explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2333: COVID Risk Chart

2020-07-17T14:47:07Z

Iguanabob:

I'm sticking to the green, except for grocery shopping. It'll be a pain to make any kind of table for this. The columns are much better defined than the rows, though. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.150|108.162.245.150]] 18:37, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
:Same! I think we do need to make a table or similar structure to explain each item though. Not exiting, but necessary! Do you think we should switch everything to columns? Since we've started with rows, maybe we should just continue...[[User:Cow|Cow]] ([[User talk:Cow|talk]])

Staying home is a death trap. Here some random numbers (Germany 2019): Deadly accidents at home - 8000, Deadly accidents in traffic - 3500. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.199|172.69.54.199]] 07:50, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Singing in a church: is this where the expression "mass contamination" comes from?[[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.166|141.101.107.166]] 08:31, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
: Or "weapons of mass destruction"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.100|162.158.159.100]] 09:00, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

Not all the things on the far right seem to have equal covid risk. Simply going to a restaurant or some of the others that are simply dangerous by being around a lot of other people in close proximity doesn't seem to compare to opening a kissing booth at a covid testing site, the eating test tube things, and the mosh pit on a cruise ship for instance.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.154|108.162.216.154]] 09:03, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
:There's no inherent extra disease risk in _opening_ a kissing booth (beyond the possible proximity to others). However, the people working/volunteering at the booth you opened that might have a higher-than-average risk due to kissing all the testers and people coming to be tested. :p [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.140|108.162.216.140]] 12:08, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
:: (Required to make a choice between them and someone else, for which all else is equal) I'd kiss an off-duty Covid-tester, because they're probably far more protected by PPE during their shift (and know how to don and doff safely) than most other people, and screened with even more caution. The tester would probably not want to kiss ''me'', in my booth, due to at least the latter point. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.43|162.158.158.43]] 14:04, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

I feel like [[1252: Increased Risk]] is quite relevant here. But I can't decide whether it should be linked as general trivia, or directly related to the paragraph about dangers of going to the beach. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:16, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

There have been cases of known transmission of COVID-19 during choir rehearsals and performances, so it belongs where it is shown. The choir at my church is down to two people, at opposite ends of their area. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 16:01, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

"Skateboarding in a mosh pit on a cruise ship": So this looks like confirmation that NOFX and Bad Religion will be playing on the 2021 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. [[User:Iguanabob|Iguanabob]] ([[User talk:Iguanabob|talk]]) 14:47, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

2288: Collector's Edition

2020-04-03T13:09:32Z

Iguanabob:

{{comic
| number = 2288
| date = April 3, 2020
| title = Collectors Edition
| image = collectors_edition.png
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.
}}

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

This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. The space acts as a virtual common sandbox where viewers can interact. "Items" (small, often humorous images) can be 'collected' from other comics and then placed in this image by viewers. The collection then updates for all viewers in real time. Multiples of the same item are often seen.

There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.

The sticker images can be seen at `https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png`, where XXX is a number from 001-253. Additionally, some images can be found at custom urls, for example the periodic elements can be found at `https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/element-XX.png`, where XX is the element, and text loot at `https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot-words-X.png`, where X is the sentence.

===Hints===

{| class="wikitable"
!Hint
!Comic
!Unlocked item
!Notes
|-
|Doctors in a row|| || ||
|-
|Get out the (US) vote|| || ||
|-
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| || ||
|-
|Plug in or find another power source|| || ||
|-
|Sweet dreams, kitty||[[729: Laser Pointer]] || ||
|-
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.|| || ||
|-
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||Exploding rock ||
|-
|Cowabunga|| || ||
|-
|Take a ride in a barrel|| || ||
|-
|I want to believe|| || ||
|-
|Bleeped|| || ||
|-
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick|| || ||
|-
|Cooler than electric scooters||[[2195: Dockless Roombas]]||An electric scooter||
|-
|Take it from the top||[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] ||I am a turtle ||
|-
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!|| || ||
|-
|Catch up on the news|| [[1699]] || ||
|-
|Participation trophy|| || ||
|-
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn||[[1504: Opportunity]] ||Opportunity Mars rover ||
|-
|Tastier than tau day||[[179: e to the pi times i]] ||First annual award for excellence in being very smart ||
|-
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard ||
|-
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove ||
|-
|Take it from the top|| || ||
|-
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| || ||
|-
|asableiK|| [[645: RPS]] || A reverse Polish hotdog || "Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish
|-
|Critical mass elements|| || ||
|-
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| || ||
|-
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]|| Rock guitarist ||
|-
|Call the plumber|| || ||
|-
|Was it a rat I saw?|| || ||
|-
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate||[[1148: Nothing to Offer]]|| Bottle of soda ||
|-
|Keep coming back|| || ||
|-
|A new model released each year|| || ||
|-
|Tea Time||[[579: The Race: Part 3]] ||Floor tea ||
|-
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?||[[1045: Constraints]] || ||
|-
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] ||maze ||
|-
|Science fiction fetish|| || ||
|-
|The first one was funnier||[[11: Barrel - Part 2]]||No chest - hint disappears ||
|-
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!|| || ||
|-
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though|| || ||
|-
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid|| [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] || Cobwebbed frame ||
|-
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?||[[1598: Salvage]] ||Rice bowl ||
|-
|Never going to give you up||[[351: Trolling]] || ||
|-
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms||[[1604: Snakes]]|| Yoda with an mp3 player from What If ||
|-
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity||[[1533: Antique Factory]]|| ||
|-
|Read the fine manual|| [[1343: Manuals]] || ||
|-
|That thing's undecimodal!||[[1347: t Distribution]] || ||
|-
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now||[[491: Twitter]]||Expensive bottle ||
|-
|You don't have to find all 99|| || ||
|-
|Going in circles|| || ||
|-
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?||[[2123: Meta Collecting]]||Phishing License sign||
|-
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK||[[537: Ducklings]] ||DUCKLOOP'D? ||
|-
|Fool me twice||[[880: Headache]] ||Raptor Attack ||
|-
|oOOOoooo|| || ||
|-
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes|| || ||
|-
|HACK THE PLANET|| || ||
|-
|Monetization haute couteur|| || ||
|-
|Maybe writing a script would help|| || ||
|-
|Go big to go small|| || ||
|-
|Are you projecting|| || ||
|-
|Do spiders really have six legs|| || ||
|-
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?|| || ||
|-
|Another rulebook?|| || ||
|-
|Moooooon|| [[1300: Galilean Moons]] || MOOOOOON ||
|-
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS|| [[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]] || ||
|-
|Everyone deserves a second chnace|| || ||
|-
|Community contribution|| || ||
|-
|On the other side of the wardrobe|| [[2218: Wardrobe]] || ||
|-
|Today's your lucky day|| || ||
|-
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]|| [[1005: SOPA]] || ||
|-
|Try a different approach|| || ||
|-
|The cake is a lie!|| || ||
|-
|Go big to go small|| || ||
|-
|Joanna, fire.|| || ||
|}

==Trivia==
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic, and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.
<blockquote>
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!
</blockquote>

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1737: Datacenter Scale

2016-09-23T16:55:31Z

Iguanabob: /* RAID is not complicated */

While the comic is obviously exaggerating, there are situations where this could make a certain amount of sense. IF you can design a server so that most or all of the components reach end-of-life at about the same time, then if a hard drive fails on one server, every other component of that server is likely to fail soon as well.

If you install entire server racks or server rooms at the same time, where every machine contains components with the same basic life cycle...

then in theory, once the first component fails, you can ignore it until mass component failures causes the entire rack/room to fall below a certain readiness level.

At that point, there's no reason to pay a technician to spend several days removing and replacing half the individual components throughout that rack/room, when the other half are just going to fail in the next few months anyway. In theory, it might be economically more efficient just to scrap everything at once, bring in brand-new server replacements, and re-sync the needed data from a networked backup.

in real life, it's very hard to build a server that will reliably degrade on schedule.... but with the right tradeoffs, and enough long-term performance data, it might eventually become possible to do so.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.101|162.158.74.101]] 04:48, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

The title text is referring to [http://multivax.com/last_question.html The Last Question by Isaac Asimov].
[[User:EpicWolverine|EpicWolverine]] ([[User talk:EpicWolverine|talk]]) 04:56, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

I cannot help but read this in a fake Yorkshire accent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Yorkshiremen_sketch [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.113|141.101.98.113]] 09:55, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

I wonder how closely the AC and Douglas Adams' Deep Thought are related? {{unsigned ip|188.114.102.167}}
:Not that close as Deep Thought was build inside this universe and also finished it's job and was recommissioned. They build a new computer (Earth) instead to calculate what the ultimate question was, now they knew the answer was 42. But maybe Adams was aware of AC and based the idea of solving a question with computers on that...? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:56, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

I think the character in Panel 1 is [[Science Girl]] and not [[Hairbun]].
[[User:PoconoChuck|PoconoChuck]] ([[User talk:PoconoChuck|talk]]) 12:20, 23 September 2016 (UTC)
:Agree it fits with her style and she has appeared as an adult before. She also seems smaller than the other people so it could indicate she is still young. I created the Science Girl and the Hairbun categories, so I should know ;-) When a character fail I just throw it out and create a new one... :p --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

::It's clearly not [[Science Girl]], because, as the linked page says "She became the first child to have its own character category. She is distinguished by being clearly a girl (compared to adults around her or her behavior)". You may create a page called "Datacenter Woman". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.139|108.162.221.139]] 14:35, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

== No need to invoke blade servers ==

There's no need to refer to blade servers in the explanation. You can fit many "normal" servers into a 19 inch rack. It could just say:

: From here, the comic starts to exaggerate. Many servers can be mounted in one 19-inch rack in a data center. Rather than going to the effort of unplugging and unscrewing one server from the rack, when a disk fails at Cueball's data center they just throw away the rack, and Ponytail agrees and kinda mock the woman with a bun for replacing a single server.

[[Special:Contributions/162.158.83.66|162.158.83.66]] 14:51, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

== RAID is not complicated ==

Simple RAID 1 is not complicated to configure, unless you have some exotic HW RAID controllers. RAID 5 would be more complicated AND requires to be HW, but RAID 1 will usually be simple as HW OR possible to do SW completely automatically. What is costly is to replace discs as they fail, because it must be done by human ; in bigger systems, it makes more sense to start with RAID 1, then when one disc fail simply ignore it - not repair nor throw it off, just let it operate without the RAID. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 15:41, 23 September 2016 (UTC)
:: Actually, depending on OS and software other RAID levels can be done in software, too. I've done RAID levels 5 and 6 fully in software using mdraid on Linux. Neither of them are really that much more complicated than RAID-1. ZFS can do even more complicated "RAID" types fully in software, too. [[User:Iguanabob|Iguanabob]] ([[User talk:Iguanabob|talk]]) 16:55, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

1737: Datacenter Scale

2016-09-23T16:45:44Z

Iguanabob: "array" is redundant when following "RAID"

{{comic
| number = 1737
| date = September 23, 2016
| title = Datacenter Scale
| image = datacenter_scale.png
| titletext = Asimov's Cosmic AC was created by linking all datacenters through hyperspace, which explains a lot. It didn't reverse entropy--it just discarded the universe when it reached end-of-life and ordered a new one.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The paragraph explaining the final panel needs a grammar check.}}

{{w|RAID}} ("redundant array of independent disks") is a technology that splits data across several hard-drives as if they were one. RAID comes in several levels (varieties) which have different applications, but one of the big applications of RAID is creating mirrored hard disks that back each other up. If one disk drive in such a RAID fails, no data is lost.

However, RAID is complicated to configure, so you don't want to be constantly setting it up. An alternative technique for data centers is therefore to simply send the data to several servers at once. This makes maintenance easier, but without RAID, one hard disk crash basically breaks the server. However, this is what the woman with a bun's data center is doing since their scale is so large that fixing individual servers does not make sense, and instead of fixing the drive they throw away the machine.

From here, the comic starts to exaggerate. Nowadays, servers can be made extremely small ("{{w|Blade server}}s") and dozens of servers can be attached to one {{w|19-inch rack}} in a data center. Rather than going to the effort of unplugging and unscrewing one blade from the rack, when a blade fails at [[Cueball]]'s data center they just throw away the rack, and [[Ponytail]] agrees and kinda mocks the woman with a bun for replacing one server.

[[Hairy]]'s goes one step further - they have so many servers that they would constantly have to be throwing away and replacing racks, so instead they just build a new room when one rack fails. This would be currently possible with small modular data centers that are built in shipping containers for easy transport and can be linked together to expand capacity. Here the cargo-container "room" with the failure would be quickly swapped with a fresh one. Cueball adds "like Google!" - [[Randall]] previously mentioned {{w|Google|Google's}} approach to hard drive failures in the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|63|Google's Datacenters on Punch Cards}}''. Back in [http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/de//archive/disk_failures.pdf 2007] they had one failure every few minutes - that might have increased hugely since then.

Finally [[Megan]] appears and her company of course breaks the scale of silliness in exaggeration. She says that they don't have any fire extinguishers (neither {{w|Fire sprinkler system|regular sprinklers}} nor the {{w|Gaseous fire suppression|inert gas systems}} that flood the room with gases like argon which force out oxygen and stop fires - these are better for computers than traditional water or powder systems, but are lethal to people trapped in the rooms!). Rather, they just rope the center off, thus letting the data center burn down. Then they simply move a town over and build a new one. This may indicate they are so big that the entire town will burn down if their center catches fire, for else they did not have to skip town. Alternatively, they just leave the center burning and this may cause problems in that town, so they simply flee the premises.

Most big internet companies do have multiple redundant data centers around the world, in order to increase speeds for users in different countries, but Megan's idea would be very expensive, increase in {{w|Latency (engineering)|latency}} and possibly also kill people, either in their company or other people in the town and since they do not try to turn out the fire, at least cause severe destruction of properties, not only their own.

