Ok I know I said I would not do anymore of these, but one more won't hurt. Let's see which of you know the most about the number crunching machine. 1. What is the "Turing Test"? 2. COBOL is an programming language used in banking systems and data processing. What does it stand for? 3. What is the layout of keyboard keys known as? 4. On a Windows machine, if you pressed Ctrl, Alt delete in that order while holding them down, what happens? 5. What was the difference between the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine? 6. What part do Weaving Looms play in the early days of computer creation? 7. How many logical units does a standard computer contain? 8. Why would a computer display the "blue screen of death"? 9. What is a BIOS sub system? 10. Who was involved in the creation of the BASIC programming language? 11. What does SSD mean? 12. How many bytes of memory make up a single bit of memory? 13. What is the difference between ROM and RAM stored data? 14. Ada Lovelace is celebrated as the world's first programmer. When she was eight years old she wrote a book. What was it called? 15. Why does the connection of a headphone socket crackle when you place the jack into it? 16. Without any software installed, would a computer turn on?
1. What is the "Turing Test"? Test whether a system is sentient? 2. COBOL is an programming language used in banking systems and data processing. What does it stand for? Not a clue. 3. What is the layout of keyboard keys known as? QWERTY 4. On a Windows machine, if you pressed Ctrl, Alt delete in that order while holding them down, what happens? Opens task manager 5. What was the difference between the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine? Not a clue 6. What part do Weaving Looms play in the early days of computer creation? Not a clue 7. How many logical units does a standard computer contain? Not a clue 8. Why would a computer display the "blue screen of death"? Hardware error (maybe software as well?) 9. What is a BIOS sub system? Manages the various devices on the computer. Can't remember what it stands for though! 10. Who was involved in the creation of the BASIC programming language? Not a clue 11. What does SSD mean? Solid state drive 12. How many bytes of memory make up a single bit of memory? I should know this but I have forgotten it. 13. What is the difference between ROM and RAM stored data? RAM loses what is stored on it when the PC is powered down. 14. Ada Lovelace is celebrated as the world's first programmer. When she was eight years old she wrote a book. What was it called? Not a clue 15. Why does the connection of a headphone socket crackle when you place the jack into it? Maybe static? Would be a guess though! 16. Without any software installed, would a computer turn on? Yup, just wouldn't get past POST!
1 Correct - if a human user believes he is playing against another human due to the way the game is played for example, it passes the test. 3 Correct - when it was labelled as A B C D it was just alphabetical. Qwerty layouts revolutionised how we design a standard keyboard. 4 Correct - technically it opens the "emergency back door" which bypasses any frozen software, allowing you to close down or restart the computer. 8 Correct - Software will no longer produce this on a modern OS, the program will throw an exception and close the program. 9 Correct - it stands for Basic Input Output System btw 11 Correct 12 @K9 Hornet got this one, my error as I put the question the wrong way around. But he was correct. 13 Correct - ROM is read-only so whatever is written to it cannot be modified during the execution cycle. 15 No, but your not far off. 16 Correct - the good old blinking cursor
Answers to others were: 2 Comon Business Oriented Language 5 Analytical Engine was "programmable" and could accept data and output a response 6 Looms gave birth to concept of data feeding. Today known more as "writing", a Loom was used to create things by feeding something in and having something else come out. 7 Six - input/output/logic and arithmetic/secondary storage/memory/CPU 10 Bill Gates 14 Flyology
Interesting questions. I had an argument with a pub quiz chap a couple of months ago. His question. "How may bytes in a kilobyte." My answer was 1024 which is factually correct - I have an electronic engineering background. He argued till he was blue in the face that it was 1000, and that does appear to be the SI unit definition. What I knew as a Kilobyte is now a kibibyte. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobyte Despite not getting the point we still won the quiz. More by having a good range of people from 20 - 65 with vaired interests of accumulated crap knowledge than through any superior intelligence.
5 of my own. What does BIOS stand for? Introduced in 1972, who released what is acknowledged to be the world's first pocket electronic calculator? Who is commonly quoted as suggesting that there would only every be a worldwide market for five computers? What are the names of the fours ghosts in Pac-Man? What does JPEG stand for?
1. Basic Input Output System 2. It was either IBM or Hewlett Packard. I'll go with HP 3.Thomas Watson. Originally I thought it was Alan Turing 4. Spuky Funky Dunky Luncky - not a clue never played it! But I do know of them. 5. Joint Photographics Expert Group
I think it once was 1000 hence the word Kilo, but it was re-asessed when the market and need for more powerful and lasting memory was needed. They added 25 to each module then had to indicate to the motherboard if the circuit was on or off, hence the 1 being cut off the total.
2 I'll withdraw this one as there is some debate. I thought it was Sinclair but it looks like there were a few less commercially available ones a year or two earlier. 3 In 1943 Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said, "I think there's a world market for maybe five computers. 4 Each of the four ghosts in the game has both Japanese and English names. In Japan they started as Fickle, Chaser, Ambusher and Stupid. Their English names are Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.
