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: Which Morrocan royal got mocked on Facebook?

10 points

a. Prince Moulay Rachid

Twenty-six-year-old Fouad Mourtada is facing three years in the pokey for creating a Facebook page for Prince Rachid, which his supporters claim was simply a tribute to the man second in line to assume the Moroccan throne. Prince Moulay Hassan is first in line, followed somewhat later by Prince Rogers Nelson, the artist formerly known as “the artist formerly known as.”

Question 2: What did Comcast do to ensure a full house at its FCC hearing?

10 points

c. Paid people to pack the hall before anyone else showed up

Comcast claims it hired people off the street merely to secure seats for employees who wished to attend the hearing, but many inexplicably failed to show up. Meanwhile, supporters of Net Neutrality and Comcast opponents were forced to wait outside. But Comcast wasn’t suppressing criticism, it was merely demonstrating intelligent human traffic management. Right?

Question 3: What did the Pakistanis do to the Net?

10 points

a. Shut down YouTube worldwide

In an attempt to block anti-Islamic videos on YouTube, Pakistan’s Telecom Authority ordered the country’s ISPs to cut off traffic to YouTube. One of them goofed and sent instructions that misrouted everyone’s YouTube traffic for two hours last Sunday. In apparently unrelated events, Hotmail also went down for several hours this week, and all 17 billion Starbucks outlets closed for three hours last Tuesday for employee training. Apparently that’s how long it takes to insert the microchips that cause the barristas to say “tall, grande, and venti” intead of “small, medium, and large.”

Question 4: The White House managed to erase cover up nuke misplace how many days’ worth of e-mail?

10 points

d.A lot

5 points

a. 202 b. 473 c. 1,000+

You can’t lose with this question — though those of us who’d like to know what really happened during the Bush Administration may never win. Depending on the source, the White House lost either 202 days (according to Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va.), 473 days (per the White House report issued in 2005), or more than 1,000 days (the revised estimate now given by Steven McDevitt, author of said report). Total messages lost: somewhere between 1 and 10 million — a lot of e-mail to flush down the memory hole.

Question 5: What is DVD Jon calling his iTunes-busting beta app?

10 points b. doubleTwist

Jon Lech Johansen’s software converts legally purchased (but locked) iTunes songs into MP3s, which allows them to play on any device, even — horrors — those not made by Apple. So far, there has been no response from Cupertino. You know DRM is dead when this doesn’t get Steve Jobs’ boxers in a bunch.

Question 6: What’s the new anti-terror battleground?

10 points c. World of Warcraft

In a report to Congress [PDF], the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed several new data-mining initiatives, including one aimed directly at multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. I guess the plan is to fight them in the virtual world so we don’t have to fight them in the real world. Or something like that.

Question 7: Who botched what and got left out on a limb?

10 points a. Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin on shifting “Vista capable” requirements

In an e-mail introduced as evidence in the newly certified class-action suit against Microsoft, Allchin revealed his frustration with the types of hardware that got labeled “Vista capable.” This was just one of dozens of e-mails from top Microsoft executives who were just as ticked off about Vista as the rest of us. After climbing out on the limb, Allchin chopped it off — resigning his post on the day Vista was released to consumers.

Question 8: Where in the world is Google’s share price?

10 points c. $464

Give or take a couple of dimes. Google’s stock price has dropped from stratospheric to merely out of this world, thanks to slowed growth in ad clicks. The bottom line? Sergey and Larry may have to rethink their plans to buy Australia and rename it Googlevania.

Question 9: Who’s wresting with Baer on behalf of WikiLeaks?

10 points b. ACLU & EFF

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed briefs in support of WikiLeaks, which found its .org domain taken offline by a California judge, after being sued by Baer for revealing confidential bank documents. A followup hearing is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 29. Bring popcorn; it ought to be a good show.

Question 10: What’s Microsoft fines times teen CD purchases plus species?

10 points b. 750,030,000

Microsoft got dinged for approximately $1.3 billion in new fines relating to anti-trust violations. Roughly one in two teens bought music in 2007 on shiny plastic platters, down from 60 percent in 2006. So far, 30,000 species have made it into the encyclopedia, though the EOL ultimately plans to include all 1.8 million known specimans. So 1.3B * (1/2) + 30K = 750,030,000, more or less. Talk about survival of the fittest. Show up next week for another brain-bending quiz.

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