Difference between revisions of "Prescriptions"

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Revision as of 00:47, 15 September 2015

Prescriptions
Original blog post on Building a Smarter Planet: http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2009/08/1998.html
prescriptions.png

Explanation

Two special A Smarter Planet comics were created by Randall after a special request from IBM's blog A Smarter Planet. They are not part of the regular numbered series of comics for xkcd's home site. But they are featured (both of them at the same page) on xkcd under asmarterplanet. C Each comic links to their respective posts on the A Smarter Planet blog.

This comic references to the stereotype of doctors' handwriting being illegible, which is a very bad thing when you need a very specific medication and your pharmacy clerk can't read the numbers. Cueball is eager for his doctor to start signing his prescription digitally, as it means less paperwork and faster response time, but his enthusiasm fades when the doctor somehow manages to type in illegible handwriting. This could theoretically be done with a bad handwriting font, though most computerized forms don't allow you to change their font. The prescription number is given as "THX1138", the first film directed by George Lucas.

The other Smarter Planet comic is Conservation.

Transcript

[Header: Good news: Doctors are finally learning to use modern security tools.]
Doctor: No need for phone verification. I've digitally signed it.
[Header: Bad news: They've somehow learned to type with terrible handwriting.]
[A close up of the document given to the patient by the doctor]:
Prescription THX1138 RSA fingerprint:
[in nearly unintelligible characters]: 5e:2c:eb:ea:cc:1e:1b:ed:5f:96


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Discussion

I separated A Smarter Planet into two pages. One for each comic in the series.--17jiangz1 (talk) 12:54, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Great --Kynde (talk) 14:03, 26 October 2016 (UTC)