Here Are Some Amazing And Unknown Tech Facts from Programming

Here are some unknown facts from programming

Being a computer programmer is itself quite challenging and exciting at the same time, and before you know it, you will be gaining its rewards when you indulge in it. For those people who may find computer programming awfully boring, here are some really remarkable facts that you did not know about this specific field

The first computers were powered by steam

Steam that comes from platform? No, not the platform Steam, but actual steam, things that made it possible for vehicles and trains to become locomotive. In 1801, a French weaver and merchant, Joseph Marie Jacquard had invented a power loom that was based on the design of a fabric upon punched wooden cards. Later on, during the 1830s, the very first computing systems or devices was as great as a house and was powered by six steam engines and do you have any idea who created it? Charles Babbage, who is known as the father of computing, and he called his invention as the Analytic Engine.

The first computer bug originated thanks to an actual bug

If you are a programmer then you must have came across the terms ‘debugging’ or ‘debug’ but I’m sure you don’t know about how these terms came into existence? Well, in the year 1947, when Grace Hopper, an admiral in the US Navy, was probably the first to give fame to these terms. The first computer bug was present in her log book as she was working on a Mark II computer. The bug was none other than a moth that was discovered stuck in a relay and was hindering the functioning of the system. The moth later debugged, thus resulting in the optimum function of the machine.

The very first computer game did not make any money

Looking at the huge cluster of incomplete gaming titles we have that can only complete your entire experience should you select to buy DLC and other content, it is quite amazing to hear that the very first computer game that came into existence did not generate any money. Spacewar, which took a total of 200 hours to be done thanks to Steve Russell and his game development team, the game indulges two players to take control of two tiny spaceships. It became your mission to destroy your opponent’s spaceship before it destroyed yours and we can safely say that this could be the forerunner for destroying your friendships.

Computer viruses are harmful, but the very first one was created without having any malicious intentions behind it

A person who is best regarded as the inventor of computer virus defense techniques is Fred Cohen. During 1983, he had created a parasitic app that could harm or infect computers. He called it a computer virus and the main operation of the virus included the seizure of a computer, and make multiple copies of itself and spread from one machine to another through a storage medium that was common at the time, a floppy disk. Cohen only designed the virus to show to the world that it was possible in doing so and that no computer could ever be regarded as a perfect machine. Who knew that later on, there were several hundred variants of viruses that could affect thousands of computers worldwide?

Computer programming would be the third most diverse languages, if it ever became a spoken language

In the present time, there are a maximum 698 computer languages, approximately. That is a lot of languages to be learned and we being loyal, do not suggest anyone to try them all. However, how could we know which languages top that of computer programming? Indonesia has over 700 indigenous languages, with Papua New Guinea being on the top of the list with 836 languages spoken, making it the number one country when it comes to linguistic diversity.

The very first computer programmer was a female

Ada Lovelace was a renowned British mathematician. During 1843, he had published an English compilation or translation of an Analytical Engine article which was written by Luigi Menabrea, who was basically an Italian engineer. In her important notes, she wrote an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers. The algorithm is considered to be the first specifically written code on a computer, thus making her the very first computer programmer that came into being.

One picture from Playboy magazine is used for image processing algorithms

Now, you get to have fun running down code and staring at a playboy magazine image. The image of Lena Söderberg is a standard test image that has been widely used in the field of image processing since 1973. Due to the level of nudity, the image had to be cropped from November 1972 issue of Playboy magazine. So why is this specific image so darn valuable for image processing algorithms? David Munson, an editor-in-chief of IEEE mentioned two causes for it; one being that it comprises of a nice mixture of detail, flat regions, shading and texture that do a very nice job of testing the capabilities of any image processing software. The second reason was quite dominant and obvious. Many of computer programmers, which are mostly male, would be inclined to use such an image thanks to the attractive subject present on it.

Being a computer programmer is not without its drawbacks, but we are pretty sure that after reading this, you will be able to get a nice head start in the world of computer programming. If we missed any point at all, then do let us know in the comments section below.

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