explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1702: Home Itch Remedies

2016-07-05T15:27:12Z

108.162.218.142:

Taking a hot (enough) shower is actually a remedy as it denatures the proteins causing the itching. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.131|162.158.86.131]] 14:14, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
: Why don't you add that in the explanation? It would help. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.83|108.162.218.83]] 14:17, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

: "...hot (enough) shower...." {{Citation needed}} [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.113|162.158.255.113]] 15:42, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Chiggers are not spiders. [[User:Stealth101|Stealth101]] ([[User talk:Stealth101|talk]]) 15:50, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

: Changed spider to chigger. Chiggers may itch like the devil, but are nowhere as severe as spiders. [[User:Monolith|Monolith]] ([[User talk:Monolith|talk]]) 15:59, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Somehow, I was expecting the explanation of the remedy to take so long that Megan got distracted away from the itch, or something. After all, the folk remedy I heard most is “Don't think about it.” {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.104}}

This explanation in its current form misses one of the best jokes of the piece: Cueball's comment that it "sounds effective". Seems to me that he's under the genuine belief that Megan's 'home remedy' is effective, simply because it's a home remedy. Solid meta-humour. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.119|141.101.98.119]] 17:35, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

What? No Juno? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.238|108.162.215.238]] 20:55, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

:It'll probably be there tomorrow. he's had jokes for New Horizons, Voyager 1, etc.. I don't see why he would exclude Juno. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.142|108.162.218.142]] 15:27, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

Anyone else think there is a pun in the title text in home remedy, since the remedy involves changing where your home is. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]]
([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 21:53, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
:Yes Tharkon. Totally agree [[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 23:31, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

1638: Backslashes

2016-04-12T21:55:45Z

108.162.218.142: /* Entries in the list */ Copyedit

{{comic
| number = 1638
| date = February 3, 2016
| title = Backslashes
| image = backslashes.png
| titletext = I searched my .bash_history for the line with the highest ratio of special characters to regular alphanumeric characters, and the winner was: cat out.txt | grep -o "\\\[[(].*\\\[\])][^)\]]*$" ... I have no memory of this and no idea what I was trying to do, but I sure hope it worked.
}}

==Explanation==
Most programming languages use the concept of a {{w|String literal|string}} literal, which is just a text between some delimiters, usually quotes. For example, "Hello, world" is a string literal. The text being represented is ''Hello, world'' without the quotes. However, the quotes are also written to mark the beginning and end of the string. This is a problem when the text itself contains a quote, as in "This is a "quoted" string". The quotes around the word "quoted" are intended to be part of the text, but the {{w|Lexical analysis|language processor}} will likely confuse it for the end of the string, which would thus be two strings with ''quoted'' outside these strings (probably resulting in a syntax error).

To avoid this problem, an {{w|Escape character|escape character}} (usually a backslash) is prepended to non-string-terminating quotes. So, the previous text would be written as "This is a \"quoted\" string". The language processor will substitute every occurrence of \" with only the quote character, and the string terminates at the quote character which does not immediately follow a backslash. In this case the resulting text string would be ''This is a "quoted" string'' as intended.

However, the problem now is that the intended text might contain a backslash itself. For example, the text "C:\" will now be interpreted as an unterminated string containing a quote character. To avoid this, literal backslashes also are escaped with a second backslash, i.e. instead of "C:\" we write "C:\\", where the language processor interprets \\ as one single backslash and the quote terminates the string to give ''C:\'' as the output.

This doubling of backslashes happens in most programming and scripting languages, but also in other syntactic constructs such as {{w|Regular expression|regular expressions}}. So, when several of these languages are used in conjunction, backslashes pile up exponentially (each layer has to double the number of slashes). See example of a backslash explosion and alternatives to avoid this [[#Backslash explosion and alternatives|below]].

This kind of backslash explosion is known as {{w|Leaning toothpick syndrome}}, and can happen in [[1313: Regex Golf|many situations]]. Below is an explanation of all the [[#Entries in the list|entries in the comic]].

The backslash explosion in the '''title text''' is about a {{w|Bash (Unix shell)|bash}} command (which uses the backslash to escape arguments) invoking the {{w|grep}} utility which searches for text following a pattern specified by means of a regular expression (which also uses the backslash to escape special characters). This leads to 3 backslashes in a row in the command, which could easily become 7 backslashes in a row if the text being searched for also contains a backslash.

Even advanced users who completely understand the concept often have a hard time figuring out exactly how many backslashes are required in a given situation. It is hopelessly frustrating to carefully calculate exactly the number of backslashes and then noticing that there's a mistake so the whole thing doesn't work. At a point, it becomes easier to just keep throwing backslashes in until things work than trying to reason what the correct number is.

It's unclear whether the regular expression in the title text is valid or not. A long discussion about the validity of the expression has occurred here on this explanation's [[Talk:1638: Backslashes|talk page]]. The fact that many editors of the site, often themselves extremely technically qualified{{Citation needed}}, can't determine whether the expression is valid or not, adds a meta layer to the joke of the comic. This is an example of [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]] (oh, the irony\!\!\!\).

===Entries in the list===
*The first four examples have names that are (somewhat) based on what they actually produce:
**'''Backslash''': 1 backslash appropriately named
**'''Real backslash''': 2 backslashes are labeled correctly as they do indeed refer to an escaped backslash.
**'''''Real'' real backslash''': 3 backslashes would refer to an escaped backslash followed by an unescaped one. The first two backslashes would combine to make a ''real backslash'' while the third one would combine with the character following it to form an {{w|Escape sequence|escape sequence}}. The name does thus not make a lot of sense, as this is two escape sequences and not a single "very real" one.
**'''Actual backslash, for real this time''': 4 backslashes form one single backslash escaped twice (the first escaping produces two backslashes, the second escaping doubles each of the backslashes). This is so common that even the documentation for the {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}} regular expression library has a section called [https://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html Regular expression operations] that mentions "\\\\" explicitly. In this case, the backslash has to be escaped once for being part of a regular expression and then once more as the regular expression is inside a Python string. This is named in reference to the fact that the previous examples didn't contain enough escaping.
*The remaining five examples of backslashes have more and more occult names (explanations) and do not refer to any more real uses of backslash escapes:
**'''Elder backslash''': 5 backslashes would be a doubly-escaped backslash plus an unescaped one. The reference to {{w|Elder}} in the comic has many meanings. It has become known through fantasy media; Most prominent with the {{w|Elder Days}}, which are the first Ages of {{w|Middle-earth}} in {{w|The Silmarillion}}, the more-or-less prequel to {{w|The Lord of the Rings}}. More recently it has been used in the {{w|Harry Potter}} universe where the ''Deathly Hallow'' called the ''{{w|Magical_objects_in_Harry_Potter#Deathly_Hallows|Elder wand}}'', made from {{w|Sambucus|Elder wood}}, is a very important part of the last book ''{{w|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows}}''. Other examples are the {{w|Elder Gods}} of the {{w|Cthulhu Mythos}} as well as various 'Elder' magical items and beings in the {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}} mythologies.
**'''Backslash which escapes the screen and enters your brain''': 6 backslashes is a play on the word "escape" as the backslash is supposed to be an "escape character" but obviously not "escaping the screen" and entering your brain. This could also be understood as the programmer is getting backslashes on his mind, when he goes beyond the ''Elder backslash'' domain...
**'''Backslash so real it transcends time and space ''': 7 backslashes goes further than escaping the screen as they now {{w|Transcendence (philosophy)|transcends}} both {{w|Spacetime|time and space}}
**'''Backslash to end all other text''': 8 backslashes would be a triply-escaped backslash (same as 4 backslashes but with an additional escaping layer). It is said to "end all other text", i.e. there should never be anymore text if someone uses eight in a row. But there could be more as indicated in the last example.
**'''The true name of Ba'al, the Soul-Eater''': {{w|Infinity|∞ backslashes}} (11 is shown but followed by "..." to indicate that they continue forever). If you could write an infinite number of backslashes it would actually be ''The true name of {{w|Baal (demon)|Ba'al}}, the {{w|Soul eater (folklore)|Soul-Eater}}''. This indicates that if you continue misusing backslashes like this you will end up devoured by a demon, for instance {{w|Beelzebub}}, for being so thoughtless... Ba'al has been mentioned before in the title text of [[1246: Pale Blue Dot]] and in [[1419: On the Phone]].

===Backslash explosion and alternatives===
A reasonable example of a backslash explosion would be a {{w|PHP}} script on a web server which writes {{w|JavaScript}} code to be run on the client. If the JavaScript code has to output a smiley for scratching one's head (i.e. <code>r:-\</code> ), it would look like this:
document.write ("r:-\\");
However, since this JavaScript code is to be written through a PHP script, the PHP code would be:
echo "document.write (\"r:-\\\\\");";
where:
* The word <code>echo</code> is the PHP command for writing something
* The first quote starts the string
* The <code>document.write (</code> - including the open parenthesis - is written literally
* The <code>\"</code> following that is a literal quote to be written
* The <code>r:-</code> is written literally
* The first two slashes produce one single slash
* The next two slashes produce another single slash
* The next <code>\"</code> produces a literal quote character
* The close parenthesis and the semicolon are to be written literally
* The next quote finishes the string.
* The final semicolon terminates the <code>echo</code> command
So, the presented scenario has escalated from a simple <code>r:-\</code> smiley to no less than five backslashes in a row (an ''Elder backslash'') without stepping out of the most common operations.

If we go a bit further and try to write a {{w|Java (programming language)|Java}} program that outputs our PHP script, we'd have:
System.out.println ("echo \"document.write (\\\"r:-\\\\\\\\\\\");\";");
Here, we have 11 backslashes in a row: the first 10 produce the 5 we need in our PHP script, and the last one is for escaping the quote character. (This comes close to ''The true name of Ba'al, the Soul-Eater'').

Some programming languages provide alternative matching string literal delimiters to limit situations where escaping of delimiters is needed. Often, one can begin and end a string with either a single quote or a double quote. This allows one to write <code>'This is a "quoted" string'</code> if double quote marks are intended in the string literal or <code>"This is a 'quoted' string"</code> if single quote marks are intended. Both kinds of delimiters can't be used in the same string literal, but if one needs to construct a string containing both kinds of quote marks one can often concatenate two string literals, each of which uses a different delimiter.

Another feature that seems to be popular in modern programming languages is to provide an alternative syntax for string delimiters designed specifically to limit leaning toothpick syndrome. For example, in Python 3, a string literal starting with <code>r"</code> is a "raw string" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_literal#Raw_strings] in which no escape processing is done, with similar semantics for a string starting with <code>@"</code> in C#. This allows one to write <code>r"C:\"</code> in Python 3 or <code>@"C:\"</code> in C# without the need to escape the backslash. This does not allow one to embed the terminating delimiter in the middle of the string and prevents the use of the backslash to encode the newline character as <code>\n</code>, but comes in handy when writing a string encoding of a regular expression in which the backslash is escaping one or more other punctuation characters or a shorthand character class (e.g., <code>\s</code> for a whitespace character). For example, when looking for an anchor tag in HTML, I may encode the regular expression as <code><[Aa]\s[^>]*></code>. If I express this regular expression as a raw string literal, my code looks like <code>r"<[Aa]\s[^>]*>"</code> instead of <code>"<[Aa]\\s[^>]*>"</code>. The point here is that leaning toothpick syndrome is such a real problem that it has influenced programming language implementations.

==Transcript==
:[A list of the names of different numbers of backslashes. After each "item" there is a gray line to the text describing each item. As the text is aligned above each other, the lines becomes shorter as the sequence of backslashes becomes longer until there is just a line with the length of a single hyphen for the last item. There are 1 to 8 backslashes and then 11 plus "..." in the last entry.]
:\------------ Backslash
:\\----------- Real backslash
:\\\---------- ''Real'' real backslash
:\\\\---------- Actual backslash, for real this time
:\\\\\--------- Elder backslash
:\\\\\\-------- Backslash which escapes the screen and enters your brain
:\\\\\\\------- Backslash so real it transcends time and space
:\\\\\\\\------ Backslash to end all other text
:\\\\\\\\\\\...- The true name of Ba'al, the Soul-Eater

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Regex]]
[[Category:Programming]]

Talk:153: Cryptography

2015-11-18T16:32:43Z

108.162.218.142: discuss whether this function is its own inverse

I think that executing that S-box twice would get you back where you started. [[User:gijobarts|gijobarts]] ([[User Talk:gijobarts|talk]]) 05:28, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
:Actually that's not true. Regardless of the bit in position 1 to begin with, you will always have a 1 in position 8 in the result. When you shift, you're adding a 0 in position 1 (assuming a 0 shift in), then the inverse is 1, and flipping would put the 1 in position 8. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:06, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
::I was expecting the last bit to wrap around to the front. It could go either way. [[User:gijobarts|gijobarts]] ([[User Talk:gijobarts|talk]]) 05:57, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
:I think it would actually take a few rounds, but yes will eventually get back to the same as the input. Remember that you aren't just doing this operation, you are doing it to one half of the block and then XORing with the other half of the block. But yes I think after a few rounds the XOR's would combine to the identity. (assuming that it wraps, which makes sense to me). Also it is not shown at all how the key would be incorporated into this... so maybe that would help? (or you just add a round key in after doing this operation?) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.142|108.162.218.142]] 16:32, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
" and so is the author Randall Munroe at [http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe.html PyCon]"
:I think that post is a joke.
:* It links to [[541: TED Talk]].
:* It says "Registration volunteers have been instructed to refuse admission to Randall Munroe personally, and in fact, to any '''stick figures''' who may attempt to register"
:* There isn't anything on YouTube or {{w|Randall Munroe}}'s Wikipedia page about it.
:* [http://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2009/02/11/xkcd-artist-banned-from-pycon/ Another Python blog] says that it was a publicity stunt, citing the organizers' mailing list archives. I didn't bother to sign up for access to the archive.
:[http://catherinedevlin.pythoneers.com/leadership.html Catherine Devlin] claims that she banned Randall, so we could try asking her if she's serious.
:[http://holdenweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe-banned-from-pycon.html Another blog post about it]
:[[User:gijobarts|gijobarts]] ([[User Talk:gijobarts|talk]]) 16:48, 2 September 2013 (UTC) (edited 20:29 UTC)
::I've signed up for access to the mailing list, and am currently waiting for moderator approval. [[User:gijobarts|gijobarts]] ([[User Talk:gijobarts|talk]]) 20:38, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

''In the same way, a steps to a feistel cipher based algorithm are executed in reverse to obtain the original plain text from a cipher text.'' is not true. The whole point of a Feistel network is that you execute the same steps ''in the same order''. The only thing that is reversed is the key. You can do almost any amount of mangling of the input, without having to worry about how to reverse it, because the magic of XOR ensures that All Will Be Well when you come to decrypt. There are limits to the kinds of mangling you can do, of course, but the basic principle is that the same function used for encryption is also used for decryption. It's quite startling, really. Horst Feistel - kudos!
--[[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 15:08, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
:+1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.142|108.162.218.142]] 16:32, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1601: Isolation

2015-11-10T15:35:39Z

108.162.218.142:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0x7ho_IYc Relevant Vsauce]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.84.117|141.101.84.117]] 06:45, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

The title text is referring to Yudkowsky's [http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/ AI-Box Experiment], which was already mentioned in [http://www.xkcd.com/1450/ xkcd.com/1450] and explained [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1450:_AI-Box_Experiment here]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.11|162.158.153.11]] 09:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, there's a letter by an Ancient Roman writer complaining that people always write stories down now instead of just telling them to each other. So this mindset has existed for much longer than two centuries. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.191|141.101.106.191]] 09:08, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:But there had been little update in the technology behind books/writing since then and the news paper! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

There is someone (not logged in) that believes that the last panel indicates that it is the same Cueball through 175 years that are ignored by his friends, instead of just a jab at generic people who complains about technology. Cueball being this generic person. I highly disagree with this, but the second I changed it to something else the same IP address changed it right back. I have now made two versions of this explanation. And made it clear that it would mean Cueball and his friends were about 200 years old. Then I will leave it to someone else to choose if both of these explanations should be left in, or maybe even a third be added...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:42, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I'm the one who initially made that edit. I only made the edit once, I didn't revert any edits you or anyone else made. I still think my explanation is the correct one, too. The "Take a hint" comment makes a lot more sense if Cueball has a long history of blaming others not socializing with him on technology. The "It's been two centuries" comment only makes sense in the context of it being the same Cueball in all six panels, because people have been making that comment for a lot more than two centuries, and even if they hadn't, any random person is unlikely to know when people first started making that sort of observation. This explanation also fits in more with xkcd's style. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] 22:33, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Your explanation is correct and [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] is behaving like a child. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:41, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::It's neither! Part of the humor is the bizarre reframing that occurs in the last few panels as you suddenly begin to consider that instead of just being a representative sampling of generic people's complaints throughout the years, you suddenly consider that maybe this IS just one guy, riding his hobby-horse relentlessly throughout the decades without letup -- Dude! Take a hint! For me, especially the way he is hanging on a strap in the penultimate panel suddenly makes him seem like he's been stalking these people, following them with his opinions... {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}
:::We will have to wait until the official transcript appears. That might settle the question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 15:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

it says "sims" not "The Sims". "sim" is just short for "simulator". there are other things that simulate things beyond "The Sims". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 12:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I would rather say that the main explaination of the joke is a third way:
-Cueball represent the kind of person that complains about people ignoring each other. The contemporaries of such kind of person are clearly annoyed by his behavior and ignore him willingly. The complainer should understand the hint that people prefer isolation much better than having to interact with him. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 12:27, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure that this is the joke. It's not that society is becoming more isolated, it's that everybody is intentionally trying to ignore Cueball, ''and he's not taking the hint'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.11|162.158.60.11]] 14:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Agreed --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.66|173.245.54.66]] 15:04, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I think that "dude, it's been 2 centuries" refers to the actual notion of people complaining about social isolation due to the current relavant "media" at the time rather than cueball himself- this might be other people, but these guys are all stick figures... It's also very unlikely that someone would live this long. {{Citation needed}} --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.5|108.162.216.5]] 12:57, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think those people are supposed to be Cueballs friends. They may be strangers, and the idea is that people don't WANT to be social with strangers. Using technology to isolate may be reaction to fact that cities force us into bigger groups that we are comfortable socializing with. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:40, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I thought that Cueball being centuries old WAS the joke - it looks like this is just a montage along the lines of [[1227]], but it was actually Cueball saying the same thing for two solid centuries.
:I am inclined to agree that it's one of the jokes. I have never heard "take a hint" used to refer to things someone hadn't personally experienced. While people don't really live 2 centuries, it is a comic, not reality, and the implication he is the same Cueball makes a fun twist at the end of an obvious joke. He's poked at the history of this before, and the joke "maybe it's not technology, maybe it's your personality" has been done at least as far back as the Walkman example, probably much further. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Also, this is clearly a lowercase-s-sim, not The Sims. Possibly inspired by the Infinite Fun Space of Ian M Banks' Culture novels, but that's not definite enough to put it.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.207|162.158.38.207]] 14:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Yeah, that struck me as odd too. Anyone care to reformat? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.60|173.245.56.60]] 17:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Anyone else think these might be actual quotes from the relevant times? Quick Google search doesn't support that (but then Google seems to skew its results towards recent more "relevant" responses, to the detriment of historical references -- give me what some random blogger has to say over the historical context! (Google obviously hasn't incorporated this strip yet, because then this strip will be the top result for all searches, and pages like this one will be the rest...)), but maybe Randall deliberately choose obscure references. Against this idea is that when he's done this in the past [citation needed], he's put in the references. But then, maybe he's mixing it up a little.... Thoughts? {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}
:I could find nothing to support it either. I doubt it is specific quotes because some are very generic, and because the cartoonist uses the same internet as the audience. If we can't find it, I doubt that would be the joke. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Whether or not these are real quotes or not was never an issue with regard to the joke -- it makes no real difference, it's just an interesting aside. And it depresses me that the Internet -- let alone Google's subset index thereof -- is quietly assumed to be the sum of all knowledge. The author *might* use the same internet as the rest of us (or maybe none of us use the exact same internet, each having access to parts inaccessible to other users), but even if the statement is taken as given, the internet is not the sum total of all knowledge. Go to the stacks of any well stocked university library, for example, to see a whole wealth of information largely not on the the internet. I know Google is trying to address the issue, but really, if you want any information from before roughly 1995, the internet is not the place to find it. What library stacks does Randall have access to? What recent cache of old Collier's magazines did he acquire at a yard sale? Do we all have access to those?
:The style and pace and lexicon of the comments seems classically consistent with the ages being depicted. Mind you, that's what a clever person like Randall would ''try'' to do, with his dialogue. I was a little unsure about the age of "Bookworm", for the first panel, but {{w|The Bookworm|a painting by that name}} was painted circa 1850, so if that was its original title then it might well be an era-accurate term for bibliophiles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 16:47, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I feel like I have actually seen at least a few of these quotes before but like you guys I don't have a source. Yet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.22|108.162.221.22]] 17:19, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Additionally, the results of [https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22we+even+read+as+we+walk%22&meta=&gws_rd=ssl a Google search for "we even read as we walk"], which I thought might be the easiest thing worth trying to track down, ''currently'' displays just two results. And those are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page this site's explicit Main Page] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/ this site's ''implicit'' main page] - technically something very close to a self-referential Googlewack! (This will doubtless change, if this page's transcript is also indexed, plus the XKCD original's transcript, plus other places chatting about this even including the XKCD Sucks blog, I'm sure. If it isn't already different for other, non-UK, Google front-ends...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 20:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

This is quite a hobby horse for Randall. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 22:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I am totally in camp "It's the same people in all panels". That's what I thought it was after reading the comments, and I'm sticking with it because it's funnier to me. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:40, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
:Well the other characters are not the same from panel to panel... And there is even an extra Cueball in the last panel. But if the version with one Cueball should make any sense, will the title then reefer to the people isolating them selves, or is it actually Cueball who is put in isolation by all other people...? I still think he just (as always) represents a generic person, thus not the same from panel to panel. (And if you think he is always the same is Cueball then twice in the last panel!) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:42, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1601: Isolation

2015-11-10T15:34:13Z

108.162.218.142:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0x7ho_IYc Relevant Vsauce]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.84.117|141.101.84.117]] 06:45, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

The title text is referring to Yudkowsky's [http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/ AI-Box Experiment], which was already mentioned in [http://www.xkcd.com/1450/ xkcd.com/1450] and explained [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1450:_AI-Box_Experiment here]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.11|162.158.153.11]] 09:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, there's a letter by an Ancient Roman writer complaining that people always write stories down now instead of just telling them to each other. So this mindset has existed for much longer than two centuries. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.191|141.101.106.191]] 09:08, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:But there had been little update in the technology behind books/writing since then and the news paper! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

