explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1882: Color Models

2017-08-29T13:51:05Z

141.101.88.22: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1882
| date = August 28, 2017
| title = Color Models
| image = color_models.png
| titletext = What if what *I* see as blue, *you* see as a slightly different blue because you're using Chrome instead of Firefox and despite a decade of messing with profiles we STILL can't get this right somehow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Now complete?}}

[[Randall]] is describing how his level of understanding of colors has changed by age. The chart starts with two tracks of understanding color.

In grade school he learned about the primary colors, and the very simple model of colors, as shown in the left track. Mixing of color solids, as in painting (or finger painting being probably the earliest exposure to color mixing), is intuitive for a child. The process is subtractive, and the more colors you mix the darker and closer to black you get. Color is seen by the eyes when light bounces off the solid colors and becomes light of different wavelengths that the eye can then see. However at this level, things just "look" like different colors without understanding light's role.

The right track is about mixing of color light, as in prisms and light waves, where mixing colors is additive and the more you mix the lighter and closer to white you get. But this is without a real understanding of light bouncing off surfaces, and is limited to an understanding of different colors of light and how they mix. The first exposure in grade school is usually by shining white light through a prism to separate it into the different visible colors.

The {{w|Opponent process|opponent color model}} connects these two models, by explaining how different wavelengths of light are absorbed by different rods and cones in the eyes.

The "complex multidimensional gamut" mentions two more models: {{w|CIE 1931 color space|CIE 1931}} and {{w|Lab color space|L*a*b*}}. These are more detailed models based on the opponent color model, which precisely define how a particular color maps to the different channels that our eyes see.

However, understanding how the eye sees color ''still'' isn't enough, because not every device can display all the colors your eye can see. Your laptop might have a different {{w|Gamut|gamut}} than your phone, and when you print the page, you might see yet another color. To handle this issue, web browsers use "color profiles", so that an image can be tagged with the color space it uses and the browser can handle it appropriately. Unfortunately, browsers do this inconsistently and not very well.

The "hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold" is a joke, and a pun upon {{w|International Klein Blue}}. A ''Klein manifold'' is described by the {{w|Klein bottle}}, where the bottle was originally a surface (a mix-up of the German words Fläche for surface and Flasche for bottle). It is a two-dimensional manifold, or simply just a surface with some special characteristics. Randall is here projecting an "abstract multidimensional gamut" onto an even more complicated surface, presumably in order to eliminate the errors in color rendering caused by previous attempts to eliminate the errors in color rendering. The Klein bottle has to be projected into 4-D space for this to work, as it would otherwise intersect with itself.

The title text expands on this joke, implying that the reason for the "unknowable" answer above is that everyone's browser shows colors slightly differently. Despite the complexity and thoroughness of color models, the most common software on Earth can't get it right. Eventually it appears Randall has given up, hoping he won't have to deal with the difficulty in describing and understanding the concept of colors.

==Transcript==
:[A simple flowchart is shown. The text above the panel reads:]
:Evolution of my understanding of color over time:

:[On the left side is a vertical dashed line in gray, on top it's labeled:]
:Grade school
:[And at the bottom the label reads:]
:Now

:[Header above the chart:]
:"Color" is...

:[The chart starts with three items, one left and an other on the right, a third is below in the middle.]
:...three primary colors mixed together
:...a rainbow, and each color is a wavelength
:...unknowable ("maybe what ''I'' see as blue, ''you'' see as...")

:[Arrows from the left and the middle item point to a new left one, while two other arrows from the middle and the right item lead to one at the right.]
:...three-ish primary colors mixed together (RGB/RYB/CMYK)
:...a mix of infinite wavelengths filtered through three eye pigments

:[The arrows of both items point to one in the middle:]
:(something about the opponent color model)

:[The remaining items are all in the middle and each is connected by one arrow downwards to the next.]
:...an abstract multidimensional gamut (CIE 1931, L*a*b*, etc)
:...an abstract multidimensional gamut filtered through inconsistently-implemented device color profiles
:...a hyperdimensional four-sided quantum Klein manifold? Is that a thing?
:...hopefully somebody else's problem.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Flowcharts]]

1812: Onboarding

2017-03-17T08:54:19Z

141.101.88.22: /* Explanation */ missing space

{{comic
| number = 1812
| date = March 17, 2017
| title = Onboarding
| image = onboarding.png
| titletext = 'So we just have a steady flow of metal piling up in our server room? Isn't that a problem?' 'Yeah, you should bring that up at our next bismuth meeting.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Much too descriptive}}

This is another in the series of [[Beret Guy]]'s mysterious business, in which he shows [[Ponytail]] around the building in which the company resides.

The first panel starts out as a typical welcome to a small indie business might start (often referred to as "{{w|onboarding}}" – hence the title of this comic). Very quickly, however, his explanation jumps to an existential viewpoint. Very rarely do conversations or introductions involve discussing the eventual fate of our bodies, and certainly not in a professional light as in this comic. Beret, however, has no problem with discussing death and decay as just part of his business.

In the second panel, Beret shows Ponytail the free bikeshare system this business apparently has in place. {{w|Bicycle-sharing system|Bikesharing}} is a system in which many users share one or more bikes amongst themselves. Typically the bikes belong to some of the members of the group who are allowing them to be used by other members who may not have one, but Beret calmly remarks that this system will only exist "until whoever owns those bikes finds out", implying that they were not donated or shared by any member of the group, but are being used without permission or the knowledge of the true owner of the bikes.

In the third panel, Beret explains the Laserjet ''and'' the printer. This is a bit disconcerting, since the {{w|HP LaserJet}} is in fact a common brand of {{w|laser printer}}, suggesting that Beret's Laserjet may be some rather more exotic device, such as a {{w|Laser propulsion|laser-propelled}} {{w|jet aircraft}}. In any case, however, the printer is not available, as it's been printing an infinite-scroll web page since 2013. An {{w|infinite scroll|infinite-scrolling web page}} is a web page that, as the name implies, seems to have no end. This style of webpage typically has no definite pages or sections, but instead continues to feed data to the screen as the user scrolls. In reality, trying to print one of these would only print the current section the user was viewing, and even if it was somehow able to infinitely print, the operator could easily cancel the operation at any time.

In the next panel, Beret makes a few more remarks. He claims that the restrooms are "all-digital -- no pipes." While many technology standards nowadays are entirely digital, one's restroom is one of the things that most definitely should not be. A restroom without pipes would have no way to transfer bodily waste, and would most certainly be at the very least an unpleasant encounter. The Wi-Fi is "very fast, but cursed." Fast Wi-Fi is certainly desirable, but in this case, Beret claims it is also cursed. Whether the curse is a side-effect of the fast Wi-Fi or totally unrelated is left unsaid, as well as what the curse is. This could possibly be a joke relating to some of the quirks of Wi-Fi. While all technology can behave inexplicably from time to time, Wi-Fi is notorious for randomly losing connection, which might be seen as a curse. [[1772: Startup Opportunity|Knowing Beret]], though, it's probably literal.

He then explains that the server room is {{w|carbon neutrality|carbon-neutral}}. Normally, this would mean that it is designed to be environmentally friendly by reducing and offsetting its carbon emissions enough that it has not net effect on the environment. The term is a little bit confusing because the meaning is of course carbon-dioxide-neutral. But while carbon is not a common material used in servers {{w|Bismuth|bismuth}} is used as lead replacement in {{w|solder}}. While this replacement is often used because of the toxicity of lead in this case it refers to IBM mainframe computer where the Bi58Sn42 alloy is used because of its low temperature soldering characteristics. So producing bismuth would destroy all the electric connections in the server.

In the last two panels, Beret explains that Ponytail will be working on the infrastructure, which is apparently maintained by Lin-Manuel Miranda. {{w|Lin-Manuel Miranda}}, among other things, is a songwriter, but certainly not an engineer or anyone qualified to be responsible for an entire infrastructure. Ponytail clearly knows this and is surprised by this fact.

It is worth noting that Beret actually acknowledges the mistake here, claiming the mistake "cost a fortune." This is unusual for Beret, as he has of yet failed to acknowledge or recognize the oddity of every other aspect of his mysterious business, many of which are certainly stranger than this. However, he doesn't seem to mind this at all, as he quickly explains the bright side of having Lin-Manuel Miranda in his business, which is apparently that Lin-Manuel is nice and makes {{w|karaoke}} nights fun, referencing his songwriting ability.

Off screen, Lin-Manuel is heard singing "{{w|How Far I'll Go}}", which is a song that he composed for the recent Disney movie ''{{w|Moana (2016 film)|Moana}}''.

