Puzzle of the Day

Webmasters of a certain era are likely to have used a piece of software called Hotmetal (usually styled as a mix of capital and lowercase letters). The name Hotmetal cleverly references two different technologies invented in 1884 and 1993, both of which are descendants of a world-changing invention from around 1440. What are these three technologies?

Check back Monday for the answer, a shoutout to all the solvers, and a new puzzle!

Yesterday's puzzle:

Albert Uderzo, creator of the Astérix comic book series, recently died at the age of 92. His most famous characters are Astérix and Obélix, both of whose names work as puns in both French and English; in particular, both can be obtained by modifying English words in precisely the same way, leading to an -ix ending (found in the names of many real Gaulish kings). There is one other multisyllabic English word* that can be modified in that exact way. What would the result be?

Hint

* Technically there are at least three such words, but one is a rather obscure shrub and another is a Norwegian dish that is only questionably an English word (though well-known in parts of Minnesota). UPDATE: Some of you have pointed out that certain obsolete media formats also fit the bill. Those aren't the answer I'm going for either, but never underestimate a Proofnik's creativity!

Answer:

Astérix, Obélix, and... Basilix. I suspect the Harry Potter fans had a leg up here.

The small text references the less common -isk words tamarisk, lutefisk, and Laserdisk/Videodisk (these didn't come up on my search for -isk words because their trademarked spellings use "disc"). Peter V. also suggested some other "words" of dubious provenance, for which I suggested equally dubious definitions. In spite of my hint, I did not know that there is a real-life common basilisk until Maddy told me! (See right.)

Good job to yesterday's solvers Peter V., Zachary Z., Aditi, Maddy, Leo S., Charlie, Jessica, Josh M. (with lutefisk/Lutéfix), Hazel (who points out that misc- as in miscellaneous and mix are genuinely related), Kathy, Joel, Zachary S.'s daughter Martina, and Mr. Gregg!