Quiz #1

I'm surprised that there's not a single quiz on my blog. So here goes. Plus, wrt my quiz, its a taste of things to come...

(1) What is Vexillology?

(2) While working with Affinity Systems, X developed InCircle, intended to be used by University Alumni groups. X then moved to Y, another famous organization and developed Z, something that made his name world-famous. Find X, Y, Z.

(3) He was born on June 8, 1955. While at Oxford, he was caught hacking and was banned from using any University Computer. He worked at Plessey Telecommunications Limited in 1976 as a programmer and in 1978, he worked at D.G. Nash Limited where he wrote typesetting software and an operating system. Who?

(4) Which rock band, who came out with arguably the most popular song of 2005 which recieved almost no radio or tv air-play, consists of Skip, Abeer, Anas, Aneel and Raheel?

(5) "Powered by Intellect, Driven By Values". Name the company.

(6) Which company label was founded by Sam Houser, Terry Donovan, Dan Houser, Jamie King and Gary Foreman. They’re a famous name right from car-jackers to high-school bullies.

(8) Which technology's name derives from the cognomen (i.e. nickname) of 10th-century Danish king Harald Gormson, famed for his diplomacy between warring parties?

(9) Founded in 1865 as a wood pulp mill. After being acquired with a rubber and cables company, it got its current name in 1967. Which company?

(10) Who contributed a short story to the March 1960 edition of Playboy?

(11) Connect:
1. Lake Washington
2. Jennifer Katherine
3. Anthony Michael Hall

(12) Based in Autin, Texas; under President Joe Liemandt, this company recently acquired Artemis International Solutions Corp. Name the company.

(13) Which awesome website was developed by Jonathan Huang and Euniana?

(14) Zero Wing is a famous 1980s Japanese arcade game. However, it has recently achieved cult status for a reason that has little to do with it's actual gameplay. What is this reason?

(15) The Departed is a Hollywood adaptation of which popular Hong Kong movie?

(16) Founded in 1895 by Joseph William Foster, this sports brand got its current name in 1960 when two of the founder's grandsons found this word in a dictionary. They made the running shoes worn by British athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell (of Chariots of Fire fame). Who?

(17) In ‘The Simpsons’, which Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress voices the character of Mona Simpson?

(18) He started his career as a forward for Queen’s Park at the age of 16 but started playing as a professional only at the age of 23 for Dunfermline. In 1967, he joined Rangers for £65,000, then a record fee for a transfer between two Scottish clubs. He is one of the most influential figures in footballing history. Who?

Quiz at St. Stephens

The quiz at St. Stephen's National Science Fest was good. About 30 teams were in the prelims and six made it to the final. The standings were:
1. Kunal and Arpit. (DCE)
2. Abhinav and Saikat. (St.Stephens)
3. Justin and Arka. (St.Stephens)
4. Abhimanyu and Ankit. (NSIT)


The prelim questions:
(1)"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door
Where impossible things may happen
That the world has never seen before
In _________________________________.

(2) Four papers published in 'Annalen der Physik' in 1905:
I. Photoelectric Effect
II. Brownian Motion
III. Special Relativity
IV. ?

(3) Lennart Carleson is the 2006 winner of the Abel prize. His work on sound waves (...) suggested that any sound can be reproduced using a series of tuning forks. The significance was realised much later and found place in a popular late 90s technology. Developers of a particular product recently acknowledged his contribution. What product?

(5) First of its kind was patented in 1892 by Jesse W Reno and was made of grooved wooden slats and rubber cleats. Two years later, Harrods in London installed one with a valet ready to serve passengers who felt faint with its usage with brandy. It hit public imagination when it was famously exhibited at the 1900 Paris Exposition, where it was given its current name. What?

(6) One _________ is the distance to an object that shows a parallax of one second of an arc.

(7) "Nature and nature's laws lay hid by night
God said Let _______ be! And all was light"

(8) Founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotbalt and Bertrand Russell, this organisation attempts to bring together scholars to seek solutions of global security threats etc. Named after the venue of the first conference, after offers from Nehru to hold it in India and Aristotle Onassis to hold it in Monaco fell thru, it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Has M S Swaminathan as its current Secretary-General. Name the organisation.

(9*) Pic. Commemoration of X in dining hall of Cauis College, Cambridge. Who is X? (*one of the most brilliant questions I've ever seen*)

(10) Founded by Madhava Sangamagrama, this school of math and astronomy flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries and includes among its members the likes of Parameswara, Nilakantha and Sankara Varman. Texts on advanced calculus, methods to estimate the positions of planets, a largely accurate heliocentric model of the solar system etc. are examples of their achievements. Name the school.

(11) British patent no. 7777

(13) Neil Pappworth of Sema wished Richard Jarvis of Vodafone a “Merry Christmas” on Dec 3, 1992 in Newbury, England. What was so special about this greeting?

(14*) Inscription on a cenotaph:
“NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME,
WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH,
BUT TO SHOW
THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNED TO HONOUR THOSE
WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE,
THE KING,
HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES
AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM
RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO
___________________________________

WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS
EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH
TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF
THE ___________________
ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY
INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN
AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE
AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE
AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD
BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI
DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX”
Fill in the first blank.

(16) Established in 1942, it is one of the largest publicly funded R & D facilities in the world. It was the first institution to use DNA fingerprinting in India and was responsible for the design of the SARAS. It is also the top US patent holder. Name the organisation.

(17) Atomic number 84. In 1898, it became the first element to be discovered by means of its radioactivity. Discs of this element famously feature in Forsyth’s Fourth Protocol. With a half-life of 138 days, which is the only naturally occurring isotope of this element?

(18) Largest of its kind is operated by Mt. Graham International Observatory, Arizona. The European Southern Observatory earlier this year came out with a proposal to top it with Project OWL. However, they realized that OWL might not be practical, and have now settled for ELT. Expand ELT.

The DU*ness continues...

It appears that the guys never learn, (Then again, that's the whole point of DU*, to NOT LEARN!!). Hansraj... they LITERALLY recycled an old KMC prelim paper, sponsored by Career Launcher! :D, and then had a GD not a quiz. Kunal blasted the fuccha in charge and we made our way to IP College. A maths quiz. Who were the contenders? Debashish(a.k.a DD) and Jaideep from NSIT, Kunal himself, another NSIT team and some dudes from BITS-Pilani (don't ask me what they were doing there, I don't know myself!). Nitesh B. Hasin and self gave it a shot and thanks to my history of quick thinking math puzzles (thanks Vinyas) and a downright weird paper, WE WON! The prize, Rs. 1000 *scratch* Rs. 750... there is corruption afoot. But that pales to the fact that a guy with seven supplis (including maths) and me beat Kunal, two teams from NSIT and some BITS dude. Nice!

Quizzes @ DU*

Here's a list of a few DU quizzes over the next few days.

An Advance Invite...

Right. My "college" (alright, it's Amity :( Must You Mock Me??!!!!) is going to have a fest called ACT '07 sometime in Feb or March. I instantly went to the cultural committee (the announcement of the fest made me realize that there's a cultural committee in my "college"!) and demanded that I organize the quiz. The reply was, "Yeah, sure. We originally weren't even planning to have a quiz!". So, I hereby invite you'll to the ACT '07 Quiz, being organized by yours truly.
And here are my assurances:
1. I'll try to make it better than the sad affairs I've had to tolerate so far (except InnoVision, that was good; except for the last-minute, "oh-sorry, we forget to tell you, there are no prizes for second place" - you think this is frickin' Top Gun?! But the quiz was good). If it isn't, hey! At least it'll be better than DU*!
2. Absolutely NO rigging of the qualifying or final round. The audience prizes will be rigged to a tiny extent, however.
3. Seeing that we are soundly backed by an Interpol-wanted millionaire and are next-campus neighbors to Perot Systems and HCL, I hope that there will be good financial remunerations for ALL finalists (a KQA trend that has sadly, not caught up here)
4. Definite questions on the following topics: 1.HHGG 2.Sci-Tech 3.Tolkein 4.Alternative Rock 5.The Simpsons 6.Football 7.Wodehouse
5. No lame connection questions. There will be a connection round where the answers of the round will have a connect, not a round full of connects.

