This color photo, dating to 1943, is part of a Library of Congress collection that I've posted shots from before. This one is just lovely. And I'm also pretty sure that I know where this train shop building is located. If I'm right, it's one of the massive Santa Fe RR buildings near Topeka's Oakland neighborhood, right across from Our Lady of Guadeloupe church. Today, there's a road bridge that takes you over the top of the rail yards, so you drive into Oakland at almost the level of those upper windows. I always did want to see what was inside!
1943 color photo of a Topeka, Kansas, train yard
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Retrospective of netbooks, the tiny low-end laptops that lit up the late 2000s
Nilay Patel remembers the netbook, the small (9-11") power-sipping (Intel Atom) and cheap (sub-$500) devices that suddenly exploded in the late 2000s, only to vanish into the fog of tablets, ultrabooks and chromebooks. Within a few years, he figures, there were some 40 models of the popular but decidedly low-end Asus EeePC. Then: poof! The… READ THE REST
Collection of Macintosh death chimes
Stephen Hackett collects and presents the Chimes of Death, the intriguing melodies that used to herald the doom of a Mac. My favorite is the Macintosh LC's unsettling chiptune dance over the sharps. By the mid 1990s, it was all silly and infuriating car crash noises and such. In the parallel universe where Michael Spindler… READ THE REST
How tally sticks were used in medieval England
I have to admit, I thought I was up on my dead media, but I didn't really know much about the medieval history of the tally stick, a record-keeping technology that stretches all the way back to the Upper Paleolithic. I love the concept of carving off a piece, or splitting it in half, so… READ THE REST
These earbuds use AI to optimize your music while keeping you safe for under $40
The ostrich analogy is real. Nobody should be sticking their head in the sand to escape unpleasant truths. And one such unpleasant reality is that for all their functionality, headphones can be incredibly dangerous. An overwhelming 96 percent of Americans say it's dangerous to wear headphones or earbuds when driving. That number remains high for… READ THE REST
This complete ethical hacker training can help you join the war on cybercrime
Students and staff at Stanford University, the University of California, the University of Colorado, and other institutions were warned to be on alert after a widespread security breach compromised personal data files during a nationwide cyberattack on the schools' computer systems. Meanwhile, someone is selling personal information on 21 million users of the mobile parking… READ THE REST
Prevent your bike from getting swiped with Via Velo's double locking system
The difficulties of pandemic life have brought some unexpected consequences over the past year. With some transportation options closed and everyone mostly stuck in their houses, people got stir crazy for an alternative — and bicycle sales surged nationwide. Unfortunately, that wave of new bike riders brought an all too expected result: a corresponding surge in… READ THE REST