Friday, January 18, 2008

The IIM b Biz quiz , part of Convergenz 2008

I'd been to this biz quiz at IIM B recently, the "Biz/IT Quiz for Corporates", conducted by KQA , wit the quizmaster being Prof.Rajeev Gowda of IIM B , who's also a founder of KQA.

An Infosys team walked away with 15k at the end of the day, which also saw teams from TCS, Sun microsystems, Yahoo among others steal the limelight.

I got an extra copy f the prelims sheet to post here.. Gosh, how bad i felt when i realised i cud actually only mange to know 6 of the answers (but at that moment, i cracked only 3 :D ), while the cutoff was double that(11) !! I knew i was bad at BizQuiz , but it took this to know how bad!

These prelims questions were taken by a Mr.Arul Mani, also of KQA. My first quiz in Bangalore proved to be a total entertainer, while i knew 50% of the questions asked in the finals (but the finalists knew more than 90% of them :) )


1. According to James Kovacs, the name of this programming language was musically inspired. The creators felt that it was a step above some of the existing popular languages. So they added the musical notation meaning a semi-tone above the note to the name of the existing language. Its opponents jokingly referred to it ad Db(d flat) , which is the same note as ______, but has different connotations. Which language, introduced in 2001? [EVEN I GOT THIS ONE. SO I GUESS U SHOULD!]

2. Electronic Arts recently donated the original classic version of ____ to the One Laptop per Child project. ____ has been widely used by educators to unlock and speed up the transformational skills associated with creative thinking. It's also been used in US national level competitions by seenth and eighth grade students to foster engineering skills and inspire students to explore futuristic concepts and careers in engineering. What?

3. This term was used in middle english literature to mean "to know". The term can be found in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's tale : "For well ____ thy pacience is gon.. " It gained much attention in the International media because "it blends whimsy and new technology". Identify the term.

4. In 2007, Pepsi Cola announced a limited edition variant of Mountan Dew called Game Fuel. It was a citrus cherry flavoured drink (followed by its composition. too lazy to type.) What was the occasion for this launch?

5. What variation of a six letter word resulted because Silicon Valley engineer Tim Beauchamp refused in 1997 to relinquish the domain that he was using as a site for math and astronomy?
(I was cursing myself for missing this one)

6. Which Social networking service uses the baseline "Blog Early Blog Often"?

7. The name for the company was suggested by the founder's wife who mistakenly thought that the word meant new in a classy european language. The word exists in the Catalan language, where it denotes the property of being "recent" or a "beginner". For example, "__" wine is a term used in Catalan to suggest that it is the wine of the last year. Which company?

8. The Chance RT-52 is a small unit built by Chance coach Inc., measuring only 25' 11" in length. It normally carries 19 to 23 passengers and is built to handle short run abouts. The most well known use of this unit resulted in what well known term?

(total 25 questions. To be continued!)

Monday, January 14, 2008

5 Questions and connect all the answers

Find answers for 1 to 5 and connect them!

1. Name the only real life character adopted in the Harry Potter series. In real life, he is said to have faked his own death, and there are many books under his name long after he was supposedly dead. When his tomb was unearthed, there was no trace of a corpse!

2. Who is being praised here by a biographist?
In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of X, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.

3. X's Law is named after the Irish natural philosopher who was the first to publish it in 1662. The relationship between the factors involved was brought to the attention of X by two friends and amateur scientists, Richard Towneley and Henry Power, who discovered it. X confirmed their discovery through experiments and published the results. According to Robert Gunther and other authorities, X's assistant Robert Hooke, who built the experimental apparatus, may well have helped to quantify the law; Hooke also developed the improved vacuum pumps necessary for the experiments. The French physicist Edme Mariotte (1620-1684) discovered the same law independently of X in 1676, so this law may be referred to as Mariotte's or the Mariotte-X law.


4. He lives in the bell tower of the cathedral and rings the bells, which have made him become deaf. When he was a hideous and abandoned baby, he was taken in by Claude Frollo. His life within the confines of the cathedral and his only two outlets - ringing the bells and his love and devotion for Frollo - are described. It is revealed in the story that he was left as a baby by the gypsies in place of Esmeralda, who they abducted. Who's he? [Another clue would be that his name means -"half formed"]


5. X was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel he is considered the most prominent figure working within the style commonly referred to as Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. X was not only among the most important of all French composers but also a central figure in all European music at the turn of the twentieth century.

X's music virtually defines the transition from late-Romantic music to twentieth century modernist music. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as Symbolism, a movement that directly inspired X both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.

He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. His harmonies, considered radical in his day, were influential to almost every major composer of the 20th century, especially the music of Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Bela Bartok, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, and the minimalist music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass as well as the influential Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. He also influenced many important figures in Jazz, most notably Bill Evans,Thelonious Monk,Duke Ellington, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jimmy Giuffre and Brad Mehldau.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Quiz #1 - Launchpad

Post your answers in comments section pls!

1. Launching the blog with a launch q! What was launched in January 15, 2001 by Jimmy wales and Larry Sanger and is available in 253 languages in total??


2.X scored eight points in 8.9 seconds in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks that year, leading the Pacers to a stunning 107-105 victory. With 16.4 seconds remaining and the Pacers trailing by six points, X made a three-point shot, stole the inbounds pass, then dribbled BACK to the three-point arc and tied the game with a second three-pointer, stunning the Knick bench and their fans. On the ensuing possession, Knicks guard John Starks was fouled by Pacer Sam Mitchell but missed two free throws; X rebounded the second miss and was fouled. X made both free throws, and the Pacers' defense denied the Knicks' last chance for the win. The Pacers outlasted the Knicks in a seven-game series before losing to the Orlando Magic in the conference finals, also four games to three.. Who's X?

3.Completez!

Pellegrino Morano
Salvatore D'Aquila
Alfred Manfredi
Frank Scalise
Vincent Mangano
Albert Anastasia
????

4.
Chris Gardner
Maurice
Dan Dunne
Danny Archer
????

5.
X grew up in Mumbai and attended St. Anthony's Girls High School, St. Xavier's College, Bombay and later the University of Mumbai. She graduated from college with a sociology degree.
X's movie career started when she was signed to appear in the Malayalam film Chakram, alongside superstar Mohanlal but the movie was shelved. After that, she was signed for a Tamil film, Run, but for reasons undisclosed, she was dropped after a first schedule and replaced by Meera Jasmine. In the jinx driven industry, X was dropped from her second Tamil movie "Manasellam" opposite Srikanth, on the grounds of 'non-performance' and was replaced by Trisha Krishnan.
She then turned to television advertising. From 1998 onwards, she appeared in numerous television ads, many of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. She also took supporting roles in music videos, appearing with singers and bands such as Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal, and Pankaj Udhas. X also portrayed the role of Radhika Mathur in a few episodes of the first season of Hum Paanch, but was later replaced by Amita Nangia at the end of the first season.

Qwizy's place Inaugaration

Jan 11 2008.

The number 11 has been closely linked with me throughout my life, and it is on yet another 11th that i unleash this quizzi.. er.. quasi active Quiz blog.

Wish me luck!