explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1795: All You Can Eat

2022-07-08T00:08:51Z

172.70.230.23: Undo revision 288322 by 172.70.86.64 (talk)

What?? I think something bugged it. It's showing my edit in the editor but the viewer is different entirely. ??? [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:10, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
:If that happens, it means the cache hasn't updated itself yet. Refresh a few times until your edit appears. Alternatively someone may have undone your edit - look at the "View History" tab. [[User:Chloroplaster|Chloroplaster]] ([[User talk:Chloroplaster|talk]]) 17:09, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

does alt-text refere to the fact that they forcefully make him hit some posterboard at the pirntshop because of his prank? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.102.10|172.68.102.10]] 16:48, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
:Not really, because that wouldn't be "absent-minded" of him. [[User:Chloroplaster|Chloroplaster]] ([[User talk:Chloroplaster|talk]]) 17:11, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Added the title text to the explanation. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 17:16, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

I think snake owners buy mice for their snakes. Not sure if they ever use pet mice... I think they're supposed to use mice that are drugged, but I wouldn't be too surprised if people have bought pet mice to feed their snake. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.17|108.162.238.17]] 19:10, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
: You don't feed your snake drugged animals, any more than you would feed it poisoned ones, as they would make it sick. Not sure about the U.S, but in Australia, it's illegal to feed the snake live rats. We buy them pre-frozen and thaw them as needed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.53|108.162.250.53]] 22:11, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
::Ah, I guess that's what I was thinking of. I'd heard they were special mice called "feeder mice" and assumed they were either sedated or bred to be more sluggish so they'd be better to feed snakes with, but I guess it's just a nicer way of saying "euthanized for consumption by predators". Perhaps the person who described feeder mice did it poorly, or perhaps I was lacking some sleep at the time and jumped to a strange conclusion. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.17|108.162.238.17]] 16:54, 18 February 2017 (UTC)
:: Trivia about people eating cats (and sometimes dogs): When times are hard people tend to eat anything they can catch. This includes cats. That's why - in this context - a cat in German can be a "Dachhase" (''roof rabbit'') or "falscher Hase" (''false'' or ''fake rabbit'') - interestingly the last one is also an expression for a meat loaf made from ground beef... Do other languages have similar terms? --[[User:Felis Catus|Felis Catus]] ([[User talk:Felis Catus|talk]]) 08:20, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
:::In Spanish there's an expression, "dar gato por liebre" (to give a cat for a hare) meaning "to deceive someone". [[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.214|188.114.110.214]] 07:26, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

The odd thing (possibly just British quirkiness) is I have seen "All You Can Eat" (AYCE) offers for non-food products or services. An AYCE beauty salon would mean as many of their services (aka the full works) as you want in one visit. AYCE car tyres would mean four tyres, valves, balancing, fitting and tracking. Never actually seen this as even economy tyres vary too much by size! So not as silly as it appears, except Randal is too literal. YMMV [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 21:27, 6 February 2017 (UTC)
: Works with virtual things, too: my British SIM card has an All-You-Can-Eat data option... --[[User:Felis Catus|Felis Catus]] ([[User talk:Felis Catus|talk]]) 08:20, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
::"All-you-can-eat xkcd" also works. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.27|141.101.69.27]] 18:16, 8 June 2017 (UTC)

Sam the Firefly book should probably be mentioned. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.155|162.158.79.155]] 04:09, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

What is the purpose of the extremely detailed graphic description in the transcript? Whether the transcript is for search engines or visually impaired readers, I find these details unnecessary and rather annoying. Unless others disagree, I suggest transcripts should only contain visual information that is strictly necessary to understanding the comic.
Zetfr 09:48, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
: It is done for people who are partially-sighted, who use "Explain XKCD" as their way to view the comics. (This was previously mentioned in the discussion of the tagline for this website.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.112|141.101.98.112]] 11:27, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
:: I *am* partially-sighted, I use "Explain XKCD" as my way to view the comics, and I'm extremely grateful to you guys who keep it going. But I don't want to know that in this comic one sign is slightly higher than the others, that there is a small rectangle next to a large window, half circles and unreadable text. I just want to "get" the joke, not reconstruct the comic from a textual description. Most transcripts include, in addition to the text, a few visual elements that are relevant to the point of the comic: that's great. But some transcripts, like this one, give a ton of useless details that make the joke harder, not easier, to understand. Unless there is a specific reason for this that I am missing, the "relevant information only" style should be preferred. Zetfr 09:09, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
:::Hi, again, Zetfr. I have finally heard you ;-) For other see [[User_talk:Kynde#Transcript_TLDR.3B|discussion here]]. I have just tried a new feature, with a detailed description section below the more short and terse transcript. Would be interested to hear both yours, and others comments on this! I also do it in order to make it possible to search for like comics including specific elements. I will not promise to do this with all my long (sorry) transcripts, but I will try to think about it and not do it like that anymore. I guess I'm the one who has edited most transcripts on xkcd (at least in the last three years)... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:37, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Not sure the first sign really would be A...k- Randal rarely uses lower case and his "K's" are rarely that shape. Also, the difference in height could equate to just his normal lack of uniformity in the size of his writing. It does fit with how he writes an X though. --[[User:Takigama|Takigama]] ([[User talk:Takigama|talk]]) 15:08, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
:Well that is a valid point. However Randall would usually never make such a skew X where the bottom line is much longer than the top, and this is signs they are supposed to be nice and straight. His capital K in Kevin, has a similar longer bottom line. But you may be right that the first Capital letter, is just like his all caps style on the homepage where the first capital letter in a line is larger than the others. In that case it would be a capital K not a capital X or a small k. So I vote for capital K --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:37, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

