#xkcd

Ygor @ygor@floss.social

Looks like Randall is trying to disprove @pluralistic's theory by imagining a scenario in which interoperability contributes to enshittification

https://xkcd.com/3105/

#xkcd #comic #interoperability

Interoperability

xkcd

Jun 21, 2025, 16:52 · · 1 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #Interoperability

https://xkcd.com/3105/

#Humour #Cartoon

A person says, "Compatibility and interoperability are so important. For example, most subway rails are 143.5 cm apart. But many roller coasters us a narrower 110 cm gauge. For the last few years, our company has been quietly retrofitting roller coasters to us 143.5 cm tracks. So we can begin Phase 2." Another person says, "Maybe interoperability is actually bad." The first person replies, "If you listen to the destination announcement while boarding, you'll be fine."

Jun 21, 2025, 10:59 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #Tukey

https://xkcd.com/3104/

#Humour #Cartoon

A quote reads, "Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise." John W. Tukey, The future of data analysis (1962). The caption reads, "Happy approximate birthday to John Tukey, author of my favourite statistics quote, who was born 110,000 years ago some time this week."

Jun 19, 2025, 22:45 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #ExoplanetSystem

https://xkcd.com/3103/

#Humour #Cartoon

Exoplanet types. For detailed explanation, go to:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3103

Jun 17, 2025, 09:26 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #ReadingABigNumber

https://xkcd.com/3102/

#Humour #Cartoon

A long string , which seems to be a number, is written:
54,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,054,000"000,0c2ef46....
The comments are from left to right:
54! Great! I know that number. Solid start.
First comma: oh a comma and some zeroes. Cool must be at least 54 thousand.
Second comma: A second comma! I wonder it we're talking population or money.
Third comma: Yikes! If this is money it's a lot of money.
Fifth comma: Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I'm not going to be able to visualize it.
Sixth comma: All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers.
Seventh comma is missing, an extra zero is there instead: Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we'll see if the next group has two zeroes or three. If it's two, we can at least hoep the digits are right.
Another string of four zeroes: Oh no.
Next group is 054: What is happening.
Next, instead of a comma, there is a " instead: Someone messed up real bad.
Letters from a-f start appearing instead of digits: Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn't me.

Jun 14, 2025, 11:41 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #GoodScience

https://xkcd.com/3101/

#Humour #Cartoon

A person is giving a class to students. She says, "I'm supposed to give you the tools to do good science. But what are those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important:
Outcome variables:
* Correct scientific results
Preictors:
* Colloboration
* Scepticism of others' claims
* Questioning own beliefs
* Trying to falsify hypotheses
* Checking citations
* Statistical rigour
* Blinded analysis
* Financial disclosure
* Open data
The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide."

A student asks, "Wait, why did ammonia score so high? How did it even get on the list?" The person answers, "... and now you're doing good science!"

Jun 12, 2025, 12:02 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #AlertSound

https://xkcd.com/3100/

#Humour #Cartoon

A person at a laptop hears a beep. He exclaims, "Aaaaa! I heard it again! Where is that coming from!?" The caption reads, "It turns out living well is only the second-best revenge. The best is making a tiny hole in someone's wall and dropping in a battery-powered capsule that, every 6-12 hours, plays the alert sound of a USB device connecting."

Jun 10, 2025, 10:22 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #Neighbor-SourceHeatPump

https://xkcd.com/3099/

#Humour #Cartoon

A house has got illicit pipework passing through the fabric of a neighbouring house. The caption reads, "A covertly-installed neighbour-source heat pump takes advantage of the fact that your neighbour keeps their house cool in the summer and warm in the winter."

Jun 07, 2025, 11:13 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #TrojanHorse

https://xkcd.com/3098/

#Humour #Cartoon

At the gates of Ilium a person says, "When the Greeks departed, they left behind a horse as a gift. We took it as a gesture of peace, but it carried a secret payload. One night, from within the horse, another, smaller horse emerged! Our guards have been unable to determine the inner horse's objective, but it has begun to show an interest in our oats." Another person says, "An attack on Troy's food supply!" A third says, "How dare they?"

Jun 05, 2025, 09:05 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #BridgeTypes

https://xkcd.com/3097/

#Humour #Cartoon #Engineering #StructuralEngineering #CivilEngineering

Bridge types:
Plank (beam)
Rope
Truss
Trestle
Arch
Suspended arch
Draw
Suspension
Filler (the gap has been completely filled in with rocks, etc.)
Budget overrun (an elaborate cable-stayed bridge)
Jump
Halfhearted (goes to the bottom of the ravine)
Waterbed (pontoon)
L'engle (warping space)
Fun (incorporates rollercoaster loop)
Repurposed elevator (turned on its side)

Jun 03, 2025, 08:30 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #CheckEngine

https://xkcd.com/3096/

#Humour #Cartoon

An image of the Sun is shown with sunspots arranged to form the warning signal "Check Engine". The caption reads, "This new sunspot cluster has raised concern among astronomers."

May 31, 2025, 18:00 · · 0 · 0

Khurram Wadee @mkwadee@mastodon.org.uk

#xkcd: #Archaea

https://xkcd.com/3095/

#Humour #Cartoon

Three people are looking at the tree of life. One says, "It's weird how, despite being one of the main branches of the tree of life, no archaea species are known to cause disease in humans." Another replies, "Personally, I think it's because those gross methane breathers are two weird and incompetent to figure out how to hurt us even if they wanted to." A plaintive shout of "Hey!" is heard from a specimen slide on a microscope nearby. The caption reads, "Bad news: After overhearing a conversation in our lab, archaea has finally started harming humans."

May 29, 2025, 08:44 · · 0 · 0

chris @chrizzle23@mastodon.sdf.org

I am just finishing up the “Who Broke The Internet” podcast with @pluralistic and the tech companies with their huge networks of users are valueable because of their size, yet overvalued because so many of us are counted multiple times because we use more than one app. A situation that was illustrated fairly well by this #XKCD comic about the fractious nature of messaging systems.