explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1716: Time Travel Thesis

2016-08-11T22:27:41Z

Tahg:

'''''-BZZZZT!-''
You can skip this comic and discussion page. It doesn't turn out to be important.''' {{unsigned|172.68.59.18}}

Any possibility that future Megan actually uses time travel to assist present Megan to exit? [[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 07:52, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:Yes for sure --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

I don't feel like it's ''mainsplaining'' and I don't think ''not have a bad problem that will make it so she will not go to 1812 today.'' is relevant (maybe an joke, but nothing to do with the comic). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.230|162.158.114.230]] 08:18, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:I have deleted that part. Someone deleted mansplaining before I started my edit, and then by the time I was ready there was edit conflicts and it was reentered. I have decided not to do anything about it. He may have a point. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Did someone really decide ''mansplaining'' was the right word to use here? Not only is it entirely inappropriate, but it's not exactly a well-known term, so it's liable to confuse people. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.147|162.158.142.147]] 08:28, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:Yeah. Cueball's just trying to have a conversation, not trying to act like he knows more than her. If anything, she's being rude by not letting him finish what he was saying. Sure, I know more about computers than my dad, but I let him tell me about his new discoveries. I'm a music major, so I know more about music than a lot of people, but I still let them talk. She not only keeps interrupting him, but goes back in time to avoid the "boring" conversation altogether--and says it all right in front of him. We're not supposed to think she's a decent [person], unlike when Randall stood up for people who happened to have not learned something. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 09:17, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
::That's my general problem with the term "mansplaining" anyway. It just assumes malintent where there might be none and is really just an incredibly sexist term.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.133.66|162.158.133.66]] 07:13, 8 August 2016 (UTC)
::Well she does try to let him know that he do not have to ask if she knows it, just begin talking about it. It is annoying when people assume that just because they just read something no one else has read about it. And even worse if he doesn't understand that she has used years of he life studying the subject. And if he actually understand but continues that's just bad... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
::I don't see why it has to be mansplaining - Cueball just learned about it and thinks its exciting, so he wants to tell others about it. And in most conversations between a noob and an expert, the noob usually needs a point reclarified (especially if the book they just read wasnt written by that expert.) FutureMegan knows this isnt the case though… [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.87|108.162.221.87]] 12:20, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
::Shouldn't we include mansplaining as a possible interpretation though? Mansplaining actually has been added dictionary.com along with the "splain" suffix [http://blog.dictionary.com/splain/] Lots of comics have more than one interpretation, so I don't see why this one shouldn't be included especially since it is basically identical to the situation Solnit described in her original essay[http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175584/] about the phenomenon.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.59.9|172.68.59.9]] 21:11, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

I don't think the title text mentions a TimeTravel to 2010. Rather there was a party themed 2010 in the future (Like there are 90's and 80's themed parties nowadays)
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.198|162.158.83.198]] 10:41, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:Agree that has been corrected. No one know when the glasses broke but in that future no one probably uses them anymore. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

How did future Megan know that the conversation wasn't important if she didn't attend it in her past (in fact, no-one did or would)? A grandfather paradox. At best, she remembered to tell her past self, in which case it's still a bootstrap paradox (and an impressive feat of human memory, though Novikov self-consistency principle might hav helped her "randomly" remember). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.95.99|141.101.95.99]] 10:57, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:Tried to add some more about that paradox and in general. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:I added a little bit explaining what I think is a way for the comic to not be a paradox. While it does seem like the grandfather paradox at first glance, so long as the cause interrupting the conversation is preserved in the effect of the interruption, there's no logical problem (at least, that I've been able to think of). So long as the Megan who didn't have the conversation knows that it doesn't go anywhere and travels back in time to tell her younger self and preserve the loop, it can be easily sustained. [[User:Marcus4742|Marcus4742]] ([[User talk:Marcus4742|talk]]) 19:53, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
: The true question is not whether there is an unsustainable time loop but rather if she has any evidence to say that conversation doesn't go anywhere with certainty, assuming that the time travel follows a closed time-like curve, as cueball talks about, then, (like marcus said) megan stops the conversation then goes back in time to stop the conversation because of the fact she stopped the conversation in the first place, not because she had any knowledge that the conversation was important or not. Alternatively, if the time travel is more of an infinite universe type with branching pathways, then future megan could know the conversation doesn't lead anywhere because she either had it or because closed time-like curves are not in effect. But we're probably over analyzing this. [[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 20:56, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
:While she expresses relief at the conversation not going anywhere, what's to say she stops it? Her continuing the conversation regardless of whether it goes anywhere would I think be the simplest way to resolve/avoid this potential paradox. [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 22:27, 11 August 2016 (UTC)

Alright, anyone who is willing to make the claim that "Google Glass will probably become popular in the 2010's" is living in a fantasy world. I've edited it to make the far more accurate claim that it could be either because Glass became popular or because Glass was an esoteric piece of hardware that lived (and died) in the 2010's. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.122|172.68.34.122]] 15:21, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Can someone include the explanation what a closed timelike curve is? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.133.66|162.158.133.66]] 07:32, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1709: Inflection

2016-07-21T01:32:55Z

Tahg:

Does anyone know what the emoticon part is trying to say?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.170|108.162.215.170]] 16:59, 20 July 2016 (UTC)--
:A loose translation would be "Yes". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.106|162.158.255.106]] 18:19, 20 July 2016 (UTC)
:👍=Correct 👏=Bravo/Congratulations 😊=I'm glad you get it --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.207|162.158.92.207]] 18:54, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

This comic was posted 3 days after the [http://worldemojiday.com/faq/ "World Emoji Day" (July 17)] created by Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge in 2014. The date July 17 appears in the calendar emoji used by Apple, but other tech companies use [http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/today-is-world-emoji-day/ different dates] in their version of this emoji. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.207|162.158.92.207]] 17:30, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

"Emojish" could be a good replacement for English which suffers from highly [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic_orthography nonphonemic orthography] and is a pain in the 🍑💨 to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti wright corecttly]. 😊 --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.207|162.158.92.207]] 17:57, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

I lost it at the end of the title text. My friend and I say wat to each other all the time. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.144|108.162.215.144]] 18:13, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

When I saw the emoji, I realized that I understand them without having a spoken or written language equivalence. We are so conditioned to say "what is it trying to say?" and expecting a language equivalent. But that does not have to be the case. It made me wonder if very early humans using pictographs for communication automatically had language equivalents, or could they think by mentally visualizing the pictograph without translating everything to words. If so, could we train ourselves to imagine emoji instead of words. They clearly communicate something that need not be verbal. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 18:59, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

I count 52 Spanish forms of "andar": ando andas anda andamos andáis andan andaba andabas andábamos andábais andaban anduve anduviste anduvo anduvimos anduvisteis anduvieron andaría andarías andaríamos andaríais andarían andaré andarás andará andaremos andaréis andarán anduviera anduviese anduvieras anduvieses anduviéramos anduviésemos anduviérais anduviéseis anduvieran anduviesen ande andes andemos andéis anden anduviere anduvieres anduviéremos anduviereis anduvieren andar andando andado andad. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.12|108.162.219.12]] 20:13, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

First person singualar "I" is a strange mix. It uses a verb not listed in that chart "am", uses the plural form "have" for present tense, and the singular form "was" for past tense. [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 01:32, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1667: Algorithms

2016-04-13T23:07:00Z

Tahg:

How can an excel spreadsheet be complicated? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.244.85|108.162.244.85]] 04:52, 13 April 2016 (UTC
:See this example http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/how-an-accountant-created-an-entire-rpg-inside-an-excel-spreadsheet/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.82}}
:: Oh my [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 10:36, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:::also http://www.geocities.jp/nchikada/pac/ (it's geocities!) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:56, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Leftpad is a reference to the recent incident where a developer unpublished all his libraries from the NodeJS Package Manager, causing much disruption: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.231|162.158.85.231]] 05:58, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

In the off chance that this is referencing an actual spreadsheet, and if anyone has a link, please post it in my talk page. (And in the article of course, but talk page first) [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:45, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

The remark about quicksort's efficiency doesn't make sense. It's still the most common and practical general sorting algorithm. It's about as efficient you can typically get except in specialized cases or with some specific type of data. Should be removed imo. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.121|141.101.81.121]] 08:52, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:From Wikipedia: Quicksort (sometimes called partition-exchange sort) is an efficient sorting algorithm,
:From explainxkcd: Next is '''quicksort''', a classic (if not very efficient) way to sort a list of items [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1667:_Algorithms&diff=next&oldid=117700].
:[[User:Demro|Demro]] ([[User talk:Demro|talk]]) 12:34, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Added a [Citation Needed] for the excel based RPG. More so I can read about it/play it than anything else.. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 09:07, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:Thank you whoever put that in [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 11:54, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Added a bit to the church line. Just because you only see what happens on Sunday morning, for one hour, doesn't mean there's not more happening just beneath the surface. The classroom list at our church looks like a professional buildings office directory, and I know of members having to choose between two activities because both meet, or practice, at the same time. For instance, I know of a prospective AV team member who will never be a full time AV member, because she's a Soprano and already in Bells. (AV is setting up and debugging while the choir is practicing, and naturally it's hard to run a mixer or video switcher from the choir loft.)

