xkcd's 13-Gigapixel Webcomic 193
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the all-the-pixels-you-need-and-more dept.
from the all-the-pixels-you-need-and-more dept.
New submitter Nomen writes "Today's xkcd: Click and Drag (Google Maps version) is probably the world's biggest web comic at an RSI-inducing resolution of 165,888x79,872 pixels. It's made up of 225 different images that take up 5.52MB of space. Now, if only the mines were powered by nethack..."
In unrelated news, (Score:5, Insightful)
there was a huge, worldwide drop in productivity today. Especially at universities, research labs, software development companies etc.
Re:In unrelated news, (Score:5, Funny)
And a world-wide increase in carpal tunnel syndrome.
Insane (Score:4, Insightful)
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How do you know he isn't? He is on slashdot after all. Oh, wait...
Hack (Score:4, Interesting)
Some guy made a keyboard-controllable fullscreen interface: http://ares.aylett.co.uk/xkcd/
Obligatory xkcd (Score:4, Funny)
www.xkcd.com/1110/
Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Funny)
Mother of God (Score:2)
It will take all day to explore this whole thing using the Google Maps version, I can't imagine finding everything using the dragging method.
Re:Mother of God (Score:5, Informative)
Note that is privately hosted, and since a Slashdotting is likely to turn his suspicions about hosting costs into reality you might want to consider a donation, or at least a like to help him with the Facebook "Like" for the image linked from the page.
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Probably because every nerd on the internet just got the link from Slashdot and is likely melting the server as we speak. It doesn't seem like it's actually hosted by Google.
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Here are the URLs: http://nopaste.info/e828e67274.html [nopaste.info]
Re:Mother of God (Score:5, Informative)
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You just need more monitors. It's almost manageable at 7680x1440. The GM version, that is.
Thumbnail? (Score:2)
Anybody create or know of a thumbnail of the whole thing? I don't want to miss anything!
That comic should have been put out on a Friday - I only like to waste a lot of time on Fridays. I can only afford a cursory amount of wasted time on a Wednesday. All that clicking and dragging used up most of it, so I'll have to cut this /. post short.
wow, massive finger cramps... (Score:2)
only got a fraction of the way through it when my index and middle finger started to seize up like an engine without oil.
needs a zoom function!
Re:wow, massive finger cramps... (Score:5, Informative)
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needs a zoom function!
I've heard this said over 50 times today.
In a way, it's a clear statement that the speaker doesn't get the point. (Or doesn't care to get the point.)
The word balloon in the "start position" of the final frame says it all: "I just didn't expect [the world] to be so big."
Your graphospasms are the webcomic equivalent of becoming footsore after attempting to walk the entire surface of the Earth. Zooming out is implicitly cheating.
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i'd be more than footsore if i tried to walk the earth my friend!
fortunately we have google earth to view the world, which is the exact metaphor of the google eath overlay!
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Not sure if it's a good thing that I saw most of the content yesterday by clicking and dragging. It took quite a while. I missed the stuff in the sky, but saw all the underground and surface events.
is it funny? (Score:1)
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I was disappointed by the whales. I thought should have been a whale and a bowl of Petunias.
Re:is it funny? (Score:5, Funny)
Impossible to tell until they reach the ground and we see whether they miss it or not.
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Only there are 2 whales (falling) and no bowl of petunias.
There were of course two missiles in the source material.
Re:is it funny? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Retirement (Score:4, Insightful)
Zoomable version (Score:2, Informative)
Someone created a zoomable version of today's comic. Makes it a LOT faster to see everything:
http://xkcd-map.rent-a-geek.de/#1/65/-84
Webcomics will come to exploit web tech (Score:5, Insightful)
I kinda regret seeing this comic immediately when it became live, as just as the working day had just begun here and I sunk an enormous amount of time into exploring it, but I'm nonetheless thrilled whenever webcomics do something that extends the comic format beyond the limitations of paper.
Earlier XKCD strips could easily be converted to print format, just see the first collection XKCD Volume 0 [amazon.com] that Randall published (yes, he found a way to put the alt text in there too). But taking advantage of HTML and Javascript, making the comic interactive to a degree, feels like something fresh. Cyanide and Happiness have also been employing animated GIF elements. There's a lot of room for creativity in the webcomic format.
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Look at the bright side (besides new stuff for the format): This would make one hell of a poster.
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OMG (Score:5, Funny)
I have just found a bigger time waster than Slashdot.
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Slashdot used to link directly to xkcd (it was in the QuickLinks frame). They stopped that a couple of years ago for some reason. Maybe because the slashdot time waster + xkcd time waster equalled, well, too much wasted time...
Ooh, look, a Google Maps Version linked from /. (Score:2)
Randall Munroe is my hero (Score:5, Insightful)
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Big View in Chrome: (Score:5, Informative)
- in the console, expand the "middleContainer" div
- select the "comic" div
- in the box on the right of the console, uncheck "overflow:hidden"
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I feel better (Score:3)
I, for one, am relieved to know that the bottomless pits in Mario Bros. are not truly bottomless. If any of my Mario's survived the fall, they got to live out their days in comfortable pagodas buried deep within the earth.
Randall is truly evil (Score:2)
In a good way....
Commander Mark (Score:2)
This reminds me of the PBS show Secret City, hosted by COMMANDER MARK!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrnwNFmdxvM [youtube.com]
I loved his pen murals.
Magnum Opus (Score:2)
This is Randall's Magnum Opus.
The statistics (Score:2)
165,888x79,872 pixels.
Wow!
It's made up of 225 different images
Wow.
that take up 5.52MB of space.
W- meh.
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"colour", so it compresses really well. Uncompressed, it's quite a bit more.
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I have a friend who does images on a similar scale (Score:3)
Lode Runner? (Score:2)
Randall must have played too many games back in the day.
For the impatient... (Score:2)
Mouse wheel tilt left/right (Score:2)
art (Score:2)
This was one of the coolest things I found on the Internet since quite a while.
And, despite the RSI-effect and all, it kind of loses something in the various maps, deep zoom, etc. versions. As soon as you can zoom, it doesn't have the scale/size feeling anymore. Something is lost.
Drawing (Score:2)
When I was younger, my brother and I would often have a sort of pseudo-game for those rainy afternoons.
We would draw a simplified piece of terrain on A4 paper, usually just a wobbly line that went up and down (a bit like a Scorched Earth kinda outline, similar to the game we used to play on the Spectrum: Tank Trax).
Then we'd fill it it with various stick figures, with various comedy elements. With two of you, you could work on different bits and then show each other what you'd done and tie it in with the
Corcovado (Score:3)
The mountain seems to be the famous Corcovado Montain (the one with the big Jesus statue on top) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. See here [fbcdn.net] for comparison.
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Insightful)
Your face isn't all that impressive.
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The fact this got modded +5 Insightful makes the burn all that more impressive.
Ohh, and the guy in the grass is masturbating.
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Ohh, and the guy in the grass is masturbating.
On a related note, Randall watches Peep Show.
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On a related note, Randall watches Peep Show.
Fucko, we like to call it inter-species erotica.
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This comic is very morish.
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That's what I was referring to :)
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Informative)
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IMO nicer version: http://xkcd-map.rent-a-geek.de/ [rent-a-geek.de]
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course it is. It's a digital scavenger hunt :)
Quite fun, and will probably be the most-bookmarked webcomic of the year as people realize the size of it and flag it for perusal in their off hours.
Well played Mr. Munroe, well played indeed.
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Insightful)
scavenger hunt! (Score:2)
Someone needs to arrange a scavenger hunt list for this image. I'll get you started:
find two x-wings
find three whales
find one submarine
find three comets
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I know I found a blue whale, an x-wing and the submarine (it was subterranean).
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It was extremely cool, but having to actually scroll all over, combined with a small scrollable window, made my hands hurt enough that I eventually gave up. I'm very thankful for the (multiple) people that repackaged it as a zoomable map.
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Informative)
Give Randall some credit, this must have taken ages to put together, and is all the more impressive once you realise that it's more or less all draw to the scale. The real mindfsck is when you read the comment from the girl on the far left and work out that, despite all of that apparently vast area to explore, the whole thing represents is only about five miles from one side to the other. I just didn't expect it [the drawing] to be so small!
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Informative)
Clever. Another way to work out the dimensions would be to scale it to the Burj Khalifa [wikipedia.org] located in the center.
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Or the Saturn V just above it.
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Funny)
Soooo... Glass half empty kind of guy, huh?
Oblig: http://what-if.xkcd.com/6/ [xkcd.com]
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Interesting)
It's so big. Yet so really, really small when you compare it to the real world. More size comparisons:
Based on the Burj Khalifa being 829 meters, each image (cell) is about 100 meters.
The full image is 81 cells wide, 32 cells high. The highest point where the whales are at is 13 cells high (including the initial ground level), while the lowest point is around 19 cells deep (not including the initial ground level).
Mt. Everest is slightly higher than the image is wide (88.5 cells).
