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that should do the magic!

Though initial expectations were that it would be a good even if 100 people managed to show up, by Saturday morning there were over 250 people registered on the BarCampPortland wiki. Big thanks and props go out to the vendors, especially Jive, JanRain (and their Pibb platform), and CubeSpace, all of which put a lot of effort and time into the event – and can’t forget Microsoft, for that wonderful dinner from the Nicholas they provided.

There were a lot of good sessions, and a lot of very interesting people at BarCamp, and I can’t wait for another one!

Nathan Young introduced me to MoonEdit (and later, we discovered Gabby, though I have not had time to use it), and I set up a server Friday night. Saturday, Nathan, myself, John Sechrest, and others used it to take notes during the sessions, and after BarCamp was over, I was able to use the files on the server to put together all the notes. You can find the notes either in seperate blog posts here, or on the BarCampPortland page.

Session I attended:

• Enhancing User Experience
• Dig into Coding for the Browser
• IA Slam
• Open HArdware Design
• Redundency & Load Balancing Web Applications
• Hack Share

I’ll see you all at the next BarCampPortland!

Well, I thought, ok, I’ll take a look, and explain to him why some of the answers he gave were wrong – until I saw the questions.

after the break are the worst of the questions on the test, and you can get the whole test here. The “correct” answers are designated by an asterisk

For reference, the community college in question is Portland Community College, the course was BA 131, and the instructor’s name was Bill Bruno.

*Question 7* (3 points)
The term that refers to the use of a computer or some other information
device, connected through a network, to access information and services
is ____.
a. telecommuting
b. chatting
*c. online
d. email

Not the worst, but… online is *not* a verb, and “use of” means that the answer should probably be a verb.

*Question 8* (3 points)
Users access mainframes by means of a ____, which has a display screen
and a keyboard.
a. client
b. server
*c. terminal
d. local area network

Nowadays? who uses old style terminals – you almost always will use some sort of thin client, and even a terminal is technically a client…

*Question 9* (3 points)
What interconnected system of computers all over the world stores
information in a multimedia form?
a. internet
*b. World Wide Web
c. wide area network
d. local area network

Need I even say anything? This is such a subjective question, that there can really be no correct answer with these choices – to my mind, “internet” would be a much better answer, but “wide area network” is technically correct as well.

*Question 15* (3 points)
The process of copying software programs from secondary storage media to
the system’s hard disk is called ____.
a. download
*b. installation
c. upload
d. configuration

It is? hmm – I guess I “installed” all those music files from a CD then…

*Question 17* (3 points)
Which of the following devices allows users to make phone calls as well
as browse the World Wide Web?
a. teleputers
b. cell phones
*c. smartphones
d. modems

Last I checked, cingular sold me a cell phone – but it sure as hell browses the web, and if I wanted a “smartphone” I would have paid a hell of a lot more. Technically, a modem with voice capability would let you make normal phone calls, and VoIP can work over a modem…

*Question 29* (3 points)
The cut, copy, and paste buttons are normally located on which toolbar?
a. Status
b. Menu
*c. Standard
d. Formatting
e. Title

You know, given them the benifit of the doubt, that they are using Microsoft Office, they can be on any toolbar I choose, since the toolbars are fully configurable…

If you wish to be part of an online discussions on a favorite topic of
interest, you would subscribe to a(n) ____.
a. instant message service
*b. listserv
c. spam tracking
d. online group

Um… ever heard of IRC? but out of those choices, why isn’t an IM service a valid one? or any sort of “online group” (forums, etc)…

*Question 44* (3 points)
The internet connection that uses regular phone lines to transmit data
in megabits per second is ____.
a. T1 line
b. cable modem
*c. DSL line
d. communications satellite

Well, I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that a T1 line was on multiple standard copper pair lines…

*Question 45* (3 points)
The location of a web domain name in a computer somewhere on the
internet is called a ____.
a. home page
b. web page
*c. website
d. web portal

I don’t even know where he came up with this one…

*Question 46* (3 points)
Bps stands for ____.
a. bytes per second
*b. bits per second
c. bandwidth per second
d. broadband per second

This one is the best of all time. I can understand the instructor’s confusion, since a letter at the begining of a sentance is always capitalized, but that is no excuse. A capital “B” *always* indicates *bytes* not bits.