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Localising xkcd

python python3.14 xkcd pycon
xkcd comic: [Mrs. Roberts receives a call from her son's school on her wireless phone. She is standing with a cup of hot coffee or tea (shown with a small line above the cup) facing a small round three-legged table to the right. The voice of the caller is indicated to come from the phone with a zigzag line.] Voice over the phone: Hi, This is your son's school. We're having some computer trouble. [In this frame-less panel Mrs. Roberts has put the cup down on the table turned facing out.] Mrs. Roberts: Oh, dear – did he break something? Voice over the phone: In a way – [Mrs. Roberts is now drinking from the cup again looking right. The table is not shown.] Voice over the phone: Did you really name your son Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- ? Mrs. Roberts: Oh, yes. Little Bobby Tables, we call him. [Mrs. Roberts holds the cup down.] Voice over the phone: Well, we've lost this year's student records. I hope you're happy. Mrs. Roberts: And I hope you've learned to sanitize your database inputs.
Table of Contents

I gave a lightning talk at a bunch of conferences in 2025 about some of the exciting new things coming in Python 3.14, including template strings.

One thing we can use t-strings for is to prevent SQL injection. The user gives you an untrusted t-string, and you can sanitise it, before using it in a safer way.

I illustrated this with xkcd 327, titled “Exploits of a Mom”, but commonly known as “Little Bobby Tables”.

I localised most of the slides for the PyCon I was at, including this comic. Here they are!

PyCon Italia #

May, Bologna

Did you really name your son Roberto’); DROP TABLE Students;– ? Oh, yes. Piccolo Berto Tables, we call him.

PyCon Greece #

August, Athens

Did you really name your son Κωνσταντίνος’); DROP TABLE Students;– ? Oh, yes. Μικρός Ντίνος Tables, we call him.

PyCon Estonia #

October, Tallinn

Did you really name your son Raivo’); DROP TABLE Students;– ? Oh, yes. Pisikene Tables, we call him.

PyCon Finland #

October, Jyväskylä

Did you really name your son Juhani’); DROP TABLE Students;– ? Oh, yes. Pikku Jussi, we call him.

PyCon Sweden #

October, Stockholm

Did you really name your son Oskar’); DROP TABLE Students;– ? Oh, yes. Lille Ogge Bord, we call him.

Thanks #

Thanks to Randall Munroe for licensing the comic under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. These adaptations are therefore licensed the same way.

Finally, here’s links for 2026, I recommend them all: