explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2014-09-09T00:48:44Z

Cben: mention metawish scene in Göedel, Escher, Bach

This is one of my favorite xkcd comics ever. I can't stop laughing. #TEBOWTIME 17:14, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
: i know right?? feb. 27th is by far the best... [[User:Douglasadams472|Douglasadams472]] ([[User talk:Douglasadams472|talk]]) 03:12, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

: It seems to me that February 6th's wish implies that, as a result of the previous day's wish, he now has an absurdly large number of eyelashes. Opinions? [[User:Bobidou23|Bobidou23]] ([[User talk:Bobidou23|talk]]) 02:58, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

: I thought of Black Hat having a crazy number of eyelashes, but not attached to him, so he can't pull them for a wish. They're just in a pile on the floor or something. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.187}}

I feel that each wish should be thoroughly explained, or at least briefly mentioned. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.193}}
: +1, Marking this 'incomplete' [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 20:09, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

March 15 may reference a painting of M.C. Escher so named "House of Stairs" [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.79|199.27.128.79]] 08:19, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

:"Revocation of rules" and especially "meta-wishes" must be references to [http://amberbaldet.com/uploads/little-harmonic-labrynth.html "Typeless Wish" scene in Göedel, Escher, Bach]. "banish people into the TV show they're talking about" might(?) also reference the plot there where Achiles and Tortoise enter Escher's Convex and Concave painting after discussing it. Surpsingly to me, that episode's only Escher illustrations are Concave and Convex & Reptiles; House of Stairs does not appear anywhere in the book. [[User:Cben|Cben]] ([[User talk:Cben|talk]]) 00:48, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

What did "zero wishes" mean? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.86|173.245.48.86]] 18:16, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
:Often when configuring software (especially regarding limits) 0 is taken to mean infinite, for example in a mail server's config file there may be an entry that looks like "Max number of connections: (enter 0 for unlimited)" [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.170|141.101.98.170]] 19:24, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

:My take on "zero wishes", is that it is a bit of black hattery. He wants to abuse any system he finds, by asking for zero wishes he wants to cause the eyelash wish system to crash in some way. Its not an attempt to gain more wishes, its an attempt to bring the wish system down.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.165|141.101.98.165]] 21:16, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

My take on the title text was that Black Hat wanted to alter friction for his own amusement, rather than to affect the outcome of a sporting event as the current explanation seems to lean towards.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:32, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1414: Writing Skills

2014-09-09T00:10:17Z

Cben: fix link

Scoring higher on grammar and spelling tests could be related to constantly using the English language - however I think an opportunity was missed with this one: the correlation between kids who have access to texting devices and kids who have access to good schooling and tutoring. {{unsigned|Slippyshoe}}

Is the double "writing" at the beginning of the title text a typo, or has it a meaning? (Non-native english here, so I probably missed something). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.156|108.162.229.156]] 08:13, 29 August 2014 (UTC)
:As a native english speaker, I don't see any reason why it is double. Either a typo, or maybe a joke on sloppy writing skills.. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 08:16, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I have to take issue with Randall on the alt-text, they don't use the written word so much as the ''typed'' word -- <u>penmanship</u>, which was already on the wane when I was in school 25+ years ago, is no longer being taught, or so I've been told by young people coming in to work. Surprisingly, neither are kids being taught to touch-type! The new kids coming to the job are constantly surprised that I can type without looking at the screen or keyboard, not to mention my typing speed! Additionally, composition beyond the sentence level is simply abysmal nowadays; paragraph and essay structure are simply no longer being taught. I myself only got one class in it during my high school sophomore year in 1984/5 -- and the administration eliminated it even before I graduated. In short, while kids are great at writing sentences nowadays, the ability to write coherent longer communications, and yes, handwriting too; despite their being in increased use in today's workplace, are simply things that young people are arriving unequipped with. [[User:Elipongo|Elipongo]] ([[User talk:Elipongo|talk]]) 08:53, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

: "+1"/"Like" for your comprehensive writing style -- however Randall is not concluding anything in in the alt-text but merely proposes and experiment and a method to to conduct such with an expected observation and outcome for verification of such experiment. That is an entirely scientific and objective approach to a problem and hardly something which one can take issue with. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 09:55, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

:I wouldn't miss handwriting, but the fact they don't teach touch-type is alarming. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

::With computers in abundance in childrens lives (and hence plenty of practice), I would have thought that actively teaching typing is not that important. Again its a quantity vs quality balance. Some careers would certainly benefit from faster and more accurate typing skills than others (e.g A secretary), but I don't feel someone is necessarily a poor typist because they don't touch-type correctly.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:30, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm from an older generation that did receive education in writing, composition, grammar etc. We all began with simple "The cat sat on the mat" sentences when young, and gradually improved our skills by practising progressively more difficult tasks. However the key issues were that our output was both judged and directed. Our teachers assessed our writing, pointed out the errors (oh, did they point out the errors!), told us what was 'right', and then set us to writing longer, more complex subjects and structures. The problem with txtspk is that it is unjudged and undirected. I think Randall's idea that quantity will eventually overcome mediocrity is getting too close to the monkeys producing Shakespeare. Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No. --[[User:KAM|KAM]] ([[User talk:KAM|talk]]) 10:15, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

:I think kids can judge perfectly fine. But yes, txtspk can help with practice on some level of difficulty but doesn't allow to continue higher. They need to move to more advanced methods ... like flame wars. And about pointing errors? You never saw online argument where one side tried to undermine opponent by pointing out grammatic mistakes in their post? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

::I cannot agree with you because I think you should have used "an", "any" or the plural “arguments" in "You never saw online argument ...". Also, you made me search for the right use of "grammatic" versus "grammatical". ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.223|141.101.92.223]] 14:26, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

::: It's obvious to me that you degenerates were both part of the inspiration for Godwin's Law [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:55, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Ironically, "Ulysses" from James Joyce is also considered one of the worst and most boring books in human history, topping many lists of books you can't get past the first page. Many people joke that Marilyn Monroe was one of the few persons that ever read the book right by starting from the end. -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.139|141.101.70.139]] 13:09, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Is anyone familiar with a recent report that might have lead to this comic? There is no specific reference given in the comic. I think most of the reports on this topic were from Beverly Plester of Coventry University between 2006 and 2011. I can't find much of anything since then... --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.169|108.162.216.169]] 14:32, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

:[http://www.editlib.org/p/131080/ Analysis of Research on the Effects of Texting and Tweeting on Literacy — 2014] should be a good starting point but it's behind a paywall. [http://www.elixirpublishers.com/articles/1360068938_55%20(2013)%2012884-12890.pdf The Impact of Texting/SMS Language on Academic Writing of Students-What do we need to panic about? — Pakistan, 2013] and [http://research.uic.edu.ph/ojs/index.php/arete/article/download/105/30 The Relationship of SMS to the Writing Proficiency of the First Year Education Students of the University of the Immaculate Conception — Philipines, 2013] are both recent studies generally concluding punctuation use is bad but SMS is not to blame; I'd say both have too little data to support any wide conclusion. [[User:Cben|Cben]] ([[User talk:Cben|talk]]) 00:08, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

With the growing influence of voice recognition interfaces, will some folks someday be decrying the shift to abbreviated forms of speech, and the lack of attention to teaching writing or using GUI interfaces? And, as Tim O'Reilly notes, will others celebrate the return to something like the "command line" of old, highly suitable to extensibility and programming via macros, creation of new nouns and verbs, etc? See [http://anomaly.org/wade/blog/2013/12/why_textual_user_interfaces_ar.html Programmer Musings: Why Textual User Interfaces are Better than Graphic User Interfaces] and [http://slashdot.org/story/206085?nobeta=1 At Home with Tim O'Reilly (Videos 1 and 2 of 6) - Slashdot] (click below the videos to see the transcript, and note that it doesn't work in their beta interface). [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 15:25, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

A nice thing about texting is that you learn pretty quickly about the ambiguities that make punctuation and grammar necessary in the first place. ("I saw a man eating shark today." "At SeaWorld?" "No, at a restaurant.") [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 23:41, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Except people who play catch ''aim'' at things. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.215|173.245.52.215]] 02:21, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1414: Writing Skills

2014-09-09T00:08:16Z

Cben: cite a few recent articles

Scoring higher on grammar and spelling tests could be related to constantly using the English language - however I think an opportunity was missed with this one: the correlation between kids who have access to texting devices and kids who have access to good schooling and tutoring. {{unsigned|Slippyshoe}}

Is the double "writing" at the beginning of the title text a typo, or has it a meaning? (Non-native english here, so I probably missed something). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.156|108.162.229.156]] 08:13, 29 August 2014 (UTC)
:As a native english speaker, I don't see any reason why it is double. Either a typo, or maybe a joke on sloppy writing skills.. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 08:16, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I have to take issue with Randall on the alt-text, they don't use the written word so much as the ''typed'' word -- <u>penmanship</u>, which was already on the wane when I was in school 25+ years ago, is no longer being taught, or so I've been told by young people coming in to work. Surprisingly, neither are kids being taught to touch-type! The new kids coming to the job are constantly surprised that I can type without looking at the screen or keyboard, not to mention my typing speed! Additionally, composition beyond the sentence level is simply abysmal nowadays; paragraph and essay structure are simply no longer being taught. I myself only got one class in it during my high school sophomore year in 1984/5 -- and the administration eliminated it even before I graduated. In short, while kids are great at writing sentences nowadays, the ability to write coherent longer communications, and yes, handwriting too; despite their being in increased use in today's workplace, are simply things that young people are arriving unequipped with. [[User:Elipongo|Elipongo]] ([[User talk:Elipongo|talk]]) 08:53, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

