Did You Know? 14 Strange But True Tech Facts

[Shawn Knight]

Many of the breakthroughs made since the advent of the transistor were simply inconceivable a century ago, but what makes tech culture even more interesting are the anecdotes and fun facts that came along the way.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2212-14-true-fun-facts-tech/

 

[amghwk]

There are only a few of the so called list that can be truly attributed as Strange But True category. The Bug, Apple logo, AMD's pencil trick and Spam. The rest are either too narrow or too generic in scope, that you can give countless other similar examples.

 

[Avro Arrow]

On thing that has always surprised me over the years is the relatively small number of people who have heard of the "Minus World" (World -1) in the original Super Mario Bros. Even more surprising are the number of people who don't know how to get there. You'd think that by now, almost everyone would know EVERY secret of the original Super Mario Bros. I managed to get there only once as a kid with my NES but it was such a big deal at the time that I never forgot it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minus_World

 

[UncleMikeRetro]

Great article if just to know that Newegg founded Rosewill.
Gives me the ability to trust Rosewill a little more

 

[BadThad]

Great and fun article! I did the old AMD pencil trick, worked perfectly for me!

 

[envirovore]

"Some PlayStation 1 games shipped with scented labels."

There's a grindcore band called The County Medical Examiners (fans of early Carcass, check them out - they started as a Carcass tribute act) that in the early 2000's released a CD with a scratch and sniff cd label - scented like a rotting corpse.

Did not want to play that CD in a car in the hot sun.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

On thing that has always surprised me over the years is the relatively small number of people who have heard of the "Minus World" (World -1) in the original Super Mario Bros. Even more surprising are the number of people who don't know how to get there. You'd think that by now, almost everyone would know EVERY secret of the original Super Mario Bros. I managed to get there only once as a kid with my NES but it was such a big deal at the time that I never forgot it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minus_World

I remember as a kid there was a story in a gaming magazine - perhaps Nintendo Power - that listed the story about Minus World in Super Mario Bros game. There was a reward offered of some large sum of money (maybe $10K or something along those lines) that if you could provide evidence that you could beat -1 world you'd win the cash prize. My older brother and I spent days trying to find a way out of an unescapable world. We never found a way and I don't think anyone ever won the contest.

 

[MaestroIT]

The bug "fact" that is mentioned here and many other places in reality is not true: the term was used long before computers to indicate issues, since the late 1800's, check some sources and correct.

 

[HardReset]

Topic is incorrect: Some AMD processors could be overclocked using a pencil.

As said on article, it unlocked multiplier adjustment, it did not overclock itself.

 

[wiyosaya]

Great article if just to know that Newegg founded Rosewill.
Gives me the ability to trust Rosewill a little more

Personally, it makes me trust Rosewill less.

 

[mgwerner]

The bug "fact" that is mentioned here and many other places in reality is not true: the term was used long before computers to indicate issues, since the late 1800's, check some sources and correct.

Edison used the term in the same way when talking about working out the bugs in inventions.

 

[p51d007]

I remember the "bang for your buck" when the Celeron 300A came out and you could overclock it
to a WHOPPING 450mhz! LOL

 

[paul1122]

Personally, it makes me trust Rosewill less.

Not less, it just means that you have to buy a scented oil warmer with every case as a bundle from now on...or a 500w Gigabyte psu,lol.

 

[TheBigT42]

"Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! for the NES still contains undiscovered secrets."

If they are undiscovered how do you know that there are still secrets to be discovered?

 

[Julio Franco]

Thanks for the correction. While not factually incorrect, the bug story was incomplete.

And while this is the "modern" use case of finding a computer bug, the original use of the word dates further back in time to Thomas Edison, who in an 1878 letter used the term "bug" to refer to a technological glitch. While he worked on the quadruplex telegraph, he said it needed a “bug trap” to function properly.

 

[Tyrchlis]

Hmmmm, I'm not sure what I said correction wise as it has now been deleted with the message "Thanks. Fixed." What did I fix, I forgot? It wasn't THAT embarrassing, was it? Not used to posts being deleted for corrections, that's kinda a first.

Editor: "alterations" not "altercations" ... you pointed out a typo.

 

[Mugsy]

The "bug" story is slightly incomplete.

o The "Mark II" (as did all computers back then) filled an entire (large) room and generated a tremendous amount of heat, so they would open the windows to cool things down at night. The aforementioned moth flew in one night and was crushed in one of the electronic relay switches.

Programmers suddenly noticed an odd mathematical error in programs that worked just fine the day before. They eventually traced the error back to a single relay that wasn't closing because of said crushed moth.

The moth was removed, the error went away, and the lab windows were immediately screened.

o Also incomplete, the Apple Logo story. With the new logo introduced for the Apple ][, Jobs decided to target the "Public School" market... targeting not students but teachers with the slogan, "An Apple for the teacher". It was felt the simple new logo would appeal to teachers.

o Not mentioned in the list, the popular organizing software for the Mac, "Hypercard", introduced the idea of "text links" that became "hyperlinks" in HTML.

o Another unmentioned bit of Trivia, the name "Donkey Kong" was actually a botched translation of the Japanese title "Monkey Kong". And "Pac Man" comes from "Pakri-monster" in Japanese ("Pakri" meaning "to eat".)

 

[Avro Arrow]

I remember as a kid there was a story in a gaming magazine - perhaps Nintendo Power - that listed the story about Minus World in Super Mario Bros game. There was a reward offered of some large sum of money (maybe $10K or something along those lines) that if you could provide evidence that you could beat -1 world you'd win the cash prize. My older brother and I spent days trying to find a way out of an unescapable world. We never found a way and I don't think anyone ever won the contest.

Well sure, it was impossible to beat World " -1" because it was a never-ending water level and you were doomed to run out of time and die every time.

I think that Nintendo knew that and just used it as a marketing schtick.

 

[Stark]

On thing that has always surprised me over the years is the relatively small number of people who have heard of the "Minus World" (World -1) in the original Super Mario Bros. Even more surprising are the number of people who don't know how to get there. You'd think that by now, almost everyone would know EVERY secret of the original Super Mario Bros. I managed to get there only once as a kid with my NES but it was such a big deal at the time that I never forgot it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minus_World

I did this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Avro Arrow]

I did this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was exciting as hell when you got it to work, eh? I remember that I was ecstatic.

 

[Markoni35]

Gotta trust a "coin" where the inventor and the entire organization behind it is totally hidden. Must be a bunch of really honest people, right? They even used a Japanese to make us more confident in their honesty.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Gotta trust a "coin" where the inventor and the entire organization behind it is totally hidden. Must be a bunch of really honest people, right? They even used a Japanese to make us more confident in their honesty.

Yeah, currencies must have something backing them to give them value. Like, for the longest time, the US held gold in Fort Knox and a US Dollar could be exchanged for x amount of gold which gave the dollar its value. Now the US dollar doesn't have that but because US products can be purchased with it, it still holds value. What backing gives value to the BitCoin?

 

[D3z4R1]

I remember the "bang for your buck" when the Celeron 300A came out and you could overclock it
to a WHOPPING 450mhz! LOL

I remember using an A-BIT BH6 to achieve that feat!

 

[HardReset]

I remember using an ABIT BH6 to achieve that feat!

F1x3d.

 

[D3z4R1]

F1x3d.

l0l thanks.