Coinages (part six)

[Bruce Dykes]

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From: Bapopik at AOL.COM <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2000 2:03 AM
Subject: Coinages (part six)


>1-24-97, GAS DAILY--Open Source Solution's (Robert--ed.) Steele, who
actually
>spent 10 years with the Central Intelligence Agency and coined the phrase,
>"You don't send a spy where a schoolboy can go"...


It's important to note here that the intelligence community usage of 'open
source' is different than the tech/software/dveloper community usage.

In the intelligence community 'open source' refers to freely available data,
such as economic forecasts and reports, a nation's frequency/radio spectrum
allocation plan, et al. He may or may not have created that usage, but he
was certainly the one brought it into wide (by intelligence standards,
anyway) use.

The formal techie/developer definition of 'open source' was intitiated in
June of 1997, and can be found here:
http://www.opensource.org/osd.html

This was created in response to perceived ambiguity of the original label,
'free software', which often got clarified with 'free as in free speech, not
free beer.' Which still needed clarification.

>From the Jargon File:
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/open-source.html
open source n.

[common; also adj. `open-source'] Term coined in March 1998 following the
Mozilla release to describe software distributed in source under licenses
guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the
code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers' ways of doing software
to industry and the mainstream by avoid the negative connotations (to suits)
of the term "free software". For discussion of the followon tactics and
their consequences, see the Open Source Initiative site.

Also:

FRS // n.,obs.

Abbreviation for "Freely Redistributable Software" which entered general use
on the Internet in 1995 after years of low-level confusion over what exactly
to call software written to be passed around and shared (contending terms
including freeware, shareware, and `sourceware' were never universally felt
to be satisfactory for various subtle reasons). The first formal conference
on freely redistributable software was held in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in
February 1996 (sponsored by the Free Software Foundation). The conference
organizers used the FRS abbreviation heavily in its calls for papers and
other literature during 1995. The term was in steady through not common use
until 1998 and the invention of open source.


>1-27-97, WASHINGTON POST, pg. B4--John Allen Paulos, a popular writer and a
>Temple University mathematician, even coined the phrase the "Jeane Dixon
>effect," in which people loudly tout a few correct predictions and
>conveniently overlook the much larger number of false ones.


I've not seen this used. In the skeptical community, noting this effect is
rather like noting that cows have four legs (as well as steers, bulls, and
heifers. I won't make any claims for calves). When studying cases, skeptics
simply refer to 'hits' and 'misses' and focus instead on technique.

Here's some additional stuf from a Michael Shermer article about James van
Praagh:

"1. Cold Reading. Most of what Van Praagh does is what is known in the
mentalism trade as cold reading, where you literally “read” someone “cold,”
knowing nothing about them. He asks lots of questions and make numerous
statements, some general and some specific, and sees what sticks. Most of
the time he is wrong. His subjects visibly nod their heads “no.” But he only
needs an occasional strike to convince his clientele he is genuine.

2. Warm Reading. This is utilizing known principles of psychology that apply
to nearly everyone. For example, most grieving people will wear a piece of
jewelry that has a connection to their loved one. Katie Couric on The Today
Show, for example, after her husband died, wore his ring on a necklace when
she returned to the show. Van Praagh knows this about mourning people and
will say something like “do you have a ring or a piece of jewelry on you,
please?” His subject cannot believe her ears and nods enthusiastically in
the affirmative. He says “thank you,” and moves on as if he had just divined
this from heaven. Most people also keep a photograph of their loved one
either on them or near their bed, and Van Praagh will take credit for this
specific hit that actually applies to most people.
...
3. Hot Reading. Mentalist Max Maven informs me that some mentalists and
psychics also do “hot” readings, where they obtain information on a subject
ahead of time. I do not know if Van Praagh does research or uses private
detectives to get information on people, but I have discovered from numerous
television producers that he consciously and deliberately pumps them for
information about his subjects ahead of time, then uses that information to
deceive the viewing public that he got it from heaven. Leah Hanes, for
example, who was a producer and researcher for NBC’s The Other Side,
explained to me how Van Praagh used her to get information on guests during
his numerous appearances on the show (interview on April 3, 1998): I can’t
say I think James Van Praagh is a total fraud, because he came up with
things I hadn’t told him, but there were moments on the show when he
appeared to be coming up with fresh information that he got from me and
other researchers earlier on. For example, I recall him asking about the
profession of the deceased loved one of one of our guests, and I told him he
was a fireman. Then, when the show began, he said something to the effect,
“I see a uniform. Was he a policeman or fireman please?” Everyone was
stunned, but he got that directly from me."

I have no idea how far back hot, warm and cold reading goes...

>2-6-97, WASHINGTON POST, pg. B5--When New York librarian and author Jean
>Armour Polly coined the phrase "Surfing the Internet" in 1992, she
unleashed
>a metaphor that soon became hip and ubiquitous.


Jargon File (still undated, alas):
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/surf.html
surf v.

[from the `surf' idiom for rapidly flipping TV channels] To traverse the
Internet in search of interesting stuff, used esp. if one is doing so with a
World Wide Web browser. It is also common to speak of `surfing in' to a
particular resource.

Hackers adopted this term early, but many have stopped using it since it
went completely mainstream around 1995. The passive, couch-potato
connotations that go with TV channel surfing were never pleasant, and
hearing non-hackers wax enthusiastic about "surfing the net" tends to make
hackers feel a bit as though their home is being overrun by ignorami.

>3-21-97, SOFT-LETTER, pg. 3--Programming guru Ed Yourdan has been watching
>software development projects go off the rails for more than 30 years, and
>he's now coined a phrase--"death march projects"--that perfectly captures
the
>frenzy and pressure of development efforts that fall hopelessly behind
>schedule.


Not in the Jargon File...likely accurate, and likely limited to suits. A
most hits from a google search result in pages relating to the book.

bkd