explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1683: Digital Data

2016-05-21T07:28:39Z

Untothebreach: We do not need an Explanation and an "Explanation of the joke" paragraph, deleting the redundant paragraph since it just retread the same ground as the ones before it.

{{comic
| number = 1683
| date = May 20, 2016
| title = Digital Data
| image = digital_data.png
| titletext = â€&oelig;If you can read this, congratulationsâ€”the archive youâ€™re you're using still knows about the mouseover textâ€!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial draft.}}
{{w|Digital information}} has the potential to be copied such that the copy is 100% identical to the original. While physical media themselves (such as books, or hard drives) and information stored by analog means may degrade as the universe continues, digital information as expressed by specific values, such as combinations of binary zeros and ones, does not decay over time and can be copied indefinitely with no changes.

However, in this comic, [[Randall]] points out that while digital information itself doesn't need to degrade, things that are on the Internet are often degraded through copying when the copy is not a 1:1 copy or changes are deliberately introduced. In addition, as technology advances the method to save or call the information changes and the medium to view it changes, occasionally causing misinterpreted information. (This is also demonstrated with the title text.) As the frames continue, they gain the appearance of images which have been screenshotted repeatedly, with a resulting loss of quality due to compression of the original resolution and {{w|JPEG}} {{w|ringing artifact|artifacting}}. (The JPEG format is intended for representing photorealistic grayscale or color images; when misused for line drawings, such as comic strips, any compression artifacts become particularly noticeable, as the background is normally of completely uniform color.) In the last frame, this is taken to an extreme, as the frame appears to have been very sloppily screenshotted off of at least two different smartphones (not the same device that uses the bottom frame in the third panel as the top border in panel four), and the final image is covered both with a watermark from an unregistered screenshot program, as well as references to at least two different web site, {{w|9GAG}} (bottom right image) and {{w|tumblr}} in the web address bottom left.

"9gag" is a humor website often accused of rehosting other sites' funny content without attribution and adding their own watermark to the image or video.



The title text contains seemingly garbage characters, which typically result from data being interpreted according to a {{w|character encoding}} different from the one used to encode it. In this case, the characters are the result of encoding the string <tt>“If you can read this, congratulations—the archive you’re you're using still knows about the mouseover text”!</tt> using {{w|UTF-8}} (which represents non-{{w|ASCII}} {{w|Unicode}} characters as multibyte sequences) and then interpreting the resulting bytes as the still commonly used {{w|Windows-1252}} encoding (which uses only one byte per character, but utilizes the non-ASCII codepoints for a limited selection of extra letters and symbols such as "â" or "€"). This shows that degradation of digital data through conversions isn't restricted to images. Furthermore, as screen navigation moves away from the mouse toward touch, voice recognition, and modes still to be implemented, mouseover text will itself become anachronistic.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a White Hat are walking, Cueball holds both hands in front of him palms up.]
:Cueball: The great thing about digital data is that it never degrades.

:[They walk on in the next panel which shows jpeg compression artifacts, as if it is a screen shot of the actual image.]
:Cueball: Hard drives fail, of course, but their bits can be copied forever without loss.

:[They continue walking in the third panel which is now clearly pixelated, the white is slightly discolored, and it contains part of the interface of some program, probably supposed to be a screen shot from a smartphone. At the bottom there are three blue buttons and one gray. the first is a blue "<" indicating back in a browser. Then a grayed out ">" that is not active. And then three more standard buttons in blue to the right of those two.]
:Cueball: Film degrades, paint cracks, but a copy of a century-old data file is identical to the original.

:[Still walking, now Cueball holds out both arms to the sides, and finally White Hat replies. This panel is heavily pixelated and discolored and has a distorted aspect ratio. It contains a clear watermark (although difficult to read all letters in the end of the first word), even more 'frame' elements, and text above the image at the bottom (where the last letter is obscured by the frame of the image). There is also an internet address at the bottom left, but is is not readable except for the .com ending. In this panel it is clear that it is a screen shot from a smart phone. The frame around the image obscure the very top of Cueball's text and the half of the last letter in White Hat's reply.]
:Cueball: If humanity has a permanent record, we are the first generation in it.
:White Hat: Amazing

:Watermark: Screenshotpro 2
:Watermark: ~Unregistered~

:Top border: Verizon LTE '''4:45 PM'''
:Bottom text: 9GAG
:Internet address at the bottom: [?????].tumblr.com

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]

567: Urgent Mission

2016-03-19T00:02:46Z

Untothebreach: Removed the out of place bit of counter revolutionary rhetoric.

{{comic
| number = 567
| date = April 10, 2009
| title = Urgent Mission
| image = urgent_mission.png
| titletext = Sure, we could stop dictators and pandemics, but we could also make the signs on every damn diagram make sense.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Benjamin Franklin}} was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Aside from uniting most of his country against Britain's rule, he was also a model of a {{w|renaissance man}}: an author, printer, musician, politician, postmaster, inventor, scientist, and diplomat. Some of his legacies include bifocals, the Franklin stove, an odometer for a horse-drawn carriage, the almanac, and abolitionist ideals. He has since been honored with the use of his image on the $100 bill.

Franklin also did several {{w|Benjamin_Franklin#Electricity|experiments regarding electricity}}, and invented the {{w|lightning rod}}. He discovered the fundamentals of electricity, including positive and negative charges, as well as the principle of conservation of charge. When Franklin first wrote down his notes for electricity, he defined a positive charge as one left on a glass rod by rubbing it with silk, and a negative change as one left on rubber by rubbing it with fur. Without realizing it, this meant that he had assigned a negative value to the charge on the electron, later identified as the fundamental carrier of electrical charge.

In an electrical circuit, we envisage the charge to be flowing from positive to negative. This is analogous to energy flowing from a region of high temperature to one of low temperature, or a fluid moving from an area of high pressure to one of low pressure. However, because an electron is negatively charged, the actual flow of electrons is in the opposite direction, from negative to positive. This reversal of the natural expectation has caused unnecessary confusion to many fledgling engineers.

In the comic, the invention of a time machine was commissioned with the intent of preventing a [https://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/Robot_War robot apocalypse]. However, the [[Cueball]] that built and used the the machine is an electrical engineer with misplaced priorities, believing that reversing Franklin's "mistake" takes precedence over eliminating a more immediate threat to the human race.

Cueball tells Franklin that the charge left on a glass rod by rubbing it with silk should be the ''negative'' charge, not the positive charge, because the friction ''removes'' electrons from the rod. This would not have been intuitive to Franklin, because the electron had not as of yet been discovered. Yet by telling Franklin to reverse the positive and negative conventions, this would ultimately result in an alternate universe where electrons are assigned a positive charge. One can only speculate what other changes this reversal of convention would lead to, [https://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/For_Want_of_a_Nail as small changes tend to cascade into huge ones]. Would the positron have been instead named the negatron? And would this affect the success of the {{w|Transformers}} franchise?

In the title text, Cueball defends his actions, claiming that correcting the signs on "every damn diagram" is more important than preventing the rise of atrocity-committing autocrats and deadly diseases. Cueball is likely voicing [[Randall]]'s own frustration with this breach of logic, albeit exaggerated to comedic levels.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball steps out of rift. Benjamin Franklin is sitting at his desk with quill and parchment.]
:Cueball: Benjamin Franklin?
:Franklin: Yes?
:Cueball: I bring a message from the future! I don't have much time.
:Franklin: What is it?
:Cueball: The convention you're setting for electric charge is backward. The one left on glass by silk should be the negative charge.
:We were going to use the time machine to prevent the robot apocalypse, but the guy who built it was an electrical engineer.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

Talk:1631: Longer Than Usual

2016-01-18T08:30:51Z

Untothebreach: Created page with "Can we keep this as the explanation? ~~~~"

Can we keep this as the explanation? [[User:Untothebreach|Untothebreach]] ([[User talk:Untothebreach|talk]]) 08:30, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1628: Magnus

2016-01-12T08:17:01Z

Untothebreach:

