Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
Q. Why don’t the Great Lakes have tides? (via Quora) A. They do! All bodies of water have tides — even your bathtub! Even your coffee cup! But here’s the catch: You need an ocean-sized amount of water for the cumulative effect of tides to be easily visible. In fact, the very largest tides on…
Q: If gravity affects time, do radioactive materials get shorter half-lives on large planets and stars? (via Quora) A: No. As far as the radioactive material itself is concerned, its half-life is the same as always. All objects within the same frame of reference experience the same time effects. The half-life would only appear to…
Q: I spilled yogurt on my keyboard. Now some keys are stuck. How do I fix it? (via Quora) A: Wash it! Yes, you can wash almost any electronic device, provided the device is unpowered and you only use distilled water, which is almost totally nonconductive. There’s no guarantee it’ll work, of course, but this…
Q: How many keyboard keys are pressed at the same second in the world? (via Quora) A: A very rough guess: humans currently generate 416 million keystrokes per second. Here’s the (admittedly shaky) logic — feel free to adjust up or down as you wish: Assuming you mean physical keyboards — the kind used on…
Q: How do you type a unusual characters like “≥” (greater-than-or-equal-to) in Microsoft Word? (via Quora) A: It’s easy! Every electronic keyboard has a set of built-in computer codes for a given language’s most-commonly-used letters, numbers and punctuation. These are the symbols you see printed permanently on the tops of your keyboard’s keys. But the…
Q: Why don’t birds have propellers instead of wings? (to me via Quora) A: On a macro biological scale (birds, humans, etc.), true, 360 degree, detached, continuous rotation around an axis or axle would be difficult to grow, and basically impossible to maintain/heal: How would nerves, blood vessels, and other necessary attachments span across a…
Q. What are the advantages of using a word processor over using a typewriter? (Via Quora) A. The answer varies somewhat, depending on exactly what you mean by “word processor.” The most common meaning is a piece of software that can capture your keystrokes on a personal computer of some type, including smartphones, tablets, and…
Q: “What was the last generation that learned to type on a typewriter instead of a computer keyboard?” (via Quora) A: In the developed world, the “boomer” generation — offspring of WW2-era parents — are almost surely the last. I’m part of the tail end of the Boomer generation. In my own career, I started…
Q: What is the funniest filename you have ever seen? (via Quora) A: Funniest one I recall was actually a folder name. Back in the day, serious PC users could create small scripts to automate repetitive tasks. These scripts were actually a series of manual commands that the operating system would execute, same as if you’d…
Holy moley! “A Russian MP who is a former cosmonaut suggested that a psychologically disturbed astronaut could have done it to force an early return home. “We’re all human, and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low,” Maxim Surayev of President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party, told RIA Novosti state news…