Welcome to #thequizmcr! Teams of 4-5 1 answer sheet per team Write your team name on every page

Picture Round

Question 1

“In a year’s time everybody will be doing this. It’s not loss making, there’s money in it. I think there’s enough value that once we’ve proven that it’s doable a lot of people are going to jump in.”

Question 2

“Program designers have a tendency to think of the users as idiots who need to be controlled. They should rather think of their program as a servant, whose master, the user, should be able to control it. If designers and programmers think about the apparent mental qualities that their programs will have, they’ll create programs that are easier and pleasanter — more humane — to deal with.”

Question 3

“Many days I don’t write any code at all, and some days I spend all day writing code.”

Question 4

“I would guess that the decision to create a small special purpose language or use an existing general purpose language is one of the toughest decisions that anyone facing the need for a new language must make.”

Question 5

“If you come up with a good software development tool, that makes life easier for the developers and they can get their job done quicker, then the first thing the manager says is ‘oh you’ve got free time on your hands. Do this extra thing.”

Question 6

“Flexibility is not free. It’s overrated. And if you trade that flexibility in for some constraints, you get a lot of complexity removed from the equation, you get a lot of productivity back from all the stuff you don’t have to do.”

Question 7

“[redacted] is about as exciting as your toothbrush. You use it every day, it does the job, it is a simple tool, so what? Who would want to read about toothbrushes?”

Question 8

“If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs.”

Geek Culture

Question 1

Matthew Inman, known for his webcomic The Oatmeal, recently ran a money raising campaign to build a museum in the name of a 19th century inventor. Who was that inventor?

Question 2

Arnold Rimmer, played by Chris Barrie in science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, has the letter H stuck to his forehead. What does the H stand for?

Question 3

American actor Wil Weaton has a recurring role in hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory, playing a big-headed version of himself. What was the name of the character he played in Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Question 4

In January of this year, Randall Munroe, author of webcomic xkcd, posted its 1000th comic, which contained xkcd-style stick men in the shape of ‘1000’, with a stick man making an amusing statement underneath. What was (the gist of) that comment? Bonus:  What does ‘xkcd’ stand for, or represent?

Question 5

Futurama was originally aired by Fox from 1999 to 2003, then revived in 2008 and now under the control of Comedy Central. How many episodes have been written as intended finales for the series, to date? Bonus:  Name one of these episodes

Question 6

In the Valve game series Portal, the player controls the character Chell, who is guided by artificial intelligence known as GLaDOS. What does GLaDOS stand for?

Question 8

The NASA Mars Rover Curiosity has lettering in MORSE code in its tyres. What does the lettering mean?

Electronic Music

Question 1

The Dr Who theme was composed by Ron Grainer, but which member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop did the original electronic arrangement?

Question 2

Who played at the Manchester International Festival in 2011 in shows that included two Tesla coils, pendulums and a voice-over by David Attenborough?

Question 3

The Model by Kraftwerk reached number 1 in the UK charts in 1982 as one side of a double A-side, after previously being released as a B-side. Which song was the other side on both releases?

Question 4

Which synthesizer appeared on a Google doodle on 23rd May 2012, to celebrate the 78th birthday of its inventor?

Question 5

Which record company gave catalogue numbers not only to their record releases but also to: a bar, a nightclub, a law suit, a dental bill and a cat? Bonus: 1 bonus point for every correct catalogue number

Question 6

Which electronic musician contributed songs for the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire, one of which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original song?

Question 7

Which instrument, used on the Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” and on the soundtrack for “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, was the product of Russian research into proximity sensors in the early 20th century?

Question 8

Who composed the start-up music for the Windows 95 operating system, using their Apple Mac?

Hardware

Question 1

What is the name of the architecture created in 1945 that introduced the use of a CPU and memory to hold both instructions and data, allowing computer programs to be stored in computer memory?

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a type of computer hard drive? a) IDE b) FDD c) SCSI d) EIDE

Question 3

What was the name of the type of decryption device used at Bletchley Park designed to discover some of the daily settings of the Enigma machines on the various German military networks?

Question 4

Now relatively obsolete as a recording medium, I was widely used throughout the 19th century for controlling textile looms and in the late 19th and early 20th century for operating fairground organs and related instruments. I was also used throughout the 20th century in unit record machines for input, processing, and data storage. What am I?

Question 5

What was the name of the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, considered the world's first stored-program computer? This project was initiated to develop it into a more usable computer, the Manchester Mark 1, which quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1.

Question 6

Which of these is a not a computer manufacturer? a) IBM b) Apple c) Sun d) Microsoft

Question 7

What does CPU stand for?

Question 8

When was the first microprocessor introduced: a)  1961 b)  1971 c)  1981

And what was it called?