[ silence ] >> nicole: good evening andwelcome to xkcd comes to dartmouth. [ cheering ] so, while planning this event over the pastfive months, i've had the pleasure of being able to tell many of you individuallythe good news about randall's visit. and every time i told someonethat i was planning this event, i got a particular type of response. a response that, i think, shows the enthusiasm that pretty much this entireschool has for xkcd.
[cheering] [laughter] exactly. so, in support of and in order to foster thisenthusiasm, i'd like to share a few examples of those responses with you tonight. so, one time, i was having lunch with agroup of engineers outside of long tuck mall. and one young woman, upon hearing the news, gotso excited that she actually screamed so loudly, that the sound reverberatedall up and down the streets. and what's more, this occurred atthe president's cookout [laughter]. another time, i was spontaneouslyhugged by someone i had just met. and another time, i was proposed to[laughter] by someone i had never met.
i had to decline the proposalon the principle that, i just can't accept marriageoffers communicated by a blitz. so, those are a few particular examples. but then, there are the rest of you. i have received so many emails saying,"i'm so excited about this event. sign me up for the blitz list. how can i help?" now, recall that i said that this eventhas been five months in the planning. and trust me, it's been worthwhile.
but, on the other hand, it has soakedup time and energy, and sometimes, i start to feel a sense of my soul. so, to everyone one of you who sentone of those emails and contributed that extra little life sustainingspark of enthusiasm. god bless you! you have no idea how muchyour contribution means. and, well, since i seem to be invokinggod's favor upon our supporters, i would like to thank our sponsors. as our posters say, probably more organizationsthan you even knew existed on campus.
so, those organizations are the mathdepartment, the physics department, the computer science department, the deanof college, the president's office, coso, [inaudible], alpha theta, the dartmouthmathematical society, creative gaming club, the graduate student council,and the art council. also, thank you... [ applause ] that did take a little practice [laughter]. also, thank you very much toall my wonderful volunteers, and especially max lipson [assumedspelling], michael diamond, and james oakley.
but that's enough about us. what about this fellow, randall munroe? well, randall munroe graduatedfrom christopher newport university with a degree in physics in 2006. he worked for a time at nasa, and now hemanages my all-time favorite web comic from his home in massachusetts. now, i've done my research, andi realize that randall has spoken at some prestigious institutions in the past. and these institutions have set up a sort ofseries of traditions associated with his visits.
therefore, i feel obligated tomention that, tomorrow at lunch, we too will have a cake shapedlike the internet. [laughter] and also i have a few things togive you, if you'd like to come up here. firstly, a lovely dartmouth t-shirt. >> randall munroe: well, thank you. [ applause and cheering ] >> nicole: and also, creative gaming club,which will be hosting our party tonight in common ground at 8 o'clock was[laughter] -- it's going to be some party -- [laughter] was very eager tobe remembered fondly by you,
so they have donated no fewer than two t-shirts. >> randall munroe: sweet, thank you [laughter]. >> nicole: it says, "get your nerd on". >> randall munroe: awesome. >> nicole: and also, so, i got a t-shirt from some asian-american studentorganization, so here you go [laughter]. >> nicole: i have no idea where it camefrom, but it looks like you won't have to do laundry for a while [laughter]. >> nicole: and one more...
>> randall munroe: at least three more days. >> nicole: ...yeah. one more, perhaps uniquely dartmouth-y offering. i have for you the philosophy journal. as a matter of fact, this issue came out onlyyesterday, and the theme is the vienna circle which is celebrating its centennial this year. >> randall munroe: oh, really. >> nicole: the vienna circle [laughter]. well, vienna circle was a group of philosophersthat met to discuss math and physics
and related topics, so we thought it appropriateto put your web comic "certainty" on page 63. >> randall munroe: oh, cool. thank you [laughter]. >> nicole: it's there [laughter]. >> randall munroe: aw, thanks. >> nicole: although, as our editor-in-chiefhas said, the period of 1906 to 1910 was kind of a murky one for the vienna circle becauseit wasn't really an official organization. so, we might as well as not be correctabout this being the centennial, but in order to make sure we'recorrect, we fixed wikipedia.
[ laughter ] i'm afraid i can't claim to have made that up. and just one more thing beforei hand over the podium. i mentioned traditions earlier, and when youchecked into the hanover inn this afternoon, you found a surprise waiting for you. >> randall munroe: yes, i did. >> nicole: i think you know what's coming. so, does anyone have a playpenball you'd like to give randall? >> throw them back to us!
>> nicole: anymore? [laughter] okay. ladies and gentlemen, randall munroe! >> randall munroe: [laughter] so. i don't wear a tron costume... >> yeah! >> randall munroe: ...or a guyfawkes mask everywhere i go. i don't use -- i don't usenumbers in place of letters in, you know, normal conversation [laughter].
i didn't steal your credit card orhack into your mainframe, and no, i don't know what's wrong with your computer. [laughter] you know, i'dbe happy to take a look. i have a blog. and that's okay. there are -- there are manyother people like me. we have moderated comment threads insteadof, you know, one-way press conferences. and your parents' politicianswouldn't stand 10 seconds in them. we -- i have friends from all across every timezone, different continents, and you know what,
when we're in charge, i'm going to be alot less likely to vote to bomb somewhere when i know the next morning i'm going to wakeup to upset messages from them on facebook. [laughter] and you know what, when someonetries to lie to me, i look it up on snopes. wikipedia is more useful than britannica. john stewart is better than the network anchors, and the perry bible fellowship could kickthe ass of any of its peers in the papers. [cheering] my name is randall. and i'm from the internet. >> what part?
>> randall munroe: well, i grew upin a little town on livejournal. [laughter] i was actually on the first aol kidschat room in like 1993, i think -- or 1994. >> '92 [laughter]. >> randall munroe: it was, i think, cooltreehouse was the first one, and then. and i know that because it was a much moreinnocent time because i remember typing 9/f and 10 -- or 9/m and 10/m in response to asl, which nowadays [laughter]gets you in some trouble. but, no, it's a real pleasure to be here. it is a little bit -- coming here, it'sa little bit saddened by the shadow cast
by the recent death of michaelcrichton, the man who taught me to be pathologically afraid ofraptors that can open doors. [laughter] and it's certainly sad, youknow, to have lost such a fabulous author, but i feel like there's someconsolation in that, maybe at some point during his writingcareer, he was bitten by a mosquito. [laughter] and maybe he'snot gone forever [laughter]. but, no, the raptor thing, i mean, just oneof the many neuroses i developed as a kid. that sort of -- it's like ocd, excepti swear i could stop if i wanted. that you know, stepping on certain floor tilesor having to walk consistently with regards
to where your stride falls on the cracks. i did remember there's no particular rule. you just have to be consistent [laughter]. and things like when your-- when i'm walking around, i would decide that i could onlyturn when i was touching something. so, if i wanted to get somewhere, i had to tackby hitting walls and bouncing in straight lines. [laughter] and -- and but,you know, and then sometimes, i would turn these ordinarythings into superpowers. like, for a while, i have -- i actually hadthis idea that it would be a handy superpower
to be incredibly patient man [laughter]. just have an inhuman amount of patience, andi actually successfully bluffed with this. there've been a couple times for meas you get something from a store. and they had just started to closeand it's right there in front of me, and i just went to pick it up, and they'relike, "no, sorry, not going to sell it to you." and i'll say, "but you're thereand, you know, cleaning up the shop. you're going to be thereanother hour and a half. can you just sell it to me? i walked this whole way."
and, "no, sorry, come back." and i'll be like, "okay. when do you re-open?" and they'll say like, "8o'clock tomorrow morning." i'll be like, "okay." and then, keep standing there. [laughter] and the guy says,"8:00 tomorrow morning." turns away -- and this hasworked a couple of times -- turns away and starts sweeping, sweeping.
gets down the aisle, turns back around, andsees me still standing there [laughter]. he'd say, "is there a problem?" i'm like, "no. you said 8 o'clock, right?" look at the watch [laughter]. and he'd just, because they can'tbelieve that a normal, mortal human. [laughter] so, and every time that's worked, they just stare for a moment,and they're like, "poor kid. hold on, okay, i'll go get it."
