The third Computer Bowl sponsored by The Computer Museum was held in San Jose
at the San Jose Convention Center on April 26, 1991. The questions used are
listed below.
[Keep in mind these questions were posed in early 1991! Some of the answers
may be out of date.]
1. The last two letters in the names of many early computers were "AC", as in
ILLIAC or ENIAC. What did the letters "AC" stand for?
2. How many data bits are there in the S-100 bus?
3. A computer language is named after a famous 17th century French
mathematician. What was his first or given name?
4. Almost 10 years ago, in October 1981, Steve Jobs appeared on the cover of
"Inc. Magazine". In that photo, was Jobs wearing a tee shirt, a bathing suit,
or a shirt and jacket?
5. In the 1959 movie "Desk Set", Katherine Hepburn and her staff are worried
they might be replaced by a computer being installed by Spencer Tracy. What
was the name of that computer? Was it EMORAC, Calla Lilly One, or UNIVAC?
6. In the 1950s a computer company was the sponsor of a TV quiz show. Was that
computer company IBM, RCA, Burroughs, or Remington Rand?
7. The quiz show was a well-known TV program at the time. Was it called "I've
Got A Secret", "What's My Line", or "Beat The Clock"?
8. In the mid 1970s, one of the first real personal computers was introduced.
The computer was named after a destination visited by the space ship
Enterprise on the program "Star Trek". What was the name of that destination,
and that computer? Was it IMSAI, SOL, Altair 8800, or Apple Two?
9. Who was the recipient of the first Turing Award? Was it John McCarthy,
Donald Knuth, Edgstra Dijkstra, or Alan Perlis?
10. What does the term "BITNET" stand for?
11. Punch cards were initially developed in 1801 by a textile mill owner to
automate the patterns woven into cloth by his textile loom. What was the name
of the individual who first developed this application?
12. There are mainly two layouts for a computer keyboard -- the QWERTY
keyboard and the Dvorak keyboard. However, several of the letters appear in
the same position on both keyboards. How many of the alphabetic keys appear in
the same place on both layouts? Is it two, four, six, or eight?
13. Can you tell me which are the two letters that are the same on both
keyboards?
14. The mouse has become a standard computer input device. Who invented the
mouse?
1. Who composed the Chinese room problem in an attempt to prove that computers
can't think?
2. Some computer scientists are a bit odd -- one famous computer pioneer had a
hatred for street musicians. Was this Pascal, Leibnitz, or Babbage?
3. "High Sierra" is the name of a CD-ROM standard. What is the origin of that
name? Was it named after the chief designer's dog, a communications code word,
or a hotel?
4. What was the first machine with an Ethernet interface?
5. There is a computer company whos name is AST Research. The name of the
company came from the first initials of each of its three founders. Can you
give me their names?
6. It's almost a cliche that many Silicon Valley companies started out in a
garage. Of the following companies, which one did not start in a garage --
Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Televideo, or Sun?
7. One company that did start in a garage was Hewlett-Packard. The garage was
on a street in Palo Alto. The two men were Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. What
was the name of the street?
8. Digital Research Incorporated is often referred to as DRI. But in fact,
when it was first formed it was called IDR. What did the letters stand for?
9. Which of the following was named after a person -- heap sort, quick sort,
shell sort, or bubble sort?
10. What do the letters BCD stand for?
11. Before Seymour Cray cofounded Control Data, he was a computer engineer at
what company -- Sperry Rand, IBM, or Honeywell?
12. What was the first encyclopedia to appear in CD-ROM form?
13. Three computer companies have the word "Packard" in their names. Can you
name those three companies?
14. Ada Lovelace is often referred to as the first programmer. But her
father's occupation had nothing to do with computers or math. What did Ada
Lovelace's father do for a living?
15. A book entitled "Who Got Einstein's Office?" is about an institution where
a lot of early computer research was done. What is the institution?
16. What book containing a bird's name is about illegal break-ins on computer
networks?
17. The Book of the Month Club recently offered a new novel based on a
computer theme. What was the name of the book -- was it "Goodbye Mr. Mips",
"The Open Window Version 3.0", or "The Difference Engine"?
18. Kurt Vonnegut once wrote a short story about a computer that wrote poetry
and then eventually committed suicide. What was the name of that computer --
was it called EPICAC, MYCIN, or Dresden?
1. [holding up comptometer] This is a comptometer from The Computer Museum.
The question is -- who developed the adding system for this machine? Was it
Pascal, Leibniz, or Babbage?
2. The bit is a very common and important computer term. Who first used the
word bit? Was it John Tukey, Donald Knuth, or John McCarthy?
3. LOGO has been a popular educational language for children. Who created
LOGO?
4. Atari is the name of a personal computer company, but it is also a word in
the Japanese language. What does Atari mean?
5. Among the early machines in the history on computers were the ENIAC, the
ILLIAC, and the MANIAC. MANIAC was an acronym for mechanical and numerical
integrator and computer. The question is -- where was the MANIAC built? Los
Alamos, Livermore, or Cambridge, Mass.?
6. The word Sun in the company name Sun Microsystems is an acronym. What do
the letters SUN stand for?
