explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2101: Technical Analysis

2021-04-20T15:59:23Z

108.162.219.106: /* Explanation */ fixed typo: holders -> holders

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
There are two recognized methods to attempt to predict the stock market, each with its own pros and cons:

*{{w|Technical analysis}} is more appropriate for traders seeking to benefit off short-term fluctuations in stock prices, by attempting to look for trends, momentum, patterns etc. in the stock prices.
*{{w|Fundamental analysis}} is more appropriate for investors seeking to benefit off long-term fluctuations in stock prices, by attempting to guess future earnings based on some fundamental factor about the companies whose stock is traded. Investors can choose to look for good Price/Earnings ratio, the potential of a company to disrupt markets or open new markets, or other indications that a stock may be a solid investment.

[http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/randomwalktheory.asp Random Walk theory] suggests that neither of these methods are particularly useful at predicting the future of the stock market (see link for a funny story about dart throwing monkeys).

The theoretical value of a stock is its {{w|net present value}}, which is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the {{w|time value of money}}. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a {{w|Candlestick chart|stock price chart}}, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense from the perspective of technical analysis, but do accurately describe the graph itself: "{{w|allegro}}" (a musical term used to set the tempo at the beginning of a score), "{{w|prologue}}" (an introductory section of a play, book, or similar), "{{w|lumbar}} support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"), "{{w|uptalk}}" (a speech pattern). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In geometry, any two points define a line.)

The shape of the chart is similar to the exponential behavior of cryptocurrencies when they are successful, where price (positional height on the chart) roughly increases while volatility (height of the bars or candles themselves, and of the peaks and troughs, on the chart) does the same. Technical analysis used to be an esoteric domain held by well-paid stock analysts, but as cryptocurrency has spread, and as financial companies have made it easier for members of the public ("retail investors", as opposed to "institutional investors") to engage in investment trading, people from all walks of life have begun staring at charts like this.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Graph labels and possible meanings
|-
|{{w|Allegro_(music)|Allegro}}
|Tempo notation in music: played quickly and brightly (translation from Italian: cheerful, lively) - a series of very small changes in this region of the graph might suggest notes played quickly
|-
|Prologue
|A prologue is an introduction to a book or other work; this presumably refers to the initial period of minimal growth which is moving toward a much more active period
|-
|Decline
|Describes a negative trend
|-
|Doldrums
|A stagnant section of the graph with little movement
|-
|Spline
|A {{w|Spline (mathematics)|spline}} is a mathematical means of generating a smooth curve, referring to the smoothed curve shown here
|-
|{{w|Lumbar}} Support
|A cushion or other device that provides support to the lower part of the ''spine'', a play on the preceding ''spline''. "Support" is also used as a term in technical analysis to refer to a value that the stock price frequently approaches from above but does not pass through (until it does, which is taken as a sign that the price will fall further until it reaches the next support level).
|-
|Renewal
|Strong upward trend; also might suggest the growth of green bars, like greening up in the spring
|-
|Hmm!
|The three circles this label points to mark periods of growth that immediately preceded a decline. Ideally for someone performing a technical analysis, if such occurrences can be foreseen accurately it would be a major boon for the stockholder, as they could be tipped to sell it right away before the price drops and net a cash profit.
|-
|Hark! The cliffs!
|A long bar suggesting a steep cliff
|-
|Declination
|A term which sounds similar to decline, but actually refers to the angular distance of a point from one of the poles. The declination of magnetic north is used to correct the difference between true and magnetic north.
|-
|Inflection
|A point at which the slope of a graph changes from an increasing slope (getting steeper) to a decreasing slope (getting less steep).
|-
|Uptalk
|A pattern of speech in which each sentence ends with rising inflection? like a question? A play on "uptick", and also on the second meaning of "inflection"
|-
|Bathtub
|possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}", also, the shape is similar to that of a bathtub, and is drawn containing water.
|-
|These two points define a line! Promising signal.
|In geometry, any two points define a line; also looks somewhat like a communication line between two towers. It is tempting when looking at market charts to draw imaginary lines that connect the extrema and hope it means something about the future. The drawn line in this case also just so happens to ignore the many periods of decline marked under "Declination" -- in this case it did eventually recover, but later labels (such as "likely to continue forever" at the end) suggest that this is more likely a case where blind optimism just so happens to have been right for those two particular points (as opposed to the many more possible pairs of points where the line wouldn't be so positive).
|-
|Yikes
|This section of the chart refers to the actual use of a candlestick chart, which is to document the difference between the opening and closing value of a stock. A long red bar shows that a stock closed at a much lower value than it opened at, which would be disastrous for someone trading that stock. The section shows a bearish {{w|engulfing}}
|-
|Wrong!
|The circled pair of bars are the only pair in the whole graph where two red bars (negative growth) that large are next to each other -- larger red bars exist, but not next to another one of similar magnitude. Labeling it "wrong" suggests the analyst is choosing to ignore reality by throwing out actual past data rather than revise the theory being held.
|-
|If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in the graph of a random walk
|A {{w|random walk}} is a mathematical object that describes a path that consists of a succession of random steps. Randall is trying to convince himself that the patterns in the stock chart are more meaningful than just random data. The {{w|Random walk hypothesis|random walk hypothesis}} is a financial theory that states that stock prices evolve according to a random walk, thus short-term price changes are random and cannot be predicted from past history.

At this particular point, Randall has drawn a couple of lines that appear to act as an "envelope" around the stock price, converging towards the point where the price turns around and rises in the "Slope!" section. A technical analyst might say that such a convergence indicates that the price will turn around, but this annotation was added retroactively with the benefit of hindsight, like all of the annotations on this chart. If Randall had tried to make a similar envelope around the earlier sections ("Yikes" and "Wrong!"), before the "Slope!" had happened, he would have created a diverging (and descending) pattern, which he might have taken as a sign to sell and would have then missed the later rally of the stock price. More broadly, any two lines drawn over or around some part of the price chart must necessarily converge or diverge (the price would have to be perfectly periodic to produce parallel lines), so this "signal" is no better than a coin flip.
|-
|Slope!
|The {{w|slope}} of a graph is the ratio of the "vertical change" to the "horizontal change". A measure of slope on a financial chart can be used to predict possible specific returns or losses, or to analyze those from the past, but Randall simply prints the word in his chart annotation, with an exclamation point possibly indicating how exciting its value is, rather than labeling the actual numeric slope. This could also be a play on a second meaning of slope, meaning a rising or falling surface in general.
|-
|Could be an omen
|This again makes reference to the financial meaning of the candlestick chart. The top of the small grey tick represents the highest value that the stock sold at over that day. The joke is that even though the stock did not grow appreciably, and actually sold at some point in the day for much lower, that it "could be an omen" that the value was rising.
|-
|Red + Green = Christmas
|Red and green are traditional colors for the {{w|Christmas}} holiday in the U.S. This could be a "sign" that the stock price is about to rise, as in a sort of Christmas present or bonus, or the [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-23/bitcoin-slumps-in-wake-of-chinese-new-year-slowdown-warning widely-held belief in the cryptocurrency community] that prices fall during {{w|Chinese New Year}} as Chinese holders of cryptocurrency sell off in preparation for their holiday expenses.
|-
|Likely to continue forever
|This is a mistaken opinion often held by buyers in a rising market. It's been rising so much, surely it's the best time to buy! We could make millions! Such times are generally followed by a sharp downturn resulting in significant losses, as can be seen historically farther back on the chart. Cryptocurrency communities have significant members who call themselves "holders" -- these people always trust that the price will eventually go up even higher, because it has recovered so many times in the past.
|}

The title text is a quote from {{w|James Tobin}} (from his 1984 paper [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf ''On the efficiency of the financial system'']) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. The quote was about the stock market and high speed traders in particular. It comments on the 'financialization' of the economy, where activities like speculation and abstracted financial products have become an increasingly large part of the economy, as opposed to investment in productive industry.

