. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchly Park?
Alan Turing, was an extremely intelligent and rather under appreciated individual. He died at the young age of 42, in 1954. His peers (and society in general), considered him to be rather odd fellow. Especially when he was spotted wearing a gas mask, whilst riding a bicycle. (Maybe he thought he could start a trend?). Turing, obviously did not care one bit what people thought of him and I pat him on the back for that. I have never met an extremely intelligent individual (or artist), who was not at least a little bit eccentric. I believe eccentricity is good for the soul!I started out trying to find the answer to this question at 'Bing.com'. I had no luck and was starting to get rather cranky. But I did research it again on the Yahoo search engine, just to check, and found the following site relating to Alan Turing http://historyarticles/enigma.html
2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? I used yahoo to find out this answer. I originally tried with 'Bing.com', but had no luck. Yahoo came up with the answer straight away, which is why it secures 3nd place for me, as most valuable search engine. It turns out that two computers (according to author of the site, Tech Republic, Jay Garmon), first communicated with one another on the 20th of October, 1969. A 'refrigerator-sized interface mass processor', which worked as the 'world's first, packet-switching router' at Stanford University, finally communicated with a computer from UCLA (Though, only after seven long weeks of being connected). The computer from UCLA, only managed to only send 'two characters' to the other computer at Stanford, before having a system meltdown. Those two character, were the letters 'L' and 'O', an abbreviation of the word 'Hello'. Some people consider this interaction to be the true birth of the Internet, whereas others just believe it was the first example of an 'email'. Goes to show that computers, really have come a long way.
This information was sourced from the following site; http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5842105.html
Where were they? See the above answer. At Stanford University and UCLA, in America.
3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software? I used the search engine 'Bing.com' to find out all the information I could on the life and progress that Bill Gates has made. Bill, was born on October 28th 1955 (which suggests he is getting on in years!). He began developing soft-wear in the late 1970's and in 1981, completed an operating system called called 'MS-DOS', though his company Microsoft. It order to present this program to the populace, Bill had to work through IBM computers. As they were the biggest company dealing with computers at the time no doubt. He made a deal with IBM, which meant that for every computer that they sold with the 'MS-DOS' program, he would get a royalty payment. Of course the percentage of this royalty was most likely quite low. But due to the huge interest that was building in relation to computer in general, he began to generate a healthy income. All the noted information was sourced from the following website:
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b4gatesb.htm
4. Where was the World Wide Web invented? A scientist called Tim Burners-Lee invented the 'world wide web', (the trinity of double u's you see at the beginning of every web page), when he was working at CERN (European Organisation for nuclear research), in 1989 in Geneva Switzerland. The concept was to link the technologies of the home computer with the 'computer networking and hypertext' into an interesting and broad 'Global information system'. This information was sourced from the following site. http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/About/Web-en.html
5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago? It's like comparing a Ferrari to a Tortoise.Computers, during the 1970's were much bigger machines that those we have now. Mainly due to the fact the there were more components needed, to get them to work. Computers in the 1970's, were considered 3rd generation. As they used new 'integrated circuits', made of silicon. These chips were later improved to those we use in computers today, 'Miniaturisation chips'. the Micro-chips we use today, are made of semi-conductor materials, which house as many as '10 million transistors on 10sq. cm. Finding exact information about the evolution of computer power over the last thirty years, proved harder than I initially thought.
This was all I could find on Yahoo from the following site; http://members.lycos.fr/jcviel/contents2/computers.htm
6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown? Sorry, but who came up with these questions? Do I have nothing better to do than read about the growth of parsnips? Sadly, through my arduous research, I found that there are a lot of sites devoted to the growth of over-sized vegetables. Okay, if you are forcing me to answer (and I know full well that you are). The largest parsnip ever grown, was rather ugly. It resembled a malformed animal. It weighed eight pounds, six ounces (and NO I am not going to convert that to kilograms!). It won an award at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, held in Ontario (Canada). Its father (and the winner of that prestigious award) was Norman Craven. Who obviously does have a lot of time on his hands.
I also found out, that they are rather nice in salads or as an ingredient to soup (sigh). It took a chunk out of my busy schedule, but I finally found the answer from the following site; www.vintageassessments.com.vd/raw
7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
Queensland became a separate state from New South Wales, on the 6th of June 1859, as far as I know (or was it the 9th?). The Tweed River is in New South Wales, only just, because it is a river which is situated right next to the Queensland Border.
8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954? From memory I remember hearing that their was a significantly nasty cyclone in that year, in south-east Queensland. But I went on the Yahoo search engine (which believe it or not was the first search engine I ever used), in order to confirm my suspicions. I just typed in 'South East Queensland, November 17th 1954'. But according to the Bureau of Meteorology, there seemed to have only been very bad thunderstorms, which caused a large amount of flash-flooding. Areas which seemed to have been hit were the Darling Downs. Many rivers, such as the Condamine, spilled over due to the intense level of rain. I found this information from the following site;
http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/fld_history/floodsum_1950.
9. Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice? Lord Byron, is remembered in Venice, due to the fact that he lived there at 'Palazzo Mocenigo', On the Grand Canal. I already knew that Lord Byron lived in Venice. But this site I found from the yahoo search engine, confirmed my theory. http://keepingit-realtor.com/2008/09/friday-featur-3.html This site also has some nice pictures of Lord Byron's 'Palazzo', which suggest that the crazy poet must have been very wealthy. I wouldn't mind living there my self, drinking coffee and eating nice Italian food by the water, while writing captivating novels (sigh). It is no wonder Lord Byron spent so much time there (writers need inspiration no doubt). Oh almost forgot, Lord Byron was also remembered most likely, for his odd amorous adventures (odd is an understatement). I am quite sure he became famously involved with a Venisian countess there. He was a rather odd man and I won't go on about the people he had relations with, but lets just say many of them were rather strange choices, such as his half-sister.
10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?
He plays keyboard for the band The Black Assassins. I found this out courtesy of the Yahoo search engine. Finding out what his real name actually is was a lot harder than I thought. Then I found out it was Steve Stockwell!!! What? wait a minute...isn't that our lecturer's name, Stephen Stockwell? It seems, Mr Stockwell has a musical past. ah I see this was a trick question... Or could it be a publicity stint for the band? Maybe the black assassins are making a comeback? who knows. If you don't believe me check the following site http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas
According to this site, the Black Assassins were an unruly bunch, who often wore camouflage to conceal their identities. Tres dangereux!
I found the task of answering all these questions, without the help of Google or Wikipedia, to be harder than expected. I knew the answer to a few of them, but looking for the others was just plain annoying ( Note to self: Starting to have an inkling, that the convenors of this course are getting sadistic joy from their students pain).
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