Category: Tech Insight

Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Java programming language is a thirtysomething

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...

/ January 31, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: The scourge of SQL Slammer

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...

/ January 24, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: The public learns about the SAGE air defense system

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...

/ January 17, 2025
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Peter de Jager, the oracle of Y2K

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:...

/ January 10, 2025
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: 50 Years of the Microsoft brand

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...

/ January 3, 2025
Tech Time Warp: The 20th anniversary of Facebook’s one millionth user

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...

/ December 27, 2024
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Santy comes to town

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...

/ December 20, 2024
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Happy Birthday to pioneer in tech, Grace Hopper

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...

/ December 13, 2024
Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Recording industry takes on file-sharing pioneer Napster

Tech Time Warp: Recording industry takes on file-sharing pioneer Napster

Twenty-five years ago, a generation of college students hit the jackpot when it came to music. They moved to college dormitories with ethernet connections just as Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker launched Napster, the first mainstream peer-to-peer file-sharing service. Or,...

/ December 6, 2024
AI adoption
MSPs are posed to gain an expanded role in generative AI adoption

MSPs are posed to gain an expanded role in generative AI adoption

Managed service providers (MSPs) are increasingly becoming a critical partner for organizations looking to build and deploy generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. A survey of over 200 executives from enterprises in the Americas and Europe finds nearly two-thirds (65 percent)...

/ December 4, 2024