explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2030: Voting Software

2018-08-09T07:36:02Z

162.158.91.137:

I think this comic is referencing [https://twitter.com/GossiTheDog/status/1026603800365330432 this twitter thread] and the controversy behind it.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.190.4|172.69.190.4]] 17:59, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
: The [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/experts-criticize-west-virginias-plan-for-smartphone-voting/ Experts criticize West Virginia’s plan for smartphone voting] article on ArsTechnica has more information (as much as possible when the company in question does not provide any details (note that it is about overseas voting). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 19:44, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Is he saying it's weird that we're so sophisticated in other areas of computer science but so far behind in voting technology, or is he making fun of the idea that electronic voting is somehow inherently unsafe?--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.106|108.162.216.106]] 18:10, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
: No i think he is saying computer science is a mess and we should not trust it with voting(he is not making fun of the idea of it being unsafe, he is pressing on the point of it being unsafe[saying that all experts agree on that])18:18, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

: I think he's commenting on how in most fields, the experts are very sure that they do their job well, and all the angles have been tried and tested, but in computer science the experts are more certain than anyone that there is ''absolutely no way'' for a person to actually build a complex software system with no flaws or vulnerabilities, even if they controlled every aspect of the system. in practice of course they control very little of the system and understand even less of it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.88|172.68.34.88]] 18:22, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

: He's saying that software development is a terribly buggy process, most likely because the majority of software out there can have bugs without very dire real-world consequences (unlike aircraft or elevators).

::Not to mention the fact that there are incredibly smart people with great interest in undoing the work that software developers do, whereas that isn't at all the case with airplanes or elevators. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.214|108.162.219.214]] 18:29, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

:: Plus there's the general issue that the public as a whole takes the view that "Computers are majykal" (misspelling deliberate) and therefore somehow automatically safe & infallible, despite experts trying very hard to disillusion people about...pretty much all of that. Compare that to the common assumptions about aircraft and elevators--people need the safety verified, instead of assuming it like they do with computers. [[User:Werhdnt|Werhdnt]] ([[User talk:Werhdnt|talk]]) 19:08, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

:::There's a logical fallacy here. To compare airplaneS and elevatorS to a voting system program is comparing plural to singular. There would be significant opportunity to break/modify a single instance of those objects, although without the relative anonymity of electronic access involved. Once a computer system is infiltrated, the break-in can be replicated to all instances of that program relatively instantaneously, assuming communication pathways are available.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.130|162.158.75.130]] 19:12, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

::::No logical fallacy; there have been ''multiple'' attempts to get people to accept a voting system program, and the 'done by a computer=infallible' problem is '''''not''''' unique to voting programs. Mr. Babbage was being confused by people who were thinking it was possible to get the correct answers from a computer despite putting the wrong data in back in the 1860s (at least!), and the computer at the time was not much more than a fancy calculator. [[User:Werhdnt|Werhdnt]] ([[User talk:Werhdnt|talk]]) 20:23, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

A blockchain node doesn't technically need to be connected to the internet in order to function. It needs to have some method for receiving messages from other nodes on the blockchain network, and most blockchain nodes do indeed get these messages via the internet, but some bitcoin nodes (for example) get updates about new blocks and new transactions from the Blockstream satellite. An internet connection is therefore not intrinsically necessary for a blockchain to work, it's just the most convenient way to do it.

Do you think that this comic had anything to do with the debacle in Johnson County, KS last night? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.231|162.158.62.231]] 19:30, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

The comic ignores the fact that modern airplanes are heavily utilizing software of all kinds. A software failure in an aircraft could easily be fatal (and have been so various times in history already, while the consequences of a voting software working incorrect are ''relatively'' harmless), and still airplanes remain safe, as the comic recognizes. --[[User:YMS|YMS]] ([[User talk:YMS|talk]]) 21:05, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

:Airplanes are not connected to internet and reasonably well protected from people putting their USB devices in their control system. Also, they are NOT build by lowest bid contractor. There ARE people now capable of building offline voting machine which would be reasonable secure. They are working in banks and stock exchanges and at those companies providing switches for internet backbone, are extremely well paid and wouldn't ever promise they will get the machine finished in single year. Noone asks THEM to make the voting machines. Voting over internet? With consumer-grade devices? Impossible. (I'm also working in IT, although not on mentioned high-security systems.) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:24, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

::Note that she is talking to aircraft designers, not to software engineers working on fly-by-wire systems (back when I took software engineering you got an answer similar to the one about voting machines when discussing fly-by-wire). I took this more as the aircraft designers glossing over the problems caused by software engineering. A voting system which uses paper ballots, with perhaps computer systems used for some stages of counting would be a reasonable analogy to the redundant systems used in aircraft. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.228|162.158.106.228]] 23:08, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Seems to me that the last panel references the E.T for Atari Desert Burial (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial), perhaps to draw some analogy as to the potential quality or likelihood of success of a Block-chain solution as compared to the ill-fated video game. Anyone think that's worth explaining? [[User:Da_NKP|Da_NKP]] 10:15, 8 August 2018 (UTC) Da_NKP

What motive is there to "mine DemocracyCoin"? Who evaluates this blockchain? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.100|162.158.150.100]] 22:27, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
:That's simple, ideally it would be a private blockchain, and the evaluators would just be every voting computer in existence (They'd all be active for a similar fairly short time period). Presumably the evaluations would be ongoing during the voting process, then could be stopped once voting was complete. The last few votes of the night may not wind up being evaluated. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.225|162.158.74.225]]

Wouldn't it be possible to run said blockchain on one's personal computer, instead of running on a voting machine? and you could compile open source software yourself to perform the voting. That sounds like a solid enough way to keep security fine to me, but if I'm missing something, please tell me. [[User:Gjgfuj|TheSandromatic]] ([[User talk:Gjgfuj|talk]]) 03:25, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
:The bigger challenge in a voting system isn't making sure someone doesn't modify the record, it's making sure that each person only votes once and only for themselves -- think about past internet voting campaigns: Justin Bieber wasn't sent to North Korea by *changed* votes, but rather by flooding the system with *bogus* votes. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.47|172.68.132.47]] 06:26, 9 August 2018 (UTC)
::To be a bit clearer, bitcoin (for example), doesn't and can't enforce that wallets correspond one-to-one with people -- multiple people can share a wallet (if they all know the private key), and one person can have multiple wallets. If you want to guarantee one-to-one correspondence, you have to validate identities and issue unique, signed keys at some prior point. Leaving aside whether or not it's possible to do this part securely and without error (and how big of a target the root signing key would be), you then have millions of people doing their own key management, just like you do with bitcoin. When bitcoin wallets are stolen en masse by key compromises (which does happen), only the wallet owners (who were ostensibly using poor security practices which allowed the compromise) suffer, so the harm is limited. If voting system keys were stolen en masse, but the votes still counted, society as a whole would likely suffer. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.47|172.68.132.47]] 07:03, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

I think a problem that lies within voting machines is that a single flaw can and will be exploited along all machines.
You wouldn't enter a plane if one plane crashing means that all other planes will crash too.

Talk:2030: Voting Software

2018-08-08T19:38:33Z

162.158.91.137: formatting fixes

Talk:1985: Meteorologist

2018-07-29T15:00:48Z

162.158.91.137:

I’ve wondered about this (from both the math and software development perspectives anyway, not the linguist), so I look forward to seeing some actual answers as the explanation gets filled in :) [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 16:36, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
: The weather service has a [https://www.weather.gov/ffc/pop nice explanation] of this. After reading it you come away understanding that the percentage chance is... still almost impossible to discern :) {{unsigned ip|172.68.189.205}}

I really liked this one. I don't know why though. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:35, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

: Yep - all three of the 'experts' express problems that I have with every single weather forecast. It gets worse though. Our local TV station uses a rotating 3D graphic of downtown Austin where the shadows of the buildings flicker violently as it rotates - they've been doing this for YEARS. I'm a 3D computer graphics professional and I know PRECISELY why that is happening (they are rendering the back-faces of the building polygons in the shadow rendering pass instead of the front-faces...trust me on this one!)...I could fix the bug with ONE LINE OF CODE - and I bet I could find and fix it within 20 minutes if left alone with the source code. But when I call them and BEG to be allowed t...'''SECURITY!!!''' [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 17:36, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
::Hah, that's pretty funny, but understandably frustrating. I rarely watch the weather though... that is why I find it a little strange I liked it so much. Have you actually called them though? I mean, if you have proof to show you are a professional...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 12:33, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

; Randall
: wonders about something and puts it in an xkcd comic.
; Explainxkcd participants
: answer Randall's questions for him (and all of his readers).
—[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 20:52, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Am I allowed to be slightly offended by the suggestion that "information being conveyed is to people, who would probably be able to interpret it easily"? Okay, I'm a software engineer, but even if I weren't I'd still not know whether the report system defines "12:00" as "in the period between 12:00 and 13:00" or "between 11:30 and 12:30". I usually wonder, but get so many variants of weather reports exposed to me that I can't be bothered to check which arbitrary decision any given one has made, and whether they all agree. A software engineer might instantly spot the ambiguity, but it affects everyone. [[User:Fluppeteer|Fluppeteer]] ([[User talk:Fluppeteer|talk]]) 23:58, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
:Clearly, what that sentence is trying to convey is that software developers are no longer considered "people" - since, you know, everyone knows that software developers have actually been replaced by robots. ;p
:I agree that that section is pretty poorly worded (in more ways than one) and was likely written by somebody quickly trying to get as much explanation out as possible so that future people could fix it. So, I'm going to see if I can fix that sentence and the surrounding section. [[User:Jeudi Violist|Jeudi Violist]] ([[User talk:Jeudi Violist|talk]]) 01:40, 26 April 2018 (UTC)
As someone who's asked many questions along these lines, this comic makes me happy. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 01:53, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

There is no such thing as "12 [post meridiem]" - it's literally at meridian. Grammatically, "pm" should be capitalized as an abbreviation. Should this be noted? (The linguist could explain it to the programmer.)[[User:Roguetech|Roguetech]] ([[User talk:Roguetech|talk]]) 12:54, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

The text is currently mathematically incorrect about correlated events. The type of correlated described is just a special form. {{unsigned ip|172.68.51.22}}

Captcha1 is no longer working, so you can no longer create new accounts here or edit anonymously. {{unsigned ip|172.68.51.22}}
:See above the explanation. At the time of writing this (and the above comment) this text was there:
Hi all, the upgrade is now going to happen next weekend, the weekend of the 28th/29th. Bear with us as we get up to date and fix the ReCaptcha.
:So just wait a few more days.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:59, 26 April 2018 (UTC)
:Captcha1 works fine, you just have to do what it says (that’s how I’m adding this comment now) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.153|162.158.62.153]] 04:30, 27 April 2018 (UTC)

;New category for weather/meteorology ?
Do we need a new category for meteorology or wheather/wheather forcast, maybe one combining all things to do with weather and possibly climate?
Suggestions for a name for such a category (or if we need it or more than one) would be appreciated.
I have found the following comics apart from this one, that has some clear relation to weather in some form or another:
*[[511: Sleet]]
*[[748: Worst-Case Scenario]]
*[[1245: 10-Day Forecast]]
*[[1324: Weather]]
*[[1410: California]]
*[[1434: Where Do Birds Go]]
*[[1480: Super Bowl]]
*[[1556: The Sky]]
*[[1606: Five-Day Forecast]]
*[[1643: Degrees]]
*[[1885: Ensemble Model]]
*[[1910: Sky Spotters]]
*[[1916: Temperature Preferences]]
Plus of course the whole set from
*[[:Category:Hurricanes ]]
*[[:Category:Tornadoes ]]
and possibly also from
*[[:Category:Climate change]]
Feel free to add your ideas. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:51, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

:I think we can create a new "Weather" or "Meteorology" category, and make the hurricane and tornado categories subcategories of the new weather/meteorology category. But should it be weather or meteorology? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 05:38, 27 April 2018 (UTC)
::How about "Weather and Meteorology"? [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 10:02, 27 April 2018 (UTC)


Re 'even if I weren't I'd still not know whether the report system defines "12:00" as ...': Well, isn't part of the joke that it doesn't really matter? Weather forecasts use all these precise numbers and they have specific definitions for everything, but it's all just approximations -- there are wide error bars that are not mentioned. When they predict the temperature as "68 degrees", I mentally translate that to "high 60's". And "1pm" means "early afternoon". So even though their prediction for 12:00 means from 12:00 to 1:00, it's also likely to be a good approximation for 11:30 to 12:30. .
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:29, 27 April 2018 (UTC)

1) '... there is a certain "resistance" to speech without a subject. Thus if you are in the passenger seat of a car going down the highway and happened to see some deer in the trees nearby, you could simply say "Deer.", rather than "there is a deer over there", deer being the subject of the sentence.' Sure, you can! How do you know that the person said "Deer" and not "Dear"? 2) If you are one of those who prefer punctuation inside quotes, note that "Dear?" is not the samething as "Dear." as the pitch could be used to disambiguate "Deer." and "Dear?"; this is not the case for "Deer." and "Dear." 3) "Of course it should be pointed out that hiring someone without any meteorological training to read the weather does not make them an actual meteorologist, no more than say hiring a bricklayer as a doctor would actually make them a real doctor." So what is "a real doctor"? I consider that a real doctor is someone who has a doctorate (degree). Some consider it to be someone who is a medical doctor (and who probably does not have a doctorate). 4) My degree is a minor in Math, a major in Computing Science, and one course in it was in Linguistics. Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.220|108.162.216.220]] 05:45, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
:The chance is 20%+20%*0.8+20%*0.64+20%*0.512+20%0.4096=20%+16%+12.8%+10.24%+8.192%=67.232%. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 15:00, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2021: Software Development

2018-07-18T17:10:28Z

162.158.91.137:

It seems to me that the cannon is a metaphor for powerful hardware. The drill is a metaphor for elegant and efficient code. The computer is so powerful that the fact that the elegance or efficiency of the code is irrelevant to how it is actually used.[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 15:48, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Hi, first time posting ;)
To me it seems that the Title text is an example how after some time and many updates the original solution becomes some kind of abomination. Used in abstruse ways for something it was never intended for just because it works and is a quick and simple fix. After some time one always ends up doing unnecessary and arbitrary things in order to get what you actually wanted to achive. Like loading projectiles into a cannon just to use it as a battering ram.

2019: An Apple for a Dollar

2018-07-15T14:07:10Z

162.158.91.137:

{{comic
| number = 2019
| date = July 13, 2018
| title = An Apple for a Dollar
| image = an_apple_for_a_dollar.png
| titletext = I'd like 0.4608 apples, please.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] is about to buy an apple at a grocery store when she is surprised that the price is exactly one dollar. In most cases in the US, {{w|Sales taxes in the United States|sales tax}} must be taken into account, and it is not included in the list price, but most states exempt food sold in grocery stores, so the price comes out to a round value. This is so strange for Megan that it throws her for a loop. Buying one apple for one dollar feels to her more like a simplified, imaginary ''Idea'' of a transaction (a "{{w|Platonic Ideal}}") than like something that could actually happen in real life.

Megan likely shares Randall's background of engineering and math. When learning science, engineering, and math in the education system, one studies examples where every number is some round value, and all situations are simplified to the barest essentials so as to demonstrate the ideas being taught. Then, when doing real problems in the real world, one spends the rest of one's life almost never being able to use the simplified tricks demonstrated as examples in school, because when math is used to describe the natural world, nothing is ever a round number unless by design.

Megan references {{w|Platonic Idealism}}, which is the theory attributed to Plato that abstract or non-physical Ideas represent the purest, most accurate version of reality, but we can only perceive of more flawed versions of Ideas because of our limited viewpoint (as explained in his Allegory of the Cave). Thus we can understand the concept of a perfect circle or a perfect line, even though we have never seen one, and cannot create one. Megan believes she has glimpsed a Platonic Ideal, because the absolute concept of currency is it is the exact worth of something in trade. Megan is awed because if this is true, than she is witnessing the next layer of reality, which Plato often compared to heaven.

The harsh difference between being able to buy an apple for a dollar at this quaint store, and having to deal with arbitrary decimals and numbers in the rest of life could be touching on Megan's life experience of the world not being what she was prepared for, resulting in her intense response. Regardless if that is true or not, it seems the cashier is unable to figure out how to handle it (or does not want to), and raises the price to an arbitrary non-rounded value, which has the intended effect of halting Megan's outburst.

Megan's references refer to common parameters used in solving science or math questions. A {{w|Frictionless plane}} is a scenario from the writings of Galileo to calculate the movement of an object down an {{w|inclined plane}}, since his equations did not account for {{w|friction}}.

"A train leaving Chicago at 40 mph" refers to common math questions, involving trains and solving for the distance required to overtake said train, although this problem involves the rather unrealistic assumption that the train's velocity keeps constant. Like the frictionless plane, this is a common simplification that allows the problem to be solved with quite simple techniques, just like having round quantities (e.g. 1 dollar/apple) eases arithmetic problems. See also [[669: Experiment]]. Apples themselves are commonly used as units for math problems, including problems as simple as basic arithmetic.

The comic repeats a common theme in the strip of engineers and computer scientists trying to apply their technical experience to social situations. In this case, the conversation partner is "normal", and does not respond supportively, which is a common situation in the real world and a possible point of empathy with readers.

It seems that according to the title text, Megan only has (or only wants to spend) one dollar, so she would not be able to buy a whole apple at the new price (0.4608 × $2.17 ≈ $1). Stores usually sell whole apples, so asking for a fraction of one is not likely to work out.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Megan is at the store counter, behind which Ponytail (the cashier) is waiting.]
:Megan: Just this apple, thanks.
:Ponytail: That will be one dollar.
:Megan: Exactly? No tax or anything?
:Ponytail: That's right.

:[Megan stares at the apple in a frameless panel.]

:[Scene zooms in on Megan.]
:Ponytail: ...Is that a problem?
:Megan: It's just weird to realize that every other transaction in my life will be more complicated than this.

:[Scene changes focus to Ponytail behind the counter.]
:Megan: This is like a platonic ideal exchange. An apple for a dollar.
:Ponytail: I see.

:[Scene changes back to Megan, once again lost in profound contemplation of the apple.]
:Megan: Are we on a frictionless plane? Is a train leaving Chicago at 40 mph? ''Should I solve for something??''
:Ponytail: Okay, apples are $2.17 now.
:Megan: That's... probably better for us both.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:903: Extended Mind

2018-07-13T14:51:13Z

162.158.91.137: moved comment to bottom

Title text is true - unless you happen to stumble upon any one of: {{w|Fact}}, {{w|Proof (truth)}}, {{w|Evidence}}, or {{w|Truth}}. Then you'll be stranded in an eternal loop.
:What do you mean? {{w|Fact}} works fine, you get there in 7 steps. Proof gets you there in 6 - you go to {{w|Necessity and Sufficiency}} not {{w|Evidence}}. Same for {{w|Evidence}}. {{w|Truth}} leads you to {{w|Fact}}. So all of your examples actually work.
--[[User:T0IVI|T0IVI]] ([[User talk:T0IVI|talk]]) 09:27, 28 December 2012 (UTC)
:Also, I add another rule to my wikiwalks: No purple links. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.101|108.162.218.101]] 21:05, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
:'''Logic''' leads you to '''reason''', which leads you to '''consciousness''', which leads you to '''quality''', which leads you to '''propery''', which takes you back to logic.
[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 23:33, 22 May 2014 (UTC)[[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]]

Yeah, I hit a loop on the page Community. Went right from National community to Community again. {{unsigned|69.91.105.111}}

These infinite loops seem to be 'fixed', I went through fact and other stuff right to philosophy.{{unsigned|141.35.48.11}}

Another loop is "England". It goes right to "Countries of the United Kingdom" which returns immediately to England.

Found one! Logic now seems to go to arguments and right back. 6/3/2016 in case it changes. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.70}}

Changed arguments goes to philosophy [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.58|162.158.63.58]] 19:33, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Finally we all end up in {{w|Reality}}. [[Special:Contributions/85.178.28.173|85.178.28.173]] 21:16, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

I do have to say that the best loop that doesn't feed to Philosophy is {{w|Sand Fence}} and {{w|Snow Fence}}. The first sentence of each article is identical except for switching the instances of sand and snow. --[[Special:Contributions/68.97.21.122|68.97.21.122]] 05:17, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

:actually sand fence leads to fence, which leads eventually to fortification, military, lethal force, human being, and that obviously that leads up to philosophy. what made you think that a fence would let you escape this trap that is philosophy.[[User:TheJonyMyster|TheJonyMyster]] ([[User talk:TheJonyMyster|talk]]) 03:07, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

:: The Sand Fence <--> Snow Fence loop used to exist, but the articles have now been substantially updated. Like you've noted, Sand Fence now reaches Philosophy, and thus so does Snow Fence (which still links to Sand Fence). --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 08:45, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

::: I get stuck in the Sand Fence <--> Snow Fence loop! Except you hit the cleanup link in the cleanup-banner. But how did you get to Sand Fence in the first place ? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.253.144|108.162.253.144]] 00:22, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Saying that everything ends up in "philosophy" is simply choosing from a long list of possible entries to suit an argument. I found it much more interesting, having gotten to philosophy, to keep going through the loop, then to see where certain pages drop you into said loop. The loop currenty is reality, existence, world, human, hominini, tribe, biology, natural science, sciences, knowledge, fact, proof, necessity and sufficiency, logic, reason, consciousness, quality (philosophy), property (philosophy), modern philosophy, then finally philosophy. It's as if we've stumbled upon a new classification of knowledge. If only we could look recursively at ALL the things that lead into a certain topic in the loop. For example, goat drops you into the loop at biology, which makes perfect sense, but Volvo drops you in at natural sciences from a very convoluted path which includes physics, time, dimension, list of time periods, and scandinavia. In other words, it's the journey not the destination that I find interesting. - naginalf [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.40|108.162.216.40]] 15:39, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Randall is either mistaken or intentionally misinformative (or rather, politically correct) in his IQ estimates. What's a car hyperbole aside, the cluelessness, sentence length, and spelling of the outage-messages remind of a person in their low 90s-high 80s, if not lower, and Randall is clearly more than 120, (conservative) average for physics majors as it might be. [[Special:Contributions/178.42.101.38|178.42.101.38]] 20:08, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
:He said himself that he '''tries not to get too specific with those things'''. And besides, the exact IQ drop doesn't matter, it's just there to make a point. But anyway, a quick check shows it is incorrect, the average IQ for a physics major is about 130, while average IQ is about 90~110, which means dropping 30 points would not reduce his intelligence to the point where he doesn't know what a car is. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 09:10, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

;What can we learn?
I've learned that memorizing facts is so yesteryear. Over next few years facts will be even easier to find, understand, use, reference and forget. When in school we should concentrate not on memorizing facts we can look up later, but rather new methods to think outside the box full of facts others placed inside it. (Thank you Mr. XKCD) - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 13:42, 28 February 2013 (UTC)
: That is true, but the overhead for looking something up versus remembering it is usually great enough that memorizing some things (multiplication tables come to mind) can increase the speed we can arrive at conclusions, or can give us other options (correlation between spark plug gapping and engine performance) that might not have come to mind otherwise. Outside of that, even though we forget much of it, having a vague sense of things (dates, locations/countries, etc) allow us to start out knowing at least something (order of things that occurred, Egypt being in Africa, Pythagorean theorem). This is just my opinion, and I may be biased, since I like facts. [[User:Tryc|Tryc]] ([[User talk:Tryc|talk]]) 13:19, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

You can't teach everyone to think outside the box, that would spoil my advantage over the common man. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 03:03, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Wikiloop: (noun) A loop that results in wikipedia articles from clicking the first link not in brackets or italics over and over again.
Here is the most commonly encountered wikiloop. (Reality is also the first link in Philosophy) --[[User:ParadoX|ParadoX]] ([[User talk:ParadoX|talk]]) 09:03, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
Reality
Existence
World
Human
Primate
Mammal
Clade
Tree of life (biology)
Metaphor
Figure of speech
Word
Linguistics
Science
Knowledge
Fact
Reality

...
:I just tried and today the article ''Humans'' have been changed so the first word is no longer primate but Hominini. And from there you can get back to Philosophy. So you still enter a loop (of 24 steps) from when you start from Philosophy, but you end up back at Philosophy, so the rule now also applies to Philosophy. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:35, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

...

Another one is Coffee. It goes Coffee-Coffee Preparation - Coffee. {{unsigned ip|108.162.218.185}}

:The route is:
:Starting point:
:''Philosophy''
#Reality
#Existence
#World
#Human
#'''Hominini'''
#Tribe (biology)
#Biology
#Natural science
#Science
#Knowledge
#Fact
#Experience
#Experiment
#Hypothesis
#Explanation
#Set (mathematics)
#Mathematics
#Quantity
#Property (philosophy)
#Logic
#Reason
#Consciousness
#Quality (philosophy)
#''Philosophy''

:Just tried the philosophy test from {{w|The Lion King}} movie, (20 years anniversary - [[891: Movie Ages |it makes you feel old]]) and it of course also worked from there ;-) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:35, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

;wikipedia outages

There was a major outage in 2005 when a power failure hit their database servers http://cyberbrahma.com/power-corrupts-power-failure-corrupts-absolutely/. I also remember countless minor outages over the years (though not recently). -- plugwash
:And just after I wrote the above wikipedia went down....... -- plugwash {{unsigned}}

::Yeah, a link like {{w|Sand Fence}} should be work like {{w|Sand fence}}, but it doesn't right now. So some outages for the "Extended Mind"... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

...

I found another loop - start with any President of the United States, and it'll end up looping between "United States Constitution" and "Supremacy Clause." [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.70|173.245.54.70]] 14:08, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Doesn't work for my favorite sport for the time. There is a loop between "Decathlon" and "Combined track and field events"... {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.63}}

A loop exists at mathematics. Mathematics -> Quantity -> Counting -> Finite Set -> Mathematics. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.240|173.245.50.240]] 19:25, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

I tried Higgs Boson, Masiakasaurus, and Minecraft. They go to Philosophy. I did find a loop on linguistics however. I started on a. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.217|172.68.189.217]] 02:26, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

I hit the "random" button 10 times and got stuck in a loop with Knowledge, Facts, Semiotics, and Mathematics. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.99|173.245.48.99]] 22:47, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

"[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence Existence] currently has a "please improve it" banner. It could be improved by making the first link lead to "philosophy". ;) [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:28, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
:Hm, the template for the sidebar already comes first in the source code. So if you define "first link" to be the first one in order of source code, then the first link to an article is already "philosophy". But before that, there's "series", which links to Category:Philosophy, that to Category:Branches_of_philosophy (in the table of contents), that to Category:Aesthetics, then Aesthetics, then actually "philosophy"! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 09:33, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Searched wikipedia for deinotherium, ended up in an eternal loop from “Mathematics” did not encounter “Philosophy”. Why, title text?!? --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.210.22|172.69.210.22]] 20:53, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T08:09:34Z

162.158.91.137:

[[First]] post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, the explanation looks like a train wreck, and I'm not sure if a rearranging it into a table or just adding bullet points to everything is better. I'm guessing that a table would be better, but I don't know how I can rearrange it. Can somebody help? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Added a table layout to the [[explain_xkcd:Sandbox|sandbox]]. Might be of some use to another editor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 07:32, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Never ever have I heard anyone pronounce SQL as "sequel" - Is that a reqional dialect? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.15|162.158.93.15]] 07:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I heard it's common among MS-SQL users.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
:: Oh BTW, look at our IPs. Are you an easybell customer? :-) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:09, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I want to take a moment to congratulate the dedication of whomever wrote the original explanation. Second languages are hard, bro. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 07:48, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T08:02:53Z

