explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1782: Team Chat

2017-01-07T11:09:55Z

Khs: fixed bad formatting

{{comic
| number = 1782
| date = January 6, 2017
| title = Team Chat
| image = team_chat.png
| titletext = 2078: He announces that he's finally making the jump from screen+irssi to tmux+weechat.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] provides us with a – presumably anecdotal – montage of the Internet's changing attitude towards different instant messaging protocols, framed within the context of a team trying to remain in communication while tolerating each others' different tastes.

Although one-on-one "talk" programs date back to 1960s mainframes, {{w|Internet Relay Chat}} (IRC) was one of the first real-time group communication protocols, invented in 1988. While it remains the format on which most later apps were based, the convenience and accessibility of other protocols such as AIM and Skype gradually exceeded IRC in popularity. Many users took to the new environments, but others preferred the old and familiar, hence schisms between groups began to grow.

[https://www.skype.com Skype] and [https://slack.com Slack] are both proprietary centralized communication protocols (usually used through their official clients). Skype focuses mainly on voice communication, be it for personal or business use, and own installable client, while Slack relies almost entirely on text communication, focuses on work communication and works completely well in its own web client, even though official desktop and mobile clients are available as well. Slack also features a huge customizability (bots, plugins) possibly inspired by IRC, and its users need to create communication teams, working inside subdomains at *.slack.com. It is possible to connect to Slack via IRC as well, using a [https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connect-to-Slack-over-IRC-and-XMPP gateway feature], if allowed by the team's admin.

Randall here seems to commenting on the persistence of IRC; while generally considered to be ancient software in comparison to newer and still-competing protocols, its endless customizability has led some people to support it above all others.

Extrapolating for the sake of humor, the joke here lies in a particularly uncommon but memorable type of Internet denizen: even in a far-off distant future where the world's technology has led to a superlative messaging network encompassing all people in some supposed, incredible bliss, there is always - in Randall's vision - going to be That IRC Guy. This might also be a reference to the scenarios in science fiction stories such as Isaac Asimov's {{w|Gaia_(Foundation_universe)#Galaxia|concept of Galaxia}} in the Foundation novels, or the concept of a merged human-computer intelligence as in The Last Question. [http://multivax.com/last_question.html], the concept of which is most notably highlighted by this line:

''[...] One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain. [...]''

In the title text, both {{w|GNU_Screen|screen}} and {{w|Tmux|tmux}} are unix programs that help you multitask while working in terminal (command line), and {{w|Irssi|irssi}} and {{w|WeeChat|weechat}} are both communication clients supporting mainly IRC, capable of working in a command line environment. Tmux is a newer and apparently more user-friendly project, complete with handy menus and titles, while screen is something of an industry standard, but relatively difficult to use – you need to know what you are doing or read help before use, otherwise you get lost and frustrated. [http://superuser.com/questions/236158/tmux-vs-screen] The same it is with the newer, more feature-packed and user-friendly weechat vs industry-standard, harder-to-use irssi. [https://www.quora.com/IRC-Which-do-you-prefer-irssi-or-weechat-and-why]

Basically, that ''one'' guy is a hardcore UNIX geek who doesn't use any graphical user interface, and in 2078 he decides to use a little less inconvenient, yet still command-line-based tools.

Timing of this strip follows the [https://irssi.org/2017/01/05/irssi-1.0.0-released/ release of irssi version 1.0.0].

Randall has touched on similar themes before in [[927: Standards]].

==Transcript==
:[Hairbun holding up her palm toward Cueball. A frame over the top border of the panel has a caption:]
:2004
:Hairbun: Our team stays in touch over IRC.

:[Megan is looking at Ponytail who is holding up her palm toward her. A frame over the top border of the panel has a caption:]
:2010
:Ponytail: Our team mainly uses Skype, but some of us prefer to stick to IRC.

:[Cueball is talking with Megan in a frameless panel. A frame at the top of the panel has a caption:]
:2017
:Cueball: We've got almost everyone on Slack,
:Cueball: But three people refuse to quit IRC and connect via Gateway.

:[A black panel with white text and drawings. The main body of text is above a the singularity, a starburst around a circle with two more broken lined circles around the starburst. To the right another Cueball-like guy floats in space with his laptop computer, typing on the keyboard. A frame, that is white inside, is over the top border of the panel has a caption: ]
:2051
:Narration: All consciousnesses have merged with the Galactic Singularity,
:Narration: Except for ''one'' guy who insists on joining through his IRC client.
:One Guy: I just have it set up the way I want, okay?!
:Galactic Singularity: ''*Sigh*''



{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1782: Team Chat

2017-01-07T11:06:54Z

Khs: Add references to scifi stories where a galactic singularity has been proposed

{{comic
| number = 1782
| date = January 6, 2017
| title = Team Chat
| image = team_chat.png
| titletext = 2078: He announces that he's finally making the jump from screen+irssi to tmux+weechat.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] provides us with a – presumably anecdotal – montage of the Internet's changing attitude towards different instant messaging protocols, framed within the context of a team trying to remain in communication while tolerating each others' different tastes.

Although one-on-one "talk" programs date back to 1960s mainframes, {{w|Internet Relay Chat}} (IRC) was one of the first real-time group communication protocols, invented in 1988. While it remains the format on which most later apps were based, the convenience and accessibility of other protocols such as AIM and Skype gradually exceeded IRC in popularity. Many users took to the new environments, but others preferred the old and familiar, hence schisms between groups began to grow.

[https://www.skype.com Skype] and [https://slack.com Slack] are both proprietary centralized communication protocols (usually used through their official clients). Skype focuses mainly on voice communication, be it for personal or business use, and own installable client, while Slack relies almost entirely on text communication, focuses on work communication and works completely well in its own web client, even though official desktop and mobile clients are available as well. Slack also features a huge customizability (bots, plugins) possibly inspired by IRC, and its users need to create communication teams, working inside subdomains at *.slack.com. It is possible to connect to Slack via IRC as well, using a [https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201727913-Connect-to-Slack-over-IRC-and-XMPP gateway feature], if allowed by the team's admin.

Randall here seems to commenting on the persistence of IRC; while generally considered to be ancient software in comparison to newer and still-competing protocols, its endless customizability has led some people to support it above all others.

Extrapolating for the sake of humor, the joke here lies in a particularly uncommon but memorable type of Internet denizen: even in a far-off distant future where the world's technology has led to a superlative messaging network encompassing all people in some supposed, incredible bliss, there is always - in Randall's vision - going to be That IRC Guy. This might also be a reference to the scenarios in science fiction stories such as Isaac Asimov's [concept of Galaxia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(Foundation_universe)#Galaxia) in the Foundation novels, or the concept of a merged human-computer intelligence as in [The Last Question](http://multivax.com/last_question.html), the concept of which is most notably highlighted by this line:

''[...] One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain. [...]''

In the title text, both {{w|GNU_Screen|screen}} and {{w|Tmux|tmux}} are unix programs that help you multitask while working in terminal (command line), and {{w|Irssi|irssi}} and {{w|WeeChat|weechat}} are both communication clients supporting mainly IRC, capable of working in a command line environment. Tmux is a newer and apparently more user-friendly project, complete with handy menus and titles, while screen is something of an industry standard, but relatively difficult to use – you need to know what you are doing or read help before use, otherwise you get lost and frustrated. [http://superuser.com/questions/236158/tmux-vs-screen] The same it is with the newer, more feature-packed and user-friendly weechat vs industry-standard, harder-to-use irssi. [https://www.quora.com/IRC-Which-do-you-prefer-irssi-or-weechat-and-why]

Basically, that ''one'' guy is a hardcore UNIX geek who doesn't use any graphical user interface, and in 2078 he decides to use a little less inconvenient, yet still command-line-based tools.

Timing of this strip follows the [https://irssi.org/2017/01/05/irssi-1.0.0-released/ release of irssi version 1.0.0].

Randall has touched on similar themes before in [[927: Standards]].

==Transcript==
:[Hairbun holding up her palm toward Cueball. A frame over the top border of the panel has a caption:]
:2004
:Hairbun: Our team stays in touch over IRC.

:[Megan is looking at Ponytail who is holding up her palm toward her. A frame over the top border of the panel has a caption:]
:2010
:Ponytail: Our team mainly uses Skype, but some of us prefer to stick to IRC.

:[Cueball is talking with Megan in a frameless panel. A frame at the top of the panel has a caption:]
:2017
:Cueball: We've got almost everyone on Slack,
:Cueball: But three people refuse to quit IRC and connect via Gateway.

:[A black panel with white text and drawings. The main body of text is above a the singularity, a starburst around a circle with two more broken lined circles around the starburst. To the right another Cueball-like guy floats in space with his laptop computer, typing on the keyboard. A frame, that is white inside, is over the top border of the panel has a caption: ]
:2051
:Narration: All consciousnesses have merged with the Galactic Singularity,
:Narration: Except for ''one'' guy who insists on joining through his IRC client.
:One Guy: I just have it set up the way I want, okay?!
:Galactic Singularity: ''*Sigh*''



{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Computers]]

731: Desert Island

2016-06-20T20:57:56Z

Khs: fixed spelling of Bathyscaphe in the title-text

{{comic
| number = 731
| date = April 23, 2010
| title = Desert Island
| image = desert_island.png
| titletext = Telescopes and bathyscaphes and sonar probes of Scottish lakes, Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse explained with abstract phase-space maps, some x-ray slides, a music score, Minard's Napoleonic war: the most exciting new frontier is charting what's already here.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is making the point that there is a wonderful world waiting to be explored in the ocean. From above it seems so plain, endless, and boring. But underneath the surface lies the most unexplored area on the planet. This comic is a commentary on the need to head below the waves and start exploring.

[[Cueball]] sits (maybe writing in a diary?) on a desert island which is really a mountain of which only the sandy tip with a palm tree on it stands above the water. Beneath the surface is:
* A kelp forest
* Three sharks
* A stingray
* An eel
* A shipwreck
* A submarine following a small school of fish (it should be noted that if Cueball tried, he could make contact with the submarine and get home)
* Three large jellyfish
* A giant squid fighting a sperm whale
* A crashed plane
* Coral formations
* A thermal vent emitting a plume of smoke surrounded by several annelids
* A snail

The most important items from the title text are:
*A {{w|Bathyscaphe|bathyscaphe}} is a deep sea submersible: a submarine for exploring the ocean floor.
*Some Scottish loch are very deep, especially those in the {{w|Great Glen}}. There may also be a reference to the famous {{w|Loch Ness}}.
*The {{w|Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940)|Tacoma Narrows Bridge}} collapsed when wind blowing over the bridge caused it to oscillate wildly. When the oscillations changed from one mode to another, they grew in amplitude until the bridge failed dramatically.
*{{w|Charles Joseph Minard|Charles Minard}} did a visualization of the losses incurred by Napoleons army in its attempt to conquer Russia.

The title text itself is a poem:
Telescopes and bathyscaphes
and sonar probes of Scottish lakes,
Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse
explained with abstract phase-space maps,
some x-ray slides, a music score,
Minard's Napoleonic war:
the most exciting new frontier
is charting what's already here.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits writing in a diary on a desert island, only the sandy tip of which with a palm tree on it stands above the water. Beneath the surface is a kelp forest, some sharks, a stingray, a shipwreck, a submarine, several large jellyfish, a giant squid fighting a sperm whale, a crashed plane, some coral formations, a thermal vent emitting a plume of smoke surrounded by several annelids, and a snail.]

:Cueball: Day 44: Still stranded, with nothing but flat empty water as far as the eye can see.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

731: Desert Island

2016-06-20T20:56:48Z

Khs: fixed spelling of Bathyscaphe

{{comic
| number = 731
| date = April 23, 2010
| title = Desert Island
| image = desert_island.png
| titletext = Telescopes and bathyscapes and sonar probes of Scottish lakes, Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse explained with abstract phase-space maps, some x-ray slides, a music score, Minard's Napoleonic war: the most exciting new frontier is charting what's already here.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is making the point that there is a wonderful world waiting to be explored in the ocean. From above it seems so plain, endless, and boring. But underneath the surface lies the most unexplored area on the planet. This comic is a commentary on the need to head below the waves and start exploring.

[[Cueball]] sits (maybe writing in a diary?) on a desert island which is really a mountain of which only the sandy tip with a palm tree on it stands above the water. Beneath the surface is:
* A kelp forest
* Three sharks
* A stingray
* An eel
* A shipwreck
* A submarine following a small school of fish (it should be noted that if Cueball tried, he could make contact with the submarine and get home)
* Three large jellyfish
* A giant squid fighting a sperm whale
* A crashed plane
* Coral formations
* A thermal vent emitting a plume of smoke surrounded by several annelids
* A snail

The most important items from the title text are:
*A {{w|Bathyscaphe|bathyscaphe}} is a deep sea submersible: a submarine for exploring the ocean floor.
*Some Scottish loch are very deep, especially those in the {{w|Great Glen}}. There may also be a reference to the famous {{w|Loch Ness}}.
*The {{w|Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940)|Tacoma Narrows Bridge}} collapsed when wind blowing over the bridge caused it to oscillate wildly. When the oscillations changed from one mode to another, they grew in amplitude until the bridge failed dramatically.
*{{w|Charles Joseph Minard|Charles Minard}} did a visualization of the losses incurred by Napoleons army in its attempt to conquer Russia.

The title text itself is a poem:
Telescopes and bathyscaphes
and sonar probes of Scottish lakes,
Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse
explained with abstract phase-space maps,
some x-ray slides, a music score,
Minard's Napoleonic war:
the most exciting new frontier
is charting what's already here.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sits writing in a diary on a desert island, only the sandy tip of which with a palm tree on it stands above the water. Beneath the surface is a kelp forest, some sharks, a stingray, a shipwreck, a submarine, several large jellyfish, a giant squid fighting a sperm whale, a crashed plane, some coral formations, a thermal vent emitting a plume of smoke surrounded by several annelids, and a snail.]

:Cueball: Day 44: Still stranded, with nothing but flat empty water as far as the eye can see.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

1693: Oxidation

2016-06-13T05:46:17Z

Khs: I think its Megan exacting revenge on Ponytail

{{comic
| number = 1693
| date = June 13, 2016
| title = Oxidation
| image = oxidation.png
| titletext = Calm down--there were lots of arthropods living on your skin already. These ones are just bigger.
}}

==Explanation==
In this scene, [[Ponytail]] has set [[Megan]]'s car on fire, possibly by crashing it.

{{w|Oxidation}} refers to a whole class of chemical reactions. Any chemical reaction that involves the loss of electrons is called "oxidation" (since a lot of these involve oxygen).

One oxidation reaction is {{w|rusting}}: the reaction of iron atoms in the steel of the car with oxygen to produce iron oxide. Rusting is extremely difficult to prevent, and all cars are rusting slowly.

Another oxidation reaction is {{w|combustion}}: the reaction of flammable parts of the car with oxygen to produce a whole load of nasty gases and particulates, as well as a lot of heat. {{w|Vehicle fire|Vehicle fires}} can burn very quickly and destroy a vehicle within minutes.

From the most detached viewpoint, these are both oxidation reactions (although they occur in different places: rusting normally happens to the car chassis while fires are usually isolated to the engine) and Ponytail argues that as all cars oxidise, the fire that she has presumably caused has only accelerated the inevitable destruction of the vehicle.

The small {{w|arthropods}} (invertebrates that have jointed bodies and exoskeletons) in the title text are {{w|mites}} - tiny creatures that can live on the human body without normally causing any harm (you probably have {{w|eyelash mite}}s, for instance). As a form of revenge, Megan has presumably caused Ponytail to become covered in much larger arthropods (which could mean scorpions, spiders, insects, crabs, centipedes, or any combination of these) - most probably spiders, judging by Randall's fixation with them.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail and Megan are talking as smoke pours in from off-panel]
:Ponytail: In my defense, your car has been oxidizing since you got it.
:Ponytail: It's just happening a lot faster now.

{{comic discussion}}