The making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function.
Questions tagged [technology]
179 questions
110
votes
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Was there Cyrillic text visible on Intel 386 chips after decapping?
Heise, a German IT news portal, reported today about a chip presented to the State Council, including Erich Honecker, exactly thirty years ago.
They also mention how other chips had been copied from Western chips and relate the following story,…
0xC0000022L
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70
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2 answers
Do 3 billion devices run Java?
I was installing Java today and this was shown in the installation. Is there anything that supports this claim?
Alfredo Osorio
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47
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What is the failure rate of Solid-State Drives (SSD)?
One of our favourite StackExchange Overlords, Jeff Atwood, wrote a Coding Horror blog article in May 2011, decrying the unreliability of SSD drives.
Solid state hard drives fail. A lot. And not just any fail. I'm talking about catastrophic,…
Oddthinking
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Did one of the victims of the Buffalo shooting invent a water-powered engine for cars?
According to a number of conspiracy sites (see Natural News and Newspunch), Buffalo shooting victim Aaron Salter Jr had just invented and patented a gas-free car that runs on water (implying that is why he was shot).
Ignoring the conspiratorial part…
TheAsh
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Is the 'internet charging' described by the WifiEX Indiegogo campaign possible?
This device can apparently 'charge with internet' at home from my router, then allow me to connect with my phone while I'm out and about. It claims to work on planes and subway trains too.
In the FAQs they make reference to a SIM chip in the device,…
fredley
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Are military spy satellites as advanced as people think they are?
We've all been there: you're discussing the recent launch of a rocket carrying a satellite to orbit, or what have you, and suddenly someone pops in and makes a comment like
Yeah, it's amazing and scary how powerful spy technology has become.…
voithos
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14
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During WW2 were 2 broken ships each cut in half and welded together again?
During a lecture with Jennifer Egan, writer and Pulitzer-Prize winner, she was telling stories about the Brooklyn Navy Yard and one of those was that at one point during the second world war, 2 ships were brought in which were both damaged beyond…
stijn
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Are 95% of engineers in India unfit for software development jobs?
This article has been circulating on a few sites recently, which has as its headline:
95% engineers in India unfit for software development jobs, claims report
With the claim:
According to a study by employability assessment company Aspiring…
enderland
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11
votes
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Is Sports Direct 'using fingerprint recognition to ID unhappy workers'?
According to the Daily Mail,
Sports Direct bosses asked warehouse staff to press 'happy' or 'sad'
emoji buttons to say how they felt about their working conditions -
before using fingerprint recognition to ID unhappy workers, according
to a…
Mawg says reinstate Monica
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Did Lexus create a "real, rideable hoverboard"?
In a teaser video that has been viewed over 5 million times and taken seriously by many media outlets (e.g. the BBC), Lexus International make a bold claim:
Lexus has created a real, rideable hoverboard.
The description mostly hypes an associated…
user56reinstatemonica8
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9
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Does Microsoft telemetry send everything you say into the microphone or type on the keyboard to Microsoft?
The Windows Central (a non-MS site) claims that:
Following are the specific examples of Windows Telemetry data:
Typed text on keyboard sent every 30 minutes
Anything you say into a microphone is transmitted
Transcripts of things you say while…
the gods from engineering
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Is a barcode misread less frequent than cashier giving out the wrong change?
Both issues are hard to measure statistically because very few will pay attention to it, and if it ever happens, the persons involved will quickly correct it and try to hide it from others.
However, there is technology to measure reliability…
user2547
8
votes
2 answers
Do Electric Cars Inherently Consist of Fewer Parts than Combustion Engine Cars?
A recent Handelsblatt Global Edition article, How electric cars will charge Germany's job market, talks about changes in the job market due to the introduction of electric cars.
One of the first points it makes is about electric car production…
O. R. Mapper
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Did an IBM manual say: "Undetected errors are ignored"
On the Funny Things Seen In Source Code And Documentation page at the WikiWikiWeb I ran into the following:
Legend has it that the following is found in an ancient IBM manual:
Single bit errors are detected and corrected
Double bit errors are…
Daniël van den Berg
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7
votes
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Is there such a thing as a “GPS ID card” or GPS tracking on an ID card?
The Wikipedia article Human rights in Saudi Arabia#Women's rights cites an article from The Peninsula. The article is no longer available, but the claims Wikipedia sources thus are (emphasis mine):
In April 2010, a new, optional ID card for women…
gerrit
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