explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3227: Creation

2026-04-14T11:23:13Z

Baruch: fix typo

{{comic
| number = 3227
| date = April 1, 2026
| title = Creation
| image = creation_2x.png
| imagesize = 567x198px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This xkcd.com update introduces a variety of new reading modes which can be activated through the menu.
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 18
| date = April 1, 2026
| days_late =
| day_category = Wednesday
| prev_title = 3074: Push Notifications
| prev_date = April 9, 2025
| next_title =
| next_date =
}}
To experience the interactivity of the web page, visit the {{xkcd|3227|original comic}}!

==Explanation==
In this {{w|April Fool's Day}} comic, several new viewing modes have been added to the xkcd website, accessible through a {{w|drop-down list}} beneath the comic (not visible on Explain xkcd). This allows various different viewing experiences for the entire website, including older comics. Some are "normal" viewing modes, like the typical "light" and "dark" modes, but others take such things further and/or in more esoteric ways. This includes an "airplane mode" (see below) that parodies and subverts the {{w|Airplane mode|normal implementation}}.

The accompanying comic references one of the first lines of the {{w|Bible}} (Genesis 1:3), wherein God creates light. Here, though, before God has a chance to fully appreciate their work, a person on Earth immediately requests an implementation of {{w|dark mode}}. Dark mode is a feature on many websites and devices which displays text in white against a black background instead of the default black text on a white background. In low ambient light this makes for a less intense viewing experience that is easier on the eyes, so many people who spend a lot of time looking at screens prefer dark mode (whereas casual users often find light mode easier to read). On OLED screens, another benefit is that less battery life is consumed because of the primarily low brightness of the screen, which makes it useful for those who want to be energy-efficient or extend their battery life.

This demand represents a common experience for web and app designers, who spend a lot of time creating something that looks beautiful to them, and in their particular use case, only to find when it is put out into the wild that it doesn't suit the needs of many of their actual users, who don't particularly care about the effort they've put in.

Dark mode is not usually implemented on planets,{{cn}} although one could argue that night-time is effectively Earth's "dark mode", which could have been created by God as a response to the person. (That seems likely, in fact, given that the very next words in Genesis 1:4 are "and he separated the light from the darkness".) The comic deviates somewhat from traditional Judeo-Christian theology, as in Genesis the day/night cycle was created on the first day, but humans were created on the sixth day - thus, the "dark mode" (night-time) would already have been implemented by the time humans existed. Possibly the person is actually requesting a dark mode that can be toggled at will, rather than one which occurs automatically each day.

Unlike most comics, the title text contains no jokes, but rather explains the update and gives basic instructions.

The comic credits the "Excellent Design Team", consisting of Amber, Benjamin Staffin, and Kevin who helped create the modes.

This credit was also implemented as the new [[Header text]], so that the explanation for the new mode would be visible when viewing all other comics on xkcd, as well as the credit to the design team, see more details [[Header_text#2026-04-07_-_Reading_Modes|here]].

===List of Modes===
; Light Mode
: The usual site experience. Typically, where sites have light and dark modes, light is the default option, so as to mimic ink on paper (such as printed {{w|newspaper comic strip}}s).

; Lighter Mode
: The entire web page is filtered to look {{w|Exposure (photography)#Overexposure and underexposure|overexposed}}, making colors wash out and reducing the contrast.

; Dark Mode
: A standard "white content on black background" dark mode. Specifically, Dark Mode inverts the colors of the page (which makes a {{w|Negative (photography)|colour-negative}} and then hue-rotates it by 180 degrees (to make hue return to normal, only brightness-reversed. (For example, see comic [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution|556]], with dark mode enabled, to see how the hue is maintained.) The background of the page, normally light blue, becomes a dark blue; (near-)whites become (near-)blacks, and vice-versa, only mid-tones staying the same. This inversion makes the content of this particular comic, with the original transition from a dark pane to "let there be light" panes and the subsequent request for this very feature, particularly nonsensical, as it seems to start fully bright, then darken as God creates light.

; Darkest Mode
: Everything on the webpage turns completely black (severely 'underexposed', in effect, the opposite to "Lighter mode" but also even more extreme). The exception is the drop-down menu widget, which may appear as merely a dark gray — and depending upon the browser itself, the dropped-down menu may be its 'natural' appearance when it becomes fully active — which is of course extremely helpful for navigating back out of this mode or onward onto others.

; Blurry Mode
: {{w|Blur (photographic effect)|Blurs}} the entire webpage. This is not conventionally desirable as it makes it harder to read text and interpret visuals. Whereas light and dark mode support can improve {{w|Web accessibility|accessibility}} for certain vision conditions, this mode makes already poor vision even worse.

; Grayscale Mode
: Applies a standard {{w|grayscale}}/{{w|Colorfulness#Saturation|desaturation}} conversion filter to the entire webpage. Many devices provide a grayscale mode as one of their color filter settings, which can simulate different {{w|color vision deficiencies}}. Grayscale specifically can also help improve focus by preventing colors from catching the eye and making distractions less visually appealing.

; Greyscale Mode
: Operates identically to Grayscale Mode, but also changes the spelling of "math" in the slogan at the top of the page to "maths" (to go along with the respective {{w|American and British English spelling differences|British English}} use of ''{{wiktionary|gray}}/{{wiktionary|grey}}'').

; Dorian Greyscale Mode
: Makes the webpage slowly turn grey, including darkening/fading-to-grey 'white' areas. This refers to ''{{w|The Picture of Dorian Gray}}'', in which the titular character has a portrait that slowly ages and fades out while the character stays young and handsome. The transformation finishes after 5 minutes.

: Of note is that the surname of the titular character is "{{w|Grey (disambiguation)#People|Gray}}" (as is still common, if not dominant, in Britain), but the mode itself is named for the primary British/non-American standard English version of the word for such a hueless shade.

: No relation to the {{w|Dorian mode}}, a musical scale.

; Space Opera Mode
: Turns the entire page into a ''{{w|Star Wars}}''-style opening scroll, which loops round until you change the mode. Scrolling the mouse scrolls up or down through the page content. {{w|Space opera}} is a genre of sci-fi that ''Star Wars'' falls under. Opera is the name of a web browser, though it does not usually display content in this way.

; 3D Mode
: Makes the comic render in {{w|Anaglyph 3D|anaglyphic stereoscopy}}. [[Randall]] has used 3D space before for [[848|another joke comic]].

; Origami Mode
: Rotates and folds various pieces of the webpage, as if it were {{w|origami}}-folded.

; Ink Mode
: Recolors the webpage as if drawn in blue ink, which is often used for the initial roughing-out of a drawing.

; Spring Mode
: Gives the comic a simple physics simulation, making it slightly rotate around an axis when the page is scrolled, and giving it a {{w|springboard}} look, hence the name. The axis around which the page precesses is perpendicular to the axis the user scrolls on. This means that when the page is scrolled vertically (the usual direction), the comic wobbles around a horizontal axis, but when scrolled horizontally (if your screen size or zoom allows it), the comic precesses about the vertical axis.

; Antipodes Mode
: Turns the entire webpage upside down. An {{w|antipodes|antipode}} is the point on the Earth's surface directly opposite of another, but "The Antipodes" is also a term used to refer to {{w|Australia}} and {{w|New Zealand}} by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. Note: When the comic was first published this was labeled "Southern Hemisphere Mode".

; Hacker Mode
: Recolors the entire webpage in the stereotypical green-on-black coding environment color scheme often used by {{w|hacker}}s in film and TV. This visual shorthand is a holdover from early {{w|monochrome monitor}}s that used P1 phosphor. (Modern terminal software has no such limitations, and many programmers today use {{w|syntax highlighting}} to color-code operators and keywords.)

; Screensaver Mode
: Makes the comic float around on the webpage, bouncing as it hits the edges. A common type of {{w|screensaver}} has some text or other element drifting around the screen in this way. Many people ended up watching such screensavers, waiting for the bouncing graphic to hit the corner of the screen. Like with Hacker Mode, there is an element of nostalgia to this; screensavers are less necessary on modern LCD screens, so fewer setups use them.

; Modem Mode
: Slowly reveals the comic from top to bottom, as if slowly loading (but [[598: Porn|only in approximation]]) the way images often used to have to be progressively rendered from a low-rate stream of image data in the days of more limited dial-up connections and also a lower-performance {{w|internet backbone}} in general. This is accompanied by audio of the sound of a {{w|modem}} communicating over such a connection. NB - this mode does not appear to function correctly/reliably for some viewers.

; Stained Glass Mode
: Fills each closed area of the comic with a separate color to mimic the look of {{w|stained glass}} imagery. The colors vary each time this mode is selected or the page is reloaded in this mode, which works by flooding a single pseudorandom hue over all areas of near-white, each flood bounded only by any sufficiently dark or saturated drawn line/border. Strangely enough, on this mode you can't see the title text. This is because the canvas used to apply the hues is functionally covering the image: the javascript used to do this should have been made to copy the comic image's title attribute and make it apply to the overlaid canvas for the benefit of the browser.

; Airplane Mode
: Makes the comic fly around on the page, with the {{w|onomatopoeia}} "NYOOM!" written next to it, as if it were an {{w|airplane}}. This is unlike the usual use of {{w|airplane mode}} to refer to disabling the cellphone (or all {{w|radio frequency}}) features of a mobile device, as required on most flights. Of course, the website's "Airplane Mode" does no such thing, and would be pointless to enable on an airplane.{{cn}}

; Boat Mode
: Makes the entire webpage tilt back and forth, emulating the way a boat rolls on the water. While [[165: Turn Signals|extremely unlikely]], this could theoretically counteract the rocking motion of a boat, stabilizing the page content. In practice, it is unlikely to help with {{w|seasickness}}. (As of 2024, some smart devices started offering a "vehicle motion cues" feature that is meant to reduce motion sickness, although it is designed for road vehicles rather than watercraft.)

: This mode is a reference to the longstanding mention of a Boat Mode in the [[footnote]], which says "Remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode".

==Transcript==
:[Black background with white caption boxes.]
:Caption: And God said,
:Caption:"Let there be light,"

:[A bright explosion of light from a star in the center, with a white caption box.]
:Caption: And there was light.

:[The star with bright rays of light is shown against the horizon of a planet.]
:[The same planet horizon is shown with a clear sky above.]
:Caption: God saw that the light was-
:Voice from the planet: Can you add support for dark mode?

<noinclude>{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:April Fools' Day comics]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Comics with custom header texts]]
</noinclude>

Talk:3195: International Station

2026-01-21T09:31:03Z

Baruch:

Sometimes I wonder if some of these comics aren't just for the sake of seeing whatever explain xkcd users come up with [[Special:Contributions/2A01:CB19:FAB:3100:D027:1047:976:8EE2|2A01:CB19:FAB:3100:D027:1047:976:8EE2]] 22:25, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

Holy refresh pull exclamation mark! tilde tilde tilde tilde --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]]''''' 14:55, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

Should the "not-earth" "space" be changed to something like "the void between astronomical bodies"? I'm not sure if, say, the surface of the Moon or Mars or {{w|A Taste of Armageddon|Eminiar VII}} count as being "in space". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:27, 16 January 2026 (UTC)
: I think "space" gets used pretty frequently for "not-Earth". Consider that NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and launches probes to other astronomical bodies. People talk about the Moon landing as being part of the "space program". "Spacemen from Mars" is a reasonably common phrase. [[Special:Contributions/163.116.254.45|163.116.254.45]] 19:38, 19 January 2026 (UTC)
:: Try getting to (or from) the Moon (or Mars) ''without'' using using space at all. I challenge you. (If you can do it, there's probably a Nobel Prize in it for you. Or just a life of far more mundane wealth-accumulation. Possibly in an entirely undetectable but criminal sense.) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.11.33|92.23.11.33]] 20:11, 19 January 2026 (UTC)
:Let us not forget {{w|https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/space#Verb|the verb form of "space"}} but I am unsure how to work it in here! [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 23:16, 19 January 2026 (UTC)
::I believe that you intended to write <code><nowiki>{{wiktionary|space#Verb|the verb form of "space"}}</nowiki></code>, as in '{{wiktionary|space#Verb|the verb form of "space"}}', for a start. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.11.33|92.23.11.33]] 00:24, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

I initially interpreted the cartoon as showing the people and objects floating within something gloopy, and the wrench as a bone, and that the joke was about an "internal space station". Here we are, inside a gelatinous cube, or possibly a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immunity_Syndrome_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series) gigantic space amoeba]... [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:43, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

'''New Category: Weightless''' There are a few strips that take place demonstrating micro-gravity, right? Is that worthy of a category? The 'space' tag could be used for comics ''about'' space or comics ''in'' space (or, I guess, comics on planets?). [[Special:Contributions/191.101.157.82|191.101.157.82]] 17:08, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I think the ISS was originally called start quote Alpha end quote period tilde tilde tilde tilde [[Special:Contributions/134.173.108.120|134.173.108.120]] 18:23, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

I'm early! [[Special:Contributions/2603:7083:8700:E02:FE51:837E:B6F:327|2603:7083:8700:E02:FE51:837E:B6F:327]] 18:24, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

It took me a moment to get it, but when I did this xkcd made me capitals LOL which doesn't happen often [[Special:Contributions/2401:D005:D402:7A00:7FE1:F042:B839:91B8|2401:D005:D402:7A00:7FE1:F042:B839:91B8]] 21:23, 16 January 2026 (UTC)
:You forgot tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde tilde --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]]''''' 21:31, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

At least it's not the International Ampersand En Bee Ess Pee Semicolon Station ellipsis tilde tilde tilde tilde [[Special:Contributions/174.142.148.226|174.142.148.226]] 21:42, 16 January 2026 (UTC)
:Speaking of Ampersand Aa Em Pee Semicolon, that's a real life example of this effect actually happening. It was at the end of the alphabet where they would say "X, Y, Z, and, per sé, 'and'". Tilde tilde tilde tilde. Not sure if that is relevant enough to the comic though. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 02:26, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

Dear Bot, don't get this Irishperson started on apostrophes. [[Special:Contributions/205.175.118.102|205.175.118.102]] 22:57, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

From John Littlewood's "A Mathematician's Miscellany": A minute I wrote (about 1917) for the Ballistic Office ended with the sentence 'Thus a should be made as small as possible'. This did not appear in the printed minute. But P. J. Grigg said, 'what is that?' A speck in a blank space at the end proved to be the tiniest a I have ever seen (the printers must have scoured London for it).[[User:Lordpishky|Lord Pishky]] ([[User talk:Lordpishky|talk]]) 03:59, 17 January 2026 (UTC)

International Space Space Space Station? [[User:Inexplicable|Inexplicable]] ([[User talk:Inexplicable|talk]]) 07:17, 17 January 2026 (UTC)
:International Space Space Space Space Space Space Space Station? [[User:Logalex8369|Logalex8369]] ([[User talk:Logalex8369|talk]]) 17:22, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

These comments make me want to see if you could have "tildetildetildetilde"(the actual characters) as your account name. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:18, 18 January 2026 (UTC)
:Nope, typing ~~<nowiki />~~ gives an invalid username error. [[Special:Contributions/2A04:4E41:6405:35F:0:0:EB9C:B35F|2A04:4E41:6405:35F:0:0:EB9C:B35F]] 05:49, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

This one reminds me of 3143 a bit too much. [[User:Explainyourself|Explainyourself]] ([[User talk:Explainyourself|talk]]) 03:45, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

Am I the only one that interpreted it as "originally it was not supposed to be a space station but rather a 'regular' (ie. terrestrial) station, but because of a transcribing mistake they put it in space, hence the random floating stuff" {{unsigned|Baruch|10:04, 19 January 2026 (UTC)}} [[User:Baruch|Baruch]] ([[User talk:Baruch|talk]]) 09:31, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

:That is a good insight! I think the wording is open to this kind of interpretation. (Interestingly, the "random floating stuff" does not include a sketch of the station interior itself, or any structure, ''per se''.) [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 18:50, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

The main page has been vandalized with a floating picture of Osama Bin Laden. {{unsigned ip|65.35.147.191|15:39, 19 January 2026}}
:I just dealt with that. If I have to deal with it again, then I will. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.8|82.132.244.8]] 16:01, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi, the headlines regarding ISS crew issues began on 8 January, not 15 January. [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 00:39, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Hi, "SEAOFBLUE" or whatever the editor objects to is a red herring. The main point is the ''early return''. The medical issue is the stated reason for that return, but the Wikipedia entry describes the return, and definitely does not provide any medical details. Nobody has. The main point is the early return process. [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 00:42, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
:Whatever. Just doesn't need twenty words (no, I didn't count them) in the link to the external resource about it. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.11.33|92.23.11.33]] 00:50, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
:And, note, the comic with the ISS-related joke did not come out on Friday 9th, Monday 12th or Wednesday 14th, also. Leaving it more dissassociated from the 8/Jan/2026 announcement than the actual 15/Jan/2026 return. I can't say how long the idea had been stewing in Randall's head, before publishing, but he's usually quicker than a week to respond to obviously topical events. So if that's what he's done, I think we're on shakier ground trying to link it to the initial news item than its possible inspiration being the successful one. If one needs the connection.
:That's entirely leaving aside from the possibility that he deliberately waited until they were all safely back on Earth (and the emergency, whatever its nature, hadn't worsened) before doing something too funny, just in case it went sour. But then the link to the return is even more definite. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.11.33|92.23.11.33]] 01:00, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
::We could still be thorough and say the news cycle was 8–15 January. And where is it written that wikilinks should not have all the words in them? Why is 4 words better than 9? Why is "to Earth" dangling outside of the phrase? There isn't even any punctuation or a... grammatical reason to chop it up this way. Where is it written? Where did we arrive at consensus? Why argue with IPv4 that only has 4 days of contribs? [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 03:39, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
:::As an IPv4 myself (and proud of it... and also IPv6s leave far less room in the explanation if I ever want to ''explain'' why I revert something they do, unless I snip the default reversion info down - which I might as well do, TBH), please don't make the mistake of thinking only 4 days of any given address is only 4 days of presence here. These things are dynamic (what's more, only fairly recently have they not been the Cloudflare gateway IPs that bunched contributors up into a different set of dynamic IP groups), and theoretically there are 232 potential IP addresses that we could bounce around (ok, so remove the RFC 1918 subnet masks and some other technically unlikely parts of the range, like multicast... see [[195: Map of the Internet]] for an idea of the possible proportion of 0.0.0.0/0 that might be end-IPs).
:::For links, yes be economical. I hate {{w|Hyperlink#Link behavior in web browsers|so much text being put into a link that the effective context of what that link is cannot be easily determined by eye, and which leaves large bits of blue (with or without underline, depending upon additional CSS/etc) initially, then typically that purplish shade (again with or without underline) if I find that I've visited it, so that I'm forced to hover over the link to get more idea of what I'm clicking}} upon. If you can't be usefully focussed with what text the {{w|Hyperlink#Link behavior in web browsers|link}} is tied to, you've probably not even made sure the link is the most apt one possible.
:::And try to hit the middle-ground. Don't just link to '{{tvtropes|SelfDemonstratingArticle|here}}', nor go beyond more than the basic necessary number of words when the possibly {{tvtropes|SesquipedalianLoquaciousness|Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness}} of the target page title is not something you're deliberately quoting. This is basic online-etiquette, people, which was already something that pre-HTML hyperlinking systems encouraged even before Web 1.0 came on the scene. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.239.241|82.132.239.241]] 04:57, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
::::''{{w|De gustibus non est disputandum}}'' [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 07:56, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
::I would say, if we are speculating about what went on in Randall's mind, that no matter how long it was "in the can", that publishing this comic at that time would be contingent on the safe return of the crew. [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 03:48, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

The Hubble Telescope suffered from the same transcription issue - and we don't have Roscosmos to blame for that. --[[Special:Contributions/2A09:BAC2:637A:1250:0:0:1D3:76|2A09:BAC2:637A:1250:0:0:1D3:76]] 01:14, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
:I think it is high time that I make a pilgrimage to the "{{w|Vatican Observatory|Vatican Space Observatory}}" on "{{w|Mount Graham International Observatory|Mount Space Graham}}", and discuss their "transcription errors", as well. [[User:Elizium23|Elizium23]] ([[User talk:Elizium23|talk]]) 03:45, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3195: International Station

2026-01-19T10:04:20Z

Baruch:

Talk:2953: Alien Theories

2024-07-02T07:44:59Z

Baruch:

I understood this differently. I think the UFOs have come to Earth to investigate our conspiracy theories about UFOs with capabilities far beyond what the "real" UFOs posses. [[User:Baruch|Baruch]] ([[User talk:Baruch|talk]]) 07:43, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2953: Alien Theories

2024-07-02T07:43:51Z

Baruch:

I understood this differently. I think the UFOs have come to Earth to investigate the conspiracy theories about UFOs with capabilities far beyond what they posses. [[User:Baruch|Baruch]] ([[User talk:Baruch|talk]]) 07:43, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2953: Alien Theories

2024-07-02T07:43:26Z

Baruch:

I understood this differently. I think the UFOs have come to Earth to investigate the conspiracy theories about UFOs with capabilities far beyond what they posses.

2744: Fanservice

2023-03-02T08:40:58Z

Baruch:

{{comic
| number = 2744
| date = March 1, 2023
| title = Fanservice
| image = fanservice_2x.png
| imagesize = 188x278px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I was eventually kicked out of my architectural engineering program because I wouldn't stop referring to HVAC as "the fandom."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an HVAC ROCK BAND - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is very similar to [[2036: Edgelord]] and [[2654: Chemtrails]]. In all three of these comics, a modern slang term or just a commonly used word ("chemtrails" was the case in 2654) is used to describe a job, and while the slang or word seems accurate, it isn't the normally used term for the job. Previously a graph theory PHD was labeled an "edgelord", a reference to how mathematical graphs have edges, but this time a turbine maintenance engineer is called out for doing a lot of fanservice, as in, literally servicing/maintaining a huge fan (with which turbines are often inaccurately conflated). In the other comic, trails of ant pheromones were labeled as "chemtrails", a reference to how pheromones are chemicals.{{citation needed}}

A second order of dissonance is introduced from the difference between fans and turbines, which are designed to work towards opposite purposes. Randall has previously touched on wind turbines ''not'' being fans, most notably in [[1378: Turbine]].

{{wiktionary|fanservice|Fanservice}} is a term often used to describe certain decisions made in TV or film productions that make some form of knowing nod to the viewers that isn't necessary to the plot or visualization of the work. It can just mean inserting obscure details of the work's back-history, to spark gleeful recognition amongst the more devoted fans, or it could be increasing the ridiculousness of character's behavior (often due to one or other overly contrived reason) to live up to their stereotype. A frequent form of this is the {{tvtropes|MsFanservice|Ms. Fanservice}} trope, where the more glamorous female characters find themselves in more figurehugging clothing, clothing that actually covers {{tvtropes|ChainmailBikini|much less of their figure}} than should be practical or even find themselves shoehorned into a situation where they {{tvtropes|CensorSuds|aren't wearing}} even their 'normal' skimpy outfit.

In the title text, Cueball refers to HVAC (a term for the unified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems of a given building) as "the fandom." Normally, "fandom" means the group of fans of something, but here refers to a system that relies on lots of fans.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to White Hat, who has his hands balled into fists and has small lines above his head to indicate he is yelling his response back at Cueball.]
:Cueball: So, I hear you do a lot of fanservice.
:White Hat: '''''No!'''''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How to annoy a turbine maintenance engineer

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]
[[Category:How to annoy]]

2626: d65536

2022-05-31T07:42:35Z

Baruch: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2626
| date = May 30, 2022
| title = d65536
| image = d65536.png
| titletext = They're robust against quantum attacks because it's hard to make a quantum system that large.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HEXAKISMYRIAPENTAKISCHILIAPENTAHECTATRIACONTAKAIHEXAHEDRON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In binary computing, 16 bit numbers range from 0 to 65535 (or 1 to 65536). Generating large numbers randomly is a recurring problem in cryptography.

In roleplaying games (and occasionally in other tabletop games), dice are often referred to as d[number] according to their number of sides. A traditional six-sided die would be a d6, and many popular pen-and-paper roleplaying games use dice ranging between d4 and d20. Dice larger than a d20 are rare specialty dice, and are often nicknamed "golf balls" to emphasize how unwieldy they are.

Here, Cueball has somehow constructed a d65536 for generating random 16 bit numbers. It has solved the problem of being secure from a cryptography standpoint, but presents a new set of challenges from its sheer size, dwarfing an average human. While large in itself, a die that big could still be emulated by rolling multiple dice (e.g. 8 4-sided dice or 16 coin flips) and converting the result into binary before getting the desired number. Part of the humor stems from the the comic completely failing to mention another big problem with this die: Deciding which of the 65536 sides is up.

The closest regular shape similar to the depicted in the comic could be a {{w|Goldberg polyhedron}}. However no such polyhedron exists with exactly 65536 hexagonal faces. The closest Goldberg Polyhedron has a mixture of 65520 hexagons and 12 pentagons, totaling 65532 sides.

The title text references how many cryptographic systems (especially RSA and other factoring-is-hard based systems) are hypothetically vulnerable to quantum attacks if we could build quantum computers large and coherent enough to actually compute on more than a few qubits. The title text is essentially punning on the idea of a "large" quantum system. "Large" in the quantum computing sense would be on the order of 64 qubits each of which would be an atom or two at most. This would still be microscopic and will never be as large as the giant die the comic is centered on. It also is an example of the concept that cryptography normally isn't broken (see [[538]]), but one somehow finds a way around it, like in this place not breaking the cryptographic algorithm or the code, but instead trying to find out what numbers the RNG produces.

==Trivia==
If a real d65536 were constructed with each number having an equal area and each printed in 12 point font, the resulting die would be about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter.
If it were made out of standard acrylic, it would weigh about 2 tons (1700kg).

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

[Drawing of a large die with many sides, about ten meters in diameter; Cueball is standing next to it as a size reference. A small portion of the die's surface is zoomed in, showing elongated hexagonal faces with five-digit numbers.]

[Numbers on the zoomed in part of the die, "..." represents being cut off:]
:30827
:16[bottom part of a line][small circle]
:...38
:11875
:25444
:...[top part of a line]5
:12082
:28525
:3...
:13359
:13874
:2...

[Caption below the image:]
The hardest part of securely generating random 16-bit numbers is rolling the d65536.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]