https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.229.36&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T20:55:50ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2319:_Large_Number_Formats&diff=193458Talk:2319: Large Number Formats2020-06-15T15:35:36Z<p>108.162.229.36: Comment on the fact that using inches says a lot</p>
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Wouldn't Lincoln be:<br />
Two score and nine score and six score and fourteen score and seven score and one score and eighteen score and two score and three score score and four? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.194|162.158.155.194]] 11:25, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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I've added the way I'm familiar with (Polish) to the "normal person in Europe outside of UK" caveat, but I think this still might be over-generalization to say that all Europe outside UK uses "." separator; I've actually never seen it used, but I've seen "'" used, even though I have no connection whatsoever with Switzerland. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.175|162.158.154.175]] 11:13, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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: Yes. We also use the single apostrophe as a thousands separator in Sweden. And in Excel we use the semicolon in formulas, since the comma is used for decimals. <br />
[[User:Embridioum|Embridioum]] ([[User talk:Embridioum|talk]]) 22:18, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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:: No!? Swedes commonly use blank as thousands separate, eg. 6 500 000. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.119|162.158.183.119]] 19:06, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Would love an explanation of the scientist avoiding rounding one. Would make sense to me with 2.525997..., but as 2.5997... I'm at a loss! {{unsigned ip|198.41.238.106|22:19, 12 June 2020 (UTC)}}<br />
: Truncating the number just before a digit less than 5 so that the final digit is not rounded up. (I do this all the time, and, I am a scientist.) {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.172|00:48, 13 June 2020 (UTC)}}<br />
(The above was posted (anonymously?) seconds before I could get mine in, so here it is in the original format.)<br />
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This is probably completely irrelevant but it seems Randall made a small typo when trying to show a "Scientest trying to avoid rounding up."<br />
I assume it should be 2.525997*10^13. It seems he left out a 5 and a 2 and I say such because whether he forgot the 52 or 25 is up for debate.<br />
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Relevant screenshot: [[https://i.imgur.com/NrvOivy.png]]<br />
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Also, if I'm just being completely daft and am missing something completely, please feel free to criticize me harshly and I'll go back to my little hideyhole. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.24|108.162.237.24]] 22:21, 12 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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: In reality, a scientist would probably say 6.416*10^13 cm. (Although possible counterpoint, this comic is really about the ''number'' 25,259,974,097,204, not the distance 25,259,974,097,204 inches.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.207|172.69.33.207]] 22:47, 12 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: Centimetres are not an SI unit. it would be 6.416*10^11 m [[Special:Contributions/172.68.255.14|172.68.255.14]] 01:51, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
::: Depends on field. It can easily be 35.67 light minutes. Or 2140 light seconds if you insist on SI units. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:11, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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I believe the "2.5997" was intentional, or at least I thought it was when reading it. At first I thought it was a typo, but Randall calls that number "Scientist ''trying'' to avoid rounding up" which makes me think Randall intentionally made that "mistake" as if the scientist had accidentally forgotten the first two digits (25) and used the remainder of the number (259974...), rounding it to "2.5997x10^13" [[User:Kirypto|Kirypto]] ([[User talk:Kirypto|talk]]) 23:03, 12 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: Randall fixed it! [[User:Gvanrossum|Gvanrossum]] ([[User talk:Gvanrossum|talk]]) 05:43, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: Looks like that was just a typo, Randall replaced it with a new version. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 02:55, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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As a (not so?) old British person, I approve. Let the Trillions come around later, when it's ''worth'' increasing the prefix to "level 3". Don't waste them on the more petty numbers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.122|162.158.155.122]] 23:13, 12 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
:I'm also a not-so-old British person, and therefore use the short-scale as a matter of course. But, although I'm too young to ever have used the long scale, I regret its passing, for all that. On a visual level, if a million gives us a chunk of six zeroes, there's a simple elegance to the "bi-", "tri-", "quad-" (etc.) prefixes numerating two chunks, three chunks, four chunks, etc. From a less visual, more linguistically neat perspective, if you've got a million^2, a million^3, a million^4 and so on, then using "bi" to mean two, "tri" to mean three, "quad" to mean four makes sense...because that's what those things mean.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 10:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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;"Engineering" notation omitted?<br />
I find it somewhat strange that Randall doesn't offer '''25e12''' or any of those variants ('''25.259...*10^12'''). I feel like a lot of "non-normal" people would map billion to E12 instead of requiring a single digit to the left of the decimal point. shrug [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 23:09, 12 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: Honestly I thought "engineering" notation was a myth invented by HP's calculator division. But I'm personally offended that the programmers' notation 25_259_... was omitted. Maybe Randall still uses Python 2. :-) [[User:Gvanrossum|Gvanrossum]] ([[User talk:Gvanrossum|talk]]) 05:47, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