Attempted to write the transcript. Hope I did an okay job... {{unsigned ip|‎198.41.235.41}}
:It was great. I just added some descriptions of the panels. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:01, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually it is an election against JFK, not an eating contest (panel 3)[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 18:46, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Might Ronda Rousey being knocked unconsious be a reference to her recent loss to Holly Holm, where Rousey indeed was knocked unconcious? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.141|162.158.202.141]] 10:27, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
:The word reference means "a thing you say or write that mentions somebody/something else; the act of mentioning somebody/something". Since the comic doesn't mention Holly Holm, there is no reference. I think there isn't even an allusion (something that is said or written that refers to or mentions another person or subject in an indirect way). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:46, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
:Besides, the phrasing is "knocked out". That needn't be a combat/contact-sport 'KO' in which Rousey was rendered actually unconscious in an intentional/explicable manner, according to the activity, but could just be telling us which of the two passed through to the next round of a bracketed competition of some other kind. (Either of a form that remains unspecified or, as the most recently mentioned competition, in an earlier iteration the hot-dog-eating contest. Either way, 11yo Stewart wasn't highly ''expected'' to win, whatever the match conditions, but the outcome needn't be so against form as it might have in a pugilistic match.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.227|162.158.152.227]] 15:13, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
::Since nothing is mentioned about which sport and Rousey is mentioned for the first time and it is a surprise she looses (on a KO) it is obvious to me that it refers to her fighting skill and a real KO. And if it was one of her first KO in that match is could easily be a reference especially if it was not expected. These two last things I do not know anything about though... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:41, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Magnus' App is available here: http://www.playmagnus.com/. There are also numerous youtube videos of him playing against himself at various ages. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.240|198.41.242.240]] 10:33, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

JFK was not 10 in 1961 as that is when he became President and you have to be at least 35 to do that. [[User:Momerath|Momerath]] ([[User talk:Momerath|talk]]) 15:26, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
:Whops. That went to fast, thanks for correcting it. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:39, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Maybe I misunderstood some special reference or way to put it here, because as it links to the correct wiki page, it seems the author knew what he was talking about but:
" Michael Phelps who is the most decorated Olympian competitor of all time, with a total of 22 medals in three Olympiads." is still a very strange formulation imo. As correctly linked an Olympiad is the time span between two Olympic Games (aka 4 years). First of all Phelbs won the Medals from 2004 to 2012 so if one really would want to write that in olympiads it would be closer to two. Even so I think it very strange to ever talk about the olympic medals over the course of such a timespan as they were won at three distinct events, while countless other medals were won in the time span. I would rather change it to "olympic games" or something. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.139|141.101.91.139]] 15:51, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Does anyone else actually kind of want this to exist? I mean, it would certainly settle a lot of playground discussions. :P [[User:Hammy2211|Hammy2211]] ([[User talk:Hammy2211|talk]]) 15:55, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Ronda Rousey is a former Judo Olympian and current MMA fighter, not a boxer. Holly Holmes (who she lost to) is an ex-boxing champion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.19|108.162.236.19]] 16:32, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Ok, changed Rousey from "boxer" to "fighter". [[User:Jimmbo|Jimmbo]] ([[User talk:Jimmbo|talk]]) 16:38, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Does Randall Munroe know of a world outside of his own little country? Or is this comic ironic? It's very much one person from not-USA (aka “the world”) versus a lot of people from the USA. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.27|173.245.49.27]] 18:46, 11 January 2016 (UT

Hmm. It appears somebody really wants to use this page to detail Ms. Rousey's recent triumphs. I don't want an editing war, so I'll leave it be, but I don't believe that's the purpose of our undertaking here.[[User:Jimmbo|Jimmbo]] ([[User talk:Jimmbo|talk]]) 20:01, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

I believe the current explanation misunderstands parts of the comic. It says: “But it claims to do so with an unlikely precision which Randall is mocking; e.g. that Cueball could have beaten Magnus when he was 8½-year-old, but not a half-year later.” The age is probably referring to the virtual Magnus' age, not Cueball's age; you can set the app's skill level in half-year increments (at least for the earlier years). So this is not Randall mocking the app, it's merely setup for the rest of the joke. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.160|162.158.91.160]] 01:32, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

"But it claims to do so with an unlikely precision which Randall is mocking": the '''precision''' of the app '''is in fact credible'''. Carlsen was gaining 100 Elo points every six months until he was 15, and a chess-playing program can emulate, roughly, a human Elo performance. --[[User:Chvsanchez|Chvsanchez]] ([[User talk:Chvsanchez|talk]]) 01:48, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Hey, who took out my citation needed joke?[[User:Untothebreach|Untothebreach]] ([[User talk:Untothebreach|talk]]) 08:17, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

1628: Magnus

2016-01-11T07:56:48Z

Untothebreach: Added initial early explanation.

