2010 Geek IQ Test

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."

Comments

100%, and I didn't even take it.

[blair1q]

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:100%, and I didn't even take it.

[damn_registrars]

Meh.

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

Re:100%, and I didn't even take it.

[Icono]

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.

Ally McBeal?!

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF kind of "Geek Cred" quiz has a question about Ally McBeal? And what's with all the Windows questions?

Shitty site

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Shitty site

[admica]

I opened it and closed it a few seconds later because it was too hard to find test with all those ads and hideous page design. I'm not clicking a single thing on that page!

Re:Shitty site

[Quiet_Desperation]

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

It's a trap! The real correct answer is not to play at all.

I win.

Failed on the first question

[digitaldc]

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.

Re:Failed on the first question

[l0ungeb0y]

It's called "being slashdotted" an effect known by geeks since the 90's.
You failed to use the term or display understanding of this, so yes... you failed.

UID 879047 derezzed.

lpd

[BitZtream]

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

Re:lpd

[NetRanger]

But is it on fire?

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

Re:Windows Questions?!

[somejeff]

And what's with all the Windows questions?

- A geek knows Windows inside and out.
- A true geek knows to how to live without Windows (-- that's probably where we fall, in our parents' basement)
- An übergeek knows life, the universe and everything, including Windows.

Karma Whoring Post

[MyLongNickName]

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:Karma Whoring Post

[EnsilZah]

Sounds more like an MCSE test than a geek test.

Re:Karma Whoring Post

[Anonymous Coward]

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:Karma Whoring Post

[robbak]

No, lsof. It lists open file handles, and any nework port that is open is also a file handle. With some grep and sed hackery, you'll have a simple list.

it's really not that kind of test

[digitalsushi]

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.

InfoWorld Fail

[michaelwigle]

Looks like InfoWorld failed the Geek IQ test... Question 1. How much bandwidth do you need to avoid getting slashdotted?

Last "geek quiz" I took...

[6Yankee]

...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...

Re:Windows Questions?!

[Dunbal]

An übergeek knows life, the universe and everything, including Windows.

      With the exception of the vagina. Being born through one doesn't count. Nor does a fleshlight.

knowledge != IQ

[petes_PoV]

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.

Re:Windows Questions?!

[hweimer]

- A geek knows Windows inside and out.

That might be true up to 95 or so, and only if said geek is old enough to have experienced these times. Later, GNU/Linux became so ubiquitous in geekdom that knowing the answers for this test is actually a hint that you are not a real geek. Personally, I find the old Geek Quiz much more entertaining.