Interestingly, this comic appeared the day after [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/billionaire-wealth-grows-by-25-billion-a-day-while-poorest-wealth-falls/ Oxfam] reported that the world's 2,200 billionaires had added 12% to their wealth in 2018, while the 3.8 billion people comprising the poorest half of the world's population had lost 11%. Perhaps this prompted what appears to be Randall's jab at those whose business is merely making money.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A series of red and green box-and-whisker plots form a line that starts in the bottom left corner of the image and wiggles up to the top right corner, with a series of peaks and troughs that resemble a typical stock market diagram. The diagram is annotated with lines, arrows and text.]

::[Title in top left corner]
::The basics of technical analysis

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes:]
::Allegro

::[A horizontal bracket encompasses the next three sections]
::Prologue

::[Slope becomes slightly negative. Mostly red boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Decline

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Doldrums

::[Line curves upwards with mostly green boxes, with a dashed black line below:]
::Spline

::[Three green boxes at minor peaks in the line are circled and indicated with arrows:]
::[Hmm!]

::[A section with slight positive slope and a mixture of red and green boxes, with a solid black line below:]
::Lumbar support

::[Slope increases. All green boxes, with a black line through the centre:]
::Renewal

::[A sharp upwards incline, with two large green boxes:]
::Hark! The cliffs!

::[Two black dots and a dashed black line connect two major peaks:]
::These two points define a line! Promising signal

::[Inside trough between two major peaks is a roughly drawn black triangle:]
::Bathtub

::[Slope becomes negative, mostly red boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Declination

::[At the lowest point of the trough:]
::Inflection

::[Slope becomes positive, mostly green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Uptalk

::[Slight negative slope, with large error bars. Mixture of red and green boxes. One red box is marked with an arrow:]
::Yikes!

::[Negative slope, all red boxes. Gap between two central boxes is circled:]
::Wrong!

::[Line rises then falls. Mixture of red and green boxes with non-parallel dashed black lines above and below:]
::If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in a graph of a random walk.

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Slope!

::[One error bar on a green box is circled:]
::Could be an omen?

::[Arrow indicating peak:]
::Red + Green = Christmas!

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a wiggly black arrow through the centre. A separate arrow points off the edge of the page:]
::Likely to continue forever

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Christmas]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Stock Market]]

2450: Post Vaccine Social Scheduling

2021-04-15T11:36:37Z

108.162.219.106: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2450
| date = April 14, 2021
| title = Post Vaccine Social Scheduling
| image = post_vaccine_social_scheduling.png
| titletext = As if these problems weren't NP-hard enough.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a UNVACCINATED MOVIEGOER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic shows a timeline of a multitude of (presumably) friends and acquaintances getting their two doses of vaccine. Due to the CDC-recommended delay between shots, as well as few weeks needed to build antibodies from the second shot, planning get-togethers in advance becomes complicated by who is free to meet, or not yet.

Eventually, everyone can start getting together, but during the time where some people have only received one dose, or neither dose, or their second dose recently, the scheduling is complicated.

The title text references NP-hardness, a theme that has come up in past comics. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hardness NP-hardness] describes a particular level of computational difficulty. Scheduling problems are normally NP-hard. But when extra challenges such as having to deal with whether or not people are vaccinated they become even more difficult.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A time graph of eleven people with lines. Circles with 1 and 2 are interspaced on the lines to represent first and second doses for COVID, and bolded lines for times after their second doses. 6 ellipses intersect various subsets of the people labeled in order:

DINNER GAMES MOVIE BIRTHDAY DINNER CABIN

[Caption below the panel]:

Post Vaccine Social Scheduling
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: COVID-19]]
[[Category: COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Timelines]]

Talk:2377: xkcd Phone 12

2020-10-27T21:11:19Z

108.162.219.106:

Is there any way to install the Vengaboys feature on my own phone? It's pure genius
::(Above unsigned comment was clearly being replied to by the following. Tidying up by moving my own signed comment about coatings.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.171|162.158.158.171]] 12:39, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
:Perhaps by taking data from infrared sensors and microphones, an app could automatically start the song? Might have some interesting copyright issues, tho idk how those things work … [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.124|162.158.63.124]] 23:57, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

If it's coated for easy swallowing, perhaps it's actually a tablet... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.54|162.158.155.54]] 22:50, 26 October 2020 (UTC)
:Now officially entered in Explanation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.171|162.158.158.171]] 12:39, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
::This could be a reference to the recently-released Animaniacs reboot trailer, where the Warner kids are shown a tablet (probably an iPad) that looks like it's on Wikipedia and told that it contains the sum of all human knowledge. Yakko then takes the tablet, puts it in a comically large glass of water, swallows the water and tablet in one gulp, and then seems to have absorbed all of the knowledge. [[User:Duraludon|Duraludon]] ([[User talk:Duraludon|talk]]) 17:34, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Disabling the screen is a real feature (though it's called screen curtain on iOS https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201443). {{unsigned|108.162.241.70}}

The 600LB magnet doesn't weigh 600 pounds, it's strong enough to hold 600 pounds. And if you used the interlocking feature, and it doesn't explode, you'd never be able to pull the phones apart. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 01:42, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
:I just looked up 600 lb fishing magnets on Amazon.com. They weigh a couple lbs. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 05:05, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
:From what we've learned about xkcd-Phones so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the magnet actually weights 600 lb. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.91|108.162.229.91]] 11:23, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

I would actually buy something with Game Boy Printer compatibility. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Goodbye, world!]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 03:49, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

John MacAfee fled Belize (and the Belize police) when he was wanted for questioning as a “person of interest” in the murder of Gregory Viant Faull. I suspect that that is part of why Randal posits an attack from John MacAfee (and defense from Peter Norton, who (unlike John) hasn’t completely lost his mind). I think he is also on the run from Spanish authorities for tax evasion.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.136|173.245.54.136]] 04:33, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

:I think there should be some explanation of who these people are. I could assume that they're the founders of the companies of the same name, or look it up, but the explanation should probably mention it. [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 12:44, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

::Isn't it "McAfee", not "MacAfee"? Or is there an unknown menace named MacAfee that we need to be warned about? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.82|162.158.74.82]] 13:30, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Don't many mobile games use shaking as a way to reset or roll the dice? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 05:04, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
:Also Moto phones use shaking to turn on the flashlight. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:19, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

The tactical helium reserve might prove problematic if [https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/9si6r9/postmortem_mri_disables_every_ios_device_in/ the phone uses MEMS for timekeeping].
:(Great link, but unsigned...) Helium's a wonderful substance. Everyone speaks highly of it! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.171|162.158.158.171]] 12:39, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

"Coated for easy swallowing" could be referring to ambiguity between 'tablet (pharmacy)' and 'tablet computer' (which is quite similar to a phone). [[User:Angel|Angel]] ([[User talk:Angel|talk]]) 12:44, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
:See comment (nearly) at top of Talk. Also you may have missed the change I made which then momentarily vanished due to someone's overzealous manual reversion but now is [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2377%3A_xkcd_Phone_12&type=revision&diff=200672&oldid=200667 restored]. Enjoy. ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.46|162.158.159.46]] 12:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
:(I seem to be IP-hopping. I was the "Tweaks and Buffs" author/restorer consistently on 141.*, not the "I'm an idiot" one on 162.* but here in comments I'm appearing as 162.* both before (inc. last night) and after. - Probably something to do with Cloudflare. It's ''always'' something to do with Cloudflare! Any guesses what my IP sign-off will be ''this'' time???) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.102|162.158.155.102]] 13:09, 27 October 2020 (UTC)
::Solution: Make an account, and log in. [[User:OhFFS|OhFFS]] ([[User talk:OhFFS|talk]]) 16:53, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Possibly, to note, Thermal Paper, as what is used by the Gameboy Printer, has high quantities of BPA. Running gag?
Also, atmospheric helium temporarily makes IPhones not work, due to mems device issues.
https://www.cnet.com/news/iphones-reportedly-malfunctioning-after-helium-exposure/
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.174|162.158.146.174]] 15:24, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Vengabus increasing volume as a method of behavior discouragement has been referenced on the podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me episode #398. Randall Monroe is a listener and a one-time guest on the program, and this line may be in reference to this segment.

Talk:2009: Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

2018-06-20T18:47:13Z

108.162.219.106:

How the heck is a lava cake more luminous than a campfire? {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.28}}
:It's Lava Lake, as in a large puddle of lava.[[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 15:45, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

As it's a logarithmic scale, is it more correct to say the plot been expanded to 1 on both axes? [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 15:47, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

It seems Randall thinks an astronomer is about as bright as a lightbulb, probably due to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram itself! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:52, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
:A daily food consumption of average human is about 100W when spread out over 24 hours

While wattage is used as an informal proxy for bulb brightness, there is not a 1-to-1 relationship between power consumption and light output. Incandescent bulbs in the United States were commonly labeled with both watts consumed and lumens output to aid consumers in choosing efficient bulbs.

{{w|Ivanpah Solar Power Facility|Ivanpah}} doesn't have a salt tank. Presumably he meant the boiler, and/or was confusing it with {{w|Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project|Crescent Dunes}}.
[[User:Wwoods|Wwoods]] ([[User talk:Wwoods|talk]]) 17:29, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I understand the explanation, but what's the joke?

The title text says "The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is located in its own lower right corner, unless you're viewing it on an unusually big screen." But it's clearly on the top left corner... Am I missing something? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.106|108.162.219.106]] 18:47, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1978: Congressional Testimony

2018-04-09T15:24:05Z

108.162.219.106:

I was about to change the bot to Mark Zuckerberg's terminator double, but somebody was faster. Ah well.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.106|108.162.219.106]] 15:24, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

1918: NEXUS

2017-11-20T14:06:31Z

108.162.219.106: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1918
| date = November 20, 2017
| title = NEXUS
| image = nexus.png
| titletext = You also refuse to buy Cisco products because you hate the Thong Song, O. Henry, Deep Space Nine, freshwater whitefish, teenaged Incan emperors, Brak's brother, and vegetable-based shortening.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

CueBall is confusing Nexus (a [https://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-traveler-programs/nexus USA and Canada border control pre-screening programme]) with Hexxus (the [http://ferngully.wikia.com/wiki/Hexxus villains] from an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest animated film series]).

The title text is confusing Cisco (a telecoms & tech brand) with:
* The artist {{w|Sisqó}} who performed 'Thong Song'
* The Cisco Kid is a character created by O. Henry in the short story "The Caballero's Way."
* Benjamin Sisko the commander of a space station in the Star Trek Universe (Deep Space Nine)
* Ciscoes (freshwater whitefish)
* Kuzko (teenaged Incan emperors)
* Sisto (Brak's brother)
* {{w|Crisco}} (vegetable-based shortening)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan and Queball walking through an airport.]
:Sign: Apply for Nexus Save time at the border
:Megan: Maybe we should sign up for this.
:Queball: No way. I refuse to have anything to do with Nexus after what they did to Ferngully.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1085: ContextBot

2017-11-05T21:23:35Z

108.162.219.106: I noted that while sneaking if you hit q you will drop the entire stack

Just so you know it would be fairly easy to drop a stack of diamond while alt-tabbing because the default "drop" key is 'q'.
:But the Q key just drops one item, not the whole stack. To drop the whole stack you have to open your inventory, click on the stack then click outside the inventory dialog. (yeah I'm a Minecraft addict :D) -- [[Special:Contributions/41.196.193.193|41.196.193.193]]
::If you were 'holding' the stack with your cursor and left the inventory, it would also drop. Same if it was in the crafting slots. [[Special:Contributions/130.160.145.224|130.160.145.224]] 21:17, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
::If you press ctrl + q you can drop the contents of the currently selected slot [[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.125|141.101.64.125]] 10:25, 15 July 2014 (UTC)
::If you are sneaking while you hit "q" you will drop the entire stack you are holding. [[Special:Contributions/71.207.146.202|71.207.146.202]] 21:07, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
Possible explanation for the bot's choice of avatar. Two girls holding hands in the small image, but the "context" is that it's a group of friends just hanging out. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 03:50, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

I added an incomplete tag because of informality and no explanation of google's data gathering. I also removed it from the category "video games." Why was it in there anyway? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.84|162.158.255.84]] 02:48, 22 August 2015 (UTC)
:Perhaps because Minecraft is one?[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 20:01, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1787: Voice Commands

2017-01-20T18:48:47Z

108.162.219.106:

http://wbic16.xedoloh.com/dvorak.html converts "svat ussupd ;dlh a kdbk" to "okay google send a text"--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.10|162.158.75.10]] 16:38, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
:Well that's a much easier way of converting it than my method of looking at two keyboards. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.58|162.158.255.58]] 16:42, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

:I think that's just for US keyboards. I get different results trying that on a UK QWERTY keyboard [[User:Jdluk|Jdluk]] ([[User talk:Jdluk|talk]]) 16:56, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

:The opposite way of typing QWERTY on Dvorak gives the even less pronounceable "RTAF IRRIN. O.BE A Y.QY". –''TisTheAlmondTavern'', 12:38, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

The QWERTY layout is to slow typists down is an enduring myth. In the early days there were typing competitions (with big prizes) to find the fastest typist and fastest machine. This was won by QWERTY in the English world and AZERTY in the French one. Other languages may vary.

The avoid a clash reason (as users of manual machines know) is shown up by the common Left Right Left sequence of "the" and the many letter pairs in English of "er" which are adjacent left fingers and often caused me jams!

Other layouts and designs may have benefits, but will never become the default - a bit like Esperanto methinks ;-) [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:31, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

: "In the early days" typewriters would jam easily, so ''of course'' a layout that for the most part avoided that would be fastest way back then. Just because the layout ''still'' had jamming problems doesn't mean it wouldn't come out on top. Touchtyping (a more recent development than QWERTY) makes QWERTY uncomfortable to use at speed, but the pretty much random nature of the layout makes life easier for spell checking software (a more recent development than Dvorak) than Dvorak. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 23:43, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

I have only typed Dvorak since 1991, currently on a TypeMatrix 2030DV. Since I have pretty much forgotten Qwerty, I had to look at my wife's laptop to find the letters. Back and forth looking at the comic, it took me a minute to translate that in Notepad. ;-) I can do about 90 wpm in DV. Friends don't let friends type Qwerty!
[[User:TrueFalcon|TrueFalcon]] ([[User talk:TrueFalcon|talk]]) 17:10, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
* Dvorak? pfft. I use butterflies [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.160|108.162.245.160]] 23:52, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
* As a fellow Dvorak user, I think comments like these are the reason we keep getting comics about us. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.177|162.158.69.177]] 18:03, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
** I can practically guarantee it. Especially since actual studies on the subject suggest it's more ability and practice that improve typing speed rather than what layout is used. --[[User:KingStarscream|KingStarscream]] ([[User talk:KingStarscream|talk]]) 20:16, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
** Case in point: I wasn't born until 1988 so I have less experience than OP, but I type about 100 WPM in QWERTY. What does that say about Dvorak? --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 03:06, 20 January 2017 (UTC)
** Yeah, I hit roughly 80 or 85 at my best in Dvorak, but it's only because I couldn't type Qwerty at all. I switched so I would have to stop looking at the keys when I typed, and that's the only benefit it's ever actually afforded me, aside from potentially averting some wrist strain when I write a lot in short time periods. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.177|162.158.69.177]] 13:28, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

