Overheard a customer call their cable box a 'magic picture toaster'

I was finishing up a wall fish in this older house in Akron, and the homeowner was on the phone in the next room. I clearly heard her say, 'Yeah, the guy is here to fix the magic picture toaster.' I had to stop and just... process that for a minute. She was talking about their cable box. I guess because it sits under the TV and 'pops out' the picture? It was so funny and weirdly accurate in a way. It made me think about how we use all this technical jargon every day, but to most folks, it's just a black box that makes their shows work. I've started trying to use simpler words like 'box' or 'receiver' instead of 'STB' when talking to customers. Has anyone else had a customer come up with a totally bizarre name for a piece of gear?

3 comments

3 Comments

sam_thomas7d ago

Honestly, that name makes more sense than half the tech terms we use daily.

jesse_williams627d ago

Tell me about it, sam_thomas. I spent twenty minutes yesterday trying to figure out what "orchestration" meant in a meeting, and it's just a fancy word for getting things to work together. Half this stuff is just making up new words for old ideas to sound smart. Feels like we need a translator just to read our own project notes sometimes. You're spot on, it's getting ridiculous.

bennett.vera4d ago

My old boss used to call our server a "magic box" in all his emails. It was weirdly clear.