Still Hairy thinks that it makes sense, whereas Cueball wonders what difference the roping off does. This could again be a reference to the fact that they just let the buildings burn without bothering about the local consequences, and the next step is just one more step towards the extreme of the title text.

This comic references how, as data requirements expand, companies rarely use more specific, but time costly choices when working with data centers, and use more expensive but faster solutions. While this comic takes this to the extreme, with whole buildings being destroyed for simple flaws, the concept is not as far fetched as it seems if "thrown out" is taken to include being sold to equipment refurbishers. It could indeed be cost effective for a large data services provider to resell racks or even whole data center modules at some significant fraction of their "as new" price as opposed expending the time and effort to attempt a repair. The equipment refurbisher would then rely on a {{w|competitive advantage|cost advantage}} like cheaper labor to repair the flaw and sell it back to Google or another company with less demanding requirements. Equipment rental firms already operate on this model and with the added incentive customers preferring to rent newer models, this means that the equipment is often ''preemptively'' replaced before failures even occur.

The title text refers to {{w|Isaac Asimov}}'s science-fiction novella "{{w|The Last Question}}", where humanity asks, at different stages of its spatial and technological development, the same question to increasingly advanced computers: "How can the net amount of {{w|entropy}} of the universe be massively decreased?". At each point, the computer's answer is that it does not yet have enough data for a meaningful answer. Ultimately, the computers are all linked through hyperspace, outside the physical boundaries of the universe, and make up a single computing entity named AC which keeps pondering the question even as the {{w|heat death of the universe}} occurs and time and space cease to exist. When AC finally discovers the answer, since there is nobody left to report it to, it decides to demonstrate it and says "{{w|Let there be light|LET THERE BE LIGHT!}}", which are the first words said by God during the Creation, according to the {{w|Book of Genesis}}. Here, the title text implies that, as the universe died, AC no longer had a use for it as a physical support and, taking the comic's logic to the next extreme, chose to discard it and get a brand-new one instead of bothering to "fix" it by reversing its entropy.

==Transcript==
:[Zoom in on a woman with a bun holding her hand palm up in front of her taking to people off-panel right.]
:Woman with a bun: RAID controllers don't make sense at our scale; everything is redundant at higher levels. When a drive fails, we just throw away the whole machine.

:[In this frame-less panel it is revealed that the woman with a bun talked to Cueball and Ponytail who is looking her way.]
:Cueball: Machine? We throw away whole racks at a time.
:Ponytail: Yeah, who replaces ''one server''?

:[Hairy has appeared from the left and holds one hand palm up towards the other three where also the woman with a bun has turned towards him.]
:Hairy: We just replace whole rooms at once. At our scale, messing with racks isn't economical.
:Woman with a bun: Wow.
:Cueball: Like Google!

:[Megan walks in from the left, and everyone including Hairy now looks towards her. Cueball has taken a hand up to his chin. The replies to Megan are written with clearly smaller font.]
:Megan: We don't have sprinklers or inert gas systems. When a datacenter catches fire, we just rope it off and rebuild one town over.
:Hairy: <small>Makes sense.</small>
:Cueball: <small>I wonder if the rope is really necessary.</small>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

Talk:336: Priorities

2016-06-14T13:03:35Z

Iguanabob:

By the way, 'Word Building' is 'Etymology,' or again, studying how words are formed. (School of Tomorrow is very thorough on teaching people the power of words...) [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 20:18, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Somehow our county (and many neighboring ones) uses A-E, no F. It's probably one of those watering-down things about how failure crushes self-esteem. Everything else is the same. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 19:29, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

:County? And here we only have A to D! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.108|108.162.215.108]] 13:22, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Don't sonic games additionally have an S grade?--[[User:Church|Church]] ([[User talk:Church|talk]]) 12:33, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

And don't get me started on Devil May Cry, that have from D to A, then S, SS and SSS. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 21:40, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

Math is spelled wrong, and what in the world is World Building? I recommend "Foreign Language" or a specific one like "French."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 20:37, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

"World Building" is a nicer sounding name for the class "Creative Writing"
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.157|173.245.56.157]]

Regarding the title text, spelling words with only letters A-F is something that I have done a lot when bored in class with my calculator, which can do hexadecimal. Unlike on report cards, one can also use digits like 5 or 1 as letters like S and I. I hope this is something common, as it can be very entertaining when the teacher keeps on talking about boring topics you already know about. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.92.31|141.101.92.31]] 13:30, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

The grade numbers that correspond to letter grades can be different than those listed depending on the region. For instance, the schools I attended in San Antonio would have C = 75 to 79 and D = 70 to 74. Anything 69 or less was an F. [[User:Iguanabob|Iguanabob]] ([[User talk:Iguanabob|talk]]) 13:03, 14 June 2016 (UTC)