Conference 7.286::digital

    BOHICA
    
    

    re .0
    
    Jargonese, for "We don't know where we are going, but at least we are
    getting there faster than the competition."
    
    q
    

    HEY-We have it yesterday, today, tomorrow- NOW!!!!  Just name it
    and WE have any flavor you want......

    
    "At Digital, we're making tomorrow yesterday today."
    
    
                               - not mine, but don't recall the source

    .0 Now we all see the vision!!!

    	Well, don't ask me why, but I just spent the better part of my
    Thursday evening trying to deciper these acronyms!  I managed to
    get all but one (SGE - which I imagine is some other vendor's
    network support service like our NAS).  Anyway, for what it's
    worth, here they are:

    				    -davo
    	
p.s.	Ok, so "IBM" was too easy...


IBM =	International Business Machines
SAA =	Systems Application Architecture
ONC =	Open Network Computing [Environment] (from Sun)
NAS =	Network Application Support
SGE =	?
ACE =	Advanced Computing Environment
ODT =	Open Desktop (SCO's Unix Offering based on System V and MOTIF)
SCO =	Santa Cruz Operations
ARC =	Advanced RISC Computing
OSF =	Open Software Foundation
DCE =	Distributed Computing Environment
DME =	Distributed Management Environment
AES =	Application Environment Specification
XPG3=	X/Open Portability Guide (issue #3)
CAE =	Common Applications Environment
EMA =	Enterprise Management Architecture
CDA =	Compound Document Architecture
OMG =	Object Management Group
COS =	Corporation for Open Systems
SOS =	Standards for Open Systems
OSI =	Open Systems Interconnection
ISO =	International Standards Organization
RPC =	Remote Procedure Call
POSIX =	Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments

re: .7

Good gawd!  Somebody give this guy a medal and some mandatory vacation time!

								- paul

    ...well.....that certainly clears it up....
    
"International Business Machines compares Systems Application Architecture to
Open Network Computing [Environment] (from Sun), Network Application Support
and SGE, while Advanced Computing Environment declares Advanced Computing
Environment /Open Desktop (Santa Cruz Operations's Unix Offering based on
System V and MOTIF) and Advanced Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computing
systems will use Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment
and Distributed Management Environment in its Application Environment
Specification, while keeping X/Open  Portability Guide (issue #3) branding in
the Common Applications Environment.  Digital says Enterprise Management
Architecture and Compound Document Architecture will implement Object
Management Group ideas consistent with Corporation for Open Systems and
Standards for Open Systems directives without conflicting with Open Systems
Interconnection and International Standards Organization policies on Remote
Procedure Call technology as defined in the Portable Operating System Interface
for Computer Environments 1003.8 std."

    

  
  Thanks to all, especially .0, .7 & .9 - helped start the day with a smile !
  
  This note just shows what a nonsensical, pretentious and irrelevant business
  this is.
  
  Frank

RE: .5

>>    "At Digital, we're making tomorrow yesterday today."

I believe this originated with Firesign Theatre (We're All Bozos on This
Bus, I think).  

"Please stand on the throbbing yellow line."

K.

    
    believe it or not, there is a whole market segment that wallows in this
    standards bs. We are standards leaders and creator of much of this
    nonsense.  Interestingly enough, all this activity, which does provide
    a fair amount of confusion by design, may very well provide the yellow
    brick road to continued employment!
    
    	bob

    And there was me thinking that IBM stood for, It's Broken Mummy!

    Jamie.

IBM = It's Better Manually

    Like I say ...  confused people are easier to control ...
    
    Steve

    I recall at a West Coast Success Train for Sales and Sales Support (we
    were still in 'software' then), we had unit skits.  They were as you
    might imagine, uniformly bad.  One unit manager broke the mold by
    reading a prepared statement with a straight face.  It was as full of
    acronyms as .0 but quite a bit longer, and described a complete sales  
    cycle totally in <meaningful only to a DECcie> DEC acronyms.  The
    entire audience just sat there dumfounded while I was in hysterics.
    He came up to me later and thanked me for understanding.
    
    karl

    Kirk:  Mr. Scott, you say the warp engines are working now, and we're
    at warp nine, going in circles?
    
