explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2063: Carnot Cycle

2018-10-24T18:39:59Z

Mlv:

The Carnot cycle is a theoretical construct from thermodynamics describing an ideal way to produce work using a temperature differential. The shape of the diagram matches diagrams of said cycle. The different stages in the Carnot cycle are either isentropic or isothermal. 'Isometric', 'Isotonic', and 'Isopropyl' all play on the 'iso' prefix. 'Isometric' also describes the shape of the diagram. 'Isotonic' seems to have something to do with muscles... which I suppose have some relation to engines as well—they both do work.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.218.52|172.69.218.52]] 16:11, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Did anyone notice that there is a note on the top of XKCD about how to register to vote? [[User:Zachweix|Zachweix]] ([[User talk:Zachweix|talk]]) 17:18, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
:Randall often gives some hints to elections, in this case it's the {{w|United States House of Representatives elections, 2018}} on November 6, 2018. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:30, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Please read the [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ|Editor FAQ]] about tables, this here was a good example where tables should not be used (check the history at this comic for the former layout.) Furthermore we should explain the comic but not the real Carnot Cycle, that's done in the Wiki link or at least it should be done in a separate chapter. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:06, 24 October 2018 (UTC)
:I'm sure it doesn't need a full explanation, but because the pairings of the stages are part of the joke, I think it's necessary to explain what each stage is. But just enough to explain the contrast. –[[User:P1h3r1e3d13|P1h3r1e3d13]] ([[User talk:P1h3r1e3d13|talk]]) 18:39, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

'''Inflation is probably wrong explained'''

One section before dark energy is mentioned, in Cosmology this energy causes the ''cosmic inflation''. I'm sure Randall talks about this. But maybe we just should mention both. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:12, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Is there a pun in the title text on token-ring (Tolkien ring) networks? [[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 18:39, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1814: Color Pattern

2017-03-24T19:18:17Z

Mlv:

This link, note 1, may help whomever is going to be editing the comic explanation, I don't have time this morning. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:40, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

May help '''''whoever is going to be editing ...'''''

Did a quick google and copy/pasted from the Wikipedia page on Moiré patterns. [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 13:51, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:This is a copyright infringement. The contents of Wikipedia are not in the {{w|public domain}}. When using text from Wikipedia anywhere, you must indicate the license (CC-BY-SA 3.0).--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.82|162.158.150.82]] 13:58, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::This is fine. Wikipedia text is licensed for re-use by anybody, provided the original is referenced; Xseo referenced the source material in his comment above, and an explicit link is given in the article; furthermore, this entire website is CC-BY-SA 3.0, as indicated in the footer on every page. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 15:16, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

I can't be the only one for whom the note emoji are not showing up.
:I don't see them either. I'm running Chrome 48 Portable. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.225|162.158.62.225]] 14:18, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::Running Chrome 57, Chromium 53, and Firefox 52; the note emoji doesn't work on any of these (Linux Mint 17.3 64-bit). I wonder why? [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 15:19, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::: Works for me, Firefox 52. Bring up the menu bar (Alt or F10), "View > Text Encoding > Unicode". If you still don't see the notes, it may be an issue with the font settings. You could try to fiddle with "Tools > Options > Content > Default Font". Instead of using the menu, you can bring up "Options" by entering "about:preferences" in the address bar. If that doesn't work, you need professional help. ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.106|162.158.114.106]] 06:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
::Chrome 56 for Android, they display for me. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 10:24, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

AFAIK moiree patterns would not show up on an image that have been *properly* sampled, such moiree patterns are IIRC a byproduct of poorly sampled digital images. See WP for "aliasing" and "digital sampling" for reference. My two cents... [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 14:31, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:Good Lord. 24 hours! If any of you guys are actual engineers you should be ashamed of yourselves! I am not an engineer, but I do know a a tiny bit about signal theory, hence the tip. But then again this just shows how cheap shit chinese gizmos proliferate. Quality just cost too much, haha! Just need the looks, not the brainz! Only the zombies loves them BRAINZZZZZ! hurr hurr. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 19:17, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
::What are you trying to say with 24 hours. At this moment the comic has been up for 6 hours... If you think the explanation could be improved this is luckily a wiki, so you could just improve instead of rant ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:55, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
:::Did I say that too early? Well it certainly is 24+ hours now and you guys still don't know where the dart target is. :D The comic suggests some matches of geometry in the digital age are highly prone to distortions. That's interesting in it's own, but feel free to ignore it. As I hinted the real issue here relates to digital sampling and aliasing problems related to this. There are more than one way to fix artifacts in images, but one method involves oversampling at about twice the nyquist frequency and running the signal through a band-pass filter. That's fairly common, but I think that will only solve aliasing related to sampling not moiree patterns occurring naturally due to geometry. I suspect a digital photo of a digital screen might be one such case, of "naturally" occurring distortion patterns. [[User:Todor|Todor]] ([[User talk:Todor|talk]]) 18:08, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
::::I cannot see this has anything to do with the explanation. Cueball has a moiré pattern on his picture of his lap top screen as taken by the phone, which obviously do not sample properly. I have seen the same using my phone and camera. This comic explains in a song why a moiré patterns forms, and the explanation above explains why such a pattern occurs. I cannot see any connection with what you write. But if you think it is relevant feel free to try and include a paragraph on the subject, it is a wiki. In case it does make sense, then it is probably just me that do not understand what you write, but hey I'm not an engineer so... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

The Dean Martin version, which likely is the only version anyone younger than I has heard goes like this- When the moon hits your eye -
like a bigga pizza pie -
That's amore - -
When the world seems to shine -
like you've had too much wine -
That's amore [[User:ExternalMonolog|ExternalMonolog]] ([[User talk:ExternalMonolog|talk]]) 04:25, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
: At first I thought Russell was alluding to [[wikipedia:Tom Lehrer|Tom Lehrer's]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7VQFfusQJk "That's Mathematics"]. :D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.106|162.158.114.106]] 06:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

"Amore" is pronounces as /aˈmɔːrɛ/ in Italian. The initial vowel is a clean open "a" and there's no final "ei" but rather a clean open "e". Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Italian (Not counting I am Italian myself!)

Sorry, I can't help myself, but... If it's swimming in the sea and it's long and slippery, that's a moray [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 07:54, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

: "When you try write a song, but the rhythm is wrong, that's a pity... (but still witty)" ^_^ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.180|141.101.107.180]] 10:28, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

: When it's sometimes quite slow but on average it goes, that's amor...tized
: If your alphabet soup is tied up like a sloop, that's a mored A
: (This nonsense definitely not by [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 10:23, 23 March 2017 (UTC))
: If a diet's your wish, but you can't avoid the dish, that's a moreish [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.150|141.101.107.150]] 12:10, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Is it bad I came to the talk page specifically for more song lyrics? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.30|172.68.65.30]] 05:29, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
: Then you'll be happy to hear that Jamie Zawinski and Michael Bayne wrote another verse for their [https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/ Moiré screensaver]:
:: ''When the lines on the screen''
:: ''Make more lines in between,''
:: ''That's a moiré!'' [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.167|162.158.91.167]] 07:18, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
:::Now I'm happy ;-) I have also added this to the list of songs that precedes Randall's. Wonder if he knew about this, or got the idea by himself independently? I think (and hope) he did. He has before [[1723:_Meteorite_Identification#Trivia|given credit]] on xkcd to one that had made a similar joke to his before him. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
:"When you've stopped for the night,"
: "and the dock's not in sight,"
: "That's a mooring!"
:"When the anchor's in view"
: "And there's nothing to do"
: "That's a mooring!"
:--[[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 19:18, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Does anybody else think that the title text may just as well refer to "amore" as to "a moire"? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.209|162.158.91.209]] 15:40, 23 March 2017 (UTC)
:Yes I think that is relevant. Have added it to the title text explanation. Thanks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:51, 24 March 2017 (UTC)
::Hmmm... the explanation would also be valid the other way round. Cause (amore) and effect (tight spacing) ... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.209|162.158.91.209]] 11:15, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

1767: US State Names

2016-12-02T12:50:20Z

Mlv: Fixed/added wikipedia links

{{comic
| number = 1767
| date = December 2, 2016
| title = US State Names
| image = us_state_names.png
| titletext = Technically DC isn't a state, but no one is too pedantic about it because they don't want to disturb the snakes.
}}

==Explanation==
This is just a silly map.

[[Randall]] has taken a {{w|map}} of {{w|the United States of America}} labeled "Geography Challenge: Name all 50 States" and filled in the states with words that sound similar to the states' names. The joke is that Randall is apparently terrible at remembering states by heart, or else that he interpreted "name" as "give a name to" and is giving each state a name similar to but different from its previous name. Additionally, song such as the [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fifty+nifty+united+states+song 50 Nifty United States] that make these issues seem rarer, thus making it funnier. Below is the table.

===Table of States===
{{incomplete|Some states unfinished. Make wikipedia links}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Fictional State
! Actual State
! Explanation
|-
| Wilwheaton
| {{w|Washington_State|Washington}}
| {{w|Wil Wheaton}} is an actor and writer
|-
| Organs
| {{w|Oregon}}
| Probably a reference to the game "Organ Trail" which is a parody of the game "The Oregon Trail"
|-
| Cafeteria
| {{w|California}}
| A cafeteria is a kind of restaurant
|-
| Fallout New Vegas
| {{w|Nevada}}
| Fallout New Vegas is set in Nevada
|-
| Idolatry
| {{w|Idaho}}
| Idolatry the worship of a physical object as a god, forbidden in many religions
|-
| mount -a
| {{w|Montana}}
| A command to mount all disk volumes
|-
| Wysiwyg
| {{w|Wyoming}}
| Acronym What You See Is What You Get.
|-
| Uhaul
| {{w|Utah}}
| {{w|U-Haul}} is a company where you can rent vans.
|-
| Verizona
| {{w|Arizona}}
| Verizon has a shared "Rizon" with Arizona. Randall presumably enjoys this.
|-
| Namaste
| {{w|New Mexico}}
| {{w|Namaste}} is a Hindu greeting.
|-
| Hexxus
| Texas
| The antagonist of Ferngully. {{w|FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest|FernGully}} is said to be the model for the later film "Avatar". This is the second time Hexxus was mentioned in xkcd, the first occurence being in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1750:_Life_Goals Life Goals]
|-
| Okay
| {{w|Oklahoma}}
| OK is the state's abbreviation.
|-
| Candice
| {{w|Kansas}}
| Candice is a girl's name of Latin origin, meaning "clarity, whiteness" ("canditia").
|-
| Colocated
| {{w|Colorado}}
| Refers to computer servers located in a {{w|Colocation Center}}
|-
| Nebrunswick
| {{w|Nebraska}}
| {{w|New Brunswick}}, a Canadian province. People sometimes write "NB" as the postal abbreviation for Nebraska; in reality, Nebraska is "NE", and while there is no "NB" in the U.S. postal system, New Brunswick is "NB" in the Canadian postal system.
|-
| Dakota
| {{w|South Dakota}}
| Randall seems to have forgotten his directions, so he drops the normal "South" and "North". He may also be teasing that this doesn't matter.
|-
| More Dakota
| {{w|North Dakota}}
| See South Dakota
|-
| Minestrone
| {{w|Minnesota}}
| Minestrone is a thick vegetable soup, originating in Italy.
|-
| Wainscot
| {{w|Wisconsin}}
| A type of wood {{w||Wainscot_panelling|panelling}} covering only the lower half of a wall
|-
| Iota
| {{w|Iowa}}
| Iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh.
|-
| Sk8rbois
| {{w|Illinois}}
| "Skater Boys." {{w|Sk8er Boi}} is a song by Avril Lavigne.
|-
| Mossouri
| {{w|Missouri}}
| The single different letter might be borrowed from Montessori, as in Montessori schools.
|-
| Arkanoids
| {{w|Arkansas}}
| An arcade game.
|-
| Louisa
| {{w|Louisiana}}
| Louisa, feminine of Louis, is an Old German name meaning "famous warrior".
|-
| Misstate
| {{w|Mississippi}}
| "Mis-" is a prefix meaning “wrong,” “incorrect,” or simply negating. "Misstate" could be a non-state. {{w|Mississipi State University|Miss State}} is a university in Mississippi.
|-
| Bandana
| {{w|Alabama}}
|
|-
| Thennessy
| {{w|Tennessee}}
| {{w|Hennessy}} is a brand of cognac.
|-
| Kennedy
| {{w|Kentucky}}
| The Kennedy family is an American family that has been prominent in American politics, public service, and business during the 20th century.
|-
| That Other One
| {{w|Indiana}}
| 'That Other One' is something someone might say if they were trying to name all the states from memory, and knew where a state was but not what it was called.
|-
| Mishy
| {{w|Michigan}}
| According to the Urban Dictionary, "mishy" means "[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mishy mushy and horny at the same time]".
|-
| Oh Hi
| {{w|Ohio}}
| OH-HI-OH is a popular cheer by fans of {{w|Ohio State University}}
|-
| Pencilmania
| {{w|Pennsylvania}}
| [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151935/ Pencil Mania] is a 1932 Tom and Jerry cartoon in which they pull out a pencil and proceed to draw figures in the air
|-
| Newark
| {{w|New York}}
| Newark element14 or simply Newark, is the official distributor of Raspberry Pi. Possible reference to William Gibson's works. Also, many people that live in Newark commute 14 miles to work in New York. A mispronunciation of New York.
|-
| Vermouth
| {{w|Vermont}}
| {{w|Vermouth}} is an Italian alcoholic beverage.
|-
| New Hamper
| {{w|New Hampshire}}
|
|-
| Spanish Maine
| {{w|Maine}}
| The {{w|Spanish Main}} was the mainland Spanish colonial possessions around the Gulf of Mexico.
|-
| Masseuses
| {{w|Massachusetts}}
| Women who give massages professionally.
|-
| Roald Dahl
| {{w|Rhode Island}}
| A British writer, famous for child novels such as {{w|Charlie and the Chocolate Factory}}.
|-
| Connectfour
| {{w|Connecticut}}
| Connect Four is a two-player game, in which the objective is to connect four of your checkers in a row while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
|-
| Nude Juggalos
| {{w|New Jersey}}
| {{w|Juggalo}} is a name given to fans of the group Insane Clown Posse or any other Psychopathic Records hip hop group.
|-
| Delorean
| {{w|Delaware}}
| A {w|DeLorean_DMC-12|car}} famous as the {{w|DeLorean_time_machine time machine car}} in Back to the Future movies
|-
| Maybelline
| {{w|Maryland}}
| {{w|Maybelline}} is a make-up brand.
|-
| District of Colubrids
| {{w|District of Columbia}}
| The{{w|Colubridae}} are the biggest family of snakes, accounting for about two thirds of the world's species. As the title text mentions, the{{w|Washington,_D.C.|District of Columbia}}, although not part of any state, is technically not a state itself, but is usually labeled on the maps like the 50 others for practical reasons. Here, Randall humorously explains the reason as people not wanting to upset the aforementioned snakes by dismissing their district for this pedantic reason.
|-
| Wyvern
| {{w|West Virginia}}
| A {{w|Wyvern}} is a mythical creature.
|-
| Virjayjay
| {{w|Virginia}}
| Virginia is similar to vagina. Vajayjay is slang for vagina.
|-
| Sweet Caroline
| {{w|North Carolina}}
| A {{w|Sweet_Caroline|song}} by Neil Diamond.
|-
| South Caroline
| {{w|South Carolina}}
| A further reference to {{w|Sweet_Caroline|song 'Sweet Caroline'}} by Neil Diamond, similar to 'Dakota' and 'More Dakota.' Plays on similarity between the names 'Caroline' and 'Carolina'.
|-
| George
| {{w|Georgia}}
| Georgia was named for {{w|George II of Great Britain}}
|-
| Fyoridor
| {{w|Florida}}
| Possibly derived from the Russian name Fyodor, as in Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
|-
| Alberta
| {{w|Alaska}}
| A Canadian province.
|-
| Kawaii
| {{w|Hawaii}}
| A Japanese term for cute commonly romanized similar to Hawaii. Possible reference to the 1957 war movie [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212 The Bridge on the River Kwai]. Not to be confused with {{w|Kauai}}, a Hawaiian island.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[A map of the United States, with incorrect state names. A title:]

Geography challenge:

'''Name all 50 States'''

| Alabama => Bandana |

| Alaska => Alberta |

| Arizona => Verizona |

| Arkansas => Arkanoids |

| California => Cafeteria |

| Colorado => Colocated |

| Connecticut => Connect Four |

| Delaware => Delorean |

| District of Columbia => District of Colubrids |

| Florida => Fyoridor |

| Georgia => George |

| Hawaii => Kawaii |

| Idaho => Idolatry |

| Illinois => SK8RBOIS |

| Indiana => That Other One |

| Iowa => Iota |

| Kansas => Candice |

| Kentucky => Kennedy |

| Louisiana => Loisa |

| Maine => Spanish Maine |

| Maryland => Maybelline |

| Massachusetts => Masseuses |

| Michigan => Mishy |

| Minnesota => Minestrone |

| Mississippi => Misstate |

| Missouri => Mossouri |

| Montana => mount -a |

| Nebraska => Nebrunswick |

| Nevada => Fallout New Vegas |

| New Hampshire => New Hamper |

| New Jersey => Nude Juggalos |

| New Mexico => Namaste |

| New York => Newark |

| North Carolina => Sweet Caroline |

| South Carolina => South Caroline |

| Ohio => Oh Hi |

| Oklahoma => Okay |

| Oregon => Organs |

| Pennsylvania => Pencilmania |

| Rhode Island => Roald Dahl |

| South Dakota => Dakota |

| /North Dakota => More Dakota |

| Tennessee => Thennessy |

| Texas => Hexxus |

| Utah => Uhaul |

| Vermont => Vermouth |

| Virginia => Virjayjay |

| Washington => Willwheaton |

| West Virginia => Wyvern |

| Wisconsin => Wainscot |

| Wyoming => WYSIWYG |

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]

1767: US State Names

2016-12-02T12:24:38Z

Mlv: Fixed Wil Wheaton's entry, and edited a couple others

{{comic
| number = 1767
| date = December 2, 2016
| title = US State Names
| image = us_state_names.png
| titletext = Technically DC isn't a state, but no one is too pedantic about it because they don't want to disturb the snakes.
}}

==Explanation==
This is just a silly map.

[[Randall]] has taken a {{w|map}} of {{w|the United States of America}} labeled "Geography Challenge: Name all 50 States" and filled in the states with words that sound similar to the states' names. The joke is that Randall is apparently terrible at remembering states by heart, or else that he interpreted "name" as "give a name to" and is giving each state a name similar to but different from its previous name. Additionally, song such as the [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fifty+nifty+united+states+song 50 Nifty United States] that make these issues seem rarer, thus making it funnier. Below is the table.

===Table of States===
{{incomplete|Some states unfinished. Make wikipedia links}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Fictional State
! Actual State
! Explanation
|-
| Wilwheaton
| Washington
| {{w|Wil Wheaton}} is an actor and writer
|-
| Organs
| Oregon
| Probably a reference to the game "Organ Trail" which is a parody of the game "The Oregon Trail"
|-
| Cafeteria
| California
| A cafeteria is a kind of restaurant
|-
| Fallout New Vegas
| Nevada
| Fallout New Vegas is set in Nevada
|-
| Idolatry
| Idaho
| Idolatry the worship of a physical object as a god, forbidden in many religions
|-
| mount -a
| Montana
| A command to mount all disk volumes
|-
| Wysiwyg
| Wyoming
| Acronym What You See Is What You Get.
|-
| Uhaul
| Utah
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-Haul U-Haul] is a company where you can rent vans.
|-
| Verizona
| Arizona
| Verizon has a shared "Rizon" with Arizona. Randall presumably enjoys this.
|-
| Namaste
| New Mexico
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste Namaste] is a Hindu greeting.
|-
| Hexxus
| Texas
| The antagonist of Ferngully. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest FernGully] is said to be the model for the later film "Avatar".
|-
| Okay
| Oklahoma
| OK is the state's abbreviation.
|-
| Candice
| Kansas
| Candice is a girl's name of Latin origin, meaning "clarity, whiteness" ("canditia").
|-
| Colocated
| Colorado
| Refers to computer servers located in a {{w|Colocation Center}}
|-
| Nebrunswick
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska Nebraska]
| [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Brunswick New Brunswick], a Canadian province. People sometimes write "NB" as the postal abbreviation for Nebraska; in reality, Nebraska is "NE", and while there is no "NB" in the U.S. postal system, New Brunswick is "NB" in the Canadian postal system.
|-
| Dakota
| South Dakota
| Randall seems to have forgotten his directions, so he drops the normal "South" and "North". He may also be teasing that this doesn't matter.
|-
| More Dakota
| North Dakota
| See South Dakota
|-
| Minestrone
| Minnesota
| Minestrone is a thick vegetable soup, originating in Italy.
|-
| Wainscot
| Wisconsin
| A type of wood [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panelling#Wainscot_panelling panelling] covering only the lower half of a wall
|-
| Iota
| Iowa
| Iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh.
|-
| Sk8rbois
| Illinois
| "Skater Boys." {{w|Sk8er Boi}} is a song by Avril Lavigne.
|-
| Mossouri
| Missouri
| The single different letter might be borrowed from Montessori, as in Montessori schools.
|-
| Arkanoids
| Arkansas
| An arcade game.
|-
| Louisa
| Louisiana
| Louisa, feminine of Louis, is an Old German name meaning "famous warrior".
|-
| Misstate
| Mississippi
| "Mis-" is a prefix meaning “wrong,” “incorrect,” or simply negating. "Misstate" could be a non-state. {{w|Mississipi State University|Miss State}} is a university in Mississippi.
|-
| Bandana
| Alabama
|
|-
| Thennessy
| Tennessee
| {{w|Hennessy}} is a brand of cognac.
|-
| Kennedy
| Kentucky
| The Kennedy family is an American family that has been prominent in American politics, public service, and business during the 20th century.
|-
| That Other One
| Indiana
| 'That Other One' is something someone might say if they were trying to name all the states from memory, and knew where a state was but not what it was called.
|-
| Mishy
| Michigan
| According to the Urban Dictionary, "mishy" means "[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mishy mushy and horny at the same time]".
|-
| Oh Hi
| Ohio
| OH-HI-OH is a popular cheer by fans of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_University Ohio State University]
|-
| Pencilmania
| Pennsylvania
| [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151935/ Pencil Mania] is a 1932 Tom and Jerry cartoon in which they pull out a pencil and proceed to draw figures in the air
|-
| Newark
| New York
| Newark element14 or simply Newark, is the official distributor of Raspberry Pi. Possible reference to William Gibson's works. Also, many people that live in Newark commute 14 miles to work in New York. A mispronunciation of New York.
|-
| Vermouth
| Vermont
| {{w|Vermouth}} is an Italian alcoholic beverage.
|-
| New Hamper
| New Hampshire
|
|-
| Spanish Maine
| Maine
| The {{w|Spanish Main}} was the mainland Spanish colonial possessions around the Gulf of Mexico.
|-
| Masseuses
| Massachusetts
| Women who give massages professionally.
|-
| Roald Dahl
| Rhode Island
| A British writer, famous for child novels such as {{w|Charlie and the Chocolate Factory}}.
|-
| Connectfour
| Connecticut
| Connect Four is a two-player game, in which the objective is to connect four of your checkers in a row while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
|-
| Nude Juggalos
| New Jersey
| {{w|Juggalo}} is a name given to fans of the group Insane Clown Posse or any other Psychopathic Records hip hop group.
|-
| Delorean
| Delaware
| A car famous as the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_time_machine time machine car] in Back to the Future movies
|-
| Maybelline
| Maryland
| {{w|Maybelline}} is a make-up brand.
|-
| District of Colubrids
| District of Columbia
| The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colubridae Colubridae] are the biggest family of snakes, accounting for about two thirds of the world's species. As the title text mentions, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C. District of Columbia], although not part of any state, is technically not a state itself, but is usually labeled on the maps like the 50 others for practical reasons. Here, Randall humorously explains the reason as people not wanting to upset the aforementioned snakes by dismissing their district for this pedantic reason.
|-
| Wyvern
| West Virginia
| A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyvern Wyvern] is a mythical creature.
|-
| Virjayjay
| Virginia
| Virginia is similar to vagina. Vajayjay is slang for vagina.
|-
| Sweet Caroline
| North Carolina
| A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Caroline song] by Neil Diamond.
|-
| South Caroline
| South Carolina
| A further reference to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Caroline song 'Sweet Caroline'] by Neil Diamond, similar to 'Dakota' and 'More Dakota.' Plays on similarity between the names 'Caroline' and 'Carolina'.
|-
| George
| Georgia
|
|-
| Fyoridor
| Florida
| Possibly derived from the Russian name Fyodor, as in Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
|-
| Alberta
| Alaska
| A Canadian province.
|-
| Kawaii
| Hawaii
| A Japanese term for cute commonly romanized similar to Hawaii. Possible reference to the 1957 war movie [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212 The Bridge on the River Kwai]. Not to be confused with {{w|Kauai}}, a Hawaiian island.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
[A map of the United States, with incorrect state names. A title:]

Geography challenge:

'''Name all 50 States'''

| Alabama => Bandana |

| Alaska => Alberta |

| Arizona => Verizona |

| Arkansas => Arkanoids |

| California => Cafeteria |

| Colorado => Colocated |

| Connecticut => Connect Four |

| Delaware => Delorean |

| District of Columbia => District of Colubrids |

| Florida => Fyoridor |

| Georgia => George |

| Hawaii => Kawaii |

| Idaho => Idolatry |

| Illinois => SK8RBOIS |

| Indiana => That Other One |

| Iowa => Iota |

| Kansas => Candice |

| Kentucky => Kennedy |

| Louisiana => Loisa |

| Maine => Spanish Maine |

| Maryland => Maybelline |

| Massachusetts => Masseuses |

| Michigan => Mishy |

| Minnesota => Minestrone |

| Mississippi => Misstate |

| Missouri => Mossouri |

| Montana => mount -a |

| Nebraska => Nebrunswick |

| Nevada => Fallout New Vegas |

| New Hampshire => New Hamper |

| New Jersey => Nude Juggalos |

| New Mexico => Namaste |

| New York => Newark |

| North Carolina => Sweet Caroline |

| South Carolina => South Caroline |

| Ohio => Oh Hi |

| Oklahoma => Okay |

| Oregon => Organs |

| Pennsylvania => Pencilmania |

| Rhode Island => Roald Dahl |

| South Dakota => Dakota |

| /North Dakota => More Dakota |

| Tennessee => Thennessy |

| Texas => Hexxus |

| Utah => Uhaul |

| Vermont => Vermouth |

| Virginia => Virjayjay |

| Washington => Willwheaton |

| West Virginia => Wyvern |

| Wisconsin => Wainscot |

| Wyoming => WYSIWYG |

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps]]

Talk:1746: Making Friends

2016-10-14T09:48:02Z

Mlv:

Does something like this happen in one of the Star Wars films? *headscratch* --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.228|162.158.150.228]] 06:32, 14 October 2016 (UTC)
:I guess I can take that to mean you don't know what he's talking about? It's too bad I'm going to bed now, this is finally a comic where I'm early enough to provide the explanation AND I understand the comic enough to do so! LOL! The method Cueball is suggesting in the second panel is how animals (or a person) might try to lure in a/many vultures, mostly in cartoons. Vultures are notorious for feeding on dead bodies, and for flying in slowly-descending circles above a dead body they find (presumably to ensure the body IS dead and abandoned by whatever animal might have killed it) before feeding from it. If an animal or human wanted to trap or hunt a vulture, pretending to be dead or about to die on your own would be the way to do it. Actually, the other day I was reading a joke where an oversexed rooster was doing exactly this, attempting to lure in some vultures by pretending to be dead.

:The joke here obviously being that humans don't tend to act like vultures. The alternate behaviour - taking Cueball's things instead of eating him - seems to me to be a nod towards video games where you exhibit such vulture-like behaviour, retrieving useful supplies from dead bodies you find (and create), such as in the Assassin's Creed games. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.73|108.162.219.73]] 08:01, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

My daughter's friend, on starting at high school, was telling me she was making new friends. My response: Cool! They're teaching robotics. [[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 09:48, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1707: xkcd Phone 4

2016-07-21T02:59:09Z

Mlv: Clarification on julian dates used in finance

The current explanation seems to assume a constant current draw of 1A without explicitly stating it.
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.95.117|141.101.95.117]] 14:04, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

The 12 headphone jacks is probably referring to the rumor that the iPhone 7 may not have a headphone jack. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.90|141.101.104.90]] 14:58, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

The 12 Jacks will support Dolby Surroundissimo. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.11|162.158.86.11]] 10:57, 17 July 2016 (UTC)

Fun fact: the Walkman II (the most popular variant) had 2 headphone jacks, so that two people could listen to music at the same time, but the second jack was removed from later designs. This has a few more than that, perhaps there is one for each voice assistant to make it "usable". {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.119}}

An alternative explanation of "onboard cloud" could be a file server that serves over WIFI, Bluetooth, and NFC, turning the phone into an effective NAS sneakernet [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 15:30, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

The "certified" feature probably refers to various certifications being used as marketing features. [[User:Joedetode|Joedetode]] ([[User talk:Joedetode|talk]]) 15:33, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

The Julian calendar is used by Orthodox Christians, but not astronomers. Astronomers use something called {{w|Julian day}}. --[[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 16:27, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
:Its also used in banking and finance. I have to do the conversion every time we do a direct debit collection at work to verify that the dates in the file are what we need, so that switch would actually be useful to me. {{unsigned ip|141.101.70.103}}
::No, Julian dates in banking and finance (eg. day 47 being February 16) are a variation of Julian days (a serial number of days since some epoch), and has nothing to do with the Julian calendar.--[[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 02:59, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

"Did you know '4' is 'IV' in Roman numerals?" is probably a dig on "Mac OS X", which is supposed to be pronounced "Mac OS 10". Apparently it used to annoy Steve Jobs that it was pronounced "Mac OS EX" by many people. {{unsigned ip|108.162.210.214}}

It could be also a reference to the Samsung Galaxy Smartphones, as they were called Galaxy S (1st Version), Galaxy S II (2nd Version), Galaxy S III (3rd Version) and Galaxy S4 (fourth version, which does not use Roman numerals anymore) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.85.249|162.158.85.249]]

"The nickel–iron battery does exist, but it's terrible for most applications. Worse, this battery is non-rechargeable, meaning that it would have to be replaced to use the phone again after it is exhausted." is not supported by the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93iron_battery. The first line of which begins "The nickel–iron battery (NiFe battery) is a rechargeable battery ... ".--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.11|108.162.219.11]] 17:11, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

The comment about the Nickel-Iron battery being non-rechargable is referring not to the Wikipedia article, but the battery annotation on the picture, which states clearly that the included battery is non-rechargable. Perhaps the explanation should be amended to clear up this ambiguity. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.132|141.101.98.132]] 18:07, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

This explanation would be easier to read if put in a table, with the term on the left and description on the right {{unsigned|4jonah}}

The drawing may be interpreted as if "software defined" applies to part of the case (or the whole case). That would be... interesting, if useless. Doable - although probably impractical and not worth the price - with e-paper for graphical motives, for actual textures or other material characteristics maybe Nobel-worthy (and still quite useless in this application). {{unsigned ip|162.158.201.6}}

The inclusion of a parallel port may be a stab at Apple products such as iPhones. Apple seems to insist on avoiding otherwise standard connectors such as Micro USB, in favor of their own proprietary ones. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.168|108.162.237.168]] 06:02, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Note that the parallel port on image doesn't look at all like {{w|Parallel port}} (IEEE 1284). Of course, it can still be parallel port in general sense, similarly as {{w|USB}} is serial (that's what the S in USB stands for) without being {{w|Serial port}} (RS-232). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:57, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
: It does look like "micro-centronics" (IEEE 1284 type C) female connector used on some printers - my old good Laserjet 1100 has such a connector. It may indicate that XKCD Phone 4 may be used as a printer by connecting it to a (fairly old) computer. What the phone would do with the data sent to it in this way is a mystery. [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 18:28, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Judging by the connectors present on the lower edge the xkcd Phone 4 is a fairly large device, like a tablet - 3.5 mm headphone jacks shall be spaced about 1 cm apart or a typical plugs won't fit into neighbouring jacks. This makes ~13 cm edge space. The micro-Centronics connector (parallel port) is approx. 4.5 by 1 cm. So I would say the shorter edge of the phone is at least 18 cm and the longer edge may be 24 cm or longer. {{unsigned|Malgond}}

It seems as if "Certified" may be a reference to [https://xkcd.com/1096/ #1096]
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.223|141.101.91.223]] 13:49, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

I'm surprised there is no mention of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93cadmium_battery Nickel–cadmium] (a fairly common rechargeable type) as a possible component for the nickel-lithium-iron combination. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.88|108.162.221.88]] 17:49, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk:1707: xkcd Phone 4

2016-07-15T16:27:38Z

Mlv:

1707: xkcd Phone 4

2016-07-15T16:17:40Z

Mlv: removed "and astronomers" from Julian calendar

{{comic
| number = 1707
| date = July 15, 2016
| title = xkcd Phone 4
| image = xkcd_phone_4.png
| titletext = The SpaceX system carefully guides falling phones down to the surface, a process which the phones increasingly often survive without exploding.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Not everything explained}}

This is another entry in the xkcd Phone series (see [[1363: xkcd Phone]], [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]] and [[1549: XKCD Phone 3]]), and once again, the comic plays with many standard tech buzzwords to create a phone that sounds impressive but would actually be very impractical.

From the top, going clockwise:
* '''18,000 μAh (micro-Ampere hours) nickel-lithium-iron battery (non-rechargeable)''' Phone battery capacity is measured in {{w|ampere-hour}}s (which thanks to the magic of {{w|dimensional analysis}}, is just an unusual way of denoting electric charge). Usually, the capacity is quoted in milliampere-hours (one-thousandth, or 10^-3, of an ampere hour); however, this one is quoted in ''micro''ampere-hours (one-millionth, or 10^-6, of an ampere-hour), presumably as a marketing ploy to give a more impressive-looking number. Quoted in more standard terms, this phone's battery capacity is 18 mAh. In comparison, an iPhone 6+ has a battery capacity of 2,750 mAh. This phone's battery is dreadful (under a typical current draw of 0.1A, it would power the phone for about 11 minutes). There is no such thing as a nickel-lithium-iron battery - rather, it's a garbled version of the experimental {{w|nickel–lithium battery}} and the common {{w|lithium ion battery}} (which does not contain any iron). The {{w|nickel–iron battery}} does exist, but it's ''terrible'' for most applications. Worse, this battery is non-rechargeable, meaning that it would have to be replaced to use the phone again after it is exhausted.
* '''Subwoofer''' - A {{w|subwoofer}} is a large bass speaker. Some phones do have high-quality speakers for playing music, but these are not placed right next to the earpiece - this would be a surefire way to deafen your users.
* '''"Dog whistle"''' - A {{w|dog whistle}} is a high-pitched whistle that humans cannot hear, but dogs can.
* '''Non-porous, washable''' - On the one hand, it's rare for a phone to be made of porous materials. On the other, there are legitimately waterproof phones that seal the speakers and ports with rubber.
* '''''WebMD'' partnership: cough-activated feature reads aloud a random diagnosis for "coughing"''' - {{w|WebMD}} is a website to help people diagnose themselves. For the vast majority of people, a cough just means an irritated throat or maybe a cold, but selecting randomly from all WebMD diagnoses gives some much more ominous - if very unlikely - ones, including {{w|ricin}} poisoning, {{w|plague}}, {{w|lung cancer}} and {{w|radiation poisoning}}.
* '''Wings''' - These wings resemble the ones found on {{w|sanitary towel}}s (sometimes called "pads", making this a possible iPad pun) which attach the pad to the {{w|gusset}} and keep it in place between the woman's legs during her period.
* '''Beveled bezel''' - The ''bezel'' is the ring around the edge of watches and screens. This one's {{w|bevel}}ed, which means it's cut at an angle.
* '''Bezeled bevel''' - Punning on the above. Doesn't make much sense, but could mean that it features a beveled edge which is surrounded by a bezel.
* '''Seedless''' - Fruit such as grapes can be "seedless", which means that they're grown from a special {{w|cultivar}} that doesn't grow seeds in the normal way. Making a phone seedless probably won't do anything, but {{w|Random seed|it might hurt}} its {{w|random number generator}}.
* '''Water resistant down to 30 meters and below 50''' - {{w|Water resistance}} is often measured in terms of how deep an object can be submerged, since pressure increases with depth. In this case, the phone can be submerged to almost any depth, but there's an odd lacuna between 30 meters and 50 meters.
* '''Turing-complete''' - A computer is {{w|Turing completeness|Turing complete}} if it can perform all the operations needed to simulate a {{w|Turing machine}}. All modern computers are usually described as Turing complete, which would make this not very impressive, but no computer can ever be Turing complete in the truest sense (since they can only ever have a finite amount of memory) - if the xkcd Phone 4 is truly a universal computer, it's ''very'' impressive indeed.
* '''Gregorian/Julian calendar date switch''' - The {{w|Julian calendar}} is the predecessor to the modern {{w|Gregorian calendar}} - the difference is that the two calendars calculate leap years differently. The Julian calendar is still used occasionally - mainly by Eastern Orthodox Christians - but it's not something so vital that it needs a hardwired switch on the front of the phone.
* '''''SpaceX'' impact protection: when dropped, phone lands on barge''' - The rocket company {{w|SpaceX}} recently trialed a {{w|SpaceX reusable launch system development program|reusable rocket stage}} which after separating from the launch vehicle, lands on a {{w|Autonomous spaceport drone ship|drone barge}} to be reused. The alt-text pokes fun at the number of SpaceX rockets that [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3wZRdg-Tmo crashed and exploded] before they got the landing gear right.
* '''Parallel port''' - A {{w|parallel port}} is a type of interface used to connect printers and other devices to computers. It was generally considered obsolete by the time smartphones began to appear on the market, and would be very bulky and slow compared to the USB ports generally used in phones.
* '''12 headphone jacks''' - Phones often include a single headphone jack to allow the user to privately listen to a call, play music, etc. Twelve of them would be pointless overkill, especially given the difficulty of getting twelve people close enough to all use their headphones. Presumably joking about the [http://www.businessinsider.com.au/apple-headphone-jack-iphone-side-effects-2016-7#/#smaller-headphone-makers-would-be-at-a-disadvantage-4 constant rumours] that Apple's next iPhone will not have any headphone jacks, and the weird vents on the bottom of the phone.
* '''Onboard cloud''' - The "cloud" is a catch-all term for the use of remote computers to store data, providing a backup if all local copies are lost and allowing the data to be accessed from a broad network. An "onboard cloud" would thus be a contradiction in terms, and appears to be a marketing ploy to use the "cloud" buzzword to describe the device's onboard storage capacity.
* '''New BrightGloTM display incorporates genetically spliced jellyfish protein (should have used the glowing genes, not the stinging ones)''' - {{w|Aequorea victoria}} jellyfish contain a protein called {{w|green fluorescent protein}}, the gene for which has been isolated and can be used in many ways. Unfortunately, they took the wrong gene, and ended up getting [http://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-015-1568-3 one of the hundreds of proteins from jellyfish venom], which will presumably mean that touching the screen becomes a painful experience.
* '''✓ Certified''' - Not certified for anything in particular.
* '''Software-defined''' {{w|Software-defined radio}}s are quite popular in some areas, meaning the radio hardware is quite universal and can be adapted to different radio protocols just by changing software. SDR would actually be quite a nice feature for a cellphone. Of course it doesn't specify if it's the radio that is software defined.
* '''Exposed ductwork''' - A phone shouldn't even have ductwork, unless it has a very sophisticated cooling system. Exposed ductwork is a trademark of {{w|Bowellism|Bowellist}} architecture such as the {{w|Lloyd's Building}} in London and the {{w|Pompidou Centre}} in Paris. Exposed ductwork is also considered a crucial flaw in a death star. May also refer to a transparent window in the side of the phone allowing the user to see the circuitry inside, similar to computer cases with transparent side panels popular among DIY computing enthusiasts.
* '''Voice interaction: {{w|Siri (software)|Siri}}, {{w|Cortana (software)|Cortana}}, {{w|Google Now}} and {{w|Amazon Echo|Alexa}} respond simultaneously''' - These are all {{w|intelligent personal assistant software}} (from Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon respectively) and all do the same thing: control your phone and answer questions using speech recognition. Having all four talk at once would mean you'd have a total cacophony while gaining nothing.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Smartphones]]

1543: Team Effort

2015-06-26T15:59:40Z

Mlv: /* Explanation */ s/factor 10/factor of 10/

{{comic
| number = 1543
| date = June 26, 2015
| title = Team Effort
| image = team_effort.png
| titletext = Given the role they play in every process in my body, really, they deserve this award more than me. Just gotta figure out how to give it to them. Maybe I can cut it into pieces to make it easier to swallow ...
}}

==Explanation==

[[Megan]] has won an award at a ceremony (presumably movie-related and possibly an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards Academy Award], as she mentions her director). Traditionally, when a person receives a major award, they give an acceptance speech which traditionally begins with the recipient thanking people who have helped them achieve the honour. Sometimes when a number of people are mentioned, the recipient will say that it was a team effort - a comment which elevates the "helpers" to virtually the same level as the recipient.

Megan's (rather self-absorbed) acceptance speech takes things a step further; she thanks not only her director and her and family and friends, but also the bacteria that populate her gastrointestinal tract. As she states correctly, the number of bacterial cells inside a human body outnumber the number of human cells by as much as a factor of 10. While the bacteria in the gut make digestion possible, the ecosystem formed by bacteria in the urogenital tract and on the skin also protect human health. In short, without them Megan would die - and not be able to win the award. To thank her bacteria is comparable to thanking her parents: they did not really contribute to the movie, but without them there would not have been a Megan, and no award.

In the title text, Megan contemplates ''how'' to thank her microorganisms and considers to eat the trophy after having it cut in pieces.

1.5 pints (the average of one or two pints) is 712,5 ml.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is on a stage receiving an award from Ponytail, the latter of whom is standing behind a podium.]

:Megan:
:I'd like to thank my director,
:my friends and family, and–
:of course–the writhing mass
:of gut bacteria inside me.

:I mean, there's like one or
:two pints of them in here;
:their cells outnumber mine!

:Anyway, This was a real team effort.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

Talk:1541: Voice

2015-06-24T15:33:28Z

Mlv:

The premise of this comic reminds me of a sci-fi short story I read many years ago but have never been able to track down. A young girl's doll (?) comes to life, and it explains that it is a entity that can inhabit inanimate objects. Some things happen that I have forgotten, and while walking down the road, the girl is almost struck by a runaway car. The entity takes control of the car and steers it away from her. It decides that, having saved the girl's life, it has every right to take control of her - leaving our poor protagonist in the worst kind of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" scenario as the story ends. Perhaps Randall Munroe read the same story. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.212|141.101.98.212]] 12:08, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
:To me it reminds me of the movie "Being John Malkovich", especially the end, where the main character is forever trapped in the other person's body, unable to talk. Kind of the-other-way-around, but a similar concept. [[User:Linuspogo|Linuspogo]] ([[User talk:Linuspogo|talk]]) 12:23, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

:Actually, it's very much like The Silver Chair from The Chronicles of Narnia where someone is enchanted most of the time, and only in their right mind for a short time every day. They have a short time to convince those around them that they are now in their right mind. --[[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 15:33, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

The phrase "..and put food in our normal mouths" (trying to pass as a human but getting it wrong) reminded me of 629: Skins "..been driving my car and having a job all day .. didn't meow once." [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.105|173.245.53.105]] 16:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

;every six years

6 years back it was june 22, 2009 -> [[600|Comic 600]]. I guess there is no link between those comics , but I would not be surprised if there was. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:44, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
: anyway, I'm looking forward to the comic of june 22, 2021 ;) [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:51, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
::Do you realize that xkcd is fiction? Do you realize that Homer and Marge Simpson have not been married for 27 years, since Bart has been 10 during these 27 years? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.94|173.245.50.94]] 13:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
:::The author of this comic has a habit of doing things as suggested by the commenter that you mock. Stay on topic. This is not a place for picking fights.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.154|173.245.48.154]] 14:49, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Does this look like a continuation of the same conversation from two comics ago? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:57, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
: Not to me. It's the same characters chatting casually, but there's nothing else linking both comics. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:11, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

By the way, I'd think that, even if Ponytail can't control her voice, she still can write whatever she wants. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
: "Voice" in one sense could mean the use of vocal cords and mouth to produce audible speech, but in a more general sense it can be used to describe any verbal or nonverbal communication. (eg right now I am voicing my opinion on this subject) I suspect the latter is being implied here, although like most of the comics it's open to interpretation. [[User:Tahg|Tahg]] ([[User talk:Tahg|talk]]) 21:10, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

;Animorphs reference?

xkcd has mentioned that franchise before- https://xkcd.com/1380/
It centers around an alien race named the Yeerks that effectively possess a host by entering the brain. There is a single character in that series (Marco's mother) that is on rare occasions able to break through the Yeerk's control to use her own voice. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.12|141.101.99.12]] 15:23, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

Agreed, this was my first impression of the comic. --Elimist--
:The Yeerks have full access to the host's thoughts, feelings, and memories. They are literally wrapped around the brain. They are completely indistinguishable and would not act suspicious in a personality sense. The only things that give them away are their required actions, such as returning to the pool every few days, or if they get caught in a conversation with their conspirators. The only reason Jake's status as host was discovered in one novel was because the Yeerk had only just entered his brain and didn't have time to fully acquire his memories. The Yeerk's sudden and unexpected exposure to what he believed to be the Andalite bandits lead him to have an emotional outburst. Had he been given any amount of time to adjust to his new host, he would have gone unnoticed until he had to return to the pool. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.153|108.162.210.153]] 18:49, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

My first thought was Randal must be talking about party obsessed people who are in fact out of control over their acting and helpless having to go out even if they don't have a reason to --floydheld--

This reminded me of the movie "The Host", where a human body is used to receive a voyaging alien entity. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.123|108.162.219.123]] 18:37, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

'''Ponytail as filler character:'''
"Note on Ponytail: She is mainly a filler character..." - maybe she has never got her own voice because she is used as a filler character? If that's the case then in that brief moment we "hear" the real Ponytail. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.94}}

Removed the Yeerk mention, because while Yeerk hosts can occasionally act against their controller this isn't how they work, so this really probably isn't a reference to Animorphs (as much as I like the books). -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 23:29, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

When I first read it, I interpreted it as some other intelligence was being suppressed by Ponytail, rather than the other way around, as it is currently being explained. (Although on further reflection, this doesn't make as much sense. I still wanted to put it in as a consideration, though.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.107|108.162.218.107]] 02:13, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

'''Possible Stephen Hawking reference?''' It has been reported (can't find the link at the moment) that S.H. sometimes says things he didn't mean to say as a result of his software's autocomplete. Apparently his children have also had fun with this. Sorry for the lack of reference :s [[User:Glen442|Glen442]] ([[User talk:Glen442|talk]]) 14:30, 23 June 2015 (UTC)
:[http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/06/17/stephen-hawkings-son-says-he-programmed-curse-words-into-his-fathers-voice-box/ Reference] [[User:Glen442|Glen442]] ([[User talk:Glen442|talk]]) 14:51, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

Could this be about multiple personality disorder? First thing that came to my mind when seeing it. Know it's not quite like this, but it is a comic. {{unsigned ip|173.245.48.207}}

'''Demonic possession.''' Maybe Megan and Ponytail are roommates, and Ponytail was possessed by Ba'al. http://xkcd.com/1419/ [[User:Wm.casson|Wm.casson]] ([[User talk:Wm.casson|talk]]) 15:22, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables

2015-06-13T15:51:32Z

Mlv: Pointed out he's rarely seen.

[[Little Bobby Tables]] is the nickname of [[Mrs. Roberts]]' youngest child. He's not very good at computers. With the exception of [[345:_1337:_Part_5]], he's only referenced, not seen.

[[Category:Comics by minor characters|Little Bobby Tables]]

345: 1337: Part 5

2015-06-13T15:38:48Z

Mlv: Added Category:Little Bobby Tables

{{comic
| number = 345
| date = November 16, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 5
| image = 1337_part_5.png
| titletext = This digital music thing will probably reach its endgame sometime in the next decade or so. These are very exciting times.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Richard Stallman}} is the ardent defender of freedom and believer in {{w|copyleft}}, he also founded the {{w|GNU Project}}. (He is not really a swordfighter.)

{{w|Cory Doctorow}} is a blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the weblog {{w|Boing Boing}}. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the {{w|Creative Commons}} organization. He does not really travel around in a balloon or (usually) wear a red cape, but Randall introduced this idea in [[239: Blagofaire]] and has continued it in later [[:Category:Comics_featuring_Cory_Doctorow|comics featuring Cory Doctorow]].

