In this video, I go over some of the more common forms of data storage for personal computers and consoles.
In this video, I show off and explain a voice controlled light switch I made.
In this video, I explain why we know the Pythagorean Theorem works.
In this video, I'll explain why text looks so distorted when you zoom in on it
How did MySpace get so popular, and why is it considered obsolete today? In this video, the answer is revealed.
Cap-chah? Capt-hah? Cat-sup? I don't what pronunciation is right, but here's a video about it.
Once upon a time, the field of computer graphics was just getting started, and a simple teapot helped researchers develop rendering techniques.
Everyone knows Xerox PARC for the story of how they gave away the GUI to Apple, but not many people know of some other technologies we use all the time today that were also developed at Xerox PARC.
There was a time when interactive software agents seemed like the future of computing. Wheter that has come true yet is up to debate, but one of the earliest and most popular attempts at an interactive software agent is Clippy, the Microsoft Office assistant.
15 years ago, Microsoft released a revolutionary OS, that unified the Windows product line, revamped the user interface and introduced its users to a much more enjoyable computing experience. 15 years later, it's time to celebrate the accomplishment known as, XP.
At one point, AOL was synonymous with the internet, but its origins, as well as its ultimate fate, are more surprising than you'd think.
The first episode of a new series I'm introducing, Format Wars. This episode focuses on the character encoding standards ASCII and EBCDIC, a fight between backwards compatibility and common sense.
How difficult could it possibly be to copy files over to an Apple Newton from the internet? Particularly difficult.
In a world dominated by smartphones and portable touchscreen devices, it's easy to forget a time when a pocket sized email device was the must-have item.
With Microsoft recently releasing the first XP update in three years in an effort to stop WannaCrypt, I thought it was appropriate to bring up the story of a previous XP update that made the OS more secure.
A lot of people recognize the infamous purple gorilla spyware program, but few are aware that BonziBuddy was just one of the many applications created by Bonzi Software.
Shockwave/Macromedia/Adobe Flash was at one point an integral part of the web. Why then, is it a mostly forgotten and ignored software platform? Today, I'm taking a look at what caused the Rise and Fall of Flash.
Ever want to take Windows XP (or any version of Windows, really) with you wherever you go? Maybe you'd rather use XP than the OS installed on a public computer. Maybe you just want to prank your friends and watch as their computer boots into a 16 year old OS. Whatever the case, today I'm going to show you how to create a bootable flash drive that will launch Windows XP in a virtual machine on (almost) any computer you plug it into.
It's pretty easy to take the search engine Google for granted today, but twenty years ago, there was no such thing. In fact, for well over a decade before Google, search engines were crawling, indexing and searching.
More and more products seem to come out that make use of some form of a computer text-to-speech voice, with today's voices sounding acceptably realistic. Even though speech-based products are fairly recent, the concept of electronically generating a voice has been around for nearly a century.
Even though many of the computers in my collection are hard to find, or no longer manufactured, only one can claim the title of being the only one of its kind to be made.
Snapchat, the popular image sharing social media platform, has only been around for a few years, but the technology to digitally take a photo and send it has existed for at least thirty years.
Happy 65k everyone!
In a recent video, I managed to get an image from my camera all the way onto my Apple iiGS. I also promised I'd outline the process, so, here ya go.
Back before smartphones were ubiquitous in terms of portable computing, another device was popular. This week, we take a look at the HP iPaq h2215, a Windows Mobile PocketPC from 2003. Stay tuned for next time for a demonstration of some of the hardware peripherals this thing can use.
Last week, I looked at the iPaq h2215, a PocketPC from 2003. This week, we're taking a look at some addons for the PocketPC: -HP Photosmart Mobile Camera -Pharos iGPS -Nevo (Remote control software)
Today, in the final installment of PocketPC Month, we take a look at the Microsoft MiPad, an experimental product from the early 2000s sort of like a proto-Siri, as well as Microsoft Voice Command, the actual product to eventually release from the MiPad research.
Few people know that Java, the worlds most popular programming language, the one that powers smartphone apps and Mars rovers alike, was the result of a project to build a better TV remote.
A long time ago I made a video on Clippy, the nearly universally hated paperclip from Microsoft Office. I figured now was a good time for an update.
What can you do when you're a kid with a crappy computer and no money to spend on games? Download free trials of course! This week, I'm taking a look at a childhood favorite: Bricks of Egypt.
While the popular macOS sees updates nearly annually now, there was a time where Apple struggled for years to get a major update out.
Windows ME is easily one of the most derided versions of Windows, but few seem to realize just how much influence it had over versions of Windows following it.
This week we take a look at the Gateway Profile 5.5, one of many interesting All-In-One designs of the early 2000s.
Last time, we looked at the Gateway Profile 5.5, an "ugly" yet interesting All-In-One computer. Now, we're trying out a few different operating systems to see which ones the Profile can run.
In this New Year's episode, we take a look at the Y2K bug, a programming mistake that threatened to crash all the world's computers as they ticked over from 1999 to the year 2000.
I've been holding onto these clips for years, and now I finally think I can make a video with them. This time, we're taking a look at some of the strangest videos to ever come out of Microsoft.
In the 90s, Microsoft was the undeniable ruler of PC industry, but all it took was one pesky web browser to bring it all crashing down. This is the story of how that didn't happen.
Today, we have computers that fit in our pockets, networks that span the globe, and delivery systems that can get physical items from one side of the world to the other, all thanks to the 50 year quest to computerize the process of ordering pizzas.
What do Club Penguin, a thrifted answering machine, and a rock band all have in common? Find out in possibly the strangest video I've ever researched.
15 years ago, it was an open question as to whether PCs would get smaller, or if smartphones would get smarter. Sony jumped in on the UMPC craze with the Vaio UX line, a family of PCs you could hold in your hand.
On nearly every Texas Instruments graphing calculator, there's a small "headphone" jack along the top. While the port wasn't originally designed for audio, there are some pretty interesting external hardware hacks that can be done through this port.
In 1982, the Vectrex was leaps and bounds ahead of its home video game console contemporaries in terms of graphics. All it took was some unique video hardware, and a few clever programming tricks.
For nearly 50 years, computers have been getting infected with worms and viruses, programs designed to spread from machine to machine. In this video, we take a look at how these digital diseases got their start, alongside more unique examples of self-replicating software.
Creating a universal global network is no easy feat. Today we take a look at the modular design that allows the internet to work with nearly every device imaginable.
Twenty years ago, a "computer animation video album" named Animusic was released. Twenty years later, I made a video about it.
A long time ago, I wrote a really slow ray tracing program for a TI-84 calculator. I figured it's about time for an upgrade.
I put the Toxic video onto a floppy disk in probably the worst way possible.
I put together a little device that lets me take my retro computers onto the retro internet.
Ever since high school, I've wished I could play Minecraft on my calculator. Now it's time to make that dream a reality.
Just in time to be a few days late to Pi Day, I built a machine that computes the digits of pi with relays.
