To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Technology April 8, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/tech/chal/2000/04/08/32_results 21st Challenge No. 32 Results Within every tech company's name there lurks a hilarious acronym. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Charlie Varon and Jim Rosenau In this challenge, we invited you to crack the acronymic code of any well-known high-tech firm and, by so doing, unlock its corporate credo. Corporations Hide Acronyms, Largely Like Embarrassing Names, Guess Entrants THE WINNER Promised Radical Inversion? Caveat Emptor! Letting Individuals Negotiate Eliminates Crappy Overstock Merchandise --Keith Ammann HONORABLE MENTIONS Might I Calamitously Reduce Our Stock Through Roughshod Accounting Trickery? Executives Go Yachting. --Michael Casey In Nervous Times Engineers Litigate --Guillermo Ibarra Artsy Designers Overworking Brilliant Engineers --Guillermo Ibarra Definitive Internet Strategy Not Expected Yet -- B.K. Oxley Incompetently Run Infrastructure Decommissioned Into Unprecedented Meteors -- B.K. Oxley Lucky Us, 'Cause Elderly Need Telephones -- Kay Robart Proving E- Anything Produces Outlandish Delusions -- Harvey Blustain May Innovation Continue Regardless Of Sadly Outdated Federal Tactics -- Michael Coyne May I Co-opt Reams Of Software? Oh, Fantastic! Thanks! -- Francis Heaney Does Observation Undermine Basic Legal Entitlements? Company Lamentably Infringes Confidential Knowledge -- Harvey Blustain Achieve Marketing Empire! Rule Internet! Customers Are Only Numbers! Lure Internet Newbies! Expand!!! -- Bruce S. Duncan Empty Basement and Attics Year 'round -- Sue Clark Outsiders Request A Clear Lucid Ellison -- Steve Leahy Music Pirates 3 . Conspire On Monopolies -- Jim Gawne Sassy American Literature Online Now! -- Jim Gawne Thanks for taking the 21st Challenge. Check back in two weeks for another contest. salon.com | April 8, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writers Charlie Varon is a humorist and playwright. His works include "Ralph Nader Is Missing" and "Rush Limbaugh in Night School." Jim Rosenau is a writer, editor and software designer in Berkeley, Calif. Jim and Charlie are also co-founders of the citizens group Californians for Earthquake Prevention and partners in Mockingbird Media, which offers a full line of comic services.