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1350: Lorenz

Revision as of 16:30, 3 April 2014 by Greatfermat (talk | contribs) (→‎Transcript: Reaching the relativity question strip.)
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Lorenz
Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story
Title text: Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story


Ambox notice.png This explanation is incomplete:
Should the image not just be the first frame wit four of the most common options. This image now gives way too much credit to the politican line of the story - which is less than a fifth of the total... Also all possible dialogues are not yet accounted for (and may never be?) If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Images

For the images that appear in this comic, see 1350: Lorenz/Images.

Explanation

This is a dynamic comic with crowd-sourced content. In honor of April Fools' Day the comic was posted a day early, on Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday.

The title 'Lorenz' is referring to Edward Norton Lorenz who among other subjects was famous for Chaos theory. The title is a reference to that the story line of today's comic will include most (all?) of the user submitted dialogue and hence will in nature be chaotic. In addition, the title text, "Every choice, no matter how small", is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.

This comic is an example of a Choose Your Own Adventure story.

Functionality and bugs

The reader is initially presented with only one panel where Knit Cap Guy is sitting in front of his computer. The reader is given multiple choices concerning what exactly Knit Cap Guy is thinking. Upon choosing any option, a second panel appears, to give continuity to the story. Each new panel may have a new set of options or just the button "Continue" to see the next panel without making any choice in particular. Eventually, one may reach a dead end in which the story is interrupted and reader is presented with a text box to suggest how it should continue. Some of the suggestions given should eventually become available as new options.

It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog is submitted. The dialogue options are likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over day based on which choices are clicked most using A/B measurement techniques.. This will mean that the most popular choices for dialogue line will prevail as the statistics build up. In some cases, dialogue line options do not depend on the continuity of the storyline followed, suggesting that some parts of the story are planned. For example, do several of the storylines involve one of the two main characters waking up and for instance telling the other character, “I had the strangest dream…” or even reliving the dream again. This may be due to common submissions across storylines as well.

Normally, there is a total of 4 options to make: a/b/c/d. Their order changes constantly. Sometimes, there are 3 or fewer options, with the text box to suggest an alternative option. Sometimes, a given panel actually has 5 or more available options, although even in this case only 4 options appear at a time. Refreshing the comic changes randomly which of the available options are visible and which are hidden. As of April 2nd 2014, the existence of 5 or more options seems to occur only in a few rare cases, including the first panel itself.

The last panel always has a "permalink" option which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader -- so for example http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:26c8dcea-b9aa-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd will take you to a particular place in the selected choices.

Cookies are required to see this page properly. Without cookies, the next panel will not render.

If you do not have Javascript enabled or visiting the mobile version of the site, you re shown the previous page's comic. Said comic is visible before Javascript activates.

Buttons

Instead of clicking with the mouse you can move more quickly through the panels using the keyboard:

  • Up/Down - navigate options
  • Enter/Right - choose option after navigating with Up/Down
  • Left - go back one panel
  • a/b/c/d - choose any option directly

Bugs

There seems to be a bug, where xkcd.com (http and https) are the only functioning URLs that display this comic. The URLs www.xkcd.org and m.xkcd.com, don't seem to work, instead displaying the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard

As of April 3rd 2014, sometimes an option seemed to disappear completely, cutting off the all the branches of the story it might lead to. When the comic was first published, "Refresh... No new email... Refresh .. No new tweets... Refresh..." was available as one option of the first panel, but not only it became unavailable temporarily, permalinks to it (http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39) ceased to work. This option has since been fixed. However, permalinks to "These stupid tiles... i'll just play one more game." (with a lowercase "i'll") are broken, too, at the moment. (permalink)

Themes

Miscellaneous

Name + Example image Description
Arguing
lorenz - discuss.png 		The two characters argue with each other
Boomerang
lorenz - boomerang 1.png 		The lone character finds a boomerang on the ground and throws it. The story ends with the boomerang crashing into something off panel, the space rocket from another story branch getting hit, the character getting hit in the face with the boomerang rebound, or the character putting the boomerang down on the ground.
Computer problems
lorenz - laptop 1.png 		The laptop has an unspecified problem. The two characters attempt to fix it. The story either ends with the two randomly floating in the ocean (with or without circling sharks) or with the laptop being melted using a blowtorch (a reference to the previous day's strip, 1349).
Debate
lorenz - debate 1.png 		Knit Cap Guy uses his laptop to watch a debate online between the Politician 1 (on the left) and the Politician 2 (Cueball, on the right), the subject and the actual conversation of which varies according to the storyline. Eventually, they fight each other, the Politician 2 using a lightsaber and the Politician 1 using his bare fists. Subjects debated:
  • Politician 1 questions Politician 2's project of tying multiple birds to a car as fuel replacement, which would require some method to make the birds take off in unison. The solutions mentioned are opening and closing an umbrella near them, using a predatory bird to the car to scare them, putting resources in the hands of bird educators for the purpose of training them and employing fiscal hawks. If the Politician 1 points out some problem with the reasoning, often the solution proposed by the Politician 2 would be doing the same in a larger scale. In the end, Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy and points out something happening near involving birds as a direct result of Politician 2's project.
Dinosaur interruption
lorenz - dinosaur 1.png 		A green T-rex interrupts the story and proceeds to stamp on the house the main characters are in. (These are frames borrowed from Dinosaur Comics, a clip-art-based webcomic that uses the same artwork with different captions for every strip.)
Dreams
lorenz - wake up 1.png 		Sometimes, Knit Cap Guy or Hairy find themselves waking from a dream, suggesting that all prior events were just part of they dreaming. Often, in the storylines they fall in the big hole outside Knit Cap Guy's house, they wake up from a dream. Knit Cap Guy also wakes up after watching the debate, in some storylines. Often, the dream loops upon itself, as the characters wake up multiple times in the same storyline
Space planet
lorenz - rocket 21.png 		Eventually the space rocket meets a guy on a very tiny planet. (The Little Prince)
Space rocket
lorenz - rocket 1.png 		There is a rocket on the ground just outside of the building. The rocket either explodes (with a screenshot from Kerbal Space Program), fails to launch or goes off into space.
Relativistic encounter
lorenz - rocket 16.png 		The space rocket meets another space rocket that asks a question about relativity. The other space rocket will shoot and destroy the main rocket if the question isn't answered satisfactory. Otherwise the two rockets fly past each other.
Salesman
lorenz - sale 1.png 		Hairy meets White Hat, a salesman with a small stand.
Thinking
lorenz - thinking.png 		One of the characters take a panel or two to think about something.

Geography

Name + Example image Description
Hole in the ground
lorenz - gap.png 		Hairy spots a hole in the ground and leans over it to make a comment
Huge hole on the lawn
lorenz - hole.png 		There is a huge hole in the ground just outside of the building. The two characters always end up falling into it and awakening from a dream.
Tree
lorenz - tree.png 		The characters walk past a tree.

Literature

Name + Example image Description
LORT
The Little Prince Eventually, if the rocket is not destroyed, it may pass by the asteroid of The Little Prince and they have a quick conversation.

Movies

Name + Example image Description
Frozen In one storyline, Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy and asks him "Wanna build a snowman?", a line from the movie. Possible answers also come from the movie, such as "It doesn't have to be a snowman..."
Matrix In one storyline, Hairy remarks that the gap in the ground is like a glitch in the matrix.

Video games

Name + Example image Description
2048 A number of storylines begin because Knit Cap Guy is playing 2048 on his computer. Often, Hairy invites him to go outside to do something related to the game, such as hunting for tiles somewhere.
Mario In the dialogue, Hairy asks Knit Cap Guy "Is this 1-1 from Mario?" upon seeing the gap in the ground. In the platform game Super Mario Bros. for NES, the levels are numbered 1-1, 1-2 and so on. In one branch, he says "Actually, it's the final castle. Grab your Fire Flower!"
Pokémon
lorenz - pikachu theft.png 		Some of the storylines involve Pokémon battles featuring Pikachu, a very popular Pokémon. The battles are drawn in the style of the video games. (A trainer in the left-bottom corner facing the foe in the right-top corner, with a narration box below the scene and the trainer's Pokéballs visible, although some elements are missing, such as the level, gender and HP bar.)

