explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2048: Curve-Fitting

2018-11-08T15:31:06Z

108.162.246.191: Logistic curve

House of Cards: Not a real method, but a common consequence of mis-application of statistical methods: a curve can be generated that fits the data extremely well, but immediately becomes absurd as soon as one glances outside the training data sample range, and your analysis comes crashing down "like a house of cards". This is a type of _overfitting_

I'm pretty sure it refers to the TV show house of cards, the dots representing the quality of the series increasing until Netflix renewed it a bit too much {{unsigned ip|172.68.26.65}}
:This was my initial interpretation as well, since you can hypothetically extend a literal house of cards indefinitely.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.83|172.68.58.83]] 14:23, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Could someone familiar with the show expand on this? ''Also a potential reference to the TV show, House of Cards ("WAIT NO, NO, DON'T EXTEND IT!").'' Some context on what that line meant in House of Cards would be helpful. - [[User:CRGreathouse|CRGreathouse]] ([[User talk:CRGreathouse|talk]]) 14:20, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

I'm a little mystified by the alt-text. Cauchy and Lorentz both seem like mathematically capable people. What am I missing? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.226|172.69.62.226]] 17:46, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

: Google-Fu reveals that it's a continuous probability distribution. This isn't bad per se, but it is quite visually distinctive and also can be quite...concerning if the data set isn't one where probability should be an issue. [[User:Werhdnt|Werhdnt]] ([[User talk:Werhdnt|talk]]) 18:00, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

:: This is not the issue, but the fact that the moments (such as mean and variance) of the distribution don't exist = converge. See edited explanation. So if you wanted to estimate the parameters of the distribution, taking the sample mean for example will not converge with the number of data points, and is therefore bad to attempt. It is more mathematically alarming than alarmingly mathematical. [[User:GamesAndMath|GamesAndMath]]

:: My own Google-Fu brought me to a page with this information: “The distribution is important in physics as it is the solution to the differential equation describing forced resonance, while in spectroscopy it is the description of the line shape of spectral lines.” (from here: https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_53_0/libs/math/doc/sf_and_dist/html/math_toolkit/dist/dist_ref/dists/cauchy_dist.html) [[User:Justinjustin7|Justinjustin7]] ([[User talk:Justinjustin7|talk]]) 18:09, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

:: True, but the "check what field I originally worked in" indicates that there might be something else going on with the meaning. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 12:47, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

:: I believe the point of "check what field I originally worked in" is that if somebody wasn't trained in statistics using an exotic distribution is highly suspect and suggest that either they are torturing the data to get desired results or have no idea what they are doing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.11|108.162.246.11]] 05:19, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. I kinda expected a special comic with such a nice round number.. Been counting down since comic #2000... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.184|162.158.92.184]] 18:14, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

Different anon here, I think this is very special and if Randall makes a poster available I will be buying several to give away. Of course, part of my business is experimental data analysis and modeling...and this is a fantastic summary of common errors. {{unsigned ip|162.158.75.22}}

: Agreed. This is a very special comic, and a highly subtle title text. Direct any of your friends who do data analysis here. Sort of the next stage from the classic "correlation is not causation" comic https://xkcd.com/552/ . {{unsigned|GamesAndMath}}

'''Curve-Fitting'''

How fitting works needs to be explained. f(x)=mx+b works fine for single values, but how do we get that red line from the data set? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:12, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

:Generally, you decide for some error function and then search for parameters where the sum of errors for all data points is minimal. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:07, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

:A typical error function is the square of the difference between the fit and the actual data point, hence "sum of squares" method. There are well-known standard formulas for finding m and b in the case of linear regression. In a linear algebra class, I saw a general method that would work for several of these (any where the fit is y = af(x)+bg(x)+...+ch(x), which includes log, exponential, quadratic, cubic, etc). I wish I could remember it. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 22:39, 19 September 2018 (UTC)
::I'm still looking for an easy example. Let's say five points (x/y) and then calculating the straight line (without and maybe with the zero-point because this is often the assumed start). Just be simple, everything else derives from that. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:00, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

:I wish we could include the graphics at the top of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_regression#Introduction] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_regression#Interpretation] in the explanation. A lot of people are going to look at this one. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.168|172.68.133.168]] 17:51, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
::I've included one picture with a small explanation to the linear regression section. I think that explains it well. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:00, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

The data points do not have error bars, which makes the choice of fit even more ludicrous, in my opinion. If the data are that good, then I don't believe there is a correlation, it's random with some distribution. I might hang this up at work...[[User:Arppix|Arppix]] ([[User talk:Arppix|talk]]) 02:46, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
:And of course in serious science data points have error bars. This makes the fitting even more complicated and should be mentioned at the explanation. Because Randall doesn't use error bars I'm sure he refers to presentations not based on real science. Also this should be mentioned here. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:06, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

I hate to be negative here, as obviously some users have put a lot of effort into explaining the details behind each of the curve-fitting methods, but there's absolutely no explanation for Randall's comments on each method. While someone might learn something about the various methods by reading the explanation, they would not gain any insight on what Randall is saying about each method. In addition, the Connecting Lines explanation totally missed the fact that this isn't really even a curve-fitting method - it's just a feature of graphing software (in this case, Excel) where a smooth line is drawn through each data point from left to right rather than an example of overfitting to the data set. I think we could do better. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:53, 21 September 2018 (UTC)
:You're not negative, Randall's comments are missing which I've just added into the incomplete reason. And sure other explanations still need a review. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:32, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Everyone is missing the deeper trolling here of the fisheries community at large, which shall become blindingly clear here. First, this is cartoon number 2048 (2^11), a highly interesting number. Notably, this is the year all fisheries were projected to be collapsed by Worm et al. (2006) Science 314:787-790, a prediction which gained huge attention in the media and took on a life of its own. The prediction was based on fitting a power curve to some data on collapses in catch trends. Numerous rebuttals followed, one of which pointed out that a linear fit to the data is a better fit, and predicts all fisheries collapsed in 2114 (Jaenike et al. 2007, Science 316:1285a). A list of rebuttals is found here: https://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/most-cited-fisheries/controversies/2048-projection. Later work by the same author and critics found a different prediction and showed rebuilding of fisheries is likely (Worm et al. 2009 Science 325:578-585). Second, lest you think this is a conspiracy theory, I note that in xkcd cartoon 887, Munroe specifically notes this prediction "The future according to google search results... 2048: "Salt-water fish extinct from overfishing" https://xkcd.com/887/. Third, this kind of model-fitting exercise has long plagued fisheries researchers attempting to predict recruitment from spawning biomass. {{unsigned ip|108.162.246.11}}

"Ad hoc filter: Drawing a bunch of different lines by hand, keeping in only the data points perceived as "good". Also not useful. " – I guess it rather refers to data filtering, where for each point you take several points around and try to calculate some kind of mean, e.g. by rejecting most extreme points, or calculating median (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_filter). So it is an algorithm, not actually drawing lines by hand. Still it is tricky to draw conclusions and you can easily fool yourself with this method. {{unsigned ip|162.158.93.21}}

Anyways, what is the actual regression of the plot? {{unsigned ip|162.158.154.241}}
:This also must be better explained: We don't know what the points represent. The fraction of apples vs. bananas harvested by time, the position of stars in the sky, on a logarithmic scale, linear, or maybe the height of mountains in New Jersey... There are just some dots on paper with no further meaning. Thus everything Randall presents is valid by some means but an actual regression does not exist. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:32, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Just want to note that the Piecewise models is actually a type of modelling often used in housing economics. It has been used to check if different types of housing are priced according to different rules. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.34|172.68.34.34]] 22:05, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Excel's "smooth lines" are actually splines ([https://blog.splitwise.com/2012/01/31/mystery-solved-the-secret-of-excel-curved-line-interpolation/ third-order Bezier splines, apparently]) so they're not completely without mathematical merit. Still wildly unsuited for extrapolation, but often very well suited to interpolation. [[User:JohnWhoIsNotABot|JohnWhoIsNotABot]] ([[User talk:JohnWhoIsNotABot|talk]]) 21:44, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

'''Specific functions'''

In both the '''logarithmic''' and '''exponential''' functions, I have deleted the term "+ ''c''" that was present in both. Simply put, these functions do not include an additive constant. To include the constant removes a basic property of e.g. exponential functions, which is that the function should grow by the same factor for equal increases in the value of ''x''. (In other words, if the functions doubles when ''x'' changes from 1 to 2, then it should double again when ''x'' changes from 2 to 3, or from 3 to 4, etc.) If this does not happen, the function is not exponential. [[User:Redbelly98|Redbelly98]] ([[User talk:Redbelly98|talk]]) 19:52, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

'''Logistic Curve'''

The explanation for logistic curve currently says it is used for binary values. It's actually a lot more useful than that. For example, population growth is often described as a logistic curve. It appears to be climbing exponentially initially, but then tapers off as resources can no longer support the population. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.191|108.162.246.191]] 15:31, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2068: Election Night

2018-11-05T14:58:00Z

108.162.246.191:

This is an early example of using red and blue to denote candidates and parties. Here, McKinley (R) gets blue and Bryan (D) red; it wasn't standardized on blue for Democrats and red for Republicans until after the 2000 election. NBC News having used red/R and blue/D that year, Tom Brokaw was the first to speak extensively of "red states" and "blue states" elevating that to political meme status and leading to standardization. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.166|162.158.78.166]] 14:36, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
:I was just going to mention the hat :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.191|108.162.246.191]] 14:57, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2068: Election Night

2018-11-05T14:57:01Z

108.162.246.191:

This is an early example of using red and blue to denote candidates and parties. Here, McKinley (R) gets blue and Bryan (D) red; it wasn't standardized on blue for Democrats and red for Republicans until after the 2000 election. NBC News having used red/R and blue/D that year, Tom Brokaw was the first to speak extensively of "red states" and "blue states" elevating that to political meme status and leading to standardization. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.166|162.158.78.166]] 14:36, 5 November 2018 (UTC)
:I was just going to mention the hat :)[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.191|108.162.246.191]] 14:57, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2068: Election Night

2018-11-05T14:55:51Z

108.162.246.191:

1756: I'm With Her

2018-10-26T18:46:13Z

108.162.246.191: Slight clarification on what type of votes Clinton got more of.

