Phrases I am truly tired of
I would so love to ban these particular phrases from my hearing...
Perception is reality
At the end of the day.
Loosely coupled
Believe me
Emergent phenomenon
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I would so love to ban these particular phrases from my hearing...
Emergent phenomenon
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Opinions expressed here by Nathan T. Freeman are not necessarily those of his employer. However, there's a decent chance they are, so check with them if you really want to know.
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Since I don't know, how it came onto your list, I cannot really argue, but I try nonetheless...
I'm convinced of OOP (as you know) - even in LotusScript. But OOP isn't just enough. You have to add some good OO Design Principles to the mix. And one of the principles is about loosely coupling. I it just makes sense to me: the more connections you have between modules or between classes, the more dependencies you have, which can break or make extensions more difficult.
Thomas
Posted by Thomas Bahn At 07:01:15 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Timothy Briley At 07:01:58 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
@1 - Thomas, it's just abused, really. To me, "loosely coupled" has become another way of saying "we didn't want to document our connection points." Because what ends up happening is this overly-abstract idea when the actual connections themselves are spun out to some external definition, and creating THAT ends up becoming the programming exercise. Instead of writing a translation layer as a PROGRAM, it has to be written as an XML Descriptor or something.
It's just become a term in my mind that's most closely associated with being incomplete.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 07:14:10 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Thomas Bahn At 07:24:34 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Past History (I prefer future history)
Social Networking (already overused)
Web 2.0, 3.0, etc
Posted by Susan Bulloch At 07:33:19 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
"Utilize"
Can't you just say "use?"
I thought about "social networking" but it really doesn't bother me. What does bother me is it's step-child niece: emergent. "Emergent phenomenon" has become the new version of "instinct" -- a weak substitute for "we have no idea how this happens so we're going to chalk it up to something that's too complex to describe, but we know happens because we see it all the time."
And a long standing one for me (that fortunately is kinda rare these days): "I could care less."
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 07:37:39 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Ed Maloney At 07:42:30 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
unskilled workers
entry not found in index
unpledged superdelegate
digital rights management
Posted by Tim Tripcony At 07:48:34 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Oh, all right, seriously:
Permanent, full-time employee (permanent? really?!?)
Internet Explorer
Have a magical day!
functional specification (typically neither)
Posted by Rob McDonagh At 08:31:25 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
True Fact
Posted by David Bailey At 09:04:37 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
"run with it"....i.e. (I want you to 'run' with some task or problem)
Which is short for...."I can't actually be bothered to tell you what I want, just make you're own judgment. If it doesn't match my expectations I'll blame you...if its turns our better than I expected, then I'll claim the credit...."
Posted by Tony Palmer At 09:07:37 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
As a response from software vendors that when you ask them if a new solution that they're looking to implement is going to FUBAR current implementations of existing "standard" usage.
Posted by Chris Toohey At 09:21:17 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Microsoft
Exchange
Twitter
Social networking
Social productivity
From business:
Synergize
Out of the box (used instead of outside the box)
Outside the box
Functionally elegant
From other sources:
Irregardless (I know it's a word, it still sounds wrong)
Very/Extremely unique
Dude
Like
LOL (people actually spell it out when talking)
Posted by Charles Robinson At 09:23:10 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Dan Sickles At 09:27:37 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
"Have you read Nathan's Blog about....."
Posted by Mary Beth Raven At 10:30:02 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Susan Bulloch At 11:19:46 PM On 05/05/2008 | - Website - |
'time box'
'milestone'
'IBM Marketing'
---* Bill
Posted by Mild Bill At 03:01:04 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
'same difference'
'in the fullness of time'
'but the function keys don't comply with industry standard'
'Notes sucks' with no justification or specifics
Ian
Posted by Ian Randall At 04:17:02 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
"budget constraints"
Oh I'm surprised nobody mentioned:
"Notes is dead"
Posted by Pedro Quaresma At 05:25:07 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Steve Castledine At 05:30:34 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
I used, many years ago, to work with a chap named Alf whose favourite expression was at the end of the day. He would say it towards the end of any discussion during which he had failed to maintain the upper hand in order a) to bring that discussion to a close and b) to prove his point. At the end of the day does have an air of finality about it, after all.
It invariably had neither effect, but Alf just went right on saying "at the end of the day" in the hope that, one day, it might just work.
Why mention this? Two reasons.
Firstly, Alf's tenacity in continuing to use that expression, despite its very obvious failures to convey any real meaning or to clinch any argument, brought about in me a lifelong hatred of at the end of the day. It would be at the top of my list too.
Secondly, having remembered Alf who has long been reunited with his Maker, another fonder memory of him popped into my head.
Alf's office was in the bowels of the factory, well away from office areas, so people wishing to speak with him (having resigned themselves to yet another recitation of at the end of the day) would usually do so by telephone rather than by walking down to the factory to see him.
Frequently, it would not be Alf himself who would answer the 'phone but rather it would be one of his deputies. Alf was a busy man and was rarely in his office. There was a stock question which we would always ask when telephoning Alf and finding someone other than he at the end of the 'phone.
"Is Alf handy?"
Perhaps as a measure of the esteem in which Alf was generally held, there was a stock answer to this question too, which anyone answering Alf's 'phone would always use without fail.
"Well, he built his own bathroom cabinet."
Posted by Chris Linfoot At 05:57:58 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
@8 - You've reminded me of "Object variable not set." I could go the rest of my days without seeing that totally useless message that doesn't give me the NAME of said variable.
@10, 11, 17 & 18 - Excellent. Agreed wholeheartedly.
@7 - I should probably hate "low hanging fruit," but I have to confess, I use it all the time. It's my favorite term for fast, big impact changes to code.
@13 - Agreed on "irregardless." I haven't managed to break the habit of using "dude," though.
@15 - WIN!
@20 - I guarantee you've heard me use "loosely coupled." But I likely meant it ironically. I use it on DP calls as code for "half-baked" all the time.
@19 - I almost put "trust me" instead of "believe me." I decided that there are people I'm willing to trust, but there's no one I *believe* but myself.
"Trust me on this" is usually a clanging bell indicating that the speaker is not to be trusted!
@21 - I have to confess, I wouldn't have been able to stop making jokes in which I said "hey Willy!" or talked about the delicious flavor of cats with a guy named "Alf" hanging around.
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 06:52:51 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
I'm not gonna lie
It is what it is
Posted by Don McNally At 07:41:03 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Devin Olson At 09:56:36 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Brian Miller At 10:05:44 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
* "factoid" -- which really means unverified or inaccurate information.
* the use of an apostrophe and s ('s) to indicate a plural
Posted by Mike McGarel At 11:00:49 AM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Bob At 06:21:34 PM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
I never get tired of asking people what they mean exactly when they some out with this one.
Posted by Eoin Meaney At 10:55:05 PM On 05/06/2008 | - Website - |
"Webify"
"P2P"
"Social Networking"
Posted by Scott Gentzen At 06:37:06 AM On 05/07/2008 | - Website - |
"1 year (or any frame of time)down the line.."
"in the pipeline"
Posted by Farooq At 07:20:36 AM On 05/12/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Mike Lazar At 09:36:07 PM On 05/12/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Mike Lazar At 09:39:04 PM On 05/12/2008 | - Website - |
Scalability, reliability, anything that ends in -ability
Robust (unless you only taking about Italian food)
Enterprise
Deploy
Integrated
Desktop client machine (to them, it's a "computer"!)
From my own personal list:
podcast
webcast
subprime
'pain at the pump'
Posted by Jess Stratton At 10:40:01 AM On 05/13/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Brett Patterson At 01:16:04 PM On 05/13/2008 | - Website - |
One my brother-in-law uses regularly, "To tell you the truth..." or "To be honest with ya'...," which implies that he was originally intending not be honest.
One I use too often, "Frankly,..."
Finally, one I'm getting really tired of hearing: "We have to do more with less." Like that's just something each employee can decide to do one day. "Oh hey, good idea! I never thought of trying to do _more_ before. You know what's holding me back, though? It's my team. If we could just ditch half of them, I bet we would get twice as much done around here."
Posted by Keil Wilson At 02:48:02 PM On 05/13/2008 | - Website - |