A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
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A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#2This is awesome in so many ways because it captured the imagination of the people using it. They just saw that switch and actually tried to figure out why it wasn't magic.
Obviously it wasn't, but the way this is written really shows how dumbfound they were because they couldn't explain it.
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#3One of my favourite stories growing up.
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#4This is awesome in so many ways because it captured the imagination of the people using it. They just saw that switch and actually tried to figure out why it wasn't magic . Obviously it wasn't, but the way this is written really shows how dumbfound they were because they couldn't explain it.
I would love to have some of those in my office, just to have a psychological change with a flip of a button.
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#5This is awesome in so many ways because it captured the imagination of the people using it. They just saw that switch and actually tried to figure out why it wasn't magic . Obviously it wasn't, but the way this is written really shows how dumbfound they were because they couldn't explain it.
I would love to have some of those in my office, just to have a psychological change with a flip of a button.
You can make your own: http://store-xkcd-com.myshopify.com/products/switch-and-butt...
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#6I liked the story because I absolutely love arguing with people who will tell me to trust the map over the terrain. :-|
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#7great story, although the whole time I was thinking of the appended 1994 explanation. wouldn't that be reasonable? too bad no one thought to measure the magic...
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#8I love things like this.
In my old Dreamcast, I found after I'd packed it up and moved it a few too many times that it wouldn't start, but would show signs of life when the lid would open and close. I found that there was a position you could put the lid in at which it would boot, and that position could be reliably reached if a SweeTart was placed in the tray near the edge of the disc. I licked the flat side of the SweeTart a few times and it stayed where it was, and it's there to this day. Of course, the lock doesn't engage so I have to keep something heavy on top of it.
And on my PS2, I'd fiddled around with it too much trying to mod it, and messed up something in there, but not bad enough that it wouldn't boot and play a game. But about 3/4 of the way through Resident Evil 4, I found it would skip and eventually reset if you didn't tilt it up by 20 degrees or so. As I progressed in the game, the angle at which it had to be set increased, until eventually not only did it have to be tilted in a second direction as well. Believe it or not, it finally reached the point where no tilt could save it in the middle of the final boss, with my friend moving it this way and that like we were trying to get reception with bunny ears on an old TV. I never beat the game.
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#9Uh... How was this not obvious from looking at it? Every geek who's put together or taken apart a computer knows the metal frame is grounded, and most geeks have enough basic understanding of electricity to understand you only need one wire for a ground. The switch enables or disables grounding. Since that is literally the only thing it can do, that is what it does.
Re: A Story About ‘Magic' (1994)
#10Was hit by the nostalgia of reading Hackers [0]. What a great prank but quite an extreme dike.
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversar...