Lingo

An update from "Jargon Watch" on new lingo flowing out of the Silicon Valley and corporate jungles....

"batmobiling"
Putting up emotional shields just as a relationship enters an intimate, vulnerable stage. Refers to the retracting armor that covers the batmobile as in "she started talking marriage and he started batmobiling"

"prairie dogging"
When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm (cubicles) everyone's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on

"ribs 'n' dick"
A budget with no fat as in "we've got ribs 'n' dick and we're supposed to find 20K for memory upgrades"

"betamaxed"
When a technology is overtaken in the market by inferior but better marketed competition as in "Microsoft betamaxed Apple right out of the market"

"generica"
Fast food joints, strip malls, sub-divisions as in "we were so lost in generica that I couldn't remember what city it was"

"going postal"
Totally stressed out and losing it like postal employees who went on shooting rampages

"high dome"
Egghead, scientist, PhD

"irritainment"
Annoying but you can't stop watching, e.g. the O.J. trial

"meatspace"
The physical world (as opposed to the virtual) also "carbon community" "facetime" "F2F" "RL"

"percussive maintenance"
The fine art of whacking a device to get it working

"siliwood"
The coming convergence of movies, interactive TV and computers; also "hollywired"

"square headed girlfriend" (boyfriend)
Computer

"treeware"
Printed manuals and documentation. Also Dead Tree Edition.

"umfriend"
Sexual relationship; "this is Dale, my...um...friend"

"yuppie food coupons"
Twenty dollar bills from an ATM

ADDITIONS:

"salmon day"
When you spend the entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed in the end.

"kubris"
An extreme form of arrogance found in multimedia autuers who think they're Stanley Kubrick.

"chain saw consultants"
Outside experts brought in to reduce the employee headcount.

"future proof"
Term used to describe something that won't become technologically outdated anytime soon.

"voice jail system"
A poorly designed voicemail system that has so many submenus one gets lost and has to hang up and call back.

"under mouse arrest:
Getting busted for violating an online service's rules of conduct.

"telecrats"
High-ranking telecom executives who are more like government bureaucrats than businesspeople.