The title text mentions the potential dangers of having your server room constantly produce bismuth, but only as a prelude to a bismuth/business pun.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Beret Guy shakes hands with Ponytail in front of a building.]
:Beret: Hi! Welcome to the team! We do business here and we'll turn into dirt later.

:[Beret Guy and Ponytail walk by a set of bikes.]
:Beret Guy: This is our main campus. We have a free bikeshare system, at least until whoever owns those bikes finds out.

:Beret Guy: The LaserJet is over there, and the printer is over there. You can't use it right now; it's been printing an infinite-scroll webpage since 2013.

:Beret Guy: Restrooms are all-digital -- no pipes. The WiFi is very fast, but cursed. Our server room is carbon-neutral but produces bismuth constantly.

:Beret Guy: You'll be working on our infrastructure, which is currently maintained by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

:Ponytail: ...the songwriter? Is he also an engineer?
:Beret Guy: Nope, huge misunderstanding on our part. Cost a fortune. But he's really nice and it makes karaoke nights fun.
:Lin-Manuel Miranda (off-screen): ''How far I'll gooo''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1812: Onboarding

2017-03-17T08:53:50Z

141.101.88.22: /* Explanation */ Beret Guy already claimed to dealing with cursed stuff in this comic

{{comic
| number = 1812
| date = March 17, 2017
| title = Onboarding
| image = onboarding.png
| titletext = 'So we just have a steady flow of metal piling up in our server room? Isn't that a problem?' 'Yeah, you should bring that up at our next bismuth meeting.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Much too descriptive}}

This is another in the series of [[Beret Guy]]'s mysterious business, in which he shows [[Ponytail]] around the building in which the company resides.

The first panel starts out as a typical welcome to a small indie business might start (often referred to as "{{w|onboarding}}" – hence the title of this comic). Very quickly, however, his explanation jumps to an existential viewpoint. Very rarely do conversations or introductions involve discussing the eventual fate of our bodies, and certainly not in a professional light as in this comic. Beret, however, has no problem with discussing death and decay as just part of his business.

In the second panel, Beret shows Ponytail the free bikeshare system this business apparently has in place. {{w|Bicycle-sharing system|Bikesharing}} is a system in which many users share one or more bikes amongst themselves. Typically the bikes belong to some of the members of the group who are allowing them to be used by other members who may not have one, but Beret calmly remarks that this system will only exist "until whoever owns those bikes finds out", implying that they were not donated or shared by any member of the group, but are being used without permission or the knowledge of the true owner of the bikes.

In the third panel, Beret explains the Laserjet ''and'' the printer. This is a bit disconcerting, since the {{w|HP LaserJet}} is in fact a common brand of {{w|laser printer}}, suggesting that Beret's Laserjet may be some rather more exotic device, such as a {{w|Laser propulsion|laser-propelled}} {{w|jet aircraft}}. In any case, however, the printer is not available, as it's been printing an infinite-scroll web page since 2013. An {{w|infinite scroll|infinite-scrolling web page}} is a web page that, as the name implies, seems to have no end. This style of webpage typically has no definite pages or sections, but instead continues to feed data to the screen as the user scrolls. In reality, trying to print one of these would only print the current section the user was viewing, and even if it was somehow able to infinitely print, the operator could easily cancel the operation at any time.

In the next panel, Beret makes a few more remarks. He claims that the restrooms are "all-digital -- no pipes." While many technology standards nowadays are entirely digital, one's restroom is one of the things that most definitely should not be. A restroom without pipes would have no way to transfer bodily waste, and would most certainly be at the very least an unpleasant encounter. The Wi-Fi is "very fast, but cursed." Fast Wi-Fi is certainly desirable, but in this case, Beret claims it is also cursed. Whether the curse is a side-effect of the fast Wi-Fi or totally unrelated is left unsaid, as well as what the curse is. This could possibly be a joke relating to some of the quirks of Wi-Fi. While all technology can behave inexplicably from time to time, Wi-Fi is notorious for randomly losing connection, which might be seen as a curse. [[1772:Startup Opportunity|Knowing Beret]], though, it's probably literal.

He then explains that the server room is {{w|carbon neutrality|carbon-neutral}}. Normally, this would mean that it is designed to be environmentally friendly by reducing and offsetting its carbon emissions enough that it has not net effect on the environment. The term is a little bit confusing because the meaning is of course carbon-dioxide-neutral. But while carbon is not a common material used in servers {{w|Bismuth|bismuth}} is used as lead replacement in {{w|solder}}. While this replacement is often used because of the toxicity of lead in this case it refers to IBM mainframe computer where the Bi58Sn42 alloy is used because of its low temperature soldering characteristics. So producing bismuth would destroy all the electric connections in the server.

