1037: "Umwelt"

[aldonius]

Alt-text: Umwelt is the idea that because their senses pick up on different things, different animals in the same ecosystem actually live in very different worlds. Everything about you shapes the world you inhabit--from your ideology to your glasses prescription to your browser window size.

As an aside, there's some wacky hijinks going on, presumably April Fool's related. The source acts as if it's still 1036, and the picture only loads in Chrome for me.

[LSK]

It's a different comic from browser to browser and from OS to OS. The middle section changes as you adjust your window size.

[davevresk]

It goes further... in Safari the picture wont load and the alt text reads "... prescription to your web browser" not "... web browser size" but in Fire Fox it ha no problems. Also, you see a different comic the wider your browser window is. Well played

[TheWhiteDuke]

So for me IE, FireFox and Opera are the same (snake), but Chrome is different (turtle). Are there others in other browsers?

Also, after checking that there is a longer image on my two-monitor desktop I realized you can get the same effect by zooming out.

EDIT:

Of course. It's not just browser/browser size, it's also each individual user who has a different Umwelt. So I get snakes and turtles, other people get auroras and other stuff.

EDIT II:
I'm in Sydney, Australia for reference if that becomes important.

[Rythoka]

I'd just like to point out that Oklahoma didn't really have a winter this year. Also, no one knows what a kilometer is here.

[aldonius]

Curiouser and curiouser. I'm a Mac guy; Chrome gets the above, Firefox gets:

Spoiler:

Safari as mentioned gets nothing, and for me, neither does Opera.

I guess it's screenshot time... Windows and Linux people, what are you seeing?

QuickiEdit: I guess this explains why there's no one image link.

[JimsMaher]

Firefox 11 running Windows 7 Pro:


... possibly not strictly a browser brand difference. ... IE also gets nothing.

[aldonius]

JimsMaher: I can't see your image within the forum thread (though I can if I right-click). I don't think the forum software is playing nicely with your image host. Or possibly there's another explanation. Probably the image host is changing the URL...

[Iulus Cofield]

I got the same one as Jims

Spoiler:

I expected shenanigans, I didn't expect to get an Oregon specific comic! How does Randall have common knowledge of my homeland? Our rain is supposed to be a poorly kept secret.

Zooming in and out does nothing except change the size of the middle panel.

[bekalm]

I have chrome and windows 7, and it's showing the Northern Lights in Canada version
I used IE7 and it showed me the "too too quiet" raptor comic.
I also saw the snake version originally, but now I can't get it back.

Also, finally another "little prince" reference.

[edit]

Now IE is giving a hand drawn error comic saying "IE has given up"

[TheWhiteDuke]

Bekalm: "Too too quiet" raptors? What is this magic?

[Rythoka]

A little searching and I found this:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/static/waldo.js

Also, jQuery is included immediately before.

[stardek]

I'm on OS X 10.6.8 Using Chrome I get the same as Jim. Using Firefox I get the snake one (which goes through a portal if the picture is big enough). In Safari and Opera no image displays.
Does anybody know enough to look through the page source and see what's happening?

[AoGenius]

He can easily trace any location from the internet..

I'm from Israel and I got one in hebrew on Firefox and Chrome.
On IE7 and Opera I got the turtle one. With added turtle on widescreen/zoom out

[aldonius]

Rythoka found it - there's a bunch of javascript magic. I saw it in the source, but I was after image links and assumed it was some (irrelevant) analytics type thing.

[ThyLost]

It is definitely location specific, I'm at Smith College currently and got a Smith related one.

http://i41.tinypic.com/p3byx.png

[Rythoka]

http://umwelt.xkcd.com/story/ghenkEggov8

This also seems to be of relevance.

[theguywithanaccount]

From what I've been able to figure out, the comic displayed depends on the browser user agent (user agent switcher addon), and location.


I've been changing my user agent and get a new comic every time.

Also, a more brute force method is to get the comic URL and simply change that and search for others. I used grease monkey to grab source and get an image URL.

So my first comic was this: http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/a1_13p1s1_0.png

My understanding so far is that:
"a1_XX" chooses a specific comic (a1_13 for me)
"pX" grabs a panel from that comic (p1)
"sX" seems to move that panels location among the comic (s1)
"_X" is an alternative panel that seems to change based on location (_0)

So change the value where the X's are and you should be able to see every possible comic/alternative by loading all the URLs.

ex:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/a1_1p1s1_0.png
http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/a1_1p1s1_1.png (Same panel, slightly different content)
http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/a1_1p1s2_0.png (Slightly different scene, maybe shifted in order when normally displayed?)
http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/a1_1p2s1_0.png (Next panel in comic)

http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/a1_2p1s1_0.png (completely new comic)

[Rabbethan]

I think location might also have something to do with it. I'm on Firefox, Windows 8 CP, in Miami

Spoiler:

[benez1ze]

when i ran it on Win 7 and chrome, i got this one: http://imgur.com/VlhUJ

when i ran firefox i got the too quiet one. I tested it out on a linux vm and it still showed the same ones. on IE i got nothing as well. could it be location based? I live in MI, so the comic for chrome seemed tailored for me, but that could just be chance.

[bekalm]

This is akin to the source. It will allow us, I presume, to post to our individual ones
I used chrome, went to inspect element and got the image from ghenkEggov8.
See what you guys can do?

[JohnSmith1]

It's time sensitive and location sensitive as well. Using the same IP, same OS, same browser I was able to get two comics an hour apart.

I'd just like to point out that Oklahoma didn't really have a winter this year. Also, no one here knows what a kilometer is here.

Kinda disappointed that Randall didn't generate the units on the fly when the city name is already dynamically generated.

[Tualha]

I think location might also have something to do with it. I'm on Firefox, Windows 8 CP, in Miami

I'm in Gainesville, using FireFox. I got the same Florida-specific one. Ironically enough, I've lived in San Francisco too, and felt small earthquakes there.

[TheWhiteDuke]

Now I'm feeling kinda left out because I'm in Australia and I don't seem to have been granted a unique strip.

[Rythoka]

This is akin to the source. It will allow us, I presume to post to our individual ones
I used chrome, went to inspect element and got the image from ghenkEggov8.
See what you guys can do?

How did you use the URL? That's only one panel of the comic.

EDIT: Nevermind, I looked at your post's source

It seems to me that the http://umwelt.xkcd.com/story/ghenkEggov8 link runs a PHP script that uses client data to generate a set of panels to display, which waldo.js arranges properly. That being said, I'm tired and by no means versed in Javascript or PHP.

[theGoldenCalf;]

Definitely location sensitive. In Israel I'm getting one in Hebrew. Also, some further shenanigans forced me to print screen and use fucking PAINT to post this one. Damn you Randall.

translates to:

Mom, I met a great guy!
but he's not Jewish
|
...
|
Wait, what do you mean "neither are we"?
|
I'm completely confused

[bekalm]

This is akin to the source. It will allow us, I presume to post to our individual ones
I used chrome, went to inspect element and got the image from ghenkEggov8.
See what you guys can do?

How did you use the URL? That's only one panel of the comic.

EDIT: Nevermind, I looked at your post's source

http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels is the base url
then you to to the source code and retrieve all three images.

[edit]

And I added the other two panels in now.

[edit 2]
From Ie:


Alternatively, in Ie: click image, properties, copy and past link.

[edit 3]

From mobile

[Rythoka]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels is the base url
then you to to the source code and retrieve all three images.

I edited my previous post, just for reference.

[MK47]

I'm from israel and I got a comic in hebrew
[img]
http://imgs.xkcd.com/a1panels/104369b20df6511d0690c70ec32946f675f99367367edffd14a8566d6297033d.png
[/img]
it says:
"mom, I met a great guy! but he's not jewish.
...
wait, what do you mean,"neither are we"?
I'm totally confused"

[theguywithanaccount]

So now what I posted before isn't working. All the images have moved to a new URL that doesn't follow that nice pattern... Maybe it can help someone else who knows more?

[Exkakx]

I went on firefox and got THIS one:

[sardia]

Can we get a copy of each comic on the first post/OP? That way we have a nice catalog of each image.

[Rythoka]

So now what I posted before isn't working. All the images have moved to a new URL that doesn't follow that nice pattern... Maybe it can help someone else who knows more?

Oh my, I completely missed your first post.

Does anyone here think Randall would use server resources to randomize the comic panel URLs every now and then to keep us from doing this? Sounds a bit crazy to me, honestly.

[Exkakx]

So now what I posted before isn't working. All the images have moved to a new URL that doesn't follow that nice pattern... Maybe it can help someone else who knows more?

Oh my, I completely missed your first post.

Does anyone here think Randall would use server resources to randomize the comic panel URLs every now and then to keep us from doing this? Sounds a bit crazy to me, honestly.

Sounds totally badass to me. XD but we can still make screenshots and crop them.

[bekalm]

This is akin to the source. It will allow us, I presume, to post to our individual ones
I used chrome, went to inspect element and got the image from ghenkEggov8.
See what you guys can do?

So now what I posted before isn't working. All the images have moved to a new URL that doesn't follow that nice pattern... Maybe it can help someone else who knows more?

Oh my, I completely missed your first post.

Does anyone here think Randall would use server resources to randomize the comic panel URLs every now and then to keep us from doing this? Sounds a bit crazy to me, honestly.

I don't think so, I'm linked to the server images there. If they go down we'll know.

[aldonius]

On my mobile I get a square image, black edges sketch-line-fading in to a white, centered, circle.

Edit: Here it is:

[mievaan]

On Firefox, in Finland, got this:

[JimsMaher]

This is akin to the source. It will allow us, I presume, to post to our individual ones
I used chrome, went to inspect element and got the image from ghenkEggov8.
See what you guys can do?

I got this panel ...



what went wrong?

[Exkakx]

I think this comic gets the award for weirdest comic yet.

[ThyLost]

I get the same Smith one on every browser and my phone. It does change a little with browser window size though at least.