{{comic
| number = 1628
| date = January 11, 2016
| title = Magnus
| image = magnus.png
| titletext = In the latest round, 9-year-old Muhammad Ali beat 10-year-old JFK at air hockey, while Secretariat lost the hot-dog-eating crown to 12-year-old Ken Jennings. Meanwhile, in a huge upset, 11-year-old Martha Stewart knocked out the adult Ronda Rousey.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|}}

Cueball shows Megan an app that allows one to simulate playing against Magnus Carlsen at various ages. The idea being that as he grows, it become more difficult than before. Being the nerds that they are, Cueball and Megan continue development in a similar idea that simulates many famous people doing the thing they are famous for at different ages. They then end up weirding themselves out by comparing famous people in things that they aren't famous for, Secretariat eating ht dogs, Martha Stewart swimming, etc.

The title text continues the theme of the last panel with more comparisons, leading to the ludicrous[citation needed] situation of a young Martha Stewart knocking an adult Ronda Rousey, famous for her fighting skills, unconscious.

{{W|Magnus Carlsen}} is the chess grandmaster who is currently #1 in the world.

{{W|Serena Williams}} is professional tennis player who is ranked #1 women's singles player in the world.

{{W|Michael Phelps}} is a swimmer who is #1 in the world in several swimming events.

{{W|Martha Stewart}}, among other things, has published several cookbooks.

{{W|JFK}} (John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy) was the 35th President of the United States.

{{W|Secretariat (horse)|Secretariat}} is a horse that won the Triple Crown in 1973.

{{W|Muhammad Ali}} is a boxer who is "among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport."

{{W|Ken Jennings}} currently holds the record for the longest winning streak on {{W|Jeopardy!}}.

{{W|Ronda Rousey}} is a "mixed martial artist" and "judoka."

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Magnus Carlsen has an app where you can play chess against a simulated version of him at different ages. I can beat the 8 1/2-year-old, but lose to him at 9.
:Megan: I want that, but for other games. Can I beat 8-year-old Serena Williams at Tennis? Swim laps faster than a 6-year-olf Michael Phelps?
:Cueball: We should make a simulator.
:Cueball: ...Why limit it to games? Can I cook a better chicken than 11-year-old Martha Stewart?
:Megan: Win an election against 12-year-old JFK?
:[Soon...][Cueball and Megan sitting at laptops in the bottom of the panel.]
:Megan: Looks like 8-year-old Magnus Carlsen can swim faster than 9-year-old Martha Stewart.
:Cueball: But they both lose a Hot-Dog-Eating contest to 2-year-old Secretariat.
:Megan: This project has gotten weird.

==Trivia==
The app they are talking about is called [http://magnuscarlsen.com/playmagnus Play Magnus].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

1593: Play-By-Play

2015-10-21T06:00:13Z

Untothebreach:

{{comic
| number = 1593
| date = October 21, 2015
| title = Play-By-Play
| image = play_by_play.png
| titletext = The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|I don't have time to add much, someone fix.}}

This comic is a parody of baseball. The thrower represents the pitcher, and the king is his coach, who pulls him out for not pitching well enough, "hitting too many bats". [[Beret Guy]] is the commentator, and describes the game in his usual surreal style.

"Running to second when know one's looking" is stealing a base.

==Transcript==
Beret Guy: For those just joining us, hi! We're on part 5 of a hitting game.
The next guy has a big bat, so he'll probably hit the ball real far.
Wait - he missed!
Oh good, they're letting him try again.
The people sitting on the chair shelves are yelling at this guy but he's ignoring them. Wow.
Rude.
This thrower is good! He keeps making people leave by throwing balls at them.
It's just him, though. None of his teammates are joining in.
That guy just ran to the second pillow when no one was looking!!
Everyone's real mad but I guess they checked the rules and there's nothing that says he can't do that.
Yikes. Hopefully they can fix that once this game is over.

Title text: The thrower started hitting the bats too much, so the king of the game told him to leave and brought out another thrower from thrower jail.
{{comic discussion}}

1576: I Could Care Less

2015-09-11T06:14:43Z

Untothebreach: Spelling

{{comic
| number = 1576
| date = September 11, 2015
| title = I Could Care Less
| image = i_could_care_less.png
| titletext = I literally could care less.