There is someone (not logged in) that believes that the last panel indicates that it is the same Cueball through 175 years that are ignored by his friends, instead of just a jab at generic people who complains about technology. Cueball being this generic person. I highly disagree with this, but the second I changed it to something else the same IP address changed it right back. I have now made two versions of this explanation. And made it clear that it would mean Cueball and his friends were about 200 years old. Then I will leave it to someone else to choose if both of these explanations should be left in, or maybe even a third be added...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:42, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I'm the one who initially made that edit. I only made the edit once, I didn't revert any edits you or anyone else made. I still think my explanation is the correct one, too. The "Take a hint" comment makes a lot more sense if Cueball has a long history of blaming others not socializing with him on technology. The "It's been two centuries" comment only makes sense in the context of it being the same Cueball in all six panels, because people have been making that comment for a lot more than two centuries, and even if they hadn't, any random person is unlikely to know when people first started making that sort of observation. This explanation also fits in more with xkcd's style. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] 22:33, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Your explanation is correct and [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] is behaving like a child. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:41, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::It's neither! Part of the humor is the bizarre reframing that occurs in the last few panels as you suddenly begin to consider that instead of just being a representative sampling of generic people's complaints throughout the years, you suddenly consider that maybe this IS just one guy, riding his hobby-horse relentlessly throughout the decades without letup -- Dude! Take a hint! For me, especially the way he is hanging on a strap in the penultimate panel suddenly makes him seem like he's been stalking these people, following them with his opinions... {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}
:::We will have to wait until the official transcript appears. That might settle the question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 15:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

it says "sims" not "The Sims". "sim" is just short for "simulator". there are other things that simulate things beyond "The Sims". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 12:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I would rather say that the main explaination of the joke is a third way:
-Cueball represent the kind of person that complains about people ignoring each other. The contemporaries of such kind of person are clearly annoyed by his behavior and ignore him willingly. The complainer should understand the hint that people prefer isolation much better than having to interact with him. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 12:27, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure that this is the joke. It's not that society is becoming more isolated, it's that everybody is intentionally trying to ignore Cueball, ''and he's not taking the hint'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.11|162.158.60.11]] 14:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Agreed --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.66|173.245.54.66]] 15:04, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I think that "dude, it's been 2 centuries" refers to the actual notion of people complaining about social isolation due to the current relavant "media" at the time rather than cueball himself- this might be other people, but these guys are all stick figures... It's also very unlikely that someone would live this long. {{Citation needed}} --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.5|108.162.216.5]] 12:57, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think those people are supposed to be Cueballs friends. They may be strangers, and the idea is that people don't WANT to be social with strangers. Using technology to isolate may be reaction to fact that cities force us into bigger groups that we are comfortable socializing with. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:40, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I thought that Cueball being centuries old WAS the joke - it looks like this is just a montage along the lines of [[1227]], but it was actually Cueball saying the same thing for two solid centuries.
:I am inclined to agree that it's one of the jokes. I have never heard "take a hint" used to refer to things someone hadn't personally experienced. While people don't really live 2 centuries, it is a comic, not reality, and the implication he is the same Cueball makes a fun twist at the end of an obvious joke. He's poked at the history of this before, and the joke "maybe it's not technology, maybe it's your personality" has been done at least as far back as the Walkman example, probably much further. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Also, this is clearly a lowercase-s-sim, not The Sims. Possibly inspired by the Infinite Fun Space of Ian M Banks' Culture novels, but that's not definite enough to put it.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.207|162.158.38.207]] 14:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Yeah, that struck me as odd too. Anyone care to reformat? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.60|173.245.56.60]] 17:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Anyone else think these might be actual quotes from the relevant times? Quick Google search doesn't support that (but then Google seems to skew its results towards recent more "relevant" responses, to the detriment of historical references -- give me what some random blogger has to say over the historical context! (Google obviously hasn't incorporated this strip yet, because then this strip will be the top result for all searches, and pages like this one will be the rest...)), but maybe Randall deliberately choose obscure references. Against this idea is that when he's done this in the past [citation needed], he's put in the references. But then, maybe he's mixing it up a little.... Thoughts? {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}
:I could find nothing to support it either. I doubt it is specific quotes because some are very generic, and because the cartoonist uses the same internet as the audience. If we can't find it, I doubt that would be the joke. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Whether or not these are real quotes or not was never an issue with regard to the joke -- it makes no real difference, it's just an interesting aside. And it depresses me that the Internet -- let alone Google's subset index thereof -- is quietly assumed to be the sum of all knowledge. The author *might* use the same internet as the rest of us (or maybe none of use the exact same internet, each having access to parts inaccessible to other users), but even if the statement is taken as given, the internet is not the sum total of all knowledge. Go to the stacks of any well stocked university library, for example, to see a whole wealth of information largely not on the the internet. I know Google is trying to address the issue, but really, if you want any information from before roughly 1995, the internet is not the place to find it. What library stacks does Randall have access to? What recent cache of old Collier's magazines did he acquire at a yard sale? Do we all have access to those?
:The style and pace and lexicon of the comments seems classically consistent with the ages being depicted. Mind you, that's what a clever person like Randall would ''try'' to do, with his dialogue. I was a little unsure about the age of "Bookworm", for the first panel, but {{w|The Bookworm|a painting by that name}} was painted circa 1850, so if that was its original title then it might well be an era-accurate term for bibliophiles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 16:47, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I feel like I have actually seen at least a few of these quotes before but like you guys I don't have a source. Yet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.22|108.162.221.22]] 17:19, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Additionally, the results of [https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22we+even+read+as+we+walk%22&meta=&gws_rd=ssl a Google search for "we even read as we walk"], which I thought might be the easiest thing worth trying to track down, ''currently'' displays just two results. And those are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page this site's explicit Main Page] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/ this site's ''implicit'' main page] - technically something very close to a self-referential Googlewack! (This will doubtless change, if this page's transcript is also indexed, plus the XKCD original's transcript, plus other places chatting about this even including the XKCD Sucks blog, I'm sure. If it isn't already different for other, non-UK, Google front-ends...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 20:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