: "+1"/"Like" for your comprehensive writing style -- however Randall is not concluding anything in in the alt-text but merely proposes and experiment and a method to to conduct such with an expected observation and outcome for verification of such experiment. That is an entirely scientific and objective approach to a problem and hardly something which one can take issue with. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 09:55, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

:I wouldn't miss handwriting, but the fact they don't teach touch-type is alarming. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

::With computers in abundance in childrens lives (and hence plenty of practice), I would have thought that actively teaching typing is not that important. Again its a quantity vs quality balance. Some careers would certainly benefit from faster and more accurate typing skills than others (e.g A secretary), but I don't feel someone is necessarily a poor typist because they don't touch-type correctly.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:30, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm from an older generation that did receive education in writing, composition, grammar etc. We all began with simple "The cat sat on the mat" sentences when young, and gradually improved our skills by practising progressively more difficult tasks. However the key issues were that our output was both judged and directed. Our teachers assessed our writing, pointed out the errors (oh, did they point out the errors!), told us what was 'right', and then set us to writing longer, more complex subjects and structures. The problem with txtspk is that it is unjudged and undirected. I think Randall's idea that quantity will eventually overcome mediocrity is getting too close to the monkeys producing Shakespeare. Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No. --[[User:KAM|KAM]] ([[User talk:KAM|talk]]) 10:15, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

:I think kids can judge perfectly fine. But yes, txtspk can help with practice on some level of difficulty but doesn't allow to continue higher. They need to move to more advanced methods ... like flame wars. And about pointing errors? You never saw online argument where one side tried to undermine opponent by pointing out grammatic mistakes in their post? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

::I cannot agree with you because I think you should have used "an", "any" or the plural “arguments" in "You never saw online argument ...". Also, you made me search for the right use of "grammatic" versus "grammatical". ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.223|141.101.92.223]] 14:26, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

::: It's obvious to me that you degenerates were both part of the inspiration for Godwin's Law [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:55, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Ironically, "Ulysses" from James Joyce is also considered one of the worst and most boring books in human history, topping many lists of books you can't get past the first page. Many people joke that Marilyn Monroe was one of the few persons that ever read the book right by starting from the end. -- [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.139|141.101.70.139]] 13:09, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Is anyone familiar with a recent report that might have lead to this comic? There is no specific reference given in the comic. I think most of the reports on this topic were from Beverly Plester of Coventry University between 2006 and 2011. I can't find much of anything since then... --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.169|108.162.216.169]] 14:32, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

:[http://www.editlib.org/p/131080/ Analysis of Research on the Effects of Texting and Tweeting on Literacy — 2014] should be a good starting point but it's behind a paywall. [http://www.elixirpublishers.com/articles/1360068938_55%20(2013)%2012884-12890.pdf The Impact of Texting/SMS Language on Academic Writing of Students-What do we need to panic about? — Pakistan, 2013] and [research.uic.edu.ph/ojs/index.php/arete/article/download/105/30 The Relationship of SMS to the Writing Proficiency of the First Year Education Students of the University of the Immaculate Conception — Philipines, 2013] are both recent studies generally concluding punctuation use is bad but SMS is not to blame; I'd say both have too little data to support any wide conclusion. [[User:Cben|Cben]] ([[User talk:Cben|talk]]) 00:08, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

With the growing influence of voice recognition interfaces, will some folks someday be decrying the shift to abbreviated forms of speech, and the lack of attention to teaching writing or using GUI interfaces? And, as Tim O'Reilly notes, will others celebrate the return to something like the "command line" of old, highly suitable to extensibility and programming via macros, creation of new nouns and verbs, etc? See [http://anomaly.org/wade/blog/2013/12/why_textual_user_interfaces_ar.html Programmer Musings: Why Textual User Interfaces are Better than Graphic User Interfaces] and [http://slashdot.org/story/206085?nobeta=1 At Home with Tim O'Reilly (Videos 1 and 2 of 6) - Slashdot] (click below the videos to see the transcript, and note that it doesn't work in their beta interface). [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 15:25, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

A nice thing about texting is that you learn pretty quickly about the ambiguities that make punctuation and grammar necessary in the first place. ("I saw a man eating shark today." "At SeaWorld?" "No, at a restaurant.") [[User:Promethean|Promethean]] ([[User talk:Promethean|talk]]) 23:41, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Except people who play catch ''aim'' at things. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.215|173.245.52.215]] 02:21, 31 August 2014 (UTC)