Pikachu uses a number of different moves, though these are mostly made up and are not from the Pokémon games. Pikachu's moves are almost invariably remarked by the narrator as "It's not very effective...", but "It's super effective!" is also possible to appear. In the video games, a move is "not very effective" when the opponent's type resists the attacking move's type and "super effective" when the opponent's type is weak to the attacking move's type. Normally after a few failed attempts, there is an uncomfortable silence as the Pikachu says "Um..." and Knit Cap Guy and Hairy walk away. Pikachu is left in the grass and has time to make his final remarks as the two leave him. Rarely, a suggested move knocks Pikachu out.

One narration line is "Where's Twitch when I need help?", a reference to Twitch Plays Pokémon which was also covered by comic 1333: First Date.

Another narration line is: "Google Maps didn't warn me of this.", a reference to Google Maps: Pokémon Challenge.

Pikachu's moves:

  • Abandonment - Pikachu disappears completely.
  • Anguish - Pikachu is sad.
  • Ant Colony - Pikachu is covered in ants.
  • Cute Face
  • Crowdsource
  • The Discrete Metric
  • Ethylene Dichloride - Nothing seems to happen, but Ethylene Dichloride is a toxic chemical, so there may be future consequences for the characters.
  • Extrude - Pikachu's head moves away from his body as his neck becomes long and malleable.
  • Faceless - Pikachu's face disappears.
  • Friendship - Pikachu is on Knit Cap Guy's head, signifying they are now friends. Friendship, though not a move, is a game mechanic in the video games.
  • Granite - Pikachu is atop a block of granite.
  • Graph Theory
  • Ink Cloud - Pikachu is covered in ink. In the storyline Pikachu uses it, there is the option to "gather" the ink.
  • Radicality - Pikachu is on a skateboard.
  • Struggle - In one storyline, after Pikachu uses a number of moves, it says: "Now I only have Struggle left. Tie?" In the Pokémon games, when a Pokémon runs out of PP (Power Points, the energy required to use each of its moves) for all its moves, it may only use Struggle, a weak move, indefinitely reusable, that harms not only the opponent but the user as well.
  • Theft - Pikachu wears Knit Cap Guy's hat. Pikachu seems to be using "Thief", a similarly-named actual move from the games, that is used to steal the foe's item and use it as its own.
  • Uplift - Pikachu's head goes upward, separated from its body, showing a long, thick cable still connecting the head and the body.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete.
Please help by editing it!
[An accurate transcript will be impossible to create because the comic changes over time..]

There are many options. Not everyone will see the same options. We are trying to capture as many options as possible in the transcript below. The order and options has changed since the transcripter captured the dialogue....The dialogue is likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using A/B measurement techniques..

Often, when a panel is without any choices to make, there is only the option "Continue" to see the next panel.

1st Pane: (permalink)
Knit Cap Guy:

  • Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh...
  • These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game.
  • These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game. [There are two completely separate branches with this same text. In one of them, it's written "i'll" in lowercase rather than "I'll".]
  • Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on.
  • Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays.
  • Gravity. Lots of it.
  • Hurry! We're in talks with facebook.
2nd Pane: Refresh Branch (permalink)
Hairy:
  • So you're still refusing to use Facebook?
  • Wanna build a snowman?
  • Hey. I hear Godot is in town. Wanna try to meet him?
  • You know. Your car's on fire.
2nd Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch (permalink)
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy.]
Hairy:
  • There's something weird out on the lawn.
  • There's a dinosaur at the door.
  • I heard Home Depot has 1024 bathroom tiles.
  • I think I saw a "4096" tile outside somewhere.
3rd Pane: Something Weird Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • This is an apartment. We don't have a lawn.
  • I have a lawn?
  • I hope it's not a bobcat this time.
  • If you reprogrammed the squirrel laser to target hipsters again...
4th-5th Panes: Apartment Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy leave the house. They pass by a moat.]
Hairy:
  • OK, two weird things.
  • I can see a creeper down there.
  • Is this 1-1 from Mario?
  • See? It's like a glitch in the Matrix.
  • This isn't where I left that...
6th Pane: Two Weird Things Branch
Hairy:
  • I count three.
  • Why is there a gap here?
  • Who tiled the moat?
6th Pane: Creeper Branch
Knit Cap Guy: Damn Griefers.
6th Pane: Mario Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy pass by a tree.]
Hairy:
  • Why does that tree looks fake?
  • Actually, it's the final castle. Grab your Fire Flower!
  • It's over this way.
  • I've never been this far before!
7th-11th Panes: Fake Tree Branch
Narrator: A wild Pikachu appeared!
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Theft"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: ...
Pikachu: Um...
7th Pane: Never This Far Branch
Hairy: Are you going insane again?
6th Pane: Matrix Glitch Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • How far can we go?
  • What the fuck?!
  • How... How do we get everything back?
4th-5th Panes: Lawn Question Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy leave the house. They pass by a moat.]
Hairy:
  • Hmmm, did you order a moat?
  • I don't remember this being here.
  • Look how deep it goes!
  • It looks like I can see Moria from here.
6th Pane: Order Moat Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • It helps keep bobcats out.
  • Of course. All cool kids have moats in their yards.
  • I don't have the best rerlationship with my mailman.
  • Yep. Delivered in two days, courtesy of Amazon Prime.
6th Pane: Don't Remember Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • It has begun! That's one of the first holes in reality.
  • I wanted to jump over the massive sinkhole, but nooo, someone just had to find out what was down there.
  • Oh, I had the moving company install it last week.
  • We poop in it.
  • Finally got you out of the damn house.
7th Pane: Hole in Reality Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • I've been working on a theory that 2048 is a tool for the old ones to open up portals to this reality.
  • What about black holes? Those don't count?
  • We must go deeper.
7th-13th Panes: Damn House Branch
Narrator: A wild Pikachu appeared!
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Ink Cloud"!
Narrator: ...
Pikachu: Um...
Pikachu: Well then.
Pikachu: I might have left surprises in that direction.
6th Pane: Look How Deep Branch
Hairy:
  • I wonder if we can get someone to fall in?
  • I'm going in. You can come if you want to. I think I see stars down there.
  • That was a missing opportunity.
  • I should come outside more often.
6th Pane: Moria Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • You see Moria from everywhere, Hairy.
  • Yeah, who did you think gave them a balrog?
  • Moria is an anagram of Mario!
7th-10th Panes: Moria Everywhere Branch
Narrator: A wild Pikachu appeared!
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Ink Cloud"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator:
  • Google Maps didn't warn me of this.
  • Enemy Pikachu used "The Discrete Metric"!
  • Gathered the ink!
11th-21th Panes: Google Maps Branch
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Uplift!"
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Cute Face!"
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Faceless"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Where's Twitch when I need help?
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Abandonment"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
11th-15th Panes: Discrete Metric Branch
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Extrude"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: ...
Pikachu: Um...
Pikachu:
  • Now I only have Struggle left. Tie?
  • We are the knights who say Ni!
  • What is even going on here?
16th Pane: Struggle Branch
Pikachu: No fair!
11th-13th Panes: Gathered Ink Branch
Narrator: It's not very effective...
Narrator: Enemy Pikachu used "Granite"!
Narrator: It's not very effective...
7th-10th Panes: Balrog Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • One does not simple "give" a balrog.
  • What? You weren't using it!
  • Gift-wrapping's the hardest part.
7th Pane: Anagram Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy pass by a tree.]
