The Useless Facts Thread

[antron]

In the German translation of The Simpsons cartoons the fat German kid who eats chocolate all day was changed to a Swiss boy.

[Stormwatch]

World's first hard drive, the 305 RAMAC, was invented in 1956 by Reynold B. Johnson at IBM's laboratory at 99 Notre Dame Ave., San Jose, CA.

It cost $160,000 (adjusted for inflation), was the size of a fridge, weighted over a ton, and could store five megabytes of data.

[Stormwatch]

Shigeru Miyamoto named princess Zelda after novelist Zelda Fitzgerald.

Robin Williams named his daughter after princess Zelda.

[antron]

The Great Gatsby is dedicated to Zelda

[Stormwatch]

No surprise there, it was written by her husband.

[Evilmaxwar]

Windows key + E brings up explorer.

...IF you are using Windows, that's a very important thing to note. Here, for example, it brought up this:



A more important thing to teach is that Windows is not the only OS out there.

Also, this news just in: Generalíssimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

That explains why it doesn't work on my Dreamcast...

Windowskey+R is probably the single most important keyboard shortcut in Windows though.

However my favourite one is Windowskey+M

[Skykid]

The Idiom 'Bootlegging' or 'Bootleg' referring to counterfeit or knock-off goods comes from when selling alcohol to Native Americans was banned in the old west. Them Cowboys used to make a pretty penny in barter by stuffing bottles of liquor down the leg of their boot and delivering it to the injuns on the sly. Hence, bootlegging.

Found it on my ipod, thought I'd share.

[Never_Scurred]

Windowskey+R is probably the single most important keyboard shortcut in Windows though.

I thought it was ctrl+alt+del.

[Damocles]

People don't immediately disable the windows key? I find that odd.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Aparently doing your ironing on a motorway is a new extreame sport
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20110418/vid ... bfa63.html

[Stormwatch]

Portal's GLaDOS (Ellen McLain) and TF2's Sniper (John Patrick Lowrie) are married.

[Sumez]

People don't immediately disable the windows key? I find that odd.

For the reasons stated above. I have no count of the crazy amount of times I press "(windows)+R" or "(windows)+E" during a day.

[BPzeBanshee]

I nicked this from the Useless Facts Collection website:

"In Saudi Arabia, a woman reportedly may divorce her husband if he does not keep her supplied with coffee."

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The newest Sony Blu-Ray players have the ability to use USB keyboards (useful for typing out movie titles, etc.) when using Netflix, Crackle (yep, Sony owns the Crackle streaming service), etc. Much better than trying to single peck out each letter or number on the damned Sony Blu-Ray remote.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Stormwatch]

Everybody knows that, in the video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", Lou Albano played Cyndi Lauper's dad.

But who is the lady who played Cyndi's mom? That's actually Cyndi's mom, Catrine Lauper.

[Stormwatch]

The common poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii) is the only bird known to hibernate.

[neorichieb1971]

What is the significance of Sony using MAH***** as their file names on cameras?

[TodayIsForgotten]

my name is Chris.

[mesh control]

I have to go back to work tomorrow and I have class from 7 PM to 10 PM, so my day usually pans out like this.


I will wake up at 3:30am, take a shower, make lunch, leave my house at 4:10, arrive at the company parking lot via bicycle at 4:25-ish, drive an hour to Battle Mountain, pick up other co-workers, drive another 20 minutes to reach work. Then repeat the process at 4:30PM, except go to the college right after I get to the parking lot at 6PM. I probably won't get home until quarter after 10 or so. I probably won't eat dinner, just go to bed and just get my 5 hours of sleep.

[Siren2011]

A cat beat the shit out of a Texas native. News at 11.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/27831869/detail.html

[Ruldra]

You can easily bend a spoon or fork, but you can't do the same to a knife. I don't recall the specifics but the metal in knives receives a different treatment during forging and this makes them much harder.

[neorichieb1971]

You can easily bend a spoon or fork, but you can't do the same to a knife. I don't recall the specifics but the metal in knives receives a different treatment during forging and this makes them much harder.

Interesting. My mom usually uses kitchen utensils as tools since she doesn't have any tools. I'll tell her to use the knife next time.

[Stormwatch]

Earth is not round, but an oblate spheroid - that is, it is slightly flattened on the poles.

[Stormwatch]

Newt Gingrich is among Amazon's top 500 book reviewers.

[duckman]

Soviet arcade games didn't have highscore tables.

[Stormwatch]

Red pandas are the only non-primate animals able to taste artificial sweeteners.

[Stormwatch]

Die Hard was based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, by Roderick Thorp. Now, that novel is a sequel to Thorp's The Detective, which had been adapted into a movie starring Frank Sinatra in the late 60s.

Can you imagine smooth, charming Ol' Blue Eyes playing John McClane? He pretty much did.

[EinhanderZwei]

Die Hard was based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, by Roderick Thorp. Now, that novel is a sequel to Thorp's The Detective, which had been adapted into a movie starring Frank Sinatra in the late 60s.

Can you imagine smooth, charming Ol' Blue Eyes playing John McClane? He pretty much did.

Also, Die Hard started off as a sequel to Commando, but Schwarzenegger had declined to participate

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's possible to hook up a DVD recorder to a 2010 manufactured USA region Sony Blu-Ray player and record any Netflix/Crackle/etc. shows on to a DVD-R disc for posterity (with the available cool widgets installed on-board). There aren't any anti-copying protection schemes in place currently (i.e. Macrovision, etc.) preventing you from doing so.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Ruldra]

Probably few people know this, but Capcom once sponsored a racing driver:



That's Kenji Momota, who tried to qualify for the 1992 Indianapolis 500 but got bumped from the field on the last day of qualifying.