3 ms·

When I worked at Yahoo, all personal machines were given a simple two-dictionary-word name. e.g. My desktop was sawbeauty. I always thought this was pretty eleg

by dpark 9y ago

When I worked at Yahoo, all personal machines were given a simple two-dictionary-word name. e.g. My desktop was sawbeauty. I always thought this was pretty elegant. All the names were pretty short. There was minimal ambiguity. And it scaled really well.

EvanAnderson 9y ago
An aside re: Yahoo -- Somewhere I have my website logs from the 1995-96 timeframe. I'll have to try to dig 'em up. I remember the day the site got listed on Yahoo, however. I got hits from machines with names like "scabies.yahoo.com", "ratbastard.yahoo.com", and "srinija.yahoo.com". There were some others, but I can't remember them (scurvy, maybe?). (I remember reading the Wired article about Yahoo in '96, seeing the name "Srinija Srinivasan", and figuring out what that last hostname meant.)
- dpark 9y ago
  That’s well before my time at Yahoo. By the time I joined, their IT group preinstalled and named every device with a two-word nonoffensive moniker. By then they weren’t giving out 3rd level domains anymore either. :)
- EvanAnderson 9y ago
  Found the logs! Woo-hoo! Monday, July 1, 1996 - We got hits from: polio.yahoo.com, pilsner.yahoo.com, mead.yahoo.com, scabies.yahoo.com, ratbastard.yahoo.com, lambic.yahoo.com, stout.yahoo.com, scorpio.yahoo.com, and srinija.yahoo.com. The Wired article had already come out at that point so I must have just remembered Srinija Srinivasan's name from the article. Later in 1996 and in early '97 we got hits from: suppository.yahoo.com, boils.yahoo.com, tuberculosis.yahoo.com, and lobo.yahoo.com. So, I see an alcoholic beverage theme and a disease theme. Yay!
52-6F-62 9y ago
I've always followed the two-word scheme, but not so random as just the first sci-fi or cartoon names that sprung to mind. Recent incarnations have been: StarshipEnterprise CaptainKirk MysteryMachine Two words seems expedient, and a coupling of 2 + 2 or 2 + 1 syllables (loosely speaking) seems to leech into memory pretty well.

by dpark 9y ago

EvanAnderson 9y ago

An aside re: Yahoo -- Somewhere I have my website logs from the 1995-96 timeframe. I'll have to try to dig 'em up. I remember the day the site got listed on Yahoo, however. I got hits from machines with names like "scabies.yahoo.com", "ratbastard.yahoo.com", and "srinija.yahoo.com". There were some others, but I can't remember them (scurvy, maybe?). (I remember reading the Wired article about Yahoo in '96, seeing the name "Srinija Srinivasan", and figuring out what that last hostname meant.)

dpark 9y ago
That’s well before my time at Yahoo. By the time I joined, their IT group preinstalled and named every device with a two-word nonoffensive moniker. By then they weren’t giving out 3rd level domains anymore either. :)
EvanAnderson 9y ago
Found the logs! Woo-hoo! Monday, July 1, 1996 - We got hits from: polio.yahoo.com, pilsner.yahoo.com, mead.yahoo.com, scabies.yahoo.com, ratbastard.yahoo.com, lambic.yahoo.com, stout.yahoo.com, scorpio.yahoo.com, and srinija.yahoo.com. The Wired article had already come out at that point so I must have just remembered Srinija Srinivasan's name from the article. Later in 1996 and in early '97 we got hits from: suppository.yahoo.com, boils.yahoo.com, tuberculosis.yahoo.com, and lobo.yahoo.com. So, I see an alcoholic beverage theme and a disease theme. Yay!

52-6F-62 9y ago

I've always followed the two-word scheme, but not so random as just the first sci-fi or cartoon names that sprung to mind. Recent incarnations have been: StarshipEnterprise CaptainKirk MysteryMachine Two words seems expedient, and a coupling of 2 + 2 or 2 + 1 syllables (loosely speaking) seems to leech into memory pretty well.