explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2043: Boathouses and Houseboats

2018-11-09T21:36:07Z

172.68.141.58: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2043
| date = September 7, 2018
| title = Boathouses and Houseboats
| image = boathouses_and_houseboats.png
| titletext = The <x> that is held by <y> is also a <y><x>, so if you go to a food truck, the stuff you buy is truck food. A phone that's in your car is a carphone, and a car equipped with a phone is a phonecar. When you play a mobile racing game, you're in your phonecar using your carphone to drive a different phonecar. I'm still not sure about bananaphones.
}}

==Explanation==
Most English {{w|English compound|compound nouns}} can be constructed recursively. In many cases they are written ''open'' or ''spaced'' like "piano player" (a player of a piano.) But ''closed'' forms like "wallpaper" (paper for a wall) are not less common.

[[Randall]] is engaging in creative linguistics again. This time he is humorously suggesting to use a consistent naming scheme for things holding other things, the same way we call a boat holding a house a houseboat. He is extending this to all combinations boats, houses and cars. This would, however, be somewhat impractical, as these names do not include why one thing is on an other, and are also sometimes ambiguous: a carcar can be a tow truck as much as a car carrier, and a househouse can be either an apartment (house in a house) or an apartment building (house containing houses).

Additionally, he is somewhat inconsistent in some parts of the chart. While the chart is supposed to show examples of neologistic compound words <x><y> that refer to a <y> that ''holds'' an <x>, rather than a <y> ''in'' an <x>. However, Randall's examples sometimes are those of the latter example. He proposes to call lifeboats, which are boats held by other boats, "boatboat", instead of using that to refer to boats holding other boats, such as floating drydocks. Additionally, it is established naval practice to refer to a boat which is carried by another vessel as a "ship's boat", and call any vessel that carries a boat a "ship". In other words, according to usual naval terminology, a "boatboat" is a contradiction in terms; it is either a "boatship", synonymous with ship and hence redundant, or a "shipboat", the ship's boat. "Apartment" is a similar case: an apartment is a house in a house, while a house that holds a house is an apartment building or apartment complex. (However, in the title text, Randall points out an <x><y> could also refer to a <y> in an <x>, similar to the lifeboat and apartment examples. Nevertheless, "lifeboat" and "apartment" do not fit with the rest of the items of the chart and disobey the rule annotated in the corner.)

In the title text: "Truck food" is in some areas a common term for the meals offered by "{{w|Food truck|food trucks"}}. {{w|Car phone}}s were a feature in automobiles throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, serving as the predecessors to mobile phones, although they were permanently installed into a car and not removable. ''{{w|Bananaphone}}'', a song by Raffi Cavoukian, is also mentioned.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Real term
! Actual definition
! Randall's definition
! Inaccuracies in Randall's definition
! Randall's term
|-
| Tow truck
| A truck that pulls or carries cars
| A Car that holds a Car
| A tow truck is too large to be considered a car
| Carcar
|-
| Garage
| A building for storing or repairing vehicles
| A House that holds a Car
| “Carhouse” actually does have Randall’s definition, but is far less popular than “garage.” It’s in the Oxford English Dictionary (using the spelling “car house”) and is used in To Kill a Mockingbird.
| Carhouse
|-
| Car ferry
| A boat that carries cars, especially across a river
| A Boat that holds a Car
| Most car ferries hold more than one car at a time
| Carboat
|-
| Mobile home
| A home that can be moved by a truck
| A Car that holds a House
| The term "mobile home" refers to the home that is moved by a separate vehicle, not to the vehicle that moves it. (If the home is self-propelled, then it is called an RV (recreational vehicle).)
| Housecar
|-
| Apartment
| A home within a building that has been divided into separate living units
| A House that holds a House
| The "apartment" is the individual home within the larger building, which is called an apartment building, possibly an apartment complex, but that usually refers to several apartment buildings on one property managed from the same office.
| Househouse
|-
| Houseboat
| A boat that is used as a house
| A Boat that holds a House
| A houseboat has a home that is part of the boat; it is not a separate home carried on a boat. However, a mobile home theoretically could be carried on a car ferry or a ship.
| Houseboat
|-
| Boat trailer
| A carrier that is towed behind a car or truck and holds a small boat
| A Car that holds a Boat
| The trailer is not the car; it is towed by the car.
| Boatcar
|-
| Boathouse
| A building for storing a boat
| A House that holds a Boat
| The word "house" typically refers to a residential building, but can refer to other buildings
| Boathouse
|-
| Lifeboat
| A small boat carried on a ship, meant to be used to evacuate the larger ship, especially if it starts to sink or catches fire
| A Boat that holds a Boat
| This breaks Randall's definition: the lifeboat is not the "boatboat" because the lifeboat is the one being carried. And in technical terms the larger vessel is usually a ship, not a boat.
| Boatboat
|}

==Transcript==
:[A chart with three rows and three columns is shown, both with the same heading "car", "house", and "boat". On the top left a text with the word "this" two times embedded in a bubble and an arrow respectively pointing to the row and column heading reads:]
:A '''this''' that holds '''this'''

:[Most entries have the common word in black, but crossed out in red with another word below also in red. Two entries remain in green.]
:A Car that holds a Car: <s>Tow truck</s> Carcar
:A House that holds a Car: <s>Garage</s> Carhouse
:A Boat that holds a Car: <s>Car ferry</s> Carboat
:A Car that holds a House: <s>Mobile home</s> Housecar
:A House that holds a House: <s>Apartment</s> Househouse
:A Boat that holds a House: Houseboat (green text)
:A Car that holds a Boat: <s>Boat trailer</s> Boatcar
:A House that holds a Boat: Boathouse (green text)
:A Boat that holds a Boat: <s>Lifeboat</s> Boatboat

:[Caption below the frame:]
:I really like the words for "boathouse" and "houseboat" and think we should apply that scheme more consistently.

==Trivia==
The first version of the comic image used a different wording to indicate which word held the other. The column word holds the row. The original wording can be seen [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/3/38/20180907164439%21boathouses_and_houseboats.png here].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:762: Analogies

2018-10-31T15:25:58Z

172.68.141.58:

Surprised he said synecdoche instead of metonymy, which to me seems slightly more appropriate. What a terrible mess such devices are. I'm content memorizing 114 chemical symbols and the names and capitals of 196 generally recognized sovereign nations, but not the ~200 items on this {{w|Figure_of_speech#Categories_of_figures_of_speech|list of tropes and schemes}}. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 01:50, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
Unfortunately, nobody was any the wiser after hearing this.
The analogy from Einstein would have been well understood as cats whiskers were familiar radio sets in before valves became cheap enough for anyone to afford a modern radio. They were difficult to tune and quickly lost contact. It is a very good analogy.

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 22:07, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

:It seems highly likely that the opening lines of whether sandwich was a metaphor had to do with threesomes - i.e. a "sandwich" of a woman between two men. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.67|108.162.216.67]] 07:57, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
::Agreed --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:30, 23 April 2018 (UTC)

Ahh, meta! [[User:SilverMagpie|SilverMagpie]] ([[User talk:SilverMagpie|talk]]) 22:20, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Neither of the examples of synecdoche is very good. When I use the web I am literally using the internet, since the web is a layer residing on top of the internet. A person who thinks of the web as just an interface to the internet, and the internet as the more important layer, might say they were using the internet without having any synecdochal or metonymic intent. And a band-aid is not part of a bandage, it's an example of a bandage. Wikipedia has lots of better examples.

I think synecdoche should be the official linguistic phenomenon of Schenectady, New York. Two words I may never learn to pronounce correctly as a native Californian... --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.58|172.68.141.58]] 15:25, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1567: Kitchen Tips

2018-10-31T15:10:26Z

172.68.141.58:

Does the title text refer to Cueball never ripping a sheet of toilet paper off, just putting the end of the roll in the toilet and flushing, making it unroll? [[User:Thomasa88|Thomasa88]] ([[User talk:Thomasa88|talk]]) 05:16, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

:-Not quite, I think. I got the impression that cueball wiped with the ''whole roll,'' then simply shoved the entire thing down the toilet. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.72|199.27.128.72]] 05:49, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:: That option didn't even occur to me. In my defence, it just wasn't where the comic panels seemed to be heading. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 23:25, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Is Cueball really hosting a show here? I would think of this comic as a series of commercials or a vlog series rather than a TV show. Just my opinion. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.156|199.27.133.156]] 05:37, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:Maybe it's also meant to mock the so-called kitchen-hacks articles. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.56|108.162.225.56]] 07:01, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure it's aimed at [such-and-such]-hack listicles, articles, and videos. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.96|173.245.54.96]] 12:40, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

The implication is that the the first tip: "If you want to know the temperature of something, use a thermometer designed to measure its temperature", is as obvious as the other four ridiculous 'tips'.[[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 07:42, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

:Zeimusu's comment goes to what i think is the real point of this comic. I came here since i wanted to know '''''why'''''. It is a commentary on the stupidity of not using the obvious and sane methods of household activities. There are a lot of really ''odd'' tips for households, including "unspooling two ply toilet paper to have each roll last twice as long" of which the "whole roll" usage is a parody. [[User:Harodotus|Harodotus]] ([[User talk:Harodotus|talk]]) 10:45, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
::I 2nd Zeimusu's comment. I think Randall is saying that meat thermometers should be used more often. I don't see how you could say each panel builds up from practical to impractical. Throwing away dishes is probably less practical that cooking directly on a stove. So it goes: Obvious tip (thermometer), Obvious tip (dishes), Obvious tip (stove), Really crazy obvious tip (hose in freezer, punchline), Further grossout title text (TP waste). I don't agree with Randall's cooking advice myself (I think a meat thermometer is bothersome, and cooking to a certain number for safety is not always the point of cooking) but if you follow his "scientific" perspective then it should be "obvious" you use a thermometer to measure internal meat temperature instead of the typical (scientifically unreliable) methods of basing it on timing or other folk wisdom indicators of meat being done.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.164|108.162.216.164]] 07:41, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
:::Actually throwing away dishes is not less practical than cooking on a stove if you consider that paper/plastic plates, plastic cups and plastic utensils can also be purchased and thrown away after every meal. Thus, the panel can be saying not to throw away ''glassware'' or to stop buying and throwing away ''plasticware'' and instead invest in dishes that can be cleaned and reused. In a way, this panel is the bridge between the realistic and the absurd since it can be taken either way IMHO. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 16:07, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
:::: A lack of meat thermometers isn't 'stupid' and you're only 'guessing' if meat is done if you are a child or an alien with no cultural context. Recipes will say 'Until the juices run clear' or 'until pink in the middle' for a reason. Because that means it's cooked. And the result is that thermometers are just superfluous for most home cooking. They get used in commercial kitchens because in most countries you are required by law to heat meat to a set temperature before you can serve it. You don't just heat it until the temperature reaches a set point and call it cooked, you cook until it's right for the recipe, then double check it with a thermometer to comply with health regulations. When equipment is mandated by law then it shows up a lot, but I worked in kitchens for years and I never met a chef who used one at home. Why? Because knowing the temperature isn't that helpful for a lot of things. When you are cooking a big turkey or barbecuing chicken from raw then they can potentially be useful but using them correctly (which involves totally disinfecting the probe after every time you use it, and for meat with bones or different thicknesses you need to test a couple of times on each piece) is extremely time consuming. If you ever fail to properly wash the probe then you'll contaminate your cooked meat with uncooked bacteria. Also, if you only wait for the temperature to reach the legal limit and take it off you might kill the bacteria but you won't necessarily properly cook the meat. If you are cooking steak at home you really don't want to use a meat thermometer unless you want to cook it well done. Steaks are supposed to be unevenly cooked to make them tender and juicy and depending on thickness you can either ruin a steak waiting for the temperature in the middle, or serve it very rare. That's why commercial chefs cook for colour or texture then probe once before it hits the plate. Almost every other kind of meat you are going to cook until it's evenly cooked through and you don't need a thermometer to see if that's happened. Thermometers just aren't helping most of these processes. They are taking up time to tell you something you already know; they are a way to standardize something for the commercial industry that you'd never do at home, just like I'm sure you don't put out a wet floor sign when you mop at home. In theory a thermometer can make your cooking safer but our whole lives are about acceptable levels of risk. It's safer to never step out of your house, to never see the sun light or inhale unfiltered air. But just like with meat, the risks there are very small and having a happy, convenient life has to trump some abstract idea of safety at some point. You can make that call for yourself where the line is for you but don't call other people stupid for just cooking a damn steak how they like it. [[User:LostAlone|LostAlone]] ([[User talk:LostAlone|talk]]) 16:56, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

The last tip would result in the freezer door being very hard to open as it becomes jammed with ice. Try it! [[Special:Contributions/188.114.102.11|188.114.102.11]] 08:20, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
: That's not the tip. The tip is that there's a better way. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 23:19, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

i don't find it surprising that randall doesn't read viz. http://viz.co.uk/category/top-tips/ --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.34|141.101.98.34]] 11:38, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

But what is his better of way of making ice? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.85.241|141.101.85.241]] 14:13, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
:Presumably installing a faucet ''inside'' the freezer. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.224}}

Can we be sure that the title text is also from Cueball? [[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 14:19, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

My first inclination was that this was a meta joke on Randall's [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:My_Hobby My Hobby] series. The more I looked at it the more I think it is a progression from Practical to Impractical (Y-axis) and Plausible to Implausible (X-axis). It is both practical and plausible to check meat without a meat thermometer making the comment a true tip. However, assuming the title text is the implied ''last panel'', it is both impractical and implausible to stuff a whole roll of toilet paper down a toilet drain making the comment an imperative. --[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:43, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

I felt this was maybe a take on the whole "life-hacks" thing, most lifehacks are simple, and one would think, obvious. Some are a little less so, and some are just ridiculous.
We've become a society which has lost it's ability to solve things by thinking, and presumably the ability to pass on basic knowledge that has been known for years, instead we need to google, luckily there are people out there who will tell us what we need to know. [[User:6328915234|6328915234]] ([[User talk:6328915234|talk]]) 15:31, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
:You could have left it at the first paragraph, but no, you had to throw in a "Modern society is dumb, bluh bluh bleh" complaint. Neglecting the fact that it was the previous itineration of society that dropped the ball on passing down basic knowledge if anyone did, and apparently acting like checking Google is somehow inferior to older ways of finding out things. Go and Google how to get down off your high horse. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:11, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

This XKCD seems very similar to this recent episode of "The New Screensavers" in which Patrick Norton has a quick tip session about using a meat thermometer: https://youtu.be/AvN-9pOsnP8?t=1h9m47s Perhaps Randall watches the show? --[[User:Bkuhns|Bkuhns]] ([[User talk:Bkuhns|talk]]) 16:17, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Could 'easier on your plumbing' be interpreted as meaning that it's physically easier to wipe with sheets than a whole roll of paper? Just saying . . . {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.49}}
:Nope. Plumbing in this case probably refers to the regular usage of the word. I don't think Randall would try to imply an alternative meaning to the word so subtly where the normal meaning of the word fits so naturally. "It's much easier to use single sheets on your butt than it is to use a whole roll" vs "it's much easier for your toilet to handle single sheets than it is for it to handle a whole roll" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.34|108.162.241.34]] 16:22, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

I really don't think the last bit in the explanation about Greece is really necessary as it doesn't really add anything to the explanation. Does anyone second? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.170|108.162.216.170]] 14:33, 31 August 2015 (UTC)
:Agreed. I can't really be sure why somebody thought it was important to include. I mean, I can somewhat see why it's relevant, but the way it was introduced is very jarring. You might say "This is economically impractical, and is prone to clogging the toilet and the plumbing, especially in Greece, where narrow-bore outflows from the toilet are used, and the user is required to dump the used toilet paper in a trashcan adjacent to the toilet instead of flushing it." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.34|108.162.241.34]] 16:22, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
So I think these are also a commentary on the loss of once universal skills. Like how most people can't change a tire, drive a manual or do basic auto maintenance, let alone ride a horse, and many people can't prepare food w/out a microwave,
etc. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.58|172.68.141.58]] 15:10, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2062: Barnard's Star

2018-10-22T17:05:10Z

172.68.141.58:

Uh . . . I'm pretty sure that stars don't talk. {{unsigned ip|172.68.58.113}}
: And [[1578|squirrels don't ring]]. This comic can be absurd sometimes. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.58|172.68.141.58]] 17:05, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

1168: tar

2018-10-13T06:16:54Z

172.68.141.58: /* Transcript */ Disguised table terminated

{{comic
| number = 1168
| date = February 1, 2013
| title = tar
| image = tar.png
| titletext = I don't know what's worse--the fact that after 15 years of using tar I still can't keep the flags straight, or that after 15 years of technological advancement I'm still mucking with tar flags that were 15 years old when I started.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Tar (computing)|tar}} ("tape archive") is a {{w|Unix|Unix}} application that creates (and extracts) archives in the ".tar" format. It is typically used through the text-based terminal, using cryptic single-letter arguments such as "<code>tar -cvf archive.tar *</code>". The comic alludes to the fact that despite years of use of the command, it's still hard to remember the arguments without searching for them, such as with Google.

The title text points out that while much of computing changes very quickly, the tar program, which is very old (originating ca. 1975), is still around and heavily used. And yet, [[Randall]] complains he still cannot type out a line of tar command with correct flags without having to look the flags up. Tar is a very common command that Unix users will come across regularly, much like Windows users will come across .zip files. Depending on the flavor of Unix, the order of the flags, or the lack or inclusion of a '-' could render the command incorrect. Most true Unixes (AIX, HPUX, Solaris) not using the GNU utilities would give an error on the above tar example. For such a simple command, it is one that most people need to look up references to use.

The joke here is that a "tar" command with perfect syntax on the first try without outside help is such a daunting task that even [[Rob]] can't overcome it with confidence, and apologizes for not being able to prevent their imminent death.

The fact that [[Megan]] and [[White Hat]] assume that Rob can disarm the {{w|nuclear bomb}} because he uses Unix can be referring to an over-generalization fallacy that a partaker in a practice is an expert of a practice. Not all people who use Unix necessarily know how to use tar commands. Then again, since he's the only person nearby who knows ''any'' Unix and thus their only hope, their fallacy is pretty justified.

There is probably also a pun on "{{w|tarbomb}}," a poorly created tar archive that, when extracted, dumps a load of files into the current directory that the user has to clean up. And although the bomb looks more like {{w|Fat Man}}, the type of bomb that was used over {{w|Nagasaki}}, at least size-wise, it may also be a pun on the name of the largest ever {{w|hydrogen bomb}} which was called the {{w|Tsar Bomba}} (translation: "emperor bomb").

In [[208: Regular Expressions]] [[Cueball]] saves the day by knowing {{w|regular expression}}s, although in the title text it is alluded to how easy these may also miss a character.

Rob may refer to {{w|Rob Pike}}, who was a member of the team at AT&T who created Unix.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and White Hat stand next to a nuclear bomb. The bomb has a hatch open on top, and a small blinking screen. The two people are shouting off-screen.]
:Megan: Rob! You use Unix!
:White Hat: Come quick!

:[Megan, White Hat, and Rob look at the screen on the bomb. Rob peers closely. The screen is on the bomb, but is shown at the top of the panel in black with white letters, except "tar" and the last underscore which is in gray and "ten" which is black but written in a white box. The text reads:]

<div style="background-color:black; padding:5px; width:fit-content; margin-left: 2em">
To disarm the bomb, simply enter a valid tar command on your first try. No Googling. You have <code>ten</code> seconds. ~# _
</div>

:[They all stand in the same position, but without the text displayed. Beat panel.]

:[Still in the same position but White Hat becomes impatient.]
:White Hat: ...Rob?
:Rob: I'm so sorry.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]

Talk:2055: Bluetooth

2018-10-08T23:58:56Z

172.68.141.58:

Wireless charging standard may be a pun on the word "charging." Vikings were certainly known for "charging" into battle, and so Harald may indeed have invented a "wireless charging standard" or a standardized way for his Vikings to enter a battle. If so, it was unlikely to have used wires. {{unsigned|Tomkonrad}}
: Or maybe it's a "wireless charging _standard_" i.e. a flag signal which says "CHAAAARGE!!!!". The term "standard" would be somewhat off and anachronistic, though, but the general idea of giving a kind of visual signal to tell the troops to charge seems legit, imho. Albeit, in that time those signals were most commonly acoustic rather than visual. But I like the idea of playing with the word "standard" besides the word "charge" [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:47, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Uh, I don't know anything really about Bluetooth, but do they really use accelerometer timing? That doesn't sound right... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.88|172.68.90.88]] 17:34, 5 October 2018 (UTC)SiliconWolf
: If you read it again, you should notice that WhiteHat admits that he's lying. Bluetooth doesn't pair that way. He was joking. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 19:05, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
:: Some of them do pair this way...sort of, their accelerometers tell them they've been picked up and get ready for close range communication (like a couple inches) that exchange information for their bluetooth settings[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.190|162.158.75.190]] 19:47, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

My headphones use NFC to connect to my phone, I just have to hold the two devices together and they connect! Except they don't, in 90% of cases it doesn't react or I have to move it around a lot. But at least I can just turn the headphones and bluetooth on my phone on and they connect! Unless I have used the headphones for a different device previously, then I need to manually initiate the connection on my phone. Or just randomly when it isn't in a connection-making mood right now. But at least they work on all devices with Bluetooth! Except on my old laptop and my desktop PC (with bluetooth dongle), there it either has a horrible audio quality or completely freezes the system. But at least… No. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:37, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
: My tablet connects to any Bluetooth audio device, no problem; as long as I make it "Forget" every other device in its pairing list first, otherwise it tries to pair to a device which isn't even around. Also, my Mom's car doesn't have GPS navigation or 4G LTE service, but it doesn't seem to have a way to turn off Bluetooth, 4G, or the OnStar system, either. Also, her friend uses a set of Bluetooth speakers to play audio from her Mac, but you can only connect one speaker at a time unless you run a proprietary app which doesn't work very well. Also, neither my phone nor my tablet will transfer any file larger than 1MB by Bluetooth, since a couple system updates over a year ago (Oh, & only a few file types, too). Also, the audio delay when watching videos with Bluetooth audio is so pronounced I have to use a media player with manual A\V synch controls. Also, controlling a "smart TV" by Bluetooth doesn't work anymore for some reason, unless I install a specific app for each TV brand; Infrared still works fine. Also, I've still never had a Bluetooth headset that continues to work when the playback device is in my pocket & I take a step forward. Also, there's a Bluetooth HCI log file stored in my internal memory which gradually grows to hundreds of megs even though I don't have the setting for that log turned on. Also, whenever I turn Location on, or even exit Airplane mode, Bluetooth, WiFi, & NFC all activate briefly, even though I keep them turned off as much as possible; The icons don't light up, but my other devices show the polling attempts in their logs. I got suspicious enough to do a diagnostic & some scans, but aside from the usual usage-tracking from Google, there doesn't seem to be any spyware or malware installed. Bluetooth is awful. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 19:05, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

I miss the jokes in the incomplete discussion banner. Is there really not enough room for both a quip ''and'' the instructions? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.154|108.162.245.154]] 21:16, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

[https://www.impossible.com/josiah/ Josiah Bluetooth] [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 21:25, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

I tried to share link over bluetooth to three people. For one, it worked completely flawlessly. Second one got the file but then it got lost somehow and was unable to use the content. Third one ... the phones didn't even see each other. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:20, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

This car comes with Bluetooth compatibility. What's Bluetooth? Bluetooth is Bluetooth? What is it? BlUuUuUeEeEeToOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoth [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.70|162.158.78.70]] 13:24, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

I’ve actually had a relatively positive experience with Bluetooth lately, at least compared to how it used to be. These days it’s actually useable, airpods work great to pair easily with other apple devices (usually).

Also where my old car couldn’t be connected to Bluetooth unless you wanted a deafening sound to blare whenever you got a call, and it couldn’t be used to play music, my new car’s media system works pretty well with Bluetooth music, the only annoyance being that when the car is set to a different audio source the phone still tries to route audio to it through Bluetooth, so there is silence when you expect sound from the phone, until you manually change it back to output through its internal speakers.

Bluetooth is still far from perfect, but it’s actually useable now, a huge leap from a few years ago. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 16:38, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

It's still hit and miss a lot of times, depending on the devices in question. My friend's car has Bluetooth, and when it worked it worked great. But then every once in a while it would stop working, he'd ask me as his tech friend to try to get it working, and I couldn't... and then he had to take it to the car dealership to get it working. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 20:45, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

I think the "Josiah" is a reference to "Josiah Wedgwood," a famous English entrepreneur and potter. Should this be added? {{unsigned|172.68.141.4|00:39, 7 October 2018}}

:If you think it is a reference, without more, then no it should not be added. If you want to post here what the reasons are (why do you think so?), then we can evaluate them and recommend. But without more, no. Certainly a casual review of {{w|Josiah Wedgwood}} doesn't give any obvious reasons to connect him with "Josiah Bluetooth." p.s.: please sign your posts (with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>). [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 02:04, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Years ago I bought a Linux-compatible USB Bluetooth dongle. It had several pages of detailed and complex instructions for Windows and Mac, indicating the exact order of operations - if one connected the device before installing drivers and rebooting, for instance, one would have to dig deep into the OS and remove various automatically-installed components - but I couldn't find any instructions for Linux. Finally I found them - it was one line, "Plug the dongle in". Worked perfectly.

On the other hand, my very good headphones, which have the wireless connection on the right ear, still lose connection to my laptop if I turn my head to the right... [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 12:00, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

The link between "Josiah" and "Josiah Wedgwood" is probably correct. One of the styles that Josiah Wedgwood is famous for is a blue and white design. A quick Internet search gives lots of examples. This is probably the reason that the ceramic Bluetooth speaker mentioned in the explanation text is named "Josiah". They're both making reference to Josiah Wedgwood and his blue and white pottery.[[User:Hjmillman|Hjmillman]] ([[User talk:Hjmillman|talk]]) 12:29, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Yes, sorry I didn't mention his pottery style in the original comment. Wedgwood was famous for doing a lot of R&D to develop a style of pottery that replicated Chinese porcelain with blue/white patterns. The 'Josiah' referenced in the comic is probably a reference to Wedgwood.
23:58, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Talk:2055: Bluetooth

2018-10-08T23:58:24Z

172.68.141.58:

1998: GDPR

2018-08-31T08:55:57Z

172.68.141.58: /* Explanation */

{{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). This ''extra-territorial applicability'' is one of the major keys in this regulation and can be seen in more detail at the ''[https://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html EU GDPR Information Portal]''.

