Help Sherlock Come Up With a New NameWednesday April 11th, 2001David Boswell writes: Mycroft was Sherlock's smarter older brother. Hmm... if the software is "Mycroft," shouldn't the group that writes it be called "Mycroftsoft"? In Robert A Heinlein's classic "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", Mycroft (known as Mike) is the name of the computer that mysteriously becomes self-aware. Named for Holmes' brother. Can read thousands of books in a morning and is very good at analyzing and extracting information. Mycroft sounds appropriate to me. If not Mycroft, perhaps Adam Selene... (you have to have read the book to get that though) Stuart. I suggested "Mycroft" too; it's my favorite choice. And it has a good slogen too: Mycroft: Smarter than Sherlock!" Nice mix of allusions. Holmes --> Homes --> Homer Or Homer's Ilyiad or Homer Simpson :-) And obviously we have homepage, homing in, homecoming etc etc :) It's the sidebar and all about search right? In my country, I suppose in others that may happen too, Saint Anthony is a saint often prayd to when you loose something and you wish to find it. Although somewhat religious, it seems appropriate :) As a certain community of people already knows Sherlock, it's probably nice to not change the name too much, I think. And as the Search function is used to _look_ for something, I propose SharLook as a new name for this project. It's not too far away from the 'old' name, and shows the characteristics of the product a bit more - what do you think? What does Shar mean? Although not by any means my first choice, how about SureLook instead of Sharlook? As a certain community of people already knows Sherlock, it's probably nice to not change the name too much, I think. And as the Search function is used to _look_ for something, I propose SharLook as a new name for this project. It's not too far away from the 'old' name, and shows the characteristics of the product a bit more - what do you think? BTW: This is a project to SHARe components you use for LOOKing for information, right? B) You can already get Sherlock plugins that work in Mozilla from a number of places. See http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Operating_Systems/Macintosh_OS/Sherlock/ You may have to install the Win32 Stuffit expander to deal with the stupid Mac compression formats however. there should of been an option for the name "Teletran". :P Nuff said. Agatha Christie rules. Other possibilities: "MozMarple" (from "Miss Marple"), "Campion", and "Cadfael". Here are some suggestions ff the top of my head. I think it would be cool to have a female name. (Aphrodite is a start, but...) Agatha - Another name synonymous with mysteries/clues/searching Dr. Watson - Sherlock's assistant/friend Holmes - Sherlock's Last Name Doyle - Author of Sherlock stories Marple - Agatha Christy Detective Jane - Miss Marple's first name Poirot - Another AC character Remington - Steele, an old fav Holt - Laura, RS's partner SamSpade - Bogart detective Moriarty - Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Maddie - Hayes (Cybill Sheppherd on Moonlighting) Fenton - The Hardy Boys' dad Nancy - Drew, redheaded sleuth Sally - Encyclopedia Brown's friend
I vote for 'Fenton' since she was also a character in a Douglas Adams book (I forget which one) and hence irresistibly cool... i see trouble ahead for "Dr. Watson".. people in redmond probably wouldn't like us using their mascot.. ;-) Sam Spade is already taken. It's a "general-purpose Internet utility package, with some extra features to help in tracing the source of spam and other forms of Internet harassment." (from the help file) Rather than names that most clods won\\\'t understand, go with Sleuth. =-] Rather than names that most clods won\\\'t understand, go with Sleuth. =-] I looked up a couple of words in Latin. easy look facilis acies Let's just call it "My Search" hahah That's not idiomatic Latin. "Easy Search" wouldn't work well with Latin; closest would be "quaesitio facilis" - an easy search or an easy inquiry. Scrutator, Quaesitor, Indagator (i.e., Tracker), Speculator, and Explorator would be the most idiomatic Latin names; and Explorator is already taken (and Speculator has the wrong connotations in English, and scrutator and indagator just sound wrong). Nice idea, though. Me, I'm rather partial to Mycroft. I think this complement libpr0n very well. ShurLook or SureLook A web-based version would of course be Shur/SureLook Home A personalized webbased version would be Shur/SureLook Homes Sherlock was chosen because of the name's connection with finding things. Some of these other mystery names are more related to murder; not exactly what is wanted here. I'd go more with something related to the actual function rather than something related to Sherlock Holmes. If you want to keep the mystery relationship though, how about BLOODHOUND ? Or just "HOUND DOG" ? Or "ROVER" ? Some other random ideas : The Seeker SearchNet iSearch iFind I agree with SubtleRebel: let\'s not try so hard to find variations on the \"Sherlock\" motif. We\'re looking for something fresh, that doesn\'t just refer back to somebody\'s trademark. Something that clearly describes the function of the component. Something generic, to avoid trademarks and stay out of trouble. I know... let\'s call it The Finder! Purely (in my mind) to get one up on the same people who would claim your infringement, how about : iSleuth™ ?? Is that memorable enough? Apologies to the poster