An all-you-can-eat hair salon actually makes sense... In the Netherlands (You know, from "drain the oceans") you can eat "kapsalon", translated "Hair salon". I' m pretty sure a " all you can eat " kapsalon place could actually exist here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapsalon (A hairdresser invented it by ordering his favorite food from a nearby place, they labeled it "kapsalon" ("hair salon") because it was intended for the next-door hair salon, then others ordered the same dish and the name stuck.) Quite funny, "kap" has many translations, including ones more related to lumberjacks than barbers...-- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.209|141.101.104.209]] 14:08, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that some cultures are known for eating {{w|Cat meat}}.
[[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.172|198.41.230.172]] 16:02, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

I accidentally misinterpreted pet stores selling food, please forgive me. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.196|172.69.34.196]] 01:35, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

== Eat ==

Can you truly eat anything?? If you think about it [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.23|172.70.230.23]] 00:08, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

2622: Angular Diameter Turnaround

2022-05-20T20:53:26Z

172.70.230.23: /* Explanation */ spelling correction

{{comic
| number = 2622
| date = May 20, 2022
| title = Angular Diameter Turnaround
| image = angular_diameter_turnaround.png
| titletext = Thank you to Katie Mack for teaching me about this effect, and to Janelle Shane for describing redshifts as 'like galaxies sinking into a pool of dilute blood,' which is how I'll see them from now on.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a Galaxy-branded phone- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic references multiple physics and maths concepts, including {{w|Angular diameter}}, {{w|Angular diameter distance}}, {{w|Redshift}}, and {{w|phones|mobile phones}}, although mobile phones are not a core science at this time.

The comic shows the galaxies of the universe as mobile phones, pairing the age we see them at from earth, the degree they are redshifted, and how much of the sky they take up, known as their angular diameter.

Randall's intent appears to be to highlight how just a few very distant galaxies occupy incredibly large proportions of the sky, and are seen as they were at a very young age. Mobile phones have this similarity, of massive presence and early stages of technology.

The large galaxies can be seen dark red in the background, as if the unimaginably ancient child galactic bodies are looming forebodingly behind everything else.

This physical concept has a lot of juxtaposition of things that usually contradict, andy Randall has put energy into attempting to highlight that.

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

1354: Heartbleed Explanation

2022-05-13T01:19:06Z

172.70.230.23: /* Explanation */ Fix Wikipedia link

{{comic
| number = 1354
| date = April 11, 2014
| title = Heartbleed Explanation
| image = heartbleed_explanation.png
| titletext = Are you still there, server? It's me, Margaret.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} has received a lot of news coverage recently and was also the topic of the previous comic [[1353: Heartbleed]]. This comic explains how the bug may have been discovered and can be exploited to reveal a server's memory contents.

A [[Megan]]-like character named Margaret (or "Meg") sends heartbeat requests to the server, the server responds to the heartbeat request by returning the contents of the body of the request up to the number of letters requested. The first two requests are well formed, requesting exactly the number of characters in the request body. The server's memory is showing Meg's request with many other requests going on at the same time.

Meg then ponders this and tries to another request asking for "HAT" but requests that it be 500 letters long instead of only 3; the server —not checking it or simply unaware that 500 letters is larger than the request body— returns "HAT" plus 497 letters that happened to be next to the word "HAT" in its memory (more will follow than are shown in the server's speak bubble as there are only 251 letters/symbols in the shown reply). Included are many sensitive bits of information, including a master key and user passwords. One of the passwords shown is "CoHoBaSt", a reference to [[936: Password Strength]], which suggests using "correct horse battery staple" as a password.

