Jan 20 2008
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Why we love xkcd
Like I need more reason to love xkcd. He goes and draws this comic:
If you don’t read xkcd or have it in your feedreader, then you are not a true Cool Web Person.
Sorry. That’s just an objective fact.
“Sorry. That’s just an objective fact.”
But can it be confirmed by experiment?
Heh…It’s on my RSS list, right next to BA Blog. I opened this one and thought of you. Then I clicked on yours, and lo and behold, here this is.
I was wondering how long it would be until you posted about this comic! Turns out, not long at all..
I love how he doesn’t even bother putting a scale on the y-axis!
You know that if you hover over any of his comics, they all have alt-text, yes? Most are quite funny and really add to the joke. This one:
“But THIS guy, he might be for real!”
then you are not a true Cool Web Person.
So Cool Web people read crudely drawn web comics of dubious humor?
Huh.
I was on the Internets before there was a web, and when some folks still called it ARPANET from time to time. I think I need no web comic requirement.
So Cool Web people read crudely drawn web comics of dubious humor?
Damn straight we do.
It works better when you can see the comic title (and the mouseover text…)
I was just about to send this to you too. Hooray for xkcd, being the most eloquent of comic-blogs.
“I was on the Internets before there was a web, and when some folks still called it ARPANET from time to time. I think I need no web comic requirement.”
That doesn’t make you a Cool Web Person, just an OLD Web Person.
I wasn’t before, but NOW I’m a true Cool Web Person!!!
Having a Cectic RSS feed is also important for one’s coolness factor.
The latest one reminds me of BA movie reviews: http://cectic.com/101.html
I have Cectic AND xkcd. I must be supercool.
Does the fact that I have every xkcd cartoon ever on my hard disk make me “hypercool”?
Has anyone sent this to Randi yet?
1. Visited xkcd.com
2. Laughed
3. Visited badastronomy.com
4. Saw the same thing
5. Felt creepy
Conclusion: One Brain rules us all!
As if by supernatural powers, when I read the comic at XKCD today, I was sure that I would be seeing it elsewhere — and I’m 2 for 2 on the sites I’ve checked since then.
I’m not a big fan of XKCD. I RARELY find it funny. Overall I think it’s bland.
xkcd is rarely funny, and this one is no exception.
This is excellent– I am now an officially cool person, as pronounced by the BadAstronomer himself!
[…] the early morning hours of January 21, 2008, it has found its way onto Skepchick, Pharyngula, and Bad Astronomy. Three of the biggest skeptics out there, that might actually be a supernatural […]
Tigerhawkvok, now I have to go back and reread every XKCD ever.
(This comment will of course be held for moderation)
All he says is that if you don’t read xkcd, then you’re NOT cool. This does not imply that reading xkcd makes you cool.
(!A -> !B) != (A -> B)
If I have to read that to make me cool, I’ll be over with he dorks.
BTW, your coolness is reduced by a factor of pi if you say “alt text” when you mean “title text”. Just because Mozilla got it wrong back in the day doesn’t mean you have to now.
Kids today.
Sheesh.
The latest Bunny is also right up your alley: http://bunny.frozenreality.co.uk/index.php?id=1083
How about Indexed, particularly this one.
Last night is the first time I ever looked at that site. I read every one of them. It took me a while. Some were funny, some weren’t. One or two even went over my head. It was worth the time it took.
As a person over 30, I’m by definition incapable of being either “cool” or “in” - or so it is said by teenagers today. So I don’t exactly care if my coolness factor is further reduced and stick calling the text in question an “alt text”. Believe it or not, back in the computer stone ages there were web browsers incapable of displaying images - such as lynx. These browsers displayed the text - “alt text” - as an alternative to the elusive images…
Martin, take a look at the page source. You will wee that the text displayed is not in fact “alt text”, it is “title text”. Text specified by the ALT tag is to be displayed instead of the image. The text in the TITLE tag is available for display in addition to the image. Some browsers put TITLE text in the status bar, but most put it in a tooltip.
Mozilla used to put ALT text in a tooltip for several versions, but that was wrong, and really farked up those of us who actually tried to write useful ALT tags. Y’know, for people browsing with Lynx, and/or text-to-speech readers, or with image loading turned off. Fortunately that’s been fixed, by the death of Mozilla if nothing else.
My mother once accused me of pedanticness. I explained that the word was “pedantry”.
You might wonder what it would actually take to have supernatural powers be confirmed by experiment. This might give you an idea of how unbiased the scientific method can be:
http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/propaganda/
[…] Bad Astronomer Phil Plait says it’s why we love XKCD, Rebecca at Skepchick posted it and PZ Myers at Pharyngula would wear it on a […]
Having spent hours of sleeping time reading the entire archives of XKCD, I can authoritatively state that it’s freaking hilarious. Either that, or I’ve gone completely insane to the point that while sitting in front of my computer by myself, I am able to laugh so hard at something unfunny that I begin to tear up. The electromagnetic spectrum was particularly funny. He’s just like me, but much funnier.
LOL, when I first encountered XKCD, I too browsed the whole archive until the sun came up, and hammered my friends with emails linking to XKCD cartoons for weeks!
It’s just gorgeous.
^_^J.
I too can join the ranks of those who discovered xkcd, browsed the entire site in one sitting, and then sent link after link to my (more and more annoyed) friends.
(I still move the hyphen when I hear people say it.)
[…] (via BA) […]