Netscape Nation

Whatever happened to Maplin: an image of an empty electronics store featuring empty shelves with product labels, conveying nostalgia and the impact of its closure.

Whatever Happened to Maplin: How Britain’s Electronics Specialist Powered Generations of Tinkerers

15 July 2025 Lisa Mitchell 0

Trace the journey of Maplin, once a prominent electronics retailer in the UK, exploring its significant impact on tech consumers and the reasons behind its closure.

Whatever happened to Dixons: A visually somber depiction of a deserted British high street with closed electronics shops, under grey overcast skies, capturing the decline of physical retail stores.

Whatever Happened to Dixons: The Story Behind a Retail Giant’s Disappearance

14 July 2025 Lisa Mitchell 2

Explore the history and decline of Dixons, a once-ubiquitous British electronics retailer, as it navigated market shifts, technological evolution, and the rise of online shopping, ultimately reshaping consumer experiences on the high street.

AI Feedback Loops show two mirrors facing each other, creating infinity with flowing digital data between, representing recursive AI systems.

How AI Feedback Loops Threaten Digital Memory

14 July 2025 Talia Wainwright 0

Explore how AI feedback loops can mimic and amplify human biases, leading to a gradual erosion of diverse human expression and knowledge. Understand the mechanisms causing this phenomenon and its impact on AI training data quality.

Netscape's legacy visualised through an image of a vintage computer from the mid-90s displaying a webpage, highlighting key innovations like SSL and JavaScript, set in a nostalgic early internet-era office.

Netscape’s Legacy: The Browser That Built Today’s Internet

13 July 2025 Nathan Clarke 0

Netscape’s legacy continues to shape today’s internet as core web technologies like SSL, cookies, and JavaScript trace their origins back to Netscape, offering a richer browsing experience that champions user-centred design and open standards.

Retro gaming community bedroom setup featuring a vintage computer from the 1980s surrounded by retro gaming items like cassettes and hand-drawn maps, bathed in the warm glow of the screen.

How the Retro Gaming Community Keeps Our History Alive

13 July 2025 Gaz Hemsley 0

Explore the pivotal role of the retro gaming community in preserving gaming culture, focusing on technical documentation, human narratives, and public engagement efforts that keep the history of gaming vibrant and accessible.

Gadget stories depicted through a 1980s family room scene with various electronics including a VCR and TV, showing a family engaging with the tech in a lively, everyday setting.

Why Your 80s Gadget Stories Reveal Tech Truths Specs Never Could

13 July 2025 Lisa Mitchell 0

Gadget Stories explore how consumer electronic devices, beyond their technical specs, shaped our daily lives and relationships, as illustrated through generational anecdotes.

Clippy to Copilot image showing the evolution from a cartoonish paperclip on the left to a sophisticated digital AI network on the right, symbolising past and future virtual assistants

From Clippy to Copilot: The Strange Evolution of Digital Help

12 July 2025 Nathan Clarke 0

Explore the journey from Microsoft’s Clippy, an early virtual assistant, to the advanced AI capabilities of Copilot, examining their impacts on user interaction and technology evolution.

AI and Online dating conceptualised with two avatars having a virtual coffee date in a realistic digital rendition of a Paris café, highlighting the modern fusion of technology and intimate social interaction.

AI and Online dating: Swipe, Match & Merge

12 July 2025 Talia Wainwright 0

Explore the transformative journey of AI in online dating, from automated avatar dates in virtual Paris to deepfake emotions. Understand how intimacy and human connections are being reshaped by sophisticated AI technologies.

Online Community Freedom illustrated by a split-view image, showing a retro computer setup on one side and a modern smartphone with social media icons on the other, symbolically depicting the evolution of online platforms.

From BBS to the Fediverse: The Long Search for Online Community Freedom

11 July 2025 Gary Holloway 0

Explore the evolution of online communities, from the early days of modem connections and BBS systems to the sophisticated, yet controlled environments of modern social media platforms, emphasizing the importance of maintaining online community freedom in the digital age.

Digital Identity: An illustration showing a progression from traditional passwords to modern biometric passkeys, including lockscreen interfaces and facial recognition

Digital Identity: The Battle Beyond Passwords

8 July 2025 Nathan Clarke 0

Exploring the evolution of digital identity from passwords to passkeys, biometrics, and beyond. Discover how modern security methods impact our online presence and trust in an interconnected world.