Portal:Technology

The Technology Portal

Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge for achieving practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.

Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistoric times, followed by the control of fire, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy.

While technology contributes to economic development and improves human prosperity, it can also have negative impacts like pollution and resource depletion, and can cause social harms like technological unemployment resulting from automation. As a result, there are ongoing philosophical and political debates about the role and use of technology, the ethics of technology, and ways to mitigate its downsides. (Full article...)

Selected articles

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  104 before she sank

  
  104 (also known as Barge 104, or No.104) was an American whaleback barge in service between 1890 and 1898. The fourth whaleback constructed, she was built between October 1889 and February 1890, in Duluth, Minnesota by Alexander McDougall's American Steel Barge Company, for McDougall's fleet of the same name, based in Buffalo, New York. She was a whaleback, a class of distinctive, experimental ship designed and built by McDougall. The whalebacks were designed to be more stable in high seas. They had rounded decks, and lacked the normal straight sides seen on traditional lake freighters. 104 entered service on April 21, hauling iron ore from Two Harbors, Minnesota.
  
  On November 10, 1898, while being towed out of Cleveland harbour with a cargo of coal bound for Duluth, she broke away from the tug Alva B. 104 crashed into Cleveland's west breakwater. She sank quickly, with her crew being rescued by the Cleveland United States Life-Saving Service. 104 was a total loss, becoming the first whaleback to be lost on the Great Lakes. (Full article...)
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  M-45 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that is also called Lake Michigan Drive. The highway runs from Agnew near Lake Michigan to the west side of Grand Rapids in the western Lower Peninsula. Lake Michigan Drive continues in each direction from M-45's termini, extending west of US Highway 31 (US 31) and east of Interstate 196 (I-196). In between, the road runs through rural and suburban areas of Ottawa and Kent counties, including the main campus of Grand Valley State University in Allendale. Lake Michigan Drive was originally part of M-50 until the mid-1960s. Previously in the 1920s and 1930s, the M-45 number was designated along a highway in the Upper Peninsula (UP). (Full article...)
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  A LANSA Lockheed L-188 Electra similar to the accident aircraft

  
  LANSA Flight 502 was a Lockheed L-188A Electra operated by Líneas Aéreas Nacionales Sociedad Anónima (LANSA) which crashed shortly after takeoff from Quispiquilla Airport near Cusco, Peru, on August 9, 1970, after losing all power from one of its four engines. The turboprop airliner, registered OB-R-939, was bound from Cusco to Lima, carrying 8 crew and 92 passengers. All but one of the occupants died from injuries sustained from impact forces and post crash fire. Two people on the ground were also killed. There were 49 American high school exchange students on board, all of whom perished. A Peruvian government investigation concluded that the accident was caused by improper execution of engine-out procedures by the flight crew and lack of proper maintenance. LANSA was fined and its operations were suspended for 90 days. At the time, the crash was the deadliest ever in Peruvian history before being surpassed by Faucett Perú Flight 251 in 1996. (Full article...)
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  Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication is a 2014 collection of essays edited by Douglas Vakoch and published by NASA. The book is focused on the role that the humanities and social sciences, in particular anthropology and archaeology, play in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The seventeen essays are gathered into four sections, which respectively explore the history of SETI as a field; archaeological comparisons for human-alien communication, such as the difficulties of translating ancient languages; the inferential gap between humans and aliens, and the consequences this would have for communication and trade; and the potential nature of alien intelligences.
  
  Originally scheduled for publication in June 2014, a PDF of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication was accidentally released a month before the intended date and reviewed by Gizmodo. The positive response to the review inspired NASA to bring forward its release as an e-book, making it available on their website from May of that year. (Full article...)
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  A Kawasaki C151 train before refurbishment

  
  The Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) C151 is the first generation electric multiple unit (EMU) rolling stock in operation on the North–South and East–West lines of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, manufactured by a consortium led by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) under Contract 151. They were first introduced in 1987 and are the oldest trains in operation on the network.
  
  Sixty-six trainsets consisting of six cars each and a single money train set consisting of four cars were contracted in 1984. They were manufactured from 1986 to 1989 in two batches by a Japanese consortium consisting of the namesake Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo, Tokyu Car Corp and Kinki Sharyo following a round of intense competitive bidding by international rolling stock manufacturers. (Full article...)
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  U.S. Route 15 (US 15) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Walterboro, South Carolina, north to Painted Post, New York. In Maryland, the highway runs 37.85 miles (60.91 km) from the Virginia state line at the Potomac River in Point of Rocks north to the Pennsylvania state line near Emmitsburg. Known for most of its length as Catoctin Mountain Highway, US 15 is the primary north–south highway of Frederick County. The highway connects the county seat of Frederick with Point of Rocks, Leesburg, Virginia, and Charles Town, West Virginia (via US 340), to the south and with Thurmont, Emmitsburg, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to the north. US 15 is an expressway throughout the state except for the portion south of MD 28. The highway is a freeway along its concurrency with US 340 and through Frederick, where the highway meets US 40 and Interstate 70 (I-70). US 15 has a business route through Emmitsburg.
  
  US 15 is the descendant of a pair of turnpikes that connected Frederick with Emmitsburg to the north and Buckeystown to the south. These turnpikes were reconstructed as state roads in the 1910s north of Frederick and in the early 1920s from Frederick south to Tuscarora. When US 15 was assigned in 1927, the Tuscarora–Point of Rocks highway had yet to be improved; this section was paved in the early 1930s. The modern Point of Rocks Bridge was built in the late 1930s after its predecessor was destroyed in a flood. The Frederick Freeway was constructed in the 1950s. US 15 was relocated to part of the freeway; the old route of the U.S. Highway through downtown Frederick became part of Maryland Route 355 (MD 355). US 15's present highway between Point of Rocks and Jefferson was constructed in the late 1960s; the old road south of Frederick was replaced with MD 28 and MD 85. North of Frederick, the U.S. Highway bypassed Thurmont and Emmitsburg in the late 1950s and mid-1960s, respectively. US 15 was upgraded to a divided highway north of Frederick in the early 1980s. (Full article...)
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  North Carolina Highway 124 (NC 124) is a 9.2-mile-long (14.8 km) primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Entirely in Edgecombe County, it travels east from NC 42 near Bridgersville through Macclesfield to NC 42 and NC 43 near Old Sparta. NC 124 is a two-lane road which primarily runs through a rural area of Eastern North Carolina. It provides access from Macclesfield to Wilson and Greenville using NC 42 and U.S. Route 258 (US 258).
  
  NC 124 first appeared on North Carolina state transportation maps in 1933, travelling from its current western terminus at NC 42 northeast of Bridgersville to US 258 and NC 12 in Crisp. By 1935, NC 12 was removed from its routing along US 258. The highway maintained the same routing until sometime between 1963 and 1964 when it was extended northeast from US 258 to its current eastern terminus at NC 42 and NC 43 southwest of Old Sparta. (Full article...)
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  Location in Washington##Location in the United States

  
  Stanwood is an Amtrak train station in the city of Stanwood, Washington, United States. It is served by intercity Amtrak Cascades trains and consists of a single platform and an adjacent parking lot. The station is in downtown Stanwood, near the intersection of State Route 532 and the Pioneer Highway, and is also served by Community Transit and Island Transit buses.
  
  Stanwood station opened on November 21, 2009, as an infill station on the Cascades route after several delays in design and construction. The $5 million project to build the station was approved in 2006 and began construction in March 2009 alongside a siding expansion. Stanwood was previously served by intercity passenger trains on the Great Northern Railway until 1971. (Full article...)
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  K-181 is a 70.2-mile-long (113.0 km) north–south state highway which runs through several counties in the north central part of the U.S. state of Kansas. K-181's southern terminus is at K-232 southeast of Lucas by Wilson Lake Dam, and the northern terminus is at U.S. Highway 36 (US-36) and US-281 south of Lebanon. Along the way the highway intersects US-24 and K-9 in Downs.
  
  Before state highways were numbered in Kansas, the section of K-181 from the Solomon River north to Downs was part of the Roosevelt National Highway and Kansas White Way auto trails. A short section from Sylvan Grove southward was part of the Sunflower Trail. When K-181 was first designated on January 7, 1937, it extended from US-24 northward to US-36 and US-281. Then between 1948 and 1972, it was gradually extended southward to its current alignment. (Full article...)
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  This map from 1878 shows the Evergreen Branch when it was used for service to Manhattan Beach. The branch is located on the northeast portion of the map.

  
  The Evergreen Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) that ran in Brooklyn and part of Queens in New York City. The line, at its fullest extent, ran between Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens. The line consisted of two leased portions. The first portion, between Greenpoint and Jefferson Street, was leased from the Glendale and East River Railroad. The second portion, from Jefferson Street to Ridgewood, was leased from the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad Company, and was known as the Evergreen Branch, a name later extended to the rest of the line.
  
  The Glendale and East River Railroad was incorporated in 1874 to give the South Side Railroad an additional waterfront terminal, but was instead used to connect Austin Corbin's New York and Manhattan Beach Railroad to New York City via ferry service from Greenpoint. The Evergreen Branch opened in 1878, with service only running during the summer season from May to September. In 1876, it was consolidated into the LIRR, and service to Greenpoint was replaced with service to Long Island City instead, with a shuttle allowing passengers from Greenpoint to get to Manhattan Beach. The line was converted to standard gauge to allow for the transferring of freight along the line. Passenger service ended in May 1886, and freight service ended four years later. The right-of-way between Greenpoint and South Side Crossing was abandoned in 1896 and 1897, with few traces of that branch left. (Full article...)
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  K-153 is a 3.451-mile-long (5.554 km) north–south state highway located entirely within McPherson County in the U.S. state of Kansas. K-153's southern terminus is at a partial interchange with K-61 southwest of McPherson and the northern terminus is at U.S. Route 56 (US-56) in McPherson. K-153 along with K-61 is part of a western bypass of McPherson. The highway has one signed spur route known as K-153 Spur.
  
  Before state highways were numbered in Kansas there were auto trails. The northern terminus closely follows the former National Old Trails Road and Old Santa Fe Trail. The current K-153 Spur and section of K-153 from the spur northward to US-56 was originally a section of US-81. When US-81 was moved onto the new Interstate 35W (I-35W) (modern I-135), the current K-153 was designated K-61 Alternate and the spur was designated K-61 Spur. In a resolution on August 28, 1968, K-153 and K-153 Spur was created when K-61 Alternate was renumbered to K-153 and K-61 Spur was renumbered to K-153 Spur. (Full article...)
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  S2-AGU, the aircraft involved, seen in 2014

  
  US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, that crashed on 12 March 2018 while landing, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard. The aircraft, a 76-seat Bombardier Q400 operated by US-Bangla Airlines, burst into flames after the crash. The 20 surviving passengers were seriously injured from the impact and the fire. It remains the deadliest aviation disaster involving a Bangladeshi airline, and the deadliest incident involving the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400.
  
