Re: AOL for Acronym OverLoading

And the current worst AOL (acronym overload):

ATM Network -- Automatic Teller Machine, Asynchronous Transfer Mode

Recently saw an employment ad for an "ATM Network Administrator".
The whole job description was ambiguous ("you will oversee the 
operation of our ATM network...") until you got to the name of the 
company.

-fnerd

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To auditors without the code, calls seem
indistinguishable from noise.  --George Gilder
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> And the current worst AOL (acronym overload):
> 
> ATM Network -- Automatic Teller Machine, Asynchronous Transfer Mode
> 
> Recently saw an employment ad for an "ATM Network Administrator".
> The whole job description was ambiguous ("you will oversee the 
> operation of our ATM network...") until you got to the name of the 
> company.
> 
> -fnerd

I thought ATM was Adobe Type Manager? That's what it says on the
Windows and Macintosh boxes.

Yes, I forget to include ATM, the worst offender and the proximate
cause of our jokes about AOL. Thanks, Steve.

By the way, while ATM has _three_ major meanings, are there any ohter
such examples? Or even _four_ major meanings?

This will be my last message for a while, as I'll be on the road for
the next week. I'll be in LA and hope to attend the first Cypherpunks
meeting down there. (Speaking of which: I got a note on this from JPP,
but the details were vague, and no address was given. I will try to
log-in from LA....I hope someone posts some details Real Soon Now!
It's better to just bite the bullet and set a time, place, directions,
etc., than to keep the subject open for more "suggestions.")

--Tim May




-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

Tim writes:

> Yes, I forget to include ATM, the worst offender and the proximate
> cause of our jokes about AOL. Thanks, Steve.

I saw an ad for a book titled "ATM Networks" a while back.  After reading 
an entire page of blurb I still had no idea whether it was a book about 
automatic teller machine networking or fast switching of small 
fixed-sized packets.

If it had been the latter, I would have bought it.  Another customer lost 
to the evils of AOL.  

-- 
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.3a Public Key available    $
     mpd@netcom.com     $    via Finger.                      $

Tim asked:

| By the way, while ATM has _three_ major meanings, are there any ohter
| such examples? Or even _four_ major meanings?

NIC came up while we were planning a new operating theatre:

Nurse In Charge, Not In Charts, and Network Interface Card.

Outside of the chart we were looking at, its Network Information
Center, and probably has other meanings.


Adam

-- 
Adam Shostack 				       adam@bwh.harvard.edu

Politics.  From the greek "poly," meaning many, and ticks, a small,
annoying bloodsucker.