The Off-Key Bard

The Bard's Desk

Technology

Practical guides, gear sense, and making modern tech less mysterious.

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How Does Shazam Recognize a Song in Just a Few Seconds?
What Is a Checksum or Hash, and Why Does SHA-256 Exist?
How Does a Fingerprint Reader Actually Recognize Your Finger?
How Does Active Noise Cancellation Actually Cancel Sound?
How Does a Touchscreen Know Where Your Finger Is?
What Actually Happens When a Website Goes Down?
What Is a CDN, and Why Does the Internet Need Them?
What Is an API?
What Is HDR, and Is It Actually Better?
Why Does My Keyboard Sometimes Stop Working?
What Actually Happens When You Install Software?
What Is a Kernel?
Why Do Files Sometimes Corrupt?
What Is 5G Actually Doing Differently?
What Is DNS Over HTTPS, and Why Does It Matter?
What Is End-to-End Encryption, and Why Do Some Apps Have It and Others Don't?
What Is a Data Breach, Exactly?
Why Do Some Files Open Instantly While Others Take Forever to Load?
What Is a VPN Actually Hiding?
What Is Two-Factor Authentication Actually Protecting You From?
What Is a GPU Actually Doing That a CPU Can't?
Why Does My Monitor Have a Refresh Rate, and Does It Actually Matter?
What Is a Programming Language, and Why Are There So Many?
Why Does Free Space on Your Drive Matter Even When You're Not Storing More Files?
What Is a Firewall Actually Doing?
What Is a MAC Address, and Why Does Every Device Have One?
Why Does My Internet Feel Slow When the Speed Test Says It's Fast?
What Actually Happens When You Click a Link?
How Does a Computer Generate Random Numbers?
How Does My Computer Keep Time When It's Turned Off?
Why Do Thousands of Tiny Files Take Longer to Copy Than One Huge File?
Why Can I Safely Unplug Some USB Devices but Others Need to Be Ejected?
Why Do Apps Need to Update So Often?
What Happens to Your Data When a Company Goes Out of Business?
Why Does My Phone Take Worse Photos in Low Light?
Why Does My Wi-Fi Slow Down When My Neighbors Use Theirs?
Sleep, Hibernate, Shut Down, or Restart — What's the Difference?
How Does a ZIP File Make Things Smaller Without Losing Anything?
What Is a Codec, and Why Won't This Video Play?
What Does a Processor Actually Do?
Why Does My Computer Say It Has Less Storage Than I Bought?
Why Does My Battery Percentage Jump Around?
What Actually Happens When You Take a Screenshot?
Why Does My Picture Look Different on Someone Else's Screen?
How Does Your Phone Get Notifications When the App Isn't Open?
How Does Copy and Paste Actually Work?
Why Do Games Take Up So Much More Space Than Movies?
What Is a File Format, and Why Does It Matter?
Why Isn't My 1 Gig Internet Downloading at 1 Gigabyte Per Second?
Why Do I Have Wi-Fi but No Internet?
Why Doesn't Every Charger Charge at the Same Speed?
Why Does My Phone Get So Hot?
What Is BIOS, and What Happens Before Windows Starts?
What Is a Passkey, and Is It Really the End of Passwords?
What Is Phishing, and Why Are People Still Falling for It?
What Is a VPN, and What Does It Actually Do?
USB-C Is a Connector, Not a Capability
What Is a Driver, and Why Does My Computer Keep Asking for One?
What Is Encryption, Really?
What Is a Backup, Really?
Why Do Websites Keep Asking If I'm a Robot?
How Do QR Codes Actually Work?
What Does HTTP vs. HTTPS Actually Mean?
What Is Cache, and Why Does Clearing It Sometimes Fix Problems?
What Does "404 Not Found" Actually Mean?
What Happens When You Click "Print"?
Why Does My Browser Keep Asking to Save My Password?
What's the Difference Between RAM and Storage?
How Does Face Unlock Know It's You?
How Does Tap-to-Pay Actually Work?
How Does GPS Know Exactly Where You Are?
What Is Bluetooth, Really?
Why Doesn't More Megapixels Always Mean Better Pictures?
What Is an Operating System?
What Actually Happens When You Type a Website Into Your Browser?
Why Does My Phone Know Things I Never Told It?
Why Does Every Website Want Me to Download an App?
What Is Artificial Intelligence, Really?
Do You Really Need Gigabit Internet?
What Does Your Router Actually Do?
Does Closing Apps Actually Make Your Computer Faster?
What Happens When You Delete a File?
SSD vs. Hard Drive — Why Does One Feel So Much Faster?
What Does the GPU Actually Do?
What Does the CPU Actually Do?
What Is RAM, Really?
Why Do Software Updates Take So Long?
Why Doesn't My New Phone or Computer Have All the Storage It Promised?
Frames, Hertz, and the Soap Opera Effect
LCD, LED, OLED, QLED, Mini-LED — What Do They Actually Mean?
Can Someone Hack Me Just Because They Know My IP Address?
Why Does My Wi-Fi Work Everywhere Except Where I Am?
Why Does My Internet Get Slower at Night?
Does My Computer Have a Virus?
Do Expensive HDMI Cables Actually Make a Better Picture?
More Bars Doesn't Always Mean Better Service
Why Does My Phone Battery Die So Fast?
Why Does Everyone Keep Telling Me to Use Two-Factor Authentication?
Why Does Every Website Ask About Cookies?
What Is "The Cloud" Actually?
Why Is My Computer So Slow?
Why Aren't All My Speakers Working?
The TV Isn't Broken (Probably)
Why Does Everything Need an Account Now?
Why Does Restarting It Actually Work?
Why Is My Wi-Fi Acting Like a Goblin?