explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1122: Electoral Precedent

2014-02-28T23:15:29Z

Quoti:

I don't understand what he means by Alternative Tickets in the last frame.
:It does not say 'Alternative', it says {{w|Alliterative}}, meaning that both names starts with the same sound/letter. '''R'''omney/'''R'''yan --[[User:Pmakholm|Pmakholm]] ([[User talk:Pmakholm|talk]]) 16:04, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
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My research tells me that Jefferson won 1800. Error on Randall's part? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 08:52, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused by 1792 vs. 1804: The latter is "No incumbent has beaten a challenger", but didn't Washington face any challenger when he was re-elected in 1792? [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 14:19, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
: {{w|United_States_presidential_election,_1792|He ran unopposed}} --[[User:Buggz|Buggz]] ([[User talk:Buggz|talk]]) 14:33, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:: As far as I understand it, he had four opponents, but got all the votes. Then, the electoral college voted on whom to be the vice president among the remaining candidates. But it seems unlikely to get 100% of the popular votes, do I misinterpret the wiki page? [[User:Jolindbe|Jolindbe]] ([[User talk:Jolindbe|talk]]) 17:45, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:::Well, back then, the electoral college didn't take their votes from the people. They just decided, so they decided to give Washington the presidency. [[Special:Contributions/140.247.0.79|140.247.0.79]] 18:55, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

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"1904: No one under 45 has become president. ... Roosevelt did."

Sort of. {{w|Theodore Roosevelt}} (Oct 1858–1919) was under 45 when he ''became'' president, in 1901. But by the time of the ''1904'' election he was 46.
 [[Special:Contributions/75.36.234.236|75.36.234.236]] 18:48, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
:Correct. Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest President to date, but Kennedy was the youngest yet ''elected''. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 20:09, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

The image needs to be updated. I'm not sure how to do that myself. [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 23:56, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Uploaded corrected image, changed tense on comments. Reload/refresh to check the 1800 frame should now show Jefferson... --[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 01:36, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

And how can people be from Virginia AND Massachusett? I think he meant OR.[[Special:Contributions/77.245.46.86|77.245.46.86]] 11:39, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

I take it the entire comic will not go up under "Transcripts"? [[User:Bobidou23|Bobidou23]] ([[User talk:Bobidou23|talk]]) 22:03, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

:It will, but no one's been bothered the transcribe it all yet.[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 23:01, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

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Although Buchanan/Breckinridge won in 1856, Stevenson/Sparkman were defeated by Eisenhower/Nixon in 1952.

He's wrong about the other 'precedent' for 2012 as well. Other first name with a K losers:
*1924, Frank T. Johns (Socialist Labor)
*1932, Frank S. Regan (Prohibition)
*1936, Frank Knox (Republican)
*1948, Tucker P. Smith (Socialist)
*1980, Patrick J. Lucey (Independent)
*1996, Patrick Choate (Reform)
*2004, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
*2008, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
--[[Special:Contributions/76.20.209.221|76.20.209.221]] 10:43, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
----

Good point about small party candidates, but Tucker P. Smith was the Socialist vice presidential candidate in 1948; the presidential candidate was Norman Thomas.
--[[Special:Contributions/174.59.119.154|174.59.119.154]] 13:51, 24 October 2012 (UTC)
----

;Errors
Should the errors be included in the article explanation, or should they just be discussed here in the chat box? I'm of the opinion that anything that doesn't go towards explaining the comic should go here in the discussion. I would lean towards keeping error nitpicking confined to the discussion page. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 13:19, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

:I think errors should be put down in a trivia/errors section. Or, if a flame war is starting, move it onto the talk page. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

I put back my original comment on the 2012 streaks; some anonymous person had previously written 'whether he thinks "st" and "sp" sounds are different enough to count as alliteration', but first of all, an alliteration requires the (first) sound(s)/letter(s) of two words to be the same (not different), and second, if Randall would consider Stevenson/Sparkman not to be alliterative (as their second letters differ), he would undoubtedly think the same about Romney/Ryan.--[[User:Jay|Jay]] ([[User talk:Jay|talk]]) 14:11, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:Yeah, I noticed that edit, but thought there was a "not" in there, which would have made it make sense. Ah well. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:50, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

:Not quite true, Jay - St/Sp is two different consonant ''blends'', which are much more intertwined than a consonant and its following vowel, as in Ro/Ry. The question is do they sound alike, not the literal letters used. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 17:06, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Re: 1996 - surely 'William' (12 pts not including 50 pts for using all seven letters) beats 'Robert' - (8 pts)? {{unsigned|163.1.166.255}}

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2012: Democratic incumbents never beat taller challengers.

Isn't Obama 6'1" and Romney is 6'2"? Certainly Obama won there. [[Special:Contributions/24.6.170.96|24.6.170.96]] 01:47, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

:The comic was written before the presidential election. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.223}}

;Transcript
Just finished the transcript. I didn't check for typos, since there was a lot of typing. It would be great if someone else would look over it. {{unsigned|207.242.93.10}}

:Looks great! I've removed a lot of the whitespace which (I think) makes it easier to read, and doesn't require quite as much scrolling. I haven't gone through and spell checked everything either, but if someone finds anything they can fix it. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 23:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

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2012: No Republican has lost a November 6 presidential election...
2012: No one ever wins re-election after the previous two presidents - from different parties - won re-election...
2012: No Democrat was re-elected with very high unemployment and a Republican-controlled House...

...until Obama. [[Special:Contributions/50.74.2.12|50.74.2.12]] 02:06, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

----

Is it me or does the 1972 panel now say „Quakers can’t win twice“? What happened to „No wartime candidate has won without Massachusetts“?
1956–1964 seem to be wrong, too. Or am I missing something?
[[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 23:15, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Talk:1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood

2013-12-03T10:08:35Z

Quoti:

Why the big empty circle around Earth??{{unsigned ip|108.162.231.42}}
:Because they're all far away and he wants to make the reader feel lonely. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.30|108.162.216.30]] 13:42, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
So all these other planets are close to each other, but Earth is far from them? Or does the distance between circles have no meaning besides the empty space around Earth's circle?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.29|108.162.216.29]] 15:16, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
: Most of these planets are hypothetical (last I checked, we knew of five such planets), and the nearest to us are in Tau Ceti, only 12 ly away. I'd say the space around Earth is metaphorical. We're kind of like Samwise as he and Frodo leave the Shire; those first few miles seem like an enormous distance. [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 18:50, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Why New-New-America? And why not New-New-Netherlands? [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 15:36, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Changed it to New-New-World, as that makes a lot more sense than New-New-America. The Americas were commonly referred to as the 'New World', and the reference alludes to 'Sailing for the new world'. [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 15:49, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

After staring at this graph for a while, I got a sudden urge to play Osmos... [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 16:03, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

The title seems to have changed to "Exoplanet Neighborhood" and the mouseover text to what used to be the title... [[User:Xseo|Xseo]] ([[User talk:Xseo|talk]]) 16:36, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

[http://xkcd.com/1071/ This] is very similar. It was of June 2012, so quite a bit has been discovered since then. By [http://kepler.nasa.gov/ Kepler], I think? --[[User:Irino.|Irino.]] ([[User talk:Irino.|talk]]) 17:36, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

It may just be me, but this looks like one of those colour-blindness tests (I'm r-g colour blind). I was half-looking for some hidden message or number or sumfink in the pattern of dos, but of course I'm the one that usually misses out on those things :D Can colour-typical viewers see anything odd or unexpected in the pattern of dots? Oh, also, in the explanation of the comic here, it talks about the "reddish tone" and "grey" disks ... they all look grey to me, although some are darker than others :D Note that http://xkcd.com/1071/ does NOT remind me of a colour blindness test, except in the most superficial way - a circle of dots. I think this one, 1298, does because Randall has used pastel tones. Cheers, Jon. --[[User:Jon.|Jon.]] ([[User talk:Jon.|talk]]) 16:36, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
: Nothing odd or unexpected in the pattern of dots, Jon. No hidden "color blind test"-like message. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.89|199.27.128.89]] 18:53, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Anyone else feel like perhaps we're still missing something here? Maybe I've simply become spoiled, but this straightforward graphic info, with no real puzzle nor pun nor humor (much less layers of these), seems ... incomplete and/or improbable. Also, what/where is the "New-New-America" or "New-New-World" discussed by Quoti above? Maybe I'm missing something major, somehow. BTW, 1K apologies for highly-likely noob errata in this, my 1st attempt at commenting here. [[User:Miamiclay|Miamiclay]] ([[User talk:Miamiclay|talk]]) 22:52, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

:Comics at xkcd do not always contain a joke. Look here: [[4: Landscape (sketch)]]. Maybe we do need a category for this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:04, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

[The potty 1] I'm deeply suspicious of this infographic. For a start the resemblance to a color blindness test is obvious. Second the circle around earth must have some meaning. If it was what he says it is he would probably have labelled at least the larger planets? {{unsigned|The Potty 1}}

Has anyone noticed the different typography? Any Idea why it’s set in Futura and not in his own handwriting? [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 10:08, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1298: Exoplanet Neighborhood

2013-12-02T15:36:19Z

Quoti:

1285: Third Way

2013-11-01T12:25:02Z

Quoti: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1285
| date = November 1, 2013
| title = Third Way
| image = third way.png
| titletext = 'The monospaced-typewriter-font story is a COMPLETE FABRICATION!  WAKE UP, SHEEPLE' 'It doesn't matter! Studies support single spaces!' 'Those results weren't statistically significant!' 'Fine, you win. I'm using double spaces right now!' 'Are not!  We can all hear your stupid whitespace.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
This comic refers to the debate about the {{w|Sentence spacing|correct number of spaces after the end of a sentence}}.

While text written on typewriters traditionally had two spaces between sentences, this is becoming less common and many sources now recommend having only one space, although this topic is still {{w|Sentence spacing#Controversy|controversial}}.

[[Cueball]] is advocating a line break after every sentence, the titular "third way", which would be very awkward.

Unsurprisingly, his approach has not caught on.

Except on this page...

The tooltip text uses single spaces between the back-and-forth quotations; but within each quotation, the quoted speaker's preferred spacing is used.

In particular, when the single-spacing advocate claims to be using double spacing, this is indeed a lie.

(You have to look at the page HTML to see this, since a single space and a double space render identically.)

This is not the first time Randall has proposed a [[690|controversial]] [[1167|third way]].

The third approach is actually used in practice when a {{w|Revision_control|Version control system}} is used to manage plain text files (such as HTML or TeX).

Many VCS are line based, and using one line per sentence makes it easier to automatically merge concurrent changes.

==Transcript==
:[Two angry mobs, each holding signs, with Cueball standing off to the side with another sign.]
:[The first mob's sign says "'''Two''' spaces after a period," The second mob's sign says "'''One''' space after a period," and Cueball's sign says "Line break after every sentence."]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Sheeple]]

Talk:1285: Third Way

2013-11-01T10:34:08Z

Quoti:

ONE SPACE AFTER A PERIOD. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:38, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Writing plaintext, I always do two spaces after a sentence ending period.
This is probably because I did in fact start typing on a real typewriter.
In an environment where automatic formatting will take place, like a web page or wiki text, I use the newline.
I have had people in this wiki collapse my multiple line forms to one of the others.
(I was disappointed.)
--[[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 04:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I prefer double spacing, but I used single spacing in writing the explanation, just to make people happy. Perhaps I should have used new lines. [[User:Concomitant|Concomitant]] ([[User talk:Concomitant|talk]]) 05:10, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

The 'third way' is a little underappreciated here: it divides the text into self contained logical units, and makes text processing tools (grep, diff etc.) much more usable.
Proper text rendering engines (TeX, HTML, etc.) already make this assumption and group sentences accordingly.
If only I realized this earlier, it would have made my thesis revisions much more easier.
In fact, up to this moment, I thought I was that lone guy in the comic.
EDIT: this comment in xkcd forums makes my point clear: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=106217#p3489055
--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.11|141.101.96.11]] 05:42, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I always just find and replace double space with single space. If formatting suffers, someone did a bad job.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.228|108.162.231.228]] 06:33, 1 November 2013 (UTC) Synthetica

So, why did double spacing after a period ever exist? It doesn't seem necessary. [[User:PheagleAdler|PheagleAdler]] ([[User talk:PheagleAdler|talk]]) 07:31, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

even though i learned typing on a typewriter, to this day i had never heard of the double space thing. maybe it's a US only thing, like the stupid french with spaces BEFORE punctuation marks. [[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 07:54, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

As a german typographer I have to say I’m ''shocked''! ''Two'' spaces per period? A space ''before'' punctuation?! My scientific opinion: you all are completely crazy ;-) (Just kidding, but seriously, two spaces? In Germany, the first possibility to do that safely is your last will …) [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 10:34, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1283: Headlines

2013-10-28T07:28:04Z

Quoti:

"1912 is, of course, the year of the the sinking of the RMS Titanic."
I don't think this is such a given fact that people know when the Titanic sank. I'm removing the "of course". And someone should add an explanation for how these titles are supposed to get more clicks, and what "getting more clicks" even means or worth.
I'd do it myself, but I'm on my phone... on second thought, let me boot my laptop... [[Special:Contributions/95.35.58.162|95.35.58.162]] 06:31, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
: Okay, I added a short explanation for now. Someone should fix it, add mentions to NSFW photo articles and list articles (5 easy ways to add 10 years to your life expectancy!). I'm out. [[Special:Contributions/95.35.58.162|95.35.58.162]] 07:10, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Don’t you think the 1916 headline is a reference to the fatness of someone’s mom? [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 07:28, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1275: int(pi)

2013-10-09T18:42:33Z

Quoti:

Well, I get the int(Pi) thing, but what's with avoiding 3's? [[Special:Contributions/95.35.58.168|95.35.58.168]] 05:10, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

What is "''floor pie''"? --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 05:31, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
: reminds me of weebl‘s „hmm pie!“, but I think the homer-thing is correct. --[[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 18:42, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

I thought this was a reference to [http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001120/secret_number.shtml Bleem] and reminds me of comic [[899]]. Saibot84 06:17, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Prudent mathematicians just refer to it as "The Scottish Number". [[User:Dr Pepper|Dr Pepper]] ([[User talk:Dr Pepper|talk]]) 06:58, 9 October 2013 (UTC) Dr Pepper

I can give you one '''rational''' reason for spelling out things like INT(PI) in programming. Back in the ancient times, there was a piece of electronics dubbed then a ''personal computer'' with an NSA code name of ZXSPECTRUM. It had a built-in interpreter of the ancient language codenamed BASIC. Memory was very precious in those times, every single byte counted. The creators of the interpreter did a (somewhat) clever thing - all keywords of this particular dialect of the BASIC language were stored in memory as single-byte codes, and were only spelled out by text display routines. On the other hand, CPU cycles were precious, too, so they did another (not so) clever thing by storing number constants (like the cursed number mentioned above) twofold - both in an ASCII decimal form for display purposes and in a 6-byte internal binary form for computing purposes. Therefore each number occupied the space of six bytes plus the number of digits (or other characters like sign, decimal point, etc.) BASIC hackers exploited this (mis)features to save a few bytes on some commonly-used constants by saying INT PI (parentheses were not needed), NOT PI (to get 0) or SGN PI (to get 1), thus using only 2 bytes of memory instead of 7 if the numbers were used directly. Another trick to use with larger numbers was VAL "12345", which saved 3 bytes for each number spelled this way (number of digits plus three bytes for the VAL keyword and two quote marks instead of number of digits plus six bytes of internal representation). [[Special:Contributions/89.174.214.74|89.174.214.74]] 08:43, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
: Actually the internal binary form of the number was 5 bytes, but there was a special prefix byte used for two purposes, a) when listing the program the text display routines would simply skip the six bytes b) when a digit character was encountered at run time, the prefix byte was located instead of parsing the number again. It was even possible to patch the source code to replace all the digits with a single decimal point because the syntax wasn't checked at runtime. Also the trick was originally used with the ZX81 as it was slower and had less memory. I don't think the sign was stored with the number though, as that would have caused confusion with the unary minus operator. (All of the space-saving tricks mentioned above would slow the program down, of course. Even PI had to be calculated as internally the ZX81/Spectrum only knew the value of π/2.) --[[Special:Contributions/81.138.95.57|81.138.95.57]] 10:43, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

I suspect in many languages 4/INT(pi) is 1 (as it does integer division) [[Special:Contributions/193.34.186.165|193.34.186.165]] 08:51, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
:This is true in C and python and many others. I think it is standard.[[Special:Contributions/96.251.85.48|96.251.85.48]] 18:18, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
Why is the number 3 cursed? [[Special:Contributions/109.90.202.41|109.90.202.41]] 18:15, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
:I don't remember all the details, but it involves Alan Turing and an ancient vampire.[[Special:Contributions/96.251.85.48|96.251.85.48]] 18:18, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1248: Sphere

2013-08-07T17:54:55Z

Quoti:

More specifically,a geoid.--[[User:Guru-45|Guru-45]] ([[User talk:Guru-45|talk]]) 08:51, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:Astronomers observe objects in the sky, not the Earth.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:19, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::Astronomers live on the surface of the Earth, not on the surface of the sky (celestial sphere). [[Special:Contributions/167.107.191.217|167.107.191.217]] 13:25, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure “Sphere” refers to “hemisphere” and not simply to earth? After all, she’s trapped on earth and not on the celestial sphere. [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 11:24, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:It's the hemisphere, see my comment above.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:46, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:: I'm assuming you're referring to the "light-sphere" whose origin lies at the astronomer's location, and thus the universe always being bigger than the places he can physically visit. Still though, the statement "They can't travel to the places they observe" isn't accurate. We've been to the moon for instance. And then of course, there are always the unknown unknowns of the universe and interstellar travel. [[Special:Contributions/220.224.246.97|220.224.246.97]] 12:19, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::: The fact that we, the human race, have been to the moon is no comfort to anyone who's seen the wonders revealed by the HST (which isn't even suitable for inspecting the moon). We are, indeed, "trapped" here on Earth, into the foreseeable future. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 13:22, 7 August 2013 (UTC)''
: I read it as earth. It's a sphere and we're all trapped on its surface and astronomy classes make you aware of this fact more than your everyday experiences. Also, doesn't "hemisphere" mean "half sphere"? like northern and southern hemisphere of the earth? [[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 12:48, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Do we maybe have a reference to [[1246]]? [[Special:Contributions/217.81.31.20|217.81.31.20]] 11:37, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:That comic belongs more to space science than to astronomers.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:46, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm sure the sphere is Earth. We don't live on the '''surface''' of the universe. Everybody in http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=104172 agrees. [[Special:Contributions/167.107.191.217|167.107.191.217]] 13:12, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

"This totally occupies her mind, and she feels frustrated that she can only learn about those mind-boggling places, and not visit them herself." Wow. She must have been in a class? She's "totally" occupied? She's frustrated? (Not wistful, or resigned, or just aware of a fact mind you.) She isn't just thinking about the size of space, but apparently really, really wants to actually travel there. (To where, exactly? What "mind boggling" places? "Space"? Seems rather general.) You got all that deep and specific feeling from just her using the word "trapped"? Looks like reading a lot into things, to me. [[User:CFoxx|CFoxx]] ([[User talk:CFoxx|talk]]) 15:53, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Hey, what the hell are you doing? "The sphere she mentions..." is absolutely wrong, the word ''Sphere'' appears only at the title and the title text! Megan is just impressed by the vast size of the universe.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:21, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:And to all you ''Earth'' theorists, tell me why Randall mentions astronomers and NOT the entire mankind? And that, after Megan talks about a big universe. Astronomers do not observe the Earth but objects in that big universe, which is from a viewpoint on Earth just a sphere.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:21, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::One more: Astronomers are not trapped to the surface of the Earth because they use many space telescopes even beyond of earth's orbit. They are also using probes at many planets and more all over the solar system.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:02, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:::Would you please look at the first panel … And just using space telescopes doesn’t mean you’re no longer trapped. Imagine yourself being trapped in a cage with a satellite dish to communicate with a space telescope (well … just imagine that). You’re not going anywhere by using that telescope. I think you confuse “being trapped” with “being limited”. Being trapped somewhere doesn’t mean your observation is limited to that place too. [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 17:54, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Talk:1248: Sphere

2013-08-07T11:24:11Z

Quoti:

Talk:1247: The Mother of All Suspicious Files

2013-08-07T11:19:38Z

Quoti:

LNK and ZDA...Link and Zelda? [[Special:Contributions/76.64.65.200|76.64.65.200]] 13:43, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

http://www.ip-tracker.org/locator/ip-lookup.php?ip=65.222.202.53, some place in the USA. Looks random, but still... - Actually this IP hosted some javascript that exploited some FF17 weaknesses on Windows NT during the last LEA TOR raid.

The IP address 65.222.202.53 geolocates to a Starbucks just outside the beltway in Washington. DC.

Someone mentioned you see the word Hackers as well as a pirated movie... In fact the pirated movie is the 1995 movie named Hackers. Edited it to make the reference clear.{{unsigned|Sonofaresiii}}

I am missing DMG or other "Mac" suspect executable{{unsigned|145.64.134.242}}

WRBT.OBJ.O.H WhiteRabbit.obj from Jurassic Park. Not sure about the O.H [[User:Andym|Andym]] ([[User talk:Andym|talk]]) 14:56, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

Fixed .O.H - these are file extensions with C compilers and C headers, respectively.[[User:blackhatm|BlackHatm]]

.tar.gz stands for tarred and gzipped (archive) files; here .co. was introduced to make it look like a domain name
.obj can also be a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relocatable_Object_Module_Format
cia-bin is a play on cgi-bin Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/178.26.118.249|178.26.118.249]] 15:06, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

After the reference to the FBI in the (currently) final paragraph I was thinking of adding something like the following:
:This would also 'explain' the initial directory structure of "/PUB/CIA-BIN/ETC", something like an FTP /pub/ directory for publicly open files, and conflating the CIA with /cgi-bin/ as a somewhat common location for {{w|Common Gateway Interface|dynamic web-pages}}, then /etc/ which is another Linux/Unix directory reference, strangely stored underneath a doubley-referenced 'tilde' directory, what with ~foo as the root directory generally redirecting to the home directory for user "foo". These are all usually lower-case (and case-sensitive), but if the INIT.DLL has anthing to do with it it might mean it's an uppercase-dominated and yet actually case-insensitive Windows-based system, with that Windows Dynamically Linked Library as a dynamic responder.
...but I've rushed that and it looks messy/may have errors in it, so feel free to clean it up if it inspires you. Or not... [[Special:Contributions/178.98.215.19|178.98.215.19]] 16:34, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

I think [SCR] actually refers to a screener.{{unsigned|83.160.118.125}}

> Agreed. The capitalization and brackets are the standard formatting in pirated movie titles, and before a movie release, Screeners (much better quality than theater cams) are excellent bait on fake downloads. Updated in the wiki. [[User:Daemonf|Daemonf]] ([[User talk:Daemonf|talk]]) 23:09, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

Of course, if the user is on Windows, the only extension that matters is the last one which is ".exe" - an executable. [[User:Hax|Hax]] ([[User talk:Hax|talk]]) 16:43, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

I edited the line on the 'save' button being greyed out. This doesn't change with HTTPS, but is instead a modern browser feature preventing a user from agreeing indiscriminately or with a mistaken click. I hope I didn't step on anybody's toes. [[Special:Contributions/72.29.184.195|72.29.184.195]] 00:12, 6 August 2013 (UTC)
:That's incorrect, the web server can identify if it's a secure connection or not and render the content of the page depending on this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 06:48, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

What is the joke?That the prescence of a huge number of extensions makes this file extremely suspicious?And the punch is that he is suggesting a secure connection to download this file?--[[Special:Contributions/117.194.199.185|117.194.199.185]] 01:24, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

: Yes, this is a joke. I it is a comic. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 05:06, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

"...CO - looks like a top-level domain. Many countries use .co.tld in front of their main TLD, e.g. .co.uk...." Aha! I always thought co.uk meant "Cornwall, United Kingdom." And I couldn't figure out why all their domains were mediated through Cornwall. Every day, I meet a new opportunity to feel clueless...{{unsigned|24.79.13.247}}

On a scale of 'party' to 'judge' in the 'Sketchiness' scale ( http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sketchiness ), how sketchy is this file? [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:38, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

"UNIX" with all caps is a trademark, whereas "Unix" is probably what you should use when you refer to the family of OSes.{{unsigned|108.85.129.37}}

It is probably important to explain that:
* The information in that dialog box gives absolutely no indication of what the file being downloaded will be actually named (let alone what is inside), including its extension: it can just as well be downloaded into a harmless text file named "anything.txt" by default. The server may as well just silently ignore anything after "?", especially if INIT.DLL library does not expect an argument named "FILE". (If INIT.DLL even exists - see below)
* Normally, with such a syntax (DLL-file in a cgi-bin-like directory with a "?" query), "init.dll" should be viewed as benign, as it should execute on the server instead of itself getting downloaded. If it was called "init.exe" nothing would have changed. However if the server is not configured to execute that file, by default it will in fact get simply downloaded as a file, and in that case everything after "?" is completely ignored by the server.
* Please note that "normally" the URL indicates that on the server somewhere there are nested folders called "~TILDE","PUB","CIA-BIN" and "ETC", last one with a file "INIT.DLL" inside. However it is a perfectly normal practice for a server to interpret that part of URL arbitarily, i.e. there may be only one file named "whatever.php" on the server, and it then may be configured to execute or allow download of that file when anyone tries to request whatever is mentioned in the comic, or request anything at all from that server, or even if anyone types more than 10 "A" letters after the server name, whatever.
* Thus, the point of this comic is largely that the depicted warning message is almost completely useless: unless a user can somehow make sure that they trust this particular URL, there is no way to know if the file being downloaded could or could not be malicious by looking at its extension because that extension is not displayed.
Could anyone please rephrase some of the above and add it into the article? Because I am new here and dislike digging through all the guidelines before posting. [[User:Leftload|Leftload]] ([[User talk:Leftload|talk]]) 18:52, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

I also noticed that the requested path ("/~TILDE(...)A.OUT.EXE") is exactly 255 characters long. This could be a joke on 255-character path limitation on windows, however the actual file path should have ended with "?", and even if it somehow did not, there would be no extra space for the drive letter then. [[User:Leftload|Leftload]] ([[User talk:Leftload|talk]]) 18:52, 6 August 2013 (UTC)

I think a significant and unexplained element of the joke is the fact that by switching to https, the download would ''not'' be scanned by many anti-virus gateway products on the market, because the scanner is unable to inspect the content within the encrypted stream. By clicking on "Save" (if it weren't greyed out) without switching to https, the file is likely to be scanned for virus/malware signatures. By switching to https, this scanning is not available.

Also, I think the 255 character size is important, either as an attempt to overflow a buffer, or as as a means to bypass a scanner (as some scanning systems limit their scope to only the start of a file, where virus signatures are generally found, to maintain throughput). Perhaps if the Windows filename limit is 255 characters, then a 256 character filename might not be detected as having a .EXE extension, thus bypassing a gateway scanner.

[[Special:Contributions/120.144.147.191|120.144.147.191]] 09:19, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
:When you save the file to your file system it is not encrypted any more. The virus scanner will test this file. The length of the file name is 250 characters because "FILE=" is not part of the name.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:48, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::I think by “anti-virus gateway“ he means something like a web proxy that scans all your traffic. That’s quite common in bigger networks – and quite annoying sometimes … [[User:Quoti|Quoti]] ([[User talk:Quoti|talk]]) 11:19, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

1247: The Mother of All Suspicious Files

2013-08-05T22:53:22Z

Quoti: Corrected the link. Had even more errors than my first attempt at downloading the file …

{{comic
| number = 1247
| date = August 5, 2013
| title = The Mother of All Suspicious Files
| image = the_mother_of_all_suspicious_files.png
| titletext = Better change the URL to 'https' before downloading.
}}

==Explanation==
The save dialogue shows a download from [http://www.utrace.de/?query=65.222.202.53 65.222.202.53] with a very long file title. Many of the extensions used inside there indicate executable code. You also see common download syntax for a pirated movie, {{w|Hackers (film)|Hackers}}, likely included to appear malicious to anyone skimming but is actually a movie about hackers, making it a benign reference rather than malicious.

The {{w|URL}} contains the path "~tilde/pub/cia-bin/etc". The first part is a public folder of an user named tilde, "cgi-bin" is a common folder on a Web-Server for server side executables ([[Randall]] jokes with the name), and "etc" is a standard folder for configuration files. The program "init.dll" isn't executable at all, it's a {{w|Windows Dynamic Link Library}} which can't be run standalone. The question mark indicates the start of a parameter list, in this case we have only one named "FILE".

The "Save" button is disabled, you still only can click the "Cancel" button. Maybe this will be different on a secure https connection.

