8 ms·

Here's _the real_ live stream: https://xkcd.com/1446/ https://xkcd.com/1446/

by svckr 12y ago

mikeyouse 12y ago
ESA lists 35min to lander separation, Randall lists 65.. I'll definitely keep both windows open, but it sure seems like the ESA site might be quicker on updates for live events!
- yoha 12y ago
  http://xkcd1446.org/ http://xkcd1446.org/ Go back a few frames and notice that Randall's counter was in synch until T-50min when it suddenly rose to 75min.
  - NotOscarWilde 12y ago
    I know that website is a useful tool in itself, but when I learned this is what Mark Karpeles is up to now, I felt bitter. I guess I still am not over the fact his company stole a non-trivial sum of my money. Please don't take it as a slur against this harmless site. It just... surprised me.
    - ksmiley 12y ago
      Can you elaborate? What does Mark Karpeles have to do with xkcd?
      - NotOscarWilde 12y ago
        Mark Karpeles programmed the website xkcd1446.org: https://github.com/MagicalTux/xkcd1446 https://github.com/MagicalTux/xkcd1446
- zween 12y ago
  The signal travels ~30min to earth. ESA's counter shows when it will actually happen and Randall's counter when we will get confirmation. http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/12/rosetta-and-philae-go-for-separation/ http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/12/rosetta-and-philae-g...
  - Symmetry 12y ago
    It really brings special relativity home to think that the ESA's counter is only valid from the reference frames we usually use. It's only when Randall's counter reaches zero that we can unambiguously say that the probe landed in the past.
- logicallee 12y ago
  >I'll definitely keep both windows open, but it sure seems like the ESA site might be quicker on updates for live events! This is so hilarious. For up to the minute information, it's a toss-up between the European Space Agency's live stream on the probe it's landing on a comet, and... a hand-drawn web comic about it.
  - mikeyouse 12y ago
    The absurdity of that statement became clear to me almost immediately after I typed it.. but then again, the XKCD updates ended up occurring exactly on schedule so maybe it wasn't so absurd after all!
  - bcohen5055 12y ago
    Does anyone know if Randal is "Live Animating" this event or does he just know enough about the landing procedure to draw it all out ahead of time?
    - Pinckney 12y ago
      The comic references the problems with the cold gas thrusters, so it is not all pre-drawn.
  - Gravityloss 12y ago
    ESA's PR is not very good. They have mostly talking heads while Randall Munroe actually provides a good overview on what's happening now and what's going to happen next. When humanity landed on Titan (which is a mind boggling achievement), the pictures couldn't be shown right away because they had to have some politician talking some platitudes first. NASA does it infinitely better.
    - vixen99 12y ago
      Not only 'infinitely' but presumably a 'quantum leap' better?
      - 12y ago
kibibyte 12y ago
I really quickly hacked together a script (https://github.com/DanGe42/xkcd-1446-fetcher https://github.com/DanGe42/xkcd-1446-fetcher) to fetch every frame starting from the current one so I wouldn't have to keep the page open all night. There's not much more to it than a few modifications I made to Randall's client-side script to make it compatible with Node.js and write to the file system instead. Hopefully it doesn't crash overnight on my server.
Heliosmaster 12y ago
strangely enough, does not work for me on chrome on osx :(
- Jhsto 12y ago
  Yoga's submitted website[1] works fine. [1] http://xkcd1446.org/ http://xkcd1446.org/
rocco 12y ago
lacks only of a counter in title tag that signals a page update. (like Twitter, Facebook ect.)

Here's _the real_ live stream: https://xkcd.com/1446/ https://xkcd.com/1446/

by svckr 12y ago

Here's _the real_ live stream: https://xkcd.com/1446/ https://xkcd.com/1446/

ESA lists 35min to lander separation, Randall lists 65.. I'll definitely keep both windows open, but it sure seems like the ESA site might be quicker on updates for live events!

yoha 12y ago
http://xkcd1446.org/ http://xkcd1446.org/ Go back a few frames and notice that Randall's counter was in synch until T-50min when it suddenly rose to 75min.
- NotOscarWilde 12y ago
  I know that website is a useful tool in itself, but when I learned this is what Mark Karpeles is up to now, I felt bitter. I guess I still am not over the fact his company stole a non-trivial sum of my money. Please don't take it as a slur against this harmless site. It just... surprised me.
  - ksmiley 12y ago
    Can you elaborate? What does Mark Karpeles have to do with xkcd?
    - NotOscarWilde 12y ago
      Mark Karpeles programmed the website xkcd1446.org: https://github.com/MagicalTux/xkcd1446 https://github.com/MagicalTux/xkcd1446
zween 12y ago
The signal travels ~30min to earth. ESA's counter shows when it will actually happen and Randall's counter when we will get confirmation. http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/12/rosetta-and-philae-go-for-separation/ http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/12/rosetta-and-philae-g...
- Symmetry 12y ago
  It really brings special relativity home to think that the ESA's counter is only valid from the reference frames we usually use. It's only when Randall's counter reaches zero that we can unambiguously say that the probe landed in the past.
logicallee 12y ago
>I'll definitely keep both windows open, but it sure seems like the ESA site might be quicker on updates for live events! This is so hilarious. For up to the minute information, it's a toss-up between the European Space Agency's live stream on the probe it's landing on a comet, and... a hand-drawn web comic about it.
- mikeyouse 12y ago
  The absurdity of that statement became clear to me almost immediately after I typed it.. but then again, the XKCD updates ended up occurring exactly on schedule so maybe it wasn't so absurd after all!
- bcohen5055 12y ago
  Does anyone know if Randal is "Live Animating" this event or does he just know enough about the landing procedure to draw it all out ahead of time?
  - Pinckney 12y ago
    The comic references the problems with the cold gas thrusters, so it is not all pre-drawn.
- Gravityloss 12y ago
  ESA's PR is not very good. They have mostly talking heads while Randall Munroe actually provides a good overview on what's happening now and what's going to happen next. When humanity landed on Titan (which is a mind boggling achievement), the pictures couldn't be shown right away because they had to have some politician talking some platitudes first. NASA does it infinitely better.
  - vixen99 12y ago
    Not only 'infinitely' but presumably a 'quantum leap' better?
    - 12y ago

kibibyte 12y ago

I really quickly hacked together a script (https://github.com/DanGe42/xkcd-1446-fetcher https://github.com/DanGe42/xkcd-1446-fetcher) to fetch every frame starting from the current one so I wouldn't have to keep the page open all night. There's not much more to it than a few modifications I made to Randall's client-side script to make it compatible with Node.js and write to the file system instead. Hopefully it doesn't crash overnight on my server.

Heliosmaster 12y ago

strangely enough, does not work for me on chrome on osx :(

Jhsto 12y ago
Yoga's submitted website[1] works fine. [1] http://xkcd1446.org/ http://xkcd1446.org/

rocco 12y ago

lacks only of a counter in title tag that signals a page update. (like Twitter, Facebook ect.)