explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2851: Messier Objects

2023-11-07T10:04:33Z

172.70.90.228:

addededededded transcript [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 17:34, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
: meow [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 17:54, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
Is M30712050 that specific squirrel, or just the general category of squirrels? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.56|172.69.247.56]] 17:57, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
:The debate about the Ship of Theseus suggests that every ship gets its own number, so why not every squirrel? Although then the numbers would be much larger. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 18:04, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
::...and the list would be much messier. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 18:32, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
:::*fwap* [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.143|172.69.43.143]] 00:47, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
:It can't be all squirrels, CM could not have seen *all* squirrels. In fact, he would have been dead long before *that* squirrel was born. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 21:20, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
::Presuming that Messier is alive in this panel, then this panel isn't the present, and the squirrel was alive when Messier was alive. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.162|162.158.155.162]] 21:58, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

could the numbers have been picked to represent something rather than be entirely random? like 41592 coming from pi and 137 being FSC... idk maybe i'm just reading too much into it... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.11|162.158.186.11]] 18:09, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Between the Messier catalog and the Marvel multiverse, we've got a well-defined numbering system that indexes all objects in all universes. (Or, I guess at least those universes with Messier catalogs. Damn.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.18|172.69.58.18]] 19:03, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
:You should also number all Messier catalogues (and intermediate versions of them), then, to make sure we know which ones we're talking about. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.143|172.69.43.143]] 00:47, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Wait a minute... this is just the wikidata QID system again[[User:AtaraxianAscendant|ataraxianAscendant]] ([[User talk:AtaraxianAscendant|talk]]) 19:34, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
:Yes, it's like Wikidata. Not sure if it's worth mentioning. Unfortunately, the numbers don't match those Wikidata for equivalent objects.
:Furtermore, Wikimedia Commons ID use an M and a number. For example, https://commons.wikimedia.org/entity/M205.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 19:39, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

The existence of a Messier catalog implies the existence of a Neater catalog. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.130|172.69.134.130]] 19:42, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

The explanation suggests that we might number every grain of sand. But the comic just has a single number for "Earth". Would the catalog have separate entries for an object and all its constituents? It doesn't seem like it, since Randall didn't label the wings of the butterfly, limbs of the squirrel or human, or branches and leaves of the tree. Of course, how we distinguish distinct objects in the world is an even thornier philosophical problem than the Ship of Theseus. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:36, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
:I deleted that portion as non-explanatory wild speculation. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.159.64|172.71.159.64]] 21:03, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
::The same would apply to the real Messier Objects too - do you label a star cluster, and then label the individual stars within it as well?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.228|172.70.90.228]] 10:04, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Shouldn't Earth (or Messier) be object #0? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 21:20, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

How messy are they? 🥁 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.211|172.70.100.211]] 22:00, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Earth number might be influenced by [https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Dimension_C-137 Dimension C-137] from Rick and Morty, which often is used to refer to the "Earth" location from early easons. --
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.145|172.70.200.145]] 22:27, 6 November 2023 (UTC) (edit [[Special:Contributions/172.68.146.17|172.68.146.17]] 22:33, 6 November 2023 (UTC))

For the numbering of the ships of Theseuses, why not just use the numbers from a particular type of prime number? ----

In the UK, the Ship of Theseus problem is sometimes referred to as Trigger's Broom, after a character from one of our most popular sitcoms ("Only Fools And Horses"). Trigger is a mentally-deficient road sweeper who is proud of the fact that he's still got his original broom that he was given when he started work 20 years ago. He's looked after it in that time: it's had 17 new heads and 14 new handles...
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.189|172.70.86.189]] 06:21, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
:To be fair (and, unfortunately, historically unfair to the Irish), that's just a transplant of the older "Irishman's Broom". And it's just one of many variations like "grandfather's axe", etc. Depends on whether you're going for fairly recent pop-culture (lovely-jubbley!), falling back on old stereotypes (to be sure, to be sure) or whatever else you have in mind. (I'm sure I actually heard "Ship of Theseus" said on the street, just the other day, by a conversing couple. And this wasn't even an Oxbridge street!)
:To be fair ''to Trigger'', the council for whom the character worked was also as blind/far-sighted regarding the philosophical (dis)continuity of existence, given the award in which they were citing the broom as one of the outstanding features... Much as the US Government treats the 'modern' USS Constitution as the same as the 'original', maybe? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.231|172.70.90.231]] 09:02, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

User talk:SomeoneIGuess

2023-10-31T14:22:38Z

172.70.90.228:

thy fathre [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:38, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

i see you have also been cursed with "oh god i have a user page" [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:49, 19 October 2023 (UTC)
: i hath not been cursed - it is thy blessing (signing posts is forbidden)

bro why do you have <br />
: because when i dont use them i cant figure out how to add line breaks, plus it's cleaner, preferred in almost all cases, and can be used in more scenarios than a normal <code><nowiki> </nowiki></code> [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]] ([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk]]) 19:31, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
:: epic [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 20:41, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
:: Hi, here's some information on all that, in case you're interested.
:: When replying with indents, a <newline> and the appropriate number of ::s to maintain the indent on the next line is enough to line-break (see this source).
:: If you're writing unindented items, a ''single'' <newline> is treated as just whitespace, such that it just flows on the same (output) line.
:: If you really want to separate items, you can use ''two'' (or more?) <newline>s and it'll respect the new-paragraph feeling.
:: (The separation in the edit source is obviosuly far more obvious. If you're just the next person making a 'root' comment in a Talk page then this actually is useful to help navigate the fact that you're looking at two different contributions, but if you're writing multiple paragraphs of your own then you ''wouldn't'' want it to look so disconnected.)
:: It's also the case that the first (single) <newline> in a wikitable item is correctly treated as a new-paragraph in the table contents, but any further such newlines are treated as continuation of that second paragraph, unless you make it work as above/below.
:: You can, of course, use <nowiki>, , , , etc</nowiki> to force a break (even in an actual run-on line the source) or make the 'trivial' and whitespace-only break real (either side of the actual <newline> that is otherwise ignored.
:: ...I rather like adding a <nowiki> </nowiki> at the end of paragraphs to let me use an editor-friendly layout, as described. Occasionally I'll add it it to the ''start'' of the follow-up paragraph (it makes it look a bit like a bulletted list, which might aid future editors), but that's rare.
:: And, of course, when writing Talk-type replies like this, I don't need to do any of that. I just use the indent-colons and it all works out exactly as it needs to without fuss.
:: Indents don't (often) apply in actual comic articles themselves, of course. But I suspect that their use at the start of every line in the Transcript (it is usual to have at least the one level of indent in front of every individual line except for actual 'blank lines') is in part to make it look more or less the same in both 'raw edit' and screen-style, given that a Transcript is supposed to have very little actual formatting markup/tagging of any other kind.
:: Anyway, you can always use Preview to double-check (and tweak with) anything before actually posting, just in case you forget to force a newline (or do one where it isn't technically needed and ends up looking worse than you intended). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.23|162.158.34.23]] 21:01, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

"watch out nqh" - history

i'm scared [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 02:13, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

by the way your dark mode doesn't work on [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=modern the modern skin] :godo: [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 02:22, 21 October 2023 (UTC)
: someone didnt read the warnings [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]] ([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk]]) 19:55, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

For your recent FAQ addition (which I'm not able to edit myself), might I suggest that instead of:
:For statements that require actual, genuine citations, the template ''[[Template:actual citation needed|Actual Citation Needed]]'' should be used instead.
...you change it to:
:For statements that require actual, genuine citations, the template ''{{template|Actual citation needed}}'' should be used instead.
(See edit source for how I wrote that, or even to copypaste the markup direct.)
 Also note that the 'real' template is capitalised with a capital 'A' (and no others). The all-lower one aliases to the first-upper one (much as rather more variations on {{template|Citation needed}} redirect to it). Not really so important, but while {{template|Citation Needed}} exists (to save time for people who can't simply remember that it is "First capital only"?), there isn't even an {{template|Actual Citation Needed}} (at time of writing, at least, and I honestly think there's no need to spoil people with something like {{eVeRy PoSsIbLe CaSe-MiX}} when the baseline is fairly standard).
 So, at least lower the latter two capitals in the link-text to implant the valid (and main) version in people's minds from the moment they possibly learn of such a possibility. Whether or not you {{template|template}}ify the link and/or 'Inital case' where it points to. ...but just a suggestion. Perhaps more style than substance, but you seem like you might appreciate these pointers. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.33|141.101.98.33]] 08:39, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
: Fixed! [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 14:02, 31 October 2023 (UTC)
:: Aye, certainly the part about the visual cue. Which probably matters most. (Could all be considered a minor thing. But I thought it had value to keep the FAQ a bit more accurate, as obviously did you by putting that original addition in.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.228|172.70.90.228]] 14:22, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

2848: Breaker Box

2023-10-31T11:24:22Z

172.70.90.228: /* Table of the breakers labels */

{{comic
| number = 2848
| date = October 30, 2023
| title = Breaker Box
| image = breaker_box_2x.png
| imagesize = 560x776px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Any electrician will warn you to first locate and flip the house's CAUSALITY circuit breaker before touching the CIRCUIT BREAKERS one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIGH-PITCHED HUM GENERATOR THAT WAS LAST MENTIONED EXACTLY 1258 COMICS AGO - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Distribution board}}, referred to as a "breaker box" here and commonly referred to as a "fuse box", "breaker panel", "DB box", and many other names, is a metal box inside a building that is attached to a wall, usually in some maintenance area, containing several {{w|circuit breakers}} that let power through to various parts of the building. A circuit breaker is an electrical switch, usually in the form of a small lever, that will physically open if too much power is flowing through, as might be the case if a fault occurs, in order to protect appliances.

In most breaker boxes, each individual breaker is labeled to let the operator know what that specific breaker controls. A breaker will usually control something like the outlets or lights in a certain room, or some large appliance. In houses that have been rewired multiple times(or are poorly wired), this can quickly become overcomplicated with seemingly random connections. The comic satirizes this, with multiple breakers "controlling" arbitrary things that may be impossible to hook a breaker up to, getting progressively more absurd to the point of disabling certain laws of physics as the switches get lower.

The title text is about causality. Turning off the circuit breaker using the circuit breaker may lead to a loop, as the disabled breaker can no longer disable itself, leading to it turning back on, etc. Turning off causality would prevent this loop as causes would no longer have effects.

===Table of the breakers labels===
{|class = "wikitable"
! Label next to breaker !! Explanation !! Label next to breaker !! Explanation
|-
| Kitchen Lights || The lights in the kitchen. || A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now || The AC in a building usually creates quiet white noise from fans, which people usually do not hear until they become aware that there is a sound. Other appliances, such as fridges or home servers can have similar effects.
|-
| Living room lights || The lights in the living room. || Dishwasher || The dishwasher.
|-
| Porch lights || The lights on the porch. || Dishes || At a glance this could pass for a normal thing to be next to a breaker, despite dishes not requiring electricity. This might, however, actually be referring to an array of satellite dishes, but given how the switch for the dishwasher is immediately above this is most likely not the case.
|-
| Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere || This controls the lights in the bathroom, but also a random outlet. This may be a reference to the unlikely possibility that an electrical engineer may make a mistake during construction and wire up an outlet to the wrong breaker, confusing the homeowner when maintenance needs to be done. || Hallway lights || The lights in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| North-facing appliances || Despite the impossibility of determining which way an appliance is facing, ignoring how you would even define that, without having a magnetic compass inside every appliance, and having all of those appliances be hooked up to one breaker, this apparently routes power to every appliance that faces north. It is unclear how strict this is as well - it could be as lax as northeast to northwest, or even as strict as {{w|Points of the compass#32-wind compass rose|north by east to north by west}}.|| Hallway outlets || The outlets in the hallway or hallways.
|-
| Bathtub drain light || Bathtubs typically do not have drain lights, but this breaker provides power to that and only that. || Hallway floors || This could pass for a normal breaker at a glance, given the two above and in some buildings there are floor outlets. This could also potentially refer to turning off the power for all the hallways on a given floor. Floors in and of themselves do not typically require power, but if they act differently when not powered is unknown. A simpler explanation is this just electrifies the floors, which is not usually desirable,{{citation needed}} but may be barely noticeable in this case when considering this breaker has been on the entire time. Unless the hallway is equipped with electric underfloor heating.
|-
| Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" || Another breaker that could theoretically be done despite the tremendous difficulty in doing so. Electrical systems do not carry data about names, and it is unclear how it would even get this information, if it would change depending on locality, if it uses the common name for something or the full name, how it would work in different languages, and so on. || Social media || All of social media. This may be a reference to 'digital detoxes', where people turn off / delete / deny themselves access to all their social media apps, in the hopes that this will provide some improvement to their quality of life. It couls also be a callback to [[908: The Cloud]]. Since most social media platforms are a centralized services, it would be theoretically possible to hook up a switch to the main power supply of every server building at once, given some extremely long wires, a breaker capable of handling the abhorrently massive electric load, and agreement from every social media provider(optional).
|-
| Hot water heater || The heater for hot water. || State law || It is unclear which state's laws this controls, but why they require power to operate is unknown. This may just be for enforcement of the laws, instead of nullifying every single one whenever it is turned off. Additionally, since Randall lives in Massachusetts, it's very likely this refers to the same state. Turning off the breaker could result in a state similar to martial law.
|-
| Regular water heater || The heater for regular water. Presumably, given the above switch, this is for heating lukewarm or cool water, while the above is for keeping it warm and acting as a storage medium. This could just be accomplished with a single water heater with the capacity of two, but it may be useful for getting a lot of adequately hot water quickly when only half a tank's worth is needed. Alternatively, this may imply that this heater is for heating water that is not yet hot, whereas the heater above is, unexpectedly and somewhat pointlessly, for heating water that is already hot.|| Federal law || The ramifications of nullifying every federal law ever are immense, but this may still be for enforcement, like the above.
|-
| Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in || This controls every outlet in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in. This implies that the living room is not a room it's normal to eat pizza in, since those are on a different breaker. On the other hand, that breaker specifically specifies that it controls the living room '''''lights''''', but disregarding this, it's very likely it may still include the living room, seeing as the other switches fail to have any sort of constraints. Other eligible rooms would probably include the dining room, kitchen, and/or bedroom, but would be dependent on the inhabitants / regular visitors of the house (for example, they may regularly eat their pizza in the bathroom). || Second law of thermodynamics || Turning off a physical law, especially the second law of thermodynamics, would be catastrophic, since the rest of the laws of physics would most likely follow suit once one collapsed unless they are held in place by other laws.

