In Nigeria, acronyms are what we have, instead of efficiency:

NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation),

PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria; formerly NEPA, or No Electric Power Again. Sorry, National Electric Power Authority),

EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission).

WTF. And I don’t mean World Trade Federation.

Big, important-sounding sets of initials, that act as a cover for big, important-sounding organisations. That do very little.

Still, the letters look nice, when they’re painted up on logos. And displayed on the side of the smart four-wheel drive vehicles they all seem to use.

Acronyms.

I’ve scoured the globe (virtually), to bring you some choice ones. Some are fun; some are just plain silly. Some actually refer to real organistions. I’ll let you decide which.

ATM: At The Moment / Automatic Teller Machine / Another Technical Mistake

BEKTTU: Be Excessively Kind To The Undersized [See also Save The Children]

CIO: Chief Information Officer / Cut It Out

DOS: Defunct Operating System / Denial Of Service

EIF: Exercise In Futility

FUBAR: F***ked / Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition / Repair

GSHIWMP: Giggling So Hard I Wet My Pants

HLVB: Hasta La Vista, Baby

ISDN: International Standard Book Number / It Still Does Nothing

JLA: Justice League of America / Junior Lifeguards Association

KIT: Keep In Touch

LOL: Laughing Out Loud

MBA: Masters of Business Administration / Mediocre But Arrogant

NMI: No Middle Initial

OBE: Order of the British Empire / Overtaken By Events

PUKE: Parents United against Krusty’s Evil [TV, The Simpson's]

QUANGO: QUasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation

RHIP: Rank Has Its Privileges

SNAFU: Situation Normal All F***ked Up

TA: Target Acquisition / Teaching Assistant / Territorial Army

UFO: Unidentified Flying Object / United Farmers of Ontario

VSAT: Very Small Aperture Terminal

WTF: World Trade Federation [What The --?]

XYZ: eXamine Your Zipper

YABA: Yet Another Bloody Acronym

ZOPFAN: Zone Of Peace, Freedom, And Neutrality

GGN. [Gotta Go Now].

P.E.A.C.E.

One of the unique things about working at Kennedy is that it is a monster complex. There are so many different facilities and areas from the launch pads to industrial area to the air force base to the visitor center and more. Needless-to-say, we take up quite a bit of room here on Cape Canaveral and we pretty much need a government car to get anywhere on complex, otherwise, if we were to walk, we would obviously get nothing done.

That being said, I was researching one of my current projects when I came across an aerial view of what we call “Launch Complex 39.” This area of KSC is primarily all the buildings that service and store the Shuttle and the rockets, such as the VAB, LCC, OPF 1, 2, and 3, and the RPSF. Around these buildings, and the others on site, were rather large yellow circles radiating around each. They seemed to have no real rhyme or reason. They intersected, overlapped, what have you, and I didn’t know what they could mean. When I asked what the importance of these circles was, I got the coolest answer ever. Apparently, what I failed to pick up on when inspecting the diagram initially was that no other buildings would fall within the radius of another.

This space between buildings is called Quantity Distance (QD) and it’s vitally important to site planning at KSC. Whenever a new structure is needed, engineers and architects and the environmental division look at the restrictions that present structures create in order to safely site the new project.

You see all the buildings at KSC handle delicate equipment. And most of this delicate equipment has, in one way or another, rocket fuel. So if something goes terribly wrong and malfunctions, causing an explosion in one of the structures, it will safely fail so that the explosion couldn’t potentially lead to a chain reaction.

How cool is that?!

I’m just sitting in my study lounge, which is actually called S.T.A.R. (an acronym for study, tutor, and read) and talking to my friend John. He has a cool blog by the way. He actually has a theme with his posts. I’m like all over the place with my sporatic thoughts. My friend just broke up with her boyfriend. It’s like break-up season I think. I feel like most of the people I talk to are going through that phase getting over someone. It’s sad really. We came up with the phases of a break-up (although it varies).
1. Denial (basically) – You tell yourself and everyone else that you are fine and you are better off. You can actually keep up a smile and be relatively happy for a few days max.

2.The breakdown- The worst and most depressing/pathetic part of a break up. You feel like you can’t function without his touch. It takes extreme will-power not to send him a cute little text that says, “hey what’s up? thinking of you “. You don’t see the point in making plans or going out. It’s really tragic. You may even be expecting him to call you back and say, “I’ve made a terrible mistake!” You are hoping for that. Your playlist consists of Alanis Morrissette, old Green day, and Journey.

3.Friend Intervention- Your friends are sick of all your quoting emo songs and refusal to shower. They drag you out for some “girls night out” type fun. You then realize that there are a lot of “other fish in the sea” and your spirits are lifted. You now can resume doing your daily activities like showering and attending class, but the nights are still sad because you don’t have your nightly day recap chats with your boo.

4.Relapse/Move on- This phase is what separates the ones that hold on to the past for too long from the ones that can get up and go! You may go back into a slump or pick up your life, still holding a sad thought or two. Every once in awhile you may think of the good times you had, but it doesn’t stop you from doing anything! You may not be ready to date again, but you don’t feel bad looking anymore

5.New Boo- Oh the bliss of a new relationship! Hopefully this is the one or it’ll happen all over again!

Note: I just made all this up.

In my Social Psychology class we were discussing which sex tends to be more romantic. It turns out that men are more romantic initially, while women are more cautious. Then there is this point when women decide that they are allowed to fall in love with this guy. That is the point when the romantic-ness of the women surpasses the man’s romantic-ness. This is the point when it sucks to get broken up with the most. Sorry

I fear for my daughter’s future.  I fear the usual stuff – swine flu pandemics, nuclear warfare, tea party protesters in my neighborhood.  But a nagging fear that’s becoming more persistent is the fear that my daughter won’t know how to read or write anything that’s not written in the new abbreviated style.  OK, maybe she’ll know how to read and write actual words, but she won’t have any patience for it.  And why should she?  It’s far easier to say OMG! than Oh my God!, no?  (By the way, I don’t think it’s actually any easier; OMG and Oh my God both have three syllables.)  And how liberating for teens to be able to curse in shorthand (WTF, LMFAO, you get the idea) in front of adults!  (And yes, I realize that the acronyms are used more often in writing than in speaking, but either way, the problem is the same, which I’ll get to in a minute.)

I think the more these cute little shortcuts become permanent parts of our vernacular, the more our society as a whole loses the ability to completely articulate a thought, to effectively express an emotion, to cleverly piss off a coworker, or to ever fully communicate with anyone.  Oh, I also think abbreviations are the lazy way out, but that’s not really my main concern.  The less often we use real words, in writing or in speaking, the less likely we will ever use them.  Soon our responses to anything become these banal, utterly unoriginal acronyms.  That just takes the point out of telling anyone anything; if all you get in response to your sad/happy/angry/worried/anxious story is a hackneyed “OMG”, I think you’ll eventually give up looking to conversation (written or spoken) as a means of solace or joy.

I have the same basic issues with emoticons as I do with acronyms, so I’ll try not to repeat myself.  However, emoticons actually annoy me more, particularly when used by adults.  You’re an adult; please don’t respond to my e-mail about an unsuccessful job interview with an (albeit nice) sad-face emoticon-laden message.  Use words, for Christ’s sake.

If you don’t really care that people aren’t going to communicate with each other much anymore, that’s fine.  But even if you don’t like talking to others (and I don’t for the most part), we all have to sometimes.  And when you do talk to others, it feels really great to use the perfect word in the perfect way at the perfect time.  Bonus – if you find the perfect, clever, effective retort to a comment made by a jackass, there’s a good chance he won’t fully understand what you said (because he’s probably an idiot as well as a jackass), and he’ll feel full of self loathing.  And then you, my friend, can LYFAO.

Hello friends,
Cheers!
Here I am with some useful terminology and these acronyms are generally used now days in broad way take a look.
1) ESB : Enterprise Service Bus
2) POX : Plain OLD XML
3) REST: Representational State Transfer
4) SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol
5) RIA : Rich Internet Application
6) XML : Extensible Markup Language
7) JASON: Java Script Object Notation
DOM : Document Object Modeling
9) XAML : Extensible Application Markup Language
10) LINQ : Language Integrated Query
11) RSS: Really Simple Syndication
12) WCF: Windows Communication Foundation
13) WF: Windows Foundation
14) WPF: Windows Presentation Foundation
15) AJAX: Asynchronous Java script and XML
16) XLST: Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformation
17) INDIGO: Code name of Microsoft windows Communication foundation Technology
18) OSLO: Code name of Microsoft Modeling Technology
19) SOA: Service Oriented Architecture
20) ORCAS: dot net 3.5 Version called ORCAS
21) AVALON: code name of Microsoft Windows Presentation foundation Technology
22) Azure: Microsoft new Operation system Related to Cloud computing
23) Astoria : Code name of Ado.net Data services

I hope you people like it.
Enjoy life with dot net.

Your host
Rajat Jaiswal

When you first sit down with a consultant here at Alembic Computer Services, Inc. there are several different acronyms that we might use. We thought it would be a good idea to go over some of these acronyms now, so that in the future you will be aware of and know what we mean, not to mention it will be a great reference.

ACSI – Alembic Computer Services, Inc.

ISP – Intuit Solution Provider

QBES – QuickBooks Enterprise Solution

FB – FishBowl Inventory

FSM – Field Service Management

WM – Warehouse Management

VAR – Value Added Reseller

ODBC – Open Database Conversion

EDI - Electronic Data Interchange

IIF – Intuit Import Files

CSV – Comma Separated Value

POS – Point-of-Sale (While ACSI does not work directly with this, we are partnered with another ISP who does)

While the list could go on and on we will end this one here and we hope that this has been helpful in getting to know some of the things we might post or say when we meet. Have a great day!

As we continue to make adjustments to our instruction based on the results of the 6-week benchmarks, pacing guides, and formative assessments, retention is a common area of concern. Putting strategies in place to assist students with comprehension and retention of lesson concepts will decrease student and teacher frustration.

Consider poor old Aunt Sally. She’s constantly making mistakes in the mathematical order of operations. You will have to excuse her if you already understand when to perform each order of operation: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.

“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” is an extension of PEMDAS, the classic acronym for the order of mathematical operations. This mnemonic device assists students daily in understanding what to do and in what order. When you think about it, PEMDAS is also a summarization strategy. Creating acronyms for concepts, cycles, protocols, sequences, and systems is a great way to allow students to summarize and retain information.

One way to begin is by asking students to list the essential attributes of something that you have been teaching. For example, say that you have been focusing on how to write good introductions to essays. In response to your prompt, students might generate a list that includes the following:

• Hook the reader with an interesting attention getter that provides background information to set the stage for your thesis.
• Add your thesis statement.
• Provide an organizational hint to serve as a preview for the content of the essay.
• Use a clincher to transition from the introduction to the first body paragraph.

Great information on summarization can be found in this book. See me to borrow a copy.

Then, ask your students to examine each attribute and identify a single term to serve as a key word for remembering that attribute. This group activity involves discussing and deciding on key words, providing yet another opportunity for summarization. Key words for remembering how to write good essay introductions might be attention getter (AG), thesis (T), organizational hint (OH), and clincher (C).

Now it’s simply a matter of sequencing the letters in an order that makes sense. If the attributes are things that do not need to be in a specific sequence, then all the students have to do is move the letters around until something coherent and meaningful emerges. If the sequence is set, such as the steps in a math problem, the process of how a bill goes through Congress, or the metamorphosis of mealworms, the order of the letters is nonnegotiable, and creating a memorable acronym can be a bit more challenging, but it is certainly a worthwhile task.

This technique can also work as a pre-assessment activity. You might ask your students to create an initial list of attributes as a whole class activity. Then, have the students revise the lists on their own (another opportunity for summarizing). As mnemonic devices, acronyms can be even more powerful when created by students themselves. Consider asking each student to design his or her own acronyms for something to be studied, and then vote on the top three. The voting criteria might include clarity, accuracy, and how easily the acronym can be remembered.

See me if you would like to borrow this book.

Summarization is not only a technique proven to improve student achievement, but it is also a method of formative assessment that can help you assess where your students are and help them self-assess. By implementing various summarization strategies, we can help provide students with yet another exposure to higher-order thinking activities.

References

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Westerberg, T. R. (2009). Becoming a great high school: 6 strategies and 1 attitude that make a difference. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wormeli, R. (2004). Summarization in any subject: 50 techniques to improve student learning. Alexandria, VA: Association For Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Be honest. Is your WIP GH-ready, or is it a POS? Not sure? Ask your CP for her POV about the GMC and SL in your MS.

If you’re thinking, “WTF?” then read on.

In the military a POV is your Personally Owned Vehicle, that is, your car. There’s an acronym for freakin’ everything in the military. Think Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam.

But, it turns out that every industry has its jargon and acronyms, and writing is no different. So for my non-writing friends, here are some of the acronyms that I’ve learned this year that may start popping up in my blog from now on. I’m all about the shortcut.

CP – Critique Partner: The person who tells you if your work is a POS (yeah, I believe that one’s universal)

WIP – Work in Progress: Just like in the world of manufacturing, except the unfinished inventory is the manuscript

MS – Manuscript: Your book before it gets published, whether WIP or completed.

SL or s/l – Story Line: The plot. What happens to your characters between Chapter 1 and The End.

