https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.216.30&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T07:19:28ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1652:_Conditionals&diff=1143151652: Conditionals2016-03-07T15:36:40Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Formal logic */ offering another interpretation</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1652<br />
| date = March 7, 2016<br />
| title = Conditionals<br />
| image = conditionals.png<br />
| titletext = 'If you're done being pedantic, we should get dinner.' 'You did it again!' 'No, I didn't.'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|The explanation is from a programmer's or logician's point of view. However xkcd is a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and '''language.''' A conditional in language means ''(of a sentence, clause, mood, or word) involving or expressing a condition, as the first clause in the sentence "If it rains, he won't go." For the current programming version of explanation: What is meant by the paragraph starting with "Under the intended interpretation,..." It seems to make no sense at all, since the part about being in town is essential to the joke. Also the title text explanation is not easy to understand. The intent of "No, I didn't." seems flawed. Also why did Cueball think this was another flawed use of conditionals? And why is it OK to say No I didn't?}}<br />
<br />
===Language===<br />
In grammar a [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conditional conditional] is a sentence, clause, mood, or word involving or expressing a condition.<br />
<br />
Conditionals in language were invented more than 3000 years ago.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
===Computer programming===<br />
[[Cueball]] is having a conversation via text message with a friend. The friend uses a {{w|Conditional (computer programming)|conditional "if-then"}} statement, as might be found in formal logic or in a computer program. When such a statement is used in a computer program, the computer will check to see if a certain condition, such as a variable value being equal to some constant, is true or false. If it is true, it will execute the code in the "then" section.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
comic = "xkcd"<br />
if (comic = "xkcd")<br />
then print "xkcd"<br />
<br />
When this pseudocode is run by a computer, the computer would print "xkcd" because the condition (does comic = xkcd?) is true, since the variable comic was assigned the value "xkcd".<br />
<br />
Conditionals in computer programming were invented less than 100 years ago.<br />
<br />
===Formal logic===<br />
Conditionals are also used in formal logic. A possible form is "if A then B", meaning that if the first part of the statement (A, the premise or antecedent) is true, the second part (B, the conclusion or consequent) is asserted to be true.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
"If you are reading this then you probably read xkcd."<br />
<br />
An equivalent form of such a statement is "B if A":<br />
"You probably read xkcd if you are reading this."<br />
<br />
The humor of the comic arises from Cueball's interaction with an invitation for a social meeting, which is put to him casually in the form of a “B if A” statement, as a formal conditional statement: if Cueball wants to hang out, then his conversation partner will be in his city. This does not imply anything about where the partner will be if Cueball does ''not'' want to hang out; they could be in the city or anywhere else (a conditional statement makes no assertions about the truth or falsity of its conclusion if its premise is false).<br />
<br />
Since the person is only guaranteed to be in the city if Cueball wants to hang out, he asks them where they will be if he doesn't. The other person makes an excuse to drop their invitation, apparently tiring of his insistence on his overly-pedantic interpretation. Hence the caption observes that being pedantic with regard to conditionals is likely to make your friends disinclined to hang out with you.<br />
<br />
Under the intended interpretation, "if you want to hang out" is shorthand for the conditional statement "we can hang out, if you want to hang out", with the consequent "we can hang out" being implied. "I'll be in your city tomorrow" is not part of the conditional statement and only serves to provide background.<br />
<br />
Another possible interpretation is that Cueball has decided to treat the conditional as if it were of the form "if and only if". While formal logic rules require this phrasing actually be present in order to be considered an aspect of the causal relationship, casual conversation does not, as in the example sentence "If you finish your homework, we will have pizza for dinner," which implies that failure to complete the homework will result in some other type of cuisine being served. Applied to the conditional in the comic, this would indicate that Cueball has chosen to interpret the received communication as indicating that if he does not want to hang out, his conversation partner will ''not'' be in the city (which, depending on the other person's degree of aversion to Cueball's particular brand of pedantism, might soon become a reality).<br />
<br />
===Title text===<br />
In the title text, the initiator of the conversation then presents an "If A, then B" conditional in which all necessary context is present in the sentence. The person responding (probably Cueball) mistakenly asserts that the speaker made the same mistake as the previous exchange, to which the initiator correctly replies, "No, I didn't." The intent is to show that because the initiator still believes that Cueball is still being pedantic, then he believes that it is not a good idea to have dinner together.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is shown texting on a phone with a friend. Above him in light gray rectangles with indentations pointing left are the two text messages from his friend, and between them in dark a gray rectangle with an indentation pointing right is Cueball's message.]<br />
:Friend (text): I'll be in your city tomorrow if you want to hang out.<br />
:Cueball (text): But where will you be if I ''don't'' want to hang out?!<br />
:Friend (text): You know, I just remembered I'm busy.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:Why I try not to be pedantic about conditionals.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1652:_Conditionals&diff=1143121652: Conditionals2016-03-07T15:05:51Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Language */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1652<br />
| date = March 7, 2016<br />
| title = Conditionals<br />
| image = conditionals.png<br />
| titletext = 'If you're done being pedantic, we should get dinner.' 'You did it again!' 'No, I didn't.'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|The explanation is from a programmer's or logician's point of view. However xkcd is a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and '''language.''' A conditional in language means ''(of a sentence, clause, mood, or word) involving or expressing a condition, as the first clause in the sentence "If it rains, he won't go." For the current programming version of explanation: What is meant by the paragraph starting with "Under the intended interpretation,..." It seems to make no sense at all, since the part about being in town is essential to the joke. Also the title text explanation is not easy to understand. The intent of "No, I didn't." seems flawed. Also why did Cueball think this was another flawed use of conditionals? And why is it OK to say No I didn't?}}<br />
<br />
===Language===<br />
In grammar a [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conditional conditional] is a sentence, clause, mood, or word involving or expressing a condition.<br />
<br />
Conditionals in language were invented more than 3000 years ago.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
===Computer programming===<br />
[[Cueball]] is having a conversation via text message with a friend. The friend uses a {{w|Conditional (computer programming)|conditional "if-then"}} statement, as might be found in formal logic or in a computer program. When such a statement is used in a computer program, the computer will check to see if a certain condition, such as a variable value being equal to some constant, is true or false. If it is true, it will execute the code in the "then" section.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
comic = "xkcd"<br />
if (comic = "xkcd")<br />
then print "xkcd"<br />
<br />
When this pseudocode is run by a computer, the computer would print "xkcd" because the condition (does comic = xkcd?) is true, since the variable comic was assigned the value "xkcd".<br />
<br />
Conditionals in computer programming were invented less than 100 years ago.<br />
<br />
===Formal logic===<br />
Conditionals are also used in formal logic. A possible form is "if A then B", meaning that if the first part of the statement (A, the premise or antecedent) is true, the second part (B, the conclusion or consequent) is asserted to be true.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
"If you are reading this then you probably read xkcd."<br />
<br />
An equivalent form of such a statement is "B if A":<br />
"You probably read xkcd if you are reading this."<br />
<br />
The humor of the comic arises from Cueball's interaction with an invitation for a social meeting, which is put to him casually in the form of a “B if A” statement, as a formal conditional statement: if Cueball wants to hang out, then his conversation partner will be in his city. This does not imply anything about where the partner will be if Cueball does ''not'' want to hang out; they could be in the city or anywhere else (a conditional statement makes no assertions about the truth or falsity of its conclusion if its premise is false).<br />
<br />
Since the person is only guaranteed to be in the city if Cueball wants to hang out, he asks them where they will be if he doesn't. The other person makes an excuse to drop their invitation, apparently tiring of his insistence on his overly-pedantic interpretation. Hence the caption observes that being pedantic with regard to conditionals is likely to make your friends disinclined to hang out with you.<br />
<br />
Under the intended interpretation, "if you want to hang out" is shorthand for the conditional statement "we can hang out, if you want to hang out", with the consequent "we can hang out" being implied. "I'll be in your city tomorrow" is not part of the conditional statement and only serves to provide background.<br />
<br />
===Title text===<br />
In the title text, the initiator of the conversation then presents an "If A, then B" conditional in which all necessary context is present in the sentence. The person responding (probably Cueball) mistakenly asserts that the speaker made the same mistake as the previous exchange, to which the initiator correctly replies, "No, I didn't." The intent is to show that because the initiator still believes that Cueball is still being pedantic, then he believes that it is not a good idea to have dinner together.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is shown texting on a phone with a friend. Above him in light gray rectangles with indentations pointing left are the two text messages from his friend, and between them in dark a gray rectangle with an indentation pointing right is Cueball's message.]<br />
:Friend (text): I'll be in your city tomorrow if you want to hang out.<br />
:Cueball (text): But where will you be if I ''don't'' want to hang out?!<br />
:Friend (text): You know, I just remembered I'm busy.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:Why I try not to be pedantic about conditionals.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=559:_No_Pun_Intended&diff=108946559: No Pun Intended2016-01-09T08:52:41Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 559<br />
| date = March 23, 2009<br />
| title = No Pun Intended<br />
| image = no_pun_intended.png<br />
| titletext = Like spelling 'dammit' correctly -- with two m's -- it's a troll that works best on the most literate.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
"No pun intended" is an idiom meaning that something just said wasn't meant to be a {{w|pun}}, implying that the preceding statement could be interpreted as one. As done in the comic, following a non-pun with "no pun intended", although factually accurate, breaks this implication and confuses listeners who will be trying to work out which part of the sentence could have been interpreted as a pun.<br />
<br />
In this comic, which is part of the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series, [[Cueball]] uses this tactic to confuse [[Beret Guy]], who spends the next three hours trying to understand what pun there could have been in Cueballs sentence: ''I think he's internalized his girlfriend's attitudes''.<br>The guy Cueball talks about seems to have taken over ({{w|Internalization|internalized}}) all his girlfriends attitudes, values, standards and opinions, putting these instead of those he has from his own identity or sense of self. This is probably sad, but there is no pun in the sentence.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