The content of the parameter is shown here:
* {{w|AUTOEXEC.BAT}} - a file which is automatically run during startup on Windows/DOS operating systems.
* MY%20OSX%20DOCUMENTS - referencing the {{w|OSX}} operating system ({{w|URL_encoding#Character_data|%20}} is a representation of a space in a URL, i.e. it reads as "MY OSX DOCUMENTS").
* INSTALL.EXE - a typical {{w|Installer#Installer|installer}}
* {{w|RAR}} - a compressed archive file type
* {{w|INI_file|INI}} - a configuration file type
* {{w|Tar_(computing)|TAR}} - a file archive popular in UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems. TAR has been mentioned [[1168:_tar|before]].
* DOÇX - {{w|docx}} is an Office Open XML file, i.e. a word processing format used by Microsoft Word 2007 and above, but has no cedilla (¸)
* PHPHPHP - a play on {{w|PHP}} files, a kind of server-based web page file type. PHP is a recursive abbreviation ("PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor")
* {{w|XHTML}} - another web page file type
* TML - stands for Transducer Markup Language, an XML based markup language that specifies how to capture, time-tag and describe sensor data
* XTL - another play on {{w|XHTML}}?
* TXXT - a play on {{w|Text_file|TXT}} file types
* 0DAY - a reference to a {{w|zero-day exploit}}
* HACK.ERS_(1995)_BLURAY_CAM-XVID - a reference to the 1995 Hackers movie, but pirated movies would either be a BlurayRIP/DVDRIP or CAM, but not both at the same time unless you used a camera to recored the Blueray movie as it played?
* {{w|EXE}} - an executable file type used by Microsoft Windows
* [SCR] - a Windows {{w|screensaver}} (a popular way to get malware onto somebody's Windows machine), even though it usually has no brackets
* {{w|Lisp (programming language)|LISP}} - programming language
* {{w|Windows_Installer|MSI}} - an installation file used by Microsoft Installer
* {{w|.lnk|LNK}} - an extension used by Microsoft Windows for shortcuts. The extension is normally hidden to the user.
* LNK, ZDA, GNN - references to {{w|Link_(The_Legend_of_Zelda)|Link}}, {{w|Princess_Zelda|Zelda}}, and {{w|Ganon|Ganon}}, important characters from {{w|The_Legend_of_Zelda|The Legend of Zelda}} video game franchise
* {{w|White_Rabbit#Television_and_films|WRBT OBJ}} - A reference to the line of code Dennis Nedry used in {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}} to shut down key systems
* {{w|Object_file|O}} - The extension for a linker file, an intermediary created when compiling C code.
* {{w|Header_file|H}} - The file extension of a header file in C code.
* {{w|SWF}} - Shockwave Flash file type
* {{w|Dpkg|DPKG}} - The Debian package management, although the package files use the file suffix ".deb"
* APP - an application on Mac OS X operating system
* {{w|ZIP_%28file_format%29|ZIP}} - compressed archive file type
* CO - looks like a {{w|List_of_Internet_top-level_domains|top-level domain}}. Many countries use .co.''tld'' in front of their main TLD, e.g. ''.co.uk''. ''.co.gz'' doesn't exist.
* {{w|Gzip|GZ}} - a compressed file using GNU zip
* {{w|A.out|A.OUT}} - Default filename when creating an executable on Linux or other UNIX-like operating systems if none was specified for the compiler.

The title text suggests changing from http to https, as if encrypting a suspicious file before downloading it is somehow better than downloading it unencrypted. http (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and https (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - Secure) are the two common protocols for getting web pages and web downloads. http is the simple download, whereas https adds an SSL encryption layer so the item being downloaded cannot be viewed unencrypted by anyone except the end recipient. Changing "http" to "https" is a common suggestion to improve security when browsing the web from an insecure network (such as a public wifi hotspot) to avoid surveillance or hijacking to a malicious website; Google automatically switches to https for all mail accounts and is starting to do so with searches. The end recipient will still get whatever nasties were in the original, however - encrypting it doesn't change the content at all.

The IP address referenced in the comic, 65.222.202.53, is currently being used by the shellcode of a Javascript 0-day exploit for the Tor Browser Bundle being run by the FBI to phone home over the clearnet and de-anonymize visitors to websites on Freedom Hosting that are serving child pornography. [http://www.reddit.com/r/onions/comments/1jmrta/founder_of_the_freedom_hosting_arrested_held/]

==Transcript==
:[A save dialogue popup with an alert sign.]
:Warning!
:This type of file can harm your computer! Are your sure you want to download: <nowiki>http://65.222.202.53/~TILDE/PUB/CIA-BIN/ETC/INIT.DLL?FILE=__AUTOEXEC.BAT.MY%20OSX%20DOCUMENTS-INSTALL.EXE.RAR.INI.TAR.DOÇX.PHPHPHP.XHTML.TML.XTL.TXXT.0DAY.HACK.ERS_(1995)_BLURAY_CAM-XVID.EXE.TAR.[SCR].LISP.MSI.LNK.ZDA.GNN.WRBT.OBJ.O.H.SWF.DPKG.APP.ZIP.TAR.TAR.CO.GZ.A.OUT.EXE</nowiki>

:[Two buttons:]
:Cancel Save

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Computers]]