{{comic
| number = 1756
| date = November 7, 2016
| title = I'm With Her
| image = im_with_her.png
| titletext = We can do this.
}}
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
In this serious, ''no joke'', comic released the day before the {{w|2016 United States presidential election}} (which was more contentious than most, due in part to many people finding both candidates unusually distasteful), [[Randall]] urged his American viewership to vote, and showed his {{w|Political endorsement|endorsement}} for {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, the {{w|US Democratic Party|Democratic}} nominee in the election. She was up against the {{w|US Republican Party|Republican}} nominee {{w|Donald Trump}}, who ended up winning. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that there were also nominees from other parties, including {{w|Green Party of the United States|Green Party}} nominee {{w|Jill Stein}}, and {{w|Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian}} nominee {{w|Gary Johnson}}. Neither hoped to garner enough votes to become president, but there was a chance {{w|spoiler candidate|they could affect the result}} in some states (no third-party candidate has ''won'' a state since {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_1968|1968}} - and it did not occur this time either - the closest any came in 2016 was independent candidate {{w|Evan McMullin}} in Utah.)

It was the second time Randall referred to this election, the first being [[1748: Future Archaeology]] three weeks before the election, but here it was just a wish to know the result using time travel (of course he did not learn the result back then…).

The "H" with an arrow was {{w|Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016|Clinton's campaign}} logo, and '''I'm with her''' an official slogan that was widely used by her supporters, hence the title. Randall then lists tips to help you cast your vote ([[#How to help|see table below]]) suggesting a personal investment in the election. Clinton herself may be represented by [[Blondie]] sitting on top of the H looking out at the reader as the only of the 11 characters. The only type of joke in the comic is the chosen characters. Two with weapons flank the left and right side looking out ready to defend against Trump. Both are from earlier comic. Especially [[Ponytail]] with a ray gun (the one she also wielded in [[322: Pix Plz]]). The gun is for melting computers of persons that make snide remarks at women, clearly a reference to {{w|Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations|Donald Trump's sexual harassment of women}} in general and especially to his ''grab them by the pussy'' {{w|Donald Trump and Billy Bush recording|comment}}. [[Cueball]] with his weapon is from [[303: Compiling]]. See more details in the [[#Character gallery|character gallery]] below.

This is the first time Randall has used a comic to directly support a presidential campaign, although he did [https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/28/obama/ endorse] {{w|Barack Obama}} in 2008 on his [[Blag]]. He wrote himself later that it was very controversial when he endorsed Obama, but that it was not the most [[388:_Fuck_Grapefruit#Controversy|controversial comic he had published]] at that time. This comic might take that prize now, given that this was one of the most discussed elections up to its time. This is particularly noteworthy outside the US - for example, some European leaders openly opposed Trump, while others supported him. There were also reports of Russian hackers attempting to influence the election.

Randall's support for Hillary Clinton may have been due in part to Donald Trump {{w|Donald_Trump#Healthcare.2C_education_and_environment|being a prominent}} {{w|climate change denier}}. Randall has published comics opposing climate change denial such as this: [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]], published less than two months before the election, as well as several other [[:Category:Climate change|comics on climate change]]. Also Trump beating Clinton made Randall's [[1313: Regex Golf|regex that matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents]] impossible to update.

All the information on the bottom half of the comic includes sites, numbers, info, etc., current as of 2016, that are intended to help US voters to vote, regardless of whom they vote for. Including this information can assist voters who don't understand the process, don't feel that it's worth it, or feel intimidated or threatened. In general, these sites and numbers were likely included to help boost voter turnout.

The title text, which states that "We can do this", refers to Randall's desire to unite Democratic voters and elect Hillary Clinton to the White House instead of Trump. It is possible to [https://www.lookhuman.com/design/86542-hillary-clinton-we-can-do-it/tshirt buy t-shirts] with the famed {{w|We Can Do It!}} logo from the "Rosie the Riveter" wartime poster, but with Hillary Clinton in the famed position. However this is not quite the same "We can do this" sentence that Randall uses. "We can do this" (or in German, "[https://www.dict.cc/?s=Wir+schaffen+das+%5BAngela+Merkel%5D Wir schaffen das]") was also the catchphrase of the German Chancellor {{w|Angela Merkel}} during the recent influx of refugees from the Syrian War — like Clinton, Merkel was fighting against {{w|Pegida|a populist nativist movement}} that wanted to close the country's borders.

Unfortunately for Randall, these efforts were in vain, as {{w|Donald Trump}} (another populist nativist who wants to close the country's borders) was elected on Tuesday, November 8, falsifying the title-text. This result became a fact less than two weeks before the first ([[1761: Blame]]) of [[#Sad comics|several sad comics]] that all seemed related to the election of Donald Trump.

===How to help===
The list of things that can help is all about getting people to vote. While Randall is likely to have wanted to boost voter turnout regardless of political leanings, it's clear from his endorsement of Clinton that he believed increased turnout would have helped her win the race. There is general evidence that certain more heavily Democratic-leaning demographics are less likely to vote, and in this election in particular, the various political issues that had been raised against Hillary (such as the {{w|Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI's}} public disclosures of its investigation into her use of a private email server) were shown to have reduced enthusiasm among Democrats. But all these issues aside, both Republicans and Democrats alike agree on encouraging everyone to vote, and Randall is likely to have agreed with that sentiment as well.

Here is Randall's list of suggestions for how to help Hillary Clinton win the election:
{|class="wikitable"
!What to do
!How to do it
!Explanation
|-
|Vote
|[https://iwillvote.com/ iwillvote.com]
|A site to look up polling locations, ID requirements, etc.
|-
|Get a ride to the polls:
|[http://www.drive2vote.org/ drive2vote.org]
|For voters in Douglas and Sarpy County, Nebraska, who needed a ride to the polls from {{w|Warren Buffett}} or his friends.
|-
|If you're having problems voting
|[http://www.866ourvote.org/ 866-OUR-VOTE]
|Racism or other biases on the part of people running polling places is a real issue for minorities. Though it is illegal, people may lie or deny rights to would-be-voters who they believe will not vote for the candidate they agree with. In some instances, voters may require backup from someone with legal understanding to get to vote, which is a service this phone number provides. Since Donald Trump has suggested that unofficial {{w|poll watchers}} should patrol voting stations - which has been described as potential [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/05/election-day-violence-donald-trump-poll-watchers voter intimidation] - this has been an especially widely discussed topic in this election. The phone number written out as numbers is (866) 687-8683
|-
|Experimental social turnout project
|[http://www.civicinnovation.com/ civicinnovation.com] App Store: VoteWithMe
|An app which "gives you a list of the top 10 highest-impact potential voters in your address book to get in touch with -- based on the likelihood that they support progressive candidates, and that they live in states with the most competitive races". This app is for Android and iOS, with the App Store ID as "VoteWithMe". The "VoteWithMe" app is created by Civic Innovation Works and "uses publicly available voter records to predict which of your contacts are likely to support Democratic candidates, but might not have a plan to vote", as it says on its [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/votewithme/id1170104517/ App Store Page].
|-
|Reminder:
|If you're in line when the polls close, they have to let you vote.
|This is correct, as is printed on most election pamphlets as part of the ''Voters' Bill of Rights'', as well as being cited on numerous sources online (eg [http://votersedge.kqed.org/en/ca/ballot/election/area/42/section/voting-info?id=statewide-42-ca#section-my-rights-as-a-voter here].) Being turned down for trying to vote after the polling place is officially closed (if you were already in line ''when'' the polls closed) might be an instance where you want to use the phone number mentioned above.
|}

===Character gallery===
The comic shows a gallery of 11 xkcd characters including all the main characters from xkcd (except [[Hairy]]), which stand united behind Randall and Clinton despite their lack of agreement in many other comics.

*From left to right on the left side of the H are: 
**[[Ponytail]] with a ray gun (the one she also wielded in [[322: Pix Plz]], a comic where she was named Joanna). The gun is for melting computers of persons that make snide remarks at women, clearly a reference to {{w|Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations|Donald Trump's sexual harassment of women}} in general and especially to his Grab Pussy comment.
**[[Black Hat]] (who was the one introducing Joanna/Ponytail in the mentioned comic)
**[[Danish]] (Black Hat's girlfriend setting up a kite for him, although it could be Megan, but she is also shown later with her regular shorter hair). However it has mainly been Megan in comics with kites, like [[235: Kite]] and [[1614: Kites]]. Kites are a [[:Category:Kites|recurring theme]] on xkcd.
**[[White Hat]] looking at the kite.
*On top of the H are:
**[[Blondie]] (looking out at us, maybe representing Clinton herself)
**[[Megan]] (next to Cueball)
**[[Cueball]] (forming the standard couple in xkcd with Megan)
**[[Hairbun]] with glasses (so specifically not the one from the previous comic [[1755: Old Days]], but rather like in [[1637: Salt Mine]]).
*On the right side of the H are:
**[[Science Girl]] (The adult version of her, is holding her hand out towards a cute squirrel. Of course she could also be the girl from [[635: Locke and Demosthenes]] where the squirrel is poisoned...)
**[[Beret Guy]] is holding a squirrel out towards Science Girl. (The first time squirrels was mentioned was actually when Beret Guy found them in a tree in [[167: Nihilism]] and since then they have become a [[:Category:Squirrels|recurring theme]] on xkcd and a similar squirrel can for instance be seen in [[1503: Squirrel Plan]]. Beret Guy has not been seen together with a squirrel before, but has been shown to care for animals, for instance in [[614: Woodpecker]]).
**[[:Category:Multiple Cueballs|Another Cueball]] is standing on an office chair wielding a sword as he was shown in [[303: Compiling]]. (Interestingly enough the previous comic [[1755: Old Days]] was about Cueball asking Hairbun about {{w|compiling}} in the old days. Seems realistic that Randall has this comic ready for this Monday before the election for some time, and when finding this 9 year old version of Cueball in the old comics, he may have gotten inspired to make a comic about compiling in the old days).

