explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:639: Lincoln-Douglas

2016-01-19T06:28:37Z

108.162.216.6:

Accurate enough anyway; dying generally does reduce one's debating skills.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.34|173.245.54.34]] 12:30, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Actually, the joke about his mother may not be anachronistic. Yo mama jokes have appeared as early as Shakespeare's time, seen in this quote from Titus Andronicus (sorry for the poor form on the quote, my computer is being rather rude tonight),
Demetrius. Villain, what hast thou done?
Aaron. That which thou canst not undo.
Chiron. Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron. Villain, I have done thy mother.
(4.2.1765)

Talk:639: Lincoln-Douglas

2016-01-19T06:27:06Z

108.162.216.6:

Accurate enough anyway; dying generally does reduce one's debating skills.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.34|173.245.54.34]] 12:30, 30 August 2015 (UTC)
Actually, the joke about his mother may not be anachronistic. Yo mama jokes have appeared as early as Shakespeare's time, seen in this quote from Titus Andronicus (sorry for the poor form on the quote, my computer is being rather rude tonight),
Demetrius. Villain, what hast thou done?
Aaron. That which thou canst not undo.
Chiron. Thou hast undone our mother.
Aaron. Villain, I have done thy mother.
(4.2.1765)

1372: Smartwatches

2015-12-07T04:33:37Z

108.162.216.6: Missing comma in reason 4.

{{comic
| number = 1372
| date = May 23, 2014
| title = Smartwatches
| image = smartwatches.png
| titletext = This is even better than my previous smartphone casemod: an old Western Electric Model 2500 desk phone handset complete with a frayed, torn-off cord dangling from it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Smartwatch|Smartwatches}} are fairly recent innovations which function something like smartphones which are attached to one's wrist, although the screens are often shorter than those of typical smartphones, and they typically need to be attached via bluetooth to a smartphone. This comic shows someone "{{w|Case modding}}" some smartwatches and a broken smartphone; that is, taking the electronic innards of two smartwatches and putting them into the sawn-in-half case of a smartphone before attaching the two halves with a hinge, allowing it to open and close like flip phones, a type that was popular before the rise of smartphones.

The {{w|Model_500_telephone#Model_2500|Western Electric Model 2500}} is the last standard desk-style domestic telephone set issued by the {{w|Bell System}} in North America. It contains the # key and the * key, so it can be said it has same application features as the first cellphones, but it's obviously much bigger, and of course not wireless. Smartphones usually have much more functionality. {{w|Case modding}} is the art of building machines (usually computers) into nicely shaped non-standard cases. The opinion about "niceness" of the result vary, as usual in art. The point is that changing the case doesn't change the functionality, so the niceness (or, usually, "coolness") is generally the only relevant feature (although, badly done modding can affect cooling).

It appears that [[Randall]] has a rather low opinion of smartwatches, as he suggests that it would be better to take out their screens and mount them onto a dead iPhone than to use them the way smartwatches are normally used.

However, Randall's suggestion to cut open the dead phone with a hacksaw is unsound for several reasons:
1. Any attempt to saw through glass will cause it to shatter. To cut glass, one needs to grind it, not saw it.
2. Even if the phone is dead, the battery may be charged. Saw blades conduct electricity, so the person might get electrocuted.
3. Some batteries contain chemicals that are toxic or explosive. Even if the battery is discharged, sawing through it is very dangerous.
To add which, the hinge depicted in the cartoon is an ordinary household hinge. It is overly large for using in electronics compared to hinges on old clamshell-style cell phones, and drilling holes in the watch cases to attach one would potentially damage the internal electronic circuits, rendering the watch useless.
4. Also, it's possible the watches wouldn't fit that nicely into the iPhone.

==Transcript==
:A USE FOR SMARTWATCHES:
:[Depicted are two smartwatches, both labelled as "Working" and showing generic colour displays, and one smartphone labelled as "Dead" with a blank screen.]

:[A hacksaw cutting through the smartphone, throughout the middle of the long edge of the case.]

:[The two smartwatches are shown with the wristband and case broken around the edge of the display because the displays with the associated electronics are removed. Arrows are shown coming from the smartwatch cases to the smartwatch displays, then from the displays to the smartphone case halves.]

:[The smartphone halves are installed with the smartwatch components and a hinge with screws beside is shown. Another view shows the hinge screwed into the back of the smartphone case.]

:[The smartphone with the working smartwatch components installed is shown, with the hinge three-quarters open and fully closed - resembling an early flip-phone.]
:World's first flip iPhone

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

Talk:1608: Hoverboard

2015-11-24T22:46:24Z

108.162.216.6:

Well, this will be the next incomplete explanation for a while. -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 21:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, one thing to note is how to get the hell out of the cave near the volcano [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.159|108.162.249.159]] 22:38, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The image is made up of small images with addresses of the form http://xkcd.com/1608/XXXX:-YYYY+s.png (although not every coordinate inside the bounds has an image associated). A script could probably dump out all the images and paste them together. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.6|108.162.216.6]] 22:46, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

1600: MarketWatch

2015-11-06T15:06:43Z

108.162.216.6: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1600
| date = November 6, 2015
| title = MarketWatch
| image = marketwatch.png
| titletext = Markets have been rocked by a second day of uncertainty after someone set up a giant Ouija board on the NYSE wall controlled collectively by the movement of the stock tickers.
}}

==Explanation==

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, commonly referred to as the Dow, is a stock market index, meaning that it is a general indicator of how the market is running (in this case, an aggregate of how 30 major industrial companies are doing). The stock market is famous for having unpredictable price swings, and thus the Dow Jones tracing the skyline of Washington, D.C. would definitely weird out most investors.

As seen in [[276: Fixed Width]], unusual patterns can be addicting to the point of harming those involved in the pattern's creation. The joke, however, rests in the fact that stock investors probably have a lot at stake, so following a pattern probably just ruined a couple of lives.

Buying and selling stocks based on patterns in the price charts is a common, but controversial, method of investing. Many day traders and some professional investors still use stock patterns (head and shoulders, trend lines, etc.) to make trades. http://www.investopedia.com/university/charts/
Most professional investors and finance academics believe that this practice is random (see strong and weak efficient markets hypothesis). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis

{{w|MarketWatch}} is a web site focused on stocks.

The Dow is {{w|Dow Jones Industrial Average}} (DJIA in the screen), commonly referred to as the "Dow Jones".

DC is {{w|Washington, D.C.}} The DC skyline shown here has the {{w|Lincoln Memorial}}, the {{w|Washington Monument}} (an obelisk) and the {{w|United States Capitol}}.

Note that the distance from the Washington Monument to the Capitol is 3 km (1.9 miles).

Title text: NYSE is the {{w|New York Stock Exchange}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1383: Magic Words

2014-06-18T20:20:02Z

108.162.216.6:

In this comic, Mr. Munroe makes a joke. As of yet, it is unclear what this joke IS, specifically, but it can be assumed that it's a funny one. {{unsigned ip|‎108.162.215.120}}

the clue was in "anapest"... for those more ambitious to explain and understand [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_%28prosody%29] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.83|108.162.221.83]] 04:13, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Each sequence has four words with the same stress pattern, which makes them the same type of poetic foot (the first group is all iambs, the second is all trochees, the third is bacchius). Basically it's a pun. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.185|173.245.54.185]] 04:25, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Is Cueball really as much of a ''cunning linguist'' as Megan makes him out to be? If not, she is going to be extremely unsatisfied in bed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.208.25|108.162.208.25]] 08:36, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Ha! Cunning linguist! *snicker* [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.157|108.162.254.157]] 08:42, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Before the explanation, I was wondering where "correct horse battery staple" was... {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.219}}

Hmmm - surely there is some role the choice of words plays in this, beyond having a particular meter. Any ideas? [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 12:19, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

What about Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? =8o) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 12:44, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

I did not initially state that "a-na-'''pest''' is an anapest. But now I have tripple checked amongst other with a school teacher and the dictionary that I link to in the link. I have thus correct this back again. Please do not change it back! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:01, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Also, note that all these phrases are grammatically correct, but semantically nonsensical, Chomsky-style: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.41}}

Does anyone else think these words were chosen because they have whispering qualities would produce an 'autonomous sensory meridian response'? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.207}}

This is certainly contro-verse-ial.