On July 31, 1961 -- fifty years ago this coming weekend -- IBM's groundbreaking new typewriter went on sale. The IBM Selectric reinvented the typewriter by introducing the typeball, a spherical metal ...

As Cold War tensions increased throughout the 1970s, the Soviets pulled out all the stops when it came to digging up information from US diplomats. This NSA memo from 2012 explains how several IBM ...

Last month, I had fun paying tribute to Polaroid’s SX-70, an old-technology gadget that’s all the more extraordinary because there was nothing digital about it. The SX-70 came to mind again when I ...

A few other characteristics came to mind that also help set it apart: I don't know if it was the first, or not, but something that might not be immediately obvious to some is that the Selectric had ...

Metal plating doesn't have much strength. If a plastic ball would be flattened, as I expect, a plated plastic ball would collapse just about as fast. Plus, I think you can only plate things that ...