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2019 Tech Glossary

A de facto fallacy.

A dictionary



Summary: This clavis refers to what the de facto definition may be, based on how (and when) media uses the words nowadays

Cloud: server you don't control or own Serverless: server you cannot even access Smart: surveillance Big Data: surveillance using "cloud" (see above) Assistant: surveillance using a small device Speaker: microphone, sometimes "smart" (see above) because it sends audio streams to a "cloud" Open Source: may contain freely-accessible source code for some portions of the product Free: temporarily accessible free of charge (also known as bait) API: access point for surveillance AI: algorithm that collects data 4IR: something new or needing to sound novel App: proprietary, contained software that limits what users can do DevOp: overworked software developer you can wake up at any time of the day (and night) or sysadmin you can ask to code Security: national security, i.e. back doors, but not too many (or not too obvious) Standards: means for passing surveillance data (or "big data") around Community Edition: see "Free" above Enterprise Edition/Enterprise Software: proprietary software Foundation: a corporate front group for PR/lobbying purposes (e.g. Mozilla Foundation, Linux Foundation) Privacy: GUI controls to give people a perception of control over data Inclusiveness: corporate posturing for the appearance of tolerance or disregard for technical merit/quality in pursuit thereof Openness: friendliness towards business, profit Values: personification of corporations, ascribing feelings and ideologies to a collective of shareholders Agile: more managers and bureaucrats, less of the rest Self-driving: driven by corporations instead of people Innovation: patent monopolies that give market exclusivity IoT: devices with security holes in them (see security above) Engagement: puff piece or AstroTurfing Review: shipping of a product to someone with a site (or access to one) in exchange for an advertisement that looks like an article Sponsorship: bribe Keynote: exchanged for sponsorship (see above) Manager: non-technical person who can leverage ignorance to overrule technical people who voice concerns about ethics

