If computer geeks love anything, it’s computers (duh). That should come as no surprise. They’re fascinating machines with a rich history and plenty of amazing trivia. Don’t believe us? Take a look at these 9 amazing facts you didn’t know about computers.
- Computers don’t have to be electronic. By definition, a computer is anything that takes user input and delivers output based upon that input. The Abacus, a string and bead invention used to calculation transactions circa 500BC, is considered the world’s first computer.
- Modern smartphones have more processing power than the computers used the Apollo 11 lunar lander—as in, every last one of the on-board computers COMBINED. Think about that. Those computers landed people on the moon. Yours drunk texts your ex.
- There are three types of “wares,” hardware, software, and firmware. Hardware refers to the devices and components of your computer – basically, anything you can break or set a cup of coffee on. Software is are the programs and apps you use when you play games, surf the web or do your taxes. Firmware is the software that is permanently attached to a piece of hardware, the internal coding that makes it do what it does. Just about any device with an internal computer has firmware – even many modern refrigerators!
- If you think you’ve seen all there is to see online, think again. There are over 20 BILLION web pages on the Internet, and that number is growing every day. That means people who offer Computer services in Brick NJ will be busy for some time yet!
- Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was not only the first female admiral in the US Navy, she was also the developer of COBOL, one of the world’s most widely used computer programming languages.
- An early computer was created in the 1600s when a calculator was invented that worked using wheels and gears. The folks at Jaydien Network Solutions wouldn’t know how to work with that!
- The world’s first computer with a hard disk drive was the 305 RAMAC, built in 1956. Created by IBM, the hard drive weighed over a ton and yet held a mere 5MB of data. These days, you can get a 1,000 times that amount of data from your Brick NJ Computer services dealer for just a few bucks.
- You may not believe it, but the human brain is far more powerful than a computer, able to do 38 thousand trillion calculations per second and capable of storing the equivalent of 3,500 TB of memory. If that doesn’t sound right to you, consider the incredible amount of data you have to process just to walk across the room. Your body is handling dozens of different systems all at once, you’re taking in a vast amount of data and processing it without even realizing you’re doing it, and you’re drawing on a vast amount of memories that give you a map of the room, teach you how to act, and so on.
- The US postal system now relies heavily on computers, with about 95 percent of all mail sorted by them. Clerks sort the remainder, which is still about 1,000 pieces per hour.