Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Wikipedia's volunteers have a monument in Poland.
Wikipedia's volunteers have a monument in Poland. Unveiled in Słubice in 2014, it shows four figures supporting a globe assembled from puzzle pieces. The…
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The Luddites attacked machines as part of a fight over work and wages.
The Luddites attacked machines as part of a fight over work and wages. Early-19th-century textile workers targeted equipment associated with practices that…
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Amazon's first book order came from an invited tester.
Amazon's first book order came from an invited tester. John Wainwright bought Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies in 1995 after an…
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Google’s early search engine was offered for $1.6 million.
Google’s early search engine was offered for $1.6 million. In a 1997 proposal, Larry Page offered his BackRub search technology to Excite for a package of…
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Some microwaves can be muted without unplugging them.
Some microwaves can be muted without unplugging them. Manufacturers often hide sound settings behind a long button press or an options menu rather than a…
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The first practical videotape recorder cost as much as a house.
The first practical videotape recorder cost as much as a house. Ampex's 1956 machine brought television recording onto reusable magnetic tape. Rotating heads…
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Engineers in the 1950s programmed early computers using punch cards, which were literal pieces of stiff paper with holes painstakingly punched in them to represent binary data.
Engineers in the 1950s programmed early computers using punch cards, which were literal pieces of stiff paper with holes painstakingly punched in them to…
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Curiosity played Happy Birthday with a soil-handling instrument.
Curiosity played Happy Birthday with a soil-handling instrument. For the rover's first Mars anniversary in 2013, engineers varied the vibration frequencies of…
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'Algorithm' carries a mathematician's name through every app.
'Algorithm' carries a mathematician's name through every app. The word developed from the Latinized name of al-Khwarizmi, whose work helped transmit methods…
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Private browsing features like Google Chrome's incognito mode were designed strictly to keep your web history hidden from other people who physically use the exact same device,…
Private browsing features like Google Chrome's incognito mode were designed strictly to keep your web history hidden from other people who physically use the…
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The Web spread after CERN let everyone use it for free.
The Web spread after CERN let everyone use it for free. In 1993, CERN released its World Wide Web software into the public domain. Others could build servers…
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Steve Jobs reportedly kept changing cars to avoid license plates.
Steve Jobs reportedly kept changing cars to avoid license plates. Former Apple employee Jon Callas described a cycle of leasing a new silver Mercedes before…
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More people on the planet currently have access to a mobile phone than have regular access to a safely managed, working indoor toilet.
More people on the planet currently have access to a mobile phone than have regular access to a safely managed, working indoor toilet. The United Nations has…
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The Game Boy Camera hid a strange surprise behind 'Run'.
The Game Boy Camera hid a strange surprise behind 'Run'. Choosing the option on a menu could bring up a distorted face and a message asking what the user was…
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Ethan Zuckerman wrote the original code for the internet's very first pop-up advertisement in the late nineties while working for Tripod, specifically designing a way for an ad…
Ethan Zuckerman wrote the original code for the internet's very first pop-up advertisement in the late nineties while working for Tripod, specifically…
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Wikipedia began as the side project.
Wikipedia began as the side project. Nupedia planned an encyclopedia built through a formal expert-review process. Wikipedia opened in 2001 as a faster,…
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The post office taught machines to read envelopes.
The post office taught machines to read envelopes. Early postal optical readers tackled printed and typed addresses, converting written characters into…
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Tinder once borrowed a ranking idea associated with chess.
Tinder once borrowed a ranking idea associated with chess. The app used an Elo-style score as part of its matching system, drawing on how people responded to…
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Winamp was the absolute king of MP3 players in the late nineties, famous for its customizable skins and the iconic audio greeting declaring that it really whips the llama's ass.
Winamp was the absolute king of MP3 players in the late nineties, famous for its customizable skins and the iconic audio greeting declaring that it really…
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SpaceX launched a giant wheel of Le Brouere cheese into low Earth orbit during the maiden flight of their Dragon spacecraft in 2010.
SpaceX launched a giant wheel of Le Brouere cheese into low Earth orbit during the maiden flight of their Dragon spacecraft in 2010. The cheese was sealed in…
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The Y2K bug was a small date shortcut with a very expensive deadline.
The Y2K bug was a small date shortcut with a very expensive deadline. Software that stored years as two digits could mistake 00 for 1900 when the calendar…
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One reported Antarctic Tinder match came with a helicopter-sized distance problem.
One reported Antarctic Tinder match came with a helicopter-sized distance problem. A 2014 account described a researcher at McMurdo expanding his search…
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Motorola helped carry the first words from the Moon.
Motorola helped carry the first words from the Moon. Apollo's unified S-band transponder combined a radio transmitter and receiver in a compact unit handling…
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The mouse scroll wheel grew out of efforts to make navigating computer documents easier.
The mouse scroll wheel grew out of efforts to make navigating computer documents easier. At Microsoft, Eric Michelman explored better ways to move around…
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