743: Infrastructures

2015-01-13T22:43:49Z

Selvek: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 743
| date = May 21, 2010
| title = Infrastructures
| image = infrastructures.png
| titletext = The heartfelt tune it plays is CC licensed, and you can get it from my seed on JoinDiaspora.net whenever that project gets going.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has sent an essay to a fellow. While the essay itself was good, his fellow was worried because the essay was in the {{w|Doc (computing)|.doc}} format, the {{w|Proprietary Software|proprietary format}} that old versions of {{w|Microsoft Word}} used. The fellow advises Cueball to use a format based on an open standard. He may thinking of the ODF format (file extensions <code>.odt</code>, <code>.ods</code>, <code>.odp</code>, etc.) used in {{w|OpenOffice}} and {{w|LibreOffice}}, which are both {{w|free software}}. ODF was not standardised until 2005, but was based on OpenOffice XML which has existed since about 2000, and there were other open markup languages such as Docbook, LaTeX and HTML.

Cueball, who does not appreciate the fellow's ideology, argued that the fellow is making petty fights about the details of software instead of simply bothering that the software works (which is, in essence, a primordial purpose of software). Given that it can be a challenge to move from a familiar proprietary application to an open-source rival which may lack compatibility, features, support and popularity, Cueball has *some* justification for his stance.

The bearded fellow brings up that he is just concerned about the current proprietary software infrastructure that forces users to use software in a specific way, penalizing them for sharing the software or even preventing looking at the source code in order to learn what the program actually does or how it works. Cueball makes a retort that his fellow has [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html an arrogance that crowds out his perspective] while claiming that he is {{w|Autism|autistic}}. (Autistic people do have a tendency to have intense fixations to things, even things that other people would find mundane or even odd. They also tend to have trouble knowing the problems of the world outside of themselves, having them lack perspective of things at times. Even so, Cueball's remark suggests that he thinks that "autistic" is just another word for "retarded" which is another word for "stupid", a double-fallacy.)

Seven years later, Cueball runs to the fellow, alarmed about Facebook's heavy policies about its complete control about the information its users submit. Since Facebook is like Microsoft in its lack of transparency about their services and taking away a lot of control from the user, the fellow retorts with playing "the world's tiniest open-source violin." This is dubious since "[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WorldsSmallestViolin playing the world's smallest violin]" is a [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=World%27s+Smallest+Violin sarcastic expression] that denotes that the speaker will not give pity to the recipient.

In response to this comic people released [http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3193 3d printer specifications for tiny violins], as open source files. This one was designed by Allan Ecker.

The title text references the following pieces of infrastructure that are compatible with the "free software" ideology:
* [http://www.creativecommons.org Creative Commons licenses] (CC licensed) use existing copyright law to permit someone to share a creative work anywhere so long as the sharer attributes credit to the creator of the work. The particular CC license chosen may also allow for modification, derivative works, and/or commercial usage. The fellow's phrase "you can get it" in the title text is ambiguous: is he offering to share the code for the violin, or the tune that the violin plays? But since CC licenses are not used for software, we can assume "it" refers to the tune: either an audio recording of it, or perhaps source material from which to make modified versions.
* [http://joindiaspora.com joindiaspora.com] (formerly joindiaspora.net) is the central host of {{w|Diaspora (social network)| Diaspora*}}, an open-source alternative to Facebook which puts the user in control of how their information is used. Of course this sort of use of Diaspora would eliminate Cueball's concern over how Facebook handled his information.
* a Diaspora "seed" is a personal web server that interacts in a Diaspora "pod" of servers. It stores all of your information (such as the tune in this case) and shares it with your friends, in a way that respects your preferences around privacy, etc.

The problem with the lack of open source and Facebook is also the subject of [[1390: Research Ethics]].

==Transcript==
:2003:
:[Cueball approaches a bearded fellow.]
:Cueball: Did you get my essay?
:Bearded Fellow: Yeah, it was good! But it was a .doc; You should really use a more open-
:Cueball: Give it a ''rest'' already. Maybe we just want to live our lives and use software that ''works'', not get wrapped up in your stupid nerd turf wars.

:Bearded Fellow: I just want people to care about the infrastructures we're building and who-
:Cueball: No, you just want to feel smugly superior. You have no sense of perspective and are probably autistic.

:2010:
:Cueball: Oh my God! We handed control of our social world to Facebook and they're ''DOING EVIL STUFF!''

:Bearded Fellow: Do you see this?

:[Inset, the bearded fellow rubs his index and middle fingers against his thumb.]
:Bearded Fellow: ''It's the world's tiniest open-source violin.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

1456: On the Moon

2014-12-05T18:10:27Z

Selvek:

{{comic
| number = 1456
| date = December 5, 2014
| title = On the Moon
| image = on_the_moon.png
| titletext = "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on Venus and returning him safely to--" [an aide frantically whispers in the president's ear for a moment] "... of landing a man on Venus."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Check for completeness.}}
The phrase "If we can land a man on the Moon, why can't we <blank>" is commonly used to question a perceived shortcoming of some company, government or humanity in general. The premise is that "we" (where we is usually a generalized blanket identification of humanity, or the United States) have been able to achieve the extraordinary feat of landing men on the Moon and bringing them back to Earth safely; thus our inability to achieve some lesser goal is questionable.

The {{w|Moon landing}}s are rightly seen as one of the pinnacles of humanity's achievements, and as such have become an accomplishment against which all other great feats are measured. That technology available in 1969 was so minimal in comparison to modern technology serves only to increase the status of the Moon landings.

Here, Megan is cutting Cueball's argument's short by reminding him that humanity has not put another man on the Moon since the end of the Apollo program in December 1972, and that new manned programs to return to the Moon, such as the US Constellation Program, have been repeatedly cancelled.

This comic may well be a response to NASA's [http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/orion-flight-test-nasa-tv-coverage-reset-for-friday-dec-5/ postponed attempt to launch] a test of the Orion spacecraft on Thursday 4th December 2014. The unmanned test flight which aims to orbit Earth twice, travelling 5800 km into space, had to be delayed due to valve issues. As the planned flight is "simply" orbiting the Earth, has nobody on board, and our technology is far advanced from the early Moon landings, the cliche question "If we can land a man on the Moon, why can't we perform a simple test flight?" is rolled out again. (It should be noted that the Orion launched on Friday December 5th, 2014, and performed flawlessly.)

The title text is a retelling of the famous inspirational [http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/xzw1gaeeTES6khED14P1Iw.aspx Kennedy address to the US Congress in May 1961], which set into motion the Apollo program, except that this time, the speaker is talking about putting a man on planet Venus. The aide presumably explains to the president that it is unlikely that anybody could land on Venus longer than a few seconds and come back alive. (The atmosphere of Venus is extremely hostile with high pressure, high temperature, strong winds, sulfuric acid rains and lakes, etc.) As a result, the president backtracks from the goal of bringing the astronauts home again. Unmanned hardened pre-cooled robotic probes either got crushed or fried before landing, or survived only [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera a couple of hours at most].

==Transcript==
:Cueball: If we could land a man on the Moon, why can't we -
:Megan: -land a man on the Moon?
:Cueball: ...ok, fair. But we're working on it, OK?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

743: Infrastructures

1456: On the Moon