Page 14 - Technology Facts

You know that 404 'Page not Found' message? 418 Means 'I'm a Teapot'!

Oh, you received the dreaded “404 Not Found” when trying to access that website. Bummer. Better check the address. Whoops, there it is again. It’s happened to you, right? Nothing’s worse than those rude black letters at the top of your screen denying you access to the latest popular website. Maybe you’ve even received the Voldemort of all codes, the dreaded “403 FORBIDDEN.” Admit it…your heart skips a beat when you see the 403…what have I done? You glance over your shoulder, wondering when the man in the black suit will be knocking at your door and showing you his badge through the peephole. (Ok, maybe that’s just me.)

There’s actually a multitude of codes that internet users come across frequently when navigating the world wide web. One of the most interesting we’ve come across is code 418. Never heard of it? It’s the “I’m a Teapot” code. It was defined in 1998 by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) as an April Fool’s joke. Though it is a defined code, it’s not expected to actually be implemented by actual HTTP servers. Now there's a surprise.

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Germany has a water bridge that allows massive ships to cross over another river!

It's called the Magdeburg Water Bridge and it's a navigable aqueduct in Germany that connect the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mitteland Canal and allows ships to cross over the Elbe river. It measures 918 meters, which makes it the longest navigable aqueduct in the world.

Before this bridge was built, ships had to go on a 12 KM detour to pass from Elbe-Havel to the Mittelland canal, also, the Elbe had low water levels at some points, making it hard for fully loaded barges to cross and causing expensive off-loading of cargo.

Check out more pics of this awesome water bridge at the source!

Facebook is testing charging you to send messages to non-friends

Say you went and saw someone speak at an event and you want to Facebook message them. If you're not Friends with them, your message will go on to the "other" tab and might never be seen by them. Facebook thinks they can change that for $1.

Facebook thinks charging for messages will cut down on spammers and ensure that only messages that need to get there will get there. If you pay the fee, your message goes into the Inbox, instead of the little-known other folder.

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Want to work for Google? Be prepared to wear this ridiculous thing on your first Friday

It's no secret that Google is one of the most awesome workplaces in the world. Their offices are usually filled with a lot of amenities that make employee's lives easier. They have mini-kitchens all around so you can snack any time you want and you get things like "innovation Time" where you can spend 20% of your work time doing projects that you're interested in.

On your first week, though, you will probably be made to look like a fool. New employees are called "Nooglers" (presumably a portmanteau of New and Googler) and they're given a propeller beanie cap in Google colors that they are supposed to wear to the office on their first Friday working for the tech giant.

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Filesharing app LimeWire was sued for $75 TRILLION!

Along with Napster, LimeWire was one of the most popular applications that people used to download mp3s illegally. At its peak, LimeWire had 4 million daily users. It used a similar Peer-to-Peer technology as Napster that allowed people to share files, mostly MP3s of popular songs. Thirteen major recording companies sued LimeWire LLC for fostering copyright infringement.

As the case progressed, the music studios argued that LimeWire was liable for every time a file was illegally downloaded through their system. Their estimate was that there had been 500 million illegal downloads, which would come out to a penalty of $75 trillion ($75.000.000.000.000!)

Ultimately the court decided that number was ridiculous and said that the company was liable only once per song, and the damages would amount somewhere between $7.5m to $1.5b. The parties eventually settled for $105 million.

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