Around the internet in 60-ish minutes

The race is on to fill our page with the quirky tibits that make life interesting. True, I don't know how many of you would find the origin of the Lovebug computer virus or indeed the band the lecturer's in to be interesting - but someone, somewhere might.

The rules of the game are that you must not use Google (as much as I love Google) or Wikipedia (which has absolutly everything). Sounds easy? Here are your questions. The first one to finish gets - well nothing really.


1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?

Onel de Guzman

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?ile=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/11/BU193239.DTL&type=printable


2. Who invented the paper clip?

Johan Vaaler (but apparently he didn't create the paperclip we know and love)

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpaperclip.htm


3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

The affected region borders Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose Ebola river gave the virus its name after some of the first cases were recorded in its valley in 1976

http://news.syd.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=333897


4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?

Southern Chilie on 22 May 1960 with an earthquake that measured 9.5 on the Rictus Scale

http://asc-india.org/lib/world10.htm

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

One Terabyte = 1,073,741,824 kilobytes

http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/


6. Who is the creator of email?

Probably the first email system of this type was MAILBOX, used at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1965. Another early program to send messages on the same computer was called SNDMSG.

http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?

Although it's most commonly called a worm, Storm is really more: a worm, a Trojan horse and a bot all rolled into one. It's also the most successful example we have of a new breed of worm, and I've seen estimates that between 1 million and 50 million computers have been infected worldwide.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/10/the_storm_worm.html

(but it's really difficult to put a number on the number of effected computers)


8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?

You could always try to catch him on his morning walk =P or gatecrash the 2020 summit.

But if you want to do it the proper way you should write him a letter addressed to

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP

Prime Minister

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT 2600\

http://pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm


9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?

Stephen played keyboard for Brisbane punk band, the Black Assassins

http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm


10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
The term "Web 2.0" to me means simply the networking of computers through things like email, myspace and file sharing.