explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User:Rotan

2024-11-11T15:49:03Z

Rotan:

A bit like a Black Hat, only not black but dark blue. Or straw during the summer.

User:Rotan

2024-01-24T12:39:22Z

Rotan: No longer hat-less.

A bit like a Black Hat, only not black but dark blue.

Talk:2562: Formatting Meeting

2021-12-31T18:47:07Z

Rotan: Clarification regarding European expressions and punctuation

I downloaded and ran theusaf's bot from its website to make this page. Not sure how to give page creation permission to [[User:Baffo32RunningTheusafBOT]]. When you run the bot you notice that Theusaf's username is "the usa f". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.45|172.70.110.45]] 16:02, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

shouldn't it be ISO, not iso? actually, the whole title text is lowercase-d when I feel like it shouldn't be [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 16:59, 31 December 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

Speaking as a European, we'd often read 2/3/22 as "2nd March 2022" (same order as the numbers), not "March 2, 2022", though obviously we'd understand both expressions. Also, the suggestion that the thousands/decimal punctuation is reversed in the EU is wrong, as this does not apply to all countries of the EU. For example, Ireland uses the same as the US (and the same as the UK, though that is no longer part of the EU and might eventually give up decimalisation altogether on account of fractions being more wholesome...) [[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 18:47, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1848: Glacial Erratic

2017-06-10T09:35:38Z

Rotan: Inferring strength from drawn evidence

Can 'Fuck glaciers' be a comment on the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement?
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.106|162.158.222.106]] 06:57, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
Agreed!

I think Megan just hates the glacier for littering, not for abandoning a child. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.155|141.101.104.155]] 08:42, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
:Agree and removed the abandoning explanation. It makes no sense, as it is not a child of the glacier. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:25, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lane Louis Lane] was still alive and conducting when Superman: The Movie came out in 1978. That should probably be fixed.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.250|108.162.216.250]] 12:29, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

The fault-sealing scene is before Louis "dies" and thus before Superman turns back time. In the scene, he flies in the fault, pushing up the land to fill the crevice created by the splitting of the land.[[User:Hax|Hax]] ([[User talk:Hax|talk]]) 00:27, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Assuming rock is 2000 kg per cubic meter and the one drawn is one meter high, then that boulder weighs 1000 kg, and we can see it moves, which goes to show that stick people are VERY strong! [[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 09:35, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1761: Blame

2016-11-19T00:15:18Z

Rotan: The yelling at friends idea is just sarcasm.

It seems like he's talking about all of the bad things that have happened in 2016 so far making fun of Facebook posts that blame everyone for the things that are happening
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.119|173.245.52.119]] 05:21, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
: In particular the recent election[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.224|108.162.215.224]] 08:16, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
Is this a reference to the "echo chamber" issue raised in recent US election? I.e. blaming my friends on facebook for only sharing stories that reinforce my biases and thus my failure to be fully informed about why people who disagree with me do disagree and only blaming them for being dumb isn't a failing on *my* part, but on my friends' parts for only sharing echo-chamber-y material. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.87|108.162.237.87]] 10:03, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

I definitely think it's worth mentioning that this comic is, while written to be timeless, clearly a reaction to the election. (Randall has endorsed both Obama in 2008 and Clinton this year, and judging by #500, cares more than a little, so it's hard to conceive that this *wouldn't* be about the election.)

There are two types of Facebook activity that may be the target of this satire: 1) engaging in angry arguments with Facebook friends with *differing* political opinions, and 2) making numerous angry posts and comments against the other side, despite the fact that they’ll mainly be seen by *like-minded* people in your social media echo chamber. I expect that this comic is aimed at both: 1) the futility of internet arguments has been a topic before, while 2) the title text specifying “scared friends” clearly indicates like-minded people. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.54|162.158.89.54]] 10:22, 18 November 2016 (UTC)
: Just added the "friends who disagree" to it.
By focusing on blame he has cleverly shifted thinking to Q:"are your friends on Facebook to blame?" A:"probably not as they are almost all likely to have similar views to you" Q:"So why vent anger on Facebook to people who aren't to blame and you don't want to change?" A:"errrrrr...." {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.224}}

There are 3 references in my recent edit. If you go into the source code, you can see the links, but I lack the wikipedia knowledge to get them to properly link out. Help? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:13, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Couldn't it just be that it is usual for politicians to blame "the others" (countries, etc) to justify that things are not all good in the country, and then, proceed to threaten to do bad things (go to war, revoke treaties, etc) to appease the "country's inner sadness" (and, through this, get votes) ? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.61|173.245.48.61]] 14:53, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

My inclination was to take this as satirizing the number of people who have taken to Facebook to rant about an event that was clearly not the fault of one's immediate circle. However one feels about the election it's clear that spewing venom at anyone who happens to be in your Facebook list is unproductive at best and certainly isn't addressing any appreciable portion of the cause of these events. It seemed to be supported by taking the hover text as a continuation of the problem, suggesting that Cueball has devolved to seeking catharsis. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.132|162.158.74.132]] 17:00, 18 November 2016 (UTC)jrow
:Agreed, I took this comic to be a satirical attack on people who post all caps angry messages on Facebook. EX: "I can't believe all you people did this!" , when 90% of their friends probably agree with them (See "Echo Chambers" comments)- it's almost certainly in context of the election, as "Scared Friends" represents a great many Clinton voters very well right now. The clear interpretation to me is that people posting these angry Facebook rants are not going through normal, well-thought out processes.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.111|108.162.219.111]] 23:11, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

This explanation currently claims venting can reduce stress. I have heard that venting actually makes you angrier. (First Google hit appears to be a scientific paper: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/jbickfor/bushman2002.pdf ). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.182|108.162.215.182]] 20:53, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

The reference to yelling is obviously sarcasm. Nobody would really suggest the absurd idea that Randall really thinks yelling at friends is acceptable, so really what is being highlighted is that yelling at friends is NOT a good idea. The explanation text should not suggest that the idea is anything other than absurd. --[[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 00:15, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

User:Rotan

2016-01-28T01:09:24Z

Rotan: Hatless

A bit like Black Hat, only without the hat, and it's not black. Green perhaps, being Irish, but there's still no hat.

Talk:1635: Birdsong

2016-01-28T01:05:47Z

Rotan: Another possible interpretation of birds mimicking sounds they hear such as ringtones

Cueball could instead be trying to capture it to figure out how what appears to be a regular bird can sing human lyrics, seeing as birds do not have anything resembling the human pharynx or diaphragm, as birds use a system of air sacs to push air into their lungs, analogous to how a mammalian heart moves blood. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.161|108.162.250.161]] 13:09, 27 January 2016 (UTC) Dom Vasta
:However, birds split the actions of each side of their trachea to vocalise two notes at once, which gives those already capable of imitating human speech (or other anthropogenic sounds) ''more'' capability than a human to sing lyrics. That they lack understanding of what they are hearing (certain study parrots possibly excepted) deprives them of the ability to sing ''meaningful'' duets with themselves, but those capable of mimicry clearly have the basic ability to sing two independent voices at once, or a single distinctive voice with at least a simple musical accompaniment of an appropriate register, were they so inclined to separate the 'channels' and not just squish it as if into a mono 'recording' of composite sounds anyway. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.89|162.158.152.89]] 13:58, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
::The interesting thing is that there's little strong evidence that even smaller birds /can't/ learn to speak in some degree. While researching the topic, I found a paper which makes a convincing mathematical argument that language formation is very unlikely in nature. http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/88/20130520
:That would make no sense together with the title text. Before reading this it more seems he would remove the bird from his perfect world, giving his look in the third panel! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:18, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

::The study remarkably shows how language would evolve. On the other hand, I laughed quite hard when they tried, in a deus ex machina way, to pull out of a hat the conclusion that 'humans are unique because they already have the ability to process language'. Is that not an obvious sentiment that has nothing to do with their prior research? They proved how difficult language is for nature to develop, but not that it is limited to humans. Rather, they showed that any individual can evolve which has the capacity to understand language, but that the individual requires others with the same capacity in order to benefit enough not to be selected against by evolution.

