Tom Hawking

I'm a writer. Find me at Popular Science, The Guardian, Gizmodo and elsewhere.

Tom Hawking's posts

Clicking On 1 Of 100 Web Button On Website

How a Single Typo in a Username Cost an Innocent Man 18 Months of His Life

A trial and conviction that’d give Franz Kafka nightmares.

Crime Tom Hawking Jul 29

A man doing a crossword puzzle

I Gave the Hardest Cryptic Crossword I Could Find to a Bunch of LLMs

And hey, fellow humans: I'm happy to report that this is one area in which we eat the machines for breakfast.

Artificial Intelligence Tom Hawking Jul 28

PGSimCity

This SimCity-Like Visualization Turns Tech’s Most Boring Systems Into Fun

Fun with SQL? Cyberspace is the place!

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 28

A forest in Sweden

Tree.fm Provides Looping Doses of Forest-Based Audio Valium

Serenity now!

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 27

Spider web

Why Did It Take So Long for the Web to Get Its Own Domain Name?

Clue: the answer involves lawyers.

Internet Tom Hawking Jul 25

Phantom Twist drone

This Drone Becomes Almost Invisible by Spinning Extremely Fast While Emitting an Unholy Whine

We’re sure that only good will come of this.

Gadgets Tom Hawking Jul 22

Birdwatching

Can AI Ruin Something as Innocent as Birdwatching?

Duh. Of course it can.

Artificial Intelligence Tom Hawking Jul 21

Styropyro demonstrates triboelectric effect

Watch a Mad Scientist YouTuber Make Lightning in a Bottle From Mercury and Neon

Yes, of course it's Styropyro.

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 19

Humanoid Robot Chalkboard Teacher

One Conglomerate Wants to Sell You a School Teacher, a Friend, and a Sex Robot

Everyone said the singularity is here.

Robots Tom Hawking Jul 18

Big Box Collection

Pour One Out for Physical Media With a Library of Drool-Worthy Golden-Era Game Box Art

The Big Box Collection is a throwback to an era when games' packaging and artwork was an art in itself.

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 16

Tetris DOS screenshot

It Turns Out That There’s Way, Way More to Know About ‘Tetris’ Than You Thought

And we mean the gameplay, not the history.

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 13

Mtv Unplugged: Nirvana

Who Can Begrudge Gen Z Nostalgia For an Era Before They Were Born?

It probably IS kinda galling to look back at a time when the world wasn't on fire.

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 12

Image: Mark Hirsch

John Deere’s Right-to-Repair Saga Is Finally Over—for 10 Years, at Least

A decade-long fight gets a 10-year reprieve.

Tech News Tom Hawking Jul 9

Windows 11 with Pacman

Here’s How to Check If Windows 11 Is Secretly Gobbling Up Your Disk Space

...and how to ask it nicely to stop doing so.

Privacy & Security Tom Hawking Jul 7

Amphibious cyborg cockroach

Scientists Built Amphibious Cyborg Cockroaches and We Regret to Inform You They Work

Next week: cyborg locusts!

Biology Tom Hawking Jul 6

Petty Million banner screenshot

What Is the Whiniest Country in the World? A New Site Aims to Provide a Definitive Answer

Disclaimer: the answer may not be definitive, and I intend to complain about it.

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 3

Surah Koran

Typographers Have Spent a Thousand Years Trying—and Failing—to Render Arabic Properly

How a millennium of kludges and workarounds led to one man's "will not fix."

Culture Tom Hawking Jul 2

Flagdoku game

World Cup Watchers: Test Your New Flag Knowledge With This Weirdly Addictive Game

Vexillophiles of the world, unite.

Culture Tom Hawking Jun 30

Ameca robot

Why Is a San Diego Charter School Spending $500,000 on Two Humanoid Robots?

Is half a million dollars really worth a bad Nikola Tesla impersonation?

Artificial Intelligence Tom Hawking Jun 29

You're the OS game screenshot

Spend Five Minutes With This Hellish Operating System Simulator and You’ll Never Swear at Your Computer Again

Seriously, I'm sorry I had a gazillion browser tabs open alongside several hours' worth of unsaved work. Please don't crash. Please.

Culture Tom Hawking Jun 28

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