Boiledbeans

Drama! Intrigue!! Geekiness!!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Flame on

—srikanth @ 23:59

Identify the man in (1), known for one of the devices in (2)

Cracked by: Rogi, Manish Achuth, Aditya S, jowens, Sumanth Patlolla, badideabear, KK, Martin, Jayaprakash B R, raklodramA, username, anurag, rickde, shrik, buk, Thejas V R, Rahulk, Dibyo, amarendra, Ananth, Bharath, Anonymous, Urthstripe, Shwetha Maiya, Sujoy, grey_matters and mankuTimma

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Robert Bunsen, of the Bunsen Burner fame.


What, you too? Part 2.

—srikanth @ 00:20

Continuing from the previous question -

B, who collaborated with many very smart people in his time, also worked with D. (one of B and Ds collaborations, albeit a whimsical one, has appeared on Boiledbeans before). D is an American AI scientist who laid the foundations of the field of neural networks, so to speak.

D is a vocal critic of the Loebner prize event. This event is set in the format of a test named after famous British mathematicianE. E and B had collaborated for some time when E was posted to the US on matters of cryptanalysis. E is arguably even more influential than B and D, since both worked to extend E’s results in many ways, and for many more reasons that will be obvious to people who’ve figured all 3 out :)

E was, at heart, a mathematician. E developed a theoretical ‘machine’ that was named after him. He used this machine to tackle a problem (or, as some would say, the problem) posed by David Hilbert. in 1937 he came out with a solution that utilized his machines to solve the problem. However, a year earlier, F had already published a paper solving the problem by utilizing lambda calculus. The result, terribly important to some core sections of maths and computer science, is now known as the E-F Theorem.

Identify D, E and F for 1 point. No part points. Pseudo-bonus points for naming the problem from memory without misspelling it :)

Cracked by: grey_matters, Goyal, username, Sumanth Patlolla, buk, jowens, byslexia, KK, Raghuvansh, Siddarth Pai, Rogi, Thejas V R, Dibyo, shrik, Shwetha Maiya, badideabear, Rahulk, Bharath, rickde, Aditya S, anurag, amarendra, raklodramA, Ananth, Manish Achuth, Sujoy and mankuTimma

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D-Marvin Minsky


Thursday, September 1, 2011

What, you too? Part 1

—srikanth @ 23:59

A was a Dutch cryptographer who created a set of 6 rules for a certain kind of system. The 2nd of his set of 6 remained famous and relevant and was named after him.

B was an American mathematician, cryptographer, electrical engineer and all-round genius who, almost 100 years after A, formulated a variant of the same principle. This was in turn, named after A although they both largely mean the same! B was, of course, an incredibly prolific genius whose work, many believe, created the field of information theory and his papers are considered the most important papers of the 20th century. (consequently, B has featured on Boiledbeans many times. So this is not a dupe :P)

Another interesting (unrelated) coincidence around B was with C. B proved a certain theorem in 1949 that is fundamental to the world of information theory. Unbeknownst to B, C - who was a Swedish-born American - had pretty much proved the same thing almost 20 years before. Funnily enough, almost half-a-dozen people independently proved this over time. But, by and large, the theorem is credit to both B and C.

Identify A, B and C for 1 point. No part points. Pseudo-bonus points for naming the set of 6 rules, the maxim, and the theorem :)

Cracked by: grey_matters, username, Goyal, Sumanth Patlolla, buk, jowens, byslexia, KK, Raghuvansh, Siddarth Pai, Rogi, Thejas V R, Dibyo, shrik, Shwetha Maiya, Aditya S, badideabear, anurag, Rahulk, Bharath, Wm, rickde, Martin, amarendra, raklodramA, Ananth, Manish Achuth and Anjul

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A - Auguste Kerckhoffs


Wednesday, August 31, 2011

e-smack.

—srikanth @ 23:59

Bit of a sitter perhaps. And yes, we might have touched upon similar topics in the past on Boiledbeans :) But, here goes anyway. Identify the bit that’s been blocked out.

Cracked by: Sumanth Patlolla, shrik, s m muneer ali, username, Urthstripe, Rogi, jowens, Goyal, Bharath, Dibyo, badideabear, KK, aditthya, Aditya S, rickde, Thejas V R, Rahulk, anurag, Ananth, Siddarth Pai, vishwanath, raklodramA, Shwetha Maiya and Raghuvansh

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Minecraft, of course :) These were Penny-Arcade’s comic strips talking about Minecraft’s addictive-ness (and awesome-ness)!


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I prefer 'plugh' myself

—srikanth @ 23:59

Two images with a bit of a story behind them. Story, please :)

Cracked by: Raghuvansh, Jayaprakash B R, Sumanth Patlolla, shrik, Martin, username, Advaith, Rogi, jowens, Goyal, Bharath, Dibyo, badideabear, KK, anurag, Thejas V R, Rahulk, Ananth, raklodramA, Shwetha Maiya and byslexia

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Foocamp and barcamp. Foobar


Monday, August 29, 2011

Right on cue

—srikanth @ 23:59

Sorry for the ultra-late post folks. This will stay open for longer.

This question’s kinda silly, I just put it here because the cartoon was amazing. Identify what’s been blocked out in red:

Cracked by: badideabear, Raghuvansh, grey_matters, anurag, Sumanth Patlolla, shrik, s m muneer ali, Shwetha Maiya, vishwanath, username, Urthstripe, Advaith, Rogi, jowens, Goyal, Bharath, Dibyo, KK, aditthya, Aditya S, Thejas V R, Rahulk, Ananth, Siddarth Pai, raklodramA and byslexia

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Pavlov from Pavlov’s Dogs


Sunday, August 28, 2011

Not just an SI unit, what?

—srikanth @ 22:33

What was this called? It was the first of its kind, created by a famous German inventor. All clues are in the image. We’re looking for just the name of the thing below :)

Cracked by: Jayaprakash B R, Sumanth Patlolla, username, raklodramA, krithika rai, KK, Thejas V R, s m muneer ali, Siddarth Pai, mankuTimma, Bharath, jowens, vishwanath, Rogi, badideabear, shrik, Aditya S, Raghuvansh, Rahulk, Abhishek Mudiganti, rickde, anurag, Saurabh, grey_matters, Dibyo, Bipin Banavalikar and Shwetha Maiya

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The Elektromote - the world’s first trolleybus (aka tram-like-thing-that-doesn’t-need-rails-but-uses-electricity-from-overhead-wires-instead), invented by Dr Siemens himself!


Saturday, August 27, 2011

How Achilles caught the tortoise.

—srikanth @ 23:59

Identify both. A special case of (1), at 0, is named after (2) :)

Cracked by: username, Raghuvansh, Jayaprakash B R, Thejas V R, mankuTimma, raklodramA, Sumanth Patlolla, KK, s m muneer ali, Siddarth Pai, Bharath, dhruv, jowens, Rogi, vishwanath, badideabear, shrik, Mayukh Bose, Aditya S, Rahulk, rickde, anurag, Saurabh, grey_matters and Dibyo

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This question was automatically moderated by AutoRaja and is yet to be assigned an official answer. Please come back later


Friday, August 26, 2011

Before Jenny McCarthy.

—srikanth @ 23:59

What is the strip below about?

Cracked by: grey_matters, shrey, badideabear, Rogi, Dibyo, rickde, s m muneer ali, Sumanth Patlolla, Shwetha Maiya, KK, jowens, raklodramA, amarendra, Siddarth Pai, username, Bharath, Aditya S, Raghuvansh, Thejas V R, krithika rai, mankuTimma, dhruv, shrik, Rahulk and buk

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A comic that was trying to depict the prevailing sentiment against Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine (inoculating people with the Cowpox virus, hence the cows in the image).


Thursday, August 25, 2011

In tribute.

—srikanth @ 23:59

Identify the phrase that’s been beeped out right at the start of the clip.

[audio:http://www.boiledbeans.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/668a3e2b75bc673f7281d9ca2a18cc9a.mp3]

Cracked by: Urthstripe, Jayaprakash B R, Sumanth Patlolla, Thejas V R, Rogi, badideabear, username, grey_matters, rickde, Shwetha Maiya, jowens, raklodramA, anurag, Bharath and Raghuvansh

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The phrase is “I am Macintosh”. The clip is an excerpt of what the Macintosh machine itself spoke during the official 1984 unveiling.