Tech Pub Quiz #1

Yesterday, we did our first ever tech focused pub quiz. For folks who are curious, here are the questions from our first run! To join future quizzes, shoot me an email jack [ at ] cord [dot] com.

Round 1: Brevity is the soul of wit

Please give the expansions to these tech initialisms:

1. UX
2. ETH
3. MVP
4. MP3
5. FIFO
6. I18N
7. PAAS
8. BYOK
9. WYSIWYG
10. TSTTCPW

Round 2: Techno-archaeology

1. This typeface was created in 1957 is one of popular — possibly the most popular — typeface of all time. What is its name?
2. The silicon in the name “Silicon Valley” refers to silicon used to create what computer components?
3. In “The Mother of All Demos”, this inventor showed off the first ever computer “mouse”. Who was the inventor? And what decade did he invent it?
4. The first commercial computer to have a screen was the Xerox Alto, created in 1973. What display technology did it use?
5. TCP and IP were originally invented for the ARPAnet network that existed before the modern internet. What does ARPA stand for?
6. Apple computers was founded in 1976 in Los Altos, California. What year was the Apple Macintosh (128k) released?
7. In 1991, the first ever website titled “The World Wide Web Project” went online. What research organisation created it?
8. As file sharing networks like Napster and Kazaa began their decline, 2001 saw the creation of a new type of network that focused on decentralisation and peer-to-peer sharing. This protocol became the dominant file sharing tech of the 2000s. What was it called?
9. The first high-res “retina” device most people ever encountered was a Retina Display iPhone. What was the earliest iPhone model to have it?
10. What year was the first Android device (the G1) released?[1pt]

Round 3: Design

1. What is the name for three colours chosen at equal distance from one another on the colour wheel?
2. Every freelance designer has had the experience of having their designs questioned by the client. In particular, clients always demand that the designer make what specific thing bigger — always bigger?
3. In UI design, the design approach that makes digital interfaces mimic real world objects and textures is referred to as what?
4. In Typography, the spacing between letters is called “kerning.” What word is used when the kerning is too tight and leads to readability issues?
5. In 2014, Google created and opened for public use a design system for creating user interfaces. What is the name of this design system?
6. Which of the following is not a design principle: contrast, rhythm, vibrance, emphasis, proportion
7. In website layout design, what is the religious name for a page layout that has a full width header, three column body with a large middle column, and a full width footer?
8. What is the common name for the hexadecimal color code #ff8800 ?
9. Since the 1500s, when designing around content that hasn’t yet been decided, designers have employed made up Latin-like dummy text commonly called “Lorem ipsum”. Answer as many words of “Lorem ipsum” as you can recall from memory. One half point per word.
10. The film Avatar is famed for its groundbreaking computer generated graphics. It’s also famed for its conspicuous use of a much-maligned font for the film’s logo graphics. Name the font they used.

Round 4: Laws, Theories, and Speculation

1. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Godwin’s Law states that as an online debate increases in length, it becomes inevitable that someone will eventually compare someone or something to what?
2. Brook’s Law states that adding more people to a late project only makes it later. A common way of stating this is that adding more women doesn’t make what more quickly?
3. Moore’s Law (roughly) states that hardware gets twice as fast or half as expensive every amount of time? What is the amount of time?
4. The Infinite monkey theorem involves a monkey, a particular device, and an infinite amount of time. What device does the monkey need?
5. Fitts’ law states that the amount of time required for a person to move a pointer (e.g., mouse cursor) to a target area is a function of the (a) what divided by the (b) what.
6. Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships — what number did Dunbar assert is the limit?
7. What is the “Two Pizza Rule” rule and who made it famous?
8. Arthur C. Clarke once said that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from…’ what?
9. A bozo explosion occurs when a company has hired so many mediocre people that it cannot recover. A defence against the Bozo Explosion is attributed to Steve Jobs, breaking all employees into three classes — As, Bs, and Cs. What was Steve Jobs assertion about these types of employees?
10. Modern social networks uphold Metcalfe’s Law, which originally described the value of a telecommunications network. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value of a network is proportional to the number of connected user in that network multiplied by what?