explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

712: Single Ladies

2013-07-15T14:18:43Z

Yvessch:

{{comic
| number = 712
| date = March 10, 2010
| title = Single Ladies
| image = single_ladies.png
| titletext = Using a ring to bind someone you covet into your dark and twisted world? Wow, just got the subtext there. Also, the apparently eager Beyoncé would've made one badass Nazgûl.
}}

==Explanation==
The character in armor is {{w|Sauron}}, the main villain in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' trilogy. In the backstory, he takes control of Middle-earth by giving several rings as "gifts" to the great kings of elves, dwarves, and men. However, he also forged a master ring, the {{w|One Ring}}, to control the gifted rings and ultimately power over the kings. However, the elves were not deceived by his plan and Sauron is eventually defeated by a human who cuts off his ring finger. The books tell the story of a small group of adventurers who rediscover the lost Ring and attempt to destroy it, as Sauron's army gathers its forces to attempt to reclaim the Ring for their master.

{{w|Gil-galad}} is a high Elven-king, and {{w|Galadriel}} is an Elf of royal blood who serves as a matriarch of sorts to the remnants of the Elven race. Lindon is a location on the westernmost side of the continent, serving as the final transition point for Elves passing on to the Undying lands. Sauron refers to an actual event in the first panel, when he tried to gain control of Lindon through deceit; Galadriel and Gil-galad saw through his disguise and cast him out.

The song playing in the background is "All the Single Ladies" by Beyoncé, which includes the line "If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it," referring to ''wedding'' rings. This, evidently, is what inspired Sauron to devise his "One Ring" plan and put gifted rings on the fingers of kings.

The title text refers to an often-suggested fan theory that the One Ring ''is'' actually meant to be symbolic of marriage. The {{w|Nazgûl}}, also known as ringwraiths, are a band of nine servants to Sauron who constantly seek out the Ring for him. As a bit of trivia, Randall used the wrong "û" character when editing the title text; the character he used was U+0217 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH INVERTED BREVE, but the correct character is U+00FB LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX. They look very similar at standard font sizes, but the inverted breve is curved, while the circumflex is pointed.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is talking to Sauron; Sauron is wearing his trademark helmet, but his head is downcast. Music plays in the background.]
:''Music: All the single ladies, All the single ladies''
:Beret Guy: Hey Sauron, why so glum?
:Sauron: Gil-galad saw through me and threw me out of Lindon. Galadriel as well. I'll never rule ''anyone'' at this rate.

:''Music: All the single ladies, All the single ladies''
:Sauron: Eru created such beautiful creatures - Elves and men and dwarves - and all I've got are these stupid orcs.

:''Music: 'Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it''
:Sauron: I mean, I -

:[Sauron is suddenly quiet]
:''Music: If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:LOTR]]

394: Kilobyte

2013-02-12T01:48:47Z

Yvessch:

{{comic
| number = 394
| date = March 10, 2008
| title = Kilobyte
| image = kilobyte.png
| titletext = I would take 'kibibyte' more seriously if it didn't sound so much like 'Kibbles N Bits'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic takes advantage of the confusion over the definition of a kilobyte. Some interpret the prefix literally, meaning a kilobyte is 1000 bytes. Others, however, define it as 2<sup>10</sup>, or 1024, bytes because it is computationally easier to deal with.

The first row of the table is simply mocking this discrepancy.

The second row is Randall's interpretation on how [[wikipedia:Stan Kelly-Bootle|Kelly-Bootle]] would approach this problem. Kelly-Bootle is known for writing ''The Computer Contradictionary'' which satirizes the jargon and language of the computer industry. Kelly-Bootle was likely motivated to write this work after working for several years at IMB, a company infamous for its excessive use of acronyms in the work place. Averaging the two definitions together to get 1012 bytes is simply a humorous approach that Kelly-Bootle would likely have taken.

The [[wikipedia:Imaginary number|imaginary]] kilobyte simply plays on the fact that complex analysis is required in quantum computing in relation to quantum mechanics. The imaginary number is represented as ''i'' and has a value of the square root of -1.

The Intel kilobyte mocks the Pentium floating point unit which, in 1994, was notorious for having a [[wikipedia:Pentium FDIV bug|major flaw]] in its floating point division algorithm that gave slightly erroneous results.

The smaller, drivemaker's kilobyte mocks a business model for handling higher prices that keeps prices constant but reduces quantity. The food industry has been notorious for decreasing quantity of food and keeping prices the same instead of increasing prices and keeping quantity the same. Randall is suggesting that if the computer industry tried to do this with hard drives, it could have humorous results such as smaller number of bytes in a kilobyte. In this analogy, food price is to number of kilobytes as food quantity is to bytes in a kilobyte. A value of 908 indicates that drivemakers have been decreasing the value for 23 years (if they started with 1000) or 29 years (if they started with 1024), which means a starting year of either 1985 or 1979. Continuing this trend would cause the drivemaker's kilobyte to become zero in the year 2235.

The baker's kilobyte is a play on the [[wikipedia:Dozen#Baking|baker's dozen]], which is 13 instead of 12. A baker's byte with 9 bits to the byte would result in a total of 9216 bits in a 1024 byte kilobyte. Converting this into "normal" bytes (with 8 bits), we divide 9216 bits by 8 bits per byte to get 1152 8-bit bytes to the baker's kilobyte.

==Transcript==
:There's been a lot of confusion over 1024 vs 1000,
:kbyte vs kbit, and the capitalization for each.
:Here, at last, is a single, definitive standard:
:[table of various kinds of kilobytes]
{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 50%; text-align: left;"
|-
|SYMBOL
|NAME
|SIZE
|NOTES
|-
|kB
|Kilobyte
|1024 bytes OR 1000 bytes
|1000 bytes during leap years, 1024 otherwise
|-
|KB
|Kelly-Bootle standard unit
|1012 bytes
|compromise between 1000 and 1024 bytes
|-
|KiB
|Imaginary kilobyte
|1024 √-1 bytes
|used in quantum computing
|-
|kb
|Intel kilobyte
|1023.937528 bytes
|calculated on Pentium F.P.U.
|-
|Kb
|Drivemaker's kilobyte
|currently 908 bytes
|shrinks by 4 bytes each year for marketing reasons
|-
|KBa
|Baker's kilobyte
|1152 bytes
|9 bits to the byte since you're such a good customer
|}
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Computers]]

394: Kilobyte

2013-02-10T04:48:27Z

Yvessch: Created page with "{{comic | number = 394 | date = March 10, 2008 | title = Kilobyte | image = kilobyte.png | titletext = I would take 'kibibyte' more seriously if it did..."

{{comic
| number = 394
| date = March 10, 2008
| title = Kilobyte
| image = kilobyte.png
| titletext = I would take 'kibibyte' more seriously if it didn't sound so much like 'Kibbles N Bits'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic takes advantage of the confusion over the definition of a kilobyte. Some interpret the prefix literally, meaning a kilobyte is 1000 bytes. Others, however, define it as 2^10, or 1024, bytes because it is computationally easier to deal with.

The first row of the table is simply mocking this discrepancy.

The second row is Randall's interpretation on how Kelly-Bootle would approach this problem. Kelly-Bootle is known for writing ''The Computer Contradictionary'' which satirizes the jargon and language of the computer industry. Kelly-Bootle was likely motivated to write this work after working for several years at IMB, a company infamous for its excessive use of acronyms in the work place. Averaging the two definitions together to get 1012 bytes is simply a humorous approach that Kelly-Bootle would likely have taken.

The imaginary kilobyte simply plays on the fact that complex analysis is required in quantum computing in relation to quantum mechanics.

The Intel kilobyte mocks the Pentium F.P.U. processor which was notorious for having major flaw in its floating point division algorithm that gave slightly erroneous results.

The smaller, drivemaker's kilobyte mocks a business model for handling higher prices that keeps prices constant but reduces quantity. The food industry has been notorious for decreasing quantity of food and keeping prices the same instead of increasing prices and keeping quantity the same. Randall is suggesting that if the computer industry tried to do this with hard drives, it could have humorous results such as smaller number of bytes in a kilobyte. In this analogy, food price is to number of kilobytes as food quantity is to bytes in a kilobyte.

The baker's kilobyte is a play on the baker's dozen, which is 13 instead of 12. A baker's byte with 9 bits to the byte would result in a total of 9216 bits in a 1024 byte kilobyte. Converting this into "normal" bytes (with 8 bits), we divide 9216 bits by 8 bits per byte to get 1152 8-bit bytes to the baker's kilobyte.

==Transcript==
There's been a lot of confusion over 1024 vs 1000,
kbyte vs kbit, and the capitalization for each.
:Here, at last, is a single, definitive standard:
:[table of various kinds of kilobytes]
:SYMBOL | NAME | SIZE | NOTES
:kB | Kilobyte | 1024 bytes OR 1000 bytes | 1000 bytes during leap years, 1024 otherwise
:KB | Kelly-Bootle standard unit | 1012 bytes | compromise between 1000 and 1024 bytes
:KiB | Imaginary kilobyte | 1024 sqrt(-1) bytes | used in quantum computing
:kb | Intel kilobyte | 1023.937528 bytes | calculated on Pentium F.P.U.
:Kb | Drivemaker's kilobyte | currently 908 bytes | shrinks by 4 bytes each year for marketing reasons
:KBa | Baker's kilobyte | 1152 bytes | 9 bits to the byte since you're such a good customer

{{comic discussion}}

397: Unscientific

2013-02-04T00:36:41Z

Yvessch: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 397
| date = March 17, 2008
| title = Unscientific
| image = unscientific.png
| titletext = Last week, we busted the myth that electroweak gauge symmetry is broken by the Higgs mechanism. We'll also examine the existence of God and whether true love exists.
}}

==Explanation==
In the first and second frames, [[Megan]] can be seen accusing MythBusters of not actually "doing science" because of its lack of rigor (a debate beyond the scope of this Wiki). The zombie of deceased physicist, Richard Feynman, comes to explain to [[Megan]] that she has failed to recognize the purpose of MythBusters. He explains that MythBusters is only meant to get people to accept and understand the basics of science, and that more complex lessons (such as on rigor) are to be reserved for those who are not in the "scientific darkness".

In the last frame, [[Cueball]] attempts to save himself and [[Megan]] from zombie Feynman by implying that physicists, being extremely intelligent, would have more desirable brains. Also, being a lab, the number of brains available would be higher than just two. Feynman's closing remark implies that string theorists are less intelligent that other types of physicists. This notion fits appropriately with Feynman's description of the core of science. Moreover, Feynman's own career involved applying physics to real world applications (such as for the Manhattan Project), whereas the work of string theorists is theoretical and untested.

==Transcript==
:TV: Can a ninja catch an arrow? On this episode, we'll find out!
:Guy: Mmm, science.
:Girl: Hey, Mythbusters is entertaining, but it's not science.
:ZF: BRAAAIIIINNS ...
:Guy: Zombie Feynman!
:ZF: You got a problem with Mythbusters?
:Girl: They fail at basic rigor!
:ZF: "Ideas are tested by experiment." That is the _core_ of science. Everything else is bookkeeping.
:ZF: By teaching people to hold their beliefs up to experiment, Mythbusters is doing more to drag humanity out of the unscientific darkness than a thousand lessons in rigor. Show them some love.
:ZF: Anyway, back to zombie stuff. I hunger for BRAAAAAIIINNS!
:Guy: Try the physics lab next door.
:ZF: I said _brains_. All they've got are string theorists.

