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explain xkcd - User contributions [en]
2024-03-28T16:30:59Z
User contributions
MediaWiki 1.30.0
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1890:_What_to_Bring&diff=320716
Talk:1890: What to Bring
2023-08-11T09:30:05Z
<p>172.70.85.201: Someone who knew how to sign (by the button tool?) but not to read the instruction against top-posting. Correcting for them.</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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Presumably water in a gun fight _might_ work if the guns involved are particularly old fashioned (e.g. see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintlock Flintlock]) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.55|162.158.154.55]] 06:35, 15 September 2017 (UTC) A flintlock style uses a metal 'frizzen' which hinges over the 'pan' into which the priming power is placed. This not only protects the powder from the weather (and a splash), but also keep the powder in the pan as the firearm is moved about. When the mechanism is fired, the flint comes striking down on the surface of the frizzen which both opens the cover and directs sparks into the pan. The type of firearm that might be made inactive with a splash of water is an older design called the matchlock which held a lit cord or match in a mechanism over the open pan. The gun is fired by allowing the match to fall into the pan and detonating the powder. <br />
:Water in a gun fight would also work if the guns are water guns or if the fight is against the Wicked Witch of the West [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.198|172.68.65.198]] 15:09, 17 March 2020 (UTC) <br />
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I see that bringing a lid to a knife or gun fight might serve as some sort of a shield? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.66|141.101.107.66]] 06:52, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
:It'd work quite well against a knife (even if the knife penetrated the shield, it still wouldn't be able to get to any part of your body except the hand holding the shield, and it'd quite likely get stuck), but not against a gun (you ''can'' make metal thick enough and strong enough to resist gunfire, but pot lids are kind of obviously not designed for that, and they're generally not big enough to confuse an opponent about where your body is either). [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 10:39, 17 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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If your lid is big enough, you can extinguish a wood fire too [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.240|141.101.105.240]] 09:50, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Is this Randall being political about the situation with North Korea? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, although the world would probably be a better place if more people (and countries) followed the tag text. [[User:Fluppeteer|Fluppeteer]] ([[User talk:Fluppeteer|talk]]) 10:29, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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But what if... you bring a wood fire... TO A KNIFE FIGHT?! Also, I'm not the only person thinking about BOTW's lowest-defense shield, am I? [[User:OriginalName|OriginalName]] ([[User talk:OriginalName|talk]]) 11:24, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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US Military personnel use "lid" as a euphemism for their uniform hat. I think that interpretation is represented in the drawing for "lid to a knife fight". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.201|162.158.74.201]] 12:57, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Using a gun to extinguish fire probably was influenced by this official tweet of a sheriff 5 days ago [https://mobile.twitter.com/pascosheriff/status/906712903868469249 "To clarify, DO NOT shoot weapons @ #Irma. You won't make it turn around & it will have very dangerous side effects"], which was necessary after stupid people started to try to fight the hurricane with guns. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.94|172.68.110.94]] 15:23, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The sentence "which often come with lids suited to making an airtight seal" is inaccurate. Lids don't form an airtight seal, and airtightness is not necessary to extinguish a pan fire.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 23:58, 15 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The phrase "don't bring a knife to a gun fight" is not a statement of general naive lack of preparation, but is specifically used to advocate literal firearms as a means of defense over literal knives. The "gun fight" refers to encounters with armed criminals who, the phrase suggests, will still use their gun to your disadvantage whether or not you are capable of fighting back. It has been subverted occasionally as an implied threat (usually in drama rather than reality) when the situation is reversed, i.e. the criminal is armed with a knife and the would-be victim is armed with a gun. The violence implied by "a gun fight" tends to restrict more metaphorical use of the phrase. The title text seems to be based in the original meaning, with the implication that Randall expects a gun being used against an armed criminal to escalate violence. {{unsigned ip|162.158.74.231|20:08, 16 September 2017}}<br />
:Struggling to work out whether this comment is tongue in cheek, or for real.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.32|162.158.155.32]] 16:31, 18 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Hmmm... Since I don't see the humour in this comment if it was meant as a joke, and trolling is just pointless, I'm going to go ahead and treat it as a serious comment. No. Just no. A literal knife to a literal gun fight would be where the saying came from, but even then only as a metaphor or simile, as an issue easily understood. It should be obvious to anyone who knows how guns work that the gun would have an almost complete advantage. The saying actually means being on unequal footing in some conflict, where the person being warned is trying to attack or go against someone who is better prepared. The stereotypical jock trying to argue a point against the captain of the debate team (presumably the captain being the most experienced at making logical well-reasoned arguments, and as such would have no problem winning such an argument). A brand new private in the army challenging a multi-stipe sargeant to a fist fight (presumably anyone who has risen to the rank of sargeant and gained several stripes besides is quite experienced at fighting). A child challenging an Olympic medalist to a race (besides being an adult, presumably someone who has won a medal has tremendous ability at whatever kind of race this is). "Bringing a knife to a gunfight" is a common SAYING to describe such situations. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:01, 19 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Just noticed that the comic on xkcd got a little correction: The "Water to a knife fight" Cueball was missing an arm. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.202|162.158.202.202]] 23:12, 17 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
:Here's still the old image. Can anyone update it? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.52|162.158.202.52]] 21:59, 22 September 2017 (UTC)<br />
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The gun is the only thing with two uses, so it's ''obviously'' the most useful. [[User:1337357|1337357]] ([[User talk:1337357|talk]])<br />
:A nuke would neutralize all of these threats, so obviously it would be the "most" useful. But nuking a wood fire to put it out would probably be overkill. Randall isn't trying to say that something is the "most" useful, he's just showing us different scenarios.[[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:13, 1 October 2017 (UTC)<br />
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Is this a co-violence matrix?<br />
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This should probably be in the Charts category, but I can't figure out how to do so. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.106|172.68.65.106]] 18:53, 4 February 2021 (UTC)<br />
:Done. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 01:55, 5 February 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Brining a knife to a wood fire would probably help after a knife fight if you have a bad wound you need to cauterize or something… [[User:Szeth Pancakes|Szeth Pancakes]] ([[User talk:Szeth Pancakes|talk]]) 19:43, 15 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The transcript is not currently incomplete. Any objection to removing the Incomplete tag? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:21, 28 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Huh. However, even though someone posted here about the updated image in 2017, it has not been swapped. I've never edited one of these pages to change the comic image, anyone feel like stepping up? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:24, 28 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Simple for you/anyone like you to do:<br />
::1) Upload the new image first (presume you have sufficient rights to do so, as a named contributor of some standing), if it isn't already somewhere in the uploads area and you know where it is.<br />
::2) Edit the page and accordingly change the line (very near the top, in the comic-template element) that says:<pre>| image = what_to_bring.png</pre><br />
::3) (Optional but expected...) Add something, maybe in a Trivia section, to explain there was an original image (*with linky to "what_to_bring.png"*) that had been corrected.<br />
::...the assumption with those instructions is that you/whoever upload the long-revised version (not the _2x one!) as "what_to_bring_NEW.png" or however you'd like to uniquely name it as different, rather than update/overwrite the current on-server image.<br />
::Yes, you should also be able to do that (and *linky* to the prior-version-of image, in the historical note bit while not needing to change the comic-template-block at all ...I'm almost certain), but it's not the usual practice. And it might even be ''more'' complicated to do, at least the first time anyone tries to get the prior-version link just right and not looking odd. ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.27|162.158.159.27]] 04:06, 28 April 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Done. Thanks. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 18:17, 1 May 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I feel like the intended takeaway from this graph is that of the four implements, the gun is the most useful. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.207|172.71.178.207]] 18:09, 2 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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The quantity of water isn't really specified in the matrix. Although the illustration shows a bucket, bringing an appropriately-supplied firehose or water cannon to either type of fight would quite probably win it. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.142.124|172.70.142.124]] 04:36, 11 August 2023 (UTC)</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2728:_Lane_Change_Highway&diff=305190
Talk:2728: Lane Change Highway
2023-01-24T07:14:53Z
<p>172.70.85.201: M25</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 />
There's a section of the M25 motorway around London which does this... Never did like it. <br />
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.201|172.70.85.201]] 07:14, 24 January 2023 (UTC)</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:243:_Appropriate_Term&diff=305042
Talk:243: Appropriate Term
2023-01-19T22:18:36Z
<p>172.70.85.201: </p>
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<div>"Nub" tending towards "Nipple", in my part of the world. Also various alternatives based on it looking and feeling like a pencil eraser (also 'rubber', in local vernacular, normally without the non-local 'prophylactic' association to that word, thus going towards the SFW end of the scale).<br />
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I liked them too. Touchpads are too prone to being tapped or brushed when typing on the keyboard, potentially changing the window focus or active mouse position at awkward times mid-composition. Which is why a lot of people get them disabled and get a USB mouse, perhaps travel-sized, for using with their laptops. Or at least disable the "tap equals button-click" behaviour and rely on the (marginally less accidentally pressed) actual left/right(/centre) buttons for that purpose. I use whatever's there (see below about preference to keyboard, though), due to temporarily working with many different people's devices. I can get on with just about anything that isn't touchscreen-only (and may ''eventually'' get used to that, also).<br />
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However, you all remember the awkward self-centering nature of the 'nub', right? The firmware treats an extended period of the 'nub' at rest as being at true centre and thus nullifying any previous motion. Applying a steady pressure to (say) move a scroll-bar gradually sideways or up/down, to review a table or graphic being edited would soon result in the mouse movement stopping as it assumes the offset position is centre. You naturally automatically compensate by applying more offset to keep it moving (perhaps to repeat). You then either hit the maximum deflection limit and have to stop trying or else finish your scrolling and let go of it (and the left-button/whatever that you're also holding down). Now the cursor is rapidly retreating in the opposite direction as its position at the mechanical centre is being treated as movement in the other direction.<br />
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You can fight it for a temporary stillness (although you never make the situation better, just can temporarily hold the cursor still when that's important) but eventually you have to let the nub sit there and wait, often with the mouse cursor representation moving towards an the edge (or corner) of the screen, and often hitting it. If there's now no perpendicular edge-wise motion to it (or is 'cornered') you're never ''quite'' sure when it stops being a mouse forced against the edge by the presumption of movement and becomes a mouse cursor ''resting'' against the edge, for lack of input to take it anywhere else, so you may wait a bit longer than you need before trying the 'nub' again to elicit movement onto the next bit of the screen that truly needs the mouse-cursor's presence.<br />
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(Personally, I've always been a big fan of keyboard shortcuts for as many things as I can do to replace a mouse. But now we're onto the realms of software that ''has'' tabbing between active controls, but in a really bad non-sequential order. Active KillDisk is one perpetrator, with some of the tickboxes on a given dialogue being mis-arranged in the internal tab-order list. A couple of shift-tabs sometimes needed to reverse-traverse the focus onto the next bit you want to 'click' on, even though it is visually the next item down... But I digress.) [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 04:20, 21 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
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: I really enjoyed this rant, thank you. In part because of its level of nerdy detail, in part because I genuinely learnt something about these funny little joysticks, and largely because of the "but I digress" at the end of a multi-paragraph description of cursor moving algorithms. [[User:192·168·0·1|192·168·0·1]] ([[User talk:192·168·0·1|talk]]) 20:30, 19 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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:: You're welcome. ;) (Wow, very nearly ten years ago! But, yes, 'twas indeed I who wrote that. And, yes, I ''still'' often do digress. Nor have I stopped being an IP-only contributor.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.201|172.70.85.201]] 22:18, 19 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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Rather then 'very informal,' perhaps we move the tone to 'erotic?' {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.167}}<br />
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Is it worth mentioning that men also have breasts, and nipples? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 21:10, 20 August 2021 (UTC)</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2726:_Methodology_Trial&diff=305013
2726: Methodology Trial
2023-01-19T12:43:58Z
<p>172.70.85.201: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2726<br />
| date = January 18, 2023<br />
| title = Methodology Trial<br />
| image = methodology_trial_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 339x459px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = If you think THAT'S unethical, you should see the stuff we approved via our Placebo IRB.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a PLACEBO RESEARCHER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
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When testing the efficacy of a potential medical treatment, researchers compare subjects who got the treatment against subjects who got a {{w|placebo}}. Usually each subject does not know whether they received the treatment or placebo, and neither do the researchers, until the end of the trial. This distinguishes the actual effects of the treatment from the effects of simply participating in a study. People who receive a placebo (or an ineffective treatment) often believe their treatment is working due to such causes as paying more attention to one's health or expecting to feel better. This misattribution of effect to a non-treatment is called the "placebo effect".<br />
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In this comic a team of researchers appears to have studied some medical treatment, using a placebo controlled test. They present their findings in which a particular subset of participants (out of at least four distinct groups) shows an apparently significant result. The graph shows that three groupings have results whose error-bars show might easily have zero (or neutral) true effects, if not negative ones. But, even at the lowest extent of the accepted uncertainty, the fourth stands out as definitively having some degree of positive effect (of whatever kind this particular graph is plotting). <br />
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However, it is revealed that the 'treatment' they were given was also a placebo. Their own study was the subject of a placebo controlled test conducted on their methodology. They were the placebo group, while a different team presumably used the exact same methodology to study the real treatment. Thus, all of this team's findings were due to the placebo effect, or else the trial size and scope allowed a purely statustical 'blip' to occur, instead of there being any real merit to the "treatment". This indicates that their methodology shouldn't be used for any real world applications.<br />
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The particular flaw in the methodology appears to be dividing two few subjects into too many sub-groups, allowing a chance cluster of anomolous results to overly influence an apparent result. The researcher did find significance in one sub-group, even though in reality there was no signal, just noise, since it was all placebo groups. This references the same p-hacking problem as [[882: Significant]]. Only in this case the researcher themself is the subject of the real trial.<br />
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If the non-placebo study had the exact same size and design (as it should have, in such a meta-study), it would cast doubt upon whether any similar-looking findings in London were significant. Especially if they also found that the same subgroup were again exhibiting the sole significant effect, which might reveal an inbuilt flaw in the procedure. On the other hand, it could just further show how likely any particular grouping was to falsely show a result; if all groups had apparently benefited, the chances are that most of them were correct, whether or not [[2268: Further Research is Needed]].<br />
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Treatments ''can'' be more effective on specific subgroups of the population; for example, an anti-cancer drug might only work against specific mutations that cause cancer. But any such result needs to have appropriate statistical significance and new subjects from that subgroup should be tested to ensure the result is repeated.<br />
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Such an experiment might be considered unethical, because one researcher offers what he believes to be genuine treatment to a large number of participants only for a third party (the offscreen speaker) to replace all his medicine with placebos, ultimately deceiving the patients. The title text references that it was approved by a genuine Institutional Review Board (IRB), the group which decides whether a proposed experiment is ethical to perform. However they also have a "placebo IRB", presumably made up of people who have no qualifications to make such judgements well, or perhaps not made up of people at all, but simply a mechanism for generating random decisions.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball stands in front of a poster holding a pointer. The poster shows a scatter plot with four points and error bars, with one data point labeled "Subgroup" is marked with an asterisk and is placed somewhat higher up than the other three points.]<br />
:Cueball: However, we see clear evidence that the treatment is more effective than the placebo for some subgroups.<br />
:Off-panel voice: Thank you.<br />
:Off-panel voice: However, we can now reveal that the '''''London''''' team was studying the real treatment. Both groups in your study got a placebo.<br />
:Cueball: Aw, '''''maaan...'''''<br />
:[Caption below panel]<br />
:Researchers hate it when you do placebo controlled trials of their methodology.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Scientific research]]</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2725:_Sunspot_Cycle&diff=304907
Talk:2725: Sunspot Cycle
2023-01-17T15:24:15Z
<p>172.70.85.201: </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 />
Holy cow, just made my first edit! It was SUPER stressful, and I didn't even know how to make a 'citation needed' thing. Hopefully it was ok, I tried to match the style of the wiki. [[User:GordonFreeman|GordonFreeman]] ([[User talk:GordonFreeman|talk]]) 03:06, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
:Welcome to explain xkcd then. Any edit that is not vandalism is a good edit, because it makes other think about what should be here. So even if it is later completely changed it got things going. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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Is it perhaps worth mentioning that sunspots, while they're darker than the rest of the sun's surface, are not actually black. They are cooler than surrounding regions and appear dark by contrast, but they're emitting lots of IR and some visible light. A sunspots-only (ignore the oxymoron) sun would still emit light and heat, just less. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:18, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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Wouldn't the cycle be 20 ("every other decade") or 22 years (11 in each half of the cycle)? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 03:51, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
:The cycle of darkness of the sun would be 22 years, but the 11-year cycle referred to in the comic, and described by both diagrams within the comic, is the cycle of "number of sunspots" which peaks when the sun is half light, half dark, and decreases again as there are so many spots that they start to merge into fewer, larger spots. It cycles from very few (or zero) sunspots, when the sun is light, through many sunspots, sun is heavily light/dark spotted, and completes the cycle when the number of spots returns down to near-zero, when the sun is dark. {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.201}}<br />
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To what "financial crash of 2014" does this refer? I recall the housing crisis causing financial trouble, but that was around 2008. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 03:51, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
:This has nothing to do with finance so if you think the peak at 2014 should have any meaning I think you are wrong. there where just for some reason more sunspots even though the sun was still in the dark period. Maybe most of the few huge sunspots broke into smaller but with only thin lines between, so still dark but the count goes up. Then they closed again later keeping the sun dark but the number of spots fluctuating. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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Does anyone have any idea what is supposed to be on the Y axis of the bottom graph? Something that goes up when the sun is transitioning between brightnesses and is at its lowest when the sun is either fully bright or fully dark? {{unsigned ip|108.162.241.213}}<br />
:It's the "number of spots" (whether light or dark), since a fully bright sun has no dark spots and a fully dark sun has no "light spots"[[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 05:02, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
::But what are the thin lines indicating, it it just to show that the sun is not yet really dark? Like a gray shade with very long between the dark lines? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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Did anyone else notice that the sine-wave is wrong? the trough should be the same every cycle, yet it's drawn as bright in the first trough and dark in the second trough. -Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.117|172.70.126.117]] 06:52, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
:If you reefer to the bottom graph it is correctly drawn. The sunspots number are near zero when the sun is bright in the first through and then it is again near zero when the sun is dark as there are then only one sunspot. So that is why it is alternating between light and dark for every through. Just as shown in the upper graph. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
::Ah - the y axis of the upper graph is #subspots (which maximizes as they merge and minimizes at full dark/full bright), not magnitude of brightness. Thanks for the clarification! -Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.79|172.70.114.79]] 14:47, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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I do not think it is set in an alternate universe per se, but in the images of the sun spots the minimum brightness of the whole sun is subtracted. So only the sun spots stay visible. So the sun images are depictions of our sun. The number of sun spots loses common-sense meaning after merging starts. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.10|162.158.86.10]] 07:58, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
:Well since the sun is dark in this universe for 10 years, then it cannot be our universe, and since they also have 90s memes, then it is either a parallel universe or well... Randall's fantasy :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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I didn't have enough space in my last edit summary to explain my change. As if anyone who needs to really reads those, anyway... So here (unconstrained by petty character limits!) is why I took off the apostrophes in "90's kid", etc...:<br />
/* Explanation */ Removing apostrophes not used by Randall. (I would personally say '90s, the apostrophe being for the contraction of 1990s, but here only the quoting-apostrophes of '90s kid' seems necessary and capable of being consistent. "The 90s" is a pluralisation of all years of the decade based upon (19)90. A kid *of* the 90s could be a 90s' kid, but I think we're intended to treat this as an adjectival descriptor, not a posessive element.)<br />
And I outright reject the idea that apostrophes can ever be used for pluralising, despite some 'authorities' on the matter. Especially where it clashes with plural-possessive, contraction ''and'' single-quoting uses in a single case, upon a wiki where doubled-up apostrophes would incite ''italics''. Better to rewrite. But, for now, I've just rationalised to go with actual demonstrated usage (both from Randall and {{w|1990s|more or less in general}}) and intent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.133|172.70.85.133]] 10:27, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
: Well, I don't think there's any value in spending 000's of hours debating it.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.46|172.70.85.46]] 15:13, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
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:Does this remind anyone else of oscillations in population dynamics (increase in population eventually causes overpopulation and triggers a period of reduction before the population starts to recover, etc.)? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.201|172.70.85.201]] 15:24, 17 January 2023 (UTC)</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2725:_Sunspot_Cycle&diff=304867
Talk:2725: Sunspot Cycle
2023-01-17T03:58:48Z
<p>172.70.85.201: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Holy cow, just made my first edit! It was SUPER stressful, and I didn't even know how to make a 'citation needed' thing. Hopefully it was ok, I tried to match the style of the wiki. [[User:GordonFreeman|GordonFreeman]] ([[User talk:GordonFreeman|talk]]) 03:06, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is it perhaps worth mentioning that sunspots, while they're darker than the rest of the sun's surface, are not actually black. They are cooler than surrounding regions and appear dark by contrast, but they're emitting lots of IR and some visible light. A sunspots-only (ignore the oxymoron) sun would still emit light and heat, just less. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:18, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wouldn't the cycle be 20 ("every other decade") or 22 years (11 in each half of the cycle)? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 03:51, 17 January 2023 (UTC)<br />
The cycle of darkness of the sun would be 22 years, but the 11-year cycle referred to in the comic, and described by both diagrams within the comic, is the cycle of "number of sunspots" which peaks when the sun is half light, half dark, and decreases again as there are so many spots that they start to merge into fewer, larger spots. It cycles from very few (or zero) sunspots, when the sun is light, through many sunspots, sun is heavily light/dark spotted, and completes the cycle when the number of spots returns down to near-zero, when the sun is dark.<br />
<br />
To what "financial crash of 2014" does this refer? I recall the housing crisis causing financial trouble, but that was around 2008. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.173|162.158.166.173]] 03:51, 17 January 2023 (UTC)</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=319:_Engineering_Hubris&diff=304790
319: Engineering Hubris
2023-01-15T11:51:39Z
<p>172.70.85.201: Undo revision 304785 by 162.158.107.42 (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 319<br />
| date = September 21, 2007<br />
| title = Engineering Hubris<br />
| image = engineering hubris.png<br />
| titletext = Chuck Jones is a vengeful god.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic starts with a philosophical musing about {{w|engineering}}. The last panel reveals a joke about {{w|Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner}}, a cartoon series created by {{w|Chuck Jones}}. In the cartoon, the Coyote is constantly building odd contraptions (with parts ordered from the {{w|Acme Corporation}}) to catch the Road Runner. The Coyote never succeeds, often because his devices don't work as intended.<br />
<br />
The word {{w|Hubris}} from the comic title means extreme pride or arrogance. It is a theme from the classic Greek plays, and is usually severely punished by the gods. The title text is implying that Chuck Jones would not let hubris go unpunished; the engineer might be able to construct 'better' traps than Wile E, but they would still be doomed to fail.<br />
<br />
From the second panel, [http://catb.org/jargon/html/M/Murphys-Law.html| Murphy's Law] can be simplified to "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." It was originally developed as a guideline for accident prevention starting at the design level. In the common vernacular today, it is interpreted more liberally: "If there is even the slightest chance of an unfortunate accident occurring, despite all your attempts to prevent it, the accident will happen anyway, purely out of spite." The namesake {{w|Edward A. Murphy Jr.}} has since evolved to mythic proportions, being cast as a vengeful god of misfortune and ruin.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[This comic is illustrated in color. Landscape in the background, canyon with a winding road.]<br />
:Maybe engineering is the pursuit of an unattainable perfection.<br />
:Maybe it's impossible to create something bug-free.<br />
<br />
:Maybe I'm a fool<br />
:Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris.<br />
<br />
:But I just can't shake the feeling<br />
<br />
:[Cueball standing on boxes labeled "ACME."]<br />
:With all those supplies<br />
:<u>I</u> could have caught that roadrunner.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]<br />
[[Category:Engineering]]</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2723:_Outdated_Periodic_Table&diff=304712
2723: Outdated Periodic Table
2023-01-13T12:35:41Z
<p>172.70.85.201: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2723<br />
| date = January 11, 2023<br />
| title = Outdated Periodic Table<br />
| image = outdated_periodic_table_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 360x350px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Researchers claim to have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' through 'unnilium'.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by BERYLLIUM-BASED LIFE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic shows figure 6.14 from a science text book, which displays ''The periodic table of the elements'', but with only the first four elements ({{w|Hydrogen}}, {{w|Helium}}, {{w|Lithium}} and {{w|Beryllium}}) shown. [[Randall]] claims, in the caption, that you can use the layout of an included {{w|Periodic table}} to date a publication based upon the elements present or missing. The joke here is that his book was somehow published just half an hour after the {{w|Big Bang}}, at which time those four elements were the only ones present.<br />
<br />
From about 10 seconds until about 20 minutes after the Big Bang, the phase that is known as the {{w|Big Bang nucleosynthesis}} occurred. At that time, hydrogen ions (single protons) provided for helium in abundance and traces of lithium. Some berylium-7 was also formed, which is an unstable {{w|Isotopes of beryllium|isotope}}, and with a half life of 53 days, an appreciable amount of what had been created would still be there several months after the Big Bang, and certainly most of what was created would be there half an hour after.<br />
<br />
The conclusion is that Randall's science book was published when those four elements were the only ones in existence, and before the point where practically all the beryllium had decayed. After that point, only the three first would be present, until star formation began and started the process of {{w|Stellar nucleosynthesis}}.<br />
<br />
Of course no life as we know it could exist until long after stellar nucleosynthesis had created all the other elements needed to support {{w|Carbon-based life}}. And no life, as we could even imagine, would be able to exist for the first 370,000 years after Big Bang as atoms (in a form that could eventually form molecules) could not exist until the {{w|Recombination (cosmology)|Recombination}} phase of the universe, due to the high energy of the {{w|Cosmic background radiation}}. Textbooks, also being carbon-based {{Citation needed}} could not exist either.<br />
<br />
