explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:705: Devotion to Duty

2017-01-17T23:09:33Z

Vince7778:

This is very clearly a Die Hard parody. {{unsigned|‎70.12.4.193}}
Indubitably --[[User:JSekula71|JSekula71]] ([[User talk:JSekula71|talk]]) 23:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Oh man. This needs some reworking. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 03:10, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
: This entire entry has to be a troll... We may need an ExplainExplainxkcd for those who don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 05:15, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.203|108.162.250.203]] 10:33, 26 April 2014 (UTC) In Die Hard, the terrorists used a chainsaw to cut the telephone trunk cables. Try repairing that damage.
:Never underestimate the dedication of a truly devoted sysadmin! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:57, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

The title text is highlighting the absurdity of the sysadmin's devotion to duty by contrasting the forces of darkness (very serious) against a blog describing the daily activities of your cat (trivial). --[[User:Bedunkel|-BD]] ([[User talk:Bedunkel|talk]]) 07:36, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Why are there so many parentheses in the explanation? I think that needs to get fixed. [[User:Vince7778|Vince7778]] ([[User talk:Vince7778|talk]]) 23:09, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Talk:244: Tabletop Roleplaying

2017-01-17T23:01:50Z

Vince7778: question

Maybe could have a link to [[969: Delta-P]] put in at an appropriate juncture in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 03:42, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Check out https://www.google.com/#q=recursion[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 03:52, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

I may be missing something, but why are the teleportation rings given a dimension "each about two feet in diameter" in the explanation? There isn't anything in the comic. If there is a reason, please elaborate.--[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 16:02, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
:Perhaps it's in reference to the apparent size of Portal gun holes? I'm not sure, anyone else have any ideas? [[User:Leafy Greens|Leafy Greens]] ([[User talk:Leafy Greens|talk]]) 02:29, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

I got Nerd sniped by the portal gun idea, and how it breaks the physics laws. If you placed one on the bottom of a lake, after an hydroelectric dam, and the other on the top of the dam, you'd have an infinite supply of energy, as you filled the dam forever and ever. A truly infinite supply, not like a star that takes billions of years to extinguish. That has to brake the laws of thermodynamics and entropy at some point.
Aligning both portals in a vaccuum on earth's gravity would allow infinite time under 1g acceleration for anything dropped between portals. Hitting the speed of light would take 1 year, give or take (if you followed Newtonian cinematics), at which point my brain BSODs on this thought experiment. It suggests that the portal consumes an infinite amount of energy to remain open and cannot exist on this universe. Otherwise, we just discovered a moto-continuum and a source for infinite energy. Edit: this comment makes sense on the Delta-P page (969), so you should follow it. [[User:Gonemad79|Gonemad79]] ([[User talk:Gonemad79|talk]]) 20:02, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

Presumably, teleportation rings do not create energy. Therefore, if the two rings are at different elevation, items put into the higher one will come out shooting from the lower one (converting the liberated potential energy into kinetic energy -- as normal falling would). Conversely, items put into the lower ring will have to be pushed very hard to make them come out through the higher one (equivalent to the pushing required to lift the passed object to the higher elevation). Hence, placing one deep in the ocean (and the other above sea level) won't cause anything dramatic to happen. The deep water will be held back by gravity and not push out through the ring. [[User:Danshoham|Mountain Hikes]] ([[User talk:Danshoham|talk]]) 04:02, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

Wait... What if you somehow put one of the teleportation rings through the other? What would happen then? [[User:Vince7778|Vince7778]] ([[User talk:Vince7778|talk]]) 23:01, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

725: Literally

2017-01-05T23:29:21Z

Vince7778: /* Explanation */ I couldn't find a good phrase to replace 'which is the same conclusion as'. Can somebody find a better phrase for that?

{{comic
| number = 725
| date = April 9, 2010
| title = Literally
| image = literally.png
| titletext = The chemistry experiment had me figuratively -- and then shortly thereafter literally -- glued to my seat.
}}

==Explanation==
The adverb "literally" implies that the action it describes actually happened, while its opposite, "figuratively", is used when the action it describes is being used as a figure of speech, and is not a representation of what actually happened. However, "literally" is often used colloquially as an intensifier, to mean "really" or "very", and even though many dictionaries such as [http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0038-literally.htm Merriam-Webster] and [http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/literally Oxford Learner's Dictionaries] state that this is a valid use of the word, many people object to this usage. It is note worthy that these dictionaries try to catalog how words are used, not whether any one usage is more valid than another.

In this comic, [[Cueball]] mentions he was ''literally'' glued to his seat, at which point a crazy man off-panel loudly corrects him. The crazy man declares that he has been stalking Cueball for eighteen years since an incident in seventh grade, where the crazy man (as a kid) uses literally in the colloquial sense and young Cueball corrects him. He felt humiliated and began to follow Cueball everywhere, waiting for Cueball to make the same mistake presumably to save face.

When Cueball tells him that he is "literally the craziest person" he's ever met, the crazy man thinks that he is incorrectly using the word "literally" again; however, Cueball reassures him that he did not misuse it, implying the crazy man actually is ''the'' craziest person he has ever met.

The title text points out that a chemistry experiment gone wrong is one of the few things that could cause someone to ''literally'' be glued to their seat, having previously been figuratively glued to their seat in fascination

In this manner the title text could provide an alternative interpretation of Cueball's original sentence: "I was literally glued to my seat through the entire [chemistry experiment.]"

If this interpretation were correct the crazy person interrupted Cueball before he had a chance to finish his sentence, which would not have been incorrect in the literal sense, thereby never fulfilling his vow.

The title text of [[1652: Conditionals]] (and partly the subject of that comic) is ''literally'' a reference to this comic, '''''if''' you are not too '''pedantic''' about the details.'' In the title text of [[1576: I Could Care Less]] and later in the caption of [[1735: Fashion Police and Grammar Police]] the word literally is used again referring back to this comic..

On a side note, if they were in seventh grade when Cueball corrected the crazy man's mistake, then Cueball and the crazy man are 31-32 years old, which is the same conclusion as in [[1577: Advent]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a Cueball-like friend are walking left together. The friend turns his head towards Cueball who speaks, but is interrupted by voice from behind them off-panel right.]
:Cueball: I was literally glued to my seat through the entire-
:Off-panel voice: ''Hah!''
:Off-panel voice: ''You mean "figuratively"!''

:[A crazy man walks into the next frame-less panel. He has messy hair and a messy beard. Cueball and his friend stop walking and turns toward him.]
:Cueball: Who are you?
:Crazy man: Eighteen years I've watched you!
:Crazy man: Waiting!

:[A flashback panel. Four kids are standing around talking to each other. To the left is a girl with a ponytail and in front of her is a kid looking like Cueball - this is the Crazy man as a kid. He speaks to two kids in front of him, the one looking like Cueball, is actually Cueball as a kid, and then another kid with short black hair is standing with him. Above this panels frame, which is not as high as the other panels, there is text narrated by the crazy man. He also narrates a line at the bottom of the panel where the flashback panels frame is cut of at the bottom right.]
:Crazy man (narrating): Ever since that day in seventh grade when you humiliated me.
:Crazy man as a kid: I told him and he literally ''exploded!''
:Cueball as a kid: Uh, unless he physically ''burst'', you mean "figuratively".
:Kid with hair: Hah.
:Crazy man (narrating): Remember?

:[Cueball and his friend has moved back away from the crazy man to get some more distance between him and themselves.]
:Crazy man: I knew one day you'd slip, and I vowed I'd be there to see you fall. ''How does it feel?''
:Cueball: You are literally the craziest person I've ever met.
:Crazy man: You did it again!
:Cueball: No, I didn't.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

[[Category:Language]]

1051: Visited

2017-01-05T23:17:50Z

Vince7778: Trivia - Embarrassed is spelled incorrectly

{{comic
| number = 1051
| date = May 4, 2012
| title = Visited
| image = Visited.png
| titletext = I hate when I read something like '... tension among the BASE jumpers nearly led to wingsuit combat ...', and I get excited because 'wingsuit combat' is underlined, only to find that it's just separate links to the 'wingsuit' and 'combat' articles.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a reference to how an internet browser will make the links of the pages that you have visited a different color than the links that you have not visited. In the case of {{w|Wikipedia}} and other wikis powered by {{w|MediaWiki}}, they are blue for non-visited and purple for visited. In this comic, [[Randall]] is ashamed of the pages he has visited, because with the color changes there is evidence of what he has visited in the past, e.g. {{w|autoerotic asphyxiation}} (possibly while researching [[682: Force]], which features that very Wikipedia page).

Also the pages that he did visit before are in great contrast with the pages that he hasn't. Pages he didn't click are often difficult, highly intelligent topics, while he only clicks the easy, funny articles with little scientific background on the Wikipedia site.

