[ih] Geek Terminology (was Re: Resource sharing)

[Miles Fidelman]

Just to pick a few nits (what else is there to do on a Sunday afternoon?);

John Day wrote:
> Or the use of "architecture" to be synonymous with "hardware." Rather 
> than designating a "style of construction" IOW, a class of things 
> rather than a thing.

I don't find this to be true.  People seem to be pretty confused when 
they use the term "architecture" - but perhaps a bit less so when it's 
tied with an adjective, as in "system architecture" (block diagram), or 
"software architecture), or "data architecture."  Then again, how DoDAF 
diagrams relate to anything remotely like an architecture, is beyond me.
>
> Even the nebulous use of "cloud" rather than what it is a "data 
> center."  It sounds so much more reassuring that my stuff is just out 
> there in the cloud, rather stored with someone else in their data 
> center.  (Even that is a euphemism).
>
Or worse... "cloud" = "running on a virtual machine somewhere." Remember 
when "cloud" brought "dialtone" to mind?  As in "IP dialtone" (walking 
into a Starbucks, and having one's smartphone pick up an IP address, 
really is "cloudlike," in the old school sense of the term).  Or even, 
"login dialtone" (the old notion of timesharing as a utility service).

Then again, I've had rather good success, in sales presentations, by 
starting with "everyone talks about the cloud, but what is it really?"

Cheers,

Miles Fidelman


-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra