explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:388: Fuck Grapefruit

2013-02-08T17:34:07Z

JET73L:

Why are seeded grapes deemed more tasty than seedless grapes? Them seeds taste awful and bitter when you accidentally bite into them. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 12:22, 14 October 2012 (UTC)
*Yeah! And red apples are clearly more tasty than green (unless you're using them for cooking), and bananas are the tastiest fruit ever! In other words, it's all subjective. (You might argue that the seeds add to the flavour, much like a small amout of fat in meat; obviously the fact that they're less easy implies pulling all the seeds out first to make sure you don't bite one.) [[Special:Contributions/94.0.161.247|94.0.161.247]] 10:34, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
*Seedless grapes (and seedless versions of other fruits) are often considered to be slightly less tasty than their seeded counterparts because a compromise was made: putting all efforts toward being tasty and easy to grow, versus dividing the effort between those and making them seedless. Additionally, some seedless fruits (including certain brands or breeds) are simply less mature versions of their seedless equivalent (this is part of why some bunches of seedless grapes have seeds in many of the fruits, albeit smaller and/or fewer seeds than the seeded equivalent). It's also possible that the y-axis difference between the two was unintentional, but there's enough of a difference that I'm strongly in favor of interpreting it as intentional. [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 17:34, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Talk:387: Advanced Technology

2013-02-08T17:14:53Z

JET73L:

:"OOH! Von Neumann and Harvard machines! My favorite subject! How did you know?" - Lcarsos
:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eymlZTeCGms/ ...because you just told me, moderator!]] [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 18:53, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

It seems to me that Cueball is examining Megan's abdomen (where her uterus, the "factory" itself, is contained), rather than her crotch as stated by the Explain XKCD description. It's not just the logic, but also the shape of Cueball's head (which may just be an artifact of the drawing process). Does anyone agree, or is it probably just me? [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 17:14, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Talk:380: Emoticon

2013-02-08T16:06:04Z

JET73L:

This ''may'' also be a reference or allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Langford#Basilisks David Langford's basilisks], which are computer-generated images (mostly fractals) that kill or otherwise incapacitate people by triggering faults or overloads common to human neuropathways. ...I think it's just about the humor in a mythological basilisk's power transferring via emoticons, though. [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 16:05, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Talk:380: Emoticon

2013-02-08T16:05:14Z

JET73L: Created page with "This ''may'' also be a reference or allusion to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Langford#Basilisks David Langford's basilisks, which are computer-generated images (most..."

This ''may'' also be a reference or allusion to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Langford#Basilisks David Langford's basilisks]], which are computer-generated images (mostly fractals) that kill or otherwise incapacitate people by triggering faults or overloads common to human neuropathways. ...I think it's just about the humor in a mythological basilisk's power transferring via emoticons, though. [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 16:05, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1168: tar

2013-02-08T14:05:02Z

JET73L:

I thought the title text would be "tar --help"
[[Special:Contributions/123.202.19.132|123.202.19.132]] 06:59, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

The comic is about the difficulty of the tar program options.

Even if his life depended on it and after years of usage, Bob/Randall could not come up with the right parameters without looking them up. So a situation is shown, where Bob's life depends on coming up with the right parameters:

* It shows an atomic warhead
* It has a user interface, which requests any valid tar command
* If it is not entered on the first try within 10s, the bomb is not disarmed and potentially explodes on the spot

Randall has come up with a situation, where the unix guy Bob can be the hero by knowing tar parameters. This is a pipe dream of a geek; nobody cares IRL, if you know tar parameters on the first try.

It is hilarious, that
* the bomb says in full detail the rules including that you should not cheat and it probably has no means to check whether you cheated. This is no game, but feels like one. In war and love every means is allowed - even cheating; it would also be self-defense for disarming the bomb; Bob and his colleagues are not even considering to cheat.
* the user has root access to the bomb, shown by the bomb as ~#, the tilde is the home directory, the # signifies super-user rights; even if the available programs prevent the bomb from being shutdown or disabled by a nonintended way, normally no root access is given for users of linux devices during normal usage; and disarming the bomb with official rules is normal usage of a bomb; a root prompt should not be necessary, if the bomb software is designed and configured well; possibly the unix prompt is a simulation for entering an answer
* Bob shurely needs more than 10s to come. So the bomb will have announced that questions, which require unix knowledge will follow - or has already asked other Unix questions; perhaps after 10s without entering anything a new question comes up
* this bomb can be disarmed with "common knowledge"

