The Random Fact Thread

[okiwan]

Like the title states, post a random tech related fact. Something not commonly known.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you know that the qwerty keyboard layout is designed that way so that typewriters wouldn't jam up?

It's strange when you think about that, cause what if typewriters were never invented or designed a different way? We are so used to typing this way cause thats how it's always been. What if keyboards were in alphabetical order? People would just adapt to typing that way, just like we did with qwerty. But it's weird to think typing that way.

...an no i havnt been smoking pot.

[Mr-Protocol]

Did you know that the qwerty keyboard layout is designed that way so that typewriters wouldn't jam up?

Yes, I have used a typewriter which weighed about 80 lbs and came with it's own suitcase to carry it lol.

You could pop off all your keys, put them in alphabetical order, and re-map the keyboard. :D

[Random_N00b]

Did you know that the qwerty keyboard layout is designed that way so that typewriters wouldn't jam up?

I actually have my laptop keyboard arranged in Dvorak, but mapped for QWERTY. Throws off everyone who asks to use my computer. Especially those that don't know how to actually type. Just for the record, I re-arranged my keys because I was going to teach myself how to type Dvorak. The reason I did this was because the Dvorak keyboard layout was the original layout, and was designed to be more efficient. However, as previously stated, this layout caused keyboards to jam up.

Edited September 28, 2010 by Random_N00b

[BattZ]

There are 119 ridges on the side of a quarter.

[okiwan]

There are 119 ridges on the side of a quarter.

lol now THAT i didnt know!

Yes, I have used a typewriter which weighed about 80 lbs and came with it's own suitcase to carry it lol.

i have two of those in my basement! i dont know if you can rearrange the keys on mine though.

[digip]

when lady say no, she mean maybe

when lady say maybe, she mean yes

when lady say yes, she no lady

[okiwan]

lmao. that i did know.

[okiwan]

Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory.

[Infiltrator]

when lady say no, she mean maybe

when lady say maybe, she mean yes

when lady say yes, she no lady

Women are very smart in this sort of business, that's why we man must always stay a step ahead of them. That's why we got the balls.

Edited September 28, 2010 by Infiltrator

[Trip]

fact bill gates once worked for apple ;)

fact helvetica is the worlds most used font :D

Edited September 29, 2010 by Trip

[okiwan]

fact bill gates once worked for apple

but it was all a clever ruse so that he could steal from them.

[BattZ]

OH, the subtitle says random tech fact, I thought it was just any fact. I'm sure all of you know this one, but the first found "bug" in a computer system was in fact a moth trapped in between the points of a relay.

[Tex©]

OH, the subtitle says random tech fact, I thought it was just any fact. I'm sure all of you know this one, but the first found "bug" in a computer system was in fact a moth trapped in between the points of a relay.

^I loled

I has a droid ;3.

Edited September 29, 2010 by Tex©

[okiwan]

OH, the subtitle says random tech fact, I thought it was just any fact. I'm sure all of you know this one, but the first found "bug" in a computer system was in fact a moth trapped in between the points of a relay.

lol seriously?! i didnt know that.

[Trip]

fact by the middle of the 18th Century tea had replaced ale and gin as the drink of the masses and had become Britain's most popular beverage. :D

[Trip]

fact ... you cant make a folder in windows name 'con'

you try it .... wtf is that all about ?

[foo]

.... wtf is that all about ?

In MS-DOS, several special "device files" were available to aid in performing certain tasks, such as clearing the screen or deleting extraneous output from a program. In order to maintain backwards-compatibility, all versions of Winders up to and including Winders Vista will refuse to allow youto create a file with these "reserved" device file names. The followingfile names are reserved: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM(all the wya to 9), & LPT1-9

CON, incidentally, was a device file used to capture whatever was printed onscreen.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle ;)

Edited October 1, 2010 by foo

[foo]

The first hard drive available for the Apple II had a capacity of only 5 megabytes.

[Trip]

the worlds largest super computer is owned by the american government ...

World's biggest computer built for US nuclear department

The US government is building a supercomputer for its nuclear department that will be the most powerful computer in the world.

The computer will be used by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and will be ten times faster than today's most powerful system.

Two systems will be built for the super-computer by IBM. The first is Sequoia, a 20 petaFLOP/s (quadrillion floating operations per second) system based on future BlueGene technology. This will be delivered starting in 2011 and deployed in 2012. The second is an initial delivery system called Dawn, a 500 teraFLOP/s (trillion floating operations per second) BlueGene/P system, being delivered in the first quarter of 2009. Dawn will lay the applications foundation for multi-petaFLOP/s computing on Sequoia.

To put the size of the computer into perspective, if each of the 6.7 billion people on earth had a hand calculator and worked together on a calculation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take 320 years to do what Sequoia will do in one hour.

NNSA administrator Thomas D'Agostino said, "These powerful machines will provide NNSA with the capabilities needed to resolve time-urgent and complex scientific problems, ensuring the viability of the nation's nuclear deterrent into the future. This endeavour will also help maintain US leadership in high performance computing and promote scientific discovery."

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/200...-department.htm

reserved word lol ... at least u know what they are ... i remeber having terrible issues working on a db where i'd accidentally given a field a reserved name grrr there were no error messages but it wouldnt display / fetch data correctly

i thought this was quite amusing too ... The first coin operated machine ever designed was a holy-water dispenser that required a five-drachma piece to operate. It was the brainchild of the Greek scientist Hero in the first century AD.

not space invaders or pong lol

Edited October 1, 2010 by Trip

[63b hacker]

The Internet was initially called the 'Galactic network' in memos written by MIT's J C R Licklider in 1962.

i thought this was knda funny

[okiwan]

i wish it was still called that.

im just gonna go surf the galactic network for awhile.

[Guest Deleted_Account]

In MS-DOS, several special "device files" were available to aid in performing certain tasks, such as clearing the screen or deleting extraneous output from a program. In order to maintain backwards-compatibility, all versions of Winders up to and including Winders Vista will refuse to allow youto create a file with these "reserved" device file names. The followingfile names are reserved: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM(all the wya to 9), & LPT1-9

CON, incidentally, was a device file used to capture whatever was printed onscreen.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle ;)

Although this can by easily bypassed by renaming the folder and typing ALT-255 and then CON. Although it isn't really named con it looks like it is!

FACT: Create a new folder and call it:

 GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

when opened you will see all of the configurable (or most of them) options on win 7.

[okiwan]

theres godmode for vista too.

[eovnu87435ds]

For those of you wit macs, open up Applescript Editor (or just Script Editor if you are running 10.5 or earlier) and define a variable with more than 251 characters. something like this

set sdfkudgfjksgksdfgjshdfgyub to "this text"

hit compile and look at the error it gives you!

[eovnu87435ds]

Also, microsoft sam on windows XP/2003 does some weird stuff too. go to control panel > speech

type the word "enjoy" and press play. then delete it, type the word "the" and press play.

now type "enjoy the" and press play. WTF? also, type in crotch, and sam says crow's nest.

Open notepad

type only this: bush hid the facts

save, close notepad.

open the file you just saved. the text has changed!