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2010 Geek IQ Test 245

Posted by samzenpus from the what-do-you-know dept.
snydeq writes "Windows NT name size limits, network cabling and protocols, Linux printer daemon commands, AD&D character alignments — find out how much you know where it really counts by taking InfoWorld's 2010 Geek IQ Test."

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2010 Geek IQ Test More

2010 Geek IQ Test

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  • 100%, and I didn't even take it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blair1q ( 305137 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:22PM (#34233242) Journal

    I know I'll ace it, because I'll open Google in another window.

    And that, of course, is the correct answer, in 2010.

    • Re:100%, and I didn't even take it. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:25PM (#34233302)

      Nope. It will take 40 seconds between questions and you will give up in exasperation.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by rubycodez ( 864176 )

        no we won't, because it beats working an IT job.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 )
      I will wait for a karma whore to post the summary. I would not even have to toggle between the tabs.

    • Karma Whoring Post (Score:5, Informative)

      by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:36PM (#34233514) Journal

      Question 1: What does "httpd" stand for?
      Correct Answer: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Daemon

      Question 2: What is the primary use for the 224.0.1.24 IP address?
      Correct Answer: It's the WINS server group address, used for the dynamic configuration of replication for WINS servers and auto-discovery

      Question 3: How much RAM is supported in the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 R2?
      Correct Answer: None

      Question 4: The names Killing Horizon and Event Horizon are not related to:
      Correct Answer: Two sci-fi movies from the '90s

      Question 5: Which one of these will let you quickly look at the open ports on a machine?
      Correct Answer: NETSTAT

      Question 6: When the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) protocol was popular, which of these was considered one of its primary advantages?
      Correct Answer: Multiple tokens
      Your Answer: Multiple tokens

      Question 7: What does "GUID" stand for?
      Correct Answer: Globally Unique Identifier
      Your Answer: Globally Unique Identifier
      I'm fairly proud of inventing "Group Unnamed Information Delivery" -- it sounds very authentic, though "Great Underwear Is Divine" is nearest a universal truth.

      Question 8: A 10Base2 Ethernet network used what kind of cabling?
      Correct Answer: Thinnet coaxial
      Your Answer: Twisted pair
      If some kid straight out of college is standing behind you asking, "What the hell is 10Base2?!" feel free to pretend you don't know the answer and choose HDMI. Old folks need to stick together.

      Question 9: "Aero," the GUI introduced with Windows Vista, stands for which of the following?
      Correct Answer: Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open

      Question 10: Which of these commands will install Windows 2000 Server?
      Correct Answer: A and B

      Question 11: Which of the following network protocols requires a terminator?
      Correct Answer: 10Base5

      Question 12: An example of diametrically opposed alignments in AD&D would be:
      Correct Answer: CE vs. LG
      Your Answer: CE vs. LG
      Paladins vs. anti-Paladins or maybe just snarky journalists. Don't feel bad if you didn’t get this -- it just means you were having sex in high school.

      Question 13: On a Windows NT network, what is the maximum name size for a client computer?
      Correct Answer: 15
      Your Answer: 15

      Question 14: To restart the printer daemon for a Linux printer, you’ll use the command:
      Correct Answer: Restart [printer name]

      Question 15: What is an Active Directory forest?
      Correct Answer: A group of domains that share a common schema

      Question 16: To which politician do we attribute the quote: "The Internet is a great way to get on the Net"?
      Correct Answer: Bob Dole

      Question 17: The Tombstone-Lifetime Attribute represents which of the following:
      Correct Answer: The number of days before a deleted objected is removed from directory services
      Your Answer: The number of days before a deleted objected is removed from directory services

      Question 18: What early example of an Internet viral video phenom was used in the "Ally McBeal" TV series in 1998?
      Correct Answer: The Dancing Baby
      Your Answer: The Dancing Baby

      Question 19: A MIB contains status information for which protocol?
      Correct Answer: SNMP

      Question 20: Which of the following has the best chance to protect your users' identities?
      Correct Answer: Spyware detector

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by JWW ( 79176 )

        Technically for #14, your just restarting the printer que.

        I think the correct answer would be to run lpd restart or cups restart (depending on your print daemon) from the init directory.

        Of course, I didn't actually get to see the quiz as its been slashdotted to hell.

