Prelims for Q?Bit, the quiz hosted as part of Amity Saket's annual techfest, Alphabit.

1. AlphaBit 2020
Q?Bit - Prelims
Harsaaj Singh
Jaisal Kothari
Pranav Gupta
Vaibhav Jain

2. Rules
1. The prelims will be conducted on exam.net, and will contain 20 questions. The time limit for the prelims is
30 minutes. Any queries during the prelims can be resolved using the chat feature on exam.net.
2. The four highest scoring teams will be selected for the finals. Any ties will be resolved using the star-
marked questions.
3. Both participants will need to login to exam.net. The code for the prelims will be shared 5 minutes before
the prelims begin. Both participants will need to mention their names, school name, and team name while
logging in.
4. Only ONE participant from each team will write the answers, while the other will be submitting a blank
document.
5. You will be locked out of the prelims if you try to switch tabs or apps during the course of the prelims.
Please do not switch to any other tabs on your browser in the spirit of fair play. Switching to any other tab
will notify us and may lead to disqualification.
6. Please keep your cameras switched on and mics muted at all times. Teams will be disqualified if this is not
ensured.

3. Please ensure all details are filled in this format.

5. Q1.
X is a South African ethical ideology, used in various different languages like Zulu
and Xhosa. It is regarded as one of the founding principles of South Africa, and is
inextricably linked with the African Renaissance.
“A person with X is open and available to others, affirming of others... “
As a platform based on this ideology, the platform X brings this spirit to the
software world.
Id the platform X (named after the ideology).

6. Q2*.
This project, aptly named X, is a language-processing algorithm completely
trained on the Y. This algorithm, after training, wrote on three topics - ‘the plague’,
‘Caesar’, and ‘the end of days’. The text written is full of errors, like excerpts
where over half the nouns are ‘Lord’, but where the passages are more coherent,
they read like bizarre doomsday prophecies.
For example - “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel; when they saw the angel of the
Lord above all the brethren which were in the wilderness, and the soldiers of
prophets shall be ashamed of men”.
Id X and Y.

7. Q3.
“I can see the writing on the wall
And it’s spreading like an infection
The problem is we’d rather hate than love
Or blame improper ____ selection
If we’d give it a moment, it could shine
To ban it would be measure so drastic
How can you hate a ____ that’s so fantastic?
Ha, it’s time to make an impact
Your favourite mistral, you know I rock well
…
You’re living in the past, I make these times new
Roaming the streets, painting walls with my brush script
X, the ____ that’s misunderstood
Please don’t use it for evil, but use it for good
X, best used in moderation
Come on join me, the X nation.”
Id X / What is this song talking about?

8. Q4.
In February 2017, the Japanese government called on the Japanese public to
donate old smartphones and other old electronic devices. The government is
aiming to collect eight tonnes of scrap metal at recycling bins across Japan from
April. E-waste such as digital cameras, laptops, and games units can also be
donated at collection boxes in more than 2000 stores of the mobile phone giant
NTT Docomo.
Why is this being done?

9. Q5.
In September of 1999, after almost 10 months of travel to Mars, the Mars Climate
Orbiter burned and broken down into pieces. On a day when NASA engineers were
expecting to celebrate, the ground reality turned out to be completely different, all
because someone failed to use the X, which was introduced to the world by the French
in the 17th century.
In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) did use X; however, Lockheed Martin, who
designed and built the spacecraft, did not use the X. Instead, it used Y, an
unnecessarily complex version of X that is primarily used in the USA. Apparently, JPL
did not know that, and that was the cause of the crash.
Id X and Y / Why did the spacecraft crash?

10. Q6.
This webpage, currently
functioning at info.cern.ch,
has no graphics and
background, just plain text
and links with instructions
on how to use something.
What is so special about
this webpage?

11. Q7.
This antivirus, named after X, was launched by IT firm Innovazion in 2014, when X
was immensely popular and was being seen as a messianic figure. Innovazion
took full advantage of the situation to market its product. Just like X, the antivirus
is depicted as someone who is strong, dynamic, and will shield your device from
both internal and external threats.
Name the antivirus.

