MYTHBUSTERS: Computer Myths!!!

1. You can recover data from a failing hard drive by putting it in the freezer for a few hours and then reinstalling it in the computer.
*The answer is TRUE.

While this method won't magically fix whatever is wrong with your computer, it can get your hard drive working long enough for you to recover important data before it gives up the ghost for good. This generally works best when the drive is making a tell-tale clicking sound caused by overheated metal parts that have expanded. Freezing the hard drive cools and shrinks the metal so the drive will mount properly and run long enough (hopefully) for you to copy your files to another source.


2. Microsoft once announced it was developing a portable toilet, called the iLoo, in which users could surf the Internet.
*The answer is TRUE.

In 2003, Microsoft's MSN U.K. division announced plans to develop a portable toilet for use at summer music festivals that would be equipped with a keyboard, plasma screen and wireless Internet access. They already had some success with Internet-ready park benches in London, and were carrying the idea through to the "iLoo," complete with special toilet paper printed with URLs.The iLoo project quickly became the butt of jokes in the media and on late-night talk shows. Microsoft's corporate headquarters in the United States responded by saying the whole thing was a hoax, but later confirmed that while their British MSN division had been working on such a project, it had been scrapped after the announcement prompted so much ridicule.

3. The term "bug" was coined in 1945 when a trapped moth was found to be the cause of a malfunction in a primitive computer at Harvard University.
*The answer is FALSE.

Although Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, the mathematician who oversaw the project at Harvard, is largely credited with coining the term "computer bug," the word "bug" had been used to mean a glitch or error for many years before this incident occurred. In fact, she was not even there at the time, but the technician who removed the moth from the machine carefully taped it into the logbook with the notation, "First actual case of bug being found."

4. Creating a fake email address in your address book will prevent your computer from spreading viruses.
*The answer is FALSE.

According to a bit of email advice that has been circulating on the Internet since 2001, you can foil a computer virus by adding a fake email address, such as aaaaaa@aaa.aaa, to the beginning of your address book. Unfortunately, most computer viruses don't go through your address book alphabetically and stop as soon they encounter one that doesn't work – they just send a separate message to each address – so the only result would be having that particular one bounce back while the virus sent itself to everyone else you know.The best way to beat a virus is to install anti-virus software and avoid opening emails and attachments from unfamiliar senders.

5. In 1977, the CEO of a major computer company said, "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
*The answer is TRUE.

Ken Olsen, co-founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation, did indeed utter those words at a 1977 meeting of the World Future Society. While his comments seem remarkably shortsighted, particularly considering that his company manufactured personal computers in the 1990s, they should be examined in context. Olsen was not referring to PCs, which he later had in his own home, but to the more complex computers of science fiction that could run all the systems in your home (climate control, meal preparation, cleaning, entertainment) – such as the ship's computer in Star Trek.Of course today that possibility doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore, either …