Computers

Compare two paintings of zebras with new IIIF functionality.

This Tool Makes it Easy to Compare Art From Different Museums

IIIF frees images from the confines of individual websites

GIFs began as still images in the early days of the Internet before becoming the animated loops that are seen everywhere now.

A Brief History of the GIF, From Early Internet Innovation to Ubiquitous Relic

How an image format changed the way we communicate

Magnetic field strength throughout the Milky Way in present day

Supercomputers Create Breathtaking Simulations of Spiral Galaxies

The simulations took months of modeling to complete—and the results can help scientists learn about the formation of galaxies

The MP3 Format is Music History's Latest Casualty

The Institute that licenses MP3 tech recently stopped, but the format that began the digital music era may live on indefinitely

What if you could unlock your smartphone this way?

Could a Doodle Replace Your Password?

Drawing your own unlock pattern on a touchscreen is faster and easier to remember than a password, and much harder to crack

Scientists Want to Freeze and Pulverize Your Old Computers

E-waste is a growing problem worldwide, but a new method could help take a byte out of the issue

This Artificial Neural Network Generates Absurd Pickup Lines

But the technology probably won't be able to land you a date anytime soon

One Million Internet Users Created This Piece of Art

Contributions range from the juvenile to bizarre to strangely beautiful

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. A new vault will protect the world's books, archives and documents on long-lasting film

A Second Doomsday Vault—This One to to Preserve Data—Is Opening in Svalbard

Known as the Arctic World Archive, it will store copies of books, archives and documents on special film

What Is Dark Matter and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

An undated photo of video-game pioneer Roberta Williams during the early days of Sierra On-Line, the company she and her husband founded.

The Pioneer of Graphic Adventure Games Was a Woman

Mystery House was the first home computer game ever to include graphics as well as text

It was a pivotal moment in computing history when a computer beat a human at chess for the first time, but that doesn't mean chess is "solved."

Computers Are Great at Chess, But That Doesn't Mean the Game Is 'Solved'

On this day in 1996, the computer Deep Blue made history when it beat Garry Kasparov

Douglas Engelbart rehearsing for his 1968 computer demo.

In One 1968 Presentation, This Inventor Shaped Modern Computing

Douglas Engelbart’s career was about seeing the possibilities of what computing could do for humanity

Isaac Asimov at age 70.

If Isaac Asimov Had Named The Smartphone, He Might Have Called It The “Pocket Computer Mark II”

The sci-fi author correctly predicted a number of innovations that have come to pass

We Will Have to Endure 2016 One Second Longer Than an Average Year

It’s not giving up the ghost quite yet

Crossword puzzles have been around for over one hundred years. In that time, they've gone through fads.

Why Crossword Puzzles Are Still Mostly Written By Humans

Computers can write sports articles, replace stock brokers and help diagnose patients. But they can’t write good crosswords

Students of design at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art have prototyped a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands.

This Digital Prosthesis Could Help Amputees Control Computers

Designers are developing a new device that tracks gestures in an amputated limb and translates them to computer commands, like scroll and click

Robert Noyce (left) and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in from of the Intel SC1 building in Santa Clara, 1970.

Silicon Valley Owes Its Success To This Tech Genius You’ve Never Heard Of

Robert Noyce was one of the founders of Silicon Valley

The mansion at Bletchley Park.

Alan Turing’s World War II Headquarters Will Once Again House Codebreakers

Bletchley Park is being revived as a cybersecurity training center

Why Artificial Intelligence Won’t Replace CEOs

An MBA’s instinct is increasingly vital in the age of information overload

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