3004: Wells

2024-10-28T15:37:07Z

172.70.90.26: /* Explanation */ Depending upon the available surface water, a well might still be better.

{{comic
| number = 3004
| date = October 28, 2024
| title = Wells
| image = wells_2x.png
| imagesize = 306x402px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WATERLOGGED OIL DRILL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A water {{w|well}} is a hole dug in the ground, deep enough reach underground {{w|aquifers}}. They have been used for thousands of years as a source of water by people who don't live close to usable surface water sources like rivers and lakes.

This comic pokes fun of the seemingly improbable characteristics of wells. Talking about how water "randomly" forms below the surface of the ground and how they "magically" refill themselves. In reality there are complex systems (the {{w|water cycle}}) that dictate the formations of the underground pools that the wells take from and the underground rivers that refill them.

The title text points out that in some cases, people intending to drill water wells instead found oil beds. Oil is a very valuable energy source{{cn}}, so they became very wealthy as a result. This is the source of the idiom "struck oil" to mean receiving a windfall as a result of a lucky occurrence. But you have to be careful -- if you blindly "drink whatever you find at the bottom", as Megan says, you'll get very sick if it's oil rather than water.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan is on the left hand side and is facing Cueball who is on the right side and facing her. Megan has her left hand raised.]
:Megan: I need water, so I think I'll dig a deep hole and drink whatever liquid I find at the bottom.
:Cueball: What will you do after you drink it all? Dig another hole?
:Megan: I dunno. Hopefully is magically refills itself or something.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's ridiculous that wells work.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:949: File Transfer

2023-08-23T22:40:19Z

172.70.90.26:

About three years ago, I stumbled across this comic during an xkcd re-read, and I immediately thought "Hey, the small business I work for could make GREAT use of Dropbox!" Today, my boss says that bringing Dropbox to her business is one of the best ideas I've ever had. [[User:Boct1584|Boct1584]] ([[User talk:Boct1584|talk]]) 01:22, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Years ago the usb drive was a floppy disc and the transfer was called "sneaker net".
This "solution" is much, much older than the web.
Also, why would TBL shed a tear? What's an HTML server got to do with file sharing? Do you think Randall meant Tommy Flowers?{{unsigned|‎188.29.119.251}}
:You are right. I deleted the sentence about Tim Berners-Lee, because the comic shows a perfectly legitimate use of the internet: transferring a 25 Mb file, which is much complicated than it should be. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 21:00, 10 October 2013 (UTC)
:He wasn't really right, and the title text should still be explained. I have done so. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 20:35, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
Just split the file into two pieces and send them in two emails. [[Special:Contributions/123.24.93.198|123.24.93.198]] 10:29, 3 August 2013 (UTC)
:With a chisel? Not everybody has a chisel around the house, these days. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 20:35, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
Actually Dropbox has [https://www.dropbox.com/home a web interface], you don't need to download any program. Still, both need to have Dropbox account. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 15:41, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
:Yes. Yes, you do. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 20:35, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Guys, dropbox supports link-sharing, for users without an account. Although, that feature probably wasn't around at the time this comic
was written. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 02:46, 1 March 2014 (UTC)
:Although those neccessarily need either a password or are just kinda insecure because it's on the open internet. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.170.65|162.158.170.65]] 12:53, 30 July 2022 (UTC)

Duke: I THINK that the TIM BERNERS LEE part is not just to do with the protocols. If you had to send it to your friend's laptop , you *could* mail it your friends email id rather than to yourself, essentially using the email service in the *right* manner. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.237|141.101.81.237]] 07:27, 15 August 2014 (UTC)
:After all these years I stumbled only now upon this note in Wikipedia's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV WebDAV] article:
:<q>Tim Berners-Lee's original vision of the Web involved a medium for both reading and writing. In fact, Berners-Lee's first web browser, called WorldWideWeb, could both view and edit web pages.</q>
:So Tim Berners-Lee was imaging an interactive web when he invented html and http, instead of the static "web 1.0", which came alive. In his envisioned web, people probably would have uploaded a file to a webpage directly, instead of using the web-interfaces of email providers or services like Dropbox, which are complicated work-arounds to achieve the same thing. [[User:Enkidu|Enkidu]] ([[User talk:Enkidu|talk]]) 11:58, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Hah, now we have darkhttp. Just download and install (a matter of seconds), execute (give root-of-to-share folder) and forward the ports on your router (2mins max). This should be rather easy :-). Alternatives could be also tftp etc. Or send something via GDrive^^[[Special:Contributions/108.162.253.174|108.162.253.174]] 10:11, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
:"forward the ports on your router" isn't "2mins max" if your ISP puts its residential subscribers behind [[wikipedia:Carrier-grade NAT|carrier-grade network address translation]]. For many, the only way out from behind CGNAT is to lease a static IP, and even for that, some ISPs require a commercially zoned service address. --[[User:Tepples|Tepples]] ([[User talk:Tepples|talk]]) 16:17, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

I'm surprised they didn't just use bittorrent. It's such a simple and easy way to transfer files. [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 00:23, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

True as it ever was. My grandfather was sending someone an MP3 of a radio show. Too large for email, WeTransfer wouldn't work, GDrive upload failed, ended up putting it on a USB stick and posting. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.26|172.70.90.26]] 22:40, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3004: Wells

Talk:949: File Transfer