Computer Trivia

Trivia is becoming more and more popular that it has even turned into nationally watched TV shows like, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” Also, the amount of trivia played by individuals at home is dramatically increasing. In this article, you will find various trivia facts regarding computers. If you’re looking for that, you’re in the right place (also visiting computer courses might help a lot).

• The word “computer” was first used to describe a mechanical calculating device in the year 1897. The word existed before, however at that time it was used to refer to a person.
• In 1963, Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute invented the common computer mouse. Initially, it was known as the “bug” but later became popular as “mouse” because of the cord on these early models reminded people of the tail of a rodent.
• When the operating system Microsoft Windows 98 was released it contains approximately 18,000,000 lines of code. This is in contrast to the 3 million lines of code that Windows 3.1 contained. Windows 95 contained nearly 15,000,000 lines of code and Windows 2000 contains anywhere between 35 million and 60 million lines of code.
• During the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple Computer launched for the first time it’s brand-new Macintosh computer with a $1.5 million commercial. Among other things, the Macintosh boasted WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word processing. At this time, the Macintosh sold for an affordable $2,500.
• The first portable computer was introduced by Osborne Compuer in 1981 andwas known as the Osborne I. Not exactly portable by today’s standards, the Osborne I weighed almost 24 pounds. But, it was considered portable because it was light enough to carry and could also fit under an airplane seat. It sold for $1795, came with a standard 5-inch display, two 5 ¼ floppy drives, 64 kB of memory, and a modem port. Be thankful for your Dell from the year 2002.
• Several computer engineers during the 1970s who worked at various research institutions pioneered the idea for connecting different computers together. This effort is known as the ARPANET (advanced research projects agency network), and is the forefather of the modern Internet. The first ARPANET link was established between Stanford Research Institute and UCLA on November 21, 1969.
• The first chess-playing computer to defeat a chess grandmaster was called Deep Blue. This computer defeated Garry Kasparov in May of 1997.
• Computers are everywhere. Check out computer vacuum!

I bet you didn’t know these great facts regarding the history and development of computers, as we know them today. There is so much great information out there that I bet you couldn’t find a person who knew all of these facts that you just learned. I hope that you’re leaving this article with a little bit more knowledge and a little bit more drive to share this trivia with your friends and family.