Search results

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Black Hat|Comics featuring ...hat style hat, that quickly evolved to have the current shape and style of a {{w|pork pie hat}}, already used in [[45: Schrodinger]].

...yone is so hungry for BAD news, but fine, I'll give in to feedback and add a dark mode. This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemi

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe|Comics feat ...e time I climb things, open strange doors, and go to goth clubs dressed as a frat guy so I can stand around and look terribly uncomfortable. At frat par

...a portmanteau, from the words motor and hotel. A {{w|neologism}} is simply a newly coined word that is not yet in common use. ...this new word is one of the very words used in the process. This is called a [[917|meta]] or "self-referential" joke.

...sting resources {{w|reinventing the wheel}}, whilst offering their clients a certain amount of simplicity and compatibility between vendors. ...ensome. As a result, someone eventually takes on the challenge of creating a universal standard that everyone can rally around.

[[File:Terrible small logo.png|200px|right]]{{TOC}}{{Quote|A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.|[https://xkcd.com xkcd.co ...mics are posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and are accompanied by a [[Title text|title text]], serving as Randall's commentary.

This is a list of comics from 1 to 500. {{comicsrow|486|2008-10-08|I am Not a Ninja}}

...x|right|thumb|Logo by [[User:Alek2407]], made transparent and resized by [[User:Omega]].]] Here is a tour of various entry points to the site:

...live, or where they came from determines which comic they actually see. As a result, there are actually multiple comics that went up on April Fools' Day ...he comic, refers to the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok)

...a string is "s", e.g. "s/old/new/g" replaces any occurrence of "old" with "new". The title therefore contains the command to change "keyboard" into "leopa ...And Chair" or {{w|PEBKAC}}, which means that the problem is caused by the user, not by any failure of the computer. However, due to the substitution, it i

...]] posted both on LiveJournal and on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com] after the new site was launched. This comic was published on the same day across both sit ...ic is both funny (as it is unexpected) and not funny (as the last line was a non sequitur and therefore there is no climax) at the same time, thus provi

...text = The typical internet user (who wants to share) has an IQ of 147 and a 9-inch penis. Better than the reverse, I guess ...gle to show how many hits (or web pages) are returned as relevant based on a given search replacing <X> by different numbers.

...r situation from a previous xkcd strip. In each panel is written a part of a song similar to the song from the Discovery Channel commercial. Most of the panels are references to previous xkcd strips, but a few are not.

| titletext = The top computer champion at Seven Minutes in Heaven is a Honda-built Realdoll, but to date it has been unable to outperform the huma ...ars in parenthesis in the comic are the year that the game was mastered by a computer):

...holding a {{w|smartphone}}, tells [[White Hat]] that everyone now carries a computer in their pocket, and refers to how it is always on-line (connected ...{w|cryogenics}}''' (hence the title) far enough for humans to survive such a deep freeze, and then she climbs into her homemade chamber and plans to ski

| titletext = I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wil ...y spread misinformation but make said misinformation seem reliable through a process of "circular reporting".

The comic shows - in human language - part of the conversations that a browser and web server do in order to get the right page. The protocol they ...going to be in portrait orientation, so restyling it accordingly) is often a continuing problem. As are the continual intrusive popovers 'suggesting' th

| title = Linux User at Best Buy ...erating systems and software. As such, the subtext is that somebody buying a complete pre-packaged home computer system at Best Buy wouldn't know or car

...o read (and potentially 'grep' for incriminating terms) and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon. The comic is narrated by [[Cueball]] as ...ve days (Monday to Friday) and not over the usual schedule of three comics a week. These are all the comics in [[:Category:1337|1337 series]]:

...tudy was overseen by Dvorak himself). And the 'slow typists down' thing is a myth. Also EMACS RULES VI DROOLS WOOOOOOO! ...e QWERTY layout, and were unwilling to take the time and effort to learn a new one.

| titletext = I hear in some places, you need to fill one form of ID to buy a gun, but two to pay for it by check. It's interesting to see who has what i ...get right, since launching the missile at the wrong target could result in a disastrous unintended loss of life or property damage.

...eference to the very popular comic [[149: Sandwich]], which has now become a geek culture catch-phrase. It is a recurring theme in ''FoxTrot'' for Jason to offer to make substitute comics

...ning in it all at once. [[Cueball]] comments about this while hanging from a balloon, which brings to mind the expanded perspective over the landscape a ...n outside that panel. The image displayed at first turns out to be part of a huge landscape, filled with big or small things, humorous details, people h

...r software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and rich input device capability for networked computers. ...the server do not need to be on the same system; X11 frequently runs over a network connection. This adds considerably to the complexity of the mechani

[[Cueball]] is buying some new speakers for his television, and asks [[Megan]] if they have the right cord ...s Megan protests, calling his ideas "a joke." An exasperated Cueball tells a {{w|Lightbulb joke|lightbulb joke}}, the content of which implies that the

...e first panel, [[Megan]] describes G+ as 'not {{w|Facebook}}'. Facebook is a popular social networking site.<sup>&#91;[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''cita ...grow tired of Facebook, its arcane policies, its cavalier attitude toward user privacy and/or its general disdain for end users, and people want to leave

...to search for phrases and then charts the results. This one is charted as a timeline, whereas 715 was charted as line graphs. It is a list of things predicted or announced by anyone at any time (the ones you s

...eds upgrading, or perhaps they are between projects, or simply waiting for a go-ahead. Coders still need to make themselves available to perform emerge {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} is a keyboard layout that was proposed in 1936 as an alternative to the existing

...ractical modern project where alternatives exist, where anything more than a {{w|%22Hello,_World!%22_program|Hello World}} could be awkward to implement ...eeds to be completely rewritten if one wants to port it to a computer with a different architecture.

| titletext = This really is a true story, and she doesn't know I put it in my comic because her wifi hasn ...ted, installed, and configured by users, it tends to either attract or, in a few cases, create individuals who take disproportionate pleasure in, and de

...stagram.com/about/legal/terms/ terms of use], allowing the network to sell user-uploaded images, without profit to the content generators. This infuriated ...lls his Cueball-like friend about his problem with Chad, who just sent him a note telling him that he no longer wants to store all this stuff that Cueba

...er vehicles, but the reduced overhead is worth it. There was one week when a wheel of cheese got dangerously close to the first page, though. ...have actually reinvented the wheel at one point in time - a {{w|tire}} is a modern improvement to the wheel, which reduces bumps and shocks that people

| title = New Car | titletext = Somewhere out there is a company that has actually figured out how to enlarge penises, and it's help

...blem of dissuading {{w|Spamming|spammers}} from joining and participating. A common solution to this problem is the use of various systems to prevent au This captcha and spamming prevention also has a downside, in that the time it takes to "prove you're human" is sometimes so

...~', 'xX_StAr TrEk InTo DaRkNess_Xx', and 'Star Trek lnto Darkness' (that's a lowercase 'L'). ...nating between making and reverting the change, and usually accompanied by a more-or-less heated debate on the talk page.

...l cryptographic keys generated by the system. The problem was created when a Debian developer removed one line of code that was crucial, even though it ...ing|blacklists}}, thereby preventing their use and forcing users to create new keys. [[Randall]] claims that he was affected by that when uploading this c

| titletext = The G1, especially with the new Android upgrade, is way better than I originally thought. ...ch was a location-aware feature of Google Maps that allowed a mobile phone user to allow certain people to view their current location. The reason it is wo

...the addresses, using them as a modern tip jar for high-tech users. Here's a list of all the addresses mentioned in this article that have appeared in t ...added to [https://xkcd.com/bitcoin xkcd.com/bitcoin], which today returns a 404 error. The first web archive of the page is dated [https://web.archive.

...e actually caused by viruses are never suspected by people to be caused by a virus. ...(too slow to start up, too much clutter on screen, etc.), or user error. A virus can potentially cause those symptoms, but it's much more common for t

...ity of YouTube comments was novel. Since then, this observation has become a widely accepted truism about the Internet. In this case, the {{rw|Moon_land ...n the grounds that he had provoked Aldrin to the point where the punch was a justified response.

...accounts on new websites somewhat indiscriminately. Thus, one could create a simple Web service to collect users' usernames, email addresses, and passwo In panel 7, the comic suddenly develops a philosophical and ethical bent. Black Hat reveals that he has already carri

...etext = Edward Tufte's 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' is a fantastic book, and should be required reading for anyone in either the sci ...ve of blogs. This comic proposes a new structure for defining all blogs by a {{w|fractal}} of blogs.

...-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take. A [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ larger version] of this picture can be found by

| titletext = StackSort connects to StackOverflow, searches for 'sort a list', and downloads and runs code snippets until the list is sorted. ...e given up on writing the sorted-merge part of the sort, which is why it's a ''{{Wiktionary|half-hearted}}'' merge sort, but instead concatenates the ha

...maller numbers he has to SAVE lives. The birthrate channel is even more of a mixed bag. ...route to the target, automatically using another route if a connection or a transmitting host fails.

...br><br><span style="color:grey">Different title text:</span> The dog gains a pound for every $10 donated to the Wikimedia Foundation via this link. Curr ...ented a competition for students to see who could come closest to breaking a {{w|Skein (hash function)|Skein hash}} but also an aid appeal for the Wikim

{{w|Adblock}} is a browser extension which prevents advertisements from being displayed. Presu ...in fact, sites that use this branding in their advertisements and/or their user interface which is likely what inspired [[Randall]] to write this comic. Cu

This comic was probably a reaction to the installation service {{w|Ninite}} [http://www.reddit.com/r/ ...of software changes (and changes in the way Adobe allows users to download new software) could result in confused users. In this case, the comic is saying

...to River, "adequate" vacuuming systems drain the human body at about half a liter per second. ...ig certain measurements are (e.g., how long an inch or a foot is, how much a pound weighs). This comic points out that people who were brought up using

| title = A New CAPTCHA Approach | image = a new captcha approach.png

...ag; so when a user searches for "Country breakup music," they will receive a list of {{w|Country music|country}} songs about breaking up. ...t the tags well. When Cueball asks for a second example, Megan gives him a new example for the same set of tags, which is really impressive.

...while reading words or text, seeing sequences of numbers or month names in a distinct and fixed shape ({{w|Number form}}), etc. In [[1608: Hoverboard]] {{w|Color-blindness}} is one of a number of conditions in which a person cannot distinguish certain pairs of colors that other people without

*A larger version of the image is available [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/onli ...by size and related points of interest. We also have a "Sea of Memes" and a small "Straits of WEB 2.0."

...al music, tying it back to the ''Mother of All Demos'' title. The third is a reference to contemporary internet memes, specifically [http://knowyourmeme ...as published. While it might have seemed like an advantage at the time, in a modern context this aspect of the internet appears disturbing.

...ds remaining" part indicates that there is a time limit for this, and thus a ''quick response'' is necessary. ...QR code reads, "To continue reading," and the caption reads, "How to trap a webcomic reader in an infinite loop". The QR code is identical to the previ

...rly aiming to disrupt the entire Google Glass project. "Silicon Valley" is a term for the southern San Francisco Bay Area where many technologically up- ...ve not thought this excuse through. He then tries to get them to look into a laser light.

...al Astronomical Union}} (IAU) [http://www.iau.org/science/news/179/ issued a document] about public naming of astronomical objects. It stated, "IAU full ...s the case of {{w|Boaty McBoatface}}, in which the internet decided to dub a British research vessel "Boaty McBoatface". The boat was given the name {{w

...es important for people to know what type of communication is preferred by a recipient, or most likely to reach the recipient quickly and generate the m ...e-mail configured to make an audible alert, possibly by being forwarded to a cell phone.

*A larger version of the picture can be found [https://xkcd.com/1256/large her ...nerally made based on popular searches by other people. From time to time, a particularly strange or hilarious one may be found, as is evidenced in this

...g time passes before he finally points this out. He has probably submitted a post and is awaiting for comments that are not coming. Cueball might actual ...lt with by human moderators in a timely fashion. In short, the internet as a whole does not reward or reinforce firstposting the way it once did pre-201

...4 {{w|Tab (GUI)|tabs}} on {{W|Google Chrome}} on a {{w|1080p}} screen, the user can no longer see any text on the tabs. Long before this point (~20 tabs), ...in the background, or when a site with such a video automatically opens in a tab that does not become the active tab when it opens.

...lways installing tons of weird experimental keyboards because it serves as a good reminder that nothing I was going to type was really worth the trouble ...pported by language models. Because this space is still under development, new software keyboards promising better text entry continue to appear.

...ecurity.blogoverflow.com/2011/07/a-tour-of-password-questions-and-answers/ A tour of password questions and answers] for background on salts and suitabl ...oses a great deal of information about the passwords, and does not involve a salt. This password database was recently obtained by someone and released

...mon for the websites/companies to then use that information for presenting new advertisements in the near future, or even sell it to others for ''their'' In 2013 (publishing of this comic), a recent trend was to allow harvesting of profile pictures and real names, mo

...ay ''OK Glass'' so loud that other people will notice they have these cool new glasses. This was very annoying in general! ...is even more annoying to the bystander than if he would actually have worn a real ''Google Glass'' while saying so. He thus both annoys other people, mo

| titletext = And it doesn't pop up a box every time asking you to use your real name. In fact, there's no way to ...n the documentation for the product. [[Cueball]] has found such a feature, a chat room intended to ask for help, accessible through the help page of som

This comic shows a number of common events, arranged in a grid. Each of the events flashes with its average frequency. For example, statistically a child is born somewhere on the world approximately every 0.24 seconds, or f

| titletext = New phone OS features: Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap ...new joke phone designs with many strange and useless features. It is also a reference to the recently released {{w|iPhone 12}}. However, there have onl

...ympathize with the TPP protagonist because I, too, have progressed through a surprising number of stages of life despite spending entire days stuck agai ...radical new variant of streaming gameplay videos created in early 2014 — a few days before this comic was released.

...) ARGH. How are these stupid microchips so durable?! All I want is to undo a massive industrial process with household tools! ...random silicon crystal can't do anything at all until someone has applied a complex industrial process to it that allows it to read and execute compute

| titletext = Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story ...06: xkcloud]] released on Wednesday April 1st, 2015. This comic was posted a day earlier than normal (on Tuesday instead of Wednesday) to honor {{w|Apri

...off the shoulder of Orion, c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. I should probably patch OpenSSL. ...ic library. This bug was publicly revealed on Monday, 7 April 2014. Due to a programming error in OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f — meaning the

...e to let LiveJournal die out like the Morse Code, Cueball describes it as "a nice place to go for some peace and quiet". :[Cueball and Megan are lying in a grassy, lonely plain.]

...res root). If you experience sudden tingling, nausea, or vomiting, perform a factory reset immediately. Do not submerge in water; phone will drown. Exte ...de of mobile-technology related issues that, when brought together, create a general satire of smartphone advertising. It was the first entry in the ong

| titletext = But still, my scheme for creating and saving user config files and data locally to preserve them across reinstalls might be u ...point of view of a {{w|smartphone}} user but have already been around for a long time on desktop or {{w|laptop}}/notebook computers.

...doxical nature of such a bottom is the proposition that the world rests on a semi-infinite stack of turtles. ...18th. One recent version appears in {{W|Stephen Hawking}}'s 1988 book {{W|A Brief History of Time}}, which starts:

...o create a useful filename, or those who don't understand what constitutes a useful filename are setting themselves up for future frustration. ...ave "copy 2", "copy 3", etc. appended. When searching documents later, the user may struggle to remember which copy is the correct one to use.

| titletext = My New Year's resolution for 2014-54-12/30/14 Dec:12:1420001642 is to learn these ...any {{w|New Year's resolutions}}, and even though this is just before {{w|new year}} 2015, his resolution is to find out what an email is!

...e difficult to extract notes from them). As songs play several dozen notes a minute (and some songs, many more), this would lead to the flooding of frie ...lack MIDI" music files would contain thousands, or even millions of notes (a notable example being "Pi" by TSMB2 [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ7ipUQo

...xt = There was a schism in 2007, when a sect advocating OpenOffice created a fork of Sunday.xlsx and maintained it independently for several months. The ...of the number and degrees of internal dependencies and interactions within a piece of software).

...o right) a {{w|Macintosh}}, several old laptops, an {{w|Alienware}} tower, a {{w|Nintendo}} {{w|VirtualBoy}}, an old desktop with the cover off, and an ...[2150: XKeyboarCD]], where the word Keyboard, has an X before the word and a C before the D with the xkcd letters capitalized.

*This is a valiant effort to create a transcript for the ''continually''(?) growing dynamic comic [[1506: xkcloud *From there you have to choose either a picture to a text or a text to an image.

Here is a collection from the dynamic comic [[1506: xkcloud]] of pictures presumably ...re into the editor. The method has been pasted in at the bottom of [[#Copy a picture into the comic|this page]].

...andall found his own method to determine which words would go on his list, a list that is revealed in the book. (It can also be found [https://www.xkcd. ...ockpit controls), and the little bags of water you're made of (cells). See a summary below and also the [[#Things in this book by page|entire index from

...n their names. Various Internet groups have speculated on who would win in a fight between characters from different films. It may be relevant that the ...ing on the lower right of the bracket features a several retail stores and a film.

...tallman. They stare in silence. "This," one of them finally says, "This is a man who BELIEVED in something." ...hat he stopped using Macs in 2001, after Mac OS had been superseded by the new and then-buggy {{w|Mac OS X}}.

...ish pop girl group formed in 1994. It consists of five girls who each have a "spice girl" nickname. The five girls with their respective nicknames are: ...ted through a door in a postapocalyptic dystopia''. This is a reference to a trope in movies set in such postapocalyptic settings (which Randall presuma

*Below is a table of 2252 feed entries, featuring 1528 different pictures and 1993 diff *[[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks]] contains a list of all discovered permalinks, which reuse different combinations of th

...where White Hat is, we see that a giant {{w|spider}} has imprisoned him in a web and is talking to Cueball, which explains how the keyboard mashing "Whi ...really been cast into doubt by Cueball's inquiries about how "7" got into a string of home-row keystrokes.

This comic is a series of programming jokes about a ridiculous new programming language, perhaps inspired by {{w|Mathematica}} and {{w|Wolfram ...se mixing, since it can hugely simplify expressions. Variation and lack of a clearly more intuitive behaviour leads some languages to have weird results

...hysterectomy" or "8 alcohol drinks a day", surely would be interesting for a medical insurance company to know. ...of that and now concerns have moved to internet privacy only because it's "new". What is perceived as dangerous or worrying follows trends and fashions no

..."We made another one®©™" is a reference to how phone companies release new phones very often, and the trademarks that surround the phone itself. From ...udged by the wristband) would also preclude inserting AA batteries, unless a protruding battery compartment is hidden out of view on the back of the pho

...until, in 2006, the {{w|International Astronomical Union}} (IAU) created a new definition for the word 'planet' designed to exclude Pluto and similar obje ...ttle more confusing'. This is in line with Black Hat's characterization as a mischief-maker.

| titletext = Yes, it took a lot of work to make the cards and pieces, but it's worth it--the players ar ...([[Hairy]], [[Ponytail]], and [[Hairbun]]) of a local board game club – a hobbyist group that gets together to play board games. However, the board g

...it, a lot of "things I want to do" are just learning about and discussing new tools for tinkering with the chain. The comic is about how much time a geek might spend on a computer just to maintain the system itself, rather than actually using it

| titletext = And a different ghost has replaced me in the bedroom. ...yer is shown as ghostly and transparent, because it is only a recording of a previous game and it does not interact in any way with the game currently b

| titletext = When I was a kid, I asked my parents why our houses didn't have toothpaste pipes in addi ...ttps://amazon.com/primenow Prime Now]. In served areas, which include {{w|New York City|Manhattan/Brooklyn}}, {{w|Baltimore}}, {{w|Atlanta}}, {{w|Miami}}

| titletext = Due to a typo, I initially found a forum for serious Fleshlight enthusiasts, and it turns out their highest-en In this comic, [[Cueball]] has acquired or built a new high powered {{w|flashlight}} ("torch" in British English), which he wants

A different user-made version for the picture using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit can be fou ...most {{w|Meteorology#Meteorologists|meteorologists}} only provide us with a five-day forecast.

...This is a platforming minigame, in which you collect coins while riding on a hoverboard. The title refers to a {{w|hoverboard}} (which resembles a hovering skateboard without wheels) which has been most [https://www.youtub

...m|operating system}}, an {{w|Apache HTTP Server|Apache}} {{w|Web server}}, a {{w|MySQL}} {{w|Database}}, and the {{w|PHP}} programming language. In this Another example of a tech stack is featured in [[2166: Stack]].

...t would be pretty unfair to give to someone a blank version of this map as a 'how many states can you name?' quiz. (If you include Alaska and Hawaii, yo ...them in the style of a jigsaw puzzle, with the end result being a map with a similar outline to the original [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/com

...ut is like a game, as the user actively adds, moves and deletes items, and new items appear based on these actions. In this way it actually more resembles ...is because the first time a computer loads this dynamic comic it can take a while.

**Please post your user name if putting it in the first section. ...Experimental gardens|experimental gardens]] that you do not wish to post a user name post them below in the experimental gardens.

...ts are used to illustrate the progress of the [[1663: Garden/Users gardens|user gardens]]. ...at octopus:<br> [[File:1663 garden Octopus garden with Cueball hand up and a black hat octopus.png]]<br>

...and the more likely it is to be "arcane bullshit" from the perspective of a 21st Century programmer. [[Randall]] seems to feel that willingness to deal with "arcane bullshit" is a "{{w|Catch 22}}" that prevents 80s arcane bullshit from being fixed. Someon

...box is clicked on but nothing is typed, the drop-down box by default shows a list of your most recent searches. Here we see a list of search queries, each of which suggests the author is perversely mis

* A [http://xkcd.com/1688/large/ larger version] of this image can be found by ...ng [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident attacked by a giant swimming rabbit], an event previously referenced as one we must never

...ne" (hence the title). The choice of the name is probably because "Cat" is a common nickname for "Catherine". ...impressive (doing backflips to eat bugs), or at least normal behavior for a cat (vomiting hairballs) would be weird, disgusting or disturbing if an adu

...e info, see blarbl(2)(3) and birb(3ahhaha I'm kidding, just Google it like a normal person. ...p]". Unix man pages are meant to provide a brief reference on the usage of a command, not extended explanations with tutorials as may be found in many h

| title = New Bug | titletext = There's also a unicode-handling bug in the URL request library, and we're storing the pass

...t = The SpaceX system carefully guides falling phones down to the surface, a process which the phones increasingly often survive without exploding. ...previous comic in the series [[1549: xkcd Phone 3]] was released just over a year before this one and the next [[1809: xkcd Phone 5]] was released almos

...at the moment... So please feel free to improve. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:44, 13 August 2016 (UTC)}} ...n being able to remove the 'incomplete' tag! [[User:BlackHat|BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]]) 19:50, 25 October 2020 (UTC)}}

| titletext = For obvious reasons, the prize is awarded at a different time of year from the others, while it's still fresh in the commi ...oto-sending app that allows the receiving user to view the photo (known as a "snap") only within 24 hours of its posting, and for only 10 seconds before

...because it was ordered on their {{w|Amazon Echo}} device. It would also be a serious inconvenience. The purchase would be quite bulky and useless, not e ...d also be noted that such purchasing services encourage the user to set up a PIN code to fend off such exploits.)

...nix}}-like systems, {{W|Cron|cron}} is a system utility that runs tasks on a schedule. This program has been around since the early days of Unix and ha ...age like "You have new mail" when this mailbox file is updated, but if the user doesn't know how to check this mail file, they will likely just ignore the

| titletext = 'Copy and paste from a random thread on a website' is the hardest to predict, and depends on the specific website, pr This comic humorously lists how likely computer code is to function on the user's computer based on the source of the code.

...ne but the thousands of leaf VMs scatter in the wind and start spinning up new instances wherever they land ...ng a series of nested virtual machines inside each other (creating sort of a digital version of the {{w|Droste effect}}), which would likely cause extre

...nt, but surely when they hear how much we're complaining someone will find a way to change things back. ...the way in which the user interacts with an app or program is called its "user interface" (UI). For an app, that may be the graphic design of the app, and

...owards different instant messaging protocols, framed within the context of a team trying to remain in communication while tolerating each others' differ ...AIM and Skype gradually exceeded IRC in popularity. Many users took to the new environments, but others preferred the old and familiar, hence schisms betw

...g selecting the correct network name on a settings screen, then entering a password. ...e they would not know what to do if left alone. However, they still have a reasonable chance to connect as long as someone is available to help them.

*A [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bad_map_projection_time_zones_2x.png bigger ve ...es. It was first with this comic that it became a series. The series began a month earlier with [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]] (#107). It w

...many standard tech buzzwords, and horribly misuses all of them, to create a phone that sounds impressive but self-evidently isn't to even the most igno ...phone, "We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers", is a reference to inconsistent product numbering, such as {{w|Samsung}} releasin

...just have a steady flow of metal piling up in our server room? Isn't that a problem?' 'Yeah, you should bring that up at our next bismuth meeting.' ...around the building in which the company resides. The process of showing a new employee around the business and starting to get them introduced to people

...Never give your password or bank account number to anyone who doesn't have a blue check mark next to their name. ...is another one of [[Randall|Randall's]] [[:Category:Tips|Tips]], this time a list of security tips.

...The hardest refresh requires both a Mac keyboard and a Windows keyboard as a security measure, like how missile launch systems require two keys to be tu ...buttons are mostly unnecessary - for example, in Gmail, a user will see a new message instantly.

| titletext = Each particle also has a password which allows its properties to be changed, but the cosmic censorsh ...ch as role-playing games (such as D&D) and sports after failing to provide a good definition of {{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavor}}.

...alace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn." ...ame (such as "{{w|List of nicknames of New York City|The Big Apple}}") nor a St. Louis nickname. [[Megan]] tries to correct him, but it becomes clear th

| titletext = Our new video ad campaign has our product's name shouted in the first 500 milliseco ...nd (other than basic interface sounds, such as clicking) tend to implement a separate volume control.

