"I found this ad for an interior design company," wrote Wouter, "they probably do a lot of rectangular designs."

"How am I supposed to troubleshoot this?" wonders Jeff Mitchell.

"I'm not really sure what happened here, but I had to use Chrome's developer tools to hack my birthdate into the form so I could submit it," writes Dave.

"I need this form to renew my immigration documents," writes Jack Nathan, "what do i do now?!?"

"I found this ad for an interior design company," wrote Wouter, "they probably do a lot of rectangular designs."

"My mother's middle name has 3 characters." wrote Julie Crowner. "I only have a middle initial. Fortunately, we're the only ones impacted by this. Well, except Ada. And Aja. And Ala, Ali, Ama, Ami, Amy, Ana, Ann, Ara, Ava, Bea, Bee, Bev, Deb, Dee, Dot, Eda, Ela, Ema, Ena, Era, Eva, Eve, Exa, Fae, Fay, Flo, Gay, Gia, Ica, Icy, Ida, Ila, Ilo, Ima, Imo, Ina, Ira, Isa, Iva, Ivy, Iza, Jan, Joe, Joi, Joy, Kai, Kay, Kia, Kim, Kya, Lea, Lee, Leo, Lia, Liz, Lou, Lue, Luz, Lyn, Mae, Mai, May, Meg, Mia, Mya, Nan, Nia, Nya, Oda, Ola, Oma, Ona, Ora, Osa, Ota, Ova, Pam, Pat, Rae, Ray, Roy, Sky, Sue, Tai, Tea, Tia, Tom, Ula, Una, Ura, Val, Zoa, Zoe, Abb, Abe, Ace, Acy, Ada, Add, Alf, Ali, Amy, Ann, Ari, Art, Asa, Bee, Ben, Bob, Bud, Cal, Cam, Cap, Cas, Che, Con, Coy, Dan, Dax, Dee, Del, Doc, Don, Dow, Ean, Ebb, Edd, Edw, Eli, Ell, Ely, Eva, Fay, Fed, Foy, Gay, Gee, Geo, Gil, Gus, Guy, Hal, Ham, Hoy, Huy, Ian, Ida, Ike, Ira, Irl, Iva, Ivy, Jan, Jax, Jay, Jeb, Jed, Jep, Jim, Job, Joe, Jon, Joy, Kai, Kay, Kem, Ken, Kim, Kip, Kit, Lea, Lee, Lem, Len, Leo, Les, Lew, Lex, Lim, Lon, Lou, Loy, Luc, Lue, Lum, Lyn, Mac, Mae, Mal, Mat, Max, May, Mel, Moe, Nat, Ned, Nim, Noe, Obe, Oda, Ola, Ole, Ora, Ott, Ova, Pat, Rae, Ras, Ray, Red, Rex, Rey, Rob, Rod, Roe, Ron, Roy, Sal, Sam, Sid, Sie, Sim, Sol, Son, Tab, Tad, Taj, Tal, Ted, Tex, Tim, Tod, Tom, Toy, Tre, Tye, Val, Van, Vic, Von, Wes, Yee, Zeb, and Zed." What will people with all these middle names do?

"My company recently partnered with a developer who had a custom applicatio written in Microsoft Access that we are now forced to train/support/install," writes Ben Reisner. "The following error message is just one of many that has an interesting definition of Equal."

Kira Russell snapped this when it was a bit cold in North Wales.

"I'm still getting used to my new keyboard, and occasionally hit the '\' and ENTER keys at the same time," writes Michael Dowden. "I was pretty sure I had done this one morning when I logged in to Windows for the first time, however I got in okay and figured all was well…until I got back from a morning meeting, having locked my workstation. I was greeted with the usual login prompt (screenshot attached), but with '\' appended to my username. I was forced to hard boot my machine since Windows doesn't allow you to edit your username on the locked-login screen."

1. Never shake a man’s hand sitting down.

2. There are plenty of ways to enter a pool. The stairs ain’t one.

3. The man at the grill is the closest thing we have to a king. Fetch him beers.

4. In a negotiation, never make the first offer.

5. Never cancel dinner plans by text message.

6. Request the late check-out.

7. When entrusted with a secret, keep it.

8. Don’t get married before you can legally drink.

9. Return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.

10. Don’t fill up on bread.

11. When shaking hands, grip firmly and look him in the eye.

12. Don’t let a wishbone grow where a backbone should be.

13. If you need music on the beach, you’re missing the point.

14. Carry two handkerchiefs. The one in your back pocket is for you. The one in your breast pocket is for her.

15. You marry the girl, you marry her whole family.

16. Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.

17. Experience the serenity of traveling alone.

18. Never be afraid to ask out the best looking girl in the room.

19. Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

20. Don’t show off. Impress.

via

Thanks Carla

Thanks Bob D

The old anecdotal saying that you should never go to sleep angry just got backed up by science, thanks to UMass Amherst neuroscientists. Their study concludes that if you have a negative emotional response—their examples were for viewing an unsettling picture or experiencing a traumatic event—the response is reduced if you stay awake afterwards. If you go to sleep immediately, the response is "protected," meaning that when you are exposed to the effect again, your negative response will be just as negative as the first time. More »

Hey, everyone!

After a long period of quiet, I’ve added a bunch of new stuff to the xkcd store–three shirts, plus a bunch of other things. There’s a shirt based on the unproven Collatz Conjecture, a shirt about centrifuges, and this self-descriptive shirt:

(That one took a lot of careful work to make accurate!)

In addition to the shirts, there’s a poster of my recent gigantic money chart (comic #980), complete with various minor updates and corrections. There are also a few other things I’ve added in the past few weeks, including some [citation needed] stickers and a coffee mug for topology enthusiasts.

Note: We’ll be shipping stuff all through December. The holiday deadline for US orders is December 19th, so you should order before then if you want your stuff by Christmas.

–Randall

Snowy day on Sherbourne Street.

Thanks sg

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

     — Elbert Hubbard

Thanks Brother Paul