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Old 02-10-2017, 07:39 PM   #8
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All these names are "temporary" and were never meant to become "permanent"

It started with Wilhelm Roentgen who discovered "X-rays" - how to produce them, what they could be used for, (How to hurt yourself and eventually kill yourself, your wife and your lab assistants) He called them X-rays in his lab notes, meaning to replace the variable "X" with something more descriptive after learning more about their properties. He died without coming up with anything better and the name stuck.

The Ford "Project Taurus" - so named because the two lead engineers discovered their wives were both born in May. The development effort lacked a name, so they called it "Taurus" - assuming marketing would come up with something better. (They didn't) The project involved not only a new, next generation sedan, but they went out and bought all the competitors cars, took each one apart and adopted the "best" design of each component, seat tracks, wipers, door locks and so on, and put only what they considered the best ideas into the new car. Meanwhile, marketing lacking a "better" name, created a campaign around the Taurus name, figuring they would change it later. The name stuck. And it became the best selling car world wide 13 years running. It's new smooth lines are reflected in just about every car you see on the road today, and one of the first models is in the High Museum of Art.

Bluetooth was a king of Denmark, famous for bringing together the diverse factions of his kingdom and getting them to talk and work together. Again, the technology developers needed a name for their project and marketing could not, or failed to, come up with something better. King Bluetooths initials are preserved today as the Bluetooth logo. (That little thing that looks like a "B") The name stuck.

Operation Overlord, a.k.a "D-day" has the same issue with a sticky name. In all military operations, the actual date and time are referred to as MM-DD-HH-MM (so you have H Hour and M minute as well). The operation could be discussed as "3 days before D-day or 5 hours prior to H hour" without actually mentioning times and dates. And "D-Day" stuck, few remember the actual name of the landing - Operation Overlord

So now you know - all temporary "place holders" that stuck, having never been changed.
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