explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2502: Every Data Table

2021-08-14T07:54:15Z

108.162.221.50: /* Transcript */ more

{{comic
| number = 2502
| date = August 13, 2021
| title = Every Data Table
| image = every data table.png
| titletext = "I'm hoping 2022 is relatively normal because I don't know what symbol comes after the asterisk and the dagger."
| imagesize =
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by OBELISQUE ASSTRICKS. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is part of a series of comics about the COVID pandemic

The COVID pandemic has had a large impact on the entire world and one way this can be seen is through strange stats resulting from the effects of the pandemic. Various statistics such as employment statistics, spending power, holiday miles, pet ownerships, births (or at least conceptions) and — naturally — deaths may have been either grossly suppressed/increased for the majority of 2020, and for 2021 may have hardly recovered, partially recovered, renormalised, bounced back with a vengeance or be over-compensated for in the effort to catch up.

It is hard to know what 2022 might be like. Nothing (at the time of this comic being published) is exactly back to normal and proper recovery or the resulting compensatory readjustment may not have concluded in time for 2022 to reflect the trends expected based upon pre-2020 figures, and the additional further years that future statistics will record.

As an example, the four-year rolling average of total number of Olympic Games per year (normally a steady 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 or 1, depending upon whether the Winter Olympics and/or (Winter) Paralympics are included) will actually show a discrepancy for the next few years of a type not seen since the 1990s (when the all the Winter games were shifted away from the Summer games' years), the 1960s (the start of the Summer Paralympics) or the 1940s (the last major interuption in the main Summer Olympic cycle).

Sometimes punctuation such as an asterisk (*) or a dagger (†, also called an obelisk) is used to denote an unusual entry in a table to be explained in a footnote with a matching symbol. Common symbols that are used if the first two are taken include multiple asterisks (such as ** or ***), or a series of further symbols such as a double dagger (‡), the section symbol/silcrow (§), the parallel/double-pipe (‖) and the paragraph symbol/pilcrow ( ¶ ) and numbers (123).

The author, however, seems to have forgotten the potential monkey's paw nature of his wish. Relative is a relative term. It could well be that the whole pandemic thing becomes the new normal, thus removing the necessity of using symbols to delineate such years.

== Transcript ==

:2017........ (scribble)
:2018....... (scribble)
:2019....... (scribble)
:2020*...... (scribble)
:2021†...... (scribble)
:2022....... (scribble)
:2023....... (scribble)
:2024....... (scribble)

:[Caption under the panel:]
:Every data table from now on

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

Talk:963: X11

2016-03-18T16:08:50Z

108.162.221.50:

Come on Randall, it's not ''that'' hard, it's only 273 flags that you have to memorize. A child could do that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:00, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
:I think the comics might be about the fact that modern-day X.Org doesn't need <nowiki>xorg.conf</nowiki> at all... well, usually (i.e. almost always you can get with autodetection and without xorg.conf at all) --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 20:57, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
::Oh, ''<nowiki>xorg.conf</nowiki>'' was fun for me the last twenty years. I miss it...LOL--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:23, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Good grief finding the actual Jefferson quote was hard. So many people saying things about the quotation without actually linking to the quotation. It took a bit of digging, [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson#1780s Wikiquote] has [http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1340.htm a link] to what I think would have been the full text of the letter, but [http://virginia.edu UVa] must have switched CMS' so now all their links are different and you just get redirected to the front page of University of Virginia's Library. So much for permalinks. With a little bit more digging I found the full text published online by the [http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s23.html University of Chicago]. The text is thick, as should be expected of 18th century writing, but if you squint hard enough at a particular paragraph and twist the words a little you can come up with the sentiment that Randall refers to in the title text. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:17, 7 January 2014 (UTC)
:Did you not think of using the [http://web.archive.org Wayback Machine]? The UVa page you were looking for is [http://web.archive.org/web/20101205225845/http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1340.htm here]. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 02:44, 10 August 2014 (UTC)
Personally I like having the options [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.158|173.245.54.158]] 00:38, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

I think the explanation about how X works is wrong. But because of the unfortunate choices of the original X designers, I do not think it can become more accurate without also becoming more confusing. In particular, when dealing with X, ''server'' and ''client'' always mean the opposite of what you would expect. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 21:09, 5 June 2015 (UTC)
Time IS on the x axis. Why does it claim it not to be?

341: 1337: Part 1

2014-03-01T04:20:26Z

108.162.221.50: gotta be a strong bad reference

{{comic
| number = 341
| date = November 12, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 1
| image = 1337 part 1.png
| titletext = If you're not cool enough to do it manually, you can look up tools like Upside-Down-Ternet for playing games with people on your wifi.
}}

==Explanation==

This is the first part of five in the "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series. The title 1337 is "L-eet", or "elite", using the {{w|Leet}} alphabet, a coding system used primarily on the internet (and on early text messaging system), meant to provide a bit of {{w|obfuscation}} to plain text both to make it harder to read, and to show off in a creative way using in-group jargon. This comic series is aimed at elite hackers and programmers.

