#technologyhistory — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #technologyhistory, aggregated by home.social.
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The Bleeding Edge
By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News
Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — June 5, 2026
When I was studying telecommunications at DeVry Institute of Technology in the late 1980s, the head of the program, Al Payette, used to tell us something we all understood perfectly well.
“The cutting edge is also the bleeding edge.”
Nobody misunderstood him. Nobody was confused about what he meant. We knew that working in a rapidly changing technical field meant risk. Technology moves fast. Industries shift. Companies rise and fall.
What we did not understand — what none of us understood — was how quickly most of us would feel that first cut.
The bleeding started almost immediately.
For many of us, it started the day we walked across the stage and received our diplomas.
Building the Networks
My degree was in telecommunications — voice and data systems — but my professional work was in data communications.
In the mid-1990s, that meant something very specific. Businesses were beginning to connect computers together in ways that are completely taken for granted today.
Local area networks. Wide area networks. Ethernet cabling. Early routers and gateways. Offices that once ran isolated machines were being transformed into connected systems.
From roughly 1994 until about 1998, that was my work. I helped bring the first LAN and WAN networks into businesses. We wired buildings. We connected offices. We turned disconnected computers into networks.
Today those systems form the basic infrastructure of modern commerce. At the time, they were still new enough that someone had to physically install them, configure them, and make them work.
For a few years, it felt like standing inside the future.
Then the work began to disappear.
By 1998 the number of contracts was shrinking. By the time the telecom contraction and the collapse of the dot-com bubble hit around 2000, many of those positions had simply vanished.
The expansion of data communications had stopped.
And the people who had built it were suddenly expendable.
The Contradiction
What made that moment even stranger was what was happening in the public conversation about technology jobs.
Experienced engineers and networking specialists were being laid off. Telecommunications companies were collapsing or consolidating. Entire segments of the industry were shrinking.
At the same time, corporate leaders were appearing before Congress arguing that the United States faced a shortage of trained engineers.
Bill Gates testified that American companies needed more high-skill visas because they supposedly could not find enough qualified technical workers.
But thousands of qualified workers already existed.
Many of them were unemployed.
Alan Greenspan acknowledged that the data communications expansion had contracted, yet the policy conversation quickly shifted toward importing additional technical labor rather than stabilizing the careers that had already been built.
Whether those decisions were wise or not is something economists will debate for decades.
But if you were living through that moment, the contradiction was impossible to miss.
You were told your skills were desperately needed at the exact moment you were discovering they were not.
The Slow Start
I graduated in October of 1990, entering the workforce during the recession that followed the end of the Cold War and the so-called peace dividend period.
Economists have documented that graduating during an economic downturn can affect a person’s earnings and opportunities for years, sometimes for decades. A slow start can echo through an entire career.
That reality shaped my life more than I understood at the time.
In 1998 I was earning $28.50 an hour in the technical field.
By the 2000s, after the industry contraction, the most I ever made in technical work again was about $17 an hour — for positions that had once paid far more.
Eventually, like many people whose technical careers collapsed during that period, I spent much of my working life in other fields simply because those were the jobs that remained available.
The official story of the technology revolution rarely includes that part.
But it happened.
Occupy
By 2011 the economic consequences of those structural changes had become impossible to ignore.
That was the year Occupy Wall Street began.
I became involved in July of 2011, before the first tents went up in Zuccotti Park. Like many others, I believed the country needed to confront the economic system that had produced the financial crisis and the bailouts that followed.
When the movement spread to Chicago, I participated there as well.
But movements, like institutions, are not immune to hierarchy or internal politics. Solidarity is often more complicated than people imagine.
Instead of finding common ground, I found myself publicly ridiculed and pushed aside by activists who decided I was not one of the people they wanted representing their cause.
After the economy had already knocked me down, even the people claiming to challenge that system found ways to exclude me.
That experience taught me something important.
Power dynamics exist everywhere.
Leaving the United States
On September 5, 2023, I arrived in the Philippines to live with my wife.
Her name was Luz.
We hoped to build a life together here.
She died of cancer on September 3, 2025, at 5:15 in the morning. We buried her on September 11. She is entombed above her parents in a small family structure here in Leyte.
We never reached our second wedding anniversary.
After she died, I stayed.
The Archive
Today I live in Baybay City continuing the work that has defined the last several years of my life.
I write.
Thousands of essays now exist in what has become the WPS News archive — or perhaps more accurately, the WPS News knowledge base.
It is a record of events, policies, and power structures as I have witnessed and analyzed them.
The audience is not large. The work is not profitable.
But documentation matters.
History is not written only by institutions. It is also written by individuals who decide that the truth of their experience deserves to be recorded.
Extraction
Looking back across the decades, a pattern becomes difficult to ignore.
Modern systems extract value from people.
Technical workers build the networks that power the digital economy. Activists lend their time and energy to movements. Writers produce analysis that circulates widely.
But the people performing that labor often receive little in return.
Structural extraction without compensation is theft.
That sentence may sound blunt, but if you spend enough years watching the same pattern repeat, it becomes difficult to describe it any other way.
The Bleeding Edge
Al Payette warned us that the cutting edge was also the bleeding edge.
He was right.
Most of us understood there would be risks in working at the edge of a rapidly changing industry. What we did not understand was how quickly the system would turn on us.
Decades later, I understand.
And I am still here.
So I write.
Because whether anyone wants to hear it or not, the story of what happened to us deserves to be told — without extraction.
For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com
References
Greenspan, A. (2004). The Economic Outlook. Federal Reserve Board remarks.
Gates, B. (2008). Testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology regarding high-skill immigration.
#Economy #extraction #Labor #OccupyMovement #socialCommentary #structuralInequality #technologyHistory #telecomCollapse -
The Bleeding Edge
By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News
Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — June 5, 2026
When I was studying telecommunications at DeVry Institute of Technology in the late 1980s, the head of the program, Al Payette, used to tell us something we all understood perfectly well.
“The cutting edge is also the bleeding edge.”
Nobody misunderstood him. Nobody was confused about what he meant. We knew that working in a rapidly changing technical field meant risk. Technology moves fast. Industries shift. Companies rise and fall.
What we did not understand — what none of us understood — was how quickly most of us would feel that first cut.
The bleeding started almost immediately.
For many of us, it started the day we walked across the stage and received our diplomas.
Building the Networks
My degree was in telecommunications — voice and data systems — but my professional work was in data communications.
In the mid-1990s, that meant something very specific. Businesses were beginning to connect computers together in ways that are completely taken for granted today.
Local area networks. Wide area networks. Ethernet cabling. Early routers and gateways. Offices that once ran isolated machines were being transformed into connected systems.
From roughly 1994 until about 1998, that was my work. I helped bring the first LAN and WAN networks into businesses. We wired buildings. We connected offices. We turned disconnected computers into networks.
Today those systems form the basic infrastructure of modern commerce. At the time, they were still new enough that someone had to physically install them, configure them, and make them work.
For a few years, it felt like standing inside the future.
Then the work began to disappear.
By 1998 the number of contracts was shrinking. By the time the telecom contraction and the collapse of the dot-com bubble hit around 2000, many of those positions had simply vanished.
The expansion of data communications had stopped.
And the people who had built it were suddenly expendable.
The Contradiction
What made that moment even stranger was what was happening in the public conversation about technology jobs.
Experienced engineers and networking specialists were being laid off. Telecommunications companies were collapsing or consolidating. Entire segments of the industry were shrinking.
At the same time, corporate leaders were appearing before Congress arguing that the United States faced a shortage of trained engineers.
Bill Gates testified that American companies needed more high-skill visas because they supposedly could not find enough qualified technical workers.
But thousands of qualified workers already existed.
Many of them were unemployed.
