explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2131: Emojidome

2019-04-01T21:21:09Z

Anarcat:

I've checked the network tab and console - nothing really seems to happen when you vote, which may be something we want to put on the explanation tomorrow - Myxoh

I suspect the real april fools joke is going to come on Wednesday when xkdc posts an app showing us our psychological profiles that they are now selling to marketing companies after data-mining our emotional preferences to marketing firms - Nosajimiki

@Nosajimiki: psychological profiles of xkcd fans. That might be some interesting marketing. - 5Cincinatus

@Myxoh: I came here to see if anyone else had noticed this! But, I do also see a websocket connection to emojidome.xkcd.com, I bet it's counting votes that way.

There is a websocket connection. A message is sent every time you vote. It looks like there are also status update messages every second (saying which emoji currently has exactly how many votes, i suspect this changes the amount of hearts that show up), and "bracket start" messages every so often. The bracket start message seems to contain hundreds of upcoming emoji pairs. Edit: a bracket start is sent at the start of every match (so every ~30 seconds). It also contains logs of which messages to show for previous matches, and which emoji are currently battling.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.138.10|172.69.138.10]] 16:30, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

There seems to be nothing stopping me from clicking multiple times. Do you think it actually counts it all those times? Can I click-spam to say "this is much better"? [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 16:48, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Well this is fun. Look like there are 512 symbols, meaning 256 first-round contests. The first round would take (at 38 seconds / round) ~2.7 hours. The remaining rounds, from an estimate of geometric progression, would just under double this, meaning this comic will run for ~ 5 hours until we have our winner... ~alexandicity [[Special:Contributions/172.69.226.177|172.69.226.177]] 16:51, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Did he just add a scroll bar to the previous matches? I didn't notice it earlier [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.148|162.158.255.148]] 18:17, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:Nope, you were able to scroll before, too. At least about 2 hours ago. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:20, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

While some of the recaps of past battles are generic (taco vs sandwich: "One for the history books"), many seem to be specifically written for the battle (light bulb vs candle: "Some would argue that this one was settled in the 1800s"). I wonder if/how much this will continue into round 2.

Round two has just begun, and the timeout has been bumped to 60 seconds. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 18:41, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:If that trend continues, the full competition will take pretty close to 24 hours. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 18:45, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:It looks like it's 1:14/round, which is double what the time was in round one. Will round three be 2:28? 1:51?
::It's just over 1:15/round from the history JSON (plus some hundredths of a second, but it appears 1:15 is the intent)
:::Hadn't looked there. Round one concluded at 18:39:20-ish, 9560 seconds from 16:00:00. At 256 battles, that's 37.34 seconds/battle. However, it looks like the first battle ended at 15:59:57, which would add about 40 seconds, 9600 seconds/256=37.5 seconds exactly. Doubling for round 2 gives 75 seconds.

And while the match-ups winners are typically colored, and underlined, the losers are endgame grey.

Has anyone determined if multiple-voting is actually counted? For me at least the vote button fades back to gray after I click it, which implies you can/should click it again, but that may not actually be processed. We might add a clarification about that to the explanation. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 19:01, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: A reddit user on the r/xkcd thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/b84at1/xkcd_2131_emojidome_script_src2131comicjs/) claims to have attempted "vote stuffing via the console" with no noticeable change in vote totals. So it looks like it may be sending it client-side, but only counting the vote once server-side --l

It would appear that we are supposed to believe the commentary is live, and unscripted:
" {"This one is a true test of the audience today.",
"Just to stress this again. Live commentary, folks. Completely unscripted and coming in hot.} "--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.173|162.158.79.173]] 19:20, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:It's clearly live because the result of a previous round is affecting the next round's commentary - and the combinatorial explosion would prohibit that from being remotely plausible. We're watching live comedy here! [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 19:30, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: On the dog vs. wolf, he said "Again, we are getting a lot of questions on this today. This is live commentary, folks." Proof I guess. HI RANDALL! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:31, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Is there really anything we can put for the transcript? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:25, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Aby ideas on how the commentary is done? It seems to sort of match the emojis.
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 19:31, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
: It seems that Randall is commetating this live, as he periodcally says it's live in the robot commentator text. See above. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.241|172.68.189.241]] 19:36, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
::Perhaps not "live" as each round 2 matchup was known 160 minutes before it was voted on. He could comment on the battle itself, and/or provide a comment if one or the other combatant won. I think he's a couple hours ahead of us.
::: I dunno. Whenever a new battle starts, there is a default message, that is soon replaced by a more pertinent message. That seems to suggest that he's doing it on the fly. [[User:9yz|9yz]] ([[User talk:9yz|talk]]) 20:03, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
::::If that's live, Randall, and if you see this, give us a shout-out as proof. -Brent
This is a quick piece of python to see the json results (and commentary):
<nowiki>import json, urllib.request
d = json.loads(urllib.request.urlopen("https://emojidome.xkcd.com/2131/socket ").read().decode('utf-8'))
for g in d['bracket']['played'][0]:
c1, c2 = g['game']
print(f"{c1['score']} {c1['competitor']}-{c2['competitor']} {c2['score']}")</nowiki>
[[User:Tammo80|Tammo80]] ([[User talk:Tammo80|talk]]) 19:42, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

: or if you want to see the vote count live in browser: https://emojidome.playcode.io/ -Andy 22:01, April 2019
:: Awesome, thank you [[User:9yz|9yz]] ([[User talk:9yz|talk]]) 20:23, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

There must be some kind of manipulation going on with the votes. There is NO WAY the poop emoji would lose to the skull emoji in round two. It was my guess for the winner >:( [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.138|162.158.106.138]] 20:50, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

The second round bracket was released, but is hidden behind the bottom nav buttons: https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_256.png --[[User:Thefallen138|Thefallen138]] ([[User talk:Thefallen138|talk]]) 20:56, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

And now the third round has begun. Strangely, the bracket is not visible yet: https://xkcd.com/2131/emojidome_bracket_128.png. The delay has been bump to something above two minutes as well. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 21:21, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2131: Emojidome

2019-04-01T18:41:45Z

Anarcat: round two!

1987: Python Environment

2018-10-22T17:44:03Z

Anarcat: cross ref with 1654

{{comic
| number = 1987
| date = April 30, 2018
| title = Python Environment
| image = python_environment.png
| titletext = The Python environmental protection agency wants to seal it in a cement chamber, with pictoral messages to future civilizations warning them about the danger of using sudo to install random Python packages.
}}

==Explanation==

A development environment is the collection of tools used to create a computer program. It generally includes an {{w|Interpreter_(programming)|interpreter}}, a {{w|package manager}}, and various {{w|Library_(computing)|libraries}} that the project needs. Computer programs often depend on a specific version of these tools, such as a program that only runs on Python 2.7. A badly configured build environment can lead to mysterious errors as the program looks for libraries or features that aren't there, making it hard to develop stable and portable software.

{{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python}} is a {{w|computer}} {{w|programming language}} which has been around for quite a while, especially on {{w|Linux}} platforms. [[Randall]] has shown his fascination with Python [[353: Python|before]]. He has likely used it on his computer for quite a few years, from the early years where it wasn't so easy to install, through newer versions where there is a more defined way to install it. Because standards change over time (in particular, although the newest version of Python is Python 3.x, many people prefer Python 2.x and it's still widely used for backwards-compatibility), and he didn't completely uninstall old versions before installing new versions (likely to not break what was already working), he's ended up with a mess where different pieces and versions of Python and its related components litter his {{w|hard drive}}'s {{w|directory structure}}.

{{w|Superfund}} is a US federal government program created for cleaning up contaminated land. The comic is saying that his computer's Python environment is so messed up that it's comparable to a real-world environmental disaster.

The title text may refer to the philosophical debate surrounding the construction of warning features around the [[wikipedia:Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Warning_messages_for_future_humans|WIPP]] site in New Mexico, and other nuclear waste disposal sites. In particular, it may refer to [https://web.archive.org/web/20090320054657/http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%20message%20to%2012,000%20a_d.htm this article]. These would have to last and be understandable for tens of thousands of years, longer than any known human-made structure or language to date.

;$PATH
:$PATH refers to the {{w|PATH (variable)|PATH}} environment variable, which determines where to search for executable files. In this case, it indicates that the pip, Homebrew Python (2.7), and OSX's pre-installed Python are accessible on path, with ~/newenv/ and a mysterious ???? as part of PATH.
;pip
:{{w|pip (package manager)|pip}} is the Python {{w|package management system}}, and is used to install and manage python packages. As it is written in Python, it requires Python to run. It leads to easy_install, Homebrew Python (2.7), "(misc folders owned by root)", and ????.
;Homebrew Python (2.7)
:{{w|Homebrew (package management software)|Homebrew}} is the de facto standard third-party OSX package manager. Homebrew Python (2.7) is the Python 2 version installed through Homebrew. This leads to Python.org binary (2.6) and /usr/local/Cellar.
;OS Python
:Apple bundles an (out of date) version of Python with OSX. This only leads to ????.
;????
:With so many versions of Python installed and used in the system, it becomes very hard to track which Python program uses which version and environment. The system becomes unpredictable, its working and faults mysterious. All parts of the graph that lead to this point, lead to confusion.
;easy_install
:easy_install, much like pip, is a cpan-like tool to download and install Python packages. As of the creation of the comic, many people discourage its use. (e.g., [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3220404/why-use-pip-over-easy-install this question on stack exchange.]
;Anaconda Python
:{{w|Anaconda (Python distribution)|Anaconda}} is a Python distribution for data science and machine learning related applications.
;Homebrew Python (3.6)
:As of the creation of the comic, Python 3.6 is the current stable version of Python. It can be installed together with Python 2.7 on the same computer. Care must be taken to use an appropriate version for every Python program, however.
;Python.org binary (2.6)
:[http://python.org Python.org] is the home site of the {{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python language}} and provides its reference implementation. Among other stuff, there are downloadable installers that create ready to use Python environments for you (on Windows and macOS only). It makes little sense, however, to use it on a computer where Homebrew, Anaconda and a locally compiled version are already present, since the Python.org version is the baseline one, doesn't give you any benefits, and can't be optimized for your needs. Having an obsolete 2.6 version, when the typically used 2.7 is already on the computer, also doesn't help. Some justified uses do exist (tests, programs that depend on this particular version), but in the end, an extra version of Python just adds to the overall confusion.
;(Misc folders owned by root)
:This suggests that over years [[Randall]] dropped various versions of {{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python}} environments everywhere around his computer, probably by hand without proper installers, and used root privileges to do so. The exact locations either are highly nonstandard, so it makes no sense showing them to us, or have simply been forgotten. Now it's hard to even tell where exactly those Pythons lay, what in the system depends on them, and if it's safe to remove them or not (because if installed by the root, they can integrate into unexpected places in the system; having them can break something, and removing them can break something).
;<code>/usr/local/Cellar</code>
:The default (normal) location of the {{w|Homebrew (package management software)|Homebrew}} Cellar, the directory where Homebrew actually stores the files of the installed packages. It's a storage only location, the files, including Python, will be symlinked from other, more convenient places in the files tree, and should not be used through /usr/local/Cellar path directly. It seems that Randall broke this safety rule in the past, so some stuff of his accesses Python directly in the Cellar. Such setup can break if Homebrew performs automatic maintenance in the Cellar (like removing unneeded versions of the packages).
;<code>/usr/local/opt</code>
:Both <code>/usr/local</code> and <code>/opt</code> are directories that store files that are not maintained by the standard package management system of a Unix-like operating system. Usually, files in <code>/usr/local</code> were created with a {{w|make (software)|make command}}, and files in <code>/opt</code> are unbundled packages. The joke is that <code>/usr/local/opt</code> should really, really not exist.
;/(A bunch of paths with "Frameworks" in them somewhere)/
:The system-included Python distribution in macOS resides in /System/Library/Frameworks
;$PYTHONPATH
:The environment variable PYTHONPATH specifies the search path for Python modules to the Python interpreter. Having it refer to locations controlled by 3 different package managers, each of which is managing software for different versions of Python, as shown, is likely to lead to incompatible software being loaded together.
;Another pip??
:Pip is a {{w|Recursive acronym}} for `Pip Installs Packages`. There should only be one installation of pip (or other package management system) managing any given working environment. More that one would lead to internal contradictions in the software. Randall is confused as to how this other one relates to the rest of the development environments.
;~/python/
:Might be another virtualenv, or, given the absurdity of the rest of the comic, even a manually compiled python installation (many online guides instruct users to extract sources into the home (~) directory).
;~/newenv/
:Probably a virtualenv. Virtualenvs are mechanisms for having Python environments that don't conflict with the system Python. They include the Python interpreter, independent library paths, and usually a copy of pip. The user typically installs packages using the virtualenv's pip such that they can only be accessed by the virtualenv's Python instances, while more common packages are still referenced via the system Python paths.
;/usr/local/lib/python3.6
:The default place under a Unix-like OS for the Python 3.6 standard libraries for a locally compiled Python 3.6 interpreter.
;/usr/local/lib/python2.7
:The default place under a Unix-like OS for the Python 2.7 standard libraries for a locally compiled Python 2.7 interpreter.

==Transcript==
:[A single frame depicting a flowchart is shown. Many chaotic arrows are arranged between the items which are:]
:$PYTHONPATH
:EASY_INSTALL
:ANACONDA PYTHON
:HOMEBREW PYTHON (3.6)
:ANOTHER PIP??
:HOMEBREW PYTHON (2.7)
:PYTHON.ORG BINARY (2.6)
:PIP
:EASY_INSTALL
:$PATH
:(MISC FOLDERS OWNED BY ROOT)
:????

:[The endpoints are:]
:/usr/local/Cellar
:/usr/local/opt
:/(A BUNCH OF PATHS WITH "FRAMEWORKS" IN THEM SOMEWHERE)/
:~/python/
:~/newenv/
:/usr/local/lib/python3.6
:/usr/local/lib/python2.7

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My Python environment has become so degraded that my laptop has been declared a superfund site.

== Trivia ==

* A similar comic is {{xkcd|1654}} which is the same but for multiple languages.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Flowcharts]]

1654: Universal Install Script

2018-10-22T17:43:02Z

Anarcat: cross-ref with 1987

{{comic
| number = 1654
| date = March 11, 2016
| title = Universal Install Script
| image = universal_install_script.png
| titletext = The failures usually don't hurt anything, and if it installs several versions, it increases the chance that one of them is right. (Note: The 'yes' command and '2>/dev/null' are recommended additions.)
}}

==Explanation==
Most users of computers today are used to simple, easy installation of programs. You just download a {{w|.exe}} or a {{w|Installer_(OS_X)#Installer_package|.pkg}}, double click it, and do what it says. Sometimes you don't even have to install anything at all, and it runs without any installation.

However, when things are more "homebrew", for example downloading source code, things are more complicated. Under {{w|Unix-like}} systems, which this universal install script is designed for, you may have to work with "build environments" and "{{w|makefiles}}", and command line tools. To make this process simpler, there exist repositories of programs which host either packages of source code and the things needed to build it or the pre-built programs. When you download the package, it automatically does most of the work of building the code into something executable if necessary and then installing it. However, there are many such repositories, such as "{{w|pip (package manager)|pip}}" and "brew", among others listed in the comic. If you only know the name of a program or package, you may not know in which repository(ies) it resides.

The <code>install.sh</code> file provided in the comic is a {{w|shell script}}, which attempts to fix this problem by acting as a "universal install script" that contains a lot of common install commands used in various Unix-like systems. This script in particular is interpreted by the {{w|Bourne Again Shell}} (Bash), which is denoted by the <code>#!/bin/bash</code> in the first line. In between each of the install commands in the script is the & character, which in {{w|POSIX}}-compatible {{w|Unix shell|shells}} (including {{w|Bash (Unix shell)|Bash}}, a popular shell scripting language) means it should continue to run the next command without waiting for the first command to finish, also known as "running in the background". This has the effect of running all the install commands simultaneously; all output and error text provided by them will be mixed together as they are all displaying on the screen around the same time.

The script accepts the name of a program or package as an argument when you run it. This value is then referenced as "$1" (argument number 1). Everywhere the script says "$1", it substitutes in the name of the package you gave it. The end result is the name being tried against a large number of software repositories and package managers, and hopefully, at least one of them will be appropriate and the program will be successfully installed. Near the end, it even tries changing the current working directory to that which is assumed to hold the package to be installed, and then runs several commands which build the program from source code.

All in all, this script would probably work; it runs many standard popular repository programs and package managers, and runs the nearly-universal commands needed to build a program. Most of the commands would simply give an error and exit, but hopefully the correct one will proceed with the install.

One of the more subtle jokes in the comic is the inclusion of <code>apt-get</code> and <code>sudo apt-get</code> in the same script. Good unix practice dictates never logging in as root; instead you stay logged in as your normal user, and run system admin accounts via <code>sudo program name</code>. This prevents accidental errors and enables logging of all sensitive commands. A side effect of this, however, is that an administrator may forget to prefix her command with <code>sudo</code>, and re-running it properly the second time. This is a common joke in the Linux community, an example of which can be found at [https://twitter.com/liamosaur/status/506975850596536320 viral tweet] which shows a humorous workaround for the issue.

Since Randall's script does not use sudo for any but the <code>apt-get</code> command, there are two possibilities: the script itself was run via the root user or via sudo, in which case the <code>sudo apt-get</code> is not needed, or the script was run as a normal user, in this case the commands may install a local (as opposed to system-wide) version depending on local conditions. For instance npm will install a copy of the package under $HOME/.npm and pip would work as long as the user is working in a [https://iamzed.com/2009/05/07/a-primer-on-virtualenv/ virtualenv] (which is standard practice for Python developers).

Sudo has also been used both by [[Randall]] in [[149: Sandwich]] and by Jason Fox to force Randall to let him appear on xkcd with [[824: Guest Week: Bill Amend (FoxTrot)]].

The tool <code>curl</code> downloads files from the network (e.g., the Internet). For example, <code>curl http://xkcd.com/</code> downloads and displays the xkcd HTML source. The pipe <code>|</code> in the script attaches the output of the command before the pipe to the input of the command after the pipe, thus running whatever commands exist in the web content. Although this "curl|sh" pattern is a common practice for conveniently installing software, it is considered extremely unwise; you are running untrusted code without validation, there may be a MITM who modifies the code you receive, or the remote system could have been hijacked and the code made malicious. Most local package managers (e.g. <code>apt</code>, <code>yum</code>) offer digitally-signed packages that thwart this problem. You can find many examples of software providers suggesting a <code>curl|sh</code> solution at [https://curlpipesh.tumblr.com/ curlpipesh]

There appears to be a bug with the & at the end of the "git clone" line; since a git repository typically contains program source code, not executables, it may have been intended to retrieve the source code with git and then compile and install the program in the next line. In this case, the single & should be replaced with &&, an operator that will run the second command only if the first one has completed successfully. This plays into a second bug on the "configure" line, where the placement of the & means that only the "make install" command will be run asynchronously after the "configure" and "make" steps have finished in sequence (though this would likely fail due to a lack for write permissions unless it was run with sudo). To make success as likely as possible, the two lines should be like this or script should be executed twice:

git clone <nowiki>https://github.com/</nowiki>"$1"/"$1" && (cd "$1"; ./configure; make; sudo make install) &

Since all commands are running in the background, any command that requires user input will stop and wait until brought to the foreground. A common request would be for a database password, or if it is allowed to restart services for the installation. This could lead to packages being only partly installed or configured. (See more about using "yes" below.)

The title text mentions the possibility that the same program may be in multiple repositories, so in this case, the script will download and install several versions, or it may fail on a number of repositories, in which case usually nothing bad happens. Since all the commands come from different operating systems, versions, or distributions, it is not very likely that more than one will work (with the exception of pip/easy_install and the two forms of apt-get) or even exist on the same system. It mentions that adding a way of automatically saying "yes" to questions asked during the different repository-fetching programs' running, by making them read input from another program that writes a (nearly) endless stream of "y"s, could simplify things further. This would not work for any curses-based menus, or to answer any more complicated questions. Adding <code>2>/dev/null</code> to a command redirects the second output stream (the "error stream") to the null device driver, which discards all writes to it, meaning errors (the package not existing) will not be sent to the screen.

==Transcript==
:[In the panel is a shell script which, unusual for xkcd, uses only lower case. At the top the title of the program is inlaid in the frame, which has been broken here.]
:<big>Install.sh</big>

:<nowiki>#!/bin/bash</nowiki>

:pip install "$1" &
:easy_install "$1" &
:brew install "$1" &
:npm install "$1" &
:yum install "$1" & dnf install "$1" &
:docker run "$1" &
:pkg install "$1" &
:apt-get install "$1" &
:sudo apt-get install "$1" &
:steamcmd +app_update "$1" validate &
:git clone <nowiki>https://github.com/</nowiki>"$1"/"$1" &
:cd "$1";./configure;make;make install &
:curl "$1" | bash &

==Trivia==
*pip and easy install are package managers for {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}}
*brew is the successor/replacement for {{w|MacPorts}} and a third-party package manager for OS X
*{{w|npm (software)|npm}} is the node package manager that maintains node.js packages
*{{w|Yellowdog Updater, Modified|yum}} is the package management tool for {{w|Red Hat Enterprise Linux}} and some derivatives
*{{w|DNF (software)|dnf}} is the package management tool for {{w|Fedora (operating system)|Fedora}} since version 22
*docker run is a {{w|Docker (software)|Docker}} command that runs a given container (similar to a virtual machine)
*pkg is the package management tool on {{w|Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD systems}}
*apt-get is the package management tool of {{w|Debian}} and derivatives (e.g. Ubuntu)
*steamcmd refers to {{w|Steam (software)|Steam}}, the computer game client
*git is the revision control software used for many projects and gained a lot of traction through the {{w|GitHub}} platform
*configure/make/make install refers to the standard way of compiling software from source (on Linux/Unix)
*curl is a tool for loading data via http:// (i.e. from a website), this data is then pushed to the shell interpreter (in order to install)
**Note: While this is a security nightmare, some projects (like Homebrew) still use it as the preferred or only method of installation.
* a similar comic is {{xkcd|1987}} which concerns only Python.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Programming]]

Talk:1654: Universal Install Script

2018-10-22T17:40:36Z

Anarcat:

A few comments:

* curl | sh is still a common way to install things like package managers. Until you have Homebrew, or pip (for older versions of Python that didn't bootstrap it), etc., you can't use a package manager to install it, so they usually give you a one-liner to download and run a shell script that installs the package manager. Of course this isn't an issue for linux distros (which, unlike OS X, come with a built-in package manager).
* Mac users probably only interact with Steam through its GUI, but on linux, running steamcmd is more common. And this command will install a game that's in your library but not downloaded yet.
* I don't know why _only_ apt gets a sudo, but for brew, and for typical installations of Python on a Mac, you don't want or need sudo; they encourage you to leave the relevant directory writable by your normal user account.
* This script only handles the popular package managers on OS X and current popular linux distros. No port for FreeBSD, no Choco for Windows, etc. In fact, if you try it on Windows, you should get an error message telling you that you've ruined the joke by trying to extend it.

--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.82|162.158.255.82]] 10:44, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Also, docker is a deployment tool for deploying isolated, complete applications. For example, instead of just installing the Python scripts to run your web server behind nginx, you'd deploy nginx, Python, the modules you need for each, the appropriate configurations, a variety of tools the server depends on, and your scripts all as one big hunk of stuff. The docker website probably explains it better. :) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.82|162.158.255.82]] 10:50, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

;Errors

He forgot the .git on the end of the git clone command.

--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 11:16, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

: Actually, the command works fine anyway. I don't know whether it's git or GitHub which works around this. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.161|141.101.75.161]] 11:46, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

:: Really? I've been typing 4 more characters than I needed to all this time. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.10|173.245.54.10]] 16:29, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

::: Yes you have -- and for information, it is git that does the work around [[User:Spongebog|Spongebob]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:44, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Also, the TLD in the curl. And, the install script would probably be at /install.sh, and use sh not bash.

Sh is generally preferred in scripting anyway since it comes on all *nix systems by default. Bash is on a very large number of systems, but not all.

Apt-get should have the -y flag.

If installing a program, npm should be given the -g flag to install globally instead of just in this directory.

Most programs print errors (as would arise if a package did not exist) to the console even if they are run with an & to indicate it should not be attached to the session. In this case, it should be &>/dev/null.

The program as a whole ignores previous programs and continues anyway. If it was found in one package manager, it would be a a very bad idea to write over it with another package manager's copy. This is part of the point of the comic, as is noted in the title text, but it's still an error.
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 11:38, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

He forgot cpanm. :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.17|108.162.217.17]] 16:02, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

He also left off emerge for Gentoo users. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.47|198.41.235.47]] 19:08, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

;Question

That whooshing sound you heard was the Linux-y stuff going way over my head, but could part of the joke be that he's trying to install money? With all the $1's in the script? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 15:47, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
:No, all those $ are just part of the scripting language -- the $1's get replaced with the name of the program you're trying to install. There are so many $ simply because he's included so many install commands, each one of which needs the name of the program.[[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 16:00, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
::On that note, would any of these fail or would it not just be easier to use `$@`? [[User:Xerxesbeat|xerxesbeat]] ([[User talk:Xerxesbeat|talk]]) 19:27, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
::: `$@` and `$1` are different things -- `$@` replaces with all the parameters to the script where `$1` only does the first one -- for the script to have **any** change of working he will need just (exactly) the first one [[User:Spongebog|Spongebob]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:48, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

;Inaccurate Description of &&

The description formerly described the usage of &&:

"This bug could be indicative that Randall wanted to use && throughout the whole script. This would make the installation trying sequentially and the first successful install stops the script and will not install multiple versions of the same software."

This is false. The && operator will *quit* when it encounters the first command that *fails*. The operator that behaves as described is ||. With that said, it is obvious that Randall did not intend this, especially because the title text mentions what happens when multiple versions are installed.

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.64|108.162.216.64]] 16:23, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Won't work on Arch [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 00:05, 12 March 2016 (UTC)
:i am very disappointed that that does not read "doesn't work..." --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.29|162.158.153.29]] 12:58, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

; Added clarification on bash scripts

I've added a few lines addressing the concerns formerly displayed in the incomplete tag. Hopefully my edits will be easier for the layman to understand. Please let me know if this needs further attention. [[User:AfroThundr3007730|AfroThundr3007730]] ([[User talk:AfroThundr3007730|talk]]) 12:30, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

He totally forgot to include "urpmi $1" --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.11|108.162.216.11]] 03:33, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

; asdf

I was amazed to notice someone actually created such a program, esoterically called [https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf asdf], which supports multiple languages like that. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 17:39, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1654: Universal Install Script

2018-10-22T17:39:45Z

Anarcat: mention asdf

A few comments:

* curl | sh is still a common way to install things like package managers. Until you have Homebrew, or pip (for older versions of Python that didn't bootstrap it), etc., you can't use a package manager to install it, so they usually give you a one-liner to download and run a shell script that installs the package manager. Of course this isn't an issue for linux distros (which, unlike OS X, come with a built-in package manager).
* Mac users probably only interact with Steam through its GUI, but on linux, running steamcmd is more common. And this command will install a game that's in your library but not downloaded yet.
* I don't know why _only_ apt gets a sudo, but for brew, and for typical installations of Python on a Mac, you don't want or need sudo; they encourage you to leave the relevant directory writable by your normal user account.
* This script only handles the popular package managers on OS X and current popular linux distros. No port for FreeBSD, no Choco for Windows, etc. In fact, if you try it on Windows, you should get an error message telling you that you've ruined the joke by trying to extend it.

--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.82|162.158.255.82]] 10:44, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Also, docker is a deployment tool for deploying isolated, complete applications. For example, instead of just installing the Python scripts to run your web server behind nginx, you'd deploy nginx, Python, the modules you need for each, the appropriate configurations, a variety of tools the server depends on, and your scripts all as one big hunk of stuff. The docker website probably explains it better. :) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.82|162.158.255.82]] 10:50, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

;Errors

He forgot the .git on the end of the git clone command.

--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 11:16, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

: Actually, the command works fine anyway. I don't know whether it's git or GitHub which works around this. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.75.161|141.101.75.161]] 11:46, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

:: Really? I've been typing 4 more characters than I needed to all this time. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.10|173.245.54.10]] 16:29, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

::: Yes you have -- and for information, it is git that does the work around [[User:Spongebog|Spongebob]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:44, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Also, the TLD in the curl. And, the install script would probably be at /install.sh, and use sh not bash.

Sh is generally preferred in scripting anyway since it comes on all *nix systems by default. Bash is on a very large number of systems, but not all.

Apt-get should have the -y flag.

If installing a program, npm should be given the -g flag to install globally instead of just in this directory.

Most programs print errors (as would arise if a package did not exist) to the console even if they are run with an & to indicate it should not be attached to the session. In this case, it should be &>/dev/null.

The program as a whole ignores previous programs and continues anyway. If it was found in one package manager, it would be a a very bad idea to write over it with another package manager's copy. This is part of the point of the comic, as is noted in the title text, but it's still an error.
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 11:38, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

He forgot cpanm. :) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.17|108.162.217.17]] 16:02, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

He also left off emerge for Gentoo users. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.47|198.41.235.47]] 19:08, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

;Question

That whooshing sound you heard was the Linux-y stuff going way over my head, but could part of the joke be that he's trying to install money? With all the $1's in the script? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 15:47, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
:No, all those $ are just part of the scripting language -- the $1's get replaced with the name of the program you're trying to install. There are so many $ simply because he's included so many install commands, each one of which needs the name of the program.[[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 16:00, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
::On that note, would any of these fail or would it not just be easier to use `$@`? [[User:Xerxesbeat|xerxesbeat]] ([[User talk:Xerxesbeat|talk]]) 19:27, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
::: `$@` and `$1` are different things -- `$@` replaces with all the parameters to the script where `$1` only does the first one -- for the script to have **any** change of working he will need just (exactly) the first one [[User:Spongebog|Spongebob]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:48, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

;Inaccurate Description of &&

The description formerly described the usage of &&:

"This bug could be indicative that Randall wanted to use && throughout the whole script. This would make the installation trying sequentially and the first successful install stops the script and will not install multiple versions of the same software."

This is false. The && operator will *quit* when it encounters the first command that *fails*. The operator that behaves as described is ||. With that said, it is obvious that Randall did not intend this, especially because the title text mentions what happens when multiple versions are installed.

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.64|108.162.216.64]] 16:23, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Won't work on Arch [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 00:05, 12 March 2016 (UTC)
:i am very disappointed that that does not read "doesn't work..." --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.153.29|162.158.153.29]] 12:58, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

; Added clarification on bash scripts

I've added a few lines addressing the concerns formerly displayed in the incomplete tag. Hopefully my edits will be easier for the layman to understand. Please let me know if this needs further attention. [[User:AfroThundr3007730|AfroThundr3007730]] ([[User talk:AfroThundr3007730|talk]]) 12:30, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

He totally forgot to include "urpmi $1" --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.11|108.162.216.11]] 03:33, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

I was amazed to notice someone actually created such a program, esoterically called [https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf asdf], which supports multiple languages like that. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 17:39, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

1810: Chat Systems

2017-11-03T17:35:19Z

Anarcat: link to 949

{{comic
| number = 1810
| date = March 13, 2017
| title = Chat Systems
| image = chat_systems.png
| titletext = I'm one of the few Instagram users who connects solely through the Unix 'talk' gateway.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic consists of an {{w|Euler diagram}} showing a wide variety of {{w|Online chat|chat systems}} and their intersections. (Euler diagrams should not be confused with {{w|Venn diagram}}s, see more on this [[:Category:Venn diagrams|here]]). The comic demonstrates the complexity that can be involved in modern communications: simply remembering how to get in touch with someone can be a challenge.

Below is a [[#Chat systems|table]] with explanation for all 24 mentioned chat systems and below that a list of each system's [[#Euler intersections|intersections]] with the other systems. Several of the systems are already considered old, like ''The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}'', but some people keep using them, which is part of the joke. There only seems to be one "chat" system which could in no way be said to be an on-line chat system, and that is the ''Wall (bathroom)'' at the bottom, which refers to how people writes notes on public bathroom walls, making it an extra joke and possibly a reference to [[229: Graffiti]].

In the title text, [[Randall]] explains how he is one of the only few {{w|Instagram}} users to use the {{w|UNIX}} {{w|Talk_(software)|'talk' gateway}} (an old peer-to-peer chat system whereby users logged into the same UNIX system could privately communicate with each other in a full-screen interface.) But he doesn't tell how he had enhanced this old fashioned software.

Note that this is similar to the earlier [[949:_File_Transfer]].

