Sal, I hate to flog this article one more time, but here's the link, you can search for "fair": around.com. Last time I brought this up, I was nominated for a Netscape PR position, but they never called.
And, for your reading pleasure, there's another article by that guy about Microsoft and language: around.com. I leave you with the exciting conclusion.
The company denies, by the way, that its technical-support people have formal instructions never to say "bug." However, the phrase "known issue" is preferred, a spokesman said, "due to the complex nature of the word 'bug.' " This is what happens when you get too comfortable with Microspeak -- known issue seems simple, while bug seems complex. It is what Orwell saw as language of orthodoxy, of concealment, of the party line.
"A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology," he wrote, "has gone some distance into turning himself into a machine."
Cheers, Dan. |