Even now, many {{w|Chemical elements|elements}} do not occur naturally on Earth and have to be {{w|Synthetic element|synthesized}} to be practically studied, or deduced from what was seen during their often short lives. Others were always very hard to detect, collect enough in pure form or purify enough to properly discover them. Until these elements were discovered, one way or another, they were not included in the periodic table. Various versions of the periodic table had left spaces for these {{w|Mendeleev's predicted elements|expected elements}}, but these gaps have now all been filled, and all recent modifications have been either additions to the end of the prior version of the table or changes of {{w|List of chemical element naming controversies|the names given}} to recent additions. As printed scientific textbooks do not update themselves after being published, one can determine the general age of the work by checking which elements were present in the periodic table that was included.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to how yet-undiscovered elements are given a {{w|systematic element name}} as a temporary name, until a more permanent name is decided upon. The names are based upon a standard group of Greek and Latin roots (depicting the decimal digits used to 'spell out' an element's unique {{w|atomic number}}, i.e., the number of protons) and adding an "-ium" at the end. The claim in the title text is that, in the textbook with the figure, researchers claim they have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' (atomic number "5") through to 'unnilium' ("one zero", or "10"), just as element "118" was provisionally called "ununoctium". At the time of release of this comic, element 118 is currently the last confirmed element and has been officially called {{w|Oganesson}}. The title text of [[2639: Periodic Table Changes]], the previous comic to draw a periodic table, also refers to this.<br />
<br />
Element number five is, in our time and reality, actually well known as {{w|Boron}}. (Its 'provisional' name of {{w|Pentium}} was also used for a series of microprocessors launched by Intel in the 1990s.) "Unnilium", element number 10, is {{w|Neon}}, a member of the group of {{w|Noble gas}}es, which (along with fellow group member helium) was discovered only at the very end of the 19th century. Despite helium being one of the first elements to exist, and still one of the most common in the universe (roughly 24%, by mass, with hydrogen being around 75% and every other element combined being the remainder), it did not appear in the earliest periodic tables. It was only first detected from afar, as a constituent of the Sun, about thirty years before it was finally physically discovered in an actual lab here on Earth. (This is likely because helium is both inert and light.) It is also possible that neon's provisional name in 'early science' might have been something more along the lines of "decium", all else being equal. <br />
<br />
Since life could not have existed at the time this book should have been published, the idea of researchers synthesizing elements, or indeed the existence of books or even researchers, is of course just part of the joke.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Subheading]: Figure 6.14<br />
:[Title]: The periodic table of the elements<br />
<br />
:[The following four rectangles featuring the large element abbreviation, with the full element name written below, in a typical periodic table style]<br />
:[Top row, far left]: H Hydrogen<br />
:[Top row, far right, detached from any other box]: He Helium<br />
:[Bottom row, attached directly below the "H" box]: Li Lithium<br />
:[Bottom row, attached directly to the right of "Li"]: Be Beryllium<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel]:<br />
:You can spot an outdated science textbook by checking the bottom of the periodic table for missing elements. For example, mine was published half an hour after the Big Bang.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Chemistry]]<br />
[[Category:Cosmology]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]</div>
172.70.85.201
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2000:_xkcd_Phone_2000&diff=228969
2000: xkcd Phone 2000
2022-03-24T15:59:48Z
<p>172.70.85.201: /* Explanation */ Removed an unlinked mention of something that may not be relevant to people reading the explanation, and a potentially outdated fact.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2000<br />
| date = May 30, 2018<br />
| title = xkcd Phone 2000<br />
| image = xkcd_phone_2000.png<br />
| titletext = Our retina display features hundreds of pixels per inch in the central fovea region.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This is the seventh entry in the ongoing [[:Category:xkcd Phones|xkcd Phone series]], and once again, the comic plays with many standard tech buzzwords, and horribly misuses all of them, to create a phone that sounds impressive but self-evidently isn't to even the most ignorant customer. The previous comic in the series [[1889: xkcd Phone 6]] was released 8 and a half months before this one, and the next comic [[2377: xkcd Phone 12]] was released five months later. <br />
<br />
This time a nonconsecutive version number is used to match the milestone comic number 2000.<br />
<br />
List of features (clockwise from top-center):<br />
<br />
*'''Dockless:''' It was common practice for older standard cellphones (i.e. non-smartphones) to use a docking station for charging. "Dockless" could be a catchy marketing term for wireless charging, or it could simply mean wired charging without a dock.<br />
*'''Silent:''' Most mobile phones have a "Silent" mode in which all ringing and vibration is muted, so the user can receive messages and missed-call notifications in a place that requires silence. This xkcd Phone feature may be a "Silent" mode button, but perhaps the phone is silent all the time and unable to produce sound at all. While most people these days use their smartphones for functions that do not require sound, a completely silent phone would not fit the traditional definition of a "phone". This feature is labelled at the location where a headphone socket would traditionally be, although some recent phones have discarded the traditional headphone jack in place of wireless headphones.<br />
*'''Quad camera takes four copies of every picture:''' Recent phones have added up to three rear-facing cameras, offering different fields of view, monochrome cameras for low light, and a wider base for emulating depth of field effects. This phone's cameras might take four ''identical'' pictures simultaneously, which would use up storage space at 4 times the rate of a standard camera while providing no advantage.<br />
*'''Front-facing camera obscura:''' A {{w|camera obscura}} is a dark room or box with a small hole allowing light to enter. The size of the hole causes light travelling in straight lines to project a dim inverted image on the back of the room or box; the concept is the predecessor to a modern camera, which uses a lens to allow more light to enter. A camera obscura is not strictly speaking a camera as in an image capture device (although there are pin-hole cameras which use the same mechanism). Actual phones have front-facing conventional cameras, allowing selfies, video calling, etc.<br />
*'''3D facial contour analysis shows you a realistic preview of your death mask:''' Recent computational photography effects implemented on mobile phones support facial analysis, allowing for artificial relighting or the creation of avatars. However, since a {{w|death mask}} is created to look just like the deceased's face, all cameras provide this "feature" automatically.<br />
*'''Sponsored pixels:''' Presumably this means that parts of the screen (pixels) can be bought in a sponsoring deal. If enough pixels are sold, your screen would be rendered unusable. It is common for advertisers to buy part of the screen real-estate on a service web site (in fact, {{w|The Million Dollar Homepage}} hosted nothing but a 1000x1000 pixel grid of advertisements), and "images" the size of individual pixels can be used to track site access without being intrusive to the user. For the xkcd Phone 2000, it appears that advertisers have access to part of the screen (worryingly, right in the middle). Slightly less intrusive approaches have been used in bookstores selling customised versions of the Kindle, for example, and it is common for cell phone networks to insist on network-specific software to be installed on a phone. <br />
*'''Front and rear pop-out grips:''' There are accessories that stick to the rear of a phone and can be "popped out", offering a grip, a stand, or somewhere to store headphone cables. Integrating such a feature into the phone design is novel, although some phones have incorporated kick stands. Pop-out grips are normally placed on the back of the phone to make it easier to hold with one hand. Having a second grip to the front of the phone does nothing except block part of the screen. There could be a small screen on the top of the grip since the grip is shown to contain "Sponsored Pixels".<br />
*'''Humidity-controlled crisper:''' A crisper is a drawer in a refrigerator meant to control the humidity to keep vegetables from drying out and getting limp. Obviously, a smartphone would have no need for a crisper{{Citation needed}}.<br />
*'''Antikythera mechanism:''' The {{w|antikythera mechanism}} is an ancient Greek clockwork device for predicting astronomical positions. It is one of the earliest known analogue computers. While impressive for its time, by now it is obsolete by millennia.<br />
*'''New York Times partnership: all photos taken with camera app are captioned in real time by reporter Maggie Haberman:''' Modern phones can use machine learning techniques (usually in the cloud) to identify and tag camera content - this makes it possible to search, for example, for photos containing a particular person or subject without requiring user input. Cellphone photos are often used in contributions to social media with some form of user-provided caption. This phone appears to combine the two, using {{w|Maggie Haberman}} to provide automatic captions for photos taken by the phone's owner (although whether this is explicitly for social media use or internal to the phone is unclear).<br />
*'''Spit valve:''' A water key, or "spit valve," is a feature on most brass and some woodwind instruments used to empty the instrument of condensation caused by the musician's breath (and not, as is commonly thought, saliva). Of course, one wouldn't think condensation would form on the inside of a smartphone{{Citation needed}}.<br />
*'''Standard USB connector:''' a USB A port is displayed. Unfortunately, a "standard" USB connector, according to the USB standard, would be a USB B port as a phone typically acts as the "slave" device, rather than the "host" as a USB A port would imply. However, in recent updates to the USB standard, bi-communication between 2 A ports is supported.<br />
*'''Coin purse-style squeeze access:''' presumably, the casing is flexible in this region, and when squeezed at the sides (a bad idea, considering the next design item) reveals the USB A port and spit valve.<br />
*'''Hollow-ground:''' a {{w|Grind#Typical_grinds|hollow grind}} is a type of knife (or similar sharp tool) edge noted for sharpness and general fragility, often seen in razors. This seems to imply that the phone is exceedingly smooth, which would make it difficult to hold{{Citation needed}}. This is a far more reasonable feature to apply to the included knife than the entire case.<br />
*'''Absorbent:''' Many modern phones are designed to be waterproof, to avoid accidents and allow use in the rain. It's also common to have some form of oleophobic coating on the screen to reduce smearing as fingers are used on the touchscreen. This phone seems to have the reverse feature, and be explicitly designed to absorb things (presumably liquids--perhaps that's why it needs a spit valve). "Absorbent" is more commonly a property touted by the packaging of paper towels.<br />
*'''Keyboard supports dynamic typing:''' {{w|Type_system#Dynamic_type_checking_and_runtime_type_information|Dynamic typing}} is a computer programming concept, and has nothing to do with typing on a keyboard.<br />
*'''Backflow preventer:''' A {{w|backflow prevention device}} is a mechanism that avoids the possibility of liquid (usually water) travelling in the opposite direction from the normal intent if the expected pressure is inverted. Since there is not normally any liquid flowing through a phone (unless in this case relating to the spit valve), this would not normally be a useful feature. However, some smart phones do contain pressure measuring devices such as barometers (which can also be used in some cases to detect the phone being squeezed), so maybe this phone is intended to be resilient to such conditions.<br />
*'''Swiss Army partnership: folding knife (unlocks only if Switzerland is invaded):''' A {{w|Swiss Army knife}} is a folding knife, traditionally with many secondary "blades" for multiple uses such as can openers and files. Usually it is a generic term for that style of knife, but the knife in this phone surprisingly really has a connection with the army of {{w|Switzerland}}. Switzerland is known for remaining neutral (and not being invaded) in both of the World Wars of the 20th century despite war raging across surrounding countries, suggesting that it is unlikely that the knife would ever be unlocked. While such a feature on a phone (or phone case) may be useful, it is likely to be a safety concern, and a threat to convenience when security checkpoints such as airports start confiscating the phone when they notice it conceals a knife blade. What's more, a phone does not provide the ideal grip for a knife blade - especially if force is to be applied to it. This may also reference the Swiss military practice of soldiers keeping military rifles in their private homes but only being given ammunition in the event the army is mobilized.<br />
*'''100% BPA-free PCB construction:''' {{w|Bisphenol A}} (BPA) is a chemical used in plastics such as waterbottles. Recent studies show that BPA can leach estrogen-like compounds into liquids, so BPA-free water bottles have become popular. PCB probably refers to a {{w|printed circuit board}}, which is made of resin-bonded fiberglass, not plastic, and which contains the electrical components that control most modern electronic devices such as phones. It may also refer to {{w|Polychlorinated biphenyl}} (PCBs), a category of persistent organic pollutants which are not used very much any more; it would be far worse than BPA for anyone concerned with the issue.<br />
*'''AMOLCD display (7-segment):''' {{w|AMOLED}} is a display technology often used in cell phones, providing thin and emissive displays. {{w|Liquid-crystal_display|LCD}} is another display technology used in phones, and works by blocking light from a separate backlight. A {{w|Seven-segment_display|7-segment display}} is a device made of seven independently-controlled segments (usually either LCD or LED) which can be used to display a single digit; as such the technology is common in traditional digital watches. In contrast most phone displays are made of a uniform high-resolution pixel grid that allows arbitrary content, like random images, to be displayed, although some very old (pre-smart) cellphones and land lines did use this technology in displaying a phone number, like the {{w|Motorola Fone|MotoFone F3}}. The technology cannot represent the entire alphabet without modification (one method is to put X's on both the top and bottom squares) , so it is inappropriate for displaying plain text, let alone graphics and images.<br />
*'''Runs on battery for the first 6 hours, then uses gasoline:''' A nod to the increased popularity of gas-electric hybrid vehicles. This would be a fantastic breakthrough for fuel cells. There have been many attempts to create a highly portable fuel cell that can be used to power phones. Although having to use gasoline instead of a USB cord would likely cause more problems for the average consumer, like the phone blowing up, a fuel cell does have some notable advantages over a standard lithium-ion battery. When comparing a fuel cell to a battery of equal size the fuel cell will be capable of powering an object for far longer than the battery. This includes lithium-ion batteries which are commonly used for powering phones and are typically the majority of its mass. This would mean one could shrink the size of the battery substantially yet still be able to provide the same amount of power. The smaller battery can be kept as is in order to reduce the weight of the phone or can free up space for more features to be installed into the phone. This might simply be the first xkcd phone that mentions that it does this. Provides a possible explanation to how the manufacturer of the phone is capable of fitting so many unusual features into the phone to begin with. Another advantage of a fuel cell powered phone is that it is independent from a working power grid (useful for disaster situations where thousands of people would no longer be capable of staying in contact with others or people who are stranded and alone) and there is no need for a bulky generator to convert the gasoline into electricity first. This is not the first time Randall has talked about this before, with much of the information here coming from what-if #128: {{what if|128|Zippo Phone}}.<br />
*'''Sharpie® dual stylus (dry-erase + permanent)''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpie Sharpie®] is a brand most associated with a line of permanent fine-tip markers. While a stylus is generally a pen-like object that doesn't create markings, but instead allows finer input on a touch screen, "Dry-Erase + Permanent" implies that these are in fact markers. These would allow the user to write on the screen, but as this wouldn't allow any form on input to the phone, it would only serve as a very expensive pseudo-whiteboard. Even if they were actually styluses, having two would be of little use. Note that permanent was previously spelled "permenant", incorrectly. This was later corrected; See [[#Trivia]]<br />
*'''Mouse cursor:''' A feature of BlackBerry smartphones using mice has gone out of favor due to the popularity of touch screens, which are lighter and more convienient. However, Android devices, at least, still support Bluetooth HID access, and on some devices it is possible to pair the device with a mouse (and keyboard) and access the screen through a mouse pointer. These peripherals may also be attached with {{w|USB On-The-Go}}. This can be particularly useful if the device is exporting its display to a large external screen - and {{w|Samsung_DeX|some manufacturers}} have provided tethering systems based around pairing a phone with a mouse. <!-- A mouse pointer is relatively useless when a touch screen is in use, since the user's finger usually covers the pointer. ---- Ed note: I've personally used an Android tablet with a USB mouse, and it was not useless at all; about the only thing that can't really be done with a mouse would be several gestures, such as pinch zoom. But it also has additional features, such as hovering and right-clicking.--><br />
<br />
The tagline for the phone says that the marketing team hopes that 2000 still sounds like a futuristic number. It was common for a time to have futuristic science-fiction take place on or around the year 2000 (e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Knight Rider 2000, Death Race 2000, Space: 1999), and many devices marketed in the late 20th century had a "2000" as part of their product name in order to sound futuristic. However, since the year 2000 was 18 years ago at the time of this comic's publication, this is no longer the case. The number 2000 also represents the fact that this is the 2000th xkcd comic.<br />
<br />
The nonsensical trademarking of xkcd Phone slogans has become even more pronounced: as well as the inapplicable-as-ever copyright symbol, the slogan is listed three times as a {{w|registered trademark}} and twice as an unregistered one – and the second of those trademark signs is itself trademarked.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to {{w|Retina Display}}, a term used to describe Apple products with higher pixel densities. The xkcd Phone marketing team would be unable to use the term due to Apple's having registered it as a trademark, as it would be a copyright violation. Additionally, the {{w|Fovea centralis|central fovea region}} is a portion of your eye's retina containing the most densely packed photosensitive neurons (confusing the biological retina with the electronics display of the same name). {{w|Foveated rendering}} is a genuine computer graphics technique intended to increase performance by rendering with higher quality to the regions of the display where the user is looking, and lower quality at the edges of vision; it is expected to be useful for virtual reality (one of the uses for cell phones) as a way to deal with the required high pixel densities while managing power consumption. There are displays with variable density, in specialist uses, but such a feature is not practical in a phone because the whole area of the display is typically useful and needs to provide high resolution (as the user's eye moves across it). Also, hundreds of pixels per inch is not considered a very high resolution, as a full-hd smartphone [https://www.lifewire.com/how-many-pixels-in-an-inch-4125185 has 440.58 pixels per inch].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[The comic depicts a smartphone showing many uncommon features. The front view shows a mouse cursor and a circle in the middle. The side view reveals the circle as something like an old photo lens from 1900 extending far above the surface and four large buttons (camera lenses) at the rear. The third view is from the top and just mentions a "hollow ground." The bottom view looks like as it was opened by a can opener and shows a big USB connector and on the right a small black connection.]<br />
:Dockless<br />
:Silent<br />
:Quad camera takes four copies of every picture<br />
:Front-facing camera obscura<br />
:3D facial contour analysis shows you a realistic preview of your death mask<br />
:Sponsored pixels<br />
:Front and rear pop-out grips<br />
:Humidity-controlled crisper<br />
:Antikythera mechanism<br />
:New York Times partnership: all photos taken with camera app are captioned in real time by reporter Maggie Haberman<br />
:Spit valve<br />
:Standard USB connector<br />
:Coin purse-style squeeze access<br />
:Hollow-ground<br />
:Absorbent<br />
:Keyboard supports dynamic typing<br />
:Backflow preventer<br />
:Swiss Army partnership: folding knife (unlocks only if Switzerland is invaded)<br />
:100% BPA-free PCB construction<br />
:AMOLCD display (7-segment)<br />
:Runs on battery for the first 6 hours, then uses gasoline<br />
:Sharpie® dual stylus (dry-erase + permanent)<br />
:Mouse cursor<br />
<br />
:Introducing<br />
:'''<big>The xkcd Phone 2000</big>'''<br />
:We're still hoping this sounds like a futuristic number®®™®©™<sup>®</sup><br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
The stylus was previously called 'permenant'. This was later corrected, to permanent. You can still see the original image [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/b/b4/20180531174214%21xkcd_phone_2000.png here]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:xkcd Phones]]<br />
[[Category:Comics sharing name|xkcd Phones]]</div>
172.70.85.201