Did You Know? Tech Trivia That’s Strange, But Also True

Did You Know? Tech Trivia That’s Strange, But Also True

From accidental inventions to surprising digital milestones, here are 10 weird and wonderful tech facts about the tech you use every day and to dominate your next trivia night.

  1. Bluetooth Was Named After a Viking King

Bluetooth is named after Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, a 10th-century Danish king known for uniting Scandinavia. Engineers picked the name as a placeholder during development, and it stuck. The logo? It’s a combination of his initials in Nordic runes.

  1. The First Computer Mouse Was Made of Wood

Invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964, the very first mouse was a rectangular wooden shell with two wheels. It didn’t have a scroll wheel, and didn’t catch on until decades later.

  1. The Word “Robot” Comes from Czech Theater

“Robot” first appeared in a 1920 play called R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Czech writer Karel Čapek. The word comes from “robota,” meaning forced labor or drudgery.

  1. Amazon Started Out Selling Only Books

When Amazon launched in 1995, it only sold books and operated out of Jeff Bezos’ garage. It wasn’t until 1998 that it started selling music and videos, and later everything from kitchen gadgets to cloud services.

  1. There’s a Secret Room in Mount Rushmore

Behind Abraham Lincoln’s head is a hidden chamber originally meant to house America’s most important documents. It’s called the Hall of Records, and while not open to the public, it does contain historical records sealed in titanium vaults.

  1. Nintendo Was Founded in the 1800s

Before making video games, Nintendo began in 1889 as a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan. Over the years, it tried several businesses, including running a taxi service and “love hotels”, before pivoting to electronic entertainment.

  1. Google’s Name Was a Misspelling

Google is a play on the word “googol,” which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The story goes that when one of the founders accidentally misspelled it as “Google” while registering the domain, they just rolled with it.

  1. Your Smartphone Has More Power Than Apollo 11

The smartphone in your pocket is millions of times more powerful than the onboard computer that landed astronauts on the Moon in 1969. The Apollo Guidance Computer had just 64KB of memory and ran at 0.043MHz.

  1. There’s a Museum Devoted to 404 Errors

Yes, really. The Museum of Broken Connections (a digital art project) curates real-life 404 error pages from websites around the world. It explores how digital disconnection can mirror human emotion.

  1. The Most Popular Password Is Still… “123456”

Despite all the hacks and warnings, “123456” and “password” continue to top the list of most commonly used passwords every year. A friendly reminder: if you’re using either, please change it today.

Scroll to Top