Have you been Pinged lately?

When using Technology and IT equipment you’re faced with all sorts of acronyms, phrases and jargon. I learnt a long time ago that when discussing technology, if somebody uses a phrase I’m not familiar with then I don’t pretend to understand what they are talking about… I ask them!

Once such instance occurred recently, when fellow SBSC member and all round good-guy Tim Long said he’d “ping” somebody on my behalf. I’d had other people use the phrase in conversation with me, but I’d never bothered to ask what it meant!

What is a Ping?!

I’m familiar with “pinging” network devices, but how do you ping a person? Is this some sort of new technology I’m not aware with? Is the person Tim was “pinging” on my behalf some sort of “Borg” like creature with an inbuilt network connection?!

So I asked Tim what it all meant and the answer came back “It’s just a term I use that means “to contact someone with the intent of soliciting an immediate response or to ascertain their presence”. No special meaning that I’m aware of, but it is kind of like an ICMP echo request for people ;-)”

And so, Dear Reader, I’m guessing you now have one of two reactions:-

1. Richard’s such an idiot. Who didn’t know that was what pinging somebody meant?

2. Phew. Now that Richard’s explained what pinging someone is, I won’t need to pretend to know any-more!

Oh, and a third reaction

3. Now that I know what pinging someone is, I’m going to throw the phrase into conversation, and when someone asks me what it means, I can explain it and prove I’m technologically superior to them!

Now you know!

So without knowing it, this week I’ve been pinged, binged and poked. It’s been an odd week. 😉