U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (10/13/90)
From {The Age}, 12th October, 1990, Melbourne, Australia.
By Leon Gettler, Communications reporter.
Is it all over between PETA and LES since she found out about the
LEOPARD? Was SID linked to the MAFIA? And where did DRACULA fit into
all this? Was he really a VAMPIRE or just one of the DAGS?
Confused? Just consult the Telecom staff dictionary, an introduction
the to world of tele-babble. Insiders in every profession have their
jargon, but no one generates it faster than telecommunications
engineers.
Take, for instance the story of the chap sent to Cairns on an
emergency mission several years ago when the phone system was wiped
out by flood. He designed the Cairns restoration and provisioning
program. No prizes for working out the acronym. "It just rolled off
the tongue," said a Telecom official this week.
Step into the world of telecommunications and you find yourself in a
sea of acronyms and jargon. Some examples: DNA (does not answer), DND
(did not dial), MBC (major business customer), HC&F (heat, coil and
fuse), LIBFA (line bearer fault analysis), DELY (delivery), CIE
(customer interface equipment), PP (prompt public telephone) and TTT
(terminatng trunk tandem).
Traditionally, acronyms have been used to help us remember
terminology. Usage has transformed many into ordinary words.
Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services is always Qantas.
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps gave us Anzac, the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation is NATO.
But Telecom Australia seems to have done the reverse. It produced
DRACULA (data recording and concentrator unit for line applications),
VAMPIRE (videotex access monitoring and priority incident reporting
equipment), LEOPARD (local engineering operations processing and
analyses of recorded data), MAFIA (maintenance and fleet information
analysis), SULTAN (subscribers' universal line testing access
network), CARGO (complaints analysis recording and graphing
organisation), CATNAP (computer-aided network assessment program) and
DAGS (digit-absorbing group selector).
In many ways, Telecom employees are lucky. They can see PARIS
(product accounting and reporting information system) or even MARS
(microfiche auto-retrieval system). They don't even need a MAP
(manual assistance position), the work station for telephonists.
Telephone operators-turned-philosophers can turn to PLATO (programmed
evaluation review technique) over a few POTS (plain old telephone
services) of CIDER (costing input, data editing and reporting) or SODA
(service order debit advice). and romantics can contemplate EROS
(emitter-receiver for optical systems).
But things can get confusing, too. COLDEWS (computerised lines depot
external works scheduling) does not cover grass in the morning. And
TACONET is short for Telecom Australia computer network, not tapas
tucker. Similarly, CONTRAFAST is not a Nicaraguan health regime but
the consolidated trunk forecast.
Are Telecom employees happy with the ALP (associated line prime) after
the [Australian] Labor Party's national conference last month? And
does COM (computer output to microfilm) suggest that the reds have
escaped from under the beds and infiltrated the phone exchanges?
The names are also a worry. There are nine males (REX, JACK, SID,
DAVID, LARS, LES, LEN, MARC AND SAM) but only four females (PETA,
DAISY, DOT AND SUSIE). Koorie and other non-English names do not get
a mention. And what about the indelicacy of TART (TACONET
availability and response time monitoring) and TIT (technician in
training)?
----------------------
Don't blame me if my fingers did not type what my eyes saw!
Danny
[Moderator's Note: Thanks for taking the time to type in such a clever
report. Speaking of obscure acronyms, everyone must know of CARE, the
organization which provides assistance to other countries in need. But
do you remember what the letters mean? Committee on American Relief
in Europe. And lest we forget, the zip in the postal Zip Code refers
to the Zone Improvement Plan. Seriously. PAT]trebor@biar.UUCP (Robert J Woodhead) (10/15/90)
U5434122@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au writes: >Telephone operators-turned-philosophers can turn to PLATO (programmed >evaluation review technique). Hmm. Mayhaps they should be more PERT. PLATO is "Programmed Learning for Automated Teaching Operations," created in the early '70s at the University of Illinois at Urbana (future home of HAL), marketed into an early semi-grave by CDC, but well remembered as having some of the all-time best multiplayer games ever written. Robert J Woodhead, Biar Games, Inc. !uunet!biar!trebor trebor@biar.UUCP
zaft@suned1.nswses.navy.mil (Gordon C. Zaft) (10/17/90)
Robert Woodhead writes: >Hmm. Mayhaps they should be more PERT. PLATO is "Programmed Learning >for Automated Teaching Operations," created in the early '70s at the >University of Illinois at Urbana (future home of HAL), marketed into >an early semi-grave by CDC, but well remembered as having some of the >all-time best multiplayer games ever written. Actually PLATO is still somewhat alive-and-well; CDC sold it to The Roach Organization (TRO). Meanwhile, UIUC has come up with the successor to PLATO, NovaNET. NovaNET combines the features of PLATO with lowered cost due to satellite distribution of host-to-terminal data. Gordon Zaft | zaft@suned1.nswses.navy.mil + NSWSES, Code 4Y33 | suned1!zaft@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov + Port Hueneme, CA 93043-5007 | Phone: (805) 982-0684 FAX: 982-8768 +
lester@infonode.ingr.com (Lester Bartel) (02/22/91)
I have been reading the telecom group for several months now, and am still lost regarding the acronyms used here. Could someone please explain to me and perhaps to the net what the acronyms are and what they mean? Some examples are PTT, COCOT, CO, intra-NPA, ANI and CIDCO. Other terms have only a fuzzy meaning to me: switch, crossbar. A definition of these and other terms would help me understand what is being said, and possibly remove any erroneous definitions I may have determined from context. Lester Bartel b23b!naomi!lester@ingr.com Dazix, An Intergraph Company uunet!ingr!b23b!naomi!lester [Moderator's Note: Ah, a chance to plug the Telecom Archives again! We have just the files you are looking for. In my spare time -- moderating this Digest does not keep me all that busy :) -- I maintain the Archives; a collection of the past ten year's worth of Digests and dozens of other telecom related files. You would want the three files in the 'glossary and acronyms' category. The Archives is ftp'able for users on the Internet. Other need to use an archives mail server. Using ftp: 'ftp lcs.mit.edu'. Login anonymous, and give your own net address (name@site.domain) as the password. When on line, you must 'cd telecom-archives'. Then use regular ftp commands to search the main and various sub-directories and 'get' the files you want. Use the command 'dir' to check exact file names. You will find three which begin with the word 'glossary'. To address your specific inquiries: PTT = Post, Telegraph and Telephone. (A generic name for the telephone administration in many foreign countries). COCOT = Coin Operated, Customer Owned Telephone. (The private payphones you see around everywhere.) CO = Central Office. (The telephone company switching center). ANI = Automatic Number Identification (When the number you are calling from is given automatically to the recipient of the call). For those of you who have the glossary files already, at least one of them has been updated by Mike Patton <map@lcs.mit.edu> so you may wish to get a more recent version of the file. PAT]
AMillar@cup.portal.com (02/24/91)
I've been through the acronym files in the Archives, and they've been quite helpful. However, I'm not satisfied with "POTS". It doesn't really stand for "Plain Old Telephone Service", does it? That`s cute and all, but what does it really stand for? Alan Millar AMillar@cup.portal.com [Moderator's Note: That is *really* all it stands for! For the rest of you, if you don't have the glossary files and sometimes do not understand the terms used here, please get your copies from Telecom Archives. (ftp lcs.mit.edu, login anonymous, cd telecom-archives) PAT]