The hovertext should say "vocal cords," right? Not "chords"? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.222|173.245.50.222]] 18:20, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

: I've heard there ''are'' people who can sing more than one note at a time - a real vocal chord. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 23:47, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

:I suppose it might be a deliberate error, but, yes, "vocal chords" is incorrect: it should be "vocal cords" (i.e. strings), or even more correctly [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_folds vocal folds]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.173|141.101.99.173]] 09:27, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

: A stenograph (as used by a court stenographer) is a keyboard where one presses several keys at a time, called a chord, so I think the hover text 'vocal chord' is a play on the idea of vocalising several 'keys' at once --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.126|141.101.107.126]] 13:01, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

: The OED lists "chord" as a variant of "cord" for anatomical purposes. Both are allowable and neither is unusual. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chord [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.106|108.162.219.106]] 18:48, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

The layout was intended to reduce jams, and was likely a trial and error process in development. The layout does in effect slow down the people of the day some, as for instance so many words are typed by left hand only, but this is likely unintentional. Notice that keys like the "I" and "O" are "together", but in fact are separated by three other key linkages, "K""," and "9", so pressing those didn't cause a jam as frequently when pressed in rapid succession, but nevertheless would have been faster had they been on opposite sides of the keyboard. Another point is that keyboarding was still visual at the time, so this keyboard mechanism never took into account the touch typing method that was developed a decade or so later. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.10|172.68.38.10]] 19:27, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Is this an appropriate time to mention the advantages of MessageEase? No? Nevermind then. {{unsigned ip|162.158.114.82}}

I enjoyed MessageEase until I discovered Multiling O. It’s much more customizable. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.172|108.162.245.172]] 22:33, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Bah. Everyone knows saying it in the original Klingon is much more efficient. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.11|108.162.238.11]] 14:18, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Can we remove that last paragraph? It seems irrelevant to the explanation - as do a few other interludes that seem to only contribute to the opinions of the authors.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.82|162.158.214.82]] 14:55, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
: It would be safer to say which paragraph you mean, or multiple people might follow your suggestion and remove multiple paragraphs --[[User:OliReading|OliReading]] ([[User talk:OliReading|talk]]) 00:18, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Please don't use the abomination "substituted with." That's what people used when they can't decide whether A is substituted for B or replaced with B, so they split the difference. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 12:35, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1787: Voice Commands

2017-01-20T18:47:37Z

108.162.219.106:

http://wbic16.xedoloh.com/dvorak.html converts "svat ussupd ;dlh a kdbk" to "okay google send a text"--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.10|162.158.75.10]] 16:38, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
:Well that's a much easier way of converting it than my method of looking at two keyboards. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.58|162.158.255.58]] 16:42, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

:I think that's just for US keyboards. I get different results trying that on a UK QWERTY keyboard [[User:Jdluk|Jdluk]] ([[User talk:Jdluk|talk]]) 16:56, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

:The opposite way of typing QWERTY on Dvorak gives the even less pronounceable "RTAF IRRIN. O.BE A Y.QY". –''TisTheAlmondTavern'', 12:38, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

The QWERTY layout is to slow typists down is an enduring myth. In the early days there were typing competitions (with big prizes) to find the fastest typist and fastest machine. This was won by QWERTY in the English world and AZERTY in the French one. Other languages may vary.

The avoid a clash reason (as users of manual machines know) is shown up by the common Left Right Left sequence of "the" and the many letter pairs in English of "er" which are adjacent left fingers and often caused me jams!

