Category Archives: Computer

What’s the story behind QWERTY keyboard layout?

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Stefano

Ever wondered why we’re using such a strange computer keyboard layout as the common QWERTY? Look at this CNN Money video to get some clue: More info on QWERTY here on Wikipedia; look here for more detailed info on QWERTY … Continue reading →

Posted in CNN, Computer, Computer History, Computing history, Design, Retrocomputer, Science, Tech industry, Technology, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hard Disk price from 1956 to 2016

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Stefano

I recently came across a very interesting page in which John C. McCallum has collected a huge number of hard disk unit specs along with introduction year and price. Beginning from 1956, with the 24″ IBM sporting a hefty 3.75 … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Computer History, Computing history, Data storage, Digital media, Electronics, Hardware, IBM, Storage, Tech industry, Technology, Vintage computer | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Zooming into a microchip: that’s where the (computer) magic happens!

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Stefano

This reminds me some Tron Movie sequence. Take a look at this nice video, you’ll zoom in into a common chip, thanks to a scanning electron microscope, and peek into the micron scale to see what’s really like to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Electronics, Energy, Science, Scientific Video, Tech industry, Technology, Video, Youtube | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Raspberry Pi FM transmitter: one short wire and a radio let you broadcast WAV files (Vine footage included)

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Stefano

Another Raspberry Pi project: how to turn RPi into an FM transmitter? Imperial College Robotics Society released this Python code that streams a simple (44.1 KHz, mono, 16 bit) audio WAV file into FM. How to prepare this recipe: download … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Creativity, Digital life, E-learning, Educational, Electronics, Geekery, Hacking, Hardware, Ideas, Maker, Raspberry Pi, Twitter, Vine | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why is 8-bit technology so important?

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Stefano

Nice post from Jason’s blog and a perfect question too: why is 8-bit technology so important these days? Simply put because it’s where we all come from! The most common 8-bit CPUs of the time included the Intel 8088 (used … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Computer History, Digital life, Digital media, Gadget, Geekery, Hacking, Hardware, Homebrewing, Programmable Calculator, Retrocomputer, Retrogaming, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

NASA’s Curiosity achievement, technology & some fun too!

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Stefano

A few things about great NASA Curiosity mission you may have missed! Apple was almost everywhere in this mission… just check out this photo of the EDL Ops Center (Entry-Descent-Land Operation) : Mac OS X looks like the weapon of … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Computer, Digital life, Electronics, Gaming, Geekery, Hardware, Media, NASA, Programming, Software, Space, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Economic downturn? Not for IT & consumer electronics, which will reach $2.1 trillion in 2012 – Gartner reports

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Stefano

ComputerWorld today reports a Gartner projection for 2012: the spending amout for IT, consumer electronics, mobile phones, digital media and services will reach $2.1 trillion by the end of the year. That’s $114 billion more than 2011 (roughly +5%) which … Continue reading →

Posted in Brand, Business, Business Intelligence, Business Model, Case Study, Computer, Digital life, Digital media, Digital music, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Gartner, Online storage, Report, Research, Social news, Social survey, Tech industry, Technology, User survey | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When trailing old technology is still leading, up and running in real-world applications

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Stefano

Ok, I love retrocomputers and all old tecnology stuff… this PCWorld article depicts a real-world scenario where older (non-leading, actually trailing, technologies) are still running everyday tasks – some of them are even life-saving related. From 1970s minicomputers used for … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Computer History, Hardware, Retrocomputer | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Learning from the past of computer science: Rear Admiral Grace Hopper video interview

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Stefano

Thinking of this tiny yet so strong woman should really think about how far we’ve gone from the very early calculators. Watching this 1983 CBS interview with Rear Admiral Grace Hopper will reveal (to those who didn’t know) how much … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Computer History, History, Supercomputer, Tech industry, Technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

IBM smashes data storage drive record: 120 petabytes, the biggest hard drive ever?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Stefano

According to a white paper study from IDC there will be 1800 exabytes (EB) of digital data in 2011, up from 220 EB in 2007. Such growth places the data user under tremendous pressure to turn data into actionable insights … Continue reading →

Posted in Case Study, Cloud, Cloud computing, Cluster, Computer, Data center, Data mining, Data storage, Energy, Free guide, Hardware, IBM, Server, Server farm, Storage, Supercomputer | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment