by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/10/12 10:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/10/12/5396849.aspx
It was a real deja vu experience when Kevin pointed this one out to me:
From just released Microsoft security bulletin:
“…formerly known as Wang Image Viewer, handles specifically crafted images files…”
Let me just say, it takes a certain naivety to call one’s software the Wang Image Viewer.
(The actual bulletin was MS07-55.)
Weren't you just reminded of The name of the enum is KeysEx, dammit just a little bit?
Well, never mind -- I wasn't either. This is a different problem....
It actually reminded me more of the issues from Screw language; it's about the dialect, baby! where differences in meaning of sounds and words as they cross languages lead to amusing little stories....
Though I suppose you could blame all of these issues on the fact that geeks never tend to really understand many of the pragmatic meanings that underly their words.
From that point of view, it is much more like the KeysEx/KeySex and PenIsland/PenisLand problem than I was silling to give it credit for, with the other-language component added in for good measure!
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# Mike Dimmick on 12 Oct 2007 12:34 PM:
Makes a bit more sense if you know that the Image Viewer was licensed from Wang Corporation ;) It's named after its founder, Dr Wang, a Chinese-American.
# TemporalBeing on 12 Oct 2007 12:42 PM:
It's basically the problem with using Hungarian notation. When will we finally be rid of it? Until then, it will always be an issue.
# Julian on 12 Oct 2007 12:43 PM:
Wang had at one point (IIRC, ijn the 80s) a somewhat unfortunate company slogan (at least for the UK): "Wang Cares". Definitely not to be spoken quickly!
# Michael S. Kaplan on 12 Oct 2007 12:46 PM:
If my last name was Shwang, I wouldn't call my lost-lasting laptop battery "The Everlasting Shwang 2000" -- you just have to do so market research!
Remember when they were de-listed from the NYSE for that "two class" stock thing and moved over to AMEX? It is too bad we had no blogs back then puns about that would have been off the charts bad (and hilarious!).
# Michael S. Kaplan on 12 Oct 2007 12:51 PM:
What about when the stock was fluctuating -- the news reports were like ED spam talking about how Wang was up but then it fell and so on....
bobby on 12 Jan 2009 10:16 AM:
hahahahaa the names soo funny
referenced by
2008/03/16 FORCE SEEK vs. FORCES EEK
2008/02/14 More on license plates in Bengalūru, and in India