Paul Rolich

A CIO walks a tightrope bridging that chasm between the business folks and the technical folks. It is arguably the best job in todays business world. You get to work with the most interesting people in your company (techies) while still keeping touch with everyone else. You are a truly unique individuala geek who knows what your company sells and why. Getting along with the business people is easyyou can have the board of directors salivating like Pavlovs dogs if you say ROI three times in one paragraph. In the business world image is king. Not so in the tech trenches. Maintaining respect from your programmers and network guys is a little more difficult. It really helps to have some superior technical knowledge to flash around. Hence, our little bimonthly quiz just to keep you on your toes.

1. Which one of these guys is not one of Hollywoods Three Amigos?
a. Steve Martin
b. Martin Short
c. Grady Booch
d. Chevy Chase

The correct answer is c. Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson are all employees of Rational Software (now owned by IBM). These three gentlemen brought together and standardized the Unified Modeling Language (UML). They are commonly referred to as the Three Amigos. The UML is the industry-standard language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems.

2. What is a BAUD rate?
Part 2At what BAUD rate can the worlds fastest typist type?
a. 56k
b. 300
c. 141
d. 9600

Technically, BAUD rate is the number of times per second the carrier signal value changes state. This is not how many bits per second the modem can transmit because there may be more than two states to the signal.
Part 2OK, for the sake of this question we will stipulate the BAUD rate is bits per second. That means the correct answer is c. Barbara Blackburn can type 212 words a minute.
212 x 5 (average letters per word) = 1,060 chars per minute.

3. What is a Poisson distribution, and what does it have to do with insurance?

The Poisson distribution: If the average number of random occurrences per interval = m, the probability P of (a) occurrences in the interval is:

Poisson distributions are useful in predicting the number of claims in a defined region per time period. The most interesting phenomenon regarding Poisson distributions is related to the Battle of Britain. In the autumn of 1944, nearly 10,000 V1 flying bombs were launched against British towns. After the war, it was determined the pattern of those bombs that descended on London could have been modeled by a Poisson distribution.

4. Which will we run out of first: Social Security numbers or MAC addresses?
As a practical matter, we usually refer to a MAC (Media Access Control) address as the unique serial number assigned to your network card, even though the formal definition entails more than that. MAC addresses are 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (48 bits in length). Social Security numbers are nine-digit decimal numbers. Do the math. We wont need to start recycling MAC addresses for a long time. The Social Security Administration claims that since there are theoretically 1 x 109-1 Social Security numbers available (999,999,999), we wont need to reuse them for a long time, either.

5. What should be your first step in diagnosing and repairing a nonfunctional network card?
a. Grab a VOM, and measure the resistance between pins 2 and 25.
b. Grab an oscilloscope, and run diagnostics with a loop back connector plugged in.
c. Contact the manufacturer, and order a network card rebuild kit.
d. Drive to Best Buy, and buy a new card!

Lets see: One network guy, three hours of diagnosing and troubleshooting. Duh! Just replace the darn thing.

Hmm did our test provide some small challenges here? I hope so. CYAL8R.