+ X-NEWS: spcvxb alt.folklore.computers: 1372 M Relay-Version: VMS News - V5.9C-01 30/04/90 VAX/VMS V5.3; site spcvxb.spc.edu Z Path: spcvxb!njin!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!ph111-bx" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Hacker Test6 Message-ID: <1990May3.070654.11882@agate.berkeley.edu>" From: ph111-bx@violet.berkeley.edu Date: 3 May 90 07:06:54 GMT 2 Reply-To: ph111-bx@violet.berkeley.edu (Ed Krauss) Sender: Ed Krauss  References: <1230@front.se> <f6a=02WLa2wm01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <4373@nmtsun.nmt.edu> <7420@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <1990May2.230310.16757@utzoo.uucp>0 Organization: University of California, Berkeley Keywords: Hacker% Summary: Zillions of hacker questions 
 Lines: 859  $ 'case ya missed this the first time:P --------------------------------------------------------------------------------    Article 1493 of rec.humor.funny:Z Path: agate!apple!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!inebriae!ssbn!looking!funny-request >From: hayes@psunuce.bitnet  Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny . Subject: "Purity" test for programmers -- long Keywords: computers, funny! Message-ID: <55086@looking.on.ca>  Date: 1 Dec 89 11:30:09 GMT  Sender: funny@looking.on.ca 
 Lines: 840 Approved: funny@looking.on.ca ' Reply-Path: watmath.uucp!forty2!claudio     / (From NutWorks, the former Bitnet humour group) I Submitted-by: claudio@amsoft.imp.com (Claudio Nieder, Uster, Switzerland)     THE HACKER TEST - Version 1.0    Preface:  06.16.89   H  This test was conceived and written by Felix Lee, John Hayes and AngelaE  Thomas at the end of the spring semester, 1989.  It has gone through F  many revisions prior to this initial release, and will undoubtedly go  through many more.     F  (Herewith a compendium of fact and folklore about computer hackerdom,!   cunningly disguised as a test.)     <  Scoring - Count 1 for each item that you have done, or each2            question that you can answer correctly.    4  If you score is between:                    You are  @             0x000 and 0x010       ->         Computer Illiterate3             0x011 and 0x040       ->         a User 8             0x041 and 0x080       ->         an Operator3             0x081 and 0x0C0       ->         a Nerd 5             0x0C1 and 0x100       ->         a Hacker 3             0x101 and 0x180       ->         a Guru 5             0x181 and 0x200       ->         a Wizard   6  Note: If you don't understand the scoring, stop here.      And now for the questions...     $  0001 Have you ever used a computer?-  0002 ... for more than 4 hours continuously?   0003 ... more than 8 hours?  0004 ... more than 16 hours?   0005 ... more than 32 hours?   '  0006 Have you ever patched paper tape?   5  0007 Have you ever missed a class while programming?    0008 ... Missed an examination?  0009 ... Missed a wedding? "  0010 ... Missed your own wedding?  1  0011 Have you ever programmed while intoxicated? )  0012 ... Did it make sense the next day?   /  0013 Have you ever written a flight simulator?   :  0014 Have you ever voided the warranty on your equipment?  !  0015 Ever change the value of 4?   0016 ... Unintentionally?+  0017 ... In a language other than Fortran?   /  0018 Do you use DWIM to make life interesting?      0019 Have you named a computer?  :  0020 Do you complain when a "feature" you use gets fixed?    0021 Do you eat slime-molds?   ,  0022 Do you know how many days old you are?  -  0023 Have you ever wanted to download pizza?   -  0024 Have you ever invented a computer joke? #  0025 ... Did someone not 'get' it?   !  0026 Can you recite Jabberwocky?   0027 ... Backwards?  5  0028 Have you seen "Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land"?     0029 Have you seen "Tron"?     0030 Have you seen "Wargames"?   (  0031 Do you know what ASCII stands for?  0032 ... EBCDIC?   3  0033 Can you read and write ASCII in hex or octal? ;  0034 Do you know the names of all the ASCII control codes?   +  0035 Can you read and write EBCDIC in hex?   :  0036 Can you convert from EBCDIC to ASCII and vice versa?  H  0037 Do you know what characters are the same in both ASCII and EBCDIC?  (  0038 Do you know maxint on your system?  B  0039 Ever define your own numerical type to get better precision?  @  0040 Can you name powers of two up to 2**16 in arbitrary order?  0041 ... up to 2**32?  0042 ... up to 2**64?  8  0043 Can you read a punched card, looking at the holes?  0044 ... feeling the holes?  (  0045 Have you ever patched binary code?(  0046 ... While the program was running?  *  0047 Have you ever used program overlays?  *  0048 Have you met any IBM vice-president?'  0049 Do you know Dennis, Bill, or Ken?   -  0050 Have you ever taken a picture of a CRT? 3  0051 Have you ever played a videotape on your CRT?   (  0052 Have you ever digitized a picture?  4  0053 Did you ever forget to mount a scratch monkey?  +  0054 Have you ever optimized an idle loop?   *  0055 Did you ever optimize a bubble sort?  .  0056 Does your terminal/computer talk to you?  2  0057 Have you ever talked into an acoustic modem?  0058 ... Did it answer?    0059 Can you whistle 300 baud?   0060 ... 1200 baud?  )  0061 Can you whistle a telephone number?   &  0062 Have you witnessed a disk crash?(  0063 Have you made a disk drive "walk"?  #  0064 Can you build a puffer train? !  0065 ... Do you know what it is?   .  0066 Can you play music on your line printer?  0067 ... Your disk drive?  0068 ... Your tape drive?  $  0069 Do you have a Snoopy calendar?  0070 ... Is it out-of-date?  .  0071 Do you have a line printer picture of...  0072 ... the Mona Lisa?  0073 ... the Enterprise?   0074 ... Einstein?   0075 ... Oliver? 0  0076 Have you ever made a line printer picture?  /  0077 Do you know what the following stand for?   0078 ... DASD  0079 ... Emacs 
  0080 ... ITS   0081 ... RSTS/E
  0082 ... SNA   0083 ... Spool   0084 ... TCP/IP         Have you ever used  0085 ... TPU?  0086 ... TECO?   0087 ... Emacs?
  0088 ... ed? 
  0089 ... vi?   0090 ... Xedit (in VM/CMS)?  0091 ... SOS?  0092 ... EDT?  0093 ... Wordstar?   $  0094 Have you ever written a CLIST?  !       Have you ever programmed in !  0095 ... the X windowing system?   0096 ... CICS?   >  0097 Have you ever received a Fax or a photocopy of a floppy?  1  0098 Have you ever shown a novice the "any" key? "  0099 ... Was it the power switch?         Have you ever attended  0100 ... Usenix?   0101 ... DECUS?  0102 ... SHARE?  0103 ... SIGGRAPH?   0104 ... NetCon?   6  0105 Have you ever participated in a standards group?  =  0106 Have you ever debugged machine code over the telephone?   $  0107 Have you ever seen voice mail?  0108 ... Can you read it?  ;  0109 Do you solve word puzzles with an on-line dictionary?   (  0110 Have you ever taken a Turing test?  0111 ... Did you fail?     0112 Ever drop a card deck?4  0113 ... Did you successfully put it back together?  0114 ... Without looking?    0115 Have you ever used IPCS?  ?  0116 Have you ever received a case of beer with your computer?   3  0117 Does your computer come in 'designer' colors?     0118 Ever interrupted a UPS?     0119 Ever mask an NMI?   +  0120 Have you ever set off a Halon system?   0121 ... Intentionally?"  0122 ... Do you still work there?  3  0123 Have you ever hit the emergency power switch?   0124 ... Intentionally?  ,  0125 Do you have any defunct documentation?  0126 ... Do you still read it?   3  0127 Ever reverse-engineer or decompile a program? "  0128 ... Did you find bugs in it?  K  0129 Ever help the person behind the counter with their terminal/computer?   .  0130 Ever tried rack mounting your telephone?  =  0131 Ever thrown a computer from more than two stories high?   9  0132 Ever patched a bug the vendor does not acknowledge?   .  0133 Ever fix a hardware problem in software?  0134 ... Vice versa?   *  0135 Ever belong to a user/support group?  2  0136 Ever been mentioned in Computer Recreations?  :  0137 Ever had your activities mentioned in the newspaper?#  0138 ... Did you get away with it?   ;  0139 Ever engage a drum brake while the drum was spinning?   3  0140 Ever write comments in a non-native language?o  6  0141 Ever physically destroy equipment from software?  :  0142 Ever tried to improve your score on the Hacker Test?  -  0143 Do you take listings with you to lunch?e  0144 ... To bed?e  !  0145 Ever patch a microcode bug?j!  0146 ... around a microcode bug?M  '  0147 Can you program a Turing machine?   5  0148 Can you convert postfix to prefix in your head?   0  0149 Can you convert hex to octal in your head?  +  0150 Do you know how to use a Kleene star?e  ;  0151 Have you ever starved while dining with philosophers?<  *  0152 Have you solved the halting problem?  0153 ... Correctly?  ,  0154 Ever deadlock trying eating spaghetti?  .  0155 Ever written a self-reproducing program?  #  0156 Ever swapped out the swapper?t  #  0157 Can you read a state diagram?-  0158 ... Do you need one?  (  0159 Ever create an unkillable program?  0160 ... Intentionally?  #  0161 Ever been asked for a cookie?.  2  0162 Ever speed up a system by removing a jumper?         * Do you know...  "  0163 Do you know who wrote Rogue?  0164 ... Rogomatic?    0165 Do you know Gray code?  !  0166 Do you know what HCF means?g  0167 ... Ever use it?  0168 ... Intentionally?  &  0169 Do you know what a lace card is?  0170 ... Ever make one?  '  0171 Do you know the end of the epoch?F2  0172 ... Have you celebrated the end of an epoch?'  0173 ... Did you have to rewrite code?   5  0174 Do you know the difference between DTE and DCE?n  %  0175 Do you know the RS-232C pinout?t3  0176 ... Can you wire a connector without looking?n         * Do you have...  %  0177 Do you have a copy of Dec Wars?g>  0178 Do you have the Canonical Collection of Lightbulb Jokes?4  0179 Do you have a copy of the Hacker's dictionary?#  0180 ... Did you contribute to it?e  '  0181 Do you have a flowchart template?g  0182 ... Is it unused?S  /  0183 Do you have your own fortune-cookie file?o  +  0184 Do you have the Anarchist's Cookbook? %  0185 ... Ever make anything from it?n    0186 Do you own a modem?   0187 ... a terminal?   0188 ... a toy computer?u  0189 ... a personal computer?  0190 ... a minicomputer?   0191 ... a mainframe?  0192 ... a supercomputer?  0193 ... a hypercube?  0194 ... a printer?  0195 ... a laser printer?  0196 ... a tape drive? (  0197 ... an outmoded peripheral device?  ,  0198 Do you have a programmable calculator?  0199 ... Is it RPN?  /  0200 Have you ever owned more than 1 computer?s  0201 ... 4 computers?  0202 ... 16 computers?e    0203 Do you have a SLIP line?  0204 ... a T1 line?  C  0205 Do you have a separate phone line for your terminal/computer?   0206 ... Is it legal?    0207 Do you have core memory?  0208 ... drum storage?e  0209 ... bubble memory?  6  0210 Do you use more than 16 megabytes of disk space?  0211 ... 256 megabytes?  0212 ... 1 gigabyte?   0213 ... 16 gigabytes?   0214 ... 256 gigabytes?  0215 ... 1 terabyte?e  -  0216 Do you have an optical disk/disk drive?t  3  0217 Do you have a personal magnetic tape library?e  0218 ... Is it unlabelled?1  +  0219 Do you own more than 16 floppy disks?i  0220 ... 64 floppy disks?  0221 ... 256 floppy disks?n  0222 ... 1024 floppy disks?  #  0223 Do you have any 8-inch disks?   $  0224 Do you have an internal stack?  $  0225 Do you have a clock interrupt?  E  0226 Do you own volumes 1 to 3 of _The Art of Computer Programming_?y*  0227 ... Have you done all the exercises?&  0228 ... Do you have a MIX simulator?-  0229 ... Can you name the unwritten volumes?e  2  0230 Can you quote from _The Mythical Man-month_?4  0231 ... Did you participate in the OS/360 project?  !  0232 Do you have a TTL handbook?a  6  0233 Do you have printouts more than three years old?         * Career    0234 Do you have a job?"  0235 ... Have you ever had a job?"  0236 ... Was it computer-related?  "  0237 Do you work irregular hours?  0  0238 Have you ever been a system administrator?  0  0239 Do you have more megabytes than megabucks?  I  0240 Have you ever downgraded your job to upgrade your processing power?v    0241 Is your job secure?o'  0242 ... Do you have code to prove it?C  -  0243 Have you ever had a security clearance?r  
       * Games      0244 Have you ever played Pong?         Have you ever played  0246 ... Spacewar?r  0247 ... Star Trek?  0248 ... Wumpus?   0249 ... Lunar Lander?0  0250 ... Empire??         Have you ever beaten  0251 ... Moria 4.8?  0252 ... Rogue 3.6?  0253 ... Rogue 5.3?  0254 ... Larn?   0255 ... Hack 1.0.3?0  0256 ... Nethack 2.4?  9  0257 Can you get a better score on Rogue than Rogomatic?   %  0258 Have you ever solved Adventure?n  0259 ... Zork?k  (  0260 Have you ever written any redcode?  1  0261 Have you ever written an adventure program?   0262 ... a real-time game?T  0263 ... a multi-player game?  0264 ... a networked game?o    0265 Can you out-doctor Eliza?n         * Hardware  %  0266 Have you ever used a light pen?   0267 ... did you build it?e         Have you ever used  0268 ... a teletype?   0269 ... a paper tape?e  0270 ... a decwriter?  0271 ... a card reader/punch?  0272 ... a SOL?         Have you ever built.  0273 ... an Altair?"  0274 ... a Heath/Zenith computer?         Do you know how to use  0275 ... an oscilliscope?  0276 ... a voltmeter?  0277 ... a frequency counter?  0278 ... a logic probe?  0279 ... a wirewrap tool?  0280 ... a soldering iron?n  0281 ... a logic analyzer?s  )  0282 Have you ever designed an LSI chip? !  0283 ... has it been fabricated?7  3  0284 Have you ever etched a printed circuit board?i         * Historical  <  0285 Have you ever toggled in boot code on the front panel?  0286 ... from memory?    0287 Can you program an Eniac?n  !  0288 Ever seen a 90 column card?o         * IBMo  3  0289 Do you recite IBM part numbers in your sleep?82  0290 Do you know what IBM part number 7320154 is?  *  0291 Do you understand 3270 data streams?  4  0292 Do you know what the VM privilege classes are?  /  0293 Have you IPLed an IBM off the tape drive?e  0294 ... off a card reader?  3  0295 Can you sing something from the IBM Songbook?y         * LanguagesS  4  0296 Do you know more than 4 programming languages?  0297 ... 8 languages?  0298 ... 16 languages?a  0299 ... 32 languages?x  4  0300 Have you ever designed a programming language?  (  0301 Do you know what Basic stands for?  0302 ... Pascal?     0303 Can you program in Basic?0  0304 ... Do you admit it?    0305 Can you program in Cobol?I  0306 ... Do you deny it?     0307 Do you know Pascal?c  0308 ... Modula-2?   0309 ... Oberon?e(  0310 ... More that two Wirth languages?/  0311 ... Can you recite a Nicklaus Wirth joke??    0312 Do you know Algol-60?   0313 ... Algol-W?  0314 ... Algol-68?n0  0315 ... Do you understand the Algol-68 report?)  0316 ... Do you like two-level grammars?0  ;  0317 Can you program in assembler on 2 different machines?i"  0318 ... on 4 different machines?"  0319 ... on 8 different machines?         Do you knowy  0320 ... APL?  0321 ... Ada?  0322 ... BCPL?r  0323 ... C++?  0324 ... C?  0325 ... Comal?  0326 ... Eiffel?   0327 ... Forth?  0328 ... Fortran?  0329 ... Hypertalk?  0330 ... Icon?e  0331 ... Lisp?t  0332 ... Logo?n  0333 ... MIIS?2  0334 ... MUMPS?  0335 ... PL/I?0  0336 ... Pilot?  0337 ... Plato?  0338 ... Prolog?2  0339 ... RPG?  0340 ... Rexx (or ARexx)?  0341 ... SETL?t  0342 ... Smalltalk?  0343 ... Snobol?   0344 ... VHDL?r   0345 ... any assembly language?    0346 Can you talk VT-100?  0347 ... Postscript?h  0348 ... SMTP?h  0349 ... UUCP?i  0350 ... English?         * Micros  &  0351 Ever copy a copy-protected disk?+  0352 Ever create a copy-protection scheme?   )  0353 Have you ever made a "flippy" disk?g  7  0354 Have you ever recovered data from a damaged disk?w    0355 Ever boot a naked floppy?          * Networking  F  0356 Have you ever been logged in to two different timezones at once?  7  0357 Have you memorized the UUCP map for your country?d  0358 ... For any country?  )  0359 Have you ever found a sendmail bug?g!  0360 ... Was it a security hole?   -  0361 Have you memorized the HOSTS.TXT table?n  0362 ... Are you up to date?p  E  0363 Can you name all the top-level nameservers and their addresses?   #  0364 Do you know RFC-822 by heart? .  0365 ... Can you recite all the errors in it?  5  0366 Have you written a Sendmail configuration file?   0367 ... Does it work?g0  0368 ... Do you mumble "defocus" in your sleep?  *  0369 Do you know the max packet lifetime?         * Operating systemsv         Can you useo  0370 ... BSD Unix?y  0371 ... non-BSD Unix?n
  0372 ... AIX5  0373 ... VM/CMS?r  0374 ... VMS?  0375 ... MVS?  0376 ... VSE?  0377 ... RSTS/E?a  0378 ... CP/M?0  0379 ... COS?  0380 ... NOS?  0381 ... CP-67?  0382 ... RT-11?  0383 ... MS-DOS?n  0384 ... Finder?   0385 ... PRODOS?v*  0386 ... more than one OS for the TRS-80?  0387 ... Tops-10?  0388 ... Tops-20?  0389 ... OS-9?0  0390 ... OS/2?n  0391 ... AOS/VS??  0392 ... Multics?  0393 ... ITS?  0394 ... Vulcan?   6  0395 Have you ever paged or swapped off a tape drive?"  0396 ... Off a card reader/punch?  0397 ... Off a teletype? +  0398 ... Off a networked (non-local) disk?k  2  0399 Have you ever found an operating system bug?  0400 ... Did you exploit it?.  0401 ... Did you report it?"  0402 ... Was your report ignored?  &  0403 Have you ever crashed a machine?  0404 ... Intentionally?         * People    0405 Do you know any people?7  0406 ... more than one?  0407 ... more than two?         * Personal     0408 Are your shoelaces untied?  +  0409 Do you interface well with strangers?   L  0410 Are you able to recite phone numbers for half-a-dozen computer systems'          but unable to recite your own?   %  0411 Do you log in before breakfast?e  4  0412 Do you consume more than LD-50 caffeine a day?  3  0413 Do you answer either-or questions with "yes"?h  C  0414 Do you own an up-to-date copy of any operating system manual?v*  0415 ... *every* operating system manual?  H  0416 Do other people have difficulty using your customized environment?  0  0417 Do you dream in any programming languages?  C  0418 Do you have difficulty focusing on three-dimensional objects?.    0419 Do you ignore mice?   '  0420 Do you despise the CAPS LOCK key?0  1  0421 Do you believe menus belong in restaurants?   4  0422 Do you have a Mandelbrot hanging on your wall?  B  0423 Have you ever decorated with magnetic tape or punched cards?H  0424 Do you have a disk platter or a naked floppy hanging in your home?  "  0425 Have you ever seen the dawn?  0426 ... Twice in a row?   0  0427 Do you use "foobar" in daily conversation?  0428 ... "bletch"?a  $  0429 Do you use the "P convention"?  B  0430 Do you automatically respond to any user question with RTFM?$  0431 ... Do you know what it means?  >  0432 Do you think garbage collection means memory management?  K  0433 Do you have problems allocating horizontal space in your room/office?1  ?  0434 Do you read Scientific American in bars to pick up women?n  -  0435 Is your license plate computer-related?   *  0436 Have you ever taken the Purity test?  )  0437 Ever have an out-of-CPU experience?n  :  0438 Have you ever set up a blind date over the computer?  9  0439 Do you talk to the person next to you via computer?h         * Programming   '  0440 Can you write a Fortran compiler?0  0441 ... In TECO?  "  0442 Can you read a machine dump?,  0443 Can you disassemble code in your head?         Have you ever writtenl  0444 ... a compiler?   0445 ... an operating system?  0446 ... a device driver?  0447 ... a text processor?   0448 ... a display hack?h  0449 ... a database system?  0450 ... an expert system?6  0451 ... an edge detector?v%  0452 ... a real-time control system?    0453 ... an accounting package?  0454 ... a virus?  0455 ... a prophylactic??  0  0456 Have you ever written a biorhythm program?"  0457 ... Did you sell the output?.  0458 ... Was the output arbitrarily invented?  G  0459 Have you ever computed pi to more than a thousand decimal places?k  0460 ... the number e?   =  0461 Ever find a prime number of more than a hundred digits?s  0  0462 Have you ever written self-modifying code?  0463 ... Are you proud of it?  E  0464 Did you ever write a program that ran correctly the first time?d&  0465 ... Was it longer than 20 lines?  0466 ... 100 lines?&  0467 ... Was it in assembly language?&  0468 ... Did it work the second time?  4  0469 Can you solve the Towers of Hanoi recursively?  0470 ... Non-recursively?)  0471 ... Using the Troff text formatter?.  <  0472 Ever submit an entry to the Obfuscated C code contest?  0473 ... Did it win?n,  0474 ... Did your entry inspire a new rule?     0475 Do you know Duff's device?  "  0476 Do you know Jensen's device?  E  0477 Ever spend ten minutes trying to find a single-character error?   0478 ... More than an hour?  0479 ... More than a day?  0480 ... More than a week?uB  0481 ... Did the first person you show it to find it immediately?         * Unix     0482 Can you use Berkeley Unix?  0483 .. Non-Berkeley Unix?   F  0484 Can you distinguish between sections 4 and 5 of the Unix manual?  B  0485 Can you find TERMIO in the System V release 2 documentation?  9  0486 Have you ever mounted a tape as a Unix file system?      0487 Have you ever built Minix?  :  0488 Can you answer "quiz function ed-command" correctly?/  0489 ... How about "quiz ed-command function"?          * Usenet    0490 Do you read news? "  0491 ... More than 32 newsgroups?#  0492 ... More than 256 newsgroups?   0493 ... All the newsgroups?t  &  0494 Have you ever posted an article?   0495 ... Do you post regularly?  #  0496 Have you ever posted a flame?n%  0497 ... Ever flame a cross-posting?.  0498 ... Ever flame a flame? !  0499 ... Do you flame regularly?e  :  0500 Ever have your program posted to a source newsgroup?    0501 Ever forge a posting?    0502 Ever form a new newsgroup?  0503 ... Does it still exist?    0504 Do you remembere  0505 ... mod.ber?$  0506 ... the Stupid People's Court?  0507 ... Bandy-grams?         * Phreakinge  &  0508 Have you ever built a black box?  0  0509 Can you name all of the 'colors' of boxes?)  0510 ... and their associated functions?   <  0511 Does your touch tone phone have 16 DTMF buttons on it?  B  0512 Did the breakup of MaBell create more opportunities for you?    C  If you have any comments of suggestions regarding the HACKER TEST,o*  Please send then to: hayes@psunuce.bitnetA                    or jwh100@psuvm.bitnet / jwh100@psuvmxa.bitnet C                    or jwh100@psuvm.psu.edu / jwh100@psuvmxa.psu.edu 5                    or ...!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!jwh100e   --K Edited by Brad Templeton.  MAIL, yes MAIL your jokes to funny@looking.ON.CA1O Attribute the joke's source if at all possible.  I will reply, mailers willing.y  6 Remember: PLEASE spell check and proofread your jokes.  P -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- END1