explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond

2022-06-28T02:01:23Z

172.69.69.122:

{{comic
| number = 2638
| date = June 27, 2022
| title = Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond
| image = extended_nfpa_hazard_diamond.png
| titletext = With most labs, the hushed horror stories are about something like dimethylmercury or prions, but occasionally you'll get a weird lab where it's about the soda machine or the drop ceiling.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WORTH $500 IN STREET VALUE - 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.}}
Know your extended NFPA hazard diamond:

Flammability: 0 (top)

Health hazard: 4 (top-left)

Instability/reactivity: 2 (top-right)

Number of digits in the street value ($/gram): 2 (left)

(Special hazard) (center)

How much of a hassle it is to dispose of: 4 (right)

Number of federal agencies who want to know if you have any: 3 (bottom-left)

How many times you have to scrub your hands after touching it before they stop smelling weird: 1 (bottom-right)

Number of times it's caused one of those terrifying lab accidents that chemists tell scary stories about late at night: 2 (bottom)

{{comic discussion}}

2638: Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond

2022-06-28T01:57:39Z

172.69.69.122:

Talk:2626: d65536

2022-05-31T13:35:29Z

172.69.69.122: Nerdy/silly question about the structural integrity of such a huge die and its impact on the fairness of the die for subsequent rolls.

I wonder: can we even make a fair polyhedron with 65536 faces? In Randal's illustration, the faces seem to be irregular hexagons. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:37, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: This is better than my question, which was simply if you could tile a sphere with these. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 23:01, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Definitely possible, just create two identical right pyramids with a 32768-gon base and glue the bases together. [[User:Clam|Clam]] ([[User talk:Clam|talk]]) 23:53, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: Would this design be fair? Consider a set of 256 lines of latitude overlapping another set, with the second set's polar axis at the equator of the first. Cut flat quadrangles between the intersection points of the lines of latitude. Doesn't use hexagons like the comic does though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 09:41, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Fairness is a given for pyramids (if that's what you're asking). As long as there's enough 'rolling energy' to get either of the pyramids 'facing up', any N-agon base to the pyramids should have enough indeterminate impetous to then finally roll around a bit to end up with any of those exposed faces on top.
::(Interesting to note that for odd-numbered N-agonal bases, like that in a D10, you need to offset the bases and instead of sticking to the triangular faces base-to-base you now have kite-shapes that interlock in a serration that is no longer strictly planar along the axis's perpendiculars.)
::That might need a selection of the pyramidal slope. A very wide pair of bases with very little tip-'elevation' (to fit tightly within an oblate spheroid) should transition very well between same-pyramid faces, like a bulgy button, but one with highly acute tip-angle (prolate, likewise) might find the dominant behaviour to be tip-to-tip tipping, more like a toggle-fastener. OTOH, for odd-numbered end-agons it would probably ratchett to subsequent sides as it tips back and forth so long as it has enough energy to it.
::If you're asking about lines of latitude intersecting, consider that near the poles of either latitudinal reference the division of the other reference-system is going to be spliced more irregularly and thus give varying degrees of stability to rest upon.
::(Also, do you have a latitudinal line that crosses ''both'' pairs of poles, or are you deliberately moving them by half a phase (1/512th of the relevent circumference) so that you at least don't have them entirely coincident.)
::I believe the suggested scheme would be to take a dodecahedron or icosohedron (either of the two duals can be used to start with) and then subdivide each face in such a manner that equally-sized (but differently distorted) hexagons – and 12 little regular pentagons of identical area fitting in at the old dodecahedron centre/the old icosahedron vertex – emerge from the required segmentation/vertex-truncation and readjustment the radiality of all new mid-edge vertices (or maybe the newer-edges' centres or the newer-faces' centres) to touch the unit sphere. If done symmetrically, it should be entirely fair.
::The face-count might be troublesome, though. The twelve necessary pentagonal faces leaves 65524 hexagons, to split evenly between* either 12 or 20 zones, and it should be obvious that neither is possible**, in whole numbers, given the starting point of 2n faces...
:::(* - you can, and probably will in this design, have some that cross between two of the top-level polygons, but you can fully 'donate' as many as you then fully ''get'' donated from the next face around, so it might as well be just counted as a group of whole tiles on an a set of Escher-like interlocking 'rough' polygons.)
:::(** - If you're using 12 zones, that's 3x4x(however many in the zone + one corner each) and there's no factor of 3 in ''any'' value that is 2n. Arranging into 20 symmetrical zones (5x4), you will find that 65524 isn't divisible by 5, either...)
::You could probably arrange an N-ahedron with the number of faces being 12+(12a) or 12+(20b), for some higher value (a bit of mental arithmatic suggests 65592 might be that value) and mark all the 'excess' faces (56?) with "Roll Again!". Or perhaps some pithy motivational slogans that also convey roughly the same meaning... :P [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 11:32, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Postcript: Ok, so this is my idea for face-placing. Take a D8 (octahedron) and divide each of its 8 originally triangular faces into 8192 smaller faces (alternatively, start with a cube and progressively truncate its corners towards the same end). This is not a divisible by three number (neither can you put one in the centre, the rest are divisble by three and can surround it symmetrically), but you don't need strict rotational symmetry in any way. The opposing side can reflect/copy the non-symmetry as required to create any useful symmetry across the whole of the structure (and make floored-base/upmost-face pairings, amongst other things).
::As long as you make the faces equally likely to land on ''and stay on'' (could be hyperstellated as a slightly flat irregular 8192agon-based right-pyramid with the pyramid-faces of adjacent sides matching or meshing edges with those of each other, or a complicated mostly-hexagonal mesh, or a triangular one that's a limited fragment of a fine geodesic-like bulged pattern) by some suitable scheme governing area, aspect ratio and inter-face angle of incidence (probably normalising features to touch the unit sphere, for a start) then it should do it fairly and with ''exactly'' 65536 faces. I leave the fine-tweaking up to someone else. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.5|172.70.162.5]] 12:59, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I don't know why it's so big? Seems like it should have a diameter of approx. 1 meter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.105|172.70.130.105]] 21:37, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
: Cueball is 50 pixels high. The ball is 340 px high. Assuming Cueball is an average-height male (1.7m), and is standing the same distance from the viewer as the center of the ball, roughly how large is each face of the polygon? Area of a sphere is 4.pi.r.r, r=0.85, so 9.08 m^2 or 9080000 mm^2, divide by number of faces, get 277 mm^2, so we get 1.6cm to a side. If I did that right, then you're right: those are fairly large faces. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.39|172.69.70.39]] 05:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I ran the calculations for the Trivia section. I used 12pt font which gave each number an area of 1/6 square inch (about 1 square cm) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.237|162.158.106.237]] 06:57, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Should the title and picture file use "d" or the comic's difficult to type "ᴅ"?
[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 21:55, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Since xkcd uses small caps as lowercase letters, the "ᴅ" should just be considered xkcd-font for "d", and as such need not be used on the title, which is not using the xkcd font.
:: Ah! [[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|talk]]) 06:15, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

If you really did want to generate a 16 bit integer with physical dice, it would be much simpler to roll a [https://www.thediceshoponline.com/impact-opaque-hexidice-d16-hexadecimal-dice hex die] four times. [[User:Clayot|Clayot]] ([[User talk:Clayot|talk]]) 23:30, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
:Rolling a binary die 16 times would also work. You can get binary dice for 1¢ each. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 01:31, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Those 1¢ "dices" are not exactly guaranteed to be random. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:12, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:::They seem as random as other dice? Am I wrong? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 09:33, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the hardest part (or maybe second-hardest part) is figuring out which facet is the one on top. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.109|162.158.78.109]] 00:46, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:Roll it on a glass table, check from below which face it's landed on instead. Wait until it has settled safely, though, or it might land on ''your'' face! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.227|172.70.90.227]] 04:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:: Good plan. Assuming standard dice design, subtract the value from 65537 to get the value of the uppermost face. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.39|172.69.70.39]] 05:58, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

What material should it be to be light enough to easily roll it but cheap enough that doing the 1,5 meters doest cost a fortune ? Sorry if the question is not clear. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.30|141.101.69.30]] 05:50, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:I recommend making it hollow. You could probably do something like this for $3000 if you made it out of 1/8th inch acrylic plate. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.237|162.158.106.237]] 07:02, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
:At first I thought aluminum for sturdiness, but really you could make this out of cardboard for dirt cheap, lasercutting precise shapes, but you'd have to design its structural frame to keep it intact, exchanges design effort for price. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.63|172.70.230.63]] 09:32, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I disagree with this dice being really random. Like, sure, if thrown correctly, but that's going to be quite hard. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 06:12, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