Alan Greenspan acknowledged that the data communications expansion had contracted, yet the policy conversation quickly shifted toward importing additional technical labor rather than stabilizing the careers that had already been built.
Whether those decisions were wise or not is something economists will debate for decades.
But if you were living through that moment, the contradiction was impossible to miss.
You were told your skills were desperately needed at the exact moment you were discovering they were not.
The Slow Start
I graduated in October of 1990, entering the workforce during the recession that followed the end of the Cold War and the so-called peace dividend period.
Economists have documented that graduating during an economic downturn can affect a person’s earnings and opportunities for years, sometimes for decades. A slow start can echo through an entire career.
That reality shaped my life more than I understood at the time.
In 1998 I was earning $28.50 an hour in the technical field.
By the 2000s, after the industry contraction, the most I ever made in technical work again was about $17 an hour — for positions that had once paid far more.
Eventually, like many people whose technical careers collapsed during that period, I spent much of my working life in other fields simply because those were the jobs that remained available.
The official story of the technology revolution rarely includes that part.
But it happened.
Occupy
By 2011 the economic consequences of those structural changes had become impossible to ignore.
That was the year Occupy Wall Street began.
I became involved in July of 2011, before the first tents went up in Zuccotti Park. Like many others, I believed the country needed to confront the economic system that had produced the financial crisis and the bailouts that followed.
When the movement spread to Chicago, I participated there as well.
But movements, like institutions, are not immune to hierarchy or internal politics. Solidarity is often more complicated than people imagine.
Instead of finding common ground, I found myself publicly ridiculed and pushed aside by activists who decided I was not one of the people they wanted representing their cause.
After the economy had already knocked me down, even the people claiming to challenge that system found ways to exclude me.
That experience taught me something important.
Power dynamics exist everywhere.
Leaving the United States
On September 5, 2023, I arrived in the Philippines to live with my wife.
Her name was Luz.
We hoped to build a life together here.
She died of cancer on September 3, 2025, at 5:15 in the morning. We buried her on September 11. She is entombed above her parents in a small family structure here in Leyte.
We never reached our second wedding anniversary.
After she died, I stayed.
The Archive
Today I live in Baybay City continuing the work that has defined the last several years of my life.
I write.
Thousands of essays now exist in what has become the WPS News archive — or perhaps more accurately, the WPS News knowledge base.
It is a record of events, policies, and power structures as I have witnessed and analyzed them.
The audience is not large. The work is not profitable.
But documentation matters.
History is not written only by institutions. It is also written by individuals who decide that the truth of their experience deserves to be recorded.
Extraction
Looking back across the decades, a pattern becomes difficult to ignore.
Modern systems extract value from people.
Technical workers build the networks that power the digital economy. Activists lend their time and energy to movements. Writers produce analysis that circulates widely.
But the people performing that labor often receive little in return.
Structural extraction without compensation is theft.
That sentence may sound blunt, but if you spend enough years watching the same pattern repeat, it becomes difficult to describe it any other way.
The Bleeding Edge
Al Payette warned us that the cutting edge was also the bleeding edge.
He was right.
Most of us understood there would be risks in working at the edge of a rapidly changing industry. What we did not understand was how quickly the system would turn on us.
Decades later, I understand.
And I am still here.
So I write.
Because whether anyone wants to hear it or not, the story of what happened to us deserves to be told — without extraction.
For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com
References
Greenspan, A. (2004). The Economic Outlook. Federal Reserve Board remarks.
Gates, B. (2008). Testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology regarding high-skill immigration.
#Economy #extraction #Labor #OccupyMovement #socialCommentary #structuralInequality #technologyHistory #telecomCollapse -
Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China gained (2025)
#HackerNews #QianXuesen #MissileGenius #AmericaLost #ChinaGained #NavalHistory #TechnologyHistory
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Qian Xuesen: The missile genius America lost and China gained (2025)
#HackerNews #QianXuesen #MissileGenius #AmericaLost #ChinaGained #NavalHistory #TechnologyHistory
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Found on GitHub: the HN Daily Index. “A daily archive of the top 10 stories on Hacker News, organized by date. Thanks to Hacker News by Y Combinator for the API, and to Colin Percival’s Hacker News Daily for the historical archive going back to 2010.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/04/03/hn-daily-index/ -
Found on GitHub: the HN Daily Index. “A daily archive of the top 10 stories on Hacker News, organized by date. Thanks to Hacker News by Y Combinator for the API, and to Colin Percival’s Hacker News Daily for the historical archive going back to 2010.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/04/03/hn-daily-index/ -
A genuine question for policymakers, leaders, and practitioners:
If AI removes the reason many clerical and rule-based jobs existed—not just the tasks—what replaces employment as a source of stability and dignity?
Curious to hear perspectives, especially from those working in government, policy, and large institutions. #AI #FutureOfWork #AIRevolution #TechnologyHistory #AutomationImpact #ClericalWork #PublicSector #Governance #Employment #Productivity #AIReality #HumanInTheLoop
https://stayingalive.in/cataloguing-strategic-innov/ai-isnt-the-next-industrial.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-isnt-next-industrial-revolution-its-break-pattern-mohindroo--7psic -
MIT Whirlwind I: A High-Speed Electronic Digital Computer (1951)
https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/40245/MC665_r12_R-209.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
#HackerNews #MIT #Whirlwind #I #DigitalComputer #1951 #TechnologyHistory #ComputingInnovation
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MIT Whirlwind I: A High-Speed Electronic Digital Computer (1951)
https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/40245/MC665_r12_R-209.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
#HackerNews #MIT #Whirlwind #I #DigitalComputer #1951 #TechnologyHistory #ComputingInnovation
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A 1961 Relay Computer Running in the Browser
https://minivac.greg.technology/
#HackerNews #1961RelayComputer #BrowserEmulation #RetroComputing #TechnologyHistory
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A 1961 Relay Computer Running in the Browser
https://minivac.greg.technology/
#HackerNews #1961RelayComputer #BrowserEmulation #RetroComputing #TechnologyHistory
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Analysis of Hedy Lamarr's Contribution to Spread-Spectrum Communication
https://researchers.one/articles/24.01.00001v4
#HackerNews #HedyLamarr #SpreadSpectrum #CommunicationInnovation #TechnologyHistory
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Analysis of Hedy Lamarr's Contribution to Spread-Spectrum Communication
https://researchers.one/articles/24.01.00001v4
#HackerNews #HedyLamarr #SpreadSpectrum #CommunicationInnovation #TechnologyHistory
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NFS at 40 – Remembering the Sun Microsystems Network File System
#HackerNews #NFS40 #SunMicrosystems #NetworkFileSystem #TechnologyHistory
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NFS at 40 – Remembering the Sun Microsystems Network File System
#HackerNews #NFS40 #SunMicrosystems #NetworkFileSystem #TechnologyHistory
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Microcomputers – The Second Wave: Toward a Mass Market
https://technicshistory.com/2025/10/03/microcomputers-the-second-wave-towards-a-mass-market/
#HackerNews #Microcomputers #SecondWave #MassMarket #TechnologyHistory #Innovation
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Microcomputers – The Second Wave: Toward a Mass Market
https://technicshistory.com/2025/10/03/microcomputers-the-second-wave-towards-a-mass-market/
#HackerNews #Microcomputers #SecondWave #MassMarket #TechnologyHistory #Innovation
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Apple-1 Computer, handmade by Steve Jobs [video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBKuBhdZwg
#HackerNews #Apple1 #Handmade #SteveJobs #VintageComputing #TechnologyHistory #Video
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Apple-1 Computer, handmade by Steve Jobs [video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBKuBhdZwg
#HackerNews #Apple1 #Handmade #SteveJobs #VintageComputing #TechnologyHistory #Video
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A brief history of hardware epidemics
https://eclecticlight.co/2025/06/21/a-brief-history-of-hardware-epidemics/
#HackerNews #hardwareepidemics #technologyhistory #techtrends #innovation #cybersecurity
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A brief history of hardware epidemics
https://eclecticlight.co/2025/06/21/a-brief-history-of-hardware-epidemics/
#HackerNews #hardwareepidemics #technologyhistory #techtrends #innovation #cybersecurity
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DigitalNC: Explore Technology in the 20th Century with our new Primary Source Set. “As our society is consistently generating new and advanced technologies, looking back to these prior advancements can be both nostalgic and informative of how we got to today’s age of smartphones and AI. North Carolina had its fair share of historical moments with innovation, from the first successful flight […]
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Images of Soviet Venus lander falling to Earth suggest its parachute may be out
https://www.leonarddavid.com/old-soviet-venus-descent-craft-nearing-earth-reentry/
#HackerNews #SovietSpacecraft #VenusLander #EarthReentry #ParachuteFailure #SpaceNews #TechnologyHistory
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Images of Soviet Venus lander falling to Earth suggest its parachute may be out
https://www.leonarddavid.com/old-soviet-venus-descent-craft-nearing-earth-reentry/
#HackerNews #SovietSpacecraft #VenusLander #EarthReentry #ParachuteFailure #SpaceNews #TechnologyHistory
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Hypebeast: ‘Nokia Design Archive’ Launched by Finland’s Aalto University. “Helsinki, Finland’s renowned research school Aalto University has announced the launch of the Nokia Design Archive, a free online portal that maintains approximately 20,000 items and 959GB of digital files from Nokia during the mid-90s to 2017. Starting on January 15, 2025 users will be able to access the […]
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Hypebeast: ‘Nokia Design Archive’ Launched by Finland’s Aalto University. “Helsinki, Finland’s renowned research school Aalto University has announced the launch of the Nokia Design Archive, a free online portal that maintains approximately 20,000 items and 959GB of digital files from Nokia during the mid-90s to 2017. Starting on January 15, 2025 users will be able to access the […]
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Follow for what’s trending and interesting around the world 🌍
#Innovation #InventionFacts #TechnologyHistory #MicrowaveHistory #InventorStories #STEM
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👾🛠️ Diving into the past of tech with the TI-99/4A Technical Servicing Manual from 1983, and I'm absolutely mesmerized! There's something uniquely charming about these vintage service manuals from the golden era of computers. 📚💡
What strikes me the most is the delightful mix of typewritten paragraphs and hand-drawn schematics. Each connection and component is meticulously labeled
For instance, take a look at the connections in the schematic below - it's not just technical; it's art. 🎨🖌️ . 🌟📖
#VintageTech #ServiceManuals #TI994A #RetroComputing #HandDrawn #retrocomputer
#TechnologyHistory -
Another plane from that same box.
A Gage Self-Setting Smoothing Plane (1885-1919)Interesting to see what the Betamax-esque competitors to Stanley looked like. Big differences from the Bailey style planes that became the standard.
Didn't want to over-restore it without knowing more, but after dealing with some minor rust and giving it a light cleaning , it appears to be perfectly serviceable. I don't know that I need another smoothing plane at this point, but it's a nice piece of history (and I may have to sharpen the iron and take a few shavings just because).
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/6/1999762/-The-Gage-Tool-Co-self-setting-plane-1885-1919
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Another plane from that same box.
A Gage Self-Setting Smoothing Plane (1885-1919)Interesting to see what the Betamax-esque competitors to Stanley looked like. Big differences from the Bailey style planes that became the standard.
Didn't want to over-restore it without knowing more, but after dealing with some minor rust and giving it a light cleaning , it appears to be perfectly serviceable. I don't know that I need another smoothing plane at this point, but it's a nice piece of history (and I may have to sharpen the iron and take a few shavings just because).
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/6/1999762/-The-Gage-Tool-Co-self-setting-plane-1885-1919
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Just worked on some vintage PCs I picked up last December and found an interesting disc drive in one of them that I mistook for a regular CD/DVD player. It turned out to be a Phase-change Dual (PD) drive! Never heard of it before but it's fascinating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_Dual
Not sure if the drive works yet. I need to sort out a new hard drive, windows installation, etc.
But when I do... it's going to be fun finding out!
#technologyhistory #retrocomputing #VintageTech #VintageComputer
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Just worked on some vintage PCs I picked up last December and found an interesting disc drive in one of them that I mistook for a regular CD/DVD player. It turned out to be a Phase-change Dual (PD) drive! Never heard of it before but it's fascinating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_Dual
Not sure if the drive works yet. I need to sort out a new hard drive, windows installation, etc.
But when I do... it's going to be fun finding out!
#technologyhistory #retrocomputing #VintageTech #VintageComputer
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Just about everything the #Mac brought to #technology was already there a year before with the failed @[email protected] Lisa, that launched on January 19, 1983. https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/01/19/apple-lisa-changed-computing-40-years-ago-but-the-world-didnt-notice?utm_medium=rss #TechnologyHistory #ComputingHistory #SiliconValley via @[email protected]
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Just about everything the #Mac brought to #technology was already there a year before with the failed @[email protected] Lisa, that launched on January 19, 1983. https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/01/19/apple-lisa-changed-computing-40-years-ago-but-the-world-didnt-notice?utm_medium=rss #TechnologyHistory #ComputingHistory #SiliconValley via @[email protected]
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"Back then, we #BBSers were the nerds, the weirdos. Now the whole world is using online services very much like a #BBS, and they don't even know it." #Internet #InternetHistory #Technology #TechnologyHistory #DOS #Compuserve #Prodigy #ANSI #Gaming #TextAdventure via @arstechnica
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"Back then, we #BBSers were the nerds, the weirdos. Now the whole world is using online services very much like a #BBS, and they don't even know it." #Internet #InternetHistory #Technology #TechnologyHistory #DOS #Compuserve #Prodigy #ANSI #Gaming #TextAdventure via @arstechnica
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Humanity has sent all sorts of stuff into #space over the years. These items are the most valuable and historically significant. #SpaceExploration #TechnologyHistory #AviationHistory https://gizmodo.com/space-history-most-important-human-objects-1849950095
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Humanity has sent all sorts of stuff into #space over the years. These items are the most valuable and historically significant. #SpaceExploration #TechnologyHistory #AviationHistory https://gizmodo.com/space-history-most-important-human-objects-1849950095
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On this day 47 years ago, #PaulTerrell opened the #ByteShop, one of the world’s first #PersonalComputer #retail stores, and famously known for ordering the first rudimentary computers from #SteveJobs and #SteveWozniac newly formed company #Apple Computers.
https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/08/on-this-day-in-apple-history-byte-shop-opens-apples-first-customer/
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In an increasingly global world, imagine if you could see where and when new #ideas, #businesstrends, and even #technologies first emerged in #society and then explore how they spread over #time and #space. Using #AI and unconventional #datasources there are several new ways to map the global birth, adoption and diffusion of #emergingtechnologies
#technologytrends #TechnologyNews #technologyhistory #forbes #Distributedacousticsensing #Gridenergystorage #Medicalrobots
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In their first issue, #PCMag interviewed the 26-year-old founder of #Microsoft's founder #BillGates about building the original #IBM #PC. Four packed decades later, they still have questions
https://uk.pcmag.com/news/140679/bill-gates-on-the-next-40-years-in-technology
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Why is there a golden #BBCMicro in the #ScienceMuseum?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBbTySg1xxU&t=1s&ab_channel=ColinHoad
#BBC #ModelB #BBCModelB #8Bit #8BitComputer #Computing #Retro #RetroComputing #ComputingHistory #History #ComputerTechnology #Technology #TechnologyHistory #TechHistory #ColinHoad