1190: "Time"

[mscha]

And so they traveled,
to a galaxy far, far away,
to return… nevermore.


EDIT: for the period, I suggest The Truth Is Out There The Search.

The Quest?
Or the longer version, The Quest To Find Out How The Sea Works And If There Are Other Rivers?

[Eternal Density]

Almost dinnertime here! I wonder what's on the 'menu'^@.

^@Quote marks were used since there's not really a menu, just whatever was made, but I used the word menu since "what's on the menu" is a common idiom which fit well.

[tman2nd]

***nested quote snip***

Neither a walk nor hike this seems to me, more of a trek edging on an odyssey.

Of course it could end up being a slog, but that's the pessimist in me.

1190, A Time Odyssey?

Well, we do have HAL.

Spoiler:

Unfortunatly he seems to have disapeared.

[mscha]

Spoiler:

I just ran a little script to compare the newpix that I downloaded as they appear, with the newpix that are now on the server.

We already know about frame 20, where Cueball's disconnected head was redrawn:


Frames 38 through 49 have not been redrawn, but apparently regenerated in a different way from higher resolution versions: the anti-aliasing is different. For instance, frame 42:

Let's zoom in on the details of the two versions:

The anti-aliasing is visibly lighter.
This is similar on these 12 frames. No further changes.

That's it: all other newpix are still identical to when they first appeared. (Excluding the documented problems that were resolved at the time by the Lord Randall.)

Hey mscha. Thanks for checking this for us! I was wondering when he did the regeneration of these frames. I have a copy of the frames from before and after he did the big timestamp hiding on the 22nd. Would be interesting if you could compare them to the frames you have. This may help tell us when he did the change!

Ok i've had a look myself and found that my frame from before and after the 22nd timestamp hiding are the same. So it seems these frames are modified very soon after they were released

I found your old link to your archive of files and checked the original file directly and found the following:

Original:
Create 2013-03-25T00:26:49+00:00
Mod 2013-03-25T00:26:49+00:00
profile sRGB

Updated:
Create 2013-03-27T06:42:46-04:00
Mod 2013-03-25T02:54:32-04:00
profile iCCPicc

This frame came out on the 26th but the create time is now in the future (27th) so we now have the time when he did this change (2013-03-27T06:42:46-04:00) Also the software he used changed or something as the colour profile or whatever has changed from sRGB to iCCPicc.

I would say that by the time you captured frame 50 he had made this update so frames after that were not effected. You may want to check your download time for frame 50 and compare it to 2013-03-27T06:42:46-04:00.

Edit4: Ok I've had another look at it looks like I'm wrong. I think what has happened is this: he was working on a batch of frames from 38 - 160. But these probably all had a colour profile of sRGB which didn't match his original 2-37 frames so at around the time frame 50 came out (26/3 4:30) he converted them to the same profile he was using so they would match colour gradiant wise. The time stamps are a bit confusing around here and its hard to know what happened exactly. I think the difference you see is just a different color gradient and the image is really the same raw values underneath.

That might be the case in His source material, but doesn't appear the case in the PNGs.
I'm not much of an expert of the PNG format, but it appears that the metadata is basically the same:

Spoiler:

Image Width: 553 Image Length: 395
Bitdepth (Bits/Sample): 8
Channels (Samples/Pixel): 1
Pixel depth (Pixel Depth): 8
Colour Type (Photometric Interpretation): GRAYSCALE
Image filter: Single row per byte filter
Interlacing: No interlacing
Compression Scheme: Deflate method 8, 32k window
Resolution: 45354, 45354 (pixels per meter)
FillOrder: msb-to-lsb
Byte Order: Network (Big Endian)
Number of text strings: 0 of 0

but the pixel data is different.
(The structure of the before and after PNG files – the order in which chunks appear – also seems different. I think this indicates that He changed the way He generates the PNG files from His source material, which might have resulted in the different anti-aliasing as well.)

[higgs-boson]

***nested quote snip***

Neither a walk nor hike this seems to me, more of a trek edging on an odyssey.

Of course it could end up being a slog, but that's the pessimist in me.

1190, A Time Odyssey?

Barbarossa died that year.
Probably not a good time to travel to.

[tman2nd]

(Insert something clever here)ONG

EDIT: I can't seem to get the correct image. When I refresh I get either last newpix or the current newpix, but when I copy the correct one I get http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/time.png
EDIT: It's working now.

[KarMann]

***nested quote snip***

Neither a walk nor hike this seems to me, more of a trek edging on an odyssey.

Of course it could end up being a slog, but that's the pessimist in me.

1190, A Time Odyssey?

Barbarossa died that year.
Probably not a good time to travel to.

But then, I'm a much bigger fan of Friedrich der Zwitte anyway.

Added:

(Insert something clever here)ONG

Spoiler:

Bottoms up, Megan! Chug! Chug!

[Eutychus]

I must be a pessimist.

To me that's looking more and more like a desert, and those are looking like rapidly-emptying water pouches.

[Bytes]

Well it looks like they're probably drinking some water/other liquid (maybe coffee). Would be cool if they were blowing up balloons though, preferably helium ones so they can float up and look around...

[tman2nd]

Where did they get their water. From the riversmall? It can't be the seabig water, given their reactions to that.

[Latent22]

Spoiler:

I just ran a little script to compare the newpix that I downloaded as they appear, with the newpix that are now on the server.

We already know about frame 20, where Cueball's disconnected head was redrawn:


Frames 38 through 49 have not been redrawn, but apparently regenerated in a different way from higher resolution versions: the anti-aliasing is different. For instance, frame 42:

Let's zoom in on the details of the two versions:

The anti-aliasing is visibly lighter.
This is similar on these 12 frames. No further changes.

That's it: all other newpix are still identical to when they first appeared. (Excluding the documented problems that were resolved at the time by the Lord Randall.)

Hey mscha. Thanks for checking this for us! I was wondering when he did the regeneration of these frames. I have a copy of the frames from before and after he did the big timestamp hiding on the 22nd. Would be interesting if you could compare them to the frames you have. This may help tell us when he did the change!

Ok i've had a look myself and found that my frame from before and after the 22nd timestamp hiding are the same. So it seems these frames are modified very soon after they were released

I found your old link to your archive of files and checked the original file directly and found the following:

Original:
Create 2013-03-25T00:26:49+00:00
Mod 2013-03-25T00:26:49+00:00
profile sRGB

Updated:
Create 2013-03-27T06:42:46-04:00
Mod 2013-03-25T02:54:32-04:00
profile iCCPicc

This frame came out on the 26th but the create time is now in the future (27th) so we now have the time when he did this change (2013-03-27T06:42:46-04:00) Also the software he used changed or something as the colour profile or whatever has changed from sRGB to iCCPicc.

I would say that by the time you captured frame 50 he had made this update so frames after that were not effected. You may want to check your download time for frame 50 and compare it to 2013-03-27T06:42:46-04:00.

Edit4: Ok I've had another look at it looks like I'm wrong. I think what has happened is this: he was working on a batch of frames from 38 - 160. But these probably all had a colour profile of sRGB which didn't match his original 2-37 frames so at around the time frame 50 came out (26/3 4:30) he converted them to the same profile he was using so they would match colour gradiant wise. The time stamps are a bit confusing around here and its hard to know what happened exactly. I think the difference you see is just a different color gradient and the image is really the same raw values underneath.

That might be the case in His source material, but doesn't appear the case in the PNGs.
I'm not much of an expert of the PNG format, but it appears that the metadata is basically the same:

Spoiler:

Image Width: 553 Image Length: 395
Bitdepth (Bits/Sample): 8
Channels (Samples/Pixel): 1
Pixel depth (Pixel Depth): 8
Colour Type (Photometric Interpretation): GRAYSCALE
Image filter: Single row per byte filter
Interlacing: No interlacing
Compression Scheme: Deflate method 8, 32k window
Resolution: 45354, 45354 (pixels per meter)
FillOrder: msb-to-lsb
Byte Order: Network (Big Endian)
Number of text strings: 0 of 0

but the pixel data is different.
(The structure of the before and after PNG files – the order in which chunks appear – also seems different. I think this indicates that He changed the way He generates the PNG files from His source material, which might have resulted in the different anti-aliasing as well.)

yeah the colour profile is not being listed in that header info you list there. But open the file in a hex editor or notepad and you will see it near the start. I don't know enough about how PNG files work myself. The old ones say sRGB and the new ones say iCCPicc. Also the frame 1 (time.png) we have has a different one again. Suggests either a different program was used to process the images or a different setting was used.

[Red Hal]

***nested quote snip***

Neither a walk nor hike this seems to me, more of a trek edging on an odyssey.

Of course it could end up being a slog, but that's the pessimist in me.

1190, A Time Odyssey?

Well, we do have HAL.

Spoiler:

Unfortunatly he seems to have disapeared.

I'm still here. I didn't comment as I had no relevant information to add.

