Reproduced with permission from <http://www.infowarrior.org/articles/2001-04.html>. © 2001 Richard Forno. Permission granted to freely reproduce - in whole or in part for noncommercial use - with appropriate credit to author and INFOWARRIOR.ORG.
For his novel 1984 George Orwell developed Newspeak, a modified
English language using ambiguous or deceptive words, metaphors, or
euphemisms to influence public opinion on various matters - a common business
practice refined to an exacting science by news media, marketing companies, and
corporate PR departments.
Nowhere is Newspeak more perfected than in the halls of the Microsoft Campus in
Redmond, Washington - a place where legions of well-paid spin-meisters
attempt to morph the reality of their company's business, legal, and product
information into innocuous-sounding, politically-correct,
calm-inducing statements when released to the public. Naturally, this has a
confusing effect on the general public who is unfamiliar with this particular form
of language.
As a public service, this article contains a helpful list of terms used by the
company and what, in reality - not Newspeak - such terms actually mean.
It's my hope that such insight - culled from personal experience and the input of
technology professionals - will cut through the Newspeak fog and assist readers in
determining for themselves what Microsoft is really saying in its public statements.
The Microsoft-English Dictionary is organized into four sections:
- Legal, Marketing, and Internet Community Terms
- Security-Oriented Terms
- Product-Related Terms
- Miscellaneous Terms
Yes, I'm still noding the rest of this. I have to start somewhere. :) | 
