# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 108
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2143 "2023-04-20T21:19:24Z")
There’s a hidden hole in the middle of the rollercoaster, and on the opposite side in the middle of the St Louis Arch. Bounce along the surface and you’ll fall into it eventually. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2144 "2023-04-20T21:43:54Z")
Yeah I got just past the arch, but I came to a little rectangular platform that I had a very difficult time getting over, and when I finally did there’s a much larger tower right next to it, which is where I gave up. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2145 "2023-04-21T01:34:32Z")
Yeah, I stumbled on that solution ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2146 "2023-04-21T17:24:53Z")
Someone with way too much time created a map of the system showing the objects and powerups. [https://xkcd2765-map.kuilin.net/](https://xkcd2765-map.kuilin.net/) ---
**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:** [April 21, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2147 "2023-04-21T21:18:36Z")
And, unsurprisingly, this is another one that does absolutely nothing except hard-crash my browser (Firefox on OSX). You’d think that someone like Munroe would test these things out on multiple platforms. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2148 "2023-04-21T21:24:39Z")
There’s (basically) nothing you can do in Javascript that will crash your browser, unless the browser itself is broken or you have a system problem. Are you using some ancient version of FF? It works fine for me. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2149 "2023-04-21T21:37:41Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > > [@ftg](#): > > > > Don’t see the point of it. > > Somehow you have to use the fact that you can go back and forth through the planet to pick up speed to break away and see what else is up there I think. I know that. But still, I’ve got better things to do with my time. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2150 "2023-04-21T21:57:19Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Are you using some ancient version of FF? I don’t think it’s possible to use “an ancient version of FF”. Every week or two it tells me it’s updated to the newest version. And clearly there’s something you can do in Javascript to crash it, but don’t ask me what. The computer itself is getting pretty long in the tooth, and there are certainly some tasks that slow it down considerably, but I think the last time my browser actually crashed was the last time XKCD did one of these Javascript things. Well, that, and sometimes I intentionally quit Firefox and the crash-detector mistakenly thinks it crashed. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2151 "2023-04-21T22:01:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think it’s possible to use “an ancient version of FF”. It’s definitely possible if your OS is out of date. People still running XP, for example, will be stuck with an old version. Dunno about MacOS. Might be an out-of-memory situation. My browser tells me that tab is taking up 1.2 GB. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2152 "2023-04-22T04:05:51Z")
As someone who has written very complex programs in javascript… I really doubt it’s that bulletproof. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2153 "2023-04-22T04:15:23Z")
The browsers certainly aren’t bulletproof. But that’s on them, not the writer of the JS code. If you can crash the browser (aside from causing an out-of-memory condition), then you can cause a security breach. And that’s a serious bug on the part of the browser. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2154 "2023-04-22T13:14:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > this is another one that does absolutely nothing except hard-crash my browser (Firefox on OSX). It just doesn’t work on mine: Firefox OSX 10.13.4 running NoScript, with every visible javascript (which isn’t much) enabled. I can see what looks like a still but it won’t do anything or go anywhere but home. Probably the browser’s blocking some bit of script but not showing it to me so I can enable it. And it doesn’t work on my iPad, on which it loads OK but I can’t control anything, because apparently you’re supposed to use your keyboard arrows and the popup onscreen keyboard a) doesn’t have any and b) covers the display. Tapping on the screen produces a certain amount of bouncing, but no control. I suppose I could hook up the bluetooth keyboard to the iPad, but it doesn’t really seem worth it; I can waste more than enough time doing something else. (This, for instance.) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2155 "2023-04-22T15:55:37Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Tapping on the screen produces a certain amount of bouncing, but no control. This is a pretty accurate description of how it works properly on my phone. (Pixel 4a.) Tapping produces a certain amount of bouncing, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to make those taps control the direction. (Tapping on the sides of the screen instead of just in one place.) And then I was almost to the furthest point I reached before I realized you could do a long tap to hold the thruster on. And then I gave up. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2156 "2023-04-22T16:13:41Z")
> **[Helium Reserve](https://xkcd.com/2766/)** > > The government has been trying to sell off the Federal Helium Reserve for a few years now, but the sale has been on hold while they try to figure out how to explain this situation to buyers. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2157 "2023-04-25T19:48:03Z")
> **[Recipe Relativity](https://xkcd.com/2767/)** > > It says to cut the onions into 1/4" slices, but I'd better correct for length contraction. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2158 "2023-04-27T04:55:25Z")
Remember Little Bobby Tables? I saw a picture that reminds me of him. [![](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/854124463791931392/1101008351564943490/FB_IMG_1682571182919.jpg) ](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/854124463791931392/1101008351564943490/FB_IMG_1682571182919.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2159 "2023-04-27T05:07:12Z")
> **[Definition of e](https://xkcd.com/2768/)** > > Yeah, my math teacher back in high school set up the system to try to teach us something or other, but the 100% rate was unbelievably good, so I engineered a hostile takeover of his bank and now use it to make extra cash on the side. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2160 "2023-04-27T21:04:23Z")
One of my fonder memories from high school was figuring out that that mysterious “ln” button was some sort of logarithm, and asking my math teacher just what the significance of this “2.718…” number was. Although, I didn’t twig to the fact that the inverse of the function was on the same button, and had to figure out the value of e through the method of bisection. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2161 "2023-04-29T01:21:54Z")
> **[Overlapping Circles](https://xkcd.com/2769/)** > > "The Venn diagram of the sun and the moon is a circle." --someone being snarky at totality ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/2162 "2023-04-29T12:29:47Z")
Until I got to the alt-text I thought the shape he was referring to was the lenticular intersection part. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=107) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=109)