Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Why adding a device can reset your charging brick
Plugging a second cord into your multi-port charging brick is a betrayal to the first device. The charger has to instantly cut the power to everything to…
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Apple once made a key just for its logo
Because purely functional keys like 'Shift' or 'Enter' simply weren't enough, early Apple hardware had to ensure absolute brand loyalty. The Apple II featured…
Discover moreA programming language built from Schwarzenegger quotes
Action heroes clearly make the best compilers. This fully functional programming language requires every single command to be a famous blockbuster one-liner,…
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Idle games play themselves entirely while users just watch
The purest distillation of modern gaming is arguably an application that actively discourages you from touching it. Incremental "idle" games automate every…
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Hash collisions make different files look identical
Cryptographic hashes squeeze gigantic files down into short alphanumeric codes. Because the final code has a fixed length, math dictates that eventually, two…
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Correction fluid hides ink using opaque chemicals
Erasing permanent ink is impossible, so humanity decided to simply paint over its mistakes like landlords. Originally formulated in a kitchen blender by a…
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High refresh rate monitors aggressively drain batteries
Making scrolling look slightly smoother is a fantastic way to instantly murder your portable battery life. To render an image one hundred and twenty times a…
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Who saves pages before they disappear
Because corporations love quietly scrubbing their embarrassing historical mistakes off their servers, a non-profit organization frantically sends out…
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Hitachi Global Storage Technologies proudly released the world's first one-terabyte computer hard drive in early 2007
It took exactly fifty-one years to go from a refrigerator-sized 5MB drive to a brick that could hold a thousand gigabytes. Hitachi launched the Deskstar…
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The VR technology hiding in Joy-Con controllers
The incredibly precise vibrations that mimic ice cubes clinking in a glass weren't invented from scratch. The 'HD Rumble' functionality was essentially…
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Why electrical plugs have holes in their prongs
Those strange little holes at the end of a wall plug have a surprisingly aggressive purpose. Inside the wall socket, tiny internal bumps physically snap into…
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Why your controller aim starts drifting
That high-end controller you just bought relies on century-old technology. Analog sticks track movement by dragging a metal wiper across a carbon track to…
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Why motorcycle chains waste less power than belts
Despite looking like dirty, clunky, medieval torture devices, metal chains are the undisputed kings of horsepower delivery. While rubber belts are quiet and…
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The knot that keeps your shoelaces tied
That bow you tie every morning is technically a double slipped reef knot. The friction of the crossover creates a lock, while the loops leave an easy pull…
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Typewriter once meant the person at the keys
Before it became a dusty mechanical antique, the word applied entirely to the person mashing the keys. In the late 19th century, companies would specifically…
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Power steering uses pressurized fluid to assist weak arms
Without this hidden fluid pump, turning your steering wheel at a standstill would feel like wrestling a boulder. A pump driven by the engine constantly…
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AOL flooded America with free CDs
If you were alive in 1998, you used an AOL free trial CD as a drink coaster. America Online flooded the United States with so much physical spam that for a…
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Cron jobs are invisible bots doing repetitive chores
Rather than manually telling a server to clear logs or backup files every night at 2 AM, administrators use cron jobs. These are silent, relentless background…
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How rust and aluminum make molten iron
You do not need complex fuels to create an inferno when rust and aluminum dust work perfectly well together. Thermite is a deeply terrifying chemical mixture…
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Partitioning slices one physical drive into virtual pieces
You don't need multiple physical drives to keep things separated. Software allows users to partition a single chunk of hardware into multiple distinct virtual…
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Multi-core processors act like several chips in one body
Why have one brain when you can cram twelve into the same skull? Multi-core processors literally divide computing labor across distinct physical processing…
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Why Twitter was limited to 140 characters
Our society's inability to express nuanced thoughts is directly tied to a 1980s telecommunications standard. When Twitter launched in 2006, smartphones…
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Why 3D artists test models on a chimpanzee head
Instead of testing lighting on a boring cube or sphere, some digital modeling tools offer a decapitated chimpanzee head named Suzanne. She was added purely as…
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The polio survivors who still use iron lungs
While polio has been largely eradicated, the terrifying metal tubes used to treat it are not totally extinct. A tiny handful of survivors still rely on these…
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