explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1239: Social Media

2016-10-01T13:55:36Z

Greenrd: remove spam

{{comic
| number = 1239
| date = July 17, 2013
| title = Social Media
| image = social_media.png
| titletext = The social media reaction to this asteroid announcement has been sharply negative. Care to respond?
}}

==Explanation==
This comic parodies how journalists tend to focus on social networking. Specifically in the case of revolutions, social media is given a lot of weight, even in countries with limited internet access. A direct parallel is made to the so-called {{w|Twitter Revolution}}s.

On {{w|Twitter}} you can send text messages with a maximum of 140 characters. This means that there could not be much content in a single post, but often many people ''follow'' the people doing these ''tweets''. People who are not on social media tend to react like [[Cueball]] and come to the conclusion that twitter makes press coverage more stupid, just because those messages lack much detail. Cueball is also surprised about the stupidity of trying to link social media to the orbit of the asteroid — social media obviously have no impact on the orbit of any space objects, which are entirely driven by physics and gravitational mechanics, and are not influenced by opinions on any media.

The title text continues the joke. The negativity on Twitter concerning an earth bound asteroid has nothing to do with the press conference that announced it but rather with the negativity of wiping out life on earth in general. Again, journalists give undue weight to social media.

It's simply that "How has twitter affected this" has become a standard question for journalists, posed in complete disregard of the actual event.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball heads a press conference.]
:Cueball: NASA has confirmed that the asteroid is heading directly for us.
:Cueball: ...Yes, a question?
:Reporter 1: What role has social media played in this asteroid's orbit?
:Cueball: *''sigh''*
:Reporter 2: Has twitter changed the way we respond to asteroid threats?
:Cueball: Well, it's made the press conference questions stupider.
:Reporter 3: Fascinating!
:Reporter 4: What about Facebook?

==Trivia==
*The comic may also parody an actual interview [http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/12/deb_feyerick_to_bill_nye_is_asteroid_2012_da14_connected_to_global_warming.html Is asteroid 2012_DA14 connected to global warming] in which {{w|Bill Nye}} was asked if the approaching asteroid {{w|2012_DA14}} was a result of global warming.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

1692: Man Page

2016-06-12T14:24:41Z

Greenrd: punctuation

{{comic
| number = 1692
| date = June 10, 2016
| title = Man Page
| image = man_page.png
| titletext = For even more info, see blarbl(2)(3) and birb(3ahhaha I'm kidding, just Google it like a normal person.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a {{w|Unix}} manual page, i.e. a ''{{w|man page}}'' (hence the title), for a fictional program called "[http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blerp blerp]". Unix man pages are meant to provide a brief reference on the usage of a command, not extended explanations with tutorials as may be found in many hardcopy product manuals. Unfortunately, some Unix commands tend to be very bloated and include lots of optional behavior that is often irrelevant to the original intent of the command and can be done much more easily using shell features like piping and redirection, and thus the manpage grows to explain all of the features. This example exaggerates the obscurity and terseness found in many man pages, making fun of the typical style of the genre.

It follows the prescribed format for a man page, with the following sections:
* Command Name: self-explanatory
* Synopsis: a synopsis of the valid command line formats
* Description: a summary of the purpose and operation of the command
* Options: detailed description of all the available command line arguments
* See Also: references to other man pages with relevance
* Bug Reports: contact details for the support group (if any)
* Copyright: details of the ownership and rights status of the man page (not the program)

However most the contents of these sections are not very meaningful, or even obey the correct syntax.

The Synopsis section is supposed to be in a {{w|Regular Expression|regex}}-like language called {{w|Wirth Syntax Notation}}, with structures like

* {<list of valid alternatives>}, e.g. blerp {A,B,C}
* [<optional element>], e.g. blerp [-o [<output file>]]
* <something> ... meaning repeat <something> as many times as you need

But the two Synopsis lines given do not have valid Wirth syntax; they randomly mix objects and syntactic characters, and the brackets and braces are not properly nested or paired.

The Description section provides a somewhat unhelpful summary that could apply to almost any Unix command. Processing input files (or output of other commands in a pipeline) is a generic function for Unix shell tools, as is specifying their behaviour with command line arguments, environment variables and flags.

The options are in alphabetical order (putting lower case before upper case and with an em-dash inserted between b and c the only exception to this order).

{{w|Command-line_interface#Command-line_option|Command-line options}}, also known as flags, are typed following a program name to change how the program runs. The following is an example usage.

<code>blerp -a -d -t -p "AVIGNON"</code>

This would run blerp in attack mode, outputting to DEBUG.EXE, with tumble dry, and with POPE set to AVIGNON. In most cases, any number of flags can be used in any order, and applicable flags can be followed by arguments (such as "AVIGNON" in this example).

For a walkthrough of all possible flags see the '''[[#Table of flags|table of flags]]''' below.

Below the flags there is a ''see also'' list with other stupid program names. Apart from two more blerbs there is also blirb, [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blarb blarb] and [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blorp blorp], with chapter references. The last blorp(501)(c)(3) is not a valid chapter reference for a man page, it is however a slightly covert reference to {{w|501(c)_organization#501.28c.29.283.29|501(c)(3)}} which is an organization that is {{w|Tax exemption|tax-exempt}}.

Then follows a bug report site. www.inaturalist.org is a site working to extend biological research, and the exact address given, http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47744-Hemiptera, points to the same page as http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/Hemiptera. {{w|Hemiptera}} is the order classifying ''true bugs'', making it a good place to report any biological bugs discovered while running a program (such as certain insects that got into certain early computers, causing the computers to malfunction and giving the name "bug" to computer malfunctions).

Finally there is a "{{w|copyright}}" line which references several variously open-source content licenses which is also a recurring theme on xkcd (see [[225: Open Source]]). For instance, GPL references {{w|GNU General Public License}} and the (2) and (3+) refers to {{w|GNU_General_Public_License#Version_2|GPL 2}} and {{w|GNU_General_Public_License#Version_3|GPL 3 or higher}}. ''CC'' refers to {{w|creative commons}} where ''BY'' is the {{w|Creative_Commons_license#Types_of_licenses|type of license}}, ''5.0'' refers to the attribution and ''RV 41.0'' refers to revision 41.0. However there were no higher attribution than [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode 4.0] at the time of this comic's release. xkcd is released under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ CC BY-NC 2.5] as can be seen at the bottom of the {{xkcd}}  homepage. A few comics have been released under the [[:Category:CC-BY-SA comics|CC-BY-SA license]] or [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 3.0]. BSD refers to {{w|BSD licenses}} a [[:Category:BSD|recurring theme]] in xkcd. "Like Gecko" is a reference to a web browser user-agent string; modern user-agent strings include a lot of text designed<ref>[http://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/ User agent history]</ref> to let the browser pretend to be several different browsers/renderers, and "(like Gecko)" is the standard text for a browser that wants to be treated as if it were {{w|Gecko (software)|Gecko}} while admitting, if you look closely, that it isn't really Gecko. This copyright line, which includes a lot of mashed-together text that might appear to match any of several different licenses, resembles a {{w|user agent}} string.

"Or best offer" is a reference to a private sale, such as of a car parked outside a home, with a hand-made notice proclaiming the intent to sell to any passer-by who may be interested, usually with relevent details including a suggested price "or best offer", to indicate a willingness to be flexible for a quicker sale. In context, it suggest the person who has the highest offer for ''blerp'' will be sold the rights to the program. Since the other licenses mentioned would allow for free usage without paying royalties, it would usually be pointless to buy the rights to the program. The owner could possibly revoke the other licenses though.

In the title text there is a list with even more info, again with crazy names like [http://blarbl.blogspot.dk/ blarbl] and [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=birb birb]. Again there are page references, but for the last the person writing this stops writing the reference and begins to laugh at whom ever still reads this man page and telling them that he is kidding and suggest that they ''just Google it like a normal person''. The writer of this text thus also stops finishing the brackets as the ending ")" for the last chapter is missing.

Man pages were part of the subject of [[293: RTFM]], [[912: Manual Override]] and [[1343: Manuals]] and were mentioned in [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]] and [[456: Cautionary]].

===Table of flags===
*There are 28 flags.
**Only these five letters are not used: l, m, w, x, z.
**j and k are used together as jk.
**The following seven capital letters are used: D, I, O, R, S, U, V.
***That makes it one capital letter for every lower case letter that is not used by itself.
**Finally the em dash "—" is used as the only non-letter character. Also the only that breaks the strict alphabetical sorting of the list, with lower case before upper case letters.
{| class="wikitable"
!Flag!!Description!!Explanation
|-
| -a||ATTACK MODE||This sounds like a command for a robot or something similar. Strange for a command line program. Possibly this is designed to break something?
|-
| -b||SUPPRESS BEES||Nonsensical option. This is a word play, meaning either to suppress {{w|Bee|Bees}} (the insects) or the letter '''B'''. A possible implication is that running the program without this flag would somehow result in the user being attacked by bees. This is also a possible {{w|Discworld}} reference, as the ''{{W|Hex_(Discworld)#Structure_and_technology|long-term storage}}'' of the only recurring computer in the series, ''{{w|Hex (Discworld)|Hex}}'', is composed of a beehive. (Note that the actual computer runs on ants.) Another explanation is that there will be smoke, which is used by beekeepers to suppress bees.
|-
| -—||FLAGS USE EM DASHES||Command line options (flags) typically use {{w|Hyphen|hyphens}} (short horizontal lines largely used within words). {{w|Dash#Em_dash|Em dashes}} (longer, with the same length as the letter "m") can't always be easily typed into a command line interface, so switching flags from hyphens to em dashes is excessively difficult and nonsensical.

This may be a play on how a lot of commands accept both single-dash options, like -h for help, as well as double-dash options like --help also for help. In word processors, a double-dash (--) is often replaced with the longer em dash (—), making them kind of synonymous.

Also implies a paradox where if flags were to use em dashes, this flag itself would be invalid.
|-
| -c||COUNT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS||Most likely not useful.
|-
| -d||PIPES OUTPUT TO DEBUG.EXE||{{w|DEBUG.EXE}} is the old 16-bit debugger that came with MS-DOS. On a Unix system it is much more likely that one would use the {{w|GNU Debugger}} (GDB). A debugger is usually called by calling the debugger with the program (or script) to be debugged as parameter.
{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|Piping}} in Unix means that the output of one program serves as input for another program.
|-
| -D||DEPRECATED||Many programs contain legacy options to avoid breaking scripts that use them. While the option should still work, the documentation is changed to say "deprecated" to discourage further use. Eventually such options usually get removed. (However, given the nature of this comic, it's likely that -D has always stood for "deprecated".)
|-
| -e||EXECUTE SOMETHING||Vague. Also a possible pun on a kill-switch.
|-
| -f||FUN MODE||Strange and slightly ominous, given some of the other options. See under -O.
|-
| -g||USE GOOGLE||As an actual program flag, a bit hackjob-ish, but it is possible it is telling the user to use Google to find out what this tag does. Or, the program might actually use a google functionality (e.g. a code library online) or even simply the search mask to achieve the filtering it is supposed to do.
|-
| -h||CHECK WHETHER INPUT HALTS||Completely impossible, by the {{w|Halting problem}} which is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running or continue to run forever. {{w|Alan Turing}} proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs cannot exist. Halting problem also featured in the comic [[1266: Halting Problem]].

Note that most commands reserve -h for help, so using it for a different function is non-standard. Such is common for many Unix and Linux commands.
|-
| -i||IGNORE CASE (LOWER)||Usually, ignoring case means that a program will run without differentiating between upper- and lowercase. This flag suggests that blerp will run ignoring all the lowercase characters completely, or ignoring all the uppercase characters with the next flag "-I". Note that using this may make it ignore the difference for flags like -i and -I...
|-
| -I||IGNORE CASE (UPPER)||See above. Also possible that all text is converted to upper case, or that upper-case requirements only are ignored
|-
| -jk||KIDDING||A common acronym for [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jk Just Kidding], not a program flag. Also note that standard behavior of Unix command line options is that a single "-" can be followed by multiple one-letter options, making -jk equivalent to -j -k.
|-
| -n||BEHAVIOR NOT DEFINED||Possibly mathematically ominous? Otherwise useless.(Possible debug/unstable feature flag)
|-
| -o||OVERWRITE||Standard program flag, usually meaning that the program will overwrite a file rather than make a new one when data is output.May work strangely with -d.
|-
| -O||OPPOSITE DAY||Strange flag, possibly means that all other flags (or maybe even including this one!) have the opposite effects - if so, a lot of strange things would happen. (Especially with -b, -e, -f, -jk, -O...). This may be a reference to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode [http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Opposite_Day "Opposite Day"].
|-
| -p||SET TRUE POPE; ACCEPTS "ROME" OR "AVIGNON"||This refers to a {{w|Western_Schism|historical schism}} in the {{w|Catholic Church}}. In the 14th century, the Pope briefly ruled from Avignon, France, instead of Rome. After the Papacy was returned to Rome in 1377, the Church split (the so-called Western Schism) as not everyone accepted the move and the Pope who ordered it. This flag apparently allows the user to select a preferred Pope. There is actually a possible feature request here, as "PISA", a third Pope, should also be an option. It is the second time this week that Popes have been mentioned, last time was two comics before in [[1690: Time-Tracking Software]] regarding the Pope's sexual activity.
|-
| -q||QUIET MODE; OUTPUT IS PRINTED TO STDOUT INSTEAD OF BEING SPOKEN ALOUD||In most cases, a program will output basic information to the console, and running it in quiet mode will make it run without outputting anything. Blerp, on the other hand, outputs information through audio, and the quiet flag causes it to run like a normal program. "STDOUT" is short for "standard output".
|-
| -r||RANDOMIZE ARGUMENTS||Pointless and possibly damaging.
|-
| -R||RUN RECURSIVELY ON <nowiki>http://*</nowiki>||The star (*) symbol is often used as a wildcard to match any string of characters. "<nowiki>http://*</nowiki>" suggests that blerp will be run on every (unsecured) webpage on the internet, or on each page recursively. What it might do in order to make this valid is also ominous.
|-
| -s||FOLLOW SYMBOLIC LINKS SYMBOLICALLY||A {{w|symbolic link}} is a filesystem feature that allows the creation of "fake" files which when accessed redirect to another file path. Many commands offer an option to follow filesystem links and operate on the actual file rather than the fake pointer; this option however seems to suggest that it will only politely pretend to do so.
|-
| -S||STEALTH MODE||Similar to -a, in that it sounds more like an option for some kind of robot.
|-
| -t||TUMBLE DRY||Perhaps useful for a program that runs on a clothes dryer. Refers to [https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5254504/il_570xN.184726893.jpg directions like these]. Many clothing items are marked "do not tumble dry" in the care instructions, but this would be extremely difficult to make relevant to a program. Given the other flags, this may be less nonsensical than it would first appear..
|-
| -u||UTF-8 MODE; OTHERWISE DEFAULTS TO ANSEL||{{w|ANSEL}} is an old and obscure character encoding that predates ASCII. Using ANSEL as a default would be strange and largely incompatible with most modern systems. On the other hand, UTF-8 is rather standard. Similar in this regard to -q, blerp does something non-standard by default. The problem with using different modes (where the original was also UTF-8) is shown in the title text of [[1683: Digital Data]].
|-
| -U||UPDATE (DEFAULT: FACEBOOK)||Update usually refers to replacing an old software with a newer version. The default here suggests posting a status update to Facebook, sourcing an update form Facebook, or updating Facebook itself.
|-
| -v||VERBOSE; ALIAS TO find / -exec cat {}||Almost standard flag, in ordinary programs the opposite of -q - instead of silencing output, it makes it more specific, usually to help with debugging. Instead, this flag gets replaced with a command that prints the contents of all files in the filesystem tree. However, it will never complete, as certain device files never end (/dev/urandom contains random bytes). Note that the "find" command is missing <code>\;</code> and will not run, instead complaining <code>find: missing argument to `-exec'</code> .
|-
| -V||SET VERSION NUMBER||Many programs will have a flag to view the version number. This flag changes the version number instead. Version number should only be changed when the program is updated (because it's used for distinguishing which edition of a program you have), so manually changing the version number like this is strange and a little dangerous.
|-
| -y||YIKES||[[wiktionary:yikes|yikes]] is an interjection which can express fear or empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances. It is unclear how this would influence the program.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A terminal screen; the background is black and the text is white.]
<div style="background-color:black;color:white;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:monospace;padding: 0 2em;max-width:50em;">
;NAME
:blerp
;SYNOPSIS
:blerp {[ OPTION | ARGS ]...[ ARGS ... -f [FLAGS] ...}
:blerp {... DIRECTORY ... URL | BLERP} OPTIONS ] -{}
;DESCRIPTION
:blerp FILTERS LOCAL OR REMOTE FILES OR RESOURCES USING PATTERNS DEFINED BY ARGUMENTS AND ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES. THIS BEHAVIOR CAN BE ALTERED BY VARIOUS FLAGS.
;OPTIONS
:-a ATTACK MODE
:-b SUPPRESS BEES
:-— FLAGS USE EM DASHES
:-c COUNT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS
:-d PIPES OUTPUT TO DEBUG.EXE
:-D DEPRECATED
:-e EXECUTE SOMETHING
:-f FUN MODE
:-g USE GOOGLE
:-h CHECK WHETHER INPUT HALTS
:-i IGNORE CASE (LOWER)
:-I IGNORE CASE (UPPER)
:-jk KIDDING
:-n BEHAVIOR NOT DEFINED
:-o OVERWRITE
:-O OPPOSITE DAY
:-p SET TRUE POPE; ACCEPTS "ROME" OR "AVIGNON"
:-q QUIET MODE; OUTPUT IS PRINTED TO STDOUT INSTEAD OF BEING SPOKEN ALOUD
:-r RANDOMIZE ARGUMENTS
:-R RUN RECURSIVELY ON <nowiki>http://*</nowiki>
:-s FOLLOW SYMBOLIC LINKS SYMBOLICALLY
:-S STEALTH MODE
:-t TUMBLE DRY
:-u UTF-8 MODE; OTHERWISE DEFAULTS TO ANSEL
:-U UPDATE (DEFAULT: FACEBOOK)
:-v VERBOSE; ALIAS TO find / -exec cat {}
:-V SET VERSION NUMBER
:-y YIKES
;SEE ALSO
:blerp(1), blerp(3), blirb(8), blarb(51) blorp(501)(c)(3)
;BUG REPORTS
:<nowiki>http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47744-Hemiptera</nowiki>
;COPYRIGHT
:GPL(2)(3+) CC-BY/5.0 RV 41.0 LIKE GECKO/BSD 4(2) OR BEST OFFER
</div>

