A computer is a programmable machine designed to automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations.
Questions tagged [computers]
119 questions
44
votes
3 answers
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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Will freezing your hard drive help recover its data?
Source
There seems to be (anecdotal) evidence that putting your hard drive in the freezer can make it readable again, at least for a short time:
Lifehacker - Save a Failed Hard Drive in Your Freezer
Geeks are Sexy - Freeze your hard drive to…
Oliver_C
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Did a TV news show cause lots of Amazon's Alexa devices to try to order doll houses?
With reference to this Stack Exchange Internet of Things question and this news article, which is only one of many:
Is there evidence that when a news anchor uttered the words "Alexa, buy me a dollhouse", that
plenty of viewers complained that the…
Mawg says reinstate Monica
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Can CAPTCHA images be read automatically?
The CAPTCHA website says:
...humans can read distorted text as the one shown below, but current computer programs can't...
I realize this technique is widely used, and that this could indicate that they are indeed effective, however visual…
Hendy
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Did Intel have low chip yields due to a clerk hand-checking blank wafers?
In this blog post Bob Cringley recounts the following story (abriged for brevity here):
There was a time in the early 1980s when Intel suffered terrible quality problems. [..] The problem was caused by dust, the major enemy of computer chip…
Paul Johnson
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18
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Is Google Chrome killing my laptop battery?
I was reading an article on Forbes that says Google Chrome might be draining my laptop's battery because it brings the system into a mode that uses a tick rate of 1ms instead of 16ms, and is using up to 25% more battery power in the process. (And…
corsiKa
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Did a computer server get accidentally walled in?
I'm in IT and I've repeatedly heard stories of a server that was left stuck in a space that had a wall built in front of it, and was only discovered years later when the wall was torn down.
This 2001 article from The Register gives an example of…
Citizen
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11
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Do all modern laptops have traceable GPS?
I have heard that by law (assuming US law) all modern laptops must have built in GPS. Presumably than, your laptop could be tracked down if it were stolen. This seems unrealistic, however, I've read that there are similar laws for modern cell phones…
logicbird
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Does the lifespan of laptop depend significantly on its usage?
Every once in a while I see the claim that lifespan of a laptop is more or less the same, no matter how often it is used. How far is this from being true? Is it true that the difference in lifespan is not significant one?
user0820
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Does opening a laptop and cleaning it from dust make it live longer?
There are a lot of how-to guides on opening a laptop to clean its fan/motherboard/etc of dust. For example, this or this, and a Google search yields a ton of results. So a lot of people believe it does.
Is there any statistical evidence to back this…
sashoalm
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Has 90% of the world's data been created in the last two years?
"Big Data" is a big trending term on the internet (especially on the web sites of big companies selling data management services). For example, I came across this article while reading the Irish Times in an airport. It contained this recent claim…
matt_black
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Does Ubuntu have 40 million users?
Ubuntu.com claims that there are 40 million Ubuntu users:
Ubuntu now has over 40 million desktop users and counting.
40 million seems quite low, so I'm wondering how accurate this number is.
Tim
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Have Microsoft Windows tablet computer sales been significant?
When people talk about the iPad they often mention that Windows-based tablet computers never took off (never had significant sales). Is this true? Did any company ever make make money building/selling Windows-based tablet computers?
John
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Is Computer Science the fastest growing science field in the history of mankind?
Background
Wikipedia lists several scientific disciplines on its science article. To name a few, they are:
Logic, Maths, Statistics,
Molecular, Atomic, Plasma, Quantum Physics,
Astrophysics, Cosmology, Stellar astronomy,
Anatomy, Biochemistry,…
Gaurang Tandon
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Is humidity more relevant than high operating temperatures in hard drive reliability?
According to Environmental Conditions and Disk Reliability in Free-cooled Datacenters:
Based on our experience and observations, we conclude
that high relative humidity degrades reliability significantly,
having a much more substantial impact…
Anyname Donotcare
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