this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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xkcd

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Title text: The heartfelt tune it plays is CC licensed, and you can get it from my seed on JoinDiaspora.net whenever that project gets going.


Transcript2003:

[Cueball approaches a bearded fellow.]

Cueball: Did you get my essay?
Bearded Fellow: Yeah, it was good! But it was a .doc; You should really use a more open-
Cueball: Give it a rest already. Maybe we just want to live our lives and use software that works, not get wrapped up in your stupid nerd turf wars.
Bearded Fellow: I just want people to care about the infrastructures we're building and who-
Cueball: No, you just want to feel smugly superior. You have no sense of perspective and are probably autistic.

2010:

Cueball: Oh my God! We handed control of our social world to Facebook and they're DOING EVIL STUFF!
Bearded Fellow: Do you see this?

[Inset, the bearded fellow rubs his index and middle fingers against his thumb.]

Bearded Fellow: It's the world's tiniest open-source violin.


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[–] Datas_Cat_Spot@startrek.website 51 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One thing I've learned over the years: the scruffier looking the IT guy, the more they should be listened to.

[–] negativenull@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Except when he eats something from his foot.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 0 points 1 year ago

We're just too pedestrian to get it.

[–] HellAwaits@lemm.ee 42 points 1 year ago

Hot take: while I do appreciate and use FOSS (I'm on Linux), that doesn't make the people who talk about it 24/7 non-stop any less annoying.

[–] nomecks@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I have a great idea for a program! I should describe it in agonizing detail to an AI owned by some company so it will spit out working source code. Nothing can go wrong with my plan!

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

This is a flawless plan, especially since they pinky swore that they wouldn't keep around the information you put into the black box AI. So we're all safe!

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you make it open source they can't steal your idea

[–] TheCraiggers@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Apple and Google have stolen plenty of ideas. They don't care if it's closed or open.

If AI will stop people from telling me their "amazing" app ideas when they find out I'm a programmer then I'm all for it.

[–] MajorHavoc@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I feel like that violin is probably written in C. Or maybe Go. Has anyone made this yet? I might have my next weekend project

[–] elxeno@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago

It's being re-written in Rust.

[–] kool_newt@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Unsafe Zig if you wanna play fast..

[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

TIL the xkcd main character(s?) is (are?) called Cueball

[–] Jakylla@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

Cueball is the main character; others have their own names; for example Megan (appearing a lot as the main Feminine character)

More recurring characters are listed on this page: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Characters

[–] Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

It's unofficial, but yeah. People call him that.