  A commission appointed by the government of Nepal investigated the accident and issued a report that concluded that the probable cause of the crash was pilot disorientation and a loss of situational awareness on the part of the flight crew. The report was criticized by the airline and by the Bangladeshi representative to the commission, who felt that the air traffic controllers at Tribhuvan International Airport had not done their job properly and could have prevented the accident. (Full article...)
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  King's Highway 70, commonly referred to as Highway 70, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, which provided a shorter route from Highway 6 and Highway 21 in Springmount to Highway 6 in Hepworth. The route, which now forms part of Highway 6, was 15.1 kilometres (9.4 mi) long and travelled in a southeast–northwest direction west of Owen Sound. The route followed an early trail blazed by deputy surveyor Charles Rankin in 1842 that was upgraded to a modern road in the 1920s. Highway 70 was designated in 1965 and renumbered as Highway 6 in 1997. Another Highway 70 existed near Kenora between 1937 and 1959 before being renumbered as Highway 71. This designation was applied along the newly opened Heenan Highway, shortly after the Department of Highways (DHO) began numbering routes in northern Ontario. However, a series of renumberings in 1960 led to the entire length becoming part of Highway 71. (Full article...)
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  Class 71 train

  
  Nationaltheatret Station (Norwegian: Nationaltheatret stasjon) is an underground railway station on the Drammen Line serving Vika and the central business district of Oslo, Norway. It is the second-busiest railway station in Norway, behind Oslo Central Station (Oslo S), from which Nationaltheatret is 1.4 kilometers (0.9 mi) away. Owned and operated by Bane NOR, Nationaltheatret serves regional services to the Vestfold Line and the Oslo Commuter Rail operated by Vy, intercity services on the Sørland Line operated by Go-Ahead Norge, and the Airport Express Train.
  
  The station is located below an Oslo Metro station with the same name. At ground level there is transfer to the Oslo Tramway and Ruter buses. Nationaltheatret is along with Holmestrand Station one of two underground mainline railway stations in Norway, and named for the adjacent National Theatre. The station opened as the terminus of Holmenkolbanen's light rail services in 1928. The railway station opened on 1 June 1980 and was upgraded to four tracks in 1999. The older section received a full renovation in 2008. (Full article...)
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  Ofotbanen Drift AS, trading as Ofotbanen, was a Norwegian passenger and freight railway company. The company operated a fleet of six locomotives, three multiple units, 22 passenger and 48 freight cars. The sole service was the passenger train Unionsexpressen between Oslo and Stockholm; it had previously offered freight haulage on contract.
  
  The company was founded in 2001, and took over Norges Statsbaner's (NSB) passenger operation of the Ofoten Line in 2003. The following year it entered the freight market, in particular with timber trains for Norske Skog. It further expanded into other services, such as charter trips. In 2006, the company almost went bankrupt, and was taken over by Rail Management. In 2007, the automotive distributor Autolink started purchasing the autorack operations from Ofotbanen, and at the same time bought 40% of the company. 2008 saw a dramatic decline in operations, as both the Norske Skog, Autolink and passenger train services were terminated. In April the company started service with the Unionexpressen between Oslo and Stockholm. The company went bankrupt in October, but was immediately re-established as Ofotbanen Drift. In May 2010, the new company filed for bankruptcy. (Full article...)

Selected picture

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  Burj Khalifa

  Photograph: Donald Y Tong

  Burj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and currently the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). It was designed to be the centerpiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development known as Downtown Dubai. Construction took over five years, and the skyscraper was officially opened in January 2010.
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  Aerospike engine

  Photo credit: Marshall Space Flight Center

  A test firing of twin linear XRS-2200 aerospike engines, originally built for the Lockheed Martin X-33, a next-generation, commercially operated reusable launch vehicle. The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. A vehicle with an aerospike engine uses 25-30% less fuel at low altitudes, where most missions have the greatest need for thrust.
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  Let L-410 Turbolet

  Photo: Łukasz Golowanow

  The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engined short-range transport aircraft, manufactured by the Czech aircraft manufacturer LET, mostly used for passenger transport. The L-410 first flew in 1969, and with more than 1100 produced, is the most popular 19-seat plane in history.
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  Telephone

  Credit: Berthold Werner

  A telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that converts sound, typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances through satellite.
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  TRS connector

  Image credit: Søren Peo Pedersen

  Two TRS connectors (also known as jack plugs or phone plugs), a common audio connector. They are cylindrical in shape, with two or more contacts. Originally invented for use in telephone switchboards, jack plugs are still widely used, both in the original ¼-inch (6.3 mm) size and in miniaturized versions. The top plug in this image is for stereo connections, while the bottom is for mono.
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  Mechanical advantage

  Image credit: Prolineserver/Tomia

  This diagram of four pulley systems illustrates how increasing the number of pulleys increases the mechanical advantage, making the load easier to lift. MA is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it. In this diagram, 100 newtons is required to lift the weight off the ground. Each additional pulley increases the MA such that the four-pulley system only needs 25 newtons to accomplish the same task, but the rope must be pulled four times as far.
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  Parabolic antenna

  Photo credit: Richard Bartz

  A parabolic antenna, a high-gain reflector antenna used for radio, television and data communications, at Erdfunkstelle Raisting, the largest facility for satellite communication in the world, based in Raisting, Bavaria, Germany. Parabolic antennas work by reflecting electromagnetic radiation off the paraboloid dish to or from the feed horn (center), for reception or transmission respectively.
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  Eiffel Tower

  Photo: Benh Lieu Song

  The Eiffel Tower as seen from the Champ de Mars. At 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, the tower, an iron lattice tower, is the tallest building in Paris, the most-visited paid monument in the world, as well as one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it was built as an entrance arch for the 1889 Exposition Universelle and has since become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France.
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  New York City Subway

  Map: CountZ

  A transit map of the New York City Subway, one of the oldest and most extensive public transportation systems in the world. Operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, it has 468 stations in operation on 209 mi (337 km) of routes, with 842 miles (1,355 km) of track. It is the busiest rapid transit rail system by annual ridership in the Western Hemisphere, and fifth busiest in the world. Its stations are located throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Staten Island has its own rail line which is not part of the system, but is included in the map as well.
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  Laptop computer

  Credit: Mike McGregor

  The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
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  Overhead power line

  Credit: Simon Koopmann

  An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or utility poles.
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  Paddle steamer

  Daguerreotype credit: Unknown

  A daguerreotype from the 1850s of the Ben Campbell, a paddle steamer—a ship or boat driven by a steam engine that uses one or more paddle wheels to develop thrust for propulsion. The paddle wheel was the first form of mechanical propulsion for a boat, but has now been almost entirely superseded by more modern forms of marine propulsion.
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  Geneva drive

  Animation: Mike1024

  The Geneva drive is a gear mechanism that translates a continuous rotation into an intermittent rotary motion. The rotating drive wheel has a pin that reaches into a slot of the driven wheel advancing it by one step. The drive wheel also has a raised circular blocking disc that locks the driven wheel in position between steps. Such a mechanism is used in film projectors, watches, and indexing tables, among others.
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  Movable type

  Photo credit: Willi Heidelbach

  A composing stick and movable type, the system of printing and typography using pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. The text on the stick reads, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog and feels as if he were in the seventh heaven of typography together with Hermann Zapf, the most famous artist of the" [sic].
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  M198 howitzer

  Photo credit: L Cpl. Samantha L. Jones, USMC

  Nine Marines from Mike Battery, 4th Battalion, 14th Marines operate the 155mm M198 howitzer in November 2004. The battery was based at Camp Fallujah, Iraq and was supporting Operation Phantom Fury. All nine members of the M198 crew are present.
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  Escalator

  Credit: Stig Nygaard

  An escalator is a moving staircase for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.
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  Rail transport

  Photograph: David Gubler

  Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. The oldest, man-hauled railways date to the 6th century B.C.; the method grew more popular after the introduction of steam locomotives in the 19th century. Here we can see four BNSF GE C44-9W diesel locomotives hauling a mixed freight train along the Columbia River in the US.
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  Keypunch

  Picture: Unknown; restoration: Mmxx

  A woman using a Hollerith pantograph, a machine developed by Herman Hollerith for the punching of cards, providing data which could then be processed. Such tools were used in the 1890 United States Census, the first time the country's census was tabulated by machine.
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  Windmill

  Photo credit: Michael Reeve

  Pitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles
  
  A windmill is an engine powered by wind energy. In Europe, windmills have been used since the Middle Ages. They were developed from the 12th century, apparently from technology gained by crusaders who came into contact with windmills in the Middle East. Persian sources indicate windmill use as early as the 7th century BC. In the United States, the development of water-pumping windmills was a major factor in allowing the farming of vast areas of North America.
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  Wheel

  Credit: fir0002

  A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines.

Did you know...

• ... that Justin Yu, the current Classic Tetris World Champion, is also a cellist in MIT's video game orchestra?
• ... that Pamela McCorduck, who chronicled the evolution of artificial intelligence, regretted not recognizing the technology's potential for misuse?
• ... that several science fiction critics praised "Rock Diver", the first short story by American writer Harry Harrison, for its compelling take on technology for passing through matter?
• ... that it was Caltech experimental physicist Rana X. Adhikari's idea to build a gravitational-wave observatory in India?
• ... that the Atari 410 Program Recorder was used to store programs on the Atari 8-bit family, but was also used for computer aided instruction?
• ... that Peter Corby's electric trouser press used technology designed for Concorde?

Top 10 WikiProject Technology Popular articles of the month

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  Logo used since 2017

  
  YouTube is an American online video sharing platform owned by Google. Accessible worldwide, YouTube launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States, it is the second most visited website in the world, after Google Search. YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users, who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos every day. , videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute, and as of 2021, there were approximately 14 billion videos in total. (Full article...)
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  ChatGPT is a chatbot and virtual assistant developed by OpenAI and launched on November 30, 2022. Based on large language models (LLMs), it enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language. Successive user prompts and replies are considered at each conversation stage as context. (Full article...)
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  Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. Since 2006, Facebook allows everyone to register from 13 years old, except in the case of a handful of nations, where the age limit is 14 years. , Facebook claimed almost 3 billion monthly active users. As of October 2023, Facebook ranked as the 3rd most visited website in the world, with 22.56% of its traffic coming from the United States. It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s. (Full article...)
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  WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client. (Full article...)
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  The Google logo used since 2015

  
  Google LLC (/ˈɡuːɡəl/ , GOO-ghəl) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" and is one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the field of AI. Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. is one of the five Big Tech companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. (Full article...)
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  Musk in 2022

  
  Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and investor known for his key roles in space company SpaceX and automotive company Tesla, Inc. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp., formerly Twitter, and his role in the founding of The Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink and OpenAI. He is one of the wealthiest people in the world; , Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$210 billion. (Full article...)
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  Meteor Lake is Intel's codename for the first generation of Intel Core Ultra mobile processors, and was officially launched on December 14, 2023. It is the first generation of Intel mobile processors to use a chiplet architecture which means that the processor is a multi-chip module. Tim Wilson led the system on a chip development for this generation microprocessor. (Full article...)
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  Final logo, used from 2012 to 2023

  
  Twitter was an American social networking service that was rebranded as X in 2023. Established in March 2006, it grew to become one of the world's largest social media websites and the fifth-most visited website in the world. It was launched in July 2006, and its creators Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, established Twitter, Inc. in San Francisco, California, as its managing company in April 2007. (Full article...)
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  Video views per week of a viral video (Gangnam Style), illustrating viral growth to peak weekly viewership, in this case, in the eleventh week after it was posted.

  
  A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email. For a video to be shareable or spreadable, it must focus on the social logics and cultural practices that have enabled and popularized these new platforms. (Full article...)
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  Portrait by Joseph Duplessis, 1778

  
  Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general. (Full article...)

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