Missed Connections
by Jeff
Image text: The Street View van isn't going to find out anything Google won't already know from reading my email.
Missed Connections is a page on Craigslist in which people who saw each other briefly and want to reconnect attempt to find each other again. If I was to hazard a guess, I would imagine it works .0001% of the time. In the case of missed connections, one person describes themselves "Me" and describes the other person "You" in order to try to reconnect.
The first one is a goofy joke as far as I can tell.
The second one is not a reference to anything I can find, anyone know?
The third one is a reference to networking. UDP stands for User Datagram Protcol. UDP packets don't use handshaking to verify they have contacted the correct host, so they can get lost or confused. The Cisco router location is just a reference to a block of IP addresses. Cisco is a company that makes networking equipment. This is a play on a missed connection for someone who was lost and asked for directions.
The fourth one seems to be a joke as well. For those outside of the US (or those inside as well), Nancy Pelosi is a member of the US House of Representatives. The (D-CA) is a common notation for politicians which notates party (D for Democrat) and state (CA for California).
The fifth seems to be a reference to Randall's upcoming nuptials?
The sixth is a reference to how the Google Street view van was not only recording photos of the street in 360 degrees, it was also collecting data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. The comic takes this to the next level, that the Google Street View van also scans what we have in our pockets and does a retinal scan. In this case, the social security number referenced is the most used SSN of all time.
The last suggested the Babe Ruth, the American baseball slugger of 1914-1935 is actually a Time Lord. Time Lord is a reference to the popular sci-fi series "Doctor Who" in which The Doctor, who is a Time Lord, uses a TARDIS, which stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space to travel through time.
Craigslist Apartments
by Jeff
Image text: $1600 / 1386153BR 3BATH, MODERN SLIDING DOORS, GUEST ROOMS, GARBAGE DISPOSAL. FREE MANDATORY PARKING (ENFORCED). CONVENIENT TO ALDERAAN.
Lots of details here, so I may not get everything, please let me know in the comments if there is a reference I missed.
First and foremost, just like all Craigslist apartment postings, all of these posts are in all caps and some of the posts are re-posted several times, which is very annoying, but must work otherwise the agents would not do it. Additionally, lots of posts use lots of tildas tildes, exclamation points or astericks as above to set their posts apart from others.
The square house door one must be a garage, I guess. EDIT - or just a regular square house. The house is square not the door. Don't know how I read it wrong. Thanks Commenters.
Hammock style dwelling sounds like working as a oarsman on a Viking ship.
The place with the Klein stairs is possibly a reference to Klein geometry.
The trimmed carpet is obviously a sex posting, because Craigslist has taken down the obvious prostitution posts after getting a lot of heat about them. So, this is a posting to get around those sort of rules. "Trimmed Carpet" - I think you can figure that one out. If you can't, I'll tell you when you are older.
The Minotaur house is a reference to the Labyrinth and Minotaur on Crete from ancient Greek mythology. EDIT - Commenters have pointed me to the House of Leaves book as this reference instead of ancient Greek Mythology. Thanks all!
The house with the 5 minute drive to historic Pripryat is a reference to the ghost town of Pripryat, which is near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine. Not a nice place to live to say the least. EDIT - Commenters point out that this could be the nuclear facility itself... I think that makes sense.
The last one on the list does not seem to be a direct scary movie reference, but a horor movie reference in general.
And last, but of course not least, the image text is a reference to Star Wars. EDIT - I didn't complete my thought here, it is a reference to the Death Star in Star Wars. Alderaan is the home planet of Princess Leia, which is obliterated by the Death Star.
Are there any I missed? (Thanks for all your help in the comments. Head to the comments for further information and discussion about all the entries)