explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2884: Log Alignment

2024-01-23T20:46:34Z

Arosa: /* Explanation */ removed redundant sentence

{{comic
| number = 2884
| date = January 22, 2024
| title = Log Alignment
| image = log_alignment_2x.png
| imagesize = 351x312px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = A video can have a log scale that's misaligned with both the time AND space axes.
}}

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

Whilst a plot ''can'' be made according to measures not consistent with the graph axes, especially where [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Curvature-introduced-by-pen-type-recording-system-Comparison-of-a-raw-seismogram-showing_fig5_364100386 other factors dictate the plotting], it is more common to make use of {{w|Graph paper#Examples|variant grid systems}}.

The comic shows a background distribution of straight and parallel (but notably off-orthogonal) lines, such as might normally define the log-magnitude on a log-log or semi-log graph. But there are no perpendicular gradations ''and'' the bar graph drawn upon it appears to have no relation with the background, drawn distorted in an almost {{w|Salvador Dalí|Dalíesque}} manner as if a projection of one twisted in 3d space, both its bars and the base/vertical axes seem to have no relation to to the supposed underlying log-scale. However, with the slight exception of the bar tops crossing the log lines at an angle, and the curved vertical axis having {{w|graduation (scale)|graduation ticks}} that bear no linear ''or'' log relation with the intersecting background, the distorted bars only travel unidirectionally across the underlying parallels and ''could'' feasibly be read as indicating a definitive magnitude (or range) of some kind. Or at least could with number-labels to give an idea of what values to associate with each log-line. That two bars appear from outside the frame of the comic (the base axis having fallen off the bottom) might not even matter, so long as we can work out what quality or sample each of the bars represents (being similarly unlabeled).

Skewed log charts are real and occur in fields of science with useful applications. For example, a diagram called a "Skew-T Log-P" chart depicts the relationship between temperature and pressure of a parcel of air in the atmosphere. On this chart, the x-axis is skewed with relation to the rest of the graph, and its isotherms, or lines of equal temperature, slant diagonally upwards and to the right of the diagram. The y-axis is normal and represents pressure on a log scale. A more detailed explanation can be found [https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/upperair/skew-t-log-p-diagrams here].

The title text further reinforces the concept of misalignment by stating that the time axis represented by the progressive changing of a moving image can be misaligned against (by the other elements of the data within the video itself, including any log scale element), adding at least one further dimension through which to twist and skew axial and non-axial components of such a dynamic graph. It's possible this may be a reference to cutting between scenes in TV shows.

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

:[Distorted bar graph on top of gray log scale lines in the background that are slightly tilted, with the lower ends on the left]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:There's actually no rule in math that says your log scales have to be aligned with your graph axes.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Bar charts]]

2803: Geohydrotypography

2023-07-23T18:59:10Z

Arosa: implementing large paragraph

{{comic
| number = 2803
| date = July 17, 2023
| title = Geohydrotypography
| image = geohydrotypography_2x.png
| imagesize = 339x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Atlantic is expanding at about 10 ppm (points per month).
}}

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

This comic is another entry in the "[[:Category:My_Hobby|My Hobby]]" series of comics.

{{w|Plate tectonics}} is the understanding that the Earth's lithosphere is divided up into separate 'plates', which carry the continents and (in the case of the Atlantic) are slowly moving apart under geological action that mostly drives the respective coastlines away from the deep centre of the ocean. Here, Randall explains that if the surface of the Atlantic Ocean were covered in a certain size of printed text (as if its surface were a giant sheet of printed paper, which it is not{{citation needed}}), the shifting of the continents would increase the amount of text by about 100 words per second.

[[Randall]] says that his hobby is geohydrotypography, which is a compound of 'geo' (from the Greek for earth), 'hydro' (water), 'typo' (type, as in printing) and 'graphy' (a descriptive science) - in other words, the arrangement of letters, words and symbols on the water surfaces of the earth. He may mean that he enjoys studying such arrangements, and/or that he likes arranging such text himself.

The title text reports the rate of the ocean's expansion, about 40 millimeters per year, in points per month. A point in typography is 1/72 of an inch, or 127/360 =~ 0.3528 millimeters. The expansion sideways would steadily allow more characters on the first line (and thus intermittently more words, 'unwrapping' the first word seen on the next line) and cascading this effect onto every subsequent line spread out vertically along the roughly 13,000km (depending upon your choice of limits) North/South 'height' of the writing medium.

The initialism PPM has {{w|PPM|many possible interpretations}} other than the fanciful "points per month". Two interpretations that would be relevant to the situation in the comic would be "parts per million" which can refer to the amount of a substance dissolved in water such as the oceans, and "pages per minute" which refers to the speed of printers.

The exact calculation needs various assumptions. Font families of a given well-defined vertical size/separation can each exhibit varying general widths of character, and be subject to various possible degrees of [[kerning]], depending upon what precise choice of text is made (unless using a strictly a fixed-width font). The spacing between successive lines would need to be chosen. The word that does (or does not) have to be wrapped at the first line-break can affect which groups of words may (or may not) need to wrap on subsequent lines, in a cascading effect that can create almost chaotic changes from just a single reassessment. However, the {{w|law of large numbers}} would likely minimize the effect of this variability, such that an estimate from known averages would yield a result with a very small amount of relative error. It is not known which (ballpark) number Randall assigned as the current word count as of posting the comic.

The exact extent of the Atlantic Ocean can also be differently interpreted: where it meets the Southern and Arctic oceans, whether to include bordering 'seas' such as the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, what to do where the 'text' may have to cross/break-across islands (e.g., the Bahamas, Azores, etc., some of these being treated as Atlantic boundaries with the comic's relatively much larger size of "ocean text"), possibly even whether to track the precise tidal inundations at the coastlines at any particular moment, which would make the resulting word count per second probably fluctuate with the tides (unless high-/low-/median watermarks were actually chosen as standard). All these factors, and more, make it difficult to precisely define the total number of characters (and thus words) that would fit, though the annual increase in the approximate area of the ocean could allow us to assume some approximately greater number of characters (based upon an approximation of their average page-area requirements) which could be divided by the approximate number needed for a general corpus of words (and its spacing) to determine the approximate additional text that could now be added for any given span of time. Knowing Randall, he has used the best approximations that he could find and determined that the possible cumulative errors were not unacceptable.

Relying on the lost nursery rhyme "44.1 million square miles the Atlantic ocean is", and confirming on Wikipedia, about 5 trillion characters would fit. Assuming 1 byte per character, that's the amount of RAM on just 2 Summit supercomputers, the fastest supercomputer as of 7/2023. Quick testing on a modern laptop shows that Chrome takes about 0.1 second to add 1 character to a DIV element per million characters already there. For example: if a paragraph is already 50 million characters long, adding one character takes 5 second. To keep up with the 100 words per second at a barely acceptable 24 frames per second, the laptop would need to be 10 billion times faster - not that difficult, if humanity would dedicate one laptop per human for this task, and the complexity of this amount of parallel processing was solved. On the other hand, only 50,000 Summits would be needed. Please keep in mind these are very approximate numbers, as Chrome is always getting better, and there are many possible optimizations, including perhaps a new company would compete with Google rendering ocean-size paragraphs.

Note that the text as it appears on the globe in the comic is not 12 point, but instead is close to 1.5 billion point.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A depiction primarily of the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding landmasses. The land is black, leaving the oceans and seas white except for the following words written in sixteen lines of text (from just below the tip of Greenland/Arctic Ocean down to slightly above the Falkland Islands/Southern Ocean) that are, for the most part, wrapped between the Atlantic coastline 'margins' (as defined by the Americas on the left and Europe/Africa on the right, or significant island groups:]

:If you
:covered
:the surface of
:the Atlantic Ocean
:with twelve-point
:printed text,
:with the lines
:wrapping at
:the coasts, the
:expansion of
:the ocean basin
:due to plate
:tectonics would
:increase your word
:count by about 100
:words per second.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My Hobby: Geohydrotypography

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Language]]

2676: Historical Dates

2022-09-24T12:52:26Z

Arosa: The feb 29, 1900 bug in lotus was copied to excel, but is not the reason why dec 30th 1899 shows up so much.

{{comic
| number = 2676
| date = September 23, 2022
| title = Historical Dates
| image = historical_dates_2x.png
| imagesize = 305x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Evidence suggests the 1899 transactions occurred as part of a global event centered around a deity associated with the lotus flower.
}}

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

The default "creation date" of many operating systems and software is Jan 1st, 1970. Which leads to a lot of files wrongly reporting that they were created on this date. This comes from dates being stored as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time Unix timestamps], which are defined as the number of seconds since Jan 1st, 1970, 0:00, so a timestamp value of 0 (the default value of integers in most systems) equates to this date.

Similarly, Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) renders 0 as Dec 30th, 1899.

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

:[Blondie is talking, while pointing to a hologram, representing a timeline with two dates: 1899 and 1970]
:Historical records show millions of business transactions occurred on Dec 30th, 1899.

:This economic activity sparked the digital age, culminating in a "data festival" on Jan 1st, 1970, when many early digital files were created.

:[Caption under the panel:]
:It's going to be weird when historians forget why some dates show up a lot.

{{comic discussion}}

2520: Symbols

2021-09-25T15:02:08Z

Arosa: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2520
| date = September 24, 2021
| title = Symbols
| image = symbols.png
| titletext = "röntgen" and "rem" are 20th-century physics terms that mean "no trespassing."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by VERY EXPENSIVE EQUIPMENT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Bare-bones explanation is in, but needs much more detail.}}

This comic refers to elements of (mostly mathematical or engineering) notation commonly used in various fields of math and science. Each piece of notation is presented as "symbolizing" not what it specifically means, but a typical ''context'' in which it might be encountered. Many of the individual descriptions look like verbiage that might be found on informational or warnings signs or placards, although typically with a silly edge.

*d/dx: An undergrad is working very hard
d/dx is the symbol for a single-variable {{w|Derivative|derivative}}. This is a mathematical operation that, while difficult, is one of the most basic operations in calculus and consequently well within the reach of an undergraduate student, particularly in science. Thus, an equation with this operation would be one that would cause an undergraduate student to work very hard.

*∂/∂x: A grad student is working very hard
The replacement of the standard "d" letters with the curly letters "∂" denotes the partial derivative, which generalizes the ordinary derivative to multi-variable calculus. Problems with partial derivatives, especially partial differential equations, can be extremely challenging—appropriate for hard graduate-level work.

*ħ: Oh wow, this is apparently a quantum thing
ħ (pronounced "h-bar") is a symbol used for (the reduced) {{w|Planck's constant}}, a universal, fundamental constant in quantum physics. ħ is equal to the energy of a photon divided by its frequency, and angular momentum in quantum mechanical systems is measured in quantized integer or half-integer units of ħ.

*Re: Someone needs to do a lot of tedious numerical work; hopefully it's not you
The {{w|Reynolds number}} (which is actually usually denoted by "Re," not "Re" as it appears in the comic) is the most important dimensionless group in fluid mechanics. Named for Osborne Reynolds, Re characterizes the relative sizes of inertial and viscous effects in a moving fluid. Large values of Re are indicative of turbulent flow, which cannot usually be solved for analytically, and so numerical modelling is necessary. Accurate numerical studies of high-Reynolds-number flows are notoriously difficult to create and program.

*(Ta4 – Tb4): You are at risk of skin burns
The {{w|Stefan-Boltzmann law}} says that a perfectly absorbing ("black body") source emits electromagnetic radiation with a power per unit area of σT4, where σ is a known constant and T is the absolute temperature. The quantity (Ta4 – Tb4) thus appears in any calculation of purely radiative energy transfer between two bodies, one at temperature Ta and the other at Tb. When radiative transfer is large enough to be the most important form of heat interchange, it is normally also large enough to sear the skin with thermal or ultraviolet burns.

*NA: You are probably about to make an incredibly dangerous arithmetic error
NA, or {{w|Avogadro's number}}, is the number of molecules in a mole of a substance—roughly the number of protons plus neutrons in 1 gram of matter. This is an enormous number, approximately 6.02 × 1023. Adding up molecular weights and converting between grams and moles of several substances is a lot of arithmetic on a scale where intuition won't help you catch mistakes. Working with NA, it is easy to make errors of one or more factors of ten without noticing. If this kind of error is made in the calculation of the stoichiometrically correct amount of a reagent in a chemical reaction, it is possible to accidentally create dangerous amounts of unwanted chemical products.

*µm: Careful, that equipment is expensive
{{w|Micrometre}}s are a very small unit of distance. Micrometers is commonly used to measure wavelengths in the infrared, and infrared detectors are very expensive, compared with visible wavelength counterparts.

*mK: Careful, that equipment is very expensive
Kelvin is a temperature scale proportional to Celsius, but taking absolute zero as its zero point instead of the freezing point of water. {{w|Millikelvin}}s (1/1000 of a Kelvin) are used for high precision temperature work. Frequently this is used in processes of cooling temperatures to near absolute zero - such as superconductors or other quantum effects that occur when atoms are almost still. This is suggesting that the symbol appears on a sensitive experimental system probing quantum mechanical behavior that would likely only exist in an advanced laboratory. Any equipment that works down a mK temperatures is likely to be very expensive.

*nm: Don't shine that in your eye
{{w|Nanometer}}s are most frequently seen in the listed wavelengths for lasers. Pointing a visible or infrared laser at someone's eye is notoriously dangerous; the tightly-focused coherent light can cause permanent damage very quickly.

*eV: Definitely don't shine that in your eye
{{w|Electron volt}} energies are typical of moderate-energy particle beams, produced by accelerating electrons (or protons) over macroscopic voltages. These particle beams can be {{w|Anatoli Bugorski|even more damaging}} to soft tissues than optical-wavelength lasers.

*mSv: You are about to get into an Internet argument
The {{w|millisievert}} is a unit of radiation dose absorbed. It is actually a very small dosage, but the joke refers to Internet trolls debating the effects of low-dose radiation sources, such as 5G wireless networks. Randall's comment may also be referring to [https://xkcd.com/radiation/ this chart].

*mg/kg: Go wash your hands
This unit measures the dose of a drug or other chemical in milligrams per kilogram of body mass. If the appropriate dose - or worse, the lethal dose - is measured in mg/kg (parts per million), then the substance may be quite toxic.

*µg/kg: Go get in the chemical shower
A unit 1000 times smaller than mg/kg. If a dosage is measured in micrograms per kilogram (parts per billion), any accident probably requires whole-body decontamination procedures.

*π or τ: Whatever answer you get will be wrong by a factor of exactly two
π is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, while τ is defined as 2π (the ratio of the circumference to the radius). {{w|pi|π}} has been used as the primary constant for describing the circumference and area of circles for millennia, but proponents of {{w|Turn (angle)|τ}} claim that τ is actually more natural in most contexts, since it makes working in radians more straightforward. The joke here is that whichever constant you use, it will probably be the wrong one (off by a factor of two, one way or the other) for the formula you are trying to use.

The title text refers to two non-SI units of radiation measurement, {{w|Roentgen (unit)|röntgen}} and {{w|Roentgen equivalent man|rem}}. In the mid-20th century when they were in use, the dangers of radiation weren't as well understood as today, so an area with radiation that was noteworthy back then is probably dangerous,{{citation needed}} hence the no trespassing part.

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

;d/dx
:An undergrad is working very hard
;∂/∂x
:A grad student is working very hard
;ħ
:Oh wow, this is apparently a quantum thing
;Re
:Someone needs to do a lot of tedious numerical work; hopefully it's not you
;(Ta4 - Tb4)
:You are at risk of skin burns
;NA
:You are probably about to make an incredibly dangerous arithmetic error
;µm
:Careful, that equipment is expensive
;mK
:Careful, that equipment is very expensive
;nm
:Don't shine that in your eye
;eV
:Definitely don't shine that in your eye
;mSv
:You are about to get into an internet argument
;mg/kg
:Go wash your hands
;µg/kg
:Go get in the chemical shower
;π or τ
:Whatever answer you get will be wrong by a factor of exactly two

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Math]]
[[Category: Physics]]
[[Category: Chemistry]]
[[Category: Biology]]

Thing Explainer

2021-04-11T13:39:14Z

Arosa: added stub for word decoder

{{xkcdmeta}}
[[File:ThingExplainerBookCover.png|frame|right|General book cover]]

'''''Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words''''' is a book by [[Randall|Randall Munroe]] where things are explained in the style of [[Up Goer Five]] (which is also included in the book), using only {{w|blueprint}} like drawings and a vocabulary of the 1,000 (or ''ten hundred'') most common words in the English language. Randall found his own method to determine which words would go on his list, a list that is revealed in the book. (It can also be found [https://www.xkcd.com/simplewriter/words.js here].)

The book explores, among other things, computer buildings (datacenters), the flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates), the things you use to steer a plane (airliner cockpit controls), and the little bags of water you're made of (cells). See a summary below and also the [[#Things in this book by page|entire index from the book]] listing all the 45 different explanations.

''Thing Explainer'' is Randall's second published book, not including xkcd comic books, which he announced on May 13th, 2015 in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ the blag] following the amazing success of his [[what if book|what if? book]] based on the [[what if|what if?]] blog.

The book is a collection of diagrams and line drawings similar in style to the Up Goer Five comic, which can also be purchased as a poster. It was [[#Release day|published]] by {{w|Houghton Mifflin Harcourt}} on November 24th and is available from among others {{w|Amazon.com|Amazon}} to which [http://amzn.to/1GCXMJ5 a link] has been posted on xkcd for a long time.

When the book was released Randall had ''Minute Physics'' do a "commercial" [https://youtu.be/2p_8gx-XHJo version of the Upgoer comic].

{{TOC}}

==Release day==
On the day of the book's release (even though it was a Tuesday) Randall also released the comic '''[[1608: Hoverboard]]''', which was a direct celebration of the book's release (it says so in the comic). But it was far from being a small or normal comic! It was the first "real" game comic released on xkcd (albeit not the first [[:Category:Interactive comics|interactive comic]]). In the style of [[1110: Click and Drag]] it was possible to move around in a very much larger picture than what was shown in the frame. But this is '''not done''' by clicking and dragging though, instead the user controls [[Cueball]] on a {{w|hoverboard}} (hence the title of the comic) by using the arrow keys, assuming that the user is on a desktop computer or a laptop. If he/she is on a mobile device such as a smartphone, [[Cueball]] is controlled by tilting the device.

There are many themes and references throughout the game, but the two main themes are {{w|Star Wars}} (the largest part to the right part) and {{w|The Lord of the Rings}} to the left. Several references goes back to the book from this comic. These are [[1608:_Hoverboard#Reference_to_Thing_Explainer|listed in the explanation]] for the hoverboard comic.

On the release day Randall also released a '''[http://www.xkcd.com/simplewriter/ simple writer]''' that would only accept the thousand words listed at the back of the book under ''The ten hundred words people use the most''. In this way others can try to create simple explanations themselves.

==Summary==
Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by incomprehensible jargon? Randall Munroe is here to help. In ''Thing Explainer'', he uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, “ten hundred”) most common words to provide simple explanations for some of the most interesting stuff there is, including:

*food-heating radio boxes (microwaves)
*tall roads (bridges)
*computer buildings (datacenters)
*the shared space house (the International Space Station)
*the other worlds around the sun (the solar system)
*the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates)
*the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table)
*planes with turning wings (helicopters)
*boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers)
*the bags of stuff inside you (cells)

How do these things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? In ''Thing Explainer'', Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone—age 5 to 105—who has ever wondered how things work, and why.

==Things in this book by page (Contents)==
Below is the complete index of the book called ''Things in this book by page''. First is the simple title listed. Then follows the translation of this to normal language in brackets, with a wiki link to the most relevant page, based on the books material rather than the actual title. After "…" follows the page number for the start of that title as listed in the book:
*Pages before the books starts ({{w|Introduction (writing)|Introduction}}) … vii
*Shared space house ({{w|International Space Station}}) … 1
*Tiny bags of water you’re made of ({{w|Animal cell}}) … 2
*Heavy metal power building ({{w|Nuclear reactor}}) … 3
*Red world space car ({{w|Curiosity Rover}}) … 4
*Bag of stuff inside you ({{w|Human torso}}) … 6
*Boxes that make clothes smell better ({{w|Washing machine}} and {{w|Clothes dryer|dryer}}) … 7
*Earth’s surface ({{w|World map|Physical map of the Earth}}) … 8
*Under a car’s front cover ({{w|Car engine}}) … 11
*Sky boat with turning wings ({{w|Helicopter}}) … 13
*The US’s laws of the land ({{w|US Constitution}}) … 14
*The US<strike>’</strike>S ''Laws of the Land'' ({{w|USS Constitution}}) … 15
*Food-heating radio box ({{w|Microwave oven|Microwave}}) … 16
*Shape checker ({{w|Padlock}}) … 17
*Lifting room ({{w|Elevator}}) … 18
*Boat that goes under the sea ({{w|Submarine}}) … 19
*Box that cleans food holders ({{w|Dishwasher}}) … 20
*Big flat rocks we live on ({{w|Tectonic plates}}) … 21
*Cloud maps ({{w|Weather maps}}) … 22
*Tree ({{w|Tree}}) … 23
*Machine for burning cities ({{w|Thermonuclear weapon|Nuclear bomb}}) … 24
*Water room ({{w|Bathroom|Toilet and sink}}) … 25
*Computer building ({{w|Data center}}) … 26
*US Space Team's Up Goer Five ({{w|Saturn V rocket}}) … 28
*Sky boat pusher ({{w|Jet engine}}) … 30
*Stuff you touch to fly a sky boat ({{w|Cockpit}}) … 31
*Big tiny thing hitter ({{w|Large Hadron Collider}}) … 32
*Power boxes ({{w|Battery (electricity)|Batteries}}) … 33
*Hole-making city boat ({{w|Oil platform|Oil-rig}}) … 34
*Stuff in the Earth we can burn ({{w|Mining|Mines}}) … 35
*Tall roads ({{w|Bridges}}) … 36
*Bending computer ({{w|Laptop}}) … 37
*Worlds around the sun ({{w|Solar system}}) … 38
*Picture taker ({{w|Camera}}) … 40
*Writing sticks ({{w|Pen}} and {{w|pencil}}) … 41
*Hand computer ({{w|Smart phone}}) … 42
*Colors of light ({{w|Electromagnetic spectrum}}) … 43
*The sky at night ({{w|Night sky}}) … 44
*The pieces everything is made of ({{w|Periodic table}}) … 47
*Our star ({{w|Sun}}) … 49
*How to count things ({{w|International System of Units|Units and measurement}}) … 50
*Room for helping people ({{w|Hospital bed}}) … 51
*Playing fields ({{w|Pitch (sports field)|Athletic fields}}) … 52
*Earth’s past ({{w|Period (geology)|Geologic periods of Earth}}) … 53
*Tree of life ({{w|Tree of life (biology)|Life’s family tree}}) … 54
*The ten hundred words people use the most ({{w|Most common words in English|The thousand most common words}} in {{w|English language|the English language.}}) … 57
*Helpers ({{w|Acknowledgment (creative arts and sciences)|Acknowledgments}}) … 63
*Sky toucher ({{w|Skyscraper}}) … 65

There are 45 entries, but with the introduction, the list of used words and the acknowledgments taking up three, the total ends up at 48 explanations.

==The ten hundred words people use the most (The 1000 most common words in the English language)==
*Since ''thousand'' is not among the 1000 most common words in the English language, he has to write it as ''ten hundred''.
**Also common is also not a common word (ironically enough).
*It is possible to check if a word is allowed by using his [http://www.xkcd.com/simplewriter/ simple writer].
**The list of allowed words can be found [https://www.xkcd.com/simplewriter/words.js here].
*He does not use numbers like 1, 5 or 1000 in the book. He writes them out with words. So he could not have written ''1000 words...''
**Not even in the ''How to count things'' explanation.
**Interestingly enough neither ''zero'' or ''nine'' is in the list
***But the other numbers from one to ten can be used as well as twenty, thirty and hundred. No other numbers work.
***Zero is thus written ''none'' and nine like ''the one after eight''.
**In the simple writer you can write numbers without getting an error.
***But except in the index (called the ''[[#Things in this book by page|Things in this book by page]]'') and on the page just before this, with the publication details, numbers are only used for page numbers at the bottom of the page, which is also the only numbers referenced to in the index.
*The list has been made by Randall himself from extensive searches of the use of words in different types of sources.
**Especially fiction texts was used, but he also searched through the text messages he had received from people as another source.
**He writes directly: ''This is '''my''' list of the ten hundred words people use the most.''
*He only included one version of a word in the list. But all the different forms/endings of those words are allowed, but they are not written in the list and thus also not counted towards the 1000 allowed words.
**Thus many more different words than 1000 can be used, but only words with 1000 different meanings are used!
**He mentions as an example the word ''talk'', which is on the list, and thus also ''talking'' and ''talked'' would be allowed.
***He also allows words that do not exist if they sound funny enough like ''talker''.
***This is similar to ''goer'' like in [[1133: Up Goer Five]] or ''Sky '''toucher''''' from the last explanation in the book.
**Another example is the word ''be'' which is in the list.
***This then allows for instance ''Am'', ''are'' and ''is'' to be used.
***Those words are thus not in the list.
***See example [[#References to comics|below]] regarding words used in an xkcd comic featured in the book.
*Some common swear words have been left out even though they would be in most "real" list with the top 1000 common words
**For instance ''fuck'' would most likely have made the cut and maybe also ''shit'', and probably also some less harsh swear words.
**As he writes in the notes at the bottom of the last page with the list of words:
***''I didn't want to use those words anyway.''
*In the section '''Helpers''' he specifically notes that he wants to thank people, even though their names are not in the list.
**So he writes them out anyway!

