Sorting it all Out Michael Kaplan's random stuff of dubious value Be sure to read the disclaimer here first!
I used to hear a story from a colleague about an Admin who would talk about how someone with status was a Very "V.I.P." person (from the description she was someone who you could tell was putting the quotes there, even if she was speaking).
This is obviously silly since V.I.P. stands for Very Important Person. It simply makes no sense to talk about a very very important person person!
Anyway, tonight I went to see Ari Bixhorn and Richard Turner talk about Indigo. It was a cool talk and even came with a T-shirt I might wear at some point due to the cool logo image thingy:
Of course they explained how it was not called Indigo anymore; it was actually called W.C.F., or Windows Communication Foundation. they were unable to repress the shudder that I am sure we all felt.
Which is of (in my opinion) the worst product name for a cool code name since Internet Studio became Visual Interdev. But I'll talk about code names some time soon. I do like Ari's thought that the cooler the code name, the worse the product name -- this could henceforth be codified as Bixhorn's Law, if no one had yet stated it for the record....
The problem, however, was that toward the of the talk, they said (and what was said was on the slide), in true Mickey Blue Eyes The La Trattoria style:
WCF Foundation
Now obviously there is a language phenomenon where acronyms like RADAR, LASER, and SONAR become words to many people who do not even know what they stand for, or even if they stand for anything. In computers it happens with BIOS, NT, and DOS and a million other terms just as readily. I have heard people say Light Amplified LASER and BIOS system and not shuddered more than momentarily.
But WCF Foundation?
That awful name for what looks to be the coolest thing since sliced bread (or more accurately, the coolest thing since the delivery service that can get the sliced bread delivered in the distributed environment!) is in no way mature enlough tp have lost its acronym status!
Anyway, I am taking the day off for my birthday, though I may end with a post or two here that may or may not be technical. In the meantime, do your best to remember what silly acronyms stand for so you can correct those from the camp of The La Trattoria, if you know what I mean! :-)