explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2238: Flu Shot

2019-12-08T05:43:24Z

TaperingBirch:

I don't know why, but the buttons above the comic are all outta wack on my phone. I don't know if they look bad on a desktop, and I don't know how to fix it, so if someone could figure that out, could they tell me so I can fix it in the future?--[[User:TaperingBirch|EightofspadeS]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 02:30, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:ditto[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.24|108.162.219.24]] 17:53, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
::The buttons have always displayed poorly on mobile for me: The text is cut off at the top of the button (at default text size, default zoom) & the buttons don't display all on one line. Looks that way across most, if not all, mobile devices I've used.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:09, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:::The buttons have only ever looked odd with this one comic for me, though. That must be a pain to have the buttons like that all of the time. --[[User:TaperingBirch|EightofspadeS]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 05:43, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
Is it really necessary to include mention of the "untreated/unfiltered probiotic" water fad? It doesn't really say anything about the content in the comic. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:50, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
: I thought it might be relevant to mention why Megan might want to leave her water unboiled. --[[User:NotaBene|NotaBene]] ([[User talk:NotaBene|talk]]) 18:15, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:: Well I thought it was because she thought she was immune from any contaminants, not that she thought it was healthier for her! lol [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:35, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Ironically (relative to this comic, anyway) people who drink "raw" unpurified water are probably much more likely to _avoid_ vaccination. I do find the topic relevant enough to be worth mentioning, though.
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:50, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

1691: Optimization

2019-12-07T20:30:22Z

TaperingBirch: Made some wikilinks

{{comic
| number = 1691
| date = June 8, 2016
| title = Optimization
| image = optimization.png
| titletext = Premature optimization is the root of all evil, so to start this project I'd better come up with a system that can determine whether a possible optimization is premature or not.
}}

==Explanation==
In computing, {{w|program optimization}} is the practice of making a computer program work as quickly as possible, typically by designing it to perform the fewest calculations. "{{w|Premature optimization}}" is the practice of trying to optimize parts of a program before such optimization has been shown to be needed. Optimization can prove to have been a waste of time if parts of the program are later changed or discarded, or if the optimized code is only a small part of the workload. Making a routine 10 times faster doesn't help much if that routine is only consuming 1% of the running time to begin with and it may result in more complicated and buggier code.

This comic is a flowchart making fun of the difference between prematurely optimizing and doing things right in the first place: it tells you that if you are using it to decide whether you are optimizing prematurely, then you're optimizing prematurely. The humorous conclusion is that if there is any doubt whether an optimization is ''premature'', then it is ''premature''!

Another layer of humor is provided by the minimalism and directness of the flowchart, which suggests that it has itself been (prematurely?) optimized.

The title text's ''root of all evil'' refers to {{w|Donald Knuth}}'s paper "Structured Programming with Goto statements" (1974)<ref name="p261-knuth.pdf">Computing Surveys, Vol 6, No 4, December 1974: http://web.archive.org/web/20130731202547/http://pplab.snu.ac.kr/courses/adv_pl05/papers/p261-knuth.pdf</ref> in which he wrote:
<blockquote>
"There is no doubt that the grail of efficiency leads to abuse. Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: '''premature optimization is the root of all evil'''. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%."
</blockquote>
The title text takes the joke a step further by proposing optimizing a brand new project by introducing a procedure to determine whether a possible optimization is premature - which is obviously a premature optimization. It pokes fun at time-wasting behavior by obsessively perfectionist coders who develop tools to analyze aspects of their software, such as performance. In some fields, such as compilers or database design, such tools can be useful and productive (the 3% mentioned by Knuth?), but the usage suggested here is more appropriately covered by instinct, common sense, and observation of the behavior of the completed program.

The title text may also be poking fun at the comic, since the comic itself may be the "system" used to determine premature optimization.

Flowcharts are [[:Category:Flowcharts|often used in xkcd]] including the (mostly) non-farcical [[1688: Map Age Guide]] one week prior to this comic. Inefficiency (another xkcd theme) was featured in the [[1690: Time-Tracking Software|comic prior to this one]].

==Transcript==
:[A flow chart is shown with three boxes connected with two arrows. The first box is rectangular:]
:Are you '''''prematurely optimizing''''' or just '''''taking time to do things right?'''''

:[From the first box there is a short arrow straight down to a diamond shaped box:]
:Are you consulting a flowchart to answer this question?

:[A labeled arrow continues down.]
:Yes

:[The arrow connects to the final rectangular box.]
:You are prematurely optimizing

===References===
<references />

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Flowcharts]]

Talk:2238: Flu Shot

2019-12-07T02:30:42Z

TaperingBirch:

Talk:2238: Flu Shot

2019-12-07T01:26:13Z

TaperingBirch:

1866: Russell's Teapot

2019-12-07T01:18:21Z

TaperingBirch: Made a link

{{comic
| number = 1866
| date = July 21, 2017
| title = Russell's Teapot
| image = russells_teapot.png
| titletext = Unfortunately, NASA regulations state that Bertrand Russell-related payloads can only be launched within launch vehicles which do not launch themselves.
}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Russell's teapot|Russell's Teapot}} is a philosophical argument that reflects on the difficulty of trying to prove a negative. It involves a hypothetical teapot orbiting a heavenly body, whose existence hasn't been proven, and states that it cannot be disproven (Somebody put it there secretly?). While an instrument could be theoretically engineered to pick out a teapot-sized object of any luminosity, the teapot would be very easy to confuse for other pieces of space debris, and the space to search is extremely large; the task is thus akin to the proverbial search for a needle in a haystack.

{{w|Bertrand Russell}} devised this analogy "to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others." As such, Russell's teapot is very often used in atheistic arguments.

<blockquote>"He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong." ({{w|Russell's Teapot|Wikipedia}}) </blockquote>

[[Cueball]] is trying to settle the teapot argument by actually launching a teapot into space via a {{w|crowdfunding}} campaign. This misses the point of Russell's argument, which is about unfalsifiable claims in rhetoric and not a literal teapot.

"{{w|CubeSat}}-based design" refers to a type of miniaturized satellites that is made up of 10-centimeter cube units (here seemingly consisting of 3 units) and enables cost-effective means for getting a payload into orbit.

The title-text refers to {{w|Russell's paradox}}, also formulated by Bertrand Russell. Russell's paradox was a flaw found in {{w|naïve set theory}} where one could consider "the set of all sets that do not contain themselves" (a "set" is a mathematical term for a "group of things" -- "things" in this case including a set itself). The paradox arises with whether this set, in turn, contains itself: if it does, then it cannot; if it doesn't, then it must. Similarly, like in the {{w|barber paradox}}, the vehicle which launches only vehicles which do not launch themselves is impossible: if the vehicle takes off, it must launch itself as well as the teapot, and thus can never be launched (without violating alleged NASA regulations, at least).

The barber paradox can be stated as follows: "Consider a town in which a man, the barber, shaves precisely those men who do not shave themselves. Does the barber shave himself?" Either answer, yes or no, leads to a contradiction. Sometimes the paradox is incorrectly stated, replacing "precisely those" with "only". Under that scenario, there is no paradox; the barber is merely unkempt.

There is, however, a solution in this case. Instead of launching itself, the teapot-containing vehicle may be fired from a {{w|space gun}}, catapult, or other launcher, and then boost itself the rest of the way. While, to the best knowledge of this narrator, no such mechanism is available as of this writing, it is technically possible under the regulations proposed by this comic.

[[Randall]] has talked about CubeSats in later comics as well, specifically in [[1992: SafetySat]] and [[2148: Cubesat Launch]].

==Potential List of Labeled Items==
From the top right, clockwise.
{| class="wikitable" | Starting at Top Right
! scope="col" | Item #
! scope="col" | Possible Label
! scope="col" | Possible Description
|-
| 1 || Teapot || Classic teapot, the point of the satellite.
|-
| 2 || Base || Holds Teapot in Place
|-
| 3 || Vehicle Equipment Bay || With foldable antenna and stabilizers
|-
| 4 || Fuel ||
|-
| 5 || Milk / Lemon Juice || add to taste. Either/Or
|-
| 6 || Combustion Chamber ||
|-
| 7 || Nozzle ||
|-
| 8 || Micro-USB connector || To charge the Battery
|-
| 9 || Battery || Powers the Heater Unit (q.v.)
|-
| 10 || ||
|-
| 11 || ||
|-
| 12 || Heater Unit || To keep the tea from freezing
|-
| 13 || Display Cabinet || Protects the teapot from micrometeorites
|}

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is standing in front of a blueprint labeled "CubeSat-Based Design", containing a satellite with a teapot in the top.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm crowdfunding a project to launch a teapot into orbit around the sun to settle the Russell thing once and for all.

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

explain xkcd:Sandbox

2019-12-03T13:37:58Z

TaperingBirch:

__NOINDEX__
Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=explain_xkcd:Sandbox&action=edit&oldid=91667 clear sandbox]
------
{{citation needed}}

----
Which line?
Maybe the citation needed line?

Talk:713: GeoIP

2019-12-02T14:05:04Z

TaperingBirch:

The title text is more than hyperbole: In the United States, if someone is "living in their mom's basement", it implies they can not or will not get a job allowing them to move out. i.e.: they are a loser. The resultant weak response "Screw you, GeoIP" seems to push that depiction even further. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.186|173.245.56.186]] 23:11, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
: I don't get this. The title text goes "Meet hot young singles in <i>your</i> mom's basement today?" Not <i>their</i>. Isn't this another "yo' mama" joke, simply implying that your mama has hot young singles in her basement?[[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 08:02, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
:: I think it just means that you can do the same trick on *your* IP, just replacing the string "low earth orbit" with "your mom basement". [[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 17:12, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
:: I think this means that your mum is the hot young single in her basement... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.241|141.101.98.241]] 12:27, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
:::Yes nothing hyperbole here. It is just another of Randall's many your mom jokes and can be insulting in almost anyway you think about the sentence. Have tried to change the explanation of the title text according to this. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:28, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
::::I don't think this is a "Your Mom" joke. I agree with the first comment. It is simply that GeoIP has gotten so accurate that it can now pinpoint the user's location to his Mom's basement. An adult living in his parent's house is termed shameful in US as it means that the adult does not have a job and cannot support himself/herself. That is why he's hiding in the basement in the first place, instead of it just being 'Mom's house'. The ad is usually like this -- "Meet hot young singles in <user's location>" where the <user's location> part is filled in from GeoIP. Clearly, there are no "hot young singles" in his Mom's basement and it feels like GeoIP is unknowingly shaming the user by reminding him that he is in his mom's basement, and hence the "Screw you" response. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 00:54, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
:::::But it's ''your'' mom's basement, so that suggests you are online dating with a close relative? I don't understand it. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 20:30, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
:::::: No that is simply GeoIP being fooled just like the ISS entry being put in. If someone living his his/her mom's basement got that ad, they already know there is no hot young girls in that area otherwise he would not be online trying to find close hot young girls. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.166|108.162.216.166]] 13:38, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
::::::: The title text is saying that GeoIP is very accurate, and, just like it "assumed" that there were "local girls" in low earth orbit, it "assumes" that there are local girls in "your mom's basement", even though there are actually none.[[User:TaperingBirch|TaperingBirch]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 14:05, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Is it just me or do the girls look like they're floating in zero gravity? [[User:Tbodt|Tbodt]] ([[User talk:Tbodt|talk]]) 00:13, 17 September 2017 (UTC)