Why Does My Phone Make My Radio Buzz?

When I first started dating my now husband, I went down to his house to watch a movie, set my phone down by his computer, and all of a sudden his speakers starting making an odd sound. (Sample audio on this website) While it's most common to hear that sound caused by a cell phone and affecting speakers, I also have a friend who was stumped as to why her bedside FM radio was static-y when she sat in bed with her laptop in her lap... unless she held her left hand up.

These are both examples of interference- though two different kinds. I'll be discussing the cell phone/speaker interference first. So what causes it? If you've ever heard it happen, you may have noticed that it happens right before the phone receives a call, text, or an email. This is because what you're hearing is the cell phone "talking" to the cell phone tower and vice versa. Little radio transmissions flying through the air to get to the phone are also being picked up by the speakers.

Not all speakers do this though. More and more speakers nowadays are coming with shielding that blocks out those kinds of signals, but if you have older speakers, or, in our case, speakers whose cables have been chewed on by a kitten, you may still hear it.

And the left-handed radio/laptop interference? From what I could get of the situation, it sounded like her laptop was picking up/sending out signals (my guess is that she had a device plugged into her computer that gets the Internet the same way a cell phone does), and when she had both hands on the laptop, her body was being a sort of antenna. While this is a bit freaky sounding, keep in mind that our bodies are mostly salt water, which is a great conductor. As soon as she picked up her left hand she wasn't as good of an antenna, and therefor the radio couldn't "hear" the interference.

Practical Tip of the Day:
While there's no good, easy way to shield a speaker you already have, there is a very easy, simple trick to stopping interference between a cell phone and speaker- move the phone! Bet you were expecting a complicated technical answer weren't you? Nope, sometimes the best way is the simplest way. Moving the phone away just a foot or two often fixes the issue.

When should I turn off my computer?

This topic was recommended to me by a friend. She writes:

If you use a computer all the time, is it better to leave it on or shut it down each night? Does running a computer for long periods of time cause harm?

This is a very good question, and even people who have been using computers their entire lives are slightly confused on this topic, and with good reason!

It used to be that it was widely recommended to shut your computer down (aka turn it off) whenever you weren't using it- just like your car. You only left your computer on if you were going to be coming back to it soon. This was because older computers needed that break to clear out their RAM (see our last topic!), and they used a lot of electricity even when they were in "sleep mode" (more on that in a bit).

Nowadays, it's generally recommended to shut your computer down once a month, or if you won't be using it for a few days or more. I've had my own personal computer for almost five years now and it's only ever been turned off for about a month's worth of time in total, and most of that was when I was away on vacation.

Here's some quick terminology tidbits to help explain things:

• Shut Down- Completely turns the computer off. The computer has a routine it goes through before turning off (just like people do before going to bed), and then it stop taking in electricity. It's at this point that it's safe to unplug your computer from the wall.
• Sleep/Stand By- This mode can vary slightly between types of computers, but it does a good job of drawing it's own analogy. Just like how people don't completely stop all our functions while we're asleep, in sleep mode neither does the computer. The screen is dark, the computer isn't doing anything, but it can quickly be "woken up" by tapping a few keys on the keyboard or wiggling the mouse around. This is the mode generally recommended if you plan to return to your computer within 48 hours. (That's not a hard and fast rule, by the way, just a loose recommendation.)
• Screen Saver- The screen saver is the simple animation that shows up on your screen if you haven't interacted with your computer in awhile. The screen saver usually comes up before the computer goes to sleep. It's called a "screen saver" because it used to save your screen from getting what's known as "burn in". If a particular image was left on the screen of an older CRT monitor (the ones that looked boxier and were much heavier) , it would literally burn in, and no matter what you wanted to see later, you would always have the hint of that previous imagine there. Think of a double-exposed picture for any camera/film aficionados out there.
• Restart- Restarting tells your computer to shut down, but riiiiight before it powers off, to turn back on again. More on this later!

So why the switch? Sleep mode on most computers nowadays uses so little power that it's almost negligible, and most computers come with enough RAM that an average user can use the computer for long lengths of time without noticing a difference. That added with the increased attention of computer manufacturers to make computers that don't need to rest means that there are few reasons to turn off your computer, especially when it usually takes more electricity to turn a computer on than to leave it running in sleep mode for a few days.

Why turn it off at all then? Turning the computer off does still let it rest and clear out it's RAM- read the PTD (Practical Tip of the Day) for why that's important, but the biggest issue usually is safety. Don't worry, not for you, but for the computer. Coming from Florida, I'm used to having to go around the house and make sure all the electronics were turned off for the big thunder storms. If the power goes out when your computer is turned on, the computer will shut down without getting to go through it's routine. Imagine if you've ever gone to bed without getting to brush your teeth, check the doors, etc. You wake up feeling a bit off. Same with your computer!

Practical Tip of the Day:
Is your computer starting to slow down? It does take longer than normal to open a program or check a web page? Is it being cranky and not doing what you're telling it to? Try restarting your computer. By restarting, you're allowing the computer to shut down, clear out it's RAM, and then start again fresh. Restarting a computer is like letting your computer take a nap- it's only "asleep" for a few seconds, but just like that refreshed feeling you get after a short nap, your computer will be perkier, quicker, and ready to go after a quick restart!

Special Edition: What is a DDoS Attack?

The major news channels didn't give it much hype, but last night there was a significant attack on several major websites. Here's the list:

• Department of Justice (Justice.gov)
• Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA.org)
• Universal Music (UniversalMusic.com)
• Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (Anti-piracy.be/nl/)
• Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA.org)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI.gov)
• HADOPI law site (HADOPI.fr)
• U.S. Copyright Office (Copyright.gov)
• Universal Music France (UniversalMusic.fr)
• Senator Christopher Dodd (ChrisDodd.com)
• Vivendi France (Vivendi.fr)
• The White House (Whitehouse.gov)
• BMI (BMI.com)
• Warner Music Group (WMG.com)

That's a lot, and a lot of very big, very important websites. The results of the attacks were that most, if not all, the sites were down for hours yesterday, being brought back online early this morning. I'm not going to go into detail on the politics of the attack, or who has taken credit credit for them, but I will try to explain exactly what happened.

"DDoS" stands for "Distributed Denial of Service", and "attack" stands for, well, attack. The name describes pretty well what the desired outcome of the attack is- to deny people the services of a website (usually by taking it offline). While there are several ways to do this, the most common, and the variant used in last night's attacks, is by overloading the servers that host those pages. Let's unpack that and translate it into normal-speak.

Let's say that you run a business, and you have a store front. If someone wants to look at what you sell, they come into your store and look. The person might leave and come back later, they might bring a friend, or they may never come back. Now, let's say that someone repeatedly came into your store and left it in a matter of minutes. One minute they're in, one minute they're out, one minute they're in, one minute they're out. That's odd, but not too dangerous, right?

Now, if that person brings three friends, and they each bring three friends, who each bring three friends.... You can see how it might become overwhelming very quickly. If enough people come into your store your real customers can't get in- they're being denied your services. (See what I did there?) In this analogy, the people coming into your store are computers, and the leaving and coming back are the computers repeatedly visiting the website very rapidly. (Usually several times a second.)

While a DDoS Attack does no long-term damage, it can take a website down and keep it down for as long as the attack continues if the attackers have enough "bots" (friends they brought to your store) attacking a site. Also, you can get 10 years in prison if you get caught, but more and more frequently, attackers are tricking people into becoming unknowing bots by getting them to either download a program or click a link under false pretenses.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Don't download a program or click a link you're not familiar with. The most common way for internet "bad guys" to get to your information is by tricking you into giving it to them. More and more often people are being tricked into giving their sensitive information away themselves instead of someone taking it by force. If you get an email from your bank asking for you to reset your password, don't follow the link in the email, go to the official site and do it there. It's very common for emails to look official, but be taking you to a website that will collect your information for someone else's use. This is called "phishing" (pronounced "fishing")

What is Social Media?

It's difficult to watch the news or read the papers or magazines nowadays without coming across the odd phrase "Social Media". We know what "social" means; To me it conjures up memories of ice cream and talking with friends. "Media" is usually used to refer to the TV networks, newspapers and other things we read and watch. At first it would seem odd that media could be social in and of itself. Yes, we talk about media, but actually interacting with your media is something new born from the Internet. Well, sort of.

Most kids nowadays only vaguly remember the time of pen pals. You would receive a letter in the mail (yes, REAL MAIL!), you'd read it, and you'd write a letter back (yes, with pen and paper!) to the person and have a conversation that way. If you take that concept and make it electronic, it becomes email. ("Email" literally means "electronic mail". See the post last week for a refresher on email.) Social media takes that concept and amplifies it.

Social media mixes messages sent between two people to messages sent to whole groups of people. If I want to share a picture of my daughter, instead of printing it out and paying postage to mail it to everyone, or sending it in an email that has everyone's email addresses in it, I can post it to a social media outlet like Facebook. (In this post I'll be using Facebook as the main example since it's the most commonly used method at this point in time.) By posting it in one place, all my friends and family can see the photo, and even talk about it.

Social media isn't for everyone. If you're a private person, you might not want to join a social site like Facebook since it involves sharing a lot of personal information just to get in, and then makes it very easy to share too much with too many people. Ever say something you regretted? Ever say something you regetted to every friend and family member you know? Quite a difference!

That being said, being able to see what your old friend from high school is doing in their daily life makes it easier to catch up with them and stay connected with them in ways that a telephone conversation, letter, or even a coffee date never could. Your friends and family can post whatever they want, and it will show up for you to see and comment on if you want. In short, social media is a very easy way to stay connected with a lot of people very easily.

Practical Tip of the Day:
When talking over the internet, whether it's via email, Facebook, blogs, or anything else, make sure you only say and share things you want the whole world to know about you. Don't just think of the whole world, though. Think of your kids, boss, pastor, parents, coworkers, etc. Some of the biggest scandals nowadays come from people in high positions violating this rule and having conversations or pictures they thought were private shared with the world!

How do computers remember things?

Computers didn't always remember things. You used to ask it a single question ("What is 23432.692 divided by 1621.22235?" for example) and it would give you a single answer. Nowadays, we don't so much as our computers questions, but ask them to complete tasks for us. We ask them to help us write a letter, look at a photo, read a web page, etc. When writing a letter for example, you often will begin writing and eventually take a break. What keeps the computer from completely forgetting about your paper in the meantime?

Computers, like people, have two different kinds of memory- long-term and short-term. Short-term memory in people is what helps us remember what we ate for breakfast, or what it is we came into a room to get. (I have problems with that last example sometimes!) For computers, the short-term memory is called RAM (Random Access Memory- don't worry if you forget that in five minutes though, I doubt anyone will be quizzing you on it.) This is where it remembers the changes to your letter before you hit the Save button for example.

The other type of memory is your hard drive. You may remember me briefly mentioning the hard drive in the article "Why do computers hum?". The hard drive is where the long-term storage happens. This is where your letter is stored even after you close the program or even turn the computer off. As many of you may remember, if you had a record playing, and the needle got bumped, it could scratch the record. If the record got scratched it was all but ruined- it never played the same again. Hard drives work similarly, but instead of a physical needle touching and reading grooves on a record, it's called a "play head" and it hovers about a hair's width above the disc reading magnetic imprints. (Stay with me! Don't glaze over quite yet!)

Ever heard of a hard drive "crashing"? Crashing usually refers to the play head actually touching the disc and scratching it. Just like your old vinyl record, if the hard drive gets scratched, it'll never work the same way again.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Because hard drives crash, and because there's usually little or no warning to when they do, most people "back up" their information. Backing up simply means making another copy of your information and putting it in a safe place. You probably already do this with your important documents (titles, birth certificates, etc.). You usually have one copy you keep locked up in a safe spot like a safe, and then a photocopy that you can take to show people if need be.

There are many different ways to back up your information, and there's no best way for everyone. Feel free to either message me or talk to your local computer specialist for help picking the method that best fits your lifestyle.

Is Facebook Replacing Email?

As we discussed previously, Facebook is a kind of social media, (Click here if you don't know what social media is.) and email is a type of one-to-one communication very similar to regular paper-and-ink mail. (Click here if you don't know what email is.) How then could something so private as email be being replaced by something as open as Facebook?

A study of teens preferred methods of communication (source) shows that email use is declining in many demographics that grew up with computers. SMS messaging (AKA "texting") and IMs ("Instant Messages") are growing in popularity as more people have devices that can access the Internet whenever they want. I know I might have lost some of you with talking about texting and IMing, but don't worry. Here's a 15-second explanation for purposes of this article. I'll start working on full-length articles explaining them individually right after this!

SMS and MMS messages are either words (SMS) or pictures/videos (MMS) that are sent between cell phones over the cell phone towers. They do not require the Internet, and messages can wait in an inbox for the recipient to read them.

IMs are most commonly used between computers and/or cell phones. They require the Internet, can carry words or pictures, and are usually used as a more conversational alternative to emails. They require both users to be active at the same time- there is no "inbox" like email for messages to wait.

So why are more and more people using SMS and IM instead of email? I think (though no one knows for sure) that it's very similar to why people started having phone conversations instead of writing letter back when telephones started becoming more popular. It just feels more natural to have a conversation than to write a long letter, send it, wait for a response, and then reply back. SMS and IMs give the instant gratification and conversational feel that people enjoy.

Is Facebook replacing email? Not entirely, and not yet. I think "replacing" is a bit of an alarmist phrase, but I would say that people are shifting to more conversational methods for their day-to-day lives.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Not sure if you should send someone a message via email, text or social media? The general rule of thumb I use is that emails are good for long dialogs. For example, if you subscribe to this blog via email, you'll receive a message that tells you there's new post, and gives you more information. If you need to tell someone a message that isn't very private (if you don't care if others read it), and isn't very long, social media is good for that. If you have a short but private message, texting might be the way to go. (Note: Yes, I know phones work for talking too, but I'm only discussing written media right now. If you have something personal or private to tell someone in-person or phone conversations are considered the best form of communication in modern etiquette.)

What is Email?

People have been sending each other messages since history began. At first they were physical signs, then verbal, eventually written, and now electronic. In a time when most people only buy stamps to send out holiday cards or bills, email has become ubiquitous. While a lot of people know how to send and read email, not everyone understands exactly what email is.

It is, in the most basic sense, a letter that is typed and sent over the internet (see previous post) instead of sent via traditional mail. That's it! Only not. Email is popular because of it's speed. Typically, once an email is sent it only takes a few seconds for the recipient to receive it. Just like how you can send pictures with a traditional letter, you can also send pictures in emails, but you can also send other things like a website address to a news article or a cute video.

Here's a small crash course on email terminology:

Inbox- This is where you receive your new messages. This is typically the first thing you see when you go to your email. Think of this like your physical mailbox. You open it to check if you have any messages.

Outbox- This is where messages are kept while they are waiting to be sent. Think of this as your mailbox with your outgoing letters in it- flag up- waiting for the mailman. Mail is only kept their briefly.

Sent- This is where messages you've sent are kept. This has no good analogy to physical mail unless you're the kind of person that photocopies all the messages they send out before they actually mail it.

Spam (aka Junk)- What does canned meat have to do with unwanted messages? I'll spare you the history lesson (it's actually much more boring than you'd think), and just let you know that it's the electronic equivalent to junk mail that typically fills up your physical mailbox.

Practical Tip of the Day:
Often times, new computer users ask "Where should I get my email from?" Just like picking your child's daycare or your TV service provider, this is an important decission since your email address is like your house address- it's where people can get ahold of you- so you don't want to change it too often. There's no clear-cut answer to which email service is best, though.

More and more people are using Google's free Gmail addresses, but often your internet provider (the company that set up the box for you to get internet) gives you a free address as well. I usually tell people to ask their friends which they use, just like where they get their car serviced or who their doctor is, personal recommendations are often the best way to find a good solution for you.

What is the Internet?

Last week I had a special edition about SOPA, which mainly affects the Internet. Now, that was a by-popular-demand topic, but I thought we should start small for those of us who aren't so tech savvy. After all, it's hard to care about the politics involved with a topic if you don't understand the topic, right?

The word "internet" basically means "interconnected networks", but that doesn't really help too much does it? The way I usually explain the Internet to people is by visualization. You know me. I know my mother. My mother knows her friend Debbie. Debbie knows her mechanic Bob.We've now drawn a line from you to a car mechanic in South Florida. Now, let's say that instead of each of us knowing just one person, we know all the people we actually know, including coworkers, old classmates, neighbors, family, friends, etc. There's probably a lot of overlap of people-who-know-people-we-both-know now. We often know so many people we often classify them as our different "networks" of people, right?

The Internet is very much like that visualization. It's a collection of computers and computers-linked-to-computers (aka networks) that spans over the entire world- not so different than the telephone lines we're all familiar with. The only difference is that instead of carrying just audio, the internet can carrying those magical ones and zeros we talked about before that can turn into pictures, videos, audio, pages on a screen or anything else. It's a bit overwhelming, isn't it?

Practical Tip of the Day:
The icon you click on to get to the Internet is called your "web browser". There are lots of different web browsers out there, and while they all do the same basic thing, they all do it a little differently- just like different models of cars. So if someone ever asks what web browser (or sometimes simply called "browser") you use, you can now look at the icon and know exactly what they're talking about!

Why do computers hum?

If you've ever been in the same room as a computer you're most likely already familiar with the gentle hum you often hear from the machine. Some are loud, some are quiet, some change pitch as if singing along to their own digital music in their proverbial heads, but why? What exactly is it in the mysterious jumble of parts and cables that makes that sound?

There's no one answer. The sound we most commonly hear the loudest are fans. Remember how we talked about computers running on electricity to make all those ones and zeros? Well, if you've ever touched a lightbulb that's been on for awhile or grabbed your toast out of the toaster too soon you know that electricity makes things hot. Know what delicate computer parts don't like? You guessed it- heat! That's why if you live in a warmer climate like Florida (Hi, Mom!) you're more likely to hear your computer's fan kick on and go faster than if you live in cooler climates like Central New York like me. That's the humming sound that sometimes winds down after awhile or kicks on after you've been using your computer long enough to be startled by it suddenly sounding like it wants to fly away.

Another, usually quieter sound you may hear is the hard drive spinning. The hard drive is a lot like a miniturized record player. It has discs in it that spin at amazing rates and are read by a play head. While a vinyl record may spin at about 30-45 rpm (rotations per minute), the average hard drive in a computer spins anywhere between 5400-7500 rpm. It's this spinning that sometimes causes the humming sound you hear, especially if it starts while you're trying to start a program or open a file.

Practical Tip of the Day:
If you notice your computer humming particularly loudly, you should check the back of your computer tower (if you're using a desktop computer) and see if you have "junk in your trunk". Computer fans are just like ceiling fans and can pick up lots of dust and dirt on the blades. If the fan looks dirty, use some canned air to spray it off. If your fan gets too dirty, your computer can overheat and cause problems for you later on.

What's the Difference Between MP3 Players and iPods?

There is none! I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say "I couldn't afford an iPod so I bought an MP3 player." That's like someone saying "I couldn't afford a Corvette, so I bought a car." So, what exactly are MP3 players?

MP3s are a type of file on your computer that is music. Remember when we talked about how computers remember things and how they only actually use ones and zeros? Well, computers can remember lots of things. You're probably already familiar with some of them. If you've ever kept a picture or a letter on your computer those are examples of "files" on your computer. Music is just another kind of thing a computer can remember.

A lot of people get overwhelmed at the idea of digital music and MP3 players, but it's really just another step in the evolution of music. There were vinyl records, then 8track tapes, then cassette tapes, then CDs, and now MP3s. With each step we fit more, higher quality, music into more portable forms. The modern MP3 player can fit hundreds of songs into something as small as a Tic-Tac container. How does the music get in it? From your computer usually. (I won't go into the exceptions here. You can message me if you want to know.)

People often say iPod when they speak of MP3 players. I call this the "Kleenex Effect". Kleenex is a brand name of facial tissue that's so popular and ubiquitous that people often ask for it by name, even if they don't mean to. Apple Inc. (Formerly Apple Computers Inc.) is the maker of the iPod, and they're the ones that really made digital music players popular.

Practical Tip of the Day:
One of the most common questions I'm asked when someone first gets an MP3 player is "Do I have to buy all my songs over again?" For someone who's sunk lots of money and time into a CD collection, the idea of having to buy their music over again in digital form is quite daunting, but fear not! As I said earlier, MP3 players get their music from you computer. There is usually a program that helps the MP3 player and the computer "talk" with each other (think of it as a translator). These programs almost always have the ability to copy music from a CD into the computer in a digital form. This is called "importing". I usually will help people learn how to import their CDs before showing them how to buy new digital music.

P.S.- We're getting social! TechKNOWLEDGEy Today now has it's own Facebook page, Twitter account, and Google+ page. Check them out, and subscribe/like/follow to get notifications of blog updates and related news articles as they come out.

Special Edition: What is SOPA?

When you can count your page views on one hand, and you get three people asking for a particular topic, you're inclined to oblige. That being said, today's topic is bit more complex than I'd normally cover, but I feel fairly confident that I can explain this in a way everyone can understand.

SOPA- A.K.A. the "Stop Online Piracy Act" hopes to spur innovation and entrepenuership by preventing people from steal other people's copyrighted material. Sounds good, right? I'm a fan of new things, and I'm not a fan of people stealing things. The problem lies in how they do it though.

SOPA's original form (by the time this is read it's possible that it's been amended, so bear that in mind) contains language that would allow the US Department of Justice or the copyright holder to seek court orders that would:

A. Stop payment to the websites from any or all advertisements
B. Shut the website down temporarily.
C. Bar search engines from linking to the website.
D. All of the above.

Still doesn't sound too bad though, right? If a website is redistributing stolen goods it deserves to be shut down and punished, right? Well, here's the catch- the wording allows those things to happen not only to websites that knowingly do that, but also to websites who are unaware of it, or aren't actually doing anything wrong at all! Now, at this point you might be inclined to consider this "spin" by the liberal media or whatnot, but hang in there with me.

It does actually state that the above penalties can be enforced as soon as the alleged victim issues a complaint regardless of whether or not the claim turns out to be true. This would mean that YouTube would be down while it's under investigation if a teenage girl singing a Brittany Spears song counts as copyright infringement. It would mean that if ever someone posted a picture of a Coke can on Facebook it would also go down. Google would most likely cease to exist, or, if it did, it would be censored from every webpage that may-or-may-not potentially have copyrighted material.

If you hear your techie friends ranting about SOPA, you now know why. It is seen in the tech community as the largest threat to Internet censorship yet, and the Internet is the largest example of America's right to Freedom of Speech. When the Internet begins to become censored it will be viewed as the largest infringement of civil liberties yet.

Limitless power with limited numbers

Yesterday I mentioned that computers all come down to crunching numbers. In a way, computers came into being by people not wanting to do math themselves. (I can totally appreciate this- my ability to do even basic math in my head goes down as the number of digits involved goes up!)

You probably already know that computers are electric; You have to plug them in for them to work. What they do with that electricity is amazing. Sparing you the the techno-babble for a second, the electricity goes into the different parts of the computer and causes teeny-tiny bits to become electrically charged. If something has a charge it is called a 1. Yes, simply a one. If something does NOT have a charge, it is a 0.

This is why when you see movies like the Matrix you see all these scrolling 1's and 0's on the screen. Yes, it's mostly to make it look cool, but they're trying to invoke a sense of computing on the most basic of levels. It is from this collection of ones and zeros that you are able to read this now. That we're able to watch funny baby videos on YouTube, or chat with old friends on Facebook or any number of things. Pretty amazing, huh?

Practical Tip of the Day: All websites have addresses- just like houses- and, just like a house, you need to know it's address to get to it. If I want to visit my friend Sarah, but don't know her address, what could I do? Well, I would look her up in the Whitepages! Website addresses are often able to be found in search engines. These use complex math to find the most popular pages that match what you search for, and give you the results. Google is one of the most popular search engines, but there are others like Bing and Yahoo.

In the beginning...

While some people would take the beginning of modern computing as far back as the Babylonians or the room sized ENIAC, I find that most people need know about the present to be able to best understand the past.  That being said, the beginning of the personal computer is generally traced back to the Apple I (Apple One).

The Apple I is widely considered the first computer the "average person" could buy and operate. It was sold at the... interesting price of $666.66, and did not include a case, power supply, power switch, keyboard or monitor. Imagine buying a car with no chassis, battery, ignition, steering wheel, windshield or mirrors! Not very "user friendly" is it?

Thankfully, in only 36 years we've come by leaps and bounds in many aspects. Today's small electronics like smart phones and music players contain much more computing power than we used to put a man on the Moon. Yet, some things stay the same. Going all the way back to the Babylonians and the abacus, computers and computing have always been about counting. As hard as it might seem, every electronic device and computer you use comes down to counting numbers. More on that next time!