explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1809: xkcd Phone 5

2017-03-10T18:50:08Z

Azule: Added info about Pokémon Go Plus.

{{comic
| number = 1809
| date = March 10, 2017
| title = xkcd Phone 5
| image = xkcd_phone_5.png
| titletext = The phone will be collected by the toll operators and mailed back to you within 4-6 weeks.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs a lot more}}
This is the fifth entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], and once again, the comic plays with many standard tech buzzwords to create a phone that sounds impressive but would actually be very impractical, especially with the front camera which would prevent it from going into a pocket. The previous comic in the series [[1707: xkcd Phone 4]] was released almost 8 months before this one.

===Table of features===
{| class="wikitable"
!Feature
!Explanation
|-
|'''Bluetooth speaker'''
| This is the only potentially useful feature of this phone as while a {{w|bluetooth}} speaker built in to the device would be no more useful for playing music from it than any other speaker it would enable other devices to play through your phone.
|-
|'''Stained-glass display'''
| Prevents seeing certain colors by tinting the display. {{w|Stained glass}} has traditionally been used for decorative windows in buildings.
|-
|'''Gallium chassis remains solid up to 85°F'''
| Many high-end electronic devices have chassis made of alloys of light metals such as magnesium or titanium. Besides being lightweight and of superior quality and durability than ordinary sheet steel or cheap plastic, these are often perceived as bragging points by the users, boasting about 'rare' metal chassis.

{{w|Gallium}} is a not-so-well known metal that has a very low melting point of 85 °F (or 29.7 °C), being one of only four metals (the other being mercury, rubidium and caesium) that are liquid near room temperature. Its melting point is lower than a healthy person's body temperature. Having a gallium smartphone chassis would be therefore very impractical because it will melt in user's bare hand and would require using some kind of insulating gloves. Besides it would have to be stored in a cool place and the internal electronics should have really good cooling, otherwise either the external or internal heat would melt the chassis.
|-
|'''Soundproof'''
| Presumably this means that speakers and microphone may not work.
|-
|'''Can feel pain'''
| This could mean either the phone feels pain inflicted upon it or feels the user's pain. Which meaning may become apparent when the chassis melts on contact with exposed skin and the phone is left with open wounds.
|-
|'''E-Z Pass partnership'''
|{{w|E-Z Pass}} is an account you put money into and you put a transmitter in your windshield so when you go through a toll booth you don't have to stop and pay by hand. However, this proposition is absurd, because you would lose the phone and still have to stop to pay the toll. The title text says that the phone will be returned to you after 4–6 weeks, which slightly mitigates the first problem, but you would still lose the phone for a month.
|-
|'''Foldable (once)'''
|Presumably you can "fold" it by snapping it in half but you can only do his once because the phone wont work otherwise. It may refer to the fact that a later version of iPhone had a weak spot that lead it to easily folding and breaking.
|-
|'''Screen transfers images to skin'''
| This could either mean the image displayed on the screen or potentially whatever the stained glass image itself is.
|-
|'''Retina storage'''
| This is a play on the name of Apple's prized "{{w|Retina Display}}". The joke may be in reference to Apple's possession of a trademark for the word "retina" in regards to computer equipment, which is made to seem absurd by the unusual use. It is not made clear whose retinas are meant to be stored. Could also be a reference to retinally implanted computers.
|-
|'''Background task automatically catches and eats Pokémon'''
| A reference to {{w|Pokémon Go}}, an augmented reality game where the goal to go to specific locations and play a mini-game in order to catch virtual creatures called pokemon. This phone apparently does it automatically, similar to the external device Pokémon Go Plus. However, it also eats them, which is something that is not part of the game and wouldn't be desirable.
|-
|'''Supercuts partnership'''
| {{w|Supercuts}} is an American hair salon chain that provides hair cuts and styling. The implication here is that the user can get a haircut by sticking their hair in the charging slot.
|-
|'''Squelch knob'''
|{{w|Squelch}} is a feature of two-way radios (CB, ham, etc) which quiets background noise when no signal is present. For a smartphone, perhaps this knob could control the "signal-to-noise" ratio of your Facebook feed or other social media platforms. It also takes the place of the headphone jack.
|-
|'''IBM buckling-spring Home button'''
|IBM {{w|Buckling spring|buckling-spring}} keyboards are favorites of geeks for the feeling of quality and auditory feedback (keys click loudly) they provide. The iPhone's Home button provides little to no such satisfaction when pressed.
|-
|'''Cot-caught merger switch'''
| This is a reference to the {{w|cot–caught merger}}, a linguistic change happening among English speakers, particularly in some parts of North America and the British Isles, which causes caught (previously pronounced "kawt") to be pronounced the same as cot (pronounced "kot").
|-
|'''60x optical zoom camera'''
|A powerful {{w|zoom lens|optical zoom}} is usually a desirable feature for cameras. However, as shown in the comic, it results in very bulky lens. For that reason, such lens are rarely used in smartphones, though there are some devices like the {{w|Samsung Galaxy Camera}} that have a similar design.
|-
|'''Loran navigation'''
| {{w|LORAN}} (Long Range Navigation) was a precursor to modern {{W|Global Positioning System|GPS}} navigation, using land-based transmitters. Once developed for sea shipping, it is accurate to about 300 meters. The joke, of course, is that all modern smartphones have integrated GPS navigation which is far more accurate and available in more areas.
|-
|'''28-factor authentication'''
| An {{w|Authentication#Factors and identity|authentication factor}} is a way of proving one's identity. There are [http://www.nikacp.com/images/10.1.1.200.3888.pdf 3 generally recognized forms]: something you know, something you have, and something you are. It can be a password, a fingerprint, a physical key, etc.... Secure applications may include two or more factors, a common example is the "PIN and chip" system used with credit cards, where you need both the card and secret code to authorize a transaction. Many online services now provide two-factor authentication to protect against password-based attacks. 28-factor authentication would likely be very secure in theory but also so impractical that it would be unusable.
|-
|'''Hook shot'''
| The ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda|Legend of Zelda}}'' weapon/tool, used to bring items to {{w|Link (The Legend of Zelda)|Link}} or bring Link closer to a goal.
|-
|}

The slogan "We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers" is likely a reference to Samsung releasing the Note 7 after the Note 5, with no Note 6 in between, in an attempt to catch up to Apple's numbering, which was already to the iPhone 7, and when other companies have done similarly.

==Transcript==

:[An image of a smartphone featuring large camera lens is shown. Clockwise from the top the labels read:]

:Bluetooth speaker

:Stained-glass display

:Gallium chassis remains solid up to 85°F

:Soundproof

:Can feel pain

:E-Z Pass partnership: phone can be dropped into coin basket to pay tolls

:Foldable (once)

:Screen transfers images to skin

:Retina storage

:Background task automatically catches and eats Pokemon

:Supercuts partnership: trims hair fed into charging port

:Squeltch knob

:IBM buckling-spring Home button

:Cot-caught merger switch

:60x optical zoom camera

:Loran navigation

:28-factor authentication

:Hook shot

:[Below the phone:]
:Introducing
:<big><big>The XKCD Phone 5</big></big>
:We're trying to catch up to Apple but refuse to skip numbers®™
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:xkcd Phones]]

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-07T10:41:48Z

Azule: No break and rebus

{{comic
| number = 1676
| date = May 4, 2016
| title = Full-Width Justification
| image = full_width_justification.png
| titletext = Gonna start bugging the Unicode consortium to add snake segment characters that can be combined into an arbitrary-length non-breaking snake.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|hasty & impatient placeholder. Still an early draft; needs citations, fact-checking, and it also needs the Wikipedia links to be fixed.}}
The comic refers to an irritating problem in laying out text to fit from margin to margin, the problem of {{w|justification (typesetting)|justification}}, where you want multiple-line text to line up on the left side (common), the right side (less common), or both sides, which is commonly called full justification. This strip is dealing with how to make text fit such that it lines up on both sides while still looking good. Sometimes, as before a long word like "[[:wikt:deindustrialization|deindustrialization]]," there's no universal good way to make the typography work. It is a difficult problem to make text look good and be easily legible especially in a narrow space, with the biggest issue being how to handle words that are too long to fit nicely.

The comic shows several solutions to this problem, some realistic and others less so, but each partly or wholly unsatisfying.

"'''Giving up'''" essentially means not attempting full justification for a particular line, which means it will not fit with the rest of the layout.

"'''Letter spacing'''" involves an conspicuously large amount of whitespace between letters, suggesting a reading where each letter is a word until the reader recognizes what is intended. This method is in use, for example in newspapers if a word is too short to fill the entire column, but too long to leave space for a second word (or even a syllable – see below: hyphenation). However, letter spacing is unavailable for justification purposes in some languages (such as German), in which it is used for emphasis, as italics are in English.

"'''Hyphenation'''" is confusing because it requires suspended recognition of the full word, confusing the eye into seeing, in the given case, the non-words "deindus" and "trialization". This creates difficulty in both pronouncing and parsing the word. Moreover, the decision of when and where to hyphenate is non-trivial, particularly for automated text layout; for example, breaking a word and leaving only two "orphaned" letters on the following line is generally considered an illegal hyphenation. Nevertheless, hyphenation is a very common means of handling extreme cases.

"'''Stretching'''" appears visually unnatural and unfamiliar, and may present technical difficulties in rendering.

Adding "'''filler'''" words is generally undesirable: in the worst case, the meaning may be unintentionally altered, or the tone might be rendered too informal, as in the given example, and even in the best case, the text becomes less concise and potentially more difficult to read. Automation is also difficult. However, filler words added by a human, especially the original author of the text, are the least visually conspicuous, and may be the most practical solution in some scenarios.

Finally, adding a decorative image like "'''snakes'''" (but not necessarily snakes in particular) to fill the extra space is a justification practice of significant historical interest (it was particularly common for illuminated manuscripts in the medieval era and remained prominent until the invention of the printing press) but little modern relevance. There may be a particular absurdity to using a snake as it can be read as a word, such as "the relationship between snake industrialization" as would be done similar to a {{w|rebus}}.

In modern text layout programs, some combination of the above strategies may be used to achieve the most visually consistent effect. For example, in one case, hyphenation might be the best option to split a very long word, while another line might be too long by only one or two letters, in which case the program could apply a very slight degree of extra letter spacing, too small for the average reader to notice.

The title text suggests that in order to facilitate the "snakes" method of "solving" the problem, the {{w|Unicode Consortium}}, the organization in charge of the common text standard {{w|Unicode}}, should add "snake-building characters" (similar in concept to the existing {{w|Box Drawing}} block), to allow variable-length snake images to be used as filling. Currently, there are four snake characters in Unicode: [http://unicode-search.net/unicode-namesearch.pl?term=SNAKE]
*[https://codepoints.net/U+1DC2 U+1DC2]   <big>᷂</big>   <big>[S᷂]</big>
**A diacritical {{w|combining character}} used in Americanist phonetic notation to indicate lenis (weak) articulation.
*[https://codepoints.net/U+2E92 U+2E92]   <big>⺒</big>
**A {{w|CJK character}} which might be interpreted as "snake".
*[https://codepoints.net/U+1D9DC U+1D9DC]   <big>𝧜</big>
**One of the poorly-supported characters in the {{w|signWriting|signwriting block}}.
*[https://codepoints.net/U+1F40D U+1F40D]   <big>🐍</big>
**An {{w|emoji}} snake.

"Non-breaking" in the title text refers to a similar process as zero-width joiners and no-break HTML and CSS; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added{{Citation needed}}, and always require a good reason{{Citation needed}} before adding a character or set of characters to the standard. Strange decisions by the consortium have previously been referenced in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]], [[1513: Code Quality]], and [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]].

Within an hour or two of this comic being published, a thread on the subject started on the Unicode Consortium’s official Unicode Mailing List. As of two days later, it’s still running.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panels:]
:Strategies for full-width justification

:[Below the caption is a column with six boxes, each showing a different "strategy" for justification which is annotated beside it. Here the annotation is written at the top and the text below. The top and bottom of the text is cut of in the middle, but as it can be "read" this is written anyway. Only for hyphenation does an extra word appear at the end. In the last with snakes, a snake is drawn to cover the entire space from the end of between to the right border.]

:Giving up
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Letter spacing
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::b  e   t   w   e  e   n
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Hyphenation
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between deindus-
::trialization and the
::growth of ecological

:Stretching
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::<big><big><big>between</big></big></big>
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Filler
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between crap like
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

:Snakes
::their famous paper
::on the relationship
::between 🐍 [a snake filling the gap]
::deindustrialization
::and the growth of

==Trivia==
*The full text (with alternate changes) reads:
::''...their famous paper on the relationship between [crap like]/[ 🐍 ] deindustrialization and the growth of [ecological]...''
*An approach not depicted is to treat justification as part of a global typesetting strategy which allows words to move between lines even where this is not locally optimal. This approach is used by {{w|TeX}}.
*In Arabic, it is common to stretch the lines connecting letters as a relatively elegant and satisfying resolution to this problem. This trick is called "{{w|kashida}}" (كشيدة). There does in fact exist a Unicode character, U+0640: (ـ), to help with this: using it to extend "كشيدة" would result in something like "كشـــــــــــيدة" (which, incidentally, looks a lot like a snake).
*Jim Chapman, developer of Windows 10 e-reader app Freda, has implemented snake-justification in the app, now available on the [https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9wzdncrfj43b Windows Store]. For best results, use the 'settings' screen to switch 'hyphenation' to 'no', 'use snakes' to 'yes', and choose a large font size (33 or so). Then pick a book with long words and justified text, and read it in a narrow window.
*The comic has been discussed on the [http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2016-m05/0004.html Unicode Mailing List].
*The typesetting system [http://www.sile-typesetter.org/ SILE] implemented snake justification on the same day the comic was published.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T05:46:42Z

Azule:

I added the emoji snake. Is emoji snake the same as a Unicode snake would be? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 05:46, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

Could the title text also be a reference to the snake in umwelt? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 05:46, 4 May 2016 (UTC)

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T04:50:55Z

Azule: /* Trivia */

1676: Full-Width Justification

2016-05-04T04:46:18Z

Azule: Trivia

Talk:1599: Water Delivery

2015-11-04T14:49:37Z

Azule:

I...dont get it
: I suspect this is another of "hey, why we are even bothering with bottled water when we have water pipes" ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 13:05, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
Yeah, i'm suspecting that this means that "we've always had 1 hr. water delivery, in the form of modern plumbing. it's pretty similar to https://xkcd.com/1367/ in which (amazon) is reinventing something that already exists. Also advertising is spelled wrong, but that's just a typo perhaps.
:Sounds about right. And isn't Advertizing the the American way of spelling it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 14:25, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
::Yes, it is. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 14:49, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

I wish the illustration had showed the bottles transition from vertical to horizontal, then merge together to form the pipe. - - EazyEpete
:That would have been better. ☺ [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 14:49, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Global transition to HDPE (Polyethylene) pipes and plumbing can be related to the subject.

This would make sense if water was simply water. However, the water in my pipes at home tastes terrible and rapidly coats my plumbing with lime deposits. My favorite local restaurant serves the same water...I pay for bottled instead. In the nearby small city, though, the tap water tastes fine. Similarly, I spend a couple months every year at a location in Texas where I don't even feel clean after showering with their tap water because it is so "soft" and I've considered buying bottled water and using a solar shower. In the store you'll find not only different brands, but different types; spring water, distilled water, etc; just because you have a source for one type of water does not mean all other types of water are invalid.

1565: Back Seat

2015-08-18T19:16:09Z

Azule: moved raccoon trivia to trivia section

{{comic
| number = 1565
| date = August 17, 2015
| title = Back Seat
| image = back_seat.png
| titletext = Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side as the dead one.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic depicts the common situation of a messy car but the uncommon scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a {{w|raccoon}}. The joke being that such a car is so gross, a dead raccoon is merely one of the least disgusting things one might encounter. The humor comes from the car owner seeming to be used to a dead raccoon and the implications of what might be worse than a dead raccoon.

This is the polar opposite of [[1267: Mess]], where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.

'{{w|Protips}}' are used to give snarky, obvious or inadequate advice, in order to either humor a well-learnt audience or to prank a naive audience. This phenomenon originated in a gaming magazine column offering advice on ''Doom'': "To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies." [[Randall]] has given us several [[:Category:Protip|Protips]] in the past as well.

The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Sitting next to a dead '''and''' a live raccoon is not an improved scenario.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel]:
:Protip:

:[Cueball is holding the back door of his car open. Wiggly lines emanate from the back seat area. Megan and another Cueball-like guy are stand next to the car, looking at each other.]
:Cueball: Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back.:

:[Caption below the panel:]
:When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.

==Trivia==
*The title text originally contained a grammatical error, "same side of the dead one", which was later corrected by Randall.
*Raccoons also feature in a disgusting situation in [[1025: Tumblr]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T22:04:02Z

Azule:

The backseats of some cars are really messy. I have yet to see any dead animals though, unless you count hamburgers.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.163|173.245.54.163]] 04:30, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I wrote a very quick first draft of the explanation. This is my first time writing from scratch, so feel free to take it all down and start over. Also, my first time posting a comment, so sorry for inevitable formatting errors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.84|162.158.255.84]] 04:33, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Welcome! I would say that to me this is not a comic about how raccoons always end up in the back seat of cars, but more a comic about how the phrase "clear a few things out of the back" is always an understatement/euphemism for disgusting stuff that's back there. In my opinion he just chose dead raccoon because of how gross that is. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 04:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::The raccoon is on purpose. They like to rummage through trash. Unless you mean, 'why was it dead'? If that, then because of how bad keeping trash and never cleaning it is like that of how hoarders live (where dead animals are often found). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::I don't think the explanation addresses the "understatement" aspect, that you mention, directly enough. Someone, please integrate it. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:41, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Hello. I'm sorry, I rewrote the explanation. It appears to be about raccoons being attracted to trash and therefore how the person's car is basically a trashcan on wheels. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I for one am mildly offended by this comic; while I am lazy about when I throw out bags of trash that often find their way to the back seat--mostly stuff like "trays that used to contain pecan twirls" or soda bottles--I do at least keep it wrapped up in ready-to-throw-out plastic bags to hide the smell, and under no circumstances do I leave enough food for a raccoon to go hunting in my back seat. (Please note *mildly* offended; I get it's just a comic.) Also, I hope it's okay to fix obvious typos in other people's comments, because I just did that.[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 07:20, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:I fixed the formatting in the comments section a bit, so I'm sure that fixing typos is fine, too (as long as it actually is a typo). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Speaking of typos, the hovertext should read "Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side '''as''' the dead one." (not "of", as it is/was at the time of this comment). [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 08:09, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::To be clear, that's an official typo. A "[sic]" could be added to the transcript, if you prefer, until it is fixed, if that ever happens. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 08:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
::I was wondering if that was not just American grammar, conflicting with my British education. (There's plenty of other instances. e.g. it's "I'll write '''to''' you", for me; not "I'll write you", which just sounds wrong in my ears but obviously not to Leftpondians where their use of the lone transitive verb is expanded. Although I'll gladly say "I'll've writ summat for ya...", in the right context, so 'go figure'.) Anyway, if it's not a 'merkinism, what's the original intention in the phrase? "..the same side that the dead one is currently (possessed/in possession) of"...? That sounds unwieldy but, as before, there's possibly something in some dialect or other that works. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.159|141.101.98.159]] 11:58, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:::I think it was originally "[move] to the [other] side of [the car]". "Of" is being used geographically. The way it is now, "as" would be used comparatively. If we were to take this typo at face value, your suggestion seems as well as any. It's not a merkinism, btw. Merkins are pubic hair wigs.... [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 22:04, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:::It is meant to say that he will make the live raccoon move over to the same side of the car as the dead raccoon, thus freeing up a sear in the back row for his friend. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 16:29, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Added my very first transcript. If there are errors in formatting etc. please fix them 05:37, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Added my first description (added explanation for 'Protip') - thoughts? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.134|108.162.250.134]] 13:12, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:I'm not sure that I agree, that in this comic, that protip is a snarky/joke thing. But I might be wrong, so nothing to change for now. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 22:04, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T08:36:13Z

Azule:

Added my very first transcript. If there are errors in formatting etc. please fix them 05:37, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

The backseats of some cars are really messy. I have yet to see any dead animals though, unless you count hamburgers.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.163|173.245.54.163]] 04:30, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I wrote a very quick first draft of the explanation. This is my first time writing from scratch, so feel free to take it all down and start over. Also, my first time posting a comment, so sorry for inevitable formatting errors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.84|162.158.255.84]] 04:33, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Welcome! I would say that to me this is not a comic about how raccoons always end up in the back seat of cars, but more a comic about how the phrase "clear a few things out of the back" is always an understatement/euphemism for disgusting stuff that's back there. In my opinion he just chose dead raccoon because of how gross that is. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 04:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::The raccoon is on purpose. They like to rummage through trash. Unless you mean, 'why was it dead'? If that, then because of how bad keeping trash and never cleaning it is like that of how hoarders live (where dead animals are often found). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::I don't think the explanation addresses the "understatement" aspect, that you mention, directly enough. Someone, please integrate it. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:41, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Hello. I'm sorry, I rewrote the explanation. It appears to be about raccoons being attracted to trash and therefore how the person's car is basically a trashcan on wheels. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I for one am mildly offended by this comic; while I am lazy about when I throw out bags of trash that often find their way to the back seat--mostly stuff like "trays that used to contain pecan twirls" or soda bottles--I do at least keep it wrapped up in ready-to-throw-out plastic bags to hide the smell, and under no circumstances do I leave enough food for a raccoon to go hunting in my back seat. (Please note *mildly* offended; I get it's just a comic.) Also, I hope it's okay to fix obvious typos in other people's comments, because I just did that.[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 07:20, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:I fixed the formatting in the comments section a bit, so I'm sure that fixing typos is fine, too (as long as it actually is a typo). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Speaking of typos, the hovertext should read "Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side '''as''' the dead one." (not "of", as it is/was at the time of this comment). [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 08:09, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::To be clear, that's an official typo. A "[sic]" could be added to the transcript, if you prefer, until it is fixed, if that ever happens. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 08:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T07:52:57Z

Azule: described them looking at each other

{{comic
| number = 1565
| date = August 17, 2015
| title = Back Seat
| image = back_seat.png
| titletext = Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side of the dead one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|verification and language fixes needed.}}
This comic depicts the common situation of a messy car but the uncommon scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a raccoon. Raccoons are known to rummage through trash cans and other trash areas. This person's car is therefore in such a bad state as to appear to the raccoon to be just another trash area. That this is so bad as to trap the animal is similar to the horrible conditions that {{w|hoarding}} may create.

This is the polar opposite of [[1267: Mess]], where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.

The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Sitting next to a dead '''and''' a live raccoon is not an improved scenario.

==Transcript==
[Cueball is holding the back door of his car open. Cartoon-style stink lines emanate from the back seat area. Megan and another Cueball-like figure stand to the side, looking at each other and waiting.] 
'''Cueball''': Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back. 
'''[Caption]''': PROTIP: When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.

==Trivia==
Another comic to feature raccoons in disgusting situations is [[1025: Tumblr]].

{{comic discussion}}

1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T07:49:53Z

Azule: Formatting and a small change in language to be more neutral.

{{comic
| number = 1565
| date = August 17, 2015
| title = Back Seat
| image = back_seat.png
| titletext = Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side of the dead one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|verification and language fixes needed.}}
This comic depicts the common situation of a messy car but the uncommon scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a raccoon. Raccoons are known to rummage through trash cans and other trash areas. This person's car is therefore in such a bad state as to appear to the raccoon to be just another trash area. That this is so bad as to trap the animal is similar to the horrible conditions that {{w|hoarding}} may create.

This is the polar opposite of [[1267: Mess]], where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.

The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Sitting next to a dead '''and''' a live raccoon is not an improved scenario.

==Transcript==
[Cueball is holding the back door of his car open. Cartoon-style stink lines emanate from the back seat area. Megan and another Cueball-like figure stand to the side, waiting.] 
'''Cueball''': Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back. 
'''[Caption]''': PROTIP: When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.

==Trivia==
Another comic to feature raccoons in disgusting situations is [[1025: Tumblr]].

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T07:41:39Z

Azule:

Talk:1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T07:36:08Z

Azule:

Added my very first transcript. If there are errors in formatting etc. please fix them 05:37, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

The backseats of some cars are really messy. I have yet to see any dead animals though, unless you count hamburgers.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.163|173.245.54.163]] 04:30, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I wrote a very quick first draft of the explanation. This is my first time writing from scratch, so feel free to take it all down and start over. Also, my first time posting a comment, so sorry for inevitable formatting errors. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.84|162.158.255.84]] 04:33, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Welcome! I would say that to me this is not a comic about how raccoons always end up in the back seat of cars, but more a comic about how the phrase "clear a few things out of the back" is always an understatement/euphemism for disgusting stuff that's back there. In my opinion he just chose dead raccoon because of how gross that is. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 04:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

::The raccoon is on purpose. They like to rummage through trash. Unless you mean, 'why was it dead'? If that, then because of how bad keeping trash and never cleaning it is like that of how hoarders live (where dead animals are often found). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:Hello. I'm sorry, I rewrote the explanation. It appears to be about raccoons being attracted to trash and therefore how the person's car is basically a trashcan on wheels. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I for one am mildly offended by this comic; while I am lazy about when I throw out bags of trash that often find their way to the back seat--mostly stuff like "trays that used to contain pecan twirls" or soda bottles--I do at least keep it wrapped up in ready-to-throw-out plastic bags to hide the smell, and under no circumstances do I leave enough food for a raccoon to go hunting in my back seat. (Please note *mildly* offended; I get it's just a comic.) Also, I hope it's okay to fix obvious typos in other people's comments, because I just did that.[[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 07:20, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

:I fixed the formatting in the comments section a bit, so I'm sure that fixing typos is fine, too (as long as it actually is a typo). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T07:25:40Z

Azule: Created trivia section and moved trivia from explanation area.

{{comic
| number = 1565
| date = August 17, 2015
| title = Back Seat
| image = back_seat.png
| titletext = Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side of the dead one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|verification and language fixes needed.}}
This comic depicts the common situation of a messy car but the uncommon scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a raccoon. Raccoons are known to rummage through trash cans and other trash areas. This person's car is therefore in such a bad state as to appear to the raccoon to be just another trash area. That this is so bad as to trap the animal is similar to the horrible conditions that {{w|hoarding}} may create.

This is the polar opposite of [[1267: Mess]], where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.

The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Sitting next to a dead '''and''' a live raccoon is not an improved scenario.

==Transcript==
Cueball is holding the back door of his car open, presumably because Megan and another Cueball-like figure want to get in for a ride. Cartoon-style stink lines emanate from the car. 
'''Cueball''': Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back. 
The caption reads: PROTIP: When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.

==Trivia==
Another comic to feature raccoons in disgusting situations is [[1025: Tumblr]].

{{comic discussion}}

1565: Back Seat

2015-08-17T07:24:21Z

Azule: Changed explanation to refer to raccoons liking garbage and to hoarding situations.

{{comic
| number = 1565
| date = August 17, 2015
| title = Back Seat
| image = back_seat.png
| titletext = Hang on, let me scare the live raccoon over to the same side of the dead one.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|verification and language fixes needed.}}
This comic depicts the common situation of a messy car but the uncommon scenario of that car containing decaying animals, in this case a raccoon. Raccoons are known to rummage through trash cans and other trash areas. This person's car is therefore in such a bad state as to appear to the raccoon to be just another trash area. That this is so bad as to trap the animal is similar to the horrible conditions that {{w|hoarding}} may create.

This is the polar opposite of [[1267: Mess]], where the person apologizes for a nearly non-existent mess. Here, the person minimizes a completely atrocious mess into a quick fix situation. The form of the comic is that of a pro-tip, which tells the reader what the phrase "I just have to clear a few things out of the back" really means.

The title text further exposes the reality of the person's knowledge of how bad the situation really is when he acknowledges the existence of the dead raccoon while trying to usher the live one to the same side. Sitting next to a dead '''and''' a live raccoon is not an improved scenario.

==Transcript==
Cueball is holding the back door of his car open, presumably because Megan and another Cueball-like figure want to get in for a ride. Cartoon-style stink lines emanate from the car. 
'''Cueball''': Hang on, I just have to clear a few things out of the back. 
The caption reads: PROTIP: When you hear "I just have to clear a few things out of the back," you are about to see, at minimum, a decaying raccoon.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1548: 90s Kid

2015-07-08T18:08:48Z

Azule:

Usual gripes that the median does not have to mean typical
13:49, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

(Above comment not properly signed..? It's not me, anyway.) I authored the first go at an explanation. Looks too wordy. But probably could do with other links to the various other "time flies, doesn't it?" cartoons, if anything ought to be added.

Not sure about my comments about LOL. I didn't really encounter it in force until >2000, before which I never really experienced Web 2.0. "ROFL" or various smilies having been the more standard on areas of Usenet that I frequented in the decade before that where web pages were rarely quite so chatty and 'social' IME.

(My own childhood was in the '70s in the UK. For some reason I'm actually fairly aware of Rugrats, but Doug is just something 'I know about'. There must be a child of the '90s, or late '80s, who can better describe the shows.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 14:07, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Median may not be typical, but it *does* mean right at the 50% mark, which means that a significant portion of the top half of the bell curve is going to be 90s kids, with the proportion continuing to increase throughout the decade as more years from the 90s come of age. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.169|173.245.56.169]] 14:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

"Typical" doesn't have quite as strict a meaning as "median" ... but yeah, assuming the median date of birth of a new mother is 1 January 1990, then half of all new mothers are pre-90's kids. Taking into account mothers born in the 2000s, this would mean that the majority of new mothers are NOT 90's kids. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

I teach British teenagers, and they scoff at people who "still use facebook". These "time passes" comics are getting a little tedious for my tastes. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:What the hell are you supposed to use? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.32|108.162.215.32]] 14:52, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

::Twitter and/or IRC. Although if I ever choose to post something lengthy, I go with either pastebin or (and yes people will laugh at this) my ancient LiveJournal. [[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 15:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:::Snapchat, usually. "Charlotte, stop using Snapchat." "How did you know I was using Snapchat?" "You're ALWAYS using Snapchat." [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

BTW, Cosmogoblin, you're probably right to change my original "'90s" to "90's" based on the comic style, but I thoroughly disagree with the format Randall chooses. Stylebooks be damned (or at least those that say it can/''should'' be done this way), but as a contraction of the plural of "1990" it really ought to have an apostrophe (if anywhere) for the characters lost in the contraction and ''no'' apostrophe for the pluralisation. (In fact, in the comic, it should actually be "90s' kid", best to omit the first apostrophe and put the second where it ''actually'' belongs in this possessive context.) Rant over. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 15:02, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:I absolutely agree! If the comic didn't have the 90's format I'd have preferred 90s (or even 1990s). Thank you your polite comment. I noticed that the actual comic title is "90s Kid", no apostrophe! [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:Oy, I had to get a word or two in here on this. While I agree with the logic behind the recommended placement (or absense) of the apostrophe, I think there's a place for them anywhere. Like the comma, I think the apostrophe can be placed where it can reduce confusion or the like. In this case, to split a number from a letter. If that's not done then I want to pronounce it as ninety-ess, as if it were a code (such as s70b45t).

:I disagree on the possessiveness. Would "New York kid" be similar? It would not be "New York's kid".... Location or location in time don't get possessive. Think of it as if it was 1994 kid, a single year. Yep, now you understand. (That's all the example and thought I have on it, so, if you have a winning example, let's hear it.) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 17:58, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1548: 90s Kid

2015-07-08T17:58:04Z

Azule:

Usual gripes that the median does not have to mean typical
13:49, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

(Above comment not properly signed..? It's not me, anyway.) I authored the first go at an explanation. Looks too wordy. But probably could do with other links to the various other "time flies, doesn't it?" cartoons, if anything ought to be added.

Not sure about my comments about LOL. I didn't really encounter it in force until >2000, before which I never really experienced Web 2.0. "ROFL" or various smilies having been the more standard on areas of Usenet that I frequented in the decade before that where web pages were rarely quite so chatty and 'social' IME.

(My own childhood was in the '70s in the UK. For some reason I'm actually fairly aware of Rugrats, but Doug is just something 'I know about'. There must be a child of the '90s, or late '80s, who can better describe the shows.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 14:07, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

Median may not be typical, but it *does* mean right at the 50% mark, which means that a significant portion of the top half of the bell curve is going to be 90s kids, with the proportion continuing to increase throughout the decade as more years from the 90s come of age. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.169|173.245.56.169]] 14:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

"Typical" doesn't have quite as strict a meaning as "median" ... but yeah, assuming the median date of birth of a new mother is 1 January 1990, then half of all new mothers are pre-90's kids. Taking into account mothers born in the 2000s, this would mean that the majority of new mothers are NOT 90's kids. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

I teach British teenagers, and they scoff at people who "still use facebook". These "time passes" comics are getting a little tedious for my tastes. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 14:13, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:What the hell are you supposed to use? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.32|108.162.215.32]] 14:52, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

::Twitter and/or IRC. Although if I ever choose to post something lengthy, I go with either pastebin or (and yes people will laugh at this) my ancient LiveJournal. [[User:PsyMar|PsyMar]] ([[User talk:PsyMar|talk]]) 15:09, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:::Snapchat, usually. "Charlotte, stop using Snapchat." "How did you know I was using Snapchat?" "You're ALWAYS using Snapchat." [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

BTW, Cosmogoblin, you're probably right to change my original "'90s" to "90's" based on the comic style, but I thoroughly disagree with the format Randall chooses. Stylebooks be damned (or at least those that say it can/''should'' be done this way), but as a contraction of the plural of "1990" it really ought to have an apostrophe (if anywhere) for the characters lost in the contraction and ''no'' apostrophe for the pluralisation. (In fact, in the comic, it should actually be "90s' kid", best to omit the first apostrophe and put the second where it ''actually'' belongs in this possessive context.) Rant over. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.252|141.101.98.252]] 15:02, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:I absolutely agree! If the comic didn't have the 90's format I'd have preferred 90s (or even 1990s). Thank you your polite comment. I noticed that the actual comic title is "90s Kid", no apostrophe! [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 16:10, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

::I disagree on the possessiveness. Would "New York kid" be similar? It would not be "New York's kid".... Location or location in time don't get possessive. Think of it as if it was 1994 kid, a single year. Yep, now you understand. (That's all the example and thought I have on it, so, if you have a winning example, let's hear it.) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 17:58, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

:Oy, I had to get a word or two in here on this. While I agree with the logic behind the recommended placement (or absense) of the apostrophe, I think there's a place for them anywhere. Like the comma, I think the apostrophe can be placed where it can reduce confusion or the like. In this case, to split a number from a letter. If that's not done then I want to pronounce it as ninety-ess, as if it were a code (such as s70b45t). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 17:58, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T07:37:15Z

Azule: merge

{{comic
| number = 1538
| date = June 15, 2015
| title = Lyrics
| image = lyrics.png
| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This is a stub. There is probably a more thorough explanation.}}
The comic is illustrating (in text form) how listening to a song feels before you have learned the actual lyrics. The lyrics are represented in an indecipherable way, with a few mildly recognizable words.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Cueball sits in a chair, with a speaker on a counter behind him transmitting music.]
:[Four lines of wavey undecipherable lyrics eminate from the speaker. The lyrics are surrounded by musical notes.]
:[Caption (by Cueball)]: Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be able to understand song lyrics without looking them up.

{{comic discussion}}

1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T07:35:24Z

Azule: first draft

{{comic
| number = 1538
| date = June 15, 2015
| title = Lyrics
| image = lyrics.png
| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This is a stub. There is probably a more thorough explanation.}}
The comic is illustrating (in text form) how listening to a song feels before you have learned the actual lyrics. The lyrics are represented in an indecipherable way, with a few mildly recognizable words.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:[Cueball sits in a chair, with a speaker on a counter behind him transmitting music.]
:[Four lines of wavey undecipherable lyrics eminate from the speaker. The lyrics are surrounded by musical notes.]
:[Caption]: Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be able to understand song lyrics without looking them up.

Below the panel the narrator comments:
"Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be able to understand song lyrics without looking them up."

{{comic discussion}}

1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T07:27:16Z

Azule: first draft

{{comic
| number = 1538
| date = June 15, 2015
| title = Lyrics
| image = lyrics.png
| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This is a stub. There is probably a more thorough explanation.}}
The comic is illustrating (in text form) how listening to a song feels before you have learned the actual lyrics. The lyrics are represented in an indecipherable way, with a few mildly recognizable words.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
The comic is illustrating (in text form) how listening to a song feels before you have learned the actual lyrics. The lyrics are represented in an indecipherable way, with a few mildly recognizable words.

{{comic discussion}}

1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T07:25:54Z

Azule: First draft

{{comic
| number = 1538
| date = June 15, 2015
| title = Lyrics
| image = lyrics.png
| titletext = To me, trying to understand song lyrics feels like when I see text in a dream but it𝔰 hอᵣd t₀ ᵣeₐd aกd 𝒾 canٖt fཱྀcu༧༦࿐༄
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
The comic is illustrating (in text form) how listening to a song feels before you have learned the actual lyrics. The lyrics are represented in an indecipherable way, with a few mildly recognizable words.

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1538: Lyrics

2015-06-15T06:47:56Z

Azule:

The character I'm missing in the title is [http://unicode-table.com/en/0FD0/ Tibetan Mark Bska- Shog Gi Mgo Rgyan U+0FD0] [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.129|108.162.216.129]] 06:13, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

And the second Box is a Mathematical Script small I (U+1D4BE)
And the First Box is a Mathematical Fraktur small S (U+1D530)
I think These are the only ones, that iOS7 can't picture. [[User:ẞ qwertz|ẞ qwertz]] ([[User talk:ẞ qwertz|talk]]) 06:35, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

More fun with Unicode. Question is, which OS does Randall have that has perfect support? (It has to cover emoji and obscure glyphs like these. Likely that it's multiple devices?) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 06:47, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

I'm looking forward to finding out what the words are in English (as opposed to Unicodish). [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 06:47, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T18:35:50Z

Azule: split list item

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

To experience the interactivity, visit the {{xkcd|1525|original comic}}.
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There may be issues with the purpose explained.}}
Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of "yes", "no", or "maybe", this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply, even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

It could also be commentary about the ambiguous nature of advice from fortune tellers, horoscopes, etc. Each emoji has an ambiguous meaning (for example, depending on context, the cow symbol 🐄 could refer to beef or farming). The interpretation has more to do with the person receiving the fortune than anything given by the so-called fortune reader.

Emoji were previously referenced in [[1513: Code Quality]].

Note: if you see mostly squares (possibly with six numbers/letters inside) in the 8 Ball instead of actual symbols or pictures, it means your system doesn't have fonts that support the Emoji unicode characters. Scroll down to the comments below for suggestions on how to get and install the right font for your system, as well as to see a list of emoji characters so you can easily see if they're working or not.

==Transcript==
:Title: Emojic 8 Ball [with the 8 itself an emoji that looks like an 8-ball]
:[Form input field with placeholder text]: How will I die?
:[Submit button]: Ask
:[Image of a shiny black ball with a smaller circular window at its center.]
:[After the submit button is pressed, 1 to 3 emoji symbols appear in the window, framed inside a light blue triangle.]

==Trivia==

* The 8-ball randomly returns between one and three emoji characters. The source code reveals there is 42.1% chance of getting one character, 52.6% chance of getting two characters, and 5.3% chance of getting three.
* The source code contains 507 different emoji characters. For a full list of the supported characters, see [[1525:_Emojic_8_Ball/List_of_emoji|List of emoji]].
* This is the second comic without title text. The first was [[1506: xkcloud]].
* The page's source code says "Sorry blind people. There is no title text, even. Just a text box, an "ask" button, and a graphic that changes to a random emojii. This one doesn't seem to be for you."

{{comic discussion}}

<noinclude>
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:No title text]]
</noinclude>

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T18:23:25Z

Azule: changed a word

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

To experience the interactivity, visit the {{xkcd|1525|original comic}}.
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There may be issues with the purpose explained.}}
Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of "yes", "no", or "maybe", this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply, even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

It could also be commentary about the ambiguous nature of advice from fortune tellers, horoscopes, etc. Each emoji has unclear meaning (like the cow symbol 🐄). The interpretation has more to do with the person receiving the fortune than anything given by the so-called fortune reader.

Emoji were previously referenced in [[1513: Code Quality]].

Note: if you see mostly squares (possibly with six numbers/letters inside) in the 8 Ball instead of actual symbols or pictures, it means your system doesn't have fonts that support the Emoji unicode characters. Scroll down to the comments below for suggestions on how to get and install the right font for your system, as well as to see a list of emoji characters so you can easily see if they're working or not.

==Transcript==
:Title: Emojic 8 Ball [with the 8 itself an emoji that looks like an 8-ball]
:[Form input field with placeholder text]: How will I die?
:[Submit button]: Ask
:[Image of a shiny black ball with a smaller circular window at its center.]
:[After the submit button is pressed, 1 to 3 emoji symbols appear in the window, framed inside a light blue triangle.]

==Trivia==

* The 8-ball randomly returns between one and three emoji characters. The source code reveals there is 42.1% chance of getting one character, 52.6% chance of getting two characters, and 5.3% chance of getting three.
* The source code contains 507 different emoji characters. For a full list of the supported characters, see [[1525:_Emojic_8_Ball/List_of_emoji|List of emoji]].
* This is the second comic without title text. The first was [[1506: xkcloud]]. The page's source code says "Sorry blind people. There is no title text, even. Just a text box, an "ask" button, and a graphic that changes to a random emojii. This one doesn't seem to be for you."

{{comic discussion}}

<noinclude>
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:No title text]]
</noinclude>

User talk:Davidy22

2015-05-15T18:17:24Z

Azule: /* Unicode Theme */ new section

Hi Davidy22,

Just a quick thanks for helping roll back so much of the vandalism. Per your recent log comment, yes, there has been a recent spate of vandalism; before yesterday, it was the odd spammer that I've had to remove. But with the advent of ''Click and Drag'', there's also been an insurgence of ip-based vandalism. I'm hoping this is just a spike owing to the popularity of the comic, but I'm with you; if it doesn't die down, something more drastic is going to have to be done.

But again, thanks for helping...

-- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:17, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

== Please don't ==

Please don't create the redirects to explanations that haven't been created yet. It breaks the next and previous buttons, and gives people that are browsing through the explanations the false impression that the site is more complete than it is. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:41, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

:Ah, I'll stop then. Didn't know that. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 07:17, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

==Davidy22, the spam connoisseur==
Congratulations on transcending from being annoyed at all spam to recognizing the truly beautiful works of spammage from the rest of the cruddy heap. We should throw a party, lol. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:33, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
:Hey, it *was* a well written bit of spam. It was one of those copy/paste types of spam, except it was nicely formatted and coherent all the way through. It was informative too. A great change from the mindless template drivel or gibberish that we usually get. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 23:11, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

== Just asking ==:::Mostly cuz that didn't work when it was on the main page, and calling attention to specific comics has worked exceedingly well. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:57, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
Was there a reason you deleted most of the List of all comics? [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:21, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

:What on- shi-
:I was adding comic number 1132, and the preview was really slow, so I copied everything in the edit box and refreshed the page. I think half of the page hadn't finished loading in the edit box, and I only copied the first half. Derp [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 08:21, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

::I figured it was something like that. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 04:56, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Just so you know, it happened again. But SlashMe fixed it. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 18:07, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

:Mother of fracking- I'm going to figure out what's causing this and I'm going to fix this. Godammit. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 23:20, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

:Durr dee-durr, and now I've done it. Thanks for spotting that. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 07:22, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

== Ahem... You gonna finish that? ==

Have you taken a look at the front page recently (say within since you created the [[1134]] redirect)? [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:42, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
:I have it open right now. Please don't ninja me again. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 05:44, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

::<nowiki>*Sits tight and twiddles thumbs*</nowiki> Actually, if you've got this I'll go back to the pitiful bit of literature I'm calling this year's NaNo. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:53, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

== The Anonymous editor of 1132 ==

Has been 50.0.38.245 all along. For a while he changed his signature to be a userpage that didn't exist, and wasn't a registered user. He has now changed it back to being the IP address again. Just thought I should do some out-of-band communication about that. If you want to change your last comment about the anonymous user, that would be good. (I almost offered to edit it for you, but then realized the subject we're talking about, and decided that if 50.0 ever learns about looking at the edit history and diffs, I don't need to be called a hypocrite as well as a banhammer wielding {{w|BOFH}}) [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 03:35, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

== Broken mirror... ==

Sorry for the "ninja"... I guess we probably don't need 2 versions of the image though... Feel free to distill the explain part...--[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 07:15, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
:Godammit, I even had the window open waiting for the article. The definitions can be merged into one paragraph, and wiki magic will explain how the comic works. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 07:20, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

== Fooooooooor He's a Jolly Good Fellow... ==

You are the man, man. Keep it up! [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:50, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

:Seconded. Great work, you deserved the milestone! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:26, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

== Please take a look ==

...at [[User talk:Lcarsos#Deletion|this]]. Nothing new to you, I suppose (spam fighting can be quite hard if we're overly cautious on every step), but I'm dropping the note just in case :) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:52, 25 November 2012‎ (UTC)

== autoblocking suspicious users ==

Once again, it looks like auto-blocking users that have suspicious usernames would require someone with more power than we have.

However, I very nearly blocked those three when I noticed the account creation. But, I didn't because I thought they might be legitimate users with stupid usernames. But now I've read up on {{w|Wikipedia:New_admin_school/Blocking|Wikipedia's block policy}} and from now on I'll be posting {{tl|uw-blockindef}} (which I've bungled fantastically right now, but shortly should be working) which should allow the rare legitimate user (with bad taste in usernames) to reclaim their good account, but allow us to block bad people.

You're ever friendly, massive toddler of an admin, [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 03:41, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:I've also just found this page {{w|Wikipedia:Administrators' how-to guide}} which I will be reading very thoroughly and beginning to use this blacklist. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 04:16, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

::Hum. A great many of these templates could be condensed into a few bigger ones, but at least the documentation links are there for us to use. Also, you do know that Template:UserBox already exists, right? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:55, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
:::Well, crud. You switched, I switched. I do like the one we had better, mostly because of the descriptive labels and the nice thick borders. The name's in convenient CamelCase too. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:18, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

::::As a general rule I loathe my shift key, using more keys to achieve the same goal is wasted time, and I could be called ruthless about wasted time. Saving a single keypress seems petty. But I had a CS professor point out that by specially crafting what you have to type (creating shortcuts) saving a keypress here and there can add up to saving several thousand keypresses every 8 hours, which over a long enough quantity of time can equal hours and days. That's my long winded explanation for why I like using {{tl|userbox}} instead of {{tl|UserBox}}.

::::Also, I like the wikipedia userboxen, it's more flexible. And that allows anyone who comes over from Wikipedia to know how to work userboxen here too. That's my case for it. I hope you agree because I don't want to have to push my shift key, but I'll take your input, and if we end up in a tie, we might ask Waldir to tie break for us, as he'd be a neutral third party. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:44, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::In CS, I learned that descriptive variable names and easy to recognize naming conventions can save heaps of debugging time. I personally like the CamelCase version better because it uses variable names like left-bg instead of id-c for the background color in the box on the left, which makes the template self-documenting and easier to grok for a new user who's just reading the source. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:58, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::: I was asked to comment. Here are my thoughts:
::::::* Regarding CamelCase, it is indeed a neat convention but we don't use it elsewhere on the wiki. In fact, MediaWiki itself, in its early versions, used to rely on CamelCase for linking, but moved to the free-form, space enabled link syntax, which is better in many cases. Not everything converts nicely into CamelCase. So while I appreciate the argument to use CamelCase as the template name, I think the regular case version fits the wiki better. Besides, redirects are cheap and work well, so if the CamelCase title redirects to the lowercase one, whoever wants to use the CamelCase version can still do so seamlessly. Not an issue, therefore.
::::::* I agree with Davidy22 on the parameter names. In fact, the code of the template can be arranged in a more readable form (using whitespace and indentation) so not only its uses can be deciphered, but the template itself too. Renaming parameters is a simple matter, especially for templates with not many uses as these are, which means there isn't a lot of replacements to perform.
:::::: In summary, I think the two templates should definitely be merged and the best features of each kept in the final version: the title being [[Template:userbox]] (with redirects from [[Template:UserBox]] and [[Template:Userbox]]), and the parameters using intuitive names as {{tl|UserBox}}.
:::::: --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:06, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

::::::: Sounds good to me. The wikicode looks god-awful ugly though, who's up for cleaning that thing up? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:03, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::::: If you guys do the merge, I can clean it up afterwards :) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 01:14, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

== separate section for title text ==

I agree that in the two instances you removed the section header for the title text, it wasn't justified, but in some cases it does make sense. See [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Subsection for title text explanation|here]]. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 15:27, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

== No more imagesize ==

I made a comment on [[Template Talk: comic#Imagesize]], essentially imagesize isn't necessary, and I've changed the {{tl|create}} template to not include it. So rejoice, and forget imagesize ever existed (until the bug gets fixed). [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 03:02, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
: Bah, what was that parameter good for anyways? Clicking on the image should take you to the XKCD site anyways. What user cares about the image pages that the template currently takes you to? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:20, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
:: That's an interesting point. It's technically doable. But I think there should be a way to access the comic images (granted, I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm not comfortable leaving them "orphans" —linkless— either) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:08, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
::: There's the list of all comics page, and we could make the titletext link to the image page or something. I dunno, any excuse to kill imagesize. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:16, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
:::: To clarify, linking the image directly to xkcd has nothing to do with killing imagesize. That, for what I understand, has already been done. Good point about the list of comics page. I'll wait for more comments before implementing the change in the image link target. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:35, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
::::: Imagesize isn't *quite* dead yet. There's still four or five comics that still use it. Permission to upload the thumbnail versions of those comics, as we do with the other large comics, and end that broken thing once and for all? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:05, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
:::::: I don't like the idea of uploading smaller versions of images. We ought to be able to use mediawiki's own image scaling abilities as soon as we can do some [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Technical#We need more maintainers|testing in the wiki setup]] and make the image scaling issue go away. Apart from that, what exactly are the problems of imagesize, again? I haven't followed the discussions about it, sorry. Feel free to give me pointers to the appropriate places where the issues have been discussed. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 13:17, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

== Please move pages ==

I'm noticing that when someone creates a new page with the wrong title you're just copy/pasting the content onto the new page. Please don't do that. Please use the move page feature on the drop down of the page, that way we can keep the edit history for the page intact, and that way it doesn't look like you created these oddly poor quality pages. Thanks much. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 00:49, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
:Righty ho. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:09, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

== Sorry ==

I have been working contra u by routinely adding a white line above the categories. I instantly raise white flag! And say good night! -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 00:40, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

== Trivia placement ==

Cheers mate! Please check the comment I made some time ago in the section you started, [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Section style and usage|"Section style and usage"]] on the Proposals community page. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:10, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

If you disagree with the trivia placement between explanation and transcript, why don't you say so, and explain why? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:50, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

I made a section for discussion of this, so that we can come to some agreement: [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Trivia and transcript]]. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:18, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:Moved to [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Coordination#Trivia and transcript placement]] –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:05, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

== Jurassic Park category ==
Hi, you wrote you don't like how I created a new category for Jurassic Park. I thought it appropriate: there's a *lot* of references to Jurassic Park and/or velociraptors in the comics. And not all reference are to both... But what did you not like? Thanks for enlightening me! [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:07, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

:There's a lot of categories on this wiki. When adding categories to a page, it can get extremely difficult to make sure that you've gotten every category that applies to the comic. For regular editors, the amount that we have to remember when maintaining pages is already quite onerous; more categories hurt our dinky heads. If you're willing to steward that category, go ahead, but you'll have to remember to put in the explanation pages yourself when you find a comic that it applies to. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:36, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

:: OK. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 08:26, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

==[[220: Philosophy]]==

Actually, what happened was: This being my first new page edit, I copy-pasted the format from another page, and then edited all the information to fit the correct comic. Then I realized I'd forgotten to remove the date of the original page's comic, so I did so. *blushes* No trolling intended, just a newbie mistake. Is 2/7/07 the correct date for this comic? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 11:23, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
:Oooh. I thought you had gotten the date then removed it after seeing earlier rants concerning omitted dates. You can check a comic's date by clicking on the "All Comics" button in the sidebar on the left. All dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:37, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
::Yep. I see that now, and now that I know it's there, I create new pages straight from [[List of all comics]]. No offense taken. Thanks for the useful advice! [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 05:52, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

== Character names in transcripts ==

Ah, I see now that you've been cleaning up after me, adding character names to transcripts instead of "Man", "Woman", et cetera. Now realizing that's the wiki's standard, I'll endeavor to do that myself from now on. Thanks for your patience with the new guy. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 07:40, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

:It's k, just doing maintenance. You're really prolific, do you write all of those yourself or are you getting those explanations off the forums somehow? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:38, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

::I write them all myself. It's been some time since I've looked at the xkcd forums, actually. Sometimes I get a little help from Wikipedia when a particular detail escapes me. But you'll notice I don't make an attempt to explain the math ones. *laughs* [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 02:16, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

== My unexplained hobbies. ==

I just want to make sure that you are getting this, but I restored "My Unexplained Hobbies." You can now explain them. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:47, 11 February 2013 (UTC)
:Shweet. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:44, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

I suck at wiki stuff but am a real human - sorry for the confusion. {{unsigned|‎Schmammel}}
:No matter. Also, see the blue box above the talk page edit box for instruction on how to sign your posts. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:55, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

== About your new admin powers ==

Actually just the rollback hammer. I've learned this after being burned a few times.

