xkcd

by **Giulls** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:05 am UTC

670

Title Text: "Wow, that's less than $200 per ...uh... that's a good deal!"

I read the comic and immediately head over here to see people's comments on it. Then I realize it's been 12 for about 2 minutes...

This forum is about 1/6 of the total enjoyment of the comics for me!

by **chocolate.razorblades** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:07 am UTC

Yeah, I was wondering where the thread was.

I love this one--my first thought was, "What unit is that?"

by **halberdier25** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:07 am UTC

Marty has a point, there.

by **captain2obvious** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:10 am UTC

I keep trying to explain the idea behind the third panel to my friend... its been an ongoing struggle...

Also, I was freaking out when no one had made a thread yet, I love reading the comments too.

by **torontoraptor** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:11 am UTC

Wow, 6 minutes to post a thread, thats pretty bad...

I'm slightly biased, but I think this is one of the better comics I have seen in a while. I burnt my cheese. I'm sure there is some logic behind the system though, maybe 0-10 is the safe percentage and 11 is the overload safety factor? So while it can go up to 10 normally, turning it up to 11 is akin to overclocking a cpu. *

*N.B all of the above was made up in this spot and is most likely not a good system

by **chocolate.razorblades** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:13 am UTC

Also, I seriously just checked my amp. It only goes up to 10.

lmao.

by **Omegaton** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:22 am UTC

This comic is great. I knew what it was about, but didn't see that punchline coming. Hilarious!

by **captain2obvious** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:22 am UTC

chocolate.razorblades wrote:Also, I seriously just checked my amp. It only goes up to 10.

lmao.

For $2000 I can get you one that goes up to 12.

by **XbHW_TestEngr** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:28 am UTC

Smart engineer ... that's me!!!
Step 1) Buy a stock amplifier.
Step 2) Have a new face plate made in with awesome graphics, and numbers that go to 13.
Step 3) Remove old faceplate and install new faceplate.
Step 4) Add shiny knobs.
Step 5) Mark price 75% above original amp price. Hem and ha about wanting to let it go "since it is so totally awesome".

But that isn't nearly as much fun as actually building something new. But, it is more profitable.

by **Giulls** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:30 am UTC

One could technically set an arbitrary level of loudness at 10 units, then amps that go to levels of loudness higher/lower than that arbitrary 10 would be marked as going up to whatever ratio of loudness they go to as compared to 10, with 10 intervals of loudness set at max_loudness/10. Which would somewhat be the same as they are now, except for the loudness scale really means something.

But really, do you seriously want that?

by **glasnt** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:30 am UTC

Hehe, stick man with dreds! *rocks out*
HI JOEE

by **whiteheron** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:31 am UTC

For the record, I love spinal tap and all its brilliant comedy... which may be one of the reasons this didn't really do it for me. It just kind of ruins the original joke. :/ I did smile though.

by **lihan161051** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:33 am UTC

And of course Randall puts the umlaut over the N.

Classic. (And good attention to detail, but that's to be expected.)

by **alchemistique** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:37 am UTC

Normally the math/science jokes go over my head, but I got a good chuckle out of this one. I love when Randall does music humor.

by **MeisBarry** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:41 am UTC

As an engineer, I found myself laughing aloud reading this. That rarely happens in the tubes.

One of my favorites.

by **aldld** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:57 am UTC

So... Is Randall going to be looking for an amp or something?

by **Duban** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:16 am UTC

Randall. I think being around the XKCD crowd has made you overestimate the "normal" person. Other then that, funny comic.

by **IsThisNameTakenAlready** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:25 am UTC

But 11 doesn't have any units. It's an arbitrary scale mapping outputs..."

Its like Randall is in my head.... please be nice and turn off the lights on your way out.

by **Q_<** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:34 am UTC

Maybe it's 10 bels. So 100 decibels. That sounds about right.

by **ivoriv** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:52 am UTC

Runner up comic text: "Smart engineers make sound decisions"

I have to admit, I registered so I could post that pun on the one place in the internet someone would appreciate it

by **CoPP** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:58 am UTC

Ivoriv:
That's genius :] Definitely gave me an extra chuckle.

And I kid you not... Spinal Tap has been on my desk all day today and when I saw this comic I nearly pooped a brick.

by **Master Gunner** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:08 am UTC

Q_< wrote:Maybe it's 10 bels. So 100 decibels. That sounds about right.

Other way around, 10 bels is 1 decibel.

by **Q_<** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:13 am UTC

Master Gunner wrote:
Q_< wrote:Maybe it's 10 bels. So 100 decibels. That sounds about right.

Other way around, 10 bels is 1 decibel.

