The Military and Their Love of Acronyms

[Priss]

One of my coworkers the other day said she was taking her son to the CDC. I got worry.
"Why?" says I, "What's wrong with him?"
"Nothing," says mom, "I just don't have a babysitter."
"So you're taking him to the CDC?!?!" I blink, "Wait, is that day care?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Never mind." I say giggling and receiving strange looks since everyone else knew what she was talking about.

What an aptly named storage facility for the cute little germ factories we call our children.

[Ancalagon]

One of my coworkers the other day said she was taking her son to the CDC. I got worry.
"Why?" says I, "What's wrong with him?"
"Nothing," says mom, "I just don't have a babysitter."
"So you're taking him to the CDC?!?!" I blink, "Wait, is that day care?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Never mind." I say giggling and receiving strange looks since everyone else knew what she was talking about.

What an aptly named storage facility for the cute little germ factories we call our children.

did you bother telling her that for many people, CDC means center for disease control?

You would think the military wouldn't give the same acronym to trivial things as important things. Could lead to ... confusion...

"Mr General, there has been several messages to tell us that the DEFCON system is offline"
"WHAT?!?! why didn't you advise me immediately?!?"
"Oh don't worry Sir, I ordered a new one, it was getting old anyway."
"GAAAH!!!"
"You too? Why is everyone so upset over the coffee machine - you can go get some downstairs you know"

[The Winslow]

The Double Extra Fast Coffee Or Noodle system -- it's overly complicated, they should have used two different machines for these two different tasks.

[TiQuinn]

I've been working as a government and military contractor for about 5 years now, and it still confuses the hell out of me. Anytime I hear a military acronym now, I just mentally replace it with BLAH.

"Yeah, we're going down to the BLAH to work on their BLAH system."

It works well, because I've come to realize that nobody else really knows what each other is talking about anyways and it's relatively unimportant in the scheme of things.

[Varaj]

We use create names in our naming schemas.
We have a whole series of database tables that start with the name BAT_{whatever}

I love when management asks what BAT means. It is literally big ass tables.

[Priss]

did you bother telling her that for many people, CDC means center for disease control?

You would think the military wouldn't give the same acronym to trivial things as important things. Could lead to ... confusion...

"Mr General, there has been several messages to tell us that the DEFCON system is offline"
"WHAT?!?! why didn't you advise me immediately?!?"
"Oh don't worry Sir, I ordered a new one, it was getting old anyway."
"GAAAH!!!"
"You too? Why is everyone so upset over the coffee machine - you can go get some downstairs you know"
I told them but no one else thought it was funny because they had never heard of the Center for Disease Control referred to as the CDC and didn't get the irony. I'd like to point out I work in a medical environment. Sometimes they make my head hurt.

[Priss]

I've been working as a government and military contractor for about 5 years now, and it still confuses the hell out of me. Anytime I hear a military acronym now, I just mentally replace it with BLAH.

"Yeah, we're going down to the BLAH to work on their BLAH system."

It works well, because I've come to realize that nobody else really knows what each other is talking about anyways and it's relatively unimportant in the scheme of things.

Have you also noticed that if you ask them what the acronym means most of the time they can't tell you?

[The Winslow]

I love when management asks what BAT means. It is literally big ass tables.
You can always pretend it's "Big Archive Table" or something. :)

[doc]

Have you also noticed that if you ask them what the acronym means most of the time they can't tell you?

We need to confuse the wee civilians, this thread is FUBARed

[Varaj]

We need to confuse the wee civilians, this thread is FUBARed

SNAFU seems to be SOP.

Some FM will fix the problem though.

Though programmers are just as bad.
Ex:
For the SOA over TCP should we SOAP in JSP or ASP?

[doc]

You mean PM, (preventive Maintence) don't you or was that Fast Maint. (ie juryrigging) ?

[Priss]

We need to confuse the wee civilians, this thread is FUBARed

They actually know what that one means, they heard it in movies.

[Varaj]

You mean PM, (preventive Maintence) don't you or was that Fast Maint. (ie juryrigging) ?


FM (Fucking magic)

[Priss]

The English major in me thinks of it as laziness though I have watched programmers use to it confuse other people into thinking they are working.

[Varaj]

The English major in me thinks of it as laziness though I have watched programmers use to it confuse other people into thinking they are working.

Do you say laser or light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation
How about scuba or self contained underwater breathing apparatus?

