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AlphaBit’21
Q?Bit - Finals
Harsaaj Singh | Jaisal Kothari | Pranav Gupta

Rules
1. A total of 25 questions in grid format + long visual connect.
2. Teams to choose any question from the grid at random.
3. Infinite pounce. Pounce window will be open for 10 seconds after a question has been read out.
4. Teams to write ‘Pounce team X’ in the Discord General channel. QM will come to the respective
voice channels to check the answers.
5. Order of questioning reverses after 12 questions.
6. Direct +10
7. Pounce +10/-5
8. No part points on pounce.
9. No pass.
10. QM is God. All decisions will be final.
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1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
21 22 23 24 25
16 17 18 19 20
11 12 13 14 15
Scores
LVC
Tiebreaks
End

Q1.
Starting from around last year, many Twitter users started posting
images like the ones shown which, as it turned out, was a large public
test on algorithmic bias. In a test done by Vox, it was found that the
algorithm preferred one type of image over the other, 64% to 36%. In
May 2021, Twitter announced that it would no longer use this
algorithm.
This bias has also widely been seen in other artificial intelligence and
machine learning algorithms, and one theory is data which lacks
diversity is being used to train such algorithms, leading to this bias
being seen.
What did these images prove?

Answer
Twitter’s cropping
algorithm favours
white faces over black
faces in images with
both.

Q2.
X’s law, named after an Intel co-founder, is the observation that the number of transistors on a chip
doubles every 2 years. However, the rate of progress is slowing down, and X’s law is coming to an end.
Taking energy consumption and its impact on climate change into consideration, Rob Aitken suggests we
adopt Koomey’s law, which describes the number of computations per joule of energy used, which is
arguably more relevant for modern-day consumers due to the increase in the use of mobile devices,
where battery life and efficiency are more important than raw power, or just the number of transistors.
The company Y recently unveiled its own silicon based on the Z architecture, with a focus on combining
power efficiency with performance. This transition can be explained by Koomey’s law, as Z-based chips
have historically performed better on battery and efficiency tests, which also explains the large gains in
battery life of devices made by Y.
Id X, Y, and Z.

Answer
X – Moore’s Law
Y – Apple
Z – Arm

Q3.
The X-X-Web was first developed in 1994 in order to make exchange of ideas between programmers
easier. The creator initially named the software the ‘quick-web’, but later named it using the Hawaiian
word ‘X’, which also means quick.
The first ancestor of the concept of X was the vision of the ‘memex’, a microfilm reader which could
automatically create links between documents. It was described as:
“Before him are two items to be joined, projected onto adjacent viewing positions… The user taps a single
key, and the items are permanently joined… Thereafter, when one of these items is in view, the other can
be instantly recalled merely by tapping a button below the corresponding code space.”
This vision, though described as predicting the World Wide Web, resembles X more than the web as the
former is self-contained, not a loose network.
Id X.

Q5.
Ernest Khalimov lives in Russia, though most people associate him with having a Turkish background.
Some people also believe he’s from Azerbaijan. He is thought to be the man behind the meme X. His
images first surfaced 3 years ago on the Instagram page ‘Sleek and Tears’, who also tagged his own
Instagram account. Most people thought that a person with such facial aesthetics and symmetry can only
be a creation of CGI, but they were apparently proven wrong when he posted a selfie with his brothers, all
with similar physiques, in a forest.
Id X.

Answer
X – Gigachad / Average enjoyer

Q6.
Galen Davis works at X. His job is to go out into
the desert to scan rocks. This scanning economy
is a crucial new stage for X’s products. Recently, X
sent Davis to Moab, Utah, just to scan the exotic
terrain there for a particular product.
What is X, and why was he sent to scan rocks?

Answer
X – Epic Games
To help make video game assets, for
Fortnite and Unreal Engine

Q7.
X is the transformation of a string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that
represents the original string. X is used to index and retrieve items in a database due to its speed, and is
also used in many encryption algorithms. Using a special variation of this process, termed Y (“___X”),
xkcd managed to get internet culture enthusiasts out of their houses before Pokémon Go did. Its original
comic described a way for a computer to create an algorithm that could generate random (GPS)
coordinates each day based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the current date, and enthusiasts
went to these locations and uploaded pictures to Y forums. Over time, Y gained fame across the internet
and now counts more than 10,000 expedition reports. 19,000 users are registered on the Y wiki, with only
31 active as of January 3, 2019.
ID X and Y.

Answer
X – Hashing
Y – Geohashing

Q8.
On May 12, 2019, an anonymous 4chan user asked on the /x/paranormal board "post disquieting
images that just feel <off>.” This led to the concept of ‘liminal spaces’: typically abandoned, and
oftentimes empty - a mall at 4am or a school hallway during summer, for example. This makes it feel
frozen and slightly unsettling, but also familiar to our minds.
The following examples of digitally created liminal spaces, used commercially by a billion dollar
company, have been viewed by millions of people. They seem off, like something has been pulled out
of context or that something really big is missing from them. What connects these specific liminal arts?

Answer
These are all backgrounds for motorised Lego sets

Q9.
X just announced that it's launching a public race to develop technology for detecting Y. The challenge to
be conducted throughout 2020, called the Y Detection Challenge will have a leaderboard and prizes along
with creation of image datasets. The efficacy of the dataset and the models trained with it will be gauged
at the ICCV through a technical working session and the full dataset will be released at the conference of
NeurIPS. In total, X is dedicating $10 million to the program. X has partnered with Microsoft, Cornell Tech,
MIT, University of Oxford, UC Berkeley among numerous others to carry out the Y Detection Challenge.
Give X and Y.

Answer
X – Facebook
Y – Deepfakes

Q10.
X is an esoteric programming language developed by Edwin Brady and Chris Morris. A special property
of this language is that any program written in it can easily be hidden within the characters of a program
written in another language, except possibly in languages like Python, where syntax validity is important.
Another feature is that no indicators are required to leave comments.
Id X / What is so special about this language?

Answer
X – Whitespace
It only uses spaces, tabs, and
linefeeds (all whitespace characters)

Q11.
X is a meme currency whose price surged 5000% from $0.0000019 to $0.00009450 in response to Y’s
comments on Saturday Night Live and twitter.
"Y is infamous for irresponsibly manipulating the cryptocurrency market with his Twitter account. Just
recently, he did it again, causing a massive crash across all frontiers when he tweeted that _____ will
cease to accept Bitcoin as payment. Anyone with even a shred of critical thinking sees through his lies.
He has been trying to pump crypto for ages, tweeting about it to no end, and even going to Saturday
Night Live as a final resort to get Dogecoin up! It's ridiculous!" Read X’s website.
Id X.

Q12.
This company was started when one of the co-founders was fined $40 for failing to return a product that
he had rented from another company that would, one day, become the rival of his company. He and his
partner tested sending their product via the US Postal Service, and upon discovering that it has reached
intact, they started the company in 1997. As technology improved, the company moved into becoming
the fully online behemoth it is today.
Which company?

Q13.
If you go to @pgtalal’s Instagram page and click on one of its highlights, it will crash your phone. The
owner of the account is a 14-year-old hacker who wanted to “create some Instagram glitches” just for fun.
A security researcher at Arizona State University, US, managed to look into the code behind the
unexpected behaviour of the Instagram story (a combination of different Instagram stickers), and he found
three numbers as the culprit of the attacks - 13th, 12th and 17th powers of 10, respectively.
What did these numbers represent?

Answer
The dimensions of the stickers scaled to huge proportions

Q14.
Several companies, including Microsoft and Yahoo, were approached to build X, but declined. Its
development began in 2002. By November 2015, X had as many as 12.5 million concurrent users, and
over 125 million registered accounts. X is considered to be one of the largest of its kind, and is estimated
to have 75% of the market space . Id X.

Q15.
Redbox was a force to be reckoned with in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The video rental kiosks played
a significant role in pushing Blockbuster into bankruptcy and Netflix’s future with streaming was far from a
guarantee. Redbox even ranked #15 on Fortune’s list of “Fastest Growing Companies” in 2012. But
Redbox was actually created by X. In 2002, the X’s business development arm realized that consumers
preferred to interact with a machine for some transactions. X used the kiosks to sell convenience store
products, but the project was short-lived. The concept took off, and in 2005, Coinstar bought 47 percent of
the spun-off company for $32 million. In 2009, it scooped up the remainder of the company for over $169
million.
Give X.

Q16.
With the steady decline of traditional newspaper journalism, more and more media houses are shifting to
the internet. However, recently, ad revenues on such websites haven't been all that impressive, forcing
these websites to put their content behind paywalls, which ultimately reduces their readership. Thus, many
news websites are trying to find a way to monetise their content while keeping it free.
What is the proposed solution to this problem, something that was put forward by the Australian and
French governments lately?

Answer
Link taxes, i.e., forcing Google to pay for
linking to news articles

Q17.
Xs usually work with the help of a decision tree. The root of the tree is the present state which is fed into
the X, and has a child node for each state that can be legally reached. Each of these nodes have further
child nodes which can possibly be reached. X pushes out this tree to a depth defined by its capabilities
and the time given for the computation. The most common Xs used on many websites are usually
programmed to go to a depth of about 20-30. States that can be reached more than once are simply
cross-referenced, so that they don’t have to be analysed more than once. Once the tree is created, the
computer uses a set of rules to analyse the final positions in the tree, and those which are undesirable are
removed. The tree is cut down until only one ____ remains (blank indicative).
Id X.

Q18.
As described by Marques Brownlee, these are the features of the best X he has ever reviewed:
(a) Solid build quality; easy to wash, although it is recommended to take it to a certified cleaner.
(b) Many sensors at the front – dual monochrome sensors with autofocus assist and a pair of microphones
on either side – which help it to sense its surroundings and not bump into things.
(c) Decent battery life; needs to be charged by the end of the day. It has fast charging in the form of made-
for-X materials, which you can just buy a box of. Safest way to power it is an optional wireless charging
pad, perfect for charging overnight. Software has an auto-docking feature; it automatically returns to the
charging pad when the battery gets low.
Id X and put funda.

Answer
X – Mac
Mac is the name of Marques’s dog

Q19.
This technology was initially described in RFC1149, and consists of the transmission of IP over X. This
technology has successfully been implemented, but with a packet loss ratio of ~50%, and a response time
ranging from about 3000 seconds to 6000 seconds. Thus, this technology suffers from poor latency.
A report published in 2005 which concluded that the pandemic could not affect IT systems directly, was
criticised for neglecting to consider this technology in its analysis. Current known risks to this technology
include:
1. While broadcasting is not specified, storms can cause data loss
2. Unintentional encapsulation in _____ has been known to occur, with decapsulation being messy and
mangled
3. In some locations, such as New Zealand, a significant proportion of carriers are only able to execute
short hops, and only at times when the background level of photon emission is extremely low.
Id X.

Answer
X – Birds
IP over Avian Carriers (IPoAC)

Q20.
The X was an American magazine and product catalogue published by Steward Brand several times a
year from 1968 to 1972, and occasionally thereafter. It featured essays and articles, but was primarily
focused on product reviews. It was popularised in the recent decade by Steve Jobs, who described it as a
“Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along; it was idealistic, and overflowing with
greet tools and notions.” He quoted a line from the back cover of their final issue in his famous speech at
Stanford.
The name of X came from a previous project by Brand. In 1966, he had initiated a public campaign to
have NASA release certain images, which he thought might be a powerful symbol, evoking a sense of
shared destiny and responsibilities among the people.
Id X.

