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...
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...
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...
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...
Tech Time Warp: The public learns about the SAGE air defense system
Do you know those massive computers in old movies? The ones with rows of blinking lights and lots of buttons, as featured in Dr. Strangelove and so many other films? Those weren’t the product of a Hollywood imagination—they were based...
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:...
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...
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...
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...
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...
