(thread drift)
I was involved with IBM for a bit. It was a little bland but some inadvertent gaffs did slip through.
Around the time of the launch of the PS/2 there was a new connector called MCA. Later as they expanded it there was a faster version called MCA32 which gained the marketing name Fat Pipe, meaning fast pipes between devices for data.
We did a european launch and as we went from country to country, locals assisted us with the translation of the slides. We got to France and I suspect we lost something in translation.
The slides said Grande Pipe, as we got to this part of the presentation the audience burst into laughter. Needless to say this blew the tempo of the entire remaining presentation.
Afterwards we asked someone what went wrong. It turns out that Grand Pipe is the french slang for "big swinging d*ck". Preparation and local skills should never be underestimated. Mind you the local that translated it for us never said anything . i never did pay him back.
