https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=162.158.34.46&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T13:05:34ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2312:_mbmbam&diff=1925942312: mbmbam2020-05-28T10:14:54Z<p>162.158.34.46: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2312<br />
| date = May 27, 2020<br />
| title = mbmbam<br />
| image = mbmbam.png<br />
| titletext = Hello and welcome to Millibar Millibarn Attometer, an advice show for the Planck era.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by 10^-47 BROTHERS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
In part, this comic is an homage to the referenced podcast, ''{{w|My Brother, My Brother, and Me}}'', which often features rapid garden-path conversations and puns and double entendres that are at once groan-worthy and delightfully witty.<br />
<br />
The millibar is a metric unit of pressure, equal to a thousandth of a {{w|Bar (unit)|bar}}, or 100 {{w|Pascal_(unit)|Pa}}. Pressure is the force per unit area.<br />
<br />
The millibarn is a metric unit of area, equal to a thousandth of a {{w|Barn (unit)|barn}}, or 10^-31 m^2. Both units would theoretically have the symbol '''mb''' (though '''mbar''' for the pressure unit is more common). Hence '''mbmb''' (the pressure unit multiplied by the area unit) would be a unit of force. This can be seen by applying dimensional analysis; pressure x area = (force/area) x area = force.<br />
<br />
"MBMBAM" is an acryonym of "'''M'''y '''B'''rother, '''M'''y '''B'''rother, '''A'''nd '''M'''e". '''am''' would be the symbol of an {{w|Atto-|atto}}meter, or 10^-18 meters. Multiply that to create the unit '''mbmbam''', which would be a unit of energy. Specifically, it would be a unit of work: the energy expended to move an object. More dimensional analysis: force x distance = (work/distance) x distance = work. The actual value of 1 mbmbam is correctly calculated in the comic: 100 Pa x 10^-31 m^2 x 10^-18 m = 10^-47 joules. White Hat dubs this unit "one podcast".<br />
<br />
The final panel is an extended series of puns: 'rise' referring to physically moving upward as well as biologically growing (expanding and becoming lighter and softer) as yeasts do; 'foam' referring to both {{w|quantum foam}} (the fluctuation of spacetime on very small scales due to quantum mechanics) as well as the foam generated by yeast fermenting; 'unleavened dimensions' punning on the eleven dimensions of spacetime in {{w|string theory}} (actually, ten--{{w|M theory}} says eleven), while continuing to play on the theme of yeast--in this case, the universe is presumably flat because some of its dimensions lack the Planck yeast that would make them rise.<br />
<br />
The example used in the comic of lifting a yeast cell 1 Planck length is one of many possible examples of 1 mbmbam of work. (The {{w|Planck length}}, approximately 1.6×10^−35 m, is how far light travels in one unit of {{w|Planck time}}.) Another interpretation of 1 mbmbam would be the work necessary to pull two socially distancing (6 ft) COVID-19 {{w|Virus|virions}} apart by the thickness of a single strand of hair against the gravity they exert on each other.<br />
<br />
The Planck Era (or {{w|Planck_units#Cosmology|Planck Epoch}}) referenced in the title text is the unimaginably short period covering the first 10^-43 s after the Big Bang, when energies were so high that the four fundamental forces were combined into one and ordinary subatomic particles didn't yet exist. It is unlikely there were advice shows during this era, so this would likely be a modern nostalgia show for physicists. The title text is also a play on My Brother, My Brother and Me's tagline: ''An advice podcast for the modern era.''<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Cueball, Megan, and White Hat are standing next to each other, talking. Megan has her hands raised to the side, in a shrugging gesture.]<br />
:Megan: Odd how in physics "'''mb'''" is both millibars (pressure) and millibar'''n'''s (area).<br />
:Megan: '''mbmb''' could mean millibar-millibarn, which is a unit of force, strangely.<br />
:White Hat: Units are weird.<br />
<br />
:[Same scene - Megan is now checking her phone. White Hat is raising his right index finger.]<br />
:Cueball: So what's '''mbmbam''', the My-Brother-My-Brother-And-Me unit?<br />
:Megan: Millibar-millibarn-attometer, I guess? That'd be a unit of energy. 10<sup>-47</sup> Joules.<br />
:White Hat: "One podcast"<br />
<br />
:[Same scene in a frameless panel. Megan holds her phone to her side. White Hat has his arms raised to the side, excited.]<br />
:Cueball: 10<sup>-47</sup> sounds small.<br />
:Megan: Yeah, it's roughly the energy you'd need to lift one yeast cell by one Planck length in Earth's gravity. <br />
:White Hat: Planck yeast!<br />
<br />
:[Same scene in a regular panel. Megan has put away her phone, and has her right index finger raised. White Hat has his hands balled into fists, frustrated.]<br />
:Cueball: Doesn't Planck yeast rise on its own?<br />
:Megan: Yeah, that's what makes quantum foam. But data suggests our universe is flat.<br />
:Megan: String theory says it's because spacetime has unleavened dimensions.<br />
:White Hat: ''... I hate you.''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category: Comics featuring White Hat]]</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2298:_Coronavirus_Genome&diff=191218Talk:2298: Coronavirus Genome2020-04-25T09:40:28Z<p>162.158.34.46: T v U query.</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Epigenetics is a pun, right? I think it's a pun but I don't know what and it's maddening. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 23:03, 24 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
:...{{w|Epigenetics}} is a real thing&mdash;the study of how changes in things other than the genome itself can be passed down between generations. An example is conditioning a mouse to be scared of the smell of oranges/cherries/almonds by having them associate the scent of acetophenone with an electric shock, then testing whether its pups also have the same fear of that smell: they do, but this obviously can't be by the genome itself changing (no component of this has a lot of ionizing radiation{{Citation needed}}). Whatever causes this is the topic of actual epigenetics. --[[User:Volleo6144|Volleo6144]] ([[User talk:Volleo6144|talk]]) 00:12, 25 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
::I know that, I added the link to the article. But afaik that has nothing to do with how the genome is formatted in Word, and I think it's a pun. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 00:31, 25 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
since when does notepad have spellcheck? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.226.46|172.68.226.46]] 23:05, 24 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
: Word does, so maybe she is using Word instead? Kind of contradictory. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.46|172.69.34.46]] 23:14, 24 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
True Story: In the 1980s, as part of the Work Experience initiative at my school, I was assigned to one of my local council's offices (I'd applied for their computer department, but someone else got that). I don't ''think'' the word-processor I used at home (Psion Exchange) had spellcheck, but the one the office used (Lotus? Can't actually recall, but it, like most things, was DOS-based) definitely had, and it was very easy to edit in new words. Inspired by the chemistry lessons I'd recently had, and some 'reports' I was asked to write (keeping the kid busy, more like!) that dealt with chemical degradation of concrete under the action of salt and suchlike, I of course added "NaCl" then absolutely any other chemical formulae I could think of. "H2SO4" was an early one (partial subscript formatting wasn't relevent to the spill-chucker) but I eventually got round to CH4, C2H6, C3H8, etc, and then as many of the derived alcohols, alkenes, alkynes, etc that I could be bothered to type in. Which were a lot. By the end I was 'confident' that nobody would ever type ''any'' correct chemical formula into that machine (no network-shared resources!) and have to worry about false-positive typo alerts. Yeah, well, I was still at school and thought I knew ''everything''. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.70|162.158.159.70]] 23:37, 24 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Can confirm: virus genomes are looked at in notepad. I worked at one of the national laboratories for a summer, experimenting with ways to check for the length of a gene and strength of genetic expression in various circumstances in E. coli. We used notepad because even old computers can open very large files without difficulty, and all our scripts were in Perl, which can easily output to .rtf or .txt file formats. These files are huge, by the way. If you hold down on the scroll bar so it's zooming to the bottom, you could be waiting 20 minutes to reach the end depending on the number of kilobase pairs in your microbe. And epigenetics is not a pun. It's a real word. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.192|172.68.143.192]] 00:15, 25 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Concurrent to the work in the medical community, work is underway in various open source software communities to fix bugs and other issues with software (eg genome analysis tools) that is useful to the scientists combatting COVID-19. These include the Debian "biohackathon" (https://lwn.net/Articles/816280/) as well as support from Mozilla (https://lwn.net/Articles/816386/). Parallel to these efforts, the FSF (Free Software Foundation) has focused on the shortage of medical equipment: https://lwn.net/Articles/816392/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.5|108.162.242.5]] 00:34, 25 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I’m suddenly inspired to write a DNA-edit-mode for Emacs (if it doesn’t have it already) which would allow for the virus spell check as described in this comic. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.153|172.69.63.153]] 04:16, 25 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Derek Lowe has some insights about actual coronavirus mutations [https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/04/21/watching-for-mutations-in-the-coronavirus here], if you are interested.<br />
<br />
Given coronavirus has an RNA genome, shouldn't all the 'T's be replaced by 'U's?</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2288:_Collector%27s_Edition&diff=1898642288: Collector's Edition2020-04-03T15:43:42Z<p>162.158.34.46: /* Hints */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2288<br />
| date = April 3, 2020<br />
| title = Collectors Edition<br />
| image = collectors_edition.png<br />
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. The space acts as a virtual common sandbox where viewers can interact. "Items" (small, often humorous images) can be 'collected' from other comics and then placed in this image by viewers. The collection then updates for all viewers in real time. Multiples of the same item are often seen. <br />
<br />
There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.<br />
<br />
The sticker images can be seen at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png, where XXX is a number from 001-253. Additionally, some images can be found at custom urls, for example the periodic elements can be found at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/element-XX.png, where XX is the element, and text loot at https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot-words-X.png, where X is the sentence.<br />
<br />
===Hints===<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Hint<br />
!Comic<br />
!Unlocked item<br />
!Item image<br />
!Notes<br />
|-<br />
|Doctors in a row||[[1529: Bracket]] ||Cory Doctorow || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Get out the (US) vote|| [[2224: Software Updates]] || Statue of liberty || loot_246.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| [[1133: Up Goer Five]] || Signpost || loot_126.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Plug in or find another power source||[[1373: Screenshot]] || || loot_228.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Sweet dreams, kitty||[[729: Laser Pointer]] || Cat licking laser point || ||<br />
|-<br />
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.||[[28: Elefino]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||Exploding rock || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cowabunga||[[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] ||Women Science Fiction Authors || loot_175.png || [[197: Ninja Turtles]] also works<br />
|-<br />
|I want to believe||[[2156: Ufo]] ||Ufo || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Bleeped|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick||[[1022: So It Has Come To This]] || First Annual Award for Excellence in Being Very Smart || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cooler than electric scooters||[[409: Electric Skateboard (Double Comic)]]||An electric scooter|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take it from the top||[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] ||I am a turtle || loot_095.png || ||<br />
