Six Interesting April Facts

1. The Romans called this month Aprilis which may derive from the verb aperire meaning “to open”, referring to flowers and fruits opening.
2. April was the 216th most popular name given to a baby girl in England and Wales in 2015 and the 191st most popular in Scotland.

3. Of the eight US presidents who died in office, three died in April.
4. April is the first month of the year with exactly 30 days and the only month with an “i” in its name.

5. In the UK, April is national awareness month for pets, mathematics, stress, irritable bowel syndrome, bowel cancer and jazz.

6. The Anglo-Saxons called April Eostre-Monadh, possibly named after a pagan goddess.

Windows no Longer King

The technology world passed a potentially huge marker during March 2017 as Google developed Android, with 37.93% overtook Microsoft's Windows at 37.91% software in terms of worldwide users. Apple IOS is at 13%

Google's mobile software tops Windows after almost 30 years as number one. The news comes from online research company StatCounter, which continually monitors the number of users worldwide.

Windows still dominates the worldwide desktop market, at 84%. Android had just 2.4% of all internet usage five years ago.

Hacking Browsers

Google Chrome is the least hackable web browser, the results of the 10th annual Pwn2Own event shows. The computer hacking contest is held each year at the Vancouver, Canada CanSecWest security conference and sees contestants desperately try to exploit popular software and hardware with previously unknown vulnerabilities.

Those who manage to successfully find an exploit win a cash prize, a jacket emblazoned with the year of their win, and, the device they broke into. During the three days of Pwn2Own, Microsoft Edge was successfully attacked five times – racking up $300,000 in bounties. Safari was exploited three times, Firefox was attacked twice, but only once successfully. Google Chrome had no attacks completed in time.

Library Tidbit

There are more libraries in Britain’s prisons than there are in its schools.

Movie Trailer Facts

The color of the background for movie rating cards is important. The rating for the film itself shows up in text, but is also indicated by the background color of the rating card splash screen.
There are three colors used - red, yellow, and green. The specific regulations surrounding what can be shown in the preview for each of these rating cards are set by the MPAA.
The most commonly seen one is the green rating card. Before April of 2009, a green background meant that the preview was approved for all audiences. Since April of 2009, the MPAA now states that the green card is for “appropriate audiences”. This basically means it is appropriate for audiences in theaters, taking into account what movie the audience is about to watch.
A yellow rating card indicates the preview is for age-appropriate Internet viewers and is used on internet trailers only. The red rating card indicates that content in the preview is only appropriate for mature audiences. These previews can only be shown in theaters where the movie about to be watched is R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated.

Theatrical trailers must be less than two minutes and 30 seconds, as mandated by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). The MPAA gives each movie studio one exception to this a year where they are allowed to show a trailer that is longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Trailers shown online can be any length. The rating system itself is entirely voluntary on the part of studios. However, having a film rated tends to boost revenues significantly, so nearly all major studios submit all their films for rating.

Wordology, Portmanteau

[pawrt-man-toh] It would be a terrible shame if portmanteau were not itself a portmanteau. The word originally referred to a large traveling case made of stiff leather, derived from a combination of the French porter, meaning "to carry," and manteau, meaning "mantle" or "cloak."

The word's literary significance is the work of Lewis Carroll. In Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that the strange compound words she hears in Wonderland are "like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word."

Deserts and Sand and Ice

The two biggest deserts are the Antarctic and the Arctic. Even though they are covered with ice, they are dry enough to be considered deserts.


The Sahara, spanning an area of 8.5 million square kilometers (covers 29.6% of Africa) is the world’s hottest desert and third in size. The Sahara is only twenty percent sand, the rest of it is mostly made up of  bare rock, gravel, and pebbles.

Happy Friday

The road to happiness passes through the sea of smiles.

I am swimmingly happy today, because it is Happy Friday!

Cheese Weasel Day

 It is the only Internet holiday to say thanks to Techies for all they do. It began in the early 1990s, is celebrated on April 3 or the first Monday after April 3, and has been dishing out great fun ever since then.
Legend has it the Cheese Weasel  travels the world, leaving a bit of cheese under keyboards or mouse pads of good techie boys and girls, men and women. Have some fun and surprise your favorite geek to some cheese on that day.

Give your favorite techie a Thank You shout out using #cheeseweaselday on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or your favorite social site. If you are not close by on that day, send a picture of some cheese.

National Tartan Day

The US Senate Resolution on National Tartan Day was passed on March 20, 1998. Tartan Day is a celebration of Scottish heritage on 6 April, the date on which the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320.

It commemorates the Scottish Declaration of Independence, from which the American Declaration of Independence was modeled. It also recognizes achievements of Americans of Scottish descent. National Tartan Day parades occur in major cities on or around April 6. They often feature bag-pipe bands playing Scottish music and people dressed in kilts with tartan patterns that represent their Scottish clans. 

Olympic Camera 1936

Nazi Olympics in Berlin in 1936 were the first to be televised. The six feet long zoom cameras were called "Fernsehkanonen" (television canon). Three of these cameras were used at that Olympics.

Snapping Windows

Windows 10 supports four window snap positions, one for each corner. You can use this feature to see two equal size windows at the same time. Useful if you want to compare things from. If you have Windows snap activated (It is usually default on), snapping a window into one of these quadrants with keyboard shortcuts takes a double move: Windows key plus left/right arrow, followed by Windows key + up/down arrow.

To snap a window into the upper-left quadrant for example, press Windows key + left arrow and then, while continuing to hold down the Windows key, press the up arrow.

Quick Clean Humor

I told my girlfriend she drew her eyebrows too high.
She seemed surprised.

What's the difference between in-laws and outlaws?
Outlaws are wanted.

And God said to John, come forth and you shall be granted eternal life.
But John came fifth and won a toaster.

I bought some shoes from a drug dealer.
I don't know what he laced them with, but I have been tripping all day.

I bought the world's worst thesaurus yesterday.
Not only is it terrible, it's terrible.

Wordology, Noisome

Noisome (noy some) It comes from Middle English noysome, from noy - shortened annoyance, alteration of anoi, from Anglo-French anui, from anuier to harass, annoy.

Noisome sounds like it might be a synonym of noisy, but it is not. Something noisome is disgusting, offensive, or harmful, often in its smell. Also highly obnoxious or objectionable as noisome habits. English words annoy and annoyance are also related to noisome.