Editing Talk:380: Emoticon

This ''may'' also be a reference or allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Langford#Basilisks David Langford's basilisks], which are computer-generated images (mostly fractals) that kill or otherwise incapacitate people by triggering faults or overloads common to human neuropathways. ...I think it's just about the humor in a mythological basilisk's power transferring via emoticons, though. [[User:JET73L|JET73L]] ([[User talk:JET73L|talk]]) 16:05, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

<BSLSK05> :) {{unsigned ip|173.72.159.14}}

Perhaps Cueball isn't dead, but petrified, because he saw the eyes indirectly? Like in Harry Potter. [[Special:Contributions/121.99.61.70|121.99.61.70]] 21:10, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

:The X'd eyes and skull floating above [[Cueball]] indicates that the basilisk was, indeed, successful in its task. For those concerned about the paradox between "Cueball"'s untimely demise in this comic and his future appearances, consider this a parallel reality. Your brain is safe! [[User:Thokling|Thokling]] ([[User talk:Thokling|talk]]) 05:50, 22 September 2013 (UTC)
:: Maybe a Poincaré recurrence time passes between this comic and the next one. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.5}}

:: ...or just consider that 'Cueball' is simply the name of the 'species' of stick figure here. Otherwise, the Cueball here would still be [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Talk:169:_Words_that_End_in_GRY missing a hand, literally.] [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 03:16, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
::: Of course, there's no way we can tell it's not a prosthesis. --[[User:Alex|Alex]] ([[User talk:Alex|talk]]) 19:51, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
Is this the last comic with a CRT monitor? [[Special:Contributions/89.243.117.162|89.243.117.162]] 20:57, 14 August 2013 (UTC)
:Good question, I did add a category for this so we can collect them.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:26, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
::The CTR category was deleted by Davidy so the puzzle is left unsolved [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:10, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

It would be extraordinarily like xkcd to include a reference to [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk Roko's Basilisk]] and make it literal, in a manner similar to how other debates and ideas in computer science, mathematics, and other fields became actual battles.  Consider [[http://xkcd.com/804/ Pumpkin Carving]] or [[http://xkcd.com/704/ Principle of Explosion]], where ideas from set theory and logic manifest directly in the world.  Warning: some folk find the thought experiment of Roko's Basilisk disturbing. {{unsigned ip|108.162.238.166}}
:As noted above, the reference is more likely to Langford's basilisks (though the rest of your comment fits just as well). Though now I at least have an idea why is Roko's Basilisk named that... I kept wondering "why is this thought experiment in any way similar to a basilisk?" --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.74|141.101.81.74]] 06:37, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
::For that matter, this particular comic is early enough that it actually ''predates'' the Roko's Basilisk story. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.78|141.101.81.78]] 15:24, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

;What's up with the explanation??

The explanation is super messy, can someone who understands it fix it? {{unsigned ip|162.158.133.120}}

== Trivia ==

U+FDD0 did in fact kill at least one chat client at the time. Konversation in particular. (and presumably any other Qt-based chat clients using QTextDocument)
"basically u+fdd0 (eye of basilisk, the snake) is in a char range that's marked for interchange and illegal in utf-8"
"but qt's utf-8 encoder let it through anyway"
"but it just so happens that qt's qtextdocument uses u+fdd0 as text frame delimiter"
"so when you append it to a qtd, counters run wrong and eventually you crash"
"d-bus closes the connection and crashes the client when it encounters illegal utf-8, and kde's notification system works through d-bus"
The problem was fixed after the xkcd "report" and Konversation now handles unicode normally.