At 11:18 AM 6/17/2003 -0600, Kestrel wrote:

>New York-based Deloitte Consulting admits it helped foster confusing,
>indecipherable words like "synergy," "paradigm,"
and "extensible
>repository," but now it has decided enough is enough. 

Well, I'm simply Deloitte-d to hear them say so!

>On Tuesday it will
>release "Bullfighter" to help writers of business documents
to avoid jargon
>and use clear language.

A new wrinkle on an unfortunately old, and equally as unfortunately,
recurring problem.  Be careful the Gumbe Tygress doesn't come over and
whack-a-mole you for bemoaning that which has ever been with us as if it
were new.  

Remember the Fog Index?    It didn't work, either.

>"We've had it with repurposeable, value-added knowledge capital and robust,
>leveragable mindshare," Deloitte Consulting partner Brian Fugere said.

  Got to where you couldn't translate your own crap three days
later, did it, Brian old boy?

>"Bullfighter," as the software is called, could help
investors spot troubled
>companies. Used to test language used by now-bankrupt energy trader Enron
>from 1999 through 2001, Fugere said the program found "it got progressively
>more obscure as they got deeper and deeper into trouble.

That's probably an equally old symptom of an old, old problem.  "If you
can't dazzle 'em with footwork, baffle 'em with bullshit."

The problem is that the American public doesn't need a software bullshit
detector -- it needs to hone its own jellyware ones.

>"We think that's a good indicator of the linkage between clear and straight
>communications and business performance, including the issue of transparency
>and trust, which is such a big issue these days," Fugere said.

No!  Really?

>Marketing director Chelsea Hardaway said employees had fun developing the
>program over 9 months. 

I'm sure they did.  I would have fun doing that, too.

>"It flags your 'bullwords' but then it gives you sort of a good-humored
>lashing over why you have used those words," Hardaway said of the program,
>which works on Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents much like those that
>check spelling.

Gosh, anyone remember the grammar checkers of the late 70s and early 80s?

>The program, which can be downloaded free at http:/www.dc.com/bullfighter,
>was tested on statements by 30 big U.S. companies. Home improvement retailer
>Home Depot was first for clarity on the "Bull Index," 

As a Home Depot shareholder, I'm happy to hear that!

>while computer
>hardware and software companies suffered the lowest scores for readability.

Which comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has ever read a
software manual or encountered an error message.  Or twelve.  

Veloci--just as befogged as before--raptor
 

--- Rachel's Little NET2FIDO Gate v 0.9.9.8 Alpha