Tech facts

Tech facts: all 10, explained

1. The first recorded computer "bug" was a real moth.

   In 1947, engineers working on the Harvard Mark II computer found a moth stuck in a relay and taped it into the logbook with the note "First actual case of bug being found." The term "bug" for faults was already in use, but the moth made it famous.

   Source: Software bug (Wikipedia) · Fact card

2. The Apollo guidance computer had about 4 KB of memory.

   The computer that helped land Apollo 11 on the Moon had roughly 2,048 words of erasable memory and 36,864 words of fixed memory. A modern smartphone has millions of times more.

   Source: Apollo Guidance Computer (Wikipedia) · Fact card

3. The QWERTY keyboard layout dates back to the 1870s.

   The layout comes from the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, first sold in 1874. Its arrangement was shaped by typewriter mechanics and telegraph operators’ needs, and it stuck around long after.

   Source: QWERTY (Wikipedia) · Fact card

4. The first website is still online.

   Tim Berners-Lee published the first website at CERN in 1991. It explained the World Wide Web project, and CERN has restored it at its original address, info.cern.ch.

   Source: History of the World Wide Web (Wikipedia) · Fact card

5. "Wi-Fi" doesn’t stand for anything.

   The name was created by a branding company in 1999 as a catchier name than "IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence". It was chosen partly because it sounded like "hi-fi", but it is not short for "wireless fidelity".

   Source: Wi-Fi (Wikipedia) · Fact card

6. The first text message, sent in 1992, said "Merry Christmas".

   Engineer Neil Papworth sent it from a computer to a mobile phone on the Vodafone network in the UK on 3 December 1992.

   Source: SMS (Wikipedia) · Fact card

7. Email is older than the World Wide Web by about 20 years.

   Ray Tomlinson sent the first networked email in 1971 and chose the @ sign to separate user and computer. The web was invented in 1989 to 1991.

   Source: Email (Wikipedia) · Fact card

8. The first webcam was pointed at a coffee pot.

   Researchers at the University of Cambridge set up a camera in 1991 so they could check whether the coffee pot in the Trojan Room was full. It went online in 1993.

   Source: Trojan Room coffee pot (Wikipedia) · Fact card

9. The first YouTube video was 19 seconds long and filmed at a zoo.

   Uploaded in April 2005 by co-founder Jawed Karim, "Me at the zoo" shows him in front of the elephants at San Diego Zoo.

   Source: Me at the zoo (Wikipedia) · Fact card

10. Many people thought Gmail was an April Fools’ joke.

    Google announced Gmail on 1 April 2004, offering 1 GB of free storage, hundreds of times more than rivals. The launch date and the huge storage made many assume it was a prank.

    Source: Gmail (Wikipedia) · Fact card