Comments on: Tech cliches to live by

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos says that when it comes to trite catchphrases, we're at an inflection point.

[abfalter]

With friends like these....

"The firm laid everyone off." followed by "'This is great,' he called me from the mayhem."

What kind of cold hearted friends do you have?!?!?

[michael kanellos]

latent ambiguity

My friend was one of the people laid off and was throwing files. He had a great time. Sorry about the confusion.

[bkircos]

Great column

Michael - please skate to where the puck is going, or outline the value proposition for your column next time. ;) Great read...there are some humorous journalism/PR sites like buzzsaw that highlight the worst words and press releases. - Bill "3.141592" Kircos

[Randys2cents]

Randys2cents

" But will it pass the Steve Jobs test"

Referring to a simple design with much attention to details.

[daftkey]

Steve Test

.. or at least, attention to cosmetic details.

(f(_)kn printer driver...)

[revry]

Turn Around?

>>Lou had IBM--home of 300,000 employees and Nobel prize
winners--to work with. It's not like he had to turn around Unisys.
Same goes for Steve Jobs.>>

Apparently we forget how Steve had to cram those 300,000
employees and Nobel Prize winners in his garage in Cupertino in
1976...

[mjlee105]

IBM/Unisys

Its true, Lou had it easy, he did not lay off 75% of his staff from the merger and still have trouble making a profit. He did not kill the golden goose and try to make a buck without really producing anything, but hype. Its true that when the heavy days for IBM came up he retired. But then that is the way it is at Unisys too, except the clowns there may not be sure they have any staff left, products that could earn money or retire(scratch the last) golden parachutes to use. The clowns all know they have those.

[jongalt]

Who writes history?

Enjoyed your column very much. I suggest, however, that while your observations regarding the losing side taking up the pen are accurate,as far as they go, the examples you gave ultimately wrote as "victors" - that is from a position of influence/power. I suggest that this is the reason that their view of events prevails. (It is rare that any individual, institution, or nation's history does not find them on the losing end somewhere, sometime? By definition this means they were on the losing side - but not necessarily "losers" in the larger historical sense your cliche refers to.

In suggesting that this cliche has a grain of truth it is not necessary to invoke conspiracy on the part of the victor - although there are well documented instances where it has occurred, especially in post war periods. There is also evidence that as individuals and societies our need/preference to have certain beliefs validated may be greater than the value we place on facts/"truth". A relatively benign example is the omission of alcohol from paintings of our founding fathers - who generally loved the stuff - when prohibition against demon rum developed. Howard Zinn has published A People's History of the U.S. which gives insight of what history looks like through the eyes of the disenfranchised v. the establishment. It provides and interesting perspective.