5 ms·

XKCD: Meeting

100 points by dceddia 12y ago

frikk 12y ago
I'm curious as to why/how this post thinks the URL is (companyname.website)? It's obviously from the comic, but I'm curious about the mechanics. edit: derp. the url points directly at companyname.website and my Chrome build has a bug that prevented me from seeing that.
- abluecloud 12y ago
  Because it is? Did you read the comic? It's part of the joke.
  - frikk 12y ago
    My Chrome build has a bug that doesn't show the URL when hovering over links. I didn't even realize that it was not pointed directly at xkcd. Doh!
- andrewstuart2 12y ago
  Did you try typing companyname.website into your browser?
- pavel_lishin 12y ago
  .website is a new TLD; Randall probably just registered it, and put a redirect to that specific comic.
- bostonpete 12y ago
  I assume it's a redirect.
- nlh 12y ago
  I'm mobile right now so can't confirm, but I'm guessing that Randall bought that actual URL and it's serving up a 301/302 redirect to the xkcd site.
- javajosh 12y ago
  There's a whole bunch of new tlds that are not, as of yet, in common use. 'companyname.website' might have been 'acme.com' 20 years ago (and you'd also have been laughing all the way to the bank, eventually).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- unwind 12y ago
  Neat, I didn't notice! I guess xkcd's author has bought it? I tried digging a bit with WHOIS, but didn't see any actual names. It has a DNS A-record pointing at 184.168.221.2, which didn't have much content. Not sure how the forwarding happens, but didn't spend a lot of time on it. Fun!
- aselzer 12y ago
  dig companyname.website companyname.website. 3217 IN A 184.168.221.2 curl -i -i http://companyname.website http://companyname.website Location: http://xkcd.com http://xkcd.com Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Yes, it's a redirect. The domain is registered on GoDaddy and uses a domain anonymizer (you can't see who really registered it).
  - tessierashpool 12y ago
    xkcd runs on IIS? I haven't seen an IIS header since 1997.
    - aselzer 12y ago
      He probably just created a redirect in the domain host's web interface. Just checked, and xkcd runs lighttpd.
      - tessierashpool 12y ago
        thanks. that makes more sense. probably the registrar uses IIS, then. got a downvote for that, btw. weirdest downvote ever. maybe I upset some hardcore IIS fan or something?
        libria 12y ago
        According to Netcraft, IIS (Microsoft) has about 27% marketshare, and I occasionally see an ASPX extension every now and then. No good reason you wouldn't see an IIS header, but I don't know why someone would downvote you for not noticing things. [1]http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2015/01/15/january-2015-web-server-survey.html http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2015/01/15/january-2015-we...
        tessierashpool 12y ago
        I don't know either, but they're really into it. I'm in negative numbers on every comment in this subtree. (except, hopefully, this one.)
- dceddia 12y ago
  As an XKCD comic, I thought this one was just ok, but what made me post it to HN was when I went to check the availability of companyname.website and found out it redirected to the comic :)
  - kordless 12y ago
    I get the context, but it's still not that funny.
    - dceddia 12y ago
      I don't think it's really meant to be side-splittingly funny. Just a fun meta sort of thing.
  - frikk 12y ago
    oooh. awesome, thank you! I probably should have checked the actual link. I think my Chrome build has a bug where "show url on hover" gets disabled after some time. I guess I can blame my confusion on that ;)
  - p4bl0 12y ago
    I did the same thing this morning with the intention of recreating the web page from the first panel of the comic, but someone beat me to it to make this redirection (which have to admit I find less cool than my (and I guess many others) idea).
    - josu 12y ago
      Someone? Didn't Randall do it? I believe that it's part of the joke.
      - p4bl0 12y ago
        Maybe I don't know, the whois info are hidden.
- RIMR 12y ago
  Because Randall Munroe owns companyname.website specifically so he can point it at this comic. [Yes, you can own a .website domain too!](http://radixregistry.com/dot-website/ http://radixregistry.com/dot-website/)
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
amirouche 12y ago
I don't understand the joke.
- probably_wrong 12y ago
  Explain XKCD usually does a pretty good job at explaining what's going on: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1493 http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1493 (bla, bla, obligatory notice about explaining jokes and dissecting frogs here)
  - anonymfus 12y ago
    It explains jokes on all panels of the episode, but I cannot find a joke connecting panels together.
    - lucideer 12y ago
      If you read all the http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Beret_Guy http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_fe... , many/most of them follow similar themes to this. It's more of a continuation of a character than a self-contained joke.
    - drostie 12y ago
      So, XKCD is not actually all that funny in itself. Trying to "find a joke connecting panels together" is the wrong way to digest XKCD. The joke in this case is the same as most of the Beret Guy jokes: He has some sort of alien view of the world which has mired him in a 9-year-old's mentality, so that when we see him appear we are seeing an overly literal concept of what the adult world is about. The humor is not "ha-ha" funny so much as a mind-state of vague bemusement. This may be the reason XKCD has been so successful. By offering a comedic "buildup" which is insufficient to generate a "release" of hysterical laughter and all of the neurotransmittery goodness that comes with that, you are left trawling the archives for more and more humor.
      - thaumaturgy 12y ago
jebus989 12y ago
Randall's been sitting on this since 20 Nov 2014?
- ixwt 12y ago
  I imagine he has a large amount of comics in reserve so he can work on comics such as http://xkcd.com/1491/ http://xkcd.com/1491/.
  - commentereleven 12y ago
    Yet he has one finger on the pulse of the internet-nation, as evidenced by the previous comic: http://xkcd.com/1492/ http://xkcd.com/1492/
  - jedberg 12y ago
    Actually. he rarely has comics in reserve. He has a notebook of ideas and sketches, and each day a few hours before a comic is set to go up, he picks one and draws and inks it. I've watched the process firsthand, and I was surprised as to how little lead time there is. When he knows he'll be busy he gets a few in the hopper, but it isn't his standard SOP (at least it didn't used to be).
    - Kiro 12y ago
      Do you know him?
      - jedberg 12y ago
        We've met a few times, but I learned this when I was escorting him around the Bay Area for a day during his book tour.
- benmcnelly 12y ago
  The man always has a plan...
- breadbox 12y ago
troymc 12y ago
Is this Scott Adams' way of telling us that he has taken over XKCD?

