USENIX 2001 Quiz Show Pre-Qualifying Exam

The following was the pre-qualifying questionnaire for the LISA Quiz Show.

What does COOTS abbreviate?
Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems

What is Bill Cheswick's new company's name?
Lumeta

In semiconductor hardware parlance, SOS abbreviates what?
Silicon On Sapphire

Name fgets()'s three arguments in order:
char * string, int size, file *stream

What is Portugal's traditional currency?
Escudo

From which university or organization did the Mosaic browser originate?
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
Credit was given for either or both of these

What port does https use?
443

What was the first transistorized IBM computer?
System 7090
Credit was given to anything "close" with "70" in it

Show Euler's formula:
e^i*p+1=0
Or, e to the i * pi, plus one equals zero
Credit was given to "e^i*pi = -1" as well

What is the capital of Portugal?
Lisbon

What is the Japanese word for the wrapping around sushi?
Nori
The funniest answer we got was "prastic"

What is the name of the musical album released by Brent Spiner (aka Data)?
"Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back"

What corporation currently owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC?
Tricorp (YUM)

What is your coccyx?
Tail bone

What is the latest release of OpenBSD?
2.9

What does WABI abbreviate in Microsoft parlance?
Windows Application Binary Interface

Who sponsored the secure music distribution system broken by Felten et al.?
SDMI or RIAA

What processor family did Compaq recently divest?
Alpha

Monty Python question: What is your favorite color?
Blue, no green, waaaaaaaa!
Credit was given for anything similar (a, no b, scream)

Translate the thought "goodbye" into any two non-English verbal languages (with names please):
Based on what we received: French: au revoir; German: auf wiedersehen; Hawaiian: aloha; Hebrew: l'hitraot, shalom; Hungarian: viszontlatasra; Italian: arrevaderchi, ciao; Japanese: sayonara; Russian: dos vidanya; and Spanish: adios
Any pair of these got full credit; any transliterations or spelling errors were allowed provided they were close enough to understand; several people used the non-Roman character set to express their answers where appropriate and received full credit

Express in Roman numerals: 015+0x15
XXXIV

Who created and implemented the Berkeley Fast Filesystem?
M. Kirk. McCusick
We credited folks who forgot the "M."

What's the closest star more than 2 AU away from Boston?
Proxima Centauri

What semiconductor supplier manufactured CPUs for the Apple II?
Motorola

What is the real name of the host of the new TV show "You Don't Know Jack"?
Paul Reubens

What do Pee-Wee Herman, George Michael, and Hugh Grant have in common?
All arrested on morals charges (for public indecency, for sexual activity in public, etc.)

What element composes IBM's new disk-enhancer "pixie dust"?
Ruthenium

What was the full name of the trial judge in the Microsoft Trial?
Thomas Penfield Jackson

What is the medium for the slowest-known transmission of IP packets?
Avian carrier (pidgeon)
Well, the slowest known IMPLEMENTED version, anyhow.

What quantity is measured by the "Siemen"?
Electrical transmission

What is the speed in km/sec of sound in a vacuum?
0
Credit was also given to "The same as the speed of light through a brick"

What are super-tiny cylinders of carbon called?
Bucky tubes or nanotubes

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