Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
When nuclear weapons still ran on floppy disks
The most apocalyptic weapons known to mankind were, until very recently, operated using fragile magnetic squares that hold less storage than a blank document.
Discover more
Why doctors still use fax machines
Despite living in an era of instant global transfer, medical professionals still rely on shrieking plastic boxes from the eighties to send your charts.
Discover more
Why puncturing a phone battery can make it burn
The magical rectangles we stare at all day are powered by highly reactive elements that violently resent being punctured. We essentially carry tiny controlled…
Discover more
Why stricter password rules can make you less secure
Forcing users to use numbers, symbols, and uppercase letters just guarantees they will write the password on a sticky note attached to their monitor. Extreme…
Discover more
The ancient detector that dropped bronze balls
Ancient seismic monitors featured a metal dragon dropping a ball into a metal toad's mouth. It was a wildly theatrical way of letting an emperor know his…
Discover more
How a potato can power a digital clock
Forget expensive alkaline cells. Shoving some galvanized nails into a root vegetable generates enough electricity to power a digital clock, making your pantry…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
The first online flame wars were about detergent
Before the web was a corporate nightmare of targeted ads, it was mostly just university nerds violently disagreeing over mundane household items on Usenet.…
Discover more
Sending telegrams using raw voltage
Nineteenth-century operators sometimes got shocked so badly by the telegraph wires they could transmit messages using just the ambient atmospheric current. A…
Discover more
Mountains of obsolete charging cables
Somewhere in your house is a tangled drawer of mysterious wires that fit devices from two decades ago. E-waste is a massive monument to our inability to…
Discover more
The software that never comes out
Vaporware refers to highly anticipated digital products that companies promise will change the world, yet they remain in development purgatory forever. It is…
Discover more
Deleting system files to save space
In the early days of computing, users would routinely delete vital system components because they looked large and unimportant, instantly turning expensive…
Discover more
Fiber optics run on total internal reflection
Bouncing light off the inside of a glass tube sounds like a toddler's science fair project, but it currently handles every digital transaction on the planet.…
Discover more
When cactus spines replaced record needles
Early record players required fresh needles constantly. Instead of buying expensive metal replacements, legendary cheapskates would literally just grab a…
Discover more
Samurais could have theoretically sent faxes
The first commercial facsimile system was fully established in the late nineteenth century. A feudal Japanese warrior could theoretically have transmitted a…
Discover more
How scraping a stick started a fire
A chemist was stirring a pot of volatile chemicals with a piece of wood, noticed a dried lump on the end, and tried to scrape it off on the floor. It…
Discover more
Galileo measured heat with floating glass bubbles
Instead of a boring dial, the brilliant Italian stuffed glass spheres filled with colorful liquids into a sealed tube. As the ambient warmth changed the…
Discover more
Some banks still run on 1950s code
While tech bros pitch decentralized web structures, your actual life savings are managed by mainframe software written during the Eisenhower administration.…
Discover more
Unused enterprise software bleeds companies dry
Major corporations waste literal billions annually paying for premium software licenses that their employees never even open. It is a massive digital…
Discover more
Someone made a fortune from your phone's default sound
Someone was paid an absolute fortune to compose the annoying little chime your device makes fifty times a day. Minimal effort has never been so incredibly…
Discover more
Closing all browser tabs feels like a huge accomplishment
Hoarding dozens of open web pages gives a false sense of immense productivity until the entire system crashes. Finally shutting down that digital mess of…
Discover more
Why younger people are ditching the laughing emoji
Younger generations have aggressively abandoned the ubiquitous crying-laughing face, classifying it as an embarrassing relic of an older demographic. True…
Discover more
Why some computers briefly reverse their fans
High performance computing rigs will briefly reverse their ventilation direction on startup purely to eject the nasty buildup accumulated on the vents.
Discover more
Why spreadsheets turn scientific data into dates
Standard spreadsheet cell formatting assumes everything you type is a calendar date, actively corrupting massive sets of scientific data. Researchers…
Discover more
One reply-all can trigger a company-wide email meltdown
Sending a meaningless response to an entire company directory creates an escalating chain reaction of severe annoyance. Dozens of furious colleagues will then…
Discover more