https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.70.250.87&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T21:24:49ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1438:_Houston&diff=296991Talk:1438: Houston2022-10-18T22:15:38Z<p>172.70.250.87: Tentatively changed the explanation to be about Houston, British Columbia, vs. Houston, Texas, as I described previously in the comment.</p>
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<div>A commentary on the nature of outsourced helpdesks, perhaps? Although, IME, the problems are more due to 'sticking to a script' (which would have given an entirely different exchange) rather than an unknowledgable and casually uninterested 'service'-person. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.247|141.101.98.247]] 05:15, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I think this is the idea behind the comic too. Kind of like a "What if it had happened today?" It sure sounds like the kind of hotline support we get today. [[User:Deantwo|Deantwo]] ([[User talk:Deantwo|talk]]) 10:29, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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::I agree. This is definitely comparison between the original mission control center and current outsourced helpdesk centers. Although it would be interesting to know what specific incident caused Randal to comment on it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:28, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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: I'm going to throw in the idea that this might be a reference to the "Facebook generation", hard to know what the reference is, but a few weeks ago in Australia, or national curriculum organization published a new curriculum program for year 9/10 students, teaching them how to be functional in the work place, respect for the workplace, other employees, bosses, work time, etc... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.217|108.162.250.217]] 14:32, 27 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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What is going on is this strip? Usually it's a reference to something or a commentary, but I don't get it at all. [[User:Cheeselover724|Cheeselover724]] ([[User talk:Cheeselover724|talk]]) 05:32, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I think I figured out enough of it to remove the "incomplete" tag. This is definitely one of the weird ones. [[User:Shachar|Shachar]] ([[User talk:Shachar|talk]]) 06:02, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Reference to Continuum? (Canadian sci-fi show)<br />
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.106|199.27.133.106]] 06:41, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Ebola? Really? Where is that..what? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.79|173.245.49.79]] 09:34, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I agree, there is no evidence to back up the ebola reference. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 09:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Also, I took it to refer to people being distracted on the phone in general (hence the title text) or generally not taking their jobs serious. Maybe the idea that for NASA, space travel has become so routine that mission control is no longer as engaged in the missions. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 09:38, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Perhaps the guy answering the phone is called "Houston"? A misplaced Skype call from a rather shell shocked astronaut? {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.111}}<br />
:But then it wouldn't make sense, that he says he's at work.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.29|173.245.49.29]] 13:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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There are a LOT of anachronisms, or things that don't match the way things were back in the 1960's, not just the flat screens. (And I do still remember the sixties, despite "if you can remember the sixties, you wern't really there" - a reference to the drug scene.) We didn't say "cool" or "you suck at doing that" back then, and it's very unlikely that communications with the mission and a simple telephone call would be selectable from the same headset, and the michrophones on headsets were larger and probably had dangling wires back then. --[[User:RenniePet|RenniePet]] ([[User talk:RenniePet|talk]]) 13:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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It could be a commentary on privatizing space travel by NASA (among others to Boeing). Would explain, why Cueball knows it's a "airplane or whatever".--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.29|173.245.49.29]] 13:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I understand it's a reference, but is this supposed to actually be the Apollo 13? I understood it was just another mission happening today. I find the anachronism explanation nonsensical. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.211|108.162.212.211]] 13:57, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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"At first glance, this comic appears to be an "alternate reality" view at what could happen today, given that most people in the XXI century seem to suffer ADD." I don't think that we can assume this at all. Also, that's not what ADD is. [[User:Lomky|Lomky]] ([[User talk:Lomky|talk]]) 14:16, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Yeah. I think it's far more clear that Randall's commenting on unhelpful tech support than anyon'es short attention span. I've edited the explanation above. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.146|199.27.128.146]] 15:34, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Did Randall have a bad experience with a call center operator? [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 14:38, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Can someone explain why this is supposed to be funny? The explanation page doesn't quite get there. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.199}}<br />
