| Computaholics Exam
Are you a Compute-a-holic? Many of us are without even realizing it. Below are a few
questions to help you take a somewhat humorous look at your computing habits, and decide
if you need help. A new chapter of Computaholics anonymous may be forming near you.
1.Do you use disk labels for tape?
2.Do you buy disks in lots of 100?
3.Has this ever happened to you: Your spouse gets *frisky* and you say, "Not tonight
honey, I've got a bug." And then you have to explain that you
meant *in your program*, when your better half breaks out the Pepto-Bismol?
4.Do you use more than a CASE of paper per year? Do you own and frequently use a
calculator capable of Hexadecimal and binary arithmetic?
5.Do you have computer style personalized license plates such as:
CPU-HED ? PLA-PHA ? PAG-ZRO ? MEG-4ME ? GIG-BYT ? 4160ST ? BLITER ? I1T-RAM ?
6.Can you look at memory hex dumps and disassemble them in your head?
7.Have you ever written an assembly language program that is more than 10K of pure object
code?
8.Every time you pass a computer, typewriter, or anything with keys, do you get this
irresistible urge to type something?
9.Is your profession non-clerical in nature, yet you can type 70 words per minute or more?
10.Would you RATHER write a video game than play one?
11.When a friend calls you to ask you about a problem with his monitor, do you immediately
start thinking in assembly code, when he meant his Monochrome
display?
12.Do you HOPE the teacher assigns a term paper instead of a mid term exam, so you can do
it on your computer?
13.Have you ever waked up at 3AM face down on your computer's keyboard?
14.Do you take computer magazines to the toilet with you?
15.Do you have a bumper sticker which reads: "I'd rater be COMPUTING than
COMMUTING"?
16.If you are a professional programmer do you ever wonder, "Why do they PAY me to
have this much fun?"
17.When lunch or break time rolls around, do you start working on a computer program for
home?
18.Do you have a "computer ROOM" in your house?
19.Do you take computer books to the doctor's office, dentist, or barber with you?
20.Do your kids teethe on game cartridges and disk cases?
21.Do you save Velveeta Cheese boxes to use as 3 1/2" disk tubs?
22.Do your kids use your bad disks for frisbees?
23.Do you subscribe to more than one COMPUTER MAGAZINE?
24.Do you ever take a VACATION DAY so you can spend 16 hours in front of your computer at
home?
25.Do you own more than $3000 worth of "home computer" equipment?
26.Do you write a "quick and dirty" checkbook balancing program when you pay the
monthly bills, because it's too much trouble to find a calculator?
27.Do your kids say things like, "Compile error Dad, can't mow the lawn today. I got
a priority interrupt and have to go to the library and process some
homework!"?
28.Do you ever confuse computer terms with cliches like: "Man, he did he ever blow
his stack pointer!"
29.Do you print the kids' school valentines, Christmas, or birthday cards with the
computer?
30.Do you constantly lose important phone numbers and info under piles of computer manuals
and printer paper?
31.Do you have a neurotic fear of throwing away any box that once contained computer
equipment, in case you might have to "send it back to the factory"?
32.Do you have piles and piles of such boxes, filling every closet and every inch of
garage space in your living area?
33.Do you have to take out several trash bags full of obsolete program listings every
week?
34.Does your spouse often threaten your computer with violence...in a "joking"
way, of course?
(Examples: "I'll take an axe to that thing!", "throw it in the pool",
etc.)
35.Have YOU ever threatened a guest with violence if he set a glass of water down next to
the computer?
36.Do you talk to the computer as if it could hear you?
37.Do you own more than two computer languages that you never use? And never even learned?
38.Do you own a shirt-pocket pencil holder?
39.When your girlfriend (wife, etc.) says "it's too hot, I think I'll slip into
something more comfortable", do you run to turn up the air conditioner to protect
your
computer from overheating?
40.Do your family and friends write you letters instead of calling since they can never
get through to you on the phone, while you play on Delphi, BBSs and the
like?
41.Are all the clocks in your house 24 hour format?
42.When you read about Americans and Russians negotiating ICBM reduction, do you wonder
how many Commodore computers they could destroy?
43.Do you put Audio CDs in your computer's CD-ROM player to analyze them?
44.Do you take your family on a "get away" vacation to Silicon Valley?
45.Have you worn the letters off your computer's keyboard?
46.Can you recite the alphabet in ASCII codes?
47.Has your dog ever attacked, or raised its leg upon, your computer system out of
jealousy?
48.Do you read license plates to look for letter combinations that look like assembly
opcodes?
49.When your wife says she is going to take a "drive to the store" do you get a
sudden urge to go check on your disk drives?
50.Is your idea of a BIG ADVENTURE playing one?
51.Can your children do binary arithmetic?
52.Have burglars ever hit the entire neighborhood except your house, because you are
always UP CODING?
53.Is the biggest tragedy in your life a power outage?
54.Do you use computer chips instead of thumb tacks?
55.Have you actually ever managed to finish a programming project on time?
(If so, you are definitely a computaholic.)
56.Have you ever realized that you "forgot to go to bed" when the alarm goes
off, while you're sitting in front of the keyboard?
57.Have you ever gotten a new toy for your child that requires "parental
assembly" and gone to fire up your Macro Assembler?
58.Do you program in ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE rather than C, Pascal, or Action, just for the FUN
OF IT?
59.Do your neighbors call the air force because of a strange glow emanating from one room
in your house all night long?
60.Do strange noises, frequent orders for Chinese food and many packages from UPS (which
you elatedly wait for) catch their attention?
61.Do you celebrate COMDEX as a national holiday?
62.Can you hotwire a phone into your direct connect modem from any motel or relatives
house?
63.Do you travel with a computer?
64.Have you forgotten how to talk to other parents at the PTA meeting?
65.Do you burst out laughing when your spouse is talking and manages to make a completely
hidden reference outside of the context of the subject which is
hilarious when applied as a computer joke?
66.Does a newly discovered BBS become a highlight of your day?
67.Do you string your own telephone wires and electrical extensions?
68.Have you ever had to explain to the phone company why you *need* 4 phones?
69.Are you constantly trying to find a 'better disk editor' or a 'better input routine' or
a 'better word processor' ?
70.Have you ever finished a program and delivered it, then never modified it again? (be
honest, now...)
71.Do your kids know how to spell RUN before they knew how to spell their names?
72.Have you noticed how old friends just cannot carry on interesting conversations any
more?
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