This is quite a hobby horse for Randall. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 22:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I am totally in camp "It's the same people in all panels". That's what I thought it was after reading the comments, and I'm sticking with it because it's funnier to me. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:40, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
:Well the other characters are not the same from panel to panel... And there is even an extra Cueball in the last panel. But if the version with one Cueball should make any sense, will the title then reefer to the people isolating them selves, or is it actually Cueball who is put in isolation by all other people...? I still think he just (as always) represents a generic person, thus not the same from panel to panel. (And if you think he is always the same is Cueball then twice in the last panel!) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:42, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1601: Isolation

2015-11-10T15:30:29Z

108.162.218.142:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0x7ho_IYc Relevant Vsauce]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.84.117|141.101.84.117]] 06:45, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

The title text is referring to Yudkowsky's [http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/ AI-Box Experiment], which was already mentioned in [http://www.xkcd.com/1450/ xkcd.com/1450] and explained [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1450:_AI-Box_Experiment here]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.11|162.158.153.11]] 09:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, there's a letter by an Ancient Roman writer complaining that people always write stories down now instead of just telling them to each other. So this mindset has existed for much longer than two centuries. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.191|141.101.106.191]] 09:08, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:But there had been little update in the technology behind books/writing since then and the news paper! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

There is someone (not logged in) that believes that the last panel indicates that it is the same Cueball through 175 years that are ignored by his friends, instead of just a jab at generic people who complains about technology. Cueball being this generic person. I highly disagree with this, but the second I changed it to something else the same IP address changed it right back. I have now made two versions of this explanation. And made it clear that it would mean Cueball and his friends were about 200 years old. Then I will leave it to someone else to choose if both of these explanations should be left in, or maybe even a third be added...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:42, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I'm the one who initially made that edit. I only made the edit once, I didn't revert any edits you or anyone else made. I still think my explanation is the correct one, too. The "Take a hint" comment makes a lot more sense if Cueball has a long history of blaming others not socializing with him on technology. The "It's been two centuries" comment only makes sense in the context of it being the same Cueball in all six panels, because people have been making that comment for a lot more than two centuries, and even if they hadn't, any random person is unlikely to know when people first started making that sort of observation. This explanation also fits in more with xkcd's style. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] 22:33, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Your explanation is correct and [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] is behaving like a child. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:41, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::It's neither! Part of the humor is the bizarre reframing that occurs in the last few panels as you suddenly begin to consider that instead of just being a representative sampling of generic people's complaints throughout the years, you suddenly consider that maybe this IS just one guy, riding his hobby-horse relentlessly throughout the decades without letup -- Dude! Take a hint! For me, especially the way he is hanging on a strap in the penultimate panel suddenly makes him seem like he's been stalking these people, following them with his opinions... {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}
:::We will have to wait until the official transcript appears. That might settle the question. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 15:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

it says "sims" not "The Sims". "sim" is just short for "simulator". there are other things that simulate things beyond "The Sims". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 12:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I would rather say that the main explaination of the joke is a third way:
-Cueball represent the kind of person that complains about people ignoring each other. The contemporaries of such kind of person are clearly annoyed by his behavior and ignore him willingly. The complainer should understand the hint that people prefer isolation much better than having to interact with him. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 12:27, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure that this is the joke. It's not that society is becoming more isolated, it's that everybody is intentionally trying to ignore Cueball, ''and he's not taking the hint'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.11|162.158.60.11]] 14:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Agreed --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.66|173.245.54.66]] 15:04, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I think that "dude, it's been 2 centuries" refers to the actual notion of people complaining about social isolation due to the current relavant "media" at the time rather than cueball himself- this might be other people, but these guys are all stick figures... It's also very unlikely that someone would live this long. {{Citation needed}} --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.5|108.162.216.5]] 12:57, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think those people are supposed to be Cueballs friends. They may be strangers, and the idea is that people don't WANT to be social with strangers. Using technology to isolate may be reaction to fact that cities force us into bigger groups that we are comfortable socializing with. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:40, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I thought that Cueball being centuries old WAS the joke - it looks like this is just a montage along the lines of [[1227]], but it was actually Cueball saying the same thing for two solid centuries.
:I am inclined to agree that it's one of the jokes. I have never heard "take a hint" used to refer to things someone hadn't personally experienced. While people don't really live 2 centuries, it is a comic, not reality, and the implication he is the same Cueball makes a fun twist at the end of an obvious joke. He's poked at the history of this before, and the joke "maybe it's not technology, maybe it's your personality" has been done at least as far back as the Walkman example, probably much further. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Also, this is clearly a lowercase-s-sim, not The Sims. Possibly inspired by the Infinite Fun Space of Ian M Banks' Culture novels, but that's not definite enough to put it.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.207|162.158.38.207]] 14:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Yeah, that struck me as odd too. Anyone care to reformat? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.60|173.245.56.60]] 17:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Anyone else think these might be actual quotes from the relevant times? Quick Google search doesn't support that (but then Google seems to skew its results towards recent more "relevant" responses, to the detriment of historical references -- give me what some random blogger has to say over the historical context! (Google obviously hasn't incorporated this strip yet, because then this strip will be the top result for all searches, and pages like this one will be the rest...)), but maybe Randall deliberately choose obscure references. Against this idea is that when he's done this in the past [citation needed], he's put in the references. But then, maybe he's mixing it up a little.... Thoughts? {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.142}}
:I could find nothing to support it either. I doubt it is specific quotes because some are very generic, and because the cartoonist uses the same internet as the audience. If we can't find it, I doubt that would be the joke. [[User:GonzoI|GonzoI]] ([[User talk:GonzoI|talk]]) 15:44, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Whether or not these are real quotes or not was never an issue with regard to the joke -- it makes no real difference, it's just an interesting aside. And it depresses me that the Internet -- let alone Google's subset index thereof -- is quietly assumed to be the sum of all knowledge. The author *might* use the same internet as the rest of us (or maybe none of use use the exact same internet, each having access to parts inaccessible to other users), but even if the statement is taken as given, the internet is not the sum total of all knowledge. Go to the stacks of any well stocked university library, for example, to see a whole wealth of information largely not on the the internet. I know Google is trying to address the issue, but really, if you want any information from before roughly 1995, the internet is not the place to find it. What library stacks does Randall have access to? What recent cache of old Collier's magazines did he acquire at a yard sale? Do we all have access to those?
:The style and pace and lexicon of the comments seems classically consistent with the ages being depicted. Mind you, that's what a clever person like Randall would ''try'' to do, with his dialogue. I was a little unsure about the age of "Bookworm", for the first panel, but {{w|The Bookworm|a painting by that name}} was painted circa 1850, so if that was its original title then it might well be an era-accurate term for bibliophiles. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 16:47, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:I feel like I have actually seen at least a few of these quotes before but like you guys I don't have a source. Yet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.22|108.162.221.22]] 17:19, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::Additionally, the results of [https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22we+even+read+as+we+walk%22&meta=&gws_rd=ssl a Google search for "we even read as we walk"], which I thought might be the easiest thing worth trying to track down, ''currently'' displays just two results. And those are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page this site's explicit Main Page] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/ this site's ''implicit'' main page] - technically something very close to a self-referential Googlewack! (This will doubtless change, if this page's transcript is also indexed, plus the XKCD original's transcript, plus other places chatting about this even including the XKCD Sucks blog, I'm sure. If it isn't already different for other, non-UK, Google front-ends...) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.152.125|162.158.152.125]] 20:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

This is quite a hobby horse for Randall. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.33|198.41.238.33]] 22:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I am totally in camp "It's the same people in all panels". That's what I thought it was after reading the comments, and I'm sticking with it because it's funnier to me. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:40, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
:Well the other characters are not the same from panel to panel... And there is even an extra Cueball in the last panel. But if the version with one Cueball should make any sense, will the title then reefer to the people isolating them selves, or is it actually Cueball who is put in isolation by all other people...? I still think he just (as always) represents a generic person, thus not the same from panel to panel. (And if you think he is always the same is Cueball then twice in the last panel!) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:42, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1601: Isolation

2015-11-09T14:28:28Z

108.162.218.142:

The title text is referring to Yudkowsky's [http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox/ AI-Box Experiment], which was already mentioned in [http://www.xkcd.com/1450/ xkcd.com/1450] and explained [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1450:_AI-Box_Experiment here]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.11|162.158.153.11]] 09:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, there's a letter by an Ancient Roman writer complaining that people always write stories down now instead of just telling them to each other. So this mindset has existed for much longer than two centuries. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.191|141.101.106.191]] 09:08, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:But there had been little update in the technology behind books/writing since then and the news paper! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

There is someone (not logged in) that believes that the last panel indicates that it is the same Cueball through 175 years that are ignored by his friends, instead of just a jab at generic people who complains about technology. Cueball being this generic person. I highly disagree with this, but the second I changed it to something else the same IP address changed it right back. I have now made two versions of this explanation. And made it clear that it would mean Cueball and his friends were about 200 years old. Then I will leave it to someone else to choose if both of these explanations should be left in, or maybe even a third be added...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:42, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:Your explanation is correct and [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.17|108.162.218.17]] is behaving like a child. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.17|108.162.221.17]] 13:41, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
:It's neither! Part of the humor is the bizarre reframing that occurs in the last few panels as you suddenly begin to consider that instead of just being a representative sampling of generic people's complaints throughout the years, you suddenly consider that maybe this IS just one guy, riding his hobby-horse relentlessly throughout the decades without letup -- Dude! Take a hint! For me, especially the way he is hanging on a strap in the penultimate panel suddenly makes him seem like he's been stalking these people, following them with his opinions...

it says "sims" not "The Sims". "sim" is just short for "simulator". there are other things that simulate things beyond "The Sims". --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.233|141.101.106.233]] 12:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I would rather say that the main explaination of the joke is a third way:
-Cueball represent the kind of person that complains about people ignoring each other. The contemporaries of such kind of person are clearly annoyed by his behavior and ignore him willingly. The complainer should understand the hint that people prefer isolation much better than having to interact with him. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 12:27, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I think that "dude, it's been 2 centuries" refers to the actual notion of people complaining about social isolation due to the current relavant "media" at the time rather than cueball himself- this might be other people, but these guys are all stick figures... It's also very unlikely that someone would live this long. {{Citation needed}} --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.5|108.162.216.5]] 12:57, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think those people are supposed to be Cueballs friends. They may be strangers, and the idea is that people don't WANT to be social with strangers. Using technology to isolate may be reaction to fact that cities force us into bigger groups that we are comfortable socializing with. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:40, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

I thought that Cueball being centuries old WAS the joke - it looks like this is just a montage along the lines of [[1227]], but it was actually Cueball saying the same thing for two solid centuries.

Also, this is clearly a lowercase-s-sim, not The Sims. Possibly inspired by the Infinite Fun Space of Ian M Banks' Culture novels, but that's not definite enough to put it.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.207|162.158.38.207]] 14:16, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Anyone else think these might be actual quotes from the relevant times? Quick Google search doesn't support that (but then Google seems to skew its results towards recent more "relevant" responses, to the detriment of historical references -- give me what some random blogger has to say over the historical context! (Google obviously hasn't incorporated this strip yet, because then this strip will be the top result for all searches, and pages like this one will be the rest...)), but maybe Randall deliberately choose obscure references. Against this idea is that when he's done this in the past [citation needed], he's put in the references. But then, maybe he's mixing it up a little.... Thoughts?

