explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

256: Online Communities

2024-03-17T14:52:22Z

Mattj256: fixing pi

{{comic
| number = 256
| date = May 2, 2007
| title = Online Communities
| image = online_communities_small.png
| titletext = I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'
}}
{{TOC}}
*A larger version of the image is available [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png here].

==Explanation==
This is Randall's first map of online communities, with a successor (showing some zoomed-in highlights of the map) at [[802: Online Communities 2]]. As Randall says on the map, the area of each "country" is roughly proportional to its membership, at least in 2007. Geographic location means a bit more, however, as the '''Compass-Rose-Shaped Island''' points out. North-south corresponds to a spectrum from practical to intellectual, and east-west corresponds to one from web-focused to real-life-focused. The map also bears a slight resemblance to {{w|South East Asia}}. Randall likes to draw maps in a manner like this. Each "country" is represented by size and related points of interest. We also have a "Sea of Memes" and a small "Straits of WEB 2.0."

===Compass Rose-shaped Island===
This is a joke located near the middle of the map, that nonetheless serves to organize the illustration. A Compass Rose —the name for the multi-pointed star that shows where North is on the map— appears on most maps; however, here, it's actually land that just coincidentally looks like a compass rose.

The "points" of the island do, however, roughly organize the map. Left is "Focus on Real Life," labelled "IRL," an abbreviation for "In Real Life." Right is "Focus on Web," labelled ".com." Up is "Practicals," labelled "N," as in "North," but with small letters making it spell "Noob," slang for a "Newbie" or "New user" — a person less experienced with the internet, as many of the sites to the top of the map are ones infamous for having large numbers of largely computer-illiterate people. Down is "Intellectuals," labelled ''"π,"'' an important constant in mathematics approximately equal to 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510.

===The Icy North===
These are communities that were once major players, but now in a much reduced role. While some are still fairly large, they're somewhat relics of older times, hence the "Mountains of Web 1.0" that run through them — Web 1.0 is the first major generation of websites.
* '''[http://yahoo.com Yahoo!]''' was the most popular search engine around 1998, but lost out to Google. It remains in business due to diversification (it now owns Tumblr, for instance).
* '''Windows Live''', particularly ''Windows Live Messenger'', used to be a particularly major way for friends to communicate, now taken over by Skype and the like. Once a more-or-less ubiquitous branding, now used much less. https://home.live.com/ ‎is one remnant.
* '''[http://aol.com AOL]''' was once a huge player in the internet service provider market, noted for sending out millions of floppy disks and CD-ROMs in the 1980s and '90s offering a month or so free internet service (followed by high fees and difficult cancellation). Notably, AOL was the first company to sign up large numbers of people to internet access throughout the year, whereas before then internet was mainly provided by colleges and universities, fundamentally changing internet culture (see {{w|Eternal September}}). This influx of new users or "Noobs" (short for "newbies") names the ''Noob Sea'' south of AOL. The ''Chat Rooms'' nearby were a selling feature of early ISPs — ways to communicate with other people from that ISP. They are largely dying now, but were a major selling point in the early days.
* '''[http://classmates.com Classmates.com]''' and '''[http://reunion.com Reunion.com]''' are early sites that offered to help you find your former classmates from school, a role largely taken over by the big, more generalized social media sites. Classmates.com is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"
* '''[http://friendster.com Friendster]''' was the first big social media site. It was later outpaced by ''Myspace'' and ''Facebook'' (see Social Media below). It has survived by rebranding itself as a social gaming site, now used primarily in Southeast Asia.
* '''Qwghlm''': A reference to ''{{w|The Baroque Cycle}}'', a series of science fiction books by Neal Stephenson. In them, Qwghlm is a group of islands in the icy north. See [http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm].
* '''Chasm''': A barely-readable note just below the "O" of "NORTH." This may simply be a reference to a lot of fantasy series containing a chasm. (For example, the One Ring is destroyed by flinging it into a fiery chasm in The Lord of the Rings.)

===Dating sites (Northwest coastal regions)===
* '''[http://eharmony.com E-Harmony]''' and '''[http://okcupid.com OkCupid]''' are dating sites; the other, larger sites near them are mostly social media sites.
* '''The Lonely Island''' label appears to be a joke: Surrounded by, but separate from dating sites and social media sites, it would be a rather lonely place. Possibly named after "[http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Tol_Eress%C3%ABa Tol Eressëa]" (Translation: The Lonely Island), a somewhat obscure location in J. R. R. Tolkien's books, but there are {{w|The Lonely Island|other possibilities}}.

===Social Media (West)===
These are sites mainly used to communicate with friends, such as Facebook and Myspace. The first large one was ''Friendster'', but this has largely become a social gaming site primarily used in Southeast Asia, as discussed in The Icy North, above. Other social media sites listed are:

* '''[http://faceparty.com Faceparty]''': A UK social media site started in 1999.
* '''[http://myspace.com Myspace]''': A social media site partially owned by, of all people, Justin Timberlake. Started in 2003, and peaking around the time this comic was made, it nonetheless still remains popular for bands (hence "Myspace Bands" in the southwest). It was never known for having a particularly attractive web design (partly because users could extensively customize the look and feel of their profile pages), hence only a very small part of it labelled "Attractive Myspace Pages."
** The '''Series of Tubes''': A reference to an internet meme. In 2006, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, while arguing for the end of "Network neutrality," a concept that keeps ISPs from favouring or charging more for high-speed access to sites, claimed that such regulation was needed because the Internet was "not a truck" you could just load up with as much as you want, but a "series of tubes." This was fairly accurate, but his arguments were poor and badly phrased, and his speech subsequently received widespread derision (originally from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show), and it became a running gag on the internet.
* '''[http://facebook.com Facebook]''': Generally considered (at least in the West) the "modern" social media network, and the most popular. However, this comic is from 2007, and Facebook did not catch up to Myspace until 2008-2009. [Source: {{w|Myspace}}]
* '''[http://orkut.com Orkut]''': A social media network launched in 2004 by Google, it became hugely popular in Brazil, India, and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
* '''[http://xanga.com Xanga]''': A blogging and social media site launched in 1998.
* '''[http://livejournal.com LJ]''': LiveJournal, a blogging site, more or less, but one that allows an internet forum-like structure where anyone, or selected people, can all start new posts on a community. Noted for a large number of teenagers, fanfic authors, and the like in its heyday, hence the "Bay of Angst" to its south.
* '''[http://www.blurty.com/ Blurty]''': LiveJournal's software is Open Access, meaning anyone can use it to set up a site. {{w|Blurty}} is, according to Wikipedia, an 18+ general community using this software.
* '''[http://cyworld.com Cyworld]''': A South Korean social media site featuring avatars and "mini-rooms."

===The Blogipelago (Southwest)===
This is a portmanteau of blog and archipelago. Sulawesi is a real island in the Indonesian archipelago, implying that this region's similarity to Indonesia is probably intentional.

* '''[http://www.huffingtonpost.com Huffington Post:]''' ''The Huffington Post'' is a web-only news site, named after its founder, Arianna Huffington. It's noted for attracting notable people to do very good write-ups of politics and news, generally with a liberal slant, but also for having a medicine section that supports every sort of quackery and nonsense, including a regular column by {{w|Dana Ullman}} promoting {{w|homeopathy}} (see [[765: Dilution]]).
* '''Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean:''' In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Howard Dean raised funds mainly over the internet, and was doing very well, until a gaffe caused him to crash and burn just before the primaries began. See {{w|Howard Dean presidential campaign, 2004}}.
* '''Cory Doctrow's Balloon:''' Reference to [[239: Blagofaire]].
* '''[http://boingboing.net Boing Boing:]''' An occasional trend is for a smallish magazine to get a website, have the website become vastly more popular than its print edition, and become a successful website. Examples include [http://cracked.com Cracked.com,] [http://theonion.com The Onion,] and the subject of this label, [http://boingboing.net Boing Boing.] Boing Boing is a group blog covering technology, intellectual property, science fiction, and futurism.
* '''[http://technorati.com Technorati:]''' A site for searching blogs.
* '''Sulawesi:''' As mentioned above, a real island that is part of the Indonesian archipelago.
* '''{{w|Xu Jinglei}}:''' A Chinese actress. According to Wikipedia: "In mid-2006, her Chinese-language blog had the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet, according to Technorati."
* '''[http://postsecret.com/ PostSecret:]''' A website that people send postcards to, describing their secrets. Some are little secrets (like swigging milk directly from the jug or carton), some are old, deep-seated traumas, and some are just things that they could never admit to anyone publicly. Worth a look.
* '''The Wet Sea''': Perhaps a reference to a West Sea, but not sure what that would be. Maybe just a simple joke, as what else would a sea be but wet?
* ''TWB'' or ''TMZ'': A very-hard-to-read label, south of Technorati.
** '''TWB''' is short for "{{w|Translators Without Borders}}," a charitable project that tries to translate necessary texts into the languages of the people who need them for free. This ''might'' be it, if it's meant to relate to Wikipedia, to the east of it. On the other hand,
** '''[http://TMZ.com TMZ]''' is a major celebrity gossip blog, rated #15 in the "[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs World's 50 most powerful blogs"] by ''The Guardian,'' and, at time of writing, rating #11 in the [http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ Technorati top 100.]

===Sea of Culture (Central region) ===
Sites for sharing and showing off music and images, most focusing on self-created content.

* '''Gulf of YouTube''': [http://youtube.com YouTube] is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google has since purchased YouTube.
* '''Piczo''': Teen-oriented website that allowed one to make a profile and put up pictures. The site has been dead since late 2012, due to the rise of Facebook. See {{w|Piczo}}.
* '''Broadcaster''': Another dead site, almost lost to the web. Only a few scraps of information remain on the web. [http://www.seomastering.com/wiki/Broadcaster.com One of the rare scraps of remaining information] indicates that it was a webcam broadcasting service that also allowed YouTube-like sharing of videos.
* '''The Bit Torrent''' and the '''P2P Shoals''': Reference to file sharing (passing around often copyright-infringing files, such as movies, CDs, and the like), often done with the {{w|BitTorrent}} protocol. A "Torrent" can also be a flood of water, hence it being used to name a river. "P2P" stands for "{{w|Peer-to-peer}}", the basis for the BitTorrent protocol.
* '''[http://flickr.com Flickr]''': a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.
* '''[http://lastfm.com LastFM]''': a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.
* '''[http://deviantart.com DeviantArt]''': the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.

