> I wasn’t sure how to find out what an “LI????77” was […]. I would be interested to learn non-LLM ways to figure this out though. There must be a way.
Reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell#Type_designation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell#Type_designation would have indicated a solution: The third character must be an R (for rechargeable), the “77” would be the height in tenths of millimeters (which makes for a good plausibility check), and then you can measure the cell’s diameter to obtain the remaining digits in the middle.
And this is why you don't ask an LLM such questions. An LLM will give you a random battery type as it doesn't have calipers nor hands to measure the size of the battery.
An LLM might know there's a system to this, but equally depending on training material it might not. If you find a battery nerd they will know. For a whole bunch of topics there will be a nerd who cares a lot about that topic and knows the answer, and one of the lovely things about having connected ~all the world's humans is that you could find that nerd.
The nerd, unlike an LLM is clear on the difference between reality and imagination and where exactly the grey areas are. They can tell you whether your question just has an answer like this one (measure the battery, now you know) whether it has an accepted canonical "answer" but it's made up so if you hate that just make up your own canon, or whether it's absolutely MST3K Mantra material ("repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax").
This is an unsolvable problem for an LLM. An LLM is not physical, it can not measure the diameter of the battery and thus will never know the correct battery type.
layer8 · · focus · HN ↗
Reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell#Type_designation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell#Type_designation would have indicated a solution: The third character must be an R (for rechargeable), the “77” would be the height in tenths of millimeters (which makes for a good plausibility check), and then you can measure the cell’s diameter to obtain the remaining digits in the middle.
artisinal · · focus · HN ↗
tialaramex · · focus · HN ↗
The nerd, unlike an LLM is clear on the difference between reality and imagination and where exactly the grey areas are. They can tell you whether your question just has an answer like this one (measure the battery, now you know) whether it has an accepted canonical "answer" but it's made up so if you hate that just make up your own canon, or whether it's absolutely MST3K Mantra material ("repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax").
artisinal · · focus · HN ↗