==References==
<references/>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:BSD]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1692: Man Page

2016-06-12T14:22:40Z

Greenrd: citation provided

{{comic
| number = 1692
| date = June 10, 2016
| title = Man Page
| image = man_page.png
| titletext = For even more info, see blarbl(2)(3) and birb(3ahhaha I'm kidding, just Google it like a normal person.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a {{w|Unix}} manual page, i.e. a ''{{w|man page}}'' (hence the title), for a fictional program called "[http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blerp blerp]". Unix man pages are meant to provide a brief reference on the usage of a command, not extended explanations with tutorials as may be found in many hardcopy product manuals. Unfortunately, some Unix commands tend to be very bloated and include lots of optional behavior that is often irrelevant to the original intent of the command and can be done much more easily using shell features like piping and redirection, and thus the manpage grows to explain all of the features. This example exaggerates the obscurity and terseness found in many man pages, making fun of the typical style of the genre.

It follows the prescribed format for a man page, with the following sections:
* Command Name: self-explanatory
* Synopsis: a synopsis of the valid command line formats
* Description: a summary of the purpose and operation of the command
* Options: detailed description of all the available command line arguments
* See Also: references to other man pages with relevance
* Bug Reports: contact details for the support group (if any)
* Copyright: details of the ownership and rights status of the man page (not the program)

However most the contents of these sections are not very meaningful, or even obey the correct syntax.

The Synopsis section is supposed to be in a {{w|Regular Expression|regex}}-like language called {{w|Wirth Syntax Notation}}, with structures like

* {<list of valid alternatives>}, e.g. blerp {A,B,C}
* [<optional element>], e.g. blerp [-o [<output file>]]
* <something> ... meaning repeat <something> as many times as you need

But the two Synopsis lines given do not have valid Wirth syntax; they randomly mix objects and syntactic characters, and the brackets and braces are not properly nested or paired.

The Description section provides a somewhat unhelpful summary that could apply to almost any Unix command. Processing input files (or output of other commands in a pipeline) is a generic function for Unix shell tools, as is specifying their behaviour with command line arguments, environment variables and flags.

The options are in alphabetical order (putting lower case before upper case and with an em-dash inserted between b and c the only exception to this order).

{{w|Command-line_interface#Command-line_option|Command-line options}}, also known as flags, are typed following a program name to change how the program runs. The following is an example usage.

