Looking for a Word

Technological superfluity?

BLOAT ?

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

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

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

I thought it was technological Drivel

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

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.

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

Overcomplexity? Bombardment? Future shock? Misfit?

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

.

..

...

Ah, gottit!

"Fortnight"...

Del (scampers off to avoid hastilly thrown oblects)

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.

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.

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

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...

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

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

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

Or maybe technological narcissism... or technomasturbation.

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

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

Del

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.

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

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

You will probably find what you need here.

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

progress. progressive

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