explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2356: Constellation Monstrosity

2022-05-13T12:56:53Z

172.70.100.4: Unnecessary link.

{{comic
| number = 2356
| date = September 7, 2020
| title = Constellation Monstrosity
| image = constellation_monstrosity.png
| titletext = It's rare to get both astronomers and astrologers equally mad at you, but apparently I've messed up both a bunch of star location databases AND the will of the fates.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Constellation}}s in the night sky are formed by pattern-forming various {{w|Asterism (astronomy)|asterisms}} and other stellar relationships in the night sky.

Being rather subjective, {{w|Chinese constellations|different cultures}} have inculcated differences in their interpretations, some subtle and others less so, for the exact same objective views of the night sky. Even where the same groupings are recognised, different cultures can 'see' different forms behind that group of stars. However, observers in the southern hemisphere will see entirely new constellations not visible to those in the northern one, and vice-versa, whilst observing those patterns fully visible to both (on the {{w|ecliptic}}) as inverted and therefore may inspire vastly different conceptualised images or even connectivities. The {{w|International Astronomical Union}} has demarcated the sky into {{w|IAU designated constellations|88 constellations}}, mostly those known to ancient Greece (catalogued by Ptolemy) plus southern constellations designated by astronomers during the European Renaissance.

Randall has taken one particular {{w|zodiac}} (or at least part of the hellenic one, closely tied to western astrology and still inspiring astronomical naming) and imagined further lines connecting stars to link up four separate constellations, to create a portmanteau constellation with a {{w|portmanteau}} name. As a matter of fact, this connection is half true, since Libra used to be the two claws of a much larger Scorpio, the larger constellation having been split in two when the twelve zodiac signs were set as they are now.

The four constellations used here are Scorpio (the scorpion), Libra (the scales), Virgo (the virgin/maiden) and Leo (the lion), sequentially spread across the sky in positions relating to a span of astrological dates running 'backwards' from late November through to late July. The name Randall gave this meta-constellation, however, uses a different order to combine as "Virg(o, l)ibra(, )scorp(io & )leo". Possibly "Scorlibirgoleo", or a similar mash-up with the same source order, did not roll together nicely enough for his liking.

In reality, any apparent proximity of stars on the {{w|celestial sphere}} does not guarantee an actual proximity in the depths of space, either within or between constellations. Knock-on effects from this renaming would not change actual scientific understanding, but it could have a knock-on effect upon star catalogues and databases if this object regrouping forces so many incidental name changes to the current referencing system, which is why the astronomers are upset (as indicated in the title text). Similarly, astrology's conceit based upon four separate 'characters' and life-paths, arising from birth-signs and planetary transits across four distinct areas of the sky, would lose 'precision' if forced to accept a single symbolic area in their stead. Astrologers would be very upset because their work (interpreted charitably) is related to understanding the influences of the stars on life on Earth; they might be concerned that "{{w|Star-crossed|crossing the stars}}" could lead to "{{w|Disaster#Etymology|disaster}}". It's not clear how Randall hoped to alter the practices of either group with his changes, but he was banned from the IAU for his efforts ([[:Category:Banned from conferences|not the first time this has happened]]). Randall previously mentioned being banned from the IAU in [[541: TED Talk]], but the reason stated in that comic was "redefinition of the 'planet' to include the IAU presidents' mom", so presumably he was reinstated and then banned again.

This monstrosity is reminiscent of the infamous 2009 Dutch horror film known as {{w|The Human Centipede (First Sequence)|The Human Centipede}}, in which three humans are bound together such that their digestive systems are connected in sequence. In this image, the head of Virgo appears to be connected to the hindquarters of Leo, and likewise the mouthparts of Scorpio are fixed to the bottom of the "stand" of Libra. Libra's stand appears to go under Virgo's dress; to form a complete "celestial centipede", it should attach to Virgo's hindquarters, but judging by the connection between stars, it probably (mercifully) connects to her foot.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Within a frame, a long title is written in a short arc above the drawn elements]
:Virgibrascorpleo

:[Upon a background of astrological imagery merged in accord, basic point-and-line astronomical/astrological representations of Scorpio, Libra, Virgo and Leo are illustrated.]
:[(Scorpio ''may'' be slightly rotated/translated for aesthetic reasons.)]