100 points by dceddia 12y ago

frikk 12y ago

I'm curious as to why/how this post thinks the URL is (companyname.website)? It's obviously from the comic, but I'm curious about the mechanics. edit: derp. the url points directly at companyname.website and my Chrome build has a bug that prevented me from seeing that.

abluecloud 12y ago
Because it is? Did you read the comic? It's part of the joke.
- frikk 12y ago
  My Chrome build has a bug that doesn't show the URL when hovering over links. I didn't even realize that it was not pointed directly at xkcd. Doh!
andrewstuart2 12y ago
Did you try typing companyname.website into your browser?
pavel_lishin 12y ago
.website is a new TLD; Randall probably just registered it, and put a redirect to that specific comic.
bostonpete 12y ago
I assume it's a redirect.
nlh 12y ago
I'm mobile right now so can't confirm, but I'm guessing that Randall bought that actual URL and it's serving up a 301/302 redirect to the xkcd site.
javajosh 12y ago
There's a whole bunch of new tlds that are not, as of yet, in common use. 'companyname.website' might have been 'acme.com' 20 years ago (and you'd also have been laughing all the way to the bank, eventually).
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
unwind 12y ago
Neat, I didn't notice! I guess xkcd's author has bought it? I tried digging a bit with WHOIS, but didn't see any actual names. It has a DNS A-record pointing at 184.168.221.2, which didn't have much content. Not sure how the forwarding happens, but didn't spend a lot of time on it. Fun!
aselzer 12y ago
dig companyname.website companyname.website. 3217 IN A 184.168.221.2 curl -i -i http://companyname.website http://companyname.website Location: http://xkcd.com http://xkcd.com Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Yes, it's a redirect. The domain is registered on GoDaddy and uses a domain anonymizer (you can't see who really registered it).
- tessierashpool 12y ago
  xkcd runs on IIS? I haven't seen an IIS header since 1997.
  - aselzer 12y ago
    He probably just created a redirect in the domain host's web interface. Just checked, and xkcd runs lighttpd.
    - tessierashpool 12y ago
      thanks. that makes more sense. probably the registrar uses IIS, then. got a downvote for that, btw. weirdest downvote ever. maybe I upset some hardcore IIS fan or something?
      - libria 12y ago
        According to Netcraft, IIS (Microsoft) has about 27% marketshare, and I occasionally see an ASPX extension every now and then. No good reason you wouldn't see an IIS header, but I don't know why someone would downvote you for not noticing things. [1]http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2015/01/15/january-2015-web-server-survey.html http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2015/01/15/january-2015-we...
        tessierashpool 12y ago
        I don't know either, but they're really into it. I'm in negative numbers on every comment in this subtree. (except, hopefully, this one.)
dceddia 12y ago
As an XKCD comic, I thought this one was just ok, but what made me post it to HN was when I went to check the availability of companyname.website and found out it redirected to the comic :)
- kordless 12y ago
  I get the context, but it's still not that funny.
  - dceddia 12y ago
    I don't think it's really meant to be side-splittingly funny. Just a fun meta sort of thing.
- frikk 12y ago
  oooh. awesome, thank you! I probably should have checked the actual link. I think my Chrome build has a bug where "show url on hover" gets disabled after some time. I guess I can blame my confusion on that ;)
- p4bl0 12y ago
  I did the same thing this morning with the intention of recreating the web page from the first panel of the comic, but someone beat me to it to make this redirection (which have to admit I find less cool than my (and I guess many others) idea).
  - josu 12y ago
    Someone? Didn't Randall do it? I believe that it's part of the joke.
    - p4bl0 12y ago
      Maybe I don't know, the whois info are hidden.
RIMR 12y ago
Because Randall Munroe owns companyname.website specifically so he can point it at this comic. [Yes, you can own a .website domain too!](http://radixregistry.com/dot-website/ http://radixregistry.com/dot-website/)

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

amirouche 12y ago

I don't understand the joke.

probably_wrong 12y ago
Explain XKCD usually does a pretty good job at explaining what's going on: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1493 http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1493 (bla, bla, obligatory notice about explaining jokes and dissecting frogs here)
- anonymfus 12y ago
  It explains jokes on all panels of the episode, but I cannot find a joke connecting panels together.
  - lucideer 12y ago
    If you read all the http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Beret_Guy http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_fe... , many/most of them follow similar themes to this. It's more of a continuation of a character than a self-contained joke.
  - drostie 12y ago
    So, XKCD is not actually all that funny in itself. Trying to "find a joke connecting panels together" is the wrong way to digest XKCD. The joke in this case is the same as most of the Beret Guy jokes: He has some sort of alien view of the world which has mired him in a 9-year-old's mentality, so that when we see him appear we are seeing an overly literal concept of what the adult world is about. The humor is not "ha-ha" funny so much as a mind-state of vague bemusement. This may be the reason XKCD has been so successful. By offering a comedic "buildup" which is insufficient to generate a "release" of hysterical laughter and all of the neurotransmittery goodness that comes with that, you are left trawling the archives for more and more humor.
    - thaumaturgy 12y ago

jebus989 12y ago

Randall's been sitting on this since 20 Nov 2014?

ixwt 12y ago
I imagine he has a large amount of comics in reserve so he can work on comics such as http://xkcd.com/1491/ http://xkcd.com/1491/.
- commentereleven 12y ago
  Yet he has one finger on the pulse of the internet-nation, as evidenced by the previous comic: http://xkcd.com/1492/ http://xkcd.com/1492/
- jedberg 12y ago
  Actually. he rarely has comics in reserve. He has a notebook of ideas and sketches, and each day a few hours before a comic is set to go up, he picks one and draws and inks it. I've watched the process firsthand, and I was surprised as to how little lead time there is. When he knows he'll be busy he gets a few in the hopper, but it isn't his standard SOP (at least it didn't used to be).
  - Kiro 12y ago
    Do you know him?
    - jedberg 12y ago
      We've met a few times, but I learned this when I was escorting him around the Bay Area for a day during his book tour.
benmcnelly 12y ago
The man always has a plan...
breadbox 12y ago

troymc 12y ago

Is this Scott Adams' way of telling us that he has taken over XKCD?