:True. For a rolled die to be random, it needs to roll far enough so that the initial orientation no longer governs the outcome. Say, ten times the circumference, or about 150 meters? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 10:28, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::Interesting to consider the 'necessary minimum'. Simplify to a "wheel of fortune" (just one axis of continual rotation) it would depend upon the potential variation of imparted rotation. If (say) 'aiming' at two whole rotations has a (perhaps 'normal') spread of variance that relates to ±½ rotational uncertainty at the 1st and 3rd quartile of probability then the sub-first and above-third 'tails' might wrap around to (roughly) equalise the chances that 2±(whatever fraction) spins lands just about anywhere just about equally. Aiming at four whole rotations (similary ±1 spin at the given quartiles, and the tailing chancs 'filling in' above 5 rotations and below 3) would smooth things out, all else equal, but takes twice as much perceived/attempted effort for not much more 'randomising'.
::Similarly, requiring 10 full rolls (maybe honestly aiming for 10, but allowing it to be 7.5 or less if not obviously 'just nudged') seems overkill, in the single dimension.
::Except, of course that you also need enough distance (on top of whatever factor you consider practical as a variation-wrapping value, which might not be the ½-in-2 I give) to also roll ''sideways''. If for some reason you really don't want to roll 65536 or 1 (or is it 65535 and 0?), which may be on polar-opposite faces, you might make sure that they are directly to the left and right before you propel the die forwards ''a little'', not caring which distribution of numbers is on/near the rolling-equator (2 is acceptible to you, and 65533, etc; other very low/high values conceivably placed on that thin band of "wheel-like chance" but you're just avoiding the very largest and smallest, or specifically just the one of them) but knowing that it's more unlikely to easily present the exact face(s) you dislike than it might be in a truly 'fair' roll.
::Perhaps the best thing is to have a rolling track to send the thing down that puts it the required "two or so rotations" forward to then either hit a wall or climb slightly up a slope (at a roughly 45 degree angle) that then sends it back roughly sideways to the original vector for a similar distance with a perpendicular or even composite moment of rolling rotation, to bring 'initially axial' numbers fully into play... And that dog-leg would require a sligthly shorter length from launch-position to where the thoroughly mixed-up final stopping point should be, whilst significantly foiling the master-manipulators who actually try to arrange an initial setup that favours better final results (rather than just nudge it, uncaring, for a result not as totally random but certainly not more predominently of desired-for ranges than otherwise). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.8|141.101.99.8]] 12:28, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
::At what point does the structural material the die is composed of, combined with its mass, create a smoothing effect that will destroy the fairness of the die. I mean a small plastic die is no problem. A 2-ton acrylic die would start grinding off the edges of some faces with every roll, would it not? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.122|172.69.69.122]] 13:35, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Should it be related to https://xkcd.com/221/ ? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.183.246|162.158.183.246]] 08:07, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

I'm going to wait, I think - I don't think there's room in my attic for this as well as all the Betamax kit, my drawers full of MiniDiscs and my Zune collection. No, I'll sit tight - I'm hearing encouraging things about the introduction of the Magic 65536-Ball... [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 09:41, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

1021: Business Plan

2022-05-20T21:32:24Z

172.69.69.122: Undo revision 270688 by Explain xkcd server admin (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1021
| date = February 24, 2012
| title = Business Plan
| image = business_plan.png
| titletext = The investor elevator pitch is "Wheeeeeeee! Elevators are fun!"
}}

==Explanation==

This one has the art and feel of very early xkcd comics, even when those stick figures did not appear by that time.

[[Beret Guy]] has developed (or spontaneously implemented) a "business plan" whereby he lures seagulls to an area of a beach utilizing breadcrumbs. Once the gulls converge on the area, he sets up a sign reading "GULLS FOR SALE" with a jar for money. Though Beret Guy probably expects to profit, the confused reactions of other people in the last panel indicate nobody is buying, and the limited number of gulls, four, is low enough that their sale might not even finance the breadcrumbs. In real life, there is no market for seagulls, nor will there ever be in the foreseeable future. {{Citation needed}}

The title text is a reference to the phrase "{{w|Elevator pitch}}", which is also similar to "investor pitch". The point of an elevator pitch is to have a synopsis of your idea that you are capable of delivering on a moment's notice in the time it takes to ride the elevator, about 30 seconds. This way, when you get that once-in-a-career opportunity to pitch your plan to the one person who can make it happen because you just happened to catch the same elevator, you are ready. The reason the elevator pitch is so simplistic is because the same sort of person that would think selling seagulls is a viable business model is likely the same sort of person to make a childish elevator pitch. This also pokes fun at the idea of people sweating over their pitch with such seriousness, when Beret Guy's pitch is literally a childish exclamation. Wheeee!

