explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2607: Geiger Counter

2022-06-03T22:14:26Z

108.162.229.57: Move edits about birds-on-the-wire into subcategory

Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi
:It's Randall's "dad joke". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
:Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went "wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark." --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
: When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
::When does it become apparent? After the delivery. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.223|172.69.33.223]] 17:30, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
:::When is the best time for delivery? After a pregnant pause. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.199|172.70.178.199]] 15:19, 17 April 2022 (UTC)
::Many dad jokes will not become apparent until they are full groan. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.189|172.70.210.189]] 15:03, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase "it clicked" meaning "I understood" may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/

Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
:I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
:...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

== Title text: birds sitting on the wire ==

"Sitting/standing on the wire" is a German idiom ("Auf der Leitung sitzen/stehen"), translated to English literally. It means to not understand something, and is used primarily with concepts that supposedly are easy to understand. For example, not getting a joke. The birds are not part of the German idiom itself. Birds were chosen because they can sit on wires literally (think: Alfred Hichcocks' movie), yet also understand (or not understand) something and thus be subject of the idiom. It's quirky but somewhat works for the joke. If you want to carry on with the idea of literally-translated German idioms, the word "birds" can refer to "funny/strange people". The title text then translates to: "At first I didn't get why they were warning me about all those funny people who didn't get it, but then I understood." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.46|141.101.69.46]] 22:10, 3 June 2022 (UTC)

I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.
Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!
I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
:I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
:Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
:Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading "stood under" in place of "understood". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

== Leonard Cohen reference? ==

It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
: It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson [https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

:I think it more likely there's some reference meant to birds not getting electrocuted while sitting on power cables-perhaps this is even in a "What If" book? I don't think very likely, but more likely than any Leonard Cohen reference. It's because "both the bird's feet are on the same potential, so electricity does not flow through the bird. The bird also offers greater resistance than the power cable, so the electricity continues to flow through the power cable." I figured this "explanation" fits here as well as anywhere. [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 21:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
::I think it's a red-herring that the nature of the wire has ''anything'' to do with it. Birds will perch on handy things, whether electrical cables (hopefully with spacings between separate phase-wires/across the insulator 'hangers' significantly more than an idle wing-stretch!), telephonic, washing line, zip-line, etc, etc. A wire just gives more chance for 'mostly open space, beneath which an unaware human is particularly (but not obviously) susceptible to birds voiding their systems' than with a street-lamp arm, a high ledge on a tall building, tree branches or the underside frames of girder-based bridges.
::Birds do indeed escape (trivial) electrocution on power-lines, but that doesn't help the joke because they can crap on you from ''anything'' that you under-stand (or just by chance, by dint of being birds and occasionally finding they need to let go whilst already in flight... or by direct malice in the case of nest-guarding skuas/etc).
::Not to disect the comedy frog, or anything, because that would be cold-blooded. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:00, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

"Pretty sure eggrolled was just a typo", as corrected with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=prev&oldid=230619 this edit]... No, I think not. I've just undone a whole host of (repeated) vandalisms, some of which were to put "eggroll" in as replacements... the rest were equally stupid (or greater). Check edit log for just before now to see what pages I reverted/etc. Because someone is apparently clever enough to edit wiki pages (oh boy, what a smart person, I'm sure nobody of lesser intellect could ''ever'' have accomplished such a thing(!)...). Anyway, good work recorrecting it, whoever you are. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.223|172.69.79.223]] 00:15, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

At first I didn't understand why they were warning me about the boomerang, but then it hit me... (Yes, I may have stolen that joke from Milton Jones.) --[[User:IByte|IByte]] ([[User talk:IByte|talk]]) 09:02, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

180: Canada

2016-05-16T11:08:13Z

108.162.229.57: add Matrix as comparison

{{comic
| number = 180
| date = November 6, 2006
| title = Canada
| image = canada.png
| titletext = IT'S ALL REAL!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Canada}} is the country north of the {{w|USA}}. During political seasons, it's often claimed by partisan voters that if their side loses, they'll move. For Americans, this often comes to [http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-moving-to-canada-because-of-obamacare claims of moving to Canada].

The punchline references the tagline "If you die in the game, you die in real life," from the 2006 horror movie {{w|Stay Alive}} (released a few months before this comic), where people die in real life soon after their characters are killed in a certain video game. The idea was also present in ''{{w|The Matrix}}'': "If you're killed in the Matrix, you die here?".

The irony here is that, since Canada is part of reality already{{Citation needed}}, Cueball's friend is just really bad at thinking through his plans.

==Transcript==
:[Two men stand talking to each other.]
:Cueball: If we lose this election, I'm moving to Canada.
:Friend: You say that every year.
:Cueball: I mean it this time.

:Friend: Well, becoming a citizen takes work. Meanwhile, you have no money, half an art degree, and it's the start of winter. You'll freeze to death in the streets.
:Cueball: Whatever.

:[Friend raises his hands.]
:Friend: No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in REAL LIFE!

==Trivia==
*According to [http://blag.xkcd.com/2007/03/16/mit-programming-team/ Randall's blag], a team named “If You Die in Canada, You Die in Real Life” entered the 2007 MIT BattleCode programming competition. They won the "Best Team Name" award.

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Politics]]

Talk:1007: Sustainable

2015-05-30T10:59:39Z

108.162.229.57:

This is a great lesson for me that no matter what we think is occurring, it's probably wrong; that statistics themselves are unsustainable; and that only goals that matter need to be sustainable in the long term. - e-inspired
[[Special:Contributions/98.211.199.84|98.211.199.84]] 15:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, WAY too heavy, but I was just trying to inspire other engineers, perhaps people smarter then I, to try solving the world problems (You will probably do better job then law makers). Hope to read your theory in the book some day. - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 08:33, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

Sustainable sustainable sustainable, prophetic view of sustainable sustainable. {{unsigned ip|64.151.41.72}}

: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.11|108.162.250.11]] 03:12, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Ironically, this comic does nothing to help the situation at hand. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.60|108.162.215.60]] 02:12, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

What happened in 1966-67, when there was that peak in the use of the word?--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.57|108.162.229.57]] 10:59, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

153: Cryptography

2014-06-10T14:05:31Z

108.162.229.57: IACR logo

{{comic
| number = 153
| date = September 6, 2006
| title = Cryptography
| image = cryptography.png
| titletext = If you got a big keyspace, let me search it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Layout is ugly, content has to be verified. Explain the reversal part in Missy Elliott's song.}}
This comic, as the name implies, is relevant to the study of {{w|cryptography}}. We can note the presence of the IACR (International Association fro Cryptologic Research) logo in the podium, association who organizes the most important conferences in the cryptology field. At the podium, [[Cueball]] is describing a proposed crypto system (a computer program that turns a very large number, called the "{{w|key (cryptography)|key}}", and a message into an encrypted form that can only be read by using the same key), based on the model of a {{w|Feistel cipher}}. Part of any Feistel cipher is the "round function", which determines how the key is applied to the original message; this is applied multiple times with a variety of tricks and techniques to insure the process can eventually be reversed. One common component of round functions is the {{w|S-box}}, a simple table that converts input bytes into output bytes, preferably in a way that doesn't correspond to any mathematical rules.

Here, the S-box would be implemented by doing the following (with the computer operation actually shown in the diagrams indicated in parentheses):

#Take the bitstring down (roll right by 1)
#Flip it (take its binary NOT)
#Reverse it (run the bits in the opposite order)

This would be run on each round of the cipher to further scramble the message for the next round. As the caption implies, the steps are based on a line from the {{w|Missy Elliott}} song ''{{w|Work It (Missy Elliott song)|Work It}}'': '''"I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it."''' As with any encryption system there must be a way to decrypt the cipher text. In Missy Elliott's song, the phrase "I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it" is repeatedly played backward, sounding like gibberish. 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.

The {{w|Key space (cryptography)|keyspace}} for a cryptographic algorithm is the number of possible keys the algorithm can possibly accept. For example, {{w|Advanced Encryption Standard|AES-256}} has a keyspace of 2256 (roughly 1.1579209e+77) possible keys, simply because the algorithm specifies that each key is 256 bits wide. The title text is referring to "searching a keyspace", which is to say, simply trying every key until you find one that works. (For reference, a computer would require roughly the energy of a billion billion supernovas to even count to 2256, let alone actually try each one.) The precise wording "If you got a big keyspace, let me search it" is, of course, another reference to the same song: "If you got a big **** let me search ya" (The word "penis" is censored by the trumpeting of an elephant).

===Inside references and real life shenanigans===

Cueball is banned from multiple conferences for similar pranks in [[541: TED Talk]]. In response to 541, {{w|PyCon}} organizers jokingly [http://pycon.blogspot.com/2009/02/randall-munroe.html announced] that Randall Munroe was banned from PyCon 2009 due to "last year's disgraceful keynote, 'Web Spiders vs. Red Spiders'." They also said they instructed their volunteers to refuse admission to him and "any stick figures who may attempt to register, particularly if they are wearing hats."

Messages on the PyCon-Organizers mailing list show that this joke was intended to get Randall to come to PyCon: (The links will only work if you're subscribed to the mailing list.)
:PyCon mentioned briefly in today's xkcd:
:http://xkcd.com/541/
:We've still never gotten Randall Munroe to actually attend, have we? Anybody want to take charge of twisting his arm this time? I think we can still offer him a "press pass" (free registration). [...] [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011224.html]
::An invite would seem most appropriate given the cartoon. :-)
::We could also have an official PyCon blog post confirming his ban... [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011225.html]
:::How about a public blog post LIFTING the ban and inviting him? [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011226.html]
::::Confirming the ban is far funnier... He's definitely a disturbing influence on programmers. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011227.html]
:::::Agreed, especially if we invite him concurrently with confirming the ban. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011239.html]
:::::(a few posts later)
:::::I'm happy to participate in actually throwing some thin guy out of the conference, and then get some graphics savvy person to animate a stick figure over that. :) [...][http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011274.html]
::::::here's a rough idea of what would show up if you invited him to actually do any speaking...
::::::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24
::::::it's fairly long. he shows up in the beginning around 3:25. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011275.html]
:::::::For the record, I did try to convince him to come when got the art for the tshirt last year. He didn't seem super psyched, but then again emotions are hard to read via IRC.
:::::::I love the idea of "officially" banning him, however. ;-) [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011241.html]
::::::::(a few posts later)
::::::::OK - posted to the PyCon blog, by the power vested in me as publicity chair. With Michael Foord's excellent sentence added.
::::::::Now let him know that since he's banned, he HAS to come. [http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/pycon-organizers/2009-February/011251.html]

==Transcript==
:[Cueball at a podium.]
:Cueball: My cryptosystem is like any Feistel cipher, except in the S-Boxes we simply take the bitstring down, flip it, and reverse it.
:I've been barred from speaking at any major cryptography conferences ever since it became clear that all my algorithms were just thinly disguised Missy Elliot songs.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]

Talk:1360: Old Files

2014-04-25T10:05:17Z

108.162.229.57: /* Explanation */

I notice backup and recovery files. I once had a folder on my father's computer that housed everything I did. When the drive crashed, I managed to recover it and store it to a CD-ROM (this was before thumb drives). I copied everything onto my first computer within my main folder (I don't use My Documents), and I continue to move my main folder into a new main folder each time I migrate between computers. I have so many nested memories. I, too, have incomplete fan-fiction and instant message logs. Oh, and a dream.txt. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 04:47, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have as much of a problem with the "old files room", because I keep nearly all of my files on my laptop, but my hard drive is almost full. Another hard drive replace the CD drive, but this computer won't last much longer (bye cd drive workaround). I'll have to build an "old files room" sooner or later. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 05:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Back in the... early '90s, I think it was... I recall there being someone like a buddhist monk (or someone ''claiming'' to be someone like a buddhist monk, and the religion could have been something else) who set up an internet site (not necessarily a website) as a temple for "all lost data". The files you had accidentally deleted, the floppies that got damaged or otherwise corrupted, forgotten formats on old drives that you'd lost the wherewithall to access them. Between this and the "hoarder" behaviour exhibitted in the above XKCD folder we encompass ''all'' long-term computer users. At the same time. I know I regret the dead USB sticks (with irreplacable content) and yet I stare in hopelessness at the folders "GStick" and "FStick" within My Documents, that really need looking at again. (No, they don't contain the lost material. Datestamped at 2009.) But they're two of fifty-three separate subfolders (and a helluva lot of loose files) in that level. "WebRedo"? I remember that. That site hasn't even been ''active'' for about a decade. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.224|141.101.89.224]] 06:50, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

== Explanation ==
I think the point of the comic doesn't come across in the explanation. It's not just that he's sifting through files, but that he's finding files nested deeply in his folder structure that just came to pass because he always copied contents of an old computer to some folder on the next computer and then ignored its contents.

I.e. in his "Documents" folder, there is the "Old Desktop" folder from a previous computer, which contains the "Recovered from drive crash" folder from another previous system, which has another "Mu Documents" folder within, ... etc. The nesting aspect should somehow be integrated into the explanation.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.57|108.162.229.57]] 09:59, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1360: Old Files

2014-04-25T09:59:14Z

108.162.229.57:

I notice backup and recovery files. I once had a folder on my father's computer that housed everything I did. When the drive crashed, I managed to recover it and store it to a CD-ROM (this was before thumb drives). I copied everything onto my first computer within my main folder (I don't use My Documents), and I continue to move my main folder into a new main folder each time I migrate between computers. I have so many nested memories. I, too, have incomplete fan-fiction and instant message logs. Oh, and a dream.txt. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 04:47, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have as much of a problem with the "old files room", because I keep nearly all of my files on my laptop, but my hard drive is almost full. Another hard drive replace the CD drive, but this computer won't last much longer (bye cd drive workaround). I'll have to build an "old files room" sooner or later. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 05:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Back in the... early '90s, I think it was... I recall there being someone like a buddhist monk (or someone ''claiming'' to be someone like a buddhist monk, and the religion could have been something else) who set up an internet site (not necessarily a website) as a temple for "all lost data". The files you had accidentally deleted, the floppies that got damaged or otherwise corrupted, forgotten formats on old drives that you'd lost the wherewithall to access them. Between this and the "hoarder" behaviour exhibitted in the above XKCD folder we encompass ''all'' long-term computer users. At the same time. I know I regret the dead USB sticks (with irreplacable content) and yet I stare in hopelessness at the folders "GStick" and "FStick" within My Documents, that really need looking at again. (No, they don't contain the lost material. Datestamped at 2009.) But they're two of fifty-three separate subfolders (and a helluva lot of loose files) in that level. "WebRedo"? I remember that. That site hasn't even been ''active'' for about a decade. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.224|141.101.89.224]] 06:50, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

== Explanation ==
I think the point of the comic doesn't come across in the explanation. It's not just that he's sifting through files, but that he's finding files nested deeply in his folder structure that just came to pass because he always copied contents of an old computer to some folder on the next computer and then ignored its contents.

I.e. in his "Documents" folder, there is the "Old Desktop" folder from a previous computer, which contains the "Recovered from drive crash" folder from another previous system, which has another "Mu Documents" folder within, ... etc.
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.57|108.162.229.57]] 09:59, 25 April 2014 (UTC)