:xkcd is a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language; humor is not guaranteed. I see no indication that Randall is trying for humor here. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 03:22, 25 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: It must be the math then... [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.201|199.27.128.201]] 00:40, 26 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Am i the only one interpreting Cueball as a script kiddie with too much spare time who somehow managed to hijack the communication line between Apollo 13 and Houston? The alt text is consistent with the basement dweller stereotype. Wouldn't explain the other call though.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.169|108.162.219.169]] 17:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:No, that was my impression as well. [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 01:10, 26 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Nasa just uploaded several audio recordings of their missions on soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/nasa). Maybe Cueball is just playing with those while he is at work. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.230.53|108.162.230.53]] 17:31, 24 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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"It's always 'problem, problem, problem' with you guys. Don't you ever call just to say 'hi'?" {{unsigned|PheagleAdler}}<br />
: "We're having problems with our vocalization units. It seems we cannot manage to utter a single greeting during a tech support call. How can we fix this?" {{User:Grep/signature|22:19, 05 February 2015}}<br />
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I don't get the context here. Is this supposed to be a biting satire on how the new generation sucks at social tact with their cell phones? How is a guy at NASA mission control being an asshat supposed to be funny or thought-provoking? Even the helpdesk angle doesn't really make sense, as inept as they can be I've never had one outright antagonize me like this guy does. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.114}}<br />
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I found the comic to be more of a reference to that of a "friend" who does not care what your problems are and doesn't wish to help you solve them- like if you had lost homework or forgotten to do a project and called your friend at the last minute, he would mock you for your incompetence and blow you off. I found the comic to be a little pedanticism, as if what if mission control was filled with the "friends." I had no thought as to tech support... Maybe because all my tech support has been helpful. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.27}}<br />
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The problem in call centers is that the businesses that run them cannot afford to train all incoming staff in the entirity of the technical<br />
knowledge required to actually be able to diagnose problems, so they design a "script" to be followed so that the staff can determine the problem and<br />
explain the solution. However, for those that do this job day in and day out and constantly have people calling with the "Same problems, over and over",<br />
they get really good at predicting when someone's situation is leading to a certain forgone conclusion in the script, and may develop a disdain for the<br />
callers due to the problem being "so painfully obvious how to fix, why does this person need to call me to fix that? Why don't they know how to do it<br />
themselves?" Which is caused by the fallacy of treating the entire job as being one experience with a single userbase rather than individual experiences<br />
with individual users. For those that are less versed in the technical knowledge that are just trying to do their jobs, their reaction when receiving<br />
this attitude tends towards "Why are you being so difficult? I called you for help!"<br />
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The largest problem created by this mindset is that people start seeing everyone else as idiots because they seem like they don't know what they're doing<br />
to the individual, but that's only caused by the fact that they are overexposed to their overly simplistic jobs and thus believe everyone else ought to<br />
know how to do what they are doing too - the fallacy here is coming from the fact that all the other individuals have their own specialized jobs -<br />
individuals don't get the opportunity to experience anything outside their own job experience very often because their jobs consume so much of their<br />
personal lives. Because of these overly simplified jobs individuals throughout the populace all have a sort of learned helplessness - they are all very<br />
good at one or two things, but rubbish at most everything else. And since the governments need good consumers to drive the money wheels of the economy,<br />
they pacify the intellectual needs of the people with entertainment. Those that still disobey the rules and are not creating enough money and jobs for<br />
the economy are jailed. Those that are creating enough money and jobs for the economy then hire lawyers and lobbiests to change the laws to protect<br />
their interests.<br />
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Of course there is also the issue that since those who are applying for the position aren't always required to have some background training in the field<br />
they are supporting, the applicant may have no interest in it whatsoever other than as a paycheck - these folks tend to be the ones that stick closest to<br />
the script, because without the script they themselves are lost - these type of personnel can and have been replaced by automated prompts by some<br />
companies. By allowing the customer to step themselves through the script, you no longer need an employee on the line to do that with the customer.<br />
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The consequence of leaving someone like this to answer incoming requests is that they generally feel their life is more important than the client calling<br />
in because they have no idea what they are actually doing other than following a script, and generally don't care, "as long as I get my 40 hours in" , or<br />
however long their work week is set to. They see the position as a prison they are submitting to so they can get the money to do what they want/need to<br />
in their time off - A job rather than a career. This mindset can be seen all over the employment base of countries that have changed most working<br />
environments into assembly line like jobs where each worker knows only one or two steps of the overall process, but almost no one knows the entire<br />
process - because if the workers know the entire process, they could easily quit their low paying jobs and start their own business making the same<br />
product but cheaper because they would not have all of the administrative overhead.<br />
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So overall I'd say the comic is a social commentary combined with a play on the famous events of Appolo 13. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.158}}<br />
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;Wrong number<br />
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Maybe the call has just somehow been routed to the wrong number? If Cueball were staffing some other type of helpline or call centre, his detachment and lack of understanding would probably be a natural everyday response to people who ring up with problems that aren't in his field. The line about 'your airplane or whatever' suggests he's not NASA at all. <br />
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Or maybe he's staffing one of those call forwarding services, and the problem is that the astronauts forgot to say 'Could I speak to NASA, please'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.176|141.101.98.176]] 08:35, 26 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:Houston is more than just mission control. If Apollo 13 is calling "Houston", they get Cueball in some Houston-based call centre. I think this, with your conclusion, explains the strip well - except the anachronism, and what's a little anachronism among friends. {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.9}}<br />
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'''The Time Traveler's Radio'''<br />
Wow. I interpreted this very differently from others. Cueball is working at a modern company that allows him to access all communication from all times. His initial "Cool" was him getting the system to intercept a radio message from the past that he could then interact with in real-time. He trolled Apollo 13 from (thier) future.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.191|108.162.216.191]] 18:51, 27 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
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The dialogue looks like a gamer talking to a fellow gamer. I think that either cueball is showing his experience with gaming, presumably because of a "wrong number" or a game which cleverly connects you to NASA. {{unsigned ip|199.27.133.30}}<br />
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I view this as an amateur using a HAM radio, such as the one in Gravity, who is either trying to troll or not believing that it was actually the crew of Apollo 13. I did not get any alternate reality or call centre vibe from this at all. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.143|141.101.106.143]] 20:38, 26 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I may be wrong, but isn't Houston on the gulf coast? the speech bubble in the 4th panel seems to come more from the north-western part of the US, especially with the 4 smaller strokes next to the place where the speech bubble originates, it seems to indicate coming from the "edge" of the visible globe. Maybe from the space needle? Is there anything that would make sense in north-western USA or South-Western Canada as a place where the operator could be?--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:19, 17 October 2018 (UTC)<br />
:Also: what islands are there that large in the middle of the atlantic ocean? or is that supposed to be the carribean? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:58, 28 February 2020 (UTC)<br />
:That's the Caribbean, showing its two largest islands (Cuba and Hispaniola). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.145|162.158.90.145]] 11:13, 18 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I very much think [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] (2018) is on the right track. My guess is that the operator is located in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston,_British_Columbia Houston, Canada] which would closely match the operator's location as shown in the last panel. Plus, this community actually has a small [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Aerodrome airport] (just one runway), so it would be quite natural for the operator to assume to be called from an airplane rather than from a spaceship. Wouldn't that fit better than the random call center explanation? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.215|198.41.242.215]] 11:02, 18 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I now rewrote the explanation accordingly (after all, that's what a wiki is for). Along with that, I removed the "call center" explanation which I have always found a little contrived. Anyway, things can always be restored from the history, if there is need. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.87|172.70.250.87]] 22:15, 18 October 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.250.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2680:_Battery_Life&diff=296158Talk:2680: Battery Life2022-10-06T20:16:54Z<p>172.70.250.87: </p>
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I found a source saying phones need 1 kWh/year, to the closest 10 kWh. That's quite strange. Better source needed? --[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User talk:While False|speak]]|[[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|museum]]) 04:32, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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/\--- The article cited is from 2013, so quite old, and within the article it even amends the tagline value to 2kWh. iPhone 12 would last about 47 days with a 12kWh battery based on specs (2,815mAh battery, nom voltage 3.8V) and assuming that a charge lasts a full day. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.161|108.162.221.161]] 15:44, 4 October 2022 (UTC) JourneymanWizard<br />
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An average iPhone has somewhere around [https://www.macworld.com/article/678413/iphone-battery-capacities-compared-all-iphones-battery-life-in-mah-and-wh.html 12 Wh of capacity], which at 1 kWh/year would imply only ~23% per day. Anecdotally, that's definitely not right. An [https://spectrum.ieee.org/your-phone-costs-energyeven-before-you-turn-it-on IEEE article] claims 4 kWh/year, but I don't have access and only see this in the Google snippet. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.17|172.69.134.17]] 05:37, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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* What about my S series Samsung?<br />
It has 5000mAh battery, 3,7V voltage, ergo (5 amper * 3,7 volt) = 18,5 watts/hour. It lasts for, roughly, 1 day of heavy use at work (camera, youtube etc., its was my media device) and 2 days of weekend use.<br />
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My phone has been in use for 4 years before an upgrade, which gives 366+365+365+365=731+730=1461 day. 1467/7*6 full recharges -- ~1253 recharges. 1253*18,5Wh gives ~18,5kWh*5/4 --- 23,09 kWh; 5,6 kWh per year. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.223|172.70.250.223]] 07:18, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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<b>Very old (1980s?) relevant joke</b> preserved at https://www.ariel.com.au/jokes/The_Inventor.html<br>Jake is struggling through a bus station with two huge and obviously heavy suitcases when a stranger walks up to him and asks "Have you got the time?"<br>Jake sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. "It's a quarter to six," he says.<br>"Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!" exclaims the stranger. Jake brightens a little.<br><br />
"Yeah, it's not bad. Check this out" - and he shows him a time zone display not just for every time zone in the world, but for the 86 largest metropolises.<br>He hits a few buttons and from somewhere on the watch a voice says "The time is eleven 'til six" in a very West Texas accent. A few more buttons and the same voice says something in Japanese. Jake continues "I've put in regional accents for each city". The display is unbelievably high quality and the voice is simply astounding.<br>The stranger is struck dumb with admiration. "That's not all", says Jake. He pushes a few more buttons and a tiny but very high-resolution map of New York City appears on the display. "The flashing dot shows our location by satellite positioning," explains Jake.<br>"View recede ten", Jake says, and the display changes to show eastern New York state.<br>"I want to buy this watch!" says the stranger.<br>"Oh, no, it's not ready for sale yet; I'm still working out the bugs", says the inventor.<br>"But look at this", and he proceeds to demonstrate that the watch is also a very creditable little FM radio receiver with a digital tuner, a sonar device that can measure distances up to 125 meters, a printer with thermal paper printout and, most impressive of all, the capacity for voice recordings of up to 300 standard-size books, "though I only have 32 of my favorites in there so far" says Jake.<br>"I've got to have this watch!", says the stranger.<br>"No, you don't understand; it's not ready -"<br>"I'll give you $1000 for it!"<br>"Oh, no, I've already spent more than -"<br>"I'll give you $5000 for it!"<br>"But it's just not -"<br>"I'll give you $15,000 for it!" And the stranger pulls out a checkbook.<br>Jake stops to think. He's only put about $8500 into materials and development, and with $15,000 he can make another one and have it ready for merchandising in only six months. The stranger frantically finishes writing the check and waves it in front of him. "Here it is, ready to hand to you right here and now. $15,000. Take it or leave it."<br>Jake abruptly makes his decision. "OK", he says, and peels off the watch.<br>They make the exchange and the stranger starts happily away. "Hey, wait a minute", calls Jake after the stranger, who turns around warily.<br>Jake points to the two suitcases he'd been trying to wrestle through the bus station. "Don't forget your batteries."<br>[[User:Duard|Duard]] ([[User talk:Duard|talk]]) 02:34, 6 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
* Nice joke, but it feels like it's based on a similar Soviet joke (American engineers could afford cars while Soviet engis were carless). On a serious note, a really rich person (a "shark") could use such a watch for office use / car use.<br />
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== "Plugging my phone is a pain" as a modern problem ==<br />
