explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:606: Cutting Edge

2013-05-02T00:43:40Z

107.204.46.198:

Today is early 2013. This comic is right. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 16:52, 5 March 2013 (UTC)
I tested the hypothesis in the last panel by announcing "FREE CAKE!", setting down an empty cake box with "The cake is a lie" written inside it, and running. The results were highly conclusive: memes do not magically revive after five years. [[Special:Contributions/107.204.46.198|107.204.46.198]] 00:43, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

303: Compiling

2013-02-28T02:49:51Z

107.204.46.198:

{{comic
| number = 303
| date = August 15, 2007
| title = Compiling
| image = compiling.png
| titletext = Are you stealing those LCDs?' 'Yeah, but I'm doing it while my code compiles.
}}

==Explanation==
Simply writing source code is not sufficient: you need to turn the source code into something executable. Programming languages implement two ways: compilers and interpreters. While interpreters convert the line of code that is currently running, compilers convert the source code all at once, which takes a lot of time... time for you to goof off. After compiling the resulting code will run faster than interpreted code, since it's already all been translated.
{{Incomplete}}
==Transcript==
:Title: The #1 Programmer Excuse for Legitimately Slacking Off: “My code's compiling.”
:[Two programmers are sword-fighting on office chairs in a hallway. An unseen manager calls them back to work through an open office door.]
:Manager: Hey! Get back to work!
:Programmer 1: Compiling!
:Manager: Oh. Carry on.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]

697: Tensile vs. Shear Strength

2013-02-28T02:48:03Z

107.204.46.198:

{{comic
| number = 697
| date = February 3, 2010
| title = Tensile vs. Shear Strength
| image = tensile_vs_shear_strength.png
| titletext = Although really, the damage was done when the party planners took the hole punch to the elevator ribbon to hang up the sign.
}}

==Explanation==
Tensile strength represents how hard you can pull on something without it breaking. Shear strength represents how hard you can try to cut it without it breaking. Many materials have great tensile strength but low shear strength (such as dental floss--try to break it by just pulling on two ends), including whatever this space elevator is made of. It can hold the elevator in place, with one end on the ground and one in space, but it can be cut with a simple pair of pruning shears (also a pun on shear strength).

==Transcript==
:[A banner flutters in the breeze, evidently attached to the elevator it mentions in its text. It reads "SPACE ELEVATOR" "GRAND OPENING".]
:[A space elevator occupies the height of the frame, consisting of a base, a ribbon extending out into space, and an elevator unit with standard elevator features such as sliding doors and up/down buttons.]
:[The following lines appear split across the elevator itself, the rhyming portions of the text separated from the others.]
<pre>
After countless engineers
Spend trillions over fifty years,
A modern babel disappears
Because some fuck brought pruning shears
</pre>

:[Five individuals stand at the base of the elevator: Megan, Cueball, Ponytail who has recently opened a bottle of champagne, an alarmed man, and Black Hat, who has smuggled the aforementioned shears into the ceremony and unceremoniously turned it into a ribbon cutting.]
:''SNIP''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:554: Not Enough Work

2013-02-26T22:59:46Z

107.204.46.198: Created page with "I always pronounce tags like < / span > as "slash span.""

I always pronounce tags like < / span > as "slash span."

1069: Alphabet

2013-01-27T22:56:38Z

107.204.46.198:

{{comic
| number = 1069
| date = June 15, 2012
| title = Alphabet
| image = Alphabet.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Do I get to remove letters entirely? Or just rearrange them? Because the 'k/c' situation is ridiculous. Look, we can make out whenever. This is *immortality*!}}

==Explanation==
This comic is mainly a joke on the traditional {{w|pick-up line}} that goes: "Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together." Terrible? Yes.

However, in typical [[xkcd]] fashion, rather than continuing with that tired pickup line, [[Cueball]] jumps at his hypothetical chance to rearrange the alphabet and fix the {{w|English orthography}}. An {{w|orthography}} is a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script) to write a particular language, including rules of spelling. The English orthography happens to be one of the deepest (that is, most irregular) ones around, since almost every sound can be spelled in several ways, and most spellings and all letters can be pronounced in more than one way, and often in many different ways.

So faced with this opportunity, the hooking up could wait. Restructuring the alphabet and creating a sensibly regular English spelling is the chance of a lifetime, and would make history.

===Title text===
"The 'k/c' situation" is about the use of the letter 'c'. It doesn't have a unique sound, and most often make a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an 'h' it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} in ''chair'', but also they often sound like 'k' (''character''), and in not too few cases they even make the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}}. ([http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Words_with_the_letters_ch_that_sound_like_sh a list])

So a reasonable change Cueball might make is to get rid of 'c', and come up with a letter that exclusively sounds like the 'ch' in ''chair'' ([tʃ] in the International Phonetic Alphabet).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball walks up to a girl sitting at a bar]
:Cueball: Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd forget about you in a *heartbeat*. I'm not gonna waste my one chance to help the mess that is English orthography.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:988: Tradition

2013-01-13T15:13:19Z

107.204.46.198:

Redacted the following from the explanation:

:It would be interesting to see this research, because the most popular Christmas album of all time was not released until 1994, "{{w|Merry Christmas (Mariah Carey album)|Merry Christmas}}" by {{w|Mariah Carey}}. This album featured what is considered to be the most ubiquitous song around this time of the year which is "All I Want For Christmas Is You" which is also featured prominently in the very popular (and frequently replayed) movie {{w|Love Actually}} from 2003. The song is the only holiday song and ringtone to reach multi-platinum status in the U.S. So, usually the information that Randall presents to us doesn't immediately present itself as egregiously incorrect, but this one just seems to not factor in the popular success of a mid-90s release.

because the list on which Randall based his graph is linked later in the explanation, and Randall doesn't have control over its data (unless he's using Data Over Billboard Charts). [[User:Noëlle|Noëlle]] ([[User talk:Noëlle|talk]]) 12:35, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Couldn't this be when all the older Christmas carols and such were popularly released, id est, when radios were becoming common? [[Special:Contributions/107.204.46.198|107.204.46.198]] 15:13, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

453: Upcoming Hurricanes

2012-12-13T23:58:40Z

107.204.46.198:

{{comic
| number = 453
| date = July 23, 2008
| title = Upcoming Hurricanes
| image = upcoming_hurricanes.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = I'd like to see more damage assessments for hurricanes hitting New York and flooding Manhattan -- something like the 1938 Long Island Express, but aimed a bit more to the west. It's just a matter of time.
}}

==Explanation==
It must be hurricane season! This comic gives some ideas on upcoming hurricane paths. Lets look at each path.

Hurricane Illinois-Has-It-Too-Easy: They really do. This smart hurricane, while actually impossible, comes from Canada to strike little old Chicago before heading back to Canada.

Hurricane Where-The-Hell-Is-Bermuda: Nice little irony here, normally people get lost once they get to the triangle and never come back. This poor hurricane can't even get there to get lost.

Hurricane Screw-It-Let's-Just-Trash-Florida-Again: Why you would want to live in Florida during hurricane season is beyond me. Sticking out from the rest of the US, Florida is in a nice spot to get hurricanes from the East, South, and West. And with the state not being very high or wide, it is common for a hurricane to run over Florida, lose some strength, then rebuild in the Gulf of Mexico, only to do a U-turn and strike again.

Hurricane Freud: You just need to know that Sigmund Freud had a thing about sex, and let's just leave it at that.

Hurricane Red and Blue: Playing a game of Light Cycles from Tron, Hurricane Blue lost -- it crashed into the lightwall of Hurricane Red.

Hurricane Cos(x): Just following the simple math function, Hurricane Cos(x) just oscillates between 1°N and 1°S. This, while cool, is impossible as near the equator the Coriolis effect is way too weak to cause rotation. In fact, there has never been a hurricane within 5° of the equator due to the Coriolis force being too weak, and the Coriolis force is what causes the hurricane to rotate.

The title text refers to a 1938 Category 5 Hurricane that caused $41.1 billion in damage in current money. Had it been further west it could have caused more damage as the right side of a hurricane is stronger and more destructive than the left side as the winds on the right side push water inland.
(This title-text seems strangely prophetic after Tropical Storm Sandy in 2012.)

==Transcript==
:[An unlabeled map shows the region roughly between central Canada and northern Brazil. Dotted lines indicating hurricane paths cover the map, all red except where noted.
:Hurricane Illinois-Has-It-Too-Easy comes from somewhere to the northwest, goes through Illinois, and then back to the northwest.
:Hurricane Where-the-Hell-Is-Bermuda enters from the east side of the map, wanders around the Atlantic in a scribble, goes north for a while, and then peters out.
:Hurricane Screw-It-Let's-Just-Trash-Florida-Again comes from the east, starts to curve to the north, and then turns sharply to head straight for Florida and zigzag through it.
:Hurricane Freud starts in the Gulf of Mexico, draws a set of balls to Florida's cock, and then comes on land and stops.
:Hurricane Red and Hurricane Blue (which is a blue line) are playing a game of Tron, zipping in straight lines and right angles around Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba. Red successfully cuts off Blue and then dies shortly thereafter.
:Hurricane cos(x) forms a graph of cos(x) along the bottom edge of the map.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hurricanes]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]