https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.254.162&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T16:54:20ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1343:_Manuals&diff=62821Talk:1343: Manuals2014-03-17T10:00:10Z<p>108.162.254.162: </p>
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<div>Your line counts may vary for the man pages, depending on what distribution you are running and what version of man you're using (and god forbid, what version of wc). {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.51}}<br />
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I seem to remember some info page starting with “how to read this manual”… can’t find it though. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.162|108.162.254.162]] 10:00, 17 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.254.162https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=60:_Super_Bowl&diff=5913760: Super Bowl2014-02-01T04:52:47Z<p>108.162.254.162: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 60<br />
| date = February 6, 2006<br />
| title = Super Bowl<br />
| image = super bowl.jpg<br />
| titletext = The Super Bowl is actually an elaborate ruse, concocted by a shadowy group in the mid sixties for this purpose. The "watch it for the ads" addition was a master stroke<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The third in the "[[My Hobby]]" series. In this one, [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] tells us that he steals cars during the Super Bowl. The {{w|Super Bowl}} is the championship (American) football game of the {{w|National Football League}} which is usually played each February. As it is one of the most watched television broadcasts in North America, advertising during the game became increasingly expensive (among the most expensive advertising rates of any broadcast) to the point where corporations would produce their best, most expensive advertisements to air during the game to ensure they would get value out of the expensive spots. The Super Bowl has thus become notorious for the "best" commercials, with some viewers purportedly tuning in strictly to see the commercials. News reports the next day often highlight the best and worst Super Bowl commercials, as do websites devoted to Super Bowl commercials.<br />
<br />
Apparently realizing that the Super Bowl is viewed by a large percentage of the population, Randall is implying that it is a good time to steal cars without fear of being caught. The title text suggests that the Super Bowl was invented strictly for that purpose: as a distraction for car thieves, and that the addition of "SuperBowl commercials" was a genius move to attract even more viewers, and ensure that viewers stayed in front of the TV during commercials as well.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[A green car with text next to it.]<br />
:My hobby:<br />
:While everyone is watching the Super Bowl, feeling smugly superior because they're "Only watching for the ads," I steal cars.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]</div>108.162.254.162https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=111:_Firefox_and_Witchcraft_-_The_Connection%3F&diff=58451111: Firefox and Witchcraft - The Connection?2014-01-23T19:40:01Z<p>108.162.254.162: Firefox [was -> is] open source</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 111<br />
| date = June 5, 2006<br />
| title = Firefox and Witchcraft - The Connection?<br />
| image = firefox wicca.png<br />
| titletext = ThisadpaidforbythecounciltopromoteMicrosoftandChristianity. Remember, The Bible is Closed Source.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
The comic shows a chart between the number of members of the pagan religion {{w|Wicca}} and the number of times {{w|Firefox}} web browser was downloaded, the implication being that Firefox is related to Wicca. The page lists Internet Explorer, a rival web browser, and the cross, representing Christianity, on the bottom, implying that it is an attempt at discouraging Firefox by both Microsoft (creators of Internet Explorer) and a Christian source.<br />
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The title text is reminiscent of political commercials, which tell you who paid for them, generally said very fast, hence why all the words are strung together. The last sentence is a play on the term of {{w|Closed source software}}, which Internet Explorer is, as opposed to Firefox, which is open source in development. Similar in that vein, the Bible can be considered "closed source" [http://kingjbible.com/revelation/22.htm due to God's prohibition on altering its contents.]<br />
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This type of [https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/false-cause statistical ploy] is used again in a few other comics, like [[523: Decline]], [[552: Correlation]], and [[925: Cell Phones]].<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Y axis]: Membership in Wicca<br />
:[X axis]: Total Firefox downloads<br />
:[Positive slope graph.]<br />
:[Internet Explorer icon.]<br />
:Keep the Faith<br />
:[Outline of a cross.]<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Statistics]]</div>108.162.254.162https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1313:_Regex_Golf&diff=567231313: Regex Golf2014-01-06T10:44:57Z<p>108.162.254.162: When there is the quote, then we should link to the comic about the quote.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1313<br />
| date = January 6, 2014<br />
| title = Regex Golf<br />
| image = regex_golf.png<br />
| titletext = <nowiki>/bu|[rn]t|[coy]e|[mtg]a|j|iso|n[hl]|[ae]d|lev|sh|[lnd]i|[po]o|ls/ matches the last names of elected US presidents but not their opponents.</nowiki><br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
This comic revolves around a set of increasingly complicated {{w|regular expressions}}, which are patterns used to search through text for blocks of text matching the pattern. There is a saying in professional programming that goes like this (see [[1171]]):<br />
:Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.<br />
The comic exemplifies this as Megan's problems grow increasingly more convoluted - originally she was writing regex as a game, then moved on to automatically building regex on arbitrary lists of text, to searching through her files for code that appears to be a regex golf generator. At the end, Cueball quips that she now has "Infinite Problems" as a result of her efforts, tying back to the saying above.<br />
Code golf is a game where by programmings attempt to solve a problem using as few characters as possible.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:Regex golf:<br />
:[Megan is sitting at a laptop. Cueball is standing behind her.]<br />
:Megan: You try to match one group but not the other.<br />
:Megan: /m | [tn]|b/ matches ''Star Wars'' subtitles but not ''Star Trek''.<br />
:Cueball: Cool.<br />
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:Meta-regex golf:<br />
:Megan: So I wrote a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists...<br />
:Cueball: Uh oh...<br />
<br />
:Meta-meta-regex golf:<br />
:Megan: ...But I lost my code, so I'm grepping for files that look like regex golf solvers.<br />
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:...And beyond:<br />
:Megan: Really, this is all /(meta-)*regex golf/.<br />
:Cueball: Now you have ''infinite'' problems.<br />
:Megan: No, I had those already.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]</div>108.162.254.162