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Signs Point To XKCD's Time Ending

CaptSlaq writes "According to the current imagery, it looks like Randal Munroe has finished the story he was telling with the Time series. The long running series that has spanned over 3000 images and spawned multiple methods of viewing and comment appears to have come to an end."

14 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Well good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's about time.

    1. Re:Well good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You both suck at reading comprehension.

  2. There's a Wiki and a replay site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  3. Re:The Oracle by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sure, though some of them were harder to read than others. The key takeaway from them was that a big sea (what we later realize is the Atlantic) was about to flood into the smaller one where our protagonists built their sand castle (a version of the Mediterranean that the Oracle explained had been cut off from the Atlantic, dried up, but was now reconnecting with the Atlantic which was eager to flood into the lowlands of the dried up Mediterranean). If you looked at the maps indicating where the new shore would be, you'd see quite clearly that the places where the new shoreline stretches on the map go from what we know as the Iberian peninsula to Italy and Sicily.

    Apparently, the protagonists lived somewhere south of France in the middle of the Mediterranean, but their territory was swept away by the flood. The castle where the Oracle was located, which was supposed to be just above the new waterline, roughly corresponds to the location of Marseilles.

    Though I haven't seen it said elsewhere, this may be a new fiction for the creation of the Atlantis myth.

  4. Re:Misleading summary by DG · · Score: 5, Funny

    Agreed! How dare people enjoy something!

    (Oh, I think Kevin Bacon may be teaching your daughter how to dance. You should probably check into that)

    --
    Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
  5. Re:Darmok and Jihad at Viagra by tedgyz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Has anyone noticed it is impossible to be "current" anymore, geekly or otherwise? There are too many information streams.

    Damn you internet! Damn you all to hell!

    --
    "No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
  6. Re:The concept of a geek card by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is a geek cargo cult out there, and it's populated with people that desperately wished they finished that astro physics degree or didn't drop out of DeVry. They believe that by adorning themselves with tokens and fetishes of geekdom, that they will become smarter or work hard by osmosis.

    Either that, or it just happens to be another fashion phenomenon, and doesn't say anything at all about their inner lives or philosophy or willingness to look directly into reality's hard face, as you have apparently done. Maybe they just, you know, enjoy sci-fi and tech stuff and chicks in horned-rim glasses.

    Like tattoos. People who don't have tattoos seem to want to create an entire psychodrama in their heads about the motivation and world-view of the person with the tattoo. But sometimes, it really is just because somebody wanted a fleur-de-lis on their calf because they like the way it looks.

    Everybody is so anxious to diminish other people as this AC seems to want to do. I wonder what's made so many people so grumpy that they feel the need to try to minimize others with such ersatz psychological profiles based on data picked out of their underpants. Maybe it's the economy. Or maybe it's just that grumpy people seem more apt to complain loudly.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  7. Re:oblink by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Informative

    #1190 is ending, not XKCD is ending. #1190 is titled Time.

  8. Re:Misleading summary by Bengie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everything stopped being funny YEARS ago

    Welcome to being old.

  9. What the chirp is wrong with people? by Fortran+IV · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a comic, guys. I don't read Cathy, but I don't feel obliged to mustard all over Cathy Guisewite because her comic doesn't amuse me. Why do people dump so hard on xkcd and Randall Munroe? If you don't like the comic, don't read it, and don't read Slashdot articles about it—and shut the chirp up and let the rest of us enjoy it in peace.

    I found it fun. That's all. It was fun. It was original, and intriguing, and a little challenging, and a nice change of mood when I got home from work (or when I needed a break at work).

    And it was something I don't believe any webcomic had ever done before. When I submitted the original Slashdot story about "Time", I thought that aspect might interest people. Instead, the story got the same sort of molpy-chirping geek-elitist hate posts that this one is gathering.

    For the record: "Time" was followed by college students and septuagenarians (I'm in my 50s, and xkcd regularly makes me laugh). Musicians, math teachers, writers, and astronomers contributed to the forum thread. The last figure we saw was that over 2 million words of original material had been posted to the thread. We weren't doing it for geek cred; we were doing it because we enjoyed ourselves.

    Grow up a little, guys, OK?

    --
    I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
    1. Re:What the chirp is wrong with people? by thoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly!

      Sure, not every XKCD comic is brilliant, but plenty are funny, appealing to a tough demographic for subject material.

      I think his various infographics are fantastic (money, radiation) and a handful of info comics are similarly amazing (gravity wells, ocean depths, movie plots). His "What If?" series is also extremely interesting.

      Sites that feed off the "XKCD is overrated" vibe come across as pathetic calls for attention from people too lame and stupid to produce their own work. Basically some members of the geek community have this bizarre calling to drop their pants and publicly poop all over whatever they think is overrated. The fact is their sum total contribution to the world is being a shit stain on the fabric of the web.

  10. Re:The Oracle by Fortran+IV · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, "Time" appears to have been set in the remote future, about 11 millenia from today, after Gibraltar Strait has already been closed up again for a thousand years or more (no back story for that was ever given). At one point the comic presented nearly a hundred frames of night sky, with recognizable planets and constellations. Readers versed in astronomy were able to find a date 11,000 years ahead, with consistent displacements for nearby stars (within the limits of a 553x395 image resolution). Also, the castle of the "oracle" (nicknamed Rosetta in the forum thread, after her role as a translator) appeared to be the Chateau d'If of Count of Monte Cristo fame, in Marseilles harbor.

    --
    I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
  11. Re:XKCD "experimental comics" by osu-neko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Incredibly stupid people frequently project the over zealousness of fans onto humble authors. Because, you know, you can tell how big an ego an author has by how much his fans talk about him. If someone says you're really good at what you do, that means you've got a big head, right? Yeah, it almost hurts trying to psychoanalyze that level of stupid...

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  12. Re:Darmok and Jihad at Viagra by Calydor · · Score: 5, Funny

    There are too many information streams.

    Just don't cross them and you'll be fine.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-