'MASTER' AND 'SLAVE' NON-SENSE?

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29 2003 @ 08:03 PM

My recycled Linux box died today without any warning. Since the beginning, I thought it was the power source, but opened it anyway to see if something was going on inside, since I didn't smell anything burnt. While moving components around within the box, I got this curious view:



and I remembered this thing about LA officials recommending manufacturers to discontinue the use of the terms 'master' and 'slave' on labels for computer parts supplied to the county.

When I first saw this a few days ago in CNN.com, I thought it was going to be everywhere, so I didn't blog about it then. Maybe everybody else thought the same, or it is just so silly that nobody considered it worth a blog post :) However, the issue got me thinking after awhile...

Promoters of this ban sustain that "Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label (...)". Now, those have been in use for how long? 50 years? more or less... so, how does it become an issue just today? I mean, it's been a lot of time and I don't know about anybody feeling uncomfortable about their disks labeled "master" or "slave".

Besides, it's just the labels marking components the ones that use those words. CMOs usually refer to non-removable drives in the same way, and those would be harder to change....

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BEMBINO

NOVEMBER 29 2003 @ 08:46 PM

Seems a bit ridiculous to me. I just checked mine. They say "Primary" and "Slave." I'm not sure if that is much better. There'd be an even bigger uproar if the slave was the black connection and the master was the grey/white, but it seems to be the reverse. I demand that they be changed to green and purple (those colors don't offend anyone do they?!).

G.WYGONIK

NOVEMBER 30 2003 @ 10:52 AM

they should just change it to "master" and "servant", thereby giving a shout-out to old-school depeche mode ;-)

g.

OSCAR TRELLES

NOVEMBER 30 2003 @ 02:23 PM

Chris, Perhaps we should ask Kermit and/or Barney to find out if they would be offended :)

BEMBINO

NOVEMBER 30 2003 @ 03:34 PM

Damn! And here I thought I had come up with a non-offensive solution. Sorry Kermit + Barney. :(

BEMBINO

DECEMBER 1 2003 @ 09:22 AM

I thought of some other things that will need to be resolved:

1. Chess pieces can no longer be black and white and fight each other. The same goes for Othello/Reversi game pieces.
2. You can no longer separate your laundry into whites and darks/colors.

DOMINICK

DECEMBER 1 2003 @ 10:21 AM

I didn't post on it. However, I don't think the terminology should be changed. There are no biased implications. Car engines also use these same references. This is the terminology used by geniuses. The references are used only to determine what is the primary device. They will always be a master and slave to me.

OSCAR TRELLES

DECEMBER 1 2003 @ 12:27 PM

Agreed, I don't think I would stop using the terminology, as I have been using it since the very begining of my relationship with computers.

JOE RINEHART

DECEMBER 2 2003 @ 10:55 AM

In an effort to be more sensitive, I changed all of mine to read "pimp" and "ho".

Seriously, this is ridiculous..

-joe

BEMBINO

DECEMBER 2 2003 @ 11:58 AM

Joe...funny! :)

DOMINICK

DECEMBER 2 2003 @ 01:51 PM

haa, joe you crack me up.... especially with your crackpipe!

ANTYKI

FEBRUARY 13 2007 @ 06:18 AM

thanks for article