GMC – Goal, Motivation, & Conflict: This was the topic of my first blog. It’s what each major character in a story must have in order to have a great SL.

POV – Point of View: This has two parts. 1) Is it in 1st or 3rd person? Yes, you really should have paid attention in English class. 2) Whose head is the writer in during the scene? Which character’s experience is it?

GH – The Golden Heart: A contest for unpublished romance writers, sponsored by the Romance Writers of America. Being a finalist in the GH gets you noticed by agents and editors all over the country. Unpublished romance authors everywhere are tweaking and polishing their MS at this very moment, trying to get it perfect before the December 2nd submission deadline, yours truly included.

Did I miss any? Too bad, I have to go get caught up on SYTYCD.

UPDATE 11/8: Okay, I forgot a few…

HEA – Happily Ever After: To be a true romance novel, and not just a book with romantic elements, the reader must get a happy ending. They don’t have to get married in the book, but a monogamous future must be implied.

RWA – Romance Writers of America: The national organization for romance writers. There are almost 10,000 members, and hundreds of local chapters all over the country.

SM – Southern Magic: My local chapter of RWA which meets in a suburb of Birmingham.

Some commonly used popular net forum acronyms

rolling on the floor laughing. ROTFL or ROFL

In my humble opinion: IMHO

As far as I know: AFAIK

By the way: BTW

Oh My God: OMG

more to be added soon !

• Simplify library jargon (ie. acronyms – LRC, OPACS etc) for users

• Relocating old stock/print journals frees up space (also mentioned in Extra Group Study with IT)

• Investigate different funding sources for building improvements

• Continued professional development is important, for example, a teaching qualification can enhance standing with academics

I have to tell you that I’m only on day #4 and this class  is kicking my butt.  Not only am I incredibly tired each day, but I come home, eat dinner, do some  job searching (I’m still hopeful I’ll find something in my field) and then I go to bed… it’s worse than when I was working full time!! AND….  It’s a stark contrast to my days filled with “leisure”! 

In between learning about discrimination, contract legalities and riparian rights I’ve had some time to doodle in class.  So, I’ll share with you the fruits of my doodling.  I will not be scanning in the cute little stick people I’ve drawn or the lovely shaded squiggles & patterns that I’ve carefully created with my pen & my highlighter (although you might have a good chuckle at my drawing skills).  What I will share are some acronyms I’ve created from a couple of my favorite words… Unemployment, Jobless & Layoff.   The tone of these doodles somewhat illustrates how happy I am to find myself in my current position.  Maybe it’s not enough sleep, maybe it’s having to study every day, maybe it’s the fact that I can’t wear pajamattire to class??  Who knows??  But today, I spent sometime playing with these words to share the my “Unemployed Frustration” with the world!

If you have your own…. Please feel free to share!!

U nderstanding
N ew
E mployment
M ay
P rove
L acking
O r
Y ou
M ay
E arn
N othing
T oday

J ust
O utsourcing….
B ut
L osing
E mployment
S till
S ucks

L ooking
A t
Y our
O verwhelmingly
F rightening
F uture

Okay, so i don’t feel ‘like’ other inventors. There are websites. there are clubs. but they don’t feel right.

The world, IMHO, does not need more electric carving knives or rotary toothbrushes. How about products that help people learn or, better yet, help people want to learn? I came up with an idea a while back for a bookmark that will help people doing research – books, dissertations etc. That felt right, or at least along the right lines.

Somehow i want to help people open up their lives a little bit, engage with the scary, uncomfortable but real world. Where i am at the moment it seems like that means less products, not more.

I feel like a politician proposing the dissolution of all governments. And thats not going to be an extremely popular idea. In fact, its scary and uncomfortable.

Play is another thing. Not idle play that is just a distraction, but real play that is inspiring and full of wonder. That, i guess, is why i came up with the marble game.

Learning is the same – not consuming factoids at an ever-increasing rate, but real, inspiring, wonderful learning that helps you look at the world in new and unexpected ways.

I’m not sure what this all adds up to yet, but the direction feels right. As long as i can stay away from this being simply an artistic or aesthetic concept. If i can put this into practice, then that will feel right, to me.

Cheers,

Philip

PS: If, for some reason, you do not have full motor control of your arm or wrist, as many people do not, then electric carving knives are a good, helpful product. Thing is; for what proportion of electric carving knife owners is this the case?

