It's the acronym from hell contest

NVMHCIWG--Baby, remember my name.

I've spent more than a decade reporting on the tech industry--with most of that time logged into the squirrely world of processors and memory--and come across a lot of abbreviations and acronyms. At Intel, Craig Barrett isn't known at Craig Barrett--he's CRB. Then there was the ORBA and CORBA confusion.

And who could forget the time that HANA and DLRA (formerly DHWG) were competing with each other to win the support of the UWBF, ATSC and MPAA? It took three dictionaries and a Ouija board to sort out the conflicts. (And it spells out "What a hard gum scandal, Pa" with a W, B and F left over.)

But the NVMHCIWG takes the cake. It stands for Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Working Group. It's a group of flash memory makers trying to make it easier for plugging in flash chips into other devices. I just love the idea of these guys giving out commemorative wine glasses for a job well done. "NVMHCIWG Summer Fling Standards Session 1.1" would wrap around the glass twice. Imagine impressing your house guests with that one.

Someone in the office confused it for the song Big Bird sings about the alphabet.

If you have any personal wacky acronym favorite, send them to me in an e-mail. I'll rate them and try to figure out a prize for the winner.