Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
This week on the Computer Chronicles, the conclusion of the Computer Bowl.
We'll go back to Boston for the final two rounds of this 10th annual Computer Bowl
to see whether the traditional techies from the East Coast can catch up with the wild, wild geeks from the West Coast
in this contest to see who knows more about the trivia of computers and the Internet.
Cheers star John Ratzenberger joins me as co-host.
The contestants include Netscape's Mark Andresen, Storm Systems CEO Bill Kraus,
Starwave CEO Mike Slade, Yo-Yo Dine president Seth Godin,
Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, and Mike Zisman of Lotus.
The East is behind, but who will win?
The conclusion of Computer Bowl X coming up next on the Computer Chronicles.
Computer Chronicles is made possible in part by SoftSource, Inc.,
publishers of Pro1's Mathematics Tutor in a Box for school year 98-99,
including six CDs and workbook,
and by Z Auction, the live online shopping experience.
Additional funding from PC Connection and Mac Connection,
the catalog and online superstore with PC and Mac products,
and full free technical support in overnight delivery.
And by Windows Magazine, delivering desktop, enterprise, and Internet computing news,
reviews, features, and how-tos for a Windows world, because the world runs on Windows.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 1998 Computer Bowl.
Here's your host for tonight from the PBS TV series, the Computer Chronicles,
Mr. Stuart Shafae.
All right, good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
We're ready to resume Computer Bowl X as we prepare to start round three here of the 1998 Computer Bowl.
Let us update the score right now. Can we see the scoreboard, please?
What is the score as we start round three? Can we get the scoreboard up on the screen?
It is West Coast, 80, East Coast, 40.
Plenty of time, plenty of time, two rounds to go here.
All right, let me briefly reintroduce our players.
First, we have the visiting West Coast team.
We have Mark Andreessen, Senior Vice President of Product Development at Netscape.
We have Scott Cook, Chairman of Intuit.
We have the captain of the West Coast team, technology columnist for The New York Times, Denise Caruso.
Bill Krause, President and CEO of Storm Technology.
Mike Slade, Chairman and CEO of StormWave.
That's the West Coast team.
All right, for the East Coast team, the players are Seth Godin, President of Yo-Yo Dine.
We have David Berg, Personal Technology Journalist for The Wall Street Journal.
We have Mike Zisman, Captain of the East Coast team.
Mike is Executive Vice President of Strategy at Lotus.
Ken Walsh, President of the Software Publishers Association.
And Robert Ziff, President of Ziff Brothers Investment.
Our judges again, Dan Bricklin and Andy Cunningham.
Doing a stellar job under difficult circumstances.
And of course, our questioner, you know him from Cheers, John Ratzenberger.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
All right, John, it's round three.
There's a 40-point spread.
It's going to be a good game.
Let's get going with the first question.
All righty, MIME, or as they say in French, Meme,
is a popular Internet protocol used in everything from email attachments to HTTP headers.
What does the acronym MIME stand for?
Mark.
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.
Anybody knows, you ought to know.
All right, that's correct.
Another 10 on the West.
Go, John.
All right, many schools and state education systems are striving to provide computers for their students.
Of the 50 states, which one has the best, that is, the highest ratio of computers for students?
All right, Bill Krause thinks he already knows.
Alaska.
That is not correct.
No, that was multiple choice.
I know, but he buzzed in.
Oh, he did?
I'm sorry.
He buzzed in, so we get to ask the question again.
What a knucklehead.
If you get the chance, if they lost 10, you can get 10.
Just wait for me.
Just listen to the question.
All righty.
Highest ratio of computers per student is in California, Florida, Minnesota, or Massachusetts?
So somebody's got to buzz in.
Which of those four states, Mike?
Minnesota.
Sorry?
Minnesota.
That's wrong.
It's Florida.
Nobody got that one.
Can you imagine?
You never know.
All right.
All right.
Electronic Engineering Times recently ran a story about a particularly high-tech object
and dubbed it the most common man-made object on Earth.
What is the object?
Is it a DRAM chip, a microprocessor, a resistor, or a transistor?
Good question.
Mark?
Transistor.
That is not correct.
Hey, wrong answer.
Sorry.
It is a DRAM chip.
More DRAM chips than anything else.
