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USB - what do the letters stand for? 'Brain of Britain' (finalists) ... are pathetic!

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Aitchbee

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 3:49PM

Universal Serial Bus, was the answer.

Are people (us) becoming more stupid?

None of them, (Ray Ward was the eventual winner, BTW), could provide an answer.

I am referring to Brain of Britain on BBC radio 4...this afternoon.

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Quickbeam

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 4:04PM

Unless you work with hardware in repair or construction, or your a PCA geek, why does it matter?

A USB socket is where you plug the printer or the exterior hard drive in for it to work.

You don't need to know that an electrical plug is 13 amp and fused now that all appliances have them fitted, all you need to know is that it plugs into the wall and your appliance will work.

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Aitchbee

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 4:16PM

The person who won it, has now been 'crowned' Brain Of Britain'...come on..give me a break!

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interzone55

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 4:39PM

AitchBEE

People have different skills and areas of knowledge.

A friend of mine designs guidance systems for missiles, but he is probably the most socially inept person I've ever met and needs help buying a bus ticket - but he's an idiot by your standards obviously...

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interzone55

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 4:41PM

And if you find warheads socially unacceptable, he also works on the tiny motors used in prosthetic limbs and did a lot of the programming for the audio codec used by Sony Minidiscs...

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Teaboy

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 5:34PM

Universal Serial Bus-reference to cables, connecters ect used b'twix different devices and the computer.

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Forum Editor

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 6:08PM

Being named 'Brain of Britain' isn't an indication that you know everything - it's simply an acknowledgement of the fact that you were able to provide more correct answers than any of the other contestants.

My wife doesn't know what most of the component parts of a computer are called. I find that ridiculously easy.

I don't know what drugs I might prescribe for mild schizophrenia. She finds that ridiculously easy.

It's never a good idea to refer to a gap in someone else's knowledge as "pathetic" unless you are prepared to demonstrate that you don't have similar failings... you can do that, can you?

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Toneman

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 6:19PM

Do you watch Eggheads on BBC2? A recent win of £25,000 resulted from the Eggheads not being able to calculate which polygon among octagon, decagon or duodecagon had internal angles adding up to 1440 degrees, is this your field?

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Bingalau

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 7:11PM

AitchBEE. Perhaps you can explain to me WHY it is called a Universal Serial Bus. I did know it is called that, but I haven't a clue why, and I suspect that a lot of our forumites have no idea either. (if they are honest).

Of course our wives know everything.

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Mr Mistoffelees

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 8:12PM

"Of course our wives know everything."

Again, depends on what you are talking about. I know my way around the innards of a PC, built my own and worked out the spec for my partner's laptop. I also know almost all there is to know about maintaining bicycles, including wheel-building. My partner does not. She can write an entertaining short story, with a twist at the end, in a few minutes, in which time I would be still struggling to come up with an idea.

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Aitchbee

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Posted March 5, 2012 at 8:44PM

I can get all of the answers correct.....

...when I tune-in to the repeat.

What struck me, was, that there was a stoney silence, from all four contestants...a deafening silence!...to the USB poser.

Perhaps, pathetic was too strong a word, to describe their collective ignorance.

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