I would like to ask for a change of rules. I don't like the no researching rule. I think that having people research the answer is a good way to get people to learn new things since it gets them involved versus testing other's knowledge and maybe picking up on something from what the knowlwdgable ones know. Besides all of this KoC broke it already and got to continue with the questioning....
Cumulative Computer Quiz #1
- Thread starter starlifter
- Start date
However, the quiz would then come down to "who gets to read the question first", which would be no fun (pointing to disclaimer in signature).
My idea would be to keep a pool of unanswered questions in the first post, and everyone who answers one of those questions gets to ask another one (that will take its place in the first post). This sounds good in theory, but would be limited by the spare time and will of the author of the first post...
My idea would be to keep a pool of unanswered questions in the first post, and everyone who answers one of those questions gets to ask another one (that will take its place in the first post). This sounds good in theory, but would be limited by the spare time and will of the author of the first post...
starlifter
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2001
- Messages
- 4,210
Well about the rules, remember you can research to clarify or add good stuff later (after the question is answered)....
But it really seems less fun if people just go find stuff on CDs, ref books, online, etc. even to come up with the questions.
Of course, we all must learn what we know from somewhere, but should keep pretty much to what we know (or don't) for thinking of questions and writing answers. Everyone should knock themselfs out to check the replies & feel free to post more, after the questioner feels his/her question is answered right!
I think the old Star Trek quizzes and the History Quiz are pretty much the same rules, right?
PS, No one should feel intimidated not to tak a stab, esp. the new people and visitors.... jump on in & no one will hack on you if your answer is not correct!
Have fun, too
...
But it really seems less fun if people just go find stuff on CDs, ref books, online, etc. even to come up with the questions.
Of course, we all must learn what we know from somewhere, but should keep pretty much to what we know (or don't) for thinking of questions and writing answers. Everyone should knock themselfs out to check the replies & feel free to post more, after the questioner feels his/her question is answered right!
I think the old Star Trek quizzes and the History Quiz are pretty much the same rules, right?
PS, No one should feel intimidated not to tak a stab, esp. the new people and visitors.... jump on in & no one will hack on you if your answer is not correct!
Have fun, too
...starlifter
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2001
- Messages
- 4,210
Well, since no one has answered in over 2 days, I'll go ahead, since I just happen to know this stuff pretty well due to the legal issues.
1.When did Bill Gates buy MS-DOS?(year)
BonusA.What month?
BonusB.What day?
Trick Question.... he did not buy "MSDOS", but he did rip off a guy who wrote a CP/M clone called QDOS, and wound up paying $75,000 for something MS did not write, but they licensed it to IBM!! And while IBM was in stalled negotiations with DRI (Digital Research Incorporated)!!
Patterson (first name = ??) got ripped off, and it reminds me of the "purchase of Manhatan Island for $16" type of deal, esp. in retrospect!! IBM & MS came to tems in mid 1981 (shortly before the PC launch in Nov 1981) when IBM & DRI did not agree on a price for CP/M, and MS marketed "MS-DOS" to OEMs (people making BM PC clones), while IBM marketed "PC-DOS" with its PCs.
Kildall (DRI founder) was hacked at Gates to his dying day, and years later, when MS illegally put the DR-DOS OS out of business (I still have DR & all its upgrades to fix the MS sabotages of it, on original 5.25" floppy), DRI filed a lawsuit (circa 1994 I think). The DR-DOS case is still in Utah Federal Court.
2.Where did he buy it?(State and City)
Gate, Allen, and Patteson were from Seattle, and I'm sure it was Seattle, WA (where I live
).3.What was the name of the company he bought it from?
Well, if you're referring to Patterson's company, it was something like "Seattle Software".
But the "real" owners of it, as Patterson was demonstrating in Byte Magazine when I was in college, were DRI.... it was a clone of CP/M. The case is still cited in most MS antitrust documents, and in most Pending Lawsuits against MS (including the DR case for DR-DOS of the early 90's in Utah). But the $50,000 (plus $25,000 for the original licensing fee) was paid to Patterson's company.
So I say "Seattle Software".
IMHO, MS should be ripped apart and restitution paid going all the way back... but some might just call it capitalist hardball, LOL...
This should be close....
PS, I don't know the day of month, and will guess August as the month, based on milestone timing (November minus 4 = August).
