https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.80.5&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T10:31:14ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1479:_Troubleshooting&diff=85149Talk:1479: Troubleshooting2015-02-25T16:39:20Z<p>141.101.80.5: </p>
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<div>You could also move the off-screen window back in view by Alt+Space, M to initiate window move, then press any arrow key and your mouse will then be able to move the window back into view. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.223}}<br />
:That's a solution that also relies on obscure knowledge (that modal dialogs have a Move command and the hotkey necessary to access it), so it isn't any better than the solution provided in the strip. '''AND''' it requires that the user know where offscreen the dialog is located. Mistakenly believing it is, for example, to the right of the visible screen and therefore moving it left will only make the problem worse it the unseen window is in actuality to the left already. Given the 75% or better odds that the user will guess wrong where the dialog lies, using the Move command would be a notably worse choice then changing screen resolution.- Equinox [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.120|199.27.128.120]] 16:25, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Actually this does work for all Windows machines and something I've done repeatedly (it's a lot faster than waiting for your video card to repeatedly reconfigure the screen). Once you hit Alt-Space M followed by ANY arrow key, the window will actually be stuck to your mouse pointer; you click it to "drop" the window back onto the page. And yes, the idea that a keyboard arrow key will cause it to be mouse-driven makes no sense [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 17:50, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::: Exactly. Anyone with windows can test this. Still works in 8, it's been around since XP at least. {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.7}}<br />
:::: Since at least 3.0 (and possibly earlier), when using a desktop computer with only a keyboard was a very real possibility. (Also, the window decorations in 3.0 and 3.1 suggested the keyboard shortcuts: Alt-Space activated the window menu represented by the long bar, Alt-Minus activated the window menu represented by the short bar in multiple document interface applications.) --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.101|199.27.133.101]] 07:46, 29 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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As a matter of fact this is a common problem if you often use a dual screen setup with a laptop when you use it on the move without the second screen. If you just want to close the windows, a Esc on a alert windows or alt+F4 (or your system equivalent)will usually solve this problem. For resizeable windows, Windows offers the Win+left/right combination to move a window to specific parts of the screen. I don7t think you really need to change the resolution for this all the time, it's clearly overkill. [[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 06:40, 28 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal<br />
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:On a dual screen setup you can use 'Win key + Shift + Left/Right key' to shift the window left or right between monitors. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:37, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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::Note that the Win-left/right and Win-Shift-left/right key combinations are only supported in Windows 7 or later versions. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.27|173.245.55.27]] 13:17, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Yes, I'm also familiar with this kind of thing (the strip, I mean, not specifically the last comment). The general form is that a casual (or even expert!) user expects something from the interface but some historic programmer (of UI or application) has caused the 'obvious' continuity to fail, either by ommission (e.g. checking the placement bounds of a popover window) or by being ''too'' clever in some manner. The 'stupid knowledge expert' has encountered the problem enough times to: a) find a common root to the issues, and b) stumble upon a solution. (Like the "unstick the Windows-key flag" solution to suddenly getting Run dialogues, Explorer windows and sudden minimising-all to Desktop, seemingly randomly.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.120|141.101.99.120]] 08:29, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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It amazes me how many people assume Microsoft Windows. If you aren't using MS-Windows, the key combinations suggested in the discussion so far are useless. If you are using the X Window System, you might also be seeing a system modal dialog instead of an application modal dialog, in which case, you won't be able anything but talk to that window. (System modal dialogs are usually used for very transient things like popup menus.) Using X, the "cleanup" behavior also depends on the window manager, and neither X or the window manager are part of the operating system (that abomination is now pretty much just an MS-Windows thing). --[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 10:39, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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: People tend to assume Windows because in the majority of cases that assumption is correct. In the minority of cases where the user isn't on Windows, those asking the question nearly always mention the fact in their question, or direct their question at an OS-specific topic/forum/website. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:21, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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: Mac OS X also uses a baked-in window manager. There are a bunch of apps on OS X that brand themselves as `alternative WMs', but they're usually just a contrived way of tiling windows across the screen somehow (using the built-in WM). Wanting to use a proper tiling WM was what originally drove me to GNU/Linux, long live i3wm! Anyway, this comic could possibly be construed as being related to xkcd.com/934/, which complains about browsers implementing internal WMs in the alt-text. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.103|141.101.99.103]] 11:45, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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: An OS-X modal dialog is always a sheet attached to the relevant window, so it cannot run astray. If a window does somehow go astray, then the Mission Control zoomout of all windows will still bring it back within reach. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.149|173.245.52.149]] 06:38, 6 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:I think the first option (ALT-SPACE to access the window menu, M for the move option, arrow key, mouse movement) has a near-equivalent in pretty much any OS. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.27|173.245.55.27]] 13:21, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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: True, I have a vague feeling Ms Windows would prevent this in normal situation, whereas in X Window System this would be quite expected. Also, still problems with multimonitor in 2015: full screen programs want to open in the main monitor regardless the monitor their window is in and some programs open their dialogs in the left most monitor no matter what, which is a pain if that said monitor is a CRT projector that takes several minutes to warm up...<br />
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Someone competent in web programming, please write an explanation of the title text [[User:Nyq|Nyq]] ([[User talk:Nyq|talk]]) 13:58, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:If I'm not mistaken (and I'm not an expert), a Chrome App is some sort of program (eg Flash based) that runs in the normal "browser space" - the area where you normally see web pages, and which can use Chrome features and controls. A Chrome Extension is a a program which runs in the background and can act on the browser space or the browser itself (eg open your downloads folder in a new tab with one click of a button). Extensions can also use Chrome features and controls. Sound about right? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:34, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Most likely he is on a laptop with an NVidia gpu which in recent driver versions often believe something is connected to the VGA port when this is not the case. The desktop will then think this area is valid, and allow windows to be opened there, in fact it is likely to be opened there because that part of the desktop is clean for windows and looks optimal for placing a new one. At least that is what has been happening to me for the last few months until I forced the VGA port off rather than wait for NVidia to fix their drivers or rolling them back to versions that would misrender recent games (both Windows and Linux drivers did this).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 15:41, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Goddamned this sort of thing happens on my dual monitor setup all the time. The external will be at 1366x768, and stuff will be cut off. I change it to something else, and then revert the changes and it's perfect. I keep a shortcut to the Display settings on my desktop just because of this now. And in other, similarly stupid Windows-issue related news, it's 2009+6 and [http://superuser.com/questions/61833/windows-7-taskbar-icon-highlight-sticks this crap] still isn't fixed. [[User:Schiffy|<font color="000999">Schiffy</font>]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|<font color="FF6600">Speak to me</font>]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|<font color="FF0000">What I've done</font>]]) 16:22, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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The Chrome developer site [https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/apps_vs_extensions] gives a breakdown on how Chrome apps and extensions are different. Apparently, you can have a Chrome app and a Chrome extension that do similar things, but the extension lacks the user interface, etc., and some of the more interactive features of the app. [[User:Aquarello7|Aquarello7]] ([[User talk:Aquarello7|talk]]) 16:54, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:yeah, I'm not sure what the comparison is - I wonder what an example of a product that is both an app and an extension (that aren't COMPLETELY different, that is) - something like a url shortener or twitter assistant come to mind as possibilities, but even a novice user would likely not have trouble distinguishing between an extension (something embedded in the page, a context menu option, or a shortcut through the omnibox) and an app (full page, possibly even separate window type thing) once the differences were described - though I think you can accomplish window creation in an extension, it's not designed for it, so for a developer to make an extension that can "create" a window and ALSO make an app to do the same thing seems strange and exceptional - not common enough for there to be a joke about it. I'm slightly confused. -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 18:35, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Of course, their are legitimate reasons why an application may want to display itself fully or partially off screen. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.92|173.245.50.92]] 21:29, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:This is even the basis for the best pranks (works even better if you disable some shortcuts to make it harder to close). But unless you get the keyboard interrupts, windows+D will solve the modal issue anyway[[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 02:32, 29 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal<br />
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A long time ago, when the interweb was young (think Win95/98+Napster era), this sort of 'new window creation' was common for ad popups. Create a window with the title just outside the scrren border and giggle as the user tried to delete it. I wrote a small utility back then that actually found and killed these. I used to get a lot of them. I can't seem to remember why.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.176|199.27.128.176]] 05:18, 29 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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This is one of the best comic explanations I've ever read on this wiki. Very nice job. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 15:45, 30 January 2015 (UTC)</div>141.101.80.5https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1491:_Stories_of_the_Past_and_Future&diff=851331491: Stories of the Past and Future2015-02-25T15:11:11Z<p>141.101.80.5: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1491<br />
| date = February 25, 2015<br />
| title = Stories of the Past and Future<br />
| image = stories_of_the_past_and_future.png<br />
| titletext = Little-known fact: The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flinstones theme becomes recognizable.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
''A larger version of the image is available [http://xkcd.com/1491/large/ here].''<br />
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X-axis: Date of publication.<br />
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Y-axis, "Years in the future": Number of years the story's events take place, after the story's publication.<br />
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Y-axis, "Years in the past": Number of years the story's events take place, before the story's publication.<br />
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For example, "Water Margin" was published in the 14th century (x ~= 1300) and relates events from the 12th century, about 200 years before its publication (y ~= 200 in the past).<br />
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Another example: ''{{w|The Bridge on the River Kwai}}'' was written around 1957 (actually 1952) and it was set around 13 years before (actually in 1942-43, i.e. 10 years before).<br />
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Grey area in the "Years in the future" part: Stories set in the future (from their publication's date), whose the story's events' date is already past (from now).<br />
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Grey area in the "Years in the past" part: Stories set in the past (from their publication's date), published closer to their setting than to today.<br />
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Taking the "years in the past" on the y-axis to be read as negatives like in most graphs one can write:<br />
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Dates on the lower line satisfy: y=x-2015 . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015+y and are set in the year x+y=2015+2y<br />
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Dates on the upper line satisfy: y=2015-x . Corresponding works were published in the year x=2015-y and are set in the year x+y=2015<br />
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Thus it's clear that the definitions of the lines are consistent with each other as they follow similar but inverted functions.<br />
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In the top portion of the graph, the two sides of the line are defined as "still possible" and "obsolete" (gray area). The gray area (obsolete) expands over time, the prediction (or science fiction work) that are not confirmed by reality are doomed to be obsolete. The author mark the line of the stories set in 2015; they are the expectation for our present in different past times. <br />
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In the bottom graph, the line indicates the limit in which the publishing time is nearer to the time treated in the work than to the present. The work in the gray area could be perceived as written by contemporary writers while in most cases they refer to a further past. This is expressed in the warning: "Modern audiences may not recognize which part were supposed to sound old". This is a recurrent theme in the author's work, being already formulated in [[Period_Speech]].<br />
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==Trivia==<br />
There is a hypercorrection in ''{{w|Rip Van Winkle}}'' as ''Rip van Winkel''. Washington Irving may have misspelled ''van {{w|nl:Winkel|Winkel}}''.<br />
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It's ''{{w|Les Misérables}}'' not ''Les Miserábles''. Note that French doesn't have "á".<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
Stories of the Past and Future<br />
The page shows an XY chart with the X-Axis representing "Date of Publication", and the Y-Axis showing "Years in the Future" positive, and "Years in the Past" negative.<br />
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{| {{table}}<br />
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Publication'''<br />
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Description'''<br />
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Written'''<br />
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Difference'''<br />
| align="center" style="background:#f0f0f0;"|'''Year Set In'''<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:Memoirs of the Twentieth Century|Memoirs of the Twentieth Century]]|| book written by Samuel Madden||1733||264||1997<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:Golf in the Year 2000|Golf in the Year 2000]]|| novel written by J. McCullough||1892||108||2000<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:Looking Backward|Looking Backward]]|| novel written by Edward Bellamy||1888||112||2000<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:Enoch Soames|Enoch Soames]]|| short story by Max Beerbohm||1897||100||1997<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:The Time Machine|The Time Machine]]|| novel written by H.G. Wells||1895||800,806||802,701<br />
|-<br />
| 1984||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| A Week in the Wales of the Future||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Jetsons||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Star Trek !TOS!||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 2001: A Space Odyssey||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Space: 1999||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 2010: Odyssey Two||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Star Trek: The Next Generation||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 2061: Odyssey Three||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Zero Wing||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 3001: The Final Odyssey||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Enterprise||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Back to the Future Part II||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Transformers (TV Series)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Terminator 2 (1995 Portion)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Casablanca||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Pillow Book||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| History of the Peloponnesian War||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Moby Dick||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Gospels||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Epic of Gilgamesh||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Iliad||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Ashokavadana||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Book of Genesis||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Water Margin||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| King John||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Henry IV||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Richard III||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Henry VIII||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Julius Caesar||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| King Lear||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Lest Darkness Fall||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Asterix||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Ten Commandments||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Flintstones||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (prologue)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Star Wars (IV - VI)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Star Wars (I - III)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Raptor Red||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Star Wars (VII - IX)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Ice Age||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 10,000 BC||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| 300||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Year One||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Prince of Egypt||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Downton Abbey||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Pearl Harbour||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Saving Private Ryan||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Chariots of Fire||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Blazing Saddles||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Back to the Future Part III||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Roots||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Treasure Island||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Last of the Mohicans||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| A Tale of Two Cities||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Gone With The Wind||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Gunsmoke||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Rip Van Winkel [sic]||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Les Miserábles [sic]||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Oklahoma!||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Lawrence of Arabia||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Music Man||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Annie (Play)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Annie (Movie)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Schindler's List||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Mad Men||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Evita||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Bonnie and Clyde||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Chinatown||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Gandhi||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Sandlot||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Back to the Future||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Patton||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Catch-22 (Movie)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Great Escape||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Catch-22 (Book)||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| M*A*S*H||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Grease||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Happy Days||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Platoon||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Wonder Years||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Dirty Dancing||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Right Stuff||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| JFK||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Apollo 13||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| That '70s Show||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Wolf of Wall Street||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Freaks and Geeks||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| I Love the '80s||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Bridge on the River Kwai||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| American Graffiti||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| Apocalypse Now||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| The Big Lebowski||||||||<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:United 93 (film)|United 93]]|| film directed by Paul Greengrass||2006||-5||2001<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the '90s (U.S. TV series)|I Love the '90s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2004||-14||1990<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:Hotel Rwanda|Hotel Rwanda]]|| film directed by Terry George||2004||-10||1994<br />
|-<br />
| [[Wikipedia:I Love the 2000s|I Love the 2000s]]|| TV miniseries on VH1||2014||-14||2000<br />
|-<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
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Mouse-over text: Little known fact - The 'Dawn of Man' opening sequence in 2001 cuts away seconds before the Flintstones theme becomes recognizable.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Large drawings]]</div>141.101.80.5https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1473:_Location_Sharing&diff=826421473: Location Sharing2015-01-14T08:55:58Z<p>141.101.80.5: </p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1473<br />
| date = January 14, 2015<br />
| title = Location Sharing<br />
| image = location_sharing.png<br />
| titletext = Our phones must have great angular momentum sensors because the compasses really suck.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|First draft.}}<br />
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In this comic, [[Megan]] is visiting a website on her mobile phone. After loading it, the website {{w|Location-based service|asks for her location}}, which Megan gives. The choice between allowing or denying a website or app access to certain information is common among smartphones. The term "location sharing" specifically refers to when a smartphone user shares her location with such an entity. An example of which is a weather app which would need your location in order to find the correct forecast.<br />
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Megan is then asked her {{w|momentum}}, which she denies. The joke is based off of the Heisenberg {{w|uncertainty principle}}, which, in physics, states that one cannot accurately know both the location and momentum of any particle simultaneously. This principle was previously referenced directly in XKCD comic [[824]], and as a topic for discussion in XKCD comics [[1404]] and [[1416]]. In the context of the comic, Megan acknowledges the website's attempt to violate the uncertainty principle by saying "nice try".<br />
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The title text refers to the inclusion of {{w|gyroscope}}s in modern cell phones that measure angular momentum, mostly to detect when the phone is tilted, but also used in a few mobile games. Randall suggests the poor accuracy of the compasses in mobile phones (measuring the angular position) is due to the gyroscopes being too good. (If both the gyroscope and the compasses were completely accurate, it would violate the uncertainty principle). Modern phones also include varied technologies (such as GPS) to pinpoint the user's location, with varying degrees of accuracy.<br />
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There is no way to directly measure absolute momentum in a mobile phone (well, anywhere else either) . This is done normally by differentiating the position in time (from GPS signal) or by integrating the accelerometer signal. In the first case you obtain the average speed, the second technique is subject to numerical error adding up in time. <br />
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==Transcript==<br />
First Slide:<br />
This website wants to know your location<br />
Two buttons: "Allow" on left and "Deny" on right<br />
Allow is highlighted<br />
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Second Slide:<br />
No text<br />
<br />
Third Slide:<br />
This website wants to know your momentum<br />
Two buttons: "Allow" on left and "Deny" on right<br />
Deny is highlighted<br />
<br />
"Nice Try"<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>141.101.80.5