OK I know this could get some votes down, but as a time waster, who has some good Acronyms.
My Favourite:
TWaIN: Technology Without an Interesting Name
views:
2339answers:
73I use this one a lot. Commonly during discussions about end users.
Phil.Wheeler
2009-09-23 10:30:15
+2
A:
The recursive acronyms are (briefly) amusing, e.g., PNG: "PNG Not GIF". Worth half a snort, at least.
Jason Etheridge
2008-09-25 06:35:03
A:
IBM, in their early days, acronymized everything. So they had an AMD, air movement device, because it was so hard to spell fan. I don't know if this is urban myth or not.
paxdiablo
2008-09-25 06:36:27
+16
A:
OK, so it wasn't the real definition, but PCMCIA once got labeled "People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms"
Andrew
2008-09-25 06:43:25
+7
A:
POJO (Plain Old Java Object) kinda cracked me up the first time I heard it...
KG
2008-09-25 06:44:14
+13
A:
In a code sense, I definitely prefer KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).
-Nicholas
Nicholas Flynt
2008-09-25 06:45:44
A word? You do realize that kiss is a word, don't you? That makes KISS an acronym, which makes it off topic among most of those other answers.
Windows programmer
2008-10-03 04:17:34
+34
A:
From the depths of customer support hell ....
PEBKAC = Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair
deadbug
2008-09-25 06:48:19
I now find myself wishing you could have polls in questions purely to see what % of people were hitting this question to give that answer
insin
2008-09-25 07:46:01
PICNIC (problem in chair not in keyboard) - way better due to being a real word :)
Aidan Ryan
2008-10-10 17:31:41
+1
A:
IBM has their CUPRMID ratings for software releases:
Capability
Usability
Performance
Reliability
Maintainability
Instalability
Documentation
This has actually gotten a lot more complicated since I left the project management side of software development.
paxdiablo
2008-09-25 06:48:20
+6
A:
Gnu's Not UNIX (GNU) and Xinu is not UNIX (XINU) are two recursive ones that I liked.
paxdiablo
2008-09-25 06:49:22
A:
Will M
2008-09-25 06:49:25
+5
A:
BAD - broken as designed, program that matches the design perfectly, but the design is rubbish.
paxdiablo
2008-09-25 06:53:05
You too? Giving a correct answer? What is this world coming to when 3 of the 50 answers are actually valid?
Windows programmer
2008-10-03 04:18:21
+5
A:
DDT, the dynamic debugging tool (from CP/M if I remember correctly), was funny besause it was used for killing bugs, as was the chemical DDT when sprayed on crops.
paxdiablo
2008-09-25 06:54:59
+1
A:
IJW, "It Just Works"
Microsoft's term for Managed Code to unmanaged Code transition.
mattlant
2008-09-25 06:57:12
+4
A:
Back in the day, EMACS was "eight megabytes and continuously swapping", but that doesn't seem such a bad thing any more.
And ACID always sounds more fun than it is.
BTW. Programmers are n00bs when it comes to slang abbreviations.
Unsliced
2008-09-25 06:59:58
It's interesting actually that the acronym has more syllables than the phrase for which it stands, and yes, it definitely takes longer to pronounce.
Marcin
2008-12-05 21:56:27
In German it's shorter was well. There's a nice Wikipedia article about the pronounciation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_%22www%22
Joachim Sauer
2009-02-05 10:14:56
+30
A:
RTFM (Read the ....)
I wish their was a button in stackoverflow which has RTFM on it. Lots of questions could then be answered with one push on a button.
Frans
2008-09-25 07:04:56
There are plenty of questions that can be answered by reading the manual or the spec, but sometimes people don't mind answering questions if they already know the answer and know the asker would spend much more time trying to find it in the documentation.
Albert
2008-12-05 21:33:15
A:
An old company I used to work for had a 3D surface modelling package called SWANS.
= Surfaces With A Nice Shape.
Greg Whitfield
2008-09-25 07:07:34
+10
A:
WINE Is Not an Emulator
MCSE - Minesweeper Consultant, Solitaire Expert
But some of the favs around work are not so programming based but highly relevant for a client-driven environment:
BLGF - Bad Luck, Get F...razzeled
GLWT - Good Luck With That
Slace
2008-09-25 07:20:11
+11
A:
I like YAGNI. I always say it to myself when coding. And I like the way it sounds :D
Rob Cooper
2008-09-25 07:23:22
A:
Oh, and of course STFW.. One that will become increasingly historic thanks to StackOverflow. Soon people will think the web is StackOverflow as people lose the ability to Google :D
Rob Cooper
2008-09-25 07:25:08
+14
A:
TLA - Three Letter Acronym! Many times in a tech meeting I'll ask (with an innocent look on my face) "What's the TLA for that?" Some get it, most don't. TLA is the Three Letter Acronym for Three Letter Acronym. Gets a laugh or a snort every time.
I actually worked on a project where TLA stood for Top Level Architecture. I think the chief architect who invented the acronym pulled a joke on management, but he never admitted it.
starblue
2009-02-18 12:56:59
With the irony being it's not actually an acronym, it's an abbreviation.
Unsliced
2009-12-09 12:27:56
Wow, another correct answer, therefore disqualified from keeping company with the vast majority of these answers.
Windows programmer
2008-10-03 04:19:38
+2
A:
A system I worked on had components called the SPU and the SHTS. When pronounced phonetically, they said a lot about the system.
metao
2008-09-25 07:55:40
+13
A:
CDD = Career Driven Development
Basically it means choosing the technologies for a project based on what will look best on your CV. :)
cletus
2008-09-25 08:05:07
It's Disney's invention and it does not mean ANYTHING. Ferruccio: Your version is the most common for this.
furtelwart
2009-02-18 12:38:35
+8
A:
I18N- "Internationalization" (I followed by 18 letters followed by an N)L10N- "Localization" (L followed by 10 letter followed by an N)Z-1A- "A" (Z followed by -1 letter followed by an A)
Motti
2008-09-25 09:04:48
+1
A:
My favorites
UTFSE = Use The F**ng Search-Engine
FWIW = For whatever it's worth
GASMOP = Go and sniff my open port
SNAFU = Situation Normal All F**ed Up
ZOMG = OMG with Z pressed instead of Shift
DeeCee
2008-09-25 09:36:40
We actually had a brief time at one place I worked that they wanted to create a Special High-Intensity Team. Thankfully that idea got nixed.
John Biazo
2009-02-18 19:25:53
+9
A:
As a variation of PEBKAC there is the ever popular PICNIC - Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.
Jason Z
2008-09-26 15:04:18
Hey, is this answer allowed? I mean PICNIC, being a word, being an acronym and everything...
Windows programmer
2008-10-03 04:11:21
A:
TDDD - ToDo Driven Development. Also, from broadcast but IT applicable
- FUD - F'n Useless Device.
- BITFU - Blew It The F' Up
CAD bloke
2008-10-03 03:28:37
+14
A:
without FUBAR where would all our variable names for code samples come from?
Hamish Smith
2008-10-03 03:38:08
That's actually a part - in the DEC PDP-11/34, there was a Failed UniBus Adapting Resistor
David
2009-06-15 17:19:06
+3
A:
I like SAX = Simple API XML. So its a three letter acronym for "Simple Application Programming Interface Extensible Markup Language".
Andrew
2008-10-03 03:43:08
A:
Slightly off topic, but close ...
Unix - find processes a specific notorious user is running that are slowing down your perfectly fast server ...
ps -fu [username]
SKapsal
2008-10-03 03:51:42
+7
A:
I always liked how www (nine syllables) was a "short form" for World Wide Web (three syllables).
Graeme Perrow
2008-10-03 03:55:13
+2
A:
More recursive acronyms:
There was an emacs clone called Eine ("one" in German) which stood for "Eine Is Not Emacs". The next version was called Zwei ("two" in German), which was "Zwei Was Eine, Initially".
Graeme Perrow
2008-10-03 03:57:29
There was a CP/M text editor called Mince: Mince Is Not Complete Emacs
Ferruccio
2008-12-06 01:15:40
A:
ESO = Equipment Superior to Operator
and from the old NeXT days...
YAPP = Yet Another Preview Previewer
noizetoys
2008-10-03 04:04:26
A:
For Star Wars geeks: Novell used to use C3PO: Custom 3rd Party Object.
Graeme Perrow
2008-10-03 04:31:14
A:
EDS - Eternal Downward Spiral
HP - Hardly Processes
IBM - Idiotic Business Models
_ande_turner_
2008-10-03 23:20:53
+1
A:
PICNIC - Problem In Chair, Not In Computer
Support guy 1: "Hey you know that issue I was troubleshooting?"
Support guy 2: "Yeah, seemed like a tough nut"
Support guy 3: "Nope, turned out to be a PICNIC!"
Aidan Ryan
2008-10-10 17:30:11
+2
A:
PITA - Pain in the A$$
Me: The iPhone Audio Services API is such a PITA Someone else: mmmmm pita's....
whoisjake
2008-10-10 17:33:46
I always thought this stood for "Just a Big Ol' Disk" since it represents multiple disks as one disk, but doesn't provide any real RAID features.
muusbolla
2009-07-02 21:14:36
+1
A:
I'm actually shocked nobody already mentioned this. I guess you guys didn't get the memo huh?
annakata
2008-12-05 21:34:16
A:
Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister (aka Perl)
Gross Regular Expression Parser (aka grep)
SqlACID
2008-12-06 02:09:15
SECAM (france) - System Entirely Contrary to American MethodPAL (uk) - Perfection At Last
Martin Beckett
2009-10-21 22:05:10
A:
One from 2001 A Space Odyssey:
HAL: Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Computer
For those who've not seen the film the computer becomes convinced that the people on the ship he's running need to be eradicated to ensure the success of the mission!
Then someone worked out that if you add one letter to H, A and L you get IBM...
Arthur C Clarke always claimed this was purely coincidental.
nullnvoid
2009-01-09 05:43:39
A:
- MEF - Managed Extensibility Framework cause it sounds like meth (Go and read Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) – Very slick, but is it just me? - it's takes the joke too far)
- LOBS: Line of business system. Current project has a LobsTester class and we refer a lot to lobs (said as the word not the acronym) which is odd for me since my wife calls me that sometimes (dunno what that says about me).
- strIP: String IP - Years back I was developing a system which counted bandwidth based on IP addresses and stored it in the database and we use hungarian notation for the DB columns so we ended up with Strip. So if you needed to check what people where using you would look up their strip ;)
Robert MacLean
2009-02-18 12:22:44
A:
Microsoft XNA - XNA's Not an Acronym
That's another recursive one, Pax
Tor Haugen
2009-02-18 13:04:26
A:
The help desk guys used to refer to the database of incoming jobs as Fundamental Understanding of Computer Knowledge. Then, when a job was being worked on, it was being F**Ked.
monkeypushbutton
2009-02-25 20:01:52
A:
Another nested acronym:
VHDL = VHSIC hardware description language
where
VHSIC = very high speed integrated circuit
Steve Melnikoff
2009-10-21 21:56:11
A:
CICS = covered in chocolate sauce
It's an IBM mainframe tool but I never met anyone who knew what it really stood for.
Martin Beckett
2009-10-21 22:01:25
A:
I always got a kick out of this one:
SATAN: Security Administrator's Tool for Analyzing Networks
I have the old book sitting on a shelf in my office and everyone gives me a strange look when they see it for the first time.
Chris Kloberdanz
2009-10-21 22:06:57
A:
All of my software ships with DWIWNWIS which stands for
Do What I Want Not What I Say
For example, a user calls me and asked “Why has the application made all these records up” I answer “Because you used the bulk insert function to make all these records” They say “Ohh well now I remember I did do that, but I did not mean to cant the system tell?”
Hence they want the system to do what they want not what they say
Kevin Ross
2009-12-23 12:47:45