One of my favorite Microsoft-isms is the phrase "to drink the kool-aid". It's used to describe someone who's totally bought-in to some new technology -- as in "Can you believe that guy actually read all of the XSD spec? He's must have really drank some hard-core XML kool-aid".
According to the Jargon File, the term originates with the People's Temple cult headed by Jim Jones in the late 70's. Those guys drank a bunch of a fruity beverage laced with cyanade and followed Mr. Jones straight into the Great Beyond. What they found there is questionable, to say the least.
I think the Jargon File is wrong on this one, though. First off, the cult members drank Flavor-Aide, which is a cheapo knockoff of Kool-Aid and most definitely not the real thing. Secondly, the source of this gives the term an undeserved negative connotation. After all, who wants to buy into a concept where the eventual outcome is death?
In the computer world, I've generally come to look at koolaid-drinking as a generally positive thing, something that describes someone who's Seen the Light WRT some new technology. It's an expression of enlightenment, not brainwashing (of course, one man's nirvana is another man's instrument of control -- but that's beside the point for now). In this context, I think the term is referrering not to Jim Jones and his psycho-deathcult, but to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.
As a historical aside in case you haven't read Tom Wolfe's The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, Ken Kesey was the leader of a hippie commune called the Merry Pranksters who hung out in San Francisco during the 60's. Periodically, they'd throw these things called "Acid Tests", which were big parties with lots of psychedelic music and lightshows and whatnot (basically, the precursors to the rave scene of the late 90's). At these events, they'd bring out big buckets of "Electric Kool-Aid" -- which was laced with quite a bit of some mind-altering substances. People who had partaken of the so-called electric kool-aid unknowningly usually left the event thinking a little bit differently. People who drank too much kool-aid usually ended up hanging out with Ken, driving around in a hippie bus and talking about enlightenment with Timothy Leary.
There's no definitive answer as to what that unknown person was actually referring to when he/she/it first coined the phrase. I'd be very interested to find out, though. Alas, I'm afraid that this topic will remain the subject of much water-cooler debate in software companies around the world for the forseeable future...
