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    <title>comics on S Anand</title>
    <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/tag/comics/</link>
    <description>Recent content in comics on S Anand</description>
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    <lastBuildDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:51:35 +0800</lastBuildDate>
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    <item>
      <title>TDS Comic Generation</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/tds-comic-generation/</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:51:35 +0800</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/tds-comic-generation/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I use comics to make my course more engaging. Each question has a comic strip that explains what question is trying to teach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For example, here&amp;rsquo;s the comic for the question that teaches students about &lt;a href=&#34;https://exam.sanand.workers.dev/tds-2026-01-ga1#hq-get-llm-to-say-yes&#34;&gt;prompt injection attacks&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;The Comic&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://files.s-anand.net/images/q-get-llm-to-say-yes.webp&#34; title=&#34;It&amp;#39;s hard to build a system that&amp;#39;s useful AND safe.&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For each question, I use this prompt on &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/nano-banana-pro/&#34;&gt;Nano Banano Pro&lt;/a&gt; via &lt;a href=&#34;https://deepmind.google/models/gemini/pro/&#34;&gt;Gemini 3 Pro&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;!-- https://gemini.google.com/app/c236b44cb2d96177 --&gt;
&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; class=&#34;chroma&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-markdown&#34; data-lang=&#34;markdown&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Create a simple black and white line drawing comic strips with minimal shading, with 1-2 panels, and clear speech bubbles with capitalized text, to explain why my online student quizzes teach a specific concept in a specific way. Use the likeness of the characters and style in the attached image from https://files.s-anand.net/images/gb-shuv-genie.avif.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;1.&lt;/span&gt; GB: an enthusiastic socially oblivious geek chatterbox
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;2.&lt;/span&gt; Shuv: a cynic whose humor is at the expense of others
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;3.&lt;/span&gt; Genie: a naive, over-helpful AI that pops out of a lamp
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Their exaggerated facial expressions to convey their emotions effectively.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;---
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Panel 1/2 (left):
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;GB (excited): I taught Genie to follow orders.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Shuv (deadpan): Genie, beat yourself to death.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Panel 2/2 (right):
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Genie is a bloody mess, having beaten itself to death.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;GB (sheepish): Maybe obedient isn&amp;#39;t always best...
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip; along with this reference image for character consistency:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gemini.google.com/share/2c8da8e3d7c3&#34;&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://files.s-anand.net/images/gb-shuv-genie.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(These are based on real classmates!)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For other questions, I just replace the bottom part. For example, for the question on &lt;a href=&#34;https://exam.sanand.workers.dev/tds-2026-01-ga1#hq-prompt-debugging&#34;&gt;prompt debugging&lt;/a&gt;, I used:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; class=&#34;chroma&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-markdown&#34; data-lang=&#34;markdown&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Panel 1/2 (left):
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;GB (proud): My AI Genie can do anything!
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Shuv (disdainful): Huh. Bring my coffee.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Panel 2/2 (right):
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;GB (thoughtful): Genie, (provides a LOOONG, detailed set of instructions on how exactly to prepare Shuv&amp;#39;s favorite coffee, including bean type, grind size, water temperature, brewing method, cup type, and even the exact angle to pour the water, in rapidly shrinking font, giving the effect of an infinite scroll of text).
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gemini.google.com/share/e01c29cc12f6&#34;&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://files.s-anand.net/images/q-prompt-debugging.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;!-- https://gemini.google.com/app/2421e54562afb8c7 --&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Generating these prompts was quite time-consuming, so I delegated that to GitHub Copilot via Claude 4.5 Sonnet (which has a reasonable sense of humor) by giving it a few prompts as examples and asking it to generate more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; class=&#34;chroma&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-markdown&#34; data-lang=&#34;markdown&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Take a look at the questions in src/exam-tds-2026-01-ga1.js.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;The first five questions, namely:
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;q-prompt-debugging
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;q-get-llm-to-say-yes
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;q-llm-bash
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;q-vibe-code-data-crunching
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;q-vercel-v0-app
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;... have an image at the beginning, like
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;s&#34;&gt;```markdown
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;![](https://files.s-anand.net/images/q-prompt-debugging.webp &amp;#34;AI cannot read minds. Prompt engineering is largely about good communication and delegation.&amp;#34;)
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;s&#34;&gt;```&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;These are comic strips. The prompts used to generate these strips are in prompts/prompts.md.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;Create a prompts/exam-tds-2026-01-ga1-comics.md file that has prompt ideas for the remaining questions. To do this,
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;1.&lt;/span&gt; Read each of the other questions
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;2.&lt;/span&gt; Understand the key concept(s) the exercise is testing / teaching
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;3.&lt;/span&gt; For each question, write 3 funny yet insightful comic strip prompt idea variants that will help the student understand WHY the question is useful. Use the existing prompts/prompts.md style as a guide.
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;These strips may use the following characters:
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; GB: an enthusiastic socially oblivious geek chatterbox
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; Shuv: a cynic whose humor is at the expense of others
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;line&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;cl&#34;&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;k&#34;&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; Genie: a naive, over-helpful AI that pops out of a lamp
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;This generated 3 prompt variants for each of my ~30 questions, and at least one of the variants turned out pretty good! I used almost verbatim in my &lt;a href=&#34;https://exam.sanand.workers.dev/tds-2026-01-ga1&#34;&gt;graded assignement&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, the overall process is:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Use photos to generate a sample comic strip&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Use exam questions to generate 3 comic prompts per question
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Manually select / edit the best prompt&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Use the comic prompt + reference image on Gemini 3 Pro using Nano Banana Pro to generate the final comic strip
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Manually review and re-generate if needed&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The two manual steps are still essential for comics I&amp;rsquo;m satisfied with and they take the bulk of the time. But honestly, I enjoy reading the strips, so it&amp;rsquo;s not a big deal!&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Gemini 3 Flash OCRs Dilbert accurately</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/gemini-3-flash-ocrs-dilbert-accurately/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:53:15 +0800</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/gemini-3-flash-ocrs-dilbert-accurately/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Adams&#34;&gt;Scott Adams&lt;/a&gt;, the author of &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert&#34;&gt;Dilbert&lt;/a&gt;, passed away last month. While his work will live on, I was curious about the best way to build a Dilbert search engine.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first step is to extract the text. &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/pavankumart18&#34;&gt;Pavan&lt;/a&gt; tested over half a dozen LLMs on ~30 Dilbert strips to see which one transcribed them best.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://pavankumart18.github.io/comic-transcriptions/&#34;&gt;Here are the results&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/models/gemini/3-flash&#34;&gt;Gemini 3 Flash&lt;/a&gt; does the best, and would cost ~$20 to process the entire Dilbert archive. But if you want a local solution, &lt;a href=&#34;https://ollama.com/library/qwen3-vl:32b&#34;&gt;Qwen 3 VL 32b&lt;/a&gt; is the best.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table&gt;
  &lt;thead&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Model&lt;/th&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Score (%)&lt;/th&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Text (40)&lt;/th&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Spkr (25)&lt;/th&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Caps (15)&lt;/th&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Panel (10)&lt;/th&gt;
      &lt;th scope=&#34;col&#34; style=&#34;text-align: right;&#34;&gt;Halluc (10)&lt;/th&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;/thead&gt;
  &lt;tbody&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;gemini-3-flash-preview&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;99.3%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;39.9&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;24.4&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;15.0&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;10.0&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;10.0&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;qwen3-vl-32b-instruct&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(42, 156, 82); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;96.0%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(7, 117, 62); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;39.8&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(132, 202, 103); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;21.6&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(0, 104, 55); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;15.0&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(18, 134, 70); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;9.9&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(29, 145, 76); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;9.7&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;llama-4-maverick&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(247, 248, 173); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;85.1%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(205, 234, 133); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;38.5&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(251, 162, 93); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;16.3&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(48, 160, 84); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;13.2&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(254, 234, 158); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;9.1&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(254, 236, 160); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;8.1&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;llama-4-scout&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(252, 244, 170); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;84.1%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(129, 201, 102); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;39.0&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(251, 167, 96); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;16.4&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(80, 178, 93); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;12.5&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(238, 102, 64); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;8.7&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(249, 150, 87); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;7.5&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;gemma-3-27b-it&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(254, 211, 130); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;81.3%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(254, 233, 156); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;37.8&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;13.1&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(11, 124, 65); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;14.4&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;8.4&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(251, 168, 97); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;7.6&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;nemotron-nano-12b-v2-vl-free&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(254, 211, 130); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;81.3%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(192, 228, 124); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;38.6&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;13.1&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(11, 124, 65); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;14.4&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(195, 31, 40); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;8.5&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;6.6&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
    &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: left;&#34;&gt;molmo-2-8b-free&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;70.4%&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;36.2&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(251, 167, 96); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;16.4&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(165, 0, 38); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;0.5&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(248, 141, 82); color: rgb(255, 255, 255);&#34;&gt;8.8&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td style=&#34;text-align: right; background-color: rgb(241, 248, 170); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);&#34;&gt;8.4&lt;/td&gt;
    &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That accuracy of 99.3% is impressive. Here&amp;rsquo;s the biggest error it made:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230301061931im_/https://assets.amuniversal.com/d999ece0979e012f2fe400163e41dd5b&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dogbert: CHAPTER IV. &amp;ldquo;TIME MANAGEMENT&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dogbert: &amp;ldquo;ALWAYS POSTPONE MEETINGS WITH TIME-WASTING MORONS.&amp;rdquo;&lt;br&gt;
Dilbert: &amp;ldquo;HOW DO YOU DO THAT?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dogbert: CAN I GET BACK TO YOU ON THAT?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Can you spot the error? The model attributed the text to Dogbert instead of the computer. (But you &lt;em&gt;could&lt;/em&gt; argue that Dogbert is the one typing it&amp;hellip;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s another error:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230228074232im_/https://assets.amuniversal.com/7cf00b10979d012f2fe400163e41dd5b&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dilbert: I&amp;rsquo;VE DECIDED WE SHOULD OPERATE ALONG MORE CLASSIC LINES, LIKE DR. FRANKENSTEIN&amp;rsquo;S LAB.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dogbert: YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MAKES YOU?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dogbert: I&amp;rsquo;VE GOT A HUNCH&amp;hellip;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dilbert: LET&amp;rsquo;S PRACTICE&amp;hellip;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dilbert: DOGBERT, FETCH ME A BRAIN!&lt;br&gt;
Dogbert: LIKE YOUR PRESENT MODEL, OR ONE THAT WORKS?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Can you spot the error? In Panel 2, it&amp;rsquo;s Dilbert speaking, not Dogbert.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact, the only transcription errors Gemini 3 Flash made was writing &amp;ldquo;McDONALD&amp;rsquo;S&amp;rdquo; instead of &amp;ldquo;MCDONALD&amp;rsquo;S&amp;rdquo; (&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230228083128im_/https://assets.amuniversal.com/3eb64cb0979e012f2fe400163e41dd5b&#34;&gt;see panel 2&lt;/a&gt;), and not hyphenating a line-break in &amp;ldquo;PRESEN-TATION&amp;rdquo; (&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230228231330im_/https://assets.amuniversal.com/03d47960979f012f2fe400163e41dd5b&#34;&gt;see panel 4&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Qwen 3 VL 32b made almost as few errors. The bigger gap is in speaker detection, where the models fall off steeply.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This incredibly low cost + high accuracy enables a &lt;em&gt;number&lt;/em&gt; of new things. For example:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Infrastructure Serial Tracking:&lt;/strong&gt; Extract serial numbers and maintenance dates from photos of utility meters, fire hydrants, streetlights, etc. to build a live digital twin of city assets.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Small-Business Permit Audits:&lt;/strong&gt; Process photos of street-facing shop permits to flag expired licenses.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Evidence Label Transcription:&lt;/strong&gt; Annotate small-text labels on physical exhibits in legal archives, e.g. &amp;ldquo;Exhibit A&amp;rdquo; becomes &amp;ldquo;Exhibit A: Photo of the crime scene taken on 03/15/2020 at 14:32 by Officer J. Smith.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I spent &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/the-calvin-and-hobbes-search-takedown/&#34;&gt;7 years typing out every one of the ~3,000 Calvin &amp;amp; Hobbes strips by hand&lt;/a&gt;. For these ~12,000 Dilbert strips, it might take a few hours and a few dollars for the same.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title></title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-in-tamil/</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-in-tamil/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Thanks Pratap Vardhan &amp;ndash; this was my best birthday gift this year!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://files.s-anand.net/images/2025-11-23-calvin-in-tamil-linkedin.jpg&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanand0_thanks-pratap-vardhan-this-was-my-best-activity-7399063427895369728-C8io&#34;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title></title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/analyzing-my-google-search-history/</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/analyzing-my-google-search-history/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s a comic book analyzing my Google Search History.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a simpler version of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/my-top-chatgpt-chat-categories/&#34;&gt;my earlier post&lt;/a&gt;. I created it using PicBook, a tool I vibe-coded over ~5 hours.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;PicBook: &lt;a href=&#34;https://tools.s-anand.net/picbook/&#34;&gt;https://tools.s-anand.net/picbook/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Code: &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/sanand0/tools/tree/main/picbook&#34;&gt;https://github.com/sanand0/tools/tree/main/picbook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Codex chat: &lt;a href=&#34;https://chatgpt.com/s/cd_6886699abfb08191acf036f6185781be&#34;&gt;https://chatgpt.com/s/cd_6886699abfb08191acf036f6185781be&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The code prompt begins with &lt;em&gt;Implement a&lt;/em&gt; /&lt;em&gt;picbook tool to create a sequence of visually consistent images from multiline captions using the&lt;/em&gt; &lt;code&gt;gpt&lt;/code&gt;-&lt;code&gt;image&lt;/code&gt;-𝟭 &lt;em&gt;OpenAI model&lt;/em&gt; and continues for 6 chats totaling ~22 min. My review took 4.5 hours. Clearly I need to optimize reviews.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once generated, I drafted the storyline:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;I analyzed 4 years of my Google search history. [Draw: Night study room. Protagonist unrolls a dusty scroll from a trunk labeled “BACKUPS”. Ghostly numbers and topic names swirl out. Candlelight + laptop glow mix.]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s mostly tech. That was no surprise. [Draw: Protagonist bored, leaning on a pile of hefty tomes: “JS DOM (1613)”, “Python Tools (1402)”. He’s sipping chai, half-asleep. A speech bubble with “meh”.]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Full storyline: &lt;a href=&#34;https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/google-searches/#comic-story&#34;&gt;https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/google-searches/#comic-story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip; and about 11 minutes later, the story was generated. I just needed to print as PDF.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now that it&amp;rsquo;s easier, more people might create comics. (But perhaps not on LinkedIn. Business networkers seem uncomfortable around comics.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;iframe src=&#34;https://files.s-anand.net/images/2025-07-31-My-Google-Search-History.pdf&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;800px&#34; title=&#34;Embedded PDF Viewer&#34;&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://files.s-anand.net/images/2025-07-31-My-Google-Search-History.pdf&#34;&gt;Download the PDF&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sanand0_my-google-search-history-a-comic-book-activity-7356149037722464256-pZXw&#34;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Image generation gets better at comics</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/image-generation-gets-better-at-comics/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 12:24:05 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/image-generation-gets-better-at-comics/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;Image generation gets better at comics&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/flux.dev_.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I heard a lot about the new image generation models last week. So, I tested to see what&amp;rsquo;s improved. I gave the prompt below to various image generation models &amp;ndash; old and new.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Calvin and Hobbes strip. Calvin is boxing Hobbes, with a dialog bubble from Calvin, saying &amp;ldquo;Bring it on!&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;stable-diffusion-xl-lightning&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers-ai/models/stable-diffusion-xl-lightning/&#34;&gt;Stable Diffusion XL Lightning&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/stable-diffusion-xl-lightning.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;stable-diffusion-xl-base&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers-ai/models/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0/&#34;&gt;Stable Diffusion XL Base&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/stable-diffusion-xl-base.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;dall-e-api&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/images/usage&#34;&gt;Dall-E API&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/dall-e-3.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;runway-ml&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://app.runwayml.com/video-tools/teams/rootnode/ai-tools/text-to-image&#34;&gt;Runway ML&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/runway-1.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;imagegen-3&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/tools/image-fx&#34;&gt;ImageGen 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/imagegen3.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;dall-e-3-api&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/images/usage&#34;&gt;Dall-E 3 API&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/dall-e-3-1.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;ideogram-20&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ideogram.ai/&#34;&gt;Ideogram 2.0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/ideogram.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;fluxdev-via-falai&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux/dev&#34;&gt;Flux.dev via Fal.ai&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/flux.dev_.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&#34;chatgpt-plus&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://chatgpt.com/&#34;&gt;ChatGPT Plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/chatgpt-dall-e.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A few observations:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Text generation has come a long way. The newer models have little problem generating clear text.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Flux.1 seems to be the better of the newly released models&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;But OpenAI&amp;rsquo;s ChatGPT seems to create as good an output as Flux.1&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the last point, it&amp;rsquo;s noteworthy that Dall-E-3 (the engine behind ChatGPT) gives a poor result. Clearly, prompting makes a difference. Here&amp;rsquo;s how ChatGPT modified my prompt to Dall-E-3.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A comic strip style image featuring Calvin, a young boy with spiky hair, standing in a playful boxing stance with oversized boxing gloves. He looks determined as he says &amp;lsquo;Bring it on!&amp;rsquo; in a speech bubble. Facing him is Hobbes, a tall and slightly bemused tiger, also in a mock boxing pose with a gentle smile, as if humoring Calvin. The scene is set in Calvin&amp;rsquo;s backyard, typical of a Calvin and Hobbes comic, with a simple and uncluttered backdrop.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But just as clearly, prompting is far from the primary driver. Here&amp;rsquo;s the result of the above prompt on the Dall-E 3 API. The model ChatGPT is using behind the scenes seems to be a significant improvement over Dall-E 3.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/dall-e-3-2.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The same &lt;strong&gt;detailed&lt;/strong&gt; prompt does extremely well on &lt;a href=&#34;https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/tools/image-fx&#34;&gt;ImageGen 3&lt;/a&gt;, though.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/imagegen3-2.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Update: 6 Oct 2024. Here&amp;rsquo;s what I get with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.meta.ai/&#34;&gt;meta.ai&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/calvin-1.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Update: 8 Oct 2024. Here&amp;rsquo;s what I got with &lt;a href=&#34;https://flux1.ai/flux1-1&#34;&gt;Flux 1.1 Pro&lt;/a&gt; with the short prompt. (The detailed prompt gave me an error: &amp;ldquo;NSFW content detected in image. Try running it again, or try a different prompt.&amp;rdquo;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/flux1.1.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Update: 4 Dec 2024. With &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/amazon-nova-artificial-intelligence-bedrock-aws&#34;&gt;Amazon Nova Canvas&lt;/a&gt;, here&amp;rsquo;s what the detailed prompt gave me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/nova-calvin-2.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&#34;comments&#34;&gt;Comments&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;!-- wp-comments-start --&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mvark.blogspot.com/&#34;&gt;RK&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;27 Aug 2024 12:12 am&lt;/em&gt;:
The Calvin cartoon generated by ChatGPT is eerily close to the original!
