End of ADS-L Digest - 27 Dec 1997 to 28 Dec 1997 ************************************************ Subject: ADS-L Digest - 28 Dec 1997 to 30 Dec 1997 There are 4 messages totalling 255 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Words of the Year 97: Branwyn nominations 2. ruddle 3. Free set of American Speech and PADS 4. Queen's English ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 13:42:06 EST From: AAllan Subject: Words of the Year 97: Branwyn nominations All right, ADS members and ADS-Lers, it's time to get serious about Words of the Year 1997. We meet in New York at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 9 to consider nominations and at 4:45 p.m. to vote for our favorites. Your responses are invited to the following list from: Gareth Branwyn garethb2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aol.com, http://home.earthlink.net/~garethb2/ Contributing editor, Wired Co-author of the _Happy Mutant Handbook_ and _Internet Power Toolkit_ Author of _Jargon Watch: A Pocket Dictionary for the Jitterati_ (HardWired) --------------------------------- Here are my candidates for words of the year. Not surprisingly, most of them are related to computers and the Internet. The most significant ones are: cybercasting, DVD, legacy, millennium bug, Network Computer, PCS, and push. My favorites are: cradle cams, geeksploitation, Salinger effect, serendipity search, and spamouflage. avatar - Used in graphical chat rooms such as The Palace and 3D virtual worlds to refer to the graphical representation of a user. The computer use of the term is thought to have originated with Carnegie-Mellon University UNIX hackers (to describe someone with "root" access) and was later popularized (in the VR sense) in Neal Stephenson's 1992 sci-fi novel _Snow Crash_. chopsocky - Movie industry slang for the currently-popular Hong Kong hyper- violent action films that enjoyed an explosion of popularity in the US and Europe in '97 and crossed over into American films such as "Rumble in the Bronx" and "Supercop." cradle cams, kiddie cams - The increasingly popular Web cameras being installed in daycare centers and grade schools so that parents can monitor their children from their desktops at home and work. Video cameras that are set up surreptiously to monitor nannies and babysitters are called "nanny cams." cybercasting, webcasting, netcasting - "Broadcasting" audio and/or video over the Internet in real time (using programs like RealAudio). The technology for doing this has been slow in developing (esp. as modem speeds are still relatively slow), but advances in RealAudio/Video in 1997 caused producers and consumers to take cybercasting much more seriously. digipet - The generic term for electronic toys that simulate a real-world pet, requiring constant care and feeding. The most widely known digipet is the Japanese Tamagocchi (or Tamagotchi). DVD ["Digital Versatile Disc" (or "Disk"), orig. "Digital Video Disc"] - Optical disk technology that is expected to replace the CD-ROM and the audio compact disc in the next few years. A DVD holds hold 28 times more information that a CD-ROM. geeksploitation - Taking advantage of twenty-something digital workers, flushed with pioneer enthusiasm and willing to work long hours if bolstered by junk food, flexible work schedules, and no dress code. "Rolling Stone," "MSNBC's The Site," and "Nightline" all did stories about geeksploitation in '97. handhelds - Digital devices such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), electronic organizers, and handheld PCs (PCs that run Windows CE). Any computers that can be held in one hand. Also "palmtop." legacy (programmers, systems, programs, data, etc.) - Of or pertaining to technology that existed prior to a certain period of time. Dealing with legacy computer systems and data has always been a problem (i.e. translating old files and programs to current computer technology), but the situation has become more pronounced because of the Y2K bug and the need to modify old computer programs to accept year 2000+ dating. See "millennium bug." micropayments, microtransactions, micromoney - Scheme for transferring small amounts of money from a credit card account each time you access intellectual property on the Internet. millennium bug, Y2K bug, Year 2000 Problem, Year 2000 crisis, digital doomsday - Of or pertaining to the problem that exists in computers and embedded computer controllers (in machines and appliances) that cannot handle dates after 1999. At 12:01 Jan. 1, 2000, computers (and other digital devices) that are not Y2K-ready will think it's Jan. 1, 1900 and become confused, if not stop working altogether. Network Computer (or "NC") - A pared-down, low-cost computer that has no disk drives, no expansion slots and is centrally served with software over a network where datafiles are also stored. The idea of the NC is to make a cheap computer for consumers who