Mind you, it's still hyperbole, but not to the degree previously given in the explanation. {{unsigned|Sean Roach}}

is anyone else concerned that randall doesn't label his axis? is it logarithmic? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:56, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Is the Nebraskan excel sheet a loose reference to how you couldn't initially order Windows in Nebraska (from what I can gather), or am I over-analyzing this? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKqQmSHkEg at 0:57) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.85|141.101.98.85]] 12:18, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
: Maybe it's a 'flat' joke. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 15:48, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Interestingly enough, when I actually searched for "what the heck is a leftpad algorithm" sans quotations, google didn't pull up any results at all.[[User:Kirdneh|Kirdneh]] ([[User talk:Kirdneh|talk]]) 14:24, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:Huh, that's strange. Someone had better find a query that actually works and edit the article accordingly.
:Also, the page told me, "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 0 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included." I clicked the link to repeat it and still, nothing showed up. Just goes to show that even Google's algorithms can have small flaws and quirks. <span style="background:#0064de;font-size:12px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:8px;">[[User talk:AgentMuffin|<span style="color:#f0faff;">~AgentMuffin</span>]]</span>
:Weird, when I try that query I get nearly 100k results. (The first now being this site) [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 23:07, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Were .xlsx spreadsheets even around in 2007? Wasn't that final x added to the extension with office 2010?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 20:30, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1541: Voice

2015-06-22T21:10:08Z

Tahg:

The premise of this comic reminds me of a sci-fi short story I read many years ago but have never been able to track down. A young girl's doll (?) comes to life, and it explains that it is a entity that can inhabit inanimate objects. Some things happen that I have forgotten, and while walking down the road, the girl is almost struck by a runaway car. The entity takes control of the car and steers it away from her. It decides that, having saved the girl's life, it has every right to take control of her - leaving our poor protagonist in the worst kind of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" scenario as the story ends. Perhaps Randall Munroe read the same story. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.212|141.101.98.212]] 12:08, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
:To me it reminds me of the movie "Being John Malkovich", especially the end, where the main character is forever trapped in the other person's body, unable to talk. Kind of the-other-way-around, but a similar concept. [[User:Linuspogo|Linuspogo]] ([[User talk:Linuspogo|talk]]) 12:23, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

The phrase "..and put food in our normal mouths" (trying to pass as a human but getting it wrong) reminded me of 629: Skins "..been driving my car and having a job all day .. didn't meow once." [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.105|173.245.53.105]] 16:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

;every six years

6 years back it was june 22, 2009 -> [[600|Comic 600]]. I guess there is no link between those comics , but I would not be surprised if there was. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:44, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
: anyway, I'm looking forward to the comic of june 22, 2021 ;) [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:51, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
::Do you realize that xkcd is fiction? Do you realize that Homer and Marge Simpson have not been married for 27 years, since Bart has been 10 during these 27 years? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.94|173.245.50.94]] 13:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
:::The author of this comic has a habit of doing things as suggested by the commenter that you mock. Stay on topic. This is not a place for picking fights.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.154|173.245.48.154]] 14:49, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Does this look like a continuation of the same conversation from two comics ago? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:57, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
: Not to me. It's the same characters chatting casually, but there's nothing else linking both comics. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:11, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

By the way, I'd think that, even if Ponytail can't control her voice, she still can write whatever she wants. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
: "Voice" in one sense could mean the use of vocal cords and mouth to produce audible speech, but in a more general sense it can be used to describe any verbal or nonverbal communication. (eg right now I am voicing my opinion on this subject) I suspect the latter is being implied here, although like most of the comics it's open to interpretation. [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 21:10, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

;Animorphs reference?

xkcd has mentioned that franchise before- https://xkcd.com/1380/
It centers around an alien race named the Yeerks that effectively possess a host by entering the brain. There is a single character in that series (Marco's mother) that is on rare occasions able to break through the Yeerk's control to use her own voice. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 15:23, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Agreed, this was my first impression of the comic. --Elimist--
:The Yeerks have full access to the host's thoughts, feelings, and memories. They are literally wrapped around the brain. They are completely indistinguishable and would not act suspicious in a personality sense. The only things that give them away are their required actions, such as returning to the pool every few days, or if they get caught in a conversation with their conspirators. The only reason Jake's status as host was discovered in one novel was because the Yeerk had only just entered his brain and didn't have time to fully acquire his memories. The Yeerk's sudden and unexpected exposure to what he believed to be the Andalite bandits lead him to have an emotional outburst. Had he been given any amount of time to adjust to his new host, he would have gone unnoticed until he had to return to the pool. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.153|108.162.210.153]] 18:49, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

My first thought was Randal must be talking about party obsessed people who are in fact out of control over their acting and helpless having to go out even if they don't have a reason to --floydheld--

This reminded me of the movie "The Host", where a human body is used to receive a voyaging alien entity. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.123|108.162.219.123]] 18:37, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

'''Ponytail as filler character:'''
"Note on Ponytail: She is mainly a filler character..." - maybe she has never got her own voice because she is used as a filler character? If that's the case then in that brief moment we "hear" the real Ponytail.

1416: Pixels

2014-09-03T10:52:24Z

Tahg: /* Bugs */

{{comic
| number = 1416
| date = September 3, 2014
| title = Pixels
| image = pixels.png
| titletext = It's turtles all the way down.
}}
'''NOTE: The above is only a zoomed out version of the this interactive comic.''' For a collection of images that appear when zooming in on this comic, see [[1416: Pixels/Images]].

==Explanation==

This interactive comic begins with a panel where [[Cueball]] is stacking turtles. This is a reference to the idiom "turtles all the way down," which refers to the problem of infinite regression: if everything in the universe is "on top of" something else, so to speak, there must be a "bottom." A joking solution to the paradoxical nature of such a bottom is the proposition that {{w|Turtles_all_the_way_down|the world rests on a semi-infinite stack of turtles}}.

As can be read you should "scroll to zoom". This can be done by placing the cursor inside the panel of the comic. When scrolling down (using the mouse wheel) the picture zooms in until the pixels are visible. When you continue to scroll on each pixel then resolves into another comic picture, with black-on-white comic panels making up the white pixels and white-on-black panels making up the black pixels. Scrolling on until you can see the pixels of the comic picture you are now zooming into the process is repeated again and will be so for all subsequent sets of comic panels. Not all white and all black panels are the same; some sets involve more than two different panels, but all involve repetitive tiling.

The date of release of this comic (3rd September 2014) is also the launch date of Randall's book, What If. The book is shown and refered to in a number of frames, for example it is literally launched as a part of the rocket.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is stacking turtles, and is about to put the fourth turtle on his pile. At the bottom right there is a small panel. Inside this is written:]
:Scroll to zoom

:[When zooming in there will be several panels with text. The transcript of these may not be possible to complete - but add the transcript of these panels here: [[1416: Pixels/Transcript|interactive transcript]]]

==Bugs==
Doesn't seem to work properly in all browsers (e.g. Firefox and Safari on MacOSX), giving "TypeError: this.data is null" in line 173 of zoom.js: "var item = this.data.get(dims)"
Doesn't seem to work in IE8, comic is blank, but title text works.

Does not work on xkcd.org neither www.xkcd.org in Firefox and Chrome. Currently you should visit http://xkcd.com for this comic to work properly.

The comic (along with many other features of the site) will not work at all at present, as the server for dynamic content, c.xkcd.com, is down.

There is a bug/typo, where there is a chance of white pixels zoom into a missing panel, resulting in a white screen.
This is affecting several panels: "du" (1-in-13), "server-1" (1-in-13), and "time-turner" (1-in-14).
In each case the missing (404) tile is "what-if-trade" (probably should be "whatif-trade")

==Gallery==
Here on the link can be found a [[1416: Pixels/Images|gallery]] with some of the many images found in this extensive comic.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:1416: Pixels

2014-09-03T07:57:35Z

Tahg:

Firefox users with HTTPS Everywhere may have trouble seeing the comic, and Chrome users may experience lag (for lack of a better word) when zooming in. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.168|141.101.99.168]] 06:11, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

The combination of "turtle" and "pixel" reminded me of how to code graphics in the older days with for instance turbo pascal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_graphics) - Stian

Would it be possible to have a "gallery" of all the zoom-in images? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.209|199.27.128.209]] 06:29, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Since the Zoom-in images have at lest one story line in them (I read one about a book launch, the book was launched to space in a rocket), I think a gallery or some such is needed for them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.218|108.162.250.218]] 06:50, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I got to a white panel and there was nothing. Everything was white and zooming in or out didn't change it. Not sure if it was a bug or intended. -- [[User:Irino|Irino]] ([[User talk:Irino|talk]]) 07:15, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Yet another comic that doesn't work well on mobile. I'll probably compile a list of comics that are broken in some way for mobile... Er. Soon-ish. -RTR [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.232|108.162.246.232]] 07:45, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

I have acquired a list of images with what they zoom into, and am working on turning that into something presentable. There's a lot of images though, so it may take a day. As for the white panel, yes, there does seem to be one broken link (out of nearly 500). I'm not sure how I would go about reporting it to get it fixed. [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 07:57, 3 September 2014 (UTC)