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El Reg presents the great End of Year Quiz

Test your memory while you've still got one

Quiz of the year The party's over, the lights are dim, and you're wondering whether to buy that bumper pack of Alka Seltzer. What to do with those last precious moments of the year?

Just cast your mind back over the last 12 months and give your brain a workout in the Great Register Quiz. No deadlines, no prizes, no stamped addressed envelopes. Just a 21 question recap of the year in tech, science and whatever else we fancied writing about, before 2006 is consigned to oblivion.

Enjoy.

  1. According to Bill Joy, who should know, how many times have Apple and Sun nearly merged?

    Show/hide answer

  2. What did we not find on Google Earth this year?

    • A pot farm
    • North Korean nuclear facilities
    • A giant German earwig
    • A dalek
    • CIA rendition flights

    Show/hide answer

  3. How did the 42-year old male doctor who posed as a teenage girl in chatrooms get caught and what happened to him?

    Show/hide answer

  4. Which UK islands found themselves banned from buying from Apple's online store?

    • The Isle of Man
    • The Isle of Wight
    • The Scilly Isles
    • The Channel Islands

    Show/hide answer

  5. After years of rumours Dell and AMD finally got it together this year. But when did they announce it and what Dell boxes first got AMD chips?

    Show/hide answer

  6. Which UK reseller cancelled its management buyout?

    Show/hide answer

  7. How much was spent online for Christmas last year?

    Show/hide answer

  8. Which poster child for dot-com madness claimed a June comeback but never made it?

    Show/hide answer

  9. The European Space Agency ESA landed on the moon this year with SMART - 1. Which of the following countries has not announced that it also has lunar ambitions:

    • India
    • Kazakhstan
    • China

    Show/hide answer

  10. The Atlantic hurricane season came to a pretty mild close, with none of the hurricanes that formed making landfall at their most intense. Where else in the solar system was odd weather seen?

    • Dust devils on Mars
    • Rain on the moon
    • Hurricanes on Saturn

    Show/hide answer

  11. Officially, how many planets are there in the solar system?

    • 8
    • 9
    • 10

    Show/hide answer

  12. Blair's bloody silly ID card scheme will allow who to have two ID cards?

    • Transsexuals
    • Transvestites
    • Transformers

    Show/hide answer

  13. How long did it take Steve Fossett to fly round the world?

    Show/hide answer

  14. Which great British company broke a world speed record this year and how fast did they travel?

    Show/hide answer

  15. Where would you find a menu bar that reads (from left to right)?

    • Home
    • Find
    • Look
    • Leave
    • Frame

    Show/hide answer

  16. Who complained that the internet was a bad thing because "people go to the wrong websites"?

    Show/hide answer

  17. Which virtual Kingdom was set ablaze in 2006?

    Show/hide answer

  18. Who turned to downtrodden Ancient Greeks to remind its customers they can't keep what they've sold?

    Show/hide answer

  19. Who argued that the composer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic couldn't have managed today without a computer?

    Show/hide answer

  20. Who invited bloggers to murder its staff?

    Show/hide answer

  21. Which company aped Microsoft by settling a lawsuit by offering disgruntled litigants a discount on its own service?

    Show/hide answer


How’d you do?

Less than 10 correct
You should be reading The Register more often — have you signed up to our RSS feed?
10 to 18 correct
You’re right on top of things — have you signed up for our Readers Panel?
More than 18 correct
It’s great to have you on board, but really, shouldn’t you be getting out a bit more?

Finally, in the spirit of giving here are some stories that were meant to happen this year but didn't:

  • Google didn't start making PCs
  • We haven't all died of bird flu
  • David Blunkett did not return to British politics
  • Relaxed licensing laws didn't lead to Britain's streets filling with beer-filled lunatics, or not more than last year anyway.
  • Bush didn't invade Iran or Belgium

Merry Xmas ®

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