Funny, how techies talk to each other

I’m writing an email to my favorite SQL guru, about a pretty sticky little problem I’m working on, and I found myself making up words …

In the LotesDB, comments / notes are kept in a single field. Each comment is time and date stamped, with a uname, so that’s pretty predictable. The data in the field looks like this:

02/15/2002 03:46 PM (Steve Manager):
Capital was approved on 2/11. Project Number has been assigned in SAP and server hardware has been ordered.

02/18/2002 11:08 AM (Steve Manager):
No “Business Value” analysis performed. Per Jan Controller, this is ad. Per Jan Controller, this is ad. Per Jan Controller, this is ad. Per Jan Controller, this is ad. Per Jan Controller, this is ad. Per Jan Controller, this is ad. Per Jan Controller, this is ad.

06/04/2004 01:54 PM (Ray Projectlead):
This project request has been done a while ago. I checked with Don User.

That’s all in a single field. A single comment can go on for a while, multiple lines, might even have CRLF‘s in it (I just cut/pastepastepasted that substr in Steve’s second comment to illustrate)- but each note begins w/a time/data stamp and a uname in parens.

Before sending, I’m re-reading, and I kind of like my little neologisms (in bold), especially cut/pastepastepastedonomatopoeia for the keyboard set. I do know, however, that my SQL guru friend will get it immediately – we worked together on some pretty neat stuff for over four years, and he was a remote worker (200 miles!), but we were able to communicate in this pseudo-shorthand all the time, making up words as we went along.

This Post Has 0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles
Complexity Buzzword

Navigating Buzzword Overload: Complexity

Complexity means different things to different people in different conversations. Are we trying to simplify a process? Complexity is bad. Understand a supply chain? Complexity is good. Don't buzzword your initiatives with "complexity" until you get a wee bit more specific.

Read more
Saving For A Rainy Day ... (Innovation Budget)

Accelerate Innovation with a Simpler Budget Approach

Organizations are desperate for innovation, but these are still investment choices that require complete and credible data to enable the right decisions. Developing a simple standard for characterizing all costs will accelerate decision making.

Read more

An Author’s Journey – The Editor’s Harsh Bright Light

Second in a series of articles on the creation of Don’t Think So Much. Exposing yourself to the unbiased eye of your editor will be a humbling, but super valuable, experience.

Read more