Nobody is quite sure where foobar came from. Wikipedia's page is probably as good a reference as any. The original and new Hackers's Dictionaries have info on it too..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar http://www.dourish.com/goodies/jargon.html http://www.hacker-dictionary.com/terms/foo For something dropped out of an alternate universe, check out the entry for FOO in the 1959 TMRC dictionary. http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 9:06 AM, Ben Barrett <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Bob! What is this foo-bar you speak of? It sounds like some sort of > mythic reference > that deserves some historical context. Partly kidding... > I know that foo and bar have been used as names for arbitrary variables, > similar to X and Y for algebra, > but does anyone know if there is a connection to the old acronym, which I > think came from the military sphere, > fubar: f'ed up beyond all recognition (which might also relate to snafu: > situation normal, all ....) > ??? > > :) > > > On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 8:43 AM, Bob Miller <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> History. >> >> Once upon a time, Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Publishing) invited >> hundreds of interesting people to an "unconference" called >> FOO (Friends Of O'Reilly). It had no published program, but >> participants were invited to present talks about whatever was >> interesting them at the time. >> >> Since FOO was invitation-only, a bunch of people who weren't >> invited started the Bar Camps. (foo - bar, get it?) The theme >> is the same: no published program, please bring something >> interesting. And there are many Bar Camps worldwide. >> >> I went to the first Beaver Bar Camp. About half the people there >> presented at least one talk. I'm planning to go to this one too. >> I don't have any talks in mind yet. >> >> On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 7:20 PM, Kent Loobey <[email protected]> wrote: >> > On Monday 21 March 2011 16:49:07 Larry Price wrote: >> >> Just a reminder to all of us interested in geeky activities. >> >> >> >> http://beaverbarcamp.org/index.php/Beaver_BarCamp7 >> >> >> >> Is coming up. >> >> >> >> I'm planning on doing a workshop on using PostGIS to manipulate spatial >> >> data, with examples using the City of Albany shapefiles that are >> >> available >> >> online and some hackery I'm doing with the GoWalla api. >> > >> > So what is a "Beaver Bar Camp" about? PostGIS? Will the workshops be >> > posted >> > before the event date? >> > _______________________________________________ >> > EUGLUG mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug >> > >> >> >> >> -- >> Bob Miller K<bob> >> [email protected] >> _______________________________________________ >> EUGLUG mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > -- Bob Miller K<bob> [email protected] _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
