explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1431: Marriage

2015-08-31T16:31:04Z

Jestey1: /* Recent developments */

{{comic
| number = 1431
| date = October 8, 2014
| title = Marriage
| image = marriage.png
| titletext = People often say that same-sex marriage now is like interracial marriage in the 60s. But in terms of public opinion, same-sex marriage now is like interracial marriage in the 90s, when it had already been legal nationwide for 30 years.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic notes a curious inversion between the timing of legal and popular opinion trends for interracial marriage vs. same-sex marriage. In the 11 years between {{w|same-sex marriage in Massachusetts|Massachusetts first legalized}} same-sex marriage and the comic's publication, at no point had there been more people living in states where it's legal than there are people who support its legality. This stands in stark contrast to interracial marriage, which was legal for the majority of the population for over 50 years, and for the whole country for 28 years, before it was [http://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve-marriage-blacks-whites.aspx approved of by the majority].

Note that poll questions are slightly different: "Do you approve of interracial marriage?" vs "Do you think same-sex marriage should be legal?" It could be argued that fewer people would approve of these marriages than would support legalizing them, which may explain part of the discrepancy. But there are more factors at work, the effects and relative importance of which are not clear.

===Recent developments===
Two days before this comic came out, the United States Supreme Court [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/us/denying-review-justices-clear-way-for-gay-marriage-in-5-states.html declined to hear] appeals to decisions that had legalized same-sex marriage in five states. The court's refusal to hear the appeals was widely considered a surprise, and had the immediate effect of pushing the percentage of people living in states where such marriages are legal [http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/same-sex-marriage-is-now-legal-for-a-majority-of-the-u-s/ past 50%]. The decision has also led to considerable speculation that there will be a surge of similar decisions applying to other states, especially to the six states that are in the same {{w|United States courts of appeals|appeals circuits}} as the previous five, and to the three in the same circuit as Idaho and Nevada, where same-sex marriage bans [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/us/same-sex-marriage-bans-struck-down-in-idaho-and-nevada.html were struck down] a day after the Supreme Court's decision (although the decision in Idaho and Nevada has yet to take effect).

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled in a 5-4 decision that access to same-sex marriage was a right protected by the Constitution, thus raising the percentage of states with legal same-sex marriage to 100%.

===Interracial marriage trend line annotated===
:''See also: {{w|Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States|Wikipedia: Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States}}''

Legal controls concerning interracial marriage in the US (known since 1863 as {{w|miscegenation}}) have been significantly harder to track as a single statistic, due in part to the fact that such controls existed in several of the American British colonies before the United States formed, and complicated somewhat by the changes in territory claimed by and fluctuations in overall population (and methods of counting the population) of the United States over that time period. Depicting this as a simple percentage of US population over these earlier times would be far less meaningful outside of the context of these other fluctuations.

;Start of line: Prior to ca. 1940 and continuing to 1948: Since the establishment of the United States, most states have had anti-miscegenation legislation in one form or another. Only nine states (Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, Hawaii) and the District of Columbia never enacted such legislation. Earlier repeal dates range from 1780 in Pennsylvania to 1887 in Ohio, though none were repealed between 1887 and 1948.

;First rise: October 1948: Supreme Court of California overturns the state anti-miscegenation law in ''{{w|Perez v. Sharp}}''.

;General upward trend: 1951–1967: (in order of repeal by year) 13 states repeal anti-miscegenation laws prior to rulings at the federal level of government, largely encouraged by comparisons to similar laws promoted by opponents in World War II and other civil rights movements and victories.

;Last spike: 12 June 1967: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in ''{{w|Loving v. Virginia}}'' that the 16 remaining state-level anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional, rendering such laws thereafter ineffective.

===Same-sex marriage trend line explained===

:''See also: {{w|Same-sex marriage in the United States|Wikipedia: Same-sex marriage in the United States}}''

;Start of line: 2003: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in ''{{w|Goodridge v. Department of Public Health}}'' that the Massachusetts Constitution does not allow the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

;First rise: May–October 2008: The supreme courts of California and Connecticut make similar decisions based on their states' constitutions.

;Drop: November 2008: The voters of California overturn their supreme court's decision by constitutional amendment on {{w|California Proposition 8 (2008)|Proposition 8}}. California is the most populous state in the Union, hence the large size of the drop here.

;Second rise: 2009–2010: Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia legalize same-sex marriage, the first by state supreme court decision, and the latter three by legislative action.

;First acceleration: 2011–2012: New York legalizes same-sex marriage by legislative action. Washington State, Maine, and Maryland do so by voter referendum.

;Second acceleration: 2013–2014: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in ''{{w|Hollingsworth v. Perry}}'' re-legalizes same-sex marriage in California. Seven states legalize it by legislative action or state court decision. The Supreme Court's decision providing federal benefits for same-sex marriages in ''{{w|United States v. Windsor}}'', while not saying that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, is widely cited as precedent by judges who do say so. Oregon and Pennsylvania decline to appeal such decisions, and five states' appeals are declined by circuit courts, and declined to be heard by the Supreme Court.

==Transcript==
:[A graph with the x-axis showing time in years from 1940 to some time after 2010 (presumably ca. 2014). The y-axis shows percentage of population. The graph has 4 lines, 2 solid and 2 dashed, with 2 different colors: red and blue. The red lines indicate statistics concerning interracial marriage, while the blue indicate statistics concerning same-sex marriage. The solid lines indicate population living in states where that type of marriage is legal, while the dashed lines indicate popular approval of that type of marriage based on various polls.]

:[Solid red line:] Percentage of US population living in states with legal interracial marriage
:[Dot on solid red line:] Full legal access: 1967
:[Dashed red line:] Popular approval of interracial marriage (Source: Gallup Polls)
:[Dot on dashed red line:] Majority approval: 1995
:[Dashed blue line:] Popular approval of same-sex marriage (Source: various polls)
:[Dot on dashed blue line:] Majority approval: 2011
:[Solid blue line:] Percentage of US population living in states with legal same-sex marriage

:[Interracial marriage is indicated as being more than 50% legal in 1940, with a very slight downward trend that spikes up slightly ca. 1948, then trends slowly upward to about 65% until ca. 1967, at which point it spikes directly to 100% legality and remains there through 2014. Popular approval of interracial marriage is below 10% in the late 1950s, rising steadily to approximately 40% in 1980, then continuing to rise more slowly to the majority approval point in 1995, and spiking up to about 65% ca. 1997, plateauing until ca. 2003, rising quickly again to about 75% ca. 2006 and rising generally upward to the final ca. 2014 statistic depicted between 85% and 90% popular approval. The visual effect seems to be a wide gap of time between legalization of and popular approval of interracial marriage. Popular approval appears to trail legalization by no less than 20 years at any given point.

:Popular approval of same-sex marriage (according to "various polls") is depicted first at about 15% ca. 1986, trending gradually upward until ca. 2000, where it plateaus between 35% and 40% to resume an upward trend ca. 2007, continuing steadily through majority approval in 2011 to a ca. 2014 value between 55% and 60%. The legality of same-sex marriage is indicated to start at 0% ca. 2002, then jumps quickly to plateau around 5% until ca. 2008, at which point it spikes up to between 15% and 20%, then plummets to just above than 5% by ca. 2009, jumping quickly back up to between 15% and 20% between ca. 2010 and 2011, then trending upward even more quickly to end at about 55% legality ca. 2014. The visual effect seems to be a more turbulent line for legality of same-sex marriage than any of the other trends, which also seems to be quickly closing on the popular approval trend. Popular approval has preceded legalization by nearly 20 years at certain points, but the trends appear to be closing and may intersect by 2015 or 2016.]

==Trivia==
*Though rendered ineffective by the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the constitutions of South Carolina and Alabama still contained language prohibiting miscegenation until the turn of the century; the language was removed by a majority referendum in 1998 for South Carolina and in 2000 for Alabama.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]

233: A New CAPTCHA Approach

2015-08-31T16:10:05Z

Jestey1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 233
| date = March 9, 2007
| title = A New CAPTCHA Approach
| image = a new captcha approach.png
| titletext = They'd use that Futurama episode with Fry's dog, but even spambots cry at that.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|CAPTCHA}} is a verification system to stop automatic submissions to web forms by asking the user to do something which a computer program could not do, such as type a distorted word into a box.

But here, the author has a new CAPTCHA, in which it references a sad event in a children's movie ({{w|The Land Before Time}}), asks the subject if it felt sad. If the subject is human, then they most likely will have felt sad, so the answer will be '"yes." If it's a computer program, however, it is supposed to answer "no," because computer programs cannot feel.

The title text references to the {{w|Futurama}} episode {{w|Jurassic Bark}}. It claims that this episode is so sad that even {{w|spambot}}s cry after seeing it.

==Transcript==
:To complete your web registration, please prove that you're human:
:When Littlefoot's mother died in the original 'Land Before Time', did you feel sad?
:[radio button.] Yes
:[radio button.] No
:(Bots: no lying)

{{comic discussion}}

345: 1337: Part 5

2015-08-13T17:49:06Z

Jestey1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 345
| date = November 16, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 5
| image = 1337_part_5.png
| titletext = This digital music thing will probably reach its endgame sometime in the next decade or so. These are very exciting times.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Richard Stallman}} is the ardent defender of freedom and believer in {{w|copyleft}}, he also founded the {{w|GNU Project}}. (He is not really a swordfighter.{{Citation needed}})

{{w|Cory Doctorow}} is a blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the weblog {{w|Boing Boing}}. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the {{w|Creative Commons}} organization. He does not really travel around in a balloon or (usually) wear a red cape, but Randall introduced this idea in [[239: Blagofaire]] and has continued it in later [[:Category:Comics_featuring_Cory_Doctorow|comics featuring Cory Doctorow]].

{{w|Blogosphere}} is a name used to refer to all blogs on the Internet, many of which frequently link to and refer to other blogs. Here, the Stallman character talks about it as though it were a portion of the atmosphere.

Blogs often label posts with keywords, known as tags. A {{w|Tag cloud}} is a way of displaying the tags on a site where the more common tags appear in larger type than less-common ones. It has no relationship to actual water vapor clouds in the sky, but in the comic, the Doctorow character suggests that tag clouds are actually in the air, below the new blogosphere.

The {{w|Dread Pirate Roberts}} is a fictional character from the book and movie {{w|The Princess Bride}}. Roberts is the most feared pirate on the seas. But, "Dread Pirate Roberts" is merely a title that has been passed down as previous "Roberts" have gained enough money (from piracy) to retire comfortably. Westley, one of the main characters from The Princess Bride, becomes the Dread Pirate after being taken prisoner by the preceding Pirate Roberts. It is anyone's guess whether the entire 5-comic story, starting from the choice of Mrs. Roberts' name, began as just a lead-up to this one joke.

At the end of the movie, Inigo Montoya has won the vengeance he has sought all his life, and expresses to Westley that he doesn't know what to do next. Westley suggests Montoya succeed him as Roberts, saying, "Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts." Cory Doctorow's line in the comic therefore mimics that line from the movie.

{{w|Bram Cohen}} is the founder of {{w|BitTorrent}}, a distributed method of downloading files. People can and do use BitTorrent both for lawful file downloads and also for sharing media files unlawfully. Its distributed nature, where someone does not download a file from just one other computer but rather in many pieces from many other computers with the same file, makes it more difficult for record and movie industry groups to police, and therefore a person with Elaine's motivations might be interested in helping design such a system.

{{w|Ubuntu}} is probably the most well known distribution of {{w|GNU}}/{{w|Linux}}. A {{w|GNU}}/{{w|Linux}} distribution (often referred to simply as "Linux") is any operating system that is based on {{w|GNU}} software and the Linux {{w|kernel}}.

The phrase "Happy Hacking" often accompanies an autograph from Richard Stallman.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*345: 1337: Part 5 (this one)

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Two RIAA agents attack Elaine and Stallman. Elaine breaks the leg of RIAA #1, while Stallman disarms RIAA #2 in a flying maneuver.]
:Elaine: Thanks, Stallman!
:Stallman: 'Tis my pleasure.

:Elaine: So, wait - how did you know we were in trouble?
:Stallman: My friend here was tracking these thugs from his balloon. He called me and I thought I'd stop by
:[Doctorow slides down a rope in red cape & goggles.]
:Doctorow: -Hi! Cory Doctorow - It's a pleasure to meet you.

:Elaine: Balloon?
:Stallman: Aye. They're up there constructing something called a "Blogosphere."
:Doctorow: Yup! It's twenty kilometers up, just above the tag clouds.

:Bobby: Mom, I'm hungry.
:Mrs. Roberts: Hush! I'm coding. You ate yesterday.
:Stallman: You know, Roberts, GNU could use a good coder like you. Ever thought of joining us?
:Elaine: Maybe someday. Right now I've got an industry to take down. Music doesn't need these assholes.
:Doctorow: Begone! And never darken our comment threads again!

:Stallman: Well, you won't fix the industry with random exploits. You need to encourage sharing in the public mind.
:Doctorow: Hey; With your music and coding backgrounds, you should get into building better p2p systems.

:Elaine: What? Straight-up piracy?
:Doctorow: Sure- have you ever considered it? You'd make a wonderful dread pirate, Roberts

:Epilogue
:Elaine shared her ideas with Bram Cohen, who went on to develop BitTorrent.
:Mrs. Roberts spends her time developing for Ubuntu, and defacing the websites of people who make "your mom" jokes to her daughter. Elaine still stalks the net. She joins communities, contributes code or comments, and moves on. And if, late at night, you point a streaming audio player at the right IP at the right time - you can hear her rock out.
:~Happy Hacking.~

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:1337|05]]

344: 1337: Part 4

2015-08-13T17:42:50Z

Jestey1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 344
| date = November 15, 2007 
| title = 1337: Part 4
| image = 1337 part 4.png
| titletext = Mrs. Roberts would have gotten up sooner, of course, but she was busy piping find ~ and find ~nomad into xargs shred, just in case.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Jon Lech Johansen}}, also known as DVD Jon, is famous for {{w|DeCSS}}, a DVD decryption program that removes the copy protection from commercial DVDs. The {{w|Motion Picture Association of America}}, also known as the MPAA, was not amused. Both the MPAA and the {{w|RIAA}} use the {{w|Digital Millenium Copyright Act}}, shortened to DMCA, as a kind of brute club to silence "infringements" on their copyright. In a perfect world, the DMCA provides safe harbor protection to websites and consumers to make fair use of copyrighted content while also affording copyright owners the ability to protect their works from being pirated. In this world, this means that any content protection system, no matter how weak and poorly executed, cannot be circumvented and discussion of circumvention is illegal as well.

Of course, {{w|Richard Stallman}}, founder of the {{w|GNU Project}} and stalwart defender of freedom and {{w|copyleft}}, cannot stand for this kind of repression of freedom. (In the real world, Stallman is not a swordsman; there is also no Title IV, Section 408 of the DMCA; Title IV ends with Section 407.) In keeping with the "Kill Bill" themes from earlier in the series, Randall imagines the conflict between Elaine/Stallman/Mrs. Roberts vs MPAA agents as an action-packed katana battle rather than the legal battle it would likely have been in real life.

The title text is talking about a {{w|Linux}}-ism. In Linux (and all Unix derivatives) ~ is a symbol for a user's home directory (usually <code>/home/<username></code>). Presumedly "nomad" is Elaine's username. <code>find</code> is an application that recursively walks a filesystem, listing all files, and <code>xargs shred</code> takes those files and securely erases each one with pseudorandom data. This is different from simply deleting a file, which merely removes the pointer in the filesystem's record tables to the file's location on the hard disk. The latter can usually be recovered from, secure delete however requires physically taking apart a disk and reading individual bits for remaining magnetic charge to attempt to reconstruct what was there.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*344: 1337: Part 4 (this one)
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:As time passed, Elaine intensified her hacking work, anonymously publishing exploit after exploit.
:[Elaine is sitting under tree, typing on a laptop.]

:To crack open proprietary hardware, she teamed up with one of the top experts in signal processing and data transferring protocols.
:[Elaine, wearing a backpack, is walking up to a door where a woman is greeting her.]
:Elaine: Hi, mom.
:Mrs. Roberts (Elaine's mom): Hello, dear. Did you have fun?

:They were an unstoppable team.
:[Elaine is on the floor with her laptop and Mrs. Roberts is on her computer at a table.]
:Elaine: I finished the CSS decryptor.
:Mrs. Roberts: Good, dear. I'll send it along to Jon.

:And were eventually noticed.
:[Two men in black hats arrive. One holds a briefcase that reads RIAA and the other holds a briefcase which reads MPAA.]
:RIAA man: Game's over.
:MPAA man: You're coming with us.

:[Elaine stands up.]
:Elaine: Oh, are we?
:[Mrs. Roberts is still sitting at her computer, typing.]
:Mrs. Roberts: Now now, Elaine-
:''shink''
:[Elaine pulls a knife out.]

:[The two men each pull a katana out of their briefcase.]
:''shing shing''

:Mrs. Roberts: Don't let them provoke you, dear.
:Men: We don't want to hurt you, Ma'am.
:Mrs. Roberts: Don't by silly. Record company employees can't just go into houses and slice people up.

:RIAA Man: Ah, so you haven't read the DMCA.
:MPAA Man: Title IV, Section 408: Authorization of Deadly Force.

:[Voice comes from off-panel.]: Hark!
:[Everyone looks surprised. Mrs. Roberts stands.]

:[Richard Stallman enters, bearing two katanas.]
:Richard Stallman: Cease this affront to freedom, or stand and defend yourselves!
:MPAA Man: Stallman!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:1337|04]]

343: 1337: Part 3

2015-08-13T17:37:02Z

Jestey1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 343
| date = November 14, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 3
| image = 1337 part 3.png
| titletext = I once asked an NSA guy whether they'd broken RSA. And I know I can trust him, because I asked if he was lying to me and he said no.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Adrian Lamo}} is a hacker known for being a threat analyst and has penetrated many corporate networks. As far as we know, he has not penetrated any government networks, so helping Elaine physically break into the {{w|NSA}} would probably inspire second thoughts.

{{w|RSA (algorithm)|RSA}} is an encryption algorithm that allows decryption using {{w|Public-key cryptography|public keys}}. No efficient method to {{w|RSA problem|break RSA}} is known. But if the NSA knew any such method, it would be unlikely for them to admit that.
However, the NSA have paid RSA to put a [http://theverge.com/2013/12/20/5231006/nsa-paid-10-million-for-a-back-door-into-rsa-encryption-according-to backdoor] into one of their encryption schemes.

{{w|Lawrence Lessig}} is a political activist focusing on copyright law and intellectual property, as well as a founding board member of {{w|Creative Commons}}.

{{w|Steve Jobs}} was the two-time {{w|CEO}} of {{w|Apple Inc.}} In partnership with {{w|Steve Wozniak}} he founded Apple. He oversaw Apple's return from near bankruptcy, the introduction of the original Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. But in the 90s, most of this had not happened yet. The comic is implying that it was Elaine, in fact, who planted those ideas in Jobs' mind.

The final panel is a pun on the Riot grrrls - from Wikipedia {{w|Riot grrrl}} is an underground feminist punk rock movement. This metamorphises in the hands of Randall into Riot Prrl - who presumably prefer to code in {{w|Perl}}. The real Riot Prrl are from {{w|Northampton}} and are into guerilla {{w|knitting}}.

The title text may refer to the {{w|urban legend}} that leads petty criminals to ask each other [http://www.snopes.com/risque/hookers/cop.asp "Are you a cop?"] the bottom line being that liars can lie about whether they're lying.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*343: 1337: Part 3 (this one)
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Outside, Adrian Lamo is helping Elaine Roberts over a barbed wire fence.]
:It was the late 90's. Elaine crisscrossed the country with Adrian Lamo, the 'Homeless Hacker', learning to gain entry into systems both virtual and physical.
:Adrian Lamo: So you just throw a rug over the fence and... say, what ''is'' this place anyway?
:Roberts: Nowhere special.
:Lamo: ...Elaine, is this NSA Headquarters?
:Roberts: ...Look, I just want to see if they've broken RSA.

:[Inside, Lawrence Lessig is sitting at a table, Roberts is standing across the table swinging a knife.]
:She learned, from Lawrence Lessig, about the monstrosity that is U.S. Copyright Law.
:Roberts: So, how do we fix the system? Stab bad guys?
:Lessig: I'm starting something called "Creative Commons"
:''Shink''
:Elaine Roberts: I think we should stab bad guys...

:[Steve Jobs is lying up in his bed, Roberts is balancing while crouched on the foot of Jobs' bed.]
:She met with Steve Jobs to discuss the future of Apple.
:Roberts: Compression and bandwidth are changing everything.
:Jobs: Who are you? It's 3:00AM!
:Roberts: Apple should make a portable music player.
:Jobs: I'm calling the police.
:Roberts: Hey, idea — integrate it with a cell phone!

:[Scene has two of Elaine's activities. In one she is drumming, in the other she has an electric guitar on her shoulders, one hand on the frets. The other hand is holding a laptop by the touchpad.]
:She even, for a time, took up drumming, and helped start a movement among teen girls, a culture of self-taught female programmers and musicians, coding by day and rocking out by night—
:Roberts: Riot Prrl.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Steve Jobs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:1337|03]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Puns]]

342: 1337: Part 2

2015-08-13T17:33:39Z

Jestey1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 342
| date = November 13, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 2
| image = 1337 part 2.png
| titletext = Trivia: Elaine is actually her middle name.
}}

==Explanation==
"Like a ring in a bell" appears to be a reference to the {{w|Chuck Berry}} song {{w|Johnny B. Goode}}, in which Berry describes a young boy (like himself) who becomes a guitar-playing prodigy. Apparently, Elaine learned to program as quickly, easily, and skillfully as Johnny (and Chuck) learned to play rock 'n' roll.
{{w|Donald Knuth}} is a computer science Professor Emeritus at {{w|Stanford University}} who is famous for writing {{w|The Art of Computer Programming}} and developing the TeX computerized typesetting system. He may not have a mountain hideaway {{Citation needed}} (a reference to ''{{w|Kill Bill}}'', by the way), but he would be one of the best mentors a budding hacker could have.

The {{w|A* search algorithm}} and {{w|Dijkstra's algorithm}} are {{w|Graph traversal|graph search}} {{w|algorithm}}s. And what study of algorithms would be complete without a healthy study about finding complexities? {{w|Computational complexity theory|Time complexity}} is the amount of time an algorithm takes to execute. Upper and lower bounds for complexity is written in {{w|Big O notation}}. Best possible execution of an algorithm is constant time, or O(1), said in words, for any given data set no matter how large the algorithm will always return the answer in the same time. However, constant time is extremely difficult to achieve; linear time (O(n)) is also very good. For more complex algorithms, [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28x%29 O( n*log(n) )] is good, but [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x*log%28log%28x%29%29 O( n*log(log(n)) )] is better. (Note that logarithms in different bases are proportional to each other. So this would hold true for any base >1.)

From the evidence that [[Mrs. Roberts]] has two children, a daughter named [[Elaine Roberts|Elaine]], and a younger son named Bobby (presumably [[Little Bobby Tables|Bobby]]'); DROP TABLE students;--), we can assume that she is the same mother from [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]. Of course, the title text here explains that Elaine is only her middle name. In [[327]] we learned her first name is "Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory". Mrs. Roberts appears to have had fun naming her children.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*342: 1337: Part 2 (this one)
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball standing near a friend, who is on the floor near the armchair.]
:Friend: So the greatest hacker of our era is a cookie-baking mom?
:Cueball: Second-greatest.
:Friend: Oh?

:[A young Elaine with a ponytail is laying on the floor looking at the screen of a computer that appears to have been pieced together. A younger Bobby is finger painting at an easel.]
:Mrs. Roberts had two children. Her son, Bobby, was never much for computers, but her daughter Elaine took to them like a ring in the bell.

:[The back of a car is in frame. Mrs. Roberts is waving goodbye to her daughter who is wearing a backpack and is holding a walking stick. She is about to begin climbing a staircase built into a mountain.]
:When Elaine turned 11, her mother sent her to train under Donald Knuth in his mountain hideaway.

:[Donald Knuth is standing with a pointing stick at a chalk board with graph traversal patterns on it.]
:For four years she studied algorithms.
:Knuth: Child—

:[Knuth whips around slashing the stick like a sword. Elaine jumps and lands on the stick.]
:Knuth: Why is A* search wrong in this situation?
:''swish''
:Elaine: Memory usage!
:Knuth: What would you use?
:Elaine: Dijkstra's algorithm!

:[They are outside both working on a chalkboard with a separator down the middle so they cannot look at each other's work. Elaine is no longer wearing her hair in a ponytail.]
:Until one day she bested her master
:Knuth: So our lower bound here is O(n log n)
:Elaine: Nope. Got it in O(n log (log n))
:And left.

==Trivia==
*In this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=21m30s Google-speech] Donald Knuth personally asked [[Randall]] what his ''n*log(log(n))'' algorithm for searching was, and Randall referred him to Elaine.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:1337|02]]

1546: Tamagotchi Hive

2015-07-04T15:18:12Z

Jestey1: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1546
| date = July 3, 2015
| title = Tamagotchi Hive
| image = tamagotchi_hive.png
| titletext = The Singularity happened, but not to us.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explain the comic and the title text}}
A part of the "[[My Hobby]]" series, this describes a distributed computing network using an automated system to simultaneously run trillions of Tamagotchis. As with most of the "My Hobby" series, the concept would work, and is closely connected to real world activities, but twisted enough to make it inherently absurd.

A {{w|Tamagotchi}} is a keychain-sized virtual pet simulation game from 1996. Ostensibly for children, they had appeal for people of all ages. The characters are colorful and simplistically designed creatures based on animals, objects, or people. Beginning with the 2004 Tamagotchi Plus/Connection, a second wave of Tamagotchi toys emerged, featuring a different graphic design by JINCO and gameplay which elaborated upon the first generations. However, the story behind the games remained the same: Tamagotchis are a small alien species that deposited an egg on Earth to see what life was like, and it is up to the player to raise the egg into an adult creature. The creature goes through several stages of growth, and will develop differently depending on the care the player provides, with better care resulting in an adult creature that is smarter, happier, and requires less attention. Gameplay can vary widely between models, and some models, such as TamagoChu, require little to no care from the player. Tamagotchi has a large fan base.

{{w|Distributed computing}} is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system is a software system in which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages. The components interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal. Examples of distributed systems vary from {{w|Service-oriented architecture|service-oriented architecture}} based systems to {{w|multiplayer online games}} to {{w|peer-to-peer}} applications. Distributed computing is often used for tasks that require resources which would otherwise be impossible or prohibitively expensive to manage with single computers. This may include large {{w|Bitcoin network}} mining operations, the {{w|Worldwide LHC Computing Grid}} or, yes, running trillions of simultaneous Tamagotchis using an AI protocol. That said, using AI to keep trillions of Tamagotchis perfectly taken care of is a complete waste of time; the whole point of Tamagotchi is the challenge of caring for the digital pet yourself.

The singularity in the title text refers to {{w|technological singularity}} which would result in an {{w|intelligence explosion}} where artificial intelligence would take over. The image and the title text resemble the scenario in {{w|The Matrix}}, but the implication is that the author takes care of a population of virtual creatures rather than an AI running over the human population.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby
:[A tree graph of Tamagotchis.]
:Running a massive distributed computing project that simulates trillions and trillions of Tamagotchis and keeps them all constantly fed and happy

[[Category:My_Hobby]]

{{comic discussion}}