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ec79gs
When you make a money transfer from one bank to another and the money has already left one account but hasn't appeared in the other, where is that money exactly?
Just wondering...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fb9kphd" ], "text": [ "Its my understanding that while it is debited from one account, until it actually posts (is credited) to the other account, the original bank still has it. However, its marked as debited as to ensure you can't use those funds that are being transferred during the transf...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ec7ugc
Why do broadband boxes need resetting so often to get the best speeds?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fb9qveq" ], "text": [ "Speed for cable modems is generally determined by \"channels,\" each channel can carry a certain amount of data, and your total speed is determined by how many active channels you have up. When you power up the modem, it negotiates with the ISP side to determine how man...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ec812g
Why are batteries in electronics usually placed next to each other with their charges at opposite ends? (ie. +- /-+)
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fb9psvq", "fb9qcg4", "fb9q13e", "fb9q5nv" ], "text": [ "By connecting the +- they get connected in series which increases the total voltage You can also connect them in ++/-- manner they are called parallel which increases capacity. For instance in an ebike increasing voltage give...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
echd5g
How does the camera’s autofocus know when the image is sharp?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbbdl4e" ], "text": [ "It's sharp. OK, that's not going to be good enough. The autofocus computer examines adjacent pixels as it adjusts the lens. Some adjustments make them more alike, and others make them more different. The lens position where the pixels are the most different from their n...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecide4
Why can computers delete all data and where does it go?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbbkmal", "fbbrv25", "fbbo7mr" ], "text": [ "Something can be truly gone on a hard drive but not quite how we are shown it to be gone. If you delete something you have told the drive that that space is free for something new, however, until something new is written over it it is techn...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecil9z
How do they give 3D printed organs functionality?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbblvi2" ], "text": [ "The organ printing is just a framework around which they can then grow the cells an \"organ skeleton\" if you will." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecjcth
How did studios able to upgrade old MV to 4K on Youtube (especially Last Christmas by Wham)?
How difficult is the conversion?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbbrjha" ], "text": [ "Actual 35mm has a expected resolution of approximately 4K so it's just a matter of doing a new transfer from the film to digital media. So there's really not a whole lot involved it's just a matter of scanning the film in at the higher resolution." ], "score": [ ...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecjj6i
With the release of Last Christmas in 4K, how are old music videos that are so low in resolution remastered in 4K?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbbtdwy" ], "text": [ "The original was shot in very high quality to physical film (35mm probably) and then was compressed for the media standards and capabilities of the day. They just get the original footage and compress to 4k instead of whatever the first release was. They may haved digit...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecklb8
How does "on-board WiFi" work for buses while there are rural areas that can't get internet at all?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbc1xbp", "fbcnvm4" ], "text": [ "I'm no bus expert but I assume it's a [mobile hotspot device similar to these]( URL_0 ). They work like the data on your cell phone, routing traffic through nearby cell phone towers. I know some people that are in rural areas or live in an RV etc. use the...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecqawm
How does a camera's focus work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbd4s9e" ], "text": [ "Picture the classic 'light through a lens' diagram of lines converging after passing through the lens. At the point where the lines converge you have perfect focus. Either side of that, before they converge or after, is out of focus. Moving the lens back and forth alter...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecrep0
Why do you not need RAM equal to the size of a program to run it?
I'm thinking of games, mainly. Why is 16gbs of ram enough to play a 130gb game, like Asgard's Wrath?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbd7tev", "fbd7uxs", "fbd85c1", "fbd9gxq", "fbd90l9" ], "text": [ "Because the only entire game is not loaded into memory, only the executable or game engine and game assets needed for what you are looking at.", "Ram is like a high speed but low capacity storage system so ...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecrzvp
What are AMP pages and what's bad about them?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbdfymd", "fbdfq7x", "fbdg4om", "fbemfz9" ], "text": [ "AMP has two basic components: 1. A way of writing small web-pages 2. A way of caching/loading those small web-pages to make them quicker to load. Most web-pages nowadays are large and bloated. For example i just refreshed the...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecti3p
Wham's last Christmas in now in 4K, how is this possible?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbdjwnt", "fbdlatn" ], "text": [ "35mm film is generally estimated to be somewhere between 4k and 8k in resolution. So you scan a new copy from the archived film footage, at 4k resolution. Not all old footage was filmed with 35mm film. Some stuff was shot on 16mm (generally estimated to t...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecwmju
How does nuclear early detection work?
I know thermal detection looks for high temperature spikes that are equivalent to a nuclear launch, but how does it tell the difference between say a saturn5 rocket and a nuke? Do they make a spaghetti model on possible targets? How would we know what their target is?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbe4dvm", "fbe85us", "fbe4n0w", "fbe8l90", "fbe4k8c", "fbeldyf" ], "text": [ "Launch site, direction, and publicity. A civilian rocket will come from a space center and be advertised beforehand. It will then immediately start to curve and pick up horizontal velocity.", ...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecykdi
All things that happen in Internet are generally instant, why then changing DNS configuration can take up to 48h?
That's ages in web timeframe! Is human factor to blame?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbeirpd", "fbeitac" ], "text": [ "DNS records have a TTL (time to live) value. This value is the number of seconds a server that caches the record should wait before rechecking the authorititive server to see if it's changed. If a DNS change is taking 48 hours, that means the person makin...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ecyz0p
Back in the day when watching scrambled porn (Playboy channel, etc) why did the white backgrounds/white scenes result in almost no scrambling vs dark scenes (which were extremely indiscernible).
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbfpkai", "fbfy0la" ], "text": [ "Back in the day it wasn't true scrambling. It was messing with the video sync or something along those lines. The white background had a higher signal level which improved the signal.", "Wow, takin' it BACK son. Haha oh man. Me and the homies, some Jo...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eczo4a
How does Windows Explorer copy, move, and replace files? What would happen to the files if the operation was interrupted?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fber47i" ], "text": [ "This is a tough question to answer, mostly because \"files\" and \"folders\" are abstractions built to make data access easier for humans, and also because there are lots of variables that come into play, and many levels of abstraction that are all accomplishing somethi...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ed110n
if RAM is ridiculously faster than even the fastest SSD then why aren't we using RAM for storing all of our data instead of hard disks and SSDs?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbey1nm" ], "text": [ "1. Nice idea to store your data in a device that requires constant, completely uninterrupted power to not lose it's *aaaand it's gone*. 2. Type | Price ---|--- 1TB HDD | 44$ 1TB SDD | 110$ 1TB DDR4 RAM | 3120$ See the issues?" ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls":...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ed3pft
How do the PC WiFi USB sticks work.
I was looking on amazon and noticed these WiFi usb sticks. They boast high speeds for low costs, so I was wondering if they actually have $30 high speed WiFi with no additional cost or simply provide a faster connection to my previously existing WiFi.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbfnqi0", "fbffk9r" ], "text": [ "Uh......before OP goes out on shopping spree. WiFi doesn't get you internet. WiFi gets you connected to the base station which has landline internet access. WiFi is not a magic no cost replacement for celullar internet", "Nothing will make your speeds...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ed4biq
What does a CPU actually do for a computer?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbfo2uo", "fbfklhl", "fbfo7mh" ], "text": [ "The CPU IS the computer. In other words, it is the component responsible for all the computing.", "All programmed instructions have to go through the central processing unit (CPU). It handles all of the computations and can instruct oth...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ed4bjr
How does an automatic cash counting machine works? How does it identify the different denominations for different currencies?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbg88j4", "fbfkyyu" ], "text": [ "Machines that verify that bills are real often make use of a light that shines through the bill so that all the layers and watermarks blur together into one image. And then they \"snap an image\" and compare that image to a set of known bills. The compari...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edbhql
How are game engines and text editors for them made?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbgp3ga" ], "text": [ "They're coded just like any other program. In the case of game engines and the like, usually with some flavour of C." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edfr2o
why we changed from old fashioned battleships to modern day destroyers?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbhjaj3", "fbhjc6g" ], "text": [ "Until about the mid 1930s naval gunfire was the primary way to attack ships. In the 1930s and 40's naval aviation surpassed guns as the best way to blow shit up from the sea. Planes are more flexible, and have much longer range than guns, and by the 1960s...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edi2b7
How do debit cards instantaneously receive funds via online transactions?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbhynrs" ], "text": [ "Your card is just a tool to access your account, it doesn't know how much is there or anything apart from some numbers that link to your account. So when you use cashapp, that tells your bank account that theres more money gone in. Then when you use your card, the retai...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ediiqw
How come sometimes if a video isn’t loading at the beginning, if you just move the cursor a couple of seconds to the right it will start immediately with no lag?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbi430p" ], "text": [ "Typically what happens is your web browser will abort its current request for the video file and start a new one offset by the amount you seek by. The new server you connect to is performing better than the one you were at before - or maybe the other one had just crashe...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edk8p3
Why does Google Chrome use up so much RAM?
Looking at my task manager, it shows Google Chrome (21). Is it that it is operating 21 different things in the background, or is it hiding every instance except my own? Truly I would love to know for the sake of my PC. I launch Google Chrome and sometimes my fan starts kicking up hard.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbid1kg", "fbig291" ], "text": [ "Each tab runs independently so that a crash in one does not crash the browser. It is like each tab you open is a new application.", "because you have RAM to use. there's no reason to not use more ram if its being put to good use. it's better performan...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edn5my
How do languages with many characters like Chinese or Japanese fit them all on their keyboards?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbiu6tb" ], "text": [ "They don't. They type syllable or simple radical to spell out the characters. It's like if you want to show the character β you spell 'beta' and there's drop down menu listing possible character for the word 'beta'." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edooe8
What are gamma values in pictures and why does it affect png (aka make it worse than jpeg?)
