Ordinary Words
A far greater faux pas is perpetrated when common, everyday words are used for specific technologies. For example, "objects" is one of the most useful words in the English language, because you can use it to describe any "object" whatsoever. When object-oriented programming and object technologies became the hot buzzwords, the word had to be stricken from the English language when writing about computer subjects in order not to be confusing. The same problem occurred with "component" in component software, once again taking a common word and turning it into something specific. A disaster for the technical writer.
Microsoft used the broad term "automation" to refer to a specific instance where functions within applications such as Excel and Word could be automated. One had to be careful not to use the term in any generic way when writing about developing in a Microsoft environment.
The "PC Card" is yet another. Is a PC card a card that goes into a PC or a PC Card from the PCMCIA Association that goes into a laptop? When it was introduced, PC Card sounded so bland that "PCMCIA card" was often used instead, even with all the extra syllables.
Tongue Tied
A confusion of another order was the term "intranet." Because it was constantly discussed with the Internet, one had to strongly emphasize the "tra" in intranet and the "ter" in Internet when speaking. Deciphering this in a classroom took effort, and reading about intranets and the Internet in an article took effort. Fortunately, the use of the term dwindled because it was simply way too difficult to use. "Intranet" gave way to "LAN," and if the user interface is a Web browser, the Web protocols of the intranet are implied.
Famous Names - Who Needs Them?
Marketing hype often seems more important than clever marketing. Overwhelmed by the Web frenzy, Novell took NetWare, a brand known the world over and renamed it "IntranetWare." Not only did the most familiar name in networking get lost, but IntranetWare was too hard to pronounce. Novell later switched back to the NetWare brand. In a similar vein, Borland changed its name to Inprise a while ago, burying a name known by everyone. It subsequently resurrected the Borland name.
![]() | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- '.wow': ICANN to allow almost any domain suffix
- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has accepted a proposal allowing companies, cities and others to use almost any suffix they want for a web address. At its meeting in Paris, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN, a not-for-profit organization that...
- News items 2008-06-27
- Nokia Symbian deal winners and losers
- Nokia Symbian deal winners and losersNokia Symbian - What's in a name?Heads up! It looks like Nokia's product naming consultants did not do their homework for similar names with other mental images and associations. Check out www.sybian.com. Or, how about the Symbionese Liberation Party that kidnapped Patty...
- Discussion threads 2008-06-24
- Proof of Concept "carpet bombing" exploit released in the wild
- In what appears to be an attempt to provoke Apple to reconsider its currently passive position on the severity of the dubbed as "carpet bomb" flaw, a working Proof of Concept exploit code has been released at Liu Die Yu's security blog : Nitesh Dhanjani discovered that Safari for...
- Blog posts 2008-06-11
- Another bug your tools won't find and your WAF won't prevent
- First off, I want to apologize to our readers for not being here as much last week. I had a rough week involving a random ear infection and the loss of an aunt to cancer, so it was not a week where I was very concerned about computer security or...
- Blog posts 2008-06-09
- Do we need "Management 2.0"?
- Sue Bushell, who wrote a very thoughtful in-depth Enterprise 2.0 article for Australian CIO magazine recently, has an interesting question within Linked In to her connections: "Do we need "Management 2.0" and what would it look like if we do?" I'm looking forward to the article she's...
- Blog posts 2008-06-08
- BIt: From Chapter one: Data Processing and the IBM Mainframe
- From Chapter one: Data Processing and the IBM Mainframe This is the 4th excerpt from the second book in the Defen series: BIT: Business Information Technology: Foundations, Infrastructure, and Culture Note that the section this is taken from, on the evolution of...
- Blog posts 2008-06-06
- 50 questions asked and answered on Android
- At the very end of the Google I/O 2008 conference last week the Android development team hosted a great fireside chat on the new mobile platform. The session was free-form, completely driven by questions from the audience. Although Google was trying to keep mum on a number of issues, several...
- Blog posts 2008-06-05
- Free Batch Image Converter (zip)
- Batch Image Converter is a comprehensive and powerful image conversion utility which allows the batch-processing of large numbers of graphics files at the same time to a single uniform image size and file format. You only need to specify the source and destination folders optionally a naming convention too and...
- Software downloads 2008-06-04
- Library Monkey (zip)
- Library Monkey 3, offers a cost-effective solution for complete media asset management. This new version provides many powerful features including an enhanced user-interface, recent searches, multiple Bins, and enhanced metadata processing. Multi-Channel File Support, Instant Access with Smart Sets, Advanced naming options for export, Drag-n-drop to DAW and other audio...
- Software downloads 2008-06-04
- Panasonic TH-50PZ800U
- For the last year or so, our reigning favorite plasma TV was Pioneer's PDP-5080HD "Kuro," which got there by dint of its game-changing black-level performance, which is still the best we've tested outside of OLED. But many of Panasonic's 2008 plasma TVs, including the TH-50PZ800U, come mighty close to the...
- Product reviews 2008-05-23
- KDOC:Knowledge Management Software (exe)
- KDOC is a Knowledge Management solution that sports vital features like Smart File Management, Record Management, Knowledge Management and Continuity Management. Top 5 Reasons to use KDOC are: effective archival of knowledge documents, disciplines and organizes knowledge documents, faster creation and retrieval of documents, creates consistency in documents and automates...
- Software downloads 2008-05-23
- Configuring and Clustering IBM WebSphere Portal Enable for z/OS
- The purpose of this paper is to provide a step-by-step description of how to configure IBM WebSphere Portal Server Enable for z/OS V6 in a cluster. It explains how to configure a WebSphere Network Deployment cell and cluster for WebSphere Application Server V6. It also provides useful spreadsheets to help...
- White papers 2008-05-20
- Aperture Assistant (zip)
- An automation helper for Apples Aperture application. It allows you to easily set up complex tasks and workflows by putting together visual flowcharts. Some of the main features: export images using different presets depending on metadata/ratings. Export to different folders depending on metadata. Export echoing Apertures internal organizational structure. Open...
- Software downloads 2008-05-20
- Fight card: AMD Radeon 4800 vs. Nvidia GTX 200
- The high-end graphics card market isn't the straightforward, mano-a-mano battle it used to be. Graphics cards with dual GPUs, systems with multiple cards in CrossFire or SLI implementations, and most recently hybrid graphics have all muddied the picture. Meanwhile, Intel has improved its integrated graphics and has long-term plans in...
- Blog posts 2008-05-16
- With the Quickness: HD Moore sets new land speed record with exploitation of Debian/Ubuntu OpenSSL flaw
- So, for those who haven't heard, a Debian packager modified the source used for OpenSSL on Debian based systems Debian and the whole of the Ubuntu family to remove the seed used for PRNG Pseudo Random Number Generator used when creating SSL keys. Well, HD Moore set a new record...
- Blog posts 2008-05-14
- Neil Young gives his name to a spider
- Canadian rocker Neil Young made headlines this week for appearing at the JavaOne conference and for releasing his musical archive on Blu-ray discs. But he was also honored by a East Carolina University ECU professor of biology, who named a newly discovered trapdoor spider Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after the legendary rock...
- Blog posts 2008-05-09
- An idea about teaching Linux to the MCSE community
- Frequent contributor Roger Ramjet has a bit of a bee in his bonnet about path and naming standardization across a multi-vendor distributed Unix architecture. If I understand him correctly, he believes that it's both possible and sensible to build what amounts to a standardization harness - a set of scripts...
- Blog posts 2008-05-08
- An idea about teaching Linux to the MCSE community
- An idea about teaching Linux to the MCSE communityIt's not about shellsIt's about where things are and what they're called.Remember we can have the scripts configure gnome to look like windows and pop up wintel like menus too.Put the cart before the horse.You'll need to get them all into the...
- Discussion threads 2008-05-08
- Database Schema Designer (exe)
- Database Schema Designer's intuitive user interface has been crafted to provide the most natural methods for creating, maintaining, and organizing your database components. Database Schema Designer has several key features and tools built in to provide fast, accurate, and consistent Database Modeling. DBSD offers a simple and intuitive user interface....
- Software downloads 2008-05-08
- Goletas Screen Capture (exe)
- Goletas Screen Capture captures any part of the virtual screen and saves the captured image to clipboard and/or file. Optimized for fast screenshot taking and naming the captured image. Supports various file formats. Can be manipulated with hot keys. Can call external applications after capturing an image. Native support for...
- Software downloads 2008-05-08
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- Which solar technology will survive?
-
At the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Todd Glass of Heller Ehrman moderates a discussion, among tech execs, on the various solar technologies making a difference in the green movement.
- Watch the video >>
- ZDNet video: Intel® vPro™ technology and Cost Savings
-
Randy Nystrom, an IT systems engineer at Intel, shows how vPro saves time and money by diagnosing PC problems remotely. (1 of 4 new videos with Intel engineers on ZDNet).
- Watch the video and more at Intel's Power Center >>
- The Cisco Mobility Resource Center is your source for FREE mobility solutions
-
The Cisco Mobility Resource Center offers FREE videos, downloads, podcasts and more, all designed to help small and medium businesses get mobile connectivity solutions, improve productivity and drive sales and revenue.
- New mobility solutions at the Cisco Mobility Resource Center
- BNET Industries
- Check out BNET's newest resource for managers and executives. Need to do research on your competitors? Don't have time to read every trade pub? BNET Industries is the new source for daily news, insights, and research on 11 major industries and 9,000 public companies.
-
- The technology industry from a different angle
-
- See what's hot in the auto industry
-
- Stay on top of the energy industry




