Technology
Exploring "Why" questions about Technology
491 articles
Why do all modern phones have stripes on the bottom? (Picture in text)
If your talking about the thin lines that run all along the phone, them it's separation for the antennas in the phone. Your phone has different antennas for cellular/LTE connections, Bluetooth, wifi..
Why does Windows seem to boot slower and open programs slower than Mac OS X or Linux?
I would guess that windows seems to boot the slowest as it tends to run on slower hardware than osx and usually has more stuff to load than Linux. With the right hardware, windows can boot in less tha
Why did Ashley Madison hackers upload the data dump to the “dark web” instead of the regular web?
So that they wouldn't get caught. They committed a long-ish list of crimes, and they're not keen on doing the prison time. Somebody like TMZ or Gawker will dig through the 10GB of rubbish and publish
Why do arrays/lists in programming languages begin at 0?
Most languages store arrays in consecutive memory locations. so if A is an array of ten 16 bit values, the first value might be stored in location & 12900, the second would be two bytes later at &
Why do different areas of the U.S. have such dramatically different “accents”?
Because, when people started moving to America, they weren't all from the same countries. People living in different places had different ways of talking to each other. When they came to American, all
Why do smartphones use chips that have several cores (6 to 8) clocked at low speeds (1.8 to 2.3 GHz) whereas desktops use chips that have fewer cores (2 to 6) clocked at high speeds (3GHz and up)?
The biggest difference is heat and power use. Phones have limited battery capacity, and they're small and compact, without much airflow. Higher clock speeds pretty well universally mean more heat and
Why do touchscreen phones never lose calibration?
Most (if not all) phone touch screens use capacitive touch, while other things, like computer touch screens use resistive touch. I'm no expert, but you can find more information on this article: _URL_
Why can’t web services simply scale up by buying more servers?
It's all about initial design. Other users have described how "bottlenecks" can develop due to design limitations (/u/WRSaunders example of ticket sales is a great example). The next problem is how th
Why do artist still release singles? Especially now that with streaming services, you can buy/listen to individual songs.
Publicity mainly. Big singles generate buzz for artists in the run up to an album release and can pump up sales.
Why are most passwords hidden on-screen by default when you type them, but WIFI passwords are not?
Most on screen passwords are hidden in-case you have any shoulder surfers(people watching you type over your shoulder). WiFi passwords give you the option to either hide or show, in my opinion as WiFi