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South African (Off-Topic) Quiz


DamhuisClan

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With a name like Johan Bax van Herenthals he sounds like some obscure Dutchman that might have been banished to the Cape to repent for some equally obscure "crime" that he might have committed. :laughing:

 

Alternatively he is a Dutch nobleman who has recently purchased a R50 million villa in Clifton, who inherited his money from his family who were the founders of the Dutch East India Company, that set up vegetable gardnening on a patch of land near what is now known as the Heerengracht! :D

Edited by cincol
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With a name like Johan Bax van Herenthals he sounds like some obscure Dutchman that might have been banished to the Cape to repent for some equally obscure "crime" that he might have committed. :laughing:

 

Alternatively he is a Dutch nobleman who has recently purchased a R50 million villa in Clifton, who inherited his money from his family who were the founders of the Dutch East India Company, that set up vegetable gardnening on a patch of land near what is now known as the Heerengracht! :D

 

I guess slightly obscure, but your DEIC reference is closer than you think! He he!

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With a name like Johan Bax van Herenthals he sounds like some obscure Dutchman that might have been banished to the Cape to repent for some equally obscure "crime" that he might have committed. :laughing:

 

Alternatively he is a Dutch nobleman who has recently purchased a R50 million villa in Clifton, who inherited his money from his family who were the founders of the Dutch East India Company, that set up vegetable gardnening on a patch of land near what is now known as the Heerengracht! :D

 

I guess slightly obscure, but your DEIC reference is closer than you think! He he!

 

OK - a guess then. He was a Dutchman who owned some land in the Western Cape and there is a cache now located on the said property?

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OK - a guess then. He was a Dutchman who owned some land in the Western Cape and there is a cache now located on the said property?

 

Dutchman - yes - rest no - in fact a tad before caching!

 

Right, caching started in 2000. This all has something to do with the Cape pre-2000. A "tad before caching" would probably not be in the 1990's then. So, what happened with Dutchmen pre-1990? The only thing that I remember from my school history about Dutchmen and the Cape, and that was pre-1970's, was some dude who arrived there in the 17th Century on a camel that could cross the seas - the Dromedaris. So by deduction then I would have to say that our friend Johan Bax van Herenthals has some or other connection to said gentleman who arrived during the Easter Holidays in 1652. :laughing:

 

Was Johan perhaps the other gentleman Jan's boss perhaps who resided in a town to the north of Cape Town called Herenthals? BTW, I think Jan must have hailed from the town of Riebeeck.

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OK - a guess then. He was a Dutchman who owned some land in the Western Cape and there is a cache now located on the said property?

 

Dutchman - yes - rest no - in fact a tad before caching!

 

Right, caching started in 2000. This all has something to do with the Cape pre-2000. A "tad before caching" would probably not be in the 1990's then. So, what happened with Dutchmen pre-1990? The only thing that I remember from my school history about Dutchmen and the Cape, and that was pre-1970's, was some dude who arrived there in the 17th Century on a camel that could cross the seas - the Dromedaris. So by deduction then I would have to say that our friend Johan Bax van Herenthals has some or other connection to said gentleman who arrived during the Easter Holidays in 1652. :laughing:

 

Was Johan perhaps the other gentleman Jan's boss perhaps who resided in a town to the north of Cape Town called Herenthals? BTW, I think Jan must have hailed from the town of Riebeeck.

 

Getting into the correct time frame, now a tad (and this is a tad compared to the last tad) later

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Getting into the correct time frame, now a tad (and this is a tad compared to the last tad) later

 

Nah, I will have to call it a day on this one. I have zero knowledge of people and what they did post Easter Holidays of that far off year! I look forward to reading what the answer is though. :laughing:

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Van Riebeeck's successor as Governor of the Cape?

 

no that was Zacharias Wagenaar - he of the reservoir under the Golden Acre but getting much warmer. In fact I guess that is close enough.

