Some Trivia
By Bob Plankers on Jul 22, 2008 in Featured, Trivia
I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night but I can remember this stuff. Can you? I’ll post the answers in the comments later today if you folks don’t beat me to it. Which you will, I’m sure.
1. The only optional field in /etc/passwd, its name is an acronym for what?
2. A double-sided, double-density 5.25″ floppy disk holds how much data?
3. What is the name of the computing “law” which states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system?
4. The acronym “SCSI” is pronounced “scuzzy” but it was originally intended to be pronounced in what way?
5. How many pins did the print head of the venerable Epson FX-80 have?
6 Comment(s)
By Jason Young on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
I should remember all of these - they have certainly crossed through my brain at one time or another, but the one that I immediately remembered was #4.
Apple tried to get everyone to call the acronym “sexy” to no avail.
In almost-but-not-quite related lore, it’s funny how all the 68030-based Macs with the co-processor all were named with an “x” i.e. the IIx, the IIcx, IIfx, etc. except for the, um, “SE/30″
By Bob Plankers on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
Never noted that before. Here’s a SE/30 trivia question: what was the biggest advancement of the 68030 CPU?
Onboard MMU.
By Jordan on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
I’ll take a stab at a couple:
1.2 MB on a 5.25 DSDD floppy, and 8 pins on the FX-80…?
By arne on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
General Electric Comprehensive Operating System
Didn’t know this, had to look it up. Learned something today. Yeay!
By ph0rman on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
OTTOMH:
#2 - 360KB
#3 - Metcalf’s Law (sp?)
By Bob Plankers on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
1. Arne got it, GECOS, the “General Electric Comprehensive Operating System” field.
2. ph0rman got it, 360 KB.
3. ph0rman strikes again, Metcalfe’s Law, named after the inventor of Ethernet, Bob Metcalfe.
4. Jason got it, “sexy.”
5. Jordan was off by one, the FX-80 had 9 pins. Later dot-matrix printers had 24, but even then they all had an FX-80 compatibility mode.
Thanks guys! I think I’ll do this again soon. My head is full of useless info. :-)