[Sobek]

The English major in me thinks of it as laziness though I have watched programmers use to it confuse other people into thinking they are working.

As was pointed out recently, in another thread, jargon actually serves a purpose in a highly specialized or technical field. Computers are (usually) a bit of both.

I'm amused that my boss -- who can get pretty annoyed with foul language, even things like "crap" -- uses SWAG pretty regularly.

SWAG = silly wild-ass guess

[PWD]

As was pointed out recently, in another thread, jargon actually serves a purpose in a highly specialized or technical field. Computers are (usually) a bit of both.

Right. Do you want me to speak efficiently and get to end of job, or do you want me to encapsulate and convey the sum total of my university and work experience any time I have to talk with a business wonk in the room?

I'll happily explain what you need to know to understand what we're talking about, but I will not dumb-down my conversation with my technical peers just so that you can follow along while we work on a resolution. If you want to understand the intricacies of tech conversation, then learn like everyone else, the hard way.

If I'm talking to tech folks, I use the appropriate language. If I'm talking to business folks, I use the appropriate language. But if the discussion is technical in nature and primarily between me and a colleague, don't expect it to be in baby-talk.

[TiQuinn]

Right. Do you want me to speak efficiently and get to end of job, or do you want me to encapsulate and convey the sum total of my university and work experience any time I have to talk with a business wonk in the room?

I'll happily explain what you need to know to understand what we're talking about, but I will not dumb-down my conversation with my technical peers just so that you can follow along while we work on a resolution. If you want to understand the intricacies of tech conversation, then learn like everyone else, the hard way.

If I'm talking to tech folks, I use the appropriate language. If I'm talking to business folks, I use the appropriate language. But if the discussion is technical in nature and primarily between me and a colleague, don't expect it to be in baby-talk.

On the flip side, there are plenty of people in IT departments, and the tech industry in general who bandy about terminology with no clue what they are talking about. Web Services and SOA have to be chief among these as of late.

[PWD]

On the flip side, there are plenty of people in IT departments, and the tech industry in general who bandy about terminology with no clue what they are talking about. Web Services and SOA have to be chief among these as of late.

Oh, most definitely, and some techies certainly use the terminology as an obfuscation against the business. There's no excuse for either.

But by the same token, there is a time and place to talk tech, and there's no need to apologize for it so long as proper efforts to ensure understanding (to the degree appropriate) are taken once the real work is done.

The ability to communicate tech concepts to non-techies is one of the things I'm constantly complimented on, and even as something I work to get right, it has its place, and its place is not in the middle of tech talk between techies. Sometimes the business folks need to know when to sit back and shut up and let the workers do their work. If the right kind of working relationships have been built, they'll have the trust to back out while you talk and take the synopsis afterwards.

[Cat of Ulthar]

SOA is Dutch for STD.

[Priss]

Do you say laser or light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation
How about scuba or self contained underwater breathing apparatus?

I used laser, and was actually completely unaware that it was an acronym. As for scuba, I use neither I tend to refer to it as just diving.

I understand that the acronyms make life easier but I expect people who use the acronym as part of their job to know what the letters stand for. I have no need to know what PLDC is but the people who are being sent there should know.

[Freedom Canadian]

Hey Priss.

Do you ever get the urge to make up a bogus acronym that doesn't mean anything just to watch people squirm and try to figure it out from context ? :D

[Cat of Ulthar]

Sometimes jargon is totally uncalled for though. A traffic light in Dutch is a stoplicht. Two syllables. Stop-licht. In the lingo of the maintainers however, it is a VRI, short for verkeersregelinstallatie, or traffic organisation installation. The abbreviation is longer than the normal everyday word.

[Limper]

SNAFU seems to be SOP.

Some FM will fix the problem though.

Though programmers are just as bad.
Ex:
For the SOA over TCP should we SOAP in JSP or ASP?

You should see Military Programers job descriptions and tech specs... its a thing of beautiful conrfusion.

[Varaj]

I used laser, and was actually completely unaware that it was an acronym. As for scuba, I use neither I tend to refer to it as just diving.

I understand that the acronyms make life easier but I expect people who use the acronym as part of their job to know what the letters stand for. I have no need to know what PLDC is but the people who are being sent there should know.

Except they don't need to know the acronyms most of the time (as a programmer) just as you don't need to know what laser or scuba stands for. All that is needed is to know what a laser is, the actual acronym is pretty irrelevant.
Ex: I can never remember what TCP actually stands for (I usually mess it up) but that doesn't mean I can't talk full well about using TCP/IP.
Ex2: Most people actually get the acronym for GED wrong (I was one of them until I posted the wiki link for Cat of Uther) but that they still, generally speaking, know what a GED is.

[Priss]

Except they don't need to know the acronyms most of the time (as a programmer) just as you don't need to know what laser or scuba stands for. All that is needed is to know what a laser is, the actual acronym is pretty irrelevant.
Ex: I can never remember what TCP actually stands for (I usually mess it up) but that doesn't mean I can't talk full well about using TCP/IP.
Ex2: Most people actually get the acronym for GED wrong (I was one of them until I posted the wiki link for Cat of Uther) but that they still, generally speaking, know what a GED is.

Actually most of the programmers I know do know what the most of the acronyms stand for, at least when I've asked them about them. I just think it's damn funny that a lot of the same programmers will then go and throw a bunch of acronyms at laymen just to get them to leave them alone. That was what my programmers comment was about.

And if someone is fucking around with a laser as part of his job I still think he sure as fuck better at least have learned somewhere in his training and at least half remember what those damn letters stand for.

[Varaj]

Actually most of the programmers I know do know what the most of the acronyms stand for, at least when I've asked them about them. I just think it's damn funny that a lot of the same programmers will then go and throw a bunch of acronyms at laymen just to get them to leave them alone. That was what my programmers comment was about.

But obfuscation is fun. :)


And if someone is fucking around with a laser as part of his job I still think he sure as fuck better at least have learned somewhere in his training and at least half remember what those damn letters stand for.

Does your dentist know? :) Heck you didn't know and you use a laser as part of your job.

[Janos]

Does your dentist know? :) Heck you didn't know and you use a laser as part of your job.

Light Amplified something (situated, stimulated, stifled, soemthing like that) Emission Radiation. I just use a laser mouse and know that much!

[Priss]

But obfuscation is fun. :)

Yep, it's funny as hell watching people's eyes glaze over

Does your dentist know? :) Heck you didn't know and you use a laser as part of your job.

No I don't. We don't do any laser work in my office.

[Varaj]

No I don't. We don't do any laser work in my office.

No mice? No laser printer? No cd drives on the computers?

Most acronyms are just like a mouse. They need to know how to use the mouse not what the mouse is made up of.

[The Winslow]

No mice? No laser printer? No cd drives on the computers?

Their computers have mechanical mice, dot matrix printers, and only read 8" floppies.

Seriously, though, many laser mice are really LED mice with misleading marketing. Of course, given that for many people a laser is a sort of bright missile that moves around slowly and that you can dodge easily, packaging confusion between a simple LED and a real laser is understandable.

[Priss]

No mice? No laser printer? No cd drives on the computers?

Most acronyms are just like a mouse. They need to know how to use the mouse not what the mouse is made up of.

Sorry, I thought you meant in dentistry. We have them but our jobs are not building printers and cd drives technology.

[Varaj]

Sorry, I thought you meant in dentistry.

I wasn't clear, my bag. :o

[Priss]

Let me put this way, so you can stop trying to make me change my veiw point. If you are using a laser to correct someone's vision I think you should know what laser stands for. If you just want to use a niffty little piece of technology and and don't care how it works or what it does than you don't need to know.

[Varaj]

Let me put this way, so you can stop trying to make me change my veiw point. If you are using a laser to correct someone's vision I think you should know what laser stands for. If you just want to use a niffty little piece of technology and and don't care how it works or what it does than you don't need to know.


I don't think either one really needs to know, but that's cool. We will probably have to agree to disagree.

[Priss]

I don't think either one really needs to know, but that's cool. We will probably have to agree to disagree.

I can live with that. Ask Janos we have agreed to disagree on a lot of stuff and we're still friends.

:kiss:

[Varaj]

I can live with that. Ask Janos we have agreed to disagree on a lot of stuff and we're still friends.

:kiss:

:hug:

[Janos]

I can live with that. Ask Janos we have agreed to disagree on a lot of stuff and we're still friends.

We have not!

[Priss]

We have not!

We have too!

[Janos]

We have too!

You're just being disagreeable.

[Priss]

You're just being disagreeable.

You'd like to think that wouldn't you?