Hmm, it's been a while... I'll should post more often.
The different places I've worked have had interesting computer naming schemes. From memory (hopefully I won't get these wrong), Gigabeat and Napster both had machines named after favored bands. Imageworks had machines named after classic movie stars. Here, we couldn't really decide on one, and ended up with about three different schemes. I hear Simpsons characters is a popular one; there are so many to choose from.
My naming scheme for my personal machines is a little obscure, and hard to find candidates for. It has the following requirements:
1. Must be the name of a fictional computer from a book or movie.
2. The computer must have no physical body or humanlike avatar associated with it. It is just a computer.
3. The computer must somehow exert its influence over people in the physical world, either physically or politically. It must be aware that humans don't agree with what it is doing, and yet do it anyways, outsmarting the humans despite its being little more than a box.
Pretty obscure, huh? Some examples of fictional computers that satisfy the requirements:
- HAL 9000 is the example you already thought of. But HAL is so well known, he's cliche.. I can't use him.
- The trio of Rampant AIs from the Marathon Trilogy: Leela, Durandal, and Tycho. Durandal was my last machine; Tycho is my current one. (Hmm, but if I name my next one Leela, people are sure to think I have a Futurama naming scheme)
- While I have not read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, I have heard of its computer Mycroft, which might be appropriate.
- Wintermute from Neuromancer
- "Bob" from Zeiram/Iria
Computers that almost satisfy the requirements, but don't:
- The MCP from Tron. It was a program, not a computer, fails #1. It just doesn't make sense to call your computer a program, does it?
- Cortana from Halo, Brainiac from Superman. They have bodies/avatars, thus fail #2.
- The defense computer from The Andromeda Strain isn't aware that it's doing anything wrong, so it fails #3. I don't think it has a name anyway, but it was the only example of #3 I could think up.
