This article is more than 1 year old

MSDN unleashes a fresh round of unintentional innuendo bingo

It's Carry On Coding as Microsofties fiddle with knobs

The spirit of Kenneth Williams* is alive and well in the corridors of Redmond, with staffer Raymond Chen detailing some internal Microsoft jargon in a euphemism-heavy MSDN posting.

Chen was discussing the problem of getting to grips with jargon that it is assumed everyone knows but which no one thinks to explain.

In this instance, it was the use of old-time control panel terminology to describe a busy or crowded interface.

Unfortunately, while Chen grasped that "knobs" and "levers" could be used to describe configuration options, it seems nobody explained to him that "knob" has a secondary, and somewhat cruder, meaning.

It was left to commenters on his post to delicately (and not so delicately) explain the situation, with user camhusmj38 saying: "This word has an unfortunate secondary meaning in the UK & Ireland, which renders its use in a workplace setting awkward." Awkward indeed.

Still, it is good to know that even after last year's memorable Bing "incident", the meeting rooms of Microsoft remain festooned with knobs. It certainly goes some way towards explaining the more... interesting... interface design choices of Windows 10. ®

*Kenneth Williams was a British comedian and actor noted for his caustic humour and innuendo-filled delivery in, among others, the British Carry On films of the 1960s and 1970s.

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like