In the last two panels, Beret explains that Ponytail will be working on the infrastructure, which is apparently maintained by Lin-Manuel Miranda. {{w|Lin-Manuel Miranda}}, among other things, is a songwriter, but certainly not an engineer or anyone qualified to be responsible for an entire infrastructure. Ponytail clearly knows this and is surprised by this fact.

It is worth noting that Beret actually acknowledges the mistake here, claiming the mistake "cost a fortune." This is unusual for Beret, as he has of yet failed to acknowledge or recognize the oddity of every other aspect of his mysterious business, many of which are certainly stranger than this. However, he doesn't seem to mind this at all, as he quickly explains the bright side of having Lin-Manuel Miranda in his business, which is apparently that Lin-Manuel is nice and makes {{w|karaoke}} nights fun, referencing his songwriting ability.

Off screen, Lin-Manuel is heard singing "{{w|How Far I'll Go}}", which is a song that he composed for the recent Disney movie ''{{w|Moana (2016 film)|Moana}}''.

The title text mentions the potential dangers of having your server room constantly produce bismuth, but only as a prelude to a bismuth/business pun.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Beret Guy shakes hands with Ponytail in front of a building.]
:Beret: Hi! Welcome to the team! We do business here and we'll turn into dirt later.

:[Beret Guy and Ponytail walk by a set of bikes.]
:Beret Guy: This is our main campus. We have a free bikeshare system, at least until whoever owns those bikes finds out.

:Beret Guy: The LaserJet is over there, and the printer is over there. You can't use it right now; it's been printing an infinite-scroll webpage since 2013.

:Beret Guy: Restrooms are all-digital -- no pipes. The WiFi is very fast, but cursed. Our server room is carbon-neutral but produces bismuth constantly.

:Beret Guy: You'll be working on our infrastructure, which is currently maintained by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

:Ponytail: ...the songwriter? Is he also an engineer?
:Beret Guy: Nope, huge misunderstanding on our part. Cost a fortune. But he's really nice and it makes karaoke nights fun.
:Lin-Manuel Miranda (off-screen): ''How far I'll gooo''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Puns]]

Talk:1812: Onboarding

2017-03-17T08:52:13Z

141.101.88.22:

Uff, Americans really say "carbon-neutral". Taking this literally and there is no greenhouse problem, only some black dirt... Nevertheless bismuth is an important element in electronics, not only IBM.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:43, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Considering Beret Guy has shown that he was able to [[1293: Job Interview|get soup from an electric outlet]], maybe those all-digital restrooms are actually able to digitize bodily waste to dispose of it easily.--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.22|141.101.88.22]] 08:52, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

1806: Borrow Your Laptop

2017-03-06T09:10:34Z

141.101.88.22:

{{comic
| number = 1806
| date = March 3, 2017
| title = Borrow Your Laptop
| image = borrow_your_laptop.png
| titletext = If used with software that could keep up, a scroll wheel mapped to send a stream of 'undo' and 'redo' events could be kind of cool.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Randall is NOT Cueball (see discussion)! There also has been some debate as to what should be in the comic explanation. So far most comments votes for keeping as it is. See discussion.}}
[[White Hat]] asks to borrow [[Cueball|Cueball's]] laptop to load something. Cueball permits this, but immediately begins rattling off a list of very unusual key- and mouse-bindings that he has applied to the device. In the caption, [[Randall]] states that he himself tends to continually re-configure computers that he owns in weird ways, eventually rendering it unusable (or at least unpleasant to use) for everyone else.

Like many other computer users Randall likes to customize his PC. Of the three items in Cueball's list of customizations only the first and half of the second change seems like a real and relevant change. In the first he has programmed the computer so hitting both shift keys simultaneously will change the keyboard back to QWERTY. The {{w|QWERTY}} keyboard is the standard in the US (as well as some other places using the roman alphabet). It has been a recurrent theme for Randall to refer to the {{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} keyboard layout, and, although he doesn't say so, it seems safe to assume that this is the current setting, as it is one of the most common QWERTY competitors, and has been repeatedly mentioned in the comic. Supporters claim that typing speed is faster on a Dvorak keyboard, although this is still contentious, and this is a reason Randall often makes jokes about it. (See more details [[:Category:Dvorak|here]]). The laptop has most likely a standard QWERTY keyboard, but if Cueball can type blindly in Dvorak he would not be troubled by the fact that the keys typed a different letter than what is on the keyboard's key. This relation was also the pun in the recent comic [[1787: Voice Commands]]. The same problem would arise if the computer is set to another language than what the keyboard was meant for, which often happens in countries where the second language is English.

