We live in a world that’s dangerous. No amount of protective padding, sensitivity training, or insurance will ever change that. Reality doesn’t care what you say about it, how you refer to it, or whether you like it or not: it just is.

The Embedded Corner column in Dr. Dobbs’ Journal follows the same format every month. The header of the last section, which is a casual bibliography on the topics discussion in the column, is called "Reentry Checklist". Shortly after the Columbia disaster, the last section mysteriously got renamed to "Contact Release" for about six months, then was renamed back to "Reentry Checklist".

I assume the writer and editors thought they were being "sensitive" to those affected by the disaster, but in reality, the change of header probably didn’t affect a single person.

When we change our language just because it coincides with something bad that happens, we’re not really doing to for the victims–we’re doing it to assuage our own misguided and inappropriate guilt, and it feeds our own ego by convincing ourselves that we’re doing "something good".

The access points were code-named Tsunami. Changing the default ESSID won’t have any effect on the world: it won’t change the devices already out there, it won’t turn back the clock, and it certainly won’t bring back any of the lives lost in this awful tragedy.

Certainly, you are correct. Changing product names or whatever, to reflect sensitivity towards victims of this disaster is not going to actually help anyone.

I do wonder, however, if a HW or SW vendor would actually want their product associated with a natural disaster!

I think, in the end, you are still right– in 6 months, people will forget.

It is kinda funny– natural disasters tend to make interesting product names and code-names. Hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes– I think all of these concepts are used to denote "powerful" products. Our company had a project code-named "Isabel", in honor of one of last years hurricanes.