q_id stringlengths 6 6 | title stringlengths 4 294 | selftext stringlengths 0 2.48k | category stringclasses 1
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g63psc | I just completed a recently uploaded torrent which had 0 seeders, with more than 25.00 availability. How the hell did that happen? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Seeders are the number of people with the complete file. Availability is a measure of if the connected users have the complete file between all of them in combination. It is the number of people who have the least available piece of the file. So nobody ha... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g64jak | why we don’t hear white noise in real life until we take a video | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fo79c1z",
"fo7amih"
],
"text": [
"If our brains ignored the white noise, they would ignore it on the video too - the recording process adds white noise. This isn't universal, there's no white noise when watching a movie because it's been recorded on top-end equipment. Most recording devic... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g688qg | what is the big clunky thing on a laptopcharger ans why is it not on my phonecharger? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fo7ww9r",
"fo7x4f2"
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"text": [
"The large box on the laptop charger is a transformer to change the alternating current from the wall into direct current for the laptop. There is a similar sort of device in your phone charger except your phone uses much less power so it can be smaller. F... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6aghf | Does every code/program break down into binary for the computer? Can anything simpler than binary ever exist ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fo8bnzd"
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"text": [
"At the absolute lowest level, everything your computer 'reads' is binary. The only way we have of communicating with computers is by choosing to either run electricity to it or not. When a particular transistor has electricity running through it, it's a 1, when it doesn... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6dr1e | How is old music digitally remastered to sound good? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fo92q6n"
],
"text": [
"Old music (video as well) was often recorded into a format that had very good quality (called a master) but to replicate the media into a format that can be afforded by consumers meant that some quality had to be lost. At time went on the quality of consumer formats has... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6e9o7 | Setting aside politics, what are the major hurdles to election voting by the internet or by phone app? | Is it faith in the ID verification process? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fo90hk5"
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"text": [
"Security. As virtually any computer security expert if voting via the internet is a good idea and they will just burst out in maniacal laughter. There are just too many ways for such a system to be hackable. Particularly since every state would probably do their own. Vo... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g6eyss | What makes a computer's processing speed "fast", and why? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fo953ve"
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"text": [
"The cpu is the brain of the computer and does all the processing and calculations. The reason why it’s fast is because they literally compute millions of data per second. Your question is a little vague so if you want a more thorough answer I’d need a more detailed ques... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6gwwj | why does the source code for CSGO and TF2 being leaked mean that servers may be unsafe to play on? Like, what does the source code allow people to do that they couldn't do before? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The source code being available means that everyone can see how the server operates. Which means people can see directly what vulnerabilities there may be rather than just guessing. It makes a ha... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6ltgv | How were computers first coded? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Instead of coding the way we do now, they used punch cards to program the computer. These were paper cards with holes in precise locations and the computer could read these as code. This way you could code without a computer,... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6mj32 | Pluto is really really far away, like so far that not much light from the sun should get there. why are images of Pluto so well lit? | The picture in question: URL_0 | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"foaos4n",
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"text": [
"Pluto is fairly well lit, mostly because the sun is stupidly bright, and the cameras on the probes are optimized for lower light levels than a camera on Earth would be. Pluto is about as well lit as the surface of the Earth j... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g6mr2k | Why some computer games need to be restarted to apply new video settings while some don't? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foc0qhf"
],
"text": [
"This comes down to how the application was written and specifically, resource management. When a game is up and running, it got there by loading a bunch of pictures (the textures) and shaders (simply, graphical effects) and 3D models off your hard drive (or SSD) and mas... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g6n3mv | How does a phone screen really work? | I cracked my screen and thought for sure something inside of my iPhone XR was broke, but the tech came to my apartment and 30 minutes later, my phone was back to new. It got me wondering, how does the screen really work? Is the picture in the glass itself and that’s why it can just be replaced and back to normal? Is th... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foav8fc",
"foatl08"
],
"text": [
"The phone screen consists of a bunch of components that are all stacked and glued together. On the outer most layer you obviously have the glass that keeps things feeling nice. Behind that glass you have the digitizer which is what handles the touchscreen... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g6r5fs | in the Nintendo 64 game console, why does "tilting" the cartridge cause so many weird things to happen in-game? | Watch any internet video on the subject to see an example of such strange game behavior. Why does this happen? EDIT: oh my this blew up didn't it? Thanks for all the replies! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"A cartridge communicates with the system with dozens of little gold plated pins. When you tilt the cartridge, you unseat some of the pins from the connector, making intermittent contact with some... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g6yo0o | How do prosthetics work? | How do prosthetic hands, arms, legs, etc. work and how is the user able to control it without it actually being apart of their body? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fodsunk"
],
"text": [
"it depends on the type of prosthetic for how they attach, some are just form fitting attached to the body, others use straps, other screw or snap onto parts that are actually implanted to the body, there is a wide variety. for being able to control a prosthetic their ar... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g75b68 | --- How do metal detectors work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fof2cw6"
