Computers and Technology Quiz IV.

Who coined the term "artificial intelligence"?

• Donald Ervin Knuth

• Charles Bachman

• Herbert A. Simon

• John McCarthy

Answer explanation

American mathematician and computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term "artificial intelligence" in 1955. Artificial intelligence is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.

Which of these education-oriented computer languages was developed by Niklaus Wirth?

• Logo

• Hypertalk

• BASIC

• Pascal

Answer explanation

Niklaus Wirth developed Pascal, a computer programming language, about 1970. It emphasizes the orderly use of conditional and loop control structures without GOTO statements. During the late 1970s and ’80s, Pascal was one of the most widely used languages for programming instruction.

Who invented the distributed network as well as data packet switching across distributed networks?

• Steven Ballmer

• Jean Bartik

• Paul Baran

• Manuel Blum

Answer explanation

American electrical engineer Paul Baran invented the distributed network and, contemporaneously with British computer scientist Donald Davies, of data packet switching across distributed networks. These inventions were the foundation for the Internet.

Which of these is not a computer language?

• Windows 2000

• Hypertalk

• Ada

• COBOL

Answer explanation

Computer programming languages are any of the various languages for expressing a set of detailed instructions for a digital computer. Windows 2000, on the other hand, is an operating system.

What does the acronym VPN stand for?

• visual protocol network

• visual protocol networking

• visual processing network

• virtual private network

Answer explanation

Virtual private network (VPN) is a private computer network deployed over a public telecommunications network, such as the Internet. A VPN typically includes one or more connected corporate intranets or local area networks (LANs), which users at remote locations can access using a password authentication system.

What was the first interactive computer-graphics program?

• Adobe Photoshop

• Sketchpad

• Notepad

• CorelDRAW

Answer explanation

Sketchpad was the first interactive computer-graphics program. It originated as American engineer Ivan Sutherland’s doctoral thesis project in the early 1960s and was one of the first graphical user interfaces.

Which of these was the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer?

• ENIAC

• BINAC

• EDVAC

• Acorn Network Computer

Answer explanation

ENIAC, which stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, built by the United States during World War II. It was designed to calculate values for artillery range tables, and its first task was doing calculations for the construction of a hydrogen bomb.

What was the name of the chess-playing computer that made history when it defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in 1996?

• Deep Thought

• Rybka

• Chiptest

• Deep Blue

Answer explanation

Deep Blue was a computer chess-playing system designed by IBM in the early 1990s. In 1996 it made history by defeating Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov in one of their six games—the first time a computer had won a game against a world champion under tournament conditions. In the 1997 rematch, it won the deciding sixth game in only 19 moves, and its victory marked the first time a current world champion had lost a match to a computer under tournament conditions.

Who founded Apple Computer?

• Steve Jobs

• Sheryl Sandberg

• Bill Gates

• Sundar Pichai

Answer explanation

Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer, Inc., with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976.

Which of these is not one of the early “protocols,” or ways to use the Internet?

• Gopher

• FTP

• Telnet

• blogging

Answer explanation

The early use of the Internet relied on protocols for transferring files or remote control of other terminals. Blogging did not emerge until later, in the 1990s.