|-<br />
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!||[[1713: 50 ccs]] ||Scientist carrying Cs || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Catch up on the news|| [[1699: Local News]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Participation trophy|| [[2288: Collectors Edition]] || Server rack || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn||[[1504: Opportunity]] ||Opportunity Mars rover || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Tastier than tau day||[[179: e to the pi times i]] ||First annual award for excellence in being very smart || ||<br />
|-<br />
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard || ||<br />
|-<br />
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove || ||<br />
|-<br />
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|asableiK|| [[645: RPS]] || A reverse Polish hotdog || || "Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish<br />
|-<br />
|Critical mass elements|| [[235: Kite]] || || loot_203.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| [[390: Nightmares]]? || Cueball wheelie from [[272: Linux User at Best Buy]] || || Comic-hint connection largely conjectural; 390 was the first comic published on a leap day.<br />
|-<br />
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]|| Rock guitarist || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Call the plumber|| [[290: Fucking Blue Shells]] || || loot_058.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Was it a rat I saw?|| [[1632: Palindrome]] || Cueball with a large sack, pulling a wagon || || or [[1503: Squirrel Plan]] for cueball holding a balloon caught in a ceiling fan.<br />
|-<br />
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate||[[1148: Nothing to Offer]]|| Bottle of soda || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Keep coming back|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|A new model released each year|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Tea Time||[[579: The Race: Part 3]] ||Floor tea ||loot_232.png|| Also [[479: Tones]] ? Also [[578: The Race: Part 2]] ?<br />
|-<br />
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?||[[1045: Constraints]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] ||maze || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Science fiction fetish|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|The first one was funnier||[[11: Barrel - Part 2]]||Falling feather || ||<br />
|-<br />
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though||[[2233: Aurora Meaning]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid|| [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] || Cobwebbed frame || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?||[[1598: Salvage]] ||Rice bowl || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Never going to give you up||[[351: Trolling]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms||[[1604: Snakes]]|| Yoda with an mp3 player from What If || ||<br />
|-<br />
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity||[[1533: Antique Factory]] or [[1021: Business Plan]]|| Beret guy with a goat on leash || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Read the fine manual|| [[1343: Manuals]] or [[293: RTFM]] || "Configure the network" window with a prompt for hostname || ||<br />
|-<br />
|That thing's undecimodal!||[[1347: t Distribution]] || Floating tentacled alien || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now||[[491: Twitter]]||Expensive bottle || ||<br />
|-<br />
|You don't have to find all 99|| [[121: Balloon]] ||Balloon copter || || loot_002.png || Or [[51: Malaria]] ?<br />
|-<br />
|Going in circles|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?||[[2123: Meta Collecting]]||Phishing License sign|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK||[[537: Ducklings]] ||DUCKLOOP'D? || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Fool me twice||[[880: Headache]] ||Raptor Attack || ||<br />
|-<br />
|oOOOoooo|| || || || https://xkcd.com/316/ ?<br />
|-<br />
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes||[[879: Lamp]] ||Genie and his bottle ||loot_004.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|HACK THE PLANET||[[1337: Hack]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Monetization haute couteur||[[20: Ferret]]|| ||loot_162.png||<br />
|-<br />
|Maybe writing a script would help||[[1319: Automation]]|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Go big to go small|| [[1365: Inflation]] || || loot_245.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Are you projecting||[[850: World According to Americans]] or [[977: Map Projections]]||Squirrel on a gun||loot_237.png||<br />
|-<br />
|Do spiders really have six legs||[[8: Red spiders]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?||[[1688: Map Age Guide]] ||Cephalopod || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Another rulebook?||[[393: Ultimate Game]]||Wizard in a chair || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Moooooon|| [[1300: Galilean Moons]] || MOOOOOON || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS|| [[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Everyone deserves a second chnace|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Community contribution|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|On the other side of the wardrobe|| [[969: Delta-P]] ||Authentic Reindeer pulling sled || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Today's your lucky day|| [[1053: Ten Thousand]] || Ms. Frizzle || loot_105.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]|| [[1005: SOPA]] || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Try a different approach|| || || ||<br />
|-<br />
|The cake is a lie!|| [[606: Cutting Edge]] || Cake || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Joanna, fire.||[[322: Pix Plz]] || Joanna with EMP cannon || loot_026.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Everything changes from time to time when the fire nation attacks|| [[965: Elements]] || Symposium || ||<br />
|-<br />
|90KG x 300M|| [[382: Trebuchet]] || Trebuchet || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Copyright Enforcement Brigade|| [[344: 1337: Part 4]] || || loot_046.png ||<br />
|-<br />
|Where Cape Town meets Chukotka|| || || ||<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic, and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.<br />
<blockquote><br />
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!<br />
</blockquote><br />
* Placement is limited to 10,000 units from origin. Users will receive no messages if they try placing something outside the boundary.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]<br />
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2288:_Collector%27s_Edition&diff=1897712288: Collector's Edition2020-04-03T12:49:43Z<p>162.158.34.46: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2288<br />
| date = April 3, 2020<br />
| title = Collectors Edition<br />
| image = collectors_edition.png<br />
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. The space acts as a virtual common sandbox where viewers can interact. "Items" (small, often humorous images) can be 'collected' from other comics and then placed in this image by viewers. The collection then updates for all viewers in real time. Multiples of the same item are often seen. <br />
<br />
There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.<br />
<br />
The sticker images can be seen at `https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png`, where XXX is a number from 001-253.<br />
<br />
===Hints===<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Hint<br />
!Comic<br />
!Unlocked item<br />
!Notes<br />
|-<br />
|Doctors in a row|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Get out the (US) vote|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Plug in or find another power source|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Sweet dreams, kitty||[[729: Laser Pointer]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||Exploding rock ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cowabunga|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take a ride in a barrel|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|I want to believe|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Bleeped|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cooler than electric scooters||[[2195: Dockless Roombas]]||An electric scooter||<br />
|-<br />
|Take it from the top||[[1: Barrel - Part 1]] ||I am a turtle ||<br />
|-<br />
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Catch up on the news|| [[1699]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Participation trophy|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn||[[1504: Opportunity]] ||Opportunity Mars rover ||<br />
|-<br />
|Tastier than tau day|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard ||<br />
|-<br />
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take it from the top|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|asableiK|| [[645: RPS]] || A reverse Polish hotdog || "Kielbasa" backwards, which is "sausage" in Polish<br />
|-<br />
|Critical mass elements|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]|| Rock guitarist ||<br />
|-<br />
|Call the plumber|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Was it a rat I saw?|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate||[[1148: Nothing to Offer]]|| Bottle of soda ||<br />
|-<br />
|Keep coming back|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|A new model released each year|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Tea Time||[[579: The Race: Part 3]] ||Floor tea ||<br />
|-<br />
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?||[[1045: Constraints]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] ||maze ||<br />
|-<br />
|Science fiction fetish|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|The first one was funnier||[[11: Barrel - Part 2]]||No chest - hint disappears ||<br />
|-<br />
|It's up to over 260 million cycles!|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Sleeping Beauty is the same everywhere though|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|On the internet, nobody knows you're an arachnid|| [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] || Cobwebbed frame ||<br />
|-<br />
|Did James Cameron pay for the rice cooker too?||[[1598: Salvage]] ||Rice bowl ||<br />
|-<br />
|Never going to give you up||[[351: Trolling]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|If red touches yellow, that's 24 ohms||[[1604: Snakes]]|| Yoda with an mp3 player from What If ||<br />
|-<br />
|An enthusiastic but questionable business opportunity||[[1533: Antique Factory]]|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Read the fine manual|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|That thing's undecimodal!|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Actually, it's Myanmar-Shave now||[[491: Twitter]]||Expensive bottle ||<br />
|-<br />
|You don't have to find all 99|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Going in circles|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Couldn't you try knitting, or maybe stamp collecting?|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|It's the ciiiiircle of HONK||[[537: Ducklings]] ||DUCKLOOP'D? ||<br />
|-<br />
|Fool me twice||[[880: Headache]] ||Raptor Attack ||<br />
|-<br />
|oOOOoooo|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Maybe we can ask for new wishes|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|HACK THE PLANET|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Monetization haute couteur|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Maybe writing a script would help|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Go big to go small|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Are you projecting|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Do spiders really have six legs|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Istanbul or Constantinople or St. Trimble's Island?|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Another rulebook?|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Moooooon|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take a flight from LOL to FFS|| [[1937: IATA Airport Abbreviations]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Everyone deserves a second chnace|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Community contribution|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|On the other side of the wardrobe|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Today's your lucky day|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|[This hint has been redacted due to a copyright claim]|| [[1005: SOPA]] || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Try a different approach|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|The cake is a lie!|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Go big to go small|| || ||<br />
|-<br />
|Joanna, fire.|| || ||<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic, and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.<br />
<blockquote><br />
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]<br />
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2288:_Collector%27s_Edition&diff=1897302288: Collector's Edition2020-04-03T11:37:24Z<p>162.158.34.46: /* Hints */ Encountered, not yet narrowed down</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2288<br />
| date = April 3, 2020<br />
| title = Collectors Edition<br />
| image = collectors_edition.png<br />
| titletext = I'm sure you can find some suitable worldbuilding material if you scavenge through the archives.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
This is an April 1st comic. It is a large image, of which only part is visible, but it can be dragged around. The large image contains a collection of items, sometimes humorous, often repeating. Items keep appearing in real time. Different viewers can place these items on the page by first collecting them from other comics.<br />
<br />
There is a "backpack" at the bottom, similar to "backpacks" in video games containing items collected by the player. Items can be found by visiting different XKCD comics/pages. Randomly, some pages will have a treasure chest which will contain the sticker related to the page. It is believed that the hint represents what page currently has a chest.<br />
<br />
The sticker images can be seen at `https://xkcd.com/2288/collectors/static/loot/loot_XXX.png`, where XXX is a number from 001-253.<br />
<br />
===Hints===<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Hint<br />
!Comic<br />
!Notes<br />
|-<br />
|Doctors in a row|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Get out the (US) vote|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Find a box of nice stuff on a picture with words like these|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Sweet dreams, kitty|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|What is this hint pointing to? Hell if I know.|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Somebody set up us the bomb||[[286: All Your Base]] ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cowabunga|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take a ride in a barrel|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|I want to believe|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Bleeped|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|why waste time say few word when lot word do trick|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cooler than electric scooters|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Take it from the top|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|I accept the yucca gnocchi, this meal is a success!|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Catch up on the news|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Participation trophy|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Find an opportunity for a sojourn|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Tastier than tau day|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|418 I'm a teapot||[[1866: Russell's Teapot]] ||S.S. NASA: Space is Hard<br />
|-<br />
|26th September, 1983||[[2052: Stanislav Petrov Day]] ||White dove<br />
|-<br />
|Take it from the top|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|There are 4241 as of Apr 1, 2020|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|ASABLEIK|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Critical mass elements|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Some Februarys are more equal than others|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Five spice||[[1554: Spice Girls]]||<br />
|-<br />
|Call the plumber|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Was it a rat I saw?|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Churchill's gonna have to seriously rehydrate|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Keep coming back|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|A new model released each year|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Tea Time|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Try pattern-matching! Look for comic 'bout alphabet?|| ||<br />
|-<br />
|Where's Hilbert?||[[195: Map of the Internet]] ||maze<br />
|-<br />
|Science fiction fetish|| ||<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
* This comic is the 2020 April Fools comic, and was supposed to be released April 1st. However, the below message was displayed on the top of the page until early Friday (April 3rd) morning, when the comic finally went live. It remains to be seen if Friday's intended comic will be published later.<br />
<blockquote><br />
Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball stands to the left of a vibrating box.]<br />
:[The words "Collector's Edition" are written above him and boxed.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2287:_Pathogen_Resistance&diff=189614Talk:2287: Pathogen Resistance2020-04-02T13:23:25Z<p>162.158.34.46: Is Randall Pastafarian?</p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
Note that the title text says "not not" -- meaning we're both trapped in here together [[User:John.Adriaan|John.Adriaan]] ([[User talk:John.Adriaan|talk]]) 04:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:Randall fixed that. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Do bacteriophages "afflict" humanity? To my knowledge, they only infect bacteria and are even considered a possible future alternative to antibiotics by some. What is up with them being represented here? 09:12, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
: Yeah, bacteriophage is just wrong here, it's a generic virus. This type of virus is depicted on the bacteriophage wikipedia page but viruses that affect humans can have that shape also. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.94|172.68.51.94]]<br />
: There are no known human viruses of that shape (source: I'm a biologist), so this seems like more of a mistake on Randall's side (albeit an odd one for him to make, so perhaps somehow deliberate?). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.155|162.158.91.155]] 08:55, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
::But... if it affects bacteria and humen have many bacteria (and many/most of them useful) in them, shouldn't it affect the human then as well? indirectly? Source: I have very vague knowledge :D --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:06, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
::It may be deliberate in the sense that almost everyone will go "Oh, that's a virus!" when they see this shape, contrary to the other 2 which look more like big molecules or bacteria.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.7|162.158.111.7]] 09:20, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: The bacteriophage point is now very nicely addressed in the explanation. Good job to all who contributed to that part! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.105|162.158.93.105]] 21:04, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Don’t worry, pathogens! All is not lost. There will always be some humans whose brains don’t work very well, who will buy into ideas like “vaccines cause autism”, or “faith healing”, or “natural remedies”, or “Trump is always right”. You’ll still have hosts. [[User:Tualha|Tualha]] ([[User talk:Tualha|talk]]) 07:27, 31 March 2020 (UTC) <br />
:That's right [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.158|108.162.216.158]] 13:13, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
::Not really "always". Those might eventually go extinct. Assuming this kind of stupidity is hereditary ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:::Arthur C. Clarke said decades ago "It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value." Likewise the hope the COVID-19 pandemic will eliminate people based on their unintelligent behavior is not proven. Based on limited data I am guessing the behavior of people around us affect our survival more then our own behavior.[[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 13:24, 1 April 2020 (UTC) <br />
<br />
Bacteriophages only infect bacteria and some kinds of Archaea, not humans, so the explanation is slightly wrong. They are probably the prettiest and easiest to recognise viral shape though, which is why they are so commonly used in cartoons and illustrations.[[User:Phil|Phil]] ([[User talk:Phil|talk]]) 08:29, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:I am just as much a hobby-virologist as anybody else suddenly is, but I have no clue what you are talking about. I don't even know which of the 3 shapes you mean. So please edit the explanation yourself if you see, that it is wrong. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:37, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: The narrator-virus in the middle of the three, that looks somewhat like a rotation of a mosquito, with a D20 on top. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage#/media/File:PhageExterior.svg Wikipedia diagram] [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.13|141.101.69.13]] 12:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:::D20 systems have a lot to answer for. The original D6 Star Wars worked well enough, and now I learn the D20 version spread viruses! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 11:23, 1 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"They bought lots of pasta." More like they bought lots of toilet paper! Humans, when we think rationally, can make great things happen. Humans, when we panic, can make incredibly foolish decisions. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 11:32, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:It's both. At least in the supermarkets close to my place (western Germany), pasta, toilet paper, rice, milk, flour, yeast are all common to be out of stock or almost out of stock and usually their shelfes have by now signs that they will only sell a certain amount of them to each customer. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:14, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Any chance this reveals Randall as a secret Pastafarian? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 13:23, 2 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why does one of the voices say, "I hate lungs"? --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.62|108.162.216.62]] 13:08, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:To emphasize that they really do want to destroy those lungs. All good here. 13:13, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
::It actually doesn't make sense. Pathogens LOVE lungs - it's a great place for them to have party in. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:::I always imagined it was just a reiteration of a past conversation, to whit something like: "Not another lung? We never get to see anything else. Really, George, I don't know why you keep on booking the same old package deal ''every'' time we go abroad. You know, Janice's family always try something different. Instead of just flying in and sitting on the lung all the time they do exciting things like camping out on an interesting door handle then hitching rides on fingers into noses, or even dining out and taking a chance on an unwashed cup to introduce them to an interesting new throat..." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 11:23, 1 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This comic is a positive message giving good advice to people on how to beat the current COVID-19 spread. But the numbers clearly show it is not working (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-52066105/coronavirus-us-death-rates-v-china-italy-and-south-Korea, and many other locations on the internet.) Continuing to believe this pandemic can be beat with only lock-downs, hand washing and telling people to not do things they do naturally without thinking, is the public health equivalent of engineering design with friction-less surfaces and mass-less pullies. We need solutions that understand human nature and tell people to do things they actually will do, not keep saying the same things over and over again despite experience screaming at us that people are not doing it. The 6 places that have controlled the outbreak (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan) have used different methods of testing, tracing, isolating, restricting travel, etc., but the one thing they have in common is a large portion of the population is wearing masks in public. The 5 places with the largest uncontrolled outbreaks (USA (especially NYC) Italy, Spain, Germany and France) are all using the same lock down strategy and all have public health officials discouraging / preventing people from wearing masks in public. This should not be hard to figure out. And saying the limited supply of masks need to go to certain people, not working to increase the number of masks, is what failure looks like. {{unsigned|Godzilla}}<br />
