1204_meeting

Today is National 'Wear Jeans to Work Day'

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Today is National Blue Jeans Day!

In a group of 23 people, there is a 50% chance that 2 people in that group share a birthday.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

This one is a standard probability problem. It was also noted in my IceBreakers list, because I had to do a homework assignment on it once.

The first computer virus was developed in 1974. Called the Rabbit virus for its speed and ability to self-replicate.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

The first computer virus was the Creeper Virus in 1971, designed as a security test to see if a self-replicating program was possible.

The fastest supercomputer in the world is the Fugaku supercomputer, housed at the RIKEN Centre for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

The fastest supercomputer in the world is the Frontier system in the Oak Ridge Laboratory here in the U.S. It runs at over double the speed of the Fugaku supercomputer.

The logo for Mozilla Firefox is a fox, but its mascot is a red panda.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Translated to English, the name for a red panda is "firefox". Though the logo is a fox, red pandas have been considered the mascot of Firefox for years and Firefox used to livestream footage of red pandas.

1. E-mail was the first application launched on the Internet.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

E-mail (referring specifically to Ray Tomlinson's creation) was created in 1971, which predates the invention of the internet by 12 years.

(That photo of him is not from 1971)

Apple’s first computer, the Apple I, was sold in 1976 for $666.66.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

Steve Wozniak "liked repeating digits" and wanted it to be 1/3 more than the $500 wholesale price, leading to the price being $666.66. He had no idea of the relation until long afterwards.

We have never created a computer that can beat anyone in a game of chess.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

1. In 1997 an IBM supercomputer known as Deep Blue, defeated the world-renowned chess master Garry Kasparov through a critical move that came from an unexpected bug in the software. Since 2005, no human has been able to beat a high-powered computer in a standard tournament chess match.

One of the most prominent websites for tracking COVID-19 was created by a teenager.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

1. At the age of 17 Avi Schiffmann created one of the most prominent COVID-19 tracking websites on the internet, named “ncov2019.live.”

Chrome Explore was the first web browser.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

1. Mosaic was the original browser, released in 1993 way before the mainstream ones such as Mozilla or Chrome Explore.