explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1498: Terry Pratchett

2015-03-13T13:44:59Z

Jasqm:

Many were the books of Terry Pratchet... and I haven't read any of them. RIP Sir Terry. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.187|108.162.249.187]] 08:22, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

RIP Sir Terry :'( [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.149|141.101.106.149]] 10:17, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

It is so sad. He was ill with {{w|Early-onset Alzheimer's disease|early onset Alzheimer's}} the last eight years, and he still continued to write about a new book each year, and also four in the {{w|The Long Earth}} series together with {{w|Stephen Baxter}}. I have read almost all his books, only waiting for the latest books to come out in paper back. His Discworld series is monumental, and almost all of the 40 books are worth reading, and most of the times the series just got better and better from book to book. Might just begin reading them all again, once I have gotten hold of and read the last published book Raising Steam. (One last(?) book will be out in the fall, as will the last of the Long Earth series. But here another author are there to finish any loose ends). You will be missed, and thanks to Randall for making this comic. RIP. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:23, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I hadnt seen the news but the moment i saw the Title i knew what had prompted this xkcd. RIP and thank you. [[User:Plm-qaz snr|Plm-qaz snr]] ([[User talk:Plm-qaz snr|talk]]) 12:07, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

There was a comic that included a speculation on how much shelf space to leave for Terry Pratchett books, but I can't remember which one. Can anyone else remember and add a link? [[User:Jasqm|Jasqm]] ([[User talk:Jasqm|talk]]) 13:44, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

1354: Heartbleed Explanation

2014-04-11T08:35:00Z

Jasqm: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1354
| date = April 11, 2014
| title = Heartbleed Explanation
| image = heartbleed_explanation.png
| titletext = Are you still there, server? It's me, Margaret.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Heartbleed bug}} has received a lot of news coverage recently and was also the topic of the previous comic ([[1353]]). This comic explains how the bug may have been discovered and can be exploited to reveal a server's memory contents. A hypothetical hacker (Meg) sends heartbeat requests to the server, the server responds to the heartbeat request by returning the contents of the body of the request up to the number of letters requested. The first two requests are well formed, requesting exactly the number of characters in the request body. The server is shown "thinking" about Meg's request with many other thoughts going on at the same time, analogous to the internal memory contents of a real web server. The last request sends "HAT" but requests 500 letters, the server - unaware that 500 letters is larger than the request body - returns "HAT" plus 497 letters that happened to be next to the word "HAT" in its memory. Included are many sensitive bits of information, including a master key and user passwords.

Often popular explanations of security bugs requires the issue to be simplified a lot and to leave out a lot of details. But in this case the bug is actually that simple.

The hover text is a reference to ''Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.'' a novel by Judy Blume.

==Transcript==
:'''How the Heartbleed bug works:'''
:Megan: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "POTATO" (6 letters).
:Server (amongst other thoughts): User Meg wants these 6 letters: POTATO.
:Server: POTATO
:Megan: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "BIRD" (4 letters).
:Server (amongst other thoughts): User Meg wants these 4 letters: BIRD.
:Megan: Hmm...
:Server: BIRD
:Megan: Server, are you still there? If so, reply "HAT" (500 letters).
:Server (amongst other thoughts): User Meg wants these 500 letters: HAT.
:Server: HAT. Lucas requests the "missed connections" page. Eve (administrator) wants to set server's key to "14835038534". Isabel wants pages about "snakes but not too long". User Karen wants to change account password to "CoHoBaSt". User Amber requests pass...
:[Megan is seen writing this down.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Computers]]

Talk:1173: Steroids

2013-02-13T14:03:07Z

Jasqm: /* Douglas Adams */

Does anyone know what that 'something' is? That's what I came here to find out... :/ --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 11:57, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

:I had a lot of ideas, but I don't know. It might be a molecule, some sort of portal transmitting sound, a star, a future life form.
:--[[User:Jaap-Jan|Jaap-Jan]] ([[User talk:Jaap-Jan|talk]]) 12:13, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

I think the "artificial boundary" isn't so artificial. There is a clear difference between food chemicals, which are healthy for us, vs steroid chemicals, which cause all sorts of health problems. Of course, then Megan would have to explain that we have limited lifespans and we greatly value our quality of life, and these steroids would decrease our quality of life. [[Special:Contributions/70.31.159.230|70.31.159.230]] 13:41, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

== Douglas Adams ==

Does anyone else feel that the title text has a strong Douglas Adams flavour?
And if so, can we make that hard with a quote from one of his books?

:It's a biblical reference, Genesis 3:19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return", King James version.[[User:Jasqm|Jasqm]] ([[User talk:Jasqm|talk]]) 14:03, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Ive said that Douglas Adams write for XKCD for years now...Notice if you change all the letters to their corresponding number (A=1, B=2, etc) and add them, you get 42 ;) [[Special:Contributions/90.205.199.80|90.205.199.80]] 12:49, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

1161: Hand Sanitizer

2013-01-16T13:39:08Z

Jasqm: 200'000'000 x 0.001 = 20'000

{{comic
| number = 1161
| date = January 16, 2013
| title = Hand Sanitizer
| image = hand sanitizer.png
| titletext = Hipster CDC Reports Flu Epidemic Peaked Years Ago
}}

==Explanation==
200 million times .01% (or the remainder of germs that would be left after using the hand sanitizer) equals 20 000 germs, which is still a a surprisingly large number of germs.

Side note - Recently scientists have shown that it only takes 20 virus particles to infect someone [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2257098/Larry-projectile-vomiting-robot-helping-British-team-learn-stop-spread-norovirus.html] (with analyzed virus: not all germs are equally effective).

"Hipster CDC" is a combination of the acronym for the Centers for Disease Control and prevention: an organization dedicated to studying infectious diseases and limiting their spread, with the label hipster: a cultural group associated with a distaste for popular culture often talking about how bands, authors, etc... were better before they went "mainstream" and proclaiming that they liked a certain thing "before it was cool"

==Transcript==
:Poster: An invisible sneeze droplet can contain ''200 million'' germs!
:Product label: Our hand sanitizer kills 99.99% of germs!
:Cueball (thinking): 200 000 000 × 0.01% =
:Cueball: Ew.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:1140: Calendar of Meaningful Dates

2012-11-29T09:37:53Z

Jasqm:

Seeing how the (northern hemisphere) summer months are bolder than the winter ones, I remember that someone said that "historical things" like wars and battles used to occur during the good weather months. Same for e.g. romance novels - people date and love on those dates. {{unsigned|‎81.34.231.6}}

If the search included Spanish dates in English texts, May 5th would be larger. {{unsigned|214.4.253.121}}

I wonder if he took into account the month/day swap between the US and UK dating system (among other countries). [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 14:22, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
:That's a good question. I entered [http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=July+4%2CNovember+5%2C4+July%2C5+November%2CJuly+4th%2CNovember+5th%2C+4th+July%2C+5th+November&year_start=2000&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share= July 4 and November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day) into Google Ngram], and the difference reflected in the calendar is only apparent when you put the month before the date.--[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 01:11, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Interesting about the 11ths -- perhaps that correlates with low passenger loads on airplanes as well, and thus why the 11th was chosen for the attack (the month of September having been chosen for some other reason).[[Special:Contributions/50.0.38.245|50.0.38.245]] 15:33, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

:I want to point out that Randall doesn't know either, and I think he would have thought about the plane correlation, so I don't think that's the reason. I'm going to investigate this. --[[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 02:53, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

I second the Spanish language date in English texts. May 5th is routinely routinely called Cinco De Mayo in English. Has Randall weighed in on how this was handled? [[User:Donglebaker|Donglebaker]] ([[User talk:Donglebaker|talk]]) 18:16, 28 November 2012 (UTC) JC

I also wonder about the difference between the 4th of July (Big 4) and November the 5th (small 5) as being the two "firework" days in US and UK! 4th of July peaks at 0.00003 July the 4th 0.0000001 November the 5th peaks at 0.0000006 and 5th of November peaks at 0.00001 so there are big differences and also whether you pick anything but English 2009. Reader in Invisible Writings --[[Special:Contributions/90.208.142.152|90.208.142.152]] 19:42, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

The transcript reads "[A regular Gregorian calendar laid out in a grid, with some numbers larger than others.]" In fact, there is no way to tell if this is a Gregorian or a Julian calendar; they both have the same months and days. The Gregorian calendar only differs from the Julian in its leap year rule (it has 3 fewer every 400 years).--[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 01:17, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Certain days of the week tend to get their dates mentioned more than others. Since the sample data were from a small number of years, this may be relevant to the results (unless it was controlled for). For example, in the US, elections are always held on a Tuesday, and Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday (and the Friday and Saturday right after it also get mentioned a lot), but these would not be the same numeric dates every year. — [[User:Jonadab||Jonadab the Unsightly One]], 2012-Nov-28 9:45pm EST (GMT+0500)
:The title only says that the books were published since 2000. The events in the book may have taken place many years before. --[[User:Jasqm|Jasqm]] ([[User talk:Jasqm|talk]]) 09:37, 29 November 2012 (UTC)jasqm