Aum, Om, Ohm, Hohm, Uhmm
July 11, 2009 Leave a Comment
Like so many other things, I get an idea which was NOT on my daily prioritized todo list, and it diverts my attention for about 14 hours. (I started this post on July 7 and after this sentence, I realized I had to get back to task!)
Uhhmmm ... WTF?
Today (actually July 7), it was about an announcement made yesterday (July 6) by Microsoft. The “beta” launch of hohm.com (that’s not really the address, but it’s riveting, it’s wrong, it’s a bastardization of a sacred word for both Hindus and Electrical Engineers!)
Microsoft’s Hohm is an attempt to get more information from you. I registered for the service and it took about an hour. First I had to create a Microsoft Live (something like that) account. I had to become a registered Microsoft user. Once that was complete, I could access this burdening service. By “burdening” I mean that they ask about 3 zillion questions. I stopped when my profile was about 26% complete. So overall, there is roughly 12 zillion questions.
Before I proceed, a general question. Do I really want Microsoft to know this much information about me? Do I want to let them inside my house, into my attic, into my sacred fridge? No. Hell NO. Same issue I have with Google. There was a point when I was unknowingly giving the guys in Redmond a bunch of personal information. Then I switched over to freely available, open source versions of their office suite. I had freed myself. (Well not really, I started using Google, when he was young and handsome.)
The purpose of this post was to provide a few definitions from Wikipedia.
- Aum – Aum (also Om, written in Devanagari as ॐ, in Chinese as 唵, in Tibetan as ༀ, in Sanskrit known as praṇava प्रणव lit. “to sound out loudly” or oṃkāra ओंकार lit. “oṃ syllable”) is a mystical or sacred syllable in the Indian religions, including Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
- Om – see above.
- Ohm – (symbol: Ω) is the SI unit of electrical impedance or, in the direct current case, electrical resistance, named after Georg Simon Ohm.
- Hohm – Microsoft Hohm is an online web application by Microsoft that enables consumers to analyze their energy usage and provides energy saving recommendations. Announced on June 24, 2009, Microsoft Hohm is built on the Windows Azure cloud operating system. It was publicly released on July 6th, 2009.
- Hohmann transfer orbit – is an orbital maneuver using two engine impulses which, under standard assumptions, move a spacecraft between two coplanar circular orbits. This maneuver was named after Walter Hohmann, the German scientist who published a description of it in 1925. (See also interplanetary travel.)
- Uhm – Not from Wikipedia, rather urbandictionary.com. A sound made by those who are rectally intelligent to realize that they must already have thought of an accurate response before opening their mouth to make any sound. Usually used when you are talking to a complete ass.
So, which above definition is closest to “Microsoft Holm”? My assertion, #6 “Uhm”. The rest don’t seem to align. The other definitions are pillars of religion, pillars of scientific theory.
You have to be one astronomical, jerk-off, wannabe, pretentious pile of crap to repurpose and rebrand a sacred word. Why not just call the web application built on a a privatized Azure cloud, “Jesus”. (see http://uber.la/archives/2355 for justification of “privatize” and a good dose of righteous humor.) Why not just come out and say it Microsoft, you want to be Big Brother, just as much as your other Big Brother Google. Don’t fake it. I don’t want you as a brother if you’re gonna act like a Mother&*%#er.
