[NTLUG:Discuss] The "virus"

[Gregory A. Edwards]

Shane Wickson wrote:
> 
> This is just one of my other pet peeves about popular media and such.  If
> you are looking for practical info about this new program bringing every
> computer to its knees, then delete this and go on about your
> business.  *WARNING: shades of my millenium rant appear here*
> 
> 
> Shane Wickson
> 

Shane,

I agree with your rant about correct terminology but like many other
terms in our industry I've given up to the masses and just use what they
feel comfortable with.

People in general consider a virus anything that screws up their system
and came from an external source.

Some of the other terms that I've bowed to the masses over:

multi-processing and multi-tasking: sorry no computer with 1 processor
can do either of these, the correct term is concurrent

hacker: I still don't like to be called a hacker as I view the term in
it's original context of someone who illegally breaks (hacks) into a
computer system

some sayings/terms that I chuckle over:

MS Windows: Xerox user screen, sorry but putting a ripped off Xerox gui
on top of DOS is not inovative

visionary: I wish I'd thought of selling IBM on the idea of giving me
exclusive rights to put an operating system I could buy dirt cheap on
their (true) inovation and then claim that I am technically creative
rather than a good con artist, BTW who were those technically challenged
guys Kernighan and Anderson

internet revolution: I was on the Internet before 1984

free internet: only to those that never paid US Income Taxes, IMHO best
use of tax money in my lifetime

netapps: timeshare, so we have come full circle

e-commerce: electronic catalog, swap 800 numbers for online order forms

Netscape: Mosaic, best example of crime does pay if an IPO is involved,
I never did hear how much UOI got to drop the suit

That little project in the University of Illinois has not created a new
world it just altered the old one we had.  They made it cheaper and
faster for catalog and timeshare businesses to reach the masses.  Don't
get me wrong I think these are great things, especially since I make a
good living with computers.  I'm just pointing out that terms change not
because their definition changes but more because their use changes.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc.
http://www.nas-inet.com