Small notes:
* The screen looks to be really grayscale (esp. the inverted "TEN") - not just because of the comic; it has at least 3 colors (black, white, tar gray); it could be that the "TEN" is updated dynamically and is thus inverted
* The comic is quite black: The screen and the bomb; Randall seldomly uses solid black areas; the bomb is a gloomy topic so it is black like "tar" (pun)

Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.121.97|178.26.121.97]] 07:24, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

I think there is a visual double pun in this strip: the bomb disarmed by a tar command is a reference to the [[wikipedia:Tar (computing)#Tarbomb|tarbombs]], but it also looks like the [[wikipedia:File:Tsar Bomba Revised.jpg|Tsar Bomb(a)]]. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 08:24, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: I don’t think it looks like Tsar Bomba. If anything, it is much more similar to [[wikipedia:Fat Man|Fat Man]]. --[[User:Mormegil|Mormegil]] ([[User talk:Mormegil|talk]]) 08:38, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: Yeah, but "Fat Man" doesn't sound like "tarbomb". --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 10:48, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: Furthermore, the Tsar bomb was much bigger; I think I've read somewhere that it had the size of a bus. --[[Special:Contributions/95.34.7.179|95.34.7.179]] 11:11, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

I think another joke is in the fact that you don't know which Unix is running on the bomb so you don't actually know which parameter layout is supported. tar --help for example may or may not be valid since -- is a GNU extension.

tar -bvzx for a tar.bzip2 .... wait... no... argh... I've always just trusted my fingers.. --[[Special:Contributions/59.167.191.93|59.167.191.93]] 10:14, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Will '''tar -?''' be valid everywhere?. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:32, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

tar -lvvb archive.tar.bz
File not found. Sorry, you're dead.
~#
[[Special:Contributions/74.82.68.68|74.82.68.68]] 12:35, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Googling tar commands would definitely take more than 10 seconds, especially considering that Rob did not take his computer. (A smartphone is an option, but...)
Then again, why would "ten" be written in letters instead of numerals? [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:28, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:I think the clock is already counting down. So probably they've discovered the bomb with still some minutes on the display. They call Bob when there is a minute left, He arrives with 25 sec's on the display and 15s later the screendump is made... [[Special:Contributions/86.82.116.63|86.82.116.63]] 22:33, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
:: This makes sense. --[[User:Shine|Shine]] ([[User talk:Shine|talk]]) 22:41, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

I think the current explantion is missing an important point: the tar commands are not that much difficult. What makes tar complicated is that there are many different implementations. The linux guy knows only gnu tar, but some unices have much different implementations and different commands. "tar --help" is certainly not available on an old hpux, for example. '''That''' make is difficult to type a valid tar command – even more if you don't know the implementation.
[[Special:Contributions/212.222.53.78|212.222.53.78]] 10:26, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Will '''tar -?''' be valid everywhere?. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:32, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm a Windows user, so bear with me. Couldn't he type something like "man tar" to get the proper usage of the "tar" command on this particular system? It's a "man" command, so it shouldn't count as a try towards typing a "tar" command. Of course, maybe the bomb would explode if he entered anything else. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.159.230|70.31.159.230]] 13:46, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

:Yeah, all standard Unix installations should have man installed. But many mini installations don't, so these days Google is the standard backup.[[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 14:58, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Randall's joke is spot on, as usual. I've been using UNIX for nearly 30 years. Windows User's solution is elegant. Before Google there was the <code>man</code> command. In all seriousness, productivity on a UNIX box can be greatly enhanced simply by keeping good notes. I keep patterns of all sorts of UNIX commands handy so I don't have to look them up. As Wikipedia implies, <code>tar -tf</code> (I prefer <code>-tvf</code>) should be memorized because one quickly learns that one should ''always'' inspect tarballs before unpacking them. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 14:11, 1 February 2013 (UTC)''

One of the reasons that tar is so useful is that it can often do exactly what you want when other, more obvious commands cannot. For instance, recursively copying a directory from one place to another (using "cp") can be tricky when symbolic links are involved, and thus people memorize incantations like "tar cf - . | (cd dest; tar xf -)". As well, it's a standard tool that's guaranteed to be found on every Unix installation (unlike zip/unzip).[[User:CityZen|CityZen]] ([[User talk:CityZen|talk]]) 14:58, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

tar --help. Problem solved. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:21, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
: Maybe '''tar -?''' is better?. [[User:Arifsaha|Arifsaha]] ([[User talk:Arifsaha|talk]]) 19:32, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

