The Daily Teaser — 16-2-2014: BBS

Ooh, that sound’s exciting … !

Bless her, my sister, Ruth, has decided to take her son, Jude, to see a movie.

In a cinema.

In Basildon, wouldn’t you know: there’s possibly a sarcastic comment that I can aim at Brentwood Council, there.   After all, I grew up in a Brentwood with a cinema, I don’t see why my three year old nephew shouldn’t.

At ANY rate … Ruth’s decided Jude really needs to go and see Turbo with his uncle.

Which looks like it could be fun … !

At any rate … ?   Let’s get a move on.

~≈†≈~

Yesterday’s teaser saw Debbi* putting in her answers: along with telling us a cocoa would go down VERY well, she also scored five out of five.

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the How To, License and video … 

Q1) The world’s first computerized BBS opened: on 16th February, 1978.   In which US city … ?

Q2) In which US state is that city … ?

Q3) What does BBS stand for … ?

Q4) The first BBS to be set up in the UK was called Forum … what: 80, 90 or 1000?

Q5) Finally … the BBS system’s creators made the software: whilst snowed in during the Great what of 1978 … ?

Here’s yesterday’s questions and answers … 

Q1) 15th February, 1971, saw Britain decimalize its currency.   In pre-decimal currency, 2 shillings and sixpence was also known as half a … what … ?

A1) Crown.

Q2) 15th February, 1946, saw the world’s first general purpose computer dedicated: in Philadelphia.   What was it called?

A2) ENIAC: which was short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, so you know.

Q3) 15th February, 2001, saw Nature magazine publish the first complete draft of the human what … ?

A3) Genome.

Q4) 15th February, 1989, saw the Red Army pull out of Afghanistan: following whose decision to reduce the army’s size?

A4) Mikhail Gorbachev.

Q5) Finally … 15th February, 2013, saw a meteor explode over Chelyabinsk.   In which country is Chelyabinsk?

A5) Russia.

I’ll leave you with this tune … 

And this thought.

“That program became the singly most modified program in computing history due to the many hardware environments in which it had to operate (no standards - no "IBM" to say where serial ports should be addressed, etc).”

Ward Christensen, author of the CBBS software.

Enjoy your day.

*        Wouldn’t you know, it Debbi?   We’ve got sunshine, right now!   The UK’s weather is … inconsistent, let’s put it that way!