DRAM chips are made of transistors.
Right.
That makes no sense.
Well...
Come on.
Come on.
Good point.
And so are microprocessors, so...
Yeah, but...
All chips are made of transistors.
All right.
We'll leave it to Dan and Andy.
That's a fair point, but I would buy it.
All chips are made of transistors.
It's an object.
Let's have it.
It's an object.
Not the components of the object.
A transistor is an object.
Andy says wrong.
No, let's move along.
Let's move along.
Go away.
We've got a light on over here.
Hey, we're tough.
We've got a light.
For some reason, Robert's light is on, but he had finished the question.
So can we reset?
All right, John, go.
All right.
I thought it stood for Dodge Ram myself.
All right.
Computer companies obviously have a big stake in the future of legislation and regulatory
practices.
Perhaps with that in mind, many of them donate to political campaigns.
But which company gave more soft money to political action committees in 1996?
Was it Microsoft, Gateway 2000, Powersoft, or Pixar?
Who was the big money giver, Mark?
Microsoft.
That is not correct, believe it or not.
Gateway 2000 by a considerable amount, actually.
All right.
All right.
Let's go to our next video question.
Hey, it's 80 points, 40 points.
That's where we started this round.
All right.
Our next celebrity question comes from John Mitchell.
He's president of the business printer division and vice president of Lexmark.
Here is his question.
In the 1970s, Gary Starkweather designed an important new technology that would forever
change the way people use computers.
The code name for this project was Dover.
Starkweather went on to win an Academy Award in 1995 for his technical contributions to
computer-generated film animation.
What did Starkweather design?
Was it the laser printer engine, the scanner, the CD-ROM drive, or the fax machine?
Mike?
Laser printer engine.
Absolutely.
Ten points over here, please.
All right.
All right.
Narrowing the gap here.
Yeah, go ahead, John.
All right.
Apple Computer recently scrapped...
They didn't get their points.
They didn't.
Oh, oh.
They didn't get their points yet, guys.
That was ten points to the east.
Let's keep up.
These east coast guys are no dummies, you know.
All right.
Go, John.
One trick's in, I'm sure.
All right.
Apple Computer.
Apple Computer recently scrapped the next-generation operating system for the Macintosh.
What was the code name for that operating system?
Was it Allegro Copernicus?
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Was it Allegro Copeland Rhapsody or Yellow Box?
Yeah.
Copeland.
Of course.
That was an easy one.
All right.
Another ten points.
Ten points over here.
Let's make sure we get the scoreboard up to date, please.
Sixty.
Sixty.
Sixty.
Sixty.
It should be sixty.
We'll get the scoreboard up to date.
They've won two points now.
We're trying.
Okay.
All right.
We'll keep on going while they work on the scoreboard.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
I tell you what.
These questions are all about the Internet.
So how many points would you like to wager on each question?
10, 20, or 30.
These will all be Internet-based questions.
Difficult Internet-based questions.
Even Mark Andreessen may not be able to answer.
We'll do 20.
20.
Whoa.
20 points apiece.
The Journal of Science recently estimated the total number of pages on the Internet.
How many pages did they come up with?
And I will accept an answer within 50 million of the correct answer.
Total number of pages worldwide on the Internet within 50 million.
Total number of pages worldwide on the Internet right now is?
What do you say, Denise?
350 million.
You guys are darn good.
That's the correct answer.
The correct answer was between 300 and 320.
That was fair enough.
All right.
I said 350.
In the same report in the Journal of Science,
investigators tested the performance of various search engines.
Here's the question they asked.
What fraction of the total relevant pages on the Internet could the best search engine actually find?
Was it one quarter of them, one third of them, one half of them, or two thirds of them?
What was the performance of the best search engine in terms of what fraction of total relevant pages it came up with?
One third.
That's right.
All right.
You guys are sharp.
All right.
Got another shot.
Now another 20 points.
The Webby's held their second annual awards event this year honoring nearly 20 of the best worldwide websites.
What website won the Webby Award for the weirdest site?
Multiple choice.
Was it Bert is Evil, the Museum of Dirt, the Crash Site, or Elvis on the Moon?
And these are all real websites, by the way.
Which won for the weirdest website in the 1998 Webby Awards?
104.
I think you answered Denise.
It is.
It is Denise.
Bert is Evil.
All right.
That website incidentally was set up by Lonnie Anderson.
So just wanted you to know.
All right.
My goodness.
It's 140 West Coast, East Coast 60.
You'll get your turn on another bonus round soon.
John gave them the next question.
The so-called chip-enabled card or the smart card was invented by a Frenchman, Marc Lasus.
When did he invent the first version of the smart card?
Was it 1988, 1978, 68, or 1958?
When did the smart card come, Mike?
78.
78 is right.
Well done.
10 points.
All right.
Time for our next celebrity video question.
This comes from Gwen Bell, founding president of the Computer Museum.
Here is Gwen's question.
Vice President Al Gore recently announced the Internet2 project.
$500 million has been pledged toward development of this new Internet system by three major companies involved in telecommunications.
Can you name two of the three companies?
All right.
Marc?
AT&T and MCI.
That is not correct.
You were so confident.
Cisco, Northern Telecom, and Quest Communications are the three companies.
All right.
Go ahead, John.
Next question.
All right.
IBM's chess-playing computer Deep Blue was a very fast computer, but IBM's new $85 million computer called Option White will be even faster.
How much faster?
10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times, or 1 million times?
Robert thinks he knows the answer.
100 times.
That is not correct.
He completed the question, so the answer was 1,000.
We'll move on to the next question, John.
All right.
Researchers at IBM's Zurich Laboratory recently built the world's smallest version of a familiar computational gadget.
Was it a tiny pocket calculator, a miniature PC, the world's smallest slide rule, or a tiny abacus?
All right.
Marc?
A tiny abacus.
You're right.
This guy reads everything.
All right, John.
Next question.
All right.
The Pentium chip has become the standard Intel microprocessor for personal computers.
Some of you may have even inserted a Pentium into a CPU slot.
When you did that, did you notice how many pins there are on a Pentium chip?
You can answer in range.
Are there between 50 and 100, between 100 and 200, between 200 and 300, or more than 300?
How many pins on a chip, Mike?
100 to 200.
Sorry?
100 to 200.
That is not correct, I'm afraid.
There are 296 pins on the chip, 296.
All right.
We're out of time for round three.
We're going to wrap it up and continue in just a second with round four.
The score, West Coast, 150, East Coast, 70.
All right.
So this is it.
We are up to round four, the final round in Computer Bowl 10.
The score right now, West Coast, 50, East Coast, 70.
I guess if you're...
150.
150.
I'm sorry.
East Coast...
Oh, yeah, move them on.
West Coast, 150.
Sorry.
West Coast, 150, East Coast, 70.
That means if you guys, I guess, get all three points right in your bonus round question,
you'd be ahead by 10 points.
So there is hope.
John, why don't we get going with the first question here?
This is it.
All right.
Let's fire it up.
Many early programmers cut their teeth on a programming language called GW Basic.
What do the letters GW stand for?
Mike, GWiz.
GWiz is right.
Good.
One, two, three.
Whoa, they're hot.
John.
All right.
The publishers of the Rough Travel USA Guide first put their entire contents of the book
on the website in 1995.
What effect did this have on the sales of the paper version of the book?
Did sales drop by 25%, stay the same, go up 25%, or triple?
What happened when they put it on the website, Seth?
Triple.
Right, the sales tripled.
There's a moral.
10 points over here.
Next one, John.
Decision Analyst Incorporated recently compared the productivity of the 50 most populous cities
in the United States based on such factors as employment rates, growth rates, use of
technology, et cetera.
Which city placed first?
Was it Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis, St. Paul, or San Jose?
All right, Michael.
Seattle.
Wrong.
San Jose was the answer.
All right.
Good try.
You lost on that one.
John, let's go to the next one.
And it really does say here Boston placed 28th.
I didn't want to tell him that.
He's a local crowd.
Come on, guys.
All right.
Computer Retail Week recently listed CompUSA as the number one computer retailer in the
country for 1997.
Who came in second?
Bill.
Best Buy.
Best Buy is right.
All right.
All right.
Let's go to our next video question.
This celebrity question comes from Dave House, chairman and CEO of Bay Networks.
Here is Dave's question.
The growth of the Internet is in a large part the result of a network standard called TCPIP.
In that phrase, IP stands for Internet Protocol.
What does TCP stand for?
Mark?
Transmission Control Protocol.
You got it.
You're fast.
All right, John.
Let's go.
All right.
In Silicon Valley, there are several streets and roads named after people and products in
the computer industry.
Of the following, which is not a real street name in Silicon Valley?
Wazway, Resistor Avenue, VLSI Parkway, or Floppy Drive?
Mike?
Floppy Drive.
That is not correct.
Believe it or not, there is no Floppy Drive.
VLSI Parkway.
There is no such thing.
All right.
Good try.
All right.
East Coast, this is it.
This is your final bonus round.
30.
So how many points go to each question?
30.
30 points a question.
Sudden death.
East Coast, East Coast, East Coast, East Coast.
All right.
Hoo, hoo, hoo.
The category is Geography.
The world's fastest computer is called the Gravity Pipeline.
It's being built for research in astronomy.
I want to know where is it being built.
Where is it located?
Is it Tokyo, San Jose, Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Cambridge, England?
Where is the Gravity Pipeline being built?
Which of those four cities?
It will be the fastest computer in the world.
Cambridge, England.
That is wrong.
It is Tokyo.
I'm very sorry.
It's okay.
We got time.
We got time.
Not enough, but we have time.
The DigiPen Institute of Technology is a new...
What?
The DigiPen, DigiPen Institute of Technology is a new four-year college.
It is the first ever to specialize in computer game programming.
Where is this new college located?
Is it in Redmond, Washington, San Jose, California, Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Reading, England?
The DigiPen Institute of Technology, new four-year college specializing in computer game programming, is located where?
Reading, England.
I would have said the same thing, but it's wrong.
Redmond, Washington.
Sorry, guys.
That's what we meant.
I know.
It begins with the same word.
I think that because we're wearing these puffy shirts, we should get easier at this.
Here's an easy question.
Here's an easy question with the last one.
If you count up the number of information technology jobs in the United States, the following states rank in the top three in this order.
California, one, New York, two, Texas, third.
Which state ranks fourth in technology jobs in the country?
California, New York, Texas, and then for 30 points.
Don't say anything.
Your time is almost up, Mike.
I'm going to need an answer.
Which state ranks fourth?
Illinois.
Right.
Well done.
Okay.
Very good.
That was a tough one.
All right.
Well, we did a little bit there.
I don't know.
West Coast, 180, East Coast, 50.
It's time to start to focus, guys.
There you go.
All right, John, come on.
Our last year, Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, posed as a management consultant and succeeded in offering some bizarre advice to a large high-tech company.
Which company fell for the ruse?
Was it Apple?
All right, Bill thinks he knows.
Logitech.
Logitech is right.
You guys are hot.
All right, here's our final celebrity question on video.
It comes from one of our judges, Andy Cunningham, founder and CEO of Cunningham Communications.
Here is Andy's question.
Earlier this year in Boston, the first juvenile charged with computer hacking was arraigned.
Whose computer system did he break into?
Was it an airport control tower, the Massachusetts State Police, Boston City Hall, or the legal seafood restaurant chain?
Airport control tower.
All right.
Good.
Worcester Airport, that's right.
John, go ahead.
All right, Wired Magazine recently reported on a survey in which children were asked, if you had to choose, which would you rather keep, your TV or your PC?
The PC got the higher percentage answer.
What percentage said they would rather keep the PC?
Was it approximately 60%, 70%, 80%, or 90%?
Mark?
60%.
That's not correct.
It was 70%.
Well, good try.
All right, John, let's get the next one.
All right.
Possibly the most famous Internet hoax of last year involved the Chicago Tribune column about a commencement address at MIT.
In a classic case of Internet misinformation, when the story was published on the net, the remarks in the alleged commencement address were inaccurately attributed to a fake.
Seth?
Kurt?
Ponagin.
Right.
Got it.
Well done.
All right.
Well, 190 to 70.
Try again.
All right, Intel occasionally gives out an award to an employee called the Muzzle Award.
For what activity is the Muzzle Award given?
Walt?
Leaking to the press.
Well, what do you say, judges?
I'm kind of on his side on that one.
It's not quite specific.
I'd say, yeah.
What kind of leaking?
I give it to him.
What is the answer?
Yeah, I give it to him.
All right, well done.
Hey, I know.
What's the answer?
He's the press.
Of course he knows.
You've got to answer these questions in those shirts, for crying out loud.
That's a handy guy.
No question.
Give him a break, will you?
John, give me another shot.
All right.
We don't see too many slide rules anymore in the age of calculators and computers, but
many companies used to make and sell the trusty old engineer's best friend.
Of the following companies, which one did not manufacture slide rules?
Post, K&E, Castelfaber, or Black & Decker?
Robert?
Castelfaber.
That is not right.
It was Black & Decker.
Castelfaber did make slide rules.
Good try, though.
All right, John, let's go.
All right.
Last year, CompuServe was acquired by AOL.
Before that acquisition, who owned CompuServe?
Michael.
H&R Block.
That was an easy one.
All right.
Tony, let's go over here.
Objection.
It was partially public before the acquisition by AOL.
They only owned 80%.
Hey, maybe we'll even this.
I'll take 80%.
80% is good.
We'll take your point under consideration.
Move on.
All right.
He's a tough one, isn't he?
All right.
A well-known science fiction novel by Douglas Adams,
a computer provided the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything.
What was the name?
Mark already knows.
Deep Thought.
Well done.
From?
From?
Yeah, that's the right answer.
From what?
Oh, life, the universe, and everything.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Here's a hint.
That's all right.
You got your 10 points.
Just having fun with you.
I'm wrong.
All right.
Go ahead.
A well-known scientist has written a fascinating book that delves into the alternative universe
lives of such computing pioneers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.
What was the name of the book?
Denise?
Difference Engine.
Absolutely right.
Difference Engine.
These guys are on again.
All right.
All right.
Well-known industry analyst and observer Esther Dyson recently came out with a book about
the new high-tech world we live in.
What is the complete?
Seth?
Release 2.0.
Complete title.
We did...
Hold on, hold on.
We didn't really get to finish the question, and I think judges, do you agree we should
finish the question and give the others...
I think you need to finish the question.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
We didn't finish the question, so John, go ahead.
One of you guys get ready.
All right.
What is the complete title of Esther's new book?
All right.
It's pretty easy now.
Scott?
Release 2.0, Designed for the Computer Age.
I don't think that's good enough.
Not if we penalize those guys.
It's Designed for Living in the Digital Age, we asked her for the accurate complete title.
Is that the subtitle?
Yeah.
Or part of the title itself?
It is the full title of the book.
Just checking.
John?
He's just checking.
It's kind of nitpicking at this point, Seth.
Go ahead, John.
It's only 2.20 to 70.
Let it go.
Let it go.
All right.
Two years ago, IDC did a study of the software business, measuring in dollars the amount
sold in three different software categories, package software, application development
tools, and system software.
Which category was the leader in dollars sales volume?
All right.
I saw Scott go.
Package software.
Package software, of course.
That's right.
Well, I hate to say it, guys.
Time is up.
The final score, 230-70.
The winners again, the West Coast.
Congratulations to our winners.
That wraps up the 10th annual Computer Bowl.
Thank you all very much for joining us.
Computer Chronicles is made possible in part by SoftSource Incorporated, publishers of
Pro1 Software, educational software for young adults.
And by Z Auction, a live online shopping experience.
Additional funding from PC Connection and Mac Connection, the catalog and online superstore
with PC and Mac products, toll-free technical support and overnight delivery.
And by Windows Magazine, delivering desktop, enterprise, and Internet computing news, reviews,
features, and how-tos for a Windows world, because the world runs on Windows.
To purchase a videotape copy of today's program, call toll-free 1-888-310-7850.
Please specify the show number and the topic.
Next week on the Computer Chronicles, home design software.
We'll show you how to create your new dream home right on your PC.
We'll show you how professional architects use the same kind of software to build million-dollar homes.
If you just want to redesign a part of your house, we'll look at software that lets you create a new bathroom
and a home center that uses computers to help you remodel that old kitchen.
Plus, we'll visit one of the best websites for do-it-yourselfers and a look at some software
that will help you plan the perfect garden around your house.
Plus, my pick of the week, a terrific new program for redesigning yourself.
It's all coming up next week on the Computer Chronicles.