Trivia, Trivia, Who's Got the Trivia?

Recall that several weeks ago, I asked for your help in coming up with questions (and answers) for Dr. Dobb's Developer Bowl, to be held at the SD West 2008 conference. I have to say you came through mightily, with lots of great questions.

I'd like to say that the competition went off without a hitch, but then you have to remember that I was the moderator/host/emcee/whatever. That ought to give you a hint at the chaos that ensued. Thank goodness for your questions.

Four teams participated--CodeGear, IBM, new-comer Intel, and defending champ Google. There were three rounds--Google and IBM in the first round, Intel and CodeGear in the second round, and IBM and Intel in the final round. Questions that neither side could correctly answer were thrown out to the audience. The quality of your questions was impressive--and saved the day. Of course, I thought the teams of technology leaders would mow the questions down, but no way. There were a lot more "stumped" questions than I thought possible. And then there were those guys in the audience who knew *every* answer, until I caught on that they had WiFi and were googling my questions to find the answers.

Being a sucker for error messages, my favorite question was submitted by Seapine's Alan See:

Q: The developers of the Texas Instruments 990 are credited with what all-time best error message?
A: "Shut 'er down, Clancy, she's pumping mud!"

And Stephen Alpert submitted my second favorite question:

Q: In the '60s, IBM produced a machine called the 1620. It was made of discrete components. It's development codename was "CADET." What does CADET stand for?
A: "Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try"

So the final round of competition came down to a tie score between Intel and IBM as time ran out. I asked a tie-breaking question--and no one knew the answer. I asked a second tie-breaking question--and again no one new the answer. Then I posed a question submitted by Mia Murray:

Q: How many pockets does a card sorter have?
A: 12

IBM came up with the correct answer first, and with it bragging rights for the next year. Expect to see full-page ads trumpeting the victory. Thanks again for all your help in pulling this off. I couldn't have done it without you, and I hope to see you there next year.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:12 AM  Permalink