Note that the two characters at either side of the comic wield weapons pointing out, defending the other nine. Those next to the characters with weapons are doing recreational things like kiting and admiring adorable squirrels, both of which are recurring subjects in xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[Eleven characters are drawn left, right and on top of a huge H with an arrow as the horizontal bar connecting the two vertical towers. The arrow breaks the right part of the H. It represents the logo from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign for 2016. From left to right on the left side of the H are Ponytail with an exotic looking futuristic ray gun like weapon looking to the left away from the H and the others. Behind her is Black Hat who looks at a girl that might be Danish or Megan (but with longer hair than Megan typically has). She is setting up a kite that flies above the first two characters. Behind her and looking up at the kite is White Hat. The H is right behind him, and on top of the left tower of the H sits Blondie looking straight out at the reader with her legs dangling over the edge and her arms resting on her knees. On the arrow between the two H towers sits Megan leaning against the left H tower, also dangling her legs over the edge and arms resting on her knees. Cueball is standing to her right, just left of the right H tower. On top of the right H towers sits Hairbun with glasses looking straight right with her legs dangling over the edge one arm resting on a knee and leaning back on the other arm. On the right side of the H is an adult version of Science Girl holding a hand out towards the squirrel which Beret Guy is holding out in both arms towards her. Behind them is another Cueball standing on an office chair holding a sword high up in front of him to the right away from the others. He keeps his balance by holding his other arm out behind him. Below the H there is a large caption.]
:<big><big><big>H</big></big></big>
: <big><big>I'm with her.</big></big>

:[Below the panel there are several lines of text. The first header line refers to the next four lines with solutions to problems, title/problem on one side then a long dash and the web-link or other information on the right side of that. Below those there is a reminder.]
:<big>How to help</big>
:Vote - iwillvote.com
:Get a ride to the polls - drive2vote.org
:If you're having problems voting - 866-OUR-VOTE
:Experimental social turnout project - civicinnovation.com App Store: VoteWithMe

:<big>Reminder:</big>
:If you're in line when the polls close, they have to let you vote.

==Trivia==
*Despite securing more of the popular vote (votes from individual citizens), Hillary Clinton lost the election in the {{w|Electoral college (United States)|electoral college}}.
**She did win in {{w|Massachusetts}} (Randall's home state), but that was never really in any doubt.
*The fact that Trump was elected instead is likely the reason for several comics with a bad mood released after this and until at least just past the day Trump was inaugurated. See [[#Sad comics|below]].

===Sad comics===

*After this comic there have been a clear trend that '''[[Randall]] has had sad thoughts''' after the {{w|United States presidential election, 2016|election}} of Trump in 2016.
**Over the next few months after the election (at least up till just after Donald Trump’s {{w|Inauguration of Donald Trump|inauguration}}) Randall has posted (at least) five comics that could be interpreted as him being sad/angry or that people around him are acting in such a way.
*Not since Randall's wife's [[:Category:Cancer|cancer diagnosis]] has there been so many sad/negative or depressing comics.
**During a two year span there were only five decidedly sad cancer comics.
**There has now been more "sad" comics in a little more than three months (November 18th 2016 to February 24th 2017), and they continued longer.
***As a comparison the year before the first sad comic there where no really sad, and only one (for real) scary comic: [[1732: Earth Temperature Timeline]].
***That comic has just been made more scary as it now seems the doing nothing is no longer the worst case scenario given That Randall did not expect Trump to win. And his policy of denying climate change, will probably make it even worse than if we did nothing.
***So this is another good reason why Randall would begin to post sad comics after the election. He is likely really scared the climate will be beyond saving once Trump leaves office. And it may be for a good reason. See about the comic [[#Sad|Sad]] below from after Trump became president.
**Hopefully Randall is not so depressed for real as the comics below could suggest.
*Note that none of these sad comics, also including this one, directly mentions Trump at all.
**But this comic indirectly references him as the opponent of the one Randall is with, and all the other comics could be interpreted as being about something that could have come about because of this election result.
**But the connection is not only inferred from the mood. Three comics where released close to some important day on Donald Trump's way to becoming president and another was the New Year comic, thus representing going into the year where Trump actually becomes president. And the fifth was during the days when the first executive order of Trump was overruled (see more below under [[#Focus Knob|Focus Knob]]).
*If more related comics appear they can be listed below; then update the above section regarding dates and number of comics.
**These comics are collected here because they are not easily collected under a specific category.
**Since the connection to Trump and the election is circumstantial in the sad comics, this trivia has been put on this comics page. Though this is not in itself one of the really sad comics, this comic definitely relates to Trump and Randall's stance regarding him becoming president.
**After April 2017 the sad comics related to the election stopped, but in August 2017, a week before the solar Eclipse, the election was mentioned in [[1876: Eclipse Searches]].
**Another few comics came out later with reference to the election: for instance [[#October 2017|October 2017]] (at that time) and, in January 2018, about two weeks before Trump had been president for a year, a comic which clearly tried to show that he was not the popular vote winner: [[#2016 Election Map|2016 Election Map]].
*Here below follows a list of the comics related to these sad comics.
**Relations (if any) between the release day and the comics will also be listed.
**The links points here below to an explanation why each comic is listed here:
*[[#I'm With Her|I'm With Her]] (not one of the sad, thus not numbered)
#[[#Blame|Blame]]
#[[#Negativity|Negativity]]
#[[#2017|2017]]
#[[#Sad|Sad]]
#[[#Focus Knob|Focus Knob]]
#[[#Phone|Phone]]
#[[#Location Reviews|Location Reviews]]
#[[#Vomiting Emoji|Vomiting Emoji]]
#[[#Flag|Flag]]
#[[#Security Advice|Security Advice]]
#[[#Identification Chart|Identification Chart]]
#[[#Eclipse Searches|Eclipse Searches]]
#[[#October 2017|October 2017]]
#[[#2016 Election Map|2016 Election Map]]
#[[#I'm a Car|I'm a Car]]

====I'm With Her====
*[[1756: I'm With Her]] (This comic)
**2016-11-07: The day before the election:
***It all began when Randall urged his American viewership to vote in the election the day after this comic was released.
***Here he clearly showed his {{w|Political endorsement|endorsement}} for {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, the {{w|US Democratic Party|Democratic}} nominee in the election.
***Although this is not directly sad, he included two weapon carrying defenders on either side of the comic.
***One of these was [[Ponytail]] with a ray gun (the one she also wielded in [[322: Pix Plz]]). The gun is for melting computers of persons that make snide remarks at women, clearly a reference to {{w|Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations|Donald Trump's sexual harassment of women}} in general and especially to his ''grab them by the pussy'' {{w|Donald Trump and Billy Bush recording|comment}}.
***Randall has often made comics against women harassment before (see for a great example in [[1027: Pickup Artist]]).

====Blame====
*[[1761: Blame]]
**2016-11-18: Ten days after the election.
***This is the first really sad comic in which [[Cueball]] actually begins by stating that: ''I feel sad!'' a clear relation to [[1790: Sad]] (the fourth sad comic after I'm With Her, see below).
***This is likely due to all the angry and scared comments of Cueball’s Facebook friends, and he thus decides to blame them rather than what they are angry about.
***It took some days before Randall posted anything that could be said to have relation to the election, but the defeat of Hillary may have taken some time to digest.
***Also the reactions to Trump’s victory on Facebook needed to build up over time before this comic.
***Furthermore there was also some uncertainty to begin with if some states would call for a re-vote etc.
***Still it was only the fifth comic after his campaign for Hillary failed.

====Negativity====
*[[1773: Negativity]]
**2016-12-16: Three days before the {{w|U.S. Electoral College}} voted for {{w|Donald Trump}} to become the 45th president of the United States.
***The first comic with a really negative title. (Like ''Sad'' (see below), although ''Blame'' is of course a negatively loaded word, the comic did not need to be so sad as it was).
***This comic and ''Blame'' could be seen as a small series as Cueball blames his friends on Facebook in the first comic, and then goes outside to avoid all the negativity online in the second, probably worsened for him after he blamed his Facebook friends because: ''Bad thing are happening''.
***Only it does not work because even the grass is after him.
***At the time of the comics release there was still some rumors/hopes that the {{w|Faithless electors in the United States presidential election, 2016|some of the electors would not vote for Trump}}. (But only two changed away from Trump!)

====2017====
*[[1779: 2017]]
**2016-12-30: The [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]] – a transition to the year when Donald Trump would become president.
***Even the comic "celebrating" New Year was depressive and it was the first time that a New Year comic had such a depressive mood.
***Cueball and [[Megan]] discuss if 2016 could end up as having been better than 2017 since all the bad thing happening in 2016 would first really take effect in 2017.
***The biggest of these would be Trump becoming president, but also {{w|Brexit}} and a lot of {{w|2016#Deaths|dead famous people}} would be troublesome. None of these events (or any other specifically bad event of 2016 are cited in the comic).
***Randall tries to make a happy twist by saying that maybe some unexpected good would come in 2017 as most of the sad events (just mentioned) was not expected to happen.
***But hopping for this in the face of what awaits is difficult so he retorts to just hoping ''they'' won’t cancel the {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|2017 solar eclipse}}.
***Fearing (for real) that astronomical events like this being canceled would call for you to be very depressed. Of course Randall doesn’t fear for this in real life, but it puts a perspective on the other parts of the comic.
***Although the eclipse will certainly happen on August 21st 2017 Randall may still miss it, even if he is in the right place, as the weather could always be overcast and then ruin the experience.
***So the worry that he will miss it is real and had also been mentioned three years earlier in [[1302: Year in Review]].

====Sad====
*[[1790: Sad]]
**2017-01-25: Five days after Donald Trump’s {{w|Inauguration of Donald Trump|inauguration}}.
***This was the comic that sparked this section, with the title really being ''[[#Sad comics|Sad]]''.
***The title "Sad" is a common interjection in Trump's tweets. The time-frame of "the past few months" from the first panel is consistent with this, as the election was on November 8, 2016, and the comic was posted on January 25, 2017 four days after Donald Trump's inauguration as 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017.
***This was only the second comic released after the inauguration the Friday before this comics Wednesday release.
***Although it could be said that Trump first took office Monday (before this Wednesday comic) he already began signing {{w|Decree|decrees}} (or {{w|Executive order|executive orders}}) on Friday January 20th {{w|First_100_days_of_Donald_Trump's_presidency#Immediate_regulatory_freeze_pending_review|within a few hours}} after becoming president.
****{{w|First_100_days_of_Donald_Trump's_presidency#Policy|Most of these}} would make it even worse for those already sad about him becoming president, because they could now see that he really meant all the things he promised (which is not always the case in politics!)
****Up to the day this comic was released (January 25th) it would already be drastic things like the {{w|First_100_days_of_Donald_Trump's_presidency#Mexican_border_wall|Mexican border wall}} (on the day of the comics release), the {{w|First_100_days_of_Donald_Trump's_presidency#Withdrawal_of_Affordable_Care_Act|withdrawal of Affordable Care Act}}, the approval of the {{w|First_100_days_of_Donald_Trump's_presidency#Dakota_Access_and_the_Keystone_XL_pipelines|Dakota Access and the Keystone XL pipelines}} (which would be troublesome for an [[:Category:Climate change|environmentalist]] as Randall as {{w|Dakota_Access_Pipeline#Environmental_concerns|both}} {{w|Pipeline_transport#Oil_and_natural_gas|oil pipes}} {{w|Keystone_Pipeline#Environmental_issues|have}} environmental issues) and the {{w|First_100_days_of_Donald_Trump's_presidency#Mexico_City_Policy|Mexico City Policy}} regarding stopping any help to poor women abroad with regards to information or any other way helping with {{w|abortion}}.
***The actual reasons for Ponytail's frustrations and depression aren't dwelt on and the focus is on her retreat into video games and the damage it's doing to her work projects.
****The video game she plays is referenced again only seven comics later in [[1797: Stardew Valley]], thus showing this game is on Randall's mind, and that he might be using this to avoid thinking of the things that makes him sad.
****This fits with the [[#Focus Knob|next sad comic]] mentioned below, coming out just before ''Stardew Valley'', where Randall focuses on his e-mail settings rather than the big picture.
***It might appear to be non-political, the reference to {{w|PolitiFact.com|PolitiFact}}, however, makes it clear that she is thinking on politics, and the fact checking of most of Trump's claims
****This is another indication that one of her troubles is Trump's leniency with the truth in both election campaign and after, to the point where lies are now on a daily basis just called {{w|alternative facts}} or {{w|Post-truth_politics#United_States|post-truth}}.
****His statements would often turns out to be ''Pants on Fire!'' on the PolitiFact scale.
****See more on Politifact.com the earlier comic [[1712: Politifact]] from during the election campaign
*****By the way apart from the ''Politifact'' comic and ''I’m with Her'' then the only other direct reference to the election during the {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_2016#General_election_campaign|election campaign}} was in [[1748: Future Archaeology]], where Randall expressed interest in knowing the result of the election in advance.
***Seeing that this comic is about Ponytail being sad, the woman who in the first comic on this list was standing with a weapon to defend herself against condescending men (like Trump) and that one of the first decrees Trump signed, was regarding removal of support for abortion abroad, she can see that she still have good reason (especially as a woman) to being sad as she has been these past few months.

====Focus Knob====
*[[1796: Focus Knob]]
**2017-02-08: Less than three weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, only six comics after the previous Sad comic.
***Although this comic may look like an easy joke, there is ''panic and existential paralysis'' if you turn your focus more than two thirds towards the big picture (of the world).
****For instance during the days just before this comics release an {{w|Legal_challenges_to_Executive_Order_13769#State_of_Washington_v._Trump|American judge}} (February 3rd) and two days later {{w|Legal_challenges_to_Executive_Order_13769#Proceedings in the Ninth Circuit|several big companies}} went against {{w|Executive Order 13769|Trump's decision}} of banning people from seven countries from entering USA.
****There have thus been many reasons to panic since his inauguration if one follows the news in any way.
***In the comic the detail oriented side is indicated to be a focus on his e-mail settings. But as it was shown already in the next comic [[1797: Stardew Valley]], there are also video games that can help you take your mind off the real world.
****This also relates back to [[#Sad|Sad]] where the same game was mentioned a week before.

====Phone====
*[[1802: Phone]]
**2017-02-22: During the days before this comic, Trump has promised to make a {{w|Executive_Order_13769#Proposed_related_Executive_Order|related Executive Order}} regarding the banning of people from the same seven countries from entering USA, as was ruled illegal around the time of the [[#Focus Knob|last]] of these comics.
***The sadness is not so clear in this comic, but the conclusion in the title text that it is both bad to hear all the scary news and to disconnect in order avoid them seems rather sad. It is a lose/lose situation.
****This also seems related to the problem of finding the right balance mentioned in [[#Focus Knob|Focus Knob]].
***The idea of going for a walk with the phone, thus not avoiding the news feed, is the exact opposite idea of [[#Negativity|Negativity]], where going outside was to avoid the negativity on the internet. Neither of the idea seems to work.

====Location Reviews====
*[[1803: Location Reviews]]
**2017-02-24: Second comic in a row, this one could be a reaction to the cold relationship between Russia and the United States, that became worse a few weeks before this comic.
***Two weeks prior to this comics release [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/world/europe/russia-cruise-missile-arms-control-treaty.html?_r=0 Russia Deploys Missile, Violating Treaty and Challenging Trump].
***In this comic a Nuclear Launch Facility is reviewed on a Google Map and the last of the reviewers pleads ''Please don't launch these''. Another notices the lack of security as there is a hole in the fence. (See more in the [[1803:_Location_Reviews#Reviews|reviews explanation]] and [[1803:_Location_Reviews#Politics|here]]).

====Vomiting Emoji====
*[[1813: Vomiting Emoji]]
**2017-03-20: The day of this comics release [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/public-editor/trump-russia-fbi-liz-spayd-public-editor.html?_r=0 stories] about Trump's connection with Russia and the word treason was mentioned, and the stories got [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/opinion/theres-a-smell-of-treason-in-the-air.html worse] during the week that followed.
***In this comic six vomiting emoji has been created. Most of them can be connected to the situation in USA.
***A vomiting cowboy, could represents the Americans that votes for Trump but now has regretted it.
***Vomiting Statue of Liberty speaks for it self...
***Vomiting peace dove a clear reference to the fear of Nuclear War, as is the rocket below
***Vomiting Moon, the only one that is not clearly connected in any way with this situation. Although Randall has expressed fear that the moon will be gone before the Eclipse this summer, see [[#2017|above]].
***Vomiting rocket ship, see peace dove above.
***Vomiting Hand, could be a reference to the way Trump always holds up his hand in a special way, which is likely to cause nausea in those that really detest what he stands for.

====Flag====
*[[1815: Flag]]
**2017-03-24: On this day {{w|Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act#2017|Trump failed}} to get a vote through for removing/changing {{w|Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act|Obamacare}} which was expected. But had it succeeded Randall might have wished for a departure from Trumps states (see below).
***The comic depicts a flag similar in style to the {{w|Flag of the United States|Stars and Stripes}}, and explains he was asked to create it for a new country.
***This seems like a reference to the fact that some have talked about states leaving the USA due to the election of Trump ({{w|California}} for [http://www.yescalifornia.org/ instance]).
***This flag with three stars could thus be Randall's thoughts on this, maybe the three small states in New England; {{w|Massachusetts}}, where he lives, {{w|Connecticut}} and {{w|Rhode Island}} could break free and form their own small state union.

====Security Advice====
*[[1820: Security Advice]]
**2017-04-05: No special event seems related.
***There are two references to what to do when crossing a border, and especially that last tip could be related to the increasing border control caused by Donald Trump's election:
***''If a border guard asks to examine your laptop, you have a legal right to challenge them to a chess game for your soul.''

====Identification Chart====
*[[1824: Identification Chart]]
**2017-04-17: No special event seems related.
***Once again reference to the military like in [[#Location Reviews|Location Reviews]].
***In the title text hostility between fighter-plane like birds that are territorial are mentioned.

====Eclipse Searches====
*[[1876: Eclipse Searches]]
**2017-08-14: A week before the total {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}}.
***This is not a sad comic, but it refers directly to the election day regarding media interest and searches on Google, which makes it the first in almost four month referring back to the election or the result of said election.
***For that reason alone it is included here. It seems that Randall has stopped focusing on Trump and his actions.

====October 2017====
*[[1898: October 2017]]
**2017-10-04: A month before the similar titles comic [[1757: November 2016]], released the day after the election, both of which had the subject [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|to make one feel old]].
***The comic mentions a movie that is already 7 years old, to make one feel old.
***But in the title text it refers directly to the election stating that so much has happened (because of this) that it is hard to believe that not even a year has passed since the election itself. However Election 2016 includes the active campaigning which led up to it, starting well before the first state primary election in February 2016.
***It thus still seems that Randall can be sad about the election results, although it was only the second reference to it in almost half a year.

