I wrote a while back about some of the great project names we have at work, including Project Platypus and Project Prometheus.One that I neglected to mention was (the sadly non-alliterative) Project Gutenberg, which is currently providing editorial teams with "a clutch of exciting new tools and resources".
You may know that there exists a better-known Project Gutenberg, according to Wikipedia "a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works". And that, presumably, takes its name from Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the mechanical printing press.
So I have high expectations for my company's own Project Gutenberg. Not so some of my colleagues, who have taken to referring to it as Project Battenberg...
2 comments:
Prometheus and platypus… good to see the old firm is so adept at selecting inspiring names for its projects.
Prometheus, as JD’s original blog mentioned, did indeed end up having his liver ripped out on a daily basis (though argument still rages over whether the bird concerned is a vulture or an eagle). But let’s not forget why. Legend tells us he conned Zeus into accepting bones instead of meat as a sacrificial offering by concealing second-rate goods inside tempting packaging. So he was a conman and thief who didn’t think through the consequences of his actions.
And the egg-laying duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed platypus, while cute, is such an unlikely creature that when the first (dead) example was brought to Europe most naturalists considered it an elaborate fraud. It is also one of the few venomous mammals. So it’s a poisonous evolutionary anomaly that’s so weird as to be unbelievable.
At least Battenberg tastes good and has royal connections.
You may not be aware that one of the IS teams has initiated a post-modern backlash against dynamic and epic sounding project titles such as Viper, Platypus and Prometheus. Theirs is called "Project Fluffy Kitten"
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