HDLT (was Re: [olpc-software] age target?)

[Alan Horkan]

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006, Dean Johnson wrote:

> Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 13:43:26 -0600
> From: Dean Johnson <dtj at uberh4x0r.org>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana at maths.tcd.ie>
> Cc: olpc-software at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: HDLT (was Re: [olpc-software] age target?)
>
> Alan Horkan wrote:
> > On Wed, 22 Mar 2006, Jim Gettys wrote:
> >
> >> Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 12:36:35 -0500
> >> From: Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
> >> To: Joshua N Pritikin <jpritikin at pobox.com>
> >> Cc: olpc-software at redhat.com
> >> Subject: Re: HDLT (was Re: [olpc-software] age target?)
> >>
> >> HDLT == Hundred Dollar Lap Top....
> >
> > Acronyms make the children cry.  Unnecessary jargon excludes people.
> > Please could some marketing genius come up with a catchy one or two word
> > phrase to describe this project, please!

> I nominate "One Laptop Per Child". ;-)

Unfortunately that phrase is too long and some people insist on shortenign
it to an indecipherable acronym and not pronouncable enough to stand alone
as a seperate word (like LASER, SCUBA, and RADAR all of which were
originally acronyms or abbreviations).  Perhaps some people are not able
to touch type, perhaps email software should be smarter and understand how
to expand acronyms and shorthand into full words.  Who knows? The
linguistic trickery employed by someone who really understands marketing
is no less impressive than coding a complex algorithm. I hope Mr. Kay will
reconsider his choice of trying to add another confusing acronym to mix.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan