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: The 411 on the 404 page

Tech Time Warp: The 411 on the 404 page

For this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re talking about the origin story of the 404 Page Not Found error code. This error code is about as frustrating as actually reaching a 404 page. For years, a neat story has circulated...

/ May 20, 2022
Pioneers in Tech: Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of USB technology

Pioneers in Tech: Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of USB technology

For this week’s Pioneers in Tech, we’re looking into the story of the USB. Like so many now-ubiquitous innovations, USB technology has a fascinating origin story you probably don’t know—and it might make you think twice about the “old” USB...

/ May 13, 2022
Tech Time Warp: The Love Bug Bites

Tech Time Warp: The Love Bug Bites

One might say more than 3 million computer users had a bad date on May 4, 2000. In this week’s edition of Tech Time Warp, we’re going back to the day those users downloaded the ILOVEYOU virus, a Visual Basic...

/ May 6, 2022
Tech Time Warp: The Sasser worm teaches a lesson

Tech Time Warp: The Sasser worm teaches a lesson

In this week’s edition of Tech Time Warp, we’re traveling back to early May 2004, when computer users worldwide learned a hard lesson: Don’t procrastinate when it comes to installing a security patch. Users at the Taiwanese post office, the...

/ April 29, 2022
Tech Time Warp: Tandy heats up PC clone wars

Tech Time Warp: Tandy heats up PC clone wars

In this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re going back to the early days of the Tandy Corporation. Tandy became a player in personal computers with the 1977 introduction of its TRS-80 at RadioShack stores—but that was far from Tandy’s only...

/ April 22, 2022
Tech Time Warp: On the hunt for technology easter eggs

Tech Time Warp: On the hunt for technology easter eggs

Have you ever typed “answer to life, the universe, and everything” into Google? In a nod to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Google returns “42” as a calculator result. Or perhaps you’ve explored the police call box on the...

/ April 14, 2022 / 1 Comment
Pioneers in Tech: John Roach and the story of the TRS-80

Pioneers in Tech: John Roach and the story of the TRS-80

In this week’s edition of Pioneers in Tech, we’re highlighting legendary business executive John Roach. On March 20, 83-year-old John Roach died in his beloved Fort Worth, Texas, where he was a titan of the community. His legacy goes far...

/ April 8, 2022
Tech Time Warp: The End of Google Pranks on April Fools’ Day?

Tech Time Warp: The End of Google Pranks on April Fools’ Day?

Out of respect for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Google abstained from its traditional April Fools’ Day tomfoolery during 2020 and 2021. Now in 2022, it appears the pandemic has ended a 20-year streak of online pranks. For this...

/ April 1, 2022
Tech Time Warp: Jean Sammet changes her opinion of computers

Tech Time Warp: Jean Sammet changes her opinion of computers

In this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re going back to programming in the 50’s. Introduced in 1959, the programming language COBOL—common, business-oriented language—is still heavily in use today, with an estimated 200 billion lines of code relied upon by government...

/ March 28, 2022
Tech Time Warp: First domain name registered in 1985

Tech Time Warp: First domain name registered in 1985

File this away for your next pub quiz: The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com, registered on March 15, 1985, by Symbolics Computer Corporation, a company that specialized in single-user machines running the LISP programming language. For this week’s...

/ March 17, 2022