some fun -- OverHyped Buzzwords -- From Insight Magazine

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: Jim Opfer (via RadioMail) <opfer () radiomail net>


> From the November 93 Insight Magazine:


Client-Server:  This ubiquitous phrase has become so diluted that it could
mean anything. A high-tech lawyer recently described himself as a
client-server.


Convergence:  When will we get off thinking technology is the center of the
world?


Cyberpunk, Cyberzene, Cyber-anything:  Mut them on MTV where they belong.


Digital:  Give it the finger.


Downsizing:  An excuse to get rid of your highly paid senior employees and
put in a workforce of "temps".  Also
see reengineering.


Edutainment, infotainment:  These bastardized terms should stay in the closet.


GUI:  Leaves you feeling like you've been coated in honey and staked out
for ants.


Information Superhighway: The malapropism leads you to believe that only
government can fund and conrol anything so massive.


Interactive TV: An oxymoron. If it's interactive, it ain't TV.


Multimedia:  Multi-meaningless redundancy.  Media, by definition, is
already plural.


Next Generation:  A leading candidate for infanticide.  Even Trekkers are
getting tired of it.


Object Oriented Programming (OOP):  This unfortunate acronym should be
programmed to self-destruct.


Paradigm Shifts:  We've had so many of these we're all getting dizzy.


PDA, Personal Communicator, Personal Inellligent Assistant:  When will they
get a name that works?  Some alternative definitions:  Pretty dumb
assumptions, and particularly dubious assumption.


Reengineering:  Too often, a synonym for massive layoffs.  A company is not
a machine with disposable parts.


TQM:  Anything that has to specify the word quality probably isn't.


Virtual Reality:  It's always on the verge, never really there.


Vision:  Those who've got it, do it, Those who don't, talk about it.


Jim