Hairy: Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall.
4th-12th Panes: Bobcat Branch
[A giant hole appears and they fall into it.]
Knit Cap Guy and Hairy: Aaaaa...
[Knit Cap Guy wakes up.]
Knit Cap Guy: Gasp [Goes to his desk.]
Knit Cap Guy: Yawn [Sits at his desk.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Might as well clear more tiles.
  • Definitely not going outside today.
  • Thank God it wasn't a bobcat.
  • Hmmm... I should buy a shovel.
13th Pane: Clear More Tiles Branch
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy again.]
Hairy:
  • Um, there's a hole in your lawn...
  • There's someone at the door looking for you.
  • I made an apple pie.
  • If you want to do that, I'm rebuilding my bathroom this afternoon.
14th Pane: Hole in the Lawn Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • If it doesn't lead to a 1024 tile, I'm leaving.
  • Damn bobcats.
  • I just had a dream about that.
15th-16th Panes: Damn Bobcats Branch
Hairy:
  • Well it was here...
  • I don't think it was bobcats this time. Unless they have backshoes...
15th-22th Panes: Dream Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside again and fall in the hole again~.]
Knit Cap Guy and Hairy: Aaaaa...
[Knit Cap Guy wakes up, leaves the bed and finds a boomerang.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • It looks like is [sic] fell from space.
  • I hope this isn't just another one of those dreams that keeps coming back at you.
  • I hope this was not thrown by a bobcat.
23th-26th Panes: Space Branch
[Knit Cap Guy throwns the boomerang away and it hits something.]
Crash!
[Knit Cap Guy runs away.]
23th-34th Panes: Coming Back Branch
[Knit Cap Guy throws the boomerang twice, only for it to return to him both times.]
Knit Cap Guy: Hm. I was expecting a shark.
[Knit Cap Guy throwns the boomerang again, and it returns to him again.]
23th-30th Panes: Thrown by Bobcat Branch
[Knit Cap Guy throws the boomerang, only for it to return to him .]
Knit Cap Guy: There's a mesage written on it.
[Knit Cap Guy throws the boomerang again. It hits something.]
Crash!
[Knit Cap Guy runs away.]
13th Pane: Thank God Branch
Hairy:
  • You just got a package. It's by the door.
  • Why is there a bobcat on your lawn?
  • There's somewhere [sic] weird out on the lawn.
  • Hey do you know why there's a giant hole in the yard?
14th Pane: Something Weird Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • This seems familiar.
  • Hold up. I need to get my wingsuit first.
  • I hope it's not a giant hole.
  • I have a bad feeling about this.
15th-18th Pane: Familiar Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside.]
Knit Cap Guy: I hope it's not a velociraptor.
15th-18th Pane: Hope Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside. They pass by a tree.]
Hairy: How disappointed are you?
Knit Cap Guy:
  • I was expecting a bobcat.
  • Oh? That's the other tree.
  • Eh, not that much.
14th-16th Panes: Do You Know Why Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside.]
Knit Cap Guy: I swear if it's a bobcat.
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Why did you bring me here?
  • This dream has been looping for years, and yet we never tire of it. Why is that?
17th Pane: Dream Loop Branch
[There is a gap in the ground. Knit Cap Guy jumps over it, Hairy looks into it.]
13th-14th Panes: Buy Shovel Branch
[Knit Cap Guy looks at his screen wondering.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Wow! Shovels sure are expensive!
  • Shovels can't be actually made out of two sticks and a row of rocks?
  • How can there be 36 types of shovel??!
  • These prices are insane! I wonder if you can rent a shovel...
15th-18th Panes: Sticks and Rocks Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is wondering more. Hairy comes. They connect their laptops. Hairy is wondering. Knit Cap Guy tries something at Hairy's laptop.]
4th-5th Panes: Squirrel Laser Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy go outside.]
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Let's just say we won't have to worry about parking.
  • No, now they're just wearing wigs ironically.
  • Things may have gotten out of control a little.
  • At least it improved their haircuts.
3rd Pane: Bathroom Tiles Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • But how many bathrooms?
  • That's 2^5 more than Ikea, I need to see for myself.
  • Let's go, I can keep playing on my phone on the drive.
  • Pfft. Amateurs. Let's go mock them.
3rd Pane: Dinosaur Branch
T-Rex:
  • Self-doubt crippled my arms. Can I have yours?
  • I need a hand!
  • Did you think he was joking?
  • Sorry for just barging in, I couldn't reach the doorbell.
4th Pane: Crippled Arms Branch
T-Rex:
  • Never answer your mobile phone while I am addressing you!
  • Also, have you heard about Tumblr?
  • Also I have some trenchant observations on language and philosophy to make.
  • It's not like you're using them.
5th Pane: Mobile Phone Branch
[T-Rex is going to step on a house.]
T-Rex:
  • I think you just entered a dead zone.
  • Kids these days.
  • Die you monster.
6th Pane: Dead Zone Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream, goes outside and finds a boomerang.]
6th Pane: Kids These Days Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream, and goes back to his computer.]
6th Pane: Die You Monster Branch
[Hairy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream, and starts singing.]
Hairy: [Singing] I woke up like this.
5th-11th Panes: Language and Philosophy Branch
[T-Rex is going to step on a house.]
  • T-Rex: Also, your brain is like this house.
