I'm bored, ask me a question!

[blue_falcon]

And now, to politics.

Who was JFK's campaign manager during his 1960 run for the White House?

What was George H.W. Bush's sole elected office prior to being Vice-President?

Name 3 US Presidents who won the Presidency while losing the popular vote. (I think there are 3!)

What is a rotten borough?

Name a British Prime Minister who also had a career as a novelist.

Who was the candidate running for the Presidency of the US who, in a speech, looked like he was crying because it was snowing at the time? (Hint: He bowed out of the race partly due to something done by one of Nixon's dirty tricks boys)

[noodle]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

And now, to politics.

Who was JFK's campaign manager during his 1960 run for the White House?

What was George H.W. Bush's sole elected office prior to being Vice-President?

Name 3 US Presidents who won the Presidency while losing the popular vote. (I think there are 3!)

What is a rotten borough?

Name a British Prime Minister who also had a career as a novelist.

Who was the candidate running for the Presidency of the US who, in a speech, looked like he was crying because it was snowing at the time? (Hint: He bowed out of the race partly due to something done by one of Nixon's dirty tricks boys)

some of these are out of my age range, i mean, jeez, i'm only 20 :P

i dunno
governator of tejas
adams, hayes, harrison, gwb
rotten borough sounds familiar. something to do with england and small borough size and elections. exact details fuzzy.
i dunno
i dunno

[blue_falcon]

Originally Posted by noodle

mcgarrett: "book 'em danno"
i dunno rugs.

here's a few from me, going back to the computer theme. i'll cook up some different stuff soon:

What protocol does the 8250 support?

What's one good reason to use Maximum mode in 8088/8086 processors?

Give a one-line expression in C (or another language if you want) to determine if a number is a power of 2.
(no loops, iteration, recursion. just one line)

Pat McGarrett was the detective. But who was the actor playing him? (And yes, Danno was the guy!)

8250 -- this goes back a LONG time. Doesn't it support the RS-232 protocol? I vaguely remember using the 8250 for my senior year project.

Maximum mode must be used if you're using the 8087 co-processor. I think it's required.

C? Uhhhh....... it's been almost a decade since I last programmed ANYTHING. Gimme some time though.....

[blue_falcon]

Here's something that's at least technology related :

Why was Captain Crunch (the hacker/phreaker) called Captain Crunch?

The US spent millions developing a pen that would write upside down for use in space. What did the Russians do to solve the same problem?

Who was the cast member who played a regular (or semi-regular) role in both the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation?

[noodle]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

Pat McGarrett was the detective. But who was the actor playing him? (And yes, Danno was the guy!)

8250 -- this goes back a LONG time. Doesn't it support the RS-232 protocol? I vaguely remember using the 8250 for my senior year project.

Maximum mode must be used if you're using the 8087 co-processor. I think it's required.

C? Uhhhh....... it's been almost a decade since I last programmed ANYTHING. Gimme some time though.....

can't say i know the actor's name.

i suppose thats good enough, since its been a while and all . i've done my fair share of 8250 stuff, i'm still in school after all. null modem connections for file sharing and games and such.

yep, maximum mode is for multiple processors.

and the c statement is pretty short and sweet and to the point. hint: it involves bitwise operators and is more about the concept than the code.

[blue_falcon]

Originally Posted by noodle

can't say i know the actor's name.

i suppose thats good enough, since its been a while and all . i've done my fair share of 8250 stuff, i'm still in school after all. null modem connections for file sharing and games and such.

yep, maximum mode is for multiple processors.

and the c statement is pretty short and sweet and to the point. hint: it involves bitwise operators and is more about the concept than the code.

The actor was Jack Lord. I remember watching that show in reruns in the 70s.

Null modem connections? Yes, I remember one lab we had to do -- write some software so we can actually transfer data from one computer to another using a null modem cable. Of course, we built our own cables .... and only after some frustrating tests did I realize that, uh ..... two of the pins actually have to be switched. Doh!

Yes, I remember those days -- actually programming in Assembler to control the 8086, burning the program into EPROMs (nope, not even EEPROMs), and watching as the stupid programs refused to work.

As for the C code...... basically if the number is even and .... and ..... gimme time! (I also have to write something to the Canadian Patent Office as well. And my secretary is nagging me about it right now!)

[blue_falcon]

And on to intelligence matters (and some Russian history):

What was the name of the founder of the predecessor of the KGB? What was his nationality?

What was Stalin's real name?

Who was Stalin's KGB chief and what happened to him?

What agency is the largest (in terms of budget and manpower) in the US intelligence community?

