Pioneers in Tech: Joan Clarke, Bletchley Park codebreaker
The stories of the women of Bletchley Park—the secret British codebreaking facility during World War II—are only now becoming known, much like those of the “hidden figures” of NASA. How women helped break the unbreakable Thousands of women worked at...
Tech Time Warp: It’s MyLife, the email worm of spring 2002
The year was 2002 when this week’s Tech Time Warp was born. Email and the internet were still enough of a novelty that unwitting computer users were duped by an email worm promising fun screensavers. In multiple variants claiming to...
Tech Time Warp: TJX hack exposes the depth to which consumer data is at risk
These days, one expects to be notified one or two times a year about potential exposure in a data breach. Nineteen years ago, that wasn’t as commonplace—and we were learning just how widespread the problem could be. In January 2007,...
Tech Time Warp: The fascinating world of phone phreaks
“If we hadn’t made those blue boxes, there would be no Apple.” This quote from Steve Wozniak is an intriguing teaser into the fascinating world of phone phreaks—the hackers of the late 1960s and 1970s, who managed to place calls...
Pioneers in Tech: Frederick McKinley Jones, inventor of mobile refrigeration
We can thank inventor Frederick McKinley Jones, for the proliferation of food choices we enjoy on a daily basis. The modern grocery store—which houses tropical fruits, exotic imported cheese, and frozen sushi-grade fish—was first made possible by Jones’ 1941 invention,...
Tech Time Warp: The unifying nature of Unix time
As this Tech Time Warp is being written, the current Unix epoch time is 1770344462. That means one billion, seven hundred seventy million, three hundred forty-four thousand, four hundred sixty-two seconds have passed since midnight GMT Jan. 1, 1970 (not...
Tech Time Warp: Twenty-five years of Wikipedia rabbit holes
This may surprise you: Wikipedia turned 25 this January. (Be honest—how many Wikipedia rabbit holes have you gone done in the past quarter-century?) From “Hello, World!” to 7 million articles Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales made the first edit (“Hello, World!”)...
Tech Time Warp: Remembering the Brain virus, 40 years later
Revenge is a dish best served … via floppy disk? Forty years ago, two Pakistani brothers proved the floppy disk was a highly effective response to wrongdoing. Reports of the first PC virus, “Brain,” began circulating in January 1986. The...
Tech Time Warp: Happy 40th birthday to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Middle age looks good on this week’s Tech Time Warp, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. The National Science Foundation opened NCSA on Jan. 15, 1986, in response to an unsolicited proposal from eight Illinois...
Pioneers in Tech: Sandra Bullock, Academy award winner, actress, producer, internet pioneer
Your socials may have been buzzing in the past few days with an exciting bit of resurfaced news. One of America’s most popular actresses—known for her girl-next-door persona and rise to stardom in the 1990s—is also a pioneer in technology....
