1190: "Time"

[Scott Auld]

[mojacardave]

There's a significant time yet before this reaches the level of work shown in 'Click and Drag' and it seems to be a sort of unofficial companion to that.

Based on...? What does it mean to be a "companion to" a comic anyway?

There's a definite similarity...

What similarity do the two share that they don't share with ALL xkcd comics, other than taking a longer time than most to put together?

The truth is, we all still know next to nothing about the total context of this comic and so any comment about what it "is" or what it "means" is strictly a statement on the observer making the claim, with insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the comic.

I see what you mean, but in terms of general feel, at least so far, it seems to evoke the scale of Click and Drag, but stretched over time rather than space. It's pretty unlike the comics around it - it's just a pleasant scene extended to a ridiculous degree. I've no idea what's coming up, but I think I'd be surprised if the scene ended tonight.

[TheMulattoMaker]

Is he... is he- standing- on the sand caste? That's quality engineering, right there...

[tarry]

Where's all the sand coming from? I'd have expected a depression somewhere in the frame as the castle went up. Instead, R seems to be intentionally violating the law of Conservation of Sand.

We're viewing a 2D cross section of a 3D scene. Presumably the sand is coming from a pit behind the sandcastle. Edit: Ninja'd

OK, I see you both (the ninja'r, too), and raise you a dimension:

"We're viewing a 2D cross section of a 4D scene. Presumably the sand is coming from a depression that was dug many frames in the future -- we'll see it appear in a few days."

[TheBauhausCure]

I put together an animated time-lapse of the comic so far with a slider to control the framerate, but the forum is flagging the post as spam

According to the rules, you must have a minimum of 5 posts in order to post a link.

[TheMulattoMaker]

Live updating GIF:

Feel free to give me an internet for the service

Just brining the gif back into the most recent page.

Moar bumpination for gif.

[rhomboidal]

Wow, just saw it update live right before my eyes at 10:30 AM -- he moved on top of the castle construction. Epic animation!

[mojacardave]

*EDIT

I think there's an off by 1 error on the forward frame functionality. You have to press rightarrow twice to get from last frame to frame 1. Getting from frame 1 to last frame with backarrow seems to work properly.

I really like that bit of functionality, and assume it's intentional. It acts as a stopper at the end of the sequence when you step through. When the right arrow repeats the image, you know you've got to the last frame. Prevents overstepping the end by mistake.

[tvall]

another day of work lost to one comic..

[SWuh]

Well, that escalated quickly. Lot of construction in one frame. And I can't help but feel we lost dialogue ... shame.

Maybe this means it's more about the construction than the two of them?

I really like that bit of functionality, and assume it's intentional. It acts as a stopper at the end of the sequence when you step through. When the right arrow repeats the image, you know you've got to the last frame. Prevents overstepping the end by mistake.

Agreed. That stopper is needed when you're scrolling through it as much as I am!!

[iisjreg]

Moar bumpination for gif.

I wonder when Primis' bandwidth will start taking a knock!?

[Mithramuse]

Is he... is he- standing- on the sand castle? That's quality engineering, right there...

Well, he *is* as skinny as a stick... go figure? Though a bit of shock was my first impression, too.

Though I suppose that actually means that since they don't have discreetly drawn feet, the people should actually be plunging down into the sand instead, as there's no real way for what weight they do have to be distributed across even a small area. Hmmm....

Anyway, originally registered for the forum to express my joy as well that "he" returned to the frame. I also noticed that there were 666 guests viewing the forum at the time, but I think that's more coincidence than any doom-and-gloom scenario.

--Mithramuse

PS -- fixed your spelling for ya

[TheMulattoMaker]

Hrm. Gif isn't showing the last couple pics.

[peewee_RotA]

*EDIT

I think there's an off by 1 error on the forward frame functionality. You have to press rightarrow twice to get from last frame to frame 1. Getting from frame 1 to last frame with backarrow seems to work properly.

I really like that bit of functionality, and assume it's intentional. It acts as a stopper at the end of the sequence when you step through. When the right arrow repeats the image, you know you've got to the last frame. Prevents overstepping the end by mistake.

Not a bug, a feature!

I thought so at first but I keep ending up passing it regardless. Plus I think if it were a feature the same would be done for the fristframe-lastfram backwards motion.

[YellowYeti]

"animated shorts"

Those shorts are decidedly animationless.

As with the inappropriateness of ugmhemhe's signature, I was worried about searching "Dancing Shorts" at work. Google image search had at least 1 scantily clad underwear model in search for "animated shorts".

But had I waited till work was over I would have lost the original post in about 4 more pages of posts. This is one of those.

I hesitate to use the phrase 'quick and dirty' in relation to animated shorts

You certainly made that in a giff. You most certainly did not save it as a .gif.

<sigh> Yes it was a GIF, the uploading site decided that even though it was a GIF, and it was called .GIF, it would rename it as .jpg... but it's still a GIF

[mojacardave]

I thought so at first but I keep ending up passing it regardless. Plus I think if it were a feature the same would be done for the fristframe-lastfram backwards motion.

The fact that it only happens in the forward direction is what makes me think it's NOT a bug. I'd assume that if it was a coding issue, it'd be more likely to happen in both directions. If I go through the steps backwards, it's normally because I'm trying to shortcut to the last frame, so a buffer at the beginning is less important.

[J L]

There's a significant time yet before this reaches the level of work shown in 'Click and Drag' and it seems to be a sort of unofficial companion to that.

Based on...? What does it mean to be a "companion to" a comic anyway?