      • Thank you. (Score:4, Informative)

        by sconeu ( 64226 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:14PM (#34234152) Homepage Journal

        I unblocked each site listed in NoScript, one at a time, and still couldn't get the quiz.

        I wasn't going to fuck with my ABP filters just to see a stupid quiz.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by nabsltd ( 1313397 )

          I unblocked each site listed in NoScript, one at a time, and still couldn't get the quiz.

          Yep, definitely not worth the time. I'd rather see a Flash applet than play Russian roulette guessing which site is required for the content and which site will try to copy my hard drive to Nigeria.

      • What is this A and B of which you speak? (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Question 10: Which of these commands will install Windows 2000 Server?
        Correct Answer: A and B

        *inserts Windows 2000 Server CD*
        *Restarts computer*
        *Waits for CD to boot*
        *Types the letter A followed by return*
        *Types the letter B followed by return*
        *Waits*
        *dies of old age*

      • Re:Karma Whoring Post (Score:5, Insightful)

        by EnsilZah ( 575600 ) <EnsilZah@@@Gmail...com> on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:37PM (#34234506)

        Sounds more like an MCSE test than a geek test.

      • Re:Karma Whoring Post (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 15, 2010 @03:06PM (#34234850)

        Question 3: How much RAM is supported in the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 R2?
        Correct Answer: Geeks don't use Windows.

        Question 5: Which one of these will let you quickly look at the open ports on a machine?
        Correct Answer: What's wrong with lsof, it's so much more funky!

        Question 9: "Aero," the GUI introduced with Windows Vista, stands for which of the following?
        Correct Answer: Geeks don't use GUIs either.

        Question 10: Which of these commands will install Windows 2000 Server?
        Correct Answer: None if I'm in charge.

        Question 13: On a Windows NT network, what is the maximum name size for a client computer?
        Correct Answer: Far too small.

        Question 14: To restart the printer daemon for a Linux printer, you’ll use the command:
        Correct Answer: upscmd johnie@node3 shutdown.return # you can't tell me how to restart my daemons

        Question 15: What is an Active Directory forest?
        Correct Answer: Something related to pubic hair forest, but different, I think.

        Question 18: What early example of an Internet viral video phenom was used in the "Ally McBeal" TV series in 1998?
        Correct Answer: What is "TV"?

        Question 20: Which of the following has the best chance to protect your users' identities?
        Correct Answer: Don't let the users touch the computers, duh. If I'm forced to let them, I just do iptables -P OUTPUT DROP.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by PReDiToR ( 687141 )

          Question 5: Which one of these will let you quickly look at the open ports on a machine?
          Correct Answer: What's wrong with lsof, it's so much more funky!

          I think you mean nmap, do you not?
          lsof = LiSt Open Files; nmap is _the_ tool for anyone who wants to seriously check a network for anything.

      • RE # 8
        Twisted pair was called 10BaseT, while coax was 10Base2.
      • Anti Paladins are Lawful-Evil

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by GumphMaster ( 772693 )
        Question 11. A network protocol that requires a terminator? A protocol is a set of rules governing data interchange not an electrical circuit.

      • Question 11 (Score:3, Informative)

        by Marrow ( 195242 )

        10base2 requires terminators at each end of the coax. 50ohm I believe.

    • Meh.

      I hacked the test and scored 142%. That is how an Ubergeek shows a crappy website who's boss.

    • While ultimately that IS the answer to any problem you find today, a proper test would set time limits per question. Make them just short enough that you might have trouble googling the answer to the question before the limit runs out. Somewhere around the ballpark of 5-10 seconds.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

        Snapshot each question, look up the answers and go back to take the test again.

        [John]

        • Well yes - if you're allowed do-overs then there is no point to it at all, trial and error will get you the right answers without even looking it up.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by blair1q ( 305137 )

        http://www.google.com/search?q=ballpark+of+5-10+seconds [google.com]

        About 667,000 results (0.15 seconds)

        pwned

        • lol. How long did it take for you to copy, switch tabs, paste, find the answer, switch back, select and submit?

          It's the human reaction that takes time - not the actual google search times.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by blair1q ( 305137 )

            Longer than it would take to select the question text, right-click it to google, scan the result summaries, and click a checkbox.

