TechTheDay

In the age of the Internet, of instant access to an immensely vast wealth of information, it is generally expected that most people know a lot of facts about many things as they regularly or occasionally pick up new knowledge on the web. However, there are many things you may not be that aware of. Many of these things are even relatively simple bits of information you may have confused with other facts.

Skim through this list of tech facts and see if your tech knowledge bank is vast and accurate enough.

Email is older than the World Wide Web and even the Internet.

You might think that it’s the other way around but email is indeed older than the Internet. The electronic mail or email already existed in the early 1960’s starting with the AUTODIN or Automatic Digital Network, which enabled messaging among 1,350 terminals and handled around 30 million messages monthly. The Internet, on the other hand, came to existence in the late 1960’s as packet switching networks such as ARPANET, Mark I, Merit Network, and Telenet were developed. According to howoldistheinter.net, the Internet is already 8,569 days old as of this posting.

The Internet is not the World Wide Web.

In connection to the email vs Internet “which is older” question, it is also worth emphasizing that the very commonly interchangeably used words “Internet” and “Web” are actually different. The Internet is a massively global network of networks that connects computers in different parts of the world. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is the technology that enables the access of information over the Internet. The Web is an information sharing model that harnesses the connections of the Internet using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). The World Wide Web makes use of the Internet just like how modern email, instant messengers, and FTP do.

More than 1,000,000 domain names are being registered every month.

So you think there aren’t enough websites on the web? In September last year, it was estimated that the number of websites in the world has already passed the 1 billion level. In comparison, it is estimated that there are only around 3 billion Internet users worldwide. If we count the number of web pages online, it’s certain that the number will considerably exceed the number of Internet users or even the total population of the world.

Four of the world’s biggest tech companies, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and HP, have one thing in common: they were all started in a garage.

Nothing’s wrong with having overflowing optimism, apparently. If you just learn of the humble beginnings of the world’s richest and most technologically advanced companies, you are bound to be inspired.

To generate the results  for a search in Google, 1,000 computers are used.

Before you think that a simple search is fast and easy, know that a multitude of resources are employed to deliver the information you need as quickly as possible.

The important Curiosity rover of NASA’s that was sent to explore Mars has a computer that is less powerful than the first Samsung Galaxy flagship phone but is powered by nuclear tech.

Curiosity only has a 200MHz CPU while most flagship smartphones at present are already sporting CPUs that are around the 2.0GHz level. When it comes to RAM, most smartphones now are also better equipped than Curiosity as it only packs 256MB of RAM compared to the 512MB average for entry level and mid-range devices and the 2GB to 4GB RAM of flagship devices. Nevertheless, Curiosity is superior in terms of power as it is equipped with a nuclear power system called the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. It is basically a miniaturized nuclear power plant that generates electricity from plutonium-238 dioxide and can support Curiosity’s power needs for up to 14 years, way longer than the expected duration of Curiosity’s Mars mission (at 23 months).

There was already a mobile (“palmtop”) computer in 1989.

Mobile computing is not something only created and introduced in the 2000’s. In 1989, the Atari Portfolio was already made available. It even made an appearance in the Terminator 2 film.

If you think Apple and Samsung are patent hogs, think again. Thomas Edison has 1,093 all to his name.

While this number does not compare to the thousands awarded to global corporations, Edison’s record is the highest for an individual. Corporate ownership is shared by many people while Edison has all of these patents in his name. He is widely regarded as the world’s most prolific inventor and his number of patents surely supports the repute.

While smartphones and the Internet are already very popular worldwide, around a third of the world’s population has never made a telephone call.

Even with the millions (over 1 billion last year) of phones being shipped every year, there are still many who have not encountered nor used telephones, let alone smartphones.

The Internet is the fastest growing communication platform ever.

Nothing can beat the record of the Internet in being quickly adopted by users as a communication tool. Radio needed 38 years to reach an audience of around 50 million while television required 13 years. For the Internet, it was just a matter of 4 years before it reached 50 million people worldwide.

Do you already know these facts or are you one of those who have just learned the difference between World Wide Web and the Internet? There are more things to learn from the Internet. Don’t be left out and make the most of what this wonderful technology has to offer.