explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User:Dan

2022-06-13T19:05:56Z

Dan:

2082: Mercator Projection

2022-05-10T06:36:38Z

Dan: Undo revision 265263 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2082
| date = December 7, 2018
| title = Mercator Projection
| image = mercator_projection.png
| titletext = The other great lakes are just water on the far side of Canada Island. If you drive north from the Pacific northwest you actually cross directly into Alaska, although a few officials--confused by the Mercator distortion--have put up border signs.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Mercator projection}} is a {{w|map projection}} (a way to present the spherical Earth surface into a flat 2-D map) presented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It was the standard map projection for some time, because it does preserve all angles in their true shape (i.e. it is a {{w|conformal map projection}}). This means that if you measure an angle on the map you get the right direction in the real world - a very useful feature if you're using the map for navigating. However, preserving the angle leads to severe distortions of the surface area, especially in the higher latitudes where countries appear much larger than they actually are. For example on the Mercator Projection, Greenland (the largest non-continent island in the world) is shown to be much larger than Australia (the smallest continent), although the latter in reality is nearly 4 times as big. Other examples of regions having distorted sizes and shapes due to the Mercator Projection can be explored in [https://thetruesize.com this link].

[[Cueball]] uses [[White Hat|White Hat's]] mistrust of the Mercator projection to convince him of ridiculous facts about Canada, namely that it is simply a small island in {{w|Lake Ontario}}. Map projections are generally {{w|continuous function}}s, meaning that they never map a {{w|disconnected space}} onto a connected one and therefore can never give the false impression that two areas that don't border each other do.

The title text continues on these falsehoods, claiming that the {{w|Great Lakes}} are simply "water on the far side of Canada Island", and that it is possible to drive directly into Alaska from the Pacific Northwest region of the US (it's not, Canada is in the way). Cueball can possibly make these statements as Canada is a country in the northern regions, where the Mercator Projection would show it larger than it actually is. However, Canada is the second largest country in the world by total area (land and water), after Russia.

The Mercator Projection was previously mentioned in [[977: Map Projections]] of "what your favorite map projection says about you". People who preferred the Mercator Projection was listed as "You're not really into maps." It is also the second comic in a row that relates somehow to latitudes. [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] is a series in xkcd, showing that it is really something on [[Randall|Randall's]] mind.

It is not the first time Cueball (or Randall) tries to spread misinformation, for instance it also has White Hat as the target in [[1677: Contrails]], but it can also be other people that are fooled like in [[1405: Meteor]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a hand up as he talks to White Hat.]
:Cueball: Did you know Canada is actually a smallish island in Lake Ontario?
:White Hat: What?
:Cueball: Yeah, it only appears to have a land border with the U.S. due to the Mercator Projection.
:White Hat: Wow! I had no idea.

:[Caption below the frame:]
:At this point people feel so misled by the Mercator Projection that you can use it to convince them of basically any map fact.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

1323: Protocol

2022-05-10T06:36:30Z

Dan: Undo revision 265255 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1323
| date = January 29, 2014
| title = Protocol
| image = protocol.png
| titletext = Changing the names would be easier, but if you're not comfortable lying, try only making friends with people named Alice, Bob, Carol, etc.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Alice_and_Bob|Alice, Bob, and Eve}} are role names traditionally used in describing cryptographic protocols. Rather than talking about "Person A", "Person B", "Person C", names beginning with each letter are used instead, and giving them different genders let pronouns be used to shorten discussions. For example: "Person A sends Person B a message encoded with Person B's public key" is much easier to parse when written as "Alice sends Bob a message encoded with his public key." Eve is short for "eavesdropper" - a person trying to find out what's being said in the conversations between the other people. The classic situation involves Alice wanting to send a secret message to Bob, while Eve (the eavesdropper), attempts to read the message, ideally without Alice or Bob ever finding out. Additional participants such as Carol (Person C) can be added if necessary. The list of names has become very standardised over time as described at {{w|Alice and Bob}}.

The joke here is that any computer scientist, hearing the names used, will think that they are listening to a cryptography problem. By changing the names in a story to these role names, you can induce them to listen carefully to boring stories. The fewer the interesting details, the more it sounds like a general problem, so very boring stories are actually the easiest.

The title text shows a more radical approach to the problem, for people who do not feel comfortable about lying. In this approach, you only make friends with people who have the appropriate names already.

The comic title also can be interpreted in two ways. First, the computer scientist thinks the conversation is about an encryption protocol. Second, the way the conversation is carried resembles a protocol used by many data communication systems, where one side sends data while the other sends back an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acknowledgement_(data_networks) acknowledgement] upon receiving the data. In this case, the data are the lines of the boring story.

In comic [[177: Alice and Bob]] these names are used in the same context. Instead of Alice and Bob being perfectly innocent people who just want to communicate in private, Bob is actually having an affair with Alice. Eve —his former partner— cracked the encryption to see what the message contained. Thus, this comic seems to continue the Alice/Bob romance, jealous-Eve plot, with Eve apparently confronting Alice over her text message to Bob.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is telling a story to a Computer Scientist who is seated at his desk.]
:Cueball: Alice sends a message to Bob saying to meet her somewhere.
:Computer Scientist: Uh huh.
:Cueball: But Eve sees it, too, and goes to the place.
:Computer Scientist: With you so far.
:Cueball: Bob is delayed, and Alice and Eve meet.
:Computer Scientist: Yeah?
:CAPTION: I've discovered a way to get computer scientists to listen to any boring story.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1289: Simple Answers

2022-05-10T06:36:27Z

Dan: Undo revision 265256 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1289
| date = November 11, 2013
| title = Simple Answers
| image = simple answers.png
| titletext = 'Will [ ] allow us to better understand each other and thus make war undesirable?' is one that pops up whenever we invent a new communication medium.
}}

==Explanation==
This is [[Randall]]'s commentary on some of the baseless skepticism and equally baseless optimism directed at new technologies. Related: [[1215: Insight]] and [[1227: The Pace of Modern Life]]. While it's always healthy to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of cutting-edge tech before blindly diving in and adopting it, it's not healthy to base that evaluation on unrealistically high standards and expectations.{{Citation needed}} New developments will have pros and cons, and it's hard to tell whether they make the world a better place or not.

Randall has set up a Q&A for this kind of questioning. Most of the them are straightforward, but we'll provide some commentary on selected questions.

''Will [ ] destroy whole industries? Yes.'' A widely adopted technology usually causes another to gradually phase out, and industries will rise and fall as technologies do. This is a bit of a loaded question because "destroy industries" sounds negative, and only covers half the effect — instead of merely destroying them, we're also {{w|Creative destruction|replacing}} them with something (hopefully) better.

''Will teens use [ ] for sex? Yes. Were they going to have sex anyway? Yes.'' Sex is pretty important to almost everyone, so it'll find its way into most generic technologies. Hormone-crazed tech-savvy teenagers are a particularly strong intersection of the two. Parents fearing teen sex might be worried about how their kids would use the technology, but the second question refutes these concerns quite concisely.

''Will [ ] destroy music/art? No.'' Every new technology for reproducing musical and artistic works (such as [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2004/03/wicked-player-piano player pianos] and [http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbarro/2012/01/18/thirty-years-before-sopa-mpaa-feared-the-vcr/ video cassette recorders]) has been accompanied by warnings that it will destroy the industry that supplies it content. The reality is a special case of the "destroy industries" question - old business models will fall but new ones will arise in their place, and art and music as a whole will survive.

''But can't we go back to a time when— No.'' Elderly people {{tvtropes|WhenIWasYourAge|express their disapproval}} of today's technological luxuries, nostalgically longing for a time before Foo or Bar came around. That's just how the stereotype goes, but there is a large helping of truth to it. Usually, their sentiments are not a fair judgement, but an emotional attachment to the olden days and a {{tvtropes|TheyChangedItNowItSucks|resistance to change}}.

''Will [ ] bring about world peace?- No.'' People have been trying to bring about world peace for centuries; sadly, other people are in no such hurry and insist on more conflict to solve their own problems.

The final answer is a depressing and strangely beautiful comment on human nature: ''Will [ ] cause widespread alienation by creating a world of empty experiences? We were already alienated.'' Skeptics may be concerned that a new technology will make people's pleasures and interactions more artificial and shallow; Randall comments that this is already something well known in our society.

From the Title Text, ''Will [ ] allow us to better understand each other and thus make war undesirable?'' describes the usual theory that a technology might use to bring about world peace. Unfortunately, not only does the answer seem to be "no" to World Peace either way, but there's no indication that increased global communication actually facilitates understanding and empathy between distant communities. In fact, many cynics say the Internet has in fact caused the opposite effect, causing people to fracture into like-minded cliques rather than intermingle.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the chart:]
:The '''simple answers''' to the questions that get asked about every new technology:
:{| class="wikitable"
|Will [ ] make us all geniuses?||align="center"|No
|-
|Will [ ] make us all morons?||align="center"|No
|-
|Will [ ] destroy whole industries?||align="center" |Yes
|-
|Will [ ] make us more empathetic?||align="center" |No
|-
|Will [ ] make us less caring?||align="center" |No
|-
|Will teens use [ ] for sex?||align="center" |Yes
|-
|Were they going to have sex anyway?||align="center" |Yes
|-
|Will [ ] destroy music?||align="center" |No
|-
|Will [ ] destroy art?||align="center" |No
|-
|But can't we go back to a time when-||align="center" |No
|-
|Will [ ] bring about world peace?||align="center" |No
|-
|Will [ ] cause widespread alienation by creating a world of empty experiences?||align="center" |We were already alienated
|}

==Trivia==
* Robinson Meyer of {{w|The Atlantic}} [https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/xkcd-is-amazing-but-its-latest-comic-is-wrong/281422/ rather disagreed] with [[Randall Munroe]] on this one...

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

653: So Bad It's Worse

2022-05-10T06:36:25Z

Dan: Undo revision 265258 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 653
| date = October 23, 2009
| title = So Bad It's Worse
| image = so_bad_its_worse.png
| titletext = You think it's so legendarily bad that you'll torrent it and sit through it just for the kitschy nerd cred. I, too, once thought as you did.
}}

==Explanation==
The graph in the comic shows the enjoyability of movies - going from good to okay to bad, then popping back up with "{{tvtropes|SoBadItsGood| So Bad It's Good}}". The term is used to describe movies that are so terrible that, ironically, watching them is actually an enjoyable experience, even if just to poke fun or marvel at the absurdity of how bad they are. The comic lists ''{{w|Plan 9 from Outer Space}}'' and ''{{w|The Rocky Horror Picture Show}}'', two widely known films of this type.

However, the graph warns of showing ''{{w|The Star Wars Holiday Special}}'', as it manages to wrap back around from "So Bad It's Good" to being {{tvtropes|SoBadItsHorrible| So Bad it's Horrible}}. ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'' is a prime-time comedy special based on ''{{w|Star Wars}}''. It is widely known for its terrible quality, and has never been fully released (although an animated segment that introduced {{w|Boba Fett}}, which {{w|George Lucas}} has approved of, has been released as a bonus feature on a DVD).

The bottom of the comic shows [[Cueball]], [[Megan]], and [[Ponytail]] watching a movie with alcohol - first enjoying it, then merely watching, then not watching it and unhappily drinking.

The title text refers to {{w|BitTorrent (protocol)|torrents}}, which are a way to obtain large amounts of data over the internet. Since the ''Holiday Special'' was only aired once on television and was never released on VHS or DVD, torrents of the TV recordings are one of the few ways to actually see it. According to [[Randall|Munroe]], he had torrented a copy of the film and intended to watch it in its entirety, in spite of its terribleness, just to cement himself as a nerd. However, he underestimated how bad it really was, and could not make it all the way through.

The title text may also contain an subtle play on a line of ''Star Wars'' dialogue. In ''{{w|Return of the Jedi}}'', {{w|Darth Vader}} says to {{w|Luke Skywalker}}, "''Obi-Wan once thought as you do''. You don't know the power of the dark side! I must obey my master." The implication here being that "kitschy nerd cred" is the "dark side" being served by those who would sit through a torrent of ''The Star Wars Holiday Special''.

==Transcript==
:Protip: Even at "Bad Movie Night," avoid the Star Wars holiday special.

:[A graph plots movie enjoyability against movie quality. It drops steadily through points marked "Good Movie" to "Okay Movie" to "Bad Movie," rises up again for "So-Bad-It's-Good (Plan 9, Rocky Horror, etc)," and then drops off the bottom of a graph with an arrow pointing to where "Star Wars Holiday Special" would be. There are three mini-panels below the graph, arranged from "Good" to "Bad" along the movie quality axis.]

:[Three friends are on a couch, drinking and gesticulating enthusiastically.]
:[The same three are sitting quietly, with a bottle on the floor.]
:[The three are sitting around a table, drinking and looking miserable. One seems to be passed out on the table.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

2139: Email Settings

2022-05-10T06:36:22Z

Dan: Undo revision 265259 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2139
| date = April 19, 2019
| title = Email Settings
| image = email_settings.png
| titletext = What are all these less-than signs? What's an HREF? Look, we know you live in a fancy futuristic tech world, but not all of us have upgraded to the latest from Sun Microsystems.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows some email settings with a few less-than-helpful options.

*'''Default Reply Behavior'''
*:Normal reply behavior would be to reply to the person who sent the original email. Typically in email programs, there is an option to Reply to all (reply all) other recipients of an email in addition to the sender. Depending on the email usage pattern this is a potentially useful or a potentially annoying option. "Forward to address book" takes this one step further by sending your reply to every person who is in your address book, whether they received the original email or not. This could be a reference to "{{w|Chain_letter|chain emails}}", which are popularly forwarded to many users.
*'''Vacation Autoresponder'''
*:This is a message that is automatically sent out in reply to an email to let them know that you are away and won't be replying until you return. Rather than the settings being "on" and "off", this system consists of "while on vacation" and "always". Email systems typically have no way of knowing that you're on vacation (although some email providers, such as Gmail, could figure out if you're on vacation using information gleaned from your emails, such as hotel and flight confirmations). The "reply to all emails with vacation notice, even when I'm not on vacation" is an option used by some companies (e.g. travel agencies) to let the sender of a request know the expected reply timeline and similar information. In the second case, the notice is not a "vacation notice", but applies the same functionality of the email program.
*'''Reply to all newsletters with "Thank you for the newsletter!"'''
*:This option is completely unnecessary, in that newsletters are usually automated and shotgunned out to thousands of addresses at once, often with a do-not-reply address. Clues such as those aside, this also somewhat presumes that the system can reliably identify all (and only all) the messages that are indeed newsletters.
*'''Attachment limit'''
*:These {{w|Email attachment|attachment}} limits are all pretty small, with 300 kilobytes and 1.4 megabytes being the capacity of old 5.25" and 3.5" floppy disks, and 5 megabytes, while better, is smaller than most high-resolution cell phone camera pictures. It being in beta means that it might not be as dependable. However, setting the maximum attachment size would likely not be a user setting; it would be a setting the email system enforces on the user. In the past with slow connections and very limited mailbox sizes, this option was useful to keep the message size in check. Presently, Gmail still has the same 25MB attachment limit it had in 2004.
*'''Default email format:'''
:*Plain text is self-explanatory; plain text with no special formatting options. {{w|HTML}} means that it can have markup to allow for bold text, colors, etc. {{w|CSS}} is in reference to Cascading Style Sheets, which is a styling option often combined with HTML, but useless on its own. With emails, it is typically used as inline CSS.
*'''Reply to HTML emails with "Whoa, buddy, what's all this code?"'''
*:HTML email is a format for sending email with {{w|Formatted text|rich-text}} contents, which may include images and links. If your email client isn't configured for HTML, the content may look like text interspersed with a bunch of weird code. Since HTML email is a common format, replying this way to every HTML email you receive can be an effective way to annoy people. This may be a "throwback" option: a few years ago, email systems didn't always recognize HTML emails, so if you sent an HTML email you might very well receive this kind of reply.
*'''Character set'''
*:{{w|ASCII}} is the character group containing all of the letters in the English alphabet, as well as the digits and common symbols. The Non-ASCII set contains all of the non-English alphabets and the rest of the (lesser-used) symbols. Some of those characters, such as those from Cyrillic and Greek, resemble letters from the Latin alphabet; when spammers use these resemblances to deceive users, it is called an {{w|IDN homograph attack}}, but now that this email client is set to exclude ASCII characters, the user must use the same technique to communicate with speakers of most European languages. Older computer programs often only allowed ASCII characters or a much more limited set of characters than the full amount of recognized {{w|Unicode}} characters, and the email protocol itself requires a form of encoding (often MIME, these days) to send 8-or-more-bit characters via systems designed for the 7-bit transportation that covers the ASCII set and allowed non-printable characters. It would be unusual today for an email program to default to only allow for ASCII characters to be read or written, although someone might want to deliberately set things that way. The second option is nonsense because, while you would likely want to allow other characters, you would definitely not want to allow '''only''' those and exclude the ASCII characters (so people couldn't use regular letters or numbers or the most common punctuation, although most East Asian users can use the {{w|Fullwidth}} form of Latin letters instead).
*'''Smart autocomplete'''
*:Some email platforms, including Gmail, have the ability to use machine learning to suggest possible, usually short reply options for you to choose from. If the original email asks if you want to go to dinner, the auto-complete replies might be, "Yes", "No", "How about Friday?" and then you could choose one, or type your own reply. The third option to automatically respond to ''all'' emails with suggested replies is putting a lot of faith in the computer and is likely to backfire quickly, even more so if your recipients also have activated this option.
*'''Important emails'''
*:Showing important emails is the expected behavior, and hiding only them would be a very strange thing to want to do. If it is set to hide only certain emails, a program would definitely do the opposite, and hide emails judged to be most likely unimportant "spam" emails.
*'''Show unread email count...'''
*:Seeing your unread email count is normal behavior, and a good way to see how much you're getting spammed by useless emails from people you never asked for. A projected unread email count based on when the system expects you to die, and how well you do at reading your email on a day to day basis is probably going to be depressing or in the extreme could be so overwhelming to be the actual cause of death on the projected date. Showing the unread email count on the user's projected day of death could also be a reference to a feature in many video games where the player's score is shown when they die. In this case, the "score" would be the user's unread email count.
*'''Signature'''
*:An {{w|Signature block|email signature}} is a bit of canned text that gets added to the end of an email, often containing your name, and sometimes a bit of other information like a title and other contact information. Having the choices being None and "That's my email. Hope you liked it!" is less useful. Less useful signatures somewhat came into vogue after Apple used it for cheap iPhone advertisement ("Sent from my iPhone") and Apple as well as non-Apple users made fun by using quite creative signatures themselves ([https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/mobile-device-email-signatures-more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know/277950/ here is a breakdown with examples]). For many, the actual purpose of email signatures got lost.
*'''Title text'''
*:The title text also references HTML email, in which angle brackets (i.e, less-than and greater-than symbols) are used to show the opening and closing tags of elements. "href" is a common attribute in HTML elements denoting the location a hyperlink will take you to upon being clicked. This is likely another "throwback" reference as Sun Microsystems was a maker of Unix workstations popular in the late 1980s through 2000s (now part of Oracle Corporation). The message could also be written by someone receiving an HTML email that is not recognized as one and directly shown on the screen.

==Transcript==

:'''Email Settings'''
:[A list of controls with radio buttons and checkboxes]
:Default reply behavior
::( ) Reply
::( ) Reply All
::(*) Forward to address book

:Vacation autoresponder
::(*) While on vacation
::( ) Always

:[x] Reply to all newsletters with "Thank you for the newsletter!"

:Attachment limit
::( ) 300 KB
::(*) 1.4 MB
::( ) 5 MB (Beta)

:Default email format
::(*) Plain text
::( ) HTML
::( ) CSS

:[x] Reply to HTML emails with "Whoa, buddy, what's all this code?"

:Character set
::( ) ASCII (Unicode 0-127 only)
::(*) Non-ASCII (Unicode 128+ only)

:Smart autocomplete
::( ) Do not suggest replies
::( ) Suggest replies
::(*) Automatically respond to all emails with suggested reply

:Important emails
::(*) Show
::( ) Hide

:Show unread email count...
::(*) Now
::( ) On my projected day of death

:Signature
::(*) "That's my email. Hope you liked it!"
::( ) None

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Email]]

2397: I Just Don't Trust Them

2022-05-10T06:36:19Z

Dan: Undo revision 265260 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2397
| date = December 11, 2020
| title = I Just Don't Trust Them
| image = i_just_dont_trust_them.png
| titletext = I believe in getting immunity the old-fashioned way: By letting a bat virus take control of my lungs and turn my face into a disgusting plague fountain while my immune system desperately Googles 'how to make spike protein antibodies'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, specifically regarding the [[:Category:COVID-19 vaccine|COVID-19 vaccine]].

[[Cueball]] partially echoes a statement made by {{w|Vaccine hesitancy|anti-vaccination}} activists about "{{w|Big_Pharma_conspiracy theory|Big Pharma}}" (the powerful and profit-driven companies which develop pharmaceutical drugs such as {{w|vaccines}}). Anti-vaccine protesters falsely believe that vaccines contain harmful toxins (such as HIV proteins, {{rw|Anti-vaccination_movement#Aluminum|aluminum salts}}, formaldehyde, {{rw|Thiomersal|mercury}}, and nanoparticles) that cause ill effects on the human body, that just because there has never been a licensed mRNA vaccine before that these new vaccines are not safe in the long term, and that the corporations that make them are not to be trusted because they are exploiting a captive public for profit while disregarding public health. The joke is that Cueball is revealed to be not talking about Big Pharma but, instead, bats.

According to the WHO, COVID-19 has an ecological origin in bat populations. Hence, Cueball sees the virus as something developed by bats, and the ambiguity by which he expresses his desire to not be infected adds to the joke.

The comic could simply be seen to serve as a compelling argument against the anti-vaccine movement, which is often criticized for spreading misinformation and increasing rates of disease, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This comic comes shortly after the news of the development of several COVID-19 vaccines with high rates of success; there are concerns that herd immunity may be delayed if people refuse to take the vaccine.

The title text refers to getting immunity the old-fashioned way, i.e. catching the disease and waiting for your immune system to build up a response. This is usually considered healthy when immunity to minor diseases is common, and can avoid the sudden forced evolution of new diseases among extensively hypercareful communities, but developing natural immunity is certainly incredibly dangerous during a pandemic of a serious illness. One joke here is that many anti-vaxxers claim that it is more natural to not take a vaccine. Because many people conflate "natural" with "healthy", the assumption underlying the claim "it is more natural to not take a vaccine" is that it is therefore more healthy. Such arguments are an example of the {{rw|fallacy|logical fallacy}} known as {{rw|Appeal_to_nature|Appeal to nature}}. Thus, the title text is apparently written from a pro-vaxxer's take on the stance of an anti-vaxxer.

The title text also playfully suggests that the immune system would attempt to use an Internet search engine to learn how to manufacture {{w|Coronavirus spike protein|spike protein}} {{w|antibody|antibodies}}. While this may be an effective technique for a human being to acquire knowledge, it would not likely be as efficient for a nonsentient biological system.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands with his arms to his sides, facing Megan.]
:Cueball: I just don't trust them, and I don't want to put something they developed into my body.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How I feel about bats

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:COVID-19 vaccine]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]

947: Investing

2022-05-10T06:36:09Z

Dan: Undo revision 265279 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 947
| date = September 5, 2011
| title = Investing
| image = investing.png
| titletext = But Einstein said it was the most powerful force in the universe, and I take all my investment advice from flippant remarks by theoretical physicists making small talk at parties.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Compound interest}} is a type of {{w|interest}} in which the interest earned is added to the total amount, so that the interest itself then begins to gain interest in an exponential fashion. This contrasts to {{w|simple interest}}, where the amount used to calculate the interest will always stay at a fixed value. In economics classes, many teachers like to demonstrate extreme examples of compound interest, typically turning a thousand dollars into tens of thousands thanks to unrealistically high interest rates over several decades. But here, Ponytail discovers that a more realistic example is less than overwhelming. Instead of simple interest of 2% earning $200 in ten years, with compounding $219 is produced, hardly any better on a $1000 investment.

There is an urban legend that Einstein said that compounding interest is the most powerful force. {{w|Snopes}} has its [http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/interest.asp doubts about it].

The idea in the title text that people take advice from physicists making small talk is also referenced in [[799: Stephen Hawking]] and [[1206: Einstein]].

==Transcript==
:Ponytail: Sure, 2% interest may not ''seem'' like a lot. But it's ''compound''!

:[Ponytail opens a computer and begins calculating.]
:Ponytail: If you invest $1,000 now, in just ten short years you'll have...
:...let's see...

:Ponytail: ...$1,219.

:Ponytail: Ok, so compound interest isn't some magical force.
:Megan: Yeah, I'm just gonna try to make more money.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Money]]

1056: Felidae

2022-05-10T06:36:06Z

Dan: Undo revision 265280 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1056
| date = May 16, 2012
| title = Felidae
| image = felidae.png
| titletext = 'Smilodon fatalis' narrowly edged out 'Tyrannosaurus rex' to win this year's Most Badass Latin Names competition, after edging out 'Dracorex hogwartsia' and 'Stygimoloch spinifer' (meaning 'horned dragon from the river of death') in the semifinals.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic shows a graph with three parts.

First, the names are sorted up by genera (plural of {{w|genus}}, a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms) from bottom to top of which animals would win in a fight. Secondly, the names within the genus are then sorted by coolness of name from left to right (the degree of "coolness" of the name is apparently determined in subjective manner by the author). Thirdly, in red you can see the direction that {{w|Apple Inc.|Apple}} has taken with nicknaming the versions of their {{w|OS X}} operating system. They started at v10.0 "Cheetah", and have moved through genera from there in no order that this chart can make out.

{| class="wikitable"
!OS X version
!Code name
!Year released
|-
|10.0||Cheetah||2001
|-
|10.1||Puma||2001
|-
|10.2||Jaguar||2002
|-
|10.3||Panther||2003
|-
|10.4||Tiger||2004
|-
|10.5||Leopard||2006
|-
|10.6||Snow Leopard||2008
|-
|10.7||Lion||2010
|-
|10.8||Mountain Lion||2012
|}

Please note that the second words in "Snow Leopard" and "Mountain Lion" are capitalized in the table because they are used as the proper names of the operating system versions. In their normal use, as species {{w|vernacular name}}s, they are not capitalized and are written as "snow leopard" and "mountain lion".

[[:Category:Bobcats|Bobcats]] are a running XKCD joke, so their inclusion is to be expected. The genus ''Puma'' here only lists synonyms for the puma (see {{w|cougar}}) instead of {{w|Puma_(genus)|the actual genus}}. Of course, the three OS X versions named by three of these synonyms are not the same.

Since this comic was published, Apple has stopped naming versions of OS X after big cats, and now names them after Californian landmarks. OS X v10.8 "Mountain Lion" was followed by v10.9 "Mavericks", named after a {{w|Mavericks, California|surf spot}}, followed by v10.10 "Yosemite", named after a {{w|Yosemite National Park|national park}}, and so on.

The title of the chart depicted on the comic ("OS X problem") is perhaps an allusion to the {{w|Travelling salesman problem|travelling salesman problem}}, as the directed arrows and graph nodes might appear as a possible path of the salesperson between the cities. The computational difficulty of the travelling salesman problem might echo with the difficulties that the author has with trying to figure out the underlying reason for naming the OS X versions in particular order. The chart thus looks like a parody on the scientific presentation.

In the title text, a Smilodon fatalis is a saber-tooth cat, a Dracorex hogwartsia is a dinosaur whose skull looks like that of a fairy tale dragon, and a Stygimoloch spinifer is one of the last dinosaurs before the K-T (Cretaceous-Paleogene) extinction about 66 million years ago. Notably, it's possible both Stygimoloch and Dracorex are in fact juvenile members of the genus Pachycepholosaurus who were wrongly identified as a separate species, meaning two of Randall's top four coolest extinct animal names would no longer be recognized. All of the animals mentioned in the title text are now extinct.

==Transcript==
:Well-known felines:
:[A graph organizing various feline species labeled with common names ordered by genera (in order of which would win in a fight) on the y axis, and coolness of name on the x axis.]
:Smilodon (extinct): "Saber-toothed cat (scientific name: Smilodon fatalis)
:Panthera: "Jaguar", "Leopard", "Snow Leopard", "Tiger", "Lion"
:Puma: "Cougar", "Puma", "Panther", "Mountain Lion"
:Other felidae: "Ocelot", "Cheetah"
:Felis & Lynx: "Housecat", "Bobcat", "Wildcat", "Lynx"
:[Some elements are further connected using an unbranched acyclic digraph. The elements are connected thus: "Cheetah" -> "Puma" -> "Jaguar" -> "Panther" -> "Tiger" -> "Leopard" -> "Snow Leopard" -> "Lion" -> "Mountain Lion".]
:The OS X Problem

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Flowcharts]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Bobcats]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Cats]]

1446: Landing

2022-05-10T06:35:57Z

Dan: Undo revision 265264 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1446
| date = November 12, 2014
| title = Landing
| image = landingAnimated.gif
| titletext = [LIVE]
}}
Frames of the comic began appearing at midnight ({{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}}) on November 12, 2014 and updated every five minutes. Together, the images form a {{w|flip book}} which is shown here above. You can find the individual images by clicking on the latest image of the comic on xkcd

==Explanation==
This comic changed over time during 12 hours and 15 minutes starting at 0:00 EST (when the comic normally is released) posting 143 pictures that tracked the progress of the {{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}} lander separating from the {{w|European Space Agency}}'s {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} probe to land on comet {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}}. More info can be found here: [http://rosetta.esa.int rosetta.esa.int].

The comic presents the imagined anthropomorphic "thoughts" of the Rosetta spacecraft and the Philae lander (and occasionally other parties) during the hours approaching separation from each other, approach to the comet and finally the apparently successful landing on the comet.

Beginning at [[Media:???65.png|11:05]], the comic includes a '''"Status Report"''' in the lower right corner which summarizes the status of various interested parties and accomplishments, beginning with "Rosetta", "Philae lander", "Mission Control", "Comet 67P", and "Have we landed on a comet?". As events occur in the comic, more status summaries are added to keep track of the changes to the situation and the supposed emotions behind them.

In many pictures a whale can be seen on the surface of the comet - often marked with a "?" as are almost all other parts of the unknown surface at this time. There is also drawn a [[Cueball]] on the surface also marked with a "?" Both are then at some point marked with a ''probably not'' - starting from [[Media:???83.png|12:35]]. The whales are also mentioned in the "Status Report" where they for instance may be listed as "calm" or "(probably) not in space". At [[Media:???122.png|16:00]] the when the entire Earth goes ''AAAAAAAAAAA'' the whales are listed as saying this as well (along with Mission control and U.S. scientists). From this moment "Dolphins and fish" are also mentioned in the report. They are asking if it is the whales that scream. The reference to whales comes from the fact that Philae brought along two harpoons that should have been used to anchor it to the comet. On Earth, harpoons have mainly been used to hunt whales; Randall previously brought up that comparison in [[1402: Harpoons]], suggesting that Philae was programmed to believe it was sent to kill the comet. It is Philae that "dreams" about whales on the surface of the comet which can be seen in the picture for [[Media:???93.png|13:25]] and in the status report.

Some {{w|Douglas Adams}} fans believe these whales and dolphins are references to ''{{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}'' and ''{{w|So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish}}.'' Whales in space have been appearing in fiction and art since the 1960s. However, with the above-mentioned reasons for whales, dolphins and fish, this seems less and less likely.

At [[Media:???115.png|15:25]] Rosetta asks Philea about destroying and levitating rocks via mind control. This is a reference to the [https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQtwIwAGoVChMI6OrLs9vOyAIVxw8sCh2jqQa2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D32vlOgN_3QQ&usg=AFQjCNH3G-TSemi22v4xwQ6lDkWH_RJSeg Ambition] short movie, ESA commitioned to gather public awareness of the Rosetta mission.

Shortly after release from Rosetta ([[Media:???56.png|10:15]]), Philae calls out 'Spaaaaaaaaaace'; this mimics the {{w|Portal 2}} 'Space core' who, on finally reaching space in the last scenes, gives the same elated cry.

US Scientists presumably wake up at 7:40 EST ([[Media:???96.png|13:40]] UTC) and in the report they now says "Bluuurghhh. What time is it?" to indicate their tiredness. This does not change until 10:25 EST ([[Media:???115.png|15:25]] UTC) so they are slow to wake (2 hours 45 minutes). At this point, they becomes anxious as there are only 10 minutes to landing. This last until there is 15 minutes until news of landing (a reference to the 28 minutes time delay due to the huge distance to the comet). From then on ([[Media:???120.png|15:50]]) they and the mission control (MC) say "AAAAAAA". They stop this when the news should be there - the NOW ([[Media:???122a.png|16:05]]) - and everybody holds their breath indicated by [...] - also MC. Finally ([[Media:???125.png|16:25]]) they and MC become proud (along with Earth) when Philae announces ''I got you a comet.'' It should have stopped there but as Philae bounced around, they then becomes anxious again [[Media:???128.png|16:40]], and then this changes to nervous [[Media:???129.png|16:45]] (switching those emotions with MC). And then suddenly ([[Media:???130.png|16:50]]) it is no longer US Scientists but just plain Scientists - that are nervous. It stays like this during the last few pictures, although they again become anxious, but when Philae announces ''I did it'', they drink wine as indicated with "[wine]" in the report from the second to last picture ([[Media:???134.png|17:10]]).

Randall has written "A big thank-you to [https://twitter.com/elakdawalla Emily Lakdawalla] for help and advice on this comic" in the xkcd page header for [http://www.xkcd.com/1446/ Landing], revealing the possible source of his near real-time data.

At [[Media:???124.png|16:20]] the status report had announced a big '''Yes''' to the questions "Have we landed on a comet" and "Do harpoons work on comets". According to [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30026398 BBC News], the harpoons did, however, not fire as planned and the lander may have landed, bounced off, and landed again. This would explain the change in "Do harpoons work on comets" to "Don't know" at [[Media:???127.png|16:35]] and the change in "Have we landed on a comet?" to "Yes, at least once" at [[Media:???130.png|16:50]]. According to [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/science/space/european-space-agencys-spacecraft-lands-on-comets-surface.html?_r=0 The New York Times], radio contact with Philae fluctuated, which would explain the "Anxious", "Nervous", and "Confused" statuses around that time. In the end the lander did land and whereas the Do harppons work status did not change, so did the have we landed on a comet which changed back to '''Yes''' at [[Media:???134.png|17:10]].

The lander bounced three times and ended up in a place where the solar panels where mainly in the shadow. This resulted in the lander shutting down when its own battery ran out of power after only 2–3 days on the ground. This seemed sad, as there was only a small chance that the seasons on the comet would change so that the panels would later receive sun again. However, in the few hours that Philae had on the ground, it still managed to analyze the surface and obtain a lot of useful data - so that part of the mission was still a success already. This all happened after the comic stopped updating.

On June 13, 2015, it was announced that signals had been received on earth indicating that Philae had awoken and that the solar panels were functioning. Ironically, had Philae landed in a place originally out of shadow, it would have already failed before this time (due to overheating), so it was actually fortunate that it landed as it did and would be able to operate during the time that the comet would be closer to the sun. To celebrate the lander's revival, Randall updated the comic, depicting the lander saying "Hi." on the comet's surface.

The comic title was originally "???" (probably to not give away too early what the comic was about), but changed to "Landing" when Randall came on live at five in the morning EST. At that moment the title text also changed from "..." to "[LIVE]". It was also then that the timestamps' timezone switch. At 5:00 AM (EST) the time stamp in the picture naming scheme switched from EST to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}} as used in ESA's time keeping, resulting in a jump from [[Media:???53.png|04:55]] to [[Media:???54.png|10:00]] without actually any such delay between the two pictures.

There were however a few pictures with more than 5 minutes of delay (about 11 times five minutes without an update in total during the "live" transmission). The update seemed to have stopped after 137 pictures at 17:15 UTC, 12 hours and 15 minutes after the first picture. (The first picture has number 0, so the last had number 136). But later, sometime after 17:15 UTC, the counter for the last picture was increased to 142 (143 pictures in total), so maybe Randall inserted 6 extra pictures later - however he must then have changed the numbers on the pictures, since the last picture remained the same until mid-June, but with number 142 instead of 136. It is thus now difficult to find out which pictures would have been added later. However, eight pictures were not included in the original table with the [[#Frame by Frame Breakdown|Frame by Frame Breakdown]] below. So it must have been some of those missing pictures that were added later - maybe all of them, as the last three may already have been added before the last picture was released (All 143 pictures are included in the flip-book gif image shown here above). But even 143 pictures at 5 minutes intervals only spans 11 hours and 50 minutes, thus there are still five ''5 minute intervals'' without any picture. See which in the [[1446: Landing/Frame by Frame Breakdown|table]].

The Rosetta space probe is shown in [[1621: Fixion]], which explains the {{w|Flyby anomaly}} experienced the first time (of three) the probe got close to Earth.

===Frame by Frame Breakdown===
*Here is a [[1446: Landing/Frame by Frame Breakdown|link to a table]] with a frame by frame breakdown of all 143 pictures.
*Here is a [[1446: Landing/All pictures|page with all the pictures]] frame by frame.

==Transcript==
:[This transcript gives only the text of the most [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c7/%3F%3F%3F140.png recent picture] shown in the comic; that which is now shown when clicking to the comic on xkcd. This changed a few times after the live event ended.]

:[Showing Philae on a comet.]
:Time Since Landing: 211 days
:Philae: Hi!
:[Status report at the bottom-right corner.]
:Status report:
::Rosetta: In space
::Philae lander: Hi!
::Mission control: '''!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'''
::Scientists: '''!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'''
::Have we landed on a comet?: '''''YES.'''''
::Sun: Warm
::Comet: Big
::Philae, where ''ARE'' you?: Home

:[For the '''full transcript''' of all 143 pictures see '''[[1446: Landing/Transcript]]'''.]

==Trivia==
*There appears to be a brief error between 02:35 and 02:45, where the time until lander separation is shown as 1 hour, counting down to 50 minutes, before being corrected to 75 minutes at 02:50.
**Since this was supposed to be during the "non-live" section before Randall got up (and got live) it is not sure whether this was a "real" mistake, or if he was up anyway, and corrected this timing error when he discovered the plans had change during the approach flight.
*Later after the initial release of this comic Randall added a link to this page. It's the first time this wiki is mentioned at xkcd itself and it's viewable in the HTML-source or here: [https://xkcd.com/1446/info.0.json https://xkcd.com/1446/info.0.json]. The text is: ''"A very thorough explanation of the comic is available here: http:\n\nwww.explainxkcd.com\nwiki\nindex.php\n1446:_Landing"''.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color‏‎]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball‏‎]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Animals‏‎]]

300: Facebook

2022-05-10T06:35:53Z

Dan: Undo revision 265265 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 300
| date = August 8, 2007
| title = Facebook
| image = facebook.png
| titletext = 'Here, I'll put my number in your cell pho -- wait, why is it already here?'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic approaches how {{w|Social network}}s have changed the ways of human interaction. With everyone placing their personal interests on their {{w|Facebook}} profile pages, it has become fairly easy to gather a lot of information about people. In the comic, [[Cueball]] uses this information to his advantage: He ascertained [[Megan|Megan's]] musical preferences beforehand in order to create the illusion of their sharing mutual interests. Megan is led to believe that he is {{w|soulmate|like-minded}}, thus making it easier for Cueball to persuade her into having sex with him. Here the comic takes at the fact that many people use Facebook as a hunting ground for sexual contacts.

Apparently, Megan did not only mention her favorite bands in her profile, but also her preferred {{w|sex position}}. This can be read as a sideswipe at what intimate details some people are willing to share on the internet. Although mentioning sexual preferences is hyperbolic here.

Megan's taste in both fields can be regarded as outside the mainstream. {{w|Regina Spektor}} and {{w|The Polyphonic Spree}} are representatives of the {{w|indie pop}} genre. The [http://www.menshealth.com/sex-position-playbook/wheelbarrow-standing ''Wheelbarrow''] ({{w|NSFW}}) features the man standing behind the woman and holding her legs, while she props up in a wheelbarrow-like position. The retrograde variant has the woman facing upwards. Unusual sex positions are also mentioned in comics [[414: Mistranslations]] and [[487: Numerical Sex Positions]].

The title text suggests that Cueball did not stop at reading Megan's interests on her Facebook profile, but also obtained her phone number and placed it in his phone. It is implied that some of the "mildly sleazy" uses of Facebook can border on the verge of {{w|stalking}}. When Megan discovers the number, she may realise this and stay clear of Cueball...

==Transcript==
:Mildly sleazy uses of Facebook, part 14:
:Looking up someone's profile before introducing yourself so you know which of your favorite bands to mention
:Cueball: Favorite bands? Hmm...
:Cueball: Maybe Regina Spektor or the Polyphonic Spree.
:Megan: Whoa, those are two of my favorites, too!
:Megan: Clearly, we should have sex.
:Cueball: Okay! My favorite position is the retrograde wheelbarrow.
:[Megan raises arms.]
:Megan: Ohmygod, mine too!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

170: Turn Back

2022-05-10T06:35:50Z

Dan: Undo revision 265266 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 170
| date = October 13, 2006
| title = Turn Back
| image = turn_back.png
| titletext = I hear that these days Bill Watterson is happy just painting in the Ohio woods with his father and doesn't get any mail or talk to anyone.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}} was a daily comic drawn by {{w|Bill Watterson}}, published between 1985 to 1995. It followed the adventures of a young boy named Calvin and his tiger, Hobbes. The frequent themes of spontaneity, beauty, and adventure that characterize many of Calvin's conversations with his friend Hobbes can also be seen in this exchange between [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] as they explore a landscape reminiscent of Calvin's daydreams of intergalactic adventure. The cluelessness and simultaneous wonder that Cueball and Megan feel at their surrounding landscape mirror Calvin's inexperience and curiosity that he exhibits in Watterson's comic.

The title text, while unclear if it were actually true or not, reflects Mr. Watterson's reclusive nature. He has never licensed his characters for any use outside of reprints, and he stays out of the public spotlight. Thus, it is very probable that it was true at the time of this comic. The title text also serves to point out the connection between Watterson's work and this comic.

However, in more recent years, Watterson has come out of his shell a bit. He collaborated with Stephan Pastis, creator of "Pearls before Swine," to do a story arc where a second grader was a better artist than an actual cartoonist. Stephan Pastis later wrote of the experience: "I began to wonder if [Bill Watterson] even had electricity, then I remembered we were using e-mail to communicate."

==Transcript==
:Cueball: Should we keep going?
:Megan: I don't know.
:Cueball: We can turn back if you want.
:Megan: Look--

:Megan: Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't have a plan any more than you? Maybe just having this conversation means we're lost.

:[Wide shot of the characters in a Calvin and Hobbes-esque alien landscape.]

:Cueball: Kind of scary.
:Megan: It's terrifying.
:Cueball: This place is beautiful.
:Megan: Yeah.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]

962: The Corliss Resolution

2022-05-10T06:35:47Z

Dan: Undo revision 265267 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 962
| date = October 10, 2011
| title = The Corliss Resolution
| image = the_corliss_resolution.png
| titletext = And no avian society ever develops space travel because it's impossible to focus on calculus when you could be outside flying.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Jeb Corliss}} is a professional BASE jumper and {{w|wingsuit}} flyer, like in the fourth panel. Corliss has jumped from a lot of different buildings and monuments in the world. Hence, the Corliss Resolution.

The {{w|Fermi paradox}} is an astronomical problem that states: "The universe is large enough that many planets should have extraterrestrial intelligent life. Why, then, haven't we detected any signs of it?" The paradox has numerous hypothetical solutions — some say that life is much rarer than we think, and others suggest that civilizations will eventually destroy themselves (as mentioned in the comic).

Randall proposes another solution to the Fermi paradox: before they can develop space travel and the like, civilizations will inevitably invent an "activity more fun than survival." That is, something fun that's also very dangerous, such as flying off a cliff in a wingsuit.

As said in the title text, a being that can already fly (hence "avian society") would probably prefer flying around outside over developing the tools needed for space colonization.

See [[384: The Drake Equation]] for another comic about intelligent life in the universe.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball with an unusual suit runs right with a small cloud behind his legs. The frame of the panel is only two thirds the normal height and above the frame is the text from the narrator:]
:Narrator: The Fermi Paradox: Planets are so common that life should be too. So where is it?

:[Cueball keeps running with the small cloud behind his legs. Above him there are two frames with narration:]
:Narrator: Well, now we know.
:Narrator: It's not that life inevitably destroys itself with war.

:[Cueball leaps into the air off a jagged cliff edge with gray cliffs. The image frame only covers a small part of the center of this panel. Narration text is shown both above and below the image:]
:Narrator: It's just that it takes longer to develop space colonization.
:Narrator: Than it does to invent an activity

:[A Youtube video is shown with the usual icons in the black bar below the image; play, volume, full screen etc. The video shows Cueball soaring downwards as indicated with four speed lines behind his spread out arms and legs. The strange suit has opened up revealing it to be a wingsuit. The sound is on and Cueball can be heard. Above the video frame there is a final narration text in a frame. Two people are watching the video together off-panel and their comments are shown below in two voice bubbles with arrows pointing left and right.]
:Narrator: More fun than survival.
:Cueball: Wheeeee!
:Off-panel voice #1: Holy crap.
:Off-panel voice #2: I don't care how dangerous it is. I have to try it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Wingsuit]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

870: Advertising

2022-05-10T06:35:44Z

Dan: Undo revision 265268 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 870
| date = March 9, 2011
| title = Advertising
| image = mathematically annoying.png
| titletext = I remember the exact moment in my childhood when I realized, while reading a flyer, that nobody would ever spend money solely to tell me they wanted to give me something for nothing. It's a much more vivid memory than the (related) parental Santa talk.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun at a few advertising tricks, analyzing them mathematically.

*In the first panel, the phrase "up to 15% or more" is examined, and shows to encompass all real numbers. While intended to entice to customer with savings of 15%, the savings could be lower or even not at all. The phrase ultimately means "less than, equal to, or more than 15%," which is true no matter whether you save anything or not (it's a {{w|Tautology (logic)|tautology}}).

:The equation at the top of the panel expresses the same thing using {{w|set theory}} notation. It reads out as: The {{w|Union (set theory)|union}} of {{w|Set (mathematics)|sets}} A and B equals the set of all x, such that x is {{w|Inequality (mathematics)|less than or equal to}} 15, or greater than 15, which equals the set of all {{w|real numbers}}.

:The same is expressed again with a {{w|number line}}; the numbers being interpreted as {{w|percentages}}. The first range, ending with a black dot, indicates that everything below, as well as the number 15, is included ("up to 15%"). The second range beginning with a white dot indicates that it only includes numbers strictly bigger than 15 ("more than 15%"). The two ranges combined clearly cover the entire number line.

:The phrase "up to 15% or more" may be a reference to the {{w|Geico}} slogan at the time: a phone call lasting "15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance." However the reference is unclear, as the words "''up to'' 15%" are not actually used by Geico. Though Geico's advertising is also referenced in [[42: Geico]].

*Second panel: Whatever is advertised with a big capital "FREE!" splashed over the ad, most likely does not belong to the things truly free. The small asterisk, indicates the presence of a {{w|fine print}}, ensuring that the advertisers are only technically not guilty of {{w|false advertising}}. The conditions attached in the fine typically reveals how they will (try to) make money from you.

:We are even given a little formula to calculate the average amount of money they expect to make from the readers. The assumption is that they expect to generate at least as much income from the ad as what they paid to print and publish it in the first place.

*The third panel relates to sales tactics that are based on a scaling percentage rate - for example, all items are 20% off, but if you spend more than $200, you get 30% off instead, and so on. These are almost universally proclaimed with a phrase like "The more you spend, the more you save!" In absolute dollar terms, this is of course nonsense, as "spending" is the opposite of "saving", and the deal is there to make you spend more. The graph shows this interpretation - spending zero money implies you have saved all your money (the dot where it intersects the X axis), whereas spending all your money implies you have saved none (the dot where it intersects the Y axis). There is a linear relationship between the two: the amount of money spent, plus the amount of money saved, has to add up to a constant number (your original savings).

The title text compares Randall's realization of the "FREE"-fraud to the revelation that {{w|Santa Claus}} is not real.

==Transcript==
:Mathematically Annoying Advertising:

:A ∪ B = {x:x ≤ 15 or x > 15} = ℝ
:[line graph representing the above equation.]
:When discussing real numbers, it is impossible to get more vague than "up to 15% or more".

:["'''FREE!'''*" in large text, with substantial illegible fine print.]
:If someone has paid $x to have the word "free" typeset for you and N other people to read, their expected value for the money that will move from you to them is at least $(x / (N+1))

:[Graph representing inverse relationship between "amount you spend" on the y axis and "amount you save" on the x axis.]
:It would be difficult for the phrase "the more you spend the more you save" to be more wrong.

==Trivia==
Randall changed the image name from advertising.png to mathematically_annoying.png, since adblocking extensions interpreted it as an ad and made the comic blank. He had the same problem again just three months later with [[906: Advertising Discovery]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Math]]

370: Redwall

2022-05-10T06:35:41Z

Dan: Undo revision 265269 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 370
| date = January 14, 2008
| title = Redwall
| image = redwall.png
| titletext = My Redwall/Jurassic Park crossover fanfic is almost complete!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references {{w|Brian Jacques|Brian Jacques'}} series of books, ''{{w|Redwall}}'', which star sapient woodland animals in various high fantasy adventures.

The first panel shows the similarity between the story of Martin the Warrior (from the book ''{{w|Mossflower}}'') and {{w|Aragorn}} from ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' by {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}}. The joke is that while Martin and Aragorn introduce themselves separately, they then go on to describe their particular story, which turns out to be exactly the same for both of them. Subsequently Martin jinxes Aragorn. {{w|Jinx (children's game)|Jinx}} is a common children's game that is initiated by shouting "Jinx" after somebody speaks the same word or sentence at the same time as you. That person is then jinxed, with one form of the rules dictating that they are then not permitted to speak until unjinxed by some specific action (usually somebody saying their name). For a similar children’s game, see [[392: Making Rules]].

In ''LOTR'', orcs are unequivocally and without exception the bad guys, capable only of hate and violence (although to be fair, in some of Tolkien's unpublished writing, orcs are corrupted elves, so it is clear that they are not intrinsically bad). Similarly, Redwall's rats, foxes, ferrets, ermine, and weasels are mostly evil manipulators, while mice, rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs, and badgers are always the good guys. On several occasions, characters explicitly state that "vermin stays vermin." This is the overarching rule, notwithstanding the rare exception (e.g. Grubbage from {{w|Triss}}). Conversely, one of the so-called "good species" has never become evil in this book series. Though it is more likely than not that this is simply the result of a {{tvtropes|PlanetOfHats|planet of hats}} - where a single species all share the same characteristics and personality, so that authors / readers don't have to spend time fleshing out / getting to know every new character - Randall nevertheless indicates that this "moral absolute" is problematic and has some "racist undertones," regardless if it's intentional or not. (Note that Tolkien's work is probably not actually racist—the Easterlings are portrayed as non-evil people who were deceived by Sauron. The Orcs are evil by definition, thus being incapable of doing good.)

The second panel deals with the fact that ''Redwall'' mentions the name of {{w|Satan}} or {{w|The Devil}} 4 times, while it never mentions {{w|God}} or {{w|Jesus}}--somewhat surprisingly, given that the book is set in an abbey, and many of the inhabitants are religious brothers and sisters. [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] then points out that people who {{w|Religious debates over the Harry Potter series|protest against Harry Potter because of the series' witchcraft}}, should take note that Redwall explicitly mentions Satan, although it has had little to no negative feedback from more conservative readers.

In the third panel, Randall comments on ''Redwall'''s often-used theme of critical messages being left in riddles throughout the Abbey for the occupants to find when they are in need. Randall suggests that he would use {{w|Public-key cryptography|public-key cryptography}} to encode the messages, instead of the elaborate riddles used in the books (some of which are ridiculously easy, which doesn't exactly make for good security when dealing with sensitive information).

In the title text, Randall jokes that he is making a crossover {{w|Fan fiction|fan-fiction}} with ''Redwall'' and ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}''.

Redwall was also referenced in [[1688: Map Age Guide]] and [[1722: Debugging]].

==Transcript==
:Notes from reading Redwall books for the first time since childhood.

:Some of this feels familiar.
:Aragorn: Hi, I'm Aragorn.
:Martin: I'm Martin.
:Aragorn and Martin: I'm here to reforge my broken sword so I can lead an army against the tyrant threatening my people. I live in a world of moral absolutes and racist undertones.
:Martin: Jinx!

:It startled me when characters mentioned Satan.
:Redwall: "By Satan's whiskers..."
:Redwall mentions God/Jesus 0 times.
:Redwall mentions Satan/The Devil 4 times.
:(Harry Potter protesters, take note.)

:Even as a kid this bothered me: Why does everyone leave critical secret messages as simple riddles? It's silly to assume the intended recipient will be the only one to find and solve them. I would do things differently.
:Matthias: The inscription is a message from Martin!
:Brother Methuselah: What does it say?
:Matthias: Hang on, it's encrypted with my public key.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Bar charts]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Harry Potter]]
[[Category:Redwall]]

1690: Time-Tracking Software

2022-05-10T06:35:38Z

Dan: Undo revision 265272 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1690
| date = June 6, 2016
| title = Time-Tracking Software
| image = time_tracking_software.png
| titletext = 'List of helicopter prison escapes' and 'List of sexually active popes' are both entertainingly long, but sadly there's no 'List of helicopter prison escapes involving sexually active popes.'
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Randall]] uses {{w|time-tracking software}}, which is intended to increase productivity by identifying how you are spending time, that reveals that he is doing frivolous and pointless things that take up large amounts of his time. He makes remixes, edits ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' footage, reads strange (albeit entertaining) Wikipedia articles (see [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]), and even spends a large amount of time adjusting this software, all without getting anything useful done. Thus, he is embarrassed at this revelation. This time waste is a common subject on xkcd, as shown for instance in the comic mentioned above.

The visual appearance of {{w|Lightsaber|lightsabers}} in the ''Star Wars'' movies of the {{w|Star_Wars#Original_trilogy|original trilogy}} has been {{w|List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases|digitally changed}} twice during the re-releases for the 2004 DVD and 2011 Blu-ray releases. There are several ''Star Wars'' fans that feel the need to alter the movies (mainly to revert the changes made in the re-release), but so far nobody felt the need to replace lightsabers with metal swords.

"{{w|Jack & Diane}}" is a rock song written in 1982 by {{w|John Mellencamp}}. "[https://youtu.be/h04CH9YZcpI?t=56 Suckin' on a chili dog outside the tastee freeze]" is the first line of the second verse of the song (see the [http://www.metrolyrics.com/jack-and-diane-lyrics-john-mellencamp.html lyrics here]). [http://lyricsmusic.name/john-mellencamp-lyrics/words-music-john-mellencamps-greatest-hits/jack-and-diane.html A remix] made using just this line would probably sound a bit repetitive (listen for instance to [http://svantana.bandcamp.com/track/you-were-workin-as-a-waitress-in-a-cocktail-bar this re-mix] of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPudE8nDog0 "Don't You Want Me"], that almost only uses the first line of the song).

Two Wikipedia lists are mentioned in the comic and title text; {{w|List of helicopter prison escapes}} and {{w|List of sexually active popes}}. Given that the Pope is supposed to be {{w|Clerical celibacy|celibate}} (at least after 1139), the mere fact that more than ten popes have been involved in sexual activity, even after 1139, is both amusing and intriguing. There are more than forty entries in the helicopter escape list for real-life attempts (plus 16 in fiction); not all of them succeeded, but several did!

On June 7th, the [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/ Wikipedia Facebook page] [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10154133410693346 posted a link] to the ''List of helicopter prison escapes'' article. A user [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10154133410693346?comment_id=10154135208533346&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D commented] asking if the article was posted on Facebook due to the xkcd comic, and Wikipedia [https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10154133410693346?comment_id=10154135208533346&reply_comment_id=10154135327863346&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D replied] by pasting an image of the xkcd comic, which seems to indicate that the Wikipedia representative running the Facebook page was aware of this xkcd comic and posted the list in reference to the comic.

In the title text, Randall mentions his disappointment with the lack of a Wikipedia list stemming from the intersection of the two; that is, a helicopter prison escape involving a sexually active pope. With the last (known) sexually active pope being Pope Leo XII in the 1820s, and helicopter predecessors only taking flight in 1907, and mass production of helicopters not occurring until the 1950s, such an event has probably never happened.{{Citation needed}}

This xkcd comic was published on June 6th. On that day, the Wikipedia article "List of helicopter prison escapes involving sexually active popes" was created and subsequently deleted.

The Wikipedia list of sexually active popes has been mentioned before in the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|109|Into the Blue}}'' on infinitely powerful lasers, and after noting that such a thing cannot exist, the list is offered as a replacement for entertainment.

The comic [[1692: Man Page]] was released later that week and also mentioned the pope.

==Transcript==
:[This comic shows a pie chart with 5 slices, each with a label and a line pointing to these five different sized slices. There is a caption above the chart:]
:Your activity report

:[The labels on each slice is given in clockwise order starting top left. The percentages are estimated from the image and are noted in the square brackets before the transcript:]

:[38%]: Going through the Star Wars movies and digitally replacing all the lightsabers with regular metal swords
:[16%]: Reading every entry in the Wikipedia article ''List of helicopter prison escapes''
:[23%]: Installing and configuring time-tracking software
:[02%]: Actual productive work
:[21%]: Making a remix of that ''Jack and Diane'' song where every line is just "Suckin' on a chili dog outside the tastee-freez" over and over

:[Below the frame there is a caption:]
:Time-tracking software shines an uncomfortably harsh light on my daily life.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Pie charts]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1335: Now

2022-05-10T06:35:35Z

Dan: Undo revision 265273 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

<div class="plainlinks">
{{comic
| number = 1335
| before = ''Explainxkcd note: The image below is accelerated to show a full day's spin in approximately 10 seconds. The actual comic completes one revolution per day. For the current state, see [http://xkcd.com/now/ xkcd.com/now]''
| date = February 26, 2014
| title = Now
| image = now.gif
| titletext = This image stays roughly in sync with the day (assuming the Earth continues spinning). Shortcut: xkcd.com/now
}}
</div>

==Explanation==
The picture is divided in 24 segments representing the 24 hours of the day. At noon and at midnight the break between segments is indicated by the tip of a dark grey triangle.

The picture rotates by 3.75 {{w|degree (angle)|degrees}} every 15 minutes, as does the Earth, so that it is constantly up to date in showing which regions are currently at which times of day. The picture change seems to happen half-way through a 15-minute time increment (that is, at 7½, 22½, 37½, and 52½ minutes after each hour), so that the picture is always correct for the nearest multiple of 15 minutes.

The map projection of the earth in the middle of the picture shows an {{w|azimuthal equidistant projection}} with the {{w|South Pole}} in the center. This is unusual, as the projection typically puts the north pole in the center, but necessary in order for it to rotate clockwise. [[Randall]] was playing on projections before in [[977: Map Projections]].

The list of cities and countries doesn't match the map exactly - notice how the continent of Australia is shifted counterclockwise of the words "most Australian cities". This is because the map is centered relative to the {{w|time zone}}s and the local variations therein. The map shows the configuration of time zones with respect to {{w|daylight saving time}} (also known as summer time) at the time of the comic's initial release (February 2014); it was being observed in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and other countries not named in this comic. If the map were to stay accurate through the year, the location of place names would have to move over the next few months as parts of the southern hemisphere went off DST and parts of the northern hemisphere went onto it; however, the map failed to change on the morning of March 9 as it should have (to recognize the start of DST in North America).

In many countries "{{w|business hours}}" are considered to be from 9 am to 5 pm. With some exceptions, including emergencies, it is generally considered rude to place a {{w|telephone}} call to someone's residence during the hours when most people are asleep; Randall portrays this time period as extending from 10 pm to 8 am. This may be a reference to the 10 pm "cutoff" time [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0WeQJW-H3Y discussed] in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

"Rude to Call" was also the name used by a G-mail experimental opt-in feature in 2009 which added a crossed out phone symbol next to the sender if it was night in the sender's time zone when the reader loaded the email on their screen.

On midnight at UTC we can see this situation:
*00:00 UTC {{w|Greenwich Mean Time}}
::UK, Portugal
::West Africa
*01:00 UTC {{w|Central European Time}}
::Most of central Europe
::Nigeria, and many more countries belonging to the {{w|West Africa Time}} zone
*02:00 UTC {{w|Eastern European Time}}
::Eastern Europe, many countries like Bulgaria, Romania or Greece
::The {{w|Levant}}
::Egypt
*03:00 UTC {{w|UTC+03:00}} (East Africa Time, Eastern Europe Forward Time, and Arabia Standard Time)
::Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, and more
::Kaliningrad and Belarus
::Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and more.
::Iran is at {{w|Iran Standard Time}}, using an offset of UTC+03:30
*04:00 UTC {{w|UTC+04:00}}
::{{w|Moscow Time}}
::United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, and more
::Afghanistan is at {{w|Time in Afghanistan}}, using an offset of UTC+04:30
::Iran is at {{w|Iran Standard Time}}, using an offset of UTC+03:30
*05:00 UTC {{w|UTC+05:00}}
::Pakistan, Western Australia, Maldives and some France former colonies.
::Afghanistan is at {{w|Time in Afghanistan}}, using an offset of UTC+04:30
::India and Sri Lanka using {{w|UTC+05:30}}
::Nepal is using a much more odd offset at {{w|UTC+05:45}}
*06:00 UTC {{w|UTC+06:00}}
::Bangladesh, Bhutan...
::UK {{w|British Indian Ocean Territory}}
::Russia at {{w|Yekaterinburg Time}}, also Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
::China only use {{w|Time in China|one time zone}} (+08:00) but Xinjiang and Tibet unofficially use +06:00
::India and Sri Lanka using {{w|UTC+05:30}}
::Nepal is using a much more odd offset at {{w|UTC+05:45}}
*07:00 UTC {{w|UTC+07:00}}
::South-east Asia like Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and more
::Christmas Island belonging to Australia
::Russia is also using the {{w|Omsk Time}}
*08:00 UTC {{w|UTC+08:00}}
::Western Australia
::China uses only {{w|Time in China|one time zone}} while the country spans about five.
::Singapore
::Philippines
::Perth
*09:00 UTC {{w|UTC+09:00}}
::Japan
::The Koreas
*10:00 UTC {{w|UTC+10:00}}
::Brisbane and the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria
::US: Guam and Northern Mariana Islands
*11:00 UTC {{w|UTC+11:00}}
::Micronesia, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
::Russia {{w|Vladivostok Time}}
*12:00 UTC {{w|UTC+12:00}} or {{w|UTC−12:00}}
::Kamchatka (a Russian peninsula at the east Siberia), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu and more
*13:00 UTC {{w|UTC+13:00}} or {{w|UTC−11:00}}
::New Zealand, Kiribati, Tonga
*14:00 UTC {{w|UTC+14:00}} or {{w|UTC−10:00}}
::Hawaii, Samoa
::French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and more
::Line Islands, belonging to Kiribati
*15:00 UTC {{w|UTC−09:00}}
::{{W|Time in Alaska|Alaska}} (some islands of Alaska is at -10:00 and a few city's are at -08:00)
::French Polynesia
*16:00 UTC {{w|UTC−08:00}} or {{w|Pacific Time Zone}}
::US West Coast
::Canada or (British Columbia and Yukon)
::Mexico (Baja California)
*17:00 UTC {{w|UTC−07:00}} or {{w|Mountain Time Zone}}
::US: Denver, and much more
::Canada: Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton), British Columbia, more
*18:00 UTC {{w|UTC−06:00}} or {{w|Central Time Zone}}
::Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua and more
::US: Chicago, Texas except of some most westernmost counties, and many more
*19:00 UTC {{w|UTC−05:00}} or {{w|Eastern Time Zone}}
::Eastern Canada like Ontario or Quebec
::US East Coast including New York and Florida.
::But also Cuba, Haiti, Panama and much more countries
*20:00 UTC {{w|UTC−04:00}} or {{w|Atlantic Time Zone}}
::Canadian Maritimes: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia. (Newfoundland uses {{w|UTC-03:30}})
::Chile
::Greenland
::Most of the Caribbean Islands.
*21:00 UTC {{w|UTC−03:00}}
::Coastal Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, French Guiana, the UK Falkland Islands, and more
*22:00 UTC {{w|UTC−02:00}}
::UK: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
::Brazil: Fernando de Noronha
*23:00 UTC {{w|UTC−01:00}}
::Cape Verde
::Azores (part of Portugal)

==Technical notes==
When first posted, the picture was exactly 12 hours off. Somewhere around 5:10 UTC, this was fixed. The original version also included a listing for Inland Brazil; this could have created a conflict with US East Coast when Daylight-Saving Time begins in the US, and it has been removed.

The names used for the image files refer not to {{w|Universal Time|UTC (Universal Time)}} as one might expect but rather to the time exactly 12 hours off of that. The name of the image file linked from the page matched Universal Time during the first few hours, but the file-naming scheme did not change when the comic was corrected.

==Transcript==
:[The comic is a moving circle with a static outer ring.]

:[The outermost part of the static ring is divided in 22 segments representing the 24 hours of the day. The Noon (11 AM - 1 PM) and Midnight (11 PM - 1 AM) segments cover two hours which are not segmented. The ring is divided so it is yellow from 6 AM to 6 PM and dark grey on the other half.]
::Noon - 6 PM - Midnight - 6 AM

:[The innermost part of the static ring is light grey and divided in two sections that cower from 9 AM to 5 PM and from 10 PM to 8 AM respectively. They contain descriptions of the time intervals.]
::Business hours (9-5)
::Rude to call

:[The rest of the image consist of a rotating part.]

:[On the innermost part of the circle is the Earth as seen from the south pole. Each continent has a different color. The colors are
:*Europe: Red
:*Africa: Cyan
:*Asia: Green
:*Oceania: Purple
:*North America: Blue-violet
:*South America: Olive green
:*Antarctica (The south pole): Light grey

:[Two segmented rings circle the map - these give the names of the continents (not the Antactica) and the color of the ring match the color of the continent on the map. Each segment cover the part of the map with the given continent. The one with Europe is merged with the one for Asia - and the color also merges from red to green along Turkey and Russia where the transition from Europe to Asia occurs.]

:[On the inner ring are the names of the following continents (white text on a segment with the color of the continent)]
::Africa
::Oceania
::South America

:[On the second of these rings are the names of the following continents (white text on a segment with the color of the continent)]
::Europe Asia
::North America

:[On the outermost ring of the moving circle are written names of regions, countries and cities of the Earth over the part of the map in which time zone they belong. All the text is color coded to match the color of the continent they belong to as given on the central map. The text is written in four lines. Below the names are sorted by color and reading from left to right first - and only sorting top to bottom if needed.]

:[Europe - Red text:]
::UK - Most of Europe - Eastern Europe

:[Africa - Cyan text:]
::West Africa - Nigeria - Egypt - East Africa

:[Asia - Green text:]
::The Levant - Iraq - Iran - Moscow - Afghanistan - Pakistan - India - Southeast Asia - Java - China - Singapore - Philippines - Japan - The Koreas - Kamchatka

:[Oceania - Purple text:]
::Perth - Brisbane - Most Australian cities - New Zealand

:[North America - Blue-violet text:]
::Alaska - US West Coast - Denver - Mexico - Chicago - Texas - Eastern Canada - US East coast - Canadian Maritimes

:[South America - Olive green text:]
:: Coastal Brazil

==Implementations==
There are currently several implementations of the Now comic available for several different platforms:

===Windows===
A [https://github.com/leipert/xkcd-now-clock script] that automatically updates the wallpaper for the current time.

===Linux===
A [https://github.com/151henry151/randall-clock-desktop-background bash script] that automatically updates the wallpaper for the current time, written for a Debian system running i3. May work well for other linux distributions as well.

===Android===
An [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.phillab.xkcd_now Android widget] version of the comic.

===Web===
A [http://www.xkcdnow.com/ web-based implementation] which also displays time zones. (Not working on 02017-08-16)

A [http://c0la.s3.amazonaws.com/xkcd1335.html draggable] implementation (click&drag - left and right) (Not working on 02017-08-16)

===Cross-Platform===
An [https://github.com/BruceJohnJennerLawso/xkcd-Now/releases/tag/1.02 offline version of the comic] made using C++ and SFML.

==Timed Links==
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Links to each individual comic image
|-
!00h!!01h!!02h!!03h!!04h!!05h
|-
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/00h00m.png 00h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/00h15m.png 00h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/00h30m.png 00h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/00h45m.png 00h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/01h00m.png 01h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/01h15m.png 01h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/01h30m.png 01h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/01h45m.png 01h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/02h00m.png 02h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/02h15m.png 02h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/02h30m.png 02h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/02h45m.png 02h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/03h00m.png 03h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/03h15m.png 03h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/03h30m.png 03h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/03h45m.png 03h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/04h00m.png 04h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/04h15m.png 04h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/04h30m.png 04h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/04h45m.png 04h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/05h00m.png 05h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/05h15m.png 05h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/05h30m.png 05h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/05h45m.png 05h45m]
|-
!06h!!07h!!08h!!09h!!10h!!11h
|-
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/06h00m.png 06h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/06h15m.png 06h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/06h30m.png 06h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/06h45m.png 06h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/07h00m.png 07h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/07h15m.png 07h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/07h30m.png 07h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/07h45m.png 07h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/08h00m.png 08h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/08h15m.png 08h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/08h30m.png 08h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/08h45m.png 08h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/09h00m.png 09h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/09h15m.png 09h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/09h30m.png 09h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/09h45m.png 09h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/10h00m.png 10h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/10h15m.png 10h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/10h30m.png 10h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/10h45m.png 10h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/11h00m.png 11h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/11h15m.png 11h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/11h30m.png 11h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/11h45m.png 11h45m]
|-
!12h!!13h!!14h!!15h!!16h!!17h
|-
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/12h00m.png 12h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/12h15m.png 12h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/12h30m.png 12h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/12h45m.png 12h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/13h00m.png 13h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/13h15m.png 13h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/13h30m.png 13h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/13h45m.png 13h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/14h00m.png 14h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/14h15m.png 14h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/14h30m.png 14h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/14h45m.png 14h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/15h00m.png 15h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/15h15m.png 15h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/15h30m.png 15h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/15h45m.png 15h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/16h00m.png 16h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/16h15m.png 16h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/16h30m.png 16h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/16h45m.png 16h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/17h00m.png 17h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/17h15m.png 17h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/17h30m.png 17h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/17h45m.png 17h45m]
|-
!18h!!19h!!20h!!21h!!22h!!23h
|-
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h00m.png 18h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h15m.png 18h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h30m.png 18h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/18h45m.png 18h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/19h00m.png 19h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/19h15m.png 19h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/19h30m.png 19h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/19h45m.png 19h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/20h00m.png 20h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/20h15m.png 20h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/20h30m.png 20h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/20h45m.png 20h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/21h00m.png 21h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/21h15m.png 21h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/21h30m.png 21h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/21h45m.png 21h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/22h00m.png 22h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/22h15m.png 22h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/22h30m.png 22h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/22h45m.png 22h45m]
|[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/23h00m.png 23h00m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/23h15m.png 23h15m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/23h30m.png 23h30m] [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/now/23h45m.png 23h45m]
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Time]]

2252: Parenthetical Names

2022-05-10T06:35:20Z

Dan: Undo revision 265275 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 2252
| date = January 8, 2020
| title = Parenthetical Names
| image = parenthetical_names.png
| titletext = I never got around to seeing that movie about the battle (of Midway).
}}

==Explanation==

This is another comic in the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series.

Parentheses are generally used in a sentence to add additional information that clarifies the topic. For example, in the sentence, "{{w|Barack Obama}} (a Democrat) is the 44th President of the United States," the parenthetical clause clarifies who Obama is, but is not strictly necessary to the sentence. However, in the comic, Randall uses parentheses for people where the parantheses are not encircling a clarification but rather the person's title. In a sense, it is like putting someone's last name in brackets, e.g. Randall (Munroe).

''{{w|Sonic the Hedgehog}}'' is a video game franchise featuring the eponymous Sonic the Hedgehog character. A film featuring the character titled ''{{w|Sonic the Hedgehog (film)|Sonic the Hedgehog}}'' was released February 2020. When the first trailer was released, the public reacted with shock and horror at the movie's design of Sonic, who was said to fall into the "{{w|uncanny valley}}" by being too anthropomorphic and not cartoony enough. The design was hastily re-developed, which was received much more favorably; evidently, Cueball has warmed to the movie and is asking his friends if they want to go see it. Sonic is also the name of a {{w|Sonic (train)|train}}, a {{w|Sonic Drive-In|restaurant franchise}}, and a {{w|Sonic (ISP)|Californian internet service provider}}, among other things Randall is trying to avoid confusing the movie with. Perhaps Randall's friends often go to see the restaurant.

{{w|Jack the Ripper}} is the name attributed to a {{w|serial killer}} active in {{w|London}} in 1888. His true identity has never been confirmed, and he has been featured in {{w|Jack the Ripper in fiction|hundreds of works}}. {{w|Jack (given name)|"Jack"}} is one of the most-common given names for males in much of the Anglosphere (which is probably why it was adopted, like John is for Messers {{w|John Doe|Doe}}, Smith and (Q.) Public). Technically Randall should not be using parentheses for any of the three names, but here it is extra important as Jack due to being a common name would not make people immediately think of Jack the Ripper if somebody simply says "Jack".

American actor {{w|Robin Williams}} played {{w|Popeye|Popeye the Sailor}} in the 1980 musical-comedy film ''{{w|Popeye (film)|Popeye}}''. Popeye's theme song is titled "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man". Popeye the Sailor is the best-known character named "Popeye", so it is a little unusual that Randall would have to clarify ''which'' Popeye he is referring to. Other Popeyes include {{w|Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle}} from ''{{w|The French Connection}}'' and the criminal {{w|Popeye (Faulkner character)|Popeye}} from {{w|William Faulkner|William Faulkner's}} novel ''{{w|Sanctuary (Faulkner novel)|Sanctuary}}''. Like "Sonic", there is a restaurant chain named "{{w|Popeyes}}", which is the second-largest fast-food chicken restaurant chain in the world (after KFC). The founder of Popeyes claimed he named the restaurant after the ''French Connection'' character, and not the sailor, but from 1971 to 2006, Popeyes did license the cartoon characters and used them in promotions.

The title-text alters the pattern slightly by discussing the {{w|Battle of Midway}} (i.e. the X '''of''' Y). This case has additional humor because Randall clarifies which battle he is talking about, but not which of the several movies depicting the battle (although he was most likely referring to the film released in November 2019, simply called {{w|Midway (2019 film)|''Midway''}}).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is typing on his smartphone. Three messages appear in gray boxes above him:]
:Do you want to go see Sonic (the Hedgehog)?
:Why are there so many books about Jack (the Ripper)?
:I didn't know Robin Williams once played Popeye (the Sailor Man)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My Hobby:
:Whenever I mention anyone called "<Name> the <X>," I put "the <X>" in parentheses, like I added it as a clarification.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

1846: Drone Problems

2022-05-10T06:35:15Z

Dan: Undo revision 265276 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1846
| date = June 5, 2017
| title = Drone Problems
| image = drone_problems.png
| titletext = On the other hand, as far as they know, my system is working perfectly.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Megan]] is frustrated because people are flying {{w|Unmanned aerial vehicle|drones}} too close to her, so she builds a system to shoot them down. She shows it to [[Cueball]], who is also excited about the idea and helps spot the drones. However, each of the drones gets accidentally destroyed by its pilot because of their inability to fly the drones before Megan can destroy them herself.
After three hours of unsuccessful drone hunting, a frustrated Megan complains about people unable to fly the drones, which prevents her (and Cueball) from having fun shooting them down. The joke is that she created the system to get rid of the drones, so the lack of drones should be the desired output - and now she wants the drones nearby (even if only temporarily).

This comic is a follow up on [[1842: Anti-Drone Eagles]], and confirms that Cueball prefers technological air-defense systems to biological measures.

The title text refers to the fact that from the pilots' perspective, the system is successful at keeping all the drones away from the house, even though in reality the system has not had a chance to be successful yet.

While Megan attributes the repeated drone crashes to poor pilot skill, a possible source for the drones' sudden loss of control is hinted at in panel two, in which the target drone crashes immediately after Megan's device (equipped with a miniature parabolic dish) attempts to "lock on" to the drone in question. While a small and fast-moving drone may be difficult to hit, the control system that directs its movements is easily interfered with (either by overwhelming the RF signal controlling it or by using microwaves to induce short circuits in sensitive electronics). The irony here is that the targeting system for Megan's anti-drone device unintentionally appears to be more effective than the actual weapon it is designed to guide, disabling the drones so quickly that the "real" weapon is unable to be tested.

It may also be a reference to the May 30, 2017 ''FTG-15'' test of the United States {{w|Ground-Based Midcourse Defense|GMD missile defense}} system, where an interceptor kill vehicle destroyed a test {{w|ICBM}}. From the perspective of a US adversary, such as North Korea (whose missiles the system is allegedly targeted at), "as far as they know, the system is working perfectly," as the test was declared to be a success. But substantial controversy has dogged the missile defense system for decades, as critics have alleged it is [http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/us-missile-defense/countermeasures#.WTeEJsm1vMU vulnerable to trivial countermeasures]. But "as far as they know" strongly implies that the text following it is not true, i.e. the system does not work perfectly.

Another possible secondary joke is that the drones were flying near her because the pilots can't fly properly. Yet another possible take on the joke is that Megan's system is actually effective, but Megan is not aware it's been activated.

Megan had previously suggested in [[1586: Keyboard Problems]], that robots (and thus also drones) getting near Cueball's house ({{tvtropes|TheJinx|and possibly Cueball's general vicinity}}) would unexpectedly crash.

Megan previously had a laser cannon to shoot down squirrels in [[382: Trebuchet]], so this is not the first time she has built a device for shooting things down.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is sitting on her knees at the porch in front of a house with a smartphone in one hand and operating with her other hand a dish-antenna pointing into the sky. Cueball comes walking up towards the stairs up to the porch while he is looking back and up over his shoulder and pointing into the air.]
:Megan: People in the park keep flying drones near me, so I've built a system to shoot them down.
:Cueball: Cool! Oh yeah, there's one now.
:Megan: Time for a test!

:[Zoom in on Megan with the device on the porch with Cueball still at the bottom of the stairs leading down. She is operating her phone, which can be seen to be connected with a wire to the dish-antenna device. Cueball is looking away from her and down.]
:Megan: Okay, locking on…
:Cueball: Wait, it just crashed.
:Megan: Damn.

:[Cueball has walked up the stairs and are standing behind Megan at the door. Megan is now looking up into the sky while still sitting with her phone in front of the device.]
:Cueball: Here comes another one! Aim for… nope, it got stuck in a tree.

:[Cueball is now sitting on the porch with a half-full drinking glass in one hand leaning back on the other hand. Megan is gesturing at her device while holding her phone down. Above the top part of the frame, there is another smaller frame overlaid with a caption:]
: Three hours later…
:Cueball: Finally, two more just— no, one crashed and the other is hurtling sideways toward the lake.
:Megan: ''Will you people learn to fly these things?!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Drones]]

1247: The Mother of All Suspicious Files

2022-05-10T06:35:08Z

Dan: Undo revision 265277 by 108.162.245.31 (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1247
| date = August 5, 2013
| title = The Mother of All Suspicious Files
| image = the_mother_of_all_suspicious_files.png
| titletext = Better change the URL to 'https' before downloading.
}}

==Explanation==
The save {{w|dialog box}} shows a download from the address <tt><nowiki>http://65.222.202.53</nowiki></tt>, an {{w|IP address}} that hosted {{w|JavaScript}} {{w|malware}} during a recent attack on the {{w|Tor anonymity network}}, with a very long file title. Many of the {{w|file extension|extensions}} used inside there indicate executable code; multiple file extensions are sometimes used to disguise a {{w|Trojan horse (computing)|trojan program}} as a document.

You can also see common download syntax for a pirated movie, {{w|Hackers (film)|''Hackers''}}, likely included to appear malicious to anyone skimming but is actually a movie about hackers, making it a benign reference rather than malicious. It is described as "<tt>_BLURAY_CAM</tt>", which contradicts itself ("<tt>_BLURAY</tt>" would imply it was ripped from a copy on {{w|Blu-ray Disc}}, while "<tt>_CAM</tt>" would mean it was copied by pointing a camera at the screen in the cinema). "<tt>_BLURAY_CAM</tt>" would probably indicate a search-keyword-stuffed fake copy; fake pirated media often contain viruses (although this is more likely to be a problem with newer media, before the first real pirated copy appears).

The {{w|URL}} contains the path "<tt>~tilde/pub/cia-bin/etc</tt>". The first part is a public folder of a user named "tilde" (which is also the name for the {{w|tilde|~ symbol}}), "<tt>cgi-bin</tt>" is a common folder on a web server for server-side executables ([[Randall]] changes the name to "<tt>[[CIA|cia]]-bin</tt>"), and "<tt>etc</tt>" is a standard folder for configuration files – normally never accessible through a web server. The program "init.dll" isn't executable at all, it's a {{w|Windows Dynamic Link Library}} which can't be run standalone, and is rarely referenced in URLs (even though such syntax is still being employed, even on [https://www.google.com/search?q=site:edu+filetype:dll reputable websites (Google search)] or here at [https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll eBay], indicating the webserver is a Microsoft {{w|Active Server Pages|ASP}} server). The question mark indicates the start of a parameter list, and in this case we have only one named "<tt>FILE</tt>".

The "Save" button is greyed out, suggesting that it is disabled; you can click only the "Cancel" button. For security reasons, some browsers (like Firefox) disable the "Save" button for a few seconds before enabling it. This prevents users from accidentally accepting a download while entering input, like a malicious CAPTCHA.

The complete content sent to the server, starting with "<tt>/~tilde...</tt>" and ending with "<tt>...out.exe</tt>", is exactly 256 characters long. On {{w|HTML 3}} specifications you have a limitation of 1024 characters, whereas later HTML specifications don't have this limit; it just depends on the web server's capabilities. But posting parameters directly at the URL is still a worse choice.

The content of the parameter is shown here:
*<tt>__</tt> (underscore underscore) — used in the {{w|C programming language}} to denote that a symbol is really not for public consumption.
*<tt>{{w|autoexec.bat}}</tt> — a {{w|batch file}} which is automatically run during startup on {{w|MS-DOS}} and {{w|Windows}} operating systems, and was often modified by viruses, which added malicious code to be run on each boot.
*<tt>My%20OSX%20Documents</tt> — referencing Apple's {{w|OS X}} operating system (<tt>{{w|URL encoding#Character data|%20}}</tt> is a representation of a space in a URL, i.e. it reads as "<tt>My OSX Documents</tt>").
*<tt>install.exe</tt> — a typical {{w|Installer#Installer|installer}}.
*<tt>{{w|RAR|.rar}}</tt> — a compressed archive file type.
*<tt>{{w|INI file|.ini}}</tt> — a configuration file type.
*<tt>{{w|Tar (computing)|.tar}}</tt> — a {{w|file}} archive popular in {{w|Unix}} and {{w|Unix-like}} operating systems. tar has been mentioned [[1168: tar|before]].
*<tt>.doçx</tt> — <tt>{{w|docx|.docx}}</tt> is an {{w|Office Open XML}} file, i.e. a word processing format used by {{w|Microsoft Word 2007}} and above, but has no {{w|cedilla}} (¸). The addition of a cedilla may be a reference to exploits that rely on rare characters being mistaken for more common ones that look similar, such as the {{w|IDN homograph attack}}.
*<tt>.phphphp</tt> — a play on {{w|PHP}} files, a kind of server-based web page file type. PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page" but was later redefined as the recursive abbreviation "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".
*<tt>{{w|XHTML|.xhtml}}</tt> — another web page file type.
*<tt>{{w|TransducerML|.tml}}</tt> — stands for Transducer Markup Language, an {{w|XML}}-based {{w|markup language}} that specifies how to capture, time-tag and describe sensor data.
*<tt>.xtl</tt> — possibly a play on XHTML.
*<tt>.txxt</tt> — a play on <tt>{{w|Text file|.txt}}</tt> file types.
*<tt>0DAY.HACK</tt> — a reference to a {{w|zero-day exploit}}. (overlaps with the next entry)
*<tt>HACK.ERS_(1995)_BLURAY_CAM-XVID</tt> — a reference to the 1995 {{W|Hackers (film)|''Hackers''}} movie, but pirated movies would either be a <tt>BLURAYRIP/DVDRIP</tt> or <tt>CAM</tt>, but not both at the same time unless you used a camera to record a {{w|Blu-Ray}} movie as it played.
*<tt>{{w|EXE|.exe}}</tt> — an executable file type used by Microsoft Windows.
*<tt>[SCR]</tt> — a tag used by movie pirates to denote a '{{w|Screener}}', the DVD copy of films given to critics prior to theater release. Usually the highest quality available at the time, rare, and thus good bait for a virus-laden download. "{{w|.scr}}" is also the extension for screensaver files, really just an exe file with a different extension and one of the classical ways to distribute infected files.
*<tt>{{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}}</tt> — programming language.
*<tt>{{w|Windows Installer|.msi}}</tt> — an installation file used by Microsoft Installer.
*<tt>{{w|.lnk}}</tt> — an extension used by Microsoft Windows for shortcuts. The extension is normally hidden to the user.
*<tt>.lnk.zda.gnn</tt> — references to {{w|Link (The Legend of Zelda)|Link}}, {{w|Princess Zelda|Zelda}}, and {{w|Ganon}}, important characters from ''{{w|The Legend of Zelda}}'' video game franchise.
*<tt>{{w|White Rabbit#Television and films|wrbt.obj}}</tt> — A reference to the line of code Dennis Nedry used in ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}'' to shut down key systems.
*<tt>{{w|Object file|.o}}</tt> — The extension for a {{w|Linker (computing)|linker file}}, an intermediary created when compiling {{w|C programming language|C code}}.
*<tt>{{w|Header file|.h}}</tt> — The file extension of a {{w|header file}} in C code.
*<tt>{{w|.swf}}</tt> — {{w|Shockwave Flash}} file type.
*<tt>{{w|Dpkg|.dpkg}}</tt> — The {{w|Debian}} package management, although the package files use the file suffix <tt>.deb</tt>.
*<tt>.app</tt> — an application on the {{w|Mac OS X}} operating system.
*<tt>{{w|ZIP (file format)|.zip}}</tt> — compressed archive file type.
*<tt>.co</tt> — the {{w|List of Internet top-level domains|top-level domain (TLD)}} for Colombia, but marketed as a global domain. Some countries use <tt>.co.''TLD''</tt> for general use, e.g. <tt>.co.uk</tt> in the United Kingdom. But the TLD <tt>.gz</tt> does not exist and thus <tt>.co.gz</tt> is invalid.
*<tt>{{w|Gzip|.gz}}</tt> — a compressed file using {{w|GNU}} zip.
*<tt>{{w|A.out|.a.out}}</tt> — Default filename when creating an executable on {{w|Linux}} or other Unix-like operating systems if none was specified for the compiler.

The title text suggests changing from <tt>http</tt> to <tt>https</tt>, as if encrypting a suspicious file before downloading it is somehow better than downloading it unencrypted. <tt>{{w|http}}</tt> (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and <tt>{{w|https}}</tt> (Hypertext Transfer Protocol – Secure) are the two common protocols for getting web pages and web downloads. http is the simple download, whereas https adds an SSL encryption layer so the item being downloaded cannot be viewed unencrypted by anyone except the end recipient. Changing <tt>http</tt> to <tt>https</tt> is a common suggestion to improve security when browsing the web from an insecure network (such as a public {{w|WiFi}} hotspot) to avoid surveillance or hijacking to a malicious website; Google automatically switches to <tt>https</tt> for all mail accounts and is starting to do so with searches. The end recipient will still get whatever nasties were in the original, however — encrypting it doesn't change the content at all.

The {{w|IP address}} referenced in the comic, <tt>65.222.202.53</tt>, was, at the time this article was authored, being used by the shellcode of a {{w|JavaScript}} {{w|zero-day exploit}} for the {{w|Tor Browser Bundle}} being run by the {{w|FBI}} to phone home over the clearnet [http://thehackernews.com/2013/08/Firefox-Exploit-Tor-Network-child-pornography-Freedom-Hosting.html] and deanonymize visitors to websites on Freedom Hosting that are serving child pornography. [http://www.reddit.com/r/onions/comments/1jmrta/founder_of_the_freedom_hosting_arrested_held/]

As the last extension in the file is .exe, a Windows computer would run the file like an application. Usually, it is not safe to run unknown .exe files.

==Transcript==
:[Browser download warning box containing the following text.]
:WARNING!
:This type of file can harm your computer! Are you sure you want to download:
:<nowiki>http://65.222.202.53/~TILDE/PUB/CIA-BIN/ETC/INIT.DLL?FILE=__AUTOEXEC.BAT.MY%20OSX%20DOCUMENTS-INSTALL.EXE.RAR.INI.TAR.DOÇX.PHPHPHP.XHTML.TML.XTL.TXXT.0DAY.HACK.ERS_(1995)_BLURAY_CAM-XVID.EXE.TAR.[SCR].LISP.MSI.LNK.ZDA.GNN.WRBT.OBJ.O.H.SWF.DPKG.APP.ZIP.TAR.TAR.CO.GZ.A.OUT.EXE</nowiki>
:[Cancel and Save buttons (Save button disabled)]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Video games]]

2391: Life Before the Pandemic

2020-11-27T15:23:49Z

Dan: /* Explanation */ links

{{comic
| number = 2391
| date = November 27, 2020
| title = Life Before the Pandemic
| image = life_before_the_pandemic.png
| titletext = I can't wait until this is all over and I can go back to riding my horse through the mall.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STUPID CLAW. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is another comic in xkcd's [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] about the COVID-19 pandemic. [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are having a conversation about life before the pandemic, which was declared as such on the 11th of March, 2020 by the World Health Organization. They talk about what they miss about life before the pandemic, but Cueball says that he can barely remember it, which is born out by the rest of their discussion, as none of the activities they listed were ever popular in any capacity. After they finish reminiscing, Megan says that she can't wait for a vaccine, further implying that she she can't wait to have all of these things "back." Both Pfizer and Moderna are making vaccines, with Pfizer making their application for emergency use on November 20th, 2020, 7 days before this comic's release. They expect it to be approved by the end of the year.

===SCUBA diving without a mask===
SCUBA stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It consists of a tank of compressed air, which is conducted through a tube to a mask which allows the diver to breath underwater. The mask is a fundamental part of SCUBA diving. Cloth masks, to help lower the spread of the virus between people, became common around the and are recommended precaution when going into public. Megan is conflating these two different types of masks, misremembering world where SCUBA diving did not have masks involved. You do not need to wear a cloth mask if you are SCUBA diving.

===Free refills at Gas Stations===
Gas Stations are locations where you can buy gasoline, which powers internal combustion engines, especially those in cars. A "free refill," in this context, likely refers to getting the gas tank of your car filled for free, which was not a business practice that was ever common, and is the joke of this section. However, many gas stations also have a small convenience shop that accompanies them, where you can buy food, drinks, and can use the restroom. "Free refills" could refer to getting a free refill of a type of soft drink, which has happened in gas stations, but is not consistent with the theme of the comic.

===Grilling in the Library===

===Tennis without a "safety" net===

{{w|Tennis}} is a sport where two players use racquets to hit a ball at each other. The game is played on a court divided in half by a low net. The net is not used for anyone's safety; it's to ensure that the ball must be volleyed to the other player with some minimum height.

===Indoor Fireworks===
Many indoor activities were moved outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, as poorly-ventilated indoor spaces vastly increase the chance of the virus spreading. Fireworks are explosives shot into the air for entertainment, they are not suitable for use indoors.

Setting off fireworks indoors is not safe, even before the pandemic.{{Citation needed}}

===Arcade Claw Machines===

Arcade claw machines have a bin of prizes (often stuffed animals) with a claw mechanism hanging overhead. The player pays a few coins into the machine and maneuvers the claw over a desired prize. The claw will descend and "attempt" to grab the prize for retrieval, but to ensure a favorable revenue for the machine operator, there is often a hidden percentage chance that the claw will not fully close. This is a frustrating experience for the player (e.g. Cueball). Remote manipulator arms are used for handling dangerous items, but the arcade claw machine was not implemented for the purpose of safety.

===Title Text: Riding a Horse through the Mall===

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

2391: Life Before the Pandemic

2020-11-27T15:23:06Z

Dan: /* Explanation */ + link: covid-19 cat

{{comic
| number = 2391
| date = November 27, 2020
| title = Life Before the Pandemic
| image = life_before_the_pandemic.png
| titletext = I can't wait until this is all over and I can go back to riding my horse through the mall.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a STUPID CLAW. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is another comic in xkcd's [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] about the COVID-19 pandemic. Megan and Cueball are having a conversation about life before the pandemic, which was declared as such on the 11th of March, 2020 by the World Health Organization. They talk about what they miss about life before the pandemic, but Cueball says that he can barely remember it, which is born out by the rest of their discussion, as none of the activities they listed were ever popular in any capacity. After they finish reminiscing, Megan says that she can't wait for a vaccine, further implying that she she can't wait to have all of these things "back." Both Pfizer and Moderna are making vaccines, with Pfizer making their application for emergency use on November 20th, 2020, 7 days before this comic's release. They expect it to be approved by the end of the year.

===SCUBA diving without a mask===
SCUBA stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It consists of a tank of compressed air, which is conducted through a tube to a mask which allows the diver to breath underwater. The mask is a fundamental part of SCUBA diving. Cloth masks, to help lower the spread of the virus between people, became common around the and are recommended precaution when going into public. Megan is conflating these two different types of masks, misremembering world where SCUBA diving did not have masks involved. You do not need to wear a cloth mask if you are SCUBA diving.

===Free refills at Gas Stations===
Gas Stations are locations where you can buy gasoline, which powers internal combustion engines, especially those in cars. A "free refill," in this context, likely refers to getting the gas tank of your car filled for free, which was not a business practice that was ever common, and is the joke of this section. However, many gas stations also have a small convenience shop that accompanies them, where you can buy food, drinks, and can use the restroom. "Free refills" could refer to getting a free refill of a type of soft drink, which has happened in gas stations, but is not consistent with the theme of the comic.

===Grilling in the Library===

===Tennis without a "safety" net===

===Indoor Fireworks===
Many indoor activities were moved outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, as poorly-ventilated indoor spaces vastly increase the chance of the virus spreading. Fireworks are explosives shot into the air for entertainment, they are not suitable for use indoors.

===Arcade Claw Machines===

===Title Text: Riding a Horse through the Mall===

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

2391: Life Before the Pandemic

2020-11-27T15:08:22Z

Dan: added Category:Comics featuring Megan using HotCat

2391: Life Before the Pandemic

2020-11-27T15:08:02Z

Dan: added Category:Comics featuring Cueball using HotCat

2020-10-27T09:48:54Z

Dan: /* Explanation */ fix wp link

{{comic
| number = 2377
| date = October 26, 2020
| title = xkcd Phone 12
| image = xkcd_phone_12.png
| titletext = New phone OS features: Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap to grid), dark mode (disables screen), screaming mode (self-explanatory), and coherent ultracapacitor-pumped emission (please let us know what this setting does; we've been afraid to try it).
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PERSON NAMED MAX. Closed timelike curves need more explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the "12th" in the ongoing xkcd Phone series in which Randall explains his new joke phone designs with many strange and useless features. It is also a reference to the recently released {{w|iPhone 12}}. However, there have only been 9 comics released, with the previous two being [[2000: xkcd Phone 2000]] and [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]].

The note about the xkcd Phone 12 and the xkcd Phone 12 Max (only for people named Max) is a joke about the different models of iPhone 12: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The xkcd Phone 12 Max would be expected to have a larger screen, but it seems that this phone is also only for people with the name Max.

The slogan '"The only phone you'll ever own"' has the "registered trademark" symbol, with that symbol supposedly itself trademarked, which is highly unlikely.

Multiple unusual and comedic features are labelled on the phone, detailed below:

* '''Full drivetrain warranty''' - A common warranty feature for automobiles--see {{w|drivetrain}}. As a side note, the phone here would be cheaping out on the warranty if it were a car; a "drivetrain" warranty covers everything ''except'' the engine; only if it was a "{{w|powertrain}}" warranty would it cover the engine. A phone typically has none of these things, although this one seemingly does.
* '''Coated for easy swallowing''' - A common feature on solid medicines meant to be taken orally. Phones do not belong in the set of edible objects, much less orally-taken medicines{{Citation needed}}. Since some parents of young children let them teethe on their phones, this would be an undesirable feature.
* '''Surgical-grade apps''' - "Surgical-grade steel" is sometime used as a selling point indicating quality materials. This feature suggests that the apps themselves are made from high-quality material, although this is absurd because an app is (as the name suggests) a software application, not any physical object that could be reasonably defined as 'surgical-grade' or not.
* '''Built-in 600 lb magnet for magnet fishing''' - {{w|Magnet fishing}} is an activity for searching for objects that can be pulled in by a strong magnet. A 600 pound magnet can lift a 600 pound (272kg) object (at Earth's surface). This would tend to make the phone stick to any iron or steel objects (such as refrigerators) and be impossible to remove with human strength, and only the strongest humans could pick up the phone even if it were properly insulated. It would also be impossible to separate two phones without destroying one of them if the interlocking feature were used. This feature would also erase any credit cards the owner puts in the vicinity of the phone, meaning this phone could not be put in one's pocket with a wallet.
* '''Oral-B partnership: hold phone against teeth to ultrasonically remove plaque''' - This is a reference to {{w|ultrasonic toothbrush}}es. {{w|Oral-B}} does not produce any ultrasonic toothbrushes, but does produce ''{{w|sonic toothbrush}}es.'' There is a logical connection between electric toothbrushes and smartphones, namely they are both electronic and both vibrate; however, most phones cannot perform dentistry autonomously{{Citation needed}}.
* '''40 mL emergency water supply''' - Many phones are now water-resistant to some degree; this phone ships with water included. Furthermore, {{w|survival kit}}s often come with pouches that can hold several litres of water, in case of emergency. This would be a silly feature, and it is unclear what emergencies would be solved by having such a small amount of water.
* '''Security feature: unmarked side buttons''' - Some modern phones have unmarked side buttons, so the secureness of this feature is doubtful. This phone is likely to have trillions of buttons though, just to confuse the user. No buttons are visible which could indicate the side of the phone functions is touch sensitive and the buttons are not only unlabeled but not visible.
* '''3,000,000-volt arc allows wireless charging from a range of up to 36 inches''' - Possibly from a Tesla coil. 3,000,000 volts is very lethal{{Citation needed}}, and would make using the phone impossible due to the high voltage emitted. The {{w|Electrical breakdown}} voltage of air is approximately 3 kV / mm, which would allow a 3 MV potential to jump a distance of 100 cm. 36 inches (91 cm), however, is within reach of a simple extension cord.
* '''99.9% BPA- and hands- free''' - {{w|Bisphenol A}} (or BPA) is a compound that is used in making plastics. BPA has been found to exhibit hormone-like properties, so there is a movement to produce BPA-free plastics using alternative bisphenols. {{w|Hands-free}} describes using the device "without hands", e.g. using voice commands. This is important when using a device while driving. These are 2 unrelated ideas, which use the suffix "free" in different meanings ("BPA-free" means "containing no BPA", while "hands-free" means "your hands are left free"). The construction "NOUN- and NOUN-ADJ" is normally only used with the meaning of "ADJ" repeated for both nouns, implying that this phone "contains no hands" (or possibly "your BPA is left free").
* '''Extended release charge cable''' - Electronics manufacturers support standards to reduce time to fully recharge, e.g. Qualcomm {{w|Quick Charge}} standard. This is a reference to "extended release" medication. It's unclear what purpose would be served by charging a phone slower than normal.
* '''Closed timelike curves''' - This label is applied to the curved corner of the phone. Randall may be making a visual joke by referring to the corner of the phone by a very complex relativistic concept. Given that {{w|Closed timelike curves}} are usually associated with solutions to general relativity that allow for time travel...
* '''Fits in standard shipping container''' - An {{w|intermodal shipping container}} is large enough to fit automobiles, raising the question of just how big this xkcd phone is.
* '''Interlocking, stackable''' - A quality of, among other things, LEGO bricks. Probably a bad idea to use this feature, given how close the phone is to critical mass.
* '''Nintendo partnership: GameBoy Printer compatibility''' - The {{w|Game Boy Printer}} was a thermal paper printer originally paired with the Game Boy Camera. This device was released in 1998 and discontinued in 2003, so this partnership would be obsolete.
* '''Sustain pedal''' - A {{w|sustain pedal}} is commonly associated with a digital keyboard or piano; it lets the note continue sounding when the key is released. It's unclear what purpose it would serve in a phone.
* '''CDC partnership: when in an indoor space with too many people, phone begins playing "We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)" at slowly increasing volume until everyone leaves''' - An allusion to the COVID-19 pandemic. "{{w|We Like to Party! (Vengaboys song)|We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)}}" is a 1998 Eurodance/techno hit by the Vengaboys, and is perhaps most familiar to Americans from a series of Six Flags ads.
* '''Sacrificial anode''' - Useful if something metal (like, say, a boat) will be in a wet environment for a long time. The {{w|sacrificial anode}} is made of a material with higher redox potential (typically zinc), and will corrode faster than the (more valuable) metal object it's attached to. It's unclear if the phone HAS a sacrificial anode or IS a sacrificial anode.
* '''Tactical helium reserve''' - Since 1925, the United States has had a {{w|National Helium Reserve|strategic helium reserve}}. Helium is very rare on earth and has important scientific and military uses, so it’s important to have a supply in case supplies disappear. But here we have a tactical helium reserve, which suggests it's smaller and focused on shorter-term goals. Compare {{w|strategic bombing}} focused on destroying entire cities or countries and {{w|tactical bombing}} aimed at destroying individual targets or military units. Helium also has the property of being lighter than air, so if this reserve is large enough, the phone could float away if let go. However, this is unlikely, as the phone boasts other, heavy components such as large magnets and a critical mass of fissile material.
* '''50% below critical mass (2x safety factor)''' - Indicates the phone contains fissile material. This "2x safety factor" means that if you put 2 phones next to each other, or put one phone next to a {{w|neutron reflector}}, you would have a {{w|criticality accident}}, which may explain why you would not own another phone after this one. A phone with this much fissile material would pose a radiation hazard. The "2x safety factor" claim may be related to physicist {{w|Richard Feynman|Richard Feynman's}} famous criticism of NASA in the {{w|Rogers Commission}} report on the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Feynman found that when he confronted NASA engineers with a part worn one third of the way through, which was not supposed to be worn through at all, the engineers claimed that this demonstrated a 3x safety factor rather than a failure of the part.
* '''Shake for factory reset''' - A {{w|factory reset}} is often possible on electronic devices, and is usually accomplished either by pressing a button or closing an electrical bridge. This one works like an Etch-a-Sketch. This would not be preferred, as slight disturbances could easily cause massive losses of data. This would not be possible to shake anyway, given the 600-pound magnet stuck inside, so it would probably have to be extremely sensitive, which is not in any way a plus.
* '''Norton MacAfee protection: if you're ever attacked by John MacAfee, Peter Norton will come out of retirement to defend you'''. {{w|Norton (software)|Norton}} and {{w|MacAfee}} are competing software security companies. This "protection" combines the two of them and claims that Norton (the person) will defend you if MacAfee (the person) attacks you.

The title text mentions xkcd phone OS updates, including:
* '''Infinite customization (home screen icons no longer snap to grid)''' - Whether on-screen icons snap to a grid is a very minor aspect of customization. Not having it would be the ultimate bane of anyone with {{w|obsessive-compulsive disorder}}, as it would make it very difficult to get icons exactly lined up vertically and horizontally.
* '''Dark mode (disables screen)''' - Dark mode is a popular feature on websites/apps with light backgrounds like Twitter and Reddit, changing the background to a dark color to help late-night users sleep better. Disabling the screen would not be a pleasant surprise when a user goes to turn on beloved dark mode. May be impossible to turn off if the screen is no longer touch sensitive when darkened unless the unmarked buttons can be used to disable it. Also a possible reason to want to use the shake-activated factory reset.
* '''Screaming mode (self-explanatory)''' - The phone screams. Reference to the screaming-while-falling [[1363: xkcd Phone|xkcd Phone 1]].
* '''Coherent ultracapacitor-pumped emission (please let us know what this setting does; we've been afraid to try it)''' - This mysterious feature has a terrifying name, with even the developers refusing to test it out. This option would probably be very easy to accidentally tap, given the style of every xkcd Phone ever. Possibly activated with one of the unlabeled buttons making it even more dangerous. Coherent and Emission are associated with laser devices and the use of a laser could justify the helium reserve. Raises the question of who designs the phone if the people marketing it don't know what it does.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

* Full drivetrain warranty
* Coated for easy swallowing
* Surgical-grade apps
* Built-in 600 lb magnet for magnet fishing
* Oral-B partnership: hold phone against teeth to ultrasonically remove plaque
* 40 mL emergency water supply
* Security feature: unmarked side buttons
* 3,000,000-volt arc allows wireless charging from a range of up to 36 inches
* 99.9% BPA- and hands- free
* Extended release charge cable
* Closed timelike curves
* Fits in standard shipping container
* Interlocking, stackable
* Nintendo partnership: GameBoy Printer compatibility
* Sustain Pedal
* CDC partnership: when in an indoor space with too many people, phone begins playing "We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)" at slowly increasing volume until everyone leaves
* Sacrificial anode
* Tactical helium reserve
* 50% below critical mass (2x safety factor)
* Shake for factory reset
* Norton MacAfee protection: if you're ever attacked by John MacAfee, Peter Norton will come out of retirement to defend you

The xkcd Phone 12* and 12 Max**

<nowiki>*Standard</nowiki> **For people named Max

"The only phone you'll ever own"®™

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:xkcd Phones]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]