Code

Microsoft Goes Back to BASIC, Open-Sources Bill Gates’ Code

Simpler times.

Culture AJ Dellinger Sep 5

Read This Before You Trust Any AI-Written Code

The Tea app is a warning.

Artificial Intelligence AJ Dellinger Jul 31

These 9 States Are Trying to Block Kids From Social Media

States across the country are racing to enact age-gating laws banning young users from accessing social media without their parent's consent.

Tech Policy Mack DeGeurin Jun 24

The McFlurry Machine Company Just Got Hit With a McRestraining Order

A judge ordered the company to turn over third-party repair tech it had allegedly obtained with the intention of learning its secrets.

Tech News Brianna Provenzano Aug 9

A One-Letter Typo Is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked

When Aliens: Colonial Marines dropped in 2013, it has built up a ton of hype that made it seem as though the game would transport players into the terror-filled and action-packed Alien universe. Instead, they got an absolute mess of a game that, as it turns out, may have been just one letter away from…

Games AJ Dellinger Jul 14

All the Secret Stuff That Happens When You Visit Google.com

From snapping photos with a cellphone to streaming music through a browser, much of the tech trickery we take for granted in 2017 looks simple on the surface but involves a complex series of computations and calculations behind the scenes to make the magic happen. As an example, take Google.com. You not might think much…

Gadgets David Nield Aug 8

Looks Like Apple Leaked Details of the New iPhone in the HomePod Firmware [Updated]

If you had any doubts about Apple releasing a bezel-free iPhone in September, you can probably throw those out the window. The company just pushed out a version of the HomePod firmware, and not only does the code tell us more about how Apple’s smart speaker will work, it also offers a few clues about…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Jul 31

Everything You Need to Know About Cloudbleed, the Latest Internet Security Disaster

Have you heard? A tiny bug in Cloudflare’s code has led an unknown quantity of data—including passwords, personal information, messages, cookies, and more—to leak all over the internet. If you haven’t heard of the so-called Cloudbleed vulnerability, keep reading. This is a scary big deal. Let’s start with the good news. Cloudflare, one of the…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes Feb 24

This Adorable Robot Can Help Children to Program

Getting kids to code is a great idea—but it’s not always easy. Now a team of researchers from Harvard has developed this little robot, called Root, that’s designed to make writing code a more tangible experience. Wired reports that that the team from the Wyss Institute at Harvard has been working on the project for…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Apr 19

This Web App Highlights English Syntax Like It’s Code

Don’t know your adverbs from your adjectives? This little web app colors text so that each part of speech is a different hue—just like text editors that highlight the syntax of different coding languages. You can copy a tranche of text into the box, hit tab, and the secrets of our peculiar language are illuminated…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Mar 18

This UCLA Algorithm Sees Things Your Eyes Never Could

You shouldn’t always believe your eyes—because there’s much out there that you can’t see. A new, free algorithm created by UCLA engineers enables you to discern details in images that would be impossible to observe any other way. Originally developed for high-speed image processing of cancer cells in blood, the Phase Stretch Transform algorithm identifies…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 12

Watch Daft Punk’s ‘Aerodynamic’ Played Using Just Code

To anyone who ever tells you that programming isn’t creative, show them this. In this video, Sébastien Rannou recreates the whole of Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic” using just a hundred or so lines of code. And it sounds pretty damn great. In fact this is really just a teaser for what’s possible—because Rannou has taken it…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 5

How Pointy Brackets Became a Computing Icon

The are an archetypal pair of characters in the world of computing. But if you’ve ever wondered how they became so pervasive, you’re in luck. In this video, Professor David Brailsford explains that the pointy bracket first arrived on the scene to make Noam Chomsky’s hierarchy—now a fundamental tenet of computer science—a little easier to…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Feb 1

There’s a Donald Trump Programming Language

If programming isn’t political enough for you, maybe you need to try a new language. How about TrumpScript, which lets you create code that the great Donald Trump would be proud to execute. If he could, you know, understand it. Created at Rice Univeristy’s HackRice last weekend in just 20 hours, its makers claim that…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jan 22

The Nerdy Explanation for Facebook’s ’46 Years Ago’ Glitch

Notice anything weird about your News Feed today? Scores of users are confused by typically smarmy “Friends on Facebook” messages that are celebrating 46 years of friendship. It appears to be a Unix glitch of colossal proportions. Don’t freak out. The world is not going to end because Facebook’s servers are confused about the New…

Social Media Adam Clark Estes Dec 31

IT Contractors That Let Russians Write Military Code Will Pay $12.7 Million

Not that you need another reminder that government cybersecurity is screwed, but here we are: After a four-year federal probe, contractors will pay a combined $12.75 million in civil penalties to settle a suit alleging that they let Russian programmers write military code. This includes code used for the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Department…

Privacy & Security Kate Knibbs Nov 5

How To Replace Twitter’s Dumb Heart With the Emoji of Your Choice

Twitter did a silly thing today. It took away its neutral star icon andturned it into a smarmy heart. Turns out, it’s extremely easy to replace that heart. Let me help you with this technique from Robert McNees. Step 1: Download the Stylish extension for Chrome or Firefox. (There are a host of other extensions…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Nov 3

I Wrote A Bot That Won Twitter Contests

This is the story of how I wrote a Twitter bot to automatically enter contests and ended up winning an average of four contests per day, every day, for about nine months straight. If you’ve ever used Twitter, you’ve probably seen a tweet that looks something like this: Maybe you’ve actually retweeted it, maybe not,…

Tech News Hunter Scott Aug 4

The Code For This Pleasingly Simple Game Fits in a Single Tweet

If you’ve got a few spare minutes, you might enjoy a quick game of Tiny-Twitch. But then you’ll no doubt end up amazed by the fact that the source code for the whole thing can fit inside a single tweet. Developed by Alex Yoder, the game—which requires you to try and click the X that…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jun 30

Google Has Its Own Alternative to GitHub: Cloud Source Repositories

If you work with code every day, you’re likely used to GitHub—a place to store code with all the revision history you ever need. Now, though, Google has its own take on the service, open as a beta release for you to use for free. VentureBeat has unearthed the new service, which is called Cloud…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe Jun 25

Code

Microsoft Goes Back to BASIC, Open-Sources Bill Gates’ Code

Read This Before You Trust Any AI-Written Code

These 9 States Are Trying to Block Kids From Social Media

The McFlurry Machine Company Just Got Hit With a McRestraining Order

A One-Letter Typo Is (in Part) the Reason Aliens: Colonial Marines Sucked

All the Secret Stuff That Happens When You Visit Google.com

Looks Like Apple Leaked Details of the New iPhone in the HomePod Firmware [Updated]

Everything You Need to Know About Cloudbleed, the Latest Internet Security Disaster

This Adorable Robot Can Help Children to Program

This Web App Highlights English Syntax Like It’s Code

This UCLA Algorithm Sees Things Your Eyes Never Could

Watch Daft Punk’s ‘Aerodynamic’ Played Using Just Code

How Pointy Brackets Became a Computing Icon

There’s a Donald Trump Programming Language

The Nerdy Explanation for Facebook’s ’46 Years Ago’ Glitch

IT Contractors That Let Russians Write Military Code Will Pay $12.7 Million

How To Replace Twitter’s Dumb Heart With the Emoji of Your Choice

I Wrote A Bot That Won Twitter Contests

The Code For This Pleasingly Simple Game Fits in a Single Tweet

Google Has Its Own Alternative to GitHub: Cloud Source Repositories

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

Steven Soderbergh Wanted to Take ‘Bond’ Back to the ’60s

If You Make Fart Music, ChatGPT Will Be the Most Supportive Girlfriend You Could Ask For

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

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