, X-NEWS: spcvxb alt.folklore.computers: 19486K Relay-Version: VMS News - V6.0-3 14/03/90 VAX/VMS V5.4; site spcvxb.spc.edu E Path: spcvxb.spc.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!newstop!eastapps!pyrite!sgolson " Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers( Subject: Questions from Computer Bowl II) Message-ID: <10897@eastapps.East.Sun.COM> 0 From: sgolson@pyrite.East.Sun.COM (Steve Golson) Date: 13 Feb 92 21:50:30 GMT- Reply-To: sgolson@east.sun.com (Steve Golson)  Sender: news@East.Sun.COM , Organization: Trilobyte Systems, Carlisle MA
 Lines: 428  L The second Computer Bowl sponsored by The Computer Museum was held in BostonN in April 1990. The questions used are listed below. For a more detailed reportD see the August 1990 issue of Communications of the ACM (CACM v33n8).  K [Keep in mind these questions were posed in early 1990! Some of the answers  may be out of date.]  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------    	ROUND ONE QUESTIONS  K 1. The summer of 1977 was a major year for personal computers. In that year 2 three famous PC's were introduced. What were they?  E 2. Ethernet was named a networking standard in 1980 in a joint public G announcement by three famous computer companies. What were their names?   F 3. According to the Computer Industry Almanac, California has the mostK computer companies in America, with over 38% of the total. Massachusetts is F number 2. Within plus or minus 5%, what is Massachusetts' share of the nation's computer companies?  N 4. In 1980, one of the largest public stock offerings of modern times was madeN by a computer company. The size of the offering was the largest since the Ford7 Motor Company's in 1956. What was the computer company?   J 5. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are best known for the Apple computer theyM developed. But they also teamed up to design a popular arcade game for Atari. L What was the name of the game?  Was it, Space Invaders, Breakout, Asteroids, or Space Wars?  C 6. What now defunct computer company used this animal as part of an I advertising campaign? [photo of a Saint Bernard dog sculpture made out of  electronic components]  L 7. The abacus was one of the earliest counting devices, probably originatingK in Babylonia and spreading to other countries. Of China, Greece, and Japan,   which received the abacus first?  M 8. In the past, the Chinese used the abacus to do their national census. They F stopped using it and replaced it with a computer. When did the ChineseD dump the abacus in favor of computers -- was it 1972, 1977, or 1982?  A 9. In 1989, 16% of NeXT, Inc. was sold for $100M to what company?   L 10. In the comic strip "Doonesbury", Mark learns to program a computer. What' computer does Mark use in "Doonesbury"?   O 11. In the comic strip "Bloom County", the character Oliver Wendall Jones has a 5 personal computer. What is the name of that computer?   M 12. Again in "Bloom County", before getting his Banana Junior, Oliver Wendall * Jones owned another computer. What was it?  L 13. The National Computer Conference reached its peak as a trade show duringK the 1980s. And in its best year 97,000 people attended. What year was that?  Was it 1983, 1985, or 1987?   E 14. Comdex has become one of the dominant trade shows in the computer M industry. In what year was the first comdex held? Was it 1978, 1980, or 1982?   M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------    	ROUND TWO QUESTIONS  K 1. During the development of computers in the 1930s and 1940s, what was not G used for storing computer data: old movie film, aluminum tape, or snake  scales?   L 2. The Cray II supercomputer has a nickname inspired by the froth created in1 its liquid cooling system. What is that nickname?   H 3. At least three computer companies were named after their founders butL these founders no longer work for the companies. Can you name three of those
 companies?  I 4. Computer company CEO's are famous for their job hopping. I'll name the A succession of computer companies worked for -- you name the CEO.   	a. IBM, Shugart, Seagate # 	b. Prime, Apollo, Ardent, Stardent   	c. AT&T, Apollo, Honeywell-Bull  J 5. One computer company CEO is unlikely to leave his company. According toH Computer Reseller News, he is the highest paid executive in the computer3 industry. Can you tell us his company and his name?   M 6. Compaq Computer Company made the Fortune 500 list in record time. How many N years did it take Compaq to break into the Fortune 500? Was it two years, four years, or six years?  M 7. In desktop publishing we often refer to TIFF files. What do the letters in  TIFF stand for?   J 8. What was the first major movie to use computer-aided animation: Soylent! Green, Futureworld, or Star Wars?   I 9. The first use of the phrase "personal computer" was reportedly used to K describe a computer built at MIT by some hackers. It cost nearly $3 million M and it filled up one small room. What was the name of that personal computer?   L 10. What is the average annual sales volume for one salesperson in a typical< retail computer store? Is it $172,000, $222,000 or $272,000?  C 11. The first university to ever have a computer science department I celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. Was that university: Stanford, : Carnegie-Mellon, the University of North Carolina, or MIT?  ? 12. How much is the decimal number 27 expressed in hexadecimal?   L 13. Speaking of numbers, what is the ASCII decimal equivalent for the Escape key?  J 14. During World War II, the U.S. Army funded the development of the ENIACM computer. What did the Army want to do with the computer? Was it to calculate 9 ballistic paths, decode secret messages, or design radar?   O 15. Hewlett-Packard calculators became famous for the unique approach they used J to perform operations on numbers. The system was called RPN. What does RPN
 stand for?  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------    	ROUND THREE QUESTIONS  J 1. In 1968, the New York Stock Exchange listed its first computer software+ company. What was the name of that company?   K 2. According to The Illustrated Handbook of Desktop Publishing, what is the  opposite of "letterspacing"?  G 3. The Mayans were pretty good mathematicians. They developed their own K numbering system but it was not a base ten system. What was their numbering ' system based on -- was it 5, 12, or 20?   F 4. According to Electronic Learning magazine, as of 1988, which of theN following states required public school children to take at least one computerC course before graduating from high school? Texas, Massachusetts, or  California?   I 5. In 1971, the first home video game console was marketed using a patent L originally granted to Sanders Associates. The company that sold the game was( Magnavox. What was the name of the game?  J 6. At the 1939 New York World's Fair, the Westinghouse pavilion featured a> robot that could do housework. What was the name of the robot?  N 7. Texas Instruments developed the first popular microcomputer-based toy. What was it called?  K 8. Immediately after the introduction of the IBM PC, the president of Apple L Computer and the head of IBM's PC division met for the first time. Where did
 they meet?  J 9. If you were to hook up a MIDI interface, you would use a MIDI plug. How many pins are in a MIDI plug?   I 10. MIDI has become a standard for the interface between a computer and a : musical instrument. What do the letters in MIDI stand for?  M 11. The Commodore PET computer was not named PET because it was thought of as K something to keep around the house. PET was an acronym. What do the letters 
 stand for?  L 12. When using a computer you might use a spooler. The word SPOOL is also an' acronym. What do the letters stand for?   L 13. In 1989, the Softletter newsletter ranked the top ten software companiesM by revenue. The top five were Microsoft, Lotus, Ashton Tate, Wordperfect, and K Autodesk. Can you the name at least four of the other five companies on the  list?   H 14. The computer language Ada was named after a person. Who was it named after?  J 15. The first issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal was devoted entirely to a single computer language. What was it?9  0 16. What was the predecessor of DBASE II called?  M 17. What famous computer pioneer designed the punch card machines used in thee< 1890 U.S. Census? Was it Babbage, Hollerith, or Lord Kelvin?  M 18. At least three software companies have renamed themselves after the namesoL of their leading products. Can you name up to three of the companies, giving old names and new?  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------d   	ROUND FOUR QUESTIONSb  I Some computers have become so famous in computer history that many peoplerL even know where they were developed. I'll give you the name of the location,. you tell me what computer was developed there:   	1. The place is Harvard.d  $ 	2. The place is Iowa State College.  3 	3. The place was the Moore School in Philadelphia.-  , 	4. The place was Bletchley Park in England.  : 	5. And finally, the place was the University of Illinois.  rM 6. Who was quoted as saying the following in Byte magazine in 1983: "I wasn'teJ thrilled with the placement of those keys. But every place you pick to putM them is not a good place for somebody. The left-hand shift key is where it is M because we wanted to have the character-typing keys inside the control keys."t/ Was it Steve Jobs, Don Estridge, or Rod Canion?a  H 7. Who wrote "The Mythical Man-Month", a famous book about IBM's OS/360?  I Many successful computers have had somewhat less successful predecessors.e< I'll name the successful computer, you name its predecessor:   	8. The Apple Macintosh.   	9. The DEC PDP-8.   	10. The IBM 360/90.  F 11. The term "desktop publishing" is now commonly used to describe theI creation of high quality print documents on a desktop computer. Who firsteM coined the phrase? Was it Jean Louis Gassee, Paul Brainerd, Bill Atkinson, or 
 John Warnock?a  L 12. Most of us have heard the story of why we call something that interferesL with the proper operation of a computer a bug. Can you tell us what computer pioneer discovered that bug?  , 13. Can you tell us what kind of bug it was?  * 14. In what computer did she find the bug?  ! 15. What company owns Compuserve?l  K 16. The "Kansas City Standard" was developed as a standard for what storagee medium?a  N 17. An interlaced raster scan display monitor creates a picture by interlacingI odd lines and then even lines. If the full interlaced picture is called ae1 raster, what do you call one half of those lines?w  K 18. Which of the following was not the name of a computer during the 1950s:t( Leprechaun, Mobidic, Babbage, or MANIAC?  6 19. What do the letters in the word "EPROM" stand for?  I 20. Many computer companies were founded by two people, for example, BillyK Gates and Paul Allen at Microsoft. We will name the first partner; you namen= the second. Digital Equipment Corporation: Ken Olsen and who?e  K 21. Computer pioneer Charles Babbage was a close friend of a famous BritishsN author who allegedly patterned a character in one of his novels after Babbage.E was the author Sir Walter Scott, John Galsworthy, or Charles Dickens?   M 22. Was the 68000 instruction set modeled after that of the IBM 360, the Datan  General Nova, or the DEC PDP-11?  J 23. The original computer game "Adventure," featured a colossal cave and aJ maze of twisty little passages. These and other memorable locations in theN game were inspired by actual cave formations in what state? Was it California, Tennessee, or Alaska?a  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  Answers are next!C  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------o   	ANSWERS TO ROUND ONE   " 1. TRS-80, Commodore PET, Apple II   2. Intel, Xerox, DEC   3. 9.8%    4. Apple Computero   5. Breakoutr   6. Honeywell  , 7. Greece. It only came to China in 1200 AD.   8. 1982u   9. Canon  
 10. PDP 11/70f   11. The Banana Juniorl   12. IBM 6000   13. 1983   14. 1978  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------o   	ANSWERS TO ROUND TWOc   1. Snake scalese  
 2. Bubbles   3. Shugart, Amdahl, Cray   4a. Al Shugart  b. Bill Poduska  c. Roland Pampell  $ 5. John Sculley, Apple, $2.5 million  
 6. Four yearso   7. Tagged Image File Formatu   8. Futureworld, in 1976   5 9. TX-0. It wasn't really "built by hackers", though.i   10. $372,000  D 11. The answer they were looking for was North Carolina, but that isM incorrect! The oldest computer science department in the US (and possibly thee0 world) is at Purdue University, founded in 1962.   12. 1B   13. 27   14. Calculate ballistic pathsc   15. Reverse Polish Notationt  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------c   	ANSWERS TO ROUND THREEd    1. Computer Sciences Corporation  
 2. Kerning   3. 20c   4. Texas  
 5. Odyssey  
 6. Electro   7. Speak and Spell   8. The Boston Computer Society   9. Five0  ( 10. Musical Instrument Digital Interface  " 11. Personal Electronic Transactor  . 12. Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On Line  8 13. Borland, Adobe, Aldus, Logitech, Software Publishing  . 14. Ada Lovelace, assistant to Charles Babbage   15. Tiny BASIC  ' 16. Vulcan -- there never was a DBASE It   17. Herman Hollerith  M 18. SSI -> Wordperfect;	Micropro -> Wordstar; Relational Technology -> Ingresl  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------e   	ANSWERS TO ROUND FOUR  	 1. Mark IU   2. Atanasoff-Berry Computer    3. ENIAC   4. Colossust  	 5. ILLIAC   K 6. Don Estridge of IBM (referring to IBM PC keyboard layout in Byte, 11/83)r   7. Fred Brooks   8. Lisa    9. The PDP-5   10. The IBM Stretcha   11. Paul Brainerdq  M 12. Grace Hopper. Actually this use of "bug" considerably predates computing.P  
 13. A moth   14. Harvard Mark II-  
 15. H&R Block-   16. Cassette tape-   17. A field-   18. Babbage   * 19. Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory   20. Harlan Anderson    21. Charles Dickense  
 22. PDP-11  
 23. Tennesseeh  M -----------------------------------------------------------------------------u