The title text refers to a common mistake many people make when reading articles on Wikipedia. Words referring to subjects that have an article on Wikipedia are coloured in blue. This, however, can cause confusion when two words leading to two separate articles appear together, as the two links appear to be one. However, on hovering the cursor over the article link, only one word at a time is underlined, showing that the links are separate.

It is not possible to determine who this fake article is supposed to be about, but the Macarena band is certainly from Dos Hermanas, Spain. So, it is quite possibly a made up article from [[Randall]].

==Transcript==
:[the following is in the standard format of a Wikipedia article, modified to reflect the content of the comic.]
:...and was a pioneer of literary {{w|social realism}}.

:He was born in {{w|Dos Hermanas}} in the {{w|Andalusia}} region of {{w|Spain}} (not to be confused with {{w|Andalasia}}[link clicked.], the kingdom in Disney's ''{{w|Enchanted}}''[link clicked]), which is also the hometown of ''{{w|Macarena, Seville|Macarena}}''[link clicked.] band {{w|Los Del Río}}[link clicked.],

:His {{w|third novel}}, set during the {{w|Burmese-Siamese war}}, marked the start of a lifelong interest in the {{w|history of Southeast Asia}}. He spent his later years in {{w|Thailand}}, writing his final novels just a few blocks from the hotel where actor {{w|David Carradine}}[link clicked.] died of {{w|Autoerotic Asphyxiation}}[link clicked.].

If I go for a while without clearing my browser history, I start getting embarrassd by which words on Wikipedia show up in purple.

==Trivia==
* In the caption of the comic, embarrassed is spelled incorrectly.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Wingsuit]]

Talk:926: Time Vulture

2017-01-05T23:03:49Z

Vince7778: Problem with time vulture?

An obvious reference to death itself, which stalks everyone, usually for decades. This is a "memento mori". [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 17:33, 13 December 2012 (UTC)
:Is this a reference to Dr. Who's [[wikia:tardis:Weeping Angels|Weeping Angels]], who also (in a different way) hunt by having their victims live to death? [[Special:Contributions/23.19.87.80|23.19.87.80]] 04:01, 31 December 2012 (UTC)
::I doubt it. While there is definitely a similarity, it seems like too much of a stretch to have been intentional. [[Special:Contributions/71.225.14.203|71.225.14.203]] 00:26, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
:::While the idea of weeping angels seems pretty true on the surface, they get their 'food' from transporting something through time, but this animal doesn't eat time or anything, it just dramatically speeds up how quickly time passes for it- similar to how sometimes a night's sleep feels only like an hour or sometimes a year.
:::Oh, I want those overnight feels like a year sleeps. I get less of them the older I get. Having a kid pretty much put a nail in that coffin. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.114|108.162.216.114]] 14:09, 20 August 2014 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.47|108.162.219.47]] 16:01, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
:::Does anyone know if Randell is a Who fan? {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.56}}
::::I think he is, as there are some references to the Dr. in the comics. But I still think this would be a far stretch on the deep philosophy in this comic.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:06, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

From the vulture's viewpoint, the carcass will rot (or be buried) in seconds. Hope it can speed up its internal clock when needed. [[User:Mumiemonstret|Mumiemonstret]] ([[User talk:Mumiemonstret|talk]]) 10:10, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

The logical way to kill this off would be with a shotgun. Problem solved...? Unless the Time Vulture recognises shotguns as a threat. I am glad this thing doesn't exist. {{unsigned|LuigiBrick}}
:I'm quite sure a bullet would just pass through it, since it doesn't follow normal time. Also I'm sure it can start speeding time up the instant the prey dies. Else they would never have evolved. Why do you say it doesn't exist. I have seen one over every living creature I know. Most people just call it the shadow of Death ;-) You have to squint and look at it the right way to realize that it looks like an eagle. People have this impression it looks like a skeleton, but as [[Terry Pratchett]]'s Disc world death makes it clear, it is not Death or time vultures that kill people they are just there when it happens. (Whether it is guns, people, diseases, wars or old age that kill people depends on the time and the peoples luck ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:06, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

There has been a [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|community portal discussion]] of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the Category:Multiple Cueballs. In this comic it cannot be said clearly that any of them is more correctly called Cueball than the other. But typically the one named Cueball is either the protagonist or at least the one with the interesting parts and in this comic it would be the one with all the knowledge of time vultures. It may thus be OK to list him as Cueball. So when I changed most of this explanation, adding a ton more information, I also changed this so he would be the one referenced as Cueball (as it is easier to explain when one of them has a name). Then I also made a note that the other guy also looks like Cueball. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:11, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

The problem with the time vulture is that it'll have to move at very fast speeds - in its perspective - to keep up with its prey. Assuming Cueball will die right as the advent calendar ends in [[1577: Advent]], that means he will have 16800 days to live, or 1,451,520,000 seconds. If, from the vulture's perspective, it takes 5 seconds from this time for Cueball to die, the speed of time according to the vulture is 290,304,000 times ours. If the average human walks at 5 km/h, the vulture will see it as walking at 300 million times that speed, which is 1,451,520,000 km/h... So the vulture will have to fly at those speeds, not to mention accelerating that fast. [[User:Vince7778|Vince7778]] ([[User talk:Vince7778|talk]]) 23:03, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

1747: Spider Paleontology

2017-01-04T21:35:11Z

Vince7778: /* Explanation */ Small typo fix

{{comic
| number = 1747
| date = October 17, 2016
| title = Spider Paleontology
| image = spider_paleontology.png
| titletext = Whenever you see a video of birds doing something weird, remember: Birds are a small subset of dinosaurs, so the weirdness of birds is a small subset of the weirdness of dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|This explanation is disorganized; it doesn't stay focused on one subject to completion, and goes off on overly-long tangents. Explain the main plot first, then go into the details afterward.}}
This Monday comic was the first in a series of two comics that continued in the next release [[1748: Future Archaeology]] on Wednesday. Both comic in this series have titles of a noun followed by a field of research. It was a so far unused release schedule and it was the first time in six years two related comics were released in the same week. See more under the [[:Category:Time traveling Sphere|Time traveling Sphere]] series.

A {{w|time travel|time-traveler}} (the black floating energy Sphere) visits the present day from the far future. {{w|Spiders}} are the Sphere civilization's current craze, just as {{w|dinosaurs}} are currently our craze. The {{w|Jurassic Park}} media franchise began with the {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|first film}} in 1993 and the year before the release of this comic (in 2015) the fourth movie {{w|Jurassic World}} were released with at least {{w|Jurassic_Park#Fifth_film_.282018.29|one more film}} in development. We also have {{w|Dinosaur World (theme parks)|theme parks}} and kids dressing up as dinosaurs.

The time-traveler arrives in the presence of [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]], and tells them who it is and why it is here, to see spiders which they learned about through {{w|fossils}} (See the explanation of the next comic about the strange fact that it speaks English). Megan points it towards a spider sitting in its web; the Sphere is awestruck to see the object of its obsession in the living flesh. {{w|Spider web|Spider silk}} does in fact {{w|Spider#Fossil_record|fossilize in amber}} (and most fossils of spiders are found in {{w|amber}} due to the soft body of spiders which do not easily {{w|petrify}}), but the reason we know that these threads of silk made up a spider web is because we can compare to the spiders of today. If not for the fact that we knew about spiders webs in advance it would be hard to say if we would have made the connection from the amber fossils. The Sphere is thus surprised to see the spider in a web since they had not understood any possible hint of spiderwebs in the fossil records, from which the Sphere's civilization gathered all their knowledge of spiders. Spiders have been on Earth at {{w|Spider#Evolution|least for 380 million years}} and are still thriving and more than 40,000 species are known.

We, with our current knowledge, know that webs are an essential part of a spiders life. Making sense of a spiders life is practically impossible without including their webs. However, the future-people have done so until now; discovering how wrong they are is bound to become an intense experience for them.

It is unclear what the Sphere is. Since it states that the spiders they know of is from fossils from your planet, it seems likely that the Sphere is neither human nor from our planet. So most likely they are a space traveling species. Hence it seems unlikely that they are humans. The appearance as a sphere may either be an indication that they did not travel in person but rather only looks out at the past through the energy sphere, or it may be that these aliens are actually spheres, floating as energized objects in space. In that case this is an actual alien floating in front of Megan and Cueball. The Spheres civilization did already have the spider craze before they invented time travel. It seems like the first the Sphere decided to use time travel for was to go back to see real spiders on Earth. This also tells us that they are from so far into the future that there are no spiders left. Of course with climate changes etc. going on, that may not necessarily be too far into the future. As long as the human race (or knowledge of spiders) has also disappeared from Earth. But since the Sphere it self tells us that it comes from a distant future, the setting is not related to how fast humans and spiders becomes extinct.

Megan immediately connects the fact that the Sphere did not even know about spiderweb to our current understanding of dinosaurs: If a future civilization think they understand spiders based on fossil, while missing something as essential (but non-fossilizing) as their web, what are the human civilization missing about dinosaurs? Cueball quickly catches on, and both ask if they can borrow the time-machine to experience their own revelations about dinosaurs just like the revelation the Sphere has just had about spiders.

The title text calls back to one of Randall's favorite facts (see [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]]) - that {{w|birds}} are technically part of the {{w|clade}} ''Dinosauria''. Birds do lots of weird stuff - like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY starlings flocking], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7QZnwKqopo the dances of birds of paradise], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y lyrebird mimicry] or [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_w8og8RXg petrels puking stomach oil]. Randall says that for every time a birds does something weird then it is likely that dinosaurs would have had equally strange behaviors, and birds are only a small subset of all dinosaurs. So there would have been even more strange behaviors among the dinosaurs than among the present days birds. It is, however, basically impossible to tell from the fossil record. All we know is that dinosaurs had features such as display feathers (like on a {{w|Peafowl}} (a decedent of dinosaurs), {{w|neck frill|neck frills}}, and crests (like on the {{w|Dimetrodon}}, which lived before the dinosaur with which it is not related) which likely played a role in mating and territorial shows.

This is the second comic with special mentioning of a science related directly to spiders, the first being [[1135: Arachnoneurology]].

In this comic Randall manages to combine no less than three of his favorite recurring subjects with [[:Category:Time travel|time travel]], [[:Category:Spiders|spiders]] and, of course, [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]].

==Transcript==
:[The Sphere, a time-traveler depicted as a solid floating black energy sphere surrounded by six outwardly-curved segments) seems to have materialized in front of Megan and Cueball who is in the right part of the panel facing left towards it. The Sphere looks like this except in the zoom in from panel two. A voice emanates from the Sphere.]
:Sphere: I'm here from the distant future!
:Megan: Cool! What for?
:Sphere: ''Spiders!''

:[A close-up of the Sphere, still depicted as a black sphere, but not perfectly round at this zoom level and also clearly with some white dots in the dark area. It is also now surrounded by seven (rather than six) narrow rays with irregular dots between the rays. Megan answers it from off-panel.]
:Sphere: We've learned about your planet's spiders from fossils.
:Sphere: There's a whole spider craze. We have spider theme parks, spider movies, spider costumes...
:Sphere: Such beautiful animals!
:Megan (off-panel): I guess...

:[Same setting as in the first panel but Megan is pointing left past the Sphere.]
:Sphere: Now we've got time travel, so I'm here to see one for myself!
:Megan: Sure! There's one over there!

:[The Sphere floats over a leafless branch sticking out of the ground. A spider web is strung between the left border of the panel (four spokes) and the branch (three spokes). A spider (almost as large as the Sphere) sits in the center of the web. Megan answers it from off-panel.]
:Sphere: ''Woowwww!''
:Sphere: What's that giant net it's caught in?
:Megan (off-panel): You mean its web?
:Sphere: Its what?

:[Same setting as in the first panel.]
:Megan: Oh, right, fossils. So you wouldn't know about...

:[In a frame-less panel only Megan is shown facing left while she ponders. Beat panel.]
:Megan: ...

:[Again a scene similar to the first.]
:Megan: Oh my God. Dinosaurs must have been ''so weird''.
:Cueball: Holy crap, yeah.
:Megan: Listen, can we borrow your time machine?

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Time traveling Sphere]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Time travel]]
[[Category:Spiders]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Animals]]

1781: Artifacts

2017-01-04T21:29:30Z

Vince7778: /* Explanation */ Added more clarification on 'not handling artifacts right'

{{comic
| number = 1781
| date = January 4, 2017
| title = Artifacts
| image = artifacts.png
| titletext = I didn't even realize you could HAVE a data set made up entirely of outliers.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows [[Cueball]] presenting data that was probably gathered in research. Cueball seems to have made some kind of mistake in either the statistics or the measurement of the undefined subject of his research, thus his data results in many outliers. The word artifact is a wordplay with two meanings. It is either an {{w|Artifact_(archaeology)|artifact such as the Holy Grail}} (as in ''Indiana Jones'') or a fault in your experiment, where you (usually accidentally) influence the measurement with your equipment or unanticipated environmental factors. These are also called {{w|Artifact_(error)|artifacts}}.

Indiana Jones is (often humorously) [http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24595365/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/indiana-jones-would-make-bad-archaeologist/#.WG1XuflViig cited] as being a bad archaeologist. He sometimes destroys the area he is looking for artifacts in, which would count as not handling artifacts right.

An example of an artifact is the measurement of the force between two charged metal spheres (Coulomb force), where the potential of unearthed nearby objects influences the measurement, thus causing an artifact. Artifacts have occurred before in xkcd, as in [[1453: fMRI]], where getting into the MRI machine induced unintended effects, such as thoughts of claustrophobia.

The title text refers to the entire data set being "outliers." In statistics, an outlier is an observation point that is distant from other observations. Based on the definition it is impossible for ALL data points to be outliers, but that is what Cueball is being accused of having.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball presenting a line graph]
:Cueball: The data clearly proves that-
:Offscreen voice: Are you Indiana Jones? Because you've got a lot of artifacts there, and I'm pretty sure you didn't handle them right.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1367: Installing

2017-01-03T00:22:02Z

Vince7778: Doesn't skip downloading, just installing.

{{comic
| number = 1367
| date = May 12, 2014
| title = Installing
| image = installing.png
| titletext = But still, my scheme for creating and saving user config files and data locally to preserve them across reinstalls might be useful for--wait, that's cookies.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic refers to the kind of "inventions" which seem new from the point of view of a {{w|smartphone}} (handheld computer) user, but have already been around for a long time on desktop or laptop/notebook computers.

[[Cueball]] has a clever idea to skip the installing of applications on mobile phones: he would host the applications online instead, and provide links to the servers. The apps wouldn't stay on the phone all the time; instead the phone would download each app again every time the user wanted to run it.

However, web pages and {{w|web application}}s already work like this. Clicking a link will make the browser download a web page and render {{w|HTML|HTML code}} and {{w|JavaScript}} that it links to.

The page usually isn't saved long-term on the user's computer; instead the browser downloads it again when needed. {{w|HTML5}} does however offer the option of {{w|Cache_manifest_in_HTML5|caching web application files locally}} so it can remain operational when there is no network connection.

In the title text, Cueball's idea for local application storage already exists in the HTTP protocol as {{w|HTTP cookie|cookies}}. The more flexible {{w|Web storage|web storage}} was originally part of the HTML5 specification, but it's now in a separate specification.

Native phone applications and web applications are not completely interchangeable. Web applications may not allow access to more advanced or platform-specific resources. Projects like {{w|Apache Cordova}} make these resources available to web applications by creating a native application wrapper for the web application.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing next to each other.]
:Cueball: Installing things has gotten so fast and painless.
:Cueball: Why not skip it entirely, and make a phone that has every app "installed" already and just downloads and runs them on the fly?

:I felt pretty clever until I realized I'd invented webpages.

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

1780: Appliance Repair

2017-01-02T23:41:15Z

Vince7778: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1780
| date = January 2, 2017
| title = Appliance Repair
| image = appliance_repair.png
| titletext = [holding up a three-phase motor] As you can see here, the problem is that the humidifier I took this from is broken.
}}

==Explanation==
Cueball is apparently running an appliance repair service. Although, he isn't doing much in the repairs aspect, as he is diagnosing problems with the appliances that he himself caused. Megan and White Hat (supposedly) call him over to have him fix a humidifier that isn't working. As most repairmen/handymen do, he takes apart the machine to find the root of the problem. However, it appears that Cueball does not know how to fix the machine, as he states the reason it isn't working is because he took it apart.

What Cueball is doing would be akin to a (really shady) doctor conducting an autopsy when you had the flu and saying the main problem with you right now is that you are dead. And your heart is not pumping because it came from a dead person.

Maybe the fact that Cueball is holding a three-phase motor (as shown in the title text) is part of the problem, because three-phase motors won't work on residential power. Residential humidifiers use [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-phase_electric_power single-phase voltage] (unless the humidifier in the comic is part of an industrial process, which is not very likely by looking at its size), while three-phase equipment uses [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase_electric_power three-phase voltage].{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
[Megan and White Hat are standing in front of Cueball with a broken machine behind him. The machine is revealed to be a humidifier that was destroyed by Cueball.]

Cueball [facing Megan and White Hat, standing in the middle of a mess and holding a screwdriver]: After disassembling and inspecting the humidifier, I've determined that the main problem with it is that someone took it apart.

Title Text: [holding up a three-phase motor] As you can see here, the problem is that the humidifier I took this from is broken.

{{comic discussion}}