{{comic discussion}}

397: Unscientific

2013-02-04T00:36:08Z

Yvessch:

{{comic
| number = 397
| date = March 17, 2008
| title = Unscientific
| image = unscientific.png
| titletext = Last week, we busted the myth that electroweak gauge symmetry is broken by the Higgs mechanism. We'll also examine the existence of God and whether true love exists.
}}

==Explanation==
In the first and second frames, [[Megan]] can be seen accusing MythBusters of not actually "doing science" because of its lack of rigor (a debate beyond the scope of this Wiki). The zombie of deceased physicist, Richard Feynman, comes to explain to [[Megan]] that she has failed to recognize the purpose of MythBusters. He explains that MythBusters is only meant to get people to accept and understand the basics of science, and that more complex lessons (such as on rigor) are to be reserved for those who are not in the "scientific darkness".

In the last frame, [[Cueball]] attempts to save himself and [[Megan]] from zombie Feynman by implying that physicists, being extremely intelligent, would have more desirable brains. Also, being a lab, the number of brains available would be higher than just two. Feynman's closing remark implies that string theorists are less intelligent that other types of physicists. This notion fits appropriately with Feynman's description of the core of science. Moreover, Feynman's own career involved applying physics to real world applications (such as for the Manhattan Project), whereas the work of string theorists is theoretical and untested.

==Transcript==
TV: Can a ninja catch an arrow? On this episode, we'll find out!
:Guy: Mmm, science.
:Girl: Hey, Mythbusters is entertaining, but it's not science.
:ZF: BRAAAIIIINNS ...
:Guy: Zombie Feynman!
:ZF: You got a problem with Mythbusters?
:Girl: They fail at basic rigor!
:ZF: "Ideas are tested by experiment." That is the _core_ of science. Everything else is bookkeeping.
:ZF: By teaching people to hold their beliefs up to experiment, Mythbusters is doing more to drag humanity out of the unscientific darkness than a thousand lessons in rigor. Show them some love.
:ZF: Anyway, back to zombie stuff. I hunger for BRAAAAAIIINNS!
:Guy: Try the physics lab next door.
:ZF: I said _brains_. All they've got are string theorists.

{{comic discussion}}

398: Tap That Ass

2013-02-04T00:33:44Z

Yvessch: Created page with "{{comic | number = 398 | date = March 19, 2008 | title = Tap That Ass | image = tap_that_ass.png | titletext = Hey, when you're done draining the syrup, ju..."

{{comic
| number = 398
| date = March 19, 2008
| title = Tap That Ass
| image = tap_that_ass.png
| titletext = Hey, when you're done draining the syrup, just leave the hole, okay?
}}

==Explanation==
This comic uses verbal irony to exploit the application of double meanings. The phrase "tap that ass" is a colloquialism for "to have intercourse with aforementioned someone" and is most likely how the reader expects the phrase to be used. However, throughout the comic, this is not the case.

In the first panel, it is possible that [[Cueball]] is using "tap that ass" sexually. However, it is also possible that he is using "tap" to mean "borrow money from", in which case he would be willing to borrow money from someone and use that to extort the position as committee chair. "That ass" refers to one of the individuals in the meeting room.

In the second panel, "tap" is referring to wiretapping. It is possible that it is being referenced in a sexual manner, but makes much less sense that the wiretapping explanation. "That ass" refers to the person on the telephone.

In the third panel, "tap" is referring to extracting sap from trees. A sexual connotation would make no sense in this context. "That ass" refers to the maple tree.

In the final panel, [[Cueball]] attempts to take the scenario from the third frame and interpret it sexually, showing how absurd it would be to assume "tap that ass" always refers to having intercourse.

[[Cueball]] is not the same individual throughout the frames of this particular comic.

==Transcript==
:[Man in a hallway looking in on a board meeting.]
:I'd tap that ass
:To be the new committee chair.
:[Man wearing headphones with a briefcase and a laptop. Another man on a telephone.]
:I'd tap that ass
:Without a warrant.
:[Man with his hand on his chin, looking at a tree.]
:I'd tap that ass
:And extract delicious maple syrup.
:[Man standing in a blank frame.]
:I'd have sex
:With that tree.

{{comic discussion}}