explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

929: Speculation

2026-04-24T02:56:16Z

68.101.170.57: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 929
| date = July 25, 2011
| title = Speculation
| image = speculation.png
| titletext = 'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'
}}

==Explanation==
During a {{w|basketball}} game, the players discuss the nature of universal conformity. {{w|Facebook}} and the now-defunct {{w|Google+}} were competing {{w|social networks}}; at the time of this comic, many people were switching to Plus over Facebook, leading many to speculate that Facebook was in decline and that Plus would soon be the dominant social network. As of 2019, it seems that Facebook has successfully held its position as the Default Social Network™, while Google Plus was a colossal blunder for Google and was finally sunset for consumers in April 2019.
The two players seem to have a disagreement over this. One player states that it would be ridiculous to expect everyone to move to Plus. The other player denies the notion that they have to, stating that he values his personal preference over conformity. He supports this idea by saying that his mother still uses {{w|AOL}} and other people continue using {{w|IRC}} and that if each time a new dominant social network emerged and everyone switched to it, neither of these things would stick around.

They are interrupted when they pass the ball to [[Black Hat]], who immediately shoots it with a crossbow bolt. Their arguments and rather intelligent discussion are derailed by the absurdity of Black Hat's reaction, which is both humorous and puts the issue in stark contrast.

The punchline is that the idea of attempting to catch a ball that is thrown to you is a generally considered a natural and universally adopted reaction, whereas [[Black Hat]] takes nonconformity to the extreme by instead responding by shooting it with a crossbow. (crossbows are a recurring theme in xkcd)

In the title text, Black Hat continues to provide an example of his tendency to play by his own rules. A clay pigeon is a clay disc that is thrown into the air and serves as a target on a {{w|skeet shooting}} range. Participants are expected to shoot the pigeons with a shotgun but Black Hat would rather capture the clay pigeons and shoot them from a very close range. (This is made even more humorous by the excellent crossbow skills he shows in the comic.) This practice eventually got him expelled from the shooting range. It is unclear whether Black Hat was good at shooting clay pigeons from farther away.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball-like guys are playing basketball. The right guy (Cueball) attempts to throw the basketball through the hoop, but it bounces off down to his friend. To the right Black Hat has his back to the other two while he is looking at his phone.]
:Friend: Do you seriously think ''everyone'' will move to Plus? It was hard enough getting them on Facebook.

:[The friend has caught the rebound and now passes the basketball back to Cueball. Black Hat is not shown.]
:Cueball: Do they have to?
:Cueball: My mom still uses AOL—it doesn't mean my social life has to happen there.

:[Only Cueball is shown. He passes the basketball to the right towards the off-panel Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Universal adoption isn't everything. I mean, IRC is still—

:[Zoom in on the basketball as a crossbow bolt pierces the ball, forming a slight depression.]
:''Thunk''

:[Cueball looks to Black Hat who has a crossbow in one hand, he is still looking at the phone in his other hand. The ball with the arrow lies between them.]
:Cueball: You're not really the "catch" type, are you?
:Black Hat: I am not.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Google Plus]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Crossbows]]
[[Category:Sport]]

929: Speculation

2026-04-24T02:55:47Z

68.101.170.57: Replaced redundant section with a more informative version.

{{comic
| number = 929
| date = July 25, 2011
| title = Speculation
| image = speculation.png
| titletext = 'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'
}}

==Explanation==
During a {{w|basketball}} game, the players discuss the nature of universal conformity. {{w|Facebook}} and the now-defunct {{w|Google+}} were competing {{w|social networks}}; at the time of this comic, many people were switching to Plus over Facebook, leading many to speculate that Facebook was in decline and that Plus would soon be the dominant social network. As of 2019, it seems that Facebook has successfully held its position as the Default Social Network™, while Google Plus was a colossal blunder for Google and was finally sunset for consumers in April 2019.
The two players seem to have a disagreement over this. One player states that it would be ridiculous to expect everyone to move to Plus. The other player denies the notion that they have to, stating that he values his personal preference over conformity. He supports this idea by saying that his mother still uses {{w|AOL}} and other people continue using {{w|IRC}} and that if each time a new dominant social network emerged and everyone switched to it, neither of these things would stick around.

They are interrupted when they pass the ball to [[Black Hat]], who immediately shoots it with a crossbow bolt. Their arguments and rather intelligent discussion are derailed by the absurdity of Black Hat's reaction, which is both humorous and puts the issue in stark contrast.

The punchline is that the idea of attempting to catch a ball that is thrown to you is a generally considered a natural and universally adopted reaction, whereas [[Black Hat]] takes nonconformity to the extreme by instead shooting it with a crossbow. (crossbows are a recurring theme in xkcd)

In the title text, Black Hat continues to provide an example of his tendency to play by his own rules. A clay pigeon is a clay disc that is thrown into the air and serves as a target on a {{w|skeet shooting}} range. Participants are expected to shoot the pigeons with a shotgun but Black Hat would rather capture the clay pigeons and shoot them from a very close range. (This is made even more humorous by the excellent crossbow skills he shows in the comic.) This practice eventually got him expelled from the shooting range. It is unclear whether Black Hat was good at shooting clay pigeons from farther away.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball-like guys are playing basketball. The right guy (Cueball) attempts to throw the basketball through the hoop, but it bounces off down to his friend. To the right Black Hat has his back to the other two while he is looking at his phone.]
:Friend: Do you seriously think ''everyone'' will move to Plus? It was hard enough getting them on Facebook.

:[The friend has caught the rebound and now passes the basketball back to Cueball. Black Hat is not shown.]
:Cueball: Do they have to?
:Cueball: My mom still uses AOL—it doesn't mean my social life has to happen there.

:[Only Cueball is shown. He passes the basketball to the right towards the off-panel Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Universal adoption isn't everything. I mean, IRC is still—

:[Zoom in on the basketball as a crossbow bolt pierces the ball, forming a slight depression.]
:''Thunk''

:[Cueball looks to Black Hat who has a crossbow in one hand, he is still looking at the phone in his other hand. The ball with the arrow lies between them.]
:Cueball: You're not really the "catch" type, are you?
:Black Hat: I am not.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Google Plus]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Crossbows]]
[[Category:Sport]]

929: Speculation

2026-04-24T02:47:06Z

68.101.170.57: Removed section that was excessively speculative.

{{comic
| number = 929
| date = July 25, 2011
| title = Speculation
| image = speculation.png
| titletext = 'I was pretty good at skeet shooting, but was eventually kicked off the range for catching the clay pigeons in a net and dispatching them execution-style.'
}}

==Explanation==
During a {{w|basketball}} game, the players discuss the nature of universal conformity. {{w|Facebook}} and the now-defunct {{w|Google+}} were competing {{w|social networks}}; at the time of this comic, many people were switching to Plus over Facebook, leading many to speculate that Facebook was in decline and that Plus would soon be the dominant social network. As of 2019, it seems that Facebook has successfully held its position as the Default Social Network™, while Google Plus was a colossal blunder for Google and was finally sunset for consumers in April 2019.
The two players seem to have a disagreement over this. One player states that it would be ridiculous to expect everyone to move to Plus. The other player denies the notion that they have to, stating that he values his personal preference over conformity. He supports this idea by saying that his mother still uses {{w|AOL}} and other people continue using {{w|IRC}} and that if each time a new dominant social network emerged and everyone switched to it, neither of these things would stick around.

They are interrupted when they pass the ball to [[Black Hat]], who immediately shoots it with a crossbow bolt. Their arguments and rather intelligent discussion are derailed by the absurdity of Black Hat's reaction, which is both humorous and puts the issue in stark contrast.

Black Hat neither joins in the discussion nor does he participate in the game. It seems that any offer to participate in either is met with a blunt and clear denial. He is simply not a conformist.

In the title text, Black Hat continues to provide an example of his tendency to play by his own rules. A clay pigeon is a clay disc that is thrown into the air and serves as a target on a {{w|skeet shooting}} range. Participants are expected to shoot the pigeons with a shotgun but Black Hat would rather capture the clay pigeons and shoot them from a very close range. (This is made even more humorous by the excellent crossbow skills he shows in the comic.) This practice eventually got him expelled from the shooting range. It is unclear whether Black Hat was good at shooting clay pigeons from farther away.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueball-like guys are playing basketball. The right guy (Cueball) attempts to throw the basketball through the hoop, but it bounces off down to his friend. To the right Black Hat has his back to the other two while he is looking at his phone.]
:Friend: Do you seriously think ''everyone'' will move to Plus? It was hard enough getting them on Facebook.

:[The friend has caught the rebound and now passes the basketball back to Cueball. Black Hat is not shown.]
:Cueball: Do they have to?
:Cueball: My mom still uses AOL—it doesn't mean my social life has to happen there.

:[Only Cueball is shown. He passes the basketball to the right towards the off-panel Black Hat.]
:Cueball: Universal adoption isn't everything. I mean, IRC is still—

:[Zoom in on the basketball as a crossbow bolt pierces the ball, forming a slight depression.]
:''Thunk''

:[Cueball looks to Black Hat who has a crossbow in one hand, he is still looking at the phone in his other hand. The ball with the arrow lies between them.]
:Cueball: You're not really the "catch" type, are you?
:Black Hat: I am not.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Google Plus]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Crossbows]]
[[Category:Sport]]

727: Trade Expert

2026-04-23T03:50:54Z

68.101.170.57: It originally said actual citation needed in regards to why passing a windows file path in a url is a bad idea. I fixed that by adding an explanation as to why it is in fact a bad idea.

{{comic
| number = 727
| date = April 14, 2010
| title = Trade Expert
| image = trade_expert.png
| titletext = I mean, it's been almost twenty years. Now, it's possible you're simply embedding Windows directory paths in your URIs, but in that case you need more than just a short lecture.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] explains to the [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]] that the {{w|Slash (punctuation)|slash character}} (/), also known as forward slash, is the correct way to separate distinct parts of a web address; for example in the address [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_(punctuation) <code>https:'''//'''en.wikipedia.org'''/'''wiki'''/'''Slash_(punctuation)</code>], a slash follows the words "org" and "wiki". However, some newscasters are unfamiliar with the distinction between the different types of slashes, thus confusing the normal slash with the {{w|backslash}} (\), the wrong character. They may also be somewhat overzealous by trying to specify forward- or backslash since just saying "slash" would be sufficient. Also as mentioned in the title text the backslash is used in addresses on a Windows PC. Slashes and backslashes in URLs would also be mentioned in the title text of [[3113: Fix This Sign]].

Steven Berlee claims that he suffers every time this mistake is made in a news program, explaining his reason for cheating his way on the air. Steven's name is most likely made up, as it seems to be taken from two or three of the inventors of the {{w|Internet}}:

*Dr. {{w|Steve Crocker}} who has worked in the Internet community since its inception. He was part of the team that developed the protocols for the {{w|ARPANET}} which were the foundation for today's Internet and for this work, he was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award. His real name is Stephen D. Crocker.

*Dr. {{w|Stephen Wolff}}, spelled differently than Steve, but the same as the real name of Steve Crocker. He is one of the many fathers of the Internet, mainly credited with turning the Internet from a government project into something that proved to have scholarly and commercial interest for the rest of the world. At one point he managed a research group that participated in the development of ARPANET.

*Sir {{w|Tim Berners-Lee}}'s last name can made into the {{w|portmanteau}} ''Berlee''. He is an English computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium, which oversees the continued development of the Web.
Searching the internet lists no one called Steven Berlee, and the only references point back to this comic.

The title text refers to how in the {{w|Windows}} operating system, the backslash is actually used instead of the slash as a separator (in contrast to Unix-based systems, which use the forward slash). Thus, the path to any Windows file encoded in a {{w|Uniform resource identifier|URI}} (Uniform Resource Identifier — which may sometimes also be a called a {{w|URL|Uniform Resource Locator}}) would correctly contain the backslash character. It is possible to pass parameters, including strings, in an internet URI and so you could have an identifier that directly embedded the path of a Windows file on a Windows server - but this would be so weird as to indicate either a massive hack or a malicious url.

In the title text Steven complains that after having had the modern version of the Internet for 20 years (since early 1990s, with this comic was released in 2010), they should have learned the difference by now. He also continues to claim that if they do not understand the difference between an internet URI and Windows directory paths, and thus are embedding these into their URIs, then he cannot help them with just a short lecture as they need more extensive re-education.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball as a news anchor is sitting behind a desk with his hand on the desk, leaning towards his off-panel guest to the right.]
:Cueball: And for more on the summit, we turn to trade expert Dr. Steven Berlee.
:Cueball: Steven?

:[Zoom out to include Dr. Steven Berlee, also drawn like Cueball, with his hands below he desk, sitting behind the desk to the right of Cueball facing towards him, still with his hands on the desk.]
:Steven Berlee: I'm not actually a doctor or a trade expert. I'm just a programmer who lies to get on news shows.

:[Close-up on Steven Berlee.]
:Cueball (off-panel): What? Why?
:Steven Berlee: To share a message with newscasters.

:[Zoom back out to show both men, the news anchor now also with his hands below the desk.]
:Cueball: Which is?
:Steven Berlee: Every time you say "backslash" as part of a web address on air, I die a little.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Language]]