explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1914: Twitter Verification

2017-11-10T12:26:18Z

162.158.92.82: the => this

Isn't it obvious? Twitter verified Kessler's account as a way of marking a public enemy, and distinguishing him from fake troll accounts. Now the internet is gonna fuck his shit up.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.135|162.158.74.135]] 07:01, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/jack/status/928658511311097856 Comic may relate to twitter's usage of the verification symbol. Randall might be mocking Twitter for not realizing how the verification symbol would be thought of as a symbol of importance. Character shown may be Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 05:54, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Reminds me of when the checkmark emoji on Mastodon (https://joinmastodon.org) was similar to the Twitter "verified" mark and anyone who wanted was a verified user. Then, people moved on to pineapples for whatever reason. -- --[[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]], 2017. [[User_talk:Nialpxe|(Arguments welcome)]]

How can a bot write this text? Does it automatically scan the text in the comic, somehow find a news page about the topic and copy its text? If that's the case, that's some pretty advanced AI and it should be applied to more things than this wiki. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:42, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Nope, the bot only creates a new page with an image and a title text when a new comic goes online. See [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1914:_Twitter_Verification&action=history edit history] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:DgbrtBOT bot's profile] ;) The incomplete tag is kept even after people start editing the page, until it looks complete. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.218|141.101.96.218]] 11:28, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

As an aside, I tip my hat to Fvalves for [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1914:_Twitter_Verification&diff=prev&oldid=147658 this edit] to the incomplete template! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.82|162.158.92.82]] 12:24, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1914: Twitter Verification

2017-11-10T12:24:50Z

162.158.92.82: well played

Isn't it obvious? Twitter verified Kessler's account as a way of marking a public enemy, and distinguishing him from fake troll accounts. Now the internet is gonna fuck his shit up.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.135|162.158.74.135]] 07:01, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

https://twitter.com/jack/status/928658511311097856 Comic may relate to twitter's usage of the verification symbol. Randall might be mocking Twitter for not realizing how the verification symbol would be thought of as a symbol of importance. Character shown may be Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 05:54, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Reminds me of when the checkmark emoji on Mastodon (https://joinmastodon.org) was similar to the Twitter "verified" mark and anyone who wanted was a verified user. Then, people moved on to pineapples for whatever reason. -- --[[User:Nialpxe|Nialpxe]], 2017. [[User_talk:Nialpxe|(Arguments welcome)]]

How can a bot write this text? Does it automatically scan the text in the comic, somehow find a news page about the topic and copy its text? If that's the case, that's some pretty advanced AI and it should be applied to more things than this wiki. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 08:42, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Nope, the bot only creates a new page with an image and a title text when a new comic goes online. See [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1914:_Twitter_Verification&action=history edit history] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User:DgbrtBOT bot's profile] ;) The incomplete tag is kept even after people start editing the page, until it looks complete. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.218|141.101.96.218]] 11:28, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

As an aside, I tip my hat to Fvalves for [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1914:_Twitter_Verification&diff=prev&oldid=147658 the edit] to the incomplete template! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.82|162.158.92.82]] 12:24, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

1863: Screenshots

2017-07-14T20:50:12Z

162.158.92.82: Added explanation of individual items on the headings list

{{comic
| number = 1863
| date = July 14, 2017
| title = Screenshots
| image = screenshots.png
| titletext = For the final exam, you take a screenshot showing off all the work you've done in the class, and it has to survive being uploaded, thumbnailed, and re-screenshotted through a chain of social media sites.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Let's add a detailed bullet list explaining every point on the syllabus.}}

The comic shows a syllabus of a course on screenshots. The image on the left shows an image of screenshots of text, along with what seems like annotations describing various ratios and dos and don'ts about making such screenshots. The right side shows the main points of the course, touching on topics that are relevant for making and publishing screenshots. Some of these guidelines are violated on a regular basis by people sharing screenshots on the internet, leading to the degradation of quality of digital content (see [[1683: Digital Data]]). The punchline of the comic describes a high attendance in the course (presumably many people are interested in how to take high-quality screenshots), however the digital textbook only sold one copy, implying that the only attendee that bought the book was adept enough to distribute screenshots of the textbook content to the others.

Detailed explanation of the headings on the right

{| class=wikitable
! Heading
! Explanation

|-
| Highlighting: What & How much?
| This refers to highlighting text of particular interest in screenshots, as depicted on the left.

|-
| Aspect ratios
| Again, depicted on the left. If a screenshot is too wide, it might be difficult to read, and/or it will not fit into thumbnails and social networking feeds. This leads to the screenshot being scaled down too much to be readable (see bottom left). An {{w|aspect ratio}} that is too tall would have similar effects, so in general it is better to stick to near-square aspect ratios (see bottom right of the left section).

|-
| Cropping Pre- and Post-
| This refers to {{w|cropping}} the image, that is cutting away the irrelevant or unnecessary parts, leaving just the content one needs to communicate.

|-
| Whitespace
| This section presumably deals with how to handle large blocks that lack content (or {{w|White space (visual arts)|whitespace}}, though not necessarily white).

|-
| Screenshots vs Links
| For the most part it is recommended that one links to the original content, rather than publishing a screenshot of said content. In some situations it is advisable to opt for using screenshots, such as trying to catch attention on social media, or if the content in question has been removed from the original source, and one still wants to communicate the fact that it was published there.

|-
| Catching the right GIF frame
| {{w|GIFs}} are short looping animations on the internet. They often employ a low {{w|frame rate}}, so that one might notice a funny or interesting frame during playback. Pressing the screenshot button at the right time is still a challenge however, even with the low frame rate of GIFs.

|-
| Snapchat and trust
| {{w|Snapchat}} is a popular social networking application for mobile devices primarily used for sharing images and short videos. One of the main selling points is the transience of content posted. The idea is that as soon as one opens an image or video, a timer starts, and once it has expired the content is no longer accessible on the device. This has led to people sending sensitive content to their friends, thinking that they wouldn't be able to cause much harm, as the content is non-permanent. An obvious flaw in this model is the capability of modern mobile devices to take screenshots (usually available from shortcut keys), and thus permanently save the images to the phones memory. Saving embarrassing images of ones friends, that they themselves meant as a transient joke is a serious breach of trust, hence the heading.

|-
| Embarrassing background tabs
| A common error when publishing screenshots is not checking thoroughly enough, and leaving content visible, that might be embarrassing. One such example is {{w|browser tab}}, which might feature content that the creator of the screenshot does not want others to see, such as {{w|pornography}}. Since tabs are small and disconnected from the main content, it is easy to miss such occurrences, which lead to situations such as [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/10/lawmaker-mistakenly-hands-out-document-with-porn-references.html this one], where a politician handed out a document with background tabs to pornography websites.

|-
| Spellchecks red underlines
| {{w|Spell checkers}} are designed to notify the writer of a document of spelling and grammatical mistakes in the text. This is usually done through the editor marking text it thinks is incorrect with an underline (usually red, but other colors may indicate different kinds of mistakes). Sometimes these mistakes are not relevant to the writer, such as when editing {{w|source code}} or using a spellchecker that is set to another language. Even if the corrections are relevant however, one would not want the ugly red underlines on a screenshot. This section presumably deals with this problem.

|-
| Security: Beware of URL tokens
| {{w|Query string|URL tokens}} are pieces of code embedded in the {{w|URL}} of a website. If implemented well, these help identify a particular document or search query, and do not carry any sensitive security information. Insecure web-apps however may encode authentication information (such as {{w|Session_ID|session IDs}}, or even worse: usernames and passwords) in the URL, leading to a massive security risk on the part of someone whose screen might be visible to others. Screenshots allow anyone to easily read off these parameters, and possibly successfully impersonate the creator of the screenshot on a website. This is especially hard to notice to less technically inclined users, who might not know that, say a session id (a seemingly random jumble of characters), might be used to impersonate them.

|-
| Redacting personal info
| Somewhat related to the previous point: Screenshots might include personal information, such as indications of institutions one might work for, e-mail addresses and alike, that one might not want to share with the world. This section presumably deals with ways of obscuring such information on screenshots.

|-
| Useful browser modes
| TBD

|-
| Tradeoffs: PNG vs JPG
| {{w|Portable Network Graphics|PNG}} and {{w|JPG}} are file formats with different {{w|image compression|image compression algorithms}}. JPG is widely used for encoding photographs, as it compresses real-world images to a fraction of their normal size without losing much quality. On artificial images with lots of sharp changes in contrast (such as text) however, JPG produces visible {{w|compression artifacts}} due to its {{w|lossy compression}}. For these PNG is usually used, as it compresses large blocks of a single color, and repeating patterns efficiently, and due to it having a lossless option is able to encode text without artifacts, improving readability. PNG is usually superior for screenshots, as these are artificial images, but if the screenshot is of an actual photo (or a frame of a GIF or movie), JPG might yield lower file sizes at comparable quality. This tradeoff is presumably discussed under the heading.

|-
| Watermark ethics
| Many users and websites add {{w|watermarks}} to their original content (or even worse: their screenshots) to indicate where it came from. As depicted in [[1683: Digital Data]] this can lead to degradation of quality as watermarks are stacked on top of each other. It is generally considered okay to put a single unobtrusive watermark on ones own original work, anything other than that would be considered unethical.

|-
| Spotting fakes
| It is relatively easy to fake a screenshot in an image editing program such as {{w|GIMP}} or just editing the page source, making it seem like another organization or person is the original source of the content, possibly damaging their reputation. Some of these techniques are easily detectable by looking at the images {{w|metadata}} or correlating the contents of the screenshot with other sources.

|}

The title text once again refers to the continual re-screenshotting of data as seen in [[1683: Digital Data]], where the final examination consists of the students taking a screenshot good enough that it is still recognizable (and hopefully readable) after being re-compressed, re-screenshotted and re-uploaded to various social networking sites, deteriorating its quality. This is quite a difficult task, considering the student only has control over the first screenshot, and subsequent screenshots could degrade the quality to any level. Hopefully the professor is aware of this and plans to perform the test under controlled conditions, as well as grade on a curve.

Previously screenshots were explored by Randall in [[1373: Screenshot]] and [[1815: Flag]]. This comic is one of a small set of comics with the same or almost the same title as another comic (only plural form of word screenshot being difference).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:<big>Intro to Screenshots</big>

:[The left side of the panel shows three images. The largest image is a screenshot of text with the middle section highlighted and margins and top and bottom rows marked with red lines and arrows. The two smaller images below are cropped versions of the first image: the left image has an incorrect "squashed" aspect ratio and a red X on it, while the right image has a correct aspect ratio and a green check mark.]

:[The right side of the panel:]

::Syllabus
:*Highlighting: What & how much
:*Aspect ratios
:*Cropping: Pre- and post-
:*Whitespace
:*Screenshots vs links
:*Catching the right GIF frame
:*Snapchat and trust
:*Embarrassing backround tabs
:*Spellcheck's red outlines
:*Security: Beware URL tokens
:*Redacting personal info
:*Useful browser modes
:*Tradeoffs: PNG vs JPG
:*Watermark ethics
:*Spotting fakes

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My class on screenshots was a big hit, although for some reason I only ever sold one copy of the digital textbook.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics sharing name|Screenshot02]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

1856: Existence Proof

2017-06-28T16:23:35Z

162.158.92.82: Added initial explanation

{{comic
| number = 1856
| date = June 28, 2017
| title = Existence Proof
| image = existence_proof.png
| titletext = Real analysis is way realer than I expected.
}}

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

This seems to be a continuation of [[982: Set Theory]], where numbers were "executed" to prove a point. This time it goes even further, with the presenter (and students) taking up arms to destroy the function value, which they have proven to exist. In the last panel some students off screen begin to wonder if they are in the right class, as normal math classes do not take up swords to fight abstract concepts{{Citation needed}}. Another student remarks that they are finally in the right math class, implying that this is the kind of thing they wanted from their math curriculum all along.

The phrase "''We ride''" is commonly used in rallying battle cries, particularly in fantasy or medieval dramas where characters are preparing to enter combat on horseback. Variations of the phrase are used several times in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'', for example.

The title text refers to {{w|Real Analysis}}, a branch of mathematics dealing with real valued functions, but uses real in the sense of real-life instead of real numbers.

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Math]]