[Eoink]

***nested quote snip***

I'm still here. I didn't comment as I had no relevant information to add.

If that were common practice, the OTT would be the VSOTT (very short one true thread)

[Red Hal]

In this forum signal-to-noise ratio is, I feel, important.

[SPACKlick]

Just realised this thread is over 10% of posts in this sub-forum and over 0.5% of posts in the forum as a whole.

Also, has anyone started trying to work out how to put the walking frames together?

971-974 Frame 1
975-976 Frame 2
977-979 Frame 3
980-982 Frame 4 (but they move backwards 980 to 981...?)
983-985 Frame 5
986-986 Frame 6

987 is like 986 apart from where Megan stands, did she Godzilla stomp the ground?

But I'm not sure how to work out how far they overlap if at all. also there could be land between frames that we don't have.

[KarMann]

Spoiler:

Just realised this thread is over 10% of posts in this sub-forum and over 0.5% of posts in the forum as a whole.

Also, has anyone started trying to work out how to put the walking frames together?

971-974 Frame 1
975-976 Frame 2
977-979 Frame 3
980-982 Frame 4 (but they move backwards 980 to 981...?)
983-985 Frame 5
986-986 Frame 6

987 is like 986 apart from where Megan stands, did she Godzilla stomp the ground?

But I'm not sure how to work out how far they overlap if at all. also there could be land between frames that we don't have.

If they're getting all scientific about this, maybe she took a soil sample there? Broad rather than deep?

[Eliram]

Dilbert has a white frame today...

Maybe the OTC's punchline is also in the beginning?

I must be a pessimist.
To me that's looking more and more like a desert, and those are looking like rapidly-emptying water pouches.

The river may be small, but there can fill their pouches there, or hope there are other rivers, or die, of build a larger sandcastle to live in.

Should we stress the issue about there location a bit more?
Do we know any sea ...

- landlocked or at least as-good-as landlocked
- one well-known river leading in.
- river known to carry different water level
- sea known for different water levels (but not tide)
- sea water salty or at least very untasty (although Cue had had worse)

I think I mentioned earlier that in Israel there are two such bodies of water: The sea of Galilee (Sweet water, though) and The Dead Sea (Extra-Extra Salty and located between Israel & Jordan (country)).


- Both are filled by the River of Jordan, which runs from north to south and varies in its stream's strength considerably.
- Both' levels are critical and measured constantly as they change.
- Neither have tide

The dead sea also has:
- a desert around it
- some minor streams flowing in during the winter
- nearby hotels and town, so they can get their building materials
plus is has sand that can be used to create sandcastles, which makes it the better candidate.

As it's the lowest point on earth, they should really have brought a lot more water.

A random needle-pulled question: there's the cool map for user's locations. Is there an easy way to poll our ages? It seems like we have quite a range here.

Age 42 and you can probably tell by now that I'm from Israel.

[tman2nd]

***nested quote snip***

Neither a walk nor hike this seems to me, more of a trek edging on an odyssey.

Of course it could end up being a slog, but that's the pessimist in me.

1190, A Time Odyssey?

Well, we do have HAL.

Spoiler:

Unfortunatly he seems to have disapeared.

I'm still here. I didn't comment as I had no relevant information to add.

That's true; we do have you, but the other HAL has disappeared.

[CatHectic]

Ah, I hadn't realized how close I was to the Present(s)! Heartfelt congratulations to BlitzMädchen and everyone else who caught up, kept up, or delurked during our Times of Trial and Errial in the all-fading fog.

Over the last day I've been fighting Outside battles (which interfered with my planned herb-questery), but continuing to trek (but not, as Chaucer would say, to trudge), to odessize in my own odd way, yea verily to blitz through the End of Time, and BlitzGirl's triumphant arrival and party. And of course, madly adding songs to the playlist along the way! (At the rate y'all are going, it's going to take as much time to listen to all this music as it takes to read the thread...)

I may have missed a few along the way, but I think I've gotten the majority of the last few days' suggestions (that were available; so sorry, Jedward...) into Spotify; only a few pages behind right now. (I'm still missing a lot from the middle of the thread, of course; you can point me at missing posts between NP 200-400-ish if you wish, but if you wait for it I promise I'll get to them all anyway.

I did update the wiki page rather too hurriedly, though, and broke something I can't fix from my phone -- luckily tomorra is anutha Newpix... unless someone else wiki-wise sorts it before I get a round tuit.

Also phone-limited: my ability to reply to everyone I wanted to (though I had to breaka my stride long enough to ask our dear Bard of Jove to help us, before he skipped over all the marvelous compositions unread!)

For the moment, I just want to echo the mob on this: buffygirl, don't worry! Wherever you go, whatever you do, we will be right here Waiting for you. And the hat queue is just another needle-pulled thing for you to unravel in borrowed time, at your discretion. ((Hugs or sea-salt caramel dark chocolate?))

Oh, and for those who asked, I'm a California girl in her mid-forties.

Finally, I have one song to contribute to the long-drawn-out (how could it be anything else, here?) party atmosphere: how have we possibly missed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g6bUe5MDRo Good Times] by Chic?

No, I lied, I've got a few more:

Golden Years by Bowie
Wait For It by Annabelle Chvostek
(I've Had) The Time of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
Breakaway/I Can't Break Away by Big Pig (we certainly can't break away from the OTC/OTT, and it's extra Timey-Wimey for being on the Bill & Ted soundtrack)

and if I dare to (a)muse for the bards among us, could interesting filking be done with White Lines by Grandmaster Flash? Or (spurred by the mention of White Christmas), with The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Anyway, I'm sure to have been superninjad in the time it took me to type this -- I'll edit to add YouTube links tomorra. Goodnight all!


Edited to provide those links.

[SPACKlick]

Having looked at stitching the walking frames.

all the frames I placed above may well be congruent except frames 2 and 3, Either the camera gets higher on frame 3, or there is land missing between frames, there is not overlap or continuing lines.

[azule]

*This feels like that movie "Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World". We fade to white and it is like the saddest happy moment ever. Yeah, sucks.

*I think I wrote this when the Fade was not final yet.

Spoiler:

*stumbles out of Time vortex*

*blinks*


Wow. So this is Present Time, huh?



...Hi, everybody!

Enjoy it while you can. Everytime you coma you start back in the Past again. But, for now, welcome to the present. *grumbles something about trying to get back there too* Note: had to go about 1118 NewPages.

Oh, but first of all, I have some things in my pocketses, here:
*ruffles through vest's pockets*

◌ a few stray gems from the past
<snip/>

I got all invested after I asked for those. Not that you haven't proved worthy of the attention. Great writing. *geek-gold-star*

I'm so excited
what the heck is wrong with me now?
Still I wait for it.

FTFY

aeon^1
1 - I believe this particular detail is still in flux

Æon Flux, right?

All right, now we have both coffee and bacon! Now for the...uh...um. Let's stick with the coffee and bacon. And maybe some ice would also be okay.

Must not/Must...

Spoiler:

I had a boatload of unfinished hats. I had no idea how much hat-pressure I had been putting on myself!

And so, lo and behold, when I was finally able to get to the computer, nearly all of the above had indeed taken place, and I was over 10 newpages behind. I nearly cancelled all appointments for the day, but realized that would just make my anxiety worse.

<snip/>

if I wake tomorrow and there's as much pressure as there was today, I think it might be ME that explodes.
I think I might need professional help

[for the joke]: Definitely a mad hatter now. *consoles*

[foilman]

The latest image... (ONG)

[mikrit]

Should we stress the issue about there location a bit more?
Do we know any sea ...

- landlocked or at least as-good-as landlocked
- one well-known river leading in.
- river known to carry different water level
- sea known for different water levels (but not tide)
- sea water salty or at least very untasty (although Cue had had worse)

Actually, I am thinking of the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile ends in a delta; I imagine its could change its course a bit due to sedimentation.
And there was a time when the Mediterranean was rising very rapidly.

According to a report published by Nature in 2009, scientists think that the Mediterranean Sea was mostly filled during a time period of less than two years, in a major flood (the Zanclean flood) that happened approximately 5.33 million years ago, in which water poured in from the Atlantic Ocean and through the Strait of Gibraltar, at a rate three times the current flow of the Amazon River.

That would mean that Cueball and Megan aren't Homo sapiens but Homo erectus or something. (Well, they are good at erecting sand castles.) Or they could be time-travellers that used a one-use only time machine.

EDIT: fixed ambiguity.

[silent_death]

So, we only have 11 Newpix left until we reach the 1.000 (or 35 until 1024, which probably is the bigger event) ...which could be the end of their walk/journey/hike and possibly the end of time itself (yes, has been said before, I´m not just guessing here). Really looking forward to what they will find.

I actually have to say I am not quite sure if I will be happy or sad when time will end...during the great fading part of me was sad to see it all go, but part of me was also relieved that it is finally over.
Time surely has become part of my life over the last month.

[manvandmaan]

461, srsly?
Guess I'll have to BlitzGirl today...

But what excitement! The Fading was not the End! yay! yeah, I cheated and had a look into the present
Hopefully I'll join you guys in the present soon!

[azule]

In this forum signal-to-noise ratio is, I feel, important.

It is, and it's not. I think the problem comes with worrying about it and taking actions to dissuade it. That then itself becomes noise and may actually discourage some people from making signal. Looks to me like, with OTT self-analysis, when people are allowed to ebb and flow (like the sea, yes yes) we get on track, but with a sort of Katamari Damacy style, picking up the many small "off-topics" and magically making it part of the larger "on-topic". I think this style of threading mimics real life a bit better than the segmented 1-thread 1-topic style. People have conversations that don't seem relevant which evolve into new topics which evolve into inside jokes or personal connections which then make the real topic (connections between human beings) much better and worthwhile.
/minor-rant

Edit: settled on rant.

[KarMann]

The latest image... (ONG)

Spoiler:

Looks like Cuegan have a drinking problem.

[cmyk]

The latest image... (ONG)

Spoiler:

Looks like Cuegan have a drinking problem.

It could be worse, they could be drinking from a BONG!!!

Must be river water, I hope they boiled it first. I'd hate to see a new, lengthy period of Megan and Cueball dealing with dysentery.

[silent_death]

In this forum signal-to-noise ratio is, I feel, important.

It is, and it's not. I think the problem comes with worrying about it and taking actions to dissuade it. That then itself becomes noise and may actually discourage some people from making signal. Looks to me like, with OTT self-analysis, when people are allowed to ebb and flow (like the sea, yes yes) we get on track, but with a sort of Katamari Damacy style, picking up the many small "off-topics" and magically making it part of the larger "on-topic". I think this style of threading mimics real life a bit better than the segmented 1-thread 1-topic style. People have conversations that don't seem relevant which evolve into new topics which evolve into inside jokes or personal connections which then make the real topic (connections between human beings) much better and worthwhile.
/minor-rant

******Gotta coma, so maybe I'll continue this rant later (if the point hasn't been made well enough).

I agree, I also think that not strictly adhering to only saying what is absolutly important right at that moment the conversation are in the end more meaningful and personal for everybody involved.
It also helps in the end to keep the conversation on track, as it is very hard to focus on on topic for almost 500 pages.

[Jonas79]

Had to catch up 10 newpages, but now I'm back in the Present. I'm 34 to add to the statistics. So, they're hiking to see what's adding something to the sea¹. Drinking pause, and then onwards to where no Cuegan has gone before.

¹Bigger than ever.

[TheMinim]

I think I'll look through the past of this thread for a bit. Inspired by BlitzGirl. But I'll probably give up at some point.

[cmyk]

Who the hell drinks anything out of bags? And are they paper or plastic?

Back in the olden days, before things like Star Wars and the Internet, they drank from animal skins (or animal bladders and/or scrotums?).

[Eoink]

Who the hell drinks anything out of bags? And are they paper or plastic?

Back in the olden days, before things like Star Wars and the Internet, they drank from animal skins (or bladders?).

Does this suggest that they're in the US? I seem to remember in old movies drunks in New York used to hide their booze in a paper bag so that the cops didn't arrest them for drinking in public. The river is small, the sea is big, the JD is served with coke.

[foilman]

Off again...

[KarMann]

Who the hell drinks anything out of bags? And are they paper or plastic?

Back in the olden days, before things like Star Wars and the Internet, they drank from animal skins (or animal bladders and/or scrotums?).

I have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bota_bag

BOTONG!

Spoiler:

Edit: ninjaed

[Jonas79]

Who the hell drinks anything out of bags? And are they paper or plastic?

Back in the olden days, before things like Star Wars and the Internet, they drank from animal skins (or animal bladders and/or scrotums?).

I like drinking bags while hiking. They are lightweight, so you're not carrying much more than the water that is inside it. And there are modern versions not made of bladders

ETA: Kind of ninja'd. The bag I use is a Bota Bag with plastic lining, but I had forgotten it was called that. I don't use it for wine though, water works better for me when hiking.

[r34ver]

are they drinking or sniffing whatever came out of their bags?

[Jonas79]

are they drinking or sniffing whatever came out of their bags?

I would guess they are drinking liquid out of something similar to a bota bag.

[TheMinim]

Got through 10 pages, now for the other 450-odd.

[Jonas79]

HIKINGALONG