explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

134: Myspace

2015-03-12T02:26:48Z

Meneldal: MIDI isn't always bad sound quality

{{comic
| number = 134
| date = July 28, 2006
| title = Myspace
| image = myspace.png
| titletext = It's like they got together and said 'what do we miss most from the internet in 1998? that's right, embedded MIDI!'
}}

==Explanation==

Did you ever visit a website that, not long after the page finishes loading, suddenly plays a song? It's annoying to you, but if others are near your vicinity, you will attract a lot of unwanted attention, especially if the song is played at a loud volume. Compounding this would be the possible inappropriateness of the song that is suddenly playing.

The five seconds to stop the music (finding the "pause"/"stop" button, muting the computer audio...) is too long in such an incident.

Since {{w|MySpace}} allows wide customization for members pages, many users have embedded music players which auto-run when the page is visited.

The title text refers to the fact that old pages, back in the late 1990s, used embedded {{w|MIDI}} files. MIDI files may have terrible sound quality (while lossless, it is limited in the amount of sounds that can be reproduced), but, more importantly, MIDI files that are embedded in the page would not only play automatically, but also have no way to stop playing. The viewer would have to leave the website or externally mute the audio.

==Transcript==
:[Computer screen showing a myspace page.]
:Oh man, you and everyone in earshot are gonna '''love''' the first five seconds of this song!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

Talk:180: Canada

2015-03-11T06:54:25Z

Meneldal:

Actually I suspect this comic may be referring to the propensity for video games in which you can create teams of characters which can be generally be respawned or come back to consciousness/life after levels/battles to have areas or levels where if someone is killed they die "for real"- that is they don't come back and you lose them for good. [[Special:Contributions/184.21.189.153|184.21.189.153]] 10:58, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Couldn't this be a Matrix reference? 06:11, 1 December 2013 (UTC) {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.52}}

From the explanation: "Canada is arguably part of reality already." I would love to have that argument with someone. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.202}}

I feel like adding some "dubious-discuss" after the first sentence of the explanation[[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 06:54, 11 March 2015 (UTC)meneldal

Talk:196: Command Line Fu

2015-03-11T06:31:25Z

Meneldal:

Disagree with the "in the time that he spends trying to solve the issue" bit. Problem solved, it was the further time taken to write up the documentation (man pages?) that ruined the day(/night).

Also: "if your user interface takes as long to operate as a command line". Inconsistent with the fact that the explanation starts off by assuming it ''is'' a command-line script. Also command-lines can be very quick (when not dealing with anything more complex than the stated problem) as long as you know what you want to do, which the given Cueball obviously did. I find that most window-based analogues take far more studying, for something as simple as the original problem. But YMMV on that one. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 00:45, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

Sounds more like Cueball was still reading the documentation on HOW to script the pointer at the half hour mark. In other words, he was still researching what to do (not solved the problem yet) when she left. We don't know how long it took to actually solve the problem. [[Special:Contributions/67.110.158.162|67.110.158.162]] 19:04, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

The actual problem in the strip doesn't require the hack suggested to solve. Instead you can simply use the xset command to disable DPMS and the screensaver: xset -dpms s reset
P.S. I didn't waste time figuring that out because of the strip, I discovered it out of necessity when building a display cluster. --[[User:Lokno|Lokno]] ([[User talk:Lokno|talk]]) 20:04, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

If he was smart he could have used some simple hardware fix. Assuming the wire is too short to just bring the mouse close to you (wireless mouses also have a range) you could use anything that moves a bit/vibrate to solve the issue. A smart guy would use their two phones, putting the mouse over one of the phones and using the second one to call it when the screen turns dark again. This is completely not overkill.[[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 06:31, 11 March 2015 (UTC)meneldal

Talk:224: Lisp

2015-03-11T04:52:35Z

Meneldal:

I reckon I disagree with this:
<blockquote>
In the comic, Cueball marvels at the fundamental and complete nature of the language of creation that he sees in his dream, the ultimate low level language, before being told by God that the universe was mostly built using a high level programming language, perl.
</blockquote>

But, despite it's age, Lisp is also a high-level language and lispers probably spend more of their time dealing with higher-level abstractions than perlists.

What's causing the narrator's marvel in the comic is that Lisp has a very elegant (almost non-existent) syntax and the language has a very close relationship with the underlying syntactical structure of the program, and that thinking about it does tend to give suitably-minded hackers feelings of awe and reverence, once they grok it. Even Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, will readily concede that Lisp is beautiful.

Perl, on the other hand, has masses of totally unrelated syntactical bits and pieces drawn from almost everywhere (basic syntax from C, a bunch of environment variables from shell or awk, an inline documentation format, inline regular expressions, formats borrowed from Fortran, bolted-on pseudo-OO from god-knows-where, you name it), so the language, is huge, messy, non-orthogonal, and ugly - but it does have the advantage that if you need a small job done, you can usually get it done in perl rather fast, at the cost, perhaps, of maintainability for long-term or large projects.

So the narrator dreams that the entire universe was created using the cleanest, most elegant and beautiful computer language so far discovered, one which allows the user to create software in terms of high-level abstractions if he or she chooses to; but in reality, God tells him it was a quick-dirty hack-job done in the dirtiest, ugliest - but effective nonetheless - language around. {{unsigned|‎86.165.192.2}}

:I think that A) you've missed the point of that statement, and B) If you believe the explanation to be inaccurate or incomplete you are fully encouraged to edit it. Also, Perl is not the dirtiest, ugliest language around. There are innumerable contenders, but I'd say {{w|Brainfuck}} is definitely in the running, and I personally would say that Java is in there too. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:03, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

::Perl isn't a bad language. The regular expressions that it offers are fantastic, and it's at least ''consistent''. Java's a slow messy and vulnerability-ridden language, but I'd have to go with PHP for the most awful, broken and incomplete piece of crap you could possibly use. Literally has no redeeming features outside of momentum and inexplicably widespread support. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:44, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

:::I never said Perl was bad. I need to teach myself Perl. and that Regular Expressions as we know them today came from Perl, is evidence enough that Perl is a wonderful language. And, I'll agree with you that PHP is an ugly, ugly, disgusting piece of trash. As someone who's had to do OO-PHP, just don't, run far away. I did. I ran to Ruby on Rails, and my life, as a web developer, has been heavenly. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 07:03, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Lisp, the "ultimate low level language"? Ok, whoever wrote that really does not know what he/she is talknig about.

One of the most valuable characteristics of Lisp is the fact that is can be used in functional paradigm. Perl can also be used that way, but is considered a more hackish language and not as elegant as Lisp.
Perl language can solve problems with different methods, and the phrase "ostensibly, yes. Honestly, we hacked most of it together with perl" means that the universe was created with perl, but trying to use Lisp way of programing (probably functional paradigm), instead of actually doing it on Lisp (probably for speed)

Oh, in case is not clear to somebody, Lisp is a HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE.

Java and php would have to compete for the title of the "the dirtiest, ugliest - but effective nonetheless - language around"
[[Special:Contributions/189.135.124.172|189.135.124.172]] 18:32, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Ok, somewhat a Perl-head here, but not going to add to the arguments about that. Instead: I think "My God, it's full of stars!" is ''not'' a quote from 2001 (where I'm fairly sure there's no broadcast dialoguge at all after Hal is silenced), but from the sequal, 2010, in the part where they 'review' the final recordings of the 2001 mission. But I really need someone who has these two films at hand to check before amending the explanation.

(Oh, go on then. Can I nominate Ada as the most godawful 'proper' language? Not as awkward as COBOL can be (for a proper programmer who doesn't need the "Business Orientated" tendencies), but has just the right (or wrong) mix of strictness to get my back up even while maintaining a pretence of being readable. Mind you, it's 20 years since I've used it, so memories about it may be distorted or outdated.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 21:50, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Java is much more elegant and far less hacky than C++, and it's much faster than some people like to admit. It amazes me how many people complain about how "slow" it is, but have nothing but praise for languages like Python. Of course, C++ is much easier to optimize where time is critical. </minirant> [[Special:Contributions/72.9.93.56|72.9.93.56]] 13:59, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