<code>blerp -a -d -t -p "AVIGNON"</code>

This would run blerp in attack mode, outputting to DEBUG.EXE, with tumble dry, and with POPE set to AVIGNON. In most cases, any number of flags can be used in any order, and applicable flags can be followed by arguments (such as "AVIGNON" in this example).

For a walkthrough of all possible flags see the '''[[#Table of flags|table of flags]]''' below.

Below the flags there is a ''see also'' list with other stupid program names. Apart from two more blerbs there is also blirb, [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blarb blarb] and [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blorp blorp], with chapter references. The last blorp(501)(c)(3) is not a valid chapter reference for a man page, it is however a slightly covert reference to {{w|501(c)_organization#501.28c.29.283.29|501(c)(3)}} which is an organization that is {{w|Tax exemption|tax-exempt}}.

Then follows a bug report site. www.inaturalist.org is a site working to extend biological research, and the exact address given, http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47744-Hemiptera, points to the same page as http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/Hemiptera. {{w|Hemiptera}} is the order classifying ''true bugs'', making it a good place to report any biological bugs discovered while running a program (such as certain insects that got into certain early computers, causing the computers to malfunction and giving the name "bug" to computer malfunctions).

Finally there is a "{{w|copyright}}" line which references several variously open-source content licenses which is also a recurring theme on xkcd (see [[225: Open Source]]). For instance, GPL references {{w|GNU General Public License}} and the (2) and (3+) refers to {{w|GNU_General_Public_License#Version_2|GPL 2}} and {{w|GNU_General_Public_License#Version_3|GPL 3 or higher}}. ''CC'' refers to {{w|creative commons}} where ''BY'' is the {{w|Creative_Commons_license#Types_of_licenses|type of license}}, ''5.0'' refers to the attribution and ''RV 41.0'' refers to revision 41.0. However there were no higher attribution than [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode 4.0] at the time of this comic's release. xkcd is released under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ CC BY-NC 2.5] as can be seen at the bottom of the {{xkcd}}  homepage. A few comics have been released under the [[:Category:CC-BY-SA comics|CC-BY-SA license]] or [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 3.0]. BSD refers to {{w|BSD licenses}} a [[:Category:BSD|recurring theme]] in xkcd. "Like Gecko" is a reference to a web browser user-agent string; modern user-agent strings include a lot of text designed<ref>[http://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/ User agent history]</ref> to let the browser pretend to be several different browsers/renderers, and "(like Gecko)" is the standard text for a browser that wants to be treated as if it were {{w|Gecko (software)|Gecko}} while admitting, if you look closely, that it isn't really Gecko. This copyright line, which includes a lot of mashed-together text that might appear to match any of several different licenses, resembles a {{w|user agent}} string.

"Or best offer" is a reference to a private sale, such as of a car parked outside a home, with a hand-made notice proclaiming the intent to sell to any passer-by who may be interested, usually with relevent details including a suggested price "or best offer", to indicate a willingness to be flexible for a quicker sale. In context, it suggest the person who has the highest offer for ''blerp'' will be sold the rights to the program. Since the other licenses mentioned would allow for free usage without paying royalties, it would usually be pointless to buy the rights to the program. The owner could possibly revoke the other licenses though.

In the title text there is a list with even more info, again with crazy names like [http://blarbl.blogspot.dk/ blarbl] and [http://da.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=birb birb]. Again there are page references, but for the last the person writing this stops writing the reference and begins to laugh at whom ever still reads this man page and telling them that he is kidding and suggest that they ''just Google it like a normal person''. The writer of this text thus also stops finishing the brackets as the ending ")" for the last chapter is missing.

Man pages were part of the subject of [[293: RTFM]], [[912: Manual Override]] and [[1343: Manuals]] and were mentioned in [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]] and [[456: Cautionary]].

===Table of flags===
*There are 28 flags.
**Only these five letters are not used: l, m, w, x, z.
**j and k are used together as jk.
**The following seven capital letters are used: D, I, O, R, S, U, V.
***That makes it one capital letter for every lower case letter that is not used by itself.
**Finally the em dash "—" is used as the only non-letter character. Also the only that breaks the strict alphabetical sorting of the list, with lower case before upper case letters.
{| class="wikitable"
!Flag!!Description!!Explanation
|-
| -a||ATTACK MODE||This sounds like a command for a robot or something similar. Strange for a command line program. Possibly this is designed to break something?
|-
| -b||SUPPRESS BEES||Nonsensical option. This is a word play, meaning either to suppress {{w|Bee|Bees}} (the insects) or the letter '''B'''. A possible implication is that running the program without this flag would somehow result in the user being attacked by bees. This is also a possible {{w|Discworld}} reference, as the ''{{W|Hex_(Discworld)#Structure_and_technology|long-term storage}}'' of the only recurring computer in the series, ''{{w|Hex (Discworld)|Hex}}'', is composed of a beehive. (Note that the actual computer runs on ants.) Another explanation is that there will be smoke, which is used by beekeepers to suppress bees.
|-
| -—||FLAGS USE EM DASHES||Command line options (flags) typically use {{w|Hyphen|hyphens}} (short horizontal lines largely used within words). {{w|Dash#Em_dash|Em dashes}} (longer, with the same length as the letter "m") can't always be easily typed into a command line interface, so switching flags from hyphens to em dashes is excessively difficult and nonsensical.

This may be a play on how a lot of commands accept both single-dash options, like -h for help, as well as double-dash options like --help also for help. In word processors, a double-dash (--) is often replaced with the longer em dash (—), making them kind of synonymous.

Also implies a paradox where if flags were to use em dashes, this flag itself would be invalid.
|-
| -c||COUNT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS||Most likely not useful.
|-
| -d||PIPES OUTPUT TO DEBUG.EXE||{{w|DEBUG.EXE}} is the old 16-bit debugger that came with MS-DOS. On a Unix system it is much more likely that one would use the {{w|GNU Debugger}} (GDB). A debugger is usually called by calling the debugger with the program (or script) to be debugged as parameter.
{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|Piping}} in Unix means that the output of one program serves as input for another program.
|-
| -D||DEPRECATED||Many programs contain legacy options to avoid breaking scripts that use them. While the option should still work, the documentation is changed to say "deprecated" to discourage further use. Eventually such options usually get removed. (However, given the nature of this comic, it's likely that -D has always stood for "deprecated".)
|-
| -e||EXECUTE SOMETHING||Vague. Also a possible pun on a kill-switch.
|-
| -f||FUN MODE||Strange and slightly ominous, given some of the other options. See under -O.
|-
| -g||USE GOOGLE||As an actual program flag, a bit hackjob-ish, but it is possible it is telling the user to use Google to find out what this tag does. Or, the program might actually use a google functionality (e.g. a code library online) or even simply the search mask to achieve the filtering it is supposed to do.
|-
| -h||CHECK WHETHER INPUT HALTS||Completely impossible, by the {{w|Halting problem}} which is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running or continue to run forever. {{w|Alan Turing}} proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs cannot exist. Halting problem also featured in the comic [[1266: Halting Problem]].

