0961: "Eternal Flame"

[ndluthier]

Man, this tribute is beautiful and appropriate. Especially since I normally call that cursor the Spinning Wheel of Death. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wait_cursor)

I vote that we start calling it the Spinning Wheel of Jobs. I'd rather believe that my Mac is unresponsive not because it's overworked, but because it felt Steve's spirit passing close by.

[Qaanol]

I’d like to compliment Randall on making an animated GIF “the right way” where each frame only updates the small area of the canvas it affects, rather than redrawing the entire image.

[crashsuit]

Idea: make a real-life Eternal Beachball using a ping-ping ball, markers, and an air hose.

Like so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxXPBOstpmE

[nixiebunny]

This one made me LOL.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet in the thread, but the color wheel thingie is referred to by us lifelong Mac uses as the "spinning pizza of death". Get it? Death?

And yes, it's snarky, but hey, if you're the worlds' greatest computer visionary, and you don't want people making fun of how apps can crash on your computers, then make your developers write perfect apps that never crash.

[WolfieMario]

Is it just me or did Randall actually do a really good comic again? Sir Mustapha?

Well, now that you called me by name... I think this is one of the best things Randall has done in months. It's not easy to make a tribute comic with a sense of humour, and this is fitting in pretty much all aspects. I could complain that the alt-text does nothing but explain the "joke", but I am appalled that, even still, so many commenters here missed the point by such a huge margin.

How often the commenters miss the point, and by how large a margin, is often appalling. I would list specific examples but I don't want to start an argument here with those people.
Here I suppose is understandable to some degree, as not everyone has yet heard that Steve Jobs died, though most people have by now. I heard the news last night, myself.

I knew Steve Jobs died, and still didn't understand it. Why? Because I've almost never used Macs, and I completely did not recognize the "beachball" loading cursor. Had I recognized it, of course, I would have understood the comic perfectly... But there's honestly many ways to not get a comic like this

[xkcdinspired]

This comic is a cool gif but I think it could easily be mis-interpreted.

The beachball is obviously Mac waiting icon, but most Mac users would associate it more with annoyance than anything else. I think Randall wants to remember Steve Jobs in the way the people have suggested: that Jobs would come back and this is just a temporary wait. But the waiting icon brings about more negative feeling than the good ones. It reminds me of failures in the MacOS system rather than its elegance or functionality. It is the same as drawing the dead blue screen whenever your computer fails to shut down properly to commemorate Bill Gates.

If we proliferate on this negative thread of thought, the comic's Alt-text is even worse. It says that things would go back to the way it was before, which anti-fans could read as: we wish to go back to the simpler days where Jobs' products were not in the market - there would be no complicated "beachball" waiting - his products were just a colorful phase people wishing to pass.

I'm pretty sure that is not Randall's intention. The title is aptly named "Eternal Flame" for the occasion. But I'm just a bit uncomfortable that its contents and Alt-text may lead to many inappropriate interpretations.

[funnyav]

Yes, the first thing I saw was the color wheel of death and assumed the comic was implying OS X is slow and unstable.

Then I realized the comic was a day early, and that Randall is a good person.

[CodexDraco]

A fitting tribute. Yesterday news made me sad even when I'm more a Linux guy.

Also, being on a mac, did anybody else sit and wait trying to figure out why their browser had frozen before realizing the spinning ball was a gif?

I did, actually, until I realize that there were two cursors on my screen.

[rhhardin]

JFK got a temporary eternal flame, according to the TV news at the time, until a permanent eternal flame could be installed.

[myoilu]

I thought that this comic was very apt. as someone mentioned before it combines humor with solemnity very well. But it is something only mac users would fully get, so i do understand some of the confusion. Very well done Randall.

For those still a little confused, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_flame might help to understand what the idea of an eternal flame represents as a memorial.

Side Note: me and my friends always used to call it the BBOD (Beach Ball of Doom) as whatever application you were using was doomed when it appeared. Also, is this the first native *.gif xkcd?

[cream wobbly]

Animated GIFs normally annoy the heck out of me, but this one seems just about right.

It's animated? It plays through once, then... it... just... stops.

Well, just shortly after a yellow transplant.

[LoyalxkcdReader]

I thought this was a very nice tribute to a great man, and use of the 'beach ball of death' image but a single (if not always welcome example of the innovations he led Apple to deliver.

"Reader, if you seek his monument," the plaque above Christopher Wren's grave in the cathedral he designed reads, "look around you."

Mike

[Kirby]

I wonder how long Randall's had this one ready to publish.

In other news, this comic has successfully completely thrown off my sense of what day of the week it is.

[ChurchSkiz]

As for the alt-text, if I'm honest I small bit in the back of my mind thought it would be kind of funny if he actually did come back somehow (yes, I am aware my sense of humor is horrible). What with how much people like to liken Apple to a religion. Then there was time that his death was reported mistakenly. I think it's safe to say that neither of those apply here though.

LOL like a rapper? Steve Jobs is still alive, if you compile the source code for Mac OS backwards, you can hear his plan for faking his death. If you scramble the letters in Macintosh you spell out "I am not"...meaning he is not dead. The proof will be that every year Apple will release a new product that Steve was supposedly working on but never released. There will also be a new "Previously Unreleased iPhone". It's the same iPhone as before, but instead of being manufactured in a plant, it will be a replica of an iPhone Jobs built in his garage.

[ManaUser]

He's gone to the walled garden in the sky.

[crs.one]

1) Yes, people who aren't mac users might not get it. Welcome to xkcd...where if you don't get it, go look it up (trust me Randall, it's probably funny.)
2) It can definitely be taken the wrong way, because the beachball is a source of annoyance. One of the above posters was right; Randall is a good person. You can feel it through his art. Even if he didn't like Steve Jobs, he wouldn't take jabs at a dead man for the sake of a flame war.
3) There's no need for snarky comments. A real person died. Those who don't use Apple products may be a little more detached from it and may be more apt to step back and make wry comments. But look at it this way:

Those who use Apple products feel connected to Steve Jobs.

It may seem ridiculous; after all, it's a simple material possession. But you can't deny the fact that his life's work, passion, etc, can be felt through his work. That's earth-shattering to me. That's on the level of music; remember when Kurt Cobain died? People connected to him through his life's work. I think there's no better argument for calling Apple products "art."

--------------

As an aside, the part I don't understand is the stones of the memorial. It looks like...a flower? I don't think it's the apple campus, is it? Is it a reference that I'm missing?

[Kiwihawk]

I read it as being rather poignant.

I think it captures the moment where something devastating happens to people that puts your life on pause. Whether it is the Japan or Canterbury earthquakes, 9/11, or the death of someone important like Jobs, it causes you to stop and think for a bit.

I think it represents taking a moment out of your busy life to put all your other "applications" on hold while you focus on what happened.

It's a moment of silence.

And in that moment of silence, you can't help but wish that what happened didn't actually happen. If you stared long enough at their tombstone they would somehow magically come back.

[Uzh]

I wonder how long Randall's had this one ready to publish.

I guess he had.

I worked for a newspaper and we had the orbituaries of all the celebreties - starting from prime minister to the local mayor and all the others - ready in our desk drawers. That's everyday life in news business.

It was quite obvious that Jobs was about to die some weeks ago. So Randall could develop the idea and draw the comic - including the fabulous stuff with the BBoD. That's nothing he did just like that.

Georg

--
edit: Ups. I mixed up "how long" and "whether"...

[Tharwen]

I'm on a mac. I waited for the spinny orb thing to go away before trying to read the comic. It didn't work.

I’d like to compliment Randall on making an animated GIF “the right way” where each frame only updates the small area of the canvas it affects, rather than redrawing the entire image.

I thought almost all gif-making software at least had an option for this by default...

[EdwardUong]

I think Randall is trying to trick himself into thinking that Steve just temporarily disappeared from this world. He thought if he kept staring at the beach ball icon long enough, Steve will appeared back. Though it's futile. It's a sad irony.

[Sir_Read-a-Lot]

Randal's good at tributes. I still remember this one.

[MJZimmer88]

Would be fairly ironic if he were brought back as an android

[glasnt]

I love when a comic does gif animations right. And a thoughtful gesture at that.

[J L]

Just a few days ago, there was a documentation about Apple's factories in China (178 $ material cost for the iPhone 4 + 7 $ for the people assembling it = 375 $ profit when selling it for 560 $). And the suicides there. And Steve Jobs saying, well, it's a nice factory, and the suicide rate is still below US average.

Hate me, but I don't get the cult. For me, it's just another dead industrialist. I'm not happy he's dead, I just couldn't care less. And I don't think the world is worse off without him.

The comic, though, was quite thoughtful - maybe more than the man it paid tribute to.

[SayyesTono]

Registered an account for this comment.

Todays comic was and is perfect. It balances respect and humor and leaves you with the soothing sensation that maybe the universe might just somehow you know.....

Heck, I wish someone would think of something equally fitting for my death.
Thank you for this one.

***
I don't particularly like Apples products and the whole "Reinvent stuff" always annoyed the shit out of me (not so much the actual saying of lines like that as the way some people just bought into it..); nevertheless Apple put nerdy stuff on everyday-peoples minds and thus put food (re-routed) on my table.
Oh and I DO enjoy the other comics as well.

[sotanaht]

The comic is suitably tasteful and mournful, but at the same time also a subtle dig at apple/mac. It's basically perfect.

[delro92]

Is anyone kind enough (and skillful too) as to make a Windows 7 spinning thingy version? I'd greatly apreciate it.
Source:

[Donnell]

I think that it is sweet. Thank you.

It's strange. I got it right away but my uber geeky husband and totally Mac devotee didn't get it and I had to explain it to him.

[Pfhorrest]

I loaded the page, walked away, walked back, saw the spinning cursor (it's really not a beach ball anymore guys, that's old school), and thought "Aw damnit, now even Randall's putting stupid browser-hanging animated gifs up too? And just to animate some stupid flame? Argh, why isn't this stupid Safari bug fixed yet, why the hell is this even so slow to begin with, 20-year-old gif technology should not be slower than full-screen DVD-quality video even on this old box!... wait, there's a second cursor. Huh?" Even after reading the alt-text I thought it was just a lame crack on this long-in-the-tooth bug in Safari. Wasn't until I read the comments here that I even realized it was a Thursday and this had anything to do with Jobs' death.

[QuaCarol]

I've returned to it repeatedly today to look at it. I've sent it to a lot of people who'd never heard of XKCD.
It's perfect, Randall. Thank you.
"I have been one acquainted with the night."

[Mr. Timms]

How often the commenters miss the point, and by how large a margin, is often appalling. I would list specific examples but I don't want to start an argument here with those people.
Here I suppose is understandable to some degree, as not everyone has yet heard that Steve Jobs died, though most people have by now. I heard the news last night, myself.

Really, I don't think that the problem with XKCD is Randall, it's with the commentators and critics. The willingness that so many people have to assume the worst and try to pick apart every single comic is kind of disgusting. Randall has his corner on the Internet, and it's gotten popular enough that people somehow feel entitled to complain whenever there is a single thing they don't like or understand. Randall will do as he wants, and he puts his comic out for free. I don't think that these people should have a right to complain until they understand how hard doing something like this is.

But back on topic, RIP Steve Jobs. As an industry leader, he pushed the envelope for innovation to its highest. You can hate the company, you can hate the products (God knows I do), but revolutionizing computing for 30 years is an accomplishment worth celebration. This sort of monument would be worth the effort.

[SirMustapha]

Randall has his corner on the Internet, and it's gotten popular enough that people somehow feel entitled to complain whenever there is a single thing they don't like or understand. Randall will do as he wants, and he puts his comic out for free. I don't think that these people should have a right to complain until they understand how hard doing something like this is.

You just summed up everything that I find most abhorrent about this "anti-criticism" attitude. Your complete disregard for free speech, diversity of opinion and artistic growth does no good to art whatsoever. People don't need to know "how hard it is" before they criticise art: they have a brain, they have eyes, they have ears, they can have an opinion of their own. If an artist does bad art because "it is too hard", then he either should try harder to overcome the obstacles, or he should just stop. And is there a better way to overcome obstacles than to see your mistakes and listen to what people have to say? Hardly.

So Randall does comics for free? Well, people criticise it for free too! If one is invalid, the other is too. Nobody asked Randall to make comics, and he is damn well aware that what he puts on "his corner on the Internet" is viewed and talked about by thousands. He makes a living out of it, remember? If Randall is somehow immune to criticism because he does his stuff for free, then you're being a hypocrite: his critics should also be immune to criticism.

I have a simpler attitude: Randall is free to make comics (and charge for them if he wants to), and everyone is free to praise or bash it. We should try to cultivate freedom, not kill it.

[ivan09193]

Respectfully, I think that this comic hits today's mood on the head. The two people on the stones in the foreground look out on the monument in reflection. The setting for the memorial is exquisite. And the idea of an "eternal flame" is (somewhat ironically) portrayed by the spinning color wheel, which does seem to turn forever during system hangups in OSX.

I'm also fond of the idea of Macintosh computers as something timeless. I grew up with Macs from elementary school, when MacOS 9 was in vogue, and the iPod was some years in the future. Technology was something amazing to me then, and I liked the way that Macs sounded on startup, smelled when they were running and appeared in the colors of the rainbow for old iMacs and iBooks. We grew up together, in many ways, and stayed connected until computers became tools to use instead of objects to be admired.

That's what I remember when I think of Steve Jobs. Thanks for what you did - and Randall too!

[BlitzGirl]

Also, being on a mac, did anybody else sit and wait trying to figure out why their browser had frozen before realizing the spinning ball was a gif?

I did this, and I'm on a PC...

[pwe]

This to me is a beautiful comic. When you see someone you love lose to cancer, hope is all you have. Hope that you'll see this person again, but the beach ball keeps spinning. Life is finite, but love lives on.

[Oflick]

Seeing there isn't a new comic, I guess this constitutes as Friday's comic.

[Jared the Great]

I read this at school, and the computers there (Macs) are taken care of by IT guys who only know how to use PCs. Obviously, they fall into a state of disrepair and are really slow. My cursor was right where the beachball was in the comic, so I thought it was still loading something.

[mric]

Is it just me or did Randall actually do a really good comic again? Sir Mustapha?

Well, now that you called me by name... I think this is one of the best things Randall has done in months. It's not easy to make a tribute comic with a sense of humour, and this is fitting in pretty much all aspects. I could complain that the alt-text does nothing but explain the "joke", but I am appalled that, even still, so many commenters here missed the point by such a huge margin.

Well, I don't use Macs and have never seen or heard of an eternal flame being used as a memorial, so I entirely missed the point. I am not sure that an appropriate reaction to ignorance of that sort is to be appalled - it shows an emotional incontinence on your part that I find mildly irritating.

[Monotonius]

Seeing there isn't a new comic, I guess this constitutes as Friday's comic.

There will be a late Friday comic because Randall Munroe is busy taking care of a dinosaur.

[applejuicefool]

Right before I clicked over here, I saw this:


http://www.myextralife.com/

Lucky thing, too, or I would have been lost.

-AJF