Tech Time Warp: How a goodbye party launched DEF CON
The 34th DEF CON conference takes place Aug. 6–9 in Las Vegas. It’s no surprise that one of the hacker community’s most influential events has such a memorable origin story. Whether you’ve attended DEF CON or its more corporate cousin,...
Tech Time Warp: IBM 650 and the rise of computing
Business computing took a major leap forward 73 years ago this month when IBM announced the IBM 650. IBM calls it the first mass-produced computer, and it also became the company’s first highly profitable computer. IBM marketed the 650 as...
Tech Time Warp: John Bardeen leaves Bell Labs
Even technology giants have personality conflicts at work — and sometimes a new opportunity leads to even greater achievements, like a second Nobel Prize in Physics. That’s an extreme example, but it’s a reminder that even brilliant innovators face workplace...
Tech Time Warp: 1994 Citibank Heist Yet Another Reminder to Keep Credentials Secure
The bank heists of Hollywood are glamorous: all-black clothes, darting around lasers, and — in modern cinema — genius hackers with incredible programming skills. But one of the first major digital heists of history, which took place 32 years ago...
Pioneers in Tech: A new future for computer-generated graphics
Jurassic Park. The Abyss. Beauty and the Beast. And, 35 years ago this month, Terminator 2. In this edition of Tech Time Warp, we look back at the contributions of Dr. Marc Regis, co-founder of Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), whose...
Tech Time Warp: Celebrating 250 years of America’s first submarine
All eyes are on 1776 this weekend, and while computer innovation wasn’t occurring 250 years ago, the American fight for independence was not technology-free. One of the lesser-known stories of the American Revolution is a proof-of-concept submarine financed by George...
Tech Time Warp: Nine years since the NotPetya nightmare
With damages estimated at $10 billion worldwide, the NotPetya malware attack of late June 2017 was a nightmare scenario by any standard. But several aspects of the malware — the work of Russian military intelligence officers — were particularly fiendish:...
Tech Time Warp: The Manchester “Baby” and the birth of the stored program computer
At 17 feet long and nearly 7 ½ feet tall — and weighing in at almost a ton — it might seem silly today that the “Small-Scale Experimental Machine” built in 1948 at the UK’s University of Manchester was nicknamed...
Tech Time Warp: The legacy of Stuxnet
These days, USB drive security risks are clear — and cloud storage now serves as an alternative to portable storage. But 16 years ago, the humble USB drive was the carrier for what many still consider the most sophisticated malware...
Pioneers in Tech: Happy birthday, Telle Whitney!
A very happy birthday to Telle Whitney, whose experiences as a female computer scientist in 1980s and 1990s Silicon Valley inspired work that has made her one of the foremost champions for women in the tech industry. Born June 5,...
