530: I'm An Idiot - Revision history

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

2025-12-15T08:58:47Z

‎Transcript: add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

Danger Kitty at 20:39, 14 November 2023

2023-11-14T20:39:19Z

Danger Kitty: "an" is not capitalized in the comic title.

2023-11-14T20:37:39Z

"an" is not capitalized in the comic title.

JLZ0kTC5 at 21:54, 2 November 2022

2022-11-02T21:54:58Z

Jacky720: Reverted edits by Xray Kilo Charlie Delta (talk) to last revision by CRLF

2022-05-23T18:47:19Z

Reverted edits by Xray Kilo Charlie Delta (talk) to last revision by CRLF

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Xray Kilo Charlie Delta: haha your js cant stop my js

2022-05-23T18:13:26Z

haha your js cant stop my js

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CRLF: Reverted vandalism with User:CRLF/OneClickUndo.js

2022-05-21T02:22:12Z

Reverted vandalism with User:CRLF/OneClickUndo.js

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Explain xkcd server admin at 21:24, 20 May 2022

2022-05-20T21:24:44Z

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Theusaf: Reverted edits by 👖🔥 (talk) to last revision by Jacky720

2022-05-11T18:46:08Z

Reverted edits by 👖🔥 (talk) to last revision by Jacky720

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👖🔥 at 17:38, 11 May 2022

2022-05-11T17:38:41Z

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← Older revision		Revision as of 08:58, 15 December 2025
Line 49:		Line 49:
	[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]		[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
	[[Category:Computers]]		[[Category:Computers]]
		+	[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==Explanation==
-[[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization.  The content of this realization—"I'm an Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic.  The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.
+[[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization.  The content of this realization—"I'm An Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic.  The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.
 Additionally some readers will be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another.  They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered.  This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==Explanation==
-[[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization.  The content of this realization—"I'm An Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic.  The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.
+[[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization.  The content of this realization—"I'm an Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic.  The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.
 Additionally some readers will be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another.  They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered.  This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 [[Cueball]], locked out of his {{w|dorm}}/{{w|apartment}}, is trying to get his roommate [[Megan|Megan's]] attention so that she'll unlock the door. He tries various increasingly obscure ways of contacting her: calling her cell phone, {{w|IRC}}, the window, and finally remotely logging into their Mac computer (via {{w|Secure Shell|SSH}}) to make it shout at her, which involves working out a way to turn up the computer's volume. [[Ponytail]] informs him of the most obvious solution—the doorbell—which prompts a moment of realization.  The content of this realization—"I'm An Idiot"—is stated in the title of the comic.  The humor of the comic derives from the rhythm of the panels: a long buildup followed by a short quip, then a sudden, silent pause for the implied realization moment.
-Additionaly some readers will be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another.  They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered.  This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].
+Additionally some readers will be familiar with the behavior shown in the comic, since most every person who likes solving problems has experienced a moment of realization similar to Cueball's at one point or another.  They, like Cueball, get distracted by solving an interesting problem [[356: Nerd Sniping|''because solving problems is fun'']], and fail to notice that the problem has an easier solution that they haven't considered.  This same issue of getting lost in a sub-problem [in this case, the-sub problem of how to remotely control text-to-speech in OS X] at the expense of overall problem-solving ability is further covered in [[761: DFS]].
 The title text states that this is a true story, so Cueball must represent [[Randall]]. It also mentions that, although missing an obvious solution can be humiliating, one often learns a lot from trying new solutions, which would explain why the behavior persists.