The Useless Facts Thread

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:57 am

There's a puzzling similarity between these brands:

¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨

Data Age, game developer ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ GTK+, interface toolkit

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popawell · Post by **popawell** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:41 am

IlMrm wrote:
Minzoku wrote:
lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon.
I want to see that in a spelling bee. Make those kids faint even faster.

If you were trying to make people fall off their chair in laughter, scratch one on the board right now.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 9:08 pm

The "PC guy", John Hodgman, is actually a Mac fan since 1984.

The "Mac guy", Justin Long, had never owned a computer. Now he has a Mac.

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:12 am

John Hodgman is funny.

Justin Long is not.

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:33 pm

Stormwatch wrote:Samus Aran is a female, but her voice in Super Metroid was done by a man - Daniel Owsen.

He was supposed to be the narrator, not Samus. AFAIK.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:11 pm

The first game with multiple camera angles (if you don't count multi-scrolling shmups like Vanguard) was World Series Major League Baseball for the Intellivision.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:35 pm

Minzoku wrote:John Hodgman is funny.

Justin Long is not.

They're both tools. Those commercials suck. I can't believe Apple made a commercial about a plug that easily comes out of the back of the computer.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:26 am

GaijinPunch, mind you, John Hodgman is a humorist. When Minzoku said he's funny, that probably meant his writings.

Talking about him... here's another nice useless fact. Hodgman wrote a book that may have the longest title ever:

"An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order by Me, John Hodgman, a Professional Writer, in the Areas of My Expertise, which Include: Matters Historical; Matters Literary; Matters Cryptozoological; Hobo Matters; Food, Drink, & Cheese (a Kind of Food); Squirrels & Lobsters & Eels; Haircuts; Utopia; What Will Happen in the Future; and Most Other Subjects; Illustrated with a Reasonable Number of Tables and Figures, and Featuring the Best of "Were You Aware of It?", John Hodgman's Long-Running Newspaper Novelty Column of Strange Facts and Oddities of the Bizarre"

Which is usually called simply "The Areas of My Expertise".

popawell · Post by **popawell** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:53 am

My quote speaks the truth, I myself and many other people have lost their minds or didin't have one to begin with.

popawell · Post by **popawell** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 4:49 am

Accutron wrote:
neorichieb1971 wrote:My car has done 157000 miles and has absolutely no record of mechanical maintenance. Its a mitsibushi and I've had it since new. :p
My wife's first car was a 1989 Ford Festiva (manufactured by then-unknown Kia...Ford's not getting the credit for this one). Her mom bought it new, put ~100,000 miles on it, then my wife inherited it in 1992. Had a new muffler put on it in 1994, and I replaced the rear wheel bearings in 1996. We sold it in 1999 with 265,000 miles. After that, I saw the new owners driving it around for about 3 more years. That car had one hell of a hamster under the hood.

My dad has an Oldsmobile Delta 88 (he bought it brand new) and racked up around 150,000 miles on it. The muffler fell off, a fire scorched the bottem of the car when the distribuiter fried, and the interior is held together with superglue, but it still runs like its new (sounds like a monster without the muffler though). Thats all the trouble we had with it besides standard matinence.
We bought a 2001 auora (bought last year used) and we lost a rack and pinion set with a power steering pump, switches to rool windows down are put in BACKWARD, and to top it all off the window itself fell to the bottem of the door when the motor fried. All in the last 3 months!!!!!

I guess they don't make cars like they used to anymore.

AND IN OTHER USELESS FACTS.................
Chainsaws are among the most dangerous common household wea...er I mean tools.

thchardcore · Post by **thchardcore** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:12 am

Dragonflies live 6 months-7 years. Couldn't possibly be 24 hours.

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:09 am

Pirate1019 wrote:
Minzoku wrote:Fact: I tried to sign up with Gmail, but it wouldn't send the code to my phone.
You just want an invitation code? I have 50. I never use them. Ever.

I meant to respond to this

The only reason I was hunting around for a new e-mail was Yahoo! requires an alternate e-mail [non-Yahoo!] in the event of lost passwords and so on. I tried Gmail and gave up when I realized Neopets gives me that free one with their Premium [no advert] service

So, yeah. Thanks for the offer, though!

Post by **Ghegs** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:35 pm

Two tabletop-wargames called StarSoldier and StarForce were published in the 80's.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:41 pm

The project of a console that Silicon Graphics sold to Nintendo and eventually became the Nintendo 64 was at first offered to Sega. The company's american branch was interested, but the japanese bosses rejected it.

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:25 am

The famous French comic artist Moebius worked on the original Panzer Dragoon for Saturn.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:50 am

Moebius was also the storyboard artist of TRON.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:59 pm

In Phantasy Star IV, there is a secret technique called "Feeve", that can only be obtained by hacking a savegame.

It is completely useless.

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:51 pm

At my workplace, there are 144 coin lockers: put a quarter in the slot to release the key, get your quarter back when you return the key--that kind.

Of the lockers, only about 1/6th are still useable, due to co-workers running off with/losing the keys.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:31 am

Isaac Asimov has published works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except for philosophy.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:10 am

Liquid honey is the only food that just does not spoil. As long as the moisture content remains under 18%, virtually no organism can successfully multiply to significant amounts in it.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:46 pm

The highest grossing arcade game ever is the original Daytona USA.

Kinda suprised it beat out SF2 and Pac-Man, and in a time were arcades were in their downfall. But I guess it makes since seeing as any bar bowling alley or arcade I went to between 96 to 99 you could here let's Go Away playing proudly.

SuperGrafx · Post by **SuperGrafx** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:06 pm

Dale wrote:The highest grossing arcade game ever is the original Daytona USA.

Kinda suprised it beat out SF2 and Pac-Man, and in a time were arcades were in their downfall. But I guess it makes since seeing as any bar bowling alley or arcade I went to between 96 to 99 you could here let's Go Away playing proudly.

Wow. I knew Daytona did well, but I figured Ms. Pac-Man was the reigning alltime arcade earnings champ.
Interesting indeed.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:29 pm

I'd imagine the fact that racing games (usually) cost more per game to play probably played a part in it.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:48 am

Maybe it's because Daytona is harder to pirate (with the fancy cabinet and all), and the grossing from countless Street Fighter II or Pac-Man bootlegs and hacks is simply unknown.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:56 am

Much of the art and plot in Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain seems to be taken from the cancelled Dreamcast sequel to Chakan: The Forever Man.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:35 am

Stargate was the first film to have an official website.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:59 am

"Gussun" and "oyoyo" don't actually mean anything in Japanese, they're the names of two baby treasure detective hunters in an action/puzzle game.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:42 pm

Also, the Japanese government loves feasting on the flesh of whale and drinking their blood regardless of international law.

And John Hodgman > You.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:24 am

The in-flight movie on the ill-fated United Airlines flight 93 was A Knight's Tale.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:30 am

Stormwatch wrote:The in-flight movie on the ill-fated United Airlines flight 93 was A Knight's Tale.

Well, that movie was pretty terrible. Still, crashing a plane into a building just to avoid the movie seems a bit drastic.