{{w|Blogosphere}} is a name used to refer to all blogs on the Internet, many of which frequently link to and refer to other blogs. Here, the Stallman character talks about it as though it were a portion of the atmosphere.

Blogs often label posts with keywords, known as tags. A {{w|Tag cloud}} is a way of displaying the tags on a site where the more common tags appear in larger type than less-common ones. It has no relationship to actual water vapor clouds in the sky, but in the comic, the Doctorow character suggests that tag clouds are actually in the air, below the new blogosphere.

The {{w|Dread Pirate Roberts}} is a fictional character from the book and movie {{w|The Princess Bride}}. Roberts is the most feared pirate on the seas. But, "Dread Pirate Roberts" is merely a title that has been passed down as previous "Roberts" have gained enough money (from piracy) to retire comfortably. Westley, one of the main characters from The Princess Bride, becomes the Dread Pirate after being taken prisoner by the preceding Pirate Roberts.

At the end of the movie, Inigo Montoya has won the vengeance he has sought all his life, and expresses to Westley that he doesn't know what to do next. Westley suggests Montoya succeed him as Roberts, saying, "Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts." Cory Doctorow's line in the comic therefore mimics that line from the movie.

{{w|Bram Cohen}} is the founder of {{w|BitTorrent}}, a distributed method of downloading files. People can and do use BitTorrent both for lawful file downloads and also for sharing media files unlawfully. Its distributed nature, where someone does not download a file from just one other computer but rather in many pieces from many other computers with the same file, makes it more difficult for record and movie industry groups to police, and therefore a person with Elaine's motivations might be interested in helping design such a system.

{{w|Ubuntu}} is probably the most well known distribution of {{w|GNU}}/{{w|Linux}}. A {{w|GNU}}/{{w|Linux}} distribution (often referred to simply as "Linux") is any operating system that is based on {{w|GNU}} software and the Linux {{w|kernel}}.

The phrase "Happy Hacking" often accompanies an autograph from Richard Stallman.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
*[[341: 1337: Part 1]]
*[[342: 1337: Part 2]]
*[[343: 1337: Part 3]]
*[[344: 1337: Part 4]]
*345: 1337: Part 5 (this one)

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Two RIAA agents attack Elaine and Stallman. Elaine breaks RIAA #1, while Stallman disarms RIAA #2 in a flying manouvre.]
:Elaine: Thanks, Stallman!
:Stallman: 'Tis my pleasure.

:Elaine: So, wait - how did you know we were in trouble?
:Stallman: My friend here was tracking these thugs from his balloon. He called me and I thought I'd stop by
:[Doctorow slides down a rope in red cape & goggles.]
:Doctorow: -Hi! Cory Doctorow - It's a pleasure to meet you.

:Elaine: Balloon?
:Stallman: Aye. They're up there constructing something called a "Blogosphere."
:Doctorow: Yup! It's twenty kilometers up, just above the tag clouds.

:Bobby: Mom, I'm hungry.
:Mrs. Roberts: Hush! I'm coding. You ate yesterday.
:Stallman: You know, Roberts, GNU could use a good coder like you. Ever thought of joining us?
:Elaine: Maybe someday. Right now I've got an industry to take down. Music doesn't need these assholes.
:Doctorow: Begone! And never darken our comment threads again!

:Stallman: Well, you won't fix the industry with random exploits. You need to encourage sharing in the public mind.
:Doctorow: Hey; With your music and coding backgrounds, you should get into building better p2p systems.

:Elaine: What? Straight-up piracy?
:Doctorow: Sure- have you ever considered it? You'd make a wonderful dread pirate, Roberts

:Epilogue
:Elaine shared her ideas with Bram Cohen, who went on to develop BitTorrent.
:Mrs. Roberts spends her time developing for Ubuntu, and defacing the websites of people who make "your mom" jokes to her daughter. Elaine still stalks the net. She joins communities, contributes code or comments, and moves on. And if, late at night, you point a streaming audio player at the right IP at the right time - you can hear her rock out.
:~Happy Hacking.~

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Little Bobby Tables]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Your Mom]]
[[Category:1337|05]]

Talk:1190: Time

2013-04-12T20:40:33Z

Mlv:

Pretty sure we're just getting trolled with this one [[Special:Contributions/99.108.190.136|99.108.190.136]] 04:48, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Can't tell if this is emo xkcd or trolling xkcd. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:53, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Something seems a little fishy because the image url is different than normal. [[User:Bugefun|Bugefun]] ([[User talk:Bugefun|talk]]) 04:55, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:Maybe the comic slowly changes throughout the day. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:56, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
::Oh god, it does. [[User:Alpha|Alpha]] ([[User talk:Alpha|talk]]) 04:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:::When uploading different versions of the image, use the naming convention time[iterationNumber].png. We'll compile all the images into one and display them as per [[Traffic Lights]]. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:05, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
::::Alright, so the comic appears to be switching between two states here: between [[media:time2.png|this]] and [[media:time3.png|this]]. If nothing new happens, I'll get to clipping the comics together. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:28, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::Whoop, nope, [[media:time4.png|this]] just came up. Is there more to come? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:34, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
::::::Alright, so a new one is posted every half-hour. Whoopee. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:06, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::::And there's a new one! Megan leaning back and looking up...
::::::::Well, the image changed, who has the time to make a script to catch the new images and compile them into a gif? https://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/time.png [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 07:14, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/72.21.198.66|72.21.198.66]] 05:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)It could be a reference to the old proverb " time and tide wait for none" Cueball and the girl could be waiting for the tide in the beach! (Just a guess)[[Special:Contributions/72.21.198.66|72.21.198.66]] 05:11, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

The picture does chance with time. The URL includes a changing timestamp that I can't decipher. Compare these two URLS (which have slightly different images:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/8eb156cce408df8bb83528382d6a2aa2ce6c74f3c573fd12b058cd1c56420672.png
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png

Perhaps there is a way to hack the URL to view future images. [[Special:Contributions/199.30.248.121|199.30.248.121]] 05:29, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
: I would also like to add that knowing randall, these are not the only images. For all we know, the image will still be changing in 5 years while a tree grows in front of them. My point is: Are the URLs hackable, or did he encrypt them? [[Special:Contributions/199.30.248.121|199.30.248.121]] 05:33, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Likely there is a way to hack the URLs; they look like some sort of hash, probably a hashed timestamp. Of course, he could easily have added some salt to the hash, making it significantly *harder* to hack. But they're strings of a specific length, so it should be pretty easy to bruteforce it, fetch all the images, and then (maybe) reverse-engineer the sequence. *That* all depends on how many of them there are. [[Special:Contributions/76.90.249.178|76.90.249.178]] 05:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:Good god, do you see how many digits are *in* that hash? The sun'll have burned out by the time we've tested every possible combination of digits. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:47, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

It seems that the image is updated every 1/2 hour. [[Special:Contributions/152.23.97.150|152.23.97.150]] 06:17, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
: Given that the images switch back and forth between other images already seen, and that the comic should be viewable in the future, it seems unlikely that it's any thing like a simple sha256 of part of the timestamp. I think it's more likely a function of half-hours and minutes (assuming we continue to get a new possible image every half-hour). [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 06:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

::: The images do cycle, yes. But for some reason I have never seen the img where Megan is looking behind her. Also wouldn't it be difficult to show a sequential story (like the rising tide) if the previous images keep cycling ?

Hash appears to be SHA-256. I tried some obvious hashes ("1", "11901", "1190_1", "1190.1") to no avail. Maybe this is HMAC-SHA256? Also, I would suggest trying Unix timestamps. [[Special:Contributions/131.156.236.149|131.156.236.149]] 06:19, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
: I've been trying to make educated guesses as to what's being hashed here: http://www.xorbin.com/tools/sha256-hash-calculator ... he could also be using hash(hash2(value)) which would be virtually impossible to crack. [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 06:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

It's entirely possible that the "hash" is actually randomly generated. Just a thought. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 07:03, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Regarding sha256. Its most likely some hash of a timestamp, but if he doesnt wants us to crack it, he would have prefixes a password.. sha256('secretcode17:30'). Im just saying, if he doesnt wants us to crack it, we most likely cant.
I've tested all unixtimestamps from 1300000000 to 1364390334. Also "00:00" to "23:59", with and without the colon and a load of other formats. {{unsigned|77.243.128.133}}

Alright, this is probably not going to work, but I'm trying to exploit Randall's awesomeness here. Maybe he decided to take the time-stamps from the user? I don't know if that's even possible... That would then allow people in different time zones to obtain different images simultaneously. (What's the corollary of Godwin's law for a bunch of math-and-science nerds and relativity? Is there one?) Clicking the img src url on the comic's html page, give me this: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/752687b61523144c61736cd89f8c153dc41e19128f72d78d44947ff800f057fa.png : Never mind.. apparently others see the same image too.

Could he be doing this live? Monitoring the discussion on the net? Collaborative, crowdsourced comic-ing? Reminds me of those you-decide-what-the-character-does-next-and-flip-to-appropriate-page parallel plot novels.

[[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 07:14, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Let's just compare the two pictures and see how the bottom right changes, which I believe is water and they are indeed waiting for the tide. [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 07:19, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:I'm adding urls to pictures bellow, edit freely.
::They change every 5 minutes, will try to keep track.

http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f8/time.png
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/752687b61523144c61736cd89f8c153dc41e19128f72d78d44947ff800f057fa.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/timeasdf.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/932170/time6.png

:I have uploaded all the different images onto the wiki, in the order that they were revealed. To avoid needless duplication of effort, I'll put them up in the explanation page. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

It just went back to the second image... [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 07:59, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
: And now changed to something new. http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/cdcc6b46b32c53f8596cd0106958b42c4260b9cbc022e6d94054147aa6554960.png
:: The images do look alike, but they're all different. Thanks David. [[User:Statharas.903|Statharas.903]] ([[User talk:Statharas.903|talk]]) 08:04, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

::: No..I checked the random string. They're exactly the same. In fact, now it's gone back to the second image. Again. [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 08:07, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Just found this JavaScript code embedded in the comic HTML source (Update: Reformatted to prevent eye-bleeding): http://pastebin.com/4vNJH53Z

I'm no programmer but this looks important to me...

:Moved it to pastebin, so it doesn't clutter the page so much. [[Special:Contributions/81.23.24.51|81.23.24.51]] 14:22, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

:Doesn't really help. The script basically changes the image when something happens (probably some time passes, although it's possible there is more hidden there). WHAT image then appears is not directed by the script, but by the site. Specifically, the image displayed as first is taken from [http://c0.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time http://c0.xkcd.com/redirect/comic/time], while the script asks for [http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource&r=(somenumber) http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource&r=(somenumber)] ... which is, if you get correct "r", probably some json containing the image url. So, even if you hack the script, you will not get all possible urls. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:17, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

:: ... actually, given that the script part doesn't seem to do anything just now, it's even possible it's for later (ie, starts producing images when the correct time come). Or maybe there is a bug somewhere in the code :-). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:27, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

:::Thanks for explaining. Why hasn't anyone posted this before? Could "location.hash" possibly have anything to do with the method used to generate the image hash key? Also, why is this code so difficult to follow (Obfuscation?)? So many questions... Sorry if this is just a huge waste of ''Time''.

