Tag Archive for how stuff works

How Stuff Works: GPS Receivers

GPS is amazing technology. It’s also amazingly creepy technology. It’s a weird thing, having a satellite somewhere in space following your every move, allowing you to pinpoint your exact position on the globe within a few feet. It’s strange being…

How Stuff Works: A Computer CPU

You’ve got a brain, right? Sure you do! And so does your computer. But instead of a soft, squishy blob of neurons and axons and synapses, your computer has a small square chip about the size of a Triscuit cracker…

How Stuff Works: LCD TVs

Half the people I encounter don’t know what LCD stands for, and even less really know what’s going on inside that rectangle they spend hours peering at every day. With the rise of HDTV, Blu-Ray, hi-def gaming and the digital…

How Stuff Works: Computer Graphics Cards

You know the words you’re reading right now? You’re seeing them thanks to your computer’s graphics card. The game you just played? Yeah, that was the graphics card too, big guy. Without your computer’s graphics card, your monitor is as…

How Stuff Works – Cell Phone Towers

There is an object near you right now that is extremely technical. Maybe it’s in your pocket, or in a holster on your belt. Perhaps sitting on your desk, or in your purse or near android tv box. It could…

How Stuff Works: DVDs and DVD Players

Nobody needs to be told about the impact that DVDs, and now Blu-Ray, have had on our home entertainment standards. It’s become all we know in regards to tangible home movie solutions, obliterating the VHS tape out of our lives…

How Stuff Works: Ram

RAM is one component of a computer’s anatomy that most people are familiar with. Tell someone your computer is running slow, and they often reply “maybe you should add some RAM.” Whether they really know what that means or not,…