explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1913: A ï¿½

2017-11-08T19:11:45Z

JoDu987: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1913
| date = November 8, 2017
| title = A �
| image = i.png
| titletext = If you want in on the fun, map a key on your keyboard to the sequence U+0041 U+0020 U+FFFD (or U+0021 U+0020 U+FFFD for the exclamation point version), and then no update can never take this away from you.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The page title, "A ï¿½", should be "A �". Should the page be moved?}}

After the update to {{w|Apple Inc.|Apple's}} {{w|IOS_11#11.1|iOS 11.1}}, many (though not all) {{w|iPhone}} users suffered from a strange bug, where the {{w|autocorrection}} changed any input of the single lowercase letter "i" to either "A" or "!" followed by a space and a Unicode {{w|Specials_(Unicode_block)#Replacement_character|replacement character}} (on iOS displayed as a question mark in a square). So the result of typing "i took" might be "A � took" or "! � took".

The codes in the title text refer to "A �" and "! �" respectively. The text provides a way to keep the "bug" active, (which can be realized through the use of a Cydia tweak) even after it is patched. This is a fairly silly concept, as not many people would need to type "A �" more than they would need to type "i".{{Citation needed}}

The statement in the title text "no update can never take this away from you" is a {{w|Double negative|double negative}}, so it actually means "any update can take this away from you". This may be a typo.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A picture of a yellow post-it note with text:]
:A ⍰ took out the trash but the dishwasher still needs to be run.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Apple can try to fix the autocorrect bug, but I've already incorporated it into my handwriting.

:[Title text:]
:If you want in on the fun, map a key on your keyboard to the sequence U+0041 U+0020 U+FFFD (or U+0021 U+0020 U+FFFD for the exclamation point version), and then no update can never take this away from you.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Unicode]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:1663: Garden

2016-04-04T15:48:17Z

JoDu987:

===Finally Garden is up on xkcd===
It is here the comic we have been waiting for, and it seems it is a April fool comic although it first came out past midnight in all of the US except Hawaii...
:I do not know when it will be on this page but for those impatient...
:[[File:Garden Loading screen shot.png]]
:It says to Relax, while it loads, but it will eventually get to a barren land with a growth lamp that can be moved:
:[[File:Garden Lamp screen shot.png]]
:The lamp can be moved and change color.
:[[File:Garden Red Lamp screen shot.png]]
:It may be there will be something growing if we wait long enough?
:And there will be more lamps and new items:
:[[File:Garden Three Lamp screen shot.png]]
:Yes he is messing with us for sure but at least not by not making a comic :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:46, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
::I succeeded to get a small plant, but I'm not sure how. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.167|162.158.86.167]] 10:16, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
:::Try not to cover everything with every light wavelength. I'm sure you get different plants with different wavelengths:
:::[[File:aprilfool-2016-xorg.png]]
:::Also, I've noticed a constant cpu usage, indicating some kind of number crunching. The script's name "linden" reminded me of linden dollars and crowdsourcing bitcoin mining with javascript, but afair linden dollars were never mined nor based on cryptography. -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 10:30, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
::::"Linden" is probably a reference to the Linden trees, a genus (Latin name Tilia). It would make more sense than a reference to dollars, at least. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.135.57|162.158.135.57]] 12:14, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
:::Ok, it's *moving*. The leaves wobble in the wind. That explains the cpu usage. So far I have seen the following images: <code>asdfx2=""; for (asdfx in garden.linden.imgCache.imgs) { asdfx2 += asdfx+" "; } asdfx2

"http://xkcd.com/1663/art/background.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/talltrunk-2.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/shrub-8.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/wavyplant-3.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/turtle-1.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/shrub-6.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/birdbath.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/cactus-2.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/trunk-6.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/branch-11.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/branch-18.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/woman-1a.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/branch-21.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/rover.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/leaves-7.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/leaves-6.png "
</code> -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 12:10, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

For those who are in https (with firefox for example) and don't see the "comic", there is mixed content. Click on the padlock on the up-left corner, then on the arrow, then "disable the protection against not secure elements" (or something like that). [[User:Seipas|Seipas]] ([[User talk:Seipas|talk]]) 11:32, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

The comic is finally here! ... but it won't load on my computer. Does anybody know what the problem might be or how I can fix it? [[User:Soad Kraken|Soad Kraken]] ([[User talk:Soad Kraken|talk]]) 12:45, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Does not load (continually Loading...) on IE/FF/Chrome for me (in UK, non-https, ad-blockers turned off) any ideas?

Did someone try the debugmode?
:http://xkcd.com/1663/?debug#YourCode

It also logs data in the console
[[User:Magno|Magno]] ([[User talk:Magno|talk]]) 12:51, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Post new images here: [[1663: Garden/Images]]. Anyone know what happens to the site, it looks really weird and it is difficult to use the site now. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:52, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

== April Fools? ==

What's the evidence that this is an April Fools comic? I think that the April Fools joke this year was the absence of a comic, and all the silly excuses about it when it was never coming. [[User:JoDu987|JoDu987]] ([[User talk:JoDu987|talk]]) 15:48, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

== Mobile ==

Like many of the dynamic comics, Garden doesn't interact well with mobile devices, but I have found a workaround for this one. On my Android tablet, going to m.xkcd.com/1663 gives me a page where I can manipulate the lights - tap once on a light to reveal the handles, tap in whitespace to hide them - but the landscape and growth are not rendered.

