explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:1479: Troubleshooting

2023-05-12T20:37:38Z

Tsumikiminiwa:

You could also move the off-screen window back in view by Alt+Space, M to initiate window move, then press any arrow key and your mouse will then be able to move the window back into view. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.223}}
:That's a solution that also relies on obscure knowledge (that modal dialogs have a Move command and the hotkey necessary to access it), so it isn't any better than the solution provided in the strip. '''AND''' it requires that the user know where offscreen the dialog is located. Mistakenly believing it is, for example, to the right of the visible screen and therefore moving it left will only make the problem worse it the unseen window is in actuality to the left already. Given the 75% or better odds that the user will guess wrong where the dialog lies, using the Move command would be a notably worse choice then changing screen resolution.- Equinox [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.120|199.27.128.120]] 16:25, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
::Actually this does work for all Windows machines and something I've done repeatedly (it's a lot faster than waiting for your video card to repeatedly reconfigure the screen). Once you hit Alt-Space M followed by ANY arrow key, the window will actually be stuck to your mouse pointer; you click it to "drop" the window back onto the page. And yes, the idea that a keyboard arrow key will cause it to be mouse-driven makes no sense [[User:Odysseus654|Odysseus654]] ([[User talk:Odysseus654|talk]]) 17:50, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
::: Exactly. Anyone with windows can test this. Still works in 8, it's been around since XP at least. {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.7}}
:::: Since at least 3.0 (and possibly earlier), when using a desktop computer with only a keyboard was a very real possibility. (Also, the window decorations in 3.0 and 3.1 suggested the keyboard shortcuts: Alt-Space activated the window menu represented by the long bar, Alt-Minus activated the window menu represented by the short bar in multiple document interface applications.) --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.101|199.27.133.101]] 07:46, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
::::: And, once again, as Equinox noted up above, ALL THIS DISCUSSION is dependent on uncommon/obscure knowledge. We can argue until we're blue in the face about which is "quickest", but none of them are more than marginally better than the other, just different workarounds for the same problem that shouldn't be there anyway, which is the whole joke. At the end of the day, the technique you use depends on which bit of obscure knowledge you've randomly come across, not on which is the best method. {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.155}}
:I actually just use windowsbutton+Left or Right. Helps when a non responsive fullscreen game covers up the task manager. I can just move it to my other monitor. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.157|108.162.238.157]] 20:46, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

: An OS-X modal dialog is always a sheet attached to the relevant window, so it cannot run astray. If a window does somehow go astray, then the Mission Control zoomout of all windows will still bring it back within reach. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.149|173.245.52.149]] 06:38, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

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

: True, I have a vague feeling Ms Windows would prevent this in normal situation, whereas in X Window System this would be quite expected. Also, still problems with multimonitor in 2015: full screen programs want to open in the main monitor regardless the monitor their window is in and some programs open their dialogs in the left most monitor no matter what, which is a pain if that said monitor is a CRT projector that takes several minutes to warm up... {{unsigned ip|141.101.80.5}}

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

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

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

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

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

A long time ago, when the interweb was young (think Win95/98+Napster era), this sort of 'new window creation' was common for ad popups. Create a window with the title just outside the scrren border and giggle as the user tried to delete it. I wrote a small utility back then that actually found and killed these. I used to get a lot of them. I can't seem to remember why.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.176|199.27.128.176]] 05:18, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

This is one of the best comic explanations I've ever read on this wiki. Very nice job. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 15:45, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

FYI: Window creation on Windows OS is perfectly fine when it comes to positioning the window. If I say width=320 and left=-640 that's what I expect to happen! It's bad software and not bad OS when windows appear on strange coordinates. {{unsigned ip|162.158.87.23}}

I just submitted a change[https://crbug.com/643123] to Chrome that works around a dialog bug in macOS 10.12 Sierra. I was reminded of this. {{unsigned ip|162.158.166.43}}

I am reminded of the constant problems I encounter when using Windows that are just stupid and drive me crazy! For example, just today I encountered (for not the first time) windows refusing to let me delete an empty folder as it was "in use" by the exact same windows explorer I was using to delete it! It turned out to be a thumbs.db problem, as it always seems to be, and was even harder to fix than usual, not helped by Microsoft making gpedit only available for the overpriced windows home pro edition! I even recently had to help my computer science teacher figure out this exact same problem. There seem to be a lot of things like this in windows that just defy common sense, such as (also today) the windows "waiting for programs to quit to shutdown" dialog being held up by "shutdown". What sort of system would think it needed to close the process "shutdown" before it could shutdown?! It also is frequently held up by windows explorer when it's not even being actively used.

