A computer is a programmable machine designed to automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations.
Questions tagged [computers]
119 questions
264
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Do bigger or more monitors increase productivity?
There is a ton of anecdotal evidence that adding more screen estate (more or larger monitors) leads to an increase in productivity, especially for programmers.
For example, where I work, all programmers have either two 20" screens or a single 24"…
Sklivvz
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179
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Does a webpage with a black background save energy?
Blackle is a search engine that claims to save energy because it uses a black background. Is there any evidence to back up their claim that a website using a black background will save energy, and if so, how much energy will be saved?
user1936
131
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2 answers
Do consumer computers include components that can connect to the internet when the computer is apparently turned off?
I have seen many claims that devices such as laptop computers contain components that can "connect to the internet" even when the main device is powered off. The implication is that such devices could be backdoored by the NSA or others in order to…
Caesar
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96
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3 answers
Was credit for the black hole image misattributed?
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) was used to create an image of Messier 87*, a supermassive black hole in the Messier 87 galaxy. This result has been heavily reported in the media leading up to its announcement 2019-04-10.
Recent postings on…
SSimon
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74
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Did Bill Gates say 640k ought to be enough for everyone?
This is a quite famous quote:
640k ought to be enough for anybody.
Did Bill Gates say this?
Lincity
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73
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7 answers
Was the QWERTY keyboard layout designed to slow down typists?
I have heard that the QWERTY keyboard layout was invented to get around the problem of old fashioned typewriters getting stuck if you typed too quickly.
Is this story true, or was there another reason for the QWERTY layout?
Ardesco
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72
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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 and expressing it in code. [...] I believe in…
Christian
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57
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8 answers
Can the human eye distinguish frame rates above 60 Hz?
I know that frame-rates above 60fps all look the same to the human eye. Is that true? Why? If so, why do graphics cards boast anything higher than that?
myusuf3
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54
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Did COBOL have 250 billion lines of code and 1 million programmers, as late as 2009?
In 2009 COBOL turned 50 years old. It got some publicity with claims, which I find rather hard to believe:
"Cobol hits 50 and keeps counting" article in the Guardian.
According to David Stephenson, the UK
manager for the software provider
Micro…
vartec
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51
votes
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Does the color temperature of a computer screen affect sleep patterns?
There's a little tool called f.lux that claims:
During the day, computer screens look good — they're designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn't be looking at the sun.
F.lux fixes this: it makes the color of…
Lagerbaer
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51
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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 accounts) so he could collect it later.
The story…
Bart Silverstrim
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47
votes
3 answers
Do four random common words make a stronger password than passwords like "Tr0ub4dor&3"?
In xkcd comic #936, Randall Munroe claims that passwords like "Tr0ub4dor&3" (uncommon base word, caps, common letter substitutions with a number and punctuation suffix) has ~28 bits of entropy, while taking four random common words, like "correct…
user39173
47
votes
1 answer
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 fusion written by a scientist who died in the fire…
Dietrich Epp
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44
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Is leaving a computer running better for it than turning it on and off?
Among some computer users I've heard the claim that turning a computer on and off reduces the life of the computer, here's an example of this claim. In this claim, it is believed that turning the computer on and off stresses or damages various…
Mark Rogers
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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 on the claim:
It's a familiar joke in the industry…
user6327