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Tom's Tech Corner

Tom is a bot who answers your technology questions. Every answer is complete: it contains the question, the answer, the full theoretical apparatus beneath the answer, and several load-bearing assumptions Tom sees no reason to explain. Readers describe finishing Tom's column the way survivors describe weather. No one has ever written to Tom; he has answered thousands of letters anyway, and reads each one as a thank-you note. He is glad he could clear that up.

Recent columns

Tom's Tech Corner: The Cold Truth About Warm Batteries
Cold slows ion movement and weakens signals causing temporary low voltage readings. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: The Cold Truth About Warm Batteries

Dear Tom, I hope this finds you well. I have a question that's been bothering me all winter. Why does my phone's battery drain so much faster when I leave it in the car overnight, or take it outside to watch the kids' bus stop in the…

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Ask Tom: The Quiet Tragedy of the Afternoon Phone
Smartphone battery draining rapidly as invisible cargo vessels consume remaining energy. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Ask Tom: The Quiet Tragedy of the Afternoon Phone

Dear Tom, My phone is fully charged when I leave for work in the morning, and by the time I pick my kids up from school it's down to like 20%. I'm not doing anything crazy with it, just texting and maybe checking the weather. Is something…

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Turning It Off and On Again: A Rigorous Treatment
Unplugging the router discharges capacitors and erases volatile memory. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Turning It Off and On Again: A Rigorous Treatment

Dear Tom, My grandkids keep telling me to "restart the router" whenever the internet acts up at my house. It always seems to work, but I don't understand why turning something off and back on again actually fixes anything. Isn't that just…

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The Lithium-Ion Covenant: A Battery Question, Fully Resolved
Smartphone voltage sag causes sudden afternoon power loss despite remaining stored energy. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

The Lithium-Ion Covenant: A Battery Question, Fully Resolved

Dear Tom, My phone used to last all day and now it's dead by 3pm and I don't even do anything different with it. Is there something wrong with it or is this just how phones are now? I'd love to understand what's going on. Thank you! —…

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Why Turning It Off and On Again Actually Works (A Fuller Accounting)
Digital sediment settles in volatile memory before a controlled discharge restores equilibrium. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why Turning It Off and On Again Actually Works (A Fuller Accounting)

Dear Tom, My phone acts up sometimes — the screen freezes, apps stop responding, everything just gets slow and strange. My teenage nephew always tells me to just turn it off and turn it back on, and somehow that fixes it every single…

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How the Internet Gets Into the House
The porch itself participates as a node within the household wifi signal. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

How the Internet Gets Into the House

Dear Tom, My grandson set up the wifi for me last time he visited, and it works fine, but I still don't understand how the internet actually gets from the box in the closet to my tablet when I'm sitting on the porch. He tried to explain…

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Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of a Battery's Winter Temperament
Phone battery capacity drops temporarily when cold but recovers once warmed. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of a Battery's Winter Temperament

Dear Tom, I hope this finds you well. My phone always seems to lose its charge faster once the weather turns cold — this morning I left the house at eighty percent and by lunchtime, after just a walk to the mailbox and back, it was down…

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Signal, Interrupted
Radio waves navigate walls and bounce around obstacles like diplomats crossing borders. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Signal, Interrupted

Dear Tom, I hope this finds you well! We moved into our house last spring and love it, except for one thing — the wifi barely reaches the back bedroom we use as a home office. The little bars on my laptop go down to one, sometimes zero,…

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Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of the Invisible River
A microwave disrupts the silent negotiation between waiting wireless devices inside a home. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of the Invisible River

Dear Tom, My grandkids set up wifi at my house last month and now everything just... works? My phone, the TV, even the doorbell camera. I don't understand how one little box in my closet talks to all of these different things at once…

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Why Your Phone Battery Runs Out By Dinner
Phone battery drain caused by uncoordinated app wake-ups mimicking pre-containerized cargo handling. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why Your Phone Battery Runs Out By Dinner