Another infuriating thing was that after a power outage when windows started up and went to it's system repair mode, it said "no keyboard detected, press any key to continue startup" or something to that effect. I, using a Bluetooth keyboard, was unable to tell it to continue startup, as apparently it hadn't loaded Bluetooth drivers yet, resulting in me having to go buy a USB keyboard just to get it to finish booting!! Meanwhile my Mac mini work with the Bluetooth keyboards even when reformatting the drive, let alone after a restart! I have almost no problems of this sort when using a mac, which makes it all the more frustrating when I have to use windows. I am not trying to start a debate or anything, just remarking on how I totally sympathize with this comic, and it reminded me of my own frustrations with Windows. Anyway, </rant> 03:53, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Just thought I'd mention - accidentally managed to get Discord's drag bar off-screen. Instantly thought of this xkcd, googled "xkcd window is off screen", and changing screen resolution was in fact the right solution to this problem. [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 20:37, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2740: Square Packing

2023-02-20T22:07:59Z

Tsumikiminiwa:

I suspect Randall saw the same social media post that I did (or maybe a repost of the same social media post, who knows or cares). I don't really want to make an explanation, but anyone who does, here's a link to a bunch of square packing findings... of course, no hydraulic press allowed for these packings. https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/squinsqu/ [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 22:07, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2740: Square Packing

2023-02-20T22:07:34Z

Tsumikiminiwa: First comment on post!

I suspect Randall saw the same SM post that I did. I don't really want to make an explanation, but anyone who does, here's a link to a bunch of square packing findings... of course, no hydraulic press allowed for these packings. https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/squinsqu/ [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 22:07, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:Conservation

2023-02-20T22:02:15Z

Tsumikiminiwa: add comment

I separated [[A Smarter Planet]] into two pages. One for each comic in the series.--[[User:17jiangz1|17jiangz1]] ([[User talk:17jiangz1|talk]]) 12:54, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Is there a reason for that link in the transcript? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.228.5|108.162.228.5]] 15:03, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

"But they are featured (both of them at the same page) on xkcd under asmarterplanet." Now they link to comic 404. (Haha, but seriously) anyone got the comics? [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 22:02, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:615: Avoidance

2023-02-08T23:40:25Z

Tsumikiminiwa:

Randall, being male, obviously doesn't know that if the woman isn't interested in the guy asking for her number she will just give a made-up number! [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 16:04, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

: "I swear I got her the first time." Perhaps she was interested at first, but lost interest and is doing this in hopes he'll stop contacting? [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 23:40, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Mmmmm, sweet sweet stereotyping. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.221|172.70.85.221]] 14:11, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:1368: One Of The

2022-09-20T16:34:06Z

Tsumikiminiwa: add comment

There's a set of golden arches at Jefferson and Russell, Arguably more identifiable. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.36}}

:If you are talking about the McDonald's arches, then well played, sir, well played. Definitely more identifiable. --[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 14:57, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

::On the other hand, any ''specific set'' of McDonald's arches isn't very identifiable. One tends to look like any other. --[[User:Aaron of Mpls|Aaron of Mpls]] ([[User talk:Aaron of Mpls|talk]]) 11:12, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

:::Posting eight years later (is it a necro post if you aren't pinged? And who checks the recent changes page?) but I'd say the light blue McDonalds arches do not look like any other McDonalds arches. I'd link it, but I don't know how to link URLs, unless this is markdown and [this](https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-arches-bright-blue-2017-12) works. [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 16:34, 20 September 2022 (UTC)

"''Reporters on television and in other media try to only make statements they can verify in fact''"
Seriously??? Maybe once, but not now. The point of this cartoon is largely that reporters are hedging their bets on what's a fact.
When you have prominent reporters like Chuck Todd (one of the most prominent reporters on TV) saying [http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/09/18/inform-the-public-not-my-job-says-chuck-todd/|it's "not his job" to report factual information] but merely to repeat what politicians have said, or everyone on Fox "News" basically ignoring facts in favor of ideology, claiming reporters try to speak only facts is not supported by demonstrable facts.
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:42, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

: Or maybe it's because of the liability reporters face for reporting even errors made by the police. [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/12/mistaken-identity-tv-show/8989189/ | Keith Todd or Todd Keith]. [[User:Pallas|Pallas]] ([[User talk:Pallas|talk]]) 19:16, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

:: "''In the complaint, Todd alleges that Eastpointe Police "incorrectly researched" databases and sent the wrong photo, name and information to the network.''" Sounds like the blame is really with the police, not the network. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:37, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

::: [http://birmingham.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/msnbcs-caught-on-camera-reality-show-snafu-creates-unreal-problems-for-michigan-man In a lawsuit filed last week in Wayne County Circuit Court, Todd said a snafu incorrectly naming him as the suspect in the “Caught on Camera” program has caused him humiliation, loss of employment and other misery. He’s asking NBC Universal, the Eastpointe Police Department and A One Limousine, to pay an unspecified amount of damages.] [[User:Pallas|Pallas]] ([[User talk:Pallas|talk]]) 20:09, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

: That's generalising. How about: "Seriously??? Maybe once, but not now. The point of this cartoon is largely that US reporters are hedging their bets on what's a fact. When you have prominent US reporters like Chuck Todd (one of the most prominent reporters on US TV) saying [http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/09/18/inform-the-public-not-my-job-says-chuck-todd/|it's "not his job" to report factual information] but merely to repeat what US politicians have said, or everyone on US branch of Fox "News" basically ignoring facts in favor of ideology, claiming US reporters try to speak only facts is not supported by demonstrable facts.{{unsigned ip|108.162.250.211}}

:: Right. Because it's only in the US that reporters fail to do their jobs well. Why, just look at the UK and Australia, for example. Nope, no reporters covering their asses there. Oh, wait. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.84|199.27.128.84]] 16:52, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

I know it's not really part of the joke, but should the explanation say who the reporter is talking about? Who designed the Gateway arch? I'm curious now.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.7|108.162.219.7]] 02:18, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

:The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. As stated on the {{w|Gateway Arch|wikipedia page already linked from explanation}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:15, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Note that the UK celebrates {{w|Mothering Sunday}} on the fourth Sunday in Lent as if it was Mother's Day. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.217|141.101.89.217]] 10:45, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

The explanation text misses the fact that stating "one of the world's greatest moms" is hardly perceived as an actual compliment by the recipient. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 14:17, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
:Done - also added an explain and a wiki link to pet peeve - something not explained so far. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:53, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

: I don't think Randall misunderstands the practice - he's just pretending that to make a joke. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:16, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
::That is for sure true. I did not write it like that and have now corrected it acordingly [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:26, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
:::Interesting. Do you really think "Randall does not misunderstand anything" (from the history-edit explanation) and so any inaccuracy must be understood as a deliberate part of the joke? Even if the inaccuracy is about a matter outside of his field of expertise and is unnecessary to the joke? Maybe you're right in this case, but I doubt Randall himself would claim to be infallible. [[User:Cs7|Cs7]] ([[User talk:Cs7|talk]]) 20:08, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

::My mom wasn't insulted by a card that said "One of the two greatest Moms in the world*" (and, below, "* Sorry, Mom, but I don't want to get killed in my sleep"). She found it funny, and so did my wife, and the fact that you can buy this card in shops implies they aren't the only mothers in the world that can take a joke. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.52|162.158.255.52]] 11:06, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

No so much a real discussion item, but this is "One of the most useful Explain XKCDs out there"... {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.121}}

The arch is so large that there are rotating pill-elevators inside the rising legs and a large observation lounge at the top. You can look down at the busy barge traffic on the Mississippi far below. {{unsigned ip|108.162.245.117}}

The title text bothers me here...the comic says: '''"The world's greatest [whatever]' is subjective, but 'One of the world's greatest [whatever]s' is clearly objective."''' - but is that really true?

If I say '''"Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain"''' - then this is a fact that can be looked up and examined and is clearly either true or false. It happens to be true. So it's clearly an objective fact. But if I say: '''"Mount Annapurna is one of the world's tallest mountains"''' then that's a completely subjective statement because Annapurna is only the 10th tallest mountain and whether it's to be considered "one of the tallest" depends entirely on whether you cut off the list of "the tallest mountains" at 9th place or 11th place - which is surely a subjective decision.

It's a tougher call for concepts like "greatest Mom" because "greatest" is a fuzzy term in the case of Mom's - is she "greatest" because she did a better job of teaching you right from wrong - or is she greatest because she bought you more Lego's? In that case, both "greatest" and "one of the greatest" are subjective because there is no universally agreed standard by which we measure greatness in mothers. The reason "world's greatest Mom" mugs work is because they express the sentiment that "My personal definition of the term ''greatest'' is what you are to me." - which is more profound than some unrealistic statement about whether there are or are not better mothers. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:18, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

:Everest being the tallest mountain on earth is actually (slightly) controversial: The peak of the {{w|Chimborazo|Chimborazo}} is further from earth's center. {{w|Mauna Kea|Mauna Kea}} is taller when measured from base to peak. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.34|172.68.110.34]] 06:42, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

In this Onion article: https://www.theonion.com/most-notorious-criminals-in-u-s-history-1831099154 it states that John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous Americans to ever kill Abraham Lincoln.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.58.59|172.68.58.59]] 09:01, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

This one has always struck me as unfair. Maybe they simply ''don't know'' whether it's the most recognizable arch in St. Louis. So what else are they supposed to say that wouldn't be dishonest (claiming to know something they don't) and possibly inaccurate? Besides, even if they ''did'' know whether it's the most recognizable arch — what if it's not? In that case, in order to avoid saying "one of the", they now have to determine its exact ranking, which would probably be even harder. [[User:NoriMori|NoriMori]] ([[User talk:NoriMori|talk]]) 19:01, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1430: Proteins