==Transcript==
:[6 small panels extend across the width of the comic...]

:[Beret Guy stands on a shoreline and takes in the environment in silent contemplation.]

:[In a frame-less panel, Beret Guy heads off with an idea fresh in his head.]

:[Beret Guy saunters back with a jar, some bread, and a signboard.]

:[Beret Guy tears the bread off into pieces.]

:[Beret Guy sets up the signboard, with its contents yet to be revealed.]

:[Beret Guy heads off and waits for the plan to unfold.]

:[A large full-width panel below the first 6 small panels shows the same beach, this time with Megan and Cueball standing in front of and reading the sign. Cueball scratches his head. The bread has attracted quite a few gulls. There is a label on the jar.]
:Jar label: $
:Sign: Gulls for sale

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]

Talk:400: Important Life Lesson

2022-05-13T17:22:42Z

172.69.69.122:

Not intended? We can't be sure . . . {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.167}}

Why is Cunnilingus capitalized? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.56|162.158.92.56]] 17:54, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
:If there's anything more important than Cunnilingus, I want it caught and shot now. —[[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 01:46, 30 November 2019 (UTC)
Meghan seems to be enjoying the tempo, so maybe its an awesome idea instead?

1685: Patch

2022-05-11T18:07:52Z

172.69.69.122: Undo revision 266694 by 👖🔥 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1685
| date = May 25, 2016
| title = Patch
| image = patch.png
| titletext = My optimizer uses content-aware inpainting to fill in all the wasted whitespace in the code, repeating the process until it compiles.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Adobe Photoshop}} is a commonly used application for image manipulation. One of its features is the Patch tool, which allows the user to overwrite parts of the image, replacing them with a copy of another area of the same image. It is often used for “patching up” photographs by overwriting scratches or other visible damage to the photo. Another of Photoshop’s features is “content-aware fill”, which could also be described as “content-aware inpainting”. It works similarly to the Patch tool, but automatically generates a replacement texture from the area surrounding the deleted part instead of copying a user-specified area exactly.

{{w|GNU}} {{w|Patch (Unix)|patch}} is a program that replaces only parts of code with an updated version, without requiring the user to download the entire source code. Here, it appears the author was told to “patch” the code but used Photoshop to do this instead of GNU patch, with devastating results. Although the title text suggests that if you did this enough times the code would eventually compile, this would never happen. In fact, Photoshop could only edit an image of the text and not the text itself. However, it could work if optical character recognition (OCR) were integrated into the workflow as well.

The comic blurs the difference between {{w|text_file|text}} (in which letters and symbols represent discrete values, such as 65 being the number for the letter A in the ASCII encoding standard, and it's relatively easy for a program compiler to interpret combinations of these values as keywords and other programming constructs) and {{w|Raster_graphics|graphics}} (where the letters and symbols in the comic are actually represented by a pattern of colored dots), playing with the idea that the ''patch'' metaphor can be used on both (although with different meanings). There are common and straightforward processes for converting text information to images, such as printing, which can convert text to a graphics format very faithfully. The reverse, however, requires the use of {{w|optical character recognition}} (OCR), which attempts to figure out which letter or symbol certain patterns of dots "look like". OCR could be effective in converting some of the image in the comic back to usable text; however, it would fail on some of those patterns that have been mangled and don't look like any existing characters or symbols. A compiler can only operate on text data, so converting the graphic back into text would be a requirement to even begin to attempt to compile it, a step omitted in the title text.

The code appears to be written in {{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python}}, a programming language often referred to in xkcd, such as in [[353: Python]]. A few of the function names that can be recognized are "isPrime" and "quicksort", both elementary programming algorithms. It was also apparently originally edited using a Python-aware programming text editor, which is able to use different colors for different programming elements. For example, it appears to use red for keywords, blue for variables, and black for other elements; however, because of the mangling from the use of the wrong patching program, that doesn't appear to be consistent. Since the patching replaced graphical elements rather than whole characters, there are examples of symbols that are combinations of two different characters, and when the original two characters were rendered in different colors the resulting non-character could be in two colors, or the resulting "word" might be rendered in multiple colors.

The comic brings to attention the high rate of Adobe Photoshop piracy. GNU Patch is available for free, even [http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/patch.htm for Windows], and Mac OS X. So the comic implies that Adobe Photoshop, a subscription to which costs $20/month, is more available than GNU patch. According to [http://blog.epicedits.com/2008/03/28/60-of-photoshop-users-are-pirates/ this poll], 58% of Photoshop copies were pirated.

The title text also explains that the patch used the content-aware inpainting to fill in all the wasted whitespace in the code. In most programming languages, whitespace is necessary to separate words, so this would combine words that shouldn’t be combined and create invalid code. Since the code in the image is Python, the code will be messed up even more, because Python uses whitespace as a part of its programming syntax. For example, statements are separated by newlines instead of by semicolons (;), and indentation is used instead of brackets to determine the scope of each section of code.

The original code was likely as follows:

import re
def isPrime(n):
if n<=1:
return False
for i in range(2, int(n**0.5)+1):
if n%i==0:
return False
return True
def isPrimeRegex(n):
if re.match(r'^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$', '1'*n):
return False
return True
def quicksort(a):
if len(a) < 2:
return a
pivot=a[0]
l=[i for i in a if i<pivot]
r=[i for i in a if i>pivot]
mid=[pivot]*(len(a)-(len(l)+len(r)))
return quicksort(l)+mid+quicksort(r)

isPrime and quicksort are standard python implementations of simple algorithms (although you would not generally write a sorting algorithm in python as there are built-in algorithms available). isPrimeRegex uses the [https://docs.python.org/library/re.html re module] to detect if a number is prime by seeing if a string containing that many 1s can be matched to 2 or more copies of some string containing at least 2 1s.

The comic two comics back [[1683: Digital Data]], also related to turning digital data into bad copies. Less than a month before quicksort was mentioned in [[1667: Algorithms]], and a month before that another "easy" solution to a programming problem was released in [[1654: Universal Install Script]].

Using a Photoshop tool for a task it is not intended for was also used in [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]], where [https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/content-aware-scaling.html Photoshop's content-aware resizing tool] was a very questionable choice to use for a Map Projection.

==Transcript==
:[The panel displays part of a code, in five different colors (red, purple, light blue, blue, and green) as well as normal black text, which due to image editing is difficult to read. The first and last lines are partly obscured by the frame of the panel. Here below is an attempt to transcribe the code, using the sign "¤" for anything not easily transcribed. Feel free to add other signs instead of these that look more like the one in the image (and also improve the attempted transcription if possible).]
impoɞtme
dooPisPŞ¤me(n):
r(¤n<n,1:
retern F(ise
for i irararre(2, nint *n**n+5)+5):
if n i==0
ret¤¤nrselsel:
re¤ irn True
defesisPrimcieg ¤x(cx
if ge¤inatcx(ᵣ'^(1?| ?.1+?)\+)$'*n )1'*n):
rerjrn Fa( e
LetylnrTrl
dql qlsorsorn(a :
if ¤n(a < 2:
eteturn a
pi= =r fa[0]
l=pi=for j ın a i< i<pi<(t]()
r=[ı=for f in a) r i>viviv](vo)
mid=[pi[*t]*(l*t,(a)-(lenpienlen(c)))
r¤lrurrriklcksckt(l) + r ¤ ¤quickrort(r)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Protip: If you don't have access to the GNU ''patch'' tool, you can use the Photoshop one.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Programming]]

36: Scientists

2022-05-04T21:06:01Z

172.69.69.122: Undo revision 242763 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 36
| date =  2006
| title = Scientists
| image = scientists.jpg
| titletext = A leading expert characterized the situation as 'retarded'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic plays on the type of statement that news reports often use: "in what [group of experts] are calling '[quote]'," to add more weight and credibility to their stories. In this case, [[Cueball]] is using the phrase to attempt to add gravitas to the (relatively mundane) fact that his shoes are missing and he thinks it's "pretty gay" by assigning this opinion to scientists (rather than it being, presumably, his friend's or his own opinion). The same joke is at play in the image text where a leading expert thinks the situation is "retarded."

There may be a second level to the joke: Randall was still working for NASA at the time the comic was posted, so his friends at that time would presumably include scientists and "leading experts." If his friends made fun of him for not being able to find his shoes, it would therefore be accurate to say that scientists had made those statements. However, since their being scientists is irrelevant to the legitimacy of their opinions about Randall's shoe problems, presenting their teasing as an expert opinion is humorously misleading; a similar joke is at play in [[1206: Einstein]].

The phrases "pretty gay" and "retarded" are homophobic and ableist slang for "foolish" or "contemptible," and so they are the opposite type of speech expected of experts on news reports. (These terms were not generally considered more than mildly offensive by most of the public at the time this comic was posted; the cultural mainstream is now typically much more critical of this type of language, and this comic would likely be heavily criticized if it were published today.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is staring at an empty box on the floor.]
:Cueball: In what scientists are calling "pretty gay", I can't find my shoes.

==Trivia==
*This comic was never posted on [[LiveJournal]].
**But its "comic number" was still among the 44 comics that was posted on the day the xkcd web site opened (1st of January 2006).
**41 one of these were previously posted on LiveJournal; only three were not.
**The other two are [[5: Blown apart]] and [[12: Poisson]].
*However, comic #36 was originally posted as a duplicate of comic [[10: Pi Equals]]. This was corrected sometime between [http://web.archive.org/web/20060423175703/http://www.xkcd.com/c36.html April 23, 2006] and [http://web.archive.org/web/20060705231511/http://xkcd.com/c36.html July 5, 2006], when the current version showed up in the web archive (see the links).
**The comic looks like one of Randall's old drawings. So when he realized his mistake (over three months after it was originally posted), he probably found an old drawing he never originally intended to use and posted it, to not make it stand out compared to the other comics from that time.
**This is the reason there is no date for this comic. It can be anytime between the two dates mentioned above.

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:No date]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]

349: Success

2022-05-04T01:02:32Z

172.69.69.122: Undo revision 233245 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 349
| date = November 26, 2007
| title = Success
| image = success.png
| titletext = 40% of OpenBSD installs lead to shark attacks. It's their only standing security issue.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to a common experience in which attempts to improve or change something can get you into even worse trouble, and where just getting back to the state at which you started becomes an arduous or even impossible task. Here, this idea is taken to a ridiculously (and amusingly) extreme level, where the attempt to install an operating system snowballs into ever more complicated problems, resulting in Cueball and Megan somehow literally getting themselves in deep water.

The OS they are trying to install is {{w|OpenBSD}}, an {{w|open source}} {{w|Unix}} {{w|operating system}} that, like some other Unix variants, is notoriously difficult to install and configure correctly, especially on home desktops with less common hardware profiles, and especially compared with the more popular Windows operating system.

The title text is a reference to OpenBSD's premium on security. For a time, their slogan was "Five years without a remote [security] hole in the default install!" This was eventually changed to "Only two remote holes in the default install, in a heck of a long time!" That their only standing security issue would be shark attacks is effectively an acknowledgement that any attempts to install the OS will only lead to getting stranded in the middle of the ocean.

This comic was referenced later in [[1350: Lorenz]]. Trying to install BSD was also referenced in [[518: Flow Charts]]. The last panel in [[1912: Thermostat]] may explain how this comic ended. Later, another possible reason to ending up in the ocean was given in [[2083: Laptop Issues]].

This comic follows a similar storyline to [[530: I'm An Idiot]] and [[1518: Typical Morning Routine]], as Cueball and [[Hairy]] encounter an issue and attempt proceedingly more absurd solutions to the issue.

==Transcript==

:[Four full-width panels arranged vertically, each with a label for number of hours elapsed, with a title above the stack of panels.]

:Title: As a project wears on, standards for success slip lower and lower.

:[Megan is standing behind Cueball, watching him as he sits at a desk working on a desktop computer on the desk.]
:Label: 0 hours
:Cueball: Okay, I should be able to dual-boot BSD soon.

:[Cueball is on the floor fiddling with the open tower in front of him. Megan is not shown in the panel, but may be off-panel unless Cueball is talking to himself.]
:Label: 6 hours
:Cueball: I'll be happy if I can get the system working like it was when I started.

:[Cueball is standing in front of the computer, which now has a laptop plugged into the tower. Megan is still not shown in the panel, but may be off-panel again.]
:Label: 10 hours
:Cueball: Well, the desktop's a lost cause, but I think I can fix the problems the laptop's developed.

:[Cueball and Megan are swimming in the sea; an island and a beach can be seen in the distance.]
:Label: 24 hours
:Cueball: If we're lucky, the sharks will stay away until we reach shallow water.
:Megan: If we make it back alive, you're never upgrading anything again.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:BSD]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

2200: Unreachable State

2022-05-03T23:49:22Z

172.69.69.122: Undo revision 233537 by X. K. C. D. (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2200
| date = September 09, 2019
| title = Unreachable State
| image = unreachable_state.png
| titletext = ERROR: We've reached an unreachable state. Anything is possible. The limits were in our heads all along. Follow your dreams.
}}

==Explanation==

When writing a computer program, developers often need to make assumptions about what state the system could potentially be in at the time the program is executed. For example, a program designed to fetch data from a database requires that the database be accessible at the time it tries to fetch data; if it is not, then the program needs to know how to handle that state, or it might simply hang or crash the system. A good developer will have accounted for this possibility and may give the program a way to fail gracefully; often, this is done by outputting an {{w|error message}} to the user, to tell them what is wrong.

Sometimes, cautious developers will identify states that, in theory, should never be reachable ''at all'' - if they were, it would imply that something has gone fundamentally wrong. A paranoid developer might still decide to handle this case anyway, perhaps including a note that the situation should ''theoretically'' never happen, but they aren't confident enough to state with absolute certainty that it cannot.

This comic shows [[Cueball]] reading (or possibly writing) just such an error message from a program he is using. The developer has evidently written this text while tired (possibly from overwork), and did not trust themself enough to be sure that the state is truly unreachable. The hopeless tone of the message supports this lack of confidence in their work.

The title text refers to the common trope of a character being given a "magic" item and winning something because of it, then being told that the item was not actually magic and that the magic was {{tvtropes|MagicFeather|inside them all along}}. It is often used as a fable to tell people to follow their dreams. The title text puts the fable in a place where it doesn't belong, saying that finding the "unreachable state" that is the error code implies that the finder can do anything.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, sitting on an office chair at his desk with his hands over his laptop computer. There is an error message on the screen which is displayed above him with a zigzag line from the screen to the text. The exclamation mark at the top is shown in white on a black triangle.]
:! Error
:If you're seeing this, the code is in what I thought was an unreachable state.
:I could give you advice for what to do. But honestly, why should you trust me? I clearly screwed this up. I'm writing a message that should never appear, yet I know it will probably appear someday.
:On a deep level, I know I'm not up to this task. I'm so sorry.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Never write error messages tired.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]

218: Nintendo Surgeon

2022-05-03T23:47:25Z

172.69.69.122: someone filled it up with the word "crap" over and over so i fixed it

{{comic
| number =218
| date =February 2, 2007
| title =Nintendo Surgeon
| image =nintendo_surgeon.png
| titletext =Scary thought #138: Raptors coming down the waterslide behind me.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}}, released in North America in 1985, helped revitalize the video-game industry after the {{w|North American video game crash of 1983|video-game crash}} of 1983, with such games as the ''{{w|Super Mario Bros.}}'' series, ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda (game)|The Legend of Zelda}},'' the ''{{w|Mega Man}}'' series, ''{{w|Castlevania}},'' and ''{{w|Metroid (game)|Metroid}}'' helping it stand alone as what is still considered by many people today, the greatest video-game console of all time.

However, it was notorious for glitching games upon start-up, due in no small part to the unusual shape of the game console, which required one to open the door, push the game cartridge inside, push down to lock it in place, and push the power button. The console was deliberately designed this way so that it wouldn't look like a regular video-game console (and wouldn't be associated with the still-fresh stigma of the video-game crash only two years previous), but it caused no end of pain for people wanting to play the games. It would work fine for about two years, but after that "cartridge tilt" would become a problem as either the game's or the console's electric contacts could become misaligned.

A ubiquitous fix for this problem among gamers was to take the cartridge out, blow into it, and put it back inside, all to clean out any dust inside the cartridge that would make "cartridge tilt" worse and occur more frequently. This was not a recommended solution by Nintendo of America, and didn't always work, but it worked frequently enough to enter gamer culture, and even today, people who had the NES as children remember having to do that.

The NES was 22 years old as of the date this comic was written. Someone who was 10 years old when they got their Nintendo for Christmas could ''very well'' be old enough in 2007 to have attained their doctorate degree, and so this comic hearkens back to the aforementioned cartridge fix by suggesting that a heart surgeon might try that on a real-life heart patient. And like the introduction states, that ''is'' a scary thought.

The title text is one of many xkcd references to the terrifying ''[[velociraptor|Velociraptor]]'' predator from the dinosaur movie ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}.''

==Transcript==
:Scary Thought #137: The NES came out over two decades ago. Those kids are all grown-ups now.
:[Two surgeons are in an operating room, leaning over a patient.]
:First Surgeon: He's going into cardiac arrest. Stand by for defibrillation.
:Second Surgeon: Wait. First let's try taking out the heart, blowing into the ventricles, and putting it back in.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

Talk:520: Cuttlefish

2022-04-26T23:41:17Z

172.69.69.122:

I dispute the idea of "memes." I don't remember my 2008/2009 Internet culture too well, but I certainly don't think cephalopods ever became much of a meme. This needs some revision. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 02:07, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

:There was entire subgenre of cephalopod themed jokes on certain science blogs, especially Pharyngula. Don't think it matters much for this wiki though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.44|172.68.38.44]] 16:57, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Personally I think that "themes" works better, have edited accordingly, feel free to change it back though [[User:Whiskey07|Whiskey07]] ([[User talk:Whiskey07|talk]]) 14:42, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

I added a comment that The Battle for Wesnoth may have added Cuttlefish as a result of this comic. I am not certain on that, if I'm wrong, please correct me. [[User:Kyt|Kyt]] ([[User talk:Kyt|talk]]) 01:41, 4 January 2014 (UTC)
:I found a forum entry (http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11168) that refers to the Wesnoth cuttlefish in May 2006 (more than two years before this comic came out) so I have edited the explanation accordingly. Also, non-accordingly. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 18:38, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

While the evolution of cuttlefish attacking with electricity is probably what Randall meant, I am an avid fan of Dungeons and Dragons and I'd like to think that this is the beginning stages of what is known as an illithid. Cueball and Megan aren't killed by electricity but by the psionic abilities of the newly created illithids. - vegeto18 2014-02-18 03:14 PM

The robots don't revolt in Asimov's "I, Robot." They obey the three laws of robotics, unless programmed with modifications. As far as I understand, the plot of the film does not follow the novel. 02:52, 1 August 2014 (UTC)
:I was going to comment just this, but after seeing that I was not the only one who thought this, I have decided to edit the page. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.57}}
:You are correct, the movie does not follow the plot of the book, as that would be impossible. The book is a collection of short stories about robots, some positive and some negative. As such, saying that the film doesn't follow the novel is unfair. The movie took the themes of the book and concepts from the stories to produce a quite good film.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.49|108.162.236.49]] 22:14, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

The cuttlefish and their method of killing the physicists resemble the Ood from Doctor Who, introduced in the 2006 episode "The Impossible Planet", in which the Ood became possessed by the Beast and began killing off scientists on the colony. The Ood were revisited in early 2008 in " Planet of the Ood", where they electrocuted the individuals who had enslaved them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.75|108.162.245.75]] 23:53, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

IF I MUST TEAR YOU APART, SHEPARD
I WILL[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.110|108.162.216.110]] 11:07, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
: In a way, Reapers symbolize a culmination of all science made apocalyptic revolutions implied here, being giant space-faring robots that look like giant squid (and I will never forgive Mass Effect 3 for not having a Reaper kill be part of the final battle scenes, or letting us conclusively kill Harbinger). -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 04:04, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

Don’t know if this is related but cuttlefish will also change colors rapidly to stun fish (first comment sry if did wrong) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.88|172.69.170.88]] 02:34, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

"Cephalopod is the class of animals that encompasses cuttlefish as well as squids and octopodes." And the chambered nautilus! And several extinct groups, like the ammonites and belemnites! Muahaha! Signed, mad former bio teacher. Randall, we accept your offer of allegiance as our minion. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 14:22, 29 August 2021 (UTC)
Hi guys you are awesome!