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While some folks (like myself) use long (3m/10ft) cords, most people are stuck with 1m charging cables or less. That's indeed a pain if you use your phone a lot. It's also frustrating to deal with charging cables getting old while your phone's charging port is also getting old. However, Energizer's take on the problem (custom 18000mAh phone) doesn't feel good either: the resulting phone feels too heavy. A hefty brick of a ~18000mAh powerbank itself is already too heavy for many pockets, even outside of "skinny jeans" fashion. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.248|162.158.89.248]] 08:47, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
* Oh! By the way, last week, I almost got into a problem. I plugged my phone, went to sleep, woke up without an alarm and assumed it is too early to get out of bed. Then, the street noises made me realize it's actually 9AM already and I am late for work. "So much for XXI century smart devices", I thought. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.248|162.158.89.248]] 08:51, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
::In many ways, smart phones were step backward. My old Nokia phone is easier to hold in hand and can sound an alarm when TURNED OFF (obviously, there is separate circuit for counting time to alarm which remains powered). Granted, for playing games, I needed to buy a separate android game console which is sold as smartphone. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:13, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
::: Funny thing is, early smarties had such a feature as well. Bottom-of-the-barrel cheap Micromax A28 had it (and it was very loud). IIRC, Asus ZenPad (or ZenFone, with 4G) had it as well, shutting down at 4% charge just to have some energy to ring the alarm. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.217|172.70.246.217]] 20:12, 6 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Out of interest, how many people replace their phone because of the battery? There are those who would replace their xkcdPhone3000aIII for an xkcdPhone3000aIV just because you only get the blue-anodised casing with the latter and the limited-edition red-anodised case of the former is ''so'' last week (actually, probably only out six days ago). There are those who will swap when the OS gets a new version (because they might be missing out). There are those who will have to swap because NewApp doesn't support "Pancake" or "Sausagedog" or whatever version of OS it is that's now a year or three behind the curve. There are those who will swap because OldApp is no longer supporting "DoritoSandwiches" (the 5yo OS on their ''very'' well-used device) and they actually don't like giving up on it. Then there are those who will just make do with a dwindling capability (various apps going inoperable, but those that aren't are still being used whilst the rest of the device still works!). And, by the end of that list, you can be sure a charger-plug and/or powerbank is an "Everyday Carry", possibly even an always plugged in essential because even phone/tablet repair places are starting to tell you that they couldn't guarantee to get a replacement battery of the right vintage, or you find out for yourself how hard it was to effect a full repair/transplant. — For the record, I'm definitely towards this end of that list (but get a newer device to run in parallel, to probably start to consider just as unretirable as ''its'' working life starts to be compromised, at various times having perhaps three 'working' generations of device, none of them the current bleeding-edge). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.171|172.69.79.171]] 13:14, 4 October 2022 (UTC) — P.S.: And, so far, I have ''never'' continued the same (Android/Google) account over to a new device, or worked out how to migrate apps(+data) wholesale across devices, where not already designed with export/import facilities or just have to have the same non-device login details carried over to a sign-in/up dialogue. Must be possible/expected, but I've just never ever tried it. New device, new Gmail! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.201|172.69.79.201]] 13:22, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
: I decided to upgrade my aforementioned 4 year old smartphone because it used to be a "flagship phone" and now it's a phone with OK perfomance, great display yet low battery life. So yes, it was the "cannot be bothered with the [somewhat degraded] battery" problem. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.86|172.70.211.86]] 14:18, 5 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: In fact, my 2017 device initially got all those "charging problems" as well, due to playing too much Ingress on foot. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.141|172.70.210.141]] 14:20, 5 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I did bought new phone when the old one not only wasn't able to run on "full" battery for longer than 20 seconds, but when the connected powerbank was not enough to keep it running. However, I suspect that the battery life was shortened by using it in winter(s) and that the powerbank itself had problem as well. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:02, 6 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
:My old phone only got ditched because both the original battery and a spare had both got to the point of not holding more than a couple of hours' charge.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.65|172.71.178.65]] 12:09, 6 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Anyone else notice that in the third image, Cueball is supporting a 100lb+ phone with one arm, while fiddling with the screen with his other hand? Impressive balance to be able to support a 100lb object with one arm while still standing fully upright. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.163|172.68.174.163]] 14:58, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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It was just a few years ago that the idea of replacing a failing battery was abandoned. With batteries lasting longer and phone generations being shorter, most users would see only a small reduction in time between charges by the time they would be upgrading anyway. I interpreted the comic as the logical next step in that evolution. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.82.65|172.71.82.65]] 19:45, 4 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I don't get what this one is supposed to be about. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-10-eu-lawmakers-impose-charger-smartphones.html ? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.17|172.69.134.17]] 01:40, 5 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
