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Hello Firefox, this is Chrome calling
For the first time, Chrome and Firefox can “talk” to each other via WebRTC . WebRTC is a new set of technologies that brings clear crisp voi...
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History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 143 posts.
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Doug Engelbart has died
Search IETF mail list archives
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Blink: A rendering engine for the Chromium project
WebKit is a lightweight yet powerful rendering engine that emerged out of KHTML in 2001. Its flexibility, performance and thoughtful desig...
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"Asswipe," replied Yahoo's server. That's when I knew I had it
Yahoo's public chat rooms have passed away . It is for the best, for the spam had spread everywhere. But they had a good run, operating for a decade and a half, an Internet eternity.
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Why You’ve Never Read “I Have A Dream”
(I know some people will be interested in a followup post to Don’t Fly During Ramadan . I plan on writing one, but this post happens to be timely.)
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How I coded in 1985
Back in 1985 I worked on the computerization of a machine designed to stick labels on bottles. The company that made the machines was using...
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Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere
London, 1772. I have been asked by my superiors to give a brief demonstration of the surprising effectiveness of even the simplest techniques of the new-fangled Social Networke Analysis in the pursuit of those who would seek to undermine the liberty enjoyed by His Majesty’s subjects. This is in connection with the…
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"Nothing like this will be built again"
I've just had a really amazing experience: a guided tour of the nuclear reactor complex at Torness on the Scottish coast. What made this tour unusual is that the tour guide in question, Les, happens to be one of the reactor engineers (as well as a friend) -- and he showed me (and a couple of other friends) right…
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The myth of NASA's expensive space pens
There’s a story about NASA’s incredibly expensive space pen and Russia’s simpler solution that gets trotted out every time some large organization introduces so
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Debian 7.0 "Wheezy" released
[14 Dec 2013] Updated Debian 7: 7.3 released [20 Oct 2013] Updated Debian 6.0: 6.0.8 released [12 Oct 2013] Updated Debian 7: 7.2 released [28 Sep 2013] Debian Edu / Skolelinux Wheezy — a complete Linux solution for your school [09 Aug 2013] Debian invites you to its 20th birthday [15 Jun 2013] Updated Debian 7: 7.1…
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How I introduced a 27-year-old computer to the web
Reviving an old computer is like restoring a classic car: there’s a thrill from bringing the ancient into the modern world. So it was with my first “real” computer, my Mac Plus, when I decided to bring it forward three decades and introduce it to the modern web.
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Volvo Gave Away the Most Important Design They Ever Patented
In 1959, Volvo invented the 3 point seat belt we use today. Then they gave the design away for all other car manufacturers to use for free.
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A few words on Doug Engelbart
Doug Engelbart died today. His work has always been very difficult for writers to interpret and explain.
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What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014? Under the law that existed until 1978 . . . Works from 1957 The books On the Road, Atlas Shrugged, and The Cat in the Hat, the films The Bridge on the River Kwai, Funny Face, and The Prince and the Showgirl, the play Endgame (“Fin de Partie”), […]
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The sound of the dialup, pictured
If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember how it sounded. But what do these sounds mean?
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You commit three felonies a day
In a book called Three Felonies A Day, Boston civil rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate says that everyone in the US commits felonies everyday and if the governmen
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Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by…
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Internet Explorer 11: “Don’t call me IE”
The Official Web Site of Nicholas C. Zakas
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Some killjoys have removed the blink tag from Firefox
Some killjoys have removed the <blink> tag from Firefox. Dropped blink effect from text-decoration: blink; and completely removed <blink> element. Of course, <blink> still works on my sites. And with proper MILSPEC 3 units on, 1 unit off timing, as is right and proper, and which I believe the non-Unix versions of…
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SkyMall's SkyFall
How does the business of SkyMall work? And what is the dark secret behind the recent merger of SkyMall and Xhibit.
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