Editing xkcd: volume 0

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''xkcd: volume 0''}}{{book navigation}}[[File:xkcd_volume_0.jpeg|260px|right|thumb|The cover of the book]]{{incomplete|
*The article is missing a lot of information and links about the book.

*Explain how the pages are counted in the book, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140204001654/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45552 discussed in the xkcd furums]! (They're ternary-like, except when 2 is reached, it always overflows onto the digit with the next highest magnitude and increments it by one...

*Please help decode each part of the Cipher, and reorganise it into a more readable format (possibly a table, if somebody is up to the task).)}}{{TOC}}

'''''xkcd: volume 0''''' is a book by [[Randall Munroe]] released on August 24, 2010. It features a collection of comics personally chosen by Randall from the initial 600 entries of the webcomic. These comics were assembled from high-resolution original scans and include the original or, sometimes, a different title text. The book is available to [https://archive.org/details/2009Xkcd read in full on the Internet Archive].

{{Quote|<nowiki></nowiki>''xkcd: volume 0'' is the first xkcd book! It features selections from the first 600 comics, including various author and fan favorites. It was lovingly assembled from high-resolution original scans of the comics (the mouseover text is discreetly included), and features a lot of doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.
|''[[Randall Munroe]]|[https://web.archive.org/web/20100701115034/http://store.xkcd.com/ Source]}}

The book is published by {{w|Breadpig}}, a company founded by Randall's friend Alexis, and their portion of the profits will go to build a school in Laos through the charity {{w|Room to Read}}.

==volume 0 service pack 1==

A little-known aspect of ''xkcd: Volume 0'' is the existence of a limited supplementary booklet commonly known as the '''xkcd volume 0 service pack 1'''. The booklet is a limited edition supplement to ''Volume 0'', not a distinct alternate edition of the book itself. This booklet was not commercially distributed, but instead handed out in person by Randall Munroe at a fan meetup. Readers discovered that solving the cipher embedded in the book's red text revealed details for a real-world meetup, including a specific time and location. This puzzle was collaboratively solved by members of the xkcd community, primarily through discussions on the official xkcd [[Forums]].

A surviving record of this effort is preserved via the Wayback Machine at [https://web.archive.org/web/20140204001654/http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45552 Puzzles from the xkcd book (big puzzle SOLVED!)]. This thread documents much of the community's process in deciphering the puzzle. At least one portion of the cipher was not have been solved as intended, instead being determined via brute force after other parts were completed.

Once the puzzle was solved, approximately 100 fans attended the meetup at the specified location. At this event, [[Randall Munroe]] distributed copies of the "Service Pack 1" booklet as a reward for participants. Several videos of the meetup have been preserved online:

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPi5HBW1jw XKCD Randall Munroe surprising his fans at the MEETUP]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6YGsbjn454 XKCD 2010 Meetup - Giving Out Cupcakes]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWNbEml7ZeA XKCD 2010 Meetup - Cupcakes]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9txkRcfc1w XKCD 2010 Meetup - Cupcakes 2]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0McdR9lvqLg Facebook 6/26/10: XKCD event]

At least one known scan exists, created by a private owner and shared informally. (I'll upload it to wikipedia when i have time.)

==Transcript==

===Front cover===
:[A bit above the middle of the page, there is the title of the book with the subtitle in a smaller font size below it. Neither the title nor the subtitle are capitalized.]
:xkcd
:volume 0
:[In the bottom right of the page stand Megan, on the right, and Cueball, on the left, holding hands. Cueball looks away from Megan, to the left, and Megan looks away from Cueball, to the right.]

===Back cover===
{{Incomplete transcript|Expand on the back}}
:[There are several otherwise nondescript gray rectangles on which the characters stand on. Red spiders are present throughout the panel.]
:[Two of these rectangles are attached from the area around the right corner and going off of the cover, in an L-shape. Black Hat stands on it, taking notes on a journal. Twenty-three red spiders lie on the object. Nine of them are clustered in the inner L corner, four of them forming chains. An additional red spider has just fallen off of the object from the right.]
:[To L shape's right, in the air, Cory Doctorow in his red suit is shown punching a red spider.]
==Comics featured in the book==
{{cot|Comics featured in the book}}
<div style="column-width:20em">
# [[10: Pi Equals]]
# [[242: The Difference]]
# [[249: Chess Photo]]
# [[123: Centrifugal Force]]
# [[214: The Problem with Wikipedia]]
# [[221: Random Number]]
# [[231: Cat Proximity]]
# [[20: Ferret]]
# [[21: Kepler]]
# [[30: Donner]]
# [[37: Hyphen]]
# [[82: Frame]]
# [[44: Love]]
# [[54: Science]]
# [[55: Useless]]
# [[85: Paths]]
# [[105: Parallel Universe]]
# [[108: M.C. Hammer Slide]]
# [[112: Baring My Heart]]
# [[114: Computational Linguists]]
# [[120: Dating Service]]
# [[116: City]]
# [[117: Pong]]
# [[124: Blogofractal]]
# [[128: dPain over dt]]
# [[134: Myspace]]
# [[135: Substitute]]
# [[136: Science Fair]]
# [[137: Dreams]]
# [[138: Pointers]]
# [[149: Sandwich]]
# [[152: Hamster Ball]]
# [[160: Penny Arcade Parody]]
# [[153: Cryptography]]
# [[159: Boombox]]
# [[157: Filler Art]]
# [[161: Accident]]
# [[162: Angular Momentum]]
# [[184: Matrix Transform]]
# [[163: Donald Knuth]]
# [[165: Turn Signals]]
# [[201: Christmas GPS]]
# [[177: Alice and Bob]]
# [[173: Movie Seating]]
# [[179: e to the pi times i]]
# [[191: Lojban]]
# [[210: 90's Flowchart]]
# [[200: Bill Nye]]
# [[182: Nash]]
# [[180: Canada]]
# [[215: Letting Go]]
# [[239: Blagofaire]]
# [[225: Open Source]]
# [[230: Hamiltonian]]
# [[240: Dream Girl]]
# [[247: Factoring the Time]]
# [[248: Hypotheticals]]
# [[253: Highway Engineer Pranks]]
# [[257: Code Talkers]]
# [[258: Conspiracy Theories]]
# [[262: IN UR REALITY]]
# [[276: Fixed Width]]
# [[274: With Apologies to The Who]]
# [[279: Pickup Lines]]
# [[275: Thoughts]]
# [[77: Bored with the Internet]]
# [[150: Grownups]]
# [[167: Nihilism]]
# [[144: Parody Week: A Softer World]]
# [[209: Kayak]]
# [[202: YouTube]]
# [[285: Wikipedian Protester]]
# [[472: House of Pancakes]]
# [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]
# [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]]
# [[264: Choices: Part 1]]
# [[265: Choices: Part 2]]
# [[266: Choices: Part 3]]
# [[267: Choices: Part 4]]
# [[268: Choices: Part 5]]
# [[282: Organic Fuel]]
# [[280: Librarians]]
# [[320: 28-Hour Day]]
# [[316: Loud Sex]]
# [[284: Tape Measure]]
# [[287: NP-Complete]]
# [[290: Fucking Blue Shells]]
# [[303: Compiling]]
# [[291: Dignified]]
# [[305: Rule 34]]
# [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]
# [[333: Getting Out of Hand]]
# [[323: Ballmer Peak]]
# [[322: Pix Plz]]
# [[325: A-Minus-Minus]]
# [[340: Fight]]
# [[356: Nerd Sniping]]
# [[349: Success]]
# [[366: Your Mom]]
# [[369: Dangers]]
# [[372: To Be Wanted]]
# [[374: Journal]]
# [[377: Journal 2]]
# [[373: The Data So Far]]
# [[376: Bug]]
# [[380: Emoticon]]
# [[387: Advanced Technology]]
# [[386: Duty Calls]]
# [[412: Startled]]
# [[389: Keeping Time]]
# [[397: Unscientific]]
# [[391: Anti-Mindvirus]]
# [[393: Ultimate Game]]
# [[416: Zealous Autoconfig]]
# [[396: The Ring]]
# [[398: Tap That Ass]]
# [[420: Jealousy]]
# [[429: Fantasy]]
# [[434: xkcd Goes to the Airport]]
# [[435: Purity]]
# [[445: I Am Not Good with Boomerangs]]
# [[475: Further Boomerang Difficulties]]
# [[451: Impostor]]
# [[452: Mission]]
# [[463: Voting Machines]]
# [[500: Election]]
# [[481: Listen to Yourself]]
# [[486: I am Not a Ninja]]
# [[487: Numerical Sex Positions]]
# [[505: A Bunch of Rocks]]
# [[488: Steal This Comic]]
# [[511: Sleet]]
# [[530: I'm An Idiot]]
# [[513: Friends]]
# [[518: Flow Charts]]
# [[540: Base System]]
# [[569: Borders]]
# [[565: Security Question]]
# [[552: Correlation]]
# [[559: No Pun Intended]]
# [[591: Troll Slayer]]
# [[571: Can't Sleep]]
# [[592: Drama]]
# [[585: Outreach]]
</div>
{{cob}}
==Cypher==
The book also contains many puzzles within it, usually in red.