The deepest mine in the world is about twice the depth of the caves from ground level (39 cells).
In fact, the deepest hole ever drilled is about six times as deep (122 cells).
If the jumbo jets' cruise altitude were drawn to scale, they would be close to ten times the height of the whale from ground level (124 cells).
If this was a map of Manhattan starting at the tip of Battery Park, it would end near the southern parts of Central Park, specifically the whereabouts of the skating rink (according to Google Maps anyway).
Also, apparently, some forum-goers have found the images at the four 11x11 corners to be blank (present but blank, whereas the rest of the empty space is not an actual image). The theory is that this one, 1110, will be either the last or the penultimate comic (with 1111 being the last comic, or just blank). The last comic theory comes from the obvious reference to Calvin and Hobbes, and a reference to the very first comic at the eastern-most cell. There are more blank images at 1n4e, 1n5e, 2n1w, 2n3w, 8n1w, but its meaning has not been cracked yet.
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Really?
That'll be the day I stop reading it.
Re:Not all that impressive (Score:5, Insightful)
No life? Drawing XKCD is his job.
But did you find Waldo? (Score:3)
He's there.
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As is his cane.
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That's whose cane it is? I saw the cane, but didn't make the connection.
Wonder if there'll ever be a poster version of it. (Probably multiple posters you have to assemble yourself..)
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Hey that is just uncool.
He might damage a car if he plays in traffic.
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I love the way you crafted this slam without actually specifying what you consider to be "modern culture", other than that you agree with the xkcd fans that Lady Gaga doesn't qualify. All the reward, none of the risk. Excellent.
Re:typifies xkcd (Score:5, Funny)
WTF is an "artefact"?
It's very similar to an artifact, except artefacts are only found by people who don't know what the little red, squiggly line under the word is for.
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More accurately, it /is/ an artifact. There are multiple acceptable spellings of artifact.
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More accurately, it /is/ an artifact. There are multiple acceptable spellings of artifact.
Ha, yea, I actually remembered that shortly after hitting the submit button. Where's a time-limited edit button when you need one?
My high school English teacher is probably spinning in her grave...
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It's the normal British spelling of artefact. No red squiggly line for me :-)
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Well, you can always enjoy the initial joke, then bookmark it and come back later. My complaint is that all the clicking and dragging gets boring real fast, and isn't adequately repaid by the little jokes you discover along the way. Maybe it would be more fun on a tablet.
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Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:5, Interesting)
That's easy, try finding these without zooming out:
2 MD-80s
2 other airliners, possibly 767s
Apollo 13
Two X-Wings
Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:4, Interesting)
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I knew I had forgotten something!
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You forgot the Q400 in a drastic nose-up pitch. (possibly about to stall)
Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:5, Funny)
Facebook? Get out of here.
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Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:5, Interesting)
My buddy wrote up a script that pulls the whole map into a big clickable image: http://hydra.drawert.net/xkcd_clickdrag/ [drawert.net]
Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:5, Funny)
I was hoping someone would do something like that. I hope that server can handle some traffic.
Anyone esle wish that one of the whales in the sky was a flower pot thinking to itself "not again"? (HHGttG)
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Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's the python script I threw together. It's crude, but gets the job done. (Note that it needs wget on the path or in the same directory, didn't feel like tinkering with binary writes.)
import os, urllib
baseUrl="http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/"
def convert(coords):
st = ''
if coords[0]>0:
st+=str(coords[0])+'n'
else:
st+=str(abs(coords[0]))+'s'
if coords[1]>0:
st+=str(coords[1])+'e'
else:
st+=str(abs(coords[1]))+'w'
st+='.png'
return st
x=1
y=1
flipX = 1
flipY = 1
while True:
coords = (x*flipX, y*flipY)
print coords
u = urllib.urlopen(baseUrl+convert(coords))
firstLine = True
img = False
for line in u:
if firstLine:
firstLine = False
if line == '\x89PNG\r\n':
print 'Found Image!'
os.spawnl(os.P_WAIT, "wget"," -nc ",baseUrl+convert(coords))
elif line == '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>\n':
pass
else:
print line
u.close()
if flipY==-1:
flipY = 1
y+=1
if y>x:
y=1
if flipX==-1:
flipX=1
x+=1
else:
flipX=-1
else:
flipY = -1
Re:I was actually disappointed by this. (Score:5, Funny)
You must be one of those persons who read tomorrow's comic on their dilbert calendar.
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This does it already: http://www.mrphlip.com/xkcd1110/?debug=1 [mrphlip.com]