Some acronyms are helpful, some aren't really acronyms at all, and some are just downright cool. The following are the best of the best that the nerds of this world could come up with.
- GNU (GNU's Not Unix)
- FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition)
- LISA (Local Integrated Software Architecture)
- QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System)
- Modem* (Modulator-Demodulator)
GNU, the name of an operating system, is the greatest recursive acronym of them all and a neat animal to boot. FUBAR, which predates the modern computer era, sounds great when expressed at high decibels and it's also the title for a fantastic Canadian mockumentary film. Apple users fell in love with their Lisa computers in the 1980s only to discover her name is officially really an acronym. QDOS, the predecessor to Microsoft's DOS operating system, has an appropriate title. Well, *modem may not strictly be an acronym, but there's nothing nerdlier than saying you're busy configuring a "twenty-eight-point-eight kilobaud modulator-demodulator."
Comments
jupiter - March 9, 2004 4:50 am
The Gnu is also my favorite - and it's not als wild as you might think. Actually they're kind of dumb. I took a <a href=http://www.safaricorp.com/en/animals_wildebeest.html>picture from an old gnu</a> which was separated from it's herd an stood at the same place for 3 days (!) It appeared very friendly and did not even mind me approaching it up to 30 ft.
dave m - March 9, 2004 9:28 am
i'd add GUI (gooey) Graphic User Interface to the list.
Rob - March 9, 2004 11:07 am
GNU's my favorite. I never get tired of recursive acronyms. WINE is another good one (WINE Is Not (an) Emulator).
Shot - March 9, 2004 12:19 pm
C’mon, I know these aren’t strictly computer-oriented (although can be used as such), but an acronym blog entry without the two of WWII’s best, <acronym title="situation normal, all fucked up">SNAFU</acronym> and <acronym title="fuck you, Jim, I got my orders">FUJIGMO</acronym>? ;o)
Nick Burka - March 9, 2004 12:29 pm
Some other good ones:
<ul>
<li>WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)</li>
<li>XUL (XML-based User Interface Language) but pronounced: Zool like in Ghostbusters!</li>
<li>FAT (File Allocation Table)</li>
</ul>
Here's a good list I found after I wrote mine down for anyone who's interested.
Stephen DesRoches - March 9, 2004 1:22 pm
Plus the Chat Word Dictionary
Will Pate - March 9, 2004 5:41 pm
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is unusually poetic as the word "cascading" suggests water flowing down over smooth rocks, at least to me.
A notable stinker is WiFi (Wireless Fidelity). If anyone can explain how it stuck as a name for wireless connections, I'd love to know.
Also see <a title="Net Lingo Dictionary of Internet Terms" href="http://www.netlingo.com/">NetLingo</a> for a huge list of geeky internet related terms.
Rob - March 9, 2004 7:49 pm
Oh geez, I forgot SCSI ("skuzzy"). Totally a cute one.
Martin - March 9, 2004 7:54 pm
Try the Acronym finder.
Chris Wilkinson - March 10, 2004 8:35 am
TWAIN - Technology Without An Interesting Name.
The driver used to acquire images usually from image devices (scanners, etc).
Chris Wilkinson - March 10, 2004 8:39 am
And next time I'll read the previous post regarding TWAIN.
Oh well. My dreams, beliefs, and trust... all shattered.
Al O'Neill - March 11, 2004 11:24 am
grep
from: site
The original UNIX text editor "ed" has a construct g/re/p, where "re" stands for a regular expression, to Globally search for matches to the Regular Expression and Print the lines containing them. This was so often used that it was packaged up into its own command, thus named "grep". According to Dennis Ritchie, this is the true origin of the command.
Techno Babble - March 11, 2004 11:27 pm
My 2 favs are.
PINE - Email Client
Pine Is Not Elm
And
PCMCIA
People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
Matt McQuaid - March 15, 2004 1:08 am
Does QWERTY count as an acronym? It could be if you apply the Computer-Related Acronym Postulate... also known as CRAP.
Mike - March 16, 2004 10:09 pm
What about HURD?
<blockquote>Hurd is an acronym for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons". Hird, in turn, is an acronym for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth".</blockquote>
A double recursive acronym. What will they think of next?