Hackers Test...

The Loony Bin ( loonies@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk )
Mon, 3 Jun 1996 15:07:40 +0100


Hiya Folks...

I was hoping no-one would send this one in, but Guy has chosen to ruin
my day...he asks if I have seen this...I had seen it and done it, what
more can I say...???

I wondered if I could claim not to understand the scoring - but no-one
would believe me...the only good news is that I know I will not be even
close to the highest score on this...let's see how many Loonies beat my
meagre 0x08E...

Wishes & Dreams...

- ANDREA
        xx

ps...If you don't understand the scoring please don't mail me for
instructions...I have enough problems as it is...

************<andrea@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk>************
******************<ajc6@ukc.ac.uk>*******************
***                                               ***
***                THE LOONY BIN                  ***
***          loonies@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk         ***
***                                               ***
******************Internet Goddess*******************
*********************ANDROMEDA***********************

  ------- Forwarded foolishness follows -------

------ THE HACKER TEST - Version 1.1 ------

Preface to version 1.0 (06.16.89):

This test was conceived and written by Felix Lee, John Hayes and Angela
Thomas at the end of the spring semester, 1989. It has gone through many
revisions prior to this initial release, and will undoubtedly go through
many more.

(Herewith a compendium of fact and folklore about computer hackerdom,
cunningly disguised as a test).

------

Scoring: count 1 for each item that you have done, or each question
         that you can answer correctly.

If you score is between:         you are

0x000 and 0x010       ->         a Computer Illiterate
0x011 and 0x040       ->         a User
0x041 and 0x080       ->         an Operator
0x081 and 0x0C0       ->         a Nerd
0x0C1 and 0x100       ->         a Hacker
0x101 and 0x180       ->         a Guru
0x181 and 0x200       ->         a Wizard

Note: If you don't understand the scoring, stop here.

And now for the questions...


0x001 Have you ever used a computer?
0x002 ... for more than 4 hours continuously?
0x003 ... more than 8 hours?
0x004 ... more than 16 hours?
0x005 ... more than 32 hours?

0x006 Have you ever patched paper tape?

0x007 Have you ever missed a class while programming?
0x008 ... Missed an examination?
0x009 ... Missed a wedding?
0x00A ... Missed your own wedding?

0x00B Have you ever programmed while intoxicated?
0x00C ... Did it make sense the next day?

0x00D Have you ever written a flight simulator?

0x00E Have you ever voided the warranty on your equipment?

0x00F Ever change the value of 4?
0x010 ... Unintentionally?
0x011 ... In a language other than Fortran?

0x012 Do you use DWIM to make life interesting?

0x013 Have you named a computer?

0x014 Do you complain when a "feature" you use gets fixed?

0x015 Do you eat slime-molds?

0x016 Do you know how many days old you are?

0x017 Have you ever wanted to download pizza?

0x018 Have you ever invented a computer joke?
0x019 ... Did someone not 'get' it?

0x01A Can you recite Jabberwocky?
0x01B ... Backwards?

0x01C Have you seen "Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land"?
0x01D Have you seen "Tron"?
0x01E Have you seen "Wargames"?

0x01F Do you know what ASCII stands for?
0x020 ... EBCDIC?

0x021 Can you read and write ASCII in hex or octal?
0x022 Do you know the names of all the ASCII control codes?

0x023 Can you read and write EBCDIC in hex?

0x024 Can you convert from EBCDIC to ASCII and vice versa?

0x025 Do you know what characters are the same in both ASCII and EBCDIC?

0x026 Do you know MAXINT on your system?

0x027 Ever define your own numerical type to get better precision?

0x028 Can you name powers of two up to 2^16 in arbitrary order?
0x029 ... up to 2^32?
0x02A ... up to 2^64?

0x02B Can you read a punched card, looking at the holes?
0x02C ... feeling the holes?

0x02D Have you ever patched binary code?
0x02E ... While the program was running?

0x02F Have you ever used program overlays?

0x030 Have you met any IBM vice-president?
0x031 Do you know Dennis, Bill, or Ken?

0x032 Have you ever taken a picture of a CRT?
0x033 Have you ever played a videotape on your CRT?

0x034 Have you ever digitized a picture?

0x035 Did you ever forget to mount a scratch monkey?

0x036 Have you ever optimized an idle loop?

0x037 Did you ever optimize a bubble sort?

0x038 Does your terminal/computer talk to you?

0x039 Have you ever talked into an acoustic modem?
0x03A ... Did it answer?

0x03B Can you whistle 300 baud?
0x03C ... 1200 baud?

0x03D Can you whistle a telephone number?

0x03E Have you witnessed a disk crash?
0x03F Have you made a disk drive "walk"?

0x040 Can you build a puffer train?
0x041 ... Do you know what it is?

0x042 Can you play music on your line printer?
0x043 ... Your disk drive?
0x044 ... Your tape drive?

0x045 Do you have a Snoopy calendar?
0x046 ... Is it out-of-date?

      Do you have a line printer picture of...
0x047 ... the Mona Lisa?
0x048 ... the Enterprise?
0x049 ... Einstein?
0x04A ... Oliver?
0x04B Have you ever made a line printer picture?

      Do you know what the following stand for?
0x04C ... DASD
0x04D ... Emacs
0x04E ... ITS
0x04F ... RSTS/E
0x050 ... SNA
0x051 ... Spool
0x052 ... TCP/IP

      Have you ever used
0x053 ... TPU?
0x054 ... TECO?
0x055 ... Emacs?
0x056 ... ed?
0x057 ... vi?
0x058 ... Xedit (in VM/CMS)?
0x059 ... SOS?
0x05A ... EDT?
0x05B ... Wordstar?

0x05C Have you ever written a CLIST?

      Have you ever programmed in
0x05D ... the X windowing system?
0x05E ... CICS?

0x05F Have you ever received a fax or a photocopy of a floppy?

0x060 Have you ever shown a novice the "any" key?
0x061 ... Was it the power switch?

      Have you ever attended
0x062 ... Usenix?
0x063 ... DECUS?
0x064 ... SHARE?
0x065 ... SIGGRAPH?
0x066 ... NetCon?

0x067 Have you ever participated in a standards group?

0x068 Have you ever debugged machine code over the telephone?

0x069 Have you ever seen voice mail?
0x06A ... Can you read it?

0x06B Do you solve word puzzles with an on-line dictionary?

0x06C Have you ever taken a Turing test?
0x06D ... Did you fail?

0x06E Ever drop a card deck?
0x06F ... Did you successfully put it back together?
0x070 ... Without looking?

0x071 Have you ever used IPCS?

0x072 Have you ever received a case of beer with your computer?

0x073 Does your computer come in 'designer' colors?

0x074 Ever interrupted a UPS?

0x075 Ever mask an NMI?

0x076 Have you ever set off a Halon system?
0x077 ... Intentionally?
0x078 ... Do you still work there?

0x079 Have you ever hit the emergency power switch?
0x07A ... Intentionally?

0x07B Do you have any defunct documentation?
0x07C ... Do you still read it?

0x07D Ever reverse-engineer or decompile a program?
0x07E ... Did you find bugs in it?

0x07F Ever help the person behind the counter with their 
       terminal/computer?

0x080 Ever tried rack mounting your telephone?

0x081 Ever thrown a computer from more than two stories high?

0x082 Ever patched a bug the vendor does not acknowledge?

0x083 Ever fix a hardware problem in software?
0x084 ... Vice versa?

0x085 Ever belong to a user/support group?

0x086 Ever been mentioned in Computer Recreations?

0x087 Ever had your activities mentioned in the newspaper?
0x088 ... Did you get away with it?

0x089 Ever engage a drum brake while the drum was spinning?

0x08A Ever write comments in a non-native language?

0x08B Ever physically destroy equipment from software?

0x08C Ever tried to improve your score on The Hacker Test?

0x08D Do you take listings with you to lunch?
0x08E ... To bed?

0x08F Ever patch a microcode bug?
0x090 ... around a microcode bug?

0x091 Can you program a Turing machine?