...months later. This comic was released the day after Apple announced their new {{w|iPhone 8}} and the higher end {{w|iPhone X}} (pronounced iPhone 10) wit ...cognition, but never stored on the device nor transmitted to the internet. A side effect may be that selfie pictures aren't possible to capture anymore,

...a massively destructive alien organism from the same series. {{w|Pern}} is a fictional human-colonized planet and the main setting of the series. Typically, when starting a series of tweets (used to post content longer than 140 characters), one wil

...ent systems by averaging both values, with little success (however this is a matter of opinion). ...s or Kelvin), one that is mostly restricted to the US. While Fahrenheit is a widely used temperature scale in the US, most other countries have already

...wait until they type in payment information, then use it to order yourself a replacement phone. ...remotely...''' The items on this sub-heading indicate the requirements of a separate device (i.e. the owner's laptop). The phrasing leaves it ambiguous

...ate!!! Thanks, @unicode, for ruling in our favor and sending troops to end New Hampshire's annexation. 🙏🚁🎖️" ...use. {{w|Unicode}} was planned as a way of solving this by providing for a single character encoding for all the various characters used in the world'

...= You can also just mash the keyboard at random, but you might end up with a gibberish name no one can pronounce. When a new web service starts, such as a forum, a social media server or an email portal, the people who sign up get to choos

| titletext = If my country ever picks a new national flag, this is on my shortlist for designs to argue for, but I thin ...le piece.]][[File:Firefox Quantum Extensions Icon.png|frame|left|128px|alt=A blue puzzle piece.|The current puzzle piece. It may change colors depending

...forum|internet forums}} (like the [http://forums.xkcd.com/ xkcd forums]), a pervasive issue is that forum users with strong opinions but little interes ...users with relevant information, in the real world it rather turned out as a potential problem as described above with trolls and conspirators overtakin

...Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (only the fourth comic to be released on a Sunday). But it was only due to the April Fool joke, as it did replace the ...ueball]] standing and doing nothing. The "editor's note" tells you to save a copy of the image to "view the full comic".

...tegory: April fools' comics|April fools' comics]]. The terminal only lists a few available commands, but most commands are undocumented. * <code>random</code> shows a random comic.

| titletext = The Python environmental protection agency wants to seal it in a cement chamber, with pictorial messages to future civilizations warning the ...am. It generally includes an {{w|Interpreter_(programming)|interpreter}}, a {{w|package manager}}, and various {{w|Library_(computing)|libraries}} that

...The previous comic in the series [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]] was released 8 and a half months before this one, and the next comic [[2377: xkcd Phone 12]] was ...inapplicable-as-ever copyright symbol, the slogan is listed three times as a {{w|registered trademark}} and twice as an unregistered one – and the sec

...otes (or documents) released when software has been updated, to inform the user of any important changes to the software. ...s friend are using release notes of their {{w|Mobile application|app}}s as a form of chat service, instead of actual software change information. He say

| title = New Phone Thread ...timonial, complete with a hyperlink to an ordering site. This is of course a highly undesirable feature.{{Citation needed}} This is continued in the tit

...subway stops on the New York City Broadway line (IRT #1)], perhaps because a NY Times article mentioned that they don't. ...number). However, it may change at any time, whenever a new sequence or a new example is added to the OEIS. If included, it would therefore have to be co

...enerally the contrast between what experts will trust and what the average user will trust. ...ng engineers in panel 2). While the two inventions selected are relatively new when compared to how long humans have existed, the two fields mentioned hav

* [[Megan]], a {{w|botanist}}, is struck by the fact that trees are made in large part fro * [[Cueball]], a {{w|physicist}}, finds it weird that he can feel the gravity between an obj

...s to appear in the roster. In the November 1st trailer it was stated every new character in the launch version of the game had been announced, though with ...this way. On November 3rd, 2018, the developer studio {{w|Sora Ltd.}} made a statement on Twitter telling fans that the as-yet unrevealed DLC characters

...th him, but the EPA doesn't want that laptop in the ocean. They're sending a team. ...nd warns the other. Sure enough, Cueball sets the computer down and offers a detailed list of the arcane problems his computer is giving him.

The {{w|OSI model|Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model}} is a conceptual model for network communications that defines 7 layers of functi ...Defines how one or more sessions are used by endpoints to send and receive a packet of information

*The comic is a link to a [https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_round_of_128.png image of the resu ...e the time ran out. 512 different emojis were paired against each other in a cup or {{w|Bracket (tournament)|bracket}} system, with only one winner. See

| title = Adjusting a Chair ...djust a swiveling chair. This comically culminates in a massive chair with a big central seat and several other chairs branching off of it as Cueball co

...ssortment of features (some fairly normal, some more exotic) which give it a..."diverse skill set". This may be in reference to {{w|Space-cadet keyboard XKeyboarCD is a play on xkcd, and keyboard. (XK eyboar CD)

...text show up in all comics. However, in certain cases, the header text of a specific comic is changed permanently, which means it won't be modified lik ...63326/https://xkcd.com/ 2024-04-06] (although it was supposed to have been a Friday release according to the xkcd archives) until the next comic to come

| title = When I'm Back at a Keyboard ...n movie monsters] Sorry to cut it short, I'm on my phone. When I'm back at a keyboard, I can give you another 5,000 words.

| titletext = The keys to successfully throwing a party are location, planning, and one of those aircraft carrier steam catap ...e of [[Randall|Randall's]] new book, ''[[How To]]''. The comic is based on a chapter in the book.