            But you can't really give a test-taker 5-10 seconds unless you're running a quiz show. Because sometimes people have to think to remember what they know.

    • Re:100%, and I didn't even take it. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Icono ( 238214 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @06:33PM (#34237062)

      A programmer and an engineer are sitting next to each other on a long flight from Los Angeles to New York.The programmer leans over to the engineer and asks if he would like to play a fun game.The engineer just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and rolls over to the window to catch a few winks.The programmer persists and explains that the game is real easy and is a lot of fun.
      He explains “I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me $5.
      Then you ask me a question, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll pay you $5.”
      Again, the engineer politely declines and tries to get to sleep.The programmer, now somewhat agitated, says, “OK, if you don’t know the answer you pay me $5, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll pay you $100!”
      This catches the engineer’s attention, and he sees no end to this torment unless he plays, so he agrees to the game.The programmer asks the first question.
      “What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?”
      The engineer doesn’t say a word, but reaches into his wallet, pulls out a five dollar bill and hands it to the programmer.Now, it’s the engineer’s turn.
      He asks the programmer “What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down on four?”
      The programmer looks up at him with a puzzled look.
      He takes out his laptop computer and searches all of his references.
      He taps into the the net and the Library of Congress.
      Frustrated, he sends e-mail to his co-workers–all to no avail.
      After about an hour, he wakes the Engineer and hands him $100.
      The engineer politely takes the $100 and turns away to try to get back to sleep.
      The programmer, more than a little miffed, shakes the engineer and asks “Well, so what’s the answer?”
      Without a word, the engineer reaches into his wallet, hands the programmer $5, and turns away to get back to sleep.

    • Re:100%, and I didn't even take it. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by darkpixel2k ( 623900 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @09:39PM (#34238418)

      I know I'll ace it, because I'll open Google in another window.

      And that, of course, is the correct answer, in 2010.

      Wrong.

      It'll be more like this:

      Question 1: You are digging through event logs trying to solve a problem and you find an error that says "ID: 1526 SOURCE: KERBEROS Description: An unknown error occurred while processing a login request. The error was: Access Denied"

      You'll Google for that text and the best result you will get is a thread:

      So I'm getting an error message that says 'An unknown...

      With a reply: "My too, did you ever get it fixed?"

      With another reply: "I had that problem a few months ago. If I remember correctly, I rebooted and it worked."

      And another reply: "I tried that, it didn't work."

      And another reply: "Can you tell me what's in your autoexec.bat?"

      ...."I ran into that problem yesterday too--rebooting didn't work for me, but I did go outside for a smoke and I came back and it was fixed."

      ..."Mee too. Rebooting didn't work, but I had a cheese pizza for lunch and it's fixed--but now I'm getting a new error that the SMTP service won't start".

      ..."I'm having that SMTP error too, did you ever find a fix?"

      I hate dealing with retarded Windows issues and the retarded people who claim to be Windows admins. If you're good enough to be a competent Windows admin, you're either competent enough to realize there are better alternatives out there, or you are really good at wading through the piles of forum shit on Google.

      (the part I can't easily display in Slashdot comments are the 17 inches of screen real-estate used up by each post because of advertisements and the posters sig showing their 'dream rig' along with the stats of their awesomely elite Windows box and a picture of a scantily-clad woman)

  • Ally McBeal?! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:22PM (#34233254)
    WTF kind of "Geek Cred" quiz has a question about Ally McBeal? And what's with all the Windows questions?

  • Shitty site (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:24PM (#34233284)

    2 pop-ups blocked on every page, slow load times, intrusive flash ads all over, 1 question per page to force more ad views.

    I didn't even get past question 6 before I closed it to come back here and complain.

  • Failed on the first question (Score:5, Funny)

    by digitaldc ( 879047 ) * on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:25PM (#34233308)
    There was a problem starting the Quiz. Please try again later.

    Is this part of the test? Am I supposed to figure out how to make their servers display the text of the test for me? If so, I failed BIG TIME.

  • lpd (Score:5, Informative)

    by BitZtream ( 692029 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:26PM (#34233328)

    Was around long before Linux kids, its not the Linux printer daemon, its the line printer daemon.

    • If I had mod points, you would not be at zero as you are when I write this.