But 10 decimeters is a meter. And 10 deciliters is a liter.

by **cprocjr** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:13 am UTC

Tehe, when I read the first panel I was thinking "11 of what?"

by **knight427** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:15 am UTC

Master Gunner wrote:
Q_< wrote:Maybe it's 10 bels. So 100 decibels. That sounds about right.

Other way around, 10 bels is 1 decibel.

nope
10 bels = 1 decabel (a never-used unit)
1 bel = 10 decibels

by **phillipsjk** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:17 am UTC

Master Gunner wrote:
Q_< wrote:Maybe it's 10 bels. So 100 decibels. That sounds about right.

Other way around, 10 bels is 1 decibel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix (ninja'd twice over, I know.)

On topic: I suppose the jig would be up if the engineer promised a $3000 amp going up to 16 (or F)?

by **parhelion** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:20 am UTC

Isn't panel 2 pretty much what he asks in the movie though?

The filmmaker in the movie wrote:Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder

by **Copper Top** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:23 am UTC

http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 8140500000

looks like fender beat you to it guys. It goes to 12.

by **knight427** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:24 am UTC

phillipsjk wrote:
Master Gunner wrote:
Q_< wrote:Maybe it's 10 bels. So 100 decibels. That sounds about right.

Other way around, 10 bels is 1 decibel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix (ninja'd twice over, I know.)

On topic: I suppose the jig would be up if the engineer promised a $3000 amp going up to 16 (or F)?

While we are wiki'ing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel

Also, you mean F as in hexadecimal? If so shouldn't it be 15? In any case, it is probably a bad idea to use letters A-F for volume on a musical device. "Sorry, this song is in the key of G and my amp only goes to F."

by **phillipsjk** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:29 am UTC

knight427 wrote:Also, you mean F as in hexadecimal? If so shouldn't it be 15? In any case, it is probably a bad idea to use letters A-F for volume on a musical device. "Sorry, this song is in the key of G and my amp only goes to F."

Good point. If you start counting a 1, 15 would be "F," and 16 would be "G"

Next problem?

by **Benson** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:34 am UTC

phillipsjk wrote:
knight427 wrote:Also, you mean F as in hexadecimal? If so shouldn't it be 15? In any case, it is probably a bad idea to use letters A-F for volume on a musical device. "Sorry, this song is in the key of G and my amp only goes to F."

Good point. If you start counting a 1, 15 would be "F," and 16 would be "G"

No, 16 would be 10. Which would confuse your customers even worse. :twisted:

by **knight427** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:39 am UTC

phillipsjk wrote:
knight427 wrote:Also, you mean F as in hexadecimal? If so shouldn't it be 15? In any case, it is probably a bad idea to use letters A-F for volume on a musical device. "Sorry, this song is in the key of G and my amp only goes to F."

Good point. If you start counting a 1, 15 would be "F," and 16 would be "G"

Next problem?

Forget that, if you want the index to look big, and you are going to deviate from base 10 numbers, you should go binary.

"My amp goes to 1011"

by **LesZedD4** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:48 am UTC

about the decibel thing, i saw the wikipedia article which said:

A decibel is one tenth of a bel, a seldom-used unit.

so, 1dB = 1/10 B

therefore 10 decibels = 1 bel

EDIT: i guess thats what you said, knight, so good job! Keep up the good work!

Also:: I love this movie! good comic.

by **Max2009** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:28 am UTC

Am I the only who was reminded of Star Trek when they recalibrated the warp factors so that warp six wasn't nearly so fast?

Also, if you're going to warp the fabric of spacetime so that you can get from point A to point B without traversing any point C in the middle, what the hell gets factored? Either spacetime is warped or it isn't.

by **TheoGB** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:31 am UTC

The thing is, anyone who's ever used a guitar amp knows the big output change is in the first half of the dial. After you crank it to 7 you've pretty much got all the volume you're going to get out of it and the remaining three points are just increasing the distortion to the sound.

True fact: Fender do amps that have 12 points on their dials.

by **Zakamutt** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:40 am UTC

Nerdy engineer: Maybe I should make one that has 3.14, 666 and 1337 on it?

by **Turquoise Days** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:04 am UTC

I'm pretty sure the volume control on BBCiPlayer goes all the way up to eleven. It's still all distorted though.

by **Robstickle** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:11 am UTC

Zakamutt wrote:Nerdy engineer: Maybe I should make one that has 3.14, 666 and 1337 on it?

I want e as an option god dammit.

by **Zakamutt** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:19 am UTC

Robstickle wrote:
Zakamutt wrote:Nerdy engineer: Maybe I should make one that has 3.14, 666 and 1337 on it?

I want e as an option god dammit.

I think you would have to make an e edition and a pi edition. Perhaps e*100?

by **Dobblesworth** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:46 am UTC

My name is Engineering Undergraduate Dobblesworth, and I approve this ~~message~~ xkcd.

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