:You know that it's possible to make a mask from piece of fabric at home? It may not be as good as professional mask but would still provide some sort of protection. Also, the amount of masks will go up if China starts making them ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:Masks like the 1.2 million defective ones that a Chinese manufacturer sold to the Dutch government for the care workers? Or the simpler ones that Dutch experts say aren't effective because they're bound to be used incorrectly and thus give a false sense of security? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.219|172.69.54.219]] 18:09, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:In a situation like the current one it is wise even for expert epidemiologists, virologists and medical practitioners to be very careful in their assumptions, analyses and conclusions. For anyone with little or no expertise in those fields, that goes doubly so. Note, for instance, that the regions you name as having controlled the outbreak also have very different social customs from those you name as uncontrolled. To an Italian, the everyday way Asians (excuse the generalizations) interact with each other is pretty much equivalent to "social distancing". When you regularly shake hands or hug (and then touch your nose or eyes, which people do constantly and subconsciously), the mask is not protective. In other words, there are many factors beyond simply wearing masks that can explain the current differences in virus spread, if such differences are even real (the current numbers are heavily skewed by test availability and criteria for who gets tested). More generally, we currently simply do not have enough information to confidently answer all the questions about this disease and how we should best combat it. Thus, I would recommend using expressions such as "this should not be hard to figure out" sparingly, especially given the knowledge that many very smart and highly trained people are working on "figuring it out"... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.105|162.158.93.105]] 21:21, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
::I agree it's not so trivial to figure out, but also that we should both start wearing masks and stop with the shaking hands - both is easy enough to try. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:17, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:::"In a situation like the current one it is wise even for expert epidemiologists, virologists and medical practitioners to be very careful in their assumptions, analyses and conclusions. For anyone with little or no expertise in those fields, that goes doubly so. Note, for instance, that the regions you name as having controlled the outbreak also have very different social customs from those you name as uncontrolled. To an Italian, the everyday way Asians (excuse the generalizations) interact with each other is pretty much equivalent to "social distancing"."<br />
These statements are true. It is also true the the 6 places that have controlled the outbreak the best have very different social customs from each other. Likewise with the 5 places where the outbreak is spreading the most; Germans generally do not behave in public like Italians, but both cultures are experiencing similar 2-3 day double rates.<br />
"...given the knowledge that many very smart and highly trained people are working on "figuring it out"..." We all know countless examples in history of "very smart and highly trained people" being wrong for very long periods of time (no-such-things-as-germs, the-earth-is-the-center-of-the-universe, etc.) And the differences in the spread of this outbreak in different countries is not trivial; it is spreading 10s or 100s of time faster in some places then others. These differences are not being explained adequately by the "very smart and highly trained people". At some point we need to realize what we are being told does not match what we are seeing. When we do we will start solving the problem. [[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 13:24, 1 April 2020 (UTC) <br />
<br />
(Hey, people have been putting replies to someone else's unsigned comment under my joke. Lemme just move mine down here. -Jacky720)<br />
{|class="wikitable"<br />
|<br />
Pathogens: ''infect humans through day-to-day contact''<br /><br />
Humans: ''stop day-to-day contact''<br /><br />
Humans: Checkmate.<br />
|}<br />
[[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:38, 31 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
OK the news is saying the CDC is reconsidering their position on the public wearing masks. Note it is not you wearing a mask that protects you, but everyone else wearing one, including the people with the virus who do not show symptoms. The mask catches many of the droplets infected people exhale, sneeze or cough out. This reduces the amount of virus containing droplets in the air for you to breath in, reduces the virus on surfaces you touch and then bring to your face with your hand, etc.<br />
<br />
Here is the one study on home made masks, finding them to be roughly 1/3 as effective as surgical masks: [http://https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0921A05A69A9419C862FA2F35F819D55/S1935789313000438a.pdf/testing_the_efficacy_of_homemade_masks_would_they_protect_in_an_influenza_pandemic.pdf Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks]<br />
<br />
Here is one of a few studies showing the public wearing masks is effective against the spread of the flu, colds, etc: <br />
[http://https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6993921/pdf/CD006207.pdf Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses]<br />
<br />
Here is one (of many) source for making a mask: [http://https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/1/21203241/coronavirus-diy-face-mask-homemade-tutorials Everything you need to know about making your own face mask]<br />
<br />
[[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 23:06, 1 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The text on xkcd.com just below the logo has been changed to read "Note: For technical reasons Wednesday's comic will be posted Thursday instead. Apologies for the delay!" Not sure if that's worth mentioning anywhere here, or on tomorrow's explanation once the Thursday comic goes up. [[User:Ijpete98|Ijpete98]] ([[User talk:Ijpete98|talk]]) 03:25, 2 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
:We shouldn't rule out some type of April Fool's Day joke! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 04:55, 2 April 2020 (UTC)<br />
:: As far as I'm concerned, the question is whether he has something with elaborate Javascript that he's still working on lined up for slightly belated April Fool's, or is the delay itself the joke, in a way that might make more sense once we do see it? Time will tell. -- [[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 11:10, 2 April 2020 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2257:_Unsubscribe_Message&diff=189456Talk:2257: Unsubscribe Message2020-03-30T14:38:54Z<p>162.158.34.46: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
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>>>YOU HAVE BEEN UNSUBSCRIBED<<<[[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.148|162.158.214.148]] 12:57, 20 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
If I ever make an unsubscribe message, it'll just be this comic. [[User:Blacksilver|Blacksilver]] ([[User talk:Blacksilver|talk]]) 13:28, 20 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
You have been SO unsubscribed that it isn't even funny! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.148|162.158.214.148]] 15:44, 20 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
>>> You Have Been SuperScribed >>> [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 16:02, 20 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"You are unsubscribing. We can retain your details in case you wish to revert this change in the future. Do you wish us to retain your stored preferences?" (NO) "Do you wish us to retain your external contact details?" (NO) "Do you wish us to hibernate your core profile and reserve your username?" (NO) "Data fully removed from our server" ... ... "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.53|141.101.99.53]] 17:26, 20 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Then there are the unsubscribe pages that you have to uncheck your subscription and then clicking an Update button. And the ones that give you several alternatives to unsubscribing and obscure the unsubscribe link by not using the word "unsubscribe" in the unsubscribe link and you have to figure out that that's the link.<br />
[[User:Thisisnotatest|Thisisnotatest]] ([[User talk:Thisisnotatest|talk]]) 18:58, 20 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:If the site offers multiple different subscriptions, giving you option to unsubscribe one, more or all of them makes sense. If you unsubscribe just one, users will complain they need to unsubscribe multiple times very angrily. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:02, 21 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I actually think the "very negative" message could work for a joking confirmation message. [[User:Unpopular Opinions|Unpopular Opinions]] ([[User talk:Unpopular Opinions|talk]]) 21:26, 21 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
On the subject of marketing preference for as many subscribers as possible or a few high value subscribers, there are basically two scenarios: Algorithmic and non-Algorithmic environments. In a non-Algorithmic environment, like an E-mail list, you almost always want as many subscribers as possible. You'll have the high-value subscribers in there regardless, and if there's even the smallest chance of interaction from the other subscribers, the Marginal cost of sending an email is so low that there's no reason not to send it to them, and every person subscribed is more data for the Marketer. <br />
In an Algorithmic environment, like Youtube or Facebook, there may be scenarios where you want to increase the average interactivity of your subscribers, as the Algorithm may suggest your content to non-subscribers more based on the high interactivity of your core audience, this is still rare, however, as the same low marginal cost and data still factor into the calculation, and more people seeing your video more often is almost always good, and more valuable than intentionally cutting your subscriber base to increase the engagement of your subscribers so that more people will see your video just so that you can gain more subscribers, and start the whole process over again.[[User:Argis13|Argis13]] ([[User talk:Argis13|talk]]) 23:47, 24 January 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I just got a message from Just Eat which ends: "Want to unsubscribe? It’ll hurt our feelings, and you’ll miss out on some tasty Just Eat deals, but you can do that here. *starts to cry*." I think they may have seen this comic and taken the wrong message from it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 14:38, 30 March 2020 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2286:_6-Foot_Zone&diff=189225Talk:2286: 6-Foot Zone2020-03-27T23:36:19Z<p>162.158.34.46: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Ok... 34 feet, in total, but how many hands? (All of which you should wash!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.210|162.158.34.210]] 23:34, 27 March 2020 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2275:_Coronavirus_Name&diff=188063Talk:2275: Coronavirus Name2020-03-03T16:15:53Z<p>162.158.34.46: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Covid-19 is more dangerous than the flu and has already killed more people. And any death rate that starts with 0.00 and then has a number other than zero can only be called "basically zero" if you value human life very little. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.132|162.158.94.132]] 21:49, 2 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:addendum: this seems to depend on what source you use for the chinese yearly flu death rate. number of deaths is either much higher or somewhat lower.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.123|162.158.91.123]] 21:53, 2 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:It's Trump taking point that the coronavirus is a hoax and no worse than the flu. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.213|162.158.74.213]] 22:14, 2 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:At the very least, the fact the virus has over 90,000 confirmed cases makes it a significant disease. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.246|172.69.34.246]] 22:28, 2 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:It doesn't seem like the point of the comic is to comment on the severity of the virus. Seems more on-topic to say things that are objectively true, like "Many people are concerned about the virus" rather than discussing disputed stats.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.132|162.158.106.132]] 22:58, 2 March 2020 (UTC) Patb<br />