::Well, just because HP's calculator division invented something doesn't mean it's a myth. They do have the power to invent things and had the market penetration for their names to have power and influence the world; but for sure, having used HP calculators in high school affected how I thought about numbers in college. But I think anyone who works with SI prefixes on a regular basis and reports results using them will appreciate "engineering" notation given the direct correspondence. And, of course, it also corresponds to how "normal" people use write numbers in the millions/billions/trillions, as this comic shows…which was the point… [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 12:03, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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"What's an inch?" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.119|162.158.62.119]] 23:18, 12 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: The imaginary nano-scale multiple of the speed of light times Planck's constant. Which, dimensionally, would seem to be kg.m³/s²? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.73|162.158.154.73]] 00:15, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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As an article pointed out to me the other day that seemed obvious after it was said it's a non-tariff trade barrier used as American protectionism that doesn't get tariffed back. {{unsigned ip|172.69.63.81|00:10, 13 June 2020 (UTC)}}<br />
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Can someone explain the set theory notation? {{unsigned ip|172.68.255.14|01:56, 13 June 2020 (UTC)}}<br />
: You can use only sets to construct the natural numbers, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_number#Constructions_based_on_set_theory - {{unsigned ip|172.68.215.76|02:20, 13 June 2020 (UTC)}}<br />
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It seems nobody has pointed out that the power of 10 in the title text is really just the log(x) of the number, which is in fact very common in scientific contexts -> log(25,259,974,097,204) = 13.4024 [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:31, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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The alternative would be for him to write 10^13.402432900872993447734410070128 (Rounded up). Notation that produces a longer string of digits than the original number seems useless on all fronts but somehow even more fun. I like the current explanation, though. It was insightful, IMO. -B- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.126|162.158.106.126]] 17:14, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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We have kept the olden ways here in the north. Miljon (10^6), miljard (10^9), biljon (10^12), biljard (10^15). Also, "biljard" is the same word as the game of pool in Swedish.<br />
[[User:Embridioum|Embridioum]] ([[User talk:Embridioum|talk]]) 07:17, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
:Another thing an Older British Person might argue about is Billiards, the cue-and-ball game. Often, among all the vaiations, it was the three-ball version (white and white-spot cueballs, for each player, and red ball as the common target) on either pocketted or non-pocketted tables (the former mostly as a sop to using an unmodified snooker table) or, explicitly, Bar Billiards with target holes and obstacle pegs (quite common as early coin-operated pay-to-play tables). Only by succumbing to the americanism was Pool (usually 15-ball, spots+stripes+8ball) ever called billiards. Well, ''I'' thought that was interesting... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.136|162.158.159.136]] 12:49, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
::"Why sure I'm a billiard player, certainly mighty proud to say, I'm always mighty proud to say it. I consider that the hours I spend with a cue in my hand are golden." -Harold Hill [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.60|108.162.216.60]] 14:34, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Also Italian uses the long scale for large numbers, and also in Italian the word for the game of pool coincides with 10^15. Albeit I have to say that I've never heard anyone use bilione and biliardo referring to numbers. We usually stop at miliardo, saying things like "un milione di miliardi" when we need to say those large numbers, or use the scientific notation. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.198.106|172.68.198.106]] 09:04, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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While we're on different languages, how about this one: 1262998704860-vingt-quatre - French person. --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 11:11, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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:Russian uses the short scale, like million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, etc. But it calls a billion a milliard, and a thousand milliards is a trillion. Why? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.195|172.69.68.195]] 18:09, 13 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: Sounds to me like Russia 'inherited' Milliards from its usage by trade partners at one point in time when that was a number people were starting to want to use seriously, but adopted the short-Trillion from a later time when (different) people were needing to discuss higher values and adopt terms for these into their own tongue. If you check the chequered history of what-means-what (before Short and Long scales were mad3 at least self-consistent among their adherents) you could reasonably blame/credit many different sources for each development. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.249|162.158.158.249]] 01:03, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Why *that* number? OK, so it's a big number (well, maybe not compared to all the other numbers). One oddity is that the prime factors are:<br />
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2 2 7 11 82012902913<br />
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7 11? Subliminal advertising? If you turn the big prime upside-down calculator style, you get: eigzogzlos8<br />
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I'm surprised that 5 and 23 are missing. In fact, that's almost suspicious.<br />
: I think you're overthinking this, or maybe you got nerdsniped. Randall probably just chose a large number with different digits and being a fan of space, this one worked for him. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:40, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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I thought in all or most of Europe the thousands separator was a space not a dot. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.4|162.158.238.4]] 03:09, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: That's actually something interesting I learned from this explanation. I always assumed everyone either used commas (US and UK) or dots (pretty much the rest of at least Europe, never thought much about other continents in this regard) and grouped them in threes. Apparently I was very wrong. The Indian system of grouping digits looks a bit confusing to me, but apparently it corresponds well to their language. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:32, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Please refrain from using new sections in the comment section! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:43, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: What's so bad about them? At least in a comic like this one, where people are actually discussing/commenting on different aspects of the comic, I find sections very helpful to keep track of different conversations. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:22, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Re: Software developer, the "power" operand varies wildly across programming languages, some do indeed use ^, some go for ** and some have to resort to something like a pow(x,y) function, but in the languages/dialects I use most the ** operator binds closer than (has order of precedence over) the * operator, so x*10**y would not be (10x)<sup>y</sup> as currently suggested in the Explanation. But ^ is the bitwise operator (lower precedence than *), so would do something even more 'interesting' to the result. Now, obviously, different codes for different coves and all - but I'm dredging my memory for all kinds of obscure scripting languages I've not used for years (what does COBOL do..? Forth is Reverse Polish. Lisp(is(more(Forward(Polish))))) not sure which one Randall is basing it on (if it's not just geek-sniping at its finest). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.234|141.101.107.234]] 10:47, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: The link I provided for "every common programming language" which someone edited to say "most common programming languages" is a site that shows what some code snippets look like in some huge number of languages that includes all the common ones. That's why I said "every" for supporting the scientific notation with e for the exponent, it really is all of them. There is much more variation in the syntax for exponentiation, more using ** than ^ and quite a few only having a function to call instead of an operator symbol. However, every one that does use ^ for exponentiation would parse x*10^13 be x times the 13th power of 10. [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 06:25, 15 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Speaking as a set theorist, I'd also describe that number as "Pretty small, just slightly bigger than 1." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.73|162.158.154.73]] 11:44, 14 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
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No comment in the explanation about the fact that inches are a pretty inadequate unit to express astronomical distances in the first place?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.224|162.158.155.224]] 08:57, 15 June 2020 (UTC)<br />
: I actually thought it funny that using ''inches'' in the first place is telling in itself a lot about who one is (most likely American, or at least from the Anglo-sphere).</div>108.162.229.36https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=92:_Sunrise&diff=7855692: Sunrise2014-11-09T16:49:03Z<p>108.162.229.36: /* Explanation */ I think this will suffice to explain why 4am is a bad time.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 92<br />
| date = April 21, 2006<br />
| title = Sunrise<br />
| image = sunrise.jpg<br />
| titletext = Sometimes, I sit on top of parking decks and watch the sun rise. I feel like I should have a guitar or something.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|The title text isn't explained. Why is 4am a bad time to meet other people?}}<br />
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Much like the [http://4amproject.org/ 4am Project], [[Cueball]] finds a certain beauty in the way the world looks without billions of humans crawling around on it. He thinks of this as a secret place which thrills him. He wishes to find other people like him who are wandering at this time rather than sleeping so that they can meet and talk to each other. But then he suggests that it is a bad time and place to meet people, possible because extremely few people are so unusual that they wait for the sun to rise. Considering this he goes back to his house, probably disappointed, gets ready and goes to a club which is much safer place to meet people but not as unusual and exciting as what he wants.<br />
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This comic shows Cueball's tendency towards defying the norms and exploring unusual things and circumstances.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is on the street. Behind him is a house with a lawn.]<br />
:Cueball's thoughts: I love the time just before sunrise. It's quiet; no one is ever just walking about. It's like a secret. I always hope that I'll find someone else quietly hiding from sleep, and we'll see each other and sit and talk. I guess this is a bad place to meet people. I wish it weren't.<br />
:[Cueball goes into the house, brushes his teeth, and leaves the house again.]<br />
:[Cueball is at a club, disco balls in the ceiling and a giant woofer. Many people are dancing around him.]<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Romance]]</div>108.162.229.36https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1345:_Answers&diff=63125Talk:1345: Answers2014-03-21T12:31:54Z<p>108.162.229.36: Restoring the line-break between the first two comments.</p>
