Tech Time Warp: Highlights from Bill Gates’ 1995 Internet Memo
For a guy quoted in 1993 as saying “The Internet? We’re not interested in it,” Bill Gates certainly had a major change of heart by May 26, 1995, when he sent a memo titled “The Internet Tidal Wave” to his...
Tech Time Warp: Network General — Maker of The Sniffer — Founded
Time for a pop quiz. Was “The Sniffer”: A. The title of a 1959 B-movie B. A piece of barware C. A revolutionary diagnostic tool for Local Area Networks If you guessed C, then you are either a network administrator or...
Tech Time Warp: The First Ethical Hacker
These days, the concept of an ethical hacker is so commonplace the profession has its own Certified Ethical Hacker designation, bestowed and governed by the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants. The ethical hackers of the world put their genius to...
Tech Time Warp: Spam email celebrates its 40th birthday
As you work long hours to ensure your company complies with GDPR by May 25, it’s worth noting that proper use—or misuse—of data has been an issue for at least 40 years. Just ask Gary Thuerk, the self-described “father of...
Tech Time Warp: The Sasser worm teaches a lesson
In early May 2004, 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 train station in Sydney, and some of Wall Street’s biggest banks found...
Tech Time Warp: John McCarthy introduces LISP
Ask Alexa who coined the term “artificial intelligence,” and she’ll tell you John McCarthy. As a computer pioneer, John McCarthy provided the world with much more than a name for AI. He also developed the LISP programming language, one of...
Tech Time Warp: Java gets its start
The software that runs millions of smartphones and made the Internet more functional celebrates an anniversary this week. On April 8, 1991, James Gosling and a Sun Microsystems development team—then known as the “Green” development team, working on a project...
Tech Time Warp: Even UNIVAC was susceptible to viruses
It’s easy to think about viruses as a product of the PC era. But, one of the first viruses ever created affected UNIVAC computers. Although ANIMAL was ultimately a benign creation—a game spread by a separate program called PERVADE—its creator...
Tech Time Warp: U.S. Census Bureau signs UNIVAC contract
With the next census just two years away—it takes place April 1, 2020—it’s worth remembering the machine that computerized the U.S. Census Bureau’s operations. The bureau signed a contract on March 31, 1951, to use the UNIVAC, or the UNIVersal...
Tech Time Warp: Edmund Berkeley, a giant brain of computing
Computer history is filled with quirky individuals—and Edmund Berkeley, born March 21, 1909, is among the most fascinating. It’s hard to pinpoint what Berkeley should be most known for: Founding the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)? (Relations with ACM later...