Category: Stories & Inspiration
Stories of science, technology, startup journeys and lessons from history.
Georges Lemaître Estimated the Universe’s Expansion Rate Before Hubble. Then He Cut the Calculation Himself.
Georges Lemaître estimated the universe’s expansion rate in 1927, then cut it from his 1931 English translation. His own letter, found in 2011, explains why.
Leslie Lamport Wrote Paxos as a Lost Greek Parliament. Referees Called It ‘Not Very Important.’
Leslie Lamport wrote Paxos as a Greek parliament story in 1990, and referees called it ‘not very important.’ How it works, plus a test for…
Donald Knuth Expected TeX to Take One Year. The Book He Built It For Still Disappointed Him.
In 1977, Donald Knuth expected TeX to take a year. It took about a decade, because the hard part was not the code but learning…
A Math Professor Caught the Pentium Dividing Wrong. Five Empty Table Cells Led to a $475 Million Charge.
In 1994, Thomas Nicely found the Pentium FDIV bug Intel already knew about. See how five empty table cells slipped past testing and cost $475…
A 45-Minute C++ Build Helped Start Go. Very Few of Its Early Programmers Came From C++.
How a 45-minute C++ build at Google in 2007 led Rob Pike, Robert Griesemer and Ken Thompson to start Go, and why most early users…
Joe Farman Thought His Ozone Meters Had Broken. NASA Doubted Its Satellite. Both Had Found the Ozone Hole.
How was the ozone hole discovered in 1985? Joe Farman’s team published first, while NASA’s satellite data waited on a backlog and a faulty ground…
Ivan Sutherland’s 1963 Sketchpad Stored Rules, Not Just Lines. Change the Master, and Every Instance Follows.
How Ivan Sutherland’s 1963 Sketchpad thesis stored constraints and master-instance drawings on MIT’s TX-2, after a visit from Claude Shannon changed the plan.
A Silent Bug Hid a Failing Grid From Its Operators. Then the 2003 Northeast Blackout Hit 50 Million People.
In the 2003 Northeast blackout, a race-condition bug froze FirstEnergy’s alarms for nearly two hours. What operators missed, and why the bug wasn’t the cause.
Apache’s Own FAQ Said the Name Meant ‘A Patchy Server.’ Its Co-Founder Credits a Geronimo Documentary.
How did the Apache HTTP Server get its name? Its 1997 FAQ said ‘a patchy server,’ but co-founder Brian Behlendorf credits a Geronimo documentary.
Ken Thompson Designed UTF-8 on a Diner Placemat in 1992. By Friday, Plan 9 Was Running on It.
How Ken Thompson designed UTF-8 on a diner placemat in 1992, why Plan 9 switched to it within days, and why the early RFCs credited…
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