Ep 276: Paul Breen, Barry Cook (March 9, 2015; originally aired September 19, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


Paul is back for his third night, hopefully refreshed after the rest as compared with Friday's game.  Richard asks him for more information about the digital image manipulation that is Paul's job.  Paul says that it is his job to make sure that the images they have look OK once they are in the magazine.  This might involve tweaking colours, or changing or removing backgrounds, things like that.

Tonight's challenger is Barry Cook, a retired IT project manager.  Richard suggests that computer technology has changed a lot since Barry entered the field, which Barry wholeheartedly agrees with.  He started in 1961, it seems, and notes that everyone's laptop or desktop these days is much more powerful than the original machines that he started work on.  Also, back then computers used drum memory; Richard comments that one of those would not fit on your mobile phone, and Barry retorts that it would be lucky to fit into the studio.

It's a shame that Barry's comparison with computers today was not put in more perspective; to take an example, the IBM 7090 cost almost three million dollars at the time and took up considerable room (see this picture for an example, and note that the computer is much more than just the console the man is sitting at -- it includes all the tape drives in the background, for instance, and more besides).  A typical desktop today is over thirty thousand times faster (and capable of doing four things simultaneously at that speed), and much less than a ten-thousandth of the cost after converting the mainframe price to today's dollars.


Barry found a couple of very good words to take the early lead.  Paul got some of the ground back in the first numbers round, but then Barry extended it again in round four.  Paul managed to match Barry in the fifth round, and another good numbers result put him only a little behind.  Then Barry faltered in the last letters round and Paul took the lead for the first time in the game.  Neither contestant was able to make any headway on the last numbers round, and the conundrum also proved to be too difficult for them both.  Paul wobbled home with the win, 31 to 26.

I missed a couple of longer words that I would have found within time on a better day.  The numbers were handled all right, and I solved the conundrum with just a few seconds left.  A decent but not exceptional performance.


As usual, details after the jump.