Re: What to call the beige box...

[Herman Holtz <holtz -at- PALTECH -dot- COM>]

>In a post on a different subject, Matt Ion <mion -at- DIRECT -dot- CA>>
>My mother-in-law calls the beige box the "hard drive," too.
>That seems to be a common approach by people just learning. I
>was taught to call it the CPU. However, the CPU takes up even
>less room inside the box than the hard drive. What then, would
>be an appropriate name to call the thing?

I don't know that it matters greatly what you call it or that you know what
to call it. People still refer to the hardware under teh hoods of their cars
as a "motor,' indifferent to the the difference between a motor and an
engine. Does it really matter? No, not to the user. Actually, if you were to
be truly accurate, that which is within the main box is not a cpu at all;
the cpu is only one small portion of the system overall. No matter; no need
to know any more than you need to know what a transmission or carburetor is
to drive your car. But as tech writers, ought we not to be conscious of
speaking with soem accuracy?
                                ***
Herman Holtz [holtz -at- paltech -dot- com] Marketing consultant, general and
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