Talk:1121: Identity

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 18:33, 15 October 2012 by 76.122.5.96 (talk)
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He could also be bothered by her willingness to give away the password so easily. Anyone who has spent a sufficient amount of time with the character would have an idea of the things he's interested in. The image text supports it a little by saying how anyone he knows would be aware that he acts like that. 76.122.5.96 08:57, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

They could also be using a version of Google Wave or some such IM... It was possible to view realtime what the others were typing on the window. Then Megan would be able to interrupt Cueball easily.

Notably, although the characters appear to be communicating by way of text (whether SMS, or some instant messaging protocol), Megan should not be able to interrupt Cueball. Text-based messages do not typically stream in realtime as they are typed. She wouldn't be able to read his message until he completed it and sent it. -- TheHYPO (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Unless they are using something like the unix talk command, which does stream characters as they are typed. This might make sense since they are conversing about a server password, but talk might also perform proper authentication, although it could likely be spoofed as most early unix programs were not very secure. The characters are not streamed in real time, by the way, because there is no deadline for transmission of the characters. Sending something "as soon as possible" is pretty much the opposite of "real-time" and I think this wiki should make great efforts to be extra geeky about the use of the phrase "real-time" treating it like "real-time operating system" rather than "I use the web so I think the word 'real-time' means that time itself is not fake." Has Randall written a comic about the misuse of the phrase "real-time"? He should. -- Jsbqvb (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Moved here from the explanation. lcarsos (talk) 16:56, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

It's possible that he was sending each sentence separately, and she's responding to one of the ones he already completed. 76.122.5.96 18:33, 15 October 2012 (UTC)