[laughter] you know [laughter]. but it's a lot of fun. it's always weird to come out and meet space and see this many peoplewho actually read the comic. when i'm drawing it in my room,you know, i can just pretend. it's going on the internet, and then i'llget, you know, comments on my blog, reviews. people will say nice things or mean things,but, you know, it doesn't really matter. you know. it's not real. but then and then, i see all these people,and, all of a sudden -- uh-oh [laughter].
but, i don't know, the feedbackis always really interesting. sometimes, i find that the -- the negativereviews, you know, the negative comments about the comic more interesting. you know, i guess, and i don't gettoo many of them, which is nice. but, when they do, at least they-- sometimes they're creative. actually, one of the comments that i gotrecently was, "randall munroe is joss whedon, except he traded in his writing abilityfor the ability to memorize prime numbers." [laughter] so, that kind of hurt, but, you know. no, it's been, i guess, the oneplace that has been a little weird.
i try to keep my actual realpersonal life out of the strip, and i don't talk about dating and stuff. and it's not even so much,you know, privacy for me, as it makes things prettyweird for anyone i'm seeing. when, for example, i draw a comicabout a nasty fight and breakup. and then, the person i'mseeing starts getting calls from their friends that morning,saying, "oh, god. i heard about it. is that okay?"
or, "are you okay? what happened? [laughter] did you reallywrite over his boot sector?" [laughter] but the other place that's weird isin the actual, you know, the process of dating when you're doing a comic like this. which, the problem is, i didn't really realizethis, but everyone knows all my stories now. [laughter] so, we'll be dating, youknow, like go on a walk down the beach or something like that, start talking. [laughter] you know, and we'll get the firstthree or four miles down, and you know,
we'll be talking and, you know,i'll start to tell a story. like, you know, "i always liked to sayi liked to take long walks on the beach. you know, really long walks." and she'll cut me off, like, "i know. i read your comic." [laughter] and then, i'll get astory in return, and i won't know it. and it's even worse when it's sortof like romantic talk, you know. like, you know, "oh, this is great. i just wish we could slow downthe world here for a moment.
and, you know, if we spun around, maybe we'd..." and she'll be like, "that's from your comic. [laughter] how many other girlshave you used that one on?" [laughter] but this is actuallymy fourth time in new hampshire in the past, maybe, you know, 120 hours. i was -- i got tired of shriekingon sites like reddit about politics. and with the election getting closer, i waslike, i need to figure out where i could go to, you know, get some work done on this. to get out the vote type stuff.
you know, i came to new hampshire. i actually called up the obama offices andsaid, you know, "is there anywhere, any offices, if you guys working to get out the vote. is there anywhere i could go to help out? where do you need peoplein new hampshire the most?" because i figured it's kind of a swing state. and they said, "well, whereare you coming from?" and i was like, "oh, i don't have a real job. i can go wherever."
[laughter] so, they sent me up toconway, where i worked for a couple days. and, first of all, your statedoes not need that many mountains. [laughter] but it's been a lot of fun. we got a lot of interesting peopleasking questions about the race. the one that really stuck out in my mind,though, was the grizzled guy who showed up at the offices, late atnight, when we were, you know, just finished calling peoplebecause it got too late. and this guy shows up, knocks on the door. sort of trench coat, completelyindeterminate age, like, five week shadow.
and he just sort of comes in, and he's like,"what does your candidate think about guns?" [laughter] and you know, we're like, "actually,neither of the candidates really are all that interested in, you know,gun control, the gun issue. we think there are more important things. they're working on healthcare." and all this. and he says, "i don't care about any of that. they going to take my guns?" and then, you start to get a little bit nervousat that point because it's one of those issues
where i feel like, it's not so much the -- it'sa -- there are a couple issues like this -- where it's not so much, you know, the issue. like they might be completely right. it's anyone who has -- it's like -- there's a lot of old scientificcontroversy, you know, race and iq. and does it really exist, or scientisttaught -- do differences exist? are scientists not talking about it? are scientists talking about it? and it's not so much that oneposition there is, you know,
right or being stamped downor anything like that. it's just, anyone who's toointerested in the issue frightens me. [laughter] and i feel the sameway when someone shows up who, all they want to know about is guns. and whether or not we agreewith them about guns. and they're wearing the kind of coatthat could conceal any number of guns. but it did strengthen my resolveto run for president in 2010 because those fuckers willnever see that coming. i think i could win.
i think, they really wantto get out the youth vote, my platform would just bebring back the old facebook. [ cheering and applause ] [laughter] all right. now, as i understand there are microphonessomewhere around here, if we want to start -- if anyone has a questions ortopics they want to bring up. i usually find that's the mostinteresting part of these, so sure. so, anyone have any questionsabout xkcd, the internet, blogs? >> a little while ago, you did a,like, competition with the new yorker.
like a comic-off or something. how did that come to be? >> randall munroe: i actually just got theemail, you know, from the new york comic blog that just said, "hey, wedo this thing periodically. do you want to contribute to it?" and i, you know, looked at it and saw they'dgo under review with michael showalter, who i really like, and iwas, "oh, that sounds cool." and i looked at their drawings, andi was like, "okay, i can do that." and he sent the topics a couple days lateri got around to it, and drew up a bunch
of comics on his topics, sent them in. and then, he wrote a narrative,explaining how it was actually a duel. that i had met him in a supermarket. and there was all sorts of tension andtumbleweeds, and then a slapping with a glove. and, but it was a lot of fun. i'm not really sure who won that one. i think both of us got a lot of attentionfrom the other groups that hadn't heard of, you know -- people who read xkcdhadn't heard of the new yorker. and the people who read the newyorker [laughter] hadn't heard
of anything that came out past 1970. but it was pretty neat. i've always liked the new yorker's comic strips. sometimes, they could use apunch line, but that's just me. you know. so, who else? right in the middle -- orright there, that works better. yes, go ahead. >> okay. when you see this whole room filledwith people who read your comic, do you ever -- when you're writing down a new comic-- does it ever cross your mind --
my god, like, i control the opinions of,like, all these people in this age group. if i write about this, there might be,like, riots in the street or something. if i -- people might actuallytry to clone velociraptors. does that ever cross your mind? >> randall munroe: it's -- well,its part of why, first of all, i try not to write about things that i really... ...i really like. so, the first thing, of course, isi came in this room as i sized up and noticed, hey, all the doors shut.
there are not a lot of large windows. the one that is up in the projection booth. i checked that beforehand, andit's got a door that locks. but, it occurs to me that when the raptor's inthe room with you, that's kind of a liability. i think i'm okay up here, althoughthey're astonishing jumpers. [ conversation ] >> randall munroe: and i forget thatthere's anyone else in the room. it's just me and the raptor,making eye contact, staring. and then, from the side.
clever girl. [laughter] this is going to be a problem. come on. [ laughter and applause ] actually, that reminds me, anyone catchthe news story just a few days ago about the woman who was bitten by the fox? >> yes. >> randall munroe: and shedid, a jogger [laughter] -- look, i heard from a friendof a friend who, you know,
who made it up while they were reading snopes. it's totally cool. no, who was -- she was bittenon the arm by a fox -- or she was bitten on the leg and then the arm. and decided she should probably keep thefox, so it could be tested for rabies. so, left it clinging to her arm,teeth sunk in, and jogged for a mile to her car where she ripped the fox off. and then wrapped it in a t-shirt and threw it inher trunk, which is where that idea comes from. yes, wrapped in a sweater.
but i think she gets in thatcategory with the guy who cut his own arm off toget out of the rock slide. as people who get free beerat any bar they go to. [laughter] so, i think wehad a question -- oh, yeah. >> i have a question. is the classhole your alter ego? >> randall munroe: when i started doingthe comic, i was thinking like, oh, i should make a whole cast of characters. and then, i was like, i don'tknow how to write characters.
but, then i was thinking like, okay,i'll have a romantic, you know, one of the guys be the romanticguy, give him one name. and one of the guys be the nerdyguy and give him the other name. but then i was thinking, well, kind ofthe whole point of this is that they're -- like, nerds have awkwardfumbling sex, too, you know. and that needs, you know, thatis all one person, you know. the nerdy guy and the whimsicalguy, and then the so and so people. but then, now and then, there'ssomething i just wanted to say. that i just still wasn't quitecomfortable with making, you know,
this character that everyone'ssupposed to identify with, you know. and there's just some joke that i want to make. and so then i'll put the hat on the guy. [laughter] so, i decided i was willingto break, just flip that one off. so, yeah that's my total asshole alter ego. but, and then it's been fun, it's sortof developed just into its own thing. so, we had a question, inconvenientlyin the very middle here. i think literally the middle of the room. >> i already asked this via blitz, but iwas wondering if you'd marry me [laughter]?
>> randall munroe: awe. the way she phrased it, i thoughtthat you asked to marry her. >> oh, yeah, i did. >> randall munroe: yes, oh, okay [laughter]. >> she turned me down, so. [laughter] i mean, not to say it like that. >> nicole: it was via blitz. >> randall munroe: well, so you've gotone rejection that way, and then... >> well, it is on blitz.
>> randall munroe: ...yes, well, i feel like,so i feel like right now, there's this chain. so, if i really want to complicatethis further, nicole, will you... >> nicole: that wasn't over blitz, so... >> is that a yes [laughter]? >> randall munroe: aw, ahoneymoon to the blogosphere. [laughter] so, let's see,do we have -- back up there. >> so, if i may ask, what's going to happenwith the relationship between the man in the hat and the girl, who's his soul mate? >> randall munroe: oh, nothing good.
>> oh, you can't [laughter]? >> randall munroe: i mean,they might turn out okay. everyone around them, maybenot so much [laughter]. >> you dropped your pen. >> randall munroe: oh, thank you. >> what kind of pen is it? >> randall munroe: the faber-castell pitt pens. i actually use like the cheapest mechanicalpencils that i have used ever since i was a kid, and then i got the art snob pens.
and, i don't know, i got really used to -- it's really nice, you can justdraw, and it's a single bold line. i draw all the comics on paper and scan them in. even -- it's like the mostlow-tech operation for a tech comic. i'm one of the only comic's people whostill, like, bothers, who still hand-letters. i don't really have a good reason i do it. i just feel like there shouldbe some work somewhere. [laughter] all right, so. all the way over there.
>> i'm just curious if you havea favorite module in python. >> randall munroe: you see, theyactually added anti-gravity to the trunk. [laughter] so, you can now importanti-gravity in whatever the latest python is. so, i'm partial to that one. i think the only thing it imports asingle function, which then, i think, it invokes the system browserand pulls up that comic. so, that's got to be my favorite. another over there? yeah.
>> i just [laughter]... >> randall munroe: you can project, yes. >> ...work you actually do? [laughter] well, not big but popularwebsite, and you got this comic. but, you know, it goes up three times per week. and you've got your blag with, like-- how much work is that, actually? [laughter] what do you do? >> randall munroe: i do no lesswork than i did when i was at nasa. [laughter] i mean, if you remember, whatalways stuck out, the line in office space
when the guy's like, "you know, honestly? i do maybe 15 minutes of real work every day." and i was like, "that guy's got it rough." [laughter] no, i, that was probably why i left. was not just that comics wereawesome more, but i was -- i don't know if i'm cut outto be a c programmer. it was just, you know, makinglibraries work together. there's something fundamentalabout that that just turned me off. so, i would just spend a long time, you know,
i would load up a whole bunchof files at the beginning. i'd get a make file, put it in there. make, and then watch it scroll for a while. it gets to an error at the end. and then, i'd sit there for about 15minutes, just sort of watching it. and then, go and try, okay,let's change this file name. go. compile, compile, compile, compile. it works. so, i'd go makea change again, compile. okay, it's broken again.
[laughter] and keep that up for a while,and they'd say, okay, here's the deadline. so, then i'd take the one that workedand, you know, okay, i got it done. [laughter] but -- no, i don'tknow, i never worked. i was actually a terrible student in highschool, and then a much better student in college because i didn'thave to stick to a schedule. so, i would just then -- and this is-- and i know for a lot of people, this is not a good way towork, but it worked for me. which is, when i had an assignment, i'dget pretty good at figuring out, okay, how much time is this going to take?
say, i've got an assignmentthat's going to take, you know, six and a half hours is my guess. and it's due at 8 o'clock. so, i started at 1:30. [laughter] and i did that for all ofcollege, and sometimes it meant, okay, i've got a whole bunch ofthings coming in this week, and that means that i justdon't sleep for that week. but there was never any trying toconvince myself to work because it's just, you hit the point where you haveto do it, and then you do it.
so, and i basically do comics the same way. it's that i don't have anyideas until there's a thing on the site being like, youhave to put up a comic now. and then, suddenly, i'll begoing through my notes, and, oh! this one isn't that terrible. i can use that. so, it's just a constant, it sort of feelslike a constant flow of the least bad of the comics i've been doing, youknow, things i've been drawing. in the yellow?
>> yes. would you more likely disagreethat the moon landing was a hoax before or after working at nasa [laughter]? >> randall munroe: well, it was really,you know, i had my suspicions all along. but, when i started working there,and they actually showed me the shots of the sound stage they hadbuilt on mars [laughter]. >> one night, just about 12 o'clock,i went to look at your comic, and i ran into somethingthat wasn't actually a comic. it was a different page thatlinked to it [laughter]. >> randall munroe: what addressdid you type in [laughter]?
>> it was similar, but it was different... >> randall munroe: i mean,because if you're like me, when you go to the address bar,no matter what page you're on... >> ...before the next one that was put up. >> randall munroe: ...that's weird. i think we've got it orderedso it creates the new page. and then it updates the linksand it updates the index. but i don't know. that's pretty strange.
are you using google chrome? [laughter] because, as of this morning,for some reason, google chrome won't -- or as of sometime in the last couple days,i just started hearing about it today -- but, yes, google chrome doesn't pick up thecss file, like all the other browsers do. >> is it the anti-gravityon your server-side python? >> randall munroe: damn it. you know, actually, if you go look at thegoogle chrome source tree, they include, like, all of cygwin, and all -- i mean, like,they got some huge set of packages. like three web servers in there.
and the entire python source tree, i think. >> is it [inaudible]? >> randall munroe: so, presumably, includingother abbeys, that can't be the problem. all right, in the white? >> i was wondering if you ever triedto get [inaudible] on a raptor? >> randall munroe: no, they move fast. you need the plas [phonetic] at the very least. but... >> well, how about the fastfourier transform [laughter]?
>> randall munroe: that was thejoke i should have gone for. good thinking. you get to draw the next comic. [laughter] yes? >> were you ever contacted byanyone at youtube with regards to the audio preview of the comments? >> randall munroe: no, thatshowed up in some beta. i wrote a comic about how youtubeshould add this feature where you have to listen to the things you write.
and it's an absolutely terrible idea because,if you can't get the voice actors to read it in a dramatic voice, then it's not the same. but someone apparently tookit seriously one day. and really just showed up insome of their released code. it was a function that wasn't used. and then, shortly after, itstarted appearing on the pages. no one from youtube has evercontacted me about it. but i did hear from a friend who's got a friendworking there in [inaudible] or something, who apparently saw the comic and thought itmade a cool project and stuck it in there.
but, as i mentioned with the blog, like -- and in general, i mean, the speech synthesizedcomments, it doesn't work out so well. it's hard to get across, you know. and you don't have to click the buttonto get it to read the thing to you. so, you know, you'd just post crap anyway. but, yes, i put this up on the blog. i really -- the most heartening thingabout it was that i went and looked at what people were saying about the feature. and someone posted a comment saying,"this is the dumb," and no one knew why.
and someone was like, "this is thedumbest feature i've ever seen. it has no conceivable use. why would you put this stupid something there." and then, "p.s., and the audio previewof my own comments sounded moronic." [ applause and laughter ] so, maybe there's hope. back up there. >> do you have any inside jokeswith your friends in the comic? or, you know, for us [laughter]?
