More about cartoons: xkcd.com

On the heels of my previous post,whenever I talk about cartoons online, I always have to mention my favorite online comic, xkcd, www.xkcd.com.

This web comic is self-described as ‘a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language’. It is also hysterically time-sucking so be careful if you click my link. XKCD also a great way to learn new geek words. So basically, this blog post of mine has absolutely nothing to do with Photoshop plugins, but it may help you to gain street cred with your IT or engineering department (or your 13 year old nephew who knows more than you).

For instance, look at the panel that was drawn for Valentine’s Day, titled ‘Sierpinski Valentine’:

021509-sierpinski_valsm
What is ‘Sierpinski’, I ask myself. Go to wikipedia and I find that this is a reference to the ‘Sierpinski triangle‘ which is ‘a fractal named after the Polish mathematician Wacław Sierpiński who described it in 1915. Originally constructed as a curve, this is one of the basic examples of self-similar sets, i.e. it is a mathematically generated pattern that can be reproducible at any magnification or reduction.”

021509-sierpinskism

Taking in this info, this simple, elegant panel is saying that love is a repeating self-generating pattern that can be very large or very small at any time. Aren’t comics great?

In truth, I get sorta lost after the first few lines of the Wiki description but hey, I’ve also just learned a new buzz word for drinking banter at the Siggraph trade show. Check here for info about xkcd, like exactly what that word means and why you shouldn’t write ‘Xkcd’.

regards -Debbie

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