Spot the fictional trivia - No Googling!

Thread Games
1

Without googling, spot the fiction among this list of trivia items, 3 are correct, one is made up:

  1. The first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer, purchased by a man who collected broken laser pointers

  2. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos hated reading and claimed to have never read an entire book - he originally intended for Amazon to sell only novelty hats

  3. The Bluetooth communication standard is named after a 10th century Scandinavian King, Harald Bluetooth

  4. The very first domain name, symbolics.com,
    was registered 7 months before Microsoft released the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0

2

The Jeff Bezos factoid is the only one too silly to be plausible. You should have picked SOME other bogus product besides novelty hats.

3

I’m going with Harald Bluetooth.

4

I’m going with the laser pointer. Who the hell buys a broken laser pointer?

5

That’s the only one I know for a fact is a true one. I remember reading about the origin of Bluetooth and wondering what kind of stupid name that was.

The eBay one is also probably true… but knowing eBay, the guy sold the broken laser pointer to himself for $1 as a way to jack up his seller approval rating artificially.

6

#1 seems pretty silly now that you can buy laser pointers at gas stations, but back then they were pretty expensive and not all that common.

I’m going with #2.

7

Gonna say #2 also; Amazon’s always been an online book retailer, AFAIK.

That #3 factoid’s pretty damn cool, btw.

8

Gotta be #2. I remember watching interviews with Jeff Bezos when he was promoting the Kindle, and he talked very enthusiastically about wanting to recreate the feeling of reading a good book. Even though it was hype, I don’t think it was coming from a man who hated reading.

9

I’m figuring #2 as well.

Ithink #4 is the most likely to be true. The first network that would eventually morph into the internet went active in 1969. So it’s not unreasonable that by 1985 someone would register a domain name, since the web would have no doubt been conceived of around then considering it went live in 1990.

10

I was hesitant to move this to Thread Games, because if it’s just a one-off question/puzzle/quiz type of thing, I’d say it was fine in the Game Room.

If it’s going to be an ongoing, “post more of these” thread, though, it belongs here…so I’m going to move it assuming that was the intent of the OP.

11

I wasn’t even aware that “Thread Games” existed, this is where I would have put this had I know.

Enough people have guessed it, #2 is the fiction.

12

Considering I know that 1, 3 and 4 are true, I’m going to have to go with #2

13

Yeah, this is the one I knew was true. Ebay’s origin is kind of famous.

14

Ok, here’s round two. Once again three are real and one I have invented. Anyone caught googling will be disqualified and forfeit any claims to any (fictional) prize money.

  1. Saxophonist Kenny G. Invented the Starbucks Frappuccino

  2. James Baird, inventor of the Baird Undersock, “a medicated sock” which would keep people’s feet dry in wet weather, later went on to invent 3D color television which he first demonstrated in 1928.

  3. In 1994, former Guns N Roses bassist Duff McKagan earned millions after he decided to invest $100k in local Seattle companies, including a coffee shop, a software company and an online book seller - Starbucks, Microsoft and Amazon.

  4. Amateur computer programmer and comedian Paul Lynde used his free time during breaks of filming Hollywood squares to invent an early version of the programming language that later became Pascal

15

Holy shit! I know absolutely nothing about any of these but I’m going to guess:

4. Paul Lynde. I think he spent his spare time drinking, as I recall.

16

I’m going to guess that the false fact answer was inspired by the TRUE fact that ventriloquist Paul Winchell helped design an artificial heart.

I’m going to say Paul Lynde had no connection to Pascal or any other computer language.

17

Got to be #4.

18

Another vote for Paul Lynde and #4.

19

Add me to the #4 list. IIRC PASCAL was invented by Nicolaus Wirth to replace BASIC and all those gotos as a teaching language.

20

Well I guess that one was too easy. You all got it right, number 4 was completely made up.
All right, one last one:

  1. The fax machine was invented 30 years before the invention of the telephone

  2. Before she played Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days, Marion Ross worked as a tattoo artist and once gave a tattoo to John Steinbeck

  3. The son of Jack Haley (the actor who played the tin man in The Wizard Of Oz) married the daughter of Judy Garland (Dorothy)

  4. The can opener was invented nearly 50 years after the invention of the tin can