4 ms·

You should never name a tech product Bob in the UK, because the moment it isn't perfect, it'll just get called "Bobbins" [0], especially where I'm from. I wish

You should never name a tech product Bob in the UK, because the moment it isn't perfect, it'll just get called "Bobbins" [0], especially where I'm from. I wish IBM got better at product again, and took themselves off the services and consulting morphine they've been on for ~35 years now since OS/2 Warp flopped. Their 1980s/1990s hardware was great. Their software actually was great until Win95 took their lunch money. They've just slunk off into a corner hugging their old architectures they have a moat around, and thrown out some audacious nonsense like Watson now and again, but nothing has stuck. When is somebody in that organisation going to try and innovate properly again? I'm not sure this is the answer I'd be rooting for. [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bobbins https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bobbins

basisword 29d ago
Also in the UK and never heard of this in my life. Guessing this is very regional?
- podgietaru 29d ago
  As with most things on the UK, probably. I definitely used Bobbins. I used to think everyone called (cobs|bread cakes|rolls|barns) muffins, and it turns out it was just my small town that did it. As in, just my small town, not region, county, etc.
  - PaulRobinson 29d ago
    If you call it a teacake, and I say no those have raisins in, and you protest that's a fruit teacake, I know you're probably from Burnley: https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/ https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/
  - serf 29d ago
    does that area have a textile manufacturing history? I ask because i'm only familiar with a thread/yarn bobbin, I wonder if it derived from that.
    - podgietaru 29d ago
      It does indeed, probably the heart of it.
    - jonwinstanley 29d ago
      Yes. The North West and the midlands was where it all started. Cotton, mills, Industrial Revolution etc
  - basisword 29d ago
    >> I used to think everyone called (cobs|bread cakes|rolls|barns) muffins UK regional dialects are summed up really well here because despite listing five different names for a specific thing you still neglected the word I use (baps).
    - jamiek88 28d ago
      And mine! (batch)
  - makerofthings 29d ago
    It's definitely chip muffin. I have no patience for those heretics up the road with their chip barms.
    - jonwinstanley 29d ago
      Hahaha. Chip butty
      - podgietaru 29d ago
        Extra vinegar please, I want my muffin drenched.
  - wrboyce 29d ago
    It’s barm, with an m, from barm cakes. Barm is the frothy scummy stuff you get on top of fermented beer, and it contains yeast. Back in the day bakers would take the barm from local brewers to make weakly fermented bread rolls… barm cakes. (So obviously those calling them cobs or rolls or whatever else are just wrong!)
    - podgietaru 29d ago
      I think that was just autocorrect to be fair. Barm isn't in the standard dictionary
      - wrboyce 29d ago
        I suspected that might be the case, but I wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity to share one of my fun facts!
    - KineticLensman 28d ago
      Can confirm. Per the (paywalled) Oxford English Dictionary [0]: 'barm' is The froth that forms on the top of fermenting malt liquors, which is used to leaven bread, and to cause fermentation in other liquors; yeast, leaven. OR The froth or foam on the surface of beer OR English regional (chiefly Lancashire). A soft round bread roll, a barm cake. [0] https://www.oed.com/dictionary/barm_n2?tab=meaning_and_use#27404461 https://www.oed.com/dictionary/barm_n2?tab=meaning_and_use#2...
- PaulRobinson 29d ago
  It's pretty common around Manchester. Bit like being nesh. But as you know... this is a thing: https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/ https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/
- Nursie 28d ago
  Might also mark you out as a certain age if not from the right region - I’m familiar with it as a word for “a bit rubbish” because of listening to Mark & Lard’s late night show on Radio 1 in the 90s
gertrunde 29d ago
tbh - my first thought, especially with that figure and marketing, is "Bob the Builder"... [Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_the_Builder_(character) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_the_Builder_(character) ]
- torgoguys 29d ago
  My first thought was it was going to be "Microsoft Bob for the AI Age" or something. I didn't look too closely -- maybe it is!
  - zorked 29d ago
    "IBM Bob? Certainly they have a license deal with Microsoft to release Bob for OS/2"
Angostura 29d ago
Never enough Frank Sidebottom on here
LgWoodenBadger 29d ago
You should also never name your faulty/flaky Dell server Bob when Bob is also the name of your company president (though the president came after the server). Calling Bob (the server) a piece of shit ("Bob is a piece of shit") because it crashed again was a very risky move that we often didn't fully think through.
beachy 29d ago
We did a deal with IBM back in the day to adapt our tech as the code generation for enterprise java beans. The commercial guy I dealt with made it very clear that a primary concern was IBM not being humiliated and shafted like their MS dealings. It colored our commercial arrangements, which had to include "break glass" arrangements for them to gain full access to our source code.
- cgio 29d ago
  How to not learn from your mistakes and actually make them worse. I wonder how many valuable alliances they lost just because of that fear. Whoever was willing to sign was already probably not going to be a threat.
  - roryirvine 28d ago
    To be fair, source code escrow was for a long time a standard feature of contracts between small/medium software companies and large enterprises. It's actually one of the reasons that open source took off in the early 2000s - if the source was already available all you needed to do was come up with a legal agreement that says something to the effect of "EnterpriseCo has a limited license to use SmallCo's software which reverts to full rights in the event that SmallCo is unable to carry out its obligations", with no need to bother arranging (and paying for) escrow. That made it easier and cheaper to deal with open source companies, and made escrow seem weird and expensive by comparison. But in the 90s it was almost universal in those sort of contracts.
Towaway69 29d ago
Speaking of UK, I was immediately reminded of the Blackadder episode where the men-servant calls herself “Bob”. Rowan Atkinsons pronunciation is how I imagine this Bob to pronounced, with the same look of course!
jolt42 29d ago
OS/2 was the only thing I remembering being great. If they practically gave it away I think we'd be living in a different world. Pre-emptive multitasking long before OSX/Windows. I mean Microsoft essentially had to force windows (eg. 3.1) down our throats until it become tolerable.
- cheema33 28d ago
  > OS/2 was the only thing I remembering being great. Thinkpads were great too. I had the Thinkpad 701C with the butterfly keyboard. It was awesome for its time.
- bronlund 28d ago
  They are still forcing Windows down our throats.
throwaway81523 29d ago
I had thought that in the UK, Bob was everyone's uncle.
- queenkjuul 29d ago
  Everyone else's uncle, and only on a good day
shellwizard 29d ago
They left the consumer market decades ago, as you mentioned, but they've been thriving in the enterprise and government sectors. They have been expanding their portfolio through acquisitions: Red Hat, HashiCorp, Confluent...
physicsguy 28d ago
I thought you were going to say about "bob" being a slang word for a poo. Turns out that's a particularly East Midlands thing!
Intermernet 28d ago
IBM actually do a bunch of semiconductor research, which they license to other fabs. I'm not sure how much money they make (probably nothing compared to support contracts with banks etc), but they actually do innovate. At least, a small portion of one of their business sectors still innovates. The rest are probably engaged in aggressive IP lawsuits or taking CFOs out to strip clubs on golf courses or something.
wvenable 28d ago
> I wish IBM got better at product again... I'm not sure where that "again" comes from. IBM has never been good a product and everybody is looking at OS/2 through glasses so rose tinted that they're essentially blind. The PC itself was a skunk-works project that was removed from their influence as soon as the rest of company got involved.
- jasomill 28d ago
  Not so much rose-colored glasses, but in comparison to MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows, 32-bit OS/2 was a dream. Native application support was limited, and it was even less of a pure 32-bit OS than Windows 95, but for about a year it was the only game in town if you wanted to run 16-bit Windows applications with preemptive multitasking and memory protection, and still had some advantages over NT when it shipped. I don't remember all the details, but I recall not switching to NT full-time until 3.5, and even then the UI wasn't as nice.

basisword 29d ago

Also in the UK and never heard of this in my life. Guessing this is very regional?

podgietaru 29d ago
As with most things on the UK, probably. I definitely used Bobbins. I used to think everyone called (cobs|bread cakes|rolls|barns) muffins, and it turns out it was just my small town that did it. As in, just my small town, not region, county, etc.
- PaulRobinson 29d ago
  If you call it a teacake, and I say no those have raisins in, and you protest that's a fruit teacake, I know you're probably from Burnley: https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/ https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/
- serf 29d ago
  does that area have a textile manufacturing history? I ask because i'm only familiar with a thread/yarn bobbin, I wonder if it derived from that.
  - podgietaru 29d ago
    It does indeed, probably the heart of it.
  - jonwinstanley 29d ago
    Yes. The North West and the midlands was where it all started. Cotton, mills, Industrial Revolution etc
- basisword 29d ago
  >> I used to think everyone called (cobs|bread cakes|rolls|barns) muffins UK regional dialects are summed up really well here because despite listing five different names for a specific thing you still neglected the word I use (baps).
  - jamiek88 28d ago
    And mine! (batch)
- makerofthings 29d ago
  It's definitely chip muffin. I have no patience for those heretics up the road with their chip barms.
  - jonwinstanley 29d ago
    Hahaha. Chip butty
    - podgietaru 29d ago
      Extra vinegar please, I want my muffin drenched.
- wrboyce 29d ago
  It’s barm, with an m, from barm cakes. Barm is the frothy scummy stuff you get on top of fermented beer, and it contains yeast. Back in the day bakers would take the barm from local brewers to make weakly fermented bread rolls… barm cakes. (So obviously those calling them cobs or rolls or whatever else are just wrong!)
  - podgietaru 29d ago
    I think that was just autocorrect to be fair. Barm isn't in the standard dictionary
    - wrboyce 29d ago
      I suspected that might be the case, but I wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity to share one of my fun facts!
  - KineticLensman 28d ago
    Can confirm. Per the (paywalled) Oxford English Dictionary [0]: 'barm' is The froth that forms on the top of fermenting malt liquors, which is used to leaven bread, and to cause fermentation in other liquors; yeast, leaven. OR The froth or foam on the surface of beer OR English regional (chiefly Lancashire). A soft round bread roll, a barm cake. [0] https://www.oed.com/dictionary/barm_n2?tab=meaning_and_use#27404461 https://www.oed.com/dictionary/barm_n2?tab=meaning_and_use#2...
PaulRobinson 29d ago
It's pretty common around Manchester. Bit like being nesh. But as you know... this is a thing: https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/ https://www.ourdialects.uk/maps/bread/
Nursie 28d ago
Might also mark you out as a certain age if not from the right region - I’m familiar with it as a word for “a bit rubbish” because of listening to Mark & Lard’s late night show on Radio 1 in the 90s

gertrunde 29d ago

tbh - my first thought, especially with that figure and marketing, is "Bob the Builder"... [Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_the_Builder_(character) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_the_Builder_(character) ]

torgoguys 29d ago
My first thought was it was going to be "Microsoft Bob for the AI Age" or something. I didn't look too closely -- maybe it is!
- zorked 29d ago
  "IBM Bob? Certainly they have a license deal with Microsoft to release Bob for OS/2"

Angostura 29d ago

Never enough Frank Sidebottom on here

LgWoodenBadger 29d ago

You should also never name your faulty/flaky Dell server Bob when Bob is also the name of your company president (though the president came after the server). Calling Bob (the server) a piece of shit ("Bob is a piece of shit") because it crashed again was a very risky move that we often didn't fully think through.

beachy 29d ago

We did a deal with IBM back in the day to adapt our tech as the code generation for enterprise java beans. The commercial guy I dealt with made it very clear that a primary concern was IBM not being humiliated and shafted like their MS dealings. It colored our commercial arrangements, which had to include "break glass" arrangements for them to gain full access to our source code.

cgio 29d ago
How to not learn from your mistakes and actually make them worse. I wonder how many valuable alliances they lost just because of that fear. Whoever was willing to sign was already probably not going to be a threat.
- roryirvine 28d ago
  To be fair, source code escrow was for a long time a standard feature of contracts between small/medium software companies and large enterprises. It's actually one of the reasons that open source took off in the early 2000s - if the source was already available all you needed to do was come up with a legal agreement that says something to the effect of "EnterpriseCo has a limited license to use SmallCo's software which reverts to full rights in the event that SmallCo is unable to carry out its obligations", with no need to bother arranging (and paying for) escrow. That made it easier and cheaper to deal with open source companies, and made escrow seem weird and expensive by comparison. But in the 90s it was almost universal in those sort of contracts.

Towaway69 29d ago

Speaking of UK, I was immediately reminded of the Blackadder episode where the men-servant calls herself “Bob”. Rowan Atkinsons pronunciation is how I imagine this Bob to pronounced, with the same look of course!

jolt42 29d ago

OS/2 was the only thing I remembering being great. If they practically gave it away I think we'd be living in a different world. Pre-emptive multitasking long before OSX/Windows. I mean Microsoft essentially had to force windows (eg. 3.1) down our throats until it become tolerable.

cheema33 28d ago
> OS/2 was the only thing I remembering being great. Thinkpads were great too. I had the Thinkpad 701C with the butterfly keyboard. It was awesome for its time.
bronlund 28d ago
They are still forcing Windows down our throats.

throwaway81523 29d ago

I had thought that in the UK, Bob was everyone's uncle.

queenkjuul 29d ago
Everyone else's uncle, and only on a good day

shellwizard 29d ago

They left the consumer market decades ago, as you mentioned, but they've been thriving in the enterprise and government sectors. They have been expanding their portfolio through acquisitions: Red Hat, HashiCorp, Confluent...

physicsguy 28d ago

I thought you were going to say about "bob" being a slang word for a poo. Turns out that's a particularly East Midlands thing!

Intermernet 28d ago

IBM actually do a bunch of semiconductor research, which they license to other fabs. I'm not sure how much money they make (probably nothing compared to support contracts with banks etc), but they actually do innovate. At least, a small portion of one of their business sectors still innovates. The rest are probably engaged in aggressive IP lawsuits or taking CFOs out to strip clubs on golf courses or something.

wvenable 28d ago

> I wish IBM got better at product again... I'm not sure where that "again" comes from. IBM has never been good a product and everybody is looking at OS/2 through glasses so rose tinted that they're essentially blind. The PC itself was a skunk-works project that was removed from their influence as soon as the rest of company got involved.

jasomill 28d ago
Not so much rose-colored glasses, but in comparison to MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows, 32-bit OS/2 was a dream. Native application support was limited, and it was even less of a pure 32-bit OS than Windows 95, but for about a year it was the only game in town if you wanted to run 16-bit Windows applications with preemptive multitasking and memory protection, and still had some advantages over NT when it shipped. I don't remember all the details, but I recall not switching to NT full-time until 3.5, and even then the UI wasn't as nice.