The Old New Thing

Microspeak - The Old New Thing

Microspeak: planful

August 7, 2012 Aug 7, 2012 08/7/12
Raymond Chen
Every year, Microsoft invites its employees to fill out a poll which asks questions regarding all sorts of things. One of the things Microsoft employees are asked to evaluate is whether they think that their vice president is acting planfully. The tricky part about that question is that nobody knows exactly what the word planfully means. ...

Microspeak: radar

July 10, 2012 Jul 10, 2012 07/10/12
Raymond Chen
The metaphoric use of the term radar is in general use. It refers to the set of things that some entity is paying attention to. (That entity being the owner of the radar.) At Microsoft, the metaphorical radar usually belongs to a specific person or group. You might forward an email exchange to a person or group with the message "Just ...

Microspeak: Turds

June 5, 2012 Jun 5, 2012 06/5/12
Raymond Chen
In Microspeak, a turd is a graphics glitch which results in old pixels appearing on the screen when they shouldn't. Perhaps they are not being erased properly, or instead of being erased, they move to an unwanted location. The source of the problem could be failing to mark a region for redrawing after something changed, or it could be that the...

Microspeak: The parking lot

May 15, 2012 May 15, 2012 05/15/12
Raymond Chen
Mike Dunn wonders what the Microspeak term parking lot means. I'm not familiar with this term either, and the first document I turned up during my search was a PowerPoint presentation that said "Avoid using Microsoft jargon terms, such as parking lot and dogfood." Yeah, that wasn't much help. From what I can gather, the term parking lot ...

Microspeak: scoped to

April 10, 2012 Apr 10, 2012 04/10/12
Raymond Chen
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives as the meaning of scope as a verb to look at for evaluation, as in "to scope out the competition." But that's not how we use it at Microsoft. Here are some fake citations: The Widgets pop-up shows the available widgets scoped to the current selection. The results of the search are scoped to the current...

Microspeak: Friction

March 13, 2012 Mar 13, 2012 03/13/12
Raymond Chen
In physics, friction is a force that resists motion. In Microspeak, friction is an obstacle which prevents somebody from doing something you want them to do. (The preferred verb phrase for getting over an obstacle is overcoming friction.) There is friction in the system for X that is reduced when developing with Y. Using X reduces friction ...

Microspeak: fit

February 7, 2012 Feb 7, 2012 02/7/12
Raymond Chen
In Microspeak, fit is a predicate noun which is never used on its own but always comes with a modifying adjective. For something to be a good fit is for something to be appropriate or suitable for a particular situation. The opposite of a good fit is not a bad fit, because that's pejorative. Rather, something that is not a good fit is ...

Microspeak: Walls and ladders

January 17, 2012 Jan 17, 2012 01/17/12
Raymond Chen
Reader laonianren wanted to know more about this game Walls and Ladders. "Walls and Ladders" is not a game. It's just a metaphor for a conflict in which one side wants to perform some action and the other side wants to prevent it. The defending side builds a wall, and the attacking side builds a taller ladder. In response, the defending ...

Microspeak: Offline (noun)

December 20, 2011 Dec 20, 2011 12/20/11
Raymond Chen
Sure, any noun can be verbed, and any verb can be nouned. But today, we're going to noun an adjective. I have no written citations of this usage; the only report was via a colleague who overheard it in a hallway conversion. I had some offlines with Fred about that. In Microspeak, offline is an adjective which means "outside this meeting." ...

Microspeak: Level-set

November 8, 2011 Nov 8, 2011 11/8/11
Raymond Chen
In mathematics, a level set is the set of points at which a function takes a particular value. This has nothing to do with the way the term is used at Microsoft. In fact, the way the term is used at Microsoft, I have no idea what it means. But here are citations. The first is from an upper-level executive: Before we start the meeting, let me...