],
"text": [
"Essentially theres a magnetic field on the inside. If you pass a metal object, or pass through with a metal object then a change happens in the field and an electric current is produced. The current depends on the size and speed of the object that is passing through. So... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g77fla | What is RAID storage and how does it work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fofbg1p"
],
"text": [
"RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is used to take multiple hard disks and make them appear as a single unit. This can be used to improve performance, provide protection against a drive failure, or a mix of both. The most common versions a normal person will ru... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g79tnn | Why are there now websites with suffixes like .cool or .xyz when that wasn’t a thing a few years ago? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fofrtnw",
"fofram3"
],
"text": [
"There's a global standards body that manages website suffixes called ICANN. In 2012, they opened up applications for new suffixes (gLTDs) and a bunch of companies applied. When an application was approved, the applicant could then setup their new website ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g7apc2 | How does a touchscreen work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fofwg7x",
"fofwkcm"
],
"text": [
"Fleshy stuff will affect how electricity travels in the vicinity of the the fleshy stuff. Touch screens pick up on this and translate that into clicking and dragging.",
"There's two types generally. Capacitive and resistive. Capacitive works with the ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g7dn2n | How do Bluetooth and other Radio frequencies work? | Hello, everybody! I think it's safe to say that Bluetooth has been a bigger part of our lives than ever before. Products like the Apple AirPods have completely shaken the market and have opened space for True Wireless Headphones that everybody has/wants. I'm no different. Some time ago I bought the Redmi AirDots and I ... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fogjm46",
"fogseda",
"fogik28"
],
"text": [
"Bluetooth is a type of radio waveform, and it operates at very, very low power in a particular radio band. The super low power level is for safety reasons, particularly for a radio transmitter that's in your ear because that's very near you... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g7l90d | How do so many metal products get mirrored finishes but the process to add a mirrored finish to a piece of metal is so labor intensive, with a number of different grit polishes and buffing? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foic6rr"
],
"text": [
"Mirroring and chroming are two different processes. To mirror metal you have to polish it through the grits, very labor intensive. To chrome you just dip it into a solution."
],
"score": [
5
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g7lb9p | How do performing holograms (Prince, Michael Jackson, Tupac, etc) work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foir96c"
],
"text": [
"Projections. Holograms don’t exist in that sense. (The key is the scrim-like fabric they use which appears transparent to the audience but catches the light of the projected image)."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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} | [
"url"
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"url"
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g7lpe2 | How does maintaining battery level at 60% or 80% help prolong battery life of my laptop while charging with the AC adapter | My ASUS laptop has battery settings that allow the battery to be maintained at 60 or 80% when connected to the AC adapter. I was curious as to how that maintains battery life (I remember charging past 100% places high stress on the battery)? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foilp07"
],
"text": [
"Batteries are like having two pools of water separated from each other by a water slide. The pools themselves are flimsy and are literally held up by the pressure of the water inside, pushing against the walls. When a pool is empty the walls are under strain and slowly ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g7nf9j | what am I hearing when the fax machine screeches at me? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foimm07"
],
"text": [
"That’s dial-up. That’s how the internet used to work. It’s literally using a number to call up another fax machine to send data."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
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"url"
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g7oi0e | How do radio stations transmit text to your car? (Example: the song and artist name showing up on your car’s screen.) | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foiuipg",
"foiyudl",
"foj0d9k",
"foj69a7",
"foitq5s"
],
"text": [
"The [Radio Data System (RDS)]( URL_0 ) uses a frequency modulated wave to carry a small amount of information along with the primary carrier wave without interfering with the analogue broadcast. Your radio deco... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g7u1jb | In a computer, how does the airflow from a fan cool the coolant inside of the heat pipes of a water cooler? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fojl572"
],
"text": [
"Thankfully heat transfers to its surroundings. The heat sink, whether metal pieces or water filled pipes, will transfer heat to the cooler air around it. This process is faster if the air around it is cooler. By moving the warm air immediately next to the heat sink away... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g7vkr3 | Why can't Twitter just remove all of the bot accounts? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fojujr5",
"fojvdd5",
"fojxiq8"
],
"text": [
"Please define a bot account in a way that a computer can understand. It is not as simple as one might first assume. They do remove a lot of account automatically but spammers will try to find ways around it and make them act more like human... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g7y2ik | How are musicians playing live concerts, remote from one another, through streaming, without latency from the stream affecting their timing? | I just watched a live stream concert and it had me wondering how the musicians playing together were able to keep their timing so in sync while playing in separate locations. On streams with my friends usually there is a few second delay. I’m curious how these guys were able to overcome that problem. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fokkbt8",
"fokf6vr",
"fokn4l8",
"fok9o0e",
"fokp9qx"
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"text": [
"They are not playing live. These are pre-recorded and edited together to look like they are live. Even with the best possible internet connections for all players, you still have to deal with the speed of light... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g85xxd | Why can computers not make curves? | Every 3D modelling software simply uses a series of flat polygons, small enough to appear curved, to created spheres etc. Why? Why can technology even today find it easier to render literally millions of little triangles, than just one curve? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foluioe",
"folrl3d",
"folx8f8",
"folymak"
],
"text": [
"They can. In 2D, [vector graphics]( URL_3 ) can draw curves using [splines]( URL_1 ). If you use a vector graphics program like Adobe Illustrator, or an image format like [SVG]( URL_0 ) you'll see first-hand that you're worki... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g88679 | Before the invention of the barcode, how did concerts and other events prevent scammers from simply printing out lookalike tickets and getting in for free? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fom1z18",
"fom95sc",
"fom5wlf",
"fomkznd",
"fom1sxl"
],
"text": [
"They did not have to. The barcode was invented in the 50s and had its first commercial use in 1974. High quality printers didn't really enter the home until the mid 90s. There really isn't a period of time wher... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g88w41 | What exactly does a graphics rendering program do, and more importantly how? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fomcvdy"
],
"text": [
"For five year olds: Computer generated images are made of little pixel elements. Graphics rendering uses mathematical calculations that decide what color and how much light each picture element contains."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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g8cqzx | How can certain sites and services block you from taking screenshots or sharing screens? | For example Netflix doesn't allow to take screenshots, and in discord if you try to screen share the window is black. I'm sure that other sites do it as well. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fomzpan",
"foo4n4b",
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"fon39i1",
"fomuuc8",
"fon114e",
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"text": [
"I think other posters may have missed the question in 'How' do they do it, not why, I'm going to try and ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g8d5cl | How do powerline adapters work when the electrical wiring in a house is different for network cabling? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fomtt7b",
"fon6gy0"
],
"text": [
"It's pretty much the same idea, it just doesn't work as well *because* the electrical wiring isn't designed to carry network signals. Is there a specific reason why you think they shouldn't work?",
"Standard gigabit ethernet (standard network cabling)... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g8glcq | is it bad to leave my phone charging all night | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fonc3ua"
],
"text": [
"if the phone is low and disconnect it first thing no. damage to li ion batteries comes from constant charging. the charging circuit has a set limit usually of about 5% meaning, it will stop charging wait for the charge to drop 5% then turn on again. the continual toppin... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g8jlwq | How the hell does memory / storage work? Flash drives, hard drives, floppy drives, etc. | I barely understand floppies (somethin with magnets and a strip with magnetically sensitive stuff on it, I think) and after that I'm just lost entirely. I've seen the inside of a mechanical hard drive and have seen the platters and the head. I think I know that the data is on the platters, but have no idea how it gets ... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fonx5ye",
"foo9nq4",
"fonuz9y"
],
"text": [
"Magnetic memory: Made up of small crystal-like structures called magnetic domains. With a high enough magnetic field, you can get all elementary magnets (ie,magnetic fields caused by the atoms) to align, and thus hold a bit of information. ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g8mq74 | How do adblockers detect ads and tell them apart from the main site? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fooc9jy"
],
"text": [
"Back in Grampa's days, people just took the ad picture and put it on their homepage per hand. Then a little known company known as 'google' came and said 'hey, you don't need to do this, here's a link to our server, you put that on your homepage and it'll chose a fittin... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g8n3uk | why is nuclear waste so bad? Is uranium not radioactive before processing? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foof9wr",
"foofze6",
"fooeta9",
"foowue3"
],
"text": [
"Uranium is radioactive. But the process of using it in a nuclear reaction creates what are called \"fission products\", dozens of different radioactive isotopes that usually have much shorter half-lives than uranium, and as a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g8sjkk | what exactly is anti aliasing? I usually dont mess around with graphic settings in games, but recently I've gotten curious. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fopcchm",
"fopcd1r"
],
"text": [
"your computer’s monitor is made up of a bunch of pixels, which are tiny squares that are each one color. this is great for drawing perfectly horizontal or vertical lines, but of course a diagonal line or a curve doesn’t perfectly fit into square pixels, s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g8spex | How do people match their sensitivities when switching between games? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fopdvdz"
],
"text": [
"In my case, I pretty much use mouse and keyboard only, so I can actually match my sensitivities pretty easily. The first time I open a game, I adjust my sensitivity so that when I move my mouse from one end of my mousepad to the other, my camera does a 360. I find this ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9266e | How does file compression work? | Title basically says it all. I understand how photos and videos can trade quality for file size, but files like games or large folders can be shrunk into a .rar or .zip file, transferred, and pulled back out with no loss to functionality. How does that work? If nothing's being taken away how is space being saved? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foqrztn",
"foqzs9s",
"foqsb8u"
],
"text": [
"Some files have patterns in them. The compression tool looks through the file and finds the patterns. Then it makes a new file with one copy of the patterns, followed by the rest of the file including a marker for \"pattern 1 goes here\" or... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g97noi | How do products like speakers and headphones create noise and bass? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fortll2"
],
"text": [
"The song is sent to the speaker as an electric frequency. This frequency varies depending on which sound is being played. An electromagnet pushes the membrane out and then pulls it in hard. This vibration travels through the air, because paricles bump into eachother and... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g99are | How is time programmed into a computer? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fos1dej",
"fos1ffe"
],
"text": [
"computers have clocks in them. Typically they contain quartz crystals - quartz is \"piezoelectric\" which means that if you send an electric charge through it, it pulses with a regular interval. The timer chip counts those pulses and turns them into \"tic... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9a57j | How do game roms keep track of time? | In game cartridges of games that need to know the time (e.g. 2nd gen Pokémon) is a clock. You set the time initially and as long as the battery still works you can start it years later and the time in the game is still correct. How does this work with roms? They can’t have a clock. Does the emulator inject the system t... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fos5f6a"
],
"text": [
"You got it already. The emulator can inject the system time. The emulator already receives all sorts of external input from your button presses. System time is just another input that can be mapped to the console memory that is simulated in your PC memory."
],
"scor... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g9bqcb | Why in super slo-mo videos (i.e. sports replays) does it look like the lighting is rapidly flashing? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fosf72j"
],
"text": [
"Because sometimes they actually are flashing, some lights flicker in a frequency that to us looks like a steady light but in reality they could be turning on and off many times per second."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
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} | [
"url"
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g9byfb | What is Memory Bandwidth? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fosi9nn",
"fosi6bo"
],
"text": [
"Memory bandwidth is how much bulk data can go into or out of memory. It's sometimes a bottleneck of system performance, especially for graphics cards.",
"Memory bandwidth is the rate at which data can be read from or stored into memory by a processor.... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9du5t | If humans can detect changes at 60 frames per second on a screen and lightbulbs turn off and on 60 times a second because they receive AC power at 60Hz, how come we don't notice light bulbs blinking? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fostdjz",
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"text": [
"see it like this:in 60 fps: frames changes 'one after another'. in case of a glowing bulb: it is the heating element that provides us the URL_0 when we turn it off,it do not turns off immediately... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9dyye | How overclocking a processor can cause instability or crashes | If everything in a processor is designed to be synchronous and rely on the clock signal for timing, then why is it that overclocking the processor so often causes it to become unstable or crash? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fosuayi",
"fosuujr",
"fosuhf8"
],
"text": [
"Imagine you're in charge of a school cafeteria. You've got all the people trained to provide food for students in line. At each station (meat, starch, vegetables, dessert, drink), each student can be served in exactly 60 seconds. You're so ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g9ht6f | Why do games like COD take up ~200 GB of space? | There are other games that have more or just as much content and have better graphics so why does COD take so much space? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"foti9pq",
"fothwyy",
"fotmfdb"
],
"text": [
"Textures and Audio make up a good bulk of data. Especially with the sound design of MW there's a lot stuffed in. You can say it's lazy, but that's only to a point. You don't want to compress the game to hell, but I'm sure it's reduced somew... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
g9isk8 | when you take a photo of a screen and the camera tries to focus on the pixels, you get that weird wavy pattern. Why does this change when you zoom in and out on the photo? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fotnw90"
],
"text": [
"It's called a Moire pattern. It happens because the spacing of pixels on the image of the subject screen almost, but not quite, matches with the spacing of the pixels in the sensor. At one point they line up, a bit to the side they miss and a bit further on they line up... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9kbru | how can we take pictures of planets that are millions and millions of light years away from Earth? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fotvfvi",
"fotxltl"
],
"text": [
"The best pictures we have (and only of a few) are tiny spots. There are collections of \"images\" of exoplanets; those are just fantasy. Exoplanets are detected by observing changes to their respective suns.",
"We can't. Our entire galaxy, the milky w... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9m7ue | How are cannons ever effective in infantry warfare if they only shot steel/stone balls and can possibly only hit a few men.its a very unfair effort to effect ratio. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fou6m13",
"fou6255",
"fou7qyi"
],
"text": [
"The time period where \"old style\" cannons fired at infantry coincided with the period where infantry moved in densely packed musket squares. Add to that the fact that solid cannonballs *bounce* when they hit the ground at a flat angle. Ba... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
g9tz8z | How do modern cameras know what the color of an object is? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fovlgz5"
],
"text": [
"If you have normal human vision, you have trichromatic vision. Your eyes see color using three types of cone cells: one most sensitive to red light, another to green, and another to blue. Different wavelengths (colors) of visible light are distinguished by their relativ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbbaai | - Why are micro SD cards that weird shape and not a normal rectangle? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp4shi9"
],
"text": [
"A normal rectangle can be put in backwards or upside down. That's bad for fragile and conductive connectors."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbeqel | what is end to end encryption and the whole bill surrounding it? | If anyone could help me learn this in the most basic way possible, it'll be really helpful for one of my uni classes. Thanks | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp5cfs3",
"fp5ckhn",
"fp5gzwt"
],
"text": [
"So, in \"traditional\" encryption, whatever service you use to send a message to someone has the ability to decrypt and read your message. Or, the messages are stored \"at rest\" in *unencrypted* form. In *end-to-end* encryption, however, n... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gbjz0k | Why is it considered "unsafe" to hold down the power button to shut off a computer? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp65thr",
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"fp6708o",
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"text": [
"On almost any device with processor and RAM (pretty much anything these day... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbljdb | How do applications implement the "Undo" feature while being fast? Wouldn't it take a significant amount of memory to be able to remember the last 50+ states of the application? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp6fesi"
],
"text": [
"You don't have to remember the previous state of the application. You only have to remember the particular action that was taken so you can know what to reverse. This takes up very little memory by comparison."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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} | [
"url"
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"url"
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gboib4 | how can sata drives contain tbs of data, but a CD can only hold a little less than 5 gb? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp6zi3f"
],
"text": [
"The CD is limited by the width of the data path, and it's not 5gb. A DVD can hold 5gb, while a CD can only hold less than 1gb. A CD or DVD uses little tiny pits in the surface to store data. The laser reader reads those little bumps and holes as bits of data, either a o... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbozkt | How is it that some websites are able to hijack your back button so that you can't just back out of them? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp72j1x",
"fp7298n",
"fp78lqw",
"fp738rn",
"fp77xqn"
],
"text": [
"There's JavaScript that allows you to add \"fake history\" to the back button. This is because there are sites like GMail where it doesn't do full page requests but only reloads partial contents. With the old s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbq0rv | Why are batteries almost always facing the opposite direction in items requiring two batteries (ie one batter facing north and the other south)?? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp7ajil",
"fp78wug",
"fp78p9h"
],
"text": [
"TLDR: it's easier to make the battery holders that way Batteries in a device are most often connected in series, with the negative end of one connected to the positive of the other. This is done to increase the voltage to the point necessar... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbqavy | How is military technology developed? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp7attj"
],
"text": [
"This is an answer that could take up an entire shelf of books. Some research is done by the military, but a lot is also done by private contractors. Some is done by people independent of the military with hopes that they'll be able to sell their inventions to the milita... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gbsazt | How do computers partitions work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp7nocz"
],
"text": [
"Say you have an unsliced loaf of bread that is a single partition hard drive. You can cut the loaf into a whole bunch of slices and each one of those slices is a partition. It's all the same loaf of bread just different slices that you can use for different things."
]... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gby1ya | How do we have a picture of our own galaxy? | I was reading an article on FRBs and they had a stock image of our galaxy. But how? Unless you've stepped outside of it, turned around, and took a pic (which we clearly haven't since we've only recently left our solar system) how did we get it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp89tz2",
"fp88zcz"
],
"text": [
"We do not have an image of our galaxy. That is except for images from inside it ie images of the sky from earth. Images in the book are artist interpretation or images of the galaxies we thing look like the milky way What we do have is observations of sta... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gbyxrb | how does a USB hub turn one USB input on your computer into 5 USB inputs? How many USB devices could you potentially have all connected to a single port? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp8bpm9"
],
"text": [
"When USB was thought out they decided to add this feature into the standard because of course it would be useful. Every packet is signed in a way that the hub knows which device it goes to, like the mailman delivering letters to a neighborhood. The maximum number of dev... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gc03it | How do phones know when to rotate the screen? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp8iz1t",
"fp8i9dk"
],
"text": [
"Electronics use a thing called an Accelerometer to measure acceleration in 1-3 axis. With an Accelerometer you can measure gravity's pull on the phone and therefore tell how a phone is oriented. It's usually a really tiny mass that generates a change in v... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gc1d19 | Why do iPhones take a few minutes to charge before you can turn them on after the battery dies unlike things like laptops? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp8qhcn"
],
"text": [
"The short answer is that it was designed that way. With Laptops, power can bypass the battery to directly power the machine because it has additional circuitry to make this possible. With a phone you need to save on space and components, meaning the battery has to be th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gc3ek2 | How does WIFI signals specifically work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp91q15"
],
"text": [
"A WiFi signal is a wave. Waves have high points (tips) and low points (valleys). We agree that high is 1 and low is 0, so when you look at a WiFi signal you can turn it into 1001101 etc. The transmitter sends this wave on a certain channel, which determines how wide the... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gc5h91 | How does resolution (1080p, 1440p, etc.) work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp9cbow"
],
"text": [
"A higher resolution image has more pixels available for the definition of the image. This allows for more detail, sharper images, and less fuzziness. If you display a 480p image on a 1080p screen at the same level of definition, the 480p image will be noticeably smaller... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gc62hl | When one side of my earphones stop working, why does it start working again if I move and keep the wire at a specific angle? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fp9fd80",
"fp9h0b0"
],
"text": [
"One of the wires inside the rubber sleeves is broken when you hold it at that specific angle it causes the broken ends to touch. This completes the circuit and causes it to work again.",
"Most likely a wire has broken inside the casing. When you hold ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gcd0bx | Why is it that .com is such a widely used suffix to websites, what does it stand for and why does it matter what the suffixes are when the DNS server converts the websites to their respective IP addresses anyways? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpamaoo",
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"fpbiwrb",
"fpaotyr",
"fpb8w7m",
"fpbdom0",
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"fpc8twm",
"fpawcoc",
"fpc310m",
"fpcacau",
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"fpc0a2d"
],
"text": [
"In the early days of the internet there was a lot going on. ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gce1am | How did humans get to harness and use electricity? | I had always heard about Benjamin Franklin and his kite and key, so what happened between that and when Edison was able to turn on a lightbulb? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fparqcr",
"fpaspn9",
"fpb002x",
"fpb5je8"
],
"text": [
"Some dudes were fucking around with magnets and found out that if you spin a magnet really fast around a conductive metal, a bunch of electrons jump out, and if you pump a bunch of electrons into a magnet, the magnet will spi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gchqew | Why do sparks happen? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpbf9zc"
],
"text": [
"Electrical sparks happen because the electrons in air molecules get ripped off, pulled by nearby high voltage, and smack other electrons causing a cascade that forms an arc. This arc may be what you are referring to. The less air, the lower the necessary voltage, so whe... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gcjx87 | How do headphones have selective noise cancellation? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpbsgmm",
"fpbtrm0"
],
"text": [
"They have microphones on them. They listen to the noise around you. So let’s say it hears a specific sound, then it produces the inverted sound to that to cancel it out.",
"Answer: there is a microphone that listens for repeating sounds around you, th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gclm3c | What's the difference between OLED and AMOLED? And which is better when it comes to phone? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpc5qw0"
],
"text": [
"Pretty much the same, amoled is from Samsung and they have been going at it for a longer time, worked out most of the kinks and is more reliable. Oled is from LG among others, many people online have complained about its lack of quality compared to samsung"
],
"scor... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gcprwb | What dictates the maximum framerate of a PC game? | Let's say my character has a specific animation that lasts exactly 1 second. was that animation not made frame-by-frame? In which case the whole animation is comprised of (for example) exactly 120 frames that play over one second. If I run the game at 60fps then it makes sense that the animation will skip every other f... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpcr316",
"fpcqkle"
],
"text": [
"Animations these days aren't made frame by frame, they are made with keyframes. A keyframe is a specific pose that has been made by an animator, or obtained from motion capture. Keyframes may occur at regular intervals, or they may be irregular times. Whe... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gcrcng | why do password managers suggest passwords that are complicated for humans but not for machines? | [Some articles]( URL_0 ) suggest using pass-phrases over passwords, but password managers like Chrome or LastPass rely on rather short strings which are only difficult for humans but not necessarily to prevent brute force attacks. Why? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpcysx7"
],
"text": [
"A pass phrase, or long string made up or words may be useful if you need to remember a password. With a password manager the point is you don’t need to remember it. Last time I looked at a auto password from chrome it was at least 16 random characters which is pretty mu... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gcrq0j | Why does turning airplane mode on and then off sometime fix my internet issues for a very short period? | Occasionally, I have great signal on my phone but absolutely no internet connection for some reason. When this happens, if I turn airplane mode on and then off again my internet connection comes back for a short period of about a minute. Asking around, apparently I'm not the only one that does this. Why does this happe... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpd1ycs"
],
"text": [
"Possible explanation: When your cell phone connects to a cell tower, it remembers the last one it successfully connected to. That doesn’t necessarily mean the one your phone is connected to is the closest / best connection available. When you cycle through airplane mode... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gct5ju | how did old cartridge based games like earthbound detect if they were pirated | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpdcbvr"
],
"text": [
"The original NES + SNES had a lockout chip call the CIC (Checking Integrated Circuit) that would check if your cartridge had a corresponding authentication chip (10NES chip supplied by Nintendo) to prove it was authentic. Unlicensed developers still found ways around th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gctkje | how can a computer turn itself on | When you restart your computer, it has to shut down and then turn itself back on. My question is, if it's totally off how can it have the power and understanding to turn itself on again? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpdbzt6",
"fpdgmv7"
],
"text": [
"So believe it or not - when you turn \"off\" your computer, depending on the motherboard and other specifics, you are actually putting it in a \"low power state\" and a smaller computer is running in the background listening for signals (either from a phy... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gcvuld | How do chess games have coded different level of difficulties. Do they have different efficiency of programs or what? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpdpwil",
"fpe2a02",
"fped27h",
"fpemu0j"
],
"text": [
"Sometimes, particularly in the opening book phase of the game. Most of the time, the chess difficulty is controlled by varying the size of the move search tree considered by the algorithm. In easy mode it might look at all it... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gcwp1h | how does an LCD screen show an image? | How does this piece of metal, glass, and silicon show images that the human eye and mind recognize? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpdvm5q"
],
"text": [
"Hi :-) LCD stands for liquid crystal display. So next to glass and metal, there are also these crystals... and filters. The liquid crystal reacts to electricity, and changes the way light passes. With some polarization-filters this can make parts of the image transparen... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gcxhle | Why do video games usually have a "Press A to start"? Why can't they just take you to directly to a menu screen or something else? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpe07ka"
],
"text": [
"They certainly could but the designers want to let the player decide when to enter the game. Maybe they have gone for a drink or to the bathroom or are talking to someone so they are not ready to start immediately. Pressing \"A\" to start allows the player to say they a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gcy62j | Why are some 720p YouTube videos larger in size than 1080p? | [Like this]( URL_0 ) | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpe4ll5"
],
"text": [
"Hi :-) Different video compression codecs! Youtube uses older codecs for lower resolution videos, to ensure downward compatibility (e.g. old smart TVs). One reason is that even with software-updates of older devices, the processors might not be capable of decoding the n... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gcy80g | How is pirating content so common and illegal yet nobody faces consequences for doing it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpe55qv",
"fpe4ict",
"fpeagt2"
],
"text": [
"People do face consequences for it. The problem is that piracy is so wide spread that there aren't enough resources to fine and arrest everyone that does it. The agencies try to focus on content distributors to try to slow piracy down, but ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gd3axv | Where does stuff go when it is deleted? | If a file is deleted where does it go? What happens to it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpf1xdc",
"fpf2z23",
"fpf7vnc"
],
"text": [
"Nothing actually. The data is still there. But the space its stored in is now allocated as \"free\" and can be overwritten at any time by something else being saved. There are programs that actively \"wipe\" the drive for security reasons a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gd57fe | Why does artificial intelligence seem so advanced while language translation software still seems unreliable? | I’m pretty sure AI can generate well written stories on its own. Why is translation software still unreliable? Couldn’t AI be used to make translations better? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpff1xn",
"fpfduyc",
"fpfejeq"
],
"text": [
"It's because different languages have different perspectives and ideas and how they think about the word. So it's not just choosing what word translates (and not every word has a direct translation) but also the context and meaning. A simpl... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gd7eeb | How can a CD, which is just a piece of metal and plastic, store data so efficiently? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpfqc0r",
"fpfsxu6"
],
"text": [
"Very very very small differences in the metal disc. Just zeros and ones in a massive collection. A laser ‘reads’ it and the data is collected, wether it be music or information only a computer could understand.",
"The way a CD works is there's a conti... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gd7wau | How does cpu work? | i mean its basically a thinking rock and this might be a little bit to complicated to fit in a reddit comment but if someone has an explanation that fits then please share | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpfstw7",
"fpfta62"
],
"text": [
"There's a lot to it, but basically it is a very large number of simple electronic components called logic gates all connected together. A logic gate has one or more inputs and lets current pass under certain conditions, such as \"if both inputs have curre... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gd8g01 | how does URL_0 work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpfyv40",
"fpg1qbr"
],
"text": [
"[ URL_1 ]( URL_0 ) uses Artificial Intelligence to generate fake faces, the site was created by a guy called Phil Wang. Here's some more information about the website, as said by it's creator: This site instantly educates the public on an important subfie... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gd8zcb | Why does installing a game take so long compared to uninstalling one? | Or installing anything else for that matter... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpfxqfx",
"fpfxrgi"
],
"text": [
"The installation downloads a bunch of files, writes them to disc, etc. The uninstall just tells the computer \"Files A, B, and C were only for this game, and they're on the disc in location XYZ. Just forget about them.\" It's like how deleting a video can... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gd9f7n | Why is it that whenever we hear about "defense spending" it's always on offensive things like weapons? Is there not a way to make actual defense the priority instead of offense? | I could be missing the point about military spending, and the five-year-old in my head asking the question does just want forcefields over every country in the end. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpg039n",
"fpgnolm",
"fpg0jqb",
"fpg1te4",
"fpg9frz"
],
"text": [
"Turtling up just means you slow down your defeat - or at least make it a drawn out mess until your attacker runs out of money or gets bored. The best method for stopping an attack since prehistoric times has be... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gdc1tq | How do CDs/DVDs/game disks work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpgepfy",
"fpgesde"
],
"text": [