What about "tar xf foo.tar"? I always assume options without dash work everywhere because options they are the original scheme. Of course, foot.tar might be absent, but in my view, the command itself remains valid.
As to the time limit: I imagine a countdown starts when the first key is hit - that leaves little time for "man tar". [[Special:Contributions/46.142.35.251|46.142.35.251]] 16:49, 1 February 2013 (UTC) madd

It feels like a partial reference to comic [http://xkcd.com/208/ xkcd 208]--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.157.176|108.162.157.176]] 04:31, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't find tar all that tricky. The situation I'm always trumped with is when copying data, using cp, scp or rsync -r, then chmod -R /data 555. Why is '-R' capitalized? --[[Special:Contributions/98.253.217.12|98.253.217.12]] 19:54, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
:Because -r is 'substract the "read" right'. More interresting question is, why ssh -p but scp -P? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:03, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

First thing that struck me here was the Jurassic Park allusion. Surprised no-one else has mentioned it.--[[Special:Contributions/58.6.184.37|58.6.184.37]] 07:01, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
:No one mentioned "What are four lowercase letters that are not legal flag arguments to the Berkeley UNIX version of `ls'?" question either ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:07, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Does this mean we should start retroactively rename cueball to "rob"?
:Rob is ''a'' Cueball, not ''every'' Cueball, so no. [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 14:05, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

There is something morbid in the subtext here.... I have a feeling that Randall is going to kill off Megan, Rob, and "White Hat"... [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 01:47, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Randall, I am disappoint! I haven't used tar for more than a year and I don't err anymore: tar -xvzf file (.gz) or tar -xvjf file (.bz2), and I still consider myself quite the newb. Works on all flavors of linux I tried (I like trying linuxes on VMs, dunno about other unixes, but everytime I need it, I get it right, so I wouldn't even consider this in my list of hardest programs to get right first time). For those interested: -x extract -v verbose (I like it) -z uncompress (for some compression types, in some flavors this works with bz2, IIRC) -j uncompress (for bz2, maybe others). [[Special:Contributions/189.123.132.123|189.123.132.123]] 20:51, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

:Originally bzip used -y. Not speaking about fact that bzip is pretty new - and some unixes don't have ANY compression support in their tar. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:03, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

1002: Game AIs

2013-01-30T06:02:48Z

JET73L:

{{comic
| number = 1002
| date = January 11, 2012
| title = Game AIs
| image = game_ais.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
}}

==Explanation==
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

* '''Tic-Tac-Toe''' - (via {{w|Tic Tac Toe|wikipedia}}) Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses (in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the rest of the British Commonwealth countries), is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid.

* '''Nim''' - (via {{w|Nim|wikipedia}}) a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.

* '''Ghosts''' - (via {{w|Ghost (game)|wikipedia}} and [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2290/ghosts Board Game Geek]) a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, trying not to be the one to complete a valid word.

* '''Connect Four''' - (via {{w|Connect Four|wikipedia}}) (also known as Captain's Mistress, Four Up, Plot Four, Find Four, Fourplay, Four in a Row and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.

* '''Gomoku''' - (via {{w|Gomoku|wikipedia}}) an abstract strategy board game. Also called Gobang or Five in a Row, it is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.

:Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

* '''Scrabble''' - (via {{w|Scrabble|wikipedia}}) a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.

* '''Counterstrike''' - (via [http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3055/counterstrike Board Game Geek]) is probably this {{w|backgammon}} variant.

* '''Beer pong''' - (via {{w|Beer pong|wikipedia}}) also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.

* '''Reversi''' - (via {{w|Reversi|wikipedia}}) (also marketed by Pressman under the trade name Othello) is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

* '''Chess''' - (via {{w|chess|wikipedia}}) Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.

* '''Jeopardy!''' - (via {{w|Jeopardy|wikipedia}}) an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
:Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text is a famous Jeopardy champion.

* '''Starcraft''' - (via {{w|Starcraft|wikipedia}}) a military science fiction real-time strategy video game... the game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg.

* '''Poker''' - (via {{w|Poker|wikipedia}}) a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game.

* '''Arimaa''' - (via {{w|Arimaa|wikipedia}}) a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.

* '''Go''' - (via {{w|Go (game)|wikipedia}}) an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent.

* '''{{w|Snakes and Ladders}}''' (or Chutes and Ladders) is an ancient Indian {{w|race game}}, where the moves are decided entirely by die rolls. A number of tiles are connected by pictures of ladders and snakes (or chutes) which makes the game piece jump forward or backward, respectively. Since the game is decided by pure chance, it occupies the limbo where a computer will always be ''exactly'' as likely to win as a human.

* '''Mao''' - (via {{w|Mao (game)|wikipedia}}) (or Mau) a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.

:The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand.

* '''Seven Minutes in Heaven''' - (via {{w|Seven Minutes in Heaven|wikipedia}}) a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.

And finally
* '''Calvinball''' - (via {{w|Calvinball|wikipedia}}) is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.

:Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.

:The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.

:The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)

==Transcript==
Difficulty of Various Games for Computers

[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]

Easy
{| border="1"
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions
| Tic-Tac-Toe
|-
| NIM
|-
| Ghost(1989)
|-
| Connect Four(1995)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions
| Gomoku
|-
| Checkers(2007)
|-
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans
| Scrabble
|-
| CounterStrike
|-
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)
|-
| Reversi
|-
| Chess
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer
|-
| Jeopardy
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans
(but focused R&D could change this)
| Starcraft
|-
| Poker
|-
| Arimaa
|-
| Go
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans
| Snakes and Ladders
|-
| Mao
|-
| Seven Minutes in Heaven
|-
| Calvinball
|-
|}
Hard

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

Talk:321: Thighs

2013-01-19T12:22:51Z

JET73L: Created page with ""Also, eww" implies that Megan has taken a scatological interpretation of "brown-thighed girl". ~~~~"

"Also, eww" implies that Megan has taken a scatological interpretation of "brown-thighed girl". [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 12:22, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1058: Old-Timers

2013-01-19T11:07:11Z

JET73L:

Wouldn't the heat from the servers have thawed the egg and killed her early? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:44, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
* What? That... ''What''? The egg isn't actually sent through the internet, if that's what you mean. The information from the parents' genes was taken from their proteins, encoded in digital format on the computer at the lab, sent to another lab, then re-encoded into protein format to be implanted in an egg. In that context, the egg was an entirely separate part of the process. If you mean the egg would have been thawed by the people at the Venter institute holding the egg up next to the servers, unprotected, while they implanted the synthesized genome (or the people at the lab doing the same thing with the unfertilized egg while sequencing the DNA), that's... well, simply not how that works. As for "killed her early": I'm not sure of a good way to ''start'' asking what you mean by that. As opposed to killing her at the intended time? As opposed to killing the unfertilized egg before they could sequence the DNA? Or even killing the physical egg while it was somehow being transported via the internet? [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 11:07, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1058: Old-Timers

2013-01-19T11:02:59Z

JET73L: Undo revision 25752 by JET73L (talk) Reason: Accidentally responded to the Talk page instead of the "Discussion" section of the page proper.

Talk:1058: Old-Timers

2013-01-19T10:58:15Z

JET73L:

Wouldn't the heat from the servers have thawed the egg and killed her early? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:44, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
* What? That... ''What''? The egg isn't actually sent through the internet, if that's what you mean. The information from the parents' genes was taken from their proteins, encoded in digital format on the computer at the lab, sent to another lab, then re-encoded into protein format to be implanted in an egg. In that context, the egg was an entirely separate part of the process. If you mean the egg would have been thawed by the people at the Venter institute holding the egg up next to the servers, unprotected, while they implanted the synthesized genome (or the people at the lab doing the same thing with the unfertilized egg while sequencing the DNA), that's... well, simply not how that works. As for "killed her early": I'm not sure how I should ''start'' asking what you mean by that. As opposed to killing her at the intended time? As opposed to killing the unfertilized egg before they could sequence the DNA? Or even killing the physical egg while it was somehow being transported via the internet? [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 10:58, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Talk:126: Red Spiders Cometh

2012-11-10T07:21:44Z

JET73L: Created page with "Does anyone else think that the red spiders are supposed to be revealed as unexpectedly huge in this entry of the Red Spiders series, and that's to what the "Uh-oh" in the tit..."

Does anyone else think that the red spiders are supposed to be revealed as unexpectedly huge in this entry of the Red Spiders series, and that's to what the "Uh-oh" in the title text refers? That is, the humans in "[[Counter-Red_Spiders|Counter-Red Spiders]]" thought they could fight the red spiders, but the perspective in "Red Spiders Cometh" reveals the red spiders to be building-sized rather than person-sized? ...Or am I probably just over-thinking this, and the spiders' blocks are curving down from the viewer toward the city, resulting in a false apparent size, and the "Uh-oh" just refers to their arrival? Because it really seems to me that 1: the spiders are on a much larger scale than humans, and 2: this is a troubling revelation as of "Red Spiders Cometh". [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 07:21, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

Talk:105: Parallel Universe

2012-11-10T06:44:33Z

JET73L:

[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The issue date might be off. All files since 101 have been created on April 11th, 2006. Anyone with an actual issue date?

:I have verified that the date is correct now. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 22:10, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

----

A comment, and a question:
* First off, I don't think the hairy character could possibly be a woman (or that it should matter anyway), otherwise it would be made clearer in the drawing and the transcript. Compare for instance with previous comics [[102]], [[93]] and [[84]]: each time it is made clear in the drawing as well as in the transcript. So in my opinion it's just another random guy.
* And now, not being a native English speaker, I don't understand what is meant by "make out" here (and I think this should be part of the explanation). "Make out" seems to have multiple possible interpretations, and if it is the semi-sexual meaning (as in {{w|Making out}} on Wikipedia) here, then I don't see the point of "taking this chance to make out with oneself"... a quirky fantasy? and a homosexual one, which doesn't seem in the xkcd style to me...
What I understand is that in the last panel the hairy character realized he could use the same argument for him as well; but apart from that, this comic remains pretty obscure to me. More explanation would be appreciated :-) [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 17:28, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
* My interpretation: It's a classic course of action to {{w|Making out|make out}} (or even have sexual intercourse) with one's duplicate in the event that the two meet. Hairy suggests this to Cueball, pointing out that the duplicate may disappear at any moment because of the potentially tenuous nature of the spell keeping the duplicate in this reality. Hairy then realizes that, hypothetically, he/she could ''also'' spontaneously disappear, and uses this as a way to hint that he/she would like to make out with Cueball. The joke is the same regardless of whether Hairy is [[Megan]] or a male friend of Cueball, but if it's a male friend, there is an added layer of intended humor in the homosexual nature of the suggestion. Either way, Hairy is making the self-serving suggestion that Cueball forgo a rare chance (making out with his alternate-universe duplicate) in order to take advantage of a common chance (making out with an acquaintance from the same universe) because of a superficially identical pressure (spontaneous disappearance; in alternate-Cueball's case, because something would cause them to revert to their universe of origin, and in Hairy's case, because of some unknown hypothetical factor). [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 06:44, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

1020: Orion Nebula

2012-11-10T00:06:48Z

JET73L:

{{comic
| number = 1020
| date = February 22, 2012
| title = Orion Nebula
| image = orion_nebula.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Also on the agenda: what's with his hips?
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Orion nebula}} is a diffuse nebula situated south of the three stars that compose {{w|Orion's Belt}} in the {{w|Orion constellation}}. In terms of the comic, it is the middle "star" in the sword/dong of Orion. Dong is an American slang word for penis. The star appears fuzzy to sharp-eyed observers, and the nebulosity is obvious through binoculars or a small telescope.

When the speaker says "We are no strangers to controversy" he is probably referring to {{w|Pluto}}'s {{w|IAU definition of planet#Criticism|demotion}} from {{w|planet}} to a {{w|dwarf planet}}, or {{w|Plutoid}}, or whatever it's called these days.

The title text is a quip about how small and off-kilter the hips are in Orion the constellation compared to the rest of its body.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands behind a lectern decorated with the indicators of the International Astronomical Union]
Cueball: Welcome to IAU Symposium #279.

Cueball: We are no strangers to controversy, and we will not shy away from the tough issues. Which brings us to the subject at hand.

[An anatomically uncensored projection of the Constellation Orion appears before the speaker]
Cueball: It's time to talk about the fact that Orion clearly has a dong.
Attendee in crowd #1: It's hard to miss.
Attendee #2: we could keep telling people it's a sword.
Attendee #3: C'mon, no one's buying that anymore.

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

1002: Game AIs

2012-11-09T23:19:15Z

JET73L:

{{comic
| number = 1002
| date = January 11, 2012
| title = Game AIs
| image = game_ais.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
}}

==Explanation==
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

* '''Tic-Tac-Toe''' - (via {{w|Tic Tac Toe|wikipedia}}) Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses (in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the rest of the British Commonwealth countries), is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid.

* '''Nim''' - (via {{w|Nim|wikipedia}}) a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.

* '''Ghosts''' - (via {{w|Ghost (game)|wikipedia}} and [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2290/ghosts Board Game Geek]) a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, trying not to be the one to complete a valid word.

* '''Connect Four''' - (via {{w|Connect Four|wikipedia}}) (also known as Captain's Mistress, Four Up, Plot Four, Find Four, Fourplay, Four in a Row and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.

* '''Gomoku''' - (via {{w|Gomoku|wikipedia}}) an abstract strategy board game. Also called Gobang or Five in a Row, it is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.

:Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

* '''Scrabble''' - (via {{w|Scrabble|wikipedia}}) a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.

* '''Counterstrike''' - (via [http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3055/counterstrike Board Game Geek]) is probably this {{w|backgammon}} variant.

* '''Beer pong''' - (via {{w|Beer pong|wikipedia}}) also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.

* '''Reversi''' - (via {{w|Reversi|wikipedia}}) (also marketed by Pressman under the trade name Othello) is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

* '''Chess''' - (via {{w|chess|wikipedia}}) Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.

* '''Jeopardy!''' - (via {{w|Jeopardy|wikipedia}}) an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
:Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text is a famous Jeopardy champion.

* '''Starcraft''' - (via {{w|Starcraft|wikipedia}}) a military science fiction real-time strategy video game... the game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg.

* '''Poker''' - (via {{w|Poker|wikipedia}}) a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game.

* '''Arimaa''' - (via {{w|Arimaa|wikipedia}}) a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.

* '''Go''' - (via {{w|Go (game)|wikipedia}}) an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent.

* '''Snakes and Ladders''' - (via {{w|Snakes and Ladders|wikipedia}}) (or Chutes and Ladders) an ancient Indian board game regarded today as a worldwide classic. It is played between two or more players on a gameboard having numbered, gridded squares. A number of "ladders" and "snakes" (or "chutes") are pictured on the board, each connecting two specific board squares. The object of the game is to navigate one's game piece from the start (bottom square) to the finish (top square), helped or hindered by ladders and snakes, respectively. As a {{w|Race game| simple race game}}, this game occupies a limbo in which none of the categories in the chart are appropriate, but its placement at the border between "Computers still lose to top humans (but focused R&D could change this)" and "Computers may ''never'' outplay humans" provides insight regarding its state of computer-versus-human mastery.

* '''Mao''' - (via {{w|Mao (game)|wikipedia}}) (or Mau) a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.

:The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand.

* '''Seven Minutes in Heaven''' - (via {{w|Seven Minutes in Heaven|wikipedia}}) a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.

And finally
* '''Calvinball''' - (via {{w|Calvinball|wikipedia}}) is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.

:Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.

:The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.

:The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)

==Transcript==
Difficulty of Various Games for Computers

[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]

Easy
{| border="1"
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions
| Tic-Tac-Toe
|-
| NIM
|-
| Ghost(1989)
|-
| Connect Four(1995)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions
| Gomoku
|-
| Checkers(2007)
|-
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans
| Scrabble
|-
| CounterStrike
|-
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)
|-
| Reversi
|-
| Chess
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer
|-
| Jeopardy
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans
(but focused R&D could change this)
| Starcraft
|-
| Poker
|-
| Arimaa
|-
| Go
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans
| Snakes and Ladders
|-
| Mao
|-
| Seven Minutes in Heaven
|-
| Calvinball
|-
|}
Hard

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with charts]]

1002: Game AIs

2012-11-09T23:17:49Z

JET73L:

{{comic
| number = 1002
| date = January 11, 2012
| title = Game AIs
| image = game_ais.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the human Seven Minutes in Heaven champion, Ken Jennings.
}}

==Explanation==
To understand the comic, you have to understand what the games are, so let's go (but first, the years in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

* '''Tic-Tac-Toe''' - (via {{w|Tic Tac Toe|wikipedia}}) Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses (in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and the rest of the British Commonwealth countries), is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid.

* '''Nim''' - (via {{w|Nim|wikipedia}}) a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap.

* '''Ghosts''' - (via {{w|Ghost (game)|wikipedia}} and [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2290/ghosts Board Game Geek]) a spoken word game in which players take turns adding letters to a growing word fragment, trying not to be the one to complete a valid word.

* '''Connect Four''' - (via {{w|Connect Four|wikipedia}}) (also known as Captain's Mistress, Four Up, Plot Four, Find Four, Fourplay, Four in a Row and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players first choose a color and then take turns dropping their colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid.

* '''Gomoku''' - (via {{w|Gomoku|wikipedia}}) an abstract strategy board game. Also called Gobang or Five in a Row, it is traditionally played with go pieces (black and white stones) on a go board (19x19 intersections); however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game. This game is known in several countries under different names.

:Black plays first, and players alternate in placing a stone of their color on an empty intersection. The winner is the first player to get an unbroken row of five stones horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

* '''Scrabble''' - (via {{w|Scrabble|wikipedia}}) a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a gameboard marked with a 15-by-15 grid.

