Posts

12 professions that got disrupted by technology

/0 Comments/in , /by

18 - 9 Switchboard Operator

Technological progress has a long-running tendency to make entire professions unnecessary. Your history teacher in high school probably tried hard to point out one of the most well known examples: the Luddites. These English textile artisans didn’t take well to contemporary industrial automation and famously went on a rampage to smash every piece of labor-saving machinery they could lay their hands on. But the Luddites were far from the only ones who lost their jobs. We’ve collected a list of weird and fascinating professions that went out more quietly.

Read more →

Lass in space: How women conquered the cosmos

/1 Comment/in , , /by

valentina-tereshkova

 

Getting into space in the 20th century was backed by massive military tension between the world’s two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The huge investments made in getting out there paid off in huge developments in technology and science we take for granted today.

To even be considered for participation for massive state efforts to stare down at our home world from a tin can in nothingness, you essentially have to be some sort of übermensch with physical and mental superpowers. Unbeknownst to most, some of the mutants who’ve attempted to get their feet in the airlock hatch have, since the earliest days, been women. Here are a few of their striking stories.

Read more →

Criminally weird: 6 odd things about the history of hacking

/2 Comments/in , , /by

These juvenile delinquent wrecks ended up changing the computer industry. Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, working in an early Apple hq located in the garage of Jobs' parents.

“Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.” – The Hacker’s Manifesto, 1986

Hackers are often depicted in the public eye as caricatures of bored teenagers, Russian cybercriminals and government spooks.

But the history of hacking is rich with self-taught minds, skilled in mining the abstract for world-changing ideas.

Take for instance Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who in the above photo were busy working in an early Apple headquarters located in the garage of Jobs’ parents. As we’ll discover later on, these two had their shadier moments and could perfectly well be seen by society as some sort of juvenile delinquent wrecks.

Here’s a look at 6 odd things about the history of hacking. These might just change your perspective of the whole ordeal that is computers and their security.
Read more →