'''Straits of Web 2.0''': A ''strait'' is a narrow passage between two outcroppings. Web 2.0 is a term used to describe new internet architectures, which these programs and Wikipedia (the other side of the strait) are examples of. '''Gays of Web 2.0''' is a pun: The opposite of a gay person (homosexual) is a straight person (heterosexual).

===User-created content and discussions (Southeast)===
Sites such as {{w|Wikipedia}} and chat programs such as IRC.
* '''Wikipedia''': The world's largest encyclopedia, collaboratively edited by its users. It's labelled as "The Wikipedia Project" (actually called ''{{w|Wikimedia}}''), since Wikipedia has generalised to cover a number of separate web sites, though, at the time of this comic, none near the size of Wikipedia (excepting, possibly, Wikimedia Commons, which is partly an image repository for Wikipedia), perhaps explaining the small size of all the other vertexes of the "web."
* '''Usenet''': The predecessor of most modern forums. A set of discussion groups that dominated the early internet. It also predates the standard web architecture to some extent — there's no standard weblink for it, for instance. See {{w|Usenet}}.
* '''IRC isles''': IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, a simple, low-bandwidth program for chatting. Common uses include Dungeons and Dragons games and other geeky pursuits.
* '''[http://sourceforge.net SourceForge]''': A code repository. Basically, a place for programmers to meet up and work together on a variety of free and open source projects. See {{w|sourceforge}}. Has become less respectable since this comic was created in 2007, due to [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/gimp_dumps_sourceforge_over_dodgy_ads_and_installer/ allowing misleading advertisements intended to trick people into installing questionable software.]
* '''[http://mit.edu MIT]''': The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most respected universities for Engineering, Robotics, and other such fields.
* '''[http://www.engadget.com/‎ Engadget]''': A blog/online magazine, in multiple languages, reviewing tech products and commenting on technology news.
* '''[http://gizmodo.com/‎ Gizmodo]''': A blog about technology and design.
* '''[http://makezine.com/blog/ MakeBlog]''': A blog highlighting bizarre and interesting do-it-yourself projects, often with a geeky theme.
* '''Google's Volcano Fortress''': A volcano fortress is one traditional dwelling place of evil geniuses in fiction, and Google has quietly taken over huge chunks of people's interaction with the web. Perhaps this provides some background for [[254: Comic Fragment]]?
* '''Stallman's Airship''': A joke, perhaps in line with Cory Doctorow's Balloon ([[239: Blagofaire]], also referenced in this strip). The Super Mario series of games also commonly contains bossfights in airships.

===Ocean of Subculture and Sea of Memes (East)===
:'''Need descriptions'''
Sites related to smaller internet communities, a.k.a. "Subcultures." Also, a whole lot of internet memes, unsurprisingly. The "Viral Straits" references the idea of something "going viral," i.e. spreading quickly to huge numbers of people on the internet. These sites are often responsible for things going viral, and the memes listed are ones that went viral in the past.

;Sites
* '''[http://www.2ch.net/‎ 2Channel]''': a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for...
* '''[http://4chan.org 4Chan]''': an imageboard in which people can upload pictures, while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as /b/, is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros.
**The fact that 4chan is a very small island on this map (to the far right on the map - left of "dragons" in the sentence ''Here there be anthropomorphic dragons'') made quite a fuss for Randall. And this caused the comic to be mentioned in [http://blog.xkcd.com/2008/02/25/fruit-opinions/ FRUIT OPINIONS!] on the [http://blog.xkcd.com/ Blag]. Although this comic was one of the more controversial, it had nothing on the impact of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]], which was the cause of the Blag entry as that became the most controversial comic written to that point (i.e. 2008): ''...beating out comics about cunnilingus, the Obama endorsement, and my making 4chan tiny on the map of the internet''. (See the grapefruit comic for more details).
* '''[http://reddit.com Reddit]''': the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos, and videos, and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.
* '''[http://digg.com Digg]''': a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but has been sold since this map was drawn and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.
* '''[http://fark.com Fark]''': A website that writes humorous commentary on various news reports, especially the strange, bizarre, or things from the political far-left and far-right.
* '''[http://somethingawful.com Something Awful]''': a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful." SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from ''Encyclopedia Dramatica'' and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the "Let's Plays" of ''Dangan Ronpa'' and ''Super Dangan Ronpa 2'', which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.
* '''[http://slashdot.org /.]''': ''Slashdot'', a news site for technology-related news stories, which are submitted by its users. The "{{w|Slashdot effect}}" is named after this site.
* '''[http://ytmnd.com YTMND]''': a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated). Its name is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"
* '''[http://StumbleUpon.com Stumble Upon]''': A website that attempts to develop a profile for users in order to recommend which websites they might enjoy.
* '''[http://delicious.com/ Del.icio.us]''': Another image and website aggregator, linking to various things of interest. It uses tags to let people find specific types of content. ('''Note''': Since this comic, this website was renamed as "Delicious.")

;Memes and related
* '''Isle of Slash''': "{{w|Slash fiction}}" is a type of {{w|fanfiction}} that takes two male characters from another work of fiction and puts them in a plot where they have lots of sex with each other. Named because of a common way of writing pairings in fanfiction, "X/Y", with the / being pronounced "slash." Adding to this, "Isle of" sounds like "I love."
* '''Numa''': A reference to the viral video "Numa Numa," consisting of a man dancing and lip-syncing to the song "Dragostea din tei" (Romanian for "Love from the lindens").
* '''Your Base''': A reference to the "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}" meme, a line from the game ''{{w|Zero Wing}}'', a game with a huge amount of hilariously badly translated {{w|Engrish}} dialogue. See [[286: All Your Base]] for more discussion of the meme.
* '''Bay of Trolls''': {{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolls}} are people who attempt to stir up controversy by intentionally saying statements meant to annoy others into responding. "Bay" can refer to both a sheltered port and to an animal's cry, so "Bay of Trolls" can be read as "Shelter for Trolls" or "Angry Shouting of Trolls." Given the communities surrounding it, both would make sense.
* '''Soviet Russia''': {{w|Russian reversal|"In Soviet Russia" jokes}} are a style of joke commonly associated with -comedian {{w|Yakov Smirnoff}}, which has since become an internet meme. Example: "In America, you always find a party. In Russia, Party will always find ''you''." — playing off of the idea that "Party" can also refer to the Communist Party. The meme version usually isn't as clever as that, though. See "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia in soviet russia]."
* '''SPAAARTA''': As in, "THIS! IS! SPAAARTA!!!", a famously over-the-top line from the movie ''{{w|300 (film)|300}}''.

===MMORPGs and related games (Northeast by East)===
An area dedicated to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), large-scale games with huge numbers of players put into the same world. The label "Here there be anthromorphic dragons" references a common marking on old maps ("Here there be dragons") but updates it to joke about the more humanoid dragons seen in many games, or again, how dragons, especilally anthropomorphic dragons, are very-very popular in the furry community.

* '''[http://games.yahoo.com Yahoo Games]''': A branch of Yahoo (see "The Icy North") dedicated to games (mainly boardgames).
* '''[http://uo.com UO]''': ''Ultima Online'', one of the first MMORPGs, and the first to grow to any size. Based on the long-running ''Ultima'' RPG computer games. Started 1997.
* '''[http://www.everquest.com/‎ EQ]''': ''EverQuest'', another important early MMORPG, started 1999. UO and EQ have declined significantly since then; for a while, they were each the iconic MMORPG, but that role has been taken over by...
* '''[http://www.warcraft.com/‎ WoW]''': ''World of Warcraft'', an MMORPG launched in 2004, again based on a previously-existing RPG series, and by far the largest and most iconic at the time of this comic's creation. A few others have attempted to challenge it since.
* '''[http://www.runescape.com/‎ Runescape]''': Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG; the largest in existence.
* '''[http://www.finalfantasyxi.com/ FFXI]''': ''Final Fantasy XI'', the eleventh installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series of video games, and the first to be a MMORPG. It didn't really take off until after this comic was made.
* '''[http://www.lineage.com/‎ Lineage]''': 1998 MMORPG. Particularly popular in South Korea, a country with somewhat of a cultural obsession with video games.
* '''[http://secondlife.com Second Life]''': A virtual world, noted for largely working from user-generated content, which can be sold by users for real money. See {{w|Second Life}}. ''Third Life'' is a joke based on Second Life — if it existed, it would presumably be a game people play to escape Second Life, which they play to escape their first, real life.

==Transcript==
:[Hand-drawn fantasy style map with land and sea areas representing populations of online communities. Each area or item is labeled.]
:Map of Online Communities and related points of interest
:Geographic area represents estimated size of membership

:[Land Area Labels:]
:The Icy North (Yahoo, Windows Live),
:AOL,
::Chat Rooms
:Reunion dot com,
:Classmates dot com,
:E-harmony,
:Friendster,
:Faceparty,
:Chasm,
:Qwghlm,
:Yahoo Games,
:Mountains of Web 1.0,
:The Lonely Island,
:MySpace,
:Attractive MySpace Pages,
:The Series of Tubes,
:Myspace Bands,
:WOW,
:Lineage,
:Second Life,
:Third Life,
:UO,
:EQ,
:FFXI,
:2channel,
:4chan,
:LJ,
:Xanga,
:Orkut,
:Cyworld,
:Blurty,
:OK Cupid,
:Facebook,
:Piczo,
:The Compass-Rose-Shaped Island,
::Practicals (Noob)
::Focus on Real Life (IRL)
::Focus on Web (.com)
::Intellectuals (π)
:Broadcaster,
:The Bit Torrent,
:Flickr,
:Last.fm,
:DeviantArt,
:Isle of Slash,
:Numa,
:Digg,
:Fark,
:Reddit,
:Something Awful,
:Your Base,
:Soviet Russia,
:/. [Slashdot],
:Spaaarta (YTMND),
:StumbleUpon,
:Del.icio.us,
:The Blogipelago,
:Sulawesi,
:Xu Jinglei,
:Post Secret,
:Technocrati,
:[Hard to read label: Probably JWB, TWB, or TMZ]
:BoingBoing,
:Huffington Post,
:Gays of Web 2.0,
:The Wikipedia project,
:MIT,
:Engadget,
:Gizmodo,
:Usenet,
:MAKE Blog,
:IRC Isles,
:Sourceforge.

:[Sea Area Labels:]
:NOOB Sea,
:Gulf of YouTube,
:Bay of Angst,
:Sea of Culture,
:Ocean of Subculture,
:P2P Shoals,
:Straits of Web 2.0,
:Here Be Anthropomorphic Dragons,
:Bay of Trolls,
:Viral Straits,
:Sea of Memes,
:The Wet Sea
:Item Labels: Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean, Cory Doctrow's Balloon, Stallman's airship, Google's volcano fortress

:(Not a complete survey. Sizes based on the best figures I could find but involved some guesswork. Do not use for navigation.)
:Spring 2007

==Trivia==
This comic used to be [https://web.archive.org/web/20220125025438/https://store.xkcd.com/products/online-communities-2007-poster available as a poster] in the xkcd store before it was [[Store|shut down]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Online Communities]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Online Communities]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]

Talk:2105: Modern OSI Model

2023-07-21T03:00:07Z

Mattj256:

Randall seems to be saying that a startup doesn't need to create a new computer system to service their customers, all they have to do is put up a Facebook page which uses Google to find products and then has Amazon deliver them. The middle layer "Transport" is a joke because Amazon literally ships physical boxes, but the OSI model is not about actual boxes; it's about information and the way the information is presented to the user vs what goes on behind the scenes.
But I don't get the part about the horcruxes. Is it just the fact that there are seven of them? Or is there some subtle connection I'm missing here? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.180|162.158.106.180]] 05:50, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
: 'Transport' has nothing to do with Amazon, in this case, though the juxtaposition is amusing; also, the networking model has nothing to do with the user interface. The seven layers are from the 'standard' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model OSI networking model], which was introduced in the late 1970s to describe how networking systems work (or were expected to at the time). In practice, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite#Key_architectural_principles Internet Protocol Suite] model is used, which has more or less the same ideas despite evolving separately, though with only four formal layers (Link, Internet, Transport, and Application) instead of seven (Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application).
:In the OSI model, the Transport layer is Layer 4 (going up from the lowest level, Physical) and represents the part responsible for checking the consistency of data delivery - that is to say, it decides whether or not to check for dropped packets, and whether to resend dropped ones. In the actual Internet model, the rough equivalent is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol Transmission Control Protocol] (for 'connected' transmissions which do check and resend) and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol User Datagram Protocol] (for 'connectionless' ones which don't). [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.10|172.68.78.10]] 16:29, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

:(Spoilers alert) Voldemort uses signifying objects of his life, heritage and his school's founders as horcruces. When the OSI layers are used as horcruces, one problem would be that Google/Amazon would have taken control of two horcruces, the other that some of the layers are frayed at the sides. Randall should not have put his horcruces in living standards - that was a very dangerous move. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 07:54, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
::Even worse: Some of the horcruxes have apparently merged.[[User:Gunterkoenigsmann|Gunterkoenigsmann]] ([[User talk:Gunterkoenigsmann|talk]]) 15:51, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Is there a meaning of the widths of the layers - not a block or a triangle/pyramid? Are there more layers than the named ones? Or the named ones multiple times? This would correspond to the design of ever more layers, virtualizations, abstractions and overall complexity of computer systems as time moved forward. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 07:49, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
:It looks like a jenga tower to me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.223|162.158.89.223]] 12:35, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
:: Could some reference to this, or at least some speculation on the irregularity of the tower on general, be added? I would propose something like the following:
::: ''The significance of the irregular pattern of the Google/Amazon blob isn't clear. It is likely that it is in reference to the irregular way in which their modifications to the OSI stack have evolved. However, it is also notable that the irregular structure of the stack is arranged so as to resemble a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga Jenga] tower. Jenga, for those unfamiliar, is a game in which blocks are added and removed from a vertical pile until the whole collapses. This may be a commentary on the instability of the stack in general, or on how Google and Amazon's additions and changes to it have destabilized the networking protocols.'' -- [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.10|172.68.78.10]] 16:00, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
::::I think you may be reading too much into the shape, it looks much more irregular than a Jenga tower. If anything I would guess it's just a rough reflection of how much influence Google and Amazon have at each level -- more Google influence means the blob goes farther left, more Amazon influence means it goes farther right.

I think Google & Amazon are the grey blob that is slowly absorbing all of the layers [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.114|141.101.107.114]] 07:55, 30 January 2019 (UTC)
: Excellent remark! Google & Amazon are inserted between the Data Link and Network layers, and while it seems like an eight layer from the shape profile, they do not sit in their own bordered rectangle. Another view point is maybe Randall tried to display the fight between the Infrastructure providers to capture a new layer in gestation. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.114|141.101.107.114]] 08:21, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

: Agreed. There is no way that Randall wanted the label for the gray blob to just apply to a couple of layers. It's clearly labeling the entire gray blob as "Google and Amazon". Otherwise, he would have put in another dividing line or two. So all the glue between the layers is being described as "Google and Amazon". Meaning that the layers wouldn't even be able to talk to each other and function correctly without G+A glue between them. Maybe this is "glue" in the technical sense of trivial code which converts from one API to another. The basic point here is that Google lays cable in some places and writes Chrome and owns You Tube, so it's definitely at both ends. I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable to say if it owns/writes stuff in the middle. And I'd be surprised if this was true of Amazon. But it's not my place to comment on the veracity of Randall's remarks, I'm just trying to sort out what he's saying.

: That's how I understood it as well. By having there hands in *everything* G+A defeat the whole purpose of having a layered (ie. divided) model, making the 'modern model' just bits and pieces added to G+A code.

Trivia: (Major Spoiler alert) Voldemort originally intended to create six horcruces to divide his soul into 7 (including his own body) pieces. The 6th unintended horcrux is Harry Potter by Voldemort killing his parents. Later on after his revival Voldemort made the snake Nagini to his seemingly 6th horcrux, which was actually his 7th. Does that mean Randall embodies one of the OSI layers from the beginning of his existence? :-) Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.46|172.68.110.46]] 08:01, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Just a point of contention with the current explanation. Right now, Google and Facebook are two of the major players in cloud-based computing: I have seen tutorials on leveraging Google's cloud services to home-brew your own proxy service.
As such, a lot of internet services are running ON Google or Amazon, so Google and Amazon DO effectively own, or at least manage, several layers.
I do not know if Facebook is one of those, and I would tend to doubt it, considering its size.

Why does the bot have seven layers???

PRESENTATION, SESSION, and NETWORK are not contained within GOOGLE & AMAZON the way the rest of the layers are; there are openings to the outside for those three.

: This is true of front facing web pages, but web services exist that may communicate, potentially exclusively, with other services on the same platform. In that case, they would in effect encapsulate all of the layers for that service! This brings up a notable exclusion though, as Microsoft has not been represented here. If you throw them into the mix with Google and Amazon, Thanks to their own Azure cloud services and the ubiquitous Windows and IE/Edge, it would basically only leave argument for the Network layer. [[User:Kateract|Kateract]] ([[User talk:Kateract|talk]]) 15:21, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

I go with Jenga. The three blocks would collapse the tower. The four blocks that don't are because (Randall says) Google and Amazon essentially replace them. Makes sense to me, for those, so I put it in the answer already. [[User:PGilm|PGilm]] ([[User talk:PGilm|talk]]) 21:10, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Is it worth mentioning that Voldemort (spoilers) only meant to create 6 horcruxes. The idea was to split his soul into seven pieces, with the last piece still residing within his own body. The seventh Horcrux, Harry, was both an accident and his downfall. Thus, Randall may be implying that the top layer (Facebook) might be accidental, and the downfall of Google & Amazon. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.216|141.101.107.216]] 13:12, 2 February 2019 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.18.142|162.158.18.142]] 15:32, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

: One thing the irregular grey form immediately reminded me of is this: https://goo.gl/images/hNQExG -- I don't know how this early, naive form of encryption should add to the topic at hand, though. Would be happy to find a better reference for those (irregular Scytale?), but all search terms I tried produced way too many results from more advanced forms of encryption.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.18.142|162.158.18.142]] 15:32, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Per "Incomplete" tag, I added the 7 standard OSI layers to the explanation with a simple description of each layer. Further editing may be needed. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 13:29, 12 June 2019 (UTC)

I edited the description to include a paraphrase of the above commentary about Google and Amazon swallowing some of the layers. I think this makes more sense than the Jenga interpretation, especially given the title text. In the Harry Potter novels, Voldemort intentionally hid his horcruxes in different places. Hiding them in a structure which is subsumed by a few large companies would defeat the purpose. [[User:Mattj256|Mattj256]] ([[User talk:Mattj256|talk]]) 03:00, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

2105: Modern OSI Model

2023-07-21T02:54:38Z

Mattj256: Explaining the Google+Amazon blob as Google/Amazon swallowing those levels of the OSI model

{{comic
| number = 2105
| date = January 30, 2019
| title = Modern OSI Model
| image = modern_osi_model.png
| titletext = In retrospect, I shouldn't have used each layer of the OSI model as one of my horcruxes.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|OSI model|Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model}} is a conceptual model for network communications that defines 7 layers of functionality, where higher layers add increasing complexity to lower layers through associated protocols and standards. The 7 layers in the standard OSI Model are:

*7. Application layer: Defines how applications interact with the stack to request and receive information
*6. Presentation layer: Defines how one or more sessions are used by endpoints to send and receive a packet of information
*5. Session layer: Defines how communication events are initiated and managed in order to successfully transmit information
*4. Transport layer: Defines how information is transmitted across the nodes of a network
*3. Network layer: Defines how nodes are interconnected to form a network of nodes
*2. Data link layer: Defines how data is transmitted across a wired connection
*1. Physical layer: Defines the wiring connections between two different nodes

In practice, the OSI model abstracts the communication between two end points, like a Facebook client and Facebook servers all the way from the application layer on the server, down to the wire on which the data is transmitted, and back up to the application layer where the user views the data. As Facebook is one of the most used websites in the world with more than a billion users, Randall claims that the "application" layer (what the client sees and uses) is mostly {{w|Facebook}}.

A light gray shape labeled "Google & Amazon" surrounds all seven layers of the model in an irregular shape indicating that Google and Amazon, by dint of their size and dominance at multiple layers of the model influence the entire structure. An example of Google's influence would be their introduction of new protocols like {{w|QUIC}} and {{w|SPDY}} as replacements for the existing TCP protocol that was a foundation of the web, and their accompanying modifications of the original {{w|HTTP}} protocol.

The significance of the irregular pattern of the "Google & Amazon" blob isn't clear. It is likely that it is in reference to the irregular way in which their modifications to the OSI stack have evolved. Potentially with extensions to the left representing the influence of Google, and extension to the right representing the influence of Amazon. However, it is also notable that the irregular structure of the stack is reminiscent of a {{w|Jenga}} tower. Jenga is a game in which blocks are removed from a vertical stack and added back to the top until the whole collapses. This may be a commentary on the instability of the network stack in general, or on how Google and Amazon's additions and changes to it have destabilized the networking protocols. Or, the specific blocks to be pulled out (presentation, session, and network) may be the ones whose removal collapses the tower while the other ones can be easily removed and replaced (like the center blocks in Jenga), implying that between Google and Amazon, even if these were pulled out, the tower would remain standing. What this says about the three layers that would destabilize the tower is unclear.

Another interpretation: Google and Amazon's market dominance is so extreme that (according to Randall) most users only access layers 1 (Physical), 2 (Data Link), and 4 (Transport) through Google and Amazon. Layers 3 (Network), 5 (Session), and 6 (Presentation), while strongly influenced by Google and Amazon, have at least not been completely swallowed up by those two companies.

The title text refers to {{w|Magical_objects_in_Harry_Potter#Horcruxes|Horcruxes}} used by {{w|Lord Voldemort|Voldemort}} in the ''{{w|Harry Potter}}'' book series. A Horcrux is a magical artifact used to house a wizard's soul, preventing them from dying if their body is destroyed. Since they can only be created by murdering other people, they are heavily forbidden, and before Voldemort it was unheard of for a wizard to use more than one. Voldemort used seven -- the same number of layers in the OSI model. However, while Voldemort hid his seven Horcruxes in different places to make himself that much harder to kill, Randall's have all been collected in Google and Amazon, defeating the purpose of using more than one. Alternatively, transforming each layer of the OSI model into a horcrux may be regarded as a strategy to prevent them from being destroyed since doing so would destroy networking. This strategy would fail in the modern world, since some of the envisioned layers were not used in the more common modern TCP/IP networking model and in the case of cloud infrastructure potential exists to provide even more shortcuts.

The title text may also be a reference to a [[1417|prior comic]] about Randall mixing up things that come in groups of seven, like data layers and Horcruxes.

==Transcript==
:[A light gray shape that surrounds seven stacked dark gray rectangles centered above each other, all with labels. The light gray shape is connected but sometimes only on one side of the dark rectangles. It goes above and below the top and bottom rectangles. At the top there is a heading:]
:Modern OSI Model

:[The first black rectangle has two lines of text. It is supported by the light gray shape on both sides:]
:Application (Facebook)

:[Pulling the second rectangle out to the right would collapse the tower, with the top tipping to the right:]
:Presentation

:[Pulling the third rectangle out to the left would collapse the tower, with the top tipping to the left:]
:Session

:[The fourth rectangle is supported on both sides:]
:Transport

:[Pulling the fifth rectangle out to the left would collapse the tower making it tip to the left:]
:Network

:[Between the fifth and sixth dark rectangles is a label for the entire light gray shape:]
:Google & Amazon

:[The sixth rectangle is supported on both sides:]
:Data link

:[The seventh rectangle is supported on both sides:]
:Physical

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Harry Potter]]

Talk:2243: Star Wars Spoiler Generator

2019-12-23T21:07:19Z

Mattj256: add comment with explanation for title text

I made this JavaScript implementation of the generator: https://codepen.io/qgustavor/full/gObgBxo [[Special:Contributions/172.68.24.70|172.68.24.70]] 22:33, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
:there are some words that should be capitalized: First Order, Sith, Force, Jawa... Also ochre is misspelt and colors should NOT be capitalized. Thanks![[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.196|141.101.98.196]] 10:21, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

who said that the rise of skywalker would be released two days before the publishing date after stating that it's going to be released on the twentieth?

Re: Malloc, there was also a Darth Malak, the antagonist of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and a recurring character in the Old Republic comics [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.244|172.69.69.244]] 02:08, 19 December 2019 (UTC)47.221.57.204

Should something be linked to about diectric breakdown, or is that considered obvious in the context of, er, Force lightning? Also, am I remembering right that Dark Helmet, in Spaceballs, wears a smaller helmet with a really big helmet over it? Maybe not! Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 02:48, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

There are a couple of posts to be found online that refer to "Darth Sebelius" in the context of Obamacare, but they're all on pretty niche forums. --[[User:NotaBene|NotaBene]] ([[User talk:NotaBene|talk]]) 03:07, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Perchance generator: https://perchance.org/q3wi2jqf0j [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.59|173.245.54.59]] 03:16, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

For a less US-centric view, the movie was released officially in France and Norway (and probably also other countries) already on the 18.12. (that is December 18). So "On December 20, 2019 [...], the final movie [...] will be released." should say "[...] will be released in the US."[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.220|162.158.134.220]] 12:01, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Another generator: http://xkcd-2243.surge.sh/

I don't know enough to add to the actual page, but the Sith car wash reminded me of this. Perhaps it was also part of the inspiration for it? https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-laser-windshield-wiper-patent/ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.35|141.101.69.35]] 15:28, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

"A New Hope" should just be called "Star Wars". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.16|141.101.76.16]] 18:58, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

C#/LINQ: https://dotnetfiddle.net/r0JMJz

The title text just means that there are more lightsaber brushes to hurt the heroes, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.78|162.158.106.78]] 22:32, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Is the Kyle Ren option a reference to being "A Kyle" (as defined at Urban Dictionary as "A Kyle is a young white man of low socio economic standing with a propensity to drink large quantities of Monster energy drink and do dumb stuff like punch holes in walls.") After all, Kylo Ren did tend to get angry and break stuff? [[User:Mneimeyer|Mneimeyer]] ([[User talk:Mneimeyer|talk]]) 23:01, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Is darth sebelius a reference to the sibelius composing software?
:I would think the Sibelous software (1993-present) would instead be a definite reference to the Finnish composer (1865-1957) already part-posited as a possible influence for the Darth. Although I'd probably defer that suggestion in favour of the politician (1948-present, in direct politics until 2014?) even if I'd actually never heard of them from this side of The Pond. Still, there are weirder connections, so who knows? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.93|162.158.158.93]] 20:18, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Please clarify the reference to Rey as a "Mary Sue." The linked article says that the only agreed on meaning for the term is that it is derogatory. Other than that, it appears to mean different things to different people. So it's inclusion here does not help explain the comic. What is it about Rey that gave her that label. Is it that she is not canon? Is it that she is overpowered? Probably better to just remove the Mary Sue jargon, and say whatever it is they say about those with other colored light sabers directly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.77|108.162.246.77]] 01:45, 22 December 2019 (UTC)
: While I'm not sure about Rey being entirely a Mary-Sue (in my mind an 'author avatar' character - whether or not a prime protagonist or ascending sidekick, they're just too competent for the role and often a Mcguffin baker), she definitely has more than a little plot-armour (and plot-weapon-skill) that I ''hope'', when I see the filmm (within a week, by current plans), bodes for something other than 2xrnd(trader(junk)) as patentage. Or something else that's actually awesome to get round that without being ''deus ex''. But by dint of Windu's ''actor'' having been asked what colour of weapon he wanted (then him having requested what he did and then being granted it, - which might not have gone that far with less imaginative or influential actors) I'd count that as a very Mary-Sue-like thing, even if the rest of the badassness of that particular Jedi (the tone written prior to the resulting casting of the badass actor to fit) was just standard Major Supporting Character/Lancer fare. But just my musings, nothing official... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.179|162.158.158.179]] 13:07, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm considering going through the table and adding a note for whether each thing is actually in Star Wars. would that be a good idea? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.136|172.68.141.136]] 06:48, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

"Triggering the end credits before the movie is done" is a reference to the "Credits Warp" category in {{w|speedrun|video game speedrunning}}. Where a normal speedrun aims to clear the final level and/or defeat the final boss as fast as possible, a "Credits Warp" aims to gain {{w|arbitrary code execution}} and trigger the end credits without finishing the game. The most famous example is [https://youtu.be/9cBIgCy27JI Super Mario World in 45 seconds]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.62|141.101.77.62]] 14:24, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I think the mouseover text is a reference to this scene in "Space Balls": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXOAc5yt218 ("Space Balls" is a satire of several films, including the original "Star Wars" trilogy.) In the "Space Balls" scene, the bad guys are using a robot to vacuum all the air out of the atmosphere of the planet. The bad guys have the upper hand until the good guys are able to flip the switch on the vacuum cleaner. "She's gone from 'suck' to 'blow'" is a fairly famous line in the movie. I don't know enough "Star Wars" to understand the reference, but if you flip a car wash from "regular" to "premium" I assume the bristles/lightsaber blades would spin faster. [[User:Mattj256|Mattj256]] ([[User talk:Mattj256|talk]]) 21:07, 23 December 2019 (UTC)