MaximumPC 2008 04

STATUE OF LIBERTY

On a cold February morning in 1979, more than one University

of Wisconsin student may have awoken and exclaimed, “You

maniacs! You blew it up!”, as they saw what appeared to be the

Statue of Liberty emerge from a frozen Lake Mendota. Luckily,

students weren’t soon sharing Econ 1 with a bunch of damn

dirty apes; instead, they were witnessing their student govern-

ment’s handiwork.

The previous year, two students, Jim Mallon and Leon

Varjian, members of the Pail and Shovel party, won control of

the student government, in part on the promise they would

purchase the Statue of Liberty and ship it to Wisconsin. On that

February morning, some may have believed the two fellows

indeed followed through. In reality, the pair of students con-

structed a replica in a shop near campus and installed it at night.

This was too much for the more straight-laced members of

the student body, and one night the replica burned to the ground.

Not easily dissuaded, the following year, members of the Pail and

Shovel party built an even larger replica—and fi reproofed it. The

photo above shows a 1996 re-creation of the original prank.

46 MAXIMUMPC | APR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

The Nvidia product code-name G92 refers to

the technology in which of these products?

What type of product did Ray Dolby (of Dolby

Laboratories) fi rst invent?

This motherboard conforms

to what formfactor?

What soundcard supports EAX Advanced HD 5.0?

Ubuntu, which boasts the highest consumer

install rate of any Linux distro, is based on

In the PC world, ESA now stands for

Which of the following multi-GPU confi gurations

is NOT viable?

A GPS device relies on which of the following

to perform real-time location tracking?

Fedora

Debian

Slackware

Mandriva

Gnomes living beneath the surface of the earth

A system of satellites orbiting the earth

An antenna

B and C

GeForce 8800 GTS (512MB frame buffer)

GeForce 8800 GTS (640MB frame buffer)

GeForce 8800 GTS (320MB frame buffer)

GeForce 8800 Ultra (768MB frame buffer)

Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1

Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Audio

Razor Barracuda AC-1

Asus Xonar D2

A 1GB Radeon 3870 X2 card paired with a 512MB Radeon 3870 card in any

CrossFire motherboard

Three 8800 GT cards in an nForce 680i SLI motherboard

Three 8800 Ultra cards in an nForce 780i SLI motherboard

A GeForce 8500 GT paired with the onboard GPU on a GeForce 730a

motherboard

A noise-reduction fi lter for audio applications

A noise-reduction fi lter for video applications

A backlight technology for liquid-crystal displays

A multi-channel audio algorithm for surround sound

BTX

DTX

ITX

Micro ATX

Electronic Status Aggregator

Error-Stabilizing Architecture

Enhanced Storage Archive

Enthusiast System Architecture

Which of the following materials is NOT commonly

used to build speaker enclosures?

Steel

Medium-density fi berboard (MDF)

Ceramics

Plastic

Answers  42-d, 43-d, 44-a, 45-a, 46-c, 47-b, 48-d, 49-b, 50-b

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAY SALVO. COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES

GREATEST GEEK PRANKS

A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D

42

43

44

45

46

A B C D A B C D A B C D A B C D

47

48

49

50

EEK QUIZ