explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2289: Scenario 4

2020-04-05T10:59:32Z

162.158.154.139: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2289
| date = April 4, 2020
| title = Scenario 4
| image = sequence-four.png
| titletext = Remember, models aren't for telling you facts, they're for exploring dynamics. This model apparently explores time travel.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by GRAPHING ERRORS. Needs elaborating on the comic, and needs an explanation of the title text.}}
In [[2278: Scientific Briefing]], [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] were briefing [[White Hat]] on things that were getting bad, hoping to convince him to do something about them. He chose to wait until things actually got bad. Evidently, that has happened, and now Megan and Cueball are delivering another briefing on just how much "Bad Stuff" there might be, according to their models.

This is another comic in the coronavirus series. In the context of the information (and misinformation) explosion associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (ongoing at the time that this comic was published), many graphs have been shown highlighting the prevalence of the disease - the number of cases at any one time and place, and the change in the number of cases over time. That being said, the graphs shown could easily apply to any number of scenarios where an upward trend is bad.

Several of these graphs have attempted to predict the future, using statistical tools ("models") to process existing data and generate a forecast. Inputs to the model(s) may include different assessments of, for example, the number of COVID-19 cases that have been recorded. Four scenarios are presented here, presumably showing what a particular model (probably only one despite the reference to "new modelS" in the comic) forecasts given different, unspecified, inputs.

Megan and Cueball present three possible scenarios.
* The first, "best case" scenario recalls "flatten the curve" graphs that predict an occurrence will eventually cease to increase altogether. Using COVID-19 as an example, if strictest measures are put into place and adhered to, all those who have contracted COVID-19 will eventually be reported, and no further victims will contract it.
* The second and third scenarios are increasingly worse cases, predicting that the occurrence will continue unceasingly. Again using COVID-19 as an example, the less measures are put into place or adhered to, the more COVID-19 cases that will occur. Scenario 3 appears to indicate an exponential increase best suited to a log scale; "pretty bad" is an understatement.
* The fourth curve is not possible, as each point along the x-axis represents a specific time point. If the curve passes the same time point twice (as it does) then this means that on a given day there were two different number of cases. E.g. on the 1st of April there would have been both 100 and 1000 people infected, which makes no sense at all. The only way to make sense of it would be by using the common trope in science fiction of time traveling creating an alternate timeline in which events are different, thus the cases could be 100 in one timeline and 1000 in a different timeline. Hence the remark, "this model explores time travel", in the title text. This a brain cramp to visualize, and the consequences of it actually happening would be calamitous on several levels. Yes, one would definitely wish to avoid this one. (Real modelers might encounter such "graphing errors" while they are developing their models and testing their functions, but persons who went so far as to present such glitches in public, except for a laugh as here, would likely be asked to hand in their modeler's cards.)

==Trivia==

This is the first [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Saturday_comics Saturday comic] since 2006.

==Transcript==
Panel 1: [ Megan and Cueball are standing in front of a large graph, with Time along the horizontal axis and ''Bad Stuff'' along the vertical axis. The curve on the graph shows a generally shallow upward slope. ]

Megan: Our new models outline a few possible scenarios.

Cueball: #1 is the best scenario.

Panel 2: [ The graph now shows a much steeper curve, before flattening out far in the future, similar to a logistic curve. ]

Megan: Scenario 2 is not so great.

Panel 3: [ The graph now climbs quite quickly, approximating an exponential curve. ]

Cueball: Scenario 3 would be pretty bad.

Panel 4: [ The graph starts curling up, like the exponential curve, but continues curving back, so that it no longer qualifies as a function, and may indicate rear-ward time-travel. ]

Megan: Then there is scenario 4. We '''think''' it's a graphing error.

Cueball: If not, we ''definitely'' want to avoid it.
[[Category:COVID-19]]
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:919: Tween Bromance

2020-03-27T10:45:02Z

162.158.154.139:

Language elitist. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:26, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

I think this needs an incomplete flag: the explanation needs more contextual detail, about colloquial portmanteaus like 'frenemy' and the common disapproval of 'words' like 'irregardless'. --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 08:59, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

GAH! He's not DICTATING, the title is another joke! Tween? Bromance? Come on fellas and ladies. They are the first two portmanteaus! Cueball is essentially spitting out a sentence with an endless stream of irritating, inane, infintilisms, in an incredibly insensitive, lol, effort to drive Megan to the brink of insanity! Couldn't resist that last one. Yiffed made me giggle, the rest, connected to it, made my abs hurt from laughing, especially after Megan's reaction. He deserves a medal. Oh goodness. No profile so please don't use my IP address to violate me via the Internetz, if that is possible to do with an IP address. I would not know. Grazie. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.84|173.245.55.84]] 09:32, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm not anybody here, I was just passing by and enjoying the annotations on these xkcd comics, but it seems to me like no explanation of this comic would be complete without talking about word aversion, sometimes called "the moist panties phenomenon", if someone wants to be funny. Basically, he is listing words that make people (or Randall himself?) uncomfortable. This page --- http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004835.html -- talks about word aversion in relation to the more common "word rage" that some neologisms and words that began as errors provoke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.192|108.162.237.192]] 08:52, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

The back of the chair is missing in the first frame. Probably just a mistake but didn't see it mentioned. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.33}}

Just a question: tween really is PRE-adolescent?? I always thought it was the equivalent of ten -> teen for twenty, so someone out of their teens, but in their (presumably early) twenties. I definitely have seen it used as such on different occasions, but it might have been by non-native speakers, as I am not living in an english-speaking country. Also, in my opinion, the rest of the comic has more of a twenty-somethings-who-never-came-out-of-puberty ring to it than a child's. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.69|162.158.85.69]] 19:41, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
:2 minutes ago I thought the same. I definitely saw that usage as an anglicism in German somewhere. However a quick google search proved, that the definition given here (children aged ~9-12) seems to be the actual one. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:56, 8 January 2020 (UTC)
::I think there are two parallel usages in play. I'm not a native speaker, but "tweens" is used by Tolkien in the Lord of the rings for the twenties in hobbits, who are only considered adult in their early thirties. Any usage derived from this probably refers to the early twenties. The books (and later the films) are a staple of popular culture around the world, so that slipping into a current vocabulary would not surprise me. Wether it was redefined to mean another age group by someone not familiar with the story or reinvented via a different etymology is a mystery to me. Definitely confused me the first time I read it somewhere with the other meaning. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.139|162.158.154.139]] 10:45, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

By my understanding, a "tween" is someone aged (roughly) 10-12, i.e. somewhere "between" early childhood and teenager-hood. {{unsigned ip|108.162.215.118}}

Talk:2266: Leap Smearing

2020-02-11T23:40:43Z

162.158.154.139:

Although to be fair, leap seconds are confusing. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Unpopular Opinions ]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 04:08, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Leap seconds are idiotic. The only people who care about keeping the Earth tied to the time are astronomers. And no one cares about them.[[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:56, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
Oh, you'll care about leap seconds when your GPS starts failing, i assure you.
:Leap seconds are a mess, but so is changing the definition of UTC and letting it drift away from solar time. There are movements to try to make this change, but there are significant obstacles. (For example, the signatories to the 1884 International Meridian Conference agreed that the civil time everyone should use is based on mean solar time, and US Federal Law indicates that the legal time of the US is based on mean solar time.) [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 06:30, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
::If we don't use leap seconds, then the GPS won't use them either. How many seconds difference before we humans could even notice? A century's worth or more, I'm certain. By then we could just fix the wobble of the Earth. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 07:33, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
:::1. You use “we humans”, who do you think is studying and correcting with leap seconds? Robots? 2. I don’t think you realize just how quickly that would cause problems. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 12:52, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
:Leap seconds are added rougly every couple of years. If we stopped, it would take about a century to be off by a minute, and 6,000 years to be off by an hour. So maybe we should just plan on every 6K years we skip Daylight Saving Time to recover that hour. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:26, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
::For half a year, then we're back to the situation we were ignoring. ;) ((Obviously, what we might need to do is move the Prime Meridian, send it on a very slow "world tour" by passing it onto the next suitable city. But I'm a bit of a conservative when it comes to historic locations, so we should just put Greenwich Observatory on {{w|Mortal_Engines|wheels}}, or {{w|Inverted_World|rails}}, if necessary.)) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.139|162.158.154.139]] 23:37, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

I believe the actual time would be 11:42am (on the 11th of February). [[User:Dakranon|Dakranon]] ([[User talk:Dakranon|talk]]) 06:20, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
:But the comic was released on 10t February Monday as always, but the date was written wrongly on the comic here. I have treid to calculate the time on February 10th. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:21, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

I think there is an error in the calculations given in the explanation, but it's possible some bistromathics got involved instead. By my reckoning, 24 hours smeared over 28 "days" make each "day" 24/28 hours (≈ 51 minutes, 26 seconds) longer than a day instead of 24/29. Also, conveniently for my calculations, the end of "14 February" should be exactly halfway through the month, meaning the CEO should have until exactly noon on the 15th to get away with the given excuse (12 extra hours, not 11). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.239|172.69.33.239]] 10:27, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

You guys are all missing the point! We should apply non-leap smearing to the other 11 months so that EVERY month has 28 days. No more crazy calendar day-shifting: if you were born on a Monday(e.g.) your birthday will always be Monday. [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 15:06, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
: Or {{w|Dayworld_(novel_series)|go even further}}... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.92|162.158.155.92]] 17:04, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

As of [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2266:_Leap_Smearing&oldid=187134 right now], I feel like the explanation is a bit of a mess. I already understand this comic but IMO someone who doesn't would not be able to follow this explanation. I think a better structure would be:
# Briefly explain what leap seconds are, since most readers will not know about them.
# Explain the "smear second" approach, and mention how the resulting time deviates by only half a second at the worst time.
# A line like "This comic suggests taking the smear second approach and applying it to leap days"
# Brief explanation/reminder of what leap days are - most readers will be familiar with this concept already, and those that don't can click on a Wikipedia link to read more.
# Explanation of how bad the results would be (some math here), the resulting date&time would be off by 24 hours at the worst time (end of Feb 29 will appear as the end of Feb 28). It's not 12 hours because unlike the smear second, the smear period will not be centered around the leap day but rather the leap day will be at the end of the smear period (which is all of February). Also mention exactly what the clock would show on the day of this comic's publication, and what the in-comic time actually is.

--[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 19:00, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

This would violate the NTP 500ppm maximum slew rate, right? ;)

Talk:2266: Leap Smearing

2020-02-11T23:37:06Z

162.158.154.139:

Although to be fair, leap seconds are confusing. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Unpopular Opinions ]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 04:08, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Leap seconds are idiotic. The only people who care about keeping the Earth tied to the time are astronomers. And no one cares about them.[[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:56, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
Oh, you'll care about leap seconds when your GPS starts failing, i assure you.
:Leap seconds are a mess, but so is changing the definition of UTC and letting it drift away from solar time. There are movements to try to make this change, but there are significant obstacles. (For example, the signatories to the 1884 International Meridian Conference agreed that the civil time everyone should use is based on mean solar time, and US Federal Law indicates that the legal time of the US is based on mean solar time.) [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 06:30, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
::If we don't use leap seconds, then the GPS won't use them either. How many seconds difference before we humans could even notice? A century's worth or more, I'm certain. By then we could just fix the wobble of the Earth. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 07:33, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
:::1. You use “we humans”, who do you think is studying and correcting with leap seconds? Robots? 2. I don’t think you realize just how quickly that would cause problems. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 12:52, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
:Leap seconds are added rougly every couple of years. If we stopped, it would take about a century to be off by a minute, and 6,000 years to be off by an hour. So maybe we should just plan on every 6K years we skip Daylight Saving Time to recover that hour. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:26, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
::For half a year, then we're back to the situation we were ignoring. ;) ((Obviously, what we might need to do is move the Prime Meridian, send it on a very slow "world tour" by passing it onto the next suitable city. But I'm a bit of a conservative when it comes to historic locations, so we should just put Greenwich Observatory on [[w|Mortal_Engines|wheels]], or [[w|Inverted_World|rails], if necessary.)) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.139|162.158.154.139]] 23:37, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

I believe the actual time would be 11:42am (on the 11th of February). [[User:Dakranon|Dakranon]] ([[User talk:Dakranon|talk]]) 06:20, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
:But the comic was released on 10t February Monday as always, but the date was written wrongly on the comic here. I have treid to calculate the time on February 10th. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:21, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

I think there is an error in the calculations given in the explanation, but it's possible some bistromathics got involved instead. By my reckoning, 24 hours smeared over 28 "days" make each "day" 24/28 hours (≈ 51 minutes, 26 seconds) longer than a day instead of 24/29. Also, conveniently for my calculations, the end of "14 February" should be exactly halfway through the month, meaning the CEO should have until exactly noon on the 15th to get away with the given excuse (12 extra hours, not 11). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.239|172.69.33.239]] 10:27, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

You guys are all missing the point! We should apply non-leap smearing to the other 11 months so that EVERY month has 28 days. No more crazy calendar day-shifting: if you were born on a Monday(e.g.) your birthday will always be Monday. [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 15:06, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
: Or {{w|Dayworld_(novel_series)|go even further}}... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.92|162.158.155.92]] 17:04, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

As of [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2266:_Leap_Smearing&oldid=187134 right now], I feel like the explanation is a bit of a mess. I already understand this comic but IMO someone who doesn't would not be able to follow this explanation. I think a better structure would be:
# Briefly explain what leap seconds are, since most readers will not know about them.
# Explain the "smear second" approach, and mention how the resulting time deviates by only half a second at the worst time.
# A line like "This comic suggests taking the smear second approach and applying it to leap days"
# Brief explanation/reminder of what leap days are - most readers will be familiar with this concept already, and those that don't can click on a Wikipedia link to read more.
# Explanation of how bad the results would be (some math here), the resulting date&time would be off by 24 hours at the worst time (end of Feb 29 will appear as the end of Feb 28). It's not 12 hours because unlike the smear second, the smear period will not be centered around the leap day but rather the leap day will be at the end of the smear period (which is all of February). Also mention exactly what the clock would show on the day of this comic's publication, and what the in-comic time actually is.

--[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 19:00, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

This would violate the NTP 500ppm maximum slew rate, right? ;)

1998: GDPR

2018-05-27T08:37:09Z

162.158.154.139: Its

{{comic
| number = 1998
| date = May 25, 2018
| title = GDPR
| image = gdpr.png
| titletext = By clicking anywhere, scrolling, or closing this notification, you agree to be legally bound by the witch Sycorax within a cloven pine.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic was released on the date on which the {{w|General Data Protection Regulation|General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)}} law went into effect. Most people will have already seen a large number of updated privacy policies in the week or two leading up to this law going active. And while [[xkcd]] would likely be outside of the jurisdiction that the law can enforce, it technically does fall within the scope of the law (as certainly EU citizens visit xkcd).

There are several references made to this law, but also several jokes are included about the way people treat privacy policies specifically, and user agreements in general.

The comic is a joke privacy policy, with terms that no one would agree to under normal circumstances. In most cases, website users will use websites without reading the policies, potentially "agreeing" to something unexpected.

"purely out of the goodness of our hearts" is a phrase never expected to be found ever anywhere in any privacy policy. "and has nothing to do with ..." is a blatantly transparent lie - if this were a real privacy policy.

"governs your interactions" starts out as a plausibly valid statement including "the service" and "the website". But then balloons outward to include the entire Internet and Facebook. As this presumably is a privacy policy only for XKCD, this policy should not attempt to claim that it also represents Facebook or the entire Internet. The extension to Facebook may be a reference to reports that [https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/facebook-is-the-internet-for-many-people-in-south-east-asia-20180322-p4z5nu.html "for many people ... Facebook is the Internet."]

"Please don't send us your personal information" is also a phrase never expected to be found ever in a privacy policy. A privacy policy, by default, is a contract users agree to BECAUSE personal information is being stored. This is likely a reference to the previous comic [[1997: Business Update]]

The agreement claims that it does not "deny or disparage" any of the user's other rights, but then immediately denies the user the right not to quarter troops in there home, which is a constitutional right described by the {{w|Third Amendment to the United States Constitution}}. Refusing to quarter troops in one's home was previously referenced in [[496: Secretary: Part 3]]. Note that the Third Amendment only applies to Americans. However, similar laws preventing troops being quartert in ones home also exist in European countries.

"If you tell us your name" is presumably something that Randall does in real life and is not part of a privacy policy.

"This website places pixels" is something websites are designed to do and has nothing to do with privacy policies. Websites are more often employing "callback pixels" from companies such as Facebook and Twitter, which is an image file that is hosted on an external server that allows cross-platform and cross-session tracking for targeted advertisements. This is a controversial topic, as many people are against this kind of targeted advertising.

"We use cookies to enhance your performance." apparently says that Randall is giving out actual cookies that can be eaten. Privacy policies normally deal with electronic cookies that track user activity and store personal information.

"may use local storage" is threatening to turn the user's device into cloud storage should Randall run out of space on his drive.

The [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Warning_beacons_of_Gondor Warning beacons of Gondor] were a system to call for aid used by {{w|Gondor}} in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}''. They were used before the [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Siege_of_Gondor Battle of the Pelennor Fields] to request the aid of the {{w|Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohirrim}}. The use of the Beacons has previously been mentioned in [[921: Delivery Notification]].

{{w|3rd Party}} was a three-member dance-pop group that released one album in 1997, "Alive". In software, "third-party extensions" are small programs that plug into a larger program to modify its behavior, and are created neither by the maker of the larger program nor the user.

"requesting permission" can be construed in several frightening ways. 1. We will ask you after you die if you are willing to donate your organs. 2. We were not asking permission before, but now we have to ask. 3. We will ask you, but your answer doesn't actually matter. 4. We've switched from an organ donation program (legal) to an organ harvesting program (wildly illegal). 5. Anyone ''not'' in the EU will have (or, possibly, ''continue'' to have) their organs harvested without permission. Besides these frightening scenarios, there is also the question of how a website (and not a doctor) is going to perform the harvesting.

"supersedes" is an apparently valid statement. Its inclusiveness is quite extreme, but appears to be a technically valid statement. However, many laws and constitutional rights cannot be superseded by an ordinary privacy policy.

"unenforceable" claims to have higher jurisdiction than any court and can somehow maintain legality even if a court disagrees. A typical policy would read that an unenforceable provision would not invalidate the rest of the policy.

"not liable" and "shall not be construed" are blanket statements that are supposed to have limiters. For example, a restaurant could have a policy stating "not liable for burns received from our hot coffee." A statement made to a court could say "The defendant's statement of giving the prostitute money shall not be construed as an admission of committing a crime." This makes little sense when claiming the website “is not liable” for anything, and “shall not be construed” to have any meaning whatsoever.

The Food and Drug Administration has nothing to do with privacy policies. As such, this is an accurate statement. Silly, but accurate.

"cure and treat any disease" is claiming to be a medical panacea. Panacea do not exist. It is also mocking the label on many food and health supplements, which are legally required to say they are “not intended to cure or treat any disease.”

The title text is a reference to Shakespeare's "{{w|The Tempest}}", in which the witch {{w|Sycorax}} imprisoned the sprite Ariel in a cloven pine prior to Ariel's rescue by Prospero.

==Transcript==
:[The picture shows a long text:]
:'''Privacy policy'''
:We've updated our privacy policy. This is purely out of the goodness of our hearts, and has nothing to do with any hypothetical unions on any particular continents. Please read every part of this policy carefully, and don't just skip ahead looking for sex scenes.
:This policy governs your interactions with this website, herein referred to as "The Service", "The Website", "The Internet", or "Facebook", and with all other websites and organizations of any kind. The enumeration in this policy, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the users. By using this service, you opt in to quartering troops in your home.

