It was, as Steve Jobs noted, "a long and winding road," but The Beatles finally got back to where they once belonged, offering up their songs on iTunes. Now all you need is love and $149 to get the entire catalog. What else happened? Facebook debuted a universal messaging system, garnering a collective "so what" from the rest of the digi-sphere. AOL announced a new email refresh of its own (more yawns), Zynga announced more social games (getting sleepy), and oh yeah, China hijacked the Internet -- for about 18 minutes last April. Are you awake enough to ace our quiz? Give yourself 10 points each time you nail the right answer. Now chug some Red Bull and begin.
1. Yes, it finally happened. After seemingly decades of anticipation, the Beatles are finally available on iTunes, accompanied by a new Apple ad campaign. Which of the following Fab Four classics is not used in the ads?
a. "All You Need Is Love"b. "Let It Be"c. "Here Comes the Sun"d. "Money (That's What I Want)"
2. According to an annual report recently presented to Congress, a state-run Chinese ISP hijacked a significant percentage of all Internet traffic for a brief period last April. How much Net traffic took an unscheduled sojourn behind the Great Firewall?
a. 5 percent
b. 10 percent
c. 15 percent
d. 25 percent
3. Don't look now, but Zynga has launched yet another sequel to Farmville, just to annoy you. What's it called?
a. Burbsville
b. Cityville
c. Hooterville
d. Dullsville
4. Disney has partnered with Gowalla to offer "passport stamps" for geo-location check-ins at its theme parks. Which of the following is not one of the stamps you can earn at the happiest places on earth?
a. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
b. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
c. Camp Minnie-Mickey
d. Finding Nemo First Aid Station
5. A pastor in Neptune, N.J., has issued a Web 2.0 edict to his parishioners. What did Reverend Cedric Miller command his flock to do?
a. Thou shalt not tweet during church
b. Thou shalt honor thy email inbox and keep it holy
c. Thou shalt quit Facebook
d. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's Web traffic
6. "We launched _____ sort of as a Model T -- it was very basic, but was popular, and it got people excited, and a swarm of developers came in and made it better in the after-market, and that was great... [but] we've learned a lot about having an ecosystem and working with third-party developers and we've screwed up a lot of that." Who's sorry for screwing with his apps developers?
a. Steve Jobs
b. Evan Williams
c. Steve Ballmer
d. Eric Schmidt
7. Facebook wasn't the only Web giant rethinking its (non) email system. The venerable AOL has a major email refresh project of its own. What's it called?
a. Project Titan
b. Project Phoenix
c. Project Prometheus
d. Project Runway
8. Along the way, Facebook revealed the three most common subject lines for the gazillions of messages sent across its network each day. Which of the following is not one of them?
a. Hi!
b. Yo
c. (No Subject)
d. Zuck off
9. As expected, Facebook introduced a new "It's not email, really" messaging service. What's it called?
a. Messages
b. Message Center
c. Facemail
d. I Can't Believe It's Not Email
10. Take the number of messages Facebook handles every single day and add the five-day sales mark for Call of Duty: Black Ops in U.S. dollars. Divide by the new monthly price for a Hulu Plus subscription, rounded to the nearest dollar. Put that in your Xbox, then drop and give us 20. What do you get?
a. 5,812,500
b. 58,125,000
c. 581,250,000
d. 5,812,500,000
Answers
Question 1: Yes, it finally happened. After seemingly decades of anticipation, the Beatles are finally available on iTunes, accompanied by a new Apple ad campaign. Which of the following Fab Four classics is not used in the ads?
Correct Answer: "Money (That's What I Want)"
The best news: We can now all stop speculating about when the former mop-tops will finally make it onto iTunes and get on with the business of writing headlines using as many Beatles song titles as possible. Remember: In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make, or 8 to 14 cents per track, whichever is greater.
Question 2: According to an annual report recently presented to Congress, a state-run Chinese ISP hijacked a significant percentage of all Internet traffic for a brief period last April. How much Net traffic took an unscheduled sojourn behind the Great Firewall?
Correct Answer: 15 percent
According to the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, for about 18 minutes last April, China Telecom diverted traffic to and from major U.S. corporate, government, and military sites, passing it through state-controlled servers. Depending on which Chinese agency responded to the accusations, the rerouting was a) an accident, b) a figment of everyone's imagination, c) "technically unfeasible," or d) delicious but left them hungry for more cyber terrorism an hour later.
