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Thread: xkcd
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2020-03-21, 03:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2009
Re: xkcd
The most recent one is kind of funny, but it is essentially rehashing a point that has been made in previous XKCDs: humans do not have an intuitive grasp of how big big numbers are.
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2020-03-22, 03:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: xkcd
I feel like I have a semi-decent grasp of stuff up to 10^20, or at least I can compare it to other stuff. Above 10^20 I just give up. (I call it the scientific Sesame Street limit, 20 being the highest number I've ever seen Sesame Street count to, making 20 the normal people Sesame Street limit.)
The Hindsight Awards, results: See the best movies of 1999!
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2020-03-23, 01:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: xkcd
Right on the verge of Avogadro's number: 6.03x1023. Where "verge" in this case means "about 1000 times smaller".
I think part of the problem is we don't intuitively grasp exponents. 10120 sounds pretty close to 10125. They're only 5 numbers apart, right? I always need to remind myself that "no, that second number is 100,000 times larger than the first one."Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
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2020-03-23, 01:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2009
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Re: xkcd
Even those comics (and especially the second one) doesn't really do the sheer scale of it justice, especially if you think of it in terms of actual units. For example, if you have a dollar and I have a thousand dollars, then I have roughly a thousand dollars more than you. And it seems that way to the average person right off the bat. Conversely, if you have a million dollars and I have a billion dollars, then I have roughly a billion dollars more than you. And it does not seem that way to the average person right off the bat.
Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.
Number of times Roland St. Jude has sworn revenge upon me: 2
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2020-03-24, 02:43 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2014
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Re: xkcd
That's a pretty good example really. I have some tools to get to that scale. I know a molecule is about a thousand times as small as a bacteria, which is about a thousand times as small as really large cells or really small micro animals, which are about a thousand times as small as a flee or an ant, which is about a thousand times as small as me, or a large house. You know, roughly in the same area. I can kinda grasp the number of molecules needed to make a small vesicle or the amount of bases in our genetic code, I can find reason in the number of bacteria I will have after letting the flask incubate for 24 hours. But actually imagining individual molecules in a mole of something? I've been taught I shouldn't even try that. You can't determine the properties of a macroscale material from its molecular properties without considering the mesoscale structure, where the material is already not acting like a collection of atoms, ions or molecules.
So yeah, around there.The Hindsight Awards, results: See the best movies of 1999!
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2020-04-04, 10:41 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2016
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Re: xkcd
I briefly thought the title of today's OOTS (Move Slow and Preserve Things) was a reference to xkcd's Move Fast and Break Things and thought it was pretty cool. Turns out "move fast and break things" is just a common saying I was somehow totally unaware of until today.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
- Douglas Adams
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2020-04-04, 10:48 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- The Lakes
Re: xkcd
It's Zuckerberg's motto, and reflects his utter lack of personal accountability or responsibility -- it reflects the worst of the "disruption" attitude towards innovation... charge full speed ahead and break things so you can charge people to fix them, destroy as much of what came before as possible to make room for your minimally-viable products and services.
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2020-04-04, 04:38 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2008
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- Malsheem, Nessus
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Re: xkcd
That's not really what the motto means. It comes from an era when a lot of startups were struggling and dying because they tried to come out with a perfect polished product to compete with the bigger companies, and in so doing either never actually released anything because their product was never "good enough" to meet their benchmark (and then died), or released something but were then afraid to change it and were out-innovated by said bigger companies (and then died).
"Move fast" in this case means "get something to market as fast as possible so you have something to show investors and get the public interested," and "break things" means "don't be afraid to make radical changes to improve or expand the product, even if it results in non-working code for a while." It's something a lot of startups could benefit from taking to heart.
The problem with Facebook is not that philosophy, which is basically what let them overtake MySpace and become the behemoth they are today (which isn't necessarily a good thing for society, obviously, but it was a good thing for Facebook). The problem is that once they grew past the "plucky startup" phase they continued to act as if they were a startup instead of pivoting to a more sustainable model, and that's what led to the stuff you mentioned.
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2020-04-05, 10:33 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2016
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- The Lakes
Re: xkcd
That might be true of Zuckerberg's original intent -- but the way I described it is also how many other startups and entrepreneurs and VCs have acted since, and they reference that quote as influencing their attitude.
Good news is, there's growing backlash in the consumer market, in politics, etc, against the attitude.It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2020-04-05, 04:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2017
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Re: xkcd
Forum Wisdom
Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.
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2020-04-05, 04:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2008
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Re: xkcd
Well, yeah, people taking a quote that they don't actually understand as inspiration are going to do dumb things. Much like people loved Google's "Don't Be Evil" motto and where aghast when it stopped being Google's motto, without knowing what it meant in the first place or why it stopped being relevant. My point was that one shouldn't conflate "Facebook has been a crappy company that's set a bad example in the market" (true) with "Facebook's motto is crappy advice that leads to bad results" (false).
No, I said the change in size and resources without a corresponding change in philosophy is what specifically led to the flaky infrastructure, poor code quality, and other things that Max mentioned. Their total disregard for privacy was there from the beginning and hasn't changed at all, just become more obvious to the public.
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2020-04-06, 06:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
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- Sharangar's Revenge
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Re: xkcd
This year's "April Fools" comic: Collector's Edition.
Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
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2020-04-19, 02:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
Re: xkcd
How do you use the backpack on that one?
Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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2020-04-19, 11:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- Watching the world go by
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2020-04-19, 12:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2007
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- DE
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Re: xkcd
You know xkcd-explained ?
-HaJo
FLW: Oh, no. We're being rescued. How embarrassing!
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2020-04-19, 10:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2009
Re: xkcd
That's a very cool setup. I didn't really understand what was going on, I'm glad you posted that.
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2020-04-20, 11:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2011
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- Calgary, AB
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2020-05-08, 09:14 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2009
Re: xkcd
Well, this method/ of general-audience news sources reporting on scientific research is still more accurate than the one from a previous XKCD.
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2020-06-01, 11:43 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2016
Re: xkcd
Slightly disappointed that todays XKCD "wrong multiplation" is commutative. Obviously if that's how Randell thinks that what he thinks, but I'd expect some more 7*X=56 and 8*x=56, and perhaps some other odd effects based on the order you hear things.
Last edited by jayem; 2020-06-01 at 11:44 AM.
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2020-06-01, 03:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2006
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- Watching the world go by
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Re: xkcd
There are a few places where the same answer shows up multiple times in a row or column, but I was also sad that, for example, 1*2 is 1/2 and 2*1 is 1/2 (instead of 21). I haven't checked that it is reflected across the diagonal everywhere, but I think that would have stood out.
Also, that one is from Friday. Maybe he will post a new one later today.
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2020-06-18, 02:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: xkcd
The "Low background metal" reminds me of DMFA (web comic), where the current plot revolves around trying to find metal that is pure from traces of magic -- low levels of background magic in the metal.
Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"
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2020-06-19, 03:23 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
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- Switzerland
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Re: xkcd
Apparently, low-background metal is a real thing. It's used in various ultra-sensitive detectors.
Last edited by Eldan; 2020-06-19 at 03:23 AM.
Resident Vancian Apologist
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2020-06-19, 07:04 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: xkcd
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2020-06-19, 09:47 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
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2020-06-19, 10:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2011
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- Calgary, AB
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2020-06-19, 11:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2017
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Re: xkcd
When I looked it up, the problem isn't with the lack of uncontaminated ore, but that all current processing systems would then contaminate it in the process of turning it into actual metal. The smelting process contaminates it from sources in the air: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel
Last edited by DeTess; 2020-06-19 at 11:06 AM.
Jasnah avatar by Zea Mays
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2020-06-19, 11:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2013
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Re: xkcd
Elaborating on this, it gets very hot once you start getting deeper underground, and getting air to people/equipment down that deep becomes extremely difficult. You start running into problems like "how do we get the material out without dying?" where the answer tends to be "we dont. anything we send down there cant be alive in the first place." At which point youre investing so much keeping your digging robots working that it just isnt worth it anymore, assuming they work long enough to get anything out in the first place.
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2020-06-19, 11:23 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2009
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2020-06-19, 02:24 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2017
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- France
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Re: xkcd
Forum Wisdom
Mage avatar by smutmulch & linklele.
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2020-06-24, 12:28 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2006
Re: xkcd
You start running into problems like "how do we get the material out without dying?" where the answer tends to be "we dont. anything we send down there cant be alive in the first place."
I'm not sure if I should be thinking of Doctor Who or Lord of the Rings.Not "fire at". I never used the word "at"