LA bans use of term “Master/Slave”
A typical computer can support four drives (hard drives, CDROMs, DVD drives, etc. just not floppy drives), which are configured into two channels, primary and secondary. Because there are two on each channel, one of them must be assigned priority. The two drives on each channel are designated Master and Slave.
Or they were.
Now, LA County has taken Political Correctness too far, and has banned use of the term “Master/Slave.” Equipment vendors have been asked to avoid using the term in product descriptions, labelling, etc. Not just hard drive configurations but any place the term is used — which is the standard method in computing “to describe the unidirection control of one device or process by another.”
Of course this just reminds us of all of those other instances of over-PC-ness. A public advocate in D.C. was forced to resign over his use of the word niggardly.
There is also a (possible apocryphal) story about an editor who informed a writer that the (hunting term) ‘duck blind’ was unacceptable; the latter word should be replaced by ‘vision impaired.’
But one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while was an anecdote posted to Slashdot by user BigBlockMopar:
Picture it. In the hallway, just after I missed a question on a math test, where I had to integrate a function of e * trig. (Otherwise, did okay on the test.) Chatting with classmates.
“Well, I think the problem is that I don’t integrate very well.”
Stranger in the hallway who overhears:
“Oh! That’s *horrible*! You’re a terrible person! No one chooses the color of their skin! You could have just as easily been born black, you know! It’s people like you who keep society from progressing!”
So, in unison, we (all Engineers) looked at her and laughed. At her.
“You’re *all* horrible people! This is university! Campus KKK! I’m reporting you to the dean!”
Suffering idiocy as well as I do, it was I who took up the task of dealing with her.
“I would invite you to report that to my dean, I’m sure he’ll laugh at you at least as hard as I laughed at you. Let me guess, you’re in an arts program, right? In my arts elective, the instructor started by asking our entire class if we had our purple crayons. Things only went downhill from there.”
[Indignant gasps from the chick… who was wearing wooden sandals in late October.]
I continued, “…Now, seeing as how *you’re* the ignorant one…”
Screaming now, “How *DARE* you call me ignorant! You’re the one who said you didn’t like to integrate!” People were stopping to see this woman lose it on me. This hallway connected two science buildings, an engineering building and one arts building, so most of them were starting to laugh at her, too.
“You’re *ALL* in on this! What’s wrong with you people?” She was getting worked up to tears, all the angst of a comfortable middle-class childhood showing.
A big black guy who had been watching and kind of laughing from the beginning told her that he hated to integrate too, then walked away, leaving her stunned.
Me again: “Now, seeing as how you’re the ignorant one, integration is a mathematical process for finding the area under a curve. It’s from a branch of mathematics called calculus. Your wooden sandals and amazing ability to jump to unfounded conclusions have only served to reaffirm my belief that calculus is the distinction between a degree and toilet paper. You, honeybunch, are an idiot.”
And with that, we left. I think she was having a stress attack when we walked away.
Very funny! I don’t think I would have been that mean, but I sure would have laughed hard.