Pixel Quiz July 2018

Q1.When you plug your phone into a car stereo, the phone starts playing music alphabetically, this usually means that there’s one song that you’ll hear whether you want to or not. Many songs starting with the letter A have probably been ruined thanks to this quirk, but if you were to download Samir Mezrahi’s creation called “A a a a a Very Good Song” you’d be able to circumvent this problem, and be able to buy enough time to queue your music. Samir’s creation was so helpful, that when the song released, it immediately began climbing the iTunes Top Music charts. What’s so special about the song?

Q2. The word X has it’s origins in Middle English, where it meant “to roar”. Today however, it’s referred to as the onomatopoeic sound describing a low pitched noise. X is also a prominent feature in game controllers. Simply name X.

Q3. Poe’s law is an Internet adage that states that, without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers or viewers as a sincere expression of the parodied views.

We often see the implication of the law, when someone puts an X at the end of their post. Just so, people don’t mistake it for something genuine. Put Fundae. What is X?

Q4. While he was designing the X for a popular movie in 2008, John Nelson hung up this poster from 2001: A space Odyssey as an inspiration. In this scene the characterDave had his helmet on, reflecting the graphics that were visible to him. The shot would end up being the inspiration for X. X went on to be a ubiquitous element of the movie. Just explain what is X and the 2008 movie.

Q5. An X attack is a dDOS attack aimed at XML parsers. An example X attack consists of defining 10 entities, each defined as consisting of 10 of the previous entity, with the document consisting of a single instance of the largest entity, which expands to a billion copies of the first entity. (Basically repeating the first defined entity, a billion times). In the most frequently cited example, the entity is a string called “LOL”. Hence the name X. What is X