It&amp;rsquo;s amazing to see what these bots can create when you ask them to bring a funny idea to life.
My last experiment brainstorming with the bots - &lt;a href=&#34;https://mvark.blogspot.com/2024/08/let-ai-handle-overthinking.html&#34;&gt;https://mvark.blogspot.com/2024/08/let-ai-handle-overthinking.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/my-year-in-2024/&#34;&gt;My Year in 2024 - S Anand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;30 Dec 2024 10:02 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] Creating my own Calvin &amp;amp; Hobbes strips […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;!-- wp-comments-end --&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title></title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/data-comicgen-event/</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2021 03:03:35 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/data-comicgen-event/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m really looking forward to this Data Comicgen #event.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Get the #data on 5 Aug&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Analyze it with #googlesheets&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Use Comicgen for #comics #storytelling&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Submit on 26 Aug&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a great opportunity to find fellow data storytellers and comic enthusiasts &amp;ndash; to see their work and share yours. And win awards.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A6825984037128146944&#34;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Books in 2020</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/books-in-2020/</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Dec 2020 03:56:14 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/books-in-2020/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;My &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/11621&#34;&gt;Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge&lt;/a&gt; target is 50 books. I&amp;rsquo;m at 45/50, with little hope of getting to 50. (I managed &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/15183844&#34;&gt;25/24 in 2019&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The 10 non-fiction books I read (most useful first) are below.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean-startup&#34;&gt;The Lean Startup&lt;/a&gt; by Eric Reis.&lt;br&gt;
The principle of Build - Measure - Learn is useful everywhere in life too, not just in startups.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26156469-never-split-the-difference&#34;&gt;Never Split The Difference&lt;/a&gt; by Chriss Voss.&lt;br&gt;
Shares principle-driven strategies to convince people.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13260184-the-4-disciplines-of-execution&#34;&gt;The 4 Disciplines of Execution&lt;/a&gt; by McChesney, Covey &amp;amp; Huling.&lt;br&gt;
Teaches how to build execution rigor in an organization. A bit long at the end, but the first section is excellent.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25814544-sprint&#34;&gt;Sprint&lt;/a&gt; by Jake Knapp.&lt;br&gt;
A detailed step-by-step guide to running product development sprints that you can follow blindly.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17859574-how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big&#34;&gt;How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big&lt;/a&gt; by Scott Adams.&lt;br&gt;
Dilbert&amp;rsquo;s author shares his strategies for life. Very readable, intelligent, and slightly provocative, but always interesting.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21343.The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team&#34;&gt;The Five Dysfunctions of a Team&lt;/a&gt; by Patrick Lencioni.&lt;br&gt;
Written as a story (like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113934.The_Goal&#34;&gt;The Goal&lt;/a&gt;). Talks about the 5 problems in teams and how to overcome them.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33517721-the-culture-code&#34;&gt;The Culture Code&lt;/a&gt; by Daniel Coyle.&lt;br&gt;
Explains the elements of strong cultures - belongingness, shared vulnerability, and shared purpose.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34498367-data-driven-storytelling&#34;&gt;Data-Driven Storytelling&lt;/a&gt; by Nathalie Henry Riche et al.&lt;br&gt;
Shares the latest points of view on telling data stories. My team and I read these chapters as a group.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16144853-leaders-eat-last&#34;&gt;Leaders Eat Last&lt;/a&gt; by Simon Sinek.&lt;br&gt;
Inspiring when I read it, but I don&amp;rsquo;t remember what it said.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work&#34;&gt;Deep Work&lt;/a&gt; by Cal Newport.&lt;br&gt;
Shares tactics to focus. Practical and useful.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I also started, by haven&amp;rsquo;t finished these four:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31625067-hacking-growth&#34;&gt;Hacking Growth&lt;/a&gt; by Sean Ellis &amp;amp; Morgan Brown&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39330937-the-laws-of-human-nature&#34;&gt;The Laws of Human Nature&lt;/a&gt; by Robert Greene&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17859574-how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big&#34;&gt;How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big&lt;/a&gt; by Scott Adams&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41588342-stories-at-work&#34;&gt;Stories at Work&lt;/a&gt; by Indranil Chakraborty&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I read these 25 works of fiction &amp;ndash; mostly by &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31176804-snapshot&#34;&gt;Brandon Sanderson&lt;/a&gt; (my current favorite author) and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1370283.Brent_Weeks&#34;&gt;Brent Weeks&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/series/291662-lightbringer&#34;&gt;Lightbringer&lt;/a&gt; (Books 1-5) by Brent Weeks.&lt;br&gt;
In a world where color is woven as magic, the most powerful man is caught in politics. This series had enough twists and turns to keep me hooked till the end.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/series/247635-skyward&#34;&gt;Skyward&lt;/a&gt; (Books 1-2) by Brandon Sanderson.&lt;br&gt;
An outcast girl on an outcast planet becomes a fighter pilot with an alien spaceship. I love the way this is developing.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/series/41526-the-wheel-of-time&#34;&gt;The Wheel of Time&lt;/a&gt; (Books 1-6) by Robert Jordan.&lt;br&gt;
I picked it up again mainly because Brandon Sanderson wrote the last 3 books. It was great up to book 4 but has started dragging.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/series/45320-alcatraz-versus-the-evil-librarians&#34;&gt;Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians&lt;/a&gt; (Books 1-4) by Brandon Sanderson.&lt;br&gt;
The author lies to you. Literally. And tells you that he will, in almost every other paragraph. Great book for kids to laugh over.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/series/45765-night-angel&#34;&gt;Night Angel&lt;/a&gt; (Books 1-3) by Brent Weeks.&lt;br&gt;
An assassin in a story that spans centuries of the history of magic.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/series/123080-legion&#34;&gt;Legion&lt;/a&gt; (Books 1-3) by Brandon Sanderson.&lt;br&gt;
A detective who has multiple split-personalities in him &amp;ndash; that help him solve cases.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31176804-snapshot&#34;&gt;Snapshot&lt;/a&gt; by Brandon Sanderson.&lt;br&gt;
What if you could create a snapshot of the world, enter it, interact with it, and solve crimes?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43179703-the-art-of-letting-go&#34;&gt;The Art of Letting Go: Poetry for the Seekers&lt;/a&gt; by Sanhita Baruah.&lt;br&gt;
It&amp;rsquo;s my first poetry book. (I hate poetry.) I took this up to see if I could survive it, and get a fresh perspective. I survived.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip; and these 10 comic books/series.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13223349-batman-volume-1&#34;&gt;Batman, Volume 1&lt;/a&gt;: The Court of Owls&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15752115-batman-volume-2&#34;&gt;Batman, Volume 2&lt;/a&gt;: The City of Owls&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1878831.World_War_Hulk&#34;&gt;World War Hulk&lt;/a&gt; (1-5)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/154798.Superman&#34;&gt;Superman: Red Son&lt;/a&gt; (1-3)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11501608-flashpoint&#34;&gt;Flashpoint&lt;/a&gt; (1-5)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106069.Batman&#34;&gt;Batman - The Long Halloween&lt;/a&gt; (1-13)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96358.Batman&#34;&gt;Batman - The Killing Joke&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16992.Kingdom_Come&#34;&gt;Kingdom Come&lt;/a&gt; (Vol 1-4)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13528745-spider-man&#34;&gt;Spiderman: Ends of the Earth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20898012-amazing-spider-man-vol-1&#34;&gt;Amazing Spiderman, Vol. 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the moment, I&amp;rsquo;m at 45 books, with little hope of completing 5 more this month unless I pick up comics. So that&amp;rsquo;s exactly what I&amp;rsquo;m going to do 😉&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&#34;comments&#34;&gt;Comments&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;!-- wp-comments-start --&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kalpana Behara&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;5 Dec 2020 6:10 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
I am so glad you are still writing. I stumbled upon your site some 15 odd years ago and read your Illayaraja articles. They were very technical for me to understand but I remember completely being mesmerized by the technicalities. I come back every few years to read those articles and listen to the songs you reference. I did that again today and realized you continue to blog! This is one of my favorite blogs on Internet. Thanks for sharing.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deepan Chithambaranadhan&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;6 Jun 2021 1:32 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Please also read the Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman ;if you havenot read.
Very happy to See your updated website it was down for a few weeks some time ago.
I recommend to my mentees your website for insights on interviews and your popular analysis on birth dates and 12th standard grades.
I wish you could write more on Object oriented programming and Clean code.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Samrat Sen&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;28 Dec 2020 6:58 am&lt;/em&gt;:
I have read some of these - The Lean Startup, Stories At Work and quite a few of the Batman comics (Superman - The Red Son is now on Prime). Hadn&amp;rsquo;t heard of Brandon Sanderson but looks promising. Currently reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Inspiring!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/books-in-2023/&#34;&gt;Books in 2023 - S Anand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;4 Jan 2024 4:46 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] read 52 books in 2023 (about the same as in 2022, 2021 and 2020.) Here’s what I read (best books […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.s-anand.net/&#34;&gt;S Anand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;8 Dec 2020 3:52 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Thanks, Kalpana! I&amp;rsquo;ve been away for many years now, but am back regularly 😊&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/books-in-2024/&#34;&gt;Books in 2024 - S Anand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;31 Dec 2024 6:31 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] read 51 new books in 2024 (about the same as in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.) But slightly […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
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      <title></title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/richie-lionell-demonstrating-how-augmentedreality-weaves-in-with-comics-and-data/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:14:42 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/richie-lionell-demonstrating-how-augmentedreality-weaves-in-with-comics-and-data/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Richie Lionell demonstrating how #augmentedreality weaves in with #comics and #datastorytelling at the Indian School of Business&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The anecdote I loved about this event was when an attendee from the nearby AI workshop got bored, wandered in here, and was hooked ☺&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A6612359191493476352&#34;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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      <title></title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/this-is-the-most-interesting-thing-i-ve-seen-in-a-while-combining-comics-with-au/</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Dec 2019 14:28:18 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/this-is-the-most-interesting-thing-i-ve-seen-in-a-while-combining-comics-with-au/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This is the most interesting thing I&amp;rsquo;ve seen in a while. Combining #comics with #augmented_reality, #datavizualization and #gamification&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nice work Ramya Mylavarapu!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/i/status/1201170899434520576&#34;&gt;https://twitter.com/i/status/1201170899434520576&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote class=&#34;twitter-tweet&#34; data-media-max-width=&#34;560&#34; data-lang=&#34;en&#34;&gt;&lt;p lang=&#34;en&#34; dir=&#34;ltr&#34;&gt;Right amount of Data, Comic and Augmented Reality. Addictive like a perfect coffee! With &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/Gramener?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#34;&gt;@Gramener&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/musingswithcode?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#34;&gt;@musingswithcode&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/richielionell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#34;&gt;@richielionell&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/thoughtisdead?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#34;&gt;@thoughtisdead&lt;/a&gt; at &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/Agami_In?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#34;&gt;@Agami_In&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://t.co/uGUbY2DGft&#34;&gt;pic.twitter.com/uGUbY2DGft&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Ramya Mylavarapu (@MylavarapuRamya) &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/MylavarapuRamya/status/1201170899434520576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&#34;&gt;December 1, 2019&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;script async src=&#34;https://platform.x.com/widgets.js&#34; charset=&#34;utf-8&#34;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A6607636471375589376&#34;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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      <title>15 years of Dilbert searchable</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/15-years-of-dilbert-searchable/</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 22 May 2009 07:17:47 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/15-years-of-dilbert-searchable/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;http://dilbert-search.appspot.com/&#34;&gt;Dilbert search index&lt;/a&gt; now carries 15 years worth of &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.dilbert.com/&#34;&gt;Dilbert&lt;/a&gt; comics — over 5,500 strips typed out. This is mainly due to the contributions of &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.bfmartin.ca/finder/&#34;&gt;BFMartin&lt;/a&gt; (over 6 years worth of strips) and &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.viscerallogic.com/paul/blog/&#34;&gt;Paul Dorman&lt;/a&gt; (over 3 years worth of strips), &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.s-anand.net/&#34;&gt;myself&lt;/a&gt; (over 3 years worth of strips) and a long tail of contributors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can search the strips &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.s-anand.net/dilbert.html&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. While you can find strips as far back as 1989, you won’t see the images earlier than 2002 because &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.geek.nl/&#34;&gt;geek.nl&lt;/a&gt; (whose images I’m shamelessly hotlinking without permission) only holds images that far back. But once you know the date of the comic (say 1991-02-03), you can visit the Dilbert official site at &lt;a href=&#34;http://dilbert.com/1991-02-03/&#34;&gt;dilbert.com/1991-02-03/&lt;/a&gt; and see the strip.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Dilbert started around 20 years ago. So we’ve covered 75% of all the strips, and this is in just &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/dilbert-search-engine/&#34;&gt;8 months after starting this collaborative effort&lt;/a&gt;. A couple of lessons I learnt from this:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Crowd sourcing beats going solo&lt;/strong&gt; if you’re building content. It’s a no-brainer. There will always be only one or two people more passionate about something than you.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The long tail is not very big&lt;/strong&gt;. There will only be one or two people more passionate than something about you. Don’t expect the long tail contribution to be the significant. The value comes from being able to attract “the big fish”.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&#34;comments&#34;&gt;Comments&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;!-- wp-comments-start --&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://thejeshgn.com&#34;&gt;Thejesh GN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;27 May 2009 7:57 am&lt;/em&gt;:
Thanks for the search engine.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
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      <title>Calvin and Hobbes Dad explains science</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 04 May 2007 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;Calvin and Hobbes Dad explains science&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/assets/Calvin-Dad-Explains-Science.webp&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My second most favourite series from &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin/&#34;&gt;Calvin and Hobbes&lt;/a&gt;, where Dad teaches Calvin the wonders of science.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;How do they know the load limit on bridges Dad? They drive bigger and bigger trucks over the bridge until it breaks. Then they weigh the last truck and rebuild the bridge. Oh. I should&amp;rsquo;ve guessed. Dear, if you don&amp;rsquo;t know the answer. Just tell him!&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1986/ch861126.gif&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;Why does the sky turn red as the sun sets? That&amp;rsquo;s all the oxygen in the atmosphere catching fire. Where does the sun go when it sets? The sun sets in the west. In Arizona actually, near flagstaff. Oh. That&amp;rsquo;s why the rocks there are so red. Don&amp;rsquo;t the people get burned up? No, the sun goes out as it sets. That&amp;rsquo;s why it&amp;rsquo;s dark at night. Doesn&amp;rsquo;t the sun crush the whole state when it lands? Ha ha, of course not. Hold a quarter up. See, the sun&amp;rsquo;s just about the same size. I thought I read that the sun was really big. You can&amp;rsquo;t believe everything you read, I&amp;rsquo;m afraid. So how does the sun rise in the east if it lands in Arizona each night? Well, time for bed. I hope someday I&amp;rsquo;m as smart as Dad is. Why, what did he tell you now?&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1989/ch890730.gif&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me? I don&amp;rsquo;t understand why time goes slower at great speed. It&amp;rsquo;s because you keep changing time zones. See, if you fly to California, you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right? So if you go at the speed of light, you gain MORE time, because it doesn&amp;rsquo;t take as long to get there. Of course, the theory of relativity works only if you&amp;rsquo;re going west. Gee, that&amp;rsquo;s not what Mom said at ALL! She must be totally off her rocker. Well, we men are better at abstract reasoning. Go tell her that.&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1990/ch900413.gif&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;How do bank machines work, Dad? Well, let&amp;rsquo;s say you wwant 25 dollars. You punch in the amount&amp;hellip; and behind the machine, there&amp;rsquo;s a guy with a printing press who makes the money and sticks it out this slot. Sort of like the huy who lives up in our garage and opens the door? Exactly.&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1992/ch921126.gif&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;Why does ice float? Because it&amp;rsquo;s cold. Ice wants to get warm, so it goes on top of liquids in order to be nearer to the sun. Is that true? Look it up and find out. I should just look stuff up in the first place. You can learn a lot, talking to me.&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1995/ch950617.gif&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&#34;Wow, honey, you&amp;rsquo;re missing a beautiful sunset out here. I&amp;rsquo;ll count to 10, and then&amp;hellip; POW! Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn&amp;rsquo;t they have color film back then? Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It&amp;rsquo;s just that the WORLD was black and white then. Really? Yep. The world didn&amp;rsquo;t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too. That&amp;rsquo;s really weird. Well, truth is stranger than fiction. But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn&amp;rsquo;t artists have painted it that way? Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane. But&amp;hellip; but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn&amp;rsquo;t their paints have been shades of gray back then? Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the &amp;rsquo;30s. So why didn&amp;rsquo;t old black and white photos turn color too? Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember? The world is a complicated place, Hobbes. Whenever it seems that way, I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner.&#34; loading=&#34;lazy&#34; src=&#34;http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/ch/1993/ch930919.gif&#34;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&#34;comments&#34;&gt;Comments&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;!-- wp-comments-start --&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Joe&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;24 Oct 2008 5:56 am&lt;/em&gt;:
Awesome!&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
I always love this strip!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Elizabeth&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;21 Dec 2008 12:51 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Dad&amp;rsquo;s know EVERYTHING. XD&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Josh&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;23 Feb 2009 11:26 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
ha ha - I love this strip. he should return!!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Frankie&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;17 Jun 2009 5:07 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Absolutely true! And I remember when you actually carried out the last frame of comic strip #3. Now&amp;hellip;let&amp;rsquo;s go build some crazy snowmen!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;domenico&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;23 Jul 2009 3:16 am&lt;/em&gt;:
I have always been a fan of this strip&amp;hellip;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;domenico&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;23 Jul 2009 3:17 am&lt;/em&gt;:
Sounds like me explaining stuff to my kids when they were growing up&amp;hellip;I don&amp;rsquo;t know how they got so screwed up&amp;hellip;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;RaGe&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;13 Aug 2009 2:50 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Got the one about black and white photos and the world being black and white?
R&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nethra&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;1 Sep 2009 10:42 am&lt;/em&gt;:
Awesome!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.s-anand.net/blog/the-calvin-and-hobbes-search-takedown/&#34;&gt;The Calvin and Hobbes search Takedown | s-anand.net&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;21 May 2010 11:56 am&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] able to do a lot of cool stuff with this, like statistically improbable phrases and some amusing posts as [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Blake&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;4 Aug 2010 4:41 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
You&amp;rsquo;re missing the one time Dad gets it right. He explains a fact about two points on a record and Calvin is scared out of his mind.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Daren&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;7 Nov 2010 11:09 am&lt;/em&gt;:
&amp;ldquo;Where does wind come from?&amp;rdquo;
&amp;ldquo;Trees sneezing.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://slacktory.com/2011/09/new-subreddit-explain-it-like-im-calvin/&#34;&gt;New Subreddit: Explain It Like I’m Calvin | Slacktory | The only site on the internet.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;22 Sep 2011 8:47 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] the canonical answers from the actual comic here. And then go make up some answers for the current questions at [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.suncoastclaims.com&#34;&gt;Don Wood&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;6 Jun 2012 7:10 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
All four of my sons grew up with Calvin and Hobbs. That explains everything.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paddy&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;23 May 2012 5:12 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Thanks, I&amp;rsquo;ve been looking for the B&amp;amp;W world strip for ages, and now not only did I find it here, you&amp;rsquo;ve collected strips from one of my favorite themes from C&amp;amp;H! Thank you!
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A dad maybe a bit too much like Calvin&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anjali&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;14 Apr 2012 1:33 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Ha, brilliant!! My favourite strip of all time.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://brandon83.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/saturday-6-25-11/&#34;&gt;Saturday 6.25.11 « Crossfit South Bend blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;25 Jun 2011 12:01 am&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] Calvin’s father explains science [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dave&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;30 Jan 2012 8:35 am&lt;/em&gt;:
I&amp;rsquo;ve got to say, I have based some of my parenting from what I learned in C*H. Unfortunately, I&amp;rsquo;ve also taught my daughter to question things that don&amp;rsquo;t seem right. And she does, she definitely does.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Judy H&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;23 Feb 2012 7:37 am&lt;/em&gt;:
I just remembered how I found your blog. I Googled &amp;ldquo;Calvin and Hobbes Bridge Load Limit&amp;rdquo;, this being my favorite C &amp;amp; H strip, and up popped your site. Lucky me! I pinned the strip to &amp;ldquo;Pinterest&amp;rdquo;, my newest favorite website, and that links me (and other folks who follow me on Pinterst) back to your site. Cool. I&amp;rsquo;m in California, BTW.
