Talk:1494: Insurance

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Well...suck for you. 108.162.215.57 05:17, 4 March 2015 (UTC) RobotGoggles


Incomplete tag? I know it's pretty early, and the explanation is bound to be rewritten, but the current explanation is a little confusing, and makes a couple jumps that I wouldn't necessarily make. Maybe the incomplete tag shouldn't be removed yet? I'd do it, but I don't really know enough about actually editing the explanations to feel comfortable doing it yet. ARoseByAnyOtherName (talk) 08:52, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

I mean, I had written an explanation I'd say was a bit clearer (if a bit more complicated), but some unregistered user removed most of it... Makes me a bit grumpy. The newly added Lifehacks vs. IT hacks section brings up most of the things that person removed, though, so this should be complete enough. Obskyr (talk) 09:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Well, for what it's worth, I liked your version better. --RenniePet (talk) 10:47, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Not only that. The new version was so bad I decided to revert to Obskyr's. [1] 108.162.221.201 13:54, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Any meaning to conveyer?

The spelling error in the alt text seems like a simple typo.

Lawyer? I assumed it was a salesman or HR guy. --RenniePet (talk) 08:50, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Insurance agent. Not exactly a salesman; agents have multiple hats. You don't get fire insurance from HR.Taibhse (talk) 09:34, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

This is probably a reference to those youtube videos of life hacks of questionable legality. Eg signing up for one flight to take another108.162.219.100 16:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

I guess this might also relate to that (from my experience) programmers tend to like to break things (anything claimed to be "secure" seems to attract lots of people wanting to test out how secure) or find workarounds for things? Pinkishu (talk) 10:11, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Hacking

Please read On Hacking. I think the term you're looking for is cracking, or at least black hat hacking. Hacking a system would mean getting a system to do something unique and/or interesting. Or interacting with the system in a way that wasn't predicted. 108.162.238.191 10:19, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Hard hacks

Things like lock-picking is often also seen as physical equivalents of hacking, not necessarily illegal but still something most people would look on with suspicion.108.162.254.98 10:21, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Agree, this is excellent example on "hacking the computer": there is nothing illegal on lock-picking itself. Even if you use it on someone's else door without permission, it would not be crime unless you actually ENTER the door (or damage the lock). Locksmiths MUST know how to do it. But ... first thing you think about when hearing lock-picking is that thiefs do it. -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:37, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Before coming down into the comments, and seeing the last set of comments, I felt it necessary to make an edit to highlight just such an issue regarding the confusion about 'hacking'. As a historical sideline, note also the term "cracksman" as used for those who illegally open safes (and others skilled with locks and barred entranceways, in a criminal manner), which predates all the above computer-era terminology. But I didn't want to add too much more to the explanation. 141.101.98.181 17:25, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

I think part of the point of today's comic is to point that contracts are somewhat similar to a computer program (both have definitions and rules by which the system must abide), but lack the strict rigor of the latter. So, when programmers read a legal contract they immediately start searching for bugs or vulnerabilities or even syntax optimizations. 188.114.98.29 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)