Other layouts and designs may have benefits, but will never become the default - a bit like Esperanto methinks ;-) [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 18:31, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

: "In the early days" typewriters would jam easily, so ''of course'' a layout that for the most part avoided that would be fastest way back then. Just because the layout ''still'' had jamming problems doesn't mean it wouldn't come out on top. Touchtyping (a more recent development than QWERTY) makes QWERTY uncomfortable to use at speed, but the pretty much random nature of the layout makes life easier for spell checking software (a more recent development than Dvorak) than Dvorak. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 23:43, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

I have only typed Dvorak since 1991, currently on a TypeMatrix 2030DV. Since I have pretty much forgotten Qwerty, I had to look at my wife's laptop to find the letters. Back and forth looking at the comic, it took me a minute to translate that in Notepad. ;-) I can do about 90 wpm in DV. Friends don't let friends type Qwerty!
[[User:TrueFalcon|TrueFalcon]] ([[User talk:TrueFalcon|talk]]) 17:10, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
* Dvorak? pfft. I use butterflies [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.160|108.162.245.160]] 23:52, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
* As a fellow Dvorak user, I think comments like these are the reason we keep getting comics about us. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.177|162.158.69.177]] 18:03, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
** I can practically guarantee it. Especially since actual studies on the subject suggest it's more ability and practice that improve typing speed rather than what layout is used. --[[User:KingStarscream|KingStarscream]] ([[User talk:KingStarscream|talk]]) 20:16, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
** Case in point: I wasn't born until 1988 so I have less experience than OP, but I type about 100 WPM in QWERTY. What does that say about Dvorak? --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 03:06, 20 January 2017 (UTC)
** Yeah, I hit roughly 80 or 85 at my best in Dvorak, but it's only because I couldn't type Qwerty at all. I switched so I would have to stop looking at the keys when I typed, and that's the only benefit it's ever actually afforded me, aside from potentially averting some wrist strain when I write a lot in short time periods. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.177|162.158.69.177]] 13:28, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

The hovertext should say "vocal cords," right? Not "chords"? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.222|173.245.50.222]] 18:20, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

: I've heard there ''are'' people who can sing more than one note at a time - a real vocal chord. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.238.16|198.41.238.16]] 23:47, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

:I suppose it might be a deliberate error, but, yes, "vocal chords" is incorrect: it should be "vocal cords" (i.e. strings), or even more correctly [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_folds vocal folds]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.173|141.101.99.173]] 09:27, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

: A stenograph (as used by a court stenographer) is a keyboard where one presses several keys at a time, called a chord, so I think the hover text 'vocal chord' is a play on the idea of vocalising several 'keys' at once --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.126|141.101.107.126]] 13:01, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

: The OED lists "chord" as a variant of "cord" for anatomical purposes. Both are allowable and neither is unusual. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chord

The layout was intended to reduce jams, and was likely a trial and error process in development. The layout does in effect slow down the people of the day some, as for instance so many words are typed by left hand only, but this is likely unintentional. Notice that keys like the "I" and "O" are "together", but in fact are separated by three other key linkages, "K""," and "9", so pressing those didn't cause a jam as frequently when pressed in rapid succession, but nevertheless would have been faster had they been on opposite sides of the keyboard. Another point is that keyboarding was still visual at the time, so this keyboard mechanism never took into account the touch typing method that was developed a decade or so later. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.10|172.68.38.10]] 19:27, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Is this an appropriate time to mention the advantages of MessageEase? No? Nevermind then. {{unsigned ip|162.158.114.82}}

I enjoyed MessageEase until I discovered Multiling O. It’s much more customizable. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.172|108.162.245.172]] 22:33, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Bah. Everyone knows saying it in the original Klingon is much more efficient. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.11|108.162.238.11]] 14:18, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Can we remove that last paragraph? It seems irrelevant to the explanation - as do a few other interludes that seem to only contribute to the opinions of the authors.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.82|162.158.214.82]] 14:55, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
: It would be safer to say which paragraph you mean, or multiple people might follow your suggestion and remove multiple paragraphs --[[User:OliReading|OliReading]] ([[User talk:OliReading|talk]]) 00:18, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Please don't use the abomination "substituted with." That's what people used when they can't decide whether A is substituted for B or replaced with B, so they split the difference. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 12:35, 20 January 2017 (UTC)