I Wekcomed Clippy's Disappearance

@WalterF Microsoft is not the only organisation to think we all have to be treated like children simply because a lot of children use its products or services.

Advertising agencies for manufacturers of everyday items have long been puerile. TV companies believe that the shallower the contentsof the programmes, the sillier and more fit-inducingly flashier the programme links and trailers need be.

Many major museums and visitor-centres have also latched onto the strange idea that to attract the interest of children, means having to talk down to both children and adults alike - enlightening neither, and frustrating those of any age with a genuine interest in the subjects.

@ArishMell I believe the term for this is "dumbing down". Regrettable.

I have also noticed that, today information is made available primarily in videos, or "podcasts". These are in the majority, compared to written documents. I don't really want to sit and listen to or watch someone spouting their opinions; it's quicker and mre efficient and more stimulating to READ a document. But reading appears to be too taxing for present-day youth or adults. They prefer a screen.

@WalterF I think the slang phrase "dumbing down" is itself guilty as charged!

I agree though - very often a printed document is quicker and more efficient than
its screen version, whether a set of opinions or straight facts. Only yesterday I wanted some quick geographical information. It took me only moments to find it, in a printed atlas, rather than faffing around trying to find it on-line.

There is also the point that if you create the document there is no guarantees of being able to retrieve it easily in, say, 10 or 20 years if it exists only as a digital file.

@ArishMell What is sad is that the biggest search engine on the planet is called "google".

There was a time when companies were proud of their technology and name.
They could have used a cool name like "ByteSeek" and their logo looking like electronic circuitry but, no, some lame name and logo.

I think by the time someone starts kindergarten, they have outgrown baby words.

I read somewhere that the reason some companies use infantile names is they are trying to hide what evils pricks they really are.

@HoeBag Aye, and when not using infantile names and presentations, they use ones too opaque to convey any information at all!

(Sometimes it is for the genuine reason of wanting something easy to pronounce but without being a real word, in any language.)


I knew people who worked for a Ministry of Defence department that became privatised, when it duly lumbered itself with "Branding Consultants" who concocted the name QinetiQ, no doubt for a handsomely bloated fee.

My acquaintances reckoned everyone working there was driven up the wall by having to explain the spelling and pronunciation, every time they needed quote it to outsiders like trade suppliers or their own banks.

I think that above is right: two capital Q's. It is pronounced "Kinetic", as in physics.

@WalterF Noodle and Doodle sound like a cartoon featuring a couple of ducks with Down Syndrome.

@ArishMell there's not always a whole lot of Rhyme or Reason. The company I work for has a pretty straightforward name. Even if someone had never heard of it, they could pretty easily figure out what kind of business it is.

@HoeBag It's very likely some of the electronics on which you are reading this are on a board printed by machines made by a British company called DEK.

It makes precision screen-printing machines for the electronics industry, is under new ownership (I don't know its nationality) but keeps the DEK name for the brand. Its founder's original machines were for labelling oil-drums, souvenirs and the like, but he was far-sighted enough to want a language-free brand-name that can be international, plus two English words to say what it was.

Hence, "DEK Printing Machines Ltd."

On the other hand, the tracking-cookie filter on my parallel Outlook account, lists umpteen, utterly meaningless names. Looking some up, they seem mainly IT and advertising "consultants", but you wold not know it from their names.

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Anyway we digress. The OP is about letters and communication etiquette.

At least letters usually retain good manners and appropriate personal levels.

I have had one or two e-mails intended to be friendly but started with "Hey". That word is a peremptory warning or stern admonition, not a friendly greeting.

Last Christmas I even received a Christmas "card" produced by typing the names and any message on an expensive-looking digital form complete with CGI. I thought first it was some advertising campaign, then realised it was from long-time friends who have always previously exchanged real cards. Whilst pleased they had thought of me, I was hurt by this impersonal approach. I would not be surprised if you can use it with a digital address-list. Nor would I trust the e-card company not to read resulting contact-patterns for selling on. Christmas by database and friendship by spread-sheet.