explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1202: Girls and Boys

2013-04-22T14:15:34Z

Zelmo:

I figured it was a poem. Turns out it is, of a sort.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q="girls+go+to"+"to+get+more"
[[Special:Contributions/68.151.108.107|68.151.108.107]] 04:50, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

I thought of ''Men are from Mars Women are from Venus'' by John Gray and the response ''Men Are from Earth. Women Are from Earth: Deal with It'' by Gorge Carlin. If only the sexes could work together we could go to Jupiter.
--[[Special:Contributions/202.129.80.226|202.129.80.226]] 08:12, 22 April 2013 (UTC)
* This is wonderful and I think in the same spirit as the comic. Stop the 'sex war' jokes and admit that both boys and girls want knowledge. And to arrive to Jupiter. [[Special:Contributions/84.150.177.228|84.150.177.228]] 14:02, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

I would interpret differently the two last pictures: as girls and boys SEPARATLY go to college to get knowledge, Girls and boys TOGETHER go to Jupiter, meaning when a boy and girl interact, they generally act stupid... {{unsigned ip|217.128.49.53}}
* I cannot imagine the author of XKCD using going to Jupiter as an example of doing something stupid. Absolutely improbable IMHO.[[Special:Contributions/84.150.177.228|84.150.177.228]] 14:02, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

isnt thw rocket quite phallic? girlsnand boysngo to colledge to getmore....ehm... knowledge? {{unsigned ip|88.119.96.51}}
* [[Special:Contributions/99.66.9.158|99.66.9.158]] 11:26, 22 April 2013 (UTC)Sometimes a rocket is just a rocket.
* Looks to me like a typical Titan rocket. [[User:Zelmo|Zelmo]] ([[User talk:Zelmo|talk]]) 14:15, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

1181: PGP

2013-03-04T15:47:47Z

Zelmo: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1181
| date = March 4, 2013
| title = PGP
| image = pgp.png
| titletext = If you want to be extra safe, check that there's a big block of jumbled characters at the bottom.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Pretty Good Privacy|PGP}} is a program which can be used to encrypt and sign messages sent as emails. Encrypting the message would prevent anybody from reading it if they didn't have the key to decrypt. Signing the message would mean that the message can be verified as unaltered, if the reader was to check the message against the signature. People who uses such program typically only uses the feature to sign the message, since encrypting it (which would give you the privacy) would mean that almost nobody would be able to read it, including the intended recipient as they rarely would have the keys and software installed to decrypt the message. hence the irony here is that nobody actually verifies the "signature" either, but feel secure that the message appears to be signed.

The use of signing software is so rare that most people have never seen a signed message. The joke here lies within the approach of ignoring actual privacy guarantees PGP provides, therefore giving a false sense of security.

PGP or {{w|Pretty Good Privacy}}, is a in part {{w|Public-key cryptography}}, which is defined in RFC-4880 [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880#page-60 RFC4880]-devised. The blob which makes the signature is a binary signature which is encoded into ASCII using {{w|ASCII armor}}.

==Transcript==
:How to use PGP to verify that an email is authentic:
:Look for this text at the top
:[In mail header, light grey.] Reply
:-----BEGIN PGP ENCRYPTED MESSAGE-----
:[in mail message, light grey]
:HASH: SHA256
:Hey,
:First of all, thanks for taking care of
:If it's there, the email is probably fine

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1157: Sick Day

2013-01-07T15:45:57Z

Zelmo: Philosophy

I expected the title-text's "Wikipedia path" to end with "Philosophy". [[Special:Contributions/173.8.183.86|173.8.183.86]] 07:19, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
*My thoughts exactly! ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=903 Extended Mind]--see title text.) [[User:Zelmo|Zelmo]] ([[User talk:Zelmo|talk]]) 15:45, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
Is "Wikipeida" a deliberate typo? Does it mean something different than "Wikipedia", or does
it just indicate that Randall is too sick to spell "Wikipedia" properly? [[Special:Contributions/194.106.220.85|194.106.220.85]] 09:07, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

I expected the FIRST comment will resolve the wikipedia entries ... well ok: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus Virus] -> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system Immune system] -> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innate_immune_system Innate immune system] -> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites Parasites] (actually redirect) -> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parasites_of_humans List of parasites of humans] -> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri Naegleria fowleri] -> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_amoebic_meningoencephalitis Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis] -> Deciding I DEFINITELY shouldn't connect an aquarium pump to my sinuses -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:30, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1095: Crazy Straws

2012-08-18T03:56:44Z

Zelmo:

Compare [[915:_Connoisseur|xkcd.com/915]]. [[User:Arlo James Barnes|Arlo James Barnes]] ([[User talk:Arlo James Barnes|talk]]) 10:06, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

*"Subcultures" is misspelled in the comic. Perhaps Randall will fix it and reupload? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 15:17, 15 August 2012 (UTC)
:Randall has corrected the mistake, but the image on this page is still the old one. Would we want to keep both versions of the image in the interest of completeness? [[User:Erenan|Erenan]] ([[User talk:Erenan|talk]]) 00:02, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

* Have to admit, this one went a bit over my head. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 20:38, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

*Fractals not only have an unlimited level of detail; they are (most times) self-similar in the sense that you'll find the same pattern on every level of detail. Just like finding the equivalent of finding the "Paris hilton of the plastic straw subcultures' hobbyists' splinter group." [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 09:06, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

*I think we should get the corrected comic, but note that it was originally misspelled in the explanation. Tebow Time, Twice a Day. 17:19, 16 August 2012 (UTC) ([[User talk:jjhuddle|talk]])

*It's a mistake to think the every-pickier level of detail is a flaw in these interest subcultures. Smaller and smaller levels of study are what flesh out our knowledge of the world. And myriad small subgroups of shared interests allow many people to achieve excellence and status, not just in their minds but in an (admittedly small) range of reality. Examples: the people who maintain and improve the Kennedy line of Boston Terriers; people whose specialty is tooth wear in prehuman hominids; people who parse xkcd comics.

* I don't think that the comic means it as a flaw, I think it's a just a (humourous) observation, not a negative critisism.

* Agreed, and it even goes on here (just drop in on the community portal, to see tempests in a tea pot such as whether he's [[Cueball]] or [[Rob]]...) I couldn't help but think that RM poked his head in on this site and came up with this comic as a response. (Of course, that would be greatly overestimating our importance in the grand scheme of things, but we are all entitled to our little fantasies of grandeur, no?) Ah, well... it seemed perfect timing nonetheless. '''By the way, folks: please sign your posts.''' Four tildes, a la <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>, is all it takes... -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:30, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

* I don't think the fractal analogy holds because human subcultures cannot be nested infinitely deep. At some point, subcultures will come down to individual humans, who aren't also (infinitely deep) subcultures. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.155.184|70.31.155.184]] 15:06, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
** Randall is using the term hyperbolically — his point is that subcultures have ludicrous amounts of detail, not necessarily infinite. [[Special:Contributions/108.233.253.211|108.233.253.211]] 18:26, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
*** Half of me disagrees with you, with the other half in an argument with itself over from which crazy straw will Paris Hilton look best drinking. [[Special:Contributions/146.186.149.47|146.186.149.47]] 18:49, 16 August 2012 (UTC)
**** Still, even people so crazy they are kept in straitjacket all the time can have only several dozens of personalities ... there's not enough space in brain for infinite. -- [[Special:Contributions/89.177.52.2|89.177.52.2]] 09:36, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
** I still believe Randall's point was not the infinite detail, but self-similarity. Regardless on whether you look at something very popular or a niche - you'll always find exactly the same social structures. [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 06:05, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
** Funny, I was just reading the article http://www.economist.com/node/21560559 -- And while they're not infinite, there's a damn lot of (microbial) subcultures within a human too!

* Isn't there any reference to the [http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html Open Letter to Hobbyists] and the famous hacker Eric Raymond?
** I keep coming back to this page to see who "Eric" is. I don't think it's Eric Raymond (no apparent connection, from what I can see). Any insights? [[User:Zelmo|Zelmo]] ([[User talk:Zelmo|talk]]) 03:56, 18 August 2012 (UTC)