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Buzz words
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
in General Chat
I've been working in IT since 2003 and have noticed an upsurge of buzz words in just the last year. I have no problem with acronyms but these buzz words are bugging me. People seem to like using them because they think that they sound "posh" maybe? So, where do we start?
Infrastructure - Hmm.. the way computers are networked. Topology was the word back in my day, so why change it?
Credentials - It's your logon details, usually to get into Windows. I hear techs asking customers to enter in their credentials and most of them don't have a clue on what the word means.
Virtualisation - This is the practise of getting a computer to emulate another computer. Virtualbox, VMWare and Virtual PC all does it. The word virtualisation sounds too vague a word to me. Hardware emulation, perhaps?
Deploy - A normal English word that has wormed into the IT vocabulary. It means to unleash a new software or update, usually company-wide. I prefer the word "unleash" i.e. to unleash Office 2007 across the network, plus more people would understand the meaning :-)
ICT - In my days, it was IT. IT sounds better than ICT.
Audit - Trace, track, record, and suchlike. The word is used in various industries, so I don't mind it too much. I've known the word audition for 20 years now (as I played violin), but I've only known what an audit was in the last year.
The "Cloud" - Erm, why? It's nothing new. In 1999, there was an online service called X Drive. It provided 1GB of online storage and you could map it as a drive letter. As long as you had internet access and you knew your X Drive logon (or *ahem* credentials), you could access the 1GB anywhere. I do embrace online applications though (Google rather than M$).
Social networking - Again, nothing new. I saw classmates/reunion sites advertised as far back as 1998, usually based in the USA. Friends Reunited in 2001 was the first UK site that I was aware of. In 2005, it was all about Faceparty, a more glorified version of MSN Profiles. Then Facebook came out of nowhere, which I find is too general. I prefer Deviant Art, which is like Facebook but for artists. You have your main page, customise the layout a bit and showcase your art. What is the meaning of poke and virtual beer / hugs? If you want to socialise with a mate online, then do something that has meaning to him/her rather than spamming *poke* across your buddy list.
Pharming - There was "phishing", now there's "pharming". Phishing was the act of stealing bank details (or *ahem* credentials) using look-a-like sites. Pharming is basically a rogue DNS-changer. In English, it means that the sites that you type into your browser will resolve to different (malicious) addresses. Why alienate the industry with more dudespeak? A more obvious name such as an "address-changer" or suchlike which would quicken awareness amongst joey public.
MSN, Live etc - Back in my days, it was Hotmail. Period. But I don't use any of those.
Cyber - Cyberspace was the original slang name for The Internet. Cyber-chat would mean instant messaging. A cyber-fight would be what we'd regard as a flame war nowadays. Something went wrong recently though - upon any mentions of 'cyber', people have decided to assume that it is to do with sex. Yes, there is cybersex which is supposedly like phonesex, but I'm just talking about cyber as a preffix and people still think that it's to do with sex.
Rants over!
Infrastructure - Hmm.. the way computers are networked. Topology was the word back in my day, so why change it?
Credentials - It's your logon details, usually to get into Windows. I hear techs asking customers to enter in their credentials and most of them don't have a clue on what the word means.
Virtualisation - This is the practise of getting a computer to emulate another computer. Virtualbox, VMWare and Virtual PC all does it. The word virtualisation sounds too vague a word to me. Hardware emulation, perhaps?
Deploy - A normal English word that has wormed into the IT vocabulary. It means to unleash a new software or update, usually company-wide. I prefer the word "unleash" i.e. to unleash Office 2007 across the network, plus more people would understand the meaning :-)
ICT - In my days, it was IT. IT sounds better than ICT.
Audit - Trace, track, record, and suchlike. The word is used in various industries, so I don't mind it too much. I've known the word audition for 20 years now (as I played violin), but I've only known what an audit was in the last year.
The "Cloud" - Erm, why? It's nothing new. In 1999, there was an online service called X Drive. It provided 1GB of online storage and you could map it as a drive letter. As long as you had internet access and you knew your X Drive logon (or *ahem* credentials), you could access the 1GB anywhere. I do embrace online applications though (Google rather than M$).
Social networking - Again, nothing new. I saw classmates/reunion sites advertised as far back as 1998, usually based in the USA. Friends Reunited in 2001 was the first UK site that I was aware of. In 2005, it was all about Faceparty, a more glorified version of MSN Profiles. Then Facebook came out of nowhere, which I find is too general. I prefer Deviant Art, which is like Facebook but for artists. You have your main page, customise the layout a bit and showcase your art. What is the meaning of poke and virtual beer / hugs? If you want to socialise with a mate online, then do something that has meaning to him/her rather than spamming *poke* across your buddy list.
Pharming - There was "phishing", now there's "pharming". Phishing was the act of stealing bank details (or *ahem* credentials) using look-a-like sites. Pharming is basically a rogue DNS-changer. In English, it means that the sites that you type into your browser will resolve to different (malicious) addresses. Why alienate the industry with more dudespeak? A more obvious name such as an "address-changer" or suchlike which would quicken awareness amongst joey public.
MSN, Live etc - Back in my days, it was Hotmail. Period. But I don't use any of those.
Cyber - Cyberspace was the original slang name for The Internet. Cyber-chat would mean instant messaging. A cyber-fight would be what we'd regard as a flame war nowadays. Something went wrong recently though - upon any mentions of 'cyber', people have decided to assume that it is to do with sex. Yes, there is cybersex which is supposedly like phonesex, but I'm just talking about cyber as a preffix and people still think that it's to do with sex.
Rants over!
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments
Always used infrastructure with regards to cabling, but in place of newtork topology.
Unleash - means to take a leash off something. That's just as bad if not worse than deploy.
Nothing wrong with audit perfectly good english word. Not a 'buzz' word.