How cheap beams of light became badges of honor at LAN parties - and why playful showmanship with early laser pointers produced injuries, angry pilots, and new rules. A sharp look at the devices, the people who wielded them, and the etiquette that finally followed.
The story of digital organizers is a story about focus vs. abundance. From the PalmPilot's singular mission - organize your life - to today's always-on smartphones that do everything and demand everything, here's what we lost, what we gained, and what designers should remember.
How pocket calculators - the scientific, financial and graphing devices of the 1980s and 1990s - reshaped classrooms, workplaces and product design, and why their influence still echoes in today’s devices.
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) didn't just connect people in the late 1990s and 2000s - it introduced and popularized interaction patterns and UX conventions that still underpin modern messaging apps and social networks. This article traces AIM's key features, cultural impact, and the ways its design choices echo in today's digital communication.
A historical tour of how troubleshooting the Blue Screen of Death evolved - from crude hardware checks and last-known-good settings to sophisticated dump analysis, telemetry-driven fixes, and user education strategies that turned panic into process.