:[Red lines have been added to link stars in adjacent constellations.]
:[ {{w|Beta Scorpii}} may be connected to {{w|Sigma Librae}} (once known as Gamma Scorpii)]
:[ ...also {{w|Pi Scorpii}} may be connected to {{w|Tau Librae}}]
:[ {{w|Beta Librae}} may be connected to {{w|Mu Virginis}}]
:[ {{w|Nu Virginis}} may be connected to Beta Leonis (better known as {{w|Denebola}})]

:[Caption below the frame]
:I got kicked out of the International Astronomical Union for adding extra lines between the constellations to create a monstrosity.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Banned from conferences]]

42: Geico

2022-05-04T17:48:10Z

172.70.100.4: Undo revision 240829 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 42
| date = November 28, 2005
| title = Geico
| image = geico.jpg
| titletext = David did this
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references a long-running ad campaign for {{w|Geico}} insurance in which a character (different in each commercial) lists a series of horrible events or news, but then caps it off with "but I've got good news: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico" – news that may be good, but is usually either trivial compared to the magnitude of the preceding bad news, or else is said to the person whom all of the preceding bad news applied to, giving them false hope that the good news was for them. It became a recognizable pop culture phrase. Geico's ad is also mentioned in [[870: Advertising]].

In this one-panel comic, [[Cueball]] parodies the punchline by saving money on his car insurance by intimidation, instead of choosing the best provider.

In the title text, [[Randall]] attributes this comic to the unknown friend [[:Category:David|David]]. He does the same in [[51: Malaria]] and [[100: Family Circus]]. We can assume (or rather, we can ''hope'') that "this" refers to the act of writing the comic, as opposed to the act of threatening his insurance agent.

A golf club is also mentioned, and used for similarly socially unacceptable actions, in [[81: Attention, shopper]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball holding a golf club.]
:Cueball: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by threatening my agent with a golf club.

==Trivia==
*This was the 38th comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].
**The previous was [[35: Sheep]].
**The next was [[38: Apple Jacks]].
*Original title: "Monday's Drawing: Geico"
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "Current mood: :( sick"
**The sad smiley was green with two x for eyes.
**It suggests that he was feeling really bad.
**This is further supported by the fact that he made a reply to the first comment on LiveJournal "hehe, silly".
**His reply: "No laughing, 'less you want some of this too! *hefts golf club menacingly*"
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 38]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:David]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

100: Family Circus

2022-05-04T17:47:16Z

172.70.100.4: Undo revision 240384 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 100
| date = May 10, 2006
| title = Family Circus
| image = family circus.jpg
| titletext = This was my friend David's idea
}}

==Explanation==
''{{w|The Family Circus}}'' is a comic characterized by single-panel round comics with a caption below the comic. Jeffy is a character in ''Family Circus'', and dotted lines representing his wanderings are a frequent theme of ''Family Circus'' comics. {{w|Obsessive-compulsive disorder}} (OCD) is a mental illness that compels the sufferer to perform repetitive actions. Common symptoms include, but are not restricted to, excessive hand washing and repeated opening and closing of a door.

The comic depicts the character Jeffy as having Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and traces his movements over a period of time. The dotted line that depicts his movements returns frequently to the kitchen sink, presumably to repeatedly wash his hands.

In the title text, [[Randall]] attributes this idea to the unknown friend [[:Category:David|David]]. He did the same in [[42: Geico]] and [[51: Malaria]].

==Transcript==
:[Picture shows a pathway winding through trees to a sink inside a house, out to some swings and back to the sink, out to a ball and back to the sink, then on into the house.]
:Jeffy's ongoing struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:David]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]

2517: Rover Replies

2022-05-03T22:34:22Z

172.70.100.4: Undo revision 232887 by X. K. C. D. (talk) vandalism

{{comic
| number = 2517
| date = September 17, 2021
| title = Rover Replies
| image = rover_replies.png
| titletext = I'm so glad NASA let you take your phone to Mars!
}}

==Explanation==

There is a [https://twitter.com/nasapersevere?lang=en Twitter account] for {{w|NASA|NASA's}} {{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance Mars Rover}}, which recently collected samples. The Twitter account tweets in the first person like in the comic. Likely a human on earth is playing the role of the rover {{citation needed}}. While the exact post shown does not exist, it has posted a [https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1433334279937789954 similar tweet.]

The first four replies (in order of top-to-bottom) are likely just general compliments to the rover, demonstrating that the replies are indeed wholesome. Reply three in particular references rocks, as the main purpose of most Mars rovers is to perform Martian geology.

Reply five is a mashup of conspiracy theories, including about {{w|5G}} communications, {{w|Vaccine hesitancy|vaccines}}, and others. [[Ponytail]] then replies "Quiet, we're not doing that here", implying either that she doesn't want it in the replies to this, that she thinks that the rude reply should be posted somewhere else, that she's a NASA employee stating that NASA does not have a 5G vaccine-microchip factory, or that she also is a conspiracy theorist trying to redirect the fellow commenter to other forums with more susceptible audiences.

The next reply references people saying where they're from, then clarifying where that is in brackets, e.g. Wingerworth (England). This commenter expands that to clarify that they are from Earth, joking that the planet may be ambiguous as the Mars rover is not on Earth. In reality, this ambiguity does not exist as humans only live on Earth,{{citation needed}} thus contributing to the humor.

The second-to-last reply is likely a misunderstanding, with the commenter believing that the rover is digging to perform anthropology or paleontology, not geology. The commenter could, however, believe that there is/was complex life on Mars, thus allowing the possibility that there are Martian skeletons for the rover to find.

The final reply is a reference to {{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}, a small helicopter which Perseverance took to Mars as a [https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/ technology demonstrator]. It has been very successful and completed many flights, [https://mars.nasa.gov/images/mepjpl/PIA24797-Flight12.jpg often taking it quite far from Perseverance.]

The title text is in the form of another reply. The character posting that reply believes that the rover has taken its phone to Mars, and has used that to take the pictures. This is likely because most photos on social media are taken on phones, and social media sites are often designed for phones. In addition, Perseverance and Curiosity differ from previous rovers in that they have cameras mounted on flexible arms, allowing them to take photographs of themselves - somewhat akin to a smartphone on a selfie-stick. In reality, Mars rovers don't have smartphones, and Perseverance is taking photos with an equipped camera.

While this comic is most likely referencing Perseverance, there is another small possibility that Curiosity is shown here, as Curiosity also has [https://www.space.com/19708-mars-rover-curiosity-rock-drill-sample.html collected samples]. This is unlikely though due to the timing of this comic.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A post of a rocky landscape and a close-up of a rock is next to a profile picture of the camera of a Mars rover.]
:Just collected a sample!

:[Comments below. Each comment has an icon of a person or other image next to it and an illegible name above the comment.]
:[face of Cueball-like character]: These pictures are great!
:[curved lines]: I'm so proud of you
:[Cueball-like stick figure]: Wow you know a lot about rocks
:[Megan]: Go go go go go!
:[spiral galaxy-like image]: More propaganda from NASA's 5G vaccine microchip factory
::[Ponytail]: Quiet, we're not doing that here
:[unidentified stick figure]: Hello from Missouri (Earth)!
:[Hairy]: Did you find any skeletons yet
:[Blondie]: I hope your helicopter comes back!

:[Caption below frame:]
:The most unexpectedly wholesome place on the internet is the replies to NASA's rovers on social media.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:5G]]

2612: Lightsabers

2022-04-28T21:45:24Z

172.70.100.4:

<noinclude>'':For the comic named "Lightsaber", see [[1433: Lightsaber]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2612
| date = April 27, 2022
| title = Lightsabers
| image = lightsabers.png
| titletext = A lot of Jedi romances start with this turning into a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti situation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MAGNETICALLY CONFINED PLASMA-SABER REACTOR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|lightsaber}} is a fictional beam-like sword weapon used by members of the {{w|Jedi}} order and the {{w|Sith}} in the ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' franchise. This comic shows a lightsaber fight starting between two [[Cueball]]-like Jedi, one already presenting their blade in challenge and the second activating theirs in response. When the first strike is made between the two lightsabers, they seemingly meld together, with a bloop sound, like the beams are made of a liquid. This then causes the two light beams to be stuck to each other. In in-universe "technical documents", lightsabers are said to be made from magnetically-confined plasma, so perhaps the magnetic fields which were projected from each hilt have merged instead of repelling (or presenting as mutually impervious) as is usually expected.

This scene actually looks a lot like what happens between Harry Potter and Voldemort's wands in the end of the fourth book, the {{w|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire|''Goblet of Fire''}}. Here two spells hit each other and connect the two wands, the wand holders then unable to release or disconnect the wands.

In this situation one Jedi tries to shake the beam, maybe to break the bond, but instead the wave travels down the combined beam to also shake the other Jedi's hand-held hilt. When the vibration dies down the other Jedi then tries to deactivate his lightsaber as an attempt to end the connection. But the retraction of the entire double-sized light beam into the handle (as seen in the movies) causes both of the Jedi to be drawn together where they collide together, forcefully enough to render them both unconscious. The connected lightsaber handles lie next to them on the ground.

The title text implies that such events are how {{w|Jedi}} romances start, comparing it to the famous "spaghetti scene" from the 1955 Disney animated movie ''{{w|Lady and the Tramp}}'' where the two titular characters unintentionally kiss after sharing a strand of spaghetti. In the Old Republic, Jedi were forbidden from entering into romantic relationships (and discouraged from forming attachments in general), but in the pre-Disney ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity of the {{w|Star Wars in other media|Expanded Universe}}, {{w|Luke Skywalker}} and {{w|Mara Jade}} first met while fighting in the aftermath of the fall of the Empire, and then developed a romantic relationship.

Star Wars is a [[:Category:Star Wars|recurring theme]] on xkcd, and lightsabers have been prominently featured before in, for instance, [[1397: Luke]] and [[1433: Lightsaber]], where the problem with the physics of a light beam as a sword is shown. But in general light does not interact with light as {{w|photons}} are {{w|bosons}} and can thus pass through each other. Interference, yes, but two pure light beams cannot collide and bounce back as when two lightsabers collide. Also as the comic Lightsaber mentioned above shows, there is no compatible real-world way of confining a beam of light, making it stop after about a meter (or anywhere){{Dubious}}<sup> - see {{w|Optical cavity}}</sup>. So this is another time where [[Randall]] makes a joke about the physics of lightsabers.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball like Jedi are engaging each other in a duel using lightsabers over 12 panels of equal size, with sound effects as the only sound. In the first panel the left Jedi has his lightsaber extended holding it in both hand pointing towards the other, who at this time is just turning his lightsaber on.]
:''Tssssss''
:Click

:[Almost same position of the Jedi, but the right Jedi's lightsaber has now extended, making a sound. He is holding it up near his head in both hands]
:''Tsss''

:[Then they run towards each other and swing their lightsabers towards each other, two small arcs indicating the swing of the lightsabers.]

:[The two beams hit each other and connects at the middle in a big bloop of light, with drops of "light" jumping off both above and below the connected lightsabers. Both Jedi still holds on to their handles with both hands. A loud sound comes out of the connection:]
:''Bloop''

:[The Jedi stands still holding their handles. The beam is now forming a bow between the two handles.]

:[The left Jedi violently shakes his handle causing a wave to travel down the beam towards the right Jedi.]
:Shake shake

:[As the left Jedi's end of the beam comes to rest the wave travels all the way the right Jedi's handle causing his hands to shake, although a bit less than the original shake.]
:Shake shake

:[Back to the bow of light between them, but the beam is visibly still shaking, but no wave is traveling any longer.]

:[Same setting but the shaking has stopped. The right Jedi turns his lightsaber off on his handle with a sound:]
:Click

:[The beam of light is retracted quickly into the handle of the Jedi turning his lightsaber off. So quickly that the two Jedi, still holding on to their handles are pulled up in the air and towards each other as the sound of the beam turning off is heard. Lines indicate their movement and shadows on the ground beneath them indicate they are in the air.]
:''Zhhhiiiip''

:[When the beam is completely retracted the two handles collide and so do the heads of the two Jedi with a loud sound. They still hold on to their handles with both hands. They still hang in the air with shadows on the ground beneath them.]
:''Bonk''

:[In the final panel the two Jedi lie unconscious on the ground with their heads towards each other and with their arms stretched out towards each other. The connected handles lie between them.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

2612: Lightsabers

2022-04-27T13:56:03Z

172.70.100.4: A very bare bones explanation.

{{comic
| number = 2612
| date = April 27, 2022
| title = Lightsabers
| image = lightsabers.png
| titletext = A lot of Jedi romances start with this turning into a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti situation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LIQUID LIGHTSABER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|lightsaber}} is a beam-like sword weapon used in the {{w|Star Wars}} franchise. This comic shows a lightsaber fight starting between two [[Cueball]]s. When the first strike is made between the two lightsabers, they seemingly melt together, causing the two swords to be stuck to eachother. One of the Cueballs tries to switch off his lightsaber to fix this, instead causing both of them to collide together due to the fused lightsaber. The title text implies that this series of events is how {{w|Jedi}} romances start, comparing it to the famous "spaghetti scene" from the 1955 Disney animated movie {{w|Lady and the Tramp}} where the two titular characters unintentionally kiss after sharing a strand of spaghetti.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Fiction]] <<!- Lady and the tramp in title text-->

Talk:2601: Instructions

2022-04-03T14:39:58Z

172.70.100.4:

;Turtle graphics
So these are instructions for a turtle graphics program. The audio is drawn from https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3, a 9 hour 7 minute 12 second long audio file It's generated by feeding turtle code into a text-to-speech program, but idk which language or which program. If you can convert the speech back to text, somehow without ruining the formatting (or just do a lot of editing with regex until it looks right), you could feed it into a turtle graphics program and get the resulting drawing.
:If you're not familiar with Turtle and Logo, look at this [[https://www.tutorialspoint.com/logo/logo_quick_guide.htm|quick guide]]. The short version is that these commands move a little cursor, called a turtle, which draws a line as it moves and turns. At this time, contributors have applied a few different computer transcriptions to the entire audio. There are quotes about turtles from a variety of sources intermixed with Logo code. It is expected that some correction to the code is needed, such as adding parenthesis that are not spoken in the audio. Standard Logo commands found in the audio are: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), and FORWARD (N). Some custom functions are defined, including DIST (N) (N) (N) (N), LERP (N) (N) (N), MIX (N) (N), CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N), and SQUARE (N) (N). The next steps are to test the transcripts of these custom functions in a Logo interpreter, at which point we can begin drawing the picture. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
: The picture indeed will be Bob Ross. The first hour of radio has him saying, "A happy little tree - holding up a happy little world." We can coordinate transcribing this code at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository]. Credit for this progress goes to the GitHub owner. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:55, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I don't know what the current image on this page is. Is that the drawing you get by following these instructions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 20:58, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
: Wait I see now, that is the actual image for the comic. It just gets covered up by the button so I can't see it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 21:03, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Ah, it looks like someone realized it's actually longer than that. After downloading it, I found it to be 131,329,389 bytes. The Windows Properties viewer claims it is 8h41m08s in length, but that's wrong. It is actually 9h07m06s. By the way, the code is in the Logo language. He seems to have copied this from a book, but I don't know which one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 21:12, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Worth taking a look at? I can start looking for books that contain that text[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:39, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

:The automatic speech system is using standard punctuation processing, meaning that critical marks for the code aren't being announced. You can't get the code from the samples without filling in the blanks after getting a transcript. [[User:N|N]] ([[User talk:N|talk]]) 22:19, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

The MP3 file ends with this text: "''I even talk to turtles at times. But you need to understand LOGO to appreciate the great, great things that have been created. We spend so much of our life typing, looking, but never ever seeing.''" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.151|162.158.222.151]] 21:17, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

april fools' comic? [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 21:18, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:I think it's an April Fool's joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.148|108.162.238.148]] 21:20, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Well is it 2022/04/01 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.189|141.101.77.189]] 21:26, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Broken Version

