# xkcd "Pixels" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2014, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351 "2014-09-03T12:10:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/21 "2014-09-03T20:35:20Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t really get this one. There’s Cueball with the turtles, and when you zoom in far enough, it eventually turns into a star field with lots of planet earths, each with “Book Launch” written on them. And you zoom in again, and you get another star field with lots of Book Launch Earths, and so on and so on. > > What’s the big deal? I spent five minutes with it, but it seems I got the whole deal after the first thirty seconds. The black pixels have the Earth. White pixels have new panels that change as you go deeper. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/22 "2014-09-03T23:26:51Z")
They’re collecting the various things you find zooming in here: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1416:\_Pixels/Images](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1416:_Pixels/Images) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2014, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/23 "2014-09-03T23:55:03Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Firefox: does a weird fade that doesn’t match colors. Not sure what you mean by that but it’s okay for me. I think? Is there any way to navigate this besides the goddamn mousewheel? Every one I’ve owned doesn’t scroll properly, but regardless, it’s a jerk, annoying way to zoom. Before I gave up I would’ve found a Mandelbrot set a more interesting use of my time. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/24 "2014-09-04T01:40:07Z")
I wonder what the algorithm is that determines which pictures pixels turn into as you scroll in. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/25 "2014-09-04T01:44:24Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I wonder what the algorithm is that determines which pictures pixels turn into as you scroll in. Err… never mind: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1416\_Pixels\_layout.png](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1416_Pixels_layout.png) ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/26 "2014-09-04T04:04:41Z")
Randall was tonight’s guest on the Colbert Report ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/27 "2014-09-04T05:17:42Z")
> [@Labtrash](#): > > Randall was tonight’s guest on the Colbert Report Apparently, he’s also touring. There’s a townhall meeting in Seattle, where he’ll be talking and promoting his book. Looks like the man knows how to sell stuff, when he wants to. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/28 "2014-09-04T07:13:25Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The black pixels have the Earth. White pixels have new panels that change as you go deeper. Not on Firefox. You zoom in, and it eventually, after being blank forever, turns gray and then black with stars that turn out to be the “Earths.” I sincerely hope it’s a bug, as I expect better out of Randal. It’s not like this sort of thing would be impossible to implement in a cross-browser way. Honestly, I think it’d be more work to design it only to work in Chrome. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/29 "2014-09-04T11:32:29Z")
For the record, I used Chrome and it eventually led to a white screen of oblivion. I think the linux commands might be a clue as to how bad he is messing with everyone (though in the best of ways). ~ du -s video/ 4170882256 ~ du -hs video/ Alot. ~$ Here is a [thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/2fbyw9/xkcd_1416_pixels/)on reddit also with a link to imgur. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/30 "2014-09-04T14:39:43Z")
I’m on Firefox, and it worked just fine for me. Well, aside from the fact that my mousewheel is really flaky. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/31 "2014-09-04T18:10:30Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Not on Firefox. You zoom in, and it eventually, after being blank forever, turns gray and then black with stars that turn out to be the “Earths.” Well yeah, maybe, but the main point of what I said was that there’s limited value in zooming in on the black pixels. Most of the meat is white. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/32 "2014-09-05T15:47:41Z")
“Time” was an intriguing idea, but honestly I got bored half way though. It’s a shame the Hugo is influenced by innovation rather than content. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/33 "2014-09-06T02:59:31Z")
I don’t know, the fact that he communicated that it was set 20,000 years in the future or whatever it was just by showing a few frames of a starfield, and that his audience actually got it, is to me enough to justify a Hugo all by itself. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/34 "2014-09-06T04:02:36Z")
> [@Agnostic\_Pagan](#): > > May suck up terabytes of memory. Nope. I zoomed in about 10 “levels”, and my browser stayed solid at about 4.6gb. It was sluggy as hell, but apparently not from memory use. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/35 "2014-09-07T16:56:22Z")
It says “turtles all the way down” and yet I was unable to find any turtles past the main comic. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351/36 "2014-09-07T17:31:42Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Err… never mind: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1416\_Pixels\_layout.png](http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1416_Pixels_layout.png) Thanks for that. The Mu, Reductionism, and Holism images are references to Hofstadter’s Goedel, Escher, Bach book. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-pixels/697351.md?page=1)