XKCD cartoon of holiday spectra

hi gang,

The XCKD comic from Christmas day was nearly perfect for the CPF crowd... it shows a classic holiday scene of people around a tree and fireplace, but instead of showing the light sources, it shows the spectrum of each light source. Quite clever, but it certainly appeals to a limited and geeky audience.. i.e. the CPF folks!!



the image is hosted in flickr, but you can visit the XKCD site itself here:
http://www.xkcd.com/1308/

Ha ha, funny! Thanks Steve.

XKCD is hilarious, you can loose half a day clicking through there!

That XKCD site is very cool! This image is form there also...


In wanting to build a power supply for the above Christmas Light spectrograph set, I came across this schematic

I ESPECIALLY like the "most expensive chip on the left. And I wonder if the cap and inductor circuit at the top (under the big solder blob) is some kind of resonant tank circuit?

Brian

I love the schematic too. My favorite geeky detail is the "may use actual sandal instead" near the bottom. The text is next to a pair of cross-coupled NOR gates, which are wired to form a flip-flop. If you didn't know this was a flip-flop, the reference to a sandal would be meaningless.

XKCD does some other great tech cartoons.

http://xkcd.com/273/ electromagnetic spectrum
http://xkcd.com/567/ urgent mission
http://xkcd.com/1133/ Up Goer Five (a simplified drawing of the Saturn V rocket)

and even some really cool diagrams to explain stuff!
http://xkcd.com/980/ Money. This chart provides an excellent illustration of what stuff costs, and the scale between things that cost a few dollars and things that cost millions, billions, or trillions. Click on the chart for a high resolution version.

Yeah... you can spend a lot of time looking at these!

edit: oh... don't forget to click on the "what if" link in the upper left corner. Every Tuesday, there is a "what happens if..." sort of question that is analyzed. A few weeks ago, the question was "How much of the Earth's currently-existing water has ever been turned into a soft drink at some point in its history?" Some are better than others, but generally worthwhile.

Just looked at the Electromagnetic Spectrum chart. "FHF"... lol!

Yeah... the EM spectrum chart is worth reviewing carefully. Lots of funny little gags stuck in there. I do a lot of EMC work and it's typical to have the FCC spectrum allocation chart on the wall, but I also have the XKCD chart on the wall. I did edit out the bottom entry for the "absorption spectra", since I don't think it's appropriate for the work area. Some people do stop to look at it carefully, and just start chuckling.

when the "coverage" cartoon was published, I had to post it in one of our shield rooms (which are huge faraday cages)...
http://xkcd.com/1142/
Most folks who enter the shield room immediately identify with the cell phone coverage aspect of the cartoon.