Test Your Nerd Knowledge — Apr 26, 2022
Here’s a review of this week’s questions:
- In 2009, Microsoft introduced a “decision engine, “ created to replace Live Search. What was it called?
- What does MPEG stand for?
- In what year was the first laptop computer introduced?
And here are the answers:
- Bing. Microsoft’s first entry into the realm of search engines happened in 1999 with the introduction of MSN Search. Windows Live Search, followed by just Live Search, came later, but the writing on the wall was obvious in the mid-2000’s as users flocked to Yahoo and Google. Attempting to compete in the search engine game was a huge mountain to climb for Steve Ballmer and his team, but Bing was finally unveiled at the “All Things Digital” conference in May of 2009. It is currently the third-largest search engine globally, behind Google and Baidu.
- Moving Picture Experts Group. MPEG files got their name from the group that invented them, the Moving Picture Expert Group. Their task was to develop standards for encoded representation of both digital video and audio. By 1992, the MPEG-1 standard was approved by the group at a meeting in London – a standard that gave us video CDs and MP3s. A file with a .mpeg file extension uses a specific type of compression that makes streaming and downloading much quicker than other popular video formats. The technology advanced over the years to the point where MP4 now allows files to be much smaller and easier to decode, which allows for video files to be easily embedded into websites, providing direct streaming to the user.
- 1981. Computer engineer Manny Fernandez is credited with introducing the first “laptop” computer. While bulkier, heavier, and nowhere near the sleek design of modern notebook computers, these machines were both portable and capable of sitting on a person’s lap. In 1983, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80, followed by IBM’s rollout of the IBM5155 in 1984. The first “notebook” laptop, in 1988, was the NEC UltraLite, which preceded the Apple Macintosh Portable by one year.