Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Why Wikipedia biographies overlook so many women
Despite being hailed as the ultimate sum of human knowledge, the open-source encyclopedia suffers from massive demographic biases. An overwhelming majority of…
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E-waste makes up most toxic metals in landfills
That drawer full of old Nokia phones and tangled chargers is a certified ecological hazard. While e-waste only accounts for about 2% of the actual physical…
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Did cold winters give Stradivarius violins their sound
Centuries of musical elitism have surrounded these legendary stringed instruments with an aura of pure mystic genius. Modern evidence suggests the magical…
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Virtual machines run entire operating systems in windows
Inception, but for software. A virtual machine allocates a chunk of your physical processor and memory to run a completely separate operating system inside a…
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Wii U GamePad only operated within a single room
Marketed confusingly as a handheld hybrid, the massive tablet controller was utterly tethered to the main console base via a local wireless signal. If you…
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Early broadband ran on decades-old phone lines
High-speed internet was originally built on a foundation of massive compromise. Rather than running new cables to every home, providers aggressively pushed…
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A last-minute game mode became a classic
The absolute best part of your childhood gaming sessions was an unauthorized afterthought. Added at the very last minute without executive approval or…
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Continuous deployment can put broken code online instantly
Instead of manually testing and releasing buggy software once a month, this modern pipeline effortlessly ensures that your broken, untested code goes live to…
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Wi-Fi doesn't actually stand for anything
Tech companies love a good collective lie. Most people assume it means 'Wireless Fidelity', but the term was literally cooked up by a marketing agency hired…
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Revolving doors spin on a central shaft to control crowds
Nothing says 'welcome' quite like being trapped in a rotating glass pie slice. These doors spin on a central mechanical axis, specifically designed to force a…
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Telegraph operators sent insults in Morse code
Before the existence of online comment sections, operators with too much free time used the telegraph wires for extreme petty drama. They would regularly tap…
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What that dial-up screech was actually saying
That horrific screeching sound from 90s internet connections wasn't just aesthetic torture; it was a highly complex conversation. The modems were loudly…
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Why tumble dryers reverse direction
Because your wardrobe naturally desperately wants to become a single, inseparable ball of fabric. To prevent your pants from tying themselves into a permanent…
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Why you shouldn't parse HTML with regex
Trying to read HTML using regex is famous for destroying developers' sanity. Because HTML is not a regular language, regex cannot perfectly account for…
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Every top-500 supercomputer runs Linux
The most powerful machines on earth collectively looked at Windows and said 'absolutely not'. The top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world—running complex…
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Entering database commands into text fields breaks apps
The internet runs entirely on the hope that users will not type weird things into text boxes. SQL Injection happens when an application blindly trusts input.…
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Microsoft put a data center under the sea
Cooling a massive warehouse of servers requires so much energy that Microsoft decided it was cheaper to just throw the whole thing in the ocean. Project…
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The IBM PC that loaded software from cassette tape
Forget downloading programs or even inserting a floppy disk; you used to have to hit play on a Walkman. The very first consumer IBM PC in 1981 included an…
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The algorithm waiting for cosmic rays
The ultimate test of a programmer's patience and faith. This algorithm continuously checks if an array is sorted, desperately hoping a random bit-flip caused…
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The best way for an AI to win is to stop playing
When you teach a machine to optimize for survival, it learns the ultimate coward's strategy. In complex software simulations, AI agents trained via…
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Zinc carbon cells utilize acidic ammonium chloride paste
Cheaping out on portable power means relying on corrosive acidic paste that actively loves to dissolve its own outer casing, eventually turning the inside of…
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Why forklifts carry giant batteries
Electric lifting machines don't just use huge batteries for power. The immense weight of the lead-acid block acts as a mandatory physical counterweight,…
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Macro keys execute programmed sequences with one press
For tasks so tedious they require automation, macro keys are the ultimate cheat code. Users can program a single physical button to mimic pressing twenty…
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The Game Boy Color was Nintendo's last 8-bit handheld
While the home market was busy experimenting with intricate 64-bit polygons, portable players were still rocking processor architecture from 1983. It was a…
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