::So, if you could find a few birds with a predisposition to language, you may be able to make this happen. Getting them to understand the song on the other hand, would prove difficult. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.131|108.162.242.131]] 14:47, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Am I the only one who thought of {{w|Undertale}} from the first panel? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.47|108.162.216.47]] 13:56, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
:I believe that you are experiencing {{w|Pareidolia}}. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.131|108.162.242.131]] 14:02, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
::True to the pareidolia - see also [[1551: Pluto]] ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:18, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

The second panel immediately reminded me of that unusual phenomenon of birds mimicking ringtones and other incidental human sounds such as car alarms, substituting their natural and beautiful "songs" for our feeble attempts. [[User:Rotan|Rotan]] ([[User talk:Rotan|talk]]) 01:05, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

The titletext could also be seen as referencing [http://amultiverse.com/comic/2014/09/10/bird-tools/ this episode] of Scenes From A Multiverse. Doubtful, as (to my knowledge) Randall has never expressed a particular love of that comic, but possible. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.253.18|162.158.253.18]] 20:35, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

So, I'm not going to outright delete it since it is rather interesting, but those are some pretty serious Undertale spoilers in the explanation. Could we give that part of the description (especially the part about the ending of the Genocide Run) some kind of spoiler tag, if we don't want to just remove it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.176|108.162.245.176]] 20:52, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

1608: Hoverboard

2015-11-25T01:24:37Z

Rotan: Added tablet controls info

{{comic
| number = 1608
| date = November 24, 2015
| title = Hoverboard
| image = hoverboard.png
| titletext = Return to the play area
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Just created so people can start/comment}}
The comic features a game which Randall appears to have made to celebrate the release of his new book on the 24th of November 2015. It seems the game was actually made by a guy called [http://chromakode.com Max], the person behind the comic [[1416: Pixels]]. The source code for the game (in a obfuscated form) can be found [https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.min.js here]. The game features [[Cueball]] on a hover board which looks a lot like a skateboard.
At first glance, it appears the aim of the game is to see how fast you can collect coins, but due to a (purposeful) bug in the game, the player can "jump" (hover higher) multiple times without needing to land. This allows the character to go out of bounds of the "Play Area" prompting multiple warnings insisting the player returns to said "Play Area". Exiting this area reveals a world similar to [[1110: Click and Drag]], which can be explored via the arrow keys.

There are 17 coins in the "Play Area" and a lot more in the out of bounds region.

This is achieved by either carefully jumping upwards to escape through the way just above on startup, or by going to the far-right side of the 'game' and escaping from the hole near the top. The player then continues right to a large wall, which is traversable by continually jumping. The player can then explore. The game is markedly similar to https://xkcd.com/1110/ "Click and Drag", and the bounds are currently unknown. The comic is made in much the same way, with 'drawn' images compiled together, in the world, with all remaining spaces simply coded white. The boundary between blank squares and 'drawn' squares is made clear as any white space in the normal images has a very light hatching. Thus, seems between images and blank spaces are clearly seen.

An example of the file extentions for image panels are as follows: http://xkcd.com/1608/1013:-1096+s.png
Using this format the files could conceivably be fully extracted by trying extentions and harvesting resulting images.

===Areas===
There are many different areas beyond the initial starting area, exploration has found so far:

Notable features include a number of large ships in the sky, with various interiors which can be entered from several places. To find them, follow the strings which several characters are holding near the first ground area.

West:
Washington Monument -
Volcano -
Lava pools -
LOTR Eagles -
Elon Musk's Volcano Lair -
Landing re-entry capsule -
Floating rock island in the sky (x: 507163, y: -567537)
Hat underground
A hole which traps(?) the player unless noclip mode is used

East:
Wedding -
Giant bird nest -
Desert -
Ocean Yelper -
Graveyard -
Talking Rogue Wave -
People holding anchor lines to a Star Destroyer, among other ships.

[http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ Quickly hacked overview] - courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/kyledavide kyledavide] on [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxbyn86 reddit].

===Controls===
The controls are as follows:

* '''Go Left''' - Left arrow key, a or h
* '''Go Right''' - Right arrow key, d or l
* '''Go Up (jump or hover)''' - Up arrow key, w, or k

Through inspection of the game's source code, it can be derived that down, j and s are also accepted keystrokes, but it is unclear if the game actually uses these or not.

This control scheme covers the three commonly used directional key sets: WASD a set of keys commonly used by modern games; HJKL a set of movement keys used by vi and applications which attempt to mimic vi key controls (vim); and the arrow keys, the most generic set of keys which is usually accepted by most applications which take movement as input, these were commonly used in older games.

On a tablet (e.g. iPad) changing the orientation of the tablet will control the left and right motion, while tapping the image produced jumps.

===Cheats and Exploits===
Aside from the obvious ability to move out of bounds in the game, there are some more obscure hidden features which can't be enabled through normal gameplay, the ones found so far are as follows:

'''Modes''' are activated by opening the Javascript Console (F12 to open Developer Tools, then Console tab) and writing corresponding commands:

* '''Gandalf Mode: ''' ''window.i.am.gandalf = true'' - jumps and runs further
* '''Speedhack: ''' ''explorer.opts.speed= *Value*'' - Speed hacking, with 1 = normal speed
* '''Jump Hack: ''' '' explorer.opts.jumpForce= -*Value*'' - Jump hacking, with -1 = normal jump (positive values cause the hoverboard guy to move down when jumping)
* '''Mewtwo mode: ''' ''window.mewtwo = true'' - disables gravity
* '''Noclip mode: ''' ''window.noclip = true'' - player is able to move around the map without collision. Combine with Gandalf and Mewtwo modes for free easy map traversal.
* '''Goggles mode: ''' ''window.ze.goggles()'' - displays a small window showing area around the player in a pixelated manner
* '''Position Tracking: ''' ''window.explorer.pos'' - Returns the player location to the console. Can be used to track position and test to ensure you are still moving. Must be re-entered to compare positioning.
* '''Position Setting: ''' ''window.explorer.pos.x = *Value* or window.explorer.pos.y = *Value*'' - Can be used to manually set a position within the world. The start is at x: 512106, y: -549612. The left terrain bound is at x: 475210, y: -553711. The right terrain bound is at x: 567281, y: -549712. Mewtwo and Noclip modes are a must for exploring in this way.
* '''All the above: ''' ''window.explorer.opts'' - Contains all the game's parameters. You can directly mess with ''gravity'', collision (''disableCollision''), jump force (''jumpForce'') and speed (''maxSpeed''), among others. Run ''Object.keys(window.explorer.opts)'' to list all available parameters you can tweak.
* '''List all coins: ''' ''window.explorer.objects'' - Array containing the position of the 169 coins of the game.

'''Getting All Coins: ''' To instantly get all coins, input the below into the console window. Does not use standard formatting of [i] to avoid conflicts with window.i.am.gandalf

for (var T = 0; T < explorer.objects.length; T++) {
explorer.objects[T].got = true
}

===Functionality===
By observing page code while playing, the game grabs and displays images based on location, and subsequently clears all non-visible images. The game uses what seems to be a position syntax to retrieve the intended images live, and returns an error if such an image does not exist, such as a blank area. This technically means things could be added to the world and updated live. If the player is moving sufficiently fast or if the internet connection is slow, this means that the player can get stuck in a black area that does not load in time.

This also means that the game does not have coded top or bottom limits, so any attempt to find the ''ceiling'' of the game will be futile unless the game is tweaked. The game does however have side limits.

When you get a certain number of coins, you will get one of the following messages:
* 0 coins : You got 0 coins in (n) seconds/ You successfully avoided all the coins.
* 1 coin : You got a single coin in (n) seconds/ It's a start.
* 2-4 coins : You got (n) coins in (n) seconds/ Not bad!
* 5-9 coins : You got (n) coins in (n) seconds/ Terrific!
* 17 coins : You got 17 coins in (n) seconds/ You found all the coins! Great job!
* 42 coins : You got 42 coins in (n) seconds/ No answers here.
* 169 coins : You got 169 coins in (n) seconds/ Are you Gandalf?
* All others: You got (n) coins in (n) seconds

Opening the console will display the text: what? hoverboard not enough for you!? in the log. Activating goggles mode will cause the text 'B-)' to appear in the log.

Leaving the play area will cause the red text 'RETURN TO THE PLAY AREA' to rapidly blink 3 times (150 msec duration), followed by a pause, and this will repeat 5 times for a total of 15 blinks. This will also reoccur if the player passes through the play area on their way back from exploring one side.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete|Something similar to 1110: [[Click and Drag]]}}
The game features Cueball on a hoverboard in a simple map. On the map are coins which Cueball has to collect.
It appears Cueball can jump multiple times without needing to land, this means that Cueball is able to escape the designated "Play Area".
This prompts a warning which soon disappears allowing Cueball to discover the world.

[THIS ONLY COVERS THE PERMANENT TEXT, NOT THE DIFFERENT WIN STATES] 
MY NEW BOOK 
''THE THINGS EXPLAINER'', 
COMES OUT TODAY! 

TO CELEBRATE, HERE'S 
A SMALL GAME. 

[TO THE SIDE, BELOW AN ARROW] 
DEPOSIT COINS HERE 
{{comic discussion}}