explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

553: Pirate Bay

2013-12-25T23:39:55Z

108.162.231.239: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 553
| date = March 9, 2009
| title = Pirate Bay
| image = pirate_bay.png
| titletext = We find you guilty of closing your torrents as soon as they finish. Your sentence is unremovable Hungarian subtitles on everything.
}}

==Explanation==
The Pirate Bay is an Internet website dedicated to facilitating {{w|Bittorrent}} downloads of popular media. The site's servers were taken down, briefly, and the operators were taken to court, back in 2009.

Unlike normal downloads, files downloaded via Bittorrent are not stored on any web server, but instead transferred in small pieces by other people torrenting the same file; these other people are called "peers." Bittorrent allows websites to provide downloads without using up disk space or bandwidth serving up the entire file; instead, they can host smaller torrent files, which simply describe what the finished file should look like and a few "tracker" servers where lists of other peers can be found, and the peers themselves handle all of the bandwidth issues. This approach is used by a number of websites for completely legal downloads (it's popular among smaller game companies providing digital downloads, for instance), but it's mainly associated with piracy.

However, Bittorrent depends on peers actually having the file blocks that you need. People who have already downloaded the entire file, but continue to connect to the network solely to provide that file to others, are called "seeds," and they are an essential part of a healthy torrent. General etiquette demands that people should continue to seed a file until the ratio of data uploaded to data downloaded exceeds 1, although many people feel that one's ratio should be much higher. In any case, closing your torrents as soon as they finish, as mentioned in the title-text, is extremely ''bad'' etiquette, so it is punished with nuisance subtitles.

This comic is essentially a pun on this second meaning of the word "peer" - in the US court system, a "jury of your peers" means a jury composed of everyday people like you, while the Pirate Bay operators interpret it to mean a jury composed of people who they've shared files with in the past. The operators feel the latter approach would give them lenience in the trial, since they've always seeded well, thus ensuring those peers have a good downloading experience.

==Transcript==
:Awaiting the judges' ruling at the Pirate Bay trial.
:[4 characters in a cell: 3 sitting down on a bench, 1 standing, presumably looking at the fence.]
:Character 1: I wish this were in America.
:Character 2: Why?
:Character 1: I hear we'd go before a jury of our peers, and I've always seeded generously.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Internet]]

1307: Buzzfeed Christmas

2013-12-23T18:57:30Z

108.162.231.239: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1307
| date = December 22, 2013
| title = Buzzfeed Christmas
| image = buzzfeed christmas.png
| titletext = The 6 Weirdest Objects The Buzzfeed Writers Are Throwing Out Their Windows At Us
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This is a new comic}}

Christmas caroling is a tradition in which groups of singers travel from house to house, singing {{w|Christmas_carol|carols}}.

These carolers are in front of the [http://www.buzzfeed.com/ BuzzFeed] offices singing the {{w|The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}, which contains:

: On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me.
: 12 Drummers drumming
: 11 Pipers piping
: 10 Lords a-leaping
: 9 Ladies dancing
: 8 Maids a-milking
: 7 Swans a-swimming
: 6 Geese a-laying
: 5 Gold rings
: 4 Calling birds
: 3 French hens
: 2 Turtle doves
: And a partridge in a pear tree.

The carolers changed the lyrics to match the headlines of the topics published by BuzzFeed, which usually contain a number and a superlative (for example, ''13 Worst Plane Crashes of the Decade'').

This method of writing headlines is used by several other news sites, because it is known to generate a lot of visits (and ad revenue). [[Randall]] has touched on this subject before in [[1283: Headlines]].

Carolers are usually rewarded with a gift, but the BuzzFeed writers probably didn't appreciate the song, because they threw weird stuff at them (which the carolers used in their 7th verse).

==Transcript==
:[Carolers singing.]
:Carolers: 12 Best drummers of ''all time''
:Carolers: 11 Pipers whose jaw-dropping good piping will make you cry
:Carolers: You won't ''believe'' what these 10 lords leap over
:Carolers outside the Buzzfeed offices perform "12 Weird things I ''actually got'' for Christmas"

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1301: File Extensions

2013-12-11T00:30:39Z

108.162.231.239:

{{comic
| number = 1301
| date = December 9, 2013
| title = File Extensions
| image = file_extensions.png
| titletext = I have never been lied to by data in a .txt file which has been hand-aligned.
}}

==Explanation==
Computer file names often end in {{w|file extension}}s like ".ppt" or ".exe". These extensions are a holdover from early operating systems like {{W|DOS}} in which filenames had a maximum eight characters followed by a period and the three-character extension. The extension was used by the operating system to determine filetype so that the system would know how to handle the file (e.g. which program could open the file). Newer operating systems and file systems now accept longer-than eight-character filenames, and extensions of greater than three characters; although most extensions remain three characters.

Most extensions are created as proprietary to certain pieces of software, although software by other developers may later be designed to be able to read the format (for example, .doc is a Microsoft Word document, although because of that software's popularity, many word processors include the ability to open .doc files). Some common file extensions are not proprietary to a piece of software and may be handled by various programs (.jpg or .gif images are one example). In either case, a file's extension is generally a good indicator of what type of data the file contains.

Certain file types are more prevalent for certain uses, with some being almost exclusive to one use, while other are in general use and might contain almost anything. Here, [[Randall]] presents a series of file extensions which often contain information, and he is rating the reliability of the information they generally contain from most reliable to least.

* {{w|.tex}} files are source files for the programs {{w|TeX}} and {{w|LaTeX}}, which are used often and almost exclusively by academics, especially in mathematics and the hard sciences. .tex pretty much means serious business, and Randall does not anticipate that anyone would use such a format other than for reliable information.
* {{w|.pdf}} files are a document format by Adobe, frequently used for publication. pdf files are commonly used by professionals and companies for official documentation. Thus, a .pdf file is likely to be some type of final product or polished work.
* {{w|.csv}} are comma-separated values: tables of information delimited by commas, and are often computer-generated (from, say, a scientific experiment).
* {{w|.txt}} files contain only plain text, no "rich text" or anything fancy. Programmers often use them for README files.
* {{w|.svg}} files are a vector graphics format used a lot for diagrams, such as on Wikipedia.
* {{w|.xls}} and {{w|.xlsx}} files are spreadsheets used and created by the program Microsoft Excel, part of a bundle of applications known as Microsoft Office (also supported by compatible free software such as LibreOffice). These applications are very commonly used, especially for business, finance and data analysis tasks. {{w|.xls}} is used for Excel versions prior to 2007, while {{w|.xlsx}} is used for Excel versions 2007 and later.
* {{w|.doc}} files are a rich-text document format used and created by the program {{w|Microsoft Word}}, another application in the Microsoft Office bundle. As with .xls, almost anyone with access to Microsoft Office could easily make one of these. While Excel is generally used for creating tables and presenting data, Word could be used for any text-based document. Thus, Word documents tend to be far more prevalent and casually created than Excel documents, which is presumably why Randall doesn't trust it much.
* {{w|.png}} files are a bitmap image format designed for the Internet. They enjoy wide popularity for providing crisp, full-color images with lossless (invisible) compression. Almost all xkcd comics, this diagram included, use PNG. But since he rates the format so low, is Randall saying we shouldn't trust this chart?
* {{w|.ppt}} files are used and created by the program {{w|Microsoft PowerPoint}}; as with the other two Office applications, almost anyone could easily make one of these. As they are usually used for presentations rather than documents, the information in them may be arranged differently, possibly to "dumb down" the content, or in marketing materials or talks in which the author may not be very objective. further, several years ago, PowerPoint presentations were sometimes included instead of plain images as attachments in e-mail forwards containing inaccurate information. These emails still occasionally circulate, and may be the source of Randall's distrust.
* {{w|.jpg}} files are another image format with high compression capabilities, good for storing photos, and not so good for many other things. JPEG is prone to annoying compression artifacts, so it's generally bad for images of numerical or textual information. Cameras often take high-quality photos in the {{w|Raw image format|.raw}} format and then compress it into a much, much smaller JPEG; a JPEG file's content may be less trustworthy as it doesn't contain as much of the detail in the original image.
* {{w|.jpeg}} files are the same thing as .jpg files; however, it is more likely that an image with this extension was created manually rather than automatically by, for example, the aforementioned digital camera. This makes it less trustworthy.
* {{w|.gif}} files are yet another bitmap image format, notable for supporting short animations. GIF was once ''the'' Internet image file format until PNG gradually replaced it. Since GIF is the only common image format capable of animation, it is often used to contain things like silly clips of cats falling into boxes, or blinking advertisements claiming that you're the '''[[570|570,000]]th VISITOR!'''. Their frequent use in the most annoying types of advertisements (pop-ups, etc.) is presumably why Randall deems it the least trustworthy out of all file extensions listed here. Additionally, GIF files can be concatenated with a ZIP file to hide an archive within a GIF file (Steganography), thus resulting in a file that can easily be untrustworthy.

Note that while the extensions .xls/.xlsx, .doc, and .ppt were originally exclusive only to Microsoft Office and users of Windows, there now exist a number of open source programs such as Open Office, Libre Office, and some Android apps that are capable of editing such files. These programs can run on systems other than just Windows, such as Linux, perhaps contributing to making them even more widespread and easy to make than before.

The title text refers to how .txt files contain only plain text and nothing else, meaning that any alignment (such as for indentation or tables) would have to be performed manually by adding in spaces or tabs. Anyone who would go through such an effort to improve their text's readability is likely to be trustworthy.

==Transcript==
:Trustworthiness of Information by File Extension
:[A bar graph charting this. No units or figures are given, but for ease of comprehension this transcript will arbitrarily designate the highest score as "+100"; subsequent scores are estimates based on the size of their bars.]
::.tex: +100
::.pdf: +89
::.csv: +85
::.txt: +67
::.svg: +65
::.xls/.xlsx: +49
::.doc: +21
::.png: +15
::.ppt: +14
::.jpg: +3
::.jpeg: -8
::.gif: -36

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:1301: File Extensions

2013-12-09T05:51:23Z

108.162.231.239:

The title text reference of "hand-aligned data" may refer to ASCII art. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.28|108.162.215.28]] 05:36, 9 December 2013 (UTC) Alan K.

I think it's also a notable point, that the better rated document formats are more data centric while the low rated formats mix text informations with design elements and finally become pure graphic formats, which often is an indication, that the author didn't use the accurate file type for (mostly) pure text informations.
Something I don't understand is the gap between jpg and jpeg. The first suffix is AFAIK only an abbreviation used by older DOS/MS Systems to fullfill the 8.3 limitation for filenames. The note about hand alignment might concern the fact, that hand alignment is more time expensive which might increase the amount of the the author spend in overthink the content before layouting. Also often automated layouting as supported by many modern writing application might lead to unexpected and sometimes wrong results, because the automatism has no semantical knowledge about the authors intention, which might lead to post processed errors
Sorry for my bad english, I'm not a natural writer
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.239|108.162.231.239]] 05:45, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

I find it interesting that .jpg and .jpeg are at different levels. Aren't those the same thing? --[[User:Mralext20|Mralext20]] ([[User talk:Mralext20|talk]]) 05:48, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1301: File Extensions

2013-12-09T05:45:36Z

108.162.231.239: