Kate Johanns

All posts by Kate Johanns

Kate Johanns is a communications professional and freelance writer with more than 13 years of experience in publishing and marketing.

Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: An APT programming language

Tech Time Warp: An APT programming language

In conjunction with research centers like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the defense industry drove many rapid technological advances post-World War II. That’s where Douglas T. Ross and his team significantly sped up manufacturing with the development of the...

/ February 21, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: It’s the Storm Worm, not a secret admirer

Tech Time Warp: It’s the Storm Worm, not a secret admirer

The FBI had a real Debbie Downer message to deliver in 2008: That unexpected Valentine’s Day e-card was not from a secret admirer. Instead, it was an invitation for the unwitting recipient to join the Storm Worm botnet. Learn all...

/ February 14, 2025
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Marian Croak, an “American idol” with 200 patents

Pioneers in Tech: Marian Croak, an “American idol” with 200 patents

Readers of a certain age will remember the frustration of trying to dial in their votes for Kelly Clarkson during the first season of American Idol. The phone lines would become overloaded! Most of us dialing in for Kelly probably...

/ February 7, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Java programming language is a thirtysomething

Tech Time Warp: Java programming language is a thirtysomething

The programming language that made “Write Once, Read Anywhere” (WORA) a standard turns 34 this year (or 30, depending on which anniversary you’re counting). Learn about the history behind Java programming language in this edition of Tech Time Warp. The...

/ January 31, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: The scourge of SQL Slammer

Tech Time Warp: The scourge of SQL Slammer

It must have been frustrating to write the Jan. 25, 2003, Microsoft press release responding to the SQL Slammer worm, also known as Sapphire. Read between the lines, and it’s easy to decipher the statement’s real message: “We tried to...

/ January 24, 2025
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Peter de Jager, the oracle of Y2K

Pioneers in Tech: Peter de Jager, the oracle of Y2K

On page 115 of the Sept. 6, 1993, issue of Computerworld, a Canadian computer consultant named Peter de Jager launched an industry: responding to Y2K. Learn more about De Jager in this edition of Pioneers in Tech. De Jager warned:...

/ January 10, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: 50 Years of the Microsoft brand

Tech Time Warp: 50 Years of the Microsoft brand

On Jan. 2, 1975, Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a letter to MITS, the manufacturer of the Altair computer. Inspired by a Popular Electronics article about the Altair 8800, Gates and Allen—who were geeking out on microprocessors...

/ January 3, 2025
Tech Time Warp: The 20th anniversary of Facebook’s one millionth user

Tech Time Warp: The 20th anniversary of Facebook’s one millionth user

Nearly 40 percent of the world’s total population—more than 3 billion people—uses Facebook each month, and of those, 2.11 billion log into Facebook every day. As ubiquitous as Facebook is in contemporary society, it’s incredible to think that just 20...

/ December 27, 2024
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Santy comes to town

Tech Time Warp: Santy comes to town

Twenty years ago, network administrators found themselves dealing with an unwelcome holiday visitor: not Santa, but Santy. Learn all about it in this edition of Tech Time Warp. The Santy worm was malware written in the Perl language. It didn’t...

/ December 20, 2024
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Happy Birthday to pioneer in tech, Grace Hopper

Tech Time Warp: Happy Birthday to pioneer in tech, Grace Hopper

Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the most legendary early females in the computer industry, would have celebrated her 118th birthday on December 9. Born in New York City in 1906, Hopper built a career in the U.S. Navy and computer...

/ December 13, 2024