Los Angeles Outlaws 'Master/Slave' Terms for Hardware

[Shalome]

On the lighter side of tech news today...

Los Angeles County has asked that hardware manufacturers and vendors remove all references to 'master/slave' configurations from any hardware purchesed by the county, because the terminology is potentially offensive.

From the memo:
One such recent example included the manufacturer's labeling of equipment where the words "Master/Slave" appeared to identify the primary and secondary sources. Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label.

We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment or components thereof that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature before such equipment is sold or otherwise provided to any County department.

Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com), the urban legend debunking site, has verified that the story is indeed true. The full official county memo to manufacturers and vendors can be found at Snopes (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/master.asp).

In my opinion, this is taking 'political correctness' way, way to far!

[chaosisreality]

I can picture the day when people have a problem that MS_DOS is called "Command Prompt"...:rolleyes:

[covenantazkiker]

hah! and they should also include HARDware and SOFTware along..:D
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"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

[SKYHN]

N'COBRA should put this up on their site, they need reparations for this discrimination as well.

[Canis Lupus]

hahaha ... that's really funny ... next thing you know, these idiots will demand that "male" and "female" connectors be renamed coz it reeks of sexual harrassment based on their function...

Cultural diversity, my ass... what does renaming "master/slave" have to do with it, unless they consider cultural diversity in Los Angeles to only encompass caucasians and african americans... or maybe Jesse Jackson read a computer hardware site by accident...

[laborat]

If we eliminate all the words for injustice or imprisonment from our language, then we would have no way to tell it like it is...

Then again, 'bate might be more common a method of birth control in family planning classes.

[Erekose]

Originally posted by laborat
If we eliminate all the words for injustice or imprisonment from our language, then we would have no way to tell it like it is...

heh, kinda like 1984, no?

[I_Know_Nothing]

I would like to also make the point that certain colored wires are positive and certain colored wires are negative. I find this offensive in the extreme and move to start an OTS petition to pass federal legislation to end this abhorrent practice of wire color segregation. Your Jim Crow style colored wiring schemes encourage segregationist thinking and should be stopped by any means neccessary. I hereby propose to make all wires, positive, negative, and ground, of the same color so that each one will be indistinguishable from another and so that all wires can live a happy egalitarian life inside the utopian society of my computer chasis. Yes there are challanges, short circuits, fire hazards, electrocution, but with sufficient reslove, we will be trumphant.

I also propose powering computers by burning tufu.

[Gerbilo]

i'd say lets make everything binary but all the 0s would be angry that they dont have a value like the 1s do....

I may be a dumb bastard, but i think this master/slave issue is horseshit

[redwench]

eh, if i was a company, id be rather reluctant to do business with them. that is the standard terminology for those concepts, so its rather ludicrious. or do they want to outlaw the terms "black" "white" and "yellow" as well?

[chaosisreality]

You mean the color of the dimension casings?

[redwench]

the color of cases. ink cartridges. wires. paint. furniture.

good thing they dont do homes. couldnt use the term "master bedroom"

[justinious]

I wonder if LA would go for Dom/sub instead of master/slave...

[Erekose]

heh i was thinking along similar lines meself, was afraid to be the first labeled a pervert though ;)

[I_Know_Nothing]

Originally posted by justinious
I wonder if LA would go for Dom/sub instead of master/slave...

That be great for San Francisco, not so sure about LA.

[9:35]

As a shark attack victim, I think we chould change the terms 'bit' and 'byte' to something less offensive to me.

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Erekose
heh, kinda like 1984, no?

OTS 1984 reference #38576328591025Ddsfgawdg3@#%235

You win a million bucks.

:D

[AltronHGX]

Originally posted by justinious
I wonder if LA would go for Dom/sub instead of master/slave... :cool:

[iLLiaC]

the saddest (funniest) part about all of this is that, i think we'd all agree, the master/slave terminology originally had no BDSM connotation whatsoever...it's just someone's misguided interpretation of the terms. but the war against free will is fought at the level of language, so watch out, my comrades.