nanog mailing list archives

Re: Common operational misconceptions


From: Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:56:21 -0500 (EST)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jimmy Hess" <mysidia () gmail com>

RJ45 is really an example of what was originally a misconception
became so widespread, so universal, that reality has actually shifted
so the misconception became reality. When was the last time you ever
heard anyone say "8P8C connector?"

Joe public caught on to "RJ45", so now that word means something
different in common usage than what it was specified to be. When
was the last time you heard someone say 8P8C connector in reference to
Ethernet?

WADR: horseshit.

I, in fact, just wrote a cabling RFQ yesterday for a new building, and
*I* write "8P8C male modular connector".  So, in short: if you *actually
need to be saying it*, you actually need to be saying it correctly, because
you're talking to people who know the difference.

They won't say anything, mind you, and you'll get what you want; they'll
just think you're a clueless dilettante.

Cheers,
-- jr 'yes, I'm a prescriptivist[1]' a

[1] The *point* of language is communication; this is impossible if
words "mean what people want them to mean, no more, no less".
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra () baylink com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com         2000 Land Rover DII
St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274


Current thread: