DID YOU KNOW

• The first electronic digital computer weighed 30 tons.
• The images on a computer screen are made up of more than 5,000 pixels, or dots, per square inch.
• The average computer chip plant produces 4 million gallons of wastewater and thousands of gallons of corrosive hazardous materials a day, such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acid.
• Texas Instruments developed the first popular computer-based toy. It was called Speak and Spell.
• Paprophobia is the fear of paper
• The sci-fi flick Gog (1954), in which a nuclear "brain" takes over a secret laboratory, was the first film to have a computer appear as a main character in a movie.
• Computers and hard drives aren't as fragile as they were a few years ago, but you're asking for trouble if you move your PC around while it is running. While your computer is running, its hard disk is very vulnerable. A tiny magnet literally floats less than a hair's breadth above a platter where data is stored. A minor bump can send the magnet skittering into the disk's surface. The damage can't be repaired. Not only will you need a new hard disk, but you'll likely lose the information the disk held.
• Don't use the on/off switch on your personal computer any more than necessary. There's a surge of electricity every time the switch is turned on. For fragile computer chips, it's much like starting the day by jumping into an icy pool. To prolong the life of your home computer, turn it on when you arrive home from work and turn it off again when you go to bed at night.
• The first true calculator, the abacus, originated in China during the sixth century B.C. Its stone-like beads, shifted along vertical strings, enabled the Chinese to perform basic arithmetical operations with speed and accuracy, the test of a true computer. About 200 years after it was used by the Chinese, the abacus caught on in several Mediterranean civilizations.
• ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and is 50,000 times faster.
• In Echallens, Switzerland in 1998, a 105-year-old retired Swiss teacher was ordered to attend elementary school, thanks to a computer that cut a century off his age. The mix-up happened because a list of local residents had only the last two digits of his birth date. So the man, along with sixty-five 5-year-olds in the town, received a letter ordering him to start school. The matter was taken care of, and the computer system was changed.
• Peter de Jager was the world's foremost expert on the Y2K computer problem that many believed would cause computer systems to collapse because their software mistook the double zeroes of 2000 to mean 1900. He wrote the "Doomsday 2000" article that initially publicized the problem, then spent the 1990s helping companies all over the world fix their computers. De Jager's Web site, www.year2000.com, was the world's clearing house for Y2K bug-related information. When at midnight, January 1, 2000, planes did not fall from the sky, de Jager was angrily accused of setting the hysterical stage for billions of dollars to be wasted.
• Although most Americans were not concerned about the impact Y2K would have on them personally at midnight on January 1, 2000, they showed greater concern about the effect it could have on others. According to a Gallup poll, 48 percent thought this computer problem would cause major problems around the world.
• Because the eyes work harder when viewing objects up close, particularly on a computer monitor, it is the proximity of the VDT screen to the eyes that causes eyestrain, not "radiation" emitted from the screen. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, using a computer or video display terminal will not harm your eyes.
• Before he pursued a career in the music industry, Elvis Costello worked as a computer operator at an Elizabeth Arden cosmetics factory.
• More than 300 technical staffers, many with their families, gathered around computers at Microsoft Corp.'s headquarters on New Year's Eve 1999, marking the new millennium by waiting for something to go wrong. As it turned out, they had nothing to do, as the transition from one century to the next was uneventful.
• Our hands are recognized by medical professionals as a major source for spreading flu and cold germs. Flu and cold germs can be spread on computer mice and keyboards, chewed pencils, telephones, pens, salad-bar tongs, light switches, door knobs, taxi door handles, and countless other common objects. People can't avoid touching things. To minimize infection, concentrate on keeping hands away from the mouth, nose, and eyes unless the hands are first washed with antibacterial soap, says the Soap and Detergent Association of New York.
• You blink every 2 to 10 seconds. As you focus on each word in this sentence, your eyes swing back and forth 100 times a second; every second, the retina performs 10 billion computer-like calculations.
• In 1843, mathematician Ada Byron published the first computer programs. She based them on Jacquard's punch-card idea. Her programs were for the first general-purpose mechanical digital computer that had just been invented by Charles Babbage.
• In 1962, University of Utah student Nolan Bushnell received his first exposure to video games, playing Spacewar in the University's computer lab. Bushnell spent the next 7 years trying to reproduce Spacewar on a smaller, less expensive computer. When it was finally completed in 1971, Bushnell's Spacewar variation (dubbed "Computer Space"), bombed. People found it too complicated. Bushnell gave up on it, quit his job at Ampex, and founded Atari in 1972. Bushnell originally wanted to name the company Syzygy, but the name was already taken by a roofing company. That same year, Magnavox quietly released the Odyssey, the first home video game system. It had a game similar to Pong, and Magnavox later sued Atari (successfully) for "copying" it.
• Spacewar is generally considered to be the first video game. Programmed in 1962 by MIT student Steve Russell, Spacewar was a simple game with ASCII graphics where two players would blast lasers at each other. At the time, the game only ran on massive, million-dollar mainframes the size of a small house. Spacewar was circulated to other computer labs across the country, but only nerdy college students with access to mainframes could play it.
• In May 2000, China toughened its regulations against computer viruses, mandating fines and up to five years imprisonment for people who spread the bugs.
• There are three sets of letters on the standard typewriter and computer keyboards which are in alphabetical order, reading left to right. They are f-g-h, j-k-l, and o-p.
• Japanese children start out by memorizing 80 brush-stroke characters by second grade, going all the way to 2,000 characters to allow them to read a newspaper in high school. Still, only 16.3 percent of test takers pass a national kanji (writing Chinese characters) exam that requires mastering about 2,000 characters. These days, more Japanese children are choosing computers over calligraphy. Even teachers are losing the knack of writing Japanese characters.
• Internet access in the country of Burma is restricted by anti-modem laws. Illegal possession of a modem can lead to a prison term. Public typists work at typewriters charging about 14 cents per page. On a good day, a public typist earns about $3.50.
• A NUKE InterNETWORK poll found that 52 percent of Internet users have cut back on watching TV in order to spend more time online; 12 percent have cut back on seeing friends. » Although home access to the Internet has grown, the percentage of those users who are “active” has been flat at 60 percent. Web companies are concerned that they are missing the mark in providing compelling content.
• As of September 2000, San Francisco was Number 1 in the United States as the city with the highest percentage of homes with Internet access, at 65.6 percent. Despite the outcry from some anti-gambling lawmakers over the explosion of gambling on the Internet, fewer than one percent of American adults had used the Internet for gambling within the year of 1999.
• In 2000, Internet use since 1998 has tripled in Hong Kong. According to the South China Morning Post, the time spent online averaged out to almost seven minutes for every Hong Kong resident.
• In web site addresses on the Internet, "http" stands for "hypertext transfer protocol."
• Rob Glaser’s new company, Progressive Networks, launched the RealAudio system on April 10, 1995, enabling anyone with point-and-click access to the Internet to have access to audio. Users needed a multimedia PC, a fast-for-the-time (14.4k) modem, and a direct connection to the 'Net.
• The "Dilbert Zone" web site was the first syndicated comic strip site available on the Internet, and was one of the first web sites to realize a profit. The site was managed by United Media.
• The average wired adult will spend 5.3 percent of the rest of his or her life online, according to research firm Cyber Dialogue, based on an extensive survey of Internet users. The study's results showed that the average adult online today will spend a total of 23.5 months of his or her life online. That’s 17,500 hours.
• There are hefty pricetags on some Internet domain names. The highest-selling domain name to date, business.com, went for $7.5 million in 1999. The buyer was eCompanies.
• Computer crime has quadrupled over the past three years, according to a 2000 survey by the FBI and San Francisco's Computer Security Institute. Seventy-five percent of the hacking victims — most often corporations and government agencies — have found that it costs an average of $1 million per intrusion to investigate, repair, and secure their systems once they've been hacked.
• The name of the Internet's most popular directory, is an acronym. According to the company, the name "Yahoo" stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle." Do you Yahoo?
• Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
• The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur.
• Computer monitors need to stay cool. Unfortunately, they make handy resting places for various items. But if papers, manuals, and other miscellany are piled on top of the monitor, the cooling vents are blocked. Internal heat shortens the life of monitors.
• Computer viruses are bits of software code that either overwrite or attach themselves to programs and replicate themselves. While some are merely annoying, taking up valuable disk space, others can wipe out an entire hard drive. If the Michelangelo virus is on your computer, it activates on March 6, the artist's birthday. Viruses were first discovered in the late 1980s, and since that time, IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center has collected more than 10,000. It is estimated that six to nine new viruses are found daily. About 1,200 computer viruses are in circulation.
• The computer programming language BASIC is an acronym of "Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code."
• The name of all the continents end in the same letter they start with
• With its duplex suites starting at $1,095 and reaching $18,000 per night, the Burj al-Arab, or tower of the Arabs, the world's tallest hotel, opened on December 1, 1999. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan was the suite's first guest, staying there the month before the hotel's official opening. As a guest of the premier hotel, you can take a helicopter to the 28th-floor helipad or relax in one of the hotel's eight Rolls Royce Silver Seraphs, which drops you off on the shore across from the hotel. All the suites boast laptop computers, faxes, and 42-inch television screens. The new Emirates hotel is taller than Paris’ Eiffel Tower and just 196 feet shorter than the Empire State Building in New York City.
• The dial tone of a normal telephone is in the key of "F".
• The original IBM punchcard is the same size as a Civil War era $ bill.
• Winston Churchill was born in the ladies' room.
• India has 50 million monkeys.
• Laptop computers get bumped around too much, which makes them around 30 percent more likely to fail than a computer that stays in one place.
• Did you submit your code to codekit today
• Croatia was the first country to recognize the United States in 1776.
• Months that begins with a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
• If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian.
• The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state.
• The only USA city that is below sea level is New Orleans and still sinking 2 inches every year.
• The silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West.
• In 1995, each American used an annual average of 731 pounds of paper, more than double the amount used in the 1980s. Contrary to predictions that computers would displace paper, consumption is growing.
• Alcoholics are twice as likely to confess a drinking problem to a computer than to a doctor, say researchers in Wisconsin.
• Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.