18 lines
1.1 KiB
Plaintext
18 lines
1.1 KiB
Plaintext
Borg
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n. In Star Trek: The Next Generation the Borg is a species of cyborg that
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ruthlessly seeks to incorporate all sentient life into itself; their slogan
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is You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. In hacker parlance, the
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Borg is usually Microsoft, which is thought to be trying just as ruthlessly
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to assimilate all computers and the entire Internet to itself (there is a
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widely circulated image of Bill Gates as a Borg). Being forced to use
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Windows or NT is often referred to as being Borged. Interestingly, the
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Halloween Documents reveal that this jargon is live within Microsoft itself.
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See also Evil Empire, Internet Exploiter. Other companies, notably Intel
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and UUNet, have also occasionally been equated to the Borg. In IETF circles,
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where direct pressure from Microsoft is not a daily reality, the Borg is
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sometimes Cisco. This usage commemorates their tendency to pay any price to
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hire talent away from their competitors. In fact, at the Spring 1997 IETF, a
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large number of ex-Cisco employees, all former members of Routing Geeks,
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showed up with t-shirts printed with Recovering Borg.
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