* Type-C for everyone? I think it's all about the 5V voltage as a "backup standard" for big phones, tablets and laptops. I have 2 smartphones with "fast charging" features. One can run 5V 2A or 9V 1,67A. Another one is a beast, it supports 10V 60W charging while still offering 5V 2A charge as a backup measure. Losing one charger would be unpleasant yet not serious -- another phone's charger would do the job. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.87|172.70.250.87]] 20:16, 6 October 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.250.87https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2574:_Autoresponder&diff=2280102574: Autoresponder2022-03-05T22:21:38Z<p>172.70.250.87: /* Explanation */ Typo</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2574<br />
| date = January 28, 2022<br />
| title = Autoresponder<br />
| image = autoresponder.png<br />
| titletext = I ADMIRE HOW YOU SET BOUNDARIES AND I HOPE YOUR COLLEAGUES RESPECT THEM! PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE!<br />
}}<br />
*This was the ninth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started and the one that was on the front page when it ended! Just minutes before the next comic came out.<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a VERY AGGRESSIVE AUTORESPONDER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
[[Cueball]] and [[White Hat]] are going to some kind of show (a movie or concert, perhaps), and Cueball asks White Hat if he is ready to go, who affirms this but asks for Cueball to email him the tickets before they go.<br />
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When Cueball does this he apparently opts to send them to White Hat's work email address. When White Hat is not at work, he has an {{w|autoresponder}} activated that tells people to not disturb him as he is not at work. Usually this means that his email server sends an automatic response telling the sender of the mail that he is not at work, and not to expect an immediate reply.<br />
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But in this comic, White Hat has a physical autoresponder standing behind him, drawn as a human with thicker/rougher lines as if clad in bulky clothing, wearing spiky knee and elbow guards and a spike-embossed and notably scarred crash-helmet upon its head. It holds a glinting, sharp sword in its hand. When Cueball inadvertently activates it, it plunges forward to 'defend' White Hat from being disturbed by work related things during his spare time. It is so aggressive that it even violently pushes White Hat out of the way, with a blow to the face so that he falls back and dislodges his hat, as it prepares to confront the perpetrator, Cueball.<br />
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In the caption below, [[Randall]] states that he feels bad when he activates his friends' autoresponders. It is unclear if this is because he thinks he disturbs them with what they might think is work, because he then knows he will not get a reply or if he feels attacked (like Cueball in the comic) by their "aggressively worded" auto-replies.<br />
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In the title text Cueball shouts out (in all caps) to the autoresponder "I admire how you set boundaries and I hope your colleagues respect them! Please spare my life!" He therefore thinks it is a ''good'' idea to have time away from work where you cannot be contacted by your colleagues.<br />
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It is unclear if the autoresponder is a human or a robot, but the open-faced helmet reveals the fringe and neck-length hair generally seen on female characters, although for instance [[Megan]]'s hair is usually longer and not so messy as this creature. This would be reminiscent of the [[:Category:Android|Android series]], especially [[600: Android Boyfriend]], where one of the androids moves past its owner.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball and White Hat are talking to each other while Cueball is typing on his smartphone. A dark-haired figure stands behind White Hat, drawn with thicker/rougher lines as if clad in bulky clothing; wearing spiky knee and elbow guards, a spike-embossed and notably scarred crash-helmet upon its head; and is holding a glinting sharp sword in its hand.]<br />
:Cueball: Ready to go?<br />
:White Hat: Yup! Can you email me the tickets before we leave?<br />
:Cueball: Sure, one sec.<br />
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:[The next panel is nested inside the first, although at first it just looks like two individual panels. This could indicate the second panel is an immediate response to the first. The armored figure aggressively moves forward towards Cueball, who drops his phone in surprise. The armored figure has its sword-arm raised, the other hand pushing White Hat behind it, by pushing him in the face which causes him to stumble backwards so his hat starts to fall off.] <br />
:Cueball: Okay, I sent it to-<br />
:Armored figure: ''It is outside work hours!''<br />
:Armored figure: ''Prepare to die!''<br />
:Cueball: ''Augh!''<br />
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:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:I always feel bad when I trigger my friends' work autoresponders.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Email]]</div>172.70.250.87