Note that most commands reserve -h for help, so using it for a different function is non-standard. Such is common for many Unix and Linux commands.
|-
| -i||IGNORE CASE (LOWER)||Usually, ignoring case means that a program will run without differentiating between upper- and lowercase. This flag suggests that blerp will run ignoring all the lowercase characters completely, or ignoring all the uppercase characters with the next flag "-I". Note that using this may make it ignore the difference for flags like -i and -I...
|-
| -I||IGNORE CASE (UPPER)||See above. Also possible that all text is converted to upper case, or that upper-case requirements only are ignored
|-
| -jk||KIDDING||A common acronym for [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jk Just Kidding], not a program flag. Also note that standard behavior of Unix command line options is that a single "-" can be followed by multiple one-letter options, making -jk equivalent to -j -k.
|-
| -n||BEHAVIOR NOT DEFINED||Possibly mathematically ominous? Otherwise useless.(Possible debug/unstable feature flag)
|-
| -o||OVERWRITE||Standard program flag, usually meaning that the program will overwrite a file rather than make a new one when data is output.May work strangely with -d.
|-
| -O||OPPOSITE DAY||Strange flag, possibly means that all other flags (or maybe even including this one!) have the opposite effects - if so, a lot of strange things would happen. (Especially with -b, -e, -f, -jk, -O...). This may be a reference to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode [http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Opposite_Day "Opposite Day"].
|-
| -p||SET TRUE POPE; ACCEPTS "ROME" OR "AVIGNON"||This refers to a {{w|Western_Schism|historical schism}} in the {{w|Catholic Church}}. In the 14th century, the Pope briefly ruled from Avignon, France, instead of Rome. After the Papacy was returned to Rome in 1377, the Church split (the so-called Western Schism) as not everyone accepted the move and the Pope who ordered it. This flag apparently allows the user to select a preferred Pope. There is actually a possible feature request here, as "PISA", a third Pope, should also be an option. It is the second time this week that Popes have been mentioned, last time was two comics before in [[1690: Time-Tracking Software]] regarding the Popes sexual activity.
|-
| -q||QUIET MODE; OUTPUT IS PRINTED TO STDOUT INSTEAD OF BEING SPOKEN ALOUD||In most cases, a program will output basic information to the console, and running it in quiet mode will make it run without outputting anything. Blerp, on the other hand, outputs information through audio, and the quiet flag causes it to run like a normal program. "STDOUT" is short for "standard output".
|-
| -r||RANDOMIZE ARGUMENTS||Pointless and possibly damaging.
|-
| -R||RUN RECURSIVELY ON <nowiki>http://*</nowiki>||The star (*) symbol is often used as a wildcard to match any string of characters. "<nowiki>http://*</nowiki>" suggests that blerp will be run on every (unsecured) webpage on the internet, or on each page recursively. What it might do in order to make this valid is also ominous.
|-
| -s||FOLLOW SYMBOLIC LINKS SYMBOLICALLY||A {{w|symbolic link}} is a filesystem feature that allows the creation of "fake" files which when accessed redirect to another file path. Many commands offer an option to follow filesystem links and operate on the actual file rather than the fake pointer; this option however seems to suggest that it will only politely pretend to do so.
|-
| -S||STEALTH MODE||Similar to -a, in that it sounds more like an option for some kind of robot.
|-
| -t||TUMBLE DRY||Perhaps useful for a program that runs on a clothes dryer. Refers to [https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5254504/il_570xN.184726893.jpg directions like these]. Many clothing items are marked "do not tumble dry" in the care instructions, but this would be extremely difficult to make relevant to a program. Given the other flags, this may be less nonsensical than it would first appear..
|-
| -u||UTF-8 MODE; OTHERWISE DEFAULTS TO ANSEL||{{w|ANSEL}} is an old and obscure character encoding that predates ASCII. Using ANSEL as a default would be strange and largely incompatible with most modern systems. On the other hand, UTF-8 is rather standard. Similar in this regard to -q, blerp does something non-standard by default. The problem with using different modes (where the original was also UTF-8) is shown in the title text of [[1683: Digital Data]].
|-
| -U||UPDATE (DEFAULT: FACEBOOK)||Update usually refers to replacing an old software with a newer version. The default here suggests posting a status update to Facebook, sourcing an update form Facebook, or updating Facebook itself.
|-
| -v||VERBOSE; ALIAS TO find / -exec cat {}||Almost standard flag, in ordinary programs the opposite of -q - instead of silencing output, it makes it more specific, usually to help with debugging. Instead, this flag gets replaced with a command that prints the contents of all files in the filesystem tree. However, it will never complete, as certain device files never end (/dev/urandom contains random bytes). Note that the "find" command is missing <code>\;</code> and will not run, instead complaining <code>find: missing argument to `-exec'</code> .
|-
| -V||SET VERSION NUMBER||Many programs will have a flag to view the version number. This flag changes the version number instead. Version number should only be changed when the program is updated (because it's used for distinguishing which edition of a program you have), so manually changing the version number like this is strange and a little dangerous.
|-
| -y||YIKES||[[wiktionary:yikes|yikes]] is an interjection which can express fear or empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances. It is unclear how this would influence the program.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A terminal screen; the background is black and the text is white.]
<div style="background-color:black;color:white;white-space:pre-wrap;font-family:monospace;padding: 0 2em;max-width:50em;">
;NAME
:blerp
;SYNOPSIS
:blerp {[ OPTION | ARGS ]...[ ARGS ... -f [FLAGS] ...}
:blerp {... DIRECTORY ... URL | BLERP} OPTIONS ] -{}
;DESCRIPTION
:blerp FILTERS LOCAL OR REMOTE FILES OR RESOURCES USING PATTERNS DEFINED BY ARGUMENTS AND ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES. THIS BEHAVIOR CAN BE ALTERED BY VARIOUS FLAGS.
;OPTIONS
:-a ATTACK MODE
:-b SUPPRESS BEES
:-— FLAGS USE EM DASHES
:-c COUNT NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS
:-d PIPES OUTPUT TO DEBUG.EXE
:-D DEPRECATED
:-e EXECUTE SOMETHING
:-f FUN MODE
:-g USE GOOGLE
:-h CHECK WHETHER INPUT HALTS
:-i IGNORE CASE (LOWER)
:-I IGNORE CASE (UPPER)
:-jk KIDDING
:-n BEHAVIOR NOT DEFINED
:-o OVERWRITE
:-O OPPOSITE DAY
:-p SET TRUE POPE; ACCEPTS "ROME" OR "AVIGNON"
:-q QUIET MODE; OUTPUT IS PRINTED TO STDOUT INSTEAD OF BEING SPOKEN ALOUD
:-r RANDOMIZE ARGUMENTS
:-R RUN RECURSIVELY ON <nowiki>http://*</nowiki>
:-s FOLLOW SYMBOLIC LINKS SYMBOLICALLY
:-S STEALTH MODE
:-t TUMBLE DRY
:-u UTF-8 MODE; OTHERWISE DEFAULTS TO ANSEL
:-U UPDATE (DEFAULT: FACEBOOK)
:-v VERBOSE; ALIAS TO find / -exec cat {}
:-V SET VERSION NUMBER
:-y YIKES
;SEE ALSO
:blerp(1), blerp(3), blirb(8), blarb(51) blorp(501)(c)(3)
;BUG REPORTS
:<nowiki>http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47744-Hemiptera</nowiki>
;COPYRIGHT
:GPL(2)(3+) CC-BY/5.0 RV 41.0 LIKE GECKO/BSD 4(2) OR BEST OFFER
</div>

==References==
<references/>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:BSD]]
[[Category:Animals]]

37: Hyphen

2013-12-22T20:16:07Z

Greenrd: /* Explanation */ spelling

{{comic
| number = 37
| date = October 28, 2005
| title = Hyphen
| image = hyphen.jpg
| titletext = I do this constantly
}}

==Explanation==
This is the first "[[My Hobby]]" comic in ''[[xkcd]]''. In these comics, [[Randall]] suggests an obscure activity or pastime he enjoys which he declares as his "hobby". In the premiere "My Hobby" comic, Randall's hobby is mentally re-interpreting what people mean when they say "[adjective]-ass [noun]" by moving the hyphen to after the word "ass" instead of before.

The semi-{{Wiktionary|scatological}} suffix "-ass" is used as an intensifier in informal US English speech, usually attached to an adjective directly modifying a noun, as in "big-ass car" or "funny-ass comedian". In this comic, [[Cueball]] is exploring the increased humor aspect of changing "-ass" from a suffix modifying the adjective, to "ass-", a prefix modifying the noun, yielding a "big ass-car" or a "funny ass-comedian", the former presumably being a large car for carrying donkeys, the latter being a humorous comedian specializing in jokes about burros. The prefix "ass-" may also have a negative connotation, indicating that something is disliked. An "ass-car" may be a very crappy car, for example.