0x092 Can you convert postfix to prefix in your head?

0x093 Can you convert hex to octal in your head?

0x094 Do you know how to use a Kleene star?

0x095 Have you ever starved while dining with philosophers?

0x096 Have you solved the halting problem?
0x097 ... Correctly?

0x098 Ever deadlock trying eating spaghetti?

0x099 Ever written a self-reproducing program?

0x09A Ever swapped out the swapper?

0x09B Can you read a state diagram?
0x09C ... Do you need one?

0x09D Ever create an unkillable program?
0x09E ... Intentionally?

0x09F Ever been asked for a cookie?

0x0A0 Ever speed up a system by removing a jumper?

* Do you know...

0x0A1 Do you know who wrote Rogue?
0x0A2 ... Rogomatic?

0x0A3 Do you know Gray code?

0x0A4 Do you know what HCF means?
0x0A5 ... Ever use it?
0x0A6 ... Intentionally?

0x0A7 Do you know what a lace card is?
0x0A8 ... Ever make one?

0x0A9 Do you know the end of the epoch?
0x0AA ... Have you celebrated the end of an epoch?
0x0AB ... Did you have to rewrite code?

0x0AC Do you know the difference between DTE and DCE?

0x0AD Do you know the RS-232C pinout?
0x0AE ... Can you wire a connector without looking?

* Do you have...

0x0AF Do you have a copy of Dec Wars?
0x0B0 Do you have the Canonical Collection of Lightbulb Jokes?
0x0B1 Do you have The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
0x0B2 Do you have a copy of the Hacker's dictionary?
0x0B3 ... Did you contribute to it?

0x0B4 Do you have a flowchart template?
0x0B5 ... Is it unused?

0x0B6 Do you have your own fortune-cookie file?

0x0B7 Do you have the Anarchist's Cookbook?
0x0B8 ... Ever make anything from it?

0x0B9 Do you own a modem?
0x0BA ... a terminal?
0x0BB ... a toy computer?
0x0BC ... a personal computer?
0x0BD ... a minicomputer?
0x0BE ... a mainframe?
0x0BF ... a supercomputer?
0x0C0 ... a hypercube?
0x0C1 ... a printer?
0x0C2 ... a laser printer?
0x0C3 ... a tape drive?
0x0C4 ... an outmoded peripheral device?

0x0C5 Do you have a programmable calculator?
0x0C6 ... Is it RPN?

0x0C7 Have you ever owned more than 1 computer?
0x0C8 ... 4 computers?
0x0C9 ... 16 computers?

0x0CA Do you have a SLIP line?
0x0CB ... a T1 line?

0x0CC Do you have a separate phone line for your terminal/computer?
0x0CD ... Is it legal?

0x0CE Do you have core memory?
0x0CF ... drum storage?
0x0D0 ... bubble memory?

0x0D1 Do you use more than 16 megabytes of disk space?
0x0D2 ... 256 megabytes?
0x0D3 ... 1 gigabyte?
0x0D4 ... 16 gigabytes?
0x0D5 ... 256 gigabytes?
0x0D6 ... 1 terabyte?

0x0D7 Do you have an optical disk/disk drive?

0x0D8 Do you have a personal magnetic tape library?
0x0D9 ... Is it unlabelled?

0x0DA Do you own more than 16 floppy disks?
0x0DB ... 64 floppy disks?
0x0DC ... 256 floppy disks?
0x0DD ... 1024 floppy disks?

0x0DE Do you have any 8-inch disks?

0x0DF Do you have an internal stack?

0x0E0 Do you have a clock interrupt?

0x0E1 Do you own volumes 1 to 3 of _The Art of Computer Programming_?
0x0E2 ... Have you done all the exercises?
0x0E3 ... Do you have a MIX simulator?
0x0E4 ... Can you name the unwritten volumes?

0x0E5 Can you quote from _The Mythical Man-month_?
0x0E6 ... Did you participate in the OS/360 project?

0x0E7 Do you have a TTL handbook?

0x0E8 Do you have printouts more than three years old?

* Career

0x0E9 Do you have a job?
0x0EA ... Have you ever had a job?
0x0EB ... Was it computer-related?

0x0EC Do you work irregular hours?

0x0ED Have you ever been a system administrator?

0x0EE Do you have more megabytes than megabucks?

0x0EF Have you ever downgraded your job to upgrade your processing
power?

0x0F0 Is your job secure?
0x0F1 ... Do you have code to prove it?

0x0F2 Have you ever had a security clearance?

* Games

0x0F3 Have you ever played Pong?

      Have you ever played
0x0F4 ... Spacewar?
0x0F5 ... Star Trek?
0x0F6 ... Wumpus?
0x0F7 ... Lunar Lander?
0x0F8 ... Empire?

      Have you ever beaten
0x0F9 ... Moria 4.8?
0x0FA ... Rogue 3.6?
0x0FB ... Rogue 5.3?
0x0FC ... Larn?
0x0FD ... Hack 1.0.3?
0x0FE ... Nethack 2.4?

0x0FF Can you get a better score on Rogue than Rogomatic?

0x100 Have you ever solved Adventure?
0x101 ... Zork?

0x102 Have you ever written any redcode?

0x103 Have you ever written an adventure program?
0x104 ... a real-time game?
0x105 ... a multi-player game?
0x106 ... a networked game?

0x107 Can you out-doctor Eliza?

* Hardware

0x108 Have you ever used a light pen?
0x109 ... did you build it?

      Have you ever used
0x10A ... a teletype?
0x10B ... a paper tape?
0x10C ... a decwriter?
0x10D ... a card reader/punch?
0x10E ... a SOL?

      Have you ever built
0x10F ... an Altair?
0x110 ... a Heath/Zenith computer?

      Do you know how to use
0x111 ... an oscilliscope?
0x112 ... a voltmeter?
0x113 ... a frequency counter?
0x114 ... a logic probe?
0x115 ... a wirewrap tool?
0x116 ... a soldering iron?
0x117 ... a logic analyzer?

0x118 Have you ever designed an LSI chip?
0x119 ... has it been fabricated?

0x11A Have you ever etched a printed circuit board?

* Historical

0x11B Have you ever toggled in boot code on the front panel?
0x11C ... from memory?

0x11D Can you program an Eniac?

0x11E Ever seen a 90 column card?

* IBM

0x11F Do you recite IBM part numbers in your sleep?
0x120 Do you know what IBM part number 7320154 is?

0x121 Do you understand 3270 data streams?

0x122 Do you know what the VM privilege classes are?

0x123 Have you IPLed an IBM off the tape drive?
0x124 ... off a card reader?

0x125 Can you sing something from the IBM Songbook?

* Languages

0x126 Do you know more than 4 programming languages?
0x127 ... 8 languages?
0x128 ... 16 languages?
0x129 ... 32 languages?

0x12A Have you ever designed a programming language?

0x12B Do you know what BASIC stands for?
0x12C ... Pascal?

0x12D Can you program in BASIC?
0x12E ... Do you admit it?

0x12F Can you program in COBOL?
0x130 ... Do you deny it?

0x131 Do you know Pascal?
0x132 ... Modula-2?
0x133 ... Oberon?
0x134 ... More than two Wirth languages?
0x135 ... Can you recite a Nicklaus Wirth joke?

0x136 Do you know ALGOL-60?
0x137 ... ALGOL-W?
0x138 ... ALGOL-68?
0x139 ... Do you understand the ALGOL-68 report?
0x13A ... Do you like two-level grammars?

0x13B Can you program in assembler on 2 different machines?
0x13C ... on 4 different machines?
0x13D ... on 8 different machines?

Csh

***** P A R T  2 *****

Do you know
0x13E ... APL?
0x13F ... Ada?
0x140 ... BCPL?
0x141 ... C?
0x142 ... C++?
0x143 ... Comal?
0x144 ... Eiffel?
0x145 ... Forth?
0x146 ... FORTRAN?
0x147 ... Hypertalk?
0x148 ... Icon?
0x149 ... LISP?
0x14A ... Logo?
0x14B ... MIIS?
0x14C ... MUMPS?
0x14D ... PL/I?
0x14E ... PILOT?
0x14F ... Plato?
0x150 ... PROLOG?
0x151 ... RPG?
0x152 ... Rexx (or ARexx)?
0x153 ... SETL?
0x154 ... Smalltalk?
0x155 ... Snobol?
0x156 ... VHDL?
0x157 ... any assembly language?

