this is the castle in downtown boston it
was built a hundred years ago because
the upper crust of new england were
afraid the riff raff might come after
them well it's a hundred years later and
nothing much has changed except today it
is the computer upper crust of new
england who have gathered here and they
are under attack from the computer riff
raff of the west coast this is the scene
of the hassle in the castle as two teams
of computer celebrities battle it out to
see who knows more about computer trivia
the brahmins of route 128 are the bad
boys of the silicon valley the finale of
computer bowl 4 on this special edition
of the computer chronicles
computer chronicles has been made
possible in part by pc connection at mac
connection mail order software and
hardware peripherals for the pc and the
macintosh and the software publishers
association providers of educational
materials to help manage software don't
copy that floppy
welcome back to computer bowl 4
presented by the association for
computing machinery
here at boston's park plaza castle we've
played two rounds so far and the score
is the west coast 150 the east coast
110. now for those of you
there's probably more applause out west
i assume
for those of you just joining us on
television let me introduce our
celebrity panelists on the challenger
team from the west coast over here we
have from adobe systems dr john knock
knock warnock
slate corporation vern the ace rayburn
the captain of the west coast team john
future shock
the captain of the west coast team john
shock also ruth and the mighty quinlan
from alex brown and sons
with her bottle of jolt
and from mass park computer corporation
jeff the killer calve
for the defending but endangered east
coast champions over here
from wellfleet communications paul
bearer savarino
from the technology research group and
the mc rappaport
the captain of the east coast team
charlie johan sebastian bachmann
the tie is great charlie the tire is
great
and dr david half nelson from fluid
incorporated
and from zev davis bill the elbow macron
our judges this year are pamela
mccordick and heidi rosen
once again our official examiner for
computer bowl 4 the billionaire who is
not running for president
bill gates chairman of microsoft
all right the score west coast 150 east
coast 110
let's resume the games and bill go ahead
here are four acronyms
mips lips quips and flops
which of these acronyms does not
describe
dave nelson east coast
eclipse is correct what was the rest of
the question bill
computer performance
okay
all right next toss-up question in the
early days of personal computing there
was a company named kentucky fried
computers
vern rayburn west north star what was
the question bill
hello
okay
you're not going to say this right
that's correct that's correct that's
correct that company eventually changed
its name
what became the new name of kentucky 5
computers north star great vern great
great delivery
all right next bill
the first personal computer from digital
equipment corporation was called the
vt-18x
it was a cpm machine
what was the nickname of the vt-18x
was it the robin
jeff cal west it was the ramen robin is
correct another 10 points for the west
okay bill when deck introduced the robin
it was meant to compete with end devour
a competing personal computer whose
nickname was the worm
what company john shock west coast uh
with xerox which made the xerox 820.
that is not correct
finish the question it'll be 20 points
for the east if you can get it
what company developed the worm
was it apple
radioshack ibm
or hewlett-packard
anybody from the east going to take a
shot at this yes
for 20 points
all right andy radio shack
radio shack is not correct
the correct answer is you look packard
you'll look packer all right next bill
last year
one of the designers of the intel 386
chip was interviewed on the 700 club by
pat robertson
during that interview the designer said
that god was responsible for the success
of the 386.
who said that
was it gene hill
ted hoff or gordon bell
paul severino we know you watch ted hof
that is not the correct answer
all right no consulting over here but i
need somebody to ring a buzzer on the
west if you want to take a shot at that
don't you read the question
i um the question the question was
completed
anybody want to try jeff cal rang his
button you're gonna have to give me an
answer
it was the first one but i can't
remember
it was a multiple choice question
i don't think that will do i don't think
that would be
but you're right
now the answer was gene hill and you
can't just say the first one we can't
repeat the question twice
judges
pamela says
meaning
heidi says yes pamela says no
yeah no i think that's not the correct
okay let's go to the next question bill
if you found the following three
characters in an ms-file name
dollar sign
percent sign and plus sign
one of those characters would cause the
file name to be invalid
would it be would the which would be the
illegal character the dollar sign
the percentage sign
bill mccrone plus i'm sorry no no no i
didn't mean i didn't mean to say that
the percent sign
that is incorrect
would somebody on the west like to try
to answer the question no consulting
somebody ring a buzzer and i'll
recognize you yes john the percent
what did you make the best
that i meant to say the plus
bill what's the answer the plus the plus
sign
gene hill was right all right relax
everybody relax that's too much jolt you
know that's the problem
all right we are going to go into our
next bonus round and this is for the
east coast the score right now is the
west 170 in east 120 you guys need the
points you can earn 30 points in this
bonus round and the subject is das
what is the name of the das command that
finds logical errors in the file system
you can consult i need an answer from
charlie
check disk check disk is correct for 10
points for the east coast
ms-dos version 3.3
introduced a new command the call
command what does the call command
i need an answer
it allows you to call a batch program
and get a result back
to return back
say
bill says fine
sorry judges
all right you've got 20 out of the 30
here's your last chance to get 10 more
points
category is dos
what does the erase command do
it'll erase a file same as delete as
file
well i'm sorry there is no erase command
in das
next
next question bill
cream
is the name of a public domain bitmap
font
it is based on the bitmap font used by a
popular programming language
on what language is cream
john warnock small talk small talk is
correct 10 more points for the west the
private score right now is the west 170
the east 140 next question bill
what electrical property is measured in
fair ads
paul severino capacitance capacitance is
correct 10 points for the east coast
it is generally conceded that the daddy
of today's seven pound notebook computer
is the osborne one portable
which came out in the early 1980s
how much did the original osborne one
portable weigh
was it 15 pounds
19 pounds or 23
bill mccrone east 23 pounds 23 pounds is
correct another 10 points for east
moving right along
in the early 1970s the tv show candid
camera
employed an executive named michael
schreyer
in 1975 schreyer developed one of the
vern rayburn west electric pencil
electric pencil is correct
first versions of what we know today as
a word processor what was the name of
michael schreyer's pioneering product
okay well done next question bill
sisk is a computer industry acronym
what do the letters
dave nelson east coast complex
instruction set computer 10 points for
the east absolutely correct
in the 1960s ibm had a computer called
the model 70 90. it had one peculiar
quirk when you issued a read instruction
to the printer
what happened when you gave a read
command on the ibm 7090
did the printer read some input did the
computer tell you to take a break with a
good book
or did the computer tell you the current
time
bill mccrone east i told you the time
that's correct told you the time
all right we are going into the next
bonus round
a very close match here 190 for the west
180 for the east west coast this is your
bonus round a chance to widen your lead
and the subject category is ibm
ibm once introduced a computer known as
the model 5150
under what other name is this computer
more commonly known
for 10 points
was there a desktop apl computer
afraid not
5150 is the ibm pc
the 50
5100
and 5110 is what they are thinking about
all right you missed that one for
another shot you can still get 20 points
subject is ibm
when the ibm pc was first introduced in
1981 how much memory did it come with
the base configuration had 16k 16k
correct for 10 points
all right 10 more points here's your
last chance in this bonus round what was
the ibm code name for the pc junior home
computer
it was codenamed the peanut peanut is
correct 10 points for the west okay
let's take a look at the score now it is
west coast 210. east coast 180 this is
the end of round three don't go away
we'll be right back
welcome back to computer bowl 4 the
hassle in the castle
we are in
the final round
to see who is the champion of computer
trivia the score right now the west
coast ahead by 30 points 2 10 for the
west 180 for the east the final round
bill let's get going
a well-known computer in the former
soviet union in the 1970s was the minsk
32
the mix was a copy of a well-known
american computer
dave nelson east coast ibm 360. that is
not the correct answer you can get 20
points on this bill continue the
question on what american computer
design was
minsk based was it the ibm 360 the data
general nova the hp 9000 or the dec pdp
8. i need someone to ring a button on
the west
sooner rather than like jeff calp it's
the pdp that's the correct answer
next bill hewlett packard
is often known as hp for short
but the company is also famous for a
calculator input methodology called rpn
jeff cal west coast reverse polish
notation reverse polish notation is
correct that's what rpm stands for
all right next bill
when ibm first introduced floppy disks
as a storage medium
what was the size
jeff calv west coast eight inch
eight inch what
80 inch floppy disk
was the diameter diameter was eight
inches okay thank you
next question
the robot theater at the computer museum
in boston has the first fully mobile
robot that proved itself by navigating
through the laboratories at the stanford
research
john shock west coast the machine was
called shaky shaky is the correct answer
the first business computer was not
built in the united states it was built
in england
jeff cal west coast it was leo by the
lions uh tea company
i'm afraid that is not the answer to the
question this will be worth 20 points to
the east coast bill continued and it
predated the univac one
the computer was built for the lions tea
company
who designed and built the computer
was it alan turing
charles babbage morris wilkes or dave
nelson east coast maurice wilkes that's
correct maurice wilkes is the answer
that's 20 points for these
go ahead
a well-known computer industry
personality stated his famous software
development law as follows
adding manpower dave nelson east coast
bred brooks fred brooks is correct but
it's a great quote to finish it bill
adding manpower to a software project
makes it later
all right we're going into a bonus round
and this is a bonus round for the east
coast the score right now is west 260
east 210 you can catch up and get 30
points in this bonus round and the topic
is computer books
here's the first question for 10 points
the terms virtual reality and cyberspace
came from the cyberpunk genre of science
fiction
according to paul saffo john brunner is
credited with writing the first
cyberpunk novel what was it called
for 10 points
need an answer shock wave writer
absolutely right very good
okay
for another 10 points the computer terms
little endian and big endian are used to
describe the least significant and most
significant bits in a computer word
the terms come from jonathan swift's
book gulliver's travels
what did those terms stand for in the
original book
little indian
and big endian
i need an answer
gentlemen
first and last fingers
no
there were two groups of people in the
book who ate eggs from the little end or
the big end and they were the little
indians and the big indians indians
i said indians
all right you've got a chance for ten
more points last question in this bonus
round
the book the end of history and the last
man was written by francis fukiyama
the author dedicated the book not to a
person but to a computer chip
what ship did he dedicate the book to
poor man
what chip did fukuyama dedicate his book
to
quick quick quick
i need an answer
yes 1886
no
it was the 83-86
sorry
all right the score now at the end of
that bonus round is still the west ahead
by 40 points 260 for the west 220 for
the east
bill let's continue
plan calcul
is the name of a computer language used
by an early computer pioneer ruth ann
quinlan west zeus zeus is the right
answer 10 points
next question bill
portland founder philippe khan first
started using a personal computer in
1974.
what was the name of philippe's first
john shock west coast let me crawl me
crawl is correct another 10 points
all right next question
next we're going to show you an artifact
from the computer museum if you look out
front you will see this gentleman
wearing something which is from the
computer museum's collection can
everybody see that he's got this sort of
helmet thing on his head
this is a virtual reality helmet
designed in 1970
who designed it
you're there you're there john shock
west coast ivan sutherland ivan
sutherland is correct
thank you
next question
while many people think of the osborne
one as the first real portable computer
there was an earlier sewing machine
sized luggable computer marketed by the
digital group
what was the name of the predecessor to
the osborne
was it the bit box the bite master the
felsenstein or the comp you carry
vern rayburn west coast the bike master
that's right 10 points the bike master
you guys are tough okay next question
bill at the west coast computer fair in
1979 the first clone of the apple ii
computer appeared
what was the name of that apple clone
vern rayburn west the franklin
that's not the correct answer continue
reading the question it'll be 20 points
for these
was it the banana
the orange
the apricot
or the wine
sap anybody like to try it paul severino
apricot i'm sorry apricot that's not
correct either i'm afraid
the answer is the orange
next question bill
bill hewlett has been awarded the
national medal of science
steve jobs and gordon moore have been
given the national medal of technology
but one computer pioneer has received
both the national medal of science and
the national medal of technology
who is that computer pioneer
was it david packard
steve wozniak robert noyce or bill gates
bill mccrone robert nice robert noyce is
the correct answer very good
all right we're ready to go to a west
coast bonus round west coast you are
ahead right now
300 points for the west 230 points for
the east you can start to put it away as
they say the subject is famous people in
computing
ada lovelace is known for many things
she was the first programmer she was a
friend of charles babbage she was the
daughter of poet lord byron
but she also had a very famous
half-sister named mary shelley
what book did mary shelley write
frankly
frankenstein frankenstein that's correct
for ten points frankenstein
for another 10 points on famous people
while some computer pioneers are famous
for dropping out of college
apple co-founder steve wozniak decided
to go back to school after he developed
the apple one computer what university
did steve wozniak attend he went back to
uc berkeley that's correct
all right here's your last 10 points in
this bonus round on famous people some
computer industry ceos have unusual
backgrounds
the ceo of knowledgeware is fran
tarkenton
his former employers include two nfl
football teams
which two teams did he play for
the vikings and the new york giants
sorry
all right we're at the end of that bonus
round you're still ahead the west has
320 points the east has 230 points here
are more toss-up questions bill
the atari company has been through ups
and downs since its founding
it migrated from video game consoles to
personal computers when it was bought by
former commodore head jack tramiel
from who did tramiel by atari andy
rappaport warner brothers
hold it one second judges what do you
think
all right i need i need a quick a quick
verdict here ladies we'll have to say no
on them yeah i think no is correct so
we're going to go over to john warnock
on the west morning
judges
we need a quick verdict
now it was warner communications i'm
afraid is the name of the company or
both close but no cigar as they say all
right we're running out of time we have
time i think for one more question bill
go
what does the acronym din stand for
bill mccrone east coast
deutsche industry norm
i think yes yes you just didn't finish
all right i am told we are out of time
ladies and gentlemen what does that mean
that means the west coast with 320
points
has won computer bowl four against 240
for the east coast
all right regaining the title as
champions of computer trivia
congratulations to all of our panelists
thank you all for joining us for this
fourth annual computer bowl special
thanks to the computer museum acm and
all the sponsors and underwriters who
made this event possible now for all of
you watching at home that is it for this
week's special edition of computer
chronicles
computer chronicles has been made
possible in part by pc connection and
mac connection mail order software and
hardware peripherals for the pc and the
macintosh
and the software publishers association
providers of educational materials to
help manage software don't copy that
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