Another explanation would be that, since this suffix/prefix refers to an element of human anatomy, the car would be in the shape of said anatomical piece.

==Transcript==
:My hobby: whenever anyone calls something an [adjective]-ass [noun], I mentally move the hyphen one word to the right.
:[Cueball is talking to a friend about a car that resembles a Volkswagen Beetle.]
:Cueball: Man, that's a sweet ass-car.

==Trivia==
*Original comment from [[Randall]]: "Tune in Monday for the conclusion to the story of the boy and his barrel." The comic posted on Monday was [[25: Barrel - Part 4]], which really wasn't the conclusion of the story of the boy and his barrel.
*This is the twenty-fifth comic originally posted to livejournal. The previous was [[23: T-shirts]]. The next was [[25: Barrel - Part 4]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Language]]

Talk:1304: Glass Trolling

2013-12-22T20:14:10Z

Greenrd: reply

In google now, you can use "OK glass" instead of "OK google".--[[User:Mralext20|Mralext20]] ([[User talk:Mralext20|talk]]) 05:23, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
: I have a problem with the sentence "It's likely that Cueball uses this app because he holds a smartphone in his hand" independent on whether this app exists or not -- simply by the fact that the title is "Glass Trolling" -- there would not be much "Trolling" involved if the "Ok, Glass" actually made sense in the context -- so my take is that Randal is NOT aware of the App referenced, and that the "Ok, Glass" is in context where no meaning of "OK, Glass" makes any sense, such as when using an old fashioned "feature phone" or a iphone, windows phone or simply just an Android phone which no "Ok, Glass" capabilities -- I vote to strike this part of the explanation [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]
:: i was merly starting a fact. I shall edit the explanation to match your text.--[[User:Mralext20|Mralext20]] ([[User talk:Mralext20|talk]]) 05:00, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

There are actually privacy activists who call for grabbing such gadgets and destroying them by stomping on them. Google for "#camover" in combination with "google glass" to find hints. --[[User:Kigana|Kigana]] ([[User talk:Kigana|talk]]) 08:58, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

I don't know, aren't dioptric glasses correcting more complicated problems like astigmatism also costly? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:55, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
: Speaking in gross costs, yes. My new glasses cost well over $400 USD. Thankfully, due to decent vision insurance, I only paid $53 for exam ($10), frame/lenses ($20) and the upcharge (discounted) for polycarbonate lenses. Context: I have heavy astigmatism (especially my left eye) plus farsightedness. --BigMal // [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.57|108.162.216.57]] 13:37, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
: Will people who need to wear glasses be able to wear Google Glass? Or would that be a problem? [[User:PheagleAdler|PheagleAdler]] ([[User talk:PheagleAdler|talk]]) 06:55, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
::no,the glass unit of now has support for lenses. --[[User:Mralext20|Mralext20]] ([[User talk:Mralext20|talk]]) 07:50, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

Made a major edit to the article, it is now much clearer and more informative IMHO. Feel free to tweak. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.135|141.101.98.135]] 20:31, 16 December 2013 (UTC) (actually [[User:NeatNit]], cba to log in)

Using : OK, glass! on a smartphone medically is a symptom of "ejaculatio praecox". {{unsigned ip|108.162.231.222}}

I'm not native speaker, but it's "it's likely that ..., it's not entirely true" English? Wouldn't "it's likely that ..., it's not necessary true" be better? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 16:39, 22 December 2013 (UTC)
:Yes - I fixed it.--[[User:Greenrd|Greenrd]] ([[User talk:Greenrd|talk]]) 20:14, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

1304: Glass Trolling

2013-12-22T20:13:22Z

Greenrd: /* Explanation */ grammar (as per discussion)

{{comic
| number = 1304
| date = December 16, 2013
| title = Glass Trolling
| image = glass_trolling.png
| titletext = Plus, when someone finally grabs your glasses and stomps on them, it costs way less than $1,500 to replace them.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Google Glass}} is a set of glasses frames worn like typical glasses that features an optical display and internet connectivity. It responds to voice commands starting with [https://support.google.com/glass/answer/3079305 "OK ''glass''"], for example to initiate video recording or to check tomorrow's weather. Strangers and other people surrounding the user would often find it annoying to hear someone talking to "himself", or to ''Glass''.

[[Cueball]] is checking tomorrow's weather and says "OK, ''glass''" while he is only wearing regular glasses. Apparently this is even more annoying to the bystander than if Cueball actually would wear a ''Glass''.

In the title text, a bystander is eventually fed up with the annoyance and smashes the glasses to the ground. If they were an actual ''Google Glass'', they would have cost a fortune to replace, regular glasses are much less costly.

The "OK, ''Glass''" keyword is not useless outside of ''Glass''; In the ''Android/iOS'' app ''Google Now'', "OK, ''Glass''" is also valid instead of "OK, ''Google''" to initiate a voice command. While it's likely that Cueball uses this app, it's not necessarily the case. Just because he holds a smartphone in his hand, doesn't mean that he is using it.

This is another strip in the [[My Hobby]] series.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Cueball: Ok, Glass, check tomorrow's weather.
:Cueball: Ooh, snow!
:Off-frame-bystander: Oh my god, it's somehow even ''more'' annoying than if you had it.
:Saying "Ok, Glass" before everything while wearing regular glasses.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:My Hobby]]