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Looking for a Word

08/21/2013 10:00 PM

The word is something like "technological xxxxx," and it refers to how advanced technology has given modern products (like computers) so many advanced features they don't work any more.

No, it's not "procrustean" although that's close. "Obfuscation" isn't it either.

I used the phrase myself in a column I wrote years ago, but I can't remember it. Gettin' too old, I guess. It was so long ago that Google can't find it.

Any technological linguists out there?

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#1

Re: Looking for a word...

08/21/2013 11:50 PM

Technological superfluity?

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#2

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 12:40 AM

BLOAT ?

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#3
In reply to #2

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 12:54 AM

Yes, that is likely. And of course "overkill".

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#4

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 1:16 AM

Finally remembered! It's "transoptimal engineering"!!

Thanks for the help. Something one of you said triggered it.

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#6
In reply to #4

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 4:26 AM

I thought it was technological Drivel

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#17
In reply to #4

Re: Looking for a word...

08/23/2013 5:18 AM

That describes my 2009 nothing special run of the mill vehicle. Friggin owners manual is 512 pages long. You could spend hours just hunting for how to set radio stations. And then there's the black box in these things and what they can do with that. I'm starting to think my next new car is going to be a really old one.

H

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#24
In reply to #17

Re: Looking for a word...

08/23/2013 10:45 AM

I'm starting to think my next new car is going to be a really old one.

Get one with points instead of electronic ignition in case of EMP.

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#30
In reply to #4

Re: Looking for a word...

08/25/2013 4:35 PM

"Transoptimal engineering?" Thats an euphemism if I ever saw one. S.M.

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#5

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 1:19 AM

Overcomplexity? Bombardment? Future shock? Misfit?

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#7

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 5:49 AM

I've been looking for this word for a couple of weeks now.

.

..

...

Ah, gottit!

"Fortnight"...


Del (scampers off to avoid hastilly thrown oblects)

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#8
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Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 5:57 AM
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#9
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Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 5:58 AM
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#10

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 6:32 AM

Design News

"Rich Merritt, a public relations professional who works with automation vendors, agrees that we've forgotten the KISS principle. "We've made everything so complicated, complex, and convoluted that we've entered the age of 'transoptimal engineering,' " he says. "That is, things are so advanced and have so many features, they don't work anymore.""

I like it.

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#11
In reply to #10

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 6:46 AM

Yeah, that was me. I first used "transoptimial engineering" in a column back in the early 1980s,and then again in 2012 in that comment, but just couldn't remember it. One benefit of getting old and picking up Altzheimer's is you keepmaking new friends.

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#12
In reply to #11

Re: Looking for a word...

08/22/2013 7:16 AM

...and every time is just like the first time, too!

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#15
In reply to #11

Re: Looking for a word...

08/23/2013 3:06 AM

"One benefit of getting old and picking up Alzheimer's is you keep making new friends."


Then you forget the new friends and have to make more new friends but are the new friends the same ones as last time?

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#16
In reply to #15

Re: Looking for a word...

08/23/2013 4:42 AM

Er, that is the general idea....

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#27
In reply to #16

Re: Looking for a word...

08/24/2013 9:55 AM

Keen Grasp Of The Obvious

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#21
In reply to #10

Re: Looking for a word...

08/23/2013 10:00 AM

One day there'll be NO MORE printed dictionaries...()...

Just like wikipedia, anybody'll be able to "Edit" the online dictionaries every time they decide to coin a new word or phrase.

Somebody forgot to "enter" transoptimal.

. . .

IN a SIMILAR VEIN ... I recall my father telling stories WAY BACK during my youth (50 years ago or so) about a paper that had been presented at a conference that he had been invited to. The title of the paper (written by a military 'dignitary') was:

"The Notorious Unreliability of Complex Systems"

A copy of said paper MUST still exist SOMEWHERE (though dad never did find his copy)...

I have searched several times, all to NO avail....save the few times that I have posted the reference here (CR4)...

Feel free to post a link, if one of *your* progenitors held onto a copy...

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#22
In reply to #21

Re: Looking for a word...

08/23/2013 10:13 AM

You might find that paper in the archives of "The Journal of Irreproducible Results." It was originally published in 1955 and might still be in business today.

I particularly liked this one http://www.jir.com/geographic.html It predicts the end of coastal America because the accumulation of National Geographics magazines (nobody ever throws one away) will cause major cities to fall into the sea. That was back in 1974--the problem must be much worse now.

Rich

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#13

Re: Looking for a Word

08/22/2013 11:18 PM

I was thinking "technological obsolescence" until I read the posts.

"Transoptimal" (or whatever it was) isn't in my old (1988) dictionary.

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#14

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 1:31 AM

Or maybe technological narcissism... or technomasturbation.

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#18

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 5:30 AM

To be read in the voice of 'HAL' from 2001 a Space Oyssey.

"Hi Dave, are you sure you want to drive today?"

Del

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#19

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 9:11 AM

I drive an older pickup truck. 2001 Chevy Silverado model, and when they starting talking about "cash for clunkers", I wondered what they did to these older rides being traded in.

I learned they pour sodium metasilicate into the oil reservoir. They then start the engine and run it until the crankcase and pistons lock up within seconds. Then they wad the whole thing up, and it is back to the furnaces.

I will be keeping my ride at least until Obama is no longer in office, and probably beyond that by a few years, just to be safe.

They shoot horses don't they...the bastages.

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#20

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 9:46 AM

During my time, slightly later than Christopher Columbus, there were 2 types of engineers and engineering. The first were the "shiny pants" engineers and engineering. Those who sat on their derriere, spilled coffee on the prints and took all the credit for all things that ended up good. If it had numerous bugs it was always the other guys fault. The second type were the "dirty hands" engineers and engineering. Those were the ones who would start a design and follow it through to completion on the plant floor and beyond. They also followed up on the results of the project periodically when it was in use. Most of the time you wanted them you had to contact the plant floor.

The first group and their projects were referred to as the Technological Feculence Optimization Engineering Providers. The second group were called "Da' gud guys"! Fancy words may help but they never get the job done.

Good Luck, Old Salt

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#23

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 10:44 AM

I don't know if this helps anything, but my son invented a term that I use to this day that is sort of the opposite of trans-optimal engieering. This term describes something that is so messed up, that if you change anything to improve it, it actually gets worse. This concept was discovered when he was about 7 and was playing with a MatchBox car (you remember those?) and the wheels were all akimbo. He tried to straighten them out but as he did, the little car would not track straight. So he bent them all up again and told me they were in "sucky-librium".

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#25

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 11:29 AM

Dysoptimization? Requirements creep? Design by committee? Design by Marketing Dept? User ignorance, as in ignoring the user's requirements?

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#26

Re: Looking for a Word

08/23/2013 1:34 PM

You will probably find what you need here.

http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html

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#28

Re: Looking for a Word

08/25/2013 11:42 AM

progress. progressive

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#29

Re: Looking for a Word

08/25/2013 12:55 PM

the cause of this bullsh¡t is (answering) for whom what is being designed

as back at the old days the puters were used for science - but now insted of buying a game console or phone or VCR or Hi-Fi-CO you expect the computer to do all this + serve as firewall and WTH knows what else

so we can say the computer is very good each of the previous ecxept the computer itself

end over & out

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