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Note that dates and times for posts are listed using the U.S. Eastern Standard time zone, and times are listed in 24-hour format (e.g. 7:04AM is 07:04, 7:19PM is 19:19, etc.).

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Broken As Designed is BAD

I was having an IM conversation today where I accidentally came upon an incredibly awesome acronym. Ever since I started working with computers, I've used the the phrase, broken as designed. I love using it because it so perfectly describes so many things in this world that are quite literally broken as designed. And to inject a current events element into this, as I'm writing, the new U.S. government's healthcare.gov website comes to mind. Anyways, back to my serendipitous discovery. Here's my bit of the conversation (edited to protect the guilty):

Me: it is so going to be fun when it becomes obvious most of [censored] processes in [censored] are BAD™ = Broken As Designed lol

Me: and Dang, dude, I just came up with a real Bad-ass Acronym!!!! rofl

What I find hilarious about this, is first of all, I had no recollection of ever having heard or read the the phrase before, to say nothing of the acronym. So I thought I was being ever so clever. Until I googled it, that is. Using “bad broken as designed” as my search terms, the very first hit to come up was this entry in Eric Raymond's Jargon File :

BAD: /BAD/, adj.

    [IBM: acronym, “Broken As Designed”] Said of a program that is bogus because
    of bad design and misfeatures rather than because of bugginess.
    See working as designed. 

Imagine my disappointment! I felt like I'd uniquely invented an acronym, though, if only for a brief while. Ay, asi es la vida. :(

UPDATE: Curious about whether or not I might have subconsiously picked up the broken as designed phrase from the Jargon File, I found an archive of historical versions. I started using computers back in 1987, and the first version to list the phrase is version 2.4.3, dated 24 January 1991. The 2.4.2 version is missing from the archive, so I can't check its date. However, the 2.4.1 version is dated 14 January 1991. So it is entirely possible that I came up with the phrase on my own, especially given that I wasn't even aware of the BAD™ acronym until today. Fascinating!

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

Title: Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
Rating:
Author: Lawrence Lessing
ISBN: 978-1-59420-172-1
Pages: 327
Format: hardcover
Started: ~2013-11
Finished: ~2013-11

[Short opinion coming soon…]

Visions of God

Title: Visions of God
Rating:
Author: Karen Armstrong
ISBN: 0-553-35199-0
Pages: 228
Format: paperback
Started: ~2013-11
Finished: ~2013-11

[Short opinion coming soon…]

Trust No One

Title: Trust No One
Rating:
Author: Gregg Hurwitz
ISBN: 978-0-312-53489-9
Pages: 341
Format: hardcover
Started: ~2013-11
Finished: ~2013-11

[Short opinion coming soon…]

The Faculty Club

Title: The Faculty Club
Rating:
Author: Danny Tobey
ISBN: 978-1-4423-0608-0
Pages: 7 CDs
Format: Audiobook on CDROM
Started: ~2013-11
Finished: ~2013-11

[Short opinion coming soon…]


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