I think mine's broken. I don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.91|172.70.130.91]] 21:29, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:You press the radio button, it selects it, then you can press it a zillion times in any pattern and all it ever does is blink the entire image. Nothing else ever appears other than the radio button, and there’s never any sound so pressing the speaker in the corner to supposedly turn it on or off is also completely pointless.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 23:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::Alright, it’s April 2nd now, so if all of you have been LYING about it actually doing something, just playing along with the joke, you can admit it now.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.153|172.70.130.153]] 18:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Did it only work on American April 1st, or only for some people? It's the third of April here now, and it's still a boring button that clicks on once and does nothing else. Have I missed it? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.13|108.162.249.13]] 20:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Given the alt text "happy little turtles" and the tone of the narration I assume we're supposed to pretend the narrator is Bob Ross guiding us to creating an artistic masterpiece with Logo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.72|172.70.211.72]] 21:31, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Guys, it's been HOURS and the transcription is still incomplete. Step it up! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 21:37, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:Not even sure what the transcript should be. I did my best[[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.52|162.158.107.52]] 21:41, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::I have a feeling this might be one of the longest transcripts on the site. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.43|108.162.245.43]] 21:57, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Wanna bet? [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]]... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:::Or [[980: Money/Transcript]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:59, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Up until someone automates the process, I'll be working on the transcript and saving it in exkcd in parts (: Don't worry too much about edit overrides, I'll be transcribing in a google doc to avoid that! --[[User:Char Latte49|Wielder of the Staple Gun]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 21:53, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
:The sections about turtles between the code blocks seems to be from

Interesting Facts About Turtles
A Little Nature Study by a Scientist that will Interest Old and Young Naturalists Alike
By Randle C. Rosenberger M. D., Professor of Hygiene and Bacteriology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.
https://archive.org/stream/foreststream861916newy/foreststream861916newy_djvu.txt

The uni.xkcd version of this comic also just shows the turtle like this article. So much for uses two April Fools comics against each other ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.77|172.70.114.77]] 22:44, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

I ran the MP3 through Amazon Transcribe. It can do only 4 hours at a time, so I had to split the original file. I went from start to 03:59:59, 03:59:59 to 07:59:58, and 07:59:58 to end. Amazon Transcribe also gave me some subtitle files (index 1). They have time codes in them. So if someone wanted to note the times of the little quips, and host the audio file somewhere where links to the middle of the file can be generated (like YouTube), that could be cool. Below are the transcriptions for analysis. Replace X with 1, 2, or 3; and replace Y with json, srt, or vtt. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:15, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

:<code><nowiki>https://pgn674.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd-2601/xkcd-2601-X.Y</nowiki></code>
:: No need to host anything special. Let's say we want to jump to time code 02:35:14.840 from the vtt subtitle file #1 (line 7084, subtitle 1771). 2*60*60+35*60+14=9314. Subtract a few seconds, and make a link like this. Click here to learn about turtle noises: https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3#t=9310 [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 23:48, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
::: I went and found all mentions of "turtle", extracted those lines, and generated links to them. Programmatically. If anyone wants to go through and do some manual review and fine tuning, go ahead. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 00:57, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I threw Adobe Premiere Pro at it: https://anonfiles.com/pbYfK7Sax4/radio_csv; and https://anonfiles.com/35YbKeScxe/radio_txt are the results. Note: these transcribe until 07:01:28:19. I am currently in the process of making APP suffer more and churn out the last two hours. --[[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 23:54, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

So... what language is this? I'm hearing: PENUP, PENDOWN, SETHEADING (N) (N), SETXY (N) (N), FORWARD (N) - all of which are standard LOGO commands. But I'm also hearing something that sounds like CUBIC (N) (N) (N) (N) (N) (N), though it could also be QBIT, or text-to-speech for something like "^3". Either way it's NOT a standard LOGO command, so suggests it's a variant. Does not seem to be KTurtle, POOL, UCBLogo. QLogo, FMSLogo, and then I got bored searching. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:In the automatic transcription it has "Two cubic colon X one colon Y one colon X two"... which would be TO CUBIC :X1 :Y1 :X2 ... so it is defined above. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.230|162.158.107.230]] 01:15, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:: Yes, some of the commands seem to be defined at the top. CUBIC at the top, SQUARE maybe somewhere else. So a shortcut to decyphering it might be to just extract and render all the cubes from the "CUBIC" and "SQUARE" commands, given their values. But what format are the cubes? Are they even the coordinates of cubes? For both commands, the six numbers seem to be in the format A B A B A B where the As and Bs are similar or even in some cases identical, which seems a strange thing for a cube:
<blockquote><pre>
SetXY -443 412
PenDown
Square -443 405 -443 397 -444 390
</pre></blockquote>
The definition seems to be something like:
<blockquote><pre>
ToCubic : X1 : Y1 : X2 : Y2 : Ex : Ey --- Parameter definitions?
local Make " X0 XCor --- Local variable definitions?
Local Make " Y0 YCor
Local Make " ErrX1 Lerp : X0 : X 0.25
local Make " ErrY1 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.25
Local Make " ErrX2 Lerp : X0 : Ex 0.75
Local Make " ErrY2 Lerp : Y0 : Ey 0.75
IfElse
Or
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX1 : ErrY1 : X1 : Y1
LessP : picks error Dist : ErrX2 : ErrY2 : X2 : Y2
[
Local Make " Qx0 mix : X0 : X1
Local Make " Qy0 mix : Y0 : Y1
Local Make " Qx1 mix : X1 : X2
Local Make " qy1 Mix : Y1 : Y2
Local Make " Qx2 mix : X2 : EX
Local Make " Qy2 mix : Y2 : Ey
Local Make " Lx0 mix : Qx0 : QX1
Local Make " Ly0 mix : Qy0 : QY1
Local Make " Lx1 Mix : Qx1 : Qx2
Local Make " Ly1 Mix : qy1 : Q
Local Make " PmX Mix : Lx0 : Lx1
Local Make " PmY Mix : Ly0 : LY1
Cubic : Qx0 : qy0 : Lx0 : Ly0 : PmX : PmY
Cubic : Lx1 : Ly1 : Qx2 : Qy2 : Ex : Ey
]
[
SetXY : Ex : Ey
]
</pre></blockquote>
Least, that's what it sounds like, but I suspect round brackets and suchlike are not spoken aloud :( --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.95|108.162.221.95]] 01:54, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

: Maybe it's implementing a cubic spline interpolation, not a tridimensional cube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.214|172.70.131.214]] 11:08, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Feels like the speech processing is lossy, so generating the code will be a lengthy labor of love transcribing it, then debugging it, trying to fill the gaps. The code may also have been fed through an automated "Bob Ross filter" which may have lost even more data. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.91|172.69.71.91]] 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

About a quarter of the way into the text is the line "You know, I'm beginning to suspect it's turtles all the way down!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.215|162.158.78.215]] 00:46, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

it's concerning that the only real way we'll be able to figure this comic out is to compile the entire 9 hour computer-generated voice speech. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 01:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
:Anyone actually doing any transcribing of this audio text is a true April Fools' fool, hence the reason to release this on April 1st. But I'd still like to see what the Fools' come up with :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:26, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm moving all things about audio transcription here: [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]], both the real transcript and peoples very long comments in the main discussion, to keep the main page short and keep loading time down. The comments from here go in the [[Talk:2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript|discussion]] for that page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

OMG, fond memories of LOGO! I'm in a loud bar at the moment so I can't listen, and I'm not listening to NINE HOURS anyway, LOL! Everybody DOES realize, someone needs to extract the program and run it in LOGO, right? I would guarantee this draws something interesting and/or stupid. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:27, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I found a [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 GitHub Repository] for transcription. May be of use to you guys for adding more info and citations to this Wiki. By the way, I didn't know this wiki existed. I don't want to create an account for it right now so good luck guys ;-; 04:12, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I tried running some code through "ucblogo" on a Linux distro, but didn't get very far with it. ---Tim 04:16, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Given that the audio is generated by text-to-speech, could a source-aware speech-to-text work better (fewer errors and less manual correction) than a generic one? For example, finding the right text-to-speech, extracting a sound for each phoneme, and then searching for near-identical snippets of waveform, seems like it could potentially be more reliable than the generic neural nets which are primarily trained for real human speech. Or even training a neural net on the same text-to-speech source, with a big block of sample data, if that would help distinguish homophones. Presumably someone here is good enough at this sort of thing to try that? [[User:Sqek|Sqek]] ([[User talk:Sqek|talk]]) 10:05, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I think that the original comment at the top is the best approach. Using the speech-to-text data posted yesterday, and doing some simple regsubs, I can get it into good enough shape that I can proceed to transcribe the whole program by editing the file while listening to the audio, in real time. "In real time" means nine hours to correctly transcribe the whole thing. So any other approach would have to do better than nine hours. Plus if somebody put a little effort into organization, the transcription can be parallelized and so completed in nine hours / N transcribers. ---Tim [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.41|172.70.38.41]] 13:10, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I was helping with this last night, and here are the major steps we've done to interpret the code and who has helped, I think.
* [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] Used AWS to make a transcription of the audio, which we have been building from
* [[Special:Contributions/172.68.118.59|172.68.118.59]] Transcribed the critical functions at the top of the transcription
* [https://github.com/theinternetftw theinternetftw] Found a working interpreter and set up a collaboration space at [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601 a GitHub repo], and has since been maintaining the code
* [https://github.com/theinternetftw theinternetftw] Also transcribed the first hour and got us our view of a partial picture
* [https://github.com/somebody1234 somebody1234] Got a messy but runnable version of the entire transcription and a view of the entire picture with errors
* Many people are transcribing bits of audio and submitting to GitHub. Here is the list of [https://github.com/theinternetftw/xkcd2601/graphs/contributors contributors]
[[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 15:06, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I have changed the image to that which is seen on xkcd when loading the comic. It has not been updated on this page yet as of when I write this. But the turtle is of course not the comic, but a placeholder for those webcrawlers that would fail when trying to download the radio button. I have also added info on this in the current explanation. As I have made a link to a new sub page for the looong audio transcript and removed all of that from this page and discussion and put it here: [[2601: Instructions/Audio Transcript]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I started planning to write some code to figure this out, but moved on to other things after a few hours, due to psychological issues I have. The draft just runs the audio through the start of a random speech to text model. I trained a tokenizer around the logo code but didn't move farther. There are a lot of possible next steps, some of which others have mentioned. A simple approach would be to finetune the model around the hand-transcribed data. https://colab.research.google.com/gist/xloem/4310a26b6c9d13adac14307b948157d3/untitled4.ipynb [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.147|172.70.114.147]] 23:04, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Any plans to exkcd the "real" comic that gets drawn by the LOGO code in the audio? I mean, I recognize, e. g., the Mars rover and Ursa Major, but what's the significance of the vacuum decay here, for instance? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 01:18, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
:Now that the project is complete, we should add the resulting image on this page (not just a link to github). It'll be what folks are looking for first. And then we can start identifying the many references in the picture and turtle quotes. [[User:Mannerisky|Mannerisky]] ([[User talk:Mannerisky|talk]]) 04:26, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
::well, i added the picture. [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtube.com/watch?v=miLcaqq2Zpk]] ([[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|talk]]) 08:08, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

It was wonderful watching all of this unfold. Great work everyone. I don't have an account here, nor on github, but I thought I'd mention that the makesvg.py uses the ':=' operator which was introduced in python 3.8. Not all of us have it on our creaky old machines. Maybe add a comment in the usage at the top of the file? Or better, refactor the .py?
-- [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 14:39, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2601: Instructions

2022-04-01T21:12:23Z

172.70.100.4: /* Turtle graphics */

== Turtle graphics ==

So these are instructions for a turtle graphics program. The audio is drawn from https://xkcd.com/2601/radio.mp3, a 9 hour 7 minute 12 second long audio file It's generated by feeding turtle code into a text-to-speech program, but idk which language or which program. If you can convert the speech back to text, somehow without ruining the formatting (or just do a lot of editing with regex until it looks right), you could feed it into a turtle graphics program and get the resulting drawing.

I don't know what the current image on this page is. Is that the drawing you get by following these instructions? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 20:58, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

: Wait I see now, that is the actual image for the comic. It just gets covered up by the button so I can't see it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 21:03, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

: Ah, it looks like someone realized it's actually longer than that. After downloading it, I found it to be 131,329,389 bytes. The Windows Properties viewer claims it is 8h41m08s in length, but that's wrong. It is actually 9h07m06s. By the way, the code is in the Logo language. He seems to have copied this from a book, but I don't know which one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.4|172.70.100.4]] 21:12, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2601: Instructions

2022-04-01T20:58:22Z

172.70.100.4: /* Turtle graphics */ new section