    Scott:  Aye cap'n, we're goin' nowherrr, mighty fast.
    

    Re: .-1

    1763 lines: grumph!

    And it doesn't even have

    *TLA	Three Letter Acronym

RE: .5, .12 (Digital is making Tomorrow Yesterday, Today)

Actually, I think it's the slogan of the mythical DEC Useless Products Group
(UPG), from the hilarious series of fake TV commercials done some years back.


RE: .0

No different, really, from any other jargon.  As one who follows this segment
of the market (CASE vaporware and "standards"), I found it perfectly
understandable.  Fortunately, those who deal in real products to run on
real machines to solve real applications, today, can simply ignore all this
static.

--PSW

    Years ago I remember reading a column in a newspaper written by Keith
    Waterhouse. He is a very humorous writer and he had just been to a
    computer show, this was back in the Dark Ages when computers had to sit
    in air conditioned rooms and not on the corner of a desk. 

    He quoted a specification for a piece of equipment, which I read with
    interest, then said something to the effect of; "I defy anyone to make
    any sense of this rubbish" and proceeded to poke fun at it. I thought
    it was well below his usual standard until a friend of mine was reading
    the same column and cracked up totally.

    It seems that sometimes you are too close to the trees to see the wood.

    Jamie.

    re .22
    
    THAT'S IT!!!
                                      
    
    It was the UPG "commericials" ... 
    
    Thanks.

    re .20
    
    Great work on the list..... but what is SGE????????
    

    ...I don't know why I keep being reminded of Monty Python as I'm
    reading this discussion...!!!  This whole acronym mess brings
    new meaning to the saying "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance,
    baffle them with b.s."!!
    
    -Elizabeth

    
    i must give another point of view of this subject, that iam sure will
    be shared by a large number of the listening audience.
     
    I think that we do need these acronyms, and must protect them dearly,
    because without them, what will distinguish the computer industry from 
    any other, less sophisticated ones? 
    
    we must be proud of the large number of acronyms we use and generate, 
    because it shows that we are busy and are doing things, also people 
    who work with computers are smarter than the average population and
    hence we are able to handle these things very easily.
    
    but if customers cant handle it, then we must educate them, i hereby 
    propose that we start new Digital courses on technical acronym for 
    customers, we can call these series of courses "DCAU" as in 
    Dec_Courses_for_Acronym_Understanding, that way, they'll be better able 
    to understand us when they talk to us, and DEC's education and training 
    Division could make some profit also, and every one will be happy.
    
    also, if we start the DCAU courses before our competition get hold of this 
    original idea, we can capture the market initiative with positive side 
    effects resulting from it.
    
    /nasser
    

    Each industry, trade or profession has its own language. Doctors reduce
    dislocations, we have contiguous memory, as well as using words in a
    very specific way we all have a verbal shorthand, acronyms.

    I am always amused  by the misuse of some of these, two examples;
    "AC current" and "PIN number".

    Jamie.

    Right.  Correct usage would be "AC voltage".	:-)

re: .27

maybe we need to establish a Valuing Acronyms Program Office!

;-|								paul

    >>maybe we need to establish a Valuing Acronyms Program Office
    
    The Valuing Acronyms Program In Digital.
    
    John H.

re: .32

there you are!  somebody give this human a vice presidency

;-)

re .0

If your in the Open Systems Arena, you tend to know and use all these
acronyms. I guess I knew all the acronyms in .0 except SGE(!). So it's
not confusing to me, and I'm sure alot of other Open systems people.

However if you're not, I'm sure it must be very confusing! I'm sure I'd
be completely mistifed if .0 was full of IBM MVS terms!

Greg

    Greg, it shouldn't be "I'm sure I'd be completely mistifed if .0 was
    full of IBM MVS terms!"  because IBM uses SMOKE instead of mist.
    
    Sorry tho', I don't know what the SMOKE acronym stands for...
    
    :-)

    
    Thanks Guys for the Translations in my original Note.
    
    I have to admit that I knew most of them anyway, and it was not as
    embarassing as when I joined Digital and was sent to Customer Site
    to ECO the Zonker Cct. 
    
    And then there was a signal on 11/780 print sets called "Kinkajou"
    which I could not trace back to the source.
    
    Nick.