Fixed link to current comic would be handy...

[ScottM]

Oddish request... I'd like there to exist a simple, fixed url which always fetches the current comic image. Something along the lines of
img.xkcd.com/recent.png
My reason for this is that I want to write code to hit this link every 4 days (getting a different image each time) and use the bits of the fetched image to permute the state of a PRNG.

I know I could do this with the existing JSON url, but it's easier (for me) if I can do it in one fetch. (But I'm not... lazy).

I do not need a carefully worded explanation that anyone who writes his own PRNG code, AND wants to seed it with xkcd, has compounded his geekishness to a worrisome extent. I know. What makes it all worse is that the PRNG output is used in a roleplay game. (Yes, I know. The drugs don't actually help. Thanks.) I also know there are many webcams out there that provide much better sources of unpredictability; I'm already using some. But without xkcd, it just doesn't feel like I've pushed the concept to the maximum possible point.

(Of course, if I can ask for
xkcd.com/hashRecent
returning a sequence of digits representing a hash of the current comic, that'd be great, too. But then I'd at least like a discussion of which hash algorithm would be most suitable for this sort of art. Thanks!)

[theGoldenCalf;]

Maybe someone who compounded his geekishness to a worrisome extent can parse the HTML response from xkcd.com and extract the image link. Maybe.

[Zarq]

Just checked, the comic link is the only link of the form "http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/.*"

Indeed not difficult to extract.

[phlip]

Ew, no, don't parse the HTML, the JSON is there for a reason. Exactly why that's not sufficient for the OP's purposes is unclear.

[davean]

And the JSON contains the rest of the comic info. There is more to a comic then just an image.