The bottom of page one has the following characters:<br>
CNEG BAR BS RVTUG VA URK: RR AVAR RVTUG SVIR BAR BAR RVTUG.

The text is encoded in a Caesar Cipher, {{w|ROT13|shifted 13 letters}}. It translates to:<br>
PART ONE OF EIGHT IN HEX: EE NINE EIGHT FIVE ONE ONE EIGHT.

This revealed the first part of the hex, and alerted readers to the fact that there was more encoded text..

The bottom of page two, under the strip Chess Photo, has

http://xkcd.com/chesscoaster/

On page 10, next to the comic Centrifugal Force, there is a drawing of Cueball leaning out of a hot air ballon above three mountains.

The bottom right of page 11 contains Cueball sitting next to a block of characters that is four characters tall and eight characters wide. The characters are

I0TAE/KE[New line]<br>
20IBSWIY[New line]<br>
ODE65TN8[New line]<br>
CO25.RAP

[Note: I could not differentiate the 1’s from the “I”’s and the 0’s from the “O”’s in this section, so this transcription may not be entirely accurate.]

Page 12 contains a drawing of Cueball holding a cat next to the comic Cat Proximity. He is saying

KITTY KITTY KITTY<br>

On page 111, below the comic Useless, there is the text<br>
CY-O CMLROOCXN. YR M.AOGP. NRK.W ABE ,CYDRGY M.AOGP.M.BY YD.P. JAB X. BR OJC.BJ.V <D.B CY JRM.O YR NRK.W ,.-P. ANN CB YD. EAPTV [[TCBO.F

This text is the result of changing text from a QWERTY keyboard to a DVORAK keyboard. When decoded, it reads:<br>
IT'S IMPOSSIBLe TO MeASURe LOVe< AND wITHOUT MeASUReMeNT THeRe CAN Be NO SCIeNCe> WHeN IT COMeS TO LOVe< we'Re ALL IN THe DARK> --KINSeY

On the bottom of page 1000, near the comic M.C. Hammer Slide, there is a drawing of Cueball doing the M.C. Hammer slide in a hamster ball with the caption M.C. Hamster written below it.

On page 1010, there is a drawing of Cueball on a one wheeler approaching a ramp to the right

On the page 1012, under the comic DPain Over Dt, there is the text in braille:<br>
⠊⠞⠀⠞⠁⠅⠑⠎⠀⠍⠕⠗⠑⠀⠞⠊⠍⠑⠀⠞⠓⠁⠝⠀⠽⠕⠥⠀⠑⠭⠏⠑⠉⠞ ⠃⠥⠞ ⠇⠑⠎⠎ ⠞⠓⠁⠝⠀⠽⠕⠥⠀⠋⠑⠁⠗⠲

This is a line of text written in Braille. Translated to English, it reads:<br>
''it takes more time than you expect but less than you fear.''

This is seemingly unrelated to the cipher, but it is instead a message for those attempting to crack it.

On page 1020, to the upper left of the comic Science Fair, there is a drawing of Cueball saying

I have a wave generator and<br>
Peter Frampton’s talkbox. Ladies?<br>

The following pages have the respective 2 characters in the upper right corner

101010 grey LY<br>
101120 red IK<br>
102000 red GU<br>
110100 red EH<br>
110102 red DO<br>
110111 red CR<br>

The bottom of page 10020 under the Dream Girl strip, has
772A3A35 DEF88CA7 0BDFD186 20B05684 934721F8 F64762FD<br>
03F8D76B 3FA0CB8C 2756B2D0 A9F00A1B CFF1603E DB05426C<br>

The bottom of page 10112 has a string written in binary, which reads:<br>
0011001001011100000101100000110111100100001010100110011000010010110011

This, when put through a decoder, translates to 

The bottom of page 111000 (2nd last page) says<br>
123 B<br>
followed by an arrow bouncing off a vertical line, and the string<br>
VRDSTLRBYSMRLUVRXGCFHZWXKYNHYKLKWMCLRMFIKOZAIYXJWITOYOVN<br>

Page 110120 contains the following poem rotated 90 degrees clockwise.<br>
THE START OF THE TENTH-FAVORITE WORD USED BY BENDER (C in Chump)<br>
THE TOON THAT WENT SOUTH WHILE COMMANDED BY ENDER (Dumper from [[Ender's Game]])<br>
THE NUMBER OF LIGHTS THAT PICARD SAID WERE ON (Four Lights)<br>
AND THE CLASS OF THE PLANET WHERE KIRK SHOUTED "KHAAAN!" (The planet was M class) <br>
THE RINGS FOR THE MEN MINUS RINGS FOR THE ELVES (9 for men - 3 for elves = 6)<br>
AND THE PRODUCT MOD 10 OF A FIVESOME OF TWELVES (0)<br>
THE END OF A CODE NES GAMERS KNOW ("Start" as in the end of the Konami code, sometimes mapped as 1)<br>
AND THE BASE USED TO MODEL HOW QUICKLY THINGS GROW (Eulers number or e) <br>
WHEN THEY'RE XOR'D TOGETHER THE CHECKSUM IS "E" (All numbers above (601 and 9 for e for a reason unknown to me)  XOR'd together is 14 which is commonly stated as "E" in hexidecimal formatting, the fact that E = 14 allowed for the final cypher's decription <br>
WHICH WILL TELL YOU YOU'VE GOT THE PENULTIMATE KEY<br>

These various cyphers contained clues for several puzzles.
The combination of them led to a final cypher: EE98511873CD4542DA101CBC735646B09BE32BE0D0E0C9A6CB4D62AE8662384F) And was successfully decoded by the [[Forums]].
EE985118 is from the Caesar cypher shift.
LYIKGUEHDOCR Provided a polyalphabetic shift
The checksum "E" from the XOR poem was then used as a bitwise mask. Each byte of the resulting data was XOR'd with this value to flip specific bits and align the data with standard text encoding.
Once the shifts and bitwise XOR operations were complete, the hexadecimal bytes were converted into ASCII characters.
The solution was a series of coordinates and a time: <3<3<3 2010-06-26 14:28:57 37.769573 -122.483123.
This led to the middle of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, 2010 June 26th at 2:30pm-ish.
A group of about 100 XKCD fans showed up to the location and were rewarded with a limited edition copy of XKCD volume 0.

Not much else is known about the cypher and special edition, and due to the takedown of the [[Forums]] most of the information as to how the cypher was solved is lost to time.

==See also==
* pg 1 [[10: Pi Equals]]
* pg 111 [[55: Useless]]
* pg 1012  [[128: dPain over dt]]
And talk/discussion pages for
* pg 11002  [[144: Parody Week: A Softer World]]
* pg 11002  [[209: Kayak]]
* pg 11011  [[285: Wikipedian Protester]]
* pg 100000 [[282: Organic Fuel]]
* pg 100012 [[290: Fucking Blue Shells]]

Other pages also have extra text, drawings, or glyphs.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Red Spiders| ]]
[[Category:Books]]{{xkcdmeta}}