Difference between revisions of "491: Twitter"
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This comic plays off of an old shaving cream product's {{w|Burma-Shave}} advertising campaign employed on American highways from {{w|1925}} to {{w|1963}}. These ads used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being "Burma Shave", the name of the shaving cream. Originally these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages. | This comic plays off of an old shaving cream product's {{w|Burma-Shave}} advertising campaign employed on American highways from {{w|1925}} to {{w|1963}}. These ads used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being "Burma Shave", the name of the shaving cream. Originally these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages. | ||
| − | [[xkcd]] uses the image html-title-attribute text (sometime confused with {{w|Alt-text}}) as a major part of the joke-telling — on most browsers the title-text shows as a "{{w|tool-tip}}" when the cursor is left hovering over the image. {{w|Firefox 2}} had the longest standing annoying bug where only the initial part of the title text were shown as a tool-tip, creating a "Burma-Shave" effect of only being able to see some of the text. Unlike Burma-Shave where you would see the rest of the text as you were driving down the highway, Firefox didn't actually show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked-show-property and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the | + | {{w|Twitter}} is a messaging service where your messages are restricted in length, so to get a longer easay sent you will need to break it up in smaller fragments — like the {{w|Burma-Shave}} messages. |
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| + | The title text is self referential as it is about title texts. [[xkcd]] comics always uses a title texct i.e. the image html-title-attribute text (sometime confused with {{w|Alt-text}}) as a major part of the joke-telling — on most browsers the title-text shows as a "{{w|tool-tip}}" when the cursor is left hovering over the image. | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{w|Firefox 2}} had the longest standing annoying bug where only the initial part of the title text were shown as a tool-tip, creating a "Burma-Shave" effect of only being able to see some of the text. Unlike Burma-Shave where you would see the rest of the text as you were driving down the highway, Firefox didn't actually show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked-show-property and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the title-text in the properties for the image. | ||
| − | + | The joke in this title text is that you should upgrade your browser from Firefox to (2) Burma-Shave (not a browser). | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
Revision as of 20:30, 17 October 2014
 Title text: If long tooltips / cut off for you / then upgrade from / Firefox 2 / Burma Shave |
Explanation
This comic plays off of an old shaving cream product's Burma-Shave advertising campaign employed on American highways from 1925 to 1963. These ads used short poems, each line arranged sequentially on a sign along a highway, the last line always being "Burma Shave", the name of the shaving cream. Originally these ads only described the product, but others included driving safety messages.
Twitter is a messaging service where your messages are restricted in length, so to get a longer easay sent you will need to break it up in smaller fragments — like the Burma-Shave messages.
The title text is self referential as it is about title texts. xkcd comics always uses a title texct i.e. the image html-title-attribute text (sometime confused with Alt-text) as a major part of the joke-telling — on most browsers the title-text shows as a "tool-tip" when the cursor is left hovering over the image.
Firefox 2 had the longest standing annoying bug where only the initial part of the title text were shown as a tool-tip, creating a "Burma-Shave" effect of only being able to see some of the text. Unlike Burma-Shave where you would see the rest of the text as you were driving down the highway, Firefox didn't actually show you the rest of the text unless you right-clicked-show-property and you would be able to see a sideways scrollable field of the title-text in the properties for the image.
The joke in this title text is that you should upgrade your browser from Firefox to (2) Burma-Shave (not a browser).
Transcript
- [Cueball with a handheld device sits on an office chair.]
- Device: Beep beep
- Device: On Twitter feeds
- Device: Beep beep
- Device: An odd regression:
- Device: Beep beep
- Device: Ancient memes
- Device: Beep beep
- Device: Find new expression
- Device: Beep beep
- Device: Burma-shave
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
Just end every sentence in Burma Shave Spongebog (talk)
- Never tried this/It could work/I just need an idea/Wait, crap./Burma-Shave
Are we sure that Cueball is typing? It seems to me that he is getting a series of texts (or a series of tweets), because of the "Beep Beep" sound: cell phones typically don't beep when typing. --Troy0 (talk) 09:25, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
- I have to agree, add in that the zig-zag is used for external text usually, like the other end of a call. 173.245.56.154 20:35, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
- The transcript was accordingly edited. --Troy0 (talk) 04:05, 25 July 2014 (UTC
I don't think the title text explanation is correct. He's not suggesting you upgrade to "Burma Shave" - he's saying, "Upgrade from Firefox 2". Burma Shave just follows. I'll edit it. --108.162.216.54 12:55, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
This comic not appearing for me on the xkcd.com website, anyone else? 162.158.122.6 20:24, 15 December 2016 (UTC) For sale: baby shoes, never worn