:::: <code>location</code> is the URI of the page. <code>location.hash</code> is the part of the uri after the ''#'' character. If you go to [https://xkcd.com/1190/#verbose https://xkcd.com/1190/#verbose], you'll see some debugging output in your browser's debugging console (Firefox: Web Console or Firebug, Chrome: Development Tools). But nothing to decode the algorithm... :-( --[[Special:Contributions/83.243.48.2|83.243.48.2]] 10:01, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

::::: Well, I don't know what's doing it, but there's definitely some script (probably this script) that's refreshing the image automatically. I left the comic open for an hour or so and noticed the image had changed. I refreshed with #verbose in Chrome right before the 30 minute mark and got the following in the console.
<pre>
connecting to event source: http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource time07.min.js:1
s {type: "comic/time", data: "{"spread":5,"image":"832a7f13ca0fadc46e93475bb617d78211e32c81c3af0e289a51f8f149707759.png"}", lastEventId: "e2992bf0-9557-11e2-8001-1c6f659cb250"} time07.min.js:1
waiting 0 seconds before displaying comic 832a7f13ca0fadc46e93475bb617d78211e32c81c3af0e289a51f8f149707759.png time07.min.js:1
Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream: "http://xkcd.com/events/connect_start". time07.min.js:1
s {type: "comic/time", data: "{"spread":5,"image":"847265673986f085460bf1a95b96f7171bcd9a4f1f0a598b2188307d03bcfaa3.png"}", lastEventId: "79580fe8-9558-11e2-8001-1c6f659cb250"} time07.min.js:1
waiting 4 seconds before displaying comic 847265673986f085460bf1a95b96f7171bcd9a4f1f0a598b2188307d03bcfaa3.png time07.min.js:1
connection error i {type: "error"} time07.min.js:1
Resource interpreted as Image but transferred with MIME type application/octet-stream: "http://xkcd.com/events/connect_error".
</pre>
::::: The script seems to poll the server every minute or two. It's different from before, where the image server itself redirected to the correct image. The auto refresh was probably always intended, but not quite ready when the comic went live. It may have turned out to be necessary too, so the image server doesn't have to do all the work. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.119.153|129.21.119.153]] 14:45, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

http://pastebin.com/dLiWsFyN
[[Special:Contributions/79.180.173.88|79.180.173.88]] 09:48, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

:Moved to pastebin.[[Special:Contributions/81.23.24.51|81.23.24.51]] 14:34, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/426033682a26a0012a6f8e0c47287af91b7991a852d81c77402c937ffbd650c6.png

http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1e/f46c6571393bee1ee649a7daae41f6328e63482506aef1e22607d22c47dd7027.png --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 22:51, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b0/88e3a0c8bba935c669606d9134314f811a0961985f968dd5d329e4695acc67c8.png --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 23:10, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Is it just me or or did Randall manage to make all of us perform a Denial of Service on xkcd.com, and explainxkcd.com ? xkcd.com seems much slower, and I keep getting "500 Internal server error" when accessing this site (explainxkcd.com). I guess that's the effect of having everybody hit F5 every few minutes :) [[Special:Contributions/193.239.192.194|193.239.192.194]] 11:57, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Earlier today, the server handled all the image redirections. The script you see above went through several mutations (currently at #8), with each mutation it seems that Randall is adding more servers and trying to split the load between them. This is basically how a bot-net works - we all run code written by some evil genius, and he's changing the code as time passes to serve some hidden purpose.
[[Special:Contributions/79.180.173.88|79.180.173.88]] 15:44, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:If he is using us as a botnet, then maybe the next comic will be something alluding to that.
:Probably like this: http://xkcd.com/350/

When I saw this comic last night and that there was no explanation up, I thought to myself "How zen." I figured that Randall was going through a calm streak before throwing us the utterly ridiculous April 1st comic. Did it come early, or does he have something even bigger planned for us? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:05, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
:Sorry, did you miss the bit where this comic updates every 30 minutes and all the server error messages being caused by the massive traffic to both the wiki and the main xkcd website? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:08, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
::Well, when I said "last night" and "no explanation", I implied that I wasn't aware of that at the time, which is why I thought what I did. Of course, it is now "now" and there is an explanation, so that should answer your question. Also, since it's not April 1st, and Randall has consistently released something major on that day, the jury is still out, leaving my question quite open (though I was really only asking for opinions). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 07:20, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

wanted to add an image to the list above, but didn't know at what timestamp to add it, got 69085b480cb82911b19fe8f114909756989eed89b0d227db0f59c1843de7ba24.png at 2013-03-26 09:47 CET (UTC+0100)
/Puggan
:The hours denote the time since the initial release of the comic. The page is still a work in progress, we're going to bring that all into one image file soon. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:13, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

This site should seriously consider cloudflare, it's perfect at times like this and takes minutes to set up. I run all my sites through it and it saves a lot of page huts and bandwidth.
[[Special:Contributions/123.3.136.228|123.3.136.228]]Evan Pyle
:Or at least make the main page a static page that refreshes every so often. I'm guessing that most of the traffic is going to the front page with not as much traffic to the actual comic page [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 15:43, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Some of the images on the wiki (looks like time38.png through time48.png) are slightly different than what is on the main site. The lines are slightly thicker, as though someone did them based on screen captures.
[[User:Royce|Royce]] ([[User talk:Royce|talk]]) 14:37, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
:Well, at least we have the hashes so they can be re-retrieved, so nothing is really lost, right? Should we add links to the original? [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 15:43, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

:I uploaded two of the "thicker" images and one of the "regular" ones, and I did the same thing for all of them: right-click->save-as. Given that the "thick" ones are all clustered together, I think the files on the xkcd site changed. [[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 18:21, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Story so far: [http://static.odysseus.anderson.name/1190.gif linky] [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 19:30, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

I guess we shall find out in ~10 minutes if Randall is trolling us. [[Special:Contributions/129.138.30.95|129.138.30.95]] 04:20, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

... so that's it?

Did I just miss something or we've all been epically trolled for 48 hours? [[Special:Contributions/189.59.175.92|189.59.175.92]] 04:22, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
:Motherofgod, no, he's *still* going!''' [[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:20, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

What makes you think he's done? [[Special:Contributions/129.138.30.95|129.138.30.95]] 04:25, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm still waiting for the water level to drop precipitously... and then for red spiders to run over everything [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 04:28, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Well, strip 1191 is up so I assumed it was over. I guess it's not. Until April's Fools maybe? [[Special:Contributions/189.59.175.92|189.59.175.92]] 04:32, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
: It is not over -- the image is still updating, at least it did for me [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])
:: Yes, it's not over. Last frame shows just a minimal movement of Cueball's head, but no doubt it's still ongoing. [[Special:Contributions/189.59.175.92|189.59.175.92]] 04:49, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
::: Given the fact the strips for the last 2 weeks have been comparatively simple, I expect Randall has been planning this for at least that long. {{unsigned|101.98.156.239}}

Considering the common theme with "today's" strip, anyone wanna guess that he's sending us a hex-encoded file over a really slow modem link, slated to complete April 1? Anyone wanna run "magic" over the hashes and see if they come up with a compression codec or something? [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 04:45, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
:I liked this idea and crunched the hex data for 00:00 to 51:00 into a binary file (http://filebin.ca/bcGyfUvdgBi). Can't see anything resembling a file header, but that doesn't really say much. If this is compressed header-less data there wouldn't likely be any easily discernible patterns. Haven't really tried running the data through anything, zlib was one that came to mind but haven't tried it.

[[Special:Contributions/194.114.62.72|194.114.62.72]] I'm pretty shure it's not the seaside, but a lake - the water level is not changing at all.

Its probably going to loop back on itself, eventually, and repeat this way forever. [[Special:Contributions/113.160.224.209|113.160.224.209]] 07:12, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

For those wondering about the Javascript behind this: I posted my analysis of the Javascript [http://www.echochamber.me/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043&start=760#p3303579 on the xkcd forums], and further de-obfuscated and annotated the code over on [https://gist.github.com/cincodenada/5246094 GitHub]. Here's a quick summary though: it holds open a connection to xkcd's servers and listens for instructions and follows them. Those instructions are either "load a new image" or "reload the page". So, you don't have to mash F5, it will automatically update the image when they're available. We have no way to control how fast the images come or when they do, and it's quite possible for them to update forever. --[[User:Fiveofoh|Fiveofoh]] ([[User talk:Fiveofoh|talk]]) 06:41, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

This is a series of animation frames. I suspect they will only ever be shown once (based on the fact you can only get the current image, not previous or future images -- this is in keeping with the title, "Time", which passes and which you can't ever get back]. The filenames are UUIDs too long to guess, so somebody needs to start collecting the filenames here so that a proper flipbook can be assembled. Here's the latest URL: [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/81efa7c4509ac7a329407d9da25d12ec0a3baec50e06588586961575e2d65c2c.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/81efa7c4509ac7a329407d9da25d12ec0a3baec50e06588586961575e2d65c2c.png] Go here to collect URLs: [http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource http://c0.xkcd.com/stream/comic/time?method=EventSource]
:We've kinda already been doing that. They're the big long filenames next to each timestamp. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Oh my god it's game of thrones played out in 2D [[Special:Contributions/123.3.136.228|123.3.136.228]] Evan Pyle

Is it just me, or do the last two frames look like someone just threw a rock at the castle? [[Special:Contributions/67.167.81.143|67.167.81.143]] 14:20, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

I believe it is the cannon ball that I have been expecting since they first started building castles. [[User:ChrisPUT|ChrisPUT]] ([[User talk:ChrisPUT|talk]]) 16:34, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Here's a bit of JavaScript to execute in your browser's JavaScript console. (Cmd+Alt+K on Firefox for Mac, for example.)
<pre>
/* Collect all frame image URLs */
var images = [];
Array.prototype.slice.call(document.querySelectorAll('a[href*="/time"][href$=".png"]')).forEach(function (a) {
images.push(a.href);
});

/* Create an image in the top-right corner of the screen */
var img = document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('img'));
img.setAttribute('style', 'position: fixed; top: 1em; right: 1em;');

/* Allow removing the image by clicking */
img.onclick = function () {
img.parentNode.removeChild(img);
};

var texts = [0,51,169,174,322];
var delays = [0,1000,1000,1500,4000];

/* Cycle through the frames */
img.onload = function () {
/* Pause a bit longer for the text frames */
var idx = texts.indexOf(img.i);
var delay = ( idx > 0 ) ? delays[idx] : 50;
setTimeout(function () {
img.src = images[++img.i % images.length];
}, delay);
};

/* Start with the first frame */
img.i = 0;
img.src = images[img.i];
</pre>

— [http://jan.moesen.nu/ Jan!] [[Special:Contributions/94.23.195.79|94.23.195.79]] 09:22, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

---Thanks for the script!. Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows Chrome [[User:Shine|Shine]] ([[User talk:Shine|talk]]) 13:11, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

- updated script 'coz there are three text panels now. [[User schnitz]] 19:00, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

- updated script with another text panel [[Special:Contributions/24.77.229.71|24.77.229.71]] 21:00, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

The one for the prior half hour (5AM - 5:30AM EST, 27 March 2013) is located at http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/5450bd39ee84a394467fabcaf92f1a5711c2a4eca24c8bd8a8cec829496e3dd7.png
[[Special:Contributions/141.161.133.106|141.161.133.106]] 09:26, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

And the one for the following half hour is located at http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/c2ea85f1ab92f2f80e9c4655c47f5c7effc0a7da01c8a88493864845855b3be8.png
[[Special:Contributions/141.161.133.106|141.161.133.106]] 09:31, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Call me a paranoid, but I think this strip is all about 9/11:
*If you read the strip number (1190) backwards, you get 09/11
*This subject is recurrent on xkcd
*As far as we have seen, there is a destroyed tower and they are rebuilding it
*The next strip, following 1190 (or 09/11), mentions war against countries with large oil reserves but low military capacity. {{unsigned|143.107.105.14}}
:I feel like that's kind of a stretch, I'm pretty sure it's just a story about a day at the beach.

If a new strip goes up every 30 minutes our time, and if each strip comprises of, let's say for the sake of simplicity, one minute in their time; to build the sand castle [frames 24-117 = 93 frames] so far it's taken almost 2 days our time, which would be about an hour and a half their time if each frame is a minute. Using my scale, an hour our time is 2 minutes their time, a day is 48 minutes, and our month is their 24 hour day. If we assume Randall plans to give us a 24 hour period from that world's time, and we use the minute-per-frame rate I made up, than we'd probably be looking at a month of images our time. I guess we'll just have to see how long he's got it planned to go on. -boB

Has it ended? All that's left is the sandcastle, and there doesn't seem to have been anything else changed on it for a few hours.

It's zooming out! When look at the gifs showing the frames in succession, the last 3 show the castle getting slightly smaller each time!
: It's true! The most recent also shows the edge of another castle, leading me to believe it's part of some kind of sand castle contest, probably including some of xkcd's other recurring characters!
::Weird, now it's not showing that, Randall must have put something up too soon.
A controllable version of the same comic is available at http://xkcd.aubronwood.com/ - slow/fast movement, pause, control back and forth. It also has the image # on the top left. Auto updating. [[Special:Contributions/59.182.173.88|59.182.173.88]] 20:56, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

:Can you add on-screen buttons, so it's usable on phones and tablets without hardware keyboard?{{unsigned|81.23.24.48}}

looky here: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/4c92727698b704ee1d02fbd37c94c220d16be4ad3ff6fc03a3fb77ea6d96434f.png [[Special:Contributions/97.88.147.176|97.88.147.176]] 23:14, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
That was a glitch on the server that revealed a future frame, but it has been corrected and that link is now a 404 not found. I guess if we want to see it in context we'll just have to "Wait for it."{{unsigned|Bugstomper}}
: Well now we're back to that picture as the present frame. [[User:Racerdude09|Racerdude09]] ([[User talk:Racerdude09|talk]]) 03:14, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Is someone gonna update the transcript to note them building a sandcastle, as well as the dialogue so far (consisting of Megan and Cueball saying goodbye to each other at No. 52)?--[[Special:Contributions/69.119.250.251|69.119.250.251]] 00:38, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Anyone else think that they're roleplaying Dom and Mal in Limbo? [[User:Fry-kun|Fry-kun]] ([[User talk:Fry-kun|talk]]) 05:36, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

I think they're bulding a sand replica of King's Landing for the Game Of Thrones season 3 premiere {{unsigned|201.239.18.75}}
: My first idea regarding the sand castle was also about Game of Thrones, but i dismissed it as being too biased.. --[[Special:Contributions/217.13.68.110|217.13.68.110]] 13:31, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

I have modified the code "'''''/* Collect all frame image URLs */'''''" to see only images of the "'''Frame by Frame Breakdown'''" section :
/* Collect all frame image URLs */
var images = [];
Array.prototype.slice.call(document.querySelector('#Frame_by_Frame_Breakdown').parentElement.nextElementSibling.nextElementSibling.querySelectorAll('a[href*="/wiki/images/"][href*="/time"][href$=".png"]')).forEach(function (a) {
images.push(a.href);
});
(Sorry for my English... and the ugly code...) {{unsigned|194.119.85.99}}

Anyone else think this is going to be related to Wed's cartoon? I'm half-expecting Black Hat to show up from the future, with advanced weaponry, to take oil from the sandcastle of the past. {{unsigned|173.180.60.43}}

Guys, i think we might have lost a few frames in between, no? When did he upload the first image? like, the exakt time... knowing this we could calculate the amount of images there should be and compare to what we have... [[User:Caranhyas|Caranhyas]] ([[User talk:Caranhyas|talk]]) 18:04, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

The four comics from 89:00 to 90:30 (most recent so far) look the same to me, but the PNG files have different CRCs for the image data blocks, though the metadata in the PNG files are all the same. I wonder if there might be something subtle hidden in the images, or the way they're compressed. [[Special:Contributions/24.160.133.3|24.160.133.3]] 22:54, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

: There is a very minor difference in the water level on those images, even though the water level has been static in most of the other images. [[Special:Contributions/129.21.63.210|129.21.63.210]] 02:05, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

I don't think the title text is a reference to anything except for... wait for it... THE MONGOLS ;-) [[Special:Contributions/81.23.24.34|81.23.24.34]] 23:00, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Unless the 99:30 image was misnamed, it's not included in the list of images. Does anyone know where this frame went? [[User:Bob|Bob]] 14:18, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Is that rain in two recent panels? [[User:Larry|Larry]] ([[User talk:Larry|talk]]) 14:21, 29 March 2013 (UTC)r

Can someone identify for sure what Cueball is doing in 105:00? His arms seems to be crossed, and his holding something in his hand. [[User:Mem|mem]] ([[User talk:Mem|talk]]) 14:30, 29 March 2013 (UTC)
: Looks to me like he is shivering, which would allude to a cool down common with rain storms? [[User:Jeremy1026|Jeremy1026]] ([[User talk:Jeremt1026|talk]]) 14:51 29 March 2013 (UTC)
: Looks to me like he's brushing sand off himself; see the shower around him similar to her hair at 10:00? [[Special:Contributions/70.178.167.60|70.178.167.60]] 03:07, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Megan just wheeled in a trebuchet! This is going to be fun! [[Special:Contributions/69.246.10.71|69.246.10.71]] 16:34, 29 March 2013 (UTC)
Now she's launching a rock. I wonder which tower it might hit. March 2013, at 17:08. Flew over the first two and might impact far right tower if it continues. 17:48

I think this is all an elaborate 'joke' which will keep running until Monday - April Fools' Day [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 17:17, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Re explanation of hour 110:00. My first thought was "How can a person whose face is an empty ovoid look upset?". However, looking at the image again I can see how it does. Respects to Randall. Possibly an April Fool, but I will be even more impressed if it runs beyond Monday. I'm waiting for the tide to come in. jasq [[Special:Contributions/79.123.80.87|79.123.80.87]] 23:12, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

I googled some hashes. The first two seem to show up here, in a directory tellingly labeled "wait": http://www.hash-database.net/wait/hash_sha256.txt
:: The "wait" folder there contains hashes that weren't found in the database and might or might not someday be discovered. They are probably there *because* someone was looking up hashes to see if they were common words. [[Special:Contributions/99.153.248.206|99.153.248.206]] 23:17, 29 March 2013 (UTC)
To review, the first two are:
8eb156cce408df8bb83528382d6a2aa2ce6c74f3c573fd12b058cd1c56420672
1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97
Googled the third one, but it only shows up on xkcd discussion forums :(
Hashed some of the hashes, but didn't see the result in the list, so it dosen't look like a hash chain.
Someone should google all the other hashes, and someone else should figure out what the guy in the "wait" directory (presuming it wasn't Randall) was hashing. --[[User:Venal dwarf|Venal dwarf]] ([[User talk:Venal dwarf|talk]]) 21:37, 29 March 2013 (UTC)
: Comparing all the filenames to the hashes on that page, I found a total of four that overlap. The first two, as mentioned. But also one from the middle of day 1, and one from the end of day 1.

: 00:30 - 01/00:30 - 8eb156cce408df8bb83528382d6a2aa2ce6c74f3c573fd12b058cd1c56420672.png

: 01:00 - 01/01:00 - 1e349a579b5f9b5ed487ddf7e88244b70330941ddedac9c6abf6ed2e3f589b97.png

: 12:00 - 01/12:00 - a3aa116efca3c01d8a64c0c7e79158dc8a62241aba767064e3a6c724cc5ade93.png

: 23:30 - 01/23:30 - 1da3859627430022485c53ad90e88e8771b2bec2d60e910b59ef332325bba29f.png

: --[[User:Venal dwarf|Venal dwarf]] ([[User talk:Venal dwarf|talk]]) 22:36, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

: There is a fifth one also, from 01:30 - e25be2dd49fe9f33c3543cdf640b67e0f2146cc576db5da007a135a278e524ee.png
: I converted all 1153 hashes in the file to lower case and did a wget on them but it did not turn up any files from the future. [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 05:31, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Is Randall training us like Pavlov's dogs - every 30 minutes we are compelled to refresh the web-page? [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 01:59, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Does anyone have an opinion on how we should continue naming the saved timeNN.png files if the updates do not continue on the half hour?
Right now the link for the skipped update 242 got renamed to the nonexistent time242NA.png and the next update's link is time242.png. But what do we do if the updates are changing to once per hour? By the way it does look like the next half-hour update has been skipped too. -- [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 05:57, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
:It does seem to have gone hourly as of midnight EDT. I stuck in "NA" as a placeholder since I wasn't sure what to do with the files, and wanted to make it clear that the half-hour updates were skipped in case it goes back or changes in some other way. Maybe start naming them by the time, instead of sequentially, e.g. "012200.png". If the pattern holds, the "no update" lines can be removed. (Or both might make more sense, like "time243-012200.png".) [[Special:Contributions/69.243.159.96|69.243.159.96]] 06:08, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Anyone else getting a 404 error with the latest image (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time/d1b3b1b6e23995a093377c5ddc044dd98a42a3ae1327c8b6620d51d2a7003c1d.png)? [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 15:19, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Strange: As far as I know http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time.png always redirects to the current frame. But if you visit the current one (133:00) at http://xkcd.com/1190/ and check the displayed image, it says 'c6976fbb244af4fc2286ffe3ac2cf78d408c1f610ecd71e18b4a677a048f084d.png' while time.png redirects to '1d9ce7199935b1b629d6b8744e62c7700a3780357b2dc74bb70471db616ddadb.png'. If you take a md5 of both images, they appear to be the same.
:I was confused by this as well, I'm grabbing the images myself via time.png and got the 1d9ce7 hash. How will these duplicates be displayed in the table?[[User:Lockyy|Lockyy]] ([[User talk:Lockyy|talk]]) 17:48, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm seeing some strange stuff now. I have a script that uses wget of time.png to get the redirected hash png like Lockyy is doing. And I can verify that when you go to the 1190 page in the browser you get a different hash. But the previous hour and this hour, unlike the ones before it, the two hash pngs are different. And when I refresh the screen in my browser at the 1190 page, first I see the image I get from time.png, then the image refreshes with the other one. I'm not sure what this means or what we are supposed to do with it. I added the time.png hashes to the table for the last two hours but we probably need a way of indicating the difference. -- [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 20:38, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
: This latest hourly update did the same thing. If you are fast enough you can even get the first image in your browser by right click view image before it changes to the second one. I edited in something that shows that. It probably could stand some reformatting by someone with better graphic design sense, but at least right now all the information has been captured. - [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 21:18, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
: Looking at it some more, I see that wget of the page at xkcd.com/1190/ gets you an img link to time.png and then there is the javascript that must after some delay get the different hash url image. That means that we had better be sure that we do not miss any manual checks of hourly updates because the scripts will never find that second image unless someone has a way of getting a script that runs the javascript as if it was a browser. As long as someone posts the hash of the image from the browser every hour, I can ensure that we have the hashes the scripts can get because I have a cron job checking for those updates every 15 minutes. -- [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 21:49, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
:: And with the update for day 06/18:00 it appears to be back to normal, one consistent image per update -- [[User:Bugstomper|Bugstomper]] ([[User talk:Bugstomper|talk]]) 22:22, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

Just if somebody else wants this, i hacked a little bash script to download all images to the current listed here. It skips already downloaded images so it can be reused later when more images are here.

<pre>#!/bin/bash
curl -s http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1190 |
egrep -o "/wiki/images/[0-9a-f]/[0-9a-f]{2}/time[0-9]*.png" |
while read url; do
imgname=$(basename $url)
tmp=${imgname:4}
id=${tmp%.png}
printf -v target "image%03d.png" ${id:-1}
[[ -e $target ]] && continue
echo $target
curl -so $target http://www.explainxkcd.com$url
done
</pre>
--[[Special:Contributions/79.236.3.216|79.236.3.216]] 18:51, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

To ease waiting times: http://thred.github.com/xkcd-time-catapult/
:: This is awesome. I love the internet. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:15, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

I've offered up [http://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=10316|my own explanation]. The obvious metaphor is how time continues to flow and things change when you’re not watching. And how this could be a conceptual art project that could continue the rest of our lives... [[Special:Contributions/72.183.97.36|72.183.97.36]] 19:36, 31 March 2013 (UTC) Lawrence Person
:Correcting your link: [http://www.lawrenceperson.com/?p=10316 my own explanation] --[[Special:Contributions/24.145.230.202|24.145.230.202]] 20:49, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

::This comics may not really continue forever unless Randall will put some sort of repetition into it. May not be simple loop but something more sophisticated, but still, images shown up to now doesn't show any kind of repetition yet. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:28, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

anyone else notice the water is slowly rising? not unlike a tide (depending on the time scaling implemented? perhaps a flooding river (as might correspond to the mention of a river)? [[Special:Contributions/70.192.210.128|70.192.210.128]] 18:08, 2 April 2013 (UTC)
:I checked your claim that the water is rising, and I agree. Good catch! I measure the rate at about 1 pixel per 25 frames starting at about 100 hours. Though a more careful look could surely refine that estimate.{{unsigned|207.67.82.250}}
:I measured the water level with a ruler. The water will take another 20 days before reaching the sand castle if rising at a constant rate. [[Special:Contributions/192.155.85.119|192.155.85.119]] 01:27, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Oddly this contradicts the text, which says that the river is going down: "Any idea where the river is now?", Cueball replies "Still pretty far out. It actually retreated a little this week." --AH
:"It's *still* pretty far out". I think this means that it's getting less far out.[[Special:Contributions/93.73.186.104|93.73.186.104]] 07:41, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
::"It actually retreated a little this week." ~~dang

