Wow.

It's interesting the parallel between Soviet propaganda (something capitalist Western society strongly opposes) and the corporate jargon speak that has evolved out of the commercial and economic industries of capitalist Western societies. It seriously is a White Smoke of foggy, confusing, blithering nonsense, obfuscating the reality of a situation and spinning it to conform to the beliefs (or wants) of whoever is presenting the message.

I think you hit the nail on the head with the parallel between the corporate speak and politics. When Rumsfeld said that the Iraqi insurgents were "in the last throes", it was his glamorous way of saying that things were getting better. When they later discovered evidence to the contrary, the Bush administration started playing a game of semantics, talking about what the word "throes" really means. I think it was a good example of how the message is meant to deceive and confuse, while giving the impression of clarity. Actually that may be a bad example. That might be a better example of how the Bush administration is heavy on the thesaurus and low on the intelligence quotient.

Steve, 'twas Cheney who made that claim, but Rumsfeld's even more famous for using Newspeak as well, so I can see why you thought so.

The best thing to be said about White Smoke is that it converts information into something that can easily be blown up someone's ass.

Hey, that sounds like a good slogan to sell the software!

My bad.

'twas Cheney. I get those two mixed up. (ie., which one is Satan, and which one is Satan's spawn? I can never remember).

I feel like Lewis Carroll would be a good person to mention here. I feel like he probably made some insightful comment on the ability to say a lot, and not say anything at all, but a direct reference eludes me.

Heh. Lewis Carroll!

The Lewis Carroll quote that comes to mind would be this exchange from Through the Looking-Glass:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you CAN make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."

Clive, are you sure White Smoke isn't a joke site?

Look at the free download page. What company with any credibility (okay, okay, I realize that their product already puts that in question!) posts the email addresses of their happy customers?

That being said, it's a very thorough job of a spoof if it is one...

And I suppose there's a huge market for it.

White Smoke changed the path to my MSWord program. After spending $179.00 in a pro Repairman and confirmation froma whitesmoke support person we were told he had seen the problem before and would have an answer for us in the morning. None came and then all denied knowing anything about it.

I later noticed they had charged me twice for the same program. They have made no effort to refund the double charge and have even stopped answering my E mails. I bought a new computer and so far the mistake I made byt ordering White Smoke has cost me over $1,000.00.

Every request I have made concerning this has only been answered with another number none of which is answered.

You want White Smoke? Be aware they have little to no support, will ignore you if they can't fix a problem they caused, could double charge you and never refund the over charge and they lie repeatedly.

Refund:
The day after I posted the above comment concerning the overcharge by White Smoke and the other problems I have encountered. I repeat the day after, I did get a refund for one of the charges where I was charged twice.

But I still have one question. Why has it been one year between my posting and the last posting? Did the outrage only last for one day?

Whitesmoke is garbage, don't buy it. This software will make your writing worse and there is no chance of a refund when you find out how bad it is. Don't buy, install it, or recommend it.

i just bought whitesmoke software this company is cheating don't bay any thing from them. the software i bought wores than the trial and they didn't send me CD which they should, any body knew how i can complain aganset them, i leave in england