Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Engineers at IBM created the very first smartphone all the way back in 1992, unleashing a massive black brick called the Simon Personal Communicator that cost nearly eleven…
Engineers at IBM created the very first smartphone all the way back in 1992, unleashing a massive black brick called the Simon Personal Communicator that cost…
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Typing mechanics dictate that the spacebar is the single most pressed key on any standard computer keyboard, statistically accounting for roughly eighteen percent of all keystrokes made by the average user.
Typing mechanics dictate that the spacebar is the single most pressed key on any standard computer keyboard, statistically accounting for roughly eighteen…
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Jawed Karim uploaded the very first video to YouTube on April 23, 2005, an incredibly mundane eighteen-second clip titled 'Me at the zoo' featuring him standing in front of some…
Jawed Karim uploaded the very first video to YouTube on April 23, 2005, an incredibly mundane eighteen-second clip titled 'Me at the zoo' featuring him…
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Dennis Ritchie developed the legendary C programming language at Bell Labs in 1972, and he named it 'C' for the incredibly unimaginative reason that it was directly based on an…
Dennis Ritchie developed the legendary C programming language at Bell Labs in 1972, and he named it 'C' for the incredibly unimaginative reason that it was…
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Cashiers at a Marsh supermarket in Ohio scanned the world's very first universal product code in 1974, testing the groundbreaking laser technology on a perfectly ordinary ten-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
Cashiers at a Marsh supermarket in Ohio scanned the world's very first universal product code in 1974, testing the groundbreaking laser technology on a…
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Martin Cooper made the first ever mobile telephone call in 1973 while working for Motorola, and he brilliantly used this historic moment to call his direct rival at AT&T just to gloat about his success.
Martin Cooper made the first ever mobile telephone call in 1973 while working for Motorola, and he brilliantly used this historic moment to call his direct…
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Bandai released the Tamagotchi in 1996, accidentally sparking a massive psychological crisis in Japan where owners experienced genuine grief and required mourning services when…
Bandai released the Tamagotchi in 1996, accidentally sparking a massive psychological crisis in Japan where owners experienced genuine grief and required…
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AT&T purchased the internet's first ever banner advertisement in 1994 for wired.com, and it achieved an absolutely mind-boggling click-through rate of forty-four percent.
AT&T purchased the internet's first ever banner advertisement in 1994 for wired.com, and it achieved an absolutely mind-boggling click-through rate of…
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Samsung originally launched in 1938 as a modest grocery trading store in Korea, dealing primarily in dried Korean fish, locally grown noodles, and various agricultural products.
Samsung originally launched in 1938 as a modest grocery trading store in Korea, dealing primarily in dried Korean fish, locally grown noodles, and various…
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German engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute invented the MP3 audio format in 1989, using the Suzanne Vega song "Tom's Diner" as the reference track to fine-tune the audio compression algorithm.
German engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute invented the MP3 audio format in 1989, using the Suzanne Vega song "Tom's Diner" as the reference track to…
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Russell Seitz, a physicist, calculated that the physical weight of all the moving electrons that make up the entire internet is roughly fifty grams, which is approximately the same mass as a single strawberry.
Russell Seitz, a physicist, calculated that the physical weight of all the moving electrons that make up the entire internet is roughly fifty grams, which is…
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Ajay Bhatt led the team at Intel that invented the Universal Serial Bus in the 1990s, fundamentally solving the nightmare of plugging massive, pin-heavy cables into the back of…
Ajay Bhatt led the team at Intel that invented the Universal Serial Bus in the 1990s, fundamentally solving the nightmare of plugging massive, pin-heavy…
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Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, admitted that the term Wi-Fi doesn't actually stand for "Wireless Fidelity" or anything else at…
Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, admitted that the term Wi-Fi doesn't actually stand for "Wireless Fidelity"…
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Microsoft designed the original Xbox console with such a ridiculously massive physical footprint that it actually struggled to gain a foothold in the Japanese gaming market…
Microsoft designed the original Xbox console with such a ridiculously massive physical footprint that it actually struggled to gain a foothold in the Japanese…
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Jeff Bezos originally intended to name his online bookstore 'Cadabra' as a reference to the magical incantation abracadabra, hoping to imply that the shopping experience was pure magic.
Jeff Bezos originally intended to name his online bookstore 'Cadabra' as a reference to the magical incantation abracadabra, hoping to imply that the shopping…
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Margaret Hamilton and her brilliant team developed the crucial Apollo guidance computer software by having expert seamstresses literally weave the binary code into core rope memory by hand.
Margaret Hamilton and her brilliant team developed the crucial Apollo guidance computer software by having expert seamstresses literally weave the binary code…
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Christopher Latham Sholes designed the ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard layout in the early 1870s specifically to separate commonly paired letters and prevent mechanical typewriters from jamming.
Christopher Latham Sholes designed the ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard layout in the early 1870s specifically to separate commonly paired letters and prevent…
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Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented the first electric printing telegraph in 1843, making the fundamental technology behind the fax machine exactly thirty-three years older than the invention of the telephone.
Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented the first electric printing telegraph in 1843, making the fundamental technology behind the fax machine exactly…
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High-frequency trading firms spend hundreds of millions of dollars to physically place their computer servers as close to the stock exchange data centers as possible just to gain…
High-frequency trading firms spend hundreds of millions of dollars to physically place their computer servers as close to the stock exchange data centers as…
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Machine learning models do not actually know anything in the traditional sense, but merely predict the next statistically likely word based on vast oceans of stolen internet…
Machine learning models do not actually know anything in the traditional sense, but merely predict the next statistically likely word based on vast oceans of…
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Ronald Wayne designed the very first Apple logo in 1976 as a complicated ink illustration depicting Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with a glowing apple dangling precariously above his head.
Ronald Wayne designed the very first Apple logo in 1976 as a complicated ink illustration depicting Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with a glowing apple…
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Software engineer Jim Reekes created the iconic Apple Macintosh trash can crunch sound by recording the noise of his own messy real-life garbage being aggressively packed down.
Software engineer Jim Reekes created the iconic Apple Macintosh trash can crunch sound by recording the noise of his own messy real-life garbage being…
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Millions of edits on Wikipedia are performed exclusively by automated bots that routinely get into aggressive, years-long editing wars with each other over formatting rules.
Millions of edits on Wikipedia are performed exclusively by automated bots that routinely get into aggressive, years-long editing wars with each other over…
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Hardware engineers officially measure computer mouse movement in a unit called a "Mickey", named after the iconic Disney rodent, with one Mickey representing the smallest…
Hardware engineers officially measure computer mouse movement in a unit called a "Mickey", named after the iconic Disney rodent, with one Mickey representing…
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