"The shiny layers on the disks have tiny groves cut into them in circles around the center. These groves are only a few hundred nanometers wide which is just wide enough for a laser beam. So the disk reader have a laser shining at this grove and a detector... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gddlus | How do they make the revving sounds for cars in video games? | It‘s hard to explain how I think this is so complex... basically in a video game you can change the throttle a lot. How do they adapt the noise of the engine to throttle changes? Sorry if that sounded stupid. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpgpdkg"
],
"text": [
"There are two paths to our digital sounds in games - sampling and synthesizing and then combos of those. Synthesized sounds are built from the ground up as designed waveforms and samples are recordings of things that are then made controlled by the game (or a keyboard, ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gddvpe | How did prosthetics in the 16th century work exactly? | I was reading a post about Götz von Berlichingen and apparently he lost his hand . He got a prosthetic made of metal and was said to be able to hold a quill and write with it . How would that work exactly because I wouldn't think that putting a metal hand over a forearm would allow for any use. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpgsane"
],
"text": [
"Short answer: springs designed to hold the fingers in any position they were placed: \"The first of these was a simple device that consisted of a glove with a thumb and fingers attached to it, and is said to have been made by a village blacksmith and saddle maker. The f... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gdeq2w | Why did old video games look so realistic during their time but look super unrealistic today? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpgxpq2",
"fpgvirk",
"fpgv9z0",
"fpgzuas"
],
"text": [
"Super low res TVs. Its the same reason some movies don't look as good as they used to. We went from 14inch low res tvs to 65 inch 4k super HD tvs with Dolby audio and quantum dot technology.",
"Yeah I don't think anyone a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gdfukt | Why are 4k TVs so much cheaper than 4k monitors even though they are bigger? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fphob87",
"fphpgv6",
"fph77zy",
"fphkkj8",
"fphtyg3",
"fphj7jk",
"fph1luq",
"fphpymf",
"fphua9r",
"fpi5roo",
"fphnji4"
],
"text": [
"Things that cost more money in a screen: * More pixels * Smaller pixels * Higher refresh rate * Faster response rate * H... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gdgs1u | How can films be re-released later in a higher resolution? | I can understand how movies can be released at higher resolutions a short time after original release, like a couple years. But I've seen some movies get released a whole decade later in \*MUCH\* higher quality than the original release. Like, how does something released in the 90's or 2000's get a 4k UltraHD release n... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fph742r",
"fph74dj",
"fph7adm",
"fphahkf"
],
"text": [
"Because they were recorded on film and film doesn't really have a resolution. Film is analog. You can always go back to the original film to get a high resolution version.",
"So, film stock, what old movie cameras used, w... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gdiffq | why are most screen sizes not rounded numbers? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fphhhwb",
"fphh74b",
"fphl7jo"
],
"text": [
"[Pretty much this will explain it for you. ]( URL_0 ) 15.6 it’s a diagonal, so length of the actual laptop length would be 13” instead. Same calculations are go with centimeters. And to answer why in inches: it’s because early television ma... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gdjj90 | Contact lenses VS Eyeglasses | How can a contact lense contain all the important layers of material to improve eyesight? Without compromising its thickness, like regular eyeglasses have. I honestly can't imagine how does a contact lense aid in poor eyesight, with such very thin material. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fphnzen"
],
"text": [
"It has to do with something called focal length. Contacts sit right on top of your eye, but glasses are several centimeters away, so the focal length for contacts is much shorter. You can prove this to yourself by using a magnifying glass held at different distances fro... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gdk6f1 | How do cables know that they are plugged in? | Recently I've been messing around with HDMI cables since I've been watching Netflix movies and TV shows on my TV that isn't smart. I have noticed that the cables can discern if they're plugged in or not. If I plug in the cable with my computer off, the TV says "No signal", and if I disconnect the cable, the TV says "Ve... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fphrpnt",
"fphrt8s",
"fphsjh0"
],
"text": [
"There is a specific wire inside the cable that is reserved for detecting whether the connectors are plugged in. Basically one half of a simple circuit is in the display and the other half is in the source device. When the two halves are con... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
gdkmb7 | Our houses remain in shape when lived in, but once they're abandoned, why do they deteriorate so rapidly? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fphxcdn",
"fpit4qi",
"fpi5bx3",
"fpirrmv",
"fpih0es"
],
"text": [
"A house will remain in good condition if they are kept dry. When you let moisture in fungus and mold start to grow, wood rot. Water that gets in among stones will expand when it gets free and can crack them. So... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
gdm857 | Why are there so few ISPs to choose from? Can't Joe from down the street start one as well? | Right now I'm reading Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky, and he's talking about: "The privatization of the Internet’s hardware, the rapid commercialization and concentration of Internet portals and servers and their integration into non-Internet conglomerates..." So, are there only so many physical 'servers' or portals?... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fpi4op2",
"fpi5vty"
],
"text": [
"It's an industry that tends to be a \"natural monopoly\" in many areas: once one company has already laid out lines to everyone's house, it's not any cheaper for a second company to do the same, but the second company might not attract people to switch ov... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
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