Jonathan Strickland has always loved technology. As a kid, Jonathan spent countless hours playing games like River Raid and Pitfall on his Atari 2600. He grew up during the early years of the personal computer era and cut his teeth on an Apple IIe and the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computers. He earned his bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Georgia. He focused primarily on medieval and Renaissance literature and can still rattle off several Shakespearean monologues (and he'll do so unless you stop him).
Jonathan is a former staff writer and eventually senior writer for the HowStuffWorks electronics and computer channels. He currently hosts the podcast TechStuff. He lives in a funky part of Atlanta filled with poets, artists, actors and assorted crazy people — he fits right in. His hobbies include writing fiction, acting and learning to play the ukulele and mandolin.
Recent Contributions
Depending on whom you ask, machines are running our lives. But what happens if they start to build more efficient models of themselves and get rid of us?
Upgrading your computer's memory may sound like a lot of trouble and something you should pay a specialist for. But you can do it yourself.
When we think about violent animals, many of us turn to creatures like sharks, bears, rhinos, crocodiles or even the Tasmanian devil. What other species outdoes all these others in its capacity to cause violence?
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The Internet lets you transfer information around the world in seconds. But the pieces of your file may not all get there the same way. How does all that data get where it's supposed to go without getting lost?
Google is the undisputed leader in searching the Web, but the company doesn't like resting on its laurels. What other products does the Internet behemoth offer?
Large corporations need many computer servers, which take up space and use a lot of electricity to run and to keep cool. What if you could put multiple servers on a single machine?
Web 3.0 isn't even a reality yet, and it's already creating a stir. How can a Web browser act like a personal assistant? And when will this assistant be online?
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Electronic books have been out for years, though none of them met with much success — until the Amazon Kindle. What's so special about this little device?
Are you a computer? If you've ever successfully filled in a CAPTCHA on the Web, you're probably not. So what is this test, and what does it do?
Sometimes it seems like no matter what internet community you join, someone's trying to drive you crazy. Are they just annoying or are they trolling?
Stars are enormous celestial bodies hot enough to register millions of degrees. They're fascinating scientific phenomena, but is it actually possible for scientists to create them?
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We hear news of violent acts of all sorts committed by humans every day. But how do we become violent? Is it something we learn, or are people violent at birth? And is there anything that can stop it?
CERN is a European research organization dedicated to the study of very tiny particles. Could they discover time travel?
If people could create nanomachines, they might be able to help fight diseases on the molecular level. They might even be able to replicate themselves. But what happens if that process gets out of hand?
Could your e-mail be used against you in a court of law? Maybe. Computer forensics searches, preserves and analyzes information on computer systems for potential evidence in a trial.
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Instead of buying a supercomputer, what if you bought many regular computers? That's the idea behind distributed computing. But how does it work?
Although we love our mobile gadgetry, all those charging cords are annoying to keep up with and carry around. Does it ever make you wonder, how do wireless chargers work? Find out how wireless chargers ditch the cables and power up your gear!
Wars and murders have much the same result -- by the end, someone will be dead. One is condoned, while the other is punished. Why is that? What makes the two so different from each another?
We've heard a lot about Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. But what about Web 1.0, the one that started it all? Read on to explore some lingering evidence of Web 1.0's existence!
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Though the 1980s might remind you of the days of MTV and leg warmers, there was a lot going on in technology. In fact, quite a few of the technologies we rely on today were making their debut.
People are switching to parallel processing to share big computing jobs between several smaller, less-expensive chips. But how does parallel computing work?
It seems like virtually everyone has a cell phone. In fact, you probably have one in your pocket right now. Many had the idea for the device, but only one could successfully introduce the gadget. Who was it?
There's no doubt that humans are a violent species. The real question is: Why? Are some people wired differently than others? Is it a matter of survival? Or are we just taking our frustrations out on others in violent ways?
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Studies seem to indicate that men are more likely to harbor violent tendencies than women. What factors do researchers use to come to these conclusions, and most importantly, is it true that men are more violent?
Most scientists agree that human interference in the environment has something to do with the recent trend of rising temperatures on the Earth. If we got ourselves in this pickle, what can we do about it?