...acon'', on his computer, because he has beaten the end boss and unlocked a new ability - the ability to type capital numbers... ...fore does not feature any "{{w|Boss (video gaming)#Final boss|end boss}}" (a very powerful enemy encountered as the final challenge of the game). In man

Here [[Cueball]] is speaking with a fictitious example of artificially intelligent software similar to the type ...would even incorporate feedback mechanisms like loading screens to let the user know the program was proceeding as intended and had not crashed.

| titletext = Everything is a cloud application; the ping times just vary a lot. ...ates create multiple versions, support for all of them can become a bit of a hassle for the company that creates them, so old versions frequently become

...easily flying debris can break residential windows. If you're looking for a science fair project idea and you hate your neighbors, I'm sure they could ...celebrated in the United States on December 25th. Randall always releases a [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comic]] on the 25th or close to that day. H

In this comic Randall is outlining the rules of a group chat, such as {{w|Internet Relay Chat}} (IRC), {{w|Slack (software)|S 1. '''Once you've sent a typing notification, you have to say ''something,'' c'mon.'''

...sitchristmas.com gives the answer in the language of your region (i.e. for a visitor from Canada, the site gives the answer in English and French to acc ...y tells if it is Christmas. The joke is that the comic will always display a static image reading '''NO''', even on Christmas Day, and that the rare inc

...R&D pushed for using the AlgoMaxAnalyzer to look into this. Hiring her was a great decisio- waaaait. In this comic, [[Ponytail]] shows an analysis of a new artificial intelligence called DeepAIHire, used to select who to hire among

...s about the size of the {{w|visible universe}}, presented as a timeline in a way typical of representations of the {{w|timeline of epochs in cosmology}} ...iverse would have had the same diameter as the thickness of the drawing at a relevant time epoch on the drawing. This will thus not be that far to the l

...d also lots of people who want to avoid spoilers. [[Randall]] has created a flowchart that generates "spoilers" to the film, but as he probably has not ...rces with their old enemy '''[character]''' and destroy the superweapon in a battle featuring '''[strange event]'''. P.S. Rey's parents are '''[characte

| titletext = A mix of the two is even worse: 'Thanks for unsubscribing and helping us pare ...ubscribing, to prevent accidentally unsubscribing due to a mistyped URL or a misclicked link.

It is a large draggable image that acts as a shared virtual sandbox for users to interact. Chests are "Items" (small and ...related to the page. The hint would refer to the page which currently had a chest.

This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemi ...[[2298: Coronavirus Genome]], making this a [[:Category:Coronavirus Genome|new series]].

Electronics connectors are designed to transport both information and power. A {{w|pinout}} diagram describes the function of each pin such as to communic Hardware hobbyists might feel excitement at seeing a unified specification for these common connectors, but the comic is of cour

...d hand the driver a floppy disk, a few hours later you'll get an invite to a git repo. ...he first comic in [[:Category:Old Days|this series]], Cueball, having only a faint idea of just how difficult and byzantine programming was "in the old

...cooter when you pay for it yourself, and (d) if you can't learn to start a new thread rather than responding to an old one, you'll be banned. [thread lock ...ate, the [https://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/mopeds-other/ minimum age to get a moped in the United States] is 14, 15, or 16.

...s" to conveniently access a comic's explanation on this wiki when browsing a comic on [https://xkcd.com xkcd.com]. They typically come in three main for ...xkcd.com comic page's {{w|Document Object Model|DOM}} – often inserting a button or link directly into the xkcd.com comic page itself, to take you to

| titletext = Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? If you use all three This comic is a parody of online quizzes that offer to compare the user's dialect of American English with others around the country. These quizzes

...general odor of rotten eggs as a baseline, and the LACK of rotten eggs as a distinct smell. ...smell like, and it's odd that everyone uses that as a comparison. This is a result of changing times &mdash; decades ago, when the 'rotten eggs' descri

...ext = [Six months later] "Well, our 'worst ladder' subscription series was a surprisingly lucrative success, but was completely canceled out by the loss ...ers or in-person theaters). This strip depicts one such scenario prompting a meeting to discuss the problem. The other attendees suspect the consumers a

..., would often get confused between "ale" and "ail" or between "allot" and "a lot". The English language has no distinction between nouns and verbs by sp ...difficult so that users will be too distracted by wondering whether ale is a verb to process the meaning of the request.

| titletext = Alexa defeated her in a battle hinging on the ability to set multiple timers. ...ll]], "Is Siri alive?", since AI assistants can seem to be almost human on a very superficial level. Cueball answers "No," since Siri is entirely softwa

...rmed after training to confirm that the model can handle data collected in a different way to the data used to train it. ...to rank methodologies. This approach is unlikely to instill confidence for a variety of reasons:

.... The next became [[2601: Instructions]] released on Friday April 1, 2022 (a regular release day). ...he actual comic (this “loading screen”) consists of an animated gif of a {{w|checkbox}} (hence the name).

...ss and positive publicity, and so are styled to be attention-getting, with a good deal of showmanship and dramatic descriptions. ...ossible for consumers to know what the device is really doing (since it is a "black box" with inaccessible software).

...devices use two-prong USB-AC, but there's also a three-prong version with a USB-B plug as the ground. This comic was the first in what became a new series of [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] and presents Cu

| titletext = And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, but then more heaven kept appearing to r ...toric character name for interpretive or parodic reasons. The comic places a Biblical event in the modern day to portray what it would be like for apoca

| titletext = This was always going to be a controversial Wirecutter post, but what really got them in trouble were the ...cutter (website)|Wirecutter}}'' is a product review website owned by ''The New York Times''. Randall is parodying the website by having them "review" the

...xt = It's 10:34 PM for this user. They really need to get going, they have a thing early tomorrow. Are you sure you want to notify? ...s illustrated here. The sender can sometimes override this and notify the user anyway.

...as also with an Astronomy fact. This is the first time that the field that a fact pertains to has been immediately repeated. JWST stands for {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}}, a space telescope that was launched 12 days prior to publication of this comi

...appeared in the header text after the end on January 31, 2022. It was not a permanent part of the header, and was removed once the [[Header text|header *On January 10th 2022, [[Randall]] added a countdown in the top right corner of the [[Header text|header text]] on {{x

...he next became [[2765: Escape Speed]] released on Friday April 19th, 2023 (a regular release day, but 18 days late). ...on}} (or option button). Usually, there would be more than one to give the user options. Once it has been selected it cannot be deselected. Once pressed th

...positions produce scalding water via a trial-and-error feedback loop with a barely-perceptible 10-second lag. ...The off-screen character promptly tells him that he should get some sleep, a request which the designer ignores in favor of continuing the search for th

...your-iphone-and-other-devices-use-and-what-to-do-about-it/?sh=6f8e6fed2f70 a smartphone requires around 2 kWh per year] (assuming this is not otherwise ...totals to 46% lost each year. If this were a non rechargeable battery such a lithium metal, its battery life could be much longer.

...e of material; to make this phone with a ~2:1 ratio rectangular shape into a fortune teller, it would first need to be folded in half lengthswise.) ...gy by other names. Randall's version takes this complexity up a notch with a currently impractical varifolded origami design.

{{incomplete|Created by a WELL OILED ROBOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} ...currently viewed cell, and the time (i.e. the entire machine's state after a certain moderation action)

...s are generally allowed to do certain things for the first time. These are a mix of legal restrictions (such as the age for driving and voting), rules f ...ts by US state.svg|In most of the country, 16 years is the minimum age for a restricted driver's license.}}

...easure to reduce the risk of damage, fire or electrocution in the event of a short circuit or an overloaded line. These breakers can also be opened manu ...lights, or all the outlets on one floor). Some large appliances will have a dedicated circuit and breaker.

This is a different attempt to list and explain all the planets and other objects tha ...o both in the real and fictional worlds and what xkcd comics may have been a source or an inspiration. Please describe the planets only, not the objects

...or the rogue actions of lone-actors. This is the kind of procedure used at a launch site where two duty officers each need to turn their respective keys ...sits). Similarly, the system in the comic is made more convenient by using a dual key-turner that circumvents the need for two users to turn the keys.

...h). Google does not seem particularly likely to shut down Gmail, as it is a source of information for their advertising and other businesses, but they ...essentially designed to induce every Gmail user to email every other Gmail user, generating an excessively large number of emails.

| titletext = After some account issues, we've added 6 new people from the beach house rental website support forum. ...Bugzilla, on technical forums such as StackOverflow, or on general product user forums.

...t at the center of the image will be reduced as it approaches the range of a few pixels, hence the original image will be lost before it reaches the sub ...of point-like particles as {{w|worldsheet}}s of "closed strings," forming a topological foam.]]

{{w|Artificial intelligence}} (AI) is a [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|recurring theme]] on xkcd. ...neral intelligence}}. [[Randall]], however, proposes a qualification: that a superintelligent AI would likely have been programmed by human AI researche

...ng balls, eleven of which are linked to a the label "on" and one linked to a second label "off," both such sets of switches apparently controlling the c ...ect with others on one's own terms. It thus retains most of the benefit of a good connection.

...b}} (Party "A" and Party "B" respectively). Cueball claims to have created a texting app that only allows for this one thing. It does not, however, allo ...app parallels another Eve being forbidden to eat an apple (an app-le?) in a common retelling of the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden (though the ac

...of a lower quality, while at higher tiers better options are available for a cost - for example in the highest tier the processes of aging and death are ...er specified settings may not entirely match our user experience. Possibly a high-tier installation has the option to restrict itself to selected lower-

...lar release day, but 4 days late, even though April 1st was a Monday, also a regular release day). ...t make you find an item, such as a rock with neat stripes, a cool bug, and a pretty leaf.

...t statistics have to correct for the fact that the Weird Bug Hotline hires a bunch of extra temporary staff every 17 years. ...the skilled people staffing them, who often have to deal with callers with a much lower understanding of the subject, seeking assistance with things tha

...y] 'Now that we're all staying at home these past few weeks thanks to this new coronavirus, we--' [okay] ...hen there is a tornado warning for your area". {{w|Tornado|Tornadoes}} are a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

| titletext = My password is just every Unicode codepoint concatenated into a single UTF-8 string. ...nytail agrees to look at it. But then Cueball reveals that he has included a {{w|Null character|null string terminator character}} in his password when