computer science

The Inquirer

The Inquirer is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Inquirer rather than just read about it. In short: The Inquirer (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch publisher Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU).

Key takeaways

The Inquirer belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Inquirer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Inquirer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Inquirer (stylized as TheINQUIRER) was a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register (of which he was one of the founding members) in 2001. In 2006 the site was acquired by Dutch publisher Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU). Mike Magee later left The Inquirer in February 2008 to work on the IT Examiner. Historically, the magazine was entirely Internet-based with its journalists living all over the world and filing copy online, though in recent years it has been edited from Incisive Media's offices in London. Although traditionally a 'red top', under Incisive Media it has put more weight behind its journalism, reducing the number of jibes at companies, and moved instead towards sponsored online debates in association with high-profile organisations, most recently, Intel. The Inquirer ceased publishing on 19 December 2019, partly due to declining digital advertising revenues.

Scoops

Sony laptop battery scandal In 2006 The Inquirer reported laptop battery problems that affected Dell, Sony and Apple as of September 2006, with rumours of problems at Toshiba and Lenovo. In June 2006, The Inquirer published photographs of a Dell notebook PC bursting into flames at a conference in Japan; The New York Times reprinted The Inquirer's photographs. The Inquirer was also the first publication to report Dell's subsequent decision to recall faulty batteries, according to BusinessWeek. The Inquirer's successful reporting of the story relied on information supplied by readers and later by a confidential source at Dell. "I attribute being on top of the story to old-fashioned print journalism standards – cultivating, and, if you'll excuse the pun, not burning such contacts," The Inquirer's founder, Mike Magee, told BusinessWeek.

Rydermark In July 2006, The Inquirer posted images to show cheating by Nvidia Windows device drivers in Rydermark 2006. The images were alleged to be fake by a number of sources. The Inquirer denied any wrongdoing and quoted the maker of Rydermark calling the allegations against them "irresponsible". About 8 months after the original Rydermark article, The Inquirer ran another article claiming that Rydermark was still being developed, but was near release. In response, one of its critics offered $1,000 to a charity of the Rydermark articles author's choosing if he could produce (breaching his NDA) a version of Rydermark that showed the alleged screenshots in full-motion video before a set deadline (which gave the author 10 and a half hours, beginning at 6:30PM UK time). No one produced the program before the deadline passed. Independent verification that RyderMark was genuine, first appeared in TweakTown in May 2007. RyderMark developer Ajith Ram denied ever sending the Inquirer Nvidia cheating allegations.

ATI Intel front side bus license revocation On 24 July 2006, The Inquirer wrote that, in response to AMD's announced intent to purchase ATI, "ATI had its chipset license pulled, or at least not renewed by Intel." ATI responded by stating that its license had not been revoked and that they continue to ship Intel chipsets under license. On 23 August 2006, ATI showed its chipset roadmap to motherboard vendors which showed that next-generation chipsets for the Intel platform are cancelled. On 1 March 2007, AMD said that they would continue developing chipsets for Intel platforms.

Windows 10 Technical Preview eavesdropping On 3 October 2014, The Inquirer reported on the privacy policy for the Technical Preview the upcoming Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. In the report, it pointed out that the permissions included the ability for Microsoft to monitor individual keystrokes as well as file content from users. The story was picked up by news media around the world causing Microsoft to admit that monitoring was a necessary part of the process, but denying use of a keylogger. Ed Bott, writing for ZDNet, accused the site of being "a tech tabloid known for its breathless headlines and factually challenged prose" and said of writer Chris Merriman, "there's little evidence that the author has enough background in computer science or security to tell a keylogger from a key lime pie."

References

External links Archived 20 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Inquirer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Inquirer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Inquirer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Inquirer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Inquirer

In research: The Inquirer appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Inquirer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Inquirer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2001 establishments in the United Kingdom, 2019 disestablishments in the United Kingdom, British news websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Inquirer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Inquirer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Inquirer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Inquirer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Inquirer in simple terms?

Why does The Inquirer matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Inquirer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Inquirer.