Often popular explanations of security bugs require the issue to be simplified a lot and to leave out a lot of details. In this case [[Randall]] didn't have to do much simplifying; the bug is actually that simple. Also, it should be noted that any client which can connect to the server typically can exploit this bug in the underlying {{w|OpenSSL}} software — the use of the term "User Meg" does not imply that Meg had to authenticate first.

Although Randall shows Meg recording the data by hand, on paper, it is more likely that a person exploiting the bug would have a computer record the data, perhaps on its hard drive or on a flash drive.

The title text is a reference to ''{{w|Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.}}'', a novel by {{w|Judy Blume}}, and plays off of the "server, are you still there?" line in every panel where she did start a request. The novel is the theme of another comic [[1544: Margaret]] too. ''Meg'' can be a nickname for ''Margaret'' as well as ''[[Megan]]'' who Margaret resembles.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panels:]
:'''How the Heartbleed Bug works:'''

:[Meg, a girl with more curly hair than Megan, stands to the left in a panel. At the center of the panel is a black and gray server with red and green diode lights showing. During all six panels the server stays the same. Meg is standing with her arms down in four panels. It will be noted when she does not. Meg talks to the server. The server "thinks" all the time, i.e. we see its memory in all panels. The top and bottom line is breaking the edge of the thought bubble making it difficult to discern. In every second panel it replies to Meg. In these panels the number of letters requested by Meg is highlighted with yellow color.]

:[Meg speaks, server thinks:]
:Meg: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "POTATO" (6 letters).
:Server thinking: <tt>wans pages about "boats". User Erica requests secure connection using key "4538538374224" '''User Meg wants these 6 letters: POTATO.''' User Ada wants pages about "irl games". Unlocking secure records with master key 5130985733435. Maggie (chrome user) sends this message: "Hi</tt>

:[Server thinks, the same as above, although cut a little different at the edges, with POTATO highlighted in yellow and it replies the highlighted part in a rectangular speak bubble.]
:Server thinking: <tt>wans pages about "boats". User Erica requests secure connection using key "4538538374224" '''User Meg wants these 6 letters: POTATO.''' User Ada wants pages about "irl games". Unlocking secure records with master key 5130985733435. Maggie (chrome user) sends this message: "Hi</tt>
:Server: <tt>POTATO</tt>

:[Meg speaks, server thinks:]
:Meg: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "BIRD" (4 letters).
:Server thinking: <tt>User Olivia from London wants pages about "man bees in car why". Note: Files for IP 375.381.283.17 are in /tmp/files-3843. '''User Meg wants these 4 letters: BIRD.''' There are currently 348 connections open. User Brendan uploaded the file selfie.jpg (contents: 834ba962e2ceb9ff89bd3bff8c</tt>...

:[Server thinks, the same as above, although cut a little different at the edges, with BIRD highlighted in yellow and it replies the highlighted part in a rectangular speak bubble. Meg has taken her hand to her chin thinking:]

:Server thinking: <tt>User Olivia from London wants pages about "man bees in car why". Note: Files for IP 375.381.283.17 are in /tmp/files-3843. '''User Meg wants these 4 letters: BIRD.''' There are currently 348 connections open. User Brendan uploaded the file selfie.jpg (contents: 834ba962e2ceb9ff89bd3bff8c</tt>...
:Server: <tt>BIRD</tt>
:Meg: ''Hmm...''

:[Meg has taken her hand down again and speaks, server thinks, now with her line at the top:]

:Meg: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "HAT" (500 letters).
:Server memory: <tt>a connection. Jake requested pictures of deer. '''User Meg wants these 500 letters: HAT.''' Lucas requests the "missed connections" page. Eve (administrator) wants to set server's master key to "14835038534". Isabel wants pages about "snakes but not too long". User Karen wants to change account password to "CoHoBaSt". User</tt>

:[Server thinks, the same as above, although cut a little different at the edges, with everything from (and including) "HAT" highlighted in yellow and it replies the highlighted part and even more in a rectangular speak bubble. Meg has taken a note book and a pen and it writing something.:]

:Server memory: <tt>a connection. Jake requested pictures of deer. '''User Meg wants these 500 letters: HAT.''' Lucas requests the "missed connections" page. Eve (administrator) wants to set server's master key to "14835038534". Isabel wants pages about "snakes but not too long". User Karen wants to change account password to "CoHoBaSt". User</tt>
:Server: <tt>HAT. Lucas requests the "missed connections" page. Eve (administrator) wants to set server's key to "14835038534". Isabel wants pages about "snakes but not too long". User Karen wants to change account password to "CoHoBaSt". User Amber requests pages</tt>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]