Rollback will actually not revert just the one edit you are looking at, but will go back until it hits a revision that wasn't done by that user, so its useful for pure spam accounts, but if you're just undoing a single edit, you may still want to use the undo tool.

Also, once or twice I actually had it revert all the way back to the last patrolled edit, which meant it actually got rid of the edits of a few anonymous editors too.

Just a caution that with great power comes great responsibility.

--[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 04:11, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

:Oh damn, did I do that? Welp. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:28, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

== Removed Level 2 headings from Discussion page ==

Hi, I noticed you removed the level 2 headings in the discussion of comic 1188. I'm guessing it's the application of some formatting rule established on this wiki, so I'm curious where I can find a list of these standards that I should adhere to, so I don't make such a mistake again in the future. [[User:Jfresen|Jfresen]] ([[User talk:Jfresen|talk]]) 15:10, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

:It's not really a formatting convention, more of a workaround to technical limitations of the wiki. The way discussion pages are embedded into comic pages, headings in talk pages cause breakages when tables of contents are spawned. It's ugly and bad and it's the reason why we delete discussion page headers. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:33, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

== Captcha help ==

:''This thread was moved to [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#Captcha help]].''

== RE: Signature ==

Sweet, thanks David. {{User:Omega/sig}} 14:51, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

== Time is hard... ==

... and not only that, she also is, just like her sister Gravity, a heartless b**** :D
Thanks for taking care! :) [[User:Caranhyas|Caranhyas]] ([[User talk:Caranhyas|talk]]) 09:41, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

== Feedback ==

Hey David. It's nice that you're so responsive to requests such as those at [[Mediawiki talk:Sitenotice]] (or [[explain_xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#Captcha help|this one]]), but please take also a moment to report the request as completed, as that not only provides feedback to the requester, but is also a reference for the future (which removes the need to dig through the relevant page's history if, for example, one decides to check whether a request ever got implemented), and exemplifies desired behavior for future administrators. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 21:53, 6 April 2013 (UTC)
:Alright. Was just trying to get through everything quickly, and forgot to reply to those requests. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:55, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

== 262 correction: Thanks! ==

Hi there!

Unfortunately, I was not aware that I had incorrectly created the page for xkcd 262. Thanks for fixing that. My only question is whether the page "262" should be redirected to xkcd 262 rather than just showing the deletion template.

Thanks,

[[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 07:02, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

:The page "262" and all other pages consisting of only numbers are used internally to handle page linking. You don't really need to worry about them, you just need to know that making explanation pages in those numbered pages is baaad and that the create templates in the [[List of all comics]] will set up everything relevant for you. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:14, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

::So all of the xkcd comic pages theoretically "exist" on the site, but not all have connected pages? Also, how do I create a new page from the "All comics" page? Thanks for being so patient--I really want to be able to contribute meaningfully here. [[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 20:27, 7 April 2013 (UTC)
::No, we just link to the xckd comic pages. The numbered pages handle links between explanation pages. On the "List of all comics" page, there are (create) buttons next to all the red links; click those to start explaining those comics. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:12, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

:::OK thanks for explaining! I'll try to do better next time :). [[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 01:36, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

== List of unexplained comics ==

Thanks for the vote of confidence - hoping it'll encourage more contributors! [[User:Sean|Sean]] ([[User talk:Sean|talk]]) 21:50, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

== New sections in comic talk pages ==

Re [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:277:_Long_Light&curid=8457&diff=35146&oldid=35143 this correction] (especially your edit summary!): while there is the "Add topic" tab at the top of talk pages, you'll get new sections added to comic talk pages too.

Perhaps reducing them to ; headings is a better alternative that still marks a new topic.

;Just testing that I have the right formatting character
Yes.

Of course this won't fix the automatically supplied heading from the "Add topic" tab, but then we do still want that functionality in other talk pages, like here...
[[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 03:25, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

:Ooh, the semicolon does that? You learn something new every day. Noted. There might be a way to change those controls at the top, I'll look into that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:50, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

== Time frames 1008-1014 have an artefact in your upload ==

In your uploads "under the ground" between frames 1008 and 1014 there is a grey horizontal line with unmoving "ticks" while the terrain does change above. This is not reflected in the live hash for the only hash in this range recorded so far. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 10:55, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
:Hrm, I've just been pulling the images from the xkcd site and uploading them straight. Imma check on this. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:29, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
::Yeah, it's not just you, the [http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/?frame=1014&framediff=1007 geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190] has it too. Randall must have had a snafu that he's fixed. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 12:47, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

== Time1190 - but sometimes I also have NO time ==

I did register in here mainly for 1190, I am sure you did see this.
This weekend I will work on a script giving me an easy update for the next day template, for now I am doing manual.

THANKS for your great job on all the other comics!

I just do need more TIME...

And I am not native English, so I am still happy about everyone correcting me.

Archive discussion I did start here [[Talk:1190:_Time]]

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:29, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
:I actually already have a script to do that. I thought you had made one of your own though when you were filling in for new days, so I was just letting you go ahead with that. Here's my script: [http://pastebin.com/RQGGia3L]. Change the variables at the top of the script, run it and copy/paste the output into the page for time. The fields should be self-evident, but ask me if you have any questions. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:38, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

:: Oh, PYTHON - I prefer Perl or just a simple bash script.
:: So I will ask Randall for a translator for Python to Perl ;)
:: And tomorrow I hopefully will have some more time, your script is helpful.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:53, 11 May 2013 (UTC)
:::Just for fun I did the script in PERL. Here is the link: [http://pastebin.com/PG5j56Nv template]--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:29, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

== And sometimes I do have time ==
Just tell me what I did do wrong (I will follow you...). I am still new to WIKI syntax, it is still new to me. But I am learning as you can see.
And after all that I will write a Perl Script with a missing close paren...

I like jokes but I also like a clean Wiki here!

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:38, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
:Uh, the explanation for that page is a wee bit thin for the size and complexity of the comic, and it uses terms like the hibbert curve without defining them. It's not enough of an explanation to cover the whole comic. Also, there were a few missing categories and a bunch of trailing spaces in the transcript. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:46, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
::"a wee bit thin for the size and complexity of the comic" so sure this is still incomplete (I just did forget to add that template). Oh, and we have so many more complex comics with a need for more explanations. And while I am still not native English, which does mean I have to goooogle fore many memes, I am hoping I can support this wiki. I just try to do my best - any help on me is welcome! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:12, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
:::And I'm pretty sure they're all tagged as incomplete too, so all is well. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:17, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

== User talk page deleted? ==

Hey there, apparently my talk page was deleted because the only content on it was "buttsex", which is fine, but I just thought I should let you know that I did not add that ;). Can I restore my talk page blank? --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 11:39, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
:Yeah, sure, I saw the edit log when I deleted it. Do whatever you want with your user page. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:50, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

== Incomplete explanations ==
Hello [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]], I will stop creating incomplete new pages even when I think it's good idea to have a page for each comic here and work afterwards on all those incomplete ones. The pages [[Help:How to add a new comic explanation]] and [[List of unexplained comics]] should clarify this issue. Furthermore there are many more incomplete comics here not marked as incomplete so you can't find them here: [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Incomplete explanations]]. I am trying to give my best to support this wiki--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:44, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

:One add: I am not a youngster, my first computer was a C64 and the next one was a IBM compatible PC 286 (512 KByte main memory, 20 MByte hard drive). And right now I'm just trying to encourage other people to help here. But I don't want to fight against windmills.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:24, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
::I wasn't making any implication as to your age. It is actually harder to track incomplete articles than nonexistent ones - the wiki has no way of automagically detecting them the way it automatically provides red links for missing explanations. We have the incomplete tag, but people delete it from pages that still haven't quite been explained completely, and I sometimes forget to tag a new incomplete explanation as incomplete. Also, the fact that some incomplete articles exist that are not tagged as incomplete does not justify the creation of more stubs; if you find an unsatisfactory explanation, mark it as incomplete yourself. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:15, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

== Various requests ==
Could you delete the spam page [[User:Inkovic]] and block the user who created it? And delete [[Talk:283: Projection]] as well, since it was apparently created by mistake?

Also, [[1225: Ice Sheets]] is still missing a transcript. Could you help add it? And [[266: Choices: Part 3]] and [[267: Choices: Part 4]] lack explanations, but have been removed from the [[List of unexplained comics]]. Should we re-add them to that page, or create some basic explanations for them? --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 20:19, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:Incomplete articles are marked as incomplete, we'll deal with all the unsatisfactory articles on this wiki after we have a page for every comic. Still not an excuse to make more stubs, mind you. Did all the rest though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:08, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Please block spammer 70.50.106.152, he did kill 1190 Time.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:53, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
:Looks like a mistake. Not ban-worthy. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:24, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
::This was the only edit he/she ever did. I am hoping this will not happen again, that big page was really hard to load.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:32, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

The main page needs to be edited, as the recent deletion of the [[List of unexplained comics]] was recently deleted, making the wiki comic count one less than the actual number. Also, could you delete [[Talk:List of unexplained comics]] and [[:File:a matter of some gravity.jpg]]? The former is an orphaned talk page, and the latter was superseded by [[:File:A Matter of Some Gravity.png]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 20:19, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
:Done. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:08, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I created an explanation for 1228 (Prometheus). What I wrote didn't appear for a few minutes and then when I tried to check why, I found you'd deleted a page, but the text I wrote then appeared where I was expecting it. Your comment on the deletion referred to "a thing on the front page" I should have read. I looked for this "thing", but I've still no idea what I did wrong, or what happened with all the page creation / deletion jiggery pokery. I created the explanation after clicking a box which told me to do so if I wanted to provide / improve the explanation. I apologise for my mistake, but perhaps it would be better not to put boxes on the main page which invite edits if those edits end up in the wrong place? [[Special:Contributions/87.115.172.168|87.115.172.168]] 08:55, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
:I manually create the comic page and set it to show up on the front page usually within an hour of every new xkcd comic. The explanation pages for every comic follow a naming convention, with the comic number followed by the comic name. We also make a few redirects for the wiki to use to make the back/forwards buttons work. In addition to that, every explanation page has a template; note how every other page on this site has a particular look to it. The page that you created didn't follow any of that, so I deleted it and copy/pasted it to the correct location. The thing on the front page that I was referring to was the correct explanation page location that I had created 21 minutes earlier. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
::Thanks for the explanation - quite a manual process! I didn't realise I was creating a page - it looked to me like the page had already been created (which it had, it seems) and I would just be editing the empty section for the explanation. Now I realise that the "please edit" box should have shown up in the editor, perhaps alarm bells should have wrung. Nevertheless, I'm still wondering if it would be better, if possible, to somehow remove or modify the "please edit" box when it appears on the main page so it doesn't create an incorrect new page when one already exists! [[Special:Contributions/87.115.172.168|87.115.172.168]] 09:29, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank You,

[[User:Hopiakuta|hopiakuta DonFphrnqTaub Persina hopiakuta]] ([[User talk:Hopiakuta|talk]]) 09:03, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

There are a couple of xkcd comics that link to an extra image on the site when they are clicked. On this wiki, most of the time, the explanations just contain a direct link to this image. However, sometimes, users upload the secondary images and link to those. This is rather inefficient, especially since some images are too large to be displayed directly after they are clicked on the wiki. So, I was wondering if you could delete the few secondary images from the wiki. They are: [[:File:lakes and oceans large.png]], [[:File:na make it better.png]], [[:File:subways large.png]], and [[:File:lojban translated.png]].

In addition, I suggest that some [[Special:UnusedFiles|unused files]] also be nuked. [[:File:combination vision test fullcolor.jpg]] was superseded by [[:File:combination vision test fullcolor.png]]. [[:File:22 pieces.png]] was uploaded by a user who apparently just wanted to show off his Tetris skills. [[:File:2008 christmas special original.png]] is an xkcd comic before it was updated, which I doubt is necessary to include on the wiki. [[:File:starsmove.png]] doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 23:50, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Na make it better and the translated lojban do add to the comic. The two larger versions of comic images and the junk files have been deleted. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:12, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

I think you might have forgotten to delete [[:File:22 pieces.png]]. And [[404: 404 Error]] was created by mistake and also needs to go.

Also, could some admin tackle the issue that involves thumbnails not displaying properly? Dgbrt suggested [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Errors_and_symptoms#Image_Thumbnails_not_working_and.2For_appearing this fix]. Perhaps it could be tried? --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 16:00, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

:The 404 page needs to exist for the previous/next comic buttons to work properly. It also explains why comic 404 is missing, which may be confusing to some xkcd readers. Mostly the forward/backwards buttons though. The scrap image is gone, and I'm looking into the proposed fix. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:21, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::Nope. The page [[404: 404 Error]] is a duplicate to [[404: Not Found ]]. I just did a redirect there because I can't delete it.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:58, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Whoop, deleted. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:08, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::::Thanks, but there is still the discussion page. I did the same redirect there.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:26, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

== Spam at 1190 Time ==

Hi, IP 68.100.149.94 is still doing annoying edits here. I do not like that.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:38, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

== Su Doku ==
Hi Davidy22, I'm trying to enhance explains. People do read and understand shorter explains more easy, but the link to the details must be always included. I just did add the incomplete tag because my edit is maybe not complete. Everyone is welcome to help. But please keep short as possible, otherwise people won't read.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:19, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:That explanation is hardly too long. Our explanations should be self-sufficient, with the links there just to provide further context on things that we talk about in the explanations. A description of the format of sudoku is an important part of the explanation for comic 74, as the comic deviates from it in a notable way that not all visitors may recognize, be it because they haven't heard of sudoku before or because they aren't particularly familiar with the puzzles. There's a wee difference between cutting information and condensing the wording of a passage, and what you did with that explanation leads further towards cutting content. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:45, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::I prefer explains people will read. The wiki link for Su Doku is already there but I will work on a small explain soon.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:07, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:::What, three full paragraphs is too much for people to read? Three full paragraphs of a complete explanation are better than a paragraph and two sentences of incomplete description? I'd rather we follow the name of the wiki and actually explain the comics. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:41, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::::Read my version completely, I did adopt your hints on explain Su Doku and did some more polish. PLEASE just read before you undo! Tell me what's missing but I still prefer a more simple explain. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:10, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::You made a complete explanation incomplete in the name of simplicity. At least you bothered re-adding the relevant information back in post-hoc this time. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:03, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

== 1190 Time pictures after major changes ==

Hi,
any ideas to get new file uploads here? After your change we have some silence...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:55, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
:Geekwagon, Aubronwood and many other sites keep archives of past frame hashes. We can look up our last hash and upload all proceeding images here. I did that for the first 500-odd frames, until people started doing it faster than me. I'll probably start again since other editors seem to be on holiday. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:43, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
::You did upload all the images manual, is this the new way to do this? I thought your scripts don't like file names like 1234a, 1234b..., so do you not use a bot to upload the images? Further more: Since hashes from other sites do not map to the new naming here I think we have to document them here. But it seems I'm just running against windmills.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:01, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Post-hoc scripts; instead of an image archive littered with special cases, scripts need only iterate in numerical order. It's slightly more difficult to upload, but it's a consistent naming scheme for future use. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:03, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

== 1190 Time pictures - Do you use a bot or not... ==

...it seems not - why?
Lazy as I am! You're not like this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:27, 12 July 2013 (UTC)
:I have a script to help with backlog uploads, but then I also manually upload new images while I'm awake and am near my computer. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:14, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
::What do you think about a bot? My computer is downloading the images by 24/7 so an upload here should be possible. But first I will start some tests at my local MediaWiki installation.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:56, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
:::A bot would be nice. Slashme's Slashbot actually did time image uploads, but he stopped cuz electricity bills or something. We could ask him if he's willing to share. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:31, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
::::I am thinking about a bot like ''DgbrtBot''. I never have done this before (WikiBot) but I know the fucking manuals and while Randall does not like Perl I will use this language ;). Tomorrow I will start some tests at my local MediaWiki and then I will need an account for a bot.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:53, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

== Outage from Friday to Saturday ==

Did you recognize this, every error was just a "access denied for user ... on database ...". This board was dead for 24 hours.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:Yep, purged cache to fix it. Not currently in a place with perfect access to internet though, so I'm not quite as fast with that as I usually am. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:33, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
::The same happened yesterday. Do you have chronic disk space/quota shortage? --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 13:13, 25 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Yep. We added a donate button and the sidebar ads when these issues started happening - a few days after time - to buy better hardware. Money comes slow. We could probably stand to upgrade mediawiki and PHP too sometime. Sometime. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:43, 25 July 2013 (UTC)
::::Hi - I'm wondering if there has been any traction or progress in upgrading mediawiki - I was thinking especially with the recent comic [http://www.explainxkcd.com/1434 comic 1434] - but also historic comics like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/826:_Guest_Week:_Zach_Weiner_(SMBC) 826] - that an [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ImageMap imagemap] would be useful in the explanation, which is apparently bundled with [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.21#Bundled_extensions mediawiki 1.21], but also available as a extension(?) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 16:24, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
:::::Imagemap seems to be compatible with our version of Mediawiki. I'll get to adding it. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:58, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
::::::Done. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:40, 18 October 2014 (UTC)
:::::::Thanks! -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:28, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
:::::::I tried to create an imagemap for [[1434]] on a separate page, but any attempt to include the imagemap caused the submission to hang (sitting showing only a blank page whether I tried to submit for a preview or to actually edit) - I believe it was Friday, but might have been Thursday if you're looking for error logs. This is in contrast to the behavior when I tried to use wiki image maps before you said you added the extension (it would:::::::: simply strip out the tags and show the text content). I don't know how much time you have to contribute to this site every day, or how high a priority fiddling with this extension would be, but I'd appreciate anything you can do to look into this. Specifically, I used the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:where_do_birds_go_clips_only.png cropped image I uploaded] and the [http://www.maschek.hu/imagemap/imgmap Online image map editor] markup generator, which was linked from the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ImageMap#See_also MediaWiki:ImageMap page] as it "supports all shapes, [and is] Extension:ImageMap compatible".
::::::::Alrighty, I'll get on it. Do you have the imagemap markup you were trying to use saved somewhere? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:42, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
::::::::Tested it, the error appears to be an old friend of mine. All the more reason to try and resolve it. Disabled the extension in the meantime, but it's still installed. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:22, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
:::::::::I don't have the markup handy, but it's pretty easy to create sample markup (which is why I included the links for errythang) - I'm not even sure how to escape it in a wiki to make it postable here, since it doesn't even commit the change - I appreciate your efforts! Do you get more money if I ''click'' on Ads? :-) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:18, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
::::::::::The way our pricing works, ad clicks don't directly translate to income, but they make the ad space more attractive to potential buyers which leads to them bidding up the price. Our base prices are rock bottom though to encourage our own users to advertise with us, and we wouldn't mind if you pointed your boss/marketing dept at work towards our bargain bin ad space. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:01, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
:::::::::::A long-time friend has been dealt with, the plugin is now re-enabled. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:11, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

== User RouterIncident and a bunch of templates ==

Hi, I'm hoping you have had nice holidays. We all do need recovery. But it's bad when no active admin is available here.

Please delete that citation template, or just enter a link to [[285: Wikipedian Protester]]. Please delete also this categories: "All articles lacking reliable references" and "Articles lacking reliable references". We still have the incomplete category, that should be enough.

BTW: RouterIncident is maybe also on holiday, no action the last days.
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:04, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

:I could not find these categories you speak of in the page creation log, but citation needed is gone now. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:01, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

== Please move some pages and edit the "List of all comics" ==

I can't move pages here, but this should work:

<nowiki>{{comicsrow|1245|2013-07-31|10 Day Forecast}}</nowiki>
*the correct page must be: "1245: 10 Day Forecast"
*the ''title'' must be: "10 Day Forecast"

So I did not save this update because it would result into corrupt links:

<nowiki>xkcd.com/1245 | 10 Day Forecast (create) | number / title / talk | 10_day_forecast.png | 2013-07-31</nowiki>

Please help, or give me the power to do this on my own.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:03, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
:Ooor instead of deviating from the title on xkcd, we could use an excellent feature to the comicsrow template put in by Waldir. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:20, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
::Uh, I didn't know this feature.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:03, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

== Template:Verification needed ==
This template is unnecessary, please delete it.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:03, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
:Please also delete the templates behind this non existing categories:
:*Wikipedia pages with incorrect protection templates‏‎ (2 members)
:*Wikipedia protected templates‏‎ (2 members)
:--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:07, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
::Holy dependency hell. Purged the lot. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:42, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Can you nuke [[Talk:404: 404 Error]]? You forgot to delete it when you got rid of [[404: 404 Error]].

Also, any update on the thumbnail issue? They are still not displaying correctly See [[Special:UnusedFiles|unused files]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 22:03, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
:Deleted. Thumbnails are a bit trickier, seeing as Jeff is the only one who has direct access to the server. Still plugging. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:08, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

For some reason, the wiki places the [[Main Page]] in the same categories as the current comic. This should be fixed, as the only category it should belong to is the [[:Category:Root category|root category]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 16:30, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
:FYI I have answered [[User:Oneforfortytwo]] on [[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|his talk page]]. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 19:01, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

One more thing: Can you edit [[1190: Time]] and remove all links to images after 2973:00? Seeing as there will not be any more of them uploaded, and some of them are showing up on the [[Special:WantedFiles|wanted files page]]. Also, can you restore the deleted image [[:File:starsmove.png]]? Originally, I thought there was nowhere to put it, but I realized that I can link to it at [[1190: Time/Pictures]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 06:04, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
:Done. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:51, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

Oh, can you delete [[1360: Old Files/info]]? Also, could we possibly get a page where people can post pages to be deleted? That would make it easier to report them. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 19:47, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

:Can do. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:59, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
::Mkay, deleted the page, was in the process of making the page when I recalled that [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests]] and [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals]] tend to be the pages used for proposing deletion of pages. Page deletion doesn't come up incredibly often, although I could create the page if people really want it. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:25, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

I found [[:Category:Pages to delete]]. Although you can't explain why to delete a page. Perhaps a template would be more appropriate. Speaking of which, can you delete [[:Category:Commissioned]], [[:File:16px-BlackHat head.png]], [[:File:spirit rewrite unknown author.png]], [[:File:tongue awareness.jpg]], [[Special:ListFiles/ImVeryAngryItsNotButter|all of these uploads]], and [[Special:ListFiles/Spongebog|the Lorenz uploads here]]?

By the way, [[User:DgbrtBOT]] is not selecting the xkcd.com licensing choice when uploading new comic images, causing all of them to show up in [[:Special:UncategorizedFiles]]. And [[User:Dgbrt]] appears to have gone AWOL. Is there any way we can contact him and get him to change his bot?

Finally, I think there should be a category for the pages listed [[:Special:UncategorizedPages|here]]. Maybe helper comic pages, seeing as there is a helper comic images? Or comic subpages? --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 23:47, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
:The template [[template:spam]] automagically includes the delete template. We used to have a delete template, but it literally saw no use. The black hat head is the site favicon and the tongue awareness image is used in an explanation. The others seem justifiable though. I'll submit a patch to dgbrt that oughta fix the image categorization thing. Comic subpages oughta be a fine name. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:19, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

== Time animation—a little help maybe? ==

About the animated Time GIF, I actually prepared one right away at the end, but I haven't been able to get it to upload here, even though it's rather less than the stated size limit, 12 MB out of I think 40 MB. If anyone can suggest what might be going on, I'll be happy to try it out. I did ask in the XKCD forum, but didn't get any help there. Just in case it was a temporary thing, I'll go give it a shot here again after I post this. Wouldn't want to save face or anything if it actually works all of a sudden, after all.—[[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 20:03, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

== Clean explains ==

Oh, I did some reverts (undo) today again, I'm not happy:
*Ninja Turtles still belong to NASA
*Bullsh.. sorry
*Duplicate on some chess jokes
*Math
*And math again at some statistics (Increased Risk). <- ok, or (Increased Risk.)
While you do fight against spam, I simply do fight against some similar windmills. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:04, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
:Many of these were hamfisted ones that were targeted at one change, and reverted everything else contained in the same edit. Some of them were legitimate, some of them seem to show minimal effort to look at context before you edit. It's getting to the point where it's actually kind of disruptive now. If something is not in your area of expertise, don't revert like you do currently. There's a reason why rollback privileges are not given to all users. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:37, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

== 1269: Privacy Opinions‎ ==

This edit war is useless. The add is just '''TL;DR'''. And I'm sure even you did not read it all. Please keep explains as short as possible, otherwise people don't read. For understanding my post read this (read it all, there is a final statement at the bottom):
According to the title, the comic is about “opinions on internet privacy” in general. Six positions are offered as options. Four of the positions are tagged negatively by the author by their subtitles alone: the Crypto Nut, the Conspiracist, the Nihilist, and the Exhibitionist, all of which have negative valences in contemporary English. That the viewer is encouraged to identify negatively with these four positions is further encouraged by the content of the panels, as those characters are depicted either as having such boring lives that they have no need for privacy (the Crypto Nut, the Nihilist), or as being crazy (the Conspiracist, the Exhibitionist).
A fifth position, the Philosopher, is tagged somewhat ambivalently by the author: Megan is depicted as boring her interlocutor, yet in the title text, the author admits that he is usually the Philosopher. Also, “Philosopher” in vernacular English is neutrally valenced, potentially having the ability to expound either wisdom (sophia) or sophistry. It is also a synonym for Sage, the sixth position. As the author condones his own movement from Philosopher to Sage, he thus indicates that the Philosopher is to be viewed negatively, even if it is a tempting position to hold.
The title of the sixth position, the “Sage”, is positively valenced in contemporary English, and the author in the title text states that once he obtains a “burrito” – i.e., a “real” thing, he switches from the Philosopher to the Sage. The internal evidence presented thus far therefore is entirely consistent; the author encourages the reader to identify with the Sage.
By presenting five negatively tagged positions followed by a positively tagged sixth and final one, the author follows a rhetorical commonplace of listing and refuting a number of positions one by one, concluding with the favored and best one, which is not refuted and should be accepted both on its own merits and by virtue of being the last one standing. The comic therefore implies that no other (significant) positions exist.
Having completed the rhetorical analysis of the comic, we are now in a position to understand the meaning of “Internet Privacy”.
Panels #3 and 5 directly reference the American NSA. Panel #5’s “exhibitionist” also references Google, but the characters in the panel appear to be NSA agents (one wears an official cap and they are viewing the exhibitionist on an official, government-looking monitor). Likewise, the focus of the “Nihilist” is that the joke is on the people who gather the data, rather than those who are subsequently able to make use of it (such as Facebook’s users rather than "Facebook" itself; i.e., Facebook's employees and, by extension, its advertisers). The content of the actual data is only mentioned in panels #2, 4, and 5, and in each panel, it is suggested that it is meaningless or trivial. The Sage underscores the notion that any data known about him does not bother him, and therefore must be meaningless or trivial. The reader is thus encouraged to believe that it does not actually matter whether others discover personal data abou t him/her.
The comic is therefore what social theorists call *reductive*, because it reduces the range of possibilities of “Opinions on Internet Privacy” to an artificially and simplistically narrow subset; in this case, individuals concerned with government or corporate agencies using data that they have gathered on individuals, and the futility of worrying about such things. The comic does not admit the possibility of other “opinions on internet privacy” – namely, that individuals might have legitimate concerns with governmental or corporate uses of their data, let alone other individuals’ access to data that is assembled and distributed by corporations such as Facebook. The comic likewise does not consider the possibility of individuals having more interesting lives than the characters depicted, and therefore very real concerns about their privacy due to the activities that they engage in that are potentially more career limiting (should they be discovered) than obsessing about cryptography or eating a burrito.
The comic is “functionally” reductive, as opposed to “intentionally” reductive, because the reduction is the function or effect of the comic for readers who read it straightforwardly (such as the poster who claimed it was “about” Edward Snowden), whether or not the author intended this reduction to occur. There is not enough internal evidence in the literary text (i.e., the comic) to maintain that the author intentionally excluded other viable opinions on internet privacy; it could be that they are just not on his radar. For example, we do not have enough information in the comic to claim that the author is against civil rights; it could be simply that he doesn’t often think about them. Likewise, it would exceed the evidence of the comic to claim that the author believes that schoolteachers who use the internet to facilitate legal but frowned-upon sexual behaviors should lose their jobs if they are found out due to internet privacy breaches; it could be that the author simply hasn’t bothered to worry about these matters if they don’t affect him personally. This adjudication – whether the comic is “intentionally” reductive or not – may only be made on the basis of external evidence; that is, data known about the author from sources beyond this comic.
Use of such external evidence – historical, personal, psychological information about an author – is valid in determining the meaning of an author’s text, and is increasingly viable due to the accessibility of information about an individual on the internet today.
Additional observations about the comic follow.

And when you did complete all that readings maybe you can summarize it, just in a way a reader would read.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:15, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:PRO TIP: explainxkcd is not guessxkcd.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:19, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
::I did actually read it, and goes well past merely defining words in the comic. It covers writer's craft and all of it is derived from valid analysis of text from the comic. There's maybe a couple of excess words that I edited out, but length is not a bad thing. I read it the first time, and it was a valuable analytical contribution to the explanation; I question the value of flat-out reverting major edits that significantly improve pages. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 18:33, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:::First sentence is mapped to the title, the TL;DR section is at the bottom. OK?--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:10, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
::::Uh, you cut the passage in half and split it up when it was referring back on itself? And you're accusing me of not bothering to read it? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:26, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:::::Uh, Oh, Ahh, I did not delete any content, I just asked about improvements. Read my comments, still much smaller than this adds.
:::::Are you happy when people do not visit this site again because the explain is bullshit? TL;DR... I still prefer articles people will read.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:49, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
::::::I know you didn't delete anything. You cut it down the middle and pasted half the passage at the end of the article, with little regard for flow or structure. That's not a valuable edit, even if it's a smaller change than the initial passage addition. Having short explanations is not worth cutting out valuable information. Cutting out content that's irrelevant to the comic, yeah. Cutting out false relations and waffle, that's fine. Don't cut out well-written analysis.
::::::Also, I'm noticing concurrent issues being raised against your edits again. Consider editing and working on top of edits instead of straight reverting them, and avoid antagonistic language. You already have one warning from the last time this happened. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:59, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:::::::I still disagree. The list of panel explains is overruled by a massive amount of text before. This is still not a helpful explanation.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 06:58, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
::::::::It's not a helpful explanation for those incapable of reading or scanning a sizeable passage of text. It contains all the relevant information in a coherent and laid-out manner, with a bullet pointed list to draw attention to the frame-by-frame explanations for those who want to skip the intention and analysis. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:26, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

== Advertising ==

My Firefox AddOn NoScript did block the external page "projectwonderful.com". The untrusted picture [http://www.projectwonderful.com/img/uploads/pics/91967-1378268302.png] does not belong to "explainxkcd.com". Then clicking the picture brings me to this link: [[explain_xkcd:Advertise_Here]]. But, I still do not see any advertisement here at all, only this "wonderful project world", what's wrong?

I would like to pay here for a link to Randall's store (he doesn't know), but it has to be an internal picture to an external link. A user action is required, ask Randall about this security. External clicks do count, embedded content to external sites is a real insecure solution. Many modern browsers will not allow this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:51, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
:The image does belong to us, it's just served by project wonderful when no advertisers are currently bidding on us. The word "advertise" used in the link title is in the verb form, not the noun; that page describes how to advertise on our site. That page contains our advertising guidelines and a few links to our project wonderful bidding page. There, you can create an account and bid on any of the four regions we have on offer. Our minimum rate is USD$3.8 per day, and they let you link any image to any site. If you still can't advertise with us, post imgur links to screenshots to show me what you're doing.
:Have you not said in the past that you are an employed software developer? Instead of advertising a site wholly unaffiliated to you, why not ask your boss to try his hand at advertising on explain xkcd? It's cheaper than most advertising outlets, and we have a large and valuable audience for your average technology company. Your company can probably easily muster the ~$15 per day needed to advertise in all our available regions, and the process takes about as long as creating an account on any other site on the internet. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:13, 2 October 2013 (UTC)

== A database error has occurred... ==

I did clean the cache, it seems no admin is required to fix this damn problem. Site was down but available now again. I will also talk to JEFF about this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:54, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
: New server coming soon. Hopefully these DB issues will stop... forever. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:39, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

== IP Users ==

I still do not like this mess: [[User:108.162.216.45]] and [[User:50.151.2.168]]. Users have to register for this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:18, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
:No they don't? {{w|User:70.21.5.28}}. The page takes up so little space, it's not worth forcing them to do something they may not want to do. When our IP friend wants an account, they will make that choice on their own. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 16:35, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
::Someone else will use the IP 50.151.2.168 in the future. If that user also likes xkcd and explainxkcd he will find a history he never has done. Still a mess. Nevertheless you can be sure that I never will edit this without admins permission.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:39, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

== Question: — or - ==

You're changing — to -, even while it looks to me like a (typical American) loooong dash at the picture. Original transcript by Randal on [[752]] is "Do you--", so I don't understand some of your latest edits. I'm changing &mdash to — ( on Linux). I did opt for removing the double spaces after a sentence, but is this dash also history? Like miles... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
:Eh, I just do it because it's only one character in the original comics. I don't actually have easy access to an mdash on my keyboard when I'm editing, I'll probably bind that to a key for future use. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:12, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
::My question was just: Is "—" wrong or not. You know I am German, but my OS and much more programs are running on English. That's because all that translations are just annoying. Nevertheless, at [[752]] the original transcript shows this: "Blonde: Do you--". this should be a long dash. And you did change many &mdash to "—", I just want to understand how to behave on this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:17, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
:::There isn't really a codified grammatical rule for the length of a dash. It's mostly stylistic, but it seems to be a rather common convention that a short dash is for joining words, and a long mdash is for punctuation dashes. Again though, it's not on the keyboard and the vast majority of people probably don't pay attention to dash length when reading. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:41, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
::::You did introduce this in the past, my keyboard gives me on "ALT GR + SHIFT + -" just a "—". but we still have to decide about a rule on this. "-"--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:22, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

== Extension:Comments ==

Have you thought about trying [[mw:Extension:Comments|Extension:Comments]]? It was recently updated (July 2013) and looks like it would make commenting the explanations much more user-friendly. Could you make a little experiment to see if it works well? Say, install it so we can test and see if it works well? I'd be willing to help in the conversion of current comments to the new format, and we could even make it a long-term goal to eventually bring back all the comments from the blog :D --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 16:24, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
: I did edit the incomplete template, ERROR is not correct. But a hint to the missing reason is great.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:24, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
: From prior experience, the comments plugin does generate a lot of meta-pages with scrambled names that made me prioritize other things over it, but I can totally run it for a few days to see how things go. In a few weeks, my free time will skyrocket and I should be able to install and monitor the plugin then. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:40, 24 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Hey Davidy. I wonder if you're able to try this out. If so, let me know how I can help!
:: On the other hand, I am disappointed to hear that the comments extension doesn't integrate neatly with mediawiki. Are you aware of any similar choice that may be better-behaved? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:33, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

== New comics BOT ==

I think that BOT is doing the job right now. Maybe there is a possibility to install it on this server, not much but some PERL modules are required, it should work on any OS. Nevertheless since I could see the updates in general did happen at 04:00 UTC I will implement a new script starting at 04:00 UTC, polling again after that again. But since I don't want to poll xkcd too much that poll would stop after fifteen minutes. Then there will be just a five minute schedule, until a new comic is found.

BTW: <nowiki>$text .= "{{comicsrow|$comic_num|$date|$comic_name|$picture_name}}\n"; </nowiki> means I will always add the optional parameter for the picture. Not all picture did work properly in the past, so I decided to include this parameter to get a working picture link on the main page. Any suggestions are welcome. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:50, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
:I have an idea for that, but I have a metric buttload of things that I need to do by the end of this week. I've seen comics come out several hours late so I think polling for four hours would still be apt, and I'm sure Randall's server could handle us polling him a little faster. Having a explanation page up at the same time as a new comic is really huge. I believe I have a solution for the comicsrow problem, but I also don't know Perl. I could probably figure it out in a weekend though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:19, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

== Incomplete tag at main page ==

Am I wrong, or is every new comic complete at the main page in the future? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:16, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
:When we include a comic page on the main page, templates and categories are preserved. While that's good for page layout and the like, it's not so good when we have templates that impart their categories upon the inheriting page, like the incomplete template did. It was tagging the main page as incomplete whenever the newest comic was marked as incomplete. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:27, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::Yezzz, I understand. But presenting a new incomplete page in this way is not good. The counter has to be adjusted. But I'm serious on this and maybe some ''noinclude'' tags may help. While the main page should not be counted, the page it presents, if incomplete or not (<-the problem), should presented at the proper state. My bot will cover any solutions for further uploads. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:40, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
:::What counter? The counter on the main page doesn't take into account the main page itself, and the transcluded page is shown in its entirety, save for the discussion page and one category. What's the problem here? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:37, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

== I don't mind about a 24 hour ban... ==

...but after that I did try to do some more talks here:
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Mrarch&curid=13771&diff=55110&oldid=55109
DELETED!
I'm still the pest here, or what? I'm still hoping you will understand my actions here. I'm working much on the health of this board, talking to Jeff and many more here. And Mrarch just did delete my message. I'm German, so it could happen that I do use a sentence which could be interpreted different to my meanings. BUT: I just want to support this site as much I can do. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:49, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
:Oh nuts, didn't see that. I though he was just setting up his own user and talk pages. I'll leave a notice. Also, try to cooperate, and practice your English. There ''are'' a few naunces in his arguments that you're gliding over. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:45, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
::And oh nuts, we need some more people to review all the updates here. We have many new people here, doing great edits, but sometimes a correction is needed. I will still do this here, but you can be sure I will be much more polite when an edit-war does happen. I don't mind - xkcd is just fun. That counts! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:26, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

== BOT uploads at the comic list ==

Hi,
I can remove that "Picture.png" add, but I think it's more safe to use this optional parameter. Sometimes upper case and lower case did cause some problems. I'm trying to prevent this by providing the image link my BOT did upload here.

On January 1 my BOT did fail because the picture was not accepted at this Wiki, and my BOT stops on every unexpected error. The BOT doesn't understand Randall and so, when the BOT is running on problems it simply does nothing.

I've had serious problems to connect this site since a few deys, I don't understand why, but my BOT is doing it's job as planed.

Looking forward to some translations...

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:04, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
:Hm? What cases cause it to fail? Imma make this work. In cases of ambiguity, we could always err on the side of caution and include the parameter. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:54, 7 January 2014 (UTC)
::The BOT did fail on January 1. because the "PNG" was in fact an "Adobe XMP" format and the upload was rejected by this site. A BOT barely can't handle this unexpected mess. This requires human action and the BOT stops further actions. The optional parameter will be posted anyway; if BOT doesn't fail.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:13, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

== Incompleteness Tag. ==

My browser (Chrome) is showing that 137: Dreams is the incomplete comic of the day. I used the tags there as the page instructed. Did I use them incorrectly? (possibly it was supposed to be in the main page edit instead of the discussion? I am fairly new here)This is the algorithm now. 19:10, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
:The explanation page is already tagged. Tagging the discussion page marks the discussion page as incomplete. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:31, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
::I did edit this discussion page with a nowiki marker. And ‎Anomulus please sign your comments in the proper way, it's much more easy to discuss with an user instead of just a date. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:41, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I did move some comics back to the incomplete section, a full explain is still more worth than a 0% ratio here. Nevertheless I am still thinking, not really working, on a German translation. But just because the ratio looks great here I will focus on that translation soon. Stay tuned...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:18, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
:If our numbers are right, a very healthy portion of our visitors should be German and you shouldn't have to be concerned with taking on the entire burden of translation. It's probably good to be conservative with the incomplete tag, it reduces the burden on of research on translators if they only have to change the language. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:33, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

== Incomplete Explanation of the Day ==

Some thoughts:
*[[explain xkcd:Incomplete Explanation of the Day]]: No need for the daily update, it's also still at the top.
*[[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]] should contain a link to this: [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Incomplete explanations]].
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:43, 8 February 2014 (UTC)

:It takes very little extra effort to also update the project page, so I just do it anyways. The incomplete explanation of the day is supposed to be a focusing effort, to finish off one comic at a time. A link to the list of all the incomplete comics wasn't working, which is why I started drawing attention to individual comics in the sitenotice. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:55, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
::So tell me what's wrong with this link: [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Incomplete explanations]]. In my opinion this could be still placed at the top.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:26, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:::Mostly cuz that didn't work when it was on the main page, and calling attention to specific comics has worked exceedingly well. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:57, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
::::I don't understand, there was a similar link in the past.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:13, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
:::::And in the past, that link had almost no effect on the incomplete pages count. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:54, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

===I just did remove a typo===
<code>:"1930s" has "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". a</code>

If you can not accept my typo correction on that simple damn "a" I will give up here. And I'm not sorry. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:40, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
:In the same edit I removed whitespace from the page, as is not immediately obvious from diffs but can be seen from the edit size numbers. The "a" has been gone in each of my proceeding edits, as you can see in the revision log if you would care to read it. Autoreverting is bad. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:57, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

== 1037: Umwelt ==

Hi, I'm sorry. But as my comments did say, some texts maybe helpful; but I can't fix all that layout issues. The individual pictures are still great, some ideas on that edits are nice, but it does not work in the full context. And those massive edits don't give both of us a way to review them all. I just did that revert because it doesn't work. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:09, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
:The layout is still broken... I don't like edits without using a preview to verify a proper layout — and I do not like massive edits no one can follow.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:22, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
::Image resizing will be fixed soon. Give it at most three weeks. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:37, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

== New admin proposal ==

Please take a look [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#New admin|here]]. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 18:36, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

== Template:comic ==

Isn't this just a revert and a freeze to a former revert done by me? Others did play then again on the main page appearance, but changes at this should be only possible for people not experimenting. The entire main page has to be protected. That page isn't a playground.

And on that admin discussions on me: My most posts are related to language, layout, and something — and I still don't like all those esoteric explains on ASSes, PENISpumps, ... But an admin has to work mostly on different issues.

Randall does primarily focus on "romance, sarcasm, math, and language.". Randall does more, so the SEX category is here, but I think we have to focus on the "primarily focus" at the headlines on explain pages first.

My advice here: Do NOT try to enhance well working templates, other statements are much more important.

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:18, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

:It's not quite a revert, he changed how linking works for the first comic page, added jump links to the first and last pages and attempted a few fixes. I just fixed a few omissions that he made. Admin work usually tends to be focused on non-content stuff, yeah, but I feel like those people maybe probably might be right. Innuendo in comics not explicitly mentioning sex exist. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:03, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

== Mail send ==

It's still not easy to find important mails, I nearly lost yours but now you got a reply. Your issues needs a test, I will do that soon. And sorry for this three month late reply. Maybe I have been blind, I just found your message today.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:46, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
:The site GitHub.com did send a message to me from "David ???(possibly your surname)" but the address was in fact <nowiki>notifications@github.com</nowiki>. So this reply was stupid by me because that mail will never reach you.
:Please send me a notification here because I don't visit that GitHub site on a regular base. Last visit was two or three months ago. It's just a backup for myself and available to everyone who likes.
:Your request could remove links to GIF or JPG files, so I decided to include the picture link always because it does work on that template. Dynamic comics are much more complicated and my BOT stops to post any update here if something went wrong. I'm still thinking about a better logging on that, My idea is still: If the BOT decides not to post chaos here it should save any content for later manual analysis. But that's a big deal because Randall's comics are so different...
:Nevertheless the BOT covers most comics just in time, I know people are happy on this — and when the comic is too sophisticated, it just stops to prevent chaos here.
:--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:41, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

== File:lorenz-new.png ==

Moving this to File:lorenz.png does not work like my former updates, maybe it's some cache on the server. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:31, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:Huh. I'll have to take a look at that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:45, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:The file on the server looks right. It'll probably update itself on the caching servers in good time. The distortion is annoying though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:49, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::Can you clear the cache? The page [[1350]] still looks bad like my former reverted updates. But maybe we use this just a test for the servers. Uploads are easy, but updates are the hell. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:08, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:::Eff it, let's wait on it. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:17, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::::One idea: Try "Lorenz.png" instead of "lorenz.png". While WIKI is mostly case insensitive the servers maybe are. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:20, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

== German page ==

Is it still possible to create a German page here? I'm complete (honestly mostly) on my investigations for presenting a proper German page. On a positive reply I will present some more details (maybe screenshots) of my local wiki and a plan on how to bring it up to public. And consider, this would not only be for German readers, we have Austria, Switzerland, and many other parts in Europe. I would be happy to support this, and my BOT would be too. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:37, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

:It's still possible, gonna do it after we clear out all the incomplete pages as promised.'''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:44, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

::So then this never would be happen. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:50, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
:::No, because we'll eventually clear out our backlog of old, incomplete articles. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:24, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

== /r/xkcd sitenotice ==

May I ask why you've added a sitenotice about /r/xkcd? The /r/xkcd sub is controlled by /u/soccer, who links to racist, xenophobic and misogynistic content regularly. Randall has even spoken in support of a petition for /u/soccer to be removed as a mod (which of course didn't happen because reddit doesn't do that). /r/xkcdcomic is a non-hateful alternative, one that Randall supports, and it has more users than /r/xkcd. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 13:19, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:If you look closely at the text and click on the link, you'll see that it actually says and links to xkcdcomic. Also, /r/xkcd is currently at 40000 subs and hit 10000 a few years ago. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:38, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
::Hmmm, yeah, I'm not sure how I got that backwards, but I did. Someone pointed it out to me on IRC and I guess I didn't look closely enough. Sorry about that. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 19:35, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

== Any idea on this: [[A Smarter Planet]] ==

This should be mentioned here, but that article doesn't represent a comic from the main page. Maybe it should be merged to [[Randall]]? What do you think? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:17, 6 May 2014 (UTC)
:That's not a bad idea. I'll put that on the list of things to do. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:56, 10 May 2014 (UTC)
::Sorry, I've forgotten to post a reply here. I did put in a new template for this special issue because it's different to a common comic from xkcd. A standard comic template never can cover this. And when this template is complete it should be protected, but the resulting category page is still bad and I need help on this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:55, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
:Yeah, I figured that when I tried it myself. It might be a bug with parserfunctions though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:17, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

== Do we have active admins here? ==

This site seems to be running into chaos. The former approved admins do not work that much here; and now I'm even missing you.

Maybe you are on holidays; if so, I'm just greeting with "Happy holiday". BUT this site still needs an admin.

You know I'm still looking forward on a German page for this, but this English page is still on my main focus. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:16, 9 May 2014 (UTC)
:The image caching issue is caused by Cloudflare not refreshing the image that it serves as fast as we'd like it to. Outstanding admin requests and unsigned messages were left for one day. That's not inactivity. The only thing I saw being raised was the admin request, which was closer to a progress update to which you butted in with an irrelevant remark. The only conflict I see in talk pages is between you and other editors, and it's only mild disagreements and mostly civil discussion at the moment, so I'm pretty fine with it. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:56, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

== Minor edits ==

Hi, you are often doing minor edits like fixing some syntax or missing parentheses. If you would mark them as "minor edits" it could be ignored at the "Recent changes" page. Major changes could be found much more easier. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:29, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

== Incoming confirmation email: Domain of sender address expla0@vps.explainxkcd.com does not exist ==

Since the email address of incoming confirmation emails come from a non-existing domain, they are bounced so never reach me.

From the mail logs:

<code>
2014-05-30T08:36:21.455368+02:00 snap sendmail[12564]: NOQUEUE: connect from vps.lunarpages.com [67.210.100.50] (may be forged)
2014-05-30T08:36:22.049902+02:00 snap sendmail[12564]: s4U6aLdn012564: ruleset=check_mail, arg1=<expla0@vps.explainxkcd.com>, relay=vps.lunarpages.com [67.210.100.50] (may be forged), reject=553 5.1.8 <expla0@vps.explainxkcd.com>... Domain of sender address expla0@vps.explainxkcd.com does not exist
2014-05-30T08:36:22.219369+02:00 snap sendmail[12564]: s4U6aLdn012564: from=<expla0@vps.explainxkcd.com>, size=2306, class=0, nrcpts=0, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=vps.lunarpages.com [67.210.100.50] (may be forged)
</code> {{unsigned|Jeroenp}}

:You shouldn't need a confirmation email to contribute and use the site. Uh, that feature'll probably be turned off; how did you request the email that generated the above error? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:21, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

::Because at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Preferences it says:

<blockquote><blockquote>E-mail address is optional, but is needed for password resets, should you forget your password.You can also choose to let others contact you by e-mail through a link on your user or talk page. Your e-mail address is not revealed when other users contact you. 
E-mail confirmation: Your e-mail address is not yet authenticated. No e-mail will be sent for any of the following features. 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:ConfirmEmail Confirm your e-mail address] 
* Enable e-mail from other users
* Send me copies of e-mails I send to other users
* E-mail me when a page on my watchlist is changed
* E-mail me when my user talk page is changed
* E-mail me also for minor edits of pages
</blockquote></blockquote>
::So I used this to send a confirmation email: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:ConfirmEmail
::[[User:Jeroenp|Jeroenp]] ([[User talk:Jeroenp|talk]]) 19:13, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

The lunarpages do not know to set up a proper Mail Server. My Mail Servers also would never accept this until I whitelist them. Sadly I still have to do this for some customers — also big customers in the US. Reasons because this mail isn't valid:
*dig vps.lunarpages.com:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
vps.lunarpages.com. 3600 IN A 80.156.86.78
vps.lunarpages.com. 3600 IN A 62.157.140.133
*whois 67.210.100.50:
The answer belongs to LunarPages.
*But 67.210.100.50 isn't a registered MX entry for the domain "lunarpages.com":
lunarpages.com. 300 IN MX 0 sharpmail-new.lunarpages.com.
*which is:
sharpmail-new.lunarpages.com. 300 IN A 74.50.25.50

I'm sorry, but fighting against SPAM is important and a proper Mail and DNS configuration is mandatory. Maybe those admins at LP do need some help and advise.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:06, 2 June 2014 (UTC)
:If you don't have anything useful to say, don't say it. You don't have to be in on every single conversation on the wiki. The issue is being dealt with. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:45, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

== "Feeling old" category ==

Hello, Davidy22. I noticed that you deleted the "Feeling old" category I made a while ago due to being "tenuous, not significant enough." In the interest of becoming a better contributor to the wiki, could you explain further on significance for a new category?

I realize that there are various qualifications that a category has to fulfill, lest it only add clutter to the wiki. A category ought to be simple, memorable, and concise. It should refer to something within or about the strip, be deliberate, and be objective. And, ideally, it should apply to a fair number of strips. I figured that the four strips that included the motif of "character/Randall reflects on how distant the seemingly-recent past is" all used it significantly, as a central theme or as a punchline. I personally feel that Randall hasn't exhausted his use of this motif, and therefore it warrants its own category for future comics, saving time in future explanations and aiding readers of past explanations.

(My one personal issue with it is that the phrase "feeling old" does not feel concise or specific enough, but I couldn't think of a single word or a better two-word phrase to describe it.) -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.21|108.162.216.21]] 18:18, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

:I hope you (Or Davidy22) don't mind me starting off this conversation. Categories are not meant to be used as a tag cloud. Categories are a concrete thing in the comic such as [[:Category:Comics with color]], [[:Category:Red Spiders]]. They are not motifs or feelings about the comic. We don't have categories for happy comics and sad comics, and I can't think of a persuasive enough argument to allow them. Until there's a significant number of comics with "I feel old" or "I'm getting old" or "#FeelingOld" (eww) in the text, I'd hold off on trying to push this one through. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:55, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
::Part of the deletion ''was'' because it only had four comics under it. The only times I've allowed categories with that few comics behind them was when they were put forward by registered users who I could make promise to maintain them. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:51, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
::: Okay, so ''feeling'' old is a bad category name. Categories that sound subjective in general are bad. Perhaps "Aging" could work? And also, courtesy of two particular xkcd blogs, I know of at least 10 comics that would belong to it: [[218]], [[354]], [[447]], [[493]], [[647]], [[891]], [[973]], [[1093]], [[1393]], and the recently posted [[1408]]. - [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.21|108.162.216.21]] 03:38, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

== Weird formatting bug ==

I remember back when I had asked about skins you had told me to mention if there was anything off. Well, it's nothing major, but [http://puu.sh/ceEv7.png this] seems to happen on the Main Page alone on the monobook skin. I can't say I've ever seen this before... [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 16:55, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
:Mmmm, testing does not give me the same bug, but that part of the page is still malformed. I'll get on that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:58, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

== Dont change other peoples comments ==

When the user clicks "add a topic" in the comments block a new section is added. When a user does this you modify it to a heading style you prefer. This is against every design principal I know of. You have 3 legitimate choices: remove the button, style the header so it pleases you more, or let it be. Since this is a standard part of the wiki and updading versions would likely undo your changes, I would sugest that you simply learn to live with it, as it is not objectivly ugly.
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 13:10, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

:It's not actually done because the header is ugly, it's done because of an error case that occurs when the discussion page is transcluded onto the main explanation page, that came up a while back. It would probably be better to remove that button instead of having to manually change every discussion page header, and I'll get to that when I have the time. Also, note how I only modify headers in explanation talk pages, where the error can occur; headers in user talk pages and the community portal are unchanged. Also, updating between mediawiki versions does not change the contents of (most) pages, so it wouldn't actually undo what I'm doing. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:54, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

::Am I allowed to undo other peoples comments when they include blatant racism? See Weatherlawyer's comments on [[500: Election]] and [[522: Google Trends]]. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:28, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
:::No. You are not the judge of what other people are allowed to say. If other people say something questionable, they will be warned and/or banned. On the subject his his specific comments, they doesn't seem overtly racist in 500, just heavily politically skewed, but 522 seems pushing it. I'll warn him for now. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:32, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
::::With respect, referring to 'Only having voted for a chimpanzee twice' is (to me at least) an obvious racial slur aimed at Obama. I have no issue with anyone posting inflammatory comments with regard to his politics/policy/decisions as President/what he stands for etc etc etc, but racism is not ok. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 21:10, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
:::::Chimp in the general lexicon is used to describe someone mentally challenged, not black. I must say it's quite hard to discern exactly who or what he's talking about because it feels like he's just making comments for the sake of making lots of comments. His statement about texas being granted statehood probably doesn't support the idea that he's talking about Obama, since they're not very supportive of him to begin with. Texas to my knowledge has been a republican state, so unless he really doesn't know what he's talking about, I'd say it's more likely that he's talking about one or more of the recent Republican presidents. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:47, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

== Other explanations ==

What if we tried to include explanations for the What if? portion of xkcd? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:26, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
{{Color|#AAA|(p.s. - I'm not sure how to get my question to look like it's written on graph paper)}}
:That question comes up every once in a while. My response to the first one was that those things tend to be self explanatory and that the wiki is for the comic, but this'll be the fourth time it's been suggested. I dunno, how would it be formatted on the main page? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:01, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
::Format indeed... also I understand what you mean about self explanatory - I'd say at least 85% of each entry is quite plain, simple, and straightforward. Most of the humor of the feature is not traditional "ah-ha!" humor (that comes from revelation of a twist on assumptions, or which might benefit from explanation). Every once in a while, though, that remaining 15% (often from the images, but sometimes from a {{w|factlet}} or two) contains a few nuggets of knowledge that make me yearn for discussion or comment, and occasionally clarification to one degree or another. In addition to possible issues of cherry-picking what's explained, and questions on how to format it, there's the question of the variability in release date of the comics (used to be every Tuesday, then Thursday and, if I'm not mistaken, the last two(?) have been on Friday, with a few weeks missed (sometimes with and sometimes without notice or explanation) - so how to catalog that? I'll append to this conversation whenever I get that feeling of "if only there was" and we'll keep it open for discussion, if that sounds good to you(?) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 12:33, 5 November 2014 (UTC)
:::Probably just note the release date of each article, although I don't fancy to task of cataloging that. I dunno, drop me a message whenever you want. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 16:37, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

== Template:i ==

I created that template for a reason. Unicode doesn't work right in many circumstances, especially on phones. Now people without Unicode support will see incorrect equations. Plus typing in a Unicode character is not easy, and not having an easy way to do it will guarantee it won't be used. That's why character templates exist on other wikis.

I copied the way of making the imaginary constant from Wikipedia. That's how the math template works. The Unicode version doesn't even look like an i in many fonts--the dot is missing. It looks like a weird squiggle that people won't recognize.

I really wish you would have done like other wikis and had a discussion (and let me know) before just deleting something. I'm lucky I happened to leave the tab open and happened to see it was deleted.

--[[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 22:54, 23 November 2014 (UTC)
:Huh, tested and it does seem to be broken on phones. I'll get restoring that. A lot of these templates don't tend to end up being used though, past their creation. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:33, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

== Strong Language ==

Hey - I find it interesting that someone chose to create the category about "strong language" or something that you chose to delete because it had one comic. There are countless examples of "strong language", pretty much irrespective of what you consider to be "strong" (just search for one of the various "strong" words) but it's fascinating noone has felt strongly enough about it to make a category until 2015 -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:04, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
:It's also that "Strong language" is a really subjective category name that doesn't hold the same boundary for everyone, and is gonna be tough to populate to a degree that satisfies everyone. Although the person who made the category still frequents the wiki, so maybe he's capable of maintaining it. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:36, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

== Delete a page ==

I created a page [[Test Page]] to test a potential feature. I intended to delete it afterwards, but it seems I don't have permission to delete it. Could you do so? Alternatively, make it into a sandbox [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 03:28, 1 March 2015 (UTC)
:Yeah, sure. In the future, use [[explain xkcd:Sandbox]]. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:33, 1 March 2015 (UTC)
::K [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:45, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

== Comic template ==

I made an upgraded version of the comic template that'll deal with [[Radiation]]'s broken navigation bar for once and for all. Could you please look over it to make sure it's all working fine, then replace the current template with it? Updated template is over [[User:Pixali/comictemplate/|here]] and can be viewed in action [[User_talk:Pixali/comictemplate/|here]]. [[User:Pixali|Pixali]] ([[User talk:Pixali|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Pixali|contribs]]) 02:54, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

:Tested, this implementation seems to break the back button. Documentation is incomplete and may need usage examples for the new parameters, but I can probably write that when this makes it to the actual implementation. When I'm free, I'll try and get it to work, there's a good start here. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:52, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

::Got there before ya. I effectively rewrote the entire experimental template, fixing formatting & the broken back buttons while keeping the support for undefined numbers. I still have the examples up over at [[User_talk:Pixali/comictemplate/|the talk page]] for the new template so you can check it out there. I also tried to document it a bit better (inc. explaining the sort key better), but I'm not sure if it's satisfactory yet. [[User:Pixali|Pixali]] ([[User talk:Pixali|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Pixali|contribs]]) 04:51, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
::Seems pretty solid. I'll fold it into the main template. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:42, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

== Advertising? ==

Check the recent changes log. A page appears to have been made for the purpose of advertising or political rant or something (I didn't read much, it's long).

In any case, it's not relevant to this wiki. {{unsigned ip|Mikemk}}
:Yeah, it happens. Looks like another admin got to it before I came home. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:46, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

== dgbrtBOT Problems ==

While I did update my OS to CentOS 7 this weekend I did some tests on my bot. But it seems that problem doesn't belong to my update because I can't get this site via https - only http works.

Broken: [https://explainxkcd.com//wiki/api.php https://explainxkcd.com//wiki/api.php]

Working: [http://explainxkcd.com//wiki/api.php http://explainxkcd.com//wiki/api.php]

My bot requires a secure login via https so I don't know how to fix this.

Browser request gives me "Error 521" and my bot is "Error code 2: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable".

Even [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page] doesn't work for me.

Unless this is fixed my bot will not work.
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:57, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
:On it. Would it be possible for you to fall back on http while we work on that? xkcd comics aren't hugely security sensitive, so it should be fine. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:13, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

::I'm glad to reach you so soon. And sadly this WIKI requires HTTPS for a bot to login. My attempts on plain HTTP did fail, I do need SSL. Did you change something here? On Friday my bot did work. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:28, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
:::What's the error message with HTTP? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:04, 9 March 2015 (UTC)
::::"Logging in over plain HTTP is a bad idea, we would be sending secrets (passwords or cookies) in plaintext over an insecure connection. To protect against eavesdroppers, set protocol => 'https'..."
::::I do accept this restriction; using https should be possible here for BOTs because a BOT can do many. If someone missuses my BOT account it would be bad for this site.
::::Maybe I have to import a non trusted certificate (costs money to make it public), but I want still to be on a save path.
::::--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:30, 9 March 2015 (UTC)
:::::Hum, it would be bad if another party got your address. In other news, have you tried it again recently? It should work, I believe. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:58, 9 March 2015 (UTC)
::::::PROBLEM SOLVED! And the secrets are reset, just in case...
::::::I got an expected error message while trying to update the LATEST COMIC. Not allowed because it just exist. Looks good...
::::::Next BOT run should work until it's an unexpected dynamic one done by Randall. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:24, 10 March 2015 (UTC)
Bad news: Picture upload did work but then my bot failed. Error messages are not very helpful but I'm sure I'll figure it out. So I will do some tests tomorrow on that damn API changes. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:Oof. If there's anything you need server side, tell me. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:48, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
More BAD news: I still have to figure out the reason for error messages like this: "Error code 0: at /opt/xkcd/xkcdtest.pl line 104." What the hell is "Error code 0"??? Sadly it seems I have to work on this a little bit more. AND gooooogle doesn't help me... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
:Error code 0 is the default exit value in perl. It seems like you're terminating the script at line 104. It's a natural exit though, so it's probably part of your error checking. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:51, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

== Request for help ==

I'm in the midst of a [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob disagreement]] with another user about some general stylistic issues and I'd like to solicit broader input from the wiki community. Do you know a mechanism by which I can request such input? Thanks! [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 00:04, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Davidy22&action=edit&section=77

:The community portal would be the place to do it. People don't usually frequent there, but you'll get input over an extended period of time. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:24, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

::Thanks. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 15:29, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

== List of all comics broke recently ==

Thanks for adding "For comics from 1001-1500, see [[List of all comics (1001-1500)]]" to http://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/List_of_all_comics_(full)
But now links are being added in the wrong place. I'm just not sure why/how. [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 18:44, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
:There's a couple of things I did wrong. Fix'd '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:40, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

== The "incomplete explanation of the day" doesn't seem to be updated daily... ==

Should this be the case?--[[User:17jiangz1|17jiangz1]] ([[User talk:17jiangz1|talk]]) 08:06, 9 April 2015 (UTC)
:Currently, it's whenever the current one is completed. It used to be per day, but we don't have as many incomplete comics left to cycle through, and the ones that are left, are difficult to fix and don't get frequent changes. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:12, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

==What Ifs taken down? ==
Hey man, I saw you took down the 'Short Answer Section', 'Alternate Universe Whatifs' and the 'Growth Rate' page. Is this because of the Creative Commons license, because you maybe don't want whatif-pages on this wiki or is it of something else? I really spent some time working on those two and maybe a genuine reason for taking them down would be appreciated [[User:Nk22|Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 19:55, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
:The what if pages were literally just the contents of the main articles transferred over to here. Those articles are already Randall's answers to questions, well explained in-of themselves. They don't need any further assistance from us, and we're not providing a lot of value by just copying the text of his articles. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:02, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
::OK, I see the point you're making. Most of those don't go as deep as some of the comics and are basicly explinations themselves. I might as well just add links to the what-if.xkcd.com website for more info. [[User:Nk22|Nk22]] ([[User talk:Nk22|talk]]) 20:05, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

== You're a hero ==

I don't know how often you're told that. But you're a hero, and you're my hero. Keep doing an amazing job and avoid burn out. I'll be coming back in 2 weeks. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:07, 28 April 2015 (UTC)
:Being able to just set up pages and let users fill everything in really helps with the load. Makes it much less work than it may seem. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:19, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

== Green Hat ==

If Green Hat's one appearance is not sufficient for his own page, why does [[Brown Hat]] have his own page with only one appearance in [[399: Travelling Salesman Problem]]? --{{User:17jiangz1/signature|12:46, 05 May 2015}}
:I was not a part of making that, and am not a huge fan of the existence of that page because of the precedent set. Weak precedent doesn't really justify making more though, as there are enough one-off characters to easily make the characters navbox very cluttered and unusable while providing little real value to visitors. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:22, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

== Unicode Theme ==

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand how unicode wasn't a significant theme in xkcd. It has been mentioned directly and indirectly, from the past into the present. Compared to "no title text", it seemed at least as significant of a category. What kinds of categories are considered significant? (It was significant to me.)

1137: RTL

2015-05-15T09:10:18Z

Azule: add uni cat

{{comic
| number = 1137
| date = November 21, 2012
| title = ‮LTR‬
| image = rtl.png
| titletext = Collaborative editing can quickly become a textual rap battle fought with increasingly convoluted invocations of U+202a to U+202e
}}

==Explanation==

U+202e is a {{w|unicode control characters|unicode control character}} that changes all subsequent text to right-to-left (RTL, as the title references). In the comic, [[Black Hat]] tires of [[Cueball]]'s complaining and inserts a U+202e character in the middle of Cueball's speech, turning his complaints into gibberish - sentences that must be read from right-to-left.

The title of the comic builds on this theme, with the title of the webpage it is hosted on being LTR in some browsers (see [[#Trivia|trivia]]), the reverse of the comic name.

What Cueball actully tries to say after Black Hats change is:
:— They didn't even...
:...What the hell?
:How did you...
:...Asshole.

When multiple writers work on the same text, arguments can often arise with some writers resorting to vandalizing the works of other writers. The title text takes this up a level, suggesting the use of U+202e and other direction control characters in editor wars to disrupt other people's work. For reference for future wars U+202c returns text back to its normal direction.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind Black Hat who is sitting down with a laptop on his lap.]
:Cueball: And that's not even the worst part! The ''worst'' part is that—
:Black Hat types a comand on the PC: U+202e
:Cueball: ...neve t'ndid yehT—
:Cueball: ?lleh eht tahW...
:Cueball: ...uoy did woH
:Cueball: .elohssA...

==Trivia==
*In the version originally published there was a typo in the reverse text ("ETH" instead of "EHT" for "THE"). This mistake was corrected within a couple of hours.
*The title given in the web browser, (for instance seen on the icon for the browser bar at the bottom of the screen), for the comic on the xkcd website actually has a U+202e character preceding it;
**The page title is "xkcd: [U+202e]LTR", which for instance causes {{w|Firefox}} to write the page title as "xkcd: xoferiF allizoM - RTL" as the window title. So xkcd and the comics title is correct (The LTR turns to RTL). But the browsers name is reversed.
**This may only affect some browsers but it also occurs in {{w|Internet Explorer}},{{w|Google Chrome}}, {{w|Chromium (web browser)|Chromium}} and {{w|Opera (web browser)|Opera}}.
*In some browsers (for instance Internet Explorer), this page's title damages the appearance of all older entries in the [http://xkcd.com/archive/ archive page] on xkcd.
**Here is a picture example for people without access to explorer: [[Media:Reverse archive.jpg|Reverse archive]].
*This is the second comic in a row with Cueball and Black Hat discussing. Both with Black Hat with his back turned to Cueball.
**In the previous comic Black Hat broke a mirror, and in this comic he then reverses Cueballs speak
**Not exactly a mirroring of his speak, but still related.
**In the broken archive mentioned above, [[1136: Broken Mirror]] is the first (or last) entry to be broken!

==Unicode Control Characters==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Unicode number !! Name !! Meaning
|-
| U+202a || LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING || The following text will be left-to-right. This will not change directionality of characters, so for example Arabic letters will stay right-to-left. This character alone does nothing in an English text, since the text direction is left-to-right by default.
|-
| U+202b || RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING || The following text will be right-to-left. This will not change directionality of characters, so Latin letters will stay left-to-right. Full stops, which don't have a directionality on their own, will be left of the sentence. Use this character for some little misplacings that cause big confusion.
|-
| U+202c || POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING || The following text is formatted like the text before the last U+202a, U+202b, U+202d or U+202e character.
|-
| U+202d || LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE || The following text will be left-to-right. Additionally, the directionality of characters is changed to left-to-right. Used alone in an English text, this will only affect characters that are right-to-left by default, like Arabic letters.
|-
| U+202e || RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE || The following text will be right-to-left. Additionally, the directionality of characters is changed to right-to-left. Use this character to completely screw up an English text.
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

1209: Encoding

2015-05-15T09:08:01Z

Azule: add uni cat

{{comic
| number = 1209
| date = May 8, 2013
| title = Encoding
| image = encoding.png
| titletext = I don't see how; the C0 block is right there at the beginning.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] hired a skywriter to write some text provided in Unicode. {{w|Skywriting}} is using an airplane to write words in the sky with controlled releases of smoke. {{w|Unicode}} is a standard for encoding text which supports an incredible variety of characters and modifiers. An {{w|interrobang}} (‽) is a combination question mark and exclamation mark. A {{w|diacritic}} is any symbol added to a character ( ´ , ˘ , ˇ , ¨ , etc.), usually an accent mark being added to a letter. In Unicode, {{w|Combining character|combining diacritics}} are represented as separate characters, but are rendered graphically as modifications to the previous one. The request appears to be particularly strange, given that diacritics are supposed to go over ''letters'' and not punctuation marks.

Apparently the skywriter got so confused about their instructions that he not only rendered the text incorrectly, but also lost control of the plane. The skywriter's errors and the phrase "Unicode support" play off the common issue of {{w|Mojibake|software rendering Unicode symbols incorrectly}}.

The title text refers to the {{w|C0 and C1 control codes|C0 Block}}, the name for the first 32 character codes in Unicode (and ASCII), traditionally called control characters. Cueball wonders how the plane could have lost "control" when the "control characters" are easily found.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are holding two-way radios.]
:Cueball: No, the combining diacritics go ''over'' the interrobang!
:Megan: Oh jeez, I think he's lost control.
:The skywriter we hired has terrible Unicode support.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T09:02:37Z

Azule: add unicode cat

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|There may be issues with the purpose explained.}}
This is an interactive comic. You can experience it by going to http://xkcd.com/1525/ .

Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of YES or NO or ASK AGAIN, this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply. Even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

==Transcript==
:Title: Emojic 8 Ball [with the 8 itself an emoji that looks like an 8-ball]
:[Form input field with placeholder text]: How will I die?
:[Submit button]: Ask
:[Image of a shiny black ball with a smaller circular window at its center.]
:[After the submit button is pressed, 1 to 3 emoji symbols appear in the window, framed inside a light blue triangle.]

==Trivia==

* The 8-ball randomly returns between one and three emoji characters. The source code reveals there is 42.1% chance of getting one character, 52.6% chance of getting two characters, and 5.2% chance of getting three.
* The source code contains 507 different emoji characters. For a full list of the supported characters, see [[1525:_Emojic_8_Ball/List_of_emoji|List of emoji]].

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:No title text]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

380: Emoticon

2015-05-15T09:00:06Z

Azule: add unicode cat

{{comic
| number =380
| date =February 6, 2008
| title =Emoticon
| image =emoticon.png
| titletext =U+FDD0 is actually Unicode for the eye of the basilisk, though for safety reasons no font actually renders it.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|basilisk}} is a legendary creature reputed to have the power to kill with a single glance. In this comic, Cueball learns much to his dismay that the basilisk's power is fully compatible with the 21st century, and can kill you just with a smiley emoticon over instant messaging.

Cueball's request for A/S/L is a standard question when first meeting someone online; it asks for age, sex (gender) and location.

The title text mentions U+FDD0, which in reality is the code for a {{w|Unicode#Character General Category|"non-character"}} in Unicode.

U+FDD0 did in fact kill at least one chat client at the time. Konversation in particular. (and presumably any other Qt based chat clients using QTextDocument)

"basically u+fdd0 (eye of basilisk, the snake) is in a char range that's marked for interchange and illegal in utf-8"

"but qt's utf-8 encoder let it through anyway"

"but it just so happens that qt's qtextdocument uses u+fdd0 as text frame delimiter"

"so when you append it to a qtd, counters run wrong and eventually you crash"

"d-bus closes the connection and crashes the client when it encounters illegal utf-8, and kde's notification system works through d-bus"

The problem was fixed after the XKCD "report" and Konversation now handles unicode normally.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits at computer, typing.]
:~!~ Opening Chat with BSLSK05
:<NICKM> Hi!
:<NICKM> A/S/L?
:<BSLSK05> :)
:[Cueball looks stunned, flies backward.]
:[Two smaller frames focus in on BSLSK05's emoticon, implying rotation to show a smile and two open eyes.]
:[Cueball at computer slouches in chair, dead, crossbones above his head.]
:[At the remote computer a basilisk is looking at its screen.]

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

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T08:38:04Z

Azule:

I'm not sure that "This is an obvious parody" counts as an explanation of the cartoon. I looked up "Magic 8 ball" (with which I was unfamiliar). I looked up "Emoji" (with which, too, I was unfamiliar). I then turned back to the cartoon, and I still don't understand it. What's more, there is no explanation of the practically unique absence of mouseover text. [[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 05:55, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: Lack of mouseover / alt and title attributes is common in **interactive** comics. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:23, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

It seems that this comic may be poking fun at the reliance of the modern generation on emoji for communication. By trying to answer serious questions only in emoji, their inadequacy in conveying information is shown. After all, a telephone and party ball hardly answer how one will die. It's all left to the imagination.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.179|173.245.56.179]] 06:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

There might be a horoscope component to it too, i.e. you can interpret the emoji as a meaningful answer no matter which one you get. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.162|108.162.215.162]] 06:30, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I believe you may mean to refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinatory,_esoteric_and_occult_tarot tarot cards]. I had a similar thought. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:16, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: It also bears similarities - particularly with its default question of "How will I die?" - to the fictional [http://machineofdeath.net/ Machine of Death], which tells a person how they will die, often in a particularly obtuse or cryptic manner. Randall has previously submitted a short story to the collection: [http://machineofdeath.net/pod-question Machine of Death Podcast 33] [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 07:21, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm guessing Randall is using Unicode emoji characters, i.e. from a font I don't have. I get a small rectangle with "01F40C" (two rows of three characters), which is indicative of "A character I have no font support for", in the browser I'm using (although from previous experience it isn't a browser thing, it's that I haven't deliberately installed the specialist font involved). Which rather spoils things for me, this time round, but I suppose doesn't cause problems for most people who have been persuaded to install emoji-characters to use in the place of 'mere' emoticons... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 06:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:(reply to self), I've found a good guide, for someone like me, would be to consult the document http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf to see what one ''should'' see. Apparently "How will I die?" is answered by a snail, and my flippant "Where do I get the Emoji font from?" is answered by a man's face. It remains to be seen whether that's 100% correct on both counts. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 07:58, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Linux folks can install the ttf-ancient-fonts package to add support for the Unicode emoji characters.
:Ok, I've given in. As a non-Linux folk, I followed various signposts and went to http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ and went straight for the "Symbola: 08-03-2015" download (extracted and installed the .ttfs by the age-old method). In case anyone else as out-of-date as me needs and wants to do it manually. It instantly converted my "Man's Face" code (see reply-to-self, above) into the actual man's face, on that browser tab. FYI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 08:12, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Note that, although the emojis do seem to be chosen at random (I haven't attempted to check any code), the URL is changed to encode your question and the result, so [http://xkcd.com/#eyJxIjoiSXMgdGhpcyBhIGdvb2QgcXVlc3Rpb24gdG8gaW1tb3J0YWxpc2U/IiwiYSI6WyImI3gxRjM2NTsiLCImI3gxRjQxMDsiLCImI3gxRjM1RDsiXX0= this link] encodes my question and a three-emoji result. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 07:07, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: Is that 3-emoji result hack free? I've only gotten 1 or 2 emoji results so far. Edit: Nevermind. I clicked a bunch in a row and got a 3 emoji result. Now the question is: Can 4 be hacked in? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:19, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: I had to be horrible and hack every single emoji into the page. [http://xkcd.com/1525/#{"q":"Is this a good question to 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For the lovers of overflow]! [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:54, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
::From the code there appears to be an 8/19 chance (42.1%) of one character, 10/19 (52.6%) of two, and 1/19 (5.2%) of three.--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 07:52, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: It is just a base64 encoding of the question and answer characters as a JSON object, the part of the link given by Markhurd after the "#" is the encoding of {"q":"Is this a good question to immortalise?","a":["🍥","🐐","🍝"]}. So you can add extra characters to the answer array, but after 3 they start clipping out of the triangle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 07:32, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

In the edit history it is noted that the emoji are in color. They are in color for me, too. But I question whether this is universal (where the glyphs are supported). Anyone having a black and white experience? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

From the code, here's the list of possible characters: 🙅, 🙆, 🙇, 🙋, 🙌, 🙍, 🙎, 🙏, ✂, ✈, ✉, ✊, ✋, ✌, ✏, ❄, ❤, 🚀, 🚃, 🚄, 🚅, 🚇, 🚉, 🚌, 🚏, 🚑, 🚒, 🚓, 🚕, 🚗, 🚙, 🚚, 🚢, 🚤, 🚥, 🚧, 🚨, 🚩, 🚪, 🚫, 🚬, 🚲, 🚶, 🚽, 🛀, ⌚, ⌛, ⏰, ⏳, ☁, ☎, ☔, ☕, ♨, ♻, ♿, ⚓, ⚡, ⚽, ⚾, ⛄, ⛅, ⛪, ⛲, ⛳, ⛵, ⛺, ⭐, ⛽, 🃏, 🌀, 🌁, 🌂, 🌃, 🌄, 🌅, 🌆, 🌇, 🌈, 🌉, 🌊, 🌋, 🌏, 🌙, 🌛, 🌟, 🌠, 🌰, 🌱, 🌴, 🌵, 🌷, 🌸, 🌹, 🌺, 🌻, 🌼, 🌽, 🌾, 🌿, 🍀, 🍁, 🍂, 🍃, 🍄, 🍅, 🍆, 🍇, 🍈, 🍉, 🍊, 🍌, 🍍, 🍎, 🍏, 🍑, 🍒, 🍓, 🍔, 🍕, 🍖, 🍗, 🍘, 🍙, 🍚, 🍛, 🍜, 🍝, 🍞, 🍟, 🍠, 🍡, 🍢, 🍣, 🍤, 🍥, 🍦, 🍧, 🍨, 🍩, 🍪, 🍫, 🍬, 🍭, 🍮, 🍯, 🍰, 🍱, 🍲, 🍳, 🍴, 🍵, 🍶, 🍷, 🍸, 🍹, 🍺, 🍻, 🎀, 🎁, 🎂, 🎃, 🎄, 🎅, 🎆, 🎇, 🎈, 🎉, 🎊, 🎋, 🎌, 🎍, 🎎, 🎏, 🎐, 🎑, 🎒, 🎓, 🎠, 🎡, 🎢, 🎣, 🎤, 🎥, 🎦, 🎧, 🎨, 🎩, 🎪, 🎫, 🎬, 🎭, 🎮, 🎯, 🎰, 🎱, 🎲, 🎳, 🎴, 🎵, 🎶, 🎷, 🎸, 🎹, 🎺, 🎻, 🎽, 🎾, 🎿, 🏀, 🏁, 🏂, 🏃, 🏄, 🏆, 🏈, 🏊, 🏠, 🏡, 🏢, 🏣, 🏥, 🏦, 🏧, 🏨, 🏩, 🏪, 🏫, 🏬, 🏭, 🏮, 🏯, 🏰, 🐌, 🐍, 🐎, 🐑, 🐒, 🐔, 🐗, 🐘, 🐙, 🐚, 🐛, 🐜, 🐝, 🐞, 🐟, 🐠, 🐡, 🐢, 🐣, 🐤, 🐥, 🐦, 🐧, 🐨, 🐩, 🐫, 🐬, 🐭, 🐮, 🐯, 🐰, 🐱, 🐲, 🐳, 🐴, 🐵, 🐶, 🐷, 🐸, 🐹, 🐺, 🐻, 🐼, 🐽, 🐾, 👀, 👂, 👃, 👄, 👅, 👆, 👇, 👈, 👉, 👊, 👋, 👌, 👍, 👎, 👏, 👐, 👑, 👒, 👓, 👔, 👕, 👖, 👗, 👘, 👙, 👚, 👛, 👜, 👝, 👞, 👟, 👠, 👡, 👢, 👣, 👤, 👦, 👧, 👨, 👩, 👪, 👫, 👮, 👯, 👰, 👱, 👴, 👶, 👷, 👸, 👹, 👺, 👻, 👼, 👽, 👾, 👿, 💀, 💁, 💂, 💃, 💄, 💅, 💆, 💇, 💈, 💉, 💊, 💋, 💌, 💍, 💎, 💏, 💐, 💑, 💒, 💓, 💔, 💕, 💖, 💗, 💘, 💙, 💚, 💛, 💜, 💝, 💞, 💟, 💠, 💡, 💢, 💣, 💤, 💥, 💦, 💧, 💨, 💩, 💪, 💫, 💬, 💮, 💯, 💰, 💲, 💳, 💵, 💸, 💺, 💻, 💼, 💽, 💾, 💿, 📀, 📃, 📅, 📆, 📈, 📉, 📌, 📍, 📎, 📓, 📔, 📕, 📖, 📞, 📟, 📠, 📡, 📣, 📦, 📧, 📫, 📰, 📱, 📷, 📹, 📺, 📻, 📼, 🔊, 🔋, 🔌, 🔎, 🔐, 🔑, 🔒, 🔓, 🔔, 🔜, 🔥, 🔦, 🔧, 🔨, 🔩, 🔪, 🔫, 🔮, 🗻, 🗼, 🗽, 🗾, 🗿, 😴, 🚁, 🚂, 🚆, 🚈, 🚊, 🚍, 🚎, 🚐, 🚔, 🚖, 🚘, 🚛, 🚜, 🚝, 🚞, 🚟, 🚠, 🚡, 🚣, 🚦, 🚮, 🚵, 🚿, 🛁, 🌍, 🌎, 🌜, 🌝, 🌞, 🌲, 🌳, 🍋, 🍐, 🍼, 🏇, 🏉, 🏤, 🐀, 🐁, 🐂, 🐃, 🐄, 🐅, 🐆, 🐇, 🐈, 🐉, 🐊, 🐋, 🐏, 🐐, 🐓, 🐕, 🐖, 🐪, 👬, 👭, 📬, 📭, 📯, 🔬, 🔭 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 07:38, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I added them to the page body in table form (my two new favourite tools for the day: [http://rishida.net/tools/conversion/ Bulk unicode code converter] and [http://excel2wiki.net/ Excel to Mediawiki table converter]). However, even converted to three columns, it does seem to take over the page somewhat; it's nice to have the descriptions, but maybe a simple character list like yours would be better. [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 07:44, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
:: Moved the emoji list to a separate page, problem solved (or at least deferred). [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 08:04, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T08:04:20Z

Azule:

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T07:54:48Z

Azule:

I'm not sure that "This is an obvious parody" counts as an explanation of the cartoon. I looked up "Magic 8 ball" (with which I was unfamiliar). I looked up "Emoji" (with which, too, I was unfamiliar). I then turned back to the cartoon, and I still don't understand it. What's more, there is no explanation of the practically unique absence of mouseover text. [[User:BinaryDigit|BinaryDigit]] ([[User talk:BinaryDigit|talk]]) 05:55, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: Lack of mouseover / alt and title attributes is common in **interactive** comics. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 06:23, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

It seems that this comic may be poking fun at the reliance of the modern generation on emoji for communication. By trying to answer serious questions only in emoji, their inadequacy in conveying information is shown. After all, a telephone and party ball hardly answer how one will die. It's all left to the imagination.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.179|173.245.56.179]] 06:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

There might be a horoscope component to it too, i.e. you can interpret the emoji as a meaningful answer no matter which one you get. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.162|108.162.215.162]] 06:30, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I believe you may mean to refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinatory,_esoteric_and_occult_tarot tarot cards]. I had a similar thought. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:16, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: It also bears similarities - particularly with its default question of "How will I die?" - to the fictional [http://machineofdeath.net/ Machine of Death], which tells a person how they will die, often in a particularly obtuse or cryptic manner. Randall has previously submitted a short story to the collection: [http://machineofdeath.net/pod-question Machine of Death Podcast 33] [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 07:21, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

I'm guessing Randall is using Unicode emoji characters, i.e. from a font I don't have. I get a small rectangle with "01F40C" (two rows of three characters), which is indicative of "A character I have no font support for", in the browser I'm using (although from previous experience it isn't a browser thing, it's that I haven't deliberately installed the specialist font involved). Which rather spoils things for me, this time round, but I suppose doesn't cause problems for most people who have been persuaded to install emoji-characters to use in the place of 'mere' emoticons... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.213|141.101.98.213]] 06:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Linux folks can install the ttf-ancient-fonts package to add support for the Unicode emoji characters.

Note that, although the emojis do seem to be chosen at random (I haven't attempted to check any code), the URL is changed to encode your question and the result, so [http://xkcd.com/#eyJxIjoiSXMgdGhpcyBhIGdvb2QgcXVlc3Rpb24gdG8gaW1tb3J0YWxpc2U/IiwiYSI6WyImI3gxRjM2NTsiLCImI3gxRjQxMDsiLCImI3gxRjM1RDsiXX0= this link] encodes my question and a three-emoji result. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 07:07, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: Is that 3-emoji result hack free? I've only gotten 1 or 2 emoji results so far. Edit: Nevermind. I clicked a bunch in a row and got a 3 emoji result. Now the question is: Can 4 be hacked in? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:19, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
::From the code there appears to be an 8/19 chance (42.1%) of one character, 10/19 (52.6%) of two, and 1/19 (5.2%) of three.--[[User:Laverock|Laverock]] ([[User talk:Laverock|talk]]) 07:52, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: It is just a base64 encoding of the question and answer characters as a JSON object, the part of the link given by Markhurd after the "#" is the encoding of {"q":"Is this a good question to immortalise?","a":["🍥","🐐","🍝"]}. So you can add extra characters to the answer array, but after 3 they start clipping out of the triangle. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 07:32, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

In the edit history it is noted that the emoji are in color. They are in color for me, too. But I question whether this is universal (where the glyphs are supported). Anyone having a black and white experience? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

From the code, here's the list of possible characters: 🙅, 🙆, 🙇, 🙋, 🙌, 🙍, 🙎, 🙏, ✂, ✈, ✉, ✊, ✋, ✌, ✏, ❄, ❤, 🚀, 🚃, 🚄, 🚅, 🚇, 🚉, 🚌, 🚏, 🚑, 🚒, 🚓, 🚕, 🚗, 🚙, 🚚, 🚢, 🚤, 🚥, 🚧, 🚨, 🚩, 🚪, 🚫, 🚬, 🚲, 🚶, 🚽, 🛀, ⌚, ⌛, ⏰, ⏳, ☁, ☎, ☔, ☕, ♨, ♻, ♿, ⚓, ⚡, ⚽, ⚾, ⛄, ⛅, ⛪, ⛲, ⛳, ⛵, ⛺, ⭐, ⛽, 🃏, 🌀, 🌁, 🌂, 🌃, 🌄, 🌅, 🌆, 🌇, 🌈, 🌉, 🌊, 🌋, 🌏, 🌙, 🌛, 🌟, 🌠, 🌰, 🌱, 🌴, 🌵, 🌷, 🌸, 🌹, 🌺, 🌻, 🌼, 🌽, 🌾, 🌿, 🍀, 🍁, 🍂, 🍃, 🍄, 🍅, 🍆, 🍇, 🍈, 🍉, 🍊, 🍌, 🍍, 🍎, 🍏, 🍑, 🍒, 🍓, 🍔, 🍕, 🍖, 🍗, 🍘, 🍙, 🍚, 🍛, 🍜, 🍝, 🍞, 🍟, 🍠, 🍡, 🍢, 🍣, 🍤, 🍥, 🍦, 🍧, 🍨, 🍩, 🍪, 🍫, 🍬, 🍭, 🍮, 🍯, 🍰, 🍱, 🍲, 🍳, 🍴, 🍵, 🍶, 🍷, 🍸, 🍹, 🍺, 🍻, 🎀, 🎁, 🎂, 🎃, 🎄, 🎅, 🎆, 🎇, 🎈, 🎉, 🎊, 🎋, 🎌, 🎍, 🎎, 🎏, 🎐, 🎑, 🎒, 🎓, 🎠, 🎡, 🎢, 🎣, 🎤, 🎥, 🎦, 🎧, 🎨, 🎩, 🎪, 🎫, 🎬, 🎭, 🎮, 🎯, 🎰, 🎱, 🎲, 🎳, 🎴, 🎵, 🎶, 🎷, 🎸, 🎹, 🎺, 🎻, 🎽, 🎾, 🎿, 🏀, 🏁, 🏂, 🏃, 🏄, 🏆, 🏈, 🏊, 🏠, 🏡, 🏢, 🏣, 🏥, 🏦, 🏧, 🏨, 🏩, 🏪, 🏫, 🏬, 🏭, 🏮, 🏯, 🏰, 🐌, 🐍, 🐎, 🐑, 🐒, 🐔, 🐗, 🐘, 🐙, 🐚, 🐛, 🐜, 🐝, 🐞, 🐟, 🐠, 🐡, 🐢, 🐣, 🐤, 🐥, 🐦, 🐧, 🐨, 🐩, 🐫, 🐬, 🐭, 🐮, 🐯, 🐰, 🐱, 🐲, 🐳, 🐴, 🐵, 🐶, 🐷, 🐸, 🐹, 🐺, 🐻, 🐼, 🐽, 🐾, 👀, 👂, 👃, 👄, 👅, 👆, 👇, 👈, 👉, 👊, 👋, 👌, 👍, 👎, 👏, 👐, 👑, 👒, 👓, 👔, 👕, 👖, 👗, 👘, 👙, 👚, 👛, 👜, 👝, 👞, 👟, 👠, 👡, 👢, 👣, 👤, 👦, 👧, 👨, 👩, 👪, 👫, 👮, 👯, 👰, 👱, 👴, 👶, 👷, 👸, 👹, 👺, 👻, 👼, 👽, 👾, 👿, 💀, 💁, 💂, 💃, 💄, 💅, 💆, 💇, 💈, 💉, 💊, 💋, 💌, 💍, 💎, 💏, 💐, 💑, 💒, 💓, 💔, 💕, 💖, 💗, 💘, 💙, 💚, 💛, 💜, 💝, 💞, 💟, 💠, 💡, 💢, 💣, 💤, 💥, 💦, 💧, 💨, 💩, 💪, 💫, 💬, 💮, 💯, 💰, 💲, 💳, 💵, 💸, 💺, 💻, 💼, 💽, 💾, 💿, 📀, 📃, 📅, 📆, 📈, 📉, 📌, 📍, 📎, 📓, 📔, 📕, 📖, 📞, 📟, 📠, 📡, 📣, 📦, 📧, 📫, 📰, 📱, 📷, 📹, 📺, 📻, 📼, 🔊, 🔋, 🔌, 🔎, 🔐, 🔑, 🔒, 🔓, 🔔, 🔜, 🔥, 🔦, 🔧, 🔨, 🔩, 🔪, 🔫, 🔮, 🗻, 🗼, 🗽, 🗾, 🗿, 😴, 🚁, 🚂, 🚆, 🚈, 🚊, 🚍, 🚎, 🚐, 🚔, 🚖, 🚘, 🚛, 🚜, 🚝, 🚞, 🚟, 🚠, 🚡, 🚣, 🚦, 🚮, 🚵, 🚿, 🛁, 🌍, 🌎, 🌜, 🌝, 🌞, 🌲, 🌳, 🍋, 🍐, 🍼, 🏇, 🏉, 🏤, 🐀, 🐁, 🐂, 🐃, 🐄, 🐅, 🐆, 🐇, 🐈, 🐉, 🐊, 🐋, 🐏, 🐐, 🐓, 🐕, 🐖, 🐪, 👬, 👭, 📬, 📭, 📯, 🔬, 🔭 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.158|108.162.249.158]] 07:38, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I had to be horrible and hack every single emoji into the page. [http://xkcd.com/1525/#{"q":"Is this a good question to immortalise?","a":["&#x1F645;","&#x1F646;","&#x1F647;","&#x1F64B;","&#x1F64C;","&#x1F64D;","&#x1F64E;","&#x1F64F;","&#x2702;","&#x2708;","&#x2709;","&#x270A;","&#x270B;","&#x270C;","&#x270F;","&#x2744;","&#x2764;","&#x1F680;","&#x1F683;","&#x1F684;","&#x1F685;","&#x1F687;","&#x1F689;","&#x1F68C;","&#x1F68F;","&#x1F691;","&#x1F692;","&#x1F693;","&#x1F695;","&#x1F697;","&#x1F699;","&#x1F69A;","&#x1F6A2;","&#x1F6A4;","&#x1F6A5;","&#x1F6A7;","&#x1F6A8;","&#x1F6A9;","&#x1F6AA;","&#x1F6AB;","&#x1F6AC;","&#x1F6B2;","&#x1F6B6;","&#x1F6BD;","&#x1F6C0;","&#x231A;","&#x231B;","&#x23F0;","&#x23F3;","&#x2601;","&#x260E;","&#x2614;","&#x2615;","&#x2668;","&#x267B;","&#x267F;","&#x2693;","&#x26A1;","&#x26BD;","&#x26BE;","&#x26C4;","&#x26C5;","&#x26EA;","&#x26F2;","&#x26F3;","&#x26F5;","&#x26FA;","&#x2B50;","&#x26FD;","&#x1F0CF;","&#x1F300;","&#x1F301;","&#x1F302;","&#x1F303;","&#x1F304;","&#x1F305;","&#x1F306;","&#x1F307;","&#x1F308;","&#x1F309;","&#x1F30A;","&#x1F30B;","&#x1F30F;","&#x1F319;","&#x1F31B;","&#x1F31F;","&#x1F320;","&#x1F330;","&#x1F331;","&#x1F334;","&#x1F335;","&#x1F337;","&#x1F338;","&#x1F339;","&#x1F33A;","&#x1F33B;","&#x1F33C;","&#x1F33D;","&#x1F33E;","&#x1F33F;","&#x1F340;","&#x1F341;","&#x1F342;","&#x1F343;","&#x1F344;","&#x1F345;","&#x1F346;","&#x1F347;","&#x1F348;","&#x1F349;","&#x1F34A;","&#x1F34C;","&#x1F34D;","&#x1F34E;","&#x1F34F;","&#x1F351;","&#x1F352;","&#x1F353;","&#x1F354;","&#x1F355;","&#x1F356;","&#x1F357;","&#x1F358;","&#x1F359;","&#x1F35A;","&#x1F35B;","&#x1F35C;","&#x1F35D;","&#x1F35E;","&#x1F35F;","&#x1F360;","&#x1F361;","&#x1F362;","&#x1F363;","&#x1F364;","&#x1F365;","&#x1F366;","&#x1F367;","&#x1F368;","&#x1F369;","&#x1F36A;","&#x1F36B;","&#x1F36C;","&#x1F36D;","&#x1F36E;","&#x1F36F;","&#x1F370;","&#x1F371;","&#x1F372;","&#x1F373;","&#x1F374;","&#x1F375;","&#x1F376;","&#x1F377;","&#x1F378;","&#x1F379;","&#x1F37A;","&#x1F37B;","&#x1F380;","&#x1F381;","&#x1F382;","&#x1F383;","&#x1F384;","&#x1F385;","&#x1F386;","&#x1F387;","&#x1F388;","&#x1F389;","&#x1F38A;","&#x1F38B;","&#x1F38C;","&#x1F38D;","&#x1F38E;","&#x1F38F;","&#x1F390;","&#x1F391;","&#x1F392;","&#x1F393;","&#x1F3A0;","&#x1F3A1;","&#x1F3A2;","&#x1F3A3;","&#x1F3A4;","&#x1F3A5;","&#x1F3A6;","&#x1F3A7;","&#x1F3A8;","&#x1F3A9;","&#x1F3AA;","&#x1F3AB;","&#x1F3AC;","&#x1F3AD;","&#x1F3AE;","&#x1F3AF;","&#x1F3B0;","&#x1F3B1;","&#x1F3B2;","&#x1F3B3;","&#x1F3B4;","&#x1F3B5;","&#x1F3B6;","&#x1F3B7;","&#x1F3B8;","&#x1F3B9;","&#x1F3BA;","&#x1F3BB;","&#x1F3BD;","&#x1F3BE;","&#x1F3BF;","&#x1F3C0;","&#x1F3C1;","&#x1F3C2;","&#x1F3C3;","&#x1F3C4;","&#x1F3C6;","&#x1F3C8;","&#x1F3CA;","&#x1F3E0;","&#x1F3E1;","&#x1F3E2;","&#x1F3E3;","&#x1F3E5;","&#x1F3E6;","&#x1F3E7;","&#x1F3E8;","&#x1F3E9;","&#x1F3EA;","&#x1F3EB;","&#x1F3EC;","&#x1F3ED;","&#x1F3EE;","&#x1F3EF;","&#x1F3F0;","&#x1F40C;","&#x1F40D;","&#x1F40E;","&#x1F411;","&#x1F412;","&#x1F414;","&#x1F417;","&#x1F418;","&#x1F419;","&#x1F41A;","&#x1F41B;","&#x1F41C;","&#x1F41D;","&#x1F41E;","&#x1F41F;","&#x1F420;","&#x1F421;","&#x1F422;","&#x1F423;","&#x1F424;","&#x1F425;","&#x1F426;","&#x1F427;","&#x1F428;","&#x1F429;","&#x1F42B;","&#x1F42C;","&#x1F42D;","&#x1F42E;","&#x1F42F;","&#x1F430;","&#x1F431;","&#x1F432;","&#x1F433;","&#x1F434;","&#x1F435;","&#x1F436;","&#x1F437;","&#x1F438;","&#x1F439;","&#x1F43A;","&#x1F43B;","&#x1F43C;","&#x1F43D;","&#x1F43E;","&#x1F440;","&#x1F442;","&#x1F443;","&#x1F444;","&#x1F445;","&#x1F446;","&#x1F447;","&#x1F448;","&#x1F449;","&#x1F44A;","&#x1F44B;","&#x1F44C;","&#x1F44D;","&#x1F44E;","&#x1F44F;","&#x1F450;","&#x1F451;","&#x1F452;","&#x1F453;","&#x1F454;","&#x1F455;","&#x1F456;","&#x1F457;","&#x1F458;","&#x1F459;","&#x1F45A;","&#x1F45B;","&#x1F45C;","&#x1F45D;","&#x1F45E;","&#x1F45F;","&#x1F460;","&#x1F461;","&#x1F462;","&#x1F463;","&#x1F464;","&#x1F466;","&#x1F467;","&#x1F468;","&#x1F469;","&#x1F46A;","&#x1F46B;","&#x1F46E;","&#x1F46F;","&#x1F470;","&#x1F471;","&#x1F474;","&#x1F476;","&#x1F477;","&#x1F478;","&#x1F479;","&#x1F47A;","&#x1F47B;","&#x1F47C;","&#x1F47D;","&#x1F47E;","&#x1F47F;","&#x1F480;","&#x1F481;","&#x1F482;","&#x1F483;","&#x1F484;","&#x1F485;","&#x1F486;","&#x1F487;","&#x1F488;","&#x1F489;","&#x1F48A;","&#x1F48B;","&#x1F48C;","&#x1F48D;","&#x1F48E;","&#x1F48F;","&#x1F490;","&#x1F491;","&#x1F492;","&#x1F493;","&#x1F494;","&#x1F495;","&#x1F496;","&#x1F497;","&#x1F498;","&#x1F499;","&#x1F49A;","&#x1F49B;","&#x1F49C;","&#x1F49D;","&#x1F49E;","&#x1F49F;","&#x1F4A0;","&#x1F4A1;","&#x1F4A2;","&#x1F4A3;","&#x1F4A4;","&#x1F4A5;","&#x1F4A6;","&#x1F4A7;","&#x1F4A8;","&#x1F4A9;","&#x1F4AA;","&#x1F4AB;","&#x1F4AC;","&#x1F4AE;","&#x1F4AF;","&#x1F4B0;","&#x1F4B2;","&#x1F4B3;","&#x1F4B5;","&#x1F4B8;","&#x1F4BA;","&#x1F4BB;","&#x1F4BC;","&#x1F4BD;","&#x1F4BE;","&#x1F4BF;","&#x1F4C0;","&#x1F4C3;","&#x1F4C5;","&#x1F4C6;","&#x1F4C8;","&#x1F4C9;","&#x1F4CC;","&#x1F4CD;","&#x1F4CE;","&#x1F4D3;","&#x1F4D4;","&#x1F4D5;","&#x1F4D6;","&#x1F4DE;","&#x1F4DF;","&#x1F4E0;","&#x1F4E1;","&#x1F4E3;","&#x1F4E6;","&#x1F4E7;","&#x1F4EB;","&#x1F4F0;","&#x1F4F1;","&#x1F4F7;","&#x1F4F9;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For the lovers of overflow]! [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 07:54, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
: I added them to the page body in table form (my two new favourite tools for the day: [http://rishida.net/tools/conversion/ Bulk unicode code converter] and [http://excel2wiki.net/ Excel to Mediawiki table converter]). However, even converted to three columns, it does seem to take over the page somewhat; it's nice to have the descriptions, but maybe a simple character list like yours would be better. [[User:Studley|Studley]] ([[User talk:Studley|talk]]) 07:44, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T07:36:46Z

Azule: emoji glyph color

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T07:22:13Z

Azule:

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T07:19:19Z

Azule:

Talk:1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T07:16:01Z

Azule:

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T06:49:42Z

Azule: shortened the url sentence

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}
This is an interactive comic. You can experience it by going to http://xkcd.com/1525/ .

Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of YES or NO or ASK AGAIN, this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply. Even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:Title: Emojic 8 Ball [with the 8 itself an emoji that looks like an 8-ball]
:[Form input field with placeholder text]: How will I die?
:[Submit button]: Ask
:[Image of a shiny black ball with a smaller circular window at its center.]
:[After the submit button is pressed, 1 or 2 emoji symbols appear in the window, framed inside a light blue triangle.]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Interactive comics]]

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T06:48:09Z

Azule: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}
This is an interactive comic. You can experience it by going to the xkcd site at http://xkcd.com/1525/ .

Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of YES or NO or ASK AGAIN, this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply. Even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:Title: Emojic 8 Ball [with the 8 itself an emoji that looks like an 8-ball]
:[Form input field with placeholder text]: How will I die?
:[Submit button]: Ask
:[Image of a shiny black ball with a smaller circular window at its center.]
:[After the submit button is pressed, 1 or 2 emoji symbols appear in the window, framed inside a light blue triangle.]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Interactive comics]]

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T06:46:55Z

Azule: First attempt

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}
This is an interactive comic. You can experience it by going to the xkcd site at http://xkcd.com/1525/ .

Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of YES or NO or ASK AGAIN, this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply. Even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
:Title: Emojic 8 Ball [with the 8 itself an emoji that looks like an 8-ball]
:[Form input field with placeholder text]: How will I die?
:[Submit button]: Ask
:[Image of a shiny black ball with a smaller circular window at its center.]
:[After the submit button is pressed, 1 or 2 emoji symbols appear in the window framed inside a light blue triangle.]

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Interactive comics]]

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2015-05-15T06:32:15Z

Azule: Expanded early explanation

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|New page}}
This is an interactive comic. You can experience it by going to the xkcd site.

Emojic 8 Ball is a type of parody of {{w|Magic 8 Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. Whereas the real Magic 8 Ball is shaken while you ask it a question and gives out an answer along the lines of YES or NO or ASK AGAIN, this comic takes written user input and once submitted gives a non-verbal answer using graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" called emoji.

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply. Even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Interactive comics]]

Talk:1516: Win by Induction

2015-04-27T09:34:19Z

Azule: added my comment plus rearranged the comments so that the separate subsections ended Talk

Is the alt text a reference to double-yolkers (eggs with two yolks)? [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16118149 They're only about 1 in every 1000] but it seems like an obvious reference. --[[User:Fenn|Fenn]] ([[User talk:Fenn|talk]]) 08:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Makes sense to me. I didn't even think of double yolks until you mentioned it here. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.89|173.245.50.89]] 09:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)BK201
::Seconded. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:::I'd think it's a reference to the rate of twins, which is currently almost exactly 1/30 (and on the rise) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin#Statistics] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.186|173.245.56.186]] 17:45, 24 April 2015 (UTC)Merkky[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.186|173.245.56.186]] 17:45, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

The explanation currently says that doubling makes it uncountably infinite. I'm pretty sure that doubling at each step (or every few steps) is still a countable infinite set. Proof here: http://practicaltypography.com/the-infinite-pixel-screen.html (see section "The internet demands a recount", because the first attempt is wrong). We can also prove it using the same argument as when proving that N x N is countable infinite (making zig-zag), but in this case making a breadth-first search of the tree of Pikachus: map 1 to the first Pikachu, map 2 and 3 to the two Pikachus at the second level, map 4, 5, 6, 7 to the four Pikachus at the third level, map (2^(n-1))…((2^n) - 1) to the 2^(n-1) Pikachus at level n. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.177}}
:Saw this too late. Yes, I agree, and I have fixed it accordingly. --[[User:Stephan Schulz|Stephan Schulz]] ([[User talk:Stephan Schulz|talk]]) 09:28, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:The problem being that we don't have an exact number for how many steps include double Pikachus. Granted, this is just a problem of practice, not theory. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 12:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

"infinite, but countable" {Cough.} Someone doesn't understand infinity. Perhaps they meant "enumerable". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 09:29, 24 April 2015 (UTC)ū
:Someone doesn't understand countability. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.217|141.101.89.217]] 09:46, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
::enumeration is counting, in the simplest sense. "To name one by one; specify, as if in a list". That said, the whole of infinite whole numbers CAN be counted, just not by a human and not within a reasonable amount of time. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

"The front most Pikachu speaks." Hey, look, it has those little lines to show it's speaking, not the blank white space behind it. Duh. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 09:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Looks like Megan is looking at her watch as well. Mention in transcript/explanation? [[User:Fenn|Fenn]] ([[User talk:Fenn|talk]]) 09:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Are Megan and Cueball supposed to fight each other? It seems like Cueball still has his closed Pokéball in his hands. Is it then Megan's Pokéball that has evolved into all these Pikachu? And is it because she waits for her Pokémon to be ready to fight Cueball, that she checks her watch? I do not know anything about the Pokémon game/world. But it seems to me that some part of this setup is unexplained by the above... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:23, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Friendly reminder: Grammatically speaking, Pokémon are like sheep or deer. Singular and plural are both written the same. One Pikachu, many Pikachu, all the Pikachu. You'd be surprised at how much rage forgetting this causes in certain corners of the Internet. {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.42}}

What doesn't make sense to me is how this could continue indefinitely – after all, each of those Pikachu must have caught its own Pikachu beforehand. I don't see any infinite loop here, just a bunch of Pikachu that already had one another caught itselves. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.217|141.101.96.217]] 10:13, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Ah, the immortal quip from Jerry Bona: "The Axiom of Choice is obviously true, the well-ordering principle obviously false, and who can tell about Zorn's Lemma?" [[User:Aube|Aube]] ([[User talk:Aube|talk]]) 05:29, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

The word "induction" could also be intended to have a double meaning, referring also to electromagnetic induction. Pikachu is, after all, and electric pokémon. {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.194}}
:Yes, I think this is right. Something about Maxwell's equations and induction. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.203}}
::From an engineering standpoint, in my opinion, Pikachu act more like biological capacitors (stored electric charge at potentially high voltage able to deliver large discharge currents) than inductors ("storing" magnetic energy via constant current, able to deliver high voltage when interrupted, like the ignition coil for an older automotive engine). I'm not too familiar with the Pokémon in-game/in-show universe, but I would imagine the Nurse Jenny corps could use electric Pokémon such as Pikachu (or Raichu) like defibrillators for cardiac events! --BigMal // [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.177|173.245.50.177]] 11:42, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:::There are certain moves, including some that Pikachu can learn, that appear to be based on induction (Thunder Wave and Shock Wave). Besides, they build up charge in their bodies from somewhere; I'd suspect induction from the surrounding environment is what charges them up. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

There's a point floating about how infinity doesn't imply completion. For instance, the number of all even integers is infinite, yet any given integer "only has a 50% chance of being even", so the series is quite obviously incomplete. This article seems to tend towards the idea (in diction) that an infinite number of pikachu would result in a win based on a 'logical' premise, without referring specificially to the terms of it's assumption. [[User:Xerxesbeat|Xerxesbeat]] ([[User talk:Xerxesbeat|talk]]) 11:38, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:The observation proceeds from the fact that the cardinality of all even integers is the same as the cardinality of all natural numbers (and the cardinality of all rational numbers). You can say that there are as many even integers are there are integers, conterintuitive as that seems. This, however, has nothing to do with the reasoning behind induction. Suppose that there is a finite number that doesn't correspond with a Pikachu, we can pick the least number for which this is the case (just check all the lower numbers until we find the least non-pikachu number N). But there is a pikachu corresponding to N-1, and it is holding a pokeball with a pikachu. So the pikachu in the pokeball of pikachu N-1 is pikachu N, and we have a contradiction to our supposition. Therefore there is no finite number that doesn't correspond with a Pikachu, QED.[[User:Aube|Aube]] ([[User talk:Aube|talk]]) 05:29, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

What happens if the Pikachu in the ball is recursing - picking himself? That doesn't fit the 30-40 double yolk thing, but would explain an infinite series. Food for thought. Megan is bored, waiting for the fight to start. I thought the game was supposed to begin when the players choose, though, so I don't understand why the wait is happening at all. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.151}}

I doubt this is an intentional part of the joke, but the strongest Ground-type moves (Earthquake, Precipice Blades, etc.) are multi-target, hitting all foes in a 1v5 situation such as Horde Battles. In theory, a strong enough super effective move from Cueball's lead would still end the battle in one turn. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.176|173.245.56.176]] 12:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Not Land's Wrath, Dig, or Earth Power, which are strong ground-type moves.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.126|173.245.48.126]] 13:05, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
::Actually, Land's Wrath is multi-target. (The ones you named are also weaker than Earthquake and Precipice Blades, so the original comment stands regardless. Although a lucky Magnitude is more powerful than any of those.) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.98|108.162.221.98]]

I normally get a hearty chuckle out of Randall's graphical musings, but this one had me scratching my head. Fortunately, ExplainXKCD always comes to the rescue! After reading this page, my first thought was: Pokéception! 13:17, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

This sentence is nonsensical: ''When Trainers do battle, the anime's dub has immersed the phrase "<Pokémon's name>, I choose you!" into popular culture memory, which is accompanied by throwing the ball containing the selected Pokémon to the ground, which releases the Pokémon at full size.'' [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.161|108.162.219.161]] 17:51, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Should it be noted that the Pikachu is drawn without its tail? It would normally a have lightning bolt shaped tail that appears to the side or from behind its head. (Trivia or other note?) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 15:22, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:I agree it looks weird, but can it be written off as it's being obscured by itself? {{unsigned ip|173.245.50.89}}
::I would say not. Look how the left arms are all a bit obscured by the body. This indicates that the Pikachu are turned slightly toward a side view. That would mean the back end would more visible, including the tail. [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 09:34, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

In Pokemon games from Gold and up, pokemon are able to hold items, including pokeballs. While in the game, once a pokeball is filled it is no longer available to select as an item, this comic would seem to imply the possible 'inception' scenario of having a pokemon hold an active pokeball (as the games have already shown that a pokeball can go into a pokeball). --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.193|173.245.54.193]] 14:13, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
: ahem... "pokeception" short for "pocket inception" - I can't be the first one to coin this (?) - [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 16:33, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

With Megan looking at her watch and Cueball holding the ball, I think we're meant to understand that Megan IS the Pokémon Cueball intends to use against Pikachu.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.153|108.162.221.153]] 19:12, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Since Cueball has a closed ball in hand he has yet to choose a Pokemon. Tjus Megan cannot be his. She must have thrown the first Pikachu ball. Should be changed in explanation.[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:31, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
It is possible the "win by induction" is from the Pikachu's opponent inferring the series in infinite, and conceding. 19:56, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Am I missing something or does Randall not quite understand how Pokemon works? (Or is intentionally misrepresenting it for the sake of the joke) Pokemon don't come out with their own pokeball with them-- the pokemon aren't magically created. In theory, if someone were to give a pokemon its own pokemon, a chain could occur, but it would be limited to the number of pokemon previously caught. The pokemon are born in the wild and are captured inside pokeballs-- not created from them. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.91}}
:If a Pikachu can catch another Pikachu in a Pokéball, then there is no reason why the Pikachu it just caught, did not think about this before, and that it had done the same. So when it was caught and put into the Pokéball, it already had a Pokéball with another Pikachu. Of this has occurred enough times you get the result of this comic. No one said this would go on forever, that is something we have interpreted from the comic. It does not come directly from Randall! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:36, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

Bother this. I send out Quagsire. Use Earthquake. '''Please''' do not wait.[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 05:18, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

No mention of the exponential growth? If every 40th pikachu releases 2 and each of those also release their own pikachu then there is an average growth rate of the pikachu able to release another pikachu of 41/40 = 1.025. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 19:48, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

;Induction

Two other possibilities: one, in a bit of googling, it would appear that there is a type of Pokémon evolution called induced evolution, which involves stones of some kind? Alternately, we can use the term induction in the sense of soneone being ''inducted'' into a group. In this case, Megan has trained her Pikachu to be a Pokémaster. (Perhaps by arranging for it to be inducted into a rarified "gym"? I confess, I know nothing about the show.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.196|173.245.56.196]] 13:11, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one mentioned that Pokémon is a game a long time before becoming a show. Although it was because of the animated series that Pikachu became "special" among the hundreds of other cute critters.

Also, no mention to the russian matryoshka dolls? Come on...
Closest other xkcd I recall is https://xkcd.com/878/ {{unsigned ip|198.41.230.68}}

;Axiom of choice

Could this be to do with the {{w|axiom of choice}} from set theory? From my understanding, it's a fundamental axiom of set theory that says 'given a set of sets, it's possible to choose one element from each of those sets'. "Choosing" is in this case a specific operation that can be performed on an element.

One specific detail about the axiom is that all sets under consideration must be nonempty; that is, they must contain at least one element. So I think this is analogous to the situation of a Pokemon trainer owning multiple (full) Pokeballs: his Pokeballs are a collection of non-empty sets from which he is now trying to choose a single element ("Pikachu, I choose you!").

Under ''normal'' circumstances, he can do this without invoking the axiom of choice because he knows the names of all his Pokemon and so can select one from each set. In this case, he could prove his ability to make the choice simply by releasing all of his Pokemon from their balls one at a time. (The Pokemon's name is actually irrelevant, because simply releasing the Pokemon counts as a choice).

However, the situation becomes more complex if it turns out that his Pokemon also possess Pokeballs, because now his ability to make the choice is uncertain. In this situation, there could be ''infinitely many'' Pikachus, and so he can't definitely select a Pikachu from all the Pokeballs under his control. In a situation like this, a mathematician would invoke the axiom of choice.

However, it seems that Cueball is actually having a go at it using an inductive method of choice: first by choosing a Pikachu, then having each Pikachu choose a Pikachu. If the number of Pikachus carrying Pokeballs is finite, then eventually, this will demonstrate that the choice can be made and so the axiom of choice is unnecessary. However, if it's ''infinite'', then this will generate a neverending stream of Pikachus. In the latter case, the game never begins, because you can't begin a Pokemon battle until all participants have chosen Pokemon. Most likely, the other players would simply abandon the game, which Cueball could claim as a victory. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 13:52, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:I think you are confused about the AoC. AoC states that given any collection of elements, you can choose an element from EACH set. If you are choosing a pokemon from a collection of pokeballs, it's equivalent to choosing one full pokeball from the collection and you are picking an element from a single set, which doesn't involve the AoC (this is something you can always do as long as the set is non-empty). In the example in the comic, AoC is not needed because there is already a natural ordering (ignoring the alt-text, which would make the set a partial ordering), so it's trivial to construct a choice function for any subset (choose the "least" pikachu in the sequence). On the other hand, if we have infinite pikachus running wild, we would need the Axiom of Choice (preferably its equivalent, the Well-Ordering Theorem) to assert that they can be ordered so that all of them except one is captured in a pokeball held by another pikachu.[[User:Aube|Aube]] ([[User talk:Aube|talk]]) 05:10, 25 April 2015 (UTC)
::I was hoping a real mathematician would get involved. ^^ Do you think that this mathematical definition of 'choice' is the one being referred to in the comic, though? [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 13:47, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

1516: Win by Induction

2015-04-27T09:22:17Z

Azule: Split last list item into two. Changed language indicating that it's an error how the ball is broken in two. Instead detail that it's uncommon.

{{comic
| number = 1516
| date = April 24, 2015
| title = Win by Induction
| image = win by induction.png
| titletext = This would be bad enough, but every 30th or 40th pokéball has TWO of them inside.
}}
==Explanation==
In the {{w|Pokémon}} franchise, human characters called Trainers capture fantastical creatures from the wild, the titular Pokémon (a shortened form of "Pocket Monsters"), and train them to battle one another. Pokémon are captured and stored in devices called Poké Balls, which shrink the creatures down to pocket size (hence "Pocket Monsters"). The anime's dub has enshrined the phrase "''<Pokémon's name>'', I choose you!" into popular culture memory. When Trainers do battle, they often shout this phrase while throwing the ball to the ground, releasing the Pokémon at full size.

In this comic, a Pokémon chosen at some point was a {{w|Pikachu}}, which does not intend to engage in the battle himself. Instead, the Pikachu chooses another Pikachu to fight for him. This process then repeats itself. Behind the Pikachu with the Pokéball is a long line of other Pikachu, suggesting that this process has been going on for a while.

Nearby stands [[Cueball]], holding a closed Pokéball, and [[Megan]], looking at her watch. This suggests that Cueball intends to have his own Pokémon fight the Pikachu, but is waiting to see which enemy his Pokémon must face before the battle can actually begin (waiting in vain, if the above described process repeats indefinitely), while Megan is growing impatient with the delay. Given that Cueball is holding a closed Pokéball he has not deployed yet, Megan cannot herself be his Pokémon. She could be his opponent, or a spectator.

The joke in this comic comes from analogy with the mathematical {{w|proof by induction}}, which is a proof with a base case, followed by a never ending sequence of steps. Each step leads to the next, thus proving something for all cases. This title seems to suggest that the process of Pikachu choosing Pikachu will not end, effectively postponing the battle indefinitely.

The name "induction" comes from logic and discrete mathematics, and is thus unrelated to the physical phenomena of {{w|electromagnetic induction}}; but the fact that Pikachu is an "Electric-type" Pokémon could be a word play connecting the two ideas.

If there were always only a single Pikachu in each Pokéball, this would spawn an unlimited number of Pikachu growing at a constant rate. Since, as the title text notes, there are occasionally two of them in a Pokéball, this would lead to exponential growth assuming each of the spawned Pikachu in this case is bearing a Pokéball!

Pikachu was used in one of the storylines of [[1350: Lorenz]]. See all the attack moves it made [[1350:_Lorenz#Pok.C3.A9mon|here]].

==Transcript==
:[There's a long queue of Pikachu extending out of the frame to the left. They are all just out from their ball, at least the last eight Pikachu's open balls lie in two parts on the ground at their feet. They are standing in front of Megan and Cueball. Cueball is holding a closed pokéball while Megan checks the time on her watch. The frontmost Pikachu, holding a closed pokéball, speaks.]

:Pikachu at the front: Pikachu, I choose ''you!''

==Trivia==
*For some reason Pikachu is drawn without its lightning shaped tail.
*In Pokémon canon, Pokémon are only allowed to hold on to an ''empty'' Pokéball when stored in a Pokéball.
*In Pokémon canon, only one Pokémon can exist in a pokeball.
*Randall has drawn the pokeballs with the button that opens them in the middle of the red half. Whereas in acutal pokeballs the button is located where the two different halves meet.
*The open pokeballs are shown broken in two. They are normally connected by a hinge. It is an uncommon visualization that the two halves are fully separate.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Pokémon‏‎]]

Talk:1516: Win by Induction

2015-04-24T15:22:56Z

Azule:

Should it be noted that the Pikachu is drawn without its tail? It would normally a have lightning bolt shaped tail that appears to the side or from behind its head. (Trivia or other note?) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 15:22, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

In Pokemon games from Gold and up, pokemon are able to hold items, including pokeballs. While in the game, once a pokeball is filled it is no longer available to select as an item, this comic would seem to imply the possible 'inception' scenario of having a pokemon hold an active pokeball (as the games have already shown that a pokeball can go into a pokeball). --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.193|173.245.54.193]] 14:13, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Is the alt text a reference to double-yolkers (eggs with two yolks)? [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16118149 They're only about 1 in every 1000] but it seems like an obvious reference. --[[User:Fenn|Fenn]] ([[User talk:Fenn|talk]]) 08:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Makes sense to me. I didn't even think of double yolks until you mentioned it here. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.89|173.245.50.89]] 09:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)BK201
::Seconded. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

The explanation currently says that doubling makes it uncountably infinite. I'm pretty sure that doubling at each step (or every few steps) is still a countable infinite set. Proof here: http://practicaltypography.com/the-infinite-pixel-screen.html (see section "The internet demands a recount", because the first attempt is wrong). We can also prove it using the same argument as when proving that N x N is countable infinite (making zig-zag), but in this case making a breadth-first search of the tree of Pikachus: map 1 to the first Pikachu, map 2 and 3 to the two Pikachus at the second level, map 4, 5, 6, 7 to the four Pikachus at the third level, map (2^(n-1))…((2^n) - 1) to the 2^(n-1) Pikachus at level n. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.177}}
:Saw this too late. Yes, I agree, and I have fixed it accordingly. --[[User:Stephan Schulz|Stephan Schulz]] ([[User talk:Stephan Schulz|talk]]) 09:28, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:The problem being that we don't have an exact number for how many steps include double Pikachus. Granted, this is just a problem of practice, not theory. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 12:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

"infinite, but countable" {Cough.} Someone doesn't understand infinity. Perhaps they meant "enumerable". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 09:29, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Someone doesn't understand countability. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.217|141.101.89.217]] 09:46, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
::enumeration is counting, in the simplest sense. "To name one by one; specify, as if in a list". That said, the whole of infinite whole numbers CAN be counted, just not by a human and not within a reasonable amount of time. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

"The front most Pikachu speaks." Hey, look, it has those little lines to show it's speaking, not the blank white space behind it. Duh. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 09:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Looks like Megan is looking at her watch as well. Mention in transcript/explanation? [[User:Fenn|Fenn]] ([[User talk:Fenn|talk]]) 09:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Are Megan and Cueball supposed to fight each other? It seems like Cueball still has his closed Pokéball in his hands. Is it then Megan's Pokéball that has evolved into all these Pikachu? And is it because she waits for her Pokémon to be ready to fight Cueball, that she checks her watch? I do not know anything about the Pokémon game/world. But it seems to me that some part of this setup is unexplained by the above... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:23, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Friendly reminder: Grammatically speaking, Pokémon are like sheep or deer. Singular and plural are both written the same. One Pikachu, many Pikachu, all the Pikachu. You'd be surprised at how much rage forgetting this causes in certain corners of the Internet. {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.42}}

What doesn't make sense to me is how this could continue indefinitely – after all, each of those Pikachu must have caught its own Pikachu beforehand. I don't see any infinite loop here, just a bunch of Pikachu that already had one another caught itselves. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.217|141.101.96.217]] 10:13, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

The word "induction" could also be intended to have a double meaning, referring also to electromagnetic induction. Pikachu is, after all, and electric pokémon. {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.194}}
:Yes, I think this is right. Something about Maxwell's equations and induction. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.203}}
::From an engineering standpoint, in my opinion, Pikachu act more like biological capacitors (stored electric charge at potentially high voltage able to deliver large discharge currents) than inductors ("storing" magnetic energy via constant current, able to deliver high voltage when interrupted, like the ignition coil for an older automotive engine). I'm not too familiar with the Pokémon in-game/in-show universe, but I would imagine the Nurse Jenny corps could use electric Pokémon such as Pikachu (or Raichu) like defibrillators for cardiac events! --BigMal // [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.177|173.245.50.177]] 11:42, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:::There are certain moves, including some that Pikachu can learn, that appear to be based on induction (Thunder Wave and Shock Wave). Besides, they build up charge in their bodies from somewhere; I'd suspect induction from the surrounding environment is what charges them up. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

There's a point floating about how infinity doesn't imply completion. For instance, the number of all even integers is infinite, yet any given integer "only has a 50% chance of being even", so the series is quite obviously incomplete. This article seems to tend towards the idea (in diction) that an infinite number of pikachu would result in a win based on a 'logical' premise, without referring specificially to the terms of it's assumption. [[User:Xerxesbeat|Xerxesbeat]] ([[User talk:Xerxesbeat|talk]]) 11:38, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

What happens if the Pikachu in the ball is recursing - picking himself? That doesn't fit the 30-40 double yolk thing, but would explain an infinite series. Food for thought. Megan is bored, waiting for the fight to start. I thought the game was supposed to begin when the players choose, though, so I don't understand why the wait is happening at all.

I doubt this is an intentional part of the joke, but the strongest Ground-type moves (Earthquake, Precipice Blades, etc.) are multi-target, hitting all foes in a 1v5 situation such as Horde Battles. In theory, a strong enough super effective move from Cueball's lead would still end the battle in one turn. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.176|173.245.56.176]] 12:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)
:Not Land's Wrath, Dig, or Earth Power, which are strong ground-type moves.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.126|173.245.48.126]] 13:05, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

I normally get a hearty chuckle out of Randall's graphical musings, but this one had me scratching my head. Fortunately, ExplainXKCD always comes to the rescue! After reading this page, my first thought was: Pokéception! 13:17, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

== Induction ==

Two other possibilities: one, in a bit of googling, it would appear that there is a type of Pokémon evolution called induced evolution, which involves stones of some kind? Alternately, we can use the term induction in the sense of soneone being ''inducted'' into a group. In this case, Megan has trained her Pikachu to be a Pokémaster. (Perhaps by arranging for it to be inducted into a rarified "gym"? I confess, I know nothing about the show.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.196|173.245.56.196]] 13:11, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one mentioned that Pokémon is a game a long time before becoming a show. Although it was because of the animated series that Pikachu became "special" among the hundreds of other cute critters.

Also, no mention to the russian matryoshka dolls? Come on...
Closest other xkcd I recall is https://xkcd.com/878/

== Axiom of choice ==

Could this be to do with the {{w|axiom of choice}} from set theory? From my understanding, it's a fundamental axiom of set theory that says 'given a set of sets, it's possible to choose one element from each of those sets'. "Choosing" is in this case a specific operation that can be performed on an element.

One specific detail about the axiom is that all sets under consideration must be nonempty; that is, they must contain at least one element. So I think this is analogous to the situation of a Pokemon trainer owning multiple (full) Pokeballs: his Pokeballs are a collection of non-empty sets from which he is now trying to choose a single element ("Pikachu, I choose you!").

Under ''normal'' circumstances, he can do this without invoking the axiom of choice because he knows the names of all his Pokemon and so can select one from each set. In this case, he could prove his ability to make the choice simply by releasing all of his Pokemon from their balls one at a time. (The Pokemon's name is actually irrelevant, because simply releasing the Pokemon counts as a choice).

