Who invented rings?
You need to be more specific.The rings of Saturn were not invented by humans.The rings you put on your finger come from the prehistoric era.The internal ring gear in a planetary gear set dates from 2nd century AD.The external ring gear on an engine flywheel dates back to when electric starters were invented.The rings in AC generators came before Westinghouse joined War of the currents - Wikipedia
Why are curved mouses ergonomically better than flat mouses?
Actually, you can still use an ergonomic mouse improperly so, no, they are not ergonomic. However, you can keep your body ergonomic without an outside force beating it into submission.So, if you have an ordinary, everyday, plain old mouse, use it ergonomically and, you’ll save $75.Ergonomic mice are not TRAINING WHEELS for proper movement. Just move properly.
What invention was invented for one reason, but unintentionally solved another problem?
I believe the fable of the person whom created glasses, or looking glasses, originated from the idea that the inventor realized the world was clearer when he saw through the lens created from his emptied fishbowl.One day, growing tired of wearing the fishbowl on his head, he was walking along when the bowl fogged up so bad he was unable to see! He walked right off his path and ran right into a tree! (I was always told the inventer was Benjamin Franklin… but that's up for a fact check).“Oh no!”, cried the nearly blind man (Luckily, he sustained no injuries….). He bent down and starting fishing around the dirt and grass to collect his pieces. He was sobbing as he held them up, unable to see how he was going to be able to repair it. Then it struck him. He could see through the tiny pieces!All he'd need was some wire, and 2 broken pieces… He worked all day and night and discovered it looked best when the pieces matched and could be made into circles.Finally, when his project was complete, he stepped out of his house wearing his new glasses. Not only that, but carrying a box full of glasses made from all the pieces of his misfortune.He went up and down all of the streets in his town, knocking on doors, searching for those who were hard of seeing. Now able to see with their glasses, a larger and larger crowd followed him, looking at the sky and the birds and marvelling at their world in its new found beauty.The sun began to set. All hard of sight had gotten their new pair in the town, and had made their way to the only building large enough to accomodate all those who once were blind and now could see, the church. As the dark shades of the night fell, for the first time the whole crowd saw the stars come into focus. The sounds of “ooh's" and “ah’s" and a clamoring of excitement arose!The people were all so happy that they agreed they'd dance the night away. They hoisted the maker up in the air and brought him to the bell tower to notify others of the event! It was the ONLY time the churchbells would ring at night and in the dark. Still to this day however, each year beyond that marvelous night, 150 years have passed and the sky is always clear.
When did the idea of the “mouse” for a computer come about? How has it evolved since its original creation?
Thanks for A2A.When did the idea of the “mouse” for a computer come about? How has it evolved since it’s original creation?The very first mouse, as has already been cited, was a Xerox product, but it looked very different from what we recognise today.It started out as a block of wood with two plastic wheels arranged at right-angles to each other, which was then refined into this:Xerox would go on to develop it into a hand-held compact 3-button device which cost about US$300 per unit. It was used on the Alto which cost something like US$10,000.00:This was probably the first computer to offer a Portrait screen as default and set the standard for future WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) systems that Apple would later attempt on the Macintosh.Instead of relying on the wheels being in direct contact with the exterior, a ball was inserted:When Steve Jobs saw it, he had his own designers develop one that fitted in the hand and could be used on the thigh of his jeans, but opted for a single-button implementation:This came with the Lisa for a similar US$10,000.Microsoft rapidly followed suit with a two-button ball-mouse and the first DOS program that made use of the mouse was MS Word. There was also a 3-button entry called the PC-Mouse which used a different protocol to the MS-Mouse.Now that we have an optical mouse without moving parts, many of us feel blessed that we don’t have to worry about a carefully crafted mousing surface, nor the regular removal of the ball to clean out all the smegma. Depending on the design of a particular mouse, it was often easier to disassemble rather than attempt cleaning through the ball-hole.What many people fail to realize, is the amount of computing power jammed into a modern optical mouse. A tiny CCD camera is constantly scanning the area under the mouse illuminated by the LED, and the internal processor is comparing that to a previous image in order to calculate how far the mouse has moved (if at all). When the MS-Mouse was released, 8088 and 80286 machines were the work-horses of the day and such a machine, consuming 65 Watts remains incapable of the image processing that is done inside the optical mouse at under 2.5 Watts of energy.
What's a weird product most people don't own but you highly recommend?
It’s actually this hat:It’s maybe not all too weird, but it’s the first thing that came to mind and I can definitely highly recommend it. Well, I maybe can’t recommend the cap itself, mainly because I don’t know where to get one (actually if I knew where to buy one, I’d instantly buy a second one), but I can definitely recommend getting a hat with a weird motive for yourself.So here’s the story behind this cap: I’m an introvert and until last summer I tended to thus wear mostly “boring” clothes in the sense that I never drew any attention from what I was wearing, except maybe on Halloween. But then comes August last year and I spend the last month of my year abroad in Japan with my parents. We walk through China Town in Yokohama and go by a small shop selling all kinds of hats. I instantly see that cap with pineapples on it and I’m weirdly drawn to it. I even pick it up and my mom tells me to try it on.Here’s the thing, though: Until this point I hated wearing anything on my head, not to speak of the fact that I did not like to draw attention to myself with my clothing. Nevertheless I put on the hat and instantly it made me look like another person. I looked so much more confident with it.Still, I put it back on the rack and walked on after realizing it cost 3000 yen (about 30 dollars). But luck was on my side that day and my mom reminded me that I still had the 50 dollars my grandparents had given me for our trip. I went back into the store and bought the cap, and it probably was the best decision I made that year.I wore it almost every second the rest of that summer and it really made a difference. People started talking to me that usually would have never looked at me, and some people started to recognize me when they saw me again.There’s a time before I bought that hat and a time after: After buying the hat, I started talking to many more people than ever before and I even got to know some people that I meet regularly now. I’m not sure if I can attribute everything to that hat, but it definitely helped a lot.
Do you still use a can opener?
No. Most of the cans I have at home sit unopened. I polish them sometimes, and occasionally peel off the label, wash it then put in on the can.One humorous time, my girlfriend noticed a can of peaches in the cupboard and asked if she could open it and eat a peach. She’s such a nice girl, I said ‘sure, you can eat of them all if you like.” She was looking around for a while and I asked her if there was a problem. She said “Do you have can opener?”I laughed, and said, “A can opener? Who has a can opener any more?”I got my hunting rifle out and fired a 30.06 bullet at the can. Two more and she was able to pry open the lid and dig out a peach. Kind of made a mess though and one of the bullets destroyed my microwave - the other went through the wall and punched a hole in my neighbors fridge.My girlfriend laughed and said “Your right, no one needs a can opener!”