this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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xkcd

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xkcd #2880: Sheet Bend (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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https://xkcd.com/2880

Alt text:

A left-handed sheet bend creates a much weaker connection, especially under moderate loads.

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[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I just noticed this info on the xkcd website for the first time:

xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.

Randall is such a genius.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Boat Mode needs to be a thing, I don't know what it does but I want it.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It unlocks your screen rotation settings and links screen orientation to the phones gyroscopic sensor to maintain orientation perpendicular to the horizon.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

It'd be like the phone equivalent of Linux's diagonal monitor orientation, only now the touch screen experience is beyond fucked.

Strangely enough this might work for round smart watches though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, now I want boat mode too!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

2024, make it happen!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But then you yourself have to be in Boat mode to browse it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In my experience, the human form of “Boat Mode” means drunk. A drunk person with a wobbly mobile device sounds like sad fail tiktok content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Brilliant! I'd use that as Carsick Mode myself. Maybe then I could read a map in the passenger seat without hurling into the driver's lap.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Must be a new addition. I haven’t seen it either until now.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It's been there for a while, just hard to spot. From doing a binary search with web.archive.org, it seems it was added on October 5th, 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20161005090723/http://xkcd.com/

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

https://explainxkcd.com/2880

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That

is one mother fucking cursed connector

it's brilliant because it's so hazardous yet still creates a contact between two double core wires.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Additionally, the next "wire" would be connected reversed polarity so you would never know if grey or yellow were hot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

why would it be connected with reversed polarity?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Fuck everything about that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I want to see IRL photo of this connection.

The knot also needs to be adapted for common two-core electrical appliance cable, if you remove a piece of the insulation on one side and with an offset on the other side, the cable needs to be twisted mid-knot to match the correct wire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

WTF? the sheet bend is close to a square knot which is much more secure. Or a thieves' knot if you're looking for something that slips apart after limited tension.