====2016 Election Map====
*[[1939: 2016 Election Map]]
**2018-01-08: Release close to a year after Trumps inauguration. Could be related to the news that [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/us/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission.html Trump Disbands Commission on Voter Fraud], five days before this comics release.
***The comic displays the distribution of voters across the US in much more detail than the {{w|Choropleth map}} used during the election, which makes large states with small population seem more important and also removes any sign that a state is more of less split in half between red and blue.
***Thus the comic displays that Trump did not win many states by a large margin, and it has been known by everyone except Trump that Hillary got the most votes, in spite of the allegations of Russian involvement in the election trying to get Trump the win.
***Randall is clearly still sad about the election results, almost a year after Trump became president.

====I'm a Car====
*[[2064: I'm a Car]]
**2018-10-26: Release 11 days before the {{w|United States midterm election}} to be held on {{w|United States elections, 2018|Tuesday, November 6, 2018}}.
***The comic reminds people to register for voting.
***It is generally believed that many of those not voting would have chosen democrats on election day.
***Also shortly before this comic was released the [[Design_of_xkcd.com#Header|header text]] at the top of the xkcd page was changed to "Check your registration and find your polling place at [https://www.vote.org/ vote.org]."
***The comic is not sad but refers back to the election two years earlier.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]] 
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]

Talk:2053: Incoming Calls

2018-10-05T07:08:18Z

108.162.246.191: scams - change as you age

The "other scammers" section is far too small. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.166|108.162.216.166]] 16:54, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

We have two title texts explanations. With slightly conflicting information. Combine and brush up or should we just do one or the other for now? I like the CBS source in the first so I think we should absolutely preserve that at least. [[User:Lukeskylicker|Lukeskylicker]] ([[User talk:Lukeskylicker|talk]]) 17:15, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

: Supposing that you are correct, I have to add that I have never heard of the headset trick being used to buy time to connect you to a real scammer. But then again, I don't get scammed that often. [[User:Kwonunn|Kwonunn]] ([[User talk:Kwonunn|talk]]) 17:44, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

He forgot bill collectors. {{unsigned ip|162.158.63.52}}

As the link from the first title text explanation points out, they don't *need* your credit card or social security number as many phone companies, especially mobile companies, will allow a third party to add charges to your phone bill if you've agreed to pay the money. With that in mind, I don't think the second explanation flies. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.90|162.158.186.90]] 17:42, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

This only makes sense if it’s proportional or percentage based. But then that makes one wonder if some of this might be because the number of calls dropped over time. {{unsigned|Mr.Dude}}

There's a contradiction between "it's safe to assume that calls from his family didn't decrease over the years", and "Over time, Randall's friends and family have been less likely to make phone calls to him, likely due to the use of text messages and other messaging apps.". I'd suggest rephrasing the first part to say "it's possible the calls from family didn't decrease over the years, in which case they only make up a smaller fraction as the number of total calls increases since 1990.", or simply "some of the categories like family calls appear to be occurring less often but may only be decreasing in frequency in proportion to total calls" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.28|162.158.142.28]] 21:10, 1 October 2018 (UTC)
:I know for me personally family calls have decreased as texting and other messaging apps have become more common, and the same might have happened for him. It is clear that this graph excludes texting as by the present the only friend calling is that one friend that hates texting. That person may be the best way to figure out if the absolute volume of calls has increased...it appears the volume of total calls has increased, at least recently, as that one friend originally took up a larger proportion of the vertical space (of course the frequency of correspondence with that friend may also have changed).[[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.5|172.68.46.5]] 16:51, 2 October 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks for your written thoughts. You also can enhance the explanation. But for now I've added a new paragraph about texting, just because it's not part of the comic. And, sorry I missed it, I also hate tex...ng ;) --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:29, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

At least not being British he missed the PPI calls. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.235|162.158.154.235]] 21:16, 1 October 2018 (UTC)
:Along with the current spate of automated calls telling me that my IP address needs to be changed as it has been "compromised in multiple countries". [[User:Gearoid|Gearóid]] ([[User talk:Gearoid|talk]]) 06:44, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

The trick is not always just to get you thinking you're talking to a real person. More likely it is to get a recording of you saying "yes", which can be used maliciously.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.20|162.158.94.20]] 08:19, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

AFAIK, that has only been done once, there is a question on it here: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/42050/have-phone-scammers-recorded-yes-statements-to-fraudulently-authorise-payments (I was going to say that it was probably a myth, but the accepted answer had not been written when I last read that page. Pays to check sources I guess, be it for updated webpages, or to counter scammers [[User:Baldrickk|Baldrickk]] ([[User talk:Baldrickk|talk]]) 12:57, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Referencing "the famous WhatsApp" seems unnecessary. It could be replaced with something like "various mobile messaging apps" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.168|172.68.133.168]] anonanon

Could someone please provide more information about that "auto insurance scammer" part? From my foreign perspective, this means nothing at all and it seems odd that Randall's scammer calls were so numerous and so single-minded in their focus for such a long time. Were these calls really the only scams during that time? Did other scammers then copy their methods? It may seem obvious to you but it certainly isn't for me.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.196|141.101.88.196]] 09:30, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

: I don't specifically know what that scam is; maybe that was just a scam that Randall personally got a lot of calls about and/or has an especially vivid memory about? [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:06, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
:: I can provide some anecdotal context, because we (my fiancee and I) still receive this particular type of scam call, to the exclusion of any other type for some reason. Basically, they call and say that they are calling about your car insurance bill and that it's a critical issue. I don't know exactly how it proceeds from there because we don't have a car and well, that's our response to the call. My assumption here is, with Randall iirc living quite near where I live (eastern US), he received much the same call for a long time. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.108|162.158.186.108]] 23:55, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
::: Cool, thanks for the info! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.89|172.69.226.89]] 15:59, 4 October 2018 (UTC)
:::: Perhaps this is an age based thing? At that time Randall was in early 20's, finished university, might even have recently got an automobile.
:::: My parents (in their 80's) get a lot of calls from Microsoft "Vindose" technical support, health scams (braces, pain help), "Rachel" from card services, air duct cleaning. Never gotten any from auto insurers. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.191|108.162.246.191]] 07:08, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

"Rachel" from credit card services deserves her own category. Whenever I have a few minutes to kill, I wait for a "representative" and then keep asking WHICH of my cards he's calling about and torment them with stupid questions until they hang up (or ask for the person in charge of office supplies and try to sell them toner). Also deserving of their own category are the scammers who call about changing my energy supplier and those offering solar panels. To these I usually tell that I like paying higher rates to my electric company, that we have a nuclear reactor in the basement, or that we steal our electricity from our neighbors. - alex
: Honestly the card services scams are particularly toxic because some banks use a very similarly named department to report potentially fraudulent charges and attempt to confirm with you whether or not they were authorized. I have had a few legitimate card services calls in my life. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.192|162.158.186.192]] 23:57, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
::Personally I can't say I've ever received a scam card services call, but I have received legitimate ones. Like when they found it suspicious I bought gas two days in a row, which I had never done (looks like the attendant when I bought gas grabbed my card info, because I still had my card. Pretty sloppy to buy gas when he GOT IT from someone buying gas!). Also never heard of that headset thing, that seems like a bit of a leap, but I guess it makes sense that Randall meant that if he included it this way. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:45, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1549: xkcd Phone 3

2018-10-01T09:05:28Z

108.162.246.191:

I assume that this is made, at least in part, in reference to the just-made OnePlus infodump and their upcoming OnePlus 2 smartphone. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.188|162.158.2.188]]

Is the heartbeat accelerator used to fool fitness wristbands? Or apps? Or ... ? [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 07:56, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

"Ear screen" may refer to a different meaning of "screen" - a device that protects you from something, as in "sun screen". In this case, the "ear screen" would block the sound of the phone's speakers, making it useless (at least for telephony). 08:02, 10 July 2015 (UTC)~~ [[User:thepike|thepike]]

:I thought it was a name change like those of beret guy, repurposing words to stay accurate without using the correct/standard term.[[User:Athang|Athang]] ([[User talk:Athang|talk]]) 09:54, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

:I'm puzzled by the "ear screen" explanation: On old wired telephone handsets, the speaker grille was sometimes referred to as an "earpiece screen" or "protective ear screen" in the user manuals, so I just assumed that it was a common feature being pointlessly touted as if it were exclusive (common practice on iOS & Android device packaging & promotional material). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 19:53, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't running natively just mean that it runs apps natively instead of emulating them or something. Which would be a pointless marketing term OR it implys that the phone itself or the person inside runs.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.192|108.162.249.192]] 10:53, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
:I did some re-writing on that point (because the likes of the Java Virtual Machine-type solution is a half-way house that needs mentioning, between 'native' and 'emulated'), but it's a bit long. Also I briefly mentioned the Crusoe chip essentially a 'hardware virtual machine layer' (over and above the machine-code to micro-code one that doesn't bear mentioning due to the ubiquity), but not sure I described it well enough. At the time, the talk was that a Crusoe chip could end up (by sofware flag or magic 'autodetection') run x86/Intel-compatible ''or'' Motorola (Apple) ''or'' DEC Alpha instruction sets (and probably any other sets they could squeeze in, whether CISC or RISC, like Acorn's {{w|ARM architecture|ARM}}) without any software emulation at all. Of course, that was the time when programs didn't so heavily rely upon an OS's own API for pretty much ''all'' resources (at least on single-user machines), which is in effect an additional Virtual Machine layer, and the whole computing business has gone in a different direction, even Apple temporarily played with the PowerPC platform model.
:...Yeah, that's no shorter than my in-article edit, is it? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 13:44, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Wireless discharge: I think the explanation is too complicate. Every cellphone (and every other device that uses batteries) does discharge without a wire, it is just normal. The joke (in my eyes) is here that no-one would advice with that. --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 11:43, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Here's an idea: a phone that discharges it's power wirelessly into another device.(unlikely that this is what it means though)[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.166|108.162.249.166]] 12:39, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
* How about a phone that discharges it's battery into another human? I'd buy that (provided I could control when and whom.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.224|141.101.88.224]] 13:54, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
* knowing the previous xkcd phones: it isn't going to be controllable [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.166|108.162.249.166]] 11:41, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

Could "Boneless" be a play on words against the jawbone devices?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.203|108.162.219.203]] 13:12, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

:The second xkcd phone comic had the phone being "Ribbed"... Perhaps that's what "boneless" is talking about? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.84|108.162.242.84]] 20:20, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

:Boneless might probably refer to Ivar the Boneless, a Viking leader who invaded Britain in 865 — an allusion to Harald Bluetooth, another Viking, king of Denmark and Norway. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.113|141.101.64.113]] 20:52, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Does the title text seem to imply to anyone else that the customer may have been abducted for testing? [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 17:13, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

A runaway pacemaker ("heartbeat accelerator") probably wouldn't cause a heart attack. A heart attack is the interruption of blood flow to the heart muscle. A runaway pacemaker ''could'' cause a lethal tachycardia -- 2,000 beats per minute is [http://europace.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/6/592.full documented] and hearts don't do well at that rate... [[User:Andrew|Andrew]] ([[User talk:Andrew|talk]]) 19:24, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

:Could "heatbeat accelerator" be a reference to an indicator light? Or am I the only one who gets a bit excited when I see my phone LED flashing indicating I have a friend out there who remembered I exist? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.105|108.162.225.105]] 23:04, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

::I completely agree with 108...105. When I first read the comic my first thought was that the heartbeat accelerator was the LED indicator light. I can recall getting quite nervous sometimes when waiting for a text back from my girlfriend, all that much amplified when something comes in. [[User:Robodoggy|Robodoggy]] ([[User talk:Robodoggy|talk]]) 01:32, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

The first xkcd phone comic also mentioned that the phone can drown. It said something like, "Don't submerge phone; it will drown."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.141|108.162.216.141]] 03:20, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

I have to protest the idea in the explanation that a screen "all the way through" would leave no space for the actual workings of the phone. I owned an original Nexus 7, which I took apart after the kids dropped it in the bath. All of the controlling circuitry was in a thin layer *around* the screen surface, not below it. Below it was mostly battery, and presuming it takes AA batteries it wouldn't have a giant LiIon. It's not an absurd notion at all that a phone could have nothing behind its screen. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.59|108.162.216.59]] 11:30, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

I would actually like a phone running on 2AA (Or better, AAA) batteries. Not a smartphone, just a basic phone. I wouldn't want the other features though... -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.67|141.101.104.67]] 15:38, 11 July 2015 (UTC)
* Based on my experiences with wireless microphones, which I think probably consume batteries at a similar rate as dumbphones do (the reason I think this is because the main thing powered by the battery in both devices is the wireless transmitter), you'd get maaaaybe 5-6 hours of battery life from each pair of AA batteries. Less if they were AAA - for alkaline batteries, the smaller they are, the quicker they die.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.141|108.162.216.141]] 01:59, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
* I am struggling to say this without sounding mean, but... 141.101.104.67 must be someone over 50 years old? I never hear anyone younger desiring alkaline pile cell slots in modern devices unless they are older & miss the convenience of interchangeable batteries using standardized sizes. I think standardizing flat-pack dimensions for lithium-ion batteries could be of great benefit to the consumer & the environment in general. Far too many batteries & charger accessories become deprecated by external layout changes that are not required by the advancements made within the cells. Older folks remember being able to get a fresh battery just about anywhere. Even at the elevated price of high capacity rechargeable lithium cells, I think consumers would love being able to buy a fresh battery when theirs is low or failing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 19:53, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
* There is a standard for Li-ion batteries named 18650. Size comparison: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Liion-18650-AA-battery.jpg

"It would also make little sense for the OS itself to be non-native..." The first few versions of MacOS for PowerPC and PalmOS for ARM were largely emulated 68k code, with only the most performance-critical or central code ported. It was presumably faster to build a 68k emulator than to port everything. (And of course this meant that existing third-party drivers, extensions, etc. continued to work for a few years after the transition, but that could have been done separately--e.g., Mac OS X 10.4 on Intel could use some kinds of PowerPC drivers, even though the OS itself was purely Intel.) Also, the NT and OS/2 DOS environments, WOW and WOW64, OS X's early "Classic", etc. are all arguably emulated systems (you may be running x86 code natively on an x86, but the BIOS, memory mapped hardware, EMS, etc. are all emulated). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.52|162.158.255.52]] 09:00, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

I believe that the reference to "Surface" refers to the "Microsoft Surface", touch sensitive hardware and software technology.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.129.155|199.27.129.155]] 23:02, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

861: Wisdom Teeth

2018-09-25T00:26:03Z

108.162.246.191: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 861
| date = February 16, 2011
| title = Wisdom Teeth
| image = wisdom_teeth.png
| titletext = I heard the general anesthesia drugs can cause amnesia, so when I woke up mid-extraction I started taking notes on my hand so I'd remember things later. I managed 'AWAKE BUT EVERYTHING OK' before the dental assistant managed to find and confiscate all my pens.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Wisdom teeth}}, as many people are no doubt {{w|Wisdom teeth#Post-extraction problems|painfully aware}}, are the third set of molars found in humans. Because human jaws are smaller than ape jaws, most of us don't have room for a third set of molars, and the teeth become impacted so they grow straight into the other teeth, requiring a painful, debilitating procedure to remove them.

Because recovering from dental surgery often entails a period of rest following the operation and the use of {{w|painkillers|prescription painkillers}} (which have a tendency to make a person go a little loopy), [[Cueball]] prepares to play ''Minecraft'' the entire time. ''{{w|Minecraft}}'' is a PC game known for its addictive qualities; the game itself primarily revolves around a three-dimensional world in which the goal of the player is centered on the aspects of structural creation using blocks found in the environment and the creation of different materials for use in building these structures. Despite its addictive nature, the game doesn't provide the player with a goal, so most people take to building lots of nifty stuff, such as large cities, computers made from the game's built-in automation mechanics, massive scale replicas of Earth, etc.

Cueball's conversation with [[Megan]] indicates that he has previously decided against playing ''Minecraft'' precisely due to its addictive gameplay and lack of internal goal, deeming it unproductive. However, 'productivity' is not something that Cueball believes he can achieve post-extraction, and so Cueball decides that addictive gameplay and lack of internal goal "sounds like the perfect distraction".

Unfortunately for Megan (and any other users of her server), Cueball, while intoxicated with painkillers, has instead opted to flatten an entire continent and sort it into layers (by type of block, presumably). While there's no real indication of how big the continent is, as ''Minecraft'' worlds are randomly generated, sea level in ''Minecraft'' is at Y level 64, which means he sorted at least 65 layers of a continent large enough to be sufficiently developed, so it is clear that this task would take a lot of time. Collecting a block in ''Minecraft'' takes a certain minimum amount of time, depending on the block type, so even if he did everything as fast as he possibly could there's a substantial lower bound.

Ironically, in the second panel Megan says she'll set Cueball up on her server, which indicates she probably uses a whitelist to secure the server from griefers who might destroy structures created by others, not expecting that Cueball would do exactly that. The last panel simply illustrates that painkillers tend to make one loopy.

The title text refers to people waking up during surgery. Because anesthesia requires a lot of careful calibration and dosage - there's a reason anesthesiologists are paid hundreds of dollars an hour to be there, after all - it's possible to sometimes get it wrong, resulting in the patient waking up in the middle of the surgery. The three most important parts of anesthetics used for surgery are an analgesic (blocks pain), a sedative (puts you to sleep), and a paralytic (keeps you from moving). The worst-case scenario that most people hear about is when the analgesic and sedative are under-dosed, but the paralytic is correct, leaving the person awake, able to feel pain, but unable to alert the surgeons that anything is wrong. As a result, some countries and medical institutions have passed laws requiring surgeons to monitor brain activity so that these problems can be quickly remedied. The situation the title text is describing, with both the sedative and paralytic wearing out (leaving the person able to write notes), would be quite unlikely. As for confiscating all the pens, it was probably just to keep the patient from disturbing the procedure while the anesthesiologist corrected the dosage.

In reality, sorting a ''Minecraft'' map into layers (assuming the grass in the comic is at sea level—y=64 blocks) would take an unbelievable amount of time, even in creative mode, as you would have to mine away everything below that, and then sort it into layers. ''Minecraft'' maps are infinitely big, so it would actually be impossible to sort the entire map into layers. Randall, like Cueball, has also tried to do weird things with ''Minecraft'', see [https://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ this] for more details.

==Transcript==
:Cueball, on phone: Hey! Know how you've been bugging me to play Minecraft for the past year? I'm game.
:Megan, on phone: But you said you didn't want to "get hooked and spend days on end moving virtual cubes around while sitting motionless." What changed?

:Cueball, on phone: I'm having my wisdom teeth out, and I'll be useless and doped up on painkillers for the next few days, so that actually sounds like the perfect distraction.
:Megan, on phone: Oh. I'll set you up on our server!

:72 hours later...
:[Megan sitting at computer.]
:Megan, on phone: Hey — starting to feel better? Enjoying the game? Let's see what you've... What the hell? Where ''IS'' everything?

:[View of a Minecraft screen showing a vast empty expanse of land. In Cueball's hotbar is, from left to right, an stone pickaxe, sword, and shovel, seven feathers, 42 torches, a non-enchanted bow, a blank space, 64 blocks of stone and a clock. He has full health and 15 armor points.]
:Megan, offscreen: ...You made the entire continent perfectly flat?
:Cueball, offscreen: And sorted it into layers.
:Megan, offscreen: ...
:Cueball, offscreen: I feel good about things. This is a good game.

:[Cueball sitting on the floor at his laptop, bleeding from the mouth, surrounded by bloody wadded-up tissues and holding a bottle of medication.]
:Megan, on phone: ...What exactly is in the painkillers they gave you?
:Cueball, woozy: I can't read the label because I'm a hologram.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Video games]]

873: FPS Mod

2018-09-24T23:29:17Z

108.162.246.191: /* Explanation */ Corrected for accuracy

{{comic
| number = 873
| date = March 16, 2011
| title = FPS Mod
| image = fps mod.png
| titletext = Wait, that second one is a woman? ...wait, if that bothers me, then why doesn't... man, this game is no fun anymore.
}}

==Explanation==
FPS stands for {{w|First-person shooter|First Person Shooter}}, which is a type of video game (like ''{{w|Halo (series)|Halo}}'' or ''{{w|Duke Nukem}}'') in which you are looking at the world from the first person perspective of the character you are controlling. [[Randall]] notes in the caption that no one liked his FPS mod (short for "modification" of the FPS game), and in the title text it is clear that [[Cueball]] who played this modified version no longer enjoys the game.

FPS games are controversial for their (supposed) quality of encouraging violence such as killing (especially other human beings). One point of the controversy is that, while virtual enemies are just pixels on a screen, real enemies have actual lives, emotions, and the like. In the games, there is a disconnect between the act of killing and its emotional cost, thus leading to the controversy that FPS games encourage wanton killing (or violence in general) to solve problems instead of considering the other party. Randall makes reference to this by adding a mod that gives biographical snippets of the enemy you shoot in the game, thus giving Cueball the perspective of the enemy he just shot, and causing emotional consequence and remorse by removing the disconnect between pixel and life.

The comic can also be a reference towards making games more realistic. Giving the enemies a life above being mere targets definitely makes the game more realistic, but such a game would not be that enjoyable. This has been explored previously in [[772: Frogger]].

The title text talks about how gender is portrayed in games. For some people it is more emotionally affecting to kill a woman, as women are biologically weaker than men, and societal norms state that men must protect them. Gender equality is a highly debated topic with many different viewpoints, where one's conscious reasoned views may sometimes stand at odds to subconscious feelings. When a player becomes aware that killing women bothers one more than killing men, it exposes an inconsistency in the player's own logic, one that's very uncomfortable to confront.

In the 1993 post-apocalyptic novel'' {{w|The Fifth Sacred Thing}}'', the eco-pacifist residents of San Francisco defeat an invading army using a similar tactic. Rather than engage in armed defense, the family and friends of each dead San Franciscan speak directly to the soldiers who killed them, saying, "My wife was the mother of five children, and I loved her dearly," or "My cousin liked baseball." Eventually the soldiers suffer psychological breakdowns and defect ''en masse'', rather as Cueball seems to do in the title text.

Amusingly, the 2014 game ''{{w|Watch Dogs}}'' does something quite similar to this; the in-game "Profiler" provides a brief summary of a targeted enemy, and if the enemy does not have a gameplay-relevant feature (i.e. "Can call for backup"), it will mention their hobbies or interests.

The game ''{{w|Borderlands 2}}'' directly references this comic with the Morningstar, a unique aftermarket talking Hyperion sniper rifle which berates the user in a nagging, whiny voice any time they reload, kill an enemy, swap weapons, or score a critical hit. The weapon is obtained from the mission Hyperion Contract 873 (a reference to this comic being comic number 873) and is referred to as "the Hyperion ex-K seedy experimental weapon" upon completion of the mission.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting in a chair in front of his TV holding a gamepad while playing a video game. Every time he shoots the sound is written inside a ring of small curved lines to indicate the noise. Text on the screen is noted after each round of blasts with a zigzag line from the screen and between each entry.]
:''Blam''
:Game: He once built a treehouse.
:''Blam''
:Game: She has 110 unread emails that she was hoping to get to tonight.
:''Blam blam''
:Game: He was the only one who took care of the plants back at base.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:No one liked my FPS mod that gives you three-second snippets from the bios of people you shoot.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:454: Rewiring

2017-07-19T11:51:25Z

108.162.246.191:

As well as physically 'threading' the mail system, an email (or other messaging) client that keeps track of what messages reply to which others (often as a linear progression or cascade, or a tree-view where multiplie participants can be expected to branch the conversation) is said to show 'threaded' messages. Or was. (These days it's probably got some other name, and everyone seems to just want to top-post anyway. Thank you, Eternal September!!!) [[Special:Contributions/178.107.249.215|178.107.249.215]] 13:12, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

:If there were so many homes with phone wiring and no ethernet wiring and they were complaining, why didn't they just use the phone wiring for ethernet. It is a little less stable because of lack of addditional grounding/isolation wiring, but ethernet does only actually use 4 wires. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 19:35, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

:: The RJ11 jacks in more than half the houses I've lived in only had 2 wires connected. The most common reason to have 4 wires is that someone ordered two handsets in the 70s--sometimes dialing on one handset would cause the other one to ring, in which case AT&T would install an "anti-tinkle system", which required another wire pair. I also lived in one house whose owner had ordered a business phone when he lived there, and the lights on the business phone were powered by a second pair. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.69|162.158.255.69]] 18:44, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

I believe that there needs to be more explanation about the title text, particularly about what "threading" and a mail system are. [[User:Codefreak5|Codefreak5]] ([[User talk:Codefreak5|talk]]) 05:20, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Hey folks, when I check the comic on my computer the title text reads "Finn", not "Elizabeth". Is this an error on this site, or is it one of Randall's meta-jokes? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.185|198.41.235.185]] 13:41, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
:Added an explanation. It contains all the facts of the situation that I'm aware of, but someone who frequents the chat more than I do may be able to correct me. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.113|162.158.153.113]] 21:40, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Why is the google trends list a link for in Canada, would not a link straight to the world wide data be more appropriate? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.191|108.162.246.191]] 11:51, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

1809: xkcd Phone 5

2017-04-11T04:58:28Z

108.162.246.191: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1809
| date = March 10, 2017
| title = xkcd Phone 5
| image = xkcd_phone_5.png
| titletext = The phone will be collected by the toll operators and mailed back to you within 4-6 weeks.
}}

==Explanation==

This is the fifth entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], and once again, the comic plays with many standard tech buzzwords, and horribly misuses all of them, to create a phone that sounds impressive but self-evidently isn't to even the most ignorant customer. The previous comic in the series [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]] was released almost 8 months before this one.

The slogan beneath the phone, "We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers", is a reference to inconsistent product numbering, such as {{w|Samsung}} releasing the {{w|Note 7}} after the {{w|Note 5}}, likely in an attempt to catch up to the numbering of either the {{w|iPhone}} or {{w|Galaxy S}} series, both of which were already at 7. Similarly, there was also no official ''iPhone 2''. But there is an [[xkcd Phone 2]] available. The trademark sign behind the word "numbers" possibly indicates a reference to the {{w|Numbers (spreadsheet)|Apple spreadsheet app}} with the same name.

This phone seems to have a curved display. But the edges are curved down and not up, as they are on other curved phones.

The title text that says that the phone will be returned to you by the toll operators is a reference to E-ZPass partnership feature; see explanation in the table regarding that feature.

===List of features===

; Hook shot

: In ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda}}'' the [http://zelda.gamepedia.com/Hookshot Hookshot] is a recurring weapon/tool. It is a machine consisting of a chain and hook. When used, the chain extends and sends the hook which is attached to it. It is used to bring items to {{w|Link (The Legend of Zelda)|Link}} or bring Link closer to a goal (''Link'' is the name shared by the main protagonists, each possessing the Spirit of the Hero). Likely a reference to new video game ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild}}'', which was released a week prior to this comic. In the comic the hook shot is shown as a small add on to the phones top.

; Bluetooth speaker

: {{w|Bluetooth}} speakers are often used to play audio from a smartphone wirelessly, usually with more volume and better quality than the phone's small built-in speaker can provide. Embedding a bluetooth speaker into the phone would allow the phone to play audio from outside sources through its built-in speaker, which could be useful if no better speakers were available but would generally be avoided given the previously noted limitations of phone speakers. This is perhaps a jab at the current trend of playing music or Internet content audibly in public through the tiny, tinny speaker embedded in most phones. The Bluetooth speaker is located in the normal place for a phone's speaker.

; Stained-glass display

: {{w|Stained glass}} is colored glass, traditionally used for decorative windows in buildings most often churches. It is generally much thicker and because of the color much less transparent, especially for some colors, than the glass types normally used for touch-screens, making the phone difficult to use as it would remove some of the colors shown on the screen below the glass. A typical feature noticed about the glass for real phones would be its strength, as in work phones for construction workers.

; Gallium chassis remains solid up to 85°F

: Many high-end electronic devices have chassis made of alloys of light metals such as {{w|magnesium}} or {{w|titanium}} rather than {{w|steel}} or {{w|plastic}}. Besides being lightweight and of superior quality and durability than ordinary sheet steel or cheap plastic, these are often perceived as bragging points by the users, boasting about 'rare' metal chassis.

: {{w|Gallium}}, however, is an uncommon metal with a very low melting point of 85 °F (or 29.8 °C), making it one of only four pure metals (along with {{w|Mercury (element)|mercury}}, {{w|rubidium}} and {{w|caesium}}) that can be liquid around room temperature. Because the melting point is lower than the average {{w|human body temperature}} of 98.6 °F (37 °C) a gallium smartphone chassis would melt in the user's bare hand, assuming it hadn't already done so due to heat produced by its internal components. Even if the electronics had good heat management, cooling in smartphones is normally accomplished by distributing heat to the case, not exhausting it.

: A similar real advertisement regarding the chassis would be that it was {{w|waterproof}} down to some depth (say, 85 feet or 25 meters). See also the feature below regarding this.

; Soundproof

: A {{w|Soundproof}} chassis could result in the unwanted effect that the speakers and microphone may not work as no sound may enter or leave the phones chassis. A more likely feature would be waterproof (see above point).

; Can feel pain

: Possibly a reference to {{w|intelligent personal assistant|intelligent personal assistants}} like {{w|Siri}}, {{w|Cortana (software)|Cortana}} or {{w|Amazon Alexa|Alexa}} gaining consciousness (see [[1807: Listening]] for the latter). Such {{w|artificial intelligence}} references is a [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|recurring subject]] on xkcd.

: This could mean that either the phone feels pain for damages inflicted upon it or it feels the user's pain level (regarding either physical and/or emotional pain). The meaning would quickly become apparent for the user if the chassis melts on contact with exposed skin leaving the phone with "open wounds".

: This could be seen as a similar feature of the first xkcd phone, [[1363: xkcd Phone]], where the title text notices (among many other things) that the ''phone will drown'' if submerged in water. A similar thing is also mentioned for [[1549: XKCD Phone 3]]. That phone is ''waterproof but can drown''. Since this phone is soundproof but not waterproof, per the two points above, the drowning issue may still be relevant. The second phone, [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]], ''cries when lost'' a similar display of emotions/feelings. That phone also mentions waterproofing, but here it is only the interior, and although it is washable, it is only a one-time feature (like the fold-ability of this one; see two points below). Finally it also [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]] mentions that it is waterproof, but not between 30-50 m down...

; E-ZPass partnership: Phone can be dropped into coin basket to pay tolls

: {{w|E-ZPass}} is an electronic toll collection system. The vehicle drives through the toll lane without stopping, and sensors detect the pass and deduct the appropriate amount from the user's account. The phone's integration with E-ZPass is absurd since the phone needs to be dropped into a coin basket to work. Not only would you have to stop in order to throw the phone into the coin basket, which defies the idea of E-ZPass, but you would also lose your phone.

: In the '''title text''', however, it says that the phone will be retrieved by the toll operators and returned by mail within 4–6 weeks. So this slightly mitigates the problem of losing the phone, but there would be about a month where the phone could not be used.

; Foldable (once)

: Almost anything long and slim can be "folded" by simply snapping it in half. But as it says, this can only be done once, because the phone cannot be unsnapped and will not work any more once it has been folded.

: This is a reference to the [http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-foldable-smartphone-news/ rumors of the new Samsung Galaxy X] that is really foldable like a piece of rubber. See [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fro_CNjxYwM this video].

: It could also refer to the fact that a version of iPhone had a weak spot that lead it to easily folding and breaking. And it could be a reference to {{w|Flip (form)|flip phones}}.

; Screen transfers images to skin

: Transferring images to the skin sounds like either real {{w|tattoos}} or the water tattoos used by children or other kinds of {{w|temporary tattoos}}. Likely it should be understood that it would be possible to transfer the image displayed on the screen to your skin, hopefully when activating the feature rather than by accident, and, preferably, also not permanently. This may also be a reference to the experimental Cicret Bracelet's ability to project images onto your arm: [http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/cicret.asp]

; Retina storage

: This is a play on the name of Apple's prized "{{w|Retina Display}}". The joke may be in reference to Apple's possession of a trademark for the word "retina" in regards to computer equipment, which is made to seem absurd by the unusual use. It is not made clear whose retinas are meant to be stored. It could also be a reference to retinally implanted computers. The retina storage is a slot at the bottom of the phone right of the charging port.

; Background task automatically catches and eats Pokémon

: A reference to {{w|Pokémon Go}}, an augmented reality game where the goal is to go to specific locations and play a mini-game in order to catch virtual creatures called {{w|Pokémon}} (see [[1705: Pokémon Go]]). This phone apparently catches Pokémon automatically, similar to the external device {{w|Pokémon_Go#Pok.C3.A9mon_Go_Plus|Pokémon Go Plus}}. However, this feature also eats them, which is something that is not part of the game and wouldn't be desirable, as it is about collection and storing as many different Pokémon as possible. It could be a coincidence, but it seems funny that the label for this background feature is the only one that points at the back of the phone.

; Supercuts partnership: Trims hair fed into charging port

: {{w|Supercuts}} is an American hair salon chain that provides hair cuts and styling. The implication here is that the user can get a haircut by Supercuts by sticking hair into the charging slot. This is not only impractical and would only work for hair long enough to be fed into the port, but it would most likely result in a bad haircut. Also the slot would soon be filled with hair. The charging slot is otherwise placed in the normal spot and looks like a regular charging port.

: This feature could actually be quite dangerous if the hair is not removed from the charging slot afterwards because the hair could melt or catch fire inside the phone.

; Squelch knob

: {{w|Squelch}} is a feature of radios (CB, ham, scanner, etc) which quiets background noise when no usable signal is present. It cuts off audio completely when only noise is present. As different environments can have differing levels of background noise, an adjusment such as a knob is required to set the level at which the squelch circuit deactivates and lets audio through ("opening" or "breaking" the squelch). For a smartphone, perhaps this knob could control the "signal-to-noise" ratio of your Facebook feed or other social media platforms. It takes the place of the headphone jack, replacing the normal hole with a small knob.

; IBM buckling-spring Home button

: {{w|IBM}} {{w|Buckling spring|buckling-spring}} keyboards are favorites of geeks for the feeling of quality and auditory feedback (keys click loudly when pressed) they provide. Real smartphones' home buttons, typically located exactly as in this image, provide little to no such satisfaction when pressed.

; Cot-caught merger switch

: This is a reference to the {{w|cot–caught merger}}, a linguistic change happening among English speakers, particularly in some parts of North America and the British Isles, which causes caught (previously pronounced "kawt") to be pronounced the same as cot (pronounced "kot"). The switch is clearly visible on the side of the phone. A real feature physically similar to this is the slide switch on the iPhone and iPad, allowing the user to (un)lock the orientation of the screen or to (un)mute the device.

; 60x optical zoom camera

: A powerful optical {{w|zoom lens}} is usually a desirable feature for cameras. However, as shown in the comic, it results in very bulky lens. If 60× zoom should be achieved the lens needs to be as big as shown on the backside of the phone, and the whole idea of being able to carry the smartphone easily in a pocket would be defied.

: For that reason, such lenses are never used in smartphones, although rarely some devices, like the {{w|Samsung Galaxy Camera}}, use a smaller lens with a similar design. But this is no longer a smartphone.

: This feature would seem to be a jab at the variety of add-on devices, including close-up lenses, handles, and external flashes, that are currently in use to enhance the phone's ability to function like a camera (and the {{w|selfie stick}}).

: Some phones might instead mention their {{w|digital zoom}} level instead. But that is not a popular feature among photo enthusiasts, as digital zooming gains no additional optical resolution. Users would actually be better off using the maximum optical zoom, and then enlarging their images with photo-editing software, which might offer better, but slower, algorithms (e.g. {{w|linear resampling}} versus {{w|Lanczos resampling}}). Likewise, (mobile phone) cameras are often advertised with their high number of {{w|megapixel}}s, while retaining their small {{w|image sensor size}}. As each individual sensor gets less light, it creates more {{w|image noise}}.

: Randall has made several comics about cameras before; see for instance [[1719: Superzoom]] and other comics linked via this.

: Contrast the [https://www.easy-macro.com EasyMacro] band - 4x zoom with little appreciable thickness.

: Assuming 60x is referring to the base focal length of the iPhone and that the xkcd Phone 5 has the same dimensions as the iPhone 7 Plus then in 35mm format this lens would be 30-1800mm f/0.4-f/24. This is a completely infeasible (but not physically impossible) lens in 35mm format, but similar small format lenses (albeit with more reasonable aperture ranges) do exist in mass production, for example the Nikon P900.

; LORAN navigation

: {{w|LORAN}} (Long Range Navigation) was a precursor to modern {{W|Global Positioning System|GPS}} navigation, using land-based transmitters. Once developed for sea shipping, it is accurate to about 300 meters (1,000 feet). The joke, of course, is that all modern smartphones have integrated GPS navigation which is far more accurate. Due to the much lower frequencies involved, reception of LORAN signals though is much better in areas with obstructed view of the sky. However {{w|LORAN#Commercial_use.2C_decommissioning|LORAN has been decommissioned}} more or less completely since before 2000.

: Incidentally, some receivers of the {{w|Decca Navigator System}} (which operates on a similar principle as LORAN) featured moving map displays, something we associate with modern GPS devices.

; 28-factor authentication

: An {{w|Authentication#Factors and identity|authentication factor}} is a way of proving one's identity. There are [http://www.nikacp.com/images/10.1.1.200.3888.pdf 3 generally recognized forms]: something you know, something you have, and something you are. It can be a password, a fingerprint, a physical key, etc.... Secure applications may include two or more factors; a common example is the "PIN and chip" system used with credit cards, where you need both the card and secret code to authorize a transaction. Many online services now provide two-factor authentication to protect against password-based attacks. 28-factor authentication would likely be very secure in theory but also so impractical that it would be unusable. The user will need to prove their identity 28 different ways which would be so time consuming that would outweigh the convenience of a smart phone. A 2-factor smoke detector was soon after mentioned in one of the tips in [[1820: Security Advice]].

==Transcript==
:[An image of a smartphone with a common optical camera lens attached on its back is shown. Over the entire length the case is slightly rounded. There are several features visible as bottom like features at the top and bottom of the front as well a microphone like slit at the top. A sliding switch is visible on the side, and at the bottom there is a knob, a connector port and a small slit. Clockwise starting from the top left all the labels read:]
:Hook shot
:Bluetooth speaker
:Stained-glass display
:Gallium chassis remains solid up to 85°F
:Soundproof
:Can feel pain
:E-ZPass partnership: Phone can be dropped into coin basket to pay tolls
:Foldable (once)
:Screen transfers images to skin
:Retina storage
:Background task automatically catches and eats Pokémon
:Supercuts partnership: Trims hair fed into charging port
:Squelch knob
:IBM buckling-spring home button
:Cot-caught merger switch
:60x optical zoom camera
:''LORAN'' navigation
:28-factor authentication

:[Below the phone:]
:Introducing
:<big>The</big> <big><big>xkcd Phone 5</big></big>
:''We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers®TM''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]