Computer Facts 17

Rare Computer Facts That You Never Heard Before

• Mario, one of the most popular video game characters was named after Nintendo's landlord.

• Sony released the first matte black version of its Playstation in 1997, which enabled programmers to create their own games in the C programming language, called Net Yaroze.

• William Higginbotham created what might have been the first video game in 1958. His game called 'Tennis for Two', was created and played on Brookhaven National Laboratory oscilloscope.

• The first coin operated machine ever designed was a holy-water dispenser that required a five drachma piece to operate. It was the brainchild of the Greek scientist Hero in the first century AD.

• Around 75 per cent of the music that is available for download has never been purchased and it is costing money just to be on the server.

• The blue coloured links on a web page is just a browser default because way back on the days when monitors only had 16 colours, blue was the darkest colour that did not affect text legibility.

• In 1977, the RIAA started their first crackdown on 'pirates' who shared .mp3 files. Many teenagers lost their computers in the crackdown.

• 1981 was the year that PCs began, when IBM distributed the IBM PC. Microsoft shipped it with BASIC. The operating system too was developed by Microsoft.

• Optical chips were first introduced in 1988, as a faster way to make information travel on processors. However, they have not yet managed to replace electricity.

• In 1988, the StrangeBrew virus became the first to infect Java files.

• Recycling 100 million phones would recover 3.4 metric tons of gold - gold that would not have to be mined.

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