This comic has been running and updating so long I think perhaps it is a sand castle creation/destruction program that autonomously lets the two indefinitely build, destroy and rebuild new sand castles all the time… [[Special:Contributions/80.101.210.21|80.101.210.21]] 09:55, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
:Maybe. We don't have enough data to say that for sure yet. We just need to "wait for it". [[Special:Contributions/93.73.186.104|93.73.186.104]] 10:07, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

I think numbers in "As of this writing, it is still updated after more than XXX hours - even after Y new, different comics were posted on the front page" at the top of the page should be calculated using {{#expr}}. I changed it for number of comics, but I have no idea how to calculate number of hours since it was posted.[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 11:15, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

When Megan coughed and Cueball asked if she was okay, did anyone else think of http://xkcd.com/931/ Lanes? Cueball explains that cancer treatment results are not known until much later, "and often the first sign is a cough or a bone pain. So you spend the next five or ten years trying not to worry . . . ." ~~wrybred

:I don't want to be a downer but this is just my interpretation thus far. I hope it is a happier theme but if you are correct wrybred, my further explanation would be the following... I think that building sandcastles is an analogy for living their life. Going for a swim in the body of water and the cough could represent the start of the cancer or possibly some time where they had to go out and "wade" in the possibilities of what cancer could mean. Time passes and Cueball says "I don't think we can build it much taller than this. It's been fun, though" which represents that they believe they have done as well as they can with the lives they have been given. They comment on the river retreating even though we the audience observe a body of water on the right hand side rising could represent how we can be fooled into believing things are going alright when in reality they are not. The reference to not understanding what the river is doing also fits this explanation well as someone with cancer may occasionally feel confused about their illness. Presently while I write this they are possibly preparing for a flood which represents the return of the cancer. If I were to guess what is next I might guess that they will watch as the flood comes in and destroys some of what they built but it is better than not having made the sandcastle in the first place. I could be way off, but Randall has given us a lot of TIME to think about what this is all about and your mind wanders. I also would note that this may not be about a particular cancer story, just any cancer story. [[User:Nhoel|Nhoel]] ([[User talk:Nhoel|talk]]) 13:51, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Could Cueball and Megan be building a European city, as it evolved, was damaged and remodelled where 1 day of strips is 100 years? Maybe Cueball is curretly remodelling Notre Dame de Paris or Westminster??? If so, it should get interesting around day 17 [[Special:Contributions/129.238.237.96|129.238.237.96]] 17:34, 4 April 2013 (UTC)rbnm

<pre>#!/bin/bash

# Assumes you have a complete set of numbered PNG images in a
# directory called "./images". (See the script above) Makes a
# directory called "./cropped" containing N images that are 1 pixel
# wide by 395 pixels tall, each of which contains the second to last
# column of one of the input images. Finally, concatenates all those
# images into montage.png, which will be Nx395 pixels and can be read
# as a graph of water depth over time.

mkdir -p cropped
rm cropped/*.png
for i in images/*.png
do
f=`basename $i .png`
convert -crop 1x395+550+0 $i cropped/${f}_cropped.png
echo $f
done

montage cropped/*.png -geometry 1x395+0+0 -tile x1 montage.png

echo Wrote result to montage.png
</pre>[[User:Codegardener|Codegardener]] ([[User talk:Codegardener|talk]]) 21:00, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

He's making a mini-version of the whole sandcastle on top of the mound! You can see the two turrets on the left and the mound in the center!

They're inside an hourglass! ;) - Filippo

i believe that he made a fractal version of the scene atop the middle sandcastle... are we going to have an infinite zoom for a bit (or maybe forever?) - ck

Maybe it's some sort of reference to [http://xkcd.com/878/ Model Rail] where Cueball ends up with multiple model railways in his basement...--[[Special:Contributions/77.100.193.92|77.100.193.92]] 13:14, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
:<strike>Since it hasn't been brought up yet;</strike> reference to 878, this is Nesting, and there are FOUR visible layers.
:- "It's the second rule of 'model train layouts': No Nesting." (Strike and replace with the building sandcastles.)
:- "Whats the first rule?", "Do not talk about ... That rule was actually voted in by our friends and families.", "Philistines"
:Drifter [[Special:Contributions/24.106.78.38|24.106.78.38]] 19:26, 10 April 2013 (UTC)
::Actually 77.100.193.92 did bring it up, which is why I believe they're building a large trebuchet. [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 22:09, 10 April 2013 (UTC)
::Thank you Bdemirici & 77.100.193.92, sorry for the duplicatation. Now which came first... the coment or or the comic, 77...'s reference came before the center structure gained its malformed parapets. Drifter [[Special:Contributions/66.42.134.195|66.42.134.195]] 10:38, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Whoa -- big change in scale, zoom in on Megan holding a mini trebuchet at about 5 pm central time Friday the 5th.--[[Special:Contributions/205.208.92.136|205.208.92.136]] 22:20, 5 April 2013 (UTC)--~~

A tiny trebuchet for use on the tiny turrets? Megan is kinda awesome. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 22:32, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

:I think she should "outgrow these toys and focus on something practical" ;-) [[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 22:59, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Looks like they are re-enacting the trebuchet incident on the mini-castle. AH --[[Special:Contributions/108.244.73.186|108.244.73.186]] 23:53, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Meta-physical time again: "I don't understand what the sea is doing" - wasn't it a river earlier? Is it a different sea? The river of time maybe? Where is Randall leading us? [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 03:09, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

:I'm thinking it may have to do with the title text from this comic. http://xkcd.com/4/
:I think it's obvious. They're not on a beach. They're on a recently exposed portion of the river bed. In time the river will come back and engulf the whole area. [[Special:Contributions/64.121.163.170|64.121.163.170]] 10:16, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

:I have redownloaded the 199:00 image based upon the hash here and it does still say "river", so Randall hasn't adjusted the "past" to fit the "present"... [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 05:50, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

:I've read somewhere that they are not on the beach. They are on some sort of a boat covered with sand. First they were in the river, and now they reached the sea. [[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 14:19, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

::So if they are on a boat then it isn't the river/sea that is rising it is the boat that is sinking (or having more weight added to it). [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 18:35, 6 April 2013 (UTC)
:It's pretty obvious to me. They're on a beach with a river running through it. Yes, beaches sometimes have rivers in them. And also, rivers that run through beaches tend to be very unstable and to move their bed all the time, because of the fact that it's running water through loose sand. That's why they talk about the river moving. [[Special:Contributions/80.212.115.55|80.212.115.55]] 08:04, 7 April 2013 (UTC)
:: This comic. http://xkcd.com/4/ {{unsigned|Zuffelnok}}

: xkcd Time Catapult done correctly http://i.imgur.com/XEKEfSR.png {{unsigned|118.129.231.136}}
:: Man, you have just too much... wait for it... time! [[User:Caranhyas|Caranhyas]] ([[User talk:Caranhyas|talk]]) 16:34, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Just so it doesn't get lost, these are the last 2 hashes I've seen: e3e8169439be717a5661dba80cca623330516d87749f5c5bd83d4a4aae19b89a.png, a2c0f3ed4be680f5b794f0137a55af8704598a2105e1eff5fce750b07800c19b.png

Are they building a giant trebuchet? Another zoom out maybe? [[User:Bdemirci|Bdemirci]] ([[User talk:Bdemirci|talk]]) 05:13, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

I love how Randall is reacting to the discussion here. Is it a sea? Or a river? Let's have Cueball drink from it to clarify ;) [[User:Blue Charizard|Blue Charizard]] ([[User talk:Blue Charizard|talk]]) 09:42, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
:It could be brackish water ... and I have seen some fresh water rivers I definitely wouldn't want to drink from [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 15:10, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

:So this tells us 3 things:
:1) It's likely a sea.
:2) This comic, or at least a script (not in a programming sense) for it was very likely made by a human. So it's not randomly generated. We already knew this, but now it's confirmed once again.
:3) Randall is still working on this comic, or at least he was some time after he started releasing it.
:[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 16:51, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

I think by tasting the water Cueball was preparing himself for the inevitable - the water is going to continue to rise and nothing they can do will stop it: they are going to drown. This strip is about the slow, inextirpable, approach of Death - and this isn't the Death from a Terry Pratchett novel. [[User:Joncaves|Joncaves]] ([[User talk:Joncaves|talk]]) 20:29, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
: Between the 376th and the 81st strip it can be noted how much the water has rised. And I've noted how there's no wind in the beach (river's mouth?), the flags don't move and the sea has no waves. Don't know if there's a meaning there. --[[User:Yinosanchez|Yinosanchez]] ([[User talk:Yinosanchez|talk]]) 21:18, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
:: I think you shouldn't compare it to frames before about 220, because that's where zoom changed last time. Also it looks like it will reach the castle in a day and a half from now.[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 22:17, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
:::The likely implication of the lack waves etc is that they are in an estuarine environment, where the rising tide may not have a bore at all. This might explain a few things, like the reference to a river, the strange behaviour of the sea, and perhaps might explain Cueball tasting the water (to see if he could determine the saltwater content). [[User:Eeijevs|Eeijevs]] ([[User talk:Eeijevs|talk]]) 22:34, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
::::Megan's reaction to getting the water in her mouth (cough, pffthh) and Cueball's are pretty similar ... call me crazy but I think there's something weird about the water beyond its salt content ... --[[Special:Contributions/76.84.59.83|76.84.59.83]] 04:20, 10 April 2013 (UTC)
::: And 2 hours after I said that, Megan built something right next to the water. I wonder if this was a coincidence... [[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 09:34, 10 April 2013 (UTC)
:::: It is, of course, a damm to buy them some time. :-) {{unsigned|84.180.241.162}}
:::: It wouldn't work as a dam in a 3D universe. It would have to extend infinitely in z to act as a dam. Then again, there's also no good way to support a platform with two posts. [[Special:Contributions/206.173.46.67|206.173.46.67]] 20:24, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Can someone please move the list of images and their hashes to another page? Randal is showing no signs that the images will stop anytime soon. [[Special:Contributions/184.5.152.192|184.5.152.192]] 22:32, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
:I understand the sentiment, and considered at least commenting out the future tables, but this page does not need to be changed when the latest frames are uploaded, only when the hashes are added, and those of us still keeping the live XKCD page open do find it easier to just open the last few frames missed when looking away or sleeping.
:I do wonder if the wall of text is worth reducing by actually making the hashes a link with something like "Direct link" as the text. Is anyone still attempting to generate the hashes? [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 05:10, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

:I went ahead and made all the tables collapsed by default. If the comic continues beyond another couple of weeks, I vote for moving them to another page. --[[User:Druid816|Druid816]] ([[User talk:Druid816|talk]]) 06:44, 10 April 2013 (UTC)
::If the comic ever comes to an end, we could clear out the archived hashes and put all the image links into a multi-column table. The hashes are only really useful to editors trying to upload new images, they don't really add that much to understanding the comic. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:29, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

Just a theory. On Friday, April 19th at 00:00 there will be 1200 images in the comic, at the same time the strip 1201 of xkcd should be posted on the site. I'm guessing that will end it. (UPDATE: Math is wrong, was still counting half an hour updates. Sorry about that. The numbers will match on May 2nd at 6 in the morning, nothing special there.)--[[User:Yinosanchez|Yinosanchez]] ([[User talk:Yinosanchez|talk]]) 18:27, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps it is about global climate change? "The sea is rising." and now they are building a very tall structure to cope with this ?AH --[[Special:Contributions/209.74.126.175|209.74.126.175]] 01:54, 12 April 2013 (UTC)
:Actually, looks like they're building a boat!!! [[Special:Contributions/64.121.163.170|64.121.163.170]] 10:04, 12 April 2013 (UTC)
::This is in no way close to a boat, look at any shipyard, that's not how you build a boat! --[[Special:Contributions/83.145.101.131|83.145.101.131]] 10:25, 12 April 2013 (UTC)
:::It is how you build an observation deck, though, or an airport control tower. And if you have the lumber to build such a structure, you could much more easily build a raft. So it's not like they're in any real danger of drowning when the tide gets higher. - [[Special:Contributions/206.173.46.67|206.173.46.67]] 20:40, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

It could be a raptor-proof tower .... not seen any of those in XKCD for a while {{unsigned|86.128.14.32}}

Looks like that small tower that Megan added in 500-502 is acting like a levee. The water outside it is higher now (569) than the water inside it. I can't imagine it'll help much, though.
--[[User:Mlv|Mlv]] ([[User talk:Mlv|talk]]) 20:40, 12 April 2013 (UTC)