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A place where I can lament the changing times; for eccentric comments on current affairs and for unfashionable views, expressed I hope, in cogent style; also occasional cris de coeur largely concerned, I regret to say, with myself.



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Friday 21 March 2008

Yet another new word from the USA

The Americans have long been pre-eminent it seems to me in the field of inventing new words. I have never been able to fathom the reason for this phenomenon, but it is surely undeniably true.

The new (to me at least) word that prompted this piece is "Bloatware" and I first saw it in this article from Gizmodo.

This appears to be a marginally less rude version of one I knew already: Crapware.

These words are used by IT professionals to describe all of the useless software that arrives on your new PC - you know the sort of thing: trial versions of this and that all of which merely frustrates one and necessitates time to be spent uninstalling it all (and cleaning up the registry afterwards). Just another "grrrrrrrr" factor in PC ownership.

Gizmodo reports that Sony understands this problem and it now offers to supply your new Sony computer in "bloatware-free" form. There is however a snag: Sony proposes to charge the customer $50 for NOT installing all this rubbish.

You have to admire their "front" don't you?

Until the next time

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