King of Camelot
Camelot's King
YOU are correct! I see you are keeping the lets get those dirty bastards at MS alive! I hate MS too!
Only prob is now almost all the games are made espically for Windoze! Oh... yeah your turn. Also where was DRI based? I think I heard of the name before but can't remember.
King of Camelot
Camelot's King
Hey! Stop accusing me! It was a honest mistake and now it is over!
starlifter
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2001
- Messages
- 4,210
I've looked some stuff up to check my details, and here are some corections:
1. Kildall was Gary Kildall, founder of DRI in 1976. Gates visited Kildall in November of 1977, and licenced the use of CP/M for $50,000 as the underlying OS for his BASIC, FORTRAN, and other languages development for the PC. This was all 8-bit CPU stuff.
2. In July, 1980, IBM asked MS to develop BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL for its upcoming 16-bit PC.
3. IBM still needed an operating system. DRI was already planning a 16-bit version of CP/M, called CP/M-86. Microsoft had obtained a preliminary version, but had no right to sub-license.
4. From one court document,
5. So the actual company name was "Seattle Computer Products", not my guess of "Seattle Software".
6. Also, the PC was launched in August of 1981 .
7. I guess On July 27, 1981 is as good a date as any for Gates' "acquisition" of the OS that would be renamed "MS-DOS" when the PC came out.
8. BTW, another tidbit from court docuemtns: Microsoft's own programmers have readily acknowledged what was done in cloning CP/M. Only two people at Microsoft worked on MS-DOS 1.0. One of them, Chris Peters, later testified when Seattle Computer Products sued Microsoft concerning the purchase of QDOS: "Again, from the programmer's point of view, MS-DOS 1.0 was a clone of CP/M."
Well, time for a new question.
Here is an easy one:
What do the following computer-related acronyms stand for:
software
BASIC
APL
COBOL
FORTRAN
PCDOS
CP/M
BIOS
hardware
CPU
CDROM
RAM
You need to get 9 of 10 correct (Cutting some slack)... from memory.
1. Kildall was Gary Kildall, founder of DRI in 1976. Gates visited Kildall in November of 1977, and licenced the use of CP/M for $50,000 as the underlying OS for his BASIC, FORTRAN, and other languages development for the PC. This was all 8-bit CPU stuff.
2. In July, 1980, IBM asked MS to develop BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL for its upcoming 16-bit PC.
3. IBM still needed an operating system. DRI was already planning a 16-bit version of CP/M, called CP/M-86. Microsoft had obtained a preliminary version, but had no right to sub-license.
4. From one court document,
5. So the actual company name was "Seattle Computer Products", not my guess of "Seattle Software"
.6. Also, the PC was launched in August of 1981
.7. I guess On July 27, 1981 is as good a date as any for Gates' "acquisition" of the OS that would be renamed "MS-DOS" when the PC came out.
8. BTW, another tidbit from court docuemtns: Microsoft's own programmers have readily acknowledged what was done in cloning CP/M. Only two people at Microsoft worked on MS-DOS 1.0. One of them, Chris Peters, later testified when Seattle Computer Products sued Microsoft concerning the purchase of QDOS: "Again, from the programmer's point of view, MS-DOS 1.0 was a clone of CP/M."
Well, time for a new question.
Here is an easy one:
What do the following computer-related acronyms stand for:
software
BASIC
APL
COBOL
FORTRAN
PCDOS
CP/M
BIOS
hardware
CPU
CDROM
RAM
You need to get 9 of 10 correct (Cutting some slack)... from memory
.
philippe
FYI, I chase trains.
hmmm i will try.....
1)basic:kind of computer language i think
2)apl:hmm a clone of aol?
3)cobol:the thing that starts your computer that the command
4)fortran:never heard of it
5)pcdos:uhm later version of dos?
6)cp/m:in the early computer age that was the command to start computer
7)bios:kind of dos
8)cpu:the computer
9)the cd rom drive.to put cd roms in it.(like the cd for civ3)
10)ram(thats the memory)
i dont know about stuff like that but i gave it a shot.plz dont hack me!
1)basic:kind of computer language i think
2)apl:hmm a clone of aol?
3)cobol:the thing that starts your computer that the command
4)fortran:never heard of it
5)pcdos:uhm later version of dos?
6)cp/m:in the early computer age that was the command to start computer
7)bios:kind of dos
8)cpu:the computer
9)the cd rom drive.to put cd roms in it.(like the cd for civ3
)10)ram(thats the memory)
i dont know about stuff like that but i gave it a shot.plz dont hack me!
starlifter
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2001
- Messages
- 4,210
Nice try Philippe! I must say I really enjoyed reading your reply, but alas you get an "E" for Effort, but 0 for 10.
BTW, an "acronym" means what is the abbgeviation. Examples:
BTW = By The Way
USA = United States of America
MS = MicroSoft
ROTFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing
....
and so on
EDIT: Spelling
BTW, an "acronym" means what is the abbgeviation. Examples:
BTW = By The Way
USA = United States of America
MS = MicroSoft
ROTFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing
....
and so on
EDIT: Spelling
BlueMonday
Can I Kick It?
BASIC: Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
APL: this one actually has two, one being simply A Programming Language and two being Apple Public License
COBOL: I know this is a programming language, but I can't think of what it means.
FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation (used exculsively for mathematics applications)
PCDOS: Personal Computer Disk Operating System
CP/M: Cycles Per Minute
BIOS: Basic Input/Output System (or Basic Input/Output Operating System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CDROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory
RAM: Random Access Memory
APL: this one actually has two, one being simply A Programming Language and two being Apple Public License
COBOL: I know this is a programming language, but I can't think of what it means.
FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation (used exculsively for mathematics applications)
PCDOS: Personal Computer Disk Operating System
CP/M: Cycles Per Minute
BIOS: Basic Input/Output System (or Basic Input/Output Operating System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CDROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory
RAM: Random Access Memory
King of Camelot
Camelot's King
looks like 9 out of 10 to me...
amadeus
Serenity now
COBOL - COmmon Business-Oriented Language
starlifter
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2001
- Messages
- 4,210
BASIC: Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (my 3rd
programming language)
APL: A Programming Language (my 2nd programming language)
COBOL: Common Business-Oriented Language (never learned it!)
FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation (my first programming language; used mostly for mathematics applications, but even word processing programs have ben written with it! )
PCDOS: Personal Computer Disk Operating System
CP/M: Control Program/ Microprocessors or "Control Program for Microprocessors" (Digital Research Inc.... all MSDOS/PCDOS and most Windows is based on it)
BIOS: Basic Input/Output System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CDROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory
RAM: Random Access Memory
Score was 8/10 + 1 bonus (for the Apple reply to APL that I had not though of)....
great job!
Your turn, Blue Monday!
EDIT: Added bonus.
programming language)
APL: A Programming Language (my 2nd programming language)
COBOL: Common Business-Oriented Language (never learned it!)
FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation (my first programming language; used mostly for mathematics applications, but even word processing programs have ben written with it!
)PCDOS: Personal Computer Disk Operating System
CP/M: Control Program/ Microprocessors or "Control Program for Microprocessors" (Digital Research Inc.... all MSDOS/PCDOS and most Windows is based on it)
BIOS: Basic Input/Output System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CDROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory
RAM: Random Access Memory
Score was 8/10 + 1 bonus (for the Apple reply to APL that I had not though of)....
great job!
Your turn, Blue Monday!
EDIT: Added bonus.
BlueMonday
Can I Kick It?
Ok...um...Where's the ANY key?
No seriously, where the hell is it? I can't find the damn thing.
starlifter
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2001
- Messages
- 4,210
That's easy !!!
I have nooo idea what you're talking about!
Are you looking at an English keyboard? A PC keyboard that is?
In a broad context, I have an ANY key on one of my aircraft system computers. It's bottom row, 2nd from the left, as I recall.
?
King of Camelot
Camelot's King
I think hes refering to those messages that say 'Press Any Key'.:crazy:
:crazy:
BlueMonday
Can I Kick It?
Come on guys! I really need to know where the ANY key is. I have this window that keeps telling me to "press any key" but I can't find the damn thing!
OK OK, I'll give you guys a real computer question. What is the largest Hard Drive yet created? this was in the teck news a month or so ago
OK OK, I'll give you guys a real computer question. What is the largest Hard Drive yet created? this was in the teck news a month or so ago
King of Camelot
Camelot's King
Hmmm, 150 GB?
BlueMonday
Can I Kick It?
You're gonna have to think a lot bigger than that...a lot bigger. Hint: It's an IBM prototype.