There is a direct reference to the "Lisp epiphany" that many non-LISP programmers are said to experience upon realizing how heavily influenced LISP was by mathematical logic. This is explained far better in a later explanation. It could be brought in here. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 03:37, 24 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't know whether it's important or not, but the line "My God, it's full of stars!" is the title of a chapter in The Little Schemer, which is considered (IMO) a classic CompSci book. If Randall has, by chance, read the book he may have also pulled the inspiration from there as well as 2001. I don't know whetiher this warrents a trivia block or not. [[Special:Contributions/67.176.146.186|67.176.146.186]] 06:34, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

:the quote comes from the book, not the movie. {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.129}}

Lisp is the best language, unfortunately it's not that widely used.

Lisp is a high and low level language.

The worst programming language ever has to be Kodu game lab. Or possibly Malbodge. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.244}}

Perl is the language designed for the convenience of use. It mimics the natural language in the sense that it has great many slightly different features but each feature makes the most sense for its intended use and allows to write the easily understandable programs. An example of opposite is Pascal, which is a tiny language (i.e. "elegant" in the terms of its creator) but you can't do may things with it at all, and for what you can do, you have to turn yourself inside out. Lisp started in 1950s kind of like Pascal but then collected great many different features over time, each one to fix some of its inborn limitations. You still have to turn yourself inside out when you write in Lisp but nowadays there are great many ways to do so. If you wonder, Pascal had been extended as well, and Delphi is an example of an overgrown Pascal. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.5|108.162.246.5]] 21:56, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

About the 2001 quote... I have the October 1968 Arrow paperback edition (09 001530 4) by A.C.Clarke and on page 221 Dave Bowman remarks "The thing's hollow - it goes on for ever - and - oh my God - it's full of stars!". So yes, in the movie this line was never used but in Clarke's novelization of his and Kubrick's screenplay it's there. Fast forward to 1984 with the release of 2010 and the filmmakers decided to put this soundbite in the intro to good effect. So yes it was never in the 2001 movie and was in the 2010 movie but as aforementioned, it was in the 2001 book. [[User:Squirreltape|Squirreltape]] ([[User talk:Squirreltape|talk]]) 20:18, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I believe that the "ostensibly, yes" refers to Greenspun's tenth rule so I added this to the explanation. A complete set of rules for the universe is complex enough for the rule to apply. [[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 04:52, 11 March 2015 (UTC)meneldal

224: Lisp

2015-03-11T04:50:32Z

Meneldal: Greenspun's tenth rule reference

{{comic
| number = 224
| date = February 16, 2007
| title = Lisp
| image = lisp.jpg
| titletext = We lost the documentation on quantum mechanics. You'll have to decode the regexes yourself.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}} is a computer programming language with highly regular syntax. The language's most notable feature is that programs take the same form as the language's primary data structure (the list). This blurs the line between code and data and permits programs to inspect and even alter their own source code, thereby opening up opportunities for {{w|metaprogramming}}. Lisp is also a {{w|Functional programming|functional programming language}} (more or less), meaning that programs are expressed in terms of {{w|lambda calculus}}, a mathematical framework for computation.

The phrase ''A suffusion of blue'' is a reference to {{w|Douglas Adams}}' book ''{{w|The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul}}''. In it, an ''{{w|I Ching}}'' calculator calculates everything above the value of 4 is ''a suffusion of yellow''.

In the comic, Cueball marvels at the fundamental and complete nature of the language of creation that he sees in his dream. In the Lisp programming language, "car" is a fundamental function which produces the first item in a list. The line "My God, It's full of '{{w|CAR_and_CDR|car}}'s" is a pun, most likely referring to the movie {{w|2010}}, the sequel to {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (movie)}}. In the book {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)}} when astronaut David Bowman accidentally activates a star gate he exclaims as he enters it "The thing's hollow — it goes on forever — and — oh my God - it's full of stars!", although he does not say anything in the first movie during the final sequence.

Cueball's remarks about patterns, metapatterns, and the disappearance of syntax are reactions to the elegant simplicity of the Lisp programming language.

