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: Leap years trip us up every time
Tech Time Warp: Leap years trip us up every time
Leap day 2024 was not without its technical complications. For instance, for more than 10 hours Thursday in New Zealand, drivers could not pay via credit card at gas pumps. Such problems are all part of the grand tradition of leap years,...
Tech Time Warp: The history of Patch Tuesday
Tech Time Warp: The history of Patch Tuesday
Mondays are manic, Wednesday is Hump Day, Thursdays are thirsty, and TGIF. What about poor Tuesday? Well, for the past 20 years, Tuesday has been the responsible workday, thanks to Microsoft. In this edition of Tech Time Warp, we see...
Tech Time Warp: No one is sending you pics of Anna Kournikova
Tech Time Warp: No one is sending you pics of Anna Kournikova
As your mother told you, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. And that’s as true today as it was 23 years ago when “OnTheFly,” a 20-year-old Dutch programmer/hacker, used a computer virus to proclaim his adoration...
Tech Time Warp: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue kicks off AI debate
Tech Time Warp: Kasparov vs. Deep Blue kicks off AI debate
It’s a bit jarring to think how rapidly artificial intelligence became a tool of everyday life following the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022. Now, instead of Googling pasta recipes or travel tips, we’re asking AI, and we’re receiving answers...
Tech Time Warp: The transition to electronic voting faces challenges
Tech Time Warp: The transition to electronic voting faces challenges
A generation later, the images of Florida election workers surrounded by mountains of ballots as they recounted votes in the 2000 presidential election are a distant memory. An entire nation was riveted by the recount, bewildered that the balance of...
Tech Time Warp: Happy mail? Not so much back in 1999
Tech Time Warp: Happy mail? Not so much back in 1999
In this edition of Tech Time Warp we see how the email users of January 1999 were an innocent bunch. Fresh from seeing “You’ve Got Mail” at the box office, they received emails with the attachment Happy99.exe. They thought nothing...
Tech Time Warp: Time’s daring choice for “Machine of the Year”
Tech Time Warp: Time’s daring choice for “Machine of the Year”
Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” is an annual conversation starter. This year’s selection of megastar Taylor Swift not only delighted Swifties but also sparked a new TikTok trend. This edition of Tech Time Warp looks at what (instead of...
Tech Time Warp: Everybody was kung fu fighting
Tech Time Warp: Everybody was kung fu fighting
This week’s Tech Time Warp goes back twenty-nine years ago, when one of the more convoluted chapters in technology history was being written. Research scientist Tsutomu Shimomura was enjoying a Christmas vacation in Lake Tahoe when he received a troubling...
Tech Time Warp: Father Christmas leaves a lump of coal for NASA
Tech Time Warp: Father Christmas leaves a lump of coal for NASA
These days, there seems to be a festive seasonal version of everything. Even items you never dreamed possible (such as cat litter). Malware is no exception. In this edition of Tech Time Warp, we look back at 35 years ago,...
Tech Time Warp: Public sees glimpse of computing’s future on TV
Tech Time Warp: Public sees glimpse of computing’s future on TV
In this edition of Tech Time Warp we see how sixty-nine years ago this week, the public got a televised glimpse of computing innovations we now take for granted. On Dec. 14, 1954, legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow featured the...
