Breaking news: use of "premise" to describe "place" officially acknowledged by OED

Andy Pedisich  January 26 2012 08:55:29 PM

Not a day goes by that I don't learn something.  From a comment to my previous post I have been reminded that grammar indeed does adapt to the way we use language, and I learned that the Oxford English Dictionary (The OED) acknowledges that "premise" indeed is becoming an accepted word in some contexts.  Grammar evolves, just like we do.  In fact, it evolves because of what we say and write.

That is good news for me.  For years I have been using the word "frammis" to describe little pieces of detritus, debris, or other small particles of stuff that is found behind and under things when you are cleaning.

It's a word that has great usage such as in, "Why is there frammis in my soup?"  It communicates the idea quickly, and you don't waste time coming up with a long-winded description of the substance.  "Frammis" is good enough. Or it could be used to describe the source of a pain, as in the exclamation, "Ow!  The wind blew frammis into my eye!"  Needless to say, it is also bad to have frammis in a fan on a laptop.

However, I just checked the wizened Internet, and "frammis" has not yet entered our lexicon.

I can wait.  I'm a patient man.

-Andy

Location: Home - dealing with real life

• Comments [5]

The English language vs cloud discussions - A horse walks into a bar

Andy Pedisich  January 21 2012 03:54:41 PM

I was busily downloading a bunch of presentations from Lotusphere 2012 when I once again, for the upteenth time, happened on the incorrect usage of a word.  This word is being kicked around a lot because of all of conversation around cloud services.

The presentation I was looking at had a slide with the title: LotusLive vs. On Premise

The expression in question is "On Premise".  I have heard and seen it in print and heard it for months, and almost every Lotusphere presentation got it wrong.  But today, for some reason, reading it hit me like the sound of fingernails on a blackboard.  Allow me to elucidate.

The following is the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of the word "premise".


Premise is such a wonderful word because it has two totally different meanings.  The meaning depends on whether it is used in it's singular or plural forms.  In its singular form, the word means a proposition, or something taken for granted.  In its plural form it sometimes means more than one premise, but in most contexts it means a piece of property, or more to the case of cloud discussions, a building.

A premise is like the setup for a joke.  For example:

Premise: A horse walks into a bar....

That's the premise of the joke.  This would be followed by a punchline:

Punchline: The bartender says, why the long face?

If you accept the premise, you probably get the joke.  Henny Youngman was full of these jokes with a premise and a punchline.

Premise: A doctor gave a man six months to live.
Punchline: The man couldn't pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.

Premise: The patient says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this."
Punchline: "Then don't do that!"

Premise: I just got back from a pleasure trip.
Punchline: I took my mother-in-law to the airport.

That's what a premise is.  So when you're trying to decide whether to keep your equipment and services in a building, or in the basement, or in any tangible place that you own and is not the cloud, please PLEASE use the plural form of premise, which is premises!


It only takes a split second to add that little old "S" to the end of the word Premise to make it the correct usage of the word in the context of where you want to put stuff.  Just remember, you will never, ever be successful putting your equipment on the premise.  Unless you are a comedian, that is.

Premise: I don't want to keep all the equipment here on the premise...
Punchline: ...on the premise that the decision will get me a promotion!

Don't encourage the idea that technical geeks are weak with words.  Give the words a fighting chance to express themselves!

-Andy

Location: Home again

• Comments [8]

Technotics launches new web site - announces new cloud services

Andy Pedisich  January 17 2012 03:18:36 PM

Evolution.

It's why mammals are still around and the dinosaurs are only in movies.

We are proud to announce that we've launched a new Technotics web site at http://www.technotics.com.  It has a new look, a new feel, and if you look carefully you'll see that Technotics has brought in a new set of cloud services.

Actually it's a line of business we've been into for well over a year, but before we could package it as a service we wanted to make sure that we had enough engagements under our belt to understand the core services that would be provided.  

You might find our approach to be a little different from other vendors.

First, because we're vendor agnostic, it means we can start off by helping you to create requirements to help solidify your choice of a cloud vendor or if moving to the cloud is the right option at all.

Each of the vendors has particular strengths and weaknesses that map differently to each organization. We can help you to pick the vendor that best fits the way you do business. One of the ways we accomplish that goal is with our "Executive Cloud Collaboration Workshop".  It's a targeted interactive event that will help key stakeholders in your organization understand the advantages and challenges of moving to a cloud based collaboration infrastructure.

We'll discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of the top vendors in the cloud space. The workshop can be tailored to either a line of business or technical audience and can cut through the hype that is so prevalent around the cloud.

Once the decision is made, we can help you to evaluate your network infrastructure and related systems to make sure it they are robust enough and positioned optimally to support the demands of an Internet based messaging solution.

Since the the process of moving between email systems won't happen overnight, you can expect a period of transition during which both systems will need to interact as transparently a possible. This period of coexistence is where the most challenges will be met. We design project plans that both minimize the disruption of co-existence as well as minimize the time period where these risks are incurred.

In any transition to the cloud there are more issues to consider, like security and single sign on, migration of existing email, user provisioning, and others that might be particular to the unique way you conduct your business.

Fortunately, you can lean on Rob Axelrod and me to get you through this process.  If you are reading my blog you know about our experience in IT and collaboration but you may not know about our experience in outsourcing and cloud migrations. In addition to our recent experience moving customers to the cloud we have a long history of helping customers move to hosted solutions. Before joining Technotics 9 years ago, Rob was Director of the Lotus Consulting Practice and later the Director of Operations for the Lotus Hosting Platform for one of the early mail hosting providers that was a predecessor of today’s cloud offerings.

Evolve your company.  Explore the possibilities with us, and reinvent yourself while you're at it!

-Andy

Location: Back in the Dolphin Hotel

• Comments [1]

Hello Lotusphere 2012!

Andy Pedisich  January 15 2012 12:35:45 PM

5 or 6 years ago I would come to Lotusphere and see people that I hadn't seen in a year.  Each time I ran into someone we went through a little pre-conversation dance.  It  was like this:

"Hey!  How are you?  How's the family? You look (insert appropriate yet positive adjective)!  So what have you been up to? Still doing (activity)? Have you seen much of (name)?  Do you know if (name) is coming to Lotusphere?"

But since then all forms of social media have emerged and taken a solid footing. I now know pretty much everything that has been going on with friends.  They micro-blog on Twitter.  They're in permanent chats with me on Skype. They have their pictures and stories on Facebook, Flickr, and Google Plus.  They are all out there, just as much as me and my family.  This exposure has changed the Lotusphere 2012 conversation initialization phase to just three words:

"Hey! So, anyway.... "

And then the conversation that you've already been having for the last year picks up where it left off several hours earlier. It's lovely to be face to face contact, but honestly, the familiarity we have with each others lives is nothing less than stunning.

Oh, and the conference is going well.  I stayed up way too late last night, but I did attend my 9 and 10 AM sessions.  Good stuff.

Big announcements are planned for tomorrow.

Check back here.

-Andy

Location: Dolphin Hotel - Lotusphere 2012

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