XKCD - (may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)

[Yora]

I didn't expect it to be that big!

I think todays one is by far the craziest comic we have so far.
I thought that bridge was rediculously huge, but it gets even bigger later on.

I wonder if there are any things hidden underground or up in the sky.

[The Succubus]

I was rather creeped out by what appeared to be an endless black space, until I saw the other side of the tower. 'tis huge indeed.

[Iruka]

There's definitely some stuff under the Mario area.

... going deeper now ...

I'm somewhat disappointed by the lack of mario skeletons.

[Yora]

The Mario Area connects to the caves on the left side of the ocean, after the pirate ship.

I looked into the page data, and the whole thing is made up of lots of smaller images. And since the browser has only 9 stored at the time, I have no clue how many there are. I did reach the very right end though, so it's not looping back to the other side.

[Maugan Ra]

I ended up looping back around. Went left, kept following until I found a small tunnel going down. Followed that one along for ages, past an X-wing at one point, until it eventually surfaced again in a Mario area. Headed left, found the start one more.

...how bloody long did it take him to make this?

[Iruka]

I may have found the center of the earth. Is anyone familiar with Verne's "A Journey to the Center of the Earth"? Does it feature a pyramid and vaguely tropical huts? There is also a cigar shaped submarine/flying saucer. Seems to run on steam.

Found a Creeper in the caves!

edit: Verne's story has 12-foot prehistoric humans. Could be related to the oversized huts.

[Yora]

Originally Posted by Maugan Ra

I ended up looping back around. Went left, kept following until I found a small tunnel going down. Followed that one along for ages, past an X-wing at one point, until it eventually surfaced again in a Mario area. Headed left, found the start one more.

...how bloody long did it take him to make this?

No, that was just moving in a circle.

I made it back to the right edge and "I wonder where I go next" is tile "North 1, East 48".
The bottom of the Mario shaft is "South 19, East 8".

If that is the actual bottom and it goes as high up as it goes down, and as far left as it goes right, you would have abot 4000 tiles. However, most of it would be blank white or black and don't actually have an image file.
Just one row from left to right would be 200 tiles, add to that caves and towers, and it's probably about 400 or 500 tiles in total.

And each tile has 2048x2048 pixles. Times 200x40 tiles, it's roughly 400,000x80,000 pixels in total.

[Radar]

This thing is huge. I've seen both the left and right edge of the image, I've traversed the Underdark of the Marioland, I've passed by the lamonade stand and the X-Wing, I even noticed a feathered raptor meeting an un-feathered one near the left edge.

I wonder, if there are any places hidden in the sky or under the ground without any connection to the surface. How to navigate this thing? Is there a way to check the coordinates?

I still think, that the Umwelt project was crazier, but this one had to be quite ingenious as well.

[Frecus]

I followed the Mario hole to what I think is its bottom (just below the lid and the tentacles) and am now exploring to the left of it.

Anyone else found the tree-cave?

Btw, I have reasons to believe the top of the tower is very near (ie, 2-3 scrolls) from the top.

Frecus
The glade wanderer
Madwarrior

[Kato]

Heck, I totally missed the title and was kind of disappointed by the comic today until I found the thread
I didn't get too far... past the pirate ship, down into the caves for quite a stretch but then I accidentally reloaded the image...
That must have been a hell lot of work to come up with...

[hajo]

Originally Posted by Radar

This thing is huge. ...
I wonder, if there are any places hidden in the sky or under the ground without any connection to the surface.

On the xkcd-forum, some people are posting links to stuff they found.

How to navigate this thing?

Some game-mouses have a builtin macro recorder

Also, Firefox cheat codes, and inspect:

To enter the code console, type [Crtl] [Shift] K

Paste the following in:
document.getElementById('comic').style.overflow='' ;

Type [Crtl] [Shift] K again to close the console.

Use [Ctrl] + and [Ctrl] - to zoom.

Is there a way to check the coordinates?

Not really (without custom programming), but in Firefox, check Tools/PageInfo/Media for pictures with coordinates, like http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/1n5w.png

Also, on the forum explorer Cecil found

bounds are 13n, 19s, 33w and 48e inclusive.
There are 225 images, all 2048x2048, for a total of 6.3MB of pngs.

And she made a complete page

[Yora]

Originally Posted by Radar

I wonder, if there are any places hidden in the sky or under the ground without any connection to the surface. How to navigate this thing? Is there a way to check the coordinates?

In Firefoxed I used Right-klick and View Page Info, where you can go to "Media" to list all the images that are used on the page.

Here is the URL for the starting tile: http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/1n1e.png

Change 1n and 1e to anything you want, like 3s19w to get to every single tile.
Tiles that are all black or all white don't seem to have an image.

1n33w says "We have gone two miles".
19s4e seems to be the lowest point.
8n2w is the tip of the scyscraper and might be the highest point.

However, since it's all measured in distance from the starting point, it might go a lot higher up or down.

[Seerow]

Originally Posted by Frecus

I followed the Mario hole to what I think is its bottom (just below the lid and the tentacles) and am now exploring to the left of it.

Anyone else found the tree-cave?

Btw, I have reasons to believe the top of the tower is very near (ie, 2-3 scrolls) from the top.

Frecus
The glade wanderer
Madwarrior

I actually scrolled off to the left and followed a random hole way over there down, and eventually found my way to the place you described. So those tunnels stretch pretty far.

[Iruka]

When i saw the crane lifting the crane, I thought "Yo, dawg". I need to lay of those memes. -_-

[hajo]

Originally Posted by Yora

In Firefoxed I used Right-klick and View Page Info, where you can go to "Media" to list all the images that are used on the page.

On this xkcd-page, tiles are loaded on demand via JavaScript.
So, you see only a few around your current position in the picture.

[douglas]

Someone made a very nice way to view the whole thing. Click on any tile to view its image.

There are several things hidden at random spots in the sky, but it looks like there are only two underground panels that can't be found by just following something from the surface.

Heh, there's Icarus plummeting, Red 5, and a space rocket with a problem opportunity if you know where to look.

[Radar]

Thanks for help people!

Anyway, assuming the scyscraper is Burj Dubai, which is about 800m tall and it translates to about 7.5 images in today's XKCD, 2 miles distance is equal to about 30 images, which would mean, the started near the skyscraper. If they used nautical miles instead (plausible considering the sea they crossed) it would be almost 34 images, which is the starting point.

[SamBurke]

Woah.

Just woah.

[Morph Bark]

I went east to the Super Mario Bros level, then took the tunnels until I got to the sea. I worry that I might've missed something in the tunnels, but I don't dare search it all again!

[Yora]

Cool, there isn't much I havn't missed.

Except the whales. "Hello, ground!"

"There have got to be better ways to get into space."
"Belive it or not, this is the least crazy one anyone has come up with."

But the two whales disappoint me. One is supposed to be a bowl of petunias.
That would have been a joke with the same amount of work put into it as "In the year X" put into Google.
I think that was the most hilarious text based joke I've ever seen.

[Kurald Galain]

Absolutely amazing.

[Rockphed]

Originally Posted by Yora

Cool, there isn't much I havn't missed.

Except the whales. "Hello, ground!"

"There have got to be better ways to get into space."
"Belive it or not, this is the least crazy one anyone has come up with."

But the two whales disappoint me. One is supposed to be a bowl of petunias.
That would have been a joke with the same amount of work put into it as "In the year X" put into Google.
I think that was the most hilarious text based joke I've ever seen.

Ever seen fantasia 2000? Or heard of spelljammer?

[Mewtarthio]

Originally Posted by Iruka

I'm somewhat disappointed by the lack of mario skeletons.

Go deep enough below the Mario level, and there are a couple of geologists remarking that the shafts have been worn smooth by billions of Mario corpses.

[Morph Bark]

What are the coordinates for the scenes that aren't connected to the ground level? I've had everything at ground level, all the caves connected to the ground, as well as that one rocket that says "There are no problems, Apollo, only oppurtunities." (Which seems like a double joke aimed at Oppurtunity.)

I have yet to find any other things in the sky that aren't a part of the buildings, as well as anything underground not part of the huge cavern system.

[hajo]

Originally Posted by Morph Bark

What are the coordinates for the scenes that aren't connected to the ground level?

Look at one of the "whole picture" links posted above.

There is still enough to explore

[Iruka]

Originally Posted by Mewtarthio

Go deep enough below the Mario level, and there are a couple of geologists remarking that the shafts have been worn smooth by billions of Mario corpses.

That's why I expected a gigantic pile of mustachioed skeletons somewhere further down.

[Morph Bark]

Originally Posted by hajo

Look at one of the "whole picture" links posted above.

There is still enough to explore

That second one is very handy! First one didn't work for me, so I tried to deduce from the thumbnail some things before (which is how I found the rocket), but didn't get far.

Question, what is the thing next to the jellyfish here?

And what is supposed to be here?

[Radar]

Originally Posted by Morph Bark

Question, what is the thing next to the jellyfish here?

And what is supposed to be here?

1. Looks like some sort of a screen (shining monitor in the night would look kind of like this).
2. Nobody knows. There are four blank pictures 11N11E, 11N11W,11S11E, 11S11W. The meaning remains obscure, but some people theorize, it is a part of a prophecy of the end of XKCD (combined with the baloon guy at the far east end).

[Morph Bark]

Originally Posted by Radar

2. Nobody knows. There are four blank pictures 11N11E, 11N11W,11S11E, 11S11W. The meaning remains obscure, but some people theorize, it is a part of a prophecy of the end of XKCD (combined with the baloon guy at the far east end).

That combination of things made me think it was just a reference to the 1111th comic being the next one.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Originally Posted by Morph Bark

That second one is very handy! First one didn't work for me, so I tried to deduce from the thumbnail some things before (which is how I found the rocket), but didn't get far.

Question, what is the thing next to the jellyfish here?

Oh! It's a TV (or monitor or generic screen), he's playing a video game!