Do remember to check uspto.gov > trademarks > (2) Search Marks to ensure something cool you've picked isn't an active/current registered trademark by another for computer / software / online use.
The p prints the randomly chosen line -- wc -l is the number of lines in the file, (random % lines-in-file) picks a random one, 'sed -n 30p' prints the 30th line.
Problem with this (and probably with the aspell version too, but I can't test that just now): $RANDOM only generates a number from 0 to 32767, but /usr/dict/words has (on my Mac) 235886 words.
sh -c 'cat /usr/share/dict/words | sed -n $(echo $((`cat /dev/urandom | od -N3 -An -i` % `cat /usr/share/dict/words | wc -l`)))p'
This is closer, although you might get sed: illegal option occasionally, I guess. I'm yet to learn how to generate a random number within given limits with bash. Oh wait, we can use Python can't we?
sh -c 'cat /usr/share/dict/words | sed -n $(echo $((`python -c "import random; print random.randint(1,234935)"` % `cat /usr/share/dict/words | wc -l`)))p'
I just number them. e.g. "4 thousand billion". Little Billy Sands we call him.
But seriously, I have given them descriptive names - inspired by the supplier of meat to MacDonalds in Australia called "The 100% Australian Beef Company". I figured it was good for googling, and informative. Also reminded me of Humpty Dumpty (my name means the shape I am). And it worked.
Though I note most people go for clever and/or zany names, with creative spellings (so they be trademarked). An amusing "story" to explain a clever name can operate as a vector for word of mouth: by passing on the story for entertainment value, you also pass on the name. It's kind of like product placement, where the story is the movie. An example is GNU. It can also operate as an in-joke, creating an artificial elite.
We used a similar method to get to our name: Bindle. I agree with you on a short, single word names. To add to that, I would suggest attempting to use real words, that have simple spelling.
I find this technique works too. Come up with general ideas that describe your product, expand into metaphors. Try synonyms for the metaphors. Combine words.
In the end, the name doesn't have to be descriptive, but it does have to be unique and pronouncable.
Just curious... why would you want to do that even if you're stuck? This is more of a quick brainstorm method, I don't think he's even looked to see if the domain name is available at this point.
Also, I'd rather have something like "getflint.com" or "flintapp.com" than "flnnt.com" or something. When you start getting into cutesy abstractions like that it becomes hard to remember.
I don't know about Flint, but many words already have the getname.com and nameapp.com domains taking. You can find more luck if you add hyphens though, but that makes for a pretty ugly domain.
Even .org and .net domains (which I don't mind, and prefer to ccTLDs) are getting sparse.
Touché. I wasn't sure if this was a joke or not though. The fact that people actually do this when naming something made it pretty hard to figure out if he was serious.
App No. 1 in Erlang
App No. 2 in Haskell
Variations on a theme by Hasbro