explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2248: New Year's Eve

2020-01-13T23:48:23Z

LikeFunYouAre: /* Explanation */ Added explanation of what an off-by-one error is and the fact that "off-by-one" errors are commonly encountered in computer programming

{{comic
| number = 2248
| date = December 30, 2019
| title = New Year's Eve
| image = new_years_eve.png
| titletext = "Off-by-one errors" isn't the easiest theme to build a party around, but I've seen worse.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OFF-BY-ONE ERROR - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This was the first of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, the second being [[2249: I Love the 20s]].

An easy way to determine someone's age is to subtract their birth year from the current year. However, if their birthday has not happened yet that year, this calculation will predict them to be a year older than they actually are. By {{w|New Year's Eve}}, everybody's birthday has happened that year (or ''is'' happening, but legitimately tallied up), so this error will not occur. [[Cueball]] is excited by this, whereas most people would be more excited by the parties that typically occur around New Year's.

"Off-by-one" errors are commonly made in computer programming, especially by novices, when looping over sets of objects. They can also appear in everyday life. If one is given a range of numbers, such as {10, 11, 12, ..., 99, 100}, a common error is to assume that the number of numbers in the range is the first number minus the last number: 100-10 = 90. However, the correct answer is 91 since both endpoints are included in the set. This specific type of "off-by-one" error is called a fencepost error.

In the title text, Cueball suggests a New Year's Eve party with the theme of "off-by-one errors", saying it's challenging but that he's heard of worse themes. No information is given as to what such a party theme would entail, nor what could possibly be a worse party theme. (On the other hand, the parties depicted in [[51: Malaria]] and [[829: Arsenic-Based Life]], based on themes of disease and poison, respectively, look much worse than an "off-by-one errors" party would likely be.)

The idea of off-by-one errors for a New Year's Eve party is inspired by the numerous discussions about the time when the next decade starts, whether 2020 or 2021. [[2249: I Love the 20s]] also treats the subject directly.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball, with his hands raised, is talking to Megan and White Hat.]
:Cueball: Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and you know what that means:
:Cueball: It's the one day of the year when you can convert between ages and birth years by subtraction without worrying about off-by-one errors!
:Cueball: Also there are probably parties.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

2254: JPEG2000

2020-01-13T23:30:57Z

LikeFunYouAre: /* Explanation */ Added link to one of the Dvorak keyboard comics

{{comic
| number = 2254
| date = January 13, 2020
| title = JPEG2000
| image = jpeg2000.png
| titletext = I was actually a little relieved when I learned that JPEG2000 was used in the DCI digital cinema standard. I was feeling so bad for it!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BADLY COMPRESSED IMAGE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
JPEG2000 is an image standard created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group from 1997 to 2000 to improve on the original JPEG standard, published in 1992. As of 2020, it is supported by Photoshop and the Safari browser, but remains unsupported and poorly supported by other popular software, including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers, as well as the free and open source image editor GIMP.
The extensions applied by convention to files using the JPEG2000 standard, .jp2 and .jpx, remain unfamiliar to
many users for whom the .jpg extension, denoting the original standard, is well known.
The JPEG2000 standard was seen an improvement by its creators, supporting many features
not included in the original standard such as multiple resolutions, progressive transmission, a lossless compression option,
and alpha transparency.
The complexity of fully implementing the standard, as well as
patent concerns, may have slowed adoption.
The people in the comic seem to have some desire for JPEG2000 adoption, and may have been involved in its creation, and seem to care more about its eventual use than rapid adoption.
The "we are in this for the long haul" might refer to the engineers aiming at full adoption by year 12000, the nearest future year ending with 2000.

The core concept of this comic may be about how engineers often expect that a superior technology or standard will catch on, though often other factors keep an "inferior" standard dominant. (See various comics referencing [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/561:_Well Dvorak] keyboards.)

The title text suggests that Randall feels bad that the standard hasn't been adopted, perhaps because he empathizes with the engineered who worked hard to develop it or anthropomorphizes the standard itself, which has been ignored by most of the computer-using world.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and another woman are both at a table, facing each other, both working on their own respective computers.]

:[Cueball leans back and stops typing. The woman continues to type.]

:[Cueball looks over at the woman.]
:Cueball: I'm starting to worry that JPEG 2000 isn't catching on as fast as we expected.
:Woman:: Don't worry! We're in this for the long haul.

{{comic discussion}}

2254: JPEG2000

2020-01-13T23:27:36Z

LikeFunYouAre: /* Explanation */ Added title text interpretation.

{{comic
| number = 2254
| date = January 13, 2020
| title = JPEG2000
| image = jpeg2000.png
| titletext = I was actually a little relieved when I learned that JPEG2000 was used in the DCI digital cinema standard. I was feeling so bad for it!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BADLY COMPRESSED IMAGE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
JPEG2000 is an image standard created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group from 1997 to 2000 to improve on the original JPEG standard, published in 1992. As of 2020, it is supported by Photoshop and the Safari browser, but remains unsupported and poorly supported by other popular software, including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers, as well as the free and open source image editor GIMP.
The extensions applied by convention to files using the JPEG2000 standard, .jp2 and .jpx, remain unfamiliar to
many users for whom the .jpg extension, denoting the original standard, is well known.
The JPEG2000 standard was seen an improvement by its creators, supporting many features
not included in the original standard such as multiple resolutions, progressive transmission, a lossless compression option,
and alpha transparency.
The complexity of fully implementing the standard, as well as
patent concerns, may have slowed adoption.
The people in the comic seem to have some desire for JPEG2000 adoption, and may have been involved in its creation, and seem to care more about its eventual use than rapid adoption.
The "we are in this for the long haul" might refer to the engineers aiming at full adoption by year 12000, the nearest future year ending with 2000.

The core concept of this comic may be about how engineers often expect that a superior technology or standard will catch on, though often other factors keep an "inferior" standard dominant. (See various comics referencing Dvorak keyboards.)

The title text suggests that Randall feels bad that the standard hasn't been adopted, perhaps because he empathizes with the engineered who worked hard to develop it or anthropomorphizes the standard itself, which has been ignored by most of the computer-using world.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and another woman are both at a table, facing each other, both working on their own respective computers.]

:[Cueball leans back and stops typing. The woman continues to type.]

:[Cueball looks over at the woman.]
:Cueball: I'm starting to worry that JPEG 2000 isn't catching on as fast as we expected.
:Woman:: Don't worry! We're in this for the long haul.

{{comic discussion}}

2254: JPEG2000

2020-01-13T23:24:05Z

LikeFunYouAre: /* Explanation */ Fixed some grammar

{{comic
| number = 2254
| date = January 13, 2020
| title = JPEG2000
| image = jpeg2000.png
| titletext = I was actually a little relieved when I learned that JPEG2000 was used in the DCI digital cinema standard. I was feeling so bad for it!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BADLY COMPRESSED IMAGE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
JPEG2000 is an image standard created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group from 1997 to 2000 to improve on the original JPEG standard, published in 1992. As of 2020, it is supported by Photoshop and the Safari browser, but remains unsupported and poorly supported by other popular software, including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers, as well as the free and open source image editor GIMP.
The extensions applied by convention to files using the JPEG2000 standard, .jp2 and .jpx, remain unfamiliar to
many users for whom the .jpg extension, denoting the original standard, is well known.
The JPEG2000 standard was seen an improvement by its creators, supporting many features
not included in the original standard such as multiple resolutions, progressive transmission, a lossless compression option,
and alpha transparency.
The complexity of fully implementing the standard, as well as
patent concerns, may have slowed adoption.
The people in the comic seem to have some desire for JPEG2000 adoption, and may have been involved in its creation, and seem to care more about its eventual use than rapid adoption.
The "we are in this for the long haul" might refer to the engineers aiming at full adoption by year 12000, the nearest future year ending with 2000.

The core concept of this comic may be about how engineers often expect that a superior technology or standard will catch on, though often other factors keep an "inferior" standard dominant. (See various comics referencing Dvorak keyboards.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and another woman are both at a table, facing each other, both working on their own respective computers.]

:[Cueball leans back and stops typing. The woman continues to type.]

:[Cueball looks over at the woman.]
:Cueball: I'm starting to worry that JPEG 2000 isn't catching on as fast as we expected.
:Woman:: Don't worry! We're in this for the long haul.

{{comic discussion}}

2254: JPEG2000

2020-01-13T23:22:20Z

LikeFunYouAre: /* Explanation */ Added more detail about JPEG2000

{{comic
| number = 2254
| date = January 13, 2020
| title = JPEG2000
| image = jpeg2000.png
| titletext = I was actually a little relieved when I learned that JPEG2000 was used in the DCI digital cinema standard. I was feeling so bad for it!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BADLY COMPRESSED IMAGE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
JPEG2000 is an image standard created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group from 1997 to 2000 to improve on the original JPEG standard, published in 1992. As of 2020, it is supported by Photoshop and the Safari browser, but remains unsupported and poorly supported by popular browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and the free and open source image editor GIMP.
The extension applied by convention to files using the JPEG2000 standard, .jp2 and .jpx, remain unfamiliar to
many users for whom the .jpg extension, denoting the original standard, is well known.
The JPEG2000 standard was seen an improvement by its creators, supporting many features
not included in the original standard such as multiple resolutions, progressive transmission, lossless compression option,
and alpha transparency.
The complexity of fully implementing the standard, as well as
patent concerns, may have slowed adoption.
The people in the comic seem to have some desire for JPEG2000 adoption, and may have been involved in its creation, and seem to care more about its eventual use than rapid adoption.
The "we are in this for the long haul" might refer to the engineers aiming at full adoption by year 12000, the nearest future year ending with 2000.

The core concept of this comic may be about how engineers often expect that a superior technology or standard will catch on, though often other factors keep an "inferior" standard dominant. (See various comics referencing Dvorak keyboards.)

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and another woman are both at a table, facing each other, both working on their own respective computers.]

:[Cueball leans back and stops typing. The woman continues to type.]

:[Cueball looks over at the woman.]
:Cueball: I'm starting to worry that JPEG 2000 isn't catching on as fast as we expected.
:Woman:: Don't worry! We're in this for the long haul.

{{comic discussion}}