Gen-X Office Dictionary
Gray Matter
Older, experienced business people hired by young entrepreneurial
firms
looking to appear more reputable and established.
Link Rot
The process by which links on a web page became as obsolete as
the sites
they're connected to change location or die.
Plug-and-Play
A new hire who doesn't need any training. "The new guy,
John, is great.
He's totally plug-and-play."
Career-Limiting Move (CLM)
Used among microserfs to describe an ill-advised activity.
Trashing your
boss while he or she is within earshot is a serious CLM.
World Wide Wait
The real meaning of WWW.
Adminisphere
The rarified organizational layers beginning just above the rack
and
file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often
profoundly
inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to
solve.
Under Mouse Arrest
Getting busted for violating an online service's rule of conduct.
"Sorry
I couldn't get back to you. AOL put me under mouse arrest."
Glazing
Corporate-speak for sleeping with your eyes open. A popular
pastime at
conferences and early-morning meetings. "Didn't he notice
that half the
room was glazing by the second session?"
404
Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web message
"404, URL Not
Found," meaning that the document you've tried to access
can't be
located. "Don't bother asking him...he's 404, man."
Egosurfing
Scanning the net, databases, print media, or research papers
looking for
the mention of your name.
Open-Collar Workers
People who work at home or telecommute.
Brain Fart
A biproduct of a bloated mind producing information effortlessly.
A
burst of useful information. "I know you're busy on the
Microsoft story,
but can you give us a brain fart on the Mitnik bust?"
Variation of old
hacker slang that had more negative connotations.
Elvis Year
The peak year of something's popularity. "Barney the
dinosaur's Elvis
year was 1993."
Alpha Geek
The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an
office or
work group. "Ask Larry, he's the alpha geek around
here."
Tourists
People who are taking training classes just to get a vacation
from their
jobs. "We had about three serious students in the class; the
rest were
tourists."
Blowing Your Buffer
Losing one's train of thought. Occurs when the person you are
speaking
with won't let you get a word in edgewise or has just said
something so
astonishing that your train gets derailed. "Damn, I just
blew my
buffer!"
Bookmark
To take note of a person for future reference (a metaphor
borrowed from
web browsers). "I bookmarked him after seeing his cool demo
at
Siggraph."
Nyetscape
Nickname for AOL's less-than-full-featured Web browser.
Beepilepsy
The brief seizure people sometimes suffer when their beepers go
off,
especially in vibrator mode. Characterized by physical spasms,
goofy
facial expressions, and stopping speech in mid-sentence.
Salmon Day
The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only
to get
screwed in the end.