Friday, June 24, 2011

Comics 915 and 916: Dying Of Consumption

915. What is there to be said about this comic that hasn't already been said about Ladybird Taint? It's an uninteresting stab at people who call themselves connoisseurs which makes an assertion then backs it up with a hypothetical scenario, trying to derive humor from "lolrandom." (Apparently before the comic went up, he even said in the #xkcd IRC channel that the comic would be late, but as a plus side it included the phrase "canadian surrealist porn.") Next?

916. I forgot that when I say "next?" in the context of XKCD it brings me to another fucking comic. can I take it back? In this one, Randy has discovered security through obscurity and is presenting it as a unique insight he had to protect your valuables--but, in a classic Randallian twist, it only works against geeks!!!

Really, Randy? This is your comic? 'If you have a really hard-to-break safe, people will assume that's where you keep your valuables!' Did you just have someone break into your house and steal your jokes? Is that what happened here? Are you trying to GOOMH geeks into saying "I do this too, but geekier?" (Seriously, check out the forums on this one, it has all sorts of fanboys describing their home security systems. And one nerd lecturing them for how their security system is now compromised.) Or did you really just discover the concept of misleading home security?

50 comments:

  1. Second. U jelly firstfag?

    Everyone below this line is jelly
    _____________________________________

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  2. There is a quote:
    "Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They know how it's done. They see it done every day of their lives. Yet they are unable to do it themselves."
    You, my friend, are a eunuch. So you don't like xkcd, okay. You're entitled to dedicate your life to a blog about how crappy it is. But here's the deal: You're being a child. We're all very impressed how you set up a website to cry about how you don't like another guy's website.
    And then, in lieu of, say, actually doing something with your life, like writing a book or teaching people or doing YOUR OWN THING, your one claim to fame is your greatest enemy. You do realize that YOU HAVE XKCD TO THANK for your popularity. So go ahead and trash it all you want, but know that if your world mission ever succeeds, xkcd's webtraffic comes crashing down and nobody ever listens to what Randall Monroe dares to believe is funny, you will be left crying to yourself that you now have nobody else to whine about all day long. At that point, you will find something else to complain about all day long to the internet. But, only as a last resort, will you create something of your own. Parasitism is just so much easier.

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  3. wait, since when am I not writing a book, teaching people, and doing my own thing? I can barely even be bothered to update this blog three times a week regularly. even guest posts usually go up late.

    I create shit of my own all the time.

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  4. Rob and Anonymous must be the samefag. Look at the time stamps!

    You really need to try harder, Rob.

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  5. er Rob this is an anonymous dude on the internet, I'm pretty sure he knows everything about you

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  6. HEY PHYSICISTS, @10:27 in particular.

    You all have Newton to thank for where you are.

    And Newton wrote much more about God than he ever did about science.

    For Newton was religious.

    So YOU HAVE RELIGION TO THANK for your life.

    That is all.

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  7. _____________________________________
    Everyone above this line is jelly.

    I just contained 5 jellys

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  8. Yeah, we wish for a day when our position is the default... where no one likes XKCD and we are no longer relevant.

    How is that a contradiction?

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  9. Ha! That Anon above was Rob.

    Now that's funny.

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  10. Similar mother, similar father, similar dog, cat and fish
    And we'll make the same wish
    When the birthday candles lit
    We'll both be older
    We won't get our wish
    Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

    Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again
    Yes, I think I'm falling
    Yes, I think I'm falling
    Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

    With her hand in my hand and my hand in hers
    Don't we look a blur
    Me and her and me and her
    Hey, kiss her, oh kiss her
    Our friends do concur
    Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

    (Chorus)

    I can't see with you in front of the mirror staring, staring
    I can't hear myself think with all that music blaring, blaring

    Yes, I'm falling
    Falling, falling
    Yes, I'm falling
    Falling, falling
    Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

    I bring home the bacon and eat myself
    Here's to my health
    Hope that I'm feeling well
    I'm burning the candle at both ends, oh well
    Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

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  11. "canadian surrealist porn"

    and

    "the concept of misleading home security"

    are related.

    Ask Ravenzomd if you don't believe me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. They are, ALT-F does not lie.

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  13. Please, everyone ignore this comment.

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  14. Rob, I don't read it as "hard-to-break safe", I read it as "unopenable by anyone, including the owner". Just sayin

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  15. Ravenzomg, why would you ignore my request? It's the height of rudeness to REFUSE to acknowledge my very REASONABLE exhortations.

    And by acknowledge I mean OBEY.

    On XKCD; they are so low quality it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell if they are better than each other. 916 could be a thousand times funnier than 915 and we'd never know the difference.

    1:43, you are scum. Get a name.

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  16. "Rob, I don't read it as "hard-to-break safe", I read it as "unopenable by anyone, including the owner". Just sayin "

    (a) that is entirely irrelevant (b) there are ways to open safes with broken locks. in order for it to be truly unopenable it would need to have no inside, so that there would be no way to open it topologically.

