As an Evangelical I could say that I devised the name as a pointer to Jesus - that he is the very important and obvious thing that our world has missed. But that's not what it is about. The origin of the name has a more mundane and rather "geeky" history.
When I first went online in 1998 I was naturally overawed about what the internet was like. I was also at the time a huge fan of the TV show "Millennium" by Chris Carter (the guy who created "The X-Files"). So one of the first things I did was to visit the Millennium discussion forum where I was able to speak to people all over the world about the show. Naturally I needed a nickname, so I called myself "neilinoz" - a rather lame name (but one that I used for many years before finally ditching it in 2004). While I was on the discussion board, I created a "sockpuppet" with the name "One Salient Oversight" because it was part of an important scene in the Millennium Pilot episode where Frank Black (played by Lance Henriksen) first meets Peter Watts:
Man: "I'm Peter Watts, from the Group." [He hands Frank an envelope.]
Watts: "I would have faxed you, but I wanted to introduce myself."
Frank: "I heard you were down looking at the body. Did you find anything?"
Watts: "A few things slipped by. One salient oversight... "
The point of this exchange is that Peter has discovered that someone who was examining the body of the murder victim forgot to report something rather important in the autopsy. Those who have seen the pilot episode will know what I am talking about. I found the use of the expression to be quite unusual, and it immediately stuck in my head. Millennium fans everywhere will no doubt remember the expression.
And if you go to google and type in "One Salient Oversight" you will find that Millennium quotes mingle with my own personal stamp upon the Internet.
From the Blogososphere Department.
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