Monday, December 31, 2012

From Post-coital Squid to High-res Playboy Bunnies: The IT in 2012 Quiz

From the register:
Test your knowledge of the year's most stimulating stories

How much do you remember about what really mattered in 2012? You're about to find out.
Last year The Reg chronicled more than just the birth of Windows 8, the rise of ARM, the battle between iOS and Android, the genesis of the buzzword de l'année "big data", Apple's crap Maps app flap, and other communiqués from the front lines of the tech wars.

We considered it our duty, for example, to inform you in March that a Lithuanian court denied Carlsberg brewery workers the right to strike by declaring beer to be "vitally essential," placing it "in the same category as medical supplies and drinking water."

Occasionally a Reg commenter will respond to such stories with a dismissive "IT angle?!" We, however, believe there's more to life than servers, admin tools, and security hassles, so we've cooked up a year-end quiz to see if you've been paying attention to our departures from the IT straight and narrow.

It's time to test your Reg recall on the following questions, and we offer a couple of ways to track your progress: you can click on "Answer" at the end of each question to go to the Reg story that prompted it, or download a printable scoresheet here then check out the Answers page at the end of the quiz.
And, yes, a few IT stories made it into this quiz as well. After all, this is The Reg – what did you expect, consistency?

Fast gas, WIMPs, and Playboy bunnies

1. A man in Seattle, Washington, claimed he was attacked and bloodied by what?
      A. leprechauns
      B. feral pigs
      C. laid-off Microsoft employees
      D. kindergarteners
      Answer
2. How much did Bill Gates' 1979 Porche 911 sell for at auction?
     A. $8,000
     B. $80,000
     C. $180,000
     D. zero – there were no bidders
     Answer
3. Why do scammers still employ obviously stupid and transparently fraudulent "Nigerian" scams?
     A. Only idiots respond, so the scams are highly efficient since the victims are self-selecting
     B. The number of internet users is still growing, and newbies fall for scams
     C. The scams are becoming more sophisticated, thus more effective
     D. A recent study has shown that greed suppresses rational thought
     Answer

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