Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/06/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]i also work with computer technology, and most of those I.T. folks actually have no idea what most of these acronyms mean. one I.T. numbskull kept telling us he was going to yank our POP server in favor of some MS thing and i kept telling him we don't use POP for our unix clients. this went back and forth many times. finally the manager of the I.T. goon said, "yeah you're right, it's not POP. but we just call it that." i was showing another manager of an I.T. desk support team some of our analytics reports and offhand commented that the reports were postscript, and he said "postscript, that's something you guys developed?" technology acronyms are often just a specific type of buzzword: sometimes descriptive, sometimes leading, sometimes misleading, often no more precise than any standard use of the english language. I.T. has been full of self-mockery of the TLA (three letter acronym) for decades now. - -rei p.s. POP= post office protocol POP3 internet RFC 1939 > From: Darrell Jennings <darrell_jennings@yahoo.com> > > Marc, I have worked in IT (Information Technology) and > Communications for 27 years....and acronyms are not > going away. You may not like them, but those that > invent and build the technology you use to communicate > over the internet, build the computer you are working > with, and the broadband or dialup connection you are > communicating on are going to use them and are not > going to clarify what they mean...they just expect you > to know. If you don't you will simply be ignored. > > I don't say this to sound mean spirited, it is just an > observation on the world of technology. I can > understand why a lawyer would want things spelled out. > However, in a business where the difference between > winners and losers is typically about how fast you can > get things done, and how quickly you can change > direction acronyms are a way of life...If you really > are interested there are a few books out there that > define some of them. - -- Rei Shinozuka shino@panix.com Ridgewood, New Jersey - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html