This law of physics was also explored in the What If? article [https://what-if.xkcd.com/145/ Fire From Moonlight]. As explained by Randall in this article, the second law of thermodynamics states that you cannot transfer heat from one location A to make another location B any hotter than location A, unless you expend some form of energy in doing so.
|-
| High-pitched hum generator || Controls a high-pitched hum generator. This is a reference to [[1590: The Source]]. || Friction || Again, turning off a physical law would be catastrophic, but turning off friction may not destroy reality. If it was turned off, however, many things would become incredibly unsafe or useless, while others would have increased efficiency. The benefits, however, would be negligible in comparison to how many systems would collapse instantly, such as ratchets, car tires, standing up, or just things staying still in general. Being in a friction less environment (and a vacuum, as physicist loves...) was the subject of [[669: Experiment]].
|-
| The solution to the cryptogram below: || A cryptogram is a puzzle where a sentence has been encoded using a cipher, usually very simple, and the goal is to determine the cipher used and recover the original sentence from the encoded one. This may be literal, as in the solution is "circuit breaker", but it also may be controlling the ability to know what the solution is or if it can be discovered. || Gravity || If this was turned off, the Earth would explode along with all other celestial objects. Planets and stars have extremely high internal pressure that is constantly in conflict with gravity. Every part would be forced outward at incredibly high speeds, and any object that requires gravity would simply not be able to form. Of course, this might also just make everything in the house weightless, which has much less disastrous consequences and would probably actually be pretty cool.{{citation needed}}
|-
| Bugs || This could either refer to software bugs or actual bugs, both of which do not make much sense to be able to turn off. If this does refer to actual bugs, it may be a reference to [[2753: Air Handler]].|| Circuit breakers || If this was turned off, it would presumably turn off all power in the house since no breaker is supplied or supplying power any more. (Most houses have a main circuit breaker that provides this functionality.) However, if this circuit breaker disables the ability to toggle circuit breakers, you would not be able to turn this circuit breaker back on.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An open breaker box is shown. There are 26 labelled breakers, all of which are on, arranged in a 2 by 13 grid.]
:Kitchen lights / A whirring fan you didn't realize was on until now
:Living room lights / Dishwasher
:Porch lights / Dishes
:Bathroom lights and one surprise mystery outlet somewhere / Hallway lights
:North-facing appliances / Hallway outlets
:Bathtub drain light / Hallway floors
:Appliances whose names contain the letter "F" / Social media
:Hot water heater / State law
:Regular water heater / Federal law
:Outlets in rooms that it's normal to eat pizza in / Second law of thermodynamics
:High-pitched hum generator / Friction
:[There are words that are too small to read on the left breaker's label.]
:The solution to the cryptogram below: / Gravity
:Bugs / Circuit breakers

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1667: Algorithms

2023-09-20T03:03:08Z

172.70.90.228:

How can an excel spreadsheet be complicated? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.244.85|108.162.244.85]] 04:52, 13 April 2016 (UTC
:See this example http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/how-an-accountant-created-an-entire-rpg-inside-an-excel-spreadsheet/ {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.82}}
:: Oh my [[User:Nk22|The Twenty-second. The Not So Only. The Nathan/Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 10:36, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:::also http://www.geocities.jp/nchikada/pac/ (it's geocities!) --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:56, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
::::Or the thing I use at work. Work in finance - reconciling 1 code takes half a GIGABYTE of spreadsheets every 4 weeks that had been added to and tweaked so many times in the last 5 years by 6 different people, 5 of which are no longer at the company (and the last one hasn't used it in over a year) that it took me 4 months just to understand how the damned things worked and went together, and my work asks me to teach internal excel classes and run drop ins to help people out. First thing I did when I understood it was tear it down and rebuild from the ground up. Didn't cut the number of sheets (actually ended up with more), but it now takes 3 days not 15 and has dropped from half a gig to about 270MB thanks to a major cleanup in the one file I kept. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.103}}

Leftpad is a reference to the recent incident where a developer unpublished all his libraries from the NodeJS Package Manager, causing much disruption: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.231|162.158.85.231]] 05:58, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

In the off chance that this is referencing an actual spreadsheet, and if anyone has a link, please post it in my talk page. (And in the article of course, but talk page first) [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:45, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

The remark about quicksort's efficiency doesn't make sense. It's still the most common and practical general sorting algorithm. It's about as efficient you can typically get except in specialized cases or with some specific type of data. Should be removed imo. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.121|141.101.81.121]] 08:52, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:From Wikipedia: Quicksort (sometimes called partition-exchange sort) is an efficient sorting algorithm,
:From explainxkcd: Next is '''quicksort''', a classic (if not very efficient) way to sort a list of items [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1667:_Algorithms&diff=next&oldid=117700].
:[[User:Demro|Demro]] ([[User talk:Demro|talk]]) 12:34, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Added a [Citation Needed] for the excel based RPG. More so I can read about it/play it than anything else.. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 09:07, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:Thank you whoever put that in [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 11:54, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Added a bit to the church line. Just because you only see what happens on Sunday morning, for one hour, doesn't mean there's not more happening just beneath the surface. The classroom list at our church looks like a professional buildings office directory, and I know of members having to choose between two activities because both meet, or practice, at the same time. For instance, I know of a prospective AV team member who will never be a full time AV member, because she's a Soprano and already in Bells. (AV is setting up and debugging while the choir is practicing, and naturally it's hard to run a mixer or video switcher from the choir loft.)

