#I was looking for a higher quality video since I don't have the mobile version but thought it was funnier with a stretched 144p screenshot

[vikenticomeshome]

The 2004 Cyberchase Online Contest

Alright, I know that I said that I wasn't sure if I wanted to post about the "2004 Cyberchase Online Contest". I said that I thought it was less interesting than the 2005 contest. However, I just remembered an important bit of information about it that makes it much more interesting. This is another piece of the Cyberchase website that I have preserved in full on the Flashpoint Project.

Let's start with the preview page that came out just before the contest went live. This capture is from September 1st, 2004. It features Harry and Bianca. I will transcribe it.

Coming soon...

The 2004 Cyberchase Online Contest!

Contest open from September 13th to October 11th, 2004.

Click back soon to enter!

Prizes include cool computers, a special visit by Cyberchase stars Digit, Harry, and Bianca, other great Cyberchase stuff!

And that's the end of the preview page.

That line about "a special visit by Cyberchase stars Digit, Harry, and Bianca" being one of the prizes is what motivated me to make this post. I don't know whether this special visit/performance ended up happening. I also don't know whether this special visit/performance was recorded in any way. If it was recorded, then that recording is currently lost media, and I would love to see it if it still exists.

Now, you may be questioning how Digit would be able to join in. They actually had a Digit mascot suit back in the day. This suit was used in the "Cyberchase: The Chase in On!" museum exhibit at the Houston Children's Museum. I really need to make a post with the photos that have been recovered from that exhibit, since they may have taken the exhibit itself down.

I've also seen this suit used on TV on the Unvision channel. This was for an event called "Cyberchase Live in Studio", which seems to have been to promote the Cyberchase Movie.

Anyway, let's get back to the 2004 contest.

There is a link to a video that they used as part of this preview. However, this was another case where they used RealPlayer for streaming, and those files appear to be gone now. I doubt that it was exclusively produced for the site. They probably had it running on TV, and the TV capture, even on VHS, would have probably been higher quality than what they could stream over the Internet.

When the contest opened on September 13, 2004, we got a new version of the page.

Before we get into the entry form, riddles, and prizes, let's see what they were offering with their sneak peek at upcoming adventures. If the site wants to on this tangent, then I will go with them.

The videos are just more RealPlayer streaming content that is now lost, unfortunately. I don't know if these were site exclusives or not.

Before we look at the riddles that the contestants would have needed to solve, here are the prizes. I will transcribe them.

1 Grand Prize Winner Receives

A live performance by stars Digit, Harry and Bianca at your school or community education group.

A Notebook Computer: An INTEL CENTRINO Mobile Technology-based notebook computer provided by INTEL CORPORATION -- 1 for you and 1 for your school or community education group.

Cyberchase stuff -- for both you and for your school or community education group -- including videos, DVDs, CD-ROM games and more.

10 First Prize Winners Receive

A Notebook Computer: An INTEL CENTRINO Mobile Technology-based notebook computer provided by INTEL CORPORATION-- 1 for you and 1 for your school or community education group.

Cyberchase Stuff -- for both you and for your school or community education group -- including videos, DVDsm CD-ROM games, books, posters and more.

50 Second Prize Winners Will Receive

Cyberchase Stuff -- for both you and for your education group -- including videos, DVDs, posters, books and more.

That all for the prizes. Let's see the Cyber Riddles that needed to be solved.

1) What number is this Poddle? Here are some clues.

I am an odd number.

I am greater than 3

I have two digits.

I am less than 13.

What number am I?

2) Ms. Fileshare needs to use this password to lock the Cybrary doors. Help her finish it. It uses a pattern made with both shapes and numbers.

18-in-a-circle, 16-in-a-circle, 14-in-a-square, 12-in-a-circle, 10-in-a-circle, 8-in-a-square, blank, blank, blank

3) How many cubes of wig gel does Hacker use on his wig every morning? Here are some clues. The correct number is...

greater than 7

and even number

less than 14

if you count by 3's you will find it

4) Jackie and Digit want to tile a wall. They have to choose a shape that tesselates - that fits together with no gaps or overlaps. Write the letter of the shape that will work

A. pentagon B. circle C. rectangle

5) Digit has to buy some parts to fix Wigit (sic). But he only has 25 snelfus to spend. He needs a brain chip, a hard drive and a bow tie. The brain chip costs 8 snelfus. The hard drive costs 7 snelfus. What's the most Digit can spend on a new bow tie for Wigit (sic)?

