# ­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:** 3
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/41 "2020-06-11T14:25:13Z")
[Why I spend so much time on the Dope](https://xkcd.com/386/) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/42 "2020-06-13T02:25:17Z")
RTFirefly, I didn’t even have to go to that strip. I recognised it from its number; it’s part of the SDMB culture, or it should be anyway, especially GQ. New strip: [Large Number Formats](https://xkcd.com/2319/) The astronomer number gave me a laugh, but it’s so true. By coincidence (related to the last number) I just looked up the Gettysburg Address on Wikipedia this afternoon. In fact the page is still in a tab on my browser. ---
**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:** [June 13, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/43 "2020-06-13T13:37:18Z")
The one on mouseover gave me flashbacks to a legacy Fortran project I was on. The original programmer apparently preferred to program on a slide rule, rather than on the VAX the program was written for, and so half the variables in the program were stored in log form. And there was no pattern to which were linear, which were base-10 logs, and which were natural logs. Nor, of course, any pattern in the variable names, nor comments. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/44 "2020-06-16T05:05:36Z")
[Millennium Problems](https://xkcd.com/2320/) Meh, I’m not enough of a mathematician to care about this one. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/45 "2020-06-16T20:04:57Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > [Millennium Problems](https://xkcd.com/2320/) > > Meh, I’m not enough of a mathematician to care about this one. On repeat reading, I think I’m getting what he’s trying to say, but it’s not particularly funny. Somewhat better is the title comment, where he also managed to spell Perelman’s name correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/46 "2020-06-16T20:40:52Z")
Needed explainxkcd for that one. Man, is there a prize for greatest common denominator humor? ---
**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:** [June 16, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/47 "2020-06-16T22:06:19Z")
Yeah, I think you need to be pretty steeped in mathematics to appreciate that one. It’s not all that hard to _get_, but just getting it won’t lead to appreciating it. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/48 "2020-06-17T20:24:17Z")
[Low-Background Metal](https://xkcd.com/2321/) Return of black-hat guy. Couldn’t they use lead from old building roofs? Like Notre Dame Catherdral. Maybe the fire was a coverup by BHG to conceal his theft of the roof for his time machine. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/49 "2020-06-17T20:49:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The one on mouseover gave me flashbacks to a legacy Fortran project I was on. The original programmer apparently preferred to program on a slide rule, rather than on the VAX the program was written for, and so half the variables in the program were stored in log form. And there was no pattern to which were linear, which were base-10 logs, and which were natural logs. Nor, of course, any pattern in the variable names, nor comments. I’m a little surprised he didn’t have 134 dBin as one of the ways. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/50 "2020-06-17T20:58:37Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > [Low-Background Metal](https://xkcd.com/2321/) > > Return of black-hat guy. > > Couldn’t they use lead from old building roofs? Like Notre Dame Catherdral. Maybe the fire was a coverup by BHG to conceal his theft of the roof for his time machine. [Relevant article](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/10/search-dark-matter-depends-ancient-shipwrecks/600718/) ---
**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:** [June 17, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/51 "2020-06-17T21:00:43Z")
Old building roofs are no good-- They’re exposed to cosmic rays. Being at the bottom of the ocean shields shipwrecks from the bulk of that. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/52 "2020-06-17T21:00:57Z")
Old building roofs are no good-- They’re exposed to cosmic rays. Being at the bottom of the ocean shields shipwrecks from the bulk of that. ---
**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:** [June 17, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/53 "2020-06-17T21:03:49Z")
Old building roofs are no good-- They’re exposed to cosmic rays. Being underwater shields shipwrecks from most of that. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/54 "2020-06-22T08:45:06Z")
[ISO Paper Size Golden Spiral](https://xkcd.com/2322/) Are those paper sizes really such that they exactly fit the spiral, or just pretty close? ---
**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:** [June 22, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/55 "2020-06-22T12:11:53Z")
The spiral is such that it exactly fits the paper sizes. European paper sizes do have the property that each one is exactly half of the next size larger, so that much is accurate, but the curve is just a nothing-in-particular curve that’s forced to fit the rectangles. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2020, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/56 "2020-06-24T09:24:03Z")
Gonna try that onebox thing here. Maybe it’ll be legible enough people don’t have to go to the xkcd page. > **[Modeling Study](https://xkcd.com/2323/)** > > You've got questions, we've got assumptions. As for the comic, another one mathematicians will appreciate more than others. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/57 "2020-06-25T00:39:32Z")
> **[Old Days 2](https://xkcd.com/2324/)** > > The git vehicle fleet eventually pivoted to selling ice cream, but some holdovers remain. If you flag down an ice cream truck and hand the driver a floppy disk, a few hours later you'll get an invite to a git repo. I love the old days of computing. Except when there was a zero shortage. I hated scrounging around in bit buckets for thrown out zeros. And it was always a pain in the butt to get them back into the computer. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/58 "2020-06-25T07:21:11Z")
We just made our own zero’s with a hole punch. But I agree, they were more difficult to get in the computer, especially as you had to take care that they didn’t touch the bulbs. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/59 "2020-06-25T11:30:52Z")
Also appreciated in regards to COVID-19 model reporting. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/60 "2020-06-25T13:10:23Z")
That reminds me of the old style Ethernet connectors where you had to use a cap on the end of them. If you didn’t, you’d have all these ones and zeros just spilling out all over the floor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=4)