12. Q8*.
The term ‘X mode’ was first used by Apple in the 2008 Macworld San Francisco Keynote
Address, during the unveiling of iOS 4.2. Apple was awarded a patent, dubbed “Device
method, and graphical user interface for managing folders”, for this in 2013.
The term also recently came up in Apple’s WWDC Keynote in June 2020, during the
unveiling of iOS 14. Jonathan Mann, a musician, made a song ‘I Just Go Into X Mode’ with
222K views on YouTube as of September 2020, sparking a series of tweets and memes
referencing the comedic name. Most users expected this to be an unofficial name, but were
surprised to find the name officially being used after the launch of iOS 14.
Id X.

13. Q9.
X was first debuted in June 1987 by Compuserve. It improved on black and white image
transfers with 256 colours, while still retaining a compressed format. Using a graphics control
extension, X achieved animation via timed delays.
Early World Wide Web users adopted X while designing their webpages, in the form of
construction signs and spinning hard hats. Others preferred a flashy banner at the tops of
their pages - flames, prowling dinosaurs, rolling eyes.
From the early days, X had been described as ‘great internet fun’. Web designers and
engineers trusted the X’s compressed nature to load on early modems and outdated
browsers.
Id X.

14. Q10.
X is a discontinued software framework for real-time collaborative editing online. It was announced
at the Google I/O conference on 28 May, 2009. Some of the important features included was
communications media such as email, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. Software
extensions provided contextual spelling and grammar checking, automated language translation,
and other features.
The science fiction television series Firefly provided the inspiration for the project’s name. In the
series, a ____ is an electronic communication, often consisting of a video call or video message.
During the developer preview, a number of references were made to the series, such as Lars
Rasmussen replying to a message with “shiny”, a word used in the series to mean ‘cool’ or ‘good’,
and the crash message of X being a popular quotation from the series: “Curse your sudden, but
inevitable betrayal!”
P.T.O

15. Another common error message: “Everything’s shiny, Cap’n,
not to fret!” is a quote from Kaylee Frye in the 2005 motion
picture Firefly continuation, Serenity, and it is matched with a
sign declaring that “This ____ is experiencing some
turbulence, and might explode. If you don’t want to explode…”
which is another reference to the opening of the film.
On August 4, 2010, Google announced ____ would no longer
be developed as a standalone product due to lack of interest.
Google later clarified the ____ service would be available until
Google Docs was capable of accessing saved ____s.
Id X and FITB.

16. Q11*.
Pete Bonasso is working on the AI CASE, inspired by by the fictional AI X. In order to avoid
pitfalls that X had, it is ensured that CASE isn’t some kind of mega-intelligent know-it-all AI,
but an architecture for organising systems and agents that itself is an intelligent agent. Pete
Bonasso describes in his piece, and as is documented more thoroughly elsewhere, CASE is
composed of several ‘layers’ that govern control, routine activities, and planning. A voice
interaction system translates human-language queries or commands into tasks those layers
can carry out. But it’s the ‘ontology’, or the feeling of existence, that’s most important.
The name X can be ascertained by substituting each letter of the name of its manufacturer
Y, by the letter preceding it. (For example, if the manufacturer is HIJK, X would be GIHJ.)

17. Q12.
What is this device used for?

18. Q13.
Where in the world of technology would you see this fortress?

19. Q14*.
The film is known for popularising a visual effect named ‘X’, which allows a shot to progress in
slow-motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed. X has been
described as “a visual analogy for privileged moments of consciousness within the ______,” and
throughout the film, the effect is used to illustrate the characters’ exertion of control over time and
space.
The method used for creating these effects involved a technically expanded version of an old art
photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which an array of cameras are placed
around an object and triggered simultaneously. Each camera captures a still picture, contributing
one frame to the video sequence, which creates the effect of ‘virtual camera movement’; the
illusion of a viewpoint moving around an object that appears frozen in time.
Id X and FITB.

20. Q15.
X is an upcoming online competitive battle royale-inspired game, which is scheduled to
release on October 1, 2020, and will only be playable till March 31, 2021.
Thirty-five players will simultaneously play through separate platforming levels styled after
the original, collecting coins and defeating enemies, while trying to survive, and also sending
obstacles into their opponents’ playfields. The last one standing is the winner.
The launched was surprising considering that the fan-made _____ Royale had been taken
down, where each round had 75 semi-translucent characters, and even though it was a
race, it wasn’t entirely about speed.
Id X and FITB.

21. Q16.
Youtube is killing its ‘Community Contributions’ feature for videos, which let
content creators crowdsource captions and subtitles for their videos. Youtube
announced the move back in July, which triggered a community outcry from the
____ community, but it does not sound like the company is relenting. In one of
Google’s all-time poor-timing decisions, Youtube is killing its feature just two days
after X, which is in the last full week in September.
What does the world celebrate as X?

22. Q17*.
X crossed five million downloads within three days of its launch, making it one of
the most popular apps on Android, iOS, and KaiOS. It became the world’s fastest
growing mobile app, beating Pokemon Go, with more than 50 million installs 13
days after launching in April 2020. It reached 100 million installs by May 2020, that
is, 40 days after its launch.
Id X.

23. Q18.
X, along with Finless Foods, are partnering with a Russian company to test out
bioprinted _______ _______ (blanks indicative), which will have its final testing
this fall. Such 3D printed _______ _______ will be more environmentally friendly,
including reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and energy consumption as
compared to the traditional rawer methods of producing them.
Id X, and what they are planning on 3D printing.

24. Q19.
___________.eu, made by Kids Creative Agency, has gained a lot of clout under
the current circumstances. When you load up the site, hit the play button in the
bottom-left corner, it will play a lot of sounds: indecipherable snippets of
conversation, a fan blowing somewhere, phones ringing, and more. There’s even
someone who annoyingly smacks their lips. This site is a fun reminder of the
things we take for granted.
What does this site attempt to recreate?

25. Q20.
Pal Spilling is a Norwegian computer pioneer whose early interest in computer
networking resulted in Norway getting the first ARPANET node outside the USA, in
1973. Fifteen years later, the nascent Internet saw its first widespread infection by self-
replicating code: Morris, a worm that could install multiple copies of itself on the same
computer, causing infected systems to grind to a halt.
As the Morris worm began to spread in the United States, Spilling’s American
colleagues called to warn him; faced with a threat to his nation’s entire network of
computers, he acted quickly and disconnected Norway from the rest of the Internet.
What did Spilling’s quick response entail?

26. Answers

27. Q1.
X is a South African ethical ideology, used in various different languages like Zulu
and Xhosa. It is regarded as one of the founding principles of South Africa, and is
inextricably linked with the African Renaissance.
“A person with X is open and available to others, affirming of others... “
As a platform based on this ideology, the platform X brings this spirit to the
software world.
Id the platform X (named after the ideology).

28. Answer
X - Ubuntu

29. Q2*.
This project, aptly named X, is a language-processing algorithm completely
trained on the Y. This algorithm, after training, wrote on three topics - ‘the plague’,
‘Caesar’, and ‘the end of days’. The text written is full of errors, like excerpts
where over half the nouns are ‘Lord’, but where the passages are more coherent,
they read like bizarre doomsday prophecies.
For example - “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel; when they saw the angel of the
Lord above all the brethren which were in the wilderness, and the soldiers of
prophets shall be ashamed of men”.
Id X and Y.

30. Answer
X - AI Jesus
Y - The Bible

31. Q3.
“I can see the writing on the wall
And it’s spreading like an infection
The problem is we’d rather hate than love
Or blame improper ____ selection
If we’d give it a moment, it could shine
To ban it would be measure so drastic
How can you hate a ____ that’s so fantastic?
Ha, it’s time to make an impact
Your favourite mistral, you know I rock well
…
You’re living in the past, I make these times new
Roaming the streets, painting walls with my brush script
X, the ____ that’s misunderstood
Please don’t use it for evil, but use it for good
X, best used in moderation
Come on join me, the X nation.”
Id X / What is this song talking about?

32. Answer
Comic Sans

33. Q4.
In February 2017, the Japanese government called on the Japanese public to
donate old smartphones and other old electronic devices. The government is
aiming to collect eight tonnes of scrap metal at recycling bins across Japan from
April. E-waste such as digital cameras, laptops, and games units can also be
donated at collection boxes in more than 2000 stores of the mobile phone giant
NTT Docomo.
Why is this being done?