Answer
X – Whole Earth Catalogue

Q21.
This Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation tool created by OpenAI facilitates generation of images from a
short textual description. Its name is a portmanteau of 2 words X and Y.
X is the name of a famous eccentric Spaniard. The portmanteau ends up sounding like X and is, quite
aptly, a hat-tip to him. Y is the name of a sentient being who chases the love of his life, an Extraterrestrial
Vegetation Evaluator, across the galaxy.
Id X and Y, and what the name of the tool was.

Answer
X – Salvador Dali
Y – Wall-E
Portmanteau – Dall-E

Q22.
Early this year, the Russian authorities had attempted to throttle Twitter due to its failure to
remove content illegal in Russia, mostly to crack down on any opposition protests within the
country. However, while doing this, it was observed that traffic to the Russian state ISP
Rostelecom dropped significantly.
The Russian authorities had originally attempted to slow down access to Twitter’s link
shortening service, but inadvertently throttled websites like microsoft.com, reddit.com, and
even the Russian state-operated news site rt.com.
What was this attributed to?

Answer
They accidentally throttled all websites containing the string “t.co” instead of just the domain “t.co” itself
Thus, reddi(t.co)m, microsof(t.co)m and r(t.co)m were throttled.

Q23.
A few months ago, researchers at the University of Michigan designed Morpheus. The major principles
underlying how Morpheus works is “encryption” and “churn”. Encryption randomises important undefined
semantics, while churn re-randomises them while the system is running. Additionally, the churn rate
spikes if it detects any suspicious activity via undefined semantics.
Thus, it is a race against the clock to obtain the information you need. In layman’s terms, “it’s like trying to
solve a Rubik’s cube that rearranges itself every time you blink”.
What is so special about Morpheus?

Answer
Morpheus is an unhackable chip

Q24.
There are two principle methods to produce X. The first method uses physical phenomena, which
compensates for any possible biases in the measurement process, for example, atmospheric noise,
cosmic background radiation, radioactive decay, etc. The second method uses computational algorithms
which produce long sequences of pseudo-X. They are called “pseudo-X” because the sequence can be
entirely reproduced if the seed value for the algorithm is known.
Websites like Y, one of the only websites to produce true X, rely on several radios placed in different
locations over the world, generating 12,000 bits/second from the atmosphere. The website then produces
a continuous string of bits which are converted to the form requested by the user.
Id X and Y.

Answer
X – Random numbers
Y – random.org

Q25.
This property of most PCBs (printed circuit boards), and electronics in general, can be attributed to the
following reasons:
1. Most PCBs have a layer of solder mask - a lacquer which prevents the components from oxidation,
and prevents different pieces of solder touching each other, causing a short circuit. The material
used to make this often contains glass epoxy, which explains the existence of this property,
something which you might also have noticed on empty coke bottles.
2. Despite glass epoxy being used to make the solder mask, the PCBs were still rather unappealing.
Due to this, many manufacturers tried to replicate the signature glass epoxy look using synthetic
dyes. This enhancement allowed engineers and quality control workers to easily see the gold and
copper traces, as well as the text that labelled the individual components.
3. Another hypothesis is that most PCBs in the early days were developed by the US military, which
might also explain why this property exists.
Which property is being talked about?

Answer
Why most PCBs are green

Long Visual Connect
5 sets of progressively easier clues which have one thing in common
No direct questions, questions can only be answered on pounce
The earlier you figure out the connection, the more points you get

T1.
What has just happened in the
comments of this Reddit post?

Answer
Rick Astley got Rickrolled

T2.
Pre-orders for a next-gen console X were launched last year. Despite being the pre-order day for X, the
console Y was, at one point, 747% up in sales on the Amazon’s Movers and Shakers chart.
This confusion was compared by some users to what had happened previously between A and B, when A
was released in late 2012. The confusion between A and B had arguably caused A to be the slowest-
selling console ever from its manufacturer. Users said that if the names A and B had caused chaos, it was
bound to happen for X and Y.
Id A, B, X, Y.

Answer
X – Xbox Series X
Y – Xbox One X
A – Wii U
B – Wii

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