Fun Facts About Tech

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saxenadivya0007

Thursday, 2024-10-10

  • The First Computer Bug Was Real... and it Was a Bug
  • In 1947, a moth got stuck in a relay of the Harvard Mark II computer, causing an error. They taped the moth in their logbook, marking it as the "first actual case of bug being found."
  • Email Is Older Than the World Wide Web
  • The first email was sent in 1971, while the World Wide Web didn’t come around until 1991. Imagine having emails without Google to search through them!
  • The QWERTY Keyboard Layout Was Designed to Slow Typists Down
  • In the early days, typewriters jammed if people typed too fast. The QWERTY layout was introduced in 1868 to keep people from going too quickly.
  • CAPTCHA—Helping Robots Train
  • Those “prove you’re not a robot” tests help train AI. For instance, CAPTCHAs involving distorted text helped train AI in text recognition, and those with identifying road signs and cars helped self-driving cars!
  • Google’s First Tweet Was Gibberish (on Purpose)
  • Google’s first tweet in 2009 was “I’m feeling lucky” in binary: “I’m feeling lucky” is a famous Google feature that takes users directly to the first search result.
  • The First Camera Was Huge
  • The first camera took an 8-hour exposure to capture an image, and it was about the size of a room! Imagine carrying that around for selfies.
  • Apple’s Co-founder Sold His Shares for Just $800
  • In 1976, Ronald Wayne, co-founder of Apple, sold his 10% share for $800. Today, that share would be worth over $100 billion!
  • Alexa Was Almost "Ziggy"
  • Amazon went through several names before landing on "Alexa," including "Ziggy" and "Hector." They chose Alexa because of the distinct "X" sound, which is easier for the system to recognize.
  • Ones and Zeroes Run the World
  • All modern computers work using a binary system of ones and zeros. Everything from your photos to music to the latest video game is essentially a string of binary code!
  • Space Invaders Got Harder By Accident
  • The iconic game Space Invaders increases in difficulty as you progress, but this wasn’t intentional! It happened because the game’s processor could handle more sprites as fewer were on-screen