However, the situation becomes more complex if it turns out that his Pokemon also possess Pokeballs, because now his ability to make the choice is uncertain. In this situation, there could be ''infinitely many'' Pikachus, and so he can't definitely select a Pikachu from all the Pokeballs under his control. In a situation like this, a mathematician would invoke the axiom of choice.

However, it seems that Cueball is actually having a go at it using an inductive method of choice: first by choosing a Pikachu, then having each Pikachu choose a Pikachu. If the number of Pikachus carrying Pokeballs is finite, then eventually, this will demonstrate that the choice can be made and so the axiom of choice is unnecessary. However, if it's ''infinite'', then this will generate a neverending stream of Pikachus. In the latter case, the game never begins, because you can't begin a Pokemon battle until all participants have chosen Pokemon. Most likely, the other players would simply abandon the game, which Cueball could claim as a victory. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 13:52, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1514: PermaCal

2015-04-21T18:13:01Z

Azule:

In Megan's response, the "h" in "19th" is backwards.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.214.239|108.162.214.239]] 05:47, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:I believe the fully formed uppercase 'h' to be the mistake. What you describe was common in 1190. I think the section should be removed, then readded to the comic that first made use of it (which could be before 1190).[[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 18:13, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
:I'm pretty sure that's a mistake since lowercase letters normally aren't used. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 05:49, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:Looks like he forgot the line on the upper left. He used the capital 19TH for Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.60|173.245.48.60]] 07:24, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:I think it's intentional. All the H's after a T have shortened upperleft lines. Probably for nice http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/kerning [[User:ToaVin|ToaVin]] ([[User talk:ToaVin|talk]]) 10:12, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
::I recall other examples where Randall's lettering style includes 'stroke obscurations' (preferable to merging of letters, probably).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.160|141.101.98.160]] 16:10, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Leap seconds have nothing to do with the length of the year: corrected. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 07:49, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

"Leap seconds normally account for the differences in the length of our 24 hour day and the time taken for the world to rotate 360 degrees on its axis" - this sentence mixes two unrelated concepts. First, a day is not a rotation of 360 degrees. Because the Earth also orbit the sun, the rotation from noon one day to noon the following day is a bit more than 360 degrees (360.9856 or so) (rotation measured relative to the stars) - this is why constellations appear to move throughout the year. Second, leap seconds are required because the leap day corrections of the Gregorian calendar are good, but not perfect, at matching the difference between Earth orbits (years) and Earth rotations (days). Every so often, a small correction is required. The corrections are not regular because the causes of the drift are numerous: tidal effects, orbital eccentricity, the underlying (small) flaws in the calendar, etc. I have not made any changes in the explanation. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.66|141.101.104.66]] 08:41, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Not unrelated concept. Just not fully understood. Rotate 360 degrees is a simple way of putting things that ignores the diffrence between solar days and sidereal days. Incorrect not because someone doesn't understand the topic being discussed but because someone hasn't studied astronomy or seriously thought about how the movement of the Earth effects the length of the day--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.183|108.162.237.183]] 13:00, 20 April 2015 (UTC).
:Guilty. No excuse either, because I actually knew (but just forgot) about the difference between sidereal and solar days. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 01:14, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

While you are true on one part, that Earth doesn't take 24 hours to rotate 360 degrees (it takes around 23 hours and 56 minutes if I recall correctly), leap seconds are used to account for differences between 24 hours and a solar day. If it was used to adjust the length of the year the time of day would drift, it would also be fairly pointless as the leap days take us out by 1/4 of a day.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.175|108.162.250.175]] 10:41, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

Do we know for sure that this comic was released on a Sunday - the 19th instead of the 20th? The first entry in this page is from the 20th. Of course there are some references to the 19th, but then again it is obvious that it is on the 20th that Megan asks. Anyone who can find out if this is the correct date, or just a mistake by someone who misunderstood something based on the dates in the comic? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:19, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:Yes, it was released on the 19th, at about 10 PM CST. All of the recent comics have been released a few hours early though, so if you want the date set at 20, fine. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:05, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:The archive claims that it was released on the 20th.--[[User:17jiangz1|17jiangz1]] ([[User talk:17jiangz1|talk]]) 15:08, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
Apropos a "permanent calendar", Isaac Asimov proposed just such a calendar. http://calendars.wikia.com/wiki/World_Season_Calendar This web page unfortunately doesn't go into details, but there were several advantages. The same calendar is used for all years, your birthday is always on the same day of the week, no need to remember "30 days hath Sept. ...", and several other advantages I can't remember right now. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 12:45, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

There is some confusion between the different types of astronomical time: a day in mean solar time is 24 hours, with a difference of + or - up to 1 second (compared to time on an atomic clock), in apparent solar time is 24 hours + or - up to 30 seconds, and in mean sidereal time is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.0916 seconds (according to Wikipedia), and there is one extra sidereal day (about 366.25) in a sidereal year. [[User:The Dining Logician|The Dining Logician]] ([[User talk:The Dining Logician|talk]]) 13:55, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

It seems like our collective favorite word just might be "portmanteau" [[User:YourLifeisaLie|The Goyim speaks]] ([[User talk:YourLifeisaLie|talk]]) 13:42, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

The explanation seems unclear where it addresses the title text. I'm not sure what is meant by "maybe 100ms every few months," but it seems to miss the point of the comic. If a leap day is added each time the previous day ends, then at millisecond resolution, a new leap-millisecond would be added every millisecond! Hence the resulting DDOS when pushing so many NTP notifications... [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.104|199.27.133.104]] 16:05, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:I think that's wrong, too. Just my vote towards encouraging someone who wants to consider rewording it.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.160|141.101.98.160]] 16:10, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

I want to clarify a bit here. Leap days account for the fact that the rotation period of the Earth does not evenly divide into the revolution period. As such we can predict when each leap day will happen in the future. Leap seconds on the other hand are due to variance in the Earths rotation caused by various factors. Leap seconds cannot be predicted and must be observed by measurement and corrected for after the fact. It is based on the fact that the Earth's rotation varies.

I am so happy Randall decided to mock leap seconds. The human race just needs to accept that the rotation of the Earth is not a constant and stop pretending that it is. If we ingored leap seconds it would only add up to a few hours a lifetime. So what if 12pm is a different time as the years pass? It may be annoying but that is the world we live one. We can still have noon be the height of the sun if we want, it will just be a different time. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.73|199.27.133.73]] 17:25, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
:Does that last paragraph add anything to the article? The title text is mocking leap seconds about as much as the main comic is mocking leap days (ie- not really), and the odds that a server is able to handle NTP corrections due to regular clock drift, but unable to handle a 1 second jump in a single NTP correction seems like very poor mojo. I have no idea why the linux hrtimer subsystem cared about the wall-clock time, since it's a well known fact that the wall-clock time can change for a large number of reasons, and so you can't have your system go haywire every time it does. Google hasn't actually fixed anything, they are simply offering an NTP service that provides leap second corrections over a long smear - at the cost of being out of sync with UTC for up to a second at a time.
::If anything, that link to livescience needs to be removed as the worst kind of fear-mongering and click-bait. GPS doesn't care about leap seconds, and GPS time is well-known to drift from UTC; if your GPS receiver is making adjustments for leap seconds, then it's going to be inaccurate in every other way, as well.
::Also, given enough time, the day will be 25 hours long, for a few hours a week drift if you want to stick to UT as your arbitrary timekeeping system! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.162|108.162.249.162]] 01:32, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
::: I concur, the last sentence adds nothing to the explanation and should probably be removed. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 03:53, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.169|108.162.250.169]] 12:49, 21 April 2015 (UTC) An illustrative quote comes to mind: "By an equally suspicious freak of temporal relastatics, it is nearly always Saturday afternoon just before the bars close." Description of Ursa Minor Beta, The Restaurant At The End of The Universe, chapter 4.

Talk:1496: Art Project

2015-03-09T06:19:40Z

Azule: Created page with "What is "Cutie"? If we're introducing a new character name, I'd say it would be the last "Megan". Her hair is longer and therefore not the prototypical Megan. Should the names..."

What is "Cutie"? If we're introducing a new character name, I'd say it would be the last "Megan". Her hair is longer and therefore not the prototypical Megan. Should the names be switched? [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 06:19, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1446: Landing

2014-12-01T21:01:50Z

Azule: non-5-minute frames, released after initial completion

I would bet money that this comic will have to do with the Rosetta Lander that will be landing on a comet for the first time in history this morning. Info about it at Rosetta.esa.int

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.173|108.162.237.173]] 05:37, 12 November 2014 (UTC)pH
:
:from xkcd1446.org: "Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images" {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.113}}
::New images have since been added. The person who make xkcd1446.org is a third party who made a bad assumption. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:36, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Almost definitely. The URL for the image (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png) contains 'landing'.

[[User:DeedleFake|DeedleFake]] ([[User talk:DeedleFake|talk]]) 05:44, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The image changes every five minutes. (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-35-00_lVC98SMY1X.png) followed by (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png) followed by (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png) then (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-50-00_Z63bWhoaxd.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-55-00_2wCeCFN0R1.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-00-00_FRnIhqA5IZ.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png) (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-10-00_xn4nUL9lry.png) http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-15-00_soIuPGfUYh.png , also I'm sorry about deleting other people's comments - firefox decided to not show the "other people have edited this" page :(. If anyone's interested, here's the command I'm using to grab the urls:
while :; do http --stream --body http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/landing\?method\=EventSource | awk '/png/ { print $2 }' | perl -ne '/(r_.+png)/; print "$1\n";' ; done
where the 'http' command is from http://httpie.org - not the neatest way to do it, but it works ;)
[[User:Forkbomb|Forkbomb]] ([[User talk:Forkbomb|talk]]) 05:47, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Forkbomb, you are not supposed to delete other's comments...
Yes. It is definitely about Rosetta. The image changed at 9.35 pm PST and it says "Three hours to separation", i.e. 12.35am PST, which is exactly the time at which PHILAE is going to separate...
[http://imgur.com/fK9Ddrx image_seen]
[http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/07/rosetta-and-philae-landing-timeline/ rosetta timeline]

[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 05:50, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Is anyone collecting URLs? I assume there's an easy automated way to do this that was used for Time. If not...
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! URLs
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-10-00_fUWUYNkxwp.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-15-00_74eSd3x7BQ.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-20-00_UT4FKycrmC.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-25-00_FX6hlfSQHR.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-30-00_FjnXADopvO.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-35-00_lVC98SMY1X.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-40-00_wmf0bPtxDN.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-50-00_Z63bWhoaxd.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-55-00_2wCeCFN0R1.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-00-00_FRnIhqA5IZ.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-05-00_Os6SVGalch.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-10-00_xn4nUL9lry.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-15-00_soIuPGfUYh.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-20-00_jwkPNMaOSf.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-25-00_ADajYkIBoR.png
|-
|http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-30-00_w819mZAIhE.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-35-00_LoEc4Q8fJF.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-40-00_YLKE5WV8Jw.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-45-00_QRP5ndlY4A.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-50-00_OAOxgR9UUR.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_01-55-00_KGFuQYeX1i.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-00-00_ov37tpe8BX.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-05-00_VwL8mLbfmW.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-10-00_GCNRyInxWI.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-15-00_CQwEg4oyk3.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-20-00_jkbJbYkLeP.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_02-25-00_Pxh3HKgWnT.png
|}
</div>
'''LONG LIST OF URLs HIDDEN. CLICK EXPAND OVER THERE →'''

Randall switched to SSL after 1:30 but you can of course use either server.

- Marcustyphoon/[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.244|108.162.219.244]] 07:37, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-45-00_MZprhbADHL.png) "Has anyone ever tried this before?" "No but fetishes have to start somewhere, right?" [[User:Nexxuz|Nexxuz]] ([[User talk:Nexxuz|talk]])

Probably just a mistake, but the transcript in the html source of 1446 is from 1445. --[[User:Pascal|Pascal]] ([[User talk:Pascal|talk]]) 05:58, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

It fetches things using this javascript tag..
<script type="text/javascript" src="/s/c3b919.js"></script>
I've pasted it in pastebin, can we get zealous and fetch the images before they actually show up ? :P
[http://pastebin.com/MwsahkyE link_to_javascript]
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 06:04, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

By the way, the current explanation says it's pinging c4.xkcd for updates.
From the javascript source, it looks like there's more than one server for this:
var SERVERS = ["http://c0.xkcd.com", "http://c1.xkcd.com", "http://c2.xkcd.com", "http://c3.xkcd.com", "http://c4.xkcd.com", "http://c5.xkcd.com", "http://c6.xkcd.com", "http://c7.xkcd.com"];
So that would be c0 to c7

Unfortuantely, as I had suggested, it seems that we cannot grab all the images beforehand :(
The javascript only fetches a json, which actually gives image name. So there's a server side script running which generates the paths to actual images. The javascript just shows it..
You can see the json [http://c4.xkcd.com/stream/comic/landing?method=EventSource here].
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.237|199.27.128.237]] 06:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Attempting to load the URL directly in Firefox results in unreadable results, but it's something like
id: acae0462-6a34-11e4-8001-002590720087
event: comic/landing
data: {"image":"r_01-25-00_ADajYkIBoR.png","spread":1}
There are several other events as well, such as 'reload' and 'heartbeat'.
[[User:DeedleFake|DeedleFake]] ([[User talk:DeedleFake|talk]]) 06:32, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

By the way, that UUID (i.e. acae0462-6a34-11e4-8001-002590720087) seems to encode the time the image was uploaded as a v1 UUID.
[[User:Maths22|Maths22]] ([[User talk:Maths22|talk]]) 06:58, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The best part of this is ninja-ing the image uploads. The xkcd servers seem to be off atomic time by around 45 seconds. [[User:Skylarmt|Skylarmt]] ([[User talk:Skylarmt|talk]]) 06:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

What are people's thoughts on changing the image label to an image number? It seems redundant to use the timestamp twice, but I copied it over from time. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:06, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

A lovely explanation. Itaigreif (talk) 07:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Why is the comic titled "???" and not "Rosetta" or something? [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 08:02, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

:"Rosetta" would have given the game away in the first few minutes before we could figure it out. "???" is a strange choice, though. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.201.157|103.22.201.157]] 09:20, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The page has changed name from "???" to "Landing" about 5AM, and title text changed from "..." to "[LIVE]". Not sure about actual times, and don't know how to rename page. Can someone else handle this? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.217|141.101.89.217]] 10:12, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

At 00:03:50 the comic mentions turning on CONCERT, which I think is a typo and should be {{w|CONSERT}} --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 10:56, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:I think this is a typo Randall made on purpose. [[User:SirKitKat|SirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 15:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::Welp - if it's a joke or other reference, it's lost on me - do you have an explanation for what it could mean if intentional? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:15, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
Keep uploading the images under the current naming convention, guys, I'll do a batch move to "landing[X]" later when things die down a little. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:02, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:: Check out [http://xkcd1446.org/list.json http://xkcd1446.org/list.json]. E.g. [http://xkcd1446.org/img/r_11-30-00_DEpbhsl54D.png http://xkcd1446.org/img/r_11-30-00_DEpbhsl54D.png]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.189|141.101.105.189]] 11:54, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Shouldn't we write up the changing "Time until landing: [x] hours" top text in the transcripts as well? [[User:Phantom|Phantom]] ([[User talk:Phantom|talk]]) 12:39, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Oh no, not again! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.206|Petunia]] 12:45, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:What? What's happening? -- [[User:Bowl|Bowl]] ([[User talk:Bowl|talk]]) 19:20, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::Hurling towards the ground, with all of these stupid whales around... well, "hurling" would have been better actually, so it could all end quicker. Instead, it is tens of thousands of times slower than last time. And instead of splatting, the whales are bouncing... they seem to be enjoying this. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.206|Petunia]] 08:07, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

In the transcript, added or changed text should be in '''bold''' for easy reading? also, [http://xkcd1446.org/static.html this] format reads a lot easier then the transcript. - sir KitKat - [[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.137|141.101.64.137]] 12:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:I think so. After adding 'Status Report' it's even harder to read it. [[User:Graphene|Graphene]] ([[User talk:Graphene|talk]]) 13:01, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:I'm not sure... the purpose of the transcript is not to make it easier for those too lazy to compare the images and find what changed between them, but just to represent what the images contain for those that can not see them... preferably as accurately as possible, i.e. with the original formatting. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.93.206|141.101.93.206]] 13:10, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:: I'd agree with the transcript not containing formatting that changes - especially since that formatting may confuse (or be confused with) the formatting used for emphasis in the comic itself - perhaps we could have a separated "changes" version of the transcript on another page? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 17:34, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:Maybe the transcript should move to a subpage to avoid clutter? And can we add a section for the lazy people to follow the changes without going through every image? [[User:SirKitKat|SirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 15:18, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:By the way, the '''bold''' changed stuff helped me notice some subtle changes :) [[User:SirKitKat|SirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 15:27, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Did anyone notice that not all whales disappeared at 13:30? One is hidden behind the mountains in the background with a "? ->" pointing at it. I wonder if this should be included in the transcript... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 14:28, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:It should be in a transcript. I missed it while editing. My apologies for that. [[User:Graphene|Graphene]] ([[User talk:Graphene|talk]]) 15:28, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I did just notice that clicking on the image now takes you to http://xkcd1446.org/.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.4|141.101.104.4]] 16:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Most image URLs:
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-00-00_8MxxPSiNYx.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-05-00_KsvXIwq84J.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-10-00_fUWUYNkxwp.png
|-
|https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_00-15-00_74eSd3x7BQ.png
|-
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</div>
'''LONG LIST OF URLs HIDDEN. CLICK EXPAND OVER THERE →'''

Where is Randall getting his info? His news is the most current I can find - anyone have a good link to up-to-the-minute status reporting like Randall is providing, preferably with more detail? --[[User:Nipchee|Nipchee]] ([[User talk:Nipchee|talk]]) 18:08, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

:Nipchee: This seems to be very up-to-date: http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/12/rosetta-comet-landing-live-blog [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.150|108.162.219.150]] 18:11, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

::This one is pretty good: https://newscientist.creatavist.com/rosetta#chapter-132425 (scroll to bottom)
::Also, here is the list of feeds from ESA: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Live_updates_Rosetta_mission_comet_landing [[User:GreenWyvern|GreenWyvern]] ([[User talk:GreenWyvern|talk]]) 18:26, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::I could imagine that, combining his influence as a web celebrity and connections he's maintained since working with NASA, he might be able to get a few extra details before everyone else (?) -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:06, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

On a related note - what exactly is the distinction between "impact" and "landing" other than the perhaps intent? Is the result factored in as well? Where is the threshold between the two? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 19:10, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I'd say it's more to do with the level of control. An impact is when an object forcibly hits something else, a landing is when it's directed and doesn't result in 10 years of wasted effort and money. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.15|141.101.104.15]] 20:27, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Okay, looks like the comic is done, unless he picks it up again after radio contact resumes. -- [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 21:35, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:from xkcd1446.org: "Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images" {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.113}}

p.s. The vertical sprawl here (particularly in the Frame by Frame section) is really ugly. It should be subdivided and/or columnized like in [[1190: Time]]. {{unsigned|Frankie}}
:I doubt it's over yet. Also, it's actually a bit annoying to do multiple columns of homogenous data a la time, and those were done post-hoc. Subdivision and collapsing is a thing that could happen though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:59, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Did anyone notice 16-05 and 16-10 are missing from xkcd1446.org? Saibot84 21:41, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Why does it jump from 55 minutes to 75 minutes at image #33? [[User:Keavon|Keavon]] ([[User talk:Keavon|talk]]) 22:50, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I love the GIF, good work, but is there any way it could be slowed down about 1/4 to 1/2 a second longer for a few frames, espicaly while the lander is landing. It is hard to catch all the jokes. Not all Frames need to be the same speed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 13:40, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Not convinced there's any special reference to ''Hitchhiker's'' here. [http://io9.com/where-do-space-whales-come-from-829831859 People] [http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/fantastical-allure-space-whale seem to believe] that "space whale art" was popular in the 1970s, and we know there were space whales in fiction long before the ''Guide,'' at least in Robert F. Young's [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?26084 series of stories] published in genre magazines like ''F&SF'' and ''If'' starting in 1962, and in ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkgiILo7LY8 Pinocchio in Outer Space,]'' an animated feature film from 1965. [[User:Pesthouse|Pesthouse]] ([[User talk:Pesthouse|talk]]) 23:09, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
:Might also be a reference to the second episode of "Futurama" — title: "The Series Has Landed". In that episode there is an amusement park on the moon with animated robots dressed as whalers (which is itself a parody of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction) singing "We're whalers on the moon; we carry a harpoon; but there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales; and sing our whaling tune."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.94|108.162.216.94]] 09:35, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

"Since the event is over, and the images don't show the rebounds, we can guess that Randall made all or most of the drawings before the landing." - I disagree with this statement. Between 16:35 and 16:55 you can clearly see Philae settle (stop moving), jostle, and settle again. You may have to watch the GIF closely to notice it. [[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]]) 04:36, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

All plain URLs:

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</pre></div> --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.189|141.101.105.189]] 13:55, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

See [http://mitsje.deviantart.com/art/The-whale-and-the-petunia-s-83469485 The whale and the petunias]. I wanted to include the picture but it's not licensed. --[[User:Thnidu|Thnidu]] ([[User talk:Thnidu|talk]]) 21:43, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

The image on the comic updated to [https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_149_CQkN74U21V.png], there may be more missing frames. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.98.207|188.114.98.207]] 16:29, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
:HAH, I knew it wasn't over! '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 16:33, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

And now getting smaller! [https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_151_T9etbD9OH6.png]
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.164|108.162.219.164]] 18:05, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Did randall made a mistake with the "US Scientists" and fixed it to just plain "Scientists" when someone warned him abou the mission being from European Scientists ? --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.108|173.245.52.108]] 23:42, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

It appears to be over, and is now (forever?) blank [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/%3F%3F%3F.png]. --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.182|199.27.128.182]] 20:08, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

These were not logged here at the wiki. Check the xkcd forum for release details.
<div class="mw-collapsible"><pre>
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https://sslimgs.xkcd.com/comics/landing/r_151_T9etbD9OH6.png
</pre></div>
[[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 21:01, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

1444: Cloud

2014-11-07T10:03:53Z

Azule: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 1444
| date = November 7, 2014
| title = Cloud
| image = cloud.png
| titletext = Cloud computing has a ways to go.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Initial explanation added, needs more detail. Title text explanation}}
[[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are lying outside on the grass and looking up at the clouds. Following the human disposition of finding patterns where there are none, it is common for people to interpret the cloud formations as looking like someone or something. Indeed, Cueball asks Megan what she thinks a particular cloud looks like.

Rather than responding with her own interpretation, Megan takes a picture of the cloud with her phone, and uses Google's [http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html Search by Image] feature. This feature replaces the usual keyword search, and instead based a search on the content of the uploaded image. The result of the search comes back stating that the image is most likely a cloud, which is factual, but not the desired response. Google is currently unable to understand the context of a query, and the anticipated or desired response.

Whether this exposes limitations in the abilities of the software, or flaws in human logic is up for debate.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[Cueball and Megan are lying outside on their backs]

Cueball: What do you think that cloud looks like?

[Megan takes a photo with a handheld device]

*SNAP*

[Cueball starts to sit up, Megan interacting with handheld device]

Google -> Search by image

[Uploading...]

[Response from device]

Best guess for this image: Cloud

Cueball: Keep trying, Google.

{{comic discussion}}

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

1261: Shake That

2013-09-06T08:30:52Z

Azule:

{{comic
| number = 1261
| date = September 6, 2013
| title = Shake That
| image = shake that.png
| titletext = How do I work it? IT'S ALREADY WORKING!
}}

==Explanation==
Visiting a club, [[Megan]] is exhorted by a cliche line used in several songs, to "shake what your mama gave you", a reference to body parts, often the posterior region. Taking this exhortation to heart, and extremely literally, she proceeds to locate a cliched item gifted by her mother labeled ''World's greatest daughter mug'' and shake this. The title text refers to another lyrical cliche, "work it", saying "it's already working".

"Shake what your mama gave ya" is a line common to quite a number of rap songs. In fitting with the general thematic composition of such a song, a large part of which revolves around either goading a woman to, or describing one who is dancing seductively (usually in a nightclub) - this line asks a girl to dance, thereby swaying her hips & buttocks, or breasts (the most common male 'fetishes')- making them more conspicuous (because of the phase lag with the rest of the body, which may be attributed to non-rigidity of the elastic structures) in the usually dim ambience, for purposes of her male audience's gratification (whether it be solicited or voyeuristic). "Work it" also serves a similar purpose, appealing to the person to get them to dance and move around (which can be considered work either from the point of mechanical work, or be a reference to a professional dancer).

"What your mama gave ya" is a crude euphemism referring to any of the sexually appealing anatomical parts of the dancer. [While the line is used in a male-watching-female context, there is nothing to preclude the reverse, or indeed any alternative sexual orientation and fetishes.] It is, however, an applicable one if he/she considers his/her body as something given to her by her mother. This is not entirely spurious a consideration either. Aside from the fact that each human child starts off as an egg in the mother's body, with only a small percentage (at an atomic mass accounting level) of mass inherited from the father, almost all the anabolic material responsible for conferring the birth mass of a baby is obtained through the mother - and from the nutrients she processes.

In the comic, Megan interprets the objects referred to by the line as something literally presented to her by her mother - viz. the coffee mug proclaiming her as "The world's greatest daughter". She also thinks of "Work it" in the context of enabling the function of a relatively complicated technological device. This naturally leads to confusion (as indicated by the title text), because the object she's holding is a novelty mug, which doesn't require any special actions to use for its intended purpose of holding a drink (or even just serving as a memory).

==Transcript==
[Lyrics playing in the club]: Shake what your Mama gave you

[Megan exits the club]

[close-up view of a mug that says "World's Greatest Daughter"]

[Megan shakes the mug]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Music]]