Geekspeak Baffles Web Users 363
An anonymous reader writes to mention a BBC article on the technology buying public's continued frustration with 'geek speak'. Despite ever-increasing adoption of high tech gadgets in first-world nations, the terms used to describe what these new toys do often elude the people who buy them. From the article: "Acronyms in particular foxed users. 75% of online Britons did not know that VOD stands for video-on-demand, while 68% were unaware that personal video recorders were more commonly referred to as PVRs. Millions of people keep in touch via instant messaging but some 57% of online Brits said they did not know that the acronym for it was IM. 'The technology industry is perhaps the most guilty of all industries when it comes to love of acronyms,' said Mr Burmaster. "
Obligatory PCMCIA joke here (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I'll recycle a remark of mine on LWN (Score:4, Funny)
Some people trying for a DOD contract took the ETLA and made it Joint, resulting in a JETLA.
Inflation came along, and we needed to manage JETLAs via a Group key.
Feelings of JETLAG came as no surprise.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"foxed"...wtf? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory PCMCIA joke here (Score:5, Interesting)
If you don't believe that try to decipher an SMS message sent by one 13 year old to another
And PCMCIA was a pretty good example, but some of the stuff I see here on
this place could easily be nicknamed buzzword central
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But probably most maker-uppers-of-words/terms do so for marketing reasons.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory PCMCIA joke here (Score:5, Interesting)
Just so long as they don't try to teach it in school (Ebonics, I'm looking at you), and as long as relatively standard english (large regional variations apply here) is spoken in professional environments.
A big push in the IT department where I work is to say the whole thing, rather than just the acronym. There is, of course, the issue of things like GNU (which is often used), but we're told to just treat it like a brand name.
Re:Obligatory PCMCIA joke here (Score:4, Funny)
I think you meant to say Information Technology department. Might want to send out a company-wide electronic mail so that others don't make this mistake.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll grant that PCMCIA was one of the worst ever. However, I still see relatively non-geeky people using it, despite the fact that it was shortened years ago to just PC card. Yet, if I say "PC card", they think I mean a video card.
OTOH (look it up, lazy ones) people just don't care enough to learn anything new -- it's just toooo haaaarrrrd Maybe it's just trickle down from the fist-pumping manager assholes who insist that the world come to them and "present"
Re:Obligatory PCMCIA joke here (Score:4, Insightful)
But yet during my job at any place... Anywhere... No one ever questioned about what the actual acronym but rather what the difference was... As in... PCI was the new faster standard on ATX motherboards and ISA was the long black slots for older systems (even though you couldn't buy a new computer at that point without both).
These days I can't remember any of them except International Standards Association and I'm assuming EISA is Enchandced? (I even kept an EISA card around to show off to people).
So I think people don't really need to remember what the acronym really says, but what the technology does, because otherwise its a waste of space in your brain in 5 years when the technology is no longer in use.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn;t know that. When you use an acronym you should let people know wtf (What The Fuck) your stupid acronym means. Otherwise, I (and others) will assume you're a fucktard trying to snow me.
Too lazy to spell it? Fuck off then, I'm not the least interested.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But what gets me is that there are acronyms in EVERY field. In California Education you have acronyms like "CBEDS" (California Basic Educational Data Service) and "CSIS". (California Statewide Identifer System)
In automechanics you have acronyms like TDC (Top Dead Center) and MAFS (Mass Air Flow Sensor)
In Aviation you have acronyms like POH, (Pilot Operator's Handbook) VOR (Very high frequency Omidirectional Ranging) and Vne. (Velocity never to exceed)
In medicine, you have acronyms like ADD, (Attention
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's a DVR.
It's a what?
A digital video recorder.
Oh, you mean like a TiVo?
actually... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd give that distinction to the government and/or military
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
there is something troubling about the pace of technology change and tech-language change when it starts to intimidate buyers; alienate populations; exploit the niave...
it is hard to keep pace with new acronyms and insider lingo. harder still to research best-value when buying a new product. how much of this acronym is enough?
are you a teacher? smart ass
Definetly the military. (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
AIREVACCONFIRM [dtic.mil]
MARCORMATCOM [dtic.mil]
SCATMINEWARN [dtic.mil]
These and many others are available here. [dtic.mil]
WTF?! (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
wtf (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.gentoo-portage.com/games-misc/wtf [gentoo-portage.com]
Re:WTF?! (Score:5, Insightful)
Lu5er5...
The only acronym you need (Score:5, Funny)
Don't Make Up Acronyms - Nobody Understands You
Sigh. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't usually like to complain about grammar and spelling in article summaries, but come on. Even of you'd used the word you meant, it'd still have been the wrong word.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
And there's the inevitable typo in a grammar-nazi post. Double-sigh.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't usually like to complain about grammar and spelling in post replies, but come on, at least get your spellings right while cribbing about it, especially when you'd used the world you did not mean is the wrong word.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Suppose you get your English right...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sigh. (Score:4, Funny)
It's because we try to show how intelligent and sophisticated we are by using words we can't spell, and whose meaning we don't really know.
aren't we humans a bunch of wankers?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Elude means 'to escape'.
Allude is a common depressant.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it would've been the right word. Merriam-Webster's definition 2 [m-w.com].
Re: (Score:2)
"flummox", of course, is the word the original poster should have used.
Wow. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Small wonder (Score:2, Redundant)
No wonder they're baffled when the geeks try to speak English but don't know English.
Re: (Score:2)
Enable programmers to program in English and you will find that they can't.
It's not just Acronyms... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess it's similar with people who have no desire or need to know what's inside of their computer. On the other hand, you have to know the dif
Re:It's not just Acronyms... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
That said, I teach a computer class at the library where I work, and often have to explain the difference to o
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's not just Acronyms... (Score:4, Funny)
The slashdotter doth protest too much, methinks.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It's not just Acronyms... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing earthshattering, but I got a lot of "Ohhhh!!"s after explaining it that way.
Re: (Score:2)
Hmmm, what's this "cooking" thing you're speaking of??
Re:It's not just Acronyms... (Score:5, Funny)
And by these signs shall ye be warned:
natural order turned a-head -
the chicken rises from the pot;
laws of logic lose their sway -
appropriate analogies on Slashdot
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, each CPU core is an oven.
We used have just one oven in our stove, but now we have multi-oven stoves. This doesn't help us roast a turkey faster (unless we find a way to cut the turkey in half), but it helps us when we have to cook the pumpkin pie at the same time.
Servers are like pantries; these days we each have our own kitchen in a workgroup, which shares a single pantry. Over the whole organization, we end up with a lot of pantries, and unfortunately a lot of times
hmmm (Score:2, Funny)
Too many acronyms?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd love to know what all those mean...
And, no, I'm not new here.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I didn't read the f@#king article, but what the f@#k? for your information i am not a lawyer, but as far as i know this is slander, also known as lies. i'd sue for the win as soon as possible. just kidding, laugh out loud.
Re:Too many acronyms?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Payback's a bitch. (Score:2)
It's domain-specific knowledge, and the domain changes on a weekly basis. I'll bet half the non-technical users who didn't grok the TLAs in the TFA would have no problems instantly recognizing "Bennifer" and "TomKat" or whoever the cute-celeb-name-du-jour is on the entertainment new
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I work in a library, and one day I heard a coworker calling a patron about a book the patron had requested. We'd tried to get it from another library through interlibrary loan, and we had gone through the list of possible lenders in the online service we use ("OCLC"). On the phone with this patron who knows nothing of libraryspeak, my coworker said, "We tried to ILL it, but we've exhausted the OCLC string."
I winced as I imagined the poor little old lady
Advancement of Technology (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
And while the nice guy in me wants to make things great for EVERYBODY...the logical part of me is thinking "you know what? screw em!". Reason being...if these people don't know enough about the tech to know the jargon, I don't want them anywhere near it. Honestly...I think it should be that way with cars too. If knowledge requireme
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
OTOH if the electronics industry were like the pharmacutical industry, we would have (at least) two names for every piece of electronics, one that is useful and descriptive (chemical), and one that is interesting and disting
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That depends on the inherent complexity of what you want to do. You basicly want a car to go in a given direction at a given speed. For that you have a wheel and two pedals (msking it as easy as possible). You have four actions, turn left, turn right, accelerate and brake. Almost everything else can be automated away (or is convienientl
Re: (Score:2)
They are called acronyms (Score:3, Insightful)
No problem (Score:4, Insightful)
ROTFL (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
in other words (Score:2)
What else can be said unintentionally with such acronymns strung together.
Newsflash! (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course a large percentage of folks who don't use a particular technology don't know the acronyms used to refer to that technology. I'm sure back in the 40s, 70% of the population didn't know that TV was an acronym for television. For that matter, I bet 20 years ago (early days of the Personal Computer), 70% of the population didn't know what PC meant either.
Good job slashdot! If this were fark, the article would get the 'obvious' tag, and the submitter would be deserving of the 'dumbass' tag.
what? (Score:3, Insightful)
Other than that; "OMG!!!!11! teh l33t pwnd teh n00bs!!!one11!"
Wow. (Score:2)
The jargon was a different story, though.
VOD? (Score:2)
PVR/DVR is pretty common, but as long as they knew what a "digital video recorder" was, then thats a pass. Not everyone perfers to use shortforms in place of words. IM is stupid and always has been. People should say "icq" instead. Like kleenex or coke.
Man, I s
N.T.S.H.M.A. (Score:2)
or,
Try asking a Mac user for his MAC address. Can get very tricky. That's the cruelest TLA of all.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
People get confused if you give them your MAC instead of your MAC so you'd better not get the two mixed up... Your Mac might have a MAC but that's not the MAC that you need.
3LA.ca -- acronyms explained via podcast (Score:2)
So what? (Score:2)
Just imagine... in the past, not understanding a medical term meant you had to get up and go to the library and find the medical dictionary in the reference section and look up what you wanted to know. It was a
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, and when a doctor through a medical term at me, I ask them what it means. Just like I would expect them to ask me about an acronym they didn't know.
Google is no substitute for communication.
Re: (Score:2)
My point was that we sympathize with people who complain that there's too many terms, instead of expecting them to make at least some interrogatory effort to learn the terms. Whether they query another person or google is really immaterial, I was just emphasizing that google doesn't even require the effort of getting off the couch.
Re: (Score:2)
I meant when the dissemination of the terminology is separated from the ability to casually inquire...e.g. tv, web page, newspaper, etc.
A simple technological solution: (Score:5, Insightful)
as i have been saying for years (Score:2)
Acronym resuse and abuse (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:OMG fp (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
OK, I'm stumped.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:TLAs (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I suppose it's worth mentioning that TLA isn't a TLA. Well, it's not the TLA you think it is. It's a Three-Letter-Abbreviation
The correct term for what you're talking about (an abbreviation that isn't pronouncable as a word, like "wtf") is an initialism [wikipedia.org] .
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)