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Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Art of The Recursive Acronym


Just a small update in between larger ones..

The computer world ( and the government) is filled to the brim with acronyms. SQL, RAID, SSD, ANSI, MAC, IP, BBS, RAM..the list goes on and on..I've gotten quite used to coming across acronyms, I'd dare say I've even become adept at attempting to remember them. I was thrown into a particularly loopy situation, recently when I was reading up on programming. I came across an acronym in which I've seen before, but never really knew what it stood for. PHP. (It turns out PHP is a set of turns and code to design web pages). Now PHP originally stood for "Personal Homepage" but sense has some how incorporated itself into its own acronym. The new meaning of PHP is "PHP Hypertext Preproccessors" The 'P' standing for PHP. So the acrconym has an acronym...which itself has an acronym.. going on forever...Now you see why this sparked some interest...so true to form, I dug a little deeper and found some others.

* Note*
I'm not entirely sure you'll find any of these entertaining in the slightest if you haven't seen them already.. but here goes.

VISA ( Credit card company) - "VISA International Services Association"

GNU - "GNU's Not Unix"

PINE (An older email service - "PINE is not elm"

MULTICS (a precurser to UNIX) - "Multic Information Computing Systems"

LINK (If you live in the UK you'll know this one) - "LINK Interchange NetworK"

BWIA (west indies airline compnay) - "BWIA West Indies Airways"


And finally we have :

TIARA: (the cleverest of all acronyms..) "TIARA IS A RECURSIVE ACRONYM"

Well that's all folks, a lot more exist but its much more fun to actually know the acronym before its explained. I just thought this endless loop of acronyms calling itself would be a great fit for the blog.  A quite poetic way of explaining this, is Douglas Hofstander, in the book "Godel, Escher, and Bach". A Genie explains that God stands for "God Over Djinn". Meaning that no matter how many types you look into God, it will always mean the same thing. You'll never be able to get past that.  Anyway if you do have any of your own, please post them!
Posted by The Wired at 11:50 PM

51 comments:

  1. AlphaApril 29, 2011 at 12:35 AM

    Hm, that's pretty interesting.

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  2. Astronomy PirateApril 29, 2011 at 1:08 AM

    That's pretty crazy, I would never have thought those were recursive acronyms. Astronomy gets a lot of great acronyms, like computer tech, they can be fun to pick apart.

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  3. ZombieApril 29, 2011 at 1:11 AM

    Pretty interesting stuff indeed!

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  4. BTN Hip HopApril 29, 2011 at 5:01 AM

    acronyms are really interesting, language has always been perculiar

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  5. IntramanApril 29, 2011 at 5:52 AM

    I never thought about it but this is great indeed!

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  6. LichApril 29, 2011 at 5:53 AM

    Wow, I never realized those exist, that's pretty funny though.

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  7. DaveApril 29, 2011 at 10:09 AM

    Really interesting post. Ill be back for more.

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  8. UnknownApril 29, 2011 at 10:12 AM

    you forgot WINE ;)

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  9. Clueless DolphinApril 29, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    Acronyms are technically a group of letters that both stand for something and read out as well like
    MAAD
    STAR
    TAKS
    etc...

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  10. Miyamoto KaryuuApril 29, 2011 at 3:46 PM

    i lol'd when i heard this one

    "every female in a game is a GIRL - GuyInRealLIfe"

    :3

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  11. UnknownApril 29, 2011 at 3:58 PM

    When it comes to acronyms: GIYF :) +1

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  12. LealeepoApril 29, 2011 at 4:30 PM

    You are right it fits perfectly into your blog. Probably you should go on with such things!

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  13. rpullinsApril 29, 2011 at 4:57 PM

    there are so many acronyms it is hard to keep up

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  14. The WiredApril 29, 2011 at 7:03 PM

    @ Miyamoto: lol, I like that one..oh so true..
    @Mac-and-me: I tried to pick ones that people would know. WINE doesn't really come up that much

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  15. Jestar4AApril 30, 2011 at 1:29 AM

    Very interesting, and pretty educational, too! I'll definitely be keeping my eye on your blog!

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  16. ZachApril 30, 2011 at 2:46 PM

    Hmm, I find it weird that the first letter of an acronym represents an acronym. 0.o

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  17. nickxdesuApril 30, 2011 at 3:07 PM

    @Zach, I thought the same thing.

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  18. tskApril 30, 2011 at 3:20 PM

    Never thought about that.

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  19. AnonymousApril 30, 2011 at 4:16 PM

    Very interesting, good read! Thanks for the post!

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  20. Everyday Normal GuyMay 1, 2011 at 1:35 AM

    I'm learning the PHP basics atm.

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  21. AnonymousMay 1, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    Nice blog man

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  22. sp3nnyMay 1, 2011 at 1:55 PM

    fits great! thx for the post

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  23. Th1s_1s_R4z0rMay 1, 2011 at 2:02 PM

    Cool post

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  24. ChrizMay 1, 2011 at 2:11 PM

    Like reading :) this blog

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  25. PonyMay 1, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    Interesting, good up.

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  26. UnknownMay 1, 2011 at 2:55 PM

    Good info, so true as well

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  27. AlexMay 1, 2011 at 2:58 PM

    good to know thx

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  28. Penguin TamerMay 1, 2011 at 4:08 PM

    Hehe, interesting stuff. I'm a fan of recursive loops (comes with the territory of being a programmer), so this is pretty neat.

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  29. XiismMay 1, 2011 at 5:38 PM

    Funny read hehe, thanks for sharing ;)

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  30. KetomasterMay 1, 2011 at 9:28 PM

    Hmm.. so that's why my professor avoided making a slide about what PHP stood for, haha

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  31. One Cool DudeMay 2, 2011 at 12:28 AM

    lol there are so many acronyms u could probably make a blog that is only meant for listing them all. lol great post

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  32. UnknownMay 2, 2011 at 12:29 AM

    Just another proof that humans as a people, are lazy.

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  33. Danny MurphyMay 2, 2011 at 3:27 PM

    Thats a good read mate, interesting stuff

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  34. AnonymousMay 2, 2011 at 3:39 PM

    hehe, psycology is amazing^^

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  35. UnknownMay 2, 2011 at 10:34 PM

    Wow this is actually mind blowing for me.

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  36. AnonymousMay 2, 2011 at 10:35 PM

    Haha, now that's crazy. Thanks for sharing. :)

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  37. HyperionMay 2, 2011 at 10:44 PM

    Acronyms are just going crazy these days, you sure know what I mean if you work for a medium~large company with bullshit working protocols.

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  38. 0000May 2, 2011 at 11:09 PM

    cool stuff dude!

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  39. MJ to IMMay 2, 2011 at 11:09 PM

    super interesting keep up the good work!

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  40. 1HipHopBlogMay 3, 2011 at 4:06 PM

    Acronyms=internet lol

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  41. TheJackKelly98May 3, 2011 at 4:20 PM

    interesting man

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  42. brnMay 3, 2011 at 4:21 PM

    hahah that's awesome

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  43. MikeMay 3, 2011 at 4:26 PM

    Very interesting, thanks for the post!

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  44. tommyth3catMay 3, 2011 at 4:29 PM

    I always wondered what the hell php stood for, and now I know. Awesome post by the way.

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  45. Von BrownianMay 3, 2011 at 4:36 PM

    There's this swim team called NOVA that I know of.

    Nova of Virginia Aquatics.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Pappa PüllïMay 3, 2011 at 4:44 PM

    PHP5 is interesting, good luck!

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  47. MadAtomMay 3, 2011 at 4:54 PM

    I can write php... get at me!

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  48. Biff TannerMay 3, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    mmm php

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  49. MikeMay 3, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    Acronyms get hugely overused these days...

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  50. AnonymousMay 27, 2011 at 5:29 AM

    LAME = LAME Ain't an Mp3 Encoder

    ReplyDelete
  51. AnonymousMay 29, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    Very interesting, you have an interesting viewpoint!

    ReplyDelete

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