::I agree, and suggest we remove the line with stats entirely. It isn't relevant to the comic, and having it refer to "current estimates" means someone will have to keep updating it when new estimates are made. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.57|172.69.54.57]] 08:17, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:::A running total here wouldn't be necessary, there is at least one web site especially for that (or a page for Covid-19 on a general disease outbreak tracking site). To me it looks like this virus is about equally dangerous as flu, except that this virus is only in about 70 countries and counting, so if it isn't in yours yet (as far as you know) then you are not yet in danger (as far as you know). Also, flu kills a lot of people, numerically, every year, and if this virus kills an equal number of people, every year, there are twice as many people dead, total. (ish) So it's worth trying to stop this virus from existing, while we might still do that. Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.76|162.158.159.76]] 13:40, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
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If the Godzilla movies have taught me anything, it's that giant insects aren't a problem biologists can solve anyways. That's more of a "nuclear paleontology" sort of job. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 01:43, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
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It is legitimately difficult to tell if Ponytail's use of the word 'catchy' as a descriptor for 'coronavirus' is an intentional or unintentional pun. Either way, it's very opportune. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.239|108.162.221.239]] 03:55, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
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The current chapter of Wilde Life (a totally unrelated webcomic) as a giant spider interacting with two of the main characters, starting [https://www.wildelifecomic.com/comic/710/ here]. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 05:05, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
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I think they missed a trick with the naming. CORVID-19 would have reminded everyone of H5N1 'bird flu', and we could just blame the crows. Kill a magpie to avoid infection!<br />
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.253|162.158.158.253]] 10:53, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
:What? How is CORVID-19 supposed to remind anyone of H5N1 or bird flu? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:20, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
::Corvidae is the family including crows, ravens, jays, magpies; so, CORVID~=bird. Not sure how many people would make that connection, but I think that's what the previous poster was getting at.<br />
::(Please sign your posts!)<br />
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Yeah really dodged a bullet on those rhinoviri. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.44|172.69.22.44]] 11:36, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
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Is it relevant to mention that some spiders grow larger in cities? https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105480 <br />
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:39, 3 March 2020 (UTC)<br />
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I'm not really wanting to catch COVID-19. I'm holding out for COVID-19b, which is going to be better beta-tested. (But by the time COVID-19c comes out, it's just going to be a bandwagon of planned obsolescence by then - I'd rather stick with what I've got until the next significent release version and keep a close eye on the advanced reviews and what other vendors are innovating.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 16:15, 3 March 2020 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2242:_Ground_vs_Air&diff=184792Talk:2242: Ground vs Air2019-12-18T12:30:42Z<p>162.158.34.46: Silly touchscreen keyboard...</p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
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Wow; it took longer than I care to admit to realize 'thick' wasn't 'viscosity'...but 'altitude'. (i.e., height/thickness re: Kynde's comment) [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 01:08, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
:Ohhhhhhhh! [[User:Sdkb|Sdkb]] ([[User talk:Sdkb|talk]]) 02:38, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
::Not altitude, but height or thickness... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:03, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
::: ^ Yes, that. Correction added; I meekly blame word choice on keyboard dead zones. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 20:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
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A link to the article is here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2005GL025621. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.192|162.158.186.192]] 01:12, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
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It's probably worth mentioning in the explanation which map projection Randall chose to use for this comic from those listed in a previous comic about map projections. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
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And by these metrics, blood is even thinner than water... {{unsignedip|162.158.107.199}}<br />
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But everything changed when the fire nation attacked [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.250|108.162.229.250]] 10:47, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
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I assume ocean ridges have a very thin crust, meaning they get the ratio more towards air? I am not at all a geologist, so I ask this question, because ridges would intiutively appear to have a bigger crust, as they stand out from the ground. "That definition would, of course, have resulted in a significantly different picture where the air is thicker than the ground only inside small areas around mid-ocean ridges" should be explained by someone who knows why it is the case. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:26, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
:Mid-ocean ridges can even be raised above the ocean surface--Iceland is actually the high point on one of them. In other places they're trenches, though. Since seafloor crust is spreading at those points, it's at its thinnest there on average. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:08, 18 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
::Would you feel confident, adding that in a concise way to the explanation? I do not... But I am glad I learned something by that. That might also explain why these ocean ridges tend to be equipped with volcanoes. I thought the reasoning was the other way round: They are ridges due to their geothermal activity. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:27, 18 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
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The current explanation seems to include water-thickness in with (either) air or ground thickness in discussing it in the initial transition from air to ground. Depends how you read it, which, but it easily reads as either. Maybe edit that aside out from that bit, then make sure that sliver of water is gone into later (...end of that para? ...footnote mention?) that sometimes the air ends at sea-level and ground starts after the depth of sea? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 12:28, 18 December 2019 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2242:_Ground_vs_Air&diff=184791Talk:2242: Ground vs Air2019-12-18T12:28:58Z<p>162.158.34.46: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
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Wow; it took longer than I care to admit to realize 'thick' wasn't 'viscosity'...but 'altitude'. (i.e., height/thickness re: Kynde's comment) [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 01:08, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
:Ohhhhhhhh! [[User:Sdkb|Sdkb]] ([[User talk:Sdkb|talk]]) 02:38, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
::Not altitude, but height or thickness... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:03, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
::: ^ Yes, that. Correction added; I meekly blame word choice on keyboard dead zones. [[User:Elvenivle|Elvenivle]] ([[User talk:Elvenivle|talk]]) 20:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A link to the article is here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2005GL025621. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.192|162.158.186.192]] 01:12, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It's probably worth mentioning in the explanation which map projection Randall chose to use for this comic from those listed in a previous comic about map projections. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:22, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
And by these metrics, blood is even thinner than water... {{unsignedip|162.158.107.199}}<br />
<br />
But everything changed when the fire nation attacked [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.250|108.162.229.250]] 10:47, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I assume ocean ridges have a very thin crust, meaning they get the ratio more towards air? I am not at all a geologist, so I ask this question, because ridges would intiutively appear to have a bigger crust, as they stand out from the ground. "That definition would, of course, have resulted in a significantly different picture where the air is thicker than the ground only inside small areas around mid-ocean ridges" should be explained by someone who knows why it is the case. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:26, 17 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
:Mid-ocean ridges can even be raised above the ocean surface--Iceland is actually the high point on one of them. In other places they're trenches, though. Since seafloor crust is spreading at those points, it's at its thinnest there on average. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:08, 18 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
::Would you feel confident, adding that in a concise way to the explanation? I do not... But I am glad I learned something by that. That might also explain why these ocean ridges tend to be equipped with volcanoes. I thought the reasoning was the other way round: They are ridges due to their geothermal activity. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:27, 18 December 2019 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The current explanation seems to include water-thickness in with (either) air or ground thickness in discussing it in the initial transition from air to ground. Depends how you read it, which, but it easily reads as either. Maybe edit that aside out from that hit, then make sure that sliver of water is gobe into later (...end of that para? ...footnote mention?) that sometimes the air ends at sea-level and ground starts after the depth of sea? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 12:28, 18 December 2019 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1024:_Error_Code&diff=179225Talk:1024: Error Code2019-09-05T14:31:38Z<p>162.158.34.46: </p>
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<div>The joke is probably that "sit by a lake" is the name of the tune corresponding with motherboard error -41<br />
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Motherboard error codes are not numbered like other error codes are. Motherboard error codes are just referred to by how the beeps sound (ex. 1 long, 2 short) [[User:Luke1042|Luke1042]]<br />
:Long, long, short, long would mean it's approaching a crossing. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 09:46, 7 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Personally, of all motherboard beeping codes, I always liked "No beep = Power supply, system board problem, disconnected CPU, or disconnected speaker...." (Well, when not suffering it myself. And even then I could stand it when it was just the latter and thus of no ''immediate'' consequence...) [[Special:Contributions/31.111.103.76|31.111.103.76]] 22:04, 2 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: Well then, laptop computers dont beep at all, I guess that must mean that something is always missing --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.111|108.162.250.111]] 03:03, 26 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
