explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2199: Cryptic Wifi Networks

2026-03-27T20:11:14Z

Hppavilion1: removed link to ai slop youtube channel

{{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==

In the comic, [[Knit Cap]] is on top of a high mountain in a remote location (second comic in a row with knit cap). Mobile devices frequently launch a popup telling users to choose a network to connect to. Knit Cap sees a WiFi network name listed on a handheld device, perhaps a cell phone. The WiFi network seems to be a Business that uses Toshiba. This is something you would expect in a city, but certainly not on a mountain top, hence the joke, that what produced these WiFi networks are unknown, but seems to be distributed randomly over the face of the Earth, disregarding nearness to technology.

Cryptic {{w|Wi-Fi}} (or WiFi) network names, called {{w|Service set (802.11 network)|Service Set Identifiers}} (SSIDs) are part of the joke about not knowing where the corresponding {{w|wireless router}} is located, suggesting they are unexplained phenomena instead of wireless radio devices. Some of the earliest WiFi devices like printers and {{w|internet}} routers advertised cryptic SSIDs, as do many of them today. [https://techtalk.gfi.com/the-31-funniest-ssids-ive-ever-seen/ Humorous SSID names] are not uncommon.

The SSID displayed is '''Toshiba-U2187-OfficeLink-Net46UHZ''' which is 33 characters long, unfortunately one character more than allowed. {{w|Toshiba}} is a multinational electronics conglomerate manufacturing many products including untold multitudes of different kinds of printers over the years. Such devices often have embedded {{w|wireless access point|wireless access points}} including the manufacturer name in the SSID. Many network names contain words like Net, Office or Link. The code might indicate a model U2187 device from Toshiba named (or having an interface program named) OfficeLink, which has a sub-model number or operates on a wireless network designated 46UHZ. That "Hz" is an abbreviation for {{w|Hertz}} suggests that designation may or may not have something to do with the frequency on which the transmitting device operates. U2187 could also be the {{w|Unicode}} character [https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2187/index.htm code for the Roman numeral 50,000 spelled "ↇ"] or a serial number for a user or a utility pole. We don't know whether the SSID is connected to a network of more than one or is just one device. The padlock icon indicates that a password is required to communicate. The "join other network" option allows for manually typing SSIDs to attempt to connect with networks which are not configured to display their SSIDs.

While the most likely explanation in an office environment might be a printer plugged in somewhere nearby, other possibilities include a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJKjnZe4B-M marsupial delivery drone,] television, cryptocurrency mining rig, speaker, pacemaker, alarm system, [https://twitter.com/Theteamatx/status/1162762591677997056 offshore flying wind turbine,] fashion accessory, autonomous antimissile defense system node, hobby project, surveillance device, {{w|Loon LLC|balloon}}, distributed denial of service attack platform malware-infested coffee pot, {{w|Starlink (satellite constellation)|satellite}}, undiscovered underground civilization, vending machine, [https://x.company/projects/foghorn seawater dialysis station,] telecommunication facility, {{w|Facebook Aquila|solar-powered drone}}, distributed exoskeleton, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSx_UywxF6o visiting interstellar] colony(?) ship, power-to-gas pipeline valve, [http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/2340.html ransomware worm nest,] or anything else in the Wifi {{w|Internet of Things}}. Sometimes, the {{w|ionosphere}} reflects radio waves, vastly increasing the distance that they can travel to and from remote locations, but this {{w|skywave}} propagation normally affects frequencies below 30 MHz, and never above 300 MHz, so they couldn't be the cause of receiving far away Wifi signals, which are 900 MHz and above.

The {{w|List of router firmware projects|software which produces SSID listings}} is administered by {{w|List of wireless community networks by region|network communities}} and depends on {{w|Wireless mesh network|mesh configurations}}. (Please see also [[1785: Wifi]].) Alternatives include [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20861948 bluetooth mesh networks] and other {{w|wireless ad hoc network|''ad hoc'' networks}} to provide internet connectivity services.

The title text indicates that the first WiFi networking client interface displayed unexpected SSIDs. If true, this could potentially rule out all of the alternative explanations other than an alien visitation, a software bug, rogue industrial espionage, time travel, trans-multiverse or trans-dimensional communication, hardware misconfiguration, the {{w|simulation hypothesis}}, or the supernatural. (It is worth noting that cryptic-sounding WiFi networks generated by a time-traveling alien entity as a trap was used as a plot device in the 2013 ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' episode "{{w|The Bells of Saint John}}". Doctor Who is a [[:Category:Doctor_Who|recurring theme]] on xkcd.)



==Transcript==
:[Knit Cap (who has a backpack) is checking a phone at the highest mountain in a mountainous landscape, with 5 snow covered mountain peaks behind, and a smaller peak connected to and just below that one. There seems to be no snow on those two peaks. Above is a view of the phone's screen as indicated with a zigzag line from the phone's screen to the frame with text. There is also a wifi icon at the top left and a padlock icon at the end of the second line of text. The bottom line is a gray font.]
:Phone: Available WiFi Networks
:Phone: Toshiba-U2187-OfficeLink-Net46UHZ
:Phone: Join other network 

:[Caption below the panel:]
: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}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1057: Klout

2026-03-14T02:48:01Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ At the current time the mayor of Anchorage uses she/her pronouns; to make this sentence evergreen, replaced "he" with the gender-neutral singular they.

{{comic
| number = 1057
| date = May 18, 2012
| title = Klout
| image = klout.png
| titletext = Though please do confirm that it's actually *me* on Klout first, and not one of my friends trying to get me punched. The great thing about this douchebag deadman switch is that I will never dare trigger it.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Klout}} was a site that sought to measure your "influence" on social media networks. They sometimes gave away "perks" to the users with the highest Klout scores, as a means of advertising the products of their sponsors. Generally, the information provided by Klout was not held in high esteem. The type of person who took most interest in their score was typically not well-liked.

There are multiple ways that Klout measured your influence. An example of increasing influence is having been given a +K (a recommendation for a higher score) for knowledge about "Pitbull" ({{w|Pitbull (rapper)|The Bud Light promoter and producer/rapper/musician, etc.}}, not {{w|Pit bull|the type of dog}}). Another could be having an inspiring tweet that generated 2000 retweets. Klout supported many social networks, and ranked people based primarily on how much reaction they garner from the public. For example, if Selena Gomez tweeted that she simply loved a certain blog, she would probably get more people to visit that blog, and thus get a bigger Klout score, than if the mayor of Anchorage, Alaska tweeted that they liked that blog. Or xkcd publishing a comic about Klout would lead to an all time high in [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=klout Google searches] for it. However, their "about us" page did claim that a small, active group of followers is considered more influential than a large, passive group of followers.

The gist of the comic is that [[Cueball]] (here representing [[Randall]]) does not feel that Klout agrees with his core values, probably as he prefers self-assurance to having an outside authority tell him of his importance to society. He uses this comic to give himself incentive to stay away from Klout. He is very clear that he is dead serious about anyone meeting him after he has (been proven to have) used Klout should punch him in the face. He even makes sure that he cannot later retract this statement, if he for instance becomes interested in Klout (something he would never wish for), by stating that people should ignore anything he says to retract this statement later.

Randall will now have a problem though because since he also posted the [[706: Freedom]] comic earlier, he will never know if people that hit him do so because they believe he has used Klout or just to exercise their free will.

In the title text, a "dead man's switch" is any mechanism which is designed to activate if the user does not take any action. This is generally used to create a failsafe in case the user is incapacitated . For example, many exercise treadmills include a tether meant to connect the runner to the machine's base station. If the runner gets too far from the base station, the tether pulls a pin and the machine stops immediately. This way, if the runner has fallen or is struggling to keep up, the machine does not exacerbate an already unsafe situation. Randall's "douchebag deadman switch" is a variation that would trigger if he ever became enough of an asshole to use Klout. This would lead to him being constantly punched in the face, so he doesn't dare become that type of person.

Shortly after this comic was posted, [https://klout.com/#/irandallmunroe a Klout user] was created claiming to be Randall. This was a fake, so if you ever meet Randall in real life, please don't punch him, unless you view making a webcomic about Klout counts as interacting with it.

Klout shut down on May 25, 2018, for reasons that were never officially stated, but are generally assumed to be related to the {{w|General Data Protection Regulation}}, which went into effect on that day.

The Klout name may have been taken from the word {{wiktionary|clout}} meaning "a degree of influence" (whether social, economic, political or other), but another common context of the word is the act of striking (typically "a clout to the ear", i.e. a punch/slap, but also such as "clouted by a runaway shopping trolley") which or may not have directly inspired Randall/Cueball's suggestion that succumbing to the temptations of the 'influencer' form of clout should then make him deserving of receiving the 'punching' kind.

==Transcript==
:[Randall has drawn himself as Cueball in a slim panel:]
:Randall: I'd like to ask a favor.
:Randall: If someday, in the future, we meet in person,

:[Zoom out of Randall talking.]
:Randall: And if, as of that day, I've interacted with Klout in ''any'' way except to opt out,
:Randall: I want you to punch me in the face without warning.

:[Zoom in on Randall's head.]
:Randall: This may sound like a joke, so let me be clear:
:Randall: I am ''dead serious''.
:Randall: Ignore anything I say retracting this.
:Randall: Thank you.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

2660: Gen Z

2022-08-18T06:21:55Z

Hppavilion1: The man in the black hat is not Black Hat

{{comic
| number = 2660
| date = August 17, 2022
| title = Gen Z
| image = gen_z.png
| titletext = Curdled milk, of a peculiar kind, made after a Bulgarian recipe and called "yaghurt," is now a Parisian fad and is believed to be a remedy against growing old. A correspondent who has tried it, says he would prefer to die young. (1905, The Elk Falls Journal)
}}

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

Older generations are often confused by the trends and norms of younger people, and this comic aims to contextualize this common situation by placing it in a historical perspective. The man in the black hat is expressing a notion that sounds a lot like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0x7ho_IYc juvenoia].

The title text apparently quotes a 1905 paper from Elk Falls, Kansas, which tells of a "Parisian fad". In this case, the "fad" is the introduction of yogurt (spelled "yaghurt" in this publication, probably because English spelling of the word was not standardized yet and may have been influenced by the French spelling and phonology). In the modern day, yogurt is enjoyed as a common food in most [[559: No Pun Intended|cultures]], but in 1905 the concept was bizarre and repulsive to the readers of this Kansas newspaper. This shows that things which are dismissed as "strange" because of preconceived notions of a particular group (that curdled milk is necessarily bad) may, in fact, be perfectly acceptable once more context is obtained. It is also worth noting that yogurt was not invented in 1905, but had existed for centuries prior; despite this, the recent introduction to French culture is what prompted its recognition as a nascent "fad" by the Kansan writer. This may be analogized to various fads and trends which {{w|Gen Z}} is embracing which may appear unfounded to members of older generations, but which nevertheless represent acceptance of ideas which did not originate with members of that generation.

This is not the first comic to identify "modern" complaints or viewpoints as having been present throughout history in various forms (see comics [[1227: The Pace of Modern Life]] and [[1601: Isolation]]).

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

:[Six individuals in clothing representing early 1900s' American fashion stand in a line. Four of them have speaking roles, from left to right, and two stand in silence, contributing to the feeling of a conversation amongst a crowd gathered around the first speaker]
:Speaker 1 (white brim hat): Now, it may sound strange, but it's how Gen Z is doing things!
:Speaker 2 (wavy hair, dress with belt): Gosh! Is that really true??
:Speaker 3 (dark hat with indent): Ridiculous. It just goes to show what I've been saying about them.
:Speaker 4 (hair in bun, dress with lace hem): Now now, maybe we just need to change with the times.

:Caption below comic: People ascribing qualities to "Gen Z" have the same energy as small-town salespeople in 1905 talking about what the ladies in Paris are up to.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

2546: Fiction vs Nonfiction

2022-05-04T06:51:59Z

Hppavilion1: Formatted a reference properly

{{comic
| number = 2546
| date = November 24, 2021
| title = Fiction vs Nonfiction
| image = fiction_vs_nonfiction.png
| titletext = The real challenge is how to file Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Cueball]] is asking [[Ponytail]] and [[White Hat]] to classify different ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' books and movies as fiction or nonfiction. (Perhaps he is working at a library or bookstore, or sorting a personal collection.) ''Star Wars'' as a whole is a multimedia franchise, which includes films, TV series, novels, etc, but often singularly refers to {{w|Star Wars (film)|the original 1977 film}} later more lengthily titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'' (or, given the fact that the rest of the titles are books, one of several novelizations based on the script). The classifications get more complicated to determine as the conversation progresses while revealing a quite specific obsession with the character of {{w|Boba Fett}}. The complexity may even end up converting {{w|Lumpers and splitters|lumpers into splitters}}, a philosophical distinction that another [[2518: Lumpers and Splitters|recent comic]] touched upon.

Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people. In contrast, fiction offers information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and how the work refers to reality.

In the end, White Hat suggests that, since Cueball has so many works featuring Boba Fett, it would be more useful to group them together in a new category rather than sorting them into the fiction and nonfiction sections.

===Table===
{| class="wikitable"
!Media name
!Explanation
|-
| ''{{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars}}''
| ''Star Wars'' is a science-''fiction'' movie released in 1977 (re-released in 1981 as ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'')
|-
| ''{{w|The Making of Star Wars}}''
| This was a television special about how ''Star Wars'' was made, which would make it nonfiction.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''
| This would be one of the ''Star Wars'' franchise's continuity of stories, making it fictional. Not a currently extant release, but something like this {{w|List_of_Star_Wars_films#Unproduced_films|has been long anticipated}}, and now possibly inspired by the imminent release (as of the comic's time of posting) of ''{{w|The Book of Boba Fett}}''.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''
| While the content of this guidebook is entirely fictional, the book is factual. Boba Fett (a fictional character){{citation needed}} does in fact [https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/253196 have durasteel]/[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Boba_Fett%27s_armor Beskar] armor (a fictional material), so the book is technically non-fiction.
|-
| ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''
| This could either be a non-fictional book or docuseries similar to the previous entry, or instead an in-universe adventure series or film. The rhythm of the words is similar to the in-universe guidebook ''{{w|Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them}}'' from the {{w|Harry Potter}} universe - this is a non-fiction book used educationally for young wizards within the fictitious world and also a fiction book within the real world. This book was turned into a 2016 {{w|Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film)|feature film}}, starring Eddie Redmayne.
|-
| ''Boba Fett: A Life'' by Doris Kearns Goodwin
| {{w|Doris Kearns Goodwin}} is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of many influential people. Since Goodwin is a non-fiction writer, one would have to read this (non-existent<ref>List of books on Goodwin's website: [https://doriskearnsgoodwin.com/books/]</ref>) book to determine whether the biography is a fictional account of the character, or a factual account of the fictional history of the character. If the book doesn't establish any new canon, and is instead citing only recorded (fictional) facts from the Star Wars Universe and, perhaps, the real-world influences on and by the character, it could legitimately be considered non-fiction. Doris Kearns Goodwin is also mentioned in [[2160: Ken Burns Theory]].
|-
| (title text) Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin
| It is unclear how, or why, a fictional character would write a biography on a real life person, but there's always the possibility that there was already a fictional Doris, in-universe to Boba, whose own life and exploits would be natural for an actually fictional factual output.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars''?
:Ponytail: Fiction.

:[Same setting.]
:Cueball: ''The Making of Star Wars''?
:White Hat: Nonfiction.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''?
:Off-panel voice: Fiction.

:[Closeup of Ponytail.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''?
:Ponytail: Nonfiction, technically.

:[Cueball has lifted a hand palm up as he talks to Ponytail and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''?
:Ponytail: ...Fiction?
:Ponytail: It depends.

:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail and White Hat. Ponytail has turned towards White Hat and has taken a hand to her chin.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett: A Life'', by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin?
:Ponytail: Hm.
:White Hat: Maybe we should just have a Boba Fett section.

== References ==
<references/>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template

2022-05-03T13:11:53Z

Hppavilion1: creaty

List of pages using the "citation needed" template.

Template:Citation needed

2022-05-03T13:10:59Z

Hppavilion1: :facepalm: I'm tired

<noinclude>This template is to be used when a sentence requires a citation.</noinclude>[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]]<noinclude>

See [[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#Is_the_Citation_needed_template_here_similar_to_the_analog_at_Wikipedia.3F|usage]].

Given below is a helpful chart to show how to use this template properly.

{| class="wikitable"
!✘
!✔
|-
|Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}},
|Lorem ipsum,[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|-
|Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}}.
|Lorem ipsum.[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|-
|(Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}})
|(Lorem ipsum)[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|}

[[Category:Templates]]
</noinclude>

Template:Citation needed

2022-05-03T13:00:12Z

Hppavilion1: fixy

<noinclude>This template is to be used when a sentence requires a citation.</noinclude>[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Templates using the "citation needed" template]]<noinclude>

See [[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#Is_the_Citation_needed_template_here_similar_to_the_analog_at_Wikipedia.3F|usage]].

Given below is a helpful chart to show how to use this template properly.

{| class="wikitable"
!✘
!✔
|-
|Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}},
|Lorem ipsum,[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|-
|Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}}.
|Lorem ipsum.[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|-
|(Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}})
|(Lorem ipsum)[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|}

[[Category:Templates]]
</noinclude>

Template:Citation needed

2022-05-03T12:59:57Z

Hppavilion1: indexy

<noinclude>This template is to be used when a sentence requires a citation.</noinclude>[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Templates using hte "citation needed" template<noinclude>

See [[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#Is_the_Citation_needed_template_here_similar_to_the_analog_at_Wikipedia.3F|usage]].

Given below is a helpful chart to show how to use this template properly.

{| class="wikitable"
!✘
!✔
|-
|Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}},
|Lorem ipsum,[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|-
|Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}}.
|Lorem ipsum.[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|-
|(Lorem ipsum{{Citation needed}})
|(Lorem ipsum)[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]]
|}

[[Category:Templates]]
</noinclude>

User:While False

2022-05-03T07:44:13Z

Hppavilion1: Undo revision 232051 by 108.162.245.69 (talk)

[[User:While False|While False]], me, is a different user than [[User:WhiIe FaIse|WhiIe FaIse with capital i instead of lower case L]]. The account with capital i is new and is impersonating me, signing contributions with my signature and removing discussions about the vandalism in the last days. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 17:38, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

A large amount of vandalising accounts have recently been created, including one impersonating me and claiming to be the one impersonated. To be clear: My first contribution was in January: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2568:_Spinthariscope&oldid=224437. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 19:10, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

Another fake: [[User:Ｗhile False| Ｗhile False]]. Note the “W”. [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 20:57, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

2546: Fiction vs Nonfiction

2021-11-27T02:12:04Z

Hppavilion1: If you're gonna put "citation needed," you're gonna get a citation.

{{comic
| number = 2546
| date = November 24, 2021
| title = Fiction vs Nonfiction
| image = fiction_vs_nonfiction.png
| titletext = The real challenge is how to file Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A FICTIONAL DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN WATCHING A REAL BOBA FETT ON A DURASTEEL-BESKAR TV- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is asking [[Ponytail]] and [[White Hat]] to classify different ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' books and movies as fiction or nonfiction. (Perhaps he is working at a library or bookstore, or sorting a personal collection.) ''Star Wars'' as a whole is a multimedia franchise, which includes films, TV series, novels, etc, but often singularly refers to {{w|Star Wars (film)|the original 1977 film}} later more lengthily titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope''. The classifications get more complicated to determine as the conversation progresses while revealing a quite specific obsession with the character of {{w|Boba Fett}}. The complexity may even end up converting {{w|Lumpers and splitters|lumpers into splitters}}, a philosophical distinction that another [[2518: Lumpers and Splitters|recent comic]] touched upon.

Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people. In contrast, fiction offers information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and how the work refers to reality.

In the end, White Hat suggests that, since Cueball has so many works featuring Boba Fett, it would be more useful to group them together in a new category rather than sorting them into the fiction and nonfiction sections.

===Movies and Books===
{| class="wikitable"
!Media name
!Explanation
|-
| ''{{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars}}''
| ''Star Wars'' is a science-''fiction'' movie released in 1977 (re-released in 1981 as ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'')
|-
| ''{{w|The Making of Star Wars}}''
| This was a television special about how ''Star Wars'' was made, which would make it nonfiction.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''
| This would be one of the ''Star Wars'' franchise's continuity of stories, making it fictional. Not a currently extant release, but something like this {{w|List_of_Star_Wars_films#Unproduced_films|has been long anticipated}}, and now possibly inspired by the imminent release (as of the comic's time of posting) of {{w|The Book of Boba Fett}}.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''
| While the content of this guidebook is entirely fictional, the book is factual. Boba Fett (a fictional character){{citation needed}} does in fact [https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/253196 have durasteel]/[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Boba_Fett%27s_armor Beskar] armor (a fictional material), so the book is technically non-fiction.
|-
| ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''
| This could either be a non-fictional book or docuseries similar to the previous entry, or instead an in-universe adventure series or film. The rhythm of the words is similar to the in-universe guidebook "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Beasts_and_Where_to_Find_Them Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them]" from the {{w|Harry Potter}} universe - this is a non-fiction book used educationally for young wizards within the fictitious world and also a fiction book within the real world.
|-
| ''Boba Fett: A Life'' by Doris Kearns Goodwin
| {{w|Doris Kearns Goodwin}} is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of many influential people. Since Goodwin is a non-fiction writer, one would have to read this (not actually existent)<ref>List of books on Goodwin's website: [https://doriskearnsgoodwin.com/books/]</ref> book to determine whether the biography is a fictional account of the character, or a factual account of the fictional history of the character. If the book doesn't establish any new canon, and is instead citing only recorded (fictional) facts from the Star Wars Universe and, perhaps, the real-world influences on and by the character, it could legitimately be considered non-fiction. Doris Kearns Goodwin is also mentioned in [[2160: Ken Burns Theory]].
|-
| (title text) Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin
| It is unclear how, or why, a fictional character would write a biography on a real life person,{{citation needed}} but there's always the possibly that there was already a fictional Doris, in-universe to Boba, whose own life and exploits would be natural for an actually fictional factual output.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars''?
:Ponytail: Fiction.

:[Same setting.]
:Cueball: ''The Making of Star Wars''?
:White Hat: Nonfiction.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''?
:Off-panel voice: Fiction.

:[Closeup of Ponytail.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''?
:Ponytail: Nonfiction, technically.

:[Cueball has lifted a hand palm up as he talks to Ponytail and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''?
:Ponytail: ...Fiction?
:Ponytail: It depends.

:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail and White Hat. Ponytail has turned towards White Hat and has taken a hand to her chin.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett: A Life'', by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin?
:Ponytail: Hm.
:White Hat: Maybe we should just have a Boba Fett section.

== References ==
<references/>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

2126: Google Trends Maps

2019-03-21T23:25:51Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2126
| date = March 20, 2019
| title = Google Trends Maps
| image = google_trends_maps.png
| titletext = It's early 2020. The entire country is gripped with Marco Rubio fever except for Alaska, which is freaking out. You're frantically studying up on etiquette and/or sexting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MARCO RUBIO. Each map needs to be individually explained. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[https://trends.google.com/ Google Trends] is a website for visualizing Google search activity by date and region. Used properly, it can give a picture of what topics people are interested in (as evidenced by what they search for) at particular times and in different places. Used improperly, it can simply [[1845:_State Word Map|amplify random noise]].

[[Randall]] has created several Google Trends maps of search activity in the US. Each map colors in states according to which of two (or more) search queries was more popular. As noted at the top of the comic, all of these based on real queries (though not reflecting the same time period across all maps). However, none of them seem to show any especially ''useful'' comparisons. States in gray did not return enough data for Google Trends to consider it significant.

* "Frostbite" vs "heat stroke": This is probably the most sensible comparison of the lot, showing which of these two risks of exposure people search up more often. However, the results are fairly obvious: in the colder northern and eastern states, "frostbite" is the more common search, while across the south and west, it's "heat stroke".
* "Best church" vs "best strip club": This map would seem to indicate people in Nevada (and only in Nevada) are more interested in strip clubs than religion. This may have something to do with the fact that Las Vegas is in Nevada.
* "Bigfoot" vs "Mike Pence": Apparently, everywhere except for Indiana, people in the US are more interested in a mythical hairy creature than in the current (at the time of this comic's release) Vice President of the United States. Since Mike Pence was once the governor of Indiana, this makes more sense if the time period covered precedes his nomination as Trump's running mate.
* "Etiquette" vs "{{w|sexting}}": Similar to the church/strip club example, this map contrasts search interest in polite behavior against risqué behavior.
* "Little dog" vs "big cat": The Trend map contrasts two searches for unidentified and briefly glimpsed wildlife that often snatch household pets left outside. The smallest canid in the wilds of America is the coyote, ''Canis latrans'', which are often smaller than the American wild dog, ''Canis lupus''. They are known for being scavenger/hunters and for the ululating "songs" their packs break into in the middle of the night. By contrast, "big cat" is a term for the largest members of the cat family (''Felidae''). Except for the jaguar, which is a roaring cat of the ''Panthera'' genus that inhabits Mexico and sometimes Arizona, the largest wild cat in North America is the mountain lion, ''Puma concolor''. It is also known as cougar, puma, catamount, ghost cat, over seventy other regional names, and the misnomer panther. (The cougar is ironically of the Felinae subfamily, all of which purr, and not Pantherinae, which roar. Black panthers in Africa are black-coated leopards, while black panthers in the Americas are black-coated jaguars, and both are Pantherinae. No black-coated pumas have been verified, leading zoologists to believe such sightings are misidentified.) "Little Dog" is also a Canadian television series, set in Newfoundland, which explains the larger number of searches for Little Dog in Maine, the state closest to Newfoundland.
* "Shark attack" vs "childbirth": While both of these things might be considered risky, there is not much of a relationship between them. As might be expected, the "shark attack" search is more common in most coastal states (and, for some reason, both Kentucky and Nevada).
* "Snakes" vs "ants" vs "bees" vs "alligators": These are all dangerous animals that cause occasional human fatalities (mainly from allergic reactions for ants and bees). There is no noticeable pattern in which animal is searched most often, though only Florida has alligators as the most common search of the four. Florida presumably has Alligators as the most searched item on this list as it is where the Everglades are located, a vast area of swamp and marsh that, aside from maintaining the ecosystem and the water supply of Florida, also is home to an obscene number of alligators.
* "Retirement planning" vs "bungee jumping": The implication here is that people in some states are more concerned with short-term fun rather than long-term planning.
* "Super Bowl" vs "funeral home": This is an attempt to contrast interest in a popular sports (and media) event against a rather somber topic.
* "Resume tips" vs "skateboard tricks": Another comparison between learning a "serious", goal-oriented skill (career advancement) and a "silly", fun skill (skateboarding). It is also an imperfect rhyme.
* "Donald Trump" vs "What do I do": The implication here seems to be that people in some states are more likely to ask Google "what do I do?", either in panic or in ignorance, than they are to look up the latest doings of the US President. The split shown is not too different to the actual split between states voting for Trump and for his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
* "Existential crisis" vs "Marco Rubio": Senator Marco Rubio was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Everywhere but Alaska, people were more likely to look up his name than to search for "existential crisis". This may be due to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_fever Cabin Fever], which is common in Alaska due to the long, dark winters and frequent isolation.

The title text uses two of these maps to paint a picture of the year 2020 (implying that these search patterns are both meaningful and likely to continue into the future). In this scenario, most of the country continues to read about Marco Rubio (except for Alaskans, still searching for help with their existential crises), and individuals are trying to learn about etiquette, sexting, or both, depending on their location.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Add the colored states. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:The least informative
:'''Google Trends Maps'''
:I've created over the years

:(All are real but not all cover the same date range)

:[12 maps of the United States are shown with the states colored. There are labels for the colors.]

:[Map 1]
:[Blue:] Frostbite
:[Red:] Heat stroke
:[Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington are red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 2]
:[Blue:] Best church
:[Red:] Best strip club
:[Nevada is red. Alaska, North Dakota, and Wyoming are gray. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 3]
:[Blue:] Bigfoot
:[Red:] Mike Pence
:[Indiana is red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 4]
:[Blue:] Etiquette
:[Red:] Sexting
:[Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia are red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 5]
:[Blue:] Little dog
:[Red:] Big cat
:[Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 6]
:[Blue:] Shark attack
:[Red:] Childbirth
:[California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 7]
:[Blue:] Snakes
:[Red:] Ants
:[Yellow:] Bees
:[Green:] Alligators
:[Florida is green. Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are red. Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming are yellow. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 8]
:[Blue:] Retirement planning
:[Red:] Bungee jumping
:[Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming are gray. Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 9]
:[Blue:] Super Bowl
:[Red:] Funeral home
:[Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Washington are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 10]
:[Blue:] Resume tips
:[Red:] Skateboard tricks
:[Arizona is red. Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming are gray. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 11]
:[Blue:] Donald Trump
:[Red:] What do I do
:[California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 12]
:[Blue:] Existential crisis
:[Red:] Marco Rubio
:[Alaska is blue. All other states are red.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:1776: Reindeer

2018-09-30T20:14:51Z

Hppavilion1: Nitnitpickpick

Captcha does not work on mobile browser. (Android Firefox) Had to switch over to laptop to make edit. Also, it's two words, not one as the thing above implies ("To help protect against automated edit spam, please type the word you see in the box below:") ~Dartania [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.141|162.158.74.141]] 14:03, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

: This post was made with Firefox on Android. Are you sure you didn’t just get a difficult CAPTCHA? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.214|108.162.216.214]] 14:32, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

::The captcha from my most recent edit had a total of four words and 23 letters. [[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]])

Title text could be a parody of "When what to my wondering eyes should appear/but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer" from "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ('Twas the Night Before Christmas) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus's_reindeer#Eight_reindeer
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.10|172.68.78.10]] 14:42, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
: Seems more likely to be a few lines later, “And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof / The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.” [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.249|162.158.62.249]] 15:19, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

To pick nits, an octopus has eight arms and no tentacles. A squid has eight arms plus two tentacles. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.94|162.158.34.94]] 15:21, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
:To pick further nits, some instead argue that octopuses have 6 arms and 2 legs. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 20:14, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Is the octopus tentacle comment adding anything? I believe octopodophobia is substantially rarer than arachnophobia (to the extent that it doesn't seem to have an official name); Cthulhu aside, I suspect a deer with octopus tentacles would mostly look weird (or comical) rather than scary. To most, I suspect octopus tentacles are only scary if you're on a ship being attacked by a kraken or if you're a diver and one is playfully tugging on your respirator. Of course, I speak as an arachnophobe who cringed when I saw this comic... [[User:Fluppeteer|Fluppeteer]] ([[User talk:Fluppeteer|talk]]) 15:39, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

In the Odin myth, he ''rides'' Sleipnir while he distributes gifts. [[Black Hat]] isn't all that authentic if he got that mixed up with the more modern "Santa Claus" mythology. [[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]])
:Except that Black Hat doesn't actually care about being authentic, he just discovered a new fact that he wants to use to mess with people. {{unsigned ip|172.68.46.23}}

Fun bit of trivia: Loki is Sleipnir's ''mom.''[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.47|108.162.246.47]] 19:23, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
:One of many ways that Loki's life kinda sucked. He starts Ragnarok for a reason. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.28|108.162.215.28]] 21:21, 28 December 2016 (UTC)
::What makes you think that? Sure, there was lot of things which sucked in Loki's life, but we can't be sure what his sexual preferences are ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 07:05, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

Does Randall's repeating interest in spiders have any relevance here? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.53|108.162.250.53]] 21:32, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

I think Randall screwed up with the title text. Spiders only have two (or, rarely, three) tarsal claws (See last line here: https://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Parts_Arthropods/male_spider.htm). So either BlackHat has been doing more agressive genetic engineering than you'd think or Randall screwed up! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.39|162.158.69.39]] 21:44, 23 December 2016 (UTC)
:Maybe he's keeping it simple for people who ''didn't'' know that. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 00:32, 24 December 2016 (UTC)
:I think the link provided above says that spiders have only two (or, rarely, three) tarsal claws ''per leg''. This site (http://www.findaspider.org.au/info/glossary.htm) mentions that each leg has these claws, and some spiders have a median claw behind their main pair. This refers to the third claw spiders sometimes have, mentioned in the previous link. 01:37, 24 December 2016 (UTC)[[User:Count Schlick|Count Schlick]] ([[User talk:Count Schlick|talk]])
::Ah...that makes more sense. OK - so "the sound of sixteen to twenty four tarsal claws"...unless the reinspiders are standing on tippy-toes? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.39|162.158.69.39]] 01:55, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps a nod to Love Actually - one of the holiday season's more popular movies - which notes, "Eight is a lot of legs." ~Dave {{unsigned ip|162.158.202.148}}

1726: Unicode

2018-06-26T19:49:38Z

Hppavilion1: I am the motherfucking pterodactyl....

{{comic
| number = 1726
| date = August 29, 2016
| title = Unicode
| image = unicode.png
| titletext = I'm excited about the proposal to add a "brontosaurus" emoji codepoint because it has the potential to bring together a half-dozen different groups of pedantic people into a single glorious internet argument.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is a highway engineer that has been placing two traffic signs in a river trying in vain to guide the water flow and thus he ends up talking to the water trying to make it take a detour instead of going under the bridge. On the distant bank two other engineers are arguing, with gestures, in presumably a heated manner (either about where to place a third sign lying next to them, at the the water to make it behave a certain way, or they are actually calling out to the crazy Cueball in the river to come back in)

As rivers flow according to the landscape, this plan will not work and the river will continue on its course. Cueball is very frustrated by this and is still trying to make the river obey the traffic laws. The caption lays out the punchline: The comic compares the useless approach of Cueball attempting to divert a flowing, moving river with fixed signs that do nothing, with the {{w|Unicode Consortium}}'s attempt to define the diverse and ever-changing human language with strict technical standards.

{{w|Unicode}} is a largely successful attempt to have a standard for representing all possible letters, numerals, digits and symbols that make up human writing in all languages. This includes the roman letters used in this article, characters with modifiers like ê (both with the common characters as well as the modifiers selectable separately), logographic characters like in Chinese, syllabic writing system like Japanese, right-to-left and/or top-to-bottom writing systems, mathematical symbols and many other writing systems.

{{w|Emoji}}, one of the trendier Unicode blocks, are also referenced in the title text (see below). The symbols on the signs in the river are real road signs, but interestingly enough they also both exist in Unicode, with the warning sign triangle with an exclamation mark ⚠ having [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/26a0/index.htm code (U+26A0)] and the black, rightwards arrow ➡ having [http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/27a1/index.htm code (U+271A)]. As can be imagined, coping with the wide variety of character sizes, orientations, ways they can be modified, capitalization rules, etc. can get to be very challenging as the Unicode Consortium tries to write rules that accommodate how printed language is actually used. Emoji have become a [[:Category:Emoji|recurrent theme]] on xkcd.

The title text refers to [http://unicode.org/L2/L2016/16072-jurassic-emoji.pdf a proposal] to add three dinosaur heads to the official list of emoji.

This is likely to stir a glorious internet argument between a half-dozen opposing (and {{w|pedantic}}) camps that may now be brought together, such as the following:
*Those who favor the inclusion of more emoji vs. those who oppose emoji on principle.
*Those who accept the existence of ''{{w|Brontosaurus}}'' vs. those who deny its status as a genus unique from ''{{w|Apatosaurus}}''.
**[[Randall]] has made it clear what he believes in [[636: Brontosaurus]].
**Although it seems new development has occurred since the release of that comic, suggesting that ''Brontosaurus'' is a specific genus. But that is still debated...
*Those who favor a traditional, scaly image of dinosaurs vs. those who have accepted the feathered-dinosaur paradigm.
*Those who want ''Brontosaurus'' depicted as an ordinary or shrinkwrapped sauropod vs. Those who want it depicted with extra soft tissue, especially the heavy neck padding thought to be used for elephant-seal-like duels (the "Brontosmash" hypothesis).
*Those who prefer a different dinosaur species be included instead.
*Those who oppose about the possible inclusion of pterodactyls, which are not considered to be dinosaurs.
*Those who point out that two of the dinosaurs in the "Jurassic Emoji" set actually come from the {{w|Cretaceous period}}, and as such renaming is necessary vs. those who think that "{{w|Jurassic}}" is a cooler word (because of the {{w|Jurassic Park}} movies).
*Those who for religious or other reasons deny the existence of dinosaurs.

See also this [http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2016-m08/0103.html discussion about this comic on the Unicode mailinglist]...

Highway engineers were also the subject of [[253: Highway Engineer Pranks]] and [[781: Ahead Stop]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing in a river close to it's right bank, the water reaching up to his thighs. He is holding on to a traffic sign standing towards right. It has a label and an arrow below this pointing to the right bank. With his other arm he is pointing to the left at the advancing water masses. Further up the river is another street sign this sign has an exclamation mark inside a triangle. The water flow is indicated with several lines on the river surface, mainly moving along the river, but around Cueball and the signs there are circular lines. In the distance on the left bank of the river two people are standing and making gestures with raised arms. The left has white hair (could be either sex) and the other is a Cueball-like guy. A third sign is lying on the ground to the left of them face down. Behind them is a slope up to a road with a parked car. The road continues out over a a bridge that crosses the river. The river which passes under it both left and right of a central pillar. At that distance the right bank of the river (and thus the right end of the bridge) is not visible, being outside the panel. On each river bank grass can be seen and on the right bank also a small stone.]
:Cueball: No, go ''this'' way, not-
:Cueball: Are you even ''listening!?''
:Cueball: ... ''Hey! That's not what that area is for!''
:Sign with arrow: Detour
:Sign with triangle: !

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Watching the Unicode people try to govern the infinite chaos of human language with consistent technical standards is like watching highway engineers try to steer a river using traffic signs.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Apatosaurus]]
[[Category:Emoji]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

Talk:1923: Felsius

2018-05-07T03:58:57Z

Hppavilion1: Duh.

Thanks who, at the same time as I, wrote the better explanation with formulae; you're welcome for the table (which, for my first attempt at a MediaWiki table, and in a big hurry to be first*, I think came out all right). ((*Go ahead and edit at will!)) --'''BigMal''' // [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.184|108.162.216.184]] 16:44, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Seems like this is awfully relevant: https://xkcd.com/927/ -- '''Derek Antrican''' [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.23|108.162.246.23]] 16:54, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

You can't write formulas like that! °C is degree(s) Celsius, not the value of some temperature as measured in degrees Celsius. You should write something like [°C] or °C-1 instead (if we treat °C as an affine function mapping dimensionless values to temperatures). Or you can be explicit and say something like "x°F = ((x − 32) * 5 / 9)°C". --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.22|172.68.54.22]] 19:59, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Fahrenheit contribution to the name is disproportionately small for an average of two scales. It should have been at least Falsius, with added punniness, or Fahlsius, to be more unique. -- '''Average Alex'''
: It should be ‘Fahlsius’, or even ‘Fählsius’, but notice that the pronunciation will still be more or less like ‘Felsius’ and not like ‘Fall-sius’ (for the same reason that ‘Fahrenheit’ or ‘Fährenheit’ is pronounced more or less like ‘Fair-enheit’ and not like ‘Far-enheit’. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 04:58, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
:It should be Centiheit[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 09:32, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
:No, it should be Celsiheit. Either case, the name would also fit the sign better than Felsius[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.28|162.158.92.28]] 11:52, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
:: There's obviously only one way to resolve this. It should be called <code>Eemsinl5:</code>. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 03:58, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm obliged to share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227Hdz8VFKo. As a pedant, I have to point out that water's melting and boiling point aren't quite at 0 °C and 100 °C (and that Celsius originally had it backwards). And I *do* like "Falsius". [[User:Fluppeteer|Fluppeteer]] ([[User talk:Fluppeteer|talk]]) 21:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Watch out for Felsius/Celsius or Felsius/Fahrenheit hybrids: https://xkcd.com/419/ [[User:WhiteDragon|WhiteDragon]] ([[User talk:WhiteDragon|talk]]) 22:20, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

What is an "epislon"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.170|162.158.88.170]] 23:02, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
: A Greek letter; follow the link where the word first appears in the explanation. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 04:58, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
:: I'm pretty sure there's no Greek letter epislon. Which is presumably why it got corrected.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.239|141.101.104.239]] 09:40, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

I think the Ukranian Ye (Є) would be closer, visually speaking.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.42|162.158.186.42]] 23:40, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
: Or the mathematical symbol ⋲ (ELEMENT OF WITH LONG HORIZONTAL STROKE) or C̶ (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C + COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY)? Or ℃̶ (DEGREE CELSIUS + COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY)? [[User:Sabik|Sabik]] ([[User talk:Sabik|talk]]) 11:36, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
:: Yes, ELEMENT OF WITH LONG HORIZONTAL STROKE seems exactly right (not only by look, but also since ELEMENT OF is basically a lunate Epsilon already and changing the HORIZONTAL STROKE so that it is LONG is precisely the modification WITH which it needs to be equipped), and I think that we should switch to this immediately! —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 04:58, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
::: Done. [[User:Sabik|Sabik]] ([[User talk:Sabik|talk]]) 06:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Apparantly someone needs to be taught about the Rømer scale that is the ancestor of both Celcius and Fahrenhet. It has fixed constants for all three of water boiling, freezing and the temperature of brine.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.226|162.158.202.226]] 23:06, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

I remove the reference to ammonium chloride from the temperature table because, while it is cool (both figuratively and literally), it's also obsolete: in the modern Fahrenheit scale, this happens at 4°F, not at 0°F. (See the table at {{w|Frigorific mixture}}.) —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 04:58, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

If the creator of the website that was inspired by the comic created one that was based on SE Asian countries, I would like to know the felsius of that. I am curious as heck.Boeing-787lover 06:33, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Note that as visible on the {{w|Kelvin}} page, the temperatures actually used to define the scales are absolute zero and the triple point of water, as other points, including the boiling temperature of water, body temperature, room temperature, pure water freeze and saturated salt water freeze one, are hard to measure reliably (due to pressure requirements). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 02:59, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

Do you think Randall made up a new symbol for Felsius with the intention of making the job difficult for explain xkcd (or at least knowing that it would complicate matters)? [[User:Sensorfire|Sensorfire]] ([[User talk:Sensorfire|talk]]) 03:15, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

assumably? really? i suppose you use supposably, too, just to annoy. tsk. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.133|162.158.89.133]] 13:55, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

Reminds me of the time I created a standard that blended the two together in such a way that 0 degrees was the water freezing point (because that does make sense) and 100 degrees was equal to 100 degrees in fahrenheit (because really hot = larger number than celsius.) lol, that was years ago, I don't remember the formula. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.186|173.245.50.186]] 14:42, 8 December 2017 (UTC) Sam
: The [https://gamboling.co.uk/category/andronov-scale/ Andronov Scale] is based around this idea (though it was later revised to move 100° Andronov to 44°C). [[User:Arcorann|Arcorann]] ([[User talk:Arcorann|talk]]) 13:16, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
The room temperature and body temperature provided in the table above display false precision. The link provided gives room temperature as the range from 68°F-72°F, so if you wanted to say 70°F +/- 2°F, that would be correct, but there is literally nobody on the planet who would tell you that normal room temperature is 71.6°F. As to body temperature, there is likewise considerable variation which is considered normal. According to WebMD, "For a typical adult, body temperature can be anywhere from 97°F to 99°F." 98.6°F may be a commonly-quoted figure, but it is nevertheless a product of false precision introduced when converting from the round number in Celsius. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.202|162.158.78.202]] 18:12, 13 December 2017 (UTC) Joshua

Talk:394: Kilobyte

2017-10-26T23:21:46Z

Hppavilion1: Breaaaad

The drivemaker's version here does 'depreciate' their kilobyte, indeed, but rather than based on slipping food-standards (which are often highly regulated) I think this is actually based upon the actual age-old practice of them sometimes using 103n (1,000s, 1,000,000s, etc) measures of byte-multiplies in preference to 210n ones (1,024, 1,048,576, etc) in order to get a better figure. For example 20MB drives (back in the old days, this is) with 971,520 bytes (almost 1Mb, by either measure) ''less'' than the true binary-matching 20MiB value which various computer OSes would work with. (Or a 'binarily' 20MB drive gets advertised as "20.1MB" one.) On the other hand, something that "needs 20Mb of installation space" might have deliberately been given the binary-divisible version of the unit to make it look marginally less resource-hungry than the decimalised measure would have indicated. Minor differences in their own right, on a bad day when the competing standards mesh badly you might find yourself just short of storage space when you thought you'd be Ok.

Although in real-life the difference between any given unit's interpretation has ''not'' changed, as equipment capacities increases and we start to use increasing degrees of prefix upwards, any discrepancy becomes more significant. 1KB is plus or minus 24 bytes (~2%), 1MB is plus or minus around 48KB (~5%), 1GB is plus or minus 73MB (~7%) and 1TB could be very nearly 100Gb short (~10%). For those that care about these things that's at the very least annoying. Like with CRT monitor sizes that were often more an indicator of tube-end size than the true size of the visible/illuminatable portion, giving them an inch or two less of effective display than you might expect. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 13:55, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

:Just to follow-up to myself, based upon a unit capitalisation discrepancy that I only spotted post-posting, but that I won't bother fixing, there's also the old confusion between "kilobits-per-second" and "kilo''bytes''-per-second" (and mega- and giga- versions, more recently with broadband and more advanced ethernets/etc) when it comes to bandwidths and expected speeds. Although you don't necessarily expect to exactly hit the stated limit (with contentions and collisions and latencies and overheads), getting a factor of 8 less than you might have expected has caught people out before, thinking they're getting a far poorer service than advertised... (Not that this has much to do with the above comic, just saying. And, oh lookie here on my desk. A 28,800 'Sportster' PCMCIA faxmodem card (V34, V32bis) with an XJACK® pop-out socket. Why have I still got that?) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 14:16, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

This table fails to mention, of course, that while a Baker's Kilobyte is 1152 bytes normally, it's 1125 on leap years. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 23:21, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

394: Kilobyte

2017-10-26T23:13:50Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Clever that the article automatically calculates "n" for "n bytes currently", but I got nerdsniped trying to figure out the current value (thinking it was hardcoded), so I changed it to "n bytes in <year>"

{{comic
| number = 394
| date = March 10, 2008
| title = Kilobyte
| image = kilobyte.png
| titletext = I would take 'kibibyte' more seriously if it didn't sound so much like 'Kibbles N Bits'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun at the confusion over the definition of a kilobyte. Some interpret the prefix literally, meaning a kilobyte is 1000 bytes. Others, however, usually define it as 210 = 1024 bytes, because it is computationally easier to deal with.

The first row of the table is simply mocking this discrepancy.

The second row is Randall's interpretation on how {{w|Stan Kelly-Bootle}} would approach this problem. Kelly-Bootle is known for writing ''The Computer Contradictionary'' which satirizes the jargon and language of the computer industry. Kelly-Bootle was likely motivated to write this work after working for several years at IBM, a company infamous for its excessive use of acronyms in the work place. Averaging the two definitions together to get 1012 bytes is simply a humorous approach that Kelly-Bootle would likely have taken ("''Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.''" — Stan Kelly-Bootle). The serendipitous fact that the initials of Kelly-Bootle's name are "KB," the same letters used to abbreviate the word "kilobyte," adds a layer of plausibility to the joke.

The {{w|Imaginary number|imaginary}} kilobyte simply plays on the fact that complex analysis is required in quantum computing in relation to quantum mechanics. The imaginary number is represented as ''i'' and has a value of the square root of -1. This is a pun on the fact that KiB is used for the "binary kilobyte" (occasionally "{{w|Binary prefix|kibibyte}}") which is standardized at 1024 bytes.

The Intel kilobyte mocks the Pentium floating point unit which, in 1994, became notorious for having a {{w|Pentium FDIV bug|major flaw}} in its floating point division algorithm that gave slightly erroneous results. (For the non-computer folk, a floating point number is a real number like 4.0 or -13.387.)

The smaller, drivemaker's kilobyte mocks a business model for handling higher prices that keeps prices constant but reduces quantity. The food industry has been notorious for decreasing quantity of food and keeping prices the same instead of increasing prices and keeping quantity the same. Randall is suggesting that if the computer industry tried to do this with hard drives, it could have humorous results such as smaller number of bytes in a kilobyte. In reality, hard drive capacity is specified in 103 byte (kB) units, while the content you put on it (programs etc.) is specified in 210 (KiB) units. Formatting the drive, i.e. making it usable for storage, further decreases the available space. Thus a 250 GB drive might be reported to have a capacity of only 232 GB (really GiB) by the operating system. This discrepancy increases with increasing drive size. The trend humorously suggested in the comic, however, would make the drivemaker's kilobyte 1024 bytes in 1979, 1000 bytes in 1985, {{#expr:8940-4*{{#time:Y}}}} bytes in {{#time:Y}}, and 0 bytes in 2235!

The baker's kilobyte is a play on the {{w|Dozen#Baking|baker's dozen}}, which is 13 instead of 12. A baker's byte with 9 bits to the byte would result in a total of 9216 bits in a 1024 byte kilobyte. Converting this into "normal" bytes (with 8 bits), we divide 9216 bits by 8 bits per byte to get 1152 8-bit bytes to the baker's kilobyte.

At the title text [[Randall]] mentions the definition {{w|kibibyte}}, which is defined more precisely. The binary prefix kibi means 1024, a portmanteau of the words kilo and binary. But he doesn't like the word because it sounds like the dog food {{w|Kibbles 'n Bits}}.

==Transcript==
:There's been a lot of confusion over 1024 vs 1000,
:kbyte vs kbit, and the capitalization for each.
:Here, at last, is a single, definitive standard:
:[table of various kinds of kilobytes]
:{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 50%; text-align: left;"
|-
|SYMBOL
|NAME
|SIZE
|NOTES
|-
|kB
|Kilobyte
|1024 bytes OR 1000 bytes
|1000 bytes during leap years, 1024 otherwise
|-
|KB
|Kelly-Bootle standard unit
|1012 bytes
|compromise between 1000 and 1024 bytes
|-
|KiB
|Imaginary kilobyte
|1024 √-1 bytes
|used in quantum computing
|-
|kb
|Intel kilobyte
|1023.937528 bytes
|calculated on Pentium F.P.U.
|-
|Kb
|Drivemaker's kilobyte
|currently 908 bytes
|shrinks by 4 bytes each year for marketing reasons
|-
|KBa
|Baker's kilobyte
|1152 bytes
|9 bits to the byte since you're such a good customer
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:287: NP-Complete

2017-09-16T02:32:57Z

Hppavilion1:

;Unique deciphering requires unique pricetags
Shame this only works in restaurants that price all their appetizers differently. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 03:18, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
:Not necessarily because the NP-problem allows for any equivocally competing sum certifying how the total can be reached. Shared pricetags as well as a nonpositive would add degrees of freedom and make it impossible to rule out surprise deliveries even through exponential pretesting. Unless the waiter is running into the exponential worst case, the six waiting tables can be attended to immediately upon finding the first feasible combination: [[User:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] ([[User talk:Roman Czyborra|talk]]) 15:44, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

;Trivial solution first found
I have a hunch that the seven fruit cups are pretty intentional as the first item on the menu and the simplest solution possible.
I was about to write a script to solve the problem through random selections and was going to optimize for speed by limiting the maximum times an item could be order to floor(15.05/price). Thus, one could order up to 2 sample plates, 3 moz sticks, 5 of the hot wings/side salad/french fries or 7 fruit cups without going over budget. (side note: you can always with these prices squeeze in a fruit cup with the exception of the 7 fruit cups). I found the "trivial" solution on the first step of the "preliminary" work for that script and then took a catnap.
Of course, since the nontrivial solution involves the same item as the trivial solution, one could just pick a number, multiply by that number, subtract one unit, and pick two other items, whose prices were not set yet, and adjust their prices to add up accordingly just to ensure both trivial and nontrivial solutions lest anyone actually write a program to solve the problem through brute force as oppose to through wit. Why seed? Because to not have a nontrivial solution would be so much like Blackhat.
Note to self: try this sometime in the real world using a real menu. [[User:Katya|Katya]] ([[User talk:Katya|talk]]) 02:17, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

;Traveling Salesman Problem
Note: Traveling Salesman Problem ''might'' be mentioned ''also'' because both this problem and the Knapsack problem to be solved belong to set of '''[[wikipedia:NP-complete|NP-complete]] problems'''; a Knapsack problem can be transformed in polynomial time to Traveling Salesman Problem, and solution of Traveling Salesman Problem can be transformed in polynomial time to Knapsack problem solution. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 16:00, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
:Yes, indeed! I think both meanings are intended to fully get the joke. The <code>TSP:={(n,d,M)∈ℕ×({0…n}²→ℕ)×ℕ|∃c∈{1…n}ⁿ:{1…n}=⋃{cₙ|n∈{1…n}}∧∑{d(cₙ,c₍ₙ₊₁₎)|n∈{0…n}}<M}</code> can both help to timely attend to the six waiting tables and to reduce the <code>ORDERSUM:={(a,b)∈ℕ*×ℕ|∃c∈ℕ*:∑{cₙaₙ|n∈ℕ}=b}</code> problem to. Plus, the "as fast as possible" pun seems to allude to the again six ridiculous inputs any trained human will rearrange to a near-exact solution quicker than they are entered into a computer who can quickly exhaust this tiny search space for an exact solution: [[User:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] ([[User talk:Roman Czyborra|talk]]) 15:44, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

;Trivial solution was not intended
In [http://www.maa.org/mathhorizons/MH-Sep2012_XKCD.html an interview] with the Mathematical Association of America Randall said that the trivial answer to this problem was a mistake. [[User:Xrays Knock Charms Down|Xrays Knock Charms Down]] ([[User talk:Xrays Knock Charms Down|talk]]) 03:00, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
:I added this very interesting info to the explanation - at first as a trivia, but then I realized that it would not be seen by everyone - as you often do not read below the transcript. Why would you, you do not need to see what was in the comic again... So I moved it up to the solution part, because to me it is a very important fact about this comic. An error by Randall... But Dgbrt keeps moving this info away from the solution. I have understood now that the trivia should be below the transcript - although I cannot see why this should be so - as I have just described. But who says that this info should be a trivia item? It was I who put it there (by mistake?) at first. I will try not to start an editing fight here, but still think there should at least be a mention in the explanation that it was a mistake - in case you do not realize there is a trivia section below. I have used this page a lot lately, and had not found out before, that it was always below. There is not that many pages with trivia sections [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:02, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
::Cool reference, thanks! [[User:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] ([[User talk:Roman Czyborra|talk]]) 15:44, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

;Complex solution found in a second
I was bored and tried to find a solution for fun. I found the more complex one quite fast by chance. It was actually the second combination I tried. I did not realize you could just add seven fruit cups because I was so set on starting with the sampler plate. Now I am not sure if I should be glad, because I was so lucky, or annoyed that my fight-the-boredom-idea did not work out, or even more annoyed that I never have that kind of luck in the lab where I could really use it for finding the one thing out of a thousand possible causes for "why-does-my-experiment-not-work" which actually will give me some usable data.
[[Special:Contributions/84.56.77.11|84.56.77.11]]

;Not the knapsack problem
This explanation is thorough, and I like being thorough, but it seems to be a bit of overkill. I copy-edited it a bit, but I have a couple qualms. This is not really the knapsack problem, as it does not attach values to the items (as mentioned). It is more of a {{w|subset sum}} problem, which admittedly could be considered a variant of the knapsack problem. Secondly, I don't see why we need to go into detail about the movie Office Space. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 18:34, 22 August 2013 (UTC)
:I did some clean-ups, but the the "In computational complexity theory" still needs a review.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:19, 22 August 2013 (UTC)
::The Wikipedia article on {{w|Karp's 21 NP-complete problems}} hints that Karp originally defined <code>KNAPSACK:={(a,b)∈ℤ*×ℤ|∃c∈𝔹*:∑{cₙaₙ|n∈ℕ}=b}</code> closer to today's shape of <code>SUBSETSUM:={Z⊂ℤ|∃s⊆Z:∑s=0∧s≠∅}</code> than that of the Unbounded Knapsack Problem <code>UKP:={(v,w,V,W)∈ℤ*×ℤ*×ℤ×ℤ|∃c∈ℕ*:{∑{cₙvₙ|n∈ℕ},∑{cₙwₙ|n∈ℕ}}⊆{V…W}}</code> with the former via <code>Z:={b,-a₁…-aₙ,-2a₁…-2aₙ,…}</code> and the latter via <code>(v,w,V,W):=(a,a,b,b)</code> coming close enough to what we really need here, namely <code>ORDERSUM:={(a,b)∈ℕ*×ℕ|∃c∈ℕ*:∑{cₙaₙ|n∈ℕ}=b}</code>. So Randall did hit it bull's eye after all! [[User:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] ([[User talk:Roman Czyborra|talk]]) 15:44, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

;NP Food
Inspired by this comic, somebody has actually created an ordering site which tries to give you an order from a restaurant in your area (US only I think) totalling a specific amount [http://www.np-food.com NP Food]. Worth including above? -- [[User:Copito|Copito]] ([[User talk:Copito|talk]]) 20:43, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

That site doesn't work for me. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 10:07, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

:I do get more than nothing: a redirect to the HTTPS port whose certificate is signed only to .np-food.com without WWW and whose HTML and PNG and JS suggest that either solutions for San Francisco, Austin, Saint Louis, Miami, and New York menues have been memoized and that you may order by entering your credit card credentials or that only fools wait for a computer to calculate an NP-hard problem on too large a search space. [[User:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] ([[User talk:Roman Czyborra|talk]]) 15:44, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

;Exhaustive Solution
[[user:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] did post this at the explain:
;The Solution
… can be calculated as
let totaling total menu = if total == 0 then [[]]
else if total < 0 || null menu then []
else totaling total (tail menu) ++ map (
head menu :) (totaling (total - head menu) menu)
in totaling 1505 [215,275,335,355,420,580]
== [[215,355,355,580],[215,215,215,215,215,215,215]]
I don't think this is a helpful explain. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:11, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I did.
Because I did think it was helpful.
Not just because an (effective if not efficient) general solution earns you a 50% on $15.05 tip.

Moreover to demonstrate that and how a complete search finds those two solutions.

And that the search tree can branch exponentially with each additional menu item.
Or with additional dollar bills to be spent.
Notwithstanding that any constructive proof of NP=P would let us replace this
straightforward bad NP-implementation with an equivalent better P-implementation.
Before Donald Knuth coined the name NP-Complete, the class was suggested to be named
'''PET''' for the (Probably(while NP?P)|(Proven(if NP>P)|Previously(if NP=P))) Exponential Time pet problems.

What is so confusing about the calculation?
The whole cent amounts instead of dollar floats?
My naming of variables?
Should <code>totaling</code> be renamed to <code>solutions</code> or <code>orders</code>?
Or <code>menu</code> to <code>menu_items</code> or <code>appetizers</code> or <code>pricetags</code>?
<code lang=haskell>
type Cents = Int
orders :: [Cents] -> Cents -> [ [Cents] ]
orders menu total =
total == 0 | [ [] ]
menu == [] | []
total < 0 | []
total > 0 | orders (tail menu) total ++ map (
head menu :) orders menu (total - head menu)

orders [215,275,335,355,420,580] 1505
== [[215,355,355,580],[215,215,215,215,215,215,215]]

calls menu total = if null menu || total < 1
then 1 else 1 + calls (tail menu) total +
calls menu (total - head menu)
calls [] 1505
== 1
calls [580] 1505
== 7
calls [420,580] 1505
== 25
calls [355,420,580] 1505
== 73
calls [335,355,420,580] 1505
== 181
calls [275,335,355,420,580] 1505
== 437
calls [215,275,335,355,420,580] 1505
== 1153
</code>
Or is it the committee language Haskell that is causing problems?
What other well-defined language would you formulate a general solution in?

Discussing all of this is helpful.
Leaving a "Thus" result without its afferent reasoning (and its deleted heading) is not, is it?
Cheers: [[User:Roman Czyborra|Roman Czyborra]] ([[User talk:Roman Czyborra|talk]]) 15:44, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

:Please let's keep this code at the discussion page. No common reader would understand; the explain is not only for programmers. I'm a programmer, knowing many languages like BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, Java, Bash, Perl... also HTML, JavaScript... RPG, Databases and SQL... and much more. And if you like to buy an IBM Power 8 I can tell you the proper configuration for your needs.
:But these details are not helpful to explain the comic. There is math that has to be explained. Findings on program codes do even not belong to a trivia section. Nevertheless it seems I have to take a closer look on Haskell, which is not used by many people. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:22, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

A 50% tip on a $ 15.05 order is not possible, is it? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.186|108.162.231.186]] 21:08, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

If I were the waiter my response would, at best, be "I'll come back when you're ready to order". At worse it would probably involve burns. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:27, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

---Easiest response: "Excellent, Sir. I'll raise the price of the french fries to $15.05 - [[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 18:19, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

If we assume that "general solutions" implies that it's a polynomial-time solution, is a 50% tip $7.55, $500 000, or $500 007.55? [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 02:32, 16 September 2017 (UTC)

Talk:992: Mnemonics

2017-09-07T07:14:29Z

Hppavilion1:

The most memorable resistor code mnemonics I know are not...politically correct, shall we say. But they are memorable. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 19:55, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
:tell pls [[User:SuperSupermario24|Just some random derp]] 23:45, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
::Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.77|172.68.132.77]] 22:53, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
::: And that's one of the better ones. Some use "black" instead of "bad", which is better in that it disambiguates (that color is actually black IIRC), but worse in that it's even more terrible and has added racism. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 07:14, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

I feel like he got lazy at the end and didn't provide an "or" to the Jesus one mnemonic. Also, why is mnemonic often pronounced "new-monic" ?

Mnemonic is supposed to be pronounced "nim-monic"; "new-monic" is rather a malapropism, given that is a correct pronunciation of "pneumonic" (meaning related to lungs or to pneumonia"), similar to how some people pronounce "nuclear" as "nu-kyoo-lar" (reminiscent of "-cular"-ending words, such as: perpendicular, particular, jocular, etc.).
:I pronounce it as written, same for "gnome" - keeps those muscles going. (Try it with "knight", you'll get an approximation of Chaucer. Seriously.) --[[User:Qwach|Qwach]] ([[User talk:Qwach|talk]]) 02:39, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
:My dictionary says it's a schwa sound. Both "nim" and "new" are putting too much emphasis on the first syllable. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 06:46, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
::Yes, it should be nuh-MAHN-ic (n'monic) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.10|172.68.78.10]] 02:15, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Mnemonics are actually counter-productive. They claim to help you remember something but, in actuality, they replace what you're supposed to remember with something useless, thus causing you to FAIL to remember.[[Special:Contributions/76.29.225.28|76.29.225.28]] 03:32, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

"Mnemonics are actually counter-productive." I disagree. They provide the '''order''' to the list of already known, or mostly known, words. They provide a little extra help.--DrMath 20:50, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

The only one I ever learned:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.
Fucking stupid brain! (It HAS been useful, although I don't recall why at the moment. (Fucking stupid brain.))
[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 07:15, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
Big Brother Reptilian Overlors. This aren't Raptors or Tyranosaurs?? I remmeber any 'fear' from Monroe to they -- {{unsigned ip|108.162.210.252}}
:"It's the most remarkable word I've ever seen!"[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 05:25, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

Has anyone noticed the Order of Operations is Out of Order? Please Email Dad & Mum A Shark? - Apostrophyx ([[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.221|108.162.249.221]] 03:17, 15 July 2014 (UTC))
:It's not out of order, multiplication and division are one tier together. 6 x 5 / 2 and 6 / 2 x 5 have the same result. [[User:Cflare|Cflare]] ([[User talk:Cflare|talk]]) 14:29, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

I learned "Kahn's Hot Dogs Use Dead Cow Meat" as a mnemonic for SI prefixes. Covers all the common ones, but leaves out extreme ones like Giga or Zepto.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.64|173.245.55.64]] 20:13, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

My favorite is for SOHCAHTOA: "Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie Tripping On Acid." [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.228|199.27.128.228]] 05:16, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

And this, fundamentally, is why people don't like Pluto not being a planet. Sure, it's logical, but you took away our nine pizzas and gave us only nachos in return. Who wouldn't be mad about that?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 05:25, 6 September 2015 (UTC)
:Not to mention the self-referential "My very educated mother just showed us nine planets." [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.10|172.68.78.10]] 02:15, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

My personal favorite for taxonomy is "Dumb kids playing catch on freeways get squashed."[[User:RedHatGuy68|RedHatGuy68]] ([[User talk:RedHatGuy68|talk]]) 01:12, 31 January 2016 (UTC)
:Exactly what I was thinking. That one seems to be more traditional because I got taught that back in school. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 03:43, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Marx didn't "invent" either socialism or communism. Both terms predated him. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 17:09, 6 November 2016 (UTC)

1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize

2017-07-27T17:46:41Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ "None of them are really good" is rather subjective; since map projections can't be perfect, defining "really good" as "perfect" makes it all but meaningless.

{{comic
| number = 1784
| date = January 11, 2017
| title = Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize
| image = bad_map_projection_liquid_resize.png
| titletext = This map preserves the shapes of Tissot's indicatrices pretty well, as long as you draw them in before running the resize.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first comic in a new series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] that may continue further than the second, [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones]], which were released just a bit more than a month after this one.

There is no perfect way to draw a map of the world on a flat piece of paper. Each one will introduce a different type of distortion, and the best projection for a given situation is sometimes disputed. [[Randall]] previously explored 12 different projections in [[977: Map Projections]], and expressed his disdain for some types he sees as less efficient but whose users feel superior. None of them are truly perfect as any 2D map projection will always distort in a way the spherical reality, and a map projection that is useful for one aspect (like navigation, geographical shapes and masses visualization, etc.) will not be so for all the others. Local maps of smaller areas can be quite accurate, but the idea of both these map projection comics is to map the entire globe on a flat surface.

This comic suggests that there are many other projections than the 12 from the previous map projection comic, and Randall seems to have an entire list, of which at least 107 are "Bad Map Projections." The one presented here is #107 and is it called the "Liquid Resize." It is unclear if he includes the previous 12 in this list. Quite possibly he does, since all 2D projections of the surface of a 3D sphere will be bad in certain respects. (The next comic's projections ''Time Zones'' based on these, has #79 and could be concluded as being less bad than this one, which also seems realistic as this map looks more like a normal map projections, although it also has huge flaws).

The ''Liquid Resize'' map projection, however, is not only useless for most map applications -- as the size, shape, and position of most countries are quite distorted -- but its creation includes two steps which are outright counterproductive. If the list is sorted from best to worst it may be hard to find a worse projection method than this, so finding 106 projections better than this one seems realistic!

First, this method needs a planar map projection as its starting point, thus compounding the problems right off the bat. Planar projections are relatively accurate near the center but heavily distorted toward the edges. A famous example of a planar projection is the logo of the {{w|United Nations}}. Planar projections are just about useful for 3D graphics rendering, if the user needs a quick, inexpensive way to store map textures that will later be attached to a sphere.

Second, the map uses [https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/content-aware-scaling.html Photoshop's content aware resizing tool], a very questionable choice. (Using a Photoshop tool for a task it is not intended for was also used in [[1685: Patch]] where a GNU patch tool was replaced with Adobe Photoshop's patch tool to compile code.) The content aware resizing tool resizes images by identifying what it thinks are important details and preserving these, while shrinking or stretching less detailed areas. For example, [http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/710073-content-aware-scaling when used on a face], the algorithm detects that the eyes and mouth are important details and tries to keep these in place, while stretching the skin around it. When applied to a map, this means that areas with lots of countries - and therefore lots of detail - such as Europe, West Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Central America/the Caribbean are relatively unchanged, while big countries like India, China and the US are very warped. The choices that the resizing tool makes are also dependent on the exact visual features of the original map, such as the choice of not having any topography or infrastructure drawn on, or not including a latitude/longitude grid, so what areas are deemed as unimportant is even more arbitrary than it would be on, say, a photographic picture of the Earth.

[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/content-aware-scaling Bad content aware scaling] is already a meme. This projection does do a good job, however, of making almost every country clearly visible and indicating which countries are neighbors.
South America fits into Africa almost as it did in the era of the super-continent {{w|Pangaea}}.

{{w|Tissot's indicatrices}} are equally sized small circles overlaid on a globe to show the distortion of a particular map projection; if the map distortion distorts the shapes or areas of countries, it will do the same to the circles. The title text suggests that the shapes of Tissot's indicatrices would be pretty well preserved by the Liquid Resize transformation, 'as long as you draw them in before running the resize'. This is a joke. "Drawing them in before running the resize" means that a different projection would be generated (probably preserving the indicatrices themselves), making the use of the indicatrices meaningless, sort of like cheating. In fact by drawing them small enough there will be no resizing at all.

The making of this comic may have caused Randall's comic the week after about Dvorak - see the [[1787: Voice Commands#Trivia|trivia]] for [[1787: Voice Commands]].

==Transcript==
:[Caption at the top of the panel:]
:Bad map projection #107:
:<big>The Liquid Resize</big>
:A political map compressed using Photoshop's content-aware resizing algorithm to cut down on unused blank space

:[Below the caption there is a map of the world divided and colored by political boundaries, with outlines around each continent in black and around each country in dark gray. Antarctica is colored in light gray, bodies of water in white, and countries in pale shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The map is heavily distorted, with Africa in the center and the other continents curving around it, approximating the bounds of a square with rounded corners. The oceans have been removed but also huge countries like the US, Australia, Brazil, Russia and especially India and Argentina have been heavily distorted while areas in the center with many smaller countries like Africa and Europe is almost unchanged.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]

1866: Russell's Teapot

2017-07-21T09:37:39Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Fixed links

{{comic
| number = 1866
| date = July 21, 2017
| title = Russell's Teapot
| image = Russells_Teapot.png
| titletext = Unfortunately, NASA regulations state that Bertrand Russell-related payloads can only be launched within launch vehicles which do not launch themselves.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete| }}
Russell's Teapot is a philosophical argument that reflects on the difficulty of trying to prove a negative. It involves a hypothetical teapot orbiting a heavenly body, whose existence hasn't been proven. It is very often used in atheistic arguments. Russell's Teapot is an analogy which Bertrand Russell devised "to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others."

"He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong." (Wikipedia)

[[Cueball]] is trying to settle the teapot argument by actually launching a teapot into space via a crowdfunding campaign.

The title-text refers to [[wikipedia:Russell's Paradox|Russell's Paradox]], also created by Bertrand Russell. Russell's paradox was a flaw found in [[wikipedia:Naive set theory|naïve set theory]] where one could consider "the set of all sets that do not contain themselves" (a "set" roughly meaning "list"). The paradox arises with whether this set, in turn, contains itself- if it does, then it cannot; if it doesn't, then it must. Similarly, the vehicle which launches only vehicles which do not launch themselves is impossible- if the vehicle takes off, it must launch itself as well as the teapot, and thus can never be launched (without violating NASA regulations, at least).

==Transcript==

[[Cueball]] is standing in front of a blueprint labeled "CubeSat-Based Design", containing a satellite with a teapot in the top.

Below the comic box:
"I'm crowdfunding a project to launch a teapot into orbit around the sun to settle the Russell thing once and for all."

{{comic discussion}}

1866: Russell's Teapot

2017-07-21T09:36:19Z

Hppavilion1: It's Russell's Paradox, not the Barber Paradox, which is referenced (though the Barber Paradox is meant to illustrate Russell's Paradox); also, removed redundant Alt-Text section.

{{comic
| number = 1866
| date = July 21, 2017
| title = Russell's Teapot
| image = Russells_Teapot.png
| titletext = Unfortunately, NASA regulations state that Bertrand Russell-related payloads can only be launched within launch vehicles which do not launch themselves.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete| }}
Russell's Teapot is a philosophical argument that reflects on the difficulty of trying to prove a negative. It involves a hypothetical teapot orbiting a heavenly body, whose existence hasn't been proven. It is very often used in atheistic arguments. Russell's Teapot is an analogy which Bertrand Russell devised "to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others."

"He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong." (Wikipedia)

[[Cueball]] is trying to settle the teapot argument by actually launching a teapot into space via a crowdfunding campaign.

The title-text refers to [[w:Russell's Paradox]], also created by Bertrand Russell. Russell's paradox was a flaw found in [[w:naive set theory]] where one could consider "the set of all sets that do not contain themselves" (a "set" roughly meaning "list"). The paradox arises with whether this set, in turn, contains itself- if it does, then it cannot; if it doesn't, then it must. Similarly, the vehicle which launches only vehicles which do not launch themselves is impossible- if the vehicle takes off, it must launch itself as well as the teapot, and thus can never be launched (without violating NASA regulations, at least).

==Transcript==

[[Cueball]] is standing in front of a blueprint labeled "CubeSat-Based Design", containing a satellite with a teapot in the top.

Below the comic box:
"I'm crowdfunding a project to launch a teapot into orbit around the sun to settle the Russell thing once and for all."

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:391: Anti-Mindvirus

2017-05-21T07:30:58Z

Hppavilion1: Silly little humans

----

"The Game" is not actually a game* and therefore can have no winners or losers*.

*A game by definition is a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck

* If one does view "The Game" as an actually game, then it consists of one simply saying the words "The Game" out loud or via text. "The Game" also requires one to think of the words The Game before speaking them, thus making them the first "Losers" to participate in the game, and once the opposing team has lost (In this case the person who first thought of "The Game") Then the opposing team then by default is the winner, and is not subject to loosing as once there is a decided winner and looser, the game is over. So this means that the originator of "The Game" (a non-game) is the only looser, and everyone else to have participated is forever the winner, as no one can set up matches for a "The Game" competition, as they would also have to be thinking about "the game" meaning the lose as soon as it starts.

You're all free. --[[User:Para|Para]] ([[User talk:Para|talk]]) 21:57, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

sorry to inturupt para, but some games cannot be simply won
see xkcd comic #138
signd summer glau
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.5|173.245.54.5]] 13:52, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

:: A game can have multiple losers, so your logic does not work. Based on the description, it seems like everyone is a loser. It is impossible to win. [[User:Flewk|Flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 00:30, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

In the branch of social psychology that deals with game design, a 'game' is defined by being inside of the 'magic circle': a space where arbitrary actions are given meaning, and everybody participating in the magic circle voluntarily agrees upon a set of rules by which to play. There are no requirements for a game to have win or lose conditions, just look at Go, which has no official 'end' until both players agree the game is done.
For "The Game" to qualify as A game, it must allow for methods by which people voluntarily enter and leave its magic circle. As it does not, it cannot be a game, but is instead is a social exercise.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.197|108.162.218.197]] 04:50, 14 June 2016 (UTC)XanKortal
: Bringing psychology to a math fight? Cute. Game theory has no care for you silly little humans and your silly little brains. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 07:30, 21 May 2017 (UTC)
:: Oh, and also, I argue that social psychology is itself a social psychology game, and I can just opt out of playing by the rules social psychologists want me to. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 07:30, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1763: Catcalling

2017-05-13T03:08:37Z

Hppavilion1: AGREEMENT.