above (who, judging by their name is preoccupied this weekend and no doubt selfless enough not to have made the egoistic prepend \'I\'). But as I work with names and marks for a living, I\'m getting good at adding the obvious;-) Also, whilst the feature\\\\\\\'s in beta, call the thing \\\\\\\"Streuth\\\\\\\". Also off the top of my head, if the word \\\\\\\"Sherlock\\\\\\\" would normally be associated by the (non computing) public with a search or discovery process, a certain company might have a problem protecting the name as a Tmark due to rules on descriptive names? That at least is the principal behind names with prefixes or odd characters such as Compaq - move away from a dictionary word to claim it as your own. Whatever, hope y\\\\\\\'all find a name which works. P.S. w\\\\h\\\\\\a\\\\\\\\\\t\\\\\\\'s\\\\ up\\\\\\ w\\\\it\\\\\\h \\y\\ou\\r\\ \\t\\ex\\t\\ \\p\\ar\\s\\i\\n\\g? Purely (in my mind) to get one up on the same people who would claim your infringement, how about : iSleuth™ ?? Is that memorable enough? Apologies to the poster above (who, judging by their name is preoccupied this weekend and no doubt selfless enough not to have made the egoistic prepend \'I\'). But as I work with names and marks for a living, I\'m getting good at adding the obvious;-) Also, whilst the feature\\\\\\\'s in beta, call the thing \\\\\\\"Streuth\\\\\\\". Also off the top of my head, if the word \\\\\\\"Sherlock\\\\\\\" would normally be associated by the (non computing) public with a search or discovery process, a certain company might have a problem protecting the name as a Tmark due to rules on descriptive names? That at least is the principal behind names with prefixes or odd characters such as Compaq - move away from a dictionary word to claim it as your own. Whatever, hope y\\\\\\\'all find a name which works. P.S. w\\\\h\\\\\\a\\\\\\\\\\t\\\\\\\'s\\\\ up\\\\\\ w\\\\it\\\\\\h \\y\\ou\\r\\ \\t\\ex\\t\\ \\p\\ar\\s\\i\\n\\g? Well, to tell you the truth, I had to look in my Oxford English dictionary to find out what this word means. Anyone outside of the Anglo-Saxon world would rather prefer the word "detective" instead of "sleuth" (pronounced [slu:th] for those like me who didn't know)... How about going for something more basic? Like: Dude! Uhh? Is there a particular reason why it has to be a word? Why not just a "?" ? That way people can interpret however they want in their different languges. No Shit Sherlock ShowZilla ?? ShowZilla ?? n/a Content on the world wide web is deeply interconnected with other content, but the most useful information has not always been among the most interconnected. Search engines are our best, albeit a primitive, attempt to guide readers to online information and writers to portals for their output. The "Sherlock" innovation in Mozilla is not just a minor improvement. Instead it represents a notable advance toward integrating the web browser and the search engine. Like the web, the human brain is highly interconnected. The better the connections, the more powerful our intelligence. For this reason, and in light of recent scientific advances, if it must be renamed, I would advance the name "Astrocyte" as a suitable replacement for "Sherlock." "Astrocytes are the most numerous glia (the gray matter) in the brain and have received much of the recent attention. They bloom like delicately branching sea anemones, extending tendrils in all directions toward synapses, the knobby communication connections between neurons. Without astrocytes, researchers find, neurons couldn't nourish themselves, grow, or transmit signals effectively." Science News, Vol 159, No 14, April 7, 2001, p. 222 (article not online). Content on the world wide web is deeply interconnected with other content, but the most useful information has not always been among the most interconnected. Search engines are our best, albeit a primitive, attempt to guide readers to online information and writers to portals for their output. The "Sherlock" innovation in Mozilla is not just a minor improvement. Instead it represents a notable advance toward integrating the web browser and the search engine. Like the web, the human brain is highly interconnected. The better the connections, the more powerful our intelligence. For this reason, and in light of recent scientific advances, if it must be renamed, I would advance the name "Astrocyte" as a suitable replacement for "Sherlock." "Astrocytes are the most numerous glia (the gray matter) in the brain and have received much of the recent attention. They bloom like delicately branching sea anemones, extending tendrils in all directions toward synapses, the knobby communication connections between neurons. Without astrocytes, researchers find, neurons couldn't nourish themselves, grow, or transmit signals effectively." Science News, Vol 159, No 14, April 7, 2001, p. 222 (article not online). Hm... good idea. But I think it is a little bit too far fetched. Will you explain every average user what an Astrocyte is? I don't think so. However, if you have a clear name, one can easily imagine what is behind it. True, in the 3rd poll, there are also some more obscure names. On the other side, we had to make a choice for the candidate names, and this chose has now been made. Sorry you are a little bit too late... I wish someone had posted here that there was a poll going on elsewhere. Why not calling it Godot? We were waiting for him in the play .. maybe we should have been searching for him :-) |