 

Johan Bax van Herenthals was Governor of the Cape from 1676 to 1678.

 

Under his watch the Castle of Good Hope (the one that still exists) was completed. It was going so slowly when he arrived that he put the whole settlement to work carrying sand and stone out of the unfinished moat. He, it is reported, carried twelve baskets full of sand and stone himself, his wife six and his son was also roped in. He then issued an instruction, ordering everyone passing the Castle, irrespective of sex, rank or colour of skin – to carry at least one basket full of rubbish out of the moat. They don't say anything about passers-by avoiding the Castle!

 

He died after a severe attack of pneumonia on 29 June 1678 and was followed by Simon van der Stel while Hendrik Crudop (another obscure name?) was temporarily in charge.

 

I was reading a book about the early settlers and the carrying of the rubble tickled my fancy thus the question

 

It probably was a bit too obscure for most so I pass it over to you gr8scot

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It probably was a bit too obscure for most so I pass it over to you gr8scot

 

That'll teach me to guess!

 

Ok then ... what is a Zamboni?

 

I think it is that machine thingy that cleans up the ice on an ice rink - if I'm correct I saw it working when attending the nICE event?

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Ok then ... what is a Zamboni?

 

I think it is that machine thingy that cleans up the ice on an ice rink - if I'm correct I saw it working when attending the nICE event?

 

Quite correct! It's a machine used to resurface ice rinks, invented by Frank J Zamboni (whom I was privileged to meet some years ago in Las Vegas).

 

It was based on the chassis of a WW2 jeep, the dimensions of which it shares to this day. It performs three simultaneous tasks while out on the ice. It first scrapes the ice with an 8ft wide very sharp blade and the shavings are picked up by a series of augers and deposited into the ice bin in front. Then water is sprayed onto the newly cut ice, vacuumed away, filtered and re-used to wash any dirt out of any remaining blade marks. Finally HOT water is deposited onto the clean surface to replace the ice removed by the blade. Hot water is used as it contains less dissolved air (which would make the ice brittle) and also helps bond the new layer to the existing ice, so as to avoid an "onion skin" effect.

 

For some reason, the Zamboni out on the ice always fascinates spectators. Charlie Brown said it best: "There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice.

 

"snoopycomic1.gif

 

Back to you

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I vaguely recall seeing something like that in a book about the history of computers. Pity I don't have the book any more - exellent book with lovely pictures by Nancy and (another) Long.

Pascaline being an early computer?

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I vaguely recall seeing something like that in a book about the history of computers. Pity I don't have the book any more - exellent book with lovely pictures by Nancy and (another) Long.

Pascaline being an early computer?

 

close enough I guess.

 

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

 

Pascal was a French mathematician and philosopher.

 

In 1642 Pascal developed a calculator called the "Arithmatique" or "Pascaline."

Pascal's device used a series of toothed wheels, which were turned by hand and which could handle numbers up to 999,999.999. Pascal's device was also called the "numerical wheel calculator" and was one of the world's first mechanical adding machines.

 

Pascaline-calculator.jpg

 

Over to you Jors!

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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

 

Pascal was a French mathematician and philosopher.

 

In 1642 Pascal developed a calculator called the "Arithmatique" or "Pascaline."

Pascal's device used a series of toothed wheels, which were turned by hand and which could handle numbers up to 999,999.999. Pascal's device was also called the "numerical wheel calculator" and was one of the world's first mechanical adding machines.

 

\WOW - all that at the age of 19! Quite impressive. I wonder what he would have done in this day and age? :) Move over Bill Gates - this guy was light years ahead of you! :)

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Yay! However advanced computers may be, I still believe ít'll never match the power of the human brain.

 

What is abbreviated by ASCII ?

 

If I recall my ZX 81 book correctly it's something like:

 

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

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On the button!

Loved my ZX Spectrum...

 

Go gr8scot!

 

Hands up all those that still have a ZX81 or a Spectrum stashed away in a cupboard somewhere.