0x158 Can you talk VT-100?
0x159 ... postscript?
0x15A ... SMTP?
0x15B ... UUCP?
0x15C ... english?

* Micros

0x15D Ever copy a copy-protected disk?
0x15E Ever create a copy-protection scheme?

0x15F Have you ever made a "flippy" disk?

0x160 Have you ever recovered data from a damaged disk?

0x161 Ever boot a naked floppy?

0x162 Have you used more than three disk operating systems for the same
computer?

* Networking

0x163 Have you ever been logged in to two different timezones at once?

0x164 Have you memorized the UUCP map for your country?
0x165 ... For any country?

0x166 Have you ever found a sendmail bug?
0x167 ... Was it a security hole?

0x168 Have you memorized the HOSTS.TXT table?
0x169 ... Are you up to date?

0x16A Can you name all the top-level nameservers and their addresses?

0x16B Do you know RFC-822 by heart?
0x16C ... Can you recite all the errors in it?

0x16D Have you written a Sendmail configuration file?
0x16E ... Does it work?
0x16F ... Do you mumble "defocus" in your sleep?

0x170 Do you know the max packet lifetime?

* Operating systems

      Can you use
0x171 ... BSD Unix?
0x172 ... non-BSD Unix?
0x173 ... AIX?
0x174 ... VM/CMS?
0x175 ... VMS?
0x176 ... MVS?
0x177 ... VSE?
0x178 ... RSTS/E?
0x179 ... CP/M?
0x17A ... COS?
0x17B ... NOS?
0x17C ... CP-67?
0x17D ... RT-11?
0x17E ... MS-DOS?
0x17F ... Finder?
0x180 ... PRODOS?
0x181 ... more than one OS for the TRS-80?
0x182 ... Tops-10?
0x183 ... Tops-20?
0x184 ... OS-9?
0x185 ... OS/2?
0x186 ... AOS/VS?
0x187 ... Multics?
0x188 ... ITS?
0x189 ... Vulcan?
0x18A ... Risc OS?

0x18B Have you ever paged or swapped off a tape drive?
0x18C ... Off a card reader/punch?
0x18D ... Off a teletype?
0x18E ... Off a networked (non-local) disk?

0x18F Have you ever found an operating system bug?
0x190 ... Did you exploit it?
0x191 ... Did you report it?
0x192 ... Was your report ignored?

0x193 Have you ever crashed a machine?
0x194 ... Intentionally?

* People

0x195 Do you know any people?
0x196 ... more than one?
0x197 ... more than two?

* Personal

0x198 Are your shoelaces untied?

0x199 Do you interface well with strangers?

0x19A Are you able to recite phone numbers for half-a-dozen computer
systems but unable to recite your own?

0x19B Do you log in before breakfast?

0x19C Do you consume more than LD-50 caffeine a day?

0x19D Do you answer either-or questions with "yes"?

0x19E Do you own an up-to-date copy of any operating system manual?
0x19F ... *every* operating system manual?

0x1A0 Do other people have difficulty using your customized environment?

0x1A1 Do you dream in any programming languages?

0x1A2 Do you have difficulty focusing on three-dimensional objects?

0x1A3 Do you ignore mice?

0x1A4 Do you despise the CAPS LOCK key?

0x1A5 Do you believe menus belong to restaurants?

0x1A6 Do you have a Mandelbrot hanging on your wall?

0x1A7 Have you ever decorated with magnetic tape or punched cards?
0x1A8 Do you have a disk platter or a naked floppy hanging in your home?

0x1A9 Have you ever seen the dawn?
0x1AA ... Twice in a row?

0x1AB Do you use "foobar" in daily conversation?
0x1AC ... "bletch"?

0x1AD Do you use the "P convention"?

