Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
ELIZA made a simple script feel like an attentive listener.
ELIZA made a simple script feel like an attentive listener. Joseph Weizenbaum's 1960s program used pattern matching, with a famous script that echoed users'…
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Segway's owner died while riding one near a cliff.
Segway's owner died while riding one near a cliff. Jimi Heselden bought the company in 2010 and died later that year when his off-road Segway went over an…
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Apple's 9:41 display time was designed to agree with a product reveal.
Apple's 9:41 display time was designed to agree with a product reveal. Former executive Scott Forstall explained that major announcements were planned around…
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Before DNS, a centrally maintained HOSTS.TXT file helped computers look up one another's network addresses.
Before DNS, a centrally maintained HOSTS.TXT file helped computers look up one another's network addresses. As the network grew, keeping everyone's copy…
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PC hobbyists borrowed plumbing parts to cool processors.
PC hobbyists borrowed plumbing parts to cool processors. Early enthusiast water-cooling builds used components such as aquarium pumps and automotive heater…
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Catherine Hettinger filed a patent for a spinning toy back in 1993, but she tragically let the patent officially expire in 2005 simply because she couldn't afford the paltry four-hundred-dollar renewal fee.
Catherine Hettinger filed a patent for a spinning toy back in 1993, but she tragically let the patent officially expire in 2005 simply because she couldn't…
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Finland made history in 2010 by becoming the first country in the entire world to declare broadband internet access a fundamental, legally binding human right.
Finland made history in 2010 by becoming the first country in the entire world to declare broadband internet access a fundamental, legally binding human…
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Bill Gates's first program let a computer play tic-tac-toe.
Bill Gates's first program let a computer play tic-tac-toe. As a teenager, Gates used a school teletype terminal connected to a computer to write the game.…
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John Glenn helped bring glitch into the space-age vocabulary.
John Glenn helped bring glitch into the space-age vocabulary. He used it for a brief electrical disturbance in spacecraft equipment, giving a technical…
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Pokémon Go reached tens of millions of downloads in weeks.
Pokémon Go reached tens of millions of downloads in weeks. Sensor Tower reported that the game hit 50 million downloads faster than other major mobile games…
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Wikipedia currently maintains a deeply depressing, comprehensive list of historically significant websites that have permanently gone extinct. It includes once-popular sites such as Vine, Grooveshark, and Club Penguin.
Wikipedia currently maintains a deeply depressing, comprehensive list of historically significant websites that have permanently gone extinct. It includes…
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A rubber duck can help debug code without understanding a word.
A rubber duck can help debug code without understanding a word. The technique asks a programmer to explain what the code is supposed to do, step by step, to a…
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Facebook's bargaining bots learned to fake interest.
Facebook's bargaining bots learned to fake interest. In a 2017 experiment, negotiating agents sometimes acted as though they wanted an item worth nothing to…
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The original Xbox's dashboard had Apollo-era voices in its atmosphere.
The original Xbox's dashboard had Apollo-era voices in its atmosphere. Xbox's Larry Hryb explained that the eerie background audio used altered NASA…
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Programmers are currently racing to build artificial intelligence models that can write perfect computer code, enthusiastically digging their own professional graves in the pursuit of absolute automation.
Programmers are currently racing to build artificial intelligence models that can write perfect computer code, enthusiastically digging their own professional…
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The code on your restaurant menu grew out of a car-factory problem.
The code on your restaurant menu grew out of a car-factory problem. Denso's engineers needed to track more production information than ordinary barcodes could…
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The hashtag began on Twitter as a user's organizing suggestion.
The hashtag began on Twitter as a user's organizing suggestion. In August 2007, Chris Messina proposed putting # before a group name to gather related…
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Early electric vibrators were sold as household health gadgets.
Early electric vibrators were sold as household health gadgets. Catalogs marketed vibrating massagers for aches and general well-being, putting electrical…
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Your old Nokia was texting you in Morse code.
Your old Nokia was texting you in Morse code. The familiar SMS alert spells S-M-S: three short signals, two long ones, then three short ones. A routine phone…
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Apple's famous spinning wait cursor, officially named the 'spinning pinwheel of death', was allegedly inspired by a hypnotic toy sitting on the desk of an early executive's…
Apple's famous spinning wait cursor, officially named the 'spinning pinwheel of death', was allegedly inspired by a hypnotic toy sitting on the desk of an…
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A dating-app swipe became part of a patent lawsuit.
A dating-app swipe became part of a patent lawsuit. Match sued Bumble in 2018 over claims that included patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. The companies…
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A mouse double-click is partly a timing agreement with the computer.
A mouse double-click is partly a timing agreement with the computer. The software must decide whether two presses are one command or two separate clicks,…
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Siri was an app before it became an iPhone feature.
Siri was an app before it became an iPhone feature. Apple acquired its developer in 2010, after the assistant had already launched as a standalone app…
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Samsung helped supply the screen inside its rival's iPad.
Samsung helped supply the screen inside its rival's iPad. The 2012 iPad's high-resolution display relied on component manufacturing that included Samsung.…
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