How many calculations per citizen per second do computers perform? 100,000 How many times does the average U.S. citizen's name pop up in a computer35 In what year was Apple Computer incorporated? 1977 By the end of 1983, how many computers were in use in the world? 13 million Where was the first French restaurant to use computers to take orders? Valenciennes, France What firm offered the first home computer? Nieman-Marcus (the Honeywell H316 'Kitchen Computer') What did Neiman Marcus charge for the first home computer in 1969? $10,600, mandatory teletype terminal not included What brand computer performed the first Valentine's Day wedding in 1981?Apple By the end of 1982, what was the average salary of a junior programmer? $28,000 By the end of 1982, what was the average salary of a computer executive?$52,000 What were computer industry revenues for 1983? $55 billion In what hotel can guests find computer terminals in every room? Ottawa's Teron International Hotel What is Roulabette? Terminal connecting your hotel room to gambling casinos What type of disease is Space War Video Game Epilepsy? photoconvulsive epilepsy What are video elbow, arthralgia, tendinitis, and ganglion cysts? Ailments you can contract from playing video games What was the most ubiquitous computer by the end of 1982? The Commodore VIC/20, 1 million sold What was the first electronic digital computer? ENIAC,UPenn's Electronic Numerical Integrated CalculatorWhat is the smallest computer? The Intel iAPX 432 What is RAM? Random Access Memory What computer can operator underwater? The 4 1/2 pound Husky (Z-80 chip) by Sarasota AutomationWhat are Lodestone and Carillon 2 Cray-1 supercomputers at the National Security Agency What was the most expensive computer? The $40 million Illiac IV by Burroughs for NASA What is the heaviest computer? The IBM FSQ-7 (300 tons) How many circuits does the human brain appear to have? 10 trillion At what temperature do Josephson Junction circuits operate? a few degrees above absolute zero What Apple Computer cofounder sponsored the US Festival? Steve Wozniak Who coined the word 'computer?' Trevisa, a scribe, in 1398 Who invented the Pascaline, the first working automatic calculator? Blaise Pascal, in 1653 What is a Luddite? a worker who resists new technology What is an ATM? an Automated Teller Machine When was the first microprocessor developed? 1970 What is a 'cache?' a memory storage module When was the abacus invented? Around 500 B.C., in Egypt What is the abacus called in Japan? a soroban Who wrote Les Pensees? Blaise Pascal What brand computer tracked down Wayne Williams, Atlanta's mass killer? an IBM, using the Storage & Information Retrieval SystemWho invented the punched-card tabulator for the Bureau of the Census? Herman Hollerith What do ALWAC, Bendix, Philco, Royal McBee, and Singer have in common? They once--but no longer--manufactured computers. Who founded Apple Computer? Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs Who founded Electronic Data Systems? H. Ross Perot What computer exec set the Wall Street record for greatest paper loss? H. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems Who founded Hewlett-Packard? David Packard and William Hewlett Who invented magnetic core memory? An Wang, founder of Wang Labs Who founded Intel? Gordon Moore What firm did Seymour Cray work for before founding Cray Research? Control Data Corporation What is the Cray-2 immersed in? a tank of subzero flurocarbon fluid Who built the ENIAC? J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly Who built the Complex Number Calculator at Bell Labs in 1939? George Stibitz What do Amdahl, Hewlett-Packard, Magnuson, and Osborne have in common? Computer firms named after their founders What does the term Atari mean? It's a warning to one's opponent in Japanese Go. How did Sorcim get its name? It's 'micros' spelled backwards. Who founded Radio Shack? Dave Tandy What firm manufactures 1-2-3? Lotus Development Corporation What does APL mean? A Programming Language Who invented the typewriter ball font? Ken Iverson and Adin Falkoff, developers of APL Who founded Control Data Corporation? William Norris What is PLATO? Control Data's computerized education program What was the original name of IBM? Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company When did IBM ship its first computer? 1952 What does UNIVAC mean? Universal Automatic Computer (Sperry's showpiece) Who invented UNIVAC? Eckert and Mauchly, developers of ENIAC When was Hewlett-Packard founded? 1939, in a garage Who founded Digital Equipment? Ken Olsen, an MIT scientist, in 1957 Who was the world's first programmer? Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace, poet Lord Byron's daughter Who invented the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine? Charles Babbage What does COBOL mean? Common Business-Oriented Language Who is generally credited for developing COBOL? Commodore Grace Murray Hopper, USN Who founded Trilogy? Gene Amdahl What does DEC PDP-8 mean? Digital Equipment Corporation Programmed Data Processor8Who worked out the fundamental theorem of calculus & symbolic logic? Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz Who founded Boolean algebra? George Boole How far does electricity travel in a nanosecond? 10.8 inches What is a nanosecond? 1 billionth of a second What firms pioneered the microprocessor? Intel and Texas Instruments Which computer generation debuted with the Intel 4004 microprocessor? 3, in 1969 How many bits was the Intel 4004 chip? 4 bits What chip founded the personal computer industry in 1974? the 16-bit Intel 8080 What does VLSI mean? very large-scale integration Who founded Zilog, Inc.? Federico Faggin How many transistors does the average chip contain? 30,000 transistors Who produces the Z-80 chip? Zilog, Inc. What is a micron? a 39 millionth of an inch How many dust particles or contaminants are permitted in a 'clean room?'fewer than 100 particles per cubic foot of air In what county is Silicon Valley? Santa Clara County What was the original name of Silicon Valley? Valley of Hearts Delight Who coined the term 'Silicon Valley? journalist Don Hoefler, in 1971 What firm introduced the first commercial integrated circuits in 1959? Fairchild Semiconductor What are the U.S. sentences for high-tech smuggling and illegal export? up to $100,000 and ten years imprisonment Who invented the world's fastest electronic circuit, Josephson JunctionsBrian Josephson, an Oxford University physicist What causes a 'soft fail?' alpha particles from cosmic rays, radium, or thorium What is a K? 1024 Who invented the electrical generator in 1831? Michael Faraday Who invented the relay, a switching device? Joseph Henry, forerunner of telegraphy Who perfected telegraphy? Samuel Morse Who invented the diode, also known as a coherer? Guglielmo Marconi Who invented the transistor? William Shockley, who received the Nobel Prize Who invented the cathode-ray tube? Vladimir Zworykin What was the first computer to use a video display? DEC's PDP-1 in 1963 Who invented wireless radio? Nikola Tesla How fast does electricity move in a copper wire? 3/10 the speed of light What is a CPU? a Central Processing Unit, the computer's 'brain' What is GIGO? garbage in, garbage out (or garbage in, gospel out) What firm offered the first commercial disk drive with moving R/W heads?IBM, with its 305, introduced in 1957 What firm produced the first magnetic tape device? IBM, with its Model 726, in 1953 What firm introduced the first flexible (floppy) diskette in 1971? IBM What does FLOP mean? floating point operations per second What is an Mflop? a million floating point operations per second What is the peak speed of the Cray-1? 200 Mflops What is the peak speed of the CDC 205? 400 Mflops What is token-ring-passing? a computer networking system What firm created the first all-transistor computer for the US Air ForceBurroughs (the Mod I Guidance Computer) What was STRETCH? IBM's 1955 attempt to build a vacuum-tube supercomputer What government agency bought the first two UNIVAC shipped? the Bureau of the Census Who invented the punched-card weaving loom in 19th-century France? Joseph Jacquard What was ENIGMA? The German WWII encryption machine What was the first computer to use binary (digital) mathematics? EDVAC Who invented the first binary computer? John von Neumann, in 1950 Who invented the first minicomputer that made parallel calculations? Jay Forrester and Ken Olson, MIT's 1951 WHIRLWIND What does VHSIC mean? very high speed integrated circuits Who invented the integrated circuit in 1958? Jack Kilby What was the first computer with magnetic core memory? MIT's WHIRLWIND What does BASIC mean? Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code What is the longest applications program? the 10 million+ line Informatics insurance program What was the original 'bug?' a moth in Harvard's Automatic Relay Calculator Who is generally credited with coining the term 'bug?' Commodore Grace Murray Hopper, USN Who founded MicroSoft? Bill Gates What firm introduced the first personal computer kit for $397? Altair What does CP/M mean? Control Program/Microcomputers (an operating system) Who founded Digital Research? Gary Kildall, CP/M's inventor What does VisiCalc mean? Visible Calculator When was VisiCalc introduced for sale? January 1979 What have U.S. firms spent on programming since the computer's inventionover $1 trillion in 1983 dollars What was the first programmed machine? The 1801 Jacquard Loom What is linear programming? the mathematics of multivariate input-output problems What is the Simplex Algorithm? a method of simplifying linear programs What is an infinite loop? a program that never stops repeating What is the longest computer program? IBM's MVS Operating System, with 13 million instructionsWhat does ALGOL mean? Algorithmic Language Who invented BASIC at Dartmouth? John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz What does FORTRAN mean? Formula Translator Who invented FORTRAN? John Backus of IBM What does LISP mean? List Processor, an artificial intelligence language Who invented the Pascal language? Niklaus Wirth How did PASCAL get its name? It's named after mathematician Blaise Pascal. What does PL/1 mean? Programming Language Who invented LISP? John McCarthy at MIT What is a byte (the term, not the magazine)? 8 bits (why don't we call it $1?) Who coined the term 'byte?' Werner Buchholz at IBM What is freeware? free, or public domain, software What is software? Computer programs that tell the hardware what to do Who founded the principles of structured programming? Edsgar Dijkstra (and do you ever use it? Shame on you!) Where did the 1982 movie TRON get its title? BASIC's 'turn on trace' command What is garbage collection? LISP's method of keeping unused information for later What was the first auto part completely designed by a computer? a 1965 Cadillac trunk lid What is DYNAMO? Jay Forrester's simulation and modeling program at MIT Who said 'everyone complains of his memory, no one of his judgment?' La Rochefoucauld (or someone who tried to load this gameWho received the Nobel Prize for applying Boolean logic to switchers? Claude Shannon What type of hardware defines the first generation of computers? vacuum tubes What type of hardware characterizes the second generation of computers? transistors What type of hardware defines the third generation of computers? integrated circuits What type of hardware defines the fourth generation of computers? microchips What is firmware? Programs etched onto chips Who coined the term 'cybernetics?' Norbert Weiner When did the first computer camp open? 1977 Can you get a Merit Badge from the Boy Scouts in computing? They offer one, but you're too old. Where did the first computer camp open? Simsbury, Connecticut What college opened the first 'family' computer camp? Clarkson College How old were the founders of Plum Software of Los Gatos, California? Steve Grimm and Nikolai Weaver were 11 at the time (1981Who is president of Lotus Development? Mitch Kapor Why does Commodore call it the Commodore 64? It has 64K RAM. What is CAI? Computer-aided instruction What does PLATO mean? Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations What is CAT (besides the original spelling bee question)? Computerized Adaptive Testing What was the first college to require freshmen to buy computers? Clarkson College required purchase of a Zenith How many points does Krell software guarantee to add to your SAT score? 70, or your money back What is 'cybernetics,' according to term coiner Norbert Weiner? science of control & communication in animals & machinesWhat university established the first Ph.D. in computer science in 1962?Purdue University What university awarded the first Ph.D. in computer science in 1965? University of Pennsylvania (Richard Wexelblat earned it)What is the 'take' for the average computer-related crime in the U.S.? $500,000 What was the biggest (known) computer crime? Equity Funding, a $2.1 billion insurance fraud What was the longest-running (known) computer crime in the U.S.? Saxon Industries' 13 year bogus inventory record What is a trapdoor? code that allows bypassing of internal security systems What is a Trojan Horse (besides something you read about in high school)a multi-user trapdoor What is 'magic code?' a trapdoor that erases evidence of itself after use What are NBS DES? National Bureau of Standards Data Encryption Standards How was the German WWII ENIGMA code broken? with a computer What was the biggest known theft of computer chips? $3.4 million of Monolithic Memories circuits Who works at Con'Puter Systems Programming? inmates at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute What does MODEM mean? modulation/demodulation (it communicates with computers)What language originated the term 'robot?' Czechoslovakian Who coined the term 'robot' to refer to a mechanical worker? Karel Capek, in R.U.R., a 1921 play Where was The Beast, the first mobile robot, developed? Johns Hopkins Where was Shakey, the first mobile robot with vision, built? Stanford Research Institute, in 1969 Who holds the most robot patents? George C. Devol (70% of the world's patents), over 40 What country makes the most robots? Japan What is the most expensive robot? Exxon/Shell's $677 million Underwater Manifold Center What is Isaac Asimov's First Law of Robotics? Never hurt a human or let one come to harm. What is Isaac Asimov's Second Law of Robotics? Obey human orders that don't conflict with the First LawWhat is Isaac Asimov's Third Law of Robotics? Don't hurt yourself, but first conform to Laws 1 and 2. What does Battelle's color-vision-equipped Cubot do? Solve Rubik's Cube What is vaporware? Computer products promised but never released What does DSDD mean? Double-sided, dual density disks What is a mainframe? The largest type of computer What is UNIX? An operating system being developed for microcomputers Who manufactures Zork? Infocom Who wrote 'The Soul of a New Machine'? Tracy Kidder Name the robot who raped Julie Christie in the movie Demon Seed. Proteus What's the derivation of the word 'sabotage'? Dutchmen kicked their sabots (shoes) into machinery. What country uses the most robots? Japan What was the first movie (1926) to feature a robot? Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang What was the robot's name in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still? Gort What was the first film (1954, in 3-D) to show a computerized robot? Gog What was the name of the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey? HAL How did HAL, the 2001 computer, get its name? Subtracting 1 from each letter of IBM What's the first videogame to kill a player via heart failure? Berserk (Peter Bukowski, 18, from Calumet, Illinois) What was the first computer game? Space War, developed on MIT's DEC PDP8 by Nolan BushnellWhat was the first Atari arcade game? Pong (1972) What's the only video game that became a television show? Pac-Man What was the first 3-D video game? Zaxxon How many home video games are there in the U.S.? 10 million What was the first hand-held electronic game? Merlin What is EPROM? Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory What was the official game of the 1980 Summer Olympics? Atari What was the first tune ever played by a computer? 'Daisy', at Bell Labs in 1932 What year was the movie TRON released? 1982 What studio released the computer graphics spectacular TRON? Walter Disney Studios What song did HAL sing in 2001? Daisy How much did American teenagers spend on video games in 1982? $3.4 billion, what the US spent on electronic war R&D What think tank conducted the first computer-simulated war game in 1952?The Rand Corporation What year was Sputnik launched? 1957 How many military satellites have been launched since Sputnik? over 1200 What does the medical acronym CAT mean? Computer-aided Axial Tomography What is psychotronics? computer simulation of human dynamics for psychiatry Do suicidal patients prefer to be interviewed by doctors or computers? computers, by 2 to 1 What is ELIZA? the most famous computer psychiatry program What did Barney Clark's Jarvik-7 microprocessor control? his artificial heart How much money do the world's banks move electronically daily? over $1 trillion Who invented the credit card? Edward Bellamy, in Looking Backward, an 1888 novel When was the first credit card issued? 1900, by hotels What does ATM mean? Automated Teller Machine What firm offers an 'electronics and computer crimes' insurance policy? Lloyds of London What 1980s job does the Bureau of Labor Statistics rate most promising? computer-related occupations,for growth, pay & # of jobsHow often to computer specialists change jobs? every 4 years What type of institution had the first coin-operated Apple computer? the Nashua, New Hampshire public library How fast is the world's fastest computer printer? Mead's ink-jet prints 45,000 lines per minute What is the Source's Blind Pharoah? Burke Campbell's world's first all-electronic novel Over what network did the world's 1st live computer marriage take place?CompuServe (Valentine's Day, 1983) What is a BBS? an electronic bulletin board service What countries have issued the most computer commemorative postagestampsRomania and The Netherlands What firm manufactures the VAX-11/780? Digital What was the first problem for the world's first digital computer ENIAC?computing A-bomb blasts for the Manhattan Project What is a kludge? ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts What's common to Pitney-Bowes, Philco, Pillsbury,Underwood,& Greyhound? all have gotten out of the computer business How much has U.S. industry spent on unscheduled hardware maintenance? $8 billion since the computer was invented What is the major destroyer of computers? fire How long could the average company conduct essential ops w/o computers? 5 days What is Ever Onward? The IBM company song What year was the IBM Personal Computer announced? 1981 How many employees does IBM have? 600,000 What was the largest antitrust case in U.S. history (barring ATT)? IBM What does MS/DOS mean? MicroSoft Disk Operating System for microcomputers Why did IBM call their famous mainframe the 360? there are 360 degrees in a circle What is a 'time bomb' in computerese? a hidden program that causes the clock to malfunction What is Big Blue? IBM When was the first laser printer announced? 1976 What was NCR's (now IBM's) motto? THINK When was the name International Business Machines coined? 1924 Whom did Fortune call 'the most successful capitalist who ever lived'? Thomas Watson, Jr., IBM chief What is the second largest computer company (after IBM)? DEC What unit of measurement was named after Emile Baudot? the baud, a unit of data transmission What was the first U.S. communications satellite? Echo What has to be 22,235 miles about earth? geosynchronous communications satellites Who owns The Source? Reader's Digest Who owns CompuServe? H&R Block What is AI? Artificial Intelligence What is the Turing Test? people believing computer output came from a person What is the most successful computer chess player? Bell Labs' Belle At what temperature does a Josephson Junction operate? 4 degrees above absolute zero What country leads in developing the 5th Generation of computers? Japan What color is Pac-Man? yellow What does PROLOG, Japan's 5th generation language, mean? Programming Logic What science fiction novelist is on the BYTE magazine staff? Jerry Pournelle What does ASCII stand for? American Standard Code for Interchange of Information What are APA Graphics? All Points Addressable graphics (aka pixel-addressable) How many cycles per second in one megahertz? 1 million What is a CRT? a cathode ray tube What is cyan? a blue-green color What is a nibble? half a byte; 4 bits What is a pixel? a point of light; the smallest picture element What is a buffer? memory where information is temporarily stored What is a Menu? a display of choices on a page or video screen What is monochrome? having a single color; some monitors are monochrome How long is a nanosecond? 1 billionth of a second What is an Icon? a symbol used to represent an object or function What is RGB? red, green, blue--the primary video colors What is a string variable? a collection of textual characters What is RS-232? the most common format for communications connections What does LIFO mean? last-in-first-out What is EBCDIC? Extended Binary Coded Decimal Information Code (of IBM) What base is hexadecimal? 16 In what U.S. city is it illegal to use business computers on Sunday? Paramus, New Jersey Where was the last IBM punch-card plant (which closed in 1984)? Washington, D.C. Which US cities have the highest per capita use of videogames? Steubenville, Ohio and Utica, NY re players & cartridgesHow much did software piracy cost the computer industry in 1983? $700 million What is a RISC? reduced instruction set What is VLSI? Very large scale integration For what computer owners is Cider magazine geared? Apple users What is CMOS? complementary metal-oxide semiconductors What firm markets the B 25 microcomputer? Burroughs What is DRAM? dynamic random access memory What do you call the little perforated strip on computer paper margins? perfery (or perfory) What is the ARPANET? the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Network What firm was first to hit sales of $111 million in its first year? Compaq Computer Corporation What percentage of personal computers are sold through stores? 80 percent Who manufactures the IBM-compatible Great Wall 100 PC? Beijing Wire Communications Plant (People's Rep of ChinaWhat is CCDOS? the Chinese Character Disk Operating System What does the QL of Sinclair's QL mean? Quantum Leap What microprocessor does the Macintosh use? The Motorola 68000 Who manufactured the Aquarius computer? Mattel What is England's most popular home computer? The Spectrum, with over 1 million sold What was the first major mathematical proof performed on a computer? The four-color map theorem What is the smallest addressable point on a computer display? a pixel Who spoke the computer's lines in 'Electric Dreams'? Bud Cort Where is I.B.M. headquarters? Armonk, New York Who co-authored 'Hypergrowth'? Adam Osborne and John Dvorak How many chess openings does Sargon III store? 68,000 What is Omega Underware? a computer monitor base What is Computext? computer messages on women's stockings What is ANSI? American National Standards Institute How many bits does ASCII code have? 7 How many bits are used by EBCDIC to represent data characters? 8 What does ASCII mean? American Standard Code for Information Interchange What does EBCDIC mean? Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code What does IBM's VM mean? Virtual Machine What does Apple want IBM to mean? I Bought Macintosh Name the computer on 'A Man Called Sloane'. EFI 3000 What did Matt Houston name his computer? Baby What brand of personal computer does J.R. Ewing use? Texas Instruments Professional Computer What does the New York City Police's CATCH mean? Computer-Assisted Terminal Criminal Hunt What is a field? an item of data, composed of characters What is a Record? A collection of related fields What is a File? A collection of records Who manufactures the PET? Commodore What was the ABC? Atanasoff-Berry Computer,1st electronic digital computerWhat was the first newspaper to use computer typesetting? Daily Oklahoman-Oklahoma City Times What is an ALU? arithmetic/logic unit What are Registers? temporary storage areas for instructions or data What does I-time plus E-time equal? the machine cycle What does an accumulator do? collects the results of computations What fraction of a second is a picosecond? a trillionth How many bits constitute a word for a supercomputer? 64 What is a Dump? a printout listing the contents of primary storage What is the decimal equivalent of hex E? 14 What is the diameter of the bubbles in magnetic bubble memory? four thousandths of an inch What gemstone is used to make bubble memory? garnet What does POS mean in POS Terminal? point of sale How many columns were in the standard IBM punched card? 80 What machine checked the accuracy of punched cards? verifier What shape were the holes in 96-column punched cards? round What is MICR? magnetic-ink character recognition What is OMR? optical-mark recognition What's the difference between dumb and smart terminals? smart terminals process data What is at the tip of a light pen? a light-sensitive cell What does GIGO mean? garbage in, garbage out How many columns at a time does a serial brush reader read? one What is COM? computer output microfilm What type of printer uses heat, lasers, photography, or ink spray? nonimpact Can men hear printers generating 15,000 cycle/second frequencies? no, but women can What does NCR mean in NCR paper? no carbon required What is bursting? separation of continuous paper What is reverse video? displays in which brightness & darkness are reversed What is windowing? techniques permitting you to view =>2 portions of a fileBand, wheel, drum and chain are all types of... printers What is a Prompt? the computer's way of requesting input What is the most common length of magnetic tapes? 2400 feet What does a magnetic tape's file protection ring permit you to do? you can erase or write new data if it is present What 2 reels are found in a magnetic tape unit? supply reel and take-up reel What is an IBG on blocked tape? interblock gap What does the blocking factor refer to? number of logical records in one physical record What does BPI measure in magnetic tape? bytes per inch What is a DASD? direct access storage device What happens in a head crash? read/write head touches a disk & gouges it 1/8 inch What is seek time? time for access arm to get over a particular track What is head switching? activation of a r/w head over a track on a surface What are the 3 major methods of storing files in secondary storage? sequential, direct, and indexed file organization How many digits does the largest prime number have? 6533 ((2**19937)-1, in case you want to prove it) What is a Flowchart? pictorial representation of a step-by-step solution What does a compiler do? translates high-level languages into machine language What does a small circle on a flowchart represent? a connector to another part of the program What does a diamond on a flowchart represent? exceedingly good luck, or a decision node What are diagnostics? descriptive error messages What is the subtitle of BYTE Magazine? The Small Systems Journal What does the Classic Waterfall Chart show? software engineering without feedback cycles What are STUDENT, HEARSAY, DOCTOR, ACTORS and JOVIAL? computer languages What is the lowest level of computer language? machine language, a series of 1s and 0s What does an assembler do? translate assembly language into machine language What does an interpreter do? translates and executes your program What is CODASYL? Conference of Data System Languages Where did Commodore Grace Hopper receive her Ph.D.? Yale What is RPG? Report Program Generator, a business-oriented language