 

Sticking to the theme, which game has been cited as "The greatest computer game of all time"?

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I know what a Pascaline is.... and I knew what ASCII stands for..... if you were a computer science teacher ever, you would too!!! :-) ...and so should kids that had the subject in the last 10 years!

 

Top game of all time? Phew!! That's tough - according to what rating?

 

My guesses would be Call of Duty, World of Warcraft ... and Grand Theft Auto...

 

...like I said - it would totally depend on what you measure this by.

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Top game of all time? Phew!! That's tough - according to what rating?

 

 

Fairly authoritative I think, and probably based on most installs. So you need to go back further. Remember that the last couple of questions relate to ancient history in computer terms!

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How about "Leisure Suit Larry" - or was that not a game? Straight games I would guess at a toss-up between Super Mario / Pacman / Tetris / Space Invaders?

 

I don't have a Spectrum in a box some where but do have an Atari and a Commadore somewhere still.

Edited by cincol
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How about "Leisure Suit Larry" - or was that not a game? Straight games I would guess at a toss-up between Super Mario / Pacman / Tetris / Space Invaders?

 

I don't have a Spectrum in a box some where but do have an Atari and a Commadore somewhere still.

 

I still have a ZX81 and just recently found my old "Programming the Z80" handbook. Remember just how much machine code you could cram into that 16k (if you upgraded from the 1k internal memory that is!)

 

I'll have to give it to cincol, despite the "shotgun approach" used, as he listed all the top contenders.

 

I had Tetris as the answer, but further research has shown that Super Mario & PacMan are up there are well. I feel that Tetris should get the crown though, as most of the others have faded away. Seemingly since 2005 Tetris has been installed on over 100 million cell phones alone, which proves that it's still being widely played today, despite being born in 1985.

 

Over to you cincol

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Well I remember playing Alley Cat and Xonix and Digger and Duke Nukem an Police Quest.... and Blockout. They're old enough, but none of those would be cited 'Greatest'. Depend on which genre you like as well I guess. ;)

...and I would have put PacMan under 'Arcade games' and not a computer game - if you look at it's origins.. interesting stuff!

So I would have had to say Tetris would have gotten my vote then as well! ;)

Edited by Team Ginger
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On the button!

Loved my ZX Spectrum...

 

Go gr8scot!

 

Hands up all those that still have a ZX81 or a Spectrum stashed away in a cupboard somewhere.

 

Sticking to the theme, which game has been cited as "The greatest computer game of all time"?

 

Yep got a 48k Spectrum packed away in the Garage. I recall wanting to swap my Suzuki RM80 Motocross bike for a ZX81 - Without the expansion nogal. Then my older brother got a ZX Spectrum and when we went to visit him on holiday my dad and I would be sat for hours playing Flight Simulator.... and it was all wire frame graphics.... awesome.... Still remember my mom coming into the lounge at three in the morning to crap all over my dad and I still playing the dadgum thing.... We have come a long way since then....

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There are various "emulators" available on the internet that allow you to play those old games on your PC. All you need to do is download the emulator for your machine of choice (zx spectrum/commodore 64 etc) and then find the "roms" or games and load them and play. I know of one called MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) that emulates arcade machines all the way back to the very first games in black and white. How many old 20 cent pieces I used to throw into those games!!!! The games are so small they usually download in a few seconds.

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1) Leisure Suit Larry - In the land of the lounge Lizards

2) Leisure Suit Larry - Time for love.

The rest I did not play.

 

I remember those darn questions to check if you were over 18 in LSL1. (I wasn't at the time) and the disappointment when it said "Censored" on the screen. Also "Ken sent me" is a phrase I remember.

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Ah yes my dad and I were in trouble for playing that too.... LoL. Just remember how cheesy all the lines were.... and they did nothing for chatting up girls....

 

I remember there were quite a few something like 6 or 7 of them.

 

Only remember the ones mentioned though.... Think there was one called Magna Carte as well

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