explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3147: Hiking

2025-09-29T16:17:27Z

TimeLurker:

But what if the drones run out of battery? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|converse]] 18:54, 26 September 2025 (UTC)
: "''what if the drones run out of battery?''" What If the Amazon/UPS delivery truck with the [['''What If? 2''']] book you ordered runs out of gas/diesel/juice? Maybe they attempt repeat delivery. Maybe a refund is posted in 7 to 10 business days.

I was going to write a transcript, but I can't figure out how to describe how this is supposed to be a time series in a single panel. I'll let someone else do it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:22, 26 September 2025 (UTC)
: "''how to describe how this is supposed to be a time series in a single panel''" It is three moments in time, superimposed. "Slide is delivered", "Hikers slide", "Slide is removed". [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 22:35, 26 September 2025 (UTC)
:: Four moments in time actually. You forgot "Hikers orders slide". [[Special:Contributions/2001:9B1:40D0:C300:102B:825:C539:3F33|2001:9B1:40D0:C300:102B:825:C539:3F33]] 01:06, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
::: Five - there is "Hikers walk off afterwards". [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:13, 29 September 2025 (UTC)
:::: Four - "Hikers walk off afterwards" and "Slide is removed" are happening at the same time ;) [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 14:43, 29 September 2025 (UTC)
::::: {{cn}} [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:42, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

I'd also like an on-demand ski lift for upwards segments [[Special:Contributions/73.222.207.213|73.222.207.213]] 23:54, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

I feel like this comic deserves a parody of "Jack and Jill went up a hill". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:37, 26 September 2025 (UTC)

This is how I learnt there were waterslides. [[Special:Contributions/64.114.211.21|64.114.211.21]] 08:59, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
: #todayyearsold [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 15:53, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

I'm not sure this would improve the hiking experience for me; not because I have anything against waterslides, but because the downhills are a valuable rest period in between unpleasant ascents. If it were over in a moment I'd still be exhausted at the bottom of the next rise. [[Special:Contributions/79.77.240.136|79.77.240.136]] 19:18, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
:And probably thoroughly wet, to boot. [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 00:05, 28 September 2025 (UTC)
::I prefer ascents, and having bad knees don't like descents. Last summer I did a 1400m ascent to a mountaintop, with only 250m of descent. Lovely! On-demnd slides (they may be dry ones) would make the experience even better for me! [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 07:38, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

This raises the possibility of drone-delivered escalators for ascending Mount Everest. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:38, 28 September 2025 (UTC)
: The location you have selected is outside of the geofenced area. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:29, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

Othercomics like this have me missing the OTC/OTT more than most days. Would an on-demand-waterslide have helped in their journey? [[User:TimeLurker|TimeLurker]]

Talk:2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-07-13T15:21:39Z

TimeLurker: Suggested clue 9-Down includes a typo

compare https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.236|162.158.158.236]] 20:50, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:randall has now updated the header for this comic to "Today's comic accidentally inspired by this Buttersafe comic from 2011!" and i feel bad for having spotted the similarity and commented on it within 1 minute of this page's creation --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.248|162.158.62.248]] 03:48, 11 July 2024 (UTC) (same anon as above)
::I have made this [[2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Trivia|trivia]] about it and updated the [[Header text]] with this comics new one. This will ave to be updated after Fridays comic comes out. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:06, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

it's *A* crossword puzzle for a reason ;) -- 21:05, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:I suspect that that reason is that someone will inevitably compare the information content of solving this crossword puzzle to the information content of narrating 1190. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.21|172.70.35.21]] 01:25, 11 July 2024 (UTC) I didn't sign. Was that rude? I'm new here, is it ok if I just ask questions?

i’m trying to table-ify it but i keep getting edit conflicted. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.93|172.71.30.93]] 21:24, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Surprised something like "Jagged and loose Hawaiian lava flow (2)" couldn't be fit in (unless I've missed it). Maybe because there were no two-letter answers at all, of course. (I think... Again, maybe I'm missing them.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.38|172.70.86.38]] 21:30, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:In most standard American crossword puzzles, two-letter answers are not allowed; the minimum answer length is 3. However, judging from the quality of the fill in this grid, Randall might have considered an answer such as "Two jagged and loose Hawaiian lava flows next to each other (4)" for AAAA. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.128|172.69.58.128]] 03:04, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

unfortunate that [https://tmbw.net/wiki/Aaa "antepenultimate track of They Might Be Giants' ''Glean''"] did not make it in --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.200|172.70.230.200]] 21:35, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:And where is "Fonzie's catch-phrase"? Or does that end with a Y? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Did I use the calculator wrong, or 12356631 in base 26 equals 111111, not AAAAAA? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.180|172.69.90.180]] 22:33, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:anyone using base 26 is probably likely to be using all 26 letters, instead of ten numbers and sixteen letters. contextless, i would usually assume any base has standard decimal digits, but liberties have already been taken here so why not (please sign)
::I wasn’t sure enough to comment, but it looks like he miscalculated. 26^5 + 26^4 + 26^3 + 26^2 + 26^1 + 26^0 = 12355631 = 111111 in base 26. To be AAAAAA it would have to be 123556310. Of course, maybe he’s using A through Z instead of the expected 0 through 9 followed by letters A through P, the way hexadecimal is. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 23:16, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
:::If he’s using the letters A through Z as the ‘digits’ for base 26, then he’s still wrong, because A would be 0, Z would be 25 and 12355631 decimal would be BBBBBB in that base 26. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.235|172.70.210.235]] 00:54, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:::It's possibly just a typo and the clue was meant to be 123556310. [[User:TimeLurker|TimeLurker]] ([[User talk:TimeLurker|talk]]) 15:21, 13 July 2024 (UTC)
:The "Qalculate" program has a number base setting called "Bijective base 26", which outputs the answer as "AAAAAAB26. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:23, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm surprised he didn't make this interactive, so you could type into all the cells to fill out the crossword. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

I made and discarded various theories what the joke might be while I read through the questions, including all numbers, at least two possible solutions for the entire puzzle (I think that happened once in a newspaper), unknowable answers, … Only when I got to the "disregard for gravity" thing did I suspect the right answer and only because I once saw a meta gaming Stack exchange question about its tag. Otherwise it might have taken me until the Morse code question. This was really well hidden! [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 01:23, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

i dare not think about how long this took to make. [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 01:31, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

:In all honesty, this is probably easier to make than a regular crossword puzzle. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.3.146|172.69.3.146]] 05:48, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/2YcIAgtQCMBK6clsrNK4/mini-39-literally-screaming [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.4|172.71.146.4]] 02:29, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

It's traditionally doctors that ask you to "say AAAAAAA" when they examine your throat. I'm pretty sure 36 across is supposed to be a joke about how dentists make smalltalk with their fingers in your mouth. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.10|172.70.126.10]] 04:24, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I filled in the answers. Can someone add the solved image? I don't have file upload permissions. https://i.imgur.com/AlDIT1p.png --[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] ([[User talk:Elfakyn|talk]]) 06:47, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:We need someone to make a picture where it has been solved... :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:15, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
::It seems useful (and funny) to supply the answer(s). Should we show the completed puzzle (which raises questions of font choice) or add a column to the table? My preference would be adding the column. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 11:01, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:::The two above comments was made after Elfakyn's post. I have moved them both here. And then I have downloaded the image and added it to the trivia segment of the explanation. Thanks Elfakyn. I will credit you, please change the credit if you wish to be credited otherwise or not at all. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:13, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

bro tried to nerd-snipe us 😭 [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.96|172.69.194.96]] 07:30, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

People without aphantasia can visualize words in front of them to solve puzzles like 18-across? That's quite impressive, I have to painstakingly count the letters in my head! [[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 08:05, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
: ''Some'' people. It's not an all-or-nothing - you can have access to some sorts of visualisation but not others, and it may be clearer or vaguer from person to person.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.118|141.101.98.118]] 07:45, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Every third letter in 'aphantasia' is 'hti'.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.18|172.70.162.18]] 08:17, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:The clue is written like '''E'''ve'''R'''... to give that hint, that it starts on the first letter. Also if you need 4 letters startign on the first and ending on the last is the only way to get a 4 letter answer out of it. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:12, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
::What?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.230|172.69.195.230]] 15:02, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
::Oh - now I'm looking at the comic itself I see what you mean. I was just looking at the explanation before, which was lacking the emphasis - I've put it in now. Still a bit lame as a clue IMO though.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.120|172.70.163.120]] 15:08, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

The Ruby Rhod one is misleading; his ''actual'' catchphrase in the movie is "green", which fits perfectly in the given space. -[[User:Nyerguds|Nyerguds]] ([[User talk:Nyerguds|talk]]) 09:22, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

SHA256 can be cracked much faster than 100 tries/sec. See [https://john-users.openwall.narkive.com/d9vvJ59x/hashcat-cpu-vs-jtr this performance discussion] from 10 years ago, which found that a single thread could do 9068K hashes per second. Recalculating the time for [A-Z]{8}, we find that it would take around 6.4 hours to crack. Still a while, but a far cry from 66 years. Using any form of parallelism (GPU, multicore CPU) would reduce the time further. --[[Special:Contributions/199.111.224.109|199.111.224.109]] 16:37, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:As nobody is doing it this, it's an entirely theoretical speed. And you can rather envisage something happening at a rate of "a hundred a second" for years better than "more than nine million a second" for hours, and thus what it would mean to do something at this rate for this long (or as long as necessary). Though, traditionally, it would perhaps be "one a second" for approximately 6,600 years, I think I rather like the '66 years' value, aesthetically, so one full test every hundredth of a second seems to be nicely demonstrative.
:And going, needlessly, through them at the rate which 'solves' the problem in 6.5 hours doesn't so much impress upon you the difficulty of the task as much as it does the speed one can attempt such a classicly time-consuming problem. Even if you then add the overhead needed to check/collate all the collisions you get along the way. Every time you hit a 'possible', you'd probably do at least a disk-IO to keep a record of it, as you couldn't be sure that you won't have untold number of right-looking but incorrect results and at some poine you probably need to sanity-check and rank what you have in order of most to least likely. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.122|172.70.90.122]] 17:34, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I haven't thought about Dejobaan Games in a very, ''very'' long time. Such a shame Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby never finished, the whole "play rhythm games to your own music" niche never seemed to have gotten off the ground. Still, what a throwback. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.57|172.69.22.57]] 19:32, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Randall should know that a 1.5V storage device is a cell, not a battery. [[User:HughNo|HughNo]] ([[User talk:HughNo|talk]]) 19:46, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
:It's a battery consisting of a single cell.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.225|141.101.98.225]] 07:50, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

There are multiple opportunities for a rebus in here. Are we sure the answers are correct? I believe the first cell of 8D could be a rebus of great length...--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.92|172.70.100.92]] 21:35, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I'm [[356|really tempted]] to write a program to find out if there's another answer to "string whose SHA-256 hash ends '…689510285e212385'". —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 03:36, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
:For bonus nerd-points, also find out all the ''other'' alternate answers that slot across that different answer (and down over the alternate acrosses, and...). For all we know, the ''whole grid'' might have a valid entirely different solution, but we're feeling so smug for solving it all the 'wrong' way, diverted by fiendishly multivalent clues... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.98|172.70.90.98]] 11:03, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Eh? {{unsigned ip|172.70.90.129|07:37, 12 July 2024}}

I wonder if the black squares could be a pattern for Conway's Game of life... —Potiron[[user talk:Potiron|talk]] 08:58, 12 July 2024(UTC)

:[http://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3316&p=189641#p189641 It doesn't look interesting.] [http://catagolue.hatsya.com/object/xp140_gggw8w78gzy2248zy012sw2w111/ -] [[User:CipherGuide|CipherGuide]] ([[User talk:CipherGuide|talk]]) 12:38, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

There are exactly 60 clues, by the way, although I’m not sure where it would be useful to include that information. [[User:Usb-rave|Usb-rave]] ([[User talk:Usb-rave|talk]]) 14:53, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2386: Ten Years

2020-11-20T17:39:06Z

TimeLurker:

There is little or nothing I can add to this except to say that there is at least one good thing that has happened in 2020. Congratulations, Randall and Megan.[[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 04:14, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
:I'm not sure why would counting this non-event as something good happening in 2020 made more sense than counting, for example, the 75th anniversary of end of World War II which happened in September. Regardless, congratulations, Randall and Megan. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 16:44, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Its been 3 Years since 7 Years?! Damn, time sure does fly fast. Congratulations to Randall and his wife!

I was so confused when I read the comic-until I realized it was based on a true story. This is very sweet of Randall to dedicate this comic to his wife's progress. -neverdroptop 04:37, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Congrats Megan and Randall! - skotos

I'm not crying, _you're_ crying. Such a heartbreakingly gorgeous comic, thanks Randall. Congratulations to you both. - Excession_OCP
:Same; that second-to-last panel was so sweet! [[User:Gir|-- //gir.st/]] ([[User talk:Gir|talk]]) 13:19, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
:Also not crying, it's only something in my both eyes. Congrats to both of you!!! --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.104|108.162.210.104]] 15:24, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
:Nope, I'm crying.

This is lovely. Congratulations on 10yrs cancer free. May your 15 year traditional anniversary gift not be cursed. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:34, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

The start of this topic is here : [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/818:_Illness]. The following posts are very touching too. Thanks Randall and Megan. [[User:JulienG|JulienG]] ([[User talk:JulienG|talk]]) 14:21, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Congratulations Megan and Randall! Many more years! --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 14:30, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Damn, a new pandemic has arrived: it affects xkcd readers exclusively and adds little salty droplets near their eyes!

Why does the transcript refer to her as just "Randall's fiancée?" We know her name is Megan.
Regardless, happy 10 years, and may you have many, many more. [[User:Duraludon|Duraludon]] ([[User talk:Duraludon|talk]]) 15:51, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
:Randall's wife is not called Megan, Megan is just something we call her, because he used that name a few times in the early comics for that character. In this comic Megan depicted Randall's wife, and thus it is not wrong to call her that in the transcript. Just like we call Cueball Randall in this comic, but not generally. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:42, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
::Has Randall ever publicly shared his wife's name? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.184|172.69.34.184]] 19:04, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
:::I Googled "randall munroe wife" and the first result is an article [https://laughingsquid.com/xkcd-seven-years/#:~:text=In%20November%202010%2C%20Megan%2C%20then,of%20stage%20III%20breast%20cancer.] on laughingsquid.com about [[Seven Years]] which calls her Megan, but Randall's Wikipedia page doesn't mention her name at all. I think that's why I was confused. [[User:Duraludon|Duraludon]] ([[User talk:Duraludon|talk]]) 20:13, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

This one just makes me so, so happy. I was scared that it would be a sad comic, but was overjoyed upon reading. --[[User:Char_Latte49|Char_Latte49]]

The thing that struck me was what he said about "not and act of grace, but something I desperately wanted to do". And I thought, hm, isn't it both, and isn't that the best kind of grace? Grace may be undeserved, but it doesn't have to be grudgingly given :). --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.89|162.158.74.89]] 17:27, 17 November 2020 (UTC)
:Grace is something you can give to someone if you want/have to make the other person feel better (in whatever degree and whatever "feel" may mean in context). It is thus per definition not an act of grace if your motive is just your own feelings ("''I'' desperately wanted to do"). That his soon-to-be wife felt better with that act (otherwise she most likely wouldn't have agreed) is just some lucky coincidence. That sounds somewhat cold and isn't meant as such. My point is that something may look like an act of grace but isn't one. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 11:17, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

I have made a new series category, [[:Category:X Years]], for these three comics. Should in principle have been done after number two, but better late than never. A beautiful series. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:03, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

I adore that panel of them sitting by the river. I wish Randall would do "serious" art like that more often, he's clearly got talent. --[[User:Youforgotthisthing|Youforgotthisthing]] ([[User talk:Youforgotthisthing|talk]]) 19:30, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

That frame of them walking up a mountain...is that related to comic 1190? Because it looks a bit like that. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.86.21|172.68.86.21]] 22:12, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
:Yes. Everything is related.