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbjj7gi", "fbjm152" ], "text": [ "This comes from the days when computers were much slower and monitors were huge and heavy boxes with thick glass on the front of the screen - the CRT, or cathode ray tube, uses intense electromagnets to shoot tiny bits of stuff at a screen that glows when...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edqq83
Why aren’t there more alternatives to plastic water bottles? Is it entirely economic or are there no good materials?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbjwxpg", "fbjtwe8", "fbju1wo", "fbjxe7c" ], "text": [ "Plastics were the revolutionary space-age material when they first became ubiquitous. They provided the answer to the analoguous question people were asking at the time: \"Why aren’t there more alternatives to glass water bot...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edu7de
What does actually happen inside a computer when it crashes or buffers?
Like if a program freezes, why does that happen How does it actually manage to get stuck and reacts with a blue screen of death?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbl1jub" ], "text": [ "Crashing can occur from many things but usually occurs when the program encounters 'exceptions.' Modern programming often has 'functions'. Think of a program making toast. You rarely write a program to make the toast all in one go, you instead split it into functions. F...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edvgd1
How does a touch screen differentiate between my finger or a stylus and something like a pencil eraser
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fblitam", "fbliv1e" ], "text": [ "There are two types of touch screens: resistive and capacitive. Resistive screens don't differentiate between your finger, a stylus or any other random object because their sensors react to pressure. Capacitive screens differentiate between all those obje...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edy0qn
If videos can play and load at 60fps, why do photos take any amount of time to load? E.g. Video loads 300 frames for 5 secs, but can take 5 seconds to load one 'frame' (picture)
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbm2bb4", "fbmjdyh" ], "text": [ "Because you aren't loading sixty photos in a second. You are loading one photo, then a series of changes. Those changes keep coming for a while until there's another whole photo. That's why you get mangled video sometimes if you jump forward - it tries to...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edy9mk
in wireless keyboards and mice, why do replaceable (usually AA) batteries last for over a year while integral rechargeable batteries run down in a matter of weeks?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbm38bp", "fbofpg0" ], "text": [ "Because the non-rechargeable batteries use different chemistry that has lower self discharge.", "There are different kinds of batteries for different circumstances. Alkaline batteries are the ones we are familiar with as disposable batteries. They las...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
edza6g
why is the Windows file system FAT32 inferior to NTFS?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbmi9bs", "fbmgvi5" ], "text": [ "FAT32 is intended for use by individuals / consumers. It only needs very basic features like \"save this file\" and \"keep a list of all files\". It does not even need to worry about large drive sizes, like you would see at a large company, or being parti...
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ee0gwo
Why are we expected to have super complex passwords, but then very simple security questions which are often public information which can be used to access an account?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbn1wlk", "fbmv94b", "fbmvrvr", "fbmzk0d", "fbmz314" ], "text": [ "Because the companies doing that don't know what they're doing. There are a lot of myths and outdated \"recommendations\" and rules that people keep blindly using and it makes services less secure. It sounds st...
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ee3tiz
Why are the separate detergents for front-load and top-load washing machines?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fborjti", "fborxl6", "fbp7q46" ], "text": [ "The two different types of machines use different amounts of water. So, the detergent needs to be tuned for the expected water/detergent ratio in order to work optimally.", "As my grandma said: the detergent for the top loaders goes dir...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
ee3uwk
How do telescope long exposures work, considering earth rotation and movement?
I really like Subreddits like r/space and they often post very long exposed photos of distant galaxies. Sometimes longer than 24 hours. But how can I do such a long exposure when the Earth is obviously moving? Isn't the change from night to daylight a problem here as well?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fboupnn" ], "text": [ "Equatorial mounts are used, which are devices that once aligned with the north or south celestial pole (depending on location), will move with the rotation of the Earth so things don’t appear to move. When people say they did a 24 hour exposure, it is often not a single...
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ee5lem
What is it about low budget film footage that allows me to immediately recognize that it’s low budget?
I started watching I Am Alone, and aside from the purposeful “found footage” shots, it was clear in an interview scene that took place in an isolated room that this was a low budget film. The video and audio seemed clear, and plenty of high budget films have interview scenes like that. I assume that scenes like that do...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbpzr4q", "fbqt5tc" ], "text": [ "Its almost always the lighting. With decent enough equipment and a moderately skilled camera man you can get good shots in most environments. Lighting is difficult and is both an art and a science and its not only about the equipment and technician. Very ...
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[ "url" ]
ee8fux
Why are some cell services better than others even when the towers are in the same area?
Wondering why some provider service seems to be better than others even though the providers have towers located in the same spot?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbrkv5m", "fbrejj5", "fbrv5gg" ], "text": [ "Each cell carrier in the US uses their own specific set of frequencies. Higher frequencies don't penetrate solid objects as well but they can transmit data faster. & #x200B; This is why if you have a wireless router at home with both 2.5 GH...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eea8gt
How is Kubernetes different from container platforms such as Docker?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbscv9x", "fbsckfu", "fbs28w8", "fbsde54", "fbs3yvj" ], "text": [ "Kubernetes is what is called an \"orchestrator\". It manages Docker containers for you. If a container gets killed, it gets replaced. For example. Also scaling (launching multiple containers to meet demand), se...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eec5cb
Why old movies look like they are accelerated?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbspdwd" ], "text": [ "They actually were on a big tape film, the rolls used to roll. Up and therefore the radius /circumference of the movie roll got bigger and faster. They could not slow it down perfectly and didn't want it too slow at the start. That's what i was told." ], "score": [ ...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eef5z1
How was Bill Gates “Windows” OS different from Mac’s and Linux/Unix OS and what made it become so successful?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbtbeyp", "fbtnvl0" ], "text": [ "You have the order a bit backwards. The real benefit of DOS, and later windows, was from hardware, not the OS (at least in how it grew to start). DOS (and then windows) ran on any IBM compatible PCs, which were the standard and produced in huge quantities...
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[ "url" ]
eef6j6
How is Choreography transcribed?
With things like ballets and musicals, how does the choreographer write down what the dancers should do? Is there a standard notation? Is it sketched? Before recording was possible, how did the producers know how to make Swan Lake the same way each time?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbtcih7" ], "text": [ "Some of the steps have names... like in ballet when they do a squat, it's called a plie. When you stand on one foot it's called an arabesque. There was also 5 positions which feet and arms differ. So a choreographer could say, 3rd position, plie to arabesque, sashay to ...
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[ "url" ]
eeffqy
Why is NASA looking to private companies to learn how to get astronauts into space when they already know how to do it on their own?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbtg1xs", "fbtd1tj", "fbtd00v" ], "text": [ "A couple reasons. 1. Right now, virtually everything sent into space uses Russian rocket motors. The Soviets built very, very good rocket motors. The only way to get astronauts into space currently is also via Russia. This is problematic si...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eeg0gp
Why don’t we have massive industries that desalinate saltwater?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbth7j8", "fbtgyal", "fbthl0s" ], "text": [ "Because it costs huge amounts of energy(Money) to desalinate water and there are large enough reserves of water around the world that that it's so cheap you can just ship it to where it's needed. Here we've granted several water bottling co...
[ "url" ]
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eek90j
How do game developers release their titles with the latest graphics, despite working on it for years?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbu3730", "fbu241z" ], "text": [ "Game Dev here, when making a game we use placeholders while we do all the mechanics of a game, then later we'll go through and update the models/animation to match current standards. It's not as much of a problem nowadays though because most visual featur...
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[ "url" ]
eekrdf
Why do consoles work fine with TV's but using your PC on a TV with hdmi has in output delay making gaming dreadful?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbu6vrq" ], "text": [ "Many people use their PCs with a TV, with an HDMI cable, to play video games (myself included) and experience no I/O delay. Either something is wrong with your setup, or you are experiencing problems unrelated to the setup." ], "score": [ 7 ], "text_urls": [...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eelehb
how do bluetooth earbuds keep the sound perfectly synchronised between the left and right bud ?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbud6lf", "fbuj2km" ], "text": [ "Each earbud is basically a small signal receiver. Signal from music player is send simultaneousely to both of them, but some things (stereo sound) are different. You don't have to synchronize them too much, because microchips in each earbud interpret sign...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eelojc
When Windows XP froze and you dragged the window around, why did it make a bunch of copies of the window or error popup?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbuij8p", "fbus0mu", "fbv6j5u", "fbw0bt4", "fbwfe89", "fbw1rix", "fbui8xo", "fbwouyf", "fbwdr8e", "fbwq3lm" ], "text": [ "Windows only redraws what it has to. Unlike a game, the entire screen is NOT refreshed every frame. This means portions are only redraw...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
een4dt
Why do computers get slower the longer you have them even if they aren’t damaged?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbuun8p", "fbvcc9d", "fbuwzg1", "fbvo5u1" ], "text": [ "Marginally they do get slower as you install more programs that want to keep running and as temp files and such build up. But that sort of slow down is minor. The feeling you get that your system, which used to be super speed...
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[ "url" ]
eeqfq5
what (if anything) do corporations gain from these robot calls that leave voicemails on my phone in Chinese? And how?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbvqqfr" ], "text": [ "You sort of answered your own question. They send them out in mass so they don't know what language you speak." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eeqh0w
What is 'parsing' in computer syntax analysis?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbvz2oz", "fbvr6fn", "fbvwvh8" ], "text": [ "Ifyoureadthisstreamoflettersyoucanprobablystillunderstandwhatiamsaying. Your brain is parsing that long string of letters. It breaks it apart in to words, then as it assigns meaning to the words to form complete sentences. Parsing in comput...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eerbnu
How do we have so much metal? Anything you can think of from kitchen appliances to cars, tons upon tons of metals are being used constantly. Surely the source is finite, will we not run into a crisis eventually just like our fears with oil?
Something that has only occured to me recently, we seem to always have metal with no talks on running out at an estimated year or distant future. So.. what are we looking at here? Do we have hundreds of years left of this particular resource? Mainly speaking of Iron and Aluminium for example. Edit: Responses are coming...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbw0b9d", "fbw0p01", "fbw065f" ], "text": [ "Aluminium and Iron together make up 13.1% of the Earth's crust: [ URL_0 ]( URL_1 ) That's an enormous about of metals in ground.", "Aluminum and iron make up a pretty large percentage of the Earth's crust. It may become increasingly exp...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eey2pv
Does the "Reset Factory Setting" option on many devices do anything aside from deleting all your files and cancelling any changes you made?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbx7g0k" ], "text": [ "Usually this does what it says: resets to factory settings. It doesn't just delete your stuff. It's brand new again, at least from a software point of view. If it's a connected device, like a phone, it might need to update, since the factory software could be years old....
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
eey3q3
Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
In networking tunneling is required to transport private data on public networks like internet . Then What is The need for Layer2 tunneling protocols like L2TP ? If required where is it used ?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbx7zyd" ], "text": [ "Well let me just put on my tinfoil hat and say don't use L2TP because it's been weakened deliberately by the NSA. It's the Microsoft standard point to point VPN. Meaning it will encrypt all your traffic between 2 points effectively created a direct network. This is comm...
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ef0wg8
Why are contact-less credit cards a good idea? Doesn't it just make it less safer and easy to be used if stolen?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbxkfay", "fbxlk04" ], "text": [ "The transaction amounts are limited (depending on the country the limit is different) so the risk is very low. The card can only be used contactlessly around 5 times before it needs to be inserted and used with chip Banks have fraud monitoring where they ...
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ef1dra
How is a game converted to a rom for emulation purposes?
I'll just ask about Dolphin's Game Cube since I use it. How does the rom process work in allowing a GC game to be played on Android? Does the process have anything to do with why there are only a limited number of roms?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbxnhdi", "fbxum6g", "fbxnga1" ], "text": [ "A rom is just a copy of the media. In case of GC it's a copy of the data stored on the CD. Some roms are encrypted, like on the 3ds and you need to decrypt them before use on a device. They're called ROMs because originally they were the *d...
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ef1q2e
Does colorblindness affect the functionality of old-school 3D glasses?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbxpoxa", "fbxoz9b", "fbxt25m" ], "text": [ "It’s not seeing in red or blue that makes the glasses work. It’s the red or blue light being stopped by the lenses before it ever hits the eye. This splits the combined image into two separate images.", "Colourblindedness does not affec...
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efcnp5
How do flushless urinals work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbzw5pe" ], "text": [ "They have a cartridge in them with a thick fluid that floats on water (and urine). When you pee into the toilet, your urine flows into the chamber and the thick fluid floats on top of it and forms a seal that mostly keeps the smell from getting too bad. As more ursine e...
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efd4yi
How exactly do Intel and AMD improve their CPUs ever year to become more powerful, faster, efficient?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fbzv7rc", "fbzxsyi", "fbzq8w2", "fbzwmyd", "fbzxcpr", "fbzqepv", "fbzta2t" ], "text": [ "Since you already have a technical answer, the other viewpoint is: By spending [over 13 billion a year in R & D.]( URL_0 ) Why? It’s not driven by consumer demand. The goal is to f...
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effi5l
How do online services let me login with a password while claiming they dont know it?
Title basically, there are tons of online services, including games etc that claim they do not save any passwords nor can they look them up. But how can i log into them when they don't know my passwords or how does the server know that my password is the right one?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc01hrz", "fc02494" ], "text": [ "They store *hashes* of your password. Basically, a hashing algorithm is a mathematical function that will always return the same output given the same input. So, if you were to input \"password\", the hash would always be something like \"kfd0aijffjfj0939...
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efkmbv
How to delete the "Disable ad-blocker" pop-up through inspector without deleting the entire page's contents?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc0z2eh" ], "text": [ "I recently found nano Adblock and nano defender and they seem to work without you doing anything, those are automatically blocked" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
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efmx0f
Why does updating my video card driver fix issues that never existed before the update was available?
Say Nvidia releases a Geoforce update for my card, right? Say this update does nothing but add support for a game I don't even have. Now imagine that a game I was playing all day suddenly stopped booting up and started to give video errors, but the update fixed it. The update in question came out on the 10th, so in all...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc1bszz" ], "text": [ "*officially* it might only just add support for game *x*, but there will be dozens of bug fixes and tweaks in there too. You’ve been playing the game all day and thus the state has changed - new levels unlocked, new cut scenes played, new characters, etc. There will be ...
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efn8l5
In the 60s long before CGI, how did movies fade text and titles in and out of a background image?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc1e8tp" ], "text": [ "They literally physically cut and pasted frames of film together. They had physical film, so they could manipulate it in any arts/crafts way. They could paint it, stamp something on it, cut out a shape from one frame and paste it into another, etc." ], "score": [ ...
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efvo7u
How does a phone know how to "fast charge" when using the official charger and how to "slow charge" when using a generic charger?
I have a Samsung phone and when I use the proper Samsung cable and plug piece it charges quickly however when I use a generic cable or plug piece it charges significantly slower. How does my phone recognise the difference, isn't electricity all the same? (insert Mr Incredible meme).
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc2vauh" ], "text": [ "The phone asks for as much power as it can take, the power brick gives it as much power as it can give. Your official Samsung charging brick can output more power that most other charging bricks." ], "score": [ 12 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
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efwv1s
Why do broadcasting video cameras in sports (e.g., football, soccer) show no rain from some angles, but from others you can see it's pouring down rain?
This was asked a few years ago, but the 4 comments responding amounted to 'raindrops are too small to see on video.' But when watching a football game in the rain, from some angles you can see that it's pouring. But for the vast majority of the game footage (even close-ups of players) you often can't see the rain at al...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc30gpg", "fc31hr5", "fc2wy2k" ], "text": [ "it's a result of using telephoto lenses and narrow aperture settings. they are zoomed way in most of the time which compresses the scene, and anything which is out of the plane of focus (which may be rather narrow) will basically just not b...
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efwz9n
Why Oracle vs Google case is so complicated?
I'm reading [wiki]( URL_0 ) and numerous [web]( URL_2 ) [sites]( URL_1 ) about the 10-year legal battle. I even have a programming background and I understand "API" but I don't understand the justice system in the USA. The Federal Circuit reversed twice (yes twice) district court! District court has jury where Federal ...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc31o2s", "fc2xq4e", "fc3fkz1" ], "text": [ "Software copyrights are complicated because they are essentially a stupid idea. If you write a play, you can copyright it and profit from its performance forever†. This is because your play is ART, and ART is decorative, so society encourag...
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efx7iw
Bandwidth - How does a satellite send down hundreds of channels of high definition content to televisions all over the country, but my 1MBPS in the connection gets bogged down by five smartphones?
Question from my grandad to his 'techy' kids at Christmas.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc2xwo2", "fc2y2p3", "fc38k7c" ], "text": [ "Think of broadcasting television channels like a movie theater. Each individual theater can display a movie to to huge numbers of people, only limited by how many seats there are and how bright the screen is. If the screen was bright enough...
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efyc37
If rifle barrels are rifled, made to fit 1 type of bullet and last a long time, how come shotgun barrels arent destroyed after having a bunch of metal shot bouncing around in them?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc35v69", "fc3ewci", "fc4484q" ], "text": [ "Most shotgun barrels are smooth bore, meaning that they are a straight pipe with smooth sides. The shot is held together by a \"wad\" which is like a little cup that separates the shot from the powder. Rifled shotgun barrels are available f...
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efz7n7
AV1 vs VP9 Video, which one is better?
YouTube's experimental video section lets me change the streaming from VP9 to AV1, but I can't find a simple explanation for why I would want to do this. What actually changes? Will I notice it?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc3h8s6" ], "text": [ "AV1 provides better image quality for the same file size no doubt, but it's a rather new codec and you may find the CPU requirements to play it to be abnormally high. You most likely can't get your video card to assist in playback like H264 and VP9 do. Laptops likely st...
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eg02gi
what's the difference(s) between a gaming mouse and a regular computer mouse?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc3i3or", "fc3ka6c" ], "text": [ "Generally speaking, higher DPI/precision, faster response rates, and more likely to have more buttons or other features like alterable weights. Some of these features can be found in other more business-oriented mice, but outside of gaming generally these...
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eg1dd5
Why are noise-isolating headphones so bad at blocking out certain noises?
I had a burrito covered in foil for lunch and it sounded like I was in WW2.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc3swfq" ], "text": [ "To understand noise cancellation, you first need to recognize that sound is just a bunch of overlaid waves of varying frequencies. If I want to 'cancel' one of those waves, all I need to do is add a wave of the same frequency/amplitude shifted 180 degrees. Put another w...
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eg2tsk
How motion sensors actually work
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc42kbw", "fc40pgr" ], "text": [ "Depends on the type of sensor. The three most common are laser, acoustic and IR. Laser sensors have a sender and a receiver for a small focused laser beam. When something passes through that beam, it gets interrupted and the receiver notices a sudden laps...
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eg6255
Why do pixels on some screens appear to change color when viewed from different angles?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc4nv1z" ], "text": [ "An LCD screen is made up of layers that are polarized to control how light shines through them. The polarized layers are like blinds in your house - they only let light shine through when they're aligned (opened). They make different colours and shades by lining the bli...
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eg64wq
How do web addresses work? The information is stored on a server somewhere in the world, there are tons of servers, and nothing in the url seems to act like directions on how to get there, but lo and behold the url gets me there everytime. How?!?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc4t6sd", "fc4mr62" ], "text": [ "ELI3 Version: Say you're at a party and you want to talk to Susan. Susan may be standing right next to you, so all you have to do is say her name and then you can start chatting. What if she's not right next to you? You ask your friend \"hey, do you know ...
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egb1y7
What does the "seeding" process after a torrent is done downloading mean ?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc5c5u5", "fc5by0u" ], "text": [ "Torrenting is a type of peer-to-peer network for downloading files. That means that, instead of the file being on a big server owned by a website, the file is shared from your computer. In order for you to download it, someone else has to keep it availabl...
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egbslv
Why do why have to turn on airplane mode when in flight, what happens if we don't.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc5h1ey" ], "text": [ "Nothing happens if you don’t. As to why? Because when mobiles phones first started gaining wide adoption airlines didn’t know if the emissions from the phone would interfere with aircraft systems. So to eliminate any potential liability they may have faced in the event ...
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eggk6x
How does steam cleaning actually work? How does steam actually loosen dirt?
Also, as a corollary, does using hot water for washing dishes vs cold water do the same thing? I did search and didn't find anything that actually explains the process, mostly discussions about killing germs which I get.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc6lxas" ], "text": [ "As for washing dishes, fat \"dissolves\" or rather mixes with water much better with increased temperature. You can clean your plates with cold water but it is much easier and even cleaner with hot/warm water. Try it with a pan yourself. Hot water will almost always cle...
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egkuyb
Why are there so many Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installations on my computer? Surely one for each year is enough?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc7i8hh" ], "text": [ "Each program will require a specific version of the library, and if 2 programs point to slightly different versions we can't just pick 1 because, while unlikely, using the wrong version could result in different things happening. So, why so many versions? Well, patches ...
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egn061
What's the significance of Russia disconnecting from the internet?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc7ns86" ], "text": [ "It’s laying the ground work for any country, but specifically Russia in this case, to create an echo chamber and to control the flow of information. The Russian government can basically censor its citizens and determine the information they can have access to." ], "...
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egn2hn
- What is the difference between HAM radio and how cel phones work?
ELI5 - What is the difference between HAM radio and how cel phones work? How similar are they, and how are they different?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc7u1di" ], "text": [ "In the US and most countries, amateur radio transmissions have to be public, they cannot be encrypted, anyone can listen in. Cell phones, one the other hand, take great pains to ensure only the intended recipient has access to the information being broadast. Amateur rad...
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egn6ox
What makes MD5 such a bad hashing algorithm?
Edit: Asking more in the sense of what makes the algorithms process worse than others, sorry for the ambiguity.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc7svv5", "fc7t0lz", "fc8m77c" ], "text": [ "A couple of things: 1) It's very fast. \"How is that a disadvantage?\" you may ask. Don't we want computers to be fast? Well, not in this case. For one, you don't need the speed. If your login takes 500 ms instead of 0.5 ms because of a slo...
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egod6n
To process images, a computer assigns red, green and blue values to every pixel. How does a computer manage sound? What are the values assigned?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc7z34g", "fc7zg6a", "fc805fc" ], "text": [ "All sound waves, even complex ones like talking or instruments are just single intensities at single moments in time. You assign each value in time an intensity and when you play it back you get the whole sound. Depending on how finely you ...
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egs55p
How does turning it off and on again fix a problem with certain technology? e.g internet router
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc96xxq" ], "text": [ "Most systems (routers, switches, etc) have two sets of memory, one of which contains the basics operating system and instructions and the other that has the actually running version and every change you've made. Occasionally, as part of the running, errors develop our t...
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egtadw
How does my phone detect that there's water in the charging port?
So the other day, I was taking a bath and accidentally dropped my phone into the water. Since it's waterproof, that isn't such a big issue, however, when I picked it back up and wiped most of the water off, I checked the notifications and one of the notifications said that the phone detected water in the charging port....
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fc9khwb", "fc9kwsb" ], "text": [ "There are likely wires/contacts in the port which always have a low potential. The phone monitors them and if current begins flowing between them then it signals something is in the port, most likely water.", "It measured the resistance between contac...
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egtrh9
Does “dark mode” on phone and computer settings really help our eyes?
What is the science behind a darker screen being better for our eyes? People at work claim our main system we use when put in dark mode is so much easier on their eyes... and I scroll reddit on dark mode for hours and it seems more comfortable.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fca8kzo" ], "text": [ "It is less about your eyes and more about your brain. Light in general and blue light signals your brain that it is day time and that it should remain alert, which will throw off your circadian rhythms and make it harder to get good sleep." ], "score": [ 5 ], ...
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egvxsf
Why do downloads slow down near the end?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcadwnb", "fcacfo5", "fcafmex" ], "text": [ "If you’re talking about torrents, then think of a download as putting together a 1000 piece puzzle, but with the pieces all spread through your house. You have to search for them before you can put them in place. So starting to put the puzz...
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egww1f
What's the difference between CD-R and CD+R?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcam4lm", "fcamb0k", "fcamc98" ], "text": [ "Do you mean DVD-r and DVD+r? DVD-R is from 1997 and has a different way to line up the lasers than DVD+R which was created in 2002. This makes a difference in some old DVD players. Most DVD drives are compatible with both so it doesn't make...
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egzgn6
How does memory foam work exactly?
Is it a relatively new technology? Does it cause cancer? Does it last longer than a traditional spring mattress?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcccvgd" ], "text": [ "Memory foams are viscoelastic polyurethane foams, which have low resilience. Resilience is the technical term for how fast the foam springs back when compressed. The foam industry uses a standard ball bounce test, where they drop a steel ball form a certain height and l...
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eh0lnw
how do traffic light sensors work?
Do they sense the weight of a vehicle on a certain area before the stop line?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcbnso5", "fcboc8d", "fcbnv2p" ], "text": [ "It varies. But modern sensors are a buried copper wire connected to a sensor on the controller. When you pull up to a traffic light the motion of the conductive metal of your car induces a current in the wire. The current triggers the senso...
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eh1wou
Why can't we see the flag on the moon even with the super powerful telescopes?
There are pictures of Mars Rover on Mars taken from passing by satellites but never a picture of the flag on the Moon
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fccc6o7", "fccc0er", "fcci5v4", "fccb0os", "fcf2q7j", "fcdo7w2" ], "text": [ "So the flag on the moon is way too small to be seen by our strongest telescopes as it’s only about 4ft wide and to see something that small you would need a roughly 200 meter/650ft wide telescope...
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eh2iam
How is 5G going to interfere with weather satellites?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fccm042", "fcf7gm8" ], "text": [ "Some of the frequency bands that are expected to be used for 5G are currently the bands that most weather radar use to detect precipitation feedback in the atmosphere, as that makes the \"noise\" of different \"intensity\" to show what we know has a weath...
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eh34sz
The Differences between UART, JTAG, and TTL
Alright so I have been looking into looking underneath the hood of some home automation devices. A lot of people have done similar things with different devices. And UART, JTAG and TTL have all come up in these different write ups I have been reading about. So I have been understanding UART and JTAG to get me the same ...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcd5okz" ], "text": [ "This is from many years ago (ie it could have changed) UART (universal asynchronous receiver transmitter) means to expect that the data to be sent and received as a series of pulses (as opposed to parallel address/data) Usually this means 2 to three lines. (receive, tra...
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eh5ibq
how can the original super mario bros file size only be 32 kilobytes/Kb?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcesgic", "fcf60lj", "fcfcort" ], "text": [ "The code is very very very very very efficient. Programmers in the 70s and 80s were taught more intensely about how to make your code more efficient because, at the time, resources were *expensive*. Nowadays we have 8GB or even 16GB of RAM ...
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eh5zwe
How does Google/Apple Maps accurately measure traffic on every single road to predict trip time from origin to destination?
In addition to amount of traffic and trip time, how do they know if an accident occurs? I assume it has something to do with satellite imaging and/or tracking individual user’s location that are using the app on their phone.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcfmmes", "fcf7m4g", "fcgv1fa", "fcgkin8" ], "text": [ "There are quite a few sources of data. Crowd sourced information is very fast and high precision, but can be messy (is the traffic bad, or is this person just driving slow?). This kind of data comes from anonymized reporting ...
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eh6fmr
what do the Windows updates that don't change anything visible do?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcfg08c", "fcffkh0" ], "text": [ "A lot of security issue and big fixes. Some time after a part of windows is coded, someone at Microsoft leans that under a very specific set of circumstances, that piece of code might behave unpredictably, lead to a system crash, or allow arbitrary code t...
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eh6jmg
pixel binning
New Samsung S11 is supposed to have a fancy new camera that does this. Started to read this article about it and it made my head hurt. Unhurt my head URL_0
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fcfi308", "fcfm4li" ], "text": [ "> Pixel binning is the process of combining the electric charge from adjacent CMOS or CCD sensor pixels into one super-pixel, to reduce noise by increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in digital cameras. On the same sensor size, if you combine a group of pi...
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eha87a
Why does ionising radiation cause cameras to act strangely and/or stop working?
For example in [this picture (the elephants foot)]( URL_1 ) (the elephants foot) where it causes a strange ghostly apparition of a man standing 2 feet away from the most radioactive object in existence, [or in videos where it causes strange dots and static (warning: creepy, its footage from inside Chernobyl Reactor #4)...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fch7rug", "fchunxj" ], "text": [ "Radiation goes through the camera's body and either hits and discolors film (this is how radiation was discovered to begin with: a piece of uranium ore was left in a desk drawer and it spoiled new-in-the-box photography materials) or hits the transistors ...
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ehaoee
How does telling video game cheaters what program they were detected with help them develop better cheats?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fchfn54" ], "text": [ "If you log onto a game and you get busted cheating, and the game says \"We tracked your mouse movements and they were always in a straight line from point to point, and at a constant speed, instead of having some curve in them and variation in speed, like a normal human...
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ehb65u
How google makes profit with some of its services that seems completely free like Maps, Translate or Gmail
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "fchnuvs", "fchuxv7", "fchvpdf", "fci4cc5" ], "text": [ "They provide these services for free because those services are only secondary to how they make their money. They made their money with advertising and data. Data which is used to make better advertising, targeted advertising...
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