The video explores the surprising origins of various technologies and terms, highlighting connections between innovations in the film industry, like Photoshop’s creation by George Lucas’s team, and the birth of the PlayStation from a failed partnership between Sony and Nintendo. It also delves into the quirky histories behind common tech terms and symbols, illustrating how human creativity and unexpected events have shaped the technology we use today.
The video explores the fascinating origins of various technologies and terms we often take for granted, starting with the connection between George Lucas’s “Star Wars” and the creation of Photoshop. In 1975, Lucas founded Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to develop groundbreaking visual effects for the film. Among the team was John Knoll, who, along with his brother, created software for handling grayscale images, which eventually became Photoshop after being acquired by Adobe in 1990. This highlights how innovations in the film industry can lead to significant advancements in technology that impact everyday life.
The narrative continues with the story of the PlayStation, which was born from a failed partnership between Sony and Nintendo in the early '90s. Nintendo initially collaborated with Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo but ultimately betrayed Sony by partnering with Philips instead. This led Sony to launch the PlayStation independently in 1994, marking the beginning of the console wars that continue to this day. This tale illustrates how competitive dynamics in the tech industry can shape the products we use.
The video also delves into the origins of common tech terms and symbols, such as the term “bug,” which originated from a real moth causing a malfunction in an early computer. Additionally, the term “podcast” is explained as a combination of “iPod” and “broadcast,” coined by a journalist. The video further discusses the evolution of symbols like the power button and the gear icon for settings, tracing their roots back to early engineering and design practices.
Another interesting story shared is about the invention of the webcam at the University of Cambridge in 1991, which arose from researchers’ laziness in having to check on a coffee pot in another room. This led to the first webcam streaming the coffee pot’s feed over the internet. The video also recounts how a car crash involving Elon Musk and Peter Thiel led to the merger of their companies, resulting in the creation of PayPal, showcasing how unexpected events can lead to significant technological advancements.
Finally, the video highlights the quirky and sometimes arbitrary nature of technology, such as the reason behind the number of megabytes in a gigabyte being 1,024 instead of 1,000, due to binary calculations. It also touches on the origins of the first Google Doodle and the hidden features in software like Excel. The overarching theme is that technology is shaped by human creativity, quirks, and sometimes sheer laziness, reminding viewers that the tools they use daily have rich and often surprising histories.
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Behind the tech we use everyday there are crazy, incredible and weird stories that you problably never heard of …until today.
Hey! I’m Enrico and on this channel I go behind the scenes of the design, psychology and stories behind tech and making stuff on the internet. I’m a tech Product Manager, builder of things made of pixels.
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CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
1:49 A Nintendo Playstation?
3:24 Bugs
3:58 Podcasts
4:34 Vibration
5:55 Vanta
6:43 Webcam
7:40 Elon
8:46 Everyday Buttons
10:32 The Wall Of Entropy
11:40 Arbitraty Numbers
12:54 People Are Weird