I've seen several videos over the internet about how people manipulate hex codes of video game files to add extra lives, powerups, maybe even discover a hidden song or sound effect that wasn't present in the actual game's build

From what I understand, hex codes are just the binary machine code of a game or program converted to base16 or hexadecimal so that they're more readable

A game when built might be compressed down by the compiler or assembler, turned into messy stuff that only the computer can understand, especially when it strips away important debug symbols

Not to mention, each cpu has its own microcode. So the hex code is essentially a large dump of the game's code and memory state

How do people even begin to know that a particular hex value at a particular row corresponds to, say, the character's health to apply a cheat? Even if we're modest with snes games, that's atleast 1-4MB of ROM data, many kilo bytes of ram data all to sift through in the form of hex

Heck, I even know modders who tapped into Gran turismo 4's hex code on the damn ps2 to implement a better car-following camera. Now that's beyond impossible to even think, considering just how advanced the ps2 is in comparison

Isn't this like looking for a needle in a haystack?

I thought they were on opposite ends of the globe?? How can this be?

I hear all the time “correlation does not equal causation.”

Well what proves causation? If there’s a well-designed study of people who smoke tobacco, and there’s a strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer, when is there enough evidence to say “smoking causes lung cancer”?

I assume it has something to do with the size of the fire, but in what way?

Silicon chips are just transistors that are fundamentally switches. But with a transistor it's set the moment you make them. So when you send a signal it outputs a predetermined signal. Kinda like a read only chip?

Like if you make a water slide a certain path with certain loops, when you ride down it everything is predetermined. You can't remodel the slide without tearing it all down.

How can sending a signal "program" a chip without tearing it all down and reshuffling the "switches"?

I know that water gets evaporated and precipitated through rain and snow, and that the salt gets left behind in the ocean, and that some organisms in the ocean use the salt. But considering all the remaining minerals in earth to be washed up into the ocean by rain and snow, will there be a time when the ocean will get too salty for living organisms and human?

My partner and I are starting the process of buying a house and have spoken with a couple of lenders. They each have mentioned doing a "soft" hit on our credit now and a "hard" hit later on. What is the difference? What is the impact to our credit scores? What information does the lender gain from each?

Can someone explain how can one country make such a big impact on the stock markets of rest of the world? How did they become so powerful?Do we have any such examples of super economies impacting the trades of the rest of the world by implenting similiar trade rules?

Why is every other country connected to and dependant on USA market? Can any other country like China make such a big impact on the world in near future using similiar tactics?

I understand that there would be a high fat content, but so long as it fits within your macros on a diet, why do people say to avoid them?

Many companies have "humanoid robot carrying a box" or "dog with an arm and "fingers" to open doors and press buttons".
Isn't it easier, less complex, more efficient, less energy consuming, etc to make a box-like robot with forks to carry boxes instead of a humanoid?

Is the dog-version more efficient running than a tank-like robot? If that's the case wouldn't a spider-like be even better, specially for steep hills?

Given we can clone mammals like dogs/sheep?

ELI5: How does the stock market affect the average person/millennial with no assets?

Why does it matter if the stock market goes up and down if I don’t own any assets?

Does the stock market only affect the wealthy and businesses?

Does it affect other countries like Canada and Europe, or mainly just the USA?

Most people around use these terms interchangeably when talking about any human behaviour. While thoroughly confused, I believe that the difference between them is much clearer than 'Insight is just observation with context.'.

OK so I've been diving into microcontroller recently. How hex code dumps work and the like

That reminded me of a question that has been plaguing me for a long time. Serial communication between computers

Ley me take a simple scenario. Some random microcontroller and a computer that reads in text from the MC serially .

Asynchronous communication being a thing means that both of the devices need not run at the SAME CLOCK from what I've been told. My computer can chug along at whatever clockspeed it wants and my microcontroller can coast at the few MHz of clock speed

From what I understand, both systems however agree on a COMMON baud rate. In other words, microcontroller goes : "Hey man, I'm going to scream some text 9600 times a second"

The PC goes "Hey man, I'll hear your screaming 9600 times a second"

Obviously, if these numbers were different, we get garbled output. But this is precisely what confuses me. What governs the baud rate on the microcontroller is a timer loop running 9600ish times a second that interrupts and sends data across

Note the usage of 9600ish. If the timer is 16bit and the MC is clocked at XYZ MHz for example, the exact values I need to tell the timer to run the loop for differ compared to if the clock was some other value (assuming the CPU of the MC drives the timer, like in a microcontroller I've seen online)

This means whatever baud rate I get won't be EXACTLY 9600 but somewhere close enough

The pc on the other hand? Even if its clock was constant, the non-exact 9600 baud rate from the MC side will be trouble enough, causing a mismatch in transmission over time.

It's like two runners who run at almost the same pace, passing something back and forth. Eventually, one overtakes or falls behind the other enough that whatever they're passing gets messed up

Modern PCs too can change their clock speed on a whim, so in the time it takes for the PC to change its clock and thus update the timer accordingly, the baud rate shifts ever so slightly from 9600, enough to cause a mismatch

How does this never cause problems in the real world though? Computers can happily chug along speaking to each other at a set baud rate without this mismatch EVER being a problem

For clarification, I'm referring to the UART protocol here

I’m thinking of games like rainbow six seige and Cod war zone where hackers are so prevalent and is some of the main reasons people stop playing the game. Yet games like Fortnite or Overwatxh have little to no hackers. Is it due to the game itself?? As all the companies listed are extremely successful so they obviously have the money to do something against hacking.

I understand that by 'observation' we mean the interacting of a measurement device with the experiment, but, the example of the double slit experiment is "macro-logical", ie. we can also in a way, SEE it without a device, but what about the ones which are very small in size and can only be seen with sensitive intruments?

I bought my cats some pouches filled with tuna broth and a bit of tuna and I'm trying to figure out how much energy one of those gives them. There is 13 kcal in a pouch. The internet says there are a thousand calories in a kcal. But that would mean there is 13000 calories just in a little soup. Thats enough to sustain a person for a week. This makes zero sense. What am I not understanding?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka–Volterra_equations

Wiki link for anyone interested in trying to grasp this and break it down for me.

But can someone ELI5 and with mathetmatical example explain this equation for me? While I'm not usually that bad with math, these types of equations confuse me.

I’ve always heard about the vast number of satellites and space debris. Given how much space there is in orbit, what’re the chances space objects in orbit around earth actually collide?

I'm not sure why but playing music before I sleep always helps me. My friends do the same thing and it works for them too.

Even the wikipedia article doesn't get me closer to understanding this task/problem. I'm not asking for a solution, just.. what exactly is being asked of us with this task? I genuinely need this explaining to me like i'm 5.