This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less." And its incorrect idiomatic meaning. This dichotomy is best explained by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes": <blockquote>Like I could care less 
That means you do care 
At least a little</blockquote>
Many people argue that the phrase should be "I couldn't care less".
==Transcript==
Megan: Anyway, I could care less.
Ponytall: I think you mean you couldn't care less. Saying you could care less implies you care at least some amount.
Megan: I dunno.
Megan: We're these unbelievably complicated brains drifting through a void, trying in vain to connect with one another by blindly flinging words out into the darkness.
Megan: Every choice of phrasing and spelling and tone and timing carries countless signals and contexts and subtexts and more, and every listener interprets those signals in their own way. Language isn't a formal system. Language is glorious chaos.
Megan: You can never know for sure what any words will mean to anyone. All you can do is try to get better at guessing how your words affect people, so you can have a chance of finding the ones that will make them feel something like what you want them to feel. Everything else is pointless.
Megan: I assume you're giving me tips on how you interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot.
Megan: But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less.

{{comic discussion}}

1576: I Could Care Less

2015-09-11T06:13:54Z

Untothebreach: Added the beginning of an actual explanation. Kept the weird al, because weird al.

{{comic
| number = 1576
| date = September 11, 2015
| title = I Could Care Less
| image = i_could_care_less.png
| titletext = I literally could care less.

This comic references the dichotomy between the literal meaning of the phrase "I could care less." And its incorrect idiomatic meaning. This dichotpmy is best explained by the Weird Al Yankovic song "Word Crimes": <blockquote>Like I could care less 
That means you do care 
At least a little</blockquote>
Many people argue that the phrase should be "I couldn't care less".
==Transcript==
Megan: Anyway, I could care less.
Ponytall: I think you mean you couldn't care less. Saying you could care less implies you care at least some amount.
Megan: I dunno.
Megan: We're these unbelievably complicated brains drifting through a void, trying in vain to connect with one another by blindly flinging words out into the darkness.
Megan: Every choice of phrasing and spelling and tone and timing carries countless signals and contexts and subtexts and more, and every listener interprets those signals in their own way. Language isn't a formal system. Language is glorious chaos.
Megan: You can never know for sure what any words will mean to anyone. All you can do is try to get better at guessing how your words affect people, so you can have a chance of finding the ones that will make them feel something like what you want them to feel. Everything else is pointless.
Megan: I assume you're giving me tips on how you interpret words because you want me to feel less alone. If so, then thank you. That means a lot.
Megan: But if you're just running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it, then I could care less.

{{comic discussion}}

1573: Cyberintelligence

2015-09-07T08:35:46Z

Untothebreach: Removed the 9/11 conspiracy fuel.

{{comic
| number = 1573
| date = September 4, 2015
| title = Cyberintelligence
| image = cyberintelligence.png
| titletext = We had gathered that raw information, but had yet to put it all together.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Ponytail]] presents her company's FY2015 ({{w|Fiscal Year}} for 2015) budget for [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cyberintelligence cyberintelligence]. But is then interrupted with a snide remark about the prefix ''{{w|cyber}}''.

This comic illustrates that some organization spends obscene amounts of money on their "cyberintelligence" budget, yet all that spending appears not to have informed them that the prefix "cyber-" fell out of fashion years ago. (That the prefix could annoy experts were already used in the title text of [[1084: Server Problem]].)

The prefix "cyber" is derived from "{{w|Cybernetic}}," which comes from the Greek word {{w|Cybernetics#Etymology|κυβερνητικός}}, meaning skilled in steering or governing. Cyberintelligence could also be called {{w|cyber spying}} i.e. spying in the digital world, one of many "new" [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_words_prefixed_with_cyber- words with the cyber- prefix]. Many were invented in the 1980s and 1990s, following the example of "{{w|cyberspace}}", popularized by {{w|William Gibson}} in 1982.

If cyberintelligence departments were given names today, they might be called Internet Intelligence, Virtual Intelligence, Data Intelligence or Online Intelligence departments.

This may be due to the fact that government organizations are typically named by middle-aged or senior officials who are generally less likely to be familiar with the current trends in technology language. They are more likely to stick to the words that were used when they first learned about the technology.

The title text continues the joke by implying the organization learned about the demise of "cyber-" yet failed to process or analyze that data. It may also be a reference to the previous comic, which was a link to a survey for xkcd readers.

"Cyberspace" and "{{w|cybernetics}}", illustrated [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cyberspace%2Ccybernetics&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccyberspace%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccybernetics%3B%2Cc0 here], are two of the most common words with that prefix (Cyberspace 6 times as prelavent as cybernetics at their peaks). "Cyberintelligence" is shown [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cyberintelligence&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0 here]. (Cyberspace was used 4000 times more often, although the more common spelling splitting it in two words "Cyber intelligence" was 1.35 times more [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cyber+intelligence&year_start=1990&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=0 used] than in one word. But even combining these two versions cyberspace is still used more than 1700 times as often...)

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail, pointing at a chart to her left, with text and two curves on a graph, is talking to someone off-screen to the right.]
:Ponytail: Our overall FY2015 cyberintelligence budget was $8.1 billion-
:Off-screen voice: -Yet it wasn't enough to pick up on the fact that no one else had used the prefix "cyber-" for like a decade?
:Ponytail: Shut up.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Charts]]

1573: Cyberintelligence

2015-09-04T06:15:26Z

Untothebreach: Got the ball rolling.

{{comic
| number = 1573
| date = September 4, 2015
| title = Cyberintelligence
| image = cyberintelligence.png
| titletext = We had gathered that raw information, but had yet to put it all together.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|}}

This comic plays on the fact that some organization appears to be spending obscene amounts of money on their "cyber intelligence" budget, yet all that research appears not to have informed then that the prefix "cyber-" fell out of fashion years ago.

The title text continues the joke by implying the organization learned about the demise of "cyber-" yet failed to process or analyze that data.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

explain xkcd talk:Translation

2015-08-20T07:01:36Z

Untothebreach:

When I first did read this idea I thought this would be a massive project. But more and more users sign in here so maybe it could be possible. So here my first thoughts (I don't want to edit the project page):
*URL: <nowiki>www.tld.explainxkcd.com and tld.explainxkcd.com</nowiki> should be possible on the domain ''explainxkcd.com''. An other idea is <nowiki>www.explainxkcd.com/tldwiki</nowiki>. So this would be www.explainxkcd.com/dewiki for Germany.
*Direct translations are often not easy or just impossible. The pages should show the original content and explain the original text without a simple translation. Jokes not common to non US citizen must be be explained in more detail than in English.
*It's a project for 2014, not this year.
*I will do some attempts for the German language, The Doctor has to be explained, what the hell is Firefly, what is NSFW, ... Most Germans need an explanation for this, they just don't know. So I will focus on some more complex comics, but not now.
*The comic itself should be the original because it helps people with a smaller knowledge on the English language.
Nice idea, but still a hard job.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:17, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
:It's totally fine to edit the page, it's still a work in progress and I hadn't fully fleshed out exactly what the parameters of the project would be when I wrote it. I was planning on discussing it with other editors until we reached consensus on how we were going to handle everything. The only thing that I had set-in-stone decided was that I would only make the alternate language wikis live after we had completed every English explanation, so that translators would have a correct base to work from. I'm inclined to go for the subdomain solution, because less typing. If we could figure out automagic region redirects from explainxkcd.com, that would be sweet. I was already intending to nominate you and Slashme for adminship on the German wiki, and our German audience is sizeable enough that I think we should be fine on edit volume. I was actually thinking about doing translation on the comics and transcripts, because I figured that's what we're here to do; make the comics as accessible to visitors as possible. If we gave them xkcd in their native language, all the better. I also started this thing because I wanted to reach people who didn't know any English at all. The image translation would be a colossal effort though, and I was thinking of contacting and inviting guys like [http://xkcde.dapete.net/], [http://xkcdde.tumblr.com/] and [http://xkcd.lapin.org/] to come help us for that. I wasn't expecting translating the entire wiki into a different language to be an easy task at all, but it's going to be completely worth it. I'm considering Chinese next, just for the massive audience boost. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:48, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
:I am a little worried about French though. They're our third biggest language, but there's no real viable French candidate for adminship currently. It'll be fine for the next year or so when we're working on German, but we'll need a French speaking admin eventually. I don't know how we're gonna look for that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:38, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Because of this new page the main page should be changed from "PAGESINCAT:Comics|R}}-13" to "PAGESINCAT:Comics|R}}-14".--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:11, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
:Huh. I don't see the category on this page, but the main page counter seems to back you up. Fix'd. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:11, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
::Ohh, sometimes my eagle eyes struggle about something, and the next time I do not recognize other errors here. Are we humans or bots? I am a humaan, and my BOT('s) are instructed by me, NOT vice versa. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:03, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
I volunteer towards Spanish translation! I am a Puerto Rican who translates stuff out of fun. Also, [http://www.es.xkcd.com/ there is a (partial) Spanish xkcd...] [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:38, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
:I got this: "If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and working. Further configuration is required." A Spanish translation would be great, but a 404 message did happen to me. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:51, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

:::Is there really a need for translations? This is an English comic, so I doubt many who speak other languages primarily will even read nonetheless want to understand the comic or even find this wiki. It just doesn't sound like it's worth all the effort.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.66|108.162.219.66]] 01:48, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
::::Expanded audience is good stuff. I doubt the subject matter would be wholly unappealing to foreign engineers, and the language barrier is probably the only limiting factor to further reach. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:22, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Hey! Anything happening? {{unsigned|Nk22}}
:Not yet, incomplete articles need to be cleared out, and I need to set things up on my end to make parallel wikis for other languages. It'll happen eventually though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:51, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

Would be able to translate into Spanish whenever this gets off the ground.[[User:Untothebreach|Untothebreach]] ([[User talk:Untothebreach|talk]]) 07:01, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

1564: Every Seven Seconds

2015-08-20T06:59:27Z

Untothebreach: Cleaned up title text explanation a bit.

{{comic
| number = 1564
| date = August 14, 2015
| title = Every Seven Seconds
| image = every_seven_seconds.png
| titletext = Every few months, I think about sex every seven seconds and how weird and implausible it would be.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|More detail needed, explain sociologist joke, explain Cueball's thinking more, correct title text explanation.}}

There is an oft-stated {{w|urban myth}} that men think about sex every seven seconds. See for example this [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140617-how-often-do-men-think-about-sex BBC article], where they say that a more realistic number is 19 times in a waking day, i.e. once every 50 minutes.

In this comic [[Cueball]] is a {{w|sociologist}}, and the thought bubbles show his train of thoughts regarding this myth. First of all, he flatly denies that it could be true, and progressively his thoughts move to the effects if it were true, and then Cueball considers how it would even be studied. The title of the comic ''(Every seven seconds)'' hints strongly that this is the subject he is thinking about, and this is subsequently confirmed both in the caption and in the title text.

The setup is that thinking about sex every seven seconds would be dysfunctional and unproductive in addition to making working, social interactions, etc... nearly impossible as explained by the sociologists thoughts. The punch line is that thinking about ''how ridiculous it is to think about sex every seven seconds'' '''every seven seconds''' is just as dysfunctional and unproductive even if the thought time is spent refuting the original notion as understood in third person.

The irony of the comic is that in thinking every seven seconds about how impossible it would be for men to think about sex every seven seconds, the sociologist is, in fact, thinking about sex every seven seconds, albeit in a roundabout way.

In the title text, the narrator ([[Randall]] or Cueball the sociologist?) says he thinks about how implausible it would be to have sex every seven seconds, several times a year. See alternate interpretations below:

In the title text, the narrator's statement leaves some meaning up to interpretation:
* Every few months, I "think about sex" every seven seconds [in one day, i.e. 8200 times that day] and how weird and implausible [having intercourse] would be.
** Implying that narrator's sex life is not very active.
* Every few months, I think about "sex every seven seconds" and how weird and implausible [having intercourse every seven seconds] would be.
** Having sex every seven seconds is implausible.
* Every few months, I think about [the statistic that men think about] sex every seven seconds and how weird and implausible it would be.
** An even more realistic take on the main comic's topic.
* Every few months, I think about "sex" every seven seconds and how weird and implausible [such an assertion] would be.
** This interpretation is a bit paradoxical, because it implies that the narrator finds himself thinking about the very thing he dismisses as a possibility to think about so often.
* Every few months, I think about "sex every seven seconds and how weird and implausible it would be."
** The narrator (probably Randall) thinks about how implausible he finds the premise of "every seven seconds" every few months.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is walking with four thought bubbles above him.]

:Cueball (thinking):
::There’s no way that’s true.
::It would interfere with basic cognition.
::Such a ridiculous view of masculinity.
::How would you even ''study'' that?

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Every seven seconds, sociologists
:think about that made-up statistic
:about how often men think about sex.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sex]]

1565: Back Seat

2015-08-18T04:27:18Z

Untothebreach: Changed the explanation to reflect the humor of the comic more closely by removing the digression about raccoon scavenging habits.

{{comic
| number = 1565
| date = August 17, 2015
| title = Back Seat
| image = back_seat.png
| titletext = Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side of [sic] the dead one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|verification and language fixes needed.}}
This comic depicts the common situation of a messy car but the uncommon scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a {{w|raccoon}}. The joke being that such a car is so gross, a dead raccoon is merely one of the least disgusting things one might encounter. The humor comes from the car owner seeming to be used to a dead raccoon and the implications of what might be worse than a dead raccoon.

This is the polar opposite of [[1267: Mess]], where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.

'Protips' are used to give snarky, obvious or inadequate advice, in order to either humor a well-learnt audience or to prank a naive audience. This phenomenon originated in a gaming magazine column offering advice on ''Doom'': "To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies."

The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Sitting next to a dead '''and''' a live raccoon is not an improved scenario.

==Transcript==
[Cueball is holding the back door of his car open. Cartoon-style stink lines emanate from the back seat area. Megan and another Cueball-like figure stand to the side, looking at each other and waiting.] 
'''Cueball''': Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back. 
'''[Caption]''': PROTIP: When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.

==Trivia==
Another comic to feature raccoons in disgusting situations is [[1025: Tumblr]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Animals]]

User:Untothebreach

2015-08-04T05:58:29Z

Untothebreach: Created page with "Hello, I'm an xkcd reader from the west coast. If you're reading this, why?"

Hello, I'm an xkcd reader from the west coast. If you're reading this, why?

1559: Driving

2015-08-04T05:55:00Z

Untothebreach: Added a "(probably)" to help resolve the debate I unintentional started by asserting the comic takes place in the lower 48.

{{comic
| number = 1559
| date = August 3, 2015
| title = Driving
| image = driving.png
| titletext = Sadly, it probably won't even have enough gas to make it to the first border crossing.}}

== Explanation ==
A {{w|self-driving car}} is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when [[Black Hat]] places the bag of sand that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to {{w|Anchorage}}, {{w|Alaska}}, which is presumably far from where Black Hat and [[Cueball]] are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is the kind of evil prank Black Hat is infamous for.

The title text (probably) references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or {{w|contiguous 48 states}} requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. Black Hat expresses regret about this probable failure; presumably he was looking forward to the encounter between the border guards and the vehicle's "occupant". However even if the car does not get to Anchorage he will have created a serious problem for its owner who will have to report a stolen car.

Nevada was the first state to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads. But there are now several states in the US (as well as several countries in Europe) that allow this type of test. It is thus not possible to place Black Hat and Cueball based on this, except that they are in North or Central America north of the {{w|Darien Gap}} (the regions connected by overland routes to Alaska). At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where these cars were for sale to individuals, however several corporate owned test cars are frequently seen on public road (such as those operated by Google among others).

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, carrying a bag of sand, is walking toward Cueball, leaving a trail of sand.]
:Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?
:Cueball: What?
:Cueball: Uh, probably.

:[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]
:Black Hat: Great!

:[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.]
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Thump*
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Please fasten your seatbelt.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>click*
:Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska.
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Navigating''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>slam*

:[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball.]
:Car driving off:''Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr''
:Black Hat: I love self-driving cars.
:Cueball: ...Whose car was that?
:Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1559

2015-08-03T08:05:51Z

Untothebreach:

== Explanation ==

----
A self driving car is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when Black Hat places the rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to Anchorage, Alaska, which is presumably far from where Back Hat and Cueball are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska.

1559

2015-08-03T08:00:25Z

Untothebreach: Created page with "'''Explanation''' ---- A self driving car is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when Black Hat places the rock that weighs "..."

'''Explanation'''

----
A self driving car is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when Black Hat places the rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to Anchorage, Alaska, which is presumably far from where Back Hat and Cueball are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska.