This and That

[davidschroth]

First

In my role as mail list moderator, I've recently noticed an increasing volume of what I regard as Debora spam. Which is spam where the forged from address appears to have been generated by prepending the string debora to a real e-mail address. It started recently (within the last month), and the volume now dwarfs any other spam I see. I'm a little curious about what's behind it (but not curious enough to bother actually look at the spam).

Second

Isn't about time for the annual list of overused phrases of the past year to start appearing? I'm wondering, based upon internal e-mail I've been seeing lately, if "word-smithing" is going to make the cut. Mind you, I shouldn't complain too much about it - an e-mail about time-recording contained a typo of "word-smithing" that I found immensely amusing.

Third

Last night's review dinner was great fun. I don't know if the food would justify a special trip down to Burnsville, but you have to admire the enthusiasm of the guy running the music trivia contest. The company was first rate, and well-matched to the trivia contest - especially our ringer (Mr. N. Ternet).

Comments

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Debora annoys me, too. My spam filter is very slow to catch on to her tricks. :(

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

The pitiful part is that I use them all in the course of my work:

"Resource" used as shorthand for "human resource," "contractor," or "employee." Of course this one has been with us for years.

"Message" as a verb in a non-technical context: "We need to make sure to message this so that Engineering wants to support us."

"Manage expectations." Ugh.

"Deliverable"

"Smartsourcing"

This year I'm willing to forgive the predominance of "SOA" because the fact of the matter is, SOAs are going to make my life better right soon. I will even overlook Maturity Models. Oh, but "Gartner Quadrant 1" is right out.

Gah - rambling now. Good night!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

First: On the plus side, you have some good stock recommendations. Or avoidations (if you'll allow me to smith a word).

Second: "Word Smith" has been around a long time. There was even a DC comic book by that name, iirc. I haven't seen it used too often.

Third: Indeed, the dinner was fine. There does seem to be a standard 'Merican food menu that starts with fries and encompasses dishes that go well with fries. Bars are good for this sort of thing, since they're salty. The fries, not the bars.

Without Mr. Ternet we still would have done well, but it probably got us the banana kamakazes. As we were leaving, the contest runner said people using "Blackberries" were okay. This wouldn't be allowed in my trivia game at the bar across from where I live. I suppose the rules are looser at a biker bar. Maybe they know Debora.

Renegades

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Last night's review dinner was great fun."

It was fun. We need to say that in the review.

B

Business Speak

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"We need to make sure to message this so that Engineering wants to support us."

Ick.

And "smartsourcing" is worse.

I'm going to send you both an article from the WSJ on this.

B

I'm Begging You To Tell Me

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

...that I don't use this kind of language in Real Life...

the annual list of overused phrases

[mmagidow.livejournal.com]

Back story. Blech and blech!