If a {{w|wireless network}} is unsecured it is usually a sign that the owner of the access point is not technically skilled enough to go into the admin panel and enable encryption. Obviously, someone in the area who wants to get on the net, but doesn't have a mobile data connection, will simply use this open access point. However, it is also common practice to leave open an access point to be able to claim that infringement of copyright may not have been the homeowner, but that anybody could have connected to the access point and started downloading files.

Another fun trick, for administrators of open APs, is to [http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html intercept pages and edit their contents]. The only way to stop this is to create a secure connection, or tunnel, to a server to stop the admin from playing {{w|Man-in-the-middle attack|man-in-the-middle}}. Of course, as the title text says, [[Mrs. Roberts]] is so cool, she can edit the tcp stream live, without the help of programs.

Not only is Mrs. Roberts awesome enough to manually edit the live tcp stream, she's also manually ending individual {{w|VPN}} and {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}} connections as Cueball's friend makes them - while wearing oven mitts and baking cookies at the same time. He has literally been {{w|pwned}} (i.e. owned) by Mrs. Roberts.

The question "How does she type with oven mitts?" is likely a reference to the old web video site {{w|Homestar Runner}} and its character of {{w|Strong Bad}}, who answered emails while wearing boxing gloves. "How does he type with boxing gloves?" was the most common question he received.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*[[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball talks to a friend who is lying down on the floor, using his laptop.]
:Cueball: You're not on the neighbour's WiFi, are you?
:Friend: Yeah, why?
:Cueball: The admin... plays games.
:Friend: No problem. I'll just hop on a secure VPN.

:Friend: Whoa, my connections are dying as soon as I start to tunnel anything!
:Message on laptop: A VPN? How cute! And stop trying to SSH.
:Friend: Holy shit! Someone's inserting notes into the pages I request! Editing the TCP stream live!
:Friend: Nobody's that fast. Who is this admin?

:[Mrs. Roberts with bun tray in one hand, with oven mitts on both hands typing on a desktop computer.]
:Mrs. Roberts: My goodness. Neighbourhood scamps on the wireless.
:''taptaptaptap''

:Cueball: I should have warned you about Mrs. Roberts.
:Friend: How does she type with oven mitts!?
:Cueball: You've been pwned pretty hard, man. You might want to sit down.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:1337|01]]

Talk:692: Dirty Harry

2014-01-25T07:23:29Z

108.162.221.50:

There's "instantly" twice in a sentence. Because I'm not a native english speaker, I don't know if this is acceptable, and for the same reason I'll not edit it. {{unsigned ip|108.162.212.196}}
You were correct, it isn't. Actually that whole sentence bothers me, but I suppose it gets the point across well enough. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.50|108.162.221.50]] 07:23, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

692: Dirty Harry

2014-01-25T07:19:58Z

108.162.221.50: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 692
| date = January 22, 2010
| title = Dirty Harry
| image = dirty_harry.png
| titletext = Sci-fi has energy weapons because otherwise the people like me who watch it get distracted counting shots.
}}

== Explanation ==
The comic references both {{w|Dirty Harry}} and {{w|Rain Man}}, as the caption suggests.

In Dirty Harry, {{w|Clint Eastwood|Clint Eastwood's}} character, Harry Callahan, uses a magnum revolver. His most commonly quoted statement is whether or not he fired 5 shots or 6. If he fired only five, the next shot would kill his victim. If six, he wouldn't have any more bullets to shoot.

In Rain Man, {{w|Dustin Hoffman|Dustin Hoffman's}} character, Raymond, is autistic and has an {{w|eidetic memory}}. As such, he can instantly remember any number of objects, such as the number of toothpicks in a box that was spilled, or the number of bullets that came out of a gun.

The comic depicts a scene in ''Dirty Harry'' in which Callahan confronts a bank robber, only with Raymond taking the place of the robber. For the record, Raymond is correct; Callahan actually pulls the trigger one more time in the original scene, and the gun proves to be empty.

The title text notes the usefulness of not having to count shots from an energy gun because the only limitation is the amount of power left.

==Transcript==
:[Detective "Dirty" Harry Callahan stands near a wall, pointing a revolver at another figure, presumably a suspect, reclined on the ground. A shotgun is on the ground next to the reclined figure.]
:Harry Callahan: I know what you're thinking--"Did he fire six shots or only five?" In all this excitement, I-
:Suspect: Six. Definitely six.
:Harry Callahan: Shit.

:Dirty Harry Meets Rain Man

{{comic discussion}}