10 Stuff you didn't know about your computer
1) Water Integrator (A water powered computer)
Vladimir Lukyanov’s Water Computer
In 1936, the Water Integrator built in the Soviet Union (Russia) by Vladimir S. Lukyanov that ran on water.It was an early analog computer, it worked by manipulating water across a room full of interconnected pipes and pumps.
The first version of Lukyanov's integrators were rather experimental, made of tin and glass tubes, and each Integrator could be used to solve
only one problem at a time.
Presently, two hydraulic integrators are kept at the Moscow's Polytechnic Museum.
2) The word "Typewriter".
Do you know that the longest word that one can write/type in a computer using only one row of the keyboard is the word "TYPEWRITER", while the shortest word is of no surprise on anyone, it's the word "I".
To continue with the theme of the keyboard, let's look at another one while we are at it...
3) The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow you down ?
QWERTY keyboard layout, which is almost 129 years old, also known as the "Sholes Keyboard" was created in the 1860s by a man named Christopher Latham Sholes in response to a very specific problem.
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QWERTY keyboard layout |
The problem with the early typewriters were that they were getting jammed up when they were used too quickly, and so a special inefficient keyboard layout had to be designed.
This was done by separating certain letters from each other on the keyboard to reduce the amount of jamming. So, basically contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, but rather to speed up typing at that time but now if you really want to type faster, you can try the Dvorak keyboard.
4) Mystery Behind The Bumps on the F and J Key
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Bumps on 'F' and 'J' keys |
I'm pretty sure that you have noticed it, a majority of the QWERTY keyboards have a slight bump on the F and J key (A Short Horizontal line or a Bump point).
Want to know the reason behind this?
Those bumps are made for ease of use for typists. Placing the left and right hand indexes on F and J respectively makes it easier to cover every letter on the keyboard. This helped in recognizing the keys in the dark, or when you are watching the screen while typing
5) Windows Doesn’t Allow You To Create Folder Named ‘CON’, PRN, NUL, etc.
5) Windows Doesn’t Allow You To Create Folder Named ‘CON’, PRN, NUL, etc.
Do you know that you can't create folders in Windows OS having CON, PRN, NUL, etc. as the name.
Wonder why? This is because these folder names are reserved for use in specific system tasks. For Example:-
CON, It’s actually short for “Console”. The Console in DOS refers to the keyboard input and local display output. You
might also find it interesting that you cannot create folders or files
that match any other DOS device name, such as COMx (where x is a serial
port number, as in “COM1”), or LPTx (where x is a printer number, as in
“LPT1”).
Now, a small quality of life fact for our Mac Users :)
6) Mac has its own emoji keyboard
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Mac's own emoji set |
Follows the below steps and find for your own:
- Click the Apple symbol in the top left corner of your screen
- Click System Preferences.
- Click Keyboard
- Click the option box beside Show keyboard.
- Click emoji viewer in the Menu Bar.
7) The first electronic computer
The very first electronic computer, ENIAC weighed more than 27 tons and took up 1800 square feet. ENIAC stands for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer". ENIAC was designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.
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Two pieces of ENIAC currently on display in the Moore School of Engineering and Applied Science |
Its very first task was doing calculations for the construction of a hydrogen bomb.
You'll be surprised to hear that, the first 1 GB hard drive was announced in 1980 which weighed around 550 pounds, and had a price tag of $40,000.
8) Approx 10 percent of the world's currency exists as physical cash.
Do you know that only 8% of the world's currency exits as physical cash, rest exists only on a computer hard drive, in electronic bank accounts around the world.
This is the power of crypto currencies.
Note: this fact is not applicable to the entire world
To put things into perspective, here are some intrusive data:-
( Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Switzerland, Euro area, Russia, China, Singapore, India, SaudiArabia, United States, Argentina, Mexico, Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, Sweden )
The sum of these 21 currencies is $6.552 trillion in banknote and coin out of a GDP of $69.512 trillion or 9.43%.
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92% world's money exists as digital currency |
9) Do you know that most of the servers use Linux Operation System?
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The Linux OS logo, a plump penguin known as Tux |
Almost 90% servers are running on Linux Operation System, because Linux is open-source, and it can be easily configured and customized according to the needs.
So most of the supercomputer runs Linux. Yes, Microsoft and Apple also use Linux for their servers. Still, Microsoft's Windows is the most widely used computer operating systems in the world, accounting for 70.92 percent share of the desktop, tablet, and console OS market in February 2021
And the last one is dedicated to our Play-station users :)
10) The government used PlayStation 3’s… but not for gaming
According to some sources, in 2010, the United States Air Force used 1,760 PlayStation 3 consoles to build a supercomputer for the Department of Defense. They used PS3’s because it was more cost-efficient and “green.”
Researchers had been messing with the idea of using graphics processors to boost their computing power for years.
The idea is that the same power that made it possible to render AAA titles was also capable of doing massive calculations, amazing isn't it?
A PS3 supercomputer at
UMass Dartmouth. Photo by Gaurav Khanna / UMass Dartmouth
Most Amazing, Interesting & knowledgeable read. Keep it up
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