Did you know that the first computer mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart in 1964? Surprisingly, it was made of wood. Fast forward to 1979, and the first hard drive made its debut with a whopping 5MB of storage—considered a significant amount of space back then.
Let’s take a step back in time to 1936 when Konrad Zuse developed the very first computer, the Z1. Just a few years later, in 1939, he introduced the Z2, which became the first fully operational electro-mechanical computer.
Ever wondered if using a computer affects your body? Well, at least in terms of blinking, it does. The average person blinks around 20 times per minute, but when using a computer, that number drops to just 7 times per minute.
Speaking of computers and security, one of the worst breaches in U.S. military history occurred simply because someone found a USB stick on a parking lot. Unfortunately, that USB stick was infected by a foreign intelligence agency, and the person who found it decided to plug it into a computer connected to the United States Central Command network. Oops!
The ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, weighed a staggering 27 tons. To put things in perspective, a computer capable of matching the human brain’s processing power would need to perform 38 thousand trillion operations per second and have a memory capacity of 3500 terabytes. Quite a leap!
Every month, approximately 5,000 new computer viruses are unleashed into the digital world. In a slightly more optimistic note, some of the tech giants we know today—HP, Microsoft, and Apple—actually started in humble garages.
Now, here’s a mind-boggling stat: 80% of all emails sent every day are spam. And did you know that the Genesis Project scene in „Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan“ was the first fully computer-generated sequence in movie history? The team behind it eventually went on to form Pixar.
Lastly, meet the heaviest desktop computer ever made—the IBM 5120. It weighed in at around 48kg (about 106 pounds). And if that wasn’t enough, the external floppy drive it required added another 58kg (128 pounds). You definitely needed a sturdy desk for that one!
German Version of the IT Fun Facts
