Techstory = Technology + History. We bring you some very fascinating historical facts and information on technology/computers.

Miscellaneous

  • The world produces 20 million to 50 million metric tons of e-waste annually, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
  • Ethernet and Unix are registered trademarks of Xerox and AT&T respectively.
  • Bill Gates’ foremost company was Traf-O-Data. A company that collected unprocessed data from roadway traffic counters to build handy reports for traffic controllers.
  • Apple Inc. started in a bedroom at 11161 Crist Drive in Los Altos, opposed to the belief that it was started in a garage.
  • Lenovo signifies “new legend”. It’s a combination of the words “Le” for legend and “novo” for new.
  • The DVORAK keyboard is reported to be at least 70% more efficient than a QWERTY keyboard.
  • Web browser Safe Colors  is a specific set of 216 colors which are rendered exactly the same way on both, PC and MAC.
  • You cannot create a directory named “Con” or “con” on any version of Windows.
  • 50% of energy used in desktop PCs is wasted as heat which is thrown out via the fans.
  • Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne – founders of Apple Inc. were formerly employees of Atari.
  • The former name for Windows was Interface Manager.
  • Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit is the largest software developer for its own rival, Apple Inc.
  • The Jaggies is the stair-step effect seen in few computer graphics.

2000

  • Apple sold the second generation iPods (Windows compatible iPods) 1.5 years after its opening sales in 2001.

1990s

  • Michelangelo, the worst MS-DOS virus was named after the birthday of the renowned renaissance artist since it first triggered itself on 6th March.

1980s

  • The first Macintosh, released in 1984, was the first commercially booming personal computer to have a graphical user interface and mouse.

1970s

  • The foremost Apple II computers in 1977 had 1MHz processor speed and 4KB of RAM.
  • The term Worm was first coined in the movie – “Shockwave Rider” of 1970 to denote a program that travels via a computer network.

1950s

  • The foremost 1GB hard drive, sold in 1950s, weighed 250kg with a price tag of $40,000 USD.
  • Computers were generally referred to as “electronic brains” in 1950s.

1940s

  • In 1947, when a computer, Harvard Mark I, was performing a test of its multiplier/adder functions, the engineers detected a bug. In spite of rechecking everything, they couldn’t debug it. At last, the engineers found a living moth trapped in Panel F, Relay #70 of the system. The moth was removed and logged into the records as “first actual case of a bug being found.”

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