And now it's readers' turn to come up with more.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Central Staff Committee of the EPO Explains Late March Meetings Coinciding With Commencement of the Non-Stop Strikes at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The fifth meeting report and sixth meeting report show some of the concerns leading up to the mass strikes
thenextweb.com (TNW) Appears to Have Become a Slopfarm, Fake Articles About France and GNU/Linux Flood the Web
If you're not against slop, you're part of the problem
Almost 3 Days Later, Still Zero Press Coverage (Except One Publisher) About Mass Layoffs at Red Hat, Almost 500 People Laid Off (Over 400 for Sure)
"A document posted by FOSS advocacy site Techrights appears to be that memo and explains that Red Hat has devised a location strategy under which it has identified key sites for prioritized hiring and strategic workforce investment."
The Register MS, About 6 Million Pounds in Debt, Helps Promote Microsoft's Gartner Group and Prop Up the Ponzi Scheme of Slop Plagiarism, Fake Article Mentions "AI" About 20 Times
What was now known as The Register UK not only works against the interests of the UK; it works for charlatans and frauds
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 43 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Particulars of Claims Almost Identical and 5RB Needs to Investigate Its Barristers (Its Reputation is at Stake)
Scrolling up and down in social control media
Gemini Links 11/04/2026: Floppy Disks on Linux and Junix
Links for the day
statCounter: Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low This Month in France
French government agencies are ordered to move to GNU/Linux
Disgruntled IBMers Explain Why IBM is Circling Down a Death Spiral, Gerstner (Recently Deceased) Destroyed IBM in April 1993, and IBM Now Weaponises PIPs to Attack Its Own
We've just checked if anyone has covered mass layoffs at IBM Red Hat. Nope.
Gemini Links 11/04/2026: Critique of Delta Chat and Why Trying to Emulate Centralised, Addictive "Facebook" is Misguided
Links for the day
Links 11/04/2026: Scam Altman’s Trust Issues at OpenAI and EFF Quitting Twitter
Links for the day
Links 11/04/2026: Twitter Presence Considered Harmful to News Sites, "The Future of Everything is Lies"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 10, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, April 10, 2026
Three Years Ago We Disconnected From the United States, Now France Does the Same
Maybe in the coming months France will recruit loads of UNIX/Linux specialists
While Thousands of EPO Workers Are on Strike the President of the EPO, Who Bribes His Voters, Gives Himself Millions of Euros and 5,000 Euros Per Month in Housing Allowance
Campinos is immune, inherently corrupt, and habitual briber of his 'voters'
IBM and Red Hat Whistleblowers Versus a Dying Fourth Estate (Journalism Seems to Have Died as Silently as IBM RAs Go)
What a crazy world we live in!
Slopfarms We Forget About Because They Silently Die
The hard reality (for slobs and sloppers) is, slopfarms have no future
Gemini Links 10/04/2026: Flexiveganism, What Happened to Twitter, and Algorithm Fetishes
Links for the day
Links 10/04/2026: Indonesia's Social Control Media Bans Extend to Google YouTube, "I.M.F. Says Iran War Will Drag Global Growth Lower"
Links for the day
Media Blackout Regarding Mass Layoffs at Red Hat
To be very clear, what happened is certainly real
IBM 'Value' Fell 20%, The Executives Took Bonuses and Bonus Hikes
IBM is paying more and more money to the executives
SLAPP Censorship - Part 42 Out of 200: Getting the Very Basic Technical Concepts Very Wrong, or Where Miscomprehension Begets "Plausible Deniability"
It's difficult to argue with people over things that they do not even understand
This Coming Weekend and Next Week We'll Cover EPO Scandals a Lot, There Are Still Perpetual Strikes That the Media Intentionally Avoids Covering
Expect our focus on EPO corruption to grow again
More Information on IBM Red Hat Layoffs in April 2026, Hundreds of Skilled GNU/Linux Engineers Laid Off (300+ Simultaneously)
How long can the corporate media ignore IBM layoffs for?
Raw: Extensive Evidence of Red Hat's Mass Layoffs in China (IBM Meets Geopolitics)
This has nothing to do with workers' performance
We'll Never Ever Do Social Control Media, Nate Silver's Article Helps Explain Why
If you want to research and publish, stay away from it
SLAPP Censorship - Part 41 Out of 200: More Misuse of UK-GDPR (for US Citizens), More Copy-Pasting for Garrett and Graveley, Alleging That Publishing Unflattering Information is a 'Privacy' Issue
No wonder his own colleagues thought poorly of him (the junior barrister)
Links 10/04/2026: Pseudoscience and "Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles" and More Attacks on American Journalism
Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell Blasts Misuse of the Term "AI" to Describe Plagiarism, Plunder, and Misinformation
Dr. Stallman wrote about it back in the early 1980s
A Sign of Progress?
We'll solve war hunger and colonise Mars soon, according to men who never graduated from College
The Slop Delusion: This Morning We Broke Story on Red Hat Layoffs in Two Posts, Google is Already Plagiarising Them With Slop and Getting the Basic Facts Wrong
Google does not have "AI"; it has slop, which means it scrapes other people's work, then imitates it poorly
"IBM is Constantly Laying Off People" (Not Just in Red Hat)
IBM as a company is collapsing
Many Layoffs at IBM Red Hat, as the Rumours Said
Red Hat mass layoffs [...] "this was a difficult decision to make."
Microsoft, Drowning in Net Debt, Will Make Many More Cuts
The company is a net negative to society
April 15: Richard Stallman to Speak at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas
Next Wednesday in the afternoon Dr. Stallman will speak in a US college for the second time this year and for the second time in nearly 8 years
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 09, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 09, 2026
Gemini Links 10/04/2026: Cycling, Slop, and Software to Keep Photos Organised
Links for the day
Henry Abbott (TrueHoop) Says Microsoft Taken Public by Alvin Bernard "Buzzy" Krongard (in New Interview About Jeffrey Epstein)
He has claimed that the man who took Microsoft public was a banker and also connected to the CIA (former Executive Director)
Quick Roundup of "Linux" Slop
Today we saw a slopfarm again in Google News
Links 09/04/2026: Microsoft Attacking VeraCrypt and "Canada’s New Surveillance Law"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/04/2026: Shopping, LLMs That Ruin the Net, and Moving to GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Links 09/04/2026: TikTok Sets Up Another Outpost in Finland (EU), "Trump Attacks On Public Media Blocked by Judge"
Links for the day
Microsoft's DevDiv Executive Has Quit (Is GitHub on the Chopping Block?)
CodePlex all over again?
Chatbots (or LLMs) Are Killing Us, and We Ought to Talk About It
We need to talk (to each other, not to bots)
Microsoft Also Fires Senior Executives
Microsoft is a very feeble company pretending to be a giant
Microsoft Windows in Ireland: From 90% to Just 16%
When it comes to Ireland's Web usage, not much of it is from Windows anymore
SLAPP Censorship - Part 40 Out of 200: Putting Forth Frivolous Claim Only a Few Days Before Running Out of Time (12 Months)
my response to a frivolous claim from Graveley
IBM Layoffs by Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and More Evidence of Layoffs at HashiCorp After IBM Took Over
Notice how the media does not cover IBM layoffs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 08, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 08, 2026
Gemini Links 09/04/2026: On the Radio, Boogie Notes, Slop in Search Engines and USENET
Links for the day