a charging service provider is expressed in kWh. People frequently either add or remove the "h" incorrectly because they don't understand the difference. In some places like India, a kilowatt-hour is simply referred to as a "unit" to avoid confusion. In my opinion, it was an enormous mistake to use kWh when we could be using mJ instead, which I think is probably something close to the point Randall may have been trying to make. Anyway, I wasn't sure if there was a place for any of this random trivia in the article itself, but feel free to use it. [[User:Equites|Equites]] ([[User talk:Equites|talk]]) 17:11, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: No!. TF?. ms is meter times seconds, m/s is meter per second. There is NOTHING wrong with kWh, it literally means kW times hours, and CANNOT mean anything else. kW per hour would be kW/h.. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.34|172.71.160.34]] 12:41, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: Technically, the SI would have you write m s for meter-seconds and ms for milliseconds. Thus, similarly, it should be kW h for kilowatt-hours, not kWh. It is unambiguous either way, but the standard is the standard. But that is a totally bizarre thing to get hung up on. Also, Equites's suggestion to use millijoules instead was maybe not well thought-out. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.15.234|172.68.15.234]] 17:45, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Relevant XKCD… I mean relevant YouTube video: "Cursed units" 1 and 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkfIXUjkYqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg7xe8MkJHs [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:31, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

: Highly relevant, in fact. The first video referred to the kilowatt-hour as "cursed", which became a highly polarizing issue in the comments, something that was addressed at the beginning of part 2. Assuming these responses weren't cherry-picked, I get the impression that there are a lot of people on both sides of this. It seems like the same kind of thing we're seeing in this very comment section. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 18:10, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I always wonder why people here prefer liter/m^2 for the amount of rain. Where the same number as mm is way easier to imagine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.99|172.68.50.99]] 18:14, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: At first, I was wondering if you would have rather had it in microliters/mm^2, but you meant the column height of the rain, like inches are used in the US. Along the line of L/m^2, something like mL/cm^2 might be nice considering the density of water, although the value also would be different by a factor. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 20:51, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: That's the neat thing about the metric system, they are trivially simple to convert. 1l/m² is exactly 1mm. The fact that the meteorology uses the former just stems from the fact that that's how they measure it. The catch the rain on an area of 1m² into a beaker that contains some volume which is measured in liters. What annoys me though, is that noone seems to be talking about how terribly inefficient the fridge in the comic is. Mine only needs a tenth of the one that Whitehat tries to sell, and that's not even particularly good. --21:21, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:: UK measurements, once it gets to weather reports/forecasts, tend to be in millimetres (or centimetres, where more for the layperson who don't need mm-resulution; or occasionally recast as 'old money' inches, with ''really'' bad rain events summarised in relation to whole feet), which is implicitly the depth to which ''any'' area would be filled (in a case where large catchment + funnelling valley situation is concerned, suffering from the run-off, might be ''reported'' as "equivalent to ''N'' feet of rain", down where the bad effects get concentrated, but this is not a meteorological measure as such).
:: Not sure I've ever seen volume/area as an end-result figure (might be relevent as an intermediate for measurement/calculation, especially when discussing the funelling effects of the given local geography), but of course it's trivially relatable.
:: Density of water would only figure in from replacing litres with kilogrammes (litres are 1/1000th of metres³ and any m² is 10,000 times the cm² (or millilitre), so a factor of 10 between L/m² and mL/cm²; divide L to mL by 1000, times m² to cm² by 10,000, => 10x) but I always find it useful to know that three 2L bottles of pop are (very close to, going by the nominal water content alone) 6kg... makes me feel better about lugging the weekly shopping home, where these might be the single most significant part of the weight. More usefully than cross-converting into length-cubed measure. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.69|141.101.98.69]] 21:42, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Isn't the point that KwH/day can be simplified to Watts (an average perhaps, but still) {{unsigned ip|162.158.41.72|21:24, 15 January 2025}}
: Yes, the joke seems pretty clearly about watts or kilowatts, not megajoules. Using megajoules doesn't result in any units being canceled; the denominator remains "/day". [[User:BatmanAoD|BatmanAoD]] ([[User talk:BatmanAoD|talk]]) 23:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

If the argument for kWh/day is that it's easy for the consumer to understand how it will affect their electricity bill – then kWh/month would be the right choice, because I doubt anyone receives an electricity bill every day. But the salesman prefers 3 kWh/day because it sounds like a smaller number than 90 kWh/month. And of course, if electricity bills were written in joules instead of illogical watt-hours, then MJ/month would be the easiest for the consumer. {{unsigned ip|162.158.134.90|22:31, 15 January 2025}}
:Per-month is tricky. You seem to assume month=30 days, when it can be 28-31 and is only 30 days a third of the time. Per quarter(-year) is a bit more consistent, less fractionally variant ''and'' closer to most utility bill frequencies as well, if you're looking for something not as eye-wateringly frightening as an annual estimate (which 'only' varies every 4.1237... years, on average). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.47|172.70.163.47]] 00:21, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: "''Per-month is tricky. You seem to assume month=30 days, when it can be 28-31...''" My electric bill for December 2024 is 33 days. The company closes the book when it is convenient, not per some calendar. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:22, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Which is why electric consumption per month is even more tricky. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:33, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::It's still per some calendar. Just a calendar of the electric company, that you're not privy to.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.245|141.101.98.245]] 09:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
::It's an average. We're not talking specifically about February. You could multiply by 365.24/12 and get 91.31 kWh/month on average – but there's only one significant figure in 3 kWh/day. White Hat doesn't say 3.000 kWh/day. You have to round 91.31 to 90 to avoid false precision.
::The stated average is an estimate based on assumptions about how much you'll fill the fridge, how often you'll open the door, how long you'll leave the door open, the room temperature in your kitchen, how much surrounding cabinets will restrict air flow across the condenser, et cetera. The combined uncertainties make it meaningless to state a highly precise power consumption. The length of the month is just one of many sources of variation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.90|162.158.134.90]] 10:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Ahem... "multiply by 365.24'''25'''/12". As anyone with a fridge at least 125-years-old would appreciate... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.178|141.101.98.178]] 12:23, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I suspect this comic is inspired by the much more common pet peeve of incorrect/nonsensical units, frequently encountered in similar contexts. I'm so used to hearing kWh mistakenly written simply as kW, that I initially misread and assumed that's what the comic is about. That's a particularly common example, where you'll hear battery capacities listed in kW, or instantaneous power described in watt-hours. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 09:53, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:{{w|Calorie#Chemistry and physics|Calories}} vs. {{w|Calorie#Nutrition|calories}}, also... ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.178|141.101.98.178]] 12:23, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

It could be worse.. I keep seeing TVs marked in kWh per 1000 hours... That is just insanity pure and simple.. It is in fact Watts!!![[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.34|172.71.160.34]] 12:38, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:This is even some kind of a "standard", officially. See first image in here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_4484
:Also, world power consumption is almost exclusively represented in TWh per year, because TW is obviously not a thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.6|172.68.50.6]] 13:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:That whole kerfluffle is mentioned in the "Cursed Units 2" video linked above. [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 01:58, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Can I be the obnoxious arse that points out that a 125W fridge will NOT be pulling 3kWh (or 3 units?) per day? Fridges run a compressor which makes the cold happen (via science and magic) and when there's enough cold in the box, it'll click off until cold is lacking. The durations will depend on ambient temperature, however observing my (oldish) fridge, it seems to run for about fifty seconds every four or five minutes.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.92|141.101.69.92]] 18:45, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:Fridge is actually heating device: it heats up your kitchen by pumping the heat from inside to outside. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

There is actually a good reason to differentiate between Wh/h (energy over time) and W (power): Non-constant consumption. If the fridge consumes 3kWh/d, its compressor will be rated in the 300-400W nominal range (the thermostatic controller will cycle the compressor on and off; for a modern fridge-freezer combination, a typical duty cycle would be in the 25-30% range). The unit nameplate will say "400W" because that's the rated power the electrical installation will have to be designed for (how many of these fridges can you put on a 20A breaker etc.). This is only determined by the physical properties of the compressor motor. The energy consumption additionally depends on insulation, internal space of the cabinet etc. etc. and only makes sense as a time average (due to the intermittent operation of the compressor). Not sure about US rules, but here in Europe, there's a standard energy class label for fridges which specifies kWh/a as a primary means of comparison. (Averaging over a year has the advantage that you can test against a standardized profile of ambient temperature change between summer and winter).
[[User:Ogehrke|Ogehrke]] ([[User talk:Ogehrke|talk]]) 21:28, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The explanation incorrectly states that fuel efficiency in the metric system is measured in km/l. It's not. It's measured in l/km, so it reduces to area, not 1/area.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.77|172.71.182.77]] 22:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:I recall seeing a book in my youth about "understanding units" that included great things like viscosity and explanations for why E=mc² cancels units properly. But they got to gasoline consumption, and used the analogy that the "area" represented here is the equivalent of the area of an adjacent trough of gas that would have to be scooped up by your car to keep it running. Very interesting way of illustrating unit cancellation. [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 23:05, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

[[User:DougM|DougM]] ([[User talk:DougM|talk]]) 00:21, 17 January 2025 (UTC) Am I the only one bothered by the low ceiling? I hate rooms where I can't stretch without bumping. I had to come here to make sure I hadn't miscalculated the ceiling height.

312: With Apologies to Robert Frost

2025-01-03T03:18:10Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Typo fix

{{comic
| number = 312
| date = September 5, 2007
| title = With Apologies to Robert Frost
| image = with apologies to robert frost.png
| titletext = Some say the world will end in fire; some say in segfaults.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic presents a poem about a {{w|god}}'s dilemma of whether to create the world using {{w|Perl}} or {{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}}, two popular computer programming languages. The god has chosen to write it in Perl, but since then appears to lament the choice, apparently expressing that if given the chance to write the world's code again, they would use Lisp instead. The poem and the title text are a parody of "[http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fire-and-ice/ Fire and Ice]," written by the American poet {{w|Robert Frost}} and first published in 1920. In this poem, the speaker discusses his stance in the debate on whether the world will be destroyed in fire or in ice. "A God's Lament" has a rhyme scheme that is nearly identical to that of Frost's poem. However, it differs in that "Lisp" does not rhyme with "men," "again," and "paren," while the corresponding four lines in Frost's poem do rhyme. (That said, "Lisp" does have a near-rhyme in "myth" and "with," especially if you say "Lisp" with a lisp.)

The implication is that a universe created by Lisp would look better under close examination, the 'founding myth' referred to in the poem. Instead of an incomprehensible {{w|big bang}}, {{w|Inflationary epoch|inflation}}, {{w|dark matter}}, and {{w|dark energy}}, the elegance of Lisp may have led to more elegantly-framed laws of nature.

The grammar of Lisp as a language requires the programmer to use a multitude of parentheses and, in many cases, it can be difficult to determine whether all of the parentheses have been properly matched up to one another. The last two lines of the poem refer to the plentiful parentheses in Lisp, and the image at the bottom of the panel shows a close-parenthesis at the supposed end of the Universe. See [[859: (]].

A segmentation fault, also commonly called a segfault, is an error that occurs when a computer program attempts to access computer memory to which it should not have access. This is a fatal error that will cause the program to stop executing.

This comic deals with similar subject matter to [[224: Lisp]], in which one of "the gods" claims that although the Universe may appear to have been written in Lisp, it was actually written mostly using Perl.

==Transcript==
:[A not-very-realistic view of the universe, in profile. To the left, a sectional view of the Earth, with its Moon and few clouds overhead, and a little Cueball standing, looking up. Extending to the right of the Earth, various stellar objects: some planets, some spaceships, another galaxy. Above them, on an artistically jagged white background, somewhat like a torn piece of paper, this text:]
:<big>A God's Lament</big>
:
:Some said the world should be in Perl;
:Some said in Lisp.
:Now, having given both a whirl,
:I held with those who favored Perl.
:But I fear we passed to men
:A disappointing founding myth,
:And should we write it all again,
:I'd end it with
:A close-paren.
:
:[To the right of the "various stellar objects", as if paired with the Earth at their left to bracket them, is a giant close parenthesis:]
:)

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

3020: Infinite Armada Chess

2024-12-05T16:32:55Z

AdmiralMemo: Typo fix

{{comic
| number = 3020
| date = December 4, 2024
| title = Infinite Armada Chess
| image = infinite_armada_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 282x497px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Stockfish 16 suggests the unconventional opening 1. RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an infinite armada of stockfish BOTS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Chess}} is a board game played between two players on an 8x8 chessboard. In standard chess, each player has 8 pawns and 8 other pieces: 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, a queen, and a king. {{w|Chess variants}} are chess games in which the rules, board sizes, and/or piece behaviors are altered. In the chess game presented here, a non-standard chessboard is used, which extends vertically past the original 1st and 8th ranks off the page to infinity in both directions. Each square beyond the 8 standard ranks is filled by an additional queen. The {{w|Queen (chess)|queen}} is the most powerful piece on the chessboard, having the powers of a {{w|Bishop (chess)|bishop}} and a {{w|Rook (chess)|rook}} combined. With an infinite armada of queens, each player will have more resources to call on. Sometimes having a bunch of queens [https://x.com/chesscom/status/1841540380363211164 doesn't go very well], however.

In {{w|algebraic chess notation}}, chess moves are represented by the move number, the piece moved (unless it's a pawn), and the destination square (with additions to indicate special circumstances and disambiguation). For example, the sequence 1. e4 Nf6 indicates that White opened the game by moving their e-pawn to the e4 square and Black replied by moving their kingside knight to f6, the {{w|Alekhine Defence}}. In the title text, {{w|Stockfish (Chess)|Stockfish}} is a {{w|chess engine}} designed to evaluate a chessboard and find the best move. However, it is designed to handle finite boards, so it is likely that some problem will occur as it runs. The specific error message "RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access" is unique to the cross-browser {{w|WebAssembly}} implementations of {{w|WebGL}}, so there was probably not enough memory to render an infinite board in the browser window.

While Stockfish is limited by the processing power of the computer on which it runs, it does not really need to consider the infinitely many pieces to suggest a move. Indeed, all but a finite number of pieces are stuck at every step, so there is always a finite number of possible moves, and so in theory it would be possible for suggestions to be made using a finite amount of {{w|RAM|memory}}. At the start of this game, the number of moves available for the first move are exactly the same as they would be in a normal game of chess, since all the additional queens are prevented from moving by surrounding pieces.

==Transcript==
:[A chess board in the starting position, except it extends further at the top and bottom, going beyond the panel. The extra squares are filled with queens of the sides' respective colors.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Infinite armada chess

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

3014: Arizona Chess

2024-11-21T04:15:50Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ "either" not needed because there is no "or" following

{{comic
| number = 3014
| date = November 20, 2024
| title = Arizona Chess
| image = arizona_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x315px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Sometimes, you have to sacrifice pieces to gain the advantage. Sometimes, to advance ... you have to fall back.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DAYLIGHT SLAYING BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[White Hat]] and [[Cueball]] are playing a timed game of tournament-style chess. White Hat has the advantage, because he has one more pawn than Cueball and has more time on the {{w|chess clock}}, 6 minutes and 35 seconds, versus Cueball's time counting down from 28 seconds at the start of the comic.

However, Cueball has an unexpected advantage. The building is sited across the border of Arizona with another state, with White Hat on the Arizona side, and the game is being played at a very particular time of year, when (most of) the United States exits {{w|Daylight Saving Time}}, which happens at 2:00 AM on the morning of the first Sunday in November. As Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), unlike neighboring US states, only one clock gains an hour. White Hat's time remains normal, but Cueball's time "falls back" one hour, as his departure from daylight saving time occurs. Due to the way the timer clock apparently calibrates its display (perhaps in part based upon something like the self-adjusting [https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/chrono/localtime localtime()] function), Cueball is suddenly given more time in the game. White Hat, whose clock is governed by a different locale, protests, as this is not typically how these clocks should function. Daylight *Slaying* Time is a pun on Daylight *Saving* Time, but note that the comic takes place as the non-Arizona clock joins the Arizona clock in Standard Time.

The title text is a pun on "falling back" strategically from an attack and the term "fall back" in the mnemonic used to remember which way the clock changes when we go in and out of DST: "spring forward, fall back" (we advance the clock forward when entering DST in the spring, and move it backward when leaving it in the fall or autumn).

A handful of buildings even extend across international boundaries (these are known as {{w|line house}}s) and many more cross state or local boundaries in the US (a city, county or tribe may sometimes decide to use a different time zone than the rest of the state, so any of these can become a zone boundary, whether or not international databases reflect it).

While it is possible to arrange a table across a timezone boundary, a bigger challenge is to arrange for a chess clock to take advantage of this. Most do not account for timezones at all, as an internal timer should not be left susceptible to external conditions. They are also about 12 inches across, at most, not far above the positioning error in GPS; assuming that this was the way each 'clock half' tried to obey local conditions. Cueball would, in this case, have needed to find a clock that was capable of tracking time zones separately for each of the two internal clocks and had an excellent GPS receiver for each side (capable of detecting a several-inch difference in position as corresponding to another zone).

The alternative would be for there to be a way to manually enter two different configurations into the time-tracking circuits (an unlikely capability, and even the need to configure it with just the one would seem to be a feature that [[463: Voting Machines|introduces more problems than it solves]]), which might require more active interference in the clock by Cueball (or convenient collusion/mishandling on the part of any officials). In this case, it would have been trivial to set up this situation in ''any'' place (and for any time/date), although lacking the 'justification' for its effect.

Though current chess-timers should merely measure out time (mechanically or electronically), aportioning out the passage of time(/countdown) to one or other subunits, the game could be played in the future where standard chess clocks are different. Many sports are starting to embrace "electronic timing systems" that are increasingly integrated into more generic consumer-level electronics, and may find themselves susceptible to normally unforseen interactions beyond the core timing functions they are supposed to be upholding.

Ongoing state-level efforts to end time changes could also increase the number of places where this situation could happen, as more DST/nonDST boundaries arise.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[White Hat and Cueball are sitting across from each other playing chess. The time, shown above them in white on a black screen, reads 6:35 for White Hat, and 0:28 for Cueball.]
:White Hat: It’s late, I’m up a pawn, and you’re out of time. It’s over.
:Cueball: Ah, you’re forgetting something.

:[Cueball gestures with one hand above the chessboard. His time now reads 0:19.]
:Cueball: Did you know this building straddles the Arizona border?
:Cueball: It actually runs right through the table. You're on the Arizona side.

:[Cueball raises his hand further to gesture at his time. It beeps and is now blank and white.]
:Cueball: This tournament started Saturday, November 2nd. Now it's almost 2AM on the 3rd.
:Cueball: And there's something you should know about Arizona.
:Chess clock: BEEP

:[White Hat raises his head slightly to look at the timer. Cueball's time now reads 60:07. Cueball lowers his hand to make a move.]
:White Hat: '''''What?!''''' No! That's not how... '''''No!!'''''
:Cueball: Looks like it's daylight '''''slaying''''' time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

Talk:1620: Christmas Settings

2024-09-24T08:51:25Z

AdmiralMemo: Does she know she made 2 clicks?

That's how Little Johnny killed Christmas, he left the tap running all night. --[[User:Jarfil|Jarfil]] ([[User talk:Jarfil|talk]]) 05:32, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Pores of your skin?! As utterly horrifying as it sounds, it's probably the most effective of the bunch, considering that all the others might not exist/be blocked in some manner and in some houses. [[User:Bon|Bon]] ([[User talk:Bon|talk]]) 06:27, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

:It actually shows how powerful Santa is: he is able to enter through chimney even into houses which do NOT have a chimney. (For example, see {{w|The Santa Clause}}, where Santa enters the chimney, then the central heating transforms to fireplace and Santa enters that way.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 19:22, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

:The pores option is actually impossible to reach, as two clicks + two clicks will only get one as far as "toilet" or "bathroom mirror". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.178.18|162.158.178.18]] 15:44, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxh-Hjj8T9o Swearing dogs are definitely a thing]. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.28|173.245.54.28]] 05:59, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

How'd I do for my first explanation on this site? [[User:VectorLightning|VectorLightning]] ([[User talk:VectorLightning|talk]]) 07:47, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:It was a great start. Keep it coming. Of course there will be many changes later, but I can see that some of yours original explain have survived the first edits since then ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:57, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

"These dials, for example, controls..." - is this a mistake? "This dial, for example, controls..." or "These dials, for example, control" would make more grammatical sense. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.33|141.101.99.33]] 09:35, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
: I think that there is more than one dail controlling Christmas. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 09:53, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:: Then surely it should be "These dials, for example, control"? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.33|141.101.99.33]] 10:13, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
::: You are correct and Randall has agreed and changed it to "These dials, for example, control Christmas" in the updated version. Good spotted. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:59, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Probably could do with a table of the options and associations. Better than the following that I just drew up (and actually formatted as a table!):
:Chimney - traditional (but not always practical) to our universe; also usable (to varying degrees of success) by Big Bad Wolves, adventurous burglars and adverse atmospheric/weather conditions;
:Shower Drain - typical horror movie (supernatural or natural creature invasion), as well as back-flooding;
:Open Window - more like a mundane burglar, or Hitchcock's 'The Birds';
:Mail slot - 'mundane' magical alternative to fitting down the chimney, where there is no usable chimney (''or'' horror movie, of various kinds); but raises the question of where the "with a special key that can open any door" option is, also, for Santa...
:Kitchen Faucet - another horror movie (supernatural) or a technothriller plot (contaminated water supply);
:Heating vents - another common alternative already given for those without a chimney/chimneyplace (''or'' horror/technothriller fodder);
:Cat Flap - another 'normal' alternative (which, again, does not exclude entry by various threats... or non-resident cats/non-cat pets/wildlife);
:Bathroom Mirror - supernatural (especially 'bad magic');
:Toilet - more traditionally rats or sewer-snakes, with reactions from "argh!" to "ewww...", depending on whether anybody is 'enthroned' at the time;
:Pores Of Your Skin - very much... ewww... (as for (techno)horror threats, it's almost always ''someone else's'' skin and/or sweat that's dangerous, so ''your'' skin
(where you aren't the 'patient-zero' or revenant already) would be something pretty novel)
:: Great minds think alike, I've just gone ahead and done that [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:16, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Genre examples would be good.
...also, there is of course a direct reference to how ''our'' universe seems to have certain universal physical values (e.g. 'speed of light') that might well be different in alternate universes. Whether or not the 'physical constants' we currently know are ''the'' fundemental physical constants (rather than derivative of the actual constant(s) the universe started with), it appears that this control room has access to rather less fundemental 'fundementals' to it. Or assumes that Christmas and Santa (and also probably the various entryways, even when not used by Santa) are universals to the universe that always exist in some form, but perhaps differently configured, in alternate universes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 10:28, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Someone thought these links were funny: <nowiki>{{W|Kitchen Faucet}} {{w|Bathroom Mirror}}. I removed the {{w}}</nowiki> template. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 12:51, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:I was going to have a go with the table and make "normal use" and "irregular/fictional uses" columns, alongside the label items, but wikilinks on the items themselves would have made the first column less necessary, and wouldn't hurt (if done across the board). e.g. are cat-flaps as commonly known and understood outside of temperate areas (where a house isn't already handily perforated against the build-up of heat, but also need not be so sealed against the cold as to make a cat-flap a potentially harmful vent in the door that keeps the cold weather out) that we can be sure that future readers ''automatically'' know what one is? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 13:47, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
::I think in a table it is OK to have wiki links to all items, so as not to judge which are necessary. I will put them back. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:18, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Could the title text refer to the (in)famous barking "Jingle Bells"? [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 16:17, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:I do not think so as they still bark? I guess it is this you refer to though? ([http://www.wimp.com/jingledogs/ Trained Dogs Bark Jingle Bells Together]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:01, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

I would propose a different explanation of the comic. I believe Randall is suggesting that the default American explanation to children of how Santa is able to enter locked houses is logically unsatisfying and seemingly arbitrary, and that the universe would be able to function just as smoothly were that explanation to change without warning. Ponytail is unconcerned about the setting because she knows that it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. This is in line with [[1268]], where Randall implies that he would be more comfortable in an alternate universe in which lobsters were perceived as inedible instead of a delicacy. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.64|173.245.55.64]] 16:37, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
:I disagree, she is flustered when it happens as shown by Ponytail taking both hands up to her mouth. I would say she is distraught that she cannot remember. Probably her boss would be mad (the one who have made this control panel, and who would know the setting) if he found out. We do not see her response to Megan's suggestion that she will just guess... But I agree that it could be Randall's intention and also that it could be relevant to reference [[1268: Alternate Universe]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:18, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
::That's a good point, but the tension is gone from Ponytail's body in the final panel and she doesn't say "I forget!". One might argue that she is momentarily concerned that Megan had injured herself, and that she relaxed when she realized that merely one of the constants of the universe had been changed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.64|173.245.55.64]] 18:32, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Dail shifted two clicks, so now it is either on "Kitchen faucet" or "mail slot". Could be worse... If she gives it another 2 clicks in an attempt to put it back, it will end up on either "Chimney", "Toilet" or "bathroom mirror". Maybe it's best not to mess with it any further... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.16|141.101.104.16]] 18:03, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

I feel the "two clicks" don't necessarily imply the dial has been moved two positions. It could simply mean the dial has been moved twice, making it even harder to guess where it was before the first move. It's also possible, in either event, that the dial has been set back to the original position - in which case, moving it again will definitely set it to something wrong! --Andrew Williams, 23:30, 23 December 2015 (GMT)

Maybe it's also a joke on real-life controls often having no clear "default" value (which, by the way, is sometimes the case for virtual controls as well)? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.149|162.158.102.149]] 18:56, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

I think the real joke here is the title "christmas settings", a play on the word "settings". Ordinarily this would imply how one sets up the Christmas dinner, but here it is taken as computer term to tune how Christmas actually works in our universe. -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.84|141.101.81.84]] 21:14, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

It should be pointed out that if the change of the dial, as per the second option, changes the past of the universe to match, that there's nothing to indicate that the comic was not also affected. In fact, this makes sense as the gap at the top between options is indicative of dial styles that block the dial (such as with dials that have a maximum and minimum)because, as such, it makes sense that if ponytail slipped and pushed it, it would go as far as it could in the direction she fell into. This would indicate, with the two clicks, that the dial was originally on kitchen faucet. --[[User:Joshupetersen|Joshupetersen]] ([[User talk:Joshupetersen|talk]]) 19:25, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

I added to the 'speed of light' universal constant explanation, because it's "the speed that things ''like'' light go", and thus acts as an effectively unobtainable speed limit to everything ''not'' like light, rather than light's own specific speed-limit. Having a lower 'c' would not allow any more faster-than-c travel than we might already discover is possible. Also I find 'absolute zero' to be a wholey dubious candidate as a constant. Kelvin (and Rankine) gets set at a 'zero' that seems to be the point of absence of temperature/heat/energy (yes, I know they're not strictly the same, with temperature being the most incorrect term of them all, but I'm grouping them as common equivalent terms to a layperson) and, like Celsius (and Fahrenheit), has a unit spread according to an anthropocentricly decided 'range' and subdivisions. Other constants that affect the behaviour of water (or brine+ice/body temperature), including the atmospheric pressure we live under, would change the absolute value of the non-absulute measures but not change the zero value of the absolute measures. IYSWIM... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 03:55, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

:Technically, zero is ALSO constant. But universe where lowest possible heat energy is different from zero would likely be weirder than universe where the highest possible speed is finite - oh wait.
:Note that universe constant is the {{w|triple point}} of water. The temperature of boiling water, freezing water or body temperature are properties of Earth, but triple point only depends on structure of water molecule. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 19:22, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

The second explanation for why they cannot remember will make sense if you keep in mind that they would probably remember the ACTION of changing the dial. Even if they believe the dial is now in the correct position according to what they know (Considering that the universe has changed), they can still remember changing it, as indicated by them asking "what was the dial set to before?" [[User:Bon|Bon]] ([[User talk:Bon|talk]]) 06:35, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

You guys are missing something. If the universe was altered, then the dial was changed to Santa going down the chimney. So either the clicks changed it back, the universe was altered to where it was always pointing the chimney, or she guessed chimney as being the right one. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 22:01, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right place, so please correct it if it's wrong. I think the title 'SOUNDS DOG MAKE' and the list of options between square brackets is evoking a config file from Dwarf Fortress, in which things are describe just like so... -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.35|173.245.54.35]] 14:17, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

I believe the correct setting could be reached through a process of elimination.
Let's begin by removing the pores of the skin, because that would require Santa to enter you first to then leave you, also it's disgusting.
Then we can look at what houses historically had. Toilets, faucets, showers, heating are all out. Only apartments and houses without a garden have mail slots and only non-apartment houses which has at some point had a cat has a cat flap.
That leaves the chimney and open window. Today, most houses no longer have chimneys, as we no longer keep our homes warm with fireplaces. However, historically all houses had them. Also, open windows are rare in winter because it lets out the warmth.
Thus, chimney is the only "logical" option out of the alternatives provided.
[[User:Kapten-N|Kapten-N]] ([[User talk:Kapten-N|talk]]) 12:20, 11 September 2024 (UTC)
: Another factor is if she knows how many clicks she did. If she knows it's 2 clicks away from where it is supposed to be, then she has a 50/50 shot of getting it back to where it was (or turning it further instead). We've got a 50% chance of getting back to chimney, a 25% chance of toilet, and a 25% chance of bathroom mirror. [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 08:51, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

2942: Fluid Speech

2024-06-06T01:32:02Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Typo fix

{{comic
| number = 2942
| date = June 5, 2024
| title = Fluid Speech
| image = fluid_speech_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x406px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you're okay.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a a BOT POTATO that is Gonna' impersonate a human - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic starts with Randall stating that people often unconsciously shorten words in various ways when speaking to optimize the fluidity of speech.
He then presents four diagrams of the human mouth and paths depicting how it moves when saying increasingly fluid versions of "going to."

The first diagram depicts the pronunciation closest to the typical diaphonemic representation of the phrase, /ɡoʊɪŋ tu/. The tongue moves a lot in this rendering, with the point of articulation starting next to the velum with /ɡ/, moving slightly forward to the hard palate with /ɪ/, back to the velum with /ŋ/, forwards to the alveolar ridge with /t/, and back towards the velum again with /u/.

The second diagram shows a slightly more efficient pronunciation, in which the /ŋ/ assimilates location to the following /t/ and the /u/ weakens to a more neutrally positioned /ə/. This way, the point of articulation starts at the velum, moves forward to the palate and alveolar ridge, and then finally moves back to the position of schwa, between the palate, velum, and uvula.

The third diagram shows an even more efficient and very common pronunciation of the phrase, /ɡʌnə/. The /t/ assimilates and merges with /n/, while the vowel(s) of the first syllable are either unrounded from /o/ to /ʌ/ (between which the only difference is the rounding, or protrusion of the lips), or, more likely, given Randall Munroe's prior comics calling /ʌ/ schwa, to [ə]. This greatly reduces the amount of distance the articulators must travel.

The fourth diagram shows the most reduced pronunciation. The /n/ is lost as a consonant and is only left as a nasal element on the remaining vowel. This way, the only motions that must be made are pulling the tongue away from the velum to articulate the /ɡ/, and opening the nasal passage.

Lastly, he comments on the perception of reduced pronunciations, remarking that while they might out of context appear sloppy, in-context a full & unreduced pronunciation sounds stilted, forced, and unnatural.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Above the panel:]
:Fun fact: Experienced speakers constantly merge, drop, and alter sounds when talking at normal conversational speed to optimize for efficient mouth movement.

:[The panel shows four labeled side profiles of a mouth with paths of sounds made in different parts of the mouth. There is a label "More fluid" with an arrow pointing to the right. From left to right:]

:[Label:]
:Going to
:/ɡoʊɪŋ tu/
:[Path:] G O >> I >> NG >> >> >> T >> >> O

:[Label:]
:Goin' to
:/ɡoʊɪn tə/
:[Path:] G O >> I >> N T >> >> O

:[Label:]
:Gonna
:/ɡʌn.ə/
:[Path:] G O >> NN >> A

:[Label:]
:How fluent speakers ''actually'' say it when speaking rapidly
:/ɡə̃/
:[Path:] G >> >> ə̃

:[Below the panel:]
:If you think ''you'' don't do this, try to use "hot potato" in a sentence and fully pronounce the first "t" without sounding like an alien impersonating a human.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Fun fact]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Gretchen McCulloch]]

Talk:2937: Room Code

2024-05-29T11:56:18Z

AdmiralMemo: Close to prime

Obviously, for many of us it would be more helpful as a mnemonic for a slightly older relative born on May 18, 2002. But since the author is American, it is of course reasonable for him not to have mentioned this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.235|162.158.134.235]] 20:36, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:ISO-8601 FTW.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:05, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::Do "many" of you use YYMMDD though? YY rather than YYYY? Many, many of us use DDMMYY though. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 20:46, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::::UK resident here. I have only used YYYYMMDD at the start of file names to manually produce versioning order.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::::Another Brit. Having dealt with transatlantic stuff, I switched to YYYY/MM/DD exclusively due to being utterly fed up with trying to work out when an ambiguous date (like in this example, or the infamous 9th of November) was supposed to be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.158|172.71.131.158]] 21:40, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::::::This particular Brit (also veteran of Y2K, at the same time as regularly "talkin' to 'Merkins" and having to make sure I don't confuzzle them either with what a Rightpondian would write or by them ''assuming'' that I'm writing in Rightpondian when I'm not) continues to tend to use DD/Mmm/YYYY for anything with a human-reading focus. Or something like YYYYMMDD(-hh(mm(ss))), as per RIIW's situational reasoning where dumb alphanumeric ordering might dominate in primarily computer-reading scenarios. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.164|172.69.79.164]] 23:32, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, add me to the "2nd of May" club. (Or whatever young relative I can retrospectively induce to join, anyway.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.165|172.69.79.165]] 22:58, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, of course DDMMYY is a thing as well (although I would have expected dots or something), I might have mentioned that. Here in Sweden, YYMMDD is very common, along with YYYY-MM-DD, D/M YYYY and YYYYMMDD (the latter increasingly so, very rare before y2k). YY-MM-DD and D/M -YY are rather less common (after y2k). Formats with dots or Roman numerals are almost unheard of, as are middle-endianness and anything with slashes before or after the year. Source: subjective experience.) (Of course, many Swedes also realize that months have names that alleviate ambiguity.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 04:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::::Now I want some kind of joke about Your Mileage May Vary, but it's some variation of YYDMDM. (Yes Your Date May Deviate Massively?)
::::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:12, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::My birthday is actually May 18, XXXX, and I am American, but I always use XX0518 for a 6 number code.
::Which brings up [[2562:_Formatting_Meeting]] (I ~~don't know~~ figured out how to do internal links) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.80|172.71.22.80]] 20:52, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::::I know that State Side, they say that as you write May 2nd 2024, then it's right to have MMDDYYYY, but they celebrate the 4th of July! However, in the UK we are likely to date letters 2nd May, 2024. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::::Now I want some kind of joke about Your Mileage May Vary, but it's some variation of YYDMDM. (Yes Your Date May Deviate Massively?)
:::::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:12, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::::::YMMD (Your Mileage May Differ) {{unsigned ip|162.158.129.253|08:52, 27 May 2024}}
:::''"I don't know how to do internal links"'' At the very bottom of the Editing page, "'''Editing help (opens in new window)'''", which goes to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links and you want "'''Internal links'''" --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:11, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::::In case it helps, I've just [[User talk:42.book.addict#Depends what you wanted to do...|written something, at least so long as that user doesn't delete or change my contribution]] which summarises (badly?) the general gamut of linking options you might need to employ here. It's tuned to explainxkcd usage, rather than the full (in their own way) and perhaps more precise wikipedia standards that the above link gives. And it was written on the spur of the moment, not really so carefully edited. But FYI. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.70|162.158.38.70]] 21:04, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::Also related [[1179:_ISO_8601]] --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.93|172.71.160.93]] 09:09, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

wait...so y'all actually don't need help with remembering numbers? oh. I can usually memorize like 10 long strings of random numbers almost instantly by finding patterns through them. order through chaos? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:13, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:These patterns are a kind of mnemonic, duh. Only works if you're comfortable enough with numbers (to be able to find some pattern in any digit string), otherwise one should use a more familiar association. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.194.201|172.68.194.201]] 14:58, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I usually remember numbers with their pattern on computer or telephone keys. When I recite π, I start moving my hand through the air at some point. Here the even position digits are ascending in the middle and the others are 001, so quite easy. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 03:39, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:I remember random information by putting it in my phone! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

He forgot to dot the question mark. 🤭
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.68|162.158.74.68]] 09:41, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I always have a pen to write on my hand for this reason tbh [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 03:31, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
:The trouble is, most people couldn't do it for this doorcode. It has six digits, but the typical hand only ever has five! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.207|172.69.194.207]] 09:03, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.194.178|172.68.194.178]] 09:50, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::The average hand has less than 5 digits. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 01:28, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Average =/= Typical (unless it's a modal average).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.177|172.70.90.177]] 08:13, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

The room code 020518 as listed consists of prime numbers 2 and 5 (with 3 missing). however both are preceded by a zero. The 18 is interpreted as non prime (it is not) but the 2x3x3 seems a bit far off from any prime. Would the alternative explanation 0-5 is a zero followed by the prime number five --- followed by 1 - 8 which is 0+1 and 7+1 which could be logical continuation of 0+0-5+0, 0+1-7+1, followed by e.g. 0+2, 11+2 etc. - as such series sometime go. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.193|172.70.46.193]] 14:10, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
:It may be "far off" from being prime in a factorization sense, but it's quite close to being a prime because it's right next to both 17 and 19, which are both prime. [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 11:56, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

I remember my 628496 was my room code for a while back at uni, very easy to remember as the first three Perfect Numbers

1395: Power Cord

2024-01-13T16:31:05Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ The power brick also inflates

{{comic
| number = 1395
| date = July 16, 2014
| title = Power Cord
| image = power_cord.png
| titletext = In this situation, gzip /dev/inside to deflate, then pipe the compressed air to /dev/input to clean your keyboard. Avert your eyes when you do.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, we see [[Beret Guy]] walking in from the left, as [[Cueball]] is sitting on a couch, typing on a {{w|laptop}} on his {{w|lap}}, with its {{w|power cord}} unplugged. Instead of connecting it to the {{w|wall socket}}, Beret Guy picks it up and blows air into the loose end of the cord, as if inflating a balloon — and the laptop inflates, along with the "power brick" that is on the cord. It then floats away, making Cueball grab for it as Beret Guy casually walks away. (See an instance where Cueball inflates something in a similar unexpected way in [[1798: Box Plot]]).

It is not possible to inflate a laptop like this{{Citation needed}}, and (with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugVRY-Cv7Ng&t=401s rare exceptions]) it is not possible to inflate ''anything'' by blowing down a power cord. Beret Guy has previously demonstrated several [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|supernatural abilities]], for instance with power cords, such as in [[1293: Job Interview]].

In general, human breath should not be buoyant enough to lift much in an atmosphere of ordinary air. The only chemical difference between dry air and dry exhaled breath is the conversion of oxygen (molecular weight = 32) to carbon dioxide (MW=44), not counting substances in such low concentrations that their effect on the average molecular weight of the air (MW=29) is negligible. A change of concentration of the CO2 from [https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-composition-d_212.html 0.04%] to about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathing#Composition 4%] is typical. This increases the average molecular weight. However, exhaled breath is also usually much more humid than air, increasing the concentration of water (MW=18) from a typical value of 1% to approximately 5%, which decreases the average molecular weight. The two changes approximately cancel each other.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
|- style="font-weight:bold; text-align:center;"
! style="text-align:right; font-weight:normal;" |
! MW
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Dry air
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Fractional MW 
! Air with 1% water
! Fractional MW 
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Exhaled composition dry
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Fractional MW 
! Exhaled composition with 5% water
! Fractional MW 
|-
| style="font-weight:bold;" | N2
| style="text-align:left;" | 28.01
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 78.08%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 21.87
| 77.30%
| 21.65
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 78%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 21.85
| 74.10%
| 20.76
|-
| style="font-weight:bold;" | O2
| style="text-align:left;" | 32.00
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 20.95%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 6.70
| 20.74%
| 6.64
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 17%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 5.44
| 16.15%
| 5.17
|-
| style="font-weight:bold;" | Ar
| style="text-align:left;" | 39.95
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.93%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.37
| 0.92%
| 0.37
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 1%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.40
| 0.95%
| 0.38
|-
| style="font-weight:bold;" | CO2
| style="text-align:left;" | 44.01
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.04%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.02
| 0.04%
| 0.02
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 4%
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 1.76
| 3.80%
| 1.67
|-
| style="font-weight:bold;" | H2O
| style="text-align:left;" | 18.01
| style="background-color:#efefef;" |
| style="background-color:#efefef;" |
| 1.00%
| 0.18
| style="background-color:#efefef;" |
| style="background-color:#efefef;" |
| 5.00%
| 0.90
|-
| style="font-weight:bold;" | Total
| style="font-weight:bold; text-align:left;" |
| style="background-color:#efefef;" | 100.00%
| style="background-color:#efefef; font-weight:bold;" | 28.97
| 100.00%
| style="font-weight:bold;" | 28.86
| style="background-color:#efefef;" |
| style="background-color:#efefef; font-weight:bold;" | 29.45
| 100.00%
| style="font-weight:bold;" | 28.88
|}

Because humans are warm-blooded, human breath is slightly warmer than the surrounding air, and therefore has slightly fewer molecules per unit volume. This is also true of hot air balloons, but they operate at much higher temperatures than human breath and are therefore able to obtain a greater amount of net buoyancy. There is a standard cartoon convention that {{tvtropes|AllBalloonsHaveHelium| inflating something with breath}} nonetheless makes it lighter than air. Also, given Beret Guy's many manifestations of inexplicable phenomena, it is not too far fetched to believe his body is, in fact, expelling some form of lighter-than-air gas, similar to the character Rigel on Farscape who could "fart helium".

The title text involves some jokes on {{w|Unix}} systems. On Unix, {{w|everything is a file}}; even most of the hardware can be referenced by a (virtual) file. These virtual files usually are in /dev or another virtual filesystem like /sys or /proc. While /dev/input really exists and points to the input system (mice, keyboards, gamepads, etc.), /dev/inside doesn't. {{w|gzip}} is a common tool to compress files. The first joke is to compress the air inside the laptop (with the command <code>gzip /dev/inside</code>) in order to deflate the laptop back to normal size. It is a pun with the literal meaning of "deflate", which is also the {{w|DEFLATE}} algorithm used by gzip (compressing files is also called "deflating"). Another joke is "{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|piping}}", the act of using the output of one operation as the input to another. As the output of the gzip command would be compressed air, a ''physical'' pipe could be used to direct the air somewhere useful. The output of a command can also be redirected to a file. Since the hardware is a file, the suggestion is to direct the air to /dev/input (which, in this case, means the keyboard, but would actually be a directory on real system, which can't normally be piped into) to clean it, similar to "compressed air" dusting cans. The complete command would be <code>gzip /dev/inside | /dev/input</code>. As this might cause a spray of unpleasant detritus (compare [[237: Keyboards are Disgusting]]), the reader is advised to avert their eyes.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy enters to find Cueball on a chair typing on a laptop. Cueball's power cord is unplugged from the wall.]
:Cueball typing: Type type

:[Beret Guy picks up the power cord. Cueball continues typing.]
:Cueball typing: Type type

:[Beret Guy blows into the plug end of the cord. The laptop abruptly inflates and Cueball jerks back.]
:Beret Guy: '''PBBBBT'''
:Laptop: '''FOOMP'''

:[Beret Guy walks away, leaving Cueball climbing up his chair to retrieve his inflated laptop which is now floating away.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Linux]]

2867: DateTime

2023-12-14T15:41:06Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Typo fix

{{comic
| number = 2867
| date = December 13, 2023
| title = DateTime
| image = datetime_2x.png
| imagesize = 679x478px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's not just time zones and leap seconds. SI seconds on Earth are slower because of relativity, so there are time standards for space stuff (TCB, TGC) that use faster SI seconds than UTC/Unix time. T2 - T1 = [God doesn't know and the Devil isn't telling.]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DATETIME SYSTEM BETWEEN T1 AND T2 - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Ponytail]] asks [[Cueball]] how to calculate the time elapsed between two instants. A Cueball not intimately familiar with the complexities of the way humans measure time naively assumes that this is given by the difference of the timestamps. A Cueball who is familiar panics and states that it is impossible to know, and further that it is forbidden to even ask the question.

Some of these complexities include time zones (and changes to time zones), the international date line, daylight savings time and differing observation (or non-observation) thereof in different areas (and changes to the observation of daylight savings time over time), leap days and leap seconds, etc. Another complexity is found in relativistic effects, in which the flow of time varies depending on on how deep in a gravity well one is; {{w|Barycentric Coordinate Time}} and {{w|Geocentric Coordinate Time}} (in French, TCB and TCG respectively - the reference to TGC in the title text appears to be a typo) are time systems used for space missions and orbit calculations that handle this. A partial list of such minutia may be found at [https://gist.github.com/timvisee/fcda9bbdff88d45cc9061606b4b923ca Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Time]. The title text of the comic also references some of them.

The statement that "it is impossible to know" is because Ponytail did not provide enough information in the question: She needed to specify the location and time zone of both observations, and possibly the exact values of T1 and T2 to the nanosecond. The statement "and a sin to ask" is obviously hyperbolic; it's an expression of the fact that determining the answer accurately can be complicated and programming systems that attempt to do this can be frustrating.

"T2 - T1 = [God doesn't know and the Devil isn't telling.]": This is a colloquial expression that riffs on the more common "God only knows", to suggest that the thing in question is even more unknowable than the usual type of unknowable thing, to the point where it may be an evil invention of the Devil designed to cause complexity and frustration for the people having to deal with it.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Ponytail is talking to Cueball.]
:Ponytail: Event #1 happened at time T1.
:Cueball: Okay.

:Ponytail: Then event #2 happened at time T2.
:Cueball: Mhmm.

:Ponytail: How would you calculate how much time elapsed between T1 and T2?

:[The comic splits into two paths, each with a caption at the top.]

:[Path 1, upper right panel]
:Caption: Normal person:
:Cueball: T2 minus T1.

:[Path 2, lower right panel]
:Caption: Anyone who's worked on datetime systems:
:[Cueball has his arms raised.]
:Cueball: '''''It is impossible to know and a sin to ask!'''''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Time]]

Talk:2848: Breaker Box

2023-11-11T03:14:53Z

AdmiralMemo: The Mystery Switch

added transcript and got to change the name of the thing that created the explanation incomplete tag WOHOOOOoO [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 02:25, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: can't help but notice the [[1590]] reference [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 02:43, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
Added explanation! Simple, but it'll do. How do I sign? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.159|172.69.34.159]] 03:42, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: four tildes (<code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code>) [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 03:08, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:: Thanks. I thought that I had tried it earlier and it hadn't worked, but I guess I was wrong. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.160|172.69.34.160]] 03:46, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Just added headers, but not good enough with this stuff to add descriptions. go nuts [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 02:52, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Got a good laugh out of this one. Does anyone have a guess as to whether the "bugs" at the bottom of the second column refers to computer bugs or insects? Also, some self-referential humor going on at the end there. I guess the breaker box which contains all breakers would indeed contain itself. [[User:Jrfarah|Jrfarah]] ([[User talk:Jrfarah|talk]]) 04:31, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: I thought it was some sort of reference to [[2753]] [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 04:58, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: It turns off the bunny. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.194|172.69.194.194]] 11:27, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: Computer bugs switches actually exist. It's a feature in some emulators to either run an unofficial patched version or to stay true to the original system, for example to allow bug-exploit speedruns. [[User:Shirluban|Shirluban]] [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.70|172.71.130.70]] 13:34, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

So... discussion about "Hot Water Heater" vs. "Regular Water Heater"... I was assuming this was a joke regarding the redundancy of the term "Hot Water Heater" since "Water Heater" is already making the water hot, so why would you need to heat water that's already hot? Similar to RAS Syndrome, I thought Randall was making fun of that, but the explanation has a different idea... which... kind of makes sense? But... I've never seen anything like what is being described. [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 05:22, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: After reading "Regular Water Heater", I assumed it was implying that the "Hot Water Heater" was somehow more physically attractive and thus "hotter". --[[User:Galeindfal|Galeindfal]] ([[User talk:Galeindfal|talk]]) 14:41, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Regarding the "one surprise mystery outlet", I don't think it's necessary to assume it was wired that way by mistake. When extending the wiring in an existing house, it's not always easy to wire up an extra breaker, or use the most logically labelled one, and there may not be a compelling safety reason to do so. For instance, in my parents house, the original sockets are all wired from the floor, and when an extra one was needed for a boiler control, it was easier to run a conduit ''down'' from the floor above; so that particular socket is on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit ring] marked "Upstairs Sockets" on the consumer unit. - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 09:18, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

I read the "state/federal law" switches as ''required'' by said laws. i.e. respective building codes require a "foo switch" always to be installed, whether or not a foo is required, reasonable or even practicable. The switches may be left unlinked to anything that is serviced, or run to the household outlet/power-switch with the label plastered over it saying "don't use for anything but the quarter-inch hoojamaflip grinder" (or whatever it is, in the same sort of manner as "Refrigerator, do ''not'' unplug/turn off!" in a communal kitchen.... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.166|141.101.99.166]] 10:09, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:Some laws contain "circuit breaker" provisions, where some action is triggered when a condition reaches a threshold. Maybe that's what state/federal law refers to. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:25, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:: You guys are way too serious. It's a joke, so pick the funniest interpretation possible. Don't try to make it realistic. A circuit breaker turns off the electricity so you can work on the wiring without getting shocked. By analogy, you should be able to use a circuit breaker to turn off the laws when you want to avoid getting fined or arrested. Now that's funny. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:43, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

...in a separate comment, I have a fuse/switch labelled "Do not turn on!" in my house. It was turned on when I moved in, and (barring actually any reason to mess with anything/’get a man in' for any other purpose) I've ''left'' it on. Ditto, for these last six or seven years I've remained ignorant of the purpose of various wall switches (floor-height, one in living room, one at top of stairs, another in a bedroom) that are unlabelled and off (though I ''have'' switched them on... no obvious difference to lighting, alarm system, any other system I can imagine they're wired up into and left it pending some future time when I actually have to do something like strip plaster back and discover which (if any?) run of cable leads from/to them. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.166|141.101.99.166]] 10:11, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:Regarding wall switches that don't have any apparent purpose. Many houses or apartments were not built with lights in the ceiling. So all your lighting came from lamps plugged into wall outlets. They would wire one of the wall outlets to a wall switch, usually near the door. This way you would leave the lamp turned on and use the wall switch to turn it off and on. It takes a little investigation to figure out which wall outlet is being controlled by the switch. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 12:43, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
::Not applicable, in my case (above 'owner' of the floor switches) because all my sockets(/outlets) in my house have switches ''on them''. One of the mysterious floor switches is indeed very close to a wall-socket, but that wall-socket is a double already with two independent switches ({{w|File:Uk 13a double socket.jpg|example image}}). And is of a very similar vintage to the 'mystery switch', by both actual appearance and the how the wallpaper/etc looks. (The house itself is 1930s vintage, but clearly fully updated and rewired to essentially modern standards some time in the last 50 years, and probably far far more recent. No reason for a 'leftover' separate socket switch to have remained/been kept instated.)
::The two main possibilities of purpose that I still imagine they controlled are: 1) The burglar alarm, and 2) The storage heater. Originally. Assuming you'd even want multiple different control-switches. But completely bypassed by a later reinstallation. The newer central heating (replacing the storage system) is entirely controlled from a kitchen wall switch, and its own fusebox breaker. And the alarm system has a hallway pad and if it was ever connected to the "Do not turn on" switch (that was actually on), it hasn't suffered at all from the experimental instances of it being turned off (when I thought I'd check).
::...it'll all have to wait until I have the next major overhaul, I think. I'll get the next electrician I need (perhaps when replacing the current boiler, or needing more sockets in the workroom) to try and work it out using their usual tricks and tools. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.29|172.70.85.29]] 15:29, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
:: LoadingReadyRun did a very funny sketch on a "mystery switch" in their office. [https://youtu.be/LpUlpmHG8oc] [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 03:14, 11 November 2023 (UTC)

I believe that the cryptogram may be an attempt to pun on a "code breaker" as a reference to people who solve ciphers. [[User:Aberdasher|Aberdasher]] ([[User talk:Aberdasher|talk]]) 13:48, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Depending on interpretation, "North-facing appliances" could make sense. In my house, I have two main breakers, East and West, each covering (almost) everything in one side of the house. [[User:Ehusmark|EHusmark]] ([[User talk:Ehusmark|talk]]) 14:52, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:And, contrary to the "how would the system know?", regarding north-facingness, if you had a ring-main/set of sockets servicing one particular wall (to just one side), there'd be a good chance that anything plugged in there (at least bulky "white goods", even if not smaller things that you might move and turn, like irons and fans) faces away from that particular wall. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.236|172.70.91.236]] 16:54, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Definite {{w|Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge|Borges}} vibes from the "appliances that face north", "appliances whose names begin with the letter 'F'", "outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in" section. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.50|172.70.85.50]] 17:31, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Amongst other things, there are problems under the "no friction" section. e.g. You might have a perpetual motion machine that would go forever, but without something else (e.g. the anullment of 3LoT) it couldn't also ''do external work''. And of course you can still hold something with zero friction, if you can sufficiently surround, support and/or impale the thing. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.230|172.70.90.230]] 19:24, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: I agree. [[Special:Diff/327557|Edited]]. --[[User:Hddqsb|Hddqsb]] ([[User talk:Hddqsb|talk]]) 05:01, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

So.... em if you turn off causality, would the switch that turned off causality actually reliably turn off causality, given that causality has been disabled? (added something like this as a note about the title text). ([[User:Wowitschris|Wowitschris]] ([[User talk:Wowitschris|talk]]) 19:32, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:Worse than that, if you ''need'' to have Causality turned off (for a 'legitimate' reason), there is now no way of preventing anything (including the Causality switch) to be actively toggled. Causaulity could become active again even without any intervention, as well as any number of other effects (of any spontaneous kind whatsoever) for which no cause is now required. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.103|172.69.195.103]] 19:53, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

"A circuit breaker ...to... protect appliances." --- A pedant would say the breaker protects the wires. When the box is specced and installed, the appliances may not have arrived, and are sure subject to replacement. In both the US and GB Codes the breaker size relates to the wire diameter. If an appliance needs greater protection it should have its own fuse/breaker. Some do, though the trend is to appliances which will fail without flame, smoke, or loud noise.
:It's a chicken-and-egg. If you've got a high-current device to install (e.g. electric cooker) then you'll ...hopefully... make sure it has thick copper cables to its outlet, and also sit it behind a fuse/breaker that will take the power throughput. But you still want your breaker to 'break' if something shortcircuity goes on in the cooker. Even/especially if the supply cables are happily feeding the power to it, or its own local fusepoint, because they're not so tightly toleranced that you end up with a long 'heating element' passing through the kitchen wall as well as on your cooker's hobtop (or in its grill/oven compartment(s)).
:Overspec the wires, try to tightly spec the current limits on the switches as much as you can anticipate will not ever false-trip. (With the switch from incandescent to LED lighting, many a lighting circuit will now be much further from failure, than designed, but actual ground-faulting will still likely trigger the RCD/whatever.) The aim is to never get so far as a breaking more circuitry than an intrinsic fault has already broken. e.g. motors may burn out, if something jams them, but ideally not spark across to the casing that houses them if they don't suffer direct physical damage. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.103|172.69.195.103]] 21:29, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

"Bathtub drain light" My bathtub drain is plastic pipe. If the lights are off in the bathroom, but on in the cellar, there's a "light in the drain". No, I don't have a dedicated breaker but that's an idea.....

"Hallway floors" My last house was 1830, so all the electrics were hacked-on. We had a floor outlet in the hall. This used to be more common above a wireable cellar, it avoided snaking the wall. [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 20:14, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:Floor outlets are pretty common in large rooms. I mean rooms larger than you'd find a house, say a large classroom. They're used for things like floor polishers or vacuum cleaners, that need to be plugged in near the middle of the space, because the walls are too far away. Also, meeting rooms often have floor jacks under the central table, so people can plug in laptops. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 15:12, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Wait, what's the joke? I'm pretty sure my (multiple?) circuit boxes are wired exactly like this. {{unsigned ip|172.71.222.93|17:50, 1 November 2023}}

Would a Fujitsu laptop be turned off by "F" in the name. Sure its a laptop (no f), but perhaps the brand makes its name change. What about if it has an "f" in one language but not another. {{unsigned ip|172.70.127.158|14:03, 2 November 2023}}
:It would depend entirely upon the language/terminology used by the switch-switcher. (Though not what the switch-switcher ''wants'' to be the case, e.g. "on this occasion, the 'fridge' is just a 'cooler', but the 'ventillation' is the 'fans'..." 'Cos that'd be ''silly!'') [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.70|172.69.194.70]] 14:31, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

One minor issue: Sound doesn't depend on the friction in air. (minor nerdage alert) The inviscid Euler equations can totally support pressure (acoustic) waves. In fact, without viscosity, they'll damp out somewhat slower, so sound would travel slightly further! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.6|172.70.131.6]] 00:33, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

2850: Doctor's Office

2023-11-11T03:06:53Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Could stand for something else

{{comic
| number = 2850
| date = November 3, 2023
| title = Doctor's Office
| image = doctors_office_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x291px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "The police told me I can't be a doctor, but whenever they show up I just go into the Google Maps settings page I found and change the house to 'Police Headquarters' and then they have to do what I say."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE OFFICIAL WORLDWIDE HEADQUARTERS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[Beret Guy]] has discovered how to add public labels to locations on {{w|Google Maps}}. He has used the tool to label his house as a physician's office, and then proceeded to put on a white lab coat and impersonate a physician, making this another comic with one of his special [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|businesses]].

As Cueball arrives for a medical consultation, Beret Guy proceeds to do what he does best -- try to sound like a professional through absurdist, oddball dialogue:

{|class = "wikitable"
! Beret Guy !! Normal Phrasing !! Notes
|-
| "Welcome to the doctor!" || "Welcome to my clinic." || Most real outpatient clinics in the US have desk staff that welcome patients, not the physician themselves. Doctors don't sit behind a desk waiting for patients to arrive.
|-
| "We're like librarians, but for your bones and blood." || A real doctor wouldn't proactively define their profession to a new patient. If they did so, they might say: "We are trained medical professionals who diagnose and treat illness, provide healthcare advice, and help maintain overall health in our patients." || "Bones and blood" is just one focus of medical education, covering topics like their anatomy and physiology, pathology of related diseases, principles of hematology and orthopedics, clinical diagnosis, and treatment strategies. "Librarian" is not an apt analogy for this knowledge.
|-
| "Uh-oh! This beeper says you're too hot." || "It seems your temperature is elevated according to this thermometer."
|-
| "You should eat some of these little snacks that make you colder." || "I recommend you take some of these fever-reducing medications." || Beret Guy has the medicine already in his hand, suggesting he has only one remedy for whatever condition the patient presents with. Also, in US outpatient care settings it's usually nurses who administer medicine, not doctors, and in either case an order would usually have to be written first. This depends on the medication; in some cases the doctor will have been provided with free samples by the manufacturer, for example.
|-
| "We can make holes in you, but you have to fill out this form first." || "We need to perform a procedure that requires an incision, or use a syringe and needle to either give you an injection or take a blood sample. But before we proceed, you'll need to provide consent by filling out this form." || An incision for a febrile (high temp) patient is not unheard of; it might be needed to address conditions such as abscess drainage, acute appendicitis, an infected wound or gallbladder, or other infections requiring surgical intervention. Injections of antibiotics might also be appropriate to treat a bacterial infection causing a fever, and an injection of an anti-inflammatory could relieve a fever. Taking a blood sample to investigate the cause of an illness is common. However, it would be unusual and clinically suspect to proceed immediately to any of these based solely on a high temperature reading, without any further diagnostics -- even such simple diagnostics as talking with the patient.
|-
|}

In the third panel, Beret Guy then hands Cueball what's supposed to be a medical consent form, but is in fact a ''New York Times'' crossword puzzle for a Monday on a clipboard. Monday NYT crosswords are the easiest of the week; ''New York Times'' crosswords get more challenging over the week, with Saturday being hardest (Sunday's grid is larger, but has about the same difficulty as Thursday). Beret Guy amusingly misinterprets Cueball's hesitance as being about the difficulty of the crossword.

In the fourth panel, Cueball finally questions whether Beret Guy's claim is accurate, and the facts of the situation are revealed - while Beret Guy wheels in a device labeled "MRI" (for "{{w|magnetic resonance imaging}}"). He wonders aloud what the MRI is for and excitedly predicts that it is loud.

* MRI machines are huge and cannot be wheeled in by one person on a dolly. They're typically housed within dedicated rooms and require specialized infrastructure to support their weight, shield their powerful magnetic fields, and maintain their functionality. So either this is just one piece of an MRI machine, it's mislabeled, or "MRI" stands for something else in this case.

* And MRI machines are indeed very loud, known for producing banging sounds and other noises, often reaching up to 100 decibels, due to the rapid switching of their magnetic field gradients during scans. To protect their hearing and reduce discomfort, patients are typically provided with earplugs or headphones.

In the '''title text''', Beret Guy acknowledges that the police ''repeatedly'' turn up to look into his 'clinic', but each time he heads off their investigations by returning to Google Maps and relabelling his house "Police Headquarters", thus (by implication) making himself Chief of Police to whose authority the officers must submit - which he may also believe removes evidence for any charges of "impersonating a physician". If this works as claimed, it's another of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers of Beret Guy]]. But this strategy is unlikely to work in real life; suggesting a Google Maps edit can can take several days to be approved by Google Maps editors, and "Police Headquarters" is not a category selection open to everyday users.

A physician imposter was also featured in [[699: Trimester]], while possibly authentic physicians behaving badly appear in [[938: T-Cells]], [[1471: Gut Fauna]], and [[1839: Doctor Visit]].

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is sitting at a desk, wearing a lab coat. Cueball is walking in from the right as Beret Guy stretches an arm out towards him in greeting.]
:Beret Guy: Welcome to the doctor!
:Beret Guy: We're like librarians, but for your bones and blood.

:[In a frame-less panel Beret Guy is standing in front of Cueball while holding a device in his hand, which are attached with a coiling wire to a thermometer in Cueball's mouth. He reads something of the device while holding a pill bottle in the other hand.]
:Beret Guy: Uh-oh! This beeper says you're too hot.
:Beret Guy: You should eat some of these little snacks that make you colder.

:[Zoom in on the two persons where Beret Guy is holding a pen up towards Cueball who is holding a clipboard with a newspaper page stuck to it. Cueball is looking down at the page, which has a black picture in the top left corner and lots of unreadable lines across the rest of the page.]
:Beret Guy: We can make holes in you, but you have to fill out this form first.
:Cueball: This is a New York Times crossword.
:Beret Guy: Don't worry, it's a Monday, so it's not too hard.

:[Cueball is watching as Beret Guy drags in a machine labeled "MRI" on a dolly.]
:Cueball: This '''''is''''' a doctor's office, right?
:Beret Guy: Yeah! It used to be my house, but I found the setting on Google Maps to change it.
:Beret Guy: Hey, wanna help find out what this box does? I bet it's loud!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Medicine]]

Talk:2848: Breaker Box

2023-10-31T05:22:50Z

AdmiralMemo: Hot Water Heater question

2848: Breaker Box

2023-10-31T05:18:22Z

AdmiralMemo: Typo fix

{{comic
| number = 2848
| date = October 30, 2023
| title = Breaker Box
| image = breaker_box_2x.png
| imagesize = 560x776px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Any electrician will warn you to first locate and flip the house's CAUSALITY circuit breaker before touching the CIRCUIT BREAKERS one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIGH-PITCHED HUM GENERATOR THAT WAS LAST MENTIONED EXACTLY 1258 COMICS AGO - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Distribution board}}, referred to as a "breaker box" here and commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box inside a building that is attached to a wall, usually in some maintenance area, containing several {{w|circuit breakers}} that let power through to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever, that will physically open if too much power is flowing through, as might be the case if a fault occurs, in order to protect appliances.

In most breaker boxes, each individual breaker is labelled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. A breaker will usually control something like the outlets or lights in a certain room, or some large appliance. The comic satirizes this, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things that may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of disabling certain laws of physics as the switches get lower.

{|class = "wikitable"
! Label next to breaker !! Explanation !! Label next to breaker !! Explanation
|-
| Kitchen Lights || The lights in the kitchen. || A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now || The AC in a building usually creates quiet white noise from fans, which people usually do not hear until they become aware that there is a sound.
|-
| Living room lights || The lights in the living room. || Dishwasher || The dishwasher.
|-
| Porch lights || The lights on the porch. || Dishes || At a glance this could pass for a normal thing to be next to a breaker, despite dishes not requiring electricity. This might, however, actually be referring to an array of satellite dishes, but given how the switch for the dishwasher is immediately above this is most likely not the case.
|-
| Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere || This controls the lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet. This may be a reference to the unlikely possibility that an electrical engineer may make a mistake during construction and wire up an outlet to the wrong breaker, confusing the homeowner when maintenance needs to be done. || Hallway lights || The lights in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| North-facing appliances || Despite the impossibility of determining which way an appliance is facing, ignoring how you would even define that, without having a magnetic compass inside every appliance, and having all of those appliances be hooked up to one breaker, this apparently routes power to every appliance that faces north. || Hallway outlets || The outlets in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| Bathtub drain light || Bathtubs typically do not have drain lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that. || Hallway floors || This could pass for a normal breaker at a glance, given the two above and in some buildings there are floor outlets. This could also potentially refer to turning off the power for all the hallways on a given floor. Floors in and of themselves do not typically require power, but if they act differently when not powered is unknown. A simpler explanation is this just electrifies the floors, which is not a nice thing to have,{{citation needed}} but may be barely noticeable in this case when considering this breaker has been on the entire time.
|-
| Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" || Another breaker that could theoretically be done despite the tremendous difficulty in doing so. Electrical systems do not carry data about names, and it is unclear how it would even get this information, if it would change depending on locality, if it uses the common name for something or the full name, how it would work in different languages, and so on. || Social media || All of social media. This may be a reference to [[908: The Cloud]]. Since most social media platforms are a centralized services, it would be theoretically possible to hook up a switch to the main power supply of every server building at once, given some extremely long wires, a breaker capable of handling the abhorrently massive electric load, and agreement from every social media provider(optional).
|-
| Hot water heater || The heater for hot water. || State law || It is unclear which state's laws this controls, but why they require power to operate is unknown. This may just be for enforcement of the laws, instead of nullifying every single one whenever it is turned off. Additionally, since Randall lives in Massachusetts, it's very likely this refers to the same state.
|-
| Regular water heater || The heater for regular water. Presumably, given the above switch, this is for heating lukewarm or cool water, while the above is for keeping it warm and acting as a storage medium. This could just be accomplished with a single water heater with the capacity of two, but it may be useful for getting a lot of adequately hot water quickly when only half a tank's worth is needed. || Federal law || The ramifications of nullifying every federal law ever are immense, but this may still be for enforcement, like the above.
|-
| Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in || This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in. This implies that the living room is not a room it's normal to eat pizza in, since those are on a different breaker. On the other hand, that breaker specifically specifies that it controls the living room '''''lights''''', but disregarding this, it's very likely it may still include the living room, seeing as the other switches fail to have any sort of constraints. Other eligible rooms may include the dining room, kitchen, and/or bedroom. || Second law of thermodynamics || Turning off a physical law, especially the second law of thermodynamics, would be catastrophic, since the rest of the laws of physics would most likely follow suit once one collapsed unless they are held in place by other laws.

This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/145/ Fire From Moonlight].
|-
| High-pitched hum generator || Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a reference to [[1590: The Source]]. || Friction || Again, turning off a physical law would be catastrophic, but turning off friction may not destroy reality. If it was turned off, however, many things would become incredibly unsafe or useless, while others would have increased efficiency. The benefits, however, would be negligible in comparison to how many systems would collapse instantly, such as ratchets, car tires, standing up, or just things staying still in general.
|-
| The solution to the cryptogram below: || A cryptogram is a puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually very simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher used and recover the original sentence from the encoded one. This may be literal, as in the solution is "circuit breaker", but it also may be controlling the ability to know what the solution is or if it can be discovered. || Gravity || If this was turned off, the Earth would explode along with all other celestial objects. Planets and stars have extremely high internal pressure that is constantly in conflict with gravity. Every part would be forced outward at incredibly high speeds, and any object that requires gravity would simply not be able to form. Of course, this might also just make everything in the house weightless, which has much less disastrous consequences.
|-
| Bugs || This could either refer to software bugs or actual bugs, both of which do not make much sense to be able to turn off. || Circuit breakers || If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off all power in the house since no breaker is supplied or supplying power any more. (Most houses have a main circuit breaker that provides this functionality.) However, if this circuit breaker disables the ability to toggle circuit breakers, you would not be able to turn this circuit breaker back on.
|}
===(title text) Causality===

Turning off the circuit breaker using the circuit breaker may lead to a loop, as the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Turning off causality would prevent this loop as causes would no longer have effects.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An open breaker box is shown. There are 26 labelled breakers, all of which are on, arranged in a 2 by 13 grid.]
:Kitchen lights / A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now
:Living room lights / Dishwasher
:Porch lights / Dishes
:Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere / Hallway lights
:North-facing appliances / Hallway outlets
:Bathtub drain light / Hallway floors
:Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" / Social media
:Hot water heater / State law
:Regular water heater / Federal law
:Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in / Second law of thermodynamics
:High-pitched hum generator / Friction
:[There are words that are too small to read on the left breaker's label.]
:The solution to the cryptogram below: / Gravity
:Bugs / Circuit breakers

{{comic discussion}}

2840: Earth Layers

2023-10-11T20:17:56Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Baseballs

{{comic
| number = 2840
| date = October 11, 2023
| title = Earth Layers
| image = earth_layers_2x.png
| imagesize = 585x627px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Earth's magnetic field is primarily generated by currents in the liquid outer core, though some geophysicists argue that an unexplained mismatch with models suggests that the Kinder toy contains a magnet.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a KINDER SURPRISE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic reimagines the internal structure of the earth, mixing the real geological layers of the planet with fictional ones. Some of the fictional layers are appropriated from the layers of other objects that have cross-sectional diagrams, such as the layers of a piece of fruit, an eyeball, or a building.

{| class="wikitable"
! Layer
! scope="col"| Explanation
|-
! scope="row"| Lithosphere/Crust (50/50 Blend)
| The {{w|lithosphere}} and {{w|Earth's crust|crust}} are two different parts of the surface of the Earth.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Upper mantle}}
| A correct layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Deep mantle
| A pseudo-correct layer of the earth's structure. There is a layer called the {{w|lower mantle}}, which could be what Randall refers to.
|-
! scope="row"| Filler
|
|-
! scope="row"| Vitreous humor
|Vitreous humor ({{w|vitreous body}}) is the transparent gel inside the eye, located between the lens and the retina.
|-
! scope="row"| Mechanical/HVAC layer
| {{w|HVAC}} is an abbreviation for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning - the system used to heat or cool a building.
|-
! scope="row"| Guacamole
| {{w|Guacamole}} is a dip or sauce made from avocados. Originating in the Mayan Empire, It often includes onions, tomatoes, and spices. Notably, avocados feature three distinct layers - a hard outer peel, the soft flesh, and a hard seed "core". This somewhat resembles the structure of the Earth.
|-
! scope="row"| Cytoplasm
|{{w|Cytoplasm}} is the "flesh" of a eukaryotic cell; everything surrounding the nucleus.
|-
! scope="row"| Cork
|Due to the proximity of the cork layer and the insulation layer, this may possibly be referencing {{w|Cork (material)|cork}}-lined walls, which while not the most popular choice for wall lining, does have [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27135713 a considerable history]. Another potential reference could be the fact that baseballs (another spherical shape) have a layer of cork in them (though it is usually in the center).
|-
! scope="row"| Insulation
|Probably a reference to the {{w|building insulation}} installed in the walls and ceilings of buildings.
|-
! scope="row"| Seeds
|Part of a fruit.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Pith}}
|Part of a tree trunk.
|-
! scope="row"| Nougat
|{{w|Nougat}} is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, whipped egg whites, and sometimes chopped candied fruit.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Outer core}}
| A correct layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Inner core}}
| A correct layer of the earth's structure.
|-
! scope="row"| Secret core
| The "next layer" that is secret and only certain people, like Randall, know about it.
|-
! scope="row"| Kinder toy capsule
| A {{w|Kinder (brand)|Kinder}} toy is a reference to two chocolate egg-shaped confections by the Kinder brand, the {{w|Kinder Joy}} and {{w|Kinder Surprise}}. Both contain small toys within it, though the Kinder Surprise was banned in the US because it exceeds the limit of non-food that can be inside a food item (although it is widely believed that it's because it can be a choking hazard, despite the fact that you'd have to be swallowing a chicken egg-sized confectionary in a single mouthful for that to happen; the toys, on the other hand, may contain brightly coloured small pieces that can pose a choking hazard). Randall's punch line of the comic is that there is a hidden toy at the center of the Earth.

|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:The layers of the Earth

:Lithosphere/crust (50/50 blend)
:Upper mantle
:Deep mantle
:Filler
:Vitreous humor
:Mechanical/HVAC layer
:Guacamole
:Cytoplasm
:Cork
:Insulation
:Seeds
:Pith
:Nougat
:Outer core
:Inner core
:Secret core
:Kinder toy capsule

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Food]]

2831: xkcd Phone Flip

2023-09-22T04:26:36Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Fixing link

{{comic
| number = 2831
| date = September 20, 2023
| title = xkcd Phone Flip
| image = xkcd_phone_flip_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x458px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Theranos partnership: Sorry, we know, but we signed the contract back before all the stuff and the lawyers say we can't back out, so just try to keep your finger away from the bottom of the phone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE BOT FORTOLD BY THE FORTUNETELLER PROPHECY - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is the 9th in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone]] series in which Randall explains his new joke phone designs with many strange and useless features. It is a reference to the somewhat recent {{w|Galaxy Z}} series, but instead of folding in half, it folds into the more complex and much less usable shape of a typical {{w|paper fortune teller}}. The product's slogan suggests that this was not an intended feature, which would be incredibly difficult to create accidentally without causing the phone to become nonfunctional. It's therefore possible that this phone was designed by [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|Beret Guy's company]], which has in the past [[1493: Meeting|trademarked seemingly normal phrases]] and [[1293: Job Interview|done impossible things with electronics]].

The name Phone Flip is a play on the term {{w|Flip Phone}}, which has refered to older cellphones with a {{w|Clamshell design|basic hinged construction}}, but {{w|Samsung}} has released a line of {{w|smartphones}} under the Galaxy Z range given the name 'Flip' (or 'Fold') which use a flexible display across the hinge. Randall's version takes this complexity up a notch with a currently impractical varifolded origami design.

Noted features, from the top, left column first:

; Exfoliating Screen
: A term commonly found on lotions and facial products, "exfoliating" means removing dead skin cells from the surface of the skin, in order to improve its appearance. This could mean that it will exfoliate when pressed to the skin. However, this would probably require a mildly abrasive and/or adhesive screen texture or coating, which are usually not desirable qualities of a touchscreen.{{w|Citation (film)|[citation needed]}} A different reading is that the screen itself exfoliates, i.e. slowly disintegrates. Unless the phone is an organism able to regrow exfoliated surfaces, this will eventually lead to the screen's disappearance, not an improvement of its appearance.

; Orthotic shape for arch support
: {{w|Orthotics}} are devices used to reduce stress on the body. "Arch support" is a specific term referring to padded inserts designed to fit to the contour of a person's foot and provide support for the arch of the foot, a raised area between the ball in front and the heel in back. Fitting this space requires either a curved shape or one that's thicker in the center, which would make a phone less straightforward (pun not intended) to use. Additionally, the materials used in a phone are not suitable for orthotic usage and doing so anyway could worsen any issues and damage the phone from the stress of the person's weight upon it.

; Single Big Pixel
: Typical phone displays use many small {{w|pixels}}, each with relatively few display states. For instance, each pixel can show a uniform color. It would be difficult to make a useful display with a single pixel of this sort. Some displays use smaller numbers of more complicated picture elements (e.g., each element could show a letter, like a {{w|split-flap display}}, or a {{w|nixie tube}}). To make a useful display with one pixel means that element needs a different display state for every image the phone can show (like a {{w|carousel slide projector}}, {{w|movie projector}}, or {{w|gobo (lighting)|gobo}}).

; Ready to eat
: A typical sales pitch for {{w|convenience foods}} denoting that no time must be spent preparing the product for safe consumption, in contrast to other such meals where ingredients would need to be combined and/or cooked in some fashion. It is unknown how a phone could be produced in such a way as to be edible. The display might use {{w|sugar glass}}.

; Hypoimmunogenic
: Meaning less able to produce an immune response - so perhaps useful in that people do not want their phone to cause an immune response in their body, however cell phones typically cause no immune response, so this is not generally an issue. This is probably related to items that are marketed as hypoallergenic, less likely to cause an allergic reaction.

; Up to 50% more
: A play on the words "Up to 50% more <product>". Although considering that there is no mention of what product there could possibly be 50% more of (or 0% extra, as that is ''also'' less than or equal to 50%), this statement is useless. See [[870: Advertising]].

; Full-spectrum backlight optimized for plant growth
: {{w|Full-spectrum light}}s and backlights are typically used to increase {{w|color rendering}} accuracy, especially important in photography, art, and printing. It typically refers to the part of the spectrum people can see. Plants respond to some wavelengths outside our visual spectrum (e.g., UVA), and are less influenced by some portions of the visual spectrum (e.g. green, hence mostly reflecting such light). A backlight optimized for plant growth would not provide a very natural appearance to our eyes and typically appear pink. The screen backlight is unlikely to be used for growing plants.

; Long-lasting main sequence battery
: Perhaps referring to a "{{w|main sequence}}" star (Dwarf stars, like the {{w|sun}}, where main energy generation is hydrogen fusion). Such stars spend a long time in this phase of evolution. This might also explain SPF 15 and full-spectrum backlight. Stars do last a long time compared to most cell phone batteries.{{Citation needed}}

; Break Glass to Access Apps
: A play on how fire alarms and extinguishers are protected by glass casings in most places, although in this case it is not that helpful. Unusual things behind glass is also mentioned in [[1634: In Case of Emergency]].

Right hand column:

; Buy one get one
: A play on typical retail sales advertised as "Buy one get one ____", where one buys one item at full price and gets another of that item either for free or at a reduced price. Since no discount has been mentioned, it would imply that you can get two at full price or perhaps simply that if you buy a phone, you receive the phone; this is expected upon almost all purchases and is {{w|Tautology (logic)|tautological}} in nature.

; Bending phone activates chemical flashlight
: This feature parallels a {{w|glow stick}}, which is also activated by bending the stick; this breaks an inner capsule causing chemicals to mix and produce light. However, doing this with a phone likely to cause physical or chemical damage and additionally only works once, which is not very useful for a phone flashlight that one typically uses as a tool throughout the phone's lifetime.

; SPF 15 Coating protects your face from websites
: Sun protection factor (SPF) is a rating used to compare the protection provided by sun screens. Some people find some web sites excessively bright, colorful or garish, making them hard to read, or causing eye strain. This extends that to imply that some sites are so bright that they might cause {{w|sunburn}}. In reality, some sites, browsers, or plugins provide a {{w|night mode}}, for those who have problems with excess brightness. (See also full spectrum, and main sequence battery.)
: Alternatively, SPF in this context might be a novel term for, for example, ''site'' protection factor, or ''socials'' protection factor, and be a method for protecting you from viewing potentially harmful content encountered on the internet.

; Iatrogenic construction
: 'Iatrogenic' means 'physician caused', and usually refers to illnesses which are caused or worsened by medical malpractice. This may imply that the phone was made ''by'' doctors, which may align with the statement given in the title text.

; All-vinyl data storage for maximum fidelity
: This is a reference to the hipster maxim that vinyl records provide high fidelity music. And while {{w|vinyl data}} storage does exist, it's profoundly outdated and was never widely adopted. The relevant formats had several issues, including (relevantly) wear issues that lead to fidelity problems after repeated reads.

; Locks in moisture
: Good for cosmetics perhaps, to combat 'dry skin' (which is really more to do with substances other than water), but generally bad for a cell phone, where ingress (let alone retention) of liquids tends not to help the electronics.

; National Weather Service partnership - phone is afraid of thunder
: Not a useful feature, as normal phones do not have emotions (yet).{{Citation needed}} How this fear manifests is also unexplained. It may turn off, or it may scream like the original xkcd phone did when in free fall. A number of the previous xkcd phone have had unexplained, inexplicable or incomprehensible partnerships.

; One-click ''ruina montium''
: ''{{w|Ruina montium}}'' ('mountain destroyer') was a now-lost mining technique used by the ancient Romans, thought to involve a form of hydrostatic drilling. It is not clear how this could be applied by a smartphone, let alone as a one-click operation.

; Free Refills
: Good for restaurant drinks, not typical for cell phones. Could mean no cost refueling (e.g., {{w|fuel cell}} power), or recharging or {{w|battery swapping}}.

The title text references the failed company {{w|Theranos}} that notably could not live up to its ambitious promise to diagnose many health issues from a single drop of blood. Due to legal agreements, and subsequent design choices already built in, the bottom of the phone ''will'' still collect a drop of your blood (unless you're particularly careful).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A rectangular phone with a touch screen. There is a small dark camera section at the top of the screen and a charging/connecting port may be shown on the lower casing edge. Lines on the left side of the phone lead from the general area of the image to feature descriptions down the leftmost edge of the frame.]
* Exfoliating screen
* Orthotic shape for arch support
* Single big pixel
* Ready to eat
* Hypoimmunogenic
* Up to 50% more
* Full-spectrum backlight optimized for plant growth
* Long-lasting main sequence battery
* Break glass to access apps

:[Two phones folded in the shape of a 'paper fortune teller' are depicted on on the right, set one above the other with other general feature lines leading off from the nearest folded phone illustration towards further listed items down the right-hand side of the frame.]
* Buy one get one
* Bending phone activates chemical flashlight
* SPF 15 coating protects your face from websites
* Iatrogenic construction
* All-vinyl data storage for maximum fidelity
* Locks in moisture
* National Weather Service partnership: phone is afraid of thunder
* One-click ''ruina montium''
* Free refills

:[Text below the phone:]
:Introducing
:'''The xkcd Phone Flip'''
:''We actually didn't mean for it to do this''™

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]

Talk:2816: Types of Solar Eclipse

2023-08-19T05:53:43Z

AdmiralMemo: Picture of the phenomenon

Is the annular eclipse actually possible? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.118|162.158.78.118]] 21:24, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

Yes. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2023/oct-14-annular/where-when/ [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.7|172.69.33.7]] 21:34, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

I interpret the Hug Eclipse as the sun wrapping around the moon giving it a hug, rather than the moon being pinched in on the sides. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.62|172.70.211.62]] 21:38, 16 August 2023 (UTC)
:I amended that (twice, first time got blitzed in an Edit Conflict situation), when I thought of a better way (two slightly different better ways! ...might not even have used the better one, in instance #2) to describe it. But I rushed a bit anyway... I can see typos. (Not including the likes of "centre", which is not a typo but me defaulting to British English by default; though no doubt that 'needs' changing too.)
:I'm still wondering if just "label" and "description" columns are needed (image details can be recycled into Transcript, per label). Or if it could be ";header" and ":...description" without the table, but I think it looks no worse than I had feared, as the current table form. Of course, others have added more prosaic explanation paragraphs, so I'll let it sit a while. Almost certainly the other active editors here are going to have ideas about how to merge/expunge my efforts, and I'll let them copyedit my errors/'errors' as well. But at least there's a framework answer (or several) now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.179|172.70.162.179]] 22:20, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

That must be a VERY scary dragonite. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.153|172.71.26.153]] 02:20, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
: I think I need an explain XKCD for the dragonite reference in the bot joke... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.160|172.70.210.160]] 16:49, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
:: Looks like it was originally [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2816:_Types_of_Solar_Eclipse&diff=next&oldid=321046 just a dragon] (consistent with various actual eclipse-myths). I'm not so sure whether it became a Pokemon creature (does that have Sun-eating capabilities?), which seems to be the main searchable reference, or something even less known to me. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.63|172.70.86.63]] 17:17, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
::: Presumably it's a dragon which has survived its atmospheric entry and landed on the earth's surface.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.219|172.70.85.219]] 16:10, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

I love this community, which will explain how a solar panel works and why the moon cannot give the sun a hug with the same level of rigor and detail. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 04:26, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
:Arguably, the Sun is constantly hugging the Moon, through the warming arms of the Solar Winds.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.39|172.70.86.39]] 16:15, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

I have always wondered about solar eclipses... does anybody else think it's really weird that the Earth is not just the only planet with exactly the right ratios of star/satellite size/distance to make eclipses happen, but is also the only planet (so far as we know) where there's an evolved intelligence that can appreciate such a phenomenon? After all, a similar effect viewable only from Mars or Venus would be totally wasted... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.161|172.70.91.161]] 06:35, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
: It is indeed a weird thing. We don't know if it is a weird thing that is of significance for life or intelligence or civilisation, or if it is just a happenstance weird thing. The universe has all kinds of weird things. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.22|162.158.74.22]] 07:22, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
: "Right place, right time". It helps that we have a Moon roughly the same (angular) size of the Sun, which seems rare, but if we didn't know it was a thing then we might not miss the coincidence. And, because of the slightly drifting Moon, at some time in the past (tens/hundreds of millions of years ago), we never had annular eclipses – but then very few people appreciated that. In another few millions of years, we'll lose all possibility of total eclipses (imagine being there to witness that last one, everyone who makes effort to be there cramming into the short stretch of 'final, brief totality' in the literally-ultimate hybrid eclipse...).
: On human scales, it's a fairly wide window that may very well out-spread the full reach of humanity (in fact, I'd bet on it, but do feel free to try to collect if we're both there jostling for room in that 'last eclipse sweet-spot' viewing platform). But imagine all the other astronomical co-inky-dinks that we ''might'' have witnessed if humanity were significantly shifted by time (and place) in the universe. Instead of "very edge of totality" eclipses, who knows what else might have been (surprisingly-)'normal'... Or at least totally different (not-)Earth (not-)Moon (not-)Sun eclipse combinations that are right-sized just like ours is. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.69|172.70.91.69]] 08:49, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
::postscript: of course, if large moons (created like ours was supposed to be) had to be settled down enough to allow life (after the Thea-like impact) but significant enough to cause tides (variously theorised as driving the chemical creation of life, if not the later development of advanced life forms or even the prerequisites of civilisation leading to scientific enquiry) then ''perhaps'' the chances of any equivalent beings to ourselves having any equivalent eclipses to what we see is slightly raised above that of 'any random planet with or without appreciative audience'. But, until we get very good at surveying exoplanetary systems (if we ever do) and/or visit them ourselves (ditto, with bells on), it'll be hard to quantify any inherant tendency to serve such things up on a platter to all those who might appreciate it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.69|172.70.91.69 (again)]] 09:07ish, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
: I don't understand your 'evolved intelligence'. Whether planet that has intelligence is very not-correlated with its capacity to create eclipses. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.36|172.69.71.36]] 18:40, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
:: SFAIK, there's no evidence from which to base ''any'' kind of correlation/non-correlation/anti-correlation between intelligence and eclipses, given that we have only one instance of a planet with intelligence upon it to study (and we might even learn of further eclipse-worthy planets well before we do of intelligence-populated ones). Speculative reasoning can try to fill in gaps, maybe (see just above), as long as one realises it's wild-ass-guessing. But, luckily, the thing you're replying to doesn't even try to suggest that by any reasonable reading of it. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.65|172.71.242.65]] 21:25, 17 August 2023 (UTC)

By the time you see the cuboid eclipse, it's already too late. Resistance is futile.
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 23:52, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
:Not for everyone. The weak will perish. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:33, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Given that [https://socratic.org/questions/why-is-earth-s-moon-spherical the moon is slightly oblate], would an oblate eclipse be possible when the angular sizes of the moon and sun are almost the same? [[User:Ehusmark|EHusmark]] ([[User talk:Ehusmark|talk]]) 09:11, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
:A good question, but the diagram shows the sun as being oblate, so I don't think the intention was to reference the slight (but real) oblate nature of the moon. Good catch, though. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 16:54, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
:The Moon has an equatorial diameter of ~3576.2km, polar diameter of ~3472.0km. 104ish km difference. The Sun is near-spherical, said to be less than 10km difference between equatorial and polar diameters, which projected inwards to 'Moon equivalent distance' is even more practically zero. But as it would be distorted at roughly the same angle as the Moon (spin axis of each varyies maybe +/-5 degrees, depending on what point of each orbit everything is) it would always be <105km difference so long as the Sun's oblativity weren't double that of the Moon (or prolate to any degree). Moon-'mountains' seem to be about 2.5km high, so local rim-variations won't actually add/subtract much from any oval-adjustments.
:Anyway, 90km in 3500km(+/-) is around a quarter of a percent of variation. And a handful of millionths of a degree, subtended to the Earth observer, if my best-/worst-case calculations that I just did are correct (roughly 1/60th of an arc-second is one of the answers I pulled out, in case anyone wants to sanity-check what I just did on the back of this 'ere envelope). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.153|172.69.79.153]] 18:56, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

"A normal Sun-Moon-Earth eclipse seen from the Moon would either be ineffectual or perfectly normal 'night-time'" -- The shadow on the Earth should be visible from the dark side, probably with the naked eye but certainly with modest optics. Perhaps it's not dramatic but it would still be interesting.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.80|162.158.159.80]] 03:16, 19 August 2023 (UTC)
:Yes, here's an example: [https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/moons-shadow NASA picture of Moon's shadow during solar eclipse] [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 05:53, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

2782: Wikipedia Article Titles

2023-05-29T16:50:59Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Actress, not germ

{{comic
| number = 2782
| date = May 29, 2023
| title = Wikipedia Article Titles
| image = wikipedia_article_titles_2x.png
| imagesize = 402x439px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I would never stoop to vandalism, but I'm not above discreetly deleting the occasional 'this article contains excessive amounts of detail' tag.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MERYL STREEP'S SECOND SEAGULL. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Meryl Streep is a famous and often acclaimed actor, for whom there is definitely {{w|Meryl Streep|a Wikipedia page}} covering her various biographic details. [[Randall]] apparently has little interest in reading about her. He appears to have slightly more interest in reading about seagulls, which on Wikipedia redirect to {{w|Gull}}, because "seagull" is a common colloquial synonym. We don't know how many articles appear in the range of his interest levels depicted for the Wikipedia links he encounters. Streep was, however, a lead actress in a 2001 {{w|Delacorte Theatre}} production of {{w|Anton Chekhov}}'s play, ''{{w|The Seagull}}''.[https://playbill.com/article/the-seagull-opens-its-wings-in-central-park-aug-12-com-98105]

Two more units down from the seagull, he suggests that a Wikipedia link to "Meryl Streep (seagull)", which according to Wikipedia naming conventions would indicate a seagull named Meryl Streep, would be more interesting to him. A further three units beyond is a hypothetical link to an article describing a "Meryl Streep seagull incident.

Perhaps this is an incident in which a seagull notably caused Meryl Streep problems. ''Or'' a time when Meryl Streep notably caused problems for a seagull. Or perhaps both of these, or other variations, in multiple incidents as the ''final'' imagined wikipedia page is a {{w|Disambiguation (disambiguation)|'disambiguation page'}} of this, which is a further four units 'quicker' to be clicked upon. Such a page is only necessary when there are multiple possible articles of sufficiently similar name that may need to be documented seperately to avoid confusion. However, the titles of disambiguation pages rarely appear in links -- you generally only reach them as a result of a search for an ambiguous term (as you would if you searched for "seagull"). So the notion of clicking on this is paradoxical.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Chart title:] Hypothetical Wikipedia article titles
:[Chart subtitle:] Ranked by how quickly I would click on them

:[A vertical axis with eleven evenly spaced positions marked along it, without units or magnitudes]
:[An abbreviated arrow to the left of the axis indicates that downwards is:] More quickly
:[Alongside the topmost checkmark:] Meryl Streep
:[Alongside 2nd checkmark:] Seagull
:[Alongside 4th checkmark:] Meryl Streep (seagull)
:[Alongside 7th checkmark:] Meryl Streep seagull incident
:[Alongside 11th, and final visible, checkmark:] Meryl Streep seagull incident (disambiguation)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2704: Faucet

2022-12-02T19:28:38Z

AdmiralMemo: Explaining the faucet that was pictured in the first comment

Are faucet designs considered to be confusing? I'm never confused by normal ones like [https://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/sundsvik-kitchen-faucet-chrome-plated__0756711_pe749051_s5.jpg?f=s these] {{unsigned|Flekkie|02:12, 29 November 2022}}

:Yeah I came here wondering the same thing. Is the joke perhaps not so much that the controls are confusing in terms of intent, but just in terms of determining the bounds? Eg, with two identical faucet controls and identical water pressures, "full blast hot" still translates to something radically different, if one building has a water heater set to 120F and the other building has a water heater set to 160F.{{unsigned ip|172.69.170.189|02:46, 29 November 2022}}

:(I find °F confusing, personally, but...) ...the easiest thing is to have two taps, one hot and one cold. Yes, they can combine into a single spout, but there are various conflicting plusses and minuses of that over having the two independent ones per outlet. Speaking (as I'm sure mixer-tap afficionados worldwide will appreciate) as a Brit. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.24|172.70.85.24]] 03:03, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

::Relevant Tom Scott video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHgUu_8KgA Why Britain Uses Separate Hot and Cold Taps]. TL;DR: British houses used to get their hot water from rat-filled cisterns so they wanted to keep the hot water separate from the cold water, and old habits die hard. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.152|162.158.63.152]] 03:34, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:::Silliness of dual-taps aside, that doesn't solve the issue of identical tap hardware yielding radically different results depending on what the hot water thermostat is set to. Maybe that's not the original joke (I'm still not sure what it was) but it's worth mentioning at least. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.146|172.69.170.146]] 03:39, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: I don't think those are confusing, but in many cases the feedback is too slow (e.g. due to the water in the pipes coming from the hot water source having cooled since the tap was last used), or inconvenient (e.g. the pressure of the hot water not being enough to trigger on-demand gas heaters). While theoretically that design allows exploring the whole temperature/pressure space, in practice one needs some trial-and-error and delay to find the correct setting (as Randall points out in the title text) to make it work. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:54, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:It's really a joke we are too European to understand. Visit the US to see faucet control disasters in all their glory. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.203|172.68.51.203]] 10:56, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:: Yeah, here in Europe I've seen faucets with mechanical thermostats to regulate the temperature and therefore two dials for either flow or temperature. This was more than 20 years ago. --[[User:Sarsey|Sarsey]] ([[User talk:Sarsey|talk]]) 12:01, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:: Funny, the absolute worst faucet I experienced was in this fall in England (which is part of Europe for some definitions but not others). The temperature selection knob had 180° ambiguity---especially for my poor vision when uncorrected---and no barrier between maximum hot and maximum cold. So, I spent a shower thinking I was operating at mid-range and wondering why there seemed to be no middle ground between freezing cold and scalding hot. Fortunately had an epiphany while exploring the town. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:13, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: What's hot and what's cold? Do you turn it in the direction of the red to increase the temperature, or do you turn it so that you can see more of the red than the blue to increase the temperature? Taps exist that follow either convention. In the first case, you turn it to the left, while in the second you turn it to the right. That kind of tap is far more confusing than the traditional one with two knobs (though I've also seen a tap with knobs having "chaud" and "froid" on them in a country where French is not an official language without anything else to distinguish them, so I guess even that is not so straight-forward). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.126.15|172.71.126.15]] 21:12, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:: The design that Flekkie showed has 2 directions of freedom: left-right, and up-down. Left and right is temperature, and isn't "turning" as much as "tilting" in that direction. The effective space is U-shaped. The default position you see is no water. Tilt straight back and you get lukewarm full-pressure water. The back right position is cold full-pressure water. The back left position is hot full-pressure water. To get any other pressure or temperature, just tilt somewhere within that U to get what you need (though very few people do, and just use the 4 positions). [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 19:28, 2 December 2022 (UTC)

I sympathize with Randall here; even controls designed to independently control temperature and flow rarely meet both the "intuitive to use at a glance" and "function as described" requirements to make them non-confusing. [[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 03:44, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Wouldn't it be super simple to just have a slider that goes from hot to cold, and a second one that goes from slow to fast flow? Or one for hot, one for cold, with the higher the slider goes, the more the flow is increased? I don't see how much simpler you can get it. Hell, you could even use a dial for temperature (all dials turn clockwise to increase) with a digital readout. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.44|172.70.131.44]] 05:25, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: I suppose the issue with that is that, unlike simple mixer taps that control the flow of hot and cold water independently, relying on the human to find the right mixture that creates the desired flow and temperature, what you're describing requires a more complex system that is able to do that process automatically, so it can't be a simple mechanical valve. It would require temperature and pressure sensors for both the hot and cold water streams, and it would have to dynamically adjust the physical valve settings depending on all six parameters (position of the flow handle/slider/knob, position of the temperature handle/slider/knob, temperature of the hot water, temperature of the cold water, pressure of the hot water, pressure of the cold water). I'm not even sure this is possible with a fully mechanical system — likely some electronics would need to be involved, which might complicate things. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

:: Re: 'temperature of the hot water, temperature of the cold water, pressure of the hot water, pressure of the cold water' - those sensors already exist, inside the person using the faucet. If the water isn't hot enough, move the control in the hot direction. If the pressure isn't high enough, move that control in the direction that produces greater pressure. The (subjectively) prefect combination doesn't require the controls to be in the same position every time. {{unsigned|162.158.182.20|22:44, 29 November 2022}}

This is probably the very first xkcd comic where I have absolutely no idea where Randal is coming from. While different people have different preferences for different designs, I've never heard of anyone being confused by any faucet design.
Maybe he's trolling us, by trying to get a rise out of people wondering what the hell he's talking about? [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:20, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

This may be a reference to "Design of Everyday Things - Dan Norman" or books in that direction. Although he talked a lot more about creating doors wrong he also mentioned faucet designs as terrible. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.29|198.41.242.29]] 09:17, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
::  I was initially drawn to the parallel/derivation from the "{{w|Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door|Build a better mousetrap...}}" concept, which vastly predates {{w|Don Norman|''Don''}} Norman. But it's such a widespread trope that I can't be sure it should be mentioned 'officially'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 11:13, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

: I am actually puzzled by how many people ''don't'' relate to this, judging by the comments here. I guess I've been unlucky with the faucets I've encountered so far? Over the years I've had spontaneous conversations with multiple people abut how tap designs are either inconvenient (i.e. hard to find the right handle positions to produce the desired temperature and flow), or confusing to use, especially for hotel showers. In fact I'm adding this comment mostly so other people who share the same perception don't feel gaslighted or otherwise confused by so many people not recognizing this issue. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 10:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Is that hairy? looks like him? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 10:07, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
:I think it could be, but he is looking different with the hair and because of the scruffy looks his hair standing up could be because he has torn in it. I think it is better not to include it as a Hairy comic. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:34, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Is it too pedantic to point out the distinction between a helix (the shape of the control) and a spiral (mentioned by the character)? {{unsigned ip|172.70.162.135|10:28, 29 November 2022}}
:Not really, but it could be a very shallow (by radial increase/decrease per turn) 3D spiral, I'm more concerned by the "tightening", wondering if it's a flexible spiral/helix that is manipulated dynamically, rather than merely a tap* with a funny-shaped handle/head to rotate through into the backplate.
::<nowiki>*</nowiki> - 'faucet' just makes me wait for a "force it" pun. It's a very American word that I'm not personally aware of being used throught the rest of the anglosphere. Maybe Canada, but probably not Aus/NZ/etc if my uptake of their TV/film exports is correctly remembered... Somebody may want to correct me on this issue, or add English As A Second Language metrics to this.
:What is also interesting is that the 3D-perspective drawing by our in-frame inventor, upon the perspectivised drawing surface as depicted by Randall, makes it look like very much like an actual sticky-outy object within the drawn world. Like it's actually a moulded/similar relief model/mockup, surrounded by the more standard 'wall notes' used to suggest on-the-go calculations/annotations. An interesting artistic choice (or possibly an unintentional consequence) by Randall. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 11:13, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

I think it should be added that the issue is mainly for the US. In Europe, and in the other of the rest of the world - except US - the thermostatic head has replaced most other faucet in shower, and the hand washing is not so much of an issue. My shower in some US hotels were a nightmare, where I remember taking multiple minute to understand how it might work. {{unsigned ip|172.71.130.80|11:03, 29 November 2022}}

I think it should be added that the issue is mainly for Europe, especially Americans traveling in Europe. In the USA, where proportioning valves are common and anti-scald protection is mandated by code, controls are both intuitive and safe. {{unsigned ip|172.70.210.49|13:11, 29 November 2022}}
:So funny that these two comments in a row says the opposite. I'm from Denmark and where I sometimes dislike the designs of a faucet I have almost never found one for a tap that was a problem to understand. Sure for a shower there can be some issues, mainly because it can be too hot and problematic to stand under them when turning them on the first time. But it seems to me that this is not a serious problem in Europe. And from reading above it seems like this is in fact a US problem only. But the last comment says the opposite. by the way both sigantures unsigned, so did a check and found they where from two different IP and with time between. Was wondering if someone was trolling by writing the same comment twice with reversed meaning. But seems to not be the case. Have added signatures now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:34, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

::I vote that "confusing faucets" is an American problem. In some places it was hard to set the faucet exactly right (either because of faucet lag, which is the fault of the water lines and not the faucet anyway, or because the controls were highly non-linear around the target I wanted), but the direction in which the controls moved was always fairly clear.
::I have been living in France most of my life, including visits to really old homes. I only ever met faucets of three kinds. In all of them water comes from a single outlet. Type 1 has two flow control knobs (one hot, one cold); type 2 has a single handle that can move in two angular directions (one for temperature, one for flow); type 3 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermostatic_mixing_valve (thermostatic valve)] has one knob for temperature and one knob for flow. Faucets use types 1 and 2, showers can use type 1, 2 or 3. Only type 3 ever confused me the first time, and that was when I was a young child (I would guess age 8 or so?). I suppose the under-the-hood engineering gives rise to all sort of interesting tradeoffs between those three types, but from a user’s perspective they are all reasonable.
::I have traveled to the UK multiple times and lived there for some time. It was mostly the same, though I have seen some dual-taps (essentially type 1 but with one tap per knob). It may be a bad user experience, but it is not confusing.
::I have been to multiple other countries on short trips and do not remember any confusing faucets... except for one US hotel. That devilish shower had a single-knob control; the temperature increased over the whole range, and the flow was maximum at mid-range. I did not mind much that it does not explore the whole shower-space (the trajectory in the flow-temperature diagram was probably a super-optimized curve rather than a straight inverted V); but I did mind that it took a few minutes of exploration to understand what happened. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.126.15|172.71.126.15]] 16:07, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

My interpretation is that, for normal people, designing an intuitive faucet is easy: just one knob for temperature and another for flow. But designers seem to get overly creative for faucets and add all sorts of odd handles and gizmos. Figuring out a faucet at a hotel is often a task. Hence, in the comic, the designer is adding some sort of bizarre spiral handle when a regular one would be much easier. It's not that its hard to design a good faucet, but designers seem to have an odd blind spot for them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.230|172.70.110.230]] 13:48, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

VERY RELEVANT ASIDE
Why aren't there digital faucets? And if this is such a bold idea It's mine [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.43|172.70.131.43]] 14:45, 29 November 2022 (UTC) paradoxical
:There are digital faucets. Just google "IOT Shower faucet" or "IOT Faucet" I struggle to see any real utility to them however. --[[User:EvilGeniusSkis|EvilGeniusSkis]] ([[User talk:EvilGeniusSkis|talk]]) 17:15, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
::I find analogue faucets to typically be really difficult to control. Turn knobs are fine, but lifting or turning a single handle like many faucets nowadays have just don't give me enough precision. Now, my hand-eye coordination and fine motor control are bad, but not ''entirely'' terrible. So I think for some people, even turn knobs are going to be annoying to use. So digital inputs would probably make it a lot easier if you have a motor disability. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.108|172.68.51.108]] 20:55, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Damn, you mean people don't just switch on the tap and cope with cold showers? Damn, major L.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.219.42|172.70.219.42]] 16:29, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Just this morning, I was in the shower which has a single lever to control the mix of hot and cold water. I always turn it all the way up to get the hot water flowing and then move it down by small degrees until it is just right. With the lag in response for each successive change it takes a seemingly unnecessary amount of time to get it "just right". I would say that it is not so much "confusing" as it is "annoying". In this faucet there is no separate way to control the flow. The flow is maximized when there is an equal amount of hot and cold water, which of course is not necessarily the optimum temperature, because it takes a very small amount of cold water mixed with the hot to make it comfortable. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 17:23, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Regarding the transcript, which says "Below it is a box shape that dispenses water through a circle". What the ???. Can this be changed to, "Below it is a drawing of a spout"? [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 17:23, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
:Well, its not really a box shape since its a 2D drawing and boxes are 3D... so it should say "Below are 3 parallelograms that form a two-dimensional projection of a rectangular prism..." Or maybe, for brevity we can just say "Below it is a drawing of a spout." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.109|162.158.63.109]] 19:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
::I completed the transcript but did not write that sentence. I have now changed to the short suggestion from you two :-) You are allowed to make such small obvious changes your self. Don't be shy :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:50, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

For hotel shower controls, even (especially?) if cleaned regularly, I find that they tend to lose the handy inlaid red and blue textures or overprinting to distiguish the relative functions of chrome or plastic dials and levers. But, even with them visible and discernable, they can be ambiguous. If a dial/rotary component has hot/cold (or flow-control) markings on the fitting it is sat upon then it tends to show which direction to twist it for which change. But if it's marked ''on the dial'' then there's two opposing conventions used for a fairly standard "arrow with increasing line-width towards the head" marker:
:1) Twist the dial in the direction of the more blue bit (incidentally showing more of the opposing red arrow) when you want the cooler temperature, this being a 'turn this way for more "blue water"' sort of thing,
:2) The thicker bit of blue is supposed to be read as aligned to something subtle, like a notch/ridge mark, upon the static backplate, meaning that you should twist the dial in the ''opposite'' direction to bring the "more blue" into play.
...though some (like central-heating radiator controls) do disambuguate this by having the red/blue meshed long thin triangles (and maybe digits/tick-lines to easily establish a position and any small change) hidden within a shroud with just a small window upon the 'meaningful' uppermost/foremost bit of the twisting pattern. Of course, the chances that any one hotel's chosen fitting is easily recognisable as the same as the last one you used in a different hotel (or the last visit to this one!) are not great. I'm sure there's going to be someone who collects "hotel plumbing" photos, or similar, to catalogue their sheer variety. Certainly it's something I might have wished to have started to do, but seems a bit late to begin now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.53|172.70.91.53]] 19:37, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
:Here's an idea: put a little plastic window on the faucet and have the colour behind it turn red or blue. So depending on how it's made, the blue/red thing turns behind the plastic window, or the window shifts over the blue/red thing. Either way, if you can only see red, it's hot; and if you can only see blue, it's cold. And the colours won't get worn away since they are behind a little window. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.121|172.70.251.121]] 21:02, 29 November 2022 (UTC)
You know, it seems like the most common complaint with faucets of any kind is that the sweet spot between hot and cold is so hard to hit. Meanwhile, most of the range is used for various degrees of cold water which barely feel different. It reminds me of linear rgb, where most of the range is used by bright looking shades, with it only getting darker rapidly near the black end. I think a good start for a better faucet would be nonlinear mixing, where the knob gets less "sensitive" as you move it towards hot. This would sacrifice precision for cold temperatures, but how often do you really need a specific cold temperature (aside from fully unheated)? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.81|141.101.76.81]] 08:44, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

Delta makes a tub control/spigot that flummoxes every visitor to my home: The control is single-action [temp] but to turn on the shower you have to pull down a ring under the tip of the spigot. I give a ‘lesson’ to every new visitor now.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.114|172.70.174.114]] 12:03, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

2592: False Dichotomy

2022-03-22T03:12:13Z

AdmiralMemo: /* Explanation */ Typo fix

{{comic
| number = 2592
| date = March 11, 2022
| title = False Dichotomy
| image = false_dichotomy.png
| titletext = There are two types of dichotomy: False dichotomies, true dichotomies, and surprise trichotomies.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TRUE DICHOTOMY and an ETYMOLOGICAL CANNIBAL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A dichotomy is two alternatives which are normally mutually exclusive (such as the dichotomy between a flat Earth and non-flat Earth). A {{w|false dichotomy}} is a {{w|logical fallacy}} based on an incorrect perception of limited options (for example: if the page background isn't white, it is black).

[[Cueball]] has apparently made one such error and is being called out by [[White Hat]] for it. Upon having this pointed out to him, Cueball says that we must '''embrace''' false dichotomies, because the '''only other option''' is {{w|cannibalism}}. This statement is another false dichotomy, as presenting false dichotomies is not the only alternative to cannibalism{{Citation needed}}. The reverse (that cannibalism is incompatible with expressing false dichotomies) is also not potentially true, as eating people may eventually result in having nobody you need to present false dichotomies to.

Cueball has thus created another false dichotomy to excuse his first.

The false dichotomy Cueball appears to be referring to is the notion that those identified as human must not be eaten, but even closely related animals are not human and can be eaten, i.e. species can be divided clearly between "human" and "food". If this dichotomy is not accepted, then consuming any species that shares, for instance, any significant percentage of DNA with humans could be considered a measure of cannibalism.

The title text states that there are two kinds of dichotomies, making a dichotomy in itself. Due to three types of dichotomy being mentioned, and only two being foreshadowed, this statement is itself a surprise trichotomy, or three-parted choice. The title text is a variation of the [https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/There_Are_Two_Kinds_of_People_in_the_World "Two kinds of People"] joke. The classic math nerd variant is "There are three kinds of people in the world, those who can count, and those who can't." Alternatively, it may refer to a variation about {{w|base 2|binary}}. The original joke usually goes something like this: "There are 10 types of people: those who know binary, and those who don't." The variation is usually something like the following: "There are 10 types of people: those who know binary, and those who don't, and those who weren't expecting a {{w|base 3|ternary}} joke." Another version of this kind of joke is "there are two kinds of people: those who can extrapolate from an incomplete data set,"

The word {{wiktionary|trichotomy}} is a relative neologism, to be understood as to mean "divided into (or amongst) three parts", having replaced the original prefix "di-" (a factor of two, either doubled or, by context, halved) with that of "tri-" (similarly tripled/thirded). Strictly, though, {{wiktionary|dichotomy}} more directly stems from Greek elements that say "apart, I cut", with "apart" being represented by the "dicho-" (itself being roughly "into two", or to separate) which does not have a direct "tricho-" equivalent, although it does ultimately derive from "duo", Greek for "two". This is the kind of linguistic nuance that [[Randall]] clearly enjoys, yet may also happily or carelessly (mis)use without compunction.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Cueball are talking to each other. White Hat has his arms spread outwards in exasperation, while Cueball gestures assertively with his pointer finger.]
:White Hat: That's a false dichotomy!
:Cueball: Yes, but we have to embrace false dichotomies, because the only alternative is cannibalism.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]

2487: Danger Mnemonic

2021-07-10T04:44:12Z

AdmiralMemo: Beer before liquor

{{comic
| number = 2487
| date = July 10, 2021
| title = Danger Mnemonic
| image = danger_mnemonic.png
| titletext = It's definitely not the time to try drinking beer before liquor.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DRUNKEN SAILOR'S POISON IVY SNAKE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a mash-up of three different common sayings: "red touches yellow, dead fellow. Red touches black, happy Jack," "leaves of three, leave them be," and "red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight."

The adult refers to three different sayings that remind people how to recognize dangerous things or situations. If all are true at once, then things must be especially bad. The sayings are:

'''Red touches yellow, kills a fellow.''' This is a saying for how to recognize a venomous coral snake, which has red, black, and yellow stripes, which the red and yellow stripes adjacent. A nonvenomous king snake also has red, black, and yellow stripes, but the black stripes separate the red and yellow ones.

'''Leaves of three, leave them be''' is used to identify poison ivy from its many lookalikes, such as the Virginia creeper in https://xkcd.com/443/.

'''Red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.''' The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_sky_at_morning mnemonic] predicts bad/good weather conditions based on a particularly red sunrise/sunset. It is predictive at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_latitudes middle latitudes] where the prevailing winds go from west to east. Regions of higher air pressure will cause a particularly red sky at sunrise/sunset, so a red sky in the evening indicates a high pressure system is coming in from the west with its calmer weather, while a red sky in the morning indicates a low pressure front coming in (usually with rain/rougher weather).

The title text refers to the myth of '''Beer before liquor, never been sicker; liquor before beer, you're in the clear.'''

==Transcript==

[Blond haired adult talking to two children]

: [Adult]: Now, Remember:

: If red touches yellow
: amid leaves of three
: under a red sky at morning,
: you should probably
: just get out of there.

Talk:2137: Text Entry

2019-04-17T06:07:42Z

AdmiralMemo: What's he spelling?

== Dvorak ==

''Title text: I like to think that somewhere out there, there's someone whose personal quest is lobbying TV providers to add an option to switch their on-screen keyboards to Dvorak.''

Using the Dvorak layout when you have to scroll through letters is particularly bad. Since Dvorak is optimized to alternate strokes between hands (by putting all vowels on one side), you would have to spend even more time navigating between letters. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.102|162.158.106.102]] 16:03, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

:I suspect that's at least part of the joke in the title text, as Randall is likely aware of that fact. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 16:22, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
I of course had to wonder what TV show they were headed for so I started OUR_PL in Google and got "Our Planet Netflix" so now I know . . .I think. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.82|162.158.214.82]] 16:25, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
My Netflix interface takes entries from a keyboard. Found out about 2 weeks ago... It is a Samsung TV and I think the feature was not there from the beginning.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.52|172.68.50.52]] 16:59, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

Should it be clarified that Ponytail and Cueball are sitting in one chair? The drawing seemed unclear to me at first. --[[User:Youforgotthisthing|Youforgotthisthing]] ([[User talk:Youforgotthisthing|talk]]) 18:03, 15 April 2019 (UTC) One chair? Or a sofa or a loveseat?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.82|162.158.214.82]] 11:18, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
It looks to me like a child standing beside (our perspective: behind) his chair and another person looking over his shoulder. ShawnT [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.33|162.158.74.33]] 23:35, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
I use Dvorak on all my devices when possible and often find myself wishing for Dvorak on-screen keyboards. Sure, there's more absolute distance between consecutive characters on average, but that's offset by me not having to try to remember how QWERTY is laid out. I don't think that the joke here is "Dvorak on-screen keyboards are pointless", I think it's "Dvorak users are such a small percentage of the population that the odds of anyone bothering to cater to them is slim to none, and anyone lobbying for it is wasting their time". [[User:Undergroundmonorail|Undergroundmonorail]] ([[User talk:Undergroundmonorail|talk]]) 18:23, 15 April 2019 (UTC)

== Smart TV Keyboards ==
Randall probably doesn't know / have or use [https://tehnoblog.org/review-wireless-usb-mini-keyboard-for-pc-raspberry-pi-ubuntu-windows-android-xbox-playstation/ these little keyboards] that can literally save you from trouble and excruciating pain from one-by-one letter "typing": {{unsigned|172.68.154.88}}
:This has to be an ad, right? I'm pretty sure Randall "literally" knows about USB keyboards, regardless of form factor.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.172|108.162.216.172]] 22:08, 15 April 2019 (UTC)
::Not necessarily, and since the IP's not blatantly vandalizing pages or spamming links to external sites, and this is the talk page, there's no need to remove it for now. But I've collapsed the URL in case it's an attempt at advertising, as we've seen a lot of (fill in the blank)Review accounts created for that purpose, and some are vandalizing pages. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 07:16, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
:In my case, my smart TV has a remote control app that allows the phone's keyboard to be used. It also provides a trackpad for issuing a cursor more easily. [[User:Baldrickk|Baldrickk]] ([[User talk:Baldrickk|talk]]) 11:07, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
If just all on-screen keyboards were qwerty... Depending on the app some use qwerty and some use alphabetical grids. I'm always struggling to find the right letters in ther latter... It gets worse if alphabetical ordered letters are arranged in a standard keyboard pattern. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:31, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

This got to be so annoying for me that I actually bought Roku streaming boxes for my TV's so that I can use their phone app to replace the remote and can now type on the phone's touch screen instead of going through the usual up-up-left-left-click nonsense. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 14:14, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

== Use Wired Keyboard ==
Any "smart tv", even cheap ones have USB ports, not just for displaying Picture albums, but you can use any USB keyboard and type on the screen. Some of the better streaming boxes such as the FireTv Media Player (discontinued), NVIDIA Shield, and pretty much any Cable box have them so you may type on the screen rather than click each letter. Also All game consoles allow keyboards now, not just in game, but back in the home screen for typing passwords as well.

== Weird lines ==
What are those strange curved lines behind Cueball's head? There are also lines next to his legs that suggest that he's kicking them rapidly. It's unusual to see extraneous stuff like this in an XKCD comic. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 14:16, 16 April 2019 (UTC)
: I think it is being interpreted that Cueball is sitting next to Ponytail and that's her hair. The extra legs would also be hers. But the drawing here is confusing. It looks like a ponytail attached to no actual head. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.28|162.158.78.28]] 17:11, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

== What search? ==

Any thoughts on what Cueball is trying to search for here? [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 06:07, 17 April 2019 (UTC)