34. Answers
To manufacture Olympics medals

35. Q5.
In September of 1999, after almost 10 months of travel to Mars, the Mars Climate
Orbiter burned and broken down into pieces. On a day when NASA engineers were
expecting to celebrate, the ground reality turned out to be completely different, all
because someone failed to use the X, which was introduced to the world by the French
in the 17th century.
In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) did use X; however, Lockheed Martin, who
designed and built the spacecraft, did not use the X. Instead, it used Y, an
unnecessarily complex version of X that is primarily used in the USA. Apparently, JPL
did not know that, and that was the cause of the crash.
Id X and Y / Why did the spacecraft crash?

36. Answer
X - Metric System
Y - Imperial System
The spacecraft crashed
because of failure to use the
metric system.

37. Q6.
This webpage, currently
functioning at info.cern.ch,
has no graphics and
background, just plain text
and links with instructions
on how to use something.
What is so special about
this webpage?

38. Answer
The first webpage, with instructions on how to use the World Wide Web

39. Q7.
This antivirus, named after X, was launched by IT firm Innovazion in 2014, when X
was immensely popular and was being seen as a messianic figure. Innovazion
took full advantage of the situation to market its product. Just like X, the antivirus
is depicted as someone who is strong, dynamic, and will shield your device from
both internal and external threats.
Name the antivirus.

40. Answer
NaMo

41. Q8*.
The term ‘X mode’ was first used by Apple in the 2008 Macworld San Francisco Keynote
Address, during the unveiling of iOS 4.2. Apple was awarded a patent, dubbed “Device
method, and graphical user interface for managing folders”, for this in 2013.
The term also recently came up in Apple’s WWDC Keynote in June 2020, during the
unveiling of iOS 14. Jonathan Mann, a musician, made a song ‘I Just Go Into X Mode’ with
222K views on YouTube as of September 2020, sparking a series of tweets and memes
referencing the comedic name. Most users expected this to be an unofficial name, but were
surprised to find the name officially being used after the launch of iOS 14.
Id X.

42. Answer
X - Jiggle
Jiggle mode

43. Q9.
X was first debuted in June 1987 by Compuserve. It improved on black and white image
transfers with 256 colours, while still retaining a compressed format. Using a graphics control
extension, X achieved animation via timed delays.
Early World Wide Web users adopted X while designing their webpages, in the form of
construction signs and spinning hard hats. Others preferred a flashy banner at the tops of
their pages - flames, prowling dinosaurs, rolling eyes.
From the early days, X had been described as ‘great internet fun’. Web designers and
engineers trusted the X’s compressed nature to load on early modems and outdated
browsers.
Id X.

44. Answer
X - GIF

45. Q10.
X is a discontinued software framework for real-time collaborative editing online. It was announced
at the Google I/O conference on 28 May, 2009. Some of the important features included was
communications media such as email, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. Software
extensions provided contextual spelling and grammar checking, automated language translation,
and other features.
The science fiction television series Firefly provided the inspiration for the project’s name. In the
series, a ____ is an electronic communication, often consisting of a video call or video message.
During the developer preview, a number of references were made to the series, such as Lars
Rasmussen replying to a message with “shiny”, a word used in the series to mean ‘cool’ or ‘good’,
and the crash message of X being a popular quotation from the series: “Curse your sudden, but
inevitable betrayal!”
P.T.O

46. Another common error message: “Everything’s shiny, Cap’n,
not to fret!” is a quote from Kaylee Frye in the 2005 motion
picture Firefly continuation, Serenity, and it is matched with a
sign declaring that “This ____ is experiencing some
turbulence, and might explode. If you don’t want to explode…”
which is another reference to the opening of the film.
On August 4, 2010, Google announced ____ would no longer
be developed as a standalone product due to lack of interest.
Google later clarified the ____ service would be available until
Google Docs was capable of accessing saved ____s.
Id X and FITB.

47. Answer
X - Apache Waves
FITB - Wave

48. Q11*.
Pete Bonasso is working on the AI CASE, inspired by by the fictional AI X. In order to avoid
pitfalls that X had, it is ensured that CASE isn’t some kind of mega-intelligent know-it-all AI,
but an architecture for organising systems and agents that itself is an intelligent agent. Pete
Bonasso describes in his piece, and as is documented more thoroughly elsewhere, CASE is
composed of several ‘layers’ that govern control, routine activities, and planning. A voice
interaction system translates human-language queries or commands into tasks those layers
can carry out. But it’s the ‘ontology’, or the feeling of existence, that’s most important.
The name X can be ascertained by substituting each letter of the name of its manufacturer
Y, by the letter preceding it. (For example, if the manufacturer is HIJK, X would be GIHJ.)

49. Answer
X - HAL 9000
Y - IBM

50. Q12.
What is this device used for?

51. Answer
Tesla Model S Key

52. Q13.
Where in the world of technology would you see this fortress?

53. Answer
Apple Command Key

54. Q14*.
The film is known for popularising a visual effect named ‘X’, which allows a shot to progress in
slow-motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed. X has been
described as “a visual analogy for privileged moments of consciousness within the ______,” and
throughout the film, the effect is used to illustrate the characters’ exertion of control over time and
space.
The method used for creating these effects involved a technically expanded version of an old art
photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which an array of cameras are placed
around an object and triggered simultaneously. Each camera captures a still picture, contributing
one frame to the video sequence, which creates the effect of ‘virtual camera movement’; the
illusion of a viewpoint moving around an object that appears frozen in time.
Id X and FITB.

55. Answer
X - Bullet time
FITB - The Matrix

56. Q15.
X is an upcoming online competitive battle royale-inspired game, which is scheduled to
release on October 1, 2020, and will only be playable till March 31, 2021.
Thirty-five players will simultaneously play through separate platforming levels styled after
the original, collecting coins and defeating enemies, while trying to survive, and also sending
obstacles into their opponents’ playfields. The last one standing is the winner.
The launched was surprising considering that the fan-made _____ Royale had been taken
down, where each round had 75 semi-translucent characters, and even though it was a
race, it wasn’t entirely about speed.
Id X and FITB.

57. Answer
X - Super Mario Bros. 35 (to mark the 35th anniversary of Mario)
FITB - Mario (Mario Royale)

58. Q16.
Youtube is killing its ‘Community Contributions’ feature for videos, which let
content creators crowdsource captions and subtitles for their videos. Youtube
announced the move back in July, which triggered a community outcry from the
____ community, but it does not sound like the company is relenting. In one of
Google’s all-time poor-timing decisions, Youtube is killing its feature just two days
after X, which is in the last full week in September.
What does the world celebrate as X?

59. Answer
International Week of the Deaf

60. Q17*.
X crossed five million downloads within three days of its launch, making it one of
the most popular apps on Android, iOS, and KaiOS. It became the world’s fastest
growing mobile app, beating Pokemon Go, with more than 50 million installs 13
days after launching in April 2020. It reached 100 million installs by May 2020, that
is, 40 days after its launch.
Id X.

61. Answer
X - Aarogya Setu

62. Q18.
X, along with Finless Foods, are partnering with a Russian company to test out
bioprinted _______ _______ (blanks indicative), which will have its final testing
this fall. Such 3D printed _______ _______ will be more environmentally friendly,
including reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and energy consumption as
compared to the traditional rawer methods of producing them.
Id X, and what they are planning on 3D printing.

63. Answer
X - KFC
FITB - Chicken Nuggets

64. Q19.
___________.eu, made by Kids Creative Agency, has gained a lot of clout under
the current circumstances. When you load up the site, hit the play button in the
bottom-left corner, it will play a lot of sounds: indecipherable snippets of
conversation, a fan blowing somewhere, phones ringing, and more. There’s even
someone who annoyingly smacks their lips. This site is a fun reminder of the
things we take for granted.
What does this site attempt to recreate?

65. Answer
Office environment

66. Q20.
Pal Spilling is a Norwegian computer pioneer whose early interest in computer
networking resulted in Norway getting the first ARPANET node outside the USA, in
1973. Fifteen years later, the nascent Internet saw its first widespread infection by self-
replicating code: Morris, a worm that could install multiple copies of itself on the same
computer, causing infected systems to grind to a halt.
As the Morris worm began to spread in the United States, Spilling’s American
colleagues called to warn him; faced with a threat to his nation’s entire network of
computers, he acted quickly and disconnected Norway from the rest of the Internet.
What did Spilling’s quick response entail?

67. Answer
Disconnecting the cable

68. See you in the finals!