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Minnesota is the birthplace of the supercomputer, developed for code cracking during World War II. Tech giants of their day, including Cray Research and Control Data Corporation, were based in the Twin Cities. And while Al Gore is infamously misquoted as “inventing the internet,” humble Minnesota actually can claim a role with the University of Minnesota’s early contribution of the gopher protocol in the early 1990s.

The Twin Cities sit on opposing shores of the mighty Mississippi River—Minneapolis is big brother to smaller and sleepier St. Paul—making up a metro area of approximately 3.76 mill

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