FUBAR and DW780

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Thu Oct 5 06:59:49 2000

> > > > Hearing anyone decode the FUBAR makes me twitch.
> > >
> > > Uhmm isn't the computer version Foo bar as in Foo bar
> blatz zam zow
> >
> > On some models of VAX there's a hardware register that
> stores (part of)
> > the address of a Unibus cycle where the selected device failed to
> > respond. This register is called, not suprisingly, the
> >
> > Failed UniBus Address Register

This is certainly serendipitous, but not the origin of the epithet.

FUBAR dates at least to WWII; I read that in an article about tech
terms that we tend to think are recent inventions but which have
been around for a rather long time.

For example, while Grace Murray Hopper is credited with finding
an actual moth wedged in a relay in the Eniac 1 (thus "bug" in
the system), the term "bug" has been found in the writings of
Thomas Edison, referring to a defect in a design.

"HAM", referring to amateur radio operators, is a 19th-century
invention; it was previously used to describe self-taught telegraph
operators.

And "to hack" is supposedly an old Yiddish phrase that refers to
the making of furniture with an axe (and although a different usage,
"hack" has referred to taxis since they were horse-drawn in the
early 1800s).

And on and on...

regards,
-dq
Received on Thu Oct 05 2000 - 06:59:49 BST