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  3. Why XKCD sucks today

Why XKCD sucks today

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  • L Lost User

    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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    Brad Stiles
    wrote on last edited by
    #25

    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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    • L Lost User

      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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      Sydney Fixie
      wrote on last edited by
      #26

      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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      • L Lost User

        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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        bleahy48
        wrote on last edited by
        #27

        I wish you would specifically reference which one you are talking about and then we could explain it to you.

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        • L Lost User

          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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          Andrew Rissing
          wrote on last edited by
          #28

          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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          • L Lost User

            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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            Chuck OHalloran
            wrote on last edited by
            #29

            I regularly find them quite funny, on occasion they are even hilarious.

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            • L Lost User

              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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              Weston Miller
              wrote on last edited by
              #30

              I always thought this one was pretty funny... https://xkcd.com/149/[^]

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              • L Lost User

                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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                patbob
                wrote on last edited by
                #31

                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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                • L Lost User

                  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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                  SeattleC
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #32

                  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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                  • L Lost User

                    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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                    firegryphon
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #33

                    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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                    • F firegryphon

                      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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                      TRK3
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #34

                      "David Bowie & Queen" is specifically a reference to the song Under_Pressure[^] which they recorded together in 1981.

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                      • L Lost User

                        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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                        raildude
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #35

                        when it says "No flame wars" -- doesn't that mean you can't say "XKCD sucks"? ;P

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                        • L Lost User

                          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.

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                          bwilhite
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #36

                          You guys don't seem to understand how modern javascript interpreters work.

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                          • B bwilhite

                            You guys don't seem to understand how modern javascript interpreters work.

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                            Lost User
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #37

                            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.

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