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The Aol Chat Room Monitor Revolt (2014)
In 1999, America Online's volunteer chat room monitors sued the company for back wages. Do today's hot Internet companies risk the same fate?
Topics /
History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 1,024 posts.
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The bandwidth of a Boeing 747 and its impact on web browsing
Suppose you needed to transfer 1TB of data (perhaps your home movie collection) from San Francisco to London. What would be the fastest route? Put the disk on British Airways flight 286 at SFO, or transfer it across the Internet using a 100 Mbps connection?
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Unexpected patterns in historical astronomical observations
Researchers at Nordita at Stockholm University have analyzed flashes of light on astronomical plates from the early 1950s and found statistical connections between the times of these flashes, nuclear weapons tests and reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The results are presented in two studies published…
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It took a decade for the Declaration of Independence to matter in American life
Two Stanford historians discuss how the United States’ Declaration of Independence became one of the pillars of American civic life and other lesser-known historical facts about what happened on July 4, 1776.
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Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
Artist in Residence Peter Hristoff meditates on the role of Islamic prayer rugs (seccades) and the role they play in his own creative output.
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The Forgotten Ones: HP Nanoprocessor
Original Nanoprocessor prototypes from 1974-75. Note hand written wafer number, open die cover and early part number (94332)
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Fifty years of the personal computer operating system
Fifty years ago, PC software pioneer Gary Kildall demonstrated CP/M, the first commercially successful personal computer operating system.
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Debian 10.4
[05 Dec 2020] Updated Debian 10: 10.7 released [26 Sep 2020] Updated Debian 10: 10.6 released [30 Aug 2020] DebConf20 online closes [01 Aug 2020] Updated Debian 10: 10.5 released [18 Jul 2020] Updated Debian 9: 9.13 released [09 Jul 2020] Debian 8 Long Term Support reaching end-of-life [16 Jun 2020] Ampere donates…
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DOS/4GW and Protected Mode (2021)
MS-DOS game programmers had to deal with several limitations. This article goes over some of these obstacles and explores how we used the DOS/4GW extender & protected mode to unleash the power of 32-bit DOS.
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Admiral Rickover's 'Paper Reactor' Memo (1953)
Rickover's famous speech about the distinction between academic (paper) reactors and practical reactors.
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Discovery of Cold War-era rare Eastern Bloc computers in a German hangar
In 2006, CHM curators traveled to Germany to follow a lead on an abandoned collection of historical computing artifacts. In a three-story warehouse, they found a real-world timeline of computing history. After days of exploring and assessing, they brought back nearly 2,000 items for the permanent collection.
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Stanford scholar gets six-figure settlement from James Joyce Estate (2009)
News, research, and insights from Stanford University.
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Inuit Cartography: Wooden Coastline Maps That Fit in a Mitten
In Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), the Inuit people are known for carving portable maps out of driftwood to be used while navigating coastal waters. These pieces, which are small enough to be carried…
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Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)
Shocking new research confirms the ancient Carthaginians ritually sacrificed children as offerings to the gods, overturning decades of denial. Uncover the dark secrets of this long-forgotten civilisation.
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Hippo Meat Nearly Became an American Food Staple
Visit our Ripley’s Believe It or Not! aquariums and attractions, today. Immerse yourself in a world of wonder and create memories with your friends and family.
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A Century of Quantum Mechanics
On 9 July 1925, in a letter to Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg revealed his new ideas, which were to revolutionise physics
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The Nobel Peace Prize 2019
The Nobel Peace Prize 2019 was awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea"
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Elena Ceausescu: Greatest Scientist Ever – except she was a fraud
If you think that people who deliberately engage in dubious scientific practices like plagiarism, falsification of results, or attendance at fake conferences represent the worst of scientific misconduct—then you have clearly never heard of Elena Ceausescu.
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January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1925 are open to all
By Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1925 are open to all! On January 1, 2021, copyrighted works from 1925 will enter the US public domain,1 where they will be free for all to use and build upon. These […]
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A History of Tug-of-War Fatalities
Ignore simple physics and your appendage could be amputated by a tug of war rope.
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A CIA website was out of date about who runs the UK
A guest post from Tony Bowden about his efforts to build an open source dataset of world leaders inside of Wikidata, the structured-data version of Wikipedia.
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Tektronix equipment has been used in many movies and shows
Explore Tektronix equipment in films and TV at vintageTEK. Find detailed screenshots and IDs of scopes, probes, and monitors from 1953–1984.