This is terrible. I normally do freelance for money (to gain it and to take up time so I can’t spend it) yet I’ve found myself looking forward with vicarious delight to a certain piece of my freelance; Computer Upgrade’s Time Wheel. It takes me ages, I’ve got to get my own images, and it only pays seventy squid (before tax), but I love it because I get to research.
Basically, it’s a history of various technologies; cameras, joysticks, video, whatever they ask me to do. I go online, and I just read and read and read, until I’ve developed a theme, and can talk with authority about the topic, and hopefully introduce crazy elements of interest into the history. For example, the first proper joystick? Used to control the Heinkel Hs 293 wire-guided bomb from 1940 when launched from Luftwaffe bombers. The first camera precursor? The Camera Obscura, described by the Chinese Philosopher Mo-Ti (Micius) in the 5th century B.C. The first computer display was based on loom technology. The first And so on, and on.