For the uninitiated, naming conventions are employed where there exists a network of computers that for ease of use need to be given individual names. These names often follow a theme.

Now, I find naming conventions to be a very curious thing. I’ve heard of networks where all the computers where named after the women in the Buffy- and Angel-verses, or the main characters in Lord of the Rings. All Andy’s computers are named after AI: Jaharmen [the psychotic AI from Dark Genesis]; Sniper [an AI war drone from Neal Asher's Polity books The Skinner and The Voyage of Sable Keetch]; Sven [the 'Machine Intelligence' from The Turing Option]; and lastly Simomo [the tiny and cute PersaCom from Chobits]. Everyone [or at least, every Geek] seems to have one, according to his own personal tastes.

Except me. Admittedly, it wasn’t until recently that I actually had more than one machine, but I just named that one whatever I felt like. Currently it’s called Paragorn, which is a bastardization of ‘Paragon’ owing to the fact I can’t read properly But now I have this laptop that Kat has given me on extended loan. To connect it to the network, I needed to give it a name. Which brought home to me the fact I don’t have a naming convention.

So I thought about it, and then I thought: why not give honour to a mostly unrecognised subsection of Geekism, on that I myself currently occupy? Yes, I’m talking about the Geek females, in specific fictional ones. You’d think I have my options pretty limited with names, but this really isn’t so. Observe:
Susan Calvin – Isaac Asimov, various stories
Kaye Lang – Greg Bear, Darwin’s Radio and Darwin’s Children
Willow – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Winifred/ Fred – Angel
Radical Edward – Cowboy Beebop
Penny – Inspector Gadget

And those are only the ones off the top of my head. If we were to go on to cool strong women, the list would be endless.

So, what have I decided to call my Laptop? Radical Edward. I shall be changing the name of my desktop PC to Penny, to fit the scheme, just as soon as I work out how. And the PDA? Well that comes under a slightly different scheme. Because it’s a mobile device [yeah I know this should count for the laptop too, but it doesn't so shush] it’s going to be named after a fictional mobile computer. Just as Andy has named his GP2X after Simomo, I’m going to name the PDA ‘Ping’ after the robot girl in Megatokyo.

So, I’m happy with my convention, and if I ever get any more machines I know I have plenty of ideas for names. Plus, if anyone ever views the network and asks about it, I always have a nice little conversation piece ^_^

☮&♥