BayLISA -> BayISSA

Thu Jun 17 11:08:43 PDT 2004

Quoting Edwards, Greg (greg.edwards at lmco.com):

> There is a problem with BayISSA. 

I would say not.  However:

I doubt there is any rational reason for changing the group's name,
generally.  There are pressing _real_ organisational challenges; this
wasn't an invitation for people to trot out unreal ones.

Richard Childers wrote:

> Another thing to think about is the exclusivity implies by the acronum 
> 'LISA'.

This is a FAQ.

> Who defines what's 'Large'? 

USENIX / SAGE, BayLISA, and BBLISA do.  Some readers are perhaps
unfamiliar with the history of the term in this context, which is
something of a holdover.  A large system is, if memory serves, one
capable of real multiuser.  Ergo, my 3 lb. VAIO qualifies.  ;->

> And yet, within the acronym LISA, I see no room for network 
> administrators, or network service administrators ... or database 
> administrators, for that matter. 

   synecdoche.  noun.  ("syn·ec·do·che")

   A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand
   for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer),
   the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general
   for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the
   thing made from it (as steel for sword).

> The acronym 'LISA' is dated [...]

The term "president" for the head of the USA Executive Branch is "dated",
in that it dates back to the Articles of Confederation under which the
officer who _presided_ over Congress as a committee of the whole was
given that title, in recognition of what he did for it.

The term "press" is "dated" in that modern mechanisms of printing no
longer press type against paper.  Instead, paper rushes past inked
rollers and then is heat-dryed.  See:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/offset-printing.htm

Yet, such terms persist because they serve functions and people learn
what they refer to.

> it alludes to a period when big iron was predominant. 

Yes.

And did you know that "goodbye" alludes to a time when people said (and
meant) "God be with ye"?

I do very much like people who want to remove archaisms and old
references from our language.  They're so very amusing, you see.

-- 
Cheers,              First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing, for
Rick Moen            verbing weirds language.  Then, they arrival for the nouns
rick at linuxmafia.com  and I speech nothing, for I no verbs. - Peter Ellis