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Wednesday
March 17, 2010 Since 1922 |
Guru dishes out a bit of computer trivia
By Aaron Barbee
Contributor Published July 26, 2009 Question: Hey Aaron. I don't think you've ever done a computer trivia column. Do you know any interesting facts about computers?
Answer: Of course I find everything interesting about computers. Let's see if I come up with some things that people, not as obsessed as I am, will enjoy.
The first “portable” computer was by Osborne Computer Corporation and was called the Osborne 1. It weighed 24.5 pounds and had a built-in 5” monitor. It was a bargain at $1750 in 1981. IBM felt left out and came up with the model 86 portable in 1984. It was 30 pounds and cost $4225 and had a whopping 9” display.
One of my favorite bits of computer trivia is the origin of the word SPAM. It came about from a Monty Python sketch in which a customer was forced to take an unwanted dish of SPAM. Now, any unwanted e-mail is called SPAM.
The computer term “bug” came about in 1945 when a computer glitch caused a failure of the Mark I. The problem was caused by a moth that was stuck in the circuits and had to be removed. When asked the nature of the computer glitch, U.S. Navy Admiral Grace Murray Hopper said it was “a bug” and the term stuck.
In 1946, the ENIAC was the largest of the first computers. It weighed 30 tons and took up 15,000 square feet of floor space. It had 19,000 vacuum tubes and did 5,000 calculations per second. Today's desktop computers do about 10-50 billion calculations per second depending on the processor they have.
A byte is 8 bits (the smallest unit of information for a computer). A nibble is 4 bits (half a byte). Which is bigger, a byte or bit? A byte is bigger than a bit. Sorry, computer nerd humor there.
Check out my Web site www.TexasComputerGuru.com for supplemental information and previous articles as well.
Aaron Barbee owns Texas Computer Guru, a local computer services company for on-site business and residential needs. He can be contacted at 281-628-5099. E-mail questions for Aaron to sunnews(at)baytownsun.com.
Contributor Published July 26, 2009 Question: Hey Aaron. I don't think you've ever done a computer trivia column. Do you know any interesting facts about computers?
Answer: Of course I find everything interesting about computers. Let's see if I come up with some things that people, not as obsessed as I am, will enjoy.
The first “portable” computer was by Osborne Computer Corporation and was called the Osborne 1. It weighed 24.5 pounds and had a built-in 5” monitor. It was a bargain at $1750 in 1981. IBM felt left out and came up with the model 86 portable in 1984. It was 30 pounds and cost $4225 and had a whopping 9” display.
One of my favorite bits of computer trivia is the origin of the word SPAM. It came about from a Monty Python sketch in which a customer was forced to take an unwanted dish of SPAM. Now, any unwanted e-mail is called SPAM.
The computer term “bug” came about in 1945 when a computer glitch caused a failure of the Mark I. The problem was caused by a moth that was stuck in the circuits and had to be removed. When asked the nature of the computer glitch, U.S. Navy Admiral Grace Murray Hopper said it was “a bug” and the term stuck.
In 1946, the ENIAC was the largest of the first computers. It weighed 30 tons and took up 15,000 square feet of floor space. It had 19,000 vacuum tubes and did 5,000 calculations per second. Today's desktop computers do about 10-50 billion calculations per second depending on the processor they have.
A byte is 8 bits (the smallest unit of information for a computer). A nibble is 4 bits (half a byte). Which is bigger, a byte or bit? A byte is bigger than a bit. Sorry, computer nerd humor there.
Check out my Web site www.TexasComputerGuru.com for supplemental information and previous articles as well.
Aaron Barbee owns Texas Computer Guru, a local computer services company for on-site business and residential needs. He can be contacted at 281-628-5099. E-mail questions for Aaron to sunnews(at)baytownsun.com.