Obama's "reset button" metaphor: which is more correct, "restart," "reboot," or "reset"?
(Photo: "Check Reset," shot at the Computer History Museum by Flickr user Kreg Steppe, who hosts the Technorama podcast.)
The latest "On Language" item from New York Times columnist William Safire ponders the difference between the words "restart," "reboot," and "reset." Mr. Safire contacted me for my opinion on how the words are different, and I kind of went nuts thinking about it for a day. I asked friends and Twitter-pals for their thoughts, too, and after thinking and talking about it for a day, emailed a short reply which is mentioned in this piece. Anyway, the whole column is interesting, here's a snip:
Bemoaning "a dangerous drift in relations" between Russia and the NATO nations, Vice President Joe Biden told a conclave on security policy in Munich, "To paraphrase President Obama, it's time to press the reset button."Reset Button (New York Times. Special thanks to everyone who replied on Twitter!)At C.I.A. headquarters in Virginia less than two weeks later, on Feb. 19, Biden paraphrased again: "The president has made it clear that he wants to hit the reset button on our relations with Russia."
Just short of two weeks after that repeated indirect quotation, President Obama publicly embraced and extended the metaphor attributed to him: "We've had a good exchange between ourselves and the Russians. I've said that we need to reset or reboot the relationship there."
The reset button had been pressed, hit or punched into politics on a grand scale in world newspaper coverage of Obama's upset victory over Senator Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democratic field in the 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus. On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, London's Evening Standard reported, "She has tried to hit the reset button and radically change her strategy." She adopted that figure of speech every time her campaign shifted gears, to no avail.
Not surprising, then, on her first European tour as secretary of state, Clinton told NPR in Brussels that in discussions with the Russians, "we're going to hit the reset button and start fresh." She went so far as to present Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, with a red desk ornament representing a reset button, and they both merrily pressed it in a photo-op. Her gag gift was labeled in Russian as peregruzka, supposedly meaning "reset," but actually meaning "overcharge" -- in the sense of "electrical overload," not meaning "gouging the unsuspecting consumer" -- but the American mistranslation gave the Russian diplomat a chance for a sly dig.
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reset is a hardware thing , and reboot is a software thing.
You can reboot without reseting , but if you reset, then you have to boot.
A reset is like turning the power off and on, after which you will need to boot (unless you have a PDP8 or another machine with core memory).
It seems to me that a new administration would be a reboot , and getting hit by a large asteroid would be a reset.
BTW , I have'n seen a reset button on any recent hardware, or even a power switch most of the time. When my computer or HDTV locks up I have to pull the plug since the "power button" or Ctrl Alt Delete etc. is software controlled.
"restart" = "to start again"
"reboot" = "to power cycle through software means"
"reset" = "to change back to the initial state"
... at least in my mind.
Hep Cat: Often if a power button is present, but only puts the device in "sleep mode", then you can override the hung device by holding the button in for several seconds, which triggers a lower-level interrupt or something.
In any case, I think the politics metaphor goes something like this. We keep hitting the reset button but our operating system is corrupt. What we need is a *rollback*!
~Lionel Brits
"Emergency stop"?
Why are these folks applying computer terms to politics in the first place? They are completely different worlds with different uses for language.
The fact that Safire needs to ask a geek what these computer terms mean so that he can best apply them to politics is a bad sign - if he doesn't know what they mean, then his audience won't either!
"Round Four"
It's not anything new. It's like with Microsoft Windows where you just write new code and put it over the old code. But the old code is still there and effs everything up.
Obama's just a new shiny GUI.
Same old shit powering everything behind the smile.
1. I don't think it was Obama who came up with that one - he is much better at the metaphors.
2. Whoever did come up with pushing any button when it comes to Russia was an idiot. Pushing a button meant one thing for 50 years, and it wasn't good.
The whole operating system is corrupt, right from the factory. Resets and the like ain't gonna solve the problem.
My new personal post rule. "post something positive"
I will get back to you.
Obama's just a new shiny GUI.
Microsoft Bob!
Except I don't really believe that. Some things will stay the same, the system within which he's operating is the same, and his DRM stance is really going to piss me off, but he's moving to undo a lot of the mistakes of the Bush admin and I love that.
@ SLGALT #10
Exactly - especially since "pushing the button" in that sense would be a far more definitive reset than anything Obama could do.
I prefer IPL as in PWDRDWNSYS *IMMED but that is just me.
Here's the video again of the "reset button" fiasco:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220289&title=Brown-in-the-USA
(segment starts around 3:40)
Correct procedure:
create bootdisk from historical templates
format system
run bootdisk for transitory operating system
create, compile and install open source operating system (the old one lost support by developers, mostly through their untimely death about 200 years ago)
restart system
start bugfixing immediately
fork project to create, test and bugfix v2.0 for scheduled(!) upgrade
upgrade as scheduled
(Yes, this doesn't just mean get rid of your constitution and everything else, but get rid of your constitution and everything else every 25-50 years or so. The current system is bloated far beyond the point were maintenance is reasonable, or possible.)
And don't forget to encourage people to create, test and use their own parallel systems, something good might come out of it. If so, don't hesitate to copy it. It's open source, guys!
(Moderator: Sorry, I didn't find the sign in button the first time around, that's the problem with 800x480 on 7" screens ...)
I prefer it to Bush's "AIRLOCK" button diplomacy.
In order of magnitude:
Restart: all software, the OS closes all programs, shuts down and starts up again.
Reboot: again a software shutdown, this time followed by manually hitting the power button.
Reset: a last resort. all hardware is stopped instantly for a second, then allowed to start again. results in a normal boot up, but may cause problems, especially for hard drives.
Hello, IT, Have you tried turning it off and back on again....?
uh...yeah
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1488/ghostectoplasmdo7.jpg
I think on TiVo, restart keeps your settings, but reset puts them back to factory defaults.
FDR called it "a new deal," referring to the shuffle feature on old card-based game systems.
We also have electroshock, now called ECT. Fast, temporary relief from depression.
Or you can slap on the paddles and defib.
Or we can "begin seeing other people."
Have they tried unplugging the unit, unscrewing the cable, waiting thirty seconds, plugging it back in and re-screwing in the cable?
That's what the IT guys always say to do.
Actually, last time this happened I asked the guy *why* he wanted me to do this again, after I had already done it twice. He first said "well, sir, it's kind of like when you have drunk a lot of water, you eventually need to go to the rest room." Then he said it was to do with static cling. No, he didn't think the little sheets you put in the drier would help, "but it's an interesting suggestion."
how about a re-set on reality?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/05/media-allowed-to-witness-_n_183346.html
A restart is a controlled restart which may or may not involve going through the complete power-on boot sequence.
A reboot is a restart which involves the entire boot sequence.
A reset is an uncontrolled hardware reset.
"booting" is short for "lifting oneself by one's bootstraps" ala Heinlein's story, or like the Lorax lifting himself by the seat of his pants.
Non-technical people are not expected to understand what an apt metaphor this is for the process of starting up a programmable computer. Trust me, it's apropos.
Two things came to mind after reading this one:
First, the old Atari 2600s had reset buttons.
Second, the IT joke, "User = ID10T"