explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2546: Fiction vs Nonfiction

2021-11-25T15:34:40Z

172.69.63.142: added some citations that are needed

{{comic
| number = 2546
| date = November 24, 2021
| title = Fiction vs Nonfiction
| image = fiction_vs_nonfiction.png
| titletext = The real challenge is how to file Boba Fett's biography of Doris Kearns Goodwin.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A FICTIONAL DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is asking [[Ponytail]] and [[White Hat]] to classify different ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' books and movies as fiction or nonfiction. ''Star Wars'' as a whole is a multimedia franchise, which includes films, TV series, novels, etc, but often singularly refers to {{w|Star Wars (film)|the original 1977 film}} later more lengthily titled ''Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope''. The classifications get more complicated to determine as the conversation progresses while revealing a quite specific obsession with the character of {{w|Boba Fett}}. The complexity may even end up converting {{w|Lumpers and splitters|lumpers into splitters}}, a philosophical distinction that another [[2518: Lumpers and Splitters|recent comic]] touched upon.

Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that intends, in good faith, to present only truth and accuracy regarding information, events, or people. In contrast, fiction offers information, events, or characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary, or else leaves open if and how the work refers to reality.

{| class="wikitable"
!Media name
!Explanation
|-
| ''Star Wars''
| ''Star Wars'' is a science-''fiction'' movie released in 1977.
|-
| ''{{w|The Making of Star Wars}}''
| This was a television special about how ''Star Wars'' was made, which would make it nonfiction.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''
| This would be one of the ''Star Wars'' franchise's continuity of stories, making it fictional. Not a currently extant release, but something like this {{w|List_of_Star_Wars_films#Unproduced_films|has been long anticipated}}, and now possibly inspired by the imminent release (as of the comic's time of posting) of {{w|The Book of Boba Fett}}.
|-
| ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''
| While the content of this guidebook is entirely fictional, the book is factual. Boba Fett (a fictional character){{citation needed}} does in fact [https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/253196 have durasteel]/[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Boba_Fett%27s_armor Beskar] armor (a fictional material), so the book is technically non-fiction.
|-
| ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''
| This could either be a non-fictional book or docuseries similar to the previous entry, or instead an in-universe adventure series or film.
|-
| ''Boba Fett: A Life'' by Doris Kearns Goodwin
| {{w|Doris Kearns Goodwin}} is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of many influential people. Since Goodwin is a non-fiction writer, it could be difficult to determine whether the biography is a fictional account of the character, or a factual account of the fictional history of the character. If the book doesn't establish any new canon, and is instead citing only recorded (fictional) facts from the Star Wars Universe, it could legitimately be considered non-fiction.
|-
| (title text) Boba Fett's biography on Doris Kearns Goodwin
| It is unclear how, or why, a fictional character would write a biography on a real life person, but there's always the possibly that there was a fictional Doris, in-universe to Boba, whose own life and exploits would be natural for an actually fictional factual output.
|}

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

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars''?
:Ponytail: Fiction.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''The Making of Star Wars''?
:White Hat: Nonfiction.

:[Closeup of Cueball.]
:Cueball: ''Star Wars: The Adventures of Boba Fett''?
:Ponytail (off-panel): Fiction.

:[Closeup of Ponytail.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Star Wars: The Official Guide to Boba Fett's Armor and Weapons''?
:Ponytail: Nonfiction, technically.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett's Gadgets and How He Got Them''?
:Ponytail: ...Fiction? It depends.

:[Cueball is facing Ponytail, and White Hat. Ponytail has turned towards White Hat.]
:Cueball: ''Boba Fett: A Life'', by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin?
:Ponytail: Hm.
:White Hat: Maybe we should just have a Boba Fett section.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2528: Flag Map Sabotage

2021-10-15T18:03:22Z

172.69.63.142:

Example map (of that of which sabotage might be intended) could be something like: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/0f/36/410f3661d1cee3b255b82a111f99d242.jpg ..? I have no doubt that someone is even now polishing off an initial Explanation, and wouldn't want to exit-conflict with them, but that's something like what I'd link to in order to demonstrate the thing being messed with. (Noting that the reference to North American territory both in words and the obvious Candian mapleleaf(less) flag as a basis. (Not sure, by sight, where the 'bite' matches, if not as per the red 'key', but note how Spain gets twisted in my link in order to not look odd with coastlines and similarly twisted Portugese neighbour cutting at odd angles through its stripes. That's the kind of thing this flag would evoke the confusion of.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.35|141.101.76.35]] 02:26, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
:It's now over 12 hours later, I think you should add it to the text. I didn't understand anything about the comic or even its explanation before I saw your picture. Also, what kind of drugs is Randall on‽ :D [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 10:54, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Why is Korsika coloured green on this map? It belongs to France. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.40|162.158.93.40]] 06:22, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
:That's Sardinia, which belongs to Italy (the west of Italy is green). Corsica is north of Sardinia. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.140|162.158.89.140]] 06:42, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

I can't help but thinking there's significance to the shape of the red area in the flag. Which country would this flag belong to in order to cause further confusion? And since it's red, why would any country cede part of its area to Delaware? Unless it's the flag of a newly independent Delaware? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.140|162.158.89.140]] 06:42, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Only the south-eastern part of Belgium, which would already be Delawarian, is likely to border Delawarian France. The unexplored area (and most if not all of the tornado zone) would likely be bordering the white area (unclaimed? neutral zone? sea?) of France. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.120|141.101.69.120]] 08:30, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

My first thought was that this was a Canada joke, since the flag looks a bit like Canada's flag (e.g. red a white with a solid red stripe on the edge) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.48.151|172.69.48.151]] 13:28, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
:I just added my hypothesis that this is a new US flag that nicely attaches both to Canada's flag at the top, and Mexico's at the bottom. It would be nice to try and produce such a map with Randall's design, similar to https://st.depositphotos.com/2353733/5164/v/950/depositphotos_51647815-stock-illustration-north-america-map-with-flags.jpg.
I would say that "Delware" might add new context to the flag from [[1815]], but if we assume that the three stars on that flag represent three states, and one of those states has to be Massachusets where Munroe lives, then there's no way it could also include Deleware and still be contiguous. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.143|172.69.71.143]] 14:07, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

I kinda want to see what this would look like replacing USA on a map of the Americas now... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.131|172.70.134.131]] 15:56, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Looking at the above posts, yeah, I'm 95% sure the gap in the white at the bottom corresponds to the Gulf of Mexico. I think it likely that this design is intended to be superimposed onto the entire United States, to imply that the western portion of Canada continues further south and borders with the "newly independent" region of western Mexico. (Just ignore the enormous eagle to the south.)
Also, I would guess that the light blue is intended to suggest that oceans and other large bodies of water are really "disputed territory"? --mezimm [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.143|172.69.71.143]] 14:43, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
:Also, I suppose the flag would be separately superimposed onto Alaska as well as the continental US, so that would also be interesting to see...[[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.142|172.69.63.142]] 18:03, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2522: Two-Factor Security Key

2021-09-30T10:16:41Z

172.69.63.142: For this edit, I'm thinking of nuclear launch key-pairs, I suppose.

There are 2FA USB keys (WebAuthn, FIDO2, U2F) such as
https://shop.nitrokey.com/shop/product/nk-fi2-nitrokey-fido2-55 with a hole to attach a keychain - and the item in the last panel looks a bit like such one [[User:Bmwiedemann|Bmwiedemann]] ([[User talk:Bmwiedemann|talk]]) 03:48, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
:: First thing that comes to mind when someone mentions a 2FA security key. 100% most certainly what they are talking about. yubikey/fido2 being the ones that popularized it iirc [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.177|172.69.71.177]] 04:41, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
:: Yeah, yubikey definitely comes to mind. I wouldn't call 2FA on a phone a 2FA "Key". Perhaps you could call the generator secret a (cryptographic) key, but I don't think that's what this comic is talking about. [[User:Jeffkmeng|Jeffkmeng]] ([[User talk:Jeffkmeng|talk]]) 06:56, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
2FA tokens are actually quite often physical keys that fit on a keychain and produce a secret number to input for authentication. It is only recently that such 2FA key generators have moved into phones. Here is one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_SecurID
[[User:Adron1111|Adron1111]] ([[User talk:Adron1111|talk]]) 06:41, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

The joke here isn't 2FA key vs tumbler-and-pin key, the joke is that all of the configuration pain he's talking about isn't setting up the key to work with his computer or various sites (which one might expect when introducing a new, non-tech-savvy user to 2FA), but rather getting the key onto his keyring. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.67|172.69.34.67]] 07:22, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

Haven't put this in the text (I added some practical "what you know/have/are" stuff, from my own past experience) but I thought it was that two ''actual'' factors are now on the keyring (insecurely, as per the current last para?). A 'have' item is obviously there, of whatever form, but now (unless it's a second 'have', supposed to be separate) there is also somehow a 'know' one (c.f. those people who have scrawled their bank-card PINs onto their bank-cards, entirely negating that particular safety-factor) or an 'are' one (bits of fingerprint? blood samples?). Possibly now imposssible to use (if not trivially easy to co-steal). Plus, remember that data security has two faces: 1) Only those authorised may access/change data; 2) Those who are authorised should not be deprived of this ability. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.191|172.70.34.191]] 10:14, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

Talk:146: Join Myspace

2021-09-06T14:00:46Z

172.69.63.142:

[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The issue date is definitely off. Can anyone fix?

:Yep, I've fixed the date. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:59, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

carebearstare :D [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 01:21, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
black hat said "care bear stare" quickly to become "carebearstare." (this is supported by cueball's "What?") that should probably be mentioned instead of just switching to carebearstare. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.142|172.69.63.142]] 14:00, 6 September 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

146: Join Myspace

2021-09-06T13:59:14Z

172.69.63.142: minor

{{comic
| number = 146
| date = August 21, 2006
| title = Join Myspace
| image = join_myspace.png
| titletext = I really shouldn't abuse that power so heavily.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the 1980s TV/comic series {{w|Care Bears|''Care Bears''}}, in which various cuddly bears in rainbow colors go on missions to save the world. The characters' ultimate weapon is the "Care Bear Stare," in which the Bears stand together and radiate light from their respective tummy symbols. These combine to form a ray of love and good cheer that could bring care and joy into the target's heart. Of course, [[Black Hat]]'s carebearstare is far more lethal.

[[Cueball]] is trying to convince Black Hat to create an account at {{w|Myspace}}, a networking site, but Black Hat isn't interested. When Black Hat gets annoyed by Cueball's persuasions, he activates his "carebearstare," thus overthrowing Cueball's request to be friends on myspace.

One possible explanation for Black Hat's odd choice of weaponry is that he is mocking Cueball. The phrase "Please? I'll friend you" sounds like an average preschooler's coaxing (along the lines of "Please? I'll be your friend!"). Therefore, Black Hat may feel that Cueball's remarks seem childish and deserve a childish backlash.

On a nostalgic note, considering the state of social media in the 2010s, Black Hat is just really good at foreshadowing.

In the title text, Black Hat reflects that he uses his carebearstare power too much, possibly as a form of apology to Cueball.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is talking to Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Dude, you should get on MySpace.
:Black Hat: Eh, I don't think so.

:Cueball: C'mon. There's no real reason not to except snobbiness. It's the new social scene.
:Black Hat: I know. I'm just not interested.

:Cueball: Please? I'll friend you.
:Black Hat: Carebearstare.
:Cueball: What?

:[Black Hat shoots a rainbow colored ray from his chest - the Care Bear Stare. It throws Cueball to the edge of the panel, pinned to the wall.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Social networking]]