XKCD: Time | Hacker News Reader

XKCD: Time

explainxkcd.com

205 pointsswatkat33 comments

Am I the only one who is completely underwhelmed by this one?

I mean, yeah, the concept is cool if you hear about it, very modern art. But in effect it's just a comic strip story that is very inconvenient to read. And the only thing that makes it special is exactly this inconvenience?

Thanks, but checking back every hour or writing a script in order to see what happens to two stick figures that were (at the time I first saw it) just sitting there and doing nothing is not worth my... time.

> Am I the only one who is completely underwhelmed by this one?

Well--that's possibly a bit premature. After all, we haven't seen how it ends yet. Give it time? :)

I wonder if the recent xkcds represent Randall starting to explore the possibilities of his medium. He now has a huge community of followers, and he is creating comic-based experiences which are themselves creative platforms. It's like he's saying "here's a new toy, let's see what you can do with it". Next stop - Randall starts controlling the hive mind via comics.

Done and done: http://xkcd.com/426/

Edit: A little more context- http://blog.xkcd.com/2012/02/27/geohashing-2/

I took it to be a bit of a statement on instant gratification. You expect to visit XKCD and get a dose of humor (or something equally interesting), consuming it in a few seconds before walking away. This strip can be seen as a reminder that some things are worth a longer investment of your time -- though maybe you don't feel that a drawn-out reminder was necessary to drive the point home.

Actually, my point is that I feel that this specific thing is NOT worth a longer investment of my time.

> very inconvenient to read ... sitting there and doing nothing is not worth my time

For me, you helped illustrate the value of the comic.

You can't ever discover anything novel without experimenting a little. Besides I like the strip itself, even if it's inconvenient to follow in real time.

Much easier to use/browse version: http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/

It's still ongoing. I bet most people (like myself) completely missed what was going on here when they first saw it.

Here's another animated version:

http://xkcd.aubronwood.com/

I know I did when I got it in my RSS feed. I stared at it for a while hoping the penny would drop ("Wait for it"), and then concluded it was a reference to the tide that would ultimately wash the scene away ("Time and Tide"). Wowsers!

As much as I love the fancy XKCDs with scripting, I do wish that sometimes Randall would post some background info on them (maybe a week or two in the future after people have had their fun reverse-engineering them) rather than having to wade through dozens of pages of a forum thread to see what was going on.

I respectfully disagree. I think it adds to the art of it for him to not come out and tell his followers exactly what it means. 'Time' is more about the emotion of the comic than a rational explanation, or a joke (like 'nerd sniping').

http://xkcd.com/150/

Exactly like nerd sniping. It's a self-selecting filter. If you don't like it or don't get it, but still come back to read more, guess there must be something for you somehow. But the target are the nerds that get sniped, not those who get frustrated because there's a lack of information.

I think. :)

There's also a wiki: http://xkcd-time.wikia.com/wiki/XKCD_Time_Wiki

Generally part of what makes something good art is the ambiguitiy around interpretation allowing space for the viewer to add their own meaning and interpretation. As a result he's better off saying very little and allowing us space to engage, condemn, question and critique.

Isn't that what explainxkcd.com is for?

Ah, thanks! This is more what I meant -- not a revelation of the artist's interpretation, but rather a technical explanation of the scripting he used and a post of all the content in its entirety.

I logged into a chat that room my friends and I hang out in a few days ago, and mentioned that 'Time' was still going.

Then it occurred to me: I wonder if that is the punchline. Randall sits back and cackles with glee as thousands of otherwise intelligent people wake up every morning and exclaim to their friends, with complete surprise: "Hey guys! Time is still going!"

Until one morning they wake up and exclaim to their friends, with much more surprise: "Hey guys! Ti

If you think about it as art, does there need to be a punchline? I would actually be disappointed if there was one. In fact, if this were still continuing years from now, that would be truly amazing and definitely worthy of be called "art".

I think you're right... Randall is an evil genius, especially when he ends it and someone says "Time Stopped!"

I assume that eventually this will just show a flat (relative to the circumference of XKCD-Earth) expanse of sand due to entropy (maybe followed by a few exciting moments when it gets swallowed by its start red-gianting, is swallowed by a black hole, then billions of years of nothing pending the heat death of the universe).

The poor server already had load issues. The HN crowd has made it almost inaccessible.

Maybe somebody experienced in configuring MediaWiki could help them with some performance and scalability tips. Also, somebody could help with making the URI look better.

Here's a cached copy from google: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

No amount of experience with MediaWiki will stop it from being the massive, bloated beast that it is. Your only hope is reverse proxies.

Isnt this pretty much a version of Johnny Castaway? Which I have to add was, all those years ago, a lot more interesting and engaging. At least Johnny had a goal.

I tried to inspect elements and started recording the network requests in Safari, until I got tired saving pictures manually.

Any one?

Have a look at the (293 page) forum thread. You're not the first one to think to do that.

I didn't realize there were names for the characters.

I see the video as a reminder that the time you wasted watching this video is like a sand castle, wasted, forever.

Time enjoyed is time not wasted.

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