XKCD: Process of Cancer and the Nature of Survival

XKCD is a website for the geek audience drawn by Randall Munroe, who is a coder-turned-cartoonist. He describes the site as a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. Frequent topics are LOTR and geek frustration.

There are two things you might want to know about XKCD:

• Often you can let your mouse loiter over the cartoon to see the rollover-hover-alt-title text; it's a way of delivering the punchline after you've read the base material
• At times, XKCD's references are so arcane that there is room for help and interpretation, which leaves a niche for ExplainXKCD.com.

Randall Munroe is often quite funny, but at times the webcomic focuses on relationships, physics, or infographics that serve to explain complex topics. For instance, this chart presents the characters and plotlines of several popular stories on a time axis. (It helps to know that Primer is a recursive time-travel movie, major geek points for that.)

Last October, Randall Munroe's fiancée was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer and his work has occasionally referred to their experience. Yesterday's XKCD's infographic is a compelling depiction of the process of cancer, brutal in its frank exposition of odds and outcomes.

It's not funny. It is brilliant. You can find it here (it deserves to be seen in its own setting)

In the Year of XKCD 2525

XKCD is a remarkable creative work, and today's art includes futurism, mild skepticism, and good humor.

I tread fearfully on Mr. Munroe's work, but I've taken the liberty of hacking the ending slightly with a homage to Zager and Evans' 2525. As you look at the image below (which may take a moment to load) you'll see a colored blue line at year 2102 which indicates where the XKCD original ends and the revision begins.

Respectfully submitted,
Vannevar

Christmas Tech Support: the Geek Who Saved Christmas

I really enjoy computers and all the geek devices. I even know the words to the "I Love Technology" song from Napoleon Dynamite. I am inclined by nature to enjoy these machines and tools.

Being a Geek is both a Blessing and a Curse. It's problematic because you're a resource to the non-digerati. Heraclitus said You can't step into the same river twice, and computers are the same way. You can't touch the same computer twice; the second time you approach it, you're working on the computer you broke last time, whether or not you actually broke it.



I love Christmas. I love the holiday spirit. I love the way that Christmas is a PowerPoint-free-zone. I love the way that work and schedules recede and family moves more to the forefront. I love giving a gift and watching for the "wow" factor in the recipient.

Christmas gifts sometimes include computers and printers and wifi a/b/g/n (oh my). A parent can spend a lot of money on Junior's computer and the immediate payback for the parent may be clarification of their ineptitude. What other consumer product presents buyers with such a frustrating experience while their family waits to play Doom Black Ops?

My personal expertise is just PCs. It's a narrow niche that's becoming smaller. I don't know an X-Box from a PlayStation. I wouldn't be of any use with a motion-sensing Kinect. But I grok PCs.

It's cool to be able to offer friends and family Christmas tech support. It's sort of a chance to be a hero; you can be The Geek That Saved Christmas. In the spirit of giving, I'd like to share the Geek Secrets of Christmas Tech Support. Here's the short version:

• First do no harm.
  (Don't break anything else while you're trying to fix the initial gremlin.)
• Turn it off, turn off the power, leave the room.
• come back, turn on the power, turn it on.

If you'd prefer a more detailed version, XKCD offers this process flow-chart:



I would offer one ironclad rule that I would ask you to accept at face value: if you're visiting somebody that's having a PC problem over the holidays, never never ever say, "Wouldn't have this issue with a Mac". Trust me on this.

Finally, I'd like to suggest this link to http://www.teachparentstech.org/, which is a Google project designed to send computer instructions to the non-geeks in your family. Ho Ho Ho.

Early Quake Warning Tweets

Why I Love XKCD:

The Least Interesting Man In The World

(Other than myself.)

I'd like to recommend Randall Munroe's XKCD.com to your attention (wiki). This most recent comic is excellent:



I love XKCD.com. (It is not always tween-safe.)

In case you've missed the reference, it refers to these commercials (which are mildly interesting in their own right):

Stay thirsty, my friends

Theft of the Magi

Holidays Christmas in the New Millenium:


XKCD is a Geek comic strip, there's a Wiki entry explaining it here. Fair warning: the content is not always safe for young children.