View Full Version : A Technological Paradox!
Rupert S
9th Jun 2004, 07:27
Has anyone considered the computing term GNU? It is an abbreviation of "GNU is Not Unix". It is a never ending loop of abbreviations. Quite deep :=
122.45
9th Jun 2004, 07:39
With GNU/Hurd, `Hurd' stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. And `Hird' stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth'. Deeper? :hmm:
The Nr Fairy
9th Jun 2004, 09:21
Rupe:
Search for "recursion" on Google. You're right, it is a geeky piece of fun.
Memetic
9th Jun 2004, 16:01
I always liked TWAIN - "Technology Without An Interesting Name" :D
Globaliser
9th Jun 2004, 17:30
Although the stuff of potential urban legend. From the Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing (http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=twain) (which has been adopted by twain.org (http://www.twain.org/faq.htm#What is TWAIN an acronym for)):-TWAIN
<graphics, standard> An image capture API for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems. The standard was first released in 1992, and is currently ratified at version 1.9 as of January 2000. TWAIN is typically used as an interface between image processing software and a scanner or digital camera.
The word TWAIN is from Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West" - "...and never the twain shall meet...", reflecting the difficulty, at the time, of connecting scanners and personal computers. It was up-cased to TWAIN to make it more distinctive. This led people to believe it was an acronym, and then to a contest to come up with an expansion. None were selected, but the entry "Technology Without An Interesting Name" continues to haunt the standard.
PCMCIA - People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms
Not computer industry, but of interest, another word taken upper case and then turned into an acronym - SCRAM (http://www.ornl.gov/info/reporter/no19/scram.htm)
RomeoTangoFoxtrotMike
10th Jun 2004, 12:21
ISDN: Innovations Subscribers Don't Need or It Simply Does Nothing
or, for the elder statesmen here,
EMACS: Escape Meta Alt Control Shift or Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping (from the days when that was a lot :)
As for recursion...
Recursion: see recursion.
:E
There are many EMACS jokes - Evil Manifestation of All Computer Science is another.
And, yes, I do use Emacs... :)
Memetic
11th Jun 2004, 00:36
Globaliser - illusion shattered regarding TWAIN - but I like the story of the name's evolution.