Is it just me or wouldn't this fail if the misogynists also were cat-lovers? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.224|141.101.98.224]] 15:16, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
: I doubt even cat-lovers would enjoy being swarmed by a hopeless amount of cats for an entire year. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.36|162.158.74.36]] 15:51, 23 November 2016 (UTC
:: You underestimate some peoples' love of cats. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 03:08, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
>"Misogyny" {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.51}}

The way I originally read this, in addition to wanting to stop getting harassed, Megan also just liked cats and wanted an easy way to gather them. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.71|172.68.55.71]] 15:56, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

My initial thought: Awww! Maybe by being confronted to care for neighborhood cats, such "men" might learn how to love and care for creatures who only want to exploit them, like said men do with women. That could work! ...And then I read the title text. --BigMal // [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.36|162.158.74.36]] 16:52, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Catcalling now attracts my friend Catherine. [[User:Int|Int]] ([[User talk:Int|talk]]) 17:00, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Did we know Megan was a lefty? [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 18:18, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

The big question is... does it attract bobcats? --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.123|172.68.54.123]] 21:30, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

The cursor might not be left handed, rather, we might just be on the other side of the screen, eh? [[User:NotLock|NotLock]] ([[User talk:NotLock|talk]]) 07:40, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
:I was thinking the same thing, but dismissed the idea because the text ("Catcalling", "Attracts cats", etc) isn't similarly mirrored. The drop-down menu itself usually has its arrow-thingy on the right, though... Hmm... [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 11:22, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
::Maybe comic characters read in mirror-text! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.176|162.158.165.176]] 23:23, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
::: Occam seems to have lost his razor. [[User:Int|Int]] ([[User talk:Int|talk]]) 16:53, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the part about the title text being perl is wrong. It's definitely not perl5, because things like [2 miles] are not valid syntax at all. This might be perl6 with syntax I don't know, but I doubt it, since the square brackets would indicate something like an array rather than a single element: [2 miles] would then mean "2" and "miles" separately, which doesn't make much sense. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.75|173.245.49.75]] 09:23, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

:I agree, it looks much more like trying to indicate text fields in a ASCII string. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.142|162.158.69.142]] 12:20, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

::Seems to me those are just freakin' ''arrows'' indicating changing those settings. {{unsigned|Jacky720}}

:::I read each "=>" in the title text as meaning "equal or greater than". Which is horrifying when you think about it. [[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]]) 06:23, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

::::Effect strength is unstoppable OR GREATER.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.40|108.162.237.40]] 16:45, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Wouldn't this very quickly result in the extinction of all cats, as they are forced to rush from one chauvinist to another, unable to escape long enough to eat or sleep?
>Jesper {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.40}}
:Catpocalypse! --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.116|188.114.111.116]] 17:41, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
::FYI The Universe Control Panel was used to alter the meaning of Catpocalypse. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.116|188.114.111.116]] 17:47, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Why do you assume that Megan thinks that catcalling is harassing women? Maybe she is tired of women who get harassed by it, when in fact there is no point to. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.140|162.158.150.140]] 15:03, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Does this change also apply to catcalling that is directed at men? If not, that certainly seems a bit sexist to exempt one gender from street harassment but not the other. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.29|162.158.79.29]] 21:56, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
: I was going to point that out. Maybe it isn't catcalling when it's men? Maybe it has a different name, and she already adjusted that panel? [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 03:08, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

1620: Christmas Settings

2017-05-13T03:04:31Z

Hppavilion1: /* Options for dogs */

{{comic
| number = 1620
| date = December 23, 2015
| title = Christmas Settings
| image = christmas_settings.png
| titletext = SOUND DOGS MAKE: [BARKING] [HISSING] [LIGHTSABER NOISES] [FLUENT ENGLISH] [SWEARING]
}}

==Explanation==
The first of two [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comics]] in a row, as it was followed by [[1621: Fixion]].

In this comic [[Ponytail]] is showing [[Megan]] around in a facility, where they are now reaching the "Universe Control Panel", and Ponytail points out the first panel and tells that these dials control {{w|Christmas}}.

Presumably the control panel is a set of panels with several dials each to control the entire universe, and anyone having access to a room with these controls would from our point of view be in a God like position. If such a room did exist it would most likely be situated outside our universe. Here it would be easy for [[Randall]] to use the panel to make [[#Universal constants control panel|physics references]], with dials to control the specific size of {{w|Physical constant|fundamental constants}} of the universe such as the {{w|speed of light in vacuum}} or the {{w|Planck constant}}. However, instead he chooses a more comedic angle in the spirit of Christmas (as he usually does in [[:Category:Christmas|comics released]] close to said holiday, this one being released on December 23rd).

We are only shown one of the dials on the Christmas control panel, the one that controls how {{w|Santa Claus}} enters people’s houses. The ''Santa enters houses through''-dial has [[#Options for Santa|ten different possible settings]]. The one it's set to at this point of the comic is the traditional ''chimney''. Among the other nine there is only one even more logical option the ''open window'', but surprisingly there is no option called ''the door''. The other eight options, however, are increasingly weird or even impossible (though of course not for Santa, who can deliver a billion packets in one night and fly in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer…). These options ranges from the ”feasible” like ''mail slot'', ''heating vents'' or ''cat flap'' to the impossible/ridiculous (some even disgusting) as ''kitchen faucet'', ''shower drain'' or ''toilet'' over the truly magical ''bathroom mirror '' to the downright unpleasant - ''pores of your skin''. (See [[555: Two Mirrors]] regarding the mirror version).

In a quite unfortunate turn of events Megan trips and catches herself on the Santa dial, messing it up by clicking it twice. To make matters worse, when Megan asks what it was set to before so as to undo the mishap, Ponytail tells that she has forgotten. So they cannot put it back right.

The dial is shown in the comic only for the readers benefit, because as Megan tripped up before reaching it, she thus never looked at it, and as Ponytail is showing her around, it must have been her first visit here. The reason why Ponytail cannot remember to which option the dial was set before is most likely because she is not part of our universe (the control panel is located outside), and also she is probably not the creator of the control panel. She is clearly disturbed when the dial is turned (she holds up her hand to her mouth), and she would probably like not to have to tell her boss about this mess up. Another explanation is that by changing the dial, Megan and Ponytail's memories of Santa's entry methods are altered, and so whatever position the dial now rests at would seem normal to them. (This could mean that history has no effect outside the universe, so the single dial controls past, present, and future Santa methods. Perhaps the dial was formerly something more logical than a chimney, like "open window," and indeed ''we'' are the ones who now live in the altered universe!)

Then, as so often seen with human behaviors (if they are indeed human beings at all?), Megan says she will simply take a wild guess and hope she get it right. As the only thing she really knows is that it is not on the right setting now, there is only 1/9 that she will get it right assuming she will at least change it away from the setting she ended up on.

As we can see in the comic the dial clicks twice, implying it has moved two positions; Megan has thus most likely changed the dial to either "kitchen faucet" or "mail slot". Or the dial was moved one click away and one click back to the original position. As we do not know which of these she will now change away from, it is impossible to guess from the comic where she end up putting it, all ten options are possible.

Since the comic is released just before Christmas, here is a prank played on the reader/children who believe in Santa Claus. Now that the dial setting is probably changed, one can expect Santa to enter the house in a different way. So the believer could stay up and try to find out what way it would be.

The title text continues the idea of a universe control panel by showing another possible dial: ''[[#Options for dogs|Sound dogs make]]'' ranging from the norm (barking) to cat sounds (hissing, very embarrassing for a dog), "lightsaber noises" and speech to swearing. This is a dial most likely on another control panel for animal sounds (but it could of course specifically be the sound a dog would make in response to Santa's entry, by whatever method?). It would thus give the same option of changing the expected vocal response of the dog away from (our norm of) barking, as with the other dial with the way Santa enters the house. In popular culture, talking dogs are a commonly used trope; in contrast, swearing "dogs" are few, the most famous being {{w|Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog}}, a puppet created by {{w|Conan O'Brien}} and {{w|Robert Smigel}} and performed by the latter.

The comic might also be a joke on real-life controls often having no clear "default" value - which, by the way, is sometimes the case for virtual controls as well.

The Universe Control Panel is also referenced in [[1763: Catcalling]]

==Options for Santa==
*Below is a table with the ten possible settings for ''Santa enters houses through...''; starting with the originally chosen standard option and going clockwise through the rest:
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
|'''Option''' || '''Normal Entry/Exit for...'''
|-
|{{w|Chimney}} || {{W|Santa Claus}} typically comes in this way (see him here in a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-b_GJ4ltk Victorian roof-top song and dance number]). Also {{w|The_Three_Little_Pigs|big bad wolves}} use [https://youtu.be/Olo923T2HQ4?t=432 this entrance] in Disney’s cartoon.
|-
|{{w|Shower#Drainage|Shower drain}} || Dirty shower water. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPgjOcdQ0fE Evil clowns].
|-
|{{w|Mail slot}} || Letters, post cards and small presents delivered by the mailman.
|-
|{{w|Duct (flow)|Heating vents}} || Hot air used for {{w|central heating}}.
|-
|{{w|Bathroom}} {{w|mirror}} || See {{w|Candyman (film)|Candyman}}, or {{w|Bloody Mary (folklore)|Bloody Mary}} (the latter has been used in [[555: Two Mirrors]]).
|-
|{{w|Skin pore|Pores of your skin}} || {{w|Sweat}} leaving the body.
|-
|{{w|Toilet}} || {{w|Human waste}} and {{w|The_Shawshank_Redemption|life-term prisoners}} (at least through the sewer).
|-
|{{w|Cat flap}} || Domesticated cats and dogs.
|-
|{{w|Sink|Kitchen faucet}} || Water.
|-
|{{w|Window|Open window}} || {{w|Burglars}} and other criminals. Also often used as an exit by teenagers in movies and other film media, or by people who have locked themselves out of their own house.
|}

==Options for dogs==
*Below is a table with the five possible settings for ''Sound dogs make''; starting with the current and continuing with the order in the title text:
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5 class="wikitable"
|'''Option''' || '''Normal sound for...'''
|-
|{{w|Bark (sound)|Barking}} || {{w|Dogs}} current standard sound in our universe...
|-
|[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hissing Hissing] || Typically a {{w|List of animal sounds|sound attributed }} to {{w|snakes}}, but also sometimes {{w|cats}} are [http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/why-do-cats-hiss/ said to hiss], for instance as a reaction against a barking dog. It would thus be very frustrating for dogs if their noise was changed into that of their arch enemies.
|-
|{{w|Lightsaber|Lightsaber noises}} || A lightsaber makes a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kpHK4YIwY4 unique sound], and as they are one of the most known props from the {{w|Star Wars}} universe, it is very relevant as the newest Star Wars movie {{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}} was released a week before this comic. Star Wars was also a major theme a month ago in the comic [[1608: Hoverboard]], the coin collecting game that celebrated [[Randall|Randall's]] new book.
|-
|{{w|Fluency#Speech|Fluent}} {{w|English language|English}} || [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRcUcxtaX-Q Speaking dogs] are a common trope as are {{w|talking animals}} in general. A person who is native to a country where they speak English will usually be fluent in speaking English.
|-
|{{w|Profanity|Swearing}} || It would be unpleasant for people who dislike swearing, and a big problems for movies such as {{w|Lassie}} where most of the soundtrack would have to be replaced by {{w|Bleep censor|bleeps}}. Swearing "dogs" are few, the most famous being {{w|Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog}}, a puppet created by {{w|Conan O'Brien}} and {{w|Robert Smigel}} and performed by the latter.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Ponytail are walking over to a console, Ponytail points towards it. They are drawn in a panel that is only half the width of the next panel below]
:Ponytail: Over here we have the universe control panel.
:Ponytail: These dials, for example, control Christmas.

:[A dial is shown. There is a label at the top and then there are ten settings, five symmetrically on the left and right side, but no setting straight up or down. It looks allot like the dial on a washing machine with different programs. The dial points towards the top left setting. All settings are labeled and there is a small line going to the point on the dial connected with each setting. The line at 3 and 9 o'clock are straight the other 8 are divided in two, where the first part goes horizontally and then bends either up or down, to end in the right position. Here the labele at the top and then the setting labels clockwise from top right, thus ending with the one the dial is set to:]
:'''Santa enters houses through...'''
:Shower Drain
:Mail Slot
:Heating Vents
:Bathroom Mirror
:Pores of Your Skin
:Toilet
:Cat Flap
:Kitchen Faucet
:Open Window
:Chimney

:[Ponytail is passing by this control panel looking back at Megan who trips and falls towards the console.]
:Megan: Whoops!
:Megans legs: Trip

:[Megan catches herself on the dial of the control panel and accidentally turns the dial. Ponytail has taken her hands to her mouth.]
:Dial: Click Click

:[Megan is standing in front of the console looking at the dial, Ponytail is standing behind it.]
:Megan: What was the Santa dial set to before?
:Ponytail: I forget.
:Megan: I'll just guess

==Trivia==
*In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/7/73/20151223160450!christmas_settings.png original version] of the comic Ponytail erroneously said: ''These dials, for example, '''controls''' Christmas.''
**This was soon changed to the current (and grammatically correct) version with out the "s" at the end of controls ''These dials, for example, control Christmas.''
**Thus proving that it was intended that there were more than one dial, we just see the one that Megan later changed by mistake for the sake of the joke of the comic.
*The "Universe Control Panel" is later featured in [[1763: Catcalling]], but is referred to as the "Universe Control Console" instead.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1835: Random Obsessions

2017-05-12T21:53:07Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Made the page more adequately surprised by the prevalence of such discussions

{{comic
| number = 1835
| date = May 10, 2017
| title = Random Obsessions
| image = random obsessions.png
| titletext = I take the view that "open-faced sandwiches" are not sandwiches, but all other physical objects are.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page, what sandwich debate? What is "bacon" referring to?}}

This comic is formatted as a graph showing various internet trends over the years according to [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=robot%20monkeys,pirates%20vs%20ninjas,zombies,bacon,definition%20of%20sandwich Google Trends]. The caption states that these "random obsessions," as stated in the title, have 9-10 year cycles, and so predicts that the sandwich debate will be over by around 2024.

Discussions about the definition of "sandwich" are surprisingly common on the web, like "Is hot dog a sandwich?" (See this [https://www.reddit.com/r/Sandwiches/comments/6587ub/what_is_a_sandwich_debate/ discussion] on Reddit)

The title text is a joke on the debate over the definition of a sandwich, first starting with a common topic in the said debate - whether or not open-faced sandwiches are, in fact, sandwiches - and makes an absurd argument by stating that "I," presumably Randall Munroe, believes that open-faced sandwiches are the only physical objects that would not be considered sandwiches.

The other obsessions mentioned are, in order: robot monkeys, pirates vs ninjas, zombies, and bacon.

Though the trend is dying out, as seen by the fact the graph is past the peak, there has been an explosion in bacon flavored/scented products as well as items of clothing and decor that look like bacon. The YouTube channel Epic Meal Time was also part of the bacon fad, as adding large quantities of bacon to the meal being prepared was one of the running gags of the channel.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:774: Atheists

2017-04-10T03:27:15Z

Hppavilion1: Manners

Atheists aren't annoying, they are just boring. Nobody likes a party pooper.

The sad truth is that there's nothing out there but the universe. Luckily, it's a magnificent one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 01:50, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

:There's some real irony in someone declaring that atheists are boring while also affirming itself as an atheist. Maybe it's just reluctant to claim the title? Some atheists choose to be called "agnostic" for that reason, even when they fit the bill. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.200|199.27.128.200]] 08:07, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
::"it"? I don't know if I'm reading it wrong, but "it" is kind of dehumanizing. I suppose English might not be your first language, in which case: <-- that. Don't call people 'it' unless then specifically ask you to. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 03:27, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

:Just as i read the word 'magnificent' the conclusion part of 'eclipse' (from dark side of the moon) started. Great timing :) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.35|108.162.216.35]] 02:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

:How can you be sure that there aren't any other universes? Even if the only things that exist are matter, energy, and information, there still could be other universes that we haven't seen, and those would be real. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 14:12, 25 May 2014 (UTC)Mulan15262

:: Not even Explain XKCD is immune to being dragged in to this little argument, but at least its taking a less hostile approach I suppose.

::I actually have a friend who was a devout Fundamentalist Christian, and then switched over to becoming a dedicated Fundamentalist Atheist. I find arguments about religion with him equally annoying regardless of which side he is/was on so I guess they're on to something...
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.55|108.162.219.55]] 08:39, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1315: Questions for God

2017-04-01T02:36:14Z

Hppavilion1: Splitty

Hey, Arnold! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:51, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

The Shadow cannot provide an answer because steamboats--boats and ships specifically, and generally anything you ride on--are gendered as "women" in the English language. [[User:Kevin11 11|Kevin11 11]] ([[User talk:Kevin11 11|talk]]) 14:30, 10 January 2014 (UTC)Kevin 11_11
: I think this is worth mentioning as a secondary possibility, but to me it doesn't work nearly as well as the simple "a steamboat isn't a person". [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 03:32, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
: I read it as the poetic "man" which includes women as a subset, which is also a fairly common English construction. I am not familiar with The Shadow, but Wikipedia doesn't suggest that there's any particular genderful power to the phrase (in fact, the Shadow only has powers in the radio adaptations it seems out of necessity), so I'm going to assume that this is a coincidence. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 02:35, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

The description of The Shadow is not quite right. The radio character had "the power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him", but the pulp magazine character did not. He used his black cloak and slouch hat to blend into the shadows and he was a master of disguise. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.139}}

Hi? As a Mathematician, I feel the Shadow should just program around quantum mechanics in general. Simplifies the problem. This is the algorithm now. 07:15, 12 January 2014 (UTC) {{unsigned|Anomulus}}

I think Eric Laithwaite on gyroscopes unknowingly explained the behaviour of storms. Three tropical storms on the go simultaneously will on cyclosis resolve or devolve into a VEI event.
When they hit a continental shelf (thus causing cyclosis) the tilt causes a fundamental change in fluid dynamics and a change of state takes place as the energy moves underground.
In an as yet inexplicable paradox(?) there are NO tropical storms when a super-quake strikes. The base-line appears to be 5.6 M after a lull in medium sized quakes.I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait 21:09, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1315: Questions for God

2017-04-01T02:35:30Z

Hppavilion1: ding.

Hey, Arnold! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:51, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

The Shadow cannot provide an answer because steamboats--boats and ships specifically, and generally anything you ride on--are gendered as "women" in the English language. [[User:Kevin11 11|Kevin11 11]] ([[User talk:Kevin11 11|talk]]) 14:30, 10 January 2014 (UTC)Kevin 11_11
: I think this is worth mentioning as a secondary possibility, but to me it doesn't work nearly as well as the simple "a steamboat isn't a person". [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 03:32, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
: I read it as the poetic "man" which includes women as a subset, which is also a fairly common English construction. I am not familiar with The Shadow, but Wikipedia doesn't suggest that there's any particular genderful power to the phrase (in fact, the Shadow only has powers in the radio adaptations it seems out of necessity), so I'm going to assume that this is a coincidence. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 02:35, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

The description of The Shadow is not quite right. The radio character had "the power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him", but the pulp magazine character did not. He used his black cloak and slouch hat to blend into the shadows and he was a master of disguise. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.139}}

Hi? As a Mathematician, I feel the Shadow should just program around quantum mechanics in general. Simplifies the problem. This is the algorithm now. 07:15, 12 January 2014 (UTC) {{unsigned|Anomulus}}
I think Eric Laithwaite on gyroscopes unknowingly explained the behaviour of storms. Three tropical storms on the go simultaneously will on cyclosis resolve or devolve into a VEI event.
When they hit a continental shelf (thus causing cyclosis) the tilt causes a fundamental change in fluid dynamics and a change of state takes place as the energy moves underground.
In an as yet inexplicable paradox(?) there are NO tropical storms when a super-quake strikes. The base-line appears to be 5.6 M after a lull in medium sized quakes.I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait 21:09, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Talk:451: Impostor

2017-03-30T21:35:17Z

Hppavilion1: Obscure pedantry.

It could be that no one understands the literary criticism, even if they read it. The panel shows a student listening to Cueball. A fun, alternative explanation is that Cueball has found his real niche! A natural genius in literary criticism! (I know that's not what he's driving at. Stick with my first explanation.)[[User:Theo|Theo]] ([[User talk:Theo|talk]]) 13:22, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

I know this is easy to find, but the wikipedia article on deconstruction is very relevant. There should be a link in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 01:05, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

I believe the multiple issues listed in the '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction Deconstruction]''' Wikipedia article speak for themselves:

:'''This article has multiple issues.''' Please help '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deconstruction&action=edit improve it]''' or discuss these issues on the '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Deconstruction talk page]'''.
:*This article '''contains [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:QUOTE too many or too-lengthy quotations] for an encyclopedic entry'''. (''February 2014'')
:*This article '''may be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vagueness confusing or unclear] to readers'''. (''February 2014'')
:*This article '''may be too [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technical#Adjective technical] for most readers to understand'''. (''February 2014'')
:*This article's '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:LEAD introduction] may be too long for the overall article length'''. (''February 2014'')
:*This article '''may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style quality standards]'''. (''February 2014'')
:*The '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view neutrality] of this article is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NPOV_dispute disputed]'''. (''February 2014'')
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.5|199.27.133.5]] 20:10, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
::I'm wondering how anyone can make enough sense of that article to notice bias. :) [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 17:24, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

I think that, on the literary criticism explanation, Randall wrote "Eight papers and two books and they haven't caught on" to mean that he ''talked'' about eight papers and two books, not that he has already had a literary criticism writing career consisting of eight written papers and two books and no one has noticed. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.53|199.27.133.53]] 04:19, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
:I disagree. A 'paper' usually means an academic paper, not literary work. Then, the books part follows suit. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 06:52, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
:Could also be a reference to the Sokal Hoax...implying he did the same thing over and over but without the "reveal." {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.178}}

Given the "Eight papers and two books" that the narrator has written on literary criticism, could this actually be talking about [[wikipedia:Impostor syndrome|impostor syndrome]], where the author ''believes'' that they're frauds and that they're not as good as people think they are, but in actual fact are knowledgable in their field? --[[User:Sophira|Sophira]] ([[User talk:Sophira|talk]]) 04:13, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

I find the claim "Since Klingon is a constructed language, designed to sound "alien" and to avoid sounding like any human language, it cannot be part of any real linguistic family."- specifically the "since it's constructed, it can't belong to a real language family"- to be rather dubious. Now, full disclosure, I have absolutely no formal education in Linguistics- the closest is that I'm in my first year of learning German- but there's no reason a conlang can't belong to a language family.

For example:
* {{w|Linguistic purism in English|Anglish}}, English's form of linguistic purism that aims to remove all foreign influences (or at least romance influences) from the language is arcane and distinct enough from normal English to the degree that it can be considered a separate language almost (about the same difference as between English and {{w|Scots language|Scots}}). Anglish is pretty obviously constructed (a lot of vocabulary was mangled together to talk about modern concepts that didn't exist prior to foreign influences), but it's not a stretch to say it belongs to the Germanic language family.
* {{w|Esperanto}} is probably the world's most famous Conlang, but it was greatly influenced by the author's experience with language. It takes its grammar from Slavic languages and its vocabulary from Germanic and Romance languages; while it might not be an obvious member of any language family, I wouldn't call it a stretch to classify it in one (or more!) based on its influences.
* The biggest issue is that "real language family" is a dubious term- a group of related-but-distinct conlangs could be said to belong to the same language family, and it would be a ''real'' language family- if they're real languages, they form a real family.

Now, the given example of Klingon probably doesn't belong to any earthly families since it was meant to be alien, but the cause-and-effect statement is just a little fishy. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 21:35, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Talk:553: Pirate Bay

2017-03-29T15:45:53Z

Hppavilion1: signum

"Just some stats..."... here are some reasons why TPB is down sometimes - and how long it usually takes to fix: "Tiamo gets *very* drunk and then something crashes: 4 days "Anakata gets a really bad cold and noone is around: 7 days "The US and Swedish gov. forces the police to steal our servers: 3 days".. yawn."

The piratebay IS...

:

I would consider unremovable Hungarian subtitles to be an [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unishment Unishment]; even if I can not ignore the subtitles, I would end up learning Hungarian! I like learning languages! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 17:20, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

The transcript says that Cueball is the one standing, staring at the fence. However, it also lists Cueball as talking. Error or do I just have bad eyesight? {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.128}}
:It says that one of the Cueballs is standing, it doesn't specify which one is talking. Also logically it's not a fence, it's cell bars. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 01:22, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Someone translate every sentence in the Explain to Hungarian and put it after every English sentence. It must be checked frequently to make sure nobody removes the Hungarian.[[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 21:11, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
:See, this would probably get you banned, but I think it would be hilarious. Should I just use Google Translate, or do we have a Hungarian we can use? [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 15:45, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Could it be that "seeded generously" is supposed to be a pun about sexual promiscuity? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.250|108.162.237.250]] 13:24, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

:That was my first impression. {{unsigned ip|162.158.75.39

:It was most definitely not. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 15:45, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

If you put a colon between "unremovable" and "Hungarian" in the title text, then it sounds like the sentence is unremovable and it is Hungarian subtitles. It is possible that Randall left a colon out (however, unlikely) [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 15:20, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks for bringing this up. I've set the incomplete tag. The real pun focuses on other portals (back in 2009 when the comic was released) and their bad quality. And that's not only about subtitles nobody understands.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:18, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Talk:553: Pirate Bay

2017-03-29T15:45:30Z

Hppavilion1: zwei kommenten

"Just some stats..."... here are some reasons why TPB is down sometimes - and how long it usually takes to fix: "Tiamo gets *very* drunk and then something crashes: 4 days "Anakata gets a really bad cold and noone is around: 7 days "The US and Swedish gov. forces the police to steal our servers: 3 days".. yawn."

The piratebay IS...

:

I would consider unremovable Hungarian subtitles to be an [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unishment Unishment]; even if I can not ignore the subtitles, I would end up learning Hungarian! I like learning languages! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 17:20, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

The transcript says that Cueball is the one standing, staring at the fence. However, it also lists Cueball as talking. Error or do I just have bad eyesight? {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.128}}
:It says that one of the Cueballs is standing, it doesn't specify which one is talking. Also logically it's not a fence, it's cell bars. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 01:22, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Someone translate every sentence in the Explain to Hungarian and put it after every English sentence. It must be checked frequently to make sure nobody removes the Hungarian.[[User:International Space Station|International Space Station]] ([[User talk:International Space Station|talk]]) 21:11, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
:See, this would probably get you banned, but I think it would be hilarious. Should I just use Google Translate, or do we have a Hungarian we can use?

Could it be that "seeded generously" is supposed to be a pun about sexual promiscuity? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.250|108.162.237.250]] 13:24, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

:That was my first impression. {{unsigned ip|162.158.75.39

:It was most definitely not. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 15:45, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

If you put a colon between "unremovable" and "Hungarian" in the title text, then it sounds like the sentence is unremovable and it is Hungarian subtitles. It is possible that Randall left a colon out (however, unlikely) [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 15:20, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks for bringing this up. I've set the incomplete tag. The real pun focuses on other portals (back in 2009 when the comic was released) and their bad quality. And that's not only about subtitles nobody understands.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:18, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Talk:579: The Race: Part 3

2017-03-12T09:41:32Z

Hppavilion1:

It should be noted, that Summer Glau (aka River) is known to play bizzare, confused characters. Her characters in Dollhouse, Sarah Connor Chronicles, The 4400 were all a little (or more) odd. This is referenced when on panel 2 she begins to act strange and on panel 4 mel explains, that there is a reason why she plays strange roles indicating, that Summer Glau herself has a odd personality.

Also, Summer Glau is my favorite actress if I may express my personal feelings in comment. :) {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.140}}

She seemed pretty normal when she played herself on an episode of Big Bang Theory. Then again, if you're reading explainxkcd you probably loathe Big Bang Theory and have never watched it. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.127|108.162.241.127]] 14:20, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
:Wait, what? By what metric do the majority of exkcd readers hate the Big Bang Theory? Why?

:...did I miss something? [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 09:41, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

1804: Video Content

2017-03-01T03:03:01Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Went back to the {{NSFW}} template, because a template works better for this imo, especially since the link isn't *necessarily* non-work-safe- it depends on context. Also, this can allow e.g. categorization and stuff. tyvm.

{{comic
| number = 1804
| date = February 27, 2017
| title = Video Content
| image = video_content.png
| titletext = "So, like, sexy news videos?" "No, people have tried that--it's still just video content. We need to actually inform people THROUGH making out. I would call it 'Mouth Content,' but I think that's already the title of a Neil Cicierega album."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|work in progress.}}
This comic is a commentary on the declining {{w|publishing industry}} and their unsuccessful attempts at regaining an audience.

News media has evolved dramatically as the world entered the {{w|information era}}. {{w|Newspapers}}, which were at one point the most widely distributed and consumed form of media, have rapidly been eclipsed by new technologies such as {{w|television}}, {{w|Internet}}, and {{w|streaming video}}. Subscriptions to paper-based media have been drastically declining to the point where many {{w|publishers}} are on the verge of shutting down. While publishers are making an effort to move their content to newer, more popular forms of media, in many cases they are still clearly behind the times.

The comic illustrates one such example with [[Cueball]] suggesting presenting news stories as videos rather than text. This is presented and received by [[Megan]], [[Hairbun]] and [[Hairy]] as a clever new idea that would appeal to young people based on the fact that they like watching {{w|YouTube}} videos. However, apparently no one in the comic has realized that television news programs have been filling such a niche for decades and that young people are just as disinterested. In fact, online video based news is often considered annoying, especially if autoplaying or if there is no text based alternative. In reality, this idea is not at all original and likely to be doomed to fail from the start. As with many similar attempts, the new "ideas" that publishers are trying to adopt are merely cramming news content into things young people like, without really understanding why they like it and without considering whether news would be a good fit.

In the caption, [[Randall]] suggests it would be pointless to argue with newspaper publishers about their ideas. Presumably Randall believes publishers who fall for those ideas are already out of touch with the new generation, and would not be able to understand why those ideas lack merit. Instead, he suggests taking the trend to a ridiculous extreme, by telling publishers that young people like {{w|making out}}. Suppose publishers follow the same pattern and try to cram news into this as well, they would end up creating some form of news program centered around making out. The results may turn out completely laughable or highly entertaining. If the former, it could serve as a wake-up call to publishers that they need to reconsider their approach. If the latter, then it could actually become a trend and unexpectedly reinvigorate the industry.

In the title text it seems like the news agency actually consider this idea, or is at least confused enough to ask. Their interpretation of combining "making out" with news is to make it sexy, but the next speaker says that this has been tried before and doesn't work. This is likely a reference to {{w|Naked News}} {{NSFW}}, a news program that does that: it features attractive women delivering the news while simultaneously disrobing. This concept has not, for some reason, spread to the mainstream.

According to the speaker, merely making the news sexy is not enough- the news content must be ''directly'' integrated into the making out; how this would be accomplished is as yet unclear.

The title text also dismisses the proposed name ''Mouth Content'' as possibly the title of a {{w|Neil Cicierega}} album, in reference to his recently-released {{w|Mouth Moods}}, as well as his prior albums {{w|Mouth Sounds}} and {{w|Mouth Silence}}.

==Transcript==
:[Four characters sits around a large table. Cueball raises a hand as he addresses Megan sitting next to him behind the table. Hairbun also chimes in sitting to the right at the end of the table in an office chair. Hairy similarly sits at the other end of the table.]
:Cueball: Research shows young people like YouTube, so we should present news stories as videos instead of text!
:Megan: Good idea!
:Hairbun: They'll love that!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Instead of arguing with newspapers about this, we should just tell them how much young people like making out and see what happens.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Music]]

Talk:1804: Video Content

2017-02-28T16:28:09Z

Hppavilion1: Dot... dot... DOOOOTTTT..!

This was my first time writing a transcript, so let me know if I did anything wrong. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 16:52, 27 February 2017 (UTC)
:Nice, but it's called a panel, not a frame. [[User:Jtvjan|Jtvjan]] ([[User talk:Jtvjan|talk]]) 17:04, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

::sorry, my fault, I exchanged "comic" by "frame" instead of "panel" - solved :-) --[[User:LaVe|LaVe]] ([[User talk:LaVe|talk]]) 17:12, 27 February 2017 (UTC)
:::Well done ;) -- please have a look at my changes to the layout.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:57, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Who is Neil Cicierega? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.160|141.101.98.160]] 18:15, 27 February 2017 (UTC)
:[//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Cicierega Lemon demon]'s real name [[User:Jtvjan|Jtvjan]] ([[User talk:Jtvjan|talk]]) 18:20, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I understood this comic as being a parody on how news organizations decide their content and media regardless of how annoying it is to actually try to get all your news information out of videos (which I think annoys Randall) https://xkcd.com/1280/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.214|108.162.215.214]] 19:01, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I've added information on a real example of "sexy news", and in the process extended our wikinfrastructure with [[Template:Hov]] (for hovertext) and [[Template:NSFW]] (for potentially NSFW links which belong on the wiki- like the link to Naked News's Wikipedia article). [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 00:23, 28 February 2017 (UTC)
:I'd recommend adding a dotted bottom-border to Hov and changing the cursor it shows to "help". [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]]
::I considered the dotted bottom, but decided against it because I'd prefer to be able to ''not'' have that border when necessary, and to add a template derived from Hov that incorporates the bottom. Perhaps having a dotted underborder by default which can be disabled with an option would fill both needs? [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 16:28, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Obviously the presenters need to be skilled in tactile signing (see Wikipedia's [[wikipedia:Deafblindness|Deafblindness]] article). No problem there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.64|108.162.221.64]] 01:17, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

"This concept has not, for some reason, spread to the mainstream..."
...possibly because naked women are a fairly narrow and [[305|arbitrary]] definition of "sexy". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.18|141.101.107.18]] 12:33, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1804: Video Content

2017-02-28T00:23:48Z

Hppavilion1: Comment

Template:Hov

2017-02-28T00:20:57Z

Hppavilion1: Maybe this is the source of the error?

{{{2}}}<noinclude>
This is a quick-n'-dirty template to create hoverable text. The first parameter is the text that appears on hover, the second is the actual text. No additional formatting is applied.

[[Category:Templates]]
</noinclude

Template:NSFW

2017-02-28T00:18:51Z

Hppavilion1: Still erroring

{{Hov|This link is marked as being potentially Not Safe For Work- click with caution! {{ #if: {{{1|}}} | (Reason given: {{{1}}}) | (No reason given)}}|[link '''potentially [[wikipedia:NSFW|NSFW]]''']}}<noinclude>

This little template is designed for use on links which may be considered NSFW, but which are important to the article. The example use case is in the explanation for [[1804:_Video_Content|#1804]], where sexy news is mentioned. A link is being added to the Wikipedia article for "Naked News", and should be flagged as potentially NSFW, depending on your work environment.

One parameter is accepted to clarify the reason for being marked as such, but it is optional and will be automatically filled with a message saying no reason is given.
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Template:NSFW

2017-02-28T00:18:24Z

Hppavilion1: noinclude error.

{{Hov|This link is marked as being potentially Not Safe For Work- click with caution! {{ #if: {{{1|}}} | (Reason given: {{{1}}}) | (No reason given)}}|[link '''potentially [[wikipedia:NSFW|NSFW]]''']}}
<noinclude>

This little template is designed for use on links which may be considered NSFW, but which are important to the article. The example use case is in the explanation for [[1804:_Video_Content|#1804]], where sexy news is mentioned. A link is being added to the Wikipedia article for "Naked News", and should be flagged as potentially NSFW, depending on your work environment.

One parameter is accepted to clarify the reason for being marked as such, but it is optional and will be automatically filled with a message saying no reason is given.
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Template:NSFW

2017-02-28T00:18:02Z

Hppavilion1: Changed to use the Hov template, expanded docs.

{{Hov|This link is marked as being potentially Not Safe For Work- click with caution! {{ #if: {{{1|}}} | (Reason given: {{{1}}}) | (No reason given)}}|[link '''potentially [[wikipedia:NSFW|NSFW]]''']}}

<noinclude>
This little template is designed for use on links which may be considered NSFW, but which are important to the article. The example use case is in the explanation for [[1804:_Video_Content|#1804]], where sexy news is mentioned. A link is being added to the Wikipedia article for "Naked News", and should be flagged as potentially NSFW, depending on your work environment.

One parameter is accepted to clarify the reason for being marked as such, but it is optional and will be automatically filled with a message saying no reason is given.
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Template:Hov

2017-02-28T00:15:07Z

Hppavilion1: Created template

{{{2}}}

<noinclude>
This is a quick-n'-dirty template to create hoverable text. The first parameter is the text that appears on hover, the second is the actual text. No additional formatting is applied.

[[Category:Templates]]
</noinclude

Template:NSFW

2017-02-28T00:11:47Z

Hppavilion1: For Matting!

[link '''potentially [[wikipedia:NSFW|NSFW]]''']<noinclude>

This little template is designed for use on links which may be considered NSFW, but which are important to the article. The example use case is in the explanation for [[1804:_Video_Content|#1804]], where sexy news is mentioned. A link is being added to the Wikipedia article for "Naked News", and should be flagged as potentially NSFW, depending on your work environment.
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>
''Italic text''

1804: Video Content

2017-02-28T00:03:31Z

Hppavilion1: Fixed later paragraphs, added linkies.

{{comic
| number = 1804
| date = February 27, 2017
| title = Video Content
| image = video_content.png
| titletext = "So, like, sexy news videos?" "No, people have tried that--it's still just video content. We need to actually inform people THROUGH making out. I would call it 'Mouth Content,' but I think that's already the title of a Neil Cicierega album."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|work in progress.}}
This comic appears to be a commentary about the declining publishing industry and their unsuccessful attempts at regaining an audience.

News media has evolved dramatically as the world entered the information era. Newspapers, which were at one point the most widely distributed and consumed form of media, have rapidly been eclipsed by new technologies such as television, Internet, and streaming video. Subscriptions to paper-based media have been drastically declining to the point where many publishers are on the verge of shutting down. While publishers are making an effort to move their content to newer, more popular forms of media, in many cases they are still clearly behind the times.

The comic illustrates one such example with Cueball suggesting presenting news stories as videos rather than text. This is presented and received as a clever new idea that would appeal to young people based on the fact that they like watching YouTube videos. However, apparently no one in the comic has realized that television news programs have been filling such a niche for decades and that young people are just as disinterested. In fact, online video based news is often considered annoying, especially if autoplaying or if there is no text based alternative. In reality, this idea is not at all original and likely to be doomed to fail from the start. As with many similar attempts, the new "ideas" that publishers are trying to adopt are merely cramming news content into things young people like, without really understanding why they like it and without considering whether news would be a good fit.

In the caption, Randall suggests it would be pointless to argue with newspaper publishers about their ideas. Presumably Randall believes publishers who fall for those ideas are already out of touch with the new generation, and would not be able to understand why those ideas lack merit. Instead, he suggests taking the trend to a ridiculous extreme, by telling publishers that young people like making out. Suppose publishers follow the same pattern and try to cram news into this as well, they would end up creating some form of news program centered around making out. The results may turn out completely laughable or highly entertaining. If the former, it could serve as a wake-up call to publishers that they need to reconsider their approach. If the latter, then it could actually become a trend and unexpectedly reinvigorate the industry.

The news agency seems to actually consider this idea, or is at least confused enough to ask. Their interpretation of combining "making out" with news is to make it sexy, but the unnamed speaker (Randall?) says that this has been tried before and doesn't work. This is likely a reference to [[wikipedia:Naked News|Naked News]]{{NSFW}}, a news program that does that: it features attractive women delivering the news while simultaneously disrobing. This concept has not, for some reason, spread to the mainstream.

According to the speaker, merely making the news sexy is not enough- the news content must be ''directly'' integrated into the making out; how this would be accomplished is as yet unclear.

The title text also dismisses the proposed name Mouth Content as possibly the title of a [[wikipedia:Neil_Cicierega|Neil Cicierega]] album, in reference to his recently-released [[wikipedia:Mouth_Moods|Mouth Moods]], as well as his prior albums [[wikipedia:Mouth_Sounds|Mouth Sounds]] and [[wikipedia:Mouth_Silence|Mouth Silence]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[From left to right: Hairy, Cueball, Megan and Hairbun sit around a conference table.]
:Cueball: Research shows young people like YouTube, so we should present news stories as videos instead of text!
:Megan: Good idea!
:Hairbun: They'll love that!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Instead of arguing with newspapers about this, we should just tell them how much young people like making out and see what happens.

{{comic discussion}}

Template:NSFW

2017-02-28T00:03:08Z

Hppavilion1: Formatting

[link ''potentially [[wikipedia:NSFW|NSFW]]'']<noinclude>

This little template is designed for use on links which may be considered NSFW, but which are important to the article. The example use case is in the explanation for [[1804:_Video_Content|#1804]], where sexy news is mentioned. A link is being added to the Wikipedia article for "Naked News", and should be flagged as potentially NSFW, depending on your work environment.
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Template:NSFW

2017-02-28T00:02:26Z

Hppavilion1: Created template

[link ''potentially [[wikipedia:NSFW|NSFW]]'']<noinclude>
This little template is designed for use on links which may be considered NSFW, but which are important to the article. The example use case is in the explanation for [[1804:_Video_Content|#1804]], where sexy news is mentioned. A link is being added to the Wikipedia article for "Naked News", and should be flagged as potentially NSFW, depending on your work environment.
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

1636: XKCD Stack

2017-02-06T00:19:43Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Some technologies are real, reliable, and up-to date and yet still ridiculous

{{comic
| number = 1636
| date = January 29, 2016
| title = XKCD Stack
| image = xkcd_stack.png
| titletext = This site requires Sun Java 6.0.0.1 (32-bit) or higher. You have Macromedia Java 7.3.8.1¾ (48-bit). Click here [link to java.com main page] to download an installer which will run fine but not really change anything.
}}

==Explanation==
In software engineering, a tech stack is the set of technology platforms and tools that a company or app uses. A common tech stack is {{w|LAMP (software bundle)|LAMP}}, composed of a {{w|Linux}} {{w|Operating system|operating system}}, an {{w|Apache HTTP Server|Apache}} {{w|Web server}}, a {{w|MySQL}} {{w|Database}}, and the {{w|PHP}} programming language. In this comic, the XKCD stack is introduced. The technologies comprising it are either non-existent, unreliable, outdated, or entirely irrelevant.

===Explanation of steps===
{| class="wikitable"
| | Layer
| | Explanation
|-
| |
EBNF/CSS
| |
BNF or {{w|Backus–Naur Form}} is a syntax used for describing {{w|context-free grammars}}.
{{w|Extended Backus–Naur Form|EBNF}} is "Extended BNF", it is the same thing as BNF with a few more syntactic constructs intended to ease its use in the most common cases. [[1343: Manuals]] mentioned EBNF.

CSS or {{w|Cascading Style Sheets}} are a language used to describe what a web page should look like. Web pages are usually written in {{w|HTML}}, which describes the ''structure'' of the page (i.e. divides the document into paragraphs, lists, etc.) complemented with CSS which describes the ''look and feel'' of the page (colors, fonts, margins, etc.). EBNF/CSS would suggest CSS with strange syntax.
|-
| |
Broken Java Applet
| |
In recent years it has become more difficult to run {{w|Java (programming language)|Java}} {{w|Applet|applets}} in several browsers. {{w|Google Chrome|Chrome}} 45 stopped supporting {{w|NPAPI}}, {{w|Mozilla Firefox|Firefox}} will drop support by 2016, and {{w|Microsoft Edge|Edge}} does not support NPAPI plugins at all. Furthermore, two days before this comic was published {{w|Oracle Corporation|Oracle}} (the developer of Java) [https://blogs.oracle.com/java-platform-group/entry/moving_to_a_plugin_free announced] plans to officially end support of Java applets in an upcoming version.
|-
| |
Archive.org Mirror
| |
{{w|Internet Archive|Archive.org}} is a website which archives websites, and created the {{w|Wayback Machine}}. It's ambiguous whether the "Archive.org mirror" would be a copy of the xkcd server or of Archive.org itself.
|-
| |
Hypercard.js
| |
{{w|HyperCard}} can be considered as a kind of predecessor for powerpoint developed at {{w|Apple Inc.|Apple}}. The file extension .js indicates that is was rewritten in {{w|JavaScript}}. A similar reference to JavaScript is found in [[1508: Operating Systems]]. The .js extension also refers to node.js, where most library names end in .js
|-
| |
QBasic on Rails
| |
A mix between {{w|QBasic}} and {{w|Ruby on Rails}}. {{w|BASIC}} is a programming language that was very widespread during the 80s. QBasic is an implementation of BASIC created by Microsoft in early 90s, that, among other things, added support for {{w|structured programming}}. QBasic, lacking several of the features present on modern computer languages, is known for its spaghetti code. {{w|Ruby (programming language)|Ruby}} is a rather modern language, often used with Ruby on Rails web application {{w|Software framework |framework}}. QBasic on Rails would likely mean a port of Ruby on Rails, replacing Ruby with QBasic. QBasic no longer runs on modern computers, however there are a couple of free {{w|open source}} implementation of QBasic, one being [http://www.qb64.net/ QB64] and the other [http://www.freebasic.net/ FreeBASIC], which are available for Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android. There also exists a webserver on BASIC called [http://www.runbasic.com/ RunBasic].

|-
| |
[Blocked by AdBlocker]
| |
{{w|Ad blocking}} software are extensions to browsers that try to remove ads from web pages, so the user is not distracted by them. [[624: Branding]] shows what "browsing without adblock" looks like. The joke is that AdBlocker is preventing us from seeing what makes up this portion of the stack. This could be because:
*Someone inserted an ad in the stack description. Some sites do insert ads in the middle of tables and lists, a typical case being between posts in forums.
*An ad is actually an integral part of the stack. Some sites make ads an integral part of the site content, so that users with ad blocking software will be forced to disable ad blocking to be able to properly interact with the site. Usually, in real life, this is not really a case of ads being part of the site, only that the site artificially refuses to work until it has some confirmation that ads have been properly loaded in the client side (by means of some script within the ads which sends the confirmation to the server).
*Ad blocking software has misidentified that portion of the stack as an ad, when in fact it is not (i.e. a false positive). This happens in real life, and it is a common source of great pains for the owner of the site which is being misidentified as an ad.

|-
| |
MongoDB/Excel
| |
{{w|MongoDB}} is a modern {{w|NoSQL}} {{w|Database|database}} system, {{w|Microsoft Excel}} is a {{w|Spreadsheet|spreadsheet}} program from Microsoft, which is sometimes used as a database system (rarely a good choice).

|-
| |
Some piece that works so nobody asks any questions
| |
Writing any non-trivial piece of software always require a phase of {{w|debugging}}, which consists in finding and fixing {{w|Software bug|bugs}}. With complex software, this is a long and tiring process, so when the product is finally finished no one dares to modify it any further for fear that it will fail in unexpected ways. After some time passes, it is even worse because nobody really remembers how the software was ''supposed'' to work, so the product becomes some kind of godlike treasure which must be treated with the utmost respect and reverence because, you know, if it stops working we're all doomed ([[1421: Future Self]]). After completion, {{w|Refactoring}} is the process of rewriting code for greater efficiency or reliability. However, if the performance is not 'too bad' (i.e. not unusably terrible in normal use) there is a great temptation to avoid this, in favour of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' methodology. This could lead, for example, to a trained monkey and an abacus being used to crunch numbers. It works, but could be done far better. However, nobody wishes to change it, for fear of breaking a presently functional, if inefficient, system.
|-
| |
Triply-Nested Docker
| |
{{w|Docker (software)|Docker}} is a {{w|Operating-system-level virtualization|software container}}, which is a way that allows a complete operating system to run under different operating system (OS) (as long they share the same kernel, among other things). Triply-nested docker would mean OS A running under OS B running under OS C running under OS D (running under OS E?). That would likely be a performance and management nightmare
|-
| |
Paravirtual Boy®
| |
This is a reference to the {{w|Virtual Boy}}, a failed portable console created by {{w|Nintendo}}. It was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKK6FH1vGw promoted as being a highly immersive, incredible experience], but the poor technology that it used caused to be [https://youtu.be/OyVAp0tOk5A?t=56s very criticized] for not meeting the high expectations. {{w|Paravirtualization}} is a way of virtualization, that requires cooperation of the guest operating system, contrary of {{w|full virtualization}}, on which the guest operating system does not require to do anything special and the host handles everything.
|-
| |
A dev typing real fast
| |
A dev is a {{w|Software developer|software developer}}. This is possibly a reference to [[341: 1337: Part 1]], where [[Mrs. Roberts]] edits the {{w|Transmission Control Protocol|TCP}} stream live while wearing oven mitts and baking cookies. It looks like the xkcd Webserver is not a computer after all -- we have a person manually replying to HTTP protocol queries. Such a feat would indeed require real fast typing. If this is the case, then its possible that almost none of the other layers of the stack actually do anything.

|-
| |
Older version of our software
| |
People are often reluctant to switch to newer versions of software because, even though newer versions are supposed to have more features and fewer bugs, they end up confusing users. Users of older versions are used to doing everything with less features and circumventing old bugs. They don't know how to use the new features, which of course come with new bugs they haven't learned how to circumvent yet. It is also often the case that newer versions remove weird unused old features, breaking the workflow of users who actually did use such features and are left without a suitable replacement ([[1172: Workflow]]). Alternately, since higher parts of a stack are dependent on lower parts, this could also be a reference to how the consumer versions of Microsoft Windows (3.x, 95, 98, and ME) ran on the "older version" software Microsoft DOS until Windows 95. Paired with the previous layer, it could instead mean that the human is merely retyping the output of the older version.
|-
| |
Mystery Networking Horror
| |
Randall suggests here that the whole networking stuff behind the XKCD service is both mysterious (no one actually knows the details) and horrific (technically questionable architecture and implementation, or somehow tentacled and eldritch in nature).
|-
| |
Microsoft Bob Server®
| |
{{w|Microsoft Bob}} was a short-lived, failed attempt by Microsoft, around 1995, to provide a user-friendly interface for the {{w|Microsoft Windows|Windows}} 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems. It consisted of a virtual "house" and "rooms", and the idea was that you could click on a pen and open the word processor. It was heavily criticized and was soon discontinued. Randall seems to be making the suggestion the Bob has continued to be developed and now there's a Bob Server, similarly to Windows server.
|-
| |
A giant {{w|Central processing unit|CPU}} someone built in Minecraft
| |
{{w|Minecraft}} is a popular sandbox game where you place blocks to build things. Since the introduction of Redstone objects (materials used to create basic electric circuits within the game) people have made many machines within Minecraft, including calculators and clocks. The most complex of these machines simulate simple computers, capable of storing several lines of code and performing basic mathematical operations such as division, which requires thousands of blocks and extremely complex designs. A Minecraft CPU capable of hosting a website would be ridiculously huge.
|}

=== Title text ===

The title text contains several jokes about the Java programming language:

*First, it refers to Java both as {{w|Sun Microsystems|Sun}} Java and {{w|Macromedia}} Java. This is a pun on the fact that older documents refer to "Sun Java" where newer documents refer to "{{w|Oracle Corporation|Oracle}} Java", as if there were two different languages. The fact is that Java was designed originally by Sun and then bought by Oracle, so it "changed name" even though the language is the same. Macromedia was the company that developed Flash before it was bought by Adobe. Both Flash and Java were popular in the early WWW to have interactive web pages, but both are being deprecated in favor of JavaScript.

*Second, the version numbers: older software products used to have two version numbers: major and minor (e.g. in {{w|MS-DOS}} 6.22 the major number is 6 and the minor is 22). Newer products tend to have hundreds of minor revisions, all of them numbered, so a typical user may well find themselves updating version 6.0.0.1 to 7.3.8.1 without knowing at all the differences between both versions or which other versions are in between. The ¾ in the Macromedia Java version is a joke on complex version numbers, which (so far) have never included fractions.

*Third, the 32-bit or 48-bit version: The {{w|Intel 80386}} processor used an architecture known as {{w|IA-32}}, which implies the {{w|Address bus|address bus}} is 32-bit wide and thus able to handle up to 4{{w|Gibibyte|GiB}} of {{w|Random-access memory|RAM}} memory. This was plenty for the early 1990s, when a typical home PC would have about 8MiB (this is 512 times less than 4GiB). However, about 10 years after that, a typical home PC could well use more than 4GiB of RAM, so several {{w|64-bit computing|64-bit architectures}} were created. These architectures are not compatible, so programs (including the Java Runtime Environment, or JRE) often have 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Furthermore, the JRE is heavily used by many web browsers, and for this to work the JRE and browser need to be the same "number of bits". This means that most people have installed both versions of the JRE to be able to use it with both 32-bit and 64-bit browsers. There's no 48-bit architecture (though some 64-bit processors including the {{w|x86-64|most common ones}} don't actually use all 64 bits everywhere, ignoring some bits so actual virtual or physical memory is smaller (in the case of the most common ones, 48bits virtual and 40bits physical), they simulate a full 64-bit environment to allow adding more bits later, so there are no specific 48-bit applications).

*Fourth, an application trying to let the user install a new version of the JRE should direct the user to the download page in the [http://java.com/ java.com site], not to the main page which deals with lots of issues with java and is not particularly helpful when trying to update the JRE.

*Fifth, and continuing with the joke of users updating from 7.3.8.1¾ to 6.0.0.1 and not knowing why they should, the new version is said to "run fine but not really change anything". This is the usual behavior for Java updates: they run fine (possibly in opposition to [[1197: All Adobe Updates]], where updating must be done several times and the user is never sure they have installed all the newest updates), but after finished updating the user can't see any difference with the previous behavior, and/or may still be told that an update is required. Considering that 7.3.8.1¾ is bigger number than 6.0.0.1, it can also refer to the fact that the test for upgrading is incorrect and 7.3.8.1¾ is actually newer version or that a downgrade is required for the aplet to work properly, because no one fixed it to work with the newer version.

*Sixth, Macromedia was a multimedia software company in the 90s that originally developed Flash, a popular plug-in similar to Java. Adobe purchased Macromedia in 2005.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Transcripts are for the blind, this should not be a table.}}
:Introducing

:The XKCD Stack
:{| class="wikitable"
| |
EBNF/CSS
|-
| |
Broken Java Applet
|-
| |
Archive.org Mirror
|-
| |
Hypercard.js
|-
| |
QBasic on Rails
|-
| |
[Blocked by AdBlocker]
|-
| |
MongoDB/Excel
|-
| |
Some piece that works so nobody asks any questions
|-
| |
Triply-Nested Docker
|-
| |
Paravirtual Boy®
|-
| |
A dev typing real fast
|-
| |
Older version of our software
|-
| |
Mystery Networking Horror
|-
| |
Microsoft Bob Server®
|-
| |
A giant CPU someone built in Minecraft
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Video games]]

191: Lojban

2017-02-03T19:20:12Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Lojban features

{{comic
| number = 191
| date = December 1, 2006
| title = Lojban
| image = lojban.png
| titletext = zo'o ta jitfa .i .e'o xu do pendo mi
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Lojban}} is a constructed language designed to be logical, unambiguous, and culturally neutral — similar to the better known artificial language {{w|Esperanto}}. The authors originally designed it as an experiment, but a few people have picked it up and tried to learn it. However, anyone actually willing to learn Lojban is someone [[Black Hat]] would rather avoid. Alternately, only people who speak Lojban, who comprise an admittedly tiny proportion of the general population, could benefit from the logic of the language, making the benefits of Lojban mostly pointless to most people.

Clicking on the original comic brings you to [[:File:lojban translated.png|a Lojban translation of the comic]].

The title text is also written in Lojban. It translates roughly as: "That was a joke. Really. Wanna be friends with me?". Since Lojban aims to be completely unambiguous, idiomatic structures like sarcasm and humor have associated particles- when a joke is made, it must be ''explicitly'' marked as such or else it's incorrect. Most jokes rely on intonation expressing this, but Lojban does not, leading to the strange practice here of specifically pointing out that a joke was made.

A more literal translation gives: "humorously that false. Please is-it-true-that you friend me?"

==Transcript==
:;English
:Cueball: If you learned to speak Lojban, your communication would be completely unambiguous and logical.
:Black Hat: Yeah, but it would all be with the kind of people who learn Lojban.

:;Lojban
:Cueball: da'i ganai do crebi'o la lojban gi le se cusku be do cu mulno pavysmu je logji
:Black Hat: .i .ie ku'i cusku fi le prenu klesi poi certu la lojban

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:1401: New

2016-12-21T23:45:56Z

Hppavilion1: Siggy

Why are there three ''n'''s in ''headcannnon'' in the title text?
[[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]])

:Or as n increases the effort to convince others that the existence/correctness of headca(n)+on decreases? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 20:31, 30 July 2014 (UTC)arcturius

:I think it's as simple as 1 n in canon (what the pun is based on), 2 n's in cannon (in the comic), and just to keep the pattern going, 3 n's in cannnon (in the title text).--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.175|173.245.54.175]] 05:35, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

That reminds me on Neil Stephensons - The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer... Very nerdy! {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.21}}

Another very common usage of headcanon is when you REMOVE something from your headcanon - that is, pretend that it never happened, despite it being canon. Often it's case of not-really-good sequels. Or later edits: see {{w|Han shot first}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:35, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
:I thought that headcanon was everything fans imagined, not just what contradicts canon. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.204|141.101.105.204]] 16:32, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Anyone note that the computer is completely undamaged (from the cannonfire at least, no telling about when it strikes the floor), despite the desk being demolished? [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:14, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Worth mentioning the alternate term "fanon", at all? (Currently third but unlinking item {{w|Fanon|Wikipedia link}}, or the more dangerous (in the [[214|Comic 214]] sense) [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fanon TVTropes link]... ) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.7|141.101.99.7]] 13:22, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

:I'd say no, fanon is headcanon that is accepted in huge parts of the fandom. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.204|141.101.105.204]] 16:32, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

New headcanon: Black Hat Guy always has a headcannon under his hat, and in this comic he is simply showing Cueball that he got a new one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.73|108.162.216.73]] 14:12, 30 July 2014 (UTC)Matthew
:Not true. In other comics where he hasn't had his hat, he did not have a cannon on his head. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 15:40, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Canon (in Greek: Kanon, Arabic: Qanon, Hebrew: Kaneh) means reed, or straight. Thus trustworthy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_law#Etymology] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:38, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Black Hat is shown to have short dark hair. That's new xkcd canon. As far as I know, he'd always been shown wearing a hat completely covering his hair until now. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 15:33, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
: Not new. http://xkcd.com/377/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 15:40, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
:I always assumed black hat and white hat(perhaps all the cast) were aspects of Cueball,s psyc, a jungian zoo. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.167}}

Ra-Ra-Rasputin {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.170}}

"The title text is a pun on the homophones *canon* and *cannon*" ... uh, the whole entire COMIC is a pun on the homophones *canon* and *cannon*. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.149|173.245.56.149]] 18:16, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Kudos to the author(s) of the example using Quark. One of the best-written explanations on this wiki. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 22:42, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

''"Fans might wonder why, on a station that has "replicators" (devices that can create any food or drink out of energy on demand), anyone would patronize a bar"'' - perhaps because they might want to, you know, socialise with other people? Call me old-fashioned... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.37|141.101.99.37]] 14:23, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Anyone know if this weeks what if is different depending on region? I only ask because it mentions my small town and I am skeptical based on past comics. [[1037: Umwelt]][[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.208|173.245.56.208]] 06:25, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, it doesn't mention anyplace close to me :-)
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 09:04, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

No one has explained why the comic is titled "New". Because Black hat says "NEW HEADCANNON:" rather than "I HAVE A NEW HEADCANNON:", I think he is speaking not English, but some programming language. Black Hat created the headcannon by saying "new Headcannon:", which is a command to instantiate an object of type Headcannon. This is similar to previous strips http://xkcd.com/353/ and http://xkcd.com/413/, which attributed supernatural creative powers to Python's "import" statement. But "new Headcannon:" isn't Python. I don't know language it is. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.178}}
:Best I can come up with is a Quick BASIC label, but if that were the case instantiating it would have required a precedant ''gosub'', not ''new''. [[User:Sailorleo|Sailorleo]] ([[User talk:Sailorleo|talk]]) 21:12, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
:It's English; he's just speaking in an informal context, and so is using the sort of colloquialisms that don't work in more formal registers and which look weird when written. "New headcannon" (or, indeed, "New headcanon") is just shorthand for "I have acquired/developed/accepted/stolen a new headcann?on". [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 23:45, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Could the "headcannnon" refer to an idea that "blows your mind"? The trajectory of the "literal" cannon ball ends where Cueball's head was, so it went from head to head, not head to desk... --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 22:34, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
:It seems more likely Black Hat is just being an asshole and shooting him in the face. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.205|108.162.249.205]] 02:51, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1401: New

2016-12-21T23:44:50Z

Hppavilion1: Communent.

Why are there three ''n'''s in ''headcannnon'' in the title text?
[[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]])

:Or as n increases the effort to convince others that the existence/correctness of headca(n)+on decreases? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 20:31, 30 July 2014 (UTC)arcturius

:I think it's as simple as 1 n in canon (what the pun is based on), 2 n's in cannon (in the comic), and just to keep the pattern going, 3 n's in cannnon (in the title text).--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.175|173.245.54.175]] 05:35, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

That reminds me on Neil Stephensons - The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer... Very nerdy! {{unsigned ip|108.162.254.21}}

Another very common usage of headcanon is when you REMOVE something from your headcanon - that is, pretend that it never happened, despite it being canon. Often it's case of not-really-good sequels. Or later edits: see {{w|Han shot first}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:35, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
:I thought that headcanon was everything fans imagined, not just what contradicts canon. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.204|141.101.105.204]] 16:32, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Anyone note that the computer is completely undamaged (from the cannonfire at least, no telling about when it strikes the floor), despite the desk being demolished? [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 13:14, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Worth mentioning the alternate term "fanon", at all? (Currently third but unlinking item {{w|Fanon|Wikipedia link}}, or the more dangerous (in the [[214|Comic 214]] sense) [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fanon TVTropes link]... ) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.7|141.101.99.7]] 13:22, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

:I'd say no, fanon is headcanon that is accepted in huge parts of the fandom. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.204|141.101.105.204]] 16:32, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

New headcanon: Black Hat Guy always has a headcannon under his hat, and in this comic he is simply showing Cueball that he got a new one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.73|108.162.216.73]] 14:12, 30 July 2014 (UTC)Matthew
:Not true. In other comics where he hasn't had his hat, he did not have a cannon on his head. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 15:40, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Canon (in Greek: Kanon, Arabic: Qanon, Hebrew: Kaneh) means reed, or straight. Thus trustworthy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_law#Etymology] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:38, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Black Hat is shown to have short dark hair. That's new xkcd canon. As far as I know, he'd always been shown wearing a hat completely covering his hair until now. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 15:33, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
: Not new. http://xkcd.com/377/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 15:40, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
:I always assumed black hat and white hat(perhaps all the cast) were aspects of Cueball,s psyc, a jungian zoo. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.167}}

Ra-Ra-Rasputin {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.170}}

"The title text is a pun on the homophones *canon* and *cannon*" ... uh, the whole entire COMIC is a pun on the homophones *canon* and *cannon*. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.149|173.245.56.149]] 18:16, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Kudos to the author(s) of the example using Quark. One of the best-written explanations on this wiki. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 22:42, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

''"Fans might wonder why, on a station that has "replicators" (devices that can create any food or drink out of energy on demand), anyone would patronize a bar"'' - perhaps because they might want to, you know, socialise with other people? Call me old-fashioned... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.37|141.101.99.37]] 14:23, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Anyone know if this weeks what if is different depending on region? I only ask because it mentions my small town and I am skeptical based on past comics. [[1037: Umwelt]][[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.208|173.245.56.208]] 06:25, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, it doesn't mention anyplace close to me :-)
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.214|141.101.98.214]] 09:04, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

No one has explained why the comic is titled "New". Because Black hat says "NEW HEADCANNON:" rather than "I HAVE A NEW HEADCANNON:", I think he is speaking not English, but some programming language. Black Hat created the headcannon by saying "new Headcannon:", which is a command to instantiate an object of type Headcannon. This is similar to previous strips http://xkcd.com/353/ and http://xkcd.com/413/, which attributed supernatural creative powers to Python's "import" statement. But "new Headcannon:" isn't Python. I don't know language it is. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.178}}
:Best I can come up with is a Quick BASIC label, but if that were the case instantiating it would have required a precedant ''gosub'', not ''new''. [[User:Sailorleo|Sailorleo]] ([[User talk:Sailorleo|talk]]) 21:12, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
:It's English; he's just speaking in an informal context, and so is using the sort of colloquialisms that don't work in more formal registers and which look weird when written. "New headcannon" (or, indeed, "New headcanon") is just shorthand for "I have acquired/developed/accepted/stolen a new headcann?on".

Could the "headcannnon" refer to an idea that "blows your mind"? The trajectory of the "literal" cannon ball ends where Cueball's head was, so it went from head to head, not head to desk... --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 22:34, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
:It seems more likely Black Hat is just being an asshole and shooting him in the face. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.205|108.162.249.205]] 02:51, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

521: 2008 Christmas Special

2016-12-21T23:33:30Z

Hppavilion1: /* Explanation */ Defined sublimate

{{comic
| number = 521
| date = December 24, 2008
| title = 2008 Christmas Special
| image = 2008_christmas_special.png
| titletext = 'How could you possibly think typing 'import skynet' was a good idea?'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is the xkcd Christmas Special from the year 2008. The prologue states that due to the {{w|2008 financial crisis}}, only very few images of the strip could be produced, leaving the others to be blacked out. It is therefore left to the reader to reconstruct the whole story based on the given images. While it is claimed that the reconstruction should be rather easy, the complicated and abstruse plot-line makes it nearly impossible to fill the gaps. Any attempt at inferring the missing images would therefore be largely guesswork. The comic features the well-known xkcd characters getting involved in a strange fight with cyborgs and raptors on Christmas Eve.

The line "We apologize for the inconvenience." is possibly a reference to the famous book series {{w|The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy}} by {{w|Douglas Adams}}. It appears there as God's Final Message to His Creation, written in letters of fire on the side of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains.

'''Panel 2:''' [[Megan]] strives to outdo some Christmas lights she has seen on YouTube.

'''Panel 3:''' Dissatisfied with her work, Megan is thinking about alternative ways improve her light arrangement. The idea of firing {{w|Sodium}} pellets into snow is probably a bad one, as Sodium reacts exothermically with water and may, in large amounts, induce explosions.

'''Panel 5:''' Probably still obsessed with the idea of creating a large and impressive light display, Megan has constructed an electronic device with an {{w|Arduino}} processor, perhaps to make the light chain show patterns. However, the amount of energy she used was apparently too high, causing one of the control boards to sublimate- go directly from a solid to a gaseous state without an intermediate liquid phase. She then wishes she could make the system self-repairing.

'''Panel 7:''' Megan's device has developed {{w|artificial intelligence}}, allowing it to feel. This is presumably a result of Megan attempting to make the device self-repairing. This common trope in science-fiction works usually leads to the system's attempting to eradicate its creator. [[Cueball]] attributes the emergence of a personality to awesome ease and power of programming in {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}}.

'''Panel 11:''' Out of context, this panel introduces the idea of {{w|Santa Claus}} being a {{w|Muslim}}. This may be a reference to the persistent Internet rumors that Barack Obama is a Muslim, though he declares himself to be a Christian. However, the statement could also relate to the fact the Santa Claus is usually displayed with a large beard, which is sometimes also sported by conservative Muslims. Or it could just be non-sensical.

'''Panel 13:''' At this point the self-aware Christmas light control systems has apparently released {{w|cyborgs}} that tried to kill Megan and Cueball. In order to repel the cyborgs, they have cloned {{w|Velociraptors}}. Cueball expresses doubt whether that was really a good idea. Velociraptors appear frequently in xkcd, cf. comics [[87]], [[135]] and [[292]].

'''Panel 17:''' As predicted, the raptors have gone wild, but Megan, Cueball and the two smaller characters (perhaps their children) managed to cage the dinosaurs. They believe themselves safe unless the raptors learn how to build {{w|lightsabers}}. This is a reference to a line in Jurrasic Park where the main characters believe themselves safe, unless the raptors can learn how to open doors.

'''Panel 19:''' The raptors have indeed succeeded with constructing lightsabers and must now be fought. The "Clever girl" is a reference to a line from Jurassic Park where the raptors outflank (and kill) one of the human characters wearing a similar hat.

'''Panel 23:''' IT billionaire {{w|Bill Gates}} has mistakenly killed Santa Claus, possibly in a sword fight. He claims to have mistaken him for {{w|Richard Stallman}}, a prominent {{w|free software}} activist. (Gates strongly opposes the idea of free software and is therefore considered an antagonist by many of its supporters.) The most striking resemblance between Stallman and Santa Claus is probably the long and untamed beard. Comic [[225]] is one of the most famous xkcd comics and features Stallman involved in a sword fight.

'''Panel 29:''' Megan asks [[Black Hat]] where he obtained the enormously large {{w|christmas tree}} that can be seen on the right side of the picture. It is implied that he logged {{w|Yggdrasil}}, a giant ash tree in Norse mythology. According to tradition, Yggdrasil is the world tree representing the whole of creation and holding together the cosmological structure.

'''Panel 31:''' [[Randall]] wishes Merry Christmas to all xkcd readers.

The title text refers to panel 7. In Python, modules are imported using the "import ''module''" syntax. {{w|Skynet (Terminator)|Skynet}} is a self-aware artificial intelligence system featured in the {{w|Terminator}} film series as the main antagonist. Importing the skynet module might therefore account for Megan's system's developing an evil personality.

Note that this comic was first published in another version that had panel 29 as panel 27 and the "Merry Christmas from xkcd" message at the bottom. As 27 is not a {{w|prime number}}, the current version was published in lieu of the erroneous one.

It has been observed that the top left nine panels form a {{w|Glider (Conway's Life)|Glider}} in {{w|Conway's Game of Life}}. The glider is sometimes used as an emblem representing {{w|hacker subculture}}, although rotated by 90 degrees. It remains however unclear whether the occurrence in the comic is intentional or owed to the prime number pattern.

==Transcript==
:The 2008 XKCD Christmas Special
:Due to the slowing economy, we could only afford to produce the prime-numbered panels.
:You should be able to infer the missing parts of the story easily enough.
:We apologize for the inconvenience.
:[The first panel is blank.]
:[Megan carrying Christmas lights and Cueball watching.]
:Megan: I'm going to one-up those Christmas light displays on YouTube.
:[Megan thinking.]
:Megan: Hmm. Needs more flair. Do you know what happens when you fire sodium pellets into a snowbank?
:Cueball: No.
:Megan: Me neither.
:[The next panel is blank.]
:[Megan sitting in front of a console.]
:Megan: Whoops, one of the Arduino control boards sublimated.
:Megan: If only I could make it self-repairing...
:[The next panel is blank.]
:Megan: Shit. The system has become sentient.
:Cueball: Friggin' Python.
:System: GRAAARR!
:[The next three panels are blank.]
:[Megan showing laptop to Cueball.]
:Megan: But according to this email forward, Santa is secretly a Muslim!
:Cueball: It explains everything!
:[The next panel is blank.]
:Megan: Okay, the cloned raptors are hunting the last of the cyborgs. We're safe.
:Cueball: Are you sure you thought this through?
:[The next three panels are blank.]
:[Two couples appear in this next panel.]
:Cueball: Are the raptors contained?
:Ponytail: Sure. Unless they figure out how to build lightsabers.
:[The next panel is blank.]
:[Guy with hat fighting with a raptor using lightsabers.]
:Cueball: It's all right. I've got her.
:[Lightsaber appears from behind.]
:Snap-hiss!
:Cueball: ...Clever girl.
:[The next three panels are blank.]
:[Bill Gates is holding a weapon over Santa's body. The two girls are watching.]
:Megan: Great. Bill Gates kills Santa.
:Bill Gates: I thought it was Stallman with a dyed beard.
:[The next five panels are blank.]
:[Megan and Black Hat are looking at a tree.]
:Megan: Where did you get this Christmas tree?
:Black Hat: Nowhere.
:Megan: Did you cut down the Yggdrasil?
:Black Hat: ...Maybe.
:[The next panel is blank.]
:[Megan and Cueball holding hands and looking at reader.]
:Merry Christmas from XKCD <3
:[The last panel is blank.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]

Talk:1102: Fastest-Growing

2016-12-18T04:32:29Z

Hppavilion1: Dirtijokification

It's about Apple fanboys. [[Special:Contributions/62.195.79.12|62.195.79.12]]
: And how is that? [[Special:Contributions/173.44.98.247|173.44.98.247]] 05:52, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
What if I just started my own religion. Technically speaking it had 0 members, and then I joined it. Would this mean a growth of infinite percent? Also, a flaw with using percents is if a religion has one person, person a, and then person b joined it, it would have 100% growth. Then person b or a (doesn't matter which) leaves. The religion has increased by 100% and decreased by 50%. Now, you can't really add percentages, but I have just grown 50%! Ha! By adding no people! Then if the one tha left, comes and leaves again, I have grown by 100% this year. --[[Special:Contributions/98.221.139.80|98.221.139.80]]
:''Technically'', if you start your own religion, you start out with 1 member (yourself)... unless you invent a religion you don't actually believe in, and then suddenly, um, {{w|Drinking_the_Kool-Aid|drink the koolaid}}. ...;) -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 15:37, 3 September 2012 (UTC)
::OK. I create the religion. Leave it, and come back. It has grown by ∞ %. --[[Special:Contributions/98.221.139.80|98.221.139.80]]
::: You left it? How do we know you weren't excommunicated? ;-) Also, along the lines of ''if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it...'', if a religion has nobody following it, does't it cease to exist? BTW, ∞ is not a numerical quantity, so ∞ % isn't really possible, even if the growth is infinite. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 05:19, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
The xkcd religion! Nice one, Black Hat.--[[Special:Contributions/98.221.139.80|98.221.139.80]]

The "claims to be fastest-growing religion" Wikipedia page is now a redirect to {{w|Growth of religion}}. I would change the link in the explanation, but, I'm not sure which section it should go to. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.45|108.162.216.45]] 03:18, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
:I did update the link and moved it into the section Trivia. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:20, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

"It seems safe to assume he dislikes this type of missionary method."
Well, it does get pretty boring doing things the same way every night. [[User:Hppavilion1|Hppavilion1]] ([[User talk:Hppavilion1|talk]]) 04:32, 18 December 2016 (UTC)