Computer Gender?

A language instructor was explaining to her class that French nouns
are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.

Things like "chalk" or "pencil" have a gender. For example, "house"
is feminine--La maison. Even in English ships have long been 
characterized as being female (e.g. "Steady as she  goes", or "She's 
listing to starboard,  Captain!"). 

One student asked "what is the gender of a computer?"

The teacher didn't know, and so asked the class to decide.

The men in the class listed five reasons to believe computers are 
female:

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. The message "Bad command or file name" is about as informative as, 
  "If you don't know why I'm mad at you, then I'm certainly not going to 
   tell you".

4. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later 
   retrieval.

5. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending 
   half your paycheck on accessories for it.

However, the women in the class thought that computers should be 
referred to as if they were male. Their reasons follow:

Five reasons to believe computers are male:

1. They have a lot of data, but are still clueless.

2. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they 
   are the problem.

3. As soon as you commit to one you realize that, if you had waited a 
   little longer, you could have obtained a better model.

4. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on. 

5. Big power surges knock them out for the rest of the night. 


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jim blair (jeblair@facstaff.wisc.edu) Madison Wisconsin
USA. This message was brought to you using biodegradable
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