The reinvented technology terms - which ones do you hate?

Giaguara

Giaguara

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I have just discovered my #1 hated reinvented technology terminology, as in the series of "reinvented technology terminology just because".

#1 = radio mode of Blackberry.

Seriously, WHY???? It's not the mode what you'd expect in Sony Ericssons, where you plug in the headphones and tune in the radio, nooo.. 1000 miles from that. In the manual, it's the mode that you put it to use the browser. So when the browser as a function isn't needed, it's like the bluetooth, when not needed, turn off...

Until you discover that their radio mode = phone mode = operational mode.
That their radio mode off = EVERY other phone's "flight mode on".

Yes, great, I wouldn't have minded to have discovered this terminology's lack of any sense on a random day, but obviously I discover it the wrong way: when there obviously were no calls coming in on an on call weekend about the most nightmarish ever product to support...

There, this discovery made me hate the blackberry and blackberry weekends to ^2. So I guess I'll just keep the radio mode on always to mean that it's not in what anything else would would call the flight mode. Hopefully one day I'll figure out how they renamed MAC address so I can find it to add it to the wireless...

Ok, that big rant aside, which tech terminology terms has irked you and why?

I can imagine being used to calling something with one term and switching to the other side where the term is another 'just because' fits this category.

So anything as desktop picture vs wallpaper, home folder vs user folder ... and no need to keep this as Windows vs Mac - any technie terminology reinvent will do.

#2 (on my list) - translated home folder in Italian Mac OS X. "Inizio"

Seriously, inizio = beginning. That's the logic with the home folder back translated to English.
Before Mac OS X, I was using Red Hat daily, in English, so ~ aka home was where I had most of my stuff. And Mac OS X I started to use in Italian... never again, unless I'm paid to, or doing work related to it and being paid to.
It took embarassingly long time to figure out that the "beginning" folder was in fact "home". With my logic, "beginning" folder should be /

There you go, my top 2 most techie term reinvention hates. What are yours?
 
#3 - Vista Sidebar.
Seriously, 'widget bar' would have been much more appropriate name for it. They are widgets everywhere else, not just in Mac OS X but also e.g. in OS independent Opera...
 
There's probably quite a few Windows-related irritations for me. For example, Vista's new graphical interface was given a name: Aero. It doesn't seem a million miles from "Aqua," so it smacks of lack of originality.

The BBC's iPlayer is another one, simply due to the name. Is it really necessary for everyone to start copying Apple, with a lower case "i" at the front of product names?

Actually, I dislike the term "blog" as well. It seems an ugly name, but I'm also not entirely convinced that a weblog is substantially different from what we used to call a "web page."
 
Oh, need to add "web 2.0" to that list. Why is suddenly all facebooking and youtubing and linkedining everything so futuristic? Forums are much older invention than the web 2.0, why were those not seen as interactive? Or what is web 2.5 or 3 going to be? Was 0.5 arpa?

Re-branding everything just because... how about Mozilla's names? Chimera was nice, and sounded much better than Camino. And a lot of other Mozilla's product have the horrible naming issue as well. What was Firebird or Thunderbird or whatsitcalled called before that was renamed?

Now I see VirtualCenter become suddenly vCenter, VI-suite vSphere, ... VDM gets rebranded View. Sigh.

Anything would have to be on the list iF iT iS spelled on the iAnnoying way.
 
Giaguara said:
Oh, need to add "web 2.0" to that list. Why is suddenly all facebooking and youtubing and linkedining everything so futuristic? Forums are much older invention than the web 2.0, why were those not seen as interactive? Or what is web 2.5 or 3 going to be? Was 0.5 arpa?
Click to expand...
Good point! I find this very odd too. From my point of view, I've seen an evolution of the web, not two different versions.

Giaguara said:
Now I see VirtualCenter become suddenly vCenter, VI-suite vSphere, ... VDM gets rebranded View. Sigh.
Click to expand...
Hmm, yes, that gets my vote too. The "v[Name]" scheme is very similar to the "i[Name]" one...

Giaguara said:
Anything would have to be on the list iF iT iS spelled on the iAnnoying way.
Click to expand...
Argh, that was actually very annoying! :D
 
"Prioritize."

Do not combine Greek and Latin constructs when a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon exists.

--J.D.
 
I'm not sure how this totally fits in. But it totally annoys me when they call the iPod Touch, the "iTouch". Then they try to tell me that, thats it's official name and I can find it on the Apple website.

I even went to a concert the other day and they were giving away free "iTouchs" (or so the sign said).......
 
No, I like the iMac, the iPod and iTunes. Also: The iPhone makes sense. Apple kinda was first with ubiquitous iMonikers. I hope they're moving away from that, though, one day. I don't want to see an "iPod touch nano" (well, they'd probably kill off the nano by then).

I just want the Finder to become "teh snappy".
 
No, I like the iMac, the iPod and iTunes. Also: The iPhone makes sense. Apple kinda was first with ubiquitous iMonikers. I hope they're moving away from that, though, one day. I don't want to see an "iPod touch nano" (well, they'd probably kill off the nano by then).

I just want the Finder to become "teh snappy".
 
Sometimes I wonder if some of the managers presenting the always so wonderful ideas use this http://buzzphraser.com/ and the marketing technobubble people this http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html and the "web 2.0" named sites this http://www.dotomator.com/web20.html

C'mon, those generators sound just like the real thing...

How many times have you heard some technobubble like
synthesize innovative partnerships
disintermediate dot-com bandwidth
Efficiently Internal Partner Architecture
or domain names like Thoughtpoint, Liveshare, Liveshare, Yomia etc.
 
Techno babble, like management babble, is for me about disempowerment. It is designed to make the end user (or employee) look a bit thick and be impressed by the power of the techno wizard or manager.

BTW, I dislike seeing the word 'solutions' in branding (Private Eye provide a list of these in their fortnightly rag).
 
Giaguara said:
Oh, need to add "web 2.0" to that list. Why is suddenly all facebooking and youtubing and linkedining everything so futuristic? Forums are much older invention than the web 2.0, why were those not seen as interactive? Or what is web 2.5 or 3 going to be? Was 0.5 arpa?
Click to expand...

The original intent of "Web 2.0" had to deal with something a bit different. Unfortunately, as is often the case, its meaning was generalized and changed over time. The original intent was focusing more on Ajax and standards compliance, it had nothing to do with social networking or blogging itself (just became popular in its use in those sites.) Basically a "reinvention" of web programming methods/technologies, hence the 2.0 monicker.
 
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