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::Yes. You are missing a Desktop. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.60|108.162.216.60]] 20:49, 14 May 2014 (UTC)BK201<br />
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This is one of my favourite xkcd comics, it makes me take a long breath and just chill out a bit. Probably the only comic that could be described as 'relaxing' [[Special:Contributions/77.103.5.201|77.103.5.201]] 20:13, 5 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Unfortunately the beep codes thing is archaic. Most new computers built since the early to mid-2000s haven't made a beep - instead, the trend has been to rely on visual codes from built-in LEDs (and, later on, from pairs of eight-segment displays relaying hex codes). So a modern code will run from 00 to FF - but it will also be completely silent. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.216|141.101.81.216]] 11:47, 25 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
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: Every computer ever booted in my presence, some before many during and a few shortly after stated time period as well as several brand new this year, has beeped at the end of the POST, with one exception. That one would have beeped, but it's PC speaker was removed because it annoyed the owner. So I don't think hex code error indicators have quite made beepcodes "archaic".--[[User:guest|guest]] 08:46, 15 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
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::I built my own computer about a year ago, with a motherboard that was quite modern. It definitely uses beep codes. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.107|199.27.133.107]] 04:34, 22 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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The guy at the computer is [[Cueball]], isn't he? So Cuball and friend is the common way here. If not, the the category [[:Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] has also to be removed. But I don't see that. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:02, 23 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Anyone got any idea what the yellow things in the lake are? They look like they should be significant? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.94|141.101.104.94]] 05:48, 15 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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: Those are lily pad flowers. Before they bloom they look like small balls, and some are yellow[https://www.google.com/search?q=yellow+lily+pad+flower&tbm=isch]. {{unsigned ip|199.27.130.216}}<br />
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The guy at the computer should say at the first panel "That's UNhelpful" instead of "That's helpful", shouldn't he? Or maybe I don't know something in english? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.185|108.162.254.185]] 09:35, 7 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
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It's called a sarcastic comment, though it's technically irony. It's very common for english speaking people to say "well, that's helpful" when the intended understanding is exactly the opposite.--[[User:guest|guest]] 08:41, 15 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Did... did anyone ever make this book? Somebody should get on that.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.192|108.162.237.192]] 21:34, 20 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
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The guy has a lot of these books. http://xkcd.com/330/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.241|108.162.210.241]] 00:49, 29 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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What do they say about code 34?[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 23:29, 21 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Let's see... I think that means "you get a free sample of brain bleach". [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.166|173.245.54.166]] 19:02, 3 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
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404 is a response code, not an error code [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.46|162.158.34.46]] 14:31, 5 September 2019 (UTC)</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Disappearing_Sunday_Update&diff=177555Disappearing Sunday Update2019-08-06T02:51:56Z<p>162.158.34.46: or is this better?</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| date = August 4, 2019<br />
| title = Disappearing Sunday Update<br />
| image = disappearing_sunday_update.png<br />
| titletext = This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.<br />
| ldomain = web.archive.org/web/20190804230254/https://www<br />
| lappend = #<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by UNUSUAL MEANS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
The comic claims to be a special Disappearing comic that will disappear when the normal Monday comic update occurs, which should be sometime during Monday August 5th. The entire comic is an advertisement for [[Randall|Randall's]] upcoming book "[[How To]]". <br />
It was, of course, released on [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (August 4th), becoming only the fifth comic to be released on a Sunday. Could also be the first comic to disappear again, on a Monday... <br />
<br />
The entire comic is a link directly to https://xkcd.com/how-to/. This link is also mentioned in the text of the comic. But as Randall has never learned to make different part of an image into a link the other link mentioned in the text, to his [[Blag]] is not linked from the comic. The link to this is https://blog.xkcd.com/. At the moment of this comics release the top blog post is the one about How To book.<br />
<br />
The first part of the comic, the advertisement, includes a drawing of the cover, two sets of pages, showing the open book, and a sampling of the table of contents of the book. The full table of contest can be found in the Blag post mentioned above.<br />
<br />
The second part of the comic, the joke, apologizes for various bots that automatically catalog xkcd comics that might break because of this special comic. See more under [[#Unusual Means|Unusual Means]]. This website is one example assigning the comic a number of 2185 despite the comic not having a designated number. The comic even broke the xkcd site itself as the previous comic (2184) had a next button that links to comic 2185 (which does not exist) and displays a [[404]] error (but this was later fixed by giving this comic number 2185, see the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section, if nothing else then until it disappears!)<br />
<br />
One of the bot methods mentioned may be in reference to the recent comic [[2180: Spreadsheets]], where [[Cueball]] debates making a real program to do a task, or to use a Google spreadsheet instead.<br />
<br />
In the title text it is stated that: ''This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.''. However, as shown in the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section, Randall had so many problems with his plans for this comic, that he ended up making it a normal numbered comic and thus also put it into the archives, although it was later removed.<br />
<br />
==Unusual Means==<br />
Randall notes that ''if you read xkcd through unusual means... ... I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly''<br />
<br />
Between the dots he suggested different methods of reading xkcd, other than on the {{xkcd}} home page. These methods get progressively sillier (many still need explanations). Here is a list:<br />
<br />
; Apps<br />
: The Android app [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tap.easy_xkcd easyxkcd] was broken by this comic when used in offline mode, as reported [https://github.com/tom-anders/Easy_xkcd/issues/162 here].<br />
; Custom screen-scraping systems<br />
: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_scraping#Screen_scraping<br />
; Google Reader clones<br />
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Reader Google Reader] was an RSS/Atom aggregator that Google discontinued in 2013<br />
; Twitter bots<br />
: Automated posting to [https://twitter.com/ Twitter]<br />
; BASH scripts<br />
: A popular Un*x shell; one might, say, write a script in it to run on one's personal Un*x machine, checking for a new xkcd comic and displaying it somewhere<br />
; Gopher portals<br />
: [https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol/ Gopher] was a method of surfing the Internet that predated the Web (by about five months) and was vastly more popular (for about three years)<br />
; Lynx-based ASCII art browsers<br />
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29 Lynx] is a text-based Web browser. It can launch external programs to view images, but Randall is suggesting that instead a Lynx variant might convert images to [https://www.asciiart.eu/ ASCII art], which renders images using the 94 visible ASCII keyboard characters<br />
; Third-party Second Life feeds<br />
: [https://secondlife.com/ Second Life] is a virtual world that is apparently still a thing<br />
; RFC 2549<br />
: An RFC is a proposal for how to run the Internet. [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549 RFC 2549] is about transmitting data using carrier pigeons (this was one of the earliest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day April Fools' Day] RFCs).<br />
; Massive Google docs sheets<br />
: See #[[2180]].<br />
<br />
Another unusual method is [http://uni.xkcd.com/ UNIXkcd], which was reported here to have broken, but was later working.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Heading:]<br />
:~Special Disappearing Sunday comic~<br />
<br />
:[Below the header to the right are the following text:]<br />
:I'm posting this ephemeral Sunday update to let you know that I wrote a book! It's a guide to solving everyday problems in terrible ways using science.<br />
:It comes out next month, and it's available for preorder now.<br />
<br />
:[Below this text is an arrow to an image of the book to the left. The arrow comes from this text:] <br />
:The cover looks like this<br />
<br />
:[The book is shown to the left as a black rectangle with large blue text and smaller white text. On the book cover, in white drawings, are seen Ponytail with a ladder and either Black or White Hat (hard to say on black background). Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter beneath either leg, trying to plug in an electric light bulb in a naked lamp hanging down near him. It seems he has already removed the broken light bulb, as he has one in both hands. And now he tries to put in the new one. He could have let Ponytail use the ladder...]<br />
:[The header in blue above it all:] How To.<br />
:[Sub header in white to the left of Cueball:] Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems<br />
:[Author name in blue below the drawing:] Randall Munroe<br />
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Creator of xkcd<br />
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Author of ''what if?'' and ''Thing Explainer''<br />
<br />
:[Below the text with the arrow to the book is the following text with an arrow pointing down to an image of two pages in the open book, shown to the right:] <br />
:And the inside looks like this.<br />
<br />
:[To the left of the open book are the following text:]<br />
:Chapters include:<br />
:'''How to charge your phone'''<br />
:'''How to throw a pool party'''<br />
:'''How to move'''<br />
:'''How to build a lava moat'''<br />
:'''How to ski'''<br />
<br />
:[The open book to the right has almost only unreadable text. The left page shows a drawing of car in front of a trailer which is loaded with about 15 of boxes in four layers. Two stick figures are standing between the car and the trailer, talking with each other. The trailer is not attached to the car. There are some lines of text beneath the drawing and then what appears to be a chapter heading. It probably says something as "How to move", as this is mentioned as a chapter in the text to the left of these pages, but there one of two more unreadable words at the end of that heading. Beneath that the rest of the page is text and at the bottom there seems to be a footnote. The right page shows a house that seems to be floating a couple of meters above the ground, two arrows pointing up to the bottom of the house on either side. A stick figure stands to the left of the house which float at the figures head height. There is text beneath this drawing. Beneath that there is another drawing of a house towed on a truck, which speeds up a steep hill and jumps over a cliff to get to the other side. Seems like it will work. The speed of the truck seems to be very high as indicated by two curly lines indicating exhaust from the truck. It becomes three small clouds further behind the moving house. There is a footnote beneath the drawing. The driver of the truck yells as the truck jumps. This can actually be read:]<br />
:Driver: ''Woooooo''<br />
<br />
:[Beneath the above text and pages are another image of the open book with two other pages. This time to the left. This time there is text to the right.]<br />
<br />
:[These book pages are also mainly unreadable. At the top of the left page is a drawing of what could be a lake. Two people seems to be standing out in the water, only heads showing above the water. A sign is standing on the brink, is may say "Sorry"? Behind the lake is some mountains in the background. Beneath the drawing is some text of, then a smaller diagram like drawing which may show some black clouds above and below a line in the middle of this drawing. One of the clouds are beneath a curly bracket which are beneath the line. The curly bracket lies down and has the same length as the cloud. Beneath this drawing is more text and then a third drawing at the bottom. Here is shown a cross section of the lake. At the left side of the lake the water is shallow and a stick figure is standing in the water on the bottom, head above water with its arms held up in the air. It is directing its attention to the four stick figure standing on the brink to the left looking at the figure in the water. To the right the lake becomes more than three times as deep. Clouds are above the lake, one large just right of the stick figure and one smaller further right. At the right edge the lakes edge is vertical. On the brink is what may be a diving board protruding over the lake. Something is lying on top of the board. And above is what seems to be another cloud. To the right of the lake is a pile of earth with what appears to be a large black Nuclear bomb (with the nuclear icon on it) stuck with its tip in the pile. On the right page is a line coming down from the top, which then turns to the right ending in an arrow. There is a line of text above the horizontal part of the line. The arrow points to a large heading in two rows. (See below). Beneath the heading are a few lines of text. Then a drawing of a torn map (like an old treasure map whit a X at the end of a trail marked with dots. Mountains indicated with small "^" and coast line is visible. There seems to be text beneath the X. There are text beneath the drawing. Beneath that are a header with a line beneath it, and then text beneath the line.]<br />
:How to Dig a Hole<br />
<br />
:[To the right of these pages are the following text:]<br />
:You can learn more and preorder it at '''xkcd.com/how-to'''<br />
:And read an excerpt at '''blog.xkcd.com'''<br />
<br />
:[Beneath all this Randall (drawn as Cueball) is telling about the problem this disappearing comic may cause:]<br />
:Randall: If you read xkcd through unusual means, including apps, custom screen-scraping systems, Google reader clones, Twitter bots, bash scripts, gopher portals, lynx-based ASCII art browsers, third-party Second Life feeds, RFC 2549, or massive google docs sheets full of =IMPORTHTML() and =IMAGE() formulas, I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly. <br />
:Randall: It will disappear with the normal Monday update.<br />
:Randall: (At least, I think it will. I've never tried this before. So I'm honestly not sure what the server will do.)<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This August 4th 2019 [[:Category:Sunday comics|Sunday comic]] was first posted on the front page without any number relating to it. Thus breaking the next comic button on xkcd. <br />
**Since it is supposed to be deleted on Monday August 5th 2019, when the next comic arrives on xkcd, it was not supposed to have a number or be in the archive. But seems like this caused too many problems for the xkcd site it self (not just for all the other sites Randall jokes about). So later it was given the next number in the comic list (2185) and was also included in the archive, although it was later removed from the archive and 2185 was assigned to another comic.<br />
*Here are some pictures documenting that the comic at some point between release and the next comics release worked like a normal comic with number 2185 as shown in the web address at the top. (The question is if the next comic will be 2185 and this will disappear?):<br />
*[[File:Disappearing Sunday Update with number 2185.png]]<br />
*It was also part of the archive with the release date shownig when hovering over the title:<br />
*[[File:Archive with Disappearing Sunday Update and date.png]]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]] <!-- Cueball at the bottom is Randall. But the other three above are on the book cover at the top --></div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Disappearing_Sunday_Update&diff=177554Disappearing Sunday Update2019-08-06T02:45:08Z<p>162.158.34.46: template doesn't like 2184.5--all the links bust. easier to consider it a non-numbered comic. the trailing "?" negates the auto-slash added by the template.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| date = August 4, 2019<br />
| title = Disappearing Sunday Update<br />
| image = disappearing_sunday_update.png<br />
| titletext = This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.<br />
| ldomain = imgs<br />
| lappend = comics/disappearing_sunday_update.png?<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by UNUSUAL MEANS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
The comic claims to be a special Disappearing comic that will disappear when the normal Monday comic update occurs, which should be sometime during Monday August 5th. The entire comic is an advertisement for [[Randall|Randall's]] upcoming book "[[How To]]". <br />
It was, of course, released on [[:Category:Sunday comics|a Sunday]] (August 4th), becoming only the fifth comic to be released on a Sunday. Could also be the first comic to disappear again, on a Monday... <br />
<br />
The entire comic is a link directly to https://xkcd.com/how-to/. This link is also mentioned in the text of the comic. But as Randall has never learned to make different part of an image into a link the other link mentioned in the text, to his [[Blag]] is not linked from the comic. The link to this is https://blog.xkcd.com/. At the moment of this comics release the top blog post is the one about How To book.<br />
<br />
The first part of the comic, the advertisement, includes a drawing of the cover, two sets of pages, showing the open book, and a sampling of the table of contents of the book. The full table of contest can be found in the Blag post mentioned above.<br />
<br />
The second part of the comic, the joke, apologizes for various bots that automatically catalog xkcd comics that might break because of this special comic. See more under [[#Unusual Means|Unusual Means]]. This website is one example assigning the comic a number of 2185 despite the comic not having a designated number. The comic even broke the xkcd site itself as the previous comic (2184) had a next button that links to comic 2185 (which does not exist) and displays a [[404]] error (but this was later fixed by giving this comic number 2185, see the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section, if nothing else then until it disappears!)<br />
<br />
One of the bot methods mentioned may be in reference to the recent comic [[2180: Spreadsheets]], where [[Cueball]] debates making a real program to do a task, or to use a Google spreadsheet instead.<br />
<br />
In the title text it is stated that: ''This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.''. However, as shown in the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section, Randall had so many problems with his plans for this comic, that he ended up making it a normal numbered comic and thus also put it into the archives, although it was later removed.<br />
<br />
==Unusual Means==<br />
Randall notes that ''if you read xkcd through unusual means... ... I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly''<br />
<br />
Between the dots he suggested different methods of reading xkcd, other than on the {{xkcd}} home page. These methods get progressively sillier (many still need explanations). Here is a list:<br />
<br />
; Apps<br />
: The Android app [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tap.easy_xkcd easyxkcd] was broken by this comic when used in offline mode, as reported [https://github.com/tom-anders/Easy_xkcd/issues/162 here].<br />
; Custom screen-scraping systems<br />
: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_scraping#Screen_scraping<br />
; Google Reader clones<br />
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Reader Google Reader] was an RSS/Atom aggregator that Google discontinued in 2013<br />
; Twitter bots<br />
: Automated posting to [https://twitter.com/ Twitter]<br />
; BASH scripts<br />
: A popular Un*x shell; one might, say, write a script in it to run on one's personal Un*x machine, checking for a new xkcd comic and displaying it somewhere<br />
; Gopher portals<br />
: [https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol/ Gopher] was a method of surfing the Internet that predated the Web (by about five months) and was vastly more popular (for about three years)<br />
; Lynx-based ASCII art browsers<br />
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29 Lynx] is a text-based Web browser. It can launch external programs to view images, but Randall is suggesting that instead a Lynx variant might convert images to [https://www.asciiart.eu/ ASCII art], which renders images using the 94 visible ASCII keyboard characters<br />
; Third-party Second Life feeds<br />
: [https://secondlife.com/ Second Life] is a virtual world that is apparently still a thing<br />
; RFC 2549<br />
: An RFC is a proposal for how to run the Internet. [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549 RFC 2549] is about transmitting data using carrier pigeons (this was one of the earliest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day April Fools' Day] RFCs).<br />
; Massive Google docs sheets<br />
: See #[[2180]].<br />
<br />
Another unusual method is [http://uni.xkcd.com/ UNIXkcd], which was reported here to have broken, but was later working.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Heading:]<br />
:~Special Disappearing Sunday comic~<br />
<br />
:[Below the header to the right are the following text:]<br />
:I'm posting this ephemeral Sunday update to let you know that I wrote a book! It's a guide to solving everyday problems in terrible ways using science.<br />
:It comes out next month, and it's available for preorder now.<br />
<br />
:[Below this text is an arrow to an image of the book to the left. The arrow comes from this text:] <br />
:The cover looks like this<br />
<br />
:[The book is shown to the left as a black rectangle with large blue text and smaller white text. On the book cover, in white drawings, are seen Ponytail with a ladder and either Black or White Hat (hard to say on black background). Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter beneath either leg, trying to plug in an electric light bulb in a naked lamp hanging down near him. It seems he has already removed the broken light bulb, as he has one in both hands. And now he tries to put in the new one. He could have let Ponytail use the ladder...]<br />
:[The header in blue above it all:] How To.<br />
:[Sub header in white to the left of Cueball:] Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems<br />
:[Author name in blue below the drawing:] Randall Munroe<br />
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Creator of xkcd<br />
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Author of ''what if?'' and ''Thing Explainer''<br />
<br />
:[Below the text with the arrow to the book is the following text with an arrow pointing down to an image of two pages in the open book, shown to the right:] <br />
:And the inside looks like this.<br />
<br />
:[To the left of the open book are the following text:]<br />
:Chapters include:<br />
:'''How to charge your phone'''<br />
:'''How to throw a pool party'''<br />
:'''How to move'''<br />
:'''How to build a lava moat'''<br />
:'''How to ski'''<br />
<br />
:[The open book to the right has almost only unreadable text. The left page shows a drawing of car in front of a trailer which is loaded with about 15 of boxes in four layers. Two stick figures are standing between the car and the trailer, talking with each other. The trailer is not attached to the car. There are some lines of text beneath the drawing and then what appears to be a chapter heading. It probably says something as "How to move", as this is mentioned as a chapter in the text to the left of these pages, but there one of two more unreadable words at the end of that heading. Beneath that the rest of the page is text and at the bottom there seems to be a footnote. The right page shows a house that seems to be floating a couple of meters above the ground, two arrows pointing up to the bottom of the house on either side. A stick figure stands to the left of the house which float at the figures head height. There is text beneath this drawing. Beneath that there is another drawing of a house towed on a truck, which speeds up a steep hill and jumps over a cliff to get to the other side. Seems like it will work. The speed of the truck seems to be very high as indicated by two curly lines indicating exhaust from the truck. It becomes three small clouds further behind the moving house. There is a footnote beneath the drawing. The driver of the truck yells as the truck jumps. This can actually be read:]<br />
:Driver: ''Woooooo''<br />
<br />
:[Beneath the above text and pages are another image of the open book with two other pages. This time to the left. This time there is text to the right.]<br />
<br />
:[These book pages are also mainly unreadable. At the top of the left page is a drawing of what could be a lake. Two people seems to be standing out in the water, only heads showing above the water. A sign is standing on the brink, is may say "Sorry"? Behind the lake is some mountains in the background. Beneath the drawing is some text of, then a smaller diagram like drawing which may show some black clouds above and below a line in the middle of this drawing. One of the clouds are beneath a curly bracket which are beneath the line. The curly bracket lies down and has the same length as the cloud. Beneath this drawing is more text and then a third drawing at the bottom. Here is shown a cross section of the lake. At the left side of the lake the water is shallow and a stick figure is standing in the water on the bottom, head above water with its arms held up in the air. It is directing its attention to the four stick figure standing on the brink to the left looking at the figure in the water. To the right the lake becomes more than three times as deep. Clouds are above the lake, one large just right of the stick figure and one smaller further right. At the right edge the lakes edge is vertical. On the brink is what may be a diving board protruding over the lake. Something is lying on top of the board. And above is what seems to be another cloud. To the right of the lake is a pile of earth with what appears to be a large black Nuclear bomb (with the nuclear icon on it) stuck with its tip in the pile. On the right page is a line coming down from the top, which then turns to the right ending in an arrow. There is a line of text above the horizontal part of the line. The arrow points to a large heading in two rows. (See below). Beneath the heading are a few lines of text. Then a drawing of a torn map (like an old treasure map whit a X at the end of a trail marked with dots. Mountains indicated with small "^" and coast line is visible. There seems to be text beneath the X. There are text beneath the drawing. Beneath that are a header with a line beneath it, and then text beneath the line.]<br />
:How to Dig a Hole<br />
<br />
:[To the right of these pages are the following text:]<br />
:You can learn more and preorder it at '''xkcd.com/how-to'''<br />
:And read an excerpt at '''blog.xkcd.com'''<br />
<br />
:[Beneath all this Randall (drawn as Cueball) is telling about the problem this disappearing comic may cause:]<br />
:Randall: If you read xkcd through unusual means, including apps, custom screen-scraping systems, Google reader clones, Twitter bots, bash scripts, gopher portals, lynx-based ASCII art browsers, third-party Second Life feeds, RFC 2549, or massive google docs sheets full of =IMPORTHTML() and =IMAGE() formulas, I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly. <br />
:Randall: It will disappear with the normal Monday update.<br />
:Randall: (At least, I think it will. I've never tried this before. So I'm honestly not sure what the server will do.)<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This August 4th 2019 [[:Category:Sunday comics|Sunday comic]] was first posted on the front page without any number relating to it. Thus breaking the next comic button on xkcd. <br />
**Since it is supposed to be deleted on Monday August 5th 2019, when the next comic arrives on xkcd, it was not supposed to have a number or be in the archive. But seems like this caused too many problems for the xkcd site it self (not just for all the other sites Randall jokes about). So later it was given the next number in the comic list (2185) and was also included in the archive, although it was later removed from the archive and 2185 was assigned to another comic.<br />
*Here are some pictures documenting that the comic at some point between release and the next comics release worked like a normal comic with number 2185 as shown in the web address at the top. (The question is if the next comic will be 2185 and this will disappear?):<br />
*[[File:Disappearing Sunday Update with number 2185.png]]<br />
*It was also part of the archive with the release date shownig when hovering over the title:<br />
*[[File:Archive with Disappearing Sunday Update and date.png]]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]] <!-- Cueball at the bottom is Randall. But the other three above are on the book cover at the top --></div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2176:_How_Hacking_Works&diff=1767312176: How Hacking Works2019-07-16T00:24:19Z<p>162.158.34.46: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2176<br />
| date = July 15, 2019<br />
| title = How Hacking Works<br />
| image = how_hacking_works.png<br />
| titletext = If only somebody had warned them that the world would roll them like this.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by SMASH MOUTH. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
In similar spirit to [[538: Security]] this comic deals with how many people perceive hacking and security best practices. Specifically, the comic points out the flaw in the argument of some security minded people that writing passwords down on a sheet of paper is a massive {{w|OPSEC|operational security}} vulnerability, not accounting for the {{w|threat model}} of the general public: reused passwords being leaked from seemingly benign places.<br />
<br />
While it is true that storing passwords on paper is generally a bad idea, one has to keep in mind the alternatives&mdash;password reuse or unencrypted password documents on a computer&mdash;that non-technical people might otherwise engage in. These are far easier to exploit for a casual attacker that goes for quantity over quality.<br />
<br />
The second panel goes into detail how such an attack is usually executed: First, a database containing usernames/emails and associated passwords or insufficiently salted password hashes is stolen from an improperly secured website. Randall's example uses a fictional breach of a small forum dedicated to the band {{w|Smash Mouth}}, but even large companies are not immune to leaks. Assuming the passwords were not hashed, the crooks then go on and automatically try to log in to a popular payment service, {{w|Venmo}}, with the harvested credentials. Even though the success rate might be just fractions of a percent, due to the scale and cheapness of the attack it is likely still profitable. Such an attack has previously been discussed in [[792: Password Reuse]].<br />
<br />
Although writing passwords on paper can allow users to create unique complex passwords without being limited by human memory, and therefore protect themselves from these sorts of mass-breach attacks, their passwords are now more vulnerable to insider attacks by e.g. family members, close friends, or co-workers. Most crimes are committed by people known to their victims, especially compared to the chances of your particular physical security failings [[416: Zealous Autoconfig|being so personally targetted by an otherwise disinterested third party]].<br />
<br />
The title text is referring to Smash Mouth's song, "{{w|All Star (song)|All Star}}," where the first line of the lyrics is "Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me". The singer subsequently admits that he is not "the sharpest tool in the shed", which would be consistent with re-using simple passwords across multiple accounts (including financial accounts).<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Two panels with a caption below each panel:]<br />
<br />
:[Panel 1 - Three masked characters standing near a desk with a computer inside a home]<br />
:Masked Character 1 [holding a walkie-talkie]: Control, we have flown to the USA and breached the target's house.<br />
:Masked Character 2: They wrote all their passwords in a book labeled "Passwords"!<br />
:Masked Character 3: The fool!<br />
:Caption: How people think hacking works<br />
<br />
:[Panel 2 - Two Cueball-like characters, each sitting on opposite sides of a single desk with laptops in front of them]<br />
:Character 1: Hey look, someone leaked the emails and passwords from the Smash Mouth message boards.<br />
:Character 2: Cool, let's try them all on Venmo.<br />
:Caption: How it actually works<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]<br />
[[Category:Computer security]]</div>162.158.34.46https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2176:_How_Hacking_Works&diff=1767302176: How Hacking Works2019-07-16T00:23:15Z<p>162.158.34.46: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2176<br />
| date = July 15, 2019<br />
| title = How Hacking Works<br />
| image = how_hacking_works.png<br />
| titletext = If only somebody had warned them that the world would roll them like this.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by SMASH MOUTH. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
In similar spirit to [[538: Security]] this comic deals with how many people perceive hacking and security best practices. Specifically, the comic points out the flaw in the argument of some security minded people that writing passwords down on a sheet of paper is a massive {{w|OPSEC|operational security}} vulnerability, not accounting for the {{w|threat model}} of the general public: reused passwords being leaked from seemingly benign places.<br />
<br />
While it is true that storing passwords on paper is generally a bad idea, one has to keep in mind the alternatives&mdash;password reuse or unencrypted password documents on a computer&mdash;that non-technical people might otherwise engage in. These are far easier to exploit for a casual attacker that goes for quantity over quality.<br />
<br />
The second panel goes into detail how such an attack is usually executed: First, a database containing usernames/emails and associated passwords or insufficiently salted password hashes is stolen from an improperly secured website. Randall's example uses a fictional breach of a small forum dedicated to the band {{w|Smash Mouth}}, but even large companies are not immune to leaks. Assuming the passwords were not hashed, the crooks then go on and automatically try to log in to a popular payment service, {{w|Venmo}}, with the harvested credentials. Even though the success rate might be just fractions of a percent, due to the scale and cheapness of the attack it is likely still profitable. Such an attack has previously been discussed in [[792: Password Reuse]].<br />
<br />
Although writing passwords on paper can allow users to create unique complex passwords without being limited by human memory, and therefore protect themselves from these sorts of mass-breach attacks, their passwords are now more vulnerable to insider attacks by e.g. family members, close friends, or co-workers. Most crimes are committed by people known to their victims, compared to the chances of your particular physical security failings [[416: Zealous Autoconfig|being so personally targetted by an otherwise disinterested third party]].<br />
<br />
The title text is referring to Smash Mouth's song, "{{w|All Star (song)|All Star}}," where the first line of the lyrics is "Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me". The singer subsequently admits that he is not "the sharpest tool in the shed", which would be consistent with re-using simple passwords across multiple accounts (including financial accounts).<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Two panels with a caption below each panel:]<br />
<br />
:[Panel 1 - Three masked characters standing near a desk with a computer inside a home]<br />
:Masked Character 1 [holding a walkie-talkie]: Control, we have flown to the USA and breached the target's house.<br />
:Masked Character 2: They wrote all their passwords in a book labeled "Passwords"!<br />
:Masked Character 3: The fool!<br />
:Caption: How people think hacking works<br />
<br />
:[Panel 2 - Two Cueball-like characters, each sitting on opposite sides of a single desk with laptops in front of them]<br />
:Character 1: Hey look, someone leaked the emails and passwords from the Smash Mouth message boards.<br />
:Character 2: Cool, let's try them all on Venmo.<br />
:Caption: How it actually works<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]<br />
[[Category:Computer security]]</div>162.158.34.46