Spyke
eli5·Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)byscuppie

How do oxygen free hazards develop?

I've had a couple of articles come up for me like Darwin award winners walking into helium balloons while they're still being filled at ground level, or people walking into buildings (is it far underground?) and just asphyxiating before they realise.

How do these conditions come about? What about cave diving? Where do you get areas open to the environment where oxygen doesn't reach? I get with helium balloons the gas is being forcefully displaced. How else do you encounter oxygen absent scenarios?

View original on lemmy.blahaj.zone
eli5·Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)bySpaceCheeseWizard

Why do portable devices like the Switch and Steam Deck die after not using them for a couple weeks, but a gameboy or 3ds will still have a charge?

This is something I haven't given all that much thought about until recently, but it is quite infuriating. If you leave a steam deck or switch unplugged, the battery will drain pretty quickly. However, I remember the game boy and more particularly, my 3ds never dying if I had to step away for awhile. I knew I would have to charge it shortly after gaming once again, but it was never a big deal in the end. Looking it up and talking with friends, they came to the conclusion it has to do with the Lithium ion, but neither of us could explain well the why.

View original on lemmy.zip
eli5·Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)byAllero

ELI5: What exactly is Usenet and why do I need a provider?

Some people describe it as a network, some people describe it as a forum, yet somehow we have providers, and at the same time Usenet is seen as anonymous despite having a proxy in the form of a provider...for someone grown way after the Usenet prime, this all doesn't make sense.

What is Usenet, actually? Is it a separate network? Is it layered on top of the Internet? If it's the latter, why do I need some Usenet provider and why does it need to retain information (and why doing it for as long as possible is desirable?). Please help me connect the dots here.

View original on lemmy.today
eli5·Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)byEfreetSK

How is Bitcoin anonymous?

So my understanding is, you have a wallet, that wallet has a hash ID and thus is basically anonymous. But if someone connects that ID to you, you aren't anonymous anymore.

I heard you should use a new wallet for every transaction. But if I send money to the new wallet from my personal wallet, won't that be on blockchain forever? Thus making it identifiable? Or if I send euros/dolars to my new wallet, won't that connect me to the new wallet?

View original on lemmy.world
eli5·Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)bySquiffSquiff

Why are geographic communities always negative?

Why is it that no matter where in the world, what country or what the apparent topic is, literally every geographically specific community on Lemmy , just like every geographic specific sub on Reddit, is negative. Literally every story is about something horrible, awful, sad or enraging, never anything positive for anything geographic beyond a national level and rarely even then?

Why is this with geographic communities and not others?

View original on lemmy.world
eli5·Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)byverstra

ELI5 why do people in USA need to register to vote?

I'd expect the state to have a list of all its citizens and their basic personal info (age) which could be used to determine their eligibility for voting. In my country, we get a "invitation" to the vote, with your voter station and info on how to change it.

Instead, I'm seeing posts about USA's "voter rolls", which are sometimes purged, which prevents people from voting. Isn't this an attack on the voting system and democracy itself?

So why doesn't USA have a list of voters? Are they stupid?

View original on programming.dev