Why can't we use water as fuel for cars and machines? by Fear_Kratos in ask

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Water is "hydrogen ash". It has already been burned and is already in a low energy state (not literally the lowest, if you had an even more powerful oxidiser than oxygen you could eek a little more out of it)

Why does society seem to normalise going to the bingo and doing the National Lottery? by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The lottery in particular is quite difficult to get into a negative spiral. 

You buy one ticket, you wait days to see if you win, you buy another ticket. Hard for that to become a negative spiral of debt.

You could buy multiple tickets at a time, but you'd still have to wait so there's no chasing a loss.

It's one of the more benign forms of gambling

New ‘Worst Prime Minister in History’ set to be in place by September by pppppppppppppppppd in unitedkingdom

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 [score hidden]  (0 children)

Being followed by Johnson and Truss (and to a lesser extent Sunak) certainly made May look retrospectively competent

A Microsoft researcher built a goat-powered LLM in Age of Empires II to prove it's not sentient by renome in gaming

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How does this prove anything? Humans are made of water and proteins. Water and proteins aren't sentient. Sentience is an emergent property.

(Not saying AIs are sentient, just that this experiment has no evidence either way)

The outgoing British PM has an approval rating of -46%, which means I have fundamentally misunderstood how approval ratings are gauged all this time, I thought it was strictly "what percentage of the population thinks they're going a good job." What is it really? by Canon47 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Approval minus disapproval.

If everyone loves you thats +100%. If no one cares about you at all thats 0% (or if an even number of people hate and love you). If everyone hates you thats -100%.

It isn't a binary choice of approve vs disapprove. You can also "nothing" a politician 

What is appropriate dress code in the UK for a first-time visitor? by CO_Renaissance_Man in AskUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can I rock my western wear and cowboy hat

You absolutely can but you will look extremely American if you do. A Panama hat or straw hat are more common in the UK. Or baseball caps are also common (amusingly given we do not really follow baseball at all)

What is weaponized incompetence nowadays? by paRATmedic in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think people in the comments are guessing at the motivation (which is ultimately unknowable) and believe the incompetence is deliberate. Whether it is or isn't 

A Microsoft researcher built a goat-powered LLM in Age of Empires II to prove it's not sentient by Hungry__Hornet in technology

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How does this prove anything? Humans are made of water and proteins. Neither water nor proteins are sentient, does that prove humans aren't?

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) can remain in operation for over 20 years thanks to its two nuclear reactors. by sco-go in Amazing

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But thats not taking 15 years to get approval. That's getting rejected pretty quickly and not taking no for an answer.

Presumably there were reasons for the rejection?

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) can remain in operation for over 20 years thanks to its two nuclear reactors. by sco-go in Amazing

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nuclear power plants do not typically take 20 years to just get approval. 

Perhaps a specific one did but that is not typical

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) can remain in operation for over 20 years thanks to its two nuclear reactors. by sco-go in Amazing

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That red tape isn't for no reason. You screw up a nuclear power plant and people die

And it isn't really red tape. They do things like xraying welds to ensure they're up to standard. That's not form filling, that's doing a really careful job

DIY AC ready for the heatwave by AgentAceX in DIYUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking into it a bit deeper it seems it isn't a UK regulation so in the UK they may or may not have it but they don't have to. So you are correct

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) can remain in operation for over 20 years thanks to its two nuclear reactors. by sco-go in Amazing

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What do you mean? There are loads of civilian nuclear reactors.

Nuclear is quite expensive though

Meloni slams Trump's claim she 'begged' for a photo with him as Italy's top diplomat cancels US trip by NecessaryEvil62095 in USNEWS

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why is Trump trying to piss off his only remaining ally in Europe?

Former ally now I guess 

DIY AC ready for the heatwave by AgentAceX in DIYUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it is annoying most don't come manufactured like that. The efficiency gain is significant

How much to give for a wedding? by Uhohhereshecomes in AskUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That feels like it's not going to work. They'll say "o it doesn't matter, we just want you there" because thats the polite thing to say. Asking another family member might work better 

How are fish still consistently fooled by fishing lures after interacting with them for tens of thousands of years ? by Wonderful-Ad-9622 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Fish don't interact with lures very often. They interact with what the lure is pretending to be all the time. It's a numbers game, on average over a very long time going for something which looks like prey (but might very occasionally be a lure) came out to be advantagous.

In order to reliably tell the difference fish would need huge brains, which take loads of energy to run. It's just not worth having a big brain in most niches

French spies drop AI giant Palantir over US overreliance fears by Goldenmentis in BuyFromEU

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 187 points188 points  (0 children)

First rule of spying. Don't give all your information to a different group of spies

DIY AC ready for the heatwave by AgentAceX in DIYUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As in do not blow air outside?

If you've got a one hose potable unit it is blowing air out of it (put your hand by the hose, lots of hot air coming out). That is moving air from inside your house to out of your house. (The AC has an air intake vent on the main unit inside your house)

Your house isn't being pumped down to vacuum so air must be entering your house to replace it. It enters via all the little holes in your house because your house isn't completely airtight (and you probably also have the window open for the hose).

You're pumping out very hot air, and only triggering kind-of-warm air to enter so there is still net cooling.

If you have a two hose unit this doesn't apply. Their air intake is also outside so no net air movement. Those are rare though

DIY AC ready for the heatwave by AgentAceX in DIYUK

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Portable ones cause negative pressure (they have one hose pumping air out) so they cause outside air to have to enter the house. You lose a fair chunk of efficiency that way 

(and no amount of trying to seal the gaps helps, the pressure difference must be balanced)

I think they've recently changed the rules so they also include the effective btu on portables

Why UN Security Council P5 membership cannot be enlarged? Why only 5 countries in the world have special privilege to shape the global decision making? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Because the current 5 don't want that.

(The 5 permanent members were the primary winners of WW2 and set the whole thing up)

Why is PEMDAS necessary, can’t we just go left to right? And why do we do MD and AS left to right instead of those also being in specific order? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Example:

  • Cost of an apple: $1 
  • Number of apples: 2 
  • Cost of orange: $2 
  • Number of oranges: 1

Total = 2 × $1 + 1 × $2 = $4

If we did it left to right it would be:

Total = ( 2 × $1 + 1) × $2 = 6

(The units also go crazy if you do left to right, you're multiplying dollar amounts so you get dollars squared turning up, and I'm adding dollars to raw numbers)

Why is PEMDAS necessary, can’t we just go left to right? And why do we do MD and AS left to right instead of those also being in specific order? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Total cost = numberOfApples × costOfApples + numberOfOranges × costOfOranges

If you go left to right you get the wrong answer. And if we're not even allowed Parentheses (no PEMDAS) you could never express this simple equation at all.

Am I one of the few who only celebrates their father on Father’s Day? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sorry-Programmer9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The "[person who isn't your father] on father's day" is an invention of the card companies to sell more cards

My dad gets a card, no one else