FUD

[retired]

Sorry to bother the group, but I did a search of what FUD means and came up with more than a page of threads. I know a thread I read recently defined the acronym, but, for the life of me, I can't recall which one and I'm not about to read all of the threads to find it.

Can one person (since that is all I will need), please spell it out for me and I promise I will write it down with my list of acronyms I have collected. Thanks.

[DedEye]

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Google also turns up a few websites with acronym definitions.

[wutzu]

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Usually used when describing DOJ Bureau of Firearms' many cryptic missives and memos. I think it comes from a Microsoft campaign against IBM's OS/2 operating system.

[E Pluribus Unum]

Sorry to bother the group, but I did a search of what FUD means and came up with more than a page of threads. I know a thread I read recently defined the acronym, but, for the life of me, I can't recall which one and I'm not about to read all of the threads to find it.

Can one person (since that is all I will need), please spell it out for me and I promise I will write it down with my list of acronyms I have collected. Thanks.

Fear Uncertainty and Doubt

http://www.acronymfinder.com

[CCWFacts]

There's a history of using FUD to scare people away from things. "If you use such-and-such file format, you'll have something that might not be compatible with the main market. There could be some patent restrictions in there, too. The technology isn't proven."

The DoJ uses it with their "58 DAs" references.

The solution to FUD is to ignore it. They have tried, and are still trying, to use FUD to squish Linux: "we have title to parts of the source code and if you use it we could go after you for copyright infringement." My answer is, well, what can you do? Any piece of software might potentially infringe someone's copyright or patent.

And it's similar with gun stuff. Well, as they say, a DA can indict a ham sandwich if he wants to. We could never get out of bed if we worried about all the what-ifs.

[Mitch]

Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Usually used when describing DOJ Bureau of Firearms' many cryptic missives and memos. I think it comes from a Microsoft campaign against IBM's OS/2 operating system.

Close.

It was actually a standard part of the training of IBM salesmen (the best salesmen in modern history in any industry, in their day) in the sixties and seventies. For a long time, MIS managers grew to depend on their IBM reps to determine how they would spend their budgets, and when it looked like the MIS guys might consider a competing system because of its better feature set, the IBM guys (who represented most of the company's gear already) would start with the FUD, since often IBM didn't have anything available comparable to the competing gear.

I had the pleasure and honor to have worked alongside Cisco Systems' sales reps in the nineties, when they were the best in the industry, and they often employed the same trick (no coincidence that many of the older ones came from IBM).

[socalguns]

HAIRY PALMS

[Librarian]

No, no, FUD is what you eat. I'm certain. No doubt.

[LECTRIKHED]

I thought it stood for:
FU**ING USELESS DIS-INFORMATION

I guess that was the definition I created for myself. Sadly I now know the real definition.

[retired]

Thanks everyone for the quick response. I really wasn't expecting any answer until this morning when most people awakened and logged on. I'm up late because I'm retired and I can sleep as late as I want. Evidently some people never log off.

I thought it was sort of uncanny the way the first 3 responses were posted at the exact same time. Were you guys all at the same loc. on your own computers.

CCWFacts, I'm guessing you were the one who got stuck doing the beer run and had just returned when you posted.

Thanks again everyone.

[wutzu]

Close.

It was actually a standard part of the training of IBM salesmen (the best salesmen in modern history in any industry, in their day) in the sixties and seventies. For a long time, MIS managers grew to depend on their IBM reps to determine how they would spend their budgets, and when it looked like the MIS guys might consider a competing system because of its better feature set, the IBM guys (who represented most of the company's gear already) would start with the FUD, since often IBM didn't have anything available comparable to the competing gear.

I had the pleasure and honor to have worked alongside Cisco Systems' sales reps in the nineties, when they were the best in the industry, and they often employed the same trick (no coincidence that many of the older ones came from IBM).

Thanks for the more detailed explanation.