The five best design links, every weekday

Category: History

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historicaltechtree.com

Historical tech tree

Interactive visualization of technological history.

deno.com

A brief history of JavaScript

In 30 years, JavaScript went from being a little scripting language to one of the world’s most popular.

softwareheritage.org

When memory was measured in kilobytes

Back when RAM was precious, clever code reigned. Take a peek into early computer vision’s elegant solutions.

youtube.com

Twiddling bits with Susan Kare

Susan Kare's journey, inspirations, and views on design and its evolution.

mythcloud.eu

MythCloud: the stories that shape us

Traditional and contemporary dimensions of shared mythologies.

fabiensanglard.net

Building my childhood dream PC

Restoring an IBM 2168 and maxing out DOOM.

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

Stack overflow is almost dead

Stack overflow has almost as few questions asked per month as when it launched back in 2009.

printmag.com

A visual study of the NYC subway map

The history of the NYC subway map, from a 1972 beautiful minimalist diagram to a clear and functional navigation tool.

figma.com

24 artifacts that define craft

Artifacts that embody craft—something that speaks to our understanding of what it means to make with intention.

matthewstrom.com

The history of album art

This is the story of the people who made music visible.

thehistoryoftheweb.com

1995 was the most important year for the web

The world changed a lot in 1995. And for the web, it was a transformational year.

skins.webamp.org

Winamp skin museum

Infinite scroll through 80k Winamp skins with interactive previews.

wired.com

An oral history of WIRED’s original website

With HotWired, we introduced the world to the internet. Hyperlinks! Verticals! Banner ads! Cookies! Thirty years later, the hangover is real.

wikenigma.org.uk

Wikenigma: a catalyst for curiosity

A unique wiki-based resource specifically dedicated to documenting fundamental gaps in human knowledge.

jillianhess.substack.com

Pablo Picasso’s stunning repetitions

"I picked up my sketchbooks daily, saying to myself: what will I learn of myself that I didn’t know. Je suis le cahier / I am the notebook."

geocities.live

GeoCities time machine

Transform any modern webpage into a totally rad 90s GeoCities style website.

infinitemac.org

Infinite Mac

A collection of classic Macintosh and NeXT system releases and software, all easily accessible from the comfort of a web browser.

microsoft.design

A glimpse into the history of Windows design

At the turn of the millennium, Windows revolutionized network management and paved the way for the modern, connected workplace.

historicborders.app

Historic borders

Visualize country borders from different times in history (123,000 BC - 1994).

wiki-timeline.com

WikiTimeline

Transform Wikipedia articles into beautiful, interactive timelines. Compare historical events and explore history in a visual way.