“No, I’m sorry, we were looking for ‘What is QuickTime’.”
In yet another example of how one unique company continues to reach an ever increasing audience, an entire Jeopardy! category was devoted to Apple trivia last night. Sadly, I missed the episode (if you happened to record it please send it my way) but found a few of the questions online which were presented to the participants:
- An Asian feline that shares a name with the latest Mac OS X version: What is Tiger?
- The type of computers the iBook and PowerBook are: What are laptops?
- This man has a salary of $1: Who is Steve Jobs?
- This product shares its name with a place where aircraft take flight: What is Airport?
- A “speedy” product that works on the Mac or PC: What is QuickTime?
It would have been a hot day in San Francisco were I to have answered that second question correctly. What is a Macintosh computer? What are personal computers? What are portable computers? And countless other completely logical answers…all would have been wrong. What where they thinking when the decided on that question? Did they see it as a clever trick, or was it their lack of experience on the topic that created a flawed question?
This brings up something that has always bothered me about fact finding, specifically in the news media. Ever read a local newspaper article discussing something your overly familiar with? Ever sit through a painful 4 and 1/2 minute piece on your profession aired on the five’o clock news? Every time this happens for me I’m irritated by the inaccuracy of the information presented. I understand that it’s my job to know more on the topic than these all-purpose reporters, but then what about the information that I learn from them on other topics that are foreign to me? I have to assume they are riddled with the same surface details, misconceptions, and tainted facts.
Enjoy your morning newspaper.