Editing 1678: Recent Searches

The comic refers to the practice of finding answers to computer problems using {{w|Google}}. It shows a list of search queries, each of which suggests the author is perversely misusuing or overextending some computer technology or technologies. The overall impression is of someone technically sophisticated enough to shoot themselves in the foot, and who does not learn any larger lessons despite doing so repeatedly. It is unlikely any of the searches would give useful answers, because no two people would be perverse in these extremely specific ways. The title text is another possible entry in this list. A complication in attempting to solve computer problems this way would be presented by Google's search term autocorrection, which for several years has replaced technical terms with unrelated language from recent popular culture.

| {{w|Syntax highlighting}} can be used when editing source code to make the code more readable and easier to understand. {{w|Google Translate}} is used to translate text from one {{w|natural language}} to another. The joke here is that syntax highlighting doesn't make sense in the context of translating natural languages.

| {{w|bash}} and {{w|Z_shell|zsh}} are two {{w|Command-line_interface|command line interfaces}} for {{w|Linux}}. The way to execute commands is almost identical, making detecting a script that contains a mixed syntax nearly impossible.

| The CPU's temperature sensors exist to tell you when your CPU is becoming dangerously overheated (normally because of a faulty fan or overclocking). Someone who searches for information about the limits of those sensors is presumably expecting to misuse their CPU.

| .GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) is a file extension used to store images and sequences of images to be displayed as an animation. .XLS is the file extension for Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The joke is that the complete difference between the two types of file makes any kind of conversion all but impossible, so the search is useless. (Although, in fact, this search turns up a number of results along the lines of OCR programs that can convert a table in a GIF image to spreadsheet format.)

|  Jumper wire is a short circuit used for switching a certain function on an electronic circuit. On a motherboard, jumpers can be used to alter the clock speeds of various motherboard functions (such as the CPU or the front side bus). These jumpers should be modified when the computer is off. However, this search is asking how often the motherboard checks the status of the clock speed jumpers, implying that they intend to change these jumpers while the computer is powered on.

| [https://www.google.com/search?q=clean+reinstall+keybinding Clean reinstall keybinding]

| {{w|Cron}} is a utility that allows you to schedule commands or scripts to be run periodically. These scheduled jobs are read from a ''crontab'' file. A job that updates the crontab (therefore creating new jobs, removing old ones or editing existing ones) is highly unusual and unlikely to be what you actually want to do.

| [https://www.google.com/search?q=fsck+chrome+extension fsck Chrome extension]

| EBNF refers to {{w|Extended Backus–Naur Form}}, which is used to define {{w|Formal Language|formal languages}}. It is far too complex for a {{w|Regular_Expression|regular expression}} to determine whether it is valid or not. There is some irony in using regex to test the validity of something which ''defines'' the validity of things like regex.

| [https://www.google.com/search?q=Hardlinks+Turing+complete Hardlinks Turing complete]

| In some filesystems, for example {{w|ext4}} and {{w|NTFS}}, a single file may be referenced by different names anywhere in the filesystem.  These filenames are termed "hard links" to the file because they are automatically resolved by the operating system to the file metadata.  "Soft" or "symbolic" links are resolved indirectly via a filename, which may reside anywhere.  A file is deleted when the last hard link to it is unlinked; a soft link exists independently of its target.

{{w|Turing completeness}} is the {{w|computational complexity}} required to simulate any other Turing complete system (given an infinite amount of memory). Recently there have been cases where unexpected mechanisms from card games to text parsers were proved to be Turing complete. Hardlinks being Turing complete would imply that creating and deleting hardlinks alone is enough to statisfy the requirements of Turing completeness.

| Opposite of safe mode

| {{w|Safe mode}} is a diagnostic mode of an operating system or application which allows the user to troubleshoot problems by disabling unnecessary functionality. The "opposite of safe mode" implies a "dangerous" mode where the purpose is to cause problems rather than fix them.

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| Predictive touchpad

| {{w|Predictive text}} is a feature of many smartphone keyboards that predicts the most likely word the user wishes to type, and then gives the user the option to place the word in the sentence without typing the whole word. A {{w|touchpad}} is a computer pointing device, similar to a {{w|computer mouse}}. The idea of a "predictive touchpad" seems absurd because, as opposed to typed words, there are not a limited number of swipe combinations that are possible on a touchpad. A "predictive touchpad" implies that a computer could predict where the user was going to move the mouse or click, which is clearly unreasonable. {{Citation needed}}  

| Google docs from bootloader

| Google docs relies on programs and libraries much more complex than a {{w|bootloader}} (a very small program running immediately after boot, mainly for loading the OS) could run.

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| Hardware acceleration red channel only

| {{w|Hardware acceleration}} means that certain calculations are not performed by the computer's {{w|CPU}} but by a "specialized" processor, e.g. a {{w|GPU}} which is part of the graphics adapter. This speeds up output, especially if complex 3D calculations are required and reduces CPU load. To use this function only on a single color channel seems pretty useless, but one may want to troubleshoot a program that displays only red when hardware acceleration is enabled.

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| autoexec code posted by verified twitter users

| Automatically executing code from the internet is generally a terrible idea, because it could be written by someone with malicious intent and harm your computer. The joke here is that the code would only be executed if written by someone who has been "verified" on Twitter. Twitter's verification service only serves to show that a user is who they claim to be, not whether or not their code can be trusted, so this would provide little protection.

:[Coloured and styled as the logo]

:Google

:[Google Search bar, with a drop down box with faded text, implying recent searches]

:[Bold, below page outline]

:I have no idea why my computers are always broken