For getting started or a quick review, this is the basics of how things work. I take tech down to the roots.
Our Internet capabilities have grown tremendously over the past two decades. Most of that progress is thanks to improvements in the Internet itself. As recently as 2000, the idea of three people in a home watching three different movies on three different devices was inconceivable. Today, if we can’t do that, we figure something’s wrong…
You’re almost certainly reading this using a browser of some type, whether it’s on a phone, tablet, or computer. The browser is your gateway to the World Wide Web, or what we call the Internet. We count on our browsers to just do their job so we don’t have to think about them, but how…
“They call me Baby Driver…and once, upon a pair of wheels”… No, not that kind of driver, more’s the pity. Today I’m going to tell you about drivers of a different type. They’re small programs that let your operating system talk to your hardware. We need to know about drivers because outdated drivers can cause…
A traditional desktop computer is pretty much worthless without being connected to a keyboard and monitor. Most modern applications also want a mouse. Even laptops — and pretty much all modern electronics — require at least one type of connection. They all need power, and most of them get it through a charger. Understanding ports…
Even as a technology professional, I rarely give much thought to the process that brings new software to my computer, phone, or tablet. Most of us don’t, as long as it works. We download a piece of software, double-click on the icon, and away we go! The action of double-clicking that installer, as simple as…
It’s kind of a no-brainer to understand that all our wonderful devices require power. Most often, when we think about needing power, we mean the power to our home, and from the outlets in the wall or our car’s charging ports into our devices. But have you ever wondered what happens when the power reaches…
For years, computers used something called the BIOS to get everything going when you pressed the power button. It did the job—but it was old. Really old. Like, 1980s old. As computers got faster and more powerful, BIOS started showing its age. It couldn’t handle big hard drives, took longer to start up, and didn’t…
Even if you’re not deep into computers, have you ever wondered why some computers can make games and videos look amazing, while others struggle? The secret is in the graphics card. This one component matters more than any other factor in making videos flow smoothly and look real instead of choppy and pixelated.You won’t be…
You’ve probably heard the word “motherboard” thrown around—but what does it actually do? Is it just a fancy piece of green plastic? (Spoiler: it’s a lot more important than that.) The motherboard is a central “hub” or something like the nervous system of a computer. It connects the various components of the system and allows…
Ever wonder why some computers feel lightning-fast while others struggle to open a simple web page? The secret lies in the tiny but powerful chip inside your device—the CPU. I touched on CPUs in this article on computer internals. Think of it as the brain of your computer, processing everything from emails to Netflix streams….
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