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<div>Not true. We know that sleep is important for storing memories and cleaning out toxins. http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/ninds-17.htm [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.89|108.162.222.89]] 11:06, 21 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Stupid personalized jokes and the like in this explanation... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.174|173.245.53.174]] 11:19, 21 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I'm not sure this is the correct explanation.<br />
The paradox of being confronted daily with a mystery and not trying to solve it is inconsistent with the title text. So this explanation doesn't sound right to me.<br />
I think it's more about defining humanity as seeking for answers, while spending a huge amount of time closing off from the world for apparently no reason.<br />
In other words, IMHO, it's not about "[not being] distracted by this mystery", but about "not being able to investigate any mystery during 1/3 of our life even if we want to".<br />
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Also, with my explanation, the original puchline "touché" works better than the the current explanation's suggestion "Which is why it keeps me awake all night". -- Shirluban@[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.36|108.162.229.36]] 12:28, 21 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.229.36https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1345:_Answers&diff=63124Talk:1345: Answers2014-03-21T12:28:44Z<p>108.162.229.36: </p>
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<div>Not true. We know that sleep is important for storing memories and cleaning out toxins. http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/ninds-17.htm [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.89|108.162.222.89]] 11:06, 21 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
Stupid personalized jokes and the like in this explanation... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.174|173.245.53.174]] 11:19, 21 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I'm not sure this is the correct explanation.<br />
The paradox of being confronted daily with a mystery and not trying to solve it is inconsistent with the title text. So this explanation doesn't sound right to me.<br />
I think it's more about defining humanity as seeking for answers, while spending a huge amount of time closing off from the world for apparently no reason.<br />
In other words, IMHO, it's not about "[not being] distracted by this mystery", but about "not being able to investigate any mystery during 1/3 of our life even if we want to".<br />
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Also, with my explanation, the original puchline "touché" works better than the the current explanation's suggestion "Which is why it keeps me awake all night". -- Shirluban@[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.36|108.162.229.36]] 12:28, 21 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.229.36https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1341:_Types_of_Editors&diff=625231341: Types of Editors2014-03-12T12:09:14Z<p>108.162.229.36: Transcript : fixing HTML tags</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1341<br />
| date = March 12, 2014<br />
| title = Types of Editors<br />
| image = types_of_editors.png<br />
| titletext = m-x machineofdeath-mode<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
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{{w|WYSIWYG}}, pronounced, "whizz-ee-whig", is an acronym that stands for "What you see is what you get". In regards to computers, it refers to text editors in which the user can see exactly what will be published as he is typing it. The comic compares various types of editors. <br />
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A WYSIWYG editor displays the edited document in its final, typically printed, form. <br />
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A WYSIN(not)WYG, is similar to an HTML source editor, where you enter raw HTML code and are (in a different view) presented with the rendered appearance of the page. The em tag marks text that has stress emphasis<br />
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The WYSITUTWYG ("... is totally unrelated to ...") editor apparently takes your input and proceeds to ignore it entirely, instead displaying totally unrelated words.<br />
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Finally, the WYSIHYD ("... is how you die") "editor" is not an editor at all, but a pun on the multiple meanings of the word "get": If you see "eaten by wolves", you will get ... eaten by wolves. The white-on-black writing is probably a reference to the anime ''Death Note''.<br />
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The title text is a fictitious command to the highly extensible {{w|Emacs}} text editor. Emacs operates in various "modes", which are customizations for specific purposes. Placing Emacs into "Machine of Death" mode would turn it into a WYSIHYD editor. Another fictitious emacs mode can be found in comic [[378]]. "Machine of Death" is a reference to the 2010 book [http://machineofdeath.net/ Machine of Death], with [[Randall Munroe]] being one of the writers. It is a collection of short stories about a device than can predict how people die from a drop of their blood. In many of the stories very unusual deaths are predicted, often in a very literal way.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
[There are four boxes, each with different headings over them.]<br />
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[First Box] <br />
WYSIWYG What you see is what you get<br />
What you see: ''Hi''<br />
What you get: ''Hi''<br />
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[Second Box]<br />
WYSINWYG What you see is not what you get<br />
What you see: &lt;em&gt;Hi&lt;/em&gt;<br />
What you get: ''Hi''<br />
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[Third Box]<br />
WYSITUTWYG What you see is totally unrelated to what you get<br />
What you see: &lt;em&gt;Hi&lt;/em&gt;<br />
What you get: The HORSE is a noble animal.<br />
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[Last Box]<br />
WYSIHYD What you see is how you die<br />
What you see: EATEN BY WOLVES<br />
What you get: Eaten By Wolves</div>108.162.229.36