Test your Nerd Knowledge: Dec 14, 2021
Here’s a review of this week’s questions:
- What is the name of the social news aggregate that was founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005?
- What was the device developed by Intel engineer by Ajay Bhatt in 2006 that changed how we all “plug in”?
- What do the M, A and C in MAC Address stand for?
And here are the answers:
- Answer: Reddit. Reddit started out as a simple, bulletin board-based system where registered users could create individual spaces known as “subreddits” to share their hobbies and interests. It quickly caught on with users eager to debate web content, news, politics, religion, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets, and image-sharing. Reddit is based in San Francisco and is currently worth over ten billion dollars. It is ranked as the 19th most-visited website in the world, according to Alexa Internet.
- Answer: USB. Though they are ubiquitous now, it’s hard to believe that once there was a time when we didn’t have the Universal Serial Bus, or “USB” as it is commonly known. The style of the connector has evolved considerably over the years, becoming smaller and faster with each new version. Today’s USB is used for storage, media transfer, human interface devices, firmware upgrade mechanisms and audio streaming, just to name a few of its functions.
- Answer: Media Access Control. Just like each house has its own postal address, every device connected on a network has a Media Access Control (MAC) address, that uniquely identifies it. The MAC address is tied to the Network Interface Controller (NIC). The NIC is where you make your physical connection to the network, by plugging in an Ethernet cable or connecting to a Wi-Fi signal. The MAC address is a 12-digit hexadecimal number that is most often displayed with a colon or hyphen separating every two digits (an octet), making it easier to read. Example: A MAC address of 2c549188c9e3 is typically displayed as 2C:54:91:88:C9:E3 or 2c-54-91-88-c9-e3.