beanz Magazine

How Microsoft’s funny little assistant led to the AI we know and love today.

A wacky story about connectivity, Danish kings, and the need for good dentists.

The first time AI beat humans at their own game.

Battery history is a critical part of the history of technology. Without stored electricity, there would be no electronics.

How did video games become popular before the internet? It’s all about shareware, floppy disks, and human cleverness!

How science and tech led to an exciting discovery in one of the most dangerous areas of space.

What’s allowed in an e-mail address? Let’s break down the syntax.

Who chooses new emojis? And what’s coming in the next batch?

Learn about the origin of Unix time, the calendar system used by digital devices.

Could a human brain be simulated by a computer? Would it think and feel like we do?

Controllers have come a long way in 50 years. Let’s appreciate the bulky, awkward ancestors that led us here!

This Canadian experiment used a robot to explore how people respond to robots and technology.

A short history of virtual and augmented reality with lots of links to learn more.

While everybody on the planet has used a web browser, many people don't know about web browser history.

Believe it or not, computers and keyboards were not invented together.

The many pieces that make up AI have been built and used for thousands of years in many cultures.

We might think robots are a modern invention. But al-Jazari created amazing automatons in the thirteenth century. Today we would call him a maker.

An essay from the 1990s explores how software can be built like a cathedral or in groups like a bazaar.

Six women were hired to use their math skills to program the ENIAC computer. They called themselves The First Programmers Club.

Learn about and explore the code used to guide Apollo missions.

Raspberry Pi, Arduino, BeagleBone, Micro Bit, Edison, CHIP, and other handheld computers trace their history to board computers used by engineers.

The history of the font and the reasons people hate Comic Sans are great ways to learn about typography.

Why are there so many gnomes available for 3D printing?

Of 8500 plus programming languages, many are forgotten or lightly used enough to be called dead programming languages.

Can you name the first video game? The first game likely was Tennis for Two in 1958 but it could be Space Wars! in 1962 or other games. It's complicated.

The Turing Test, and its creator Alan Turing, have had a profound effect on computer science and artificial intelligence.

No discussion of design is complete without the history of lorem ipsum. It's more than placeholder text you stuff into a visual design.