XKCD: Your faves?
Posted by Dave Bath on 2008-04-06
I wonder which xkcd posts appeal to readers. (For those who are unaware of xkcd, which describes itself as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language", take a browse.) Does anybody care to nominate between 0 and 5 that appeal? I say appeal, not send you ROTFLOL, as whimsy can be more appealing than hilarity.
Remember xkcd uses alt text quite well for aside comments, so if your browser/reader supports display of alt text when hovering over the image, I recommend it.
So, kicking off, and in no particular order, here are a few faves of mine (yep, more than 5, but who’s blog is this anyway?):
263: Certainty, 378: Real Programmers, 373: The Data So Far, 385: How It Works, 184: Matrix Transform, 242: The Difference, 154: Beliefs, 217: eπ-π and a (2008-06-11 late addition) 435: Purity.
Yeah, I skipped the romantic ones. Years as a single parent will do that.
tigtog said
Your first link’s a 404, but good choices. I will have to go and peruse and thinkify on this, but the map of online communities is definitely a fave. (best viewed large)
Dave Bath said
TigTog: Thanks for the 404 alert. Fixed.
BTW: A lot of serious maps related to xkcd’s parody are found at VisualComplexity (a v cool site, not just mapping net stuff). See Web Trend 2007 and Web Trend 2008 which represent the web like a metropolitan public transport map.
Dave Bath said
Silly me. Forgot to mention the XKCD RSS.
For visually impaired people using braille browsers, use descriptive version, e.g. for “Certainty” you get:
[[A door seen from a hallway, with "Teachers' Lounge" on the glass. Inside, two teachers are talking.]] / Teacher 1: My students drew me into another political argument. / Teacher 2: Eh; it happens. / Teacher 1: Lately, political debates bother me. They just show how good smart people are at rationalizing.
[[The two teachers continue talking. A third one is seen reading a book on a sofa.]] / Teacher 1: The world is so complicated – the more I learn, the less clear anything gets. There are too many ideas and arguments to pick and choose from. How can I trust myself to know the truth about anything? / And if everything I know is so shaky, what on Earth am I doing teaching?
Teacher 2: I guess you just do your best. No one can impart perfect universal truths to their students. / Teacher 3: {ahem} / Teacher 2: …Except math teachers. / Teacher 3: Thank you.
{{alt text: a(b+c)=(ab)+(ac). Politicize that, bitches.}}
Joshua Gans said
I agree with you on “The Difference.” Indeed, when it first came out I amended it for an economist: http://www.economics.com.au/?p=760
Dave Bath said
I recommend Joshua Gans’ tweak (after first looking at the original version of 242: The Difference.
Hmmm. Quite a few reads of this post: either few find xkcd good value, or it’s too hard to pick your favorite!!
PollyCyclic said
184, 263
And you forgot http://forums.xkcd.com
Silly boy!
Balneus said
[...] I’m a fan of xkcd [...]
Dave Bath said
I just noticed that 415 is not one of Lauredhel’s favorites! Can’t blame her.
Uncyclopedia: Your faves? « Balneus said
[...] XKCD: Your faves? [...]