can't afford a regular PC and for businesses that need multiple low-cost computers on an office network. A "NetPC" is a thin client that's similar to an NC, but with a slightly different set of standards for its components (and different computer manufacturers invested in it). See "thin client." -palooza - The Lollapalooza "alternative" rock festival has spawned many imitators and events that poke fun by adding "-palooza" to their name. Witness: Lesbopalooza, Noise-a-palooza, Lounge-a-palooza, Tele-palooza, Estropalooza, Alapalooza (as in Weird Al). PCS (Personal Communications Services) - The next generation of wireless communications technologies. PCS offers mobile phone, pager, Web, and email services andspan effect, Greenspan factor - The aftermath of comments made by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on the U.S. or world economy. "The post-Greenspan euphoria has subsided around most of the globe." push - The automatic delivery of customized Internet content to one's desktop. Push was certainly the most over-hyped technology in '97, gaining attention (and investments) from media companies and advertisers who saw an opportunity to make the Net more like television, a technology with which they're already comfortable and have a proven track record. Many push companies that emerged at the beginning of the year seemed to have folded or switched gears by the end of it, and the breathless enthusiasm of the computer trades and magazines like Wired seems to have all but vanished. Push spawned a number of new terms applied to the Net such as "channels" (for areas of a website or a push service), "networks" (groups of websites), and "interstitials" (ads that pop up as you move from one webpage to another). The opposite of push is pull (where you go out and get the material you desire rather than having it sent automatically). thin client - A client computer in a client/server relationship that performs very little data processing. The processing is done on the server side and the client only processes the output to the screen. This is called a thin client/fat server environment. An X Window terminal would be an example of a thin client. A desktop PC is called a fat client. In 1997, the term thin client became synonymous with the Network Computer (or NC), which actually does a fair amount of data processing, but the programs used are stored on a remote server. See "Network Computer." Salinger effect - Believing everything one reads on the Internet. Online gullibility. Coined soon after former Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger came forward with information he got from the Internet purporting that TWA flight 800 was downed by a US Navy missile. Also "pulling a Salinger" and "being Salingered." serendipity search - An Internet search where one finds interesting and valuable things that were not intended in the original search. Searching willy-nilly. "I found this really cool site on Tiki collecting during a serendipity search." [The many flavors of "spam" (unwanted ad-related email and BBS postings) continued to be popular:] spam bait - erroneous email addresses that are put on Web pages to lure "spambots" (clogging spammers mailing lists with junk addresses). Also called spam chaff, spam trap, or spider poison. See "spambot." spambot - a program that automatically scoops up email addresses on Web pages for spammers (This type of software robot is also called a spider or a webcrawler). Also, a bot that automatically posts ads on newsgroups. spamhaters - netizens who've gone on a crusade against spammers. spamouflage - A non-spam looking header on an email message or newsgroup posting designed to get the reader to open it (e.g. "Long time no talk to," "I miss you!") spam wars - the constant back and forth battles between spammers, spamhaters, and legislators. spamdexing - using various tricks in an HTML document to force your page to the top of a Web search. Spam King - name given to notorious spammers such as Jeff Slaton (president of the now-defunct Eunuchs Etc.) and Sanford Wallace (president of CyberPromotions). Mr. Wallace is commonly referred to as "Spamford" among spamhaters. stalkerazzi - Paparazzi who will go to just about any lengths to get the shot they desire. This term continued to gain in popularity throughout the year, especially after Lady Di's death. -war (cyberwar, infowar, Java wars, browser wars, spam wars) War and rumors of war seemed to be everywhere on the Net this year. Webring (or "Web ring") - A series of websites on a particular topic that are linked together in a ring so that you can visit one site after another, eventually returning to the first site. As of July 1997, there were 50,000 sites on 14,486 Webrings. World Wide Wait - What started out as a humorous interpretation of "WWW" became a popular newspaper headline and marketing slogan on the problem of increasing lag times on Internet connections.