What agency is in charge of signals intelligence in the UK?

What is the name of the intelligence agency of South Korea?

[neevel]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

The US spent millions developing a pen that would write upside down for use in space. What did the Russians do to solve the same problem?

A pencil.

Who was the cast member who played a regular (or semi-regular) role in both the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation?

Majel Barrett Roddenberry-- played Nurse Chapel in TOS, and both Lwaxanna Troi and the voice of the Enterprise-D's computer in TNG. (Yes, I'm aware of how geeky it sounds to know that)

-Dave

[noodle]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

And on to intelligence matters (and some Russian history):

What was the name of the founder of the predecessor of the KGB? What was his nationality?

What was Stalin's real name?

Who was Stalin's KGB chief and what happened to him?

What agency is the largest (in terms of budget and manpower) in the US intelligence community?

What agency is in charge of signals intelligence in the UK?

What is the name of the intelligence agency of South Korea?

don't know much about russian history or intelligence

dunno, dunno
it was a big long russian name that started with d. he changed his name cuz stalin means man of steel and russians love superman.
dunno, but i bet he died
dunno...maybe the air force intelligence division?
are we talking about yardley's black chamber?
dunno

[neevel]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

What was Stalin's real name?

Joseph Vissarianovitch Djugashvili. Stalin was a nom de guerre meaning "man of steel". It's Georgian, btw, not Russian.

As a related counterquestion, what was Lenin's birth name?

-Dave

[dunastor]

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

[blue_falcon]

Originally Posted by noodle

it was a big long russian name that started with d. he changed his name cuz stalin means man of steel and russians love superman.

dunno...maybe the air force intelligence division?

are we talking about yardley's black chamber?

Neveel got the Stalin question right!

As for the largest agency, no, sorry. It's based out of Fort Meade in Maryland and it intercepts all communications coming out of and coming into the US.

Yardley's Black Chamber? Nope. That was disbanded after WWI when the Secretary of State said that "gentlemen do not read each other's mail". Boy, was HE wrong!

[blue_falcon]

Originally Posted by neevel

A pencil.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry-- played Nurse Chapel in TOS, and both Lwaxanna Troi and the voice of the Enterprise-D's computer in TNG. (Yes, I'm aware of how geeky it sounds to know that)

Yes. A damned pencil. Smart cookies, those Russkies!



Wow. Sorry but that IS geeky. And I say that because I also knew that one!

Here's one for Mr Biggs :

The in the second series of Star Wars (Empire Strikes Back) is related how to the in Attack of the Clones?

[noodle]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

Neveel got the Stalin question right!

As for the largest agency, no, sorry. It's based out of Fort Meade in Maryland and it intercepts all communications coming out of and coming into the US.

Yardley's Black Chamber? Nope. That was disbanded after WWI when the Secretary of State said that "gentlemen do not read each other's mail". Boy, was HE wrong!

what, the nsa? yeah, i guess so...

as for the UK thing, yardley and the black chamber are the only things that come to mind

[noodle]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

The in the second series of Star Wars (Empire Strikes Back) is related how to the in Attack of the Clones?

boba is an unaltered clone of jango which he got as part of his payment for being the template for the clone army soldiers, except the clone army soldiers have modified dna to cause them to grow faster and are more obediant.

[blue_falcon]

Originally Posted by noodle

what, the nsa? yeah, i guess so...

as for the UK thing, yardley and the black chamber are the only things that come to mind

Yup. The good ol' NSA is the largest agency.

As for the UK agency, it's the GCHQ - Gov't Communications Headquarters.

Oh, and Yardley and the Black Chamber were American if I'm not mistaken.

Here's a related question, (and a dead giveaway) -- which gov't agency was one of the first customers for the Cray machines? (BTW, ever worked on those things? I remember doing some benchmarking labs on a Cray back in the mid-90s and those things were STILL fast)

[MyraTrue]

What rhymes with orange? *maniacal laugh*

Sabresque... the exact same thing that rhymes with PURPLE!

[Soldier]

"The next category is 'Words That End With 'Urple'.'"

[blue_falcon]

Originally Posted by MyraTrue

Sabresque... the exact same thing that rhymes with PURPLE!

Well ........... vorpal is somewhat close. As in vorpal blade? (Yes, I'm reaching! )

[gulebukser]

Originally Posted by blue_falcon

Why was Captain Crunch (the hacker/phreaker) called Captain Crunch?

I would have to say that was because he used a whistle out of a Captain Crunch box to "hack" the phone system of pay phones and make thousands of free calls to whomever he wanted.