User Raffzahn

203 votes

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Why is the keyboard and cellphone / telephone numbers in a different order?

answered Jul 13, 2020 at 15:19

151 votes

Why did some early CPUs use external math chips?

answered Apr 4, 2018 at 8:29

119 votes

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How did people use ed?

answered Jan 3, 2018 at 22:52

106 votes

Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

answered Jul 1, 2019 at 7:56

103 votes

What is between the sectors of floppy disks?

answered Aug 15, 2017 at 12:32

102 votes

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Did many programs really store years as two characters (Y2K bug)?

answered Jun 20, 2020 at 3:30

87 votes

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Why does NumLock exist?

answered Jul 1, 2022 at 18:21

86 votes

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What made Windows Me so crash-prone?

answered Jul 14, 2019 at 15:54

81 votes

Why were CLIs typically light text on dark background, whereas GUIs typically use(d) dark text on light background?

answered Sep 14, 2018 at 21:09

79 votes

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Did any 8-bit computer system / OS have concepts for concurrency and multitasking like we know from today?

answered Aug 22, 2017 at 19:07

77 votes

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How did games like Doom offer free trials? What was packaged in their free trial software packages?

answered Oct 28, 2020 at 19:59

76 votes

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Why did the MS-DOS API choose software interrupts for its interface?

answered Feb 25, 2020 at 21:05

76 votes

Why does the 80486 take longer to execute simple instructions than complex ones?

answered May 22, 2020 at 0:57

75 votes

Why did the IBM PC need a sound card?

answered Feb 28, 2018 at 22:38

75 votes

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How was C ported to architectures that had no hardware stack?

answered Aug 6, 2018 at 15:03

73 votes

What was the rationale behind 36 bit computer architectures?

answered Jul 24, 2019 at 0:01

70 votes

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How did Woz write the Apple 1 BASIC before building the computer?

answered Feb 12, 2021 at 3:55

69 votes

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Why do old games use flashing as means of showing damage?

answered Sep 2, 2019 at 0:48

67 votes

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How does the 68060 branch predictor work?

answered Dec 25, 2017 at 18:01

66 votes

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Why were chips socketed in early computers?

answered Sep 5, 2018 at 16:57

65 votes

How did the IEC decide to create kibibytes?

answered Jul 3, 2019 at 21:02

64 votes

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Did personal computers ever support 8" floppies?

answered Sep 20, 2018 at 9:10

63 votes

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Why did line printers have 132 columns?

answered Oct 3, 2018 at 14:00

63 votes

Locked-up DOS computer beeped on keypress. What mechanism caused that?

answered Jul 18, 2019 at 12:46

63 votes

How long can a floppy disk spin for before wearing out?

answered Feb 15, 2021 at 21:37

62 votes

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Why was "C:" chosen for the first hard drive partition?

answered Dec 4, 2020 at 16:30

61 votes

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Why did trackballs disappear?

answered Jan 18, 2019 at 8:51

59 votes

Have programming languages driven hardware development?

answered Jan 22, 2019 at 0:15

58 votes

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History of Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q for flow control

answered Aug 13, 2018 at 8:01

57 votes

How were files transferred between different systems in the late 1980s?

answered May 27, 2018 at 20:21

Stack Exchange Network

1,550 Answers

Why is the keyboard and cellphone / telephone numbers in a different order?

Why did some early CPUs use external math chips?

How did people use ed?

Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?

What is between the sectors of floppy disks?

Did many programs really store years as two characters (Y2K bug)?

Why does NumLock exist?

What made Windows Me so crash-prone?

Why were CLIs typically light text on dark background, whereas GUIs typically use(d) dark text on light background?

Did any 8-bit computer system / OS have concepts for concurrency and multitasking like we know from today?

How did games like Doom offer free trials? What was packaged in their free trial software packages?

Why did the MS-DOS API choose software interrupts for its interface?

Why does the 80486 take longer to execute simple instructions than complex ones?

Why did the IBM PC need a sound card?

How was C ported to architectures that had no hardware stack?

What was the rationale behind 36 bit computer architectures?

How did Woz write the Apple 1 BASIC before building the computer?

Why do old games use flashing as means of showing damage?

How does the 68060 branch predictor work?

Why were chips socketed in early computers?

How did the IEC decide to create kibibytes?

Did personal computers ever support 8" floppies?

Why did line printers have 132 columns?

Locked-up DOS computer beeped on keypress. What mechanism caused that?

How long can a floppy disk spin for before wearing out?

Why was "C:" chosen for the first hard drive partition?

Why did trackballs disappear?

Have programming languages driven hardware development?

History of Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Q for flow control

How were files transferred between different systems in the late 1980s?