Beret Guy, however, has been fooled by the addition of ''no pun intended'' and tries to overanalyze the sentence - did Cueball mean ''Lied'' when saying ''Interna'''li'''z'''ed''''' or was it ''Analyzed'' or even ''Attitudes'' he meant; could that be the pun? Since there was no pun, he will never find a solution. This was Cueball's plan all along. <br />
<br />
It seems like Beret Guy, after three hours, finally gives up when he says ''Dammit''. This then leads to the title text joke.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for the hobbyist, blank puns default to sexual innuendos, the most notorious example being [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/if-you-know-what-i-mean "If You Know What I Mean."]<br />
<br />
The title text elicits a similar confused reaction, as the most literate people will be more likely to want to spell out "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/damn_it damn it]" rather than using an abbreviated form with morphed spelling as [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dammit dammit]. What is referred to ''with two m's'' is because many people ([http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/79282/dammit-vs-damnit mainly in the US] it seems) contract damn it to [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/damnit damnit], which is the wrong way.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Caption above the panel:]<br />
:'''My Hobby:'''<br />
:Appending "no pun intended" <br />
:to lines with no pun in them.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball is talking to Beret Guy.]<br />
:Cueball: I think he's internalized his girlfriend's attitudes - no pun intended - and so...<br />
<br />
:[The next panel is inlaid partly over the first panel. Beret Guy is thinking. Above his thought bubble is a caption:]<br />
:Three hours later:<br />
:Beret Guy (thinking): "Internalized?" Lied? Analyzed? Or is it "attitudes"? Dammit.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]<br />
[[Category:Puns]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:928:_Mimic_Octopus&diff=108472Talk:928: Mimic Octopus2016-01-02T02:36:14Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>How does the mimic octopus manage to mimic multiple fish? Does it split it's own body up or something? '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:30, 8 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
:"When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy, in a similar manner to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails. The crawling arm serves as a distraction to would-be predators. Such severed arms remain sensitive to stimuli and move away from unpleasant sensations.[23]"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Defense] {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.113}}<br />
::Fine, but in the SCUBA diver depiction, would it really need to rip parts out of itself to mimic bubbles? I don't think that that is quite necessary. {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.131}}<br />
:::It could also hypothetically mimic bubbles by *actually blowing bubbles*. (No word on how it does this.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 02:36, 2 January 2016 (UTC)Anon<br />
<br />
For the record, octopus is from the Greek ὀκτάπους, a compound of ὀκτά (eight) and πούς (foot); πούς is a third declension masculine noun, whose plural is πόδες. Therefore, the etymologically correct plural of octopus should be octopodes, not (as Orson Scott Card suggests) octopoda, since πούς is not a neuter.<br />
:Actually, it would be "octopuses", as it showed up ''after'' the regularization of English plurals to a final -s. As the video in the explanation explains, someone in the Victorian Grammarian Era "realized" it was "Latin" and pluralized it as such. This caught on and still haunts us to this day. "Octopdes" was coined around the same time by a more observant someone, who realized it was actually Greek. Personally, I avoid the whole trichotomy by saying "octopods". Unrelated etymologically, but has the same meaning and is unequivocally regular. Anonymous 08:08, 5 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone checked to see if the title text is true? Whether it is or not, this should be added to the description. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 11:53, 16 October 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:928:_Mimic_Octopus&diff=108471Talk:928: Mimic Octopus2016-01-02T02:35:00Z<p>108.162.216.30: Very important rebuttal(no word on how it actually manages to blow bubbles)</p>
<hr />
<div>How does the mimic octopus manage to mimic multiple fish? Does it split it's own body up or something? '''[[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:30, 8 January 2013 (UTC)<br />
:"When under attack, some octopuses can perform arm autotomy, in a similar manner to the way skinks and other lizards detach their tails. The crawling arm serves as a distraction to would-be predators. Such severed arms remain sensitive to stimuli and move away from unpleasant sensations.[23]"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Defense] {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.113}}<br />
::Fine, but in the SCUBA diver depiction, would it really need to rip parts out of itself to mimic bubbles? I don't think that that is quite necessary. {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.131}}<br />
:::It could also, hypothetically mimic bubbles by *actually blowing bubbles*. (No word on how it does this.)<br />
<br />
For the record, octopus is from the Greek ὀκτάπους, a compound of ὀκτά (eight) and πούς (foot); πούς is a third declension masculine noun, whose plural is πόδες. Therefore, the etymologically correct plural of octopus should be octopodes, not (as Orson Scott Card suggests) octopoda, since πούς is not a neuter.<br />
:Actually, it would be "octopuses", as it showed up ''after'' the regularization of English plurals to a final -s. As the video in the explanation explains, someone in the Victorian Grammarian Era "realized" it was "Latin" and pluralized it as such. This caught on and still haunts us to this day. "Octopdes" was coined around the same time by a more observant someone, who realized it was actually Greek. Personally, I avoid the whole trichotomy by saying "octopods". Unrelated etymologically, but has the same meaning and is unequivocally regular. Anonymous 08:08, 5 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Has anyone checked to see if the title text is true? Whether it is or not, this should be added to the description. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.18|108.162.212.18]] 11:53, 16 October 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1621:_Fixion&diff=1078031621: Fixion2015-12-25T19:59:28Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Explanation */ fix several typos and grammatical errors in lead paragraph</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1621<br />
| date = December 25, 2015<br />
| title = Fixion<br />
| image = fixion.png<br />
| titletext = My theory predicts that, at high enough energies, FRBs and perytons become indistinguishable because the detector burns out.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|This explanation is very incomplete. It is a small and terrible draft, only listing some immediate things I have noticed. This article should be structured as: General idea, table of explanations for each property.}}<br />
The second [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas]] comic in a row, this one - released on Christmas day - is a present to all physicists of a new particle, the ''Fixion'', which explains everything.<br />
<br />
In physics, there are still many big questions and mysteries. There are many phenomena which don't seem to fit, and we don't know how to explain yet. The "fixion" is satirically presented as a particle which acts as a {{w|Deus ex machina}} (see also [https://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusExMachina tvtropes]) which solves all of these mysteries without any serious fundamental reasons.<br />
<br />
The style of the chart suggests a {{w|Feynmann diagram}} - an easy way of drawing particle interactions. Typically, fermions (the "solid" particles like electrons and quarks) are shown with solid lines, photons (and generally the weak-force-carrying bosons) are shown with wavy lines, gluons with spiraling lines and other mediating particles (such as pions in the nuclear force, or the Higgs) with a dotted line. Randall obeys these rules only very loosely, which makes sense - many of the things involved in this Feynmann diagram are either so theoretical that they have no widely used standard representation, or would never appear in a sensible diagram (spacecraft, for instance).<br />
<br />
===Table of phenomenons===<br />
{| border =1 width=100% cellpadding=5<br />
|'''Phenomenon''' || '''Description''' || '''Solved?'''<br />
|- <br />
| Main component of {{w|dark matter}} || Dark matter is needed to explain the difference between how we think gravity behaves and the actual behavior of galaxies. The two leading theories of dark matter are that it is made of {{w|MACHOs}} (massive compact halo objects; effectively dead stars too dim to see) or {{w|WIMPs}} (weakly interacting massive particles; unknown particles which barely interact with matter except through gravity. || No, and proving the nature of dark matter will win someone the Nobel Prize.<br />
|-<br />
| Confines {{w|quark}}s and {{w|gluon}}s || {{w|Quark confinement}} means that we never see particles with {{w|colour charge|color charge}} (i.e. quarks and gluons) on their own. Try to separate them, and new one pops into existence. || The basic facts of confinement are well understood, but some of the details are too complicated to tease out.<br />
|-<br />
| Suppresses antimatter in early universe || The universe today is made almost entirely of matter. Antimatter and matter are identical, except that the charges are opposite, and that they annihilate when they come in contact with each other. So why is the universe made of matter? Why didn't the universe have equal amounts of both, and if it did, why didn't it annihilate itself immediately? This is a big question in physics today. Of course, the fixion explains this. || Lots of theories, not a shred of evidence for any yet. Now that the Higgs boson has been found, the biggest project for the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}} experiments is to try to crack this.<br />
|-<br />
| Neutralizes monopoles || {{w|Magnetic monopoles}} should exist, according to many GUTs (grand unified theories) and string theories, but none have ever been seen. || No (despite claims that pop up in the news every year, creating a monopole-like state in the magnetic spins of a crystal is not the same as creating a real monopole.)<br />
|-<br />
| Spontaneously emits {{w|dark energy}} || Dark energy is needed to explain why the universe expands as quickly as it does... but so much dark energy is needed that it would make up 70% of the universe! The nature of dark energy is totally unknown. || Again, Nobel Prize territory.<br />
|-<br />
| Mediates {{w|proton decay}}, but then hides it. || Many GUTs predict that protons will decay, but experiments have shown the proton to have a half life of at least the age of the universe. || It's not ''necessarily'' a problem. All theories predict that proton decay is a very slow process (10<sup>32+</sup> seconds), which is consistent with the current data.<br />
|-<br />
| Broken symmetry causes ϴ=0, explaining unobserved neutron dipole moment || The {{w|neutron electric dipole moment}} is a measure of how balanced electric charge is inside the neutron. ϴ (theta) is a number in quantum chromodynamics which quantifies the the breaking of a type of symmetry called {{w|CP violation|CP symmetry}}. If ϴ is not 0, one result of this should be a neutron dipole moment. {{w|Symmetry breaking}} is a common explanation of effects in some areas of theoretical physics (for instance, it's an important part of Higgs' theory about why particles have mass), but normally it explains why a value is ''not'' zero. Presumably the fixion breaks CP symmetry independently of QCD, which means that ϴ can be 0 while preserving observed CP-breaking effects. || Again, it's not (yet) a problem - the predicted dipole moment is tiny, and we're only just reaching the point when we can measure it that accurately.<br />
|-<br />
| Introduces dispersion in perytons from kitchen microwaves, explaining fast radio bursts || {{w|Fast radio burst}}s are unexplained bursts of radio-frequency energy from space. {{w|Peryton}}s are things that ''look like'' FRBs, but come from Earth (specifically, from the microwave oven at Parkes Observatory. Randall's fixions makes some perytons change frequency distribution so they appear to come from space. || No, but it's probably something very big - a star collapsing to a black or (as now looks likely) a {{w|magnetar}} (magnetic neutron star)<br />
|-<br />
| Covers naked singularities || A {{w|naked singularity}} is like a black hole without an {{w|event horizon}}. So far no naked singularity has been observed (except, arguably, the big bang) and the {{w|cosmic censorship hypothesis}} suggests they can't exist, although some people have suggested ways of making them. || Not necessarily something that needs explaining - none have been seen, and most theories say they don't exist. If support grows for {{w|loop quantum gravity}}, then we might have to start really searching.<br />
|-<br />
| Causes {{w|alpha effect}} || A weird effect from chemistry, where putting an "alpha" atom with a {{w|lone pair}} of electrons close to a molecule makes the molecule more likely to give up its electrons. || Lots of competing explanations.<br />
|-<br />
| Causes coronal heating || For some reason the outer layer of the sun (the {{w|corona}}) is hotter than most reasonable theories predict. || It's a mystery, but it possibly has something to do with waves in the corona (for example, the {{w|High Resolution Coronal Imager}} has seen "braids" in the corona that whip around and unravel themselves).<br />
|-<br />
| Intercepts certain {{w|gravitational waves}} before they're observed. || If gravity behaves like the other forces, it must be conveyed by waves. Our best detector, {{w|LIGO}} has yet to detect any gravitational waves, though this is probably just due to the low probability of events that would be detectable. Only extreme events like binary black hole mergers are detectable with the current setup. The proposed LISA spacecraft will be able to see things like orbiting black holes and neutron stars. || Let's wait for the LISA data before jumping to conclusions.<br />
|-<br />
| Higgs-ish || The {{w|Higgs boson}} is a manifestation of the Higgs field... but many supersymmetry and string theories predict multiple Higgs-like particles. It's almost a prerequisite of any new theory that it has a Higgs-ish element. || N/A<br />
|-<br />
| Accelerates certain spacecraft during flybys || This refers to the {{w|flyby anomaly}} which is sometimes (but not always) seen when spacecraft fly close to planets and pick up more speed than expected. It's not always seen - ROSETTA had no flyby anomaly when it swooped extremely close to Mars. || It could be an unpredicted quirk of gravity and relativity... or it could be experimental error.<br />
|-<br />
| Superluminally smooths anisotropies in early universe (but adds faint polarization for BICEP3 to find) || The CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) is incredibly uniform. In fact it is so uniform that the conclusion is that these areas must have been in contact at some time in the early universe. But with the age of the universe, even traveling at the speed of light, opposite sides never touch. The explanation usually given is that the universe expanded really fast in the beginning ("inflation"). {{w|BICEP2}} is a radio telescope at the South Pole whose operators claim to have seen polarization in the CMB indicative of inflation. || As stated, inflation is the standard explanation and it holds up fairly well. Other studies haven't seen the polarization that BICEP2 has - the {{w|Planck (spacecraft)|Planck space telescope}} also suggests that BICEP2 team were looking at an unusually dusty bit of space, which could cause polarization.<br />
|-<br />
| Triggers Siberian sinkholes || Recently, several sinkholes opened up in remote parts of Siberia. The explanation is currently unknown. || While there are lots of weird theories, there's a good chance they were [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mystery-of-the-siberian-holes-at-the-end-of-the-world-solved-scientists-offer-explanation-9642988.html caused by melting permafrost] (possibly due to global warming)<br />
|-<br />
| Melts ice in "{{w|Snowball Earth}}" scenario || "Snowball Earth" is the theory that the whole planet was covered in ice at some point. To melt all that ice by the greenhouse effect would require far more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than seems plausible. However, if volcanoes were to deposit black soot on the surface of the ice, it would start absorbing heat more efficiently (in scientific terms, the Earth's {{w|albedo}} would decrease) and that would also make the planet heat up. || There's no firm evidence one way or the other for Snowball Earth.<br />
|-<br />
| Transports neutrinos faster than light, but only on certain days through one area of France || Refers to the {{w|faster-than-light neutrino anomaly}}, where it seemed that a neutrino beam from {{w|CERN}} on the France/Switzerland border to the {{w|OPERA experiment}} in Italy traveled fast than light. This result was not able to be replicated. || In the end, there was no mystery. Just a dodgy cable causing a measurement error.<br />
|-<br />
| Suppresses sigma in experiments || Sigma (σ) refers to the {{w|standard deviation}} - a mathematical measure of how much an observed value differs from the expected value. For a formal scientific discovery in particle physics, the standard is 5 sigma which means that there is about a 1 in 3.5 million chance that the results were caused by random errors (of course, they could be caused by ''systematic'' errors, such as measurement problems). Some tantalizing experiments have found interesting results at 3 or 4 sigma but either can't reach 5 sigma or {{w|Oops-Leon|are subsequently disproven}}. The fixion means that actually, these experiments ''have'' found what the experimenters wanted to find, but because of the fixion's dastardly behavior, the sigma has been artificially lowered below the proof threshold.|| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
The title text is a further joke about FRBs and perytons. GUTs normally predict that all the forces we see are the different low-energy versions of a single force which can only be seen at extremely high energies (much higher than any Earth-based collider could produce). A high-energy FRB would be a {{w|gamma ray burst}} and if it came from a close enough object, would obliterate all life on Earth... and wreck the sensitive electronics at Parkes Observatory.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><br />
<font size="5">A Christmas gift for physicists: <br>'''The Fixion'''</font><br />
<br /><br />
<font size="4">A new particle that explains everything</font><br />
<br /><br /><br />
[A diagram is shown below the title. The diagram is supposedly a Feynmann diagram.]<br />
</div><br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 80%; margin: 1em auto;" <br />
! style="width: 70%; padding: 5px;"| Characteristics <br />
! style="width: 30%; padding: 5px;"| Part of the diagram being pointed to<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Main component of dark matter <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Near the beginning of the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Confines quarks and gluons <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Near the beginning of the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Suppresses antimatter in early universe <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Neutralizes monopoles <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| First thin line, branching from the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Spontaneously emits dark energy <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| First two dotted lines, branching from the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Mediates proton decay but then hides it <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Three thin lines merging with the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Broken symmetry causes ϴ=0, explaining unobserved neutron dipole moment <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Slightly below the merging of three thin lines with the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Introduces dispersion in perytons from kitchen microwaves, explaining fast radio bursts <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Four squiggly lines, branching from the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Covers naked singularities <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Causes alpha effect <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Causes coronal heating <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Intercepts certain gravitational waves before they're observed. <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Looping line, branching from the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Higgs-ish <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Accelerates certain spacecraft during flybys <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Two thin lines directing to satelites, branching from the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Superluminally smooths anisotropies in early universe (but adds faint polarization for BICEP3 to find) <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Near the end of the main thick line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Triggers Siberian sinkholes <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Melts ice in "Snowball Earth" scenario <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Transports neutrinos faster than light, but only on certain days through one area of France <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| A dotted part of the main line, with two portals at the beginning and end of the dotted line<br />
|-<br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| Suppresses sigma in experiments <br />
| style="padding: 5px;"| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Christmas]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Space]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=978:_Citogenesis&diff=102693978: Citogenesis2015-10-01T21:40:37Z<p>108.162.216.30: Removed redundant second instance of "at the time of this strip"</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 978<br />
| date = November 16, 2011<br />
| title = Citogenesis<br />
| image = citogenesis.png<br />
| titletext = I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wildly inaccurate data which traced back to... Wikipedia. To encourage people to be on their toes, I'm not going to say what book or author.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is calling into question the {{w|reliability of Wikipedia}}. This is a favorite pastime of librarians and professional researchers, and not usually one of [[Randall]]'s. But, to take it seriously for a moment: People, Wikipedia is editable by anyone. If you are doing serious work, follow through the citations, and decide which are from upstanding sources, and which are just people writing on their blog, and which are people writing on their blog who know what they are talking about.<br />
<br />
The title of the comic is a play on the word [http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cytogenesis cytogenesis]. Cytogenesis is the formation of cells and their development. Citogenesis, on the other hand is a [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/portmanteau portmanteau] of 'Citation' and 'Genesis'. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citation Citation] meaning quoting a source. [http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genesis?show=1&t=1346949206 Genesis] being the origin of something. So, citogenesis would be the creation of a quote that can be used to back-up a fact or statement.<br />
<br />
The comic is discussing citogenesis occurring on {{w|Wikipedia}}, a free and freely editable encyclopedia that aims to become the most complete and correct knowledge base available. Wikipedia aims to provide only accurate information backed by reliable sources. However, this comic strip details a process in which Wikipedia can not only spread misinformation, but make said misinformation seem reliable through a process of "circular reporting".<br />
<br />
This process is when someone adds an untrue detail onto Wikipedia. A writer of some supposedly reliable source checks Wikipedia for information, and includes that information. Now, there is a citation of a reliable source saying that the information is true. This leads to other people being more likely to trust wikipedia, making the information used by more reliable sources, making a positive-feedback loop. <br />
<br />
Four years before, Randall [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Xkcd&diff=162077300 commented on Wikipedia] about that process happening to him (on a minor detail), which probably indicates the inception of this comic:<br />
<blockquote>''I've never referred to the [[1: Barrel - Part 1|boy in the barrel]] as "Barrel Lad" -- that seems to have started in this [Wikipedia] article. I've called him "Barrel boy" or "The boy in the barrel". Minor detail, but it's funny how sometimes something can appear on Wikipedia, get referenced in other places, and then Wikipedia cites those other places as supporting references. Hooray {{w|Wikipedia in culture#Wikiality|Wikiality}}!'' <small>— Randall Munroe as user "xkcd", [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Xkcd/Archive_2#Notes_from_the_author en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Xkcd#Notes_from_the_author], 3 October 2007</small></blockquote><br />
<br />
The misinformation in question is the untrue assertion that {{w|Steven Chu}}, a physicist and at the time of the strip the U.S. Secretary of Energy, invented the {{w|Scroll lock}} key, a common button on computer keyboards. As most people are aware of the scroll lock key but know little about its function or origins, this false information would make for an interesting piece of trivia that would likely spread very quickly. <br />
<br />
Following this comic, the actual {{w|Scroll lock}} and {{w|Steven Chu}} articles {{w|Talk:Scroll_lock#Thanks_Randall|were both}} {{w|Talk:Steven_Chu#Scroll_lock_key|wiki-bombed}} by "helpful" editors trying to enforce Randall's reality on the Internet. The Wikipedia article on {{w|Citogenesis}} redirects to the {{w|Reliability of Wikipedia#Information loop|information loop}} section on the article "Reliability of Wikipedia". That section ends with crediting the term "citogenesis" to "webcomic artist Randall Munroe", with a link to this comic. To make matters even more surreal, some Wikipedia editor once flagged the link to this xkcd comic as "Dubious - The material near this tag is possibly inaccurate or non-factual."! This now has three citations.<br />
<br />
We will probably never know the book or author Randall mentions in the title text, but there is a nice similar story about the former German minister {{w|Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg}}. His complete name contains fifteen names/words and reads: Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. An anonymous user added one more ("Wilhelm") to the German Wikipedia, just the evening before Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was presented as the new Federal Minister of Economics and Technology on February 10, 2009. The next day many major German newspapers published this wrong name ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bildblog.de%2F5704%2Fwie-ich-freiherr-von-guttenberg-zu-wilhelm-machte%2F translation of bildblog.de]).<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Where Citations Come From:<br />
:Citogenesis Step #1<br />
:Through a convoluted process, a user's brain generates facts. These are typed into Wikipedia.<br />
:[A guy with short hair sits at a desk, typing on a laptop.]<br />
:Guy: (typing) The "scroll lock" key was was designed by future Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a college project.<br />
<br />
:A rushed writer checks Wikipedia for a summary of their subject.<br />
:[Ponytail sits at a desk, typing on a desktop.]<br />
:Ponytail: (typing) US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, (Nobel Prizewinner and creator of the ubiquitous "scroll lock" key) testified before Congress today...<br />
:Step #2<br />
<br />
:Surprised readers check Wikipedia, see the claim, and flag it for review. A passing editor finds the piece and adds it as a citation.<br />
:[Cueball sits on a couch with a laptop in his lap, typing.]<br />
:Cueball: Google is your friend, people. (typing) <nowiki><ref>{{cite web|url=</nowiki><br />
:Step #3<br />
<br />
:Step #4<br />
:Now that other writers have a real source, they repeat the fact.<br />
:[A flow chart, with "Wikipedia citation" in the center. The word "Wikipedia" is in black, the word "citations" is white with a red background.<br />
:A black arrow leads from "brain" to "Wikipedia."<br />
:A black arrow labeled "words" leads from "Wikipedia" to "careless writers," and a red arrow labeled "citations" leads back to "Wikipedia citations."<br />
:A black & red arrow leads from "Wikipedia" to "cited facts" which leads to "slightly more careful writers," which leads to "more citations," which leads back to :"Wikipedia" (all black & red arrows).]<br />
:References proliferate, completing the citogenesis process.<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
* The word "was" occurs twice consecutively in the first panel.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Wikipedia]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1230:_Polar/Cartesian&diff=947261230: Polar/Cartesian2015-06-03T02:47:24Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1230<br />
| date = June 26, 2013<br />
| title = Polar/Cartesian<br />
| image = polar_cartesian.png<br />
| titletext = Protip: Any two-axis graph can be re-labeled 'coordinates of the ants crawling across my screen as a function of time'.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic plays upon the difference between reading a {{w|Polar coordinate system|polar coordinate plot}} and the more common {{w|Cartesian coordinate system|cartesian coordinate plot}}.<br />
<br />
The graph purports to show the certainty in the viewers mind that it is a clockwise polar plot, as a function of time.<br />
<br />
If seen as a Cartesian plot, the y (vertical) axis represents 'certainty' while the x (horizontal) axis represents 'time'. Each point on the plot is represented by two coordinates, the x-value and the y-value. As time increases, we move to the right and see the initial certainty of 50% decreases gradually to zero. That is, after a certain amount of time, we are certain that it is NOT a Polar plot.<br />
<br />
In a Polar plot, each point on the plot is also located by two values, but in this case they are the radius (the distance from the origin) and the angle between the radius and an arbitrary starting line. Here, the radius represents 'certainty' and the angle to the vertical represents 'time'. In this view, we see that as time increases (as we move clockwise around the plot) the initial certainty (the same 50%) now ''increases'' to a final value of 100%. That is, after a certain amount of time, we are certain that it IS a Polar plot.<br />
<br />
The intended joke seems to be that the graph is an exercise in confirmation bias. Whichever type you initially hypothesize is correct, that view will be confirmed by investigation. This is because the two different views are both correct - the graph can equally be considered a Cartesian or Polar plot. This is somewhat counter-intuitive.<br />
<br />
Throughout the graph, the sum of the two probabilities is 100%, i.e. (polar-observer's certainty that the graph is polar) + (cartesian-observer's certainty that the graph is polar) = 100%. The shape of the graph appears to be (in clockwise polar form) r(t)=100/(1+cos(t)).<br />
<br />
If the reader is open-minded, they would never reach certainty (0% / 100% depending on how you read the graph) because there isn't enough information to clearly decide either way.<br />
<br />
The title text is a joke that if you are unsure how to label any two-axis (two-dimensional) graph, you can just say it represents the 'coordinates of the ants crawling across my screen as a function of time', and nobody could then argue with your data. "Hey, that's the path they walked!"<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[There is a graph. The Y axis is marked out from 0% to 100%. The X axis is unmarked. A red line starts at 50% and traces out a roughly parabolic trend downwards along the X axis.]<br />
:Certainty that this is a clockwise polar plot, not a Cartesian one, as a function of time.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Protip]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1230:_Polar/Cartesian&diff=94725Talk:1230: Polar/Cartesian2015-06-03T02:46:16Z<p>108.162.216.30: comment</p>
<hr />
<div>Heh. Schroedinger's graph. Simultaneously 100% certainty of being Cartesian and 100% certainty of being Polar. [[Special:Contributions/12.117.213.34|12.117.213.34]] 09:03, 26 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If you take into account [[833]], this graph shows certainty that you are interpreting it correctly. --[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 09:48, 26 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The ambiguity is due to the unlabelled x-axis. --[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 10:48, 26 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text protip is really only applicable to 2 axes continuous graphes, unless you count ants being added or flicked away by the user as discontinuities. [[Special:Contributions/24.247.120.53|24.247.120.53]] 13:07, 26 June 2013 (UTC)ProfKrueger<br />
<br />
The shape of the graph appears to be (in polar form) r(t)=100/(1+sin(t)), which I solved for using the constraint that r + y = 100, or rather (polar-observer's certainty that the graph is polar) + (cartesian-observer's certainty that the graph is polar) = 100%. The two observers become further entrenched in their own ideologies as time goes on, and at equivalent rates of entrenchment. [[Special:Contributions/98.197.196.242|98.197.196.242]] 16:25, 26 June 2013 (UTC) DAF<br />
<br />
The title text is, well, wrong. To plot coordinates "as a function of time" you would need THREE-axes. [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]]) 19:23, 26 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:No, we have a radius (from the zero point to the red line), we have an angel (from 0° to 90°), and we have a point moving along that red line by time. A single (not moving) ant would just be a (red) point.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:56, 26 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
::No, a two-dimensional red line does not contain information on which direction the ant is moving and at what velocity (well, actually, the ant is where the red line ends), but the point is that you cannot plot a red ball falling to the ground from 100% to 0% height "as a function of time" using a single axis.[[Special:Contributions/176.226.42.80|176.226.42.80]] 05:37, 27 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:::There is a third dimension. It is time itself. Ants unlike ink can move along that axis. However my interpretation takes liberties with the definition of graph.[[Special:Contributions/12.198.205.9|12.198.205.9]] 23:01, 11 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The title doesn't say anything about coordinates. The axis is "certainty", which is a scalar value. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.8|108.162.216.8]] 16:34, 28 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I like this comic. But I think "subjective probability" or "degree of belief" might be better than "certainty", because 0% certainty that it's polar is not 100% certainty that it's not polar. I think 0% certainty means that you have no pertinent information, and might as well flip a coin. Also, switching it to be self-refuting rather than self-confirming would also be funny. --Clay<br />
<br />
;Incomplete tag<br />
I did add this tag just because we have a chaos at explanation here. So I will try to simplify but I will also need your help, maybe discussed here at talk first.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:46, 26 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Transcript is biased?<br />
<br />
"[The graph shows a red curve starting at 50% on the Y-axis and arcing down to intersect 0% at the 10th unit of the X-axis.]" That seems judgemental as to which kind of graph it is. Without misquoting Word Of God in any way is it possible to instead make changes something like "...starting at 50% in the direction represented by the vertical axis and ''either'' arcing down to [...] the horizontal-axis ''or'' spiraling outwards to 100% by the radial angle represented by this perpendicular." But perhaps less verbose, if someone has the verbal skills required to accomplish this. (Also, transcript does not mention the arrow, at all, with its possible significance. It could be just treated as an idle temporal indicator, regardless of graph-type, although it ''has'' strong associations with polar graphing, as mentioned.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 05:09, 27 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The comic had no internal transcript, so I made one up. I just changed it again to try and be as unbiased as possible. If it's still confusing or biased or whatever, take a shot at fixing it yourself. :) --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 06:06, 29 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Is this it?<br />
<br />
The similarity is probably just a coincidence, but Comic 1230 reminded me of the middle one of these curves.<br />
Its polar equation simplifies to ''r'' = pi - 2 arctan(sin(theta)).<br />
If a rotational motion in three dimensional space has constant angular velocity,<br />
its angular displacement (aka axis-times-angle) traces one of the curves in this family.<br />
<br />
[[File:1230-polar.png]]<br />
<br />
[[User:Buster|Buster]] ([[User talk:Buster|talk]]) 21:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Thanks Buster for signing in here and presenting this graphic. But I am still pretty sure Randall did not thought about "pi - 2 arctan(sin(theta))", he was just observing some ants (or flies) on his screen. Sometimes the world is so simple, while the explanation is covered in complex analogies, Randall is doing this often. I like this plot, but I am sure this plot was not in mind of Randall when he did draw this comic.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 1 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Incomplete tag again<br />
<br />
The explain is incorrect and misleading for the "time" value. We should explain this by using Randalls ant example from the title text:<br />
*At Cartesian coordinates an ant is a dot, when it moves by time we will get more dots or just a line. So there are three values at the plot: x-location, y-location, and the time which shows the move.<br />
*On polar coordinates the difference is that we have only one axis, this is the radius or the distance from the zero point. The second coordinate is the angel to an arbitrary axis. A single position of an ant is again still just a dot. If the location changes by time we also do get a line.<br />
The arrow just shows the direction for the time value.<br />
<br />
There are many more polar plots like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sidelobes_en.svg antenna side lobes], but the plot at this comic is much more simple.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:32, 3 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation gives the equation as r(t)=100/(1+sin(t)). When t=0, r should be 50 because this is a *clockwise* polar graph, so this function isn't right. The correct equation is r(t)=100/(1+cos(t)).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 02:46, 3 June 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1473:_Location_Sharing&diff=82960Talk:1473: Location Sharing2015-01-18T11:54:35Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>It's a reference to the Uncertainty Principle, a property of quantum mechanics that states that position and momentum cannot be known at the same time.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.98|199.27.133.98]] 05:20, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I may be thinking too much into this, but couldn't she also not want the website to know her mass? Momentum is Mass*Velocity, and Velocity can be derived from change in position [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.159|173.245.56.159]] 05:34, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:That was my understanding, too. Moreover, I don't see any humor in applying the uncertainity principle to macroscopic objects. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.57|108.162.254.57]] 08:53, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::You're such a Bohr. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 11:54, 18 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Angular momentum sensors - a.k.a. gyros, not accelerometers. {{unsigned ip|141.101.80.109}}<br />
<br />
She does not want the website to calculate her mass and therefore her weight. It has nothing to do with the uncertainty principle {{unsigned|Saints22}}<br />
:I disagree. Of course it is funny idea that she says nice try as if the website had interest in her weight. But since you cannot calculate mass from position and momentum your ideas makes no sense. You need the velocity and the momentum to calculate the mass. So even though they could have both position and momentum they would still not know her mass. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:33, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Unless, of course, the permission given by Megan to determine her location is persistent and lasts for at least two consecutive polls for location, which would enable the recipient to compute the velocity out of two locations and time between the polls. [[User:Nyq|Nyq]] ([[User talk:Nyq|talk]]) 13:12, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do not not think that Megan allows the website to access her location. The website wants her to, that's why the button is highlighted and blinking. In the beat panel, Megan presumably denies. The website then asks for momentum and wants Megan to deny the request (by highlighting "Deny"), so that, according to the uncertainty principle, they can still get her location (which is what they wanted all along). However, Megan sees through this trick and acknowledges its cleverness with a "Nice try". --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.134|108.162.254.134]] 10:27, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:No I disagree. Of course the highlighted button is the one Megan pushes. And just because you do not know the momentum does not automatically give you the location. You just can't know both without a given uncertainty. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:33, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::No, the highlighted buttons are definitely meant to be preselected. Megan pushes a button on the second panel, and then the website shows the page where denying the momentum is preselected.{{unsigned ip|108.162.254.47}}<br />
:True! Thats exactly how I understand this comic. The website wants to know her location. She denies. Then the website tries to trick her in wanting to be forced not to know her exact momentum - so in turn to be able to know her exact location anyway.{{unsigned ip|108.162.254.47}}<br />
:I think you're right. Her thumb is definitely only extended in panel 2, and, going back, it looks like the highlight is supposed to be [http://www.javascriptworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/geolocation.png this] sort of window, although I have no idea what it looks like on mobile. Also, the "beat" panel makes more sense with this explanation, since it's actually an action panel instead of suggesting a weird gap between the two requests. It certainly makes more sense than the article asking for her momentum after already having her position, since measuring momentum would decrease their certainty of subatomic Megan's position. And it's definitely about the uncertainty principle, given: 1. This is Randall; he's way more likely to do a comic about a principle of particle physics than one about women not wanting people to know their weight, and 2. The alt text is about the uncertainty principle. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 05:31, 16 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
What's with the persistent "females"? Would make sense in biology talk, but it's really weird when what you mean is "women"[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.185|141.101.104.185]] 13:14, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: I'd suggest that it is just about avoidance: some might take 'women' as having negative derogative connotations in this context, whereas females is unarguably accurate. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.204|173.245.54.204]] 13:29, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::"Females" is shorter than "women and girls". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.201|108.162.221.201]] 14:54, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::: Yes, some people are determined to be offended. Unfortunate. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.152|173.245.54.152]] 19:52, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::: For the sake of accuracy, I move that we should really say something more along the lines of "living female homo sapiens organisms" - so that we can exclude the countless other female eukaryotes we know so little about socialogically, and/or the otherwise dead or nonexistent homo sapiens or their representations? I mean, come on! "Females" is sooooo nonspecific...-- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:57, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::: A "woman" is a person; "female" is a sex. "Females" in this context is as rude as calling grown women "girls." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.36|108.162.216.36]] 03:45, 16 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: The name of the academic field of the study of women's perspectives in most public universities is, "Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies." "Women" is the correct academic term for the discussion of women. [[User:ChristGoldman|ChristGoldman]] ([[User talk:ChristGoldman|talk]]) 20:36, 14 January 2015 (UTC) <br />
<br />
There's some confusion over the sensors. GPS is used to determine the device's position on Earth, but not its orientation. An accelerometer may be used to determine a phone's orientation in terms of flat/portrait/landscape, but not in which direction in terms of north/south. The magnetometer can measure magnetic forces, but isn't enough to determine north (because of inclination). To measure magnetic north, you need to combine data from accelerometer and magnetometer, which gets a working, but quite unsteady compass. These sensors (GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer) are available on most current smart phones. Better devices also include a gyroscope, which measures angular momentum, but no absolute angle towards the horizon and/or north. A gyroscope may be used to improve the stability of the accelerometer/magnetometer compass (but requires a good algorithm which I'm still looking for). Knowing this, the title text is disputable, because devices without gyro aren't actually able to provide a steady compass, while those with gyro are (although there are apps which don't use the gyro even when available, so they won't get a fast, steady compass anyway). --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 15:24, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It seems to me that the paragraph explaining mass and weight is too complicated and overly long, and the hypothesis that the app is trying to steal this information unrelated to the comic, or rather, wild speculative extrapolations of logic and meaning. Likewise, the sentences on how the accelerometer may be used to guess passwords seems to me to be unfounded in science. The uncertainty principle is the clear main theme of this comic. --[[User:Canned Soul|Canned Soul]] ([[User talk:Canned Soul|talk]]) 16:03, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Added one word to make it "An example is a weather app which would need your location in order to '''automatically''' find the correct forecast." It's often trivial to manually get forecasts (or other services, like "nearest branch of a shop that has your desired item in stock") for a current location, just so as long as /you/ know where you are... (I don't turn on my GPS unless I'm actually wanting to use it for something, and don't like websites knowing these things just because they ask for them in the background. Go away, Google Location Services... and why does it grey-out the "Don't share information" hotspot when I've ticked the "Don't ask me again" and only lets me continually refuse ''manually''!? Which I do on principle!!) I keep a variety of common home/away locations on permalink in my favourite weather forecast app and know I can easily add another at a moment's notice when I ''want'' to. (And, the beauty is, I don't even need to be there at the time, just perhaps ''planning'' to go!)<br />
<br />
Plus, to the "I don't see any humor in applying the uncertainity principle to macroscopic objects." person, above, please pass by your local XKCD offices at the first opportunity in order to hand back your XKCD Membership Card. You're obviously not one of us! ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.191|141.101.98.191]] 16:28, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
::My goodness, yes! What a lot of seriousness has found its way into this discussion! How could anyone miss the humo[u]r in the personification of a subatomic particle as a Megan?[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 04:23, 15 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Per the explanation: "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)."<br />
The compass points in a particular direction but tells you nothing about location or momentum. How would it be involved in any violation of Uncertainty? The gyroscope and GPS I could see, maybe. But the compass? I don't see how it combined with anything could involve Uncertainty. - Equinox [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.117|199.27.128.117]] 16:46, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
: The Uncertainty Principle extends to other pairs of conjugate variables besides the well-known pair of position and momentum. One of these pairs is orientation and angular momentum. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.142|173.245.52.142]] 17:45, 14 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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The way I read this, by knowing her current location AND momentum (ignoring the uncertainty principle thing for the moment) it becomes possible to predict where whe'll be in the future, which would open up all sorts of ... 'interesting' marketing opportunities for the app maker. Megan doesn't mind the app knowing where she *is*, but doesn't want it to know where she's *going*, and so rejects the second seemingly innocent question. Maybe? {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.205}}<br />
:I agree. It is not about the uncertainty principle, but about predicting future locations with the momentum, or future orientations with the angular speed from the gyroscope. It would NOT violate Heisenberg to measure two (not conjugating) physical parameters with bad accuracy (only the other way round). The argument goes: The phone can measure the orientation quite well despite of the bad compass. So its only option is using the gyroscope and integrating its angular speeds over time. The initial value can come from the GPS, the compass (offset error, if it is really so bad) or from an initialization in the factory (then the gyroscope has to function exceptionally well, but this could be the joke). Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.56|108.162.254.56]] 14:15, 15 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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+1 for this being about the uncertainty principle. Frankly, I'm surprised there's any controversy (many of the alternative explanations offered seem very unlikely, quite apart from anything else): if there's any ambiguity in the cartoon itself, surely the title text (by riffing on another pair of conjugate variables) clears that up?<br />
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.169|141.101.98.169]] 10:47, 16 January 2015 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=428:_Starwatching&diff=72363428: Starwatching2014-07-27T02:50:05Z<p>108.162.216.30: incorrect explanation</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 428<br />
| date = May 26, 2008<br />
| title = Starwatching<br />
