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: Smelling a RAT in Graybird
Tech Time Warp: Smelling a RAT in Graybird
This week’s Tech Time Warp is one of the most insidious forms of malware: the remote access Trojan, or RAT. While other viruses brick your machine or spam your email contacts, a RAT lurks in the background, quietly stealing passwords...
Tech Time Warp: Remembering the Z80 SoftCard, Microsoft’s first hardware product
Tech Time Warp: Remembering the Z80 SoftCard, Microsoft’s first hardware product
Microsoft’s success with the Surface doesn’t change the fact the tech giant is primarily known for software. After all, Windows and Microsoft Office are ubiquitous in corporate life. But don’t let these juggernauts erase memories of the Z80 SoftCard, Microsoft’s...
Tech Time Warp: Once upon a time, autofill was a novelty
Tech Time Warp: Once upon a time, autofill was a novelty
At this point, autofill/autocomplete/autocorrect technology is such a part of our everyday lives that we laugh at autocorrect fails and avoid typing in our address while online shopping whenever possible. But, like everything in the technology world, this convenience was...
Tech Time Warp: How Street Fighter II revolutionized gaming
Tech Time Warp: How Street Fighter II revolutionized gaming
A crucial chapter in gaming history is receiving a fresh look in the new book Like a Hurricane: An Unofficial Oral History of Street Fighter II by Matt Leone.
Tech Time Warp: LA Times story raises awareness of assistive technology
Tech Time Warp: LA Times story raises awareness of assistive technology
Efforts to make technology accessible to all through assistive devices and international standards for HTML and CSS are still relatively new. The Computer History Museum cites a March 5, 1993, Los Angeles Times story as an early example of the...
Tech Time Warp: First computer storage warrant issued
Tech Time Warp: First computer storage warrant issued
Nowadays, everyone knows the first things sought with a search warrant will be laptops and smartphones. The digital trails we all leave are revealing whether one is involved in something illegal or simply has a potentially embarrassing health condition. But...
Tech Time Warp: Mocmex sneaks in via digital photo frame
Tech Time Warp: Mocmex sneaks in via digital photo frame
“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” is the old saying associated with the story of the Trojan horse—the same story that gives Trojan viruses their name. In 2008, however, a more appropriate saying would have been “Beware of relatives bearing digital...
Tech Time Warp: The first published reference to “vaporware”
Tech Time Warp: The first published reference to “vaporware”
We all know people who are long on ideas and short on execution. In the software world, one might say these people create “vaporware.” Let’s get into this week’s Tech Time Warp. This term was first used in a Feb....
Tech Time Warp: Blackworm Offers Rare Chance to Analyze Spread of a Virus
Tech Time Warp: Blackworm Offers Rare Chance to Analyze Spread of a Virus
In late January 2006, stopping the worm known as Blackworm (aka Nyxem, MyWife, Blackmal and, interestingly, Kama Sutra) was at the top of most network administrators’ to-do lists.
Tech Time Warp: Apple introduces the Lisa, its first personal computer
Tech Time Warp: Apple introduces the Lisa, its first personal computer
“Do you know, I put together that entire project—including the presentation slides—just this morning?” One might think the man at the start of this 1984 Apple demo video is starting to “mansplain” something to his female colleague. But then he...
