Executing Gummiworms The trials and tribulations of a grumpy curmudgeonly old git

Answers to the Christmas Quiz

I received about 10 entries into the Christmas Quiz and I'll go through them in a day or so and let those who won know and get their details. In the meantime though here are the answers.

1. The Camputers Lynx
2. There were lots but TRSDOS, NEWDOS, LDOS are three of them.
3. It was exactly the same size as a 1DM coin and fit and worked in all vending machines but was worth a lot less than 1DM.
4. Pascal
5. It's the Z80 mnemonic for load, decrement, repeat e.g. a block move
6. "Beating the system: Hackers, Phreakers and Electronic spies" by Owen Bowcott and Sally Hamilton (Bonus Point: The Groucho Club)
7. Althh, M&T, RUB..... (I was on retty much all of the german chatsystems so hard to get wrong)
8. Corrupt Computing UK aka CCUK
9. Types of hop
10. This one was what most of you will consider a bit of a cheat although it was possible to workout if you are into things like prime numbers. The correct answer is 391 As that is the number of carmichael numbers in the range of  number with 9 digits. You can read more at http://www.kobepharma-u.ac.jp/~math/notes/note02.html -- 1 person actually got that right
11. Althh and acorn.com -- they were/are IPSS nua's
12. Gartree High school & Gartree Prison
13. 1810 & 1814
14. The series was called Science Fiction, The Episode was called Spycatcher, The director was Derek Jones, The producer was Susie Gautier-Smith and the book it was based on was Clifford Stoll's The cuckoo's egg.
15. Equations of uniformly accelerated linear motion

A hint for question 10

I've had a few emails and a couple of pings via IM that Question 10 is really hard It is supposed to be but maybe it is a little too hard after all. It is possible to work it out but you probably do have to know something about a certain branch of mathematics and probably just happen to know the answer.

So here is a clue to help you on your way. ROT13'ed so that people who don't want a hint can ignore it.

--rot13--

Gur frdhrapr vf eryngrq gb n cebcregl bs n pynff bs vagrtref engure guna gur vagrtref gurzfryirf orvat vzcbegnag.

--end-of-rot13--

Hopefully this hasn't made it too easy.

I’m in a Quizzy kind of mood

I'm in a Quizzy kind of mood so for the hell of it I thought i'd set a couple of questions. No prizes this time just the right to be a smug wotsit for a couple of hours.

Answer in the comments section.

Q1. What's the next number in the sequence and why? 2, 10, 18, 36, 54, ...

Q2. What's the next number in the sequence and why? 9, 17, 35, 53, ...

Should be easy and Good Luck

Christmas Quiz

I've decided to set a Christmas Quiz, there will be at least one prize (something zipit related) for the person who gets the most answers correct and if I can find anything suitable in my bits and bobs boxes then i'll have a couple of runners up prizes too.

[Update: So far I have decided that the prizes will incl. A Zipit Z2 with extra battery, A Timex 1000, An unidentified PCB that has a Rabbit Z80 clone on it. More updates as I go through the boxes and find stuff that is suitable.]

[Update2: I decided to add the Palm Z22's to the available prizes as i haven't got around to doing anything with them, i have a couple of other old pda's too and if i can find them i'll add those to the pile as well. So it looks as if i have prizes for 5 people so far.]

Rules:-

1. No one related to me can enter.
2. My decision is final.
3. Closing date for entries is December 24th @ 00:00 -5GMT.
4. If more than one person has the most correct answers I will ask a tie-breaker question. If it is still tied then I will flip a coin or roll a dice.
5. My decision is final!!!
6. Entries are to be sent via the contact page but you can whine about the questions in the comments of this post.

Ok on to the questions. Some of the questions are computer related, some are about me (so have you been listening?) and some are just random things that popped into my head when I was thinking of the questions. Some can be found via google, bing.... and some you'll just have to know and a couple I hope are impossible.

1. In the early 1980s (1983ish) there was a British made home micro that's BASIC had floating point line numbers. Name that micro?
2. Name three operating systems that ran on the Tandy TRS-80 Model3 micro computer?
3. What was special about British 5 pence pieces when going to West Germany in the 1980s?
4. What programming language is named after a French philosopher and mathematician?
5. What does LDDR do?
6. In the late 1980s I helped with a book about hacking & phreaking. Name the book and the two authors? (Bonus points if you can name the location of the launch party).
7. In the 1980s I used several chat systems in West Germany. One was called Altger. Name two others.
8. In the 1980s I was co-sysop of the hacking section of a BBS in England. Name the BBS? (Thanks to it's sysop and his sense of humour it became quite famous).
9. What are Fuggles, Goldings and Bullion?
10. What is the next number in the sequence?  0, 1, 6, 9, 27, 62, 150, ...
11. Where would 026245400050233 and 023422230016102 take you?
12. I went to high school at a school that had the same name as a maximum security prision. Name the school and the prison?
13. When were Foxton Locks built? (start and end date)
14. In 1990 I was a consultant and actor in a 30 minute documentary for YTV (part of a series). Name the series, the episode name, the director, the producer and the book it was based on. (Bonus points if you have a copy on VHS or DVD and can make me a copy)
15. Final question and i'll make it an easy one. what are the SUVAT equations?