In November 1953, The New York Times reported that late-night television audiences across New York had “discovered a new quiz game” on WNBT, the local NBC affiliate. It did not air on a regular basis ...

Occasionally, we get to catch a glimpse of the hidden tests that ensure our technology-infused world runs smoothly: color bars on TV or blocks of “lorem ipsum” gibberish text. There’s a fascinating ...

[Nicholas Murray]’s Composite Test Pattern Generator is a beautifully-made, palm-sized tool that uses an ESP32-based development board to output different test patterns in PAL/NTSC. If one is checking ...

The first test patterns I ever saw were slapsticky meta-jokes mixed into after-school cartoons. Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck might walk off frame and into one. Or they appeared as dated references in ...