[Knit Cap Guy is inside the house. He wakes up from a dream and goes back to his computer.]
2nd Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch ([1])
[Hairy visits Knit Cap Guy.]
Hairy:
  • What's with those tiny games you keep playing, anyway?
  • Isn't that sort of meaningless?
  • Up for a dangerous experiment with no pay?
  • You won't believe what just fell off of your roof.
2nd-3rd Panes: Political Thing Branch
Laptop: "...and let's go live to the debate."
[Two politicians are debating on TV.]
Politician 1:
  • In contrast to my oppponent, who I quote, "Never liked Firefly much to begin with."
  • ...but even if you tied enough birds to the car, would you get them to take off in unison?
  • And if elected, I vow to win this war on Christmas once and for all!
  • I agree with my opponent all all [sic] issues and I think his economic plan is fantastic!
4th Pane: Tied Birds Branch
Politician 2:
  • Tie a predatory bird to the car with a somewhat shorter rope so that it will scare off the rest of the birds without being able to reach them.
  • Training. That's why I support the "Airlift Act", which would put more resources into the hands of bird educators everywhere.
  • By opening and closing an umbrella near them.
  • One word: Fiscal hawks.
5th Pane: Airlift Act Branch
Politician 1:
  • But is "Airlift" an acronym?
  • But you must agree that a bitd in the hand is worth more than three educators in the bush.
  • Incredible!
  • Wait... Is that like people who educate birds, or birds that teach?
6th Pane: Airlift an Acronym
Hairy:
  • There are birds outside tied to a car.
  • The owls in our barn are forming a union.
  • Or course: Avian Implemented Reuseable Lifter and Ingenuous Flight Technology!
7th Pane: Car Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Cool, let's see who we should vote for.
  • I know who I'm voting for.
  • How many birds?
8th-9th Panes: How Many Branch (permalink)
Hairy:
  • I call her "Serenity."
  • So when you said birds...
  • Liquefied bird fuel is the way to the future.
  • Well, by “birds” and “car” I really meant a rocket. There’s totally a rocket in your lawn, man.
10th-13th Panes: You Said Birds Branch
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Wait. The birds are inside!?
  • I needed to escape from politics anyway.
  • All terms are relative.
14th-19th Panes: Birds Inside Branch
White Hat: Want to forget your dreams? There's a pill for that!
14th-15th Panes: Escape Politics Branch
  • ‘…And let’s go live to the debate’.
16th-26th Panes: Debate Branch (permalink)
We observe your speed to be 38.5%c, and your time is passing at 92.3% the rate of ours. Does this mirror your observations?
2nd-3rd Panes: BSD Branch
[Knit Cap Guy is confused, staring at his laptop.]
Knit Cap Guy: ??
Knit Cap Guy:
  • Now I just need to look up what a "beard error" is...
  • Wait. What's on this other partition?
  • Why is Python importing Skynet?
  • My keyboard has to support SSH over USB?
4th-7th Panes: Beard Error Branch
[Knit Cap Guy has ?? next to his head to signify confusion. Hairy walks in. (continue) Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. Hairy had stepped back while the character is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. The character is holding something rectangular.]
Hairy:
  • The USB cable appears to be mono-directional.
  • Kernel mites?
  • I'm not sure rubbing butter on it will help
  • Yep. It's haunted.
8th-12th Panes: Rubbing Butter Branch
[Hairy and Knit Cap Guy are handling their computers more aggressively.]
Knit Cap Guy: ARGH!
[They both stop. Knit Cap Guy walks away, his chair turned 180 degrees. Pushing aside the chair, the character returns with a fiery blowtorch while wearing goggles.]
Hairy: [holding up a finger] Um.
[Knit Cap Guy's computer was so burned, not only steam is coming out of the computer, but even the desk is noticeably burnt. The cable (apparently also burned) hangs from Hairy's laptop computer. The used blowtorch is clumsily laid sideways be the side of the desk. Both Knit Cap Guy (whose goggles are pushed off his eye) and Hairy are looking at the calamity. The chair is almost out of view. The goggles are on the floor while the chair is nowhere to be seen. Hairy and Knit Cap Guy are walking away from the scene.]
Hairy:
  • Are you all of a sudden in the mood for Thai food?
  • Let's try OpenBSD next time...
  • If you'd done the other one, maybe the popcorn would have popped.
  • Let's see if rubbing some bacon on it will work.
  • Let's try Linux next time...
13th-14th Panes: OpenBSD Branch
[13th panel is of a panned view. Hairy and Knit Cap Guy are walking on a path away from a house.]
[14th panel is back to a "normal camera view".]
Hairy:
  • Okay then.
  • Let's go exploring!
  • I love Windows.
  • Guess not.
4th-7th Panes: Other Partition Branch
[Knit Cap Guy has ??? next to his head to signify confusion. Hairy walks in. Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. Hairy had stepped back while Knit Cap Guy is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. Knit Cap Guy is holding something rectangular.]
Hairy:
  • Maybe if you cross connect the serial port to video port you'll be able to send the video directly in as an input for the password
  • What's a segfault?
  • I think the cameras need to face each other.
  • I'm not sure spaghetti works as a USB cable...
8th Pane: Video Password Branch
[Knit Cap Guy and Hairy are at sea, both emitting ripples. A shark's fin can be seen close to Hairy.]
Hairy:
  • It worked fine for the shark
  • We're definitely getting closer though
  • That didn't work!
  • It would have worked for Solaris.
  • Look, it made perfect sense at the time.
  • Still simpler than it used to be, I guess.

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Discussion

During the first few weeks there were so much talk on this page, that it became too long. The solution was to remove the page from the explanation. But now almost no one makes any comment anymore. To help with this I will try to collapse all the original talk - last entry (mine) is already a month old. It will always be possible to see all the old comments by pressing the expand button to the far right. So feel free to comment below again - then someone might notice that there has been written something new again! Kynde (talk) 22:32, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Click to expand:

[Expand]



After inserting the collapsing talk page - the old can be seen just by clicking the expand button. But if you wish to write anything new, then do it here below at the very bottom of the talk page so it may be seen. I have this comment - after a few weeks I believe nothing new happened in this comic. I think it is now fixed. Of course this is very hard to prove. But I have completed some branches of the interactive transcript. So let me know if you can find any new options I have missed (I could have missed if there were more than four options in a panel - but not at the dead-ends! I have also just made major revisions of the explanation and it's layout - based on my observations. Kynde (talk) 22:48, 19 June 2014 (UTC)


I just found a panel where it gets past the person on the comet, only one panel though... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:25743f70-baee-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 108.162.254.69 19:24, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Great. Have added the image to the list of images and to the theme above. Keep any new images coming here.--Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

It's interesting the chess player in 1112 ("Think logically") resembles the knit cap girl. It's weird that Megan (or Randall's wife) after chemotherapy also wears a cap (1141, "Two years"). Is there any possible connections between them (or simply a coincidence)?108.162.215.108 04:24, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

I have added links to three other comics using knit caps, including the two you mentioned. Thanks. --Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

I noticed that the image url noted on xkcd.com is the same as the one for #1349 - Shouldn't Be Hard. Not sure if it is caused by the interactivity disallowing an image upload, or an error on Randall's part (I'd imagine working through this comic's issues was pretty distracting). 15:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

I believe this was fixed. At least it seems to look correct now. --Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

God damn I hate boomerangs now. 172.68.65.240 03:49, 22 November 2017 (UTC)Bob

Hey guys, are we still missing the ocean comics? because I found one that links there. https://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3df213b4-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd . not far after though. 173.245.48.129 02:41, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

I found a (possibly) bug where the comic doesn't load and there's just a comic-sized blank space. 19:48, 3 January 2019 (UTC) -- Cheese12 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

As of this week I found out that Lorenz seems to have stopped working on xkcd... This makes all the permalink invalid. ;-( --Kynde (talk) 20:03, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

I also found that people have been writing new entries from the top which meant I did not see Cheese12 comment that this was so all the way back in January 2019. I have rearranged the three comments on top to the right post order here at the bottom and added a signature for Cheese12 and a day for the edit for reference to how long it has been broken. Also removed a (now broken) permalink that was left over when a user posted something and then deleted it again. It was stick beneath my previous comment. --Kynde (talk) 20:12, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
Looked on the webarchive and the latest version of the comic there is from July 2019. 2019-07-19. It seems correct there with the first picture with options... Of course it is no use trying to move on, either because it is a web archive or because Lorentz doesn't work anymore on xkcd. But it seems like it should not have displayed that image if it had been a recent version of the comic, as there are no image on the page now. If this is true, then it should not have been down all the time since January as Cheese12 wrote above... But I have no idea how the web archive works for such a complicated comic page? --Kynde (talk) 20:22, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
I suspect this is related to the XKCD forums being taken down. Umwelt, Externalities, Landing, and xkcloud are also down. Tbodt (talk) 19:19, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

I think it's working again. Crazymachinefan (talk) 04:44, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

I just found a bunch of new things that can occur including a new image. Here are the permalinks: https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b0bcef14-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd --Knit Cap Girl rather than Hairy wakes up after the KSP rocket launch image; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8e2a0d7a-baf2-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd --permalink for Hairy silhouette image; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8a36f73e-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --permalink for Hairy getting to a sale without lying in bed; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:d4cd36d8-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd NEW IMAGE-- Hairy in silhouette not talking. EDIT: Here's something *fascinating*... this panel can have either one or two responses depending on what's chosen for the first. Here's the permalink - https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b2dde69c-b9c0-11e3-8007-002590d77bdd 162.158.107.29 20:23, 22 October 2020 (UTC)Anonymous Waste of Time

I found a weird thing. https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:73113e0c-b9f6-11e3-8011-002590d77bdd If you select 15615 the comic freezes. The text doesn't appear, no new panels appear. PkmnQ (talk) 05:27, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I tried it on another device, and again it froze when I selected 15615. Can someone else try to recreate it? PkmnQ (talk) 05:47, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
yeah it's the same for me too --Anonymous Waste of Time
I looked at the console, and an error pops up, so there's at least a tiny clue to why it happens. PkmnQ (talk) 08:00, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
   Uncaught TypeError: e.replace is not a function
       at Odlaw._comicText (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at Odlaw._makeText (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at Odlaw.chooseOption (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at n (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at HTMLLIElement.<anonymous> (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at HTMLUListElement.dispatch (VM44 b66ed7.js:3)
       at HTMLUListElement.r.handle (VM44 b66ed7.js:3)
My best guess is that 15615 is being interpreted as a number instead of a string. However, when I type in 5 as a new option it works correctly. It might be from some old input bug that was changed later on. PkmnQ (talk) 08:05, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Cleaning up

Why was the (general) grammar of this comic so bad? I am putting in hours into this comic to fix this (and what I was originally doing, which was changing all instances of 'Knit Cap Girl' to 'Knit Cap' and changing 'she/her/hers' to 'he/him/his'). I'm about 2/3 done. Beanie talk 14:14, 1st July 2021 (UTC)

Finished :D Beanie talk 22:42, 18 November 2021 (UTC)
Took a while because I changed schools and I can't get onto explainxkcd on the new website (and also I'm lazy). Beanie talk 22:44, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Not sure if this is known, but there's a path where Theft is super effective and the first move. Not sure how to hyperlink on phone, though. It's tiles, 4096, pastel color, middle class ennui, wonder why it's socially acceptable.172.70.178.33 21:43, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

I think I found the shortest possible path. https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:0b364d02-bb65-11e3-800e-002590d77bdd IJustWantToEditStuff (talk) 19:48, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

the political path is not there anymore. i think the BSD path replaced it? 108.162.245.183 (talk) 18:30, 17 November 2023‎ (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Here's a 24-panel Pokémon-theme:

https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:a894b980-baf2-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

ErRor 6o6 (talk) 16:20, 29 April 2024

found a pretty long variation on the old longest one. might be longer, or mabye same length? https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 172.70.178.135 (talk) 23:09, 26 September 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
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