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: The origin of the Oregon Trail
Tech Time Warp: The origin of the Oregon Trail
The real Oregon Trail began in Independence, Missouri, but for generations of American schoolchildren, the trail began in a Minneapolis classroom in 1971, when three student teachers combined their penchant for history with their knowledge of BASIC.
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 was...
Tech Time Warp: The Early Days of IBM
Tech Time Warp: The Early Days of IBM
The monolith we know today as IBM got its start June 16, 1911, when the forward-thinking Charles R. Flint merged the International Time Recording Company, Computing Scale Company and the Tabulating Machine Company—all “computing and tabulating enterprises”—into the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company,...
Tech Time Warp: Computer users smell a RAT
Tech Time Warp: Computer users smell a RAT
The tech acronym “RAT” has two meanings: “remote administration tool,” or the software your friendly network administrator uses to install software or troubleshoot your computer issues, and “remote access trojan,” or the malware a nefarious individual uses to wreak havoc...
Tech Time Warp: The 411 on the 404 page
Tech Time Warp: The 411 on the 404 page
For this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re talking about the origin story of the 404 Page Not Found error code. This error code is about as frustrating as actually reaching a 404 page. For years, a neat story has circulated...
Tech Time Warp: The Love Bug Bites
Tech Time Warp: The Love Bug Bites
One might say more than 3 million computer users had a bad date on May 4, 2000. In this week’s edition of Tech Time Warp, we’re going back to the day those users downloaded the ILOVEYOU virus, a Visual Basic...
Tech Time Warp: The Sasser worm teaches a lesson
Tech Time Warp: The Sasser worm teaches a lesson
In this week’s edition of Tech Time Warp, we’re traveling back to early May 2004, when computer users worldwide learned a hard lesson: Don’t procrastinate when it comes to installing a security patch. Users at the Taiwanese post office, the...
Tech Time Warp: Tandy heats up PC clone wars
Tech Time Warp: Tandy heats up PC clone wars
In this week’s Tech Time Warp, we’re going back to the early days of the Tandy Corporation. Tandy became a player in personal computers with the 1977 introduction of its TRS-80 at RadioShack stores—but that was far from Tandy’s only...
Tech Time Warp: On the hunt for technology easter eggs
Tech Time Warp: On the hunt for technology easter eggs
Have you ever typed “answer to life, the universe, and everything” into Google? In a nod to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Google returns “42” as a calculator result. Or perhaps you’ve explored the police call box on the...
Tech Time Warp: The End of Google Pranks on April Fools’ Day?
Tech Time Warp: The End of Google Pranks on April Fools’ Day?
Out of respect for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Google abstained from its traditional April Fools’ Day tomfoolery during 2020 and 2021. Now in 2022, it appears the pandemic has ended a 20-year streak of online pranks. For this...
