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Extreme political correctness??? 17

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Can't wait for the countersuit on the part of pc users who happen to be into B&D.
 
...wonder if they'd be appeased if the terms were changed to "Dominant" and "Submissive"?
 
The new labels: (So much for makeing equipment smaller)

Master - The device that is actively doing the processing

Slave - The device that is sitting in wait in case the device that is actively doing the processing can no longer perform.



Blue [dragon]

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...
 
Interesting... I remember thinking those were odd labels when I first installed a second hard drive ten or so years ago.

My opinion is somewhat split... whoever picked the terms was an idiot, now they're so firmly entrenched in engineering standards that it would be a difficult swap out. Just getting the affected communities to decide on new terms would take forever... not to mention master/slave lingo applies to more than one setup, in fact, I've never seen/heard of bluedragon's definition of a master/slave relationship.

To me this would definitely be the kind of thing that would be a "phase out" move it were to ever happen. I mean you're talking documentation, labels, textbooks.

So in short, I think it'd be nice to shrug the labels, but I don't see it happening.. so why don't we just go kick the shins of the grandkids of the guy who came up with it.

-Rob
 
skiflyer,

My comments were intended as sarcasm...



Blue [dragon]

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...
 
I understood the sarcasm.. but my point was, that is likely one definition as master/slave (redundancy)... the relationship between two chained hard drives is other, the relationship between a master tape deck and the slave recorders is another and I'm sure there are a few others spread throughout different industries.

It's not like replacing the terms red & blue with two new words.

-Rob
 
I completely agree that you can go overboard with Political Correctness, and this may in fact be one of those cases.

But isn't Primary/Secondary an easy remedy?

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
 
As with most political correctness, the terms have nothing to do with how they are taken by feeble minded people. Some people spend their whole lives with chips on both shoulders
just looking for something trivial to complain about.

Jim

 
And then there are people like Cajun who didn't stay up half the night drinking sake and come up with the obvious easy answer :)

ANFPS26
What puts you (or any of us) in a position to tell someone they reason they take issue with X is because they have a chip on their shoulder, and it's something trivial? In the face of such an easy switch of words like Primary/Secondary (or something similar)... why not? Did you read the link? Some people are obviouslly offended by the terminology... without getting into the politics of it, and whether or not each of us personally agree... isn't it worth phasing out the terms? At some point don't you become the trivial complainer with a chip on your shoulder because of "all this dang political correctness"?

Personally I agree it can be and is taken too far, and is often more offensive than what it replaces... but I still think it's a concept with some merit, peoples grievances are important.

-Rob
 
Many years ago, the Windows user interface style manual from Microsoft said to not use the word abort because of its connotation for some people. The rule never took hold.
 
Yes Cajun, that is an option, but I think that this PC thing is being taken to far. I bet there is not one single word, phrase, item, anything that you could come up with that would not offend at least one person in this world.

How about just call them:

Management/The office pool



Blue [dragon]

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...
 
And that's when intelligent debate and conversation about the words in question come into play. You find out why it offends, if the offender, the offendee or a third party putting the word into play. Then society reacts... don't forget, PC is not an issue of mandates... no one is going to pass a law that says you can't stamp master/slave on your harddrives... but if the local government wants to say we're no longer going to buy those that's their right as well. No one's going to say you can't utter the word "broad" to a woman, but don't expect a whole lot of yesses if that's part of your pickup line... and so on.

 
PC has become an issue of mandates. PC is how society creates laws without actually creating laws. Sure its not against the law to do it, but if nobody will buy it, then why do it. I don't know about this PC stuff, I believe in being as polite and moral as I can and that is what I teach my sybling. But, I will not stumble over every word I speak. You can please some of the people some of the time, but not everyone at the same time...

Blue [dragon]

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...
 
I think that CajunCenturion has hit the mark, in this case, there is a better alternative.

In terms of political correctness, the article doesn't say whether anyone has actually been offended by this terminology, it reads as if some functionary has taken pre-emptive action, just in case.

In my view if terminology does cause genuine offence, it should be changed. But there should be a reality check to see if there really is a case.
 
rosieb
I read this...

"an unidentified worker spotted a videotape machine carrying devices labeled "master" and "slave" and filed a discrimination complaint with the county's Office of Affirmative Action Compliance"

...to indicate that someone has taken offense.

Not that I agree with the momentum, but the ball is rolling.
 
I couldn't agree more rosie... I got the impression from the mention of the complaint filed that someone was personally offended, but you're right, it isn't necessarily the case.

-Rob

 
Sorry, you're right. Should have read it properly, withdraw my second para.
 
Well, I was given feedback after a previous interview that my use of the phrase "users" in the context of people using a computer system was derogatory in that it separated the people using the system and people managing the system, gave a "them" and "us" impression despite working in the same department from a room in the same building, and recommended changing it to "the people the IT team support" as a less offensive alternative.
Thinking about it, there is some logic there, but what are other people's opinions on this?

John
 
I'm sure the terms "motherboard" and "daughterboard" are offensive to someone. A computer "monitor" offends the lizard poplation. "Ethernet" has a drug connection, so it must be offensive. "Software" and "hardware" must refer to something "dirty". Where does it end??

Jim

 
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