But, as I manipulate the lights, a string is appended to the URL; if I replace the initial '''m''' with '''www''' while preserving this string, I get a page where the landscape and growth are displayed. But from this page, I cannot manipulate the lights. But it does appear that the string includes enough information to prevent "losing progress", as several iterations of swapping between the mobile and desktop URLs retained all existing growth. Therefore, some level of timestamp information may also be included in the composition of this string. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.73|108.162.216.73]] 14:18, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

:Actually, it doesn't look like the URL changes when I move the lights after all. So now instead I'm guessing it's more of a unique identifier or something. If two people both use the same string, will one person's act of moving a light be reflected by the other user refreshing their browser? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.73|108.162.216.73]] 14:33, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)

2014-10-04T15:30:09Z

JoDu987:

{{comic
| number = 409
| date = April 11, 2008
| title = Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)
| image = electric_skateboard_double_comic.png
| titletext = Unsafe vehicles, hills, and philosophy go hand in hand.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is an affectionate parody of ''{{w|Calvin and Hobbes}}'', a newspaper comic drawn by {{w|Bill Watterson}} that ran for ten years from November 1985 to December 1995. Calvin and Hobbes follows the daily life of a rambunctious, precocious six-year-old named Calvin and his sarcastic stuffed tiger Hobbes. Sunday strips (for both Calvin and Hobbes and many other print comics) often consisted of two comics strung together, the first one often lasting one or two panels and the second one being more elaborate. This comic follows the Sunday strip pattern, hence the "Double Comic" in the title. The artwork in the second strip is distinctly Wattersonian as well.

[[Randall]] has a special fascination with motorized {{w|skateboard}}s. A {{w|Longboard (skateboard)|longboard}} is a skateboard that is longer, and is used for downhill races, and skating through less urban areas (college campuses, for example).

{{w|Mario Kart}} is a game for {{w|Nintendo}} game consoles that allows four players to race each other while having good spirited fun ([[290|sometimes]]) while throwing items at each other. The objects in the fourth panel are Koopa Troopa shells, items in the game. They can be thrown like projectiles to crash into foes.

Calvin and Hobbes frequently involves heavy philosophical discussions. In one recurring theme, they ride down a dangerous hill in a red wagon while discussing the nature of morality, usually ending in a crash (examples [http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/04/21] [http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2012/05/20]). This comic inverts that by having [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] go uphill while discussing philosophy. Naturally, they collide with Calvin and Hobbes' wagon - which prompts the title text.

Cueball uses the {{w|C (programming language)|C}} and {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}} programming languages as analogies for their ride. In general, Python is easier than C, and abstracts a lot of C's hairier features ("boring parts," as Randall calls them). Moving from C to Python is quite a [[353|freeing experience]]; programmers no longer have to worry about pointers, and memory allocation, and just lets the code flow through the programmer until they are one with the Force. Erm, computer. Although it seems - before the crash - that the idea that, programing in C (and skating without electricity) builds character, is about to be explored philosophically (building character is also a recurring theme in Calvin and Hobbes).

Electric skateboards have been the subject of several other comics like [[139: I Have Owned Two Electric Skateboards]], a panel in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]] and the entire [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:The_Race The Race] five part comic series.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball showing off electric skateboard to girl reading something.]
:Cueball: Check it out! An electric longboard!
:Megan: Sweet!

:[Cueball riding longboard with Megan sitting onboard — people in background.]
:Longboard: ''RRRR''

:[Megan turned around on longboard.]
:Megan: I feel like we're missing something...
:Cueball: Yeah...

:[Cueball throwing 3 green Koopa Troopa shells; Megan throwing 1 red Koopa Troopa shell - like Mario Kart.]
:''Music Playing''
:Longboard: ''RRRR''

:[Cueball and Megan still on longboard, going up an incline.]
:Cueball: Skating uphill like this is amazing. Years of gliding downhill and pushing uphill, and now suddenly it's gliding both ways.
:Longboard: ''RRRRRRR''

:[Cueball and Megan after passing an S-curve and boulder.]
:Cueball: It's like going from C to Python. You don't realize how much time you were spending on the boring parts until you don't have to do them anymore.
:Megan: But coding C or assembly makes you a better programmer. Maybe the boring parts build character.

:[Cueball and Megan on longboard.]
:Cueball: Yeah... but it depends how you want to spend your life. See, my philosophy is-
:[Longboard gets into an accident.]
:'''WHAM'''

:[Calvin and Hobbes laying down in the grass near the Cueball and Megan laying down on the grass - Calvin and Hobbes's wagon is on the path, as is the longboard - all characters seeing stars.]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Electric skateboard]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Calvin and Hobbes]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Mario Kart]]