Interesting Computer Facts

• While it took the radio 38 years, and the television a short 13 years, it took the World Wide Web only 4 years to reach 50 million users.

• The world’s first computer, called the Z1, was invented by Konrad Zuse in 1936. His next invention, the Z2 was finished in 1939 and was the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer.

• The Dvorak keyboard is more efficient than QWERTY. The standard “QWERTY” keyboard was not designed with ease of typing in mind. Rather, it was designed to keep early typewriters from jamming. 130 years later, in the age of computers, people are still using this awkward, inefficient keyboard layout. Few know that there is a much faster, easier, more efficient, and more comfortable alternative: the Dvorak (pronounced ‘duh VOR ak’) keyboard. Unlike QWERTY, the Dvorak keyboard was scientifically designed for increased speed and accuracy. It is estimated to be 12 to 20 times more efficient than QWERTY. Dvorak is great for beginning and experienced typists alike. It’s the layout used by some of the world’s fastest typists.

• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

• In the 1980s, an IBM computer wasn’t considered 100 percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft Flight Simulator.

• The first computer mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart in around 1964 and was made of wood.

• Domain names are being registered at a rate of more than one million names every month.

• There are approximately 1.06 billion instant messaging accounts worldwide.

• The first banner advertising was used in 1994.

• E-mail has been around longer than the World Wide Web.

• The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute, less than half the normal rate of 20.

• By the year 2012 there will be approximately 17 billion devices connected to the internet.

• There are approximately 1,319,872,109 people on the internet.

• Another name for a Microsoft Windows tutorial is ‘Crash Course’!

• Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft was a college drop out.

• There are approx. 6,000 new computer viruses released every month.

• If you want to get a computer aquarium, then you must get the Macquariums which are aquariums made from old Macintosh computers.

• It is believed that the first computer virus released in the world was a boot sector virus, which was created in the year 1986 by Farooq Alvi brothers. It was designed by them to protect their research work.

• The group of 12 engineers who designed IBM PC were called as “The Dirty Dozen”.

• The quintessential command ‘Ctrl+Alt+Delete’ was written by David Bradley.

• Sweden is a country with the highest percentage of internet users (75 per cent).

• I am sure most of us must have played the game Tetris. Since the time it was created in early eighties, it has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, which made it’s creator richer by $8m.

• Almost all computer users must know how destructive a virus can be. But then, it would be interesting to know that a virus cannot corrupt your PC on its own. It corrupts your system only when you activate it by either downloading infected files from the internet or by sharing these infected files.

• Computer circuitry can be destroyed by static electricity, it is so mild for humans that they don’t even feel it.

• “Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.