Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Tetris has a mode built for superhuman reflexes
The seemingly simple act of stacking falling blocks has evolved into a fiercely intense global sport. In order to accommodate players whose reflexes border on…
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The typewriter was invented to help a blind writer
Before it became the weapon of choice for pretentious hipsters sitting in overpriced coffee shops, the typewriter was actually a noble accessibility tool.…
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Agile coding means stopping to discuss coding
A highly corporate methodology designed to theoretically speed up coding sprints by forcing every single developer to completely stop working every morning…
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Typewriter is the longest top-row keyboard word
Try it right now, you won't be able to resist. This oddity isn't just a fun coincidence; many historians suspect Christopher Sholes specifically arranged the…
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Why leaf blowers blast air so fiercely
That obnoxious screaming device terrorizing your neighborhood every Sunday morning uses a very basic centrifugal impeller. By sucking air into the center and…
Discover moreC-3PO’s actor is a real-life technophobe
The actor who spent his entire professional career pretending to be a fussy, protocol-obsessed machine can't stand actual technology. Anthony Daniels has…
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Standard OSI network model is purely theoretical
Every networking student is forced to memorize a seven-layer model of how data travels, only to discover the real world entirely ignores it. The actual…
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Why your computer keeps memory awake in sleep mode
It is essentially a digital medically induced coma. When you put a machine to sleep, it cuts power to the screen and drives, but keeps just enough electricity…
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Base64 encoding drastically inflates overall file size
To safely send binary files through text-only channels, this encoding translates everything into basic alphanumeric characters. The tragic irony is that doing…
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How games make walls muffle sound
Because hearing a monster breathing clearly through ten feet of solid concrete breaks the illusion immediately. Sophisticated audio processing calculates…
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Why Super Game Boy games ran too fast
Slapping your gray cartridges into the home console attachment didn't provide a perfectly accurate experience. Due to mismatched clock speeds between the…
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One tiny command can freeze a whole server
The 'Fork Bomb' is a maliciously simple piece of logic that tells a process to create two copies of itself. Those two create four, the four create eight, and…
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Early movie film could ignite in the projector
Early cinema was a high-stakes game of survival disguised as entertainment. The first flexible photographic film was made from nitrocellulose, a chemical…
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Your digital scale weighs you with a tiny metal bend
Your fancy bathroom accessory actually depends entirely on an extremely fragile physical strain gauge. Stepping on the glass physically bends a rigid piece of…
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Why Joy-Con sticks start moving on their own
Prepare to be amazed by the sheer audacity of planned obsolescence. That infuriating phantom movement ruining your platforming jumps isn't a software bug; it…
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GameCube's broadband adapter had almost nothing to play
Paying premium money for high-speed connectivity back in 2002 essentially bought you a plastic paperweight. The peripheral was supported by an absurdly small…
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The sorting algorithm that uses dry spaghetti
Sometimes digital problems require terribly messy physical solutions. This theoretical sorting method suggests cutting dry noodles to represent values,…
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Why ski lift chairs suddenly slow down
If a modern ski lift tried to pick you up at full transit speed, it would shatter your shins. The chairs temporarily unclamp from the fast-moving high wire as…
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Removing a keycap launches the internal spring
Trying to clean a keyboard by pulling off the keys is basically disarming a tiny bomb. If you are not incredibly careful, the sudden release of tension will…
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Bill Gates wrote code for the Apple II
The ultimate betrayal of the great tech wars actually started with a friendly collaboration. Before Microsoft and Apple engaged in decades of bitter legal…
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Minesweeper is a logic puzzle, not a guessing game
It looks like random clicking, but it is actually a ruthless grid of cold deduction. Every number tells you exactly how many hazards are adjacent, meaning…
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The lock on your memory card isn't really a lock
Tiny electronic squares heavily feature a tiny sliding yellow lock on the plastic edge to brilliantly prevent overwriting important files. This minuscule…
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When the Mac’s Trash could destroy your files
The safety net of modern computing used to be completely nonexistent. On the very first Macintosh systems in 1984, the 'Trash' folder didn't save your files…
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Electric bicycles aggressively assist your weak pedaling
E-bikes do not just drive themselves; they aggressively judge your physical effort. Internal torque sensors constantly evaluate exactly how hard you are…
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