Computer Geek quiz (revised)

[HighLordDave]

At the request of Minerva, here it is, the Official SYM Geek O'Meter™ v.2.1. Post your scores here!

Score yourself based on the following components in your computer, your knowledge of computers (without consulting another person or resource) and your computer-related geek behaviour:

25 points if you built your computer yourself
10 points if you bought a customised name-brand computer
-5 points if you bought your computer off the shelf at a retailer
5 bonus points if you bought a Mac

1 point for every cooling fan
5 points for a water-cooled case
10 points for a cryogenic cooling unit

1 point for every IDE device in your machine
-1 point if your IDE controller is ATA66
-3 points if your IDE controller is ATA33
2 bonus points if your IDE controller is serial ATA
1 point for every SCSI device connected to your machine

3 points for having a full-size case
1 point for having a 300W power supply
3 points for having a 350W power supply
5 points for having a 400W power supply
7 points if have a power supply rated at more than 400W

10 points if you run a RAID
1 bonus point if you can accurately explain what a RAID is
-5 points if you think a RAID is associated with a home-use insecticide

3 points if you have more than one hard drive
4 points if you have a video card with a TV-tuner output
1 bonus point if your computer is hooked up to your TV
-5 points if your computer is hooked up to a black and white TV

5 points if you have SCSI controller
1 bonus point if you can accurately explain how SCSI works
-3 points if you think SCSI is an adjective describing your daughter's boyfriend

2 points if have a 19" monitor
4 points if you have a 21" monitor
6 points if your monitor is larger than 21"
-3 points if your monitor is less than 19"
1 bonus point if you have a flat panel monitor
3 bonus points if you have an LCD monitor

2 points if you have ever added an expansion card to your computer
1 point if you have ever added RAM to your computer
3 points if you have ever changed the hard drive in your computer
2 points if you have ever changed the CPU in your computer
3 points if you run a dual-processor machine
2 points if you have a USB hub
1 bonus point for every superflous device in your case (ie-neon lights, 5¼" FDD, etc.)
1 more bonus point if you think, "There's no such thing as a superflous device"

1 point if you have a surge protector connected to your computer
3 points if you have a UPS connected to your computer
-4 points if you read the above and thought "why would Brown be connected to my computer?"

3 points if you have a home network
1 point for every device on your home network
2 bonus points if your home network is wireless
3 bonus points if you have a VPN set up to work from home

3 points if you have registered your own domain name
10 points if you are your own internet service provider
2 points if you have a broadband connection
1 bonus point if you have both a modem and a network card in your machine
-10 points if you do not have any kind of firewall on your network

1 point if you have ever answered someone's inquiry for computer help
2 points if you have ever correctly answered someone's inquiry for computer help
2 points if they thanked you
5 points if they paid you (cash or trade of goods/services)
3 points if you are the tech support person for your friends and family
5 points if you are professionally employed in the information technology field
10 points if you have ever been described as a "computer geek"
5 bonus points if you have ever been described as a "tech guru"

1 point if you have ever attended a LAN party
3 points if you have ever hosted a LAN party
2 bonus points if you have every spent more than 24 consecutive hours at a LAN party
2 additional bonus points if you didn't go to sleep for those 24 consecutive hours
10 bonus points if your spouse/significant other left you because you spend too much time with your computer geek friends and not with him/her
10 points if you have ever thrown a LAN party for a friend as his bachelor party
5 points if you have ever attended a LAN party for a friend as his bachelor party
10 bonus points if you downloaded porn at said LAN party in lieu of flesh and blood strippers
2 bonus points if you have ever played on The Screen Savers LAN party

2 points for every CompTIA certification you have
3 points for every MCSE certification you have
5 points if you have a 4 year college degree (or its equivalent) in computer science or a related field
7 points if you have a graduate degree in computer science or a related field

1 point if you have ever done any computer programming (writing NPC scripting for Baldur's Gate counts)
2 points if you consider yourself to be a competent programmer
4 points if you are professionally employed as a computer programmer

1 point for every computer industry magazine you subscribe to
2 points for every computer industry professional journal you subscribe to
1 point for every computer tech support forum you belong to
1 point if you regularly watch TechTV
2 points if you have ever been on TechTV
5 bonus points if you have ever been one of the talking heads on TechTV
-5 points if you had to call Leo Laporte and get help

3 points if you know what ENIAC stands for
2 points if you know where the term "bug" came from
2 points if you know what ASCII stands for
2 points if you can explain in detail how IRQs work
1 bonus point if you have ever set jumpers to configure the IRQ for a device

All right, folks, score yourselves and measure yourselves against SYM's best!

[der Moench]

I'm dizzy!

I started out OK there with 10 pts for the (semi-)customized name brand computer (thanks for your help, there, BTW, HLD - hey! 2 bonus pts for you!), but it all went downhill after that.

I'm not a comuter geek. Is this a good thing, or bad?

Peace.

[Xandax]

25 points if you built your computer yourself - Well, who hasn't these days.
1 point for every cooling fan x 3
1 point for every IDE device in your machine x3
3 points for having a full-size case 622x190x489mm or there about without the "feet"
1 point for having a 300W power supply
1 bonus point if you can accurately explain what a RAID is
Highlight to read:

Redundant Array of Inexpensive disks. (inexpensive disks are harddrives)
Most often people work with RAID level 0 to 5, but afaik there are at least 7 levels of raid. The difference between levels are the utilization of the disks, if the disks are simply used as mirroring data so one have 2+ copies of data, or if it is spread out over several drives in either bitwise or "word"wise. And then combinations of said 2 models.
Also possible to get higher read speed (and write on some raid-levels) by utilizing the physiscs of the spin time, where writing on the inner track is faster then the outer tracks, so combining these so some drives write/read from inner while others does from the outer tracks will create a better mean time for read/write.

Basically .....



3 points if you have more than one hard drive - Give me 10 minutes

( 1 bonus point if you can accurately explain how SCSI works bugger - could if you had asked me a few months back )

2 points if have a 19" monitor

2 points if you have ever added an expansion card to your computer
1 point if you have ever added RAM to your computer
3 points if you have ever changed the hard drive in your computer
2 points if you have ever changed the CPU in your computer
2 points if you have a USB hub

( 3 points if you have a home network - not set up , but give me 10 min. )

3 points if you have registered your own domain name
2 points if you have a broadband connection

1 point if you have ever answered someone's inquiry for computer help
2 points if you have ever correctly answered someone's inquiry for computer help
2 points if they thanked you
5 points if they paid you (cash or trade of goods/services)
3 points if you are the tech support person for your friends and family
10 points if you have ever been described as a "computer geek"

1 point if you have ever attended a LAN party
2 bonus points if you have every spent more than 24 consecutive hours at a LAN party - Heh - only newbies sleep at the 56 hours LAN parties.
2 additional bonus points if you didn't go to sleep for those 24 consecutive hours

( 7 points if you have a graduate degree in computer science or a related field can we wait 2 months on this? )

1 point if you have ever done any computer programming (writing NPC scripting for Baldur's Gate counts) - Done loads, mostly Java, but also C++, Assembler (also done it binary), Object Pascal and soon C#.
2 points if you consider yourself to be a competent programmer
( 4 points if you are professionally employed as a computer programmer - args - .... 2 months from now, hopefully)

( 1 point for every computer industry magazine you subscribe to - not anymore, magazines are slow, internet is fast, thus no need for magazines.)
1 point for every computer tech support forum you belong to x 2

( 3 points if you know what ENIAC stands for - hmm, something about the first digital computer, but not sure .... )
( 2 points if you know where the term "bug" came from - Something about an insect being caugt in the hardware of a calculator causing unexpected problems .... back in the late 40s I think. )
2 points if you know what ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange
2 points if you can explain in detail how IRQs work
Highlight to read:

Interupt based input/output.
Each I/O device (and others) have interrupts connected with them. Basically, when a device isn't performing any actions it is in "sleep" mode, then when it has to perform some action, it will notify the OS that it needs to perform it by sending an interrupt. The OS will then compare this interupt with the interrupts in it "interrupt vector" and then it knows wich device it is that wants CPU time and what actions are connected with it.
This enables the scheduler to only give the needed time on the CPU and thus avoid blocking other process in the OS that needs to run. ( Asynchron I/O. )

Interrups are basically used to "stop" the CPU from doing what work it is doing to notify that a process has woken up, or another needs to start. The Scheduler in the OS then decides (based on various algorithmes in case you want thoese also) what to do.


1 bonus point if you have ever set jumpers to configure the IRQ for a device - been there done that ... thank MS for Plug n' Pray (when it works).


hmm - let me calculate this: 94, but with more possible when I am done with my education (for programmer/systemdeveloper )

[Xandax]

Well, 94 or there abouts ... depends on the judging

But I'm no computer geek, I'm to narrowminded in my computer knowledge, with it being localized around software development and programming ... not all that hardware stuff

[garazdawi]

I came down on a total of 74 points mostle beacuse of the fact that I'm regularly called a computer geek by my friends (and take great pride in it ), but also through the private LAN I have at homa and all the Lan parties I have arranged and attended LAN is great also I do know how interrupted based IO works but I didn't know it was called IRQ oh well you learn something new everyday

[Tamerlane]

45 although thats without having a current home PC. So it could be much higher, most points were from the tech guru bit. Give me a few years and I'll be up at Xans level

[Xandax]

Well- give me a few years and I'm mucho higher in that list, because in about 2 months time I have finished my education as a systemdeveloper/programmer. And for once I've found something I'm actually good at .

But as I said, my force is in programming/software, and not in the hardware ....

[Mr Flibble]

25 points if you built your computer yourself
1 point for every cooling fan (x8)
1 point for every IDE device in your machine (x5)
3 points for having a full-size case
7 points if have a power supply rated at more than 400W
10 points if you run a RAID
1 bonus point if you can accurately explain what a RAID is
3 points if you have more than one hard drive
4 points if you have a video card with a TV-tuner output
5 points if you have SCSI controller
1 bonus point if you can accurately explain how SCSI works
-3 points if your monitor is less than 19" (17" LCD. Close)
3 bonus points if you have an LCD monitor
2 points if you have ever added an expansion card to your computer
1 point if you have ever added RAM to your computer
3 points if you have ever changed the hard drive in your computer
2 points if you have ever changed the CPU in your computer
2 points if you have a USB hub
3 points if you have a UPS connected to your computer
3 points if you have a home network
1 point for every device on your home network (x3)
3 bonus points if you have a VPN set up to work from home
3 points if you have registered your own domain name
2 points if you have a broadband connection
1 point if you have ever answered someone's inquiry for computer help
2 points if you have ever correctly answered someone's inquiry for computer help
2 points if they thanked you
5 points if they paid you (cash or trade of goods/services)
3 points if you are the tech support person for your friends and family
5 points if you are professionally employed in the information technology field
10 points if you have ever been described as a "computer geek"
5 bonus points if you have ever been described as a "tech guru"
1 point if you have ever attended a LAN party
3 points for every MCSE certification you have
1 point if you have ever done any computer programming
1 point for every computer industry magazine you subscribe to
3 points if you know what ENIAC stands for
2 points if you know where the term "bug" came from
2 points if you know what ASCII stands for
2 points if you can explain in detail how IRQs work
1 bonus point if you have ever set jumpers to configure the IRQ for a device



146


Geek and proud!

[Xandax]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Flibble <snip>146 Geek and proud!

See - I'm no geek, this is a geek

[Georgi]

48, I think. I don't think I qualify as a computer geek... yay!

[Scayde]

Hell...I can't take this test..I don't know what these things are

[Georgi]

Quote:

Originally posted by Scayde Hell...I can't take this test..I don't know what these things are

Well... I don't think you're in danger of being a geek, @Scayde

@HLD what number of points do you have to get to make you a geek? I'm sure Xan would make it in there...

[VonDondu]

25 - 25 points if you built your computer yourself
+5 - 5 bonus points if you bought a Mac (I own a couple, but neither is my primary system)
+4 - 1 point for every cooling fan
+4 - 1 point for every IDE device in your machine (2 hard drives, CD-RW drive and DVD-ROM drive)
+2 - 1 point for every SCSI device connected to your machine (scanner, CD-RW drive)
+5 - 5 points for having a 400W power supply
+1 - 1 bonus point if you can accurately explain what a RAID is
+3 - 3 points if you have more than one hard drive
+4 - 4 points if you have a video card with a TV-tuner output
+1 - 1 bonus point if your computer is hooked up to your TV
+5 - 5 points if you have SCSI controller
+1 - 1 bonus point if you can accurately explain how SCSI works
-3 - -3 points if your monitor is less than 19"
+2 - 2 points if you have ever added an expansion card to your computer
+1 - 1 point if you have ever added RAM to your computer
+3 - 3 points if you have ever changed the hard drive in your computer
+2 - 2 points if you have ever changed the CPU in your computer
+2 - 2 points if you have a USB hub
+1 - 1 point if you have a surge protector connected to your computer
+3 - 3 points if you have a UPS connected to your computer
+3 - 3 points if you have a home network
+4 - 1 point for every device on your home network
+1 - 1 bonus point if you have both a modem and a network card in your machine
+1 - 1 point if you have ever answered someone's inquiry for computer help
+2 - 2 points if you have ever correctly answered someone's inquiry for computer help
+2 - 2 points if they thanked you
+5 - 5 points if they paid you (cash or trade of goods/services)
+3 - 3 points if you are the tech support person for your friends and family
+5 - 5 bonus points if you have ever been described as a "tech guru"
+1 - 1 point if you have ever attended a LAN party
+3 - 3 points if you have ever hosted a LAN party
+1 - 1 point if you have ever done any computer programming (writing NPC scripting for Baldur's Gate counts)
+3 - 3 points if you know what ENIAC stands for
+2 - 2 points if you know where the term "bug" came from
+2 - 2 points if you know what ASCII stands for
+1 - 1 bonus point if you have ever set jumpers to configure the IRQ for a device
----
110

(I think that total is correct, but my cat is lying on my desk and he's nuzzling my mouse-hand with his head and hitting my calculator with his tail, so I could have made a mistake.)

[Xandax]

Quote:

Originally posted by Georgi <snip> @HLD what number of points do you have to get to make you a geek? I'm sure Xan would make it in there...

Well, I guess I would get a little more points if my description of ENIAC and the bug are accepted ... didn't calculate them in to the score.
Also in about 1 month I get a computer magazine subscription for free, that would also be another point .... hmmm ....

am I a geek? ... naa - I'm to popular ...... in real life that is ....... but of course, that is also amongst geeks .... danged.

[Scayde]

Quote:

Originally posted by Georgi Well... I don't think you're in danger of being a geek, @Scayde

Woe is me