By Tony Hallett, 13 June 2003 14:42
NEWS Everyone knows about urban myths - the Kentucky Fried rat, 'the film star and the rodent', the footballer and his team-mate's sister, and more besides have become well-known tall stories. But there are similar, technology-related tales that we hear frequently. silicon.com is calling these IT myths and we want to find out the best ones - the idea being to see how much truth there is in them by then asking the parties involved, whether they be governments, telcos, IT vendors or others. Here are some examples of what we commonly hear: Phone tapping frenzy All trans-Atlantic phone calls are recorded and analysed on giant state/telco computers, which use voice recognition technology to pick up key phrases like Bush, bomb and Osama. Bill Gates can't code Despite heading the most successful software company in the world, Bill Gates is actually technically inept. Big Blue IBMs nickname is Big Blue because in its early decades everyone there had to wear blue clothes all the time shirts, suits, underwear, you name it. CCTV nation On any given day, the average worker in London is recorded by about 300 closed-circuit TV cameras. Alright, so at least one of the above is true but we know there are much better examples out there. Let us know the IT myths you've heard by emailing editorial@silicon.com . Infamy awaits the best story we discover - and maybe even the person who brings it to light.
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