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Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by sorentwo on Monday October 20, 2025 @12:46PM (#45645991)
It is an old US military term that means “F*ked Up Beyond All Recognition”
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by joeyphoen on Monday October 20, 2025 @01:50PM (#45646890)
But you probably have seen the standard example variable names "foo" and "bar" which (together at least) come from `fubar`
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by sunnybeetroot on Monday October 20, 2025 @02:45PM (#45647580)
Which are in fact unrelated.
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by jameshart on Monday October 20, 2025 @04:55PM (#45649250)
Unclear. ‘Foo’ has a life and origin of its own and is well attested in MIT culture going back to the 1930s for sure, but it seems pretty likely that it’s counterpart ‘bar’ appears in connection with it as a comical allusion to FUBAR.
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by worik on Monday October 20, 2025 @02:39PM (#45647516)
Foobar == "Fucked up beyond all recognition "

Even the acronym is fucked.

My favorite by a large margin...

Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by gregw2 on Monday October 20, 2025 @01:54PM (#45646949)
Interestingly, it was "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition" when it first appeared in print back towards the end of World War 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_slang_terms#F...

Not to be confused with "Foobar" which apparently originated at MIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar

TIL, an interesting footnote about "foo" there:

'During the United States v. Microsoft Corp. trial, evidence was presented that Microsoft had tried to use the Web Services Interoperability organization (WS-I) as a means to stifle competition, including e-mails in which top executives including Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer referred to the WS-I using the codename "foo".[13]'

Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by jameshart on Monday October 20, 2025 @04:56PM (#45649268)
What people would print and what soldiers would say in the 1940s were likely somewhat divergent.
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by gregw2 on Monday October 20, 2025 @06:38PM (#45650321)
100%
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by dingnuts on Monday October 20, 2025 @12:50PM (#45646075)
FUBAR being a bit worse than SNAFU: "situation normal: all fucked up" which is the usual state of us-east-1
Re:AWS Multiple Services Down in us-east-1 by D-Coder on Tuesday October 21, 2025 @04:02PM (#45660955)
My favorite is JANFU: Joint Army-Navy Fuck-Up.