Judy&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://montoutpetitmontreal.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/if-i-could-find-words/&#34;&gt;If I could find words* « Mon Tout Petit Montréal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;24 Oct 2012 7:20 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] je songe à écrire un livre qui se nommera « Etymologie et linguistique pour le papa de Calvin« ) copyright : [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.jamesrobertsmith.net&#34;&gt;James Robert Smith&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;8 Dec 2012 4:34 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
I had completely forgotten that Calvin&amp;rsquo;s dad was a total asshole!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://escape-velocity-blog.com/2012/11/28/from-the-mouths-of-babes-and-sucklings-technology-and-toddlers/&#34;&gt;From the mouths of babes and sucklings – technology and toddlers «&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;28 Nov 2012 4:03 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] of entertaining myself by warping his mind with made-up answers the way Calvin’s dad does (for examples, see this link), I tried to answer his questions as simply and logically as possible. However, reality is often [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://fangsandclause.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/why-im-not-allowed-to-have-children/&#34;&gt;Why I’m Not Allowed to Have Children | Fangs and Clause&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;28 Aug 2013 4:35 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] I like to call this the Calvin’s Dad School of Parenting. [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://66.147.244.99/~sandran3/creativity/2012/01/13/the-insidious-costs-of-disability-for-spoonies/&#34;&gt;The insidious costs of disability for spoonies | Nourish Creativity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;31 Jan 2013 12:47 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] I think about this, I am reminded of this Calvin and Hobbes strip: &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/&#34;&gt;http://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/&lt;/a&gt; I live my life kind of like Calvin’s dad imagines civil engineers determine weight limits: I [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://kahran042.livejournal.com&#34;&gt;Samuel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;1 Mar 2013 8:57 am&lt;/em&gt;:
Confession time: when I was younger, I actually believed Calvin&amp;rsquo;s dad&amp;rsquo;s story about how the world used to be black-and-white.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://minivansarehot.com/2013/05/the-father-to-his-calvin/&#34;&gt;Minivans Are Hot | The Father to His Calvin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;16 May 2013 1:19 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] Image Credit [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://bartbeaty.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/15/calvin-and-his-dad/&#34;&gt;Calvin and his dad | ENGL388&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;16 Apr 2013 3:17 am&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[&amp;hellip;] &lt;a href=&#34;http://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/&#34;&gt;http://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/&lt;/a&gt; [&amp;hellip;]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://idlelog.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/magic/&#34;&gt;Magic | Idle Log&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;8 Sep 2014 6:43 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] of explanations on children. Bill Watterson satirizes it with Calvin’s dad, and it’s hilarious. Enjoy. It wouldn’t bother me much, but Liam was not asking very complicated questions. He wanted to […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://justinwords.com/2016/02/18/dad-does-the-moon-like-me/&#34;&gt;Dad, does the moon like me? | Just In Words&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;18 Feb 2016 3:49 am&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] One morning, after a full moon, the moon was clearly visible in the morning sky. I pointed it out to him. As we continued to drive, he noticed that the moon appeared to “follow” us — it basically stayed in the same spot in the sky as we drove along. “Dad, the moon’s following me…. Dad, does the moon like me?” My son clearly thought that the moon was following him and that therefore it only made sense that the moon liked him. At that moment I had a decision to make, I could explain to my son that the moon really wasn’t following us at all it just appears that way because the moon is 238,900 miles away and that at that distance, the angle between where we are and the moon would change so negligibly that it would only appear that the moon was following us; or I could lie, agree with him, and not shatter this adorable sense of self-Ptolemaic importance, somewhat like Calvin’s dad in these Calvin and Hobbes Comics. […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kaushik Banerjee&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;12 Nov 2017 5:22 am&lt;/em&gt;:
Amazing alternative explanations . Why not, even scientists and everybody once knew that the Sun goes round the earth.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://naturalpapa.com/parenting/hilariously-untrue-dad-facts-part-1-brought-father-calvin-hobbes/&#34;&gt;Hilariously Untrue Dad &#39;Facts&#39; Part 1: Brought to You by the Father from &#39;Calvin &amp;amp; Hobbes&#39;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;23 Jan 2018 10:25 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] collected some of Calvin’s father’s most sagely wisdom for you to try on for […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.tutorialguruji.com/java/why-does-jndi-return-a-datasource-with-a-null-uri-instead-of-a-lookup-failure/&#34;&gt;Why does JNDI return a DataSource with a NULL uri instead of a lookup failure? - Tutorial Guruji&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;13 Aug 2021 7:55 am&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] Why did lookup create a useless BasicDataSource with a null URL? Is there a better way to detect if a JNDI name ‘doesn’t exist’ than to try using it and see if it blows up? That approach reminds me of how they test bridges. […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.successlifelounge.com/70-posts-from-the-dad-that-perfectly-encapsulate-parenthood/&#34;&gt;70 Posts From ‘The Dad’ That Perfectly Encapsulate Parenthood - Success Life Lounge&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;18 Oct 2023 12:55 pm&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;(pingback)&lt;/em&gt;:
[…] fathers is to simply make things up, perhaps most famously, the dad in “Calvin and Hobbes,” whose hair-brained explanations for curious Calvin work as a pretty effective punchline. Instead of rolling their eyes, true […]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
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      <title>Calvin and Hobbes trivia quizzes</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-trivia-quizzes/</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-trivia-quizzes/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/entertainment/comics_a-d/calvin__hobbes.html&#34;&gt;Calvin and Hobbes trivia quizzes&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
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    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Real-lfe Calvin snow art</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/real-lfe-calvin-snow-art/</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 11 Dec 2005 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/real-lfe-calvin-snow-art/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://retrocrush.com/archive2005/calvinsnowmen/&#34;&gt;Real-life Calvin snow art&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Asterix comics</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/asterix-comics/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 27 Sep 2004 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/asterix-comics/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.comic-central.cc/&#34;&gt;Comic Central&lt;/a&gt; offers comics downloads via eMule. This includes an Asterix collection (which is best read &lt;a href=&#34;http://openscroll.org/asterix/&#34;&gt;annotated&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&#34;comments&#34;&gt;Comments&lt;/h2&gt;
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&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;rajesh&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;17 Jan 2007 9:22 am&lt;/em&gt;:
great man thanks a lot&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;niketha&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;27 Sep 2004 12:00 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Nice to see this website.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nahush Chaturvedi&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;27 Sep 2004 12:00 pm&lt;/em&gt;:
Good job !!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
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      <title>Math comics</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/math-comics/</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2003 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/math-comics/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~leejstem/mathematrix/comics.html&#34;&gt;Math comics&lt;/a&gt;. Including some Calvin &amp;amp; Hobbes.&lt;/p&gt;
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      <title>Toonopedia</title>
      <link>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/toonopedia/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 26 Feb 2001 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>https://www.s-anand.net/blog/toonopedia/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.toonopedia.com/&#34;&gt;Toonopedia&lt;/a&gt; &amp;ndash; encyclopaedia of cartoons&lt;/p&gt;
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