:'''Your personal information'''
:Please don't send us your personal information. We do not want your personal information. We have a hard enough time keeping track of our ''own'' personal information, let alone yours.
:If you tell us your name, or any identifying information, we will forget it immediately. The next time we see you, we'll struggle to remember who you are, and try desperately to get through the conversation so we can go online and hopefully figure it out.

:'''Tracking pixels, cookies, and beacons'''
:This website places pixels on your screen in order to form text and images, some of which may remain in your memory after you close the page. We use cookies to enhance your performance. Our website may use local storage on your device if we run low on space on our end. We may use beacons to call Rohan for aid.

:'''3rd party extension'''
:This service may utilize 3rd party extensions in order to play the song '''''Can U Feel It''''' from their debut album '''''Alive'''''.

:'''Permission'''
:For users who are citizens of the European Union, we will now be requesting permission before initiating organ harvesting.

:'''Scope and limitations'''
:This policy supersedes any application federal, state, and local laws, regulations and ordinances, international treaties, and legal agreements that would otherwise apply. If any provision of this policy is found by a court to be unenforceable, it nevertheless remains in force.
:This organization is not liable and this agreement shall not be construed. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This website is intended to treat, cure and prevent any disease.
:If you know anyone in Europe, please tell them we're cool.

{{comic discussion}}

1823: Hottest Editors

2017-04-12T16:30:25Z

162.158.154.139: fixed double pipe in DNA digital storage link

{{comic
| number = 1823
| date = April 12, 2017
| title = Hottest Editors
| image = hottest_editors.png
| titletext = Elon Musk finally blocked me from the internal Tesla repository because I wouldn't stop sending pull requests for my code supporting steering via vim keybindings.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs explanation of title text.}}

The comic has a play on the word 'Editor'. The editors from 1995 to 2000 are plain-text editors, popular among many programmers and other computer scientists to edit machine-readable text.
Two of the earlier editors, {{w|Vim (text editor)|Vim}} and {{w|Emacs|Emacs}}, allow the user to perform common actions (like scrolling, marking text, saving or searching) using keyboard shortcuts.
As Vim and Emacs use different shortcuts, someone who is proficient in one editor may have difficulty using the other editor, since the shortcuts are different.
The 'Editor wars' refer to Vim and Emacs users debating heavily on which of the two editors is the best (for which keyboard shortcuts, or bindings, are just one of the arguments employed).
Modern editors (including Notepad++ and Sublime Text) mainly use the shortcuts determined the operating system, again different from Vim and Emacs.

{{w|Notepad++}} is a popular text and source code editor, initially released in 2003. {{w|Sublime Text}} is the current "most popular" text editor according to Randall, released in 2008.

The 2020 editor '{{w|CRISPR}}' is not a text editor, but a technique used to edit DNA. The comic may suggests that we will not be editing digital plain-text files, but DNA in 2020, possibly due to advances in {{w|DNA digital data storage}}.

To make the transition between editors easier, some editors offer Vim or Emacs key-bindings: the shortcuts will be (roughly) the same as in Vim or in Emacs, so that someone who used to be proficient in one of those editors can proceed to use the keyboard shortcuts in the way he or she was used to.
The comic suggests that in 2025, the Vim key-bindings will be the most popular for editing genes using CRISPR.
This creates a comical effect: CRISPR is a technique that operates on genes, and not on digital hardware, so it does not use a keyboard per se. Consequently, it is surprising that CRISPR would have key bindings. The comic also suggests that in 2025, Vim will make a comeback in DNA editing, thus having 'won' the battle with Emacs.

The title text says that Randall has been banned from the code base of {{w|Tesla, Inc.|Tesla}}, as he keeps sending {{w|pull request}}s (code changes) to steer a Tesla car using Vim keybindings. Not only does this seem impossible, but it seems dangerous to steer a car with a (computer) keyboard.

==Transcript==
:Hottest Editors
:--------------------
:1995-2000—[Emacs–Vim Editor war]
:2005—Vim
:2010—Notepad++
:2015—Sublime Text
:2020—CRISPR
:2025—CRISPR (Vim keybindings)

{{comic discussion}}