explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2862: Typical Seating Chart

2023-12-03T00:02:29Z

172.64.236.54:

where did everyone go? sucked out of the hole in the plane, perhaps? [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 03:28, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

I hate how airlines try to charge you more, just because your body has nonstandard dimensions so you actually ''need'' more legroom. I also want vis-à-vis seating, that would make an hour long journey much more comfortable. Unbelievable how people even ''pay'' for spending an hour in such an environment.--[[Special:Contributions/172.69.151.93|172.69.151.93]] 14:30, 2 December 2023PerPers

: Wait until you realise you have to pay taxes to the country you're in in most cases, and sometimes the country you're in is absolutely horrible and you'd pay anything to get out, even your sanity. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.54|172.64.236.54]] 00:02, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

Personally, I would sit in the tail gunner position because sitting in there would be cool, you get extra miles for sitting there, and being pursued by hostile planes is unlikely.[[User:Danger Kitty|Danger Kitty]] ([[User talk:Danger Kitty|talk]])

1340: Unique Date

2023-11-10T09:16:48Z

172.64.236.54: Add brief note

{{comic
| number = 1340
| date = March 10, 2014
| title = Unique Date
| image = unique_date.png
| titletext = If our current civilization lasts another 8,000 years, it's probably fair to assume the Long Now Foundation got things right, and at some point we started listening to them and switched to five-digit years.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Cueball]] excitedly gives the current date (the date the comic was released) in {{w|ISO 8601}} format (year-month-day) and points out - correctly - that in the current calendar system, this date will never recur.

The calendar used by the USA and most of the Western world is the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}, which counts time using years, months, and days. Since time is percived to only move forwards{{Citation needed}}, except in some cultures where a cyclical perception of time exists based off the seasons of the year, dates in this system will never repeat and are thus all equally unique, even when the digits aren't in any kind of significant pattern. Unfortunately, Cueball has made it [[:Category:My Hobby|his hobby]] to point out this uniqueness daily, which would be incredibly annoying to his friends. Even worse, he is using the ISO 8601 date and time standard which is designed precisely to provide unique and unambiguous time references.

Cueball's behavior is a parody of the common practice of finding significance in numerically-interesting dates, such as {{w|palindrome}} dates which have the same digits when reversed (eg. 2nd February 2020, which was 2020-02-02 in the ISO 8601 format). These special dates usually occur infrequently and sporadically, and if using a date format with a defined limit such as ISO 8601 (which only goes up to the year 9999) it is possible for the entire stock of such dates to be exhausted, such that they will never occur again. Some people enjoy finding and celebrating these special days, treating them as a kind of collector's item to be treasured for their rarity and uniqueness.

Another commonly celebrated date pattern is when the year, month, and day all share the same numeric value - for example, 2001-01-01 (expressed as 01/01/01) or 2012-12-12 (12/12/12), which was the last such date until next century. People might plan special events on these "unique" days. For instance, [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/08/nation/na-weddings8 2007-07-07] was considered a "lucky" day and had a record number of weddings. This is because humans, in general, are superstitious and like (and recognize) patterns in everyday life.

The title text refers to the {{w|Long Now Foundation}}, which uses [http://blog.longnow.org/02013/12/31/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-and-10k-compliance-at-home/ five-digit years] (e.g. this comic's date would be written "02014-03-10"). This is an effort to encourage people to think in terms of long-term benefits, rather than only the coming years or decades. The {{w|Y2K problem}} was due to using only two digits to store the year, which would have made dates ambiguous when it rolled from 99 back to 00. See also the "{{w|Year 2038 problem}}". Similarly, the {{w|Maya calendar}} had a repeating cycle of 52 years, and even their "long count" rolled over after 7885 years. As we currently use four-digit years this may cause a {{w|Year 10,000 problem|Y10K problem}}.

The Long Now Foundation designs a [http://longnow.org/clock/ 10,000-year clock] that should be able to run for this long — and in principle, it could display every date up to 9999-12-31. 8000 years from the date of the comic would be 10014 AD — [[Randall]] jokes that by switching to 5-digit years, we'd prove the Long Now Foundation correct, although of course by this point there would be no other way to show years except by rebooting the calendar.

A previous comic on date formats was [[1179: ISO 8601]]. Randall addresses date formatting confusion again in the title text of [[1467: Email]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball speaking to Megan and another Cueball-like guy.]
:Cueball: Whoa, it's 2014-03-10!
:Cueball: Under our system, that date will ''never happen again!!''
:[Caption below the frame:]
:My Hobby: Pointing this out every day.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category: Calendar]]

Talk:541: TED Talk

2023-09-02T14:22:26Z

172.64.236.54:

It's not the first time Randall gets banned from conventions, see [[153: Cryptography]].
[[User:Xylon|Xylon]] ([[User talk:Xylon|talk]]) 13:10, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

: There are enough of these that it should probably be a category. (Anon) 12 August 2013 {{unsigned ip|24.142.134.100}}

How about "Linux(or BSD (: )"? Actually, that looks just as weird. Oh well. [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 05:10, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

What about "Linux (or BSD :D)"? That looks great! 05:54, 1 December 2013 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.120}}

Or "(Linux (or BSD ( :) )))"...nope! [[User:Squirreltape|Squirreltape]] ([[User talk:Squirreltape|talk]]) 18:19, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Suggestion: Linux (or BSD (: ) [[User talk:Quillathe Siannodel|{)|(}]][[User:Quillathe_Siannodel|Quill]][[User talk:Quillathe Siannodel|{)|(}]] 14:59, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

"Every talk has a length of 18 minutes and is supposed to be as captivating as possible." this is just wrong(first part of the statement). someone should edit it out. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.24}}

Use an asian smiley. So you'd write Linux (or BSD ^_^) instead. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.101|108.162.216.101]] 04:25, 2 November 2014 (UTC)

... LINUX (OR BSD 😀 ) WOULD ... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.187|162.158.255.187]] 19:16, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

LInux (: or BSD :) would...? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.179|108.162.217.179]] 22:51, 27 March 2016 (UTC)
I got it! Linux [ or bsd :) ]

... Linux (or BSD ͜ ¨ ) would ... [[User:KangaroOS|Kangaro]][[User talk:KangaroOS|OS]] 16:15, 10 September 2016
Linux (or BSD ☺) would ....[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.190|162.158.75.190]] 22:59, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Smileys in parentheses look wrong, :)) looks mismatched and wrong, and :) ) is just weird. WHAT SHALL WE DO?! --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:03, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
:I have found a solution! As it turns out, There are people who make Unicode emojis that you can use in web browsers. Go figure. 😄 --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 12:11, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
::Emojis are not emoticons though [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.58|162.158.214.58]] 19:38, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
:::Except they are, and they're better than emoticons --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 10:20, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

How about using square brackets? Linux [or BSD :)] would... --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.241|172.68.245.241]] 23:20, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
:Alternatively: Linux (or BSD :]) would... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:59, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
::Yes. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 13:41, 31 March 2021 (UTC)
:::Linux (or BSD (:)? [[User talk:Quillathe Siannodel|{)|(}]][[User:Quillathe_Siannodel|Quill]][[Special:Contributions/Quillathe_Siannodel|{)|(}]] 20:35, 31 May 2021 (UTC)
Linux (or BSD :) ) would... Just put a space. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 12:43, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
linux [ or bsd : ) ] is awesome[and the best way : ) ]

: Would a U with diaresis (ü) work? -- {{User:PoolloverNathan/Signature}} 15:49, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

uppercase works better in my opinion (Ü) --an user who has no account yet