Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax!brent
From: brent@uwovax.uwo.ca (Brent Sterner)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: New buzzword (the ultimate!)
Message-ID: <4639.25ab0410@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: 10 Jan 90 14:44:48 GMT
References: <5945@eos.UUCP> <4197@brazos.Rice.edu>
Organization: CCS, U. of Western Ontario
Lines: 32

In article <4197@brazos.Rice.edu>, preston@titan.rice.edu (Preston Briggs) writes:
> In article <5945@eos.UUCP> eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) writes:
>>Over the weekend I had call to think of THE NEXT buzzword.
>
>	< lots of stimulating stuff removed >
>
> Perhaps the worst, and therefore the clincher,
> is calling GaAs devices "hemiconductors."
> 
> sign me
> "Embarrassed"
	Not half as embarrassed as I'm gonna be.  Your mention of
	"hemi" reminded me of my music days.  Very old music theory
	follows.  In 4/4 time, a whole note is called a "breve" in
	olde English (perhaps still in use?).  A half note a "minim".
	A quarter note a "crotchet", and an eighth note a "quaver".

	Then the good maestros ran out of words and began adding prefixes.
	Note :-) that the duration of each note is being cut in half with
	each subsequent step.  The prefix-named notes are "semi quaver",
	"demi semi quaver", and "hemi demi semi quaver" for sixteenth,
	thirty-second, and 64th notes respectively.

	I suggest we call silicon a "semiconductor", and GaAs becomes a
	"demisemiconductor".  The development of a hemidemisemiconductor
	is left as an exercise for the reader.  b.
--
Brent Sterner                        Technical Support Manager, Academic Systems
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