https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=188.114.111.224&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T20:05:29ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1541:_Voice&diff=96130Talk:1541: Voice2015-06-22T15:15:05Z<p>188.114.111.224: </p>
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<div>The premise of this comic reminds me of a sci-fi short story I read many years ago but have never been able to track down. A young girl's doll (?) comes to life, and it explains that it is a entity that can inhabit inanimate objects. Some things happen that I have forgotten, and while walking down the road, the girl is almost struck by a runaway car. The entity takes control of the car and steers it away from her. It decides that, having saved the girl's life, it has every right to take control of her - leaving our poor protagonist in the worst kind of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" scenario as the story ends. Perhaps Randall Munroe read the same story. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.212|141.101.98.212]] 12:08, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:To me it reminds me of the movie "Being John Malkovich", especially the end, where the main character is forever trapped in the other person's body, unable to talk. Kind of the-other-way-around, but a similar concept. [[User:Linuspogo|Linuspogo]] ([[User talk:Linuspogo|talk]]) 12:23, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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== every six years ==<br />
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6 years back it was june 22, 2009 -> [[600|Comic 600]]. I guess there is no link between those comics , but I would not be surprised if there was. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:44, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
: anyway, I'm looking forward to the comic of june 22, 2021 ;) [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:51, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Do you realize that xkcd is fiction? Do you realize that Homer and Marge Simpson have not been married for 27 years, since Bart has been 10 during these 27 years? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.94|173.245.50.94]] 13:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::The author of this comic has a habit of doing things as suggested by the commenter that you mock. Stay on topic. This is not a place for picking fights.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.154|173.245.48.154]] 14:49, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Does this look like a continuation of the same conversation from two comics ago? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:57, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Not to me. It's the same characters chatting casually, but there's nothing else linking both comics. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:11, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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By the way, I'd think that, even if Ponytail can't control her voice, she still can write whatever she wants. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)</div>188.114.111.224https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1541:_Voice&diff=96129Talk:1541: Voice2015-06-22T15:11:20Z<p>188.114.111.224: </p>
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<div>The premise of this comic reminds me of a sci-fi short story I read many years ago but have never been able to track down. A young girl's doll (?) comes to life, and it explains that it is a entity that can inhabit inanimate objects. Some things happen that I have forgotten, and while walking down the road, the girl is almost struck by a runaway car. The entity takes control of the car and steers it away from her. It decides that, having saved the girl's life, it has every right to take control of her - leaving our poor protagonist in the worst kind of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" scenario as the story ends. Perhaps Randall Munroe read the same story. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.212|141.101.98.212]] 12:08, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:To me it reminds me of the movie "Being John Malkovich", especially the end, where the main character is forever trapped in the other person's body, unable to talk. Kind of the-other-way-around, but a similar concept. [[User:Linuspogo|Linuspogo]] ([[User talk:Linuspogo|talk]]) 12:23, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== every six years ==<br />
<br />
6 years back it was june 22, 2009 -> [[600|Comic 600]]. I guess there is no link between those comics , but I would not be surprised if there was. [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:44, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
: anyway, I'm looking forward to the comic of june 22, 2021 ;) [[User:SirKitKat|sirKitKat]] ([[User talk:SirKitKat|talk]]) 12:51, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Do you realize that xkcd is fiction? Do you realize that Homer and Marge Simpson have not been married for 27 years, since Bart has been 10 during these 27 years? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.94|173.245.50.94]] 13:15, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::The author of this comic has a habit of doing things as suggested by the commenter that you mock. Stay on topic. This is not a place for picking fights.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.154|173.245.48.154]] 14:49, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Does this look like a continuation of the same conversation from two comics ago? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 14:57, 22 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
: Not to me. It's the same characters chatting casually, but there's nothing else linking both comics. [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 15:11, 22 June 2015 (UTC)</div>188.114.111.224https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1535:_Words_for_Pets&diff=95058Talk:1535: Words for Pets2015-06-08T11:39:59Z<p>188.114.111.224: </p>
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<div>I skipped the first step by naming my cat "Cat". On the plus side, even in the third year I was still mostly calling her by her name. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.134|108.162.254.134]] 08:06, 8 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Not sure this is relevant enough to include, but there's [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ADogNamedDog a trope about that] [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 11:39, 8 June 2015 (UTC)</div>188.114.111.224https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1489:_Fundamental_Forces&diff=84909Talk:1489: Fundamental Forces2015-02-21T22:34:21Z<p>188.114.111.224: </p>
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<div><br />
«The off-panel audience, probably a student or class, is interested, but quickly begins to realize Cueball's lack of understanding. Instead of acknowledging the problem directly, Cueball simply blusters onwards.»<br />
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My interpretation is rather different. It looks like Cueball is a physicist who knows that the distinction of "four fundamental forces" is basically wrong/obsolete (the term "force" is not even used anymore in theoretical physics), but since his audience are high school students, he can't go into the many complex details underlying the fundamental interactions, and therefore is forced to gloss over it. This is confirmed by the title text (if Cueball didn't understand the theory of fundamental interactions, he wouldn't give that answer). --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.101.78|188.114.101.78]] 10:31, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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To me it appeared as a typical exam situation for Cueball with '''him''' being the pupil. And ironically that situation looks similar to the real scientific understanding of the topic. [[User:Renormalist|Renormalist]] ([[User talk:Renormalist|talk]]) 11:12, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
: I could see that, to an extent - it doesn't jive with the title text IMO, and it's less funny that a student would be glossing over this stuff than a someone in an instructive role, but I could see it -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 11:46, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Irony like this is not uncommon in physics. What was the first encounter with electric phenomena? Triboelectricity. What don't we understand at all? Right. Or take Zenos paradoxon. Or the divisibility paradoxon. The oldest nuts tend to be the toughest. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.230.221|108.162.230.221]] 12:26, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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:I'm not sure about ''the'' first one, but one of first electromagnetic phenomenons we encountered was light. We first observed it about 200000 years ago. :P [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.77|141.101.104.77]] 13:45, 21 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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I knew from the title, "Fundamental Horses", that this was going to be a great one. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.200}}<br />
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I prefer Chromatic Horse and Flavor Horse. Why use weak names when we have new strong ones? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.98|108.162.254.98]] 11:58, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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In high school Physics, my class was taught that physicists had recently combined the Electromagnetic and Weak Nuclear forces into the Electro-Weak Force, so there were only three and if we were to find the Higgs Boson, there might be just two or one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.11|108.162.241.11]] 21:55, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Actually, it is the Higgs Boson, that combines the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear interaction into the electroweak interaction, so it's still 3. But actually, even if electromagnetism and the weak interaction can be described in one theory, they are still viewed as two different phenomena, so it actually will always be 4. (Unless we discover other interactions). --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.192|141.101.105.192]] 22:23, 20 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
:: Old timer physicists say the same thing about magnetism and electricity. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.64.35|141.101.64.35]] 16:53, 21 February 2015 (UTC)<br />
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Is it just possible that Randall posted this forum to see how we here actually try to explain strong and weak forces? [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.224|188.114.111.224]] 22:34, 21 February 2015 (UTC)</div>188.114.111.224https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1479:_Troubleshooting&diff=836801479: Troubleshooting2015-01-28T20:59:37Z<p>188.114.111.224: Typo</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1479<br />
| date = January 28, 2015<br />
| title = Troubleshooting<br />
| image = troubleshooting.png<br />
| titletext = "Oh, you're using their Chrome APP, not their Chrome EXTENSION. They're very similar but one handles window creation differently." is a thing I hope I can stop saying soon.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
This comic revolves around the complexity and somewhat low quality of modern software. Many problems that users experience are not obvious or straightforward, and methods for correcting the root cause the problem requires on invoking unrelated actions that happen to cause a desired side-effect. Knowing the non-obvious cause, the desired side effect, and how to trigger the unrelated feature that causes it requires memorization of lots of "stupid computer knowledge" rather than general principles and logical investigation of the software. <br />
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One particular example of an illogical fix to a software problem is depicted in the comic. Here, [[Cueball]] is trying to help [[Hairy]] resolve the problem of a program that is not responding to any mouse clicks. Cueball (correctly?) surmises that this is not due to abnormal behavior of the software ("{{w|Hang (computing)|freezing}}"), but rather because either the user or the software itself has opened a {{w|Modal dialog|modal dialog window}} outside of the main screen area, where it can not be seen. Modal dialog windows block access to the rest of the application, by seizing the sole focus of the user input. They are valid {{w|GUI}} tools and are used when the software needs user's input before it can proceed further. However, opening such window and placing it outside of the visible screen area ("off-screen") will make the window both inaccessible and invisible to the user, precluding them from closing it and re-gaining access to the software. <br />
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One non-obvious way to repair such problem is to switch the screen resolution; Switching the resolution in itself does not fix the problem, but the resolution switch also forces the operating system to redraw all windows on the desktop and, some operating systems will also validate the coordinates of all windows and adjust these coordinates so that the windows do not end up in off-screen area. In this scenario, it is used as a side-effect to fix the problem, because operating systems rarely provide other, more obvious ways to bring the off-screen windows back to the visible area.<br />
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By saying "Why is it even possible?", Hairy is quite correct in pointing out that the best way to address this problem at its root would be for the operating system developers to prevents the creation of windows off-screen, preventing a whole class of window management problems before they can occur. Such mechanisms could validate coordinates during window creation, thus making sure that the dialog window would always be accessible and visible.<br />
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In general, one can sort the possible solutions to the problem being discussed in the following order of preference, from best to worst:<br />
* (Best): Have OS programmers implement automatic coordinate adjustment during window creation<br />
* Have OS programmers provide easily accessible and visible control to invoke coordinate adjustment for all windows<br />
* Have OS programmers provide a shortcut to invoke coordinate adjustment for all windows<br />
* (Worst, depicted in comic): Have users rely on side-effect of properly implemented screen resolution change mechanism to fix the problem counter-intuitively.<br />
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The ''title text'' refers to the fact that two different and unrelated software packages can have confusingly similar names, even if the usage and features of those two packages can vary wildly, and knowing the implications of using one instead of the other is a case of "stupid computer knowledge". Knowing the difference between a '''Chrome app''', a cell phone app-style application, delivered from the Chrome web store, designed to be run in the Chrome browser, and a '''Chrome extension''', a browser extension installed into the Chrome browser, delivered from the Chrome web store, designed to modify the behavior of the browser itself, is a subtle distinction not immediately apparent to users who may just have the name of the software they are looking for.<br />
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In many cases, Randall (or Cueball, his avatar) loves to help people using his specific knowledge (see [[208: Regular Expressions]]). But when the trick is "stupid", he would prefer the programmers to fix the problem definitively so he never has to rely on this trick anymore.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Hairy sitting at a desk with laptop, with Cueball standing behind him.]<br />
:Hairy: Wait, why can't I click anywhere?<br />
:Cueball: I don't... Ugh, It opened a dialog box offscreen.<br />
:Hairy: Why is that even ''possible?''<br />
:Cueball: It really shouldn't be. But you can fix it by changing your screen resolution to trigger a window cleanup.<br />
:Hairy: ''Seriously?''<br />
:Cueball: I know, I know...<br />
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:[Caption below the frame:]<br />
:To be honest, I can't ''wait'' for the<br />
:day when all my stupid computer<br />
:knowledge becomes obsolete.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Computers]]</div>188.114.111.224https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=338:_Future&diff=80735338: Future2014-12-14T23:18:55Z<p>188.114.111.224: Rewrote everything. Hope this is less confusing</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 338<br />
| date = November 5, 2007<br />
| title = Future<br />
| image = future.png<br />
| titletext = But the past was much too cramped!<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Probably some native English speaker should revise this version}}<br />
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[[Cueball]] is in the last panel (the future) but somehow manages to get his message into the first panel (the past). [[Megan]] answers in the first panel but somehow her message gets to Cueball in the last panel.<br />
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This comic can be interpreted in several ways. First, it is not clear if Cueball's question is intended for Megan alone, for both Megan and [[Hairy]] or at the past world in general. If the question is intended for several people, the comic is just about how one could sometimes desire to know the future without waiting for it, however time flows at its usual rate and there's no way around this.<br />
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If the question is intended only for Megan, it means Cueball is asking Megan to become his girlfriend. She answers she can't maybe because, as before, time runs at its usual rate and she can't go faster; or maybe because she's already with Hairy (they're shown holding hands) and she's not leaving Hairy for Cueball.<br />
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Finally, the Cueball in the future could just be the very same person as the Hairy in the past, having become bald as he gets older. In this scenario, Cueball is just missing Megan, who was with him in the past but no longer is, maybe even because she has died in between.<br />
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In the title text Cueball seems to be considering to go back to the past, but he rejects doing so because, having seen the future, now the past doesn't look attractive.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[The comic has three panels. In the first panel, Hairy and Megan are holding hands. There is a voice bubble originating from Cueball standing in the third panel.]<br />
:Cueball: Come explore the future with me!<br />
:[And Megan says something which goes to the third panel.]<br />
:[The two voice bubbles cross in the middle of the second panel.]<br />
:[The voice of Megan says…]<br />
:Megan: I can't.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Romance]]</div>188.114.111.224