Why XKCD sucks today
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CDP1802 wrote:
And a performance like assembly? Laughable. How can an interpreter which has to parse and interpret every line each time it is encountered ever hope to come close to the native machine code? Such nonsense can only be claimed by people who have never tried or understood what assembly or machine code are all about. Even in the old days some people never really understood the overhead involved with parsing, interpreting and then executing a single line of a higher level language.
It can't. That's why I laugh at such hyped-up claims. Script kiddies these days. :laugh:
Jeremy Falcon
During my studies, the professor started the first lecture about assembly programming with claiming that compilers 'nowadays' do a better job than the average assembly programmer. I made a comment about not comparing myself to the average and he thought that I was a bit arrogant. Later we had many interesting talks, after he heard that I had about 18 years experience of machine code and assembly programming at that time.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns. -
The comic is a tribute to Rowdy Roddy Piper...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
Well, at least there's two of us who got it :rolleyes:.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
Guerrilla Coder wrote:
A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it
Unless the comic's intended audience is nuclear physicists :) Today's is pretty funny (and I didn't study physics) :laugh: That said, I don't understand them either half of the time, which is why I usually don't read XKCD ;)
Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles at my CodeProject profile.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
It's not always intended to be funny, per se. Sometimes the intent, at least what I get from it, is to make one stop and think, or appreciate something a little more. He also from time to time just pays tribute to someone or something that is important to him. Many are a visual, math or other pun, and can take some thought to "get", and while I'll freely admit I don't always get what he's trying to say, I still read it every day. :)
Currently reading: "The Prince", by Nicolo Machiavelli
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
Can you send the link to XKCD cartoon you mentioned? It's already tomorrow here (Sydney) and I don't think "today's" comic (http://xkcd.com/1561/) needs a PhD. Btw, and on topic, http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/ is well worth a read if you've never seen it. Bill has been analysing obscure comics online since 1997.
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
http://xkcd.com/ wrote:
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
:D
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
I regularly find them quite funny, on occasion they are even hilarious.
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
I always thought this one was pretty funny... https://xkcd.com/149/[^]
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
Its like most jokes.. if you don't have the background, its not funny. The water phase diagram is hilarious.. except he missed the supercritical fluid/Simon Cowell regions. And I'm still trying to figure where ice 9 and polywater fit (probably next to the polly-want-a-cracker region). And no, you don't need a PhD, just a good basis in science for that one.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
I love XKCD! There, I said it. I love XKCD because it's so intensely geeky. If not everybody gets the joke, that's ok. I love XKCD because unlike 99% of the internet, it's not about lolcats, Justin Bieber, or how drunk somebody got last friday. People who don't get XKCD should go watch Nyan Cat on youtube. OK Nyan Cat isn't funny, but maybe the suggested links will be. Please don't ruin the tiny remaining piece of the internet that is funny to the kind of people who *built* the internet, rather than the kind of people who spend their lives on it now.
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
Mostly they just make me smile. I do understand them, but most of them do require a passing familiarity with advanced topics physics, chemistry or engineering. The bubblegum bit is obviously an homage to Roddy Piper in They Live. Today's requires that you know what a phase diagram is and understand that not all water ice is the same as some crystalline structures aren't possible without certain temperatures and pressures. Since VI is also the initials of Vanilla Ice, he stretched it to conclude that far greater rock bands require even higher pressures. Both are humorous, but I wouldn't break out in laughter.
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Mostly they just make me smile. I do understand them, but most of them do require a passing familiarity with advanced topics physics, chemistry or engineering. The bubblegum bit is obviously an homage to Roddy Piper in They Live. Today's requires that you know what a phase diagram is and understand that not all water ice is the same as some crystalline structures aren't possible without certain temperatures and pressures. Since VI is also the initials of Vanilla Ice, he stretched it to conclude that far greater rock bands require even higher pressures. Both are humorous, but I wouldn't break out in laughter.
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Am I the only one who fails to understand what it means most of the time? I feel stupid every time I read it and can't figure it out, but I can't stop reading the damned thing either. The other site that explains it doesn't really help, since it no longer is funny once explained. A comic shouldn't require the reader to have a &#$&! PhD in nuclear physics to understand it. For instance, WTF is he on about in today's one? (or yesterday's, whichever it is). grumble grumble...
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During my studies, the professor started the first lecture about assembly programming with claiming that compilers 'nowadays' do a better job than the average assembly programmer. I made a comment about not comparing myself to the average and he thought that I was a bit arrogant. Later we had many interesting talks, after he heard that I had about 18 years experience of machine code and assembly programming at that time.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns. -
Yes, that must be it. Do you really think they did not try to get their good old BASIC interpreters to perform a little better 35 years ago when memory and CPU were a little more limited than now? Your 'modern´interpreters are just as wasteful and a pain to work with as the old ones and no optimization short of turning them into compilers will make it any better. Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a fucking golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?" "You mean like from space?" "No, from Canada." If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
