I just told someone I'd VNC into their machine. It can be very embarrassing when someone asks you what that stands for and you don't know.
Throwing around terms like PHP, SQL, ASP, ESX, XNA, XHTML, AJAX etc. you need to be careful not to let an acronym into your vocabulary without knowing its meaning.
I would have asked what your favorite acronym was, but that's already been done.
So what acronyms do you frequently use without knowing the meaning of?
I still don't know what XSLT stands for. I'm pretty sure there's an "template" in there, and likely an "eXtensible", too.. "stylesheet" ..?
REST comes to mind...I still don't fully understand what it is but I know it's important.
PCMCIA - because People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.
I don't...throwing around acronyms without knowing their meaning is like certain candidates calling themselves "Mavericks".
isn't surprised that this was voted down
Let me clarify for people who took offense to this. "Maverick" doesn't mean just going against the grain, it implies that you're an anarchist and trying to cause chaos and confusion. By caling themselves "Mavericks" they're saying they are anarchists.
So throwing around acronyms without knowing their meaning is like running around saying vote for me because I'm an anarchist, and thinking it's a good thing.
Nobody knows what CICS really stands for except "Covered In Chocolate Sauce"
TWAIN is (officially) Thing Without An Interesting Name.
I just read yesterday what CAPTCHA stands for, and now I can't remember.
All the memory standards - you start simple with DRAM, but then there's just get more and more. SDRAM, RDRAM, FPM, EDO, and oh look, I see we've got ZRAM and TTRAM coming up.
There are many acronyms that I've used that I didn't know the long version of the name.
However, I think there is a large difference between not knowing what the acronym means and what it is.
POP3 (Post Office Protocol v3) - I didn't know that, and if someone asks me what POP3 is, I wouldn't tell them that, I would tell them it is a communication protocol used for retrieving e-mail from an e-mail server.
... and how many also use the word "acronym" without knowing what it really means?
VNC, PHP, SQL, ASP, ESX, XNA, XHTML ... not acronyms.
AJAX ... acronym.
:)
XML.
The only thing I know about XML is that it's like violence. If it's not working for you, then you're not using enough of it.
Probably the acronym that is most widely used by people without knowing the meaning of it is the zip of zip code.
ISDN - I Still Don't kNow...usually I know the meaning of the abbreviation but I am always amazed when I discover that the pronunciation of the ancronym is different from what I said in my head. S-Q-L vs. Sequel for example.
I do not know what the following acronyms stand for:
in fact, I've never heard of any of them!
Irving and Richard Kind have maintained BABEL since before the Web just for this purpose:
BABEL : A Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms
http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html
One of the best, if not the best, listing of computer industry acronyms you'll ever find.
After 4yrs of .NET development I didn't know what SDK or IDE meant until 2mths ago.
My answer is... I don't really use those acronyms, which I don't understand, FREQUENTLY. I'm even trying to avoid it at all. Because if I had to mention some acronym, because of my job, study, hobby, or I don't know, whatever, it would be like, for example, let's imagine following situation (phone call):
- Hello, Veryhuge company, inc, my name is Jen, can I help you?
- Yes, this is Matt (or someone), from BI-integration company, can we offer you some of our BI-solutions for your business?
- I don't know, what is BI-soulutions?
- It's kind of... hmm... arr.. we are just shiped new.. BI-platform...
- What's BI?
- I don't know, but it's very useful for your business! And...
- Hm.. we don't need it, goodbye!
Kind a stupid, isn't it? So, if you working in some area (which requires using acronyms), or whatever, you should know, that SDK means Software Development Kit, not the Super-Duper Kid. You should known the meaning, or otherwise, HOW can you ever correctly use something if you don't even know, what is this, or what's it's meaning, or "what for this little red button"?? I suppose, this is question of the competence in some area.
A client of ours actually uses so many abbreviations and acronyms within the company that they have an intranet site dedicated to keeping track of all of them called...
CHAOS ([Client-name] Acronym Online Search)
I think I'm going to start pronouncing all programming abbreviations so that they will all be acronyms. It will make me sound much more intelligent. Try it yourself: http, xhtml, css, aspx, tfs, svn, vss, msdn, js, ie, xml, xsl, w3c (that's a tricky one, I'd pronounce the '3' like an 'e'), dll, cvs, png. People around you will feel dumber for not pronouncing them correctly like you have. ;-)
"OOP". Everybody seems to know what object-oriented programming is, but nobody ever seems to agree on it. I've been left wondering if it means anything more than "programming in a style that I like".
ADSL. I try not to speak any acronyms, but I know I've let this one slip out.
I could never use an acronym without first knowing its meaning. For me its just like using any ordinary word without knowing its meaning, it's bound to bite you in the ass at some stage.
I'm constantly wondering what all those TPS Reports exactly are, but I have to write them all the time.