7. For years, BASIC was one of the most commonly used programming languages
for personal computers. The word BASIC is an acronym. What do the letters
stand for?
8. PLATO is the name of an educational software environment. PLATO is an
acronym. What does it stand for?
9. In August 1981, nearly 10 years ago, a major new personal computer was
introduced. What was the computer?
10. If you wanted to square all the integers from 1 to 10,000 -- which
computer would you pick to get the job done most quickly? The TRS-80 Model I
or the ENIAC?
11. While today we talk about the 80386 and the 80486 Intel processors, one of
the earliest Intel chips was the lowly 4004. What was the first commercial
application of the 4004? Was it used in an early personal computer, a factory
process controller, a Japanese calculator, or a frequency modulator?
12. What do you call a local area network method that routes messages through
each workstation on the network in turn?
13. 3COM is a well-known name in the local area network field. The company
name is short form three separate words, each of which begin with the prefix
"COM". What are those three words?
14. The database program DBASE IV is an upgrade of DBASE III, which is an
upgrade of DBASE II. For what operating system was DBASE II originally
written?
15. Deep Thought is now considered to be one of the world's best chess-playing
computers. But way back in 1967, a computer, for the first time, beat a
serious chess player during a state chess tournament in Massachusetts. The
computer's designer was Richard Greenblatt. What was the name of the computer?
Was it BORIS, Matemaster, Mac Hack IV, or EN PASSANT?
16. In 1679 a famous mathematician perfected the binary system of notation.
Who was that mathematician?
17. Arcade-style video games are often thought of as male oriented. Yet a
woman named Dona Bailey designed one of the most successful video games. Which
game was it -- Centipede, Tempest, or Ms. Pac-Man?
18. According to an article in IEEE Spectrum magazine, what was the first
video game to become popular with women players as well as men?
19. Computer Space, Pong, Spacewar, and Space Race are all names of computer
video games. Which of these, in 1970, became the first commercial video arcade
game?
20. A byte is usually defined as eight bits. What is the term for four bits?
21. The haloid process describes a process in which of the following
activities: manufacturing ICs, soldering components, or photocopying?
22. What color is the stripe painted on the raised floor of the machine room
in the AI Lab at MIT?
23. While working at Xerox, Gary Starkweather is credited with inventing the
laser printer. When did that happen? Was it 1969, 1973, or 1977?
24. I'll give you two names. You tell me in what field they do research:
Berliner and Schank.
1. One piece of technology that has never quite made it is the picture phone.
When and where was the picture phone first displayed? Was it the 1939 New York
World's Fair, the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, or the 1964 New York World's
Fair?
2. Which of the following machines is not a binary machine? Atanasoff Machine,
Bell Labs One, UNIVAC, or CDC 1604?
3. How many jobs can an IBM S/360 computer execute at once?
4. John von Neumann is a well-known pioneer in the computer field. In what
area did he get his first college degree? Was it chemical engineering,
electrical engineering, or mechanical engineering?
5. What do the following three things have in common? BORIS, SHRDLU, MYCIN?
6. Roger Penrose wrote a book about artificial intelligence. What was its
title?
7. There are several expert systems which have been developed for a variety of
application areas. I'll name the expert system, you name the author.
a. Hearsay
b. MYCIN
c. Dendral
8. What was the name of the first artificial intelligence program? Was it
called The Logical Theorist, Logician, or QWERTYUIOP?
9. When the original Macintosh computer first came out, how much RAM did it
have?
10. Where is the Charles Babbage Institute located? Is it in London,
Washington D.C., or Minneapolis?
11. Here are three words -- MILLIAC, DILLIAC, and SILLIAC. One of those words
was the name of a computer. Which one?
12. The computer magazine "ANTIC" is devoted to coverage of computers made by
what manufacturer?
13. There is a famous vignette in which a well-known computer pioneer says
"Let me show you a nanosecond" and the person holds up a short length of wire.
Who is that computer pioneer?
14. In 1936, a paper that was perhaps the most important in the history of
computer science was published. It was titled "On Computable Numbers". Who was
the author?
15. The names of the people who worked on the development of a famous personal
computer were etched on the inside of its case. What was the computer?
16. If you were using Lotus 1-2-3 and you wanted to center a label, what label
prefix would you use? Would it be -- a caret, a quote, an apostrophe, or a
back slash?
17. If you were using WordPerfect and the letters "POS" are blinking on the
screen, what does that tell you?
18. What are the three operating modes of Windows 3.0?
19. We all know the term DOS, short for disk operating system. But there was
also an operating system called SOS. What did the letters "SOS" stand for?
20. On what microcomputer was SOS used?
21. If I were configuring a peripheral and I entered the following input:
"1200 N 8 1" -- what kind of peripheral would I be configuring?
22. On an external modem there are usually several LED indicators to provide
you with feedback on what the modem is doing. Can you tell me what these
indicators stand for: CD, OH, AA?
23. Computer pioneer Charles Babbage was interested in many different kinds of
inventions. According to the book "Digital Deli", Babbage tried to invent
which one of the following gadgets: a portable steam engine, a cotton candy
machine, or shoes for walking on water?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers are next!
