Results for: tech time warp

Tech Time Warp: Almost the end of the road for Adobe Flash

Tech Time Warp: Almost the end of the road for Adobe Flash

Network administrators may have Dec. 31, 2020, marked on their calendars as a day of celebration. In just over five months, Adobe Flash—once a major breakthrough in online video, eventually a security hassle—reaches its end of life. Adobe will remove...

/ July 24, 2020
Tech Time Warp: Daniel McCacken helps spawn FORTRAN

Tech Time Warp: Daniel McCacken helps spawn FORTRAN

Here’s an early birthday salute to the late Daniel McCracken, author of the definitive textbooks on FORTRAN. McCracken, who passed away in 2011, would have turned 90 on July 23. He wrote 26 books, including the first textbook on FORTRAN...

/ July 17, 2020
Whirlwind project MIT
Tech Time Warp: A Technological Whirlwind at MIT

Tech Time Warp: A Technological Whirlwind at MIT

July 4, 1956, doesn’t quite rank with July 4, 1776, in terms of independence, but it was a remarkable day in terms of freedom for computer users—freedom from punch cards, dials, and switches, that is. On July 4, 1956, researchers...

/ July 3, 2020 / 1 Comment
Tech Time Warp: Did you forget about the first iPhone?

Tech Time Warp: Did you forget about the first iPhone?

As ubiquitous as the iPhone is today (and as many competitors as it has inspired), it can be difficult to think back to June 2007, when the first iPhone went on sale. Disrupting the Blackberry world, the iPhone of 2007...

/ June 26, 2020
Tech Time Warp: Meet Charles Babbage, the father of computing

Tech Time Warp: Meet Charles Babbage, the father of computing

After celebrating the dads in your life on Father’s Day, consider raising a glass to Charles Babbage, the 19th-century Englishman known as the “Father of Computing.” An independently wealthy man, Babbage was able to indulge in his fascination in mathematics...

/ June 19, 2020
Tech Time Warp: How about them Apple IIs?

Tech Time Warp: How about them Apple IIs?

For many of us, our first introduction to the computer was an Apple II, whether playing Oregon Trail in the school computer lab or as one of the lucky few who owned this remarkable personal computers. Designed by Steve Wozniak...

/ June 5, 2020
Tech Time Warp: Klez.H virus confuses with spoofed emails

Tech Time Warp: Klez.H virus confuses with spoofed emails

It is possible the creator of Klez was rather indecisive. The malware, which confounded computer users in the early 2000s, was all at once a virus, a worm, and a Trojan horse. Basically, Klez contained every trick in the hacker...

/ May 29, 2020
Tech Time Warp: Lessons learned from the Sadmind worm

Tech Time Warp: Lessons learned from the Sadmind worm

On May 8, 2001, the CERT Division at Carnegie Mellon University issued an alert: A new worm was on the loose. The “sadmind/IIS worm” exploited well-known vulnerabilities in the Sun Microsystems’ Solaris operating system as well as Microsoft’s Internet Information...

/ May 22, 2020
Tech Time Warp: Hack shuts down PlayStation Network for 3 weeks

Tech Time Warp: Hack shuts down PlayStation Network for 3 weeks

Video games have been a godsend during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing those “staying at home” with diversion and a chance at safe social interaction (Animal Crossing, anyone?). It’s worth remembering, however, that even the big guys in digital gaming and...

/ May 15, 2020
Tech Time Warp: Michael Dell launches his empire from a dorm room

Tech Time Warp: Michael Dell launches his empire from a dorm room

Think back to your freshman year of college and the activities that ensued in your dorm room: Cramming for tests? Late night pizza? Perhaps some partying? Great memories, right? At least until you compare your freshman year experience to Michael...

/ May 1, 2020 / 6 Comments