› added 9 months ago

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TIL that fixing a software bug made the bug worse. While fixing a flaw in the Atari BASIC language that causes the computer to freeze, the programmer saw the same code elsewhere, and changed that too. Doing so reintroduced the same problem he had fixed, but now the lock up occurs much more often.

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11gO TIL When the Soviets allowed the Chinese to produce their own copies of the Mig-21, the Soviet design had so many flaws that the Chinese had to make nearly 250 changes to the design to overcome flaws or incomplete design documentation.
9YOJM TIL that the pre-cursor to female smart assistants - Siri, Alexa, etc - was a real telephone switchboard operator called Emma Nutt. Nutt was the first female telephone operator, and her success marked the start of the use of the female voice as an entry-point to accessing technology and information.
69eLW TIL that a main reason historians are sure Frederick the Great was gay is on July 1750, the Prussian king unmistakably wrote to his gay secretary and reader, Claude Étienne Darget: “Mes hémorroïdes salient affectueusement votre v…” “My hemorrhoids affectionately greet your cock”
Y7gjW TIL baby giraffes fall 6 feet to the ground they are born. The fall doesn’t hurt them, but snaps the umbilical cord and tears the amniotic sack, with the shock of the fall stimulating the baby to take its first breath.
jW5E TIL that the US army wanted to master memes to influence enemies and the population in 2006