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Tech Trivia Challenge - Top Search Terms in 2008

Our WhatIs.com Tech Term is Top search terms of 2008
You asked for them and here they are — we’ve assembled a list of the terms most often searched on the site this past year.

Are you a Know-IT-All?

Secret Word of the Day
This term refers to any commonly used word (such as “the”) that a search engine has been programmed to ignore. What’s the secret word?
Answer

Acronym Challenge
ARPU is an expression of the income generated by a typical subscriber or device per unit time in a telecommunications network. What does ARPU stand for?
Answer

Tech Trivia
Number #1 on our list this year was SAP, a company started in Germany by five former employees of a certain technology company. What company did SAP’s founders originally work for?
Answer

Learn Something New Every Day

2008 was a challenging year for security. What will 2009 bring? See Five predictions for Web security trends and changes in 2009.

An expert explores whether security and compliance concerns in the cloud could hinder the viability of cloud computing.

Tech quiz of the day from WhatIs.com: How much do you know about full-disk encryption?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day is full-disk encryption.

Tech Trivia
What key do you press during Windows bootup to start in safe mode?
Answer (Scroll to the end of the definition.)

Secret Word of the Day
This formula for solving a problem is named for a mathematician in the royal court in Baghdad, circa 830 A.D. What’s the secret word?
Answer

IT Acronym Challenge
The DES algorithm is considered so difficult to break that the U.S. government restricted its exportation to other countries. What does DES stand for?
Answer

Tech Quiz of the Day from WhatIs.com: How much do you know about Long Term Evolution (LTE)?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Tech Trivia
What is the WiMAX service that Sprint Nextel rolled out last month in Baltimore? (Hint: It rhymes with “home.”)
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
In data transmission, this is the amount of data moved successfully from one place to another in a given time period. It’s often confused with bandwidth. What’s the secret word?
Answer

IT Acronym Challenge
Wireless broadband consumers will likely have two choices in the U.S. domestic market: LTE and WiMAX. What does WiMAX stand for?
Answer

Tech quiz of the day from WhatIs.com: How much do you know about a nonce?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day is nonce.

Tech Trivia
Did you notice the synchronized identical price increases? U.S. Senator Herb Kohl has started an inquiry on the rising prices of ____ messaging, which have doubled since 2005. What is it?
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
According to San Francisco officials, rogue former sysadmin Terry Childs left behind more than cleanup costs and a case study in poor CIO oversight. Apparently, there’s also a ________ ______ somewhere in the network. What’s the secret word?
Answer

IT Acronym Challenge
Spiders, you’re going to need a bigger web. The HI-MEMS program, also known as the “cybug” program, is a proposal from DARPA to encourage the development of cyborg insects that can be controlled by humans. What does HI-MEMS stand for?
Answer

Tech quiz of the day from WhatIs.com: What do you know about Qik?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Qik.

Tech Trivia
What do you call a program for compressing and decompressing video?
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
This device-based representation of an individual, used in telepresence rooms, may be a robot or a device that combines a PC or terminal with peripherals such as cameras, microphones and stereo sound systems. What’s the secret word?
Answer

Acronym Challenge
“Breaker, breaker, did you see that bear?” CB radio operators have been broacasting live for decades. What does CB stand for?
Answer

Tech Quiz of the Day from WhatIs.com: What do you know about the UMPC?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day today is UMPC.

Tech Trivia
What was the first GUI Web browser for Microsoft Windows?
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
This small Internet communications unit is designed to provide entertainment, information and location-based services for the consumer market (rather than the enterprise). What’s the secret word?
Answer

Acronym Challenge
CCMP is an encryption protocol that forms part of the 802.11i standard for WLANs, particularly those using WiMax technology. What does CCMP stand for?
Answer

Tech Quiz of the Day from WhatIs.com: What do you know about evil twins?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day today is evil twin.

Tech Trivia
Who demonstrated the potential of “transmitting intelligence without wires” in the late 1800s?
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
This is the act of driving around trying to locate (and possibly exploit) connections to wireless LANs. What’s the secret word? (Hint: It sounds like you might be driving a jeep or a tank.)
Answer

Acronym Challenge
WPA provides more sophisticated data encryption than WEP (wired equivalent privacy). What does WPA stand for?
Answer

Tech Quiz of the Day from WhatIs.com: What do you know about PEAP?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day today is PEAP.

Tech Trivia
Spock had one of these from the Star Trek mirror universe — in a WLAN context, it describes a counterfeit access point. What is it?
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
This slightly risque-sounding operational mode allows a network device to intercept and read each network packet that arrives in its entirety. What’s the secret word?
Answer

Acronym Challenge
A WAN is a wide area network and a LAN is a local area network. What’s a PAN?
Answer

Tech Quiz of the Day from WhatIs.com: What do you know about virtual provisioning?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day today is virtual provisioning.

Tech Trivia
Last year, 276 _______ were lost at Reagan National Airport. (269 were returned.)
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
If the properties of electron spin can be “tamed” for practical applications, this technology could offer higher data transfer speed, greater processing power, improved memory density and increased storage capacity in hard drives and other storage components. What’s the secret word?
Answer

Acronym Challenge
SaaS isn’t just for software. SaaS can also refer to a business model in which third-party providers rent space to end users that lack the capital budget and/or technical personnel to implement and maintain their own infrastructure. What does SaaS stand for, in this context?
Answer

Tech Quiz of the Day from WhatIs.com: What do you know about phlashing?

The WhatIs.com Word of the Day today is phlashing.

Tech Trivia
Is charge-coupled device another name for a fax machine — or is it a light-sensitive microchip?
Answer

Secret Word of the Day
One of the first terms to substitute ‘ph’ for ‘f’ described someone who breaks into the telephone network illegally, typically to make free long-distance phone calls or to tap phone lines. What’s the secret word?
Answer

Acronym Challenge
SPIT is unsolicited bulk messages broadcast over VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to phones connected to the Internet. What does SPIT stand for?
Answer