[Phpwm] in the news....

[Phil Beynon]

> Phil Beynon wrote:
> >> I suspect he's referring to the Dilbert cartoon which, if you read
> >> Dilbert on the web everyday anyway, you'll already have seen.
> >
> > Nope there was another article about / featuring me on there! :-)
> >
>
>
> I'd gathered/guessed that. Hurry up and scan it and plonk it online
> somewhere then...
>
> David.
>

Hi,
Been rather busy today, so didn't get a chance to scan it, but did in fact
find a link to computer weekly that has the article on
http://backbytes.computing.co.uk/
You have to read the one at the bottom of the page first, (Heil HITLA) as
this was the precursor which actually reminded me about it, before the one
which I wrote to them (Stop Press).

Ok so reasonably, coining the term LRF for little rubber feet as part of a
weird marketing campaign doesn't exactly put me up there with the likes of
Gates, Shugart et all - but it was at least 12 years ago by my reckoning
that this was initially coined, and it does seem to have become a sort of
ubiquitous industry standard.
So despite the fact I'd pretty much forgotten about it till the other day, I
was quite pleased that it was still around. :-)
It did actually sell quite a few systems back then for us as well!

There was actually another acronym I invented, albeit in a slightly
different context. Many years ago my brother and I used to do the radio
rallies, these were the forerunners of computer shows, except as well as
computer junk and bits we used to sell quite a bit of redundant test gear.
Some pretty weird people used to turn up at these events, and you could
pretty much guarantee that sooner or later you would get someone on the
stand who would stand there happily fiddling with any available knobs,
switches or dials for a while prior to moving onto the next stand and doing
the same. Their entire interest in attending these events seemingly revolved
around doing this, but you would never actually see them buy anything
whatsoever.
Thus was born the term "TWIDLER". Seemingly fairly harmless, you could say
without fear of offence, to whoever was working with you on the stand, other
traders, other customers, pretty much anyone really, "Oh we've got a twidler
on the stand...."
What the person concerned didn't actually realise though was what they were
being called, quite openly and too their face, was an acronym for "Time
Wasting Ignorant Dickhead, Little Extractable Revenue"!

Phil