Talk:1785: Wifi

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 18:19, 13 January 2017 by 141.101.99.17 (talk)
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This, I believe, is in reference to things like DD-WRT, where someone with knowledge may install it to 'improve' your router. If done right, it can increase the speed and stability, if not, it can brick it. 172.68.78.70 05:23, 13 January 2017 (UTC) That's what I thought too! Girish, 162.158.166.197 05:27, 13 January 2017 (UTC) I installed Hurd on my router dont judge me ok. --162.158.91.137 06:14, 13 January 2017 (UTC) I doubt it is referring to router firmware. The tech-savviness is of the housguest, not of the router owner (though, I can easily imagine somebody updating host router). --162.158.134.106 12:18, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Some devices need operational firmware downloaded to them after reset, so it's handled at boot time by a firmware downloader. A typical example is devices which have s DSP in them; the DSP's code would be loaded into the device's RAM designated for the purpose. For Wi-Fi, it might handle the low level details of associating with an AP, performing the WPA2 protocol for example so the device looks for the most part logically like any other network interface, e.g. Ethernet. In this case, it would have nothing to do with the firmware in the Wi-Fi AP.
RChandra (talk) 12:05, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

“In most systems this just works but in the case of more geeky operating systems, like GNU/Linux, it needs to be installed separately.” Ironically, it's quite the opposite these days. On a fresh Windows install you typically have no network drivers, but with a lot of GNU/Linux distros you have network out of the box. 141.101.105.60 09:25, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

I would agree with you on wired connections there, but with the most common Intel or Broadcom WLAN chipsets on laptops it's the other way around. Windows works out of the box (maybe downloads a newer driver from Windows Update once you set up the Internet connection), while especially libre Linux distributions (which are inherently "geekier", because they focus on the political aspect of Free Software instead of something that Just Werks™) lack the non-free firmware required to drive those parts. TisTheAlmondTavern 10:11, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

I don't understand how the skydiving example is far fetched, but I'm the one who added it so I've got a total of 0 objectivity on the matter :). The skydiving example is here to demonstrate the paradox "the more you know how to fix it, the more it will be broken for you", because in both cases (computer saavy people, or skydiving instructors) the ones who know more are also the ones who will take more risks, and get further away from the common approach to the problem (for skydiving, the common thing to do is to not jump, while non computer saavy people will not try linux or whatever it is that fails to work out of the box). I agree that the skydiving comparison is not perfect (in computing it's a difference of main config/advanced config, while in skydiving it's a difference of doing it or not. Also you can expect your computer knowledge to help you fix thing on a broken computer. In a skydiving accident, no matter how much knowledge you have you are not going to pull a parachute before the issue gets to a terminal point), but it's the one Randall chose for that can of counter-intuitive correlation. 141.101.69.213 13:34, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Your explanation here makes sense but as far as I am concerned (not seeing the original questioning of the analogy to which you seem to be responding back to) the current way it fits into the explanation is abrupt, seems to suggest the titletext mentions skydiving. Could be solved saying "In the title text this is just like the ones who die from skydiving..." and maybe some other little tweaks to make it a little more snappy. IMO. Leaving the editing up to others... 141.101.99.17 18:19, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

it only takes three commands to install Gentoo

cfdisk /dev/hda && mkfs.xfs /dev/hda1 && mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/ && chroot /mnt/gentoo/ && env-update && . /etc/profile && emerge sync && cd /usr/portage && scripts/bootsrap.sh && emerge system && emerge vim && vi /etc/fstab && emerge gentoo-dev-sources && cd /usr/src/linux && make menuconfig && make install modules_install && emerge gnome mozilla-firefox openoffice && emerge grub && cp /boot/grub/grub.conf.sample /boot/grub/grub.conf && vi /boot/grub/grub.conf && grub && init 6

that's the first one
Source: Bash.org --108.162.216.220 15:53, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Relevant: xkcd 434 xkcd Goes to the Airport, panel 3 162.158.214.52 17:28, 13 January 2017 (UTC)