2022-08-17T04:10:21Z

Tsumikiminiwa: meow adding a comment

'''If this comic has motivated anyone to join in with the Folding@Home project, you can get started [http://folding.stanford.edu/ here].''' --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:28, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
:I've been folding for about a year now. Before that it was the SETI@Home project - but I decided to switch to something that could have more direct and beneficial results. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:58, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
::Is there an xkcd team on any of the distributed computing projects? Or does someone want to put one together? [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 22:02, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
:::I would like to join a team [[User:RecentlyChanged|RecentlyChanged]] ([[User talk:RecentlyChanged|talk]])
:That link sends me to a "site can't be reached" thing. I googled "Folding@Home" and got a different website (https://foldingathome.org/) but I also don't participate in folding@Home so I don't know if this is real or not. [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 04:10, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

This comic has some similarities to [[1425: Tasks]]. It can be difficult for the public (or experts for that matter) to grasp the complexity of a task for a computer. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 09:13, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Surely if you were folding yourself a crane out of paper then you would need to fold yourself a pair of scissors in order to be able to make cuts. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.49|141.101.99.49]] 10:27, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Surely the "pull the tail" is referring to the flapping bird origami, which is similar to the crane but lacks one set of folds that make the figure narrower.{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.116}}

Thanks for adding that "your actually donating your electricity" part - I had not considered it to that extent. I realized that the program is using more CPU/GPU "loading" while the screen saver is active, but for some reason I didn't translate that into more money out via my electricity bill. :) [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:58, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

No mention yet of the fact that Megan (and Randall) thinks this is the hardest problem! I have added some where it only aims at other science questions. But she did not say anything about science. Solving all human crises like overpopulation, climate, pollution, hunger, war and death could also be seen as either several or just one (unified) problem. She would then still think her problem harder... Should that be added as well in some form? I will leave that for others to decide. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:31, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

I think it is clear that Megan means computational problems - unifying gravity or solving human crises have not been reduced to computational terms - so the comparison is not appropriate and the comment in the explaination is unwarranted. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.157}}

The Title Text made me think of Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy Lesson, where the lecturer was pulling a tendon in a cadaver's forearm, making a finger move. It might make an appropriate metaphor: Today's scientists are taking baby steps in learning the "anatomy" of proteins through trial and error, much like the scholars of the past deciphering the basics of the human anatomy. [[User:Aiw|Aiw]] ([[User talk:Aiw|talk]]) 21:38, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

I think the last few paragraphs about the simulation program and cpu cycles are unnecessary. Perhaps create a trivia section? [[User:Benjaminikuta|Benjaminikuta]] ([[User talk:Benjaminikuta|talk]]) 04:51, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

:I agree, they don't really contribute anything to the explanation, but are somewhat related. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 07:52, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I agree, too. Perhaps move them to comments section. Anyway, there's a [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Game_with_a_purpose&redirect=no Game with a purpose] on a similar topic, RNA folding [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EteRNA EteRNA]. It's a little strange to play because the underlying reality is unusual, but interesting and somehow trickily entertaining. --[[User:MGitsfullofsheep|MGitsfullofsheep]] ([[User talk:MGitsfullofsheep|talk]]) 11:06, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Serious TED talk "protein folding problem: a major conundrum of science": http://youtu.be/zm-3kovWpNQ [[User:Jorgbrown|Jorgbrown]] ([[User talk:Jorgbrown|talk]]) 20:52, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

Serious TED talk about advanced math making detailed Origami figurines by doing nothing but folding => http://youtu.be/NYKcOFQCeno [[User:Jorgbrown|Jorgbrown]] ([[User talk:Jorgbrown|talk]]) 20:59, 24 February 2015 (UTC)

Going to start using the Folding@Home Chrome web applet. Having seen the mentions here of forming an xkcd/explainxkcd team, I'm all for it! [[User:Boct1584|Boct1584]] ([[User talk:Boct1584|talk]]) 01:46, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

I find this explanation a bit too technical. For all I know, there's no simpler way to explain this. Not going to add an incomplete tag, but maybe someone someday will see this and try to fix it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.84|162.158.255.84]] 22:26, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

I wonder if we could theoretically prevent computers from becoming self-aware by inputting a line that makes any processing power that is not being used work on folding@home or work on finding prime numbers or something. Then that line of code could be linked to a boolean that allows the computer to do something vital, like this:
bool a=false;
int pr;
some kind of function that only uses any idle memory{
while (true){
if (pr is prime){print pr;
a=true;}
else {pr++;
a=true:}
}
a=false}
}
if (a==true){computer works}
That way, if the computer tries to comment out something, it stops working and I might be overthinking this. [[User:RedHatGuy68|RedHatGuy68]] ([[User talk:RedHatGuy68|talk]]) 02:12, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2022-05-04T17:34:22Z

Tsumikiminiwa: Undo griefing; undoes revision 240689 by Ex Kay Cee Dee (talk)

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = eyelash wish log.png
| titletext = Ooh, another one. Uh... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is based on a common {{w|superstition}} that when someone's {{w|eyelash}} falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish. A common trope in fiction is that wishing for more wishes is prohibited and for many of his wishes Black Hat attempts to circumvent that.

;January 9: That wishing on eyelashes worked
:*This wish is pointless. If wishing on eyelashes worked, then this would do absolutely nothing (because it already works) and if it didn't then nothing would happen because wishing on eyelashes wouldn't work.

