Dono Treply

I was reading an article in 'Computer Weekly' this week about Somerset County Council that has entered into partnership with IBM to provide all sorts of useful services. One of the targets that has been set - and that IBM must meet - is to reduce the amount of acronyms that they use. That really is rather telling I think. We all know that the world of IT is full of acronyms - and they do have their use as a form of shorthand for those in the know. Its not just IT of course - my wife is a nurse and her work is full of acronyms and specialist words - we can sometimes have conversations in which neither of us knows what the other is talking about [Ed: doesn't that also apply to normal everyday conversations that you two have?].

Today, I was showing my son (13 years old and car-mad) an email that I had just received confirming that I had bought two tickets for the MPH Show in London - which includes a Live Top Gear show. The email had a return address of donotreply@seezz3.com. My son said to me 'Look dad, its come from someone called Dono Treply). I looked puzzled and then realised what he meant. And a quick google shows that he's not the only one to have made that mistake.