TheRegister - like, say Viz - likes its lazy, outdated journalistic stereotypes and tropes.
replyThat's not being critical of them; its their humour, they mimic the crassness and condescension of tabloid journalism, particularly that of the 70s and 80s (even tabloids have moved on).
When you see cliches like boffin, nanny state, egghead etc etc in a HN title, you can be reasonably confident its El Reg.
As soon as I saw this word, I guessed that El Reg was the source.
replyim surprised it's still around. i remember reading it in the late 90s.
replyI was surprised to see it - I thought "boffin" was good-natured but highly irreverent, like "nerd". But I can't imagine any publication writing the headline, "Computer nerd claims Microsoft's supposed quantum leap does not compute."
reply"Good natured but highly irreverent" is pretty much The Register's house style.
replyTo be fair, "boffin" usually implies someone has relevant (usually scientific) expertise, but nerd doesn't. Henry Legg has the relevant credentials to give weight to his claims, he's not just some random basement nerd.
replyThe Register is highly irreverent, as a rule.
replyIt's typical of the Register. They always use the word "boffin" for expert/scientist. It's a british word used to describe a clever person.
replyRoughly interchangeable with egg head I think, although more used and slightly more endearing.
replyUsed in WW2 to refer to radar engineers, bouncing bomb designers etc
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replyCompletely unrelated but I'm always sad that Umbra, Penumbra and Equinox aren't used very often in day-to-day speech, very cool sounding words.
replyAlso, adumbrate.
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