Way back when Sneak was at college, studying Engineering and Applied Science (EAP), the students used to complain of “EAP syndrome”. This was a psycho-social malady caused by the insane profusion of three-letter acronyms that pocked the coursework.

The major symptom was crossed mental wires. Where arts students might think an invitation to “punt on the Cam” involved a jolly afternoon in a boat, an EAP-infected student would wonder why anyone would place a bet on computer-aided manufacturing. (Not that Sneak went to Cambridge - delusions of grandeur were another side effect.)

The affliction was never fully cured, because Sneak still suffers from mental misfires when presented with acronyms. For example, the Retail Solutions 2007 show starts shortly and Sneak is inundated with press releases about PoS printers, PoS solutions and PoS software.

“Point of sale” is a common enough term in retail, but not to Sneak’s addled brain, which keeps leaping to an alternative expansion of PoS. So Sneak keeps involuntarily reading about piece of sh*t printers, piece of sh*t solutions, and thoroughly crappy software. Not quite what was intended, presumably.

23 May 2007