Real time used to be extremely difficult, therefore it was extremely well designed and engineered. Think of the engineering and quality level of a stereotypica

Real time used to be extremely difficult, therefore it was extremely well designed and engineered. Think of the engineering and quality level of a stereotypical multi-million dollar industrial machine with hard real time nanosecond level response. Jitter in the response rate can be measured and correlated with tool lifetime and product scrap rates, for example. Think like a PR guy, use some empathy: Isn't complicated well engineered high quality stuff cool and easy to sell? I know, we'll call our Angry Birds tablet "real time". After all if "real time" is a phrase that sells five axis milling machine motor control systems, think how well it'll sell thermostats? Sure the engineers will be pissed off at the bastardization of their technical term but I'm paid on commission so who cares what they think... if they complain I'll call them "hackers" again to shut them up, that usually works pretty well. Look how in mass media, "quantum" usually passes for the opposite of the technical physics definition. There is an inherent danger where theres a profit motive in divide and conqueor style separation of people, the makers vs the consumers could eventually become as bad as the UK vs US two cultures separated by a common language.