;January 12: A pony
:*This wish functions as a test to see whether or not previous wish worked. It can be assumed that it did, as Black Hat then continued to make additional wishes. Wishing for a pony is a stereotypical wish made by very young girls; since Black Hat is an adult man (with a very dark sense of humor), the contrast is humorous.

;January 15: Unlimited wishes
:*This appears to have failed, due to the traditional ban on wishing for additional wishes in conventional folklore.

;January 19: Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
:*An attempt to circumvent the ban in the previous wish by wishing the ban away.

;January 20: A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
:*Another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes by asking for a number of wishes that is limited, but as large as he likes (and there are some very large finite numbers out there, such as {{w|Graham's number}}).

;January 28: The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
:*Yet another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 5: Unlimited eyelashes
:*This wish likely caused Black Hat to grow unlimited eyelashes, which could be quite inconvenient and painful. And, yes, one more attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 6: That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
:*This wish is likely a response to the previous day's misguided wish. It's actually quite a common problem that people making wishes leave them open for misinterpretation.

;February 8: That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
:*An attempt to prevent whatever being is powerful enough to grant wishes from becoming angry with Black Hat while he gives very specific instructions so wish-granting entities cannot misinterpret what he said. (It would appear that the previous wish failed.)

;February 12 #1: Unlimited breadsticks
:*The first wish of this day seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

;February 12 #2: Veto power over others' wishes
:*A power that could be interesting to have. It also very much fits with Black Hat's character.

;February 19: Veto power over others' wishes and all {{w|United States Congress|congressional}} legislation
:*An improvement of the previous wish. This would be very interesting to have indeed, especially if you are Black Hat, because you could veto any federal law, a power normally entrusted only to the {{w|President of the United States}}.

;February 23: The power to override any veto
:*This wish would allow Black Hat to override vetoes which in addition to the previous wish would effectively make him control the US legislature and, to some extent, also all other governing bodies. (Notably the {{w|United Nations|UN}}, where the veto powers wielded by the five {{w|permanent members of the Security Council}} cannot be overridden and can have large impacts on global politics.) Note that it will not allow him to turn laws off (veto them) and on again (override the veto) at any moment, as once a bill becomes law it cannot be vetoed. Without the ability to propose legislation, Black Hat's powers are still limited. The wish may also refer back to the February 19 wish: by granting himself veto power over wishes, Black Hat just made vetoes more powerful than wishes; now he is trying to control other people's vetoes as well, lest they one-up him.

;February 27: The power to see where any {{w|URL shortener|shortened URL}} goes without clicking
:*This wish relates to a common practice especially in tweets or other short length media where full-length meaningful web addresses such as <tt>www.somewhere.com/articles/specificdate/title-of-the-page.html</tt> would not be feasible. So a more compressed but nonsensical string of seemingly random characters is used which links to a link of the full text address. This creates some problems for people who are security or privacy conscious and prefer to be informed beforehand where they will be traveling on the Internet. The use of shortened URLs is also central to many types of {{w|Rickrolling|trolls or practical jokes}} (see [https://bit.ly/IqT6zt <tt>bit.ly/IqT6zt</tt>] for an example), by directing someone to a different location than the link would initially suggest. Thus Black Hat might be wishing to be able to tell where the links go for the purpose of avoiding this sort of trolling.

;February 29: The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
:*This wish likely appeals to Black Hat's mischievous side, allowing him to cause news anchors to look at the wrong camera during live broadcast. Repeatedly switching to the incorrect camera would cause havoc in the studio. Additionally, Black Hat may also attempt to get a news anchor fired by having them stare where they should not such as a female anchor's breasts.

;March 7: The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
:*A reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for ''{{w|Five Thirty Eight}}'' in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data. Influencing Nate Silver's predictions would allow Black Hat to indirectly influence the result of elections, by adjusting the {{w|Overton window}} of which candidates and policies are considered to have "broad public support" or "electability" or the like. This would tighten the Black Hat's control of the US even more.

;March 15: A house of stairs
:*This wish refers to the {{w|lithograph}} ''{{w|House of Stairs}}'' by {{w|M. C. Escher}}, or perhaps another of his lithographs, ''{{w|Relativity (M. C. Escher)|Relativity}}''.

;March 23: A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
:*Another attempt to circumvent the rules against wishing for more wishes by creating a {{w|parallel universe}} without such rules.

;March 29: Free transportation to and from that universe
:*While the previous wish may have worked, Black Hat notes a problem with it: he is still in our universe with no way to get to his new one.

;April 2: A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
:*It appears that one or both of the previous two wishes failed, so Black Hat tries to discover exactly what is offending the Bureau. Having clear rules and how they work helps anyone finding loopholes in them.

;April 7: The power to banish people into the TV show they are talking about
:*Black hat is obviously fed up of hearing people talking about certain TV shows, and would like to be able to banish them into the show, thus prevent him having to listen to those people. Depending on the show in question, it could be quite horrifying for the person getting banished.

;April 8: Zero wishes
:*An attempt to hack the wish-granting system by using a quite common vulnerability in input validation: an unexpected value. There may be multiple vectors this can work:
::* in many computer systems, 0 is reserved for unlimited or undefined
::* in Assembly languages, do-while loops are more efficient than while loops, but famously do not check their condition on the first iteration. This means that 0 is effectively 256 for 8 bit counters, 65536 for 16 bits, etc. If the wish granter wrote the wish laws in assembly and used this optimization, initializing the wish count to zero would give him a large number of wishes dependent on the size of the counter.
::* the number may be used as a divisor in some equation and this will make the system {{w|divide by zero}} and probably crash
::* there also may be an assertion like "<tt>number of wishes granted == 1</tt>" which would fail, again crashing the system
::* similarly, if viewed as a computer system, it is possible that the wish decrement (subtracting 1 from the number of remaining wishes) is performed ''after'' the wish is granted, thus resulting in either −1 wishes (another common placeholder for unlimited numbers), or an {{w|integer overflow}} if the wish counter is stored as an unsigned integer; the overflow can result in an exception, otherwise −1 becomes represented as one less than the size of the integer – basically, an extremely large number.
::However it seems the eyelash wish-granting system does proper input validation on zero because it did not crash or grant unlimited wishes
:*This wish may also be a reversal of the January 9 wish. Black Hat is attempting to win his game by introducing a {{w|logical contradiction}}: if he gets "zero wishes", this is one wish granted; however, if it is not granted, then, de facto, he will have been granted zero wishes. This is a common technique used in logical proofs to show that an earlier assumption does not hold (in this case, the possibility of eyelash wishing to work).

;April 15: Veto power over clocks
:*Midnight, April 15 is the deadline for filing income tax returns in the United States.
:*It may also be that Black Hat, now in control of all human legislation, is attempting to extend this to further control also rules of nature – in this case: time. The strange wording is likely to be due to Black Hat having consulted with the wish-hacking manual he acquired April 2.

;April 22: A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
:*A reference to the {{w|Pokémon}} series of video games. A Pokéball can be thrown at a Pokémon (or in this case, a pet that the Pokéball thrower finds either annoying or cute) to capture it and achieve ownership of it. Unless cheats are used (and in {{w|Pokémon Colosseum}}, in which a criminal organisation uses illegally modified pokeballs), Pokéballs cannot be used on Pokémon owned by other people in the Pokémon games . Many players wish to obtain the often high-level Pokémon of NPCs, and Black Hat may also be interested in pranking other players by stealing their powerful Pokémon. This was later revealed to be one of Randall's wishes in the title text of [[1705|1705: Pokémon Go]].

The title text, a wish to have control over coefficients of friction during sporting events, is yet another mischievous wish. The coefficients of friction, though usually not noticed as they are unchanging, are all-important when performing physical activities — imagine trying to play hockey on a field of sandpaper or sprinting over a sheet of ice. In addition to the difficulty going where you want or getting any balls that might be in play where you want them to go in a changing friction environment, angular momentum would also be very difficult to control.

Note that when Black Hat makes meta-wishes no follow-up wishes are logged. Since the meta-wishes failed, no valid eyelash wish condition existed and the illegal test wishes were not logged in the eyelash wish log.

==Transcript==
:{|
! align="left" colspan="2" |Eyelash Wish Log
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Wish bureau ID#:
|-
|
|align="right"|21118378
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Date range:
|-
|align="right"|Jan-Apr 2012
|-
|}
:[a picture of Black Hat is above text saying Wisher]
:{|
!align="left" width="50px"|Date
!align="left"|Wish
|-
|Jan 09
|That wishing on eyelashes worked
|-
|Jan 12
|A pony
|-
|Jan 15
|Unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 19
|Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 20
|A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
|-
|Jan 28
|The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
|-
|Feb 05
|Unlimited eyelashes
|-
|Feb 06
|That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
|-
|Feb 08
|That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
|-
|Feb 12
|Unlimited breadsticks
|-
|Feb 12
|Veto power over others' wishes
|-
|Feb 19
|Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
|-
|Feb 23
|The power to override any veto
|-
|Feb 27
|The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
|-
|Feb 29
|The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
|-
|Mar 07
|The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
|-
|Mar 15
|A house of stairs
|-
|Mar 23
|A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
|-
|Mar 29
|Free transportation to and from that universe
|-
|Apr 02
|A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
|-
|Apr 07
|The power to banish people into the TV show they're talking about
|-
|Apr 08
|Zero wishes
|-
|Apr 15
|Veto power over clocks
|-
|Apr 22
|A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
|}

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Video games]]

