Test your Internet IQ!
It's back to school time, so I thought I'd throw a little pop quiz to make sure you haven't been wasting your summer. The answers are at the bottom of the column. No peaking!
1. Which of the following currently serves no useful purpose?
- A. The P.C.
- B. The N.C.
- C. The W.C.
- D. AC/DC
- B. The N.C.
2. Push:
- A. Comes to shove.
- B. Allows Web sites, software upgrades and other information to be automatically downloaded to your computer from the Net.
- C. Is an impressive display of technology in search of a purpose.
- D. All of the above.
- B. Allows Web sites, software upgrades and other information to be automatically downloaded to your computer from the Net.
3. Which is least likely to receive funding?
- A. The Internet
- B. An Intranet
- C. An Extranet
- D. The Social Safety Net
- B. An Intranet
4. The computers in your child's classroom are:
- A. Valuable educational tools.
- B. Exposing your children to unhealthy influences.
- C. Driving the teachers crazy.
- D. Hopelessly out of date
- B. Exposing your children to unhealthy influences.
5. Netscape's home page is the most successful page on the Web because:
- A. It's so interesting.
- B. It's well designed, informative and loads quickly.
- C. People visit there to bug Microsoft.
- D. Most people don't realize you can change the default homepage of Netscape's browser.
- B. It's well designed, informative and loads quickly.
6. Which of the following is most important to the future of the net?
- A. ISDN
- B. IPO
- C. SET
- D. AOL
- B. IPO
7. Streaming technology is used to:
- A. Play audio and video files from the Web while they are being
downloaded.
- B. Recommended by the Sierra Club as a means to minimize the impact of existing dams.
- C. None of the above.
- B. Recommended by the Sierra Club as a means to minimize the impact of existing dams.
8. Which of the following is not widely circulated by e-mail?
- A. Reports of a dangerous new computer virus that can be transmitted
by e-mail.
- B. The story of a dying child who wants to receive e-mail from around the world.
- C. Any Top Ten list from the David Letterman Show.
- D. Instructions for preventing the above e-mails from being forwarded to you.
- B. The story of a dying child who wants to receive e-mail from around the world.
9. What were the immediate results of Microsoft's recent $150 million investment in Apple Computer?
- A. It helped Apple's once and future king, Steven Jobs, confirm
his inflated opinion of himself in spite of the fact that he sold 1.5
million shares of Apple stock a few weeks ago at about half its current
price.
- B. Apple's stock price jumped and Microsoft made a big profit (at least on paper).
- C. Microsoft Explorer is now the default browser on all personal computers sold.
- D. All of the above.
- B. Apple's stock price jumped and Microsoft made a big profit (at least on paper).
10. Steven Jobs considers himself to be a visionary on par with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Who does Bill Gates consider himself to be on par with?
- A. Steven Jobs
- B. Tiger Woods.
- C. God
- D. God, but only when He is having a good day.
- B. Tiger Woods.
Answers:
1. B - The N.C. or Network Computer is a stripped down P.C. that uses the Net to store programs and information, sort of like a very slow hard drive that you can only access part of the time.
2. D - Remember the last time you tried to upgrade your software and trashed your system? Now someone else can trash it for you by remote control.
3. D - The Feds wants a new tax to pay for linking schools to the Internet, and companies are falling all over themselves setting up Intranets and Extranets - private internal and external networks based on Internet standards. Meanwhile politicians cut social services and capital gains taxes.
4. D - Even if the computers are new this fall, they'll be the digital equivalent of filmstrip projectors by the spring quarter.
5. D - You can change Navigator's default homepage by choosing Preferences from the Edit menu.
6. B - The Initial Public Offering (IPO) is where the money comes from to keep Internet companies in business. Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), a way to deliver high speed Internet connections over phone lines, has never really caught on. The Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) standard will eventually allow people to spend money safely online - if they ever want to. And America Online (AOL) will, of course, continue to define the lowest common denominator in online service.
7. A - And it actually works for audio.
8. D - Unfortunately.
9. D - 'Nuff said.
10. D - Gates is a billionaire. God has yet to receive one cent of royalties from the Creation.
Scoring: Anyone who scored seventy or above receives credit for Internet 101.
