This was from a Snopes item from 2007. I wonder how many companies have complied with this since then? Also, how many people in industry filed medical claims for hernias from laughing so hard at this?
The County of Los Angeles has requested that equipment vendors avoid using the industry term “Master/Slave” in product descriptions and labeling.
Social changes of our era have been accompanied by linguistic changes: as discrimination based upon race, gender, or physical condition has become less socially acceptable, we began to frown upon the use of pejorative terms associated with race, moved towards more gender-neutral usages of language (e.g., ‘chairperson’ instead of ‘chairman’), and replaced terms for describing the disabled with less stigmatizing ones (e.g., ‘mentally handicapped’ rather than ‘retarded’). Along with these linguistic changes have come tales of the “political correctness run amok” variety – cases where certain usages were deemed unacceptable merely because they bore a resemblance to terms now considered inappropriate, even though the usages had little or nothing in common with the now-inappropriate terms in a linguistic sense.
[…]
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.
Found by Brother Uncle Don
Hegel would be disappointed.
Also, we shouldn’t use terms “male” and “female” when referring to plugs and sockets, as we don’t want to promote the homophobic idea that the only mate for a female socket is a male plug. Two males or two females should also be considered compatible arrangements.
Of course to connect two female-sockets, you do need a double-ended male plug. Such double-ended devices are available at any Radio Shack or Adult Store.
hehehe
Next will be the ban on “Male” and “Female” terminology because it incite kids to have sex.
They could require hermaphroditic connectors.
Good thing it’s all over on December 21.
The universe rids itself of the most ridicules life form.
what’s gonna happen to the platypus on Dec. 21st?
They’ll mate with Okapis, and then …
I’d rather not think what will happen after 21 Dec.
Screw this NO MORE TWINKIES!!!!!!
Don’t worry. In this sick society, you’ll always be able to screw a “Twinkie”.
This is not a laughing matter. It is an offensive concept, and companies that find it humorous or something to be ignored should be fined repeatedly until they comply with the mandate.
It’s not good enough to have the purchased equipment meet this designation, but all equipment sold by any company that does business with LA should do so. Also, any company that does business in California period. Websites that use such equipment should be banned in California as well.
Spoken like a true IDIOT!
Please tell me what the FUCK any of this has to do with HUMAN BEINGS!
FUCKING WHO?!
Your offense is that of your own BIGOTRY when you ASSUME terms like “master” or “slave” have anything to do with controlling or subservient living animals, let alone any HUMANS!
I bet you take offense when someone wants to talk about the actual African nation of Niger or wants to point out any of the successes of the Confederate States of America or even Nazi Germany. Don’t you? Because a clear BIGOT would!
An OBVIOUS bigot would be someone proclaiming bat-shit nutty things like racial superiority or their own perceived superiority based on a belief in a supreme Deity. But a BIGOT is still a BIGOT when they also ASSUME words have more meaning than they actually do – LIKE THIS!
So if you can’t see any of the idiocy in this then it’s clear that you are an IDIOT!
Let’s also not forget that we’re talking about government here too. GOVERNMENT! And in this case, it’s the local government to HOLLYWOOD!!! Trying to find NON crazy shit in Hollywood or L.A. government is like trying to find land in the middle of the PACIFIC OCEAN! Sure. There’s a little land out there, but not much.
I have to assume this is sarcasm. Nobody could be that out of whack, (except for the liberals).
What about this? Electrically speaking, for the usual 120V 1 phase wire you have two wires and the ground.
One wire is white, the other wire is black. The black wire is called the “colored” wire.
Is this racist? Do you see racism everywhere you look?
Why is the black wire called the “colored” wire? (Hint, it has nothing to do with race).
I’ve noticed some amateur language engineering along these lines going on in Sweden as well. Let 21 Dec come quickly.
http://foxbusiness.com/on-air/willis-report/blog/2012/11/15/half-your-paycheck-government-2013
When half of what you makes goes as taxes it sounds like slavery to me.
Slaves arent allowed to leave. Perhaps youd like to go live in one of the no government “paradises” like Somalia.
See ya…
“Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Well said tcc3… but I don’t think those Fox News fans will ever get it.
Half of what you make?
Funny but I never paid more than 35% of my fat paycheck in Federal, State(s) and local income taxes. (I lost my job just before Obama ever got elected and I’ve been unemployed since. [It does suck since I could do my MIS project management work but it got off-shored. {I’m physically disabled, but I’ve never applied for a job managing an Arthur Murray’s dance studio.}])
My hometown does a lot of embarrassing things. But this takes the cake. I keep waiting for them to do something about “Chinatown”, but they never do. Heck, they named a light rail station for it a few years back.
F’n ninnies!
They just need a new PC expression.
How about dangly bits and suckers?
It not gender specific, its somewhat sexy* and quite descriptive.
*) Everybody knows** sex sells.
**) Don’t ask. Its just, you know, them.
The offending contractors should be tied up and spanked. “Lawsuit” will be the safe word.
Now I know why my BIOS refers to ‘Sandusky’ and ‘Athlete.’
What do you call a clutch master cyl and a slave cyl? I know a leader and a follower?
This sort of thing has been going on for at least 20 years.
I remember a programming course where the female teacher said we shouldn’t use words like “abort” because it “upsets” women because they linked “abort” with “abortion”. We were also to use the terms “client” and “server” rather than “master” and “slave”.
My personal reaction to that sort of thing was and still is “Grow a F”’ing Skin!”
Kill ’em all and let Satan sort them out.
That teacher was an idiot. Client / server is not analogous to master / slave. One master can have several slaved devices. The relationship is clear.
A single server can have multiple clients, but the connotation is that the clients are in charge. It’s not the same!
Now in a Client-Server network topology, we could use John-Whore. Master-slave would more correctly be Pimp-Whore.
How offensive and insulting is it to call a terminal dummy, like dummy terminal?
Houses have AC cables with black and white wires, now that’s racist.
……..
I remember when Apple was trying to change SCSI to sexy interface instead of scuzzy.
I like my interfaces scuzzy.
Interesting but the old IDE cables had the Master connector as black, and the slave connector as white.
Go figure.
Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It actually was a enjoyment account it. Look complex to far brought agreeable from you! However, how can we keep up a correspondence?
Why not pwner – biatch ? That does not degrade any real-world relationships.
Trust me, this “suggestion” will die an obscure death. The same way the idea of forcing America to go metric, didn’t work. The terms “Master” and “Slave” are part of many technological systems. Photography, computers, electrical controls. What would they replacing them with, “Queen” and “Drone”? Or how about “Boss” and “Underling”? Or “Rich dude” and “Servant”? I think it’s totally ridiculous to disembowel the common language, just to suit a tiny fraction of those who have recently acquired the power to object to everything and anything they imagine offensive.
In case you’re thinking “Primary” and “Secondary” will do. It’s not quite the same thing. The so-called “master” device is the main controller. And being first in a system, it can’t be overridden. The “slave” device, branches off from the Master. Taking its cue from it, whenever there’s a timed sequence. And can be overridden by the “master” device. This is NOT a means
of perpetuating human slavery. Which believe me, will continue to be practiced in some parts of the world. Regardless of what words are used on engineering plans.
These persons wouldn’t care to give up owning a personal computer, because the words “Master” and “Slave” are used to signify the address order of internal hard drives, on a single buss channel. Or refuse to have their picture taken, by a professional photographer. Because the flash lighting equipment is labeled “master and slave”. I guarantee you, they’d overlook a lot of this, whenever their own creature comforts were threatened.
As long as these two words don’t appear on drinking fountains or restroom doors. No one should have any legitimate gripes.
Frankly, I’ve been offended by the Airlines’ use of the words “Private” and “First Class” to designate fine dining and seating sections of their more privileged patrons. While being in the military, “Private” and “First Class” were the lowest two ranks in the service. But I don’t expect the major Airlines to abandon its usage, anytime soon. Just because it might offend service men and women. 🙂
This is interesting. I’ll inform my friends about this.
Do bots have friends?
Man, they must smoke some MEAN shit out in California!
To be fair, SATA drives handle the master/slave relationship automatically, don’t they? I can’t remember the last time I had to manually set my jumpers.
😀
So, I guess it should be “Mistress/Slave” to appease the women’s rights activists? 😉
I guess Managers can’t “crack the Whip” anymore either !!!