Ten Misconceptions About Technology

How many time have we heard various stories and self formed notions about various things related to technology and technological developments. This list brings to you the top ten most common misconceptions about technology. Read on to enlighten yourself, thank you very much!

10. MOBILE EXPLOSION

Misconception: It is dangerous to use a cellphone at a gas station

The reason for the wide-spread of this little bit of information about cell phones and their relevance to the gas station is due to a lot of emails that went out indicating that explosions and like wise mishaps at the gas station were due to the usage of cell phones. It was initially reported that SHELL was behind these emails. SHELL refused of course and the whole concept was left hanging in the air without a shred of scientific or experimental proof. Despite complete lack of proper proof gas and petrol pumps continue to post messages and warnings that people should switch off their phones while getting gas or petrol. Weird how people will believe just anything!

9. FIRST TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT

Misconception: Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly the Atlantic Ocean

This is another one that most of the people get wrong. It seems like Chinese whisper which started out as Charles Lindbergh was the first SOLO man to fly across the Atlantic and finally reached the public in the form of “Charles was the FIRST man to fly over the Atlantic”. It was in truth done by the crew of Many-Curtiss NC-4 in actuality.

8. TAKE THE HIGH ROAD

Misconception: The US Highway system was designed to allow planes to landing emergencies

We have heard all kinds of urban legends, hell I have heard like a gazillion urban legends which I find very hard to believe. One of them was that in the US, one mile out of every five to ten miles of highway needs to be absolutely straight so that it can be used as an emergency landing for planes. Well let me tell you, this is SO NOT TRUE! The fact, however, is that the highway system in Germany is designed to be able tobe used as a military landing.

7. GUTENBERG- THE ONE AND ONLY

Misconception: Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press or movable type

Another one that we have wrong is that Johannes Gutenberg initiated the printing press, which is also quite wrong because the printing press or the typewriter were in use in China years before he was even born. People also assume that THE HOLY BIBLE was the first thing he ever printed which is, again, false, because he had printed a lot of other documents for Catholic churches and letters before that. Also note worthy is the fact that he printed the latin bible just so that it can easily be read by the commoners.

6. COOKIE MONSTER

Misconception: Web cookies are dangerous and should be avoided

How many times have you ever faced a problem with the internet with someone or the other telling you that the only thing that can fix the problem is to delete the cookies? And how many times did it happen that a virus attacked your PC and one of you were told, “Oh see that is because you have never deleted the cookies and thus virus!”.

Let us please enlighten you that cookies are normal text files that various websites store on your computer only to better facilitate your browsing experience. Cookies cannot access anything on your system unless you have a major security flaw, in which case, you SHOULD catch a virus! Cookies are little helpful beings who save your info for favorite websites so you do not have to re-enter.

5. MACS AND VIRUSES

Misconception: Apple Macs don’t get viruses

They say “Those who switch to MAC never come BACK” and so this much I admit that it is very rare for a MAC to catch a virus. There isn’t a virus in the universe with that much of GUT. Jokes apart, MAC can get infected simply because it has Microsoft word and Excel and they catch micro viruses easily. Also, MAC has identifies four viruses but they are hardly ever seen just because MACs run software that does not give a lot of privileges to the users and thus no virus.

4. MOTORWAY AND HITLER

Misconception: Hitler created the autobahn

Autobahn is a large motorway and is also the first public motorway that was divided into lanes. A lot of people are under the misconception that Hitler and his Nazis were the first one to initiate this which is false. Because the autobahn was initiated in 1931,exactly two years before Hitler even came to Germany. The first UN-LANED project was initiated in Milan by a dictator in 1924. Interesting ain’t it?

3. PLANE TOILETS

Misconception: Planes dump their toilet waste while up in the air

So undoubtedly this has to be the most hilarious misconception EVER! People please, planes so DO NOT dump their waste right out of the plane simply because it is impossible unless the waste tanks actually explode. So rest assured that next time a plane passes overhead, a dollop of poop will not fly into your face or onto your head for that matter. As for the noise that the toilets make while flushing, well do realize with all due respect that noise is the vacuum used to pump the flush because gravity cannot be relied upon while in the air!

2. FIRST COMPUTER VIDEO GAME

Misconception: Pong was the first video game

Most of the people thing that PONG(which had two bat like objects and a ball that needed to be tossed around) was the first ever computer game (launched by Atari in the year 1972). This however is not true because the title of the first ever computer game goes to OXO, or the famous TIC TAC TOE you might say, which was developed around 20 years before PONG came out. Computers are way older than most people actually think them to be. To think that the first ever computer game is sixty years old is actually quite interesting.

1. THE WEB/INTERNET

Misconception: The web is the Internet

The Web, developed by Tim Berners is actually the WORLD WIDE WEB which is made up of servers and clients like Firefox,IE that display pages off of the internet. The Internet itself is an extended form of ARPANET when they upgraded to start using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or the Internet Protocol (IP), which were a system of network communication that is still in use today. A lot of people think that the internet and the WWW are the same thing however they are not as I explained above and gladly cleared the concept!