Talk:1436: Orb Hammer

2014-10-28T15:31:49Z

Quetzalcoatl: A reference to comic 444?

Although the alluded-to Mars Rover missions are on-going (most particularly Curiosity, and the long-running Opportunity), could the most immediate reference instead be Rosetta's Philae Lander, scheduled to land on its destination well within a month from the date of comic publication? (Although technically it's a drill, not a hammer, And it's not a sample return mission at all, unlike the likes prior Stardust/Hayabusa missions, or conversly the ultimate "hitting it with hammer"/non-return nature of Deep Impact.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 14:52, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
:(Also, "testing for life", at least directly, has only been a specific aim of ''certain'' Mars sampling missions. But perhaps that's enough (possibly misplaced) pedantry. Just don't personally know specifically how to improve the current write-up.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 15:11, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

203: Hallucinations doesn't exactly use "simple" language. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.207|199.27.128.207]] 23:31, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

;Comparing with the word list

I compared all the text with the cited word list [http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_1000_basic_words list], to see what was missing:
; glowing orb : neither word found, though one could write "heavenly ball", or, as noted, earth or moon (or sun).
; yeah : not listed, nor is "yes" (odd). Perhaps "agree"?
; let's : "let" is listed (as in allow), but the contracted word is "us'', which is not listed.
; them : not listed, though all the singular variants (him/her/it) are.
; closet : maybe "cupboard" or "small room" or "little room"?
; apollo program : formal names don't need to be listed
; weird : maybe "really strange"
I'm guessing Randal wasn't targeting the word list explicitly.
[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 16:34, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

The simple language/technical field idea is also touched on in [[444: Macgyver Gets Lazy]] [[User:Quetzalcoatl|Quetzalcoatl]] ([[User talk:Quetzalcoatl|talk]]) 15:31, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1328: Update

2014-02-11T22:23:51Z

Quetzalcoatl: Added a possible Microsoft reference.

Note that 1.) web browsers usually can remember opened tabs (and even scroll position) and reopen them automatically on start, and/or ask if reopen those tabs if browser was not closed cleanly 2.) MS Windows tries to reopen apps closed during "upgrade reboot" --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:48, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:Yes, browsers can remember the last tabs you have open, but may require the user to enable that option as it's off by default (with Chrome anyway - as was my experience). I usually leave it off because I don't necessarily want the last 5 tabs I had open to open automatically the next time I want to start my browser to do something completely different. If (my) Chrome browser crashes however (or otherwise does not close cleanly), it will ask me if I want to restore my previous session, which may include multiple tabs and browsing positions. =8o) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:12, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:Windows does not reopen apps that it closed before an upgrade (at best it has an option to reopen Explorer windows in the same state if the user enables it.) As for Chrome saving tabs, it can be often flaky especially when using multiple windows combined with multiple profiles. This is moot since in Real Life™ users generally don't trust these features, when they are even aware of them. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 15:19, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
: While browsers remember opened tabs, it's flakey. Some browsers in the "now remembering tabs" era were sometimes inconsistent on whether they should remember tabs (Chrome), some didn't give an option to manually exit with/without remembering tabs (Firefox/Chrome), some didn't preserve form input (Opera), etc. It behaves more like a screwed-on hack rather than a fully functional feature. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.240.6|108.162.240.6]] 14:36, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

@Jakub, thanks for bringing it up. I knew about it, but for the sake of brevity decided to leave it out. Hooray for my first explanation btw! --[[User:Akha|Akha]] ([[User talk:Akha|talk]]) 08:33, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

While one interpretation is that users would push back even a critical update, the cynical me read it the other way around: that most updates labelled as critical and notified with "!"s and yellow triangles are actually not that urgent and naturally the user desensibilizes. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.201|173.245.53.201]] 11:16, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

:Note also that browsers are ones of VERY FEW application who can reopen exactly what you had open before restart, and even them usually fail to preserve form content. Also, physical problem is not likely to occur just after the patch was created: only problem which would really need immediate patching would be security problem related to virus just spreading, in which case it would probably be too late when the window appear anyway. So, in all cases, pressing "remind me later" and finishing your work as soon as possible is the most logical course of action regarding critical update. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:18, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

It's a sad day when non-kernel updates require a reboot. [[User:Chrisp6825|Chrisp6825]] ([[User talk:Chrisp6825|talk]]) 13:13, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

I think the comic has less to do with the time a reboot takes, and more to do with losing the user's current state [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.46|173.245.54.46]] 16:27, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

I agree with the last comment. It's not about the time it takes to reboot. It's about the current state of things. If you have a bunch of apps running in different virtual desktops, then a lot of these won't be configured exactly as they were before rebooting. By the way, updates for OS X are exactly the same, with the exception that they're not downloaded automatically. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.57}}

My initial interpretation was that Cueball doesn't want to reboot his laptop because rebooting increases the risk of a random electrical fire. --[[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 21:58, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:Well that's why we have this twiki.... 'cause you're dumb. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.74|108.162.229.74]] 02:18, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
:Actually, that's a pretty smart explanation. I couldn't have put it to better words. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.59|108.162.219.59]] 14:23, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

If I was faced with such an update notification, I would probably have it download and install itself, but not reboot until tonight when I'm going to shut down anyway. I find it really annoying when Windoze does things like complain about updates and run virus scans right after booting up, which just makes loading up whatever software I want to use (i.e. web browsers) take even longer. I would much rather have it use my CPU time while I was, say, Web browsing or maybe programming (but not compiling... hmm...), or, better yet, asleep. Also, Linux. --[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 04:23, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

"Laptop fire" reminds me of that silly but popular phenomenon in space operas: in case the own ship is hit by some enemies "rays",
inevitably fire will spark from keybords and monitors in the command room. Georg [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.171|173.245.53.171]] 09:59, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExplosiveInstrumentation [[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 20:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The usual lot of nonsense in the comments. Why don't we talk about how to improve the explanation? Arguing that browsers remember open tabs, or advertising Linux, or going into excruciating detail how you would react in this situation, is ludicrously off the point. The following points are those by this comic:
* Windows is always banging on about something, usually incredibly unimportant.
* Even if it is important (as here) we may just skim the explanation (because of the first point) and not even realize what it is saying
* Even if we do understand it, we don't want to be interrupted during our work (or our not-work) as we hate being inconvenienced in any way
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 21:45, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Possible reference to Microsoft's monthly security patch on the second Tuesday of each month, having been posted the day before the second Tuesday of February 2014. [[User:Quetzalcoatl|Quetzalcoatl]] ([[User talk:Quetzalcoatl|talk]]) 22:23, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:353: Python

2014-02-10T14:31:35Z

Quetzalcoatl: Added a possible reference.

It is necessary for both Cueballs to sample the medicine cabinet in order for this to be a hallucination. It was probably python.{{unsigned ip|122.161.29.247}}

'I also sampled everything in the medicine cabinet for comparison' is a possible reference to George's Marvellous Medicine, the children's book written by Roald Dahl, wherein a combination of medicines and household materials produces fantastical effects. [[User:Quetzalcoatl|Quetzalcoatl]] ([[User talk:Quetzalcoatl|talk]]) 14:31, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1436: Orb Hammer

Talk:1328: Update

Talk:353: Python