• 2007 Golden Penguin Bowl Questions & Answers •
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| Q |
What CPU powered the original Terminator? |
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The 6502, as seen in the scrolling "Terminator view" scenes. |
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| Q |
In Terminator 2, how did the Terminator describe his CPU ? |
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As a neural network "A learning machine". |
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| Q |
What was the name of the BUS invented by IBM that was designed to replace the aging ISA architecture ? |
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MCA "Micro Channel Architecture" bus. |
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| Q |
What does the acronym "PCMCIA" stand for? |
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"Personal Computer Memory Card International Association"
"Peripheral Component Microchannel Interconnect Architecture"
"People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms". |
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| Q |
What new software license was just announced by the Free Software Foundation ? |
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The GPL version 3 (or LGPL version 3). |
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| Q |
How long ago (in years) was the last update to the GPL, the GPL version 2 released? |
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16 years. |
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| Q |
What varient of *BSD uses the puffer fish as its logo? |
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OpenBSD |
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| Q |
In the Sci-Fi series "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" name the three robots shown. |
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Crooooooow, Gypsy, Tom Servo |
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| Q |
Name the fourth MST3K Robot whose essential job everyone forgets |
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Cambot |
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| Q |
What Linux distribution does Michael Dell use on his laptop? |
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Ubuntu |
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| Q |
If you click on "buy" on a system at the Dell Linux web site, what operating system does Dell recommend? |
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Dell recommends Windows Vista Home Premium. |
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| Q |
Name the movie featuring the NS-5 domestic Robot? |
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I Robot |
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| Q |
What kind of computer "brain" powers the NS-5? |
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Positronic |
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| Q |
Which famous cryptographer claims he can losslessly compress random data by 50% with his fists? |
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Bruce Schneier |
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| Q |
What is the name of the algorithm Bruce invented for the Advanced Encryption Standard contest? |
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Two fish |
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| Q |
According to Microsoft, how many of its software patents does a Linux distribution violate? |
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235 |
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| Q |
In the previous five years, how many suits have been filed against Microsoft for software patent violations? |
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96 |
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| Q |
Who has said of the Python language, "One Python programmer can finish in two months what two C++ programmers can't complete in a year?" |
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Guido van Rossum |
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| Q |
In the famous "Monkey boy" dance video, what does Steve Ballmer think Microsoft needs? |
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Developers |
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| Q |
The Mars rovers "Spirit" and "Opportunity" have now been working on Mars for more than 3 1/2 years. How long were they designed to operate? |
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90 days |
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| Q |
The Mars rovers run what operating system? |
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VxWorks (but the rover "drivers" do run Linux on their workstations.) |
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| Q |
In the Star Trek episode "Space Seed", ship's historian Marla McGivers falls in love with what visitor to the Enterprise ? |
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Khan (Khan Noonien Singh) |
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| Q |
What was the name of Khan's ship? |
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The SS Botany Bay |
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| Q |
Which Free Software developer, founder of Cygnus Solutions and also the creator of G++, saw the GPL as a "business plan in disguise?" |
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Michael Tiemann, now with Red Hat |
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| Q |
Name the other two founders of Cygnus Solutions. |
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John Gilmore and David "Gumby" Henkel-Wallace |
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| Q |
Who founded Penguin Computing in 1998? |
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Sam Ockman |
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| Q |
Name the movies made from these Phillip K Dick stories.
(1) "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"
(2) "The Minority Report."
(3) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" |
| A |
"We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" became Total Recall
(2) "The Minority Report." stayed as Minority Report
(3) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" became Blade Runner. |
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| Q |
After his death, how was Phillip K Dick resurrected for Wired Magazine? |
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As an android |
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| Q |
What ubiquitous technology did the ALOHA protocol from the University of Hawaii inspire? |
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Ethernet |
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| Q |
What was the name of the IBM competitor to Ethernet, originally developed in Sweden, now deceased? |
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Token Ring networking |
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| Q |
What is the name of the first commercial video game? |
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Pong |
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| Q |
What was the first hardware modification needed to the original arcade console? |
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To double the size of the coin box. |
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| Q |
What race in Stargate originally owned these large, pyramid-shaped space ships? |
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The Gua'uld. |
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| Q |
What the rather visual clue that a human has been taken over by a Gua'uld? |
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Glowing eyes |
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| Q |
What programming language was created by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto and combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features? |
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Ruby |
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| Q |
What Web application framework, written in Ruby, describes itself as "Web development that doesn't hurt"? |
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Ruby on Rails |
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| Q |
According to Arthur C. Clarke's third law of prediction "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from" what? |
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Magic |
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| Q |
In Clarke's 1945 paper "Extra-Terrestrial Relays - Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage" what was he the first to describe ? |
| A |
Geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays. |
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| Q |
What 1983 movie featured the WOPR mainframe? |
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War Games |
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| Q |
From the movie, what is the only winning move in the game "Global Thermonuclear War"? |
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"The only winning move ... is not to play." |
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| Q |
What happened to Pluto this year that changed the shape of the solar system? |
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Pluto was demoted to "dwarf planet" status. |
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What caused the demotion? |
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The discovery of Eris, or UB313, which is a dwarf planet larger than Pluto. |
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| Q |
Why does debugging matter, according to this creative Microsoft advertisement? |
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Cylons |
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| Q |
What extension to the VI editor was created as a joke after Microsoft retired "clippy"? |
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Vigor, the helpful VI paperclip! |
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| Q |
What is exceptional about the internet connection of 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg in Sweden? |
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It's the world's fastest, at 40 gigabits-per-second. |
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| Q |
State Asimov's original three laws of robotics. |
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1). A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2). A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3). A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. |
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| Q |
Who recently filed a patent application for "an advertisement supported free operating system"? |
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Microsoft |
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| Q |
What operating system did the mothership in "Independence Day" run? |
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Mac OS 9, due to the virus compatibility. |
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| Q |
What is the origin of the term "wiki"? |
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It comes from the phrase "Wiki Wiki", a Hawaiian-language word for fast. |
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| Q |
Who described Microsoft's C# language with the phrase "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?" |
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James Gosling, creator of the Java language. |
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| Q |
Would you have made money investing in the "Backrub" search engine, pictured here in 1999? |
| A |
Yes, it became Google. |
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| Q |
What are: Blum Blum Shub, Mersenne twister, Lagged Fibonacci generator, Linear congruential generator algorithms all examples of? |
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Pseudorandom number generators |
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| Q |
For what purpose is the internet "really, really, great" according to the muppets of Avenue Q? |
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For porn |
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| Q |
Why should you never use a color laser printer to print anonymous notes? |
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Color laser printers add yellow "tracking dots", encoding the date, time and printer serial number onto every page printed. |
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| Q |
What company invented the now ubiquitous "Secure Sockets Layer" protocol? |
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Netscape. RIP. |
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| Q |
Which rival high energy physics lab created the magnets that recently broke under test at CERN, delaying the European research lab's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment? |
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Fermilab in Illinois, USA |
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| Q |
What is the new varient of BSD, being developed by Matt Dillon, is designed to enable native clustering and single system image capabilities? |
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Dragonfly BSD |
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| Q |
What is the new name for the network protocol analysing tool formally known as "Ethereal"? |
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Wireshark |
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| Q |
Classic Science Fiction: HG Wells or Jules Verne : "Journey to the center of the Earth"? |
| A |
Jules Verne |
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| Q |
What memorable phrase did quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli use to describe scientific ideas so bad they weren't worth considering? |
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"Not even wrong." |
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