==References to comics==
*These obvious references have already been mentioned above:
**[[1133: Up Goer Five]]. But apart from the entire comic being in the book there are other references to the comic:
***The tip of the Saturn V rocket can be seen at the top of ''Sky Toucher''
***The moon lander (and two astronauts) can been seen on the Moon in ''Worlds Around the Sun''.
***In the explanation for ''The pieces everything is made of'' hydrogen is similarly "named" by showing a picture of the burning Hindenburg and using the same quote as in the comic, "Oh, the humanity", which becomes "Oh the Humans!" in the book vs. "Oh, the [Humans]!" in the comic.
**[[1608: Hoverboard]]. (See this [[1608:_Hoverboard#Reference_to_Thing_Explainer|extensive list]] of connections).
*But there are also other comics that are directly or indirectly references in the book.
**[[1388: Subduction License]] is one of the most obvious examples is this comic which is directly featured in the book:
***It is included as part of the explanation of the ''Big flat rocks we live on.''
***But it is only the three last panels after the first panel which is displayed.
***The reason the first panel is not included is of course the words ''Subduction License'' which would not be allowed in the book.
***The normal words in the two middle panels are all found in the list at the back of the book. That is some form of the words are.
****Here is what is written in these panels and below this a "translation" to the version of these words that can be found on the list (see [[#The ten hundred words people use the most|above]] for an explanation on this):
****What are you doing? Stop it! Stop it!
****What '''be''' you '''do'''? Stop it! Stop it!
****All versions of these words would be allowed in the book. But the last word, ''Augh'' is of course not on the list, mainly because it is not a real word but just a sound word for an exclamation. But it is left in for the sake of the comic.
**[[526: Converting to Metric]].
***It is just a more funny version of ''How to count things'' where only the volume segment has been left out.
***The only item going again in both is the weight of a cat, although this is listed as 4 kg in the comic and 5 kg in the book...
**[[1314: Photos]].
***There is a small drawing that is just a different version of the idea behind the comic (see more explanation on the comics explanation).
**[[1110: Click and Drag]].
***A very direct reference is found in ''Stuff you touch to fly a sky boat'' where Cueball with his balloon can be seen floating just outside the cockpit.
***But there are other less indirect references like the radio controlled helicopter chase across several longer and longer bridges in ''Tall roads'' where [[Megan]] in the end catches it with a fishing rod. In Click and Drag [[Beret Guy]] is [http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/1n1e.png chasing an RC helicopter] with a butterfly net. And butterfly nets are also used in the book for catching other strange tings, see more below.
**[[1655: Doomsday Clock]] as well as [[1626: Judgment Day]].
***Both came out shortly after the book, both concerns the weapons of mass destruction humanity has created.
***This is referenced both directly in ''Machine for burning cities'' and are also mentioned in ''Boat that goes under the sea''.
**[[1619: Watson Medical Algorithm]].
***In the explanation ''Colors of light'' for the electromagnetic spectrum, [[Ponytail]] as a doctor looks at a full body x-ray of [[Cueball]] and exclaims that ''... It looks like your body is full of bones'' to which Cueball replies ''Oh no! Is there any cure?'' Well if he meets Watson he might have them all removed.
***That comic came out about a month after the book so it may be viewed as a kind of reference to the problem with too many bones.
**[[1135: Arachnoneurology]].
***In the comic spiders weave a shirt for [[Beret Guy]] and under one of the bridges in ''Tall roads'' there is a ship whose sail is a spider web. [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] are also shown in ''Tree of Life'' where they are called ''Biters with eight legs''.
**[[1376: Jump]].
***Has some similarities to what happens with Cueball in ''Playing fields'' when he jumps to score with his basketball, but then just keeps floating up along a straight line until twice the height of the hoop he yells ''Help!''
*There are also several items that are more generally just often used in xkcd comic, and thus not specially a reference to a given comic but rather to an entire category. Here is a list of some of the categories that are referenced in the book:
**There are two [[:Category:Butterfly net|Butterfly nets]].
***Both in relation to catching a {{w|Ball (association football)|soccer football}}, both in ''Playing fields'' and in ''Hole-making city boat''.
**There are several [[:Category:Space probes|Space probes]] including all the [[:Category:Mars rovers|Mars rovers]] (see much more detail on these two category links).
***In ''Red world space car'' the {{w|Curiosity Rover}} is explained in details. But the rower is also shown inside the skyscraper in ''Sky Tougher''.
***In ''The sky at night'' {{w|Voyager 1}} is shown.
***Both of these as well as several other probes including all other successful missions to Mars are listed in ''Worlds around the sun''.
**There are several references to [[:Category:Sport|Sport]], including all the main ones with their own category as well.
***Especially in ''Playing fields'' where all of these major sports are mentioned:
****[[:Category:American football|American football]] aka ''Foot Ball (My country)''.
****[[:Category:Baseball|Baseball]] aka ''Stick Ball''. This is also played inside the skyscraper in ''Sky toucher''.
****[[:Category:Basketball|Basketball]] aka ''Circle Ball''.
****[[:Category:Soccer|Soccer]] aka ''Foot Ball (Most other countries)''. This is also played on top of the Oil rig in ''Hole-making city boat''
***Other sports mentioned in that explanation are:
****{{w|Volleyball}} aka ''Hand and Arm Ball''
****{{w|Tennis}} aka ''Circle-Stick Ball''
****{{w|Ice Hockey}} aka ''Sliding around with sticks''
***Finally a few more sports is just depicted without names:
****{{w|Pole vaulting}}
****{{w|Karate}}
****{{w|Poohsticks}}, i.e. throwing sticks in the water from a bridge to see which comes first to the other side of the bridge...
***Other explanation with sport are
****''Hole-making city boat'' with both soccer, {{w|table tennis}} and {{w|Pool (cue sports)|pool}}
****{{w|Ten pin bowling}} is depicted three times with bowling alleys in the hull of the ship in ''The USS Laws of the Land'' and on the suspension of the longest bridge in ''Tall roads'' and a bowling alley is used for measuring length in ''How to count things.''
****''Heavy metal power building'' with two people {{w|fencing}}.
**[[:Category:Animals|Animals]] are a big part of several comics:
***''Tree of life'' is "simply" about all life, and here almost all animals used regularly in xkcd are mentioned.
***''Tree'' shows lots of the life that can live in or near a tree and thus also several animals.
***A {{w|pegasus}} like horse, but with helicopter wings instead of bird wings are shown in ''Sky boat with turning wings''.
***{{w|Octopuses}} are used in six explanations:
****''Shared space house'', ''The USS Laws of the Land'' (two), ''Big flat rocks we live on'', ''Picture taker'', ''Writing sticks'' and ''Tree of life''.
***[[:Category:Sharks|Sharks]] are used in six explanations:
****''Heavy metal power building'', ''The USS Laws of the Land'', ''Big tiny thing hitter'', ''Hole-making city boat'', ''Tree of life'' and ''Sky toucher'' (two).
****The shark's situation in ''Big tiny thing hitter'' reminds a little of the shark in [[585: Outreach]].
***[[:Category:Giraffes|Giraffes]] are used twice
****Four wight weight and length in ''How to count things'' and of course in the ''Tree of life''.
***[[:Category:Dinosaurs|Dinosaurs]] are not prominently featured but they are in two explanations:
****In ''Tree of life'' three types of dinosaurs are shown, including both [[:Category:Velociraptors|Velociraptors]] and [[:Category:Apatosaurus|Apatosaurus]].
****The latter type, Apatosaurus, has also managed to sneak into the ''Sky toucher'', even though it is ''not allowed''.
***[[:Category:Squirrels|Squirrels]] are used in four explanations.
****The most noticeable is in the explanation for ''Boxes that make clothes smell better'' where the drawing of the squirrel at the bottom right even have a notation. Above the squirrel there is an arrow pointing to it and this text:
::::"'''Wait'''
::::Why is this in your house?"
:::*The other squirrels are under the the pipe at the bottom of the explanation for ''Big tiny thing hitter'', in the top of the ''Tree'' and of course in the ''Tree of life''.
::*There are plenty of other animals including for instance {{w|Whales}} and {{w|ants}} who appear in several explanations

==Book Cover==
[[Cueball]] can be seen on the cover overlooking some of the labeled pictures. It was thus already early clear that the book would explore the themes labeled on the front cover which includes astronomy, constellations, and geology.

There are several funny "explanations" on the cover, like labels on arrows pointing to the title and to Randall's name explaining that this is:
*Big words that tell you what this book is
*My name

The back cover of the book was also available: 
[[File:ThingExplainerBookBackCover.png]]

==Preview pages==
*Part of the Curiosity entry (note that red was not used inside the book, only blue):
[[File:Space Car.jpeg]]

== Promotion at the xkcd home page ==
*Already on [http://web.archive.org/web/20150514053623/http://www.xkcd.com/ May 14th 2015] the first promotion of the book appeared at the top in the [[xkcd Header text]] of the xkcd home page. This was more than half a year before the release of the book.
**See the first entry described [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|here]], and other changes will be mentioned above.
*While [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]] was on the front page (2015-12-03), and until the comic [[1612: Colds]] came out, the top part of xkcd had been changed to [http://web.archive.org/web/20151203234149/http://xkcd.com/ promote the book], (see the image here below).
**The entire section was a link to [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0544668251&linkCode=as2&tag=thekcs-20&linkId=S4XRZJJKSMHOWEQU the book on amazon.com]
*Already later on the release day of Colds, (2015-12-04) it was moved to [http://web.archive.org/web/20151204190925/http://xkcd.com/ bottom section] of xkcd.
*But a [http://web.archive.org/web/20160401175527/https://www.xkcd.com/ commercial stayed at the top in the header] all the way until the problems with the [http://web.archive.org/web/20160401204749/https://xkcd.com/ April 1st comics release] in 2016, [[1663: Garden]].
**The commercial from above still stayed at the bottom below the comics even after April 1st 2016, until [http://web.archive.org/web/20160418061448/http://xkcd.com/ April 18th 2016].
**On [http://web.archive.org/web/20160418185337/http://xkcd.com/ April 19th 2016] the last reference to Thing Explainer disappeared from main page.
[[File:Thing Explainer promoted on xkcd.PNG]]

== Word decoder ==
Part of the fun of reading the book is finding out what 'complex' word the simple word phrases are encoding. For example, the {{w|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Supply_vehicles_for_the_International_Space_Station|International Space Station Supply vehicle}} described as 'bird' is {{w|Cygnus_(spacecraft)|Cygnus}}, and the one described as 'Pretend Fire Animal' is {{w|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Dragon|Dragon}}.
For a partial list, see [[Thing Explainer Decoder]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Simplified language]]
[[Category:Books]]

2432: Manage Your Preferences

2021-03-04T04:50:43Z

Arosa: /* Explanation */ added Atreus, removed dinosaur game in chrome

{{comic
| number = 2432
| date = March 3, 2021
| title = Manage Your Preferences
| image = manage_your_preferences.png
| titletext = Manage cookies related to essential site functions, such as keeping Atrius and his sons imprisoned within the page.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CONFUSINGLY-LABELED COOKIE MANAGER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is likely a play on how browser configuration settings can be very esoteric for some people. Often things need to be changed inside a browser to view certain websites correctly: clearing or changing some cookies, changing scripts settings, installing and correctly configuring a plugin for an overlay network, running or configuring a proxy, enabling experimental features, restarting the browser with special flags passed, installing a fork of the browser such as with the tor browser bundle to access onion sites or the beaker browser to access dat sites, or installing and configuring a secondary gateway app such as with freenet, ipfs, or i2p.

It could also be a play on how some websites have superfluous cookie settings, by hiding options behind multiple menu sub-layers.

Additionally as deep learning models rapidly spread, configuration settings may get more human.

"Atrius" in the title text may refer to Atrus, the main non-player character in the {{w|Myst}} series. In the first game these people were imprisoned within books. Pages needed to be collected to complete the books, and it was incredibly hard to find a single page, involving extensive laborious navigation and exploration, and the finding and solving of hidden puzzles. In the Myst mythos, the books open portals to other worlds, a little like web hyperlinks.
"Atreus" was a mythological king of Mycenae.

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

[Cueball sits at a desk in front of a computer, which displays a screen shown above him]

Text box: Manage Your Preferences

Button: Agree to whatever

Button: Transport me to an immersive Myst-like game where I click confusingly-labeled toggle switches, only some of which work, perhaps never to find my way back to the page I wanted.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]

2417: 1/1,000th Scale World

2021-01-28T23:47:33Z

Arosa: /* Table */ 2.7km/1000=2.7m

{{comic
| number = 2417
| date = January 27, 2021
| title = 1/1,000th Scale World
| image = 1_1000th_scale_world.png
| titletext = We're worried that a regular whale will get into a 30-foot-deep ocean trench section and filter-feed on all the tiny whales.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STATUE OF LIBERTY MINIFIG. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is the third comic in the [[:Category:Scale World|Scale World]] series, this time with a smaller scale and thus a larger world than the first. As in the previous comics, [[Randall]] has another seemingly complete copy of Earth, this time at a 1:1000 scale, with various features and warnings labeled. Again, real-world features and phenomena are replicated at scale. As before, the model is very extensive, with several underground neutrino detectors/observatories being replicated.

Several of the warnings point out humorous consequences of the scale, such as non-scale goldfish eating scaled-down blue whales.

===Table===
{| class="wikitable"
!Rule
!Reason
!Notes
|-
| Keep hot objects off the ice sheet over the south pole neutrino observatory
| Hot objects may emit Cherenkov radiation, which would result in the observatory detecting false positives of neutrino observations. They may also melt the ice that shields the detectors from other particles that would trigger false positives
| The fact that people are not supposed to create false positives implies that the neutrino detector is functional.
|-
| Be patient: Niagara falls will take a few minutes to fill your water glass
| The flow rate is scaled down with the size. According to the [[what if]] ''{{what if|147|Niagara Straw}}, the Niagara Falls flow is regulated to 100.000 cubic feet per second on the tourist season and to 50.000 cubic feet per second offseason and at night. Once scaled to 1/1000, that flow would be 2.83 or 1.41ml per second. If a standard glass of water is 250ml, it would take about 90–180 seconds for the waterfall to fill it.

However, a 1/1000th replica of scale Niagra falls would be over a meter wide, so without some kind of system to divert the whole flow into one spot, it would not be possible to fill a glass this quickly. Also, the height of the scaled-down Niagra falls would be 5cm, with another 5cm between the water level and the riverbed, so it might be difficult to fill a glass depending on its height.
| This item is likely to be a reference to the famous Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls."
|-
| Watch for small planes
| Taking the popular Cessna 172 as an example, 1/1000th scale small planes would be about 8mm in length, and cruise at speeds of about 6cm/s, much slower than comparable flying insects. A Cessna of that size traveling at that speed would probably cause much more damage to itself than a person if it crashed into one, so the warning is probably there to protect the models rather than the guests.
|
|-
| Warning! Choking hazard! Keep small children away from ascending/descending airliners
| Airplanes are apparently small enough for children to fit into their mouths but large enough to potentially make them choke.
| In the US, small parts are defined by [https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Small-Parts-for-Toys-and-Childrens-Products 16 C.F.R. Part 1501.2] as fitting in a cylindrical test fixture of 1.25 inches diameter that approximates the size of the fully expanded throat of a child under three years old. Once scaled, any object smaller than 31.75 meters would fit in that cylinder. A lot of medium-sized and small airplanes would qualify. Furthermore, since pieces that break off during testing that simulates use or abuse by children could also pose a choking hazard, even large airliners are also a choking hazard because stripped wings and parts of the fuselage would fit in the required size.
|-
| Do not remove safety caps
| This is a reference to the warning, "Be careful not to step on cities with especially pointy towers, like Toronto, Seattle, and Dubai" from [[2411: 1/10,000th Scale World]]. It's possible that many visitors to that scaled world did not heed the warnings and complained to the scaled world's creators, causing them to cover pointy towers with safety caps for this scaled world. However, now there are [[Black Hat|people who apparently want to cause harm to others]], or at least don't care about not causing harm to others, by removing these safety caps.
The tip of the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the scale world - appears to be about a meter and a half wide, or 1.5mm at 1/1000th scale.
|
|-
| No open flames in Zeppelin area
| Zeppelins are filled with hydrogen due to its very low density, which allows them to float. However, it is also very flammable and prone to explosions. The most famous of these Zeppelin disasters was when the {{w|Hindenburg disaster|Hindenburg exploded}} in 1937.
|
|-
| Do not bother the meteor crater ducks
| Meteor Crater in Arizona is over a kilometer wide, so at 1/1000 scale it could be a small duck pond of 1.186m diameter, and 17cm deep at its deepest point. This is (barely) enough space for a duck to swim in if filled to the brim with water.
| Meteor Crater is not filled with water, or ducks, in real life. {{Citation needed}}
|-
| Trip hazard: The Gateway Arch
| The {{w|Gateway Arch}} is a monument in Saint Louis, Missouri. Being a 192 m high arch, once scaled it would be 19.2 cm high, ideal for tripping.
|
|-
| Drone altitude limit
| The FAA drone altitude limit is 400ft above the ground, which would be about 12cm in 1/1000th scale. This appears to be the number Randall is using, as the limit in the comic is about the same height as the pyramids, which are also around 400ft tall in the real world.
|
|-
| Do not mix up the USS Enterprises
|
The ship is presumably a model of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the longest naval vessel ever built, which would be 34cm long in 1/1000th scale.
The spaceship is the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) from the Star Trek franchise.
It's unclear whether mixing up the models is prohibited because it would damage them, or simply because that's not where they are supposed to be.
The Starship Enterprise might be corroded by seawater, or unable to handle external pressure (spacecraft are designed for the exact opposite pressures in a vacuum). If lifted into the air, the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise would probably fall back down because it can't fly {{Citation needed}} (and be damaged or even destroyed upon hitting the ground or water surface), but then again, it's unclear how the model Enterprise is able to fly or hover.
The Enterprise from the JJ Abrams films has been seen to hide underwater and take off again without significant problems, and the Original Series version has been seen to fly (high) in the Earth's atmosphere on several occasions. However, it is unclear whether other versions of the Enterprise also possess this standard operational ability, nor which version is represented in the comic.
|
|-
| No connecting the Dead Sea to the ocean
| The surface of the Dead Sea is 430.5 metres (1,412 ft) below sea level, so connecting it to the ocean would cause catastrophic flooding of the area. If there are models of Israeli and Jordanian cities next to the Dead Sea, they could get damaged by the water. Also, the model world would be less accurate because the Dead Sea is not connected to the ocean in real life.
|
|-
| Do not let ants into the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
| The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory was a neutrino observatory located at the 2100-meter depth level of the Creighton Mine in Ontario, Canada. It has since been upgraded into the SNOLAB facility. At 1/1000th scale, its meters-scale tunnels would be millimeters across, and its 3,000-meter maximum depth would reach three meters underground. This would make it ideal for habitation by ants, but as the mine is in rock, and not soil, extracting the ants after they get in would be much more difficult than most pest control operations. Also, some types of ants would eat the insulation around the wires, causing electrical short-circuits and other problems, which would be bad because the model's neutrino detectors are apparently functional. (See the row about the south pole neutrino observatory.)
|
|-
| Only one person on the Golden Gate Tightrope at a time
| The {{w|Golden Gate Bridge}} is a suspension bridge in San Francisco, 2.7 km long and 27 m wide. Scaled-down, it would be 2.7 m long and 2.7 cm wide, and it would be tempting to use it as a tightrope.
| In 1987, approximately 300,000 people [https://www.sfgate.com/local-donotuse/article/Golden-Gate-bridge-walk-1987-anniversary-disaster-13896571.php walked across the Golden Gate Bridge], which could be the largest weight it has supported: 80kg * 300,000 = 2.4*10^7kg. A visitor to the scaled world would expect to weigh a much as (1000^3) = 1 billion native scaled humans, above the [https://www.vibrationdata.com/golden.htm total mass of the bridge].
|-
| Do not remove Statue of Liberty LEGO minifig
| Whoever has made this model has decided to use a small LEGO minifigure rather than a more accurately sculpted replica of the Statue of Liberty. The person would likely not want it to be removed because it would then have to be replaced.
| LEGO has released a [https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/magnet-statue-of-liberty-2016-853600 Statue of Liberty minifigure] which is 5.3cm tall. The real Statue of Liberty, from head to toe, is 46 meters tall. At 1/1000 scale this would be a 4.6cm figurine, so the LEGO minifigure would indeed be an appropriate representation at that scale.
|-
| Please stop releasing goldfish in the ocean. They keep eating the blue whales.
| Blue whales usually grow to about 20m long in real life, meaning that at 1/1000th scale they would be only 2cm long, meaning that they could be consumed by a goldfish. Goldfish are omnivores, so they would eat tiny blue whales. But they are also freshwater fish, so would they survive long enough in seawater to put the whales at risk? This could perhaps be considered carping. And perhaps Randall's customers have access to [https://mashable.com/2017/09/20/saltwater-bearing-goldfish-australia/ Australian goldfish].
| This also raises the question of where one would get such tiny blue whales. In the mouseover text, Randall mentions that if real blue whales were to be released into the 1/1000th scale ocean they would filter-feed on the miniature versions. Blue whales usually eat minuscule krill; however, the tiny whales would provide a similarly-sized substitute.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[At the top of the image, inside the panel, a large title is floating in the air.]
:RULES

:For visitors to my 1/1,000th scale world

:1 meter = 1 km 1 ft = 1,000 ft

:[Each of the following rules is written near a character or point of interest on the map.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Illustrations of scale]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Scale World]]

2199: Cryptic Wifi Networks

2019-09-07T02:01:02Z

Arosa: This written in honor of my neighbors' HP-Print-50-Officejet Pro 8610

{{comic
| number = 2199
| date = September 6, 2019
| title = Cryptic Wifi Networks
| image = cryptic_wifi_networks.png
| titletext = They actually showed up on the first scan by the first WiFi-capable device.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Toshiba-U2187-OfficeLink-Net46UHZ. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

There are in many places cryptic WiFi networks that pop up in strange places and it may not be obvious where the router is located. In this comic, [[Randall]] is joking that those networks are an unexplained phenomenon (as opposed the more probable explanation that they come from strangely placed servers or wireless printers).

In the picture, a character with a knit cap is pictured at the top of a high mountain. Checking his phone, he sees a WiFi network even in this remote area.

The name of the network is Toshiba-U2187-OfficeLink-Net46UHZ. {{w|Toshiba}} is a multinational electronics conglomerate. Toshiba make many products, including large office printers. It's very common for printers (especially consumer grade) to have embedded wireless access points that include the manufacturer name on the SSID.

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

:[A human with a knit cap and a backpack is checking his phone at the highest mountain in a mountainous landscape.]

:Phone: Available WiFi Networks
:Phone: Toshiba-U2187-OfficeLink-Net46UHZ
:Phone: [in gray] Join other network

:[Caption below the comic:]
:Tech Trivia: No one actually knows what devices produce those cryptic WiFi networks. They just appear at random across the Earth's surface.

{{comic discussion}}

2180: Spreadsheets

2019-07-25T02:24:19Z

Arosa: /* Explanation */ parameters addee to sequence and regmatch

{{comic
| number = 2180
| date = July 24, 2019
| title = Spreadsheets
| image = spreadsheets.png
| titletext = My brother once asked me if there was a function to produce a calendar grid from a list of dates in Google Sheets. I replied with a single-cell formula that took in a list of dates and outputted a calendar. It used SEQUENCE(), REGEXMATCH(), and a double-nested ARRAYFORMULA(), and it locked up the browser for 15 seconds every time it ran. I think he learned a lot about asking me things.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a REGEXREPLACE(). Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Cueball is doing some task on his computer, with a {{w|Shoulder angel|angel and devil on both sides of him}}, trying to influence his work. The angel is telling him to do things the "right" way, while the devil is telling him to do his work using a {{w|spreadsheet}}, which is considered to be a shortcut or a hack.

The punch line comes when the angel becomes so intrigued by the functions that can be accomplished by spreadsheets, Google Sheets in particular, that it gives up trying to dissuade Cueball, and asks for more information from the devil.

In the title text, Randall mentions a time when he created a calendar grid in Google Sheets using a list of dates. This is described as being done in a "single-cell formula", and taking a long time to run. This shows the power and complexity of spreadsheets, scaring his brother from asking him any further computing questions.

All functions mentioned in this comic can be found in {{w|Google Sheets}}, but similar functions can be found in most modern spreadsheet applications.

REGEXREPLACE(text, regular_expression, replacement)

ARRAYFORMULA(array_formula)

QUERY(data, query, [headers])

IMPORTHTML(url, query, index)

SEQUENCE(rows, columns, start, step)

REGEXMATCH(text, regular_expression)

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

[Cueball is at his computer. In the air on either side of him are an angel version of Cueball, with a halo and wings, and a devil version of Cueball, with horns and a pitchfork.]
[The angel's dialogue appears in regular print, while the devil's dialogue appears in white print in black speech balloons.]
:Angel: Don't use a spreadsheet! Do it '''''right'''''.
:Devil: But a spreadsheet would be so ''easy''.
:Angel: In the long run you'll regret it!

[Closeup on Cueball, the angel, and the devil.]
:Angel: Take the time to write ''real'' code.
:Devil: Just paste the data! Tinker until it works!
:Devil: Build a labyrinth of REGEXREPLACE() and ARRAYFORMULA()!
:Devil: ''Feel the power!''

[Closeup on the devil.]
:Angel (off-panel): Fight the temptation!
:Devil: Ever tried QUERY() in Google Sheets? It lets you treat a block of cells like a database and run SQL queries on them.

[Another shot of Cueball at his computer with the angel and devil at either side.]
:Angel: Don't listen to--
:Angel: ... wait, really?
:Devil: Yes, and let me tell you about IMPORTHTML() ...
:Angel: ''Oooh...''

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

1975: Right Click

2018-04-08T00:57:12Z

Arosa: /* Main Context Menu */ Replaced 'Likely a pun' with the likely source of the pun.

{{comic
| number = 1975
| date = April 1, 2018
| title = Right Click
| image = right_click.png
| titletext = Right-click or long press (where supported) to save!
}}
*'''NOTE:''' The above is what is seen when viewing the comic on xkcd.
**But it is just the stating point of an interactive comic experience, which begins when you ''Right Click'' the comic. 
**To experience the interactive content, click [https://www.xkcd.com/1975/ here].
**See an example of what happens in the [[#Trivia|Trivia section]] below.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please add an explanation table of all functions This is an April Fools comic, so it'll take a while to get organized and much longer to fill out. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This was the eighth [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was not from the year before as there was no such comic [[1818:_Rayleigh_Scattering#No_April_Fools.27_Day_comic_in_2017|released in 2017]]. Instead the previous one was [[1663: Garden]], scheduled for released Friday April 1st 2016, but in the end released on [[1663:_Garden#Monday_4th_of_April_release|Monday April 4th]] 2016.

It will thus be interesting to see if 2019 will be year with or without an April Fools' Day comic. It falls on a Monday so on a scheduled release day. However, this does not necessarily mean anything, because this year Randall once again moved the release day, from Monday April 2nd to Sunday April 1st. This comic thus replaced the Monday release, the second time this happens due to April 1st, last time was back in 2012 with [[1037: Umwelt]], the first time Randall made such comics in consecutive years. That streak ended after 6 comics in 2017, but a new streak may have started now.

This comic pokes fun at how hard it can be to save an image or to just navigate context menus in some computer programs. Likely it is also a reference to the movie "Ready Player One", based on the book by Cline: in the movie, in fact, the purpose was to find an Easter Egg hidden in an Atari video game named "Adventure".

This is an interactive comic which manipulates the context menu of the browser. This menu is typically accessible by a right-click, hence the title, or a long press on mobile devices without a mouse. The title is reminiscent of one of the first interactive comics [[1110: Click and Drag]], where the title explains what the user should do to experience it. However, that was not a fools' day comic!

It should be noted that if you DO manage to save the image somehow (Possibly by right-clicking before the javascript loads, or by pulling it from the source, or by right-click saving it normally from unixkcd), it just shows the initial image of the page with nothing changed. There is not additional joke by actually being able to save the image. Note that if you dig deep enough, there IS a way to save the image from the right click menu, and it DOES get you a different image. However, the other ways previously mentioned do not give you that image, even though you are saving the image.

The comic uses {{w|JavaScript}} and {{w|HTML5}} to override the standard context menu. Since modern browsers use the same features to integrate Add-ons into that menu, the behavior may be different depending on the browser environment. Browsers with JavaScript disabled, either totally or by using {{w|NoScript}}, won't access the functionality of the comic, but of course can easily save the image.

The manipulated context menu is described [[#Context menu|below]].

==Context menu==

===Main Context Menu===
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! # !! Menu Item !! Explanation !! Sub-Menu Items
|-
!1
| '''Save'''
| Only appears after successfully completing the ADVENT.EXE game or getting the Easter egg in Mornington Crescent.
| Save image> Downloads this image. [https://xkcd.com/1975/v6xso1_right_click_save.png]. The image includes a spheroid object near the top right-hand corner which appears to exhibit red shift and green shift, suggesting that it is rotating rapidly.

|-
! 2
| '''File'''
| Normal submenu
|Close: Closes menu, does nothing.
Open: A:\, C:\, / (See more [[#Filesystems Menu|below]])

Find: Where, When, How, (grayed out) What, (grayed out) Why, Who.

'Where' leads to four options. The first, 'computer', has two options ('folder' and 'menus'), which link back to the 'find' and right-click menus, respectively. "Narnia" leads to a link to the comic [[665: Prudence]] as well as to a grey comment about how it's weird that "they" have to die to go back to Narnia.
"Canada" and "America" lead to the same set of bizarre menus (America leads into Canada's menu), which then give the options 'Upper' and 'Lower', ultimately leading to a drive-through and hockey, respectively.

'When' leads to a description of Siri entering someone's home, and the menu can be followed to reveal several further events from 'earlier' in the day. The last one ('a bottle of jack and a toothbrush') is likely a reference to the song 'Tik Tok' by Kesha.

'How' simply leads to an exclamation of 'How!?'.

'What' is grayed out.

'Why' links to [http://itisamystery.com/], ''technically'' answering the question of "Why?"

'Who' leads to a menu version of the Abbot and Costello "Who's on First?" routine, which eventually links to a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg&feature=youtu.be youtube video] of the routine. As of April 4th, a second submenu has been added, which contains Slappy and Skippy's "Who's on Stage?" parody of the previous routine, which also eventually leads to its [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdqv5xIsFLM youtube video].

Backup: Causes the area around the comic to flash red 9 times, with high-pitch sounds reminiscent of a truck backing up. Reminiscent of the Sinclair Spectrum SAVE to tape command, which would flash the border and modulate the speaker.

Save: Only available after the save menu is unlocked after one of the two Easter Eggs is found, allows download of bonus comic.

|-
! 3
| '''Edit'''
| Enables a mode allowing the user to draw on the webpage. Pressing Esc asks "Aw, that looks nice though. Really delete?" and the page returns to normal if OK is clicked.
| None
|-
! 4
| '''System'''
| Normal submenu
|Shut Down> Changes the only menu option to "Power on", then once that is used, system returns to normal.

/ (See [[#Table - Filesystems Menu|below]])
|-
! 5
| '''View'''
| Normal submenu
|Cascade>Links to [http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/Mt._St._Helens,_Washington]

Tile> Links to [[245: Floor Tiles]]

Minimize> Changes pointer to a smaller pointer.

Full Screen> Enters full screen.
|-
! 6
| '''Utilities'''
| Normal submenu
|Park drives> Nothing.

Check space usage> (cannot click) Space usage: -Dark matter -Hydrogen -Helium -Scattered clumps of heavier elements -Stars -Rocks -Some space probes -Earth

Spell check> English (links to [[1069: Alphabet]]) and Colors (links to [https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/])

Train AI> links to [[1838: Machine Learning]]

Identify song> opens a long word-by-word menu for song lyrics; it's actually a menu-ised version of [[851: Na]].

Advanced> several Unix commands, all absurd (or dangerous) for some reason:
* <code>apt-get install /dev/null</code>: <code>apt-get</code> is the standard package manager used in Debian-derived Linux distributions (including Ubuntu); it is normally used to install software; <code>/dev/null</code> is the "bit-bucket" device on any Unix system, which can be used as a dummy output file to discard output or as a dummy empty input file. This command would attempt to install <code>/dev/null</code> (which is a device, not a package!) or, more correctly, would try to install a package reading its data from <code>/dev/null</code> (if <code>apt-get</code> is given a file name it tries to interpret it as a .deb package), which is obviously impossible.
* <code>brew install apt-get</code>: <code>brew</code> is a third-party package manager for macOS; it is generally used to install "missing" open-source utilities on a macOS system; the command is attempting to install the aforementioned <code>apt-get</code>, which is both impossible (<code>apt-get</code> doesn't run on macOS) and hilariously recursive (did you install a package manager - brew - to install another one?). Even if this were possible, the package would have been called <code>apt</code>, as apt-get is only one of the commands in the package manager.
* <code>/usr/local/bin/wine xen-hypervisor.exe</code>: <code>wine</code> is a compatibility layer used to run Windows executables on Linux (and on macOS); the fact that it is in <code>/usr/local</code> hints that it has been manually compiled on this machine; Xen is a Linux-based hypervisor, i.e. a software used to run and manage virtual machines over a Linux host, but the .exe suffix here hints that it is a Windows executable. The command would try to launch a Windows build of a Linux-based virtual machine manager on a Unix machine through a Windows emulation layer (wine).
* <code>source .bash_history</code>: the <code>source</code> shell command reads the file that is given as argument and executes each of its rows as a command in the current shell, roughly as if you typed them in; <code>.bash_history</code> (located in the user home directory) is the file where the bash shell saves the history of the commands that have been run. This command would re-run all the command that have been typed in the shell.
* <code>rm -rf $DIRECTROY/*</code>: <code>rm -rf</code> deletes recursively and forcefully the paths it is given as arguments; <code>$DIRECTROY</code> is a shell variable, probably containing some directory that whoever typed in this command wanted to clean; however, it is misspelled (it says <code>$DIRECTROY</code>, not <code>$DIRECTORY</code>), and, due to how POSIX shell work, it is thus expanded to an empty string; so, the command becomes <code>rm -rf /*</code>, which deletes all the files and directories in the root of the disk, effectively killing the system instead of just deleting the content of some directory. Notice that this particular misspell manages to circumvent the builtin protection of many <code>rm</code> versions, which refuse to do a plain <code>rm -rf /</code>, as <code>/*</code> gets expanded by the shell, so <code>rm</code> never has the chance to see explicitly that you are killing all the data in the root directory.
* <code>:(){:|:&};:</code>: this is [https://askubuntu.com/q/159491/208527 a classic shell fork bomb], i.e. a small program that keeps launching copies of itself, until all resources have been exhausted or the user somehow manages to kill all its copies.
* <code>echo "source .bashrc" >> .bashrc</code>: <code>.bashrc</code> is a file that gets executed whenever the <code>bash</code> shell is started in interactive mode; this command appends the string <code>source .bashrc</code> to it, which effectively executes it again recursively; this would pretty much make it impossible to open an interactive shell when launching it with the default parameters.
* <code>alias gcc=php</code>: the <code>alias</code> shell builtin create an alias for another command; <code>gcc</code> is the GNU C compiler driver, which is used to compile programs written in the C language; <code>php</code> is the command-line interpreter for the PHP language. This line creates an alias such that when typing <code>gcc</code>, <code>php</code> is actually invoked, which would generate completely absurd error messages. This is doubly devious, as PHP isn't generally held in high esteem by large part of the programming community (especially by someone writing stuff in C).

'); DROP TABLE Menus;-- links to [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]
|-
! 7
| '''Games'''
| Normal submenu
| Twenty Questions> A Twenty Questions interface that gets really confusing. There are links to Bing image searches for '[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=okapi&FORM=HDRSC2 okapi]', '[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pronghorn&FORM=HDRSC2 pronghorn]', '[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=eland&FORM=HDRSC2 eland]', '[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=baribusa&FORM=HDRSC2 baribusa]', '[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=musk%20deer&FORM=HDRSC2 musk deer]' and '[https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ibex&FORM=HDRSC2 ibex]'. The game also contains some extremely large cans of creamed corn (a reference to [[1807: Listening]]).

Rock Paper Scissors> A Rock Paper Scissors game where the computer always matches your move. If you go long enough, the Defect option is added, a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma Prisoner's Dilemma].

D&D> A complex Dungeons and Dragons interface. Allows you to cast various spells from D&D 5e which link to various pages, including xkcd comics (e.g. [[1331: Frequency]]), what-ifs (e.g. {{what if|144|Saliva Pool}}) and other external sites (e.g. [https://www.nasa.gov/sun The Sun | NASA]). See [https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/88vwoe/xkcds_latest_comic_has_a_dd_easter_egg/ post on /r/dndnext] for all 285 links and 11 extra effects.

ADVENT.EXE> A text-based game. If played correctly, you can win, unlocking 'Save'>'Save image' from the beginning menu, which links to [https://xkcd.com/1975/v6xso1_right_click_save.png]. 'ADVENT.EXE>Castle>Well>Wish for...' has links to comics [[572: Together]], [[1053: Ten Thousand]], [[152: Hamster Ball]], [[1196: Subways]], [[231: Cat Proximity]] and to what-if articles {{what if|111|All the Money}} and {{what if|9|Soul Mates}}. The C-remover is a reference to either the T-remover from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_Goddesses_of_Phobos Leather Goddess of Phobos] or the multi-letter remover from [http://emshort.com/counterfeit_monkey/ Counterfeit Monkey], a text adventure by Emily Short inspired by it. At one point in the maze, the options to travel are N, S, and Dennis instead of the usual N, E, S, W; this is a reference to the text-based game [http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Thy_Dungeonman Thy Dungeonman] found in a Strong Bad email from [http://homestarrunner.com homestarrunner.com].

Hoverboard> Links to [[1608: Hoverboard]] browser game.

Mornington Crescent> This is a simulation of the well-known game {{W|Mornington_Crescent_(game)|Mornington Crescent}}, which bears a surprising resemblance to {{W|London_Underground|London's Underground}} railway network. Players name a station, in turn, endeavouring to reach Mornington Crescent. The rules of play are very complicated and beyond the scope of this article; interested persons are referred to ''N. F. Stovold’s Mornington Crescent: Rules and Origins'' (sadly out of print). In this variation, one may reach 'Vauxhall'>'Easter basket'>'Take egg', also allowing you to save. The shortest path to the Easter basket is: Euston / Warren Street / Oxford Circus / Green Park / Victoria / Pimlico / Vauxhall / Easter basket

All playable stations are immediately adjacent on the London Underground network to the station last played. Despite the fact that this version of the game starts at Euston, which is adjacent to Mornington Crescent, the branch of the {{W|Northern_line|Northern line}} on which the {{W|Mornington_Crescent_tube_station|eponymous station}} is situated does not appear in the game.
|-
! 8
| '''Help'''
| Contains various submenus, all of which, barring Credits, loop back recursively to this menu:
|Tutorial
Support

Manual

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Guide

Q&A

User forums

--------------

Credits> 'Some people who helped with this comic:
[http://chromakode.com/ @chromakode]
[https://twitter.com/aiiane Amber]
[https://twitter.com/fadinginterest @fadinginterest]
[https://twitter.com/wirehead2501 Kat]
[https://twitter.com/cotrone Kevin]
[http://90d.ca/ Stereo]'
|-
! 9
| '''Do Crimes'''
| Contains several "crimes" that can be committed. This option is unlocked by File > Open > C:\ (or /home/user) > Bookmarks/ > Secret > Enable Dark Web.
| Steal Bitcoins > Grayed out.
Say swears > Several clean swears that all link to [[771: Period Speech]].

Hack > Three sub-options that link to various related comics. (Gibson: Nothing. Election: [[1019: First Post]]. Planet: [[1337: Hack]].)

Forge a Scrabble Tile > Several sub-options that don't do anything. (U, Z, <this menu option intentionally left blank>, and two special characters, one being a Russian 'Э', as low-pitched [eh], and the second being a crossed swords emoji (⚔)
|}

====Filesystems Menu====

{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
! Drive !! Menu Item !! Explanation !! Sub-Menu Items
|-
! A:\
| '''Insert'''
| Only appears before inserting a floppy disk.
|Floppy disk> Unlocks other options for drive A:\, which are identical to drive C:\
Chip card> A long sequence of being told 'Please wait. Authorizing...' ending in 'Chip error! REMOVE CARD NOW!'
|-
! C:\
| '''Documents/'''
| Nothing.
| None.
|-
! C:\
| '''Music/'''
| Leads to a long string of prompts for song lyrics. 'Hey now / Hey now na now / Sing "This Corrosion" to me' inverts the webpage's color before Easter egg mode is enabled, and plays the referenced song in the browser with inverted color and flashing if the Easter egg mode is enabled. It's actually the same menu that is shown under Utilities>Identify song (which itself is a menu-ised version of [[851: Na]]).
| 'Hey now / Hey now / Don't dream it's over' links to [[240: Dream Girl]]. 'This / is / a / story all about how / my life got flipped, turned upside down' links to [[464: RBA]]. 'This / is / the / story of a girl / who cried a river and drowned the whole world' links to a Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_FVAEYRM5I
|-
! C:\
| '''Bookmarks/'''
| Similar to Music/, Bookmarks/> Comics leads to a chain from which many comics are titled and linked. Probably all comics actually. For instance he thus here recognizes his first April Fools' comic [[404: Not Found]], which cannot be found, as a real comic by linking to it. Bookmarks/> Secret> Enable Dark Web adds the 'Dark Web' option to the initial menu.
|-
! C:\
| '''Games/'''
| Same as 'Games' from the initial menu.
|-
! C:\
| '''Sequences/'''
| The options are the lines from a ''Tim and Eric'' sketch [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/celery-man Celery Man]; the final option links to a YouTube video of the sketch.
| After several single-option menus, it links to this Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHWBEK8w_YY
|-
! /
| '''home/'''
| Nothing.
| guest> links to [//uni.xkcd.com|uniXKCD]. UniXKCD is itself something of an April Fools comic, as it was created on April 1st 2010 while the comic from the day before, [[721: Flatland]] was still up, i.e. it was not an April fools' comic. In addition to having a comic browsing interface, there are several one line responses (hint can give 'Use the source, Luke!'), a text-based adventure, and some commands (like man cat) do something you wouldn't expect (like saying 'you are now riding a half-man half-cat'). It is a reference to the {{W|Telenet}}. More on UniXKCD commands can be found in the [[721:_Flatland#UniXKCD|UniXKCD]] section of the Flatland comoic.

user> Same files as C:\

root> Displays 'You are not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.'
|-
! /
| '''opt/'''
| Does nothing.
| None.
|-
! /
| '''sbin/'''
| Does nothing.
| None.
|-
! /
| '''usr/'''
| Opens an infinite sequence of options, each similar to the last, but replacing the previous selection with another folder; probably a reference to the fact that [https://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/usr.html the /usr hierarchy] does contain a list of subdirectories pretty much identical [https://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/the-root-directory.html to those of the root directory].
|-
! /
| '''dev/'''
| Nothing.
|random/> links to a random xkcd comic.
urandom/> links to [[221: Random Number]]
|}

==Transcript==
:[Empty frame with Cueball standing slightly right of center.]

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Editor's Note: Today's comic is optimized for local viewing. To see the full version, just save a copy of the image!

==Trivia==
*Here is an example of how the game looks when entered:
[[File:1975_Right_Click_Systems_menu.png]]

{{comic discussion}}



[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1615: Red Car

2015-12-11T21:10:02Z

Arosa: /* Explanation */ an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal chemical element

{{comic
| number = 1615
| date = December 11, 2015
| title = Red Car
| image = red_car.png
| titletext = That guy only drives an alkaline car to overcompensate for his highly acidic penis.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a take on the common stereotype that men who drive large, expensive, and/or ostentatious cars (such as sports cars, highly-modified cars, and lifted pick-up trucks), do so in order to compensate for insecurity about their manhood. Typically this is summarized as saying they are compensating for having small penises.

{{w|Cyan}} is a greenish-blue color that is not a basic color term in most languages. It is the {{w|complementary color}} to red in the CMYK (subtractive) or RGB (additive) color models.

[[Megan]], upon seeing [[Hairy]] drive past in a red convertible, tells [[Cueball]] that he must be compensating for his cyan colored penis.

This comic thus generalizes the original stereotype to an assumption that men drive cars that compensate for problems with their penis. Under this principle, a red car would complement (be the opposite of) a cyan penis.

In the title text two other opposites are mentioned: {{w|acid}} and {{w|alkaline}}. An alkaline solutions is a basic solution. People that drive basic cars are compensating for their acidic penises.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are standing next to an intersection as Hairy drives by in a red convertible.]
:Megan: I bet he just drives that car to overcompensate for his cyan penis.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

612: Estimation

2015-09-15T04:06:17Z

Arosa: /* Explanation */ not informing the user does not solve but avoids the problem

{{comic
| number = 612
| date = July 20, 2009
| title = Estimation
| image = estimation.png
| titletext = They could say "the connection is probably lost," but it's more fun to do naive time-averaging to give you hope that if you wait around for 1,163 hours, it will finally finish.
}}

==Explanation==
When moving or copying files using the {{w|File Explorer|Windows Explorer}}, a dialog box opens to inform the user of how many of the files being moved have been moved with an estimate of how long the rest of the files should take. However, this estimate is often subject to seemingly random and extreme changes from a time measured in seconds or minutes to one measured in hours or days. This is because Windows bases its estimate on the latest file transfer rate, which exaggerates short-term fluctuations. For instance, transfers of many small files are generally slower than transfers of a few large files, because of per-file overhead (time spent writing data describing the file's title, location, etc. to the disk). A brief slowdown may cause the system to display that the transfer will take a long time (based on the total amount of data yet be transferred and the current low speed), while a sudden burst of data moved quickly between memory caches will give a time that is much too small.

A better implementation would keep track of the average file transfer rate over the entire operation, which would even out the bumps and give a more accurate estimate. Windows 8 avoids the problem by doing away with the time estimate.

The joke in the comic is the idea that this feature was actually purposely implemented and that the person who did so actually talks like that. He tells some friends on the phone how long it will take for him to arrive at their meeting point. However, like with Windows's estimation feature, he quickly changes his estimate multiple times from the extremes of days to seconds due to small fluctuations in traffic flow (like when he has to stop on a red light and then he speeds up on green).

The title text refers to the fact that if the connection is lost, and data can no longer be transmitted, the estimation just gets larger and larger as time goes on rather than realizing that no data being sent means there is no connection. A behavior that occurs on {{w|Microsoft}} network connections even when the connection is not lost.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: I'm just outside town, so I should be there in fifteen minutes.
:Cueball: Actually, it's looking more like six days.
:Cueball: No, wait, thirty seconds.

:The author of the Windows file copy dialog visits some friends.

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