0x1AE Do you automatically respond to any user question with RTFM?
0x1AF ... Do you know what it means?

0x1B0 Do you think garbage collection means memory management?

0x1B1 Do you have problems allocating horizontal space in your 
         room/office?

x1B2 Do you read Scientific American in bars to pick up women?

0x1B3 Is your license plate computer-related?

0x1B4 Have you ever taken the Purity Test?

0x1B5 Ever have an out-of-CPU experience?

0x1B6 Have you ever set up a blind date over the computer?

0x1B7 Do you talk to the person next to you via computer?

* Programming

0x1B8 Can you write a FORTRAN compiler?
0x1B9 ... In TECO?

0x1BA Can you read a machine dump?
0x1BB Can you disassemble code in your head?

      Have you ever written
0x1BC ... a compiler?
0x1BD ... an operating system?
0x1BE ... a device driver?
0x1BF ... a text processor?
0x1C0 ... a display hack?
0x1C1 ... a database system?
0x1C2 ... an expert system?
0x1C3 ... an edge detector?
0x1C4 ... a real-time control system?
0x1C5 ... an accounting package?
0x1C6 ... a virus?
0x1C7 ... a prophylactic?

0x1C8 Have you ever written a biorhythm program?
0x1C9 ... Did you sell the output?
0x1CA ... Was the output arbitrarily invented?

0x1CB Have you ever computed pi to more than a thousand decimal places?
0x1CC ... the number e?

0x1CD Ever find a prime number of more than a hundred digits?

0x1CE Have you ever written self-modifying code?
0x1CF ... Are you proud of it?

0x1D0 Did you ever write a program that ran correctly the first time?
0x1D1 ... Was it longer than 20 lines?
0x1D2 ... 100 lines?
0x1D3 ... Was it in assembly language?
0x1D4 ... Did it work the second time?
0x1D5 ... Did it have ZERO changes in the final version?

0x1D6 Can you solve the Towers of Hanoi recursively?
0x1D7 ... Non-recursively?
0x1D8 ... Using the Troff text formatter?

0x1D9 Ever submit an entry to the Obfuscated C code contest?
0x1DA ... Did it win?
0x1DB ... Did your entry inspire a new rule?

0x1DC Do you know Duff's device?

0x1DD Do you know Jensen's device?

0x1DE Ever spend ten minutes trying to find a single-character error?
0x1DF ... More than an hour?
0x1E0 ... More than a day?
0x1E1 ... More than a week?
0x1E2 ... Did the first person you show it to find it immediately?

* Unix

0x1E3 Can you distinguish between sections 4 and 5 of the Unix manual?

0x1E4 Can you find TERMIO in the System V release 2 documentation?

0x1E5 Have you ever mounted a tape as a Unix file system?

0x1E6 Have you ever built Minix?

0x1E7 Can you answer "quiz function ed-command" correctly?
0x1E8 ... How about "quiz ed-command function"?

* Usenet

0x1E9 Do you read news?
0x1EA ... More than 32 newsgroups?
0x1EB ... More than 256 newsgroups?
0x1EC ... All the newsgroups?

0x1ED Have you ever posted an article?
0x1EE ... Do you post regularly?

0x1EF Do you use smiley faces regularly?

0x1F0 Is your .signature file longer than four lines?

0x1F1 Have you ever posted a flame?
0x1F2 ... Ever flame a cross-posting?
0x1F3 ... Ever flame a flame?
0x1F4 ... Do you flame regularly?

0x1F5 Ever have your program posted to a source newsgroup?

0x1F6 Ever forge a posting?
0x1F7 Ever form a new newsgroup?
0x1F8 ... Does it still exist?

      Do you remember
0x1F9 ... mod.ber?
0x1FA ... the Stupid People's Court?
0x1FB ... Bandy-grams?

* Phreaking

0x1FC Have you ever built a black box?

0x1FD Can you name all of the 'colors' of boxes?
0x1FE ... and their associated functions?

0x1FF Does your touch tone phone have 16 DTMF buttons on it?

0x200 Did the breakup of MaBell create more opportunities for you?