>> randall munroe: oh, man, i've always been,like, tempted, but i also knew it would be like -- my friends, we have, like,way, way, way too many inside jokes. and when that starts, it doesn't stop. and you just keep doing jokes that you're like,"oh, man, my friends think this is hilarious!" but you forget the 99.999% of peoplewho have read it have never met you. don't know what you're talking about. what i do, i actually do want to do. i was thinking about justdoing an inside joke magazine. where the entire thing wouldjust be inside jokes collected.
and, you know, it would have somehilarious name, the plaster microwave, and then they'd be, "what did that mean?" "oh, you had to be there." [laughter] so, i always thought that'd be fun. i put a few sort of hidden messages in it. things like when there were musicnotes floating above the stage in one of the comics, just show music going by. i actually had a friend of mine arrange a loungepiano piece of "never going to give you up". [laughter] and what really made me happyabout that was the thought that someone might,
you know, read the comic,you know, look at the joke. the music didn't really haveanything to do with the joke. there just needed to be music there. and look at it -- oh, it lookslike an actual piano score. you know, move the wheel-y chair overto the piano, open it back up, okay. [singing] fuck! and there are couple little thingslike that in the binary heart. there was a, you know, thebinary actually means something. and then, there was a secondarymessage imbedded in that that was
because i was getting overa girl at the time and... >> aw. >> randall munroe: ...thanks a lot. so -- so yeah. i fit in secret messages like that,but i always have to keep it, like, very much nomic [phonetic] of the joke. you know, it's the same way with the alt text. i know that everyone who's, you know, ahardcore xkcd reader with friends who read it. all people who know there'smouse over text on the image.
but i figure most readers still probably don't. if, you know, if you putyour mouse over the comic, the tool tip appears andthere's a little extra joke. and so, i make a point of i only write the jokeonce i've finished the comic and scanned it in. the mouse over text is neveressential to getting it. so -- i don't know, i worry abouta lot of that kind of stuff. and i think that that's part of why it's worked,is making sure the person who's stumbling on it. doesn't have any other connectionto anything that you do, can -- or you know, your friends oranything like that, can get it.
so, let's see. is there a question over there? >> do you ever get writer's block? and if you do, what happens? >> randall munroe: for mostof, i think, late 2006. no, i think it's pretty much-- it's like i said. i just take the, i'll have,like, throughout the day. i have these little notebookswhere i'll -- when -- because a lot of it is just everyonenotices stuff that makes you laugh.
and you just have to remember,like, write it down. and then, try to sharpen it and makeit, you know, more and more pointed. so, i'll fill notebooks with littlecomments or ideas for things. and then, when it comes time to dothe comic, i just sort of scan through and i find something that works in there. and, you know, sometimes i'm lesshappy with it than other times. but i know that, if i don't do one everyday, or, you know, every update day. if i ever start to get lax with the schedule,the pressure would be off completely. and then, you know, i'd do like one comic amonth and turn into megatokyo or something.
but, so -- i mean, in general,the fact that people, so many people are listeningand talking about things. and then i'm now a lot more involved in thiswhole, you know, tech world and science world. and there's a lot of stuff goingaround, so i can always just sort of take something i'm thinking about. and then, just write dialog about it or writecomments about it until it hits something, you know, even if it's just a terrible pun. it works. but i don't know, i've actually. i wonder a whole lot because i read.
it's only in retrospect that i realizethat i was actually preparing for this job. because as a kid i did nothing but -- i didmath and science and i read newspaper comics like calvin and hobbes and everything. and i would just check out stacks. i read everything in all thehumor sections of the library. i was just, why would youever stop reading humor? why would you ever spend anytime not reading funny things? because it's fun -- you know,it's funny, and it's fun to laugh. i mean, i remember the librarian actuallyhaving a talk with my mom about it.
you know, "i think he's readinga little too much humor." and then, i remember my mom said,she talked to the librarian, "i know he reads science fiction stuff. i know he reads isaac asimov." and she was like, "oh yes, hechecked out an asimov book earlier." it was asimov's treasury of humor [laughter]. but i actually don't rememberwhere that started. but, anyway, i've been reading... >> you were talking about how yourlife prepared you for this job.
>> randall munroe: ...yeah, yeah. and, you know, i've lost it. i'm sorry. i'm just going to stop. i'll come back tomorrow with therest of, you know, the discussion. yes? >> are you aware that carrying moleskinlike that gives you a plus two to wisdom? >> randall munroe: also like probably a plusthree to hipster, so i don't know [laughter]. >> well said [laughter].
>> randall munroe: yeah? >> would you ever be interested inowning a hot air balloon yourself? >> randall munroe: that wouldactually be kind of cool. i don't know. what i've been doing latelyis doing high-altitude kites. i mean, i've been doing this on and off. but i just got a camera reprogrammed, so thati can actually fly kites with a camera hanging on that would take pictures for, youknow, three or four hours at a time. and i can send the kites up to, youknow, a few thousand feet, at least.
and get pictures of towns,cities, stuff like that. but i was thinking that aballoon would be a next step. i actually talked to someone here who's doingcool balloon research, and i was thinking that, if i can get ahold of a large hot airballoon, you know, i could send up cameras up to absolutely ridiculous heights. and the next step is, obviously, youbuild a ladder to it and climb up to it. yeah. i think, it might be morepractical to do the cluster ballooning, where you get a whole bunch of, like,the balloons they use to hold up banners at sale places that are, like, about yey-big.
and you just get a whole bunch of themand you get a lawn chair underneath, and then you float away, andit becomes an artsy movie. >> it's been done twice. >> randall munroe: ...oh, cool. you can do that again. >> one time, dartmouth had a lawn chair relay... >> randall munroe: oh, really cool. >> ...got an honorable mention. >> randall munroe: oh, okay, cool.
but did you have cellular connectivity up there? so i can be the first person to blog [laughter]. >> [inaudible audience comment]. >> randall munroe: oh, oh dear. >> so, some of your ideas that have been inthe comics have come through in real life. i'm wondering, what's your favorite of those? and what's your favorite idea that hasn't comethrough in real life that you wish it would? >> randall munroe: i'm still waitingfor someone to put janeane garofalo on a space station and then have it crash.
and have her jumping the motorcycle off of thespace station with a tranquilizer dart gun. which she needs because she'sgoing through the volcano, and there's a tyrannosaurus waiting for her. i sort of did that one because everyone kepton acting out the comics, and i was like, whoa, this is going to get out of hand fast. i better set a really high -- i better takethis to its conclusion quick, you know. one of my favorite ones is when i drew corydoctorow with the cape and goggles, and, you know, i had never met him or anything. and, you know, he sort of took it toheart and has been wearing them at events.
and it's, i don't know -- and ihave such a combined, you know, affection and amusement forthe whole blogosphere. and, you know, he almost exemplifies that best. you know, one of the major bloggers that... and i'm really glad he took it with good humorbecause he's now getting that constantly. the installment, by contrast, had-- when he was sent samurai swords after i drew a comic about that. he had no idea, you know,what any of this was about. and he sent back a very nice note saying, "okay,
they've explained to me thatthis is from this comic. and i'm not sure what to do with thissword, but i guess i'll keep it by my bed." he was later actually attackedby ninjas at an event. so, up there. >> do you have any favorite strips? >> randall munroe: oh, okay. there. i didn't see you. like, when i go back overthem, i'm always self-critical, so i don't tend to read throughthe archives much.
i know a lot of comic peopledon't do that as much. but i know, i guess in the last,you know, 100 or so, there was -- what really, what's interesting about it is, which ones are my favorite is totallyinfluenced by how much people like them. which, on one hand, is sort ofnot how art's supposed to be. but on the other hand, like, if you'rea comedian, and you tell a joke. and no one in the audience laughs,you pretty much told it wrong. you know, maybe you're talking tothe wrong audience, but most likely, the joke is not as good as you thought.