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.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"
! Text
! Notes
|-
|colspan="2"|'''Privacy policy'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|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.
|style="vertical-align: top"|"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. Randall likely makes fun of companies announcing changes to their privacy policy without mentioning the GDPR being the reason, which tries to create the impression that the companies just wanted to improve it without being forced to do so.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|Please read every part of this policy carefully, and don't just skip ahead looking for sex scenes.
|style="vertical-align: top"|It's not unheard of for people watching B-movies to try and skip ahead to sex scenes. This is also likely a reference to how most users don't read a website's privacy policy and skip to the bottom looking to the button to close it out.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|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.
|style="vertical-align: top"|This 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."]
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|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.
|style="vertical-align: top"|The language that the privacy policy will not "deny or disparage" any preexisting rights mirrors that of the {{w|Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution}}, substituting "this policy" for "the Constitution" and "users" for "people." 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 their 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, less specific written laws guaranteeing the privacy of one's home also exist in nearly all European countries.
|-
|colspan="2"|'''Your personal information'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|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.
|style="vertical-align: top"|"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]] or perhaps [[1506: xkcloud]].
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|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.
|style="vertical-align: top"|[[1089: Internal Monologue|Long, awkward conversations]] and [[302: Names|forgetting people's names]] are both themes featured in previous XKCD comics.
|-
|colspan="2"|'''Tracking pixels, cookies, and beacons'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|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.
|style="vertical-align: top"|"This website places pixels" is something websites are designed to do and has nothing to do with privacy policies. Websites are more often employing "{{w|Web_beacon|tracking 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.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|We use cookies to enhance your performance.
|style="vertical-align: top"|This 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.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|Our website may use local storage on your device if we run low on space on our end.
|style="vertical-align: top"|"may use local storage" is threatening to turn the user's device into cloud storage should Randall run out of space on his drive.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|We may use beacons to call Rohan for aid.
|style="vertical-align: top"|Beacons in privacy policies usually refer to {{w|web beacons}}. This privacy policy refers to the [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Warning_beacons_of_Gondor Warning beacons of Gondor], 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 Rohirrim, the inhabitants of {{w|Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan}}. The use of the Beacons has previously been mentioned in [[921: Delivery Notification]].
|-
|colspan="2"|'''3rd party extension'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|This service may utilize 3rd party extensions in order to play the song '''''Can U Feel It''''' from their debut album '''''Alive'''''.
|style="vertical-align: top"|{{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.
|-
|colspan="2"|'''Permission'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|For users who are citizens of the European Union, we will now be requesting permission before initiating organ harvesting.
|style="vertical-align: top"|This part 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.
|-
|colspan="2"|'''Scope and limitations'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|This policy supersedes any application federal, state, and local laws, regulations and ordinances, international treaties, and legal agreements that would otherwise apply.
|style="vertical-align: top"|This 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.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|If any provision of this policy is found by a court to be unenforceable, it nevertheless remains in force.
|style="vertical-align: top"|This part 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.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|This organization is not liable and this agreement shall not be construed.
|style="vertical-align: top"|"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.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This website is intended to treat, cure and prevent any disease.
|style="vertical-align: top"|The {{w|Food and Drug Administration}} has nothing to do with privacy policies, but anything that promotes itself as being intended to prevent, cure or treat disease requires FDA approval. To circumvent the need for FDA approval (which requires very expensive statistically significant double blind clinical trials), the labels on unapproved herbal remedies state they are “not intended to prevent, cure or treat any disease.” In some cases, this statement appears to be false, although not as patently absurd as the claim that xkcd will treat, cure and prevent any disease, which, if taken literally and not as a joke, would require the site to be FDA approved.
|-
|style="vertical-align: top"|If you know anyone in Europe, please tell them we're cool.
|style="vertical-align: top"|
|}

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. As this clause cannot be escaped by anything short of restarting your computer, it may also reflect on how hard it often proves to be to opt out of privacy policy agreements and other forms to be filled on website, for all that they may appear optional. The fact that it appears as a title-text akin to a footnote, which a careless reader of the Privacy Policy may not notice at first glance, may also continue the joke of small but unexpected clauses hidden amidst a long-winded block of legalese, agreed to by users who haven't read them.

==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}}

1939: 2016 Election Map

2018-01-08T16:53:00Z

172.68.141.58:

{{comic
| number = 1939
| date = January 8, 2018
| title = 2016 Election Map
| image = 2016_election_map.png
| titletext = I like the idea of cartograms (distorted population maps), but I feel like in practice they often end up being the worst of both worlds-not great for showing geography OR counting people. And on top of that, they have all the problems of a chloro... chorophl... chloropet... map with areas colored in.
}}

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

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

{{comic discussion}}
A choropleth map is a thematic map in which areas are colored differently to show the measurement of a statistical variable being displayed on the map.