07 January 2010

As long as we're on matters of security

If you're trying to come up with a name with positive literary connotations for your new data protection software, is your best option really Grendel?

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I wouldn't want to mess with Grendel.


How many successful protectors are there from literature? My guess is that breaches in security make better storytelling: that's why Garfield's fourth life was the most boring of the nine.

Ellen said...

I insist you clarify this reference for people who have never seen the movie in question, like me.

I used to work at a place that named its tech products after Greek gods, but there was never a close association with function so it was just handy. I think it would have been better if they named it Grendel's Mom.

Elizabeth said...

I would definitely buy a product named Grendel's Mom.

Garfield: His Nine Lives (a classic!) are nine animated shorts: in the first, he's a cave cat, in the second, he's an Ancient Egyptian cat, etc.

In the fourth life, he belongs to a little girl who has been left a magical garden, with all sorts of delights in it, with the sole injunction not to open the box in the center of the garden. The girl and her cat are sorely tempted to open the box to see what's in it, but they decide not to, and live happily ever after. A nice story for the little girl and the cat; not very interesting for the viewer. Unhappiness and failure seem to make better storytelling than obedience and happiness.

8yearoldsdude said...

if we are getting all beowulf, should the software be named "dragon." it is the dragon that has something valuable to protect (its treasure) and the dragon that actually slays the powerful assailant (beowulf.)