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The Internet

Part One: Go Get It

For these questions, provide a) the answer, and b) how you found the answer. (A URL is an acceptable answer -- if not a URL, a good explanation is expected.) N

  1. How many pieces were used to build the Lego TECHNIC motorcar? How heavy was the car when completed?

  2. I used to correspond with a guy named Matt Rhoten who was a pretty good database programmer at Stanford. Where does he live now and who does he work for?

  3. Rumor has it that Dom Grillo has friends! (Who would have thought...?) Name five of them. (No cheating, Dom. You have to show how you figured out this informat

  4. According to the Jihad Against Barney the Purple Dinosaur, what's the cuteness of the NIST smiley face, measured in milibarneys?

  5. According to the Usenet Oracle, what day of the week was the Earth created on? What did the Oracle ask for payment from the supplicant?

  6. A very, very infamous online magazine was first produced by the fun folks at Metal Shop BBS, November 17, 1985. What was it? Download and print out the first i

  7. Seems like all the phreaks are into Prepaid Phone Cards (PPCs) lately. Get me the number for a PPC and the access number I need to use it.

Part Two: Abominable Abbreviations

Unpack/decipher the following abbreviations/acronyms:

  1. pine

  2. perl (both translations, please)

  3. gnu

  4. yacc

  5. sighup

  6. irc

  7. ftp

  8. httpd

  9. uucp

  10. chown

  11. emacs

  12. bash

Part Three: E-mail Addresses

For each of the following people, give the reason they're famous in the net community and their e-mail address.

  1. John Perry Barlow

  2. Steve Jobs

  3. Kevin Kelly

  4. Ken Kesey

  5. Kai Krause

  6. Jaron Lanier

  7. Timothy Leary

  8. Nicholas Negroponte

  9. Howard Rheingold

  10. R U Sirius

  11. Cliff Stoll

  12. Steve Wozniak

Part Four: Smiley Faces, Scourge of the Devil

We all know that ;-) means 'wink'. These are a little trickier. For instance, :-' = user is spitting tobacco.

  1. 0-)

  2. 8 :-)

  3. (-:

  4. :*)

  5. [:]

  6. 8-)

  7. B:-)

  8. :-)-8

  9. :-{)

  10. :-{}

  11. {:-)

  12. :-[

  13. :'-(

  14. :-@

  15. :-#

  16. -:-(

  17. +-:-)

  18. |-I

  19. |-O

  20. |-Q

  21. :-Q

  22. :-?

  23. O :-)

  24. C=:-)

  25. @=

  26. *<:-)

  27. [:-)

  28. <:-I

  29. @:-)

Part Five: Give the punch lines to the following jokes:

  1. How many Pentium designers does it take to change a lightbulb?

  2. How many Newton users does it take to change a lightbulb?

  3. What's the difference between Microsoft and Jurassic Park?

  4. How many Microsoft employees does it take to change a lightbulb?

  5. How many Windows users does it take to change a lightbulb?

Part Six: When were the following comments made?

  1. "Computers in the future may wiegh no more than 1.5 tons."

  2. "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

  3. "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out

  4. "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

Part Seven: You got e-mail from where?

Easy -- we give you the domain name, you give us where the message came from. So if we say .com, you say "An american corporation." If we say .dz, you say "Alg

  1. .ae

  2. .arpa

  3. .ch

  4. .cx

  5. .de

  6. .fm

  7. .hr

  8. .kh

  9. .is

  10. .lk

  11. .mm

  12. .nt

  13. .sg

  14. .td

  15. .um

  16. .va

Part Eight: Essay.

You are the assistant district attorney of hell, assigned to argue for the damnation of Steve Case, president of AOL. Make your case. Be sure to format your ar