explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1963: Namespace Land Rush

2018-03-11T08:54:04Z

Cutech:

* Ahh, he left off '''root''' under Causing More Trouble. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 05:41, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
** Also "'''null'''"... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.237|162.158.62.237]] 21:09, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
* I'm very disappointed he left out dotnotreplay@... --05:43, 5 March 2018 (UTC)~
* Is "gibberish name no one can pronounce" a reference to xkcd? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.64|108.162.215.64]] 05:56, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
* No '''test''' included. Frankly speaking I have seen people using '''testtest''','''testtesttesttest''', and so on, up to the maxiumn allowed character limit. [[User:Jackomatt|Jackomatt]] ([[User talk:Jackomatt|talk]]) 06:35, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
* Took me some time to type the transcript. Randall made it quite hard. [[User:QATEKLYXM|Klyxm]] ([[User talk:QATEKLYXM|talk]]) 06:38, 5 March 2018
:* I came here just to see if the transcript had "..." or "…" in the last one -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.133|162.158.154.133]] 17:01, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
* The thing at the bottom-right, he wrote "forward slash" but used a backslash. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 08:35, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
:*It's just to mess with you. [[User:QATEKLYXM|Klyxm]] ([[User talk:QATEKLYXM|talk]]) 08:49, 5 March 2018
* Null! Where's null? [[User:PenguinF|PenguinF]] ([[User talk:PenguinF|talk]]) 09:14, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
* I think this whole comic is a reference to the video Worst Wifi Password Ever [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLE7zsJk4AI] --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.76|162.158.238.76]] 11:13, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
This is analogous to the way that land was distributed in America
There is so much wrong with that sentence. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.25|162.158.154.25]] 12:26, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
* I think is what he means by rtl override: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/09/right-to-left-override-aids-email-attacks/ and I agree surprised he didn’t include the null character; maybe because it’s so hard to get it to actually reach the service? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.136|172.68.54.136]] 15:24, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
* Emojis don't work in databases? They should be treated no differently from any other UNICODE characters. They would be hard to type if you're using an OS/browser that doesn't have a convenient Emoji-picker, but I would think that they should work as long as the server isn't filtering them out. But I've never deployed a service like this so there may be something important I'm missing here. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 17:53, 5 March 2018 (UTC)
:: The "emoji not work" refers specifically to emojis requiring four characters when encoded in UTF-8, as many programs including databases like MySQL [https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/charset-unicode-utf8mb4.html used to only support three-byte UTF-8 characters]. There are emoji which fits into three bytes and non-emoji characters requiring four bytes, but for most people, support for four-byte UTF-8 is equivalent to support of (new) emoji. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:56, 6 March 2018 (UTC)
:: (Obviously, when you want to test database, you should be creative and instead of "any" emoji try something like "fairy girl with dark skin tone" [https://emojipedia.org/woman-fairy-dark-skin-tone/ 🧚🏿‍♀️] - that's five UTF characters, 18 bytes total, and is supposed to render as single character) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:08, 6 March 2018 (UTC)
::: Whether it renders as a single character is only relevant if you're trying to render it. The database only cares about a name as a sequence of characters, it shouldn't care how many glyphs they correspond to. (And almost related: I vaguely recall the guys behind emoj.li saying that the most common complaint they got was that the most obvious single-character usernames were already taken) -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.133|162.158.154.133]] 17:01, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
:::: Most databases support sorting 😊. Also, attempts to store four-byte character into three-byte UTF column really damaged it - although, obviously, storing it to binary column would not, it's just that username is rarely binary column. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:41, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

Someone once told me that on old email databases, you could send a message to "*@example.com" and it would send the message to everyone with an account on that domain. No idea if its true or not, but it seems like the username "*" could cause problems. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.16|162.158.75.16]] 19:56, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

So '''OkThisIsKindOfConfusingButIt's <LessThan\ForwardSlashHTML GreaterThanActualGreaterThan Symbol>Yes,ThatWasAllPartOfThe Name,ButSoIs...Ok,LetMeStartOver''' actually is "<<\/HTML>> or is it just supposed to be </HTML>? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.180|141.101.105.180]] 13:46, 6 March 2018 (UTC)
:: Do you really think there's a definitely correct answer to that question? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.38|162.158.155.38]] 14:25, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

* I am not confident enough about this to make the edit myself, but wouldn't the names listed in '''Causing Trouble (Usernames that might cause errors when mixed with the service's back-end code)''' (user, guest, etc) be used not so much to trying to fool other people, but because those names are often used as placeholders when the site is in development, and may therefore still have odd/altered permissions, allowing potential malicious access assuming the devs were lazy? [[User:Snowblinded|Snowblinded]] ([[User talk:Snowblinded|talk]]) 18:04, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

* Also '''true'''. And '''false'''. And '''Schrödinger'sCat'''.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.41|172.69.70.41]] 21:15, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

;I still try Alt-codes
I can remember ¥ [alt-157] off the top of my head from high school (circa i286), and I'm trying to figure out how to keyboard 乜 [U+4E5C], it doesn't quite map to [alt-20060].
As for '''Causing More Trouble''' anybody try Hastur? I wonder if there will ever be a Unicode Symbol for "The Yellow Sign."[[User:Cutech|Cutech]] ([[User talk:Cutech|talk]]) 08:54, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1964: Spatial Orientation

2018-03-11T08:10:57Z

Cutech:

Dunno where to put this, but Captcha is giving a deprecation notice and asking to move to reCaptcha... [https://miguelpiedrafita.com/ Miguel Piedrafita] 17:46, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

Someone better make a pocket stonehenge now. [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 17:42, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

: Aren't all those pocket whatsits running on silicon close enough?
: Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net
: http://www.stonehengewatch.com/ Wonder if Randall saw this before the comic...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 14:16, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
: http://www.iankitching.me.uk/humour/hippo/henge.html - the pocket Stonehenge made me think of this! If you want the audio, listen to the first track of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usdf8UHL0vU . [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.52|172.68.174.52]] 16:41, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this comic was published two weeks before the vernal equinox [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.45|162.158.62.45]] 19:20, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

I started to nerd snipe myself as I tried to figure out that latitude/earth tilt thing. I have come to the conclusion that it depends on the time of year. He would be 39 degrees on the equinoxes, 16 degrees on the summer solstice, and 52 degrees on the winter solstice. I assume this is in relation to the solar system, but I know pretty much nothing about astrophysics, and I probably worded it all wrong in the first place.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.137|172.69.70.137]] 20:54, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
:I guess it mainly depends on the hour of the day: for example, at 12:00 solar time of the spring equinox day, the tilt would be 16 degrees ; but because of the Earth rotation, 12 hours later, it would be at 52 degrees (or 128 degrees)... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.143|172.68.46.143]]

Is there a category for overly thinking things? If not, should we create one? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 23:21, 7 March 2018 (UTC)
:I don't think there is a category, but there is a word; "nerd-sniping" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 01:12, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
:Do you think [[1917: How to Make Friends|#1917]] would be relevant for this? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.76|162.158.126.76]] 12:03, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
:Yeah, someone (not me) should make one for it...[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 14:13, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

;A couple of weeks ago
I was doing this to figure out my relative motion to the plane of the galactic (without the latitude with respect to the moon part, and lying in bed so I wouldn't fall over).[[User:Cutech|Cutech]] ([[User talk:Cutech|talk]]) 08:10, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Perhaps Cueball needs to go live with the Kuuk Thaayorre people of Cape York in Northern Queensland. These folks don't use egocentric directions, but use cardinal dirctions for everything: "There's an ant on your southeast leg"... A good discussion is found at < https://www.edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think >. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.64|172.68.2.64]] 12:06, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Hey, when you outright delete someone's contribution, it would be great if you'd include an explanation of the edit to help support the ego of the person who wrote it =) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.148|172.68.54.148]] 12:16, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

The description asserts that Cueball was overthinking his attempt to direct the out of frame person to the theatre, but that really depends on where the theatre is. If the theatre is not on Earth Cueball's reasoning could be considered relatively simplistic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.43|162.158.154.43]] 15:54, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Suppose we want to know what the angle is between Cueball and the solar plane on the day of the spring equinox, at the time when it is solar noon at the point on the equator directly south of Cueball. We can call this point on the equator A and call Cueball’s position C. By definition, the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the sun (which we are considering to be the same as the plane of the solar system) passes through the center of the Earth. It also, at this time, passes through point A. Now, there must be some point B that is the point on Earth’s surface that is closest to Cueball while lying on the solar plane. This point is NOT necessarily point A, which is the point on Earth’s surface that is the closest to Cueball while lying on the equatorial plane.

