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Fact or Fiction?

March 29th, 2018 by Kim Reynolds

  1. The Firefox mascot is a fox.
  2. Bad weather has an adverse effect on cloud computing.
  3. Microsoft’s Windows 95’s startup music was composed on a Mac.
  4. About half of the world’s currency is digital.
  5. The first webcam was created to monitor a coffee pot.
  6. Facebook will fine you $500 if you manage to hack the site.
  7. Google was originally called “BackRub.”
  8. The first woman to earn a PhD in Computer Science in the U.S. was a Catholic nun.
  9. Nomophobia, or “fear of being out of cellular phone contact,” is listed in the 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
  10. “Ahoy-hoy” was the original telephone greeting.
Red Panda

A Mlemming Firefox

Red Panda

Brian Eno

  1. FICTION! The Firefox mascot is a red panda, which has the nickname of “firefox.”
  2. FICTION! Weather has no effect on cloud computing.
  3. FACT! The composter, ambient musician Brian Eno, admitted, “I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.”
  4. FICTION! 92% of the world’s currency is digital.
  5. FACT! In 1991, a camera was set up providing a live picture of the coffee pot in the “Trojan Room” near the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Employees were tired of making the trip to refill their cups only to find the pot empty.
  6. FICTION! Facebook will pay $500 minimum to anyone able to hack the site.
  7. FACT! “BackRub” was a reference to the search engine’s method of checking a page’s backlinks before ranking it in the search results.
  8. FACT! Mary Kenneth Keller, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also earned a Master’s degree in Math and Physics and helped to develop computer programming languages.
  9. FICTION! Short for “no mobile phone phobia,” “nomophobia” is not yet recognized by the DSM-5. However, the disorder is recognized and treated at digital detox programs like Camp Grounded Summer Camp for Adults in Northern California.
  10. FACT! Alexander Graham Bell advocated using “Ahoy-hoy” as the standard telephone greeting. Thomas Edison preferred “Hello.”

Brian Eno on composing “The Microsoft Sound”

Q: How did you come to compose "The Microsoft Sound"?

A: the idea came up at a time when i was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for awhile and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem -- solve it."

The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long."

I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.

In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really brok a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

The Trojan Room Coffee Pot

The Trojan Room Coffee Pot

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller

Sign at Camp Grounded

Sign at Camp Grounded

Posted in: News


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