Code Curiosities

Technology

About

Ever wonder why your phone battery dies faster in winter, or how Netflix knows exactly what you want to watch? Code Curiosities dives into the fascinating stories behind the tech we use every day, revealing the surprising science and clever engineering that makes our digital world tick.

Episodes

  • The Delete Key That Launched a Thousand Lawsuits

    An accidental keystroke in 1990 led to the creation of the first email virus. This event significantly impacted privacy laws, gave rise to the cybersecurity industry, and continues to influence email spam filters.

  • The Accidental Empire of Error 404

    The "404 Not Found" error, originating from a server room at CERN and Tim Berners-Lee's numbering system, became a famous internet sequence impacting how users perceive broken links.

  • The Password That Broke the Internet (Twice)

    Robert Tappan Morris inadvertently created the first major internet worm in 1988 while intending to map the internet. This event led to widespread disruption and significantly contributed to the development of the modern cybersecurity indu…

  • The Comma That Cost NASA $18.1 Million

    A misplaced hyphen in a 1962 FORTRAN program caused the Mariner 1 spacecraft to go off course, leading to its destruction and costing NASA $18.1 million. This incident serves as a cautionary tale about the critical importance of code revie…

  • The Typo That Broke the Internet (Before We Knew We Had One)

    In 1988, a coding error by Robert Morris unleashed the first major internet worm, infecting 10% of connected computers and halting the early web. This event served as a crucial wake-up call for modern cybersecurity, despite Morris facing a…

  • The Bug That Launched a Thousand Ships

    A missing hyphen in 1962 NASA code led to a rocket explosion, costing millions and sparking major advancements in software reliability that affect current technology.

  • The Day Email Almost Died

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses the history of email, focusing on its invention and the challenges it faced due to spam. It covers the efforts of engineers to combat spam and save email infrastructure.

  • The Crash That Saved Christmas

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses the 1994 Intel Pentium chip bug, where a small typo caused mathematical errors and led to a significant recall. The incident highlighted the potential for tiny bugs to have large consequences in t…

  • The Pizza That Broke the Internet

    This episode of Code Curiosities explores the 1994 Domino's pizza order that marked the first secure online transaction. It details the journey from paranoid cryptographers and casino-grade security to the creation of the "Add to Cart" but…

  • The Accidental Time Bomb in Your Microwave

    This episode discusses a software bug from 1999 that affected microwave ovens. It also examines how everyday appliances have become computerized and the potential vulnerabilities in smart devices today.

  • The Great Password Panic of 2012

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses the 2012 LinkedIn hack. It examines how this event revealed widespread poor password practices and its impact on the development of the password manager industry.

  • The Accidental Billionaire Feature

    This episode delves into how seemingly temporary coding solutions, shortcuts, and copy-paste coding have inadvertently formed the basis of major features in modern technology and billion-dollar industries.

  • The Million-Dollar Semicolon

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses how single-character typos and punctuation errors have caused significant failures, including a NASA rocket explosion and stock market crashes. The episode explores the impact of minor coding mist…

  • The Accidental Typo That Built the Internet

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses how a single typo in 1969, which caused the first internet connection attempt to crash, informed the development of key internet features. It explores how early network design was shaped by specta…

  • The Phantom Vibration in Your Pocket (And Why Your Phone Lies to You)

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses phantom vibrations, why smartphones may not accurately display battery life, and the impact of notification systems on human perception.

  • The Accidental Emoji That Started a War (And Other Unicode Disasters)

    This episode of Code Curiosities delves into Unicode, discussing an accidental emoji incident between Japan and South Korea, and the process of deciding emoji meanings through committee votes.

  • The Password That Broke Democracy (And Why We're Still Living With It)

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses the first password hack in 1961 at MIT. It explains how a researcher accidentally printed all user passwords, impacting online banking and election security.

  • The Bug That Launched a Thousand Ships (and Nearly Sank Them)

    This episode explores the origins of the term 'software bug,' revealing a history that goes beyond Grace Hopper's 1947 discovery. It delves into the unexpected maritime connections and how this terminology became standard for discussing co…

  • The Typo That Broke Half the Internet

    This episode discusses the 2016 'left-pad' incident. A small JavaScript package was unpublished, leading to widespread website and app failures due to its critical dependency status.

  • The Button That Accidentally Saved the Web

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses how a tag added to a web browser in 1993 by Marc Andreessen changed the internet. It transformed the web from text-based to visual, while also impacting web standards and initiating a browser war.

  • The Password That Broke the Internet

    In 2016, a single leaked password from a DVR led to the largest cyberattack in history, causing major websites to crash for hours. This episode of Code Curiosities discusses the incident.

  • The Day Google Forgot How to Count

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses how a rounding error in Google's ad auction system in 2012 resulted in overcharging advertisers. The hosts explain how floating-point arithmetic can lead to unexpected errors in computer calculati…

  • The Ghost in the Machine That Killed People

    In the 1980s, the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine caused patient deaths due to a software bug. A missing line of code led to lethal radiation doses for at least six patients.

  • The Day Everyone's Calculator Was Wrong: The Tale of the Missing Dollar

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses Intel's 1994 Pentium processor recall. A math error in the processors was exposed by a math professor, leading to a significant financial impact for Intel.

  • The Phantom Vibration: Why Your Phone Buzzes When It Doesn't

    This episode discusses the phantom vibration phenomenon, where individuals perceive their phone buzzing when it hasn't. It explores the psychological aspects and physical symptoms related to how brains adapt to smartphone use.

  • The Great Emoji Heist: How a Yellow Face Almost Broke the Internet

    This episode of Code Curiosities discusses the 2016 emoji update, which caused various problems including international incidents and court cases. It examines the complexities of emoji standardization and the significant change of a gun em…

  • Why Your Phone Could (Theoretically) Crash a Plane

    This episode of Code Curiosities explores the surprising science and clever engineering behind everyday technology. Topics include phone battery life and recommendation algorithms.