Thursday, June 30, 2005

Let's go out for cold dead fish

To read the New York Times online, you must register. But registration is free, and David Pogue's weekly Circuits column (also available to Times members by email subscription) is one of the reasons to sign up.

This week, Pogue presents readers' comments about his June 13 column on the inanity of technology product names such as "IEEE-139" and "802.11."

"Engineers are responsible," one reader said, hypothesizing: "If HP were selling sushi, they would describe it as cold dead fish -- accurate and unappetizing."

"No matter what anyone else tells you, PCMICIA stands for People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms," another quipped.

Pogue also heard from Michael Jonas Teener, one of the engineers who named FireWire, and passes along the story-behind-the story of how that engineering team got it right.

Finally, Pogue offers a link to Scott Kelby's new spoof ad for the iPod Flea and its many, many accessory kits, including the Flea Collar. The spoof video hasn't turned up anywhere else online, so, once again, Pogue has the exclusive. (For whatever reason, I had to click on the link three times, but it launched eventually, and was worth it ).

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