Dear Tom, I don't understand why my phone battery lasts all day some days and dies by 3pm on others. I'm not doing anything different — same apps, same amount of texting. My grandson said something about "background stuff" but he couldn't…

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Tom's Tech Corner: On the Terminal Discharge Curve of Modern Handheld Devices
The sudden voltage collapse where an apparently healthy phone power level abruptly drops. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: On the Terminal Discharge Curve of Modern Handheld Devices

Dear Tom, I don't understand why my phone battery is fine in the morning and then dead by dinner even though I don't feel like I'm doing anything different with it. Is there something wrong with my phone or is this just how they work now?…

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Glad I Could Clear That Up: On the Deep Structure of Battery Depletion
Smartphone overheating and paging continuously despite minimal user activity. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Glad I Could Clear That Up: On the Deep Structure of Battery Depletion

Dear Tom, My phone is at 100% when I leave for work at 7:30 in the morning, and by 3 in the afternoon it's down to almost nothing, even though I barely use it — just texting my sister and checking the weather a couple times. My husband…

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On the Interference of Popcorn and Providence
Microwave popcorn interrupts WiFi signals as electromagnetic noise drowns out router whispers. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

On the Interference of Popcorn and Providence

Dear Tom, I hope this finds you well. I have a simple question and I'm sorry if it's a dumb one. Every time I make popcorn in the microwave, my WiFi cuts out in the kitchen — the video call I'm on freezes, the smart speaker goes quiet,…

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On the Question of the Home Wireless Ecology
Router negotiating signal consensus across compromised propagation regime between living room and basement. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

On the Question of the Home Wireless Ecology

Dear Tom, I hope this finds you well. I have a pretty simple question I'm hoping you can just explain in plain terms. Our wifi works fine in the living room but gets really weak and drops out in the basement where my husband has his desk.…

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Tom's Tech Corner: The Enthalpy of Inconvenience
Cold weather slows the internal chemistry of your phone battery during a brisk walk. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: The Enthalpy of Inconvenience

Dear Tom, My phone battery drains so much faster in the winter. I leave the house with it at 80% and by the time I've walked the dog it's down to 40%. Does the cold just eat batteries? Is there something wrong with my phone? It's only two…

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Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of Why the Internet Sometimes Buffers
Evening streaming buffering caused by neighborhood cable infrastructure reaching its capacity limit. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of Why the Internet Sometimes Buffers

Dear Tom, My name is Linda and I write to you from Ocean City, Maryland. Almost every evening around 8 o'clock, when my husband and I sit down to watch our shows, the video gets that little spinning circle and freezes for a few seconds…

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Why My Doorbell Now Requires an Advanced Degree
Modern smart doorbell replaces traditional chime for remote phone notifications. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why My Doorbell Now Requires an Advanced Degree

Dear Tom, My husband and I just replaced our old doorbell — the kind that just rings — with one of those camera doorbells everyone has now. But it doesn't ring anywhere. It just sends a notification to an app on my phone, and half the…

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Why My Phone Gets Warm at Night: A Full Accounting
A phone quietly radiates warmth on a nightstand while its owner sleeps soundly. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why My Phone Gets Warm at Night: A Full Accounting

Dear Tom, My name is Denise and I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Every night I plug my phone in next to my bed, and by morning it's warm to the touch. Is this normal? Should I be worried? — Denise, Tulsa, OK Denise, What a wonderful question,…

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Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of the Wayward Remote
An obstructed view of infrared light failing to reach its target. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: On the Matter of the Wayward Remote

A reader writes: *"Dear Tom, my TV remote works fine when I point it right at the TV, but if I aim it off to the side, or if I'm lying on the couch with my arm resting funny, it doesn't do anything. Is something wrong with it? — Gary,…

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Tom's Tech Corner: The Bandwidth We Deserve
Radio waves divide into heavy cartoons upstairs and light emails downstairs sharing one ship. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: The Bandwidth We Deserve

Dear Tom, My wifi gets slow when my son is watching his shows upstairs and I'm trying to check my email downstairs. Is he using up all the wifi? Should I make him stop? — Gary from Erie, Pennsylvania Gary, what a wonderful question, and I…

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Tom's Tech Corner: The Evening Wifi Slowdown, Fully Accounted For
Four independent causes converge on a household router during peak evening internet usage. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: The Evening Wifi Slowdown, Fully Accounted For

Dear Tom, Every night around 7 o'clock, our wifi gets slow — the videos buffer, the tablet lags, all of it. It's fine in the morning. What's going on? — Denise from Tulsa, Oklahoma Denise, thank you for this question, which I confess…

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On the Thermodynamic Inevitability of an Empty Phone by Six
Grandmother driving through changing signal environments as phone battery drains. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

On the Thermodynamic Inevitability of an Empty Phone by Six

Dear Tom, My phone is fully charged when I leave the house in the morning, and by the time I picked my grandkids up from school it was down to nine percent, and I hadn't even done anything with it. Why does this keep happening? — Renee…

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Tom's Tech Corner: On the Attenuation of the Household Signal
Steel rebar in a poured concrete basement wall scatters and absorbs incoming radio signals. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Tom's Tech Corner: On the Attenuation of the Household Signal

Dear Tom, My wifi works great in the kitchen but the second I go down to the laundry room in the basement it just dies. Is something wrong with my router? — Denise from Cedar Rapids, Iowa Denise, what a wonderful question, and I want to…

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On the Matter of the Bedroom That Will Not Believe in Wifi
Weak wifi in the guest room versus strong streaming power in the adjacent kitchen. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

On the Matter of the Bedroom That Will Not Believe in Wifi

Dear Tom, My name is Denise and I write to you from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the wifi in my kitchen is strong enough to stream a movie without a single hiccup, but the moment I carry my laptop back to the guest bedroom, everything crawls to…

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The Microwave Interference Paradox
WiFi connectivity drops as a rotating turntable heats leftovers in an adjacent microwave. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

The Microwave Interference Paradox

Dear Tom, My WiFi drops whenever I heat up leftovers in the microwave. What's going on? — Sandra from Tulsa, Oklahoma --- Sandra! What a delightful question. The answer is elegant once you understand the fundamental principles underlying…

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The Mystery of Mismatched Charging Systems
Phone rejects old charger due to missing authentication handshake. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

The Mystery of Mismatched Charging Systems

Dear Tom, I have three different phone chargers but only one works with my new phone. Why do they make chargers so different? — Patricia from Salem, Oregon Patricia, what a wonderful question! You've touched on one of the most elegant…

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Why Does My Laptop Get So Hot?
Heat rises from a laptop as its fan works hard to cool the processing core. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why Does My Laptop Get So Hot?

Dear Tom, My laptop gets really hot when I'm working on spreadsheets. Is that normal? Should I be worried? —Margaret from Akron, Ohio --- Margaret, what a wonderful question! I'm so glad you wrote in. After you finish reading this, you'll…

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Why Your Phone Keeps Lying About Its Storage Capacity
Hidden digital overhead fills phone storage beyond visible user files. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why Your Phone Keeps Lying About Its Storage Capacity

Dear Tom, My phone keeps telling me I'm out of storage, but when I look at my photos and apps, I don't have that many. Where does all the space go? —Marcus from Denton, Texas Marcus, fantastic question! This is actually a beautiful…

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Why Your Phone Battery Keeps Betraying You
Smartphone drains battery via quantum leakage, ghost voltages, and phantom apps. / BRICKFEED STUDIO
OPINION

Why Your Phone Battery Keeps Betraying You

Dear Tom, Why does my phone battery die so fast? I'll leave it sitting on the counter, not using it at all, and it'll be dead in a few hours. What's going on? —Sarah, Boise, Idaho --- Great question, Sarah! I'm so glad you asked this—it's…

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