Answer key: You don’t know tech

Now that you know how you scored, you probably want to know why. Check out the answers below for the gory details. And be sure to return next year for another news quiz, ripped straight from the tech headlines.

Question 1: Who knows how to solve all the world’s problems?

10 points

d. Tom Cruise

The Cruise missile was talking about Scientology (of course), in a 9-minute video that appeared briefly on Google Video, YouTube, Radar, and Defamer before being pulled by the group’s attorneys. At press time the clip could be found on Gawker.com, despite legal threats from the CoS. There’s at least one thing Tom’s church really is an authority on: suing the pants off people who criticize it. Risky business indeed.

Question 2: Which site suffered a hack attack?

10 points

d.All of the above

Though maybe hacktivist attack is more accurate. The RIAA site was wiped clean for several hours, while Scientology’s home page was made inaccessible — apparently in retaliation for the organization’s attempts to delete Tom Cruise’s 9-minute infomercial from the Net. Visitors to O’Reilly’s Perl.com site found themselves redirected to an adult search page. We don’t know who they p**sed off, but we’re sure they’re sorry about it.

Question 3: What are hackers attacking now?

10 points

b.The power grid

In a presentation to the SANS security conference, CIA analyst Tom Donahue revealed that extortionist hackers caused a “multi-city power outage” outside the U.S., but that’s as specific as he got. Honey did you forget to pay the electricity bill, or are we being hacked again?

Question 4: Where can you get HBO on Broadband?

10 points

d. Green Bay/Milwaukee, Wis.

For the time being, HBO on Broadband will be available only in the land of beer and cheeseheads. Other limitations: You must be a digital cable customer who also gets cable broadband, already ponies up $12 a month (or more) for the premium channel, and uses Windows. And if you want to take HBO on your iPod? As Tony Soprano might say, Fugeddaboutit.

Question 5: What did YouTube do to tick off the Turks?

10 points

a. Insulting Turkishness

Videos posted on the site transgressed a 2005 ban on “insulting Turkishness,” resulting in the site being taken offline in Turkey for the second time in a year. It could have been worse; we understand they originally wanted to chop off Chad Hurley’s hands.

Question 6: What tech companies have been named among the top 10 places to work?

10 points

a. Quicken Loans and Qualcomm

Quicken Loans (#2) and Qualcomm (#8) made Fortune’s top 10, as did Cisco (#6). Also busting through the top 100: Adobe (#40), Intuit (#43), eBay (#68), Microsoft (#86), and Yahoo (#87). As for Apple? Sorry Stevie, better luck next year.

Question 7: What firm’s CEO is still running the show 10 years after the IPO?

10 points

c. PC Connection

Only Patricia Gallup at seminal mail-order house PC Connection remains from the class of 1998, which included eBay and MIPS Technologies. MIPS honcho John Bourgoin is also still going strong after 10 years, so it’s not just a chick thing.

Question 8: How much do file-swapping students really bust the box office?

10 points

b. 15 percent

The MPAA finally admitted that it misinterpreted the results of a 2005 survey on file sharing by a factor of three. You know the old Hollywood saying: Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Question 9: When is the new version of Windows slated to ship?

10 points

b. 2H 2009

Originally slated to appear some time in 2010, Windows 7 is now on track for a late 2009 release. Of course, Steve Ballmer is more likely to be named pope than Microsoft is to actually hit a ship date. But if Windows 7 is only slightly late, it might actually be on time. Or something like that.

Question 10: What’s World of Warcraft plus Last.fm divided by Bobby Fischer?

10 points

a. 4,531,250

World of Warcraft just registered its 10 millionth subscriber. CBS paid $280 million for Last.fm last year and may finally start to get some money back thanks to a new deal with Amazon to sell MP3s. Chess great Bobby Fischer finally got checkmated by God some 64 years after his birth. Even the Sicilian Defense won’t work against that attack. So (10M + 280M) /64 = 4,531,250. Does your brain hurt yet? If not, check in next week for another mind-altering quiz.

Ready for more? Take another stab at this week’s quiz, or quizzes past: Test your geek IQ Test your network security IQ InfoWorld news quiz: January 25 InfoWorld news quiz: January 18 InfoWorld news quiz: January 11 InfoWorld news quiz: January 4 InfoWorld news quiz: Year in review InfoWorld news quiz: December 14 InfoWorld news quiz: December 7 InfoWorld news quiz: November 30 InfoWorld news quiz: November 23 InfoWorld news quiz: November 16 InfoWorld news quiz: November 9 InfoWorld news quiz: November 2 InfoWorld news quiz: October 26 InfoWorld news quiz: October 19