533: Laptop Hell

2016-09-26T10:40:43Z

108.162.222.130:

{{comic
| number = 533
| date = January 21, 2009
| title = Laptop Hell
| image = laptop hell.png
| titletext = The xkcd.com sysadmin has a Q2010, and I can attest that it can handle a fall down several flights of concrete steps. Relatedly, he's upset with me - I hope he doesn't take revenge by messing with my site's contenDISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS
}}

==Explanation==
The Devil {{w|Mephistopheles}} (named so in the [http://xkcd.com/533/info.0.json official transcript]) is greeting the new souls sentenced to {{w|Hell}}, and recognizes an executive from {{w|Fujitsu|Fujitsu Ltd}} in the form of [[Hairbun]]. Mephistopheles accuses her of causing his favorite laptop, the Fujitsu Q2010, to be taken out of production. Mephistopheles is displeased because he thought it was a good laptop, just poorly marketed by Hairbun. Hairbun is confused and asks Mephistopheles why he is upset, as acts of evil are generally encouraged by the demons of Hell. Mephistopheles agrees but explains that Hell also needs good laptops, and in her case their need for laptops was greater than the need for her evil works. Though, Mephistopheles then goes on to confesses, that it would not really have mattered as Hell has an exclusive deal with Fujitsu competitor, {{w|Sony}}, and he could not have bought the Fujitsu Q2010 anyway.

This would explain why the sale of the laptop computer failed, and Hairbun also exclaims ''I knew it'' to indicate that she had suspected it was weird that Sony did so well. When you strike a deal with a devil from Hell your affairs in life goes great, but of course you have then sold your soul to eternal damnation in Hell when you eventually dies. Seems like Sony has done so according to this comic.

This comic is likely a wish fulfillment fantasy by [[Randall]] for the canceling of his favorite laptop, the Fujitsu Q2010. Exclusivity deals are typically thought ill of as they are bad for competition. Also since exclusivity deals solely benefit the provider, there are often reciprocal arrangement for the purchaser. This implies that the devil has influence at Sony. Likely Sony was chosen as the electronic distributor to hell because of the {{w|Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal|Sony rootkit scandal}}. This scandal inspired many to call Sony an evil company.

It is the second time in a short while that a demon was depicted in a similar fashion although without the trident and not in Hell. This devil was also named Mephistopheles in the caption of that comic [[501: Faust 2.0]].

The title text explains that Randall's systems administrator is upset with him because he tested the systems administrators laptop by throwing it down several flights of steps. The systems admin is implied to have taken revenge childishly, by replacing part of the text with "DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS"

The "suck cocks" part is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disregard-that-i-suck-cocks a post] in bash.org which went on to attain moderate fame.

==Transcript==
:[A devil, Mephistopheles (according to the [http://xkcd.com/533/info.0.json official transcript]), with bald head horns, tail with arrow ending, a trident in one hand and a paper in the other hand is ready to welcome Hairbun to hell. Above Mephistopheles there are three large stalactite hanging down and behind Hairbun there is one very large stalagmite and three small and also two small stalactites.]
:Mephistopheles: Welcome to Hell. Here's—
:Mephistopheles:Wait. I know you.

:[Zoom in on the two, with white background. Mephistopheles trident breaks the panels frame.]
:Mephistopheles: You're the Fujitsu exec who killed the Q-series.
:Hairbun: ...Yes?
:Mephistopheles: The Q2010 was the perfect laptop!

:[In this frame-less panel with white background Mephistopheles walks away from Hairbun trident pointing up and left. Hairbun throws her arms out to the side.]
:Mephistopheles: Powerful, durable, had every feature, and made the Air look <u>bulky</u>. And that was back in 2006!
:Hairbun: But no one bought it!
:Mephistopheles: Then you marketed it wrong!

:[Mephistopheles turns around towards Hairbun who both standing as in the first panel but still with white background.]
:Hairbun: Wait. Don't you ''encourage'' evil acts down here?
:Mephistopheles: In theory, yes, but we need laptops too!
:Mephistopheles: Although it's moot, since we have an exclusive deal with Sony.
:Hairbun: I ''knew'' it!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Religion]]

Talk:1687: World War III+

2016-06-01T14:39:20Z

108.162.222.130:

The mouseover text mentions stripping a quote of its context... although this kind of makes the point of the context can often dilute the meaning, it seems that a counter point could be made by pointing out an example where the context is the source at least two major quotes (such as "No man is an island" and "Ask not for whom the bell tolls" both coming from John Donne).

Or I could just be being frivolous here?