but, on the other hand, sometimes itcatches me by surprise when i draw one. like when i come up with an idea, buti've been thinking about it for so long that i'm not really sure about it anymore-- whether or not it's funny or not. whether or not people will getwhat i was thinking or what. and then, i get feedback that's really good. like, totally catches me by surprise. then, that's really cool. one case where that happened, like, whatof my early most famous comics was the one that circulated around the most wasthe sudo make me a sandwich one.
and believe it or not, ithought that comic was, like -- i was almost thinking of it as likefiller after the other one i had done. because i was like, well, most peoplearen't going to know what sudo is. and then, the ones who do have probably allencountered this before, and all made this joke. and, you know, they're justgoing to go, "oh yes, that." and, boy, did that catch me by surprise. that the readership doubledafter i did that comic. so. and also, suddenly my readership wasnitpicking any computer remark i made a lot more.
one that i got a lot of feedback aboutthat i was also, before i did it, really happy with was the parttwo of the journal series. where the guy gets his hatknocked off by the girl. i remember, you know, i came upwith that, and i was like, "oh, man. i really like how this works." i drew it out. i was really satisfied with it. and i remember just putting it up and beinglike, "oh, man, i hope people like this." and they did, and that was exciting.
but. we're just getting into, i don't know -- i could talk all day about things thati've done that i've, you know, liked. but. let's see. there. >> what are some of your favorite web comics? >> randall munroe: well,one that sadly ended not that long ago was the perrybible fellowship, of course. that one, he was like the undisputed kingof gags, you know, or king of just building up something and then delivering it.
and you had no idea where he was going. and suddenly, the last panel wouldcompletely change everything around. so, he's incredible. i think that since he's stoppedworking, i think my favorite, like, gag writer probably is zach weiner ofsaturday morning breakfast cereal. that's one, he's been around for a long time,but it's recently really been taking off. and he's just so consistently punchy and good. and i always feel that like some of thecomics i feel best about, i realize, are just approaching closer andcloser to executed like one of his.
so, there's also stuff like a softer world. that's a more obscure sort of dementedphoto comic written by a wonderful, completely crazy dude named joey comeau. and one of his friends, ryan,also does dinosaur comics. which is just an amazing achievement. let's see. and then, everyone seems to read penny arcade,even the people who aren't so much gamers. i mean, i still read it, even thoughi don't get about half of them. because the half i do getare so superbly executed.
because they've just been doing this,you know, so intently now for a number of years, and they've just got it down. and then, the really obscure one that i'llgive a shout out to is buttercup festival, which really inspired some of myearly comics that people liked. and i kept on pointing peopleback to it, mostly to no avail because it's really hard toread that guy's handwriting. but it's this really whimsical comic wherecharacters will just suddenly in the middle of a sentence, you know, drift off andfloat off over the mountains nearby. and there's something aboutthat that i really like.
hmm, yeah. >> nicole: so, of course, most of your fans atan undergraduate institution are undergraduates. so, therefore, younger than you are. and since they're fans of yours,they are also, by definition, nerdy. [laughter] and anyone who takes that, youknow, as an offensive remark needs to... >> randall munroe: i don't thinkthey're in here [laughter]. >> nicole: ...anyway... >> randall munroe: or they mightsay, "excuse me, i'm not a nerd. i'm a geek."
and then, they'll be like,10 minute slideshow on... ...and five minutes into the slideshow,you're like, "by virtue of this, you have proved yourself irrevocably both." but, anyway, you were saying? >> nicole: ...i'm curious to know thatremark you made earlier that, you know, you sort of unknowingly preparedyourself your whole life for this job. >> randall munroe: yes. >> nicole: it sounds like this job issomething that really makes you happy. something that is fulfilling for you.
and i guess i'm just curious becausei think it's safe to say that you are at least one of a nerd or a geek. what advice might you have for otherfolks who are similar to you who want to find a potentially non-traditionaljob or at least a fulfilling job? >> randall munroe: i think there's acouple things here that took a while. that take you a while to figure out. like, you'll see a lot of peoplewriting about their career work. people who have been really successful. and there's a theme that emerges.
one of them is that you -- and one of themis something that steve jobs talks about -- which is you cannot connect the dots until-- except in hindsight, that, basically, there's almost no such thing as career planning. that, and the example that steve jobs alwaysgives is he, you know, he dropped out of school and then continued attendingclasses for a while. he would just attend whateverclasses seemed interesting to him, and one of them he would goto was a calligraphy class. that he thought, "this iscool, i'll learn calligraphy." and there is no way that anyone,looking at what he was doing there,
could have said that that was in any wayuseful to anything he would be doing. because he was pretty crew,working on microprocessors and the basics of operating systems and stuff. but he spent a lot of time learning calligraphy. and then, so, you know, a couple yearslater as they're putting together this o.s., and they're working on fontrender, rending text. as i understand, steve jobs, he really pushed. he said, "you know what, weneed variable-width fonts. because that's really kerning, andthese things are really important."
and he did. and mac -- so, apple became one of the firstmachines that did good text display like that. where you could do a lot of the type settingthat you couldn't do on the fixed-width pcs. and because of that, apple had ahead start in the graphics market, and now they're the dominant machinefor any kind of graphics design. and it's -- you can really trace it back to steve jobs had a random interestin calligraphy that he pursued. so, the lesson there, i think, is just, you do whatever seems interestingto you, but you do it like hard.
and you know, and get something done. and, if nothing comes of it, but youknow, you get something finished, and then you move on to another thing. and then later, you mightbe able to fit it together. but i think the key is reallyjust keep doing stuff. you know, the other side of thatis, the other key element, i think, is something that i'm learning fromdoing application essays for things. which i did a lot of up until thecurrent job where there are no standards. i mean, certainly, if they let me in.
but is -- i found that writing aninteresting or unusual application essay in nearly every situation is good. that you almost always error on the side of being too conservative andtoo stuffy or too whatever. an example, this is the first job i got at nasa. it was an internship that was really -- youknow, it was kind of, like, prestigious, and had all sorts of qualifiedpeople applying for it. and i was just an undergraduate whohad never done anything in the field. and so, i did the application essay.
and it was one of those ones -- any of you thatare undergraduates and are going on to any kind of a program, you're going to get thisquestion on essays like 80 million times. the application was 10 shortanswer questions and an essay. and every single short answerquestion was some variation on, "why are you a good fit for this program? or what is it about this program that youthink you will bring something to the program? what is it that you think this programwill bring to you and help you grow and thus contribute more to the program?" you know, and i filled in 10 of these, andthen i got to the essay prompt which was,
"explain something about yourself that showswhy you are a good fit for this program." and so -- and i had just gottenreally frustrated at that point, and so i wrote a story about submarines instead. [laughter] and it was, and if you read intoit, like it did tell a little bit about me. it was about how when i was a kid, youknow, i would go snorkeling and, you know, and play with these little model submarines. and i was always scared of the deep water. but i couldn't write it in likereally flowery style, like, "a child's fear of the deepand the dark" and so on.
and so, i wrote this essay, and it hadalmost nothing to do with the prompt. and i turned it in, and it was only afterthat that i found out how many other people from other schools had applied for this thing. and it was serious. and i was like, crap, there'sno way i'm getting into this. and you know, i got accepted,which was a huge surprise. and so, i went and talked to them. and i'm like, i know i didn't have the grades oranything like this, what was it, you know, why? and -- you know, i've been working on this.
i'm not a good student. why did you let me in? and they were like, actually, you know, the people on the admissionsteam really liked the essay. so, and you got to realize, thesepeople are just so sick to death of reading these things over, and over, andover that, you're, especially with things that are a little bit difficult to get into,you're often better off taking a chance. my brother's currently applying to aprogram where they've got a lot of -- he's doing a quiz that has a lot ofreally interesting questions on it.
one that stuck out was, "if you could beany kind of a tree, you would be a sequoia. why?" [laughter] and it was actually my cousinwho figured the best, the obvious answer to that, which is, "you know, that's the question i've been askingmyself for the last 700 years." [laughter] so, yes. >> what are your thoughts on the singularity,and your role in society after it happens? >> randall munroe: i think there's thisidea that technology is inevitably, everything is accelerating,everything is going faster. every graph looks like a hockey stick,and there's going to be this point
where everything just goestoo fast for human minds. computers take over, and we're all,you know, reduced to people floating in pink goo powering batteries or something. and i'm mainly skeptical because i thinkthe people who write about that kind of thing are not the people who actuallylook at the forefront of technology and realize that these are all bloggers. and somehow i have trouble seeing -- it seemslike the direction the interesting things that are happening are not yetin like a.i.s taking things over. and much more in people gettingconnected in weird ways, and, you know,
computers aiding the same kind ofsocial stuff that we were doing already. so, it's not that i keep up withmy friends any faster, so much. i'll still have days where idon't necessarily do anything. i just talk to people a little bit. but it's all through these bizarre media. but i don't think it reallychanges anything about us, and i don't think that the worldnecessarily leaves us behind. because the world is us. i think technology just shiftsroles around us constantly.
so, i don't really hold withthe singularity thing. but, i mean, if it does happen, i expect to see cory doctorow riding thecybernetic horse at the front of it. all right. up here. >> so, i'm starting a -- oh, i havethe microphone and that is awesome. and to hear my own voice, it's weird. >> randall munroe: bring it here. we'll put in feedback.
yes, go. >> i'll just talk normally. so, i'm starting a students for free culture... >> ...chapter on campus. and one of the issues we deal with is drm. and i know you had a comic aboutthat a few weeks ago, so... >> randall munroe: you read it? >> ...yes. >> randall munroe: you're notallowed to do that [laughter].
>> yeah, right. and i know you also talk about corydoctorow and ara mez [phonetic]. and so, i'm wondering if youconsider yourself to be an activist. and if you see the strip moving in a direction where it will involve moreadvocacy in the future. >> randall munroe: no, because i thinki have a really hard time being preachy and funny at the same time. it's pretty much one or the other. because i notice, and i'll just start the comic,and i'll realize it's turning into a screed.
and any time, there's like this screedtrigger that trips, and then i'm like, wait, i need to back off with this fora second and make it sound more. so, i think that the role of humoris generally making things absurd. like things that are absurd making them moreabsurd are pointing out they're kind of silly. and that i can do, especially in that area,because there are so many silly things. i really have to work hard, like, not to take myself too seriouslyand the comic too seriously. because it's easy to do that when everyone'swriting in to you and being like, "it's awesome. it's really important."
all that stuff. and i think it's hard to do thatand be funny at the same time. and so, when it's one or theother, i go with being funny. sometimes, it's neither. but, unfortunately, i sort of view thecalling of making really lame jokes as ultimately a higher callingthan any sort of social activism. up there. yeah. >> ninjas or pirates? >> randall munroe: i feel like,lately, zombies have really taken off.
[applause] i mean, as someonewho grew up on power rangers and ninja turtles it's really hard to, youknow, not to get behind the ninja's on that one. but on the other hand thepirates have the hooks. i'm pretty -- i just sort ofavoid a stand on either of them. i don't think that either of them are reallywell equipped to deal with raptors [laughter] so it's really not of interest to me. also smoke bombs don't work nearly aswell as they're supposed to [laughter]. >> yeah, so basically so you weretalking like technology and stuff. so [inaudible] and if you were giventhe capacity to invent any one thing.
like anything, what would that be? >> randall munroe: there's anopen ended question [laughter]. >> [inaudible response] [laughter].. >> randall munroe: so i've just beenwatching sarah connor chronicles [laughter]. i pretty much want to build thesummer glaw bodyguard [laughter]. that show has its ups anddowns but it's consistently fun to watch summer glaw punchpeople through walls [laughter]. >> did you actually try thesmoke bombs and make an escape? >> randall munroe: i -- i have playedwith smoke bombs and they're a lot of fun.
i hadn't tried the awkward escape. although i did not too longafter that have a friend say, "you know, we need to talk about this. the feelings." and i'm like, "it's really asmoke bomb moment [laughter]." and they were like, "i understand,we'll do this later." [laughter] i was like, "okay." and we just walked away [laughter]. but no, a friend of mine wastalking about how she knew someone
who would actually do the wholesmoke bomb pantomime including like the awkward backing away. and the like taking it out, lighting it,dropping it and then like quietly backing away and then like running out the door. and -- and she said it got a littlebit more awkward every time [laughter]. >> i guess my question is i -- i feel like alot of your jokes fall into two categories. one where the it's the cs, the math and thephysics jokes, and then on the other side it's like the web 3.0 like [inaudible]. [inaudible] about a rockwallor stuff like that [laughter].
so i guess i was wondering do you think that thecomic has changed as your readership has grown and maybe gone a little bit more mainstream. i was kind of interested in that. >> randall munroe: yeah. a lot of time i find that myimpression of what's happened to the comic is not actually-- like it's sort of skewed. like i'll go and i'll -- someoneis like you stopped using color or you use color all the time now. or one of those.
and like then i went -- yeah i think i do. and then i went in the survey and foundthat i like used exactly the same proportion of color strips versus non and likethroughout the whole time i did the survey. but about that. i mean i've certainly got more involved in a lot of the stuff that's taken offas i've been doing the comic. stuff like, you know, i firstdiscovered redditt as they were linking to me and started hanging out there. other sites like that.
so that's definitely been a focus in a way that it wasn't before becausei wasn't involved in it. so there's definitely been that. so -- so that's definitely taken over some. but i don't know, whenever i've been on onetopic for a while i think okay, let me -- i want to do something about this. or i get tired of it and move on. so i feel like there's sort of a permanent, youknow, jumping back and forth and maybe i'll hang out in one of the sections longer than usual,but ultimately i try to keep something --
you know, something for everyone. see, and the girl in the center. >> due to the midterm schedule last week, i accidentally attempted the twentyhours a week being asleep [laughter]. i passed out in the library around day three. so i was wondering if to your knowledge,anyone's every completed the whole system? >> randall munroe: yeah, i -- i've gotten onthe 28-hour day, i've done a week and a half. but -- and there's a website run by a guywhose family all lives on it [laughter]. i discovered after doingthe comic but it -- i --
i really don't think it'sfor mortals [laughter]. there was a guy that i had talked to whohad done a mars project who was living on a martian day for you knowstudying something or other and like after -- he was just doing it for a year. you know, staying up allnight in well-lit rooms. and something about it, the rhythms beingoff, he actually started just hallucinating and getting weireded out afterlike doing that for about a year. but -- and that's only likea 45 or 48 minute difference. so it can definitely throwyou off after a while.
i know that while doing for example thecanvas thing i ended up doing you know one of those 64-hour days followed by oneof those 24-hour [laughter] sleeping, followed by, you know, no schedule at all. so that's much more common. but yeah, you generally hit the pointwhere you're in the middle of the day and feeling really tired and you're --but you're supposed to be awake until late that night and you don't want to. that's usually where i'm doomed. on the other hand, don't you have some sortof requirement that you're supposed to pass
out -- sleep in one of the libraries? [laughter] someone was explainingto me about this list [laughter]. >> tower room. >> randall munroe: yeah, tower room [laughter]. huh? >> it's not being a sneaky person. >> randall munroe: take a nap? yeah [laughter]. okay [laughter].
>> can sleep [inaudible]. >> [inaudible]. >> randall munroe: unless you'recontinuing to work [laughter]. >> how much time to you actuallyspend on [inaudible]? >> randall munroe: god, for a while iactually had it blocked in my hosts file. so whenever i went there it wouldredirect me to xkdc.com/no [laughter]. which is just -- it's just a mirror of isitchristimas.com except it alsosays no on christmas [laughter]. and -- and that actually -- that was whenit really surprised me because i was like --
it seems like hiding thecigarettes from yourself. like you know where they -- youknow that you just blocked yourself. you could unblock yourself if you wanted. you should just be able todecide not to go there. so i set that but i felt kind of silly doing it. and then i was amazed at like six times in thehour after i had set it i found myself staring at the no and being completelystartled [laughter]. like -- like i would just be like, okay, i'm typing to someone, typingto someone and then no.
oh man, i just flipped over and typedcnn and read it or whatever [laughter]. wow. so i don't know, a fair bit of time. i changed names constantly though. i -- i -- which no one knewup until now [laughter]. i -- i like -- i don't knowi try to post under -- i try to change my names every so ofteninstead of posting under the xkcd name just because it's -- because then people will tellyou when your jokes are stupid [laughter]. i mean and it -- it feels likei'm getting more honest feedback. you know, when i'm being anonymous whichis the cool thing about the internet.
which is also the cool thing aboutreal life which is other than the -- that in general people don't know whati look like which means on the street. like if i ever started to be like, ohman, you know, it's the internet i'm cool. then i could just go out on the streetand like, nobody knows who i am. so that's [laughter] -- that's healthy. of course now you all know what i look like which means you probably noone will leave this room [laughter]. no i mean i always think that when peopleask about the raptors thing, you know, i always have to size up the room.
but the really important thing here is thatraptors are fast but i assume they can only -- they can only kill but so many people -- kill and eat so many people perminute or whatever [laughter]. so it's like the old joke that i don'tactually have to outrun the raptors. i just have to outrun one of you [laughter]. so... >> but you're in the spotlight. >> randall munroe: but thewindows over there [laughter]. no we're...
>> [inaudible response]. >> randall munroe: right, well and you knowthey'll get those two and the ones coming from the sides and then there's the other one inthe helicopter with the sniper rifle [laughter]. it's -- it's -- that's going tobe in jurassic park iv [laughter]. and up there again. a few more questions. >> you were saying that [inaudible]girl that [inaudible]. what was your family/parent's reaction to that? >> randall munroe: i mean the main questionwas are -- do you need to move back in?
no [laughter]. then its fine [laughter]. like as long -- as long as i'mat least paying rent they're -- you know they're pretty open to that. at first -- i remember my mom waspretty -- kind of nervous at first. like you're leaving a job atnasa to draw pictures [laughter]? but then she realize -- then whenshe started noticing that like people in the tech community are reading it. if i ever, you know, want to work on aproject and you know want to send out a resume
or something it opened up a lot of avenues. so -- so my family was actually prettycheerful about it once they sort of figured out what it was all about. it was -- it was definitely a weird momentbut on the other hand i was really ready to leave the office spaceish environment. so even if it did mean just sort of coastingfor a while i was -- i was okay with it. it wasn't -- it wasn't too scary a transition. >> i was just wondering what the dealis with the flying ferret [laughter]? did you...
>> randall munroe: yeah, that was actually-- that was one of those random [inaudible]. my brother had a ferret that he would hold. there's a point in the comic where the kid -- where the guy holds the ferretkind of by the scruff of the neck and it's just dangling there looking at him. and my brother had a ferret and hewould always walk around with it and he loved it dearly and hold it like that. and played with it. and -- and so i incorporated that intothe comic and -- and then at some point.
i think i was just drawing ferrets and idrew one with wings and i liked the idea and then i just did a couple comics with it. and but that did come out of a realferret that died not too long ago. but -- but which was adorable and i have manymemories of waking to the ferret being dropped on my face [laughter] while i slept, which definitely hastened mydecision to move out [laughter]. but -- but that is where that-- that was a real ferret. >> did he really smell? >> i don't know if you're familiar with dr.horrible sing along [laughter] [applause].
i was wondering if you've made a super villain. evil -- evil submission and ifyou haven't what would it be? >> randall munroe: yeah, well i'm justthinking of what -- what particular guise. i don't know, i think that icould maybe channel my talents -- i think we need an entropy villain. he -- just everywhere, everywhere he goesthings start to -- decay processes speed up. things become disorganized; things accelerate. the -- the... >> the cryptographers would love him.
>> randall munroe: [inaudible]? >> randall munroe: oh true. i -- that's -- that's one of the mostfrustrating vocabulary distinctions is -- is whether entropy means -- you know which oneentropy means in the information theory context. and i keep on like running into aplace where i have this number going up and its entropy going up or it's going down. does that mean there's moreinformation or more disorder? what? but no, i like this idea, especiallybecause you could have the villain be one of the obsessive organizers and the-- the bad guy just be entropy man.
so like he's walk into the room and thingson the desk would like -- the pencils -- the colored pencils would startto flip out of order [laughter]. and then the hero would go and rearrange them and the entropy man would you know juststand there and then you would see like all of the cabinets open and the paper wouldcome out and start reshuffling [laughter]. and then everything goes faster. and you know works. and the only guy who watches through to the end of this movie is incrediblypatient man [laughter].
all right, we can do a -- does anyone --i actually can't see a clock from here. how we are on time? >> randall munroe: all right. so we'll do a couple more. >> how's your campaign forpresidency of the internet going? >> randall munroe: i took a lookat the internet [laughter] -- i sort of wrote that into theblack cat comic as wait a minute, i don't want to be in charge of this [laughter]. because you -- no matter -- no matterhow evil you tried to be you would end
up taking internet arguments seriously andthat's just not a good road to go down. because then you -- like it's -- you know,it's a year later, you're drunk on the allies of slash dot arguing with -- arguing withinternet trolls about natalie portman [laughter] and it's just -- it's a bad place to be. i've -- i've seen that happen to people. it's not pleasant [laughter]. so. let' see, in the hat. >> randall munroe: sweet thank you. i have trouble finding hats in my sizesince i've got -- i think i measured once.
it's on the upper end of head circumferenceso i really need to find somewhere that will custom -- that will do a black hatof the kind in the comic that will fit me. >> randall munroe: hm-mm? >> conway. >> randall munroe: conway? >> farmway. >> randall munroe: farmway? >> randall munroe: farmway [laughter]. >> it's a store.
>> randall munroe: okay, i was just -- see how long we could keepexchanging that word [laughter]. cool. yeah, i was actually nota huge hat person before that. but -- before the comic. but then i kept drawing it in there. i'm like, that's kind of cool. i should do that. so yeah. i'd like to see it come back. i think -- i think that we had -- ithink kennedy made history in the --
the inauguration when hedidn't wear a hat to it. i think he was the first presidentnot to wear a hat to the inauguration and then hatlessness became a trend. and i'd really the next -- this upcominginauguration maybe bring it back [laughter]. have the first president tobe inaugurated with a hat. and i could really see obama in-- there's some pictures of him in like the -- the cowboy sheriff's hat. sort of the here to clean up these parts. i think he could try to make that work.
and then anyone who's a huge mel brooks fanappreciates that image that's been floating around of obama in the sheriff'shat with the caption "it worked in blazing saddles" [laughter]. >> randall munroe: there's acouple references tied up in there. but -- but yeah, overall hats i'm a fan. hair is a pain so that's easy enough. what's -- question up in the back. >> what are the [inaudible] comic [inaudible]? >> randall munroe: that startedas something i'm drawing.
it's going to finish. i've just had -- i've been tryingto wait until all the people who remember the original strips are long gone[laughter] and then i'll do the conclusion and it'll just confuse the hellout of everyone [laughter]. but the thing is, the longer i have itsitting around, the more i've been -- like the longer i've like the sketch --like here's what i think the last strip, the last two strips are going to be. the more like epic it gets [laughter]. so at this point i feel like i really need to-- need to get it, to make it worth this wait.
