Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Multiple massive fast-food corporations have recently invested hundreds of millions of dollars into aggressively replacing their low-wage drive-thru human workers with highly…
Multiple massive fast-food corporations have recently invested hundreds of millions of dollars into aggressively replacing their low-wage drive-thru human…
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Bjarne Stroustrup created the C++ programming language in 1979 simply because he found existing languages too slow or too difficult to manage for large-scale projects.
Bjarne Stroustrup created the C++ programming language in 1979 simply because he found existing languages too slow or too difficult to manage for large-scale…
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Status code 404 Not Found was established as the standard response when a server cannot find the requested webpage, sparking a persistent myth that it was named after Room 404 at CERN where the web was invented.
Status code 404 Not Found was established as the standard response when a server cannot find the requested webpage, sparking a persistent myth that it was…
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Over five hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute of every day, which means humanity is producing content at a rate drastically faster than anyone could possibly consume it.
Over five hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute of every day, which means humanity is producing content at a rate drastically…
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Bill Gates fully intended to release his groundbreaking graphical operating system in 1983 under the painfully boring moniker of Interface Manager, convinced it accurately described the software's functionality.
Bill Gates fully intended to release his groundbreaking graphical operating system in 1983 under the painfully boring moniker of Interface Manager, convinced…
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Susan Kare designed a weird, blocky icon for the original Apple Macintosh in 1983 that vaguely resembled a dog, but users constantly debated whether the pixelated creature was actually meant to be a small cow.
Susan Kare designed a weird, blocky icon for the original Apple Macintosh in 1983 that vaguely resembled a dog, but users constantly debated whether the…
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Sony sold millions of Walkmans starting in 1979, but a German inventor named Andreas Pavel actually patented the first portable stereo cassette player a full two years earlier.
Sony sold millions of Walkmans starting in 1979, but a German inventor named Andreas Pavel actually patented the first portable stereo cassette player a full…
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First commercial passenger flight booked over the internet occurred in 1995, forever changing the agonizing process of coordinating human travel.
First commercial passenger flight booked over the internet occurred in 1995, forever changing the agonizing process of coordinating human travel. An obscure…
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First commercial microprocessor in history, the legendary Intel 4004, was specifically designed in 1971 to power a high-end Japanese desktop calculator.
First commercial microprocessor in history, the legendary Intel 4004, was specifically designed in 1971 to power a high-end Japanese desktop calculator. The…
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Highly secure master keys to physically reboot the global internet are held by a completely mundane group of seven international individuals.
Highly secure master keys to physically reboot the global internet are held by a completely mundane group of seven international individuals. These trusted…
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YouTube was originally conceived in 2005 as a video-based dating website named Tune In Hook Up, designed to let singles upload clips of themselves talking about their hobbies to attract potential partners.
YouTube was originally conceived in 2005 as a video-based dating website named Tune In Hook Up, designed to let singles upload clips of themselves talking…
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Hedy Lamarr, a glamorous Hollywood actress from the 1940s, co-invented a frequency-hopping technology meant to prevent enemies from jamming Allied torpedo signals during World War II.
Hedy Lamarr, a glamorous Hollywood actress from the 1940s, co-invented a frequency-hopping technology meant to prevent enemies from jamming Allied torpedo…
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Giesse and other computer engineers in the early days of graphical interfaces modeled the concept of "scrolling" directly after ancient physical papyrus scrolls.
Giesse and other computer engineers in the early days of graphical interfaces modeled the concept of "scrolling" directly after ancient physical papyrus…
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IBM engineers admitted that a significant part of the reason their Deep Blue supercomputer managed to psychologically crush chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997 was a literal glitch in its programming.
IBM engineers admitted that a significant part of the reason their Deep Blue supercomputer managed to psychologically crush chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov…
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Teenage hackers in the mid-nineties invented 'phishing' by impersonating America Online customer service representatives to trick gullible users into giving up their account passwords.
Teenage hackers in the mid-nineties invented 'phishing' by impersonating America Online customer service representatives to trick gullible users into giving…
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Furniture manufacturer Herman Miller is responsible for designing the world's very first commercial mouse pad in 1979, created specifically to accompany the Xerox Alto computer.
Furniture manufacturer Herman Miller is responsible for designing the world's very first commercial mouse pad in 1979, created specifically to accompany the…
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Tuvalu, an incredibly small Polynesian island nation, was serendipitously assigned the top-level internet domain '.tv' in 1996, accidentally securing one of the most lucrative digital real estate deals in history.
Tuvalu, an incredibly small Polynesian island nation, was serendipitously assigned the top-level internet domain '.tv' in 1996, accidentally securing one of…
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Tim Berners-Lee famously admitted that putting the double forward slash in web addresses was completely unnecessary and fundamentally just a massive waste of human time and effort.
Tim Berners-Lee famously admitted that putting the double forward slash in web addresses was completely unnecessary and fundamentally just a massive waste of…
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Masaru Ibuka created the very first product for the company that would eventually become Sony in 1946, and it was nothing more than a wooden bucket lined with rudimentary aluminum electrodes designed to cook rice.
Masaru Ibuka created the very first product for the company that would eventually become Sony in 1946, and it was nothing more than a wooden bucket lined with…
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David Filo and Jerry Yang originally launched their internet directory under the incredibly dry name 'Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web' before wisely rebranding to the acronym Yahoo.
David Filo and Jerry Yang originally launched their internet directory under the incredibly dry name 'Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web' before…
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Qwerty keyboard layouts on early mobile phones required traumatized users to press physical number keys multiple consecutive times just to type a single specific letter in a…
Qwerty keyboard layouts on early mobile phones required traumatized users to press physical number keys multiple consecutive times just to type a single…
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First automated teller machines deployed in the 1960s were heavily coated in expensive wood paneling and highly polished metal just to visually convince deeply suspicious banking…
First automated teller machines deployed in the 1960s were heavily coated in expensive wood paneling and highly polished metal just to visually convince…
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Artificial intelligence voice assistants were originally heavily marketed as completely private digital butlers until it was revealed that tech companies routinely hired…
Artificial intelligence voice assistants were originally heavily marketed as completely private digital butlers until it was revealed that tech companies…
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Thomas and John Knoll created Adobe Photoshop in 1987 initially as a simple program to display grayscale images on a monochrome display, completely unaware of the monstrous cultural shift they were about to trigger.
Thomas and John Knoll created Adobe Photoshop in 1987 initially as a simple program to display grayscale images on a monochrome display, completely unaware of…
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