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Technology Trivia

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The "Dilbert Zone" web site was the first syndicated comic strip site available on the Internet, and was one of the first web sites to realize a profit. The site was managed by United Media.

The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutters on backwards.

Winton was the birthplace of Australia's international airline, Qantas. The company was formed in 1920. Its name came from the initials of Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services, not as some may have suspected from a native species of bird or marsupial.

The Associated Press introduced the first system for routinely transmitting "wire photos" in 1934.

X-rays are streams of electrons fired at a heavy tungsten target. The radiation found in X-rays is dangerous, that's why the beam is encased in lead.

The average 60-minute audio cassette tape has 562.5 feet of tape in it.

You can't use a U.S. computer monitor in Australia because the colors would be wrong. The magnetic field of the earth pulling the electron beams hitting the cathode tube to a position relative to its position in the magnetic field.

The average life expectancy of a toilet is 50 years.

Zirconium was identified as an element by Martin Kaproth of Germany in 1789 and isolated in 1842 by Jöns Berzelius of Sweden. Zirconium oxide absorbs organic molecules and is used in deodorants. It makes an ideal treatment for poison oak or ivy because it absorbs the irritating oils. Powdered zirconium is highly explosive and is used in flash bulbs, explosives primers, fireworks, and ammo tracers.

The average wired adult will spend 5.3 percent of the rest of his or her life online, according to research firm Cyber Dialogue, based on an extensive survey of Internet users. The study's results showed that the average adult online today will spend a total of 23.5 months of his or her life online. That's 17,500 hours.

The B-2 Stealth Bomber is designed to fly undetected by radar. However, it has been known to show as visible on radar systems when it was wet or when the humidity was high. It is also susceptible when the bomb bay is open just before delivering a bomb.

The best knife blades are those made of high-carbon stainless steel or forged carbon.

The Boeing 767 aircraft is a collection of 3.1 million parts from 800 different suppliers around the world: fuselage parts from Japan, center wing section from Southern California, and flaps from Italy.

The British Council of Manufacturers publicly claimed in 1948 that the Volkswagen Beetle would be “popular for two to three years.”

The computer programming language BASIC is an acronym of "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code."

The Concorde guzzles 22 tons of fuel an hour, twice the fuel consumption of a Boeing 747 carrying four times as many passengers and luggage. It also requires 14 hours of maintenance for every hour in the air, an expense that must be partially passed on to its wealthy passengers.

The Concorde holds two world speed records for commercial flights. In 1992, it circled the globe from east to west in 32 hours, 49 minutes, and 3 seconds. Three years later, the Concorde flew west to east in 31 hours, 27 minutes, and 49 seconds.

The condensed water vapor trail left behind by jets and rockets is called a contrail.

The device that switches off the ringer on a Japanese cell phone is called the "manners button," and its LCD icon is a heart.

The earliest known glass makers worked in Mesopotamia as far back as 2500 B.C., crafting beads and other small objects to imitate precious stones. Artisans learned to make containers 1,000 years later, either by shaping hot glass around a clay-and-dung core or by casting it in a mold.

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