===Chat systems===
The 24 chat systems with the number of stick figures inside are listed. Notice there are only 23 real systems, as one of the systems is a bathroom wall.
{| class="wikitable"
!System
!Number of people in group
!Explanation
!Intersects
|-
| {{w|SMS}}
|39
|Short Message Service; a text-based messaging system connecting most worldwide phone systems that had its beginnings in the 1980s and has since represented the most common form of data transmission for most people. It is principally used to send short text messages between mobile phones, but most phone carriers provide facilities to send-to-email or send-to-voice (for use with landline phones). Most major phone carriers also provide support for email-to-SMS.
|Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Signal, Email, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Twitter DM, WeChat, Peach
|-
| {{w|Email}}
|35
|A popular form of electronic communication that saw first widespread use in the 1960s. It allows you to send electronic "letters" to people using pre-exchanged email addresses. Many people use this platform, hence the large size of the corresponding circle.
|Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Signal, Whatsapp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Twitter DM, Skype, ICQ, Telegram
|-
| {{w|Hangouts}}
|9
|Google Hangouts is Google's instant messaging system. It can be used to share data and for video chat.
|SMS, Email, IRC, Slack, Signal
|-
| {{w|Signal_(software)|Signal}}
|8
| An app used for encrypted communications.
|SMS, Email, IRC, Slack, Hangouts, iMessage, Instagram DM, Zephyr
|-
| {{w|iMessage}}
|6
|Apple's SMS service
|Email, SMS, FB Messenger, Signal
|-
| {{w|IRC}}
|5
|Internet Relay Chat; a chat protocol from the late 1980's that still sees considerable but declining use today. It is an open, freely available protocol with many free client apps available. Communications are principally in text and users typically use an app to connect to an IRC server, which may in turn be connected to other IRC servers. Many clients also provide for file sharing. There are many client and server plugins that provide access to other protocols (such as IRC-Hangouts, etc).
|Email, SMS, Slack, Signal, Hangouts
|-
| {{w|Slack_(software)|Slack}}
|5
|A team instant messaging service
|Email, SMS, IRC, Hangouts, Signal
|-
| {{w|Twitter|Twitter DM}}
|4
| "Direct messages" between users on Twitter.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|AOL Instant Messenger|AIM}}
|2
|AOL Instant Messaging service; a popular messaging system from the 1990s that suffered a severe decline in 2005 upon the release of Gmail and Google Chat. It is based on the closed source OSCAR protocol, but AOL created the TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications, and made specifications openly available, for third parties to connect to their service. There have been short-lived dalliances with other protocols since 2008; it has never had direct support for the other widely used protocols here.
|None
|-
|The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}
|2
|Google Docs is an online word processor reminiscent of Microsoft Word. One of the notable features is online collaborative editing, with a rudimentary chat feature for communication. Randall apparently communicates with someone using the chat in an old Google Doc.
|None
|-
| {{w|Facebook_Messenger|FB Messenger}}
|2
|Facebook's chat system.
|Email, SMS, iMessage
|-
| {{w|Instagram|Instagram DM}}
|2
|Direct Messaging, a feature of Instagram that allows users to post personal messages to each other.
|Email, SMS, Signal
|-
|{{w|Peach_(social_network)|Peach}}
|2
|Peach is a mobile-based social network introduced in January 2016.
|SMS
|-
| Telegram
|2
|Could refer to a cloud based instant messaging system by this name ({{w|Telegram (software)|Telegram}}), or to actually sending messages using {{w|telegrams}}. Telegrams were messages sent by electric telegraphy, which were often typed out and hand-delivered to the recipient. This was the first system for rapid communication across long distances that was widely available, originally developed in the 19th century. Naturally, telegraphy is now wildly obsolete (though some local services apparently do still exist) which would explain why Randall communicates with so few people that way.
|Email
|-
| {{w|Skype}}
|2
|Microsoft's chat client. It offers voice over IP (VOIP) video and audio calls, instant messaging and phoning from within the app.
|Email
|-
| {{w|WhatsApp}}
|2
|Billed as encrypted end-to-end chat, allows voice over IP (VOIP) chats, text chats, video and image sharing. Caters for group chat as well.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|WeChat}}
|2
| Started off as a Chinese WhatsApp imitation. WeChat has become a full scale social media system, with its own news, games and payment system.
|SMS
|-
|{{w|Apache_HTTP_Server|Apache}} Request {{w|Server_log|Log}}
|1
|A file used by Apache HTML server to log page access requests by users, usually stored as access_log. Its use as a communications tool would require the user to embed their messages in URLs and the admin to look for the messages in the logs. It would be inconvenient and time consuming for both parties. It was implemented soon after here: [https://github.com/mdom/smokesignal github]
|None
|-
| {{w|BlackBerry Messenger|BBM}}
|1
|Blackberry message. A chat system available on {{w|BlackBerry}} phones, now largely obsolete.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|Snapchat}}
|1
|Snapchat is an image messaging app.
|SMS
|-
|Wall (bathroom)
|1
|This is the only "other" joke in the comic as this is the only "system" not on-line. Apparently it is a chat system based around writing on the wall in the bathroom. Not an electronic system. It may thus be a reference to [[229: Graffiti]]. Leaving messages on public bathroom walls is a common form of {{w|graffiti}}. It may be used as a support for anonymous conversations. Alternatively, this could mean the person is an extreme introvert, and hides in his bathroom instead of interacting with others, by talking through the wall. It could also be a pun on "communicating through _____" as a bathroom wall is a physical object rather than an interface. It could also refer to someone who has a habit of talking through the wall to people in adjacent stalls of a public bathroom.
Alternately, there used to be a Facebook App called Bathroom Wall, which was an anonymous message board where people could both post and reply to posts. This was all anonymous by default, but users could attach a nickname to each individual post or reply in order to maintain a continuity, and even have a full conversation. It's possible that this is what Randall meant for this group, seeing as it was indeed a way to communicate online.
|None
|-
|{{w|Wall (Unix)}}
|1
|Short for "write all", the "wall" command copies its input to every user logged into the same Unix system, and so can be used as a primitive chat system.
|None
|-
| {{w|Zephyr (protocol)}}
|1
| Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background.
|Email, SMS, Signal
|-
| {{w|ICQ}}
|1
|An older open-source instant messaging application.
|Email
|}

==Transcript==
:[An Euler diagram with many circle like drawings for various chat systems is shown. Some circles overlapping others in complicated ways, others are single circles with no connections, but most are embedded into others. Inside the circles mainly the standard sticky figures like Cueball, Megan, Ponytail and Hairy are shown but there are also a few others.]

:[The list of items and its intersections from left top to right bottom is:]
:Skype - none, Email
:Email - none, Skype, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, ICQ, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Telegram, Twitter DM
:SMS - none, Email, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, Snapchat, iMessage, Signal, WeChat, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, Peach, BBM, Twitter DM
:AIM - none
:Slack - Email, SMS, Hangouts, IRC, Signal
:Hangouts - Email, SMS, Slack, IRC, Signal
:IRC - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, Signal
:Snapchat - SMS
:ICQ - Email
:iMessage - Email, SMS, Signal, FB Messenger
:Signal - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Zephyr, Instagram DM
:WeChat - SMS
:WhatsApp - Email, SMS
:Zephyr - Email, SMS, Signal
:FB Messenger - Email, SMS, iMessage
:Instagram DM - Email, SMS, Signal
:Peach - SMS
:BBM - Email, SMS
:Telegram - none, Email
:Twitter DM - none, Email, SMS
:The "chat" tab in an old Google Doc - none
:Apache Request Log - none
:Wall (Unix) - none
:Wall (bathroom) - none

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I have a hard time keeping track of which contacts use which chat systems.

==Trivia==
*There are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ef/1810_Chat_System_numbered.PNG 57 characters] in the comic.
*The ubiquity of standards - here, of messaging systems - was already covered in [[927: Standards]] and people's hesitation to switch off IRC was mentioned in [[1782: Team Chat]]. The same point about people using various chat systems was used in [[1254: Preferred Chat System]]. And famously the hidden chat room mentioned in [[1305: Undocumented Feature]], was later created by Randall through the [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] [[1506: xkcloud]] - see the [[1506:_xkcloud#Don.27t_contact_us|Don't contact us]] section.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

949: File Transfer

2017-11-03T17:34:52Z

Anarcat:

{{comic
| number = 949
| date = September 9, 2011
| title = File Transfer
| image = file_transfer.png
| titletext = Every time you email a file to yourself so you can pull it up on your friend's laptop, Tim Berners-Lee sheds a single tear.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is trying to help two people, his friend and his friend's cousin, exchange a 25 MB file. Most people know how to use email to send files through the internet, but 25 MB exceeds the attachment size limit of most email services. The reason there is a limit is because every email has to be transferred between several mail transfer agents, and each one has to temporarily store a copy of the email. Space constraints on those mail servers means that they must impose size limits, and an email with such a large attachment will therefore not be delivered.

The next option is to upload the file to an FTP server (FTP stands for {{w|File Transfer Protocol}}, as opposed to HTTP, {{w|Hypertext Transfer Protocol}}), used to transfer files between computers on a shared network, such as the internet. However, FTP servers are a touch more esoteric than a mere email attachment, and many internet users don't have access to one of their own.

Web hosting is simply the ability to create a website and store all the data for said website on a server which is connected to the internet. If Cueball's friend's cousin had the ability to do that, sharing the file would be as easy as putting a copy of it in an accessible directory and sending the link to the desired recipient.

{{w|Megaupload}} was one of many sites on the internet that recognizes most users' inability to host large files on their own, and so offers to host large files, sometimes for free, sometimes for a small fee. The payoff is that in order to make such a service profitable, many of these sites are cluttered with banner and pop up ads in a mad effort to squeeze as much ad revenue out of every page view as possible. It's not a dealbreaker for some, but Cueball seems to think it'll be too much for his friend's cousin to handle.

{{w|AOL Instant Messenger|AIM}} direct connect was a file sharing system on AOL Instant Messenger, which was already suffering severe drops in popularity by the year 2000. Clearly, Cueball is grasping at straws here: anybody desperate enough to invoke the name of AOL as a solution instead of a problem must be at their wits' end.

{{w|Dropbox (service)|Dropbox}} is a program with a web-based GUI that automates file sharing between two computers on the internet. But this solution also has its issues, as it requires that at least the sending party has a Dropbox account. Installing Dropbox software is not actually required, since Dropbox also provides a web interface for uploading and downloading files. At the time of the comic's publication, Dropbox was still relatively new and unknown, thus why it is not Cueball's first suggestion.

While Cueball is still explaining Dropbox, the friend's cousin has copied the file to a USB drive and physically transported it to the friend's house, circumventing the internet entirely. It's not an elegant solution, but sometimes traditional methods are the most efficient ways to get something done.

When used to transfer files between computers in the same room or building, this same approach is referred to as {{w|sneakernet}}. This comic is also an illustration of what {{w|Andy Tanenbaum}} said in 1989: ''Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.'' Sneakernet was examined in this [https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/ What If] article.

{{w|Tim Berners-Lee}} is considered to be the inventor of the World Wide Web. In the title text, [[Randall]] implies that he would be disturbed by the need today to use two separate protocols (smtp for sending the file as an email attachment and http for retrieving the file from the mail server web interface) to perform a third, unrelated, obvious function such as file transfer.

Note that this is similar to the later [[1810:_Chat_Systems]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands near a computer, talking on the phone to another person.]

:Cueball: You want your cousin to send you a file? easy. He can email it to- ...Oh, it's 25 MB? Hmm...
:Cueball: Do either of you have an FTP server? No, right.
:Cueball: If you had web hosting, you could upload it...
:Cueball: Hm. We could try one of those MegaShareUpload sites, but they're flaky and full of delays and porn popups.
:Cueball: How about AIM Direct Connect? Anyone still use that?
:Cueball: Oh, wait, Dropbox! It's this recent startup from a few years back that syncs folders between computers. You just need to make an account, install the-
:Cueball: Oh, he just drove over to your house with a USB drive?
:Cueball: Uh, cool, that works too.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I like how we've had the internet for decades, yet "sending files" is something early adopters are still figuring out how to do.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:1501: Mysteries

2015-03-22T00:02:57Z

Anarcat:

Here's a list of wikipedia links I compiled that will be useful for anyone wanting to update this page. http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/2zog5d/xkcd_1501_mysteries/cpktray {{unsigned ip|‎141.101.106.155}}

And I've got a solar eclipse to see (explainable, but weird!) but I started to compile things. Haven't got any links sorted yet, and percentages are (badly) done by eye. If someone does it better, ignore it.


[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 09:33, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

:(Whoops, pasted the flatfile format version by accident, in my rush, rather than the more Wikifriendly one that I discarded. Commenting it out until/unless I redo it. But you should still be able to see the details via the Talk Edit pages if you're bothered. Oh, and there was really too much cloud to see the eclipse for what it was. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 10:29, 20 March 2015 (UTC))

::I dropped the image into our CAD system and plotted the point co-ordinates. I've filled in the resulting percentages, which should be somewhere about right with a little rounding. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:35, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

:::Exactly right. (Although I didn't read the zero/zero crossing point is supposed to be maybe 50% on both scales, but instead ±zero. Still, doesn't matter. And perhaps displays/sorts better.) And looks like I don't need to recover my formatted notes after all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.63|141.101.98.63]] 11:19, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.176|199.27.128.176]] 09:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC) XKCD has explained the Voynich Manuscript before: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/593:_Voynich_Manuscript

:XKCD has also 'explained' DB Cooper before ([[1400: D.B. Cooper]]) if that is worth mentioning. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.167|108.162.250.167]] 12:06, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

I have to wonder if Randall has ever seen http://keithledgerwood.com/post/79838944823/did-malaysian-airlines-370-disappear-using and if so, whether he simply doesn't believe it. Not to sabotage his 100%-100% example if he wants to keep it there, but I'd put it at only 50% weird and 10% unexplainable. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.27|199.27.133.27]] 14:02, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
: Oh lawdy, the tinfoil hat brigade has arrived. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.202|173.245.56.202]]

;Carly Simon

The Carly Simon explanation includes the text "This sets up a paradox in which the song is and isn't about the vain person." This isn't correct. The song is definitely about the person. Carly is thus asserting that the subject's vanity will lead him to a correct interpretation of the song. Going to change the explanation. [[User:EverVigilant|EverVigilant]] ([[User talk:EverVigilant|talk]]) 14:51, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't see why this is on Randall's chart. The Wikipedia article is all the explanation the world needs. And Warren Beatty's reaction to the song simply seals it for me. No Big Deal. Move On. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:41, 20 March 2015 (UTC)''

;WOW signa

It now says "This is the strongest evidence to date of extraterrestrial radio signals.", which is technically incorrect. We observe radio signals from outer space all the time, they originate from young stars, Big Bang, active galaxies, and so on. This should probably be rephrased to something about extraterrestrial intelligence, but I'm not sure if it deserves to be called "evidence". [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 16:18, 20 March 2015 (UTC)
:Regarding the "evidence" bit, I'd go so far as to say that it's a single signal that can't actually be tied down (even in the light of further study) to: a) receiver error/interference; b) terrestrial(/orbital) origin; c) natural universal processes. (In the latter case, especially, c.f. Pulsars, which were ''tentatively'' blamed on "Little Green Men" at first, but are now understood for what they are.) Maybe if we'd have had some more WOWs (or longer to listen to the one that we had) we could have analysed it, but it remains a mystery because neither is true. Pretty much everything else has been explained as "not evidence for aliens" (definitively, or on the balance of probability there's a better working theory that it's not) leaving this as... an anomoly. Not 'evidence', but not ''explained'', either. For now! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.192|141.101.98.192]] 20:45, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

;Dyatlov Pass

Um, Wikipedia regards avalanche as most plausible explanation of the Dyatlov Pass incident, and it appears to be most widespread and down-to-earth explanation that doesn't involve the supernatural or secret soviet weapons test, things like that. Shouldn't we include mention of the avalance then, perhaps? I mean, with such high "explainability" rating it's pretty clear that Randall probably assumes avalanche, since if he assumed other, less widespread theory he probably would downgrade the "explainability" to account for the fact that it's more disputed version. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.222|141.101.89.222]] 18:13, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

;Off the chart up and to the right

How the Universe came into existence (the physics and math behind "Why is there something rather than nothing?") is far weirder with less of an explanation than anything on Randall's chart – scientists' claims, which redefine "nothing," notwithstanding. And then how life started and evolved (the chemistry and biology – and quantum physics? – at the transition point between inanimate amino acids and cells and the subsequent arrival of ''homo sapiens'') is almost as strange as the Big Bang. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 18:34, 20 March 2015 (UTC)''
:Yep. And how to make a star. And how to make a planet. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 11:19, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

;Inaccurate explainability rating

I've read the Russian wikipedia article on Dyatlov Pass Incident and not only it's incredibly weird (much more details than condensed English article), but also no plausible explanation is provided that would account for all the incredibly weird stuff going on. I have no idea how that could be awarded 96% explainability.

UVB-76, on the other hand, is a pretty easy to explain as one-time-pad encrypted military broadcast, with buzzing to occupy the frequency and discourage others from using it. How is that just 23% explainable, I have no idea. That's what I've found in Russian sources, anyway.

Also, the Toynbee Tiles mystery is pretty much solved if you trust "Duerr, Justin. Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles" as a source.

There are even more inconsistencies pointed out above. At first I've suspected that the scale is accidentally inverted, but D.B. Cooper story is pretty poorly explained, so it's more like the whole thing is just randomly messed up.
--[[User:Shnatsel|Shnatsel]] ([[User talk:Shnatsel|talk]]) 19:54, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

;UVB-76

Is it seriously that hard to explain the "UVB-76" thing? I've been listening to this thing for a year now and even have explained how it works from the innards a few months back. Besides, it's not even called UVB-76, it was a mishear of UZB-76, and it's not even that callsign anymore. The callsign has changed to MDZhB and it is a marker to occupy the frequency of the "Codename Vulkan" communications channel. The way this thing works is that it is a bunch of gears that control a buzzer, when the Buzzer goes down you can hear it winding down and the repairmen screwing in some things when they come in.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.9|108.162.219.9]] 20:49, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

;Lost Colony

Before the Roanoke colonists left, they carved "Croatan" into a post. The Croatan were a small native tribe living on the coast, who'd had friendly relations with the colonists. They disappeared along with them. A generation or two later, a completely new tribe called the Lumbee were found living further inland, with some caucasian features and using European farming techniques. It's pretty obvious what happened. [[User:Shanek|Shanek]] ([[User talk:Shanek|talk]]) 19:20, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

; MH370

I had no idea that *'''nothing'''* of MH370 was ever found (or at least so far). Reading up on the wikipedia article makes me even more confused: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MH370_initial_search_Southeast_Asia.svg this map] shows the plane going westward basically towards india but then [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MH370_SIO_search.png this map] shows the searches *'''west of Australia'''* and going *'''down to Antartica'''*! WTF?? What the hell happened to that plane?! It's now been a *'''year'''* and *'''nothing'''* was found at all. Totally weird and unexplained. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 23:50, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

: ... and here's the explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_search_for_MH370.png. Still freaking mind-boggling if you ask me. That thing could as well be in Khazakstan for all we know. Terrifying. --[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 00:02, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1501: Mysteries

2015-03-21T23:50:57Z

Anarcat: wtf mh370

1287: Puzzle

2013-11-07T15:03:37Z

Anarcat: 0-1 may also be a go coordinate

{{comic
| number = 1287
| date = November 6, 2013
| title = Puzzle
| image = puzzle.png
| titletext = Prediction for Carlsen v. Anand: ... 25. Qb8+ Nxb8 26. Rd8# f6 27. "... dude." Qf5 28. "The game is over, dude." Qxg5 29. Rxe8 0-1 30. "Dude, your move can't be '0-1'. Don't write that down." [Black flips board]
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}

The game of {{w|Go (game)|go}} (also called Weiqi, Baduk or Igo) is usually played on the 19×19 intersections of a grid, but sometimes a faster, simpler version is played on the 9×9 intersections of a grid (which thus has 8×8 squares, as a chessboard, though they are not colored in an alternating pattern - {{w|White and Black in chess|introduced to chess in the 13th century}}). In the comic, white has chess figures and plays against black, which uses go stones.

In chess, particularly in puzzles, the phrasing "White to move" indicates that it's the White player's turn; "White to play and win" indicates that it's White's turn and the next series of moves (if White plays correctly) will result in an advantageous position or possibly outright win for White. The caption "White to continue insisting this is a chessboard" is a play on this traditional phrasing. The same kind of phrasing is also used in {{w|Tsumego|Go puzzles}}. In Go puzzles the objectives are often of a local or tactical (as opposed to strategic) character, such as "White to capture four black stones" or "White to live in the corner".

Two versions of the board were posted by Randall: both had white after Pe3, Pd4, Nf3, Nc3, but the first with an extra bishop at e4 (B@e4), the second after Bd2.

B@e4 in the first version of the board was perhaps intended to represent confusion in White's mind whether he was playing Go (placing a piece) or Chess (it's a chess piece) - as a 'placement' this move could have been first, and could explain Pe3 with e4 already being blocked.

It it unclear who has gone first. In Go it is traditional for black to go first, while in Chess it has been traditional for white to go first for about a century. Indeed, both players have made five moves, although the caption/"punchline" implies it is the start of white's sixth turn (though if black did go first, none of his/her pieces are in the 3-3 handicap positions marked on a 9x9 Go board).

The title text refers to the upcoming {{w|World Chess Championship 2013|2013 World Chess Championship}} between Carlsen and Anand. {{w|Magnus Carlsen}} is a 22 year old Norwegian chess grandmaster, who had the highest peak rating and was the third youngest grandmaster in history. He was the world's 2009 blitz champion and is currently ranked #1 in the world by FIDE. {{w|Viswanathan Anand}} is a 43 year old Indian grandmaster currently ranked #8 in the world.

The game transcript in the title text refers to the ending of the famous {{w|Morphy versus the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard|Opera Game}} between Paul Morphy and the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard. That game ends with 16. Qb8+ Nxb8 17. Rd8#. In the title text, Black continues to make moves as if he has not been checkmated, over White's protests. After White uses his rook to capture Black's king (to emphasize the checkmate), Black defiantly writes "0-1" (the notation symbolizing a Black victory) on his scoresheet and flips the board. "0-1" may also represent a position on a go board (first down on the top left corner) in [http://senseis.xmp.net/?Coordinates certain coordinates systems].

The game transcript is written in standard {{w|Algebraic notation (chess)|algebraic notation}}. The destination square is represented by a lowercase letter (a-h, on the x-axis) and a number (1-8, on the y-axis), with the bottom-left square being a1 and the top-right square being h8. The uppercase letters refer to the piece that is moving to that square (e.g., Q = Queen, K = King, N = Knight, R = Rook), so Qa1 would mean moving the Queen to the bottom-left square. The absence of an uppercase letter refers to a pawn's move (e.g., "f6" means moving a pawn to f6). If the move captures a piece, an "x" is inserted between the piece and the destination (e.g., Nxb8). Checks are indicated by +, and checkmate by #.

==Transcript==
:[A game board with 8x8 white squares and black borders, like a goboard or an all white chessboard, there are white chess pieces in starting position on the bottom after Pe3, Pd4, Nf3, Nc3, Bd2 and five black Go pieces on the vertices in the center of the board at d4 d5 c6 g4 g6.]
:White to continue insisting this is a chessboard

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chess]]

Talk:1184: Circumference Formula

2013-03-11T23:57:02Z

Anarcat:

:Tau x Radius, superscript 2
:Leaves one wondering what the superscript 1 refers. {{unsigned|‎74.215.40.250}}
::It's 2''πr''<sup>2</sup>, '''not''' ''τr''<sup>2</sup>. —[[Special:Contributions/173.199.215.5|173.199.215.5]] 05:37, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
:::You're missing the point. ''τ'' == 2''π'' and is considered better than using ''π'' by some people {{unsigned|138.195.69.136}}
::::Only for very loose definitions of "better." [[Special:Contributions/71.201.53.130|71.201.53.130]] 14:59, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
::::Whoa! Never heard about that before, but after 2 hrs or so, I think I'm getting convinced! Check this site out: http://tauday.com/ What do you think? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 18:06, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I think tau is pointless. Using tau what then happens to Euler's famous formula, the most beautiful equation of them all? Pi shows up in so many different ways and places in mathematics. Tau appears pretty much only in the formula for a circle's circumference. Why bother needlessly proliferating symbols? [[User:J Milstein|J Milstein]] ([[User talk:J Milstein|talk]]) 18:17, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

:RE: Euler's Identity: e^(tau*i) - 1 = 0 --[[User:Max Nanasy|Max Nanasy]] ([[User talk:Max Nanasy|talk]]) 18:27, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

:Not completely sure Earth Prime is from Sliders, but it's true it's the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Prime only one named exactly that] ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:54, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

There's also a [http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Prime_Earth Prime Earth] now. Just so DC can screw with us. [[User:Hogtree Octovish|Hogtree Octovish]] ([[User talk:Hogtree Octovish|talk]]) 10:40, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I still don't get it.[[Special:Contributions/49.176.102.213|49.176.102.213]] 12:41, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Well, that was lame. --[[Special:Contributions/87.122.60.227|87.122.60.227]] 17:19, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

If you don't get it, you don't need to get it [[User:J Milstein|J Milstein]] ([[User talk:J Milstein|talk]]) 18:07, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

This comic illustrates the strategy of "The Unconsummated Asterisk", from the essay "Mathmanship" by Nicholas Vanserg (available at [http://e-science.ru/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=7701]).
<blockquote>
The other side of the asterisk gambit is to use a superscript as a key to a real footnote. The knowledge‐seeker reads that S is – 36.7<sup>14</sup> calories and thinks "Gee what a whale of a lot of calories" until he reads to the bottom of the page, finds footnote 14 and says "oh."
</blockquote>
For bonus points, Randall could have used also "Pi-Throwing":
<blockquote>
For example every schoolboy knows what π stands for so you can hold him at bay by heaving some entirely different kind of π into the equation. The poor fellow will automatically multiply by 3.1416, then begin wondering how a π got into the act anyhow, and finally discover that all the while π was osmotic pressure. If you are careful not to warn him, this one is good for a delay of about an hour and a half.
</blockquote> [[User:Chymicus|Chymicus]] ([[User talk:Chymicus|talk]]) 19:01, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

I believe the current description of prime as denoting derivatives is true but irrelevant. Since the area and circumference refers to geometry (not really calculus), it's more likely that the title text is referring to the common use of primes in geometry. For example, there might be two or more parallel lines that are denoted by x, x′, x′′, etc. Wikipedia also notes another geometric use of {{w|prime}}: "if a point is represented by the Cartesian coordinates (x, y), then that point rotated, translated or reflected might be represented as (x′, y′)." [[User:S|S]] ([[User talk:S|talk]]) 23:32, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

that is so wrong, i feel my mind corrupted now. -- [[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 23:57, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1137: RTL

2012-11-22T00:09:43Z

Anarcat:

There's a typo in the comic - hte should be eht for "the" spelled backwards -jars99

:Unless you consider "th" a single character, which by the way makes a lot of sense as it is derived from old-english "eth". {{unsigned|62.245.198.190}}
::Unless you further consider that "they" doesn't share that in the comic, making it internally inconsistent. [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 11:40, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Acutally, unicode 202e doesn't "flip proceeding text back-to-front", it overrides the direction, setting it to "right-to-left" for the following text. It's back-to-front for most of us like "left-to-right" is to other writing systems. I know it's nitpicking, but xkcd readers should appreciate the symmetry. [[User:BKA|BKA]] ([[User talk:BKA|talk]]) 07:23, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

I don't see the reversed title. My window manager is not UTF-8 compatible, so when a window title is set to string containing UTF-8 characters, it doesn't change. This brings the question if it really is a browser problem or if the browsers behave as expected and the window manager is at fault. -- [[Special:Contributions/89.177.52.2|89.177.52.2]] 09:17, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

:It's not a ''problem'' per sec. Browsers that get the reversed title are processing the UTF symbol correctly, there's no bug there. And the window manager has no bearing on the title text except for maybe font. [[User:Davidy22|<span title="I want you."><u><font color="purple" size="2px">David</font><font color="green" size="3px">y</font></u><sup><font color="indigo" size="1px">22</font></sup></span>]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 09:32, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

::Well its the window manager that renders the window title, but it is composed by the Browser. I think that the browser should insert an appropriate number of U+202c characters, in this case it should be "xkcd: [U+202e]LTR[U+202c] - Mozilla Firefox". That would render as xkcd: RTL - Mozilla Firefox". By the way, the tab caption in Firefox is "xkcd: LTR". In Chromium and Opera it is shown correctly as "xkcd: RTL". [[User:Joha.ma|Joha.ma]] ([[User talk:Joha.ma|talk]]) 09:47, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Another way to see this in effect is to try to type in this test page: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/202e/browsertest.htm - and this also works in etherpad, as suggested in the caption.--[[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 00:09, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

1110: Click and Drag

2012-09-19T14:16:36Z

Anarcat: /* Explanation */ 5n12e

{{comic
| number = 1110
| date = September 19, 2012
| title = Click and Drag
| image = click_and_drag.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Click and drag.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete}}

The 225 existing tiles are sorted by columns from West to East and from North to South in each column.

* {{1110|1|n|33|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|32|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|31|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|30|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|29|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|28|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|27|w}}: Velociraptors in the high grass.
* {{1110|1|n|26|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|25|w}}: Reference to the movie {{w|Contact_(film)|Contact}}.
* {{1110|1|n|24|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|23|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|22|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|22|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|21|w}}: Jesus is a Transformer joke.
* {{1110|1|n|20|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|19|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|18|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|17|w}}: A reference to the hatch in {{w|Lost}}.
* {{1110|1|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|2|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|3|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|4|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|5|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|6|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|7|s|17|w}}:
[ {{1110|8|s|17|w}}: A X-Wing with Wedge Antilles. Reference to Star Wars, where [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes?qt=qt0440654 gold leader should copy a maneuver]
* {{1110|9|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|10|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|11|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|16|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|16|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|15|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|15|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|14|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|14|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|13|w}}: The statue of liberty head and hand is reference to {{w|Planet of the Apes(film)|Planet of Apes}}.
* {{1110|12|s|13|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|12|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|12|w}}:
* {{1110|11|n|11|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|1|n|11|w}}: Someone playing {{w|Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo}} in the sea.
* {{1110|11|s|11|w}}: A (useless) black empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|12|s|11|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|10|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|10|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|9|w}}: Possibly a reference to the {{w|Principality of Sealand|Principality of Sealand}} or to the concept of a micronation in general, {{w|List of micronations|List of micronations}}.
* {{1110|2|s|9|w}}: Jellyfish playing some sort of console game.
* {{1110|12|s|9|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|8|w}}: A boat with a reference to Monty Python? {{w|Glossary_of_nautical_terms#Avast|Avast!}} is not the {{w|Avast!|antivirus software}} - Possibly a reference to the comic is from the same date as {{w|International Talk Like a Pirate Day}}.
* {{1110|12|s|8|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|8|w}}:
* {{1110|7|n|7|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|7|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|7|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|7|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|6|w}}:
* {{1110|1|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|6|n|5|w}}: looks like jelly fish falling from the sky, unsure
* {{1110|1|n|5|w}}: {{w|I'm on a Boat|"I'm on a Boat"}} is a single from The Lonely Island's debut album Incredibad.
* {{1110|14|s|5|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|4|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|4|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|4|w}}:
* {{1110|3|n|3|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|3|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|1|n|3|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|3|w}}:
* {{1110|8|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|7|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|6|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|5|n|2|w}}: A construction crane lifting another, smaller, construction crane. Possibly a reference to the "Truck Truck Truck" gag from the Simpsons. Also, self-erecting tower cranes do usually not lift {{w|crawler crane}}s
* {{1110|4|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|3|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|2|w}}: Megan says "I came here to chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum" is a reference to the movie {{w|They Live|They Live}} in which the character Nada famously says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum". That line is also used in the game {{w|Duke Nukem 3D|Duke Nukem 3D}} by Duke himself, when Shrapnel City (Episode 3) starts. Also, Cueball says "That's a shame" a line popularised by Jerry in the sitcom {{w|Seinfeld|Seinfeld}}. Pool line is a reference to "pool on the roof" prank from the movie {{w|Hackers_(film)|Hackers}}.
* {{1110|14|s|2|w}}:
* {{1110|8|n|1|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|5|n|1|w}}: The tail of the crawler crane lifted at 5n/2w
* {{1110|2|n|1|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|1|n|1|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|1|w}}:
* {{1110|15|s|1|w}}:
* {{1110|13|n|1|e}}: 2 whales is possibly a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the planet [http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Magrathea Magrathea], where (improbably) 2 incoming missiles are turned into a whale and a bowl of petunias.
* {{1110|6|n|1|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|1|e}}: The {{w|Origin (mathematics)|"center"}} of the world, it's the first tile to show up (see above). The balloons may be a reference to comic [[1106]]
* {{1110|14|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|15|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|9|n|2|e}}: {{w|Apollo 13}} messaging 'Houston, we have a problem''.
* {{1110|3|n|2|e}}: A falling {{w|Icarus}} screams "I hope the story of how ''Building Wax Wings Enabled Me To Fly'' teaches everyone a lesson about hubris." Referring to the Greek myth of Icarus and his father's escape from Crete by building wings of feathers and wax.
* {{1110|1|n|2|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|2|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|2|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|3|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|3|e}}:
* {{1110|18|s|3|e}}: {{w|Minecraft}} reference: Someone escapes a creeper, running deeper into the cave he just fell in.
* {{1110|2|n|4|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|4|e}}: A black empty cell (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
* {{1110|18|s|4|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|4|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|5|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|5|e}}: A black empty cell (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
* {{1110|17|s|5|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|5|e}}:
* {{1110|8|n|6|e}}: {{w|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV:_A_New_Hope)|Red Five}} is both Anakin and Luke Skywalker's call sign. Anakin uses the sign in the Battle of Coruscant and Luke uses it in the Battle of Yavin.
* {{1110|2|n|6|e}}: Giant airborne jellyfish.
* {{1110|1|n|6|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|7|e}}: A {{w|Mario}} level (level 1, Super Mario Bros 1, NES). This is confirmed by text on {{1110|3|s|7|e}}.
* {{1110|1|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|2|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|3|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|4|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|5|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|6|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|7|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|8|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|9|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|10|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|11|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|12|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|13|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|15|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|8|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|18|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|9|e}}: Reference to the first line of "{{w|99 Problems}}" by {{w|Jay-Z}} ("If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a <rhymes with "witch"> ain't one.").
* {{1110|3|n|10|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|10|e}}:
* {{1110|11|n|11|e}}: A (useless) white empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|1|n|11|e}}:
* {{1110|11|s|11|e}}: A (useless) black empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|5|n|12|e}}: A hot-air balloon with someone singing "Daiiisyyy... Daiiiiisy..." and another person climbing up the balloon to rip it open.
* {{1110|1|n|12|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|13|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|14|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|15|e}}: Reference to, and first line of the chorus of, the song Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger. {{w|Oregon_Trail_(computer_game)|Oregon Trail}} reference.
* {{1110|2|n|16|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|16|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|17|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|17|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|18|e}}: Commercial airline jet with landing gear deployed. Caption: "Folks, this is your captain speaking. I need you all to turn on every electronic device your have. There's no time to explain."
* {{1110|1|n|18|e}}: Two swimmers in the ocean saying "Stupid FreeBSD...". A reference to comic [[349]].
* {{1110|1|n|19|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|20|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|21|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|22|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|22|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|7|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|27|e}}: Tallest man made structure is {{w|Burj Khalifa}} (829.84 m (2,723 ft)) located in Dubai. This appears to be the former record-holder, the {{w|KVLY-TV mast}} in North Dakota.
* {{1110|5|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|32|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|32|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|33|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|34|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|35|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|36|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|37|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|38|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|39|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|39|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|40|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|41|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|42|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|43|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|44|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|45|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|46|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|47|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|48|e}}:

==Whole Image==
[[Image:1110_full_tiny.png|600px|Whole image]]

==Trivia==
*The click-and-drag portion of this comic is divided up into 2592 sections of 2048x2048 pngs.
*There are 225 separate PNG files (plus the PNG container with the first panels).
*The populated area is 81 frames wide(33 West - 48 East) and 32 frames tall (13 North - 19 South)
*According to [[Randall]] in #xkcd on the night this was released, a full size image of this comic, leaving out the blanks would be 60 gigapixels, a true single rectangular image would be close to a terapixel.
{{comic discussion}}
*At the end of the JavaScript file responsible for the map code, there's a comment "/* 50:72:6f:50:75:6b:65:20:69:73:20:61:77:65:73:6f:6d:65 */". Interpreted as hex codes for ASCII text, this reads "ProPuke is awesome".

