Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by phs318u on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:14PM
(#21695568)
Twenty years ago I contributed a chapter to a book on SQL Server and slipped in a subtle fart joke. Instead of using the then Microsoft standard sample company called “Northwind”, my example had “Southwind”.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by saghm on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:28PM
(#21695742)
Totally random, but apparently a rough translation of the name of the tribe that the state Kansas was named after is "People of the South Wind". I first learned about this from the song by the band Kansas of this name[1].
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by walrus01 on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:01PM
(#21695411)
There's almost certainly a large enough number of people googling "Contoso" to merit a wikipedia page on its own. Sort of a microsoft-specific (active directory training material, etc) version of this:
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by dpark on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @01:56PM
(#21695364)
Wikipedia’s bar for culturally relevant is wildly inconsistent. In this case, though, there are tons of external references to these names so it’s easy to establish “relevance” as guidelines dictate.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by munchbunny on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:06PM
(#21695472)
The page shows up as the top entry if you Google "Contoso". The second is Microsoft's own explanation of what Contoso is. I think that's the perfect explanation if you're trying to figure out what "Contoso" is in all of the random .NET and MS related examples are.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by mcv on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @06:49PM
(#21698196)
This is a fantastic resource of fictional companies for any modern day or near-future RPG campaign. I'm currently running Shadowrun, and can always use new corporations.
"at the event we needed 2 companies, so someone in the product team came up with Contoso and Fabrikham, and in the BizApps events, all the integration scenarios where around these 2 companies doing business with each other. i have no idea where the names come from – i guess its like with setting up your own off-the-shelf Limited company, someone comes up with mixes of word & names. Fabrikham is a horrible name! Contoso is better, bu only just"
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by watersb on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @03:14PM
(#21696215)
Duwamish Books
Also there was a pet-supplies store in there somewhere. Back when MSDN published as newsletter as a sort of newspaper-sized thing.
The Duwamish companies were used in extended examples of client-server business automation with Microsoft Office and their server products combination of SQL Server, IIS, Active Directory, Message Queues; packaged as "Microsoft BackOffice" (egads).
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by ansible on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @06:15PM
(#21697935)
I had a former boss (a couple decades ago) that was also fond of the "open the kimono" saying. Ugh. WTF is wrong with saying "full openness" or "full disclosure" or something else that sounds appropriately business-like.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by thaumasiotes on Wednesday December 04, 2019 @08:46PM
(#21709243)
"Baring it all" would be a native idiom preserving even the emphatic nudity reference while not suggesting that you're taking off some other woman's clothes.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by badrabbit on Wednesday December 04, 2019 @03:39AM
(#21700596)
If you search for these example domains in the network traffic logs of any largr company you'll see at least a few hits. This is a security issue because people use example code, copy pasted into prod code which mostly does nothing due to the domains not resolving or not hosting the appropriate content but if an attacker took over these domains they will expose a ton of companies to an attack.
I believe example.com or example.org exist specifically for this purpose. I hope those of you who write documentation keep this in mind,especially when your example domain has never beeb registered.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by RyJones on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:20PM
(#21695622)
There is someone driving around Redmond with a CONTOSO license plate. I've seen it several times - too bad FABRIKAM is too long for Washington state plates.
Re:List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
by EvanAnderson on Tuesday December 03, 2019 @02:20PM
(#21695631)
Something similiar: Much of the late 90's and early 2000's Microsoft Official Curriculum training courses used the names of real Microsoft employees in examples (along with these fictional company names). I wish I could recall some of the names right now. I remember searching for some of the names and being shocked and amused to discover they were real Microsoft employees.
https://cloud.googleblog.com/2011/04/contoso-has-gone-google...
>2011
Wait, Rebecca Black was that long ago? Feels like yesterday.
EDITED to add link to Google Books link.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Microsoft_SQL_Server_7_...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_South_Wind
But how is this 'culturally relevant' enough to make a Wikipedia page? That's an "I'm amused" question rather than an "I'm flabbergasted" question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com
> The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. (July 2018)
As a relative outsider to the editing process who nonetheless reads a lot of Wikipedia, "notability" seems to be unevenly judged across domains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI_xuFA18m4
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River
https://www.thenile.co.nz/
"at the event we needed 2 companies, so someone in the product team came up with Contoso and Fabrikham, and in the BizApps events, all the integration scenarios where around these 2 companies doing business with each other. i have no idea where the names come from – i guess its like with setting up your own off-the-shelf Limited company, someone comes up with mixes of word & names. Fabrikham is a horrible name! Contoso is better, bu only just"
Also there was a pet-supplies store in there somewhere. Back when MSDN published as newsletter as a sort of newspaper-sized thing.
The Duwamish companies were used in extended examples of client-server business automation with Microsoft Office and their server products combination of SQL Server, IIS, Active Directory, Message Queues; packaged as "Microsoft BackOffice" (egads).
A term of art in the business world today; I moved to scientific research computing in 2000 and had not gotten the memo about open kimonos.
Egads.
What's the term supposed to refer to?
[0] https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/commerce/overview/
I believe example.com or example.org exist specifically for this purpose. I hope those of you who write documentation keep this in mind,especially when your example domain has never beeb registered.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traf-O-Data
Someone in Microsoft makes music.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT
[1] https://github.com/marak/Faker.js/
[2] https://github.com/bchavez/Bogus