Talk:1601: Isolation

2015-11-09T14:15:53Z

108.162.218.142:

Talk:1595: 30 Days Hath September

2015-10-27T17:53:59Z

108.162.218.142:

THIS RHYME IS TERRIBLE. You can slot the months into it in nearly any order and it will still scan. The knuckle trick is far superior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_days_hath_September#Knuckle_Mnemonic
[[User:CLAVDIVS|CLAVDIVS]] ([[User talk:CLAVDIVS|talk]]) 06:00, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

:I use the knuckle trick too. And I am Dutch, so not only the "German, French, Swiss, Romanians and Belgians" use that trick. I count from the index finger and reverse on the little finger for July and August. Might not be representative for all Dutch, I've heard the rhyme too. (suitably translated) -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.196|141.101.104.196]] 09:36, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

:From Jan to Jul(1~7) its odd numbers 31 days, while from Aug to Dec(8~12) its even numbers 31. Feb is 28 or 29. Much shorter. - MythSearcher {{unsigned ip|162.158.176.35}}
::Or (in other words) subtract 7 if number of month is above 7. Then odd always means 31 and even 30 or February. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.159|162.158.91.159]] 07:39, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
:As above, except that I use Hallowe'en and New Year as checks! {{unsigned ip|141.101.104.61}}
:I come from the UK. I have never heard the rhyme and everyone I know uses the knuckle trick. Though London is not exactly representative of the whole country... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 09:51, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
:I've been taught the knuckle mnemonic as a child; it went index finger to little finger, then to other hand starting from index finger again. Incidentally, I'm Russian (as opposed to German, French, Swiss, Romanian, Belgian, or Dutch). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.77|141.101.81.77]] 10:00, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
Datum point: British, was taught the rhyme ('alone'-rhyming version) when young but then learnt the (apparently widespread) 'knuckle-trick' from I-don't-know-where. Little-finger knuckle is January, index-finger knuckle is July, then right-hand in reverse, for me, until out of months... So I tend to use the latter more, now. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.224|162.158.39.224]] 17:23, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

I always heard "30 days hath september, april june and november, all the rest have 31, except february alone. And that has 28 days clear, with 29 in each leap year."
How do people remember it if it doesn't rhyme?- madness! {{unsigned ip|162.158.38.218}}

:No no no, its "30 days hath November, August, March and December..." --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:31, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

In Spain both rhyme and knuckle are well-known, and usually taught to children (the rhyme suitably [https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendario_gregoriano#Duraci.C3.B3n_del_a.C3.B1o_gregoriano translated], of course). For some reason, I've always found it easier to just remember the number of days by memory than resorting to any mnemonic trick. I tend to use the known numbers to check if I remember the mnemonic correctly, and not vice versa. Also, it's usual to see people wondering which number corresponds to which month (e.g. October is month 10), which I also remember no problem since I have memory. [[User:Jojonete|Jojonete]] ([[User talk:Jojonete|talk]]) 12:37, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
::Of course if we hadn't moved the start of the year from March to January, September, October, November and December would make much more sense as months 7, 8, 9 and 10! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.204|162.158.34.204]] 15:30, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
:I'm from Denmark and here I have heard of the knuckle method, but we do not have a rhyme that is so well know that I have heard of it (but I'm sure someone has.) But as the Jojonete wrote I also just know which month have how many days by memory etc. But I have told my six year old daughter about the knuckle method. I think it is great that it works. And everyone knows that February is the one with 28 days, so that is not the difficult part to remember... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:50, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

I tried the mouseover text trick and got "7" for October. Someone help! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.119|162.158.255.119]] 17:10, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

October of all months seems like a pretty easy one to keep track of, simply because October 31st is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween pretty popular holiday.] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.11|108.162.220.11]] 18:48, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

;brain adaptation ridicule…celebration
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 09:44, 27 October 2015 (UTC) me thinks that while the absurdity of these life hacks has been explained well the deeper issue might yet be missed here: the cultural shift from relying on mental recall and concentration to adapting your brain to rely on technology more than before, reduced attention span and reduced factual memory (better childhood telephone number recall than children's mobile numbers recall) and optimized lookup routines {{unsigned ip|141.101.66.5}}

<big>digital amnesia!</big> --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 10:02, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-34454264 --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 10:38, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

+ http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/wyzowl/its-official-we-have-shorter-attention-spans-than-goldfish-infographic-01353885#w1RCPWdWy1LoDlvI.97 --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.66.5|141.101.66.5]] 10:48, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

My uncle had a nonsense rhyme based on this: 
Thirty days hath September, 
April, June, and no wonder 
All the rest ate peanut butter, 
Except Grandma, who rode a tricycle 
about this color. (holds hand 3 feet above ground) 
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.26|108.162.216.26]] 13:19, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

Yay! I came here specifically to post this version, but was beaten to it. It's from the Napolean XIV album from 1966: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvABMymQz_k

Talk:849: Complex Conjugate

2015-06-24T15:48:54Z

108.162.218.142:

Actually multiplying complex number (x + iy) by its complex conjugate (x - iy) does not "remove" imaginary part, but calculate square of absolute value of complex number, (x^2 + y^2). BTW. in quantum physics the wavefunction is complex valued, and its absolute value is probability density (a real valued function). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 00:57, 18 December 2012 (UTC)

I got hit in the face with my complex conjugate and lost an eye. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.114}}

I procreated with my complex conjugate and lost myself. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.114|108.162.216.114]] 19:44, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

(a+bi)*(a-bi)= a^2-b^2 not a^2+b^2
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.142|108.162.218.142]] 15:48, 24 June 2015 (UTC)