    • Re:lpd (Score:5, Funny)

      by NetRanger ( 5584 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:01PM (#34233938) Homepage

      But is it on fire?

      (If you get this, then you're REALLY old-school.)

      • I'm not /really/ old school, but I get it ( I didn't cheat by Googling either) :)

        From what I remember when I read about this, back in the day lpd used to report that a printer was on fire if it was reporting a bad status

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by lakeland ( 218447 )

          Roughly correct, one of the status codes returned means it is on fire.

          This was a real issue, not an Easter egg. The old line printers were very fast and if they got jammed they got hot quickly and really did burst into flames, so if you get that error then you had better run into the printer room.

      • Not really, I'm old enough to have seen it on Slashdot multiple times :)

  • I was going to do this for fun, but by question 10 I didn't care anymore.

    Slow server (perhaps because of Slashdot), and too many questions = meh

  • pop ups, having to stop blocking javascript all over the place.
    Not sure if I've failed or just can't be bothered taking the test.

  • it's really not that kind of test (Score:5, Funny)

    by digitalsushi ( 137809 ) <slashdot@digitalsushi.com> on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:37PM (#34233536) Journal

    This is when "normal" people are sitting around drinking and one of them points out a beer bottle is brown cause it blocks sunlight, and the rest of them chide him or her for being a "geek". And then they have a hearty laugh when the newly labeled geek seems to have forgotten their otherwise inevitable pocket protector, because that is a hilarious joke to make about a geek.

    That's what a normal person decomposes a geek into. That's the signal they get. The rest is noise. You're so lonely sitting there with your xterm flashing green text. No matter how bright you make your screen session, it will always be a jumble of Hollywood Hacker to the normal guy, sipping his domestic beer.

    I encourage you, actual-geek, to hide in the noise that you will never be noticed in. For it is the curtain that masks you from the mundane torture that is experiencing a meal for the four remaining senses (you abused your rights to experience touch) -- a meal for the common man, pre-processed delicious monotony.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shermo ( 1284310 )

      This is when "normal" people are sitting around drinking and one of them points out a beer bottle is brown cause it blocks sunlight, and the rest of them chide him or her for being a "geek".

      Get better friends.

      • Well... get a 'geekier' circle of friends...

        I've actually pointed out the brown bottle thing, to two different 'circles' of friends. One group called me a nerd and gave me shit about it, the other group nodded and found it interesting, then the conversation shifted to brewing techniques.

        Guess which group was my wife's circle of friends and which group was my circle :)

  • The missing question? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Deep Penguin ( 73203 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:39PM (#34233564) Homepage Journal

    Question 0: How do you set up a website to survive the Slashdot effect?

  • InfoWorld Fail (Score:5, Insightful)

    by michaelwigle ( 822387 ) <michaelwigle@hotmail.com> on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:41PM (#34233594) Homepage
    Looks like InfoWorld failed the Geek IQ test... Question 1. How much bandwidth do you need to avoid getting slashdotted?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by celle ( 906675 )

      "Question 1. How much bandwidth do you need to avoid getting slashdotted?"

      The answer is still none as even if you have had enough bandwidth your web server farm would become molten slag.

  • Last "geek quiz" I took... (Score:5, Funny)

    by 6Yankee ( 597075 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:44PM (#34233646)

    ...would increment the score several times, if you hit the Next button repeatedly. So I wrote a Selenium test to hammer it as many times as it could before the next page loaded.

    I managed to get "1019% Geek".

    Which sounds about right, come to thin of it...

  • Scoring high wont help with your Mensa application.
    And if you don't know what Mensa is, you should probably avoid this trivia test.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Astatine ( 179864 )

      I bet this test has just as much real world meaning as Mensa's IQ test though...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Rockoon ( 1252108 )
      The secret to Mensa is to pass the "test", then prove that you didnt cheat by refusing to pay the fee to join.

    • Scoring and Mensa Scoring and Mensa, Mensa will not help you score. As a qualified applicant that was socially adept enough to know I had no desire to delve into that pit of basement dwelling geekdom (at school at least) lest I never return. Has the organization made any progress in that last 20 or so years? Having intelligent conversations in a social setting is a grand idea, what I saw was in inverse locker room with guys trying to be the uber geek, as many women.and about as interesting.

  • Definitely not for nerds (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dangitman ( 862676 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @01:48PM (#34233730)

    I can see why they call it a "geek" test, what with geeks being the aspirational losers of the intellectual landscape, and this test mainly being about useless trivia. A "nerd" test would contain more substantive questions, you know, stuff that matters. Sure, many nerds would ace this geek trivia quiz, but the geeks would be lost on the nerd quiz.

    • Is this using the American or British definitions of "geek" and "nerd"? As I understand it the definitions are swapped between cultures.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by celle ( 906675 )

      "being the aspirational losers of the intellectual landscape,.."

      And without us keeping everything running your arrogant people gonads would be in a sling.

      • And without us keeping everything running your arrogant people gonads would be in a sling.

        How does biting the heads off chickens "keep things running?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

      You missed the last question. It was:

      Which of the following aborts the quiz and starts a discussion about "nerd" -vs- "geek" ?
      A. Nerds
      B. Geeks.
      C. Trolls
      D. Females. :-)

  • knowledge != IQ (Score:5, Insightful)

    by petes_PoV ( 912422 ) on Monday November 15, 2010 @02:08PM (#34234052)
    Being able to recall a bunch of facts is not the same thing as the ability to make logical deductions, work out the answers to problems or make the link between cause and effect. All this test does is check a persons memory - which is less important these days with search engines and knowledge bases. What would make a better test would be to present a problem and see how people deduce the answer, not just discover how much time they waste reading industry publications.

    • So, what's your point?

      Do you think that they were really trying to convey that this had anything to do with actual "IQ", rather than the relatively common pop culture usage of IQ?

      One might think that you are just being a pedantic stick in the mud. To be clear, I am referring to the idiomatic expression; I am not trying to imply you are literally made out of wood and covered in soil saturated with water.

  • Apparently missing this question

    Q) If you have a website, and have a Geek test, and this gets slashdotted, what sort of increase in traffic would you expect, and how would you cope.

    I cannot get to the quiz!

  • A geek is a side show freak that eats live animals or non food objects as part of his/her act. I'm an IT Professional and didn't spend two decades in constant study and certification to be compared to a side show act.

    Why we continue to use this word to describe ourselves as professionals or accept it is beyond me. When confronted with it, I make a point of educating people who use it that it is offensive.

    We really need to stop using this word. You wouldn't tell a friend you are going to refer him t
    • get over yourself... words evolve, so should we

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rgviza ( 1303161 )
      Yea! Desktop wienie, sysad-ork or laptop schlep is much more appropriate than geek. I haven't seen an IT guy bite the head off of a live chicken or swallow live goldfish since 2003. That stereotype is long dead. Lets get with the times folks!
    • "Geek" is used because it's a pejorative word. It means it causes revulsion in normal people, just like the guy that bites the heads off chickens. Ie, glasses are taped up, elbows hit other people when dancing, eats boogers, etc. A "nerd" is someone who's obsessed with one subject, like an anime nerd, a star trek nerd, a math nerd, etc (obsessed with more than is normal or more than is necessary for a job).

      If you took certificate tests, you probably are neither a nerd nor a geek. You're mainstream corpo

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by The Wild Norseman ( 1404891 )

      A person of your advanced age and wisdom, such as myself, should already know that oftentimes we take words which were originally intended to denigrate, hurt, insult and belittle and turn them into a quasi-badge of honor, of membership, of belonging to a group of people who are, on average, extremely intelligent, professional, and frankly make those peoples' little world go round.

      I actually get more praise these days from acknowledging and reveling in my geekness and my nerditude than I ever get in derision

  • ..to crash the test?!!
  • Is the first part of the test to restart the web server?
  • The quiz fails because it fails to load with Firefox, using nosript and adblock. Hell even after "temporarily allow all scripts on this page" it failed to load and I saw that "firefox has blocked 2 popups." So the quiz procedure self selects rather aggressively against allowing geeks to take the quiz at all.

    But I pass because obviously the REAL test was this: if you are a genuine geek you won't even take the test because you can't stand to "temporarily allow doubleclick.com."
  • There was a problem starting the Quiz. Please try again later.

    Apparently the quiz is to rewrite their Quiz to be more scalable.

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