Questions tagged [computers]
A computer is a programmable machine designed to automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations.
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Does the lifespan of laptop depend significantly on its usage?
Every once in a while I see the claim that lifespan of a laptop is more or less the same, no matter how often it is used. How far is this from being true? Is it true that the difference in lifespan is ...
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Did the NSA pay RSA $10 million to make Dual_EC_DRBG the default in BSafe?
According to this article from Reuters
Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the ...
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Are 1 in 5 pieces of software in the US unlicensed?
This BSA form claims that
1 in 5 pieces of software in the US are unlicensed.
How true is it?
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Did deep learning start at Microsoft?
Bill Gates has recently said:
The ultimate is computers that learn. So called deep learning which
started at Microsoft and is now being used by many researchers looks
like a real advance that ...
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Do 52% of computer users lose irreplaceable documents, photos, music and videos every year?
Livedrive claims that "52% of computer users lose irreplaceable documents, photos, music and videos every year?".
Is there any published study on that matter?
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Will the bytes of data stored in 2020 be greater than the number of grains of sand on the world's beaches?
An article in The Independent covering recent developments in Big data contains the following, suspiciously precise, claim:
By 2020, it's thought that the number of bytes will be 57 times greater ...
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Do US agents intercept and install spyware on new computers ordered by persons of interest?
In a Fox news article entitled "German magazine claims NSA hacking unit uses powerful methods to obtain data", a magazine article in Der Spiegel is cited as claiming, among other things:
...if the ...
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Does the US army use unlicensed copies of Windows 7?
I saw this claim at TorrentFreak:
However, a signal soldier serving in Qatar informs TorrentFreak that this incident may not be as unique as it sounds. According to the soldier, who we will name ...
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Dragon NaturallySpeaking's accuracy improvement over versions
Dragon NaturallySpeaking's editor Nuance claims that Dragon 12 delivers up to a 20% improvement in out-of-box accuracy compared to Dragon 11. Nuance made similar claims in the past with previous ...
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Can hot-plugging an HDMI cable damage the HDMI port?
I found this site on the Internet saying something to that effect:
Warning!!.....Never connect and disconnect HDMI cables and equipment while your devices are powered on (hot plugging cables). The ...
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Is it dangerous to vacuum-clean motherboards (and other electronics)?
I've been informed that using the standard household vacuum cleaner's blower attachment to clean motherboards (and the insides of laptops and desktops in general) is dangerous due to the possibility ...
user7920
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Did the Stuxnet virus attack the International Space Station?
Over at Extreme Tech
Last year, news broke that a virus sabotaged the Iranian uranium enrichment program. It seemed all too convenient at the time — and as it turned out, the virus, Stuxnet, was ...
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Are Vertical key layouts more ergonomic?
One of the feature that kinesis advertises for their Kinesis Advantage Pro Contoured Keyboard is:
Vertical key layout - keys are arranged in vertical columns to reflect natural motions of your ...
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Does working at a standing desk consume more calories than sitting?
src
I've heard conflicting claims:
Site that claims it maks a crap load of difference
Site that claims it doesn't make a shred of difference
What does science say?
You may find this question ...
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Does a screensaver save the computer display screen?
Does a screensaver save the computer display screen?
And if it does, what does it save the screen from?
If the above two questions have a NO answer, than why is it called screensaver?
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Is it possible to generate all photos ever taken by random sequencing of bits? [closed]
All JPGS, pngs etc are basically just sequences of bits. Is it possible to generate these by making a program that generates random sequences of bits?
For example say that the sequence 100010111 is ...
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Did Bill Gates tamper with his school's computer system?
There is a story around that Bill Gates tampered with his school's (or college's) scheduling system to get in class with all the 'hot' girls.
Did this in fact happen?
References I've found:
10 ...
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Will NSA's Utah Data Center be able to handle and process five zettabytes of data?
The claim I want to have examined is
The NSA's Utah Data Center will be able to handle and process five zettabytes of data.
I think that "zettabytes" is much too big. Even one Exabyte might be to ...
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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 ...
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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
...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
user8342
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
user6204
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Do programmers who learn to type faster become better programmers?
CodingHorror writes:
So if you want to become a great programmer, start by becoming a great typist.
[...]
When you're a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time between thinking that thought ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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?
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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 ...
user6327
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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: ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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" ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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