Mind you, it's still hyperbole, but not to the degree previously given in the explanation. {{unsigned|Sean Roach}}

is anyone else concerned that randall doesn't label his axis? is it logarithmic? --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.84|141.101.98.84]] 11:56, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Is the Nebraskan excel sheet a loose reference to how you couldn't initially order Windows in Nebraska (from what I can gather), or am I over-analyzing this? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKqQmSHkEg at 0:57) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.85|141.101.98.85]] 12:18, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
: Maybe it's a 'flat' joke. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 15:48, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Interestingly enough, when I actually searched for "what the heck is a leftpad algorithm" sans quotations, google didn't pull up any results at all.[[User:Kirdneh|Kirdneh]] ([[User talk:Kirdneh|talk]]) 14:24, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:Huh, that's strange. Someone had better find a query that actually works and edit the article accordingly.
:Also, the page told me, "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 0 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included." I clicked the link to repeat it and still, nothing showed up. Just goes to show that even Google's algorithms can have small flaws and quirks. [[User talk:AgentMuffin|~AgentMuffin]]
:Weird, when I try that query I get nearly 100k results. (The first now being this site) [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 23:07, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Were .xlsx spreadsheets even around in 2007? Wasn't that final x added to the extension with office 2010?
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 20:30, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:xlsx was introduced with Office 2007: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel#Current_file_extensions [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:18, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Might it additionally be not just the intrinsic complexity but the perceived complexity? Bigger spreadsheets like this easily become arcane and incomprehensible, esp with a general lack of comments or explanations of what cells and formulas mean or how they were reached, especially with multiple contributors. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.137|172.68.58.137]] 23:35, 11 August 2017 (UTC)RJ K.

My organization has used Excel as a scheduling tool for at least 10 years. Management was using paper and an enterprising employee with a penchant for Excel decided to kick them into the computer age. Each hour of each day of a 24/7 operation is tracked, including which of 13 task positions is being worked by which employee. But it must contain room for other than regularly scheduled employees as well as future additions. And each Workbook covers 2 weeks at a stretch. All information must come together to generate several reports. So... 13 positions x a theoretical 100 employees = 1300 cells. Times 14 days = 18,200 cells. And each cell has a background formula to calculate from each hour of each 24 hr. day...formulas with 95 nested COUNTIFs. So there are 1,729,000 COUNTIF calculations running in the background and spitting out results on a bar chart and two totals reports. And this does not include the formulas running behind each daily sheet to provide staffing numbers for each hour around the clock. It has been an absolute beast to manage. I just recently finished overhauling the whole thing, improving appearance and organization, locking areas of each sheet to minimize formula corruption, and implementing conditional formatting to further reduce the need for the user input (half a dozen supervisory personnel, some of whom can recognize a computer when they see one) that has caused so much grief. But in the end there was no getting around the enormous formulas running in the background. Excel is NOT the right tool for this job. But we have been unable to determine a replacement. [[User:LostButMakingGoodTime|LostButMakingGoodTime]] ([[User talk:LostButMakingGoodTime|talk]]) 17:52, 1 July 2018 (UTC)

Why is 'schism' probably referring to the East-West Schism? There have been dozens of schisms for all sorts of reasons, from Arianism and Miaphysitism to recent splits in the Mormon Church and various other young denominations. The comic could (theoretically) be referring to any one of these schisms, or (more likely, in my view) it could be referring to the concept of a schism in general. Personally I think it's most likely a parody of modern church splits over outwardly petty-looking, seemingly trivial, or apparently overly worldly reasons. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.228|172.70.90.228]] 03:03, 20 September 2023 (UTC)