> I'm surprised by the piclist's response (Lawrence Lile's > excepted) to this. Surprised by the fact that perople are confused/in disbelief/outraged that an entire industry is being accused of discrimination for its proper use of the english language? From Webster's: Main Entry: 1mas7ter Pronunciation: 'mas-t&r Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English magister & Old French maistre, both from Latin magister; akin to Latin magnus large -- more at MUCH Date: before 12th century 1 a (1) : a male teacher (2) : a person holding an academic degree higher than a bachelor's but lower than a doctor's b often capitalized : a revered religious leader c : a worker or artisan qualified to teach apprentices d (1) : an artist, performer, or player of consummate skill (2) : a great figure of the past (as in science or art) whose work serves as a model or ideal 2 a : one having authority over another : RULER, GOVERNOR b : one that conquers or masters : VICTOR, SUPERIOR c : a person licensed to command a merchant ship d (1) : one having control (2) : an owner especially of a slave or animal e : the employer especially of a servant f (1) dialect : HUSBAND (2) : the male head of a household 3 a (1) archaic : MR. (2) : a youth or boy too young to be called mister -- used as a title b : the eldest son of a Scottish viscount or baron 4 a : a presiding officer in an institution or society (as a college) b : any of several officers of court appointed to assist (as by hearing and reporting) a judge 5 a : a master mechanism or device b : an original from which copies can be made; especially : a master phonograph record or magnetic tape - mas7ter7ship /-"ship/ noun Main Entry: 1slave Pronunciation: 'slAv Function: noun Etymology: Middle English sclave, from Old French or Medieval Latin; Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus, from Sclavus Slavic; from the frequent enslavement of Slavs in central Europe Date: 14th century 1 : a person held in servitude as the chattel of another 2 : one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence 3 : a device (as the printer of a computer) that is directly responsive to another 4 : DRUDGE, TOILER - slave adjective Call it what you will, but the fact of the matter is that one device finds itself "directly responsive" to the orders of another. Note that while electronic devices are mentioned, the only group of people mentioned is the one associated with the origin of the word, the Slavs. This isn't just a trade name like SMBus or DirectX - this has become part of the widely-accepted definition of the word. Any word or words that truly describe this relationship will be but synonyms for master and slave. In my eyes a word can only be discriminatory or offensive for the idea it represents, so do we have to reengineer all systems such that every device has an equal right to life, liberty, and pursuit of bus ownership? I don't see another way to find a way to accurately relabel things in such a way that is completely unoffensive. > > If your spouse told you, "There's this thing you do that bothers > me; I'd be happier if you stopped," I don't think many of you > would respond with, "Your feelings are stupid; I'm going to keep > doing it because you really shouldn't be bothered by it." > If it was something as inane as this then you'd better believe I would. I would put it more sensitively than that of course, but it is important to call bs when you smell poo. People don't love doormats. They use them. > Or, hmm... Engineers ARE stereotypically unskilled at social > interaction; maybe the stereotype is accurate and most of you > WOULD say that to your husband or wife. Engineers are also stereotypically spineless weenies. Anyone who jumps simply because someone else says "jump" is preciselly that. > > In any case, telling your CUSTOMERS that you're going to ignore > their feelings because they're illogical/stupid/liberal/PC/etc is > just bad business. If you can make a customer happier by doing > something as simple as changing two words, why wouldn't you? It > doesn't matter AT ALL whether you think the request is logical > or necessary. True, but we aren't responding to our customers. We are responding to our colleagues. Besides, there is a point where beyond which, if a customer is consistently irrational in such a way that causes needless cost and confusion, it may be more profitable to find other, more rational customers. I'm not really specifically talking about changing a few letters on silkscreen here but instead, the general jump when you hear jump attitude. Maybe you do change the words, especially for a large account, but I'd be surprised and frightened if people DIDN'T respond this way. I have never owned and will never own a slave. I am not a discriminatory person, racially or otherwise. As such I do not like the idea of being accused of being one for something as innocuous as this. I also do not like taxpayers' money and peoples' time and efforts being misdirected toward righting (and thereby acknowledging and justifying) nonexistent wrongs. I also believe that there is a large core of intelligent people with money to spend that feel the same way. To these people, caving to a faddish request such as this is a sign of incompetence, lack of confidence, and ultimately weakness, none of which are attractive qualities when considering placing one's trust in another. What if interest in this issue passes quickly (as I presume it will) and your company is one of only a few in the industry that have disowned the standard (as I presume it would be). Won't this create unnecessary confusion and make your product less attractive to potential customers? > Besides, Master/Slave can usually be replaced without loss of > meaning, and in fact, the replacement can often be MORE > meaningful. PC hard disk drives, for instance, are more > accurately described as Primary/Secondary than Master/Slave, > right? Then we have Primary Primary, Primary Secondary, Secondary Primary, and Secondary Secondary. Rather confusing and might cause a few problems when people connect HDs, no? I think that today in America, just like in the rest of the world, there are much more important issues that deserve governments' and employees' time. Let us not forget on this eve, the eve of the day of thanks giving, Michael, Kobe, and Paris. Nick > > -Andy > > === Andrew Warren -- aiw@cypress.com > === Principal Design Engineer > === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation > === > === Opinions expressed above do not > === necessarily represent those of > === Cypress Semiconductor Corporation -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body