explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2037: Supreme Court Bracket

2018-08-24T07:29:10Z

141.101.104.95: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2037
| date = August 24, 2018
| title = Supreme Court Bracket
| image = supreme_court_bracket.png
| titletext = My bracket was busted in the first round; I had Massachusetts v. Connecticut in the final, probably in a case over who gets to annex Rhode Island.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SUPREME COURT REFEREE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|Supreme Court of the United States}} is the highest federal court of the United States. A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} is a tree diagram that represents the series of games played during a knockout tournament. [[Randall]] suggests that the winners of the 16 listed court cases will file against each other and then again until the final winner is selected.

Court cases are typically titled as plaintiff versus defendant. Randall is spoofing this idea by imagining famous United States Supreme Court cases as though they were games in the first round of a single-elimination tournament, similar to college basketball's March Madness, complete with a ranking bracket. "Sweet 16" in the context of a tournament refers to the stage in a tournament where 16 competitors remain.

The cases are:

;Marbury v. Madison
(declared a provision of the Judiciary Act unconstitutional; first time that U.S. Supreme Court overturned a law)

;McCulloch v. Maryland
(prohibited states from taxing the federal government)

;Gibbons v. Ogden
(dealt with what are now called antitrust issues)

;Near v. Minnesota
(found that prior restraints on publication violate freedom of the press as protected under the First Amendment)

;NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin
(declared that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was constitutional)

;Brown v. Board of Education
(declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal and ordered them integrated)

;Gideon v. Wainwright
(gave defendants unable to afford lawyers the right to have the government provide them with defense lawyers)

;Griswold v. Connecticut
(right to birth control)

;Miranda v. Arizona
(required police to inform suspects of their rights)

;Loving v. Virginia
(overturned a ban on interracial marriage)

;Roe v. Wade
(right to abortion)

;United States v. Nixon
(ordered president Nixon to turn over Watergate tapes)

;Bush v. Gore
(disputed 2000 Presidential election)

;Lawrence v. Texas
(invalidated sodomy laws)

;Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency
(decided that the state of Massachusetts has standing to sue the EPA for not doing enough against global warming)

;Obergefell v. Hodges
(right of homosexuals to marry a person of their own gender)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Left side:]
:Marbury - Madison
:McCulloch - Maryland
:Gibbons - Ogden
:Near - Minnesota
:NLRB - Jones & Laughlin
:Brown - Board of Education
:Gideon - Wainwright
:Griswold - Connecticut

:[Right side:]
:Miranda - Arizona
:Loving - Virginia
:Roe - Wade
:United States - Nixon
:Bush - Gore
:Lawrence - Texas
:Massachusetts - Environmental Protection Agency
:Obergefell - Hodges

:[Caption below the frame:]
:Now that we've finished the round of 32, the Supreme court will be moving on to the Sweet 16.

{{comic discussion}}

1888: Still in Use

2017-09-13T14:16:17Z

141.101.104.95: /* Solutions */ "this problems" -> "the problem"

{{comic
| number = 1888
| date = September 11, 2017
| title = Still in Use
| image = still_in_use.png
| titletext = 'Which one?' 'I dunno, it's your house. Just check each object.' 'Check it for *what*?' 'Whether it looks like it might have touched a paper towel at some point and then forgotten to let go.' '...' 'You can also Google to learn how to check which things are using which resources.' 'You know, I'll just leave the towel there and try again tomorrow.'
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is trying to remove the trash bag from his garbage can. However, the can refuses to let him do so, citing that a paper towel in the trash is being used by some object in his home.

This comic draws parallels between the act of emptying a physical rubbish bin and emptying the {{w|Trash (computing)|recycle bin}} integrated into a desktop environment like Windows, macOS, most Linux derivatives, and more. It was first introduced on {{w|Apple Lisa}} in 1982 called ''Wastebasket'' and, while it was adopted to most other OSes using slightly different names, the main purpose still remains: A user can delete a file and restore it again -- hence the most common name ''recycle bin'', you still can get your ''paper towel'' and use it again. In (earlier) command line based systems like DOS or UNIX/Linux (besides the desktop interfaces) a removed file was gone. Some ''undelete'' commands exist, but there are hard restrictions because the then free space on the hard drive must not have been used again and often file names aren't fully recoverable.

But sometimes when attempting to delete files a running program may still have the file marked as in use. The operating system will therefore prevent its deletion but mostly not tell the user which program it is.

Preventing the file from being deleted from the file system is in this case is a correct behavior, because the document is still being worked on in that program. But sometimes it may happen erroneously, perhaps because of a program not closing the file properly, a glitch in the operating system, or user error. The user then is required to find the cause of the problem and rectify it before the file can be deleted. This may be difficult because error messages may not reveal the affected file or the program blocking its removal, making it difficult to rectify. This is very similar to the problems which may occur when unmounting (or "safely removing") an external drive.

The title text may be a reference to a simple solution to these sorts of problems: Wait a while, perhaps overnight, and see if the (unknown) application(s) have closed the open file(s). Alternatively, the user can shut down the system to make absolutely sure that nothing is using anything. But this latter solution is really not a convenient one because all applications are closed.

== Solutions ==
Advanced users may be inconvenienced by unhelpful error messages but at least are likely to know the tools available to solve the problem. However, a less experienced user just trying to free some space is not only annoyed, their only solution is to reboot or shut down the computer.

Some tools:
* On Windows Vista and above, one may use the "Task Manager" and the aptly named "Resource Monitor". Nevertheless there is also still the [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon "Process Monitor"] from Sysinternals available at Microsoft.
* On Linux and OS X there is a command line tool {{w|lsof}} (list open files) which also lists open sockets and more. If the filename or program name is known, the usefulness of this tool is vastly enhanced by combining it with {{w|grep}} because dispensable lines can be omitted.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is trying to take out a trash bag from his garbage can.]
:Trash: Sorry, you can't empty the garbage yet. A paper towel in here is currently in use by some object in your house.

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

1395: Power Cord

2014-07-18T07:45:08Z

141.101.104.95: /* Explanation */ Removed far-fetched unsupported statement, removed "possibly" qualifier for pretty clear pun.

{{comic
| number = 1395
| date = July 16, 2014
| title = Power Cord
| image = power_cord.png
| titletext = In this situation, gzip /dev/inside to deflate, then pipe the compressed air to /dev/input to clean your keyboard. Avert your eyes when you do.
}}

==Explanation==
'''Always remember: DO NOT put any electrical cords in your mouth. You can be severely shocked'''.

In this comic, we see [[Beret Guy]] walking in from the left, as [[Cueball]] is sitting on a couch, typing on a laptop on his lap, with its power cord unplugged. Instead of connecting it to the wall socket, Beret Guy picks it up and blows air into the loose end of the cord, as if inflating a balloon--and the laptop inflates. It then floats away, making Cueball grab for it as Beret Guy casually walks away.

While it is not possible to inflate a laptop like this, nor to inflate ''anything'' by blowing down a power cord, Beret Guy has previously demonstrated supernatural abilities with power cords, such as in [[1293: Job Interview]]. Although the laptop should not actually float given that Beret Guy's breath should be ordinary air, not a lighter-than-air gas such as helium, it is a standard cartoon convention that [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllBalloonsHaveHelium inflating something with breath] nonetheless makes it lighter than air.

The title text involves some jokes on {{w|Unix}} systems. On Unix, {{w|everything is a file}}, even most of the hardware can be referenced by a (virtual) file. These virtual files usually are in /dev or another virtual filesystem like /sys or /proc. While /dev/input really exists and points to the input system (mice, keyboards, gamepads, etc), /dev/inside doesn't. {{w|gzip}} is a common tool to compress files. The first joke is to compress the air inside the laptop (with the command <code>gzip /dev/inside</code>) in order to deflate the laptop back to normal size. It is a pun with the literal meaning of "deflate", which is also the {{w|DEFLATE}} algorithm used by gzip (uncompressing gzipped files is also called "deflating (the archive)"). Another joke is “{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|piping}}”, the act of using the output of one operation as the input to another. As the output of the gzip command would be compressed air, a ''physical'' pipe could be used to direct the air somewhere useful. The suggestion is to direct the air to /dev/input (in this case, the keyboard) to clean it, similar to "compressed air" dusting cans. As this might cause a spray of unpleasant detritus (compare [[237: Keyboards are Disgusting]]), the reader is advised to avert their eyes.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy enters to find Cueball typing on a laptop. Cueball's power cord is unplugged from the wall.]
:Cueball typing: Type type

:[Beret Guy picks up the power cord. Cueball looks up.]
:Cueball typing: Type type

:[Beret Guy blows into the plug end of the cord. The laptop abruptly inflates and Cueball jerks back.]
:Beret Guy: '''PBBBBT'''
:Laptop: '''FOOMP'''

:[Beret Guy walks away, leaving Cueball scrambling to retrieve his inflated laptop which is now floating away.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]

Talk:1396: Actors

2014-07-18T07:40:48Z

141.101.104.95:

Could be Bieber... 04:42, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
:Good point. [[User:Sjrsimac|Sjrsimac]] ([[User talk:Sjrsimac|talk]]) 04:48, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
:More likely Timberlake.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.207|108.162.246.207]] 06:48, 18 July 2014 (UTC)Nix
:It's referring to Justin Theroux, currently in ninth place on IMDB's Most Popular Males list. (http://www.imdb.com/search/name?gender=male) Yeah, I have no idea who he is either. I feel old. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.170|108.162.237.170]] 06:49, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
Do you think it's necessary to add that the temperature is in Fahrenheit, and that normal body temperature is around 98.6? The part about getting a bit of his shirt should also probably be explained in that context. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.211|173.245.56.211]] 05:39, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
:Yeah, please do. Most Americans can't handle metric units, and I can't handle Fahrenheit. The only thing I can remember is that body temperature is around 100°F. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.59|108.162.254.59]] 07:26, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

I seem to recall several other comics making fun of these generic headlines of the form "The <n> <adjective> <nouns> you must see". I could only find one though: http://xkcd.com/1283/ --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.95|141.101.104.95]] 07:40, 18 July 2014 (UTC)