Here’s another language list I’ve been meaning to do for some time now. As I am spending more and more time online and doing things like twittering and online chatting or moderating of courses, I find I am forced to use more and more abbreviations and acronyms in my writing. I also come across them a lot more, even when communicating with people whose first language isn’t necessarily English. Could online communication be one future component of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)? Should we start talking about ILF (internet lingua franca)? Whatever the take on those bigger questions, to start with here are six acronyms that I believe are pretty important for learners to know as they navigate the www.

1. lol and variations. This is one of the most common acronyms in online communication. People on the net laugh a lot, it seems. They don’t simply laugh either (l). They’re laughing out loud (lol), or they’re rolling on the floor laughing (rotfl), or they’re laughing their arses/asses off (lmao). I’ve even seen rotflmao, for really funny things.

2. IMO and variations. With the rise of blogging and microblogging everybody has an opinion and wants to share it. However, to make it clear that it is just an opinion we might add in my opinion (IMO) afterwards. If what we are saying is potentially face-threatening we could make it a humble opinion (IMHO). For example, “Lindsay, your book looks really boring IMHO”. Or if we really feel like stirring things up or adding humour we can say in my arrogant opinion (IMAO). Dunno why, but I almost always see this in uppercase letters.

3. brb. Don’t you hate it when you’re in the middle of a really good chat or tweet conversation and the outside world rudely butts in (e.g. having to go off to class, or go to the bathroom). This is when you need to tell people you’ll be right back (brb). Useful to buy time too.

4. ttyl, cu. Two common sign off acronyms are talk to you later (ttyl) or see you (cu). Really clever internet folk do things like cul8r but I always think this is a bit like showing off.

5. btw. Good for adding something extra to a conversation or tweet, by the way (btw) is another one I see an awful lot.

6. omg and other expressions of alarm. The internet can be a shocking place, we may see or read shocking things. This is when it’s a good time to say oh my god (omg). You may want to shout it (OMG!) or really yell it (OMG!!!!!!) but someone told me if you do this too much people will think you are a fifteen year old Lady Gaga fan or something like that. Occasionally you will see something that confounds, annoys or enrages you. And an omg just doesn’t cut it for those situations. No, here you need a what the f*#k (wtf). This is also often shouted (WTF!)

I know, I know, there are hundreds of others that I have probably shamefully overlooked. But I had to stick to six. So, if there is a glaring omission from my list, why not add a comment? What acronyms do you think your learners should know for online communication?

So I’m at work a few days ago and so customers are looking at an mp3 player and discussing it. They decide that it is very functional “Look at all it does!” and looks kool(s?) doing it (kewl?).

Because, as usual, I hadn’t a thought in my head, I immediately flashed upon the idea: New term for good-looking, functional, and cool.

Hmm.

I got it!

“Kung Fu Diva”, aka “KFD” for short.

Those of you woefully unaware of action action cinema are probably not familiar with the term. It’s not terribly different from the Western film’s “action heroine” , basically defined as “pretty woman with really big gun who takes care of business”.  Only the Kung Fu Diva seldom has access to firearms.  Instead she  depends on flying fists and feet and the vast array of Asian martial arts weaponry to take out rows of bad guys and save the day. All the while looking very attractive (of course, this being the movies).

Some may ask why a former comic book geek like myself didn’t choose CBH “Comic Book Heroine” for a metaphor for something decorative and highly functional. Well, that’s because comic book heroines are known for two less than awesome things:

1. Saving the day in ridiculously skimpy clothes.

2. Being able to do things (run, fancy martial arts, gymnastics)  in high heels that must indicate a usually undisclosed superpower or mutant ability.

Most Kung Fu Divas dress pretty modestly, and in any number of Asian action films the mere sight of a heroine bare shoulder is bad news for the guy who sees it. It’s immediate knives and pitchfork wedding time, rather than the American shotgun wedding, but the idea is the same.

Now, since this blog is mostly a biblical blog, you may wonder: Don’t you have a biblical term for such an item: good-looking and gets the job done well?

Yes, but a lot of Protestants are gonna be left out in the cold. The closest character I could come with in biblical terms (No sword-toting butt-kicker girls in scripture that I recall. Sorry, Xena fans) is Judith, the heroine in  the apocryphal/deuterocanonical Bible book of the same name. Judith was a beautiful wealthy widow who undertook to save her city when the Assyrians besieged it. She basically vamped the Assyrian leadership and got the commanding general drunk, which allowed her to cut off his head, and his death allowed the Jews to rout the disorganized, demoralized Assyrian army.

You can read about the Book of Judith here and here. You can read a new translation of Judith in pdf from the NETS table of contents page (Histories 18).

So now knowing this, one might exclaim in admiration “Judith”, or more simply, “J”.

The next time you need an expression for something functional and good-looking, instead of using the hackneyed “cool”, “rad”, “awesome”, or whatever is proper slang this week, opt for something different.

“That’s Kung Fu Diva!”

“That’s KFD”

“That’s so Judith”

This is Goulablogger, from Goula town, where things are FAB.

As with all industries, real estate professionals have developed a lingo and acronyms to help them communicate with each other more easily. For the first-time homebuyer (and even some veterans), making sense of property listings can sometimes leave you feeling like you’re deciphering the DaVinci Code.

Many clients have asked for verification as to the meaning of some of this lingo.  This also includes the categories or subcategories that are on the multiple listing service.  Given the limited amount of space to type remarks, agents usually abbreviate as much as possible sometimes losing the real message.

Let’s take a look at a sample real estate listing:

2,500 sf on a c-d-s, 2BR, 2.5BA, CA, spac grt rm w/ wbfp, grmet kit, det gar

Looks a lot like alphabet soup. However, using this type of abbreviated property description saves valuable advertising space. Some abbreviations you’ll probably encounters are:

•         AC or A/C: air conditioning
•         BA: bathroom
•         BR: bedroom
•         CA: central air
•         C-D-S: cul de sac
•         DET: detached
•         DK: deck
•         EIK: eat-in kitchen
•         F/FIN BSMT: finished basement
•         FDR: formal dining room
•         FP, frplc: fireplace
•         GAR: garage
•         GRMT KIT: gourmet kitchen
•         GRT RM: great room
•         HDW, HWF, Hdwd:  hardwood floors
•         HOA: home owners association
•         LR: living room
•         KIT: kitchen
•         OFC: office
•         PVT: private
•         SF: square feet
•         SPAC: spacious
•         VW, VU: view
•         WBFP: wood-burning fireplace

In addition to the abbreviations in property listings, here are a few other common terms you should become familiar with.

FSBO-For Sale By Owner.  This term refers to a property which the homeowner is trying to sell independent of a real estate professional.

MLS-Multiple Listing Service.  MLSs are comprised of a group of real estate brokers who have agreed to share their property listings. This listing is then provided to the group through a database or directory.  If you are buying your home, this is the service that your sales professional will use to search for potential homes for you to purchase. If you are selling your property, your real estate professional can list your home through the MLS. For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) properties are typically not listed through the MLS.

CMA-Comparative Marketing Analysis.  This analysis is an informal assessment of a property’s market value. This is one of the tools your real estate professional can use to help you determine a reasonable listing price. Usually, the CMA compares your property with similar properties that have sold in your area within a certain time frame. Besides purchase price, some of the information typically listed is the number of bedrooms and baths, size of major rooms, amenities such as fireplaces and pools, age of the home, and property taxes.

During the real estate process, you’ll more than likely come across more acronyms and lingo. Make sure you ask your real estate professional to explain any terms you are unfamiliar with so that you are not in for any surprises.

By the way, the listing above was a 2,500 square-feet home on a cul-de-sac, with two bedrooms and two and a half baths, central air, a spacious great room with a wood-burning fireplace, and a gourmet kitchen and detached garage.

— A —

ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
AGP – Accelerated Graphics Port
ALI – Acer Labs, Incorporated
ALU – Arithmetic Logic Unit
AMD – Advanced Micro Devices
APC – American Power Conversion
APX – AirPort eXtreme
ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC – Application Specific Integrated Circuit
ASPI – Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
AT – Advanced Technology
ATA – Advanced Technology Attachment
ATI – ATI Technologies Inc. (Array Technology Inc.)
ATX – Advanced Technology Extended
AVR – Automatic Voltage Regulator

— B —

BFG – BFG Technologies
BIOS – Basic Input Output System
BNC – Barrel Nut Connector
BSOD – Blue Screen of Death
BT – Bluetooth or BitTorrent

— C —
CAD – Computer Aided Design
CAS – Column Address Strobe
CCFL – Cold Cathode Flourescent Lamp
CD – Compact Disk
CDR – Compact Disk Recorder
CDRW – Compact Disk Re-Writer
CD-ROM – Compact Disk – Read Only Memory
CE – Consumer Electronics
CFM – Cubic Feet per Minute (ft³/min)
CGA – Color Graphics Adapter
CMOS – Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
COA – Certificate of Authenticity
CPU – Central Processing Unit
CTX – CTX Technology Corporation (Commited to Excellence)

— D —

DD – Dolby Digital
DDR – Double Data Rate
DDR-SDRAM – Double Data Rate – Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
DFI – DFI Inc. (Design for Innovation)
DHCP- Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHT – Digital Home Theather
DIMM – Dual Inline Memory Module
DL – Download DMA – Direct Memory Access
DRAM – Dynamic Random Access Memory
DPI – Dots Per Inch
DTS – Digital Theater Systems
DSL – See ASDL
DVD – Digital Versatile Disc
DVD-RAM – Digital Versatile Disk – Random Access Memory
DVD-RW – Digital Versatile Disc Re-Writer

— E —

EAX – Environmental Audio Extensions
ECC – Error Correction Code
ECS – Elitegroup Computer Systems
EDO – Extended Data Out
EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EPROM – Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EVGA – EVGA Corporation

— F —

FC-PGA – Flip Chip Pin Grid Array
FCC – Federal Communications Commission
FDC – Floppy Disk Controller
FDD – Floppy Disk Drive
FPS – Frame Per Second
FPU – Floating Point Unit
FSAA – Full Screen Anti-Aliasing
FS – For Sale
FSB – Front Side Bus

— G —

GB – Gigabytes
GBps – Gigabytes per second or Gigabits per second
GDI – Graphical Device Interface
GHz – GigaHertz
GNU – Gnu’s Not Unix
GPL – GNU Public License
GPU – Graphical Processing Unit

— H —

HDD – Hard Disk Drive
HIS – Hightech Information System Limited
HP – Hewlett-Packard Development Company
HSF – Heatsink-Fan
HT – Hyper-Threading
HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language
HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol

— I —

IBM – International Business Machines Corporation
IC – Integrated Circuit
IDE – Integrated Drive Electronics or Integrated Development Environment
IFS- Item for Sale
IP – Internet Protocol
IPOD – Internet Pod (Apple)
IrDA – Infrared Data Association
IRQ – Interrupt Request
ISA – Industry Standard Architecture
ISO – International Standards Organization

— J —

JBL – JBL (James B. Lansing) Speakers
JEDEC -Joint Electron Device Engineering Council
JVC – Japan’s Victor Company

- K —

KB – Keyboard, Kilo Bytes
Kbps – Kilobits Per Second
KBps – KiloBytes per second
KVM – Keyboard Video Mouse (Switch)

— L —

LG – LG (Life’s Good) Electronics
LAN – Local Area Network
LCD – Liquid Crystal Display
LDT – Lightning Data Transport
LED – Light Emitting Diode
LF – Looking For
LGA – Land Grid Array

— M —

MAC – Media Access Control
MB – MotherBoard or Megabyte
MBps – Megabytes Per Second
Mbps – Megabits Per Second or Megabits Per Second
MHz – MegaHertz
MIPS – Million Instructions Per Second
MMX – Multi-Media Extensions
MoBo – MotherBoard
MORPG – Multiplayer online role-playing game
MSI – Micro Star International

— N —

NAS – Network Attached Storage
NAT – Network Address Translation
NEC – Nippon Electronics Corporation
NIC – Network Interface Card

— O —

OC – Overclock (Over Clock)
OCZ – OCZ Technology
OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer

— P —

PC – Personal Computer
PCB – Printed Circuit Board
PCT – PC-Tipid
PCI – Peripheral Component Interconnect
PDA – Personal Digital Assistant
PDF – Portable Document Format
PCMCIA – Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PGA – Professional Graphics Array
PIB – Policy Information Base or Processor in a Box (AMD)
PING- packet Internet Grouper
PIO – Programmed Input/Output
PLD – Programmable Logic Device
PM – Private Message / Private Messaging
PnP – Plug ‘n Play
PNY – PNY Technology
POP – Post Office Protocol
POP3 – Post Office Protocol Version 3
POST – Power On Self Test
PPPoA – Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM
PPPoE – Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
PQI – PQI Corporation
PSU – Power Supply Unit

— Q —

QoS- quality of service

— R —

RAID – Redundant Array of Independent (or inexpensive) Disk
RAM – Random Access Memory
RAMDAC – Random Access Memory Digital Analog Convertor
RDRAM – Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory
RMA – Returned Merchandise Authorization
ROM – Read Only Memory
RPG – Role Playing Game
RPM – Revolutions Per Minute
RSA – Rivest, Shamir, & Adleman (public key encryption technology)
RSS – Really Simple Syndication
RTS – Real Time Strategy