Question 3: Don't look now, but Zynga has launched yet another sequel to Farmville, just to annoy you. What's it called?
Correct Answer: Cityville
The urban-flavored game joins Farmville, Frontierville, and Mafia Wars in Zynga's growing roster of Facebook casual games. In Cityville players build a metropolis from scratch while alerting their friends to every friggin' streetlamp and sewer pipe they deploy. No word yet whether Zynga plans to introduce Nukeville, for people who want to obliterate their friends' farms, frontiers, and cities.
Question 4: Disney has partnered with Gowalla to offer "passport stamps" for geo-location check-ins at its theme parks. Which of the following is not one of the stamps you can earn at the happiest places on earth?Correct Answer: Finding Nemo First Aid Station
Correct Answer: Finding Nemo First Aid Station
Disney Inc. now let you share the magic with your Gowalla peeps by getting your passport stamped wherever you roam in the land of Mickey and Goofy. But no, you can't earn stamps for falling off the Matterhorn or hurling all over your shoes on Space Mountain. Sorry.
Question 5: A pastor in Neptune, N.J., has issued a Web 2.0 edict to his parishioners. What did Reverend Cedric Miller command his flock to do?
Correct Answer: Thou shalt quit Facebook
The good reverend urged his parishioners to quit Facebook, saying it had led at least 20 of them to stray from their marital vows. He did not, however, state an official church position as to whether tweetin' is cheatin'.
Question 6: "We launched _____ sort of as a Model T -- it was very basic, but was popular, and it got people excited, and a swarm of developers came in and made it better in the after-market, and that was great... [but] we've learned a lot about having an ecosystem and working with third-party developers and we've screwed up a lot of that." Who's sorry for screwing with his apps developers?
Correct Answer: Evan Williams
Speaking at this week's Web 2.0 Conference, Twitter co-founder Williams apologized for screwing over some of his third-party developers by acquiring some apps and folding their key features into Twitter, but he promises to do better in the future. The world's iPhone app developers are still waiting for Apple to apologize. Nope, still waiting. Check back with us in another 10 years or so.
Question 7: Facebook wasn't the only Web giant rethinking its (non) email system. The venerable AOL has a major email refresh project of its own. What's it called?
Correct Answer: Project Phoenix
AOL unveiled the beta of its revived Webmail client this week, featuring a Gmail-like new interface, the ability to access third-party mail services such as Yahoo's or Hotmail, and the option of ditching the stodgy "@aol" portion of an email address for something hipper -- like @love, @wow, or @ygm (you've got mail). Who knows, this could be the Facebook Messages-killer we've all been waiting for.
Question 8: Along the way, Facebook revealed the three most common subject lines for the gazillions of messages sent across its network each day. Which of the following is not one of them?
Correct Answer: Zuck off
Thus the Zuckerbergian idea to do away with subject lines entirely in his new Facebook Messages incarnation, making the service more like long-form text messaging, or Twittering, or something like that. The next step in Facebook's Messages evolution: getting rid of the messages themselves.
Question 9: As expected, Facebook introduced a new "It's not email, really" messaging service. What's it called?Correct Answer: Messages
Correct Answer: Messages
The service (which is not just email, as Facebook El Jefe Mark Zuckerberg insisted) will combine texting, chat and, yes, email messages in a universal inbox that's also supposed to thread all three types of message and prioritize them by whoever owes you the most money, or something like that. We're still trying to figure it out.
Question 10: Take the number of messages Facebook handles every single day and add the five-day sales mark for Call of Duty: Black Ops in U.S. dollars. Divide by the new monthly price for a Hulu Plus subscription, rounded to the nearest dollar. Put that in your Xbox, then drop and give us 20. What do you get?
Correct Answer: 581,250,000
At its Messages announcement, Facebook revealed it handles 4 billion non-emails a day. During its first five days on sale, Activision's latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise hauled in $650 million. Hulu Plus has officially launched for $7.99 a month (but let's call it an even $8), or two bucks less than trial users were asked to pay. So 4B + 650M / 8 = 581,250,000. We wonder what the Black Ops folks would charge to take care of those Chinese cyber terrorists. Come back next week for another duty-bound quiz.
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This story, "News quiz: The week in tech" was originally published by InfoWorld.