Right-o. Hope to see you guys there, suggestions and feedback are always welcome.

FMS-Fiesta Biz. Quiz

There's a huge biz. quiz tomorrow at 5 as part of DU*'s Faculty of Management Studies(FMS) fest, Fiesta. Check out http://www.fmsfiesta.com/.

ESPN thingy...

There's this ESPN college quiz concerning world cup cricket. I'm not exactly sure, but the qualifying is on the 9th @ 9AM at IIMC, Vasant Kunj.

Hindu College...

There's a quiz at Hindu College on friday at 1130 AM.

IP College for Women...

There's a quiz at the IP College for Women, near Civil Lines on thursday the 7th at 1000AM. Teams of two. It's going to be conducted by a respected quizmaster, so one hopes for some professionalism.

DU*...

What can I say about the "great" Delhi University*. There is no adjective in the title as I couldn't decide between, "DU*...PU!!!" or "Screw You, DU*!" or a plain "DU* sucks!" Is it a case of sour grapes? Wrong! Panache was a case of sour grapes, the DU* quizzes were just utter nonsense! First the rubbish at Hindu, followed by more poppycock at Daulat Ram and a joke at Venkys on the 30th to really seal it. Amateur nite, ladies and gentlemen. Silly questions which were un-friggin'-workable! Nimish's list of victims in his "50,000 Quiz" plan has increased(if he ever executes it!). Let's go one-by-one, shall we?
1. Hindu College. 29th. History Society Quiz.
No solo participation. I was stuck with some Hindu girl who seemed as interested in the quiz as I would be in a reality TV show. Nimish+Nitesh (team DON!, sorry Nimish) didn't make it. Unfortunately, I did. Final round. We're met with questions such as "In which year did construction of the Taj Mahal begin and end?" and "Where did the bombs in the London Bombings last summer explode?" I was in perennial second, with Maurya's team in the lead. Then something weird happened. The last two rounds ended up in such a way that one team (Maurya's) won with 24 points and the rest of us were on 18! No certi or prize. Fine; Go suck a neutron star, no0bs.
2. Daulat Ram. 10 teams in the qualifying. 8 teams in the final. Guess which two didn't make it? Here's a hint: the best two!
3. Venkys. A weird qualifying round with questions such as "What is the hindi-dubbed version of the Matrix called?" The answer is 'Mayajaal', folks but they insisted on 'Mahashaktimaan'! Whatever! The final round was filled with Ambiguous, Silly questions and a downright ridiculous argument that "We have a more precise answer!" Sorry mate, if you are unaware of the basics of quizzing, let me tell you that it's the team that gives the right answer FIRST who gets the points, not the precise to-the-dot, spelt correctly answer.

And yes, even in the good quizzes don't always expect to get your prize. Pradyumna, I'm still waiting...

To summarize; DU* quizzes are amateurish jokes organized by dolts who probably think that KBC is the know-all end-all of quizzing and invite "pros" such as self, who are drawn by the prestigious name of the college and the hope that the prestigious name will translate into a prestigious financial renumeration.
To summarize the summary; DU* quizzes should be attended IFF you know the guy hosting the quiz and even then don't have high hopes.
To summarize the summary of the summary; Screw You, DU*, DU*...PU!, DU* Sucks!

* - The term DU applies to all Delhi University colleges, except the Delhi College of Engineering and the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology