Tech Time Warp is a weekly feature that looks back at interesting moments and milestones in tech history.
Tag: Tech Time Warp
Tech Time Warp: Copyright protection for computer code
Tech Time Warp: Copyright protection for computer code
Sept. 22, 1986, marked a milestone in a protracted legal battle between Intel and NEC Corp. over copyright protection of computer code. As they fought for control of the microprocessor market, the two semiconductor companies—Intel American, and NEC Corp. Japanese—found...
Tech Time Warp: CryptoLocker takes ransomware mainstream
Tech Time Warp: CryptoLocker takes ransomware mainstream
These days, every MSP is well aware of the risks of ransomware (and hopefully using cloud backup to protect against it). But back in September 2013, the concept of malware that encrypted your files and demanded payment within a 72-hour...
Tech Time Warp: Grace Hopper’s Computer Bug
Tech Time Warp: Grace Hopper’s Computer Bug
“It must have a bug” is the easy way to explain away technology troubles, but few of us have pondered why we say that. Turns out computer pioneer Grace Hopper plays a role in the etymology (not entomology) of the...
Tech Time Warp: W3 Catalog Makes the Internet Searchable
Tech Time Warp: W3 Catalog Makes the Internet Searchable
“Let me Google that for you.” A few of us still remember life before Google. Turns out that even before there was an Excite or a Lycos, there was a W3 Catalog. Making its debut on Sept. 2, 1993, the...
Tech Time Warp: Linus Torvalds Introduces Linux
Tech Time Warp: Linus Torvalds Introduces Linux
They say hindsight is 20/20, which is why Linus Torvalds’ Aug. 25, 1991, message to a MINIX newsgroup is so humorous now: “I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) … it...
Tech Time Warp: When Internet Explorer Was Cool
Tech Time Warp: When Internet Explorer Was Cool
Let’s time-travel back to August 1995, when Bill Gates and his company introduced the world to Internet Explorer 1.0. Making its debut on August 16, 1995, this wasn’t the IE you later spurned for Chrome and Firefox. No, this was...
Tech Time Warp: The story behind five everyday tech terms
Tech Time Warp: The story behind five everyday tech terms
Given technology’s fast pace, it’s easy to forget someone in 1995 would look at you like you were from Mars if you mentioned your Bluetooth. Turns out the stories behind commonly used tech terms are fairly fascinating. For instance, thank...
Tech Time Warp: Koobface worm begins to spread
Tech Time Warp: Koobface worm begins to spread
Back in August 2008—when you were still juggling Facebook and MySpace profiles—unsuspecting social networkers found their machines infected by Koobface, a particularly nasty computer worm. Koobface (an anagram for Facebook) caught its victims by tempting them with tantalizing Facebook links...
Tech Time Warp: Apple begins work on the Lisa
Tech Time Warp: Apple begins work on the Lisa
While everyone else was at the beach during the summer of 1979, Steve Jobs began work on—you guessed it—another product that would change the world. The Lisa, introduced to the marketplace in 1983, was Apple’s first foray into personal computers...
Tech Time Warp: Email Outage Chaos
Tech Time Warp: Email Outage Chaos
The Internet makes life so much easier … except when it doesn’t. Just like a bad cold makes you appreciate breathing through your nose, an Internet outage makes you realize your reliance on email and texts and streaming services. The...