There's a definite similarity...

What similarity do the two share that they don't share with ALL xkcd comics, other than taking a longer time than most to put together?

The truth is, we all still know next to nothing about the total context of this comic and so any comment about what it "is" or what it "means" is strictly a statement on the observer making the claim, with insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the comic.

I see what you mean, but in terms of general feel, at least so far, it seems to evoke the scale of Click and Drag, but stretched over time rather than space. It's pretty unlike the comics around it - it's just a pleasant scene extended to a ridiculous degree. I've no idea what's coming up, but I think I'd be surprised if the scene ended tonight.

That's exactly how I feel about it. This isn't about any "message"-reading or claim to truth, just the observation that both comics blow the usual boundary of the common panel: by either sheer size or duration; both represent windows into a much larger world, and they share that certain sense of pastoral innocence xkcd sometimes, but not always, employs. Plus, the community made it into a similar event, searching for the boundaries of that world, trying to outsmart the author, writing scripts and providing custom mods allowing an easier access and faster navigation. Both comics are much more a "happening" than a static piece of art to be consumed.

Of course it might be over tomorrow. But as has been said before, up to now it's still tiny compared to the megalomania of "Click and Drag", and it's just my personal guess that Randall likes that sort of artistic challenge, because he has accepted it before.

[Wnderer]

It's really cool if you zoom out.

[Ñbrevu]

Another one who finally registers because of this comic.

This thread is, in a way, part of the comic. It's kind of a collective art form where the appreciation and the discussions about the meaning (and whether there IS a meaning) are at least as important as the comic itself (many may argue that this is a common characteristic of all art). Here we are, in this tiny corner of the internet, so astonished by the unusual way the comic presents itself, that we're desperately trying to understand it. And the way Randall did it is so simple!

THIS is why we love XKCD. This is the kind of originality that keeps us hooked, that makes us come for more thrice a week.

[JaynMerry]

I hope someone is grabbing all of them!
another lovely idea

[Scott Auld]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

Wait, what ... ?

[mojacardave]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

When the Click and Drag sandcastle competition was mentioned earlier in the thread, I was very tempted to go and search that comic, to see if there was any relation. I'm assuming from the fact that you've copy-pasted, there wasn't anything relevant there in the first place?

[patzer]

dammit ninja'd
...wait, what? my post just moved

[Scott Auld]

*ninja'd

[Assassine]

you guys are fast

[SWuh]

We're going fairly... square-y. Hmm. Interesting.

Well, intriguing at least

[mojacardave]

Bits are falling off again. Sand is a frustrating material.

[Envelope Generator]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

Where's the +1 button for posts on this forum?

[kryton]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

It looks exactly the same in that copy/paste clip from click and drag as Time did 2 pics ago, ...

[Wnderer]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

When the Click and Drag sandcastle competition was mentioned earlier in the thread, I was very tempted to go and search that comic, to see if there was any relation. I'm assuming from the fact that you've copy-pasted, there wasn't anything relevant there in the first place?

Not really. I think the beach with the umbrella is the closest approximation to the beach in 'Time'.

[mojacardave]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

It looks exactly the same in that copy/paste clip from click and drag as Time did 2 pics ago, ...

Nah: that's an obvious picture stitching job. Zoom in and look at the resolution of the sections.

[tvall]

Moar bumpination for gif.

I wonder when Primis' bandwidth will start taking a knock!?

once y'all manage to kill his, i have a mirror for you to also kill

edit: yeah, bad idea. i don't even have the bandwidth to be a backup... curse you randall

fetches his gif every 60 seconds if it has changed

[JaynMerry]

sorry - ignore my noob first post. Didn't go to the end of the thread brilliant idea!

[iisjreg]

Moar bumpination for gif.

I wonder when Primis' bandwidth will start taking a knock!?

once y'all manage to kill his, i have a mirror for you to also kill

http://tvall43.info/xkcd/output.gif

fetches his gif every 60 seconds if it has changed

Lol. Meta-meta-gif

[mojacardave]

Moar bumpination for gif.

I wonder when Primis' bandwidth will start taking a knock!?

once y'all manage to kill his, i have a mirror for you to also kill

http://tvall43.info/xkcd/output.gif

fetches his gif every 60 seconds if it has changed

Huh? Maybe I've missed something, but I'm assuming that your grabbing is just denting Primis' bandwidth more, and if we manage to kill the availability of that link, it's going to ruin your gif fetching process anyway!

[Corrado]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

It looks exactly the same in that copy/paste clip from click and drag as Time did 2 pics ago, ...

The intersection of Space (Click & Drag) and Time!

[SWuh]

Bits are falling off again. Sand is a frustrating material.

Oh bugger!!!! I missed that. Now one of them is just going to be fixing that bit in 17 minutes time. That's no fun!!

[kryton]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

It looks exactly the same in that copy/paste clip from click and drag as Time did 2 pics ago, ...

Nah: that's an obvious picture stitching job. Zoom in and look at the resolution of the sections.

Egg on my face...

[jag426]

It's clear to me that this is the temporal companion to Click and Drag: rather than a joke, it's a scene expanded far beyond the scope of a normal comic, but rather than being expanded spatially, it's being expanded temporally.

[mojacardave]

time.jpg

It's really cool if you zoom out.

It looks exactly the same in that copy/paste clip from click and drag as Time did 2 pics ago, ...

Nah: that's an obvious picture stitching job. Zoom in and look at the resolution of the sections.

Egg on my face...

Would now be a bad time to also point out that Kryten has an 'E' in it?