explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2111: Opportunity Rover

2019-02-13T21:10:42Z

PGilm:

{{comic
| number = 2111
| date = February 13, 2019
| title = Opportunity Rover
| image = opportunity_rover.png
| titletext = Thanks for bringing us along.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a paean to the {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity rover}}, and its nearly 15 year mission in which it sent back publicly available photos and research from Mars to Earth. The evening prior to this comic uploading (Feb 12, 2019), Nasa's JPL sent their [https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/opportunity-did-not-answer-nasas-final-call-and-its-now-gone-to-us/ final data request] to the rover, in hopes that it would respond. When it did not, the rover was declared to be officially lost.

The comic starts with a straw-person argument, as White Hat is lamenting that "Kids these days..." look at the world through their camera phones (and thus don't experience it directly). To this Randall appears to counter that sharing and showing to others is an exciting part of the joy. The comic ends by thanking Rover (and NASA) for allowing the general public to receive the pictures and data and shows some "followers" listening to the words from Rover as it described (and shared) the incredible experiences it had on Mars in its 15 Earth-year lifetime. Note, perhaps the reference to "dust devil" suggests these may have been the last such descriptions as that may refer to the deadly global dust storm that likely killed the Rover and ended the mission.

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

:[White Hat is watching while two people in the background hold their phones to use their cameras.]
:Some people complain that we see the world through our cameras.
:White Hat: Kids these days...

:[Cueball points to the left with his hand while shouting.]
:But for me, the really exciting part of finding something new
:Cueball: ''Wow, you gotta come see this!''
:has always been showing it to others.

:[A space probe is approaching a planet.]
:Exploring an entire new world
:would already be the adventure of a lifetime.
:Imagine having the chance to share every new sight

:[A queue of seven people is seen following a rover.]
:with seven billion friends.
:Rover: ...and here's a trench I dug with my wheel, and here's where a dust devil went ''right'' past me, and over there is the biggest cliff I've ever seen, and this is...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Space]]

2111: Opportunity Rover

2019-02-13T21:09:15Z

PGilm: More color

{{comic
| number = 2111
| date = February 13, 2019
| title = Opportunity Rover
| image = opportunity_rover.png
| titletext = Thanks for bringing us along.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a paean to the {{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity rover}}, and its nearly 15 year mission in which it sent back publicly available photos and research from Mars to Earth. The evening prior to this comic uploading (Feb 12, 2019), Nasa's JPL sent their [https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/opportunity-did-not-answer-nasas-final-call-and-its-now-gone-to-us/ final data request] to the rover, in hopes that it would respond. When it did not, the rover was declared to be officially lost.

The comic starts with a straw-person argument up, with White Hat lamenting that "Kids these days..." look at the world through their camara phones (and thus don't experience it directly). To this Randall appears to counter that sharing and showing to others is an exciting part of the joy. The comic ends by thanking Rover (and NASA) for allowing the general public to receive the pictures and data and shows some "followers" listening to the words from Rover as it described (and shared) the incredible experiences it had on Mars in its 15 Earth-year lifetime. Note, perhaps the reference to "dust devil" suggests these may have been the last such descriptions as that may refer to the deadly global dust storm that likely killed the Rover and ended the mission.

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

:[White Hat is watching while two people in the background hold their phones to use their cameras.]
:Some people complain that we see the world through our cameras.
:White Hat: Kids these days...

:[Cueball points to the left with his hand while shouting.]
:But for me, the really exciting part of finding something new
:Cueball: ''Wow, you gotta come see this!''
:has always been showing it to others.

:[A space probe is approaching a planet.]
:Exploring an entire new world
:would already be the adventure of a lifetime.
:Imagine having the chance to share every new sight

:[A queue of seven people is seen following a rover.]
:with seven billion friends.
:Rover: ...and here's a trench I dug with my wheel, and here's where a dust devil went ''right'' past me, and over there is the biggest cliff I've ever seen, and this is...

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Space]]

Talk:2111: Opportunity Rover

2019-02-13T20:59:44Z

PGilm:

The subject of this comic, the Opportunity Rover, is being officially declared dead today, the day the comic was released. I wonder how long this comic has been ready, waiting to eulogize the rover. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 18:03, 13 February 2019 (UTC)
: I'm not crying, you're crying! But seriously, I hope this one becomes a poster... one of my favorite comics in a good long while. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.46.46|172.69.46.46]] 20:25, 13 February 2019 (UTC)
: Yes, more of a paean than "a discussion about ... " the Opportunity rover, and more, it justifies a yearning for the "opportunity" in general to share the knowledge with the world. Uplifting, for me. [[User:PGilm|PGilm]] ([[User talk:PGilm|talk]]) 20:59, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2105: Modern OSI Model

2019-01-30T21:10:09Z

PGilm:

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)

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.

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)

2105: Modern OSI Model

2019-01-30T21:04:36Z

PGilm:

{{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==
{{incomplete|Created by a seven-layered BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model}} is a computing model for network communications that abstracts a communication between two services like a Facebook client and Facebook servers all the way from physical to user interaction layers. 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 HTTP protocol that was a foundation of the web.

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 arranged so as to resemble a {{w|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. 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 stand. What this says about the three layers that would destabilize the tower, is unclear.

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 Randall uses in the OSI model. However, while Voldemort hid his seven Horcruxes in different places to make himself that much harder to kill, Randall has stashed all seven in the same place, 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 rarely used 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==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:'''Modern OSI Model'''

::Application (Facebook) (supported on both sides)

::Presentation (pulling out would collapse the tower)

::Session (pulling out would collapse the tower)

::Transport (supported on both sides)

::Network (pulling out would collapse the tower)

:Google & Amazon

::Data link (supported on both sides)

::Physical (supported on both sides)

{{comic discussion}}

2105: Modern OSI Model

2019-01-30T21:01:07Z

PGilm: /* Explanation */

{{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==
{{incomplete|Created by a seven-layered BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model}} is a computing model for network communications that abstracts a communication between two services like a Facebook client and Facebook servers all the way from physical to user interaction layers. 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 HTTP protocol that was a foundation of the web.

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 arranged so as to resemble a {{w|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. 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 stand. What this says about the three layers that would destabilize the tower, is unclear.

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 Randall uses in the OSI model. However, while Voldemort hid his seven Horcruxes in different places to make himself that much harder to kill, Randall has stashed all seven in the same place, 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 rarely used 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==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:'''Modern OSI Model'''

::Application (Facebook)

::Presentation

::Session

::Transport

::Network

:Google & Amazon

::Data link

::Physical

{{comic discussion}}

2105: Modern OSI Model

2019-01-30T20:10:12Z

PGilm: /* Explanation */

{{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==
{{incomplete|Created by a seven-layered BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model}} is a computing model for network communications that abstracts a communication between two services like a Facebook client and Facebook servers all the way from physical to user interaction layers. 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 HTTP protocol that was a foundation of the web.

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 arranged so as to resemble a {{w|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. Or, the specific blocks to be pulled out (presentation, session, and network) may be the whose removal collapses the tower while the other ones can be easily removed and replaced.

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 Randall uses in the OSI model. However, while Voldemort hid his seven Horcruxes in different places to make himself that much harder to kill, Randall has stashed all seven in the same place, 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 rarely used and in the case of cloud infrastructure potential exists to provide even more shortcuts.

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

:'''Modern OSI Model'''

::Application (Facebook)

::Presentation

::Session

::Transport

::Network

:Google & Amazon

::Data link

::Physical

{{comic discussion}}