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Software Evolution Storylines, Inspired By XKCD
jamie tips this mind-blowing data visualization concept from (naturally) data visualization researcher Michael Ogawa, who explains that it was inspired by "this XKCD comic. It represents characters as lines that converge in time as they share scenes. Could this technique be adapted for software developers who work on the same code?"
"Mature and stable" is just a euphemism for "dead". If your project REALLY has no bugs, and all its users are fully satisfied with the current feature-set, that just means you don't have any new users. It is far more likely that all your current users have long-since learned to live with bugs you don't feel like fixing, or have built ad-hoc work-arounds for bugs and missing features since your project is too "stable" (read: dead) to accept patches or proposals.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Except they aren't "superbly executed" in any fashion.
Most of the xkcd "comics" just mention some meme or make some obscure geek culture reference, without adding any additional value, insight, or humor. Some socially-inept fool here or at Digg or reddit sees such a "comic", and somehow thinks it's "funny" because it mentions something obscure that he knows of.
Mentioning Cthulhu or SQL injection attacks just isn't funny, and shouldn't be considered funny, even to people who are aware of what they are.
Except for the rather glaring failure of identifying FRODO as BILBO.
Whups.
-Styopa