1110: Click and Drag

2012-09-19T14:12:36Z

Anarcat: /* Explanation */ 3n18e

{{comic
| number = 1110
| date = September 19, 2012
| title = Click and Drag
| image = click_and_drag.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Click and drag.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete}}

The 225 existing tiles are sorted by columns from West to East and from North to South in each column.

* {{1110|1|n|33|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|32|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|31|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|30|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|29|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|28|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|27|w}}: Velociraptors in the high grass.
* {{1110|1|n|26|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|25|w}}: Reference to the movie {{w|Contact_(film)|Contact}}.
* {{1110|1|n|24|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|23|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|22|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|22|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|21|w}}: Jesus is a Transformer joke.
* {{1110|1|n|20|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|19|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|18|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|17|w}}:
* {{1110|1|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|2|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|3|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|4|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|5|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|6|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|7|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|8|s|17|w}}: A X-Wing with Wedge Antilles. Reference to Star Wars.
* {{1110|9|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|10|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|11|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|16|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|16|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|15|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|15|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|14|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|14|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|13|w}}: The statue of liberty head and hand is reference to {{w|Planet of the Apes(film)|Planet of Apes}}.
* {{1110|12|s|13|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|12|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|12|w}}:
* {{1110|11|n|11|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|1|n|11|w}}: Someone playing {{w|Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo}} in the sea.
* {{1110|11|s|11|w}}: A (useless) black empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|12|s|11|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|10|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|10|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|9|w}}: Possibly a reference to the {{w|Principality of Sealand|Principality of Sealand}} or to the concept of a micronation in general, {{w|List of micronations|List of micronations}}.
* {{1110|2|s|9|w}}: Jellyfish playing some sort of console game.
* {{1110|12|s|9|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|8|w}}: A boat with a reference to Monty Python? {{w|Glossary_of_nautical_terms#Avast|Avast!}} is not the {{w|Avast!|antivirus software}} - Possibly a reference to the comic is from the same date as {{w|International Talk Like a Pirate Day}}.
* {{1110|12|s|8|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|8|w}}:
* {{1110|7|n|7|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|7|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|7|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|7|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|6|w}}:
* {{1110|1|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|6|n|5|w}}: looks like jelly fish falling from the sky, unsure
* {{1110|1|n|5|w}}: {{w|I'm on a Boat|"I'm on a Boat"}} is a single from The Lonely Island's debut album Incredibad.
* {{1110|14|s|5|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|4|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|4|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|4|w}}:
* {{1110|3|n|3|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|3|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|1|n|3|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|3|w}}:
* {{1110|8|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|7|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|6|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|5|n|2|w}}: A construction crane lifting another, smaller, construction crane. Possibly a reference to the "Truck Truck Truck" gag from the Simpsons.
* {{1110|4|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|3|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|2|w}}: Megan says "I came here to chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum" is a reference to the movie {{w|They Live|They Live}} in which the character Nada famously says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum". That line is also used in the game {{w|Duke Nukem 3D|Duke Nukem 3D}} by Duke himself, when Shrapnel City (Episode 3) starts. Also, Cueball says "That's a shame" a line popularised by Jerry in the sitcom {{w|Seinfeld|Seinfeld}}. Pool line is a reference to "pool on the roof" prank from the movie {{w|Hackers_(film)|Hackers}}.
* {{1110|14|s|2|w}}:
* {{1110|8|n|1|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|5|n|1|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|1|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|1|n|1|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|1|w}}:
* {{1110|15|s|1|w}}:
* {{1110|13|n|1|e}}: 2 whales is possibly a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the planet [http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Magrathea Magrathea], where (improbably) 2 incoming missiles are turned into a whale and a bowl of petunias.
* {{1110|6|n|1|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|1|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|15|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|9|n|2|e}}: {{w|Apollo 13}} messaging 'Houston, we have a problem''.
* {{1110|3|n|2|e}}: A falling {{w|Icarus}} screams "I hope the story of how ''Building Wax Wings Enabled Me To Fly'' teaches everyone a lesson about hubris." Referring to the Greek myth of Icarus and his father's escape from Crete by building wings of feathers and wax.
* {{1110|1|n|2|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|2|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|2|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|3|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|3|e}}:
* {{1110|18|s|3|e}}: {{w|Minecraft}} reference: Someone escapes a creeper, running deeper into the cave he just fell in.
* {{1110|2|n|4|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|4|e}}: A black empty cell (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
* {{1110|18|s|4|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|4|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|5|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|5|e}}: A black empty cell (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
* {{1110|17|s|5|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|5|e}}:
* {{1110|8|n|6|e}}: {{w|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV:_A_New_Hope)|Red Five}} is both Anakin and Luke Skywalker's call sign. Anakin uses the sign in the Battle of Coruscant and Luke uses it in the Battle of Yavin.
* {{1110|2|n|6|e}}: Giant airborne jellyfish.
* {{1110|1|n|6|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|7|e}}: A {{w|Mario}} level (level 1, Super Mario Bros 1, NES). This is confirmed by text on {{1110|3|s|7|e}}.
* {{1110|1|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|2|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|3|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|4|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|5|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|6|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|7|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|8|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|9|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|10|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|11|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|12|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|13|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|15|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|8|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|18|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|9|e}}: Reference to the first line of "{{w|99 Problems}}" by {{w|Jay-Z}} ("If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a <rhymes with "witch"> ain't one.").
* {{1110|3|n|10|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|10|e}}:
* {{1110|11|n|11|e}}: A (useless) white empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|1|n|11|e}}:
* {{1110|11|s|11|e}}: A (useless) black empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|5|n|12|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|12|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|13|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|14|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|15|e}}: Reference to, and first line of the chorus of, the song Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger. {{w|Oregon_Trail_(computer_game)|Oregon Trail}} reference.
* {{1110|2|n|16|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|16|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|17|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|17|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|18|e}}: Commercial airline jet with landing gear deployed. Caption: "Folks, this is your captain speaking. I need you all to turn on every electronic device your have. There's no time to explain."
* {{1110|1|n|18|e}}: Two swimmers in the ocean saying "Stupid FreeBSD...". A reference to comic [[349]].
* {{1110|1|n|19|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|20|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|21|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|22|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|22|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|7|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|27|e}}: Tallest man made structure is {{w|Burj Khalifa}} (829.84 m (2,723 ft)) located in Dubai. This appears to be the former record-holder, the {{w|KVLY-TV mast}} in North Dakota.
* {{1110|5|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|32|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|32|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|33|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|34|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|35|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|36|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|37|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|38|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|39|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|39|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|40|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|41|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|42|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|43|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|44|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|45|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|46|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|47|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|48|e}}:

==Whole Image==
[[Image:1110_full_tiny.png|600px|Whole image]]

==Trivia==
*The click-and-drag portion of this comic is divided up into 2592 sections of 2048x2048 pngs.
*There are 225 separate PNG files (plus the PNG container with the first panels).
*The populated area is 81 frames wide(33 West - 48 East) and 32 frames tall (13 North - 19 South)
*According to [[Randall]] in #xkcd on the night this was released, a full size image of this comic, leaving out the blanks would be 60 gigapixels, a true single rectangular image would be close to a terapixel.
{{comic discussion}}
*At the end of the JavaScript file responsible for the map code, there's a comment "/* 50:72:6f:50:75:6b:65:20:69:73:20:61:77:65:73:6f:6d:65 */". Interpreted as hex codes for ASCII text, this reads "ProPuke is awesome".

1110: Click and Drag

2012-09-19T14:09:20Z

Anarcat: /* Explanation */ 6n5w

{{comic
| number = 1110
| date = September 19, 2012
| title = Click and Drag
| image = click_and_drag.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = Click and drag.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete}}

The 225 existing tiles are sorted by columns from West to East and from North to South in each column.

* {{1110|1|n|33|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|32|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|31|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|30|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|29|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|28|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|27|w}}: Velociraptors in the high grass.
* {{1110|1|n|26|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|25|w}}: Reference to the movie {{w|Contact_(film)|Contact}}.
* {{1110|1|n|24|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|23|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|22|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|22|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|21|w}}: Jesus is a Transformer joke.
* {{1110|1|n|20|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|19|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|18|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|17|w}}:
* {{1110|1|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|2|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|3|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|4|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|5|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|6|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|7|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|8|s|17|w}}: A X-Wing with Wedge Antilles. Reference to Star Wars.
* {{1110|9|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|10|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|11|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|17|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|16|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|16|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|15|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|15|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|14|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|14|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|13|w}}: The statue of liberty head and hand is reference to {{w|Planet of the Apes(film)|Planet of Apes}}.
* {{1110|12|s|13|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|12|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|12|w}}:
* {{1110|11|n|11|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|1|n|11|w}}: Someone playing {{w|Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo}} in the sea.
* {{1110|11|s|11|w}}: A (useless) black empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|12|s|11|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|10|w}}:
* {{1110|12|s|10|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|9|w}}: Possibly a reference to the {{w|Principality of Sealand|Principality of Sealand}} or to the concept of a micronation in general, {{w|List of micronations|List of micronations}}.
* {{1110|2|s|9|w}}: Jellyfish playing some sort of console game.
* {{1110|12|s|9|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|8|w}}: A boat with a reference to Monty Python? {{w|Glossary_of_nautical_terms#Avast|Avast!}} is not the {{w|Avast!|antivirus software}} - Possibly a reference to the comic is from the same date as {{w|International Talk Like a Pirate Day}}.
* {{1110|12|s|8|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|8|w}}:
* {{1110|7|n|7|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|7|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|7|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|7|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|6|w}}:
* {{1110|1|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|13|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|6|w}}:
* {{1110|6|n|5|w}}: looks like jelly fish falling from the sky, unsure
* {{1110|1|n|5|w}}: {{w|I'm on a Boat|"I'm on a Boat"}} is a single from The Lonely Island's debut album Incredibad.
* {{1110|14|s|5|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|4|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|4|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|4|w}}:
* {{1110|3|n|3|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|3|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|1|n|3|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|3|w}}:
* {{1110|8|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|7|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|6|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|5|n|2|w}}: A construction crane lifting another, smaller, construction crane. Possibly a reference to the "Truck Truck Truck" gag from the Simpsons.
* {{1110|4|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|3|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|2|w}}:
* {{1110|1|n|2|w}}: Megan says "I came here to chew bubblegum... And I'm all out of bubblegum" is a reference to the movie {{w|They Live|They Live}} in which the character Nada famously says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum". That line is also used in the game {{w|Duke Nukem 3D|Duke Nukem 3D}} by Duke himself, when Shrapnel City (Episode 3) starts. Also, Cueball says "That's a shame" a line popularised by Jerry in the sitcom {{w|Seinfeld|Seinfeld}}. Pool line is a reference to "pool on the roof" prank from the movie {{w|Hackers_(film)|Hackers}}.
* {{1110|14|s|2|w}}:
* {{1110|8|n|1|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|5|n|1|w}}:
* {{1110|2|n|1|w}}: A (useless) white empty cell.
* {{1110|1|n|1|w}}:
* {{1110|14|s|1|w}}:
* {{1110|15|s|1|w}}:
* {{1110|13|n|1|e}}: 2 whales is possibly a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the planet [http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Magrathea Magrathea], where (improbably) 2 incoming missiles are turned into a whale and a bowl of petunias.
* {{1110|6|n|1|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|1|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|15|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|1|e}}:
* {{1110|9|n|2|e}}: {{w|Apollo 13}} messaging 'Houston, we have a problem''.
* {{1110|3|n|2|e}}: A falling {{w|Icarus}} screams "I hope the story of how ''Building Wax Wings Enabled Me To Fly'' teaches everyone a lesson about hubris." Referring to the Greek myth of Icarus and his father's escape from Crete by building wings of feathers and wax.
* {{1110|1|n|2|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|2|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|2|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|3|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|3|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|3|e}}:
* {{1110|18|s|3|e}}: {{w|Minecraft}} reference: Someone escapes a creeper, running deeper into the cave he just fell in.
* {{1110|2|n|4|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|4|e}}: A black empty cell (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
* {{1110|18|s|4|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|4|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|5|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|5|e}}: A black empty cell (required because unspecified North tiles are automatically filled with white).
* {{1110|17|s|5|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|5|e}}:
* {{1110|8|n|6|e}}: {{w|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV:_A_New_Hope)|Red Five}} is both Anakin and Luke Skywalker's call sign. Anakin uses the sign in the Battle of Coruscant and Luke uses it in the Battle of Yavin.
* {{1110|2|n|6|e}}: Giant airborne jellyfish.
* {{1110|1|n|6|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|6|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|7|e}}: A {{w|Mario}} level (level 1, Super Mario Bros 1, NES). This is confirmed by text on {{1110|3|s|7|e}}.
* {{1110|1|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|2|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|3|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|4|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|5|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|6|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|7|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|8|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|9|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|10|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|11|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|12|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|13|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|14|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|15|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|7|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|8|e}}:
* {{1110|16|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|17|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|18|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|19|s|8|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|9|e}}: Reference to the first line of "{{w|99 Problems}}" by {{w|Jay-Z}} ("If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a <rhymes with "witch"> ain't one.").
* {{1110|3|n|10|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|10|e}}:
* {{1110|11|n|11|e}}: A (useless) white empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|1|n|11|e}}:
* {{1110|11|s|11|e}}: A (useless) black empty cell with symetric coordinates (±11, ±11).
* {{1110|5|n|12|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|12|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|13|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|14|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|15|e}}: Reference to, and first line of the chorus of, the song Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger. {{w|Oregon_Trail_(computer_game)|Oregon Trail}} reference.
* {{1110|2|n|16|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|16|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|17|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|17|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|18|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|18|e}}: Two swimmers in the ocean saying "Stupid FreeBSD...". A reference to comic [[349]].
* {{1110|1|n|19|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|20|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|21|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|22|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|22|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|23|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|24|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|25|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|26|e}}:
* {{1110|7|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|27|e}}: Tallest man made structure is {{w|Burj Khalifa}} (829.84 m (2,723 ft)) located in Dubai. This appears to be the former record-holder, the {{w|KVLY-TV mast}} in North Dakota.
* {{1110|5|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|27|e}}:
* {{1110|6|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|28|e}}:
* {{1110|5|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|29|e}}:
* {{1110|4|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|30|e}}:
* {{1110|3|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|31|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|32|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|32|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|33|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|34|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|35|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|36|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|37|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|38|e}}:
* {{1110|2|n|39|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|39|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|40|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|41|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|42|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|43|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|44|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|45|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|46|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|47|e}}:
* {{1110|1|n|48|e}}:

==Whole Image==
[[Image:1110_full_tiny.png|600px|Whole image]]

==Trivia==
*The click-and-drag portion of this comic is divided up into 2592 sections of 2048x2048 pngs.
*There are 225 separate PNG files (plus the PNG container with the first panels).
*The populated area is 81 frames wide(33 West - 48 East) and 32 frames tall (13 North - 19 South)
*According to [[Randall]] in #xkcd on the night this was released, a full size image of this comic, leaving out the blanks would be 60 gigapixels, a true single rectangular image would be close to a terapixel.
{{comic discussion}}
*At the end of the JavaScript file responsible for the map code, there's a comment "/* 50:72:6f:50:75:6b:65:20:69:73:20:61:77:65:73:6f:6d:65 */". Interpreted as hex codes for ASCII text, this reads "ProPuke is awesome".

Talk:1110: Click and Drag

2012-09-19T13:35:01Z

Anarcat: /* ZIP upload */

I swear, it's like he found out about us, and is now saying "Oh, yeah? Well how about this?" Other than the gripes of how hard it's going to be to get this thing explained, this one is pretty epic. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 08:08, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

I'm moving this here so that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle, and because it isn't really an explanation:

:For those who get impatient scrolling around (and are a little savvy): download the .html file for the comic ([http://xkcd.com/1110/index.html index.html]), and also the file [http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/1110.js 1110.js]. Edit the .html file to use your 1110.js instead of the one from xkcd.com. Then edit 1110.js:
* remove the line "overflow: 'hidden',"
* change the "1"s into "4"s in "for(var y=-1;y<=+1;y++)" and in "for(var x=-1;x<=+1;x++){"
* optionally, remove the line "$remove.remove();" (warning: this will make it take up a lot of memory eventually!)

:Then open the local copy in your web browser. Zooming out, scrolling, and zooming back in helps find the easter eggs.
:{{unsigned|75.111.63.192}}

[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 08:43, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

*This Page's instructions say to zoom in and out when browsing the modified local file. My browser skills are rusty. I have Firefox, and when I zoom in and out, it zooms the whole page, rather than just the interesting bit. However, seeing as how there are 16000+ panels, I don't think I want to zoom it out quite so very far anyway. Firefox is notoriously bad when there are lots of images on a page (and yes, it cratered while I was exploring the original page). In any case, can someone clarify the use of zoom? [[Special:Contributions/24.57.210.141|24.57.210.141]] 08:40, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

I started to comment some easter eggs. Come on, we can make it :-). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:00, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

All is revealed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4542367 - seriously. Links to downloads, full images, how to link directly to a point of interest and so on.

I found the left hand boundary of the page reasonably quickly. Once you cross the sea you get their pretty fast. I also found an X-Wing coming out of the ground quoting a line from just after the death star trench run.

For the pack rats, [http://www.mediafire.com/?u7dac458418phyn here] is a .tar.gz of all the pngs. You can use these to reference where in the comic you are. Files are named <tt><number><north/south><number><east/west>.png</tt>. So 1n8w.png is 1 north, 8 west. Let's get this thing done. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 09:12, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

:Seems I'm really too slow, plus I have CSS problems (there are gaps between my rows) but I'll share what I did anyway. Create a file with <code>.html</code> extension with the following content (if you've downlaoded all the images already, you can change the code to use your local files) and you get a map of the world. --[[Special:Contributions/132.230.1.28|132.230.1.28]] 09:58, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
<pre class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
<!doctype html>
<html><head><title>Click and Drag</title>
<style>
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
td {
padding: 0px;
}
td.s {
background-color: black;
}
</style>
</head><body><table><script>
var x, y, src, cssClass;
for (y = -13; y <= 18; y++) {
document.write('<tr>');
for (x = -33; x <= 47; x++) {
src = (y>=0?(y+1)+'s':-y+'n')+(x>=0?(x+1)+'e':-x+'w');
cssClass = y>=0?'s':'n';
url = "http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/" + src + ".png";
//url = src + ".png"; // Remove comment to use local files
document.write('<td class=' + cssClass + '><a HREF="' + url + '"><img width="64" height="64" title=' + src + ' src="' + url + '"></a></td>');
}
document.write('</tr>');
}
</script>
</table>
</html>
</pre>

== ZIP upload ==

Hi,

I’ve locally downloaded all the tiles (there is 225 PNG files) and made a ZIP file of them, but when trying to upload it here the [[Special:Upload]] page says: “Permitted file types: png, gif, jpg, jpeg.”
Do I have to upload each tile one by one or is there a way to exceptionally bypass this restriction?
Thanks. — [[User:Ethaniel|Ethaniel]] ([[User talk:Ethaniel|talk]]) 09:13, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
:Mh, seems I’m hours too late… — [[User:Ethaniel|Ethaniel]] ([[User talk:Ethaniel|talk]]) 09:14, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

:I'm not sure we should upload each individual frame for this one. Though, we do need to have a discussion about how we're going to handle/archive/explain this one, because it's going to be big and tedius. Maybe some adventurous and hardy soul can stitch together grids of this so that we don't have the problem of having too much image (a single terapixel image will kill anyone's PC if they try to load it) and having so little (while the grids Randall's created are nice and bite-sized, it's hard to see the whole thing). [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 09:20, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

::I’m going to upload the 225 tiles in few hours: which path is best?
::* <nowiki>[[File:1n1e.png]]</nowiki>
::* <nowiki>[[File:1110/1n1e.png]]</nowiki>
::* <nowiki>[[File:1110: Click and Drag/1n1e.png]]</nowiki>
::There will be of course a template (<nowiki>{{1110|1n1e}}</nowiki>) allowing easy access to individual tiles. ;)
::[[User:Ethaniel|Ethaniel]] ([[User talk:Ethaniel|talk]]) 10:36, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't seem to be a terapixel. There are 225 images of 2048x2048 pixels. The full range is 81x32 tiles, resulting in a 165888x65536 images, at approximately 10 gigapixels. The naming conventions is numberlatitudenumberlongitude.png, where lat can be either n or s, and long can be either e or w. E.g. 1n1e.png, which is the starting image, and they are located at http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/.

There's far more than 225 images >> http://lebbeo.us/2012/09/19/not-bbq-fetching-component-images-of-xkcd-comic-1110/ [[Special:Contributions/114.79.57.76|114.79.57.76]] 11:17, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Seems to me what should happen is that someone should setup a "slippy map" without having to use the browser's zoom in/out capabilities. Think openlayers. -- [[User:Anarcat|Anarcat]] ([[User talk:Anarcat|talk]]) 13:35, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

== ==

I found two raptors. I couldn't even begin to tell you where they are. Follow the left side. Past the oceans and in some grass...somewhere. This is a lot to draw...I wonder how he did it. The shear size of each image, combined with the fact that they seamlessly transition together...when did he start? How much time did he put in? He should have waited one more to get comic 1111, I think. [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 09:29, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
:The far right also quotes the very first xkcd comic ever. [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 09:39, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

== Black hat ==

I found him in 2 locations, with a weapon both times. The Gatling gun he has on the building above the XKCD What if? cranes looks like he could be waiting to shoot something. Did anyone find anything he might be trying to shoot? [[Special:Contributions/171.161.160.10|171.161.160.10]] 13:09, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

Nevermind. There's nothing there. But there is a hot air balloon below the area I suspected. [[Special:Contributions/171.161.160.10|171.161.160.10]] 13:16, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

==

At the end of the JavaScript file responsible for the map code, there's a comment "/* 50:72:6f:50:75:6b:65:20:69:73:20:61:77:65:73:6f:6d:65 */". Interpreted as hex codes for ASCII text, this reads "ProPuke is awesome".

==

I've made a full-screen version with cursor control: http://ares.aylett.co.uk/xkcd/ [[User:Axa|Axa]] ([[User talk:Axa|talk]]) 12:51, 19 September 2012 (UTC)