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Subject:The Gender of Computers (a little humor) From:"Peter Shea (USF)" <pshea2 -at- luna -dot- cas -dot- usf -dot- edu> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 15 May 2000 23:38:45 -0400 (EDT)
A pastor of a church had previously been a
sailor. He was very
aware that ships are addresses as "she" and
"her". He often
wondered what gender computers should be
addressed. To
answer that question, he set up two group
of computer experts.
The first group was composed of women,
and the second of men.
Each group was asked to recommend
whether computer should
be referred to in the feminine gender, or the
masculine gender.
They were asked to give 4 reasons for their
recommendations.
The group of women reported that
computers should be referred
to in the masculine gender because:
1. In order to get their attention you have
to turn them on.
2. The have a lot of data, but are still
clueless.
3. The are supposed to help you solve
problems, but half the time
they are the problem.
4. As soon as you commit to one, you
realize that if you had waited
a little longer you could have had a better
model.
The men, on the other hand, concluded that
computers should be
referred to in the feminine gender because:
1. No one but the Creator understands
their internal logic.
2. The native language they use to
communicate with other
computers is incomprehensible to everyone
else.
3. Even your smallest mistakes are stored
in long-term memory
for later retrieval.
4. As soon as you make a commitment to
one, you find yourself
spending half of your paycheck on
accessories for it.