The upcoming fiscal cliff drumbeat is probably more FUD than real date-related motivation, sadly.

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One of IBM's less savory practices in those days was a sales technique called "FUD" (fear, uncertainty and doubt).

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What is clear is that there is a lot of rumour, assumption, and classic FUD (Fear, uncertainty and doubt) in the air.

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The UBS E-TRACS CMCI Food TR exchange-traded note ( FUD) was a close second in with gains of 48.85% in the last year.

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The irony is that the legislation is based on fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) versus facts, and it will do little to solve the security problems facing computer systems.

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Despite the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) being spread about X11, there are plenty of organizations that use X11 over 10BaseT with great success, so it isn't at all unrealistic.

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In many respects the myths about performance issues are a bit of FUD created by internal IT around the use of cloud computing, which many in IT view as a threat these days.

FORBES: Cloud and Performance... Myths and Reality