6) Jackie, Inez, and Matt want to buy a new mp3 player for Slider's birthday. it costs 150 snelfus. They plan to save 15 snelfus each day. How many days will it take them to save enough to buy the present?

7) Matt and Inez found this message that Hacker sent to Buzz and Delete. It's in code! What does it say? Use this code breaker to find out.

The first letter is the letter in code. The second letter tells you what letter it is.

Z=A, Y=B, X=C, W=D, V=E, U=F, T=G, S=H, R=I, Q=J, P=K, O=L, N=M, M=N, L=O, K=P, J=Q, I=R, H=S, G=T, F=U, E=V, D=W, C=X, B=Y, A=Z

Message: HGLK GSLHV PRWH!

8) Hacker has hidden the encryptor chip in a locked chest. To unlock it, the CyberSquad needs to find the next number in this pattern:

1, 4, 7, 10, __. What is it?

9) The crab prince is having a party. He needs to estimate how many friends he can invite. Use this picture to help him estimate. What is the greatest number of crabs that can fit on the floo? Write the ketter of the estimate the Crab Prince should use.

We see a picture of a room with four square tiles. One tile has 12 crabs on it.

A) 21-30 crabs B) 31-40 crabs C) 41-50 crabs

10) Lady Ada is coming for a tea party with Motherboard. Digit needs to get this for them. But he can only see into the box from above, Which of these pictures shows this teapot from the top. Write the letter of the picture

The side photo shows a central elliptical shape, sort of like an egg standing on its end. There half of a ring on the right side. This is meant to be the handle of the teapot. There is an irregular squiggle shape attached to the left side. This is meant to be the spout of the teapot. We can see another elliptical shape on top of the central elliptical shape. This is meant to be the lid on the teapot. There is a circular shape on top of the lid. This is meant to be a knob to use when picking up the lid.

A) image A shows three concentric circles. The smallest circle is perhaps one-twentieth the area of the outer circle. The area of the medium-sized circle is perhaps three-fourths as big as the outer circle. There is a rounded rectangle protruding from the right side of the outer circle. There is a rounded triangle protruding from the left side of the outer circle.

B) Image B shows three concentric circles. The smallest circle is perhaps one-tenth the area of the larger circle. The area of the medium-sized circle is perhaps one-half as big as the outer circle. There is a rounded rectangle protruding from the left size of the medium-sized circle.

C) Image C shows one rounded rectangle inside another rounded rectangle. Both rounded rectangles are setup so that their longer sides are running horizontally, while their shorter sides are running vertically. Each rounded rectangle is perhaps one-fifth as large in the vertical direction as it is in the horizontal section. The inner rounded rectangle is perhaps nine-tenths the area of the outer rounded rectangle. The inner rounded rectangle has a a vertical line running through its entire vertical height at about one-fifth of the way from the left along its horizontal length.

Motherboard: Good luck, Cybermates!

I won't include all of the text about the contest rules, but I can show the approximate value of the prizes that they reported.

The grand prize winner's prize is valued at around $4,365.

The prize given to each of the first prize winners is valued at around $4,070.

The prize given to each of the second prize winners is valued at around $70.

Here's the list of winners. I thought about whether I should post it publicly. This page has been publicly available online for 20 years now, and all of the parents agreed to allow their kids names up here. We only get first names, towns, and their local PBS station. so nothing here would identify anyone on its own.

What do I think of this contest? It sounds like something that would have been a pretty big deal at the time, given the value of all of those prizes. The 2005 contest was certainly smaller in scale. I like that Matt, Inez, and Jackie were planning to buy Slider an MP3 player for his birthday. That is reflective of this contest happening 20 years ago.

I also like the idea of Motherboard and Lady Ada having a tea party. I don't know if Motherboard is capable of drinking the tea, so she may just be watching Ada drink the tea while they talk about nerd stuff. Then again, during Season 2 Episode 3 "Harriet Hippo and the Mean Green", the kids give Motherboard the potion that cures the Mean Green spell by dumping it into her cryoxide tank. Maybe she just dumps tea in there as well.

Hey Tumblr, can you figure out the Cyber Riddles? I'll put the answers under the read more, so I'll know if you cheated.

You cheated, didn't you?

Answer for #1: 11

Answer for #2: six-in-a-circle, four-in-a-circle, two-in-a-square

Answer for #3: 12

Answer for #4: C. Rectangle

Answer for #5: 10 snelfus

Answer for #6: 10 days

Answer for #7: STOP THOSE KIDS

Answer for #8: 13

Answer for #9: C. 41-50 crabs

Answer for #10: Drawing A.

[teardownit]

HDMI wiring and pinout

Much like USB, HDMI has several different types of plugs and ports.

Type A is the standard one. A trapezoidal port with two rows of pins, top and bottom, totals 19 pins. It can be found anywhere, from gaming consoles to CCTV servers and TVs.

Type B, Dual-Link. The same height, but twice the length of type A, hasn't been used in any products.

Type C, mini HDMI. A scaled-down version of the original port is intended for portable devices like laptops.

Type-D, micro HDMI. Even a smaller version looks like a mini USB plug. It is used in GoPros and ultra-portable computers the size of a Macbook Air at the time (like the Asus eeePC or various Windows 'ultrabooks').

Every single type of HDMI port (except the dual type B one) has a total of 19 pins. The first eight are for data, and the rest are for power, clocks, and additional functions. That means the most basic functions of video transmission can be carried out by just five pins. MHL, or Mobile HD Link, is a way to wire an HDMI plug to a micro USB. This brings the number of wires to the absolute minimum, with one data lane and one bus for everything else.

Not to bore you with another pin assignment diagram, compare this to the sheer number of functional blocks and lanes in a powerful HDMI transmitter chip.

This brings us to understanding HDMI standards, as they differ not just by the resolution of uncompressed video but by all the additional functions. HDMI has the same confusing cable category naming scheme as USB does with 'High-Speed' and all the way to 'Premium High-Speed with Ethernet'. I don't recommend using those, as looking at just the HDMI standard number is much simpler. The second caveat here should be not to buy any equipment or cables with an HDMI version less than 1.4, as it is already too old and limited.

HDMI 1.4 is suitable for FullHD video with essential ARC and CEC (in the post on HDMI functions).

HDMI 2.0 means 4K with some limitations, namely, no 5K or ultra-wide 2160p at 60 fps and no 4K60 with dynamic HDR. HDMI 2.0 has several great functions but are not all available simultaneously.

HDMI 2.1 spares no expense and provides all the quality imaginable because its bandwidth is three times higher than the one in the previous major version of the standard.

So, what's the difference between cables if they all have the same number of conductors and some plastic covering them? Simple: it's all about materials, meeting the specifications, and having some overhead.

First of all, we should be sure that all the pins are connected to wires. This is neither a joke nor an exaggeration. The right thing to do is to check them with a cable tester. But it is usually easier to check all the additional functions that manufacturers list, then go to Wikipedia and check if all the pairs are used for these functions. If the manufacturer cuts costs or makes a thinner 'easier to work with' cable, it can be a red flag and a sign that fewer wires are used. The HDMI standard specifies video transmission and not all the additional functions, meaning some wires can be absent from the cable.

Then, there's conductor thickness. There is no way to indestructively measure it at home, so the advice is the same: pick a thicker one, as it hopefully represents thicker cores, firmer insulation, and proper shielding. Moreover, in terms of meeting the specification requirements, thicker cable gives more slack to the manufacturer. Wires are typically 28, 26, or 24AWG for different lengths of cables, but this number is not always on the box or the website. Please remember that longer cables should be thicker than shorter ones. By the way, this is exactly the case for buying HDMI over twisted pair extenders. As HDMI cables become longer, thicker, and exponentially more expensive to sustain the same video quality, Ethernet cables could solve this problem.

A good practice is to pick shorter cables, 6 to 10 feet since the percentage of faulty cables is higher in the 10 to 20-foot range. The price difference between high-quality branded and generic OEM 15-foot cables makes it harder for a regular consumer to choose the more excellent option.

Canadian PC enthusiasts at LTT did the tests and discovered that no other gimmicks matter. Specifically, they've proven on a large pool of cables that something seemingly important, like gold-plating the jacks or using silver-plated wires, does not affect the results significantly. A few hundred dollars more for extra-finicky wires does not affect the video quality, just the user's perception.

To sum this all up:

All the HDMI ports are equally acceptable.

Thicc and round HDMI cables are more reliable than flat or thin ones. The same goes for the plugs; it's always better to use regular straight connectors than 90-degree-angled ones.

It's a good rule of thumb to treat HDMI version numbers 1.4, 2.0, and 2.1 as corresponding resolutions: 1080p@60, 4K@30, and 4K@60.

The more actual HDMI functions listed, the better.

Try to pick 10-foot cables or shorter from reputable brands.

====== Eugenio S

[mochitailedits]

I just want all the games in HD and in one convenient package