Talk:2555: Notifications

2021-12-17T20:39:15Z

Tsumikiminiwa: added a comment

I wrote that the time in the title text does not seem to have any special meaning, the only thing a quick google search gave me was the bible verse "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." which is irrelevant to the comic as far as I can tell. Is there something I missed? -- [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk]]) 08:52, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
:I assume it has something to do with time zones, but not sure.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.123|162.158.222.123]] 09:40, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
::Yes for sure, it is late in the recipients time zone. And thus the program asks if the notification is so important at this later hour. On the internet you are often in communication with someone in another time zone. Has updated explaination.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:17, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
:::But it doesn't have a special meaning. 10:32 or 10:41 would have done the same job. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:15, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

Is it just a weird coincidence that today’s smbc is also about how to stop a tedious conversation? {{unsigned ip|198.41.238.107}}
:It sure is funny. The [https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php SMBC] comic from 2021-12-15, [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/econs Econs], was about paying someone to stop with a boring discussion. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:21, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

I got to thinking about the difference from saying "I perceive that you have mistaken me for someone who cares", or very often "someone who gives a (vulgar word)". I suppose the difference is that talking about Notifications means "Not just now" or "That's enough for now", but you could just say that. It doesn't forbid continuing the subject later. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.105|162.158.159.105]] 11:15, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Are you sure Cueball is sending notification to White Hat? When I saw this comic I thought that White Hat wants to say it annoys him when someone ignores others notifications settings and, voilà, Cueball just does it the same moment. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 12:58, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
:Well, if White Hat is complaining about anything like that (we never even get a hint what) it should be more about those who sets to ignore notifications (what Cueball does) or else it is about those who set about to ignore others' "ignore-notifications" settings but then he turns out not to be that kind of annoying person, as he actually respects that situation.
:Whether Cueball knows what is about to be (re)complained about, from hearing this tiraid multiple times, I don't know. Or maybe it was mentioned as the pre-"...another thing" spouting of opinion, and thus quickly inspired him to act upon the suggestion.
:It doesn't really matter. Whatever Randall might have conceived as being said before/after the short slice of Whitehat's rant, he gives no direct clue so it's likely to just be a generic stream of opinionated verbosity, making Cueball even more clever and inspired to have discovered this 'life hack' to cut it short. A bit like telling Sheldon that something is a "non-optional social convention".
:...incidentally, one of John Finnemore's radio sketches in his 'Souvenir Programme' series (if you can, look it up (the whole series!) to listen to - I'm sure xkcders would be prime candidates to enjoy, or at least be able to appreciate, the (over?)intelligent humour) was basically if the Russian Revolution were being organised via email, with one character's involvement being (mostly!) a bog-standard Out Of Office reply. Best listened to, although if you can't you can definitely find a script-transcript site or two with the right Google-Fu. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 13:46, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

I don't think it's necessarily "past their bedtime"; that's an oversimplification. I think it's implying "they need to go home, prepare for bed, and hopefully get a full night's sleep by the time they have to get up in the morning." It might easily be that they're fifteen minutes from home and want to go to sleep by 11:00 PM. It also might not be their "normal" bedtime; they specifically have "a thing" early tomorrow, an important event which presumably isn't a normal occurrence.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.70|172.70.35.70]] 20:01, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
:10:34 is time which can easily be past "normal" - meaning, week day - bedtime and at the same time not that late on party or other social activity. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:30, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

Joke's on White Hat, I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Ain't no notifications waking me up except my alarm. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.53|162.158.106.53]] 05:38, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
:...but it's also likely to have flown away, surely? ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 11:56, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

I don't have the time nor care to fix it myself, but this explanation acts as if Cueball and White Hat are in the same timezone, but "10:34 PM" could mean the same thing "Good Morning" means in XKCD 448. [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 20:39, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2354: Stellar Evolution

2020-09-03T23:38:48Z

Tsumikiminiwa: added comment

No comment. [[User:Lightcaller|Lightcaller]] ([[User talk:Lightcaller|talk]]) 01:32, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
:No reply. [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 23:38, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

Are we sure the title text references cooking a lobster? I was fairly certain it was an allusion to partisan politics in Maine using the traditional blue/red framework. A quick scan of the Wikipedia page on Maine politics seems to support that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.222|108.162.215.222]] 03:19, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
:I, on the other hand, was wondering why the politics came into it, when it was clearly just star+lobster reference... Strange, eh? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.156|141.101.107.156]] 03:56, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
:I'm sure it could be both. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.128|162.158.75.128]] 11:11, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
::I'm not at all sure that {{w|Maine#State_and_local_politics|the stats}} actually match the supposed analogy, without a long stretch of imagination to ignore the 'purple divide' yet uncrossed. And I don't get the feeling that Randall would be even wanting to ''joke'' that anywhere may "suddenly become significantly redder". But that's just IMO. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.241|162.158.158.241]] 14:29, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

2329: Universal Rating Scale

2020-07-07T02:16:21Z

Tsumikiminiwa: added video games; added SS mention

{{comic
| number = 2329
| date = July 6, 2020
| title = Universal Rating Scale
| image = universal_rating_scale.png
| titletext = There are plenty of finer gradations. I got 'critically endangered/extinct in the wild' on my exam, although the curve bumped it all the way up to 'venti.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a AA+ ICED COFFEE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[Randall]] has blended many traditional rating scales to create a "universal rating scale". Unfortunately, the mixing of these scales creates a scale that is impossible to use.

: '''Scale of zero to ten''' (but with an 11, because people often add that to exaggerate - see {{w|up to eleven}} about the meme)
:: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11. The number 9 is omitted.
: '''Competitive scores''', such as in the Olympics (ordinarily from 0.0 to 10.0, perfect)
:: 10.0
: '''Scale of agreement'''
:: strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree
: '''School grades''' (there are also B, C, D, and others with + or -)
:: F, A, A+
:: S - Schools in Japan may use the {{w|Academic grading in Japan|S grading}}, from the Japanese shū (秀), meaning excellent. Many video games also use S grading, and some (such as Beat Saber) use SS as a rank above (though SS is not shown in the webcomic.)
: '''Restaurant or entertainment ratings'''
:: 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars
: '''{{w|Conservation status}}''' (this is only a subset of the nine groups in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species)
:: extinct, critical, endangered, least concern
: '''{{w|Starbucks#Products|Starbucks brand beverage sizes}}''' (there is also short and trenta)
:: tall, grande, venti
: '''MPAA age-appropriate {{w|Motion Picture Association film rating system|film ratings}}''' took effect November 1, 1968 with G, M (now PG), R (not shown in comic) and X (now NC-17)
:: G, PG (as of February 11, 1972, replaced GP), PG-13 (introduced July 1, 1984), NC-17 (introduced September 1990, replaced X)
: '''ESRB age-appropriate {{w|Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board#Ratings|ratings}}''' for video games (there is also EC for early childhood, E for everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10+, M for Mature, and AO for Adults Only)
:: T for teen
: '''Happiness emojis'''
:: Frowny face, neutral face, smiley face
: '''{{w|Coin grading|Coin grades}}'''
:: F, G, VG, UNC for fine, good, very good, uncirculated
: '''Hurricane/cyclone strengths''', {{w|Saffir–Simpson scale}} (ordinarily categorized from category 1 to category 5)
:: Category 5
: '''Tornado intensities''', {{w|enhanced Fujita scale}} (ordinarily categorized from 0 to 5)
:: EF-5
: '''Credit (and other) ratings'''
:: A, AA, AAA

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

: [Caption above the frame:]
: Universal Rating Scale
:
: [A vertical scale, with 45 gradations, labeled]
: 0
: 1
: Strongly Disagree
: F
: [star] ☆
: Extinct
: Tall
: 2
: G
: Critical
: [frowny face] ☹
: 3
: endangered
: [two stars] ☆☆
: PG
: Disagree
: VG
: 4
: Grande
: 5
: PG-13
: [neutral face] 😐
: 6
: T for Teen
: 7
: [three stars] ☆☆☆
: Agree
: Venti
: 8
: Least Concern
: [smiley face] ☺
: A
: Strongly Agree
: Category 5
: EF-5
: NC-17
: UNC
: AA
: [four stars] ☆☆☆☆
: A+
: S
: AAA
: 10
: 10.0
: 11

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2312: mbmbam

2020-05-28T15:53:18Z

Tsumikiminiwa:

So ... what would the MMMbop unit be?

This has gotta be at least the third or fourth time he's referenced MBMBaM. https://what-if.xkcd.com/155/ and https://xkcd.com/1836/ I know are two more examples, but there might be more. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.13|162.158.107.13]] 00:54, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Am I the only one thinking that mbmbam should be a unit of ''work'', not energy? Force x distance... High school physics was a long time ago though. [[User:Philosophicles|Philosophicles]] ([[User talk:Philosophicles|talk]]) 03:15, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

:Work is energy [[Special:Contributions/172.69.62.154|172.69.62.154]] 05:28, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

:: The only difference could be absolute or relative energy, comparable to height above sea level vs. distance. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.193|141.101.69.193]] 06:36, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

:My first instinct was "that´s a torque". But of course angles have no unit, and so torque and energy must have the same. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.74|162.158.88.74]] 07:15, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Is my vision going blurry, or does that second panel say "milliibarn"? -- [[User:Peregrine|Peregrine]] ([[User talk:Peregrine|talk]]) 09:09, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

: Yes, two 'i' before the barn. That must be a mistake. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.192|108.162.229.192]] 10:28, 28 May 2020 (UTC) <-- Either that or it's milli - i*barn, going into imaginary dimensions. [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 11:58, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

: MBMBaM's tagline is "an advice show* for the modern era", not an advice podcast.

: Reminds me of how this symbol: "μ" means both "micro" (micrometer is μm.), and "friction" (frictional constant of X would be μ = X), and the population statistical average (the average acceleration due to gravity on the surface of earth is μ_gravity), and something like 20 other things according to this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(letter)#Use_as_symbol [[User:Tsumikiminiwa|Tsumikiminiwa]] ([[User talk:Tsumikiminiwa|talk]]) 15:53, 28 May 2020 (UTC)