Tag: History
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How messaging has changed human interaction — Adrian Zumbrunnen — Modus
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A fascinating history of messaging from 1996’s ICQ to the present day. It details how a series of seemingly minor design decisions have had massive privacy implications and ultimately transformed how humans communicate.
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The failed American F1 team that’s still promising a comeback — Dan Thorn — WTF1
🙈 I’d almost forgotten about USF1. Good grief, what a pair of charlatans. It’s hard to believe this was 10 years ago.
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Balwearie High School opening (BBC archive)
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This video is apparently footage from a 1964 BBC interview from the opening of my old high school, Balwearie in Kirkcaldy. It’s fascinating to see how much of it looked exactly the same when I went to school between 1998 and 2004 — and how much of it was totally different. For example, it is […]
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Academia uneasy with lack of diversity on ‘dude walls’ of honour — Nell Greenfieldboyce — NPR
On the campaign to remove — or make less prominent — walls of portraits of old white men from academia’s past. “It just sends the message, every day when you walk by it, that science consists of old white men,” says [neuroscientist Leslie] Vosshall. “I think every institution needs to go out into the hallway […]
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Atmospheres and soundtracks
When I was a child, 25 years ago, landing on the moon not only seemed cool — it seemed like a totally normal expectation. 25 years on, my feelings are more mixed. One thing I haven’t changed my mind about is the brilliant Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.
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The paint-scraping myth: Why the story behind Mercedes’ special livery isn’t true — Keith Collantine and Dieter Rencken — RaceFans
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Spoilsports! 😉 In all seriousness, I’m impressed at the effort Mercedes have put in to celebrating 125 years in motorsport and their 200th F1 race. While having all the team personnel (including mechanics!) dressed up in 1950s-style outfits looks fun, it surely must be distracting. Watching the mechanics working on the cars in the garage […]
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30 years of the world wide web
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Today the world marks the 30th birthday of the web. I could have said ‘celebrates’ instead of ‘marks’. But despite — or perhaps because of — the fact that it’s the most revolutionary advance in communications of our lifetime, the mood seems reflective rather than celebratory.
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UX past, present, and future
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UX past, present, and future An enjoyable and informative history of user experience. Some familiar themes, but not entirely your standard take. A reminder that people have been doing something like user-centred design for longer than we sometimes think. …UX is not really a new thing. It might seem new to your organisation and its […]
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Testing the sound mirrors that protected Britain
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Testing the sound mirrors that protected Britain I very rarely link to (or even watch) a video. But I am happy to make an exception for Tom Scott’s excellent entertaining and educational videos. Here, he tests concrete sound mirrors with drones. I’m fascinated by sound mirrors — an early 20th century technology designed to provide […]
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“Google was not a normal place”: Brin, Page, and Mayer on the accidental birth of the company that changed everything
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“Google was not a normal place”: Brin, Page, and Mayer on the accidental birth of the company that changed everything Fascinating article about the early days of Google. One eye-popping section recalls how they originally tried to sell their technology to other search engines, only to be knocked back. I remember going to this one […]
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How can we incentivise the digital world to make safer services?
How can we incentivise the digital world to make safer services? How regulation came to be in railways, engineering and cars — and what this tells us about how digital services may be regulated. Trigger points for regulation have varied depending on the field, the period of history and the country. However, the thing all […]
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Was there a civilisation on Earth before humans?
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Was there a civilisation on Earth before humans? This is mind-blowing. Perhaps, for example, some early mammal rose briefly to civilization building during the Paleocene epoch about 60 million years ago. There are fossils, of course. But the fraction of life that gets fossilized is always minuscule and varies a lot depending on time and […]
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Legends of the ancient web
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Legends of the ancient web Maciej Cegłowski considers the parallels between the early decades of radio, and the web. He notes how radio became a crucial propaganda tool for the fascists of the 1930s. In less than four decades, radio had completed the journey from fledgeling technology, to nerdy hobby, to big business, to potent […]
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Why everything might have taken so long
Why everything might have taken so long Why did it take humans until 4000BC to invent the wheel? Or 3000BC to begin writing? Katja Grace has gathered an interesting list of hypotheses that could explain why we were so slow to get going.
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40 years of the Voyager golden record
The 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager has created renewed interest in the two gold-plated phonograph records that are on board.
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Check out this amazing film of Kirkcaldy in 1975
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A fascinating and honest snapshot of Kirkcaldy — good and bad — from 40 years ago.
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Dundee Law sculpture
The new sculpture at Dundee Law initially served to confuse me rather than amuse me. But hopefully it is the first of many improvements needed in the area.