God replies that the universe was actually hacked together with the programming language {{w|Perl}}. Perl employs an idiosyncratic syntax which borrows from a number of other languages. Although a versatile language often employed for assembling projects quickly (some might say "hastily"), the language has a reputation for being ugly and inelegant. It was famously described as a "Swiss-Army chainsaw", because it is very powerful but also unwieldy and unattractive.

The joke is that the Creator, like many software developers, was in a bit of a hurry and chose to throw something together rather sloppily.

The second hidden joke might be a reference to {{w|Greenspun's tenth rule}} when God replies with "I mean, ostensibly, yes". Greenspun's tenth rule says that any sufficiently complex program is basically a imperfect reimplementation of Common Lisp. This explains why the program looks like Lisp for the outside observer.

The title text continues the analogy by suggesting that the theory of {{w|quantum mechanics}} was written in {{w|Regular expression|regular expressions}} ("regexes"), a complex language for pattern matching used heavily in Perl. Regular expressions are often criticized as being a {{w|write-only language}}, that is, a language so complicated that any significant program cannot be understood by anybody (often not even the original author). Documentation is essential to assist in the understanding of complex regular expressions. The title text claims that at some point, the documentation for quantum mechanics was lost, which explains why quantum mechanics is so bizarre and complex.

==Transcript==
:[Floating in space.]
:Speaker: Last night I drifted off while reading a Lisp book.
:Cueball: Huh?
:Speaker: Suddenly, I was bathed in a suffusion of blue.

:[Floating in space before a vast concept tree.]
:Speaker: At once, just like they said, I felt a great enlightenment. I saw the naked structure of Lisp code unfold before me.
:Cueball: My God
:Cueball: It's full of 'car's
:Speaker: The patterns and metapatterns danced. Syntax faded, and I swam in the purity of quantified conception. Of ideas manifest.

:[Close-up of floating in space before part of a concept tree.]
:Truly, this was the language from which the gods wrought the Universe.

:[Floating in space with God appearing through a line of clouds.]
:God: No, it's not.
:Cueball: It's not?
:God: I mean, ostensibly, yes. Honestly, we hacked most of it together with Perl.

==Trivia==
*In his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24#t=29m11s Google-speech], [[Randall]] said that he spent 3–4 hours on getting the blue shading just right.

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

306: Orphaned Projects

2015-03-10T02:33:07Z

Meneldal: added the tag for star wars

{{comic
| number = 306
| date = August 22, 2007
| title = Orphaned Projects
| image = orphaned_projects.png
| titletext = His date works for Red Hat, who hired a coach for her, too. She advised her to 'rent lots of movies like Hitch. Guys love those.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Debian}} is a {{w|GNU/Linux}} distribution (but also ships {{w|GNU Hurd}} and {{w|BSD}} versions). {{w|Red Hat}} is the company behind {{w|Fedora Linux}} and {{w|RHEL}}.

The comic is about orphaned Linux projects, because volunteer FOSS developers will often leave their projects aside whenever something of greater importance to them requires more time (like dating relationships, tiredness, sickness etc.). Some companies/foundations, while not needing these developers, can greatly benefit from community-maintained projects. The Debian Team uses a paradoy of the famous {{w|Yoda}} quote from the first Star Wars movie in the first panel "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering" by replacing it with dating and orphaned projects.

{{w|Hitch (film)|''Hitch''}} is a {{w|romantic comedy}} in which {{w|Will Smith}} plays a "dating coach", who helps men to have successful dates with women. To avoid losing their developers, both companies have opted to hire Hitch-like advisors to give them intentionally bad dating advice, thus sabotaging their relationship before it could become distracting: The man is advised to criticize his date in an attempt to appear more intelligent (something very unlikely to work, but nonetheless attempted by some men), and in the title text, we learn that the woman is being similarly advised to watch lots of romantic comedies (bad advice because stereotypically guys do not love those).

==Transcript==
:[Voices are coming from behind a door with a sign that reads "Debian Linux HQ".]
:First voice: Problem: One of the volunteer developers has a date this weekend. Dates lead to romance, romance leads to orphaned projects.
:Second voice: What's the plan?
:First voice: We're hiring him a relationship coach. He's like Will Smith in "Hitch," but he only gives bad advice.
:[Black Hat is talking to Cueball, who is standing in from of a mirror.]
:Black Hat: Okay, remember: The key to conversation is constructive criticism.
:Black Hat: You need to show you're smart enough to solve her problems.
:Cueball: Makes sense.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]

306: Orphaned Projects

2015-03-10T02:31:16Z

Meneldal: Added star wars reference

Talk:306: Orphaned Projects

2015-03-10T02:26:26Z

Meneldal:

The initial panel seems reminiscent of "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." {{unsigned ip|‎138.163.106.72}}
This kind of sentence is too rare to not be an obvious reference I believe. Editing the explanation accordingly [[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 02:26, 10 March 2015 (UTC)meneldal

607: 2038

2015-02-18T02:18:38Z

Meneldal: 2032->2038 (typo)

{{comic
| number = 607
| date = July 8, 2009
| title = 2038
| image = 2038.png
| titletext = If only we'd chosen 1944-12-02 08:45:52 as the Unix epoch, we could've combined two doomsday scenarios into one and added a really boring scene to that Roland Emmerich movie.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|2038 problem}} is a well-known problem with 32-bit Unix-based operating systems. {{w|Unix time}} is stored as a 32-bit signed integer on these systems, counting the number of seconds since 1970. In 2038, we overflow the highest number we can store in 32-bit integers, leading to unexpected behavior. The switch to 64-bit operating systems will most likely be complete by the year 2038, which is why the speaker is relieved. The reference to {{w|Y2K}} is a throwback to the year 2000 problem, in which people were concerned that computers storing digits as two numbers (e.g.: 99 to represent 1999) would cause problems when the year 2000 began because 00 could have been interpreted as 1900 by error. That Y2K issue was covered widely — with only some small mishaps — but calculating dates beyond 2038 is still not solved on many 32-bit UNIX based systems today.

The title text is a reference to the film "2012" which is about the world ending in December of 2012, at the end of the {{w|Mayan calendar}}. If the designers of the UNIX operating system had used 1944 as their epoch instead of 1970, then the UNIX crash due to a variable overflow would coincide with the end of the Mayan calendar. Thus, the implication is that there could have been a boring scene in the movie where the UNIX time rolls over and nothing happens and no one cares — because the world doesn't exist any more.

==Transcript==
:I'm glad we're switching to 64-bit, because I wasn't looking forward to convincing people to care about the Unix 2038 problem.
:Friend: What's that?
:Cueball (arms raised high): Remember Y2K? This could be even ''worse!''

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

Talk:1479: Troubleshooting

2015-01-29T02:32:47Z

Meneldal:

You could also move the off-scrren window back in view by Alt+Space, M to initiate window move, then press any arrow key and your mouse will then be able to move the window back into view. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.223}}
:That's a solution that also relies on obscure knowledge (that modal dialogs have a Move command and the hotkey necessary to access it), so it isn't any better than the solution provided in the strip. '''AND''' it requires that the user know where offscreen the dialog is located. Mistakenly believing it is, for example, to the right of the visible screen and therefore moving it left will only make the problem worse it the unseen window is in actuality to the left already. Given the 75% or better odds that the user will guess wrong where the dialog lies, using the Move command would be a notably worse choice then changing screen resolution.- Equinox [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.120|199.27.128.120]] 16:25, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
::Actually this does work for all Windows machines and something I've done repeatedly (it's a lot faster than waiting for your video card to repeatedly reconfigure the screen). Once you hit Alt-Space M followed by ANY arrow key, the window will actually be stuck to your mouse pointer; you click it to "drop" the window back onto the page. And yes, the idea that a keyboard arrow key will cause it to be mouse-driven makes no sense [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 17:50, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

As a matter of fact this is a common problem if you often use a dual screen setup with a laptop when you use it on the move without the second screen. If you just want to close the windows, a Esc on a alert windows or alt+F4 (or your system equivalent)will usually solve this problem. For resizeable windows, Windows offers the Win+left/right combination to move a window to specific parts of the screen. I don7t think you really need to change the resolution for this all the time, it's clearly overkill. [[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 06:40, 28 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal

:On a dual screen setup you can use 'Win key + Shift + Left/Right key' to shift the window left or right between monitors. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:37, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

::Note that the Win-left/right and Win-Shift-left/right key combinations are only supported in Windows 7 or later versions. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.27|173.245.55.27]] 13:17, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I'm also familiar with this kind of thing (the strip, I mean, not specifically the last comment). The general form is that a casual (or even expert!) user expects something from the interface but some historic programmer (of UI or application) has caused the 'obvious' continuity to fail, either by ommission (e.g. checking the placement bounds of a popover window) or by being ''too'' clever in some manner. The 'stupid knowledge expert' has encountered the problem enough times to: a) find a common root to the issues, and b) stumble upon a solution. (Like the "unstick the Windows-key flag" solution to suddenly getting Run dialogues, Explorer windows and sudden minimising-all to Desktop, seemingly randomly.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.120|141.101.99.120]] 08:29, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

It amazes me how many people assume Microsoft Windows. If you aren't using MS-Windows, the key combinations suggested in the discussion so far are useless. If you are using the X Window System, you might also be seeing a system modal dialog instead of an application modal dialog, in which case, you won't be able anything but talk to that window. (System modal dialogs are usually used for very transient things like popup menus.) Using X, the "cleanup" behavior also depends on the window manager, and neither X or the window manager are part of the operating system (that abomination is now pretty much just an MS-Windows thing). --[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 10:39, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

: People tend to assume Windows because in the majority of cases that assumption is correct. In the minority of cases where the user isn't on Windows, those asking the question nearly always mention the fact in their question, or direct their question at an OS-specific topic/forum/website. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:21, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

: Mac OS X also uses a baked-in window manager. There are a bunch of apps on OS X that brand themselves as `alternative WMs', but they're usually just a contrived way of tiling windows across the screen somehow (using the built-in WM). Wanting to use a proper tiling WM was what originally drove me to GNU/Linux, long live i3wm! Anyway, this comic could possibly be construed as being related to xkcd.com/934/, which complains about browsers implementing internal WMs in the alt-text. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.103|141.101.99.103]] 11:45, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

:I think the first option (ALT-SPACE to access the window menu, M for the move option, arrow key, mouse movement) has a near-equivalent in pretty much any OS. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.27|173.245.55.27]] 13:21, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Someone competent in web programming, please write an explanation of the title text [[User:Nyq|Nyq]] ([[User talk:Nyq|talk]]) 13:58, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
:If I'm not mistaken (and I'm not an expert), a Chrome App is some sort of program (eg Flash based) that runs in the normal "browser space" - the area where you normally see web pages, and which can use Chrome features and controls. A Chrome Extension is a a program which runs in the background and can act on the browser space or the browser itself (eg open your downloads folder in a new tab with one click of a button). Extensions can also use Chrome features and controls. Sound about right? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:34, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Most likely he is on a laptop with an NVidia gpu which in recent driver versions often believe something is connected to the VGA port when this is not the case. The desktop will then think this area is valid, and allow windows to be opened there, in fact it is likely to be opened there because that part of the desktop is clean for windows and looks optimal for placing a new one. At least that is what has been happening to me for the last few months until I forced the VGA port off rather than wait for NVidia to fix their drivers or rolling them back to versions that would misrender recent games (both Windows and Linux drivers did this).[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 15:41, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Goddamned this sort of thing happens on my dual monitor setup all the time. The external will be at 1366x768, and stuff will be cut off. I change it to something else, and then revert the changes and it's perfect. I keep a shortcut to the Display settings on my desktop just because of this now. And in other, similarly stupid Windows-issue related news, it's 2009+6 and [http://superuser.com/questions/61833/windows-7-taskbar-icon-highlight-sticks this crap] still isn't fixed. [[User:Schiffy|Schiffy]] ([[User_talk:Schiffy|Speak to me]]|[[Special:Contributions/Schiffy|What I've done]]) 16:22, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

The Chrome developer site [https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/apps_vs_extensions] gives a breakdown on how Chrome apps and extensions are different. Apparently, you can have a Chrome app and a Chrome extension that do similar things, but the extension lacks the user interface, etc., and some of the more interactive features of the app. [[User:Aquarello7|Aquarello7]] ([[User talk:Aquarello7|talk]]) 16:54, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
:yeah, I'm not sure what the comparison is - I wonder what an example of a product that is both an app and an extension (that aren't COMPLETELY different, that is) - something like a url shortener or twitter assistant come to mind as possibilities, but even a novice user would likely not have trouble distinguishing between an extension (something embedded in the page, a context menu option, or a shortcut through the omnibox) and an app (full page, possibly even separate window type thing) once the differences were described - though I think you can accomplish window creation in an extension, it's not designed for it, so for a developer to make an extension that can "create" a window and ALSO make an app to do the same thing seems strange and exceptional - not common enough for there to be a joke about it. I'm slightly confused. -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 18:35, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Of course, their are legitimate reasons why an application may want to display itself fully or partially off screen. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.92|173.245.50.92]] 21:29, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
:This is even the basis for the best pranks (works even better if you disable some shortcuts to make it harder to close). But unless you get the keyboard interrupts, windows+D will solve the modal issue anyway[[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 02:32, 29 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal

Talk:895: Teaching Physics

2015-01-29T02:16:29Z

Meneldal:

I guess that this emphasize how a good intended teacher try to explain the general parts of the topic with simple words and this is ruined by a douche student.... I think that is the same student that says "Boooooring" when the teacher explain it without any analogy. Pablo Ochoa

I hit something like this when analogising the expansion of the Universe with dots on a balloon... people have a hardtime ignoring the insides of the balloon and think that is the centre. Goes to show how analogies can only go so far. ([[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.240|141.101.99.240]] 14:56, 14 January 2014 (UTC)MARK ZAMBELLI, edited 20140114)

Maybe the problem with the universe is that the actual topography of the universe is still unknown. So since nobody knows what is the shape of the universe, it makes indeed little sense to try to define a centre. If the universe turns out to be a sphere (even if it doesn't seem likely) we could define a centre.[[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 02:16, 29 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal

An analogy doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be helpful. It is meant to be a stepping stone between not understanding and full understanding, so your mind can take two smaller leaps instead of one huge one. Apologies for the poor analogy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 21:36, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:895: Teaching Physics

2015-01-29T02:15:46Z

Meneldal:

I guess that this emphasize how a good intended teacher try to explain the general parts of the topic with simple words and this is ruined by a douche student.... I think that is the same student that says "Boooooring" when the teacher explain it without any analogy. Pablo Ochoa

I hit something like this when analogising the expansion of the Universe with dots on a balloon... people have a hardtime ignoring the insides of the balloon and think that is the centre. Goes to show how analogies can only go so far. ([[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.240|141.101.99.240]] 14:56, 14 January 2014 (UTC)MARK ZAMBELLI, edited 20140114)

Maybe with the universe is that the actual topography of the universe is still unknown. So since nobody knows what is the shape of the universe, it makes indeed little sense to try to define a centre. If the universe turns out to be a sphere (even if it doesn't seem likely) we could define a centre.[[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 02:15, 29 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal

An analogy doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be helpful. It is meant to be a stepping stone between not understanding and full understanding, so your mind can take two smaller leaps instead of one huge one. Apologies for the poor analogy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 21:36, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1479: Troubleshooting

2015-01-28T06:40:46Z

Meneldal:

You could also move the off-scrren window back in view by Alt+Space, M to initiate window move, then press any arrow key and your mouse will then be able to move the window back into view.

As a matter of fact this is a common problem if you often use a dual screen setup with a laptop when you use it on the move without the second screen. If you just want to close the windows, a Esc on a alert windows or alt+F4 (or your system equivalent)will usually solve this problem. For resizeable windows, Windows offers the Win+left/right combination to move a window to specific parts of the screen. I don7t think you really need to change the resolution for this all the time, it's clearly overkill. [[User:Meneldal|Meneldal]] ([[User talk:Meneldal|talk]]) 06:40, 28 January 2015 (UTC)meneldal