162.158.91.137:

[[First]] post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, the explanation looks like a train wreck, and I'm not sure if a rearranging it into a table or just adding bullet points to everything is better. I'm guessing that a table would be better, but I don't know how I can rearrange it. Can somebody help? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: Added a table layout to the [[explain_xkcd:Sandbox|sandbox]]. Might be of some use to another editor. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.45|162.158.74.45]] 07:32, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

Never ever have I heard anyone pronounce SQL as "sequel" - Is that a reqional dialect? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.15|162.158.93.15]] 07:41, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
: I heard it's common among MS-SQL users.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 08:02, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

I want to take a moment to congratulate the dedication of whomever wrote the original explanation. Second languages are hard, bro. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.10|108.162.215.10]] 07:48, 19 February 2018 (UTC)

1957: 2018 CVE List

2018-02-19T08:00:54Z

162.158.91.137: Explaining the "text injection" XSS issue

{{comic
| number = 1957
| date = February 19, 2018
| title = 2018 CVE List
| image = 2018_cve_list.png
| titletext = CVE-2018-?????: It turns out Bruce Schneier is just two mischevious kids in a trenchcoat.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - The explanation looks like a list. Explain the comic and put the security vulnerabilities in a table. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

CVE stands for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures : a list of bugs detected in software and hardware, this list is the equivalen of the meme of "Memes of 2018 leaked"

Apple Products Crash refers to a current vulnerability in Macos and iphone
This new text bomb crashes most Mac and iOS apps with a single Unicode symbol (techcrunch.com FEb 15, 2018)

Timing Attack to explit a race condition in garbaje collection refers to Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws that can be exploited in cloud server like the ones in wikipedia

Post it note on a cafe refers to the hawaian missile alert incident

The "remote attacker can inject arbitrary text into public-facing pages via the comments box" issue describes a common feature on news sites or social media sites like Facebook. The possibility for users to "inject" text into the page is by design. This is a humorous reference to the relatively common security vulnerability "persistent cross-site scripting", where input provided by the user is displayed to other users in a dangerous fashion that allows attackers to inject arbitrary HTML or Javascript code into e.g. a comment section. It might also be a humorous reference to the events before, during and after the 2016 US Presidential elections where Internet Research Agency employees based remotely in St. Petersburg, Russia, but disguised as US citizens, "injected" arbitrary text in the form of political propaganda into comments on multiple web sites, according to an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on February 16, 2018.

MySQL server 5.5.45 parallel tables (unknow)

Flaw in some X86 CPU: refers to DOM0 attacks on Virtualization CPUs, regulary escalate from normal(few privileges) to root (full privileges), this is the inverse.

Apple products catch fire: Mix between the first CVE and the Samnsung exploding phones

Dog in basebal team likely refers to the movie Air Bud. It's a movie about a dog playing basketball [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Bud]]

Haskell is a functional programing languaje, funcional programing is characterized by using functions that dont have side effects in other parts of the program.

Nobody Knows how hypervisors work : Virtualization programing is hard, Meltdown and Specter are related to this

CRITICAL: Under Linux 3.14.8 OnSystem/390: jokes about arcane systems that are running linux, that have bugs that nobody can replicate because there are no more machines on this type where reproduce the bug to fix it.

x86 has way too many instructions: there are a joke account for random acronyms of processor assembled languaje many of them are overspecialized version of general ones

Numpy 1.8.0 can factor primes in O( Log(N)) : NumPy is the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python. If something can factor primes that fast, there are attacks to break many crypto functions used in internet security, then must be deprecated because there are not replacements

Apple products grant remote access if you send : another joke on the first CVE and a common english write rule. That's weird.

Skylake x86 chips are a line of microprocesors, yes, you can remove forcefully any procesador from his socket with a screwdriver , there are many reports from people not using common sense.

Linux Torvals is the benebolent dictator of the Linux kernel codebase, normally is hard to pass a change because he has the last word about what merge to the code base because that code is replicated in all linux instalations, but apparently is easy to bribe, that is a severe creitical vulnerability to all linux server and machines

"An attacker can excecute malicious code .. " is a common CVE description

Apple products excute any code printed over a photo , can refer to a CVE vulnerability of JPG files where javascript is executed by some application, only this time is in a printed photo instead of a file .

"Under rare circunstances, a flaw ... " is another common CVE description, Flash was discontinued because is abismal security record. All security experts advise against install.

"Turns out the cloud is just another peopleś computer" refers to a computer meme where replace "cloud" with "another peopleś computer" must be used in all marketing presentation to CEOs and not computer literate persons to evaluate the security impact of using "Cloud services"

Mitress CVE database is the database where all CVE are listed, this is a joke between the 4th CVE in this list pointing that the site is also vulnerable

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

LEAKED LIST OF MAJOR 2018 SECURITY VULNERABILITIES

CVE-2018-????? Apple products crash when displaying certain Telugu or Bengali letter combinations.

CVE-2018-????? An attacker can use a timing attack to extploit[sic] a race condition in garbage collection to extract a limited number of bits from the Wikipedia article on Claude Shannon.

CVE-2018-????? At the cafe on third street, the post-it note with the wifi password is visible from the sidewalk.

CVE-2018-????? A remote attacker can inject arbitrary text into public-facing pages via the comments box.

CVE-2018-????? MySQL server 55.45 secretly runs two parallel databases for people who say "S-Q-L" and "sequel."

CVE-2018-????? A flaw in some x86 CPUs could allow a root user to de-escalate to normal account privileges.

CVE-2018-????? Apple products catch fire when displaying emoji with diacritics.

CVE-2018-????? An oversight in the rules allows a dog to join a basketball team.

CUE-2018-????? Haskell isn't side-effect-free after all; the effects are all just concentrated in this one. Computer in Missouri that no one's checked on in a while.

CVE-2018-????? Nobody really knows how hypervisors work.

CVE-2018-????? CRITICAL: Under Linux 3.14.8 on System/390 in a UTC+14 time zone, a local user could potentially use a buffer overflow to change another user's default system clock from 12-hour to 24-hour.

CVE-2018-????? x86 has way too many instructions.

CVE-2018-????? Numpy 1.8.0 can factor primes in O(log n) time and must be quietly deprecated before anyone notices.

CVE-2018-????? Apple products grant remote access if you send them words that break the "I before E" rule.

CVE-2018-????? Skylake x86 chips can be pried from their sockets using certain flathead screwdrivers.

CVE-2018-????? Apparently Linus Torvalds can be bribed pretty easily.

CVE-2018-????? An attacker can execute malicious code on their own machine and no one can stop them.

CVE-2018-????? Apple products execute any code printed over a photo of a dog with a saddle and a baby riding it.

CVE-2018-????? Under rare circumstances, a flaw in some versions of Windows could allow Flash to be installed.

CVE-2018-????? Turns out the cloud is just other people's computers.

CVE-2018-????? A flaw in Mitre's CVE database allows arbitrary code insertion.[~~CLICK HERE FOR CHEAP VIAGRA~~]

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1794: Fire

2017-02-05T17:35:50Z

162.158.91.137:

This is probably the first time I have ZERO idea what the comic is supposed to mean... --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.88|141.101.96.88]] 17:02, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Seems to be a reference to the way fire departments measure fire intensity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-alarm_fire
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.161|108.162.212.161]] 17:12, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

The joke being that because its an alarm factory its 50,000 alarms, the amount of physical alarms on site, as opposed to the alarm rating given by the fire commander [[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.70|162.158.142.70]] 17:14, 3 February 2017 (UTC) MrMX

The exaggeration of the alarm rate can be a reference on how current media in US are driven to report on harmless events in a much more drastic way. It's maybe a reference to the "alternative facts" that we get told where the press spokesman exaggerates the number of people attending a presidential inauguration or the other spokeswoman to talk about a massacre that never happened. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 17:35, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Not sure the alarms have to be functioning or "set off" to be relevant, they could just be alarms, in whatever state, that are on fire. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.76|172.68.54.76]] 17:24, 3 February 2017 (UTC)Fred
-- Could even be burglar alarms, or medical alarms... Though 50.000 fire alarms that actually somehow simultaneously catch fire is funny. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.209|141.101.104.209]] 19:25, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

"We didn't start the fire" :-) [[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 18:44, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Billy Joel also sings "An Innocent Man" in which he reiterates through the chorus "I am an innocent man". "We Didn't Start the Fire" is clearly the most relevant, but this is a nice extra little tid-bit. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.5|162.158.79.5]] 20:42, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

I hadn't noticed the "sound-waves" in the newspaper photo. That's very amusing. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 01:35, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1785: Wifi

2017-01-13T06:14:13Z

162.158.91.137:

This, I believe, is in reference to things like [https://www.dd-wrt.com/site/ DD-WRT], where someone with knowledge may install it to 'improve' your router. If done right, it can increase the speed and stability, if not, it can brick it. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.70|172.68.78.70]] 05:23, 13 January 2017 (UTC) That's what I thought too! Girish, [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.197|162.158.166.197]] 05:27, 13 January 2017 (UTC)
I installed Hurd on my router dont judge me ok. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.137|162.158.91.137]] 06:14, 13 January 2017 (UTC)