so, which makes me, you know, take longeron it which makes it better and better. so i -- i expect it -- i'll be like you knowthe marmaduke guy at 80 churning out xkdc and then i'll die and they'll comein and find like a room in the -- in my house that no one new about and they'llgo in and they're just be walls and walls of red spider drawings and[laughter] everything's crossed out and papers thrown over the floor. and like [laughter] one wallis a mural and, you know, everything's connected by yarn and [laughter]. and then they'll keep on releasingposthumous xkdc collections
of his -- his unreleased notes from this. and it'll just get worse, andworse, and worse [laughter]. but again and again. that seems to be the way things go. >> could you give us a summaryof your perfect treehouse? >> randall munroe: man. there would be a componentsuspended from a balloon. like it would go up above the tree. everything -- so from what i recall.
i don't have my notes here with me. but every -- i think i've got -- out ofall the numerical mentions of raptor, physiological attributes in jurassic park, iremember they were able to do jumps of eight to 12 feet vertically in -- in the lost world. in the book. and i think they had the high hide whichwas about 18 or 20 feet off the ground but the raptors were able tojump up and get to the lower bar of it when they took running jumps. so definitely 22, 23 feet at a very minimumwould be the first part of the treehouse
that you'd get a grip on [laughter]. and then from there on it's basicallythe swiss family robinson [laughter]. except those tigers were nothing. i mean. yes? >> what's the line that you draw atwhere you let how popular xkdc takes it? like okay say somebody says --somebody comes up to you and says, "well get [inaudible] xkdctv series [inaudible]. would you do that? >> randall munroe: first of all idon't know anything about animation.
i figure all the stick figure animation thatneeds to be done don herzfeld already did with rejected [laughter] [applause]. but [applause] no it's like i said, iactually -- i'm a huge fan of -- of -- of you know, newspaper comics and that medium. gag comics, far side type stuff. but i really don't know a lot aboutanimation and about, you know, movies and telling jokes that way. so i -- i wouldn't know the firstthing about what to do with it. you know? and of course thenthere's the artistic integrity.
so it would really come down to is howmuch money are they offering [laughter]? but -- yes? >> would you write a bookand what would it be about? >> randall munroe: yes andyou'll see [laughter]. and... >> you said earlier [inaudible]your 11th grade spanish class. >> randall munroe: i really don't know. i'm worried that she'll like --i'll get a call from her like, "you were staring at me drawing me [laughter]."
yeah, one of the very early comics --this was before i made it a web comic. i was just storing a bunchof drawings i had done online and one of them was this girl lyingin front of me in spanish class. and -- and i was watching a really boring movieand she had fallen asleep and i had just sort of sketching and drew her and thefloor under her or something like that. and -- and you know she waswatching the movie or something. and -- and it was in my notebook. and when i was scanning things to savei was like, "oh i kind of like that." i scanned it and saved it.
and it ended up in the web comic and ever sincethen i've been wondering if she's going to like, notice that i was at her school and then likelook at that one and be like, "he drew my ass. [laughter] he was staring at my --he was staring at me [laughter]." and get really creeped out. so i don't know. i should have really said it was a differentclass just to have plausible deniability. but i didn't. yeah, so no idea. all right, i think we havetime one or two more questions.
we'll do right here. >> [inaudible] kill us all? >> randall munroe: kill us all? >> yeah. [inaudible]. >> randall munroe: when is what going to? >> the lhc? >> randall munroe: oh, the lhc. well i think they're getting it up to theappropriate speed sometimes late next year. yeah and then -- then it's just a matter
of quickly the strange [inaudible]spread [laughter]. but i think that really what they need --we really need to accelerate work on the lhc if we want to beat out global warming asa way to destroy the earth [laughter]. i think there's no excusefor this laziness [laughter]. i think there's all this debate about --the debate over, you know, how much of it -- what's man made, how much it's manmade. how much -- how much of the damagebeing done to the planet is manmade. and i think we could shoot at veryleast a higher percentage [laughter]. i think the lhc gives us a great shot at that.
like you thought carbon was bad. so yes, i definitely have high hopes forthe scientific advances that will permitted. also it'll be hilarious if it completelyscrews over string theorists [laughter]. and the problem is they'll just belike, "well we have one of the other 10 to the 15th theories [laughter] that -- so i'm afraid at that point we just have touse super soakers to subdue them [laughter]. we can do on more question. up there. >> have you been approached for newspaper ormagazine syndication and would you [inaudible]?
>> randall munroe: i don't know. i feel like the newspapers -- likenewspaper syndication is really kind of a raw deal compared to doing the web comic. you know, you don't get therights to your stuff. you don't -- i mean you don't -- you don't -- bill watterson helped a lotwith that -- fighting for that. but you know, ultimately other peopleare in control of the creation. where it's put, where it'spublished, what you're allowed to say and what sort of jokes you can do.
you have to appeal to everyone who readsthe newspaper instead of like the 2% of crazy nerdy people [laughter]. and, you know, it's like with music labels. you know most the profit goes to thesyndicates and the middle people. so really what i do is when -- when i'masked about that i feel almost obliged to -- to say, "no i'm not interested in that norbeing transmitted by telegraph either." and then leap onto my motorcycle andspin around throw dust in their face and ride off into the blogosphere [laughter]. >> but you have been offered?
yeah they've actually run themin a few -- i a couple of places. mostly it's a matter of like i -- since idon't do them ahead of time i'm not able to get them strips ahead of timeand we don't have a facility for getting them high res printable versions. so, you know, they have to run them kind ofsmall which i never thought was a problem because it seems like they alreadyrun comics way to small anyway. but most of the time though peoplewho want -- they're -- they're -- i feel like most people who want to read itjust read it on the computer and don't -- you know that -- that that's wheremost web comics are [laughter].
and that -- that -- and you know most thecomics that people are reading now are online. you know, they have a print presence butthat people who discover them will then go -- like someone who doesn't have aninternet connection and doesn't -- you know, doesn't work with the internetmuch, doesn't work with computers much i feel like isn't going to be getting a lotout of xkc per- -- anyway [laughter]. but i -- i -- yeah, i meani've done that now and then. i just don't see it as -- therebeing a huge demand there. all right, we'll do -- we'll do one more. >> how many computational linguistsdoes it take to change a light bulb?
>> randall munroe: what exactly doyou mean by that question [laughter]? i think -- ultimately i thinkthat the light bulb is -- whether or not it is a construct oflanguage is a question that will be addressed in my future papers on thissubject and hopefully by the end of it i will have developed the framework inwhich we can examine the concepts entailed in your uses of the words change and light bulb. determine whether or not it'sthe light bulb that is changed or whether it is truly us [laughter]. this paper -- that's the abstractof my submission [laughter].
so, thank you very much. >> nicole: so were you sincere aboutthe marriage proposal [laughter]? all right i'd like to thank randallagain for coming to the [inaudible]. >> randall munroe: [cheeringand applause] well, thank you. thank you. >> nicole: and i'd like a quick --a few quick words before you leave. the event is not quite over yet. we are going to have a party in colliscommon grounds thanks to the help of creating gaming club and theclub with most of the t-shirts.
so that will start at 8:00, as i said. collis common ground, 8 o'clock to whenever youfeel like leaving up until one in the morning. so we're going to have xkdc themes movies,xkcd themed video games and other games. and xkcd themes costume contest with thex -- with prizes from the xkdc store. autographs from the creator of xkdcand dessert eba's themed [laughter]. >> randall munroe: so thatraptor stole my shirt [laughter]. >> lets all thank nicole for making this happen. >> nicole: you're welcome. and also tomorrow we're going geocaching.
so if anyone is unfamiliar withgeocaching i suggest you do what we all do, look it up on the internet. make a long story short. on saturday afternoons a whole bunch of thexkdc fans meet up at a somewhat random location and so we're going and we'd like foryou to join us if you have a ride. we're going to meet outsidedartmouth hall about 1:30 and if you want more details thencheck out the event on facebook. its dartmouth come to xkdc associated withour facebook group xkdc comes to dartmouth. the parties is also xkdc comes to common ground.
so just type something like thatinto facebook and it'll find it. >> that's what she said [laughter]. >> randall munroe: that isliterally what she said [laughter]. >> nicole: yes it is.