Why can’t project codenames be more awesome? Corporate and organizational code names — the granddaddy would be the Manhattan Project — are usually generated to cloak some secret project under an innocent sounding name to throw off spies.
There is a codename generator: http://www.codenamegenerator.com but none of the examples are very funny. I mean, there’s a certain genius who came up with “Shock and Awe”, or, my personal favorite from “Fight Club” — Project Mayhem.
Projects I would like to work on:
- Project Bohica
- Project Meconium
- Deathstar
Keep in mind during a “name the conference room” contest at a former employer, I lobbied hard for a theme related to cannibalism: The Donner Party Room, The Essex Whaleboat Room, Andes Soccer Teamroom, etc.. I lost.
Hi David:
We currently have a project “Voldemort”.
It is called that because the project is to build something that our CEO hates – and so it shall not be named.
TO’B
the Donners nevert ate anyone. the cannibals were the Reeds. The Donner Cabin was almost a mile away from the Reed BBQ shack and after five years of continued excavation no human bones have ever been found. Tamzen Donner (aka Mrs Donner) is one of CA history’s outstanding heroines. She went about 20 feet out from her cabin, loaded her kids on the backs of the rescuers, walked back into the “cabin” and never looked back. She reportedly told one of the rescuers from Sutter’s Fort that she “vowed to stay with her husband in sickness and in health” and stayed with her husband. She died from starvation about two weeks after her kids were rescued.
The male Reed family members went on to survey most of Santa Clara County but settled in Santa Cruz. The Donners settled in San Juan Baustita.
There is a book called “Snow Mountain Passage” that based on the late-in-life written narrative of the last survivingf Reed/Donner Party member– Virginia Reed as i recall. It’s worth piucking up.
Best
Bearflagger jimF
I’ve had a Deathstar project.
One group of my groups of sites is centered on extreme sports themes, hence the moniker I affixed “The Suicide Sites” has stuck.
Re: Donners – I suspect the Reed’s just had a better PR agent.
I’ve worked on a Project Meconium… it was s#itty.
Looking forward to the 11/19 Internet Summit in Chapel Hill.
David,
Way back in the day, almost every board in the PC had a code name silkscreened on it somewhere.
In the PS/2 days, someone got on a Star Trek kick. One PS/2 SCSI controller card was “Spock” and I remember seeing a board labeled “Tribble” although I can’t remember now which one it was.
Mark
my favorite of all time has to be skunk works. i have yet to hear a code name topping that one.
earlier this year i came across the code names for a flavor of high-end workstation graphics cards after stars: quasar, brown dwarf, pulsar, black hole, super giant, and nebula in no order. this was probably done to help judge the size of the hole burnt in one’s pocket after purchase. my card is a “nebula” but my pocket is probably closer to a “black hole”.