— S —

SATA – Serial ATA
SASID – Self-scanned Amorphous Silicon Integrated Display
SB – Sound Blaster
SC – Sound Card
SCA – SCSI Configured Automatically
SCSI – Small Computer System Interface
SD – Secure Disk
SDRAM – Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
SIMM – Single Inline Memory Module
SLI – Scalable Link Interface
SMT – Simultaneous Multi-Threading
SECC – Single Edge Contact Connector
SODIMM – Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module
SOHO – Small Office Home Office
SPARC – Scalable Processor ArChitecture
SPKR – Speaker SRAM – Static Random Access Memory
SSE – Streaming SIMD Extensions
SVGA – Super Video Graphics Array
S/PDIF – Sony/Philips Digital Interface

— T —

TB – Terabytes
TBps – Terabytes per second
Tbps – Terabits per second
TDK – Tokyo Denkikagaku Kogyo Electronics
TEC – Thermoelectric Cooler
TPC – TipidPC
TPS – Transaction Per Second
TWAIN – Technology Without An Important Name

— U —

UART – Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
UPS – Uninterruptible Power Supply
URL – Uniform Resource Locator
USB – Universal Serial Bus
UTP – Unshieled Twisted Pair

— V —

VC – Video Card
VCD – Video CD
VGA – Video Graphics Adapter
VIRUS – Vital Information Resources Under Siege
VPN – Virtual Private Network
VoIP – Voice over IP
VT – Vanderpool Technology

— W —

WAN – Wide Area Network
WIFI – Wireless Fidelity
WIMAX – Worldwide Interoperability Microwave Access
WINE – Windows Emulator
WTB – Want to Buy
WWW World Wide Web
WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get

— X —

XGA – Extended Graphics Array
XFX – XFX (Crossfix) Graphics, a Division of Pine
XMS – Extended Memory Specification
XT – Extended Technology

Acronyms: an easy place to get lost. Image:sparkytheneoncat (flickr)

by Eli Altman

Over the weekend I was interviewed by Jacki Lyden on NPR’s Weekend Edition about the Wisconsin Tourism Federation. Recently they got tired of WTF jokes and changed their name to the Tourist Federation of Wisconsin (TFW). I don’t see what the big deal is, but apparently the kind folks at the TFW weren’t too happy about what the ‘F’ stood for and decided to shuffle some letters. That said, I thought it would be a good idea to go over a few points about using acronyms as company names.

1. Acronyms are really hard to own

Good luck finding a three-letter acronym that doesn’t already stand for something else. Sometimes there is no real conflict here, but who’s to say that someone doesn’t use your previously virgin acronym for their baby seal clubbing operation a few years from now? Speaking of seals, the World Wildlife Foundation and The World Wrestling Federation were locked in a three-year legal battle over the use of WWF. Was it worth it? I doubt it.

2. Acronyms are the witness protection program of naming

A name is supposed to create some differentiation or draw some attention in a positive way. Acronyms are really more of a way to blend in and go unnoticed. Sure they can sound official, but there are plenty of other ways to sound official. Almost every law firm, medical device and military procedure has an acronym. If you do happen to have a new medical device, you should want to stand out, not fit in. What’s the point of picking a name that makes you one of the trees in the forest and then spending your whole marketing budget trying to stand out? If you’re not naming a law firm or medical device, why would you want your name to sound like one?

3. Pick good letters

Some acronyms you say and some you spell. When you see REI, you spell out Ar-EE-Eye, When you see FIAT, you say Fee-aht. If your acronym can stand alone and work by itself without a description line, there’s some hope. SAAB and FIAT are great examples of this. SAAB stands for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolag. While this might sound like a purring tiger in Swedish, it sounds like grinding gears in English. By using the acronym SAAB, they get to keep their history and most of their brand equity intact while having a name that most American second graders can pronounce. Not a bad idea if you plan on selling cars and planes outside of Stockholm. Of course, just because you can say it, doesn’t mean it sounds good. But having a pronounceable name is definitely a good place to start.

4. When life hands you lemons…

Sure, WTF stands for What the Fuck, but TFW stands for Tactical Fighter Wing. Acronyms are everywhere—that’s the world we live in. Personally, I think WTF was a blessing in disguise. Sure, it’s easy to play armchair quarterback on this one, but there was plenty of potential for WTF To Do In Wisconsin brochures and other ways to turn a perceived negative into a positive. It’s not like they had bad intentions with the name. More importantly, you can’t please everyone. If people were coming in and complaining about the name, I think they would have been better served coming up with a witty response than changing their name.

Oh well, the past is the past. I guess the next time I’m looking for a good bratwurst in Sheboygan, I’ll have to ask the TFW instead of the WTF.