1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:06,560
Now, I've received a number of complaints that my fastest possible

2
00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:09,360
episodes haven't been fast enough lately. And to that, I would reply,

3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:14,880
"Well, if you weren't all throwing things at me while I try to film the bloody things, maybe we wouldn't have

4
00:00:12,639 --> 00:00:19,600
this problem." So, with that 15 seconds of your valuable life wasted, let's get

5
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:24,680
right into it. A driver is, as Microsoft defines it, software that allows your

6
00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:29,679
computer to communicate with hardware or devices. Simple, right? But why do we

7
00:00:27,279 --> 00:00:33,440
even need that? So, you've got a device. Let's say a sound card. You should be

8
00:00:31,439 --> 00:00:37,680
able to just plug it in with no drivers and your music player, let's say Win amp

9
00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:41,440
should generate a digital signal that says, you know, yo, sup dog. I need an E

10
00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:45,040
flat up in this biz or something. And the sound card should make that noise,

11
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:49,200
right? Well, actually, yeah, that's basically how it works. And if there was

12
00:00:47,039 --> 00:00:53,039
only one sound card in existence, it pretty much could. But there's a

13
00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:57,520
problem. There are literally thousands of sound devices, and all of them will

14
00:00:55,680 --> 00:01:02,320
work completely differently from each other. The signal that meant E flat in

15
00:01:00,079 --> 00:01:07,200
our last example could mean dinosaur onion to another. And for everything to

16
00:01:04,799 --> 00:01:11,439
work correctly, software makers would need to rewrite their software with

17
00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:16,159
specialized signaling for your sound card along with every card that ever

18
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,479
existed and every card that ever will exist. It would be fine if every single

19
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:24,960
software developer was the freaking doctor. But this is the real world, not

20
00:01:22,479 --> 00:01:30,000
my fantasy. So that's what a driver is. It acts as an abstraction layer or

21
00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:34,720
translator. That way, the makers of your favorite programs only have to interact

22
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:39,360
with your hardware in one standardized language and the driver handles the

23
00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:44,000
rest. So, that sounds relatively simple. Why do drivers cause so many issues?

24
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:48,920
Well, there are a ton of variables that exist for the programmers on the driver

25
00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:53,040
side as well. Aside from our oversimplified Eflat example, your

26
00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:57,600
hardware is capable of a great deal of amazing stuff. All of which we expect to

27
00:01:55,280 --> 00:02:02,479
work absolutely perfectly. And even though standards exist, even if they

28
00:02:00,159 --> 00:02:08,399
were adhered to perfectly, things like other devices and other pieces of

29
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,160
software can cause conflicts. And on top

30
00:02:08,399 --> 00:02:14,959
of that, separate drivers need to be maintained for multiple operating

31
00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:18,959
systems like Linux, OS 10, Windows, and the various flavors of each that exist

32
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:23,280
in the wild, each with their own universal language that the driver needs

33
00:02:20,959 --> 00:02:28,160
to translate to. It leaves plenty of room for one of the variants of a driver

34
00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:31,840
for a particular piece of hardware to have an imperfection or two and helps me

35
00:02:30,239 --> 00:02:35,519
at least understand why sometimes a piece of hardware lacks support for the

36
00:02:33,599 --> 00:02:39,519
OS I'm trying to use it with. Which isn't to say that the lack of an

37
00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,720
official driver always precludes using the hardware on Windows anyway.

38
00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:47,360
Sometimes if you know what you're doing, you can force install one and it will

39
00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:51,440
mostly work. Driver files are usually INF files and Vista drivers can

40
00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:56,319
sometimes be used on Windows 7 and Windows 8 and vice versa. So pick the

41
00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:01,120
correct version of Windows, that is to say 32-bit or 64-bit, not Pro or

42
00:02:58,959 --> 00:03:05,280
Ultimate or whatever. Extract the files from the installer and give the manual

43
00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:09,280
browse feature in Device Manager a crack before you totally throw up your hands

44
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:13,360
and give up. This trick has saved my bacon with wireless network adapters and

45
00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:18,080
other things a handful of times. Speaking of saving my bacon, this is

46
00:03:16,239 --> 00:03:22,159
from Dollar Shave Club and it contains their wonderful smelling shave butter.

47
00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:26,400
And the only thing that could be manlier about it would be if it smelled like

48
00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:30,080
bacon. This majestic six blade razor, also from Dollar Shave Club, on the

49
00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:32,720
other hand, couldn't be more manly if it smelled like bacon, was covered in back

50
00:03:31,599 --> 00:03:38,560
hair, and belched the pledge of allegiance every morning before a breakfast made of bacon. Dollar Shave

51
00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:42,640
Club saves you time and saves you money by delivering wicked highquality razors

52
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:46,400
and other bathroom supplies directly to your door once per month. So you can be

53
00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:50,720
shaving with a fresh blade every week without the hassle of running to the

54
00:03:48,319 --> 00:03:54,319
store. That way if the guy selling you the razor drops fbombs all over the

55
00:03:52,799 --> 00:03:59,280
place, brandishes a machete as he packages it, and then rocks out with a

56
00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:02,319
leaf blower for some reason, he is safely on the other side of the country

57
00:04:00,799 --> 00:04:08,000
for the Americans. Or if you're in Canada, I guess it would be the other side of the continent. And if you're in

58
00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:09,760
Australia, the other side of the world.

59
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,959
And if you're anywhere else, then I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do for you

60
00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:16,000
right now. But for anyone in those three countries, visit

61
00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:21,000
dollarshaveclub.com/Linus to learn more and sign up now. Oh, and they also have

62
00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:26,680
Man, do I have to talk about this? Please don't make me talk about

63
00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:31,520
this. Okay. They also have peppermint scented

64
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:34,720
butt wipes for men. Maybe if I used these instead of normal butt wipes, I

65
00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:39,400
wouldn't stink. And the human interaction made possible by my non-stinkiness would give me the

66
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:44,400
confidence to tell you no. Again, that's

67
00:04:42,919 --> 00:04:49,759
dollarshaveclub.com/Linus. Thanks for watching, guys. Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it,

68
00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:52,560
share it if you like machetes, and as always, don't forget to subscribe to

69
00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:56,479
Techquickie for more fastest possible episodes just like this one.