| image = starwatching.png<br />
| titletext = I always figured the word 'blog' would sound *less* silly as the years went by.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Edit for accuracy and grammar. Add other references for making fun of the word blog in comics}}<br />
It's night and [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] lie down on the earth while looking into the sky. Cueball tells a story. Cueball says all dead bloggers are in the sky watching them, and above them all there is the master blogger, Cory Doctorow. The story is interrupted when Cueball goes on to say that the {{w|Tag cloud}} opens, and {{w|Cory Doctorow}} speaks. Megan interrupts, telling Cueball that he needs to "get out more or less. I cant decide".<br />
<br />
Cueball is referencing the movie {{w|The Lion King}}. The first two panels reference a scene where the protagonist, Simba, remembers how his father, Mufasa, explained the night sky by saying, 'the great kings of the past are up there'. The last panel is from a scene near the climax of the movie, where a the spirit of Mufasa appears to Simba in the clouds, and speaks to him. <br />
<br />
In the title text, Randall mentions that he feels that the word {{w|blog}}, a {{w|portmanteau}} and an {{w|Elision}} of 'web log', sounds silly, and has not become any less silly over the years, despite entering common usage. This is a common theme in Randall's writings and comics. For example xkcd's blog is called "[http://blag.xkcd.com/ The blag of the webcomic]", in mockery of the word blog.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Curbar and Megan are lying on the ground stargazing]<br />
:Cueball: Just look at those stars.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: My father once told me that the great bloggers of the past are up there, watching over us.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball sits up, and then stands up, stretching his arms in the air as if to encompass the whole night sky]<br />
:Cueball: High above the blogosphere, a gap opens in the tag clouds. Cory Doctorow's voice booms forth...<br />
:Megan: You need to get out either ''more'' or ''less''. I can't decide.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1072:_Seventies&diff=70007Talk:1072: Seventies2014-06-20T03:04:44Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>Can someone comment on the S-es in image's title text? I can read it, but don't know what they mean. Probably some old spelling.<br />
<br />
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Done [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 16:52, 13 August 2012 (UTC)<br />
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s<br />
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Answering machines certainly had been invented by the 1970s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answering_machine). The first practical commercial models started appearing in the 1960s and I had one that used an endless reel of magnetic tape in the 70s. [[User:Jonat|Jonat]] ([[User talk:Jonat|talk]]) 16:20, 6 December 2012 (UTC)<br />
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Touch tone phones were certainly around in 1974, although dial phones were still prevalent. Touch Tone dialing was introduced in the late 60s (it was a sufficient novelty that if you visited someone with TouchTone, they'd show it off) The "press 1" aspect came much later, with automatic voice response (AVR) systems, probably mid 80s, although dial phones were still in use ("or wait to be connected to an operator"). As noted by Jonat, answering machines with cassettes, loops, or reel to reel tapes were quite common in the 70s, as a result of the Carterfone decision allowing interconnection to the public switched system in the US.[[Special:Contributions/71.177.151.10|71.177.151.10]] 04:56, 22 January 2013 (UTC)Jim Lux<br />
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I've never encountered those "press 1 to leave a message"-type answering machines, only ones where it says: "[person you wanted to call] is not available at this moment. Please leave a message after the beep. *beep*". Maybe it's a US thing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.223|108.162.231.223]] 11:59, 8 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: Most voicemail systems here in the US, you just leave a message after the beep, and press 1 at the end for more options afterward before sending your message (e.g., to delete it and re-record). Some answering machines, though, (like the one on my landline) let a caller choose from several mailboxes by pressing a mailbox number during the outgoing message (e.g., "To leave a message for Aaron, press 1. To leave a message for Bob, press 2."). Most likely, Randall's just [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny taking a small liberty to make the joke work]. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 20:20, 20 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why does [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1072:_Seventies&oldid=62864 this revision] say he has an incredulous look on his face, when he doesn't have a face? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 03:04, 20 June 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1355:_Airplane_Message&diff=655271355: Airplane Message2014-04-16T21:28:38Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Explanation */ The grammar in the third sentence didn't make sense, so I'm offering a better alternative.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1355<br />
| date = April 14, 2014<br />
| title = Airplane Message<br />
| image = airplane_message.png<br />
| titletext = PHARAOH IRY-HOR, FROM THE 3100s BC, IS THE FIRST HUMAN WHOSE NAME WE KNOW.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Large banners are sometimes flown behind airplanes to advertise a product or event to a large number of people. Here, [[Randall]] suggests replacing the ad with some interesting facts. This would tell people who see the banner something new and interesting about the world, rather than try to sell them something. He presents two possible facts: {{w|Adriamycin}}, a cancer therapy, and {{w|Iry-Hor}}, the earliest human we know by name.<br />
<br />
The {{w|chemotherapy}} drug {{w|doxorubicin}}, trade name Adriamycin, is based on a strain of the bacterium ''{{w|Streptomyces peucetius}}'', first isolated from a soil sample taken at {{w|Castel del Monte, Apulia|Castel del Monte}} in {{w|Andria}}, Italy.<br />
<br />
As mentioned at the title text Iry-Hor was an ancient, {{w|Dynasty 0|predynastic}} pharaoh of ancient Egypt — no earlier documents exist today.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[There is a plane with a banner behind]<br />
:Banner: Adriamycin, one of our most potent chemotherapy drugs, comes from the dirt from an Italian castle.<br />
<br />
:My hobby: Breaking into airplane hangars and replacing the ads on their giant banners with cool facts.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]<br />
[[Category:Cancer]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1332:_Slippery_Slope&diff=60590Talk:1332: Slippery Slope2014-02-19T20:24:02Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Reminds me of a scene in 3:10 to Yuma (2007) with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale */ new section</p>
<hr />
<div>Wow, and I used to think White Hat was well-meaning but stupid; the inverse of Black Hat. I never knew he was such an asshole...<br />
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.65|199.27.128.65]] 09:11, 19 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
::My own first thought was "That's a Black Hat Voice...". Then I started wondering what White Beret would have said, in his stead, and that sufficiently distracted me... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.7|141.101.99.7]] 13:49, 19 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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::I read that as more of an introverted perspective (though to an extreme) than him being an asshole.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.57|173.245.54.57]] 16:20, 19 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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"Where does it end"? - Marriage, obviously. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:29, 19 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== Reminds me of a scene in 3:10 to Yuma (2007) with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale ==<br />
<br />
Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) speaking to Dan Evans (Christian Bale):<br />
"Yeah, that's why I don't mess around with doing anything good, Dan. You do one good deed for somebody... I imagine it's habit-forming. Something decent. See that grateful look in their eyes, imagine it makes you feel like Christ Hisself."<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 20:24, 19 February 2014 (UTC)CAM</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1324:_Weather&diff=590951324: Weather2014-01-31T19:48:06Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Explanation */ change 'is' to 'it'</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1324<br />
| date = January 31, 2014<br />
| title = Weather<br />
| image = weather.png<br />
| titletext = At least if you're really into, like, Turkish archaeology, store clerks aren't like 'hey, how 'bout those Derinkuyu underground cities!' when they're trying to be polite.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|For the Turkish archaeology geeks out there: flesh that part out!}}<br />
[[Hairy]] makes a casual comment about the weather and [[Cueball]] responds with detailed information about the current weather system and forecasts, which Hairy probably wasn't interested in at all.<br />
<br />
{{w|Jet stream|Jet streams}} are strong air currents high in the atmosphere which have a big influence on the weather. <br />
<br />
18z (or better 18Z) is UTC 18:00 (6 PM in Greenwich, England, 10 AM in California). See {{w|ISO 8601}} in Wikipedia. <br />
<br />
GFS is the {{w|Global Forecast System}} (also known as NCEP-GFS). It is a computer model used by the {{w|National Weather Service}} to predict the weather up to 16 days in advance. The model is run 4 times a day and the output is distinguished by the UTC hour it was started (18z in this case).<br />
<br />
Part of the prediction is the {{w|atmospheric pressure}} expressed in {{w|Bar (unit)|mbar}} (or mb). 960 mbar is very low pressure, which is usually associated with seriously bad weather (record low pressure for Minnesota was 963 mbar till 1998).<br />
<br />
Store clerks are known for small talk about the weather as part of their sales talk. In title text, a clerk instead makes small talk about {{w|Derinkuyu Underground City|Derinkuyu Underground Cities}}, one of the most well-known {{w|History of Turkey|archaeological sites in Turkey}}, which is a country very well known for its many well-preserved ancient sites from a broad range of time periods. It would be very tempting for Turkish archaeology geek to launch into a detailed conversation on the subject or related news.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball and Hairy are talking.]<br />
:Hairy: So, how 'bout this weather?<br />
:Cueball: I ''know,'' right? The whole jet stream layer is ''nuts!''<br />
:Hairy: Um, sure...<br />
:Cueball: The 18z GFS forecasts 960mb by Tuesday. Think it'll verify?<br />
:Hairy: What?<br />
:Cueball: ...Right. Sorry. Uh, yeah! Weather sure has been crazy.<br />
:Weather geeks have it tough.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1316:_Inexplicable&diff=57708Talk:1316: Inexplicable2014-01-14T22:41:47Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>[http://xkcd.com/725/ Literally] haunted? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 08:22, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I was wondering too if Randall was also taking a sideways swipe at the way many people today misuse the term "literally".[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 22:42, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I would say he trying to say that some errors that computers have are impossible to fathom. I've baffled our IT people on many an occasion and the solution is usual 'rebuild' which is the computer equivalent of an exorcism.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 10:18, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Definitely this. It is also much harder to figure out what the problem is with a computer when you weren't the one who has spent all their time using the computer. It is why I can't understand how IT people do their jobs. [[User:Daleb|Daleb]] ([[User talk:Daleb|talk]]) 13:14, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Surprised nobody mentioned [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine Ghost in the machine] yet... --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 10:28, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I find the current explanation entertaining but... raises questions.<br />
<br />
Is "This comic is inexplicable and represents a self-referencing joke about explainxkcd.com." serious?<br />
:I think it's not and I deleted the sentence. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:39, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: If the comic is not a self-referencing joke about explainxkcd.com, then what conceivable combination of words WOULD constitute such a joke? (note: I am not the one who first made the (now deleted) point, but I agree with it.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.214|108.162.231.214]] 08:46, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"While it might [be] a reasonable conclusion [i.e. that it is 'haunted'] for a human, demons can't possess a computer." - this reads like "demons exist, but are incapable of possessing computer equipment", rather than "demons cannot possess a computer, because they don't even exist", which would be my ''preference'' (under the standard rules of not being able to ''prove'' the non-existence of the supernatral... and, believe me, I've had my fair share of totally baffling computer problems, in my time, and often anthropomorphise equipment, somewhat, ''at least'' to explain it to non-tech users... but then end up adopting the same attitude myself, of course).<br />
<br />
"The title text suggests that Megan insists that Cueball resume possession of his laptop, as she is unsettled by the ghost; Cueball simply refuses, seeing an opportunity to make his problem hers." - I see that as more akin to the "cursed gem" type of story. One simply cannot palm the gem off on somebody else, but it must have a legitimately willing recipient (including a thief stealing it, often) in order for the curse itself to transfer itself. Now that the 'status' of the laptop is known he's not going to accept it back and take the 'curse of errors' back upon himself. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.223|141.101.99.223]] 14:08, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I just removed the sentence "While it might [be] a reasonable conclusion for a human, demons can't possess a computer." In the real world ghosts (the comic does not mention demons) don't exist and can't possess either humans or computers; in a fictional world, they might be able to do either or both (a la King's "Trucks"). -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 15:24, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Are you completely sure of that? How do you look at news like [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catholic-church-trains-more-priests-to-perform-exorcisms-9046578.html|Catholic Church trains more priests to perform Exorcism]? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:12, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think the joke is just that normally the smartass that knows more about computers than you is able to easilly fix it, but not in this case. [[User:Halfhat|Halfhat]] ([[User talk:Halfhat|talk]]) 16:13, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So am I the only one who thinks that the caption(or whatever the hover over text is called) refers to Cueball trying to return the laptop to a retail store. I mean I can see a store like Best Buy refusing to take back a laptop because a customer insists that there is a ghost in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.83|108.162.216.83]] 18:25, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:I agree. but until more people notice it, lets leave it. [[User:Imanton1|Imanton1]] ([[User talk:Imanton1|talk]]) 03:56, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:I thought this too, except I thought it was more a comment on people's attachment to technology, "Demon-posessed or not, it's got all my kitten videos on it!".--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.230|141.101.98.230]] 08:28, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Overthinking, maybe, but if the computer is haunted (read: possessed), then a valid solution IS to return (read: unpossess? dispossess?) it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.57|108.162.216.57]] 23:36, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
Demons and devils can possess people or things; ghosts only loiter/haunt a location.<br />
My wife says, "it's a Turing test!"<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.199|108.162.219.199]] 02:24, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Am I the only who have thought of a corrupted random access memory on this laptop? Last time when I had a RAM failure on one of my machines, for a non technical person it may have appeared haunted: e.g. not executing just specific applications, writing nonsensical error messages, crashing applications when a specific word was being used...you name it. Running memcheck revealed later that one RAM module had lots of corrupted bytes but the problem only appeared when one RAM module was getting hot. So as long as the machine was idling if behaved just fine. So no ghost for me, I guess. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.217|108.162.231.217]] 09:19, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
People, there is no implication that this is a new laptop. It cannot be returned to the store, ok? Megan does not want it in her possession, so she wants to give it back to Cueball but he will not accept it. The only reason she says "take it back" is because it this a straight line that allows Cueball to reply "No". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:33, 14 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I once had a computer that was a nudist. After a couple of months it allowed me to get it dressed. I must say it taught me to be more accepting of the needs of electronic devices then and now. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.186|199.27.128.186]] 20:02, 14 January 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1316:_Inexplicable&diff=57627Talk:1316: Inexplicable2014-01-13T22:42:38Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>[http://xkcd.com/725/ Literally] haunted? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 08:22, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I was wondering too if Randall was also taking a sideways swipe at the way many people today misuse the term "literally".[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 22:42, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would say he trying to say that some errors that computers have are impossible to fathom. I've baffled our IT people on many an occasion and the solution is usual 'rebuild' which is the computer equivalent of an exorcism.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 10:18, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Definitely this. It is also much harder to figure out what the problem is with a computer when you weren't the one who has spent all their time using the computer. It is why I can't understand how IT people do their jobs. [[User:Daleb|Daleb]] ([[User talk:Daleb|talk]]) 13:14, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Surprised nobody mentioned [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine Ghost in the machine] yet... --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 10:28, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I find the current explanation entertaining but... raises questions.<br />
<br />
Is "This comic is inexplicable and represents a self-referencing joke about explainxkcd.com." serious?<br />
:I think it's not and I deleted the sentence. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:39, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"While it might [be] a reasonable conclusion [i.e. that it is 'haunted'] for a human, demons can't possess a computer." - this reads like "demons exist, but are incapable of possessing computer equipment", rather than "demons cannot possess a computer, because they don't even exist", which would be my ''preference'' (under the standard rules of not being able to ''prove'' the non-existence of the supernatral... and, believe me, I've had my fair share of totally baffling computer problems, in my time, and often anthropomorphise equipment, somewhat, ''at least'' to explain it to non-tech users... but then end up adopting the same attitude myself, of course).<br />
<br />
"The title text suggests that Megan insists that Cueball resume possession of his laptop, as she is unsettled by the ghost; Cueball simply refuses, seeing an opportunity to make his problem hers." - I see that as more akin to the "cursed gem" type of story. One simply cannot palm the gem off on somebody else, but it must have a legitimately willing recipient (including a thief stealing it, often) in order for the curse itself to transfer itself. Now that the 'status' of the laptop is known he's not going to accept it back and take the 'curse of errors' back upon himself. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.223|141.101.99.223]] 14:08, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I just removed the sentence "While it might [be] a reasonable conclusion for a human, demons can't possess a computer." In the real world ghosts (the comic does not mention demons) don't exist and can't possess either humans or computers; in a fictional world, they might be able to do either or both (a la King's "Trucks"). -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 15:24, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think the joke is just that normally the smartass that knows more about computers than you is able to easilly fix it, but not in this case. [[User:Halfhat|Halfhat]] ([[User talk:Halfhat|talk]]) 16:13, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So am I the only one who thinks that the caption(or whatever the hover over text is called) refers to Cueball trying to return the laptop to a retail store. I mean I can see a store like Best Buy refusing to take back a laptop because a customer insists that there is a ghost in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.83|108.162.216.83]] 18:25, 13 January 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1316:_Inexplicable&diff=57626Talk:1316: Inexplicable2014-01-13T22:42:02Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>[http://xkcd.com/725/ Literally] haunted? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.152|173.245.53.152]] 08:22, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
I was wondering too if Randall was also taking a sideways swipe at the way many people today misuse the term "literally".[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 22:42, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would say he trying to say that some errors that computers have are impossible to fathom. I've baffled our IT people on many an occasion and the solution is usual 'rebuild' which is the computer equivalent of an exorcism.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 10:18, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Definitely this. It is also much harder to figure out what the problem is with a computer when you weren't the one who has spent all their time using the computer. It is why I can't understand how IT people do their jobs. [[User:Daleb|Daleb]] ([[User talk:Daleb|talk]]) 13:14, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Surprised nobody mentioned [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine Ghost in the machine] yet... --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 10:28, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I find the current explanation entertaining but... raises questions.<br />
<br />
Is "This comic is inexplicable and represents a self-referencing joke about explainxkcd.com." serious?<br />
:I think it's not and I deleted the sentence. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 14:39, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"While it might [be] a reasonable conclusion [i.e. that it is 'haunted'] for a human, demons can't possess a computer." - this reads like "demons exist, but are incapable of possessing computer equipment", rather than "demons cannot possess a computer, because they don't even exist", which would be my ''preference'' (under the standard rules of not being able to ''prove'' the non-existence of the supernatral... and, believe me, I've had my fair share of totally baffling computer problems, in my time, and often anthropomorphise equipment, somewhat, ''at least'' to explain it to non-tech users... but then end up adopting the same attitude myself, of course).<br />
<br />
"The title text suggests that Megan insists that Cueball resume possession of his laptop, as she is unsettled by the ghost; Cueball simply refuses, seeing an opportunity to make his problem hers." - I see that as more akin to the "cursed gem" type of story. One simply cannot palm the gem off on somebody else, but it must have a legitimately willing recipient (including a thief stealing it, often) in order for the curse itself to transfer itself. Now that the 'status' of the laptop is known he's not going to accept it back and take the 'curse of errors' back upon himself. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.223|141.101.99.223]] 14:08, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I just removed the sentence "While it might [be] a reasonable conclusion for a human, demons can't possess a computer." In the real world ghosts (the comic does not mention demons) don't exist and can't possess either humans or computers; in a fictional world, they might be able to do either or both (a la King's "Trucks"). -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.217|108.162.212.217]] 15:24, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think the joke is just that normally the smartass that knows more about computers than you is able to easilly fix it, but not in this case. [[User:Halfhat|Halfhat]] ([[User talk:Halfhat|talk]]) 16:13, 13 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
So am I the only one who thinks that the caption(or whatever the hover over text is called) refers to Cueball trying to return the laptop to a retail store. I mean I can see a store like Best Buy refusing to take back a laptop because a customer insists that there is a ghost in it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.83|108.162.216.83]] 18:25, 13 January 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=339:_Classic&diff=55511339: Classic2013-12-18T19:17:15Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Transcript */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 339<br />
| date = November 7, 2007<br />
| title = Classic<br />
| image = classic.png<br />
| titletext = Someone get that Pachelbel's Canon kid a recording contract, stat.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete}}<br />
[[Cueball]] has noticed, while listening to/watching {{w|Stairway to Heaven}} by {{w|Led Zeppelin}}, that (at least some of) the music of the {{w|Baby-boom generation|Baby Boomer generation}} is lyrically better than current music.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to {{w|Pachelbel's Canon}} and probably {{w|Lim Jeong-hyun}} whose [video][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uJXC5WqbeU] was a {{w|YouTube#Social impact|hit on YouTube}}.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is sitting in front of a turntable, listening to some rock performance or other.]<br />
:Song: And as we wind on down the road, our shadows taller than our soul<br />
<br />
:Song: When all is one and one is all, to be a rock and not to rooooll<br />
<br />
:Song [fading away]: And she's buying a stairway to Heaven<br />
<br />
:Cueball: Man. The Baby Boomers are kicking our <u>ASSES</u>.<br />
:Cueball: We need to get it together, guys.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Music]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1298:_Exoplanet_Neighborhood&diff=54065Talk:1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood2013-12-02T13:43:06Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>Why the big empty circle around Earth??<br />
Because they're all far away and he wants to make the reader feel lonely. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 13:42, 2 December 2013 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1298:_Exoplanet_Neighborhood&diff=54064Talk:1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood2013-12-02T13:42:35Z<p>108.162.216.30: </p>
<hr />
<div>Why the big empty circle around Earth??<br />
Because they're all far away and he wants to make the reader feel lonely. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 13:42, 2 December 2013 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1298:_Exoplanet_Neighborhood&diff=54063Talk:1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood2013-12-02T13:42:04Z<p>108.162.216.30: Added reply.</p>
<hr />
<div>Why the big empty circle around Earth??<br />
Because they're all far away and he wants to make the reader feel lonely. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 13:42, 2 December 2013 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:870:_Advertising&diff=53981Talk:870: Advertising2013-11-30T03:24:05Z<p>108.162.216.30: Added responsive comment.</p>
<hr />
<div>But the Geico commercial doesn't say up to, it says 15% or more... ~Jfreund<br />
That may depend on your region. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 03:24, 30 November 2013 (UTC)</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=792:_Password_Reuse&diff=51835792: Password Reuse2013-11-04T21:33:15Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* minor typo */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 792<br />
| date = September 13, 2010<br />
| title = Password Reuse<br />
| image = password_reuse.png<br />
| titletext = It'll be hilarious the first few times this happens.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic has three layers: hacking, philosophy, and Google-satire.<br />
<br />
It starts off on a practical level, with Black Hat describing a devious social engineering scheme. It relies on the fact that people commonly reuse the same password on multiple websites, and tend to create accounts on new websites somewhat indiscriminately. Thus, one could create a simple Web service to collect users' usernames, email addresses, and passwords. Since many users will reuse this combination on other websites as well, the website owner can try to hack their accounts on other common sites, such as Amazon or PayPal, using the same login info.<br />
<br />
In panel 6, the comic suddenly develops a philosophical and ethical bent. Black Hat reveals that he has already carried out step 1, through his numerous unprofitable Web services which he had been running for this very purpose. However, after successfully executing the hack, he realizes that he does not know what to do with all this power. <br />
He reveals that he is already financially self-sufficient, and makes a point that money can't buy happiness. <br />
He could use his power to realize his sadistic pleasures of messing with people, but he's already a serial classhole.<br />
If he had any beliefs or ideology, he could use this power to try to spread them. However, he reveals that "since March of 1997" he doesn't really believe in anything. (On March 26 1997 In San Diego, California, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists committed mass suicide at their compound.)<br />
The dilemma: Black Hat has cleverly executed a hack that has given him a lot of power, but he doesn't know what to do with it.<br />
<br />
The last part of the comic now transitions to a satire on how Google has already gone through both the stages described above. It describes how all of Google's free services are simply a ploy to collect and control all the world's information, similar in concept but grander than the hack described in part 1. It satirizes the notion that behind Google's "Don't be evil" motto is actually an end-goal of using their powers eventually for evil. However, just like Black Hat, once Google reaches the stage where they are able to capitalize on their powers, they find that there is nothing evil left for them to desire. They already make a lot of money, and anything remaining that they wish to do, such as throwing {{w|Call of Duty|CoD}} tournaments, aren't evil at all.<br />
<br />
This comic was directly referenced in [[1286: Encryptic]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball at a computer with Black Hat behind him.]<br />
:Black Hat: Password entropy is rarely relevant. The real modern danger is password reuse.<br />
:Cueball: How so?<br />
:Computer: Password too weak.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Set up a Web service to do something simple, like image hosting or tweet syndication, so a few million people set up free accounts.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Bam, you've got a few million emails, default usernames, and passwords.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Tons of people use one password, strong or not, for most accounts.<br />
<br />
:[Diagram showing a table of emails, usernames, and passwords.]<br />
:Black Hat: Use the list and some proxies to try automated logins to the 20 or 30 most popular sites, plus banks and PayPal and such.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: You've now got a few hundred thousand real identities on a few dozen services, and nobody suspects a thing.<br />
:Cueball: And then what?<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: Well, that's where I got stuck.<br />
:Cueball: You did this?<br />
:Black Hat: Why do you ''think'' I hosted so many unprofitable web services?<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: I could probably net in a lot of money, one way or another, if I did things carefully. But research shows more money doesn't make people happier, once they make enough to avoid day-to-day financial stress.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: I could mess with people endlessly, but I do that already. I could get a political or religious idea out to most of the world, but since March of 1997 I don't really believe in anything.<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: So, here I sit, a puppetmaster who wants nothing from his puppets.<br />
:Black Hat: It's the same problem Google has.<br />
:Cueball: Oh?<br />
<br />
:[A meeting at Google headquarters. An executive is talking to some others.]<br />
:Google...<br />
:Executive 1: Okay, everyone, we control the world's information. Now it's time to turn evil. What's the plan?<br />
:Executive 2: Make boatloads of money?<br />
<br />
:Executive 1: We already do!<br />
:Executive 2 (off-panel): Set up a companywide CoD4: Modern Warfare tournament each week?<br />
:Executive 1: ''That's not evil!''<br />
:Executive 2: Ooh, dibs on the lobby TV!<br />
:Executive 1: Okay, we ''suck'' at this.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]</div>108.162.216.30https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1286:_Encryptic&diff=517501286: Encryptic2013-11-04T14:48:40Z<p>108.162.216.30: /* Transcript */ water-3 is an egg group in pokemon</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1286<br />
| date = November 4, 2013<br />
| title = Encryptic<br />
| image = encryptic.png<br />
| titletext = It was bound to happen eventually. This data theft will enable almost limitless [xkcd.com/792]-style password reuse attacks in the coming weeks. There's only one group that comes out of this looking smart: Everyone who pirated Photoshop.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|1286: Encryptic}}<br />
<br />
{{w|Triple DES}} is an older, but still relatively secure, encryption algorithm that uses 64bit block size. Assuming that the passwords are stored in ASCII format, this means that a sequence of 8 characters is always encrypted to the same result.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, since DES only encrypts in blocks of 64 bits (8 bytes) then encrypting and keeping the length of blocks means that you actually get a very good idea of the length of the password - that is, anything with only one block is a password length between 1 and 8 characters, with two blocks between 9 and 16 characters etc. In addition a password of "1234567812345678" would encrypt into two identical blocks. Best practice is to NOT encrypt passwords, but to generate a oneway hash, using a suitable cryptographical hashing function, and make sure that there is a salt value specific to each user (like their username) included in the input so two users with same password do not hash to the same value.<br />
<br />
Adobe also stored hints users selected. That means that we now know if the same 8 characters are used for multiple passwords, and we have hints from more than one user. That should mean that common password portions should be easy to recover, and that user may be "compromised" by someone else using part of same password (and perhaps providing good hint).<br />
<br />
As an example, a password having the three hints "Big Apple", "Twin Towers" and "If you can make it there" is probably "New York". The weakness here is that no decryption actually has to take place - you sort passwords by cyphertext and try to solve them like a crossword puzzle, one with multiple clues.<br />
<br />
It looks like actual examples are not taken from the leaked file, as that seems to [http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/11/how-an-epic-blunder-by-adobe-could-strengthen-hand-of-password-crackers/ use a different format] for.<br />
<br />
The title text makes a reference to [[792|Black Hat’s trouble with what to do with stolen passwords]]. It also states that users of pirated Photoshop are the winners here. This is because in order to make Photoshop pirate-able, it was modified (cracked) by removing the requirement for registration so their passwords were not sent to Adobe and therefore are not present in the leaked file.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Hackers recently leaked '''''153 million''''' Adobe user emails, encrypted passwords, and password hints.<br />
:Adobe encrypted the passwords improperly, misusing block-mode 3DES. The result is something wonderful:<br />
<br />
<pre><br />
User password Hint<br />
------------- ----<br />
<br />
4e18acc1ab27a2d6 weather vane sword<br />
4e18acc1ab27a2d6<br />
4e18acc1ab27a2d6 a0a2876eb1ea1fea name1<br />
8babb6299e06eb6d duh<br />
8babb6299e06eb6d a0a2876eb1ea1fea<br />
8babb6299e06eb6d 85e9da81a8a78adc 57<br />
4e18acc1ab27a2d6 favorite of 12 apostles<br />
1ab29ae86da6e5ca 7a2d6a0a2876eb1e with your own hand you<br />
have done all this<br />
a1f9b2b6299e7a2b eadec1e6ab797397 sexy earlobes<br />
a1f9b2b6299e7a2b 617ab0277727ad85 best tos episode<br />
39738b7adb0b8af7 617ab0277727ad85 sugarland<br />
1ab29ae86da6e5ca name + jersey#<br />
877ab7889d3862b1 alpha<br />
877ab7889d3862b1<br />
877ab7889d3862b1<br />
877ab7889d3862b1 obvious<br />
877ab7889d3862b1 Michael Jackson<br />
38a7c9279cadeb44 9dca1d79d4dec6d5<br />
38a7c9279cadeb44 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 he did the MASH, he did the<br />
38a7c9279cadeb44 Purloined<br />
a8ae5754a2b7af7a 9dca1d79d4dec6d5 fav water-3 pokemon<br />
</pre><br />
<br />
:The greatest crossword puzzle in the history of the world<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>108.162.216.30