6 Surprising Facts About Technology You Probably Didn't Know

Isn’t it incredible to see technology evolve right in front of our eyes? We have come a long way technology-wise over the last fifteen years. Fifteen years ago, we were in the year 2006, and it all seems like yesterday. But why is that so? We have advanced and developed significantly due to the improvements in technology. As more years passed by, technology made our lives easier, entertaining, and, most of all, comfortable and convenient. Who would have thought back in the early 2000s that in 2021, we would have an app for everything? Today we have apps for buying groceries online to watching our favorite drama serials, or even conducting business. We no longer have to buy VHS cassettes to watch our favorite movies, as they are just a click away on Netflix. Nothing is impossible with the latest technological advancements and the immense benefits it provides. However, you probably don’t know many interesting facts about the technology realm until now.

Listed below are some technology facts that you might not know of;

A Computer That Operated On Water (Water Integrator)

Vladimir Lukyanov invented the computer in 1936 that solved partial derivatives and differential equations. However, the most exciting fact was that it ran entirely on water. Lukyanov worked with a construction company that could not solve its concrete cracking issues during the winters. Lukyanov started researching temperature conditions related to masonry. He created the water integrator that was able to visualize thermal processes and plot graphs according to them. This machine was still in use till the 1070s in research organizations, educational institutions, and manufacturing plants.

2. RansomWare Is The Leading Cybersecurity Threat Nowadays

Ransomware is a malicious program that can hold a user’s data hostage until they pay some money. Instead of selling this information off, hackers usually try to extort money from the victim. It is the most common malware these days, and no one, be it a business or a layman, is safe from it. The most common delivery system is through spam attachments that, once downloaded and opened, will take over a person’s computer and gain administrative access. It explains why companies are quickly hiring professionals who possess online masters cybersecurity to ensure their data is safe and protected. Such professionals have the knowledge and expertise crucial to protect a company’s data and information.

Once it affects a file, it becomes encrypted and will not open until you enter a password, which only the hacker knows. To avoid succumbing to it, keep your OS updated, avoid installing third-party unsigned software, install antiviruses. And most importantly, backup all your sensitive files. Nonetheless, getting experts on board will prove to be beneficial as they know how to detect cybercrimes.

3. Bots Run Wikipedia

Most of us already know about Wikipedia. It contains vast crowd-sourced data about everything and anything. It is common knowledge that anybody can add information to a Wikipedia page. However, did you know that thousands of automated programs (bots) maintain these pages? Today, around 2,468 bots keep more than fifty million English pages on Wikipedia. They perform operations such as spelling corrections, page creation, font correction, and much more.

These bots can also revert pages to their original state when someone makes unnecessary, inaccurate edits to them. Anybody with the appropriate programming knowledge can create Wikipedia bots. These bots have to pass through an approval process conducted by the Bot Approval Group before deployment.

4. Email Pre-Dates The World Wide Web

Ray Tomlinson created electronic mail back in the 1960s. It wasn’t until a few decades later the World Wide Web came into existence and took the shape we all know and enjoy today. Guy Thuerk was the first human being to send a spam mail to a few hundred users in 1978 on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). Since then, thousands of nefarious individuals and companies have boarded the bandwagon, spamming our email inboxes with countless useless emails.

5. The Weight Of The First Supercomputer Was Over A Ton

IBM created the first supercomputer (305 RAMAC) back in 1956. It had a hard drive that had a capacity of five megabytes and weighed more than a ton. It is hard to imagine that the small things we keep in our pockets today started with something so enormous. They needed a crane to move it from place to place. Today, the highest capacity hard drive is around 100terbytes and weighs less than your mobile phone.

6. Amazon.com Started With A Different Website Name

Before choosing to go with Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos tried various names for his online business. The first name he coined was Cadabra Inc. However, people thought the name to be too obscure. He decided to change it to something else altogether. He tried various names before deciding on the current one-Amazon.com. Some other ones he tried included browse.com, awake.com, aard.com, relentless.com, and bookmall.com. He still owns the rights to relentless.com while others faded away in the darkness. Whenever someone tries to open relentless.com, it automatically takes them to the Amazon homepage.

Conclusion;

The way technology is evolving determines where we will be in the next 20 years or so. Technological innovations and advancements are transforming industries and sectors worldwide. However, staying updated with the latest technological advancements is challenging, as you can see with the facts mentioned in the list above. Undeniably, a small invention or an enormous innovation can turn out to be beneficial in the future.

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