* '''Counterstrike''' - (via [http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3055/counterstrike Board Game Geek]) is probably this {{w|backgammon}} variant.

* '''Beer pong''' - (via {{w|Beer pong|wikipedia}}) also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end.
:[http://hacknmod.com/hack/beer-pong-robot-precision-air-pressure/ Here's the video] of the University of Illinois robot mentioned in the comic.

* '''Reversi''' - (via {{w|Reversi|wikipedia}}) (also marketed by Pressman under the trade name Othello) is a board game involving abstract strategy and played by two players on a board with 8 rows and 8 columns and a set of distinct pieces for each side. Pieces typically are disks with a light and a dark face, each face belonging to one player. The player's goal is to have a majority of their colored pieces showing at the end of the game, turning over as many of their opponent's pieces as possible.

* '''Chess''' - (via {{w|chess|wikipedia}}) Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently.

* '''Jeopardy!''' - (via {{w|Jeopardy|wikipedia}}) an American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
:Ken Jennings, mentioned in the title text is a famous Jeopardy champion.

* '''Starcraft''' - (via {{w|Starcraft|wikipedia}}) a military science fiction real-time strategy video game... the game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg.

* '''Poker''' - (via {{w|Poker|wikipedia}}) a family of card games involving betting and individualistic play whereby the winner is determined by the ranks and combinations of their cards, some of which remain hidden until the end of the game.

* '''Arimaa''' - (via {{w|Arimaa|wikipedia}}) a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. Arimaa was invented by Omar Syed, an Indian American computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. Syed was inspired by Garry Kasparov's defeat at the hands of the chess computer Deep Blue to design a new game which could be played with a standard chess set, would be difficult for computers to play well, but would have rules simple enough for his then four-year-old son Aamir to understand.

* '''Go''' - (via {{w|Go (game)|wikipedia}}) an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. The game is played by two players who alternately place black and white stones on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger portion of the board than the opponent.

* '''Snakes and Ladders''' - (via {{w|Snakes and Ladders|wikipedia}}) (or Chutes and Ladders) an ancient Indian board game regarded today as a worldwide classic. It is played between two or more players on a gameboard having numbered, gridded squares. A number of "ladders" and "snakes" (or "chutes") are pictured on the board, each connecting two specific board squares. The object of the game is to navigate one's game piece from the start (bottom square) to the finish (top square), helped or hindered by ladders and snakes, respectively. As a {{w|Race game| simple race game}}, this game occupies a limbo in which none of the categories in the chart are appropriate, but its placement at the border between "Computers still lose to top humans (but focused R&D could change this)" and "Computers may ''never'' outplay humans" provides insight regarding its relation to computer-versus-human mastery.

* '''Mao''' - (via {{w|Mao (game)|wikipedia}}) (or Mau) a card game of the Shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family, and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.

:The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one." The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand.

* '''Seven Minutes in Heaven''' - (via {{w|Seven Minutes in Heaven|wikipedia}}) a teenagers' party game first recorded as being played in Cincinnati in the early 1950s. Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. Sexual activities are allowed; however kissing and making out are more common.

And finally
* '''Calvinball''' - (via {{w|Calvinball|wikipedia}}) is a reference to the comic strip {{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} by {{w|Bill Watterson}}.

:Calvinball is a game played by Calvin and Hobbes as a rebellion against organized team sports; according to Hobbes, "No sport is less organized than Calvinball!" Calvinball was first introduced to the readers at the end of a 1990 storyline involving Calvin reluctantly joining recess baseball. It quickly became a staple of the comic afterwards.

:The only hint at the true creation of the game ironically comes from the last Calvinball strip, in which a game of football quickly devolves into a game of Calvinball. Calvin remarks that "sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball," suggesting a similar scenario that directly led to the creation of the sport. Calvin and Hobbes usually play by themselves, although in one storyline Rosalyn (Calvin's baby-sitter) plays in return for Calvin doing his homework, and plays very well once she realizes that the rules are made up on the spot.

:The only consistent rule states that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice. Scoring is also arbitrary, with Hobbes at times reporting scores of "Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy." The only recognizable sports Calvinball resembles are the ones it emulates (i.e., a cross between croquet, polo, badminton, capture the flag, and volleyball.)

==Transcript==
Difficulty of Various Games for Computers

[A diagram. The left column describes various levels of skill for the most capable computers in decreasing performance against humans. The right side lists games in each particular section, in increasing game difficulty. There are labels denoting the hard and easy ends of the diagram.]

Easy
{| border="1"
| rowspan="6" | Solved - Computers can play perfectly
| rowspan="4" | Solved for all possible positions
| Tic-Tac-Toe
|-
| NIM
|-
| Ghost(1989)
|-
| Connect Four(1995)
|-
| rowspan="2" | Solved for starting positions
| Gomoku
|-
| Checkers(2007)
|-
| rowspan="6" colspan="2" | Computers can beat top humans
| Scrabble
|-
| CounterStrike
|-
| Beer Pong (UIUC robot)
|-
| Reversi
|-
| Chess
* February 10, 1996 - First win by computer against top human
* November 21, 2005 - Last win by human against top computer
|-
| Jeopardy
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers still lose to top humans
(but focused R&D could change this)
| Starcraft
|-
| Poker
|-
| Arimaa
|-
| Go
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="4" | Computers may ''never'' outplay humans
| Snakes and Ladders
|-
| Mao
|-
| Seven Minutes in Heaven
|-
| Calvinball
|-
|}
Hard

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with charts]]

914: Ice

2012-11-09T05:06:33Z

JET73L:

{{comic
| number = 914
| date = June 20, 2011
| title = Ice
| image = ice.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = On the plus side, she wrote "Welcome to the AAA Club!" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror, and left me a membership/roadside assistance card on the counter.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to an old urban legend: a guy is drugged, then he awakes in an ice-filled bathtub only to discover one (or both) of their kidneys has been harvested by organ thieves [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp].

In the comic, the situation is reversed: [[Beret Guy]] (who has just bought some ice for a party) is drugged, and he awakes in a bathtub filled with kidneys, only to discover that his ice has been harvested by a thief.

The title text refers to a similar story where the victim is left a note by their captor or one-night stand that says "Welcome to the AIDS club". Rather than having been involuntarily infected with HIV/AIDS, the victim ([[Beret Guy]]) has been involuntarily enrolled in the [[wikipedia:American_Automobile_Association|American Automobile Association]].
==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Megan are setting up a party, with a snack table and a big banner reading "PARTY!"]
:Megan: Everything's ready...
:Megan: Except we're out of ice.
:Beret Guy: I'll get some!

:[Beret Guy is walking down the street past a building marked Save Mart, with a bag of ice over his shoulder. Danish is standing on the sidewalk calls to him.]
:Danish: Hey sexy. Where're you headed with all that ice?
:Beret Guy: A party!
:Danish: There's a ''better'' party up at my place.
:Beret Guy: But I—
:Danish: C'mon, one drink.

:The next morning...
:[Beret Guy rubs eyes groggily.]
:Beret Guy: ...ugh... Where am I?
:Beret Guy: I was supposed to—
:Beret Guy: —where's all my ice!?

:[Beret Guy looks down to find himself in a bathtub full of kidneys.]
:Beret Guy: '''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

914: Ice

2012-11-09T04:52:15Z

JET73L:

{{comic
| number = 914
| date = June 20, 2011
| title = Ice
| image = ice.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = On the plus side, she wrote "Welcome to the AAA Club!" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror, and left me a membership/roadside assistance card on the counter.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to an old urban legend: a guy is drugged, then he awakes in an ice-filled bathtub only to discover one (or both) of their kidneys has been harvested by organ thieves [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/robbery/kidney.asp].

In the comic, the situation is reversed: [[Beret Guy]] (who has just bought some ice for a party) is drugged, and he awakes in a bathtub filled with kidneys, only to discover that his ice has been harvested by a thief.

The title text refers to a similar story where the victim is left a note by their captor or one-night stand that says "Welcome to the AIDS club". Rather than having been involuntarily infected with HIV/AIDS, the victim ([[Beret Guy]]) has been involuntarily enrolled in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Automobile_Association American Automobile Association].
==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Megan are setting up a party, with a snack table and a big banner reading "PARTY!"]
:Megan: Everything's ready...
:Megan: Except we're out of ice.
:Beret Guy: I'll get some!

:[Beret Guy is walking down the street past a building marked Save Mart, with a bag of ice over his shoulder. Danish is standing on the sidewalk calls to him.]
:Danish: Hey sexy. Where're you headed with all that ice?
:Beret Guy: A party!
:Danish: There's a ''better'' party up at my place.
:Beret Guy: But I—
:Danish: C'mon, one drink.

:The next morning...
:[Beret Guy rubs eyes groggily.]
:Beret Guy: ...ugh... Where am I?
:Beret Guy: I was supposed to—
:Beret Guy: —where's all my ice!?

:[Beret Guy looks down to find himself in a bathtub full of kidneys.]
:Beret Guy: '''AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]