A computer is a programmable machine designed to automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations.
-5
votes
0answers
30 views
Is It Permitted to Ask People To UnLike Some Facebook Pages? [closed]
I want to create facebook page where I ask people to unlike all company facebook pages from some country.
Is It permitted to do so? Or is this a violence?
Am I guilty juridically ?
-5
votes
0answers
29 views
Is Linux really better than Windows? [closed]
I've heard the premise a lot of times but I felt impartiality in only a few of them - For example: I remember of reading something about Windows and Linux file systems, it seems that Linux file ...
11
votes
1answer
460 views
Is D-Wave Systems's “D-Wave One” a quantum computer?
D-Wave Systems claim to have produced the first commercial quantum computer:
The company's flagship product, the D-Wave One, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses ...
8
votes
2answers
290 views
Do ad blockers in browsers save significant energy?
There is a claim that adverts sometimes include animations, which requires more energy to display, and that, hence, ad blockers save significant energy?
Source: Blocking Online Ads May Save Energy
...
6
votes
4answers
509 views
Can overheating laptops cause fire?
I have come across a Facebook post from an unverified and unreliable source, which claims that a fire was started using heat as a source alone. Here is the exact post which is the subject of the ...
15
votes
1answer
520 views
Are low-spec computer parts just faulty high-spec computer parts?
Someone was telling me that lower-price or lower-spec computer parts such as graphics cards and central processing units are actually just higher-spec, higher-price units that have manufacturing ...
27
votes
2answers
1k views
Has a programmer ever embezzled money by shaving fractions of a cent from many bank transactions?
There's a popular story that describes a programmer having altered a program at a bank so it diverted fractions of a cent from every transaction to another account (or some variation like multiple ...
1
vote
0answers
183 views
Does Google Drive secretly save all my stuff? [closed]
When I delete (delete, not trash) a file from my Google Drive, does Google secretly keep an archive of it? Even if it is an archive that I cannot access.
8
votes
0answers
458 views
Can blue light from LCD panels cause damage to the eyes?
In Japan there is quite a fad about LCD blue light filtering and how they might help reduce eyestrain, etc. The web site of a major computer accessory manufacturer has an English-language press ...
5
votes
2answers
333 views
is jon skeet just one person? [closed]
I was pondering whilst bathing
I know it seems ridiculous but he has a full time fairly important job and still has the time to post so many answers each day.
he has 514897 rep and has been a ...
11
votes
1answer
691 views
Is it possible to recover data on a zeroed hard drive?
Let's assume that I have a modern magnetic (not SSD) hard drive, manufactured within the past ten years, and the hard drive is packed with the only copies of an unpublished paper about cheap cold ...
7
votes
0answers
324 views
Did the Windows XP CD include Microsoft Bob?
Microsoft employee Raymond Chen says that an encrypted copy of Microsoft Bob is included on the Windows XP CD to take up space.
But Windows XP doesn't take up the entire CD; there is a lot of free ...
14
votes
1answer
1k views
Do Gunnar Glasses reduce eye strain?
In my RSS feeds today, I got an article named Gunnar Glasses Reduce Computer Eyestrain, Are 75% Off for the Next Two Days which links to a previous article about their benefits:
Gunnar's website ...
6
votes
1answer
737 views
Does opening a laptop and cleaning it from dust make it live longer?
There are a lot of how-to guides on opening a laptop to clean its fan/motherboard/etc of dust. For example, this or this, and a Google search yields a ton of results. So a lot of people believe it ...
0
votes
2answers
2k views
Did Apple ever invent any technology on its own? [closed]
In a wake of Apple suing everyone over shape of rectangles, many people claim, that Apple, never really invented anything on it's own. It's clear that a company ...
29
votes
1answer
2k views
Did Apple sue New York city over the nickname Big Apple?
An article in The Guardian - Apple's rot starts with its Samsung lawsuit win
Makes the following claim:
Apple is one of the most aggressive intellectual property litigators of all time
... It's ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
Has 90% of the world's data been created in the last two years?
"Big Data" is a big trending term on the internet (especially on the web sites of big companies selling data management services). For example, I came across this article while reading the Irish Times ...
25
votes
1answer
1k views
Did the computing term “bug” come from a moth stuck in a computer?
The story goes like this:
Back when computers still consisted of vacuum tubes, a system
went down one day and people started investigating the cause. They found that a moth
was stuck in the ...
0
votes
0answers
46 views
Are mouse and keyboard controls much more effective than console controls at First-Person Shooter (FPS) video games? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Are PC-based players generally superior to console-based players in first-person shooters?
There's a rumour that Microsoft killed PC/Xbox cross-platform play because ...
2
votes
0answers
1k views
Why is North Korea the only country not mapped by Google? [closed]
I have always believed North Korea didn't show up in Google Maps for political reasons but that doesn't explain why other countries that the United States government is not fond of, such as Iran, ...
13
votes
3answers
6k views
Is leapmotion a scam?
Looking for altertative ways of Human–computer interaction, I found www.leapmotion.com, which looks promising. They say in the website and in some interviews that they will release this device to the ...
-3
votes
1answer
313 views
Could Eurostar have implemented a Wifi network on their train for £600 (GBP)?
I'm watching this video by Rory Suterland in which he claims at 6:15 that Eurostar could have implemented a WiFi network for £600, but instead choose to spend £6,000,000 decreasing the journey time by ...
2
votes
0answers
313 views
Will super intelligent machines arise to build still smarter machines? [closed]
The Singularity Institute's FAQ claims :
[At FAQ 1.1.1] When humanity builds machines with greater-than-human intelligence,
they will also be better than we are at creating still smarter
...
7
votes
1answer
676 views
Does using the computer before sleeping affect sleep patterns?
According to this Bloomberg Businessweek article using electronics before bed may hamper sleep.
Is it true that using a computer, watching T.V. or using some other type of face-to-screen electronics ...
18
votes
2answers
6k views
Does baking your graphics card fix it?
There's a tonne of articles online about fixing you graphics card by baking it in the oven. Supposedly this 'reflows' the solder to fix flaky connections. It's even been reported on sites such as ...
3
votes
0answers
135 views
Do “digital natives” process information in fundamentally different ways
Marc Prensky defines the term digital natives, referring to people who were born after digital computers were popular.
He claims that they process information in fundamentally different ways.
Our ...
9
votes
1answer
524 views
Does using a computer affect your eyesight?
I've heard it said very often: Using a computer/smartphone can make you nearsighted.
Is it true? Is there good research on the topic?
35
votes
2answers
2k views
Are there an unusually large number of people with Asperger's who work in or study IT or Computer Science?
I hear it claimed very often that there is a higher incidence of people with Asperger's Syndrome who work in IT or study computer science (far more so than other fields).
This wired article touches ...
0
votes
0answers
110 views
Can one patent a metaphor? [closed]
The patent on the Shopping Cart Metaphor is extremely concerning to me as a designer and programmer.
The digital "Shopping Cart" is nothing more than a metaphor, similar to digital "pointing" is a ...
9
votes
1answer
977 views
Are ergonomic keyboards better for your health?
Popular consensus seems to be that ergonomic keyboards (with the middle split or curve) are better for your physical health than standard keyboards, and reduce the likelihood of carpel tunnel syndrome ...
7
votes
1answer
582 views
Is the 2-3-fold rise in HDD price an effect of false shortage?
Beyond any doubt Thailand floods have affected HDD market. However, some analysts say that the effect on the market should be a 10-30% price increase. Meanwhile in the consumer market the increase is ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
Does defragging shorten the life of a computer hard-drive?
There has been a question about whether it improves your computer's performance - my question is based on the precept that magnetic audio and video tapes, for example, quickly show damage if data is ...
4
votes
1answer
239 views
Is the number of Windows users without security software now equivalent to the total number of Apple users?
According to Leo Laporte (on the podcast Security Now), Mac users are now targeted by malware because most of the larger base of Windows users use security software.
Here is the exact quote:
LEO: ...
4
votes
1answer
555 views
Are consumer brain-wave devices faster than keyboard/mouse?
I've seen advertisements for headsets such as the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator, and recently there is a NeuroSky MindWave. Are these devices really capable of beating a keyboard and mouse for either ...
4
votes
2answers
414 views
Have Microsoft Windows tablet computer sales been significant?
When people talk about the iPad they often mention that Windows-based tablet computers never took off (never had significant sales). Is this true? Did any company ever make make money building/selling ...
15
votes
1answer
985 views
Was the C compiler trojan horse written by Ken Thompson ever distributed?
This is a followup to the comments in this question. Thanks to Oddthinking for bringing up the issue.
Ken Thompson gave a famous speech upon receiving an award titled "Reflections on Trusting Trust" ...
10
votes
2answers
900 views
Have “backdoors” in software programs been seen in the real world?
Has there ever been a software program that has been shown to have an in-bad-faith "backdoor" allowing privileged access? When I say "in bad faith" I mean, "that cannot be credibly explained by ...
6
votes
2answers
281 views
Do cyber crimes cost $US114b annually?
A study Symantec claims that the global damages from cyber crime were
A study by Symantec Corp, the maker of Norton computer security
software, estimates the cost of global cybercrimes at $114 ...
21
votes
1answer
3k views
Does handwriting assist memory retention more effectively than typing?
I have both heard and experienced (perhaps as a placebo effect) that writing things out by hand allows the text to be better remembered than typing it. This particularly applies to taking notes ...
0
votes
1answer
333 views
Are the modern powerful power supply units oversized? [closed]
The PSUs that are provided with the modern workstations are becoming more and more powerful for the last 10-12 years. 500 Watt units are quite common nowadays. The steady improvement in manufacturing ...
16
votes
1answer
2k views
Can a computer be hacked to use a connected speaker as a microphone?
I read a book in which someone hacked into a computer and used the speakers (not a microphone) to listen to what was happening in the room. Is this even remotely possible without gaining physical ...
15
votes
1answer
636 views
Does using headphones to drown out ambient noise reduce the quality of work?
There has been some fierce discussion about this subject in blogosphere and on Programmers.SE. It all started with Joel Spolsky's claim:
[...] putting on headphones to drown out the ambient noise ...
15
votes
1answer
2k views
Can CAPTCHA images be read automatically?
The CAPTCHA website says:
...humans can read distorted text as the one shown below, but current computer programs can't...
I realize this technique is widely used, and that this could indicate ...
38
votes
1answer
2k views
Did COBOL have 250 billion lines of code and 1 million programmers, as late as 2009?
In 2009 COBOL turned 50 years old. It got some publicity with claims, which I find rather hard to believe:
"Cobol hits 50 and keeps counting" article in the Guardian.
According to David ...
24
votes
2answers
8k views
Will freezing your hard drive help recover its data?
Source
There seems to be (anecdotal) evidence that putting your hard drive in the freezer can make it readable again, at least for a short time:
Lifehacker - Save a Failed Hard Drive in Your ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Do I have to eject my flash drive before removing it? [closed]
According to this article, I need to eject my flash drive before removing the flash drive from the computer. Do I need to do this, and if I do, why?
10
votes
2answers
885 views
Does Van Eck Phreaking work?
Does Van Eck phreaking perform as described, i.e. allow a person to observe what is being displayed on a given computer screen (notably a LCD) from a distance without having any physical connection to ...
3
votes
1answer
981 views
Do LCDs emit harmful radiation? [closed]
If I were to put my head 10cm from a LCD monitor for the rest of my life, would it increase my risk for anything? (By anything, I mean cancer, diseases, etc.)
108
votes
3answers
11k views
Does a webpage with a black background save energy?
Blackle is a search engine that claims to save energy because it uses a black background. Is there any evidence to back up their claim that a website using a black background will save energy, and if ...
17
votes
1answer
1k views
Is using a mouse less efficient?
Users of programmable text editors such as Emacs and Vim claim that using a mouse for day-to-day programming and computing tasks makes you less efficient.
For example, in this playful Welcome to Vim ...