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  17. I myself am personally fond of hypertoroidal safes. Highly unopenable

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  18. hypertoroidal doesn't mean anything, and a torus has an inside. something without a definable inside is non-orientable, like the klein bottle for instance.

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  19. GOODBYE MY FRIEND
    I WON'T EVER LOVE AGAIN

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jelly man, you made my day.

    ReplyDelete
  21. re: Anon 6:00

    http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ma/gallery/hyper/torus.html

    u mad?

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  22. @6:00 Anything 3-dimensional with a 4th dimension added becomes hyper-anything. Hypertoroidal would almost certainly mean toroidal with 4 or more dimensions. It is absolutely not to be confused with hyperthyroidism, which Rob certainly does not have.

    But a torus certainly has an inside.

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  23. Randall you dumb fuck
    5x5 is a square

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  24. also goatkcd 916 is amazing

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  25. @4:38 5x5 is 25 you dumb looser

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  26. You mother is amazing Anon441.

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  27. guys please why does evereyone here not like xkcd? i find it quite funny i am a physics student and it is refreshing to see intelligent humor on the internet for once.

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  28. Hey, can we start a long discussion on how funny it is that Rob posted an anonymous comment above just so that he could post a pre-written response?

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  29. I did nothing of the sort anon 606

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  30. 6:06 & 6:10 = samefag

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  31. I am no such thing anon 626

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  32. Anon 9:54 and anon 9:55 = samefag

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  33. See? I told you.

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  34. @5:35, 5x5 has magnitude 0, you idiot.

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  35. What happened to the 90s?

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  36. they died a miserable death

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  37. They will live on forever in the hearts of true believers.

    ...Never again in corporeal [read: meaningful, practical, or relevant] form again, however.

    Captcha: Lexter. Superman's bald archnemesis I'm pretty sure.

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  38. I just wish the 90s had gone on a little longer. We weren't ready for what came next.

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  39. Well, 915 is probably the last XKCD comic I'll ever bother reading. Why? Because the previous 400 comics may have entertained me five times? Certainly a factor, but no.

    Randall has certainly provided us with vast evidence that he knows nothing about art or the arts over the years, and this piss-poor attempt at applying the science of psychology to his limited worldview is consistently indicting.

    Pause for a moment and wonder 'what is art? How can one know which forms are superior or inferior?' Randall for one has no idea. He cannot seem to tell the difference. And apparently neither should we, a position I can understand considering how much criticism his stick figures generate. But we live in a place called Reality where not all things are equal.

    DaVinci has more talent and technical skill than we'll ever see from the Void People, for example. Not that we should expect anybody to perform at that level for a webcomic, but the point is made: art has varying levels of quality. Randall cannot tell the difference, though. Good for him. If wine so bitter it requires honey and ginger to sweeten it tastes the same to him as any other, I say leave him be.

    But he cannot possibly assert that all literature is equal, that Homer's Iliad is no better than 'Bitch Got a Penis', that the creation of a sloppy joe is no less of an achievement than making fine wine or that his comics are anywhere near as funny and artistic as Calvin and Hobbes.

    Perhaps in the world of Randall, anyone who can tell the difference is just a pretentious snob, but he might be missing the point: stop churning out crap and maybe we'll like it more.

    915 is a metaphor.

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  40. 2:23 Any other time I would have applauded your well set-out and well thought-out ideas, however we are discussing the 90s.

    And your post lacked a certain je ne ces quois i.e. THERE WAS NOTHING ABOUT THE 90s

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  41. @k

    who cares about the 90s? stupid decade was stupid decade. i'm just thankful i was drunk all the time throughout it

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  42. 915 is Randall being relativistic about relativism. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. Unfortunately, he's such a hack that both his relativism and opportunistic anti-relativism rear their heads.

    Goodnight, you prince of tools, you king of charlatans.

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  43. Yeah the 90s pretty much sucked. The 80s were way better. Granted, I'm too young to remember most of the 80s, but that decade sure produced some awesome music and movies, so I have to assume that it was awesome.

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  44. How about a solid block of metal with the facade of a safe door on it?
    Highly unopenable.

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  45. The 90s was the decade where everybody fondly remembered the 80s while simultaneously destroying all records of all the shitty things in it. It will mainly be remembered by recordings of well-adjusted adults who have to talk about the Internet without understanding what it is.

    The 00s was the decade where everybody fondly remembered the 80s. It will be remembered primarily for George W. Bush malapropisms, both real and invented.

    The 10s seem to bring nostalgia for either the 80s and the 90s, depending on how stupid you are. I will decline to tell you which option is more stupid.

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  46. I think you're all missing the joke in the safe comic. The point is that geeks are irresistibly drawn to solving any puzzle they find, including fancy security systems. The safe could even have a sign on it saying "valuables are here -->", and the geeks would still try to pick the lock.

    Once they've managed to somehow open it, they would be distracted from the fact that there's nothing valuable inside by the Rubik's cube.

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  47. Hi

    I read this post 2 times. It is very useful.

    Pls try to keep posting.

    Let me show other source that may be good for community.

    Source: Welder interview questions

    Best regards
    Jonathan.

    ReplyDelete