The angle between Cueball and the solar plane should basically equal the number of degrees between Cueball and point B. We can get a rough approximation for this using the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem is NOT valid on the surface of a sphere when dealing with large distances relative to the size of the sphere. That is, just because the shortest arc along the surface of the sphere from point A to point B on the sphere forms a right angle with the path from B to C at B, does NOT mean you can square the great circle distance from A to B and add it to the square of the great circle distance from B to C to get the great circle distance from A to C. Nonetheless, we can use the Pythagorean theorem to get a very rough approximation.

The “line segment” (actually an arc) along Earth’s surface between A and B lies along the solar plane, since A and B are both on the solar plane. Since shortest distances are found using a perpendicular, the arc from B to C is perpendicular to this. So, A, B, and C form a sort of right triangle on the surface of the Earth. The angle between AB and AC is equal to the Earth’s orbital tilt of about 23 degrees. The distance AC is 39 degrees (that is, 39/360 of the Earth’s circumference). Since AC is the hypotenuse, the cosine of 23.4 degrees must equal BC over AC, so BC equals cos(23.4 degrees) times 39. This yields 35.8 degrees, an approximation for the angle between Cueball and the solar plane. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.190|108.162.216.190]] 22:30, 10 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1965: Background Apps

2018-03-11T07:46:50Z

Cutech:

Honestly, the fact that there isn't closing tag doesn't bother me that much. It might bother me more if HTML tags were the same length. When I
first started HTML, I styled all my opening tags with a space < like-this>, just so it could be the same length as a closing tag, </like-this>.
It worked, but I eventually gave up and accepted it... [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:50, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;App closing advice
Okay, so I've never edited before, but I found an article from a year and a half ago [https://www.wired.com/2016/03/closing-apps-save-battery-makes-things-worse/ here] that relates to closing apps and batteries. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 16:22, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

That's better than the CNET article I found. Updated to use yours, thanks. [[User:TheAnvil|TheAnvil]] ([[User talk:TheAnvil|talk]]) 17:52, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;Not necessarily true
This sounds like good advice if you have a flagship phone with boatloads of RAM, but those of us that have to save money by having a midrange or budget phone absolutely can not leave everything running and using RAM when not in use. On my Nexus 5X (2GB) if I don't close absolutely everything other than what I am actively using the phone will run too slow to be useful, and some apps will even crash. Especially true with Google Maps which just dominates resources. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.52|172.69.69.52]] 17:57, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

I don't know how Android works, but on iOS, if low on memory, the system [https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/TheAppLifeCycle/TheAppLifeCycle.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH2-SW3 will automatically purge background apps] to free up RAM. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.82|172.68.174.82]] 19:10, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

I too have a low end android phone (v4.1.2), and I can tell you that it doesn't automatically close apps when it runs out of memory. I can have my foreground app crash (while seeing the IOU memory message) and the background apps are still open. It drives me mad when people claim that the memory management is perfect, and cannot be improved by human management. The user has special knowledge that the OS doesn't. I.E. I am done with a certain app, and won't be using it for a while.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.119|162.158.79.119]] 19:39, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

My experience shows that an Android phone indeed tries to conserve memory, but is rather stupid about it. E.g. if I have a couple of tabs open in Chrome, this usually means I'm actually ''switching'' between them. Yet, even though I'm ''in'' Chrome at the moment, when memory runs out it will not kill unused apps - no, it will look for room in the cache, meaning that the tabs will reload at every switch. More bandwith usage when not on WiFi. Slower browsing. Losing state for script-driven sites, start again. Dynamic content reloaded, that random article link that looked interesting - good luck finding it again... And so on. Killing apps really makes room for more tabs. So, the advice from first panel looked just weird at first sight - what does battery life have to do with that? I kill unused apps all the time and never even considered whether it would have any effect on battery. Logical fallacy: assume the reason for some action and criticize that. Surprizing on Randall's part. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.212|141.101.77.212]] 20:59, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

: It sounds like you're assuming Randall is making this statement out of his own belief in it, which I don't believe is the case at all; he's just using it as a comic device. Besides, you're all falling for his nerd-sniping trap! Stop while you still can! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:18, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

: This drives me crazy too; The sheer number of apps which launch upon system startup is idiotic. Every app wants to open quickly, so they preload as much as possible, ''even when I haven't used them & have no intention to.'' The phenomena of tabs getting cleared from the cache is particularly loathsome. One might as well just not have tabs at all & only show a series of History links, if several pages can't be kept open at once. I frequently open secondary tabs to locate & cite references for a comment in an existing tab, only to have the comment page reload when I return to insert the relevant link into my comment. '''Note to Android developers:''' Don't clear downloaded data out of the cache if there's any local data you could clear instead. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:04, 10 March 2018 (UTC)

;Wear leveling
Do android systems cache/swap memory to the eMMC? If so, these background apps could cause (perhaps trivial) extra wear cycles on my finite, non removable storage.[[User:Cutech|Cutech]] ([[User talk:Cutech|talk]]) 07:46, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

;Meaning of "<marquee>" banner
It may be that the "<marquee>" banner is not a blank template but rather a reference to the obsolete HTML tag (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/marquee).
* You're absolutely right, except that "deprecated" is only half the story: it was never a W3C-compliant tag to start with (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquee_element). And, given the nature of plane-pulled banners, it's also very obviously a reference to the similarity of behavior. Plus, it also meshes with the title-text, since that also delves into HTML both by talking about the Div tag and by the fact that the plane-pulled marquee tag is also un-closed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.95|108.162.238.95]] 16:58, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;Comic is about compulsive messaging, not battery usage specifically?
Per the edit performed by 172.68.58.11, I don't believe this comic is specifically about background apps or airplane banners. As that added content in the explanation points out, this comic seems to be a commemtary on typical exchanges in forum discussions across the web on a variety of topics. It makes me wonder if Randall has recently come across a similar exchange himself and is making jabs at the absurd posts that are so common in that type of environment. It seems the title of the comic is not directly related to its primary focus, which IMHO is not uncommon for Randall! (Warning: Randall may be nerd-sniping us in this case, maybe seeing if he can start a similar exchange within our discussion!)

On a separate topic, aren't we supposed to avoid adding section headers within the discussion comments because they somehow mess with automated page layout templates? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 19:25, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
:Agreed and have removed and made bold headers in stead. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:27, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;nontrivial resources
"but there are non-trivial resources involved in the global distribution of electronic communication" ... well, technically, yes. Except that unlike the planes, those resources are optimized for high capacity; your forum post would "consume" very little of those resources, if anything at all, as most devices involved will consume same amount of electricity when turned on no matter how much communication they exchange. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:11, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;Banner prices
Looks like these banners cost on the order of $500/hour (e.g. http://www.flyskyads.com/what-it-costs/). --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.112|172.68.54.112]] 02:40, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1965: Background Apps

2018-03-11T07:43:55Z

Cutech:

Honestly, the fact that there isn't closing tag doesn't bother me that much. It might bother me more if HTML tags were the same length. When I
first started HTML, I styled all my opening tags with a space < like-this>, just so it could be the same length as a closing tag, </like-this>.
It worked, but I eventually gave up and accepted it... [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 18:50, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;App closing advice
Okay, so I've never edited before, but I found an article from a year and a half ago [https://www.wired.com/2016/03/closing-apps-save-battery-makes-things-worse/ here] that relates to closing apps and batteries. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.211.244|172.68.211.244]] 16:22, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

That's better than the CNET article I found. Updated to use yours, thanks. [[User:TheAnvil|TheAnvil]] ([[User talk:TheAnvil|talk]]) 17:52, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;Not necessarily true
This sounds like good advice if you have a flagship phone with boatloads of RAM, but those of us that have to save money by having a midrange or budget phone absolutely can not leave everything running and using RAM when not in use. On my Nexus 5X (2GB) if I don't close absolutely everything other than what I am actively using the phone will run too slow to be useful, and some apps will even crash. Especially true with Google Maps which just dominates resources. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.52|172.69.69.52]] 17:57, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

I don't know how Android works, but on iOS, if low on memory, the system [https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/TheAppLifeCycle/TheAppLifeCycle.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH2-SW3 will automatically purge background apps] to free up RAM. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.82|172.68.174.82]] 19:10, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

I too have a low end android phone (v4.1.2), and I can tell you that it doesn't automatically close apps when it runs out of memory. I can have my foreground app crash (while seeing the IOU memory message) and the background apps are still open. It drives me mad when people claim that the memory management is perfect, and cannot be improved by human management. The user has special knowledge that the OS doesn't. I.E. I am done with a certain app, and won't be using it for a while.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.119|162.158.79.119]] 19:39, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Do android systems cache/swap memory to the eMMC? If so, these background apps could cause (perhaps trivial) extra wear cycles on my finite, non removable storage.[[User:Cutech|Cutech]] ([[User talk:Cutech|talk]]) 07:43, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

My experience shows that an Android phone indeed tries to conserve memory, but is rather stupid about it. E.g. if I have a couple of tabs open in Chrome, this usually means I'm actually ''switching'' between them. Yet, even though I'm ''in'' Chrome at the moment, when memory runs out it will not kill unused apps - no, it will look for room in the cache, meaning that the tabs will reload at every switch. More bandwith usage when not on WiFi. Slower browsing. Losing state for script-driven sites, start again. Dynamic content reloaded, that random article link that looked interesting - good luck finding it again... And so on. Killing apps really makes room for more tabs. So, the advice from first panel looked just weird at first sight - what does battery life have to do with that? I kill unused apps all the time and never even considered whether it would have any effect on battery. Logical fallacy: assume the reason for some action and criticize that. Surprizing on Randall's part. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.212|141.101.77.212]] 20:59, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

: It sounds like you're assuming Randall is making this statement out of his own belief in it, which I don't believe is the case at all; he's just using it as a comic device. Besides, you're all falling for his nerd-sniping trap! Stop while you still can! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:18, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

: This drives me crazy too; The sheer number of apps which launch upon system startup is idiotic. Every app wants to open quickly, so they preload as much as possible, ''even when I haven't used them & have no intention to.'' The phenomena of tabs getting cleared from the cache is particularly loathsome. One might as well just not have tabs at all & only show a series of History links, if several pages can't be kept open at once. I frequently open secondary tabs to locate & cite references for a comment in an existing tab, only to have the comment page reload when I return to insert the relevant link into my comment. '''Note to Android developers:''' Don't clear downloaded data out of the cache if there's any local data you could clear instead. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:04, 10 March 2018 (UTC)

;Meaning of "<marquee>" banner
It may be that the "<marquee>" banner is not a blank template but rather a reference to the obsolete HTML tag (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/marquee).
* You're absolutely right, except that "deprecated" is only half the story: it was never a W3C-compliant tag to start with (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquee_element). And, given the nature of plane-pulled banners, it's also very obviously a reference to the similarity of behavior. Plus, it also meshes with the title-text, since that also delves into HTML both by talking about the Div tag and by the fact that the plane-pulled marquee tag is also un-closed. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.95|108.162.238.95]] 16:58, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;Comic is about compulsive messaging, not battery usage specifically?
Per the edit performed by 172.68.58.11, I don't believe this comic is specifically about background apps or airplane banners. As that added content in the explanation points out, this comic seems to be a commemtary on typical exchanges in forum discussions across the web on a variety of topics. It makes me wonder if Randall has recently come across a similar exchange himself and is making jabs at the absurd posts that are so common in that type of environment. It seems the title of the comic is not directly related to its primary focus, which IMHO is not uncommon for Randall! (Warning: Randall may be nerd-sniping us in this case, maybe seeing if he can start a similar exchange within our discussion!)

On a separate topic, aren't we supposed to avoid adding section headers within the discussion comments because they somehow mess with automated page layout templates? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 19:25, 9 March 2018 (UTC)
:Agreed and have removed and made bold headers in stead. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:27, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;nontrivial resources
"but there are non-trivial resources involved in the global distribution of electronic communication" ... well, technically, yes. Except that unlike the planes, those resources are optimized for high capacity; your forum post would "consume" very little of those resources, if anything at all, as most devices involved will consume same amount of electricity when turned on no matter how much communication they exchange. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:11, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

;Banner prices
Looks like these banners cost on the order of $500/hour (e.g. http://www.flyskyads.com/what-it-costs/). --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.112|172.68.54.112]] 02:40, 11 March 2018 (UTC)