[[User:Joshupetersen|Joshupetersen]] ([[User talk:Joshupetersen|talk]]) 04:15, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
:or maybe a good example could be Darwin's qoute on the eye, which many creationist nutjobs take out of context and annoy everyone else in the same way Randall shows annoyance in the rollover text
[[User:JMR|JMR]] ([[User talk:JMR|talk]]) 02:03, 30 May 2016 (BST)

Hey, Randall skipped World War XIII. --[[User:XndrK|XndrK]] ([[User talk:XndrK|talk]]) 04:20, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Maybe World War XIII is just sticks and stones again, considering XII? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.71|173.245.56.71]] 05:14, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
:Sticks and stones ''underground!!'' [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.43|141.101.98.43]] 10:23, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

I swear that I've seen this exact joke somewhere before. Not just the general idea, but I mean down to the text. Can't find anything in searches though -- does anyone else remember seeing this before?--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.221|108.162.220.221]] 05:22, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
:It may be a memory of the black Cards Against Humanity 'question' card, that leaves a blank regarding ''what'' WW4 will be fought with so as to be answered with a non-sequiter white card? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.43|141.101.98.43]] 10:23, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
:There's a practically identical joke in The Onion's ''Book of Known Knowledge''. [[https://books.google.com/books?id=lCpzgOD0A6oC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=onion+einstein+world+war&source=bl&ots=tt8vC86X3m&sig=gtvhl1l2F9pdcuWv7n-_c_sRofQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwil5Iedk4LNAhXNCD4KHWluBhQQ6AEINDAD#v=onepage&q=onion%20einstein%20world%20war&f=false]]

Comics released within the United State Memorial Day weekend. The unknown VIII-IX could reference Star Wars movies with their unknown scripts. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.15|141.101.98.15]]
:I made this misreading too, but it's VIII-XI, and I do not know of that many star wars movies planned. Could it be a final fantasy reference? --[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 09:17, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
::When I was a kid in the early/mid 80s, I heard that Star Wars was originally written (before any movies were made) as a trilogy of trilogies. When I noticed Empire and Jedi as Chapter 5 & 6 (and when they were remasterd Star Wars being retitled A New Hope and numbered 4), this seemed confirmed. Then when the prequel trilogy was later made, this seemed doubly confirmed. So I think 9 movies is the most we'll ever see. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.77|108.162.218.77]] 06:03, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
That's how I took it (as Final Fantasy). I think this would be unprecedented for Randall, but hilarious if so - it certainly reads like a riff on the FF series wildly varying levels of technology and war. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.5|108.162.219.5]] 19:42, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Adding the black background to the transcript just makes it hard to read and kind of defeats the purpose of a transcript (since now it just looks like the comic in a different font). Can we keep this to the standard of all the other transcripts? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.80|141.101.98.80]] 08:44, 31 May 2016 (UTC)
:How is it harder to read? It is the standard to let the transcript reflect the comic with colors etc. See for instance: [[1168: tar]], [[1685: Patch]] and [[1684: Rainbow]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:54, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

;Quote taken out of context

The current text says: "He implies that this is actually a full quote by Einstein and that all other occurrences using only the "original" version of this quote are misrepresenting it. In this particular case it is a much stronger quote than the long version from the comic, but it is often the case that quotes taken out of context seem to have an entirely different meaning than originally intended." I completely disagree.

What Einstein is saying is that he is horrified at the weapons that are being developed; and that he fears that if World War III ever breaks out, we will bomb ourselves back into the Stone Age. He is not actually making a prediction about fourth and subsequent world wars.

The longer "quote" as lengthened by Randall says, instead, "Hey, I'll try my hand at being Nostradamus (or St Malachy) and predict specifically which weapons will be used to fight a long series of upcoming world wars!"

This, of course, does entirely change the meaning of the quote. The Einstein quote is to prompt thoughtful contemplation of how we use the powerful weapons we develop. The lengthened quote would prompt either incredulity at the speaker's naivety, or possibly wonder at how he came up with these predictions, if one believes them to be accurate.

In other words, lengthening the quote ''does'' change it to an entirely different meaning than originally intended. The original meant, "Hey, be careful!" The lengthened quote simply means, "I think I'm Nostradamus!" [[User:Jsharpminor|Jsharpminor]] ([[User talk:Jsharpminor|talk]]) 00:58, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

:I agree, that's what that block of text means, and that's part of the joke. The short, original quote is much stronger than the long version this comic offers, and quotes taken out of context have a different meaning that originally intended ("The end justifies the means", anyone?). You're invited to make it clearer, but I don't see the issue. [[User:Phineas81707|Phineas81707]] ([[User talk:Phineas81707|talk]]) 04:00, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Right now the reasoning of how this explanation is incomplete states "There seems to be more to this comic than so far explained. Maybe a reference to all the Star Wars movies now planned...?". I vehementally disagree. I am completely convinced that there is no reference present or intended to the Star Wars franchise. The closest connections are the Roman numerals (which were being used for the World Wars long before even the first Star Wars existed) and the mention of warring with lasers (when laser weapons have appeared in countless other fictional places, it is far from unique to Star Wars). I actually find the explanation complete as is. PLEASE stop bloating the explanations with a load of unrelated information! Save the over-analysis for the comment section (and don't get me wrong, I LOVE over-analysis, just that the explanations should stick to explaning the comic, nothing more). :) - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.77|108.162.218.77]] 05:55, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

One of my friends said that here's a plot hole: the term "LASER" first appears in public in a 1959 paper, but Albert Einstein died in 1955. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.130|108.162.222.130]] 14:39, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

533: Laptop Hell

Talk:1687: World War III+