The first part of the second point on the list makes, as Cueball has changed his keyboard layout so that {{w|capslock}} acts as the {{w|control key}}. Swapping capslock and control is a common thing to do in the world of Unix or for users of [https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MovingTheCtrlKey the Emacs editor]; the "Caps Lock" key (immediately to the left of the "A" in a traditional layout) is much easier to reach for a touch typist than the more out-of-the-way "Ctrl", and the latter is often used more frequently, especially by programmers.

But the second part where Cueball says he has then moved capslock so that it is activated when hitting the {{w|spacebar}} makes no sense. Moving the capslock function to the space bar is quite impractical, as the spacebar is the largest key, and one which would likely not normally be used for anything other than spaces, making accidental application of caps lock more likely. Most people do not use capslock enough to justify giving it the largest key on the board, as whichever key Randall now chooses for space will be harder to reach, making him more likely to make mistakes in typing, such as pressing a letter key, or tab, or alt, for example, when trying to type a space. What's worse, he doesn't tell White Hat where he has hidden the space bar, although it could of course be the two ctrl keys, as ctrl is now on capslock. This would at least give him two possible (but much smaller) space keys to use, one on either side of the keyboard.

People have more reason to change their keyboard layouts on laptops, due to the reduced keyboard, which can leave vital keys out, especially if it was bought in a foreign keyboard layout. Rather than change the keyboard layout all the time in order to access keys which are not accessible in one of the layouts, one can take advantage of text substitution and keyboard remapping programs to set shortcuts for keys they use often.

Finally Cueball goes out on a limb with an impossible setting, which is that his scroll wheel moves through time instead of through "space" (as in up and down on the screen), but only when using {{w|Touchpad#Operation_and_function|two-finger scroll}}, which often used on {{w|Touchpad|touchpads}}/track pads for laptops as a gesture for scrolling. Time travel is also a [[:Category:Time travel|recurrent theme]] on xkcd. Quite likely Randall has chosen this example because of the inconsistency of some systems interpreting two-finger scrolling opposite of others (two-finger scrolling in the up-direction on some systems moves the content up, on others down). This is often configurable, but is further complicated by the fact that "inverted scrolling" is used in opposite meanings on different systems.

Finally it becomes clear these three settings are not the only important points, as Cueball's list continues with at least one other point which he doesn't get to finish in the comic.

In the title text it is revealed that Cueball actually did not mean moving in real time, in the sense of time travel, but rather that the two-finger scroll would act as an {{w|undo|undo/redo}} button. This would represent a form of metaphorical "time travel" by using "undo" to recover a past state of the currently open file and "redo" to go to a later (but no later than the present) point in time. Scrolling rapidly up and down would let the user rapidly build and unbuild whatever they were making, potentially a cool visual (see also [https://youtu.be/ZIqWPohGmmM time lapse art]). In the title text Randall says that he would actually find such a feature cool, but that he doesn't think that the programs on his laptop could keep up if his scroll wheel was mapped to send a stream of undo/redo commands to them as he used it. It would also interfere with the normal use of the scroll key for scrolling or zooming.

A day later, [http://www.reddit.com/user/ncsuwolf /u/ncsuwolf on reddit] [http://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/5xi92h/a_scroll_wheel_mapped_to_send_a_stream_undo_and/ suggested] a way to make the undo-redo-scrolling work in emacs using undo-tree. It uses shift-scrolling to avoid conflicts with normal scrolling.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat walks toward Cueball's desk pointing at his laptop while looking back at Cueball standing behind him.]
:White Hat: Can I load it up on your laptop?
:Cueball: Sure!
:Cueball: Oh, just hit both shift keys to change over to QWERTY.
:Cueball: Caps lock is control. And spacebar is capslock.
:Cueball: And two-finger scroll moves through time instead of space.
:Cueball: And–

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Once I've used a computer for a while, no one else will ever use it again.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Time]]